Debt Isn't The Problem - Your Mindset Is
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Hey guys, it's James Childs, producer of The Ramsey Show. This week, Dave and the personalities are living it up on the Ramsey Cruise, so we've put together a compilation of some of our favorite calls and segments from the last year. Regular shows are back next week. Hope you enjoy. 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. Jade Warshaw, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. I'm Dave Ramsey. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Jeff's in Indianapolis. Hi, Jeff. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Pleasure to talk with you. You too. What's up?

My wife and I are in our early 70s. My son lives about a mile from us. He's in his early 40s. He relocated back here to Indiana from California about 11 years ago from LA where he was working in the music business. And he was going to take over my insurance agency a few years, retired about nine years ago. So he did take that over.

he got into tax problems when he was in California because he was working for a music composer that actually treated him as an employee, but paid him as an independent contractor. So he didn't know anything about paying taxes, got behind with the state and the IRS, end up owing them, uh, 30 or 40 grand. I think we helped him work out a structured repayment plan as a condition to him coming back and getting into insurance. And that's been paid through wage garnishments, uh,

since then. I discussed with him before he came back the need to stay on top of his taxes and finances because he's never been good with money. During that period of time, many times I'd ask him if he was on this and he'd just blow up and wouldn't talk to me about it. Three months ago, he called us and told us that he was in tax debt to the IRS again and

and wanted his mom and I to bail him out, basically, using our share of our estate when we die. We thought he probably owed about $50,000 or $60,000. Turns out he hasn't filed any state or federal tax returns for the past four years, nor has he paid any estimated taxes for 2023.

We're meeting with our accountant next Thursday to go over all this to get specific numbers, but I'm guessing from what I've seen, it's going to be over $200,000 and about half of that is just interest and penalties. He also hasn't paid any 941 withholding or state unemployment tax. He has no business being self-employed, obviously. So my question is, uh,

We have the assets to do that, but we would have to sell off property and mutual funds. I don't know if you need our income or what exactly. What's your net worth? Net worth is probably about $2.3 million.

And about roughly half of that is in two pieces of real estate, our residence here in Indiana and another home we own in Florida. I'm sorry, Jeff. Including the real estate, the majority of our assets are in IRAs, Roths, and 403Bs from what my wife taught. We've got about $140,000 in a money market fund. What's his income at the insurance company?

Well, he just resigned from that position because after he took it over, he ran it into the ground. He couldn't make a go of it. Right now, he's doing a sales job, and it seems to be going pretty well, but he's only been doing it a couple of months. He's making about $75,000 a year plus bonuses. Is he married?

He's not married. He has an eight-year-old granddaughter that we absolutely love and spends a lot of time with us. He was going to get married, but they did it kind of reverse. They got pregnant first, and then they didn't get along, so they didn't get married. So both of them are here in town, and both of them have jobs in our own businesses. And they get along fine. We all get along fine. The insurance agency was yours, and you sold it or gave it to him?

I actually worked for a captive company, so they actually owned it. And when I left, they paid me a percentage of my renewals, and that's one of the cornerstones of my retirement now. So I didn't have a say in where the policy went. So you had a book of business, but what did he come into? He didn't even take over your book, did he? He did, pretty much. Oh, okay. Not all of it, because it was a big agency, so they split it up among other agents. They gave him about half of it. Okay. Jeff. And he ran your book into the ground. Okay.

ran into the ground okay jeff does he have any other debt besides the tax debt that you know of do you know what that number looks like i don't think he owes he rents he doesn't own a home i don't think he owes anything else he doesn't have credit card debts the tax debts the only one i'm that i'm aware of i hear you're disgust for his behavior in your voice and also here i also hear a dad that loves his son even though he's been stupid do you hear very well um

So I guess there's two options. One is you bail him out, which doesn't sound real appealing. If you don't bail him out, what happens? He just has to work with the IRS for a lot of years and actually grow up. Yeah. The thing is, Dave, this has happened so many times, I can't count them. But you've been there to bail him out every time.

Yeah, and we had to take him out of high school because of his behavior. We had to send him out to a survival camp in Idaho. Then we put him in a private school in California, and all that required a second mortgage on our house at the time. We bailed him out of a car loan that he didn't keep up with that I co-signed for. It's just been one thing after another. I'm okay with no being the answer. If it were me, I wouldn't do it.

So here's what I'm going to suggest. He got a severance package from the insurance company that's going to pay out about $30,000 over the next five years, about $6,000 a year. I told him that we would help him out if he would sign that over to me to pay back what we're going to advance him, but I initially thought we could do the whole amount. I don't think you should do any of that, Jeff.

I really don't. That's the way I think. That's the way I think. I think that he's grown and I think that he makes a living. He's not poverty level. There's nothing wrong with him. I think he just needs to be a man and do man things. I totally agree with you. And I think you're a great dad.

Thank you. There's one other question to kind of take this out a little further because I don't think my son realizes how bad a position he's in. If he pays this over the next 20 or 30 years, he still may not have it paid off and we die. And that's all right. We may die.

Yeah, but we have all of our assets and our real estate is in trust, and my daughter is the trustee and the executor, and we currently put a clause in our will that allowed my son to take our house here as part of his settlement of the estate because he loves our home. But I'm concerned that if he doesn't have this paid off, I don't even know that I want to leave that.

that share of the estate to him because I think the IRS could put a lien on that. They can. After he becomes the owner, they can, yeah. Yeah, and I want to make sure that, I mean, ultimately it was for him, but it's ultimately also to go to our granddaughter, and I don't want to eat up our share of that estate. I think these are two separate questions. Do you help him today? Yeah, they are. Yeah, do you help him today? Jade and I are both saying, sadly, I probably wouldn't.

I probably would. That's the way I'm thinking. And then do I change the will? In a few years, I might. You can change it now. You can change it later. Can he put something in there that says if the debt's not paid off, the home goes elsewhere until the debt is paid off? You could leave it in trust for the granddaughter and bypass it, bypass the kid that can't seem to find his way. Yeah, that's so sad. This is The Ramsey Show.

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I'm doing well, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Me and my fiance are getting married next June, and we've been bouncing around the idea of buying a home versus renting, and I wanted to get your thoughts on that. Yeah. I would not buy until you're married, for sure. Is that what you're talking about? Okay.

Yeah, we were thinking, you know, right around when we're getting married next June. Yeah. Do you guys have any, will you have debt together? We will have very little debt. She has a student loan for about $7,000. We've saved up a pretty good bit going into our marriage and plan on combining our finances and following, you know, a lot of your instruction on that. So you pay off the debt, you'd have an emergency fund, plus you'd have a down payment.

Yes. Okay. Then according to the baby steps and what we teach, you would be in a position to buy a home. Let me tell you an idea to think about, okay? And it's not a hard and fast, I wouldn't call you stupid if you didn't do it or something like that, but here's an idea to think about. I think, because I'm old and I've seen a lot, that one year after you're married, you will pick a different house than one month after you're married.

