The Ramsey Show - App - You Still Have Time To Change Your Financial Situation

Episode Date: November 14, 2025

Ken Coleman and George Kamel answer your questions and discuss: "My boyfriend doesn’t want to marry me until I pay off my son's Parent PLUS Loan" "How can I get out of debt on a low income?" "Are rent-to-own plans a good way to grow my business?" "Our house burned down in the LA fires and insurance didn’t cover it. Should we pull from retirement to rebuild?" "My husband handles all of the finances. Is wanting to be included asking too much?" "Am I obligated to share my inheritance with my sisters?" "My husband and I exceed the income limits for retirement contributions. What other strategies should we consider?" "Should I sell my house or continue renting it to my in-laws?". Next Steps:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📞 Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 weekdays from 2–5 p.m. ET or⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠send us an email⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. 📱 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get episodes early in the free Ramsey Network app! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 💵 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🛒 ⁠Black Friday deals won't last. Get gifts for as low as $6.99!⁠ 🤓 ⁠⁠File your taxes with 100% accurate software that’s less than half of the price⁠⁠ ❤️‍🩹 ⁠Open Enrollment is here—get free help from a RamseyTrusted health advisor ⁠ 🎁 ⁠You could win $5,000 in the Ramsey Christmas Cash Giveaway! Enter today⁠ Connect With Our Sponsors: Stop paying more and start shopping smarter at ⁠⁠⁠ALDI⁠⁠⁠ Get 10% off your first month of⁠⁠⁠ BetterHelp⁠⁠⁠ Go to ⁠⁠⁠Boost Mobile⁠⁠⁠ to switch today Go to⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Casper Sleep⁠⁠⁠ and use promo code RAMSEY to learn more Learn more about⁠⁠⁠ Christian Healthcare Ministries⁠⁠⁠. Get started today with⁠⁠⁠ Churchill Mortgage⁠⁠⁠ Get 20% off when you join ⁠⁠⁠DeleteMe⁠⁠⁠ Go to⁠⁠⁠ FAIRWINDS Credit Union⁠⁠⁠ for an exclusive account bundle Debt collectors hassling you? Take back control of your life at ⁠⁠⁠Guardian Litigation Group⁠⁠⁠ Find top health insurance plans at ⁠⁠⁠Health Trust Financial⁠⁠⁠ Use code RAMSEY to save 20% at ⁠⁠⁠Mama Bear Legal Forms⁠⁠⁠ Visit⁠⁠⁠ NetSuite⁠⁠⁠ today to learn more For more information, go to ⁠⁠⁠SimpliSafe⁠⁠⁠ Get started with ⁠⁠⁠YRefy⁠⁠⁠ or call 844-2-RAMSEY Visit⁠⁠⁠ Zander Insurance⁠⁠⁠ for your free instant quote today Explore more from Ramsey Network: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Ramsey Show Highlights⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🧠 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Dr. John Delony Show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🍸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Smart Money Happy Hour⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 💡 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Rachel Cruze Show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 💰 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠George Kamel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🪑 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📈 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠EntreLeadership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Normal is broke and common sense is weird. So we're here to help you transform your life from the Ramsey Network in the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio. This is the Ramsey show alongside Mr. Bomber Jacket himself, otherwise known as George Camel. I'm Ken Coleman. We're excited to be with you. And George said to me just moments ago, he said, hey, let's have some fun today. And I said, done. That was a mandate. Executive order, if you will. We do love a good executive order around here. Straight from the desk of George Campbell. We appreciate your attention to this matter. All right, Penny is up in New Orleans, Louisiana. Penny, how can we help? Hi. So me and my bar friend have been together for about four years. We have a southern month old baby together, and I also have a 23-year-old from a previous relationship. A couple years ago, I did a parent plus loan for my son to go off to college in another state. My son and I agree that he would make the payments on the loan. My bar friend believes that I should also be making. payments on the loan to get rid of it as fast as I possibly can. And he believes that he does not want to take that into a marriage. And I agree with him, but I feel like the loan is being paid. And I just don't. Hold on. This man procreated with you before marriage, but he's

like, yeah, but go ahead and pay that parent plus loan off. I'm not going near marriage until you get that done. Is that what am I hearing that right? Yes, you are. Okay. Just want to make sure America heard it too. Do we, I know, because I guess the question for you is Penny, do you think that this is a principled financial stand or that this is a cop out because he doesn't want to put a ring on your finger?

No, I think it's the principal stand. I don't. The principle of what? Is there any other death? He decided to have a baby with you. Isn't that where you were going, George, or no? That's exactly where I went. I think this is a convenient principle to not.

to not marry you. And you've bought it hookline and sinker. And I, you know what? I'll be honest. You probably didn't expect us to say that. And it's probably the last thing you wanted to hear. But I think it's the thing you need to hear. I was feeling the same thing George was feeling.

I'm putting myself in his shoes. Here's my best reasoning for why he's feeling this way. He wants there to be closure from this past relationship. And that debt is lingering in the balance. That's kind of tying you to your ex, correct? No, I wouldn't say that. Yeah, I actually disagree with that. What's his reasoning?

Have you asked him? He don't want to get married. His reasoning is he doesn't, he wants to be completely debt-free. That's his reasoning that he gives to me. So he feels like he wants to become one, that dead also becomes his. So he doesn't want it to be his problem. Well, he's right about that. He's right about that.

We teach it. Okay, let me ask a couple quick questions. Was there any conversation about marriage prior to the baby? There was some very little. Very little. Uh-huh, uh-huh. And when did he take a stand on this parent plus loan? When did he drop this principled stance?

After the baby. Just recently, which is why I'm calling. But he knew about it before then, correct? Correct. What's left on the loan? I smell a rat. 30,000. 30,000.

And what is the agreement? Is it written that you're not going to be on the hook for this parent plus loan? I mean, legally you are, but as far as the repayment plan? Correct. As far as the agreement between my son and I, he will be making the payments. But legally, yes, I am responsible for the loan. But there's nothing in writing. It just was a handshake, hey, you said you would?

Correct. Yes. Okay, that part scares me, because here's the thing, they didn't trust him to take on this debt, which they'll give a 17-year-old $100,000 at this point. So that's worrisome. And my fear is, what if he can't pay? So if he can't pay, then I know that that falls on me, and I'm willing to pay the loan, but he's been paying it. And maybe that's his fear, maybe that's my boyfriend's fear that, you know, he won't continue to pay and it's going to fall on him. No, your boyfriend's afraid to get married. How long have you guys been together? Four years. Okay. Yeah.

You know, I have nothing else to add. I've never been more clear about something on this show. It's just lining up that he's using this as an excuse. So now this is a relationship conversation. Okay. Because think about what you just said, hey, guys, here's a situation. What advice do you guys have? What are your thoughts?

What do I do? you want this man to marry you correct correct okay so um this is a relationship issue now you're responsible for this loan so it's not what he's saying that i disagree with i just want you to know that i think this is a relationship issue and we got to find out what the real real is because all of a sudden this loan has become super important to him it's it's you know to george's point he'll have a baby with you but oh oh i'm gonna stop short of actually marrying you yeah i guess my point is the commitments already happened he just he can't admit it yet and he's not taking the logical next step and so that part is worrisome from the relationship angle yeah i think this is

a dTR define the relationship conversation you know okay do you have money right now how much do you have in savings um right now my savings i have 10 000 okay would it make him feel better if you had that amount in case something happened, you could write a check and be done with the Parent Plus loan. Yes. How quickly could you save up enough to have that amount? Um, I mean a couple months. In a couple months, you could come up with 20 grand? Oh, no, I'm sorry, I thought you said 10.

No, you have 10. I was like, this call got even more interesting. I'm saying if you had that money earmarked and you said, hey, if something goes wrong, I'll be able to cover it. Wow. And have you guys combined finances? No, we have not combined finances. So how do you guys currently split all the bills? Is it 50-50?

No, I pay my own bills currently and he pays it on. Who pays for the baby? We both. Okay, so there is a split bill here. And then you guys are living together? Yeah. Yeah. So how does rent work?

Whoa, whoa, whoa. There was a little pause that needs to be investigated. Well, so we both have mortgages. you guys have two separate homes correct because we both had homes prior to our relationship but you're living in one house and the other one's empty no no they live together some and that's why the pause yeah because we live together some so who I'm just confused folks I'm rarely this right I just want to point this out I sniff this out really early on here if my okay I have about a I have a two month old if I said hey babe I got another house

I'm going to crash there for a few nights. Good luck with the baby. We would be divorced. Do you understand? How is this man not there full time in this child's life? So we're trying to work on that currently. So we're trying to find a daycare that's actually closer to where he lives so we can stay out that way. Why don't you sell the house and live together and be married and live like a couple? Because that's another question. This is why it's not a financial issue. That's what I've been saying, George. Welcome to the party. I just got, I just arrived.

You just got where I was. I brought some fruit cake. Thank you. Penny, oh, Penny, Penny, listen, as your friends, this man needs to commit. And he needs to commit all in. You got a baby together. Go to the courthouse, get married, pay the loan off together, whatever. If it wasn't the debt, it'd be another thing.

They'd say, well, I don't like that you have your own house. Until you sell that, I'm not going to get married. There's always going to be another reason. He doesn't want to live with you. He doesn't want to marry you. This is the problem. All right, let's go to Tanya in Louisville, Kentucky. Tanya, what is going on?

Hello. Oh, my gosh, I'm so nervous. Well, you should not be. I mean, after all, you're just talking to me and George. There's nothing on the line. There's no game show, no prizes. That's right. We're here to help.

Well, thank you for taking my call. So my question is kind of multifaceted, but the reason for my call today primarily is how do I get out of debt with a disability and earning very low income? I was awarded partial disability, and I do receive payment for myself and my child. I'm a single mother. How much do you get? For 2025, it was including child support, the payment, and if I'm earning my max income was $3,057. What do you mean by if I'm earning my, so I'm a little confused?

Because you'll lose your disability if you make too much. If I make too much, they take away my disability. So I always try to work within the parameters that they gave me, but I live in a very small rural area. So what are you doing for work? I'm a substitute teacher. And what's the max that you can earn before they would take away your disability payment? You have nine times to go above what that is. I'm not asking how many times.

I'm just unfamiliar with this and we want to coach you through it. What is the amount of money that then triggers that they say you no longer need? Because that's what this is about. They go, okay, if you make X amount of dollars, then you don't need the disability help. So what's the number? So for 2025, it was $1,160. A month? Yes.

