The Ramsey Show - App - You Don’t Have to Be a Victim! (Hour 3)

Episode Date: March 24, 2022

Dave Ramsey & Rachel Cruze discuss: Handling a car lease, Cash-flowing an MBA, Overcoming extreme adversity to pay off debt, Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the 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. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, best-selling author, is my co-host today. As we answer your questions, this is what we do here. We help people build wealth, do work they love, and create amazing relationships. And we need to stop just a second and just say thank you to all of you out there. The success of things that have happened around here over the last decade or so, well, 30 years in the making, but the last decade has just been mind-blowing. Thank you.

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And we have wanted to do that for a long time, and we have done a lot of it, but we We want to help you build wealth. And we have wanted to do that for a long time, and we have done a lot of it, but we'll continue to do it around here. It is what we do. We're very good at it, and we're really thankful that you're here with us. Also, side note, if you didn't know, we're seeing a whole bunch of folks around right now, around spring break, coming by. visiting nashville for different things and anytime you're in the nashville area if you want to come hang out and watch the show we do it live every day for three hours and it's on the glass in our lobby we have a big beautiful customer service area uh customer experience area and with free cookies and coffee and a whole area with the

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very high end, very nice, and we're just right around that area. So we'd love to have you come visit anytime. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Sage is in Salt Lake City, Utah. Hi, Sage, what's up? Hi, thank you for taking my call. Sure.

My husband and I are almost done with baby step number two. Um, we, we got into a car lease about two years ago. I heard that hesitation, Sage. Um, yeah, we didn't agree with it. We didn't, yeah, we didn't agree with it we didn't yeah we didn't agree about it but it got yeah it got done and it happened it happens yeah okay so where are we going now so now we're just trying to because we i it's really hard to get out of a lease there's not very many options so we're going to be finished. We're just looking forward for our next step. It'll come to an end in December.

And this is kind of our last thing to pay off before we can really go on to baby step number three. And I know at the end of the lease you can buy sell or trade in again and we were considering buying out because um actually the worth you know with the car prices it is actually worth a lot more than the dealer has us locked into okay so what is the buyout price in december it will be 14 000 you're gonna have We will have, we will either, and that's the thing, if we're going to buy out, then we want to try to save up for that now. Yes, that's what I'm asking. Are you going to have the money? By December, we could.

Good. Yeah. Okay, so what's your question? So I guess my question is, like, what's the best thing to do? Because it's also worth $24,000. Do we buy it, sell it? Do we just... Do you like it?

Yeah, yeah. What's your household income? Household income is about $65,000. What's the other car worth? What's the other one? My car? Mm-hmm. My car is worth about $11,,000 and it's paid off.

Okay. All right. So you're right on the bubble. I tell people not to have more than half of their annual income tied up in cars and things with motors and wheels because they go down in value. I know for the last six months, they've not gone in down in value, but this is the first time in the history of the world that's not happened, and it won't continue. So these are depreciating assets.

You have a lot tied up in rolling stock. Not enough that you've got to sell it. But if you told me it's a $50,000 car, I'd be telling you to sell it and make $60,000. But if you want to keep it and pay $14,000 off, and that's your last debt, and you're debt-free, two cars, two nice cars, and you make $65,000, $60,000 a year in December, I'm in. What do you think, Rachel? I mean, absolutely.

What do you want to do, Sage? What sounds good to you? I just felt some hesitation on, you know, even you asking the question. What's your gut? What do you want to do? Well, honestly, I want to be out of a car payment now, but I don't know how to break a lease. There's probably not a good way to break a lease.

Yeah, there is. You can call them and ask for the early buyout and send them a check do you have the money you don't have the money no no no so we'd have to yeah so as soon as you have the as soon as you have the money to do it you can call them and ask for an early buyout and it'll be remotely similar to fourteen thousand dollars okay i mean it might be okay it might be 13 8 or something this month you know because there's a there is there is it's not an interest rate technically speaking but it's called a cost of capital but your your early buyout is going down actually it'd be more than 13 it'd be a little bit more,000 because it's like an early payoff on a loan.

