The Ramsey Show - App - America Is the Best Country in the World! (Hour 3)

Episode Date: June 14, 2024

From Ramsey Network, this is The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create amazing relationships. I'm Ramsey personality, George Campbell, joined by my good friend and colleague, Dr. John Deloney. That's dr. Two PhDs. Don't forget it. We're pumped to be with you. Happy to serve you in any way we can to give you the right next step for your money, your life, your mental health, your relationships.

John, you ready to go? Always. All right. That's enough confirmation for me. Andy's up first in Atlanta, Georgia. What's going on, Andy? Why don't you have more friends? What's up, Andy?

Hey. Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. Sorry you had to hear that. Yeah, we can hear you loud and clear. Okay, good. I appreciate it.

It's more of a moral question than a money question, but I have two sons. One graduated college a couple years sons. One is, uh, graduated college a couple of years ago. One is going into a senior year. Uh, the oldest one got the mother of all scholarships were basically he graduated with 20 grand in the bank that they paid him to go there. Uh,

yeah. Uh, the younger one basically has full tuition scholarship, but I am, I'm paying his room and board. And I've been cash flowing it just because life has been good the last four or five years. And while I've saved over $50,000 for each of them and a $529,000, I was just going to leave that sit there. So if they want to get a master's at some point, it's there.

My question is, I basically, I will have over four years put out about $60,000 room and board because it's so expensive. Andy, Andy, Andy. Yeah. You don't owe your other kid any money. Is that what you're about to say? Okay. Well, I'm just wondering if there's any moral obligation in any way. Wait, do the kids know about all the numbers here?

Yeah, probably. probably i mean they're smart like is your other son being like wait dad you he got 60 worth like is he asking you the most he's he's the most grateful no not in a million years would he and i actually he's getting married this august and i did tell him i wouldn't because his his uh fiance's family doesn't really have any money so I gave him a fifteen thousand dollar budget that's kind of you to have his wedding that's awesome yeah um so here's that made me start thinking well there's still a big disparity so I didn't you know just thought I'd get some some uh here's what I know there's no smarter than me there There's no disparity.

Here's what I know. The home that that young man grew up in, and I've spent my whole career working with college students, that home that that young man grew up in was safe, and it was warm, and he had parents who pushed him and coaches and supporters who pushed him, and I don't even know why he got that scholarship.

But that didn't happen in a vacuum vacuum you've been supporting him his entire life sure and that looks different support for our kids looks different some of our kids need extra medications and some of our kids need a different kind of backpack and some of our kids need counseling and some of our kids need football gear as a parent we want to look at what's the best way i can set my kids off i don't want to keep a spreadsheet and i spent seven cents here i spent nine cents here that's a recipe for resentment that's just dude you've done an amazing job with your kids they won the freaking dad lottery when they got you well they won the mom lottery and dad didn't screw it

up well i'm curious andy is this coming from like a personal place where you feel guilty no i get it i get that no not really just when i started thinking about okay i'm gonna underwrite some of this wedding here or most of it then i started thinking well that that doesn't even things out and i know it's it's weird it's weird to think oh i have to even that out but maybe it's coming from a place of you know in the last several years i've been very fortunate in my business and it's done really really well there we go i could i could do that. That's a totally different proposition. I got a buddy who, when his kids got married, he's very, very, very comically wealthy.

And when his kids got married, he surprised each one of them with, I'll take care of your first home. That was their wedding gift that they didn't know was coming. Oh, my gosh. Right? And so if you want to drive a car up that's brand new because you've been super blessed or something like that, do that because you don't – let me put it this way. You don't need an excuse to be generous with your kids.

Sure. And I don't want you to be like, well, okay, I've been super, super blessed in the last four or five years business-wise, financially. I had to take care of this kid so i really i would love to do something amazing for their wedding oh i you don't need that you don't need to go through a bunch of mental gymnastics if you want to be generous be be crazy and generous go for it but it doesn't have to balance out with your kids and don't do it out of a place of guilt yeah do it at a place of joy this is i worked really hard for this money i got lucky and i'm gonna I'm going to give a lot of it away.