That's the max you can make. Yes. Okay, let me ask you a question. Yes. How much money can you actually make? In other words, take disability out of the picture. Take disability out of the picture. If you can work, what kind of a job do you think you could get and what kind of

kind of job, what kind of money could you make? Have you figured that out? No. Or what were you doing before? What were you doing before? What's your work history? Well, there's been a lot. The majority of it has been in early education and childhood development. I never did graduate college, so I don't have certifications to be in the classroom, but I'm certified to do assistant teaching. So you could make somewhere between $30,000 to $40,000, I'm guessing? No, I don't think it's that much. I think it really would depend on the school, but where I am right now.

Okay, because you're out in the middle of nowhere, and why are you living out in the middle of nowhere? This is all relevant. Okay. Why are you way out in the middle of, you know, podunk? Okay, so I moved from a bigger city with my partner, my boyfriend, at the time, and that was almost 10 years ago. We moved.

And is he still in the picture? Yes, he is, but it's not a very healthy relationship, and he continues to tell me he's not going to marry me, because I'm in debt right now. Oh, wow. This is two of these in a row. How much debt are you in? These guys are bad liars.

How much debt do you have? Well, when we moved out here, I had zero, and I put the money down on the house that we bought together. Right now, since I lost my job in 2023, I started living on credit cards. How much debt do you have? $40,000. That's all credit card debt? That's it. all credit card.

Okay, and you have a mortgage? No, he bought another house without me and forced me to sell the house. We bought together jointly. What happened? Was there any profits there? Did you lose money? Because you said you had a down payment. I did.

So we sold the house for a profit, and then we put the bank was supposed to give us two separate checks, but they screwed up, wrote us one check, and we couldn't close on the house if we said, no, you have to redo the checks. So I said, okay, that's fine. We're here now. We put it in a joint account, in a money market fidelity account, and then he invested it without my knowledge or permission and lost about $50,000 of my money. Okay. Well, let's just a real quick bumper sticker, and George will keep coaching you, and I've got some thoughts on how to make more money, but you need to break up with this guy.

This is done. this guy's completely not long-term material you know it i know it george knows it everybody knows it everybody in the lobby knows it they're all shaking in his house right now because not a problem that but that's not that's not a problem you can solve that you go i'm done with him how did you live before so i found i found a house to rent in the county but it's $1,100 a month and right now i'm only bringing in not even even close than what the max I'm allowed. Okay, but my point is.

Well, you said you're making $3,000, right? You got $3,000 coming in? No, I'm not. That's the max that I could make if I was subbing all the time. Okay. And what's the nature of the disability? Yeah, multiple sclerosis. Okay, but you're able to do substitute teaching for a certain amount of hours without

it affecting that, or what? Yes, substitute teaching has been okay for me. Before this, I was working working. in a factory, and it, my body tanked. I got it. I was having flares all the time. Well, first of all, I don't want to minimize this at all, but there is a reality in your story where you're in an awful relationship that is not only not benefiting you as a human

being in a relational capacity, it is also not benefiting you financially. This guy's a loser. He's manipulating you, all the things. I'm just going to call it out as I see it. But here's the thing. You also have a challenge. challenge, a physical challenge that's not going away. So you're going to have to push through the best you can. So here's my point. I have an idea of what your schedule and what your physical

activity looks like as a substitute teacher. I have an idea. And so I can tell you that you're not limited to being a substitute teacher where you're at the absolute bottom rung of the ladder financially, as opposed to being an office manager or working in another capacity where you're sitting some, standing some. And I know it's hard, but we don't have any other option. I don't want you to be at the mercy of the state. And you are at the mercy of the state right now. You'd be better off going out and making $45,000, $50,000 a year, getting free of this clown and getting out of this debt. I don't know that I can get a job to pay that much because I don't have a college degree. Yeah, that's not true. That's not the factor here. You could work on any

administrative role without a degree today in a school. And outside of a school. And one of the things you're going to have to consider is moving out of red dirt, Kentucky, wherever you are. Okay, so how do I do that and still pay my credit card? Well, the truth is, you may not be able to pay the credit card right now. I'm worried about the credit card. Cover your four walls first.

That's food, utilities, housing, transportation, insurance. And outside of that, if you can't pay the credit card after that's all paid, then they can kick rocks and pound sand because they gave you an open line. of credit for someone who couldn't pay it. And you have a disability payment coming in every month. You told us that. Yes. How much is that again? Let's review that. Okay. So, just a number. Just a number. And my daughter together, that's like right around almost to 1600. Okay. That's what we, that's the four walls of Georgia. That's what you're starting with. You also told me that you could make about $1,000 a month more without being penalized.

So let's go find a $1,000 job. And you've already got that. But you need to move out of this guy's house. You need to find a better economic area where there are job opportunities for you. You must happen to your life right now or you're going to be a victim of all of this. And you don't have to be. But you've got to take some initiative here. You take control.

I've been looking for a job. this was the best thing that came along until I found That's because you're in a bad area living with a bad guy In a bad living situation You can change this I'd be looking for jobs outside of that area And then once you get that job We can move, we can rent somewhere

And we can get some financial footing That's not tied to him or this disability All right, all right, the all-new every dollar is here, George, and it's way, way, way more than our world-class budgeting app. There's a ton of advanced features, including you get to have a 10-minute call with one of our coaches if you just can't get the 15 minutes of initial help, which finds thousands of dollars in margin for people who just walk through that first 15 minutes of questions. That onboarding alone.

It's unbelievable. It's like a digital version of calling in the show. I watched it happen before my eyes the other day. Great stuff. You can start every dollar for free today by going to the app store or Google Play. get it and check it out. It's free. I don't know why you wouldn't try it. And it is like having one of us, as George likes to say in your pocket. Now, you're a small guy. You might be able to fit in somebody's pocket. That's hurtful. I thought it was because of my skinny jeans. It's just

hard to fit anything in there. Well, the skinny jeans make you more svelt. But if I'm in their pocket, that's fine. I can fit. That's fine. Your pocket, be pretty crowded. Good luck. Riley is up in Atlanta, Georgia. Riley, how can we help? Hey, how are you all today? Good. What's going on? Hey, so I'm 18. I run a landscape company. I've got no debt. Hold on, hold on, hold on. We lost you. We lost. You said, I'm 18 and I lost it. Something company? I run a landscape company. Okay. Okay. So we're growing pretty rapidly. We did about 50 and this past month in revenue, and we're increasing that. And I need some more equipment.

Did you say, did you say 50,000? I'm sorry, you dropped again. Yes, sir. 50,000. In one month. Yes, sir. Okay, and you need new equipment. So we're going to be needing some new equipment. And I've been looking at a couple different options. I can't go and pay cash for a dump trailer or a truck just yet.

I've got one truck right now, but for a dump trailer, would it be best to continue renting one when I need it? It's about 150 a day, $500 a week, or find a rent-to-own option? No. to own options that I could do. No? No, don't rent to own. Just rent. Until you have the cash to buy any equipment. If I was in your business, George may have a different opinion. He'll jump in here in a second. But for me, if I was in your shoes, I wouldn't be in any kind of crazy rush to buy cash, even though we're going to say buy cash. I wouldn't be any kind of hurry to buy

equipment until it just made so much sense. Let me explain what that means. I'm going to rent the equipment. It's somebody else's equipment. That means they've got to pay to fix it. They got their own insurance. You're renting. If it doesn't work, guess what? They bring out another one. You're not paying to have it fixed. And you're building that into your job.

That's the cost. So if it costs 150 bucks a day for a thing, I'm going to, and I've got three clients in the nearby area or whatever. I'm going to take that, and I'm going to put that into the cost of paying me to do my job. So that is an expense that you build in as much as possible and still be competitive. That's how you do that.

And so you have no debt, number one, pressure. Number two, really not much of a hassle. And you're covering that cost, okay, which is awesome. Your greatest expense item outside of payroll, George, is going to be his equipment. And so if you can get your equipment covered all the way or in a great amount, man, is that smart? And now you're stacking cash, stacking cash, stack and cash. And I know it feels awesome. You're a young guy, 18. Congratulations on a $50,000 revenue month. That's freaking unbelievable, man. What a stud you are. Much love. But man, it's going to be a temptation to go, I want to buy something, George. I want a machine that's mine. And even if you pay cash, I still think that cash is better

off sitting and growing and stacking and stacking until it is just not even in the same ballpark of risk to go buy something. I would hold, hold, hold, hold for a long time. It's a very conservative take, but I think it's safe. George, I'm retweeting all of this. I co-sign that with Ken. Riley, what does it cost to get a reasonable used dump trailer that would do the job? Around five to six grand. Where did the $50,000 go this month that you made? Okay, so about 30 grand of that was cost of doing work, labor, and whatnot, and then I'll have around 18 or so left after everything's done done. So you could pay cash for a used dump trailer today? I could.

Okay, and so have you done the math on like the break-even point if you keep renting versus buying a used one in cash today? Because my guess is you break even pretty quickly. Yeah. Yeah, if I buy a new dump trailer versus buying a used one, I have a great given point half the time. Yeah, and I would buy a used one. What's the point of buying a new dump trailer? New and dump in the same sentence is ridiculous already. It makes me itch thinking about it.

In fact, I want the nastiest dump trailer on the planet. Say again? I want the nastiest oldest dump trailer on the planet. All I wanted to do is hold stuff you dump. It's for work. It's not turning eyes at the... at the red light, you know what I mean? But George, how soon would you buy a dump trail?

I don't want to buy that. How long have you been making this kind of money? Say again? How long have you been making this kind of money? It's just been this past month. Okay. We're growing subtly. Do you offset that cost now into your jobs?

What's your quoted? Yes, I do. Okay, I have a question. Hang tight, Riley. We're going to act like you're not in the room. George, why would he ever buy a dump trailer when he can take the rental cost of that and pass it off to his clients? That is true. I mean, there's a world where you go, I can be more competitive if I owned it outright.

