Coming to you live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions and broadcasting from the studio, this is The Dave Ramsey Show. It's where America hangs out to have a conversation about life and money. I've kept Coleman posted the Coleman show as a part of the Ramsey network, also joined by Anthony O'Neal, who is a part of the Ramsey network as well. Both of us, a part of everything that we're doing here.

Ramsey Solutions to help you live your best life. And we are together this hour on The Dave Ramsey Show answering your questions, eight eight to five five, 2005, his show that's blowing up on YouTube. Anthony's just crushing it over there. It's called The Table. New episodes every Monday. Anthony Neal dot com is the place to connect with everything he's doing. Join him on Instagram at Anthony O'Neal. The Ken Coleman show is Monday through Friday, part of the Ramsey network.

Again, all the details at Ken Coleman dot com. And check me out on Instagram at Ken Coleman. All right, let's get to the phones. Anything. We've already been having a blast today. We're going to keep going with it. Jacob is joining us in New York City, the Big Apple. Anthony, here he is.

Jacob, how can we help the other guys? How are you? Oh, good. How about yourself? How can we help still?

Very well. So I'm 29 years old and I graduated college about six or seven years ago. My parents, they generally they generously offered to pay for my education and they took out student loans to do it was about fourteen, 14000 less in student loans. And I'm getting married next year and I wanted to know if I should pay off my student loan before getting married or if I should continue to allow my parents to pay the minimum some alone time.

I mean, great question. I don't think there's a right or wrong answer in this situation. I mean, because I'm assuming that your parents said, like you said, that they will pay for your education. And if they said that, then there is nothing wrong with you making sure that that they stick to that. But if you're in a place financially to where you can't go ahead and just cut a check for fourteen thousand dollars and it doesn't impact your future in your future wedding, I would absolutely there's nothing wrong with that neither, you know.

And so I would do that. Yeah.

Let me ask Jacob, what do you want to do? Are you wanting or are you feeling like you want to bless your parents by paying the 14 off? Is that where you're leaning or not?

Not necessarily. More so that I didn't want I didn't know the debt was going to have a great impact on me once I'm married.

Well, it's that the debt is in your name and in your parents name. And so will they have an impact on your credit situation? Yeah, it is. It will, because you're in debt and it's on some of your credit reports on your parents' credit report. But as far as in if you have the means to pay it off and it doesn't impact you, go ahead. If you're saying I don't I do not have the means and I do not want to pay it off Denault, I mean, going ahead and make your parents or allow your parents to stick to their word.

So it's really up to you right now. But will it impact you and your credit and moving forward? Yes, it will. Good stuff.

Thank you for the call, Jacob. Let's go now to Birmingham, Alabama. Daphne joins us there. Daphne, how can we help? Hey, guys, thank you for taking my call. I am 51, and as I was sitting here waiting, I realized that today's the anniversary, not three year, three years out from my divorce. I have four kids. Three of them are still in school and college. I should say. I have a good job.

I work for the government and but I still have to work a second job to make ends meet. Very not very happy at all. And it's just, you know, it's a depressing job. And then I'm always worn out because I'm working 60 hours a week, you know, and I you know, it's just tough. And I listen to you guys or listen to the show almost every day in the background at work thinking, how can I get out of this and how can I make my life different so that I'm not this way for the rest of my life is over.

So. Yeah, yeah.

Well, first of all, we don't know, you know, how many days we have. None of us are promised tomorrow. But I would know. I know that and I know you do. But my point is, is, you know, it's not about half your life being over.

It's that, hey, the next chapter of your life is yet to be written. And at 51, you're not too old to start writing new pages and write new chapters. And in some ways, with the divorce, you've already been kind of kicked out of the nest relationship wise in that you've got a new chapter there. And and so this is about figuring out what are the steps that you need to take to get where you want to go. So so definitely I want you to suspend all doubt about how old you are and how much life has gone by.

I want you to suspend all fear of failure, what others might say. And just for a moment, I want you to tell me, what would you try or what would you do professionally if you could make the money you wanted to make and you knew you couldn't fail? What would you try? What's that thing you've always wondered about? I've always been inclined to be to help people, especially people who have been through anything that I've been through that I definitely know about, you know, and I don't have a heart for people in the able, but, you know.

