It’s Never Too Late To Start
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Their life, specifically their money, their work, and their relationships. The phone number for you to jump in and get coached up today is 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Alongside the Natalie-attired George Camel, I am Ken Coleman. Excited to be with you. And let's get right to the phones. Christy is up in San Antonio, Texas. Christy, how can we help?

Hey, guys. I have a convoluted situation here. We like the convoluted ones. That's why we show up for days like today.

I was engaged and he declared bankruptcy during the engagement and I had no idea how much debt he was in. And we've since separated and he's left me with the house that I can no longer afford on my own. And I'm trying to figure out if I get him back or just try to cut my losses and get rid of the house and just continue with my life. Okay, hold on. If I get him back? Is that what you said?

What does that mean? What does that involve? I don't know. We've been having this back and forth thing for the last three months since we've been separated, and I don't know. I just feel like I hate that he kind of left me with all these responsibilities that he committed to with me. Yeah, but can I tell you this? We were together for seven years. I'm glad he did it now as opposed to later. This dude is a loser. Yeah. And you know it. So...

Is your name on the house? That's what I'm understanding, that you two bought this together? He gave me the down payment. So yeah, it's just mine. Oh, it's all you. Yeah, it's all me. So only your name's on the deed, only your name's on the mortgage? Yeah. Okay. What's the house worth if you were to sell it today? Probably like $310,000. What do you owe on it? $350,000 plus the forbearance for the last year. And what's the mortgage payment?

$3,000 a month. All right. And what is your income, your take-home every month? Zero. What? Yeah. Feels like that should have been a part of the initial information. What do you mean zero? Well, I'm back in school. I was making $120 a year and got laid off, and so now I'm going back to finish my degree. And I haven't had an income technically since then.

Well, my unemployment ended last week, but so now it's zero. Christy, Christy, Christy. So first things first. And George, I want you to jump in here because it's hard to talk budgeting and stuff like that when you have zero income. And I know what happened to you. I've counseled so many people like you who something negative happens in their professional life.

And then the decision becomes, well, I'm going to go get a degree. In your case, you never finished your degree. And so you say, well, I'm going to go finish my degree because it's going to put me in a better professional situation. Am I right so far? Right. You're right. Except for the fact that at one point you were making over $100,000 a year without that degree. Right. So, Christy, we're pressing pause on the education and we're going to go get a job.

I know. Well, so the good thing is the house is on Airbnb and I'm supposed to gross $5,000 next month. It's just the operating costs to keep the house afloat are like $35,000 to $4,000. Where are you going to go? Yeah, where are you going to live? I know. Well, that's kind of the thing. I'm like technically homeless right now. So I'm very angry with my ex-fiance. What do you mean by technically homeless?

I am couch surfing, pet sitting, house sitting, doing whatever I have to do, staying at the house when people aren't here. All right. George, does she sell this house and take the hit? Yeah, I'm confused. So what happened to his down payment? Well, what do you mean? He gave me the money for the down payment, so it went towards the house. So why is the house only worth $310, but you owe $350? Because we bought it for $365 and put 3.5% down.

So you buy the house for $365,000 with 3.5% down. In 2022, so the market was just super hot. And now you're saying the house is worth less than you paid for it by a long shot. Yeah, and I've invested a lot of money into it, remodeling and all the things. Yeah, that's what's not making sense. How did you buy it for $50,000 more than it's worth and you put a bunch of work into it? I'm just not buying that this house is worth only $310,000 at this point.

Yeah, I don't know. Honestly, I probably need to get an appraisal. Who told you it was worth $310? Zillow. Let's not trust Zillow. Oh, my head is hurting. Zillow doesn't know the renovations. Okay, you need to get with a real estate pro today. Jump on to RamseySolutions.com. We'll connect you to a real estate pro you can trust to help you through this. But you need to sell this today.

And Christy... No Airbnb schemes while you're homeless on the street. This is insane. Yeah. No matter which way you spin it. And press pause on school, please. Yeah. Okay? Listen. First of all, we're... Listen, George and I are on your team. We're Team Christy. Team Christy. I got the t-shirt on underneath my shirt here. Go, Christy, go. Okay? But if I can be your older brother today...

You can fix this. Okay. But the operating work, he was going to come back. No, he's not going to come back. He's a loser. I don't want him to come back. I said, I'm playing your older brother right now. If this dude comes back tonight, I'm on the front porch going, Hey bro, step off. You're a loser. But, but, but let's forget about the relationship advice. All right.

If he comes back and he's a changed guy and all that, whatever. But I'm not counting on that. But he's not going to fix your financial problems. You don't have a job. And you have a house you cannot afford. So regardless of loser guy becoming Prince Charming, you've still got to fix those problems.

And you have to be intentional with some urgency. Bless your heart. I know you've been through a rough time, but I feel like I'm talking to somebody who's kind of laissez-faire about this whole thing. Like, well, I'm just kind of couch surfing right now. And I'm like, no, like, Christy, like, you can fix this. So pause school.

sell the house, get with a real estate pro today. George, go to our website, RamseySolutions.com, find somebody local. Say, hey, I was just on the phone with Ken and George. I'm in a mess. I need a pro to help me sell this house and get me out of this thing. So we get out of that. You get a job, go make six figures again and get yourself right-sized. Do you have any other debt or anything else going on financially that we need to be talking about?

I mean, just student loan debt from being off and on with school. I'm just worried because I can't drop out again from UT or they won't readmit me. Who cares? That's the least of your problems. What degree are you trying to pursue that you didn't finish? A software designer by trade. I was just getting a bachelor's in design. Nobody cares. You don't need a degree to win in software design.

Yeah, I know. You can go right into that field, work your way up. And by the way, nobody cares if you went to UT or not. So UT dropping you and not letting you back in is the least of your worries. George? Yeah. Yeah, you should not be sinking any more money and time into this because you are literally homeless. There's a much bigger problem. So it's post-forbearance.

isn't going to be in my best interest. No, these are all shortcuts that are masking what's underneath, which is you've created a house of cards that is quickly falling apart, and we need to be drastic about this. Cut the Airbnb ties, get with the real estate pro, list it this week, and be done with it. Have a home you actually live in, rent somewhere for a while, clean up the financial mess, and move on. George, this is why we don't buy houses with people we're not married to. No, this is...

The thousandth story on the show of how this can go wrong. I'm so sorry. I've got to get George some Tylenol. I see a headache coming up. These days, business as usual is anything but. Tariffs make trade policy a moving target, supply chains are squeezed, and cash flow is probably tighter than ever. So if your business can't adapt in real time, you're in a world of hurt. That's why you need NetSuite by Oracle, trusted by more than 41%

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Hey, guys. Thank you for taking my call. I'm a big fan of the show. I watch y'all's YouTube videos and everything about investing and stuff, and it means a lot to you all to my call anyways. You bet. So I'm in a very, very, very bad spot, and I feel pretty much like nothing at this point. I took out a...

basically my job, I, I work, uh, it's a federal job. Uh, I guess I can say it. Uh, I work at the United States postal service and, we lost a lot of our package volume. So I knew that I was going to have to come up with some more money somehow. And, uh, stupidly, I, I took on day trading and I made like $120,000 in three months, but I took out a $60,000 loan to get that. Um, and, uh,

long story short i ended up losing the money and then i took out another loan to try and make it back and lost it too so now i owe like sixty two hundred dollars a month in expenses and i make like four thousand and i'm about to lose my job because i can't afford a delivery vehicle to deliver out of because it's part of the contract and i'm freaking out my girlfriend cheated on me and i feel like i'm gonna lose her and i feel like a lame excuse for man and uh

I just don't know what to do anymore. All right. Well, first of all, take a deep breath. I'm glad you called us. And I want to start with the fact that you're not a loser. You've had some losses, and those losses sting. But welcome to the human race. You made some poor decisions. And really what you did is you made one bad decision, and then you got panicked, and you made another bad decision trying to bail yourself out. But I've got to tell you, you're not a loser. And I mean that.

From the bottom of my heart. This isn't a pep talk, but you're not a loser. I'm sorry about the girlfriend situation. You'll look back on this many years from now, and you'll thank God that it didn't go the long haul with her. So you've got two massive hurts, just absolute, a left hook and a right cross, and you're spinning, right?

So I'm still with her. I'm trying to figure everything out. Well, we're not going to talk about the relationship part right now. I want to I want to focus on on the bigger issue, which is your hundred thousand dollars in debt and you might lose your job. OK, so, yeah. How certain are you that you're going to lose the job? Is this a foregone conclusion because you can't afford a car?

I mean, I might be able to get my dad or my grandmother or somebody to help me get a vehicle. So that's a peace of mind there. I don't think that they would let me die, I guess. Well, first of all, you're not going to die, okay? We've taken calls, George, with a lot more debt on the line than the $100,000. Yeah, there's not like a bookie coming after you, is there? Are you burying the lead here?

I'm just so overwhelmed because of how much underwater I am every month. And I've been working like 60 to 80 hours a week for the past five years. For how much? What's your income? So last year it was $87,000. And this year with the overtime cut, it looks like it's going to be about $65,000 or $70,000. Okay. And how old are you?

24. Are you currently working with the no overtime? How many hours a week are you averaging right now? I'm getting like 55. So right now I'm getting about $2,500 every two weeks take home, but that's going to be gone in about two months. Okay. So like 1800. Okay. So here's some good news. Good news. You feel like you can get a vehicle. You feel like you got a family member that can bail you out in the short term to keep this initial job. We want to do everything we can to keep it.

But you're going to have to, you've worked crazy hours before, you're going to have to work a second job, maybe a third job for the foreseeable future. And that's all. I don't know how because I'm so tired. I'm mentally exhausted. I get it, brother. But guess what?

I had my wife and I had three kids under the age of three. I don't want to hear a young 24 year old tell me how mentally exhausted he is. I'm just going to pull that card out, George. Single moms have stood on this debt free stage many, many times and talked about how much debt they paid off. I'm not knocking or in any way minimizing how tired you feel because you've been through a lot emotionally, but you got plenty left in the tank.

I've just seen people deal with far more than you're dealing with right now. All right, here's the good news. You're not married to this woman. All right, it hurts. No. But you don't have time for a girlfriend right now. There is no way out of this, Alex. That's what I'm trying to tell you. George and I don't have a magic piece of advice right now for you to get out of this other than you're going to have to get, A, a better job.

Or B, get a second or third job to get the income in. So I want you to suspend your disbelief for just a moment. And I want to bring George in. And let's just say that we can get our income back up to that $80,000 or $85,000 where you were before.

