Live from the headquarters of Ramsey It's the Ramsey Show. We help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author, co-host of the Smart Money Happy Hour, insanely popular podcast on the Ramsey Networks. My daughter, she's my co-host today. The phone number here, if you want to talk about your life and your money, the phone number is 8888-825-5225. Jennifer starts this hour in Baltimore. Hi, Jennifer, how are you?

Hi, I'm doing well. Thanks for taking my call.

Sure. What's up?

I am actually calling on somebody else's behalf, somebody who I think might need some help, but maybe doesn't think that they do. My father is actually going to be inheriting close to a million dollars in the next couple of months. As I've gotten older and starting to ask more pointed realizing he really hasn't planned for his retirement. He just assumed he'd be getting enough to retire, and now says, Obviously, a million dollars isn't as much as he thought. He's not going to be able to live off that. I've just seen a couple of generations before me really mismanage money that they've inherited, and I'm hoping to do something different.

That you're going to do something different or he is?

He says he's open to my recommendations.

How old is he, Jennifer?

He's 65, 67. Okay.

Has he got a bunch of debt.

I've found out that he has a heat lock out on the house for about $100,000. He was contributing to 401(k) for a while while his employer was matching. When they stopped matching, he stopped contributing. He doesn't have a Roth IRA. He's got some dividends and some stock money that he does receive quarterly, and he's got gold squirled away. But he says financial planners are parasites and high yield savings accounts are scams. He's only now looking into putting things in a trust and maybe getting life insurance and getting a will done. But he really has just been banking on getting money.

Was he banking on this money from this inheritance? Was it from a parent, and he was just waiting or what was the- Yeah, so You waited till 65 years old before a win.

Yeah. When my great grandmother passed, she had about $24 million in her estate. That was unfortunately embezzled, gambled away a lot by one of my great uncles. It also wasn't in a trust, so the government took half. When my grandparents were getting older, they decided their philosophy was the government's just going to take most of it, so we want to try to get rid of it. They did sporadic payouts. They were very generous in covering health care expenses for myself, for all of my cousins, paid for college for their children.

What do you think the best thing to happen today is for your dad?

I want him to get rid of the heelock, and I want him to look into investing property or some advice of where he could be putting money other than just… He took a $100,000 heelock out of the house and put it into the stock market.

That's where the dividends came from. Yes.

I've been trying to work with my sister.

Okay, so here's the thing. Number one, I don't think this is going to work. Okay? Your dad has a 40-year period of sitting on his cynical hands, doing nothing and waiting on someone else to spoon feed him. The fact that 65 years old, he's going to jump up and grow a new brain, that's pretty wishful thinking. Yeah. Okay. I wish it wasn't true, but I'm 63, and the chance of me growing a new brain is pretty low. I'm pretty set in my ways. So whatever's screwed up about old Dave is probably going to stick that way. It's just hard to teach an old dog new tricks. I'm one of them. You can ask the one sitting next to me. She's tried to teach me some new tricks, and I hadn't learned them one. I just give suggestions. I know. Yeah, you do. That's what Jennifer is trying to do, give suggestions. No, I know.

But Jennifer, I hear your heart, and I really do appreciate. But the reality is, our parents are set in their I'm not picking on your dad.

I'm probably just like him. I've got the spiritual gift of cynicism, too. But I mean, these people are all parasites and scam artists. No, they're not. That's a dumb bud statement, okay? They're not all parasites and scam artists. Now, some financial people are goobers, but there's some goobers in almost any profession, whatever profession he came out of. There's a crook or two hanging out there, too. But there's good people in the financial world that can sit down, and what he needs is someone to teach him from the financial world, like a good smart investor pro, what's available and what his job is as the manager of a million dollars of God's money. You are now the manager of God's money. Your job is to manage it well. And so get the stupid gold sold, pay off the home equity loan immediately, learn to live on a budget, go be a productive citizen, create something instead of sitting around waiting on someone else. Talk about parasites waiting on someone else to feed you, waiting on mom and dad's dadgum inheritance money to come in. Bless his heart. I feel sorry for him. He's missed out on so much good that life had for him.

I hope for the next 20 years before he dies, he's got some good coming to him where he gets the opportunity to serve others and create something and contribute to society and walk with the dignity that that brings. That's what I want for him. That's what you want for him. My problem is I don't know that he said he's willing to take your input until you tell him something he doesn't like. Am I wrong?

No. What's been really frustrating is trying to give him advice while stroking his ego.

No, I'm not going to stroke his ego. I'm not going to do it. You can tell. The thing is this, what I want to help you with is what you're attempting to do is very kind and very noble, and it is the proper thing to do. But I want to give you realistic expectations because I don't want you to come away from this disappointed that you couldn't do it, because I'm going to give you a 5% chance you pull this off because you're trying to change other people. Until they really want to change, you can't do it. I do it for a living. I have had to learn that I don't answer questions that aren't asked. When you ask a question, I'm going to answer it because that's my duty. But I'm not going to just walk up to people and start preaching at them because they don't do nothing. They just look at you like and do nothing. I mean, like a friend of mine leased a car, drove it up in front of my house the other day. He knows I think leasing cars are stupid, and he drove it up in front of my house.

What am I going to do? Go, You're stupid. No, I said, I didn't say that. I said, Great car. He didn't ask my opinion. He just brought his car over to show it to me.

But I think Jennifer, a goal would be if he could sit down with a third party, a smart Buster Pro, and at least just have an initial meeting to see his options.

They're there to teach you not to do it for you.

That would be a good goal. But if you can get them there and then what he chooses to do after, I don't know.

That's your first step. Go to ramsey solutions. Com, click on Smart Buster. They can help guide him to get his will done. He's got to get that done. Talk about giving the government money. Try not doing a will. Oh, my Gosh, let the government be in control of it. No. But please, honey, don't be disappointed if this doesn't all work out. This is Ramsey Show. Guys, it's no secret that the real estate market is weird right So go with a mortgage company you can trust to have your back. Churchill Mortgage. Churchill is Ramsey trusted because they're stable, reliable, and focused on you. At a time when a lot of companies are being bought out or going out of business, count on Churchill Mortgage to stick around. They've been doing things the right way for over 30 years, and they'll keep doing them the right way for 30 more. Get started at churchillmortgage. Com. This is a paid advertisement.

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You know what happens after the 15th of April? Worst day ever. You know what happens the next day? Awesome stuff. Anything's better than the 15th of April. On the 16th of April, the next day, Rachel's new book will come out. You got to have a little celebration after tax season. I'm glad for Where I am, a new book on gratitude for your kiddos. Lauren did a great job with these illustrations.

Yes, Lauren Gallegos. Shout out to her.

We love her. She's just sweet as she can be anyway. But Her illustrations are just amazing. I mean, this kid. This is all about gratitude. The other one was about contentment. I'm glad for what I have. I'm glad. This is home. Home is where the heart is.

That's right. When I was writing it, I was like, How do you teach it? Because contentment, gratitude, generosity are three principles that are really important for me to teach my kids and just that emotional side of money. And when you think about gratitude with kids, I'm like, of course, saying thank you and manners. All of that is important. But for these little ones, I'm like, when you can start to grasp the things that can't be taken away from you, this idea of the love of your family, your home, not just your house, but the home, the environment, when you can start there, and that be the foundation at which they learn gratitude, I think is sweet. So the little animals, they go on an adventure to learn that really where they belong is where they were, and God specifically has put them in a place for a certain time. And the more grateful you are, the more your heart grows. It's the last little sentence of the book, but it's really sweet. It's a great one, so I hope you guys enjoy it.

It's going to be fun. It comes out a week from now, and you're going to do a little book tour with it, right? Yes. You're going to do some signings, a little book readings. Yeah.

Next week, I'm hitting the road. I'll be in New York doing some media next Tuesday, a week from now, and then fly to Phoenix. I'll be in Phoenix. You have to read those off.

Phoenix at Desert Ridge, Barnes & Noble, from 1:00 to 2:00 in the afternoon doing a signing. On Wednesday. I'm going to read the book and then do a signing for the kiddos. Then over to LA on the 18th, from 7:00 to 8:00 PM at the Barnes & Noble at the Grove. Oh, that's a good store. I've been to all these stores. Okay. Dallas, Lincoln Park from 1:00 to 2:00 Another good store, Barnes & Nobles. All these are Barnes & Nobles. Atlanta at Mansell Crossing. Really? That's cool. 426, you'll be there. That'll be the next week. That's the next week. That's from 1:00 to 2:00 PM. Book tours are this We used to go around and do 40 cities and do signings and do media in every city and all this when we launch a book. They're out of vogue. Number one, there's not many bookstores left. They're just about gone. Number two, there's a lot of the local media is gone. It's dried up. That methodology of launching and marketing a book and going out there is gone. But you're just doing this almost for fun. Yes.

Well, I wanted to. I wanted to with the first one, and so the way the timing worked out with holidays didn't. When this one came out, I was like, I really do. I want to go and be with people and be with your kids. So make sure to do that. You can still pre-order for the next week. If you do that, you'll actually get a link. I'm going to do a story time via Zoom at the end of April for everyone that pre-orders. So at seven o'clock, I'll do a big reading. My kids will be there and all of it. You can get that link if you pre-order. You can go to rachelcruise. Com for that.

Well, spoiler alert. I've already been reading it to the grandkids, and they love it, particularly Daniel's little boy. He's like, Papa Dave, you got to Papa Dave, you got to read. We know all the data. Kids that get read to, their IQs go up, their EQs go up. They are most likely going to be readers and writers. People that read... When we're interviewing somebody for a leadership position at Ramsey, we ask what books they've read because there are no real readers that aren't readers. You got to be constantly growing, and the only way to do this is be feeding your brain. We know all the data on this, and it starts at this age.

It starts with the- It's a short book, parents, so you're welcome for that, too, because I hate the bedtime stories. It's time to get a bed. It's time to just keep going. Oh, my God. It's short.

How is it that at four, they already know which of the Dr. Seuss's is forever long?

You can't skip page because they wanted- I do not like Green eggs in Ham, Sam I am.

I'm just saying. All right. Chris is with us. Chris is in Memphis, Tennessee. Hi, Chris. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Hey, good almost afternoon, you all.

Yeah, it is. How can we help? Hey.

My wife and I just found out that we are expecting our second child. We are overjoyed at this. We have a two-year-old- Congratulations. We have a two-year-old at home.

