The Ramsey Show - App - Budget Meetings Keep the Fights Down and the Progress Up (Hour 1)

Episode Date: January 20, 2020

Debt, Retirement, Home Buying, Taxes, Budgeting, Insurance Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR 

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave 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. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. The call is free, so is the advice, and some say it's worth what you paid for it.

So shut up. This is all about you. Thanks for hanging out. 888-825-5225. Tom starts us off this hour in New Hampshire.hire hey tom how are you i'm good dave how are you better than i deserve what's up in your world um i got a retirement question for you um i am a shop teacher of 42 years and i'm approaching retirement and trying to figure out when the best time to retire is um at the end of next year, I will be at the full retirement age for Social Security and also my retirement pension plan.

And my retirement plus Social Security will equal what I make as a regular paycheck. Wow. They say it doesn't pay to keep working. But the thing that I keep thinking about is every year I work, obviously my pension return and my social security will continue to go up, and so will the cost of living. But if I retire right away, then that kind of locks in my income at that point. I also have a remodeling business that I do in the summer that brings in a fair amount of money.

So if I retire, I could do that more. But I am going to be 66 by then, so I don't know how much longer I can do remodeling. But all those factors together, trying to figure out what's the best mix or when I should switch. You know, my grandpa was an accountant at Alcoa Aluminum, and he retired at, I believe he was 65 years old, and he really enjoyed being a general contractor for the rest of his life. That's what he'd wanted to do his whole life. And he took the accounting job because jobs were scarce in the Great Depression, and he was happy to have one.

But, you know, it occurs to me that a shop teacher would make an excellent general contractor meaning you could teach and run subs and not have to swing the hammer yourself i got a friend that's running i got a friend he's not he's not 66 he's not like you and me he's not in his 60s but um but he's in his 40s made $300,000 last year profit on his remodeling business. And he's a GC. He just ran subs. He didn't swing a hammer. Right.

I've thought about that. It's just there's a lot to keeping things running in the background. Like this time of year, I'm doing estimates, so I'm up late a lot of times at night doing that. Yeah, you could run your own estimates, run your own paperwork, run the jobs, but you don't have to swing a hammer which which my case my point is is 66 you don't necessarily want to swing a hammer or be up on a uh for 25 feet in the air with a paintbrush in your hand or something i don't want to be um and so uh uh but you know but you could have a lot of

fun and make more than you make now doing that and still you know just in other words you decide which of the activities you want to do don't want to do how big you want it to be or how big you don't want to be you decide this is your business but i think your summer gig is a real opportunity and you take full pay from the other gig that you've worked at your whole life uh to you know to you eat off of that and then any money you make on the remodeling is just gravy on the biscuit, right? Yeah, well, that's what I've been doing because I love teaching. I still enjoy it. I think you could teach a lot of young guys to trade while they're being your sub.

Well, yeah, I've had a lot of them that have become my subs. Yeah, well, I mean, and my point is that a good GC is not just standing back bossing people. They're teaching and leading the project, the job, through the thing. And you've got a lot of experience doing that. I just think you'd have a lot of fun doing it, it sounds to me like. You do what you want to do. If I woke up in your shoes, this is how I answer questions around here, retirement for me does not mean sit on my butt play golf six days a week and fish

the other three you know or whatever it doesn't what it means to me um and what it means to me is i'm gonna do what i want to do which i started doing about 20 years ago doing what i want to do so you ought to go do what you want to do but it sounds like that would be fun for you oh and by the way it makes a lot of sense financially too So that's a neat one-two punch. But you do what you want to. I think you've been comfortable with the steadiness of the teaching and the idea of running your own business scares you a little bit, which is probably good for your soul at 66.

