The Ramsey Show - App - You Can Glance Backward, but You Should Focus Forward (Hour 1)

Episode Date: August 31, 2020

Insurance, Debt, Retirement Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR 

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is the Dave Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Chris Hogan, and hosting along with me this hour is Dr. John Deloney, and we are ready for you. I want you to pick up the phone and call us and talk to us about what's on your mind. If it's life, if it's stress, if it's relationships, if it's money, we're here for you. And I'm joined here, as I said, with Dr. John Deloney. Are you caffeinated? I'm ready to rock and roll today, man.

Okay, all right. You seem extra hyper, which really makes me nervous because I don't know what you're going to do i don't either to be honest with you i'm still figuring out how all this works but i'm having fun and i have the proper amount of caffeine in my body christopher well that's a good thing call me chris for one more time and we will fight uh all right hey listen i want to tell you something and this is exciting because seriously seriously, you have jumped in. You've been joining the show. You've been on here. But, my friend, the time has come that you now have the Dr. John Deloney Show. Yes, the podcast launched this morning.

And it is, for a guy who spent the last decade trying to disappear from the Internet, from public, anything. Man, the amount of people, the zeros and ones folks, the numbers guys, tell me that the subscriptions and downloads are just out of control. It's awesome. It's going well. So now we are out there, man. It is there. And so talk to me. What is this show about? It's a live caller-driven show, just very much like the Dave Ramsey show

where folks call in with life challenges with questions about their relationships or parenting or their mental health issues or just annoying neighbors in that moronic pta mom who used to just be in the pta meetings and now she's zoomed right in your living room brother she is in your house so whatever's going on in your life um we're taking live calls and helping people get to tomorrow and to get well and to make good decisions in the short term and long term. Now, I know, obviously, you are always going to have fun and you're going to bring wisdom. But people are calling in with some tough stuff, my friend. It has been real heavy. There is a lot of darkness, a lot of people struggling, a lot of marriages on the brink or over a lot of people trying to come back from um infidelity trying to come back from making bad financial choices from

anxiety and depression and they've just been on meds for years and years and they just want another another set of ears and another idea for how they can deal with some of these just tough tough challenges people are dealing with wow well listen if you listen, if you're out there, and again, life, no one is immune to life. It either happens to you, near you, or next to you. And the good thing is, is that you don't have to do it alone. If you're out there, I want you to go ahead and put this contact inside your phone. It is the Dr. John Deloney Show. The email address is askjohn at ramsaysolutions.com.

Let me say that again, because this is new, folks. It's askjohn at ramsaysolutions.com. Or you can also leave a voicemail. And I want to say this number clearly. John, you need to commit this number to memory. It is 844-693-3291. That's 844-693-3291. Go ahead and make a contact inside of your phone

the Dr. John Deloney show I'm excited for you my friend I know you are serious about this and trying to help people cut through the chaos of anxiety depression disconnection and just life happening

and you don't have to do it alone and as a king of isolation I am a professional isolator. Yes, me too, man. I am the king of withdrawal. Yeah. And so it is so important to be able to reach out to communicate about the things that's on your heart and your head just so you get clarity. And the crazy thing is, John, is that I know without a shadow of a doubt, when you get clarity, you can get some traction.

That's right. And things can start to move. So as I tell people, you're not stuck. You's right. And things can start to move. So as I tell people, you're not stuck. You just stopped. And don't stop believing. Don't stop reaching. And most importantly, don't stop connecting. And that's talking to people that can give you some guidance. And I know you are serious about this. Let people know your background, John. And what puts you in a position to be able to help people here? I've been working in student affairs and in education for the last, goodness, almost 20 years now. And a big chunk of that has been in crisis moments, working with folks who the wheels have just completely fallen off.

