Robert

Yeah. I'd like to know, with the crisis that you're experiencing in the emergency room, how is that affecting the other patients?

Oh, what about telehealth? I mean, you know, you...

Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. I'm having a little technical difficulties at times. But as I'm sitting here thinking about this, what message do we want to have community to know about the issue? And what can the community be able to assert to help?

in terms of trying to address the issue, because it is something that, you know, as Dan was saying, mind-blowing to me, to think about, you know, young people having to be boarded in the emergency room. And so what is it that we should be, what should we know? I mean, so that's, I want to just put it out there like that.

and that's it's just that's it's wild all right clarence what do you what do you this is really sad and disturbing go ahead it's very very sad and disturbing but i want to i want to know what uh impact does the substance abuse issues have on the number of young people coming into the department as well because i think that um

Is that, I mean, with the increase in substance abuse and those kinds of things, is that also a factor in you seeing more young people?

What you're saying is that right now the hospital system or the system is not set up necessarily to deal with those young people with both of those issues, right? I mean, it's either you're in one silo or you're in the other silo. And you're saying that there's a need for a special silo, right?

Let me do a follow-up question. Go ahead, Clarence. Let me do a follow-up question because you brought up something. You talked about the lack of practitioners. What kind of effect is this having on the practitioners who have to work in this environment?

Sie haben es definitiv gemacht.

10%?

Sie machen definitiv.

Da habe ich ihnen gesagt, dass ihre Mutter gestorben ist. Not in such a succinct fashion, but the reaction was that my oldest daughter, who was I think nine at the time, absolutely registered and fell apart. The news hit her very hard. My youngest daughter did not quite understand was wirklich passiert war und was in sich seine eigene Gravität hatte.

My grandson was very aggravated at his grandmother and his mother. He said, I am so tired of these two bitches. I'm disgusted. He said, my mom, I keep thinking over and over. Quiero romper su nariz. Quiero que huya. Quiero oír la sangre. Quiero sentir la sangre. Quiero sentir la vida y la sangre dejando su cuerpo. Ahora, cuando dijo eso, ¿qué pasó en tu mente?

Necesitaba respirar profundo y hacer lo que pudiera para disminuir ese pensamiento, porque pensamientos se vuelven palabras, palabras se vuelven acciones. ¿Qué le dijiste a él en respuesta? Le dije, Colin, te amo amigo, pero no puedes tener esos tipos de pensamientos y enfocarte en ellos y luego hablar de ellos porque los causarás a que se vuelvan realidad.

Por favor, piensa en cosas positivas sobre tu mamá, sobre ti mismo y sobre un buen futuro juntos. Ahora, ¿en cualquier momento has alertado a tu hija de lo que el defendiente quería hacerle? Lo hice, pero no usé las palabras exactas porque había mucho maldición.

¿Cuál fue su respuesta? Que ha estado amenazando a ella y ha estado amenazando a Susan múltiples veces con matar a ambos de ellos.

So what we're going to do today is revisit part of an Ask KT and Susie Anything episode from a while back. And we're going to jump right into it with KT asking the first question.

Thank you for watching. regarding your particular situation. Neither Susie Orman Media nor Susie Orman accepts any responsibility for any losses which may arise from accessing or reliance on information in this podcast. And to the fullest extent permitted by law, we exclude all liability for loss, damages, direct or indirect, arising from the use of this information.

The must-have documents discussed in this podcast are legal documents created by a lawyer and distributed by Hay House.

4.25.

March 27th, 2025. Welcome to the Women in Money podcast, as well as everyone smart enough to listen. Hi, everybody. Robert, the producer here. So it turns out there was a major electrical failure on the island where Susie and KT live. And of course, you know that one needs electricity in order to record a podcast. And you should know by now that we don't like to leave you without a show.

And the message is very, very important. But before we get to that, Susie wanted me to tell you that for those of you who have a CD at Alliant Credit Union maturing during the month of March, the rates that she gave you on last Sunday's podcast for the 12 to 17 month CDs, those rates are absolutely correct. 4.35% APR for amounts under $75,000 and 4.40% APR for $75,000 or above.

You can indeed add additional funds to your renewal CD to take advantage of those rates. You don't have to wait until the CD is mature to sign up for that renewal. Now, when you call and an Alliant operator tells you anything different... They're wrong. Simply tell them, please check with Don Potter, leader of the member services division at Alliant Credit Union.

make any recommendations as to any specific securities or investments. All content contained in this podcast is for informational and general purposes only and does not constitute financial accounting or legal advice. You should consult your own tax, legal, and financial advisors regarding your particular situation.

Neither Suzy Orman Media nor Suzy Orman accepts any responsibility for any losses which may arise from accessing or reliance on information in this podcast. And to the fullest extent permitted by law, we exclude all liability for loss, damages, direct or indirect, arising from the use of this information.

