The Ramsey Show - App - A Past Gambling Problem Is Haunting His Financial Future

Episode Date: November 4, 2025

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Normal is broke and common sense is weird. So we're here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsey Network and the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio, this is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by bestselling author Dr. John Deloney. taking your calls at AAA 825-5-2-2-25. We're here to help you take the right next step for your life and your money. Rob is in Kansas City. What's going on, Rob? How can we help today? Yeah. Hi, George. How are you doing this afternoon? Great. What's going on with you? I'm doing all right. Long-time listener, and I figured it'd be time to give you guys a call.

I'm in an interesting situation here, and I'm kind of pushing back. So a couple of my best friends are very good with financials. I would say I trust them. And my situation here, and I'm looking for your advice, is that I owe $8,000 on a credit card, and that stems from a gambling issue that I had years ago that is no longer a problem. I balanced transferred that money to a zero percent interest card for 15 months. I have $20,000 in cash and savings. I have a truck payment. I drive a F-150 Raptor used. I owe $28,000 on the truck. I make roughly $100,000 a year and I'm 26 years old. So the question here and what my friends are advising me to do, George, is for me to take the $20,000 that I have in cash and put all $20,000 towards my truck

and my credit card debt. And the pushback that I gave to them, George, is that I don't want to completely wipe out my cash that I have on hand in case of an emergency. And baby step number one is to save $1,000. So just wanting to see what your thoughts are on that. Thank you, George. Wonderfully put. Okay. And so you don't agree with your friends. And in turn, you don't agree with us, which is fine. You know, you can hang on to the debt as long as you want and hang on to the emergency phone as long as you want. What we have found is that people generally get comfortable with their debt when they have a pile of money in savings. And so it's actually psychologically going to take you longer to pay off the debt

because you don't feel the fire that is actually happening in your backyard right now. And so I think if you put 19 of that 20 toward the debt, that would knock out your credit cards completely, giving you a lot of momentum, and knock out a significant portion of your car loan. Correct. Yeah, the issue that I have, George, is, you know, I become cheap because of the issue.

that I had years ago with gambling. I lost pretty much everything, but I've rebuilt what I had lost. And it felt good to save that money back. And obviously, I know I have 20,000 minus 8K in credit cards, so I have 12. And then you take, I basically have a negative net worth with my car payment and my car loan. So it's just me being kind of impatient of like, oh my gosh, I have to start over again. Yeah, it feels like you're going back to rock bottom. There's a legitimate Scarcity mindset there. Well, Rob, I want to throw something at you. This is John, sitting next to George.

I'm his sidekick. He doesn't let me talk very much, but occasionally he does. I have a mute button for John. Can I throw something else out there, and I'm throwing spaghetti at a wall, and you can say, nope, you're an idiot. That's not real, okay? Go ahead.

Are you completely through with your gambling past? Yes. Okay. Let me rephrase that. you're done gambling, you've done what you need to do, you've healed from that. Are you okay with you? Are you okay with that guy who gambled and created a big hole for himself? Yes, because it was a decision that I made. It was right. It was wrong. It was indifferent. I made the decision. I'm an adult. I have to live with it. And I'm a man of faith, and I just leaned on my faith with God and, you know, honor him, praise him, and, you know, look for him as pleasing him.

all decisions that I make. Okay. So I want to take that, I'm going to take you at your word and I want to tell you what it looks like from the outside that you still haven't fully completed the full circle of healing when it comes to that gambling debt because you're still hanging on to it. Right. And I don't know that you're going to have that full exhale. And what I say what I mean by that is you've you've hacked your way to safety meaning you've done some amazing work to get yourself a bunch of cash and instead of leaning on gambling instead of leaning on excitement instead of leaning on what's the next like cool thing now you're leaning on something else which is cash as this warm blanket to keep you keep you safe and that's what I feel daily

When I look at my, when I look at my bank account, I see 20 grand. I'm like, oh my gosh, that's great. It is. I remember when I didn't have anything. But you still haven't finished the gambling debt yet. Right. I just need to get to the point of being comfortable with saying, all right, I'm going to spend $8,000. That's not how comfort works.

Comfort is through the other side of discomfort. And you have this big, uncomfortable path ahead of you, and you're not walking through. it because you've walked through a lot of discomfort to get here and you want to call that the end it's like you're you're running a marathon and you found mile 15 15 to 17 which is when everyone's no matter how good a shape you are that's when people are like this is stupid I quit and you're saying to yourself you know what I've ran 15 miles that's enough and what I want to tell you is the true exhale you're looking for is on the other side of finally being done with all of the gambling stuff.

And it's going to be uncomfortable to write $8,000 check. Send it. Send it today. And be forever done with both the action of gambling and the consequences of that. Because the consequences are still floating out there and you've created a story that makes it kind of okay, which is it's at 0%. But it's still in your backpack. Set it down, man.

Can I ask you another? I actually just thought of something too that I wanted to ask, but I forgot to mention to you guys. Of course. One thing that I think I have, and my father's even mentioned, it's kind of like an OCD thing here with, because of the gambling issue, I became fixated on saving money, right? So I think I found myself trying to save too much money. And I know people have told me, guys, that, oh, well, you can't save your way to wealth.

You know, investing is the way, you know, to build wealth. And I have a savings instead of playing with my company. And at 26 years old, I've got about $50,000 between my ESOP, my 401k, and my IRA. You know, my boss is like, that's great. That's amazing. You know how many 26-year-olds don't have that, you know? And I just, I want, because I want to get married, you know, I'm going to propose to my future fiancé, you know, around Christmas time, and I want to buy a house. And I'm like, gosh, like, honestly, it sounds like you traded one addiction for another.

I think so, too. I do. I mean... And so listen, the only path, you cannot psychoanalyze your way through this. The only path to the confidence you're seeking and confidence here is trusting yourself is through it, not around it. Right. And I know that, you know, I'm a favor. I know I live within my needs. And I do the credit card. Here's the thing. Just pay it off. Pay it off. And George, what about the truck?

And you got to attack that truck, man. I mean, you can afford to keep it. But if you're going to hang on to the payments and carry this into your marriage, this thing's got to go. That's a different kind of gambling, that you're always going to have this income and that debt's always going to be okay. And I don't think you're ever going to get to a point

where you feel comfortable enough to then throw it at the debt. We're going to be talking years from now, and you're still going to be carrying this. So I'd pay it off. You're going to have 17K left, attack that and knock it out before you get married to the scowl. That's what we would do, man. Chase is in New York. What's going on, Chase, how can we help today?

Hey, guys. How you doing? Great. How are you? I'm doing good. So my question is, I have some money saved up. I've been considering putting a big lump sum towards some loans that I have. So I'm just looking for some advice on what the best route is here to do that. I'm taking into account, like, how much money I can save in terms of the different interest rates on each loan. Well, do you want to do math or you want to get out of debt? Which one's more important to you? Yeah, so it's a combination of both. I mean, these loans aren't, there's really no emotional aspect to them for me because I haven't set up in some different bank accounts where it's direct deposit straight from my paycheck. So, I really don't feel it at all.

And then my car loan is just the same exact thing. So I'm not actually making those monthly payments. So I really, I don't feel like that I'm really no emotional payments. I'm so confused. No, it's automatic. It's all automatic in my money. Okay. So you are making the payments.

You're making monthly payments, homie. Yeah. You've just automated. You're saying you don't feel it emotionally because everything's automated and you go, whatever, it's money out of my account. It's not there anymore. Who cares? I'm not that concerned about the debt.

are you trying to make money by keeping the cash in the bank instead of paying off the debt? Is that your question? No, I just don't know. I want to, so my car loan is $15,000 left on it. And my student loan has $71,000 left on it. Those are the two big ones. I have a mortgage as well that I just started, which is $620,000 left on it. And that's obviously, that's my highest interest rate and my biggest loan, but really I can, I feel like I put a decent dent in. How much money do you have that you could allocate toward the debts? So right now in my savings, I have $60,000. Part of it, the reason this whole came up, I got a raise at one of my jobs, and I didn't

update the percentage of direct deposit that was going into my account that was just covering my student loan. I knew that, but it was just additional savings. So it's now $17,000 in that account. That's just sitting there. So I figured it doesn't make sense to put that towards my student loan to eliminate a lot of the interest and shorten the length of this. You have way overcomplicated your whole financial life. You've got like 17 accounts sitting there. You get direct deposits coming every which way. I would simplify it all and take all cash you have minus 1,000 bucks and just knock out your debt. Could you just about knock out all of your debt if you did that today?

You have 60 plus the 17? Yeah, 60 plus the 17. So it's about $73,000 in my savings. So you could knock out the car loan today, free up that payment, knock out most of the student loan, and probably be debt-free by Christmas. Yeah, I guess my question was, like, I'm kind of towards. it's $80 a month in interest right now for the car loan. The student loan is about $220 per month in interest.

So I just want to ensure if it makes more sense going, really just keep paying the car loan and wipe out that whole student loan first. And then that's all my savings. Like, is it smart to eliminate all my savings. The interest savings is not going to matter with the speed that you're going to attack this if you do it our way. Now, if you're going to hang on to the debt forever and keep playing, playing games, then I think you should start looking at the math and the interest. But if you do it

our way, you're debt-free by Christmas. We're talking the difference in pennies. You're talking two months. You're completely debt-free. Or think about it this way. You've made it easier for yourself by thinking about the interest that you're paying on the loan on top of the principal. How much is the interest rate on your student loan? My student loan is, that's the lowest one. That's 3.74%. Okay. So if you have your money in a high-yield savings account, that's a wash right now. Yeah. Right?

What are you paying on the interest of your car note? 5.79%. Okay. So you're paying 5.7, 5.8, so let's say 6%. You're paying 6% for the privilege of holding onto that money. That's bad math any way you use it. Yeah. Yeah, I'm also not really sure with,

Like, I don't know. How much should I have in my savings? Hold, let's flip it around. Let's flip it around. Yeah. Pay off everything by Christmas. Okay? If you hate it, if you hate not having any payments,

then go take out a $70,000 helock against your house, and you can have one back. That'd be awesome. There's just like, there's a way to do this. Yeah. George and I have never met a person, and Dave Ramsey before us, have never met somebody who paid off everything, and they're like, man, I wish I hadn't had done that. Yeah. How much do you make?

I mean, that's the goal for sure. What's your income? Roughly per month after taxes, $11,000. Okay. Let's play this out. You're debt free by Christmas, and you have $1,000 in savings. And you're going, oh, gosh, I got to rebuild. Okay, well, the next paycheck, how much could you throw into that savings account now that you don't have any debt?