George, I want you to walk him through, because this is a kid right here who does not believe that he can get out of this thing. Let's go walk him through what he does to begin to knock this $100,000 down. Well, let's talk about what kind of debt this is exactly. So how much debt total? You told us the monthly number. What's the total balance? They're all unsecured loans, and one of them is $43,000.

And then another one is $30,000, but that one's a 22% interest rate. And then I have another one at $14,000. And then I owe my dad $11,700. But I just wanted to briefly touch it. Like, I get that I'm not married to that girl, but I have been with her for four years and she's got a five-year-old. So I'm like, all she knows, you know, so. Yeah, but buddy. I feel like a failure to them. But Alex, you're not. She cheated on you.

This is a separate call. And you told us she's giving up on you. Yeah, we don't have time in this call to address that. The bigger issue, my friend, is your money situation. Okay? George, so you have about $100,000 in unsecured debt. And who gave you these loans? SoFi Bank and Steadibank. And they're just all personal loans?

Yeah. Okay. So here's the deal. You don't pay them a dime until you've paid your own bills first. Food, utilities, housing, transportation. So if we look at those areas, how can we cut down on those areas in order to create some margin? Where are you living right now? I live with my girlfriend and we rent. It's actually a really, really good situation where we've been there for several years and the rent and utilities together is only $800. It's a little trailer.

Okay. I don't know if – I mean, the price point, sure, but the living situation doesn't sound ideal to me. But you make a great salary for a 24-year-old living in Knoxville, Tennessee. Can we agree on that? That if you didn't have debt, you'd have a great life. Yeah, that's all I really want. Have you cut off all access to day trading or any other gambling? No.

Yes and no. I'm still looking to see if I've got $7,000 cash left. I was trying to see if I could find, you know, one big... Alex, this is not Ocean's Eleven. You're not going to hit the roulette table and strike it rich and clean up this mess. You're just going to dig yourself into a deeper hole. That's what got us into this mess. Would you agree? Is desperation and greed? Yeah. So it's not the way out either. And so you have to cut off access to the thing that ruined your life.

Which is day trading. It's not going to be the solution. You are the solution. You getting off your butt, working 60, 70 hours for the next two years. That's what's going to clean this up. So how can we get you making... What's that?

It's probably going to be more than $60 to $70 because I'm working $55 now. I'm going to have to work another full-time job just to make payments. Well, or like Ken said, you find a better paying job. I don't want you to think that I have to work 100 hours because I make $25 an hour. What are the skills that have caused you to make this money? And how can we find a different job even that can pay more than that? Maybe that's not a government job in the private sector.

That's the problem is I never finished school, so I don't have a degree. So anything else looks like less. No, you don't need a degree. You know what you need to do is go get a job in the trades. They don't care about degrees. If you show up and work hard, you'll make money. But I'm going to tell you something, Alex. I'm really concerned because I'm still hearing a guy who's so beat up.

that doesn't believe he can get out of this. And George just gave you the answer. You don't have to pay all these people right away. You got to take care of you first. It's unsecured. If it goes to collections, they'll write it off and they'll live to fight another day. You're going to be fine. But I'd get out of this little teeny tiny trailer with this woman who cheated on you too. My goodness, you're staring at failure all day long.

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All right, Brendan is joining us in Boston, Massachusetts. That's George Campbell's old neck of the woods. Love it when George gets to talk to somebody from Boston. Brendan, how can we help today?

Hey, Ken and George. Hey, thanks for taking my call. I couldn't have handpicked better folks to kind of talk through my situation with me. Oh, that's good. Nice. Because you didn't get a choice. Well, a lot to unpack here, but after following the Ramsey principles to a T, should I pay to go back to school and most likely end up taking a pay cut to pursue a new career in my current stage of life?

Okay, I got questions. So which direction are we planning to go that requires you to go back to school? So I've always been drawn to clinical side of healthcare. I've worked on the business side of healthcare for the last 10 years. And I woke up one day and I'm like, this really isn't doing it for me.

So I applied to nursing school to eventually become a nurse practitioner. And that would require going back to school. Got to do it. All right, that always answers my first question. Is it the only way or is it the best way? And in this case, if you want to be a nurse practitioner, it's the only way, which means it's the best way. So we know that part. Now, you said you followed the Ramsey plan.

And so does that tell us that you've got the money saved up for school to be able to cash flow? What's that going to do? What's income and paying for school look like? Yeah, yeah. So we've been planning for this. It's been a long application cycle. So we have all the money saved for it to pay out of pocket. Great. We've been kind of planning for all this the last couple of years. Who's we? My wife and I. Perfect. And what's her income? Give me your combined income right now.

Yeah. Annual household income is $325,000. Oh, awesome. How much of that is yours? Just about half of it. So you're both in that $150,000 range? That's right. Okay. A little bit more, yeah. Okay. And then you saved up the money to go. So I'm not hearing anything. I got no flags yet, George. So will you be able to continue to work while you're going to school or is this a, I got to be full time?

It's an accelerated program, so they really encourage full-time. So I was planning to go full-time. All right. Have you guys budgeted for that slashing of your income by a half? We have. We have a two-year-old now and a new baby on the way, so we've been saving for what we anticipate daycare costs to be. So we should be able to do it. And so how long is the accelerated program?

It's 18 months to become a nurse, and then it's another 18 months part-time to become a nurse practitioner. All right. So can you work after the first 18 months? Will you be able to be employed as a nurse and start making money again? Yes. Okay.

Okay. Again, I don't see any flags, George. Yeah. You guys have done your homework. You know the cost. You've made sure that your family can afford this major life change. And I think it's a great goal. My brother is a nurse practitioner in Boston, and I don't think there's anything else he'd rather be doing. So it's an awesome field. You mentioned this pay cut. Are you talking about in the interim until you get back into work? Yeah.

That's right. Yeah. What I'm seeing is starting salaries for nursing is in this area anywhere from like $70,000 to $80,000 for new grads. With me making $150,000 now, it feels silly to pay out of pocket to go back to school to then also be taking a pay cut. That's for 18 months. Once you're an NP, what will you be making? Probably closer to what you're making now and eventually more.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, probably close to it. So this is not a long-term pay cut. That's right. And it's what you want to be doing, because would you be miserable three years from now if you were in the same position you are today doing the work you're doing? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm already miserable right now. And could you live off of $250 household income instead of $325 if you were doing what you loved?

Definitely. Yeah.

And Brendan, you've done it. And very few are willing to do it and have done the work. Yeah. The fact that you guys have saved up money for that bridge between going back to school and getting hired and in 18 months, so it'll be 36 months, you'll be back to where you are financially, if not more. And very, very happy. You've done this by the book. Yeah.

And everything you just answered is exactly what I would tell somebody on how to transition if you're going to take a temporary pay cut. And you guys have adjusted your lifestyle. I say bravo, George. Yeah. And this is one of those situations, Brendan, where on paper, you're right. It doesn't make sense on paper, mathematically. Yeah.

money isn't everything once you have some. And you guys have put yourself in a position where you have the money to cash flow all of this, to not be in crippling debt at the end. You have a great income even without you working. And so that makes me feel a lot of peace about this. Very rarely are all the boxes being checked. And so you've got all green lights from Ken and I. I would only disagree with you on one thing, George. I do think this makes sense on paper. This whole plan makes sense. Well, he's saying if I lose the income, we're going to

cut the income in half. Once I am working again, I'll be not making what I was making. So he's going, this doesn't make sense. But only for short term. Exactly. So the way I'm looking at it is that after that first 18 months, I'm not going, why did I do all this to be making less money? That's the first part of the 18 months, 18 more months later, you're making the same amount, if not more, correct? Right. That's right. So bro, this is a three-year plan.

To be doing something you love and you're going to be making the same amount of money, if not more. That to me is wise. So I was having a little fun. Of course, I don't disagree with you on that. But this to me. But the short term plan on paper is. Yeah. But again, you're taking the necessary steps.

to where this isn't actually going backwards. This is just intentionality. Even though it feels like you're going backwards, you're really not. It's part of a long-term plan. And I think you're going to be thrilled. And I can't praise you enough.

I'm not kidding you. You're the poster child for how to change careers. And having been on the business side, I think that's only going to help you in this next chapter. That's a great point. And accelerate your experience and your income. Who wouldn't want to hire a guy who understands all sides? Question for the...

Yeah, thank you, George. And question for you both, you know, just similar situation. Like I'm a young dad. I know you guys both have kids. Any advice on how to deal with sort of the guilt piece of it, of, you know, investing in myself to go back to school when you feel like you should be pouring into your nuclear family unit? I love this question, Brendan. You're such a good dude.

It's funny because it's like only good dads ask this question. Yeah. And can I just say this? Your kid is going to be so young, he's not going to remember any of this. And so the answer is there's nothing you're pouring into the guy except milk.

And that's coming right back out, bud. You know that. So you just, you're being a great dad by doing all of this while he's so young or she's so young, whatever your situation is going to be. And you're going to be a much better father when the time comes to actually pour into them because you're not miserable.

They get a picture of what it looks like for a guy who didn't settle. Yeah. Imagine doing what you're doing now. You're already miserable. You think that wouldn't impact you driving home 10 years from now? The kid's 10 years of age? You're right. I know. You're right. Yeah, it already does. Exactly. So you're actually doing the right thing because a healthy you gives...

that child and your children a chance to be healthy. And the best part is when you are home, you're going to be so present. That's right. Because you know you're going to cherish those moments. That's it. So I'm proud of you, man. Can I ask what this whole program costs, the accelerator program from RN to NP? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. So the accelerated portion is right around 40, and then it's all in-state tuition, and then the next portion of it is right around 30. So all in right around 75. Fantastic. That's not bad. Not bad. And you know what's interesting, George? And Brendan, I'm telling you, and George will back me up on this, you're going to come out of this program...

And you're not even going to feel good about what you've done. You're going to realize that you're the only one who paid cash. And you're going to be so light, you're going to be floating through the hallways. You're going to be the weirdest guy in the office. While everybody else is drudging around in those medical, what do you call them? Scrubs? Yeah, but no, the shoes that are, the Crocs. Oh, the Crocs. I can't do the Crocs. It's the only reason I'm not a doctor. Only reason. I know, I know. In fact, if I see a doctor or nurse with Crocs, I don't trust them.

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All right, George, it's time to talk about protections. You know, you love talking about protections. You know, you're the guy who knows more about insurance than anybody else. I can't find my sheet, George. It's against my will. Do you have the sheet? I got you. Here's the thing. Here's why we're talking about it. There it is.