I've done weddings and funerals and worked with suicides and death notifications. And I've celebrated engagements and new marriages and so it's just been the breadth of working with people in their best moments and their what do i do next moments and then in the absolute worst crisis moments they can i've also spent some time working with police departments after hours um helping train police departments i'm even working with swat team before so doing some really wild stuff um and i got a couple of phds it's just a big deal to me to spend time with people i'm an introvert i'm a nerd and so this whole new world's exciting and we're having a blast and i want to take this second chris and man you are the best deflector i know but since i got here you've been such a a

hospitable guy you've been such a gift you've. You've been such a gift. You've got 15 years of doing this, and you've just been a great teacher to me and a mentor already. And saying, hey, Deloney, you probably don't ever want to say that in public again. Is that how you're dressing, Deloney? So I'm blessing. You're just such a blessing. I want to thank Kelly and James, who have been running Dave's show for years and years and years. They stepped up, and they are working extra time to get my show up and running and taking calls and making sure the board runs. Bobby and Kyle and that crew back there. So I'm just grateful to everybody supporting and help and look forward to getting this thing going.

Well, you're welcome, my friend. You're an easy guy to be able to work with, have fun with you on air. But in reality, as we talk about this money and life and we talk about this and understanding that if you're out of balance in one of those, the other can be affected and impacted. And the goal is for us to push, pull or drag ourselves to get better. And so whenever you think you've arrived, that's where you can potentially begin to backslide. So let's do this. Let's all have our A game on. Let's all have this mindset of how do I get better? And even if it's dealing with a relationship with your in-laws or dealing with a sibling

or dealing with aging parents or a money issue, just do me a favor. Don't do it alone. Isolating is dangerous. Compartmentalizing is unhealthy. Being able to unpack that, talk about the things that are on your head and your heart, and more importantly, to be able to do it in a safe place with someone that cares. And so, John, I'm very excited for your show, excited for the help you're going to continue to give people. And listen, if you're out there, know this. We are here for you.

Want you to make sure you get this number down, 888-825-5225. That's the number to call. Kelly is standing by, ready to take your call, ready to dive in and talk about the things that are on your mind. Also, social media-wise, you can hunt us down. Now, John has about 12 followers on social media. He's brand new. He didn't know what the Internet was. I just showed him how to use a microwave not long ago. But here's the reality.

We've got to bump up this man's followers. I want you to find him on social media, at John Deloney. You can find him on Facebook, YouTube, as well as Instagram. Hunt him down. Send some social media questions. You can find me as well.

Oh, look at you. You've got videos up on the Instagram, John. I'm so proud of you. Hey, man. Your daughter posted those for you, I know. She's four and a half, and she's already better. She can do it. That's right.

But you can also find me at ChrisHogan360, Instagram, and all the places. We want to be able to talk to you and reach out. Understand that you are not alone. I don't care if you're in Nebraska, and you're the only person inside that home. You're not alone because we're in this thing together. It's called life. And this is the Dave Ramsey Show where you can reach out and we're going to talk about it.

So when you come back, we're going to jump to the phones and we're going to find out what's on your mind. This is the Dave Ramsey show. folks i love telling you about well-made well-thought-out products today i'm talking about grip six belts i don't know about you but I'm not a fan of traditional belts. They never fit right, and they're uncomfortable. Grip6 belts are unique. Owner BJ designed a truly modern minimalist belt made of high quality materials with no holes, no flap, and no bulk. And the buckles come in really cool designs and are interchangeable. I personally own these belts in different styles. And talk about affordability, Grip 6 belts come with a lifetime guarantee.

And that means if you no longer like or fit the style of your belt, you can replace them for free. Plus, I like the way these guys do business. Grip 6 is determined to help build and modernize American manufacturing. To learn more and get this month's Dave Ramsey special, visit GRIP6.com. That's GRIP6.com. Hello, everyone. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. I'm Chris Hogan, and hosting along with me this hour is John Deloney, and we are excited to take your calls. The number to call is 888-825-5225.

Again, that's 888-825-5225. We're excited to be able to take your call. All right, we're going to get to the phone. We've got Maritza on the line in Chicago. Maritza, how are you? Hi, good. Thank you so much for taking my call. Yes, ma'am.