Who who would those people be who at the end, would you help in a counseling setting? Would you help any? Yeah, probably, yeah. Look how quickly you got into that one. So let's just play this out for a second, OK? Would you want to counsel couples that are struggling to keep their marriage together? Would you want to counsel people that have gone through substance abuse or would you want to counsel kids? I mean, who are those people you would most love to sit across from and help them dig out or help them avoid?

Well, married people who are having problems, single parents, you know, single women who have already, you know, and already do that in my small group, you know, look at you setting a church.

So but so really, it's that relationship and family counseling. And so so then you look at that, you go, OK, what would it take to get there?

OK, so four simple questions. I understand, but I want to paint a picture for you.

OK, so what do you make right now with both jobs? You've got your government job plus your second job.

What do you make Ballpark? I make about 40 at the main one and I make another sixty five. OK, so right.

About forty seven thousand dollars is your gross. OK, all right.

And and so for you to make ends meet, are you able to cut expenses even more.

I've cut just about all there is to cut. OK, but you're forty six thousand five hundred dollars in Birmingham. You're barely making ends meet. Are you in? Do you have major debt still that you're dealing with?

I do have some debt of a car to car payments and I have some credit card debt.

OK, are you working Dave Ramsay's plan, the baby steps to get out of debt that you started that? Well, why do you have two cars? One's mine and one's my daughter's, and you're paying for both of them. Yes, how old is your daughter? Well, no, actually, I think that maybe she does make her complaint. Yes. OK, so I guess I'll be kind of all right. So here's here's what I want you to hang on the line.

Yeah. Two things. Dig in on this. Yeah. I want you to will you stay with us over the commercial break? Because I want to I want Anthony to walk you through your next steps financially because you just started listening. You just started with Dave. So Anthony's going to help you on that. And then I'm going to walk you through the steps on how you can be a professional counselor and make really good money and be thrilled going in and be filled, coming home.

Oh, we're going to help her and she's going to be fine. Don't move, folks. The day Ramsey Show continues, just. Well, we all have enough on our plates, right, the last thing we need is to not get a good night's sleep. Think about how effective you're going to be during the day if you can't even think clearly because you didn't actually arrest. That's one of the reasons I've been recommending Tufte and Neidl. My family has their mattresses and they start as low as 350 dollars plus.

You can try it out 100 nights risk free, go to 10 dotcom to pick yours out. They ship it to your door for free. That's T in dotcom.

Welcome back to The Dave Ramsey Show, I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague Anthony O'Neal. And we're taking your calls this hour on the Dave Ramsey Show, eight eight two five five two two five eight eight two five five two two five. All right. So we held Daphne over because we took her call a couple of minutes before we had to move into a commercial break. And she's she's going to rejoin us here in just a moment from Birmingham, Alabama.

And she's 51 years of age, but divorced three years.

And she's got a good government job, but there's no juice. It's just a stable job for her. She makes 40000 there that she's got a second job that brings her in about 6500. So she's right at forty seven thousand dollars.

But we found out right before went to the break out that she's barely making ends meet. You get three kids in college and one that's out of college. She's barely making ends meet on about forty seven thousand in Birmingham. And you said, huh? And so we started asking questions. She's got some debt. Now, the context for this, folks, is that she's got some debt. We're going to dive into that and get her straight, figure out what that path is going to look like and give her a timeline.

Then I'm going to come back to what we started with that I'm unhappy. My career. She really would love to do counseling, but right now she's overwhelmed with this idea of how in the world can I afford the education necessary in the licensing and make that transition when she feels like she's barely keeping her nose above water. So that's where we are. And so we said OK, and needs to work on this. So so, Daphne, get ready to go, get ready to write and have some thick skin here because doctors got to go to work here.

All right. So welcome back, Daphne, and take over. So, Daphne, let's break this down.

And I know you're new to who we are as an organization. That's fine. So I'll walk you through this process so I can help you. And so that way, when you get off of this phone call, you can have some steps to do so. At 51, you're making about forty six thousand dollars a year, correct? Correct. All right, so the average single individual in America today is making about forty eight thousand dollars a year. So you're right around that ballpark.

All right. So this is where I have some small questions I want to see. Like, what can we do? What's your total amount of debt right now? How much debt do you have? Totally.

