The Ramsey Show - What Are You Going To Do When You Have an “Oh Crap” Moment?

Episode Date: September 30, 2024

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. George Campbell, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author, and host of The George Campbell Show on the Ramsey Network YouTube show. You want to be sure and check that out. He's my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. Sarah is in Seattle to start this hour.

Hi, Sarah. How are you? Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? I'm looking for some investment advice. So I'm a 50 year old homeschooling mom. I've been homeschooling for about 20 years and we've been on a single income for a long time and budgeting and living within our means. But recently, about four or five years ago, I used to work for a major tech giant and I had some stocks that were underwater. so I didn't think much about it and totally forgot I even had them. And lo and behold, a couple years ago, it just went crazy. And so now all of a sudden, I have a great amount of net worth, I guess. But when I log in and see my account, I have up to about $18 million right now,

but I don't know what to do with it. And it's all tied up in one stock, which makes me a little nervous. And, you know, I've never done a whole lot of online investing or anything like that. So I wanted to see if you have some advice for me. Wow, that's awesome. I hate it when I log into my account and there's $18 million in there. Way to go. Were you shocked?

Like, did you wake up one day and log in and go, oh, my gosh, are those zeros real? No, you saw it coming. You knew. Well, no, I didn't. My husband actually said, hey, did you see what happened to your company? I'm like, no, because I was homeschooling. I was was doing my normal things and I actually didn't even know where my stock was so I had to log into a different couple of different companies and say well I hope my account is there still so yeah so I found it eventually and and it's gone crazy still

so you've held this for how long? 20 years. And when you got it, it was an employee benefit, so your cost basis is zero? I remember paying around $14 maybe when I left. I left when my son was, when I was pregnant. It was my first time. What's it trading for now, per share? I think it's 120-something, but it's been split four, and then it's been split 10, I guess. Oh, a lot of stock splits.

But when I left, yeah, when I left, it was only three-something. I got you. So it was completely underwater, and I just filed it away somewhere, you know, didn't think about it anymore. You forgot about it, okay. Yeah, yeah, totally. That strategy worked for you. It's not one I recommend, but I just forgot about it. Okay. Yeah, totally. That strategy worked for you. It's not one I recommend, but I'm going with it. Okay.

Hey, good job. So what is your current household income? So we're still on single income, about $250-ish. Okay. So my husband also works for another tech giant. You need, okay, if your household income is over 400, your capital gains rate is 20%. If it's under 400, it's 15%. Oh, okay. Okay. So if you were to cash out enough of this that it took you up over 400, it's going to run your rate up i think um so what you

need is much better detailed advice but i want you to sit down i want you and your husband who are both smart people to learn exactly what you know what your rates do as you move this around it's very very scary and unwise to leave all of your money in one thing, regardless of what the story is of how we got there. I understand. Because this thing turned right side up, but it used to be $3, and it could be that again hypothetically. I doubt it, but it could be.

Okay. I'm not predicting that. I don't even know what the company name is. I don't want to know. It doesn't matter. The concept of diversification gives you safety, not having all your eggs in one basket as they say and you probably heard that right right definitely yeah so common sense says we need to get some of this off the table um the the faster the better but being wise about tax rates as you do it. Okay.

Okay, but so let's say your husband makes $250,000, and if I'm right, and I might not be, I'm sitting here questioning, I don't know if it affects capital gains. I've got the number here, Dave, if you want. I know it's gone up a little bit. Is it over 20%? It is 20%, but the number, if it's married filing jointly, it's 583. Yeah, but I don't know if capital gains activates that number.

That's based on your household income for the year. Your AGR? Okay. Yeah. So if you only cash out $150,000 a year, what's the max you can cash out? What's the top income rate before it kicks in? $583,000 this year. They keep up with it.

If you only cash out $300,000 a year, you're never going to get diversified. It would take a long time. But if you go over $300,000, you're probably going to go from 15% to 20% capital gains rate. Follow me? Yes, yes. Because the rich must be punished, including homeschool moms. Just ask the bozos in Washington, okay? So anything we can do to do that, but the first $300,000 a year is a no-brainer, but that's not really moving very much of $18 million.

Exactly. You've got to live to be 300 years old to get it all moved around, so you're probably going to take some tax hit, and what your analysis is or what your consideration is, is am I willing to give up 20% of, say, a million dollars? Am I willing to give up 200 grand out of a million in order for it not to all be in one thing? I see. I am if it's me, but I'm not going to be in a rush. I want to do some of it.

But, you know, I sure wouldn't want this thing to turn upside down and you end up with half your money because you didn't move it over 20%, right? Right, right. Well, I think our whole mindset is just really different than maybe people who come on to your show or go on to your programs because i've never lived with this kind of money you don't need the money but what i have no need for any of this money yeah but you've been given the responsibility to manage it true so we want to be wise we don't want to look back and say we were unwise not because you're going to go

buy a lamborghini that's not the point okay right because you're not that's not who you're going to go buy a Lamborghini. That's not the point. Okay? Right. Because you're not. That's not who you are. You just said that. But we also don't want to give up more in tax money than we have to give. And so some of these tax rate things are possibly moving in a different administration. So it could be next spring or next year Congress passes with a different president a different tax law that could happen i wouldn't sit around count my chickens on that one either way but either so i want you to sit down with a tax professional and with one of our smart investor pros and begin to get some investment advice if i'm you even if it costs me some money i would rather have the safety

than i would the extra 20 so what are we talking about here 3.6 million moves at all so instead of 18 you've got 15 or 14 and but it's all moved and it's diversified and it's safe and uh and you've reset your basis and everything higher. And then you can invest it in something less volatile and a little less risky. Yeah. If you did it all at once, that's probably what you're facing, max. Would you rather have 14 diversified or 18 undiversified? I'm probably a little of both is what I'm probably somewhere in the middle of that.

But I'm moving some of it and I'd learn how. So get with the SmartVestor Pro, get with the Tax ELP, learn about the taxes, learn about the investing. Wow. Congratulations. I've been doing this show for over 30 years and some of the saddest calls I've taken are from situations that are completely preventable. Yeah. And what's so hard is I feel like one of those, especially the ones that I'm like, oh, it's terrible. People that call in and their spouse has passed away suddenly and they don't have life insurance. When you have to think through, how am I going to pay my bills? How am I going to eat next week? Yeah. In the middle of all that

grief. Like it's just, it is, it's terrible. And so life insurance is the one thing, especially as a mom with three little kids that I'm like so big on for people to get because it's inexpensive. Zander is the place that Winston and I actually get all of our life insurance. And it doesn't cost much because Zander shops among a gazillion different companies. It doesn't cost much. You just have to admit that someday you're not going to be here. You got to say it out loud and you got to say, I'm going to say I love you to my family by taking care of them and taking the time to put this stuff in place. The cost of stinking pizza to get a free quote, call 800-356-4282. That's 800-356-4282 or go to zander.com.

If you haven't downloaded the Ramsey network app yet, you should it's completely free and everything on it's completely free. And it's the way you get all of our shows, audio and video, uh, all of all of our shows and, uh, including the president Trump interview that I did last week. It'll land on the Ramsey network app tomorrow and you can check it out. Also, you can ask questions there. You can search the show by subjects. You can say, Hey,

I want to see different times that George Camel has answered a question about car leasing. Boom. they'll all pop up i want to see the time that george camel answered a question about sell the horse i knew it was coming ah there we go it's going to pop up trying to spike the horse search numbers dave you're rigging it there we go there's a there's a reason to do it you can create hate all all just the horse people all hate you that's what question community i'm trying to make you can even ask questions by email, George. And today's Ramsey Network app question is from Linda. Linda asks, I'm 81 and I own eight rental houses to supplement my Social Security.