I think that's beautiful, man. That's awesome. All right. All right. Well, that makes me feel a little bit better about whatever it is I decide to do. What do you do for a living? I have a small company that creates sensory rooms for kids with special needs. My customers are mostly school assistants.

Andy, you're making all the other dads out there look real bad right now, especially with Father's Day around the corner. It's the last thing we need. All right, Andy, can I ask you this one other question? Yeah. When you have a small business, did one or both of your kids grow up

when things were really lean? Oh, yeah. When I left my decent paying job to come here as a partner, I had to take my salary down to basically $30,000 while we were putting them in music lessons. And, yeah, we drastically tightened the belt for years, and that's where we learned about this thing called the envelope system. I've actually taught FPU once at our church.

Well, I'm really grateful, dude. But listen, that is a very common thing that there's really lean years, and you as a dad are looking at these two youngsters, and you're wishing you could give them the new baseball glove, the new the new computer the new whatever and you just can't that money doesn't exist and then when it comes there's this sense that i need i i a need to make up for the past or now that i can i'm gonna just turn the faucet on and flood this kid with, right? Don't use your kids as a way to try to make up. Just do it out of a spirit of generosity and a spirit of I can. You get what I'm saying?

You were an amazing dad. They got to see you grind. They got to see you win. They got to see you sacrifice. They got to see you win again. Dude, how incredible. What a gift for these kids. And then they get to see you dedicate your life to serving kids with learning exceptionalities and special needs.

Come on, man. I mean, it's incredible. It's incredible. Well, thank you. I mean, in the end, it's manufacturing and business, but it is nice to be able to do it in a way that enriches the lives of people who really need it. That's exactly right. You're there, my brother. Come up with something really cool for them and give it away.

And be comically generous with them, but not out of any sense of obligation, but because you get to. Because you're able to, and that's just who you are. You're a guy who's just generous. That's amazing. I want to be Andy when I grow up. For real.

And that's a good reminder. Happy Father's Day. It's around the corner and a lot of great dads out there. Dads, you know, they get a bad rap. You know, the Homer Simpson era of dadhood. But then you have Andes. And you're like, oh, that's what it looks like to be a father, to raise kids the right way. Kids learn when their dads are grinding way more than when dads are just passing out new things all the time.

You want to teach your kid, let them watch you really struggle and continue to get up and continue to get up. That transforms generations. Good on you, man. Beautiful. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Dr. John Deloney. The number to call is 888-825-5225. You are the show. And thank you guys for calling in and trusting us with your most important life decisions. We don't take it lightly and we try to do our best to steer you in the right direction that will lead you to peace and debt freedom. All right, up next, we got Catalina in New York City. What's going on, Catalina? Hi, how are you? Thank you for taking my call. I need your help. I'm joining in debt, but my main question is, I have a loan for $21,000 with 11.99%. And I just called a company,

one of those debt relief companies, and they said they can save me on the interest if I join the program. Would you recommend that? No, no, no, no. Can I be honest? Catalina, I hate these companies with a burning, undying passion because they promise this wonderful life where you're going to have debt relief. And what they really do is they tank your financial life and then attempt to negotiate while taking your money. And so what they're doing is something you can do for yourself without paying someone to do it and without tanking your financial credit and all that in the process. So what kind of debt is this? It's a personal loan that I took to pay off some of my credit cards. Okay. Yeah.

And you got $21,000. How much do you make a year? About $60,000. You make $60,000. Okay. Are you single? I'm married. Okay.

Is this household income $60,000? Yes. Okay. Are both of you working outside the home? Yes. Okay. And you're living in new york city correct yes okay i'm just curious because it's such a high cost of living out there are you guys struggling to just eat that's that's my nearest city i live in a different town, in a small town. Okay. But it's close to your city. Got it. Okay. What company holds this debt? It's one of those... Let me see what's the name. It's one of those...

