2 Broadcaster Press Dave Says February 11, 2020 www.broadcasteronline.com Tighten Up! Dear Dave, I’m beginning to think we got in over our heads with our house. My wife and I make about $125,000 a year combined, but we’ve never been able to put anything aside for an emergency fund. Our mortgage payment is 35 percent of our take home pay each month. We have two young children, so we eat out a lot, but we have no debt other than our house. Do you think we should refinance our home? Jeff Dave RAMSEY Dear Jeff, You two are making good money, and you’re debtfree except for your home. You can’t tighten up your budget enough to save up an emergency fund? Stay out of restaurants, dude! There’s no law stating you have to eat out a lot just because there are kids in the house. I mean, you’ve got no emergency fund. That’s a pretty basic thing. You guys need to get on a written, detailed plan, and start hitting your goals. I’m talking about a strict, monthly budget. Now, I’ll admit your mortgage payment isn’t exactly what I would’ve signed you up for. Your house payments, or rent, should be no more than 25 percent of your monthly take home pay. But your house payment isn’t what’s holding you two back. What’s holding you two back is the fact that you haven’t been willing to tighten up the finances in other areas of your life to offset biting off more than you could chew in terms of a home. No, I wouldn’t refinance. You’re fairly close where the mortgage payments are concerned, so I think you can make it through this by looking at ways to increase your income and selling stuff you don’t need to build an emergency fund. You two have been smarter than some, but you’re really going to have to buckle down and rearrange your priorities to make this happen! —Dave What everyone is reading. www.broadcasteronline.com www.plaintalk.net Main Street Center Pancake Breakfast Sunday, February 16th 8:00am – 12:00pm Pancakes, Sausage, Coffee & Juice Served by: Members of the Main Street Center All proceeds will support the Main Street Center Adults – $6.00 Children 5 & Under – $3.00 AMERICA’S FARMERS Dear Dave, I have around $15,000 in a Roth IRA. I just recently started studying your advice, and I was wondering if it would be a good idea to cash it out and put the money toward debt. Sarah Dear Sarah, I teach people to stop investing temporarily while they attack their debt. So, I wouldn’t add anything to it at this point, but the worst thing you could do is cash it out. If you do, taxes and penalties will steal a huge chunk of that cash. The only time I take money out of a retirement account to pay off debt is to avoid bankruptcy or foreclosure. Start working the Baby Steps from the beginning. Baby Step 1 is saving up $1,000 for a starter emergency fund. Baby Step 2 is paying off all debts from smallest to largest, except for your home, using the debt snowball method. This will free up a ton of money! Then you’re ready for Baby Step 3, which is increasing your beginner emergency fund to a fully-loaded emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. Now you’re ready for Baby Step 4, which is 15 percent of your income going into retirement! —Dave * Dave Ramsey is America’s trusted voice on money and business, and CEO of Ramsey Solutions. He has authored seven best-selling 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. BroadcasterOnline.com “Get Connected!” Public Comment Window Open For Perkins V State Plan PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota’s proposed State Plan for the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V) is now open for public comment. Perkins V is the federal law overseeing funding of career and technical education. View the proposed State Plan on the department’s Perkins V webpage. Look for the State Plan Draft for Public Comment link. Public comment can be submitted in two ways: via email to DOECTE@state. sd.us or via regular mail to South Dakota Department of Education, Attention: Laura Scheibe, 800 Governors Drive, Pierre, SD 57501. The deadline to submit public comment on the State Plan is March 5, 5 p.m. CT. The public comment window for Accountability Indicators related to the State Plan is also open. Since January 2019, the South Dakota Department of Education has been gathering input and holding targeted school and stakeholder discussions to develop the State Plan. The Citizens of the Township of Vermillion in the County of Clay, South Dakota, and who are qualified to vote at Township elections, are hereby notified that the Annual Township Meeting for said Township will be held at 515 High Street, Vermillion, SD in said Township, on TUESDAY, the 3rd day of March 2020, at 7:00 pm, for the following purposes: To elect one Supervisor for the term of three years; one Township Clerk, one Treasurer, each for the term of one year; and one Constable for the term of two years; and to conduct any other business proper to be done at said meeting when convened. Inclement weather reschedule date of March 10, 2020. Farm & Ranch Real Estate Sales & Management You will always worry about the weather, but with FMH, you can rest assured knowing that your crop insurance company will make you whole again in the wake of even the most devastating storms. Contact your Farmers Mutual Hail agent today! Beresford, SD • 605-763-2675 