The Ramsey Show - App - You Can't Leave Risk Out of Your Math Equations (Hour 1)

Episode Date: March 20, 2020

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Starting point is 00:00:00 🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, 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 am Dave Ramsey, your host. This is your show, America. Thank you for joining us. Open phones as we talk about your life and your money. The phone number is 888-825-5225.
Starting point is 00:00:51 That's 888-825-5225. Christina is with us in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Hi, Christina. How are you? Good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? I am calling because I'm trying to figure out if we should sell our home to pay off our debt. You like your house? I do. I like our house, but we are a family of five, and it's a 1,300-square-foot house. Excuse me.
Starting point is 00:01:24 I'm nervous. That's okay. And it has one bathroom, so we're going to need to upgrade eventually. So you have three kids? Yes. All right. And what's your household income? It's about $62,000.
Starting point is 00:01:41 What do you owe on your home? We have a mortgage that's just under $98,000. What do you owe on your home? We have a mortgage that's just under $98,000 and a home equity loan for just under $14,000. Okay. And how much other debt do you guys have? Aside from the $14,000 for the home equity loan, we have a $20,000 student loan debt, 13 on one car, 6,000 on the other. We have an unsecured loan for 9,000 and 8,000 in credit card debt. You're normal. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:02:17 Yeah, you're in a mess. Yeah, you're in a mess. You don't want to be normal. You want to be weird. Normal's broken in debt to everybody, and that's what you guys are okay um well i sell a house as a last resort if you're going to be moving anyway or you don't like your house it'd be okay to sell it and help you get out of debt and rent something and build your emergency fund and build a down payment but you're not going to sell it and buy something that's going to meet your needs so you're you know you're pretty much saying we're going to rent for
Starting point is 00:02:48 probably three years i don't know what's that what's the house worth um last time we spoke to a real estate agent last year um and then our sewer line went out but um we um she said it was worth about 170 then i don't know if the market's gone up or down. I haven't looked into it. Okay. All right. Well, it would clear up most of your debt and get you started. So you're probably renting for a couple of years if you do this.
Starting point is 00:03:17 Are you okay with that? I'd be okay with renting as long as it's in a good school district, you know. Yeah, and you might be able, depending on if you, you know, went out a little bit further out of town or whatever in a little cheaper area, you might be able to rent more square feet than you've got now for about what you're paying now per month. Okay. And if you've got that in a new school district, that'd almost be a move up, right, temporarily. And Sharon and I did that many years ago. We sold our house. It paid off the rest of our debts, and we moved to a good school district that almost being a move up right temporarily and uh sharon and i did that many years ago we sold our house it paid off the rest of our debts and we moved to a good school district and we rented for two years which was really hard for me because i've been a landlord
Starting point is 00:03:52 most of my life not a tenant but uh so it's kind of an emotional slam dunk but uh but i got through it and sharon hated the rental house by the way she hated it and uh but we just having a hard time wanting to sell but my husband wants to do it, so that's why I'm calling you. You're kind of like the tiebreaker. Well, the thing is, here's the thing I'm looking at. If you were out of debt and had built your emergency fund and started having some money saved, you're probably moving now.
Starting point is 00:04:18 Yeah. Because this house is small for you guys, is what you're saying. Yeah, it is small. Yeah. So if you can make a plan to end up where you want to be in three years and the fastest way to get there is sell and rent for two of those years then um that's a pretty good plan okay if it puts you where you want to be it's it's paying a price to get there it's living like no one else so later we can live like no one
Starting point is 00:04:41 else it's not a slam dunk if you're willing to sit there, that's fine. But it probably accelerates you to get to the house you want in the area that you want and the debt-free goal that you want. It probably accelerates all of that. At the end of the story, what gets you in the house that you want to live in debt-free other than the house the fastest? And I think selling it does that.'s more inconvenient because it's two moves karen is with us in knoxville hi karen welcome to the dave ramsey show hi dave thank you for taking my call sure what's up well i am calling with my family and i are in a little bit of a predicament. We recently, my brother, my sister, and my father and myself are trying to help my brother currently. He is in a detox clinic. He has been an alcoholic for 30 years, and he's decided to finally get help.