How can we help you today? Okay, so my question is, I'm 50, almost 58 years old, and I'm trying to do some financial planning. Okay. And I look at all the options for long-term care insurance, and I don't really like any of them. Okay. But what do you think of the hybrid life insurance that can be used as long-term care insurance? Because I'm looking at a policy there. That's the only type of long-term care that even interests me.

Okay. What do you think of that policy? All right. Now, before we plug into that, hold on a second. You're 58 years old. Do you already have that policy? All right. Now, before we plug into that, hold on a second. You're 58 years old. Do you already have life insurance? Yeah. So I don't need it for the life insurance part.

I was looking more for the long-term care part. Okay. So had you applied for long-term care? No, but I don't like the whole theory of the prices going up every year without you knowing it and escalating costs aren't contained. But I never applied for it because I don't want to get a long-term care policy. Okay, but did you get pricing on a potential policy? No, not long-term care. I got pricing on the hybrid life insurance plus long-term care, yes.

Okay, but the life insurance that you currently have right now, you've had it how long? Like 15 years. Okay, and what term policy did you get? But the life insurance that you currently have right now, you've had it how long? Like 15 years. Okay. And what term policy did you get at that time? What term policy could I get? How long of a term did you get the insurance 15 years ago? Did you get a 15-year, a 20-year, or a 30-year?

I got a 20-year, and my kids are now 24, so when it lapses, it's done. Okay, okay. So here's why I'm asking. The long-term care, as you look, and you're coming at that age where you want to have that in place, by age 60, I tell people literally by 59 1⁄2, you want to be applying to get that, because if you become incapacitated, obviously you have the coverage that's going to take over for you. But here's the flip side of this. You've got five years left on the term life insurance in place. I want you to get a quote, Maritza, on the long-term care policy on its own to figure

out what it is, because the goal is you want money to be able to take care of you if you get inside of a nursing home without having to liquidate certain assets. So go ahead and get the policy. I would talk to you about the hybrid if and only if you weren't able, right, you didn't qualify for long-term care. So I look at it as a backup option, not as a primary. So I still want you to get a quote on a long-term care policy, leaving your term in place. You've got adult children, so they're 24, you said.

You've got five more years to be able to cover them. Remember, the goal of insurance is to protect you if life were to happen. So if something were to happen to you, you've got XYZ dollar amount coming in to be able to take care of the kids. The long-term care insurance is on the flip side, where you don't die, but you become incapacitated or need assisted living. And the percentages increase by the time you hit age 60. So go to DaveRamsey.com, click on the insurance ELP, get with one of our insurance ELPs, walk through and talk through it and look at it. The hybrid policies, again, are the fallback if you don't qualify for long-term care.

So it's really important to see the numbers, understand what it covers and what it is and what it's not. The idea of you giving up your current life insurance policy to start over, well, your premium is going to go up. You're 58 years old, right? You got this other policy in place back when you were 43. So the cost of the insurance, it could become cost prohibitive is what I'm saying. So be able to get a quote on the long-term care policy to be able to look at that. And then you can start to look at a hybrid on the backside of it. But it's really important to cover ourselves. I didn't know you had to apply for long-term care. So what would disqualify you? Is it previous medical conditions? You could have a previous medical condition. You could have high blood pressure. By the time you hit 60 and you start applying for it, the premiums, if you're

over the age of 60, they almost double for long-term care. So that's why we're adamant about people getting it in place before age 60 or by age 60. And then of course, life insurance, we talk about this till we're blue in the face, but we have so many people that are underinsured. You want to get 10 to 12 times your annual income in term life insurance. So if you make $50,000 a year, that means you're going to be looking at getting $500,000 to $600,000 in term life insurance. But here's the deal, John, a lot of people don't understand. If you have term life insurance coverage and something happens to you, you have that dollar

amount coming into the family. Right. Okay, so if you had $500,000 in coverage and you pass away, that $500,000 is coming to the family. Allows them to continue to walk through the baby steps and do what's necessary. And so it's just so important. And a lot of people will have coverage through their job. That's not the coverage you want.

