0:01

Errors Naturally

0:10

not Live

0:30

from the headquarters of Madam Any

0:32

Solutions it's a show where we help

0:34

people build wealth, do work that they

0:37

love and create amazing relationships. I

0:39

am Rachel Cruz and co-hosting today

0:41

with my good friend and family

0:44

Ramsey personality George Camel. And

0:46

we are here to take your calls America.

0:48

It is a free call anywhere

0:50

in the country, which it's been a free call for a

0:52

long time. George, when are we going to start charging? We

0:55

got to vote. That's like a 2000. If

0:59

you remember having to pay for long distance calls

1:01

when that was a thing, it

1:05

is a call any call in the country

1:07

at triple eight eight two five five at

1:09

two two five and we will answer your

1:11

money questions, relationship questions, questions about

1:13

work. We are here to talk to you.

1:15

So first up we have Portia in

1:18

Houston, Texas. Hey Portia, welcome to

1:20

the show. Hi,

1:23

hi Rachel. Hi George. Love your book, Breaking

1:25

Sleep and Jet. Oh, thank

1:28

you. It's a good shout out. How

1:30

can we help you today? Yes.

1:33

So I

1:35

just graduated from school

1:39

in December and I feel like I'm

1:41

late with everything. So I

1:44

have of course debt and I'm just trying

1:46

to find like the proper time to purchase

1:48

my house. When

1:51

I did the numbers, when I worked the

1:53

numbers, it appears that based on my income,

1:56

I will be able to pay my debt off

1:58

in about two. years.

2:01

So my car, I only have like two

2:05

major debts, which is my car

2:07

and my student loans. My car

2:09

is 14.5K remaining

2:11

and so I'm paying it

2:14

off. I'll be done paying

2:16

it off in April. Yay.

2:20

And my student loans it's

2:23

a hundred and thirty four thousand. What's

2:26

your degree on paying? It's

2:28

my master's in finance and

2:30

investment management. Okay and

2:33

do you have a job? Did you get one out of school? Yes

2:37

I did. How much you make? Even

2:41

a hundred and sixty six thousand a year.

2:43

Good for you Portia, that's awesome. Thank

2:46

you. So what's your

2:48

question today? So

2:51

when I pay this off because I'm all for, I'm

2:53

disgusted by that. Like I am not interested

2:56

so I'm past, I cut up my credit

2:58

cards, I'm done. I just

3:00

want to know, I don't have any kids yet

3:02

and so I am getting

3:04

married too. So I just want

3:07

to know Michael, thank you so much.

3:09

I just want to know like when it would

3:11

be a proper time to pay for a house

3:13

or do I rent like Georgia I've heard you speak

3:15

on like you

3:17

know don't get caught up in the hole where

3:20

my kids are gonna be you know we're you

3:22

know thinking family the big yard the whole nine

3:24

and a townhouse renting

3:26

a townhome can be. So I'm

3:29

thinking in my situation is

3:31

that the direction because I'm thinking about my age.

3:34

How old are you? I'm 35. Oh my goodness. Ancient.

3:39

Throw in the towel to pack it

3:41

up. Portia, it's over. It's over. Rachel

3:44

hit a prime about 24 and it's been downhill since. Portia,

3:50

you're working. You have so much time. You're doing

3:52

great. But I know compared to your peers you're

3:54

seeing people in their 20s they're like well they

3:56

I should own a home by now but also

3:59

you had a different a different journey and

4:01

you got a master's and you got further

4:03

education and you had debt. And so that's

4:05

okay that you're delayed with this dream but

4:08

don't do what most people do which is go

4:10

buy a house while you have a giant pile

4:12

of debt, why you're trying to invest, why you're

4:14

trying to do everything else in life. Yeah, when

4:16

are you getting married, Portia? I'm getting married

4:19

this summer. This summer, okay, that's great.

4:21

And what's his status? Do you guys

4:23

know where you want to live? Do

4:25

you, yeah, are you guys on

4:28

the same page with all of that? Well,

4:31

he has no debt. He's never financed

4:33

a car. He's awesome. I

4:35

like this guy already. He sounds like a winner. So what

4:37

will you, you know what his income is or are you

4:39

not there yet in the relationship? I hope

4:41

so, there's a date. You never know? We've been together

4:44

for years. So, yeah, he makes 72,000 a year. Okay,

4:49

so you'll have a household income of over 200K this

4:51

summer. Yeah.

4:53

Which is going to speed up your debt payoff process. Yeah.

4:57

If he's the man I hope he is. Which is,

4:59

we're gonna clean up our must now. Yeah,

5:03

that's right. Yeah, he's very encouraging. So let's

5:05

play this out. By April, the student loans

5:07

are gone. You get married in the summer.

5:09

You're attacking the student loans. And

5:11

when do you think it'll be paid off with

5:14

all that factored in with his income? And

5:19

maybe his savings. Who knows? He may come in with a

5:21

hundred grand in savings and be able to wipe out your

5:23

debt. True.

5:26

Well, when I did the math, I

5:30

know I could pay my car off quick, like in

5:32

three months. I'm already on track with that.

5:35

So I'm paying like 2,500 every

5:38

two weeks to pay that off. Right, so

5:40

like five grand a month, you're throwing a

5:42

debt. Yes. And

5:45

now the student loans, it does, well, the

5:47

student loans is 134,000. And

5:51

I think it'll take me about two years I've

5:53

decided to live on just maybe 30% of my

5:55

income to

5:58

pay it off. Yeah. And that's great.

6:00

And Portia, and I honestly, with you

6:03

guys getting married, combining incomes, and like

6:05

George said, him bringing anything into the

6:07

marriage, you guys go, you'll pay it

6:09

off faster. I really do believe that. So whether it is

6:11

you guys combining and being on the same team or even

6:13

just you, I mean, I just, I can

6:15

already tell from this call and the tone of your

6:17

voice, I'm like, you're going to do this quickly and

6:19

probably faster than you even realize. So yeah, I think

6:21

once you're out of debt, I would build up a

6:23

strong emergency fund of three to six months of expenses.

6:25

And then by that point, I mean, yeah, you and

6:27

him, I think you guys really look

6:30

and say, okay, you know, where do we want to live?

6:32

What is this one? What do we want to, you know,

6:34

where, what part of Houston do we want to be? Do

6:36

we want to do a townhome since we don't have kids

6:38

right now? Do we, and can we maybe

6:41

afford something more? And that's what we choose to step

6:43

into. So I think it's totally up to you guys.

6:45

I think I would stick with that formula

6:48

though, of your, of your payment being no more than 25%

6:50

of your take-home pay. I think that's where it gets a

6:52

lot of people. And really, you

6:54

know, you guys together look, but I think it's

6:56

going to be sooner than what you think, Portia.

6:58

And I think that's the best

7:00

next step for you all is to save up that

7:03

down payment. And if, um, does he

7:05

own a home now? No. Okay.

7:07

No, that's great. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, we paid

7:10

for a year or two and get that down payment

7:12

saved up. And that may be four years from now,

7:14

you guys get into this house, but you're going to

7:16

do it with so much peace and patience and equity

7:18

that it's going to be a blessing instead of a

7:20

burden. Yeah, that's right. Well, Portia,

7:22

um, yeah, go ahead. So

7:24

family can stress. I was going to say, I appreciate

7:27

that because family can, we ain't going to get a

7:29

house. I know. You got to turn that

7:31

volume down. They don't pay your bill, Portia. That's

7:33

the problem. If they did, that'd be great. Say

7:35

great. You go get me a house then. If

7:37

you want me to have one so bad. Right.

7:40

That's the problem

7:42

is avoiding all the pressure. That's the hardest part

7:44

of this whole financial mess. Yes. And I think

7:46

people, you know, they say that from one element

7:48

of like establishing roots and having your place, but

7:51

also from a financial standpoint of, yeah, once you

7:53

get in, you're building equity and it's, you know,

7:55

it's good for your overall financial picture. But Portia,

7:57

you guys are going to be fine. You're going

7:59

to be fine. You're going to be fine. You're going

8:01

to get a house when it's best for you guys.

8:03

You're going to both be investing. You make insane money.

8:05

You make great money, over 200. You

8:09

guys will start investing consistently. You're

8:11

going to build, I really think, a

8:13

great financial life together. The

8:15

fact that he has such great common sense with

8:18

money and already such great money habits from

8:20

what you've said, I think you're going to do

8:22

great. Here George and I as

8:24

your friends, patience is you're fine. You're good without buying

8:26

a house. Pay off that debt. You're going to get

8:28

an emergency fund down payment and you're good to

8:30

go. This is the Ramsey Show.

8:36

Hey guys, it's Rachel. You've heard me

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9:03

That's chministries.org-budget. Welcome

9:10

back to the Ramsey Show. We are

9:12

taking your calls and up next we

9:14

have Seth in New Orleans. Hey

9:16

Seth, welcome to the show. Hey,

9:19

thanks for having me. Absolutely. How

9:21

can we help?

9:24

I mean, not to be

9:26

too long with it, but 2018

9:28

rolled around and Dave

9:31

came out to church nearby my house

9:34

and I went and listened to him

9:36

talk. I've

9:39

been broke and working hard and decided

9:42

that I'd follow him and be working hard

9:44

and not broke. Over the

9:46

last couple of years, I've worked real hard

9:48

and put a lot of seeds in the

9:51

ground. This

9:53

holiday had some of my family over

9:55

and I have new property and some

9:57

new space and they wound up...

10:00

We were asking about the mortgage, we were working

10:02

on some land and we asked about the mortgage

10:04

and I just kind of said, I don't have

10:06

mortgage on the property. Then

10:09

one thing came to another and it came

10:12

out that we had a lot more

10:14

money than my family had ever thought you could have.

10:17

And it's caused quite

10:20

a bit of a humdig around

10:22

the family. So

10:24

have they asked you for money or

10:26

are they just upset and envious that

10:29

you don't have debt and you're not

10:31

strapped with payments? Oh

10:33

yeah, no, all. Yes, sir. All of

10:35

it. So they straight upset, hey, you're doing pretty well,

10:38

boy, aren't you? You got any of that money laying

10:40

around for us? Like was it joking or was it

10:42

pretty serious? No, I

10:44

mean we went out for a mess of kids,

10:46

you know, and so we went out one night

10:48

for something and the

10:50

ice cream was there. You know, you told my kids

10:52

about ice cream, whatever, kids about ice cream. It wound

10:54

up being ice cream clear which isn't a big thing

10:57

anymore. And you know, we're like,

10:59

oh, it must be nice. And then the next night

11:01

they were saying, you know, we go out to dinner and my wife was

11:03

there, we only went to dinner and my family was over. So it was

11:05

like, oh, just the two of us would go out and they were like,

11:07

oh, you got us, you can go too, this is us. But

11:09

no, I do not. I do not have you.

11:11

So there's this assumption and entitlement now of like,

11:14

well, he'll cover it because he's doing pretty well.

11:16

So he should cover it. Yeah. And

11:18

is this your direct parent? Like who's involved here? Everyone. Yeah,

11:23

no, everyone asked throughout the course of the

11:25

two weeks after that, you know, they found

11:27

out about... Aunts, uncles, cousins. and

11:49

then they started working, which is kind of our joke to us. And

11:51

I don't know, we put some

11:54

things together. And right now I think

11:56

we did our met worth at the end of

11:58

the year and it was about... Right under

12:00

four four million. Oh my goodness. Great. That

12:02

is amazing. How old are you two? Yeah

12:06

I'm 37. We're 37. So that's incredible.

12:08

And this is mostly your family not

12:10

hers No,

12:13

her family doesn't know and and

12:15

they're I mean You're like

12:17

they're not going to we're not telling anybody else after this

12:19

to bother Yeah,

12:21

they're good though. They're all square. They're not they're not

12:23

my side They're gonna be like, oh good for you.

12:25

Sorry is your family local Seth?

12:28

Do you guys have like day-to-day

12:30

interaction with them? Not

12:32

so much right now, but yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am Okay,

12:35

but they're local and you guys usually would like kind

12:37

of Do life together you did

12:39

you do dinners together like it they're part of your

12:41

rhythm in life Yes, ma'am.

12:43

Okay Hmm

12:46

Seth It's about

12:48

to get uncomfortable. How do you feel are you

12:50

like pissed about it or are you confused with

12:52

it? Are you do you feel bad? Like what's

12:54

your? overall emotion I

12:57

was upset the first night and so i've been calling

12:59

everyone together the next night and i was like Listen

13:02

my responsibility to take care of my wife and my

13:04

kids and i'm gonna do that and

13:06

I I'll I told them I would put them

13:08

through fpu, you know, and I

13:10

wrote a list of all the books I read.