Yeah, that's a good. Seven grand? Seven grand? Eight grand? Yeah, my mortgage. My mortgage is $5,500 a month. We have an apartment in the house, which we get $1,700 in rent from. Who's we?

Me and my wife. Oh, okay. What does she make? She makes $120,000 a year. On top of your 11 that you're taken home? Yes. Okay. So you could rebuild this emergency fund in like two months.

You're rich, brother. Pay off your debts, man. Okay. Yeah, it's scary doing the big lump sum to us. You're just pay it off today. You're like a rat in the maze, and we're going, dude, you don't need to be a part of this lab experiment. You can just opt out.

You're overthinking at every corner, and you're too successful, you make too much money to even be doing this math. Yeah. What does your wife think about all this? What's her involvement? She's not, I'm a little bit more entrepreneurial-minded. and doing the finance stuff for us.

Okay, you're not good at it. What would she say? If she took control of the money today and saw everything going on, would she go, what are we doing over here? You get nine accounts. You're trying to direct, can we just pay this off and be done? Is that how she is? Or would she say, no, I think we should keep it very complicated and overwhelming.

No, she would get through the monthly payment. And that's like, honestly, what, like, not financial experts, but, like, telling my friends and things like that, like everyone just, I think everyone in my life, they're just making their monthly payments. I know, and their life is awful. Look around, dude.

And they complain and they vent about how awful everything is, how they can't afford everything while they carry their $600 car payment that they could pay off today. Yeah. So, I don't know. I mean, you can keep playing the game, but it just feels like you're choosing, I just need to call out,

you're choosing to play the middle class game by making it complicated, holding onto the loans. Thinking you're, Thinking a lot of action is getting you anywhere. So you're in a truck right now and it's stuck and you just keep hitting the gas and you're like, yeah, look how fast this thing is like at the RPMs. Look how hard it's revving. But me and George are sitting in the field next to you.

We're like, you're not going anywhere. And every check, like a little goes here and it goes over there and then a direct deposit here and you can't. Lloyd Christmas once said you can't triple stamp with double stamp. That's from dumb and dumber. You should go watch that movie for Christmas. But listen, just pay it off. Pay it off. Get out of the game.

Your friends are broke, dude. Your friends are broke? So the question is, are you wanting to try to make a spread off of this or are you wanting to build wealth? Because you can't do both at the same time. So if you want to build wealth, here's the simplest way to build wealth.

Here it is. You ready for it? Live on less than you make. Invest the difference. That's it. You make 16 grand. Live off five, invest the 11. You're going to be unbelievably wealth.

no matter what, because your savings rate will trump anything else going on in your life. And the other piece is avoid debt, avoid owing other people money so that your income stays with you. And instead of paying interest, you're going to be earning it in no time, and you're not going to be doing any more interest rate math. And you and your wife make, was about a quarter million dollars together. You'll make a lot of money. Think of it this way. In three years, you can own your house outright. You can owe nobody anything. And you can have an emergency. fund. Nobody could ever take your home. No one will ever knock

on your door. That's the definition of wealth moving forward. You get a health scare, a job loss, wife wants to say home, you yawn, and then you do it. Yeah. That's financial peace, man. That's what we're after, and we hope that you start chasing that dream too. Do you ever feel like you're doing

everything right with your money, but you're still not getting anywhere? Well, you're not alone. Maybe you've made the changes. You had a few wins, but something still feels off. Well, it's not because you failed. It's because money isn't just math. It's emotional. And that emotional fight can quietly sabotage your progress. And that's exactly why our friend Jade Warshaw wrote her new book, What No One Tells You About Money. That's what it's all about. It's the first Ramsey book that takes an honest, in-depth look at the emotional side of money and gives you practical tools to finally make progress for good. And we are stoked. Dude, I'm holding it right here. This is...

off the hook. It's awesome. But no one tells you about money by Jade Warshall. She wrote her self. From someone who's been there. Dude, she has been there. And hey, this is the thing. If you have someone in your life that's always making excuses, this is the book for you.

Because Jade and her husband, Sam, curvebusters. They took all of the excuses away. And if you're somebody who's halfway through this journey or thinking about starting it and you're overwhelmed with the shame and the frustration, this book's for you. It's amazing. It's amazing.

Go check it out. You can pre-order right now for 2499 and you'll get over a hundred bucks in free bonus items, including the enhanced audio book, early access to the e-book, instant access to an exclusive video, your financial checkup with Jade, and there's a book-exclusive three-week online book club with a live Q&A with Jade. So go check it all out. Pre-order today, Ramsey Solutions.com slash store. If you're watching on YouTube or podcast, click the link in the description. All right, Amanda is out in Salt Lake City. What's going on, Amanda? Hi, my husband and I have no jet. Our house has been paid off for a few years.

years. I have 401k. He has a pension and we had a friend die a couple years ago at about our age and we got nervous. So we got some life insurance through a friend. It's a fixed index universal life insurance policy. And I'm beginning to think it's not that good of a deal. Yeah. Good job. Yes. Glad you joined the rest of us. I'm so sorry that you... I've been listening to you guys and I'm like, uh-oh. Are you still friends with this person? And I, well, it's my sister-in-law's dad, so yes. Oh, y, aye, aye. My sister-in-law's dad, that's like spaceballs.

It's like my best friend's brother's roommate. Right. So you want to surrender the policy, and so... So we're putting like $1,000 a month into it. I have, looking at this paperwork, as I've been listening to you guys, I have no idea how much is in it. I don't know. That's how they like it. They like to make these things so complex that the average person like you and me, Amanda, we could not fathom how it works. and so we leave it to the really smart people in the index universal life world to scam us out of

$1,000. Do you know how much wealth you could build just putting $1,000 a month into the stock market in an index fund instead of into an insurance policy? You could then mo me $1,000 a month, and I'll send you a nice note every day. And sadly, you would make more doing that because the commissions and fees that he is making off of you right now would blow your mind. Okay. Most of the money that you're putting in is going towards commissions and fees.

A small percentage is going to the cash value. Is his house bigger than yours? Yes. Yes. Tadda. So you have a polite conversation and you say, hey, I'd like to get out of this policy and surrender it ASAP. And he's going to try to talk you out of it. He's going to tell you how bad of an idea it is and how much money you're going to lose by doing this.

And you firmly just say, yep, I understand. I understand. I want to pay the stupid tax. Exactly. Because the amount of time it takes for it. They'll tell you. They'll say, well, you've got to really be committed to this. You've got to give us $1,000 a month for the next 20 years for this to work, all right?

Which just tells you how stupid of an idea it is. And so I would get out of it ASAP. In fact, there's been a huge news story. One of the biggest NASCAR drivers out there, I think is Kyle Bush. I hope I gave it that name right. They just lost $8.5 million doing this at scale, the exact thing you're doing. Okay. So if that gives you any...

So what do I do with the money that's in there? Like, how do, can I move it? I mean, I don't know how much you'll have at the end of the day. There may not be much. That's the sad news. Oh, my. Like, you can check how much cash value is in there. I don't think it's going to, you're going to be very disappointed with the amount of money

you're going to get from this. Okay. And so the longer this goes, the longer this goes. Okay. Do you guys have term life insurance in place? No. Okay. I would do that today before you surrender this policy.

you need term life insurance not whole life not universal life not index universal life none of these just term life a level term life policy it will be a fraction of the cost instead of a thousand bucks it's probably going to be like 65 dollars a month and it's going to do the only thing that life insurance was intended to do which is replace your income if something were to happen to you okay so you can jump on zander dot com and check them out that's who i have my policy through me too or you call them up i've got mine through there too And it's super affordable. And then the money that you save, that difference in the $1,000 you are paying, that $900-something dollars, you can then invest that money. And you can pop that into our investment calculator and see how much wealth you could build for yourself instead of making an insurance salesman wealthy. And both of us really aren't savvy in that. Like, how do you invest? I don't even know how to invest money.

I mean, investing in your 401K is light years better. Yeah, just we'll teach you. There's a great guide that we have on our website for free. Just jump on a Ramsey. dot com slash guide and we have a free investing guide that will walk you through it in plain english no complex insurance jargon in fact we won't mention insurance in the investing guide because they should never be mixed anyone telling you they should be mixed is trying to make money off of you as you've already learned the hard way yes i'm rooting for you man so just know that you're not alone and i hope someone else out there holding one of these policies or who was about to get talked into one you might have just saved them so please know that you've done us all Real quick, Amanda, are you still there?

Yeah. I want to circle back to one thing you said real quick. You said you're out of debt and you've paid off your house. Uh-huh. Okay. Let nobody ever again tell you, convince you, and I'm talking to the people that you, the person you look at in the mirror and your husband looks at in the mirror.

Y'all are light years ahead of the vast majority of Americans when it comes to handling your money. Thank you. My brother, or my brother, my husband always tells us that we're broke, and I'm like, I don't think we're broke, buddy. Listen, if y'all, one of y'all loses a job, nobody's coming to take your house away. Right. If both of y'all lost your job, y'all would have to mow lawn so you could come up on an annual basis with the taxes and insurance. This is what real wealth looks like, not having a fancy policy that somebody else has manages for you because you're, quote, unquote, too dumb.

Right. How old are you, Amanda? We're 43. Okay. Do you guys have some wealth already built? Like, what's your current nest egg look like across retirement accounts? So I have about $450,000 in my 401K. I haven't worked for about five years.

Are you apologizing for having half a million dollars? Are you serious? Making excuses. Okay, what about your husband? What's he having retirement? He has a pension. I don't know how that works. Okay.

Let's take the pension out. let's just put this in your world here you have 450 grand you're 43 years old and you pop that thousand bucks into an investment account you're likely going to have are you ready for this five million dollars at 65 if you just do that just a thousand bucks a month the amount you're paying into that insurance policy put it into your 401 or into a mutual fund right yeah even a roth IRA now you'd run out of money pretty quick because you'd go over the limit but you can invest outside of retirement if you run out of you max out all of your retirement off you max out of your retirement options, you can invest outside of retirement, just into an index fund in a brokerage

account, and that'll still get you that number. Somehow you and your husband would have to figure out how to exist with your paid-off house in $5 million plus his pension. However are y'all going to make it? And your husband is saying you're broke? For four weddings. That might make you broke. Yeah, I take it back. I take it back. We have four girls, so I said, I said, I'm going to pay for their college. He said, I'm not worried about college. I'm worried about wedding. That's, okay, so he's right, he's right, yell our poor, but you'll get there, you'll get there.