That life insurance is not portable. What I mean by that is if you lose or leave the job, we have 52 million people unemployed right now, you've also lost that coverage. And so that's why you want to get term life insurance outside of your job. So if you lose that job, leave, or go start a business, you still have coverage. There you go. And it's so important. So life insurance, go to DaveRamsey.com, click on their insurance ELP, and they'll be able to guide you.

All right, here we go. Let's get to line one. We've got Michael in Nashville. Michael, how are you? Hey, Chris, Dr. J. It's an honor to speak with you. Well, thank you. I have a question.

So I'm fairly new to Dave Ramsey's plan. I started about four months ago. I've been hitting it hard. Recently, I currently have a Roth IRA with about $20,000 in it, and I have a 457 deferred compensation plan through my law enforcement job at work, and that has about $12,000 in it right now. My question is, since recently, since starting this plan, I've learned that while on baby step two, I'm supposed to stop, pause all investing until I get my debt paid off. My question is, because my 457 plan, there's no fees associated with taking that money out other than paying the taxes, which I would have to anyway when I retire with

that money. Should I go ahead and take that money out to pay off my debt with the 457 plan, not the Roth IRA? Okay. Michael, what's your household income, buddy? Household income between me and my wife is about $100,000. Okay. And talk to me about the debt you have. I currently have about $70,000 in debt.

It's a little bit of everything, Student loans, personal loans, credit cards. How much of it is student loan debt? About, I think it's around $35,000. Okay. And how much of it is credit card? About $10,000. On how many cards? Three. Okay. All right. So here's the mindset around this. You are absolutely right. For someone that's just jumped in and has been drinking the Kool-Aid for four months, I love that you got the principle of you're pausing the investing. Okay? And pausing means I'm just going to hit the pause button because now I want to redirect my income toward attacking this debt. All right? I also like that you're thinking about, hey, what's some extra money I could use to help accelerate this, right? Okay, here's what you don't want to do. You don't want to stop that money in the 457 from growing, okay?

It's like you wouldn't plant a bush and then wait three months and go outside and yank it up by the roots to see if it's growing, right? You'd kill it. You were going to kill the compound growth happening, Michael, if you pull money out of that 457. So instead, my friend, leave that there. Leave it alone. But, right, I wouldn't contribute anymore. I'm going to pause that and direct the money toward it. But I want you to use the debt snowball.

That's where we're going to list the debts out smallest to biggest. And you're going to start to attack it in that way. I would much rather you look for ways to earn extra income to throw at that debt. But please don't pull it out. And you're referring, Michael, to the CARES Act. Good old D.C., Washington, D.C. They're going to save us, Chris. No, they're not either, buddy.

That's a false. Stop spreading lies. Listen, we've got to help ourselves, people. Get your own cape. And so they said with the CARES Act that you can pull money out of retirement accounts and there's no more 10% penalty, but Michael did know you do have to pay the income taxes over the next two years. Let's not tap Uncle Sam on the shoulder. Let's not start that drama.

Leave it alone. Let it sit there. Now, if he, Michael, had money that was in an account that was not retirement related, the Roth is retirement related. 457, retirement-related. But just the savings account's not, right? Or just if he had some single stock somewhere, I'd say absolutely liquidate them and throw them toward the debt. But there's no reason to steal from your future to clean up your present, right?

Leave it alone, Michael. Get intentional, buddy. Walk these steps. You didn't get in debt overnight, so you're not going to get out of debt overnight, but you can if you stay focused. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Hello, everyone. You are listening to The Dave Ramsey Show. And a few callers ago, we were talking to Maritza about long-term care insurance.

And I had some follow-up questions of people asking, hey, what all does it cover? So here's the deal. Long-term care covers nursing home, assisted living facilities, in-home modifications in case you needed a ramp or something like that. Adult daycare is also something else that can fall within it. And then care coordination, where if you're needing nurses or nursing assistants and things of that nature. So long-term care becomes something that as we get older, we want to plan for and be intentional about. Why? Because you've worked hard to build this legacy. Now it's a matter of protecting it.