The houses have a value of approximately $75,000 each and are paid for. The insurance on them run about $10,000 a year. I'm considering canceling the insurance and putting that $10,000 in a high interest savings account annually. It would not be devastating if I lost one of the houses. However, it would lower my monthly income. What is your opinion? Well, the insurance is created there to divert the risk to the insurance company instead of you. So Dave, she's saying, well, Dave, I can can handle the risk i'll pay the extra if i need to replace this entire house here's the thing i don't think it's going to cost 75 000 to replace that house in 2024 even if that's what she paid for them well she said they have a value but do you think to rebuild a house from scratch i don't know what how kind of house

it is i can't understand why there's a $10,000 insurance policy on a $75,000 house. That doesn't make sense. Confusing. There's something wrong with that number. Unless you live in Florida, which would give you a reason to keep them all insured. I mean, did you notice what just happened? And so, I mean, because the thing that bothers me is if you self-insure and one of them burns, I agree. If you self-insure and Helene comes through and knocks them all down, you are screwed.

So I don't know, I mean, or if you live in Asheville, North Carolina today and the whole thing got flooded, wiped out just about the whole freaking town. If that was you, i don't know i mean if you're in uh what where was it a few years ago springfield missouri and like the tornado just did a dance on the whole town remember that yeah or half the dadgum town um so i mean a singular loss yeah you could self insure with those numbers so first thing linda is there's something wrong with your numbers if you're not in florida i think she's saying they're a total 10,000 a year across the eight. Oh, that would make more sense. Now that would, that's 750 a piece. No, I would not cancel it. Simple. So you're talking a little over a thousand for each rental is what she's paying for insurance,

which tracks that makes a lot more sense. Okay. You're right, George. I was reading this wrong. We both had $10,000 a piece to insure a seventy five thousand dollar house would be nutso okay so she's going to save a total of california you're in florida or you're on the texas coast where you've got a hurricane problem we're seeing the property and casualty market completely go bonkers so uh getting homeowners insurance is bonkers in some of those areas they've been dropping people some of you that live in amarillo don't know what that means. But that's still, I mean, it's nuts in those towns. And we're sitting here at this moment having just experienced a hurricane as we're broadcasting this.

The nation has experienced a hurricane. That's my reference to Florida and Asheville, the flooding from the hurricane. Now, Dave, you own a lot of property. You pay insurance on all of them. They're all fully insured. And it's not a big part of your world as far as rentals go. I do carry a large deductible on the rentals. Which lowers the premium.

Probably $5,000 or $10,000. So she could do that if she wants to save some money. And that would probably cut her 10% by 20% or 30% if she hasn't already run. I would run a large deductible, but if you're only paying $10,000 for eight properties, no, I would not drop my insurance. Not worth it. No. Hopefully the rentals pay out way more to where this is a small cost for you. Yeah, that's, I could survive if I lost any one of my properties and self-insure through it. I have not chosen to for the dollars. I'm willing to

pay those dollars to transfer that risk. It does make sense to me, and I'm not going to recommend at 81 that you do that. But pretty cool question to be sitting there at 81 with eight paid-for properties and still be asking how I can save money. That's a way to supplement your Social Security. There you go. Which is all Social Security needs is supplementing because that's all it was designed for it was not designed to be the thing katie is with us in sacramento hi katie welcome to the ramsey show hello thank you so much for taking my call i appreciate it sure what's up um so about nine months ago my husband and i took in my niece and nephew. They're 17 and 19 now. Wow.

What happened? Okay, that. Okay. I have some dependency issues, so they were evicted. Oh, I'm so sorry. And my husband and I stepped in. Okay. Yeah, they've been with us since December 5th. How's it going?

They're amazing kids. Oh, it's like as good as it could be. Wow. They don't even fight. it's kind of crazy but they're amazing kids and we're happy to step in but for us my husband and I um it was quite the jump we only have a five-year-old and an eight-year-old so I'm calling in because my question surrounds what kind of oversight we should have over their finances. And the agreement was when they moved in here,

because the 19-year-old's in college. So if he was in college and playing baseball, we would support him. So I kind of just wanted your guys' insight, because this is new territory for us. Wow, what you're doing is amazing. You're neat people. you thank you um well when ours were teens is the only way i know to relate to it and it's how i would recommend in this case um three things that ran through our minds at all times. They're not fully baked yet, so we don't take them out of the oven. Okay?

So you are in 100% control of the money, period. Having said that, we now have a goal of turning loose fully baked adults at some point in the near future. This particular pair has some unusual issues that are different than yours will have when they're this age because they're coming out of a dysfunctional setting. So what does fully baked mean? How are we going to, how are we, my friend Andy Andrews always says, we're not trying to raise great kids. We're trying to raise kids who become great adults different goal yeah and that's what we're that's what i mean by fully baked so what you what i'm

going to do is why even though i'm maintaining complete control i'm going to talk through everything with them and the why behind everything as as a part of their adult training training them to become an adult okay so okay i'm the only reason i'm keeping my hand on the wheel is so you don't wreck i do want you to learn to freaking drive though okay and so we're sitting down and we're talking through choices and decisions choices and decisions and the why behind wisdom and the why behind impulsive stupid four-year-olds trapped in 17-year-old bodies why we're not doing that and while we are doing the other so that you you know here's the thing we want you to finish college and not mess up your money and so yeah you're gonna play baseball and you're going to get the grades and all that's more important than beer drinking hello right and so we got to talk about example

okay so it is fair to ask it sounds like and no it's not fair to ask it's fair to tell okay i'm going to tell them but i'm going to tell them the why it's not because you need anything out of this relationship or you need any of their money i'm teaching you to brush your teeth so you have some i'm teaching you to study because people who embark on a continuous journey of learning are those people we call successful i'm teaching you to sit down with a counselor that I'm going to pay for because anyone that comes out of a situation like you have come out of needs someone to talk some of their feelings through with. I'm teaching you how to navigate life.

To the extent you do that well for your own sake, I will take my hand off the wheel. Otherwise, expect training wheels because that's an act of love on your part so talk to them about my job is to teach you to become an adult here's what adult looks like a successful one anyway and adulthood is not chronological i meet 52 year olds who aren't fully baked. Never got there. This is The Ramsey Show. What does the future hold for business? Ask nine experts and you'll get ten different answers.

Economic growth or a recession. Business taxes will go up or down. AI will help us work or it will replace us all. But there's no such thing as a crystal ball. That's why more than 40,000 businesses have future-proofed themselves with NetSuite by Oracle, the number one cloud enterprise resource planning system. Ramsey Solutions uses NetSuite and you should too. Whether your company's earning millions or even hundreds of millions, NetSuite helps you respond to immediate challenges and seize your biggest opportunities. With one unified business management suite, there's only one source of truth for the visibility and control you need to make quick decisions.

NetSuite's real-time insights and forecasting help you see into the future with actionable data. And when you're closing the books in days, not weeks, you can spend less time looking backward and more time focusing on what's next. And speaking of what's next, download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine Learning at netsuite.com slash Ramsey. It's free at netsuite.com slash Ramsey. It's free at netsuite.com slash Ramsey. Thank you for joining us, America. George Campbell, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author of the book, Breaking Free from Broke is my co-host today. Stacey's in Houston. Hi, Stacey. How are you? Hi, Dave. How are you doing?