13:12

I mean I picked up majority of books and

13:14

uh Library's free, you know, and

13:16

so I was like, I tell you all the books

13:18

are you can read those, you know I'll tell you

13:20

what I did or not interested in learning. No, it's

13:23

pretty bold Seth I was

13:25

expecting us to have like a conversation about saying about you. You

13:27

just did it the day after So then how

13:29

do they respond to that? They asked for you to pay for

13:31

their debt Yeah

13:34

Yeah, pretty much, you know, and they're like, well if

13:36

you don't have it or you don't want to share,

13:38

you know And it it was just a lot of

13:40

guilt And so i've been wrestling with it for a

13:42

couple months now and I was listening

13:45

to y'all show and I was like Yeah, well, I should

13:47

probably just call and say hey, you know, I mean you

13:49

guys have money I don't have a lot of people in

13:51

my life to have money. So You

13:53

know have new friends, I guess but it's hard to say,

13:55

you know, if you bother looking at you Hey, I know

13:57

you got ten thousand dollars for business. I don't have ten

14:01

I'm sorry. That's not what I have. I can talk

14:03

about it, but I'm not there. That's

14:05

right. Well, you've approached

14:07

this with a lot of tact and wisdom and

14:09

maturity, which I applaud you for, and the fact

14:11

that you're even willing to have the hard conversation

14:13

tells me that there is hope here. But

14:15

it may take a few of these conversations and

14:17

enough times to where they get the hint. And

14:20

you know what? That might hurt these relationships. These

14:23

people may not want to hang out and go

14:25

to dinner because they have some own resentment that

14:27

they – some poison they've been drinking. And

14:30

so I don't want that to be a

14:32

reflection on you, and it's going to be

14:34

painful in some of these situations. But

14:37

you have to do what's right for your family,

14:39

and you can't let this generosity turn into requirement

14:41

because that takes all of the joy out of

14:43

it. Yeah,

14:46

and just so you know, and I know you

14:48

probably know this, but just to say it out

14:50

loud, you've done nothing wrong, right? And I feel

14:52

like what can happen is they can pin you

14:54

in a corner where you feel like suddenly if

14:56

you don't do something, you're doing

14:58

something wrong because, yeah, do you have the means?

15:00

Yeah, you guys do. But you're

15:03

an adult, and you get to decide what you do, just

15:05

like what you told them. Your responsibility

15:08

is to you and your family, and what you do beyond that

15:10

is up to you. But by

15:12

you existing with this money, that is not a

15:14

wrong – you're not in the wrong. And I

15:16

feel like sometimes you can feel like, oh my

15:18

gosh, I've done – I'm the one that's done

15:21

something that's not good or

15:23

not okay. And so just remember that, that you

15:26

haven't done anything wrong. And the truth is –

15:28

and George said it, but it

15:30

probably sadly will

15:33

create a divide. And

15:35

I wish that wasn't the case, but I feel

15:37

like they've proven themselves. After you set a pretty

15:39

strong boundary and we're very honest and clear, they

15:41

chose to overstep that boundary and ask you to

15:43

pay for dinner that night. So I

15:46

think you have to have a realization too, and you

15:48

probably already have, but you and your wife stick together

15:50

as a team and just realize, oh my gosh, sadly,

15:53

they don't have the maturity to

15:55

handle this part of your life that you

15:58

brought them into, right? this

16:00

information and that's

16:02

sad because it may end up causing a

16:04

divide and stronger boundaries that you're gonna have

16:06

to set. Yeah

16:10

no I agree the thing

16:12

that I kept pushing for was and

16:15

they could do it too you know that

16:17

was hard my heart was and I'm not

16:19

trying to withhold from them I'm trying to

16:21

you know I'll walk with you I'll tell you

16:23

exactly how I did it I wrote it all

16:26

down you know I'll keep my budgets in paper

16:28

you know I can tell you how I did

16:30

it and yeah there's a lot of

16:32

luck and a lot of things but you know we

16:36

could do it together I hope you you know and they're

16:38

just no I'm interested in working I mean he used to make

16:40

fun of me in the beginning when I said oh yeah I

16:42

was gonna follow Dave Ramsey kind of no don't do that you

16:44

know that's not gonna make any money all right he

16:46

seems like his wife and his wife I want to do

16:49

that too you know yeah and

16:51

that was my heart I was like they're not

16:53

interested in learning entitlement runs

16:55

far away from work that's generally how it

16:57

goes and so I love the

16:59

old quote I think it's a Maya

17:01

Angelou quote when someone shows you who

17:03

they are believe them the first time

17:05

and if they show their character that

17:08

this relationship is based on transactions and

17:10

your forced generosity then it's not a

17:12

relationship and they're choosing to

17:14

opt out of that relationship if that's how

17:16

they see you and so the hardest part

17:18

about all this is you grappling with the

17:20

emotions of that has nothing to

17:22

do with them yeah it's you feeling like I'm

17:24

not the bad guy here because they're gonna gaslight

17:26

you and go man I you're evil I can't

17:28

believe that you're so I you're so

17:30

stingy after everything we did for you remember when you

17:32

were five and I took you there's gonna be all

17:35

kinds of things that bubble to the surface now yeah

17:38

awesome I used pretty much with nails when my dad said yeah

17:40

100% hit him right on the head yeah man it's an odd

17:46

conversation so I'll place to be but you

17:48

know I don't know I was thinking that

17:50

maybe maybe the best course would be

17:52

you know bend my knee a

17:55

little bit and just best course is I don't

17:57

flee the country and change your name but let's

17:59

not do You know Yeah,

18:02

the right courses have the hard conversations as many

18:04

times you need to and then you need to

18:07

draw the line and say listen We've talked about

18:09

this several times. This is where I stand on

18:11

it. I love you guys, but our relationship can't

18:13

be based on transactions Yeah, and again

18:16

They're choosing this like That

18:19

you haven't done anything. You've just done the

18:22

hard work for five six years a good

18:24

man I know and and this is

18:26

what is being exposed and them and

18:28

you can't control them as much as your heart

18:30

is so Good and pure and wanting that you

18:33

can't and I think it's gonna be it's gonna

18:35

Continue to create that divide and you're you're gonna

18:37

continue not to want to let them into your

18:39

life Which is so sad with family. So I'm

18:42

so sorry Seth. I hope you feel encouraged though.

18:44

You're doing good. This is the Ramsey show This

18:50

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only makes around $25,000 a year, and

20:28

recently found out our mom took out a credit

20:30

card in her name, which has a

20:32

balance of $2,000. No. Our

20:35

mom habitually has no money, and I don't see a

20:37

world where she will pay this debt off. I ran

20:39

a credit report, and as far as I can tell,

20:41

she does not have one in my name. I

20:44

make $72,000 a year, and have

20:46

been thinking about saving up to pay this debt,

20:48

so it's not hanging over my sister anymore.

20:50

Is this a good idea, and how do

20:52

we close this account? Oof.

20:55

Man. Well, there's

20:58

a lot going on here. Most of it's relational.

21:00

Only part of it's financial. Yeah,

21:02

I mean, it's illegal. She stole her

21:05

identity. It's fraud. And so, I

21:07

mean, I know people don't always... And it's hard to take

21:09

legal action on $2,000. And

21:12

against your mom. That makes things extra awkward.

21:14

Yes, yes, yes. I'm like... And

21:16

so... Oh

21:18

my gosh. Yeah, so what you would do is, yeah, in

21:21

order to close the account, you have to have it paid off. Paid

21:23

in full, then you close the account. And

21:26

then I would put, you know, as

21:29

much protection around all of your

21:31

crediting as possible. I would freeze every

21:33

account with all three credit bureaus immediately. And

21:36

just making sure that, yeah, no one,

21:38

especially her, but also having the conversation

21:40

with her. Like, she needs to be

21:42

confronted that this happened. You

21:44

guys have the knowledge of it. I

21:47

mean, and I'm like... And you hate to threaten someone,

21:49

but I'm like, you literally stole my identity and took

21:51

out money in my name to somebody that makes $25,000

21:53

a year. And

21:55

so, going forward, it's like, if you continue

21:57

to... That

22:00

with you have a legal action against me. I'm

22:03

gonna have to press like we're gonna have to move

22:05

forward to something harsher. Mom and so I don't know

22:07

again it in two thousand dollars has some people they

22:09

would go ahead and like. Do. As much

22:11

as they could buy the law. To. Get

22:13

this stopped because I guess you could get read

22:16

it right if it's considered. If it's considered

22:18

fraud yeah, sports it is actively won't

22:20

she won't in my head. But

22:22

didn't have been and again in some like. World

22:25

where you're like yes justice needs to be served but then

22:27

in the real world like to see thousand dollars and I'll

22:29

miss. You can pay a lawyer to do everything at are

22:31

now. Yeah. My first go would be

22:34

contacted credit card company say this is

22:36

fraud. This was not a purchase I

22:38

made and have them try to reverse

22:40

that. And. Secondly, Like.

22:43

Later said. I. Would close this

22:45

account, pay it off and if the sister wants to

22:47

do it as a gift to to somewhat for it

22:49

is one yeah that that I'm very sweet yeah I'd

22:51

say that's a one time saying and go hey I'm

22:53

gonna cover this and we're gonna six this and. Freeze.

22:56

All of your accounts with all the credit bureaus

22:58

of in our yeah and then confronting mom is

23:00

the peace as than another piece of this yeah

23:02

and helping sister get her and come up. That.

23:04

To me is another glaring problem outside of this,

23:07

but. right? Make night Twelve dollars an

23:09

hour. Is. Not sustainable. Long.

23:11

For and a dollar on term? Yes Oh yes

23:13

and we don't hold see as or what her

23:16

situation as by i'm she may be sixteen for

23:18

all we know. I have no idea about how

23:20

hard. And happening I'm a car and it's become

23:22

a common thing George like we're seeing more and

23:24

more of this single on Tic. Toc and

23:26

Instagram and people don't open a card

23:28

in your kid's name adam as add

23:30

them as an authorized user it as

23:32

three years old so they have great

23:35

credit when they graduate and then you

23:37

take your kids credit accidentally. or Melissa

23:39

What. Happens in a pandemic? Yeah. Send you get

23:41

strauss for gas and you have to go make.

23:43

Did. Finances, decisions that are not wise and

23:45

a crisis and your kid name is

23:47

attached to it and self again. Yeah,

23:50

we're seeing. Like. That and

23:52

of itself. Is that

23:54

legal? That's what I mean. To add

23:56

them as an authorized user? Yeah, that's legal, but

23:58

oh yeah, One of them. No, no, no,

24:00

that's illegal. Yeah, yeah, yeah without yeah,

24:03

obviously there's you can't Three

24:06

year olds for consent. No, you just add

24:08

them as an authorized user And that's

24:10

what parents are doing in the legal aspect of

24:12

it But again, it ends up

24:14

we see the horror stories and we've had people call the

24:16

show the same thing happening And it's

24:19

just tanked my credit. What do I do? They open up

24:21

cards in my name or added me as a user on

24:23

this card and it's affecting me financially.

24:25

Yes Yeah, there was a Study

24:28

by Carnegie Mellon and this was in 2011

24:31

so again, it was Few

24:35

years back but found that children

24:37

are uniquely vulnerable to identity theft and

24:39

in their analysis more than 40,000 American

24:42

children researchers at their University found

24:44

that 10% of them had

24:46

someone else using their Social Security number Gosh,

24:48

and then in 21 a study came out

24:53

That found one in 50 US children fall

24:55

victim to identity theft every year with 73%

24:58

of victims being targeted by someone they know personally

25:00

goodness Which is probably going to be

25:02

a parent an aunt and uncle the

25:04

brother or sister That's terrible and so

25:06

much of it is financially related right selling your identity

25:08

to open up accounts and credit card

25:11

And they say here the founder of the law

25:13

firm said the chief motivation behind these crimes was

25:15

when a parent has had bad Credit and is

25:17

not able to make a debt-based purchase. There you

25:19

go. And it says in most states This is

25:21

a crime fraud identity theft Misappropriation

25:23

of funds are all possible charges a

25:25

prosecutor could bring Yeah, so it's possible

25:28

to go to court for this But

25:30

again the cost of lawyer

25:32

fees add up to where you're like was this I spent

25:34

10 grand to fight two grand Was this

25:36

worth it in the end and a lot of stress

25:39

sure emotional term? Yeah. Yeah, and again

25:42

You want justice in every

25:44

legal sense of the word, right? But But

25:46

when you get down to it in the real world, it's like

25:48

oh my gosh for somebody out there her making $72,000 a year

25:51

it's like Is it really thing

25:53

for her to go and yeah go in to

25:55

hire a lawyer and do all of this, you know Or do

25:57

you Pay it, close the accounts? Have

26:00

the threatening conversation with mom of

26:02

that. Yeah some people see some

26:04

it will choose the latter. So.

26:06

We'll see. Choose violence. Never.

26:11

See our I have nicely of daily

26:13

an at Pittsburgh. Hey Bailey welcome to

26:15

the show. I

26:17

think it's taken my car. And thank you

26:19

to use Junior Team for what you do.

26:21

Ah thank you. I appreciate that. How can

26:23

we help? Two.

26:26

Years ago back when everything was

26:29

paper I stayed below. Started following

26:31

your dad at that time a

26:33

long time to got off track

26:36

in here recently. the last month

26:38

had just yeah came back around

26:40

all I'm trying to convince my

26:43

husband's. Too much solid

26:45

a program to a T.

26:47

Which. Means. Stop You are

26:50

in Best Goal and are four one

26:52

Ks and things like that. Com

26:54

he's a numbers guy so I thought he

26:56

would get it but. I key

26:58

is he doesn't seem. He says that leading

27:01

money on the table and I'm saying that

27:03

do it temporarily. So. We can pay

27:05

off some debt. Gets

27:08

armor sets you guys have. Ah,

27:11

I'm around forty thousand

27:13

on a vehicle. Seventy.

27:16

Five Hundred or Credit Card. And.

27:19

He's a numbers guy. Moons.

