The Ramsey Show - App - You Need To Hire an Attorney and Sue Her! (Hour 3)

Episode Date: April 13, 2023

Dave Ramsey & Rachel Cruze answer your questions and discuss: "What do I do if the executor of a will isn't following the will?" Making a side-hustle a full-time job, "How is my debit card protecte...d from fraud?" Pausing investing while paying off debt from the blog: When You Should Stop Investing Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3cEP4n6 Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods, moving, and storage studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Open phones here at 888-825-5225. that they love and create actual amazing relationships. Open phones here at 888-825-5225. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Open phones here again, 888-825-5225.
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Starting point is 00:02:26 Trish is in Coeur d'Alene,ish how are you hey dave how are you doing better than i deserve what's up good well i have a question i'll jump right to it my father-in-law passed away a year and a half ago and my husband and his two sisters are the beneficiaries of his estate. The one sister has been listed as the executor and it took us until about a month ago to even get a copy of his will. They claim that all of his assets have been sold or gotten rid of or whatever, but they won't provide any accounting of it. And the only thing left is he had a quite a gun collection that he was very proud of and that was a big part of his life and that he shared with his children as far as an interest in love of guns so now the uh
Starting point is 00:03:11 executor the sister is insisting that these guns are going to be sold on saturday at a sale and she's telling us that if we want to have any of these guns that we have to pay the price that she has listed them at we have have been through Financial Peace University. We're in Baby Step 2. We have $40,000 left in debt to pay off, and we have gotten fed up with debt, and we are at the point that we don't borrow money. But as being in Baby Step 2, we only have $1,000 in our emergency fund, and we just feel really stuck.
Starting point is 00:03:42 Why is his sister being a butt? I don't know. I feel like they are hiding things, and I don't know why. Well, they not get along? I mean, your husband not get along with his sisters? They get along just fine, except when somebody dies. They did the same thing when their mother passed away. But we're really torn that we have three grown children.
Starting point is 00:04:09 Two of them are sons, and they would really like to have some of these guns. Of course, they mean a lot to my husband. But financially, we can't justify going into debt to acquire these guns. I've reached out to like five or six attorneys. So one-third of the guns are yours, or your husband's? Correct. Yes. And that's what the will states, is that these assets are to be divided in thirds.
Starting point is 00:04:34 Okay. So has he told her no? Has he told her, you're not selling a third of them, I will come pick them up? Yes. And that was met with, this conversation is was over and she hung up on it. Okay. If I were your husband, I would call. It depends on how much you want to do.
Starting point is 00:04:50 You got two choices. Okay. You stand back and watch this happen. Or you hire an attorney and you stop the sale and you sue her ass. Yeah. But then if we go the attorney route, I mean, that's a lot of money too. No, it's not. Won't take a lot.
Starting point is 00:05:07 Because all this woman needs is somebody just to get her attention. That's what she needs. No one has stood up to this woman in a long time. And it is time somebody did. Okay, but for real, though, how much will it cost to get an attorney? To Trisha's point. It costs $200 to go get a letter and tell her we're gonna you know might cost a thousand dollars to file with the probate court and stop the sale but all you gotta have is an attorney
Starting point is 00:05:33 listen all you gotta have is an attorney call her and this whole thing is gonna stop because she's she's gonna cave like like a walmart tent i mean okay... And that's another thing. It's never gone through probate. It doesn't have to, necessarily. Okay. She has to follow, you know, the executor is to follow the execution of the will. Does the will state that the assets are all to be sold at auction? It states that any debts that he is owing to sell assets to pay those debts
Starting point is 00:06:05 and anything that's left to divide them equally by the three children. Okay, but we don't know if there's debt left. Well, she won't say. I know. We own two other properties. That have been sold. We've got no accounting of that either. Yes, they've been sold.