It's good to be scared every so often. Get out there and do something, man. Hey, I think you can do it. Open phones at 888-825-5225 wow austin's next in texas hey austin how are you hi dave how are you better than i deserve how can i help hi um so i'm 25 and i'm pretty new to your plan and my question today was wondering how because based on your baby steps i'm on step four but i'm putting a lot more into my retirement than what you recommend and i was wondering if i should adjust that to say for a house yes okay um not that you're going to buy a

house in the next 20 minutes but sometimes in the next five years, depending on what happens with your life, you're probably going to buy a house. Agreed? Agreed. The house you buy might depend on whether you're married at that time with a kid. It might depend on whether you're living a single lifestyle and enjoying maybe a condo. I don't know, but you're probably not going to go five years without owning real estate at 25 because you're already financially successful.

Way to go. Touchdown. Thank you. Work worked hard for it yeah i mean you're 25 you're on baby step four that's kicking butt and taking names yes sir so when i'm saving for a house if i don't have a set timeline should i be putting that in a mutual fund type account i probably would i'd probably drop it in an s&p 500 uh you're taking some risk with that it could go down it could go up but'd probably drop it in an S&P 500. You're taking some risk with that. It could go down. It could go up. But when you put it in a savings account at 1%, you're guaranteed to get nothing.

So just be patient when it's there. It's ready. Yeah. It may be down. It may be up a little. But you're not going to lose money on average unless you just pull it out at the exact wrong time three years from now so uh the point is is that you know you put you put 15 20 or 50 000 bucks in there it might move on you five grand one way or the other but you're not going to lose it all and i'm probably playing

the market with just an s&p 500 fund no commissions on that it's a no load fund really just get you a vanguard or something like that that's the standard one and um and you know i'd ride that market a little bit and because you can afford to it's my point it's not like there's a whole bunch of things at risk here you can you can five grand one way or another is not going to bankrupt you because you're doing a great job so a great job by the way wow very Wow. Very impressive. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Your net worth is what you own minus what you owe. Assets minus liabilities equals net worth. So if you have zero debt, your net worth is your assets, right? If everything's paid off. When you have $1 million

in net worth or greater, you are defined as a millionaire. A millionaire is not someone that makes a million dollars a year. The Everyday Millionaire study that came out that we did to do the book with Chris Hogan, Everyday Millionaires. We created an Everyday Millionaire theme hour where we talk to real millionaires that have a real net worth. If that's you, send us an email. We need some folks to come on our next Everyday Millionaire theme hour. Send it to DaveOnAir at DaveRamsey.com. Put millionaire in the subject line and Kelly, I'll line you up to be one of our callers. DaveOnAir at DaveRamsey.com. Okay, I need you to listen to this.

When you're on Wi-Fi anywhere in public or at home, you're at risk of hackers easily seeing every site you visit and search that you're doing online. It doesn't matter if you're on your cell or laptop. Public Wi-Fi is a hacker's paradise. They can see you visiting websites, streaming, downloading, or uploading photos, uploading files, and more. I'm not telling you this to scare you. I don't operate in fear, but I want you to be aware and take action. You need to download an app called CyberGhost VPN on any device you access the internet with. CyberGhost VPN helps you keep your connection on your own Wi-Fi and any public

Wi-Fi secure and private. Over 34 million people worldwide have downloaded CyberGhost VPN. Download it now. Just search CyberGhost on iTunes or Google Play or go to CyberGhost.com. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you are here. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Our question today comes from Blinds.com. Find out for yourself why Blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window covering. You get free samples, free shipping.

And with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use the promo code Ramsey to get the best deal. Dave, my husband and I are starting on our debt snowball. We estimate we can finish it in two and a half years. I'm concerned about the credit card debt as the interest rate's around 17%. Would it be wise to take out a personal loan, which would bear an interest rate of about 5%, to pay off the credit card and work the debt snowball with a lower interest rate debt? You can. You can. So let's pretend, I'll just make up some numbers. You dropped it from 17 to 5, so you dropped it 12.

And let's say you had $10,000 in credit card debt. That'd be $1,200 a year you would save, except that you're paying off the credit card debt during this two years while we're doing this, so you're not going to save $1,200 a year. You're probably going to save an average of more like $600 a year. So we're talking about $1,000 that you save by doing this, which is nice. If you send me $1,000, I'll take it. Nothing wrong with $1,000,

but $1,000 doesn't solve a $10,000 credit card problem. What solves a $10,000 credit card problem is you being pissed off about being in debt and sacrificing everything and living on beans and rice, rice and beans, and start paying the debt off at $1,000, $2,000 a month. In other words, if $1,000 out of $10,000 is the scenario, and I just made up the principal amount because you didn't give that to me, which is fine, but it usually works out about this way, about 10% of you getting out of debt is having a lower interest rate.