27:22

Successes, you know? A thing a Pr is

27:24

on my credit card. And

27:26

yeah, Does. He know with that car

27:28

will have cause to them after all the payments

27:31

and interest versus what it's worth after the term

27:33

is over. I'm not

27:35

the numbers person and I've laid all

27:37

that out which if I can understand

27:39

that's what my station as an ice

27:41

and say to him you know the

27:43

A done some things okay sir are

27:46

years like for example, after this year

27:48

will have three children through college. We

27:50

fully paid for that so they're not

27:52

coming out with Dad Pantheon. She'll guide

27:54

them as you as a family that.

27:57

I'm sorry some as you could make a year. How.

28:00

Can you. Combine

28:03

Now just recently took a new job,

28:05

so combined now work to shifty. Well.

28:12

Yeah. I mean you guys. Have.

28:14

The margin. To.

28:16

For sure pause the investing and that paid

28:18

this off manner. You know that I'm yeah

28:20

get into the day to bailey and like

28:22

and also the truth as even if you

28:24

guys continued since you know due to some

28:27

as you buddy and retirement now. She's.

28:31

A she's Maxine hairs and on max

28:33

of mine and that's what I'm saying

28:35

to have the alleged cause that. I'm

28:37

not saying let's start yeah, I'm just

28:40

saying let's pause it. And else

28:42

on this other stuff kind. Of three hours, you guys have

28:44

money in savings. We

28:46

have an ten liquid tosh.

28:48

Ten. Thousand liquid cash that I in or

28:50

something. her out young could walk in and

28:53

industries is barely over time. You know if

28:55

you've I didn't pause it and you guys

28:57

sisters max your money and got the step

28:59

paid off. You're gonna be funny. The way

29:01

why bigger threats like his advisors anonymous and

29:03

Page on your value systems obviously you're passing

29:05

is more on getting out of that I

29:07

would I would present not just the numbers

29:09

on but the why. Why is it really?

29:11

Is it because of stressing you out? Are

29:13

you fearful? Do you see My gosh, we're

29:15

empty nesters now and what we could be

29:17

doing. We didn't have a. Lease payments and and

29:19

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29:22

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29:24

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one of the topics that is really popular,

30:09

I'd say in this line of

30:11

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We are so excited to announce that Dave

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31:40

have Mark in Minneapolis. Hey, Mark.

31:42

Welcome to the show. Yeah,

31:45

thanks for taking my call. Absolutely. How can we

31:47

help? Well,

31:50

I wanted to know if you guys

31:52

had dealt with anything like a promissory

31:54

note being repaid. Um,

31:56

it's, uh, I have a promissory note

31:58

kind of hanging over my head about. $26,000 from a previous

32:00

job. The

32:05

contract was, or I was supposed to stay there

32:07

for two years, left for personal reasons, only

32:09

had about three months left until the two years was up.

32:13

But now it's with an attorney and we

32:15

just, we don't have anywhere

32:17

near that amount of money to pay. I just

32:19

don't know if you guys have ever heard

32:22

of getting out of a promissory note or what do you think

32:24

I should do? Well, I mean, this is

32:26

a legal contract that you signed and it said, hey, you

32:28

get $26,000 dollars. What

32:31

was this for? Relocation? Yeah, relocation.

32:33

Okay. And if you leave within the

32:35

two years, you owe us this money back. Correct?

32:39

Mm-hmm. And so you broke that contract

32:41

and there are consequences for breaking contracts

32:43

and one of those is you owe $26,000.

32:47

So what happened to the 26? Did you spend it all? Oh,

32:50

yeah. Yeah. I mean, we used

32:52

it for relocation from Texas over here, so.

32:55

What made you leave three months before the contract was

32:57

up? I

32:59

just knew that. I wasn't going to be able to honestly

33:02

fulfill the duties of the role and

33:04

the travel just took too much time away from my

33:06

family and I wanted to

33:09

be with the family. Okay. That's what

33:11

I prioritized. Okay. But

33:14

you knew you would owe this upon quitting. Like

33:17

this wasn't a surprise. Well, yeah. Well,

33:19

yeah. When I quit my boss that he

33:21

wasn't sure that they would actually do

33:24

anything, but he didn't really know. And

33:27

they enforced it? Yeah.

33:29

It's with an attorney right now. And

33:32

they've contacted you and expecting some

33:34

type of payment? Correct.

33:38

Other than trying to settle and negotiate, there's no

33:40

way to skirt around the law if you sign

33:42

the contract. So your best bet is to go,

33:44

listen, I don't have $26,000. Are

33:48

you willing to negotiate a smaller payment to call

33:50

this good? That's what I would do if I was

33:52

in your shoes. Do you guys have any money saved, Mark?

33:56

No. I'm sure we could talk for hours on...

34:00

The Jewish and but yeah, we have no money. Okay,

34:02

someone she making a year. Now.

34:04

I I make one hundred. Uptime is

34:07

your wife works. Yeah

34:09

she make some that sixty six.

34:11

See if I see your take on pay

34:14

one one Sexy! Ah I'm. Household

34:16

income and what what other debts you guys

34:18

have. Ah,

34:21

I'm quite a bit, I would say. From

34:25

credit cards to. Who

34:27

consolidation loans around one hundred. Of

34:30

as someone says in the credit cards. Bomb.

34:35

Grade. Now me about. Fourteen.

34:38

Thousand. Of I. And

34:41

the remaining is a debt consolidation loan.

34:45

Or yeah, like, three of I'm still. Have.

34:47

A. Ah, The

34:51

Marquis realize the decisions you guys have made

34:53

up and said. This point less money,

34:55

not great. right? Deal with a

34:57

with that a consensus between you and your wife. Like how

34:59

you guys have been doing. Money isn't working. Oh

35:03

yeah, no. the a hundred percent Okay. Ah,

35:06

I'm. And I hate that there's

35:08

twenty six thousand will be added to this.

35:10

Less I'm afraid it will be. I mean

35:12

there's nothing unless they will settle. Like toward

35:14

said I think you guys are just gonna.

35:17

Be on a hard journey here for the

35:19

next few years digging. Yourself out of

35:21

these mistakes and look smart. Nobody's perfect

35:23

of my so that's not a shameful

35:25

thing. like nobody's perfect right for you

35:27

Mom We talked about out they went

35:29

bankrupt Spiro since we should have got

35:31

foreclose on by doing bad investment feels

35:33

like ever like from one extreme to

35:35

the next like nobody here is perfect

35:37

but also you have to realize okay

35:39

what we've been doing isn't working and

35:41

so now we have to change. Not

35:43

just. Our. mindset around how we've been

35:45

looking at money because it's not working but we're

35:47

have since our habits it's gonna feel different or

35:50

license gonna look different but something has to change

35:52

in order to get a different result and us

35:54

have to get at that point we call it

35:56

the sick and tired moments around here that people

35:58

get to this point We're like, I'm so done.

36:01

I'm so done. And Mark, I hope this $26,000 situation is the thing

36:06

that just shakes you to your core that

36:09

you're like, holy crap, we can't keep doing

36:11

this. Because so far you've tried debt consolidation,

36:13

trying to move your stuff around for interest

36:15

rates and for all the other reasons people

36:17

do it. But you have to realize

36:19

what's gonna change your situation is you, Mark, you and

36:21

your wife, not some company out

36:23

there. And so that's gonna take you

36:26

guys learning a new set of principles

36:28

and a new set of skills. But

36:30

that is very possible and I want that for you as we

36:33

sit here on this call. And you

36:35

have to want it for yourself. But to

36:37

answer your question on why you called in,

36:41

I don't think there's much you can do with the $26,000

36:44

unless they'll settle. Or try to get on

36:46

a payment plan of some sort to

36:48

pay this over time. Yeah. But

36:50

the good news is, Mark, you guys made $160,000. So

36:53

just lay out some napkin math for you. If

36:55

you're able to live on a smaller portion of

36:58

that and throw 50 a year at your

37:00

debt, you're done, two and a half

37:02

years from now you're completely debt free. Even the relocation

37:04

money. Think

37:06

about that. Yeah. That

37:09

feels like a long time, but you could just sit around

37:11

for two and a half years and continue to move around

37:13

debt with consolidation loans or we could

37:15

really make some deep sacrifices and be done and have

37:17

freedom in two and a half years and

37:20

never touch debt again. That would be

37:22

my goal for you personally. Yeah,

37:26

that would be amazing. The

37:28

math says it's possible, but you have to believe it's

37:30

possible and then your actions have to follow. Okay.

37:36

So that's the plan. There's no way around it. I'm

37:38

sorry you're going through this. It stinks, but I hope

37:40

it's the wake up call you needed to go. We

37:42

gotta clean our life up. Yeah, and stay on

37:45

the line, Mark. Austin will pick up and we're

37:47

gonna give you Financial Peace University, which is our

37:49

seven lesson course, and Every Dollar

37:51

Premium, which is our budgeting app, which is gonna

37:53

help you guys look at your lifestyle. And

37:55

say, hey, we're doing nothing.

37:58

We say beans and rice. some beans, you

38:00

don't go out to eat, you don't go on vacation, you do

38:02

nothing. And there's going to be an

38:05

extremeness to all of this because I mean 14,000

38:07

credit card debt for

38:09

the most part I'm going to assume Mark that yeah a

38:11

lot of that's just the lifestyle creep of like we're just

38:13

going to continue to live and spend

38:15

where we want and you have to deport and

38:17

you say all that's done, all that's done and

38:20

it's a hard line in the sand. You cut

38:22

up the credit cards tonight, you

38:24

and your wife sit down together, cut them up, be

38:26

done with this Mark, be done with this.

38:28

I mean I can only

38:30

imagine the stress that you guys were in already with

38:33

100K in debt and

38:35

then you get this call from this attorney

38:38

of this relocation fee that costs

38:40

that's owed now

38:43

which legally it is owed and

38:45

so I want this to be your wake up call.

38:48

We can't force that on this side of the debt.

38:50

We are not lawyers so good luck with that

38:52

point. We want it for you though. We want you

38:55

and your wife and your family to experience

38:57

freedom like life's too short Mark to be

38:59

living like this and I think that for

39:01

a lot of you out there it just takes an extreme

39:05

mindset shift though and an extreme way of looking

39:07

at something so different than how you've always looked

39:09

at it and that's one of the hardest parts

39:11

towards for people. It's just a change like

39:13

it's going to feel uncomfortable not living with

39:15

credit cards. You were doing extreme spending and

39:17

now it's extreme sacrifice. Yes and it's going

39:20

to feel off. It feels like you're going

39:22

backwards but I'm telling you

39:24

if you stick to this watch these videos in

39:26

Financial Peace University do the every dollar budget you

39:28

and your wife together and in two and a

39:30

half years as George laid out the math you

39:32

have to be done and have a whole new

39:35

set of skills with for investing and building wealth

39:37

and changing your family tree. The

39:39

work's here in for you Mark. Thanks for the call.

39:41

Thanks to all the gentlemen in the booth keeping the

39:43

show afloat and thanks to you George. Thank you. Thank

39:46

you America. Live

39:51

in the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions

39:54

it's the Ramsey Show where we help people

39:56

build wealth do work that they love and

39:59

create amazing relationships. I'm Rachel

40:01

Cruz hosting at this hour with best-selling author

40:03

George Camel answering your questions So give us

40:05

a call at triple-8 8 2 5 5

40:08

2 2 5 All

40:12

right, let's hit the phone George. Go

40:14

straight to it. Let's go to Tori

40:16

in Louisville, Kentucky Hey,

40:19

Tori welcome to the show Hi,

40:21

thank you for taking my call. Absolutely. How can we

40:23

help? Well,

40:25

I have some, I need some advice

40:28

on what you all would suggest my

40:30

husband and I do to pay off

40:32

our debt My

40:35

husband is currently working two

40:37

full-time jobs and going to

40:39

school So

40:42

we are making the most we have ever made

40:45

However, we are both miserable because he's never

40:47

home and I have taken on a majority

40:49

of the housework with our children And

40:52

I also work So

40:54

my question is do we power through

40:56

like we're currently doing

40:59

to pay off our debt quicker or Would

41:03

you suggest that he scales back

41:05

on his work? We

41:07

buckled down tighter on our budget and pay off the

41:09

debt which might take a little bit longer How

41:12

much debt is left? We

41:14

have 75,000. Okay, and

41:16

how much are you guys making currently with him

41:18

working two jobs? You working a full-time job.

41:21

We bring home an average of 10,000 a

41:23

month. Okay What

41:26

kind of debt is the 75? We

41:29

have two car loans home

41:33

equity loan Two

41:35

credit cards and then one student loan

41:37

for him, but it is deferred at

41:39

this time But it is included in

41:41

that 75,000. Okay, what's he going to

41:43

school for? He's

41:46

a nurse practitioner. Okay. So when is that

41:48

over? That's going two and a half

41:50

two and a half years. Okay.

41:52

He's working two full-time jobs while becoming an

41:54

MP Yes, this

41:57

man's impressive So he

41:59

is he is a firefighter so

42:01

he actually does 24-hour shifts.

42:03

On his days off, he teaches at

42:06

our community college. He teaches in nursing

42:08

classes. So by the

42:10

time he gets home, he is exhausted.

42:12

It really has affected our whole lives,

42:14

our marriage, our children, our health. Sure.

42:18

What's the current trajectory? If you keep all of this in

42:20

your life, how soon will you be out of debt? That

42:24

is a good question. So we recently have

42:26

not been great with our money. So we

42:29

recently, January 1, started working with a

42:32

Ramsey coach on our budget.