They don't do full-ride scholarships for weddings, although I feel like they should. You know what, though, you can do the cash-out option. When your daughter comes home and says, hey, I'm engaged, you can sit down and say, okay, we'll write you a check for $20,000. And we will marry you in our local church, just right down the street.

Right, there you go. I'd rather take that. Or you can just put it on a house and go That's right. We will pay your down payment for your house and we'll meet you and throw rice at you outside the courthouse. Young couples will be like, oh my gosh, housing is so unaffordable and then spend $120,000 on a wedding. Like it's worth it. It's a special day. Goodness gracious. We've got it twisted. But hey, we're rooting for you, Amanda. It's a stupid tax. You're going to be fine. The resentment, that'll sting for a little while, though. JP is in New Jersey up next. JP, welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Hey, folks. Hope you guys are doing well. We are. What's going on with you? All right. So my spouse and I have been married for three years. We started FPU when we got married. And now we're at Babyselfort, which is awesome.

We put 15% down into our retirement. And I'm thinking of buying a home. We've been renting this whole time. Famously in Jersey's pretty high cost of living. So we're trying to decide if it makes more sense to use what we've saved and buy or keep renting and start investing what we've saved. Now, the caveat is we're planning to stay in the area for another five to seven years. Okay, so you're already investing 15%. Why are you wanting to invest more?

Well, we have all this that we have saved, and we just started like in babysaps and say, wow, we could be kind of gaining more if we invest. so we were like to invest to use that to the down payment like what makes more sense how much money do you have outside of our emergency fund we have about 140,000 that's a heck of a down payment what kind of house are you looking at what's the budget the budget's around like 600,000 max okay so what's your your target here are you trying to keep it within the Ramsey parameters to keep it to 25% of your after tax income yeah we're trying to like follow that as well and you know we were thinking if we do do that and we leave in five to seven years and is the equity does that match like what we could win if we invest you know trying

to figure out well you tell me tell me exactly what the stock market is going to do for the next five to seven years and I'll tell you if it's a good plan uh no idea that's another presidential election too by the way perfect so here's what I would I wouldn't do is try to time the market and decide, is this money going to go towards investments or house? I think both are good. You're already investing 15%. I would rather see you guys get your foot in the door to the housing market because I can tell you this.

Houses are going to be more expensive seven years from now, and it's a moving goalpost. So I would rather see you guys get into a home as soon as you're financially ready versus hanging on to the money or investing the money because you're going to be multi-millionaires at this rate. How old are you two? We're in our mid-30, but 34-she-33. And how much money do you guys make?

you make about two i guess before taxes is about 280 okay a third grader doing this math could tell you you're going to be a multi-millionaire investing 15% of hundreds of thousands of dollars with compound growth for the next 30 years that's awesome so in that case i'm going okay well let's really hunker down and get this house knocked out which means we need to find a down payment goal so that we can get into this house so is that $200,000 $175,000 $250,000? thousand what is that number for you guys so what we're looking about it's about like 155 and you're at 140 right now yeah so 15,000 dollars is what's stopping you from buying a home pretty much and you'll make that in the next month or two yeah exactly it sounds like you should start home shopping by

christmas all right we have been looking and then we you know we kind of pause and we're like how we want to make sure that we're doing the right thing so it is You were doing exactly the right thing. Now, in the baby steps, this would be Baby Step 3B, or you can do it in four, which is you invest anywhere from zero to 15% while saving up a down payment. So if you guys want to keep that 15% and throw anything else at the down payment savings, you'll get there in no time. But I would not prioritize investing over buying a house when you're already doing Baby Step 4. You guys are doing great. And for whatever it's worth, I pause retirement to save up for my down payment.

I see The pause that you do for three months is not going to make that big of a dent long term So I would Do you have a good real estate agent We do We do

Okay good I would start shopping now Because it could take a little while To start finding the right one And in the meantime You guys keep stacking cash Keep stacking cash And when the right one comes along

You guys are going to be financially ready All right Way to go Congratulations dude I needed a win today JP And you gave me that Thank you for being an inspiration. All right. Bill is in Sacramento up next. What's going on, Bill? How can

we help? Well, I'm looking for some godly advice, and you guys are the key. John is the holiest man I know. I'll do the godly part. George will do the advice part. Now, I've got a situation where I got a couple kids there in private school, and my job is cut back way back on their overtime and stuff that I was using to keep them in private. at school. So my wife works, I work, and we're just getting barely by, and all it takes is an appliance breaking down our car that needs to be replaced, and we're going to end up going debt right now. We don't have any debt. But we've got about $600,000 plus equity in our home. So we were wrangling or tossing around the idea that what we could do is we get just one,

you know, just a single mortgage. We're thinking about maybe taking out a loan. against it, you know, whatever percentage they charge, and taking that money and it paid for the next four years of school. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, pay for a car, and then just pay it off when we sell the house. Please don't do that. Okay. Please don't do that. Is this private school, as part of the reason you send them to a private school,

is it a faith-based education for them? Because that's something you value? Oh, yeah, it's a Christian organization, and it's top-notch. Okay, great. That's amazing. I'm going to tell you something that's hard to hear, okay? Sure. It's faith-based and it's top-notch.

It can be world-class. And in the current situation where you find yourself, you can't afford it. And this is dad-to-dad, okay? I'm just telling you, like, dad-to-dad, that's a hard thing for me to say to another dad who's trying to do the best he can to raise great kids. But I will tell you, in my house, and in George's house, in our neighbor's house,

the spiritual life of our kids is chiefly our responsibility. Absolutely. And if you can, if you have found yourself in a season where you can afford to also put them in a different environment where you know their teachers are all believing the same faith that you value and all that, that's amazing. But the other side of this is the biblical principle that the borrower is slave to the lender. And if you take out a helock against your house, even though you have built in equity, you are creating tension inside your house that your kids will absorb from the inside out okay i would much rather if like just again dad to dad i would much rather you guys have a hard conversation

with your kids which by the way would be one of the greatest lessons you could ever teach them which is dad had his hours cut and our finances have changed and if they saw their dad weep if they saw their dad be sad, that would be a blessing to them because they would see dad have real emotions and then go do the next right thing, which is for this season, or at the end of this year, or at the end of this semester, this is as far as we can go. And if my hours pick back up, this is priority number one. I know it's going to impact your friendships. It's going to impact your school stuff. It's going to be hard. But my job is to keep all of us safe, and I won't put the house on the block for something that I can get down the street. And I'm just going to have

to up my intervention in the school system, in the schools, in us talking about spiritual matters at home, doing morning divos, whatever you want to do in your house, because I'm going to have to take full ownership of that and not outsource of that, some of that to a school. Those are hard, hard conversations, man. But I would not be a good dad, a fellow dad, if I told you, yeah, the right thing to do is to borrow against your home for this for your for this season right now okay and if things are tight now that he lock is just going to make it even tighter you're adding an extra payment in your life and you're putting your house on the block because that puts your home at risk as well and so to john's point i think this is going to add more stress than it's going to add peace of mind

that you're you're doing the right thing for your kids i think you probably raise some great kids am i am i right oh absolutely yeah do you think a temporary change in school would affect their character and their values and the principles you've instilled in them? If it did, I'd kick them out behind the woodshed. There we go. There we go. We have a solution. But I would not do this, Bill. I don't think using your home as a piggy bank is going to be a blessing in your life. And we just talk to too many people that are your age going, I wish I never did this. I wish I didn't take out the HELOC. I'm unable to retire now and unable to make these payments.

And that's just going to add stress into your home. Or the moment you take out that helock, you're going to get called in and they're going to say, hey, you know, we've been cutting hours, man. And unfortunately, we're going to have to lay off some positions. And then you're in a big, big time mess that you're not in right now. And so, man, I always want homes to be places of warmth and safety and peace. And adding debt to your house plus putting your house on the block, man, that's a way to add some major stress. Take debt off the table and find any other way.

And it's not going to be fun, but it's going to be for a season. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show in the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio. I'm George Camel, joined by Dr. John Deloney. Open phones at AAA 825-5-225. Tyler is in Fort Worth, Texas. Salt of the Earth folks over there. What's going on, Tyler? Oh, no, I guess.

How are you? Good. John is upset with me. He doesn't like my comment about. Fort Worth is the 817. It's a great town. And George doesn't know how to talk to Texas. I said salt to the year. That's a compliment. I'll teach John what that means after. What's going on today? So my wife and I got married a little over a year ago. So that brought all of our debt together, obviously. We're about $150,000 in debt. That includes car payments and a camper payment and student loans.

and I also filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy six years ago, and I'm at the light of the end of the tunnel where it is paid off in July of next year. Awesome. Good for you, man. Yeah. So. What got you back into the mess? Well, you know, Chapter 13 keeps you in,

keeps eating beans and rice, just like you guys say it should. But we'll put me back into it. My wife had $40,000 worth of student loan debt before we got together. Vehicle payment, I had to have a vehicle to get back and forth to work. I currently don't really need that now. Just need to just have, I have a work vehicle that I can drive back and forth to work. She needs a vehicle to drive back and forth to work. And her payment, her Jeep, we have about $10,000 in debt left on it.

So, and I want to fill my pickup, but I just found out today that the transmission went out and that's a $6,000 repair. I just don't know where to start. What do you guys make? About $180,000 a year. There's some good news. And what can you sell your truck for if you got the transmission fixed? If I, somewhere between $33,000 and $39,000. Okay.

And how much money do you have in savings, if anything? I've got about $500 in savings right now. Okay. And what could you sell the camper for? The camper is probably about 30,000, and we owe about 45 on it. So you're underwater on that. Are you underwater on the truck as well? I owe 31 on it, so if I put a transmission back in it, then technically, yes, I would be underwater on it, but then I could sell it and walk away from the payment.

Good. Well, I'm just thinking that if you get rid of that camper in the truck, man, you can breathe a little bit. Yeah. So the whole reason we got a camper was because we moved from Montana to Texas and living in a camper with a couple dogs, which the cheaper option than renting down here. I mean, we pay around $1,600 a month with, you know, with my lot rent, the camper payment, and our So you're currently living in the camper? Yes, sir. Okay, what would rent be? Rent somewhere from $2,500 a month. Hmm. Is there anywhere cheaper?