About 90% is you. In other words, you are the secret sauce, my man. You are the secret sauce. You are the meat, the pickles, the onions, and the bread. The interest rate's just the wrapper. It's just the wrapper. You are the hamburger. You're the secret sauce. You are the hamburger. You're the secret sauce.

You're the one that does this. You're the answer to the equation. If interest rates were the answer, everybody would figure out a way to borrow their way out of debt, and you can't do that. So nothing wrong with getting a lower interest rate. What happens too often, if I don't frame the narrative this way, is that people feel like when they got a lower interest rate what happens too often if i don't frame the narrative this way is that people feel like when they got a lower interest rate that they did something

and then they don't change any of their habits they don't tighten their belt they keep spending like they're in congress and but i got a lower interest rate it didn't work well of course it didn't work because the problem was not interest rate the problem was you and so you are the solution and take the thousand bucks it'll be nice okay that's fine take a lower interest rate but don't let that feel like you've checked the box that says i did something you check the box that says i did almost nothing now it's still up to me that's the box you checked and that's okay it's okay you can do almost nothing and then you go fix it that's cool hey thank you for the question man it's a good question it comes up often over the last 30 years of doing this skylar is with us in nevada hey skylar welcome to dave Show. Hi, thank you for taking my call. Sure, what's up?

So I just have a question. I know before I even start, I am going to change my withholdings for my taxes. Good. But as of now, we are planning on getting a pretty big refund back. And my question is, should I pay that all, we're in Baby Step 2, towards all of my debt, or should I save that? And my only concern is that my husband isn't as intense as I am, so I'm worried that we're going to pay it off and then get right back into it. I can't fix that part.

My plan does not address you going back into it. My plan addresses the idea that you're going to change your life and never go back. There is no sobriety program or rehab program that accounts for you occasionally still getting drunk. Agreed. That's the problem.

Okay, there's no such thing. This is behavior transformation. It's a decision. I'm not going to live like that anymore. And's a decision. I'm not going to live like that anymore. And you have to decide I'm not going to live like that anymore. And the two of you have to decide. Now, it could be that you're just like me. You're like the super nerd. You're the intense one that loves the numbers and gets after it.

And he's just like, okay, I'll go along. And you kind of wished he'd be a little bit more on fire. Maybe you're not as concerned with him dragging both of you off the wagon into the road again. But if that's going to happen, that's a different issue. That's a marriage issue, and that's your husband issue, and those kinds of things. That's not an issue of what to do with your tax refund. The tax refund just exposes that you need to address the other stuff. Yeah, definitely agree.

Yeah, so get comfortable. You know, the way I might frame it would be this. I would just sit down with Sharon if it was at my house and just go, okay, I've kind of been going along with your lukewarm response to this, and I get it that you're not as on fire as I am. I get it that I'm a super nerd. I get it that I'm the spreadsheet queen. I get it that you roll your eyes on fire as I am. I get it that I'm a super nerd. I get it that I'm the spreadsheet queen. I get it that you roll your eyes a little bit when I say Dave Ramsey.

But you're going along with it. I get it. And I was okay with you just going along with it until I put this tax refund on there. And now it makes me think you're going to drag us off the wagon later. Convince me you're not going to do that. And that'd be a way to start a cool conversation. Maybe a fight, but a cool conversation maybe a fight but a cool conversation yeah and we've been there many of times i've had him listen to you a few times and

he's on board but he's just not in as intense as i am yeah well that's true at my house i'm intense and sharon is enjoying the fruits of it i mean you know she she's um she believes in what we teach and she lives what we teach and she doesn't do it with me commanding or demanding that she do so. She actually believes it. She rolls her eyes when our friends do stupid stuff, you know, all that kind of stuff. So she's on board, but she's never going to be as wired up as I am, and that might just be all you're dealing with, you know. I mean, because the difference in the nerd and the free spirit in the marriage is substantially different.

