April 11, 2017 • Page 2 shop online at www.missourivalleyshopper.com MV Shopper Dave Says M I S S O U R I VA L L E Y Roth Over Pension Why the Smallest Debt First? Dear Dave, My wife and I are both 25 years old, and we’re working on Baby Steps 4, Dear Dave, 5 and 6. I have a 401(k) through my I’m new to you and your plan. Why do you want people to pay employer, and she has a pension. off the debt with the smallest balance first, instead of the one Currently, we’re falling short of the with the highest interest rate? 15 percent of income you advise put- Courtney ting toward retirement. Should we get IRAs, or start stocking money away in Dear Courtney, her pension? Simply put, because personal finance isn’t all about math. PerJohn sonal finance is only about 20 percent math. The other 80 percent is behavior. Dear John, We list debts in the debt snowball in order of the smallest to the I wouldn’t put money into a pension. largest balance, putting as much as possible toward the smallest For one thing, when you die after put- while paying the minimum payments on the others. The reason, Dave ting money into a pension, in most cases it as I mentioned earlier, is behavior modification. It helps you see dies with you. Number two, when you put yourself making a dent in your debts. money into a pension, you’re going to get It’s easier to change bad habits when you see quick results from about a six percent rate of return in the cur- your efforts to eliminate negative behaviors. Paying off the smallrent environment — maybe even as low as five percent. You’re est debts first, instead of the debts with the highest interest rates, not making much on it while you’re alive, so I don’t advise putting will give you quick wins that will help keep you motivated. It promoney in pensions. We let employers put money in pensions, if vides proof that you can succeed and become debt-free! they want to. That’s a nice benefit, but I wouldn’t add to it. — Dave I would do a couple of Roth IRAs, and max those out. Then, max out whatever you’ve got at work that you own. Of course, when you’re vested in a pension, you own it. That much is true. But still, I don’t advise adding to pensions, buying years up, or any of * Dave Ramsey is America’s trusted voice on money and business, and CEO of Ramsey Solutions. He has authored seven bestthose kinds of things. There are a few examples out there where that kind of thing selling books, including The Total Money Makeover. The Dave works mathematically to your benefit, but they’re very hard to Ramsey Show is heard by more than 12 million listeners each find. Out of all the years I’ve been in this business, I can count on week on 575 radio stations and multiple digital platforms. Follow Dave on Twitter at @DaveRamsey and on the web at davtwo hands the number of times I’ve seen it work out. So no, I wouldn’t do more with a pension where you add to it eramsey.com. yourself, especially at such a young age. — Dave RAMSEY “WHEN I WAS LOOKING FOR A JOB, I PUT THE CLASSIFIEDS TO WORK!” Our Help Wanted Listings Have Hundreds Of Opportunities For You... • Full-Time • Part-Time • Permanent • Temporary 319 Walnut • Yankton, SD 605.665.5884 TRUCK DRIVERS S&S Express is hiring Company Drivers & Owner Operators. Can make $45,000 - $62,000 a year. Mostly central U.S. loads. No California or New England runs. COMPANY DRIVERS PAID OFF ODOMETERS ALL MILES PAID BASE MILEAGE PAY + BONUSES HOME WEEKENDS PAID WEEKLY OWNER OPERATORS PAID LOAD PERCENTAGE ALL FSC ALL TARP FEES ALL STOP FEES ALL DETENTION PAY TO TRUCK Small family company that treats you like family. Call 402-582-4791 • Ask for Jody S&S Express For more information, CALL 402-582-4791 These days we don’t think much about axes. They’re kinda old fashioned and they are too closely associated with manual labor for them to be very popular. It’s a shame, too, because there is lore to an ax. There are proper and improper ways to sharpen one, for instance. There are proper and improper ways to fell a tree with one, to limb a fallen tree, to split firewood. Replacing the handle on an ax could make the subject of a very interesting small book, even. Marvin always puts a coating of fiberglass around the handle just below the head to keep firewood from chewing up the handle, for instance. Dud has been known to soak an ax handle in a large tube of kerosene before using it to give it longer life. In fact, Dud has made ax work into something of an art form. If you need your ax sharpened, Dud’s the guy to see. He has an old-fashioned grindstone with a water drip. He’ll tell you it’s important not to get the steel too hot and therefore