Highlights from the Dave Ramsey Show

Question: Lynn in New York City inherited 16 cemetery plots in New Jersey. She's placed ads to try to get rid of them but hasn't had any interest in them. She found a cemetery plot broker, but he's in Florida and she's leery of the concept. Dave tries to help Lynn come up with some other ideas to get rid of these things.

Answer: I'm with you. I think my gift of cynicism is kicking up on a Florida broker selling New Jersey cemetery lots. That's a little weird.

I don't know that Craigslist would work, but I'm trying to think where you would advertise cemetery plots. Hit some of the local funeral homes. Tell them you'd give them $1,000 apiece to sell them. If they sold them for $3,000, you'd come out way ahead. Just say, "I want to make you a deal you really can't resist. I'm going to give you a 33% commission. Just get rid of these things for me." Or maybe they'll take them off your hands at more than $700.

I think the cemetery people think they've got you. I think they think they've got you cornered, and they're holding the gun at you at $700. That doesn't sound right to me.

I think I would hit any funeral home in a 50- or 100-mile radius. I'd also hit a couple of big churches in the area. Hit the pastor or the administrative executive pastor who does the business stuff at the bigger churches in the immediate area.

You're not going to get $3,000 for them because there's not a good way to get to the marketplace without going through someone. I would even tell that pastor, "We'll donate $1,000 apiece to your church if you'll help us get them moved at market value. We'll donate a third of the proceeds to your church." Maybe they make you an offer or something—that kind of thing. They may be able to do that.

That's my best idea. Just try to stir up the market like that. I'm with you. I don't like the blackmail price from the local cemetery guy there, and I don't like the broker in Florida. That sounds fishy. I don't know if that helps, but those are some ideas to get you thinking like that, and maybe Craigslist, maybe some pastors and churches in the area, maybe some funeral homes in the area. There might even be something else. I just haven't thought of it.

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Question: Heather in Los Angeles has two kids inheriting about $1 million split between them. They don't know they're receiving the money, and Heather has known for a while. They're 21 and 18, and the oldest one is about to graduate from college. The 18-year-old is going to college this year. Dave thinks Heather made a mistake in not telling them about the money.

Dave Ramsey's advice: I think you're behind the curve. By them not knowing this, you have run the risk of them becoming lotto winners instead of growing up in the knowledge and the responsibility of this. Now we've got to try to send them through a personal responsibility cram course and a maturity cram course and say, "All right, here's the deal. Money of this type is not a party fund. It is a tremendous responsibility. This is not something for you to use selfishly. It's for you to use in such a way that you honor the person who left the inheritance. You blowing all of this and being immature and acting like you're 4 years old with it is not honoring to the person who left it to you. You have a tremendous responsibility to that heritage. You have a responsibility before God to handle His money well. This is His. You need to view this as if you were hired by someone else to manage the money for them."

These are both hard working and responsible kids, so tap into that. I understand your concern, but the risk you have run is that now you've got to play catch up. Let's juxtapose this for teaching purposes. If they had been raised wealthy kids, they would've been around the handling of money their whole lives. By that I mean the handling of money in a wealthy family that's functional is an act of privilege. It's not an act of "Woohoo!"

My advice to them would be to get them through Financial Peace University as soon as possible. They've got to really take a mature angle on this and really think investments and charity and very little self-consumption with this money.

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Question: Jason in Nashville says his grandfather passed away two months ago. Jason is 32 but the only grandchild still in Nashville. Jason helped take care of him to keep him from going into assisted living, and the estate was left to Jason. Jason feels as though he's in an awkward situation now with his family members. Dave doesn't like the attitude of Jason's family.

Dave Ramsey's advice: Did you love grandfather? Then why don't you do what he said instead of what they say? It was his money. It wasn't theirs. They need to shut the crap up.

You need to learn to be an investor with the money and make sure you're debt-free. You have your emergency fund in place. Start your mutual fund investing and learn some basic investment traits. But I'm not nearly as concerned about that (in this conversation) as I am your crummy family's lack of boundaries. You don't need to make excuses. They're butts. You don't have any excuses to make. You didn't do anything wrong. If they want to be mad at somebody, they need to be mad at Grandpa, because he's the one who decided he didn't want to leave them any of his money. And by the way, it was his. He gets to decide that.

Let's have a will and run it through probate. That's fine. If they want to contest the will, they can try to contest the will. And I'll spend the money fighting them because Grandpa left what Grandpa left. It's his money. He gets to decide. They're not entitled to this money because they freaking breathe air. It's not theirs. I can choose to leave my direct children out of the will and leave it to my dog if I want to. It's my money! It is not their money! Fight 'em.

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