What's interesting is at Rachel Cruz's house is that way. Winston is more like me and you. He's the one that's death on this stuff. And Rachel's like, you know, lives for experiences. And so, you know, she but she talks about that openly. I mean, it's not like she's hypocritical in her teachings or something, but it's pretty dramatic. So, you know, you kind of identify the differences of the two of you in your marriage, and you just say, hey, that's the part of the fun of the process. So, hey, thank you for the call.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. You guys jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. Emily is with us in Michigan. Hey, Emily, how are you? Hi, Dave, how are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? I was wondering if I could get your advice on how we can pay for our home remodel. We absolutely love where we live, but the house is a little challenging for our family.

The builder said it would cost us about $200,000 to do what we wanted, depending on how fancy we want to get. Good Lord. We were just wondering how would we finance this. Well, the only way I would suggest you do it is by paying cash for it. That's a pretty substantial remodel. What's your current home worth? It's worth about $340,000.

Okay. Well, I've owned over 3,000 pieces of real estate in my life. I own a bunch right now. And the chances of me doing a remodel, the scope of what you're talking about while I live in that house, is zero. You are signing up for hell. That's going to go on for two years while you live with sawdust in everything you eat. Well, we would be moving out. Well, that's a good plus right there.

Then the second thing is there's very few pieces of real estate that are going to justify that ratio of expenditure, meaning it's worth $300 now. You spend another $200 on it. That means it has to be worth $500 plus when you're done. It really ought to be worth $600 or $700. I doubt that seriously. What would it be worth after you're done?

About $650. Who said? We live in a very bought 650. Who said? We live in a very expensive area. Who said? Real estate agent and the builder. Okay. All right. Well, you're basically doing a teardown.

I mean, that's effectively what you're doing. When you spend $200,000 or $300,000 on a house, it's basically a teardown, and you're moving out. So I'd pay cash for it. I wouldn't're moving out so i'd pay cash for it i wouldn't do it but um i'd pay cash for i moved up from where you are or i wouldn't do it that's what we teach here pay cash this is the day ramsey show you Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options?

Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, Thank you. CHM members share to pay each other's medical bills. It's not insurance. It's Christians financially and spiritually supporting each other. It's what Christian Healthcare Ministries has done for over 35 years. And our members have shared over $2.5 billion in medical bills. To learn more, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live, who's with us?

I just looked down at my screen and it's blank. Robert and Cindy are with us. Hey, guys, sorry about that. I'm not a mind reader yet. I've been working on my skills, but they're low. So in the lobby right here on the debt-free screen, Robert and Cindy are with us. Where do you guys live? We live in Louisville, Kentucky.

Awesome. Welcome to Nashville and all the way here to do a debt-free screen. Yes, sir. Very cool. And how much have you paid off? $116,000. Awesome. Very cool. How long did this take? 26 months. Good for you. And your range of income during that two years? So we started out at $105,000 and ended at $159,000. Good. What do you guys do for a living? I'm in the Air National Guard as a captain, a navigator on a C-130. And I'm a registered nurse in the ICU. Very cool.

Great careers, obviously. Very well done. Thank you for your service. Very neat. So what kind of debt was the $116,000 that you did in two years? That's very studly. Yeah. This is the house and everything.

Woo! Looking at weird people. You paid off your house? That's right. How old are you two? 35. And I'm 30. You're so weird.

I love it. Congratulations, guys. What's the house worth? About $216. Wow. It's all yours. That's right. How many 35-year-old friends do you have with a paid-for house?

None? I think we might have one other friend that's got their house paid off right now. Shout out to the Abneys. There you go. Very cool. They were walking this with you then. That's right. Yeah.

Well done, you guys. Well, tell me the story. How in the world do you end up being 35 years old with a paid-for house? What was the journey like? Well, the journey started back in about 2007. I had a lot of All-American debt, just everything you can imagine, single. Worked on getting that paid off. Went through FPU with a local church and drank the Kool-Aid.