And that's what I talk about in my book, Retire Inspired. This was my first one, that it's important that we play offense as well as defense. And the offensive side is obviously building our wealth and building our net worth. The defensive side is to make sure that we're protecting it. And that's what insurances do. So having the right kinds of coverages on your home, your auto, but as well as life insurance and then long-term care. So it's an area to really check out. There are a lot of articles on DaveRamsey.com as well as ChrisHogan360.com. It's good to know.

All right. Well, before we go to that, this is a glimpse. This is more of a personal glimpse inside the Deloney household. But several years ago, my mom and dad sat me down and said, hey, for Christmas this year, we got long-term care insurance for ourselves. And it was real expensive. And it was, you know, my dad being a former homicide detective and my mom, you know, being a professor, getting to see things don't maybe fall apart.

They eventually will. Things will happen. And so it was expensive, but it was a gift of them saying, we're going to invest right now and we're going to make this purchase because we don't want y'all to be stuck with payments of putting us in a hospital for extended time or in nursing homes or whatever. So it was a great gift for us. And I underestimated, Chris, the exhale i for i i underestimated what i had been carrying around what if mom does this i don't have any you know i don't have the money

right now to our dad just when they did that for us so moms and dads out there i just want you to know if as a kid and i was in my mid 30s or early 30s it was such a gift it was such a blessing that they they gave it for christmas it was cooler than any than any appliance they could have got us or something like that. Well, it's funny you bring that up because I think when I was doing the research with Retire Inspired, the first two fears, the first fear with retirement is fear of running out of money. The second one was the thing that blew me away. It was fear of becoming a burden to family and friends because if you can't pay for the

things yourself, it's going to fall to family or to friends to friends because if you can't pay for the things yourself it's going to fall to family that's right or to friends to take care of you and so you know i like how you're viewing it as this thing they did for them but ultimately it was a gift to you and your siblings oh absolutely it was and so you do me a favor if you're out there and your parents are older uh or you're wondering if your grandparents have things in place do do me a favor. Don't wonder. Ask. Just simply ask. And I think it's a matter of money is one of these things that can be so personal that we won't ask.

But do me a favor. Love them enough to ask and say, hey, there's this bald dude on the show along with another guy that's got a lot of hair. They were talking about this stuff, this life insurance or this XYZ. Do you have it? I'm just curious. or find an article and forward it to them i want you to be comfortable having uncomfortable conversations with the people you love the most just so you can know when you don't have that question rattling around in your head chris the what you just put on the table would free millions of people if they would do it. If they would call mom and dad and say, not today, but next week, I'm going to call you,

and I'm going to ask you a couple of knuckleheads on the radio. I'm going to ask you about, if you've got life insurance, I'm going to ask you about your will. Long-term care. I just want to know, because the uncomfortable truth that we all need to wrestle with is 100% of us die. Oh, yeah. 100% of us die. Oh, yeah. 100% of us, even when we got kids, we got cool things we want to do, we all go out in a box, right?

So let's reverse engineer that and let's be honest with ourselves, with our loved ones. Chris, if every family in the country would do what you just did, kids would call their parents and say, hey, let's talk about life insurance and you have a will. And the mom and dad would say, that's a great idea. We need to do that. Let's set up a time next Saturday. We'll do a Zoom call or whatever. Or they say, you, let's talk about life insurance and you have a will. And the mom and dad would say, that's a great idea. We need to do that. Let's set up a time next Saturday. We'll do a Zoom call or whatever. Or they say, you know what?

We don't and don't know where to start. That's right. You can give them information. Here's what holds up things. Here's what it is, John. It's if you ask with the spirit of what's in it for me as opposed to what's in it and you're helping your family. It's the greed side.

Well, I just want to know if you got things in place if you have a will and what am i getting like that's the wrong spirit to go about it that's right and you can you can smell that spirit over the phone you can smell that spirit a hundred miles away don't do that do it because if your parents have a will they'll sleep better that's good oh man here we go we got a blinds.com question uh blinds.com, listen, if you're trying to upgrade your house or keep the sunlight out and you want to sleep in a little bit longer, whatever it is, you can find out yourself why Blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window covering. You can get free samples, free shipping. There are always promos. And listen, if you make a mistake, they will fix it for you.

