The Ramsey Show - App - Being an Adult Means Delayed Gratification (Hour 1)

Episode Date: January 31, 2024

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create amazing relationships. I'm George Campbell, and I'm joined by the one, the only, my Smart Money Happy Hour co-host, Rachel Cruz. Good to be here, George. Always is. We usually don't host a whole bunch together, but when we get to, it's a real treat. It's a special time, and y'all are here for it. So we haven't got to hang out in a while, Rachel.

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that happens on this show. You're in there. You're an accomplice, Rachel. I will give you advice in a kind, nice way. George, we'll see. You never know. Well, congrats, Rachel, on your new kids book. It's been fun. I'm glad for what I have. I read it to Mia the other day. She doesn't know because she's five months old, but she enjoyed it. That's good. Hey, reading even to the young ones. I've heard that. I saw my wife sent me the

Instagram reel. Thank you. Jonathan is up first in Raleigh, North Carolina. Jonathan, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for having me, guys. Absolutely. How can we help? So I am a long time familiar with Dave Ramsey. Just kind of started getting into it more recently the last year. But I am going, I've, I've done the baby steps have been debt free and then got married and other things. So recently I've done the attempt to get my wife to budget with me. So I got her to watch the financial piece that was gifted to me cause I'm a veteran. Um, and I got her to watch the first episode and as soon as I brought up the budget, she

shut it down. She was mad. So I'm not sure if it's something more deep-seated going on, but we're not really financially hurting, but we are losing a lot of money just to waste. Sure. Okay, so Jonathan, why was she mad? What was, what was she saying in her anger? Uh, that she didn't want to have any constraints. She didn't want me to control

her spending. I think she didn't really want me to know what she was spending on. Okay. Do you guys budget, do you guys share an account together? We do. And that was a point of contention about 13 years ago when we got married, but we did join the accounts and I eliminated her. She had college debt and, you know, other car loans and credit cards and all that. And so we've purged all that since and joined accounts. And was she on board with that, with getting out of debt?

Yes. Okay. So it's the budgeting piece for her. And is she the spender out of both of you? I mean, we're probably both equally spendy. Yeah. Do you, Jonathan, if you were to be honest with us, have you had any history of maybe a snide remark or two with what she has spent on? Have you like been sarcastic with it or do you bring it up in a way that she doesn't like?

Like, I'm just curious that dynamic. Well, when we got together, she was a lot fancier than me so she would like you know finer things and you know Louis Vuitton and you know stuff like that so I'm sure I possibly have thrown out a wow that's a lot of money for something you know right right right okay well I think one of the biggest breakdowns that I'm hearing is in a perfect world, you both would agree on, yeah, here's what we're going to spend. Here's electricity. Here's our cable. Here's our utilities, the basic stuff of life. And then us both say, okay, here's an amount of money per month that we agree on together that Jonathan gets,

that your wife gets, and together you both say, it doesn't even have to be an equal amount of money, right? I mean, she could say, no, I actually on average spend X amount. And if you guys can afford that, and it's not constraining other parts of the budget to be able to say, yes, she can. But I think it's the idea that you guys are agreeing on where she's spending. Or I'm sorry, on how much she is spending.

Because to me, the amount, I think it's the first step. And then the where would be the second step. But I don't think the where matters as much. Like Winston probably thinks I'm crazy how much I get my nails done. Like, do you know what I mean? Like the where is like, okay. But I think it's the amount that you guys agree and you're on the same team to say, okay, here's what our overall money looks like. And within this, you're not her dad that's going to be ruling over her to tell her where

she can spend her money. But we both agree this is a reasonable amount for us to spend on personal things or even out to eat. Yeah. Yeah. And Jonathan, have you kind of seek to understand when you go, hey, what's behind this? I feel like, you know, there was some high emotion here when you shut down there. I just want to know, like, does this come from somewhere? Was there anything in your past? Or, you know, why do you feel like this budget is going to control us? All I'm asking is that we pre-decide how we spend our paychecks and we can decide that you have a lot of money for fun. I think she sees like we're going to have a life of sacrifice and rice and beans and couponing for the rest, you know, rest of your days. Is that how she's feeling?

