The Ramsey Show - App - Be the Victor, NOT the Victim

Episode Date: May 19, 2022

Dave Ramsey & George Kamel discuss: Family boundaries around your children's debt, What to do with savings bonds, Weighing the options about selling your car. Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, and George Campbell, Ramsey personality, is my co-host. We're talking about your life and your money. It's a free call at 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your relationships, your careers, your money, your job, your boundaries. We talk about all of it here.

888-825-5225. Misty's with us in Indianapolis. Hi, Misty. How are you? I'm great. Thank you guys so much for taking my call. Sure. How can we help? So I'm calling about my son's school loan. When I was first learning about the baby steps, he was getting ready to go to college. He did take out a small loan against my advice. I did not co-sign for it. But I did say that I would pay it back when it came time to be due because I felt bad because I had not done anything for his college. I hadn't prepared for college at all for him.

I was expecting it to be in four years and I would be done with the baby steps by then. Unfortunately, the pandemic hit. He took a semester off and never returned back to school. So in the meantime, this loan company had my bank account number because they had said if I paid a small amount each month, it would be better in the end. So they started automatically taking payments out. And then within, it was a year ago, he ran away from home, which he is an adult, but I now have almost no contact with him. So I also have no ability to see what the loan amount is, what's left, how much to pay. So my question is, since I said I would pay initially, should I keep paying it?

Or since he left and pretty much didn't follow what I thought was going to happen, should I? What was the balance? It was a $12,000 loan. Okay. What do you make? Right now I have a really good salary. I make, this past year I made $140,000. So it's nothing for me to pay it as of right now.

Why are you estranged? Why is he not speaking to you? I'm not quite sure. He told me, I have seen him about three times in the last year. He told me it was because I was too manipulative. I believe that his father had gotten into his head and said some things because I'm actually not, I'm quite the pushover. I'm not, yeah, I'm not really sure. He just said he needed to be off on his own, which is fine. I want him to be on his own, but he's not.

He's not working. He's not going to school. He just sits at his dad's house and has no relationship with me or anyone else in my family. I'm sorry. Thank you. It's hard. Yeah. So, Misty, do you feel like the dad is enabling him to just sit around all day and putting thoughts in his head about you?

Yeah. Yes and no. It's actually his grandma that's the enabler. His dad never had a job until our son was 17 years old because his mom would pay for everything she paid all the child support she paid i mean my son would make a christmas list and she'd buy every single thing on it um he still lives with her oh wait you're not supposed to do that 40 years old yeah i'm asking for a friend. We had a lot of problems when we were together, the short time we were together. He had pulled me away from all my friends and family very emotionally.

So how long ago did you all divorce? Oh, he was, our son was one. Okay, so you raised this boy all his life. Yeah. And so you've spoken into his life a lot more than anybody else has. He's got that down inside of him. Yes. And he'll come back around. Thank you.

Yeah, you've made more deposits in his bank than they have in who he is. There's more of you in him. And so he's going to come back around um there's nothing wrong with either answer here there's not a you don't have a moral thing you have to do or certainly don't have a legal thing you could simply cut you could simply let him know until you and i are in a relationship, I am not going to pay your loan. Okay. You could tell him that and then just cut the draft off, block it, and don't let him take money out of your account,

and then it'll just sit there and build until his grandmother pays it or he pays it or whatever, right? Yeah. And there's nothing wrong with that at all. Nothing wrong with that at all. Okay. He probably doesn't care because he's probably not going to do anything about it right now. Exactly. He'll just roll his eyes and go, mom's trying to, you know, jerk my chain.

Okay. Nothing wrong with that. The other option of course is just to say, you know what? It's 12,000 bucks. Screw it. Yeah. I'm just going to pay it. I'm going to write a check, be done with it.

And, um, and I'm never going to bring it up again. If you're going to pay it, you cannot use it as leverage ever. You just got to let it go. That's an act of forgiveness on your part. And you're just going to go, not like you're trying to buy his love or you're trying to win him back. You're never going to bring it up again. It's not leverage. If you're going to use it as leverage, don't pay it off okay okay because that's not good for you sit and stew over that

okay so that's just old man ramsey talking okay so that's just nothing to do with money is just let him go let them let the whole thing go and when he comes back around someday he'll go oh mom whatever happened with that loan? I just paid it. Don't worry about it. Yeah. And just don't bring it up. Because you don't want to feed into this narrative of you being manipulative.

