The Ramsey Show - App - You Have to Create Your Own Destiny (Hour 3)

Episode Date: December 10, 2019

Budgeting, Home Buying 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 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'm Dave Ramsey, your host. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. It's a free call at 8 eight eight two five five two two five that's triple eight eight two five five two two five shelly starts off this hour in tennessee hi shelly welcome to the dave ramsay show hi dave how you doing better than i deserve what's up Well, my husband and I have a disagreement on what we need to do with our budget. We've kind of reached a new season of life. He retired from the Air Force after 30 years

and we moved to Tennessee and we have a new mortgage. We don't have any debt except for our mortgage, but a couple of years ago we stopped paying into our IRAs because we wanted to pay off another house that we owned at the time. So we got that paid off, but we really, we're living on just his pension right now. And we don't have, we don't really have any kind of a savings plan implemented, but he doesn't seem to think that we need to be saving anything because he has, you know, a salary every month from his retirement. And, but I keep thinking, and we, we took like a 30 year loan on our house, but I want, we wanted to pay it in 15, but we're not paying anything extra on it. So I wanted to pay extra on the house, still put money into savings and retirement, but he is not really wanting to do

that right now. So I just wanted your advice on what you thought we should do. Well, obviously we teach people to invest into retirement and to get their homes paid off. We don't teach anyone to keep a mortgage their whole life, and we don't teach people to not save money and hope that they can live on their pension. Kind of crazy, actually.

So, yeah, you definitely need to be investing. How old are you guys? He's 55 and I'm 53. He's 55, 55? Yes, uh-huh. And he doesn't work? No. Why?

Not right now. Well, that's a long story. He's tried to get several jobs, and he has been offered some jobs, but we just didn't think they were right for our family situation. So he was getting impatient, and he just decided that we should just choose a place where we wanted to live and then go live there, and then he would get a job but he hasn't really looked for a job in the area because he's building an airplane and he wants to work on that

which is very expensive and so he don't have enough money to build an airplane well i don't think so either but he seems to think that he does yeah but it's about a hundred thousand dollars good lord yeah i know that's what i think too but he's not really listening to me well i'm not sure i can help you i think you guys need marriage counseling this guy's off the rails he's 55 years old he quit work and he's building a hundred thousand dollar airplane and you've got years he's building a hundred i know i'm 59 i've worked 40 years and i didn't quit work by the way you're broke you don't have any money right well well i don't think we're broke i mean we do have about 57 000 in our checking account and then we have almost $200,000 in a retirement account.

And we own a lot. And you're building a $100,000 airplane. One-third of your net worth is going to be in an airplane. Well, yeah. I'm not building it. My husband is. Well, you're involved in it. This is part of your life.

You're attached to this mess. Well, I know, but he's not really listening to anything I say. That's why I said you need marriage counseling. I think there's a whole lot of other stuff going on here. I don't know whether he's having his midlife crisis late or what's going on. But, you know, you don't build a $100,000 airplane when your total net worth is $200,000. That doesn't make sense at all. And you don't quit work at 55 when you've only got $200,000 saved

and you've still got a 30-year mortgage. You are not done. You're not done. You need to create some income, and you need to go back to investing and get this house paid off. And when you're a millionaire, we can talk about buying an airplane for $100,000. But not until you're millionaires, and you're not. It doesn't make sense.

It doesn't make sense at all. So, you know, again, I can't make someone behave. Stupid is not illegal. And you can't either, for that matter. But you're going to suffer the consequences if you stand by and just say, well, it's what he wants to do. I can't do anything about it. You're attached to it.

You're going to, you know, as a ship takes on water, you're going to be the one getting your feet wet. And so you really do need to seek some marriage counseling because you wandered off to another city, bought a house. All these things are going on. This guy, he's disconnected. This is a dangerous place i hope hope a marriage counselor can help y'all open phones at 888-825-5225

jacklyn's in texas hey jacklyn how are you doing great thank you so much for taking my call sure what's up so i've recently been uh given i guess like as a Christmas gift, a lot of money. And my husband and I, well, we make about 120 a year and we've been given 72,000. And we've already have pretty much all of our debt is paid off. And the only thing we have left is our mortgage, which is 300,000. And I've always stayed at home with our kids. I now work with the family business and I love the flexibility of it. I have a background in finance and just wondering, oh, and I'm looking into starting to go into rental properties like duplexes and stuff like that, and I was wondering if some of that should go towards the house or trying to go into the rental properties.