take the temper out of it. And when he finishes sharpening your ax, you can shave with it. If you really want to. But if they gave doctor’s degrees in ax use, ol’ Jasper Blankenship, up in the mountains, would get AUTO the first one around here. He built his cabin with just an ax, in fact. The whole thing. It was while Jasper was showing his new cabin to some tourist ladies that his ax became legendary around here. “You see that ax?” he asked them. “That was George Washington’s ax. Yep, the same one he used to chop down the cherry 650-665-9841 tree. ‘Course it’s been six through 42 handles and www.ronsautoglass.com heads since then.” RON’S GLASS We Supply & Install • Auto • Home • Commercial CLASSIFIEDS IN PRINT & ONLINE 605.665.5884 A Tough Lesson To place your ad call... By Daris Howard We were visiting my oldest daughter in California. While she and her husband went to a concert, we stayed with their children. While the parents had a great time getting away, we had a wonderful night with pizza, a movie, and playing games. All too soon the weekend was over and it was time to head home. We stopped in Provo to drop off my college-student daughter and then visited another daughter and her family. We enjoyed playing with our five-month-old grandson as we visited. He was happy and smiling, much different from our last visit. He must have forgotten the immunizations shots he had had and decided to forgive the injustice he had been subjected to. We left there, and headed on our way, enjoying the pleasant feelings from the weekend with family. But that didn’t last long. As we reached the south part of Salt Lake City, the warning signals were flashing. “Freeway blocked ahead. All traffic routing off of freeway.” Soon we found ourselves at almost a standstill. We checked the internet and found that the projected freeway opening was hours away. Then, to make matters worse, my youngest daughter started feeling sick. We were able to get onto an open off ramp lane leading into a mall parking lot. That lane was clear because no one wanted to get stuck in the parking lot. The line of cars there was backed up from one side to the other. My wife drove the van to take her place in the exit line, and I took my daughter for a walk to get some fresh air. When we returned about fifteen minutes later, our van was only ahead about four car lengths. At that point I made the decision that we would park the van and eat at a restaurant. We finished eating and were sitting in comfort there, watching the line of barely moving cars, when a lady approached us. I was feeling annoyed at this delay that had ruined our evening and was in no mood to visit. In addition, she was dressed in rough denim jeans and an old T-shirt and was quite coarse in her demeanor. But the lady seemed driven to find someone to share the time with. “You know,” she said, “it could be worse.” I felt skeptical. How could it be worse? “You could be the family of the man who was killed in the car wreck,” she said. “We may be late getting home tonight. But their husband and father won’t be coming home at all.” I felt shame flood over me. She was right. My family was safe, and we still had each other. “You know,” the lady continued, “I lost my father in a car wreck years ago. He was supposed to go to my recital that night. He didn’t make it, and I was upset at him. Then, after we got home, the police came and told us what had happened. Suddenly, I didn’t care that he wasn’t home on time. I just wanted him to come home. I remember watching for him for weeks, hoping it was all a big mistake and that he would still come. But he didn’t. Just like that truck driver’s family will be wishing for their husband and father, but he won’t be there.” As she continued to talk, there were suddenly many things more important to me than being someplace on time. Three of them were with me in that restaurant, and I had just spent time with others all weekend. The lady continued to talk, and we mostly just listened. It was easy to tell that this wreck had brought back some painful memories that she needed to share. As the traffic started to move again, and she prepared to leave, I was sad to see her go. As she left she said, “I should be on my way so my husband will know that tonight I will be coming home.” As we pulled into our driveway at one in the morning, four hours after we had planned, I was grateful for an angel in rough denim and an old t-shirt that reminded me of what is important in life. REMINDER FOR THE SAFETY OF THE GENERAL PUBLIC: Any occupation of county right-of-way is unlawful. 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