Because I think you will learn a lot about each other during that year. And I always joke and say it takes about a year of marriage to know how close to your mother-in-law to buy. But that's the kind, you know, you get to know each other. I would rather relationally you spend the first year of your marriage, all of your energy on your relationship, not on hanging curtains and picking wallpaper. And for God's sakes, doing a renovation.

okay so i mean i i just i love the idea of the house not being the purchase the move not being an emotional relational drain instead you all just get really comfortable with each other and pile up a big old stack of cash and the following spring buy a house that i like that um

And it comes from the Old Testament biblical story in 2 Samuel that the young warriors in Israel in those days were not allowed to go to battle in the first year of marriage. They had to stay home and take care of the family.

They were not allowed to go to battle until they'd been married at least a year. And so, you know, it's a bit symbolic or metaphorical, if you will, and it's not something that you would be completely unwise and stupid and foolish and all that. No, it's none of that. I just think you're going to make a different decision a year later. I absolutely agree with that.

you've known each other you get to know each other a little bit better by then we've been we've been dating six years yeah you're living together it's different i mean you're not been married together you might have been living together i don't know what you're doing but yeah but it's different yeah i i it's it's

It's a different deal, man. And it's not that dramatic, really, but it's subtle. And the thing that that makes you do is it makes you push back against the whole culture that's yelling at you, buy a house, buy a house, buy a house. Oh!

Renting is throwing your money away. Buy a house. Buy a house. Buy a house. Oh, renters are going to hell. Buy a house. Buy a house. You know, people just go crazy. They're like a beagle chasing a rabbit, man. And it's just, you know, it's okay to have a little bit of patience. Home ownership is a great plan. Owning a home and getting it paid off is a great financial wealth building plan. But everybody doesn't have to buy a house right now. Just calm your butt down. You know, it's like...

And the longer you wait, the more you'll have more money to put down on it. Yeah. So there's that. And who knows what the interest rates will do during that time. Might be fun. It might. Oh, that's true. Are you trying to make a call here, Dave? No. Are you calling something? Nope. Okay, just checking. I'm just saying we'll be after an election at that point and we'll see what's happening. I didn't know if you were seeing your shadow or what. Ha!

That happens around here a lot because, yeah, I've seen things. You get old things circle back around. If you keep the suit coat long enough, it comes back in style. All right, here we go. JT is in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Hi, JT, how are you?

Dave and Jade, how's it going? Better than we deserve. What's up? So I'm about to be at a point where I'm completely out of debt. I've been working on it the last few years and I'm about to hit zero. Yay, way to go.

My question is, is it foolish to go back into debt and start a business? Yes. You just called the Ramsey show, JT. I know. You walked into the bear cave and asked the bear if it was hungry. You already know the answer, JT. What's the business?

My trade or work is I'm a 401k consultant. I do a risk compliance. And I don't know. I'm going to start my own firm, and it's a lot to try to just bankroll. Why? Why? What do you got to bankroll? That's what I'm wondering. How do you cash flow your day one? Well, I mean, everything from software, agreements, all sorts of stuff. Wait a minute. For what? You got to have customers first.

Well, I mean, I'm not so much worried about that part of getting everything started. Yeah, but you're going too fast. What are you getting started? What do you mean? I mean, you don't have any money? Well, I mean, not enough to get this thing going. Well, what do you think it takes to get this going? Why have you decided? What you're describing to me, you need a computer and some sweat. Okay, and a customer. Yeah, or six.

Well, that's the thing, you know, for what I'm doing, I'd be whale hunting in a canoe, and I need some stuff to be able to do such things. Okay, you are not ready to open a business and leave your job when you have absolutely no customers. Whale hunting in a canoe means that you don't have a clue where your customers are coming from. You're not ready to open a business, and it has nothing to do with a loan. You need some customers on the hook.

Well, the first thing I do, I would take my current job and ask that they 1099 me, and I would contract all the work that I'm doing right now and then go look for my own bigger client. So I have an idea for cash flow. Okay, so now we're eating. Now, why are we whale hunting in a canoe? Well, we got to go after big fish to eat big, right? Well...

I think you're. No, I mean, rabbits are more plentiful. Let's kill some of those. Neat. I think you're missing the beauty of the type of business that you're starting, which is this is a business you can start with little to no overhead. And little to no cash. Yeah. You need enough to eat on, but I don't want you floating in a canoe looking for a whale starving to death because you didn't have any plan or any background. But if you got a plan for cash flow day one on the 1099 side, then and you think they'll do that. What's the probability of them doing that?

I think so because I'd be taking on a lot of my, you know, I'd get my own insurance and stuff like that. This is so vague, and you have not pro-formed this out. The business you're in demands that you do a better job of pro-forming than you have done so far. This is a group of vague generalities, and I'm going to go borrow money. No, you don't need to borrow money. You need to organically cash flow this little service-oriented business, and you're going to be just fine.

And you need to put together a business plan and process that has the probability of you being able to eat and cover the cost of basic software services. But there's no big $500,000 or $50,000 or $20,000 outlay for you to come out of the ground being a consultant. Yeah, that's...

I think, Dave, people think if you build it, they'll come. And I think it's the opposite. You've got to go get them and then build it while you like. You've got to build it while they're coming. If you build it, they will come in. The movie world is called the field of dreams. The business world is called a field of nightmares. Yeah.

So, no, yeah, you don't want to do that. You need to have the, you know, I tell our guys all the time, hey, elephant hunting is great, but they're a lot more rare than rabbits. You can eat really good on rabbits. Okay. There's lots of rabbits.

Go get the rabbits, and occasionally you stumble into an elephant, then that's extra. But let's go get the rabbits. Let's get a business model that churns cash. Here, stack some cash. You're fine, JT. Do not borrow into the vagueness that you are describing us. You're really going to make a mess. This is The Ramsey Show. ♪ music playing ♪

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So go to Yrefi.com slash Ramsey. That's the letter Y, R-E-F-Y dot com slash Ramsey might not be in all states. Today's question comes from Patty in Illinois. My husband and I purchased a very modest home for his parents due to the rising cost of rent in our area. My father-in-law is disabled. My mother-in-law works full time at a very modest job and they pay us a small amount of rent each month.

Okay.

We're trying to honor our word, but it has been very taxing emotionally and financially. We're in baby step six and we need to plan for our own retirement. I keep telling myself to suck it up, but we are losing tons of money with no end in sight. I've listened to the show long enough to know we probably shouldn't have done this, but at the time it felt like the right thing to do. What would you do if you were in our shoes?