Couldn't have been more obvious, by the way. It said coverage checkup right there on the paper. Ken is hooked on phonics today. That's right. So when you're tackling debt, you're building wealth, people often forget about one of the most important steps to reaching those goals, which is insurance. Having the right coverage as opposed to having too little, too much can impact how long it takes to get there. You've got to have the Goldilocks level of insurance. Skimping on it might seem like you're saving, but when life happens, very dangerous situation. You can easily fall back into debt and put yourself in a situation

Out there, very exposed with a lot of liability. Question for you. Do you find that people are over-covered more often or under-covered? Which one do you see? They're under-covered unless they fell for a really terrible insurance product that was sold to them as something they needed, like whole life insurance. If they have that, they got sold a terrible policy. Most people are under-insured.

In fact, this is no joke. Right before the show, I was on the phone with my insurance. Oh. Yeah. I'm not surprised by this. Over at Zander. She's great. This is real life, George. Yeah. I don't want to give her a name because then people will be calling her saying, hey, I want to. And what were you doing? What were you doing? You checking coverage? I have a roof claim right now. Oh. Situation. Hail damage. Yep. It might need to be replaced. And so she is so helpful working with the field adjusters from the insurance company, the realtors, everyone. So she's just the best.

So the right insurance will act as a shield around your loved ones, around your wallet, around your wealth if disaster strikes. In some cases, it can even save you money for paying too much for bogus ones like cell phone insurance. And one of my favorite things to do is send people to our coverage checkup tool. It's a free online resource. It creates a personalized insurance action plan that's unique to you and your situation. And if you think, why would I want to take a coverage checkup? Well, I helped a friend of mine. I said, hey, what are you paying for your insurance? She told me and I was flabbergasted.

And so she took the coverage checkup and got in touch with an insurance pro, a broker who was sourcing the best deal among many different companies, ended up saving her over a thousand bucks a year with one phone call. I'll bet she was then flabbergasted. With better coverage than she had. Yeah. So one reason to do it

is it's going to free up a whole bunch of margin in your budget. So go check it out. RamseySolutions.com slash checkup. Take the coverage checkup or click the link in the description if you're listening on YouTube or podcast. Got to tell you, great usage of a word there. You know, flabbergasted is, it's, you don't even, I don't even know what it means, but everybody knows what it means. It's up there with gobsmacked for me.

I like a good gobsmack usage as well. Thank you. That's one. Nobody knows what that means either. But if your gob has been smacked, then something significant has happened. It's a big deal. That's all I know. It's a big deal. Michael, sometimes, folks, I'm going to confess, George and I are just entertaining ourselves. And if you get something out of it, great. You're likely not, though. You probably aren't. Michael is up in Sacramento, California. Michael, how can we help?

Hey, fellas. How are you guys doing today? Well, we're having a little too much fun. I hear it. So my question is, me and my wife are in a lot of debt. We're trying to do the snowball, but the problem is we aren't making enough to make minimums as it is.

We have our house expense, our credit cards expense, and everything that comes with five kids. So my question for you today is, would it be smart for me to go into collections on a select few of credit cards, and then in a year after we've paid off a lot of them, start saving to call the collection agencies and pay off some?

Well, you may have to call the cell phone company first. I don't know if you've paid the bill on that. Talk a little bit closer to the phone or get in a good spot. You're wanting to intentionally stop paying on your debts, have them go to collections and go, I'll worry about it later and try to negotiate. Yeah, basically, because I can barely make the minimums on my debt.

Well, it's a terrible solution to an already terrible problem. So the better question is, how do we get our income up and our expenses down in order to create some margin? Because these debts are not going to go away. All that's going to happen is it'll destroy your credit. The debts are still there. And then the companies will come after you, probably sue you, and you'll end up in court trying to fight this. And you're probably going to end up paying more than what you owe after all the fees are incurred.

Yeah. Michael, quick question. How old is your oldest child? My oldest is 19. 19. Okay, this is perfect. I want you to flip the question that you just gave George and I, and I want you to picture your son coming to you and saying, hey, Dad, I committed to do this, this, this, and this. I don't have any time. I got no time. I'm overcommitted. Can I just, like, ghost all these people that I committed to? What do you think, Dad?

What would you say to him if he threw a scenario like you threw at us or my version I just gave to you? What would you say to your 19-year-old? I'd probably say that's not the best idea. Why is it not the best idea? Because if you basically, if you're...

Committing to these people, then your word is your bond and you need to figure it out and figure out how to get it taken care of with all the people that you've committed to. Great answer. I agree with you. And I think there's one other thing that, and I think you'll agree with me on this one. I think the other reason you'd give your son that advice is

And the reason that you believe that's the right advice is because he wouldn't learn anything at all if he just ghosted everybody and just did a clean slate. Am I right or am I wrong? No, you're absolutely right. So I'm not trying to be cute.

I'm just trying to help you understand that that's essentially what you just brought to George and I. And if you do this, it's the easy way out. It's not really easy. It's going to be a nightmare dealing with it. But that's what I'm hearing. And I just I hope that helps you. It's not who you are, man. You signed up for this stuff. Your word is your bond. And I think that you wouldn't learn anything if you went this route. Not to mention, it's not as easy as you think.

I think we're talking to a guy with his back against the wall, and you're going, hey, man, this is all I got left. This is the only card I have left to play. And we believe in Michael maybe more than Michael believes in Michael right now. So let's talk through the actual numbers and see if we can find a different solution here. What is your household income? So we are –

Making about $68,000 to $70,000 a year. Okay. And what is the total debt balance for consumer debt, non-mortgage? $75,000. Okay. And what is your mortgage payment every month? We rent. Okay. What's your rent every month?

Way too much because I live in California. It's about $3,200. Okay. Well, for a family of seven, that feels reasonable in California. I've seen prices with the same house around $27,000. Are you double income or one income? We are one income. I work full-time at a machine shop. My wife works part-time at our church. Can she bump up her hours or get a better full-time job?

At this point, we are hoping she doesn't have to. She homeschools our kids. I didn't ask you that. You sound like a politician on a Sunday morning show. I'm saying, can she get a full-time job at the church or a better full-time job for a season of life to help dig you out of this? I would say at this point, no, because daycare would be too expensive. We don't have any friends or family members that can watch The Littles?

Not near us. And the church doesn't have a daycare? Not during the week. Okay. Well, if she's working full-time, that could cover the childcare and give you guys some margin. Yeah. And I think that might be the solution. You guys got to get more income, brother. I'm working on that now. I work 66 hours a week, and I have a second job. What's keeping you guys in this specific area of California? Yeah.

Nothing. I want to leave, but my wife doesn't want to. For what reason? We live in a really nice small town. It's a town you can't afford. It is, really. It's over half your take-home pay every single month.

Yeah. She's not going to have a house soon if we don't do something drastic. She's not going to get to do homeschool and everything else. This is a real serious marriage conversation. We need to come to Jesus meeting tonight with the wife and she's going to have to choose reality. And either she's working full time and we create some margin here to clean this mess up.

Or I think we're going to have to look at other options, which means public school, downsizing, anything we can do to cut the expenses and increase the income. That's your only way out of here, not defaulting on the debts. ♪

Switching banks can be a hassle, and I totally get that. But when Winston and I opened up our Fairwinds account, we were shocked by how quick and easy it was. It just took a few minutes online. We didn't have to block off an entire afternoon or track down paperwork. And the next day, we got a personal call from a Fairwinds specialist just checking in. I couldn't believe it when I answered my phone. And I was talking to them. I was like, y'all are the nicest people

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This is the Ramsey Show, where we help America win with their money, win in their profession, and win in their relationships. The phone number to jump in is 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225.

He put the bomb in bomber jacket. George Campbell. Too soon, Ken. Too soon. We've got a lot going on in the world today. I shouldn't even have worn a bomber jacket. Oh, I didn't even, I didn't see you doing that. I was, wow, well played, sir. You stepped right in, right in it. Right in it, folks. That's why I like being with him. He's quick, folks. You should see him on a skateboard. He's even quicker. That's actually true. I'm Ken Coleman alongside, of course, the man, the myth,

Not quite the legend. Yeah, let's not go that far. George Campbell. He's got a long way to go. He's too young. I am a mythical folklore type creature under a bridge. You are. You are. Yeah. You got to pay the troll toll. You're like a modern day hobbit. Thank you. Yeah. Very cool. Add that to my Instagram bio. Did you get a fresh haircut? I did. I thought I'm hosting with Ken Coleman today. You got the high and tight? Let's put our best foot forward. Yeah. What the...

What clipper, what length are they doing right there? I think he's doing a two. A two. That's pretty tight. Oh, you can see it on camera. Thank you for the angles, guys. It's got the white walls there. I like it. Whoever was listening is no longer listening. No, but they're fine. They're here for that. They want to know, George. Okay. Ali, I guess. Is it Ali or Ali? I'm not sure. We'll go with Ali. We'll try. I never know. I'm hooked on phonics usually. Here we go. Ali? Ali?

Yes, it's Allie. Oh, great. I got it right. Boy, I was nervous there. One L could go both ways. It could. It could. How can we help today, Allie? Well, we can delve into the, I guess, the details, but my main question is, I'm in my 50s. My mother is 80-ish, almost.

Almost 81. My main question is, as her only child, am I responsible moving forward, trying to save for my own retirement, to take care of her financially because she has spent most of her life making bad decisions for herself? No. Okay. What makes you think you are responsible? Because I'm her, like I said, I'm her only child. And

Is she putting a little bit of this on you? A little bit of passive-aggressive guilt? Take care of mom? A little bit. I had a feeling. A little bit. She made a comment not too long ago about when she's out of money, it will, quote-unquote, be on me.

That's not even passive. That's just straight aggressive. Right. Was she half joking or was she dead serious? I think she was serious, kind of with a smile, like, I know you'll take care of me kind of thing. And she's a sender. I'm so sorry.

Allie, I'm sorry, because let me tell you something. Here's what I don't want to skip over. That's a really unfair and really heavy weight to put on somebody. It is. And I'm sorry. Thank you. And I'm not making her out to be awful. No, she's a great mom. She's a wonderful mother. She's terrible in money. Exactly. Yeah. Not your problem.

Right. So you can honor her without agreeing with her, without funding their decisions indefinitely, without enabling financial misbehavior. And so I want to free you from that, that that is not your responsibility morally, ethically, legally. If you want to help her and you have the ability to help, you can do so. Right. Here's the big question. So it's two parter. A, have you told her anything?

Mom, it's not my responsibility. These two clowns on the radio and podcast and YouTube told me. They told me it's not, and I agree with them. A, have you told her that it's not your responsibility and that you're not going to? And B, if you haven't, and when you do tell her, does she have any kind of means by which to change her behavior at this late in the game?

To where she's not a burden for the state since she's not going to be a burden for you. Right. I don't think I haven't sat her down and said, look, you know, you can't do this anymore because I am not going to.