Starting point is 00:06:21 So it just depends on how, you know, you either can just forget it and walk away and just forget it it's probably not a lot of money it's probably not a lot of money well the guns the value she's assigned to them is about almost forty thousand dollars it's not a lot of money yeah forty thousand dollars divided by three is not much it's not going to pay for the attorney it's not going to pay for the attorney by the time you have a big old fight so you just got to decide how pissed you are about this well you're twisted up is your husband oh my husband's emotionally a wreck okay i mean like a wuss wreck or like a guy who's going to stand up and do something about it? Well, that's more what I'm afraid of. Do something about it.
Starting point is 00:07:11 Hire an attorney and shut her down. Go into probate court, put an injunction on the sale until there's an accounting of this stuff, because these assets need to be divided. If you want to spend a little money fighting on it, fight on it. But it's more about the fight than it is and the injustice of the situation that is the actual amount of money. Because I don't think there's a lot of money here, kiddo. No, there's not. But when we live our life by saying we're not going to take out any more debt ever
Starting point is 00:07:34 and we feel like we're being put in a position where we would have to if we wanted to. No, you don't. You don't have to accept her terms. I don't have to accept her terms. Okay. Just because you're going to get some money from this estate and you can pay the attorney with that money. There's money due to you.
Starting point is 00:07:51 There's money due to your husband. I know. Yes. But you don't know how much, Trish. No, we don't. No, we don't know how much. Do you have a reasonable guess? Okay, what do you think this property was worth that sold? He sold his house for 158 000 that's sold before he died by a few years and then he owned another piece of property that um conveniently got sold to one of his sisters
Starting point is 00:08:16 okay you you you've either got to decide you're going to accept the situation you got her an attorney this afternoon and you're going to file with the probate court to stop the sale tomorrow until the executor is held to account to an accounting of where the money has freaking gone. That's what I would do because I don't put up with this trash and this is just trash. This is the Ramsey Show. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. If you're planning a move anytime soon, that's awesome. We're excited for you.
Starting point is 00:09:02 But in some places around the country, you're still going to be facing some high home prices. And interest rates, well, they haven't gone down to their record lows either. That doesn't make homeownership impossible. If you want to buy or sell, you're just going to make sure you're financially ready, and you've got to have a trusted and experienced real estate agent to walk you through it. Not a family friend who got their license last month. Not someone who does real estate as a hobby you need a pro especially in times like these you can find a high octane high caliber high protein
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Starting point is 00:10:04 To the last call? Yeah. It was a good one. Yeah. Okay, let's go back for a second. To the last call? Yeah. It was a good one. Yeah. In a way. I felt terrible for her. Really bad one in another way.
Starting point is 00:10:17 So number one, everyone needs a will. Number two, the executor of the will, the word executor literally means execute they are to execute the document what the document says they do not have leeway to get creative the executor has to follow the guidelines of the will and that apparently was being done. We don't know for sure, except for the part where she's selling the guns and is being a butt to her brother. Okay, that's the technical legal part of having will. Everyone needs a will, and everyone needs an executor in the will.
Starting point is 00:10:57 Now, how do you prevent something like this from happening? Dad that died, bless his heart, term did a did a crummy job because his job is not to let his death and his little not a lot of assets i mean there's less than a hundred thousand dollars in play here by the time they divide it up and go through all the garbage 30 grand a piece probably yeah so this is not like these people are getting rich out of this thing so all they did was get mad at each other for life over a handful of guns really that's pretty hillbilly and so you really need to sit down with the people that are going to be handling the will and be very clear what you want done
Starting point is 00:11:46 and the spirit over which you want this done. The purpose of me leaving my three children something, if I'm this man, is for them to have a quality relationship when the smoke clears. You can't tell, unless this guy's some kind of weirdo that died, he doesn't want his three kids not speaking. Mad at each other't want to mad at each other and that's what he got okay but my question was let's just keep going with it if he if he's no his job was to do a reading of the will while he's alive cover it with the three kids here's what i want done here's how i wanted to handle can't she but the older sister still like, I know she can't, but she still could.