Mm-hmm. Okay. And honestly, I'm a little softer in my old age. I probably would do option two. Yeah. Is what Dave Ramsey would probably do today i'd probably just pay it not because i'm trying to win their love back not because i'm trying to get attention because i'm not going to bring it up but because if you're going to do all that

you're going to be disappointed because he's not going to come back around he's not going to like you because of this he's not going to none of that's going to work okay but just to let him go set him free and then he'll swoop back around and it it every day that he doesn't is painful for you but he'll come back around mom thank you and i think you paying this off is going to set you free and even yeah away yeah because i think every time you pay it you get mad again yes i would it would piss me off like every month for a few minutes i gotta reset my brain now i'm gonna kill the lord i'm gonna kill him i'm gonna kill his father i'm gonna kill my ex-mother-in-law i'm gonna kill all of them okay now i gotta have my coffee and i'm going to work okay oh you did that did you okay this is worth $12,000 to not have this conversation in your head every month.

Yeah, it is. Yeah. You're right. Set yourself free. And, Misty, you still have access to all these accounts you were saying something earlier about? No. No, I do not. She can't get it.

But, well, how are you going to pay it off? That's what I'm wondering. I don't know. I mean, yeah. I guess you'll have to contact the student loan servicer. Why don't you call them and just say, I know you can't tell me the amount, but I need you to draft the amount out of my account this month to pay it off. Can you do that? Okay, I'll try that.

And then make sure there's $15,000 laying in there so that you're ready. Oh, man, that's a hard one. Yeah, that's so hard. This is The Ramsey Show. You've got a lot on your plate, a job, your home, your marriage, and your growing family. While you're enjoying the present, you can't help but think about your future and your finances. As you explore your options, consider Christian Healthcare Ministries, or CHM, for your health care. Their generous maternity program and budget-friendly monthly programs have been a blessing to members welcoming children into their families. Visit chministries.org

slash budget to see if it's right for you. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a Ramsey trusted provider. George Campbell, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the Debt Free Stage. Courtney is with us. Hi, Courtney, how are you? I'm doing great, Dave. How are you? I am better than I deserve. It's so good to have you. Oh, I'd love to hear that. Where do you live? I live in Houston, Texas.

Good. Fine. Welcome to Nashville. Yes. All right. How much debt have you paid off? I paid off $113,874. I love it. And how long did that take? It took me 30 months. Good. And your range of income during that time? Between $74,000 to $90,000. Cool. What do you do for a living? I am a director of marketing. I work in real estate. Good. Good. And what kind of debt was your $114,000? So most of it about $94,000 of it was from student loan debt and the rest was from my car loan. Okay cool what'd you get your degree in?

I got my degree in health science and biology it was totally different from what my career is. That's okay yeah now you're making money life's good. Yes. And you paid it off that's the other thing that's good so good for you. So how long you been out of school? I've been out of school, oh my God, I graduated in 2012. So it's been a really long time since I've been out of school. So like eight, nine years. Yeah. All right. But two and a half years ago, bing, bing, what happened?

Okay. So I've been getting these mails from my, you know, from FedLoans saying, you owe money, you owe money. And I was talking to my friend and she's like, Courtney, just look at it as a debt you'll pay for the rest of your life. Oh, that's so, that's so hopeful. What good friends. And I was like, Courtney, just look at it as a debt you'll pay for the rest of your life. Oh, that's so hopeful. What good friends. And I was like,

yeah, I want better than that. So I came across your YouTube channel and I've been hooked ever since. I purchased the Total Money Makeover.

I listened to podcasts. I mean, I was hooked on you and I got debt free because of you and so I'm thanking you for that. Well, thank you. Way to go.

You did the work. Yeah. You're impressive. We're about the same age. I graduated the same year with a lot less debt than you. But was that a slog to get through? It was. It was a slog.

I had to really use that debt snowball method to really take it piece by piece because looking at it full on, I was terrified. I was like, I'll never get it done. But doing it smaller by smaller, it helped me really accomplish that goal. Yeah. When you look at that debt and you're like, I don't even make that much. How am I ever going to make these payments? And you started doing the debt snowball.

Was there a moment where you were like, oh, this is working. I see the progress. Yeah. I think my third or fourth loan I paid off. I was like, okay, I can do this, chugging along. And I had my many victories for those ones that I did pay off. So it made it much better getting to the final destination. That's fun. What was those many victories? Did you celebrate in some way that I did pay off. So it made it much better getting to the final destination. That's fun.