Yeah, awesomeness.

We've also just started getting our act together financially. We've been debt free actually two times in our four-year marriage, and apparently, learned nothing. And so we're finally at a point. I've been binge watching You guys, shout out to the YouTube moderators. I always love seeing the comments there and their responses. But my question is relative to... So we're in baby step two. We have $1,000. We're attacking our credit card debt. We have about $42,000 of total debt, including student loans, credit cards, and a Jeep that you're probably going to tell me to sell. But I'm confused about stork mode. We still have pretty much everything from our first child. My wife plans on taking 3-6 months off to be home with both of our kids. She's a nurse. I work in the automotive industry. I guess my question is, when should I pause attacking our debt like crazy and start saving up for the uncertainty of having a child?

No. Right now. Push pause on the whole total money makeover thing and pile up cash. Here's the thing. How much cash can you pile up in nine months?

If we stop paying off debt, probably 12,000 to 14,000.

Okay, so 15,000 bucks is in the account because you are going to stop paying off that if you follow what we tell you to do. Baby comes healthy, no problem. Insurance covers what it's supposed to cover. Mama's healthy, no problem. They come home from the hospital. Three days later, you clean out that account and pay it down on the debt. The amount that you lost by doing that is really close to zero. You lost no traction. You will be in exactly the same 10 months from now if you pay down on the debt by 15,000, or if you put 15,000 in the account and then pay down on the debt. The only difference would be a little bit of interest on the debt that you'd pay during that nine months, but it's negligible. It's less than 40 or 50 bucks. We're not really playing. What that 15,000 gives you is peace of mind. What it gives her is peace of mind because what we want to concentrate on is the beauty and the elegance of the birth and another child coming, not be distracted by any money crap. If there's a little hiccup of some kind, you know, think about it.

You got the money.

Yeah, Chris, how much you guys make a year?

Total, this year, we're on track to be right under 100.

Okay. How much was the Jeep when you were like, Oh, the Jeep, you're going to tell me to sell it? But how much is that?

It's worth about 20. The remaining loan balance on it is 11.

That's not necessarily selling. If you're making 100, that's not good.

No, you're fine. I was going to say, if there was one big move you wanted to do, if it was at a point where that car payment was so exhausting and you could sell it and make some money on it or something like that. If there was a situation there, I would be okay if you did that. But just in general, just pausing and having cash in the bank during this is- Let me fast forward 10 months, okay?

You save 15,000, baby's home, you pay off 15,000 in debt. What's going to keep you on track this time?

My wife and I really looking further than six months in the future. We've been living in an inherited home that we're actually starting to look towards purchasing from her parents. Looking at that has made us take a much longer perspective on everything.

What do you do in the automotive industry?

I work as a program manager. I connect suppliers with warehouses across the country to help them get their parts into parts stores and onto your car. Okay.

All right. Are you 25?

I'm 29. Okay. All right.

Cool. All right. Because now's the time, dude. You don't get to restart this crap six times and go win. You need to play through this time for the sake of this cat.

Hold on the line, Chris. Austin will pick up, and I'll I'll give you my new kids' book. I'm glad for where I am, and I'm glad for what I have. I'll give you both for the little ones.

We're going to give you a financial piece, University, too. We're excited for you guys. Why don't you go through that? I want you to play through this time. I want you to finish. Finish well, my man. Finish well.

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Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author, is my co-host today, Victoria, is with us in Springfield. Hey, Victoria, how are you?

I'm well. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up?

Well, I was calling because I'm curious to find out how I can get my name off of my parents' debt.

How did your name get on your parents' debt?

Apparently, when we were younger, they put my and my brother's name on their credit card to build credit, which at the time may have been a It was a good idea. However, they- No, it wasn't.

It was called identity theft.

Yeah, they've been overspending a lot, and that's reflecting on my credit score. Then it was about two years ago, we've been timeshare owners for a very long And about two years ago, they added my brother and I as owners. But we have no idea in terms of what to do with this time share, and it's becoming a big financial headache for the family. I want out because to me, it's not worth all the arguments and the financial stress that it's causing.

Yeah, it's something that we're seeing more and more, our parents. So just as a warning for parents out there, that this is a trend that is going on, that people are doing this. They're putting their kids on their debt or on their credit card, specifically, thinking, Oh, yeah, we're going to build up their credit. And then this is what ends up happening, Victoria, is that you get the brunt end of it. So at that end, I'm like, Have you talked to them about them taking your name off? Of the credit card, specifically. The timeshare will be more complicated.

Yeah. So we thought it up to them because now it's to the point where my brother and sister-in-law can't buy another house because their debt to income ratio is affected by their credit card debt, like my parents' credit card debt. So it's been a family discretion. And so my parents moved their credit or the debt that they had on one credit card to another credit card that has a 0% interest and does not have our names on it.

Then they need to close that other account.

Exactly.

That gets your name off of it.

I think they still owe a little bit more on that because- Pay it off and close the account.

That gets your name off of it.

Yeah, they're trying to pay it off.

You guys are like being Midwestern sweet people. Hillbillies would have already punched somebody. This is just not okay. You should be angry.

Yeah, it's one of the things where it caused a lot of family fights. Just because I'm new to the Ramsey method.

It's not the Ramsey method. It's called illegal. It's criminal fraud. When you add somebody else's name to a legal document without having a power of attorney to do so, that's called criminal I mean, it's illegal. It's serious. You don't just... God, man.

What people are doing- I know people are doing it, but it's illegal as heck, man. Well, when you put their name as a minor, specifically, on it. It's illegal. Well, they're not taking it and opening it solely in their name. But the point is, is that it's affecting Victoria, obviously, in all of it. It's straight up stupid. I mean, yeah. So Victoria, that's the answer, is for them to pay it off, close the account.

But then when you get into- Then call and yell at the timeshare company and go, I did not give you permission to put… No one has permission to put my name on there. If you don't take my name off of there In like 36 seconds, my attorney is going to punch your lights out. You need to get up in some people's grill.

Yeah, because I want my name off of it.

Listen, let me tell you, a timeshare is legalized fraud. It's a horrible product. So your parents are such wonderful people that they signed their kids up for two of the worst financial products on the planet, timeshares and credit cards. God, what parents are these?

She can't control the parents.

Why are you yelling at her? I'm not yelling at her. I'm just saying these guys, man. So if I'm you, I'm going for the jugular on this. I mean, you need to get the timeshare people on the line and ring them out. You do not have my signature. I am not responsible responsible. If you don't take my name off of this, I'm going to own your little company.

Because that's true, Victoria, right? You didn't sign your name. You're not liable.

It's identity theft.

I'm double-checking that they weren't at Christmas, and the parents were like, Here, sign this, and she forgot about it or realized that. I was just double-checking. You didn't sign anything, right, Victoria?

No, the credit cards they put me on, the time share, I did sign two years ago because we had the acknowledging.

There we go. Okay. No, it's okay.

We need to figure out how to get my name out of it.

Exactly. Helper, how does she get out of it?

I have no idea. I mean, you signed up for a timeshare. How do you get out of a timeshare? You can't. You're stuck in a thicket of briars. I mean, if the family can talk the timeshare company end up retitling this, I'll be shocked. But, oh, God. I mean, if you call me up and say, I just bought a timeshare, I would go, Well, that was really a ridiculously dumb activity. So Now, how do I get out of it? They're almost impossible to get out of. They're just horrible. It's a grotesque industry. They feed on the week. I I honestly don't know how to tell you, other than hire an attorney and start talking to them about how you're going to sue them if they don't take you off of it. Some of these attorneys go after time, share companies and do a good job with them.

But If everyone came in because she said her brother or sister was in on it, too. If it was her and the sibling and the parents, if they all got an attorney together to try to get out, is that a better way or getting out a fourth would be more difficult? Do you know what I mean? If there could be an agreement that they all get out, is that an easier way?

Let's pretend you could get this particular set of parents to do anything. Let's pretend you could do that, okay? They actually did start the legal process together. I can't depend on them to finish it because the things they're willing to do to their own children baffles the mind.

Okay, but the authorize- It does. I hear you, but the authorize user on credit cards is a legal thing, and people are doing that today. It is not a legal thing. Yes, it is. Authorized users.

Authorized user is not liable for the debt. They didn't sign up authorized user. They were owners of the account. It shouldn't be showing up on their credit bureau if they're just an authorized user. It's not supposed to. You could clear. That's a different issue. You could clear that off because an authorized user is not an owner of the account. They're not liable legally.

Yes, but they do get the perks of the credit of the account. They're not supposed to.

They're not supposed to. But they are. Because they're not an owner of the account. They're not financially responsible for the account. That could be different. This is where stupid parents are doing to their kids. They're just ridiculous. If you're doing this to your kid, you're stupid. You should stop it. Don't mess up your kid's life. This poor lady right here is dealing with people like you if you're doing this to your kid. Gosh, I'm so sorry, honey. I don't have an answer for you. Get the credit cards closed, completely down. That'll get rid of it either way. Then you've got to fight on your hands with the idiot timeshare industry. It is the most grotesque, fraud filled, horrible industry on the planet. They're just awful. It's the worst. I've dealt with them for 20 years, trying to get people out. We had a company that did it for a while, and the company went sideways. So screwed up.

If you had to, Dave, George and I played this game on Happy Hour, would you rather have a time share or a leased car?

I don't have to enter the land of stupid and pick one option. I know. Okay? I'm going to turn around and leave the land of stupid. I'm not going to pick one of the options. Why would I do that?

It's just a fun game. It's not a fun game. Just the light in the mood.

No, it's not. There's nothing light about it. It just aggravates me. Gosh, Victoria, I'm sorry. I'm just angry for This just pisses me off that your mom and dad would treat their own children this way. It's affecting your brother and sister-in-law's ability to buy a home. This is awful. It's just awful. The fact that your family is so freaking dysfunctional that your Christmas present is the opportunity to cosign on a time share.

No, I don't know if that was true. I was using that as an example.

Just when you come by Christmas, sign up.

It's just like- I don't know if that was what happened.

