You Can Change Your Life TODAY!
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From the Ramsey Network, it's The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's good to be back with you guys. I'm Jade Warshaw. Next to me is my buddy, Dr. John Deloney. We're hooking you up with answers all hour long. So give us your call. The number is 888-825-5225. Hey, it's a new year, John.

We're back. Let's get into it. I'm so excited. I don't know what to do. I haven't hosted this show in a little bit, so I'm excited to get into some calls and help the people, John. Off the rails on a crazy train. Let's go. All right, we got Miriam. She's in Phoenix, Arizona. What's going on, Miriam? Hi, good day. It's Mariam. Mariam. All right. Thanks for the correction. My bad. Love it. It's okay. It's okay. It's Arabic. Yes. So, just quickly...

Bobber chapter, well, moved from the South. I'm a Southern gal. Moved from the South June of 2024 out here to Phoenix. Okay. Been to Phoenix one time, August 2021. Me and my daughter drove from Atlanta all the way out here to get some solar panels. So it was beautiful. It was like, oh, I'll never live in Arizona again.

Ended up purchasing 3.5 acres by a lot of grace. So I'm like, whoa, what am I doing out here in Phoenix? I'm about to start an eco village or whatever. Wow. Okay. Anyway, long story short, because I'm paying off my property, I decided I wasn't going to get a car at first. Turns out when I was getting approved for this duplex that we're in right now,

That's when I realized that my debt was no longer manageable. How much? I actually didn't see. So I filed for chapter bankruptcy after when I was getting approved for this unit.

There was something on my credit that I just didn't know about. It was a medical bill that was like six, seven thousand dollars that added on to what I already had had, which is up to about 60 something thousand of consumer debt. Got you outside of student loans. How many students? Oh, a lot. Use real numbers with this. Use real numbers with this.

Oh, $98,000. And the thing is, I didn't have the degree. Oh, so this is the thing. I didn't consider student loans actual debt. A lot of people don't. No, well, I genuinely didn't understand it to be actual debt. So when the lady was like, oh, he approved you, but he was hesitant because of all your debt. And I was like, oh, oh, they're student loans. And she was like, yeah. So you got approved for it. Then what happened?

I did get approved for it. I got approved for the duplex, but I realized it was just too much debt. How much did you take out for this duplex? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. The duplex is getting rented while I pay off my property. I understand that, but you're on the hook for the loan, yes? Yes.

Like you got a mortgage for a duplex and you're renting it out. Is that correct? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm like, I'm just renting a duplex. I'm just renting. How much is your loan for the land that you bought for your eco village? It's owner finance. But how much is it? I don't care. How much is it?

I still owe about $19,000. 19. Please tell me you didn't file bankruptcy. You didn't file bankruptcy over $60,000 plus your student loans because your student loans aren't dischargeable. Well, we're working on that, but that's not a here nor there. But I do want... Well, tell us what the question is. Tell us so that we can understand. Yeah, what's the question? Yes, the question is about... Because it's about a car.

So I realized before I was, I had the EveryDollar app. I am, I am here. I'm pushing the movement. I really am. Like, I believe in it, right? Because I was not aware that I was basically spending nearly $700 on Ubers and Lyft to get to work. Okay. And I was like, okay, so I'm paying for a car that I don't have. I was like, this is insane. I was like, okay, I have to take public transit. I have to take the bus. I have to take the rail, which is really good, right? Get to the question so we can actually help you. Okay. Okay.

When is it appropriate to use a loan? Because I know you can get a loan for buying a house, but I hear y'all, you know, you're, you tout. Mario. No, you tout. Wait a second. Listen, listen, listen. You,

Well, let me answer the question for you. I'm going to say that it's not ever going to be appropriate to do a loan. On this show, we're never going to tell you to go into debt. And the reason for it is because you can already sense the reason why. You've got $98,000 in student loan debt, $60,000 in consumer debt, $19,000 that you're paying off on land. I don't have to tell you the reason. The reason is it is a shackle on your life. It is. It's about a vehicle. I know. I know.

I know. My safety is in jeopardy. So this morning, because like I was saying, in order for me to take public transit, I have to work overnight. I get off at 5 a.m. I was getting off at 5 a.m. this morning. I'm walking down the street because my last bus stop, it's about a little bit less than a mile for me to get home. I'm walking down the street. I see this man doing all this kind of movement. So I didn't know about the epidemic of COVID.

the drug crisis that's going on in Phoenix. That's right. You're right. This man is doing all this crazy body movement. And so as I approach him, I try to like not look at people in their eyes. I hear you. He had a metal ballad. So I'm like, okay, when is it? When, when am I going to, here's what I want you to do. When is my safety? Your safety is always, your safety is always paramount. I'm not,

Going against that and I've been to Phoenix. I know you're talking about I know that area very very well, and you're not wrong However, you told me before that you were doing lifts you were doing ubers That's how you were getting around and even though that's expensive if that's the safer method for you to get around until you can save up and buy Yourself a thousand dollar cash car. That's a junker. That's just gonna get you where you need to go That's what you need to do for you If I told you to go into debt to get a car I would be not a good financial advisor and I would not be a good friend. I

And I would just be, that would be the worst advice ever if I said, yeah, just go take out a car loan because you've got $180,000 of debt. Well, now the consumer debt's getting discharged. No, because, and that's the other problem. We didn't talk to you about your income, but what are you bringing in? What's your income?

Well, I'm working overtime. I average about 5K monthly net. By the way, if you just are going through bankruptcy, no bank on planet Earth will loan you any money for a car. That's also true. Well, I've already gotten approved for one. I just have to have $1,500 down. Guaranteed subprime. It's a subprime. Subprime.

Oh, yeah. And so that's okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't. Don't. It's like you taking a metal bar and breaking both of your knees so that somebody doesn't hit you in the head. You get what I'm saying? You're just shooting yourself in the other foot.

Yeah, where we're at, where we're at, and this is this is the hardest part to get to, because for you, debt has been a crutch. Debt has been the little safety blanket. It's the way that you've the thing that you've gone to to get everything that you want.

And you're not realizing the effect that it's having on your life. It's odd to me that you're going through a bankruptcy and yet still you haven't figured out that borrowing money is the problem. I say it all the time and I'll say it to you too. If you can't

Solve a problem while simultaneously creating it. Okay. And that's what you're trying to do. You're like, oh, I'm in debt. I'm going to solve it while filing bankruptcy. And in the meantime, I'm going to keep going into debt. And if you keep doing that, you're never going to find a way out. You're going to be a dog chasing its tail.

And so you've got to get to the point where you draw a line in the sand and you go, you know what? I may not be able to pay off this debt today, tomorrow. But the first thing, the thing I can do today is I can decide I am not borrowing money anymore. And that goes for anybody who's listening. You might not be ready to do the Ramsey steps yet. It might take you a second. I'm fine with that. But today you can decide.

I'm not borrowing money. You don't have to keep making it worse. And that is huge. It's a negative, right? It's what if you can't do the pull up, you do the negative and you can do that today.

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Hey, you're listening to The Ramsey Show. I'm Jade Warshaw. Next to me, Dr. John Deloney. We're taking your calls all hour long. It's a live show, so get in where you fit in. Man, it's a new year, so you're probably facing all sorts of things. If you need help with your life, your money, good mental wellness tips, whatever it is that you're looking for, we're here to help you out. Give us a call, 888-825-5225. Let's go to Nicole. She's in Dallas, Texas. What's going on, Nicole?