Every place that I've looked at that accepts dogs is usually pretty high. It's hard to find a place that accepts dogs without it being around that two grand mark. Okay. Well, I'm just worried because this camper is going to continue to just tank and value. And you're going to be even more underwater on it to where you're going to go, well, I guess we have to live in this camper forever. This is our life now. And so for a couple making $180K, you can afford $2,000 in rent.

Yeah. So I just don't want you doing bad math going, well, it's worth it to stay in this camper and stay in debt when you could knock out $45,000 plus the 31 of the truck. That's half your debt right there. Yeah. And now making $180K, how quickly can you clean up $75, 12 months. So that's the napkin math I'm seeing on paper. I don't know if you see that future, that path out of this. But there's a very clear path out of this if you guys want out.

and bro you asked us we don't know where to start George gave you a math like a path and it's literally a year from now that's it but I want to get to if you were just sitting with me and we were having nachos and you said I don't know where to start I don't think you have taken full ownership yet

because I've heard you say go ahead oh sorry no no I was going to say I just went through the baby steps reading the book you sure no I got you I got you here's what I want you to begin to own from this point forward. Not I had to, I needed to. There's the only, I want you to say I chose to go buy a $50,000 truck that I couldn't afford even in the middle of a bankruptcy. I want you to say we made $180 grand and instead of paying $2,000 a

month for a one-bedroom apartment because we are choosing, I'm owning, I'm choosing to have two dogs in this little bitty space. I chose to buy a camper that I couldn't afford. I chose to buy a camper that I couldn't afford. Ownership here is where you've got to start. Because so far the story you've told us is all these things have happened to you. And I just want you to exhale and say, I've made some choices. And so that means, because here's what, that's freeing. I made those choices and now I can choose to make other ones.

Because right now you're just waiting for life to happen to you the other direction. That's not how it works. And so there's some kind of reckoning about, man, I did something really dumb. and bought a big nice camper that I can't afford so that we could keep two dogs. And bro, I love my dogs, love them. And when my wife and I were getting out of debt and we had to move into a apartment on a college campus with a toddler, I had to pay somebody to keep my two dogs for a year. Because long term, more important those dogs was my wife and my son and my freedom.

You get what I'm saying? Yes, sir. But it just comes with you owning all of this, not this happened and then I had to. And this happened and then I had to. This happened and then I had to. This happened and then I had to. I'm going to own this because then you can own what happens next. And George just gave you a literally a one-year plan. Can you just fast forward to yourself this time, not Christmas of 2026? You're done with bankruptcy. You owe nobody anything. You and your wife. And you finally have that clean slate you've been dreaming about for seven years.

Yeah. And it's going to be a hallecious year. And if y'all move two dogs into a bedroom apartment, it's going to be full of dog hair and smells and all that stuff. Great. It's a year. It's one year. You what I'm saying? Is your wife on board with this plan?

Yeah. So we've talked about a few different things. It's, you know, I told her I wanted to figure out what we needed to do to get our life back on track where we had money in the bank and we survived. And, I mean, we live comfortable as we are, but I would love to live better than comfortable. I think we need some discomfort before we get to comfort. Because right now, $11,000 is probably going to slip through your fingers in the next 30 days. Am I wrong? No, you're not.

And it's going to go right back out to lenders and minimum payments and restaurants and comfort. Right? That's what's been happening, because that's why we only have $500 when we make $180,000 a year. So what I want you guys to do is make a budget tonight, where you list out your income, $11,000, expenses, here's my four walls, here's food, utility, shelter, transportation, here's the minimum debt payments, anything that isn't on that list, we don't spend money on. For one year, could you guys commit to that? I believe we can. And the one thing you need more than anything after six years of bankruptcy and starting a new life with somebody is you need some confidence. you need to begin to trust yourself again

and you can't think your way to trust you have to act your way to trust doing the next right heart thing for one calendar year will change everything from your DNA on out go check out every dollar Tyler we'll get you started

Kelly's going to pick up we'll gift it to you if you guys commit to doing this stuff and call us back if we can help along the way our question of the day our question of the day our question of the day

is brought to you by Y-Refi. If your private student loans are in default, it can feel like the end of the road. But Y-ReFi helps you find a way forward with a low fixed-rate payment plan that fits your life. Go to Y-refi.com slash Ramsey. That's the letter Y. R-E-F-Y.com slash Ramsey, not available in all states. And we've got something special today. Today's question comes from Bailey in Florida, and it's an audio question. So let's take a listen, John. Hi, my name is Bailey, and I'm from Florida. I'm on Babystead, too, and I'm trying to decide. what to do with my car. I have a 2021 Honda Civic that I owe about 18, 790 on, but it's only worth around 17.5. My brother works for four, and he wants me to get a brand new Ford Maverick with a lifetime

warranty. He's got these employee discounts. He's able to get all these fees taken off. He's kind of been my financial advisor in most of my life, and he thinks it's great decisions. He makes great money. It's not like I'm taking financial advice from broke people, as they would say. Should I sell if it can get a cheaper used car while I pay off the rest of my debt, or would getting a new car make sense? Oh, boy, so much to unpack here. First of all, your brother is your financial advisor, and you said he makes great money, so it's good to take financial advice from him, as he tries to talk you into a car that

you can't afford, that he's going to make commission off of. This whole thing just feels odd to me. Not as odd as a Ford Maverick with quote-unquote a lifetime warranty. Yikes. And guess who's making all the money off that warranty? His brother. No wonder he's rich. Yeah, exactly.

You're in Baby Step 2. You've got debt. You're $1,300 bucks underwater on this car. I'm guessing you will make that within your next paycheck. And so just save up a little bit more than that to get just a new to you car, get something used. Please do not go out and buy a new car. I don't care if you're getting an employee discount. Buying a brand new car, it's going to depreciate and value like a rock,

and you're going to be carrying this payment, which is just replacing the payment you have now, which is just broke people mentality. Yeah, you basically have a car with a lifetime warranty. It's called a Honda Civic. Yeah, that thing's invincible. For eternity. They're apocalypse cars.

You already have one. So if you make, you know, 50, 60, 70, 80 grand and you want to keep the car, then just pay it off in the next year or two and be done with it. I don't know if you have more debt than that, but that's where I would start. And if you want to sell it and get a cheaper used car, because you said while I pay off the rest of my debt, that tells me there's a bigger problem here. And so in that case, I think it will expedite your debt-free journey if you sell the Civic for, you know, 18 grand, 20 grand, and then buy a 10-grand car. That'll get you out of debt much faster. And let's just put this out here.

George, I know in my life, I'm pretty sure I know you. yours but let's just put this out there um you're pretty good with money pathologically so i call you and i have money questions right so i trust you have you bought a new car in my life since you started cleaning up your money mess no i haven't bought a new car ever personally yeah i just got a new to me car and it was almost new and i still couldn't i couldn't fathom paying the MSRP retail price. So instead, I found one that was slightly used, and I got a 22% discount. I did the exact same thing.

My discount wasn't near that high because I bought a reputable brand and so the one you brought. That helps. But even I couldn't bring myself to buy a brand new car. It was new that year, but someone had driven it and they had brought it back for what it. And we are both in a place where you could, and it would not be against the Ramsey parameters. Because here's what we say. If you have a net worth of a million or more, you can stomach the depreciation. you can buy the new car in cash.

Or as Dave says, can you just take that money and set it on fire in your living room and your family will still be able to continue on, right? And so it's this, even if you get like a deal and a thing and all the fees taken off, the second you drive that Ford Maverick off the lot, it's worth less. It's going to lose 10%.

You couldn't back it up and resell it back to them for even the same price. You just got it minus all the fees and everything. And so, like, I've never heard anybody buying a new carring themselves out of debt. And that really isn't a real sentence I just made up, but you can't buy yourself a new car to get yourself out of debt. You just either have to suck it up and pay off this Honda Civic, this 21, which will last you for all of your life. Or, like George said, sell it and get a 2005 Honda Civic that's still running for $3,000.

And it looks ridiculous and drive that until you pay everything off. I drove one of them. I had at 2009 Honda Civic. I drove up until a few years ago. It's still driving somewhere. Well, here's the truth. Kelly Daniel, your producer. Her son bought it and then he crashed it within two weeks. I bet you they it's on a pound lot somewhere. Nope. I bet you they, somebody with a hammer and a chisel

fix the thing and it's still driving somewhere. They are truly invincible vehicles. There's great. Yeah. So, yeah, I think you're stuck in a broke people maze here and I would choose a better role model than your brother who's about to get you into a lifetime

warranty and yet absolve you of all of the he said all the fees are taken off except that lifetime warranty that's thousands of dollars extra that you paid that's mostly commission to him so hey i think it's worth calling out here when you're trying to get out of debt i i face this today george somebody sent me something i'm trying to i want to buy a place where i can go hunting that's just mine right and i can invite a couple of buddies somebody sent me something today that's really amazing and it's actually at a really amazing price and I don't have that money. And if you're trying to get out of debt, it's amplified.

A hundred percent of the people who get out of debt have a quote unquote great opportunity from their uncle, their dad's trying to sell a thing or I'm just going to sell you this guitar or this, what, it's always going to come and you have to stick to it. It's just like getting on a really firm nutrition plan for a season and then somebody shows up at your house with three dozen cookies. They just made for your family because you have a choice to make when that happens. There's always going to be a new, a deal. A shiny or newer, better thing in front of you.

It can be a great deal. It's just not a good deal for you, especially during the season. So let this be an exercise in saying no. All right, Peggy is in Colorado Springs up next. What's going on, Peggy? Hi. Hey, how can we help? Well, I wanted to ask, get some advice.

My husband and I are in our middle 70s. Youngsters. Youngsters. We feel like it. We have had an opportunity come up to take a cruise in Europe from Rome to Istanbul. And it's going to cost, I figure, I've been creating a budget for it. And it looks like it's going to cost, I can barely say it, about $35,000 for the whole thing. And I'm just trying to find out if we should even be thinking about spending.

that kind of money. What's your net worth? About 1.5, 1.6 million, somewhere in there. And how are you guys covering all of your expenses right now? We have a paid-for house that's worth about $800,000. And our monthly regular income is about $9,000. and then we each have little part-time jobs, so to speak. And so that's a little bit of extra income that's not part of that $9,000.