You're not having to pay the interest, although it's not technically interest because you're technically renting the car, and you technically don't have an interest rate. So you don't even know how they're calculating it, which is one of the beauties for them. But anyway, yeah. If you get up to $14,000 or something in a pocket before December, call them and ask for their early buyout.

You can send them a check, and they'll send you the title. And it's over. And then the other option, though, is if you don't buy it. I would buy it even if you're going to turn around and resell it because it sounds like there's a $10,000 profit on the table. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For what it was worth. Yeah.

Even if you're going to turn around and sell it and move down with cash. Yeah. You know, if you sell it for $24,000 and you went and bought something for $15,000, that's okay, too. But if you like the car, it's right on the bubble. And I probably would just pay it off and keep it. Just real clean. But then, Sage, I mean, for the fun of it, to just jumpstart your baby step three,

since I know you guys are itching to get out of this. I can hear it in your voice. There's an option just to sell it, put $10,000 to the emergency fund, and drive a $15,000 car. You could do that now. You could actually do that now. If they have the cash to get out of the lease. No, you could sell it and send the cash in. And do it.

And get the cash. You know, you could buy your way out of a lease early and sell it. That would work. This is The important than ever. While some circumstances can't be controlled, there are items within your budget you can take charge of, such as your health care costs. For nearly 40 years, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, has provided a budget-friendly means of sharing for medical bills when our members need it.

Learn more by visiting chministries.org budget. That's chministries.org slash budget. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a Ramsey Trusted Provider. Millions of people get to the end of the month and have no idea where their money went. Too much month left at the end of the money. If that sounds like you, you're not alone. Guys, you can be in control of your money, but you have to be the one to tell it where to go. That means getting on the B word, a budget. Give every dollar a name, every dollar a job job to do and you do it every single month

the best way to do that is with the world's best budgeting app every dollar you can make your budget work plan your expenses track your spending clearly see where your money's going it's all free living on a budget puts you in control of your money. Start budgeting for free by visiting ramseysolutions.com slash every dollar. ramseysolutions.com slash every dollar. Rachel is in San Jose, California. Hi, Rachel. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave.

Thanks for taking my call. How are you? Sure. Better than I deserve. What's up? First, I want to say thanks for taking my call. How are you? Sure. Better than I deserve. What's up? First, I want to say thanks for taking my call again. I've been listening to you since I've been in community college, so it's kind of cool to be on the show.

But my question is how to save money for a master's program, specifically an MBA. I plan on going back to school within the next three years, and the program I'm looking at will be around $150,000 to $200,000. Why for an MBA? Why would you pay that for an MBA? It's a pretty prestigious school, and it's just always been a good school for me. I couldn't give a crap less.

That's ridiculous. There's no MBA on the planet worth $150,000. No. Rachel, what's your why for getting it? What's like the end goal? You're getting an MBA to do what? I want to be a leader in supply chain and just be more well-rounded. I know within the field I'm in, it's not necessarily

required, but I've always enjoyed school. And hopefully by the time I get to that point, I can afford it and it's not too much of a strain on my budget. How much do you make a year? Well, I'm right now making about 80, but I just signed for a new job, and I'll be making around 150, and the sign-on bonus will hopefully clear my debt. I have about $30,000 in loans and debt, so half of it's in my car, and half of it's in student loans. Way to go. So I guess I can sign on bonus.

And where is, do you have a degree in supply chain? I actually studied finance, but I landed a job in supply chain and i actually really loved it and you're doing great okay so where is your finance degree from what school um i actually went to a small school in the midwife you you probably wouldn't have heard of it but um but you're gonna say it on, but I transferred from a community college within the small town I lived in. And what did you pay for your finance degree? It was $30,000 total for two years since I transferred. You're amazing.

