October 9, 2018 • Page 2 shop online at www.missourivalleyshopper.com A Desk Full of Memories Dave Says Mortgage Disability Insurance? Dear Dave, If someone is following your plan, is it a good idea to get mortgage disability insurance during Baby Step 2? Craig Fix It, Or Buy Another? Dear Craig, No, it is not. Mortgage disability insurance is a gimmick, and I would never recommend it to anyone. I think I know where you’re going with this. During Baby Step 1, I encourage people to save up and set Dave aside a beginner emergency fund of $1,000. Baby Step 2 is where you start paying off all your debts, except for your home, using the debt snowball system. A thousand dollars may not seem like a lot in savings during that time, but in the beginning it’s an attainable amount to save. Plus, it’s more than a lot of people have when they make the decision to get out of debt and gain control of their finances. Then, after finishing Baby Step 2 you move directly in Baby Step 3 — fully-funding your emergency fund with three to six months of expenses. What I would recommend is having long-term disability insurance in place. It’s fairly inexpensive, especially if you get it through your employer. — Dave RAMSEY Our resident cowboy, Steve, brought us the shocking news: cowpuncher ThreeChord Cortez, that bunkhouse balladeer, plans to study opera, in hopes an aria or three will make him even more attractive to girls during a serenade. Apparently, singing La Donna Mobile might be more effective than “You don’t know what lonesome is ‘til you start herding co-o-o-ows” … especially if she doesn’t speak European. I thought I’d jot down a few opera-watching truths for ol’ T.C. just to help him out. 1. Take off your hat. You can keep jujubes in it if you want. 2. If you like a particular aria, you can yell Bravo! if it’s a man, Brava! if it’s a woman, or Bravisimo! if it’s an isimo. It’s considered poor form to yell “Eeeee-HAAA!” or “You get ‘em, Hon!” 3. One of the strangest operatic devices is called recitative – pronounced rest-aTEEF – (don’t ask), and is a combination of singing and speaking that is used when the composer wants to hurry through a song because he wasn’t too fond of it in the first place but it was in the contract and he wants it out of the way quickly. Feel free to Dear Dave, I’m driving a 12-year-old car with 210,000 miles on it. The car needs close to $2,000 in repairs, and it’s worth $5,000. I have $40,000 in cash saved, $40,000 in investments, and I make $80,000 a year. I also have $15,000 in student loan debt, but the only other thing I owe on is my house. Should I pay to repair the car, or buy something else in the $15,000 price range? Brett Dear Brett, Let’s see, if you wrote a $15,000 check for a newer car and wrote a $15,000 check for the student loans, it would leave you with $10,000. I wouldn’t buy a $15,000 car in your situation. I’d buy a $10,000 car. You could probably sell the old one for around $3,000 if it needs repairs, combine that with your money and get a $13,000 car. Then, you could write a check and pay off the student loan debt. With no car payment, no student loan payment, and a good car, you can really lean into your budget and saving money. You’d have no debt except your home, and you could rebuild your savings in a hurry. You’d be in really good financial shape in about six months. Plus, you’d have $15,000 in the bank in the meantime! — Dave * Dave Ramsey is America’s trusted voice on money and business, and CEO of Ramsey Solutions. He has authored seven bestselling books, including The Total Money Makeover. The Dave Ramsey Show is heard by more than 12 million listeners each week on 575 radio stations and multiple digital platforms. Follow Dave on Twitter at @DaveRamsey and on the web at daveramsey.com. mention recitative to a woman at half time. Operas have two half times. The speaking part of the recitative is done like a machine gun, and then you break into song when you get tired of that, and it can happen in the same sentence. For example: “Don’t make me come down there, don’t make me come down there, don’t make me come down there and k-i-i-i-I-I-I-I-i-i-ck your bu-u-u-u-u-tt.” 4. That bit of music they play before the curtain goes up is called the overture, and not foreplay. It’s to give you a hint of what’s to come, in case you decide to leave early. You might listen to the overture and say, “That allegretto tickles my fancy, but if that tenor duet goes on for more than two minutes, I’ll get the scours.” This makes a guy a connoisseur, you see. Connoisseur is European for smart aleck. And finally, 5. Don’t forget to clean your boots. Let Our Family Business Keep Yours In The Go With: • Farm Filters • Hydraulic Hoses • Bearings & Seals Cox Auto By Daris Howard 1007 Broadway Ave Yankton, SD The right job is just one click away. www.missourivalleyshopper.com In Print and Online! Call 665-5884 605•665•4494 Save 10¢ Off A Gallon Of Gas When You Use Your Sinclair Card Sm o st Prices BlacirknVefflvVeod$ka $18.99 1.75 ML Be t 15.99 1.75 ML own! CBraocwanrdRi oRyuamS$a2lt2.99 1.75 ML In T l ed $ Caramel 26.9 9 750 ML Cork N Bottle 1500 Broadway, 665-3881 We’ll Match All Local Advertising Prices! EEDvEeD IERpersNn be deli er d R hopS ca CARValley S d ornings an ri Missou etween Tuesday m anytime b ys by 6:00pm. Wednesda XTRA E XTRA E money? spending e r tunity! Need som fect oppo per This is the vailable tes now a ou Yankton r finding the right job is easier than you think when you’ve got the right direction Stop searching. The Help Wanted section of the Missouri Valley Shopper lists many possible new job opportunities. Find a career that’s right for you. MV Shopper MV