Hey, thanks for taking my call. I was calling because me and my husband, we've been working with steps for about a year and a half, and we're constantly going in a cycle of between baby step and one and two. And a lot of it's medical debt that keeps piling on us that doesn't allow us to move any forward. And I just, I don't know, is there any advice or any help how to like

keep on going. I don't know where you're just kind of losing some faith here. Who's, who's ill? Is it something that you have a diagnosis and it's causing you to continue to do prescriptions or appointments? It's kind of both of us. Um, my husband's on the spectrum and he, you know, he's, he's bipolar anxiety and ADHD. And so he's a psychiatrist and has medicine every month. And, um, and then I, um,

I got us in debt with the cell. We tried IVF and it didn't work. So, and then I had long-term COVID. And so my heart rate would do some things where it just dropped and they never could figure out like a name for it or anything, but it was just some effect from COVID. Can I hop in here real quick, Nicole? Yes. From this point forward, I don't want you to ever say that you got y'all two in debt because of your IVF.

Okay. Yeah, that's fair. Together, y'all looked at each other and said till death do us part. And you knew that he had learning exceptionalities and you knew he was a character when you married him, right? Correct. Right. And he also agreed to stand by you when you got sick, right? And y'all both decided, let's start a family. And y'all have struggled and you have sat down with doctors and you've done that together. Yeah.

Yes. So you're going to rise together and you're going to struggle together and you're going to have good days, you're going to have bad days, but the key is together. And I don't want you carrying around this extra baggage like you've done something irreparable to your family because you got sick or because you explored IVF together. Okay. Yeah.

Thank you. Because some of that baggage, right, is this weight you feel going back and forth between baby step one and you finally get that thousand bucks. You're like, all right, we got traction. And then suddenly you got to go back to the doctor or your husband needs new meds or he has a really manic week and he spends extra on something or whatever's going on. Right. And you both feel like you're the one dragging the other down and there's no, you got two horses pulling opposite directions on each other. Right. Does that make sense?

It does. Yes, it does. It makes the whole thing. I just want to quit. Yeah. Cause y'all aren't dealing with a math problem. Y'all are dealing with a heart problem, right? Yes. I mean the math problems, I mean the math problem sucks. It's that, I mean there's, there's a math problem. Don't get me wrong there. But Jay, tell me if I'm wrong. I would tell you if you have baby step one and y'all are working on baby step two and then you have to go back to baby step one,

That tells me that the plan is working. And here's why. It's frustrating and it's super slow, but you didn't go backwards. You didn't end up owing somebody else money. You were able to fund it yourself with your thousand bucks. And now we're back on it again. And now we're back on it again. But I promise you, if you stay on it, you'll gain that one month, that two months, that four, that fifth, that sixth month of traction. Do you get what I'm saying? Okay.

Yes. Because think about your life without that baby step one, without that thousand bucks. Y'all are multiple thousand dollars in debt because y'all went backwards every month instead of just getting back to square one. Do you get what I'm saying? Yeah. So I know it doesn't feel like you're winning. You're not winning, but you're not losing, right? And stalemates are the worst. They're the worst. Yeah, John is exactly right. You're still going forward because when you do push play on baby step two, you're paying off debt.

for that time period. And then if something happens, you dip into the emergency fund. That's what it's there for. Then you get back on track. You start, you know, you build it back up to a thousand. Then you start paying off debt again. It's just that the truth is certain people's situations are going to cause the baby steps possibly to elongate. And that's

And that's okay. Like everybody's situation is not the same. You guys have health issues and so be it. For Sam and I, it took us seven and a half years. And so everybody has those nuanced things that are going to cause the baby steps to, you might hang out on one step longer than somebody else does. And it doesn't mean that you're not making progress and it doesn't mean that you're not going forward. There could be some financial difficulties.

pieces of this to address we didn't ask you much about your income are you are you both able to tell us about that yeah we're we're both working full-time um we probably bring home about 5,500 a week i mean i'm sorry a month i was about to say dang gina y'all are loaded 5,500 a week man what kind of work is it um

He works as a welder and I work as an auditor for a car company. Okay. Yeah, I mean, there might be some...

that you can find looking at your budget? I'm not sure, you know, do you guys have car payments? Is there something that you can do short term and very quickly? Is it sell off a vehicle so that you can free up some money in your month to month, right? Those are the things I'd be looking at. When somebody tells me, hey, money is tight, we're having a hard time going from baby step one to baby step two or whatever it is, the first things I'm looking at, number one, I'm going, okay, are you investing? Because if you're investing, let's pause that, right? That's the first thing to do. So if you haven't,

paused, you need to pause. The next thing I'm looking at is withholding. If you're a person who's getting a tax refund every single year, that's a signal that you are doing too much withholding every single paycheck. So I would get with HR at your company and change that, right? And then the next thing I'm looking at

It's just basic things. I might do an insurance coverage checkup to make sure I'm getting the right coverage for the right money. Most people do an insurance coverage checkup and they find out they can actually get more coverage for what they're paying or they can pay a little bit less. So those are the top three places that people find money just right.

without having to do anything, right? And then after that, the next place I'm looking at vehicle is at your vehicle. So I'm going through and I'm going, okay, do we have car payments? Is this something that I can sell off? If I sell it, will I make money? If I sell it, am I upside down? Is there a way that I can get out of this car loan and free up that money every month? So that's the next place I'm looking. So those are really the top four areas. And then after that,

It's the basic stuff. It's groceries. It's subscriptions. So really go through your budget with a fine-tooth comb and see if you can find some extra money there. Do you have every dollar? We do. We have the basic version. Okay. And is that working for you?

It has shined a light on where we're spending the most money. It looks like we spend a lot in groceries. So maybe like a... This is probably the least romantic date in the world, but maybe once a week you'll have a...

meal planning week. I mean, meal planning for the week and y'all get together on Sunday nights and y'all make dinner together and you just talk about what do we want to have for dinner this week? And if you can cook nine chicken breasts for the week and put them in the refrigerator and just have them there for you. Is that cool? No. Is it sexy? No. But man, it gets you out of this mess. And I'll tell you this, I'll add a fifth one to Jade's list. I remember when my wife and I were going through, I sold my beloved handbag

Everett guitars from, uh, from a guy out of Atlanta. They're amazing. And I got rid of one of them, um, because it launched us immediately into baby step two. Wow. And so if you've got guitars, if you've got a fancy gun, if you've got whatever stuff, yeah, whatever y'all got your, your Pokemon cards or whatever, it,

If there's something about lighting a fire in the house that just not a real one, by the way, but like lighting a fire and saying, we are going to make this move right this second. Right. And maybe I'll have exhausted all that. The other one I would say is, is there one 30 day sprint y'all can go on and just Uber like crazy or just, it would be miserable and awful and I'd hate it, but also it's,

You're miserable and awful and you hate it right now. Not being able to find that thousand bucks. So what if y'all just both said, all right, we're both going to Uber in the mornings or we're going to go both get a job at Burger King or Walmart in the evenings just for 30 days, for 60 days and get out of the cycle. And then you can get some breathing room. And Jade, let me ask you this. With folks who are wrestling in this situation, if you know you have recurring medical issues

It's not adding extra to that $1,000 baby step one, but it is being practical and saying we need to go ahead and start putting a sinking fund. Sinking fund all day. $100, $200 a month. Yeah. Aside because we know we're going to spend it. Yeah. If I were her, I'd go back. Or HSAing it even. Yeah. I'd go back on the statements and say, okay, what are we spending? What's the worst month that it's been? And be prepared for that worst month and have it set aside. I love that. I love that. Hey, we're on your team. We're on your team. Thanks for the call. What does the future hold for business? Ask.

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Yeah, you're listening to The Ramsey Show on The Ramsey Network. I'm Jade Warshaw. Next to me is Dr. John Deloney. Let me let you in on a little secret. When it comes to your life and your money, you're the only one who can change it.