Starting point is 00:12:26 Misbehave. Yeah. She could still misbehave. Even if all that's done. If he had done that all, and then all the kids. But at least then the other sister
Starting point is 00:12:33 wouldn't have participated. You know, I mean, the other sister ended up with the land in the deal. That's right. Okay, that's right because there was another piece
Starting point is 00:12:40 because I was going to say, but you have to sell. There's some dynamic going on in the family here that was there before he died but you have to sell those assets in order to pay off debt so my question is what if there was more debt and the sister has to sell the guns because it's the only asset because the other sister took the land yeah and so she doesn't have a choice well no you can't you can't get to the you know you no i mean if you if you sell assets in order to pay off the debt so what if
Starting point is 00:13:05 there was more debt what but if what if the other sister took more than her third or didn't you know more than her third net in that land that's what we don't know we don't know we don't have an accounting so in this case but what happened is how do you prevent something like this from happening is you sit down with the all three kids in the room together when you do the will, and you say, Sally's going to be the executor, but here's what's going to happen. Sally, this is what you're going to do. And the other two understand what she's going to do. And if she doesn't do that, now the last piece of this is you don't wait
Starting point is 00:13:38 when things are misbehaving for a year and a half. You don't wait until two days before the gun sale to decide to be mad you get mad like months ago from our caller i think she was mad i think she's calling us i don't know what to do her husband's the one wouldn't do anything about it so you know what but you got to decide okay i'm going to force this hand a long time before two days before the right right you can't wait up until the last minute because that just adds even more drama to the whole situation so two months ago go over to your sister's house sit down and go look you're going to provide an accounting or we're going to take you to court and the court's going to tell you you're going to provide an accounting you're going to have to you're going to have to own up fess up to what's going on here you don't get to do this in the dark that's not how this
Starting point is 00:14:22 works and if you don't then that's what we're going to do. And you just solve it. You just tell people this is the way it is. There's two options. You're going to provide an accounting easy or you're going to provide an accounting hard. You got to decide. And, you know, hang up on me if you want, but try hanging up on the judge. He'll put you in jail.
Starting point is 00:14:39 So it's called contempt of court. So you don't want to do that. This is ridiculous. But what happens is all this drama happens because of poor planning and a poor process in place. Or putting a poor executor in, right? Because you can do all of that, but if you know your oldest daughter, Sally, is a little cray-cray, don't put her as the executor.
Starting point is 00:15:00 Exactly. Exactly. Oldest daughter doesn't necessarily mean you get to do it. Cray-cray invalidates. Exactly. Exactly. Oldest daughter doesn't necessarily mean you get to do it. Cray cray invalidates. Yeah. Yeah. This is, you lose your license, you lose your executor's license. Okay.
Starting point is 00:15:12 As if there is such a thing. That's a real thing. Tony's in Winston-Salem. Hey, Tony, how are you? I am well. Thank you. Good. How can we help?
Starting point is 00:15:22 I am, I work full time for the state of North Carolina. I am retiring in three years. I have been doing full-time for the state of North Carolina. I'm retiring in three years. I have been doing a side hustle for the last several years as a real estate agent, and I plan to transition to that full-time. My husband and I are in Baby Step 6. We have been fully focused on paying off our home, but I'm wondering if maybe we should maybe back off that a little bit and start stockpiling cash for our Hill and Valley account for when I transition to real estate full time. How much are you making in your current job working for the state?
Starting point is 00:15:58 82. And how much were you making on real estate, even though it's just a side thing? I made 52 last year. Okay, good for you. Thank you. Well, I think the biggest thing... How much is in your emergency fund? $32,000.
Starting point is 00:16:16 $32,000? Mm-hmm. When do you want to quit? 2026. I don't think you need to do anything. If you want to pile up some extra money, that's fine. But by 2026, you're probably going to be making more in real estate than you are now. And that'll mean you'll be making more than you are at your job now.
