Debra (Caller from Phoenix)
Appearances
The Ramsey Show
It’s Time to Stop Surviving and Start Taking Control
Hi, guys. I need some advice. I'm in trouble.
The Ramsey Show
It’s Time to Stop Surviving and Start Taking Control
Okay. I have two houses. Okay. One, I was renting out. The renter went away, totally destroyed. trashed the place left the place broken haven't fixed it had a lousy lousy horrible horrible 2024 year and it's left me with $70,000 worth of credit card debt because of the house or because of other things The house, trying to get people to help get it repaired, that kind of thing.
The Ramsey Show
It’s Time to Stop Surviving and Start Taking Control
It's still sitting not repaired. It's been eight months. So I've lost that income. And then my income went down from five days a week to three days a week. So that also hit me. Plus I had like knee surgery. I have kids living with me. I have grandchildren living with me. And honestly, the money I have now,
The Ramsey Show
It’s Time to Stop Surviving and Start Taking Control
I can't make the bills every month, and so I've been putting my utilities on the credit card and that kind of thing. And this is over a year, and it's all added up, and here I am. All right.
The Ramsey Show
It’s Time to Stop Surviving and Start Taking Control
On the rental, I owe zero. Oh, it's paid for. It's paid for. I inherited from my father. Oh, wow. I figured when I'm 65, I'd move there and retire. And there you go. Have no mortgage. Meanwhile, my other little home, which is condo, I owe about one hundred and fourteen thousand dollars on. OK.
The Ramsey Show
It’s Time to Stop Surviving and Start Taking Control
Well, in the home because condo's upstairs kind of thing. Okay. You know? Yeah, for sure. I like where I live, but like I said, I've got grown children living with me. We're talking 30s.
The Ramsey Show
It’s Time to Stop Surviving and Start Taking Control
Because they got no place else to live. One injured his back. He's got like a 10 vertebrae fusion. He's looking to get on SSI. He hasn't worked in a couple of years. And then the other one, he's got three kids, 12 year old, a 10 year old and a seven year old. And believe me, we don't have room.
The Ramsey Show
It’s Time to Stop Surviving and Start Taking Control
You know, I've got people sleeping on the couch, you know, but I've been paying all the bills and I've asked for help. They don't help. One of them can't. He just doesn't even have a job anymore. The one that does work construction, he does have income, but he doesn't contribute. And he doesn't want to help do the repairs.
The Ramsey Show
It’s Time to Stop Surviving and Start Taking Control
That was part of the thing is he was supposed to repair the one house, the rental house, and he's been, I guess he's been baloney, giving me a bunch of baloney for months on end here.
The Ramsey Show
It’s Time to Stop Surviving and Start Taking Control
These are my sons, my blood sons.
The Ramsey Show
It’s Time to Stop Surviving and Start Taking Control
Yeah, and that would be the rest of my income for the rest of my life. I am 62 right now. What do you have in retirement? Yeah, about $6,000.
The Ramsey Show
It’s Time to Stop Surviving and Start Taking Control
That's what I'm trying to figure out. Because I'm literally having to borrow money even to pay the minimums right now.
The Ramsey Show
It’s Time to Stop Surviving and Start Taking Control
Yeah. No, it's a blessing, and I know it is. But, you know, and what about my grandkids, though?
The Ramsey Show
It’s Time to Stop Surviving and Start Taking Control
I don't want to make my grandkids homeless.
The Ramsey Show
It’s Time to Stop Surviving and Start Taking Control
No, I agree on that. And I don't feel like I'm doing them any favors because I take care of too much. And I've tried to back off of that, too, because I do do that.
The Ramsey Show
It’s Time to Stop Surviving and Start Taking Control
Well, he does construction, so he works here and there, that kind of thing.
The Ramsey Show
It’s Time to Stop Surviving and Start Taking Control
On the big things. And the thing is, he actually made more than I did last year. And he still can't help me with the utilities or nothing like that. And I'm begging him.
The Ramsey Show
Be Prepared: Math Doesn’t Care About Your Life Situations
Hello there. Thanks for taking my call.
The Ramsey Show
Be Prepared: Math Doesn’t Care About Your Life Situations
So I'm 56, and my husband just passed away on the 29th, so two weeks ago.
The Ramsey Show
Be Prepared: Math Doesn’t Care About Your Life Situations
Yeah. Kind of amazing. He was a pastor. He was 69, I'm 56, so 12 and a half years difference. Yeah, pretty amazing.