Well, first off, I wish I had more information, Dave. I want to know how old these parents are. I want to know more. I want to know the value of the house because I'm thinking if you bought a house in 2019...

like the value's probably gone up a good deal. So they might not be losing money in the way that she thinks. Now, the actual idea of doing this, I think was a really bad idea. I think there was just a lack of foresight here. And I don't know what the promise was. Did they say, hey, we're doing this house. You're going to live here until you die and we're covering it. I don't know what the promise was, but I think that they may have...

you know, promised more than what they could deliver on. And I think that's probably what she's feeling some type of way about. So she's got a lot of drama in her words. Uh-huh. She does. And it's her in-laws. Uh-huh. The piece of information I would like is I'd like to talk to her husband and see if he feels the same way. Uh-huh. And if it was everybody's idea. If it's bothering him to the same degree or if this is in-law drama that you are now molding or laying over on this house.

Yes. Uh-huh. I think it's a little bit of both. She does use the word we a lot, which makes me think that there is some unity. No, I don't think it was a hidden thing, but I think he went into it and went, I bought mom and dad a house and dad's disabled. Mom got a, you know, not much of a job and they pay us what they can pay us and we fix the stuff that breaks. Yeah. And she's going, oh God, I'm dying. Yeah. You know, it's like, so I don't, I, you know,

$15,000 is not we are losing tons of money over five years. No, it's nothing.

If you own a house, you're going to spend more than $15,000 over five years on a house. And they're getting some rent, which is good. And it's going up in value. Uh-huh. Going up in value. Mom and dad are going to pass someday and you're going to have a nice asset that's gone up in value that you can sell. And probably pay off your house and more if you haven't already. So I think I would, first thing I would want to do is get to the bottom and say, what is, where is all this resentment really coming from?

Is it really coming from the house? I kind of don't think it is. I don't think so. Now, there is part of it where they may have bitten off more than they realized they were going to be chewing. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, in theory, it sounded good. And then when you start walking it out, you're like, oh, my goodness. But to your point, if she's writing into our show, there's something that they're not talking about. If your mother-in-law is calling you and asking you to fix something,

at a house that you gave to her at a deal. Um, and you already had, you know, mother-in-law, Ida's,

Then that would just make it worse. Right. I mean, yes. It's like, well, you know, the difference in what is needed and what's nice to have. Yeah. But, you know, it's a modest home. They're modest people. She makes a modest income. There wasn't anything in here lavish. There's also, though, I didn't hear a jacuzzi being installed. I think to quote myself, I think there's also a vocab rehab that needs to happen. Amen. Because here she's saying, my husband, I purchased a very modest home for his parents. They don't own the home.

They're renters. You guys bought a house for yourself. It's your asset. It's your home. And I think if you start viewing it as an asset that we have, it's going to change your thoughts. I have a rental house and it had a water leak and I had to fix them all. That's right. As opposed to it's there. Guess what? I've had to do that a bunch of times. Right. So that'll help. And zero drama about it.

That's right. I just fixed it. And it's going up in value. Tree fell on the back porch. I just fixed it. It's just, you know, it's just you own a house and crap happens, right? I mean, it's like.

The other question that I don't, I'm with you. I don't think we have enough information because it's a very interesting question. It is. And I'm impugning a lot on you, Patty. I apologize for that. But I'm trying to figure out what's really happening here and therefore to what to do with this. Because also their age might play into it. If they're 87, suck it up. If they're 57. Kick them out. Yeah.

You know, sell it and give them the money that it brings, whatever it brings. Give them the money from it because you didn't buy it for money. You bought it to help them. You know, if you want to give them whatever proceeds are because you're going to have made some money to your point from 2019. So, yeah, that's part of it. And...

Yeah. And I think then I would want to just really ask, I don't know. Well, walk that out. So let's say she's listening. She goes, yeah, you know what? They are in their 50s. They need to get out of this house. They've been paying us a small amount of rent. What would you suggest in that situation to fairly? I mean, I don't care if you give them the money. I mean, you sell the house and whatever. I don't know if there's a mortgage here or not, but pay off all the expenses and then whatever money you've made on the house.

Give it to them. I don't care. Oh, I'll tell you the other piece I don't know right here is I don't know Patty's income.

Yeah, that's right. If Patty makes $300,000 a year, stop whining and deal with it. That's another good point. If Patty makes $55,000 a year, then you did something you couldn't afford to do here. That's true. And that's where some of this drama is coming from is the pinch. Because it's like, oh, it's been very taxing emotionally and financially. Yeah. Okay, I don't understand.

It's 15 grand. It's not taxing emotion. I mean, it's not. But so that's, yeah. It's a lot of details. Maybe call in sometime, Patty. Yeah. Yeah. We'd do that. So you can contact them back off the email if you want to, James. We'd take the call. Because I don't know what to do. But if, yeah, I think we could give a couple of scenarios if then. Okay. Kind of flow charted. Yeah. If they're super old and you make a lot of money, then this drama is in your head. Calm down and suck it up.

If they're super young and you don't make a lot of money, maybe you need to move them out and sell the house. I think those are the two variables that could be there. I don't hear a lot of mother-in-law drama, but I just think it was curious to me how much drama she had, and I wondered if her husband would feel exactly the same way. I bet he doesn't. Now, if they're only paying, you know, the mortgage is $2,000, and she said they're paying a small amount of rent, so they're paying $1,000, the proceeds, I'd split.

Okay. I don't care. The thing is, you're not selling it because you need money. That's true. She did not bring that up. You're right. She did not bring it up. Selling it to get rid of an emotionally and financially draining situation, to quote her. That's true, but she did say, we're in baby step six and need to plan for our own retirement. So that made me think they might want some money. Could be, and it could just be that.

The drama. I'm tired of giving them anything. And I'd rather put it in my account. In lost situations, they get salty really quick. Not going there. Not going to do that. You're right. You started the whole thing right when you said you shouldn't have done it. Foresight. You have to play these things out in your mind years and years to see where it will land. And all of the different variations of the plan. When you're trying to help your parents, you're trying to help your own kids, you're

You do not enter into a process that does not bring them to sustainability on their own. And so you get them up where they're standing on their own feet and you let them go. So whatever you're doing, create a situation that gets them up on their own feet instead of a continuous drain. And so you people pay in your 28-year-olds private schools for their kids. That's not sustainable. You shouldn't have entered into that. This is The Ramsey Show.

All right, Dave, you have some strong opinions. Possibly, yeah. I think so. Because you really prefer credit unions over big banks. So why is that? Well, credit unions, for one thing, are non-profit, which means that the members, the customers, own the credit unions.

the credit union. So any profits that the credit union makes goes back into customer pricing. So you get better interest rate on savings, cheaper checking, and so on, that kind of thing. But what's more important than that, though, is the fact that the customer is the owner

changes the spirit on the credit union. So I find very few credit unions that aren't very customer-centric. Yes. Well, and I think we have found one that is incredible, and that's Fairwinds. They are an incredible credit union that is really out with the heart to help the customer. You know, that's why we're partnering with them, because they've got a scope to be able to handle the Ramsey audience effectively.

and they're the right kind of people with the right kind of values. And they've done a really, really good job with customer service and the deals that they're offering. The Ramsey Tribe is incredible. Yeah, absolutely. And you're right, their customer service is unbelievable. Winston and I just signed up and we got an account. And I'm not kidding, it took less than five minutes.