I don't have to keep adding this expense and I can lower my prices. That's an option, but I'm with Ken right now. I think it's only been a month. I would let this sit and see what your actual needs are six months from now. And by then, you're sitting on 100 grand of cash if you do this the right way. and you'll really be able to expand smart instead of just going, well, this was a crazy month. I'm growing. I got to go get all this equipment. And then you find out I didn't need all this equipment. Because every time you add more equipment to your life, you're also adding some repair

and maintenance cost as well. That's right. Insurance costs. There's a lot of other things to factor in here. And be clear, I'm not anti-buying the dump thing. I'm just asking critical questions. Like, I just wanted to make sure that we know that it's the best choice. And if buying the dump thing is the best choice, I say, go for it. I just want to critically think through it and go, what's the balance here? And there's a right time to do it, I'm sure. But the key is just move at the speed of cash, not at the speed of how fast you want the business to grow. And once you have that retained earnings set aside for this, then I would say,

all right, let's upgrade as it makes sense strategically. What does it cost per day to rent? About 150. And you're using that. Is it seven days a week? Four days a week? About two to three a week Two to three days a week

Yes sir Okay so it's costing you What, $450 a week? $450 a week, about $1,800 a month Okay That's not bad if you're baking it into the cost And so long term If you're just sick of it

And you want to own something Instead of continually rent And you figure out a way to make it work financially I think that's the right move All right, I got to ask a biographical question America needs to hear this Are you still in high school

or have you already graduated? No, I was home school, finished up school early, and I'm still living with my parent. How long you've been doing this business? Five years. Oh, wow. 13. So you started at 13. And give us a range of the clients that are driving this kind of revenue, 50 grand a month.

Is there some corporate places where you're doing their landscape or is it all personal homes? It's all over the place. We've got, we're running ad, some of them are referrals, so it's a wide range. So you've got residential plus business properties. Yeah. How big of a team is this? We've got two guys full-time, me, myself and one other, and then I've got a couple buddies that come in part-time whenever we have larger jobs that need to pick.

How old are your core guys you just mentioned? One is 21, one is 19, and another is 19. What are you paying those guys per hour? About 20, an hour, 25, depending on, you know, when I'm on the job versus not. All right. That's impressive. Folks, parents, there you have it. I just don't know why we're pressuring our kids to go to college when they don't even know why they're going to college.

this kid is on his way to be in a business degree to do what he's doing yeah Riley's been doing it since he's 13 and he just started off with a lawnmower now he's got other 19 and 20 year olds and he's paying them 20 to $25 an hour that's why and they got no student loan debt

he's going to leave that there for you All right, let's go to Randy in Los Angeles. Randy, how can we help today? Well, first of all, thank you for taking my call. Very excited to hear your advice and talk to you guys. So our house got caught up in the January, L.A. fires and burned to the ground. Oh, no. Where were you?

Yeah, it was horrible. So in Alpidina, the whole community. $6,500 homes got destroyed. Yeah. Wow. Very devastating, but now we're kind of an excitement boat because we're rebuilding. So we're moving past that. Okay.

Luckily, we had enough insurance. We have a lot, we have a lawsuit with SoCal Edison. That's two or three years down the road. But we're about to rebuild for $1.6 million. Insurance would probably cover about $1. SoCal Edison will probably get about $200K, but you can't count on that. So I'm wondering if I should drop my retirement to cover the Delta or looking at other options because it's probably about a 400K delta to what we have for mature.

Yeah. Was there a mortgage? Yeah, the mortgage is about 631. We could probably sell the property for about 800K, but we lost 500K in equity and rebuilding for 1.6, the property value is going to be, you know, really big in four to five years. So I think it was my natural decision. Yeah, maybe. I mean, so is the option to sell and walk away with a 150 grand and go elsewhere? Or we rebuild and take on an extra 400 grand in debt or rob our retirement? Yes, basically those are the options.

That's a rock and a hard place, if I've ever seen one. How badly are you wanting to rebuild versus just selling for what you can get for it? Well, we're pretty into the Alta Dina Strong rebuild mentality. I think my retirement has enough to cover that. I just like to get your opinion. How much do you have in retirement? About 2.7, all taxable. How old are you?

63. Okay. You said it's all taxable? Yeah, it's in a 401K, deferred comp, and IRA. Yeah. Got it. So you can withdraw without penalty. You'll just owe taxes on the amount you withdraw.

Correct. So the question is, if you deplete 2.7 down to 2.3, will you still be able to retire dignity when you want to? Does that change your retirement plans? Yeah, I probably have to work another year and a half to do this. Okay, so there's the tradeoff. I'm willing to rebuild and eat the cost of withdrawing that, paying the taxes, losing the future growth of that 400,000. in order to stay where I'm at and rebuild and not have a mortgage. Correct.

Am I understanding that? You'll still have the 631 mortgage? No. I'll still have the 631 mortgage on top of the rebuild. Okay. I misunderstood it. I'm sorry. Okay.

So the 400 is just... Gotcha. Okay. How much do you have in savings now? In savings about 300K. Oh, nice. What's the 300K for? So the 300K was part of the personal property payout.

So I don't know if I consider that savings, but, you know. But I mean, it's liquid cash you have access to instead of that you could actually use. Taking from your retirement? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Why not take like $250? You have an emergency fund, or is that part of the $300K? Yeah, we have about $25K in an emergency fund.

In addition to the $300. Yes. So why not use the $300 and only take $100 from your retirement? This is what I'm thinking. That's definitely an option. It would be the only option if I'm going to do this Because if you pop in 300 grand You would have taken her 400 grand into an investment calculator

That money's going to double every seven years So at 70 What you're really giving up is not the 400 plus taxes What you're really giving up is 800,000 Because you're unplugging all of that growth too So that's the part I want you to think about And for that reason, I would use any liquid cash I have Because number one, you're not going to unplug the growth

Number two, you're not going to pay taxes on that Mm-hmm. Okay. And how much do you guys make? I make $5.50. My wife makes $65. Oh, incredible. I mean, you could probably cash flow this thing. How long is it going to take to rebuild? Well, here's the thing. We've got like $300K and ALE, which means that they'll pay our living expenses outside up to $300K, so we could probably delay the build, keep living. So they'll pay for you to rent. So you have rent-free living? until the house is done?

Correct. I would do that and stack all of your income. This call just kept getting better and better, Randy. I wouldn't touch any of the money. If you guys are bringing in, I don't know, how much are you bringing in a month? What's your take-home pay right now? Well, about 30. 30 a month is your take-home.

I guess California taxes make you still poor somehow. Yeah. So could you live off of, you know, five and put the other 25 in savings? We could probably live off a 10. I was going to say the five, George. Like, what are you talking about? Well, if he's living rent-free. Still in L.A., though, man.

I'm just saying. All right. You guys have no other debt other than the mortgage? Just the mortgage. We paid off $170K in student loan fees that I didn't know was accruing interest because I didn't take them out and I didn't understand how they worked.

But you guys showed, taught me about subsidized and subsidized, so I looked into it, and I'm like, whoa, we get an industry, you know, even though we didn't have to pay, we were stacking up interest. So we paid that off. Okay, good. Well, I'm just saying, you know, you put 20K month in a high-yield savings account for 18 months. You have close to the amount you need, that delta. Okay. And I imagine it'll take about 18 months to rebuild, right? Yeah, anywhere from 12 to 14 months is what we're getting quoted, and we're going to start probably

in March. Okay. then this is my game plan. I'm going to stack so much cash with my future income and then any gap remaining I'm going to take out that 300 from that personal property payout you got. And leave your retirement alone. And then thank us later when you retire with $5 million. That's right. So you're not going to hurt your compound interest and you're not going to get taxed. So don't even think retirement. You got too sweet of a double win. Especially with your income. Once you're buried the lead there going, well, we make 30K a month. That really helps the situation. Yeah. Yeah.

All right, Randy. I like the line. I appreciate. Yeah. I'm feeling pretty good. Sorry for what you've been through. You should. And my goodness, just so proud of you.

And I love the idea that you want to be a part of Altadena Strong. And there's something about that, the community rising up together and rebuilding. That's pretty special stuff. So thanks for sharing a bit of your journey with us. That's crazy stuff, George. You know, I was out there in L.A. about a month ago, went out for a football game. with my oldest son, and we drove near, certainly the Malibu area, just because I wanted to see it with my own eyes. And that is not a great situation for a lot of people. Randy's got

probably one of the better situations. Better case scenario. Yeah, there's some pretty tough stuff going out there, and I bring that up to say, you talk a lot about insurance, you know, and I think it makes a lot of sense right now for you to give just a fundamental, all right, acts of God or acts of nature, whatever you want to call them, they happen at times, and it can absolutely, you know, wipe you out. People just go, well, whatever happens, insurance will cover it. No, no, no. You got to read the fine print to see what your insurance will and will not cover, especially depending on your state. And so that's something to look into. And so I reshop every year with my independent insurance broker, and she tells me, hey, this is exactly what it will cover,

what it won't cover. Do you want to, you know, upgrade and get this covered as well? And I go, oh, sweet, I didn't know that. And so just doing a little bit of research. can save you a lot of heartache. Because if it's not covered, you need to know you might be on the hook if this event happens. Yeah. And so in a state like Florida where flooding is very much possible, they're not going to cover a flood happening. And so people have been devastated when they lose it.

And they go, cool, where's my check? And they go, there's no check. Yeah. This isn't covered. It's a great point. You know, I remember watching that coverage. It was the most surreal thing I've ever seen where you could see hot coals literally flying through the air and threatening homes.

And I remember thinking, just because of the nature of the work we do, how many of these people, like, once you know your home is gone, that's got to be so I don't even know. Don't even know how to understand that. The grief process on that. Yeah, just the shock. Without the financial implication. Right.

But I remember thinking, I hope they're insured. Because one of the few things that you could take away from something like that, if you go, well, this is the worst case scenario, but here's what I know, because I'm like George, because I know what my insurance covers. I can at least say, hey, I have some clarity. Trauma plus confusion? Yeah, not fun. You've got to keep up with what the market rate is to build that house today.

That's the part you need to keep up with on your home insurance. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio. Alongside George Camel, I'm Ken Coleman, so glad you're with us. AAA 825.5-225 is the phone number. I'd love to hear from it. Emily is up in Dallas, Texas. Emily, how can we help today? Hi. My husband and I have been married for 14 years, and I have worked in the beginning. Kids came along. I stayed home. But this entire time, he has always been in control of like finances um and i don't even know the basic skills i never knew the password or how much money was going in and out and all that and i've asked a few times and i was not given any

access or clear answer so what's his answer been when you share this very calmly and say hey i've never really been involved i'd love to learn i'd love to be a part of this what does he say uh just like never showing me how to do it you know is it defensive is a combative does he just shut it down does he go you shouldn't need to worry about that he's just like you know just like a very big answer like he would just not like show me okay this is the password this is how you do it you know this is what so just like never showing it and how does that make you feel um not equal Have you told him this? Huh?

Have you told him that? Yeah. And how does he respond to that? His response is like, oh, I have all this showed you. You don't want to learn. But you're telling him you do. And so, you know what? Back in the past, I haven't wanted to learn.

And that's changed now. I want to be more involved. Can you show me? It's different than saying, give me the passwords now. I think that's a different conversation, and I think that is part of it. My wife has access to all of our accounts, but usually she doesn't even bother with the password. She just goes, hey, can you tell me what we have in savings? And I show her, and she goes, oh, okay.

