The Ramsey Show - App - Congrats, You Got Evicted From Hell! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: February 20, 2023

Dave Ramsey & George Kamel answer your questions and discuss:  What to do with a severance payout after a layoff, from the blog: What to Do if You’re Laid Off, "Our daughter just got pregnant; should we help her financially?" Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Take our FREE 3 minute assessment: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods moving and storage studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. The phone number is 888-825-5225. If you want to talk, the call is free, and some say the advice is worth exactly what you pay for it. 888-825-5225. George Camel, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today, and Drew is going to start off this hour in Chicago. Hi, Drew. How are you?

I'm good, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I've been part of the recent big tech layoffs. I recently have been notified of a severance payout that's going to be happening on the 1st of next month. And I just want to be a good steward of that income while I'm in my search for my next opportunity to move forward with my career.

That's awesome. So you got evicted from hell. I did. It was like the second favor that I've been given. It's my second lap I've gone through. Yeah, that's awesome. And they're going to pay you to leave. I love this. How much are're going to pay you to leave. I love this.

How much are they going to pay you to leave? It is $22,300. Nice signing bonus for the next deal. Agreed. What do you do? Software sales, so market development, and account executive is kind of my focus with small to medium-sized businesses. It sounds like you'll have a job like yesterday, basically, in that field.

Yeah. Have you started looking already? What's your plan as far as career goes now? Yeah, so great question. I've been approached by a few different tech companies, and there is a little bit of apprehension there. So I want to make sure that I ask the right questions during those interviews and to see what the future lies for those companies and to make sure they have the proper headcount and to really stay long-term with a company that I truly enjoy working with.

And I have two interviews lined up Friday and then one initial interview from a different company on Wednesday. So three total this week. So just been trying to organize and Excel documents on where my status is on each company that I interview with. And just to get a base plan going. So I have a plan to have something, have some income for, you know, the month to come. Yeah, way to go.

That's where I'm at. Yeah, that's awesome. Way to go. Well played. You're playing this right. You didn't freeze like a deer in the headlights and didn't question your own sanity. Instead, you went right to work replacing the gig.

And when you get the new gig, it does turn the $22,000 into a signing bonus effectively, right? Yep. Good job. Yeah, do you need the money?, it does turn the $22,000 into a signing bonus effectively, right? Yep. Good job. Yeah. Do you need the money? Do you have an emergency fund? I do.

I recently opened a high-yield savings because I want to keep some liquidity during this time. But the only debt that I have is my mortgage. I'm currently driving my grandmother's old car, rest her soul. It's about to have the wheels fall off. What do you make? Before I was let go, I made $72,000 my first year. What will you make this year with this new gig? Probably more, right?

More than likely. That's still a little bit of unknown yeah obviously you hadn't landed it but i mean the marketplace for what you're doing is probably more like 100 isn't it yeah for like on target earnings i mean i'm looking for like a base of at least like 60 and you sound like you're single with the words you're using are you single uh i am single but i've been uh with my ladies for about two and a half years now how old are you to have her in my life i am 33 okay i would buy a car with the money not necessarily a 22 000 car but it sounds like you're driving a freaking hoopty

and you're making a hundred grand and i think you need to move up okay is that okay i'm not trying to insult your grandmother or anything but no no you're driving a two thousand dollar car aren't you pretty much and you make a hundred k and you got no debt but your mortgage correct yeah you need a ten thousand dollar car okay yeah just no i'm not i'm not suggesting you go buy a freaking Ferrari, okay? But I would move up a little bit, and then I'm talking about paying off the mortgage past that. Or if I need to do some other miscellaneous purchase, how much money have you got in savings?

Right now, it's about $15,000. Okay. Yeah, you may want to beef that up a little bit to have a little better emergency fund than that. So I'm probably throwing about $12,000 on that and about $10,000 towards the car if I'm you. What do you think, George? Yeah. And if you look at your budget, if you're doing a monthly budget, look at three to six months. My guess is it needs to lean closer to $20,000 in that emergency fund.

And then whatever's left, get yourself a good, reasonable-use car. And then you want that emergency fund until you land this next gig because we don't know hopefully you land it this week well i wouldn't buy anything until you land the gig but i think you're gonna land the gig before the other one's up and celebrate effectively become a signing bonus and you get a raise moving into the next thing so yeah i meant to ask him which big tech fired and i don't know if he was willing to mention i was willing to trash him does it it start with a G? Oh, well. Just go by letters. It's in Chicago.

