The Ramsey Show - What Are You Willing To Sacrifice To Get Out of Debt?

Episode Date: November 21, 2024

📈 Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a Free Personalized Plan 📱Watch the full episode for free in the Ramsey Network app. Dave Ramsey & Ken Coleman answer your questions and discuss: "My fiance hasn't filed taxes in 20 years..." "I asked my parents if they can forgive my loan," "Should I rent out my house during the NFL Draft?" "My brother co-signed a car with my late father," "I'm worried grandkids will blow their inheritance," Support Our Sponsors: 🌱 Get 10% off your first month of BetterHelp 🏥 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! 🥗 Save 15% on your first Field of Greens order with code RAMSEY 💤 Visit Helix Sleep for special offers! 💻 Visit NetSuite today to learn more 🗂️ Use promo code RAMSEY for 18% off at The Nokbox 🏛 Get started with YRefy or call 844-2-RAMSEY 🔐 Visit Zander Insurance for your free instant quote today! Next Steps 📞 Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET or click here! 🎄 You could win $5,000 in the Ramsey Christmas Cash Giveaway! Enter today. 🩺 Find the Right Health Coverage During Open Enrollment 💵 Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app! 🎁 50 days of Christmas deals are here! Get 30% off meaningful gifts. 🛳️ Live Like No One Else Cruise Listen to more from Ramsey Network 🎙️ The Ramsey Show   🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💡 The Rachel Cruze Show 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 💰 George Kamel 💼 The Ken Coleman Show 📈 EntreLeadership Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

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 Ken Coleman, number one bestselling author. Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Open phones here at 888-825-5225. Thank you for joining us. Liz starts off this hour in Mobile, Alabama. Hi Liz, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, how are you doing? Better than I deserve.

What's up? Me too. So I am with someone very committed that I find out he's not filed tax. He's been having taxes taken out of his checks and things like that that he hasn't actually filed in about 20 years. And I'm trying to figure out the rest of my life basically because we're very committed. He's 10 years older than I am and wants to retire not where we currently live. And I don't really want to go because this is where my job is and I'm not ready for retirement I still have about ten ten more years before I can retire and I just know that once I leave there what leave here then I have to start over so a little little advice maybe. I don't know. I mean how do you

feel about planning your future with someone that's in jail? Not real confident about that. Yeah I'm pretty confident that's where he's going. Yeah. Failure to file federal income taxes is a federal crime. 2581 people were incarcerated for that last year. Okay. It's go to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. So I mean Mr. Off the Grid or whatever the flip is going through his redneck brain is about to have a serious problem and to the extent you're connected to him, you're going to have a serious problem. They will catch up with him.

They're not good at a lot at the IRS, but they're really good at collecting taxes. Okay. So why has he, why has he pray tell not filed his income taxes? I am not 100% sure of that answer. I just know that there was a history of no job and then so he didn't have to do that obviously but then when he did I don't I don't really know what the thought process was there so I can't I can't answer that one it sounds like there wasn't a thought process that's what it sounds so I know there's just a lot of red flags there if you were my little sister I would just tell you to rethink whether you're gonna be committed to this guy. If he is going to clean up his act and get caught up on his filings, you know maybe he now, maybe

that would entitle him to your attention. But he's not entitled to your attention right now because this is not a good guy. I don't think he's. But he's not entitled to your attention right now because this is not a good guy. I don't think he's evil but he's really slothful. This is dangerous. This is dangerous Liz. Liz if he's willing to withhold information from the federal government and Dave's made it really clear what the consequences of that looks like. He's, what praytel is he willing to withhold from you? This is two praytels in one call.

I know, I'm sorry, that just jumped into me. It's such a great phrase. Liz, I think Dave was really crystal clear with you, but I would dump this guy until he cleaned his life up. If he will not get current on his taxes, that's a deal breaker for me. If you're my little sister, I'm going to make you do that. Now if he wants to get current and not go to jail, I can actually walk him through that and I'll give you a little quick overview because now that I've stirred this up, there's other people sitting out there going, oh God. So here's what he can do.

You can go to ramsesolutions.com, you can get in touch with one of our tax endorsed local providers and if you will pro actively go to the IRS you usually can file about three maybe four years worth and they will call they will let you get back on the grid and there'll be no criminal charges. The criminal charges. The criminal charges do not occur when people come to them. I've never seen anyone get criminal charges that where we walk them out of the out of the dark

into the light into the IRS office with a professional and get them caught up. Okay, he's gonna be okay if he does that but if they find him and He's trying to hide. Oh That's when you get in trouble So he can get with a tax professional probably file about three years Maybe four years worth they will call it even they'll call it a day And he's gonna have to go back dig up his w-2s and figure out what's been withheld. He may not even owe a lot of taxes. He may have had so much withheld that there's actually money due to him. Well, not with the penalties and interest

he's gonna get. But anyway, you see what I'm saying? It might not be a hundred thousand dollar problem, but it is a problem. It's like a big deal, okay? So if he's gonna date my little sister Liz and ask her to commit to him long-term in the form of marriage or something long-term, Big Brother Dave is gonna say, uh-uh, unless you're willing to get current on your taxes and stay current, because I don't want my little sister Liz married to a jailbird.

Yeah, and God only knows what he gets her twisted into too. I mean, I'm not trying to just pour on here, Liz, with the things that could happen, but this is so bad. And I don't like the idea that he wants you to move, start over fresh. I mean, this relationship is really jacked up. I think the pause is necessary. I really think this is a relationship issue is all this is.

This is a money issue. It's not your problem. And it shouldn't be your problem. Yeah. And it's gonna show up in a whole bunch of places. Oof. It's gonna be a problem. It's funny that you say that, Dave,

because the IRS loves when you come knocking on the door. They love to collect your taxes. But boy, oh boy, they get mad if you haven't sent it in. Oh, man. They will turn it into a... Oh I'm one of their favorite hobbies. They've got their own office here auditing me. They just live with us.

But you know I hate those people. But I'm not like a proponent of you know like I think the federal income tax system is a wonderful thing. I don't. I think it's horrible. I think it's an out of control, arcane, horrible process. I'm not any of that, but I'm just saying when you don't file taxes, it's not you're making a statement about them, you're making a statement about you.