That's exactly my point. You're making six grand. You're making $150,000 a year. Six figures. my point you're making six grand you're making 150 000 a year six figures you're making 150 000 a year from a 30 000 undergraduate finance degree and the fact that you're a hustler and you're smart and you know how to grind and you jumped over into supply chain which is a hot career field especially right now you've done everything smart to this point until somebody told you that where you went to school mattered and it does not there is zero hard data zero hard data on the planet that says

where you go to school matters and you're proof of that that's true you're proof of that. That's true. You're proof of that. You should pay $20,000 for an MBA. Yeah, the program, actually the company I'm working for does sponsor like master's programs. They're going to pay for it. They're going to pay for you to go to school and get your MBA. Yeah. But it's just not the school you picked out. Right. Okay.

So here's what we're going to do. I don't know if we have a way to do this or not. I want you to watch Borrowed Future, our documentary on student loan debt, tonight. I want you to watch it. 200,000 people have watched it on Google Play, on Apple TV, on Amazon Prime. And Kelly, can we give her a code to watch Borrowed Future? We can? Okay, good.

I'm going to give it to you. That way you don't have to pay for the rental even. Okay, we'll give you a promo code, and you can watch it for free as my gift. All right? And then what you're going to do is you're going to sign up to get a free MBA that your company company that pays you 150 000 a year to do supply chain is going to pay for at a school because i gotta tell you no one cares where you went to school out here in the real world all they know is you got an mba that's all they know right that's all they know I got probably 40 or 50 maybe 60 MBAs working here at Ramsey I couldn't tell you where a single one of them went to school and by the way I didn't

even hire them because they had an MBA I hired them because they passed our stringent interview process and they proved to be very studly people and they fit into the Ramsey program here now when I'm sitting and talking to them and i know they have an mba it's helpful because i know how to communicate because mbas are have a certain critical thinking skill thing that is pretty much germane to all of your fields of study but oh my gosh i love it i want you to go get the mba and i love that you like studying but please please please please learn something from your finance degree. It's called return on investment. You will make zero more money for spending $150 than you will get in the free one that your work will pay for.

Please. You're right, Dave. I'm begging you. I was like, Dave's begging. Please, please, please don't do this. But here's the mindset. And I feel like, Rachel, that you're in, that I, we hear it a lot, though, is when you're in that academic world

and you love school. I mean, she said, I love studying. I love, you know, I want to get my MBA, all of these things. And you kind of get into that sector of life where that's where people go. People do applaud the nice school. You know, like, I understand, Rachel, how you got there, things and you kind of get into that sector of life where that's where people go that people do applaud the nice school you know like i understand rachel how you got there because it makes sense

and i think that there are people out there that put things on a pedestal and all of that but the re but you gotta get out the reality here's the reality the reality is getting an mba is great when you can pay for it and the fact that that your company will completely pay for it, it's free. It's free. And Rachel, you are amazing. You're the secret sauce. Not the MBA. Not the degree.

And certainly not where you got the degree. I mean, I've never gone to a doctor and I go, where'd you go to school? I've never gone to a lawyer. Where'd you go to school? I've never gone to a lawyer. Where'd you go to school? I've never asked him. Never asked him. I've never hired an accountant and said, you know, where'd you go to school? I've hardly ever hired an employee.

If I ask him where they went to school in an interview, it's just as a matter of conversation. But I've never hired someone that went to X school over went to Y school. Yeah. As a matter of fact it around here it's kind of works against you people that went to community college and paid for it we're like you worked your butt off yeah you're one of us yeah you know you're blue collar you get her done baby you leave the cave kill something and drag it home you're one of us yeah that's right it um versus i paid you know a bazillion dollars for a degree in left-handed puppetry oh my gosh

you know so rachel you just got so much on the ball you're just such a sharp young woman i'm just begging you not to make that mistake hang on kelly will give you a copy or give you a code so you can watch borrowed future seth godin our friend is one of the leading marketing minds on the planet will go off on these famous schools and he's he's mr data i mean he's checked all the data on all of this and he he thinks it's the biggest prestigious schools are the biggest scam on the planet for what they cost now if you get to go for free you know you have a cousin that went to Vanderbilt 100% free, free ride, you know, very smart, got a, you know, salutatory, valedictorian type scholarship.