So we were just in Indy. I guess Salesforce is based in Indy. Yeah. Yeah, I've been to conferences out there when I was back in the marketing days. Okay. All right. Because they had a huge tower that said Salesforce on it. Yeah, was it? I didn't ever ask anybody in Indianapolis if that was the main office, but I suppose it is.

So he's in Chicago, so it's not Salesforce. We know they've laid off a bunch of was that like 12 000 over at salesforce i know it's somewhere in that dump a bunch of them in the street trying to get stock well the good news is these people are highly qualified highly talented highly sought after oh and so the the goal is they land something real quick if you if you're in that position yeah there's but there's the layoffs are out there man it's real and uh so here's here's we got just a second but here's what drew did right okay he didn't take big tech uh throwing him in the street as a personal identity crisis i'm not good i'm not worthy i'm a bad person i'm not i'm not good enough to keep i'm yesterday's refuge to throw out to the curb he instead he went oh this is big tech they're

stupid and i'm i'm gonna roll with this and i'm gonna land uh with my skill set in something that pays me as much or more before my gig here is up and the signing, the severance that they give me effectively becomes a signing bonus to the next gig, but all because of his attitude, he just positioned himself went, Oh, okay,

I need to go make us. I'm a sales guy. I need to go make a sale. And the new sale is my next gig. And I'm going to start calling on customers and I'm going to develop a spreadsheet, my customer list, and I'm going to work that thing. And I'm going to figure out which one, and I'm going to develop a spreadsheet, my customer list, and I'm going to work that thing,

and I'm going to figure out which one I want to be at. Boy, that's a – because too many times people get knocked out of the saddle and they lay in the mud and cry, you know, for about four weeks, and they give up their chance, and that's human nature. It's okay if you cry. It hurts when you get knocked out of the saddle. It pisses you off, hurts your feelings, everything else, and you just lay around whining about it, and that's normal.

I do the same kind of stuff, but the guys like him that kind of land on their feet and then go do this, it changes the economics of the situation by $25,000 or $30,000. And having no debt also, it makes the tears go away a lot faster when you don't have to worry about your payments to those lenders the next month. Yeah, that's a good point. He put himself in a great spot. They're tears of joy. That's right.

See ya. Wouldn't want to be ya. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. george camel ramsey personality is my co-host today in the lobby of ramsey solutions on the debt-free stage jordan and alissa are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Wonderful. How are you? Better than I deserve. Where do you guys live?

Minneapolis, Minnesota. Oh, I was just there. Got home last night. Awesome. Spoke up there at a church this weekend on Saturday and Sunday at River Valley. It was a good place. We had a great time. So how much debt have you guys paid off?

$97,731. We also cash flowed about $60,000 during that time. Okay. How long did this take? About five years. All right. And your range of income during that time? Starting at $65,000, ending at about $99,000.

Okay, cool. What was the $98,000 in debt? It was our house. Oh, look at the weird people. Yes, you are. How old are you two we are 30 years old you're not allowed to have a pay-for house that young you did it's against the law it's against the law you're not allowed to do that the house police are going to come way to go guys that's amazing what's this house worth uh 300. I love it. You're so weird.

This is great. All right. What was the $60,000 you cash flowed during this time? Well, the house that we bought was a total fixer-upper house. She reluctantly agreed to getting it, but it's what we could afford. So the upstairs needed to be completely remodeled. The downstairs was unfinished. Vehicles, we've got four kiddos over here.

Cash flowed them. Our garage, actually, we ended up needing to raise the garage so the vehicles fit in it. Oh, there's that. A lot of things. Was it a short garage or a tall vehicle? Short garage. Wow. In the 60s, yes.

Oh, my goodness. Wow. Good for you guys. Yeah. Speaking of weird, that's actually where I first got connected with you. I was living in California at the time, and Craig Groeschel did a series on weird, how to be weird. And you came on and talked about how to be weird with your finances. And ever since then, I thought, you know what?

I want to be wealthy someday. That's how I want to do finances. Fast forward to 2012, because I was living in California. I came home to Minnesota, and I met Alyssa. And we decided, you know what? We're going to do this long-distance relationship while I'm living out there. So I remember exactly where I was standing one time in California. I was like, you know what?