And that's it. And so there's total transparency, and usually there's one person who's nerdier and knows all the passwords. And that's me in my house. But if you're saying he's controlling, he's not wanting to show you things, that is a much deeper issue. There's either one of two things, maybe both. He's super controlling or he's hiding something. Yeah. I think, I don't think he's hiding anything. I think he just want to be in control because he thinks he doesn't have the confidence in me. He doesn't think that I can do it right or well. But you're not even doing anything right now. We're just saying, can you show me, can I have access to it? You're not like making investment moves and moving money around.

Right, right, right. And so I got a full-time job. I'm a teacher now. And I told him that, hey, you know, I will. give you whatever money you need, but I just want to keep this account separate only in my name so I can learn how to manage money since I have not learned that in past 14 years. I, you know, whatever we need, you know, I'll just participate, but I just want accountability. I want a transparency and he just got really angry and told me that he's removing us from, removing me from our finances and keeping our finances. That's not okay. That's not unity.

You don't get married and then decide, I don't want you to be a part of this section of my life, which affects you directly, by the way. And if something happened to him today, you'd be an alert. You have no clue how to access anything. You don't know what's where. And have you shared that fear on top of you wanting...

That has always been the case. Like, I don't know a lot of things, because I don't know. So why do you think, why do you think he got angry over all this? It's like, you know, it's not your money. It's not our money. It's not, it's our money. And it's, you know, and I'm like, okay, yes, it's our money. But, you know, it's just like I want to make sure that if something happens, like for, God

forbids, if something happens to you, I have the ability and the skill to manage, you know, the money. And, yeah, and take care of our children. It sounds like it's falling on deaf ears, though. Like, you say it, and all that makes a lot of sense to just about anybody, and he's now gotten angry about it. Now he's shut you out. Yes, and he's like, I need to make some changes.

I am removing you from a joint banking account. So this conversation went from, hey, can I have access? And he went, you know what, I'm removing your access. Yes. is like sit down and be quiet you have you have pushed i wanted to just get an opinion like i don't an opinion on what what specifically can we opine on opinion on like who like i i think it's a very extreme it's very extreme yeah he's out of he's you guys need marriage counseling that my judgment is right and i just wanted to get an opinion of the outsider who doesn't know him and me

Yeah, you're right. He's wrong. Something is really going on. And I'm digging here. Is this a him problem? Or is there some cultural stuff going on here? This is a him problem. Okay. This is a him problem. Yeah. And I don't even know. Is what I mean by that is, did he come from a culture? Did he grow up in an environment? And I'm not talking about, I'm not talking about nationality. I'm talking like, did he grow up? in a home where this is the way his dad was and the dad before that and like it's just because I guess my point is it feels like there's more to this than he's just controlling now it could be wrong but that's what I mean is that's all he's ever known when I right when I look at his parents his parents both manage things equally and so yeah and I don't see the same pattern in their well okay the reason I ask that is because that tells me something that tells me this is he's got control issue problems yeah it's not it's not cultural in other words his

environment growing up he's now doing this how do you spend money i'm curious is he is he upset when you spend money is that you guys i'm guessing there's no budget to be spoken of but if you went and spent a hundred dollars anywhere you want i give him i give him i give him i tell him everything 10 dollars i spend i tell him everything he will however go ahead and you know, buy an expensive thing without even asking me. He did that. A $1,000 purchase didn't even ask me. What did he buy? He bought, like, you know, like outdoor something. How would you know if he made a $10,000 purchase? Yeah, I wouldn't know. How would you know if he went into $50,000 worth of debt? Yeah. Do you guys have debt that you

know of? I mean, we have a little bit of. credit card dead, like a little bit of, you know, I don't, he's not that reckless, but, um, but it's just like, I feel like, you know, he just want to have control in certain areas and he just doesn't want me to have any kind of independent, you know, not at all. He wants, he wants you to be seen sometimes and definitely not heard. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, he wants to give me just a little bit of, you know, freedom to stay. that, oh, I'm a good husband. Well, I got bad news for you.

This is a, this needs deep counseling and a real professional. But if he acted the way he did over you just saying, hey, I'd like to be involved in our accounts. I don't know how he's going to act to the old marriage therapy request. I hate to say it, but you're going to have to draw some lines. And right now you might need to go solo. Yeah, I think that's where we are headed. Actually, we are headed to the counseling.

And because I'm being told that I have issues, not him. It's called gas lighting. Oh, bless. All right, Nick is joining us in George Camel's old neck of the woods, Boston, Massachusetts. I feel like you should welcome into the air Boston style. Hey, Nick, what's up, my guy? Howdy? How are you guys doing?

The funniest thing is almost nobody in Boston has the accent. Right. Very disappointing. Yeah. How can we help, Nick? No, we hate it. So, my mom recently passed. Oh, sorry.

How recently? Thank you. About two months ago. Oh, dude. Oof. Yes, and she worked for the state, and I inherited $340,000. And at that time, Everything is very disorganized.

She doesn't have, she didn't have a will. So I ended up becoming the voluntary administrator because she doesn't have a lot of assets. So the only thing that's getting distributed is life insurance and now we found out there's a pension as well. And when I came to the $340,000, I was being pressured to divide it up between my two younger sisters. So my mom had me, when she was a teenager, got the state job, signed up this paperwork for the life insurance back in 2000. and probably forgot about it. And she has the pension that she's divvied up between my siblings, my two sisters, and myself. So now I'm being pressured to divvy up this money.

Who's pressuring you? I really was on board for that. Who's pressuring? My grandfather and my mother's ex-boyfriend. Your grandfather, which is presumably your mom's dad. Yes. And then the ex-boyfriend? yes so my mom originally wanted my youngest sister the 16 year old to go and live with him instead

of her father because he's not that great of a man he ended up abusing me and her um when we were younger so and he financially abused me so that was the other thing is she doesn't want him having access to my sister's money okay i interrupted you sorry so you were saying i'm feeling pressure but I'm doing pressure but I did want to give them money and then we were taking care of my mom's dog

and the dog attacked me and my two-year-old son we had to go to the hospital it was a really traumatic event like honestly worst experience in my life I wouldn't wish that upon anyone and I wasn't met with any humility or even care for my son

they were making accusations that I instigated the dog attack after it was proven that I didn't make it up The sisters? The sisters were... Yes, the sisters. And I'm sorry.

Did you say a moment ago, I didn't want to give them money, or I did want to? I did. You did want to? Okay. Yes. And then the dog incident happens. They treat you like crap. Yeah.

And then it just like is a mirroring of my entire childhood where I'm treated like crap by everyone. And I just, I don't want to give someone $100,000 to treat me like crap the rest of my life, especially when like literally weeks ago I was trying to figure out how I'm going to put food on the table like I run a small business um and it's it's a really tough this year you know I run on service based industry it's a luxury service to be honest with you washing windows so not many people have that money in their pocket this year so kind of struggling and then we we come into this money and I'm going to divvy it up and then I get attacked and they're they're treating me very poorly not not even caring about my two-year-old son and then once they find out that there's

money involved one of my sisters has changed her tune and she's now nice and my mom always said that she was two-faced and my 16-year-old sister that i was really trying to like set a trust up for has gone like no contact with me and everyone says that she hates me well that that decision got real easy so let's walk through the options here number one you don't give them any money and they continue to not like you right option number two you give them the money and then you end whatever is left of these relationships correct yeah because nothing's going to salvage the relationship there's no world where we're all happy now and they're good people and so you just option one it's going to weigh on you probably to not

give them any money and it might make your life more difficult as they continue to make your life a living hell. Or you give them the money and say, listen, this is all you're getting, we're done here. Don't contact me if that's what you want. If you want to go no contact, because they're, they no longer are serving you in any capacity. This is no longer even family. This is a business transaction to them. Yeah. So you give them each, what, $113,000 and call it a day? Yeah, that's what they're looking for. I mean, What would you do, George? Let's answer this. I might do it for the peace of mind because it's going to weigh on your conscience.

And, again, in reality, they're never going to stop. And they're going to just try to trash you, your reputation, your life, come after you. I don't know what these people are capable of, truthfully. You know them better than I do. But for me, I'm going, you know what, this is worth it. I'm writing a check to give me peace of mind that I did what I thought was the best I could do. And because there was no will, we don't know what mom would have done. right yeah well and that's the thing is I tried to I had like a chat GPT write up a mock will

and just try to really specify what her wishes were around my 16 year old sister and that was met with extreme hostility and they were trying to make me out to be the bad guy in the hospital and I was like guys like I'm going to have to handle this stuff with family court and probate and all that. So I'm just trying to figure out what mom's wishes are and they didn't want to hear it. Well, AI is never going to figure out what your mom's wishes would have been. Bad decision there. Well, no, no, no. I meant write up a will for me to fill in. So like the will was already written off. We could have the notary come up from the hospital. This is when she was still alive, you're saying. This is when she was still alive. Got it. So she was still coherent and things

like that and I asked the nurse if she was to have a will rode up and she wanted to sign it would it be legal and they said yeah as long as his notary was there and when I brought that up to the other family members and it wasn't to go through all the assets it was really to focus on my 16 year old sister what her wishes were around her how old are the siblings now 16 and 21 okay because I wouldn't be giving a 16 year old $113,000 or I'm not giving either one of them So I might do this later on when they're adults and say, hey, here's it, and have it in a written contract of here's how much you'll get and when. Well, now's the other thing is, do I put this in a mutual fund and set up a trust for them with conditions? You know, because like, like, I don't want to give a 21-year-old $100,000.

And I don't have a steward assigned for my 16-year-old. Nick, here's the deal. I'll give George a final word on it. I, he's already given his opinion. George is way nicer than me. Ken's about to drop the hammer. Probably because he's slightly more neurotic than me. He doesn't want to have to deal with it.

I think the trust idea would normally make sense. It doesn't make sense in this case, George and Nick, in my opinion, because the minute you say to them to the 16 and the 21-year-old, one's two-faced, the other one has cut you out of their life, and you're going to say to them, you'll get this, your 100,000, your share, at this age and if you meet these moral conditions, they're going to freaking lose their mind and they're never going to get it anyway.

And I think your gut is the one you go with here. And I think you were thinking at first, I'll give them something. And now I don't think that makes any sense. And I'm going to go extreme. I think it's extreme. But I think in this case, it calls for that. I cut them both out. There's no way you're going to be able to ever figure out what mom wanted.