That's correct. Yeah, we love our freedom more than we hate taxes. And so that's the issue here. Well, it's a matter of integrity to do what the law says even if you disagree with it. I agree. Thus you should go to jail if you break the law. Be careful Liz, be careful. You've been warned hon and now you know. Open phones here at 888-825-5225. By the way, what's tied to that is this Tom Stanley that did the book millionaire next door many years ago. He's passed away since it was 1992 He did a book later on billionaires and the number one character quality he found among the self-made Billionaires was integrity Hmm that's kind of like the opposite of the spectrum of Liz's guy

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How are you? What's up Dave? I'm good. How about you? Better than I deserve, man. How can I help? That's good. Um, so I'm 23 years old and I have a loan. I owe my parents $10,000 right now. For what? It's an interest free loan. About $8,000 is for my few previous months of rent that I needed help with. Okay. So I asked them to forgive the loan and they got upset with me. They said I was ungrateful and they that I needed to

work harder. And so I was already kind of on the hunt for a part time job so that I can a second job so that I can pay off the debt quicker. Good. But so right now I've got about 25 clients as a farrier. So I trim and shoe horses. Right. So what does a 23 year old farrier with 25 clients make in Colorado? What kind of money you make? Well, so like before gas and tax and supplies and all that good stuff, I'm probably gonna make about 15,000 this year. So not very much at all. Probably like closer to 10,000.

That sounds more like a side hustle than a job. Right, right. And so I really anticipated just being able to grow my business quicker, which is why I was more comfortable getting these loans like they're not huge loans, but What's your question Patrick, how can we help you? So I asked my parents to forgive the loan and I

And they got upset with me. You told us that and like I had I struggle already with my how upset did you ask no I said you told us that already oh okay I'm sorry that's okay so like how do I am the thing is I I my parents I didn't go to college I became a failure and i'm the youngest of five kids and my parents have given my other siblings uh... help with college and so that's why i was comfortable asking them to forgive the loan but well i guess i mean you're probably gonna tell me just just get a second job and pay it

off i will tell you get a real job you already have the second job. Ten thousand dollars is not even survival money dude. Right. Do you are you a farrier because you love horses? I do yeah. Okay then how does one make forty thousand? How does one make sixty thousand? How does one make eighty thousand dollars working with horses? I don't know the answer. You probably do, correct? Right, and so that's why I asked for them to forgive the loan.

Monty, this is not... Listen, listen, listen, we need to quit talking about forgiving. Stop, stop, Patrick. Patrick, Patrick, stop. We don't need to talk about forgiving the loan. They're not gonna forgive the loan. They told you to go get a life and pay them So let's go get a life and pay them answer Ken's question Why what does it take to make forty thousand or eighty thousand screwing around with horses? Well, you can make good money as a failure if you have a lot of clients you need like a hundred or more clients No, you have twenty three you make 10,000.

A hundred would be 40,000 and that's gross, not net. That's still not good money. The answer, Patrick, is not to double down and say, well, I'm not good at marketing my services. Well, that's a lesson that you've now learned and Dave's right. So what you do have is a decent side hustle. But the answer is, the question is, what must one do to get a 60 or 80 or $100,000 job

working with horses? We're creating a ladder here. Also, the answer should be, well, Ken, I would have to go work for a large ranch and I would start out here and a lower level ranch hand is gonna make 32,000. I'm making this up, Patrick, but you know the answer to these questions

or you could go get the answers. And you have now got to get serious to say, I've got to take care of myself, and I can't even take care of myself on $10,000 to $15,000. So go get up the next level, or the two or three rungs up the ladder in the horse industry. And if you can't do that, get into some other type of thing with a ranch.

While you're thinking about all that, just go to work for Amazon 40 hours a week and throw boxes or FedEx and go 40 hours a week and throw boxes right now twenty twenty five dollars an hour and go make ten thousand dollars right quick and hand it to your dad okay. Yeah I'll probably go be a stripper. Okay. Oh that'd be great yeah the fair a farrier stripper. Fantastic. That's a stripper. Oh, that'd be great. Yeah, a farrier stripper. Fantastic. That's a novel idea. That's correct.

Well, he's got a whole different motif for stripping. Apparently he's got the clothing. I guess he's got the chaps. Oh, you're killing me here. I know, he did it. This kid's not serious. No, you're not, Patrick. That's not a serious answer to what we just were trying to do.

I think I know why your parents are angry with you, Patrick. I'm kinda getting the understanding now. Well, I'll just go be a stripper Oh brother, that was that's not even funny. Really. I mean, it's just weird. Okay, so go go get a job Honey and make you some money. That's the answer to your question. All right Open phones at triple eight eight two five five two two five. Ellie is with us in Rockford, Illinois. Hey Ellie, what's up? Ellie is with us in Rockford, Illinois. Hey Ellie, what's up? Hi Dave, how are you guys doing?

Better than I deserve. What's up? Awesome. So I have to say, first of all, our son introduced me to you a while back and we live completely debt free, mortgage and everything, and you have changed our whole family's life. So thank you so much for that. I'm proud of you. Way to go.

Yeah. But the question is, so my husband's job is relocating us for the next two to four years. And there is potential that we will continue to relocate every two to four years until he retires in 12 years. The house that we are in right now, it is paid off, but we're in an area that really never increased with the market, so it's probably only going to go for $150,000.

The houses in the market that we're moving to are going to be more in that $300,000 to $400,000 range, and that is going to mean that we would have to go back into debt if we choose to buy a house. Um, the job does provide a $3,000 a month stipend, um, an increase in his wages as well as overtime. So all of that together makes it worth the move. Um, so we're kind of trying to spend the next 12 years maximizing what we're doing to get to a good spot in retirement. But Dave, I gotta say, I've done the beans and rice once already.

I don't want to live in a beans and rice apartment. So the question is, should we buy a house or should we rent when we're moving every two to four years? Probably in most markets, you're going to be renting. Here's how you can do the equation. Okay? Ask the real estate agent to run some numbers in a five or a 10 mile radius of the neighborhood you're looking in in the new city. Here's the numbers you want.

I wanna know in the last three years what the average rate of appreciation is. How much are houses going up? 2%, no percent, 10%. Okay? The second number I want to know is called DOM, average days on the market. Okay? And those numbers will run together. Okay, here's what it'll sound like. If you hear a zero or a 2%, you might hear 270 days average on the market. That means it's not going to go up in value and it's going to be hard to sell. That neighborhood you rent in. If it says we're going up 10% a year for two years

or three years or four years and the average days on the market is 7, well you're gonna make some money and you can get out of the house. If you get those two statistics they'll tell you mathematically whether it's worth buying or not. But you don't want a slow market and you don't want a non-appreciating market. You're going to lose money on a two-year or a three-year horizon. For free tools and resources to help you reach your home goals, go to ramsysolutions.com slash real estate or click the link in the show notes. What does the future hold for business? Ask nine experts and you'll get 10 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 ken colman ramsey personality is my cohost today thank you for joining us

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might not be in all states. Today's question comes from Hayden in Wisconsin. The NFL draft is coming to my city next year, and I own a house close to where it will all be held. People in my neighborhood are renting their houses out during that time for upwards of $10,000. I have an opportunity to make enough money to make a huge dent in my credit card debt.

