2 Broadcaster Press September 19, 2017 www.broadcasteronline.com Dave Says No Retirement Cash at 58 Dear Dave, I’m 58 years old and have nothing set aside for retirement. My wife and I are on Baby Step 2 of your plan and paying off debt. We have $37,000 in debt not counting our home, and five kids still at home. We have a household income of $73,000 a year, and were wondering if we should go ahead and start Baby Step 4, investing for retirement, instead of paying off the debt. Dan Dear Dan, Your most powerful wealth-building Dave tool, both mathematically and factually, is your income. The most powerful way to build wealth — whether it’s playing catchup at 58 or starting at 28 and becoming wealthy over the long haul — is to have your income available. That means it’s not flying out the door every month to make debt payments. Fifty-eight is not old, but you do have to get busy if you want to retire with dignity. I’d really lean into this debt and make it disappear in the next 18 months. I’m talking about sticking to a tight budget, living on rice and beans, and selling so much stuff around the house those kids think they’re next! After that, you’ll have to throw every dime you can into building an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. And after that, you’ll have to spend 10 years going crazy saving for retirement by pouring about $12,000 a year into good mutual funds. Can you do that and win, and by “win” I mean retire with some dignity? Yes, you can. But it’s not doable if you’ve got $37,000 in debt hanging around your neck! — Dave RAMSEY We Can Afford It on a 30-year Mortgage Dear Dave, My husband and I have been saving, and we’re ready to buy our first home. We found a place we both love and can afford if we do a 30-year mortgage instead of a 15-year mortgage. Should we wait and save more for a down payment so we can afford a 15-year mortgage, or go ahead and do the 30-year deal? Faith Dear Faith, Good financial decisions can be defined as things that help you win with money over the long-term. Thirty-year mortgages are a trap. They don’t help you build wealth, and they keep you in debt. On the other hand, 15-year mortgages get you out of debt a lot faster, and being out of debt frees up your largest wealth-building tool — your income. I would never take out a home loan where the payments are more than a fourth of your monthly take-home pay on a 15-year, fixedrate mortgage. My advice is to either wait and save more money, or maybe look for a less expensive home in a different area. I know you want a home, Faith. There’s nothing wrong with wanting your own house. But I don’t want your home to have you. When you get house fever, it’s easy to lock yourself into a bad deal that will follow you around and drain your wallet for decades! — Dave * Dave Ramsey is America’s trusted voice on money and business, and CEO of Ramsey Solutions. He has authored seven bestselling books, including The Total Money Makeover. The Dave Ramsey Show is heard by more than 12 million listeners each week on 575 radio stations and multiple digital platforms. Follow Dave on Twitter at @DaveRamsey and on the web at daveramsey.com. 20 Trillion Reasons To Reform Taxes And Mandatory Payment Programs By Sen. Mike Rounds for other priorities such growth of mandatory as roads, research and payments on safety net The federal governeducation. programs including Mediment’s national debt Our broken tax system care, Medicaid and Social recently surpassed $20 tril- also plays a role by limitSecurity. If we continue lion. While there is plenty ing our… ability to collect down our current path, Classifieds of blame to go around, the bet! Call 624-4429 in less than ten years A sure revenues. Our current tax majority of this debt can rates create a disincentive 99 percent of all federal be attributed to the past for companies to … Classifiedsdo busi- revenue will have to be decade, as our debt was ness here in the United spent on mandatory payA surewhich then leads $10.6 trillion at the start States, bet! 624-4429 ments and interest on our of 2009. In other words, in to fewer high-paying jobs sky-high debt. No amount the past eight years, the for American workers, and of cuts to defense and Classifieds … federal government has encourage businesses to other programs such as A sure bet! 624-4429 accrued as much debt keep their profits overcrop insurance, education, The Broadcaster tax rates as it accrued throughout seas. Lowering highways and bridges will the first 230 years of our would incentivize comhave a meaningful effect country’s existence. It’s no Classifieds … panies to repatriate that on debt reduction without wonder military leaders money and invest it back A sure bet! 624-4429 also controlling the cost of acknowledge it as being a into our economy. Earlier these mandatory payment The Broadcaster top threat to our national this year, I introduced a programs. 201 W. fright- proposal in SD security. Even more Cherry, Vermillion, the Senate to Mandatory payments ening, there is no sign of it lower the tax rate in each already account for Classifieds … slowing down. bracket. It is but one step nearly three-fourths of High debt threatens we can bet! overhaul A suretake to624-4429 our total federal spendeconomic growth by drivthe tax code that will ing today. This is because The Broadcasterimmediate Medicare, Medicaid and ing up interest rates and provide direct, discouraging W. 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Cherry, Vermillion, SD • 624-4429 Klumper’s Construction Cement, Insulation, Tile, New Construction, Remodeling & General Home Repairs ' 3 HDGOLQHV Classified Ads: Friday at Noon Display Ads: Friday at 11AM it is time for Congress to take an active role in managing their funding levels on a regular basis. This does not necessarily mean making cuts - it simply means giving Congress the authority to review them to make them as efficient as possible and to make sure they are available for individuals who need them, both now and in the future. Surpassing $20 trillion in debt should be a wake-up call to Washington, which for decades has failed to own up to their responsibility to balance its checkbook. I continue to work with my colleagues in the Senate to shake up the budget process in Congress, and open up the entire budget to congressional review – including mandatory payments. It is the only way to slow down the fiscal train wreck. Simply delaying action and looking the other way is not an option. Paying It Backward By Daris Howard My daughter Heather had had a bad day. In fact, the whole week hadn’t been that good. She had started school, and there was a mixup in her classes. By the time she had that straightened