I don't know that it's that. And because like I said, when I brought the budget to her, she wouldn't even look at it. So it's not, it's not that. What kind of budget did you make? Was this Excel spreadsheet? I made a zero balance or zero dollar budget, whatever it is, at the end. I'm trying to do the thing that y'all did. Did you use it like every dollar of the app or was it an Excel spreadsheet?

Yeah. Okay. Every dollar. Good. Sometimes, you know, if someone shows me an Excel spreadsheet, I shut down. She wouldn't look at it. Okay. She wouldn't look at the numbers at all.

Nothing. And, yeah, did you ask why? Well, our communication is sometimes strained and limited also. So whenever it's something that's uncomfortable or not easy, just glazed over the top, something more in-depth, it's kind of like, I don't want to do that. Yeah, she doesn't go there. Yeah, it feels vulnerable. It feels scary for whatever reason. So Jonathan, I think that's the issue, right?

And we usually say money issues within marriage are rarely the actual money issue. To your point, it's not like she was like, no, I need $300 a month, not $250. It's the communication. Something in her does not feel okay to go there for whatever reason. And George is right.

It's usually, it comes from somewhere. It stems from somewhere. And for you guys to get on the same page, because if you can understand and you guys communicate more effectively in general, that's going to help you, you know, help you effectively communicate with the money. That's going to help you, obviously,

communicate better in general. But, I mean, to me, that's where you bring in a third party. Yeah, I mean, have you guys ever been to marriage counseling? No. And I suggest that I'm usually the, you know, the instigator. I'm usually trying and she's because I've taken care of everything, you know, since the beginning, I maybe have a little bit of, you know, anxiety and things to bring up topics to her because every time I try to bring it up to her, it's just shut down. And so there may be some animosity and, you know, all that. So that's what we need to get to the bottom of before we start talking about money goals. We need to learn what's behind all this. How do we communicate well? And I'm going to send you some tools to help. Number one is a copy of my book, Breaking Free from Broke. I want

you guys to read chapter 10. It's called Budgeting is Freedom. I think it'll show her a different way. And I'm going to send you a copy of Rachel's book, Know Yourself, Know Your Money. It's going to really help her understand why she thinks the way she thinks around money and maybe unlock some really cool things and conversations. So we're wishing you the best, Jonathan. Hang on the line and Skylar will get you those books. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Rachel Cruz. If you want to join us, we've got a brand new event coming up in May, on May 10th and 11th, right here in Nashville, Tennessee. It's called Total Money Makeover Weekend.

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Dr. John Deloney, Jade Warshaw, Ken Coleman. And there's going to be live Q&As throughout the weekend. It's going to be interactive. We have a live Smart Money Happy Hour on Friday night. Looking forward to that. And this is a really fun weekend. We don't do events boring. And so this is the one to bring that spouse to, the reluctant friend. If you want to come solo, you're welcome. All are welcome here. Early bird tickets start at just 99 bucks for a limited time. So if you want to come solo, you're welcome. All are welcome here. Early bird tickets start at just $99 for limited time. So if you want the best deal, go grab your tickets. They will sell out. RamseySolutions.com slash events.

Put it in the budget, and we'll see you guys May 10th and 11th right here at the Ramsey headquarters. It's going to be fun. All right. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Kiera is in Buffalo, New York. What's going on? Hi. Thank you so much for taking my call.

Sure. So I am 24 and I have over a half a million dollars in debt. Wow. Is that consumer debt or does that include a mortgage? So that's with my mortgage and my car loan. Okay. That makes me at least breathe a little easier. So let's walk through the consumer debt. How much consumer debt do you have? What are the amounts?

None. None. Oh, so it's just your mortgage. Yeah. My mortgage is 490,000. What's the rest? And then my car, I owe $54,000 less on it. Oh, okay. So we would label anything non-mortgage as consumer debt, if that helps.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay, so you have $54,000 on the car. Anything else? No. And then $490,000 on the mortgage. How much do you make a year? I'm self-employed, so it kind of varies some years.