I'm 27, I earn $95,000 a year, and I have about 30,000 in debt, and I have about $30,000 in debt, and have been working hard to get out of Baby Step 2. It is my stepdad's dream to attend an NFL draft, so he and my mom have already assumed they can stay in my house for free. My heart is telling me that the money doesn't matter and I will pay off this debt without this opportunity,

but friends are telling me that I'm foolish for not telling them no and renting the house out. What would you do in this situation? I'll tell you what I would do. I'd tell mom and dad what's going on and go, I'm renting this house out and it is going to massively change my situation. I would love for you to stay. In any other time, for any other situation, my house is your house, but I hope you understand

and hope you guys can get a hotel and maybe it's 30 minutes out I hope you find something but I would actually tell mom and dad I'm written it out for the 10 grand wouldn't even blink I completely agree I was wondering what you're gonna say I agree the only thing I'm wondering was some of this wording is if you have absolutely already decided before they asked that you were going to do this, then Ken's answer is correct. If they asked and then you thought, you know, I could probably do 10 grand. I'm starting again. You know, it's like, but by and large, yes, just tell them they're going to have to stay

somewhere else. And it doesn't crush his dream Yeah, if he wants to go the NFL Draft go the NFL Draft. It's really not it's not that big a deal I mean and I can't believe people are paying that well, we had the NFL Draft here in Nashville I just I think was three years ago and I took my boys down I'm friends with several guys in the NFL Network and they showed my boys the red carpet and they got to go behind the scenes But Dave it was unbelievable. But were people paying people $10,000 for the week in Nashville? I don't know what the rental was,

but I can tell you that the streets were absolutely packed and it has become a massive event. I believe it was in Kansas City last time. We're talking hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people were on the street, the Broadway, Nashville, the main road on actual draft night. It is a massive thing. So it's kind of like a golf tournament.

Was it Milwaukee probably? It'll be in Milwaukee. That's where he is. Okay. Well no that's not true because they do it in NFL City. It'll be in Green Bay. The Green Bay Packers. Well now let me help you then. So now. It'll be a real shortage of housing. And that's why they're getting that. That's why they're gonna get that. It's like Augusta. Everybody in Augusta, Georgia does. It's a little town and it's a one-time thing. Yeah. Yeah you're gonna get, he's gonna be driving in. Yeah, I agree. Or stay 30, 45 minutes out.

That's what I mean, he's gonna be driving in. Yeah, okay, I got you, Steve. Papa's gonna be driving in. And by the way, where are you going, Hayden? Yeah, I know. You're not going to the draft, you're leaving town, I guess, huh? And going to Vegas for the weekend, I don't know.

But yeah, you're gonna figure out what you're doing here and don't go blow the ten grand while you're gone. I love that he wants to knock this debt out. Love this idea. And if you can get a windfall of cash because of that, that's awesome. I'm in. Camille is in St. Louis. Hi Camille. How are you? Hi, how are you Dave? I'm welcome to the blessings and I'm just I feel like you're the preacher to my soul for finances and thank you Amen bless your heart Yes, my baby brother god bless my love with all my heart he co-signed on a vehicle with my father And unfortunately our father passed away. Oh no

Yeah, he was my best friend the original loan amount for the car was over $55,000. So there's been no payments since his death. And my brother said, well, when I sat down at signing, they said, if anything happened to dad, it would be paid. I said, they lie. You didn't read the fine print. I told you not to do this, so on and so forth.

A settle company sent him something in a mail saying that they released a lien for a subtle amount of $8,400 but I'm reluctant because I'm like are these people even legit? How do I like what do I what do I tell them to do? Yeah um There's a tiny possibility That these people while they were ripping your father and your brother off with this car loan that they put credit life insurance on this loan

that if your dad died the life insurance would pay off the loan. These are the type and by the way credit life insurance is ridiculously expensive a horrible product never buy it, but I got a feeling these are the type of people would sell that to your dad and your brother because they sound like people that are an easy mark for a con. And so your brother might have heard them right.

They might have said this credit life right here will pay off the loan. So first I want you to investigate with the lender whether there was credit life insurance on the loan. That's the first thing you do. You call the lender and you ask them that or you have your brother do that. They won't talk to you because your name is not on it. And then if it is not and he can settle it for $8,400 that sounds like a bargain where's the car it's in his possession is literally

right outside the house it's parked he starts the once in a while he's scared to drive it in case he gets pulled over and it gets impounded he says I have no way of getting it out so it's literally just sitting there and I'm confused as to why it hasn't been repossessed. Me too. They probably just don't know where it is. I mean it's 2020 so it doesn't have all these newfangled tracking devices blah blah. I know but they don't know where it... I don't know I mean it sounds like they're not hunting it down too hard. If you can settle a $55,000 debt for $8,400 we want to do that what he would do is call them and get

He want that get proof that they are the holder of the loan who is a settlement company Do are they the actual person I should be negotiating with and are they had do they do they have the title to the car? Are they you know send me proof of the debt and if he gets proof of the debt and send me proof of the debt and if he gets proof of the debt and scrape together eighty four hundred dollars and gets a fifty five thousand dollar car for that that's gonna not be bad okay okay but I got a feeling he's got credit life on this thing so if he did though why would they even want eighty four hundred sitting at because why because they didn't look at it they didn't have they have but because they're incompetent

Okay, okay credit. I'll look into all those things you mentioned. Thank you so much. Thank you darling. Appreciate you calling Wow the cosigning thing People always do this as if everything is gonna work out Perfectly and in case you haven't lived long enough, I got a clue for you. Nothing ever works out perfectly. Nothing goes exactly like it's supposed to go ever. And cosigning, I've done it and I've had people do it for me and it's stupid. It's just dumb. It's even in the Bible that it's dumb.

Proverbs 17, 18 says, one lacking in sense cosigns for another. God just said you're lacking in sense. That's pretty strong. Yeah, no wiggle room there. Yeah. So don't cosign. You get in situations like this. This is a bizarre one right here. But I mean, who cosigns and thinks the person is going to die? That's not one you come up with usually, but it happens obviously, and man, what a deal, what a deal.