Starting point is 00:05:41 Wonderful. We are very excited. Yes. And so we are in a predicament now trying to take care of his finances. And if he goes somewhere long term, possibly a year or 18 months, we obviously don't want to enable him, but we want him to be able to, you know, get out of the facility and have some freedom. What do you suggest in that situation? He probably has about $20,000 in debt.
Starting point is 00:06:09 To what? Two vehicle loans, which he's upside down on, and a camper loan, which he also is upside down on, and possibly some back income tax. Does he have any money? Obviously not. He's been drinking for 30 years. No, he does he have any money? Obviously not. He's been drinking for 30 years. No, he does not have any. Okay.
Starting point is 00:06:30 And does he own a home? No. And no family other than you guys? He does have a family, but it's estranged because of the alcohol. We're the three that are there for him. No, I'm just saying there's no one counting on him, quote, unquote. It's been a long time. Okay.
Starting point is 00:06:47 Yes, right. That's what I would guess anyway. So, all right. Is he willing to sell the cars in the camper? I think he would be willing to. Yeah. Let's sell them all. Okay.
Starting point is 00:06:58 Sell them all. And how much would that leave you in the hole? Maybe 10. 10 of the 20? The whole kit and000. $10,000 of the $20,000? The whole kit and caboodle won't bring $10,000? I don't think so. These are some junkie butt cars. Yes, I think he got himself in a bad situation.
Starting point is 00:07:19 Poor credit. Who are the loans with? One is with Linmark. I guess two are with lindmark and then one is with just a a little motor place near his where he lives okay right does he live in your area no he lives in north georgia okay all right um All right. Well, let's first set our priorities, okay? Okay. Him getting well is not dependent upon any of this junk. Okay. Him getting well is a 12 on a scale of 1 to 10. Agreed?
Starting point is 00:07:56 Yes, absolutely. And so if he comes home and there's nothing there but some repo notices and he's well, he's got a really much better life than he had agreed agreed okay so worst case scenario if you don't do anything you're okay if he gets well if he gets well if you guys want to help him and if you guys are sitting on some money and you want to write ten thousand dollars worth of checks and sell all that junk, that's fine. And you said he's got an IRS loan lien? I think so, maybe. How much? That could be $10,000 maybe, but we don't know.
Starting point is 00:08:34 We're trying to figure that out. Yeah. I would put that on payments on his behalf, installments, the minimum possible installments, get a tax advisor to help you, go to one of our ELPs. And if you want to pay those payments and write the $10,000 check as a group, you can. I love talking about companies that know how to do business right. You've heard of Grip6 belts, right?
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Starting point is 00:09:43 that gives the strength and support of a belt without even knowing you're wearing one i'm really proud of these guys check out this month's special Thanks for joining us, America. It's a free call at 888-825-5225. Sam is with us in Grand Junction. Hi, Sam. How are you? Good. How are you, sir?
Starting point is 00:10:35 Better than I deserve. How can I help? So right now, I just completed Baby Step 1. I just recently discovered you. I had some friends that I went through in college, and I just graduated. And right now I have $80,000 in student loans. I'm a mechanical engineer, and I'm on the job hunt. But primarily why I'm calling is because I know that you, like, I heard a little bit about your story, and I was wondering what it took for you to make sure you didn't, like,
Starting point is 00:11:07 do like a dumb spending mistake or things like that when, you know, you're basically just going full force with the debt. Because there's just some days I'm like, I want to kill this debt, I want to get it done. And then other days it's like, I really want to go spend this on XYZ stupid item. And so I was wondering how you built and maintained the discipline to keep on track towards being debt-free. Well, I have the benefit of being married to a lady who is not impressed with me.