The must-have documents discussed in this podcast are legal documents created by a lawyer and distributed by Hay House.

Then politely ask to speak to a supervisor and make sure you identify yourself as a Suzy client. You see, Alliant has many offers for their members, but these rates are for Suzy listeners. So again, tell the agent you're a Suzy client. And one last piece of advice from Suzy. Just keep your cool with these markets. The markets hate confusion, and everyone is confused right now, so just be patient.

All right, enough of me. Here's Suzy from the past.

4.25.

4.25.

March 9th, 2025. Welcome to the Women in Money podcast, as well as everyone smart enough to listen. Hi, everybody. Robert, the producer here. And yeah, I know if you're hearing my voice, that means, unfortunately, Susie is a little under the weather today. But have no fear. We have selected part of a really great episode from a while back for you to hear today.

You're trying to build, right.

Mhm.

Jason, get back in the control room.

Thank you.

That's not a word either.

Let me ask you a couple of questions first. How long have you had this? Can you remember?

Okay. And does it come and go or is it always there?

Yeah, I would agree with that. Water more than hair gel. Okay. Yeah, if you want to show it to me, that's fine. Okay.

See, white with writing on it?

Okay.

So... What I think is going on. Do you want to see it one more time? Do you want to see it one more time?

Never seen anything like it. Don't move. Let him finish his answer until you sit down.

So what I think you have going on is what's called a peri-umbilical hernia. So you can sit down if you want.

Hi, Dave. Hi, Dr. John. Net worth is just over $1.1 million.

Mm-hmm. So $475,000 in retirement. Mm-hmm. $325,000 in real estate. Mm-hmm. $100,000 in checking, savings, emergency funds. Mm-hmm. $70,000 in mutual funds. Mm-hmm. $70,000 in paid-for vehicles.

And about $110 in business interest.

And how old are you? I am 37 and my wife is 31.

We inherited zero.

Best year was last year, 275 for the household, and worst year would be when we both started out of college. We were about 45 each, so 90, and I'd say average was about 160.

I am in construction engineering, and my wife is in, she's a manufacturer's rep for a steel company.

I do. In what? Civil and construction engineering technology.

3.2.

Yeah, a little bit.

Oh, I'd say $80, $60 to $80, just recently, too. Still have them. I'm a fan of the Costco pants, though.

Oh, that thing's long gone. Oh, it's gone.

That was my dad's stash.

Well, my wife drives a 2023 Palisade, and I drive a 2020 Ram 1500. Good.

Oh, I would say more on TV, unfortunately, but we do do a lot of driving and trips together, and when we do drive, we listen to books on audio.

Absolutely. What should they do? Absolutely. I'd say surround yourself with the right people and make sure you're on the same page as your spouse regarding money because I'm telling you right now, life gets real easy when you guys don't fight about money.

I got no payments. Okay, that's good.

Hey, guys. Hey. Hey, so I'm looking for a little guidance here. You know, back in 1980, long before I became a Ramsey disciple, I purchased two Northwestern mutual whole life policies. They have a cash value of $96,800 and a death benefit of $150,000 now. I'm just looking for a little guidance on, you know, is it worth my while to cash this out, pay the taxes, and reinvest it?

Or is the train too far down the tracks with that significant death benefit?

Sixty-nine.

I would deduct the basis. I would probably end up, my calculation, I'd end up with about $78,600 to invest.

Right, currently.

I'm very financially secure and no debt at all.

About $3.7. Amazing.

Probably not.

Well, I mean, last year, interest in dividends, it came to about $4,000. So, and that, you know, after I paid the interest in dividends, it was just, you know, do I set that up?

It's $741 a year for both policies.

Well, we love that.

You know, I mean, I've worked hard, I've invested well, but also, I mean, I've got to give some credit to Ramsey. I attacked my mortgage first, and I did not spend money that I didn't have.

The things my grandmother taught me. I mean, it was very, very, very simple, and... Yeah, I'm done well with it.

So we have about, my wife and I combined about $480,000 in our retirement accounts and then $520,000 equity in our home. We have about $80,000 in paid-for vehicles, $10,000 emergency fund, and about $20,000 in miscellaneous investments.

I mean... When I first started my career full time, probably about $50,000 income. And now it's $150,000. And then my wife probably started around $30,000 and is now $90,000. Okay. Awesome.

I'm 33. My wife's 35.

ironically we actually just were gifted $50,000 but that was after we hit our millionaire status so the inheritance did not equate or help in that sense advance it and what do you guys do what do you and your wife do I'm a police sergeant for a small city, and my wife is a high school special ed teacher.

Yeah. So I actually I don't need any college degree for my career, but I do have an associate's and I am going back online. My job is paying for it. But my wife has a master's, obviously, as you can imagine.