Because I'm wondering if you can negotiate directly with them and say, listen, I want to pay you back. These interest rates are killing me trying to get a handle on the principal here. Could you bring the interest rate lower and I'm going to attack this thing and get you your money back? It's one of those credit unions. Okay. Have you been over there to talk to them? No, no, not yet. I just gave a call to one of these companies. That's why I called you because I was like, I don't want to make another mistake. I already made plenty of mistakes. I'm glad because I don't like these debt consolidation companies, these debt relief, these debt settlement.

They all work in a few different ways, but largely what they'll tell you to do is, hey, stop making payments. Don't make any payments, and you pay us that payment instead. And in the meantime, your credit gets tanked. It'll go to collections and they're going to try to settle. That's their strategy. That's exactly what he told me, not to make any payment. Yes. Exactly. And that's their strategy. And so instead of doing that, instead of stopping payments and tanking this thing, sending it to collections and causing this problem to get even worse, the key here is for you to attack it.

Because you've tried to take the shortcuts. I'm going to pay off one debt by using another debt to pay off that debt, right? Yes, I'm on baby step one. I started to line up my debts, but I'm lost. How many more debts do you have? Well, I have a lease and I have credit card debts, $10,000. Okay. And do you know what's left on the lease if you did an early buyout?

Yeah, the lease ends on September, but I would like to refinance and keep the car and buy it out because I already paid half of the car. So that's my only transportation that I have. What's the car worth? that's my only transportation that I have. What's the car worth? It's $29,000. $29,000. Whoa. And you guys make $60,000 a year.

Yeah, we're drowning. Don't you think that was a lot of car to buy? Well, the payment seems okay, you know, the monthly payments but um now i'm almost done with it and one of the keys catalina to to breaking free from this debt cycle is to not use the language of broke people so here's what broke people ask how much down

how much a month wealthy people ask how much can afford it in full? And so that's the kind of question I want you to ask because you will become a wealthy person. That is going to be your identity and now we're just going to take some steps to get there. So you've got the lease, you've got the credit cards, you've got the personal loan. What else is out there? That's it. Just the lease, the credit card, and the loan. That's plenty. Don't worry. That's enough. And so we need to get our income up. How quickly can we get our income up? Are both of you working full-time right now? I'm doing some side work. Like, sometimes I do a day extra, and I get, like, you know, almost $300. So I'm trying to get, like, side work.

Okay. And you have a husband? A week. Yes. What is he doing for work? He cooks. Okay. And so are you both making about $30,000 or is one making a lot more? Well, he

makes less than me. Okay. What does it look like for him to go make more income? Well, he makes less than me. Okay. What does it look like for him to go make more income? Well, he's about to retire next month, so it's probably going to be less. Retire? You can't afford it, sweetheart. Well, he's going to retire to get a paycheck, but he's going to keep working. So it's going to be a little more income.

How old are you two? I'm 50. He's almost 50, almost 65. He's almost 65. So does he have a pension or a 401? How's he going to retire? Nothing. He has nothing you yeah you can't retire sweetheart y'all are broke and where does that leave you have any money now trying to pay off all of this debt with half the income well it's gonna be bashing him more because the social security money will be

a plus because he's gonna to keep working his hours. Okay. I don't understand the concept. I thought the whole point of retirement was to not be working. Yeah, no, not for him. But hold on. When he retires, where is he going to get extra money from? He's going to stay at his job, and then he's going to collect from Social Security.

Okay. So by retirement, you mean he's going to start collecting? He's going to stay at his job, and then he's going to collect from Social Security. Okay, so by retirement, you mean he's going to start collecting? He's going to start collecting, exactly. Not like stop working. Got it. Okay, okay. I would rethink this whole plan. I think you guys need to figure out how we're going to go into retirement completely debt-free.

And number one, I would look into the buyout of the lease, and then I would sell that car. It is not a car you should be driving. So even if you do buy it, you don't keep it. You're going to buy it in order to then sell it to make that $30,000, and then you're going to get a much cheaper car in cash. Okay, I like that. And how do I resell it? Well, you can go private party on like a Facebook marketplace. That's one way to go in your local community. There's reselling sites like AutoTrader you could list it on, Craigslist.