Starting point is 00:11:36 And so she calls out my stupidity for the last 36 years pretty regularly. And that's one thing. Accountability, in other words words i'm joking around but accountability helped and sometimes you can use a friend for that or a parent for that a pastor for that a spouse for that whatever but someone that says hey i'm gonna walk with you and i'm gonna get up in your business if you start messing up okay the second thing is that I had a huge and I always recommend this to others as well. A huge reason, a huge why. If you have a why that is big enough, it will draw you away from being sloppy in your discipline uh to give you an example of that if the doctor came in and said if you don't lose 10 pounds in the next uh two months you're going to die 100 chance you die if you don't lose 10 pounds guess what you're gonna do you have now have a really big why. You are going to lose 10 pounds. There is no cookie in the world that looks that good, right?
Starting point is 00:12:48 But if it's kind of like, I think I might feel better and the jeans might fit better if I lost a little weight, cookies look better than that, right? And so you've got to have a big why on whatever it is you're doing. And the bigger your why, the more disciplined, the bigger your why the more disciplined the more intense the more focused you'll get there the you know and the more urgency you'll have with it and so what i would do is and it can be a positive thing a negative thing it doesn't have to be you're gonna die it can just be that um you know that i really i visual, I can see myself being wealthy and I can see the amount
Starting point is 00:13:27 of generosity I could do if I was wealthy. And it breaks my heart to look at this certain group of people that are hurting and I can help that group of people. God could use me to do that. And so I'm going to pay a price to win just to be able to do that. That's a positive. Why? Right. It doesn't have to be. I'm going to die. Right to win just to be able to do that. That's a positive why, right? It doesn't have to be I'm going to die, right?
Starting point is 00:13:49 It doesn't have to be that. It can just be, you know, I've got real big things to do with money, and so I need to go get some. And you need to outline that. Chris Hogan says to make sure that in his book, Retire Inspired, he says make sure your dreams, your is in high definition hd like your hd tv you remember the old tvs when it wasn't hd if you happen you ever i flip in channels although they changed our cable lineup in nashville our channels on where they are and i accidentally landed on some of the old channels they still got them going out that aren't hd
Starting point is 00:14:22 and i'm like i can't watch football on that it's just it's awful i don't know how we i don't know how we did it back in the stone age before we had hd and so i mean you gotta have hd i mean come on 4g maybe right i mean three def you know hologram you know what is it i mean but but you just get your dreams really crystal clear. Smell the waves breaking. Smell the salt off the salt water as the waves are breaking on the sand if you're going to do a vacation trip in the Caribbean or you're going to own a house there in the Caribbean and you want to be able to go down there and visit, right? Just set that aside.
Starting point is 00:15:08 I mean, you've got to hear it. You've got to smell it. You've got to feel it, the sun on your face. You've got to think about what it's going to be like to be out there fishing as the sun's coming up if you're a fisherman because we're able to get that bass boat because you've got your finances under control and you've got the time to go do that Whatever it is you want to do. I don't know But but you got it you needs to be crystal clear HD
Starting point is 00:15:34 your goal your dream and that becomes your why and Then have folks come around you and publicly state What your goal is? Don't keep your goal. Keep your dream to yourself. Say it out loud so that other people, even some of your friends might shame you. You know, they might be negative accountability. But, dude, I'm doing this.
Starting point is 00:15:56 And then that, oh, what happened to your deal? You know, that's coming at you if you've said it publicly. But if you've not told anybody, then that's the other thing. So really good question. Mark is with us in Phoenix, Arizona. Hi, Mark. How are you? Hey, Dave. I'm great. Thanks so much for taking my call. Sure. How can I help? I have a question I've never heard you directly address. A lot of questions about loans and graduate school loans, but never this specific one. We've got about $400,000 in investments,
Starting point is 00:16:24 and we're on baby step five, with the exception that I still have $50,000 of about $170,000 in student loans left that I specifically haven't paid off completely because of the fact that the interest rate on it is only 2.75%. The only other debt we have is our house at 3%. And right now, the market... So you said you have 50,000 in student loans, used to be 170, paid down from 170. Correct, yeah. Okay. And the money that's in investments, 400,000, is that in retirement accounts only? No, about 200,000 is in retirement, and the other 200,000 is in 529 plans for my children.