My last taxes, it was $250,000. Awesome. At 24, that's amazing. What do you do? Um, I'm a reseller. All right. And what's your question today? So my question is, I have some money in the bank. I have some in savings. I have a retirement account. Um, but my biggest question is the car payment kind of is weighing heavy on me. Um, and I wanted to get your opinion, um, on where like my money should be going kind of. So I have in a high yield savings account about 46,000. Um, so I was wondering, I kind of wanted to get rid of my car. Like after listening to you guys, um, I wish I would have listened sooner, but I, I don't think I need this

luxury car. Um, and it was kind of an impulse decision just to buy it. Um, so I was wondering if I should take some of this money and get rid of my car. As in sell it and downgrade to a different car with cash? Well, I'm engaged. So we have two cars right now, and we would just be sharing the one car. Is that a reasonable lifestyle switch for you, Kira, to just go down to one car? Yes. Okay. How much could you sell it for? So that's the thing that is unfortunate because like I'm, you know, the car, I got different

quotes and stuff. So I owe 54 left and my offer was $37,000. Where was this offer from? Well, that was CarMax. I've tried to sell it personally, like online, and I'm going into a dealership on Saturday to do some kind of auction thing to see if they can get maybe even a little bit more. My guess is private party is going to be your best bet to sell this for top dollar

versus going to a dealership of course they're going to lowball you because they're going to sell it for that higher amount yeah what kind of car is it it's a bmw x5 okay um what year is it 2019 okay okay you know i mean yeah i mean if i were you if you're if you're honest about yourself and your day-to-day life and how that looks that you really don't feel like you need a car like if that really is true because you make plenty of money p.s you can afford to get another car maybe a different car and you can do something different but don't feel like not having a car is your only option i just want to give you that window that you have great money saved if you needed to get a car you could okay so just if you wanted to pay off this car you could yes that's right and just keep it yeah but if you

don't want it and you're like it's just too nice i don't need it you are upside down so what i would try to do almost is just say hey i want to try to get 40 for it a little bit more than what was quoted in a private selling situation is probably the way you're going to do that. And then you're going to have to say, okay, I got 14,000 of my own money that I'm going to have to just, you know, finish off the loan. And take that out of your high yield savings account. Yeah, we just call that stupid tax when we do things that we're like, dang it, and just

take it out of your high yield and then start from there. And if you want a different car or something down the road, I would use that money saved that you have to get a great used car. Yeah, that you want. So when are you guys going to get married? Hopefully next year. Okay. So not a date. Are you guys going to live in this house that you have a mortgage on right now?

Yes. You are. Okay. Is he coming into the marriage with any real estate? Wait, what do you mean by that question? Like, does he, does he own a home too? Like, will he be selling? No, this is our home.

We bought it together last year. Okay. Okay. He's also, the thing i the only reason why this car is weighing so heavy on me is because i know this is like my only debt but i don't mean to put his business out there but he has a lot of debt so it's um and we're just trying we are trying to like clear his debt right now um so you're not trying to pay off his debt, though, right? Okay. So one thing you have to realize, Kira, is, yes, I understand that you guys are engaged.

I believe we'll get married next year. But you guys legally, you're not married. You're roommates. I mean, from a legal standpoint. You realize that, right? I know relationally and love and future plans, all the things. So with your money, the wisest thing you can do, which sounds harsh, I know, in your situation, because you guys have already bought a house together,

you keep things separate financially. We have talked to so many people, Kira, who have used their money to pay off someone's debts and they start working together and suddenly the wedding next year doesn't happen and you are out all this money. And so protecting yourself in that sense is necessary during this time. Because you have no legal contract.

I mean, there's nothing legally binding you guys together. If you were married, that's a different story. But from this standpoint, I would not be paying on his debt. So you need to be focused on you. He needs to be focused on him. And then you have to say, yeah, when we get married, we do become one. All of this, then we can work as a team. But I would not be doing that until then. Until you say I do and you sign that marriage license and there's a ring on the finger, you guys are not, I would not work together as one

when it comes to the money. Now you guys can can be encouraging and all that, but I would have very separate financial lives at this point. Okay, that makes sense. And I should have mentioned like the car would be his that we'd be using. So, we'd be paying on his loan. So, there's a loan on his car? Yeah. What's left on that? We would be splitting the payment. I actually just asked him. He didn't answer, but I think it's around like $40,000. I wouldn't do any of this. I wouldn't do that. Just go get your own car with cash. Don't pay on a car that you don't even own.