Period. No one else can change it for you. And you can't look at someone else's life and money and think that you're going to be able to reach in and change theirs. They have to be wanting to make those changes on their own. And it's frustrating. It's very frustrating if you're a person who's gotten a hold of

the baby steps, it's worked for you. And you look over at your brother or your sister-in-law or your mom and dad or your best friend. And you're like, man, I see them struggling. I really want to help them. And you're trying to get them to do it and they won't do it. Listen, it's one of those things. It's the worst. It's the worst. It's truly the worst. And I have found that the best way to broach a subject is

or whether it's with your spouse or with a friend or family member is just to be like, man, I was listening to this show and here's what helped me.

Here's what I did. And it's so good. It's so easy. Like for instance, John and I were talking earlier. We were talking about our Christmas break, talking about sleep. And I said, oh man, I got my husband this whoop strap. It's great. And you just talk about it naturally as a part of the conversation, as opposed to, you know what you need to do. You need to get your money on point. You need to use every dollar. That doesn't work, right? Right. But when I showed you my app and said, hey, I got a sleep score of 100 for the first time. Yes. And I'm so excited.

It's an invitation, right? It's not a demand. That's right. We're talking about it like a real part of our lives, like something we're genuinely excited about because we are, not as an indictment for what somebody else should be doing. So if you are looking for a way to get yourself involved

under control. Every dollar is the way to do it. It's the best way to budget your money. You make a plan. You stick to it with a monthly budget. It makes it super easy to plan your spending. You can track your transactions. You save for what matters to you most. It's all in this easy to use app that fits in your phone. And what's going to happen is you're going to start making progress. And because of that, you're organically going to want to show other people

And you're going to want to be like, man, listen, I got on this budget. It's so easy to use. It's in my pocket. My husband can see it too, or my wife can see it too. And because of it, we found like 400 extra dollars in our budget. That's how this thing works. And so whether it's you or for a friend or a family member, that's how you talk about things. You talk about what's real to you. You don't tell them what they need to be doing. So use every dollar, keep a pulse on your spending, make progress with everything.

your money goals and do that with every dollar. If you don't have it, you can download every dollar for free in the app store or listen, if you have an Android, go ahead and head over to Google Play. Click the link in the description if you're listening on YouTube or podcast. But whatever you do, get every dollar. OK, let's go to Amanda. She's in Chicago, Illinois. What's going on, Amanda? Hey, how are you doing? Good. How are you?

I'm good. I have a quick question. So my boyfriend and I have been together for about a year and we're talking about the future, but I have two big reservations. The first is his mom lives with him and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. She has some mental health issues, doesn't have any savings, and he feels like it's his responsibility to take care of her. And then the

Second is we butt heads a lot on finances to your comment. Like I try to show him how cool like budgeting can be or, you know, what's worked for me. And it's always ends up like just in world war three to put it lightly. So I'm just stuck on, I'm just worried, you know, I think finances are super important for the future and I, I just worry. So it doesn't, it could be helpful. Amanda, tell me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you have your answer.

It just is a really tough pill to swallow. It is. It is very tough. And there's nothing worse than a decision, especially when it comes to a relationship, whether it's a romantic relationship or a family relationship between you and your mom or your dad or a work relationship where the right thing hurts, but that doesn't make it the wrong thing, right? Right.

Right. So I would say like, man, good on, good on your boyfriend for feeling a sense of, of I'm going to take care of my mom. She's going to live with us. That's going to be part of our life. And you, as his, like, if you're talking about the future, you get to decide, is this the life I want to sign up for or not? And I don't think, I don't think it makes you a bad person, but it makes you like, there's going to be a value, a value misalignment. And then when it comes to money,

I mean, you are getting a ringside seat to the rest of your life and it won't just be about money. It will be about what size house you're going to buy. And then what, how many kids you're going to have and do we spank our kids or don't spank our kids? And do we eat organic foods or not? And peanut allergies aren't really like asking me the rest of your life. I care less right now in your situation, a year into dating, uh,

I care less about whether y'all are completely aligned with money yet. I care more. Can you say, hey, this really matters to me? This is important. And the person you're considering spending the rest of your life with says, I want to hear more about what you say is really important to you. They don't go to, like you said, World War III. You get what I'm saying? Well, I have a question. I'm going to make an observation. John, correct me if I'm wrong.

I've been married for 18 years. The times... I don't know that there's ever been a time that Sam and I have been at a complete impasse. I 100% am not going to act on or move towards you or what you're saying in any way and vice versa. That feels...

Don't get me wrong. Plenty of times we disagree. Plenty of times we want to go about something a different way. But when there's a complete I'm not budging and a complete I'm not budging over here, that's not... That is a red flag for me. It's a huge red flag, yeah. And again, it goes to...

who are we going to decide to be during moments of conflict? And like Jade says, the couples that last, when they reach those impasses, they lean towards each other. They don't draw lines. Right. Right. Got it. Okay. Right. Right. And so you tell us, what does this mean for you? Oh, sorry. Could you repeat it one more time? Sorry. I said, you, you, you tell us, what does this mean for you?

But a hard decision, I think you hit it on the head. Like, I know the decision is just a hard one. I do see that. I mean, like, I'm going to eventually be a reflection of how I solve conflict for kids should we have them. And the way we're doing it's not great. So, yeah, I've been struggling with it. I will tell you, if at this stage you are able to –

I don't say non-emotionally because that sounds dramatic, but in a non-threatened way, if you're able to sit down by yourself or maybe with a trusted friend and truly articulate your values, what's important to you? And you're able to do that and then be reflective on the person you've been with for a year and say, I mean, we are really trying to force a round peg into a square hole. It's not going to work. Right.

That's one of the most humbling, heartbreaking, yet brave decisions a person can make, I think. Okay. Yeah, that sounds really good. Because here's the thing. You go marry this guy tomorrow, this situation comes up for the rest of your marriage until there's an explosion. And then at that point, you'll have to choose, are we going to rebuild something? But the rebuilding process starts with how are we going to communicate when we get sideways with each other? And we have differing visions on what tomorrow might look like for us.

And there's the mom side of things. Like you get to decide if you want to get into that or not. It's like marrying a guy who already has a kid. You know, you get to decide like if you are thinking, no, I don't want all of that. There's nothing wrong with that. I can't say that enough. Like I say, on his side, it doesn't sound like he's telling you, well, this is just for a minute. You know, like I still want, he's not stringing you along. It sounds like he's saying, no, no, my mom struggles. My mom's going to be with me forever. Mm-hmm.

Right. Right. And the way you phrased it is he's not living with her. She's living with him. Right. He's in the caretaker role. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, he hasn't. I don't want him, like, I feel like the bad guy for being like, hey, let's get her on her feet. Let's see if we can, you know, but yeah. Yeah, that puts you in a tough position too because you don't want to be the one that's like trying to scoot her out the door. So you know what I mean? That's tough. That's a hard place to be in. Well, and he might look at you and say, hey, I've been with her for 25 years. You've got nine months with her. Relax. I know, right? And also maybe he's an enmeshed mess, right? And the things she needs are,

But again, that goes back to the conflict challenges. If conflict ends in World War III on a regular basis, on something as simple as, hey, what if we just lived on less than we make? Right, right, right. Just basic. Yeah, it's a recipe, man. I'm heartbroken for you. I'm heartbroken for you. You've got to be able to see that the problem is the problem and you both gang up on the problem. That's right. Not you both ganging up on each other. Once you figure that out, things get a lot better. This is The Ramsey Show.

