Transcribe your podcast
[00:00:23]

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting to the car rental studios. It's the Dave Ramsey Show where debt is dumb. Cash is king and a paid off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as this modest symbol of choice. Anthony O'Neal Ramsey personality in number one, bestselling author of the book Debt Three Degree, is my co-host today here on the air as we talk to you about your life and your money. It's a free call, a triple eight eight two five five two two five.

[00:00:55]

That's Tripoli. Eight two five five two to five.

[00:00:59]

Gavin is with us in Houston, Texas. Hi, Gavin.

[00:01:02]

How are you? Good. How are you all doing? Better than we deserve. How can we help?

[00:01:07]

So I'm twenty five and due to a very fortunate situation, I kind of got doubly lucky here and got some money from my parents and my grandfather and also got really lucky investing and some things I didn't completely understand with that money. Like you, like you often say. The tricky part about that now is that 95 percent of my net worth is in stocks and I only make 50 grand a year. I get ready to buy a house with my fiancee.

[00:01:30]

I'm just concerned about the capital gains tax to create a down payment for the house. I'm thinking I've made my fair share of dumb decisions with this money. Being young, obviously got a big Chevy Tahoe that I don't think I necessarily deserve that I just happen to like. So I'm thinking, do I sell it to no one? Did that debt free and create positive equity or to maybe absorb that tax? Or do I keep the truck just because I enjoy it?

[00:01:53]

Is the truck paid for. Yeah, I got twenty two thousand less on it, but either way I'm not taking the car payment anymore, so I'm taking it both situations. Me, they're running it off. And you're 25 years old.

[00:02:08]

You make 50000. You have 28000 truck and you have how much in this investment account? About six hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Wow.

[00:02:19]

Wow. You bet. You've been blessed beyond measure, sir. Yes, and how much I love how much of that is gain that is over a year old.

[00:02:31]

Probably about 70 percent of it. OK, so that'll be taxed at 15 percent and it's in single stocks. And from the way you're describing this, it sounds like it's a fairly high risk situation. Am I right?

[00:02:45]

Some of it is the I decided, you know, I got scared of it pretty early, so I moved 60 percent of it. And now it's the other 40 percent is individual stocks or consumer data collection and medical diagnostic data collection.

[00:03:00]

Yeah, OK. Yeah, super high risk cutting edge smallcap technologies. And yeah, you're pretty much playing Russian roulette with those things or the roulette wheel anyway.

[00:03:12]

So the way I answer questions, we answer questions on this show is what will we do if we woke up in your shoes?

[00:03:19]

Yeah, man, here's a very good first off, thank goodness you're where you are. Congratulations. That's wonderful. The danger is, is that it worked and that you may try to do it again.

[00:03:33]

That's that's the dangerous part.

[00:03:35]

It's like the guy that drops one quarter into a slot machine and wins and he spends the rest of his vacation putting all his money into a slot machine. Try and do it again because you're not going to do it again. So I.

[00:03:45]

I don't I do not have investments of those types because they scare me and and my real estate portfolio alone is worth hundreds of millions.

[00:03:58]

So I can speak with emotional authority in this situation. How it feels. When I was your age, I was a millionaire and I lost everything. And I don't want you to fall into that.

[00:04:10]

So what I would do is I would move anything that is not in a managed account in mutual funds into that. And I would pay off the truck tomorrow if you're going to keep it. Normally we say do not own things that are more than half your annual income.

[00:04:28]

This is barely. But you also have 650000 freaking dollars laying over here. So I think you can afford to drive his truck if you want to. Right. And then, believe it or not, I'm going to suggest you do not buy a home with your fiancee right now.

[00:04:44]

Number one, you don't buy homes with people you're not married to after you're married.

[00:04:49]

I would rent something, even if it's something nice for six months, get to know each other. Yeah, it takes about a year of being married to know how close to your mother in law to buy.

[00:05:00]

Yeah. Yeah, in other words, after a year of marriage, you will make a different housing decision than you would make today.

[00:05:08]

Together, we've been running here for about two years. We've been I mean, we probably are not married. Yeah, correct.