No, I mean, I made some dumb purchases early on. I bought a new truck and a new motorcycle when I first started my career, but I quickly paid it off and then just saved and saved prior to buying a home. Wow.

Just work really hard, have a plan and live within your means.

Thank you.

Dave, how are you? Hi, Ken. How are you? Good.

The purpose of my call, I'm... I'm calling, I want to know, I know what I want to achieve, I just don't know how to achieve it. If I can give you a real quick background, I'm 67, I'm divorced, I'm retired, I have an IRA, I'm totally debt free, I have an IRA with about $985,000 in it and I have a brokerage account with about $115,000 in it. And I have one son, my sole beneficiary.

And what I'm trying to achieve, like I said, I'm in good health. I think I have 20 years left in me, possibly more if God's willing. I want to know how I can, you know, move some money now where upon my death, my son isn't

I'm good. How are you, Dave and Rachel?

Thanks for taking my call. I found you guys in 2020, and after paying off all my debt, I'm now on baby step six. I've been dating the same woman for four and a half years. She's absolutely amazing. I lover to death. Um, the one thing we struggle with is money and we pretty much see it kind of opposite.

Um, we're getting to a point in our relationship where, you know, we're, we're heavily discussing marriage and what all that looks like. And we're, we're kind of in a spot where, um, you know, I try to help her as much as possible and as much as she wants me to, I guess. to set up budgets and stuff like that. And it just never works out.

Um, you know, she, she always goes way over budget or whatever. And, um, if we were to get married, like she, you know, she would sell her house and move in with me and, and, uh, profits from that would pay off all of her debts. She has about 65,000 in debts. Um, so, so it's not really like a concern from that aspect. It's more just

Um, I guess I'm scared to move forward with someone that I've never seen can stay within a budget. Um, you know, and, and I'm worried that. It's the number one reason people get a divorce. I'm worried about becoming a statistic because we fight about money all the time.

Yeah, she just spends more than she makes. I mean, she brings in more money than I do, honestly. What does she spend it on?

Yeah, so in her every dollar, she's got a food category that's supposed to be $600. Last month, she spent $1,100. And then her shopping, it's supposed to be, I think, $400, and that includes even unnecessary fund purchases that everyone has to have. But instead, she spent like $900. Um, you know, she wants to, she's a mom of two. She wants to get a mommy makeover.

Um, and so like in her head, she's justifying, well, if I can pay off these two debts, that's payments equal what the mommy makeover payments will make, then I can do it. But she's never once made like that extra debt payment to even pay those debts down. She just, she's more of like a, You know, you've got to spend the money that you make to have fun kind of thing than I am.

Yeah, I met her.

Correct.

So I was debt-free by the time I met her. I started January 1st as a New Year's resolution, and I met her December 4th. So within that year, I was out of debt. So she never really saw me aggressively attack debt, but I still live the lifestyle. Like I still budget every month. I still, you know, so she's seen that lifestyle and where it's gotten me.

And she just, she just, she doesn't have like the mental mind. Like I see things in numbers and statistics. I'm a spreadsheet nerd. She's the complete opposite.

Hi, Cynthia. Sorry. Thanks for having me. I'm kind of nervous.

Okay, I feel like I'm stuck. I am here in Florida, originally from Texas. I moved to Florida in 2013 to help my parents. They were aging, so I wanted to be closer to them. Subsequently, we got married. We bought a house in 2017. And then both of our houses, my parents' house and my house, got damaged by the Hurricane Michael in 2018. It took us three years.

Hey there. Thanks so much for taking my call, and thanks for doing what you guys do. I really appreciate it.

Oh, shoot.

Well, I'm nearing the end of my divorce and I owe my ex $226,000 to buy the house. Whoa. Currently, we owe... No, no, this is a good thing. There's lots of equity in it. Currently, we owe $24,000 on the house. And my question mainly is, I'm 55. I have plenty of money in my 401k to pull out money to pay him off. But tax-wise, tax implications, I don't know if that's my best choice.

Should I pull the money out of my 401k or should I just refund it?

to get both of the houses back together. And, um, you know, with the help of my husband, he was able to help us get it repaired, which was an ordeal that I never want to go through again. Um, my question is this, I don't want to live in Florida anymore, but my parents are elderly. My husband passed away, um, two years ago, so I don't have him to help me anymore. I'm a full-time caregiver to them.

Yes.

Not wanting a house payment.

Okay.

You know, I think I will. I'm pretty disciplined and all right.

Interest rates are killing me. Yes, I do.

Okay. All right. I really appreciate you guys.

What is that? $850,000 in my main one and $50,000 in my other.

$55. Yeah.