Yeah, that's not even in your name. You have no... The point to get rid of this car is to get rid of the payment, and you're just going to take on another payment, but less. With one car. Right. Yeah, yeah yeah i wouldn't do that honestly i if i were you i would get rid of this car because i think it's a good exercise for you you're 24 you're like i made a crazy purchase i shouldn't i shouldn't have bought it and i if i were you i would go get you know a ten thousand dollar whatever whatever go drive that he needs to work on his stuff. I mean, like his debts, his income,

all of that needs to be his. This does not need to be your responsibility. Because what concerns me a little bit, and I could be reading into it, is that you're so responsible. You're obviously extremely bright. You're making $250,000 as a 24-year-old. I mean, like you're a go-getter, okay?

And I'm not saying he isn't, but in some cases what we find is that he gets the benefit and reaps the benefit of all the greatness that you have. But then you get no benefit from him from a legal standpoint because you're not married. So I would be very cautious in all of that sharing and buying a house together, too. This is for the listener out there. Do not put both of your names on a deed of a house if you are not legally married. It gets you in a mess, you guys. It'll get you in a mess.

This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Rachel Kruse. The number to call is 888-825-5225. The Ramsey Show question of the day is brought to you by Neighborly, your hub for home services. From repairs and maintenance to home improvement projects, winter can bring some challenges for homeowners, and you need Neighborly's helpful winter checklist, and it's free. You can download it for free at neighborly.com slash Ramsey. All right, this one is from Jenny in South Carolina.

My husband and I are on baby step two. We have an SUV that has paid off, and my husband wants to finance a second vehicle. It's kind of the opposite of Baby Step 2 there, but he has $12,000 to put towards the purchase. I thought he was looking in the range of $35,000 to $45,000, but he now wants one that costs $90,000. He only wants to use the truck for eight months and then take advantage of the buyback program from the dealership and get a cheaper vehicle then. We can't afford an $800 car payment for the next eight months

and I don't trust the buyback program. How do I make him see that the numbers just don't work to finance a vehicle right now? I have asked him to find a vehicle that we can afford with the $12,000 or he can use RSUV and I will drive an older vehicle. This argument has been going on for six months and I don't know how much more our marriage can take. The stress has gotten the worse and I'm currently between jobs and my income is very low right now. Oh, goodness.

Sounds like a lot, Jenny. It sounds like he is coping with a marriage on the rocks. She's unemployed. They're between incomes. And he's like, I'm going to go get a giant truck to make me feel better about all of this. I just want some kind of comfort in my life right now because everything else seems to be chaotic. Yeah. This man is reverting to a child. He's like Benjamin Buttoning, Rachel, real time with his finances. Right in front of our eyes.

She's right. I mean, if you need some confirmation, yes. Oh, yeah. You have $12,000 to purchase a car. jenny i think you're asking the wrong question she says how do i make them see that the numbers just don't work it's not the numbers it's the fact that you guys are obviously not on the same page you're trying to do a program and get out of debt while he's adding on debt like you're literally counteracting each other it doesn't make sense and so what ends up happening is exactly what is happening sadly is it causes a lot of stress.

It causes a lot of fights because you're both not walking the same path. You're running into each other. And so that's going to cause tension. And so for you guys, I would just pan way back and say, OK, as our family, what do we want money to look like? What does this look like for us? And if you guys can't get on the same page with that value system, then yeah, I mean, I think we said in an earlier call, but it's true. I'm like, that means you're probably not on the same page on a lot of things in life. And so working and finding that unity, and even

if that's bringing in a marriage counselor or a therapist to get you guys back on that same page. And always know with marriage, you guys, that there's always going to be opposites, okay? So there's always going to be one person that always kind of wants the bougier thing, probably the one that's like, eh, we're fine here. Or one's more of a spender, one's more of a saver. Like, you're always going to have these different money personalities in a marriage. So we're not saying you have to be uniformed and just identical robots together. But the overall big picture is that you want to be walking the same path. And that usually comes down to value system, a value system conversation that obviously you guys are on separate pages. So I think that looking at that as the issue is where I would start.

Yeah, this is so tough because this marriage is only going to grow further apart if he makes this decision. And it's going to be a harder decision to undo. And it's going to cause so much resentment on Jenny's side of like she does not going to feel like she has a vote in this marriage. If he goes and does this behind her back in front of her back, no matter how he does it, it's going to screw things up even more. So she needs to have to come to Jesus meeting with him and go, listen, I don't feel safe. I'm trying to do this plan. This marriage is not going well. We need to get on the same page. You need to act like an adult and have some delayed gratification. Yeah, absolutely. And that means one day you can have that truck when we can pay for it in cash when we're not in debt. But right now is not the time to go make more terrible decisions.