[00:05:17]

After you've been married a while, you will make a different decision than you would make as shacked up fiancee's. It's a different thing. It just is. That's the truth. And so I would take my time. Yeah. And you've been the there's a tortoise and the hare.

[00:05:35]

You've been the hare and you're ahead in the race. And I'm going to switch sides and become the tortoise. And I'm just going to slow your butt down on the investing and on the house.

[00:05:48]

I'm really happy where you're where you are. And you're obviously a very sharp guy. Yeah. I mean, you're obviously very bright, so you may not do anything we say today, but you called and asked us which the danger of that is. We're going to tell you tell you the truth.

[00:06:00]

And I think he will. Dave, I think he's he's a little nervous. He's a little scared. He wants to make the right decision. She wants to buy a house. Yeah. And here's the thing, Dave. I was going to say, instead of for, you know, save like you said, spend the first six months to a year once you all get married and then with him walking away after he pays the capital gains, I pay cash, I'll pay cash for the house.

[00:06:20]

That's what I was going to say. And I'm saying cash like a two 300000 dollar home, 400.

[00:06:25]

I don't care. 500, you know, I don't care. It actually now you're good. Really good. Yeah. Everything's paid for everything. The money's gone. Yeah, most of it. But you're not really going your taxes. Well I mean by the time you it's not going it's not in the sense of it's bad investment accounts. Yes. Yes. But your taxes at 15 percent on 70 percent of 650 is just that's not going to cripple the situation.

[00:06:47]

Not and yes, I would pay the capital gains in order to get this in the right setting. And it doesn't sound like that much of it's going to be subject to capital gains. You sound like you've already done that. When you moved it from these higher, higher risk things into the managed stuff you probably took your capital gains had then.

[00:07:02]

Yeah. Because you liquidated the investments to move them. That's my guess.

[00:07:05]

Anyway, I don't know exactly how you did that, but that's that's what it sounds like you did to me. So anyway, I'm going to pay what capital gains you got to pay for making the move and I'd get it all under managed and I would sit there rent something for a little for a year after marriage or six months after you're married. Then I would buy with cash and I'd pay off the car today. I know. And I want to say this to America listening.

[00:07:28]

I know you are present. Oh man. That worked for him. Let me go try that. No, do not do it. I mean, I think the numbers they the updated numbers was right around. Seventy eight percent of people who play in his field do not make a dime. They actually lose money. Yeah. And so yes, you hear it worked over here, but it does not mean more than likely it will not work.

[00:07:49]

If you had a buddy that hit a hit or lottery ticket, doesn't mean that it's marked buy lottery ticket. Yes. It's just, you know, that's the bottom line. And so and Brandon Gavin is smart enough to wise enough to be a little bit afraid in this situation. But congratulations that you're there. Yeah, I'm so happy that you're 25 years old and you have 650000 dollars. That's just so cool. Yeah, I'm just that's so neat.

[00:08:13]

And thanks for calling in, asking the question. Yeah. So you get to do what you want. Do you're grown up. That's what we would tell you to do. Yes. Thanks for calling. At Takeover's, we believe a great pair of cowboy boots should be comfortable right out of the box, and we believe that your hard earned dollars should go far. So we only sell direct to, you know, retail markups, just amazingly handsome Western boots for men and women.

[00:09:08]

Find your parrot to Cobus dotcom slash Ramsay and for a limited time, use promo code Ramsey to receive a free campfire mug with any purchase over 100 dollars. That's a 25 dollar value offer, valid online only while supplies last. And it ends soon.

[00:09:39]

Anthony O'Neal Ramsey personality is my co-host today, open phones, a triple eight eight two five five two two five. Brandon is with us from Phoenix, Arizona. Hi, Brandon. Welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. Sir, how can we help? Well, I'm 35 years old.

[00:10:00]

I have about 180000 saved up. I have about sixty thousand in credit card debt. And I owe about 90000 on my my mortgage with 10 years left on the loan. So at the end of the year here, I'm trying to decide if I should pay off my credit card debt and the mortgage and then start venturing into some investment properties or pay off the credit card debt and use the remaining hundred and twenty thousand to start investing in some properties.