Well, with those two cars that I was telling you about it, like twenty one thousand, OK, twenty one thousand dollars in debt.

All right. And one of those cars you cosigned for your daughter, correct?

Correct. How much is that car? How much is it worth, how much is how much or how much do you own it? Oh, about thirty eight hundred thirty eight hundred dollars.

OK, is your daughter working? How how did your daughter who has this car, she's 19. 19, OK.

And is she working. Yes. OK, so here's what we need to do. Do you have any savings at all right now? No. OK, so here's what we need to do, I think you need to write up and an agreement with your daughter and that she needs to take 100 percent ownership of this vehicle and she has 12 months to pay it off.

Is she living with you? Yes. Oh, yes, she has six months. OK, this way, this way. Now she takes ownership of her life that frees you up of 3800 dollars, takes you down right down to about seventeen, sixteen. Seventeen thousand dollars. You're making forty one I mean, forty seven thousand dollars a year within this actual time frame.

If you get on a budget, do you have a written plan for your money right now?

I just started that this morning. I love this brand new I love it. All right, so you're going to stick to that for three months. And I heard you earlier. You said, hey, I've already cut off some things and I love the fact that you've already cut off on some things. But I really want to get very, very detailed. I'm talking about if you have a little small subscription that you do if you do five dollars for your nails, I need every single penny.

If you spend 50 cents on gum every month when you go to a particular store, I need you to write that down and I need you to see where else can you cut if you can. But if you can't make him that kind of money, you should be debt free within about two years. So by 53 years old, 12 to 18 months, you should be 100 percent free from your debt. And I think then you will have freedom to do exactly what Ken can walk you through on how to get into the career field.

Yeah, but right now, within 12 to 18 months, you're looking at you only have to pay off about seventeen thousand dollars. And so how much is your mortgage payment? I don't have one I rent. OK, so how much do you rent payment? It's 850, 850 beautiful, where we're in a beautiful situation, this is not bad. Yeah, you can't get out of this. What is your other debts? Because you've learned the debt snowball.

Correct? You've heard us talk about the debt snowball. Where you take this all is OK. Good. So the daughter's car is 3800. I know, but what if you have credit cards as well?

Yeah. Yeah. So what's the what's the smallest debt you have. Morning, a thousand dollar credit, one that has a thousand dollar balance on it. OK, great. So that's your number one target right now because they told you what to do with the daughter. The daughter needs to be fully responsible.

But I'm curious, how much is your car actually worth? And then what's the debt on it?

I got a dad on it is 11 Bob. And how much is it worth? Not that much. What kind of car is it? 65. It's a Ford Explorer. A Ford Escape. Ford Escape.

How many miles? Right. 14. Yeah, OK. All right, well, that's it, yeah, yeah, you're going to kill me. Had to bail me out a couple of times on it and he said that me you drop this until the wheels fall off. Exactly. That's right. Yeah.

All right. So so you understand the debt snowball. So here's the deal. You you've got to cut everywhere. You can cut and you get some momentum going on that debt. I know you're working 60 hours, but you can do this.

You're going to have to bite the stick and you're going to have to really gut this thing out. And here's why. Because a better future is on the other side of this. So once you get out of that debt you got, then you can put all that that energy emphasis and energy into that emergency fund where you sleep really well at night. Now you're looking at what would it cost me to get into some type of counseling, counseling degree and what would that look like if I did that online?

Because a lot of schools will offer that online so you don't have to get up and pack your whole life and move. And so you're asking for questions. What what do I need to learn, what degree, what certifications, what I need to do that, if that's what you want to pursue? I've got another idea for you as well.

OK, but then you would say, all right, so now that I know what I've got to learn, that's your that's your qualification stuff.

What do I need to do? What experience? What I need to kind of eventually move into that. And then how much is that going to cost me financially? And then how long will this take? And now we've got ourselves answers and we've got a plan and all of a sudden you realize, hey, I can do this. Now, in the interim, while you're hustling, you should be looking around and seeing what jobs might be available in the counseling sector, maybe government agencies that social working and things of that nature, private counseling centers, maybe even non-profit and religious organizations.