Starting point is 00:16:35 So it's not going to be an issue. Okay. I know I had a slow first quarter and it got me just thinking, you know, I need to be able to cover my bills when I don't have my full-time job to fall back on. This last quarter was a slow first quarter. Yeah, I mean, because real estate slowed down. Okay. I mean, you could have a separate little account, Tony, and just say,
Starting point is 00:17:00 hey, here's an additional two months to get me through. But it's not like you're going to make nothing. I mean, if you go full-time into real estate, you're probably going to have some backlog from the year before when you decide to quit. What's your husband make? He's retired. He dropped Social Security. It's like $12,000, $15,000 a year.
Starting point is 00:17:19 Okay. Yeah, I'd probably try to slow down on the house a little bit. I don't want you to get into retirement and still have debt on the house because of this routine but um but i mean like 65 years old and still have debt on the house okay how much is left but that's that's what i would do i would just move that direction and i think you're in better shape than you feel like you are you're a fairly conservative person and um but another 30 000 bucks or so set aside i think you'd be in good shape to move on out and head that right way it's great tony congratulations yeah doing it part-time
Starting point is 00:17:50 making 52 yeah that's really that's respectable that's solid uh and that gives you you know you get the boat close to the dock before you jump off you know a lot of times people don't get the boat close enough the dock they don't make enough at the side hustle and it's just like a dream and then they just jump and they miss and they get in the water so you've done a really good job of getting that income up good good job this isz ramsey personality is my co-host today madison is on the debt-free stage in the lobby of ramsey solutions hey madison how are you i'm doing well how are you better than i deserve where do you live i live in frederick maryland oh good to have you okay and how much debt have you paid off 148 000 good for you And how long did this take? Three years. Good for you. And your range of income during that time?
Starting point is 00:18:48 It went from about $38,000 to now about $145,000. Nice job, Madison! Thank you. Wow. What do you do for a living now? Now I work as a procurement manager at a biotechnology company. Very cool. What did you do before? So I took the first job that came available out of college and i worked in claims okay and then just boom rocket shipped up huh
Starting point is 00:19:11 yes good for you so what kind of debt was your 148 000 um it was a mortgage you paid off your house how old are you i'm 25 wow what is this house worth um now it's about 300 000 oh my gosh look well done madison thank you well done what caused you to do this as a 25 year old because you were 22 when you started this so you got out of college bought a house and just said'm going to just do what I can to pay it off. Yeah. So actually in 2017, my parents had bribed me to go to a financial peace course at the church with them. So they were going through the process. So I watched them get debt free. And then getting out of school, I decided to just go for it.
Starting point is 00:20:01 And as my income inclined, I get to keep putting more and more towards it so just a financial peace baby going crazy yeah wow that's so cool so incredible I bet they're doing double backflips oh yeah they gotta be so proud that's them yeah good job that's so great Madison well that's the best money you ever spent bribing that kid to go to fpu they never paid it but it was it was a carrot that was never eaten we dangled the carrot and we never got the carrot i never went back for it wow there's got to be some kind of payback on that. I mean, there's something big. I'm just saying. Wow. That's so cool.
Starting point is 00:20:48 Very, very cool. Man. So, I mean, you know how weird you are, right? Yes. Yes. Because, I mean, like all your friends. Oh, gosh, yes. It's very odd talking to them now when they're all going into.
Starting point is 00:21:03 It's the time of the life they're all all buying houses. So having mine paid off. You're like an old person. Financial old person. A financial old person. You're amazing. I can't get over this. As a 22 year old, 23,
Starting point is 00:21:17 24, 25, like during those early 20s, right? Did you feel like you were sacrificing a ton to do this? Like, would you look back and be like, it was really hard. I wanted, there was stuff I wanted to do were sacrificing a ton to do this? Like, would you look back and be like, it was really hard. I wanted, there was stuff I wanted to do and I did it. Or are you
Starting point is 00:21:29 like, I was just young and kind of still live like I was in college and just kept going. That was the key to it is I lived on that income that I had already been living off of. I really didn't up what I was doing personally. I lived with my parents for longer. And I think that that was the main sacrifice was not moving out at the time that everyone else my age was. But that ultimately led to this. So great.