So obviously in 2013 when I met Cindy, I wanted to make sure that she'd be on the same page with me and did that by listening to a lot of podcasts on long road trips and the Total Money Makeover audiobook. Yep. He forced me to listen to your podcast over and over and over. Oh, God. And you married him anyway. Yeah, I know. Unbelievable.

It was terrible. Oh, God. And you married him anyway. Yeah, I know. Unbelievable. No, he would play them on long car rides, and I was just like, oh, this guy again. Why? And then finally, over time, I was just like, yeah, you know, this really makes sense. And now we're best friends. Yeah. And I'm the one who initiated us coming here. Oh, I love it. That's fun.

That's full circle. Well, and you have a paid-for house. That's right. Not a bad result to listen to the weird guy on the podcast. So when we got engaged, we decided to take FPU again. And from that point on, we decided to be debt-free, and the Air Force moved us around quite a bit and saved up a big down payment, chunk of money to put on the house.

So we put down $100,000 when we bought the house, and two years, two months later, we got it paid off. Okay. So you were Air Force now, you're Air National Guard? Well, Air National Guard the whole time. The whole time. Okay. Okay.

All right. So that's what you meant by Air Force. Okay. So I'm just making sure you didn't retire from that part and go to the other. I didn't know how that worked. Good. Good for you guys. So when people ask, how did you pay off $116,000 in two years? I mean, that's over $50,000 a year.

Tell them the secret. What did you do? I would say on my end, it's definitely the budgeting. And I'm the nerd, so I kind of make the budget. But I think the big thing is the budget committee meeting, being on the same page with your spouse. That was huge for us, just getting in agreement on what we wanted to do with any extra funds that we had and being comfortable, kept the fights down and the progress moving. Yeah, very cool. So during this 26 months, how long have you all been married?

About three years. Okay, so about 12 months in, you started this, give or take. That's right. And so during the 26 months while you were scraping and scratching and clawing to get this done, what was the hardest part for you all? I would say the hardest part for me was just probably just having to use cash for everything, which, I mean, it's great, but, you know, when you're at the line, it's just kind of hard. It's slower.

It is slower. You know, people get upset behind you. It's not as slow as people using four different credit cards because the other three were denied, but it's slower. It's slower generally, yeah. Yeah. And for me, not getting to go out to lunch with my coworkers as much as I'd like, but you know what? We set a budget for going out to eat and for discretionary spending, and, you know, if it's not in there, we didn't go. Stuck with it. Hmm. Very cool. Very cool. Well, what you've done is really unusual you know that i mean i'm joking around calling you weird

because that's what we always call people when they pay off their house because it's so unusual um how's it feel to not even have is it sunk in what you've done i mean sometimes it has and sometimes it hasn't it just feels weird knowing that the house is ours now. You don't have to worry about that. Ever again. No one's taking it. If there's a foreclosure on your street, it won't be yours. That's just weird.

That grass in the backyard is yours. 100%. There is no stinking countrywide hovering out there somewhere. Just waiting for you to mess up, waiting for a job layoff. I mean, it's a different feeling of peace, isn't it? It is. Yeah. Way to go, you guys.

Very, very well done. Who were your biggest cheerleaders? We had a lot of close family members that were kind of cheerleaders. Not a whole lot of deterrent people, though. We had a lot of cheerleaders on our end. That's good. That's good. Not a lot of whining and telling you you can't do it.

Yeah. That helps. It helps to have people positive around you. And some people have to eliminate some of the negative people around them while they're doing this. It sounds like you had mostly good folks around you. That's awesome. Very cool.

Well, congratulations, you guys. We're very folks around you. That's awesome. Very cool. Well, congratulations, you guys. We're very proud of you. You're heroes. And during this time also, it sounds like you had a little girl. Oh, yeah. So one month after we paid off the house, we had our little baby girl, Evelyn. How perfect. And she is a debt-free baby.