She didn't take care of it. She made it your problem. You stepped up like a good son. You're a good man. You're going to make the best use of that money. I just, I'd be okay, George. I'd sleep very well at night, not giving them a nickel. And you're sure, Nick, there's no legal obligation here to give them anything because there was no will. No. The courts decided it should all go to you. That $340,000 is all life insurance money from her work. And you were the sole beneficiary? And why was that? Why did she do that? because of your age?

When she, I was her only child when she first got the job. Okay, so she just kind of never got around to changing it might be the real reason. Yes. Versus if she was able to today, would she add them as beneficiaries? We don't know. We can't play that game. That's the question mark. So, I don't know, man. This is a real tough personal decision.

You got two options. I don't think either one is wrong. I wouldn't fault you for either one. But I don't know. Peace of mind is worth something. So I would just think about that. You know these people better than I do. You got it.

Thank you guys for your time. Yeah. com slash Ramsey, that's Y-R-E-F-Y dot com slash Ramsey, not available in all states. Today's question comes from Alexis in Connecticut. My husband and I exceed the income limits when it comes to retirement account contributions. We've heard about the backdoor Roth IRA option, but it seems a bit complicated to manage every year. Are there simpler alternatives or other strategies we could consider?

I mean, I don't think it's that complicated. to manage every year. And if you want help with it, you could use a financial advisor who could help execute a lot of the pieces for you. Are there other simpler alter? I don't think there's anything much simpler when it comes to tax advantage retirement options. Now, it depends on what your retirement options are currently. If you got a 401k, you've maxed out. That's a great place to go, especially the Roth option. You got the backdoor Roth IRA option. There's a mega backdoor 401k option that you might have access to with your company. You can check with your HR department, but that one is even a little more complicated. So the backdoor Roth IRA is simply

this. You contribute with after-tax dollars to a traditional IRA, and then you convert that to Roth. So it's two steps, and I don't think it's as complicated as you're making it out to be. You said you've heard about it, but you haven't actually done it. So I would do it first before you decide it's much too complicated. There's lots of videos on this online, and again, I would, you can reach out to a SmartVestor Pro on our website if you want help with it. If it feels too complicated, that's what they're there for to help you understand the stuff and to not make it so overwhelming. But good problem to have.

Yeah, very good problem to have. And you talking about super megas and backdoors. And it feels like a child names. I don't know, man. What's better? What's better? Mega or super mega. It feels like we're naming Charmin' toilet paper.

It's like, how about we just simplify the whole process, Congress? But that's too much to ask. That's a lot. Carol is up in Knoxville, Tennessee. Carol Hucklewell. Hello, guys. So I have a situation of I own a home in Iowa, and my in-laws have been renting it from me for 12 years.

Now my landlord is retiring and has offered us the house that we've been renting the same house for 12 years. But I can't seem to get my in-laws out of my house. So I want to sell it, but they're not medically or physically able to move on their own right now. So I don't really know what to do. Should I keep renting it to them or should I sell it? Well, I feel like the way you set that question up, there's not that secondary option you gave us. Should I sell it when you can't even get them out of it. It doesn't sound like your husband's much help. And then you said, then you said they can't get out of it. He's told them that they, you know, we want to sell it by this time, by this time, by this time, the last two years. Where would they be if they weren't renting

from you guys for the last 12 years? They were renting before that, another house. Okay. We got an opportunity to come down here and we kind of wanted to keep the house as a backup plan in case this didn't work out. And yep, here we are, 12 years later. Well, so the great news is, is that your husband's on board was selling the house. I thought maybe that was going to be an issue, but the bad news is he won't actually be a man. Right. And tell his parents that it's time for them to move on. Now, the issue of they can't physically leave, is that true? Yeah. My mother-in-law has gotten really bad where she can't even walk now. My father-in-law's had a heart attack.

It's 11 acres, and he just, he can't do it all himself. Right, but I guess what I'm trying to understand is, is we want them out, but they actually can't leave. Right. Well, is that true? I mean, you guys could go help them move. Like, can we put them in, like, a wheelchair into a van and take them to a different house they rent, and you guys do the actual moving process?

Well, I have even offered to, like, buy. a trailer for them to move into until they found something else. Well, what are you charging them for rent right now? Honestly, it's been ridiculously cheap. They've only been paying my mortgage, which is now paid off as of five days ago. Okay, you guys are being taken advantage of. The more detail we get. Do they have enough money to rent elsewhere?

That's the question. I don't really think so. I mean, I don't even charge them $500. Um, I honestly don't know, but it's probably roughly 2,000 a month. Okay. And they're not going to find rent for $500, I assume, anywhere in the area. No, no. So are you guys going to, you're going to have to subsidize their rent elsewhere if that's what you guys choose to do?

Because otherwise, they're on the street. What are the options here? Right. I don't want them on the street. Put them in a home? Sounds to me like you're holding on to this house. and they're going to live in it until they aren't alive. My husband says the same thing.

My dad and I built this house, and my dad passed away in 2007, and I just can't go back there no more. I'm done. How old are they? No, I get that part. I guess what I'm saying is, yeah, go ahead. They're like 72 and 73. Okay, and there's a chance they could live another 20-plus years, right?

Probably not. I was going to say, that's generous. They're physically in bad shape. People can live into their 90s, even if they're, you know, they physically can't get around. So I'm wondering, is there a condition? Is there a cancer or something that says, hey, this is, this might be ending in the next five years? Right. Well, I guess my question is, is their health, as their health gets worse, they're not going to be able to stay in that house anyway.

And they'd have to go to an option that's not even on the table right now, but all of a sudden, the option. Am I right? Yes. Well, I guess my point is that based on what George and I have heard, even though I hate this for you, and I think it's manipulative, it sounds to me like until that becomes the situation and where their health requires them to move out, you're kind of stuck in this situation. Yeah. And your husband hasn't taken any initiative.

Right. Well, he's told him several times, you know, we need you guys. I used to find a place to rent. Well, I appreciate that he's told them. They're not going to get on Google and go search and, you know. They're not moving. He's told them and they literally aren't even listening to him, correct? Right.

They've tried and she got scammed. Scammed in a rental situation where they gave them a deposit. It was fake or what? No, they wanted them to go buy some Apple cards and stuff to go see the house and for the down payment. Okay. And she was able to go buy these Apple cards? no okay so how did she get scared she didn't she tried to send um her husband my father-in-law and um she they were going to go meet meet her somewhere to give him the cards

he has to carry her to the truck well here's it here's no unless your husband i understand you don't want to go back because there's some kind of pain there with you that's not why we're talking today but unless he wants to go back to iowa and hand hold them. That means he finds the place. Make sure they don't get scammed to buy apple cards or what in the world is going on in Iowa. But unless he as their son goes back and cleans this mess up, then you're holding until it takes care of itself. So it sounds like to me. So if you guys really want them out, your husband needs to grow a spine and fly back to Iowa and solve this problem. Right. And if it's not solvable as you're painting,

this picture to us, then they're staying there until they can't stay there. Right. And at this point, it's not a financial burden to you, not much of one other than upkeep, right? Well, yeah. Yeah, it needs some stuff. Well, we'll do that later. Yeah. As long as it's inhabitable by them, don't spend a nickel on it, right? Right, right.

It's a tough one. Yeah, because that was my fear, too, because I could take out a personal loan. No, fix it. No, whatever you do, do not go into debt over the situation. Let this all sit. I don't want to do that. Well, because I won't get it back. Either you let them stay and you can't sell or you try to get them to an assisted living,

senior living, or a rental that makes sense for them financially. But either way, this is going to cost you. All right, the Ramsey Solutions Christmas deals are here. Oh, boy. Dave thinks he's Santa Claus, George. And he's not far from it. He's not far from it. Boy, oh boy, this is unbelievable. $13 for our best-selling hardcover books. $12 for the question for humans decks. $7.99 for audio books and e-books. $20 for all of our assessments and so much more. Go to ramsysolutions.com slash store, Ramsey Solutions.com slash store, or if you're on YouTube or podcast, we have a link to the store in the show notes. Hayden is joining us now from Asheville, excuse me, yes, Asheville, North Carolina. Hayden, how can we help? Hey, guys, can you hear me?

Loud and clear. What's going on? Awesome. So I'm just kind of looking for some information. So I'm actually listening into the Air Force in about three weeks. and then I will go to basic training from there. So kind of what I'm looking for is just kind of some advice on what should I do while I'm in the service, just try to get better financially,

and then just kind of, you know, grow it while I'm in, you know, if I do choose to get out after my four years or make a career out of it. I've got a few things. Like I've already got my IRA set up. I've got money in my bank accounts, you know, pretty good on that. I do have a truck that I just purchased, so that is a kind of a debt that I took on. I wouldn't say kind of a debt. I would just say it's a debt. But yeah, that's kind of just what I'm just trying to call in and asking for advice on what I could do

while I'm in. Sure. How old are you? I'm only 25 in February. Cool. And what will you be making? Starting out, I'll make about 2,700 a month, and then I just progressed with the rank as I got through. Okay. Are you living for free? Yeah, I mean, I live in, I'll live, when I'm there, I'll live for free, because I live in the dormer toys and stuff. Sweet. Okay, so you can make 2,700 work, and you've got a truck payment now to deal with. Do you need this truck? Well, um, yeah. It was a trick question, Hayden. The answer is you do not need this truck. How much was this truck? Uh, it is, it was 53,000. Now tell me, now tell me on why, why on God's green earth? Does a 25 year old young man who's got a bright future ahead of him need a $53,000

truck? So, here's what happened. My car had a car. I've had a car for about 10 years and the warranty was about to run out and everything. And I will say this, my family has helped me with the payments so far. And, you know, but when I get started and you can get established into the military, then I will take on the payments. So it was kind of a, it was kind of a little push from my family just because the car, the vehicle that I had was the warranty was gone and then the miles was just going to get too high. I'm still looking for a reason why you need a $53,000 truck that you couldn't afford. You could run for Congress.

That was such a good deflection, sir, on that direct question. So one more time, why does a 25-year-old going to the Air Force need a $53,000 truck? While he makes $32,000 a year, by the way. Oof. How much is the payment? The payment is $825 a month. Oh, my word. I can't breathe, Hayden.

and your family's paying all of it? So, yeah, so I'm paying the insurance on it, and then they just, because we just, the payments just started coming out at the beginning of this month. Yeah, so you don't even know what it's like to experience it. And you're asking me how to grow your investments? Do you understand how diabolically inverse those two things are, that you're paying interest on a depreciating asset that's almost twice your income

while asking me how to build wealth. Do you find this ironic? Yeah, that was a concern of mine when the vehicle was coming up. Here's how you build wealth, hey, I'm going to be honest, you sell the truck while you can and get out from underneath this payment. How much could you sell it for?