42:35

So we've completed Baby Step

42:38

1. So I'm not... I

42:41

would think within probably 18 months maybe. How

42:45

much are you throwing at the debt total, including

42:47

extra payments? Well

42:49

we've just hit Baby Step 1. Yeah,

42:51

so you guys have been working this much. Where

42:53

was the money going? Out

42:57

the window. Did you increase

42:59

your lifestyle as he took on the extra jobs? We

43:02

did. So we bought the

43:04

two vehicles. I would sell

43:06

these cars. I don't know

43:08

what they're worth and what you owe on them, but that

43:10

feels like a better sacrifice than losing your husband right now.

43:13

Sure. I'd rather... Yeah, what are

43:15

the car numbers for us real quick? So

43:18

my vehicle,

43:21

we owe about $23 on it. I

43:24

recently looked at what it was worth

43:26

because I was considering selling. Up

43:28

side down, probably? Yeah, about $2,000 upside down. It's about $21. Okay.

43:33

That's not huge. Okay. Now my

43:35

husband, my poor husband, he purchased

43:37

a truck and it is

43:40

the worst thing we've ever purchased. It is

43:42

the worst lemon ever. He doesn't even feel

43:44

comfortable selling it to anybody. So he's just

43:46

kind of driving it around as little as he

43:48

can. How much is it? We

43:51

owe $6,800 on that. Okay.

43:54

Okay. I think it's worth about that if

43:56

you're lucky or what? Oh,

43:58

he doesn't even think we could get that. out of

44:00

it. Okay so Tori how

44:03

long have you guys been on the schedule, the

44:05

90 hour a week schedule?

44:07

He's about two and a half years. So

44:09

why Tori, I'm a little

44:12

bit confused because usually when we talk to people

44:14

on this show just in this perspective they're

44:16

working two, three jobs, they're going crazy because they're putting

44:18

extra money to the debt, they're doing it for a

44:21

reason. Why did you guys choose to do this lifestyle

44:23

two and a half years ago working

44:25

wise? I think

44:28

we were just, you

44:30

know, we weren't good with our money at that

44:32

point. Okay so it's just to keep your life

44:34

afloat? Yeah just to keep going. Okay, okay.

44:38

Because what I would say Tori is that this level

44:41

of sacrifice we've seen people do it and they do

44:43

it for a period of time maybe not, maybe not

44:45

two years but you know a good six, nine months

44:47

and then maybe they take a break for a little

44:49

bit then bring on an extra job to get out

44:51

of debt right they're doing all this for a purpose.

44:54

So if that was the case there's a part of

44:56

me that would say okay yeah if someone was calling

44:58

in and they hadn't done it yet but they're like

45:00

we're looking into this if we just power through for

45:02

two years we could get all this cleaned up like

45:04

I feel like I would be like yes, yes, yes.

45:06

You guys have been doing it for two and

45:08

a half years just to keep your lifestyle afloat which obviously

45:11

is more of a lifestyle than

45:13

what you were you know expecting because

45:15

you guys went into debt for it too. And

45:17

so I don't want you, I don't want 90

45:20

hours a week to be the

45:22

norm on how to just support your life

45:24

right like that's not, I don't want you calling

45:27

us two and a half years from now being like

45:29

well we still have 75 in debt and he's still

45:31

doing this so we need an endgame here and that's

45:33

what we're trying to show you and based on math

45:35

you bring 10 home a month you said can

45:37

you put five of that toward debt because

45:40

that would get you debt free in 15 months. And like

45:42

like live on nothing Tori like nothing.

45:46

So yes we could I did like

45:48

our what our four walls yeah

45:51

payments would be and it

45:54

was about 4,000

45:56

3535 hundred. Perfect so that means there

46:00

should be in a perfect world $6,500 of

46:02

take-home pay left to throw

46:04

at debt with minimum payments plus extra.

46:08

And once you do that math with the debt snowball

46:10

calculator, you should be debt-free in a year. I

46:16

can do about anything for a year. It

46:18

means create money on the outside. You're calling us two

46:21

and a half years after all this, so you guys are

46:23

exhausted. Like two and a half years of nine, I mean

46:25

like that's, it's not sustainable long-term,

46:27

right? That's how you guys are doing

46:29

it. I'm not, and I wouldn't recommend that long-term for anybody. If

46:31

you took the second full-time job, would it just take

46:33

an extra year? Because I'm okay with that.

46:35

If this takes two years for you guys to clean up and

46:37

you survive it. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

46:41

Yeah. But here's the deal, Tori.

46:43

I'm like, you guys have to be so committed to

46:45

this process because if you're not, you will look up

46:47

in two years and hadn't

46:49

made much of a dent in this if

46:51

you're not like really committed to that process,

46:54

you know? And maybe you guys

46:56

stay on, Tori, through the summer. Maybe

46:58

in the fall he pulls back. You know,

47:00

it doesn't have to be today, but you

47:02

guys kind of do a game plan and

47:04

just say, but we understand. Like we're parents,

47:07

we're human. Like we know that it

47:09

takes a lot of sacrifice and we don't

47:11

want your mental health to be

47:14

an issue. You know, we

47:16

don't want this idea that parents are

47:18

just workaholics and they're far away, but

47:20

people do all the sacrifice and do

47:22

what you're doing for a goal

47:24

of becoming debt-free so that they

47:26

don't have to do this anymore, right? So

47:30

there's a reason for the sacrifice and we're all for

47:32

that, but you guys have been doing it for two

47:34

and a half years and you haven't made any progress.

47:36

So my fear is if you kind of pull back

47:38

from the work side, you

47:41

know, have your money

47:43

habits really change. So I would

47:45

just tell you

47:47

guys if you can do it for a little

47:49

bit longer and maybe bring in some of that

47:51

income and then really get into the habit of

47:53

budgeting, living on nothing, getting money and

47:55

once that habit really is instilled, then maybe you pull back a little

47:57

bit from work knowing it's going to take you a little bit longer.

48:00

because I don't want you guys to

48:02

be suffering. That sounds understandable. That's

48:04

right. Yes, but you guys have the story. You can

48:06

do this. This is the Ramsey

48:08

Show. One

48:14

of the principles that we really

48:17

push people towards is savings. So whether you're

48:19

saving for an emergency fund, saving up for

48:21

a down payment on a home,

48:23

for a purchase, buying a car, a vacation,

48:25

and where to put that savings is a

48:27

question, George, I feel like I get a lot on social

48:29

media and different things. Probably

48:32

the number one question I get in the DM's is what's a

48:34

good high yield savings account? You guys

48:36

talk about this. So we're going to talk about

48:39

what a high yield savings account is in the

48:41

pros and cons. You just went to the punch line. Oh, I really... Here,

48:44

back up. All right, go again. Back up 10

48:46

seconds. So people always ask, George,

48:48

on social media, where should I save this money?

48:51

Should I save it in a savings account?

48:54

Under a mattress? Do I? Invest

48:56

it? There's high yield savings accounts. There's money

48:58

market accounts. There's all these places. Do I invest

49:01

it into the market? What

49:03

do I do? And one of the places

49:05

we always talk about investing is? A

49:07

high yield savings account. Oh, that's right, George.

49:09

We'll edit that in post. Tell us more about that.

49:11

No to the producers. I'm

49:14

just so excited. It's one of the things I love

49:16

the most. Couldn't wait to talk about an old high yield

49:18

savings account. We call them HYSA's or HYSA's for short. No.

49:25

No, no one calls them that. Oh, gosh. It's

49:27

fine. God bless. So this

49:29

is just literally a high interest savings account. They're

49:31

generally online banks because the brick and mortar banks

49:33

can't afford to dole out as high of a

49:36

rate because they've got a lot of overhead to

49:38

pay for. That's right. So traditional

49:40

savings accounts average about 0.35% on savings.

49:45

But plenty of high yield savings accounts offer rates

49:47

of over 4%, even over 5%, which is

49:50

amazing. Yes. Yeah. It's

49:53

been incredible. It's mortgage rates. Everything

49:55

has gone up, debt, all the things. We

49:59

saw the other Yeah, savings rates go

50:01

up and you know you earn more interest and

50:03

so that's what we really found and Winston I

50:05

we have a high-yield savings account We have one

50:07

for our money market and one just for short-term

50:09

savings that we just put put money in

50:11

and and and I love It

50:13

again because you obviously get a high rate

50:15

of return for a savings account right compared

50:18

to a traditional savings It's

50:20

really safe. You can get your

50:22

money out anytime for some accounts You have a limited

50:24

number of transactions you can do per month. You can't

50:26

use it. It's just like a full-on checking account But

50:29

you can it's pretty easy to access and yeah,

50:32

we use Ally. Yep. I use one

50:34

called Marcus by Goldman Sachs again We

50:36

don't have a Ramsey partner advertiser in

50:38

this space But these are just the

50:40

ones we personally use so we can tell you at least that

50:42

much and the key is to do

50:44

your research On these I don't trust the ones

50:46

that are offered by credit card companies or Apple

50:49

which makes you have a Apple

50:51

credit card to Use their savings account or

50:53

capital one or one of these companies the

50:55

big banks Yep, and so while these are

50:57

huge companies, you know Marcus by Goldman Sachs

50:59

and Ally I have not noticed

51:01

they've been marketing debt products or using

51:03

my information to sell those fair fair.

51:05

That's a key here Yeah, we would

51:07

say though. This is not a place to park

51:10

your money long-term, right? So investing don't

51:12

mix it up savings is not investing That's right.

51:14

Two different things getting some interest. Yeah, and I

51:16

always say George my role is some kind of that

51:18

five-year mark Is that yours or you're shorter longer? Yeah,

51:20

I think I say depending on the situation Three

51:22

to five plus years is that I'm gonna

51:25

invest that money versus parking it Yeah,

51:27

but you know home down payment what worries me Rachel

51:29

people want to invest their down payment and I

51:31

go yeah But three years from now, what if the

51:34

market took that dip at the real time when you

51:36

want to buy that house? Yes, yes, the 50 grand

51:38

turned into 40 grand all of a sudden. Yeah, that's

51:40

risky But a good example of this, let's say you

51:42

are gonna buy a house and you have

51:46

$10,000 saved in a high-yield savings at 5%

51:48

well over the course of 12 months in

51:50

your sleep You're gonna make $500. If you have

51:52

a hundred thousand doing the math at 5% that's

51:55

five thousand dollars over the course of 12 months

51:57

That you would gain and a good The

52:00

point, Rachel, here is that income is

52:02

taxable. People don't realize that. Now, it's not

52:04

the end of the world to get taxed on 500 bucks or

52:06

5,000 bucks, but beware of that. But

52:09

the interest of 13 million, yeah, that's a great point. This

52:11

is not free money. Yeah, that's a great point.

52:13

Yeah, and the emergency fund specifically, you guys, about

52:15

three to six months, like this is a

52:17

great place to park that. And while we say

52:19

it's not an investment, you want to be able to get to

52:21

it quickly, so your worry on that is

52:23

not, oh my gosh, am I making a high rate of

52:25

return? It's really just the idea that

52:28

it is cushion. I can get to it if I need it, something

52:30

big comes up, a job loss or a medical emergency. But

52:32

while you're at it, you might as well

52:34

put it in something that's low risk and

52:36

still make something, right? Versus just

52:39

putting it in a traditional savings account. Yeah,

52:41

high yield savings account is great. But remember,

52:44

your emergency fund is insurance, not an investment. This

52:46

is money that's made to protect you. It's not

52:48

made to make you more money. So don't be

52:50

freaked out if you're not getting a certain interest

52:52

rate. At the end of the day, it's not

52:54

going to be life changing. That's right. I

52:57

think it's a great option. And right now, it's the highest

52:59

rates I've seen. When my wife and I were saving up

53:01

for a house, interest rates on savings accounts were 2%. I

53:05

was jumping for joy because of all

53:07

the free money we were getting from the 2%. So

53:09

now that it's 5% or more, goodness gracious, I

53:11

have a lot of, you know, it's a great time to

53:13

be saving up for things because of that reason. That's right,

53:15

exactly. Yep. And you

53:17

guys, the way to find savings, one of the best

53:19

things you can do is be budgeting. Make

53:21

sure you see, okay, here's my income, here's everything.

53:24

And we talk about, you know, giving, saving, and

53:26

spending and what that looks like and

53:29

to really be intentional with putting money aside,

53:31

letting that be a habit. And so if

53:33

you have never budgeted before, maybe you are

53:35

a budgeter, I really recommend downloading every dollar.

53:37

It really is the best way. There's

53:40

a savings category on every dollar. Yes. So

53:43

you can kind of automate that and go, all right, we're going to do a direct transfer from

53:45

our paycheck or bank account to

53:48

our savings account every month. And the budget will help

53:50

you track that. And it's all right there, yep.

53:52

So every dollar is amazing for budgeting and to get

53:54

you in a position to be able to say, yeah,

53:56

we actually can find margin here and

53:58

save some money. Again, for whether

54:01

it's a car, vacation, down payment, emergency

54:03

funds, a high yield savings account, it's

54:05

a great place to park that short

54:07

term. To make sure they are

54:09

FDIC insured or NCUA if it's a

54:11

credit union. That's a good point to call out. So

54:13

when you're on the website, which the ones we mentioned

54:15

are but you want to make sure that it's insured,

54:18

I think it's up to $250,000 per depositor. So pretty sweet. Alright,

54:23

let's go to the phones. We have Aiden

54:25

in Dallas. Hey Aiden, welcome to the show.