I have two jobs. Right. You know, I'm trying to put away for my own retirement. You're trying to break a cycle. I am breaking this cycle. Don't you think you... But hey, listen, and we're Team Ally. You know this. Yes. Don't you think you should talk to her soon?

Oh, I'm sure I should. The comment that I made to her after she told me it was going to be on me was, what do you want me to do? Get three jobs. That's kind of what I told her. Well, again, that was we're both playing this passive game. Exactly. Passive. Yes. So second question. My second question. What's the answer to that?

Well, she gets $2,200, $2,400 Social Security. She sold her condo two years ago, moved in for a profit, moved in with me and my adult children. And the profit, I think it was around $150. She paid off some credit cards left with $100, and that's all gone. Okay.

What do you mean it's gone? She spent it. On... Food. Furniture. QVC.

No, she's not really a huge... I know, that was terrible. That was such a stereotype ageism comment. I apologize to the audience, but it was funny. No, no, no, it's fine. People laughed in the lobby. She likes big stuff. I always call her champagne taste on a beer budget. I know her. I know her well. I love her legacy. So she's living with you right now? She is. Oh, boy. That feels like a problem. This is worse. And she's got...

Yeah. And then since a couple months after she moved in with me and sold her condo, she developed AFib. So she's battling this heart thing. She's got heart issues and heart failure. And then that makes me feel even worse. Like, I'm not going to take care of you. So she piled up a bunch of debt or she just spent all of her cash?

she spent her cash. She piled up another maybe 40 or 50 years worth of credit card debt. And now she has, um,

filed for bankruptcy and also hired an irs attorney to get her out of the 17 000 irs debt that she has as well wow so how much debt does she have remaining uh she has her the only thing she has left after all of her credit cards and stuff is her car which she owes about eight thousand dollars on does she even drive anymore

She does. If you could see her, she doesn't...

Act 80, look 80. She drives. She plays bridge. Oh, I know. She acts like a 16-year-old girl living the endless summer, sounds like to me. And I want her to do those things. I don't want her... I want her to get out and get some fresh air and this and that. But her heart issues now have made it really difficult for her to even walk up the stairs and stuff. All right, George. So what does she do here? Well, she's already living with you. You're not going to evict your mother and put her out on the street. No.

So you've signed up to have her live with you and take care of her. So your only option is to go, Mom. She does pay rent. Yeah, you're going, Mom, I'm going to take control of your finances. This $2,200 is going to come through me, and it's going to pay for the expenses, and you're going to have your own little budget, and it's not going to be much. There's going to be no spending in your future. It's going to be survival because this is the life that you set up.

And so she's under your house. She's under your rules. Yeah. But in no way, shape or form do you try to help her with her debt. Her debt will die with her, if I'm correct, George. Yeah. And so don't you get sucked into that. Don't help her pay off her debt. No, not at all. You're a good mom, Allie, and you keep focusing on you getting financially healthy for you and your family.

Statistics show that half of Americans don't have enough life insurance, or they don't have any at all. I don't understand this, John. Why don't people want to take care of their family? They think they're going to die or something? Well, I used to be one of those guys. I didn't even think about it. And one of my buddies said, hey, the only reason to not have life insurance is if you hate your wife and kids.

And I immediately went and got term life insurance. That's a gut punch. Oh, you're telling me. And for decades, Dave, I've sat across people who've lost a spouse. They've lost somebody important to them. Me too. And they don't know what to do next. Me too. I mean, you're going to have a crisis here. And, you know, you've got two options while you're sitting and talking to a young widow. She's concerned about how she's going to invest all this money properly and not mess this up. Or she's concerned how she's going to eat tomorrow.

That's exactly right. These are the two options. Take care of your dadgum family, man. Term life insurance can replace income, pay off debts, cover funeral expenses, so your family can actually...

have the opportunity to just be sad, to just miss you. That's exactly what it's supposed to be. It's saying I love you to your family. Term Life Insurance. Jeff Zander and the team at Zander Insurance makes it easy and affordable. I've used them personally for 25 years. They're the only people I trust. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282.

All right, let's go to Bill in Phoenix, Arizona. Bill, how can we help you today? All right.

Hi, thanks for taking my call. My question is this, whether I should gift or loan or not provide any money at all to help my 33-year-old son and his family buy a house. They're planning to move.

I don't have problems with that. They are an existing house, but where they move to, they're going to have to buy another house. House prices are a little bit higher. And he has asked whether I'd be willing to contribute money to either increase his down payment

that would lower his mortgage amount so it'd be a little bit more comfortable for him to afford. He's never given me an exact amount. He's floating the idea of anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000. I

I can afford it, but I'll be 69 in a few months and I'm going to retire at the end of this year. And so my gainful income will end. My gainful employment ends. So this really comes down to whether it's a personal question, whether I should contribute any money at all. I don't view this as an emergency situation for him.

uh, on it, but it would certainly make the, uh, the transition for him much easier. Okay. Has he been, has he been responsible adult with money? Oh yes. He's been responsible. Has he ever asked for money before from you? No, no. Okay. And, um, if, if you had not called us and, uh, you weren't talking to us about it, you couldn't talk to anybody about it. What is your gut telling you to do?

I want to help him out in some respects. I know that. I'm saying. But not at the level that he wants. And my gut feeling is I'm not interested in loaning, becoming a lender to him. Great. I think lending money to family members creates a whole set of problems. You're right. We would agree. So let me put you on the spot just for fun. Yeah. Okay. Because there's no pressure here.

but I love your answer. But my next question is if again, you couldn't talk to us or anybody else and you, cause we now know you said I'm, I'm leaning towards giving him some money. What do you feel comfortable in your spirit, in your gut, giving him money? How much? How much? Yeah. Well, you know, the thing is, is I would feel comfortable with 25. I would probably go maybe as high as,

40, 45. Okay. So tell me why you're comfortable with 25, but you're willing to go as high as 45. Probably because I love him.

Right. But the reason is the 25, you feel like psychologically you can absorb that gift. You give that. Oh, clearly. Yeah. I'm just digging around. I want George to jump in, but I just wanted to ask those questions because I appreciate you calling us and saying, what do you guys think?

But, George, I think this is a personal decision, and Bill's a very, very wise person and seems like the son is very responsible. He's never asked for money before. I'll add this, and then I want to get George's take. George, part of me thinks that the son could wait. There's always a better option, and I know that as a son—

I would only go to ask my dad for money in this situation if it was the last resort. That's me personally. That's not casting, you know, aspersions on Bill's son here. But that's just where I fall. What are you hearing? What do you need to know? What do you think, Bill, is asking all the right questions? He's given the right answers. The questions I have are more on the son's side as what is causing the urgency for a house right now that they can't afford?

Well, you know what? There really isn't any urgency. I mean, he's, he's accepted a new job increase in pay, but they want to move out of the Phoenix area. They're going to be moving up to a cooler climate and, and I'm all for that. I've never held any of my kids back. If that's where they want to go, you know, so be it. It's just,

that where he's moving to, that housing market is a little tighter and a little bit more expensive. He will have a house to sell in Phoenix and he has some equity. It's just that for his family and their growing size,

They want they need a bigger house. And but none of these are all choices that he's making. And they're not really what I call an emergency. I've always been there for my for my family for emergency situations. Well, is he does he have any consumer debt right now?

You know, I don't know that. But they're very fiscal. He and his wife are fiscally responsible. Okay. So they have an emergency fund of their own. So this is not you bailing him out. So quick follow up. Am I understanding that if he has a house in Phoenix, is he trying to hold on to the house in Phoenix?

and then make the move? Because if he's got equity in his current house in Phoenix, is that not enough equity to help him make a really nice down payment as they move up north?

That's correct. He anticipates that he would probably have about $150,000 profit after paying an office mortgage. He'd have $150,000 profit, and he's got another $25,000 in savings, so he can put $175,000 down. But he wants another $50,000 to $100,000.

Yes, because he has an idea where he wants his mortgage to be that would allow him to feel comfortable with that. It doesn't sound like your 25. No, it's 69. No, no. No, I know you're 69. I'm saying your $25,000 that you feel comfortable with. That's not a make or break. That's not going to make that big of a difference. The 45,000.

50 to 100, sure, that's going to move the needle for that mortgage payment. I guess what I'm getting at is your max dollar that you stretch give, which is $45,000-

even that's not going to make that big of a thing. And so I think the son needs to wait or needs to be patient there, or he needs to find another way is what I'm hearing. That's been my gut this whole time. This is less about you and how much you're going to give and more about, is this the wisest situation for him? Again, he's a grown man. He can do what he wants. And to that, I would say, give however much you feel comfortable giving and it's up to him what he does. And I see this as an early inheritance. Yes. Yeah. Go ahead. Yeah.

And that is, you know, one thing that my wife and I were thinking about this morning is, and I don't know what the dollar amount would be, but we thought about, well, rather than giving him money to increase his down payment, is to see if we can contribute money that he can buy down an interest rate.

Yeah, it's generally not worth it to buy down the points. You're better off just giving them that money for the down payment at that point. I know interest rates are high, and it feels like a win. You can do break-even analysis on all that and figure it out, but we found in our experience it's just the numbers rarely work out. I see. Yeah.

So I would give what you're comfortable giving, and I would also caution him to not overbuy and get starry-eyed with the kind of house that they're looking for. They might need to wait. They might need to look at a different neighborhood. They might need to scale back on the type of home they were looking at. And Bill, I'll throw this out here. When Stacey and I moved our three kids here 11 years ago, we rented for two years.

Just because we wanted to make sure that because I felt like we were going to be at Ramsey Solutions for a long time. And that's proven to be true.

And I wanted to make sure that we were planting in the right place within the Williamson County area. And so we rented for two years. It's not a bad play. Yeah, he's getting a pay raise and he rents for a year or two and they continue saving up the down payment. And maybe you gift on top of that. I feel much better about the situation. Can I ask what your net worth is or what's in the nest egg?

My net worth is just below $2.3 million. Okay, and how much do you have that you could make liquid? Well, I don't want to make liquid. I mean, I would give him the money out of our high-yield savings account. I don't want to be cashing in. Yeah, on your actual investments. That's a taxable event. How much do you have in cash? About $150. Okay. Okay.

So this feels more emotional than it is financial. He could give more if he wanted to, but I think he... Yeah, but I... I don't know where your head's at, Bill. Okay, good, because I was going to say, I like how you answered. You were pretty clear on that 25 to 45 range being, and I'd stick to that. Any more than that, he's going to get resentful, and I wouldn't do it. Yeah. ♪♪♪

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Talk it out with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash D'Loni to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash D'Loni. All right, folks, we so much appreciate all of you who are part of this fun, fun tribe and listening and watching, however and wherever you listen and watch. And we would love for you to share the show. It's how we grow, you know, the old algorithms.