What was those mini victories? Did you celebrate in some way? I did celebrate. I might have bought a pair of shoes or something small. Sorry, Dave. You know, I wasn't on rice and beans the whole time, but I just had to, you know, give myself a little treat show self moment. Yeah.

Yeah. So I had to do that for myself. Well, you were very reasonable. I might celebrate, but it wouldn't be shoes. Not shoes. Yeah. But that's, you know, Ken Coleman, he would buy shoes. Yeah. Definitely would. Definitely. For not shoes yeah but that's you know ken coleman he would buy shoes yeah definitely would definitely for sure oh that's awesome congratulations thank

you thank you who was your biggest cheerleaders my biggest was um my parents were really good my family um my boyfriend terence he was great helped me out a lot of the way so yeah and you clearly had some detractors there does your friend now go wait you did it it didn't take your whole life yeah another like well Courtney can you tell me more about this debt snowball method who is this Dave Ramsey person so I'm just putting them all drinking the Kool-Aid of Dave Ramsey so you just put debt free in the search bar on YouTube and there we were there you were that's how you were that's how I found you yeah oh my god so I mean literally even like my passwords on my computer was like debt free 2021.

I really wrote a vision and made it plain. And I stuck to that. Habakkuk 3.3. I love it. Yeah. Well done. Yeah. Write the vision and make it plain.

I got it. That's good. Hey, when you do that, something snaps when you write it down and you put it right in front of you and you go, okay, got to do this. And there's an accountability that starts to work in your brain that's really powerful powerful and then you tell people you're doing it and they're like cheering you on you're like i can't let them down yeah i mean even on my vision board i wrote like a blank check into my fed loan with the amount to pay off and it's crazy that now it's finally done so george she has a vision board yes you're incredible she has a vision board that's like a life hack that's amazing yeah yeah you need it really good you don't need to manifest it when you just write it down and go

i'm gonna write this check one day and it's gonna feel so good to have no payments in the world yeah love it how does it feel it feels great it feels great to be finally free to have no one calling me i mean i did work another i worked two jobs then my full-time job and i worked part-time at amazon as a personal shopper i remember listening to your show during COVID you're like hey get a part-time job while you can so I did that and it helped me a lot how much did they pay you for that they're paying me about I think about $15 an hour wow that's rowdy yeah and you made your own hours and it was all remote and you just check in check out um no so I worked I worked in the store so I was like literally in the literally in the store?

Literally in the store. Oh, wow. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. So physically. Amazon did something physical. It's amazing. Except deliver, yeah.

Was this an Amazon store? No, so it was Amazon with Whole Foods. So I would clock in at four in the morning, and I would pick up groceries for people, and they would deliver it. I've been known to do that, the Amazon Whole Foods delivery, Dave. You have?

Two-hour delivery. You can't beat that. You have? And it was free at the time. George. You know, we the Amazon Whole Foods delivery, Dave. You have? Two-hour delivery. You can't beat that. You have? And it was free at the time. George. You know, we're a generation of convenience, Dave. George. That's such a millennial thing to do.

Dave went uphill both ways. He doesn't understand. I not only shopped at Whole Foods, but I had them deliver it. George. It's even more bougie. That doesn't even compute to a dinosaur like me. I'm sure Rachel would do that. I'm sure Rachel has done that.

Like today. Yes. For sure. There's no that. I'm sure Rachel has done that. Like today. Yes. For sure. There's no question. Well, that's awesome. You were willing to do whatever it took to get this thing

out of your life. Well done. Well done. Proud of you. Thank you. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? Consistency

and having that discipline. And the key is, like I said, making, writing a vision, making it plain. Work at Whole Foods instead of buy at Whole Foods.

There you go. That'd be a hint. That'd be a life hack. She got paid to be inside of a Whole Foods. Yes buy at Whole Foods. There you go. That'd be a hint. That'd be a life hack. She got paid to be inside of a Whole Foods. Yes. That's historic. Yeah, and walk out without buying anything. Hello, yeah.

Whole Paycheck. That's the place, yeah. Okay, wow. Good for you. I'm so proud of you. All right, we got a copy of Baby Steps Millionaires for you. That's the next chapter in your story for sure. You are definitely on your way.

That's the next thing for the vision board. Yes. Right? Millionaires. On your way. Gang on. Game on. Game on. Game on. I love definitely on your way. That's the next thing for the vision board. Yes. Right? Millionaire status. On your way. Gang on. Game on. Game on.