Okay. As of now, we're thinking about $40,000 to go towards the house. Okay. All right. And this money came from where? My mom. Okay. And did she do a unified estate tax credit filing,

or is she unaware that there is a gift tax? No, she's aware of the gift tax. Yeah, all that's taken care of. Okay. So she's done the proper filings to not have to give half of this money to the government when she files, right? Yeah. They're putting aside money that's going to go for taxes. Okay. All right. Well, they can do this without paying any gift tax if they see an estate planner or a good tax attorney. But anyway, all right, aside from that, what we teach folks here and

what I have done with my life, Jacqueline, I love rental properties like you apparently do, and I like investing in real estate. I do not invest in real estate unless I pay cash for it, and I do not invest in real estate until my personal residence is paid off. And so you are in what we would call baby steps four, five, and six. Do you have an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses? Yes, we have $15,000 down for an emergency. Good, okay. Then you should be putting 15% of your income into retirement. You should be taking care of kids' college,

and you should be getting everything else you can get and throw it at your house and get your house paid off as soon as possible. When it is paid off, then I would save up and pay cash for my first rental. And that is your shortest path to wealth. It is not your shortest path to owning rental property. If you own rental property improperly, it is not a blessing, it's a curse. And I've done it both ways. I've got a bunch of property two different times in my life.

And I strongly recommend you do it the way I just laid out. I hope you listen to me. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. I got a call the other day and I thought it was worth talking about again. It was from a wife looking for life insurance for her family. She asked why I only recommend term life insurance instead of cash value plans like whole life. I usually explain how you overpay for coverage, earn a horrible rate of interest, and don't get your cash value when you die. But this time, I just had her go straight to Zander.com and get a rate. And then we compared that rate to the whole

life plan, and she immediately saw the huge savings. She realized all the things she could do with that money, like paying down debt, investing in a smarter way. That made it real for her. It makes no sense to buy or keep a cash value plan when there are smarter, less expensive ways to protect your family. That's why I suggest that everyone go to Zander.com or call them at 800-356-4282 and get a free quote. That's zander.com or 800-356-4282. thanks for joining us america this is the dave ramsey show we're glad you are here

how many of you married folks fight about money with your spouse? It's the number one cause of divorce out there, and it's the number one issue that couples argue about. And we know the strain that money problems put on a marriage. Sharon and I have been there. We know how it feels, and it's time to get on the same page with money. It's time to be one, unified in everything, including your money. And the perfect place to start is our Money and Marriage live stream event on Valentine's Day. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality and relationship expert, Dr. Les Parrott,

will guide you through an unforgettable night that will help you communicate more effectively and work better together. And for Valentine's Day 2020, this life-changing night is coming to you. So check it out. Make an investment in your marriage. Reconnect when it comes to your relationship, your goals. The live stream is on sale now for $19.99. Makes a pretty good stocking stuffer.

And you can purchase today and be ready to watch together from wherever you are at uh on valentine's day so be sure and check it out just daveramsey.com and uh check out our live events and you can get the live stream for the valentine's day money and marriage event with les parrot and rachel cruz cheryl is with us hey in california hi cheryl how are you marriage event with Les Parrott and Rachel Cruz. Cheryl is with us in California. Hi, Cheryl. How are you? Hi.

Thank you for taking my call. Sure. I have a question. I'll ask first, and then you probably have more questions of me. My husband was recently laid off, but because of how it all went down, he went to 1099 until the end of the year to finish up a project. So we do have income coming in. Thanks to you, we have emergency. We are debating on next year to take money from his retirement.

He is 60, and just pay off our house and get that just out of, you know, so we don't have to worry about it on my salary. How much is owed on it? It is $75,000. How much is in your retirement accounts? In his account, we're looking about $375,000, $390,000. I haven't looked at it in the last couple of months. Okay.

And it's between IRAs. And you have a nest egg as well? I have, in my retirement, I have a couple hundred thousand. Okay. So you have $575,000 between you today, and we would use $75,000 plus another $25,000 on taxes. There's no penalty, but you'd have taxes on it to pull it out and pay off your mortgage. We do have a Roth account, too.