www.jensenagencyonline.com Amber Paulsen This document is intended for information purposes only. See policy provisions, terms, and conditions for details. Products underwritten by Farmers Mutual Hail Insurance Company of Iowa and its affiliates, West Des Moines, Iowa. Not all affiliates are mutual companies. Farmers Mutual Hail and its affiliates are equal opportunity providers and prohibit discrimination in all programs and activities. ©2020 Farmers Mutual Hail Insurance Company of Iowa. All rights reserved. My sweet Aunt Bea was a strong-willed, determined woman. She was also kind, loving, and willing to help anyone in need. In addition, she grew up during the Great Depression, and like most people who lived during that challenging time, she couldn’t stand to see anything go to waste. She lived alone, and one Monday evening I decided to take my family to visit her. When we arrived, she was busily pulling weeds in her garden. When she saw us, she smiled and wiped the sweat from her face. “Well, I’ll be,” she said. “I just knew someone would come, so I made extra food. Come in and have something to eat.” I laughed. Aunt Bea always made extra food. I had never been to her house and not had her want to feed me. She loved to cook, and everything she made was incredibly good. “We’re okay, Aunt Bea,” I said. “We just had dinner.” “I’m sure you can at least eat a bite of cake,” she replied. “I have some that is a couple of days old, and I don’t want it to go to waste.” I knew that we weren’t going to get away without having some, so I said, “How about we give you a hand with your garden first?” She nodded. “That would be nice.” We helped weed her garden, and when we finished, we all went into the house and had some wonderful chocolate cake and some cold milk. We also enjoyed a great visit. As we were leaving, she wrapped up the last of the cake and handed it to me. “I don’t want to throw this out. You take this with you so it all gets used up.” I thanked her, we all hugged her, and then we headed on our way. Only a couple of weeks later, I learned that Aunt Bea had fallen and was in the hospital. As I was trying to find out what had happened and what hospital she was in, I learned that one of my paramedic friends had responded to the call. “Can you tell me what happened?” I asked him. “As far as we could tell,” David replied, “she was out working in her garden when she tripped over a garden hose, fell, and broke her hip. That was at about eight o’clock at night. No one was around to help her, so she scooted along on the ground all the way to the house. It took her until one o’ clock in the morning to get into the kitchen, where she pulled the phone down off of the counter and dialed 9-1-1.” “That must have been horribly painful for her,” I said. “That is true,” David replied. “But you won’t believe what she did when we came. While we were trying to prepare her so we could lift her onto the stretcher, she asked us if she would be in the hospital for a long time. When we told her that it looked as though her hip was broken and that she would likely have an extended stay there, she insisted that we needed to slow down. We paused, knowing she was in a lot of pain, thinking she wanted us to be more careful so she wouldn’t hurt as much.” “That’s understandable,” I said. “But that’s not what she wanted at all,” David replied. “She said she had a nice lasagna in the fridge and some cake on the counter. She wanted us to stop and eat them. When we insisted that we needed to get her to the hospital, she said, ‘It’s really good lasagna. And the chocolate cake is nice and fresh.’” “So did you have some?” I asked. David laughed. “Are you kidding? She refused to let us take her until we finally agreed to at least take the cake with us so it wouldn’t go to waste.” Turn Yo ur Clutter i nto Cash! ANNUAL TOWNSHIP MEETING Cabin Realty & Ag Services, Inc. Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow Nick O'Connell Cash Out My Roth IRA? Given under my hand this 11th day of February, 2020. Jackie Williams, Vermillion Township Clerk PEACE OF MIND FOR Brad Bak Food or Naught By Daris Howard Burwell, NE 68823 • Office: 308-346-4425 Devil’s Nest Recreational Property Real Estate Development on Lewis & Clark Lake Knox County, Nebraska Property is located southwest of Yankton and northeast of Niobrara South Side of Lewis & Clark Lake For Additional Maps and Pricing Information: www.CabinRealtyAgServices.com Advertise your Garage Sale to thousands of readers! 624-4429 2020 4-H FRUIT SALE Support the Clay County 4-H Program by purchasing delicious, high-quality fruit and snacks. Contact Colleen at the Clay County Extension Office at 605-677-7111 or clay.county@sdstate.edu to request an order form or place an order. Fruit orders will be taken until February 24 with fruit delivery around March 19, 2020. NOTICE OF ANNUAL MEETING Clay-Union Farm Mutual Insurance Company will hold its Annual Meeting of Membership on TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2020 OLD LUMBER COMPANY 15 COURT ST., VERMILLION AT 1:30 P.M. Business of 2019 will be reviewed and directors elected. In addition, members will vote on changes to the company’s bylaws and articles of incorporation. Lunch will be served starting at 12:30 p.m. Mark Donnelly, Secretary Clay-Union Farm Mutual Insurance Company