I have a full-time job. Should I sell my house to kind of get that burden off of me? The responsibility of having two houses, caregiver, full-time job is a bit overwhelming. If I sell my house, I'm thinking of renting until I can convince them to go back to Texas or, you know, God forbid, until they pass away, which, you know, none of us know how long we have. But is it a good idea to at least

Hi. I just had a question, General. So... I was in a car accident not too long ago. And because of that, I do have a backup car that I'm currently in. And it's a 1996 Chevy Blazer. And it runs good. It has AC. It has a heater. It's perfect as is. Um, but I do commute a lot, so I'm looking to buy a car.

get rid of my house, bank the money, put it in CDs and then just rent and not have to think about, well, if another hurricane comes, at least I won't be responsible for that house or two houses again.

Um, I do have money cash to buy one, but my dad used to be a car salesman and he was saying that I shouldn't use this money to buy the car out cash, that I should get comfortable with paying a little bit of down payment and then make it adjust. So that way I'm comfortable with the monthly payment that I receive. But, I don't like the idea of debt.

I don't like the idea of paying interest because you're paying money for essentially money that you don't have. So I don't really understand that part, but I just, I want a second opinion.

Um, I'm comfortable spending $15,000, but I could spend up to $20,000.

The $5,000 extra would be from the emergency fund. So the $15,000 is separate.

Right. That makes sense.

That's my parents' house. They're living in that house.

No, they own it completely.

Well, my problem is we are doing very well, me and my husband. We've been married 31 years, and everything together we're worth about $4 million. Woo!

About half of that is his inheritance, and about half of that inheritance is a million dollars for a company that he inherited that was then bought out. So my question is, I don't have that much in my name. I have an account, I have about $100,000 in my name alone and then I have about another $100,000 in retirement and that's it. And the rest of it I think of as his and I know that's not right.

I know that's not how I need to think about it. He doesn't think about it that way. He's told me, as far as I'm concerned, it's half years.

I don't know how I can make this.

I want to say the business money may be in his name only.

He won't do one. I made him do one during COVID, but we sat with a lawyer, talked about it, drew it out, and I've not seen it since then. So I haven't signed one.

It does. I think he doesn't want to admit he's going to die, and his father was the same way.

Right.

Right. And I don't know why that is. I don't know why I feel that way.

I bring in about... $2,000 a month and he brings home $100,000 a year.

It would be difficult and more stressful.

Not all of it. A section of it, there's a checking account that I write from that my Social Security money goes into and that's all that goes into it. And his name is on that account, but he doesn't use it. And then there's a joint account where he used to put all his bonus money in that I write joint household expenses from.

But now with the company bias, he's not going to get those bonuses anymore. So I don't know yet how I'm going to straighten this out.

Okay.

I mean, 31 years... I think he would want... I think he would really... His actual reaction would be, why are you worried about it?

Yeah, it would be difficult. I know where all the paperwork is, but yeah. And this is something we're going through still with his dad's estate. His dad's estate was still the same way. It still messed up two years after he's dead.

Yeah, I do. But it's my money that I spend.

Yeah.

I feel like I have to ask him.

Yeah, if that's been working.

31 years.

We didn't come in with so much money until a couple of years ago.

Survival mode, you know, COVID hit. Mom got COVID really bad. It was horrible. My husband passed away. And she had a major blood clot, and she had a stroke, and it's just been biblical.

Heck yeah. Come on. I love your introduction. That was epic.

I appreciate it. I appreciate it.

A lot of people make that joke, but the way you made it was special.

We're friends now. Well, wait. Did you guys get my question already, or should I say it all again?

Oh, okay. So, basically, I'm a remote closer. Basically sales online, so phone sales, sales and DMs. Basically my goal is to help people make better decisions so that you can improve their life through sales, right? Right. And so usually the goal is to work for programs that, you know, offer some sort of solution to someone's problem.

And so I am new to the field, and so I recently started applying for jobs. And one of them was for a leadership position. program where they teach leadership to people so that they can like lead their companies better. Right. And so in order to be a part of their team as a remote closer or DM setter, The woman I spoke to on the phone said that I have to invest in their course first.

All of their employees have gone through their course. Their course is $5,000.

I have budgeted. Go ahead.

But I'm blessed. I am blessed.

Okay.

Okay. We're still friends. I appreciate real truth. That's true friendship right there.

Okay. So that answers that question. Can I have a follow-up question?

Okay. So when I was on the phone with her, she was telling me all about it, right? And I told her that my one concern was that I only had $100 to spend. I have money in my account, but it's all budgeted. I have it in my emergency fund, which, by the way, saved my life a week ago. Hey, hey, hey.

Yes. I'm looking at apartments that are around $2,000 a month.

Uh-huh, yep. And so I have it all budgeted, so I can't spend that. So I only have $100 that I can spend, and I made it a goal earlier, like at the beginning of the summer, that I was not going to go into debt. So I told myself I'm not going into debt.