Game on. I love it. Very cool. Also, copy a total money makeover for you to give to your friend who doesn't think she can do it. So maybe we can gang up on her and help her do it in a good way. So good stuff. Very, very cool, Courtney.

You're a rock star. You're amazing. We're so proud of you. Thank you. Very well done. All right, Courtney from Houston, Texas, $114,000 paid off in two and a half years, 30 long, short months, making 74 to 90 with the extra job. Count it down.

Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. I'm debt-free. Yeah. Wow. Reminds me of that Henry Ford quote, if you think you can, you think you can't, you're right. You're right.

And she thought she could, and she was right. I don't know what happens in the human spirit or in the human brain when you write something down that means a lot to you not just generally writing something down you go okay i am going to lose 30 pounds in 90 days and you write it out as soon as you write it down something snaps i'm going to increase my income to a hundred thousand dollars this year as soon as you write it out and you actually believe it what you can you know what you believe can conceive and believe you can achieve,

Earl Nightingale used to say, something happens. It's not magic and it's not just the power of positive thinking, but there's something about when your brain, the neural pathways, when you get really precise and concise and say, this is my desired future, and then your brain automatically kicks into gear. Okay, what have I got to do to make that happen? That's a mix of science and spirit. Yeah, a little bit of both.

A little psychology, a little brain magic, but then also it changes your spirit. And you go, okay, I'm going to do this. It's for real this time. I'm not playing around. And that's exactly what Courtney did. Yeah, she's powerful. And, you know, she's quoting a scripture from the Old Testament, Habakkuk there, Habakkuk 3.3, I believe it is.

It says, write the vision and make it plain. And so take your vision, write it out. And this is not, again, not hocus-pocus, and it's not just goal-setting is magical. It's not. It's not magical unless you go do the work to cause the thing to happen. I mean, if you write down, I'm going to lose 30 pounds, and then you eat a bag of cookies 20 minutes later, probably not on track, right?

So, before I get started, no, no. It's a catalyst. I don't know anybody that's done that. I could probably do it. So you've got to write this out. And something happens or something, your brain just goes, and it starts focusing. And all the distractions out here,

the things that were causing you to to bounce off the walls and not hit your goals they start to be minimized and the things that cause you to hit your goals start to be maximized there's something about it yeah and so that and really you know what a budget is it's it's written goals yeah written goals for the month that's all it is you think you're going to pay off sally may for the rest of your life you're probably right and if you think you're going to pay off Sally Mae for the rest of your life, you're probably right. And if you think you're going to pay her off in two years, you're probably right. It's amazing how that works. Yep.

Because you will find your way at 4 a.m. into a Whole Foods to pack groceries. That's right. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Chris and Donya are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Hi. Hi. Good. Thank you. Welcome. Where do you guys live? Austin, Texas. All right. Welcome to Nashville. And all the way here to do a debt-free scream, how much have you paid off? We paid off $50,000. Good for you. How long did that take? About 18 months. Good. And your range of income during that time? Well, when we got started, we were about $50,000. And not too long after we got started, we were up to $100,000. Good. What do

you guys do for a living? I'm a UPS driver. I own my own cleaning business. Okay. So how'd you double your income? It was a natural progression. You start as a loader in the warehouse. Okay. And I'm guessing you got more work to do yeah more cleaning work yes yeah okay good so yeah drivers make more than loaders for sure yeah about two to three times yeah yeah considerable more yeah good way to go guys what kind of debt was the 50k we had credit card debt we had had two cars. We had furniture. Oh, I had a business that had gone under several years past, so I owed a bunch of people that personally loaned me money,

friends and family. Uh-huh. So you guys were like normal. Pretty normal. Pretty normal. Yeah, that kind of sucks. It was a mess. So you look up, you got $50,000 worth of mess.

How long have you all been married? Ten years. Ten years. But 18 y'all been married? 10 years. 10 years. But 18 months ago, what happened? How'd the switch flip? Tell us your story. Well, our journey started a little bit before 18 months ago as far as getting our lives together. So we've been married for 10 years.

I found myself down a pretty dark hole about five years ago. I was at a rock bottom to the disease of addiction so i got myself into 12-step recovery and started putting my life together taking responsibility for my future our future and uh good for you yeah thank you sir so you've been sober for how long coming up on five years way to go man i'm. I'm proud of you. Thank you. I appreciate that. Well done. What did you kick? What kind of stuff? Well, I pretty much used anything I could get my hands on, but it was methamphetamine that took me all the way down to the bottom.