We should probably talk about this money thing, this debt thing. So I called her, and I said, what do you have for debt? Do you have any debt? And to be truly honest with you, I had no idea how much debt I had. I had student loans and then I also had credit cards. And where I come from, my family finances are very private. So to be super transparent, I sat in on your business and I hung up on you. Good answer. Good answer. So I realized, transparent, I said none of your business, and I hung up on you. Good answer.

Good answer. So I realized, okay, well. You're going to have to earn some more stripes before you ask this question, buddy. This is a baseline. We can only go up from here. So I felt like, you know, the Lord still wanted me to marry her. I was very strong about that. So anyways, fast forward to 2013.

I was going to be moving back to Minnesota, finished out school. And Alyssa came out, she flew out, we packed up my paid for Mustang GT, and I bought a used set of Total Money makeover discs. I figured what better time to be trapped in a car and listen to some Dave Ramsey on the way home and get on the same page. So that's what we did. and we're on our way home. And, you know, it was actually really good. We got to talk about our dreams and really the why behind the what. And that's when we learned, hey, someday we want to be able to save up and buy a house.

Someday we want to have kids, that sort of thing. And so – Yeah, and I'll just add, too, that I shared it was really important to me to be able to stay at home when we did have kids. Yeah. Yep. So we got home. I sold the two sports cars that I had and the motorcycles and the toys. And we said, you know what? Let's pay off. Once we figured out how much debt she had,

let's pay it off and start from a clear slate. So that was 2013. We got married. And then Alyssa's parents were gracious enough to let us live with them while we tried to get on our feet, tried to save up for a house one day. And during that period, we had our first kid, cash flowed all that. And then 2015 came when we finally bought our first house, which was a total fixer upper home. And I'll never forget it. We didn't have a bunch of money to fix up the house. And so I was doing a lot of the remodeling myself and one day Alyssa came over and handed me this little shirt that said big brother meaning we were having another kid on the way which was somewhat planned but uh it was just a lot a lot of new stuff his first response was I better get back to work better get back to work yep so um so then we had our other kid in

2016 so we had two boys and we're like Lord, eventually it would be nice to have a girl. So we decided three and we're done. We're going to have three kids and we're going to be done. Sure you are. Yep. So 2017 comes and we started to finally be able to pay a little bit extra on our house. Maybe $100 here, $100 there. We're trying for our third kid.

We end up going to the doctor and finding out we're having twins. So put everything on pause again. So although it was five years, there was a lot of life happening. That's a lot of cash flowing. You said you cash flowed the kids, and I went, so what? You did cash flow them. Okay, I get it. We cash flowed the kids.

So that's, you know, turned our life upside down. It's like, like okay we really need to finish our basement now we had basement that took on water so we had to do drain tile we had to put an egress window fix the gradient around the house buy a new vehicle newer vehicle raise the garage so we could fit in it what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is this is an amazing story yeah i think the biggest thing is contentment. We paid our house off in October 2022. And we had the opportunity to be in Florida together, just the two of us. And we were sitting on the beach and we were just reflecting the last several years. And I was like, do you recall

anything? And we really said no to. And we're like, you know, we can't really think of anything. And we just, we were just so thankful because we just really felt like it was always a yes if it was important. But maybe it wasn't this month. Maybe it wasn't this season. But it was a yes. And it was penciled in. And then we would have our game plan. And we would just always be really thankful and content in that way.

That was a big piece. You know, this whole time, we tithed, too. We never didn't tithe. So we tithed through the whole thing. And, you know, October 22, 2022, we finally made our last payment and we even had our email was Brinkman 22. Our mortgage login was Brinkman 22 because that was always our goal from the beginning. It was a bittersweet month. We lost Alyssa's dad that month, which was really sad and a lot of good things happening,

a lot of bad. And, you know, and we're also had the biggest increase that we've ever had too. So we're projected to make a lot more now this year. Of course you are. The significant amount in the years to come too. So it's really cool. We've got a really good foundation to kind of build off of. Well, you guys have been so faithful and intentional while most people are sleepwalking and just floating through life. You guys went, what if we actually worked together? And what you found was that life doesn't slow down. And so most people are going, well, I'll just wait till life's crazy right now.

Let's have the kids. Then we'll focus on this get out of debt thing. But you guys were just steady the entire time wildlife was happening. And I just commend you for that. What an impressive couple. Very well done, guys. Great job. Who was cheering you on?