Starting point is 00:21:56 And that's one of the pros when we talk to young people that do this is there's this idea that you came from college, you got out of college. And like you said, it's not like you had to go majorly backwards in lifestyle versus people that are doing it you know in their 30s 40s and 50s which is still great but they feel this like oh my gosh i have to go backwards and what we are doing we have to feel that sacrifice but for you
Starting point is 00:22:16 you're like i'm going to just stay consistent of what how i've been living as a 21 year old yeah which which is such a pro so young people listening like it is it not only is it smart to do it as early as possible but also i don't think you um feel that like oh my gosh we used to do this and now i can't because you're like i'm still living like i'm 21 and i'm gonna freaking pay off my house so well done what's the house worth um now it's about 300 about 300 okay great job good for you that's awesome and and you and $145,000 a year and you don't have a payment in the world. Yep. How does that feel?
Starting point is 00:22:49 It feels great. It feels great to be able to move to the next steps of life and not have that burden on my shoulders and know that I will have that burden in the future. So what was your degree in? Economics. So have you sat down and done the math of how rich you're going to be? Yeah. Because it's scary. Yeah to be yeah because it's scary it's scary yeah so i mean it's scary if you start putting away like three or four thousand bucks a month right now which would still leave you a hundred grand to
Starting point is 00:23:13 live on i mean you're gonna have tens of millions of dollars i mean it's unbelievable how compound interest at 25 years old is gonna blow up yeah i think we did the math based on right now if my income never changed and it was about $30 million just based on what I was investing. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. Put you in our pocket and travel America and just be like, Madison, go.
Starting point is 00:23:44 Go, Madison. You want one of these. This is what you want. Madison, well done. It's such a mature move. I mean, it just speaks a lot to who you are and your character. And as a young person, you're like, man, you know, you're just making really long-term decisions with your money.
Starting point is 00:24:00 And again, it's kind of that YOLO mentality that I feel like a lot of our generation lives in. And so it speaks a lot to you and who you are. So I just think it's absolutely incredible. And you're going to do incredible stuff with that money. You know, that part of building wealth is to be able to be generous and help people. And I just, I feel that off of you. I feel like you are just such a kind person. So I'm just so happy for you.
Starting point is 00:24:22 Thank you. I appreciate it. It's great. It's absolutely fabulous. Okay. So Gen Z and the millennials are listening. There's a poster child right here, 25 years old with a paid-for house. It's worth $300,000, making $148,000.
Starting point is 00:24:38 We've done the math. It's going to be a $30 million minimum is where we're going to end up. And they look at you and they say, okay, how did you get out of debt? What is the key to getting out of debt? Yeah. So I would say consistency and then remembering to celebrate the little goals. My family and I actually built a paper chain around our office with thousand dollar links. And so every time I paid off a certain amount, we would cut these links off. And then when we got to large milestones like 50,000 we would celebrate I think that was really important to visualize the end goal and see it coming to fruition yeah yeah you got to have the
Starting point is 00:25:15 that sense of traction is a psychological thing that you really can't get away from you've got to have the sense of progress the sense of direction because otherwise to sacrifice um to live like no one else is just mentally ill i mean you're just doing it you're just doing it because it hurts i mean that's dumb you know so you don't want to do that you wouldn't do it it's okay if it hurts but it hurts so that you know i'm going to say no so i never have to say no i'm going to live like no one else so that later i can live and give like no one else no discipline seems pleasant at the time but it yields a harvest of righteousness you are incredible what a hero wow that is so powerful what a great great lesson i just wrote an op-ed that will be posted on fox in about a
Starting point is 00:25:58 week i guess and they had asked me to write about gen z and millennials and the number that a number of them that are um off their parents' income. They're being supported by their parents still at 30 years old and 28 years old and this kind of stuff. And, of course, they were after me trashing them. And I don't trash Gen Z and millennials because I find too many of them like you. I got about 400 of them working here, and they're like you. And so to trash the entire generation based on a couple of participation trophy people is just it's irresponsible and not accurate and so there's too many of them like you that are amazing
Starting point is 00:26:30 and um so thank you thank you thank you thank you for standing up you give old people great hope that america's gonna be okay people like you tell me it's gonna be okay we're gonna be all right there's a whole bunch of her out there people i'm just saying madison from frederick maryland we've got a copy of baby steps millionaires i think we're gonna have to do the billionaire version for you but the uh and total money makeover for you as well and a financial peace university membership you'll probably give all those away but you may read the millionaire one if you haven't so the live and give box just for you saying thanks for coming all the way from maryland you are an impressive
Starting point is 00:27:03 impressive young woman absolutely fabulous madison from frederick maryland 148 000 paid off in three years making 38 to 145 count it down let's hear a debt free scream three two one i'm dead free Yeah! House and everything at 25 years old. Just shut up. Wow! Amazing! This is the Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day, 1 Corinthians 12.12. Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. Steve Jobs said, Great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people. This is true. Today's Ramsey Show question of the day is sponsored by Neighborly, your hub for home services.