[00:10:32]

Yeah, really good question. Way to go. You've done real well. Yeah. Congratulations to you. I'm a I'm a sort off on this one, Dave, though I'm not like in a credit card debt. So that's the very first thing I'm attacking right now. I'm paying that off when I hang up the phone with this.

[00:10:47]

Yeah, you know, and then from there, I'm going to go ahead and set aside some more money, make sure I have enough at least three to six months of my savings, then, you know, I will be looking into the mortgage before I look into rental properties.

[00:11:00]

So, Brandon, when I was 28 years old, I lost everything because I was buying investment real estate on nothing, down a 90 day notes.

[00:11:07]

And the bank called our notes and I had about three million dollars worth of debt and about four million dollars worth of real estate. So I had a million dollars worth of equity that I lost due to being stupid.

[00:11:19]

That process put me that. That pain put me on a journey to learn how wealthy people become wealthy and keep wealth. Not what someone's opinion is or theory is and not someone that wrote a book once, but people that really have done it, what did they do? People with old hair are people, old people with gray hair and money. I've been young and rich. I didn't want his opinion. He was stupid. OK, so I start talking to old rich people and I found this thing called common sense.

[00:11:51]

And then for 30 years, we've talked to people as a result. And Sharon, my wife and I made the decision that the closest way to financial peace and wealth is no debt.

[00:12:06]

Because no doubt works beautifully when times are good, because you're making money hand over fist on everything that's an investment because you don't have your payments on the rentals and no debt works great if something like a pandemic happens or a 2008 happens and everything turns down.

[00:12:23]

And so, you know, consequently, right now we're sitting on a pile of cash and a pile of paid for real estate. A pandemic hits. We feel like the third pig, the one that built the brick house, and the wolf huffed and puffed and it did no good. I mean, the pandemic's out there blowing smoke all around us. And we're just watching our some of our friends and our people we love suffer. But financially, we've not suffered because we were ready for a storm.

[00:12:49]

And when times are good, we make more money because we don't have payments. And so then that was confirmed in the data points of coaching wealthy people for the next 30 years.

[00:13:00]

And in the study we did for Chris Hogan's book, where we studied 10000 millionaires, the vast majority of those 10000 millionaires became wealthy by being allergic to that.

[00:13:15]

And and then they just were very careful and very intentional about investing, so if all of that to say.

[00:13:25]

If I woke up in your shoes, I think you've done a wonderful job, you know, accumulating some money, I'm with Anthony, I would pay off your credit cards today. I would also look in the mirror and ask how in the crap I got 50000 dollars in credit card debt and make sure that doesn't happen again, because that's got stupid written all over it. And I chop up those stupid cards and be done with them forever. Then since I did that, I'd write a check and pay off your house.

[00:13:52]

If I did my math right, you said you had 90 and 50 that I remember that right. 60 and about 90, OK, it was 150 out of your 180, so you have 30000 dollars left after you pay off both things, that's your emergency fund. And what's your income? One hundred and twenty eight year, awesome, now you have not a bill in the world, and so you ought to be able to save enough to pay cash for your first rental in 18 months.

[00:14:20]

Yeah, and then save, save, I even pay cash, and by the way, every time you buy a rental with cash, they make money.

[00:14:29]

You know, the first one hard.

[00:14:30]

The second one's easier. The third one's even easier. The sixth one will be the seventh one. Yeah, it starts snowballing and that's what I've done, that's how I ended up with several hundred million dollars worth of real estate, we pay cash for everything. I'm sitting on a 200000 square foot, 70 million dollar building that we paid cash for. And I'm not bragging.

[00:14:48]

I'm just telling you the stuff I'm teaching you, dude, it works because I haven't done anything that was any trickery that I don't teach you guys to do.

[00:14:55]

I made more money than a lot of people. Yeah, but I didn't do all this off income. I did it off a living, these principles. Yes. So that's what I would do if I woke up in your shoes.

[00:15:04]

The shortest distance between you and the 45 year old with 10 or 20 million dollars worth of paid for real estate is the path I just gave you.

[00:15:13]

What do you think? I love it, Dave. I love it. I love how you're teaching. I get straight to the answer. You just take us through a whole story, Dave.

[00:15:22]

Well, we forget to do that sometimes because we just go, oh, the answer is yes, because we know the answer. Yes.