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Quite the phenomenon, I must say, John. You're a phenomenon, Jade Warshaw. Well, anyway, hey, if you like the shows that you listen to on the Ramsey Network, whether it be this one or many of the others that we have to offer, be sure that you're liking it, subscribing to it, sharing it with other people. That means a lot to us. It's something that you can do that's really quick, doesn't take you any time, doesn't cost you anything, but ultimately it does a lot for us. It helps other people to discover the show.

And that is big. We're all about life change here. And the way that we change people's lives is getting in front of them. And so if you can do that, like I said, like subscribe, share, do that for us in the new year. And we'll be so appreciative to you. We already are. But that's a big help. All right, John, we're taking calls all this hour. We got a few left. We got Sarah here from Seattle, Washington. What's going on, Sarah?

Hey, thanks for having me on. So my divorce finalized about three years ago. About a year ago, started doing a Cal report recalculation and it finally just wrapped up. But during that process, my lawyer suggested that instead of

setting up college funds for my kids because of the dishonesty displayed by my ex-husband about his finances that I set up basically brokerage accounts for my girls and in my head, in Markham as college funds so that when the time comes to pay for college, he, my ex can't say, well, Sarah has already saved money for college. I shouldn't have to contribute as much.

Is there a disadvantage or advantage in doing it that way versus a traditional college front? I'm not sure that I understand. I'm not sure I understand what your lawyer is saying. I got it. Well, okay. It sounds like your lawyer, yes, like, so the answer is, in the sketchy sense, yes, you're correct.

Because you're saying you can say that money was for something else if it's in a brokerage? Well, so, no, it would be just earmarked in my head as their college fund. Sure. Because what my lawyer's fear was that, let's say both of my girls go to school and for both of them, it'll cost $100,000, right? $100,000 each.

And they're young, so if I start saving the money now, by the time they get to college, I may have $75,000 for each of them. So then there's only $25,000 left to cover. My ex could potentially say in the future, well, if they're always paid $75,000 or saved up that much, I should only have to pay half of what's left. So then he would only contribute $75,000.

12,500, give or take. So listen, he's your, your attorney's exactly right. That could happen. Can I give you an alternative side to it? Sure. And this is me. I get to be on a high horse here because you called into the showcase. This is definitely me on a high horse and I'm not in your seat. Okay. Yeah. Y'all are sitting around a table, you and your attorney and you, and your attorney's job is to protect you. You are his or her client, right? That's, that's their job.

And you're dealing with a person who lacks integrity on the other side of the table, which is your ex-husband. Correct. I hesitate to suggest that you also become a person who maybe doesn't lack integrity, but is not full integrous and comes up with alternative ways to hold and shield money to put you in a better argumentative position in case something might happen 15 years from now.

What I would prefer in this, again, this is not a ROI cash wise. And this is me mostly working with people who are struggling with their integrity for my whole career. So I get it. I would rather look my daughters in the eye and say, I saved up $75,000 and husband's taken us to court. Your dad's taken us to court to try to figure out how little he has to pay. But we did the right thing.

You get what I'm saying? Because what it sounds like is you're being encouraged to hide money from your ex in case your ex wants to use your cash holding or your college fund as a way to pay less in the future.

And that's technically right if this guy's a scumbag, which it sounds like he is. If he would weaponize your daughter's education to make a point with you and your former marriage that would have been almost two decades old at this point. But if that's who he is, that's who he is. But it's not about him. It's about you. Okay. Do you get what I'm saying? It's not about...

No, it totally does. And it makes a lot of sense. And I, throughout this whole process, have basically used Dave's phrase of this is my stupid tax. And maybe this is just the continuation of my stupid tax and the stupid tax. But let's hold it another way. Let's not frame this one as a stupid tax. Let's frame this one as a come hell or high water, somebody else is not going to impact my integrity.

And that might mean girls were going to a different school because your dad's not helping with this. And this is the best I could do over 15 years. Okay. But that's different than, Ooh, there's some gamemanship and maybe the, you get what I'm saying? And by the way, 15 years from now is four years.

8, 12, that's two and a half presidents from now. Good God almighty. Can you imagine two and a half presidents ago what the world was like? Who knows? 15 years from now. But again, that's the decision you and the mirror are going to have to make on this one. Okay. And that makes a lot of sense. I don't want to become the monster that I'm trying to shield my kids from.

Yeah, I hadn't thought about the non-quantifiable aspect of it. I was more thinking about tax implications and obviously having him pay a portion, a reasonable portion. But looking at it from the non-quantifiable part, it definitely sways the decision of, I'm going to keep my side of the street clean.

It feels right. Jade, am I crazy? Yeah, I didn't like the fact that it feels a little bit dishonest at what you're trying to

It's like you're trying to show that I don't really have this money if in fact I really did. And that's the part that bothers me. If you had just called up and said, hey, what's better for me, a 529 or a brokerage? We could talk about that all day and we could talk about the pros and cons of it. If you were worried that you didn't want to save up too much in the 529 because they might not go to school, like we could talk about that all day. So for me, it's a little bit the why behind the what that's

making me go, let's just save up for your kid's college the right way and not be super concerned about what he might or might not try to do in 15 years. Yeah. Keeping your side of the street clean just sounds outside of just an outright abusive situation that you got to do what you got to do, what you got to do, what you got to do. Man, I don't know. It just gives me more peace. And again,

I it's so much easier. I'm just sitting on the other side of a microphone, right? Talking to you across the country. You know, it's so much easier for me to do that. But I love the idea of you walk into this new season of your life. I mean, you're, you're, you're 36 months in, right? You're three years in. I love the idea of you walking. And like you hear the phrase that Rachel Cruz says often more is caught than taught. Your daughters are going to get a ringside seat to what it's like to

watching their mother scratch and claw and do the next right thing always. And that to me is worth any college. I mean, y'all figure you're going to figure out the college stuff. Your daughter's going to figure out the college stuff, but that you, I mean, you can't get that in a classroom. You get that from watching a mom and dad or a mother or a single mom go day in and day out, do the next right thing. And I just, I don't know. That just, that just feels right to me. Yeah. And I, I appreciate that also. Like, um,

little other outside of this, but like I do a lot of home repair myself because I can't afford to pay somebody. And my girls will tell people, my mommy can fix things. My mommy can build things. And I, I, yes. And, and, and I have a wife whose dad taught her how to grill.

Nothing has shamed me more as a Texas male than a wife that can outgrill me. And so even to the point that I'm taking grilling lessons, even this old in my mid-40s, right? Grilling lessons. So all I'd say is let your daughters come alongside you and let them learn how to fix stuff too. And this is generational stuff, right? But this is where the lessons, this is where family trees are changed in the shadows, in these hard, dark seasons. Man, I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you.

All right, that does it for this hour of the show. Be sure to join us next hour. It'll be Dr. John and myself. We'll see you then.

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Just go to Burna.com slash Dave to learn more. That's B-Y-R-N-A dot com slash Dave. From the Ramsey Network, it's the Ramsey Show. Hey, we're glad to be with you. Happy New Year. I'm Jade Warshaw. Next to me is Dr. John Deloney. We're happy to be here with you guys. This is a live show, so if you want to get on, you've got to get in where you fit in. Give us a call. The number is 888-825-5225.

We'll get you on the line as long as you're not crazy. We got phone screeners for that. All right, let's get into it. We got Andrea, Andrea, Andrea. I'm going to say all different ways. Tell us what's the right way from Columbia, South Carolina. It's Andrea, but I answer to pretty much anything. Okay, well, I want to say it right, Andrea. I do too. I have some really mean friends growing up, so I answer to all the names. I think about on the Devil Wears Prada. Is there a name, Andrea, Andrea?