I bought it pretty much brand new. Like it had one owner, and it only had like 6,000 miles on it, so I could probably make my money back on it. I would attempt to do that. Do you have any money saved? Oh, yeah. I mean, I've got thousands of dollars saved.

How much exactly? I've got about 20,000 saved, and then I've got some cash probably 8 to 10. Okay, so here's what I would do. I would sell that truck and then take $10,000 and get yourself a reasonable used car. Maybe 15 would be the top end limit out the door after taxes is what you're going to spend on this thing, making $30,000. Because you told me your stated goal is to build wealth, right? Absolutely.

So if that's the thing we're aiming at, they're going to spend as little money as possible on toys and depreciating assets. And we're going to get out of debt and stay out of debt. Is this your only debt to your name right now? Yeah, this is my only debt. No credit card, no loan, no nothing. I'm telling you, if you sell this card, get out of debt, stay out of debt. and then you have all of your income at your disposal to actually build wealth with, we can get you a game plan to build some wealth and invest.

But right now, that $800 a month could have been going into an investment, but instead it's going to Toyota. Yeah, exactly. And so I would get out from this truck and see if you can take it back to the dealership that screws you on this deal. What's the interest rate on this? It is 8.2.4.4.4.4. for. Cool, cool, cool. What if you could make 8% on your money instead of lose it? Wouldn't that be

cool? Yeah. Yeah. That's what I'm trying to trade here. I'm not mad at you for wanting to enjoy your life. I'm mad because it's robbing from your ability to build wealth for you and your future family. So I would say, hey, mom, dad, thanks for enabling this bad decision. I want out of this thing. You're off the hook for the payment. Yeah, I mean, they, you know, they talked about it, And they was like, well, we can do it, you know, while you're in. And then when you get established, you know, you can take it. But my biggest thing is I don't have property in my name. And I would, you know, we all know how property and the value is.

And I would love to get started on property as soon as I can. And, of course, with the truck payment and stuff, that kind of puts me down. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. All of your goals are in direct opposition to your actual behavior. You're saying, I want to own property, I want to build wealth, I want to invest. And yet we're going backwards. And so I want you to undo that decision as quickly as possible so that you can actually have some money. Because you save $8.25 a month in a savings account, you'll be able to actually buy something one day.

But if you continue down this path of taking on a payment, trading it in, getting another payment, then you're going to be broke for as long as you can remember. So I'm wishing you're the best, man, but this truck needs to go yesterday. Yeah. And then walk the baby steps out. We'll give you total money makeover is our congratulations gift. Let's also give George's book, Breaking Free from Broke. Yes, please read the car loans chapter. Read the carloan chapter as a follow-up.

That's good homework. But the point is you're going to have a great chance to live very affordably while you're in the Air Force. And we thank you for serving our country. You're a great American. But take advantage of that. And so saving and investing while you're there, not going into any debt, getting out of all debt now. And all you've got to do is get rid of this truck. And by the way, you're going to meet opposition on that.

Because what George just laid out for you is very countercultural, included in your own family. They're going to be laughing when you roll up in that new truck you get, the new to you truck. That was $10,000. Right, but I mean, how much do you need any kind of a vehicle when you're on a base? That's what I'm wondering. You're just tooling around to the, you know, local Wendy's, I guess. Yeah, yeah. I mean, catch a ride with the other guys.

And their fancy trucks that have $800 payments. That's the way to do it. There's the deal. You're right around as somebody else's. Are we still, by the way, in America, are we still on the upper end of $700 on the average amount of car payments, or is that gone up? Yeah, it's over $700 now. Over $700. Yeah. Oh, okay. I thought it was high $700. And what we are, we're actually headed to the amount of student loan debt we're in equal to car debt. That's what's crazy. Did you hear about Trump's 15-year car note? Is that going anywhere? I heard a rumbling about this. I could not find any credible sources that said they were working on a 15-year car note.

I can't either. It was mentioned. The latest I heard was the seven-year car loan has now kind of been normalized. Fifteen-year car loans, I don't believe exists unless you're talking a luxury, exotic car. You know, that's hundreds of thousands of dollars. It was floating around the internet when the 50-year mortgage was thrown out. Would anything shock me in America today? That's going to cause us to be more broke to have our fancy toys? No, I know.

Well, the guy in charge likes the debt. He's not scared of debt because he'll just bankrupt on it, I guess. That's his M.O. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show in the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio. I'm Ken Coleman, George Camel, is alongside, and we're happy to have you with us. AAA 825-2-2-25 is the phone number. Michelle joins us now in Phoenix, Arizona. Michelle, how can we help?

Hi, guys. Thanks so much for helping me out. I appreciate it. I guess my question is, how do my husband and I get out of $270,000 of student loan debt combined on one income? What's his income? We make $92,000 a year, gross. Okay. And what are your options for increasing income?

Are you able to work outside the home right now? So I am a closer. I've been doing it for 11 years. Sorry, what was that? a freelance ride. I've been a published author for 11 years and a freelance writer, but a lot of the companies I write for don't pay me. They don't pay you? Nope. What do you mean? Like you did the work and the payment never came through? More of, they're all saying that there's budget cuts. And if I want to get my work out there, I have the right to help people for free or not get paid. Okay. Yeah. No.

Is this a scam? This is not how the world works, even in the freelance writing world. They set a rate, you know, and they say, hey, we'll pay you up 150 bucks to write this thing, and then they pay you to write that thing. It changed a lot with the last recession in 2008, and I write, but the books don't pay very well for advances in royalties. Okay. Are there other writing jobs that you could get? Because you're saying you're able to work full time. Nothing's stopping you from doing that. I can work remote. I have a little munchkin at my home goal, so at night I can write. I'm happy to do it. I've always done that. But I've even been looking at teaching work. I have two master's degrees so I can be a teacher, but I haven't been able to get hired online, like remote asynchronous. Well, okay, I appreciate all that, but there's an old phrase, and I'm going to ask you to finish it. Where there's a will, there's a way. Okay. And I appreciate that you've tried to get the online professor. I think you should still be trying for that. I think that's a great idea. But I think with all of the freelance in today's economy, the freelance work, because of your varied skills of writing, there's a lot of different type of writing you can do and none of this nonsense where you're writing for free. But you may need to get outside of the writing side of things and look at what other online, you know,

know, a work-from-home roles that with your two masters, with your writing experience, there's a lot of transferable skill there. I mean, you should be thinking in the $50,000 to $75,000 category at a minimum with those two masters. What are your master's degrees in? English and creative writing, but I have a unique niche that's needed. I actually help kids and teens who are struggling with life issues, such as if their parent died or if they're living with alcoholic parents or if they're struggling with bullying those are

kind of that I touch in there's not a lot of help for them and if I don't write for free sometimes or write then they can't get the information that's needed to help them so I'm kind of in a if you do it for free at least I'm getting the information out to those kids or but if I stop writing then the then the information stops so that's why it's that's why I kept doing it if you're wondering why keep writing for free. No, we're not judging you, but my point is, is you can't only do so much of that right now. You need to bring in more income to help your husband. Do you agree or disagree with this? Oh, no, I agree. I'm just having trouble finding that, you know what I mean? Well, we're focusing. Well, but it's not about applying like crazy. I'm going to give you my book

the proximity principle so we don't have to describe the entire book, but you have to get into a very strategic system of contacting people. And I I'm not talking about applying on LinkedIn or applying online. I'm talking about talking to real people who can make real connections for you because there's a lot you can do. But you need to be targeting something in the $50,000 to $75,000 range. I would take all those masters, all that skill, all that experience, and I would expand.

I would put it, you know, if nothing else, put all of your work experience and expertise into chat GPT just for fun. Just put it in there. And go, what would you suggest? You've got to start opening up your eyes to possibilities because you guys need more income. Now, I want to bring George in. Let's assume we get more income, okay? George systematically walk them through what they do.

So you've got how many total debts out of this 270? I have most of that is my student debt. He's at like $65,000. The rest is mine. And then we also have a mortgage and have, you know, credit cards and wearing some collections right now because everything kind of just got a little out of control. Okay, so you've got the majority of it is student loans and that 270 does not include your mortgage. That's all consumer debt? Nope, two set straight student loans. The 270 is just student loans. Yep, 250 is our mortgage.

So you have 250 on top of the 270? Yep. Okay. What are your monthly bills right now if you add up, you know, the basics, food utilities, housing, transportation, insurance, and minimum debt payments. So, four walls, if we're just talking four walls, it'd be $5,400, but the debt they're put to like $7,500, which we're not making money. And you guys are bringing home, like $5,000? Like $5,400. Okay, which is why you're going into credit card debt? Yeah, it's just kind of like we're taking our four walls and then we're trying to pay them, and then it just got into a mess. stop paying the collection so we're trying to concentrate on the four walls like we're learning from

you guys um but it's kind of flowing up in our face at the moment i would agree i think this the charity work passion project stuff needs to stop because we need to cover our own household right now do you agree i'm trying to do okay yes i agree i would be finding anyone i know that works at a place that is hiring for any role that i am somewhat qualified for so you think about content writing copywriting, grant writing, adjunct professor in creative writing or English, have you explored all of those? And do you know anyone who works at a place that has those positions? Yes, I've been applying like crazy. I've been reaching out for networking contracts. I'm connected to all my old editors. They're connecting me to other editors. I even reach out

international. I have some friends international trying to get me at their university so I can teach remote online, anything you can think of, like, I'm jumping out. Can we look elsewhere for now and just do side hustles that have nothing to do with writing, just to bring some income in the door? The problem is I don't have any family support, so my husband's on call at work, and it means no one would be able to watch my munchkin. That's why I have to do, like, remote. Got it. What does he do for work? He is a manager at a facility company. and is there any upward mobility for him to climb up the ladder and make more make six figures he's been trying so we've been he's been applying the interviews but he hasn't you know we're

still trying but he hasn't gotten one yet we're both trying everything we can think of and he's been looking at other companies so we've both been networking um it's just kind of a we're both kind of stuck is that we're trying yeah the only variable that can move right now is the income the debt's not going anywhere. There's nothing to sell off. We can't sell our master's degrees that we paid a quarter million dollars for. So what we can do is utilize them to get that better job and make more money. Yeah, and this is a full-time job now. This isn't a, well, we're stuck, we're trying and nothing's happening. No, it's nothing's happening yet, but we're going to continue to move like the mouse in the maze, always moving towards the cheese. Hang on the line.