Are there some administrative jobs or some support jobs for the council? So you're not qualified to sit in, do the counseling, but maybe, you know, instead of that second job, which you can't stand or maybe in that first job bringing in you 40, can you match the 40 that you're making with the government job that you're so bored with? Could you step into that space and be very close in proximity to the actual counseling work so that you really get a great idea of what you want to do and it will further fire you up?

Does that make sense? What I'm saying?

Yes. And Daphne, you can do that, can't you? Just them. Come on, Daphne.

You can do that, can't you? Yes. Yes, you can. Is it going to be hard? Oh, heck, yeah. Yeah, it's going to be hard. And you can hear it in your voice. But Daphne, you listen to us. You got into this over years, yeah, you're not going to be able to get out of this in six weeks, but you can get out of it.

And I'm to tell you something else, if the daughter of the 19 year old daughter is living with you, you know, would charge her rich. Yes. She could jump in and start doing some stuff, you know, what can you sell?

You know, start looking at if I'm going to work 60 hours a week and I'm already bone tired, can I work in a better situation and make more money? What you have to do is you get your head up, your eyes up, and you're going, this is my desired future. I don't want to stay in a dead end job. I don't want to be stuck financially. I want to take control of my future. That is going to be uncomfortable.

And what do you tell people about being uncomfortable and comfort? You got some more? Yeah, absolutely. I'd rather be uncomfortable than comfortable because there is nothing nothing extraordinary happens with the inside the comfort zone. There it is. That's a good word. Hey, don't move. More of your calls coming right up. Anthony O'Neal can come in here with you on the Dave Ramsey Show. Listen, there are some basic things that you should be doing to take care of your family, a roof over their head, food to eat, a car to get you from A to B and term life insurance, term life insurance is an immediate need no matter where you are in the baby steps, since your family is at no greater risk than when you're in debt.

The only place I send you for this is to Zander Insurance. They shop all the top insurance companies and they're committed to serving you. That's why I use them and have recommended them for over 20 years. Go to Zander Dotcom are called eight hundred three five, six, 42, 82. Welcome back to The Dave Ramsey Show. I've kept Coleman joined by my colleague Anthony Neal, as we take you through this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show, eight eight two five five two two five triple eight eight two five five two two five.

Taking your calls. Let's go to the phones. Nicole is on the line in Eugene, Oregon. Nicole, how can we help?

Hi. I am struggling. I have read the total take. I have a really strict budget. My husband and I have meetings and and have gone and done this for months. And my husband still continues to spend outside of the budget. And we get in little spats about it. And I just try to be patient and I, I just don't know what to do next. Like, I he is totally supportive of paying off all the all of our student loans really for me, but definitely our loans.

He definitely is supportive. But yeah, he keeps spending outside of the designated budget and so I just don't know what to do at this point. Yeah.

This is just a money question though. This is a relationship marriage question. So let me start. I know you ask. I got to single.

I got a dig, I got a dig a little bit. I've been married 22 years. But you could speak to this.

Here's the deal. I'm curious about what you're saying when you go.

He's supportive on paying off the debt, but he's not supportive in sticking to the budget. So that seems like there's a massive conflict there. So I want you to explain to me how you believe he's supportive if he's not sticking to it. OK, I like he's supportive, like he'll do what I say, I'm the nerd, so he'll do what I designate. You know, like this is the amount and he'll look at it and he'll go to the meeting and be like, OK, I agree.

But he doesn't he doesn't fight with me about it. And he doesn't say anything negative. He wants to get it done. But when it comes to doing it, he just always makes mistakes.

So, no, he's not he's not making mistakes close to it. He's not making any mistakes. He's he's philosophically going. Yeah, I think it makes sense.

I think it makes sense not to eat junk food because it's like it's like him calling the doctor and a doctor who's got a heart condition and you're going to have to eat this way and you can't eat this stuff anymore. You can't do this. Do you understand what I'm saying? And it's like the patient goes, yeah, yeah. I totally understand. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then they get back into the routine and they go.

I can't do it, I got to have the Doritos, I got to have the milkshake or whatever it is, so understanding and agreeing that it's a good thing versus doing it. This is not a mistake issue. This is a discipline issue.

And so the small spans are eventually going to turn into some neck, some really big things. So how long has this been going on? I have a two part question. How long has this been going on? And when you have the disagreements, when you go, hey, Hub's, what's the deal? We had a budget. You overspent. You didn't do what we needed to do. What's happening in the argument? What's his response? How long's it been going on?

