Video Transcription

Dave R.: Rosemary’s in Lexington, Kentucky. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey show, Rosemary.

Rosemary: Hi Dave. How are you?

Dave R.: Better than I deserve. What’s up?

Rosemary: So I, unfortunately am looking at a divorce coming down the pike here.

Dave R.: Oh.

Rosemary: I know. We’ve tried to do your courses before so I’m familiar with it, but anyway, so it’s… I have not worked in 14 years. I have had a job for the last seven months, not making 12 dollars an hour. So my question is, how many people are saying… I do have a little bit of a nest egg. My dad passed away, so I do have about 362 thousand dollars put away in-

Dave R.: How old are you?

Rosemary: It’s a mutual fund.

Dave R.: How old are you?

Rosemary: I’m 50. I’ll be 50 on Friday.

Dave R.: Happy birthday. Any kids home?

Rosemary: Thanks. Yes, two. 14 and 12.

Dave R.: Okay. All right. And I assume the child support payments will be substantial?

Rosemary: I hope, yes. He is in the home right now. He has no plans to leave the home, because of finances. So I guess what I don’t know is, do I-

Dave R.: Because of finances he doesn’t want to leave the home, what’s that mean?

Rosemary: He… We can’t afford for him to leave. We cannot afford for him to have two. There’s no way he can afford another place and our home.

Dave R.: What does he make?

Rosemary: …to pay the bills. About 76 thousand-

Dave R.: And what is owed on your home?

Rosemary: 232,521.

Dave R.: Okay. So your question is, what?

Rosemary: Do we sell the house?

Dave R.: Yes.

Rosemary: Do I… Yeah. Do I keep the house?

Dave R.: No, the house is-

Rosemary: Because I can’t afford the house.

Dave R.: The house is not a blessing. The only way you could afford to keep the house is pay it off. And that would use up almost all your money.

Rosemary: No, right. No, I don’t want to do that.

Dave R.: I don’t want to do that either. I don’t think so. And this is a horrible thing you all are going through. I’m so sorry. And it’s hard on the kids.

Rosemary: Thanks.

Dave R.: And moving is the thing you’re not… You don’t want to tell the kids they got to move to, but they do.

Rosemary: Right.

Dave R.: They do. Because you guys cannot afford the house.

Rosemary: Correct.

Dave R.: It needs to be sold. You can’t handle it.

Rosemary: We have no car payment and only about eight thousand dollars in debt.

Dave R.: Okay. What’s the debt on?

Rosemary: Credit cards.

Dave R.: Okay.

Rosemary: Random-

Dave R.: Yeah. Both of you on those?

Rosemary: Random credit cards. Both of us on those, yes.

Dave R.: So as soon as the… as a part of the divorce, why don’t you pay off the credit cards?

Rosemary: I will. That was my plan.

Dave R.: And cut them up and make sure the accounts are completely closed so he doesn’t run them back up.

Rosemary: Okay.

Dave R.: Okay.

Rosemary: Not his problem.

Dave R.: Okay.

Rosemary: Mine for sure.

Dave R.: Okay. Well, then you cut them up so you don’t run them back out.

Rosemary: Right.

Dave R.: And then, what you’ve got to do is go rent something as cheaply as you can and develop what you want to be your career in the second act. The curtain went down on the first act. When the curtain comes up, everybody’s standing on the stage smiling.

Rosemary: Yeah. I just opened up a business.

Dave R.: We’re standing on the stage smiling and we continue with the play.

Rosemary: Okay.

Dave R.: You got an encore career here. I mean, there’s something you want to do. It wasn’t what you wanted. It wasn’t what you signed up for. It wasn’t how you thought this was going to turn out, but it could end up being something really fun and lucrative. Might be you need to take a few classes and get some more tools in your belt, I don’t know. Maybe some of your money you would use for education. But what do you want to be-

Rosemary: Yeah. I just… Well, I just opened up a new business.

Dave R.: Oh, you did! Okay, good.

Rosemary: I’ve been working for six months as a transaction coordinator for a real estate company. So I do contract to close work.

Dave R.: That’s your 12 dollars an hour?

Rosemary: No, that was with them and now I’m charging per transaction.

Dave R.: Oh!

Rosemary: About 250… 200 per transaction right now.

Dave R.: And you’re going to get more than one real estate person you do that for?

Rosemary: Correct.

Dave R.: Excellent! Good for you!

Rosemary: My goal is like five agents. I’m hoping to get ten or more closings a month. That’s my goal right now.

Dave R.: Wow. Okay. That’d be 25 hundred. You can live on that. Just going to have to watch what you’re doing, okay? And you could grow this business and actually have people working for you that are doing it. I mean, this could go really big. That’s a wonderful idea.

Rosemary: Yes.

Dave R.: Okay, good. You got your second act, right?

Rosemary: Okay.

Dave R.: You can do it.

Rosemary: Thank you.

Dave R.: You can do it, but don’t try to hold on to the past and, you know. It’s like, “I’m going to hold on to this anchor while I try to swim to the boat.”

Rosemary: Correct.

Dave R.: And that’s what this house is. It’s going to take you down.

Rosemary: Yes. Maintenance and bills and electricity is outrageous.

Dave R.: Well, 230 thousand dollar mortgage. That will take you down, so, we’re going to let you rent a little while and not touch the 300. Let it sit there-

Rosemary: Right.

Dave R.: And when you get your income up 40, 50 thousand, then reach over and find you about a 200 thousand dollar house and pay cash for it.

Rosemary: Great.

Dave R.: And no debt.

Rosemary: Great.

Dave R.: No debt ever again.

Rosemary: Okay.

Dave R.: No credit cards ever again.

Rosemary: Okay.

Dave R.: No car payments ever again. And no debt.

Rosemary: Okay! Okay.

Dave R.: You can do it.

Rosemary: Okay.

Dave R.: You can do it.

Rosemary: Okay.

Dave R.: I’m proud of you. You’re going to make this turn. It’s a horrible transition, but you’re going to make it. And if you need more help, you call me back as you go and I’ll walk with you. I understand how scary it is out there.