[00:15:27]

And you know the reason you know the answer of, you know, how not to misbehave. Talking to a young man on another call is you did misbehave. Yes.

[00:15:35]

You know, the way I learn about not going broke is I went broke, you know, so, you know, my pastor used to say a man with an experience is not at the mercy of a man with an opinion. And so, you know, you can't talk to Anthony O'Neal about how positive the student loans are because they screwed up your life.

[00:15:53]

They screwed up my life tremendously. Not just that, but even credit cards. I'm thinking the same thing. Like, how did you even get the 50000? How do you get the 5000? But then when I sit there to ask that question, I did it.

[00:16:03]

Yeah. So I know how he did it. Yeah.

[00:16:05]

You know, but you know, but you need to address that because it'll grow back. Yes. If you don't, if you don't pull that dandelion out by the roots, it'll grow back and it'll bring three friends. Yeah.

[00:16:15]

You know, it's so funny day when I'm out there on the road, some of my close friends. But Guy this bro, did Dave really, you know, build that big old building cash?

[00:16:24]

There's just no way. And I'm like, yeah, I said, believe it or not, Dave practiced those principles probably ten times more than an average person.

[00:16:33]

How do you do that? Well, you know, first you get the money, right? So Steve Martin, like Steve Martin comedians, he had this whole routine, how to become a millionaire.

[00:16:42]

And the first thing was, first you get a million dollars.

[00:16:47]

I was like, yeah, that's good. I like that. Yeah. That's how you do it. I mean, you got to scrape the money together.

[00:16:52]

And the truth is that when we bought the ten million dollar land under it, it took our breath away. Yes. And the stomach was in the throat. We built the building. The first 25 million out of pocket was unbelievable. The first time I bought a family in our building, my mind was blown. The first time, about 150000 on a rental house. My mind was blown. The first time you do it, you're just like, oh my God, that just happened.

[00:17:14]

Yeah, but then every time you do it, it's got that much more income associated with it to do the next one. Yeah. So we started on the second one next door. It's a lot easier, not easy. Been there, done that.

[00:17:23]

And we've got the extra income now to do it with and now we're in the conference center up on top of the hill.

[00:17:28]

Easier yet, can't make it out. You know, it's going to be even easier, but it's the same thing.

[00:17:33]

You know, the first time you do something and you strain and you barely get there. We bought that other building, the Financial Peace Plaza we were in. Yeah. And I paid five million dollars for it. I had option it for five years.

[00:17:45]

I was renting it, saved and scraped, got the nickels off the couch by the time I closed on it, if I mean it was worth twelve. Good.

[00:17:53]

So I mean but I paid cash for it as an option and I didn't finance it and I didn't borrow money. And believe me I was tempted because it's worth twelve. Yeah. If I don't exercise that option I'm walking away from a seven million dollar equity. Yes. So you don't have to put a lot of zeros on for it to make sense. My point is, is we really do this stuff. Yeah. And it really does. It went from five million up to the seventy million dollar bill.

[00:18:14]

And what what I love about your story, Dave, that has taught me a lot is the key thing for you was discipline and patience. It's taken a while.

[00:18:22]

I'm old, but I mean, I just watch I mean, you bought the land, you said on this land for years, you know, before you started building.

[00:18:29]

We did. We did have the money. And I'm like, wow. And you see where we are today because you are patient and you stuck to what you teach. That's why we during covid, we're able to still operate and the business is closed because we didn't have any day. You know, the weird thing is, is that you look back and you go, man, that's twenty years ago. And I guess that went really fast. Yeah, because it does go really fast.

[00:18:51]

Yes, sir. So whether you do it right or whether you do it wrong, it still goes really fast. Yes, sir. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Anthony O'Neal Ramsey personality is my co-host today, open phones, a triple eight eight to five five two two five.

[00:19:32]

You know, it's better than receiving gifts, giving them that's where we're giving away cash this Christmas season.

[00:19:40]

Enter our Ramsey Christmas cash giveaway daily to increase your chances of winning our last 500 dollar prize, giving away 500 dollars a week between now and Christmas. And you can enter at Dave Ramsey dotcom slash giveaway and there's a 5000 dollar grand prize. Plus, you can save over 80 percent on life changing gifts for family and friends during our biggest weeklong Cyber Monday sale. Right now, all of our audiobooks and e-books. At eight dollars, you can get the number one bestseller, Total Money Makeover.