out, a few days of class had already gone by. She then had to catch up, and there was the challenge of friends and everything else that goes with school starting. She works at McDonald’s and, to top off her bad week, she had to work Friday and Saturday shifts. She worked the late shift Friday night until ten o’clock, and then had to be back by six o’clock in the morning. By the time I picked her up from work on Friday, she was exhausted. She had purchased some food so she could eat on the way home and go right to bed. After she finished eating, she drowsed in the car the rest of the way. After we pulled into our driveway, she sleepily made her way into the house and disappeared into her bedroom. She and I were both up by five o’clock Saturday morning so we could get some breakfast and get her to work on time. When I dropped her off at work, she was not in a good mood. I went home and wrote homework papers for the doctoral degree on which I am working. I thought that I probably wasn’t enjoying my day any more than she was enjoying hers. When I picked her up at two o’clock in the afternoon, I wondered what kind of mood she would be in. I assumed she would just come out, plop into the car, and fall fast asleep. But to my surprise, she was totally animated. “Dad,” she said. “You won’t believe what happened. The minute I clocked in they assigned me to work at back-drive.” “What’s back drive?” I asked. “That’s the window that takes the money from people in the drive through. Then the people pull their cars to front drive where they pick up their order.” “But I thought you hated drive through,” I said. “I always have before,” she said. “But today was different. It started out bad. It was early in the morning, and it was almost always busy. And when it wasn’t, I had to wash dishes. But then something happened. A car came through, and the man paid for his meal while his son continued searching for coins. After they paid, they didn’t drive to the next window.” “Why not?” I asked. “This is the fun part,” she replied. “He asked me how much the order was for the car behind them. I told him, and then he paid that bill. And it was more than his own.” “Did he know the people in the next car?” I asked. Heather shook her head. “I asked him, and he didn’t.” “That was nice,” I said. “But here’s something even more incredible,” Heather said. “It didn’t happen just once. It happened like a half a dozen times. And another thing that would happen was one person would pay for the next people, and then the next people would pay for the people behind them, and so on. The longest chain was seven cars in a row.” “Wow!” I replied “The one that touched me the most,” Heather said, “was the last chain. It had gone on for about five cars. Then, in the last car there was a mother with five children. The children were hungry, and the littlest ones were crying. When they pulled up to pay, the tired mother was frantically searching through her purse. She finally turned to me and apologized because she didn’t have the money. When I told her that the people in the car in front of her had already paid her bill, she started to cry, and she said she was so grateful.” Heather was quiet for a moment, and then she said, “There’s nothing like seeing the goodness in people to make me feel happy.” CUSTOMER APPRECIATION DAY Buy Local! Shop the Classifieds! JACKIE WILLIAMS/VERMILLION PLAIN TALK Clay Union Electric held a Member Appreciation Day Wednesday, Sept. 13 to kickoff a safe harvest. Several local businesses where on hand to talk to the participants that stopped in for hot dogs and brats. Pictured are Travis Schroeder and Mike Hauck willing to fill the plates. 2017 Custer State Park Buffalo Roundup By Gov. Dennis Daugaard On Friday morning, Sept. 29, a few dozen cowboys will put on their boots and saddle their horses. Custer State Park employees will arise before dawn. And thousands from across the state, country and world will gather, all to continue a 52-year tradition. The Buffalo Roundup is an experience unlike any other. You can feel the ground shake as Chris Klumper, Beresford SD • view our work on facebook over 1,000 half-ton creatures stampede across the prairie. Watching the brave riders drive the beasts to their destination is quite incredible. Witnessing the buffalo’s power and speed from such a short distance creates a feeling of being back in the Old West. At one time, there were about 60 million buffalo roaming North America, but that number fell to fewer than 2,000 in UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT!! TREE TRIMMING, REMOVALS & TRANSPLANTING the early twentieth century. Although population levels are TREES FOR SALE nowhere near the historical peak, South Dakota buffalo have Hours: made a comeback from near extinction, thanks in part to EVERGREEN • SHADE • ORNAMENTAL Wednesday: 4:00 pm – 10:00 pm Custer State Park. Look us up on Facebook! Thursday: 4:00 pm – 11:00 pm Yankton 605-260-1490 Riders will round up a herd of 1,300 buffalo on Sept. 29, Green Diamond Hartington 402-254-6710 after which about four days are needed to work the herd. VolFriday: 4:00 pm - 1:00 am Serving Southeast SD & Northeast NE for 20 Years unteers will vaccinate and brand the calves, check the cows Saturday: 11:00 am to 1:00 am Watch for food Kent & Kyle Hochstein • Licensed Arborists for pregnancy and identify 250 buffalo for November’s sale. www.hartingtontree.com Sunday: 12:00 pm to 10:00 pm and drink specials! After the Friday morning Roundup, visitors can stay for lunch and watch the volunteers work the herd. There will be plenty of things to do for those who decide to stay after more than a for the weekend. The Arts Festival will continue through century, we’re still Saturday, the exhibits at the newly renovated Peter inventing new ways Norbeck Education Center to keep you will be open, and Crazy Horse Memorial visitors will be The University of South Dakota will be offering for sale comfortable, no permitted to hike to the arm washers/double dryers, some desks, chairs, tables, of the mountain carving durmatter the season. volleyball poles, cage lockers and other miscellaneous items ing an organized Volksmarch on Sunday. Call your th The Roundup is somedealer thing every South Dakotan Today! With Manufacturer Rebates & Utility Incentives Location of the sale is at the USD Quonset located should see at least once. People from all over the world north of the Dakota Dome on Hwy 50, next to the come for this one-of-a-kind experience because there’s Vucurevich Day Care Center. nothing like it anywhere else. worthAny questions call 605.677-5669 Consider making this to see while journey. 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