Shopper M I S S O U R I VA L L E Y M I S S O U R I VA L L E Y As we moved furniture recently, a small white desk brought a flood of memories to my mind. My wife, Donna, and I had only been married about a year and a half and had a two-month-old daughter. I was struggling to work my way through college and take care of my little family. What work I found was usually part-time, paid minimum wage, and was seldom steady. Donna tried to save money in every way she could. She purchased an old sewing machine at a garage sale and sewed our clothes. Much of the work I found was hard, physical work, and I often tore holes in my clothes, especially my pants. Donna patched them until even my patches had patches on them. But it was hard for me knowing Donna had no desk at which to sew. The only surface we had in our apartment was the small kitchen table. But it was hard to lay everything on it, only to move it to eat. And it didn’t fit much more than the sewing machine. I would come home from a long day of work, and Donna would be sitting on the floor sewing, with the baby close by. It was cute, but it was hard on Donna’s back and made her tired. I decided to try to get her a sewing desk. Everywhere I went I looked for an inexpensive desk at secondhand stores and every garage sales but found nothing we could afford. Then, one night, we went to a charity auction. I scraped together every penny we had and counted twenty dollars. I was hoping to buy some tools to fix our small pickup. It was our only transportation, and it was not running well. At the auction, we added the Jello salad that Donna made with the other potluck food and then paid the five dollar donation for the meal. After we ate, we wandered among the donated items before the auction started. I found an old set of tools that I thought would work for what I needed. They had a suggested starting bid of five dollars. But then something else caught my attention. I saw Donna standing by a nice little desk. It wasn’t just any desk; it was a sewing desk with drawers made for bobbins and other useful items. I saw her look at the suggested bid and disappointedly turn away. I went over and looked at the tag. It suggested a thirty dollar opening bid. My heart sank. The desk would be perfect, but we only had fifteen dollars left. The auctioneer started and moved through the items quickly. When he got to the tools and started the bid at ten dollars, I almost bid. But somehow, I couldn’t do it. All I could think of was the desk. The tools sold for twelve dollars, and Donna asked why I didn’t bid. “I’m not sure they were what I needed,” I replied. That was true, but there was a more important reason. When the desk came up for bid, the auctioneer asked, “Who will bid forty dollars?” No one said anything, so he dropped it to thirty-five, then thirty, then twenty-five. Still no one bid, so he moved to something else. When he had sold almost everything else and paused for a moment, I slipped up to him. “Are you going to sell the desk?” I asked. “No one seemed to want to start the bidding,” he replied. “I would have, but I don’t have as much as you wanted,” I said. “But I would like it for my wife.” “How much do you want to bid?” he asked. “Fifteen dollars is all I have,” I replied, “and I will bid it all.” He looked at me and seemed to realize that I was a struggling college student, and he smiled. “You’ve got yourself a desk.” He motioned to the lady marking down the sold items, and she handed me the paper to pay for the desk. But after everything else was sold, a man asked about it. The auctioneer told the man the desk was sold. “But no one even bid on it,” the man complained. “I planned to, but I didn’t want to start.” The auctioneer turned and smiled at me, then said to the man, “I doubt you could have beat the bid, because you’d have to give everything you had.” And as we recently moved the old desk, I think Donna remembered, too, because she looked at it, smiled, and hugged me. Dining & Entertainment Celebrate The Harvest SIGEL SOUP KITCHEN Sunday, October 14th 11AM-3:00PM (10 miles north of Yankton on Hwy. 81 to Lesterville Road, then 1 mile west) MENU: Chicken Noodle Soup, Potato Soup, Chili, Taverns, Hot Dogs, Pies & Desserts FEATURING: •Bake Walk •Country Store • Raffle for great prizes! Kruse stained Glass Open HOuse Saturday/Sunday, Oct 13 & 14 • 1:00-6:00pm Glass • Grapes • Green spend a fall afternoon with us! We will be displaying many of our current projects. • Wine Tasting & Sales • Antique John Deere Tractor & Machinery Displays See the map for the address Questions 402-357-2107 SD Yankton, ut Street, 319 Waln -5884 at 605-665 Call Steve Election Signs Not Allowed In Right Of Way PIERRE, S.D –The South Dakota Department of Transportation reminds the public that political campaign and ballot-issue signs cannot be placed on state highway rights of way. “With election season upon us, election signs are showing up along the state’s roadways,” says Kristi Sandal, public information officer. “Illegal signs create a safety hazard and may distract motorists from seeing important regulatory or directional signing.” The use of right of way is reserved for official highway signage. All signs in the right of way that are not required for traffic control, as authorized by law (SDCL 31-28-14), are prohibited and will be removed by SDDOT crews as they see them or as they are reported. Attempts to contact the owner of the signs to pick them up will be made. Municipal ordinances regulating placement and removal of campaign signs within towns and cities do not have precedence over state jurisdiction and supervision of state highway rights of way within municipalities.