And then with the credit card side, we need to cut those up. They've not been a blessing in your life. Have you used the credit cards recently to stay afloat? Well, I just use it for like the monthly payments, like the, you know, but I paid at the end of the month, most of them. It's just one that I have. You said you had $10,000 in credit card debt.

Yeah. Well, then you don't pay it off at the end of the month. I think we need to stop getting starry-eyed about what you hope will happen when you start using these lenders' money and start looking at what we need to do to never need a lender again and never need one of these programs and never need to pay off the credit cards with a personal loan

because the interest is better. Do you see how this is broke people math and broke people mentality? Yes. You guys work too hard to be living like this at 1565. I know. That's why I need your help. That's why I decided to call you. Well, help me help you. Here's the deal. I'm going to gift you Financial Peace University. I want you to watch all nine lessons with your husband. We're going to craft a plan to get our

income up, even if that means he's working and not collecting social security for another few years. And your goal is, we are not going to stop working until our debts are paid off and we have some stability and peace in our life. And that might be a four-year journey for you, but it will be worth it. So hang on the line. Christian's going to pick up and we'll gift you Financial Peace University. Just promise me you'll go through it, watch every lesson, and take what we've said to heart. Thank you, Catalina.

We are cheering you on. Goodness, I just want to strangle some lenders, John. They disgust me. Debt settlement, debt relief, get a clue. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Dr. John Deloney. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

Well, guys, insurance is a big deal. This is the defense you play as you begin to build wealth. And if you want some help in that area, we've got Ramsey Trusted Pros who can shop the market, compare insurance quotes so you don't have to. And your pro will compare quotes, discounts, bundling deals for you at no extra cost. And these Ramsey Trusted Pros will also make sure you have all the coverage you need and nothing you don't. And we vet these folks, we interview them, we coach them to make sure that they are market experts who have your best interests at heart.

So if you're wondering if you have the right coverage based on your individual needs, be sure to find out for yourself at ramseysolutions.com slash coverage and you can take our free coverage checkup quiz. It's quick, it's simple, and you will have more peace by the time you're done. Let's go to the phones. Victoria's up next in Vancouver, British Columbia. What's going on, Victoria? How can we help?

Hi. My husband and I are on Baby Step 7, and we have begun the process to immigrate from Canada to the U.S. Woo! immigrate from Canada to the U.S. And I was wondering how much should we be saving for our family for medical expenses? So we have four kids, five and under. And the timeline to immigrate would be maybe five years, maybe 15 years. So there's lots of time to save. Yeah.

Well, I don't think medical expenses are something to worry about. Are you guys going to be working here? Well, my husband will be, but in Canada, we don't pay anything. Brag about it. So he'll probably have, if he's working for an employer, he'll likely have an employer- he'll likely have, you know, an employer subsidized healthcare plan, or is he going to start his own business? He is self-employed. And so he would just be moving his business.

Okay. So you guys would just be kind of shopping the marketplace for health insurance. And you can start that process now. You can jump on ramsaysolutions.com and get connected with a health insurance pro who can walk you through the options and go, here's what it is today. If you move here today, here's what the cost would be. Here's the things to look out for. Here's the monthly premium. Here's where your out-of-pocket max would be. And so I wouldn't overthink it. I mean, just know that it can be variable because of being self-employed and just shopping over the marketplace, it might be for a family of six, it could be $3,000 a month for healthcare. Okay. And so I would get at least a figure.

Now, that's going to change 5 to 15 years from now, but it will be far more expensive than if you just had an employer-subsidized plan. And then on top of that, just making sure you have the out-of-pocket maximum. So let's say it's with your plan, $15,000 is the max that you pay before insurance covers the rest. I would make sure to have that in an emergency fund. Or if you have a high deductible health plan here in the States, you can get something called a health savings account, where it's triple tax savings. You put the money in tax-free, it will help you grow it tax-free, where you can invest the money and you can use it tax-free for qualified medical expenses.

So that's another great way to help cover some of those costs. And how often do you pay $15,000? That's like if you had all five of your kids in a car, and this is all an awful hypothetical, so forgive me, and there was a bad car wreck, and everybody had to go to the emergency room. The most you would pay is $15,000. Then the insurance company has to pick up 100% after that. So it's catastrophic.