[00:20:13]

Anthony O'Neills, number one bestseller, Debt Free Degree, all for just eight bucks, an audio, 10 bucks. If you want the book, check it out. Plus, we're including a free call with a financial coach with every single order. In order to win some cash and save some serious money on your Christmas shopping today at Dave Ramsey dotcom giveaway and no purchase necessary to get in the drawing, you want to be sure you're doing that right now?

[00:20:39]

Open phones at eight eight two five five two two five. That's triple eight eight two five five two two five. Sean is with us. Sean is in Denver. Hey, Sean, welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show. Big Dave Anthony, how are you guys doing? Great man, how can we help? All right, so the skinny is I've got about forty six thousand in debt, I just started a new job last week and forty five a year.

[00:21:11]

My question is, you're making how much are you? Forty five thousand. OK, and I've got a car that I'm slightly upside down on and I got a question about that. OK, so audio on the car.

[00:21:27]

Probably like it's around eleven, like ten, six. Mm hmm. And I think if I were to sell it privately, I could probably get around 10 for it. So it's not too bad. But I'm wondering if, you know, if I was trying to get because I would need to replace the car and I'm figuring I need a couple thousand for that. Do I try and sell the car, get a small loan to pay the difference or a little more to get another car?

[00:21:56]

You could just pay it off.

[00:21:58]

Yeah. So 11000 dollars to pay it off. What kind of car is John? It's Volkswagen Golf. Oh, yeah, yeah, what what's the other day? Yeah, because I don't think we need to and I see what you're trying to do. You trying to get aggressive and go after the debt.

[00:22:15]

And if you're ETWAS 28000 on the car, I'd be selling it in 30 seconds. Right. But 11000, you're not 11000 and you end up with five or six thousand in covering the matter upside down, plus your cover in another car, you don't move the needle much. I think you can pay it off almost as easy.

[00:22:31]

What's the other 40? Most of the thirty seven thousand dollars in debt, though. It's twenty five in student loans, about fifty three hundred in credit card debt, four thousand in medical and like fifteen hundred and miscellaneous and your household. Twenty seven, yeah, and you're working 40 hours for 45000 now. Yes, sir. OK, cool, yeah, yeah, I think the biggest thing is not to guard the student loans. I think here, son, we got to step back and just really work the debt snowball.

[00:23:07]

Yeah. You know, I think at the end of the day, just work the debt snowball. I wouldn't worry about trying to get a loan to go for this car and just just pay things off, get to the student loans and just get really aggressive with debt. So here's what's happened. Something occurred that woke you up. You got the cold water splashed in the face and you went, oh, my God.

[00:23:27]

And then you got a new job and you got some opportunity to clean up the. Oh, my God. Yes, the oh crap moment right there. And and so it's all kind of new to you. But Anthony and I've been doing this so long, it's real easy for us to jump in and go.

[00:23:39]

We can start seeing these numbers going right where we are and you just list these debts smallest to largest.

[00:23:45]

You pay minimum payments on everything but the little one, you attack the little one with a vengeance. Yes, which I'm sorry, Sean, but you have no life for a while now. Your only life is going to be working your job and your extra job because forty hours a week isn't enough. We need you to go ahead and pick up another thirty hours doing something else so you can clean this mess up really, really fast. The more money you make and the less you spend, the faster you get out of debt.

[00:24:09]

That's the formula. Yes.

[00:24:11]

And you pay off those low credit cards, you chop them up, you're going, yeah, get some progress here, then you reach over that car off. Yep. And then there's down to, oh, ugly Sallie Mae, which is way more than half of your debt. And then you just start punching her in the face repeatedly until she finally gives up the ghost and you knock her out. But, you know, if you make an extra ten, fifteen thousand a year as your side gig, divide that into forty.