That's a tough one to bust. Yes, sir. Way to go, man. Super proud of you. So that was about a little less than five years ago I started that journey. And about a year ago, I heard you on, maybe a little more than a year ago, I heard you on the Megyn Kelly show. Oh, yeah. And at this point, my mind was clear enough where I could actually say, oh, my gosh, this is the next thing I need to do.

I told her, I said, hey, we need to get on this Dave Ramsey thing. And she's like, oh my gosh, beans and rice? Yeah, it didn't sound very fun. But I had her listen to the episode, and then we got your book from the library, the audio book. I listened to it in one listen, basically, and it was off from there uh so i sold all the single stocks we had everything we had in savings and put it uh all toward debt uh and then i didn't know what to do from there i didn't know how to budget i didn't know anything it was like i i have no idea what to do so i got up the courage to call you i called called you and John Deloney was on the show.

And I told you a little bit of my story then. And you gave me a year of your Ramsey Plus. All right. Yeah. And you told me to call back when we got debt free. And so we decided we'd come out. And here you are. Full circle. So we appreciate you being part of our story.

We love working with everybody out there, but I particularly love to get to be the financial part, Art Ramsey and the team, to get to be the financial part of the healing from a past like yours. When you can kick that and then you can step over and clean up and go on really clean life going forward, that's awesome, man. Yes, sir. We're so proud of you.

We're so honored to be part of your story. I'm honored myself. Very cool. Well done. Well done. On the eve of John Deloney's book, Own Your Past, Change Your Future, you're living proof of that and what that looks like. I mean, you changed so many parts of your life. You've got a beautiful family. Was that your why? What was the driving force 18 months ago where you went, no more, we can't live like this? Yeah, it was just all kind of natural progression of cleaning up my past, cleaning up and taking responsibility for life. I think I heard Dave say one time he could either be a victim or a victor,

and I was done being a victim. Amen. Cool. Donja, you got a whole new man than you did six years ago. Yeah, I do. Completely different guy i'm so grateful amen amen god's been good to y'all well done so proud of you wow absolutely amazing all right so uh actually the getting out of debt thing is no big deal compared to the other stuff

but uh but it is a big deal because it's a one of the details the nuanced details i guess of the whole story. So what do you all tell people the key to getting out of debt is? I don't think we could have done it without the budget app. And that was the part that I was most stuck on. And once we got that, you know, we talked to two coaches through the Ramsey Plus. And we took the courses. And we just started doing it.

And once we started doing it, it was like, oh, there's too much money going there. There's not enough money going here. Let's start telling our money what to do and uh it was we found about two thousand dollars a month that we could start throwing at the debt and it was from there it was uh just doing it and that's what we did well done y'all very well done you're heroes so proud of both of you thank you proud of you for sticking with him and i'm proud of him for doing the hard work yeah very well done and to the question of the why it was uh keeping the family you know like it was i came to a point where i wasn't allowed to come home i was staying in my truck and it was like this is worth it like whatever i thought i had going for me, it wasn't. I needed my family.

I needed her. I needed the kids to know how to be a man. So she told you don't go home until you clean up then, huh? Yeah. Good for you. That was a hard call. Yes. Hard call, but it worked out.

It did. Worked out good. Good for you. You guys are tough. You're tough as nails, man. You've. Worked out good. Good for you. You guys are tough. You're tough as nails, man. You've worked through some real stuff, both of you, man. Very, very powerful. Wow!

You guys are my hero of the day, man. Excellent. Just so cool. Very, very cool. Yeah. So let's bring the kiddos up. What are their names and ages? We've got Isaiah and Eva.

Isaiah is seven and Eva is five. Oh seven and eva's five oh man perfect ages very well done good looking kiddos too well done you guys well we have a copy of baby steps millionaires for you that's the next chapter in your story for sure no stopping you guys you're warriors man how to how ordinary people built extraordinary wealth how you can can too, and also a copy of the Total Money Makeover for you to give away and stir somebody up out there, stir up a holy ruckus. Just keep this moving, man. Keep paying it forward. Well done, you guys.

So proud of you. Man, they're cool. I know. It reminds me of the quote, having a testimony is great, getting one sucks. Yeah. Getting one is a pain in the butt. You have such an inspiring story to share with other people now.