It was so user-friendly. The step-by-step approach was unbelievable. And then the next day, my phone rings, and it says Fairwinds on my phone. So I answered it and talked to someone there, and they said, yeah, they give calls to every new customer. And so again, they just really care about your experience, and I so, so appreciate that. So again, you guys, I know it can be a pain to switch banks or to open up new accounts, but Fairwinds,

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Jade Walshaw, Ramsey Personality is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Sam's with us in Lansing, Michigan. Hey, Sam, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, how are you guys today? Great. How can we help? So, my wife informed me a couple weeks ago that she was $23,000, $24,000 in credit card debt without me knowing over the course of the last year.

And I was wondering what would be the best way to pay it off. We have a couple options. I got lucky, rather be lucky than good. I won $36,000 at the casino. But that money, I already, about a month ago, and I already had that money tied up in money market because I'm using that for the down payment on my next home. We could cash in her 401k, which has $25,000 in it, and pay it off.

Or do we just kind of suck it up and just make the payments and just pay it down month by month? I just wonder what the best option would be to avoid the interest payments and everything like that. Yeah. You realize the interest payments aren't the real problem in your house, right? How long have you been married? How long have you been married? We have been married for a year and a half now. Okay. And how long has she had this debt?

A year. It started basically when my son was born a little bit over a year ago. And it was just online ordering, stuff like that, three different credit cards, going shopping kind of thing. And I never really noticed that we have separate finances. And I never really noticed it because we don't have any debt other than our house. So how's that working for you? Oh, it was working fantastic up until a couple weeks ago. Don't think it is, do you?

No. It's not been working for some time, like ever in your married life. It just was revealed. It was just revealed a couple weeks ago. Correct. Yeah, you all are not on the same page. Not at all. Also, she's spending as a coping mechanism. There's something that she's trying to cope with, and she's not doing it in a healthy way, and so she's looking to spending. Is she revenge spending because you're gambling? No.

I don't gamble that. That was the second time I had been with a casino in five years. What did you spend, and did you budget for it, or did you just go and do it on a whim? We just did it on a whim, basically. All right. So I think the thing that, number one, when we're meeting, when we're researching millionaires, one of the things we find is

typically among, and we've done the largest study of millionaires ever done, Sam, is that the husband and wife are working together, and there aren't secrets, and there is not impulsive spending. And the number of millionaires in our study that became millionaires in a casino is precisely zero. The number of millionaires in our study whose

wife or husband hides their finances from them because they don't have good communication is precisely zero. So those are the things that concern me more than the actual credit card debt. Do you see what I'm saying? Yes, I do. So if you guys want to prosper and do extremely well, which is our goal to help you because we love you, we want you to win, it would entail combining your finances and

only one checking account and a budget meeting every month that the two of you sit down together. Both of you have a vote. Some reason she doesn't think she's got a vote. She had to hide it from shame or guilt or something. And we've got to rebuild trust, which has been violated here. And the two of you together, she has a vote. You have a vote. We are in agreement about what our future goals are and where we're going from there.

And so you don't agree with this, but I'm going to tell you what I think, okay, because you called here. I think you both did something stupid, and the only good news is it cancels out. I think you got lucky. Instead of losing a pile of money, you came home with a pile of money. That's the worst thing that can happen at a casino because you're so dumb. Then you go back again thinking you're that guy.

And so I'm cashing this money out, paying off these credit cards. We're going to combine our finances, and we're going to set a goal where we're very diligent, very steady, not flashy to save up a down payment for a home together. In the meantime, whatever spending we're going to do that is reasonable spending, the two of us are going to be in agreement every single month before the month begins. And not following through on that, you or her is lying to your spouse. Right?

And so what she did here is not cute. It's not funny. And what you did here is not cute and it's not funny. It can be devastating if it's extended out and forward. Both of them can be. And so I, you know, I'm fussing at you because I love you and I want you to win. But if you were my kid and you're 30 years old, this is exactly how I would talk to you and what I would tell you as your friend.

Um, not because I'm your dad, but because I love you and because I want you to win. And so, uh, uh,

Sam, if you haven't had, in our world we call what she did financial infidelity. Yeah. Because it activates the same place in you that sexual infidelity does because it's a violation of trust. Yeah. To run up $24,000 and destroy or rather delay your dream of buying a home because of financial misbehavior. Yeah. And a lie. Yeah.

Yeah, and to be honest, if I'm in their situation, I'm probably going to seek out some counseling. Some marriage counseling. Yeah, because they're...

They're early on, and they're still forming that foundation, and this is not the sort of thing that you want in the foundation. You want to get to the bottom of this, find out why you guys are keeping secrets, find out why she's feeling it's necessary to medicate by spending, and possibly same for you. Sam, and I think if I were in your shoes, and I was 24, and some guy said to me what I just said to you,

I would have a tendency to blow it off like you're overreacting, Dave. You're overstating this. And what I'm saying is these two things, these three things, not working together, hiding and lying about money, and gambling are three things that will cause you to not become a millionaire. So this is like a million-dollar discussion. Yeah.

That's why this is important. So I'm not overreacting because even though it's only $24,000 and $36,000, it's small in the scope of life. The behaviors are going to prohibit you or delay you at minimum from becoming wealthy to the tune of millions and millions of dollars. So this is a – I'm not overreacting because this is millions of dollars we're talking about. Absolutely, over time. Yeah, definitely.

Dave, you're being kind because this is a big deal to me. I mean, if Sam Warshaw, if I found out Sam Warshaw went behind my back and spent $25,000, there'd be an atom bomb that went off. You would see the explosion. I'm just saying. There'd be a little fire. There'd be birds, little birds chirping around his head because I would have knocked him out.

So I kind of think it might have been more likely you that would do that than him. You know what? That's right. True. Because I am the spender. He is the saber. He's Mr. Deliberate. Yeah, he is. Which is even more reason if he did that, I would have gone off on him. But it's what you said. These little things. It makes me think of that. That scripture that says a little leaven. The only time that we've even come close to that at our house. And we did come in the early days. We had lots of arguments about money and fights.

was when I was so overbearing, I know you can't imagine that happening, that Sharon didn't feel like she had a vote.