Better than I deserve. What's up? Good. So I just had a question. We are in Baby Step 2 right now. I just came across your website and your YouTube channel and everything. And so we are in Baby Step 2. However, I had a huge question about my vehicle um i have my husband he owns his work car but we are paying on my vehicle and we're wondering just based off of everything that i've seen with your videos we're wondering if we should get rid of that car like if we should um yeah somehow get rid of the one that i have well welcome to the tribe hi yeah so it's been tight around there and it's not been fun lately

huh no it has not been fun definitely not uh we've i feel like we've been married for five years now going to six um and we always struggled with money and, uh, we did download your every dollar app. And through that app, we have noticed that the big mistake that we're making is that we're spending more than what he makes. And so we were actually able to see how much money he actually makes in a month. And it's like, well, you know, we're broke because we want to be broke. So we're really tying everything down. We're both on board. And so I feel like this is the best way that I can. You're both on board.

I heard that, right? Yes, definitely. Yes, we are. You started out with I download the thing, and then you went to later on in the conversation, we did the app together. So it does sound like you're both on board. I'm good with that, okay?

So I'm proud of you. That's a big step. You are making some big i mean because what happened was is you went oh this sucks and then you started then you when he put it all on the app the the numbers start talking to you and you went oh that's wrong and that's wrong and we got to fix that and that's wrong and look at this car no wonder we can't breathe and so it's the numbers start talking to you, and here's the great news. You're listening.

So I predict amazing things for your all's next 12 months. It's going to be very, very hard, but for the first time in your lives, you're going to be on a path towards not only not being broke but being wealthy. I'm real proud of you guys. We want to help you guys any way we can. So what do you owe on the car? So right now we owe um 28 355 have you looked up what it's worth it is worth no i have not actually okay go to kelly blue book kbb.com it's probably the most

accurate you can also look at edmunds for car values. Those are two good places to get values. They put out two types of values on there. Trade-in, which is wholesale, what a dealer would give you for it, which obviously they're going to make a profit on that number. And then private sale, which is if you put it in traders or something like that or Craigslist or whatever, and you sold it yourself to an individual individual to individual and that's more of a closer to a retail number the third number is retail which you can't get because you're not a dealer um but you're probably private sale numbers what you're looking at what kind of car is it what is it it's a 2023 volkswagen tiguan small cv okay all right nice car Volkswagen Tiguan, small CB. Okay. All right. Nice car.

All right. And what's your household income? It is, well, it kind of depends. Right now he's making about, I mean, worst case, a week, it's $1,881, but it's looking more like 2394 it depends his hours are different so if you get if he gets ot he gets a couple grand a week yes he does okay so we're talking about six figures so he's making 70 80 000 a year depending on overtime yes i mean up to 100 but probably not getting $2,000 every week. Okay. Okay.

That's take-home, though, isn't it? Yes, this is take-home. Okay, that's good news. What other debt do you have? So we have, let's see, so we have one credit card that has $867,000 on it. We have a loan. Our AC busted. We had to redo the unit and that right now the balance is 2015. We owe my dad $10,630, the car payment and the house. Okay. That'll do it. If I woke up in

your shoes, yes, I would sell this car. Right. You're right. It's the one thing on the list that just screams at me in your numbers, like it did at you when you wrote it down, right? Yes, sir. That's one of the only things you can sort of undo in this mess. Yeah, the rest of it you're going to have to claw through and live on beans and rice, rice and beans. You've heard that already on the website.

It didn't take you long to get to that number. And scorched earth. We don't eat out unless we're working in that restaurant. We don't see the inside of it. We're not not going on vacation he's picking up all the ot he can you're selling so much stuff the kids think they're next and you're gonna get this mess cleaned up yeah and here's the beautiful part with the numbers you just gave me if he can get more overtime rather than less and you sell this car, you're debt-free in a year. Yeah, actually, I was going down the numbers, and we went at it like a gazelle running from the hunter. I mean, we put God above everything else as well, and that really spoke to us,

and we've been, you know, studying the Proverbs scripture that you mentioned in the video with the baby steps. And so we're looking at paying two of these loans or two of these debts. We're paying these off by the beginning of November. Yeah. So, yeah, this is great. And then the loan that we have with my dad, and, you know, everything is great there with the family, but we do need to pay this back, obviously. He says to take our time, but we need to get it.

No, I want it out of my life. It's weighing on you more than that. Because you've already breathed in the air of what it's going to feel like to have no payments. You can already get your head around those emotions right now, and now you want it. I can hear it. You're doing great.

You're going to kill it. This is awesome. Yeah, sell the car. Yeah. Because the car, listen, you can get you another car later, whatever you want. But if you'll drive like no one else and you'll live like no one else later, you can live like no one else and you'll get to drive like no one else. That's right. Stacey, I'm going to send you a copy of my book, Breaking Free from Broke.

It comes with three months of every dollar premium, so you can connect it to your bank. You can track all of your expenses with smart tracking. It'll make it real easy for you guys to do this journey. And I hope the book's an encouragement to you. But you guys are already there. I mean, the fact, the way she's talking, this debt might as well already be paid off. It is so interesting, George, that over the 30 plus years of doing this, that I talked to somebody making $200,000 a year and they got $40,000 worth of debt. They don't think they can do it. And I talked to somebody with $100,000 worth of debt that makes $60,000 a year

and they think they can do it. And they actually do. And they're the ones that actually do it. And so she's got – her numbers are excellent, but what's much better than her numbers is her language. It's revealing her heart and where they are. We are doing this. She's been diving in.

She's studying the stuff already. I mean, she's brand new to Ramsey stuff, and she's already spouting that like she knows it all. Well, there's two pieces that were encouraging. Number one, she looked in that financial mirror. They actually did the budget and they went, oh crap, we're spending more than we make. That makes sense. That's how we got here. We got to do something about that. And the other one was the language of just belief that it wasn't someone else's fault. It's not all their fault, but it's their responsibility to pick up the pieces and clean up this mess. And she had the willingness to go, yeah, this is on us. You know, that's a

good point, George. What are you going to do when you have an oh crap moment? What is your first response? Is it to blame others, to get angry, to whine, or do you go, all right, let's get the budget out. Let's see what we're working with here. And she finally got to that point most people never get there yeah or it takes 20 years of marriage sometimes when you have a moment like that you freeze from just fear or being stuck or whatever and other people they go into attack mode she's like all right i gotta find this out i gotta work this i gotta get this get it and this is what you said to do do when you do this and all she wanted was one little clarification on the car but she's already

game on you know and she found that like the little kernel of hope and just hung on to it and it's starting to grow and she's seeing this light at the end of the tunnel that's the best part yeah proverb says uh when desire comes it is the tree of life yeah wow it's powerful not much stopping you there once you get that desire it's powerful it'll carry you what are you going to do when you have an old crap moment what's your next step well start gathering information fix the problem gather information fix the problem well i don't care what the moment in what area of your life the moment is in could be money it could be something else what are you going to do gotta gather information i gotta fix the problem because the information i had before

brought me to this oh crap moment i gotta stop using that same information this is the ramsey show this show is sponsored by BetterHelp. This is the season for Halloween. It's October. We're wearing costumes and we're wearing masks. So if you haven't started planning your costume yet, get on it. And while you're thinking about it, I want you to be honest. A lot of us hide ourselves.

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If you're not keeping up with us on social and other miscellaneous things, you might not have heard this. A few weeks ago, our team reached out to Vice President Harris' camp about doing a long-form sit-down interview, and also to President Donald Trump's camp about the same thing. The Harris camp has our invitation, in quotes, under review. The Trump campaign accepted, and I flew to New York last week, and on Thursday spent some time with President Trump just sitting down talking about ideas.