We've got the proximity principle. It's my gift to you. You need to read this, or if you want the audiobook, we'll get that for you. Open enrollment period for health insurance has just begun, and if OEP sounds like alphabet soup to you, we'll break it down for you. Health insurance is open enrollment period, or OEP, is from November 1 to January 15. So whether you're self-employed or you need help navigating the market or you're unhappy with your current health insurance your employer provides, health trust financial can walk you through your options on only is health trust

financial ramsi trusted there's never any charge to speak with them and they're committed to finding the right plan for you so you can feel confident in your health coverage choices by going to ramsysolutions.com slash health dash coverage i got to say it again that's a lot of slashes and dashes george ramsysolutions dot com slash health dash coverage or this is the easy way to do it click the link in the show notes if you're on YouTube or podcast. Well said. No notes.

Stanley is up in Mobile, Alabama, where George hailed from for a time. I love that. Stanley, how can we help? Hey, how's it going? I hopefully got a quick question that you guys can answer, smack a little bit of sense into me. We will determine that, Stanley. We will determine that. Absolutely. My question is,

should I gift the remainder of my daughter's wedding budget back to her? And I can give you a little bit of the background. My oldest daughter from my first marriage just got married. When they initially got engaged, my wife and I, her stepmom, we set aside $10,000. And that was kind of, hey, this is going to be your budget. My daughter and her husband, they decided that they were going to do a destination wedding, come down here, get married. And so it actually ended up being a lot cheaper.

And originally it was going to be about $5,000. My wife and I thought, cool, we can, you know, set aside this $5,000, and that would be a nice little, you know, like wedding gift, wedding present for them. As things went on, a couple little expenses, you know, with wedding planning, typically as they always do, kind of arose. So my wife and I, we stepped in and we said, hey don't worry we got some money for this we'll cover you guys my wife did a ton of planning for this wedding uh she did the lion chair for this and we never quite really felt like she got a thank you

uh then to also add on top of it my daughter well not a bad person by any means at all but there's a few little things financially that we don't agree with uh that she does um you know she finances cars. As soon as she paid off a new car, we were so excited for her, and then she turned around and bought another one. And so we're kind of sitting there a little uncomfortable with it, but then really the icing on the cake is she bought a house with her husband and her mother. So the three of them bought a house together. And yeah, that's something that we definitely don't agree with. And so now we're sitting here. The wedding's all done and we're like we now got about $3,500 back and we're just a little bit hesitant of

if we should get this back to her or not. Yeah. I mean, okay, George, I don't know what you're experiencing right now, but I'm listening to the setup of this question and you finished it and I'm going, this is not your idea to give her the $3,500 back. You just gave us a great case as to why you shouldn't. Whose idea is this? Well, no, this was the original idea now my daughter doesn't know that there's this extra money with the budget that's a big question did you promise them hey we have 10,000 to gift to you for the wedding whose idea was is answer the question was this originally the idea if you didn't spend any of it you'd give her the extra this was something you and your wife agreed to no no not at all uh again my daughter doesn't know

that this i know but whose idea is this was it yours you said i'll call ken and george today and see what they think about the 3,500 was it your idea oh yeah yeah absolutely well you You just talked yourself out of it, I thought, in the question. Yeah, it sounded like you needed to process it out loud in front of us and a few million people. And you came to your own conclusion. Probably correct. Because here's the thing, you're not going to have peace about giving them this money. You're going to resent them, and they don't even know you resent them for it.

Yeah. And they don't even know the money exists. You did what you said you were going to do, which is help cover the cost of the wedding. You did that. You didn't promise them a certain amount. You didn't promise them if there was any money left over. They'd get it. So just hang on to the money.

Agreed. Well, another little layer that I might add in is, so I have two more daughters with my current wife that are, they're about 10 years younger than my oldest. So, again, wedding planning isn't on the horizon, but we're trying to sit here and we're trying to be like, are we going to be fair and equitable? And we know. Stop, stop, stop. I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't bear it. I'm trying to save you from yourself. This is a separate deal.

You gave her the wedding that she wanted, and there's $3,500 left over. I don't know where fair and equitable comes in. That's my opinion. Now, America may disagree with me. George may disagree with me. That's fine, but I think you drive yourself crazy here. So now all of a sudden, if you give her the $3,500, that makes, in your mind, the $10,000. And so the other two, well, what if weddings cost a lot more?

I don't even know how you did the wedding for $6,500 to listen to George's talk. He tells me all the time about the average cost of weddings. Yeah, that's like a DJ. alone. The donut wall is going to cost that much. Are you with me, George? I'll say it was the three families we went in together. Got it. And so we had put up $5,000.

So, I mean, total. Are you guys in a better financial spot now? You have no debt? Yeah, we're baby steps four, five, and six. We're great shape. I'm hoping my soft goal is call you back in about five years for one of those millionaire theme hours.

Love it. I'll be able to talk to you guys then. So I'd put the 3,500, I'd put the 3,500 towards the younger two daughters. Okay. You know what? I can't believe I'm admitting this, George, but you'll be very proud of me. Hit me. I have been putting a set amount away above and beyond all the things because I have one daughter, and she's 16. And I hear you talking about the cost of weddings, and I'm like, aye, yay, yay.

And I know your daughter. she's going to want a nice wedding. She is, and you also know my wife. She's going to want her to have a nice wedding. So you know who's been putting money away for over two years? Wow. I'm proud of you, man. That's big. That's big. That's big. That's big. That's big. That's what I would do the 35 foot or unless there's debt or anything else, obviously. What you can do is use it for your other financial goals, and you've got time to save. You got 10 years. And so it's up to you how you do that. You may want to invest outside of retirement for a goal like this, since you have a long. time horizon, parking index funds, you know, for 10 years and just kind of stack money away

as it comes in and as you feel comfortable, set a goal for how much you guys want to invest per year. And there's no fair. It doesn't have to be exactly what the other daughter got, because who knows, what weddings will cost 10 years from now. Yeah, I agree. Absolutely. Well, thanks for the call, Stanley. George, this brings up a good point. You and Whitney will be invited to Josie's wedding. Oh, I can't wait. That's wild to think about. So you're going to do your part and get a really great gift. 100%. No, no, no, no, no, no.

All right. No, I'm going to get her FPU. And then I'm going to have to have a gluten-free... That would be nice for your guests to think about their... A set of items for you. Yeah. So that's why I'm investing now. I'm a little...

You're hoping the gifts are nice enough. No, I'm just... Offset the cost. I don't know. I'm just... I think I'm just... Now, weddings are... Giving myself some therapy right here.

It is mind-boggling. But it's going to happen. And it's going to happen before you. It goes fast. Yeah. And so you know what? I decided I was like, I'm going to get ahead of this. So it's a fund. And it's, guess what? Ain't nobody going to be asking me for more money. Well, whatever's in there is what she gets? Is that the deal? It's going to be nice.

Okay. My point is, is that I'm not planning on that entire fund going to her wedding, but it'll take care of business. Yeah. But my point is, I'm not getting caught with that deal. No. I'm not getting caught with, oh, I got to come up with more money kind of a deal. I'm going to have a nice chunk of change. That's the budget. And if she wants to save up with her future fiancé, let's fast forward. Let's say 10 years or now. What do you think is a reasonable amount for a wedding, George, because you're tight. Well, here's my thing. How many people are invited? You invite 250 people? That's going to be an expensive wedding. You got 40 people? We can have a super high quality way. Let's go 150. 150 you're probably in for 20 grand in this area. Minimum. Kelly, the producer, is saying more. What do you think the number is? Give me a number.

She's saying 50. Ten years from now. Ten years from now, yeah, at least 50. Keep saving, Kenny, boy. Keep saving. Sorry, folks. I'm going to have to step away for a moment and sell some stuff online. Ken's about to sell his kidney.

George, is it to me or is it getting hard to breathe in here? You are wearing a sweater. I'm going to sweat through this. Chest is tight. By the way, George and I were just talking for a brief moment. Just a little continuation here for a moment. Because I think this tradition ought to be bought back.

I was joking with George and I said, you know, I've only got one daughter. So once she finds the young man that she wants to marry and he wants to marry her, he's got to come to me and offer, you know, pretty good sizable offering of cattle. You know, I think she's probably worth a thousand cattle, a thousand head of cattle, you know. Endless. But maybe I'll do a hundred. So is it goats? Is it cows? I mean, this is a thing that used to happen, George. You looked at all. And I had to explain to Ken. That's an HOA violation in his neighborhood.

No, no, I would never take possession of them. I would just immediately resell them. So it's old school, but maybe we should bring it back. When did it end? It never ended. It's still happening. There was no single date. But I would say hundreds of years ago is a safe bed for a good reason. They're not bringing it back. And neither am I, but it would be fun to kind of look at the young guy and go, all right, there's what we're talking here. It'd make me nervous. I'd go, I'm not sure I want to marry this gal because my father-in-law is insane. Oh, boy, that's fun to me.

I don't know why. We're having a good time. Well, in the lobby here in Ramsey Solutions across from our studio, we have a lovely couple, Jose and Maria, if I've got that right. Hi, how are you? Hi.

Where are you guys from? We're from L.A. All right, Los Angeles, L.A.? Yes. All right, and I guess you're here on the debt-free stage to do a debt-free screen. Yes. Absolutely.

Oh, I love it. Okay. give us the numbers how much debt did you pay off we paid off 215,000 dollars in four years 215,000 in four years I love it and what was the range of income so initially we man we started off pretty low but over the course of the years our income began to increase and currently we together we make about a hundred and um about one 150 so 115 so what would you say you started at i think we started at about 98 000 98 so making 98 to 115 okay very good and what was the debt made up of well car loans refi loans um credit cards student loans solar panel all everything we owned

we financed because we can get a payment on this we're going to find a way yes absolutely everything that we own we financed and um it just became a regular form of living her regular part of life and um it became something that was just out of control um it so what was that point would you say when you were like this is insane why are we doing this we got to figure out a way out of this Yes. So we were sitting down doing our taxes and we looked at each other and said, wow, we do pretty well with our income. And yet our money comes in and it comes right out. It comes in. It comes right out. And our debt's still the same. And we're paying bills after bills, after bills. And it seems like we're never going to end. And there were even moments where we were overdrawn. And I'm like, how is this possible? How is it even? How is it even? impossible and that that was really the turning point so how did you get connected yeah yeah yeah go ahead george i'm just curious how you got connected to the ramsie stuff well through through my wife really

um you know she we had known about the ramsie show and she would listen i wouldn't i'll be honest but when she brought it up um i was like no no i don't want to do anything no you know we're not going to be able to travel we're not going to be able to go to the world cup we're not going to be able to do all the things that we do now and you know or Disney passes yeah and we haven't got into this big fight and then finally um I was like all right I'll go check it out and we we went to I started taking one of the classes and and that's how that's how it really began actually we also had a friend um yes a friend Carla and edwin pailliers who also came to the show and became deaf free and we saw their death free scream a few years ago and we

became instantly inspired and so that's when we decided to do the actual plan and so the four years that it took us to pay off we were following the Dave Ramsey's I guess program but intensely with FPU that was within the last six months that we really did and we were more aggressively and paying everything off but I think if we had done the plan from the very very beginning we probably would have paid everything off within maybe about two years maybe even less That's interesting. Because the program really does hold you accountable and really does teach you the principles that are based on the Bible,

which was really convicting to both of us, right? That's really what got me. And, you know, when they got to the biblical aspect of it, I was like, okay, you know what? I'm sold. I'm all in. Let's do this. Okay.