And she will tell you that about year seven of our marriage, she felt like she got her voice is the way she says it. And she never lost it since, I'll just tell you. Her voice. Her voice. But I got my voice. And yeah, but it was, she got her vote. Yeah. And from then on, she's kind of had two to make up for the lost years. But that's the thing. If you don't feel like you have a voice in the thing or you can't,

make a lot you can't you can't get there in a discussion then one spouse tends to go off and hide stuff and do things and that's not an indication it's not a money problem that's a relationship that's right that's right relationship problem and it was it wasn't my house too sam i'm just admitting just like you but i'm just old and it was a long time ago that's the only difference so

Don't be mad at us. We love you. That's why we're picking on you. But I would fix those things in my house because they're costing you, over the scope of the rest of your life, millions of dollars if you don't fix them. This is the Ramsey Show. Dave here. You can find all of our shows with the Ramsey Network app on your smartphone. It's the only place to listen to the entire back catalog of episodes. Download the Ramsey Network app in your favorite app store today.

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build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Jade Walsh, all Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you're here. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Travis starts us off this hour in Toledo. Hi, Travis. Welcome to The Ramsey Show.

Hi, thank you for taking my call. Sure, what's up? I have a negative balance every month and I'm kind of trying to figure out how to get positive again. Starting off kind of a little rough every single month after bills and everything. So your bank account is negative every month?

Like you're overdrawn? Yep, I'm overdrawn. I actually almost on a weekly basis. You know, it's funny that you talk about this. I literally just got off a webinar about this, this very thing. And at the end of the day, it's probably boiling down to budgeting issues. Do you have a budget?

I've been working on trying to do one. I recently got the EveryDollar app premium because it was able to track my stuff better. But I'm struggling like weekly with groceries. It's just with a family of five, it's hard to keep it under a certain amount. Okay, so I want you to not try to do the budget. I want you to actually do it. I want you to go in there, put the numbers in there. That's step one. You and your wife. Yeah. Have you actually...

filled out a budget for the month? No, I have not. I haven't been able to figure it out. Okay. So that's step one. Matter of fact, I want you to go to everydollar.com slash budgeting when this call is over and I want you to sign up for the next webinar because of the issue is I've got it. Is it, you know, is it I'm not, I don't have time to do it or I'm not prioritizing the time to do it. I really want you to prioritize the time. Sit down with your wife tonight. Start looking at it. What's your take home pay?

Take home is about $3,600 a month. How much is your rent? The mortgage is $560 a month. What's your car payment? Car payment is a little high. It's $441 a month. And five kids? Three kids, wife that is unable to work due to, yes, five people. Three kids, wife that is unable to work due to medical issues. What kind of medical issues?

Uh, it's actually like a hereditary degenerative disease where it's actually just getting worse as time goes on too. So how old are your kiddos? Uh, I got triplets, uh, four and a half years old. Wow. Okay. So consumer debt's kind of gotten me, you know, not including the cards, about 26,000. Okay. Here's the thing.

We've got to start at the other end. Groceries don't catch the slack. Groceries are the thing. So we're going to start with this. $3,600 at the top of the page. You follow me? Yes. Minus the important things first. The most important thing in your entire budget is food. You have the money to buy food. You may not have the money to do some other stuff, but you have the money to buy food, period. End of story. Okay? So $3,600 minus food. What are you all spending on food?

I try to keep it around $180 a week, but, I mean, it's usually $180 to $220. How often do you eat out? Maybe once a week, but it's just me for lunch when I'm unable to pack. I am going to a trade school at night to either lunch or dinner. I go three nights a week. Okay. So if we take $800, $700 for your budget for food, right? Yeah.

For a month. For a month. That leaves us $2,900. So you can buy food. Food's first. You got me? Yes. I don't care if you pay anybody else until you feed your family. You follow me? Yes. All right. Second thing is we pay $550 for shelter. Done. Right? Yep. And then we pay the light bill and the water bill. So we're warm, we're fed, and we're dry. Yes. This is survival first. You following me?

Yes. We may not keep this stupid car because it's freaking out of control. If we can't come up with a way to get it paid off soon, it's got to go. But for now, we're going to pay the car payment too. Food, shelter, clothing, transportation, and utilities are basic necessities of life. We call those the four walls. You do the four walls before you do anything else. Everyone else, let me tell you who's at the bottom of the freaking list. Student loan. How big is a student loan?

I don't have one. Good. You know who's right at the bottom next to them? Stupid credit card companies. Because you know what they can do if you don't pay them? Nothing except destroy your credit and sue you eventually eight years from now. But we're going to take care of them before we get there. Okay? They're at the bottom of the page. So let me just tell you, your emotional state and your sense of control over your destiny changes when your family is fed, the lights and water are paid, and

and the mortgage is paid, and you are in a different place emotionally and spiritually. The rest of it's just a stupid game I'm behind on. Okay. But right now it feels like life or death because you've got groceries as the last thing, not the first thing. Yes. By the time I pay groceries, I'm overdraft. No. By the time you pay MasterCard, oh, wait, we're not going to go into overdraft, so we're not paying MasterCard. Screw them.

Okay. For this month, and then we've got to adjust our income. Now, you've got to get your income up, dude. What are you going to do to get your income up? It goes up progressively every six months as long as I keep up my apprenticeship and everything. You've got six months of hell ahead of you. What are we going to do in the short term to get it up?

You're going to trade school three nights a week. What are we doing on those other nights? Because you're about to do some more work, dude. Your family's hungry. Homework and doing whatever I can. Yeah. Around the house, housework and everything. Yeah, you're going to probably not be doing as much of that. The laundry may pile up a little bit because you've got to go make some money because $3,600 is tough. Mm-hmm.

So the way you get this straight side up is you first take care of necessities, and then two, you get over the top of it, and we're going to cut expenses and add income, and that creates margin. And that will get you under control, Travis. So you do have a very tight, tight, tough situation. So something's got to go out of the expense lines, and something's got to come up quickly in the income side.

Because, you know, it's not easy. You got a really nice low house payment. It's the best thing in this whole story right now. So you got a fixable situation, but the faster you get the income up and the out go down, the faster the pain is going to leave. Okay. Does that make sense to you?

Yeah, absolutely. I was just nervous about missing credit card payments. I want to give you permission to feed your children before you pay MasterCard. Yeah, I understand. Okay. When you get that straight in your head, all of a sudden it changes everything. Because if everybody's fed and the lights are done and the water's paid and the house payment's paid, I mean, we live to fight another day. But if we pay MasterCard and then we don't have enough money to feed the triplets, dadgum, that's not fun.

Been there, done that. That terrorizes your butt, doesn't it? Yes, it does. Been there, done that. Everydollar.com slash budgeting. Sign up for one of Jade's webinars. She'll walk you through what we just did. This is The Ramsey Show. ♪♪♪

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Jade Walsh, our Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. Jared is with us in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Hi, Jared. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, guys. Hey. I have a question regarding cost of living raises compared to inflation. Okay.