Or if, like, I don't know, if you're like me growing up, you were always breaking something, breaking a bone, and let's say it got infected. So that're going to, so that out of pocket is the cap. And so George and I both, we both have kids. And so we have in our emergency fund, I have in my emergency fund, the maximum amount of money that I could ever have to pay in a single year it's there and so i i've never had to use that ever in my life but if it did it i would have it and i'm just throwing random numbers out there because every plan is going to be different i think ours is 10 000 my plan is nowhere near that i think with the family plan we're on a high deductible health care plan through here through ramsey i

think it's like seven or eight thousand maybe for8,000 maybe for a family, maybe $10,000 max. Yeah, so that $15,000 was a made-up high-end number. But there's a cap to, I think the illusion outside of the U.S. is every time you go to the doctor, you have to pay for it out of pocket, and it's $50,000 every time you go. That's just not true. Okay. So I think some facts would help you. I think right now, just this kind of like the unknown is so scary. And so jumping on ramsaysolutions.com, talking with a health insurance pro, they'll just be able to give you some ballpark numbers to give you some ease and go, all right, here's what you really need to cover.

Day in, day out. Here's what you need in an emergency. Here's what it would cost per month. And that'll give you a better picture. Okay. Now, health, medical costs aside, would you think it. So I'm a little biased towards that. I think there's a lot of opportunity here. We've got our fair share of problems. I'm not going to pretend like it's perfect, but I think it's a wonderful place to live that has tons of opportunity. And it's kind of like college. It's like you get what you put into it and you can make it what you

want it to be. I can tell you this from my friends who live in canada um in tennessee where we live in every state has different income tax brackets um or different incomes state income tax we have no state income tax in tennessee none yeah we were thinking of moving to tennessee well it's a beautiful place and so like your tax rate is going to be dependent on how much you make but you're just going to pay federal taxes if you live in a state like this. And then on the high end, it would be up to 35% of your income if you were making a whole bunch of money. And so when you think of how much taxes you pay at home, it's going to depend on how much you are making and all that. But my Canadian friends sure are jealous of how much of my money i get to take home

and how just how much cheaper everything is when canadian callers call in victoria my brain like explodes when they tell me just how much the groceries are and cost of living and all of these things so i i do think you know there's some benefits there um to be had but you know just two guys opinion who have only lived in America. So take it with a grain of salt. That's right. But I wish you guys the best. That's a big decision.

Big move. And call us back if you need any help along the way. I love living in Tennessee for whatever that's worth. It is a wonderful place. I'm not going to be too excited and invite everyone because, you know, it's getting busy over here We're closed for business. I don't mind keep coming. Keep moving. Keep it moving good times All right. Let's try to get to one quick one here from keith in newark, new jersey. What's happening keith?

Hi guys, uh big fan of the show. I appreciate you taking my call. Yeah, so I'm trying to advise my father. Um, who is 81 years old, lives a very active lifestyle, completely independent. And he's looking at his future needs for his medical care. He's considering a continuing care retirement community. And I'm a little concerned about the situation of putting all of his eggs in one basket and limiting his ability to make decisions, you know, to be flexible with his spending and his health care needs in the future. So what's it going to cost? So roughly what he's looking at. So he's probably got about $2 million saved up. The buy-in is $450 down and about $5,600 a month. What does that include?

That's nothing, really. That's just a condo. So that's independent living. If he wants to progress to acute care, assisted living, that comes with additional costs and If he puts down $450,000 and he's paying $5,600 a month, for the first four years, he's essentially paying $17,000. Just for the ability to possibly use the assisted living, which he may or may not need. Yeah, I agree. Based on what you laid out, this does not seem like a great plan.

He can live where he wants to live, and when he needs assisted living, let's move to that option. Yeah, and unfortunately, this is a much deeper conversation here. I think there's some conversations about friendship and community and safety. So have those conversations with your dad. Sorry we didn't have enough time to unpack it, but that's a very layered conversation. You're wise to tread with caution here.