I know, but it's what happened. It's the way this family I'm so sorry for you. The only thing I know how to do is go after the timeshare business. The only way they understand, and that's a metaphorical two before to the face. Oh, my God. It's the only thing you can do to get their attention. You have to hit them hard. It's the only thing they get. They are a nasty, fraudulent industry. They're horrible. Have I been unclear, America? This is the Ramsey Show. If current times have shown us anything, It's that the least expected events can and will happen, and we have to deal with it. That's why everyone who has a family counting on them needs term life insurance. For over 25 years, the only insurance company I've recommended is Xander Insurance. Not only because they search all of the top term life plans to find you the best rates, but over the years, they have constantly changed and updated their systems to make the whole process simpler and easier to the protection needed. You can now apply with a completely touchless experience with everything being done either over the phone or the internet.

They also have plans with super competitive rates that don't require an exam, allowing you to skip a step and get the coverage you need faster. Go to zander. Com or call 800-300-356-42-82. Great rates and a simple process mean there's no excuse to not get this done, people. Well, Well, just before show time, Preston Canon, our Vice President of Publishing, Ramsey Press, brought in a brand new copy of Ken's new book, which comes out in May. Oh, it's beautiful. It's actually the thing, yeah. So find the work you're wired to do. It includes a code in the back, it's got this little tear-off thing. When you tear it off, it's going to open up and you'll see the code to enter for the GetClear Career Assessment. We've sold almost 100,000 of those assessments to you, folks. They're Very good. It's one of the best digital products we've ever developed at Ramsey to help you figure out what you're good at, where you ought to go with your career, direction to take you towards your talents, your passions, all of that. It's incredible. An assessment code is included with the new book because the new book is there to describe to you the results of the assessment and what to do with it.

That's what this does. If you have never taken the assessment, you can get the book. It comes with an e-book with an assessment, a audio The Book with an assessment code, and the hardback book. You got three of the assessments to give to friends and relatives or whatever, and the books to help you tell how to do it. It comes out in. It's on presale right now. You can get it, but we'll actually ship them in early May.

I've had friends, we've had family Take that assessment. So if it really is. It's really, really well done. It's huge.

It's fabulous. Zack is with us in Dallas. Hey, Zack, how are you? Doing well. How about yourself? Better than I deserve. How can I help?

I'm getting married this December. My fiancée currently has a 2006 Mustang that's starting to fall apart. I would like to get her a new vehicle after we're married, or we would like to get a new vehicle after we're married, not as a wedding present, just as getting her something better that's more reliable. I currently make about $110,000 a year. I'm debt-free. I own a house. My parents gifted me. What is an acceptable budget to get her a vehicle? One reason I'm asking is her family is very judgmental and causes problems whenever she gets new things or nice things. I'm trying to find a budget that won't get too much flack from them, but also gets her in a nice, reliable vehicle.

Well, I would be looking at the latter, Zack. I think that first part of worrying about what they think, that's going to be a long, exhausting life that you're going to live if that's a filter that you use. I think it's a good practice for this to be the first purchase that you guys make solely as a couple based on your numbers, which you guys want, and regardless of the judgment that probably will be coming, because how you guys are set up already with a paid-for house, you have no debt, you make great money. You guys will probably be purchasing some things in the near, far future that they will be judging probably a lot throughout your marriage. So I think it's a good practice to say, Here's the first purchase we're going to make as our own family unit, and it's It's going to be a stretch for you guys, mostly. But I would do that. Then, looking at the numbers, do you have any money saved?

About $125,000 in the bank.

You're a stud. Good for you. How old are you?

21.

You're killing me, man. You're 21.

You are so killing it. I'm so proud of you.

Great job, Zack.

Man, she got a catch. You're something else.

I'm six classes away from graduating with a degree. I have no college debt, and I work about 70 hours a week right now.

What's your degree in?

A business You guys go.

You're going to be a multimillionaire. You're amazing. So nice. Good for you. The rule of thumb on cars is they go down in value. You know that?

Yes.

A guy like you knows that already. That's not something I have to teach you. We tell folks, don't buy things with motors and wheels, boats, sea-dos, snowmobiles and tractors. Don't buy things with motors and wheels that all add up. When you add up all your stuff with wheels to more than half your annual income because it all goes down in value. In your case, you make 100 grand. You're talking about spending 20 grand on her, and you're well in range, right? Yes. Yeah, it's no big deal. She doesn't need a $70,000 car. It doesn't fit your budget.

We were looking at a new Honda CRV, which runs about 38 to 40.

Okay. I would not do a new one unless you've got a million dollar net worth, and you I don't. I would hold back on that. But maximum, when you're done, your car plus her car does not need to be more than 50% of your take home pay and pay cash. Okay?

Okay.

I mean, 50% of your gross annual. So your gross annual When she graduates, she's going to be what?

She's currently a full-time student, so just.

What's her degree in?

It's an archeology.

When she graduates? She really wants to be 20, 25. Okay. So at the time you're doing this, it's going to be your income, and you make what? Seventy. One-ten. One-ten, I'm sorry. Okay, so 55 total. What's your car worth?

My truck is worth about 50,000.

Okay. Well, you're way over. Okay. So 15, 20 grand for her max, and then don't do this again. It's the only dumb thing you've done in the whole story you told me. You really have got your act together except that truck.

Was it paid for?

You paid cash for the truck?

I did. The job I got, I needed to have a '21.

You did not need a $50,000 truck. I don't care what job you're in.

No, it's my biggest regret so far.

It's your biggest mistake so far. Everything else in your story is fabulous. You've been really smart. But you're going to have too much tied up in cars and don't do it again. But you're 21. You got the rest of your life to do smart, so you're fine. Everything's okay. You're great. Now, when you buy her a $20,000 car or something like that, which is about a used CRV, in other words, to put her in something Back to the other part of the question. Rachel's right. Trying to please judgmental people that you love and you actually care about their judgment is exhausting. You're a really nice young man, and I want to teach you to continue to be nice to them on the outside, but in the inside, when they start talking like that, I just want you to say, Nuna. Nuna business. They currently don't like me already. I don't care. They're frustrated.

They deal with her.

Yeah, that's fine. Nuna. She needs to learn to hear in her head when they start something, just go Nuna. Because let me tell you how many times one of my grown kids called and asked me if they should buy a car. Zero. Or ask me when they should have a baby. Zero. Which is appropriate, by the way. They don't need my permission. They're what's known as grown. Okay? Rachel drives one of those rolling batteries. Why would I condone that? I wouldn't condone that Tesla stuff. It's not like a real car, and they catch fire.

I'll beat you on the interstate.

You will. You beat me in the parking lot, too. I've seen you. I'm kidding around. We could just have fun with it, and that's the extent of my judgment towards her.

Yeah, but there's a relationship fact. I mean, they're fractured already before they even enter the marriage. Zack, I'm just curious. I mean, she's still in school, and I had a semester left of college when I got married in December, so there's no judgment on my end. I'm just curious, what's causing a level of urgency to get married now? If she has a full year left, you're still in school, and the parents, that's not great with the family. Is it just you guys love each other and this is it?

For the most part, yes. That's really all there is to it, is that we've dated for two years. We're ready to get married, ready to move in, and see less of a reason to wait than we do to go ahead and get married.

Got you. Okay. I was just curious.

We want to live together and start lives, and we want to do it the right way. Good for you. Marriage was the next step.

Good for you. That's great. Well, what's going to happen is you're just going to go pick up Henry Cloud's book Boundaries, because that's what I'm saying is just you got to have boundaries. Just smile at them and go, Yeah, okay. But if you filter your decisions through what they think Rachel's exactly right, it's going to be exhausting because you cannot anticipate what crazy is going to do. That's why it's known as crazy.

You'll never make them happen. You could buy a $5,000 car. It doesn't matter what you do.

It's not- Their way. The point is, you reach a point that you're not doing anything for them, and that point is the day you say, I do.

Which you're in the hardest season, though. From an age-wise, young, the amount of time from a parent's handoff to the real world. I mean, the older you get and the more life experiences and more decisions you make, the easier it is. This is the hardest. This will be the hardest season to feel that and actually walk through those motions. And so you guys together, it's like you just lock arms and just say, and even have a funny code. If you guys go to Christmas and they make a comment, just have a thing with each other of like, I'm just going to scratch my ear and be like, I'm dying inside, but just me and you know, right? You got to have fun with it and lean on each other. But congratulations, Zack. We're excited for you guys.

Now I'm looking for funny codes. This is The Ramsey Show. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions. It's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Rachel Cruz, number one best Selling author, host of the Rachel Cruz Show, co-host of the Smart Money Happy Hour, both Ramsey Network It's and my daughter, Ramsey personalities, my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Rachel, this is right up your alley. Let's jump in and do the question of the day. It's Financial Literacy Month, and one of the ways we're celebrating is taking questions from students in high schools that are teaching our high school curriculum, Foundations in Personal Finance. By the way, Texas and South Carolina have just mandated, the latest two states, to mandate that personal finance be taught as a graduation requirement in their high schools. Salute to you two states. Well done. There's a time that the legislature in your state did good work. Of course, we're one of the options that are adopted by your state Board of Education, whatever it is, and have adopted us in both cases, which means we're one of the options the schools are selecting from, and we're honored that a whole bunch of schools in both of those states are now going to add this.

Today's question comes from a student at Bibi High School.

Yes, and it says, if You are a natural spender, how do you learn to save when your tendency is to spend? That's what you said. It's my question.

It's you and me both. We're both natural spendters.

Just on the break, too, I was like, Just buy the thing. Dad, we're talking about something. Yeah. I mean, I think for me, I had to… I realized two things pretty quickly. Number one, I realized if I didn't save at all, then the amount of stress, the future, Rachel, of what she would want to do, all of that is gone, right? There's something there to say, I'm going to plan for the future, and that's motivating to me. So that helped get this rhythm for me to be able to say, Okay, the savings is there. And And there is to a point it's a spender. And again, I think savers have their negatives. We can talk about that. But the spender negative at times is we can get in a rhythm of like, Oh, if I just... That thing is exciting to buy, and I get some excitement from it, and then that excitement fades. And it may fade an hour after you buy the thing. It may fade a week after you buy the thing. But eventually, that excitement fades. And if you depend on your happiness or your joy in life to be on that type of excitement, you're going to be a rat in a wheel for the rest of your life.

And it becomes a contentment issue at that point, not just a money, dollars, and sense issue. And so that part's very important. And that's a hard one. I mean, the contentment idea is really difficult. I think that spenders can be that rat in a wheel at times and just get, get, get. And so understanding where your joy, your happiness, your identity even comes from. And one question I even ask myself, Dave, when I buy stuff for me, is I filter through the question, if nobody sees this purchase, do I still want it? Like, Is there any motivator for what? Whether it's a compliment or what someone's going to think about me, is that any level of a motivator?