We watch different movies, Jada. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Moving on. I went to kindergarten with an Andrea, and my name is Andrea. So my kindergarten teachers taught us very early on how to properly and kindly correct people. Yes, Andrea. It's like auntie or auntie. Are you still friends with Andrea? I don't know.

I have not seen her in years and years and years. The way you said her name suggested y'all did not get along super great. Because there's only one. There can only be one. No, no. She's fine. But there is only one Andrea. Okay. That's what I'm talking about. And you're it. How can we help you today, Andrea? The world can't handle more than one of me. So...

I was introduced to Financial Peace University through my church years ago, and it's really the first time I ever sat down and budgeted anything at all. And I attempted...

I recognized things I needed to do. I recently started listening to podcasts and found the Ramsey Show, and it's like an addiction. I absolutely love listening to it. As I'm listening to it, I got the EveryDollar budget app, and I have been using that, which is phenomenal for me. There's that word phenomena again. Love it. Yeah, but it's...

instead of using the envelope system, which did not work well for me, the every dollar budget is fantastic. Great. So here, here's my question. Um,

What do I do with the leftover money at the end of the month? Like, let's say my entertainment, my fun money, and even my transportation is leftover. And I tried to build in, like, I know I have a dentist appointment coming in February. And my out-of-pocket for my dental x-rays, because I have to have that once a year, is going to be roughly over $200. That's my out-of-pocket. And you can't cash flow it?

Because it changes my answer. It depends on if you can. Because if you said to me, hey, listen, every month whenever I have extra money or for instance in January, I'll have extra in transportation and I'll have extra here. I would normally say, yeah, any extra money that you have in your budget, you roll it over to whatever baby step you're on. So if you're on baby step two, you're

And you're like, yeah, I thought I was going to have, you know, a thousand to pay on debt. But because of these extra little tidbits that I had extra now I have, you know, one thousand two hundred. Perfect. Now, if you tell me, though, but Jade, on February, I'm going to have this two hundred dollar X-ray bill and I can't. It's not if I do that plus my normal budgeted stuff, I won't have enough. Then I'd say, yeah, you need to hold that aside.

and keep it for that. Now, when you say hold it aside, I'm talking physically. Do I leave it in my checking account? Do I move it? And I don't have a... I hear y'all talk about a high...

High yield interest, high yield savings account. I don't have one of those. I have just a checking and a little savings account. And I do have my thousand in that. I, you know, I'm working. My consumer debt is student loans and car. And I'm in the process of purchasing my home. Okay.

So I do have money. I could cash flow it. But do I just leave it sitting in my checking account and ignore it? Or do I move it into the savings account so that I don't spend it? Well, if you're telling me that you have the cash flow and you can cash flow it, then we're using the money for whatever baby step you're on. So what baby step are you on? Sounds like baby step two.

Yes. Okay. Then let's say at the end of the month you go through and every dollar tells you, wow, you had $20 left on transportation. You had $8 left over here. Whatever that is, throw it towards your debt.

And then it's not a thing of having to move it out or transfer it over. Now let's pretend you were on, cause somebody else is listening to this. Let's pretend you're on baby step three B and you're saving for a down payment and you say, okay, I have leftovers. Then you might transfer it to the high yield savings account or wherever it is that you're keeping those savings. I love this question. It's very practical. And this is the stuff that I think really matters on the day to day. Yeah.

Yeah. Hopefully that clarifies it. Can I throw two things at you, Andrea? Yes, please. Okay, number one, please, please, please. Well, tell me this. How much do you owe on student loans? $19,000. Oh, get this, though. I've retired from public school teaching, and I still owe $19,000. What? I know. I know. Now, I'm only 53. Okay.

And I retired because public school just was a horrible situation. And I was practicing my, hi, welcome to Walmart. Can I help you skills? Because I was looking forward to that. But a friend says, hey, so-and-so's school is hiring. Why don't you apply? And I was like, are you serious? Y'all, I'm in love. Good. So I'm drawing my retirement from the state.

As well as a paycheck from my new position. And I'm making pretty much the same amount that I was as a teacher in the public school system. Okay, so how much do you owe on your car? Please don't hate me for this one. I don't want to hate you, but I may laugh at you. About $31,000. Please don't tell me to sell it. I keep totaling my cars, y'all. What? Well, then you definitely shouldn't be driving to a... I keep totaling my cars.

Why? Oh, wait. It's not new. It's a 2021, but it's that...

And then the more I listen to y'all, I'm going, oh, my God. But how do you find a dependable use? Y'all keep talking about these beater cars. Let me tell you something right now. You're talking to the wrong two people, Andrea. Just for us, tell us your income, exact numbers, because I'm going to make this a black and white for you. What's your income? $5,560 monthly.

What's your yearly income? Oh, multiply that by 12 for me and tell me. Okay, so you're around $60,000. You're right at the line. We usually say that we don't want anything with a motor in it, vehicles being more than half of your yearly take home. Now, there's that and you're right on the line. Plus,

The fact that you've got debt and you're talking to us about, you know, trying to make the most of your money, trying to make the most of your extra money. You've got $19,000 of student loans. If I were in your shoes today, I would 100% downsize this vehicle. 100%. Especially if you have a bad habit of wrecking your cars. By April, I would have...

You are holding on to this student loan like it's like my daughter used to hold her blanket. Like you love it. When did you take it out? How hard is it to sell a car? And I even go in and looking at dealerships and trying to find a decent car. Andrea, the job that you do.

You work with children. You create humans, yo. And you're telling us that selling a car and buying a new car is hard. What you do when you work in the school system as a teacher, you do way harder work than that every single day. You're finding excuses right now because you want to keep this car. It's not that difficult. Go on Kelley Blue Book. Find out why.

how much it's worth and get a buddy who's done it before and they'll help you walk through it. Somebody you know has sold a car and they'll help you through it. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey guys, this is Jade Warshaw. Listen, I get it. The student loan situation is bananas, but it's

It's time to make progress, not excuses. So if your payment and interest rate have you treading water, refinancing could be the solution for you. Look, if I were in your shoes, I would contact Laurel Road today and get a free 30-minute consultation. You'll work with a student loan expert and you'll go over your refinancing options.

Hey, for refinancing to make sense, you've got to check certain boxes, like making a good income. And bottom line, Ramsey's advice is that you only refinance if you can get a lower rate or a shorter term. Remember, the point is to pay off debt faster. Maybe you just need to keep rocking the debt snowball.

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Laurel Road is a brand of Key Bank National Association. 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

by 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 real estate that's ramseysolutions.com real estate happy new year you're listening to the ramsey show on the ramsey network i'm jade warshott next to me dr john deloney taking your calls this hour talking about your life your money your relationships your careers just your general well-being i mean money touches everything so that's what we're talking about matter of fact

We just launched a very cool tour that really speaks to all of this. We just launched a brand new tour. It's Dr. John Deloney along with Dave Ramsey. And we're hitting the road, coming to a city near you. And it's the Money and Relationships Tour. So this is really cool. You guys, John, you guys are kind of putting a new twist on these live events. And tell us more about it.

Yeah, it's... Every stop is going to be different. So Dave and I speak all over the country and we're going to show up. But usually when we do that, we're telling people what we want to talk about. Right. And this one's going to be different. Everyone in the audience before the show is going to get to vote on what they want to hear about. And...

Dave and I will both be on stage for the whole night. It's going to be a wild... That's really cool. You know what I think of when... The unhinged evening. I think of America's Funniest Home Videos where you have a little thing and you lock in your vote. That's exactly it. Is it like that? Yeah. And then you've been on stage with Dave. You never really know where we're going to go, what's going to happen. All things are possible. And...