So do not cosign and do not buy credit life. Don't take out a loan of this type period, but for sure, credit life insurance is somewhere around 200 times more expensive than term life insurance. Dave, real quick, what would be a default answer to a family member or a friend who comes to you and says, will you co-sign? Because this is a tough and emotional situation. What would you say to honor them but also keep that common sense? I would say I can't do that because if the bank is not willing to do the loan

then there's all kinds of problems that are going to happen and I would never want to be crossways with you and you not paying something and I have to pay it would cause me to end up being crossways with you and I value our relationship more than that. That's textbook. No. All that to say no. No. This is The Ramsey Show. for me is the great Jean-Noel Thompson. He taught me how to be a dad, a husband, a professional, and how to balance caring for a bunch of people all at the same time. We all know of somebody else we can be grateful for, but there's one person that we often don't take time

to thank. Ourselves. We don't always acknowledge that we're surviving, that we're moving forward, and that we're working towards a better life and better relationships. And in a world where everything's gone bonkers, it's not always easy. So here's my reminder to thank the people that you love, thank the people in your life, and thank you. Sometimes we need some professional help to talk to somebody trained to help us discover true gratitude for ourselves and others, especially in the holiday season. That's why I recommend BetterHelp. BetterHelp is 100% online therapy. You can talk with your therapist at any time, so it's convenient for your schedule. Just fill out a short online survey to

get matched with a licensed therapist. Plus, you can switch therapists at any time for no extra cost. and switch therapists at any time for no extra cost. Let the gratitude flow with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash Deloney to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash Deloney. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, the bestselling author of the book, Paycheck to Purpose is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Sherry is in Orlando. Hi Sherry, how are you?

Hi, good, how are you Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? So, I'll keep the question short and I'll give you the background. Basically, I opened a new business about two, three months ago. I am not really getting any sales. I'm doing standard advertising through I'm selling on Amazon right now. I'm doing advertising through them, social media, like WhatsApp, French Family to try to get the word out and I'm still not getting anything.

I'm wondering is there something that I should be doing more? When would be the time to say, this is just a failed business idea and to just stop and cut my losses? What are you selling? So, specifically right now, it's a clothing brand and right now I'm starting with formal dresses for breastfeeding.

I'm actually the only one that tells that. There is no one else that tells that, which makes it very even more difficult to understand why there is no sales, really. Well, can I take a stab? Well, I think, and I'm a guy, but I have three kids. I just don't think a lot of women that are in the breastfeeding stage

are going to formal events, and therefore there's not a lot of demand. So from my personal experience that's the reason I came up with this idea is because I had a very hard time finding this and talking to a lot of people in sort of the community, friends, family, there seems to be a demand. There seem to be people that women that are interested in. Have you done any research to go what's the market? Like who's the... Your sales indicate that's not so. Have you done any research to go what's the market? Like who's the sales indicate? That's not so who's the Walmart of those type addresses?

And if there isn't one, we now have a starting to get a clue. Like who is the dominant player or two in that particular wardrobe sector? I did you develop the product or are you selling someone else's product? No, I developed a product. There is no one else that sells the cat product that I am selling Okay, all right

The short answer to your question is there's a wonderful book and you want to pick it up by dr. Henry cloud called necessary endings Okay, okay, and the the way we ascertain whether to end anything, a relationship, a job, an employee in their job with working for you, close a business, move a tenant out, is when we lose hope that there is an actual way to success. When we've tried everything and we do not, we cannot see a way to success. We can't see our way to success. So let me give you a weird example, has nothing to do with your question, okay? A lady is married to a guy who has an alcohol problem.

He's been in and out of the rehab three times. She loses hope that he's ever going to quit drinking. She doesn't see a way to success so she ends their marriage. You follow me? And so you've tried, once you've tried everything that you know how to do to get this product out and it's not selling, then yes, we declare that a miss. We declare that a failed business. And it doesn't mean you are a failure, it means that idea didn't work. And I've been running Ramsey Solutions for 32 years and the

number of ideas that we have launched that didn't work are too numerous to count. We have sucked so many times it's unbelievable. Okay now you guys all know us for the things we're successful at but we have tried and failed at so many things. So this might be just one of those things that your heart told you this was going to work but your statement of there is an actual demand for this product has not the marketplace is not telling you that. If you are getting the message to ladies that are breastfeeding and they are not buying this dress

then if you're actually targeting them with your marketing and you're getting the message to them, the message is in front of them on Facebook or it's in front of them on Amazon feed or LinkedIn or whatever it is you're doing, however you're getting the message to them and they're not buying it, then the marketplace is telling you there's not as much demand as your heart thought there was and this is the end of the program. Now you might say, okay I think I could do this or this, okay good, then try those two things, and if you still don't get it moving, then you just you don't want to get delusional and

just go I'm gonna keep going no matter what. No, no, no, there's sometimes the marketplace is looking at you and saying you missed it. Yeah, I agree. You just, before you launch anything, quick little lesson to anybody out there It's worth doing research to see Who's in the space that you want to be in and how many are in the space who's winning? Why are they winning and those are just basic things that you want to look into so that you don't get into something that your Heart's totally engaged in but you didn't do the head work and that's the logical research to see if there is a market supply demand is economics 101 if there's no demand

then there's not a supply of customers is the way you want to look at that and then the other thing is if you're starting something like that with the way she's just selling it on, you know, that's her distribution methodology. So just buy a very, very small run. I agree. And set up a manufacturer that can turn them real fast if you get a bunch of orders, but don't fill up your basement with something

that's not proven. And don't spend a bunch of money on a credit card to run the marketing with some Amazon marketing program crap. Use real cash to pay for your marketing and when you sell a dress or two, you can reinvest that cash and back into some more inventory and some more and do this as a side hustle. Don't go all in on something that you've not proven. It's proven when people actually give you money for it. I was in a meeting this morning here at Ramsey and they were, you know, the leadership team was presenting me

with this thing, this prototype thing we've been working on and they're like, all the customers are just eating it up. And I went, so how much money we collected on it? And they said, well, we haven't gone to that stage yet. And I said, oh, so you figured out we can give it away. Right. Right. Next stage is can we get money for it oh there's that that's right oh then we'll find out if this is crap real okay that's funny because it's real when you people give you money for it we've seen what people do at NFL games when the cheerleaders come around with free t-shirts it's like they're handing out gold bullion yeah grown adults are acting crazy for anything free. That's a very good point.

Very interesting. And you know, if you thought you had a demand, you got to prove it by collecting money from the customer. That's your social proof that the product is doable and is going to make sense. Lexington, Kentucky. Kelsey's on the line. Hi Kelsey what's up? Hi Dave how are you doing? Better than I deserve how can I help? Good I was calling because I wanted to know when an okay time would be for my husband and I to start trying to have a baby now and make sure that we're financially stable. Now right now? Right now that's what I'm saying but he wants to pay off the house. Now. Right now. Right now. That's what I'm saying, but he wants to pay off the house. No. That we have no debt. No. No. Dave, would you be more clear

with her please? No, you need to have babies. You need to have them right now. After the call. No, right now. I'll go work on that, thank you. No, seriously the the thing is people have this thing in their head because the media has told them that children are so expensive they're not that expensive. The first couple years you buy some formula on diapers and you have to pay the pediatrician's Porsche payment but they're other than that after that they start eating your food and stuff and they're really they're not, it's this idea that you have to somehow be wealthy to raise children is absolutely asinine. Poor people have raised lots of children and functional ones too.