As you hand that book over, you say, man, this thing was a part of life change for me and i hope it does the same for you yeah that's powerful good for you guys all right chris and donya isaiah and eva 50 000 bucks paid off in 18 months making 50 to 100 the every dollar app stepped in. Gotta love it. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Woo! Oh, man. Don't tell me you can't change your life.

I mean, he's living proof, man. You know, we just did that whole segment on enabling, and this is the exact opposite. She says, don't come home. Yeah. And he's in the truck, and he wakes up and goes, uh-uh. Those babies and that girl are worth it. I've got to straighten up. And then he starts to process it, come and clean.

That's powerful, man. That's the truest form of love there is. That's powerful. That's hard, hard stuff. It's a very hard situation to find yourself in, to be in on both sides of that coin. But the net result is a beautiful family right here, a beautiful future. He's got a great job now.

Man, life is good. She does. She's kicking it with her business. It's just incredible. Very, very well done. Awesome family. And we get to be a little tiny part of the story with Ramsey Plus and then with Financial Peace University and with the EveryDollar app and all to help them with this last part of some of the cleanup.

So very well done. Man, that's about as good as it gets. Why come down here every day, George? That's why we do it. Life is good. Never gets old. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. Our scripture of the day, Ephesians 6.11, put on the full armor of God

so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. Lou Holtz said, if what you did yesterday still looks big to you, you haven't done much today. I like that. You got to love Coach Lou. He's the best. Coach Lou's spoken for us a couple times at Entree Leadership,

and he is always a standing ovation, always gets the highest speaker marks, and he is the highest quality of human being. So much integrity. Absolutely amazing man. Absolutely fun to hang out with and just a great guy. So we love Coach Lou around here. All right, Miranda is with us. Miranda is in Raleigh, North Carolina.

How are you, Miranda? I'm good. How about you? Better than I deserve. How can we help? Okay, my husband and I are on baby step number two, and we have two debts left to pay off. One is a credit card of $7,700,

and then we have a car that we owe $23,000 on. And my question was, do we need to think about selling the car and getting a cheaper one? What's the car worth if you sold it today? It's a Honda Accord. I looked it up on Kelly Blue Book, and I think it's about $27,000. Okay. We just called it last year. All right. So you clear that debt and have $4,000 left over.

Could you get a beater car for now for $4,000 until this debt's cleaned up and then upgrade? I mean, I guess we could. The other car that we do have, one other car that my husband drives, is a 2012, and, I mean, I guess we could. What's your household income? After tax, it's $80,000. Okay.

The rule of thumb that we use, Miranda, is two things, okay? If you like the car, which it sounds like you do, if you can be 100% debt-free, accept your home in two years, car and everything, and the total of all of your vehicle's value is less than half your annual income, that way you don't have too much tied up in things that are going down in value, then you can keep the car. Financially, it makes sense to keep the car is the best way of saying it. But if you have, let's say that you make $80,000 a year

and you've got $70,000 tied up in cars, you've got too much going down in value, right? Yes. Okay. No, our other car is only worth $70,000. I know, I know. It's full. I know, but I'm just saying as an example.

Or let's say that you owed a lot more debt than this, and the $23,000 debt being gone would make a huge difference. Let's say you had another $40,000 in student loan debt. Well, you might need to get rid of the car so that you can get rid of the student loan debt, right? But in your case, I think if you like the car and you guys will fight to be 100% debt-free in under two years, you would meet both of the general financial mathematical guidelines that we have to keep the car. Okay. Okay.

And I think we would be willing to do that. We just started your program in January, and we paid off almost $15,000 in debt in those few months. Well, if you stay on that track you would be debt free in one more year yeah exactly you're talking three grand a month yeah if you keep if you keep going 15 000 that's 2 500 a month 15 000 is six months whatever yeah three two three thousand dollars a month you'll knock this out in about a year and if you do that then it makes sense if you like the car to keep the car but as george is pointing out if you get rid of the car you'd be dead free in

20 minutes here but then you're going to turn around probably and save up and buy another car within a year because you don't want to have that four thousand dollar car for long that's a get buy car that's not a car we keep uh so i'm probably keeping it if i'm in your shoes based on what you're telling me that makes sense yeah absolutely alan is with us alan is in riverside california how are you alan i'm doing well and yourself better than i deserve how can we help so thank you for taking my call um dave George. So, I am 24 years old. I'm getting married on Saturday. Yay!