And we've got a great way for you to share it with some actual value. How about the fact that we have our crack production team. They're amazing. They have put together an awesome Ramsey 101 playlist. So think about your fundamental financial class the way we would teach it, if you will. And people say, you listen to this Ramsey show. What are you talking about? Hey, let me just share this with you. And you can share the link, which is at the top of the show notes, or you can open the Ramsey 101 playlist on YouTube.

And you can text it, DM it, send it in a group chat. It's all super easy and clickable. And this is, again, all the basics. What are the baby steps? How do you pay off debt using the debt snowball? How do you build an emergency fund? How much do we need in the emergency fund? All the basics for somebody who's not

tied into all this, and you really want them to begin to think through and use the principles that we teach. It's the Ramsey 101 playlist, again, at the top of our YouTube channel, or you can click the link in the show notes. Annabelle is up in Austin, Texas. Annabelle, how can we help today?

Hi, I am a baby, baby, baby, because this is the very first month I've ever actually been using my credit card. Hey, Annabelle, Annabelle, Annabelle, I'm so sorry to interrupt. You're coming through real fuzzy. Can you maybe move the phone a little bit closer to your mouth? Okay, is that better? We'll go with it. It's hard to hear you a little bit, but let's try it. Go ahead.

All right. I'm really new at this. I'm a baby. This is the very first month I'm actually losing my credit card. All right. I'm going to put Annabelle on hold because I want to do her justice. And I know that I'm having a hard time understanding her. I know our audience is as well. Let's go to Laura in Philadelphia. Laura, how can we help?

Hey, I'm a single mom and I have three kids. My oldest is going into high school. I work in marketing and I've gotten laid off twice in the last five years. I have a job now, but I have a fully funded emergency fund.

and contribute 6% for my 401k. My question is, because my field is so volatile, should I switch baby steps so that I take off my house first rather than going to the 15% for retirement and working on college? Wow. So you're investing 6% now. Is that all you can invest? Do you have any money beyond that? No.

Okay, so that to me is the bigger issue, because you have no debt other than your mortgage, correct? Right, yes. What's your mortgage payment every month? $2,000. And what is your take-home pay every month? About $9,000. Okay, you have a great income. Now let's talk about this volatility, and I want Ken to speak into this. Marketing is not a volatile industry, so what is the industry that you're saying is volatile?

Well, I work for private companies. There's a lot of churn. You know, I don't know. It's just there's always been a lot of churn, and I've seen, like, a lot of, like... Are these, like, startup companies? What's behind this? I kind of work in the digital space for, like, digital marketing. Is that... Are you working for agencies? Yeah.

No, I've worked in-house at like a larger corporation and then I moved to a startup and I got laid off at both. Okay. Well, here's the deal. Yeah. I think I know what's going on. And I love George's question. I think you're naturally a little bit gun shy and you're a little bit scared because you've been burned. Yeah. Listen, first of all, layoffs happen.

And that happens many times at really big companies because you know how they do. They staff up when the stock is good or profits are great. And then they let people go when the stock drops. And that sounds, by the way, you're reacting what happened to you on one of those situations. The other situation is a startup. So to me, that's that's the risk. It's always a risk when you go to work for a startup. It's the reason they call them startups.

So, George, I'm going to give it back to you because I think what's going on here is just a natural fear of getting burned again. Yeah. And to simply answer your question, no, you shouldn't focus on paying off your house and skip investing. And it sounds like you couldn't even do that if you wanted to because right now you're not investing 15%. And I'm confused because you have an amazing income. So what are your monthly expenses? Well, I think...

I've been stockpiling my emergency fund because I am terrified. How much do you have? Like one year, I have $100,000.

What do you have a year of emergency fund for? Are you scared of another layoff where you're not going to get a job for six to eight months? Yes. All caps. Yes. And so I am very high in my field. And so the jobs are so limited. And also because I'm a single mom, I want a remote job. And those are so limited. Yeah.

So, I'm trying to find, like, it's a very long process to get a job. But your job is stable now. There's no fear of layoffs? Yes. No. Okay. No, but I've felt that before. Well, the longer you stay in this job, the more that fear will start to dissipate.

Yeah, that's the good news. But I would you're you're good on the emergency fund. Let's move on and crank up that investing to 15%. And then if you want to throw some money into a 529 plan for each of the kids, I would do that. Yeah, set a goal. Maybe it's, you know, 200 bucks a month for each kid.

You can use investment calculators. You can work with a smart investor pro. You can get in touch with one through our website and go, OK, how much will I need per kid based on their ages? Or can I start to cash flow some of this? Can I talk to the kids about a college plan? Do they want to go? Where do they want to go? What degrees do they want to pursue? I would start having that conversation with your high schooler now.

To develop a plan. And then beyond that, if you have money outside of that, with this take-home pay, start chunking some toward the mortgage, extra toward the principal. Maybe you decide to do, hey, I'm going to do $1,000 per month. I'm going to ratchet it up every year. If I get a raise, I'm going to ratchet it up. And then as the kids exit their college phase, you're going to have even more to throw at the mortgage because you won't be cash flowing. And just a little bit more security, if we could, Laura. I think you're probably way better off than you realize. I got a hunch.

How much could you sell your house for, and how much do you owe on it? I owe $270, and I probably could sell it for $550. Perfect. I just wanted George to hear that information as well, because I just feel like you're way better off than you realize if for some reason you were to be laid off again.

You got options with that house. You're not stuck. You know what I mean? And for that reason, you should be paying into your retirement the full 15%, like George told you, and take care of the kids 529.

you're going to be okay. It's not like you're underwater with that house. Am I right, George? Yeah. Does that make you feel anything? Well, your mortgage payment compared to your income is astounding. I'm amazed. You've done such a good job with this super high income, keeping your expenses very reasonable, staying away from debt. You have an overly funded emergency fund. And do you also have any, is there any child support or alimony that's tied to any of this?

Yes, we do split all the kids' expenses 50-50. Okay, great. So that does lower your expenses. So that's not part of your take-home pay. It's just the expenses are shared. No.

Yes. Okay, great. So you should have plenty of margin to move through the baby steps very quickly. I think you're going to end up paying this mortgage off faster than you think. I would set a goal that excites you, but is also realistic to where you go, okay, I know that worst case, seven years from now, this mortgage is paid off. What is a six-month emergency fund? What's the amount if you do six months, Laura? Um...

I think it would be 65 times six is like my minimum expenses. Okay. This would be a fun challenge to Ken's point. What if you took six months and you threw the rest toward the mortgage? That's where I'm going. Or you really front load those college funds because compound growth, if you throw 50 grand into a bunch of 529 plans and let them ride for years...

You're going to be okay for college. That sounds good. Yeah, I'm in a new role, and I just want to make sure we're sailing. You're doing great. I think as being a single parent, I'm just, you know, I'm by myself. When I lose a job, there's no other person to help me. Yeah, that security gland is flaring up extra hard. Laura, we totally understand. Great questions. Bravo, Mama Bear. You're amazing. You're crushing it. ♪♪♪

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All right, folks, graduation has come and gone, I believe, just about everywhere now, right? We're late enough for the year. Everybody's kind of walked through that. And we've got a lot of students, whether on the high school level or the college level, that are moving on to the next phase of life. And it's really intimidating, whether it's picking out the major or

that you think is going to get you the professional direction that you want to go, or it's all right, I've picked all that, now I'm out of college and I've got to find a job. And I'm really proud of the work that our team has done on the Get Clear Career Assessment. Find the work you're wired to do. Student Edition, it's now out. And this language, it's a lot simpler. The assessment itself, a little bit different output than the adult version that's been a big hit.

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to answer if you have the methodology of the Get Clear Career Assessment. So you can get it today at ramsaysolutions.com slash store, ramsaysolutions.com slash store. It's the Get Clear Career Assessment. Find the work you're wired to do, student edition. And I know that my kids would appreciate it if you bought it. They all need new shoes. They really do. There you go. Holes in them and everything. I'm not above groveling.

No, it's great. I wish I had this when I was exiting high school. Can't imagine how many years. I would have shaved years off of your life and get you right where you are now. That would have been amazing. We could have skipped all the social media, all the marketing, and even the countless hours of skateboarding as you tried to find yourself. Yeah, I never did. All I found was skinny jeans. Yeah, well, and the bomber jackets. That's true. Don't forget. Cindy's up in Houston, Texas. Cindy, how can we help?

Hey there. So I'm calling. I am just starting to budget for the first time in my life. But I was diagnosed with a medical problem that could potentially put me out of work for an extended period of time. So my question is, would you recommend that I go ahead and continue paying off all my medical debt? Or would it be wiser in my situation to get my three to six months expense emergency fund back?

first and then start putting money toward my medical debt. How much medical debt do you have? Best I can figure, around $100,000. Texas doesn't report it to the credit bureaus. Whoa. Yeah. Bless your heart. What was the situation that got you into $100,000 of medical debt?

I had two widow-maker heart attacks within six days of each other. Oh, my God. And was diagnosed with heart failure at the age of 44. Cindy, you're a miracle. I'm glad you're still with us. Me too. Are you working full-time right now? I have a full-time job, but I have had to cut my hours back to part-time right now. What are you making? Yeah.

Bring in about $275 a week after taxes and insurance. Yeah, so what happened with health insurance that you were on the hook for $100,000? Because I didn't have health insurance when all of this initially happened. Oh, my gosh. And so you've had to cut back. This current cutback is because of this new physical situation. That's correct. And is that going to be ongoing? Is it chronic to where this is all you can work?

It's chronic. This is pretty much all I can work, but there's a very good possibility that this may have to get scaled back some off and on indefinitely. I mean, you're on the poverty line, so there's no way you're going to pay back these medical bills at this rate.

No. My husband does work full-time. Okay, what does he make? He brings home about $800 a week. Okay. I mean, we're probably still close to the poverty line together, but... You're not much above it. You're making $1,100, he's making $3,200. So that puts it at $4,300 take-home, which puts you guys at about $50,000 for the year. Yeah.

Correct. So that's, I mean, you can live off of that, but you have $100,000 in medical debt alone. Are there other debts that are floating around out there in either you or your husband's names?