And she has never lived in a house with a mortgage. That's right. We wanted to set her up we want to be able to tell that she'll be able to tell her fiance that someday that's awesome that is so cool did you bring her with you we did she's uh sleeping over on we're gonna leave her you're gonna leave her sleeping okay you don't wake her up all right that's good very cool well congratulations again we're very proud of you we got a copy of chris hogan's book for you everyday millionaires that is definitely the next chapter in your story making 160 000 at 35 years

old with not a payment in the freaking world you're so weird i love it yeah robert and cindy Yeah! Robert and Cindy from Louisville, Kentucky. Paid off their house and everything at 35 years old, making $159,000. Paid off $116,000 in 26 months. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream! Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah! Yeah! Oh my goodness.

Can you imagine what a $2,000, I'll round up, house payment invested from age 35 to age 65 in a decent growth stock mutual fund would become? Can you imagine how much money that would become? Let me help you with this. It's over $10 million. If they just invest a house payment from now until retirement, and that's all they do, and they'll do more than that. Oh, by the way, they never get a raise during that time.

They just invest a house payment from now until retirement. They'll have $10 million. That's the power. That's the power of having no debt. The rich rules over the poor. And the borrower is slave to the lender. What would it be like to have no payments? breathe that in baby no payments this is the Dave Ramsey Show One of my favorite parts of this show is hearing your debt-free screams. You guys are our heroes.

You've kicked debt to the curb and you've saved for the future. Now we want to celebrate with you. If you have lived like no one else and are currently in baby steps four through seven, well, it's time to enjoy some money. And the perfect place to do that is on board our first ever live like no one else cruise in March. That's right, just a couple of months away. But get this, it's not too late to book your cabin, so don't miss your chance. This Caribbean cruise is going to be an incredible seven days at sea on a stunning new ship with amazing experiences. I'm talking all of our Ramsey personalities and other world-class entertainers.

We're stopping in the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, and Turks and Caicos. It's going to be an amazing, debt-free celebration designed just for you. Don't miss the boat. Head over to RamseyCruise.com today to reserve your room. Andrea is in Georgia. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Andrea. Hi, Dave. Thank you for taking my call. Sure.

What's up? I had a question regarding life insurance. My husband's a federal worker and is covered by his FERS retirement plan. However, I didn't know if something were to happen, if I needed to put in place some life insurance policy, just in case. On you or on him? For him, not me. Okay.

Yes. The reason is if you leave your job, you cannot take life insurance with you. It is not portable. Okay. And if he were to have a diabetes or cancer or heart scare and then leave the job, he might not be insurable. And you'd have no life insurance. So does FERS include a life insurance policy? Not positive. Don't know.

But even if it does, I would still make sure that you have some life insurance outside of work always because of what I just described happening. You don't want that to happen. And he should have a total of 10 to 12 times of his income on him. If some of that is at work, that's not the end of the world. But if it's all at work, that's dangerous because of what I just described. You could end up in a situation where you're not insurable and don't have any life insurance because of a job change.

And that might even keep you from taking a positive job change because you're stuck in that situation. So that's what you want to look at there. Rachel is with us. Rachel is in Michigan. Hi, Rachel. How are you? Hi.

Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. What's up? I was calling because we are struggling to even get that $1,000 into our starter emergency fund. We are struggling to even stay current on a lot of our bills. So we're just kind of wondering, should we focus on the $1,000 emergency fund? Should we, do we get current first?

We're just kind of- How far behind are you? We're not, right now we're not behind on anything because thanks to reading the total money makeover uh we realized we were paying for two auto policies one in the state we previously lived in um and then the one we live in right now um and so we are actually current today it's just very tight well it's we're only current because we got a refund Next month, I don't think we'll be able to pay Okay

All of our bills Then something's got to go, doesn't it? But we don't know what to go Because we paid off our cars You have zero car debt And so what is your household income? So we bring in $70,000 Okay, so where is $70,000.

Okay. So where is $70,000 going to where you're completely broken in the hole? So we have $182,000 in debt. On what? We have $150,000 in student loans, both undergrad and graduate school. We have a little bit of credit card and then a lot of medical. We have two daughters with serious medical needs that we need to pay weekly. So we have a co-pay weekly and we're still paying for other hospitals. What is the nature of their medical condition?