They learn to work, they learn to clean house, they learn to be good kids. And so no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, they are not those two things are not connected. Same thing with getting married. You ready to get married? Get married. As long as you're both on the same team and you're in agreement about what we're going to do with money, it's time to get married. Okay, we're going to get out of debt.

You don't have to get out of debt before you get married. We don't tell people that. Never have in 30 years on this show. And we don't tell people to not have babies. Now I would say the rare exception, the exception of that would be okay You're four months behind on your house, and he hasn't worked in two years Well, that's yeah, okay now. We got to fix some stuff We're in crisis mode, but I have to pay off my home before I have babies nah Nah, nope not from this show. We never said that No. He's gonna be thrilled with that answer.

Oh, he's gonna love us. Can't wait to see it. He's gonna love us. This is 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. Simply search

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He's my cohost today. Melinda is with us. Melinda is in Spokane. Hi Melinda, how are you? Hi, I'm healthy and well, thank you. How can we help? My question it's about estate and inheritance. We on our property, I call her my mother-in-law. Someone she put We on our property, we, I call her my mother in love. Um, someone, she, um, put, uh, ADU manufactured home on our property and we

love her and she wants to leave that home to my daughters, adult, young adult daughters eventually, and it has a DMV title and looking into she wants it to just be a very simple probate avoiding kind of a thing so if we if she adds the girls names to the title I just want to make sure that there's no unintended consequences? Would she lose her homeowners exemption? Is there any risk to adding names to the title ahead of time? I don't know because I don't know the law in the state of Washington and that's what you'd need to find out. You won't, I'm not worried about the insurance, but because this is a DMV title, Department of Motor Vehicles title,

it's more like a car we're dealing with title than we are a house. And so, and car titles are sometimes dramatically different from state to state as to how they're handled. What I would tell you to investigate with the DMV is is there a mechanism there in the state of Washington that allows a POD, paid on death is what that stands for and so you could put it you could put it It's almost like the beneficiary of a policy

That can you put that upon death this? transfers to your daughter Automatically and and it may be it may be for instance some states allow you to do that on a bank account That a simple savings account at your bank can have a POD on it, a paid on death to someone, and it goes directly to them then. It's not an issue of the will or probate at that point.

The, I mean, the mechanics of it is that there shouldn't be any tax issues. Does she owe money on the property, on the mobile home? No, it's paid in full. Okay, that's good. What's confusing to me is that, I'm near Spokane in Idaho, if she pays property tax for the same, you know, she gets the same kind of a tax bill that we do for our home. So I have to... The same you know she gets the same kind of a tax bill that we do for our home So she pays a personal property tax on it because she doesn't own the dirt under it right you do Yes

Okay, so she's not paying property tax there might be a personal property tax on a mobile home in that area that wouldn't be unusual At all, but she does not get a she does not get a real estate because she doesn't own any real estate right now okay can I can I can I interfere in your situation yes don't do this okay your grown daughters are gonna own a mobile home sitting on dirt you own this is going to cause a conflict okay she needs to leave it to you because it's sitting on your property and then you're going to promise her you're going to leave everything to your kids and so whatever wealth this represents will ultimately go to your kids but it's going to cause okay I mean your daughters can't do anything with it it's sitting on your land exactly yeah and and I think what I appreciate about what you're saying is we are in a situation

where everybody's so amicable and it there's no conflict right now that it just wouldn't open up opportunity. Yeah but let's say your daughter wants to sell this thing. Okay now she's got a hook up to it and haul it somewhere and sell it. Or she or she's gonna come to you and want a piece of dirt under it given to her and then you're gonna have a next-door neighbor that has nothing to do with anything because your daughter wanted to take this money and go buy a whatever and everybody's still happy and amicable but it's just really awkward. You're just begging, you're begging for conflict in this. That's so interesting. I

love hearing an outside perspective on that. Yeah, it's up to you. You all do whatever you want to do. And I think your mother's sweet mother-in-law is sweet as she can be. And she's trying to do a sweet thing here. But I personally wouldn't do that. And if I were your mother-in-law, I wouldn't do it because I don't want to cause potential trouble between my grandbabies and their parents. You know, I want to keep this thing clean. The cleanliness of it is a big deal. Yeah, I agree. I just think whatever it's worth, I'd sell it and then just keep the money and then eventually put it. I just keep it super simple.

Well, or if she does do that, go ahead and have an agreement with your daughter that immediately upon mother-in-law's death She's just gonna hook up to the thing and sell it Yeah We're gonna get rid of it and turned into money and you take that money and that was a blessing from your grandmother And that's good But we're not gonna leave it there and rent it sitting on having a rental property in a mobile home next door to you Melinda cuz my guess is land that you own that just starting to get Awkward it wouldn't be on their land if it wasn't the mother-in-law Melinda, on land that you own. That's just starting to get awkward.

It wouldn't be on their land if it wasn't the mother-in-law. Exactly. So it's like they don't want it there when she's gone. Exactly. Well I mean unless one of the daughters moved into it, but then you've now we've you know we've continued this. So it's just there's all kinds of you'll end up being a caller on the show later I'm afraid. Open phones at triple 8 8825-5225. Jake is with us in Miami. Hi Jake, what's up? Hey Dave, good. Thanks for having me on. Certainly, how can we help?

So I just wanted to get some guidance. My wife and I recently got married about two years ago. We're doing the budget, you know, month to month, every dollar. We're doing great. It's just, it's harder for her sometimes to cut back and I've been doing it a little bit before we got married so I'm a little bit more used to it and I'm a little less materialistic I don't really spend a lot of money on myself and you know all that stuff. You don't have children yet do you? No, no children yet. So okay the reason is she feels like she's having to cut back to There's no vision in this and meaning the two of you need to agree that we were trying to get somewhere With the management of this money and whatever that somewhere is we want to save up money to buy a house

We want to get out of debt we want to do this or we want to do that you need to have something big that you're both agreed to a why Why are we doing this right now? The only why is you put her on a budget that don't work All right, if she agrees with the why She will want to sacrifice to get to the why and you won't have to talk to her about it. I'm a spender but it's easy for me to cut when I have a good reason because I'm going somewhere. This is the Ramsey Show. I've been doing this show for over 30 years and some of the saddest calls I have 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 in the middle of all that grief, it's just terrible. 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. Xander is the place that Winston and I actually get all of our life insurance. And it doesn't cost much because Xander 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. Folks the Ramsey Christmas cash giveaway is here and you could win big. We're giving away $500 prizes each week and one grand prize of $5,000.