Starting point is 00:17:04 Okay. So on your premise then, you actually have heard me address this like every day. thousand is in retirement and the other two and a thousand is in 529 plans for my children okay so on your premise then you actually have heard me address this like every day um but anyway aside from that on your premise if you could borrow 50 million dollars at two point something percent and invest it, would you? If I knew that the rate of return were going to be more than 5%. No, no, no, no. This is in the real world. If I knew, this is in the real world where your scenario is. Your scenario is in the real world.
Starting point is 00:17:36 If you could borrow $50 million and invest it the way your $200,000 is invested, would you? It seems like the answer is no, but in my mind it seems like yes. Good, good. At least I got you moving a little bit here. All right. Here's the purpose of my bizarre scenario, okay? When you are doing math with your head, what I did with the bizarre scenario is I made you feel it a little bit rather than just have the intellect. Cause you are somebody that has
Starting point is 00:18:12 a strong intellect. You're a bright guy. Okay. And you tend to think things through only when I made you feel it for just a second there. And you were like confused, but okay, I get it. I'm the, I'm not, I'm going not i'm gonna bite okay no i wouldn't what i'm what happens there is your heart is where you measure risk and you are leaving risk out of this scenario and the risk is acceptable to you because you have the money to write the check today and pay off the debt and so it doesn't bother you that you've borrowed money to invest effectively that's what your balance sheet shows and so it doesn't bother you but when I try to put a couple zeros on
Starting point is 00:18:49 the end of that it all of a sudden you feel the weight of it you go there is risk here and you've left risk out of your mathematical equation so the borrower is slave to the lender the millionaires that we have met with and we've studied 10 we've studied 10,000 of them recently, tell us that they get out of debt as quickly as possible, 100%, and they stay out of debt. And they use that lack of risk, not leverage, and they use just simple cash flow to pour into their investments. So all of that having said, Mark, what I would do if I woke up in your shoes is before the sun sets tonight, I would be debt free.
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Starting point is 00:21:32 Every time I get a paycheck, I pay for my bills. Then I put the leftover money into my currently $1,500 emergency fund. When I get my car serviced, whether it's a simple oil change or unexpected needing transmission replaced, should I pay for it out of my emergency fund or a second savings account? Your emergency fund should be for emergencies, which would be an unexpected car event. Tires don't wear out unexpectedly. Oil changes are not unexpected. Transmissions going out are unexpected.
Starting point is 00:22:11 Gas is not unexpected. Regular tune-ups are not unexpected. And so you put a rhythm in your budget for car repairs, normal car maintenance, and then you use the emergency fund for big items that surprise you and are unexpected. That's how we determine what an emergency is. So going on vacation, for some of you, you need to remember, is not an emergency. Peggy is in Cincinnati.
Starting point is 00:22:44 Hi, Peggy. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hello, Dave. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? Well, I am retiring at the age of 66. My husband is 68.
Starting point is 00:22:55 And I was talking, I'm retiring from the Postal Service. I was talking to the Federal Retirement Counselor. And I have $380,000 in my thrift savings plan. Good for you. And I know that you always say do a rollover so you don't pay taxes on it. Mm-hmm. And you talk about good growth mutual funds. She said I need multiple IRAs.