[00:24:34]

What if you make twenty? Is your side gig divide that into forty. That's two years on the side gig and you're out of debt, not to mention Murcutt in your life away and you're going live on nothing on your 42000. Now you're out of debt in eighteen months with the whole stinking puppy. But the next 18 months is going to be known as hell on Earth because all you're going to do is work. You are not going to see the inside of a restaurant unless you're working there.

[00:24:55]

That's all.

[00:24:56]

Davey, hit it. Don't eat out. Heck, I even say probably don't even date the next to you.

[00:25:03]

And I would go that far. You can get a cheap date. Oh, no, no.

[00:25:07]

I'm telling you, you're not going. Don't tell a woman. You know she's a cheap date date. I didn't say her, but he said the spending. I get it. But this year might be cheap, but the generation will receive that. She's a cheap date. He's twenty six. I know, but you're a cheap date. I'm not. You're cheap. I know you're cheap and you go on dates. I am cheap.

[00:25:28]

You know. You know, I E.M.S., you know. Well I'm not cheap.

[00:25:31]

I'm frugal about yet these young ladies. I hear that. Is Anthony a cheap date for real.

[00:25:38]

It is worth every penny. I'm just not worth every penny.

[00:25:41]

I spend five hundred dollars on a date. No, no, I'm not doing that. No, that's not a cheap date. That's just a wise date. Yes. Five hundred dollars. Oh my God. So bring that back up. Oh, OK.

[00:25:54]

We don't need to go back there. You get hate mail every time I do this so.

[00:25:58]

And then I get hate mail but I don't write mine. That's a difference. So. All right.

[00:26:02]

So Sean. Yeah. The more you're willing to sacrifice, the more intense you're willing to be, the faster all this is going to go away. And I think you keep the car. Yeah. And you use it to deliver pizzas. Yeah, yeah, it's on here.

[00:26:18]

Here's the thing, what's down the line I want you to get free Ramsey plus for a year for this process, because I think the key ingredient for you is to really get on a good budget that's going to really help you stay the path and stay the course, because this is the thing, Ramzi Plus's the thing that got me out of debt, but it required discipline and required a plan. And I think you need a plan and work. Yeah.

[00:26:43]

Yeah. So you are cheap that you give away my stuff. Hey, man, listen, here's your stuff.

[00:26:48]

You know, you the millionaire, I'm I'm just I'm just getting there, you know, they give away my stuff. I give away millionaire stuff. Yes. Now when I become one, I'm like, hey, look here. I love it.

[00:27:00]

Open phones, a triple eight eight two five five two two five. Roko is on Instagram. What financial book would you recommend for a high school student?

[00:27:09]

I got it right now. There's two books actually. I would say the very first one for a high school student will be my book Debt Free Degree. And the number two, if you're a high school senior, I would say the graduate survivor guy because I walked through to five mistakes that I made in school. And I love it because I partner with Rachel Kruse, my sister, Dave's daughter, who didn't make those five mistakes, and we partner together and show you how to avoid these mistakes and why Rachel avoided them and how they helped her out.

[00:27:37]

So we talk about we cover both sides. So definitely debt free degree and the graduate survival guide. Here's another one I would honestly recommend for high school students, because we're in this generation, Dave, of young people loving other people's lives and not theirs. So I recommend people to get right to cruise book Love Your Life, not theirs.

[00:27:55]

Yeah. And because, yeah, you used to could just keep up with the Joneses next door. Now you got to keep up with them on Instagram. Yes. So yeah. Yeah.

[00:28:05]

Me and Rachel talks about that in her book. You know how the age of social media is really starting to direct people down a different path that is not healthy and that is not wise. And I strongly encourage high school students and college students to pick that book up. It's an older book, but it's a phenomenal, great, great Roko. Those are all legitimate books and they're thick books.

[00:28:27]

Here's a little quick one that you can read that's real easy. It's called The Richest Man in Babylon High School. And we've got it on our in our on our Web site as well. We sell them here. The richest man in Babylon. This is the Dave Ramsey Show.

[00:29:26]

Anthony O'Neal Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Open phones are eight eight two five five two two five. As we talk about your life and your money right in front of you, triple eight eight two five five two two five. Lease's in Pittsburgh. Hi, Lisa. Welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show.