And I think the hardest part was probably week two or three when we were challenged to take a step of faith. and for me it was cashing out the little bit of savings that we had for our daughter's Kinseñera which to us is a huge deal in the Mexican tradition right and we had a little bit of money saved

but then we had this enormous amount of debt right and so we thought why do we have all of this debt yet we have a little bit of cash FPU says put it into the debt right that makes sense and we thought we were betraying our daughter right and I remember crying and just like really debating with him like does this have further implications you know what is my daughter going to say and so that was one of the hardest things because we really had to rely on God to for his provision

right that his his his love and value for her was not based on just a a ceremony of coming of age but it was beyond that and also our faith in that that he would provide for something like that right because he cares about things like that as well. And now that we are in baby step number five, we're in baby step number five, we're actually going to start cash flowing for her kinsueira in about six months will be done with that. Awesome.

Good. That's fantastic. But Alonso also did a huge sacrifice. Do you want to tell them? Yeah, I had just leased an Audi. And I think it was on the third class where I turned and I look at my wife and I said you know what we're returning it and she was like what and I was like you just got it was like nope we're returning it it's it's a bad investment that's what Dave Ramsey says um I go the Lord has us covered I don't know you know the outcome of it

but I know we're going to be covered and this is what we need to do and may may of this year I returned it the lease is actually over in December but we finished paying in I'm like nope let's return it and they tried selling me like four more other new cars and these deals and I was like nope I don't want it we're good and yeah it was tough but we were able to to do it we're back to your old Honda yeah back to my old Honda and it's still going good good for you so what would you all tell people the key is to getting out of debt if you could single out one discipline well you want to go first um support each other and and encourage each other pray together and um and you know there there's going to be moments of frustration i know you know there was times where i'm

like i'm done with this i don't want to do it but you know the outcome is is great along with that i would say also find um a community support because i think the class again it made the world of a difference i knew about the principles of fPU through the show Right. But it wasn't until we were in the class together with Irene and with Anja that we really held each other accountable, learned from each other. We got on the app. And all of those tools made such a huge impact. It kept us on, it kept us accountable. It kept us on track. The monitoring, the graphs, all of those things made a huge impact. And it does give you those rewards, right? The chemical rewards. I mean, and I know this. I'm a therapist. I'm a, I will. Listen, speaking of rewards, if we don't. let you get to the screen we're going to run out of time so are you guys ready to scream yes all right that's why we're here here we go we got hose and maria from los angeles they paid off $215,000 in four years making 98,000 to 115 Jose and maria take it away let's hear your debt-free scream we are debt-free yes how about that George just from the

nick of time we got a story a lot of sacrifice you know Jose like to finder things in life but they weren't doing fine emotionally and spiritually and now they're truly free so proud of them Our scripture of the day comes from Proverbs 179. Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends. And our quote today from Bernard Meltzer, A true friend is someone that thinks you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked. Thank you, Bernard. I'll ponder that.

Oh, that's funny, George. Casey is up in Long Island, New York. Casey, how can we help? Hey guys, thanks for taking the call. So I have a heating and air conditioning company that is starting to fail, and I don't know if I should start reinvesting money into it or kind of call it quits. Okay, well, first we need to try to identify, or do we know why it's failing? So about a year ago, I inherited a property.

that I started focusing more on than the business and the tech that I had working for me that was like the senior guy if you will has been calling and sick too much with losing a lot of accounts so I've seen it happening it's not like a shock to me I didn't wake up this morning and be like oh no the business is bailing but I I've you know when I initially started and working on this other property, I knew this was going to start happening as far as

how fast has happened is a little more concerning to me since he's been you know, he's kind of on his way out as well so now Like you're firing him? I mean, I don't think I'm firing him. I think he's kind of

quitting himself. He's been calling him sick, you know, at a two out of every five days you know okay and you're not working really in this business you've neglected it i for the most part you know was it just you and him doing like the back end of it you know was it just you and him prior to you getting this property it was me him and then i was training another uh younger fellow so this is a super small business so the way so the way you set it up is should i reinvest in it and i was immediately like well i'm not I'm not going to tell anybody to reinvest in anything that's failing until we know why it's

failing. And now we know why it's failing. And it's failing because you just literally have not been doing anything. And you got one guy who maybe he enjoyed doing it when you were involved with him. Maybe he didn't. Maybe life has changed or him. Whatever. But the reality is, is that this company is you. And the thing that's curious to me is that you said, I knew this was going to happen. In other words, I knew the business was going to start to falter if I spent time on this property. So I got to believe, Casey, that means that you thought this property was going to make you more money than this business. Is that the logic there? No. Then why would we knowingly buy and put time and money into something that we know is going to hurt our primary business?

So this company is not the primary business. It's about your primary income? No. What do you do full time? That would have been nice to know. What is this? That's a side hustle? Yeah, I mean, I started this about seven years ago. I've built it up to a $500,000 a year company. What's your primary income? It's last year I netted about, well, no, I'm sorry. I had taxable income about $500,000.

Doing what? Lundromats and real estate. Okay, well, that would have been nice to know five minutes ago. So, like, perfect. So this is one of several businesses. and you're saying, should I try to keep this one alive? No. No.

You clearly don't care about it. I do. I do care about it. Oh, my gosh. If this was a human being, if this was your wife and you neglected her, I said, man, I don't I care about her. I just neglected her for the last nine months while I worked on this other thing. Dude, you don't care enough about the business to keep it alive, and I would not put a dime

into it. Yeah. Reinvesting is not going to do anything if there's nobody to do the work. You clearly care. care about this property and then you've got and by the way kudos on you uh you got a half a million dollar income that's you know just reoccurring income because you've got all these laundromats so i don't know why you would try to express us that you care about it because you called hey guys should i should i should i give this thing a go or not which means you weren't you were on

the fence well i wanted in the beginning i was hoping for just an unbiased opinion regarding you know, what other incomes I had. Well, but my point is, I appreciate that, but the reason we wasted all that time and me not be able to give you good answers because we have to determine whether or not this is a smart move for you to put money in this business. I'm thinking it was your primary income

because I didn't have any other evidence. So now we know you don't need the income. So no one. You need focus. Yeah, you're chasing too many rabbits. Yeah. So what's going on with this property? You inherited it.

You put a bunch of money into it. Are you trying to flip it? Are you trying to rent it out? no so um the property inherited it was in a trust for the last 20 years the trust finally came due um it was my grandfather's property he had a laundromat in there which now i'm currently operating um and that needs to be renovated it was neglected for 20 years nobody literally did anything there okay so you've been investing into that are you doing this all with cash or are you in debt no this is all cash, and I'm primarily doing it myself.

Okay, so do you want to focus your time? What's your real question here? Because I would drop this business. What's at stake here if you cut the HVAC business completely? Nothing besides $7,000 left on my truck payment. You told me you didn't have any debt. Well, that's business debt, my personal debt. Buddy, Casey signed on that.

That's Casey's debt. Okay. All right. Sorry. The business has $7,000 in debt. You have $7,000 in debt. So you can sell the truck, right? I mean, I can pay off the debt. Are you going to keep the truck? Yeah, yeah. No, I use that for everything. Other things. Okay. So pay off the truck today and sell whatever equipment that you don't need anymore and just be done with the business. That's a better deal than investing into a business that will continue to fail because nobody's got their eyes on it.

and then just put your focus on what really matters, the stuff that you really enjoy that also has the most ROI for you. That's what I would do personally. Yeah, I agree. And to your initial question, there's really nothing to reinvest. You just got your senior tech has found other opportunities or it feels like he can take advantage of you because you're so checked out. It's one of the two as to why the two days a week that the guy's sick.

Well, I don't know if it's really that or if he's actually. really having medical issues. Well, the fact that you don't know tells me that your hands off. So reinvesting is your time. So maybe for 30 days, you get back involved and you pay attention. And then you see, is this thing worth shutting down or is this thing worth keeping? It's going to be pretty simple. You're so hands off right now, you don't know if the guy's got black lung or if he's just

mess, you know, he's just lying to it. You don't know. No, no. I mean, I'm not, I see him every day. I talk to him every day. I'm doing all the bad. and stuff. My, the reason why the business started failing is I stopped doing service calls. And you're not going to start is what I'm saying.

Yeah, so let's say reinvest, you don't have the time or passion to reinvest and therefore just get out of the business. Yeah, now I'm more convinced. Now that I'm getting the full picture. I've also been interviewing trying to hire more technicians. The van that we have, we have two vehicles. The one has 175,000. thousand miles on it. It has been more in the shop than it's been on the road lately. I wanted to buy a new vehicle to get another tech out there. That was the reinvestment part. Okay. Well, we're taking information as you give it to us. It's like, I don't know how much to give without, you know what I mean? Well, it's like, when you ask for advice, just future advice for you, when asking for advice from other people, give them all the information at once.

It makes it a little easier. George, I'm with you. I don't think getting a different van for the work is going to solve this. Because you still got to find people who care. And I don't want to work with a guy who's, you know, got one foot out of the business who doesn't care. So I would maybe sell the book of business for what you can get for it. And maybe that'll pay off the truck and just be done, man. Yeah.

And you don't need to run 19 businesses. No. You're doing great. Sounds like the laundromat business is really good. That's the cash cap. That's the cash cap. That's the car in Long Island. Who would have thought?

People got to do laundry. I've got to get myself a laundromat. What would I call it, George? It would be a good name for my locker, man. I think just laundromat. That's what people look for. I think just keep it clear. It's good branding.

All right. Hey, folks, remember this. There's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace. Christ Jesus. No matter what you want to do with your money, you need a budget. Start budgeting for free today with the Every Dollar app, the easiest way to budget. Track your expenses and reach your goals faster.

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