I'm 71 With No Retirement!

Janice is with us in Oklahoma city to start this hour off. Hi Janice. How are you? Hi Dave. Uh, I'm doing okay. I'm really pretty, um, very concerned about my finances. Uh, I'm 70 years old. Um, I have no retirement. Um, my husband and I neither one have a retirement. Uh, we are not in agreement about what we should do with the cash that we do have. Uh, we have $25,000 cash. Um, no CDs, nothing. That's it. Um, the question is, uh, we owe 27,000 on our home and the value of the home is about 250,000. Uh, we have $11,000 debt on a car. Um, my husband wants to take the money that we have and pay off the car. And then he says, apply the $350 a month car payment towards paying off the house. My problem is I'm so stressed. I at least want to have a house to live in and the way I see things. I don't think I can live anywhere cheaper than where I live right now. I don't think I could even live in an apartment for what we would be paying a month, uh, on our home. So I need some help here. What are you living on? What's your income? We have a $2,000 a month social security combined. Uh, I have some income that I get above that with a job that I have, but it's pretty physically challenging. Um, I'm able to do it now, but, um, you know, I don't know how long I'll be able to do that. What do you make? Uh, I probably another 2000 a month on that. Is your husband able to work? He has a part time job. Uh, it kind of, whenever the, the store owner needs him. And, um, so he has occasional income, but nothing that we count on. Is he able to work? Um, a little. So he's got physical limitations. Yes, he does. Okay. Got health problems. Yeah. And that's part of, you know, our situation. We've had large medical bills and we've also made some real bad cash investments. What do you do that makes you $2,000? Uh, I clean homes. And it's physically demanding. It's good money, but it's physically demanding. Um, Hey, how many cars do you have? Uh, we have a paid off, uh, old, very dependable pickup. And then we have the one car that we have the outstanding debt on. We also have an old roadster that's probably, I would say about a $10,000 value on it. I'm sorry, but the roadster is gone. Okay. Um, you have not, I'm sure that's going to break his heart, but I'm sorry. Um, it's gone. And then that gives us $10,000 to put towards the house. Um, because the roadster will sell for enough to pay off your car. Uh, we can leave 15,000 in your emergency fund, put 10,000 towards the house, and then that leaves you 17 to go. And you guys get in the business. So the next 17 months or so, getting that house paid off. Okay. Cause with no debt at all, you can make it not going to be pretty, but you can make it right. Right. Um, you know, I, we don't spend money. I mean, everybody spends money costs money to do anything, but main thing we do is we eat out and that's not a lot. We don't go to, here's the thing. Here's the thing. If you want to keep this house, you're going to start living like you're completely bankrupt because you got to clean this mess up. You do not have wiggle room here. That's where all this stress is coming from in your stomach and why you called me. Yes. So you can't eat out. You're broke. Eating out is causing you to clean toilets. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. And so, you know, I'm sorry. Now in the future you may may be able to, but right now you've got to get a roadster sold. You got to get your car paid off and you got to get your house paid off and you got $25,000 in a roadster to pull all this off and a $2,000 income. That's questionable because we don't know how much longer you can do this at 70 years old. Right. So we have got to get you clear of this debt before you're, before you start losing the ability to work like he has. Otherwise you're going to end up selling this house and buying a condo for a hundred thousand and have a hundred thousand dollars slush fund to live on and have a life. Now you can go ahead and do that now if you want. Okay. I'm listening to you. Well, you got a $250,000 house, right? Yes. So if you sell it today, you're debt free. Take a hundred thousand, buy a hundred thousand dollar condo, two bedroom, move yourself into it. And that's your retirement home. And that's how you're going to retire. And that, that enables you to not be stressed and not be worried. And you've got a hundred thousand dollars to invest over there. It'll make you a little bit of money. And you know, that's a much better mathematical equation, but I'm guessing that that's going to cause an awful lot of emotional pain. Well, and also, you know, the HOA fees would be, no, no, no, no, you, you can live in a hundred thousand dollar condo in Oklahoma city. It's just going to come down to making the choice, Janice. Like you're going to have to make a choice. You're either going to get out of this debt or you're going to have to leave that house. Like there's something has to give, this is not working right now, which is why you feel that tightness in your chest, but you can fix it. You've got several ways to fix it, but you have to make a choice and commit to doing that. You can't, he's going to have to work. All his health will allow him. You're going to have to work. All your health will allow you. You're not going to see the inside of a restaurant unless you're working there. You're going to sell the roadster and you guys are going to get serious about paying this thing off. Otherwise you need to sell it and move to a hundred thousand dollar condo. You'll be better off or something like that.