54:29

I think it's a good day to my call. Absolutely.

54:31

How can we help? I'm

54:33

just getting ready to purchase a new

54:35

truck. I'm just trying to figure out

54:37

what... Truck, yeah. Oh,

54:40

George loves the truck Aiden. How much I can

54:42

really afford when it comes to buying a truck

54:44

for what would be smart. Alright.

54:47

How much you make a year Aiden? This

54:50

year I will gross anywhere in between from $95 to about

54:52

$115. Amazing.

54:56

And what debt do you have? My

55:00

current vehicle will be paid off in about

55:02

two months. I owe about

55:06

$300 to my Mac dealer and a

55:09

little under $500 to my Cornwell dealer. Okay.

55:13

And how much do you have in savings to buy the truck?

55:18

I have about eight but that's... I'm

55:20

trying not to touch that so I

55:22

can keep on growing that for a

55:25

down payment on a house. Yes,

55:28

I plan on trading in my current

55:30

vehicle. Okay.

55:32

Trading in for another, like a truck with a payment

55:35

on it? Yes. What

55:38

kind of truck are you going to buy? I'm still trying to

55:40

build my credit. What

55:44

truck are you looking to buy? I'm

55:46

looking to buy 2500 or 3500 diesel. What

55:51

year? Early

55:54

2010s to late 2010s. Okay.

55:58

And what is that going to cost? What kind of

56:00

cost do you think? It

56:05

all depends anywhere. I

56:08

can get the trucks I'm looking at. I can get

56:10

one for anywhere between about 20 to 40. Okay.

56:15

That's a big range. Well,

56:17

Aiden, you're probably not going to like our

56:20

answer. If

56:22

you listen back to this call, Aiden, you're going to hear that

56:24

you have a lot of priorities right now, don't you? Yes.

56:27

You're trying to pay off debt. You're trying to buy

56:29

a house. You're trying to get this truck. I

56:32

found that when people are doing too many things

56:34

at once, they don't really make progress on any

56:36

of them and it usually leads to poor financial

56:38

decisions. Right

56:41

now, you can turn the ship around pretty quick. Making

56:44

100 grand and you've got a

56:46

few thousand in debt left? Yeah,

56:50

not much. We can

56:52

clean up all of your debt within three

56:55

or four months? Yes. In

56:59

fact, you have $8,000 right now you could use to

57:01

pay off the car and pay off all of your

57:03

debt. You could be debt free today. Yes.

57:06

That would leave you with how much in savings still? A

57:09

few thousand?

57:12

Yeah, a few thousand. There

57:14

you go. That's going to

57:16

be your start emergency fund. Yep,

57:18

that'll be your start emergency fund, Aiden. Then

57:20

whatever cash you have beyond that, you can

57:22

put with your truck you're going to trade

57:24

in and you only are going to buy

57:26

a truck that you can pay for. No

57:28

more payments because debt is stealing

57:31

this income and especially with a car, you

57:33

are taking a loan out and paying interest

57:35

on an asset that's going down in value.

57:37

Mathematically, it is not a smart move, Aiden.

57:40

I would stick with the truck you have, pay it off,

57:42

drive that for a while, save up and pay cash

57:45

for your next- Six months from now, you're going to be able

57:47

to save them and pay cash for it. Yep, don't let them

57:49

bank. Deal all your income, Aiden. Don't

57:51

give them payment. around

58:00

here, George, put on events.

58:03

We love a good live event. We love a good live event.

58:05

Our team is really good at them. Yeah, some

58:07

of the best events in the country. And sometimes

58:10

we're out traveling to different cities. But

58:12

this time, George, we're gonna do one in our backyard. Literally.

58:15

Here at Reemsee Solutions up on the

58:17

hill in our new event center. And we

58:19

are doing the Total Money Makeover weekend, you

58:21

guys. This is gonna be a full weekend

58:24

on May 10th and 11th. And

58:26

we are gonna help people when it comes

58:29

to the subject that we talk about all

58:31

the time, which is money. So

58:33

actually the night before on the 10th, George

58:36

and I, we may or may not be doing

58:38

a live recording of Smart Money Happy Hour, our

58:40

podcast. So you can come and

58:42

participate in that. And then an

58:44

all-day event that next Saturday with all

58:47

the Ramsey personalities. And it's

58:49

gonna be really fun. We're gonna talk through,

58:51

obviously, the baby steps and different parts of

58:53

your money and your life. And we're gonna

58:55

do lots of Q&A as well. We

58:57

find that people have, whether

59:00

it's specific situations or even just the generic

59:02

problems that we all run into when it

59:04

comes to money. But

59:06

to be able to have conversations with you guys throughout the

59:08

weekend's really important to us. So it's gonna

59:10

be really fun. Our labor tickets are only

59:13

$99, only for a limited time. And

59:16

if you wanna get the best deal on

59:18

tickets, again, this is it. So go ahead

59:20

and buy your seats, buy your tickets, because we

59:22

only have 2,400 available. And

59:25

so you can do that at reemseesolutions.com slash

59:28

events. Love it. People come from all over the

59:30

country, even the world, to come

59:33

to these events, which is so amazing. So go start

59:35

budgeting for the travel and transportation and lodging

59:37

and all the fun stuff. And Nashville's a

59:39

great place just to hang out. So extend

59:42

your trip and enjoy it while you're here.

59:44

reemseesolutions.com/events, May 10th and 11th. Looking

59:46

forward to that. Yes, love to hang out with you guys. All

59:49

right, up next we have Sarah in Charlotte.

59:51

Hey, Sarah, welcome to the show. Hi,

59:54

thank you so much for having me. So

59:56

my question for you guys is currently.

1:00:00

My husband and I are renting an

1:00:02

apartment for about 32% of our net

1:00:04

income. And

1:00:09

in order to get closer to that

1:00:11

25%, we have to move to a low-income house, like a low-income

1:00:16

community. And I'm

1:00:18

not sure if

1:00:20

that's wise, you know, because sometimes crime

1:00:23

is higher in low-income communities. I

1:00:26

just wanted to know if you guys had any

1:00:29

takes on whether we should jump

1:00:31

from our 32 to 25% by finding

1:00:33

a cheaper apartment in a low-income

1:00:35

community or what you think. I

1:00:39

appreciate your intensity for the plan, but that 25% is

1:00:41

really a guideline and it's not

1:00:44

a set in stone. If you're at

1:00:46

26, time to move, bucko. So I

1:00:48

don't think this is on fire. You guys sound like

1:00:50

you're doing a good job paying attention to every dollar.

1:00:53

And my assumption is your income will

1:00:55

go up over the next year, correct? Potentially

1:01:00

my husband put in some applications to become

1:01:03

a police officer and it could potentially go

1:01:05

up a little bit, but he,

1:01:07

it's going to say about the same. Okay.

1:01:12

Yeah, I mean, I would say Sarah, I mean, obviously

1:01:14

we don't want, you know,

1:01:16

you in a situation that maybe you feel unsafe

1:01:18

or whatever, you know, it may be for you.

1:01:21

I mean, yeah, you want to be able to find a place

1:01:23

that you feel good at. And

1:01:26

I would say too that, you know, just

1:01:29

because a situation is different doesn't

1:01:31

always, you know, make

1:01:33

it bad, right? And so I think there

1:01:36

can be some places that you

1:01:38

may overlook because of just

1:01:40

the thought of, oh gosh, you know, the high crime or whatever

1:01:42

it may be, but to really do your research and

1:01:45

dig in, because there's parts of cities, you

1:01:47

know, that may be lower income, but they're

1:01:49

great neighborhoods and great people and

1:01:51

all of it. So I would do my

1:01:53

due diligence to really look and see, I

1:01:55

mean, ultimately I want you to feel safe.

1:01:58

I mean, I think that's a... fair value

1:02:00

to have in life but

1:02:02

also you maybe

1:02:06

where we are though where we live

1:02:09

will look different than maybe what we

1:02:11

thought because of our income and George is right like that's 25%

1:02:13

it is a guideline

1:02:15

there but when it starts

1:02:17

to creep up in that 35 40% of your take home

1:02:20

pay that's what it does it

1:02:23

just limits the amount of income that you

1:02:25

can use for other things like getting out

1:02:27

of debt and investing and all of that

1:02:29

so how much you guys make in a

1:02:31

year? We make about 55,000. Just my husband worked

1:02:33

in an estate home on.

1:02:35

Okay how old are your kids? My

1:02:39

son he's almost two. Okay that's great

1:02:42

so great yeah so I mean I think you guys talk about it

1:02:44

look at the budget do you guys have a lot of debt? We

1:02:48

do but luckily it's

1:02:50

just to a family member who paid

1:02:52

off our debt so okay how much is

1:02:54

that? We don't have it's

1:02:57

almost 50,000. Okay

1:02:59

okay and are you guys working on getting

1:03:01

rid of that? We are

1:03:04

yeah. Okay that's great

1:03:06

yeah and once that's freed up you know

1:03:08

that that's gonna feel. You got

1:03:11

a little more reading room. Is it a monthly payment

1:03:13

you're making? Yeah

1:03:15

we're trying to do a monthly payment and it's

1:03:17

pretty low right now like if we keep right

1:03:19

now early trying to give

1:03:21

about 250 a month so that'll take us like 10

1:03:23

years to pay him off. Goodness gracious. Yeah

1:03:26

I wouldn't do that I would be changing something in

1:03:28

that formula which is probably going to be the income

1:03:31

on making more. I mean you know and what's

1:03:34

so hard Sarah is you know

1:03:38

math it is what it is right and

1:03:40

so being able to look and say okay this is the

1:03:42

amount of money that we have and

1:03:44

so we want to be wise with it we

1:03:46

want to be on a very strict budget and

1:03:48

know exactly where that's going but

1:03:50

I also don't want this debt hanging around you guys

1:03:53

for 10 years to a family member and even though

1:03:55

they're probably not charging you interest from

1:03:57

a relational standpoint it's just it's just

1:03:59

It just gets weird over time. And

1:04:01

so, um... Let's see you go on vacation

1:04:03

and go, whoa, whoa, whoa, they owe us money? They're going

1:04:06

on this trip? Yeah, that's right. Even once you're out of

1:04:08

debt. Yep. So, I would just make

1:04:10

a plan to pay that off more aggressively, and

1:04:12

that might mean making more income. But the point

1:04:14

of the 25% guideline is so that you're not

1:04:16

house poor. Is so that you have

1:04:18

more money to pay off debt. And so, again, nothing's

1:04:21

on fire here, but I would make a plan to

1:04:23

increase income over the next 12 months to

1:04:25

create more margin to get rid of this

1:04:27

debt faster. That's great. Up next,

1:04:29

we have Larry N. Evansville. Hey, Larry, welcome

1:04:31

to the show. Hey,

1:04:34

guys. Thanks for taking my call today. How are you doing?

1:04:36

We're doing great. How can we help? So,

1:04:39

um, I recently found you

1:04:41

guys, I'm really trying hard

1:04:44

to figure out budgeting type things. I

1:04:47

grew up in a family that, you know, didn't really care about

1:04:49

it, you know, and I'm trying to

1:04:51

figure it out. And I've looked at every dollar,

1:04:53

and I'm just overwhelmed with things. Like, I

1:04:56

try and budget, and then something comes up, and

1:04:59

it's just very overwhelming. And

1:05:01

it's just to the point of I'm tired of,

1:05:03

you know, living every paycheck to paycheck, and, you

1:05:06

know, the next week I'm broke. And

1:05:08

it's just hard. And I

1:05:11

just need help budgeting. I need to figure out, like,

1:05:13

where do I start? Like…

1:05:15

What's the problem right now when you say I feel broke?

1:05:18

Are there too many bills after your

1:05:20

paycheck show up? So,

1:05:23

what happened is, you know, a couple years ago,

1:05:26

I did some bad things. I got addicted

1:05:28

to some things after an accident I had. And, you

1:05:31

know, I screwed up our family.

1:05:33

And when I did that, it

1:05:35

made a lot of sense for

1:05:37

my family. I'm sorry. And

1:05:40

I'm trying to get out of this. And

1:05:45

I try so hard. I work, you know,

1:05:47

65 hours a week. And

1:05:50

it's just… I don't know. I

1:05:52

honestly can't tell you exactly where it's going. I

1:05:56

am paying down the debt that I'm doing. But

1:05:59

then also, you know… car repairs comes up

1:06:02

my kids need something yeah

1:06:05

yeah how many kids you have after

1:06:08

how old are they two

1:06:11

five eight Wow

1:06:14

so you guys trying to keep guys have been through you've

1:06:16

been through a lot Larry for over the last

1:06:20

wait how long has this journey been for you guys

1:06:22

and are you sober now I've been I've

1:06:25

been sober for over a year now a

1:06:27

great guy from Boston you know

1:06:29

took me up there and helped me out it's

1:06:32

just the last six years before that you know

1:06:34

I was working but I believe the job because

1:06:36

you know something would happen or I

1:06:39

wouldn't go to work and you know I'd be

1:06:41

behind on things and you know I'd

1:06:43

say all I'll post this off for now and

1:06:45

it's all just coming back to haunt me and I'm

1:06:48

trying so hard but budget money yeah

1:06:50

so Larry we're coming up on a break

1:06:53

if you'll hold on the line we'll come back

1:06:55

to you if that's okay in our next segment

1:06:57

just to kind of walk through more of your

1:06:59

story and to help you with just the overall

1:07:01

picture I think budgeting for sure is a piece

1:07:03

of it but there's a lot of life in

1:07:05

there and possibly some debt we can run some

1:07:07

numbers and kind of help you walk away with

1:07:09

a game plan so it's not good okay absolutely

1:07:13

yeah hold on the line hold on the

1:07:15

line Larry and you guys listening

1:07:17

and watching right now we will

1:07:19

be back hey

1:07:24

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1:07:26

your money and get that extra push

1:07:28

to keep going then you need to

1:07:30

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1:07:32

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weekend back.