The only other debt that we have is about $5,000. $3,500 of that is personal loans to my father and his father. The rest of it is outstanding credit card. Both of our vehicles are paid for, so the mortgage is the only debt.

open loan that we have. Okay. Have you communicated with the hospital that's holding these bills and explained that you didn't have insurance, that you want to do self-pay and see if they'll bring down the total bill? Have you tried to negotiate that? I have submitted a request. I have not heard back yet because, like I said, I've never done a budget in my life. I

Never been taught how, so every dollar budget has... Is your husband on board with this? Is he going, hey, we got to... 100%. Okay, so you guys are both ready for some life change. Yes, definitely. Okay. I wouldn't jump to just building the emergency fund. What you can do, you have good health insurance now that's covering you? I do for the time being, you know...

If something happens with my job, then I'm out and I've been told I'll never get private health insurance. And he doesn't have insurance through his employer? He does. It's ridiculously expensive and nobody at his company really wants me on their insurance. It's a small company and their rates are based off of... It'll drive their premiums up for everyone. Exactly. Yeah, because it's a group plan. Okay.

Well, what you can do is create a sinking fund in your budget. And so what that looks like is you would have a line item that says medical and you could put $400 every month into that line item and put that in savings. And that way at the end of the year, you have $5,000. And so you kind of have an ongoing little medical fund to cover your ongoing care that's needed.

But what I don't want you to do is just ignore the debts and just stack up money for who knows what. You have good insurance now. The damage is done. We'll deal with that. Let's get an itemized bill from the hospital. Let's work with their finance department to say, listen, we're not doing well financially. Do you have any hardship, financial?

programs that could lower this bill for me or forgive this bill and fight that and see what you can do to get rid of that medical debt. And if you do that, you've cleaned up the mess. And now let's cut the credit cards up. Let's not use those anymore. Let's stick to the budget. Then we can begin building the emergency fund.

Okay. Have you made payments on the medical debts? I have not at this point, no. To be honest with you, until I started looking at the budget, I didn't think we really had the money to even pay all of our bills, but we do. Yeah, you've got to cover your bills first, so don't give them a dime until you've covered food, utilities, housing, transportation, and insurance costs. Okay. You guys come first. Yeah, it's my...

My biggest fear was, you know, if something happens and I end up not being able to work at all whatsoever, you know, I know I can apply for disability, but in the interim, I don't get paid. And that's what terrifies me. Yeah, that's a scary place to be. I'm sorry you had to learn that lesson the hardest way possible with two widowmakers with six days of each other. I can't imagine. I don't pull out the pulpit very much, but I'm going to pull it out here for a second. I...

It is wrong on every level. I'm trying to contain my sheer anger on behalf of Cindy and the Cindy's of this world. The cost of health care in this company has absolutely gone bananas. It's wrong. It is out of control. And we have no leadership in this country. And I'm talking everybody. So I'm going to just piss off everybody because I don't care what party you subscribe to. I don't care who you think is the political savior. I don't care who you think is the political savior.

There is a lack of leadership everywhere in D.C. There's a lack of leadership in the governor's mansions in this country when we can't see how this kind of stuff is breaking real Americans.

And insurance companies ought to be ashamed of themselves. Politicians ought to be ashamed of themselves. The health care industry ought to be ashamed of themselves. This is ridiculous. And I'm all for free market. So I'm still a free market guy. You know that, George. Yeah. But this is wrong. I mean, we know medical bills are one of the leading causes of bankruptcy. Yeah. It's ridiculous. These insurance companies are making plenty of money. And quite frankly, I'm sick and tired of it. We wonder why there's so much hate.

And so much outrage towards insurance companies and politicians. It's because of this stuff right here. You got lobbyists lining Congress's pockets from the health care industry. It's not okay. Wishing you the best, Cindy. Hope we can get this cleared up.

Hey, George Camel here. So you're thinking about buying or selling your home. It's exciting, but there's a lot to think about, and all those decisions can feel overwhelming. Well, here's the good news. You don't have to tackle the process alone. Ramsey's Real Estate Homebase is the place to find all of your free tools and resources for help to get prepared to buy or sell your home with confidence. You'll find calculators, start-to-finish guides, a podcast, and even an in-depth video course hosted by Ramsey.

yours truly. What's not to love? So if you're ready to take the next steps toward your home goals, go to ramseysolutions.com slash real estate. That's ramseysolutions.com slash real estate. This is the Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to talk about their money, their profession, and their relationships. Thrilled to have you with us. 888-825-5225 is the phone number. 888-825-5225. Alongside George Camel, I'm Ken Coleman. Thrilled to be you.

with him as well. Always fun. He's always a quip away from making me laugh pretty hard. That's the goal. That's all I can bring to the table. He's got a fresh haircut, so it looks like the first day of school for George. I got my backpack. That's your lunchbox? Yep. Mom packed it good. Alright. Did you get the oranges? No, Dunkaroos though. That's a win.

Maybe a lunchable. Dunkaroos for the win. I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'll learn more about it after the show. Gosh, you're older than I thought. Your age is showing, Ken. I know. Never heard of a Dunkaroo before in my life. Mary is up in Charlotte, North Carolina. Mary, how can we help?

Hi, I have a bit of a conundrum. I have taken over handling our finances from my husband. I'll just say he got into the sovereign citizen thing about seven years ago. I asked him not to make any decisions, but he did and didn't tell me. Tell me what, tell us about sovereign citizen thing. To the best of your knowledge, what is it?

The best of my knowledge is it's a group of people who don't believe that our government is actually a government, that when Congress let out in the early 1900s that the same people didn't come back in and they passed laws around our taxes and everything else, and that it's unconstitutional, and that when we were born, our Social Security number changed.

is used as collateral by the government. And so we have billions and billions and billions of dollars in an account somewhere. And our signature can pay off debt, just our signature. We don't have to pay back loans. We don't have to pay our mortgage. We don't have to pay anything. Cool. That's a fantastic idea. And you seem to know a lot about this. Like you've just heard your hubs weighing on and on and on about this, it sounds like.

Yeah, not just that, but in our arguments of me talking about being good stewards and having good character. And when we say we're going to pay something back and we sign it, that because we said it and we signed it, that we need to do it. Right. So this. Yeah. So this has put you guys in a spot, I'm guessing. Extreme spot. Tell us, what hole are you in?

Well, like I said, that's what he felt about the government. So he stopped paying our taxes. Right. He stopped paying our mortgage and our car loans. And we had a home loan that we got years ago. And he stopped paying all of it. So when I took over, I took over last year. And a couple of months in, one of the elders in my church gave me a number for a company to help me work on the back taxes. And...

So now I have that extra bill and I'll just give you some numbers. Taxes are over half a million, including all the fees. Mortgage. They tried to close on the mortgage to try to foreclose twice. The sheriff showed up. And like I said, I didn't know about any of this. I found out when the sheriff came and said, here's your foreclosure papers. You need to be in court next week. And then I told my husband he needed to pay it. So he got us caught up.

And then they repossessed my car. And so I told him he needed to pay it. And I got my car back. And then he didn't pay for another seven months. And they came out with foreclosure papers again. And I told him that I need to feel like I'm safe. Yeah, this is interesting to me. So he's forget the conspiracy stuff that he's all in and all this kind of stuff. But he's holding the money. He's not spending it. It sounds like.

Um, he, he did the first time, the second time. So he works for himself. Doing what? We only...

He's a contractor. Building homes? No, it's commercial work and it's very specialized and he makes really good money. Okay, so my point is, he's not spending this money. He just doesn't want to give it to the government or to the mortgage company or anything else. But it sounds like every time they come threatening, he goes out in the backyard, digs up a coffee can and provides the money. Is that what I'm hearing?

No, not really. Well, you just said he paid the car. He paid the first time. The first time he did that with the mortgage. The second time with the mortgage, we lucked out that he got paid a little extra that month. And so that went to pay that that back mortgage. And then and then with the car, it.

I don't know what he did. I think he talked them into putting everything towards the end of the loan to get us caught up. Oh, gosh. So there's a giant balloon payment at the end. Yeah. So is he now getting out of the finances and he's not doing any of this nonsense and he's now letting you pay things on time? He's agreed to let me do it. He doesn't agree with me. Well, I don't care about that part. Have you told him that you prefer to not be homeless, that it's your American right?

To want to have shelter? Okay, what does he think about that? This guy doesn't seem like he cares about providing for you. Seems like he's more into his little conspiracy group.

Yeah, well, you know, we said the same thing about, you know, he says he doesn't care about money. And I said to him, so why don't you just give it to the people you said you'd give it to? You know, why are you keeping it? But he's not really keeping it either. He does like to spend and we have no savings. Do you guys have one joint account or does he have a separate account that he spends from?

Well, the state came after him and took money out of the account, about 25 grand, which was every penny that we had. So he changed banks. They did it again. So he changed banks again. So what I did when I hired that company is he didn't like keeping receipts. So I found all

All of the banks that we had for those years, and I've been systematically going through the bank statements to itemize the Senate's company so we can at least have some kind of deductions on that. And I still have three years left to do of all of that, and I have no idea. Have you pulled a credit report for both of you? Yes. Okay, what's the total damage? Total that we owe? Yeah.

I don't know the total yet. I know we still owe about $170,000 on our home. Our home is valued now around between $500,000 and $600,000. I'm not exactly sure because I haven't had it done. We've been in our home for 20 years. Okay. And you owe $500,000 to the IRS. And what about these cars? Yep.

There's about $50,000 on the cars. There's about $20,000 on a home loan, about $65,000 in student debt. Credit cards?

We had no credit cards until a couple weeks ago. My dad told me that he pays his house bills with a credit card, and he just goes and pays off the bill right then so that he can earn cash back. And so I thought that might be a good idea for me. It's a terrible idea. Yeah. Okay. Is anyone in your life financially responsible?

No, he's not. If you pay the mortgage with a credit card, you're incurring an extra fee, which negates any cash back you could ever want.

So, Mary, I don't know that we can help you in a two-minute call. This is a nightmare, and I'm scared you're going to go down with this guy, and you're both going to be in prison if you keep this up. Yeah, this is a marriage situation where you've got to put a stop to this with him. He's putting you in such a reckless situation. At this point, you need to protect yourself. I would separate accounts. Are you working full-time? I am not. I'm not able to. Are you on disability? No.

No. I was a stay-at-home mom for 25 years. And I was working at my church last year. Okay, so Mary, hang on. Because of all of this, I lost my family. Mary, hang on. We've got to do a quick commercial break. We'll come back and try to help you.

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All right, so we've been talking to Mary, and her husband has long been a member of a group called Sovereign Citizens. And these fine folks don't believe that anybody should pay taxes. By the way, I would like to point out, nobody, I mean nobody, hates taxes more than me, okay? But it's the law.

Even Jesus took the subject on in the Bible. That's true. Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's. So bless her heart. Mary is really under it. Can I go through the numbers to remind people? Let's go through the numbers. Set it up where Mary's at. All right, Mary, you back with us?