Enter daily for your chance to win at ramsaysolutions.com slash giveaway. It's that easy. Plus our 50 days of Christmas deals is on right now. Get up to 30% off bestsellers and life-changing gifts that won't break the holiday budget. ramsaysolutions.com slash store. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Julia is in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Hi Julia, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi. Hello Dave. So my husband had a stroke a year ago and he hasn't been able to work and I had to quit also to be able to care for him. And so we've gone through savings this last year and

so I'm at a point now I need to dip into our 401k and I don't know whether I should just do like a three month chunk. Should I do a six month chunk? He probably will not be going back to work maybe hopefully six months, maybe a year down the road. I don't know, I didn't know what financially I should do about that. Wow, sorry. How old is he? Well, he'll be 50 in January whoa what a devastating thing I'm so sorry he was definitely our the breadwinner of the family and so it has been difficult I can imagine oh wow I'm so sorry um well what we always want

to do is to get what's's going to get us to sustainability? And sustainability is not going to come from draining the 401k, it's going to come from someone creating an income there. So what were you making at your old job before? Maybe 10,000 a year. Oh, you weren't working much. No, no. I mostly was pretty much taking care of the kids.

I have a college-age daughter, a high schooler, and a middle schooler. And so I just kind of worked here and there. Well, I worked an office job around their schedules. What was he making, and what did he do? He was a computer programmer. He was a senior software computer programmer and made well over a hundred thousand. And what you were kind of saying six months, twelve months, I mean what are the doctors telling you about his recovery?

Well, we just got approved for disability. So they definitely see that he's not going to be going back anytime soon. He feels like he keeps saying that he would like to go back, and he'll say three months or six months. I don't know. I mean, we would love for him to be able to go back in six months, but... How long ago was the stroke? Almost a year ago.

Next month will be one year. And how is he progressing as far as his healing goes? So he's still paralyzed on one side of his body. He has a little bit of movement in one of his legs. His one arm doesn't have movement yet. He mentally he's there. He has difficulty getting things out. Like he can't type on a typewriter. He can talk, or typewriter, that's so old, a computer. So he has, like he can check emails,

he can't respond, it's just not there yet. He has been able to do a few little things, like he has picked up his phone sometimes and been able to text. If you were at work all day, can he care for himself? No, no. No, I have to be with him at least every couple hours. He has to go to the bathroom and I have to help him. How much is the disability? How much is the disability? It's $3,500 a month.

What does it take for you all to survive monthly? I've cut back as much as I possibly can and you know we're like $6,000 or $8, thousand a month. Okay. But we just got approved. This is our, for last month was our first check that we were able to get from Social Security. And so this next month will be the second month. Okay. So that's why I put in like... So where is the eight thousand going? Help me with it. You got a huge house payment? No, we have $1,300 of the house payment. I have a car payment.

How much? $430. Food, kids are expensive, you know, internet. Okay, no none of that adds up to $8,000. Well we have... I got $1,700 plus food and the kids don't get expenses, their dad had a stroke. I know. I have a daughter in college. I got 1700 plus food and the kids don't get expenses. Their dad had a stroke. I know. I have a daughter in college. Um, so we, what's the, what's the tuition on that monthly

tuition? Actually, we just got it approved for, um, fast. The gave us a, it's not fast. But the government gave her enough to cover this month, this semester's tuition. So I'm not out any more money now. We had to prove a bunch of stuff and okay. Then we're not at $8,000 because she gets a job while she's in school. Yes. To cover her expenses. Is she living in home? No home no no she's in an apartment he had worked all summer yeah she's gonna have to self support she's gonna have to have self support yes she don't have a choice she have a choice that's where

you are okay here's the thing all right you've guys have got to get your, your out go within your income because otherwise you're going to burn through the 401k and then you don't have a plan. Right. There's nothing you can do then. Okay so we've got to do something to get incomes coming in, in addition to the disability. I don't know what that is or how that is. Yeah I was going to ask really quick, what kind of work did you do before Julia? I have a psychology degree and I was an office manager.

Okay, great. Great answer because I'm just going to say this really quickly. Yes, you have to be anchored at home, but it sounds like to me you could put in a pretty good day there with some slight interruptions. Remote work. Remote work right now. We have physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy that I take into. I probably could do... Well, but Julia, you're in a desperate situation and I want to be very sensitive to this, but this is where friends and family come in. You are the breadwinner now. And so we gotta have friends and family that we rely on.

And maybe the kids, one of the kids can drive and they tell me, we gotta figure this out to get into this therapy, but you can do remote work. You can't be in a burn rate of $5,000 a month and survive. You can be making 20 to $25 an hour in a remote situation doing the same kind of work you did as an office manager, just organizational in nature, you could be a remote assistant.

I want you to do the research on the type of work you could do, because I think you'd be surprised the kind of income you can make. You have to make that right now. He's not going to be doing coding anytime soon, the guy you described to me. No, he tells me he is. I know but the guy you described to me is not. No, I know. He's not even sending an email back. So not yet. I hope he is. I hope he heals. I hope the therapy kicks in. But I'm saying if this takes 12 months and

you're 3,000 coming in with disability and eight thousand going out that's a five thousand dollar burn rate you see what I'm doing that doesn't work you've got to get the burn rate down and get the incomes up a little bit it doesn't have to be you don't have to make two hundred thousand dollars a year but you've got to get to survival level mathematically where you're breaking even and And when you do that, then if you need to take a little out of 401k for one little short period of time, fine. But do you want to just burn and burn and burn and burn and burn this 401k because you didn't make those other two adjustments? No,

you do not. No, you do not. That's not going to be... at the end of a 10-year discussion on this. Where are you? You don't want to have done that You can But you don't want to you want you want to begin to make the life adjustments To the finances to the math that fit with this tragedy that you guys are going through Man, you got a tough sled here, girl. Yeah. I'm sorry. And yeah, friends and family helping,

your church helping, people coming around you, putting their arms around you and helping with different things. It can be financially helping, but it can also be taking them to speech there so you can work that week, that day. It can be something like that. The 17-year-old can step in and do some of that too.

But you can't just be the provider to two grown girls anymore. You do not have that option at least for the next 12 months. It doesn't sound like. It sounds like they're gonna have very limited lives and that's gonna be part of their story when they're 30. That when I was 17 my dad had a stroke. It's part of our story.