The Ramsey Show
Be Prepared: Math Doesn’t Care About Your Life Situations
We just discovered this cancer about two and a half years ago. And just the last three weeks, something happened real fast. And so it's probably an answer to prayer that we didn't want him to suffer and for him to go fast. And so that's what happened.
The Ramsey Show
Be Prepared: Math Doesn’t Care About Your Life Situations
Yeah, getting out of bed before 9 a.m. is a chore. And then trying to quiet my mind at night is hard. My son, he's here right now, but he's getting ready to leave today. So I'll be by myself. So those quiet mornings and evenings are going to be very loud very soon.
The Ramsey Show
Be Prepared: Math Doesn’t Care About Your Life Situations
I do. I live in an active adult community and this community is like nothing I've ever experienced. Yeah. So they're just waiting for me to leave the bubble so they can inundate me with love.
The Ramsey Show
Be Prepared: Math Doesn’t Care About Your Life Situations
Yeah, so, oh my gosh. The only thing he left me with was a big, giant bucket of love.
The Ramsey Show
Be Prepared: Math Doesn’t Care About Your Life Situations
So no retirement, no life insurance, no savings, no... I mean, I was even joking with everybody in my family. It's like, oh my gosh, I was going to send a thank you card out and I don't even have stamps. So I'm like, I don't even have stamps. So he had a brain aneurysm 12 years ago. And so nobody would insure him for life insurance.
The Ramsey Show
Be Prepared: Math Doesn’t Care About Your Life Situations
And this is how this whole thing started with me, you know, harping on him to try to at least get some sort of life insurance because I just had a feeling he was not going to live long. And that's when somebody came to the house to do the uh, physical and they said, you're, you know, your numbers are too elevated. And so we had no idea what that meant. And then we found out that he had cancer.
The Ramsey Show
Be Prepared: Math Doesn’t Care About Your Life Situations
So, so no life insurance except for an $8,000 policy, which is going to take care of the two services, one here in Arizona and one in Washington that I have to do. And, uh, it's going to eat that up. So I just don't have any other resources financially. I am a self-employed realtor. Um, and I do. Okay.
The Ramsey Show
Be Prepared: Math Doesn’t Care About Your Life Situations
And there's going to be somebody has sent us money for that.
The Ramsey Show
Be Prepared: Math Doesn’t Care About Your Life Situations
Um, with my career, do you have enough money to do that? Yes.
The Ramsey Show
Be Prepared: Math Doesn’t Care About Your Life Situations
Oh, probably about one 60. Okay.
The Ramsey Show
Be Prepared: Math Doesn’t Care About Your Life Situations
Yeah, it has grown the last couple of years and I've turned my business into an LLC.
The Ramsey Show
Be Prepared: Math Doesn’t Care About Your Life Situations
Good for you. And I have a trust. So it's all buttoned up in there.
The Ramsey Show
Be Prepared: Math Doesn’t Care About Your Life Situations
Retirement. Retirement, not that I'm going to retire anytime soon, but I just need to better position myself because I live in a community where there's unlimited resources that everybody has, you know, this is their, they're living their best life. This is the last chapter in everybody's lives. And, and I am lucky to live here.
The Ramsey Show
Be Prepared: Math Doesn’t Care About Your Life Situations
I feel very fortunate to live here, but I don't have unlimited resources.
The Ramsey Show
Be Prepared: Math Doesn’t Care About Your Life Situations
I can because my rate's 3.5 and I can't imagine going anywhere else unless it's somewhere in Timbuktu.
The Ramsey Show
Be Prepared: Math Doesn’t Care About Your Life Situations
Yeah, so I do have the six months. It's just sitting in a safe, you know, it's just in our house. And it's like, okay, well, that's not growing me any money. So I'm just trying to, and then I also have some in a savings at Wells Fargo, you know, so those are not going to, there's no ROI there. So tell me the amount.
The Ramsey Show
Be Prepared: Math Doesn’t Care About Your Life Situations
We have some SEP individual retirement funds, just like 16 per person. So for he and I, so another 32 there.
The Ramsey Show
Be Prepared: Math Doesn’t Care About Your Life Situations
So we owe 303. The payment each month is 2014 and I pay an extra 225. So It's cutting off almost five and a half years of the 30 years plus $35,000 is what I'm cutting off by doing the extra 225 a month.
The Ramsey Show
Be Prepared: Math Doesn’t Care About Your Life Situations
I don't think so. I'm not tracking it very well if I am. I'm trying to tithe and just, and yeah, I haven't had to worry about the finances because my husband, you know, was bringing in an extra $5,000 a month, which was our overhead. And so I felt like anything I was bringing in was just extra. So we weren't really policing it or watching it.