Great. So maybe call it like $10,000 a month. You're making $6 figures a year, no payments, no mortgage. How much money do you have saved for the trip? Well, I had been looking at cruises like this for a couple of years now. And, in fact, this cruise, it came up. they got a note from a letter from his alumni association from his college and it was this particular cruise and it's one I had been looking at and it was with the cruise line I had decided

that we would cruise with whenever we did it serendipitous do you have 35,000 well we have it we'd have to take it out of some of it I have about 10,000 toward what I was saving for the cruise so the rest it would come out of your retirement accounts? A little bit, but it would come out of one of our retirement accounts. I mean, you're probably not going to be depleting those retirement accounts in the next few years, right? You got 9,000 coming in outside of that? Yeah, what I've been doing since we both have earned income, with the RMDs we have to take from the IRA. We've been funding our Roth IRAs.

Peggy, guess what? You're going to Europe. I feel like a game show host right now. You're going to Europe. Go and have the time of your life take tons of. pictures and rub it in your kids' faces. And don't do the math on what it's costing you per hour to enjoy the trip. Just enjoy the trip. Have fun. Michael is in South Carolina up next. Michael, welcome to the show. Hey, guys. Thanks to take

a call. Appreciate what you guys do. So I'm in a scale position that does. that has like a base plus a bonus that you get throughout the year, then you get a bigger bonus at the end of the year. End of the year's here, and I'm expected to get a bonus, or I will get a bonus that I will most likely never get again. And so I want to use this money as best my wife and I possibly could. And so how big is this bonus?

It's about $200,000 before taxes. Good. Is there any openings? You guys hiring? Well, yes, there are, but hey. What do you say? Wait, I'm interested. Why do you think you'll never have this good of a year again? So the way our structure is that you get your base salary and then based upon the quota, your percentage of your quota, you get a bonus based on what percentage of your quota you get to. And that bonus is a percentage of your base salary. It's confusing. It's actually pretty common in the sales world these days.

So I basically had a pretty low quota last year and blew it out of the water. And so I know my quota this year, just going to get higher and higher and higher. And hey, I expect to blow it out of the water again. Don't you blow that one out of the water, dude. Yeah, man. So what's your total salary for the year if you get this $200,000? So my base salary right now is about $80,000. Okay, so $80,000 plus the $200? Well, and I actually got, I got commissions throughout the year that totaled about $60,000 or so. Nice. Holy. Holy had the year, man. $340? Yeah, it was a good year. It was a good year. Great. Are you married?

I am. I'm married. We have two kids. And the dilemma that we're in, so we have a house that we bought like five years ago. And we just recently moved into a new house, new to us, and we rent the other house out. It's got about $100,000 left on it at a 3% interest rate. The new house we're in has like $290,000 on it and a 7.25%. So you're probably getting at where I'm going. Sure. how much do you guys have in savings so in our savings so we have in our savings and our

if I logged into my apps about $20,000 we have about 10 to 15,000 a brokerage account that's totally separate and then I have some retirement accounts and stuff as well and any other debt outside of these two mortgages so I would normally say no except I did recently buy a mower and it's zero percent down for a year so I've just been paying what it will cost to pay it off. I know. Bro, you make $340,000 this year. But I'm going to finance a mower.

But I'm putting like $200 a mucks on it. Okay, well, we'll pay that off with your bonus. How about we start with that? We're going to stretch and pay that off. All right. Deal. What will be the actual net from all of this? Like, how much will you net by Christmas to be able to throw at these mortgages?

I'm hoping to have, I'm going to say 100,000, but I mean, it could be possibly $120,000 to $130,000 that I could do anything I want with. Okay. So if I was in your shoes, normally we'd say let's knock out the primary mortgage first. But if you can knock out this rental mortgage with one fell swoop and free up that payment to now apply to the other mortgage, I would go that route and attack the primary aggressively at that point. okay that's kind of where i was leaning as well yes and and good can i just say dude out of the gate you know what you're thinking like you're thinking like a farmer like the old school farmers they have a little homestead yeah they have do you have a homestead we do we have some garden some animals that bring in some stuff yeah okay so like this like this idea has been lost on us as a culture but farmers for all of human history would have a year that was just record yield and it was

amazing and they knew that doesn't happen every year and every five to seven to ten years there's a bust year right right and so the fact that you're as young as you are as successful as you are knowing i crushed it this year i made 340k this year and probably not going to make that next year most people in your situation go buy a house based on i make 340 a year and they buy two stupid cars good on you man this is awesome and i would i would enjoy some of it too. So I think you and your wife sit down and go, hey, we're going to knock out the mortgage. Anything above and beyond that? Anything above and beyond that? We're going to enjoy some of it. We're going to give some of it. Maybe stack some in the emergency fund if you want to

beef that up a little bit. And, man, that's going to free up some cash flow. Because now that property is cash flowing pretty nicely with no mortgage on it. What will you be netting from that property once it's paid off? It'll be about $700 after rent is what we'll get for it. 700 bucks profit So that's right Are you even profiting? It sounds like you're losing money On this thing right now then

Well so the mortgage on the house is about 700 And we charge about 1,400 for it So we'll bring in about 700 No but net But when you In my mind what I pay out the mortgage But yeah you pay off the mortgage You'll be making $1,400 a month right?

That's right Yeah That's what I was getting at In my head it's like I want Put some of it back into it But yeah I guess I would be netting for Oh I forgot you're really wise My bad

Yes Man, if you keep a small fund for taxes and insurance in that house, and if you start building a small emergency fund for when, not if the air conditioner fails and the roof needs to be replaced, bro, you are so far ahead. So far ahead, man. That's incredible. And I would sit with your wife and set maybe a four or five year goal to knock out your primary mortgage. Because how old are you two? 30. So think about this. 35 years old. You have not a payment in the world. old. Two paid four houses. Two paid four houses. One's cash flowing and you're still making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. It's a pretty sweet life. Yeah, that would be amazing. Or how about this? What if you did a hold my beer and you said, I want to scratch and claw honey for one more year. I want to be the most aggressive salesperson on my team and they're going to give me a bananas quota and I'm

going to crush it too. Let's see if we can pay this house off in 18 months, our primary house. Oh, yeah. you know what I mean and then but then have a destination after that we pack up and we all go to Disneyland or Disney World or wherever and or we go to Jamaica whatever you want to do and then you look at her in the eye and say then I'm going to exhale I'm not going to be the most crazed out aggressive because I want to be present for you and these kids but we have a chance in the next 24 months to set us up forever all right well it sounds like I'm on the right page my mind was like well hey should I focus on refinancing this house to bring this payment down

or do I just pay off the other house completely you can figure out what the break even is on you know when you're actually going to break even on that refinance because it'll cost you a little bit seven to five to five and a five and a half are you on a 30 year I'm on a 30 year right now you could probably refinance into a 15 and have you know right in the fives right now that'd be worth it your payment's going to go up because it's a 15 but you'll knock that thing out within a few years and be done with it. Because way more is going to principal. I dare you to go look at that amortization schedule. You're going to throw up seeing how much is going to interest versus principle on that balance. Oh, I hate it. Every time, every month and I get the statement. I'm

like, and I don't know if you're like me, and my wife always makes fun of me about this. I have a weird thing about the first number, right? So when we were paying off debt, I was like, I just need to get it with a two in front. I just need to get with a one in front, right? Even if it was $199,000 and $9.99. Like, I just needed to get that number. If I'm you, I'm looking at that seven in front. If I could refinance that and even I was going to recoup in 12 to 18 months and I could get a five in front, I would just feel better. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Yeah, I'd get in touch with a... I thought like a best case scenario. Go ahead. No, I would just say if you want to just run the numbers, our friends at Church Hill Mortgage can just help show you the numbers and go, hey, this makes sense or this doesn't make sense based on your situation in the market. okay and i'll tell you my when i called when i called churchill when i yeah when i called churchill and asked about refinancing a couple years ago the first thing um my churchill person told me is i'm gonna dig into this and run the numbers i will not take your business if this isn't good deal for you

and that's how i knew oh you're you're my right person real deal yeah well that's great that's awesome Hey, congratulations on a... You guys giving me a little bit of a... Can I ask what you sell? I sell security systems, fire alarms, that kind of stuff. You're dang good at it, dude. They don't give out money to people who aren't making them a lot of money. Especially salespeople.

Yeah, you've earned it and more. So congratulations. And you can jump on to Churchillmortgage.com and get in touch with their team over there and help you run these numbers. And it might save you some. I think at the rate you're going, you're just going to knock this out. And so they might go, yeah, if you're going to knock it out in two years, may not be worth it. But it's going to be seven.

Sure, let's refine it. And have an amazing Christmas for your wife. Do something cool for her. Get a crazy gift that blows her mind. The all-new every dollar is here, and now it's way more than just our world-class budgeting app. There's a ton of advanced features to help you make faster progress with your money. and the average person finds thousands of dollars in margin in just the first 15 minutes. So start every dollar for free today, get it in the app store or Google Play.

Mark is in Ohio up next. Mark, welcome to the show. Hey, guys, thanks for taking my call. It's an honor. Absolutely. How can John and I help? Well, I'm calling about my father. He's been a Christian for probably nearly 50 years. He spends his life, you know, every day serving people. That's what his calling. And he owned a construction business for something like 35 years. And during that time, he's acquired a lot of rental properties, all debt-free.

And the issue is, what I'm calling you today is talk about is that he doesn't have a will or an estate plan. And he said that he doesn't need one because he believed that the Lord will return before his death or, you know, during his lifetime. Okay. So how do I encourage him to do that without making it feel like, you know, he's questioning his own faith? And who am I to do that, you know? What date does he have in mind?

Can he tell me when the Lord would be arriving approximately? No, no. No, he doesn't have any date or anything like that. He just believed that it will be during. He croaks. He's like, it's definitely going to happen before I pass. Yeah, yeah, that's what he believes. And he knows that.

He has good authority. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Here's what I would say, dude. This is a very tough situation. I would sit down with him and say, dad, um, like watching you do life has been one of the greatest learning lessons and, like,

coolest things any son could ever have. I've watched you serve people. I've watched you probably, he probably gives rent below market value, right? He probably takes care of people. true? Oh yeah. Yeah. So if you lead off this conversation by saying like watching how you serve your local community and you go make money and you figured out how to do both of those well and you've dedicated your life to God, like all that's amazing. It's been a high privilege being your son. Can I ask one thing of you? In the event, in the event that something does happen

to you before the Lord returns this would be a huge mess for me right would you do me the honor because some people think wills are for them would you do me the honor of putting this stuff

down in writing on the off chance because you're not going to convince him right like you're not going to make a rational argument he's going to be like you know what you're right he's not going to do that and so really what you're what you're appealing to in this moment is your sense of discomfort yeah that to me is the only shot you got do you have siblings yeah yeah there's 10

10 of us that sounds fun so how does he feel about the government uh he's not a fan Well, he is a fan because he's letting the government decide what happens with his estate. That's the way to say it. Yeah, you're right. I've talked to him. He loves the government action. He trusts the government to handle all of his estate planning right now. He's hired him out.