And then when I was on the phone with her, I told her that. I was like, yeah, I mean, I could do that, but I don't want to make my parents go in debt for me. I don't want to go in debt for myself. I'm going to make the money and then pay for the course.

So the question is, when I told her that, she basically was like, well, when you're in sales and you're trying to, like, grow, you're young, you need to invest in yourself, and right now is the ideal time to invest in yourself. And the way she said it was so convincing that it made me, like, Yeah, she's in sales.

Say that again?

Well, my follow-up question isn't regarding the course. It's regarding investing in order to get a return.

Around $5,000.

So even as a rule of thumb, like... I can just be confident in never going into debt, even if it is alluding to the fact that I'm investing myself. Just find a way around it.

I am.

He had a small amount of life insurance. I do have an emergency fund. I have about $50,000 in savings. Maybe about, I carry five in checking. Do you have any debt other than the mortgage? I have one credit card that has about $900 balance on it.

I'm thinking around $200,000.

Yeah, I would put it someplace where it would draw interest but be safe. I was thinking CDs haven't really gone that far with it.

Hi, thank you for taking my call.

Yeah, so my husband and I are on baby step number two and we're hoping to buy a home in about three years. So my question is about our credit. We each have one credit card each. And we've recently realized it's really not a good thing for him to have a credit card. So he cut it up the other day, which was great. And we'd like to close the account.

But my concern is that we want his score to go down to a zero. What I've read online is that it can take between like two and ten years to do that.

Okay.

Thank you for answering my question.

Okay, great. I know you guys are not about the car loans, and our goal is to never finance a car ever again. We owe about 17 left on my current vehicle, and then we're hoping to be done with the car loans forever. However, we do want a big family, so we're going to be hauling a lot of kids around someday. So we're just kind of keeping that in the back of our mind.

If we ever hit a point where we needed... a larger vehicle like a van and we didn't have the cash to pay for it, if we have an indeterminable credit score, are we able to finance a vehicle or is that off the table?

Right. We just have two.

Yes, I agree.

I've got one who's going to be two in December and a three-month-old.

Yes, I am concerned about that as well.

It's not a bad idea. I don't know the availability in my area. I've not researched it, but I'm willing to do some research on that.

Mm-hmm, absolutely.

What would be ideal? Oh, I could be at $1,500 or less would be awesome.

Okay. Okay.

Hey, guys. Appreciate you taking my call. I guess I've got kind of like a decent problem to have, but it's kind of a problem nonetheless.

I think I've kind of been, I'm 25. I've saved about like 200 grand. Um, I don't know what for, and I'm making about like one 20 a year. Um, but I kind of like, I kind of like live like a rat cause I don't need too much. Like every time I move, I get a place with a cheaper rent and then I've gotten promoted every year I've been there and I make more money.

But for me, it's kind of like I've been very removed from the present. I feel like I don't know why I'm saving the money. I'm kind of from out in the sticks. I don't really like New York City. I like fishing and eating wild plants and stuff. I kind of don't have much reason to be in New York. But it's like a really good job. But I'm not present.

Yeah, exactly. And you guys also mentioned the term lifestyle creep, but for me it's kind of like... Maybe that should happen. I can be a little bit more present.

So I work in financial services. I work in risk management at one of the brokers in the city. Very prestigious is my guess. I do. Yeah, and that's, like, another thing. It's, like, you know, that probably attracted me to it, and I do like my job. Like, I actually, as far as jobs go, like, I enjoy it, but I also kind of burn myself out.

Again, I kind of, like, pathologize the kind of, like, live-to-work thing. Well, you know why?

Probably to myself.

I relate to that.

So my favorite States are like Vermont and Maine. Um, I, the thing is like, I think I could go like an hour up the train line from New York and be like, I've been up to like Terry town and like sleepy hollow up there. And it's awesome. Like it's trees and rivers, all that junk, um, not junk, but all that stuff. And, um, my, my, my concern is like, do I overdo it or underdo it?

So I felt like I've been not present for like, five years after college or four years, whatever. And now I'm kind of like, do I like yo-yo and like live in a van for a year and like start a YouTube channel and go fishing?

Hi, thank you for taking my call. So my question is, I am a stay-at-home mom and I haven't worked in a long time. My husband and I, we are in debt. And since I've been starting watching your content, I am just done with it. It's working. Yes. It is. So this year I am being very intentional. Um, we have about $18,000 in credit card debt and his truck is about $45,000 every home.

Huge, um, huge payments, almost a grand a month. Um, so yeah, so I, I just want to get those credit cards out of the way, get his credit better, maybe refinance the truck, um, get better interest, you know, and, and see the money because he makes, okay. Like he makes about $12,000 a month and we are just getting by the money comes in. The money comes, goes out next month, start from zero again.