Starting point is 00:28:13 It's spring cleaning time, and Neighborly is the best place to find great services to help you spruce things up like Molly Maid, The Ground Skies, and Junk King. Start your search for reliable experts near you at neighborly.com. Today's question comes from Cindy in Nevada. I'm happy to say that we are enjoying Baby Step 7, building wealth and giving. I do have a few close friends who frequently criticize me for not having a credit card, only a debit card. They tell me I'm putting myself at high risk for fraud and that I am not protected. Can you please clarify how a debit card is safe? Well, this is a common misconception when it comes to debit cards. So the best way to do it
Starting point is 00:28:57 is when you run your debit card is to hit actually credit and sign your name versus hit debit and do your PIN number. Because when you hit credit, it's not a credit card it's still coming out of your account as a debit card but it's run through the same system as it would a credit card so you get all the protections that a credit card would have but you're having it with a debit card so it is a safe they they will have the same protection policy with your debit card yeah and um so cindy uh uh you're gonna tell her to get new friends say this yeah no no i'm not but um you are wealthy you have no debt you have control of your money you're incredibly generous you should be telling other people how to handle their money, not broke people telling you how to handle money. That's good.
Starting point is 00:29:50 And so, you know, just, I mean, they are not on a credible footing to tell you anything about anything money-wise. And so, but here's the deal. If you want to, I don't argue with people like this. I just ignore them, but including the ones in my personal life, okay? So it's just, you know, whatever you want to do, do it. But if you want, if you personally want to understand, just go to Visa.com or MasterCard.com. They have in their fine print that you can look in the card member agreement,
Starting point is 00:30:26 there's a paragraph that says zero liability policy. And the zero liability policy says that in the event your card is misused, debit or credit, fraudulent transactions, you are responsible for zero. Period. They have a zero liability policy. The customer is not responsible in a debit card use with MasterCard or Visa in their own terms and conditions on their website is not responsible for a penny. So you are zero at risk more using a debit card than you are using a credit card.
Starting point is 00:31:03 That is absolutely false. It is a, it's mythology that the debit card is more dangerous. The only difference is if you, if I use my debit card at a hotel and a hotel clerk steals the number, writes it down while they're, you got my card or something, and then they go and buy something that night with it, and they run it, and my bank doesn't catch it, and it comes out of my account, it might be a day or two before they put the money back. That's the only difference. And I have never had that happen, and I have been using debit cards since the day they came out
Starting point is 00:31:46 and have not had a credit card in 35 years and I walk the earth just fine and I know we kind of rag on banks a lot but I'll say I'll be honest the bank I have with my debit card they're so on it with fraud charges like they will they wear me out yes but i like it because i'm like thank you for at least being on top of it and thankfully none of it is it's all my transactions well they wear you out because it's their money that they're going to lose yeah but they're at least on it it's most banks are on it which is great they're fraud algorithms on on credit or debit uh most of most of us and they're walking around in america today get a call a week or call every two weeks of some kind is this is a surreal your charge and so like i have to tell them if i'm
Starting point is 00:32:32 going out of the country sharon and i are going on vacation don't deny all our charges you know which is good i know i know but it's not the point it's a pain in the butt but that is because the bank knows that visa and mastercard says says they are liable, not you. And so you are not at risk of losing substantial sums of money or any sum of money due to fraud or any kind of high-risk activity. So your friends are just wrong. It's that simple. They just don't know what they're talking about.