Sure, go. But, you know, but you don't need to pay 10x for the same set of education because of where you're going to school. That's a really bad plan, boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen. This is the Ramsey Show. Thank you. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, is my co-host this day on The Ramsey Show. She is a New York Times bestselling author three times over. Her latest book, Know Yourself, Know Your Money, also there. Also a number one bestseller, so be sure and check it out. Nathan is with us on the debt-free stage right here in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions.

Hey, Nathan, how are you? I'm doing great. How about yourself? I am better than I deserve, sir. So where do you live? I live in Springdale, Arkansas, but I grew up in Texas. Cool. Well, welcome to Nashville.

Good to have you. And you're here to do a debt-free scream. How much did you pay off? I paid off $55,000 worth of student loans. Cool. How long did this take you? Took me 20 months. Good for you.

And your range of income during that time? It started at $35,000, and I bumped it up all the way to $63,000 working two jobs. Cool. Good for you. What do you do for a living? I teach middle school PE, coach high school swimming, and then in the evenings and overnights, I stock shelves at a local grocery store. Wow.

You're getting it. Yes. Kind of had to. Had to knock it out, huh? Yes. So how long have you been out of school? I've been out of school. So I graduated in 2014.

So it's been a while since I've been out. But I really started following the FPU, following the principles for the past two years, three years. Yeah, so 20 months. Yes. So you went through the class, Financial Peace University. Yeah, so long story short, one of the teachers where I work at, her and her family were doing FPU through the church. The church was offering it to anyone in the community that wanted to do it. And she said, you need to get on this because that beater of a car that you're driving on

is kind of pitiful and you need to do something about it. And I was like, well, I have student loans. And she's like, well, you need to do this FPU course. Like, have you heard of Dave Ramsey? I was like, yes. And she's like, well, this course is free. You need to sign up. So I signed up. The church had it completely free yes had it completely free

wonderful and like i'm not a member of that church but they were just like we want to help the community and when we help the community it's going to come back and invest in itself so to speak and so i signed up i went every wednesday joined it and it was probably the first time in my life that i've ever had a conversation about finances. A little bit about me, I was adopted as an international adoptee, but when I came to the States for a while, I was in and out of foster care. And so it was something that I had no idea to do, how to handle finances. And for a long time, I wouldn't say I pitied myself, but there was lots of times where I didn't feel empowered. I didn't feel like I had the tools to equip me. And thankfully, you know, a God thing, I signed up for FPU and I really kind of got going with it.

And then the pandemic happened and I was like, this is my time. This is my opportunity because for a year I didn't do anything with FPU. And then when the pandemic hit, the FPU workbook was sitting kind of in the corner of my apartment. And as you kind of say, when the tides roll back, you find out who's skinny dipping. And I found out that I was skinny dipping and I needed to do something about it. And that was my moment. That was the moment of like, I'm sitting here. What do I want to do with my life? And I wanted to be financially peaceful. And I really went back through the course, started listening to your podcast, started reading your books, and just really put myself around any tool that I can put myself around to help me better myself.