If you never posted online that you had bought this.

Yeah, or you went on that vacation if nobody knew.

The tree falls in the woods and no one is there.

They're still spending. Yeah, so it's just making sure the motives are healthy. It's really good.

That is healthy because trying to get affirmation from others based on the label is a real problem for spenders. Yeah. Spending as a reformed spender myself, a matured spender, I still spend. It's still my natural bent, but I'm also a math nerd, so I came up with two things that caused me to do it in my case. One is I knew if I saved more, I could spend more because I would have more. The quality of car I drive today far exceeds the quality of car when I didn't save back in the day, and I was a broke person. Yeah, you get a better life, a better spender life. The second thing is not always true, but in the 30 something years I've been doing this, more often than not, it's a generality, but More often than not, spenders are also generous people. They like to give, and you can't give if you're broke. If you give a $1,000 car or a $2,000 car to a single mom it changes their life, what if you did 10 of them? You changed 10 of them's life for 20,000 instead of 2,000. You can't do that if you're broke.

The way you get that 20,000 to give is to save it. The enjoyment of money is what a spender likes. The enjoyment of giving, the enjoyment of the generosity, but also the enjoyment of consumption, too. Both of those are what drive me in the situation, but I think your answer was probably better. It really was. I'll take it. The problem with spenders is that we're worshiping at the idol of stuff if we're not careful. If you bow down to that idol, you will find it's a false idol. It does not deliver. It does not deliver satisfaction.

To swing on the other end of the spectrum, because I talk about this in my book, Know Yourself, Know Your Money, that's the downside of the spender, and that's real, very, very real. But there is a downside of a saver where you become so control-freaked, tight-fisted, hoarding mentality that there's almost this level of stress because you just have the money. I mean, you almost can't find the piece either, right? Because you're holding on so tight.

There's not a big enough savings to get peace.

Yes. It's on that other end, too. So savers, we're not leaving you off the hook.

Yeah. Well, I mean, and Larry Burkett used to say it well. He said, There's a difference. The only difference between saving and hoarding is not the amount. The only difference is saving and hoarding is the intent. Why are you doing this? What's it for? Because hoarders are, I might need that someday. Savers are, I might need that someday. It's this idea that you're going to get from something money can't give you, which is contentment, is peace. There's not enough money to… You can't have a big enough pile of money for it to serve you. I mean, for you to serve it, it has to serve you. If you're trying to get from stuff spenders joy and contentment, it's going to come up short. You eat enough lobster, it tastes like soap, and I like lobster. But if you eat enough fine dining, it's no longer fine. It doesn't matter. As soon as you get a really expensive car, you get a real problem with where to park it because somebody will bounce a door off of it like it's a basketball and then go, Oh, did I I'll give you that. Yes, you just did that.

Yeah, and then your whole enjoyment is wrapped up in like, Oh, my gosh, this thing. Now I'm worshiping this thing and ready to kill this person.

It's just like,. But that's all that is. That's the thing. You just live in this world where you're asking stuff or a pile of money, depending on whether you're a saver or a spender, to do something for you, it can't do. That's right. That was your point. It was a better point than mine.

No, it's good. It's true. It's all true.

It was a good point. God is not fond idol worship. It comes up early and often in scripture, and that's what this comes down to, is where are you trying to get joy from? I like our friend, the Minimals title. It's Use stuff, not people. Yes. That's a good thing. Don't let stuff use you. That's the deal. When you got a $1,200 car payment, you're being used. Hello. This is the Ramsey Show. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. We're so glad you're here. Hey, we are really excited about this upcoming Total Money Makeover event weekend here on the Ramsey campus. Rachel and I, and George Campbell and Jade, and Dr. John Deloney, and Ken Coleman, we're going to be doing a weekend-long event, the Total Money Makeover Weekend. We want I want you to join us. We're going to help you get real healthy money habits that will really change your relationship with money for good. We're covering all the things you want to know: how to get out of debt, how to create a budget with every dollar, how to communicate with your spouse about finances, how to ease anxiety around money, how to invest and build the retirement of your dreams, how to increase your income so that you can do all of these things.

What is the key things that, when woven together, give you a very high probability of not only getting a handle on this money stuff, but becoming wealthy? We're going to take you all the way through it. This weekend long event is the ultimate motivator to get you fired up and excited to live the life you've always wanted. We're going to be doing a live taping of the hit podcast Smart Money Happy Hour with Rachel and George. We're going to have lots of Q&A's throughout the weekend and all the personalities, me, Rachel, Dr. Deloney, George Campbell, Jade Walsh, Ken Coleman. Don't wait to get your tickets. This thing is not sold out yet, and you can still get them We would love to have you get them at ramseysolutions. Com/events. We'll start on Friday evening and go through Saturday evening. If you get here a little bit early, you can watch this show happen on the glass from 1:00 to 4:00 Central Time. That's free for anybody, but you can certainly make that a part of your plan to do the whole thing. Later on, I'll be speaking on Friday night. They'll be doing the Smart Money Happy Hour on Friday night.

Then all day, we're going to... If you bring a reluctant spouse, They won't be reluctant anymore when you leave. If you bring a friend that thinks you're crazy for doing this stuff, they will be just as crazy as you when they leave. We're going to teach you how to do this stuff. Man, when you get in that an all-immersive setting, you can't come away. It's like taking a cram course on all the stuff you should have known about money. It's going to be so fun.

Yeah, it's going to be great. These events, they are. They're really fun. It's being in a room, there's energy, there's people, there's learning. We bring, hopefully, lots of laughter and storytelling, and it's relaxed and it's fun. Just come hang out with us. It's going to be a really great event.

It's life-changing. Ramsysolutions. Com/events to get your tickets. We'll be doing this, of course, May... What's What's the date on this thing?

May 10th through 11th.

10th and 11th. Okay, that's it. I should have been on here, I guess. Okay, cool. All right, let's go to Kenneth in Rochester. Hey, Kenneth, welcome to The Ramsey Show. What's up?

Hi, Ramsey. How are you guys doing today?

Better than we deserve. What's up?

I'm a relatively new to the listener, but I've been watching your videos for the past couple of weeks now at work, and I keep hearing you take miniature jabs at Sofi. As somebody who uses Sofi, I was wondering if there is a reason you don't like the app and if you would recommend an alternative.

Well, Sofi is a bank. Yeah, I know. You know that, right?

Sorry, not app, bank.

Okay, they're a bank, and they sell debt. Okay. That's what they do. Everything in the app is designed amongst all this cheesy acting like they care about you, bull crap, but they don't care about you. They're trying to sell you debt. They're basically Bank of America in a millennial clothing. That's all they are. They're a bank. They sell credit card debt, they sell student loan debt, they sell mortgage debt, they sell home equity loan debt. It's where they make all their money. They're a bank. They sell debt. You know that, right?

Yeah. I was just wondering if there was something more to it because from what I've listened to in your videos, it seems like basically every bank does that. I was wondering if there was a reason why you usually call out SoFi specifically.

I call out Bank of America, Fifth Third Bank, and Chase pretty regularly, too, right? Because they're large mega banks that don't have a soul and don't care a dad-blamed thing about their customer. They're there to milk you. That's their whole job. The only difference in SoFi and those other guys is, those other guys just tell you, We're here to screw you. Sofye puts it all in all this little sweet millennial nurturing clothing, and it's just a bunch of crap. It's so hypocritical. It's unbelievable.

And they have a great arena.

And they have an arena.

The stadium.

I always make fun of that. I just go, That's when you hear me picking on them. But it's- It's just the big corporations. They are not your friend.

If there was an alternative, Kenneth, it is more the credit union, your local bank, a state, wide bank, a regional bank, going who are localized with your banking is a better way because you're actually going to talk to be able to talk to people.

Yes, they sell that, too. But they have most of the local community banks and credit unions have at least a bit of, if not a really good, soul. They actually will They're going to reach you like a human being in the process.

If you have to go and sit down with somebody.

But these guys, they serve the stockholder. These mega banks, they got one thing. They need one thing from you, your money. That's it. That's all they want. It's just it is… When you watch their ads, it's just like, Oh, come on, really? But I guess people believe it. Well, they're good.

Their marketing is pretty fantastic.

It makes you sound like that they actually care. It's a hoot. But they don't. I mean, I promise you, I'm not mad at them. They just is who they are. They're just another mega bank. That's all they are. They're out of San Francisco, which is where Bank of America was born. The Visa card, which was when it was born, was called the Bank America card was the birth of Visa. That's the DNA of Visa. It comes out of that same place. It's the same problem. But I don't hate SoFi more than Bank of America. Our whole thing here, Kenneth, is we want what's good for you. We want somebody to... When somebody is not taking care of the consumer, then there's a good chance, like timeshare people or something, that I'm going to say something negative about it.

For sure. Well, and I think there's a point there, too, just to realize and be on guard, Kenneth, of how great we mentioned, like their marketing is, like their commercials and stuff. You're like, Oh, my gosh. If they're that good on that side, they're going to be that much better on all their online products. You're going to be in it, and you may not even realize, Oh, my gosh, I'm getting this here, this here, this here. The ultimate product is dead because they're making interest on you. I mean, all of it. It's how most banks are making all their money. They're just really good at it.

Be aware. They spend billions of dollars trying to get your money. It's their thing, man. Wells Fargo, that's the other one we can drop in there. The level of fraud that company has gone through is unbelievable. What you're looking is a bank that their whole existence is not built on trying to milk you like yesterday's cow. I mean, that's really what you've got to get your head around. I do business with a bank or two or three, and none of them loan me money because they don't borrow money, so it's not an option. But just be careful when you're playing with snakes because they bite. That's the whole point.

Yeah. I think, too, a question we're getting a lot is where to hold my checking, right? We talked about the. But then a lot of questions about high-yield savings account. That's one of the biggest right now because the interest rates are so great. Even online banks are another great option.

I'm fine with an online bank.

But again, watch what you're doing.