I would say our parents were the biggest one. Yeah. Friends. We had awesome friends. They were like, we don't know really what you're doing, but you got this. Well, now they're wondering. I think you're crazy, but you're really good at it. They don't have a mortgage payment.

Maybe we should look into that. Yeah, I think it was until then. Then they realized, hmm, maybe you guys were serious, and now there is something to that. So, you know, and the big thing, too, is having our kids, we wanted to really focus on changing our family tree financially, but also, you know, instilling in them contentment and thankfulness along the way. We live an extravagant life in this country and just instilling that into them. And, you know, in this next season, we definitely want to get a new house at some point.

We don't know when or where. And we would like to hit the millionaire mark inside of 10 years by the time we're 40 so way to go hey we got the live and give bundle for you let's bring the kiddos on up the total money makeover book for you to give away a baby steps millionaire book to read because you're almost one now and of course a one-year membership to financial peace university you can either use it or you can give it away what are their names and ages yeah so we've got the oldest here jackson he's nine samuel six and we've got the twins oliver and abby and they're four buddy all right 98 000 plus 60 000 cash flowed all in five years house everything, 30 years old while having four kids. It can be done, ladies and gentlemen, making $65 to $99.

Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Way to go you guys This is how it's done ladies and gentlemen Wow This is the Ramsey Show Субтитры подогнал «Симон» where did you find that george camel ramsey personality is my co-host that was direct to the booth dudes who picked

out some strange bump music there george that's a new one i know them all i think the price is right one dollar bob it's like a hip game show i would love to see when the price is right dave it's not too late i don't know i'm stuck on an elevator i don't know what happened all right up next is jacklyn in San Antonio. Hey, Jacqueline, how are you? Hi, guys. I'm well. Thank you.

Better than we deserve. Good. How can we help? You didn't even ask, but I answered anyway. What's up? Hey, you know, I already knew the answer. I'm on autopilot, Jacqueline. How can we help?

I have a beautiful, responsible 19-year-old daughter who lives with us and is about to make me a grandmother. I know it's funny I said responsible first, right? Except for that one time, yeah. Yeah, okay. My question, well, financially responsible, hardworking, excellent work ethic, and morally sound. Um, my question is how much should I be helping her throughout this pregnancy and throughout the first month? Um, it was obviously unplanned. Um, and she's had a hard time with processing the whole thing and she is now unable to work. So I'm, I'm just kind of looking to you. Um, it was sort of a light came on as I was driving and listening to you. So I'm just kind of looking to you. It was sort of a light came on as I was driving and listening to you, and I thought, I respect Dave's answers, so let's run it by him.

Well, I appreciate that. Sometimes when I'm facing something like that that is a little bit ethically or morally or I don't even know, those aren't the right words, relationally overwhelming, it helps me to say not what is the right answer today, but what do I do today that is the right answer for 10 years from now? Exactly. Because we have a strong foundation with our kids of teaching them financial responsibility. You know, we go by years for years from now. Exactly. Because we have a strong foundation with our kids of teaching them financial responsibility.

You know, we go by years for years and years. And so what you've got is, I mean, obviously a baby is an awesome, wonderful thing, particularly grandbabies. If I'd have known how great grandbabies were going to be, I'd have been nicer to their parents. So, you know, all of that part is wonderful. So this is a bad metaphor but i would

almost say what if she had a car wreck and couldn't work she she she ran a red light it was her fault and then she got hurt right that's not a really good metaphor because it's not as babies are much sweeter than that right but um but. But, I mean, that's kind of how I think I probably would look at it. I'm just thinking like a grandpa right now or like a dad. And that's where my brain is stuck. This is not a 39-year-old who's done heroin for 15 years and hates me. This is a 19-year-old that messed up, made a mistake, that otherwise has led a pretty good life

is what you're describing to me. That's correct, yeah. When our kids graduate high school. Thank God God didn't throw all of us out in the ditch the first time we made a mistake. So I got lots of grace and mercy in this situation. If it's me, I'm just going to take care of her like she's 17. Yeah. going to take care of her like she's 17 yeah and then but but all with the idea that we're going to lead towards uh a sustainable answer when she's 25 so what's sustainable for her when she's 25

well obviously financial responsibility career responsibility mommy responsibility living on her own and sustaining and developing a life whether she does that as a single mom or later on gets married to someone right you mind if i add one more thing in okay um when they graduate high school we have them pay us rent immediately and the thing is their grades stay up in college when they graduate they get all that money back so it's basically savings if they don't we keep it yeah um she was able to, in school, pay us rent $5 a month, and she also saved $6,000 working full-time in six months. So she has $7,000 in her savings account.