And then what's his response? OK, so we've probably been asked this about almost a year, taking on about 75000 well, actually more than that. One hundred and one hundred and twenty five thousand. And we're down to seven. Yes, good. That's good. And yeah. And so and then I'm sorry. The second part was how did the how does he respond and how does he respond?

I want to know what his answer is to you when you challenge him or not sticking to the budget. He just said, well, so most things are really innocent, like, well, we needed to get some tomatoes and we needed this food, so I went and got it and and I said, well, we don't have it in the budget. We need to wait until the next paycheck in like five days. And he's like, well, we can just go get it now and I'll just take it from my gas, my bank account.

And I'm like, oh, OK, this is a good plan.

OK, so now I ask you a question. So this is not a major. He's not he's not veering off the budget big time. He's just playing a little bit of I'm transferring money from the envelopes. OK, little bit different situation.

Nicole, let me ask this question. Yeah.

Jump in the this question, you know. Well, he's making a face.

He's making a case question, OK? Sometimes the nerd can be too much of a nerd.

And I believe sometimes nerds can be very, very, very, very anal and so on.

And I'm not saying that you are, but I do want to pose the question to you.

Could you say would you say that Nicole sometimes is too much of a nerd?

I don't think that's the problem emotionally. And most nerds say that, OK, because this is a man who will stand on credit cards like crazy, like he just gets out of control, is he? So I don't know. But we have been struggling.

Has he done that since you guys have been on the debt free journey? He has not had the means to do so. OK, all right, so here's what I was saying. He's going to look because the way it sounded to us. Yeah. Is that is that your husband is just fighting against you and he's just completely ignoring it. But when you explain how much debt you guys together have paid off as a man in what you describe to us, Nicole, all we have all we can do is operate off what you say.

What you said was he wants to go buy tomatoes for a certain reason, your five days away from the next paycheck where you would be able to dip back into the envelope. He's going, well, I got some gas money and I can pull from the gas money. But he's not putting you further in the debt. He's not stopping the momentum. He's just pulling from different antelopes to the spirit of that.

That's not that's not as big of a problem.

Yeah, it's if that's all that it is. If that's all that it is.

Yeah. Well, I mean, there's a lot of things I do like and anything I've done, it's kind of on my own. A lot of these things like I'm I'm the work force and kind of go along with it, but like planning our wedding, like buying our house. So, OK, let me tell you what's going on. The tomatoes are not the same thing. All right, listen, OK, it's OK. Can I tell you what's happening?

Please do tell you've got a lot of resentment built up over a lot of things. Absolutely.

And I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm not saying that he doesn't deserve a little bit of grief over how he's acted. I think he needs to grow up.

But what I'm hearing from you are two things. Number one, you guys have made tremendous progress. You really have you should be proud of yourself. I also understand that you are the driver, OK? But I also know that I that you probably want to stay married and this guy also needs to grow up. Yeah. And I'm going to tell you what's going on that concerns me. There's a lot of resentment. And again, I'm not saying you're wrong.

I'm saying that you need to get healthy and and and we need to get healthy. So I'm going to tell you that the next couple of months, budget needs to include some marital counseling. And I think you two need to go. I'm not saying you're in a crisis, but a lot of people here counseling are you?

And they go, well, we're not throwing stuff at each other. Yeah, we're not we're not swearing each other and yelling at you from the kids. Not I'd say that what I'm saying is there's enough resentment there for the long haul that you two need to come together and get healthy. And he needs to sit with you with a experienced and ideally a Christian.

I would prefer a Christian marriage counselor because they're going to look at the whole picture and he and you need to sit together and he needs to hear you share. Objectively in front of somebody who can keep you guys on the rails, the resentment that you have and the exhaustion emotionally that you have and you feel like you're doing all the work and you're having to drag him along and you want more support from him and all the things that he's not giving you.

I know this has got to be addressed right now because the rest of this journey is still going to be tough. And if this resentment keeps building, this is bigger than the evil invading for her. Yeah, you can hear it. It definitely is.

And I'm trying to be careful because I'm not married, you know, but I do think that there's something deeper inside of her that needs to be addressed.

She gave us one one piece of evidence, the fact that he ran credit cards up really fast, that broke trust with her.