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Hey, I'm doing great Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure, what's up? Well, yeah, I'm a grandfather of six, so not quite up to your level yet, Dave, but I'm catching you. Okay, good. Well, I have two of them actually have graduated high school within the last three years. And you know, I gave them a book, I gave them your total money makeover book when they graduated as a graduation gift and kind of inscribed in there some things that I learned from the

book and I found really interesting and really helpful through life. Just basically winning with money makes life a heck of a lot easier. And I'm now at the point where I actually have a little bit more money and would like to give them to them now rather than wait until you know I'm dead and gone and try to help them pay down on some of the debt that they do have. They do have, both of them have car loans. One of them has some credit card debt. And what I don't want to do is become an enabler. I don't want to be grandpa will give me, you know, two, $3,000 a year. If I go ask them, you know, it's just right now I'm working and, and, and, you know, I'd like to set them up to succeed. And I thought maybe of

opening a Roth IRA for them and putting a little bit towards that in there but I do know they have this debt out there and your principals would say pay down the debt first so wanted to get your thoughts. The best gift you can give them is for them to follow your financial example. That's a bigger gift than money. You can give someone who misbehaves with money money and it will leave obviously. You give someone knowledge and they'll always have money. So if I were in your shoes I would tie the gift to a behavior that I want. So you know I'm going to I'm willing to give you a gift of up to X number of

dollars. You said 2,000 or 3,000 right? Yeah about yeah. I'm willing to give you a $3,000 gift and the way I'm going to do it is that's a match on you paying down your debt on your car. So if you pay down your car by three thousand dollars I'll put another three thousand with it and we'll knock six off your car. If you pay down your car nothing other than pay the monthly payment I'm going to give you

nothing. You're right,. Gotcha. That's what I would do. No that's that's great. No I was thinking of something along that line I just what I hate is I don't want them to come to you know Thanksgiving as you always say when it's not a loan but no no no yeah I don't want them to think grandpa's gonna lecture me again about about paying down my debt this time. No, I'm not going to lecture at all. I'm just not going to give you anything.

Right. Right. I like it. You know, I would wrap this in like a cup of coffee and a discussion and say, I know that if I give a man a fish, he eats for a day. If I teach him to fish, he eats for a lifetime. Right. Well, that's what I was trying to do with your book.

Yeah, so this is me talking to my grandson if I'm you, I'm telling him that. And so what I want to do as your grandpa, because I love you more than life itself, is I want to make sure you learn some of the principles that will cause you to become very successful. Not because I lectured you, but if you learn those things, you're going to make a lot of money. And one of those make a lot of money. And one of those is getting out of debt. And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to help you get your car paid off and what I'm

going to offer you is if you want to pay extra on your car, every time you pay extra on your car I'll pay extra that same amount. You just send me the receipt and I'll send it right into the bank. Up to $3,000 because I want to teach you to get out of debt and that's why I'm doing this honey because I love you and this is wisdom and I'm not going to pester you about it if you don't do it I'm just won't send you any money I'm not going to

send you any money anyway I'm going to send it to your bank. Right, right, oh I love that idea. Thanks Dave. Yeah, but just couch it in a loving teachable cup of coffee right? Yeah, I love that idea. Thanks, Dave. Yeah, but just couch it in a loving, teachable cup of coffee, right? Yeah, I think that's right. And I would also say, model it. And you said it best. They watch it. So instead of sitting them down at Thanksgiving and Christmas and being the grandfather that's teaching and harping, they're not ready for it. And, you know, the old phrase, when the student is ready, the teacher appears. That's kind of true. But in this case, you know what I'd do?

I'd be talking in earshot so they could hear you talking about your investments. And it's one of those deals. I do that with my kids on certain things. I talk to my friends about certain things that I want them to hear. And so I'm not telling them this. I'm just going, well, I thought about this the other day,

talking about the election and politics in my house. One of my kids doesn't see things the way I see things, and we've never had an ill word about it. Oh no. Yeah, I know, right, I know. But you know what I do? I'll talk about things in earshot, and then they know what I think,

and I'm not telling them what to think, they know what I think. And I've never sat down and said, you gotta think this way, you gotta do this, but they know, and I think not telling them what to think, they know what I think. And I've never sat down and said, you gotta think this way, you gotta do this, but they know, and I think the same thing, what Dave was saying, I think modeling the way and letting them see it, and it's a part of everything that they come in contact with you,

they'll pick it up, and they may not agree with it at first, but I just think that that truth, which is what we teach, is I think the best model on finances, that would be the best model on finances. That would be the approach that I would take as the grandfather. Yeah, more as Rachel says, more as caught than taught. Yeah, classic.

And that's a great line, that's a good line. It's from the old book, Smart Money, Smart Kids, that she and I did about teaching your kids how to handle money. I mean, I think about that with my grandpa. My grandpa Ramsey was, I mean, he saved every penny. You're there, you're pulling a nail out of the board, you straighten the nail out, you put it in the coffee can.

And you knew it, you just saw it enough. And he had the garden out there, and we go work the garden. That's why we get vegetables, and they're better to start with, but they're also cheaper. Everything was a lesson built into everything. And he had a cost account in Alcoa Aluminum, right?

And always drove a used car. And always had money in the bank. Always in great shape, very conservative. But I was a cool dude, so I went and bought a Jaguar, making all this money in real estate, and I went and bought a Jaguar. I'm making all this money in real estate and I went and bought a Jaguar that I couldn't afford. And I wheel up in the yard down there with a Jaguar and he comes out and he goes, what is that?

So, grandpa, that's a Jaguar. He goes, really? He goes, what'd that cost? I told him, he goes, dad, gum, that's awful. I said, awful? He said, it's one of the finest automobiles out there and he goes yeah what'll that car be worth in ten years? And I said well it'll probably be worth you know and he said but it's a great investment he goes honey my investments go up. That's great. Yeah. It's such a classic way of confronting that.

Just ask questions. Right. My investments go up. Right. And you know, that's 35 years ago that story happened. And I can see it and feel it right now. It's fresh. Yeah.

So that's the power grandpas have. You gotta be careful with it. That's right. You get the opportunity to kind of say things that are do things that they're sick of their parents doing, they'll put up with you. Yeah. There's a little extra kind of, but you know, so model it, talk about it all the time to everybody. Not to them. Don't preach it. And I'm thinking to myself, what do you know? You're driving a 10 year old truck. Yeah. And he had more money. Oh yeah. Buried in the backyard, right?

I didn't have two nickels rub together, but I was looking good. Yeah. What an idiot. This is the Ramsey show. Hey, if you're like me, this time of year feels bananas. Thanksgiving just flies by and then you blink and the kids are out of school, families in town, and somehow there's glitter everywhere. Pure chaos.