Yeah, you're right. And they're happy to do whatever they want with his property. They're happy to take his probate fees on top of his estate taxes as all this unfold. So here's what I would say, even if Jesus returns tomorrow, scripture still calls us to be wise stewards today. because we don't know what tomorrow is going to bring. And so you can appeal with that. You can appeal with the government angle. You can appeal with the Mark wants it for security and peace of mind angle.

Because here's what we do know. The calls that we take on the show where 10 siblings are involved, dividing up a very complicated estate never ends well. It ends with relational resentment. And even if all 10 of y'all are on the same page, which there's 0% chance of that, right? Yeah, right, right. It's those 10 and y'all have all married other people.

you're right and they all have cousins and they all think that by marrying into a construction empire empire that they're going to suddenly get rich and Uncle Randy wants a piece

because he helped him with that deal one time that's right he told me he promised me he promised me and bro getting 10 signatures to simply sell one

$110,000 rental property is a nightmare air. It'll be a reality show on HGTV. I'll tell you that much. Right. Yeah, that's my biggest fear, you know, is causing issues amongst the family.

Have you told him that? Because that's another big one. Dad, I want this family. I want my brothers and sisters. I want us to all stay united after you pass. In the event you pass before Jesus returns, I want us to all stay united. And this will be tough. Like, you're almost guaranteeing that y'all will all dissolve your relationship in some shape, form, or fashion.

Right. I hate that you're in this situation, man, because your dad says, like, a pretty amazing guy. He's just got this thing in his mind that's pretty tough. And it might be a protective measure for him because he doesn't want to, he has been a pretty strong guy and a guy that's always been in control of who he's giving and his own company and all that. And the thought of being in a hospital bed, the thought of passing away is so heavy that it's easier to create a story that, no, no, no, I know what's going to happen, which, if scripture's pretty clear, you don't have any idea when it's going to come. Nobody does. Right, right. Yeah, well, hopefully if he hears this, maybe this will help persuade him. I hope so, man.

Yeah, send him the call. Send him a call. because I mean George and I are both sitting here what an amazing guy what an amazing legacy he's left and what a way to pit brother against brother and sister against sister or brother's wife's cousin

suing everybody because they tripped and fell on one of the houses in their you know what I'm saying it's just golly what a recipe for dissension among your family tree that you spent so much time watering and growing

right yeah there's so much out of his control and yet there's so much in his control and this is one of the things he can control during his time left here on earth and i hope it's a long one all right let's get to sue in north carolina sue get right to the question we're up against the clock how can we help today yes sir i was calling actually to find out when you sell your house that's what my husband are getting ready to put our house on the market on february 1st of 2026. And the big thing is that we're having a problem with when we're moving up near St. Louis from Charlotte, North Carolina. And my husband and I are not agreeing on where we should live, you know, if we should go ahead and build a house while we're living in our house or should we

and sell in our house or should we, you know, rent there and then build. So I don't want to rent, but he does. What's his argument for rent? You know, each other's strokes about it. What is it, is he stressed out with the idea of trying to sell this house and we don't have the money from the equity and we're trying to build this new one and we need a loan for that? Oh, I'm sorry.

I didn't interrupt. I'm just, I'm trying to get to the bottom of it. Yeah, we have 225,000 equity. Okay. So we're doing well. And we bring in, you know, about 8,000 a month. You know, we're retired. We're over 60. And we don't have too much debt. So we're just, we've been in this house for 25 years. And it's our turnkey. So everything's ready. I'll accept just a few

repairs, like about $5,000 worth. Sue, I can tell you Sue, every time me and my wife have moved, especially we move towns, we always rent for six months at least. Okay. Can you compromise and the short-term lease, just to kind of get the lay of the land, get your bearings, because moving is already so stressful. Where's the grocery stores? Where is the nearest place for the grandkids? Like all those little, like where's the restaurants? All of that stuff.

Man, finding a new place in a new community. That's a tough lifestyle shift. And then the timing of it gets tight to try to time it all to sell yours, close on yours, close on the new one, all in the right time. So if you can make all that happen or not be stressed financially or otherwise, go for it. But I think there's a lot of wisdom and just renting for just six months. It's not a long time. You can put your stuff in storage

for a little while. And then say, okay, I'll rent, but you've got to hire, like, turnkey movers that will get it out of the storage base and put it exactly where I want it, and he has to leave town while the move happened. Oh, yeah. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio. I'm

George Campbell, joined if I'm a good friend Dr. John Deloney, and we're taking your calls at AAA 825-5-225. Give us a call. We'll try to help you take the right next step for your life and your money. Tyler is in Texas up next. What's going on, Tyler? Hello. Nice to be talking with you today. You as well. I am, I'm a buried man. I just I just became a dad last year. Congratulations. About a year and a half. Fantastic.

And we just got rid of over $100,000 in student loans. Yeah, dude. Congrats, brother. Thank you very much. And now we're in an interesting predicament. So we want to buy a house. We are completely debt-free at the moment. but I am currently with the second job I'm the maintenance man at our proper complex part-time and we have free rent

so we'd love to we'd love to get into a bigger house and we kind of need it but gosh how can I walk away from that one word or three words sorry I was going to say one one three word one three word one three word sentence. All right. You ready? Okay. With a plan. Right. My wife and I did the exact thing. I moved into a residence hall. One of the things at the university was over, I was over housing. So we got to live in that apartment for free. And there was me and my wife and a toddler in a very small place. And it worked for a season. And so we had a plan. We had an end date. But that end date. But that end. date was contingent on two things. One, my wife and I shook hands on it and two, there was a financial goal we were going to try to get to. Exactly. I think the challenge for you guys is this thing kind of feels indefinite. Right. It's indefinite and we feel like the end date of this is going to be dependent on getting a certain amount of down payment. Great. And being able to achieve a certain monthly payment that we think would be very manageable and would give. And would

give some wiggle room to give us some incidental spending without dipping into our emergency fund because we don't want to be house trapped with too much of a payment absolutely but where we're we want a three ideally a four bedroom house and something like that where we are living is looking at about a quarter million dollars okay and and that's that's not undoable but most of america's like that's it that's amazing I want to To move to your town, dude. Don't tell anyone where town you live in because everyone will move there. Right, right.

Well, we want to keep our payments under $2,000 a month for sure with everything. So we have our magic numbers. The house is going to cost $250. We want to keep the payments around $2,000. So how much down do you need? I can do the math for you right now. On a 15-year, you're looking at maybe $60,000 down? Does that sound right?

Yeah, sounds about right to me. How much do you have currently saved outside of your emergency? fund? We've got 14,000 directly dedicated for down payment at the moment, and we can probably do $3,500 momentum towards that a month. So that's one year from now you have your number. Tadda. To da. Forty-two plus the 14 with high-ield savings account. You'll get right around 60. So a year. And you sit down with your wife and you say we have one year of And if y'all want to cut spending, she wants to make some money on the side, whatever, it just accelerates this. Right.

But, and we get $60,000. We have $14,000. We have $46,000 left to go. It's going to take us about a year. And then we're out of here. Well, cool deal. So within the Dave Ramsey framework, it is within the realm of blessing to walk away from free living in favor of something like this. Dave pays an insane amount of money to keep up his.

various houses. Yes. Free rent would never stop Dave from buying real estate. I'll tell you that much. He would just use it to accelerate buying more real estate. Because here's the other thing to think about, that real estate is going to cost you more five years from now. And so at some point, the free rent party is going to end. At some point, you're not going to want to live an apartment or you're going to have a big enough family where it doesn't make sense. And so I would start planning for that day, and it starts today, my friend. It's awesome, dude. I appreciate that. Well, thank you for the, thank you for that advice. That's really helped. Hey, and congrats for your new kid. Congrats on you being a dad who is in a husband who is putting in two jobs to put his family in a position where they're going to, that's all this is awesome.

We don't get to talk to a lot of great dads and great husbands. You're one of those guys. And so it's an honor to talk to you, brother. And the fact that you've created $3,500 in margin just to throw at this savings, it just blows my mind. It's fantastic. Very inspired, man. Thanks for the call. Elizabeth is up next in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. What's going on, Elizabeth? Hi. My question is if I can afford to put my kids into a Catholic school. Ooh, what's that cost?

So it is about six to seven grand a year, is my understanding. Per child? Per child. How many kids? So I have two kids, and they won't need the first one when it start for another year and a half. Okay. Do you have 14 grand of net income to throw at this without derailing any other financial goals? Well, with 30 daycare costs, I feel like my thought is that that would just channel into what the cost of Catholic school is.

So that I feel like we're making things work right now with daycare costs. When you say making things work, are things tight? Do you guys have debt you're trying to pay off? Do you have savings? We just our mortgage to pay. And I'd say we're probably like pretty close to breaking even each month as far as expenses going out with mortgage and daycare and then just household things. Are you investing right now? Yes. Okay. So you're investing 15 percent. You have an emergency fund. You have no debt. You're doing the baby steps to a T and but all the money is allocated

to those places. And right now you don't have extra money to throw at let's say the mortgage or toward kids' college funds? Pretty much. So what's the plan with that stuff? If this is the foreseeable future for the next, I don't know, 10 years? That's a good question. I mean, as far as knowing that daycare currently with two kids is probably about 25 grand that I'm paying a year, I see the balance as, okay, this isn't as expensive as that.

So the 10 grand you save, you could funnel toward, you know, 529 plans for college, throw a little bit at the mortgage. Okay. Correct. I mean, it sounds reasonable. What's your household income? About 160 a year. Okay.

And my husband is commissioned, so that his is a little bit more fluctuating. It's variable. Okay. Yeah, I mean, it's green flags for me. If this is a big value to you guys, it's a part of your faith and you want to do this and you have the money and it's not derailing your other financial goals, I'm good with it. Here's what's going to cost you, though, okay? I want to be sober about it.

Yes. Given the financial picture you just gave George and I, it's, or me and George, it's going to cost you, y'all are going to be a Camry family. Okay. And you're not going to go by the big suburban, and when you get into the middle school and high school and your kids are doing sports and athletics

and everyone's rolling up and new escalates and stuff like that because it's a private school. And going on vacations for fall, break. That's right. Y'all are going to, this is, this is enough of a value for y'all that it's going to be worth. We're going to be a used Camry family because this is that big of a deal to us. And that's okay. That's amazing. I love that choice, but I want you to make those choices with sobriety, not always being like, man, we should have a different car. We need a bigger house. Nope. This was our value and this is what we chose.