The promo code is Ramsey to get the best deal. Rules and restrictions apply. All right, Chris, I'm going to read this one because this one's for you. Today's question comes from Tom in Indiana. He visits DaveRamsey.com to ask, I am about to finish Baby Step 3 in a month. Way to go, Tom. And looking forward to moving up the ladder.

Good. I know you're supposed to invest 15% of your income towards your retirement. Yes. However, I work for the railroad, and they pull around 11% of each of my checks towards my pension. Okay.

Do I include those pension payments in my 15%? Looking for your advice. Ah, okay. What was his name? His name was Tom. Tom, yes. Because they're taking the 11% from your check to put toward your pension, that's counting toward the 15. So what you have to do now is add an additional 4%, and then you'll be at 15%.

John, this is when it would be not true. Okay. If it were a company match that he were getting, okay, I don't count the company match. So if the company was matching six and he's doing six, right, a lot of people say, oh, well, that's 12. No, it's not. I want you to do 15% of your income because the company could stop the match at any time. I want you flexing the muscle of doing 15% of your own money. So, Tom, yes, my friend, your 11% would count toward the 15.

You need to do another 4%. You're at 15%. Stay the path. What about all of the pension nonsense going on in the country? Is it safer to put your money in a pension or to put it in a gross stock mutual fund? Well, here's the reality. If you're not watching the show on YouTube, Chris just got a little bit animated. Just did. Well, here's the reality. He loves in some pensions. Here's the reality. If you're not watching the show on YouTube, Chris just got a little bit animated. Well, here's the reality.

He loves in some pensions. Here's the deal. Pensions are going away. Right. Pensions were the things that you did where you came and worked and companies said, hey, we're going to take care of you later. You just focus and do your job. We're putting some money aside for you. Once you hit that number of years of service, your money is going to start to come to you.

Okay. Well, those things went away in the 80s. And so now what it is is it's on us with 401Ks and 403Bs to save for ourselves. So if you're fortunate enough to have a pension, that's a good thing, but you need to be aware of what's it invested in and how it works. The other thing I tell people is at the end of that years of service, if they offer you your pension in a lump sum, I want you to take it and run because you can invest it on your own better than how they are. And I think the temptation is to let somebody else handle all of your business, right?

Well, you want to get a guide. I mean, don't get me wrong. If my car needs an oil change, I can do it. Okay, that's a lie. Years ago, I could. Now, I have no idea what I'm doing. I can change the tires. That's about all I can do. But you want that's a lie. Years ago, I could. Now, I have no idea what I'm doing. I can change the tires. That's about all I can do.

But you want to get someone to guide you, and that's where we talk about SmartVestor Pros, to be able to walk you through this process so you know what you're dealing with. Love it. All right, here we go. We're going to get back to the phones here in just a bit, but I want you to call us. The number to call is 888-825-5225. Again, that's 888-825-5225 or find us at Ramsey Show. Okay, here's a question for you, John, and I want you to ask this before we go to break.

Julia from the Ramsey Baby Steps community, which, by the way, if you haven't plugged into there, you need to. She says, how do I tell my sister to set boundaries with our mom? My sister's 32 and has never moved out. Sounds like. We got some sibling bitterness. That's right. It sounds like mom's the one that needs to have some boundaries, not sister. Sister, 32-year-old sister, has one life.

She gets free rent, free food. She gets a maid. She gets to take care of everything. The conversation Julie needs to have is with her mother and say, Mom, you have a grown woman living in your house that's not you. It's time for a sister to move out. You're putting it on the mom.

Moms are the grown-ups is all I'm saying. Parents be parents. Parents be parents. Condoloni, you're so feisty. All right, listen. This man's got a show. I'm all caffeinated up, baby. You might have a family question like that that you want to hit him with.