Because are they using the high-yield savings account as the loss leader to get you in there so they can milk you with credit cards and home equity loans? And are they going to just completely hammer you over and over and over and over and over and over again? Because that is the business that they're in. The margins in that stuff is incredible. It's incredible the amount of money banks make. You just have to watch what's going on with that. Yeah, anybody that's not doing a stellar job for the consumer, especially in a financial arena, yeah, I'm going to call them out by name, and I have for 35 years. I don't know that I'm… But I don't recall being harder on SoFi than I was on those other banks, but other than I sneeze and say SoFi because I think it's funny. But other than that, it's not I hear Bank of America more from you than so far. I can't stand them. I know. They're just awful. Why would anybody do business with those people? This is The Ramsey Show. This is Ramsey Show, where we prove every day that having common sense is like having a superpower in America today.

Thanks for hanging out with us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, best-selling author. My daughter is my co-host today. Oxana is with us over in Charlotte, North Carolina. Hi, Oxana. How are you?

Hi. Thank you so much for taking my call. It's an honor to speak with you.

You, too. What's up?

Well, so my husband and I, we have made some really dumb choices, and so I just wanted to get some of your wisdom. We bought a house. We moved to Charlotte, like two years ago, bought a house that needed a lot of remodel before we could live in here. We didn't calculate what it would take, of course. We just were not very smart financially. We were not disciplined, and I'm just disgusted from our lack of discipline. Now we're on our every dollar budget, and I feel like we're We're finally getting control over money. My question would be, would it be wise for us to sell our house in order to get out of debt, or should we find a way to get rid of our expensive car and work our way out of debt that way?

Is the house renovation complete?

It's livable. We're living in it, but it is not complete.

Okay. If we don't sell it, you've this need staring you in the face to continue to fix it up, right?

Yes. We're slowly working on it every weekend because my husband does construction, so it's already his expertise.

Yeah. Okay. Generally, when I find folks in that situation, by the time you're a couple of years into it, like you all are, you're sick of this house.

I'm sick of our debt because we- No, that's what I'm talking about.

That's different. That's a different subject. You're living in saw dust all the time and drywall dust.

Yes, that is true. Yes. This is our third house with renovation. It's never finished. Yeah.

It's a perpetual state of construction destruction? Yes. Most people, some people are okay with that, but it's not unusual for me to talk to someone that's sick of living in those conditions with no hope of it ending anytime soon.

Mm-hmm.

Is that true of you or is that not true of you? It's okay. It's okay if you're different and you just love it, it's okay.

No, I don't love it, but I do see a light at the end of this tunnel, finally. Where? How far out? I'm okay to this house. Probably by the end of summer, we should be done. Oh, okay.

That's not bad. That's a reasonable light.

I do see a light, but I have been very sick and tired of living in a construction home like forever.

I describe him pretty well, but it's still like- Regardless of the other part of the discussion, you guys need to write that down, and he needs to hear you because he's not sick of living in construction. He does it every day. It doesn't bother him because guys will live under a bridge. We live anywhere, but ladies somehow need a little different situation, and that's reasonable to me. Because I can live in a construction situation, But not with my wife.

Guys threshold is gross. Because she's not going to live there. College home and walk through a girls' college home, and there's your answer. There's your answer.

That's it. Guys are disgusting. All of that to say, going forward, don't do this again. Not because of the debt, but because it's not how you want to live. You've done it enough. Okay? Yeah. That's just some advice. Okay, now, how much debt How many you have?

We have 137,000.

How much of that is the expensive car?

Yeah, it's 68,000.

That's his truck?

No, It's our everyday driving car.

What is it?

It's a Toyota 4-runner.

Okay, it's your car.

Yeah. All right.

Okay. And what's he drive?

I'm sorry, I said '68. It's actually '59. The 68 is credit card. He drives just a van, a work van.

Okay, and the 68 was from- Credit cards. The renovation, right?

Yeah, renovation and random stuff like going out to eat.

Okay, all right. And you stopped all that? All right. What's your household income?

Well, it dropped a lot since moving here because we had to start back up from scratch. Last year, we made 47,000. But this year, I'm projecting it's going to get a lot better because just In April, we're going to get about 10,000 in just the month.

What do you think you're going to make in 2024?

I'm going to guess 70 or more, at least.

That sounds right. It sounds good. Okay. What do you owe on the house?

On the house, we owe 405, 405,000.

What's your mortgage payment every month?

Our mortgage is 2,473.

How have you been making a mortgage payment, making 40 grand? Credit cards.

Wait, what was the question?

How are you making a $2,000 mortgage payment, making 40 grand?

Honestly, We've been borrowing from people, and it's been really tough.

I don't know if you can afford this house.

We're moving here.

You need to be making a take home pay of $8,000 a month, which is $110,000 a year to afford this house.

Really? So without talking about even the debt?

Not counting the debt.

Really?

Yeah. Your take home pay, your house payment should not be more than a fourth of your take home pay. Otherwise, you put yourself in a pinch. Do you see your way to $110,000 income from 70 in the following year? What was his high point before you left the other place?

Like 120 a year.

Yeah, okay. Can he get back there in another year after this year?

I'm hoping, and it looks like it's going up. It's going up pretty fast all of a sudden, and he's a very hard worker, so I could see that happening.

I'm questioning his work ethic. I'm questioning his math ability.

But I would sell the car.

I'd sell the car and I'd keep the house. If your income does not go up to 120 by the end of 25, you need to sell the house.

Oh, okay. That makes sense.

But we need to get rid of the car now. Then you start chipping away the credit card debt. As your income comes up, you'll be able to do that. But if you're living on a $70,000 income, then your take home pay is going to be somewhere in the 55 range after taxes. That's 4,500 bucks a month, and almost 50% of that's going to a house payment then. It's very- Can you work upside down?

On the difference, how do we pay that difference?

You're upside down on the house? Or the car?

No, on I got a car.

Oh, I got a change here.

What could you sell it for?

We can sell it for 55,000, probably. Who said? 50 to 55.

Who said?

I just looked on Facebook, like what people are selling it for?

Okay. Go to kellybluebook, kbb. Com, and look at private sale. That is an accurate number. Very little on Facebook is true.

What about JD Power?

I also got a quote there. That would be okay. Did you look at a private sale on JD Power?

Yeah, it was 54.

Okay, that's what the car is worth. It's worth 55. Okay. You owe 59, so you got to come up with four grand to sell it.

Yeah.

And replace a car.

I just don't know how to work with a bank. Oh, we just find the cash for it and just pay that difference, you think?

Yeah, a cheap cash car, a hoopdie, because you're broke people.

But you'll probably have to take out a small loan, Oxana, possibly to make the difference of that four grand and a little bit of money to replace the car.

Buy a $5,000 car. You need a $10,000 loan instead of a $59,000 loan. That's going to move you in the right direction. But you need to get rid of the car, and then you need to say, if we don't get our income up to the 120 mark by the end of 2025, then we've got too much house.

And, Alxana, hold on the line, and Austin and Taylor are going to pick up, and we want to give you guys Financial Peace University and Every Dollar Premium. Or you said you were doing Every Dollar, so if you have that, no worries. But watch Nine Lessons with you and your husband, and you guys get on the same page with this because that's a really helpful course to get these basics down. And so you guys can really go full steam ahead. When you have that knowledge and you start working and creating these new habits, it's going to be so helpful for you guys. It really is. I see the light of the internal for you guys. I think you're on the cusp of change. It's right there. You see that little extra push. So we're cheering for you guys, Yeah, you are.

You're going to make it. You're going to be okay. If the house is worth a lot more than 400, yeah, you might want to sell it. That'd be cool, too. Folks, you do not need a financial degree to build your investing plan with confidence. At our new virtual event, Dave Ramsey's Investing Essentials, you'll learn the best strategies for your 401k and mutual funds. I'll even open up my personal playbook on investing in real estate. You can do this, and you don't have to do it alone. This two-night virtual event happens May 21st and 22nd. Last day for early bird tickets is April 11th. Save 50 bucks if you buy now at ramseysolutions. Com/events. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Aaron is with us in Oklahoma City. Hi, Aaron. How are you?

I am very well, Dave. How are you and Ms. Rachel doing?

Better than we deserve, sir. How can we help?

Well, I have a question about... I have some money sitting in a savings account that I wanted to see your advice, but as I told the screeners, I have a fairly complicated backstory. If you want to hear it. Sure.

It would affect the decision.

Absolutely. I am a three-time cancer survivor, but also a current cancer patient. About two years ago, I was diagnosed with a stage 4 inturable and have been doing really well for two years. But When they tell you that, you fear the end of the mirror every day. Sure. My history is roughly in… Let's see, I have a 16-year-old, a 14-year-old, and a nine-year-old. When my two older ones were very young, four and one, we started to do the Dave Ramsey plan. Sorry, I'm nervous. That's okay. You're fine. We had a lot of debt at that time, but we paid off all our credit cards. We paid off my wife's student loans and a few other little things. Then in 2012 is when I got… Well, originally, I had cancer in exactly 2000. Then in 2012, had another issue. I had to have a surgery and remove part of my kidney and started to have to pay some medical stuff, and it derailed where we were. For the next, I don't know, nine or so years, we lived on a budget. We still were prudent with our money, but we weren't really getting ahead. Then bought our own pharmacy Bought our own business, had it for 10 years, and in 2022, we sold it, and I made a fairly decent amount of money.

But then that was in March, and then in the end of June is when I got diagnosed with this stage 4 terminal cancer. My question is, from the sale of that business, we put 320 or so in savings, had to use about 50,000 of that for medical expenses and to live. And then, fairly recently, I have opened five, two, nines for all three kids, but I've only put 10 in each, so a total of 30. So what I'm looking at is $240,000 in cash savings. My question is, do I... Well, I want you to just guide me, but my In my head, the thought process was, do I continue to invest in 529? Do I pay down on the house? In preparation to try to, obviously, help my wife and kids If and when I do go. Sorry, that's a lot.

No, it's fine. What do you owe on your home?

284. Okay.

What's your household income today since you sold the business?

Well, I've since moved on and got a new job. Combined, we make about 150, 155, K. Okay.

Well, I think together, so what's your wife make?

She brings home around 800 every month. She works part-time, takes full-time taking care of the kids. Okay.

Do you have life insurance? Do you have life insurance in addition to that? My 145.

I I have roughly 1.3 in term. Okay. All right. Combined, we have about 75,000 and 401k Roths. Good.

What I want to do if I'm in your shoes is put together a plan that works if I live through this and a plan that works if I don't.