Yeah, because again, take the money piece out of this, you guys. It's just the fact of it's just disrespect, right right like if one spouse is pleading with another on something you would listen to that right you do if winston went out and financed a ninety thousand dollar truck while you guys were in debt actively trying to get out well that's the thing is i'm like yeah we can talk about the money piece about how that pulls you backwards and all that but it's a complete respect thing i'm like there's a level that you're you're obviously not being heard in your money probably not in other parts of your marriage and jenny like i don't you know i mean you said it sounds like a such a desperate situation um which is so sad and it's so difficult and there's a lot of couples that are walking this road right now but it's so much more than just the money decision

it's the fact that he's not hearing her respecting her and and at least like i'm like it's one thing if he's like no jenny i think you're wrong but you know what i'll come down at least go to 35 000 there's zero compromise like it's just a complete like middle finger is what it feels like like i'm gonna go go do whatever the i want and that's not a marriage that's not a healthy marriage i'm not here to rag on the truck bros rachel because i get a lot of fault for that but there's something about opinion on trucks there's something i'm not gonna even call men and trucks I'm gonna send boys and trucks because men and trucks I have no problem with Winston Cruz has an awesome truck I got to ride

in it that thing is awesome boys and trucks and by boys I mean grown men who are financing $90,000 trucks to cope that's not okay and I will uh fight against that every single day fight the good fight George that's what I'm doing in Winston's Tundra. The Lord's calling on your life. Rachel, I had to crawl into Winston's Tundra. It was so high up. I was like, is there a ladder you can throw down for me? Stop, it's not a raised truck.

It's a regular truck, George. Truck. All right. Jillian is up next in Salt Lake City. Jillian, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi. What's going on? So we've gotten ourselves into a situation and we're wondering what's the best way to get out of it. So we are looking to see

does it make sense to pull 401k to pay off a HELOC. How old are you? I just turned 40 on Saturday. Happy birthday. Happy big birthday. That's a big milestone. And also, please never do this. I know. Happy birthday. Don't do it.

I understand you've got this big HELOC and you're looking for some kind of shortcut to go, how do we get out of this HELOC? But what you're doing is robbing your future self with penalties and fees on top of that i would just oh i would just treat it as a baby step six situation jillian i would i would because how much do you owe on your house mortgage wise so mortgage wise we're like 450 which it's only two and a half percent but the heloc is like eight and a half percent The payment is killing us. Yeah. Yeah. How much do you guys make a year? Which sounds like a lot. It is a lot. Around $350,000.

Okay. Yep. It is a lot, but when you're drowning in payments all over the place, it doesn't feel like a lot. Yeah. We're cutting back as much as we can,

and obviously we need to make changes. What was the HELOC for? A house remodel and a pool. As one does. It's the American way. Okay. Any other debt? We have a credit card. I have a business that I just started, so I have like $18,000 on a credit card. But other than that, we have our cars are paid off. We were debt-free until this pool. My husband makes large commission checks and we made about $170,000 more than we're making now until we knew that we would get these commissions

and be able to pay this off and the market turned in his where he works and bonuses are not coming and so we and then the HELOC payment doubled with interest. You guys lived out the Christmas vacation story.

Did you learn nothing from that movie? Right? You thought, this is a fictional movie. It doesn't happen in real life. And Jillian, this is a really good lesson for people. This is not to continue to pick on your situation by any means, but this happens all the time, and I can do this mentally and emotionally.

You spend the money before you get the money, right? You're like, oh, oh my gosh, we're going to make what? Oh, this is going so well. This year we're for sure going to make, and you already spend it, right? Whether in your emotions or actually. It's kind of a concept of debt is spending money you don't have and then hoping you have it later.

Yeah, but it's different when you feel like, no, I'm supposed to have $170,000 bonus, you know, and then you don't have it. So yeah, I think it's just a, I think it's a pain point, Jillian, for you guys. So I would just, I would pay off, I would pay off your, is it the card, the 18,000? Credit card.