Ask him at john at ramsaysolutions.com or call his show, 844-693-3291. You're listening to The Dave Ramsey Show. Hello, everyone. You are listening to The Dave Ramsey Show. I'm Chris Hogan. Hosting along with me this hour is John Deloney. And we're having a blast taking your calls, talking about life and money. All right, here we go. We're going to get to the phones because we've got people who've got questions.

Tyler from Denver, how can we help you, my friend? Hey, Chris. Hey, John. Thanks for taking my call. So I'm on baby step two currently. I've been dealing with that for about the past four or five months. My predicament I'm in is I have a fifth wheel trailer that i purchased new in 2017 um that i was using for my job and i no longer need but it is my most sizable debt style i think 87 000 on that goodness gracious

yeah that's a fancy fifth wheel, my man. What does it do? What does it do? It's backflips from ourselves, no? 80-step. Okay, hold on. How much did you buy it for? So that's the thing. I had owned a trailer previously, and as you know, they depreciate like it's no tomorrow. So I rolled, having not heard Dave,

I rolled the balance of my old one into the new loan. I got you. I got you. I thought this was like a SpaceX wheel or something. I got into it for about $110,000, and now I'm at $87,000. Okay, what do you think this one is worth? So that's my kicker. I could sell it right now for somewhere between 40 and 50,000. Goodness. Okay. Um, which either way it's, you're still, you're looking at a, at a 37 to $42,000 shortfall, right?

Exactly. And well, I guess my question was, so I have, Oh, a personal loan and some,fall, right? Exactly. And I guess my question was, do I have a personal loan and a fleece, as they would call it, that are the two before the trailer? I didn't know if I should continue to pay on it, even though it's depreciating, and I don't have the difference sitting in my bank account.

And I know the talk is to not take out another loan. I'm just kind of stuck. Don't know how to deal with it. Yeah. Tell me this. How much is the payment on this fifth wheel? $600 a month. Okay. And what's the interest rate? Do you know? 4%.

Okay. $600. So is it financed for like 111 years i think it's i think it took a 15 year note on it yeah is this from through a bank or a credit union let's do a bank okay because your rate is really low on it are they they're holding the title on this thing too correct correct okay um all right talk to me at the lease what do you what what what is this They're holding the title on this thing too, correct? Correct. Okay. All right, talk to me at the lease. What is this? What size truck did you get to pull this thing?

Well, no, so I, you know, I started, I sold my dually truck that I had, and I took out a lease on a little F-150, you know, for the wife and the kid, what have you. So I'm, I think I owe another two years on that before it's up um and then i have a you know twelve thousand dollar personal loan that i'm almost gotten taken care of what was the personal loan used for don't tell me personal stuff no tyler don't make me come to denver with'm done with my money. All right. I used it to consolidate credit card debt. Do you still have those credit cards? No.

Actually, in the past five months, I've paid down almost $50,000 in debt. Tyler, I didn't ask you that. I said, are those credit cards still in your wallet? No, they're gone. I'm 100% credit card debt free. You cut them up and closed them? Cut them up, closed them, no more. All right, here's the deal.

I like your mindset. What's causing you to get to this change? Why are you shifting gears now? Man, when I looked at, you know, I started listening to Dave, looked at the debt, and it was, I think, $150,000, $160,000. Yeah. You know, many months ago, and I said, it's got to stop. So, like I say, we're making a lot of progress.

I'm just, I don't know if I should save the trailer until last, you know, being in the Baby Step program. Right. Or try and take care of it now. Okay. Tyler, what's your household income, buddy? $130,000. Okay. You both working? No, just me. Okay. Tyler, what's your household income, buddy? $130,000. Okay. You both working? No, just me.

Okay. Here's the mindset around this that I look at. Obviously, I want you to be able to attack these, and we tell people that snowball, smallest to biggest. As you get to this fifth wheel, this thing's going to be a behemoth because you had rolled in the other one along with this, okay? And so here's the suggestion. I would suggest you reach out to your bank and find out what they might do unsecured. I don't think it's going to work. I'm a former banker. Banks love to be able to have collateral.