I wouldn't touch the Roth. I wouldn't touch the Roth. I'd pull it out of the traditional and pay the taxes. Yes, I would pay off your house. And the reason is there's no penalties. It's after 59 1⁄2, and it is a small – it leaves you with plenty of money after we pay off the house in you know in other words if you call me up in the same scenario 575 000 and your house debt was

500 000 i would say no i don't want you down to 75 000 okay okay but because it's a small enough percentage i would do it definitely now the other part of the equation is he needs to go ahead and get the job lined up after the first of the year. Don't use this as an excuse to go on cruise control. Correct. No, he's well aware of that, and the company he was picked up on, he may continue with the 1099 next year doing the consulting. Oh, it's not the company that laid him off the company

went out of business but he was on a project and another company kind of picked it up but instead of hiring him he they just hired him to 99 to finish the project out as a project manager so it could lead to a job even and if not then he'll lead to another job another if not he'll be looking for another one right quick okay good good so i i want these two subjects disconnected in other words i want his career to be on its normal path and um if he in other words if you call me up and he didn't lose his job i would have given you the exact same advice that's what i'm saying and so um i'm not doing this because he got laid off. I'm doing this because you've got plenty of money and you should pay off your house.

And he should keep working. That's the process here. Because I want you to, you know, I think, you know, another five years you could end up, seven years you could end up with over a million dollars in your retirement between the two of you. And because you've got no stinking house payment, you are set up to be everyday millionaires going into retirement and everything will be great. So a good question. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Thank you for being here, America. We're glad you're with us. Mark is in Virginia. Hey, Mark, how are you? Doing very well, sir.

Good to talk to you. You too. What's up? Yeah. So I have a quick question. It's been a really emotional but yet financial roller coaster over the past year. And we know the baby steps because we went to Financial Peace University. But circumstances caused us to, for me to be out of work for about eight months.

And then we were, I lost my job. Why were you out for eight months? Because we had, just before that, we had had a child, just before I'd lost my job. Just before I'd lost my job. And with me losing my job, we couldn't afford the daycare that we were paying. And we couldn't really find anybody to. So anyway, what I did was I stayed home, and I watched the child to cut that cost out. I also did freelance work because I do video and photo stuff for small businesses.

So you're working now? Yeah. I have recently got a job. Making what? Which took me making about $32,000, 32 000 which is about a thousand less than what i was making before okay and so your question today is what well the question is is um because we had to move for this job we moved all the way to virginia and the cost of living is a lot different what i had had originally had expected and the thing is is that we uh we can't even really afford a lot of

things and she's looking for a job and she's trying to get one but it's like i feel like there's everything's on fire because of like just the moving cost and stuff like that and it's like how do i uh because i i don't know where to cut anything and it's like what can i do to cut you're not gonna cut something you're just not gonna pay something okay so uh until she gets a job and she's gotta get a job quick and so you guys have got to start thinking through your moves more carefully you moved into an expensive area lost her job and you did all of this for a 33 000000 job, that's what's put you in the pickle. So what you do is you prioritize every dollar, and when the money runs out, you quit. And here's your prioritization.

Food is first, and that includes zero for restaurants. Okay. Food that you cook at home and feed your family inexpensively is first so that your family has food the second thing is lights and water you have the utilities hooked up on the new place you're renting right yes yes sir good you have enough to do those two things don't you yes yes i feel better already i'm warm and my belly's full. Yes. Okay. Now, they pay the rent.

How much is your rent? Rent is $9.75 a month. We went with what we could find cheapest that we could save gas, also closest to where I would be working so we could save on those costs. That's 50% of your take-home pay, dude. Yeah. It's impossible. She has to work starting tomorrow.

She's got to get a job now. Okay? I know. Or you have to move back to wherever you came from or you have to move out of that place. You cannot pay

a $900 rent on a $2,000 take-home pay. Yeah. Not for very long. Okay, you can do it for a little while. But it sounds to me like by the time you keep the lights and the water on and you buy food and you pay your rent, there's probably not much left. Do you have a car payment?

We owe about $3,000 on the car, but just a few days ago I had an accident, and we have to pay the deductible to get the car back. And I don't have a car, so I don't even have a car really currently. So that's also one of the things that come up. Okay. Yeah. So now, again, as soon as you can get a car, you need an extra job,

and you're going to be delivering pizzas every night. And she needs a job starting today so that you guys can start to get this balanced. But it's food, shelter, clothing, transportation, and utilities before you do anything. And everything else just has to sit until you get some income coming in here. Man, I'm sorry you're facing this. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Dean and Melissa are with us from Rochester, New York, to do their debt-free scream. What's up, guys?