Yeah, thank you. Thank you. So, just jumping to the point, my grandma told me that she's been saving bonds for me since I was essentially born. That's sweet. saving, um, saving bonds for me since I was, uh, essentially born. Um, and, uh, she, so she had them all locked away. So she showed me them, um, very, you know, in a big, in a big envelope, um, every single month, um, since I was born until now, um, we went online to like the treasury, um, website, whatever that, um, we called the bank to see how much it's worth. And so far it's about 14,000 for all the saving bonds that she accumulated over the years.

How sweet. My question is since some of them have not matured enough, because I was like doing a research because honestly, I don't really know much about these. Like just about a week ago, I found out, learned about these so um my question is should i leave them in no um until like all of them are mature should i take them out should i okay cash them out okay that's the mathematical answer then the proper financial answer is apply them to wherever you and your new wife are on the baby steps. Where are you guys?

Yes, we have no debt, and we already have our emergency fund, so we're saving up for our three to six months of living expenses. Great. That's what this will go towards. Okay. Should we just put it all towards there? Should we save some for our house? No. You should follow the baby steps. How much is three to six months of expenses for you guys?

Do you know yet? Right now we have a house that we're renting, and it's $1,700 a month. And that's literally it. Well, there's stuff like food, electricity, gas, insurance, other stuff, and so it's going to be literally like $3,500 a month, and so you need an emergency fund of $15,000. And if you have nothing saved, then that's fine. You use this money, and you have your emergency fund.

Voila. If not, then you need to, and if you already have more than that, then you've got some towards your down payment on the house, right? Yeah. And so after that emergency fund is done, that's where you start looking at your next goal. And I'd take a pause, keep renting as a newlywed couple, get to know your new spouse, and then you can start going, all right, do we want to start saving up that down payment in our area? Do we want to live?

Do we have our incomes? Do we have jobs start saving up that down payment in our area? Where do we want to live? Do we have our incomes? Do we have jobs that are in place? And then you can start investing 15%, and you're on your way. I mean, at 24 years old, that's a good place to be. And if you tell your grandmother that you use this money towards a down payment on a house or towards having a rainy day fund, she'll be proud in either case, and that will be the truth. Grandma said it's going to rain. Yeah.

You got to have a rainy day that's awesome that's where grandma got that god bless grandma yeah so that you're you're right on track doing that but yeah you just follow right up those baby steps that we teach alan and um it doesn't change because it was a gift the only thing you want to do is you always when someone's giving you a gift especially your grandma uh you want to do something or even an inheritance you want to do something that honors the person that gave it to you and that they would be proud that you did that with it. And usually if you're doing smart things like investing or paying off debt

or buying a house or something like that, you know, grandpa, grandma, are generally going to be very proud of that kind of thing. Yeah, it's not frivolous. And I'd love to give you guys a wedding gift. It's this Saturday. That's fun. So Kelly's going to pick up. We'll give you guys Ramsey Plus, which includes Financial Peace University, Every Dollar Plus. Go through these with your now fiance, soon-to-be wife. And man, it's going to change the game for your marriage, give you guys

language to talk about money, give you guys some goals that you can set together. And I'm telling you, that's one of the best things you can do as you start this marriage. Yeah. So make sure to jump in. When you get back from the honeymoon, you guys get settled in. Jump into the Financial Peace videos online there, and we're going to give you all of that as our gift. And it'll get you guys started together, and it will walk you right up the same baby steps we were just using here right now.

And so... It's a good point, Dave. Don't watch it on the honeymoon. That's not fun. Well, it's a good point dave don't watch it on the honeymoon that's that's not fun well it's something more exciting i would claim financial peace university is an amazing course romantic it is not okay that's a good point just saying okay so it's not has nothing to do with that so that's good enjoy yourselves hope the wedding goes well congrats there you go so hang on kelly we'll pick up we'll get you signed up for it.

Those nine lessons will change your life, son, if you'll go through them. It's good stuff. Change mine. Very good stuff. All right, George, good hours today. Well done. Thank you. James and Ben and Kelly and Zach in the booth, thank you for all your hard work. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. We will be back with you.

Before you know it, in the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Do you love a good day, friend? Want to see the latest Ramsey Show videos going viral? Check out your favorite moments from the Ramsey Show on YouTube. Go watch and subscribe to the Ramsey Show channel on YouTube. Ramsey Show.