That means they've got security on something. But what would they do if you got intentional, you got this lease out of your life, right? You got intentional, you got this personal loan out. And if you were to sell this thing, and if it was worth 50, right? Now you're talking about trying to get a $37,000 loan. You can have the conversation with them. This may be one of them levels of stupid tax where you just got to dig in and pay this thing off like it unfortunately because of the roll-in it's almost

exactly to the dollar what the roll-in was right he could sell it and be scott free which is why we advise people and again i'm not here to beat him up i want him to hear it and i want other people out there listening to understand. Don't roll stuff in. These car lots and these other places, they love for you to come on in, and they'll tell you everything's going to be okay. I want us to start to think ahead. So, Tyler, you can reach out to that bank, find out what amount they would do on a personal loan for you. Odds are you're probably going to have to just put your chin down, get focused, and attack this thing. And that's looking for ways to bring in extra income.

That's looking for ways to really dig in on this. I like the path that you're on, and I don't want this to defeat you. This is just one of those lessons you look at and you go, if I could just go back, right? And you can't. We all want to. But I tell people, you can glance back but you got to focus forward baby and that means digging in and get intentional and attacking it uh boy that roll in and i'm gonna tell you john this happens a lot in car loans okay car loans big time where they'll

say hey you owe this on it it's only worth this here's what we'll do we'll roll this into your new loan and now they have nine year car car loans. Did you know that? Nine-year car loans. Because people don't know how to count. We only go by payment. And so they'll say, hey, it's just 127,000 easy payments of $299.95. And people go, it's just $299.95. They didn't hear the 127,000 part. Nine years ago was four jobs in two states ago for me.

Nine years. I mean, seriously. When you sit down and sign nine years, a decade of your life away for a depreciating asset, and you willingly say, I'm going to pay you $10,000 more than it's worth because you're doing me such a great gift of taking the old thing from me. Well, see, you're doing the math now. You you've learned that's just math but that's not even emotion being normal it's just a matter of the payment and so i tell people don't live based off payment what you have to do is we got to learn to do the math outright and so looking at this you know you

don't want to roll in a car loan with another car you want to pay the car off and drive that bad boy but this is one of those things where you can kind of get handcuffed. And so, Tyler, dig in, talk, let's get this lease out of your life, let's get this personal loan paid off, and then begin to kind of really turn your attention toward this fifth wheel. And talk to the bank, have a conversation. The other option is this. Once you talk to the bank, if they won't do anything, check with the credit union to see. But again, it's the collateralization. They want the title to this thing.

They're not going to let it go. So you get it intentional. You get it down, maybe down to $20,000 that's owed outright. You may be able to do that. But do me a favor. No more consolidation. Okay? No more rolling things in.

Think about it. Even the word. Consolidation. Con. Solidation. I'd never heard of that. Oh, yeah. No, it's fake.

Just ask yourself, before you buy a car, if you're about to buy a car for $20,000 and you owe another one, and they say, hey, we'll just roll the other one into it, would you have bought that car for $30,000? No, because it's too expensive. That's right. It's too expensive. You're right. It's too expensive. You're not going to go that route. So I want you just to start to think clearly, keep your eyes open, and know exactly what it is.

And as I tell people, you want to make two-year decisions. You want to make a decision that you look back on in two years, and you're glad that you made it. Now, that requires us to reach up and look out a little bit, but we can do it. I can almost guarantee you that wherever you think you'll be in nine years, you won't be, and you probably won't be where you are right now. That's a good point. We got options, though. Remember, you're not stuck. You just stop, people. Keep pushing and keep driving. I want to thank producer James Child and associate producer Kelly Daniel, and of course, all of you for tuning in. This has been the Dave Ramsey Show. This is James Childs,

producer of the Dave Ramsey Show. Once again, you made the Dave Ramsey Show one of the top four most popular podcasts last year. To get your daily dose of motivation and inspiration from the Ramsey Network, subscribe or follow today wherever you listen to podcasts.