Starting point is 00:23:23 Do I need multiple IRAs? Do I need multiple IRAs? No. I didn't think so. It sounded like you were just talking about one IRA. Well, I mean, each of the mutual funds might have a separate account number on it. That's possible. But it's basically just one IRA. It may technically be four by the time you do the rollover,
Starting point is 00:23:42 but we are going to roll it into the four types of mutual funds, growth, growth and income, aggressive growth, and international. If you want to be a little more conservative at your age, you would replace the aggressive growth with a balanced. But something like that, when you sit down with a SmartVestor Pro, and yes, I would do a rollover into traditional, not Roth, because I don't want to pay the taxes on it now at 70 and a half there is an rmd a required minimum distribution you'll be required to start pulling money out um and so just you know be prepared for that but uh okay this is a traditional one that i have now
Starting point is 00:24:20 i'm sorry my first savings plan is traditional it It's not a Roth. Yeah, so it would be a Roth when you, I mean, it'd be a traditional when you roll it over. Don't do a Roth. Just let it, just let it be traditional. There's no taxes on that. Let it continue to grow. Do you need money off of it now? No, our income will be about $58,000 a year between social security and my pension and you plan to live on that we plan to live on that phenomenal we've been living on that we own our house it's worth at least three hundred thousand way to go we drive old used cars i love it so does he have a nest egg in his plan um no he does not okay no but we do have a thirty thousand dollar emergency fund okay so you got a seven hundred thousand dollar net worth you're almost millionaires way to go thank you
Starting point is 00:25:14 well it's partly due to you because listening to you we finally decided to get serious and get the house paid off before retirement i'm glad you did it puts you in a real comfortable position doesn't it? It feels pretty good. Yeah, you can have a pretty good life on 58 grand with no house payments or anything, right? We are hoping so. We think so. And see, here's the thing. If you leave that money alone invested well, in about seven years it'll double. Wow. Well, how much do you think they will make me take out when I'm 70 and a half? What do you think they are? They have got a formula on it.
Starting point is 00:25:55 It's not much. It's not going to damage it severely. But there's just a certain amount. What it amounts to is they don't want you to die with all that money in there with no taxes. They want to get their tax money, so they force it out. That's all it is. But it's not that heavy. It's not that stringent a schedule. And so I wouldn't worry about that.
Starting point is 00:26:12 I think you're going to end up some, you know, let's see, 66. By the time you're 73, yeah, you're going to have well in excess of a million-dollar net worth. If you live on that 58, that's what's going to happen. You have done very well. Congratulations. I'm proud of you. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Caitlin is in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Starting point is 00:26:37 Hi, Caitlin. How are you? I'm good, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Okay. So last January, I did something dumb, and I leased a car.
Starting point is 00:26:49 And then I started watching you, and I learned that I wasn't supposed to do that. Right. But about three months after I leased the car, I did another stupid thing, and I accidentally backed into my dumpster with it. And this is when I was in between insurance. So insurance couldn't pay for it. Luckily, we have insurance now, so that's covered. But I don't really know what to do with this car
Starting point is 00:27:12 because I don't really have the money to replace the bumper. It's not a huge damage, but I also don't know. The lease ends in two years. So I'm not sure what to do about it. How big is the dent? It's kind of, I would say, like basketball size. I mean, it's not a big dent. That's a pretty good size dent.
Starting point is 00:27:37 Basketballs are bigger than softballs. Okay. Yeah. All right. Have you gotten an estimate from a body shop on repairing it? No, not yet. Okay. Tell them you gotten an estimate from a body shop on repairing it? No, not yet. Okay. Tell them you don't have insurance, you're paying cash, and you need to repair it as dent, they're going to leave a basketball-sized dent in your checkbook.
Starting point is 00:28:12 Right. I wasn't sure if I should just buy the car after the lease or if that would help. Well, we don't have to buy it because of the dent. But if you wanted to buy it, and it's a good deal you could if you've got the cash so what do you think the car what is the what was the sticker price on the time you took out the car lease um it was a 2017 nissan rogue and i want to say it was like twenty thousand dollars around there 20 or 28 maybe 28 okay that sounds about right so 28 and uh that and you leased it 18 well no just a little over a year ago and your lease is how long a two-year or three-year lease
Starting point is 00:28:55 three years okay and uh well i mean are you gonna have 14000 or $15,000 or whatever to buy the car if that's the buyout at the end of the lease? Probably not. I'm in baby step two right now. If you're not ready to buy it out, if you're not ready to pay for it at the end of the lease, you're going to be turning it in. And you're going to be getting you a beater that you can pay for. Definitely. So that means we have to get the bumper fixed. Yeah, okay.