Hi. Hi, Dean. How are you? Merry Christmas. How much have you paid off? $75,142. How long did this take? 31 months total, but really the last 21 months we were gazelle intense. Got it. And your range of income during that two and a half years?

$73,000 to $93,000. Cool. What do you all do for a living? I am in sales and project management for a building supply company. And I am a mental health counselor for a nonprofit. Okay, very cool. What kind of debt was the $75,000? $10,000 was dean student loans.

I had almost $40,000 in student loans and then a truck and a car for a combined $25,000. Oh, there we go. You were a vehicle poor. Yeah, a little bit. All right. Did you sell them or did you keep them? I sold my truck. Oh, Dean. Ouch.

Wow. That's where we got the gazelle intense. That was what he was kind of dragging his feet a little bit, was on board. But once he sold the truck, he was like, Yeah, if I'm giving up my truck, we're doing this thing. We're doing it 100%. Wow, wow, wow, wow. Amazing.

Very cool. So what started this journey 31 months ago? Well, we have two little boys, our youngest was almost one and we were, you know, kind of re-examining our goals and what we wanted for our family and just realizing that, you know, I really wanted to be able to take our kids on vacations and experiences. And we never did credit card debt, which I'm thankful for, but I wanted to be able to do those things. And we just couldn't do that. And also realizing we were one emergency away from a huge catastrophe, and it was just unnerving. So it just really got us thinking, okay, what are we going to do here?

We need to change something. Then what happened? Well, I had known about Dave Ramsey. My grandfather used your program to help my parents, and we'd been kind of dave-ish for a while and knew of you know the baby steps a little bit but um we just really got on the same page and said okay we're doing this and and started chipping away and and throwing every penny at our at our dad right very cool and and then at what point dean what happened inside your brain that says, okay, we've got to sell the truck? Like you said, it's having your reason why.

And we were going through what our why was for our family. And we're looking at our finances, and it just wasn't lining up. And I knew something had to change, that truck payment with the loan payments on top of daycare and mortgage, we were just, you know, at the break-even line, and there was no way to make those goals a reality without changing something. Yeah, you had to break the law down. Truck had to go, and I had to buy my Dave car. Yeah. What'd you buy?

And I'm still driving it. What'd you buy? I got a 2010 Equinox. Okay. That's not too bad. Okay. Yeah. What'd you pay for it?

Paid cash. I paid six grand for it. All right. But I sold my truck for 16, and I paid off my student loan with that cash. Wow. And that broke the logjam. Plus, you just said if i'm if the truck's leaving we ain't doing nothing we're doing this thing right you had you turned up the heat at

that point is that what i heard no that was the all-in moment for me yeah she was kind of pushing and tugging and i was uh has intent to get on board just because i knew what it had what i had to do yeah i don't blame, I don't blame you. I don't blame you. That's normal. Good for you. Good for you guys. Was it worth it?

Absolutely. A hundred percent. We just had such a huge, like, sense of relief. Like, I wish I could describe it better, but as soon as we clicked pay on that last payment, it just was like this i i didn't even realize how burden burdensome it was until it was gone it was amazing now when you're free that's when you realize you weren't yeah yeah it changes it it really is a tightness across the top of your

shoulders and down your back i mean you really feel the actual burden of it and people don't realize that until it's gone and when you don't have any payments you can breathe different yeah it was a big relief in our family and something we were able to share with our boys making that last payment and you know letting them know even at a young age what that means for a family will you ever go back? No. No. It feels good. We're so excited to be in a place where we can, you know, have some wiggle room and plan for vacations and budget for things that we had to say no to for so long, and now it's, you know, it's got a budget line.

We have an entertainment budget, which we didn't have for so long. Yeah. That's exciting. That's nice. Very nice. What do you entertainment budget, which we didn't have for so long. Yeah. That's exciting. That's nice. Very nice. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? Definitely having your why. So, you know, for us, we had our why was just changing our family and what we could do.

But when we kind of got down to that last $26,000 and it felt like, okay, we were chugging along at that last one, we made a paper chain with like 26 rings for $1,000 each, and each one we put another reason why. Oh, that's good. You know, just so we could keep that motivation and remember why are we doing this, like when we were kind of starting to lose motivation a little bit. Well, not lose motivation, but just feel like we're trying to get through. You get tired. Yeah, tired.