This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Dr. John Deloney. Our scripture of the day, Psalm 103, 13. As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. Charles Kettering said, Every father should remember that one day his son will follow his example, not his advice. Ooh. I love that.

That's, you know, that's his version of more is caught than taught. I like that. And again, happy Father's Day this weekend for all who celebrate. That's you, John. That's me. Father's Day this weekend for all who celebrate. That's you, John. That's me. It's a big weekend for me. One of the best dads I know. And me.

This is my first Father's Day, John. Thanks for acknowledging that. Yeah, congratulations. Thank you. We did it. Excited to see what Mia gets me. Yeah, she better come strong. Yeah, I mean, you're not getting breakfast in bed from a nine-month-old.

How well did you do on Mother's Day? Not great, but I feel like it was a win. You know, I did all the things I could think to do. So you should expect what you did divided by three. I expect nothing. That's how I live my life. I completely disagree with that. You already have a picture of that morning already laid out.

I honestly forgot it was happening. That's how humble I am. Kelly is saying words that I cannot say. The number of thoughts going through my head that I'm not going to say because we're on the radio. All right, let's do what we do, John. Danny is in Orlando up next. How can we help, Danny?

All right. How's it going, gentlemen? We're good. What's up? Well, I find myself very much in a poor mindset. And I was listening to your conversations earlier, right, and buying vehicles, finding out what the down payment was versus the monthly payment. 34 years old today, I find myself in about $50,000 worth of debt.

Salary making about $88,000 worth of debt, um, salary, uh, making about $88,000 a year. Um, have a home, uh, purchased that about four years ago. So it's gone up significantly or good enough, I think, uh, in equity or upward to a hundred thousand. Um, however, the debt to income ratio, I think has finally caught up and, and I think the writing was on the wall a few years ago, but I've been able to kind of stave it off as much as possible. Unfortunately, today I find myself making minimum payments,

sometimes missing payments, dealing with late fees, penalties, and really just making the bare minimum, sometimes missing those payments. In turn, having negative effects on my credit score, which are obviously impacting me long-term for any loans or anything of the sort. So the question is, well, what do you promote or advise that I do? But what I had thought about is selling the home that I currently have, using the equity to pay off the debt, in turn, raise the credit. I should have some money left over at the time to purchase another income generating property. That's the

last thing we need to look into is business opportunities. Okay, Danny, I can sense, I'm less concerned about your credit score. I'm more concerned about Danny. You sound like a guy who just got punched in the face. You just seem just tired. I'm just done. I'm overwhelmed. If I get one more overdue bill, like, are you ready to just live a different life? Yes, sir. Are you single? No, I'm not. I have a wife at home, two children. And I think that's a big part of it, right? Looking at 30 years down the road, what life am I able to provide them?

How does she feel? Is she as exhausted as you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very much so. What do you do for a living? Let's turn it around. What's that now? What's your job? What do you do for a living? Make $88,000. I'm an EHS manager, environmental health and safety manager. Okay.

What kind of debt is the 50? Break it down. Come again? What kind of debt? It's two vehicles, about $15,000 each. Some of it is investments that are made in the property, perimeter fence, water softener unit, some credit cards. That's minimal. I think that's like $2,500, $3,000. But the bulk of it, it's the vehicles, the property improvements. And this is for your primary home you did these improvements? Yes, sir. Okay. Yes, sir. Yeah, dude, stop calling those like property investments.

You wanted a water softener on your house. Like just call it what it is because it allows you to band-aid or duct tape over. Like you wouldn't normally spend that money or maybe you would but just call it what it is dude i i wanted a nice fence and i built a nice fence i wanted a water softener got a water softener i needed i i wanted to upgrade the flooring i did that let's don't wrap it up into like you know roi yeah. So what are the cars worth? They're upside down on the vehicles. I bought them like two years ago. Have you checked like Kelly Blue Book private party value on these? Yeah, I think it's, oh, about $16, $18, and they're valued like $10, $8, something like that.

Okay. You said you had $15 on each. You're saying there's $16 to $18 $8, something like that. Okay, you said you had $15 on each. You're saying there's $16 to $18 on each? Something like that. I'll be honest, I don't know the exact numbers, but it's between that $15 to $18 range, and I say that because there's late fees that have compounded on there. So if it was $15 at one point, the late fees have brought it up now.