Well done, sir. That's amazing. And your story is incredible because a lot of people that could be in your position easily could take that seat of, look what's happened to me in my life. I mean, that's a tough story, Nathan. And so the fact that you've been so proactive in your life completely and said, no, I actually can do this. I mean, that's pretty amazing. So for you, what was the thing that helped get out of debt? People listening right now that may have some level of their story has been difficult and hard,

but they're listening to you and they think, okay, I can do this. Like what were a few things that really helped dial you in? The first thing was getting over myself. I think I had a lot of plenty of opportunities to give myself excuses, but I realized those excuses weren't going to pay the bills. Those excuses weren't going to help me get to a better position in life. And I knew that I had to help myself and me helping myself was getting over the fact that I needed to do something about it. So I stopped being a victim. I wanted to be a victor. I know you've kind of talked about on your show and that really like hit me that I was like, you know, I can win. Like, why can I not win? You know? And it's like, I need to do the little steps, do the little things right, because there is a way. And I always resort back to the Bible verse Psalms 27, 10, where it says, even if

my parents forsake me, God is going to take care of me. And I see that as a testament of my own life, that God has taken care of me. And he's going to give me the things that I need to do to help myself. And he really gave me that. And so getting over myself and then just working hard, persevering, pushing through and realizing, do you want it? And how bad do you want it? Are you willing to make the decisions that you need to do in order to get something you've never had before? I know Dave always talks about that. And that's a true testament for myself because I had to change up what I was doing.

I had to change up myself. I had to change up my perspective and be like, you know what? I'm going to start winning and I want to win. How does winning look like? How do I better myself? And winning isn't having the lavish lifestyle. It's just having peace, having the understanding of like, you know, when a rainy day comes, I'm okay because God has prepared me for this moment. That's very cool.

Well done. You know what? That's the truth for all of us. On anything we're going to be successful with, you know, one of the first steps is get over yourself. I like that. That's good. That's really good, Nathan. Very good stuff.

Well done. All right. Who were your biggest cheerleaders? These people to my right, they were my biggest cheerleaders. And then also just random people that I was sharing my story with. They were like, kind of good luck, best of luck to you. And they just understood when I said I can't go out to eat. And for the past two years, I've been meal prepping.

And I really like it because it's helped me be a better person because I'm able to use again, the tools that God has given me and not be dependent on some restaurant to feed me. I'm able to be able to help myself be a better cook. And then whenever I get married, whenever I have a family, I can help my family see that, you know, we don't need to go eat out. You know, we can do, uh, prepare with the things that God has given us. And so everyone who understood what I was doing and the sacrifices that I was making when i had to say no to certain trips or just certain events it was tough but you know they respected me and they understood what i was trying to do because they know that they weren't going to help me and i needed to do what i needed to do yeah so who are the people on your right what's the relation so these are the people um the duns they took me in when i was in college i lived with

them but they were my youth ministers. And then this is Devin. He's the one I invited to come to FPU with. And we've been best of friends since we've gone to church. And it's just someone that I'm able to kind of bounce ideas off of and trying to prepare for my future going on through Baby Step 4 and just looking forward to completing Baby Step 3B. Called a good friend. I know. It's great.

Good. Well done, Nathan. Good job, man. You're a hero. Well done. Well done. I'm proud of you. baby step 3b and called a good friend yeah i know it's great good well done nathan good job man you're a hero well done well done i'm proud of you well thank you good stuff we got a copy of baby steps millionaires for you uh how ordinary people built extraordinary wealth how you can too uh it's a number one bestseller and that's your next chapter in your story for sure we are declaring that right now also a copy of the total money makeover you can give away because i'm sure you've been yakking about this and somebody needs a copy of it where you've been talking about it to somebody and uh you can show them how to take these next steps and move through the process so very very well done sir very proud of you

how old are you nathan i'm 29 29 debt free at 29 i mean that's at 29. I mean, that's when you can look ahead in 30 years and be like, dang, that decision I made changed everything. And I'm so excited for it. Well, and I look at a lot of my friends and I look at people who are my age and I'm talking about, hey, how does your retirement account look like? And they're just ghosts. Something hit them where it just, the color drained their face. And it's like, I ask those people that question, it's like, I don don't want to be that person i want to be that person where i know what it's

going to look like for me down the road you know and it's just it's heartbreaking to hear that and and i just know that for myself i want to have that sure answer of what i'm going to look what's going to look like for me later down the road and that's kind of sacrificing now for what's to come yeah well done sir, very well done. All right. Nathan from Fayetteville, Arkansas. $55,000 paid off in 20 months, making $35,000 to $63,000 with the side hustles.