It's emotionally and physically exhausting to go through this. I mean, this is not an easy thing you've done. It's very real. Who were your biggest cheerleaders outside the two of you? We had a lot of support from our church. We've actually gone through your series at our church. Our pastor talks about you almost every month in certain instances when he brings up kind of financial goals that you have for families.

And there's a bunch of families working through your program as well through the church, so it's good to bounce ideas off and give that emotional support that you need. Yeah. And our family was supportive as well. Some of them, you know, kind of gave us some funny looks and, you know, they're like, oh, that's good for you. But they were still super proud of us, super supportive of us going through the process. Cool. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan supportive of us going through the process. Cool. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires.

That's what's on tap for you next. That's the next chapter in your story to keep playing through and now become wealthy so that you can live and give like no one else. You're on your way. We're very proud of you here. I can tell you that. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Dean and Melissa in Rochester, New York, $75,000 paid off in 31 months, making $73,000 to $93,000, including the sale of his truck.

Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt free! Yeah! This is how it's done. This is how it's done. You want to get in financial trouble?

Work less. You want to get out of debt? Work more. These people all share in common that their income has gone up. A little 23-year-old Isabella in the first hour raised her income from $42 to $52 by babysitting at $20 an hour. Another couple, $140 up to $190 while they got out of debt. These guys, $73 to $93.

I almost never hear a debt free scream where their income went down while they were working to get out of debt they almost always work more not less there's a great place to go when you're broke to work it's a surefire money-making scheme. You don't sit on your butt and hope roast duck is going to fly in the window. You go out, shoot the duck, pluck the duck, cook the duck. That's where roast duck comes from. It doesn't accidentally occur in your freaking oven. You have to make this happen. It's the only shot that you have.

You have to create your destiny. That's what these guys do. I'm so proud of them. Well done. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day, 1 Peter 5.10 And after you've suffered a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. And Bradstreet said, if we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant.

If we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. Larry is with us in Florida. Hi, Larry. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Greetings and Merry Christmas, Dave. Boy, you're fired up today. I like that duck analogy, and I just want to pause to thank you for all the profound life lessons and life-changing directions you give all of us. We're graduates of Financial Peace University and dedicated into everything.

Ramsey, thank you for your work, your team, and Kelly's great work. We wanted to come to you with a difficult property management judgment issue as if we were Winston or some other colleague of yours, Dave, or Uncle Dave. This is the facts, and then I'll get your input, and I think it might be helpful for other people, too. My family has a summer home up in the northeast in New Hampshire, and it's in a somewhat rural area. We spend only about a total of eight weeks there. We have great neighbors and get along well with everyone. An immediately adjacent property was sold in this past May to a very young couple with a young child. They don't appear to have traditional employment positions. I have not personally met them nor have any of the other three neighbors. I think the feeling is that they may be not that friendly people, this new couple, or be that as

it may. We recently were alerted by one of our other neighbors that a very large number of heavy wooden shipping pallets had been dumped on our property that had been observed on this neighbor's property and we have documentary proof of that and we wanted to get your thoughts on how was the best thing i don't really have the option i won't be back up there till april i don't have the option to knock on their door and uh greet them and having viewed them, I'm not sure I would. I'm a senior citizen. I don't think there'd be candidates for jobs at Ramsey operations days. But the three options we came up to them were to personally write a letter to them. Option A, B, have an attorney write a letter to them.

Option C, present the matter to the police, who I think would be very supportive because the statutes have very, to me, draconian penalties. If it's over 15 pounds of stuff that you've dumped on someone's property, you can end up, at least under the statute books, with your driver's license suspended for up to six months and community service cleaning things. The other option that we were leaning in favor of was option four of having a private investigator go over, greet them, ask them, you know, see if they'll admit to what they've done regardless, ask them to have the stuff removed, not put on any other neighbor's property

and take them to a dump or otherwise disposed of and give them a deadline. And if that was ignored, then go to the police. But we wanted to get Uncle Dave's view. We try to get along with neighbors, and we have the mindset that we're very rarely on the property. It's not a rural area, but it's semi-rural. We have otherwise excellent neighbors yeah okay do you have um any uh contact with the police department up there at all

the chief of police unfortunately that we knew personally suddenly died of a heart attack we don't know the gentleman that's taking over his position but we have every reason to believe they'd be supportive yeah i wasn't that i was just wondering if um rather than sending the police i i just don't want to over uh overdo this uh and it create more hostility i'd rather create the minimum amount of conflict or drama to get the response that I want. And then if that doesn't work, I can always turn up the heat, no pun intended. What do you feel about the private investigator? As long as there's someone that has the right kind of demeanor.