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on podcast or YouTube. Ashley and Dan are up next in Virginia. What's going on, guys? Hi. So we recently moved from the south from Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Virginia. Nice. We previously tithed at a church that we had been going to probably almost a decade. in Baton Rouge, and we haven't found a church home yet. We've tried a couple, and we've been looking around, and we just don't really know where to tithe. I was a very strict titer, and my husband, Dan,

did probably, like, at the end of every year, he would just be 10% of everything he made. He would donate at the end of the year, so we just don't know where we should tithe to now. Great question. Where are you feeling convicted to give? I really loved our church. We both really loved our church that we used to go to.

And if we're not together, if I go visit home or something, we'll still watch that church that's in Baton Rouge. And so that's where I tithed until we started going somewhere new. And then I gave one time a tithe to one of the churches that we went to because I felt like, you know, I probably should do something here in my local community instead of, back home, but now I just don't know since we haven't settled. Are there a bunch of kids in your community that just lost food benefits? I don't believe so. I think Virginia is still doing all the food benefits, like statewide. But that is a consideration. The church that we have been going to has been giving a lot of money.

I think that in, where they had $20,000 to communities that had lost or were at risk of losing food benefits. Well, let me free you. There's no wrong way to give as long as you're doing it with a joyful spirit. And so you're not going to screw this up. If you're asking the options, you could give to your old church for now. You could give to every new church you jump into on Sunday. You could stack it all up and give at the end of the year. Maybe you find a church home and you just save up all that money and throw it at that new church that you call home.

Or you can go find a local elementary school and say we hear there might be a gap in school breakfast and lunches and we want to be a part of filling that gap. Consider the spirit of the thing, not the maybe the destination, right? Yes, that makes sense. That makes sense. Yes. I'm just proud of you guys That's a really cool thing To say this is a really important value to us And we want it to go somewhere And we just don't know exactly where

Until we land And so Keep George's words in your head Which is a sentence I've never said before Wow You can't mess this up Generosity is a posture

It's a way to do life Right Yeah I think You're going to do the right thing Whatever that thing is, whatever you do, it was the right thing. I want you to know that. John is in San Diego up next.

John, welcome to The Ramsey Show. How can we help today? Hey, yeah, thanks for jumping on with me. I just have a quick question for you guys to see where to put some money and kind of pick your brain a little bit. I'm 20, excuse me, 30 years old. I live in San Diego, California. I've got no debt at all. My company pays for my car.

I just have to pay the gas on it as well as very minimal monthly expenses. and make about $300,000 a year and have about $200,000 in savings. And I'm just curious to know if there's anything I can do to put this money anywhere to help save on taxes. I don't own any houses and anything like that. And also I just feel like in San Diego, it's kind of impossible to buy a house with what I've got going as well. It's impossible to buy a house with what you've got going. What does that mean? just like the income that I have and the savings that I have

and just the prices in San Diego, I've absolutely stored in my job. Okay, so you're a single guy? Yes. Okay, so what is a small home in your area cost that you would want to buy? Give us a number. Probably about 1.4. Okay, so how much would you need as a down payment to make that manageable mortgage payment in your world?

Probably about 7 grand, I think. would be what it would be right now with 20% down, which seems like a lot. Okay, so 20% is the goal? That's the number that would get you into a home? Correct. I mean, I'm just trying to avoid that PMI, but is that even smart to have to do as well? Or should I just look at other avenues like buying out of state to continue renting here? I don't know.

You don't know. Oh, you don't need a house right now. You're a single guy. If you want a house, that's fine. I don't know that you need a $1.4 million starter home. Now, I know prices are insane out there. That's probably a starter home in San Diego. But you're telling me that it's impossible for a guy with no debt with 200 grand saved,

making $300,000 a year that he'll never be able to afford a home in San Diego. That's what it's seeming like. And you said you have very little expenses. How much can you save per year at this point if you're living frugally and throwing most of your net income at that savings goal? probably 80 to 100 out of 300 so you're saying 300 gross

you net what 180 or so around there depending it's variable a lot of its commissions so between 250 and 300 15 grand a month you could somehow figure out with no expenses and no debt how to scrape by on

$80,000 by yourself correct I bet you could scrape by for less than for less Yeah, ballpark, though, you could throw $100,000 a year into the savings, right? Mm-hmm. So, four years from now, you have $600,000 saved.

Mm-hmm. I think that can get you a house. So just hold off a little longer. Yeah. It's not like, it's not a now or never... Is there anything I can do in that meantime, correct? Is there anything I can do in that meantime between now and the next four years to help me save on taxes? Well, that's a different question.

Buying a house for a saving on taxes. If you're a W-2 employee, there's not a whole lot you can do. Now, you can max out a traditional 401K. That'll help a little bit. But there's not like some magic trick if you're W-2. John and I pay a whole bunch of taxes. And I'll tell you this. You are in the, I'll make up a term, you're in the squash bracket

where if you made significantly less, there's programs to help you with taxes or to pay none. and if you made significantly more, you're in this big, wild, it's a whole other universe of buying a property over here and moving it over here and triple stamp and a double stamp. You are in the squash where you are making a significant amount of money and you're getting crushed on taxes. And you live in one of the highest tax states in the country and you live in a really high cost of living area. High cost of living, expensive place to live.

So you have three, like, really gnarly compounding variables on you. But this is a conversation folks who make, and nobody has any sympathy, right? Nobody. But people who are making $300,000 to $1.5 million are getting hammered on taxes because they're just below the big games that guys with tons of money play with tax money, and they're just above any sort of relief program whatsoever. Sure. So this is where you are.

And as one of my buddies once, I one time I called him and said, hey, this is, I've never had this happen in my life. I had a book go number one. I called him and said, I just need to tell one person he's a banker how much I spent in taxes last year. And he said, good God, that's a lot. And then he goes, wait a minute, that means you make a bunch of money. I'm never paying for drinks or nachos again. And we all started laughing. And so there is, yes, you're paying a bunch of taxes. You can smile at night knowing that the roads are getting taken care of and the firefighters are showing up and so be it or you can just beat yourself over the head every night but either way you're in that category that's paying a ton of taxes and there's no games to play or relief in your in your

bracket i just keep stacking as much cash as possible keep living frugally and sooner or later you're gonna have a half a million bucks and i would get into the housing market when you can i wouldn't wait a decade and i wouldn't do it tomorrow either or you can move out to the suburbs you're paying a lot taxes and you're also winning incredibly congratulations Jenna is in Florida up next. Jenna, welcome to the show. What's going on? Yes, hi.

Thank you so much for taking my call today. I was calling, wanted to kind of see some professional health. I wanted to see if there's ever, ever a point where there's just, much debt. We don't worry about the debt. We just say, hey, pay minimums so, you know, forever and just try to save up as much money as you can so we can actually try to enjoy retirement and life later on. You sound tired, Jenna. Are you tired? Tired. Nervous about what you guys are going to say. I mean, you know what we're going to say. Don't be nervous. But you're saying, hey, our debt is so insurmountable. Should we just ignore it and have a wonderful retirement? I don't

know how that thing leads to the other thing. Right. Yeah. Like, it doesn't go away. So either collectors come after you, sue you, or you file bankruptcy, it implodes your financial life for seven years. There's no like, well, can we just pretend it didn't happen? Well, no. I mean, we would pay, like, just continue paying the minimums, but then try to also put money in savings. How bad is it? How bad is it? Give us some numbers. Okay, so we have a car, uh, 26,000 left on my husband's car. Um, I have 47,000 in my student loans. And then we have 475,000 in my husband's student loans. And then 525 for the house. So we've even like, we've been trying to run numbers. Um, our budget, we have margin 3,000 left over. So it's just, is your husband

a physician? Yes. Okay. So what's your household income? So our income is $16,000 a month. Is that your take-home pay? That's what ends up in the bank? Yes, that's what ends up in the bank every month is the $16,000.

Are you guys investing a single penny right now? I believe I'm putting like 6% in retirement, and I think he's probably putting like 10%. Okay. So you're about to get 16% of your household income back if you pause. investing. Okay. Did you get a refund last year on your taxes, or did you owe? Yeah, we owed.

Okay. So that's 16% right there of your, what's the household income, you said? 16,000 a month. No, what's your gross household income for the year? Like, what was your tax return say you made? My husband makes 250, and then I make 70, so 340. Okay. So if we do 340 times 16, you just got 55,000.

back in your life on top of the $3,000 a month on top of that's $90,000 now that you can use to tackle debt I've got more he has to be an adult and sell this car

because he can't afford it and he's going to be the doctor that parks at the very back of the lot in a used corolla I'm serious and you know how I know this is possible because I was a guy with a Ph.D. that drove a used Corolla. I parked in the back of the lot. I was the guy with the second PhD that drove a 94 F-150 that I bought for $3,000 out of some guy's field in West Texas.

Right? Right. And you know how I drive now? Whatever I want. Right. And then the other piece, you said $16,000 is what you guys take home. What are your actual monthly expenses you need just to keep the lights on and cover the minimum debt payments? Yeah, so that's kind of, our mortgage is $3,500 a month. After all of our bills, private school, everything. There we go, ding, ding, ding. We just found a moneymaker. How much are you throwing at private school a month?