I personally enjoy giving my customers the cheapest service available, yet to keep up with inflation, we have to give raises. How do those two things mesh together, and is there anything we can do to battle the inflation as a business owner?

No, not, you know, your job is not the macro economy. Your job is to run your business. And that means take care of your family and the families that you pay. That's your job. The macro economy discussion is that when things go up, when the cost of a loaf of bread, the cost of a service, the cost of a,

a pack of hot dogs, whatever it is you want to call it, a gallon of gas. When the cost of that goes up, one of the reasons the cost of the item has gone up to the consumer when you raise your prices in business is because their cost of goods has gone up. If their cost of goods, you know, for instance, if I make a, if we print a book, a total money makeover, a Baby Steps Millionaire's book, well, the cost of paper has gone up 30% in the last 24 months.

All right. And so that's going to be built into my pricing on the next book that we put out. Agreed. If the, uh, if the cost of that book includes a, uh, a dock worker to do the shipping and a truck driver to deliver it. And both of those people get paid more.

by me to bring me that book, then now the cost of that book has gone up again. The paper cost went up and the labor cost associated with delivering that went up. And so anytime you pay people more inside your business, you have to absorb that in price changes. And so price increases are always, not always, but they,

they they're they have you have to do a price increase to stay open otherwise you're not profitable to cover your actual cost of goods and cost of labor and you don't have any margin you're out of business and when the cost of labor goes up due to cost of living raises or any other raises uh just a shortage of uh workers uh an example of that is um you know we told

When America got Fauci'd, we told all of the service industry, all the waiters and the people that make your beds at the hotel and the people in the service world that they weren't essential. And we sent them home, told them they couldn't work. If you're a restaurant worker, you're not allowed to work. And in some places, we did that for a month. Other places, we did it for a year.

When you tell people they're not essential and then you want them to come back, they remember how you pissed on them last time. And so guess what? You want to hire somebody in the service world today? Pre-COVID, you might have done that for $10. Now you might be looking at $25 because there's a shortage of workers in those industries still to this day post-COVID.

And so, uh, you know, the economic implications of COVID are still shaking out. You create, it created a labor disruption and a labor price change. Uh, and we've seen it in other areas of labor as well. Our cost of what we pay someone to work here at Ramsey has changed in some of the areas pretty dramatically. And some of the, we do comp studies to see where they're charging. So yeah, then that means that if I'm going to, uh,

be profitable i have to raise a price somewhere and so that person that buys that pays more and that's called inflation yeah you don't and you don't have to feel guilty about it it's just part of no part of it but i mean what what he's pointing out and i think it's good for people to hear out there is when you're walking around with a little picket in your hand and saying i demand 15 dollars

I demand $22 where I was making 10 to work at McDonald's. Then the cost of McDonald's goes up to cover your idea of you being worth more. Then you don't get to bitch about paying more for stuff because you caused it.

That's what I'm talking. That's what he's talking about. And so you can't go, I don't like the fact your fast food prices all went up. And yet you're walking around demanding that the cost of labor at a fast food place go almost freaking double.

Yeah. And then and then can't, you know, of course, you know, it's all connected. Cosmo. I mean, that's why that's how it works, because these businesses are not evil and greedy, but they also are not not for profit. That's right. They have to make a profit to stay open. And oh, by the way, even nonprofits are profitable.

A nonprofit that isn't profitable closes. Out of business. It's out of business. It's gone. Nonprofit is not an actual dollar amount of they didn't make more than they spent. It's just an accounting entry and an IRS designation. But they actually, you know, your church has to take in more than it puts out. Otherwise, it closes.

So non-profits are profitable. Hello. And so if the cost of electricity at your church goes up, then there you go. I mean, if the cost of staffing at your church goes up because you're competing in the marketplace for that creative position at the church, that music director at the church, you're competing with the marketplace, then it costs more to operate that organization. And some organizations haven't survived that. That's right. So.

So yeah, inflation includes cost of labor. And when you've had a labor disruption like the quarantines created, we haven't seen, we've seen most of the end of it, but we haven't seen the complete end of it yet.

It will calm down and smooth out eventually. But even a little 3%, 5% cost of living raise then gets built into the thing. And you can't really, in business, I can't stand against that and go, well, I just refuse to raise my prices. Well, you're going to refuse to stay in business. You know, that's just kind of dumb. So the next book you buy from us, get ready. The price is going to be more. It's hell out. Yeah.

Those $10 sales we run, they're about done. I'm just saying. We're about done with a $10 sale because a $10 sale is about backward. It's about upside down now, and I'm about done with it. That was helpful for a while, but I've been doing them for 10 years, and

You know, cost of paper kicked my butt, and so I'm going to pass on the butt kicking. All right. That's how this works. That's how it works, y'all. I mean, it's just, this is how it is. So if you think it's otherwise, then you're being naive. But it's interesting to me that we teach so little civics and so little economics today that people can't make a basic connection between. They don't know it's connected, Dave. I demand to be paid more, but then on the other hand, I'm going to bitch about inflation. Yeah. No, I don't think people realize. When you freaking caused it.

You're the essence of it. I mean, you know, I can't believe the cost of bread. Well, it cost about twice the labor to put the bread on the shelf now that it did. So, I mean, almost double. It's crazy. And you can't even get the help. Can't get people to show up because they're sitting at home in their other's basement playing Nintendo. It's nuts. So...

We don't have that problem at Ramsey because we're not dealing with that level of labor. We're dealing with a high class, you know, generally here. So we got a whole different whole different set of things that we deal with that are wonderful by and large. But, yeah, it's a it's a great discussion, Jared. And, you know, the problem was you pulled the string on the monkey. So you got you got the soapbox. You got the soapbox response because I can go on for days about this. But it is interesting that.

How ignorant. Yeah. You know, some of this wealthy quality stuff is and all this stuff. They're ignorant of the connection, the unintended consequences of their little shallow ideas. Yeah, absolutely. And where they're going. I'm glad that he pulled the string. Yeah. Well, every so often, I have to get it out of my system. We will look back in time and say, Fauci, just wow. This is The Ramsey Show. The Ramsey Show.

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Jade Walsh, our Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Sam is in Daytona Beach. Hi, Sam. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Hi, Jade. Thanks so much for taking my call today. I appreciate it. Sure. What's up? Okay, so I've got... It's a complicated situation, but I'm going to try and simplify it as easy, as best as possible for you guys, so I can just honor your time. Okay.

So basically I have, I'm completely debt free. I've never had any debt. I'm very thankful to you for that. When I was 18 years old, I took FPU before I went to college and actually graduated fully debt free. And so it was the best decision I ever made. So never known any debt. I have a fully funded emergency fund, but about a year ago I was given a sum of money from a family member.