1:08:00

We were just talking to Larry

1:08:02

the segment before and he was

1:08:04

asking us really

1:08:07

how do you start budgeting? What does this

1:08:09

look like? If you're just new to this

1:08:11

process because it just feels like something

1:08:13

always continues to come up. Call repair, someone

1:08:16

for the kids. Yes, throughout the month and they've

1:08:18

walked a hard journey. He

1:08:21

was telling us with just some addiction and he's been

1:08:23

sober a year and they're really trying to get

1:08:25

in this place where they can get

1:08:27

control of their money. Was that a

1:08:29

good summary Larry? Yeah. Okay, wonderful.

1:08:32

Okay, so tell me this Larry, how much how

1:08:34

much you guys make in a year just household

1:08:36

income? So

1:08:39

my wife makes about 30, about

1:08:42

28 before taxes and then

1:08:44

me you know I just started back working

1:08:46

about a year ago and this past year

1:08:49

I made about 51 you know consistent

1:08:52

thing you know with the same

1:08:54

employer. That's great, what do you do? I

1:08:57

work in home health care. I work

1:09:00

with like mentally handicapped individuals. It's something

1:09:02

else I've loved for a while. Yeah,

1:09:04

that's great. That's great. So you

1:09:06

guys are making around around 80, 81,000 and what debt do

1:09:10

you guys have? So

1:09:14

we have a car that got repoed a

1:09:16

couple years ago that I because of me that

1:09:19

I'm working to pay off just to you know

1:09:21

get that out of there. Yeah. We got my

1:09:23

wife's car now that you know we had to

1:09:26

have because we had to have reliable transportation for

1:09:28

her. How much

1:09:30

is that? It's about

1:09:32

eight right now. 8,000 okay and

1:09:35

how much is it with that you're repaying for

1:09:37

the repossession? About

1:09:40

14. Okay. I

1:09:43

bought it for about 16 but I owed 14 and you know

1:09:46

just basically stopped paying. Yeah okay so

1:09:48

the two cars what else?

1:09:50

And then we have combined

1:09:54

between like just little loads that we tried to

1:09:56

get to get by you know

1:09:59

and low-level. Most of the family, we have about 15

1:10:01

there. Okay.

1:10:04

And then medical debt, we have

1:10:06

about 6,000, but I'm trying to get some

1:10:08

assistance from their financial aid there. But

1:10:12

that's just a process of trying to get that figured out

1:10:14

right now. For sure. Anything else?

1:10:16

Any credit card debt? So

1:10:19

that's going to look like the 15. There's

1:10:22

some credit cards, which is about 1,500

1:10:24

of it. The

1:10:28

rest is loans, but family little loans

1:10:30

just here and there that I thought

1:10:32

would get me by to where I need

1:10:34

to be. And then I found you guys

1:10:36

and realized that there's something I'm doing wrong.

1:10:40

And I finally built up the courage and the

1:10:42

embarrassment that I have to call you

1:10:44

guys and figure

1:10:47

it out. I'm tired of

1:10:49

it. Yeah.

1:10:51

Well, I'll tell you this. I think you've

1:10:53

won probably the hardest battle. Money

1:10:56

is nothing compared to fighting and

1:10:58

becoming sober and walking that whole

1:11:00

journey, Larry. So if

1:11:02

you can do that, you can do this.

1:11:05

Okay. So just hear me say

1:11:07

that. It's an amazing thing when people find

1:11:10

freedom in one area of

1:11:12

their life, it seems like it opens up

1:11:14

the door in other areas that they long

1:11:16

for that same level of peace and freedom

1:11:18

that you've found in that part of your

1:11:20

life. And now that's transferring to

1:11:23

your money. And money was and

1:11:25

is possibly in the present still a stressful

1:11:28

place, but we want to be able to

1:11:30

walk with you and give you just some

1:11:32

peace for a plan. And I

1:11:34

think it's one of those things too, Larry, that it can

1:11:36

carry a lot of shame and a lot

1:11:38

of guilt because the hard thing with money

1:11:41

is that you see the numbers of the past

1:11:43

that stay with you and you have to face

1:11:45

those and figure out what to do. But

1:11:48

just know what you've done in this last year, you can

1:11:51

do this. You guys together can

1:11:53

do this process. Is your

1:11:55

marriage in a good spot? You and your wife, are you

1:11:57

guys on the same team, just at least from the finance?

1:12:00

standpoint that you guys are wanting to

1:12:02

work a plan together? Yeah I mean

1:12:04

we've talked about it a lot and she

1:12:06

just you know not the best with math

1:12:08

so she believes it up to me. I

1:12:11

don't want to you know stress it out

1:12:13

too much but you know I talked to her

1:12:15

about it but I'm

1:12:17

just still ashamed of it to you know

1:12:20

talk too much. Okay okay

1:12:22

so yeah what I

1:12:24

would suggest as we start working through the budget is

1:12:27

I do want her to be involved and she

1:12:29

doesn't have to be the one that you know

1:12:31

is all excited about it and like gets in

1:12:33

there every day and all the things but I

1:12:35

want you guys to be in a

1:12:37

constant communication and be on the same team

1:12:40

because that's gonna help with these day-to-day things

1:12:42

because if the kids pipe up and want

1:12:44

something there's a good chance you guys are

1:12:46

gonna look at them and say the famous words I always heard

1:12:48

growing up not in the budget.

1:12:50

It's not in the budget like there's gonna be times

1:12:53

that you guys as a family are gonna have to

1:12:55

make some hard decisions to make these numbers work and

1:12:58

that's part of the process right that you're that you're learning

1:13:00

how to do this and define margins. So in

1:13:02

every dollar we talk about yeah and as and you

1:13:04

said you walk through it but your

1:13:06

income minus those expenses equaling zero and

1:13:09

we have on every dollar premium which

1:13:11

we'll give you after this call if

1:13:13

you don't have that one already. It's our paid subscription

1:13:15

part of every dollar but it what's so great is

1:13:18

they have a payment a paycheck

1:13:20

planning application within it and

1:13:22

so what ends up happening Larry we find

1:13:24

that what's difficult is you plan

1:13:26

out your month and you say okay we're gonna

1:13:28

spend you know 600 on groceries and

1:13:30

then but then all of a sudden the the

1:13:33

mortgage or the rent hits the electricity bill

1:13:35

like how all the bills are lined up

1:13:37

one paycheck of the first isn't gonna cover

1:13:40

it all right and you run out of money before those

1:13:42

bills are paid. That's right. It'll help you figure that out.

1:13:44

Yeah and it feels like you're broke in that

1:13:46

sense and so what the paycheck planning part of

1:13:48

every dollar does is it's able to show you

1:13:50

hey we here's where you're getting close to the

1:13:52

red so what can you rearrange in your budget

1:13:54

to make sure that that paycheck goes as far

1:13:56

as you need it to go with some

1:13:59

cushion. even until you're paid again on

1:14:01

the 15th or however often you're paid

1:14:04

and so that that money then is going to be

1:14:06

able to take you through. And then there is a

1:14:08

goal, Larry, I would say from budgeting at least for

1:14:10

me, George, is that you're kind of a paycheck ahead

1:14:12

so you always have that cushion. So instead

1:14:14

of using the money that just hits your account, you're

1:14:17

kind of using the money from the paycheck before even

1:14:20

just to give you some breathing room to not

1:14:22

feel like, oh my gosh, our account is getting down

1:14:24

to zero, right? And so that may take a few

1:14:26

paycheck cycles to get in that place. But

1:14:29

do you guys have any money saved at all? Do you have

1:14:31

an emergency fund? No.

1:14:33

Okay. You know, I've been trying and

1:14:35

anytime I do it and then, you

1:14:37

know, something comes up and... Yeah,

1:14:39

what are the things that are coming up? You've mentioned that a

1:14:42

few times. What are those kind of things? You

1:14:44

know, just at the beginning of school

1:14:46

year school, you know, my son, you

1:14:48

know, has gained weight and lost a lot

1:14:50

of weight and, you know, so we had to buy him

1:14:53

a whole new, you know, wardrobe of clothes. And his

1:14:55

mother, who is not my wife currently,

1:14:58

you know, there's just a lot of,

1:15:00

you know, stuff going on there. Like

1:15:02

she, you know, I

1:15:05

feel like sometimes I have to replace

1:15:07

her because she's chose other people over

1:15:09

him. And, you know, I

1:15:11

try and overcompensate. I'm not going to lie to nobody. And

1:15:14

I'm trying to get past that. But I

1:15:16

can't see the way he's broken because of

1:15:19

it. And it's just messing with

1:15:21

me. Which

1:15:24

is very understandable. I mean, I see that. And

1:15:26

we see that a lot with families

1:15:29

that there is that overcompensation of buying

1:15:32

things for kids or wanting that. And I'll

1:15:34

tell you, Larry, though, at the end of

1:15:36

the day, what he needs and

1:15:38

what he wants is love and acceptance from the people in

1:15:40

his life. And that's you. And

1:15:42

so, I mean, and so that is something

1:15:44

that you are going to have to be the adult

1:15:46

in those situations and say, you know, that this toy

1:15:48

is not going to be the thing that

1:15:51

brings him lasting joy and

1:15:53

acceptance and love. Like, it's just not. And

1:15:55

so knowing that, even though it

1:15:57

is so easy just to run the stuff and buy

1:15:59

stuff to make some and feel good for a moment,

1:16:02

there will be a boundary there. So I think that

1:16:04

there's gonna be a level of discipline that you and your

1:16:07

wife, I want you to get on the same page

1:16:09

with her and say, okay, once we do

1:16:11

this budget, it's done. And the

1:16:13

kids are gonna ask, stuff is gonna come up and we have

1:16:15

to say no, we have to stick to this because I want

1:16:17

you to get $1,000 quickly. If

1:16:19

you guys don't have any money saved, even

1:16:21

getting a starter emergency fund of $1,000, it's

1:16:24

gonna free you up. And as you go through

1:16:26

every dollar, again, those are places where you're

1:16:28

gonna be able to say, in categories, okay, we used

1:16:31

to spend this much and not to

1:16:33

eat, we're not doing that. And we're putting

1:16:35

that aside here. Like you really do sit

1:16:37

there and take things away, lower

1:16:39

those expenses. And then for you,

1:16:41

if there is a way to up some income for

1:16:43

the season, I think it's one of

1:16:46

the best things that you could do just to bring in some

1:16:48

extra money to get that $1,000 and then start working your way

1:16:52

through this debt and working your way to

1:16:55

pay this debt off. And

1:16:57

I mean, there is hope in this. I

1:16:59

mean, we get these calls all the time. You make 80 and

1:17:01

you owe 43. This is a

1:17:03

very fixable problem and it might take two years, but

1:17:05

we can get out of this. So tactical things, Larry.

1:17:08

You can add a miscellaneous category to the budget

1:17:10

for some ankle biters. You can also

1:17:13

print out your bank statement and that way you'll see a

1:17:15

real picture of what was spent in the last few months.

1:17:17

That's gonna help with this budget as well. Yeah, and give

1:17:20

it three months, Larry. I mean, we're in February,

1:17:22

March, April. Give it April, May, okay? Don't give

1:17:24

up. Keep sticking with it, but hold on the

1:17:26

line. Austin will pick up. We're gonna give you

1:17:29

Financial Peace University, our seven lessons worth on money

1:17:31

and every dollar premium just

1:17:33

to make sure that you guys have the

1:17:35

knowledge that you need as you start this journey.

1:17:38

We're cheering for you. This is the Ramsey

1:17:40

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1:17:44

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1:17:51

and create amazing relationships. I

1:17:53

am Rachel Cruz and this is George Campbell. And

1:17:56

we are hosting this hour of the show and

1:17:58

we're taking your calls. at 888-825-5225. Talk

1:18:01

about your money, your life,

1:18:03

your relationships, your work, anything

1:18:05

and everything. We are here

1:18:08

for you. The

1:18:10

first up we have Jennifer in

1:18:12

Ventura, California. Hi Jennifer. Welcome to

1:18:14

the show. Hey guys.

1:18:16

Thank you so much for taking my call. Thank

1:18:18

you for all the work you guys do. I'm

1:18:20

so blessed to be on the call. Oh, thank

1:18:22

you. Thanks for calling. How can we help?

1:18:26

I guess I kind of have a key. I'm brand new

1:18:28

to you guys. Shout out to

1:18:30

Ventura Mission Church Ventura. I

1:18:33

will be doing the set three lesson

1:18:35

on Monday. I'm like brand new. That's

1:18:38

what Rachel and I. We did that one.

1:18:40

Yeah. I kind of took a sneak peek.

1:18:43

They gave us like a little barcode thing where we

1:18:45

get it for free. Thank God they can church them.