[00:29:45]

Hi, Dave. Thank you. Sure. What's up? Well, I own a business with my ex and he lives in a house with his brother. And I live in the house that we built. There's two mortgages, you said, where everybody lives.

[00:30:02]

Who owns what?

[00:30:05]

My ex and I own the house that I live in and the house that my brother. My ex lives with his brother, his brother. OK. And he wants to pay off his brother. He wants to buy his brother out. And then work on paying the house off that I live in. That we are together. I wanted to ask, what do you think we should start working on paying off?

[00:30:40]

First, this is weird, so weird. We have I mean, you're talking like you're married.

[00:30:47]

Yeah, that's how I was about to say. I'm confused. I hear we. But there is no way he wants to pay off the house you live in.

[00:30:54]

This did you understand? I understand it sounds strange. Well, we run the business together. Yeah. I do most I do all the bookkeeping, OK? He's a landscaper who owns the Payman. Well, the way I set it up is sole proprietor, so he does, but OK, so you work for him. China. No, honey, you either own it or you work for him. Well, I don't get paid. Basically, I just pay everything and I manage all the money.

[00:31:33]

So. I've never heard of a homeowner who doesn't get paid. Well, because basically I ran the business since we opened it up, I know, years ago. And. OK, you are, you are the situation is integrated as if you're married, all of these things you're doing or acting as if you're married and you're not married, which leaves you very vulnerable. And it's making me very nervous the more you talk. Because I'm starting to work, I'm starting to fear for you, so let me tell you exactly how this could go down.

[00:32:12]

He actually owns the business. He could walk in one day and fire you and hire a bookkeeper and you would be on the street and you have made no money.

[00:32:21]

While you work there, you've been working for free, did I understand this right? Basically, but I know he won't do that. Our son will stay married. He got married to. Well, it wasn't a healthy so yeah, it's kind of how you end up getting screwed on this other thing to. Yeah, well, all right, Lisa, here's the thing, I can't I can't I can't I don't think I don't think I will be able to give you really good advice because it's going to involve you unraveling a whole bunch of stuff that you guys have got wrapped together that you're probably not going to do.

[00:33:00]

So you're in a very toxic, weird situation and you've left yourself very vulnerable. And so you guys need to separate your assets and separate your financial lives. And you need to be paid as an employee. And then we need to decide who's going to get the house and we're going to sell the house. And you go get you your own house or you buy him out of the other half of the house and then you pay off your house. But you guys are integrated in your lives.

[00:33:29]

As you know, if you were his wife and you worked in the business and didn't receive a paycheck, that would be fairly normal.

[00:33:34]

Yeah, fairly normal.

[00:33:37]

But, you know, you're not you have legally no rights. And your only chance that you get out of this is the goodness of his heart. And then you just told me it was a toxic situation, which is why you got divorced. And this is the toxic heart we're counting on. This is danger, danger, danger, danger, danger. Yeah. So you're not going to hear any of this because you think this is all perfectly OK and it just sounds weird.

[00:34:02]

Is crud over here on this side of the phone.

[00:34:04]

So that's what I would do if I were in your shoes. I would separate your lives. Since you're not married anymore, you need to start receiving a paycheck. Even if it's a percentage of profits, that's fine. But somehow you need to be compensated for your work and you split these assets off.

[00:34:19]

And no, by God, you don't need to pay his brothers off house off.

[00:34:23]

You're not married to him.

[00:34:26]

He can pay his brother's house off. He should have a separate life. Yeah, but that's cray cray girl. That's just nutty. So you're going to have to think through this a little different. It's I but I have a feeling you've been around this thing like a commune for ten years and you're used to it. Yeah. So but you are so vulnerable. And then I find you in my offices for crisis counseling when this whole thing comes unraveled four years from now and you're going to be broken and busted and and I'm I don't want that for you.

[00:34:56]

So that's why I'm speaking very plainly to you. This did sound is weird to use it it to me. Right. It still is weird to me.

[00:35:04]

OK, I'm just being honest, OK, because I agree with you. I don't know how to give advice. I well I can't. You can't. There's too many things there, so you need that you guys need to spend some time in 2021, you can do it gently, you don't have to do it with anger or something, but you need to separate your lives as if you're divorced.