And really my question was, do I even let her touch that? No. Are you guys okay financially, you and your husband? We are. We're debt-free besides our house. This is not a financial lesson. I'm loving my daughter through a very, very tough time. She had a car wreck.

That's very validating. That's what I would do. I'm pretty hardcore on tough love as they call it uh but this is not tough love this is not a time for that for me for me this is a little scared pregnant girl and i'm gonna put my arms around her i'm a lover she's mine and we're gonna get her through this but all not with the idea that she lives in your basement till she's 39 but the idea that she's gonna because you gave her some room here to heal and to not heal, but to go through this process. Well, and heal.

It's been traumatic, I'm sure. Yeah. And so to go through and get back on her feet emotionally, relationally, make better choices going forward. This is not a pattern that represents her life. And so let's get back on that track that she was on. And then you've got a 25-year-old that's an amazing human being. It's an amazing mom, and everybody's happy and proud. Again, I'm not enabling into the distant future, but on the short term here, I'd just completely take care of her,

as if she was in ICU or something. What do you think, George? Yeah, I'm with that. And I'm also wondering, you said she's unable to work. Is that just a short-term thing? What does that look like? It is. She developed a pregnancy disease around five to six weeks in her pregnancy before she could even process. And she became so sick that she was hospitalized. The good news is that it does go away the moment she delivers. And she's managed it now. The hospitalization helps them to manage her sickness. And so she is medicated and she's managed at this point and able to function.

But it's very unpredictable, so she's not able to get another job. Yeah. This is a 19-year-old and a baby. Yeah. Take care of her. Just take care of her. Yeah. That's what I would do. And that's her. Just take care of her. Yeah.

That's what I would do. And that's exactly what I'm going to do. Okay. You're a good mom. You've got a good heart. And you're not, you know, you've raised a, I know you're tough because you raised a kid that has work ethic. You raised a kid that's making, you're making her pay rent. You raised a kid that did this and that and this and that.

And, you know, so you're not a pushover and abler mom. I don't think. I didn't hear that. Well, I think that's where it goes into the long-term ramifications. If this is still a decade from now and we're still living like this in the basement, that's where we need to go. We need to have an exit strategy out of this,'s 31 years old and does this and is belligerent and says, if you don't help me, you'll never see your grandkid and all that kind of stuff. I have a completely different reaction to that person than I do this 19-year-old kid. And if you're 19 and you don't like me calling you a kid, I got socks older than you, so just calm down. That's the deal.

That just means I love you is all that means it doesn't mean that i'm putting you down but i got a little more rings around the tree so a nice way a little more age going here so uh you know that that's the thing so you know what you're looking for in relational things period but certainly in financial relational things is you're looking for patterns, not singular events. And patterns cause you to endorse a situation or to avoid a situation. And that keeps you from becoming an enabler if you're wandering out there and you're a mom and a dad. So if you've got a 37-year-old that lives in your basement and will not work, that's

a pattern. You need to kick said butt into the street because you're not a blessing to them. You are a curse to them. You are an enabler. You have stolen their dignity, the dignity of autonomy, the dignity of standing on your own, the dignity of hard work, the dignity of killing something and dragging it home. The only thing they know how to do is play Nintendo, and it's your fault.

You should be ashamed. That's a different pattern for moms and dads. And we got that out there because we got a group of males that aren't yet men that are stuck in their mommy's basement, and mommy's still doing their dadgum laundry. And if you don't like that, that's okay. Get you a show. This is mine. So that's how this works.

Wow. Well, nothing will turn you into an adult like having a baby. So the maturity, we just hit the fast forward button right there. Just getting a puppy will do it. My gosh, a baby. Woo. That'll push it right there. This is the ramsey show សូវាប់ពីបានប់ពីបានប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពី George Campbell Ramsey personality is my co-host on the debt free stage kade and mckinsey are with us

hey guys how are you we're great how are you guys doing better than we deserve welcome where do y'all live twin falls idaho oh cool welcome to nashville and how much debt have you paid off we paid off 227 000 uh 199 and 94 cents whoa good for you and how long did this take nine months nine months yeah what do you guys make uh we started at 155 000 ended the year at 188 000 okay what What do you all do for a living? I'm a physical therapist and part owner in my company. And I'm a program coordinator at a hospital in community health.