Yes, I'm here. Okay, so I heard you have half a million dollars in back taxes to the IRS. You have $50,000 in car loans, $20,000 in a home equity loan, $65,000 in student loans, and then you got $170,000 left on the mortgage, and the house is worth about $500,000 or $600,000. And we also, my husband was in the hospital last year for an extended period of time, so we also have about $60,000, $70,000 in medical debt.

Okay. And I'm supposed to be having surgery coming up, so I'm about to cancel it. Oh, boy. Do you guys have insurance? Do you know what it's going to cost you? Well, he didn't want to buy insurance either, so I just got insurance in April. You guys don't have health insurance? We didn't, but we do now. But it won't pay for anything until next year on the date that I signed. Oh, my goodness. What's the surgery for?

I had total knee replacement. Oh my gosh. And you told us that you can't work. I've been trying to work. I was working. I'm a worship leader, and so I was at my church, and I was struggling, and I went to my pastor with this, and he talked to the elders and deacons, and I did too, and I ended up losing my position out of safety for the church. What does that mean, safety? Was the church in harm's way?

Because, well, if I got arrested because of all of this. So even they see the writing on the wall. Oh, yes. And they were talking with him, too. I told him he I required him to start talking with an elder or find someone who's a mentor who knows the word that he could talk to about these things that he believes. And he did finally agree to go to counseling with me. And but he's

He's not talking to anybody. He doesn't agree with them. He thinks they all held him accountable in a meeting. He even said he doesn't believe this, but he said that he thought I was being unfaithful because I didn't agree with him and that he had the right to divorce me, according to what Paul said. What is keeping you guys together at this point?

Well, I know he loves me, and I know that he's working at it, and I do love him. We've been together for 30 years. Okay, but none of that actually shows that he loves you. Yeah, I don't see a guy who loves you. If they came and repoed my wife's car, put me on the street, and made me homeless because my wife said, I don't want to pay bills, I don't know how that's love. Love requires action. Okay.

Yeah. Mary, I didn't plan to. I could take care of the finances. So he said I'll earn it and you can take care of it. Well, but if he's spending it, Mary, you already said that he's been spending it. So he needs to lose access to any money in this household.

Well, at this point, he's not spending because I'm controlling the finances, and he's agreed to ask me before he buys anything. But he wouldn't be able to even if he wanted to because of the way our debt is now. Right. Yeah, you guys can't make minimum payments on any of this. He also has only put that $30,000 in contract labor. That's another debt. He should not be running his own business. Right. What does he make?

Close to $300 a year. Okay. So there's some good news in all of this mess. He's got a great shovel that if you take control of, we can clean this mess up. And if I were you guys, can I just throw out a plan and see how you like it? Yes. The number one debt to focus on right now is that IRS debt.

Pay these back taxes. So that's what I would focus on first, followed by all this consumer debt. I wouldn't worry about the mortgage right now. In fact, I would consider selling the house and renting to clean up this mess faster. Really? Yes. Because you have over $200,000 in consumer debt alone. You have $500,000 to the IRS, and then you have the $170,000 mortgage. So we're approaching a million dollars in debt. Yeah. And Mary, the IRS is not going to play around.

This guy has already put you, put you guys in a very precarious situation. I think the church was wrong to let you go, but the church was scared out of their mind. And, and honestly, I'm scared for you. Um, and I, one, one more conspiracy Facebook post that your husband clicks on and he goes dark on all this again, and you're going down with him.

And this guy's gone to counseling. I told him I would leave him if he did that. You what? I told him I would leave if he did that. Yeah, but it's too late. If he takes you down with him and then you go, well, that's the final straw. Now's the time to leave him until he changes.

He has been confronted by pastoral staff. He's been confronted by a counselor. Sheriffs. And sheriffs. And when he's been confronted, he comes up with some crazy idea that you're cheating on him. You're the best woman in the world. I think most women would have long since left this clown.

Yeah. And I know you love him and I'm not trying to be derogatory, but I'm telling you as a stranger who you called to ask my opinion, this is beyond bananas. You're in an unsafe situation. You are very unsafe. And he can say he loves you, but this is not the act of love.

No, I know. And that's why I called you because I don't want to go to jail, but I didn't know he was doing that. I know you didn't. And at this point, I think you can prove that you didn't. And I love that you have control of the finances, but I would be completely making myself independent. George, listen, Mary, in the next few minutes, I want you to pay attention to what George says, because you need to get independent of your husband right now. Financially first. And I would put the ultimatum down that this dude does massive life change for

And proves it to you in some very specific ways before you ever even talk to this guy again. That's how serious I think this is. George, I want her to protect herself financially. What would you do if she was your mom? What would you do? I would get your name off of anything he's connected to and make sure that everything is under your control and that he can cause no further damage. I would freeze all of his credit.

So that he can't go into debt even if he wanted to behind your back. Yep, it's good. You can freeze his credit with all three credit bureaus. And I'm going to gift you a session with a financial coach because the depth of your situation is far beyond what we can cover on a Ramsey Show call. And I want to make sure that we can serve you well. We want to help. And help you take the right next step. So we're going to gift that to you. It's free. It's on us to get on a financial coaching call with someone to walk you through this for what your specific area is. There's a lot of...

logistics here to walk through. But I do think that it's probably wise for you guys to sell this house and maybe you go live on your own and rent somewhere. I agree. I don't know what that looks like financially for you with his income.

And you not having one, that's going to be difficult. But cleaning up the IRS debt is a one. Then I would do the debt snowball for the rest of these debts. Focus on the smallest balances first, knock them out and freeing up a payment along the way. And you'll knock out the mortgage by selling the house. And it'll probably leave you with about 300,000 in profits that you can use to knock out over half of this IRS debt.

I listen. I go to your dad. I go to some family right now. You need to be around some safe people. I probably talk to an attorney and figure out what your rights are. And if you, you know, if you're the quote, innocent spouse in the situation, will will you be absolved of whatever crimes he's committed? I don't know.

Yeah. Is that who I would talk to about getting my name off of things? Well, the name, your name off of things would be refinancing. If your name is on there, I don't know that they'll just remove your name.

But you can contact every lender that's out there that has his name on it and see if you can get out of it and say, listen, things that you weren't a part of, if he went and took any of these debts out behind your back, I don't know. There's so much here to unpack. I'm so sorry you're going through this. And right now, I'm more concerned about your safety than anything else right now. Yeah. Hang on the line, Mary. We're going to get you connected to a financial coach that can walk with you on this. And I'm so, so sorry.

But you got to fight for you right now with everything you got. Does having more money and less stress sound nice but feel impossible? Well, in my brand new book, Breaking Free from Broke, I share my story of going from broke to millionaire and exactly how I did it. You'll learn about the money traps and cultural lies out there designed to keep you brainwashed and stressed out, from credit card schemes to mortgage myths to investing traps. So if you're not where you want to be financially, I

I can help you finally get ahead. You can get breaking free from broke today at ramseysolutions.com slash store. That's ramseysolutions.com slash store. All right, time for our Ramsey Show question of the day, which is brought to you by YRefi. If you've got defaulted private student loans, let's be real.

They don't go away on their own. But our friends at YRefi will help you explore a low fixed rate loan based on your unique circumstances. Go to YRefi.com slash Ramsey today. That's Y-R-E-F-Y dot com slash Ramsey. It may not be available in all states.

Today's question comes from Robert in the Baby Steps community. When buying something expensive, how do you decide whether you use money from your brokerage account or savings account? We are debt-free except our house. We want stuff now, but also want compound interest to work so later I can buy stuff like cars, and it's like buying a biscuit.

Okay, interesting question. So he's saying, should I sell funds for my non-retirement investment accounts in order to cover these high expense things? Or should I just use my savings account? My hot take is that all savings, all investing should have a goal. So you should separate it out. What were you investing in that brokerage account for?

Was it for this exact thing? If so, don't feel bad cashing it out and paying whatever taxes owed on that. And if you have money beyond your emergency fund saved up for these things, don't feel bad using your savings for that if you had saved for that specific purchase. So I like to actually create different savings accounts and label them properly.

So let's say we're going to upgrade the car. Well, let's have an upgraded car savings account where we put money every single month, $500 a month. Twelve months later, you got six grand in there. Two years later, you got 12 grand, et cetera. So that way you know exactly what you're saving for. So –

The advice here is use savings if you can. I'm with you. I want compound interest to work as long as possible. But again, if the brokerage account existed to save up for that, then go for it. But investing for anything should be a long-term play, like five plus years. So if you're saving for a car three, four years from now, I would not invest that money. I would park it in a high-yield savings account, and that way you're not worried about what the market's doing. Is it up or is it down? Did I lose money? Did I make money?

And that's the simplest way to live your life is have a goal for everything. And by the way, the best way to be able to do the advice that you just gave is a budget. Absolutely. And I do want to point out all this month, we've got every dollar free webinar trainings. These are free. Kick the tires. How to use every dollar questions that you've got. It's phenomenal. Thousands of people signing up. You can sign up for free. Every dollar dot com slash webinar. Every dollar dot com slash webinar.

All right, Audra is up in Baltimore, Maryland. Audra, how can we help? Hi, thanks for taking my call. I'm calling today because I'm really struggling to decide on whether I should kind of splurge on an upcoming wedding. It's going to be a second marriage for me. Or if I should...

Not do that. And maybe rebuild my emergency fund. My last marriage left me like financially, I won't say devastated, but pretty close to. And I feel like I'm really stuck emotionally. Like I don't want my ex to take this away from me. If that makes sense. What do you mean? Take what away from you? He's already taken so much from me. I get that. But what else would he take from you?

The wedding, like not being able to do that with my, my Beyonce now who, you know, yeah, there's a love in my life. He's a, he's the type of person that just inspires you to be a better person, you know? So do you have any, do you have any debt right now?

Just the house, but no cars. I think my fiance, he has his car, probably about $25 on it. How much do you have in savings total? No emergency. I have no liquid savings right now. All I have is my IRA was left untouched, and there's about $100 in there.

Okay, well, you definitely need some emergency savings right now because you're one emergency away from going back into debt, which might mean we need to scale back on this wedding. Do you have a date already planned? Have you already booked things, signed contracts? Yeah, we were hoping to do it in April. I did put down a $200 deposit on the venue, but nothing set in.

in stone. It could be reversed if we needed to do that. And when you said you want to spend on this wedding, what were you thinking you were going to spend? Probably between, probably around $20,000. And that's coming out of your pocket or are we splitting this with the fiance? It would be split. We would try to do it together. But what I'm considering doing is we make a

fairly good amount of money if we get our spending in check i think we could afford it and i think about prioritizing that and keeping i can get a heloc for 140 000 and use it as an emergency you can't afford it if it takes a heloc to do it no audra that is debt that puts you at risk and it puts your home at risk and it moves you backwards financially

Okay. Please don't do the HELOC. So here's the deal. However much money you have is how much we can spend on this wedding. And so if you're going to spend $10,000, he's going to spend $10,000, that becomes the savings goal. And so the question becomes, can we save $10,000 in time for this wedding to pay for all the bills? Can you? I'm not sure. Well, it's simple math. Wait a second. What's your income? So we actually...