My goal there was I think it was accomplished. You can watch it for yourself and decide was to have a discussion about what could happen if he got to do the things he wants to do. What are ideas? Not about trashing the other side. We got that. OK, both of you. We got it. OK, and not about what you used to do.

I don't really care what you used to do, except as it's an indicator for what you're going to do. That's all I care about. And so what are the ideas? Because I'm kind of tired of all the four-year-old bickering and whining. I would just like to know if you're really going to do something. And I'm not confused. I know folks, and I continue to tell you all,

and I told him that what happens in your house is more important than what happens in the White House. But just the same, we are in a political season, so it's nice to hear from the different camps what it is you're actually going to do. What are your ideas? What are the things you believe? Because those things do matter. Things like the economy, yeah, there's a thing right there so we talked about the economy a lot uh we talked about taxes oil uh we talked about parenting uh we talked about leadership and um it was a good interview what about golf did that make it in there we actually did talk about golf i worked that in so there you go um but but um to which he asked if I was any good. Oh, wow.

How do you respond to that? I had to answer honestly. Not really. I'm a 13, and he just kind of snickered. But there you go. Okay. Which means I'm a mid-handicapper and so on. Anyway, it's fun.

It'll be out tomorrow on the Ramsey Network app. That's October 1st. Which you can download for free. October 1st, tomorrow, you can download the Ramsey Network app. It'll be on there tomorrow, I guess at midnight tonight or whatever. They'll put it on there. And then on Wednesday, October 2nd, the episode will be on our YouTube channel and on our podcast channel.

So wherever you listen to the Ramsey Show or watch it. Wherever you listen to Ramsey Network stuff, it's all free. We're not charging. We're not doing it. It's just, I just think it's important to have civil discussions, even arguments about ideas. I don't mind arguing about an idea.

But all this other stuff, I'm just, it's out of control. And it's ridiculous. It's just nuts. As far as I'm concerned. Some of you love it. And some of you are so mad about everything. You're just mad because I'm doing this interview and you're like i'm never listening to dave ramsey again well you weren't listening to him to start with so no big deal really i mean you might have had the radio on or after 30 years the things you've said if that's what finally did it i'm

impressed yeah i mean really you were really looking for something to be pissed about uh me me reaching out to both camps to interview them and sit down with them, that's the thing that did it for you. Okay, well, good for you. Because some of you people hate Trump or hate Kamala so badly that it's just, y'all are nuts. Y'all have lost it a little bit out there. Dial it back in. Seriously.

You can be angry about an idea. I'll fight with you about an idea. But that's just, some of y'all have lost it. Your ability to do critical thinking around this stuff is bizarre anyway enough of that so um it'll be fun uh the opening question is about the economy and so that's the opening question in the interview and um you check it out again on the ramsey network app on tuesday october the first wednesday oct 2nd. It'll be all over everything. So, and it was fun. I've never done something like that before.

I've interviewed a couple of presidents or past presidents in the past, but not during an active political season. I did have presidential candidates on one year during the primary season. Okay. So I ended up with like Ben carson came on that's right i remember that and uh some others and um you know vivek came on after he lost the other day but he's been a friend he's come on before nikki haley's come on before she's now gonna do a podcast and called the other day see if i would come on hers which i will she's been on here three or four times but we didn't even end up talking to them during the when they were running this time we could have but

we just didn't so um but but it's interesting to talk to these people because they they're most of them are just they're wired a little different um in order to want to do that job um there's something uh cool and something weird about it you know so um you know it's just fun to be in a situation like that yeah that's cool talking too much about check it out we'd love to have you watch it all right monica is with us monica is in virginia beach hi monica how are you hi dave and george thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. So my question is, should I cash in my investment account to jump to Baby Step 4? Are they in a retirement account? They're both in the S&P 500 in Fidelity.

One is in a Roth IRA. That's $25,000. And then an individual account for $27,000. And my 401k has $5,000 in it. And your debt is how much? $22,000 and my 401k has $5,000 in it. And your debt is how much? $22,000 from real estate. It's on a credit card, but it's from buying properties. I kind of overshot a little bit. Oh boy. What's the interest rate on that? It's pretty low. You still got the property? I do. I do. I bought two in one year.

I had saved up $100,000. This was all before I found you, so I did everything a little bit backwards. So I made some mistakes, and then I did some really good things. So I'm very grateful. My net worth now is $500,000, but it's from so much grinding and struggle, renovating these two properties by myself, getting them rented. So I'm thankful. Let me stop you. Good. Way to go them rented. So I'm thankful. Okay, so you have, let me stop you. Good.

Way to go. Congratulations. I'm glad you got here, and I'm glad you're making some adjustments to solidify and stabilize the situation. So let me make sure I understand. You have $27,000 in a non-retirement account, right? Yes. And you have $22,000 on a credit card, right?

Right. Okay, now, if you didn't have either of these, would you go borrow $25,000 on a credit card in order to put it into an S&P? Right, no, I would not do that. Effectively, that's what you've done, isn't it? Yeah. You didn't mean to, but accidentally, that's where your balance sheet has ended up. Right, exactly. So I wouldn't touch the retirement accounts, but I would cash out this other non-retirement investment account

with $27,000. You will likely have capital gains. I don't know how long you've been investing in this, but account for that. Make sure you've got the money on hand to pay that after you've got the credit card knocked out. But this is a, I'm getting you debt-free today. I love the idea of you getting to baby step four uh instantly right but that would only be so if i cashed in both of those it would be about 22 000 in taxes so i don't mean no no no no no no we said non you had 27 000 the individual the individual account has 27k right that's just one account and that does not that's not in a retirement, right? Right, it's not. Okay.

How would you have taxed on that? Oh, isn't there like 40% taxes basically? Like you're taking it out early? Oh, really? No, you're not taking it out of a retirement account, right? There's no penalty here. Okay. Yeah, there's just going to be capital gains taxes in that account,

which could be, depending on your income, 0%, 15%, or 20%. What's your household income? About 85. Okay. 15% of your gain, how much it's gone up in value since you put money into that account. How much money did you put into that $27,000 account? I think all 27. Okay, you'll have no tax.

Right. You'll have no tax. Wow, I'll have no tax. It's 26. Right. You'll have no tax. Wow, I didn't realize that. It'll be a few bucks. Amazing. Yeah, so you can start building your emergency fund, 100% get it done, up to three to six months of expenses.

And so the secret to holding on to a net worth that is based in a lot of real estate, which is where you are, is to build a cash position. Okay. Most people that do real estate don't have enough cash. Because they love putting it into real estate. They don't want to hang on to it. Right. I know. Thank you for your teachings. I love this. I'm so excited to work from cash and pay these off. It's so motivating to take the risk portion out of it. Love it.

Yeah, that's what does it. Getting rid of the miscellaneous debts like we're doing and then build up a big old pile of cash so when the heat and air goes out on one of the rental properties, you don't even blink. You just keep rolling. You fix it and you keep rolling. You fix it and you keep rolling.

And then we start working towards getting those all paid off eventually. But you've got a great net worth already. Way to go. You've made some really good decisions. And the little bad ones that you made, you're making adjustments on. So well done. It's amazing. Proud of you.

It's amazing to see someone in real estate who has their risk meter intact. So good for her. That's rare. Well, it activated a little late, but it did activate. Better late than never. I love it. This is The Ramsey Show. Do you ever feel like you're finally making progress towards your goals

only to get quickly distracted by something else in your feed? Well, that's why we created the Ramsey Network app, your single source for content that keeps you motivated the ramsey network app is designed to keep you laser focused on reaching your goals loaded with over 7 000 hours of ramsey shows this free app is the best place for uninterrupted content and no distractions plus you can search specific questions to get more personalized content in seconds. So, for the days you need some extra motivation, you'll have proven advice at your fingertips. It's time to get serious about your goals and shut out the distractions for good.