I tend to think things are funny that he doesn't think is funny. So I think it's going to be a fun, fun adventure of a night. I can't wait. I'm looking forward to it. I don't get nervous about much and I'm, I'm,

I can get pretty nervous about this. I mean, you could be talking about anything, whether it's budgeting, relationship dynamics. It'll be everything from sex and intimacy to marriage to dating to... And getting Dave Ramsey's dating tips will be legend. To wealth building to investing and everything in between. Love this. Okay, so this is coming to a city near you. We've got a lot on the list. We've got Louisville, Durham, Atlanta, Phoenix, Fort Worth, Kansas City. Get in where you fit in. Join Dr....

I keep wanting to say Dr. Dave Ramsey. That is not right. Dave Ramsey and Dr. John Deloney live and in person for a night where you'll laugh, learn, and change your life. Get tickets to the Money and Relationships Tour at ramseysolutions.com slash tour. And if you're tuning in on YouTube or podcast, you can go ahead and click the link in the show notes. That's how it works. All right, let's go back to the phone lines. We've got Helen in Orlando, Florida. What's up, Helen? Hi, how are you? Thanks for taking my call. Yeah.

So, just a quick recap of me. I'm a single mom to four boys, one with special needs, and I have $23,000 in unsecured debt, $65,000 in school loans. I have a mortgage of $260,000. I don't have a car payment, and my...

goal is to you know pay everything off and do what I need to do the kickback is I'm a single mom and I only make 58,000 a year and I've heard on the show and you know in other podcasts and things like that that the best way to get out of debt is to make more money one of the wonderful things that I actually took the job I have right now because I'm able to work remotely from home yeah

I don't have to do extra payouts with having the kids in daycare or somebody coming home to watch my children. So it's been a blessing, but at the same time, I feel like

I don't know what other steps to do. I just got the book. I downloaded the app and I started putting my numbers in a few weeks ago, but I just feel like, oh my gosh, am I ever going to get it? What should I do? Should I sacrifice? Because I could get a better paying job. What would that mean? That would take me away from my kids. Would that mean daycare? What would that mean financially? Because you got to count that cost. Exactly.

Exactly. So right now when I'm looking at the cost, it's better for me to stay in my job. It's consistent. I have my, my, you know, I have the income I need and I'm also home when the boys get home and also for like summer or winter vacations, I'm able to be here and they're here.

Yeah. I don't know. There's a part of this. Now you get to make the choice. Now, if you told me, hey, Jade, there's another job I can take. I'll earn more to the point where it would out earn any other child care and it'd be worth it for me. And if you told me that, I'd be like, say less. Like, let's go.

But in this case, if you're telling me, hey, I might make more on paper, but once I add in the new child care fees that I'd have, then it's no longer worth it. And that's a real discussion. And at that point, it doesn't really make sense. There is a part of this and John, feel free to feel free to chime in.

there comes a point for all of us and it'll be at a different point where we've done all the things we can do, right? You cut your budget as much as you can cut it. You've added as much extra income as you can add. And you've, you know, sold as many things as you can sell. And your income at that point is your income and your margin is your margin. And you take that horse to the old town road and you ride till you can't no more like that.

That is it. And you just have to ride out the timeframe at that point. And that's not fun, especially when you've been kind of getting high off of finding other things to sell and other ways to add money and other. And it's like you're able to create this excitement about it. But when those switches turn off and you're like, well, here I am.

This is my margin. Then you're like, you're just left with the timeframe. And that is a very real feeling of like, oh crap, you know, this three year, here it is for three years. Now the good side of that is,

whatever that timeframe is, you don't know what's gonna happen in that timeframe. You could find another opportunity. You could have something come in your lap that gives you the opportunity to bring in more money in some form or fashion. But if for right now, that's where you are, there is a part of that where you go, okay, I have 500 extra dollars that I throw out this debt every single month and I'm gonna do my part. And as long as I keep doing my part,

The debt will tick down. I am going in the right direction. And you're a single mom with four kids, one kid, special needs. You are in a season of life right now, period. And sometimes that is the case. We have people call in here all the time where they go, man, Jade, I've got...

three kids in daycare, or I've got, you know, I'm in this season of life where just everything is expensive and there's not much I can cut. This is where we're at. And sometimes you just have to accept, all right, that's where I'm at. As long as I'm still going forward, I may not be going at the pace that I want to go, but this is probably only temporary and I have to own where I'm at right now. John? Helen, where's these four kids? Where's their dad?

He sees them every other weekend. Okay. Yeah. How fresh is this divorce? You still there? I just lost you. You still there? Uh-uh. Helen, you still there? She's there. She's just broken up. Get to a place where you got some clarity on that cell signal. Yeah, you still there, Helen? Yeah.

Helen, I'm losing you. Well, we'll try to help you out as best we can. We can't really... Yeah. If we can get you back, we will. Let's see if we can get her back because I'd love to finish this conversation because I think it's instructive. But often on the heels, Jade, of a divorce, the parent who ends up with the majority of the custody often wants to...

do the best they can to not quote unquote disrupt the rest of these kids' lives, right? So I'm gonna keep the house the same. I'm gonna keep the town the same. I'm gonna keep the schools the same. I'm gonna keep everything the same even if it means,

drowning financially, being in a job, making half of what I could be making somewhere else because the idea is I have so much guilt. I've already blown up their world enough that we're going to change that. I think I can get her back. Helen, you're back? Yeah. Yeah, I'm back. Okay, great. Did you hear what I said? Did that ring true? No, I didn't hear that last part. What was it? All right, so we're going to be going up to a break here in a minute, but I'm going to hold you over because I think this is an important conversation, but we'll get to it the best we can. Absolutely. How...

How fresh is this divorce? It's, um, we're divorced for seven years. The paperwork wasn't signed to until two and a half years ago. Okay. How much of the world that you live in now is you trying to keep stability for these kids? Oh my gosh. So much. Okay. So it's a common thing that, um, sometimes we will try to do this thing called stability, right? We'll try to, I don't disrupt her. I don't disrupt their lives at all. I want everything to be calm and cool, but,

When reality says their lives have already been pretty disruptive and so maybe the best thing is to rip the bandaid off and go do the next hard, terrifying, scary right thing, which might mean to move. It might mean to go live with my parents for a year with four kids so that we can get our head above water. It might mean I'm going to love this season where I'm home with my kids, but I'm not going to

but I'm going to work like bananas to get me a second job. And maybe I take another full-time home job that I do late at night. Or like Jade says, I might just ride this season out. But I want you to not consider disruption an adverse thing right now. You might need to disrupt everything for one year, two years, maybe three years and clean this mess up. And that's the best long-term play for peace. Thanks for staying with us, Helen. We'll be right back.

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You're listening to The Ramsey Show. I'm Jade Warshaw. Next to me, my buddy, Dr. John Deloney. We're taking your calls this hour, talking about your life, your money, whatever it is that concerns you. Money touches all of us.

all of that. So give us a call. It's a live show. But until we get to the phone lines, we've got today's question of the day, which is brought to you by YRefi. If private student loan debt is taking away your peace of mind and you don't see a way out, you need YRefi. YRefi refinances defaulted private student loans that other places won't touch.

and gives you low fixed rate loans built for you. So go to YRefi.com slash Ramsey today. That's the letter Y-R-E-F-Y.com slash Ramsey. Remember, it may not be available in all states. All right. Today's question comes from Drew in Colorado. Drew writes, I've been watching your YouTube channel for a few months now, and I've become hyper-focused on my finances and my future.

I have my starter emergency funds and I'm paying off my car, which is my last debt. I have a plan for how much I want to earn, what type of home I want, and how to get there. However, my fiance hasn't shown the same drive or aspirations. We've talked about why I've become so focused, but over a month has passed and she hasn't raised any finance or future-related concerns. Should I stay and focus on myself or should we break up so I can prioritize my goals?