Starting point is 00:29:26 I will do that then. Thank you. It's not an emergency, but we do need to put it in your budget. You could put it at the end of your debt snowball if you wanted to, because it's not really a debt, but it's something you've got to do before that September sneaks up on you. Because whatever the body shop tells you, the dealer, when you turn it in, is probably going to double that right because you're above what the lease would call normal wear
Starting point is 00:29:52 and tear basketball size dents don't fall under the heading of normal wear and tear so but again it's not an emergency the good news is you can just kind of put it in your plan we're going to drive the car through the lease anyway and turn in the keys at that point. Don't run your miles over. Don't be over on your wear and tear, which means that this thing has been fixed. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. So long. Thank you for joining us. We're glad you're here. This is the Dave Ramsey Show, where we give you the same financial advice your grandmother would,
Starting point is 00:31:05 only we keep our teeth in. Kyle is with us in Austin, Texas. Hey, Kyle, how are you? I am awesome, Dave. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. What's up in your world? Sure.
Starting point is 00:31:17 So my wife and I just started Baby Step 3B. We're saving up for a house down payment and hope to have that ready in about 15 months in line with our lease timing. We're very familiar with your how much, how should I buy formula, and it's awesome, and that's our goal. But we have some income fluctuations coming up through the next several years up and down. I'm going back to school, and I can explain in more detail. I wanted to ask kind of which income numbers you think we should use to help determine how much house we should get. Well, if you use the highest income number and it fluctuates for a period of time down, it's going to put you in a strain, right? Sure. Absolutely. The current situation is
Starting point is 00:31:51 basically we're $165,000 now, down to $100,000 while I'm in law school. My firm will help pay for it, and then up to over $200,000 post-law school. So we're kind of not sure what to use in there. Law school two years? Law school three years, plus I'm going to have to put about $10,000 forward myself for the school itself, in addition to the firm will help out. Right, but I'm saying in terms of time that we've got a $65,000 drop from $165,000 down to $100,000, and then three years later back up to $200,000. That's exactly correct, yes, sir. Okay, all right. So I think I would want to be heavy on the savings if I was basing it on a 150 or 160 income, because basically what we're saying is your house payment is going to end up being about 50% of your take-home pay for three years if you base it on 165, and that a you know that that's that's a formula that's not
Starting point is 00:32:46 going to cause disaster but if there was a problem on top of that it could really cause you to have to sell the house yeah so is there something to be said as i guess is what you're getting at like is there something to be said for really putting some money in the bank to float during that period of time if we use that 160 number as our threshold. When do you start law school? Yeah, I would most likely start law school in about two and a half years from right now. The plan is to be in the House about a year before starting law school. Yeah, I think if you base it on 165, you could make it if you base it on 165, but that three years is just a real you've set yourself up for some risk it's not a guaranteed failure but when you got a high house payment as a percentage of
Starting point is 00:33:31 your take-home pay while you're trying to get through law school i don't want you to have financial stress sure no i hear you completely and we had debated literally just waiting until after law school to buy but that's like five years from now yeah that doesn't i almost said that's why i asked when you're gonna start but yeah so i'm gonna buy something like based on 120 000 income sure and then i'm gonna move again five years from now after i'm making 200 yeah perfect no we were going back and forth between those and that sounds like a great option we really appreciate your insight on that. Just somewhere in there. I mean, I'm just trying to figure out a way so you're not pinched and in stress while you're in law school.
Starting point is 00:34:10 Law school is tough enough without inviting financial stress by a decision that we had control over. So good question. It's an interesting discussion. Chris is with us in Indiana. Hi, Chris. How are you? I'm good, Dave. How are you? Better than good, Dave. How are you?
Starting point is 00:34:25 Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, my in-laws approached my wife and I thinking of giving us a large percentage of what would be our inheritance from them here in the next couple years or sooner. I guess their fear is that if they go into a nursing home or some types some situation like that that that would soak up a lot of those resources and i just i had some qualms about it you know it's their money uh i wanted to get your thoughts doesn't work okay uh well you cannot make yourself look broke when you're not
Starting point is 00:35:06 broke in order to get the nursing home provided by the government on welfare government free nursing home from the government is for welfare it's for broke people and if you if you move your assets out of your name the gut the nerd the government can look back five years on some things and 10 years on the other and disqualify you from getting free nursing home care. You don't qualify for welfare because you gave all your money away. Yeah. That's what it amounts to. It's called fraud.