So, uh, since December, um, I haven't worked since 2013. Um, and I don't intend to work. He likes this. I do too. It works for our family, but I got a side gig, just helping a friend for a couple of months, you know, I'm making about $230 a week. And then I said, well, this is going to go towards credit cards because we just going to bang these credit cards.

I don't want to see these payments anymore. Um, And the money is just going into the account and disappearing with our normal bills, you know? And I'm getting very frustrated because I'm like, I'm, you know, I'm doing this. It's a little extra and it was supposed to get the credit card. So anyway, being in that, um, also one of my huge goals was to go back to homeland to see my family.

I haven't seen my family in about, um, 16 years. Where's home, Roberta? It's Brazil. I'm from Brazil. I was born and raised in Brazil, and then I moved here in 2008.

Good, Dave.

Well, instead of asking how can I get out of my debt problems and whatnot, I have kind of the opposite. We're both retired and have a nice nest egg saved up. Quite comfortable, actually, in Tampa.

Oh, we got 500K and a 403B. Got $25,000 in the Schwab account. Got $30,000 in a checking and savings account. And we take in probably $9,100 a month net.

64.

Both houses are paid for.

I never thought I'd get to this point in my life, actually.

Well, my wife and I, we have a great team together, and we had plans on traveling and doing things like that or that nature, and the past year and a half or so, she's come down with some cognitive issues. Oh. Yep. And she's, uh, she's changed. Uh, she doesn't, um, doesn't do her regular things anymore that she liked to do. Um, she needs familiarity.

She does not like to be anywhere where she's unfamiliar with. And, and so I guess my question is, um, in future for the future, uh, I know the care of healthcare is a cost of healthcare is just astronomical and, uh, uh, I'm going to take care of her. And, uh, I just, do I save all this money in case for future care? I guess that's my question. How do I navigate this disease, if you will?

32 years. Wow. Okay.

We did see a doctor about six months ago, and I was not happy with it. It was just a routine office visit type thing. But we've got plans in mid-May with a different doctor to determine what road we should take or any medicine should be taken.

Uh, that sounds like a good idea. I mean, our, our monthly leases are under $1,500.

Yeah. So I never thought of it that way.

And Rob, does she have good days? Yes, there's good days. It's just the repeating constantly. She doesn't want to drive anymore. She doesn't read anymore. But she's a happy person. It's just I see what's coming down the road, and I'm just trying to prepare myself for all this.

Well, it's a million, don't forget, it's a million four plus the other 200 and what do they call paid-up additions? Okay. So it's 1.6 minus eight. Yeah, all right. Well, minus six, yeah. So it's a million. So look at the statements and the death benefit amount for each one of these things added together is just over a million. So why walk away from that payout for...

Hey, Dave, thanks for taking my call. Sure, what's up? So I'm calling to talk about your favorite financial instrument, the whole life insurance policies. I have a question about policies that my parents bought years and years ago, and hopefully you can help me figure out what to do with these things.

Um, so, uh, long story short, me and my family, me and my parents and my brother opened a small business about five or six years ago. When we did, we borrowed money against my parents, whole life insurance policies to help fund, uh, the real estate purchase and construction. It's a dog daycare boarding and doing facility that opened five years doing well, profitable, growing. It's in good shape.

Uh, the first two years we didn't make any payments on those loans. So the unit grew as a capitalized the interest. Then I started making monthly payments on those loans, uh, for money that we were making in the business once we became fairly profitable. Uh, so here's my question. Uh, these loans, they, there's six total loans, uh, excuse me, six total inch policies.

And my parents took out about $1.4 million in, uh, in face value insurance. plus the additional insurance they purchased over the years as they were, I think they made some overpayments in the past, things like that. I have borrowed about $600,000 against the policy. So here's my question. What's the remaining cash value?

The remaining, the net cash value is that today is about $200,000 and the death benefit as of today and all of them combined is about $1.06 million. Uh, my question is, do I bother paying these loans down? And if I do, do I use your snowball effect and go for the lowest balanced loans first? Or do I pay them off all evenly? Cause, Technically, they all have the same interest rate.

It's basically like one large basket, right? So am I even benefiting from the snowball considering there's no minimum payment on these things, right? I can pay them at any time, any way I want. I could make the payment. I could not let the interest capitalize. You know, you can manage them any way you like. So what do I do with them? Should I pay them? Should I not?

Yeah, correct.

There's also an extra $200,000. They also, over the years, purchased an extra $200,000 of insurance by overpayments. Paid up additions. Yeah, paid up additions. So they actually have a million-dollar in-depth benefit. But you are right, though, by the way. My parents... So they have an interest in our small business. They have income through that. That's actually my second job.