1:18:47

Oh, that's awesome. They took a sneak peek. So I

1:18:49

saw my favorite speaker, George. You're my favorite. So

1:18:51

I just said George. He

1:18:53

wins the hard first of many. Truth

1:18:55

be told, I told Jennifer to call because she had a

1:18:58

great question for Rachel that you need to call. Rachel's

1:19:00

going to crush this question. Wait. With

1:19:02

what? Rachel's going to crush this. Okay. So check

1:19:04

it out, Rachel. So I kind of have a

1:19:06

case of like families almost. So it's not keeping

1:19:08

up with it, Jones. It's like

1:19:10

I drive an old van. I've got old stuff. I learned

1:19:12

my lesson and listening to you guys. I didn't know I'm 37.

1:19:15

I'm like way behind and I did not know any of this. So

1:19:17

I'm like lifetime learning it and I'm

1:19:19

binging it, right? So but I've got one

1:19:22

of those super close families

1:19:24

kind of intrusively close families. Like we

1:19:26

do everything together. We

1:19:28

have like a Facebook messenger, kind of like a

1:19:30

group thread email chat thing where we're like, it's

1:19:33

literally like, oh, Paisley woke up with a fever

1:19:35

today and Ben got in trouble with school. It's

1:19:37

like every single thing in each other's grill. But

1:19:41

that also includes like, let's do everything together.

1:19:43

Like every single Sunday, let's have family dinner,

1:19:45

especially because my dad passed away. It's

1:19:47

been like every Sunday, let's go to Nana's

1:19:49

house and don't show up

1:19:51

and see your day. Like, what are you

1:19:53

going to bring? Are you going to bring where it is? And

1:19:55

I'm calculating this in my head like there's like 18

1:19:57

of us. So for me to sign

1:19:59

up for. drinks and buy everybody

1:20:02

their favorite drink. I'm like way over

1:20:04

like I can't. So oftentimes I'm like, Oh gosh,

1:20:06

sorry guys. I'm volunteering at church and I like,

1:20:09

I like to pass. And then

1:20:11

it, and then I get the whole like under the breath, like,

1:20:13

Oh, well, too bad you can't, you know, your kids are missing

1:20:15

out on family dinner and, and all that,

1:20:17

and all that stuff. So I'm just sort of

1:20:19

crossroads and I've got that crafty sister that's always

1:20:21

like, we're going to the zoo. And

1:20:23

I'm like, I can't afford to do, Oh, there's

1:20:26

a group on. Okay. Well, it's the gas. And

1:20:28

it's like, you're taking time out of my side

1:20:30

hustle. Like I can't do it all. Yeah. And

1:20:32

my kids, my kids see it. The cousins show

1:20:34

them the pictures. They all talk about like, Oh,

1:20:36

look where we went. And my kids are like,

1:20:39

why can't we go? And I'm

1:20:41

just, I'm just at that point where there's only so

1:20:43

much I could tell like, let's be content kids. And

1:20:45

my kids are like, I don't, I want to be

1:20:47

with my family. You know, how old are

1:20:49

your kids? So my son

1:20:52

just her nine in January and my daughter will be

1:20:54

11 in May. Okay.

1:20:57

Well, I think what's hard, Jennifer is what's

1:21:00

happened in your life is you've shifted a

1:21:03

perspective, right? You've shifted how you're

1:21:05

viewing money. You're, you are shifting

1:21:08

something. You're changing something about who

1:21:10

Jennifer was nine months ago, 12

1:21:13

months ago into, you know,

1:21:15

a new season. Right. And I think,

1:21:17

you know, we, we always parallel the

1:21:19

financial world, but even the health world, right? It would be the

1:21:21

same thing if it was like, Oh my gosh, we're going to,

1:21:23

you know, um,

1:21:25

go, I don't know, eat a bunch of pizzas. You're

1:21:27

like, well, I'm gluten, George would have to say, no,

1:21:30

I'm, I'm gluten free. Unless they have gluten free crust.

1:21:32

I can't go, you know, like the people, even with

1:21:34

their nutrition, right? They draw boundaries on what that is.

1:21:36

And I know money's a little bit different, but anytime

1:21:39

you change of what you're, what you're used to,

1:21:41

what people expect of you, the normalcy

1:21:44

of what was. Is

1:21:46

not there anymore. And so I think that acknowledgement

1:21:48

is really hard and it's hard when it plays

1:21:50

into these kind of smaller

1:21:52

day to day interactions with family. And

1:21:55

so I mean, have you just

1:21:57

bluntly said to them, Hey guys, I'm living.

1:22:00

I'm living on a strict budget now because I'm trying to get out of

1:22:02

debt and I can't be doing

1:22:04

all of this but I want to still come to dinner.

1:22:06

I'm just going to bring stuff, you know, because we're

1:22:09

water people now and you can kind of make fun

1:22:11

of yourself and be like, sorry, but I

1:22:14

don't want you all to like miss out on all

1:22:16

the good stuff. I'm just choosing to miss out for

1:22:18

me but I don't want that to put you guys

1:22:20

out. So y'all do you, y'all plan yourself and I'll

1:22:22

just bring my own stuff. I'll bring my, you know,

1:22:24

grilled cheeses and my water, whatever it is that you're

1:22:26

choosing to do. Totally and I

1:22:28

have. I've been doing that. I

1:22:30

think that I think the bigger piece is the kids. Probably

1:22:33

my kids are with Father and We Most because my family,

1:22:35

like I'm the only one that goes to church and my

1:22:37

family, I'm the only one. So like I'm telling them about

1:22:39

this grandy thing and they're like, okay. It's

1:22:41

another one of weird Jennifer things. Yeah.

1:22:44

Well, I think you mentioned to me also that their incomes, they're

1:22:46

all making, you know, six figures. They're just

1:22:49

at a different place in life. Yeah. And

1:22:51

so honestly, Jennifer, the gift to your kids, even

1:22:53

with family, is to say, hey,

1:22:55

how do we learn to

1:22:57

be excited for somebody that has something that

1:22:59

we don't have and how

1:23:02

can we still have relationship with them?

1:23:04

Right. And I would hope your

1:23:06

family would kind of give a nod to where you guys are

1:23:08

and be like, okay, yeah, if we're going to the zoo, it

1:23:10

is going to cost $30 for everyone to go. So

1:23:14

we're going to choose not to do that. We'll go to

1:23:16

the park or we'll come over and do a play date.

1:23:19

Like what other things can we do that you can be

1:23:21

a part of as well? Right. And

1:23:23

maybe you throw out those ideas. I think for your kids, and I

1:23:25

get the, I mean, I understand you're like, I want them to be

1:23:27

a family and all that, but for them

1:23:29

to start to see that there are boundaries

1:23:32

in life and limits in life when it

1:23:34

comes to money and it's not just this

1:23:36

endless, you know, way

1:23:38

of how to live, you're modeling

1:23:40

that, Jennifer, and that's what they're going

1:23:43

to grow up with a level of

1:23:45

boundaries that's really great and wonderful. Really

1:23:47

healthy. Yeah. So

1:23:50

I do wonder if there's ideas that you can even bring to

1:23:52

the table to be like, yeah, they don't,

1:23:54

you know, I don't want to miss out with you guys.

1:23:56

So I still want to hang out, you know, and, and

1:23:58

I had a friend, Jennifer. who was going

1:24:00

there going through some tight financial spots and

1:24:02

and she was very honest with me and

1:24:05

and i knew and there was. You

1:24:07

know time said it was like we you know

1:24:09

i could. Take my kids

1:24:11

to the zoo but we're gonna choose not to because we

1:24:13

wanna hang out with them and i don't wanna put her in a

1:24:15

bad spot and then i don't wanna feel like. She

1:24:17

thinks i have to pay for her all the

1:24:20

time you know like there's all that some like

1:24:22

you are being considerate that's what i'm thinking right

1:24:24

now i have to consider it friend but for

1:24:26

real and you can do for your family like

1:24:28

you know, and not that you can make them do

1:24:30

that those kind of things but. I

1:24:32

would throw out ideas that are kind of free

1:24:35

or less expensive or whatever it is that

1:24:37

you actually still get time. I would be like

1:24:39

i'll find out to clean up after you guys i'll sign

1:24:41

up on. Shortage

1:24:43

love it i love it so that's really good

1:24:46

be fun about it and it's only for a

1:24:48

season to jennifer this is not gonna be your

1:24:50

whole life when you gonna be out of debt. Oh

1:24:53

gosh probably two years okay like they're fine when

1:24:55

i cut my numbers it's gonna take about two

1:24:57

years okay here's the truth to jennifer i look

1:25:00

back john tolone he probably would like. Shake

1:25:02

his finger and back that's not right child psychology rachel

1:25:05

but i'm like i don't remember being i don't

1:25:07

remember being eight nine. Oh yeah for

1:25:09

sure not i mean like your kids are fine they

1:25:11

are fine i they really really have a

1:25:13

great mom and a great life and no

1:25:15

trip or zoo is gonna change

1:25:18

that that's right. Thank you so much

1:25:20

you're doing the hard work here like you guys

1:25:22

you guys like my church people are kind of

1:25:24

like my family right now so thank you. I

1:25:26

mean the world add us to the group chat. We

1:25:29

can't wait to hear who gets in trouble that we do

1:25:31

add rachel to the facebook messenger group chat ever

1:25:33

pop in and just like max and

1:25:35

expensive things you can do with kids under 10 years. Start

1:25:38

putting her blog articles on there. I

1:25:42

remember it's not forever is not forever this is a

1:25:44

season of sacrifice to get yourself in a place where

1:25:47

you can go and enjoy and do the things that

1:25:49

you have to have the money to do it. Thanks

1:25:52

for the call jennifer george thanks for the dm.

1:25:55

Blessed to be a blessing yeah that's yeah you can I

1:25:57

said no more work. It's

1:26:00

the Ramsey Show. All

1:26:04

right, let's cut to the chase. It's easy

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to get discouraged about crazy house prices and

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1:26:36

Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. We are

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1:27:39

up next we have Becca in Detroit. Hey,

1:27:41

Becca, welcome to the show. Hi

1:27:44

there. My question is

1:27:46

about home renovations. Specifically,

1:27:48

how do we know when it's the right

1:27:50

time? That's

1:27:53

a good question. You mean from a financial

1:27:55

standpoint, obviously? Yes. Yes,

1:27:57

from the money standpoint. Is this a

1:27:59

need? or a want? I'd

1:28:02

say it's a want. When we

1:28:04

purchased this house, it was with the expectation

1:28:06

that we were going to redo this kitchen

1:28:08

because it's just really ugly.

1:28:10

It doesn't function too well. That's

1:28:13

a perfectly good reason. That

1:28:16

helps me. It just helps to know, is the roof

1:28:18

falling off or are the countertops on top? Yeah. So

1:28:20

that's a good. It just helps me kind of use

1:28:22

a filter here. Yeah. Are you guys

1:28:25

in a financial position back there where you don't have debt?

1:28:27

Do you guys have some savings? Yeah.

1:28:29

So the only debt we have is our mortgage.

1:28:32

We have about $200,000 less on that, but no

1:28:34

other debt. And

1:28:37

we have $125,000 saved up, which would

1:28:41

be, by

1:28:43

the time the contractors got around to

1:28:45

doing the work, the cost of

1:28:47

the renovations, plus an emergency fund, plus a

1:28:49

little leftover. Oh my gosh, amazing. So you

1:28:51

just can cash flow it. Yeah.

1:28:54

That's it. That's when you're ready. What makes you

1:28:56

think you're not ready? Is it just a big

1:28:58

number? Is it just scary to spend this much

1:29:00

money? Does it feel frivolous? Exactly. It's

1:29:03

a huge, huge number. It's a huge number,

1:29:05

and we're getting it all over town. So

1:29:09

we think it's a real number. Yeah.

1:29:11

If you have multiple bids, labor's up,

1:29:13

material. It is. Everything

1:29:16

is just more expensive in life. Long gone

1:29:18

are the days, like, $10,000 grand. We'll get a new kitchen.

1:29:20

Yeah. So what is this going to cost you? We're

1:29:24

hearing $100,000 for all of it. Are

1:29:28

you gutting? Are you moving walls and stuff,

1:29:30

or is it just appliances and countertops? Yeah.

1:29:33

It would be a gut. It would

1:29:35

be some structural work to support heavier

1:29:37

stuff, bigger island. Yeah. And

1:29:41

just the labor is really expensive right now. What's

1:29:43

that? We're hearing all over $400,000. OK.

1:29:48

Because one thing to think about is not that everything

1:29:50

has to be about ROI, because you put a pool

1:29:52

in the backyard. It may not ROI, and it's OK

1:29:54

to just do things for enjoyment, knowing you're not going

1:29:56

to get that money back out of it. Look

1:29:58

at you being all fun, George. such a funny daddy,

1:30:00

Rachel. Unbelievable. But with a kitchen renovation, it can and

1:30:03

will increase the value by a certain amount. I don't

1:30:05

know that it's going to make a $400,000 house into

1:30:07

a $500,000 house, but over time it

1:30:11

may. But kitchens and bathrooms, they

1:30:13

are the big ones. So if there's a place

1:30:16

to do it from an ROI side, I think

1:30:18

kitchen is the best. And yeah, if

1:30:20

you guys have it, Beck, I mean, literally this

1:30:22

is exactly the perfect situation

1:30:24

to do it. And just for everyone

1:30:26

listening, remember, no debt and emergency funds.