Credit card, that's right. I'm sorry for the business. Yep, I would focus you guys to pay that off, get that out, okay? Because that's going to just free up some mental space because I would then move forward. Do you guys have savings at all? No.

Okay, so I would save up three to six months of expenses after you pay off this card. And then I would be funding retirements, look at the kids' college stuff, but I would attack this HELOC first and then your mortgage. I would go ahead and start the baby steps, but I would use this HELOC as kind of a baby step 6A, and then your mortgage is 6B, but I would put it there. And making 350, Jillian, you guys are going to get out of this faster than you think, but it's going to take some deep sacrifice. You've all been living la vida loca, and now you're broke. So you're going to get out of it. We have hope in you and faith,

so call us back when you're debt-free. We'll celebrate with with you and happy belated birthday. This is the Ramsey show. I'm George Campbell joined by Rachel Cruz. This is the Ramsey show. And if you enjoy this show, you should check out smart money, happy hour co-hosted by myself and Rachel Cruz. We have a blast. And if you need to send someone the show that's not too heavy, too intense, Smart Money Happy Hour is a breath of fresh air. There's lots of laughs. And we sneakily teach you money things while having a good time. But you don't even know it. You don't even know.

It's like a, what? Our writer Savannah said she was at the nail salon and some Gen Z girls were like, hey, you know that Dave guy? She's like, yeah. She's like, well, his daughter has a really cool podcast. I love it. We're talking about Smart Money Happy Hour at the nail salon. Current events, pop culture, and money. Rachel's like the cool sister.

It's the best. And I'm the cool uncle, I guess. Uncle George. That's right. All right, Gabriela is up next in McAllen, Texas. Gabriela, what's going on? Hi, guys. Thank you for taking my call. So my question is, my ex-boyfriend left me with an RV payment and I do not want to pay it. Oh, my gosh. So what happened?

You guys. So he took it to go work and could no longer afford the payment on it and left it to me last weekend and was like, here you go. Here's no longer afford the payment on it and left it to me last weekend and was like, here you go. Here's the RV with the payment. What do you mean left it to you? Whose name is on the loan? It is under my name. We were together for 10 years. Um, I got it for, for him. So he had to go work in the oil field. And, um, he, we split up about a year ago and he he can't afford it anymore he so he brought it back to me and I'm left with it oh no shoot well Gabrielle you'll never do that again will you I've learned my lesson oh no you know we talked to somebody earlier in the hour and her and her boyfriend well fiance they don't really have a date.

I don't think a wedding date we asked. But, yeah, both their names are on the deed of the house. And I just thought, oh, no, no, no, no. So you're a great, I guess, poster child of what can happen when you sign on to debt and buy things with people you're not married to. And I'm so sorry. I mean, on top of the hurt from this long-term relationship being over. And it was a year ago, though.

So now you're like, well, crap. Now I got to. What's left on the RV loan and what is it worth? It is, the balance left is around $48,000. And looking it up, it's worth around $30,000. So you're $18,000 underwater? Basically. For some reason, they took, like, the prices in RVs were just expensive

when I bought it and have dropped. Well, that's been the theme on the show for the last week or month is everyone is underwater on vehicles and things with wheels because it was really expensive and they had good intentions and then the market turned and now everyone's underwater. So there's only two ways to go about this. Number one is you need to come up with the $18,000 in cash in order to sell it and pay off the loan. Or number two, you go get a personal loan for the difference of that $18,000 to get out from under this. Do you have any money? Yeah, I have around $10,000 in savings. Good. And any other debt? Well, yes, I have a mortgage. I pay my vehicle, but my vehicle is actually a lease. And I

hadn't learned my lesson at the time, but I have a bedroom set under my name that somebody else owes about $3,000 of that. Really no credit card debt. Somebody else owes? Yes, it's under my name, so technically I owe it. And are they paying on it? Yes and no. Oh no oh gosh is this family is it a friend that you like said hey it's family it's a family member oh gosh i think you need to

stop being generous with money you don't have gabriella that's what's been happening it's a theme in your life you sound like such a sweet wonderful person And now how much do you make a year? So this year I made, so I'm actually a nurse and with COVID, I made really good money 2022, kind of gone down some. So this year I made $133, but it will probably drop again this year because there's no more COVID crisis. So that's just how it works. Not if I can help help it you're going to be out there busting your tail over time doing uber eats and door dash and instacart whatever it takes you're climbing out of this thing and uh i think you're you're not scared of work which is great and uh we got to start with the smallest debt here which it sounds like is this bedroom set yeah yeah i think you just pay it off and if they ever pay you any more for it great