I have another job where I'm a trader. I flip the syndicate market, you know, I trade IPOs. I borrowed money from my parents to seed that as well and gave them a percentage of what I make off of that. So basically, my parents have income through me. Do your parents have other wealth? Yes. How much? The business insurance. How much?

Uh, so I, I'm going to be honest and I don't have total transparency, but I'm going to say all in, they probably have assets that a million and a half dollars in addition to all this. Okay. Yeah. So yeah. And, and the income, even though they are retired, they have income from two businesses that I run that they have interest in.

Yeah.

Okay.

I had a funny feeling you'd say that.

They do have equity.

No, you're right. You're right. Well, let me ask you this, just because you definitely understand these instruments better than I do, right? So say I was to cancel these policies today. They're not yours.

Well, you're right. We'll put it this way. They basically, I've been managing their finances for them other than some just assets that they own that somebody else has helped them out with because they're both kind of, frankly, you know, they're a little older and both a little bit underprivileged.

So they basically ask me what to do with these things and do, you know, they, they take my advice and trust me and I, I don't want to put them in the wrong direction here, you know? Okay. Um, but, but say, say that I advise them, say you should close these things down today. Right. So they do that. They get out of it.

What the net cash value that's left at that $190,000 check for that one 90 and then they have the 600 that is owed to them from the start of our business. Correct. And, and that's it. That's it. Right.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Okay. That all makes sense. The only counter I'd have to help convince me here, Dave, is... So there is... Say that they were to pass away soon, unfortunately, right? I mean, my parents, to be frank, they're, you know, they're elderly. There's... just over a million dollars of death benefit left over after accounting for the loans, right? No.

Hi, George. Hi, Ken. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So I got married about six months ago, and I'm trying to dig us out of this ginormous hole of our prior divorces, some poor decisions, and a severe case of can't-say-no-to-wife-itis.

Yeah. No, unfortunately.

So, but yeah, so long story short, We're probably about 250K in the hole right now, not including the house. Part of that is, like I said, divorces hit both of us pretty hard. I also got in a car accident in December and then lost my job the next day. So I had like three or four months span that was really tough on us.

So why who?

Um, but I am trying to, you know, we, we make decent income, so we have enough, we have a little bit of margin. So I'm starting obviously baby step two, um, trying to get going on that. But the thing that kills me is I understand the concept of the smallest, the largest, but the problem is almost all of our small debts are all 0%. And we have large debts that are 28%.

And it drives me nuts that I'm going to spend 12 months paying off $15,000, $20,000 worth of 0% while the 30% is accruing $1,000 a month in interest. And I was thinking, you know, we can take a HELOC, cut that rate by 70%. It adds another $800 to $1,000 that we can roll into the snowball and get done, you know, eight months to a year faster.

I recently sold my video game collection for like $5,000. Hey, that's a start. But that was painful.

Yeah, I'm looking at getting another job to try and bring in some more income to tackle this.

She's there. She is in the other room.

She's in the other room.

Yes. She's actually volunteered to get a second job as well. But she did that before with her ex-husband who had no ambition at all. So I don't really want her to have to do that again.

The smallest two are, I think, my Apple card is like $500, and – I think there's a Samsung card that's like $1,500. Both of those are at 0%.

Yeah. I mean, we got like, uh, 2,200 and then, uh, that starts to jump from the 2,200. We got, it goes up to about six.

$2,200 is, well, that's another Apple card. So the way they do that is installments on your phone. I don't care.

Theoretically, yes. I think there's only two payments left on it.

I understand that. I wasn't really saying I'm going to switch to paying off the highest one because I know that doesn't work. I know what you said.

Well, we try to be really wise with our income, and I'm afraid we may have made ourselves artificially house poor. Tell me more.

Yeah, it tracks. So almost two years ago, we took out a construction loan and built our forever home out on the family property next to my folks. We didn't get the land. We didn't build our home in someone else's land. So that was smart, I think. Um, the issue we is we kind of painted ourselves in a corner when we did it because we did it in an adjustable rate mortgage.

And now it's forcing us to in a situation where we're kind of having a snowball pay off the mortgage before the adjustment hits. So I'd appreciate your perspective on whether it'd be a better choice to continue power paying this mortgage or maybe loosen the belt a little, live our lives and plan to refinance before the adjustment happens.

Um, December of 33 is a 10-5 ARM at 5.375. Okay. And we built it in March of 2020. So it was like the worst time in modern history to both retire from the military and build a home.

Before 10 years is up is what I'm thinking because we're able to make the payment and stuff right now. So we built it for $675,000, but we only financed $549,000 because we tried to pay as much cash as we could for different parts. The builder worked with us really well. What's your household income? So my military retirement is $35,000 and then I have a VA disability of $45,000.

That part's tax-free. And I do have a phenomenal job. I'm making $190,000.