1:30:28

They have the cash to cash flow

1:30:30

it and that's it. There's

1:30:32

no HELOC. Yeah, no. Never. We

1:30:35

still have our student loan. Take a HELOC to do these runaways. No.

1:30:38

And that's what a lot of people did during COVID. And

1:30:40

so, Beck, you're doing it the right way. You just got

1:30:42

to do it. And what's funny though, is like you said,

1:30:44

people actually save the money and they're like,

1:30:47

oh man, do we really want

1:30:49

to spend it on it? But what's great about doing it

1:30:51

with cash too, Beck, is you guys, you have your budget

1:30:53

and you're going to stay within the budget because I'm telling

1:30:55

you, you go to the appliance store and it's like, oh,

1:30:58

we can get this. And if you're putting

1:31:00

it on credit, you're like, just get the nicer one. Yeah, you

1:31:02

see it. And they're like, oh, but two levels up. Oh

1:31:04

gosh, that's a really nice one. When I found out about

1:31:06

levels, I was like, this is a scam.

1:31:08

Yeah. You don't want the level two

1:31:10

tile, Rachel. That's basically dangerous for your family. You need

1:31:12

the level four tile. I know. You

1:31:15

can start to, if you use debt, you really can start

1:31:17

going over budget because you're like, ah, we'll worry about it

1:31:19

later. But when it's your own money and you

1:31:21

have a strict budget, you know, okay, nope, we're

1:31:23

just staying within this. And it helps keep

1:31:26

boundaries on this because home renovations,

1:31:28

home building, all of that can

1:31:31

go off the rails so quickly. So I'm

1:31:34

the spender though, Becca. So I'm your

1:31:37

biggest cheerleader. You can write that check. Do

1:31:39

it and get a great kitchen. We spent so much time in our kitchen.

1:31:41

Yeah, send us a picture later so we can see it before

1:31:43

and after. So we're giving you

1:31:45

the green light, Becca. That's pretty rare on this

1:31:48

show that you get a unanimous instant green light,

1:31:50

but it's because she's got no debt and has

1:31:52

the cash to do it. So great. Hit what

1:31:54

you want. Stay within that budget. It's

1:31:58

exciting. That's great. have

1:32:00

Anthony in Philadelphia. Hey Anthony,

1:32:03

welcome to the show. Hey,

1:32:05

thanks for having me. Really appreciate it. Absolutely. We're

1:32:08

doing great. Doing great. What

1:32:11

can we help you? All

1:32:13

right, so my question is, should I

1:32:15

sell some shares of stock that I

1:32:17

have from my previous employer and my

1:32:20

current employer to put towards existing debt?

1:32:23

How much debt do you have? So

1:32:26

we have two, two pretty big

1:32:29

sums, not counting the

1:32:31

house. We have 14,000 left on a solar and then 38,000 on

1:32:37

a car. Okay, and how much would the stock

1:32:39

be worth if you cash it all out? Yes,

1:32:42

so I can pull out somewhere around

1:32:44

25,000. I also have about 20,000 right

1:32:50

now sitting in a high-yield savings account. How

1:32:52

much 20,000 did you say? Yes, so

1:32:55

20,000 savings, I can get about 25,000 from the stock. My wife and

1:32:57

I do have a plan

1:33:02

to actually have the 14,000 paid off of the

1:33:04

solar pretty much in about a month or two.

1:33:06

We are going to pull from our savings account,

1:33:08

right? We're following the kind of debt snowball method.

1:33:12

Yeah, that's great. And none of this is

1:33:14

obviously retirement, like it's not tied up in

1:33:16

a 401k or raw or anything. Yeah, you

1:33:18

have capital gains you'll pay when you sell

1:33:20

this. Oh,

1:33:24

Anthony's off the line. We lost him.

1:33:26

He's back. Anthony, sorry, we just hung up on

1:33:29

you real quick. No, it's okay. All right, so

1:33:31

are there capital gains on these stocks when you

1:33:33

sell? You make some money off

1:33:35

of it? Yeah. Okay, so I would factor that into

1:33:37

your equation, make sure you're prepared for the tax sit

1:33:39

on that. It's not going to be astronomical,

1:33:42

I am assuming. You haven't had these stocks

1:33:44

super long and it's not a huge amount, but

1:33:48

I would at least calculate that and make sure that you

1:33:50

pay the taxes on that. So, but that'll at least knock

1:33:52

most of the debt out. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, because

1:33:54

we do say to cash out everything you have

1:33:56

but retirement to get that paid off and we

1:33:58

don't like having too much. in company

1:34:00

stock anyways. You're single stock. Yeah, it's

1:34:03

pretty limited and kind of all your

1:34:05

eggs are in one basket mentality which

1:34:07

is not ideal with investing,

1:34:09

diversification, all that is what we're really

1:34:11

going for. And

1:34:13

I tell you that as a person who actually did this,

1:34:15

Anthony, so it's not like advice I tell you to do

1:34:17

but I would never do it. I had Apple stock from

1:34:20

when I worked at the retail store back in 08, 09.

1:34:23

When it came time for debt payoff, I was looking around for money

1:34:25

and I had a bunch of Apple stock and

1:34:27

so I sold that and it helped me get

1:34:29

out of debt way faster, got me to investing

1:34:31

faster, got my emergency fund funded faster and I

1:34:34

don't miss having those stocks and the

1:34:36

what ifs of like, well do you know how much that would

1:34:38

be if you hung on to that? That's what your friends

1:34:40

are gonna say when you go and sell

1:34:42

this. So you kind of have to turn down the noise

1:34:44

from all the opinions and inputs and go, I wanna

1:34:47

be debt free sooner, that is my priority.

1:34:49

I can always buy more and invest more

1:34:51

later. I'm not gonna miss out. Yeah,

1:34:53

so Anthony, with your savings and the stock,

1:34:56

it's about 45,000 and you guys have about 52,000 in debt. Is

1:34:59

that right? So you'll have 7,000 left to

1:35:02

knock out after all this. What's your income?

1:35:04

Yes. Household. So

1:35:07

my wife is a stay at home mom. She

1:35:09

works part time for our church and does pull in

1:35:11

a little bit. So combined, we

1:35:13

make about 175. Whoo!

1:35:15

That's great. So while we're talking like two months

1:35:17

from now, you're debt free. Theoretically,

1:35:22

yes, but we have two toddlers and we

1:35:25

just had our third child two months ago.

1:35:27

So we're in a little bit of a

1:35:29

fear. Yeah. Congratulations. A little

1:35:31

bit of a fear. Okay,

1:35:33

so four months. So maybe four months.

1:35:35

We'll give you four months, Anthony. It's a great

1:35:38

question though. Yep, cash it out, put

1:35:40

it towards the debt and startin' with

1:35:42

a new little baby. You know what, I'm gonna send

1:35:44

you Rachel's new kid's book. I'm glad for what I

1:35:47

have for those toddlers and the new baby. Isn't that

1:35:49

sweet? That was, thanks George. I just

1:35:51

thought of it. It's a great gift for the kiddos

1:35:53

out there. So hang on the line, Anthony. We're gonna

1:35:55

send you Rachel's new kid's book. It's a great read.

1:36:01

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1:36:35

That's ramseysolutions.com/SmartTax. Welcome

1:36:39

back to the Ramsey Show. I'm Rachel

1:36:41

Cruz hosting this hour with bestselling author

1:36:43

George Camel and we're taking your calls.

1:36:46

Up next we have Shonda in Cleveland.

1:36:48

Hey Shonda, welcome to the show. Hi,

1:36:52

hi guys. Hello, hello. Hi,

1:36:55

can you hear me? Yes, we

1:36:58

can, we can. Oh, okay. Thanks

1:37:01

for calling. Yeah, how can we help? Yes,

1:37:03

I have money stress. I

1:37:07

have an income of like $22,000, $24,000. But

1:37:11

I have two collection agencies. One

1:37:15

is $5,000 which I could pay. I

1:37:17

only have $2,000 more to pay for that

1:37:19

one collection agency. And the other

1:37:21

one is $8,000. And

1:37:24

I don't know what to do or begin to

1:37:27

pay that debt. I

1:37:31

don't even know where to begin. I haven't talked to that

1:37:34

collection agency at all. Because I don't know what

1:37:36

to do. Because I don't have no money to

1:37:39

pay them. A

1:37:41

driveway that needs to be fixed, that's like

1:37:43

$20,000 they say. So

1:37:46

that's an upcoming expense. That's not debt,

1:37:48

right? Yeah, that's an

1:37:51

upcoming expense. What other debt do you have? I

1:37:55

have student loans, that's $50,000. $11,000.

1:38:00

Home loan, that's $75,000 and I was like one

1:38:02

month behind. I think I just caught up. Let's

1:38:12

see, credit card,

1:38:16

that's $200. $200? Dollars of

1:38:18

minimum payment or that's the total? Yeah, no, that's

1:38:20

total. So I was going to pay them off

1:38:22

when next time I

1:38:25

get paid. Okay, how

1:38:27

old are you? I'm

1:38:29

53. Okay. What

1:38:33

are you doing for work right now? Nothing,

1:38:36

but I feel like I'm overwhelmed. I

1:38:38

don't know what to do and I know

1:38:40

you have to say don't play the lottery

1:38:42

but that's I've been trying to do that.

1:38:44

Oh no, don't step in the convenience store,

1:38:46

a gas station, stay far away. How many

1:38:49

hours a week are you working? That's right.

1:38:54

Like 40 hours and then sometimes I

1:38:56

pick up on my off days. Okay.

1:38:58

So I'm working. I'm working. And you're doing

1:39:01

what again? I'm sorry, say it one more time. Nursing

1:39:03

assistant. Nursing assistant. But you're only making

1:39:05

$24,000 working as a nursing

1:39:08

assistant and working 40 hours a

1:39:10

week. Yeah.

1:39:12

Okay, okay.

1:39:16

Yeah, I mean I think the first thing to

1:39:18

be looking at because what's your degree in because

1:39:20

you have some student loans. Yeah,

1:39:24

well, I went to school for different. I

1:39:27

really went to school and

1:39:29

didn't really get much of

1:39:31

a degree, about one degree in.

1:39:34

How long have you been paying on student loans? The

1:39:39

years and

1:39:41

I haven't made a debt and

1:39:43

I mean, you know, during COVID they

1:39:46

didn't, they wasn't taking any payments

1:39:48

during COVID. They were sending money right back.

1:39:51

Are you single? Yes.

1:39:54

Okay. Well,

1:39:56

there's some simple steps you can take that

1:39:58

are tactical to help you. But it's

1:40:00

gonna take sacrifice, it's gonna take making more,

1:40:02

spending less, all of that. So

1:40:05

here's the thing, with the collections, you've gotta talk

1:40:07

to these people. We can't bury our head in

1:40:09

the sand. And even if you call them and

1:40:11

say, listen, I can't pay you. I

1:40:14

make $10 an hour and

1:40:16

I got a lot of bills and a lot of

1:40:18

people who wanna get paid. And so

1:40:20

I need to keep the lights on. So your one

1:40:22

priority is food, utilities, shelter,

1:40:25

transportation. We call that the four

1:40:27

walls. Nothing

1:40:29

else gets paid before those get paid. I

1:40:32

don't care who the debt is to, what

1:40:34

the collectors are saying. You gotta keep the

1:40:36

lights on, keep the mortgage paid so that

1:40:39

you don't get foreclosed on. And

1:40:42

eat something too. And so beyond that, you gotta

1:40:44

make your insurance payments. We need to keep all

1:40:46

that to protect us. And then

1:40:49

we can start tackling the debt. But clearly, there's

1:40:51

not much to tackle it with because you have

1:40:53

no money left after making minimum payments, right? That's

1:40:56

right. So what do I tell them

1:40:59

or what do I do? Do

1:41:01

I write a letter? Do I call them? I

1:41:05

call everyone you owe debt to and say, listen, I

1:41:07

wanna pay you, but I don't have any money. I

1:41:09

make $10 an hour. I'm six figures in

1:41:11

debt. I'll pay you when I can and

1:41:13

what I can. But right now, I'm flat

1:41:15

broke. Okay. Yeah.

1:41:19

And then on the income side, Shonda, I mean,

1:41:21

honestly, I mean, I was, you know,

1:41:23

Walmart, Target, like these places are paying up to 20

1:41:26

an hour. Like you could double your hourly

1:41:29

rates by working somewhere else. I think you're gonna

1:41:31

need a different job. I just don't, this job

1:41:34

is not gonna be able to sustain you. And

1:41:36

you're working 40 hours. So I'm like, you're, you

1:41:38

have a, you know, a great work ethic, but

1:41:41

that energy is going to something that's not

1:41:43

giving you your rate of return of what

1:41:45

you need right now. And so, and places

1:41:47

like Walmart, Target, some other places, I mean,

1:41:50

they have great benefits. Like they really do

1:41:52

a great job in helping their employees.

1:41:55

So I honestly would be switching jobs.

1:41:58

You have to make more. You can't be. living on this. Is

1:42:01

there a path for you to make more in the nursing

1:42:03

assistant world like it's a CNA where you could be making

1:42:05

40,000 a year? I

1:42:10

don't know like the

1:42:12

hospitals or something like that. I don't know

1:42:14

how much they. I

1:42:17

would do some homework and research and talk to people who

1:42:19

are in these fields and these positions and ask them the

1:42:21

path and what it's going to cost and what it's going

1:42:23

to take and how long. Long