Starting point is 00:35:37 They call it welfare fraud. That's what the government calls it. And they will come down on their head if they find all of this, and they'll look back five years, if they find all of this and they'll look back five years and if they smell a rat they can go back 10 years and so their their motivation for doing this is wrong how old are they uh just in their late 60s tell them to go get uh long-term care insurance okay to take care of their nursing home bill. And, you know, here's the thing. The nursing home bills are not, I mean, they're bad if you're broke.
Starting point is 00:36:11 But how much money have these people got? Oh, I just think it'd be on the order of $100,000. I'm not, I'm just speculating. They've not given me any real numbers. Then they need to get long-term care insurance immediately. And it's going to cost them, you know, $2,500, $3,500 a year. Okay. Real numbers. Then they need to get long-term care insurance immediately. And it's going to cost them, you know, $2,500, $3,500 a year. And it's worth every penny of it to protect their money. But, no, they do not need to transfer assets in order to falsely qualify for welfare.
Starting point is 00:36:43 It's not only morally wrong, it's legally wrong. And the government will come down on them if they catch them doing it, and they do look at this stuff. And the average nursing home stay is only about three years, so it would eat up $100,000, okay, if they did go into a nursing home and don't have long-term care insurance. But most long-term care insurance policies now cover about three years of nursing home care. So I would spend the money on long-term care insurance, and I would go get it today if I was in this situation. I would not try to hide assets to falsely qualify for welfare. You were right to feel funny about this. Lynn is with us in Chicago. Hi, Lynn. How are you? Hi, Dave. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up in your world? In my world, I'm trying to decide if I should be putting my 24-year-old out.
Starting point is 00:37:34 He's still living here with me, and I'm trying to make that decision. Why is he still living there? Number one, I didn't know any better until about three years ago that i was supposed to guide them financially so i took your class and while he was going through college um he graduated from college he graduated yes what's his degree in college um graphic designing okay has he got a job yes full-time why does he live at home well he asked me if he could do his master's and there was a piece to it the reason why i thought about it i'm calling you is because i had i had no savings i was um about twelve thousand dollars each month in debt
Starting point is 00:38:20 each money that did my budget but i took the class and I told him while I think about it, he must take the class too. So he took the class also and out of the class I decided, well, maybe he could stay here to help me dig myself out. So now I'm on step four by him being here because I make him pay his rent and everything. We just split it. Um, but he wants to do his master. So I'm thinking, should he continue to stay here while i start on my retirement because i have absolutely not a penny in retirement um as of next month i will be starting my retirement um thing so if he wasn't there you couldn't make it um in the beginning i could not because i was so now in the negative now yes i can make it. Okay, so he's not staying there now for you.
Starting point is 00:39:10 And why is he staying there for him now if he goes and gets his master's so he has a free place to live? Well, it won't be free because he paid half of everything. How will he be paying while he's getting his master's? Well, his job gave him a huge uh what's called raise and it was to because they don't have a program where they pay for master's degrees so they gave him a huge raise so with this raise he planned to pay for his master's what does he make no student loans loans. What does he make? He has no student loans. He's debt-free. Good. What does he make?
Starting point is 00:39:48 He's at 62 now. What do you make? I'm at 50, about 50. Okay. I make less. I don't think there's any emergency here, and there's not any abuse or any really bad situation. I do think it'll be advantageous to him emotionally to live on his own away from his mommy.
Starting point is 00:40:07 He's 24. He makes $60,000 a year. He's working on his master's. You're on your own. You can care for yourself. It'll be really good for him emotionally to have his own place, maybe with a roommate or something. And if you want to get a roommate to help your numbers work, that'd be fine.
Starting point is 00:40:23 But there's no emergency, but sometime in the next six months, if I were his dad, I would have him move for his good, for his emotional growth. 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 carrying on 600 radio stations across the country. To find one near you, head to DaveRamsey.com slash show.

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