My Husband's Gambling Is Affecting Our Retirement

Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today. I currently have quite a bit of money in the bank, I feel, and I am thinking about my retirement and I'd like to know how best I should invest it in order to make it last through retirement. How much is it? I have $600,000 in the bank. I'm debt-free. I have just $250,000 in retirement, which I don't know what to do with because it's been with the payroll service since we had our own business. It's just been sitting there. I don't know what to do with it. I know nothing about it. I wasn't actively involved in our business. I stayed home and took care of our kids, raised them, and have decided to go into my own franchise. I know that I will be using some of that money for the franchise, but I don't know that just sitting in a bank is the best place for it. How old are you? 57. You said you were not involved in the business and now you're opening a franchise with the business money? Yes. Your husband was running the business? Yes. Where is he? He's at home. He is supporting me on my business. He's hoping at some point he'll be able to branch out and do something on his own, but everything's been in my name. The bank accounts, the houses, we sold the business last year. That's where the $600,000 came from? Yes. We sold it for $1.2 million, but we were given a large lump sum and we paid off some unexpected unknown debts. Unknown? You're being cryptic. I didn't know about it. You're going to have to tell us what's going on because you're just not making sense. My husband has a gambling debt. I don't know what he... He gets a set amount every month that comes in that he collects and he uses that for extracurricular activities. How much? You don't know how much he's... Oh no, I know how much he gets. He gets $3,600 a month and that's his play money. He's basically got a gambling problem that ran you guys deeply in debt and that's why everything's in your name. Yes. Okay. All right. That makes sense. So who's supplying the $3,600 a month for him to continue gambling? We have $2,500 coming in from a rental. That person bought the business and he has the option to buy by the end of the year for $350,000 if he exercises that right. Then he also gets social security, $1,100 a month. Okay. So at this point, you're okay with losing $40,000 a year with your husband? No, I'm not, but I have no control over that. Hey, you got to take care of your vehicle if you want to keep it on the road and the smartest move is regular maintenance. I recommend Christian Brothers Automotive, the official auto repair partner of The Ramsey Show. Your local Christian Brothers shop provides high quality maintenance and repair services you can trust. Visit cbac.com slash Ramsey to find a location near you and get an exclusive Ramsey discount of 10% off your visit. 10% off up to a $250 value. See store for details. I have no control over that. What's the plan moving forward? Does he know? You apparently have a lot of control. You got everything in your name. Right. Everything's in my name. He knows that I'm opening up this franchise, which will be approximately $125,000 to open a franchise on my own. He's just kind of like leaving, letting me leave the money in the bank, but I feel like it's not getting the best return. So I'm looking for ways that I can invest it. I mean, we could tell you to get with the SmartVestor Pro and invest that money, but I really don't feel like that's the issue of the conversation. Yeah, there's a lot. There's so much going on. Here's the problem. It's hard to fill up a hole while somebody's digging out the bottom. Right. And that's kind of what we're hearing here, but you, you feel like you've got him, uh, his, his gambling addiction under control. And I question that because I've seen, I've seen so many, well, I mean, but, but, uh, and so as long as you keep this stuff in your name, uh, I guess you have the option of divorce at some point, if he runs up, you know, let's say he runs up a million dollar gambling debt and you don't want to pay it with the money that's in your name, then you've only got one option at that point. So anyway, that's what you're facing. So yeah, I would take the 600,000 and I'd take the 250,000 and I would sit down with a SmartVestor Pro and begin to invest it in good mutual funds. If it averages 10% or more, it will double every seven years. So you basically got a million dollars in seven years at 50 at 64 years old, you'd have $2 million at seven more years at 71 years old, you'd have $4 million. So you're going to be fine if you do that and you don't piss it away with this, uh, franchise, if this franchise doesn't go belly up on you. And, um, so, uh, and it sounds like you've never run a business before he ran the business before, and now you're buying a franchise. So that's a little concerning. Is the franchise in the same field of expertise or is it something totally different? No, it's something that I'm passionate about, something that is for me, not for him. I don't expect his involvement in it, but I'm very confident and very passionate about this and I'm expecting for it to be very successful. And I have a family that is willing to stand behind me and support me. So that's not even a question whether or not that's going to be successful. I'm confident that it will be. I got to tell you that that's, um, not true in the small business world. So there's risk that you're not perceiving apparently. So yeah, you're going to buy it and you're going to do it, but I want to insulate you from you and this bad decision, if it's a bad decision, and I want to insulate you from him and his continuous bad decisions with 600 or more thousand dollars going over in a regular low risk investment in comparison to gambling and in comparison to franchise purchasing. Uh, and so let's put some money over there. So if these other two things go sideways and this plan doesn't work, um, then, uh, uh, you know, you've at least got that money working for you. So yeah, you need to sit down and do that and you need to put a real limit on the amount of dollars you're going to pour into the franchise before it starts giving you money back instead of you putting money into it. Absolutely. And because if you don't with the level of unrealistic optimism that you're coming at this with and you're positive, uh, how positive you are about it, then you're going to end up going 300 grand in the hole on this thing. And if you won't put 125 in it and you believe in it, go do it, go live your dream. I ain't got a problem with that. Uh, what I've got a problem with is these absolute statements and I've been in business my whole life and there is no absolute hundred percent people are behind me. I feel positive. It's an area I'm passionate about. None of that may matter. You may still lose all that money. So don't, don't go into this 300 grand with all your positivity. If you want to put 125 in it, do it. And then I'd put the rest of it over and with a smart investor pro and some good mutual funds and to where it's protected from this business risk and the gambling risk and separate these things. Yeah. I'm just, I'm going to call it like I heard it. It almost sounded like this business for you as some sort of retaliatory thing against him to kind of prove that you're doing your thing over here. And my thing, I would just say, draw a line in the sand and set some boundaries about how long you're going to endure this and to what point before you go and do the things that you need to do and make that separation, um, so that he can get the help that he needs because allowing this to persist doesn't feel like the answer. It's, it feels like it's Oh, for sure. And it kind of should. Absolutely.