you can apply that don't expect it just don't wait around with it yeah be done with it okay even if it's um zero interest i should pay that one especially if it's zero interest all of it okay we're done with payments we're done with debt you make too much you're too successful and you're too smart to ever do this stuff again, regardless of the interest rate. Does that track, Gabriela? Are you with us on this? Yes. We are Team Gabriela.

And so we want you to win. And that's going to mean you have, you know, if you count up all your debt and if you want to get out of the lease, you can look at the early buyout amount and see if that's going to be worth it for you to do now. Otherwise, you turn the car in and then you need to go get another car. But don't just get another lease. Okay. It's the most expensive way to get a vehicle and dealerships love it because they make the most money off of these leases. Okay, so no more leasing. No more leasing. Buy your next car with cash, which is going to be tough. When is the lease up um in about two more years okay

yeah i would look at the early buyout i would just kind of do some research in that but then in the meantime between now and two years be saving some cash um knowing that you're gonna have to replace this car but i would take yeah this 10 grand gabriella i would pay off the bedroom set. And then be looking at the $18,000 that you'll probably have to take a loan out for for the remainder of that RV after you sell it. Okay. So I shouldn't give it back to the bank and then let them sell it

and then me pay the difference? You're saying to have the RV repossessed? Yes. I wouldn't do that. No, I wouldn't do that because I would go on your credit. I would just find a private sale, list it, sell it yourself, get as much as you can for it, obviously, and then you'll have to have a loan for the difference,

and then you'll be working your way out of that. Okay. I wish we had better news the good news is you make great money you make six figures we've seen bigger scarier numbers than this yeah but it's the hurt and shame and guilt and baggage and oh my gosh i'm so stupid you got to just pick yourself up and go listen that doesn't define me yeah i'm gonna make different decisions. Gabrielle, is it just you? Are you single kids? Yes, it's just me and my two girls. Okay.

So you do have two girls. Okay. How old are they? I have a nine year old and a three year old. Okay. So sweet. That's so great. Okay.

So what you're probably going to be doing, I mean, where you can work extra and even if it's, you know, at night online or something, like if there's like something that you can do to find that extra money. But with this $133,000, I mean, I would act like I would tighten everything up. And I mean, give yourself a goal to say, I'm going to act like I make $70,000 a year or whatever it is. And then find that difference to have an end point to say, okay, I could be completely debt-free, be done with all of this and start fresh, not owing anyone anything and start this whole process.

I'm like, you could do this in 18 months, Gabriella. I mean, if you really focused and did this, the car lease kind of hangs in the balance of what you decide there. But being able to have no payments and this income going to you and your girls and you guys keeping all of it, that's the goal we want for you. Have you been through Financial Peace University? No. Okay. So if you hold on the line, Skylar is going to pick up and we're going to gift that to you

as well as EveryDollar Premium, which is our budgeting app. And so what I want you to do, Gabrielle, is watch these lessons, even binge them. There's going to be seven lessons. And I want you to go through and watch all of this and really get a game plan to say, OK, here is how I take control of my money. And what that's going to teach you is everything from budgeting to getting out of debt to saving up for an emergency fund to investing to your kids college I mean it kind of runs the gamut of everything and it's all packaged in there and so to be able to walk through that and apply this stuff Gabrielle because what you've already

witnessed and experienced is that money it's personal finance it's 80 behavior it's only 20 head knowledge you're going to watch these videos and be like, I knew that. I knew I shouldn't probably co-sign some furniture for a family member. I know that I probably, okay, now, okay. You know, you're going to get all that, but actually changing the behavior and doing it is going to be the key to you winning. And I believe in you. I know you can do this, Gabriella. We're cheering you on.

So hold on the line. Skylar will pick up. That's the theme of this hour. Don't spend money you don't have, especially with people you're not married to. That puts this hour of The Ramsey Show in the books. My thanks to my co-host, Rachel Cruz, all the folks in the booth, and you, America. Thank you so much for listening. We'll be back before you next time.