Starting point is 00:33:03 Now, again, how forceful you want to be with that argument or how much you just personally want to be comfortable with the idea is fine. I have a bunch of friends that use a credit card and pay it off every month, and they have a lot of money, and they just, you know, and some of them probably believe this crap. But I just don't have this discussion with them. I'm not going to talk to them about it. I carry a debit card.
Starting point is 00:33:22 There's not a chance I have a credit card under any situation ever again. I am not going to ever be in debt, especially to a stupid bank. All right. Mary's with us in Charlotte, North Carolina. Hey, Mary, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Thank you, Dave. How are you doing today? Great. How can we help?
Starting point is 00:33:40 So I have a quick question. So I'm Baby Step 2 and I have I quick question. So I'm baby step two and I have, I really want to pay off $60,000 worth of credit card debt that I have by the end of this year. Good. And yeah, that's the goal. So the question that I have is my husband, through his employer, he has 401k and, you know, he has been contributing on that. And I was wondering, should we just leave it as is or should he not so that we can go ahead and make more payments towards that debt that we have? Yeah, well, you'll want to pause that and you're going to want to throw everything at this credit card debt.
Starting point is 00:34:25 What caused you guys to go $62,000 in credit card debt? Well, part of it was medical. Okay. Unfortunately, we have got two girls, and they were very sick. I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah, most of that, and like I said, we're on Baby Step 2, so I still have car loans to pay off and obviously the mortgage.
Starting point is 00:34:49 Hey, Mary, Mary, here's the thing. When we are teaching the Baby Steps in the book, The Total Money Makeover, now, and when you hear us talk about this stuff, when we say Baby Step 2, 100% of the time, we tell everyone to stop all investing temporarily so you can exclusively focus on getting out of debt. And we also tell them to take every dime out of any non-retirement investments and non-retirement savings except for $1,000
Starting point is 00:35:21 and throw that at their debt snowball. How much do you have in savings? So we've been throwing everything. The only thing that I have is the $1,000 emergency fund. You don't have any mutual funds or any savings account that is not that $1,000? No, just the 401K that he has. Good. Well, that part you have correct then.
Starting point is 00:35:44 And then we would tell you even though you're missing the match it's a temporary thing it's only for a year or less because you need to get out of debt and we're totally focusing on the debts we're temporarily stopping now that feels uncomfortable it feels almost like you're missing out on free money and all that because i love a match on the 401k i think it's wonderful but but right now the power of focus the power of all in the power of passion for getting out of debt supersedes that match so temporarily and again the word is temporarily we're not doing this for very long but for temporarily we're going to stop all investing and attack this with a vengeance hang on i'm going to have all investing and attack this with a vengeance.
Starting point is 00:36:25 Hang on. I'm going to have Austin send you a copy of the book, The Total Money Makeover. You and your husband read the whole book, and then it'll show you exactly what to do with these baby steps. It's exactly. It's the handbook for baby steps. That's what it is, and it'll help you do that. So good show today, Rachel.
Starting point is 00:36:42 Yep, it's been great. Tomorrow and the weekend will be so fun with smart conference smart conference on the hill and live broadcast on the hill at the nash at the nashville the ramsey event center this weekend and tomorrow we'll be doing the show from the stage there austin ben james zach and andrew good job in the booth the booth dudes they pulled it off again that puts us hour 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 Rachel Cruz.
Starting point is 00:37:32 If you like what you heard in this episode and want to know more about getting started on the Ramsey baby steps, go to ramsaysolutions.com and click the Get Started button. We'll help you figure out the best next step for you based on your specific situation. That's ramseysolutions.com and click Get Started.

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