$3,100 is the mortgage. And we're taking home about $9,000 a month. Because I have some payroll deduction for the Roth 401k. I'm at 9%. The company matches 6%. And they also have an ESOP loan. of an additional 5% on top of that. And then we're real generous, so I got about 18% of my income going out of our take-home to tithes and just being generous.

$466.

So you're saying, hey, we can pay this thing off before it adjusts. Right. I think it's a great goal to have. Because we snowballed our dead, I mean, I've got both of our vehicles. I think the youngest one is 16, and the lowest miles is like 230,000.

We're still driving Junkers right now. I figure one of them is going to blow up here pretty soon. It will.

We'll solve that when it gets there.

See, I was – And should I still do the full 15%? Yes.

You know, I used to, but it's because it's been a marriage of three. God has been in our relationship since we got married back when we were 19. Awesome. We just hit 28 years. Congratulations, dude.

I was really good at picking up the pieces after I made a bunch of mistakes.

I'm doing great. Head just spinning a little bit. I woke up this morning and the car wasn't in my parking spot. What? Yes, yes. What?

I felt behind on pavement. Hold on, Robert.

I was about to say, can you hear me now?

Yeah, it was very shocking.

Yeah, they didn't tell me that I was behind, but I knew I was behind for sure, but I didn't know they were just going to come and take it.

They said about 94 days.

Yes.

Right now, currently?

My $500.

For sure, yes.

Okay.

I called the... Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Does it? Sounds doable.

I'm just being optimistic. I mean, make $25 an hour, you know.

I'm sure I can. If things in the trunk, I definitely can get rid of. Okay.

Not at all. She's not happy. She's kind of never been in this situation either before, so it's the first of both of us. Is she broke, too? You said what happened?

Is there another option besides reinstating this car? No.

What about a cash car? No.

I'm using my car primarily.

Right, but we're on spring break, so I have like four days until I go back to work.

We put in vacation and PTO for these days, but yeah.

About... $2,400 each every two weeks, so about $4,800, $4,200 around there.

Yes.

All combined, probably a good $1,400 besides the cost, so around $2,000.

God bless your budget policy. It's missing a lot of things.

He doesn't know, George. Yeah, I was about to say, it's miscellaneous things, everything.

Yep.

taking a loan on his IRA or something like that. And even though that part's not, you know, like legally actionable debt, I think it's morally and ethically the right thing to do to pay him back as well.

He and his wife together own 40% with my sister-in-law having the last 30%.

28.

This is basically everything. Now, I understand that my father-in-law could kind of absolve that $70,000 if he wanted. That's his, I guess.

Right, right.

Actually, I got notice about an hour ago that he's willing to do a little bit of negotiation, so we might be able to knock that number down significantly. Oh, good. That does change the formula with his father-in-law then. Yeah, yeah. And like I said, the last wrench in the gear here is that my wife has that PPP loan that's almost $75,000. She is the sole guarantor on that. Holy crap. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, so she did it in the name of the business, but she only used herself on the math.

Not exactly, but I'll go with it for now. What do you think the rent will go down to?

I can't recall off the top of my head.

We don't have a whole lot on hand. I mean, my wife and I got through the Financial Peace University a few years back. We could potentially throw an emergency fund at it. I know this is not emergency, quote-unquote, right?

No, the business is doing not well right now. We could potentially liquidate, which we're going to have to do anyway. We're trying to do some kind of fire sales on the remaining items and wholesale things to other businesses in the area.

Doing great, Dave. Thanks for asking. Glad to have a little bit of time on this show with y'all.

Yeah, it could be something like that. Should I try to seek some kind of notarized agreement as to how we break this down? Yes.

No, but I just, you know, I always try to be cautious with this sort of thing and try to get ahead of any problems that might come up.

So I have a family business that we've been managing for about seven years now. It's going to be closing down in the next couple months, and we're going to be due to owe about $160,000 in debt. How can my wife and I attack our share of the debt while also protecting our household finances?

So the business is a split between my mother-in-law, father-in-law, my sister-in-law and her husband, and my wife and I. It's not exactly one-third all the way around, but it's pretty close.

My wife and I own 30% together.

So we're going to owe about $21,500 in the next six months of rent to our lease agreement with the landlord. We owe $74,500 approximately through a PPP loan. Thanks, COVID, for making things difficult, of course. And then the last part is about $70,000 that my father-in-law, when we initially purchased the business, he fronted that through his retirement account account.

You got 24 hours, Agent 6. Don't get yourself killed.

I've been rapping since 95.

They don't invite no nigga like me to ditty parties. My homeboys would rob that bitch, tell her all them niggas, put your dicks up and raise your hand and drop your money and your wallet in his basket. I ain't gonna invite no motherfucking ditty party. I am not a ditty party ass nigga. I'm not that kind of dude.

Yeah, you like uncircumcised guys, as I recall.

Yeah.