Wonderful job. Debt-free student loans and everything. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. I'm debt-free! Woo! Three, two, one. I'm debt free! That's how it's done! I hear a story like this.

I always think of Condoleezza Rice's saying, and I quoted her and her whole story, really, in The Baby Steps of Millionaires. It doesn't matter where you came from. All that matters is where you're going. Because everybody came from something. Yeah. And it really doesn't matter whether it was awesome or whether it wasn't awesome. You came from it.

What matters is where you're going. Especially when you came from harder, right, harder on the scale and choosing to persevere. That's always the greatest part of the story for me. That's awesome. Very, very cool. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. Our Scripture of the day, 2 Corinthians 4.16, Therefore we do not lose heart, though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

Jim Rohn said, Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today as we talk about your life and your money. Bob is with us in Santa Barbara. Hi, Bob. How are you? Good, Dave. How are you today?

Better than I deserve. What's up? Thank you for taking my call. I have an off-the-wall question for you. I listen to your show all the time, every day. My job puts me at my desk a lot, and I'm very fortunate to be able to do that. But I love your show. Thank you. I'm insurance poor. Dave, I pay insurance on my car, on my phone, on my home, on my boat, on my quads, plus medical, plus dental. What is your take on dog insurance do you pay for your insurance for your dogs for

medical and treatment no i do not you do not no i have a full-size german shepherd actually two of them and i started to insure them he was 60 a month and now it's up to 110 and it's like wow dog insurance is that something we really need well it's 1200 a year you know and um 2400 for two years and so forth we are we are big huge animal lovers we ramses um we lost rachel's lab this year one my grand dogs, and we all cried like little children. And we lost Denise's dog this year, her hound dog. They were both getting old, and it was time for them to go to dog heaven. And it just breaks our hearts.

We've always been that way. I had three dogs at one point. I'm down to one. And each time we lose one of them, they're like a family member. But we also are the type of people that understand that these are dogs. They are not humans. And we've observed pet owners over the years who hold on to a dog too long and they act like it's because they're trying to be an animal lover but the reality is they're just being selfish because the dog is suffering

and um they're not letting them go and so uh you know we do get um there's a part of us that has all of us uh ramses that is just um uh we just look at the economics of the situation and go we're not spending ten thousand dollars on a dog um it's a dog it's not a human we've got grandbabies that are real humans and then we have grand dogs that are animals they're dogs and so we look at it that way and i know we'll get hate mail for me saying all this and i understand that somebody's not listening to my tone but i i i gotta tell you man i lost a golden retriever i cried like two two days it was i hate it it's awful um i just got a i just got a brand new golden retriever dave and i'm contemplating whether i should put insurance on her.

They're the best dog on the planet, man. I'll get another one of those someday because that's just – she was precious. She was a precious dog. I mean, I've had eight or ten – I guess I've had ten or twelve dogs as an adult in my life, but that dog was incredible. And, you know, we're not mean about it. We're not mean about it. We're not angry about it. But, you know, unless you have some kind of a competitive animal that is literally worth tens of thousands of dollars because it's a world champion stud or something. I don't know. I mean, I don't even know.

That's in the horse world or maybe a show dog of some kind. I've got a friend who has one of these German Shepherds, like you're talking about, that was highly trained and it was ridiculously expensive, like $50,000 or $60,000 for the thing or something. I might insure that, but a typical family pet, no. And I don't have insurance on my phone either. And I don't have insurance on some of the other stuff you mentioned either. So I don't have insurance on my phone either. And I don't have insurance on some of the other stuff you mentioned either. So I don't know. Rachel?