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He's my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Elijah is in Fort Worth, Texas. Hey, Elijah, what's up? Hello. Thank you for taking my call today. Sure. So I am looking to take over my boss's business.

He is moving out of state the end of this month, and he will be handing over his clients to me. He's not selling the business to me in any way. I'm going to have to open up a new LLC, have it under a new name as my own business. And I am just wanting to get some pointers on the best way to set everything up so I don't mess it up. It's a handyman business and he has a bunch of clients, which is why I'm taking over the phone number because that's what it's tied to. And he's on track this year to profit about $120,000 from the business. I am looking to just take over the phone number, set up the LLC and to subcontract out the work that I'm not able to do so that I can still have income coming in for those bigger jobs that come.

But I'm needing to get the LLC set up to get probably QuickBooks account, advertising, website, and I'm just wanting to know the best way to set that all up to get myself going in a good direction so I don't mess everything up that I'm being handed over. Good for you. It's a good question. How long have you been working for him? I have been working for him since I moved down here at the beginning of August.

Two months? Two months, yes, sir. Okay. That's odd. And how much of the work that is coming in is work that you are going to do? What percentage are you going to do? What percentage are you going to do? What percentage are you going to subcontract? The majority of the jobs that he gets are smaller jobs

that I would be able to do. You have the hands-on knowledge to do the job yourself. For the most part, a lot of it is just basic things that I'm learning as I go and I'm able to, it's just simple, simple tasks. He's got a lot of his clients or older clients who just want simple jobs done. But then there are the bigger jobs that come to him. I got that. I got that there's different categories. I'm just saying I'm kind of amazed after two months you can even do all the simple jobs. Did you grow up with a handy father or how did you know how to do all of these things in 60 days?

I did grow up doing manual uh most of my life and i also was a plumbing apprentice for a little over a year and a half so i have some knowledge in this side so you can hook up a dishwasher yes sir okay how old are you uh 21 okay all right um well the magic dust here is you it's not an llc it's not a website it's not any of that crap okay so the way you're asking the question makes me think that um you know like you think there's some big thing to setting up a business. You can go to the bank today and open a sole proprietorship in your name and your social security. It could just simply be called Elijah's Handyman Service or Elijah so-and-so, whatever your

last name is, DBA, doing business as Elijah's Handyman Service. And that's all. you don't even have to have an llc an lc is an extra layer that i'm not sure you need and then you could take some of your money out of your pocket and get one of your buddies to help you fill up a website right quick what wordpress or something right george or no there's a ton out there you can do them cheap or free i mean squarespace yeah um and then you've got to get you know you you need a bank account and you need probably some way to accept payment uh so you would set up what um again square yeah you could do square i mean my handyman he uses venmo and has a business venmo you need both but truly your client list sounds like your client list doesn't really use websites

i mean it sounds like they're old school the way he built this business was probably word of mouth. The phone number being transferred is important. So all of that's fine. If you also want to open an LLC, that's fine. But honestly, if I'm in your shoes, I wouldn't fool with it right now. Until I figure out if I'm actually going to get this thing rolling. Make sure you can actually complete these gigs and the customers are satisfied. And then I'd consider how do we grow this thing.

Because you have to let all the customers know the business is being taken over by me, right? Right, because when they start calling that phone number, it's not going to be tied to him anymore. Yeah, it's going to come to you. So, I mean, do you have a list of the customers with their phone numbers? He has a whole list of contacts that he'll be sending to me. When he sends that to you that day, I want you to sit down and start calling. I want you to call them all in two days. Okay.

And say, I'm going to specialize in making your life amazing. He has left the building. Elvis left the building. And Elijah is still here. Okay. And so I'm going to be there. I was one of the guys already doing the work, and if you need anything, I'm here for you. Just let me know, but I wanted to contact you and let you know that you're going to hear a different voice

when you call this phone number, and establish a relationship with them as much as possible, as quickly as possible. Don't wait until they call with a need. Okay. as much as possible, as quickly as possible. Don't wait until they call with a need. Okay, and then would you recommend that I get any sort of insurance for my own personal protection, or do you think I should just wait to do that until later on? I mean, you can, but you don't have to do it immediately. I mean, call an insurance broker, okay?

A broker is someone who represents many different insurance companies and they will then represent you and and shop around and get a little inexpensive business protection policy a liability policy just so if they ask you can say yes i'm insured but that's really the only reason because there's not the likelihood of them suing a 21 year old for hooking up a dishwasher is almost zero right you're not exactly a target right unless you unless you burn their house down you know what i'm saying and so and don't do something illegal don't do something outside of code don't do something along those lines but you know when you're hauling off some trash and doing a little weed eating and hook up a dishwasher and fix one little leaky pipe,

you're fine in freaking Fort Worth, Texas. Nobody's going to bother you. When you need an LLC or when you need insurance is when you start having some money and or making some money, and then the customer or someone else perceives you as a target. But you're not exactly target rich right now. Okay. you as a target but you're not you're not exactly target rich right now okay and then you would would you recommend that i go ahead and wait to subcontract out jobs until later on i'm fine if you do it now as long as you can manage it but i think your primary thing is get these ones that you can do and i think you can make a hundred thousand000 doing by yourself. And then you could have had an employee and take it to $200,000

and never subcontract a single thing. But if you get something that's out of your depth, don't take it. Hand it off to one of the subcontractors or bring one of them in, one of the two. Either send them the lead as a favor and then build up a group of people that owe you favors. Or bring them in and you manage the job if you want. I don't care, but I think your primary income base is you. Elijah, you're the secret sauce here.

Not LLCs, not insurance, not subcontractors, not websites. It's you. You're going to rise and fall based on your effort. Get them. Hey, when you go against what society thinks is, quote, normal, like avoiding debt, for example, it might seem weird at first, and that is totally okay. We want you to be weird if that means doing things intentionally, including how you spend your healthcare dollars. And one way to be intentional is with Christian Healthcare Ministries. CHM isn't health insurance.

They're a health cost-sharing ministry that's helped hundreds of thousands of families like yours take care of healthcare costs without sacrificing their freedom. Find out more and join at chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budget. Hey, good folks. Dr. John Deloney here. Don't you think life is too short to hate Mondays? Listen, you're worth loving the work you do and where you do it. So guess what? Ramsey

Solutions is hiring. If you're ready to join an amazing team that's all about changing lives and spreading hope, we want to see your application. Right now, we're hiring for technology, sales, marketing, writing, copy editing, and creative roles. Check out all our job postings at RamseySolutions.com slash careers. That's RamseySolutions.com slash careers. The Ramsey Show question of the day is brought to you by Y-Refi. Student loan debt is a swamp thousands of people find it hard to escape from. Don't be another statistic in the student loan swamp.

For distressed private student loans, there's Y-Refi. We trust Y-Refi because they help you with a low fixed interest rate that you couldn't get anywhere else to help you stick to your budget and get out of debt. If you've got a private student loan that's in trouble, they're the people, guys. This is it. Learn more at YRefi.com slash Ramsey. That's the letter Y-R-E-F-Y dot com slash Ramsey. Might not be in all states. Today's question comes from Brett in Nevada.

I recently watched a video from George on no money down mortgages. My wife and I bought a house in 2021 with a $10,000 no interest down payment loan that's attached to my mortgage. The principal for that part of the loan doesn't go down every month. My payment is only applied to actual mortgage. We plan on living in this house for about the next 10 years until I retire. Should we refinance and roll the interest-only loan into our mortgage? Oof. It's $10,000. $10,000, no interest, down payment loan that is interest-only.