Um, now the sum of money that it was, that I was given, it was kind of given with the pretext of the reason why they had this money was for a wedding or maybe to invest into, to give me, to give for like my first property that I would own. But since kind of none of those things have happened, they decided I'm just going to give it to you now. Um, and I want you to do something with it. So in regards to like investing or, um,

Et cetera, et cetera. How much money is it? My problem is, so it was $20,000. Okay. Cool. That's awesome. Okay.

Yeah. So, um, so I guess my next issue was more, um, I kind of don't know what to do in the sense of, I don't know much in regards to investments. Um, and since it was kind of sprung on me, uh, especially I think with the attachment of going, it was going to be for maybe a wedding or maybe a house deposit, but that kind of hasn't happened. So do you not own a home? Are you renting? I don't know. You're renting? Yeah.

Um, are you opposed to saving this money? I mean, you said that initially it was maybe for a wedding, maybe for a down payment. Why wouldn't you set it aside and add to it as a down payment? Well, I guess that's, I guess that's part of my question of just going, is that the best thing to do? Um,

Because I actually have no problem with it. I think what I've been struggling with is because from this family member, it was kind of given the, I'm giving you this money because I want you to do something with it in regards to investing it rather than it just sitting in my bank account doing nothing. Well, it wouldn't be doing nothing. I mean, you can put it in a mutual fund and add to that mutual fund and make that your down payment fund two years from now, three years from now.

Yeah, okay. So just go to RamseySolutions.com. Just go to RamseySolutions.com.

And click on SmartVestor. And you'll find a group of SmartVestor pros in the Daytona Beach area. You can choose from among them which one you would like to work with. Yeah. And you want someone with the heart of a teacher because it sounds like you're new to investing. And they'll sit down and teach you about investing only after you have learned and feel competent and comfortable. That's right. Do you invest? Yeah. And don't ever invest in something you don't understand. Right.

But if I woke up in your shoes and if I had given you that gift with that guideline, I would be happy with you using some basic mutual funds to let that be parked in until and add some to it as you go along for a future down payment. Yeah. Plan on having it in there five years or so. That's what I'd say. So it has some time to.

go in the right direction. Yeah, you should be able to do great with it. That should be excellent. Easy. Jill is with us in Phoenix. If I push the right button, Jill's there. Hi, Jill's with us in Phoenix. Hi, Jill, how are you? I'm well, thank you so much. Thanks for taking my call. Sure, what's up?

So I'm calling, I've listened to the show off and on for years, but I got really serious about six months ago. And I, so I, I'm going to admit at the outstart that I know I've messed up, but I have about $100,000 of debt with my ex-husband. I'm currently married. My current husband,

current husband and I make good money, because this debt felt so overwhelming, I kind of shoved it to the side. We paid off all of our other debts, and I started saving for a house. I went to basically, I skipped partial step two and went to step three. We started saving. So you and your current husband paid off all your other debts.

pre-marriage debts from the other marriage except this debt and what is this debt how big is it it's a hundred thousand dollars and who's it oh two and the irs oh okay and how did you end up a hundred thousand dollars in debt to the irs

So my former husband owned a company. Tax issues got complicated. Life was really overwhelming. He didn't want to deal with it. I didn't know how to deal with it, so we just didn't file seven years of taxes. Yikes. Yeah. So when we got divorced... Wait a minute, wait a minute. Did you have an income during that time? You personally? I did. I did. And you didn't file taxes on that income?

Did you file taxes on your income during the seven years? No. Nope. Okay. So his business was complicated. You didn't file on it. And how did the $100,000 come about? Who decided what that was?

So when we were getting divorced, we actually hired a CPA, which is what we should have done in the first place. And they went through, filed all of our taxes and let us know, you know, what we owed as well as initially interest and penalties. And of course, why in the world did you file filing jointly while you're going through a divorce? Why didn't you file separately? You would have only been responsible for the taxes on your income. The judge required it, unfortunately. Yeah.

I know. I don't believe you. I think your attorney mailed it in. That's not logical. The judge required you file your freaking taxes. I don't argue that. But he didn't require you were as liable that you had to pay taxes on his business that he didn't file on.

So because the judge basically said, well, you benefited from the income while you were married, so you are both jointly and severally liable and you have to file together. It was very, very frustrating. So the ex, I have a question about your ex-husband. Is he going to, if you both said, all right, it's $100,000, I pay 50, you pay 50. Is he going to do it? No, it's joint and several. She's liable for all of it until it's all paid.

Through the divorce, he is obligated to pay 60% and I'm obligated to pay 40%. And that's kind of part of the question is, should I just try to pay the $40,000? No, he's not. No, he's not. The divorce decree says that, but the IRS says you owe $100,000. Correct. The IRS will not acknowledge that. Exactly. They don't have to. But if I pay the $100,000, I can take him back to court and sue him for that portion. Yeah, good luck with that. Or...

I know. And honestly, it wasn't until I called a smart investor pro because I started saving for a house and I had my emergency fund, I was saving for a house and your smart investor pro was like, no, no, girl, you got to go back to step two. You have to deal with this. Yes, you got to deal with it. How much money do you have laying around?

So I have $55,000. Part of that was money that I got from my son passing away, and part of that is money we saved. Okay. I got to tell you, there's a couple courses you can go through here. One course you can go through is you can pay the $100,000 and hope you get his $40,000 back out of him, and I wouldn't give you much hope for that, and you move on with your life. That's a fairly easy course to take. That's the clean course. That's the easy one. Okay. Here's the one I would do, though, and it's the hard one.

I would hire another CPA or rather a tax attorney, and I would go back before the probate courts where the divorce was done and challenge that judge's ruling and refile under the innocent spouse provision because I don't think you're liable for his taxes.

and you're innocent of his. Ask your tax attorney about the innocent spouse provision. This is where a spouse just signs off on everything, and the other spouse is running the business, and they just sign off on it. Then they don't get half the thing. They get out scot-free. And you'd be liable for your income, the taxes on your income during that seven years, but not on the business's income. And I'm challenging that judge's ruling if I'm you.

It's going to cost you $10,000 to do this. I was going to say, how much would you spend to do that? Yeah, but I would do it. This is The Ramsey Show. Listen, I know a lot of you would rather watch paint dry in slow motion than file your taxes. But thankfully, you don't have to dread filing when you've got Ramsey Smart Tax. It comes packed with everything you need to file online before the big deadline. That means all major federal forms and deductions are covered immediately.

with no hidden fees. Plus, with Ramsey Smart Tax, you can save up to 70% compared to other tax software out there. It's a no-brainer. Just go to ramseysolutions.com slash smart tax and see how simple tax filing can be. That's ramseysolutions.com slash smart tax.