Yeah, I mean, that's, it's just, yeah, the economics of it, of paying that per month. And if there was a big expense and you had the emergency fund, you know, that could be considered an emergency at that point. But it would have to, yeah, just, I mean, it's a. I self-insure through whatever medical event that the dog is going to have. Yeah, yeah. I self-insure through whatever medical event that the dog is going to have. Yeah, yeah. I self-insure through that. And at some point, you just have to make a choice. A, is the dog suffering, and I'm just being selfish to prolong its life for a short period of time

and put it through hell to do that? Right. Or B, is this just ridiculous? I mean, we had one that was, they said the surgery on it was going to be, it had a spinal problem. It was a puppy years ago, and they said it was going to be, the surgery was going to be $3,500 to work on his spine, and they gave us a 5% chance that the surgery would work. Well, we put that dog down. I mean, it was, and we all cried, and it was awful, and it was horrible,

but that's just not a reasonable thing for that dog to put it through that level of suffering, and the economics of that with those percentages and prognoses, it's not a human. It's not a human. Well, and I think to the point, Bob, you said, I feel like I'm insurance poor, I think is what you said, because of all of it. So, I mean, go and look at the things. What do you absolutely need? Yes, you need home insurance. Yes, you need car insurance. Yes, you need health insurance. Like there are the insurances that everyone needs. And then all these other, you know, accidental death insurance. I mean, you hear about all these types of things that people pay on and a lot out of just fear. But when you run the economics, you run the numbers numbers you run the risk

you understand what's really going on you may not need all those insurances bob so self-insured with your emergency fund through most of those things and that includes that includes the reasonable good um bills vet bills yeah and um and and here's the other thing and not not picking on you bob just as a general statement for you, haters that are already going to light me up on this because you some of you people are animal. You've lost your minds about animals. And I get that. I understand. I'm not mad at you, but you're mad at me now. But the if you it's like you should not go out to eat if you can't leave a tip.

You should not get a dog if you can't pay the vet bills. You should not get a cat if you can't pay the vet bills. It's an expense you're taking on, and it's unfair to the animal. It's unfair to your server if you won't leave a tip when you go out to eat. It's that same kind of a thing. It's unfair to your server if you won't leave a tip when you go out to eat. It's that same kind of a thing. You know, don't take on the expense unless you take on the expenses that go with it.

Karen is in Nashville. Hey, Karen. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. How can we help? Well, first of all, I want to say that I've been through Financial Peace University with my late husband, so I'm no stranger to the program. In fact, I want to say that I've been through Financial Peace University with my late husband, so I'm no stranger to the program.

In fact, I'm trying to work it now. However, my question is in regards to being behind on filing taxes for more years than I can even recall. How long do you think it's been since you filed taxes? It's been at least seven to eight years. How long ago did your husband pass? 2010. Okay. At the time that he passed away,

I was left with two teenagers and a two-year-old. Social Security said he was self-employed. Go run his business, sink or swim. Bye. So I've tried my best to manage this business, being very small. Karen, you have to get some tax help immediately because you're in a situation that is now criminal.

Right. So you need to come in out of the cold before they find you. And so what we're going to do is I'm going to put you on hold and Kelly's going to hook you up with one of our tax ELPs and they will help you. Usually go back about three or four years and do catch-up filings,

but they won't go further back than that. But that's your offering to the IRS to come in out of the cold and get back into the system, so to speak, because not filing your federal income taxes, not paying them is one thing, but not filing them is a criminal act, and they actually put 2,500 people in jail last year for that and so you need to get this dealt with now and we will help you hold on and Kelly will pick up and we'll hook you up with an ELP okay Rachel good show today yes

thanks for having me on lots of fun good job in the booth in there folks well done I am Dave Ramsey your host we'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with-host on The Ramsey Show. If you want to do your debt-free scream live on the show, visit ramseysolutions.com slash debt-free scream. We'd love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story. That's ramseysolutions.com slash debt-free scream.