Yeah, but you could just pay it off. So you could pay down the loan just to nothing, 10 grand. Just knock it out like you would a consumer debt and be done with it. Because it is a consumer debt. Refinancing is going to cost you, and I don't think it's worth doing that with a $10,000 loan to pay $4,000 or $5,000 just to refinance. No, no.

You just pay this off. This is not a – all you're saying is you bought a house you couldn't afford because you had no money. You're broke people, and broke people shouldn't buy houses. That's why they call them brokers. All right, it's because it helps you get broker and broker, so you're in a mess. So put this on your list of debt snowball items like it's a stinking credit card, $10,000, and just pay it off like it's a car loan.

Pay it off. It's $10,000. And if you can't do that, then you need to sell the house you bought a house you can't afford but i don't think that's the case i think he's making it he would have mentioned if he was pinched yeah it doesn't sound like a pinch sounds like they made a mistake this is 2021 it wasn't a long time ago they bought this house you got a good interest rate on the first mortgage another reason not to refinance it that true. They'd give up that 2021 rate and pick up a 6% or 7% while paying the $5,000 it would cost to refinance. Yeah, or more.

I would just get the 10, you know, scrape together $10,000 and call them and say, I want to pay this off in full. Be done with it. Be done with it as fast as you can. Rosa's in Dallas. Hi, Rosa. How are you? Hi, Mr. Ramsey. Hi, George.

How are you? Better than we deserve. What's up in your world? I'm doing just as well. I have a question today. My parents are 85 and 82, and they have a will. But my question is, is a will enough to keep probate court out, or do they need a trust? I can give you some backstory if you need to.

What state are they in? They're in Texas. What's the probate tax rate? Do you know? I do not. I have no idea because, luckily, I've never had to be the executor of anybody's will. They do have me as their executor,

but we're trying to, if it's possible, to not pay pay taxes so what they have right now is well that's not possible you're either going to pay legal fees to build a trust that looks like taxes or you're going to pay taxes either way you're going to be out some money so what is the size of their estate so they don't have much the main thing on their will that is an asset worth fighting for would be their home, which is worth right now $264,000. What will happen to it when they pass? So the way they have it written is obviously whoever supersedes the other will keep the home, but once they're both gone, I as executor will put the house up for sale and um the idea

was to split the profit amongst all the siblings which currently they have 11 on the well if there's any probate tax that can come out of the proceeds of that it won't be substantial did you find it i've been looking here i'm not seeing it quite yet i'm trying to look george is trying to look up see what it was in texas because i don't know off the top of my head. I don't think it's much. But in most states, it's 3% or 4%. Okay? And so we're talking about, you know, $6,000 or $8,000 at most. And the trust could cost you that just to set up. Well, it could cost you half of that anyway, and it's a pain in the butt.

No, you don't need a trust. But if you want to verify it, you can find out what the rate is in texas and see if it applies to personal residence it may not even apply to personal residence because texas has a bunch of homestead laws that apply to personal residence and protect personal residence from a lot of other things they've got a they've got weird laws on real estate uh because they're not really a state they're a republic just ask them i'm kidding but um but anyway yeah so uh yeah it they do have very they have a lot of laws that protect the home and it might it might even do that there on the estate side i don't know i don't know the law but if you you could look it up real easy or talk to an attorney. But the only thing you could do is if you move the house into a trust, then the trust is liquidated.

You might run into some capital gains there that you don't want to run into. So I think you're better off just to let it happen with the will. Leave it on the will. But you could double check and see if my math is off. Let's pretend, okay? Let's pretend they had a 10%, which would be an unbelievably high, probate tax on $250,000. That would be $25,000. And let's pretend it costs $4,000, $5,000 to put together a trust.

Well, then you might look at it, right? Right. But if it costs $4,000, $5,000 in taxes or $4,000, $5,000 in the trust, I'm just going to pay the taxes and not screw with the trust because it adds one more layer of stupidity you got to deal with as the executor when you uh when when all when both of these pass but um yeah just gather up a little bit more estate planning knowledge than dave and george have about texas and um you're doing good i'm not it i can't find anything that says there's a probate tax it sounds like you have

your court fees attorney fees but it doesn't sound like there's a special yeah but you're gonna have that everywhere but most states have a tax on it i don't i truly don't know but um it says inheritance are generally not subject to state or federal income taxes in texas you may be zero anything about probate maybe zero which makes this a mic drop for sure it's will only you don't need a i'm telling you there's a lot of texas has got is a very tax-friendly state so to the people that live there not to the government so um it's one of the reasons that people are moving to tennessee to florida and to texas in droves because we don't have an income tax most of us don't have hardly any estate tax at all

florida has none and that's one of the reasons it's the retirement capital of the freaking world before all this stuff happened. And everybody left New York and California and went to those two other places, but three other places, but that's what's going on. You always see migration policy does cause migration because if you got 20 million bucks and you're going to get taxed on it, if you't move. And if you do move, you're not going to get taxed on it. Well, we're moving. We're loading up the truck and leaving Beverly Hills, that is. So there you go.

It's the opposite movement of the old Beverly Hillbillies, right? So anyway, that's a good question. Very cool. Anchorage is with us. Abby is calling. Hi, Abby. How are you? I'm good. How are you guys?

Better than we deserve. What's up? Good, good. So my husband and I took out a home equity line of credit earlier this year. And after we did that, we decided that our income to debt ratio was a little bit out of control. So we decided not to use any of that money and just to pay off our debt first. Um, and we, we have paid a lot off. We still have a bit remaining. So my question is, do we have remaining or have we paid off? How much do you have remaining? Um, 26, uh, about 27,000, a little under $27,000. And your question is what, hon? My question is, should we continue what we're doing with the debt snowball and pay off this

debt that we have with every extra penny that we have? Or should we start putting some money aside as well so that we don't have to use the home equity line of credit and go further into debt i'm sorry why would you have to use the home equity line of credit if you pay off your debt well we were we are building a shop um is it under construction everything that we've done so far, we've paid out of pocket. Well, do that or don't do it. And no more debt. The secret to getting out of debt is quit borrowing more.

Hello. That's your first step. I'd shut down that HELOC. Do it at the speed of cash. Yes, definitely. Good question. Good answer, George. This is The Ramsey Show.

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program. SmartVestor connects you with local financial advisors who have the heart of a teacher. They'll help you level up your knowledge and build a retirement plan based on your goals, not theirs. Go to Ramseysolutions.com slash smart vester to get connected and get more confident about your plan. That's ramseysolutions.com slash smart vester. Ramsey Solutions is a paid non-client promoter of participating pros. Learn more at ramseysolutions.com slash smart vester. Wow, what a week I'm having um tomorrow ben shapiro is going to drop by we're going to do a long form interview last week i interviewed dr donald doctor president donald trump um today i'm interviewing not a doctor either but my friend will gadara new york times

best-selling author of the book unreasonable hospitalityasonable Hospitality. He's the former co-owner of Eleven Madison Park, which under his leadership was voted several times the number one restaurant in the world. The book is Unreasonable Hospitality. Welcome back, my friend. Thank you so much, man. I'm happy to be back here. So we got to hang out with Will. I met Will at a think tank in aspen which is something i'm not usually associated with dave in a think tank or in aspen but uh with our friend simon sinek yeah and i met through but will through him and we become fast friends there we've had several adventures together since then yeah we have all kinds of weird stuff i still remember when we were going

around the room and in aspen everyone was introducing themselves. I'll never forget what you said. He goes, I kind of feel like a wiener in a steakhouse right now. Well, I mean, there was like the president of Four Seasons Hotel. There was a woman who's a multi-billionaire that has coach stores and all this stuff. And there's all these other people in there. I'm listening to these guys and I'm going, what am I doing in this room? But it was fun. Yeah.