Well, please do not let this car get repoed. You need to get out of this thing. Even if you're underwater, here's two options for you to get out from under this. Number one, you save up the difference in cash. You have a great income. I don't know where it's going right now. I don't buy that it's just going to the minimum payments.

I think there's some spending and lifestyle happening here too, right? Yeah, I mean mortgage payment is $2,700. And what do you take home every month? A big chunk of it is about $5,000, give or take. Whew. $5,500.

Yeah, so about half your income is just going to try to cover the mortgage. Exactly. Well, I'll tell you this. Selling the house is a last-ditch napalm. We tried everything else, and we couldn't scrape out of the debt after years of trying. That's when I would say sell the house. to me right now it feels like a cheap shortcut and i do think this was too much payment for you i think if we can't get the income up long term then selling the house is a good idea just because it's too much of your world

but don't do it as a temporary shortcut myself yeah and then that's where i find myself right most of my income is going to the property, to the house. Do you have any money in savings? No, I can't. All of it has been slowly chipped away, and that's what I meant by the writing was on the wall. Once I saw that savings slowly fade away, that's when I should have made some drastic changes, but I had enough to kind of make it buy up until now but now it's the paycheck the paycheck what about your lifestyle stuff do y'all go out to eat a lot not anymore okay we used to i tell you we we did have a lifestyle where you know comfortable we

would go out and everything was paid tip top credit. Credit score was in the 700s. This all really turned downhill within the past four years and quite pinpointed. And obviously, it's my fault. I think too much debt all at once. Okay. What are the car payments? $500 and $600. Okay. So here's the other option. I mentioned saving up the difference in cash of the difference you're underwater on. That way you can sell the car and you have a clean title. The other option is going to your local credit union and getting a loan for the difference. And so that way, instead of being $18,000 in debt, you're in debt for the difference. And at least that gets you out of the car, frees up a payment. Can you guys live on one car for now, or do you need two? We essentially are. One of the vehicles, it's not even registered because I can't afford that. Well, can you work overtime, side hustles? I'm a salary employee, so it's not a real overtime situation, but yes, side hustles.

I'm a handyman. I do a lot of handy work, and I'm not afraid to work. What do you charge for handyman work? I charge by the job. I don't charge by the hour. But Danny, you make $88,000. You almost make $90,000. Yes, sir. I don't understand.

Help me with this. Are you investing? It all goes. Yeah. No, you're probably taking a pension, right? A little bit. Help me with this. I don't understand where this all goes. No, you're probably taking a pension, right? A little bit. A little bit here and there, but nothing that's steady enough for me to say,

yep, this is my investment plan. You need to point all the guns at the debt, which means no investing, no eating out. Every extra penny we can scrounge up is going toward our smallest balanced debt. We're going to knock that out. Which is the smallest debt? Credit card? Yeah. Okay're going to knock that out. Which is the smallest debt? Credit card? Yeah.

Okay, so we knock that out. Here's the thing. You kind of picked up on my tone of voice. I have a hard time looking at that when I am behind on the HOA, I am behind on the mortgage payments, and now I'm looking at a potential eviction from my home. Well, if you're going to get evicted, then we've got

to sell it before you hit this point. But I think we need to take an honest look. Right now, you don't even know your debt numbers. Go pull your credit reports from all three bureaus. You can do that for free. Annualcreditreport.com. Get a real picture. Sit down with your wife and say, we're in crisis. We need a plan. Hang on the line. I'm going to send you

my book, Breaking Free from Broke, to help you navigate some of this. Bro, this is happening to you. You can go down withke to help you navigate some of this. Bro, this is happening to you. You can go down with this ship or you can get a path off, but this is happening. You've got to look at these numbers. I know it hurts. I know it's scary. You have to look at these numbers.

That puts this hour of the Rangers on the books. Thank you to Dr. John Deloney, the folks in the booth, and you, America. Thanks for listening. We'll be back before you know it.