shop online at www.missourivalleyshopper.com February 9, 2016 • Page 3 Dave Says Hold On To Home For Now $80,000, but there are jobs out there that will help you guys get through this. By Dave Ramsey Dear Dave, My husband was laid off a month ago from a job making $80,000 a year. We have no debt except our house payment. We owe about $82,000 on it, but it’s valued at approximately $300,000. We’ve also got an emergency fund of $30,000, and I work part-time making about $2,000 a month while he collects unemployment and looks for another job. Do you think we should sell our home? We’ve also got a boat that’s worth about $18,000 we could sell. Dave Ramsey —Sheila Dear Sheila, The first thing I want you to do is take a step back and breathe. Yes, you guys just hit a big bump in the road. But the good news is you’re in pretty good shape financially to handle things for a while. At this point, I’d strongly recommend selling the boat over selling the house. Boats are a lot easier to replace than nice homes, and the process isn’t nearly as traumatic on the family. You can also dip into your emergency fund a little bit, but for the next little while you need to make sure you’re living on a really tight, bare bones budget. I’d love to see you not have to touch the emergency fund, because he’s gone out and found at least a parttime position while he’s searching for something in his field. I know that’s tough to do once you’ve gotten used to making As long as he’s being diligent in seeking a new job, and you’re budgeting and watching what you spend together, I think for now you should keep the house. God bless you both! —Dave Refund or better planning? Dear Dave, Do you recommend having people keep their W2 numbers as close to their tax return numbers as possible, even if they might have to pay at the end of the year or have more taken out? Every year I get a big tax return. But after listening to you I began to think that if I did a better job of planning I would have more money throughout the year. —Charlie Dear Charlie, I like your thinking, and you’re absolutely right. That’s exactly what I recommend people do when it comes to their income taxes. Of course, you don’t want to have to pay out a big chunk of cash. But a little number crunching and planning ahead of time can help you avoid those kinds of situations. You really don’t want a big refund, and here’s why. If you get a fat tax refund every year, all it means is you’ve loaned money to the government interest-free for the entire year. Then, at the end of the year they gave it back to you. Some people seem to think Santa Claus has shown up when this happens, and that’s completely wrong. You’ve had too much taken out of your check every payday during the previous year, and then you got it back. Try to adjust your W2 so that you are hitting within $100 or so at the end of the year. Then you’ll have more of your own money in your own pocket throughout the entire year! —Dave Steve reached up and put his cup of coffee on the floor of the turret in his cabin, then climbed the ladder until both he and the coffee were comfortable, looking out at the world. The only people who didn’t understand why he built a turret on his little cabin up here high on the mountain were folks who hadn’t seen it. Once you actually sat in the chair, looked out the window at the weather and the world, there was no doubt. You instantly thought, “I have to get one of these.” Steve, our tall, walrus-mustachioed cowboy, wasn’t really sure why he built the turret, either. Well, deep in his heart of hearts he actually did, but he’d never tell. He secretly thought, if he had a turret, and could look out on creation from the safety of this little piece of cabin, something wonderful would happen. It may be that he’d be driven to write a novel, telling the world the sweeping majesty of riding herd and cleaning corrals. Or, Steve might be inspired to take up the paint brush and dazzle the world as a cowboy artist, like Grem Lee and Gary Morton. He could picture in his mind how he would even capture the smell of the alkali dust swirling665-5884 to place in the ad here. Call up to a cowboy’s nose your catch pen. Or music? Maybe music. You know, write songs about the cowboy life, like Jim Jones and Steve Cormier. If they could do it, why not Steve? Steve’s main talent, so far, was putting a rein on a horse. If you wanted to take a big-old-stout horse and spin him with just your little finger touching the reins, Steve was your guy. But it’s hard to put a good sliding stop on a horse from here in the turret. In fact, about all a guy could do in the turret without being artistic is sit there, drink coffee, and think artistically. Steve’s eyes closed and he smiled. Well, there’s always taking a nap, too. Interested in this spot? Dave Ramsey is America’s trusted INTERESTED IN THIS SPOT? voice on money and business, and CEO of Ramsey Solutions. He has authored five New York Times best-selling books. Call 665-5884 by The Dave Ramsey Show is heard to more than 11 millionyour ad here. place listeners each week on more than 550 radio stations and digital outlets. Dave’s latest project, EveryDollar, provides a free online budget tool. Follow Dave on Twitter at @ DaveRamsey and on the web at daveramsey.com. www.missourivalleyshopper.com www.missourivalleyshopper.com Interested in this spot? Medicaid Expansion and Families in S.D. BROOKINGS, S.D. - When the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted, the State of South Dakota decided not to expand the Medicaid program. However, now that the S.D. 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