It was fun to hang out. It really was. So then you did the book um and it came out we were blessed to have you on the air here and talk about it when it first came out yeah unreasonable hospitality it keeps getting more and more life especially now that you're the producer and one of the stars on the bear my favorite actor the bear if you're watching the bear will is one of the producers and a lot of this information in the bear came from you yeah and then they then they invited you to join and then eventually i got invited to join the show

which here's the thing i was watching that episode it's after i had met you and i see cousin holding the book as he's in this personal growth journey and you said you had no idea this was even happening i didn't know that they were using the book and the stories from the book it looks like paid product placement it was that front and center but you know so what was so happening. I didn't know that they were using the book and the stories from the book. It looked like paid product placement. It was that front and center. But you know, so what was so cool about that is the book, it's about leadership and service through the lens of hospitality. And one of the feelings I try to like really convey is this idea that hospitality is a selfish pleasure. It's an amazing feeling when you get to make someone else feel good.

And it's also perhaps the best business competitive advantage you can have. But in the show, in that episode, they showed firsthand how someone can find purpose through hospitality in their job and be that much more engaged in pursuit of it in a way that you could never convey in the written word. They used everything that TV has to get the point across. It's a powerful episode. And really, I mean, it's almost a healing tool when you look at generosity through that lens. And Dave's been talking about outrageous generosity for years. And there's so much in common that you guys have in that realm of you have to live a life that is generous, that is open-handed. So you and your partner took 11 in Madison Park, for those that don't know, to the number one restaurant in the world. What does unreasonable hospitality look like in a restaurant?

Yeah. So I believe that if you look across disciplines, right, anyone that's been successful has done so by being unreasonable in pursuit of whatever product they're selling. They do whatever it takes to make it its most fully realized form. And yet one of the problems is when we want to make a product better, we invest in it. We put resources behind it. We invest energy and time into it. And yet so many companies out there want to have better customer service or more hospitality and yet are reticent to make the requisite investments in it. Unreasonable hospitality, it means just doing whatever it takes to make someone feel seen, to give them that sense of belonging. It's unreasonable to do this. Yeah. Yeah. And yet

we're going to do it anyway. Exactly. Because it's mind blowing. Yeah. Because we're in a meeting the other day here and someone said, you need to be reasonable. I'm like, never. Yeah. Reasonable did not get me here. Don't ask me to be reasonable. It's not a chance. And that's about other issues.

But still, same idea. If you want unreasonable results, you have to be unreasonable. And everyone that's been successful can relate to what you just said. Like, no, I'm not going to start being reasonable right now. I'm not going to stop being the very thing that allowed me to be where I am now. And if we devote that same maniacal energy and relentlessness in pursuit of making people just feel awesome. There's this Maya Angelou quote, which I love. People will forget what you say. They will forget what you do, but they'll never forget how you made them feel and i believe that to be true and yet people invest on what we say and what we do but not in how we make people feel yeah and you can have that when you walk into the lobby at ramsey

yeah we've got this idea we cook homemade chocolate chip cookies every morning so when you walk in here you smell mama's kitchen not corporate america yeah you come in to watch the show you get homemade chocolate chip cookies you've got got sweet, wonderful people waiting on you, giving you everything free while you sit and watch the show on the glass. And that's part of the experience you have when you walk onto this campus. I mean, I, I, I believe it doesn't matter what you do for a living. You can make the choice to be in the hospitality industry simply by doing things like that, simply by working a little bit harder to look at what you're serving through the lens of the people you're serving and try to make it

just a little bit more awesome for them. So we got to hang out at a fundraiser with our wives the other night and they finally got to meet after hearing all of our adventures and things we've gotten into trouble with together. But then I opened up my Instagram this morning and at lunch today when we were all just sitting around having lunch because you've been in the building doing deloney show and others today um and you really got to live out the whole dream weaving chapter in true form today so i want you to talk about what a dream weaver is talk about that chapter and talk about what happened today. Yeah. So one of the things we did a lot at the restaurant was we tried to just be super present with the people we were serving and pick up on these little cues that we could use to make their experiences more special. We overheard a family from Spain, parents and their children. We had these big windows that started snowing.

We learned that the kids had never big windows that started snowing. We learned that the kids had never seen real snow until that night. And so we had a position called the Dreamweaver. They were just there to help everyone else on the team bring ideas to life. Dreamweaver somehow found a store still open at eight o'clock on a Friday night selling sleds. And when that family left the restaurant at the end of the meal, we had an Uber SUV parked out front with sleds in the back, a big thermos of hot chocolate in the front to take him sledding in Central Park. We were serving some of the best food in the world. When people went to a restaurant like that years later, they wouldn't remember anything they ate, but they would never forget how we made them feel when we did stuff like that. And by the way, you want to take it to the bottom line.

Every time we did something like that, it ultimately yielded higher profits because you give people stories like that to tell what do you think they're going to do? They're going to tell them over and over and over again. Because while this is a very expensive meal, it doesn't cover Uber and sleds. No, no, no, no. Those are investments. Although you lost money on the whole transaction top to bottom on that one but every dollar was an investment but every dollar ever spent on that was far more impactful than any dollar ever spent on traditional marketing because the people can do your marketing better than you can ever do it forget the facebook so why did you name it dream

weaver after the iconic song by gary right and and story. Because you are a child of the 80s. I am a child of the 80s. And so today. Guilty pleasure chapter. Well, today I did a talk this morning at the Grand Ole Opry. And I was doing this talk. I was speaking to a company there and I was standing on the Sacred Circle and I was talking about the Dreamweaver. And I could not help but sing that song a little bit because I wanted to make sure it was very clear.

When I got off that stage, I made my Grand Ole Opry debut. You can finally say it. I don't know if I've heard your singing voice. It scares me just a little. We'll leave it for the Grand Ole Opry. It scares me a little. But a great picture of you standing in the circle at the Grand Ole Opry. You've got a lot of accolades now and the Bear now Emmy I mean it was just sweeping the Emmys. It was all anyone could talk about. And it's got to be cool to now be producing the show that your book was featured in. And I go, hey, you're going to be producing this next season. And now you're an actor. I mean, you're in the final episode. I'm so excited to see you in there. Sitting next to my wife, actually. Wow. That's special.

No, man. You know, what's so cool is being a part of that show, what I saw was them not only sharing the stories of the book in the show itself, but them living the ideas of the book and how the show was run and produced. And it showed me that if a television set can embrace these ideas and be more impactful as a result, than truly anyone in any industry can. And in the last two years since the book has come out, I've spent time with everyone from the Dallas Cowboys to JP Morgan to Sotheby's Real Estate and literally everyone in between, all people who recognize that if they are as unreasonable in pursuit of people as they are in their product, pretty cool things happen.

Wow. The book is Unreasonable Hospitality by my friend Will Gadara. Number one, one of our top speakers at Entree Summit a couple of years ago. Thank you, man. Fun stuff. Be sure and check it out. It is a number one bestseller and there's a reason. Thanks for stopping by, my friend. Thank you, guys. I appreciate it. If you own a small business and you like The Ramsey Show, then you're going to love the Entree Leadership Podcast. Almost 200,000 listeners tune in every Monday to hear me take calls from real business leaders and give tactical advice based on my 30 years of experience leading.