A trust needs to be rebuilt. This is a marriage counseling situation that can really avoid some major problems down the road. Yeah. So thanks for calling it cold. Thanks for being vulnerable here, because I know this is tough. Get your chin up. Tell him, hey, I want to go to counseling. We need to get healthy because it's going to allow us to finish this race. It's going to be more enjoyable for you. I need to work on some stuff and so do you.

This is two of us, not just one or two of us. All right. Don't go anywhere for the day. Randy show coming right out. The Dave Ramsey Show continues from our Ramsey Solutions headquarters in Nashville, Ken Coleman, Anthony O'Neal taking you through this hour of The Dave Ramsey Show, Triple eight eight two five five two two five, triple eight eight two five five two two five. Our Scripture of the day second, Peter, one three.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. And our quote of the day from President Theodore Roosevelt. Be practical as well as generous in your ideals. Keep your eyes on the stars. But remember to keep your feet on the ground. Mama, you like that, don't you? Do. 8255 225. Let's go to the Motor City, Detroit, Michigan.

Trisha is on the line.

Tricia, how can we help can. Hi, Anthony. Big thing. I just want to say thank you. I spoke with you back in May regarding about the job searches and if you're burned on your role just because I covered. Me, I just I just want to say thank you, we were kind of on the fence about taking that position and I took it OK, I couldn't be happier. Those are almost done. Almost done with that to right there.

You guys know how much love do you have in baby step two? Just over 9000 hours, nine thousand five dollars. As soon as we get lower than the 10000 mark, it seems like we just are hammering away at a couple of weeks away here. So I'll be really excited to just. Just throw in crazy amounts of money has paid off about close to 90000 in under 18 months. Wow. OK, so you break it up a little bit.

I want the audience to hear this. So did you called me on the Ken Coleman show and you had should I take this job question? This was actually you were talking you were on with Dave, actually, David. OK, great. Yeah, it was you and Dave. I talked to both you guys. I was a nervous wreck and I'm a nurse and I was in leadership, just really burnt out. And I was on the fence about going back into nursing education, which is really my passion and my love.

And, you know, it's just like things happen for a reason. A job was posted that was really spoke to me and something that was within my background. And I switched over into the industry. And it's probably been the best decision.

So did you make more money? Oh, yes. Yes. And when I talked to guys, we were like, oh, you're not going to make any more. I mean, it was almost a 30 percent increase in pay. Wow. Oh, yes, I guess so. Good for you.

You were nervous. You were scared. You call Davidar, you basically said, should I take it? Yes, and you were like, you know, it's that heavy, heavy weight of nursing leadership and, you know, leaving the four walls of a hospital and Dave was like, I know the job is, you know, safe. Like you're not protected by an institution. And it's just one of the things you take your chances. And this really is, you know, pretty much a once in a lifetime opportunity to just do it.

So that's what we call that's what we call a calculated risk. And it wasn't that risky. You weighed your options. You decided to do it. Good for you.

And I want you the reason I asked you a couple of questions. I want you to tell our audience that that that are considering, you know, can I make a switch? Can I make a career switch, a job switch while still paying off debt? What is the answer? And is it worth it? You absolutely can it is totally worth it, you know, around the time when I called you guys, we kind of went into storm mode worried I wasn't sure what was going to happen, even with my job working in the hospital mikovits situation.

So we just started piling the money away and not touching it. And I will tell you, you know, you see a big figure in your bank account. You think I'm going to totally spend that. And I said, you know what? We're pulling the trigger on just paying off some more debt. And we just threw it at it. Student loans gone forever. And I made the switch to a different job. And I mean, I don't have the stress that I did spending more time with my family.

We've done so many things that I didn't have the weight of that stress on it. And believe me, I miss those folks. But, you know, this was the best choice for for us. Yes.

Good for you. Tricia Anthony, are so proud of you that you did it. That is so great. Thank you for listening. Thank you for calling back in and give us an update. I love the updates. And you got a call in or come here, do your debt free scream. You know, that's next, right?

Oh, yes. We can't wait. We cannot wait till people come there or. Come on. Hey, drive down. Come on now. Come on down.

Nashville, so beautiful. We're open. People are in the lobby. Come on.