[00:35:24]

Yeah, because you are Andrea is with us in Phoenix, Arizona. Hi, Andrea, how are you? Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my call. So I have a quick question. I have a I have been blessed to have a twenty two year old who just graduated ASU with his master's degree, and he did that all on an academic scholarship. No kidding. Oh, yeah. Right. And so my question is, because of the job climate right now, he has decided to study for his LSAT and pursue a law degree until OK, studying for your LSAT when you're a genius and becoming a lawyer is a great idea.

[00:36:07]

Doing it because of a job climate and that's your only motivation is a dumb idea. OK, if he wants to really be a lawyer, this kid could be a lawyer, but this kid could be anything he wants to be, right? Yeah, he can be. And he just has his masters voice in sports law and business. And there's not really sports happening. That's OK.

[00:36:29]

He's got lots of business and business law under his belt and he's got a masters degree with a business function to it. And he you know, it just because he doesn't operate in sports doesn't mean he can't operate.

[00:36:41]

Yeah, OK. Lots of people that like to be my colleagues. So what does he know? Here's the thing.

[00:36:46]

I think going to law school is a great idea for this guy. Yeah, but only if he wants to be a lawyer lawyer. Not as an escape mechanism, because I don't want to face a year with pandemic.

[00:36:56]

Energy exports are still happening. You do know. But it's the jobs aren't there. Yeah, he's right about that, that jobs gone for a while. I don't know how much longer, but hopefully a year, but a year from now. But I mean, there's there were some great jobs in his field of study.

[00:37:10]

But it's a it was a nuanced field of study, but it wasn't so nuanced that it doesn't have other applications. Yeah. The base knowledge he got in that is equivalent of an MBA.

[00:37:20]

And so he can go into the business world, if that does he want to be a business person? You want to be a lawyer? If I'm being honest, he wanted to be the general manager of the Denver Broncos. Yeah, well, you probably ought to have more than one job as a possibility in your whole life, but.

[00:37:34]

Yeah, yeah, but but conceptually, he could he would like to run.

[00:37:39]

He'd like to be the operational executive of a forward facing consumer base performance product of some kind.

[00:37:49]

Now there's a lot of those. The Denver Broncos are not the only one, right, but that's not a bad goal, it's a, you know, great, great organization. But you see what I'm saying? So does he want to be in business or does he want to be a lawyer? If he wants to be a lawyer, this kid's brilliant. Let's go to law school.

[00:38:06]

Yeah, OK. But don't want kids. But I think it's just kind of a fallback. I don't know that that's really what he wants to do. Yeah.

[00:38:15]

Sometimes I meet people who. I couldn't find a job, and so they feel called to the mission field. And they're not called they're not called to be missionaries, they just couldn't find a job and they love Jesus and so they got distracted. And so you need if you're going on the mission field, you need to be called to the mission field. If you're going to law, you need to be called in law. That's what I would do.

[00:38:36]

But this kid's a kid worth supporting because he's brilliant and he's a go getter. He's goal oriented. He's knocked it out of the park. I'm proud of him. And you ought to be to I just please don't do stuff by default, especially something as expensive and hard as law school.

[00:38:50]

If this is the Dave Ramsey Show.

[00:39:01]

I have a friend or family member that needs a daily dose of Ramsay advice in their life. Let them know about the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast. It's a quick bit of advice about life and money. In under ten minutes, check out the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast wherever you listen.

[00:39:22]

If you're looking for fun and practical ways to save money in your everyday life, you need to check out The Rachel Cruise Show, a podcast from money expert and my daughter, Rachel Cruze. Hey, guys, it's Rachel Cruise. And I'm so excited to tell you about my podcast. A lot of people are living paycheck to paycheck. They're in debt. They don't even know where to begin. But they have this need this want to get in control of their money.

[00:39:44]

And if that's you, you have come to the right spot. So in each episode, you get a ton of inspiration and practical advice. If not, subscribe to the Rachel Corrie show podcast. Make sure you do it today.

[00:39:56]

Hear more from the Ramsey network, including the Rachel Cruz show wherever you listen to podcasts.

[00:40:02]

Hey, it's James, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but check the episode notes for links to products and services you've heard about during this episode. Thanks for listening.