This is not a podcast about business theory. It's real insight from a practitioner who actually does this stuff. Find it anywhere you listen to podcasts. Or if you're listening on YouTube or Podcast Now, just click the link in the description. Guys, time is running out to book your cabin on the Live Like No One Else cruise. If you are baby step four and beyond we invite you to join us this is a premium caribbean cruise turks and caicos puerto rico st thomas bahamas on holland america's uh one of their newest ships it uh is premium and i don't i don't go on the other kind i i'm kind of

spoiled these days so if you want to come out hang out with ramsey personalities including me and sharon all week long plus many others dina carter steven curse chapman comedian trey kennedy uh world-class chef manit shohan and more you can book your cabin today at ramsey solutions.com slash cruise we're 90 something percent sold out uh and so if you don't get your cabin booked very soon you will have FOMO you will not only have fear of missing out you will just be missing out I can't believe you didn't say don't miss the boat god it was right there it's a soft toss so don't miss the boat there we go there it is we'll edit that in post I like that that's good except there is no post all, Cassie is in Fort Worth. Hi, Cassie, how are you?

Hi, Dave. Thank you for taking my call. Sure, what's up? I would like your non-partial advice on if I should hold my spouse financially responsible for our kids, even though I make more income than he does, i just don't want to put him in a financial hardship i'm confused why would he not pay you mean are you getting a divorce is that what you're saying it is um yes it is about to be filed. We haven't filed yet. He moved out two months ago.

Okay. I'm kind of a dinosaur. I'm an old guy. And so I'm from the generation that believes that men ought to take care of their kids moms and dads are both responsible for their kids i know that's kind of weird in a culture where everybody's lost their dadgum minds but um but yeah and you know if it causes him financial hardship well why work more you brought these kids into the world, you helped pay for them, period. You signed up for the trip, Bubba.

You get to take the trip. So that's why every state in the United States has child support laws. Yes. Because that is the moral and ethical thing to do. So what do you make? Yes, exactly. I am a military veteran, and between my pension and VA benefits, I bring home $7,500 a month. Thank you for your service.

What does he make? He brings home $2,800 a month. Okay. Well, child support is based on a percentage of his income. It is not based on just take all of his money and he has to be homeless. Yes, sir. It's 25% for two kids, but he's saying that he cannot afford that and will end up in jail. I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry. I don sorry i don't care it's the law it's not you being greedy 25 it's not gonna do with you what is this guy you've been how long y'all been married how long you've been married to this guilt trip agent um 11 years yeah he's been doing this a long time hadn't he yes sir i have been enabling a lot of um irresponsible he's a mama's boy from now on mommy always took care of him and he doesn't like it when things are hard bless his little heart i'm sorry i got no sympathy at all can you tell has nothing to do with greed. It has to do with babies. Two babies. Dude, you pay for the babies. That's how it works. Simple. You take care of your

children. It's called ethics. It's called morality. It's called manhood, for God's sakes. You take care of your children. That's simple. And if you don't like what is left over after 25 percent comes out of your pay go make more money go work more go get more jobs and 25 will come out of all of it and that's what the state of texas says apparently i didn't know that but that's okay with me it costs more than 25 of 2800 bucks to raise two kids agreed yes sir yeah so good glad you got good on you you got some money you're not being greedy you're saying you should do a what the law says and b any man ought to be willing to take care of his children that's not you it's not you're not you're not collecting the money and buying a lamborg with 25% of 2,800 bucks.

Exactly. That's what I told him. I'm not going on. You don't need to negotiate with him anymore on this. You just say, see my lawyer, see my lawyer. It's hard to negotiate with a scumbag. That's kind of part of the problem here. We were going to not have lawyers.

Yeah. You need a lawyer. You need a lawyer. You need a lawyer. All right. Yeah. Cause, cause junior needs to sign up and pay for his kids and You need a lawyer. You need a lawyer. All right. Yeah. Because Junior needs to sign up and pay for his kids, and you need a lawyer. Is he going to be in their lives at all? What does this look like?

He's wanting to say that he is going to see them 50-50. That way he doesn't have to pay child support. That's a real man right there. I'm going to pay just enough yeah i listen i if he's gonna take care of half of them and the law says he doesn't have to do it that's fine but you're supposed to that means he needs to take care of half of them not 25 oh there's a different number hmm you got 50 of the time, you got 50% of their expenses. I think it's more than 25%. I don't think math is his strong suit. I might be wrong, but yeah.

I just can't imagine thinking, I'm going to hang out with my kids for financial benefit so I can save some money. I guess I'll hang out with them. That's disgusting. Well, I think here's the core problem is you're trying to have an argument with someone who left, and you don't need to have an argument with them.

You just need to have an attorney that says this is what we're going to do, and you guys need to lay it down, and this is what the law says. And if you want 50% visitation, that's fine. You've got 50% of the expenses of everything associated with them. It goes with the territory, and that's going to be a lot more than 25% of $2,800. So if his only motivation is seeing them 50% as he thinks he's going to get out light, then he's going to figure out, hopefully start doing that sixth grade math thing. It'll catch up and he'll start to figure out it's more than that.

But if he is actually wanting to be in their lives 50%, then I'll call him less of a scumburger than I did a few minutes ago. That's fine. But that does mean, dude, you got 50% of the expenses. That's how that number works so yeah you do need legal representation hun because you're trying to negotiate with someone that doesn't have any knowledge base in this law and and you don't either so you got a little bit you got the 25 number but i because i didn't know that off the top of my head but morally it doesn't make the wife greedy if the husband pays child support.

It's the husband's job to take care of his children just like it's the wife's job to take care of her children. That is not a greed issue, so don't let that drop on you. Wow. You're so old school, Dave. I'm telling you. That's like common sense right there. You create a child, maybe take care of it.

But it's sad. I mean, we've seen this, that divorce turns marriage into a business transaction. And for that, it's wise to have counsel saying, no, I'm not going to let you get hosed on this one just because his feelings were involved. But what he thinks he should or shouldn't pay. It's not how it works. Yeah, his life's not how it works. Yeah. His life's going to be rough. He left. I remember that part and left you with two kids. Yeah. But his life's going to be hard. And he says, he's saying that he wants to be involved.

It didn't, it didn't give me a lot of confidence. She didn't, she didn't believe it. I could tell she didn't believe it i could tell she didn't believe it but that's unfortunate yeah yeah that's the uh uh enough open phones at 888-825-5225 boys and girls if you want to hear the rest of this show it's always on the ramsey network app every day that's a free download and by the way overnight that's where we will be downloading the Donald Trump interview that we did last week in New York City and Trump Tower. So you can finish this episode for free in the Ramsey Network app. It's completely free. Go download it right now. And of course, you can also hear everything else that we do. All the things on Ramsey Network are on there. Video, audio, everything. A lot of behind the scenes things. You can answer questions there,

send in emails there. There's a lot of stuff happening on the Ramsey Network app. Again, 100% free. There is no paid function on the thing at all. And that includes if you want the one day early access to the Donald Trump interview on Wednesday, October the 2nd. That interview will be on all of our podcast and YouTube channels, and you can get it there too. But if you want it early, Ramsey Network app, including the next episode of this show. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, you're still here? What are you doing?

You do know that the rest of today's show is playing right now over on the Ramsey Network app, right? All you got to do to finish the episode is search Ramsey Network in the App Store, Google Play Store, or just click the link in the show notes to download the app for free. Yep, you heard me right, for free. Then right there on the home screen, you can watch the rest of today's show. Bada bing, bada boom. All right, I'm getting out of here. Enjoy. We'll see you on the app.