If they go over there acting like Barney Fife, it's not going to do any good. But I would send them with a message, hey, we want to be good neighbors. You probably didn't realize that that's over on our line. Maybe you thought it was your property line or something, but it's clearly on their property line. They're out of town. They would have come by themselves, but they couldn't because they're never here. And, you know, if you guys will take care of this and just be good neighbors, then everything will be cool. And if they, you know, go ahead and authorize your guy, if they don't give a positive response to that, then you would just say, you know, really, we don't want to have to go these

other routes, but, I mean, we can contact an attorney and, you know, we could have a judgment put against you. We could turn it over to the police and they can come down and visit you. We don't want to do all that. We just want to be good neighbors. And so we're just going to pretend like you did this accidentally and that you're going to clean it up and we're all going to be great neighbors and just get the stuff back on your property or get rid of it one of the two uh it can't stay on our property large it's a very large volume and it looks like they almost must have used a truck because it's way over clearly

onto our property. I know, but that's not the point. The point is I'm going to give them a nice option to just clean it up as kindly as possible. If that doesn't work, then I'm going to turn it up. If that doesn't work, then I'm going to turn it up. In turning it up, would you be concerned about retaliation and damage to the property at all? Sure, sure. Yeah.

Absolutely. And if they do that, I'll put them in jail. Yeah. I can turn it up again. I like it. I'm not going to be intimidated by these people. I'm going to be kind to them and firmly explain that we're not going forward with this kind of behavior. And I actually, if you you do nothing then they're going

to get the idea they can do whatever the flip they want to do over at your place yeah so doing nothing is probably going to invite more trouble than hostility but again to have your guy don't go over there and just be a a jerk and trying to you know throw his weight around be barney fife or something just go over and be kind and look guys we this the easy way, the hard way. We don't want to do it the hard way. We want to be good neighbors. We want to say, you know, you guys, obviously, maybe you messed up. You didn't realize this was our property, but you're over on our line. And, you know, you need to get this cleaned up in the next 10 days or two weeks or so. And if you don't, then, you know, you'll be getting a letter from letter from our attorney and you know we're not

cleaning it up well then we'll just send the police down here and they'll write you up for this and then you're gonna clean it up so here's the way here's the thing we're gonna you're gonna clean this up it's just my we're gonna the hard way or the soft way and we just want to be good neighbors man and good neighbors don't dump crap on other people's property i mean you know so you just you just have a kind gentle firm message and don't invite trouble and if you can help it but um not dealing with it is also inviting trouble so you're smart to address it but i think if the first thing you do send the police down there you're going to get a hostile reaction, obviously. So let's give them a shot at just being a good neighbor,

and just person to person, you know. And the folks would have come over here, but they live out of town, and they're only up here a few weeks in the summer, and, you know, you need to get this done in the next two weeks. I'm going to check back and make sure it's cleaned up in two weeks, and if it's not cleaned up in two weeks, then we're going to have to take other steps. Okay? Please don't make us do that.

And that's how we would do it if it was our property. And we do that kind of stuff all the time with tenants and with neighbors and trees falling over the property line on someone else's property and on ours. There's stuff like that all the time. Anytime you own property, the more stuff you own, the more repairmen you have to know and the more conflict you get to have. It's stuff like that all the time. Anytime you own property, the more stuff you own, the more repairmen you have to know and the more conflict you get to have. It's just part of it.

So there's no way around it. Hey, man, thanks for the call. I hope that helps you, but I think the way you've assessed these folks, you don't have a high opinion of them taking the soft route. So just be prepared to go ahead and quickly ratchet the heat up and just say we're going to send the police, you know, the folks down there and have to call that chief of police and just go, hey, stop by, talk to them. Maybe you can talk them out of it without us having to actually file a warrant with you but we can file criminal but

maybe you can just talk to them and you know kind of do you know andy versus barney instead of sending barney down there let's send andy down there and um you know he could always work it out you know that kind of thing so you know sometimes that'll help uh because they don't want to get crossways with the local police folks if they're smart, even if they're running criminal activity, especially if they're running criminal activity. That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. 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 the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit DaveRamsey.com slash show and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.