Okay.

Is that okay?

I believe so, yes.

I think that's what you're asking.

Yeah, because I do believe in miracles.

I'm fine with either one, whatever God chooses, okay? Yes, sir. Before we do that, have you got your will done?

In the process.

Okay. And your wife's will as well? Okay. In the process? Yes. Okay. And that doesn't need to drag out. You need to do that now. Okay. Very important to get that wrapped up because it will change things in the emotional state of both of you to have had that done. It's a weird thing, but it gives you a level of peace and get her a level of peace because it's all dialed in. That box is checked. You know what I'm saying? Yes, sir. It's It's also like if you've got your spiritual life arranged, like you know where you're going, right?

Yes, sir.

Okay. So you're walking with God, right?

Amen.

Yes, I am. Okay. All right. That's not one less thing to worry about. To die at this point is gain then. Yes. Those of us that are people- It's hard to accept that with a nine-year-old kid, but you are correct. I get it. There's the spiritual understanding and the intellectual understanding and the emotional acceptance. I don't know if I could deal with it. I don't want to trade places with you, but I'm just talking through what I would do if I were in your shoes. I'd want to make sure I had these things arranged. That gives me a foundation to arrange the rest of it. Does that make sense?

Yes.

Because what I found is when I'm facing hard stuff, if I address each of the buckets in the hard stuff, then I've done all I can do, and then the rest is the ride. The will your spiritual walk and condition, all of that. Then we say, Okay, if you pass away, she got $250,000 in the bank. She's got $1.1 million in insurance coming. She's got $1.3 million, and she writes a check and pays off the house that day, sits down with a smart investor pro, Oh, by the way, you could probably go ahead and do that now and let her and you develop a relationship with this investment broker that understands what's going on. Okay, if she walks in with a paid-for house and a million dollars, we're going to invest that and she can live off the income it creates and raise the kids and not have to work. Because I think she can probably live on 100 grand a year, can't she?

Yes. Okay.

All right. If you lay that out, now that's the if I die scenario. The house is paid off, we invest in mutual funds with the balance of the insurance money, and then we know that financially, the kids are going to eat and go to college. We're I would not do 529s with this money. Okay. Now, if you live longer, you're going to need this liquidity to fight this because you're probably at a... It sounds like you're in alternative treatment stage. Is that right?

No, I'm actually doing very well. I tell people I'm in really good shape for the shape I'm in. Okay.

I work- So you're still doing straight chemo? I'm doing chemo every 21 days. I work 46 hours a week. If you need 50,000 bucks to fly to XYZ country to begin a treatment that is beyond what your normal course of events are here to take another shot at this whole thing, you've got that money laying there, and I want to keep it laying there for you.

Okay.

I also want to keep it laying there if you guys decide you want to take a family trip and create a memory. That'd be okay, too. That's a good use of this money.

I've already paid for a trip at the end of May for us to go do that. Good for you.

I want to give you permission to use some of this money that way. Then if 10 years later, we're sitting here and that money's gone, but you're here, I'm good with that. That's a good investment.

Yeah. Okay. Kind of sit tight on it and- Yeah, let's sit tight on it.

But sit down and lay out your plan. What I'm doing is If you're alive, I'm keeping this money liquid so we can take care of you and create the best situation for the family. If you're gone, we got this money plus the insurance money, pay off the house and invest, and we lay that out and put all those relationships in place to go there. You've You got a thing laid out. Then if I'm you, that gives me peace because I got a plan to fight through this. I think it's helpful to do that. Man, I'm praying for you, Aaron. You're a strong dude. This is the Ramsey

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Rachel Bruce Ramsey, personality, number one best-selling author and host of the Smart Money Happy Hour with our own George Campbell on the Ramsey Networks. And my daughter is my co-host today. Thanks for joining us, America. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Brandon is with us. Brandon is in Evansville, Indiana. Hi, Brandon. How are you?

Hi, Dave and Rachel. Thanks for having me. Pleasure to talk to both of you.

You, too. What's up?

Yeah, I've got a question for you. This is a phone call compared to a lot of the ones you get to have. I've been listening to you since about 2007 or so. I'm debt free except for the house right now. That's all about the change. I've got a significant windfall coming from work that's life-changing, essentially. And I'm trying to get my ducks in a row. I've met with my financial advisor. I'm meeting with a CPA and a state attorney coming up here in the next two weeks. And so the real question becomes the buckets, the percentages, how they change the give, save, and spend. And really focus on the giving portion, on what percentage do you give for that? And how do you make it put boundaries on that so you don't find I don't think I have anybody like that that would do it. But just you don't know who's going to come out of the woodwork if you start giving money away. I just want to be able to help out people. And then on top of that, on the back end of it, just some of the other fun stuff we get to do with it as well.

How much money are you getting, Brenda?

It's in the seven-figure range.

Over a million bucks? Yeah. Good for you. I'm so proud for you.

That's great.

Way to go, man. You killed it. How old are you?

About 40.

Way to go. Good for you. Man, you're killing it.

It's awesome. Yeah. How much is left on the house, Brandon?

About 100,000.

Oh, my gosh. Okay. Most of this is all for you guys.

It really does fall in the three buckets then.

Okay. Yeah. Really, I don't know what percentage is to put everything in. Obviously, give 10% is an easy one. But then if I want to go either above that or just help others, my family, I break time.

Are you attending a local church?

Yes.

Okay. Evangelical Christians teach and believe, and I'm one of them, that we give a tie the 10th of our income to our local church. I start with that on mine. When I get a check, like you're talking about, 50% is gone because 40% is going to stink in taxes and 10% is going to tithe. Then the give, save, spend The end buckets are with the other 50%.

Okay.

Okay. Let's just say you got a million dollars as an example. We're not talking about paying off the house because you're getting more than a million dollars. We'll just use a million dollars net. You're going to pay $400,000 in taxes on it because you have to pay your fair share, you Communist. You know how that is, right? A bunch of crap. It's Somebody else's money other than yours. He can't help himself, Brandon. Anyway, I can't stop. It's close to April 15th. This stuff just comes out. I can't stop it. But anyway. It's okay, David. You and I agree. $400,000 is going to stupid government, 10% How does it make sense going to your local church to tithe, and other giving would come out of the 50. I would add some other percentage out of that other 50. How are you going to break down that other 50% towards investing, further investing, further generosity, and enjoyment or lifestyle adjustment. Correct. If you put 10% on lifestyle adjustment, you got $100,000 to blow and have fun with, go on a trip, buy a car, whatever. That would leave you 40% for giving in for investing. If you put another 10 on additional giving, I'm just making these numbers up.

There's not a wrong number, a right number. Then you'd have another 100,000 to give, and that would leave you with $300,000 invested out of that particular million dollars. If it's $10 million, it's going to be 10 times that much. You look at percentages and lay those out ahead of time, and then that sells you. You could sit down with your investment folk and go, I'm getting ready to bring you a check for this to invest. Let's talk about what we're going to do with it. Then you start talking about what ministries or charities we want to support with this money Then you start putting boundaries, as you said, on that to be a wise investor into God's kingdom with ministries and charities. Like you said, I don't I'm not going to put this in a bad place.

But you can't keep some for an individual, right? If something comes up and you want to buy someone a car or something, you know what I mean? You're able to do that, too.

Yeah, you can do that, too. But of course, tax deductible is going to be going to That's true, yeah. If you're concerned about that at all, it's going to be going to be going to a 501(C)(3), unless you form some foundation. I don't know how much money you're getting, but you're probably not in the foundation level yet because it takes a bit of money to maintain that sucker.

Brandon, I have a question. For this specific amount of money, is this a one-time like, Oh, my gosh, this just happened. It probably will never happen again, or are you in a position career-wise where this could be something that happens every three to four years? Do you know what I mean? It could happen more times over.

Let's just say I got on the right bus and they put me on the right seat, so it all worked out well.

Okay. That's good. Yeah. I think especially with that, putting these habits in place, because as this comes up, you'll start to know, oh, yeah, it will start to flow more as you lay this foundation.

That's exciting. What I didn't do when I got the first one of these is I I was very intentional with everything, except I just dumped the giving part in an account, and then I had to clear it out by year-end or I was going to get taxed on it. I had to rush around at the end of the year and pick out some ministries to put it on. I did that two years in a row, and a guy who's a billionaire, I was sitting with him, he said, You would fire somebody if they managed your investments that way. You need to be better at investing God's money than that. You need to be as careful on investing his money as you are investing the money for yourself. You need to be doing due diligence on these ministries and checking them out and doing all this stuff. That is what led me, because we were starting to have these events pretty regularly, to forming a foundation that Rachel's sister runs, the foundation, and she vets all these things now. But at a minimum, you've just got to be thoughtful about who you're going to give it to, because if you give $100,000 to a ministry that their whole budget is $100,000, you could screw them up.

Yeah, I understand. Or if they're misbehaving with the money, or they're usually not misbehaving, they're just incompetent sometimes.

Yeah, and giving a certain amount of money, you're right. I think, to smaller ones where you're the big donor, and if you stop giving for whatever reason in the next two years that they go under, that brings them harm. Right? So it is. It's being really thoughtful and wise about the amount of money you give to each. But that's the fun part, Brandon, too, is, yeah, figuring out what do you guys love as a family? What are the things that you're like, Oh, my gosh, we want to put our resources and our money towards this type of organization, or that are doing clean water, or rescuing kids out of trafficking? Or you get to really figure out as a family, what are these things that we're passionate about. That's the exciting part about all of this. It can be so helpful. It can be so, so helpful.

We've had a lot of fun with it. This is the Ramsey Show.

I know you work hard for your money, and the key to keeping more of it in your pocket is by making a plan for your spending with a budget.

Everydollar is the budgeting app that I use personally because it's perfect for looking every dollar you make in its little President face and telling it exactly where you want it to go.

Just like you told that guy in traffic, exactly where you wanted him to go. And even better, EveryDollars walks you through the entire budgeting journey so you always know your next right step. Download EveryDollar for free in the App Store or Google Play today.

Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. Everydollar is our world-class budgeting app that helps you manage money the Ramsey way, helps you give every dollar an assignment, every dollar a mission Every Dollar a name. It works wherever you are, iOS or Android or online on your desktop. You can start Every Dollar for free and immediately see where you stand with your money, get organized, personalize your budget, stop the overspending, start behaving. It's cool. New to Every Dollar, we're going to show you a long-term financial roadmap. Track your networth, your debt-free date, your retirement date, show you in your baby steps how you're doing and progressing. We're going to walk with you, proactively coach you to build Goals, wealth, and reach your goals. This app is blowing up. Tens of millions of people using it. It's crazy how cool it is. Download the free app for iOS and Android or go to everydollar. Com and get started on your desktop. We would love to have you a part of the Every Dollar family. You can get started for free. Allison is with us in Los Angeles. Hi, Allison. Welcome to The Ramsey Show.

Hi, Dave. Thank you so much for taking my call today.

Sure. What's up?

I'm 21, and I graduate next month with a degree in finance. Good for you. Thank you. I've been dating my boyfriend now for almost a year. As I'm graduating and as we've been talking about our life together, our future together, we have the idea of moving to Texas has come into mind. The idea came into play because my boyfriend has a buddy out there that he could work with and make more money than what he's currently making. I'm willing and open to the idea. However, I made it very, very clear to him when we started talking about the move that we both needed to have at least a couple of thousand dollars saved up prior to the move. I'm there. I have that money saved up. I'm pretty much ready to move after I graduate. I've talked to him about potentially going and moving to Texas about one to two months before I do, because in the whole time that we've been together, I've never seen him work full-time. He's not in school, he never went to college. He works about 20 hours a week right now as a personal trainer in his own business.

I wanted to get that idea out there for him. He doesn't want to move out there without me because he thinks I won't follow him. But I genuinely believe that he He doesn't want to move out there with me because he doesn't have the financial means to do so. I think he wants me to be there with him so he can lean on me a little bit. But I've been burned in the past by an ex-boyfriend in a similar situation, and I lost thousands of dollars. I don't really know what to do. He tells me that his financial status is none of my business, but I'm thinking we're moving in together. It should be.

Warning, warning, I work 20 hours a week and my money is none of your business. Warning, warning, warning. The bells are going off in your head so loud that you can't even hardly speak around them, aren't they? Yeah. You have alarms going off all around you. You just described them to us very clearly.

I know.

Yeah. I know. It's a hard reality. It's a hard pill to swallow, the reality of of what the situation is. But I think you know it, Allison.

Yeah. I talked to him, and this also just… It impacts me a lot because as I said, I'm about to graduate, and so I started looking for jobs out in Texas. But we're at the mercy of when his friend says he can come and he just leaves that. Yeah.

So the problem is, Allison, you're building your life around somebody, number one, that you're not married to, right? I mean, you have no legal grounds on any level, and you've been burned in the past financially with relationships, as you said. And so you're following somebody that there is no true commitments and no true legal binding of anything, right? And so, I mean, that's red flag number one for me. Number two, there's so many splinters off of the situation that if I were your friends and sitting here, I would say, Allison, what's best for Allison? What's best for Allison? And that would be a different question if you guys were married. What's best for you as a couple? But you're not. Having that level of independence for you, Allison, to be able to say, What is best for me? And is it moving to a place that you don't have a job right now Following a guy who won't even let you into his finances, who hasn't had a pattern of doing well financially or work-wise because somebody of his X, Y, and Z, it sounds like a disaster. It really It does.

Allison, you are very wise for 21 years old because you've actually analyzed this pretty carefully. You've got all the key points in the decision. What's hurting is that it's leading you to a conclusion that is painful. If you had a little sister… Do you have a little sister?

Yes, I How old is she? She's 12.

Okay, so she's 21, and you're now 30. She comes and gives you this scenario.

What are you going to tell her? I would tell her not to do it. Absolutely not to do it. But the thing is, I'm in this place where I am worried that… Because he treats me so wonderfully, and I'm worried that I'm never going to find somebody- No.

He actually doesn't treat you wonderfully. If he was working 60 hours a week, making $100,000 a year, showering you with gifts, and paying for everything, and asking you to marry him so that he can make a lifelong commitment to you, and then, Honey, let's go off to Texas and make a wonderful life. That's treating you wonderfully. Not come over here so I can lean on you because I don't work much. That's not treating you wonderfully. It's not the definition of wonderful. You would tell your little sister that. All I'm telling you is what you've already told me. I don't really know what's going on except what you told me. But I can tell you this. I have had these situations over the years where everything in my brain is telling me not to do something, but my heart is pushing me forward anyway, and I always look back and go, ouch. There's a Proverb, Proverbs 27:12. It I just looked it up because I couldn't remember exactly where it was when we were talking. There's actually a book been written on it by Andy Stanley. But he says, A wise person sees danger ahead and avoids it, but a foolish person keeps going and gets into trouble.

No kidding. The Proverbs are obvious, but I've at times gone ahead Anyway, even though I knew, down inside of you, your spirit is telling you the better parts of Allison are speaking to you and you're saying, This guy's not yet eligible for a life partner. He hasn't earned the right for someone as good as Allison yet. He may be a sweet guy, but there's a lot of lazy guys that are sweet.

Yeah. So what do you I just I do. We come from very, very different financial backgrounds. My parents are immigrants, and they didn't get the opportunity to go to college, and they worked so hard to be where they at today.

They own their property. So your family is a family of work ethic? Yes. Yeah, and you are. You're a person who works. Yes. Tell him that. I have two jobs. Tell him that. Say, I can't go with you until I see some financial responsibility and some work ethic.

His codependence on you, not just financially, but the idea that if he moves first and you may not follow and that scares him, that's not strength either, right? There's an emotional codependence there as well, Allison. Let me just say, too, and you would say this to your sister, if you were 30 and she was 21, he's not the only one. Oh, God. He's not the only one, Allison. I promise you. You're 21. I promise you.

Unless he changes, he's not the one either. Yeah. Okay? Because he's not. You've not described to us someone that is worthy of you.

That's right. When you limit options and you think, This is it, this is it. If I don't choose him, I'm never going to get married. You start to lose the ability to make critical rational decisions with your life. I just want to tell you, there's more out there. And you can choose to stay in the relationship and he goes to Texas and you guys work on it, and maybe something changes. But as of now, I would not move to Texas.

A hundred %.

Hey, guys, it's Rachael Cruz, and I'm beyond excited to tell you that my new kids' book, I'm Glad For Where I Am, is available for pre-order. And there's more. When you pre-order, you'll have access to a live event that I'm doing from my home. Storytime with Rachel. Join me as I read this news story about gratitude and the gift of home to you and your kids. Plus, we'll do a live Q&A. So go to ramsey solutions. Com/ store and pre-order your copy today. That's ramsey solutions. Com/store.

Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. We invite you if you're in the Nashville or Franklin, Tennessee, which is just south of Nashville area. Stop by our offices anytime. We'd love to have you. We do the show from 1:00 to 4:00 Central Time, Monday through Friday. There'll be two of us, Ramsey personalities, sitting here doing this exact thing. You can come sit in the lobby We make homemade cookies, so it smells like Mama's Kitchen, and they're free to you. We make coffee, and it's free to you. People come and sit and watch the show. We have no idea why they do that, except it's free, and they're cheap. They're cheap people sitting out there right now.

You all are cheap. No, they're so great.

They're wonderful, cheap people. That's right. It's free entertainment. It's not great entertainment, but it's free. We love you. We're glad you're here. On the debt-free stage, which is in that lobby, Sam is with us. Hey, Sam, how are you? Hi.

I'm really excited and also nervous.

We're all so excited to have you here. No need to be nervous. We've never lost a patient. Where do you live?

I live in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Wow. Welcome to Nashville. So good to have you. Thank you. How much debt has Sam paid off?

$163,000.

Yeah. Nice. How long did that take you? 29 months. Good for you. And your range of income during that I started at 53,000 and ended up at 155,000.

Oh my gosh.

What do you do for a living?

I am a researcher.

Okay. How did you kick your income so hard?

Actually, the reason why I started or the reason I had a whole bunch of debt was because I have three degrees. My first job was an intern, so I was only earning 53,000.

What are your degrees in?

I have a bachelor's degree, a master's in public health, and then a doctorate in public health.

Wow. What do you do for a living?

A researcher? Yeah, public health researcher.

Okay, very cool. Was that all the 163,000?

One hundred and thirty-three with student loans.

Okay. What was the other 30?

A car that I bought myself for graduating.

We celebrated. Yes. I got 130,000 in debt. I'm going to celebrate with another 30. Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. Okay, so what happened? How did you find this Ramsey people stuff and start doing this stuff 29 months ago?

The man over here. The man over here. There he is. When we first started dating, I would say maybe four months into our relationship, he sat me down and started talking about finances. I do not talk about finances. I'm not from a family that talks about it. He asked me how much debt I had, and I was like, Okay, these are not the questions. This guy knows you. He knows you. I told him how much I had in student loan debt, and he was like, Oh, he was debt free. I'm not prepared to really be married into debt. And I was like, Okay, well, clearly what you're telling me is you don't want to be married because there's no way I can pay off all that money. And he introduced me to Dave Ramsey and the baby steps, and I was like, Okay, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to actually do this. From that conversation, I realized I needed to get a higher paying job. I left my job at a university found another job, and started working two jobs to be able to pay off the debt.

Wow. Okay. I think I may see a ring. Yes. Okay. Did he say- It worked. Did he say, The traction's going, so I'm going to propose?

Oh my... Okay. So after I paid off my debt that weekend, we went to celebrate paying off my debt, and you proposed.

Oh, okay. So you're newly engaged.

Newly engaged, yes.

Man, he's hardcore. He is hardcore. I wish you had another microphone. I would want to interview him. So many questions. Was it really that? No, that's so great, though. Good for you. And honestly, just doing it for yourself. I'm like, that's amazing. And to think that you went from, this will never be paid off. What are you talking about? Two It's been a little over two years. It's really intense.

It was a lot of sacrifices, very intense. I didn't realize the emotional toll that paying off my debt would actually have.

What do you mean?

So I assumed you click the submit button on your payments and you just keep it pushing. But knowing the sacrifices that you have to make when it comes to saying no to friends and family. I also moved from Philadelphia to a smaller town to lower my cost of living. Being away from friends and family in Philadelphia was also a little bit isolating throughout the process. But the emotions of like, Okay, I need to get this done, and I'm a very get things done girl. Right when I set my mind to it, I was like, okay.

You're such an intellectual academic type with your PhD that you thought this was an intellectual exercise. Then when you hit the submit button, you suddenly realize freedom is not an intellectual exercise. No.