Drew, first I would say take about 30% off, brother. Maybe 40% off and just slow the roll. Intense. My guy is laser. Terminator 2. Jay, tell me if this sounds familiar. I know I can be a lot sometimes when I get pretty into something. And my wife has learned, and she learned early on, that sometimes when I get super fired up about a thing,

She just says, okay, cool. And then I run around like a chicken in the yard, balking and flapping my wings. And then a month or two later, I'm like,

You want to go out to eat? Right. Or whatever my thing is. Right. Microplastics. That's microplastics. We got to get rid of everything. She's like, all right. There was a season when we were newlyweds, when I was like, I was doing, I had kept these long spreadsheets. I didn't have a lot of friends, but I was like, these N equals one experiments with diets. And so she would literally at the beginning of the month, she'd be like, what are we this month? And I'd be like, we're raw vegan. And she's like, oh, okay. That's the hardest. But it was, yeah. But I would do all these different, we're full keto this month. Anyway,

She just let me run. And when I read this, I see a guy who found us on YouTube. Yeah. It wouldn't surprise me. Maybe I'm wrong, Drew. If you found several cool things to rabbit hole down on YouTube, we just happen to be one of them. A love that you picked us. Awesome. I do too. Yeah. And you have seen the light and you're like, man, I want to do this for me. And then you say, I have a plan for how much I want to earn, what time of home I want and how I'm going to get there.

And you are not in the world with a fiance of where you are planning your job, your home. You're planning the life y'all want to have, the world y'all are going to create. And so it sounds like you've gotten really excited and you have announced to this person who is deciding whether to hitch her wagon to you forever and you to her forever.

And you're telling her how things are going to go, where you're going to live, what you're going to do. And she's like, I'm going to sit over here and have my coffee. She's writing her own letter somewhere. Yeah, she is. Exactly. Yes, exactly. Just a different YouTube channel, right? So I don't know, Jade. Should I stay and focus on myself before or should we break up? Listen, it's only been a month. He said only, well, he said over a month, which makes me think it's like 31 days or like 32 days. Right, right.

Sam and I were having the same conversation this morning. We were talking about somebody...

uh somebody commented on something i wrote on social media and we were talking about that and the context is you know we're big on if you are following the ramsey plan whether it's the baby steps or you know whatever it is that we teach here and you're married or you're about to be married it's very important for you guys to be on the same page i subscribe to that i 100 believe that it's important to be on the same page however there's a part of that where a lot of us have

told ourselves that that happens instantly. And it doesn't. It takes a long time. It takes a long time. Like what Sam and I were saying is we were two people who were what I would say 100% aligned. And it still took us a long time to just do the things the right way and not try to find workarounds and not try. Like, so the point in this is it's only been a month and you're not married. So she's probably also still deciding that.

How she fits into this, who she is here. I wouldn't just cut it off right there at the knees. It takes time for people to go, oh, I was doing something this way. And I was okay with what I was doing. You're suggesting something new. Let me get my head around that. I'm not saying no. Help me understand it. What is this going to mean for me? And I've also found, John, that I'm treading lightly here. I've also found that different...

like depending on your, your time of life, like the things that I did when I was single and could just flip a switch and be like, I'm doing it. Like, like you said, raw vegan, you know, and I'm going in and then it's like, okay, now I get married and it's,

a little bit harder but still somewhat easy now Sam and I are the ones doing it then you add kids then you add a 9 to 5 job then you add you know the more layers you add what I find is the more you stop and think okay what's this going to mean for me who does it affect everything's a trade yes and so I say all that to say it's not a light switch

Changing how you handle your money for you is emotional and for the people connected to you is emotional. And they're going to have to go through that journey and they're gonna have to do whatever rounds that you did and it might take them longer. It doesn't mean they're not gonna get there. - Right. - You know? - So, Jay, probably the most common question I've received over the last five years of doing the show is this, is this question. Is how do I get my partner on board? In some shape or fashion, that question.

I always think it's worth getting beneath the plan, the Ramsey way, getting beneath that. Right. And except in cases of extreme pathology, somebody's not well or somebody is just a jerk or whatever. The two words that I've seen resonate the most have been the words peace and or the words freedom. And if you drew watch YouTube and the light switch came on,

"Oh dude, I grew up in a house where my parents were stressed about money all the time and I don't want that for my life. I'm gonna become my own bank. I'm gonna get an emergency fund. I'm not gonna owe anybody anything." Then what you really want in your life is peace. What you really want in your life is free. Nobody will tell me and my family what we're gonna do.

Then you sit down with your fiance and say, what does peace look like to you? What does freedom look like to you? And what you may find is, and I just had this conversation recently with a family that's very wealthy. They won't pay off their mortgage. And one of them said their dad, who's elderly at this point, was adamant. You never pay off your house. And it was one of those old, it was an old like rule of life, right? Mm-hmm.

But it wasn't just a math problem there. It was, my dad was real successful.

but on this one thing I'm going to have to go against my right. So it had a lot of layers to it. Yes. And so all I have to say is freedom may be look different, but y'all can, everyone wants to have that conversation about what does peace in our home feel like? And she may look at you and say, peace feels like you get off YouTube. Sometimes listen, peace feels like you're not coming at me with a new workout plan and a new money plan and a new diet plan. And that's just me as my house. Right. But like a new thing every month,

Peace might feel like, so Drew, don't break up with her unless, unless this is, unless this is already going to happen anyway. And you have a fiance now. You're not focusing on yourself. You're beginning to focus on the world y'all are going to create together. So, and by the way, you are focusing on yourself, but y'all know what I mean.

Sit down and say, okay, say we get married a year in. What does freedom look like for us? What does peace look like for us? And by the way, sorry for just beating you over the head with my YouTube channel stuff, right? Yeah, yeah. Instead of inviting you in. Yeah. So that's just what I would think. Yeah, you just... I think you have to...

have space for her to be her and you to be you and whatever clicked for him watching that is not necessarily going to hit the same nerve for her. And he's got to find what that nerve is. That's right. And yeah, I mean, I'm just looking at the sentence over and over. However, my fiance hasn't shown the same driver aspirations.

Listen, there are certain things if Sam Warshaw is talking to me about, I'm like, this is the most boring topic ever. And I have zero interest in what you're telling me right now. But because I love you, I'm going to listen and I'm probably going to act like I'm interested. But you're going to have to find a way to get me interested in this. When I start talking about track split times in the US 4x4, my wife's eyes roll in the back of her head. I'm like, you realize that split time? She's like, you realize how little I care. Yeah. Which is part of it, right? It's part of it.

My husband used to try to make me watch this show on Netflix. It was like called Abstract or something. And I literally told him, I said, this is the most boring show in history. Please don't make me watch it. He's like, Jade, I promise you it's good. He hasn't convinced me yet. It's a journey. So that's the takeaway. Peace and freedom. Everybody can agree. That's right. This is the Ramsey Show.

Hey, what's going on? Happy New Year, everyone. This is my favorite time of the year. January gives me a chance to reset and make intentional choices, and I like to break down big dreams into small practical goals. Instead of trying to do everything all at once, I create new systems, and I create a simple roadmap of what I'm going to do next.

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All right. You're listening to The Ramsey Show. Thanks for hanging out with us. I'm Jade Warshaw. Next to me, my colleague and good buddy, Dr. John Deloney, taking your calls this hour. 888-825-5225 is the number. This is a live show. So if you want to call in, do it now.