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But let's be busy enjoying our families instead of stressing out about money. Head over to the App Store and download every dollar right now to get started for free. Thank you for joining us America. After we finish this segment, if you want to hear the next After we finish this segment, if you want to hear the next segment of the show, jump over to the Ramsey Network app. It is a free app that you can download and you get the, what is the third hour on talk radio if you're there. And you can catch, it's all video and audio and everything, everything you want. You could search the show, you get all kinds of stuff there and you can ask questions there as well. You can send us emails on the app app so the Ramsey Network app is a free download there is no subscription and you get all kinds of behind-the-scenes extra interviews early

access to things like we put the Donald Trump interview on there the day before we put it on everything else that kind of stuff and you get the third hour the third segment of the show here which comes up after we finish right now so Ramsey Network app it's a free download of course and Apple and Google Play and all that be sure you go check it out a question there comes from Eddie I have 1 million dollars in my 401k but after I pay taxes when I withdraw funds I will only pocket about 600 am I still considered a 401k millionaire? Yes. Today your net worth, what you own, minus what you owe, equals over a million dollars. So yes, you're a millionaire. That is the definition of millionaire. And people say net worth

millionaire, well that's redundant. That's like saying your car is blue blue. No, it's just blue. That's it. I mean that's it. So that's the whole thing. So there is, you know, if you what you own minus what you owe. Now, it doesn't mean that you won't have those taxes and doesn't mean that doesn't affect it.

But today you have a million dollars. Now, if you took it out and you only had 600 after paying taxes, then you wouldn't have a million dollars anymore. Ta-da, that's how this works. Wow, that was good. It reminded me of the old Steve Martin thing. How to be a millionaire.

First, get a million dollars. How to be a millionaire and not pay taxes. First, get a million dollars. How to be a millionaire and not pay taxes. First, get a million dollars. Then don't pay taxes. That was a great comedy bit. But yeah, that's back from the 70s. Yeah, that's it though. And the good news is this, Eddie.

You're using the Ramsey Network app, so I'm guessing you're under 80. And I'm guessing this money is going to continue to grow and that net of taxes when you take it out someday soon, you'll have more than a million dollars anyway. So it's a redundant, I mean it's a question that really doesn't matter at this stage of the game. John is in Vancouver, Washington.

Hi John, welcome to the Ramsey Show. I'm really glad to hear your guys's voice. I was worried that I'd get somebody who wouldn't understand this question. Okay. So I got night hunting equipment, so a thermal scope, Nod's, night observation device, helmets, lasers. I got all the gadgets, but I owe 20,000 on my car. I could get right around that if I sell that equipment, but I'm, I really don't want to sell it. I'm not going to lie about it. Okay. I have other stuff.

What are you hunting at night that you're so amped up about this? Coyotes. I was thinking hogs or something. Yeah okay I knew it was something legal I didn't I wasn't gonna accuse you of poaching but yeah okay let's see and you're in Washington State so yeah yeah you know you got some. What's your income? So my base wage is 99,000 right now I'm on track for 150,000. Okay. What's a car worth? I believe it's worth like 32. Are you single?

No, I'm engaged but okay not married yet. It really hasn't got anything to do with the fact that I empathize with the equipment I think it's cool. It hasn't got anything to do with that. Okay. The principle is can you become debt-free very very quickly without selling this equipment or without selling this car? You're making a hundred and fifty you're a single guy you have one dead of twenty thousand yeah you get you know what what would you how much of your life style will you sacrifice

to keep the hunting equipment get the car paid off in three months well that's the thing i'm still gonna work the same amount of overtime because my phone's ringing like crazy right now that wasn't what i said i would likely make i would likely make that in three months three four i know you make enough to pay the car off in three months you told me that you make a hundred fifty grand you can pay the car off in three months and have absolutely no life during that three months and keep your stuff yeah so there's a third thing we can sacrifice here we can either sacrifice the hunting gear we can

sacrifice the car or we can sacrifice the next three months of your life right I'm going with see the next three months of your life keep your car and keep your hunting gear but if it's going to take you three years to get out of that we're selling all your crap. Right. But it doesn't take you three years. If the game changed and if the game changed and I lost my job that stuff would go right out the door I'm not worried about that I just feel like I make enough to Not sell it and then end up rebuying it if that makes sense Yeah, did somebody tell you to sell it or is this just your idea?

You know if it took you a long time to get out of that I would sell it but I don't Regardless of whether you buy it back later to med that all that crap but the bottom line is you could do this really really quick and And while you're really tired from working all the time and you're pissed because you can't go out to eat and your Girlfriends pissed because you won't take her out to eat because you're not doing nothing But getting a stinking car paid off in the next 90 days. I'm talking February 1 you're done Right, okay, you got no life if you're willing to do

that yeah that's what I do that's what I personally would do because I don't think you the same thing's true of your car you sell it you're gonna get another one later same stuff. Right. So now part of that also entails that that you raise your right hand and quit buying crap for hunting you got enough right forever I mean you don't need anything for a long time the outfit you just described to me is world-class right yeah okay and here's the benefit when everybody's mad at him he's mad at

himself he goes out late at night shoots a coyote it's good therapy or six of them yeah okay it's like a video game. Yeah, they don't have a bounty on those hides in Washington, do they? No, they don't. Oh, darn. Thought we could make this into a side hustle. Wow, I see where you're going there. I like that. That's a good call. All right,

just open season because the dead gimp things are eating everything. You would change your advice to rice and beans to live in a tree and shoot coyote skins. Yeah, have some fun with this, but the principle is not the hunting gear stuff, John. The principle is you quit buying things you can't afford and you have been because you have a car debt, you shouldn't have been this invested in this hunting gear. You got that out of order You're admitting that and the principle is that you can pay all this stuff off very very quickly by working like a crazy man And that's what I would do and then you're gonna go into the marriage with zero debt

And a well-equipped or well-equipped gun safe and so that was this nice slip there clipped clipped I see what you did there. Clipped. Clipped. I see what you did there. See what I did there? Yeah. Lots of clips. Yeah. Lots of mags there.

Yeah. But the, uh, fun. That's fun. Yeah. I mean, same's true with your boat. Same's true with your collection of Coach Purses ladies. Same's true with whatever it is we're dealing with. I mean, what, at what point do we have to sell off all this junk?

It's if we can't get out of debt super quick without doing it, then the junk has to go. You sell so much stuff, the kids think they're next. You put the dog on eBay, the cat on Craigslist. You've said this for years, and I think you're right and this applies here, if he were to sell all that equipment, fine, but it doesn't really necessarily curb the behavior that this discipline will and and it's the quick fix doesn't really help stop the problem that got him there. Yeah, if you got to go do nothing but work for 90 days and you go okay next time I'm not buying stuff while I got and have a car debt because you know in a

sense we financed a bunch of hunting gear against a car in a sense. I think you could make the case. Yeah, that's kinda what happened here, yeah. And so the way we're gonna undo that is just go crazy for a short period of time. See, none of the above. That puts us out of the Ramsey Show in the books. Music 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. Alright, I'm getting out of here. Enjoy. We'll see you on the app.