During a recent episode of The Ramsey Show (1), Diane, 57, told host Dave Ramsey that after selling a business with her husband for $1.2 million, she’s sitting on a cushy $600,000 nest egg.
On paper, Diane looks like she’s in a decent financial position. With no personal debt and an additional $250,000 in retirement savings, she holds roughly $850,000 in assets under her name. For someone nearing retirement, it’s a solid cushion.
But despite her sizable savings, Diane admitted it’s not all roses. Following the sale of the business her husband ran, the couple were “given a large lump sum” — half of which they used to pay off “some unexpected unknown debts.”
“You’re being cryptic,” responded cohost Jade Warshaw.
With some prodding by the hosts, it became clear that her husband has a gambling problem that drains roughly $3,600 a month in additional income from a rental and his social security. As a result, the $850,000 Diane mentioned is now in her name for safekeeping.
So with this in mind, Diane is looking for the best way to invest her money for a comfortable retirement. As a start, she was hoping to invest $125,000 of the money into a new franchise, despite having no business experience.
“I’m very confident and very passionate about this and I’m expecting for it to be very successful and I have a family that is willing to stand behind me and support me,” she shared.
But Ramsey and Warshaw had some sobering words on how to make the most of her remaining funds.
While it’s not clear why Diane’s husband is gambling, sometimes the source of the income can impact how a person spends it.
According to Complete View Financial (2), when people experience a financial windfall — whether from selling a business, an inheritance, or another big payout — it can spur the receivers of the funds to treat it differently than earned income. “The way the money is framed also influences behavior: We save more when something feels ‘earned’ and spend more when it feels like a bonus,” says the financial planning and investment management firm. And sometimes this brings with it a higher risk of impulse spending.
According to the FINRA Investor Education Foundation (3), people between the ages of 58 and 101 can also be especially overconfident when it comes to making big financial decisions, like investing. “Financial literacy levels among all Americans are alarmingly low, but among older investors, our research suggests that the challenges are even greater,” said Gerri Walsh, president of the FINRA Foundation, in the report
And Dave Ramsey didn’t sugarcoat that the real threat to her future is her husband’s gambling habit and the temptation to pour money into a brand-new business she has no experience running.
“It’s hard to fill up a hole while somebody’s digging out the bottom,” he said, warning her that even strong savings can disappear quickly under pressures like a new venture and an addiction.
Ramsey urged Diane to protect her money and suggested putting the bulk of her savings into diversified mutual funds, aiming for long-term average returns of around 10%.
Ramsey recommended that Diane let time and consistency do the heavy lifting. And thanks to compound growth, her money could double roughly every seven years and that would turn Diane’s $850,000 cash pile into substantially more, with Ramsey saying, “In seven years, at 64 years old, you’ve got $2 million dollars. At seven more, at 71, you’d have $4 million dollars.”
As for Diane’s business idea, Ramsey advised that optimism wasn’t enough to keep a business afloat, especially since she doesn’t have prior experience.
The Commerce Institute (4) backs up how risky such a venture can be with 2024 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (5), showing that 49% of new businesses don’t survive their first five years. That failure rate rises to 65% when looking at the first 10 years, highlighting just how high the stakes can be.
And for Diane, the risks are even higher. With no track record, Ramsey warned that overconfidence could turn a $125,000 experiment into a much bigger financial drain.
Read More: 5 essential money moves to make once you’ve saved $50,000
Ramsey laid out a framework to protect Diane from the two biggest risks in her life: overconfidence and instability at home. Here’s what he recommended:
The bulk of Diane’s savings should stay in long-term, diversified investments and be completely separate from both the business and her husband’s spending.
That advice lines up with guidance from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (6), which stresses that money set aside for retirement should be put into carefully researched investments. Once that capital is lost, there’s less time to rebuild it especially for older investors. In other words, this is not the time for risky bets — in business or elsewhere.
If the franchise costs $125,000, Ramsey told Diane, that should be her limit.
Ramsey’s warning echoes a broader guideline highlighted by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (7) that says you should not expose yourself to losing more money than you can afford to lose.
One of the most important factors in Diane’s situation is to keep everything separated because when gambling is in the picture, money needs guardrails.
Experts, including the Responsible Gambling Council (8), say to protect your assets by setting up separate bank accounts and consider changing access to mortgages and other assets so that the person who gambles doesn’t have access to them.
Diane’s situation may sound extreme, but it’s not uncommon for people who come into money suddenly to struggle with what to do. The smarter move is slowing down, protecting the funds and limiting risk to help maintain and build wealth.
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The Ramsey Show (1); Complete View Financial (2); FINRA Investor Education Foundation (3); Commerce Institute (4); U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (5); U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (6); Commodity Futures Trading Commission (7); Responsible Gambling Council (8)
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