It's our spending. It's out of control. No, no, no. There's no we yet. You guys aren't married. You shouldn't be talking about we. Are you guys living together? Are you splitting bills? What are we dealing with here?

We are living together. We just moved in together not too long ago. Well, then what's the rush on the wedding? I'm not trying to be Mr. Traditional, but I mean, if we're living together, now we can really postpone the wedding and do this thing the way you want to do it. You've already decided to live together. Yeah, well, we're excited, but the other thing, I'm self-employed, and a big benefit of this was I pay...

out the wazoo for my own health insurance. It's close to, it's $760 a month, just my premium. And if I got one, his health insurance, we would save hundreds of dollars a month. Well, you got to choose, sweetheart. You want the big wedding. Then you want the insurance discount. The main reason to get married sooner is to jump on his insurance. I mean, then just go to the courthouse tonight. And that,

That's not the main reason. It is a factor. The main reason, we're just really excited. But to Ken's point, why not go to the courthouse and save up for the big party 10 months from now? Yeah. You can do a celebration. I've tried...

Yeah, the courthouse wedding, we both did that with our first weddings. To give you context, I was homeless when I first got married, my first marriage. And I got married in like a... It doesn't matter. You told me this guy's different, didn't you? And I just wanted something different. The courthouse is not the factor here. You just told me this guy's different, so this marriage is going to be different, right? That's true. You want everything, but you can't afford anything. That's what we're hearing. So you've got to choose. And what is your monthly income? Yeah.

My monthly income is about $7,000. That's a great income. That's great. So you can get your emergency fund up, and then if you really hustle, you guys can cash flow this wedding. When George asked you, could you come up with $10,000 between now and next April? That's $1,000 a month. You were like, I don't think so. You make $7,000. Could you put away, before you did anything else, put away $1,000 of the $7,000 into a savings account? Could you auto-transfer it and pretend like it never existed?

Yes, I could. Okay. That means by April, you would have $10,000 in that one account. Okay. There's your part. Now, could you take another $1,000 and put it in another savings account for your emergency fund? Could you live off of $5,000? I could most months. I have my own business, so some months are better than others, so it can vary a little bit. Okay, but what are your expenses? You told me that you have a spending problem that he does, too.

Oh, yeah. So let's prioritize. What's more important? My bills are about $4,300 a month. $4,300. Including my mortgage. So if life went perfectly and you followed the plan and you made $7,000, you would have an extra $2,700 you could throw toward your goals. Yes. Okay. You know what that looks like? It looks like $32,000 that you could have saved up for this wedding and your emergency fund in a year.

So that would give me some great fire to go, you know what? I never want to be homeless again. I don't want to be in this situation again. I'm willing to cut my spending to save up for the things that now matter to me. And that is my emergency fund to give me some peace of mind to never go into debt again. That's for this wedding. And that's what you guys are going to have to prioritize. And I don't know that we can get him on board, but I hope we can get you on board at the very least. ♪

Well, after the last few calls, I definitely think we need to head to the Bible. Yeah, we could use a little Jesus right now. Jesus, take the wheel. I'm telling you. Our scripture of the day, Philippians 1, 27. Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel.

Our quote of the day, Kevin Hassett. Do you know who this is? Never heard of him. Me either. Economists have the same occupational hazard as baseball managers and football coaches. Every person on the street knows their job better than they do. Oh, wow. Wow. He's an economist. Kevin was angry when he said that. Actually, I'm going to do something I never do. I'm going to take issue with the quote of the day. You're going to take umbrage? I'm going to take umbrage. This guy's not even here to defend himself.

I do believe half the quote is right. I do believe the average American probably knows more about the economy than an economist. That part I agree with. I don't think, as a big-time football fan, I don't think most fans have any idea about what a football coach knows. And this is the problem with fans. That's all I want to say. I think Kevin misses it. That's what's wrong with fans. They sit in the stands and they think they know more. And I understand they get mad at their coach, and I've been mad at my coaches before.

But we don't know what we're talking about. I just want to point that out. I appreciate that. For people like you, George, who don't know what sports are, and I just want to make sure you don't judge football coaches. My brain only has capacity for so much. So to memorize stats and coaches and players and the personal lives and what's going on is insane. You don't have to see that. See, that's not what being a fan is.

Oh, I've met fans. I know you have, but you don't actually watch sports. Here's my hack, though. When someone talks about sports, I can fake it, and they think I know everything. I just go, yeah, we got to see how the coaching is this season. That's it. That gets me out of so many conversations. I go, yeah, he's right. He's right. It's all about the coaching.

Oh, man. George Campbell. I've got to take you to a sporting event. I'd love to go with you. No one ever takes me. They say they will. You know what we'll do? We'll collab on our YouTube channels. It'll be called Ken Takes George to a Sporting Event. I've been to a lot of Nashville events. But not with me. Soccer.

I know. Not into that. Oh, I love soccer. But you need to go with me so that I know you're paying attention and you know what's going on. You'll actually coach me through the experience. 100%. Make sure that you get the full experience. Otherwise, you're just there eating popcorn and checking your Instagram. No, I'm just watching the big screen, seeing the sponsors, you know, watching people stuff their face with food they shouldn't be eating. It's great. It's the people watching for me is the best part. Yeah, that's it. Let's go to Josh in Colorado Springs. Josh, how can we help?

Hey, so I am on the fence about upgrading my current car to my dream car and giving my wife my current car. And I'm feeling some doubt and guilt about it. You have come to the right place. I think I was put on the planet to help people decide these things. This very issue is a favorite issue of mine. As specific as possible. What is this dream car? What is the dream car and how much will it cost? Well, the

The dream car currently is an Audi RS6 Avant. Yeah. How much is that going to set you back? So total out of pocket will be around $70,000 because I've traded in and whatnot. Okay. And how do you plan to pay for it? So that's where it gets a little tricky as far as how we can code. Here we go. All right. Give us the tricks. So my wife would prefer savings to be used.

I don't want to touch any of our savings or any other money we have. I would rather take a loan out and pay it off in 16, 18 months and

When I said that to her, she says, well, why don't we just save for it? The problem is I'm on to this car now because my other cars have gone out of production that I dreamed of getting and their prices have skyrocketed. One of them was 120,000 new, now is selling for a quarter million new because they don't make it. And so as these cars get harder and harder to get, the price skyrockets. What are you driving now? Yeah.

I drive a 2016 Land Cruiser. And what's it worth? I will get about $45,000, $50,000 for it. But you're saying you're going to give that to your wife? Yes. Okay, so you wouldn't trade it in. Correct. Which means you're going to pay the full cost. Her car, sorry, yeah. So her car would get me $36,000, I think, is what we got on Kelly. What is she driving?

She's driving a, what's it called? A Highlander. Do you owe anything on that? We don't owe anything on any other cars. Our only debts are our mortgage and then student loans, but we are on the public service loan forgiveness track. How familiar are you with our show?

Pretty familiar. I mean, I listen to you guys pretty often. And you called us with student loan debt. I know. And want to know our opinion on you financing a dream car. I'm just curious if you missed those episodes. Because I'm on the loan forgiveness route. That's the only reason I... How many years in are you on it? Uh...

We have less than two years left before forgiveness. And what's the balance of the loans? Total, right around $250,000. Wow. But we're paying about $3,000 a month. You really think that they're going to forgive those loans? All my colleagues have gotten theirs forgiven. Is this the PSLF or a different one? PSLF. Okay. Okay.

Is that a good chance of happening, George? I'm a little skeptical. I mean, if you follow it by the book and don't screw anything up and you, you know, did not. Josh is counting on it. Josh is going to the bank on it. I wish you the best. I mean, people have been successful with it, and I'm happy for them. I just, I would have a backup plan, too. I don't know that now is the time to be purchasing the dream car with this debt hanging around your head still. How much money do you guys have in savings right now, beyond your emergency fund?

Beyond emergency fund and obviously all the retirements being maxed out yearly on both ends, right around $175,000. Okay. And why such a high savings account? Honestly, we do a house renovation, we refill that account, and then we just kind of do we put in the market? Oh, market's going to crash. Oh, let's, I don't know, just hesitation, I guess, to move it. How often do you go with your wife's point of view?

Out of 10. How many times out of 10? Well, 10. Yeah. Great. Because I think you ought to do it again. You've got the cash. If you really want this car, if it's really that big of a dream...

You've got the cash for it. And I would rather you feel the pain of liquidating that savings account because that's what's really happening with this car. Spreading it out over 16 months will make you emotionally feel better, but it's going to put you guys in a bind. You're paying interest. There's a chance you're underwater on it in case you need to get rid of it.

And doing it with a loan is only going to add resentment on your wife's side, and you're going to feel guilty every time you get in that driver's seat. I mean, don't you want to take her out on a date and that thing and not get the stink eye? Or at least the side eye? Well...

This would be the first purchase I would make that's been like we live in. That's a yes or no. That's a yes or no question. You sound like a politician on a Sunday morning show. Yeah, that would be great. I know, bro. I'm trying to help you here, man. By the way, your wife's right. George and I are with your wife. What is your household income?

Gross, typically right around 900. This year, probably closer to 750 just because I'm... Oh, good Lord. This is ridiculous. Why are we even having this conversation when you make that kind of money? You just made everybody that's listening and watching this show in the lobby mad. That's stupid. What little empathy they had is now gone. Nobody's got any empathy for you. You make crazy money. Pay cash for that. And I got to tell you, for somebody who took out loans and paid mine off...

I don't have such a great feeling about the way you're treating your loans with the kind of income you got. I'm just going to tell you that. Your loans? Yes. Pay your freaking loans off. You make $900,000. $900,000.

You're going to ask the government to forgive that? Here's the thing. This could have been gone years ago. I don't like it. It's been dragging on. But yeah, get the car. I'm old school. I think the wife should be driving the nicer car. That's just my take. Oh, now we're really piling on this poor guy. He's a car guy. Do what you want. Okay, really quick. Put you on the spot. You don't have to answer. You make that kind of money, you should pay your student loans back. Yes or no? Yes. I should have done it seven years ago. Moved on with your life. This is The Ramsey Show. The Ramsey Show.

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