Hey, I also want to mention to you guys that the third hour of the show continues on in the Ramsey Network app. So if you don't have the Ramsey Network app, you need to download it today, especially if you want to watch the rest of the show. You can do that by going into the app store. You can do that by clicking the show notes. And of course, Google Play is where you go if you're an Android user. So that's where I want you to go. That's what I want you to understand at the

end of this hour so let's go to the phone lines we've got kane who's in birmingham alabama what's up kane hey good afternoon guys you better tell me y'all yeah how can we help you today

My question is, I have 18 more months until I pay my house off. Nice. I have all my money in a high-yield savings account, which is $140,000, drawing 3.8%. Okay. I was just wondering, while I continue to say to pay my house off, should I put it in the stock market or leave it in the high-yield savings account, only drawing 3.8%?

Eight, zero percent. Such a good question. Yeah, I would leave it exactly where it's at. It's only drawing 3.8 percent. But for the time, I mean, that's pretty much guaranteed. You're not going to lose money. And since you have such a low, it's a short tail on this. You said 18 months. I would definitely leave it there. We found that kind of the five year point.

And more is where we might say, OK, yeah, you could invest it. If you said, hey, I think I'm going to be doing this in the next five to seven years. I'd say, OK, yeah, like drop it in an index fund in a brokerage account. That'd be fine. But kind of that five year and less point, it becomes really volatile. And it's not it's never guaranteed. But at that five year or less mark, there's a very good chance of not really knowing what will have happened with that money. And so for that reason, I would say leave it exactly where it's at. I'm really proud of you to have a paid off home. Thank you.

Really, really good. How long have you been doing the steps? I guess since I was like 22, but I didn't know I was doing the steps. I found Dave Ramsey like four years ago and I was doing the steps already. That's good. Just because I came from like a

A childhood of not having any money. Well, I'm proud of you. Very, very, very good. Very good question. I love it. Paid off home in 18 months. Yeah, dude, that's pretty wild. And I love, one of my favorite people to meet in this wild world that we live in now, Jade, is when somebody's like, y'all have a whole business that just tells people to live on less than they make? Yeah. Dave Ramsey's got a whole bunch of houses. And you mean you just tell people,

Pay off your debts and don't borrow money. That's your business. Yep. Over and over. Over and over again. It's like Cain from Birmingham is like, yeah, I didn't come from much. I just decided I was going to make some and save it. And I just love. Common sense. It's my favorite person. Common sense, man. Isn't it? It's so good. All right. We got Jessica in Atlanta, Georgia. What's up, Jessica? Hi. Thanks for taking my call. You bet.

So about seven or eight years ago, I found a debt relief company to help me pay off credit cards to work with the companies. And so we set up a plan where I would pay them $1,200 a month for one year, and then that would be enough to pay off all of the cards.

So at the end of 12 months, I get a note saying, well, all that money kind of went into a savings account. And then we started working with each creditor and we couldn't pay this one off. And maybe that was in the fine print. I don't know, but that's not what I was expecting. At that point, I was mad and just let it go. So they weren't able to strike a deal with you?

for less than what you owed. And so therefore the money that you had stacked up with them wasn't enough to pay it off. Is that what you're saying? Right, right. Okay, so... And that was...

That was like eight years ago. And no one's ever contacted me about it. But at the same time, it shows up on my credit. And so my credit score is really low, you know. I mean, that's it. I mean, this is like 13 years old. I just assumed it would like drop off. Why? But I guess I was wrong. That's what I thought. I thought like after seven or eight years, it dropped off. The unpaid debt, you mean?

Right. Well, no, I mean, it's it's just at that point, really, you're lucky no one's sued you for it. It sounds like you knew about it. I'm just going to be honest. It kind of sounds like you knew that the money was remaining there. It wasn't what you wanted, but you're kind of just hoping it'd go away on its own. Correct. And it didn't because this thing is eight years old. So how much are we talking about here?

Well, they say that it's now $8,733. What was the original tab? I don't know. I think it was more like $3,000 or $4,000. So have you tried contacting them? Whoever's holding this debt, have you tried contacting them?

But that's my issue. Like, I mean, I guess I could call the credit card company, which was Chase. I guess I could call them and say, who has it? I don't think they have it anymore. I don't know who has it. I don't know who to negotiate with. I just know I want it gone and whatever I need to do. I know somebody can negotiate that price down. I mean, somebody is you. It's you. It's you. If I'm you. Yeah, but I don't.

If I'm you today, you've got a couple pieces of homework. Number one, yeah, contact Chase and find out, say, who's holding this debt? Because they probably sold it off a long time ago and some debt collector is holding it. The next thing is gather up your money and say, okay, I may not have $8,733, but offer them 20% or 30% or see what you can get because you're going to be able to settle this. It's so old that you're going to be able to settle this for an amount. And when you do settle it,

just make sure you get it in writing and make sure it's completely paid off, that they send you, that it's a zero balance. And make sure that you have the money saved up for when you are ready to make that deal because they're going to want it. When you say, hey, will you make a deal? They're going to want to start that process almost immediately. Do you have $2,500 cash? Yes. Okay. I would find out, I would do everything I can to find out who it is and I'll call them and say, I'll give you $2,500 today, right now. And...

You're not going to give me your checking account number. Never, ever, ever. But you'll put on a prepaid debit card and you'll pay them off. See, I'll give it to you right now if you'll settle this thing in full and you send me something in writing today. You send me a contract offer, $2,500 in writing right now. I'll pay it right this second and we'll be done.

They think they will never see this money. Do what? I need to go get a prepaid credit card. No, you get whatever it is. Send them a money order. Once you figure out what the, like once you settle on the amount. Just don't give them your checking account number.

And just know you're probably going to have to talk to five or six different bozos before you get to the right one. Because when you call these companies, they want to give you the runaround. Okay. So you're going to have to really lock in and say, listen, this is all I have. This is all I'm paying. This is eight years old. If you ever expect to get any money, it's today. Like you're going to have to lock in like a dog on a bone to get this done. And they will say mean things about you. They'll talk about your family. They'll talk about your hair color, whatever.

They'll talk about an old boyfriend you had back in middle school. They will find ways to poke your pressure buttons. They don't think they will ever see this money again. So the fact that you pick up the phone and call and say, I'll give you $2,500 right now. They probably bought this debt for 700 bucks. Yeah. And so if you offer it. It's 13 years old. It is. But here's the other side of it. Here's the other side of it. At some point you borrowed three or $4,000 from somebody and you said, Hey, if you let me have this today, I'll pay you back.

So the other part of this is now that you're in a position to pay this off, go pay the debt. Go pay the debt. It's cost you more just on your soul, right? And so if you call them and say, I got cash right now, I'm going to settle it. Let's be done.

Make it happen. Okay. Is that cool? And they're going to be mean. Like Jade says, we can't do it. I talked to my manager. He says, I can only do it for $6,000. He said, okay, cool. I'm going to hang up in five, four, three, and if they let you hang up, hang up. And then call them right back. And some other person will answer the phone. Somebody will settle that for you. And a buddy of mine says, who used to work in collections, says,

call at the end of the month and they try to close their books at the end of the month. And so they're more likely to say, okay, let's take it right now. Let's do it right now. Let's do it right now. So just some thoughts there, but you settle it. That's a great way. Listen, that's a great way to start the year out is make sure that you're going back, you're taking control of the things in your money that you can take control of. And as a matter of fact, if you want to make sure that you're staying on track with your financial goals, we've got a quiz out there to check your progress.

So head out there. It's our Get Started assessment. It's on the Ramsey homepage there. So take that assessment. If you had it, haven't done it yet, you need to do it now. That does it for this hour of the show. John, thanks for hosting with me. Folks in the booth, thank you so much. We'll see you inside of the Ramsey Network app after this. Bye.