And we want to celebrate you. I can't wait to meet you and your hubs give you a high five. So come on down. That'd be great. I love that. So good.

Let's go next to Eric, who joins us in Omaha, Nebraska. Eric, how can we help? Hey, Ken Neal, thanks for taking my call. Great to talk to you guys. Yeah, how can we help Matt? So 20/20 has been pretty good for my wife and I. We were able to pay off first two student loans, but we still we still have twenty thousand dollars in debt and a car loan. So we're talking about as much as we can.

In June, we found out that we're expecting our first.

Carol, thank you. So I'm just wondering, should I switch what I'm doing doing those on the car loan or because it's our first kid? So I don't know what what you expect him to the hospital bill would be, you know? Oh, well, yeah, yeah, it really depends, like, well, I've got good insurance. Yeah, no, it's OK. She's a nurse, isn't the hospital, so it's OK.

No, it's not OK. She's a nurse at our local hospitals, our local hospital, willing to give her some discounts and everything there. Yeah.

You know, that's a simple phone call to your insurance provider. Yeah. And say, hey, we got a baby coming. And based on the amount of days, how much is cover me a couple a couple of questions on one phone call.

Yeah. You're going to know what your deductible is or what you're going to owe. And she right now, it seems so scary and take over. But I just wanted to point this out really quick that you're scared because you don't know what the answer is. Yeah. And so you got to find out what the answer is. Yeah.

And then also, two men have your wife go in and ask the hospital, you know, okay, are there any discounts? Do I get any kind of help or assistance when I do have a baby? But here's the key thing, too. I got to ask this question. What kind of car you driving for? Twenty thousand dollars.

Me? You know, we're young and I just got married. It's a Ford Explorer. OK, OK.

How much is it worth it. When we got it, it was forty five thousand. I'm not sure what the current forty 45 days for a Ford Explorer NCCAM.

How so. How old is the car.

It's 2017. We got it for the winter months. You know in Nebraska you could snow.

All right. So here's on the money side, man. You can post, I'll say set aside five grand, OK, I'll set aside between three and five grand after that. You don't need anything more than that. I really don't think you need anything more than three thousand dollars for my expertise. I don't have any kids and.

But you can go do how much is it going to cost you for diapers? These are budget items that you can look up diapers and all the things what your monthly budget will be. So you got, you know, you know, you get the food in the bottles and your basic baby equipment, but your monthly stuff is going to be pretty simple.

You know, you could figure that out. People have got babies and, you know, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, but but yeah.

Listen, do you need to you need to figure out how much that car's worth. You need to know because you owe twenty on it.

If that cars were thirty or thirty two or it's going to work, not 24, what would you tell him to do.

I mean for that right there if that's this is Eric's only debt. What do you make a year Eric.

We make about, you know seventy eighty thousand. Yeah. I mean Ariel Mark if I don't have a problem with him keeping that, just aggressively paying it off. All right. It's a lot of car. You know, he has a baby so I'm cool with that as his only debt. And so I have no problem. But like you got to get aggressive, like no minimum, no more minimum payments. Like, you should be paying two thousand dollars for this car every month and have it paid off by the end of next year.

There you go.

Yeah, good stuff. Hey, listen, man, we're happy for you. Don't be scared. Go get some information. Information allows us to think clearly and what we can think clearly and see clearly.

Nothing to be scared of. All right. I want to thank our production team radio and our YouTube team to do a massively amazing job. Every show I want to thank my colleague, my good pal, Anthony O'Neal. Always great to hang with you. Most of all, we want to thank you, America. This is your show. This is The Dave Ramsey Show.

This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. On your smart speaker, you can add our skill by saying, Alexa, open the Ramsey network skill. From there, you can listen to all our shows. Ask Dave money questions like How do I invest my money or what is the debt snowball? Find out more at Dave Ramsey, Dotcom Smart speaker.

Hey, if you've got questions about retirement investing or becoming an everyday millionaire, go bigger and broader with my man Chris Hogan on the Chris Hogan Show. I am excited to be able to talk to you all week in and week out. We're going to focus on your calls and it's going to focus on building wealth investing and how to become an everyday millionaire. Subscribe to the Chris Hogan Show wherever you listen to podcast.

Hey, it's James, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but check the episode notes for links to products and services you've heard about during this episode. Thanks for listening.