So one of them has a heart and kidney issue. So she has to have blood pressure checks and regular appointments there. Our other daughter had a stroke and she has a tumor disorder. And so because of her stroke, we do weekly physical therapy and then because of the tumor disorder and the stroke she has seven different specialists that we see on the regular. My goodness. So we have a lot of medical beds. Is that your only two children?

No, we have one more child but she is healthy. You guys have had your plate full. I'm so sorry. Wow. How much is your house payment or your rent? No, our house payment is $1,300 a month. $1,500. $1,300.

Oh, $1,300. Okay. Yes. And what does your husband do, and what's his master's in? So he works in finance, but his master's is in human resources. He is, yeah, when we moved, he was able to find a job in finance, and so he's been working in that. And I'm guessing with all of these medical trips that you're taking care of the kids, right?

No, I'm actually a full-time teacher. Oh, wow. Yeah, and so I use my sick days, and so does he, to do all of the medical trips. And then we do a lot of them after work. So as soon as I get out of work, I rush, pick up our kids, and then run to the hospital. Yeah. Okay. All right.

Let's, um, prioritize if nothing else, number one, you've got to be on a written budget planning each month before the month begins. And in a coming, in a coming 30 days, you do know what your medical is going to look like in the coming 30 days. Okay? Yeah. And so your detailed written budget that the two of you are on is absolutely vital. The second thing then is once you do that, we prioritize. Food is first. Not eating out, not a bunch of fatigue food, but food is first. This family eats.

The second thing is lights and water. You should never be behind on those two. You have plenty of money. and water you should never be behind on those two you have plenty of money yes you should never be behind on those two the third thing is shelter you should never be behind on your house payment right your house payment's not out of line um the uh the no so food, transportation, utilities, keeping the cars running, and they're paid for, you told me, right? Yes, they're paid for. We actually heard about you last spring, and so as soon as we heard about you, we got rid of our expensive car, and we went and got a $7,000 car, and so now we have zero car payment.

You'd be sunk if you hadn't done that. You'd be in a mess. So once you've done those things, then the next priority is the medical because you have to keep these providers paid to be able to keep the help coming for your babies. And we have to do that. But food, shelter, clothing, transportation, utilities, and basic medical is absolutely vital. Okay.

Then from there, the credit cards and the student loans, if something has to get behind, it needs to be the student loans. Okay. And call some of them and put them on hardship deferral. Now, that's your short-term plan, and my guess is the more you live to tighten the budget, and you tighten the budget in order to make it for a while, in order to maintain for a while, then you start to see his income come up because my guess is he's not making any money. If you're a teacher and the household income is 70, he's not making any money. He's not making very much, no.

And he did get a second job because we read the total money makeover in December. And so he went and got a second job. And as soon as the summer comes up, I was going to get a second job as well. I think you can do some tutoring and make more than anything else you could possibly do. But the answer to your equation is for him to get a career because he's making he's making 15 20 000 a year right uh well he's bringing in that much yeah yeah the gross is a little bit higher but yeah yeah but he's not making any money he's got a master's degree in hr i mean yeah he should be making more than you're making. I agree.

We're hoping he will soon. And that's the, you know, either there's a tremendous upside to what he has now and he gets that moving or he changes and, you know, develops his career. So that's your long-term answer. And you tread water taking care of necessities and babies first until then. Okay. And so I know there's a lot of stress with what you're facing, but you've made the right choices. You take care of your babies. Those little girls just need you to be able to do all this stuff,

and you've been a great mom and a great dad. But the mathematical answer is more income in your equation, and that's from his career expanding to what it should have been all along. And you already knew that, but that's what I'm here for. I state the obvious, but I understand what you're facing. We'll be praying for you, kiddo. This is the Dave Ramsey show. Hey, it's Kelly associate producer and phone screener for the Dave Ramsey show. This episode is over, but if you heard about a product or service and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry. We list everything that is mentioned during this episode in the podcast show notes section.

Thanks for listening.