I thought it was just you make your payment, you keep it pushing.

That's pretty cool.

That's a beautiful picture.

I like that. Very cool. You're amazing. Great. Thank you. A great smile she's got.

I know. So beautiful. When you think back over those two years, what was the biggest thing that really helped you on this journey? If someone's listening right now, what would you tell them? Here are one or two things that you have to do in order to do it this intensely because it's impressive.

You went for it.

I think the motivation for my now fiancé, then boyfriend, was very helpful. I think you have to be very intentional I think doing it, half piecing things together is not going to get it done. There were a lot of times where I'm like, Okay, I want to quit. But knowing that I am intentional, I put together a budget, I had spreadsheets of how long it would take me, what my payments would be every single month, making sure I'm checking it off. I made this payment, I made this payment. Then celebrating the small wins, I think was really important because if I was just, Okay, I got the car out of the way. I got this loan out of the way and just kept on going, it It would have been exhausting and just being able to be like, Okay, I had this $5,000 loan. I just paid off. Yay. Okay. Totally. Let's move on to the $10,000. Let's move on to the $15,000. Then at the very end, I had $107,000 in federal loans, and that was probably the hardest one to pay off because it was all together. But I had celebrated so many of my small wins and the steps that it was like, Oh, you did that already.

What is this? Let's do this. It's just 100. Well, not just. That's just 100. It's just 100. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is.

It is.

Compared, yeah. Yeah.

Way to go. You're amazing. What a hero. Thank you. When you graduated from high school, were you a volunate, Corian?

Oh, no. I am an accidental academic. I had no intention of even honestly going to undergrad for my college degree. I was like, Okay, I graduated high school. That's good. I decided to get my undergrad degree. I stumbled into my master's degree, and someone encouraged me to go for my PhD. That was not the path I envisioned at all for myself and ended up doing all of it. I think that was how I viewed a lot of the debt-free payments. I had overcome so much just to get to where I was, and I was like, Oh, okay. I could definitely do this. I've done stuff. One more hurl. Exactly.

One more hurl. I did this. I got a PhD. I got a master's. I can knock out a little bit of debt. A little bit of I can do it. You're amazing.

Thank you. Well done. Great. Did you do any side hustles to up the income during it, or was it mostly just salary?

Yeah, it was actually all of it was salary. I was working two jobs at the time. I had a job on the West Coast and a job on the East Coast. I would wake up early, do my job on the East Coast, then start my job on the West Coast to be able to juggle both of the different jobs. I was very excited when I paid off my debt because turned in my two-week notice, I was like, I can't do this anymore.

I'm done.

I'm done.

That's so great. Do you have a wedding date?

Yes. Next year, October 24th, 2025.

Okay.

We're so excited. We love it. We're so excited. Thank you. Thank you.

Well done. Well done. Proud of you. I know he is, obviously. Who else was cheering you on?

Honestly, I think I was introducing my friends to this. It was like education and bringing people into the fold. A lot of my friends also have a lot student loans. Having conversations with them about my journey, the importance of paying it off, and I was able to have those type of conversations and get them to a place where they wanted to also start paying off their debt, which is really exciting. That's awesome.

Sam from Allentown. She's amazing. 163,000 paid off in 29 months, making 53 to 155. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream.

Three, two, one. I'm debt-free.

Yes. Look at that, ladies and gentlemen. That's what a hero looks like. This is the Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day, Isaiah 55: 8 and 9, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. Mary K. Ash said, A mediocre idea that generates enthusiasm will go further than a great idea that inspires no one. Austin is with us in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Hi, Austin. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi. How are you today? Better than I deserve. What's up?

Hey, I got a question. I'm recently married. I got married in November.

Congratulations.

Thank you. We have one daughter. She just turned two, actually, a couple of weeks ago. I'm stuck in a hard place right now. We had a rollover loan that rolled over for an auto car. I have a 2015 Jeep that I pay $920 a month on. On top of that, we have some credit card debt, and we've hit a rock in a hard place. I'm 23. She's 23 with a two-year-old daughter. And after doing our taxes this year, I really sat down and I looked because I do my own taxes. That's one thing that my parents taught me before I moved out. I did my own taxes, and combined, the two of us, we made 94,000 for the year. And me and her I have absolutely nothing to show for it besides our little family and our daughter. And it's real frustrating because I'm not getting anywhere, and I need to know what I need to do differently.

Okay. For you guys, the debt itself, how much do you owe on the car total? I know you told us the car payment, but what do you owe total? Sure.

I have 38,000 that we owe on it yet, and it's a 2015 with 140,000 miles on it.

And how did that end up being a 38,000 loan?

I personally sold my personal vehicle when I got my job because I have a company vehicle. So I eliminated It eliminated my car payment period. Well, so this was all before we had our daughter. We lived together since we've been 18, 17 at that. We've been living together since we were 17. We dated for five years, and we were on that young and dumb stage. Our money spending was a snap of the finger. We did what we wanted, when we wanted, we had no worries about money.

How did you buy a car for $38,000?

We have a It was a good relationship, though, with our bank. She had rolled her first car, so then she had to roll the money from her first car.

What do you mean she rolled it? You mean she wrecked it?

Correct, yes.

Okay, and so she got a check for totaling the car, right?

Correct, but it didn't pay off the loan because it wasn't worth that.

Oh, okay. She didn't have a gap. Correct. Okay. How much was she in the hole on that?

I think they rolled like 3,000 or 4,000 over into the car she had. Then once we found out we were pregnant and we had the child, we turned that car into an SUV for the space, and that's where the rollover rolled again. Then it turned into instead of $4,000- That's basically three car loans into this car.

Negative equity, and that's how you end up with a car that's worth a fourth of what you owe on it. Oh, man. Okay. All right. It sounds like you got a great relationship with your bank. They screw you pretty regularly.

Well, we think it's a good relationship because I can make that phone call and say, Hey, I'm a little right on money.

Yeah, and they just keep loaning you money. They've completely messed you over. They're just wonderful to you. Dude. Okay, so Austin- The snake bites me. I love it. I love it.

Do it again. Okay, what other debt Austin is there? There's the car. What else?

Yeah, I was a firm believer in no credit cards. We got out on our own. I am now renting a house for us. We moved out of her mom and dad's house.

Okay. Is there any other debt?

When we moved, I had a I applied for three building credit cards because I have four credits.

Let's just stop. You make $94,000 a year. You guys have no idea where it's going. We need to start with that. Let's put you on the Every Dollar app. I'm going to give it to you. Okay? Okay. You guys, the two of you are going to sit down tonight, use that app, we'll line you up with it on the phone, and you all sit down and lay out a budget and tell every dollar of your income this month before it comes what to do. It's already scheduled. Every dollar is already scheduled out for the whole month. You won't get to the end of the year and go, Where the crap did 94,000 goes? Because you're going to tell it what to do before it leaves. That's going to change your life. The first thing you're going to tell it what to do is save $1,000. The second thing you're going to tell it what to do is start paying off your debts as fast as you possibly can. That means you're going to stay out of restaurants.

Cut up the credit cards.

You're going to cut up your credit cards, and it means you're You're going to quit buying crap you can't afford. You're young and dumb, as you put it, season is over. Now you're young and smart, ready to go, ready, set, go. I'm also going to plug you into our class, which 10 million people have been through Austin. It's called Financial Peace University. I'm going to give it to you. If you promise me, you and your young little new wife will watch every stinking lesson and do everything I tell you to do. If you do, you'll get out of debt and become wealthy and never again make 94,000 and wonder where it went. Does that sound good to you?

Yes, please. I appreciate. I've been listening to your show all day, 8 hours of work in my earbud, listening to your guys' podcast all I'm not going to say it again.

You can do this.

And Austin, there's- I've been on hold for two hours. Yeah. And Austin, just know that there is hope in this. I'm like, there's people literally all over the country and even the world that have started exactly where you are. You're normal. You are literally the epitome of normal in America, living paycheck to paycheck, making good money, and having nothing to show for it, which are your words. I mean, that's literally you. And there is just a systematic plan, and you have to do it specifically, so intensely, every single step in the right order. I think coming to this conclusion, which I feel like you're at because you called, is saying, What I've done and what I have chosen to do with money has not worked. And when you have that moment to say, What I've done isn't working, I'm going to have to do something totally different. And even if it feels uncomfortable, even if there's things in the plan that you're like, Oh, we're going to do this, this way. No. Say, Austin, we don't know what we're doing, so we're going to follow a proven plan. And when you become so laser-focused in this, Austin, you're going to look up in months, number one, once you start doing a budget and feel in control.

But the amount of progress you guys can make in the next year or two, because it'll be a marathon, it's not going to just change overnight. It's a marathon in this, but you're going to start seeing that progress. You really, really are. But you have to be committed to the actual plan. I think that's where people get in trouble a lot, is they try to do their own thing in the midst of trying to do it. When you guys both lock arms, Just be fully committed in this, and you really will start seeing progress.

Yeah, she's exactly right. Normal in America, 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck with too much month left at the end of the money. Credit card debt, car leases, whole life insurance, time shares, and a student loan that's been around so long, they think it's a pet. That's normal in America. Let's just be real clear, normal sucks. You don't want to be normal. Normal is awful. The last thing you want to be when normal is failing is normal. Austin, you're just one of many millions of people that live this way. The great news is what Rachel said is true. You can just decide to change. Today. You can do it at 21, you can do it at 31, you can do it at 41, you can do it at 51. You can even do it at 71. People do it all the time. When what you're doing isn't working, you need to change. It's the coolest thing happened. We're going to help you, brother. You call us back if you got questions along the way, and don't you deviate one iota from what we're telling you to do. Do it exactly. It doesn't give us any extra money when you do.

It gives you extra money when you do. That puts us hour of the Ramsey Show on the Books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Dr.

John Deloney here. Mental and emotional health challenges, broken relationships, it's all just part of life, but they don't have to define you. The Dr. John Deloney Show is here to help. It's a collar-driven podcast where you can get practical advice on dealing with anxiety, loneliness, depression, relationship challenges, your kids, and so much more. Listen to questions from our callers, or if you're walking through a tough situation and need some help, give me a call. You are never meant to do life alone, and that's what this podcast is all about. Follow along on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or the Ramsey Network app. Remember, you're worth being well.