$1,200. Okay. All right, so there's another $14,000 a year. On top of the 90. Now we're over $100,000 a year we can throw at the debt. are you seeing what we're doing here yeah and we're not even trying we're just soft tossing right now if we actually looked at your budget and said here's your actual income 16,000 well really it's going to be more once you guys pause investing you're going to bring a few thousand back it so

let's call it 20,000 and now let's learn to live on seven well now there's 13 grand a month we can throw with the debt right you get that that's a hundred fifty six grand a year. And if he sells the car, you're down to, let's see, 47 plus the 475. That's 522. And we're going to be debt-free in less than four years. And listen, right, because we've even, like, floated the idea of, like, selling our home, but we love our home. No, you don't even have to do that. Because, listen, I've studied. I've worked through the mental health of physicians. Yeah. And it's not good. and I'm convinced that this is one of the core issues

is physicians and their spouses, it's hell seven years plus rotations, plus sleep, no sleep, right? Plus matching, plus residency, all that stuff, and you finally get out and then you get that first check and you're like, finally, I can, dot, dot, dot. And then you add a whole bunch of crazy stressors because we're doctors, we're supposed to be rich, and you're broke. I've got people in my life who I love and care about

who are working physicians who are still paying on their student loans and now they have kids in college. Madness. Madness. Yeah. Right. Literally it's you guys taking, and by the way, if he works extra shifts or picks up ER shifts,

which I have buddies that do, he can cut this in half. And you're talking about 24 months, 30 months and you're free and then you know what y'all are for real wealthy then you can live that doctor lifestyle yeah

y'all make 300 grand and you're broke I know it's embarrassing so are you willing to do what we said I don't think that's embarrassing I think what's embarrassing is y'all are too smart to be this broke y'all are making daily choices to be miserable

you know what I mean to be stressed out right how old are your kids um she was she's three and a half she's three and a half she won't even know what day it is you could pull her out and put her in a Tuesday Thursday

score I mean in a mother's day out program five days a week at a church I mean it's Elmer's glue and googly eyes we don't really need private school to do that right now yeah you're good man and be in a position to send her to whatever school you want in your community when she hits third grade.

Right. No, I get it. It's just, I guess our thought was a private school and they're just so hard to get into. We just had to start early, so that's kind of where, how we ended up here. That's how they like it. They want you to be like, you know what?

Your three-year-old is good enough for us pay up. Yeah. And if you don't get into this school when they're three, they won't get into that school when they're seven. If they don't get that, then they're... It's none of that's true. Zero of that is true. And by the way, after four years, he's a physician in your local community.

He'll know somebody. Y'all will be fine. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Yeah, it's reassuring because we were just running the numbers and we would just get frustrated and we would just say, you know what, we're trying to pay minimums worth of our life kind of thing. No, it's just going to be three years of y'all not acting like doctors, you're all acting like teachers.

Yeah. And which, by the way, is still a good life. I think you'll realize how much of that stuff you didn't really need and how exciting it is to be on the path to freedom instead of a path to hopelessness, which is what it is now. Well, we'll just make minimum payments. We'll end up paying a million dollars for his student loans that were $475 because we just let the interest build up and build up while we didn't attack the principal. And I just think you're worth more than that. And you're worth being out of debt in the next three years and having the next 30 of freedom. Can I guilt trip you for a second?

Sure, go ahead. I'm going to guilt trip you, but I'm really just sitting this message out to anyone listening. I actually don't want my physician, the person that I go to and I'm not, I'm not okay. Or let me make it, let me one up it. When my daughter's not okay, I don't want that guy stressed out of his mind because he can't breathe at his house. I don't want that woman, that physician that I bring my daughter to. I don't want her shaking while she's looking at my daughter because her bills are so high. She can barely make her payments.

But her kid's in the right school and she's got a nice depreciating asset out in the parking lot. And she has a spouse that is working and also making $70,000, which is an amazing salary. I don't, I want a person who's holding my daughter to exhale and be completely autonomous so they can make the next right decision for my daughter, not the one that's going to get them the most payout. So they can make this payment. So they can make... Our scripture of the day, Proverbs 13, verse 3. Those who guard their lips preserve their lives,

but those who speak rashly will come to ruin. Les Paul said, don't say you can't until you prove you can't. Add a boy, James. Les Paul of the great Gibson guitar. If you didn't know, Oh, Deloney is a big Les Paul Gibson guitar fan. James is a Fender guy, which...

To each his own. That's kind of all you need to know. Oh, you are, too. I like both. I think they both have their, you know... I like Gibson for acoustic. I like Fender for Electric. You like Cold Brews, too.

That's a whole other thing. All right. Ryan is in Oregon up next. What's going on, Ryan? Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Thanks for having me. I have a question for you, please. I'm a permanently disabled veteran, so I'm on a

fixed income from the VA for the rest of my life. And with a wife and three kids in the economy, it's been a challenge trying to save for retirement and trying to pay off my home. And I'm wondering if you have any ideas on how I can possibly save more or get higher in steps and whatnot. What's the nature of your disability, brother?

100%. I shattered both my legs, my ankles. and part of my back. Oh, my goodness. Well, on behalf of the regular civilians who are just going about our lives and don't realize the day in and day out pain you experience on our behalf, thank you.

You're welcome. That didn't put money in your account and that doesn't make your pain go away, but I want to just tell you thank you. Yeah. Appreciate you. Thanks. Wow.

So what is your fixed income? So I get $4,200 a month. I have a wife and three kids. my wife has to stay home with me because I unfortunately need a lot of help. So, you know, with the price of everything and, you know, mortgage, a car, three children, there's just none left, and I'm having a hard time saving. Yeah. I just escaped my mind and I can take a bunch of time on this call looking it up, but I won't do that.

There's a program, one of my closest friends in the world, is a part of it where he gets paid for taking care of his disabled brother. Have you all applied for that program? We have, yes. We're waiting for that. Oh, waiting for it. Okay. That tends to be a huge relief.

Yeah. I hope you guys get approved for that for sure, because that will help increase the income. So what are your current expenses every month? Are you guys doing a budget? Absolutely. Cash flow system. and that's obviously helped a lot because we know exactly where each dollar is going

and we were able to fine-tune that, but I have a mortgage. How much is that? I live, it is $2,200 plus I, it's an HOA, so I pay an HOA fee on top. Then all utilities, of course. I drive, if I do ever drive, just a free, you know, beater old Honda,

and then my wife, we do have one auto loan out for her. How much is left on that? $19,000 left on that. What's the payment? The payment is $390. Okay, so if you got rid of that car and had a cash car, you could then at least invest the $390. Is there any money left over right now as it stands,

or are you guys in the hole, or do you just be able to cover the bills with that $4,200? I'm able to cover the bills. I have about $10,000 in savings that I've been able to come up with, but, I mean, that's over years because there's just not a lot. So I do have that, but we also need a new roof. So, you know, do I pay off the car? Do I, you know, I got to get the roof?

And, you know, so there's just, it's very challenging. How urgent is the roof? Is this, like, tomorrow or is this three years from now? Within the next six months. Okay. I would continue stacking cash and get through the storm with the roof, and then we'll take a look at the car and see if it's worth selling that down-sizing into a cash car or saving up. I think that payment will at least for you guys to invest something. The other glaring issue is that most of your income is going toward your mortgage in HOA. Right. So is this housing situation the long-term play, or can we find something more affordable?

the big thing is i don't know if i was to sell my home yes i have equity i did everything else is even more yeah so i don't even know what i could get into that would even save me much here's what i'm hearing though bro you're doing you are squeezing blood out of a rock every month most of people who call into this show there's like the last caller we just talked to there's money everywhere right right that's not you that's not you And so, like, the harrowing part of this conversation is, like, you have a math problem. Y'all are doing amazing with what you got. And so the challenge here is...

It's just, it's very hard to keep squeezing the same tomato over. Absolutely. And that's where you have to ask way more, what I would say, more existential questions, which is we're in Oregon, which is an expensive place to live, and it's a high tax area. Right. Do we have to move to Kansas? Because that's the cards we're holding right now in our hand. True, yes. I wouldn't wish that on you, but I don't know.

Right. And then also with the VA system, how's the VA in Kansas? You know what I mean? Compared to. Yeah, I have no idea. So that's a really big factor where I would live is based on the VA care systems around because they're not all the same. Totally.

And that's going to be one of the, that energy you have, that desperation you have, which, dude, I can hear it in your voice. man um like and it breaks in my heart because you're a dad who gave everything for all of our kids and you're looking at this like you have a very clear trajectory for yourself which is i cannot work and this is the amount of money we have right now hopefully you get approved for that program um which would give a ton of relief to your family but without that like you'll have to make a hard decision about i got to get on the phone and call all my buddies and find the best VAs in the country and see if I can find the lowest cost of living. And that might

pull you away from family and resources and friends. I get all of that. That's a nightmare. But like you said, dude, this tomato's running out of juice. And tell me about your kids. How old are your kids? 15, 10, and 7. Okay. So, I mean, you know this as well as I do. I have a 15-year-old and 9-year-old. You're one fun afternoon away from a broken arm, right? Or whatever, like running into a tree just having a good time and so and then bam there goes like so you're i get i can hear it in you and your voice you're on a racer's edge yeah the only thing i can see right now is y'all have to ask yourself way bigger questions or can your wife go earn 150 grand doing something and again i'm just making that up and y'all can hire care for you that might be the other

way to gap it i wish that was possible sure that's not either god oh my there's only two ways to get margin here and it's to spend less and make more. And you guys have done a lot to spend less and we can get rid of the car payment at least, which will free up some breathing room. And on the other side, we've got to figure out, can we make more? And maybe that's through her being a caretaker and that gives you the breathing room you need. And then we can look at, okay, what are the best investment options? Now, without earned income, what's your VA disability? I don't believe counts as earned income, correct? Correct. So you can't invest in an IRA because you need earned income to do that. But you can invest in a taxable brokerage account. That's not a

a retirement. And if your wife does end up making money, she can open a spousal IRA and invest in that, which has some tax advantages. And then you've also got a high yield savings account. You can take advantage up for your emergency funds, sinking funds, the roof fund, all of that. So there is a path forward, but there's some variables here that feel immovable right now that we've got to figure out. And that's going to be the hardest part. And tell me about your disability benefits. Is there a, and brother, I know you've thought through every one of these things. I'm just throwing things up against a wall here. Do you have the ability to work from home or to side hustle from home?

No, and I legally can't. Okay, that was my question with the benefit. If you were to get a online job, some shape, form or fashion, you lose your benefits, right? Bingo. Okay. Jeez, Louise, man. What a nightmare, dude. I'm so sorry you're going through this, Ryan.

There's no magic wand here for you, but I'm glad we could at least sit with it and help you brainstorm. Yeah, no, and I've kind of looked at it every, you know, Avenue. I just wanted to ask just to me because I listen to you guys all the time. I appreciate you. If you might have an idea, then it's going to be you. I would kind of give it a timeline for you guys to try to navigate all this, try to increase the income, try to solve it. And if you can't, it's going to mean bigger life change like we talked about with lower cost of living, where could we go to lower our expenses? If this 4,200 a month, this is it. This is all we have. Then we've got to get our expenses lower.

And that might mean moving across the country. I hate that you're in this situation, brother. I hate it. It's a disservice to you. All right, until next time, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Price Jesus. No matter what you want to do with your money, you need a budget. Start budgeting for free today with the every dollar app, the easiest way to budget.

Track your expenses and reach your goals faster. Everydollar.com today.