Jade Walsh, our Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Hey, guys, if you didn't know, I love talking to you about money. We also help small businesses, about 10,000 of them across America. And we have a podcast called Entree Leadership. It was actually the very first podcast we ever did at Ramsey. And it was run by other Ramsey personalities and interview style and stuff over the years. I took it over about two years ago and started taking calls from people.

from small business people about leadership and small business questions. It's called Entree Leadership Podcast. It's very popular in that world. And if you want to be part of that and you run a small business, you got a question about it, you can call and leave us a voicemail there at 844-944-1070, 844-944-1070. Or you can go to EntreeLeadership.com slash ask, leave your question, and our team will get you set up to be a caller online.

on there. Also, a reminder that this is the last portion of the show that is broadcast over YouTube and podcast. There's another portion coming up.

That is on the Ramsey Network app and on some talk radio stations around America. And so if you want, the Ramsey Network app is completely free. So you can finish this version of the show, video or audio or both, and just jump over the Ramsey Network app. It's completely free. There's all kinds of stuff you can do there, like search calls by subject, find

Find out what we've got to say about any certain thing. Type it in. You can type in an email and send it to us. We'll answer it here on the air. We do a lot of stuff that's really fun over on the Ramsey Network app, so be sure you check all that out. Ryan is with us in Hartford, Connecticut. Hey, Ryan, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, how are you guys? Sure. What's up?

Hey, so I have a bit of a problem. I never thought this was going to happen. So in 2018, my father passed away and he left me and my brother a 401k plan. Fast forward five years, I got a check in the mail this morning for about $245,000. The original account balance was about $300,000.

And what's happening is they gave me the check, and I have to pay the IRS that $55,000 difference from the $300,000 and $245,000. I called them and asked them if they could roll it over, and they said once they issued the check, there's nothing that can be done. Who told them to issue the check?

Not me. Apparently, the company my father worked for, I didn't either get a read or... I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. You cut out. Apparently, the company your father worked for, what? Yeah, they have a five-year plan, I guess, for the death benefit that if it's not rolled over to something else within five years, they must close the account and just issue a check-out.

It was super confusing. The way they explained it to me, I was on the phone with them for an hour and a half this morning with my 401k company. And they pretty much said, once we issue the check, there's nothing that can be done. There was no workaround. Yeah, there is. They had until this, that's what I'm saying. I'm sure you don't have an extra 55 grand laying around.

No, so the way it worked is my account balance was $300,000. It started at like $215,000, and over the years I got it up to $300,000. They issued me a check for $245,000. They already took the money out and sent it to the IRS and issued me the difference. Yeah, they have to withhold 20%. That's the rule.

If you take a withdrawal. But this is an involuntary withdrawal without any contact to you or anything, which is completely, at a minimum, unprofessional. What caused you to wait the five years as opposed to rolling it over? Because the 401k plan my father was invested in had really good options. All of those same options exist in the open market.

Yeah. And I have my own personal investment accounts and I do it with that as well. The, you know, if you know, don't rock the boat, if the boat shouldn't be rocked. So the way I figured is the 401k plan was perfectly fine. I kept it in there just because the investment options were fine. It was just, it's a retirement account. I was treating it like a retirement account. I wasn't going to touch it until I was 65. I'm 30 now. Yeah. What do you like? I make, uh,

I'm a truck driver, so I make about $110,000 a year. And I also own a small business that I make about the same. Okay. Under the SECURE Act that Biden passed, you have 10 years to liquidate the 401k completely. You should have been liquidating it at one-tenth a year from the time the SECURE Act passed two years ago. And you've not been doing that. I didn't know about that. I know.

So I'm trying to figure out how that plays into this and how hardcore. All right, let's pretend that we figure out a way to lean on them and they cancel the check and put the money back into the 401k so that you can roll it over within 30 days, which is what they should do if they're

are people of integrity. This is a problem. It's not technically unethical. It's just so nasty that it ought to be unethical. It's a lot of money. It's going to cost you $20,000, $30,000 that you don't have. It cost me two years to

It cost me two whole years of gains because of this. No way. I never thought I would be upset to get a huge check in the mail, but I did. And I'm upset because I should have had it rolled over. It should have been huger. He should have called me. Yeah. All right. So here's what I'm going to suggest you do. And I don't think it'll work, but it's the only thing I can think of. All right. Okay. Go to RamseySolutions.com and click on SmartVestor and

and find a SmartVestor Pro in your area that you like after talking to them on the phone. They may be able to call on your behalf and talk them into undoing this and immediately rolling it, and they'll help you with the rollover. Okay. They may be able to cite a regulation or something that I'm not aware of because this is –

When you started talking, I thought you were going to tell me this was a tiny little 401k, like a $10,000, and they were just cleaning out all the little ones. Sometimes they do that when a company sells or in the event of an inherited 401k like you've got. But this is huge. This is a lot of money. And with no notification at all, this is particularly nasty.

And so if they had simply notified you, you could have quickly rolled it over and avoided this, right? And they said they notified me, but I'm very... Oh, wait a minute. You're a truck driver. You're a truck driver. Once a week. They did notify you then. I checked my accounts. They said they did, but I never got enough information. So you've never seen evidence of them? Ask them to prove that they did.

Okay. Good idea. I mean, I don't think you've got a basis for suing them, but I'd be tempted to. I really would. I mean, because you're talking about $25,000 or $30,000 cost here. That is unnecessary. $55,000 they took out. No, honey, it's the taxes on $55,000. The $55,000 is going to be taxed.

Not penalized. No, when I got my experiment, like the summary of what my original account balance was $300,000. They cut me a check for $245,000. I understand. They took $55,000 and they sent it to the federal government as tax withholding, and it's not all taxable. Because you're going to roll the rest of this. If you take the check in your hand and you roll it to a 401k, the only harm that's going to come to you is the taxes on the $55,000.

Which is going to be $15,000 or $20,000. Oh, so I'm going to have to pay another $15,000. Honey, you haven't paid anything yet. Okay, they withheld your money, $55,000, and sent it to the federal government. Then what you do is you file a tax return of what is actually due to

And what will be actually due is not $55,000. It'll only be the taxes on $55,000 if you take the check in your hand and put it into an IRA traditional within 60 days of right now. So you need to get on the phone with a SmartVestor Pro right now because at least we need to do that.

Okay, I will. So the worst case scenario, if you follow through on what I just told you, is taxes on $55,000. Because the government has $55,000 of your money as if you're going to get taxed on the whole thing, and you're not. Okay. Because you're going to roll the portion in your hand, which is 80% of it, into a traditional to keep you from getting taxed. You've got 60 days to do that from the time withdrawal. So, folks, you can pull your money out of 401K.

They have to withhold 20%, but you have to put 100% into an account within 60 days to avoid taxation. That's what the problem is. You can't do that because they've already sent it. But he can't do that because they've got 55 of his money over at the IRS now. And so if you just take the 55, then you're going to pay some taxes, but not 55. So there we go. This is The Ramsey Show.