Very cool. So you did not make $227,000 during the nine months. So something must have been sold to accomplish this. What was it? It was a house. Sold your house? Yes. Okay. So where are you living? We bought another house. Okay right so with the uh raise with covid uh all the house prices stuff like that we sold our house for uh 350 000 paid off 147 000 of that mortgage bought 170 000 house remodeled

it cash flowed that so that helped us quite quite a bit with getting rid of the mortgage part and then a little bit extra for the debt. Okay, so did you clear the house? Yeah. So your house is debt-free as well? Yep. Okay, I was trying to follow that math. Yeah, good.

Wow. Incredible. So you sold a house and that enabled you to buy a fixer-upper for cash and pay off all your debt. Well. Did I get that right? Yeah.

So the house sale got rid of the mortgage and bought the house and gave us $30,000 to pay off $78,000 of our consumer debt. Got it. Okay. And then you cash flowed a bunch of it. Okay. Yep. All right.

Way to go, you guys. Thank you. How long have y'all been married? We got married in august we're newlyweds oh my goodness so the first the first order of business is all this uh all this you know hide the p under the shell right we start moving everything around we're gonna get all this straightened out so what what got you guys so motivated right into marriage yeah i think for us we really just wanted to start a marriage where and our relationship just long term where finances

weren't ever something we fought about or um you know something that we struggled over um we really wanted that to just not be an issue at the table so that was like our first big why and then also just given my physical disability being a paraplegic, knowing we don't want insurance to dictate what I can have medically long term. To say, you can only get a new wheelchair every five years. Like, now we can just buy me a wheelchair whenever we want. Whatever we need to do. You're in control. How long have you been in the chair?

Almost 16 years now. Oh, okay. What happened have you been in the chair? Almost 16 years now. Oh, okay. What happened? I was in a car accident when I was 15. Oh, wow. Okay. All right. Very cool.

And who's the service dog? What's his name? This is Price, like a price tag, which is kind of fitting. So we brought him. Yeah, I guess. Beautiful pup. Good lab, huh? Yeah.

Good boy. All right. So what was the consumer debt on this? So we had a car that was $5,600, and then my business loan to buy and do my partnership at the physical therapy clinic was almost $73,000. Wow. Yeah. And it's paid off.

Does it make the business partnership different now? Yeah. Yeah. It's one of those things instead of worrying about getting rid of my debt for that, it's how can I make my employees thrive? How can I help them reach this status and feel this free? That's amazing. It changes your position as a leader when you have no masters. Yes.

Yeah. So what hooked you up to the Ramsey way? Well, I've... I'll let you start. I've read your book before. It was handed to me by my brother and his wife. She ended up becoming a financial coach through Ramsey. And so when we first started this, we're like, hey, let's call her and have her help us get our finances together the right way because we didn't know how to do that so that was the beginning of that that's pretty cool that that's a an interesting dynamic for your sister-in-law

and your future sister-in-law to be speaking into your money that requires a certain amount of trust to her obviously but a humility on your part too yeah no she was great and i think for me i read rachel cruz's book i'm definitely more of the free spirit and um that way he's definitely the saver but um she really just helped us get on the same page with the budget and really giving every dollar a place and that that helped me a ton just thinking about like the budget is actually me telling how we're gonna to spend our money. And so having Macy by our side to just kind of like really understand how the Ramsey plan works and like going through that process was a game changer. So we appreciate those coaches. Was she your biggest cheerleader?

Were there, there are any others on this journey for you guys? Oh yeah, there was, there was a lot of cheerleaders. Um, people at work, friends, friends. Family was a big one, both our parents and helping us with the remodel because we just did all the work ourselves. We'd tell people what we're doing. They're like, really? Okay. Good for you. So how old are you two?

31, both of us. How does it feel to be completely free? Fantastic. Yeah, it feels good i think um it was interesting right when we started in january we became emergency guardians to my eight-year-old nephew and kind of parents overnight and it kind of felt like a roadblock at first but um i think if anything it just got us more focused and taught us the value of like what this can do for us long term for our family. And it was tough, but it's definitely it's definitely worth it.

Your quote, live like no one else now so you can live like no one else later, was we have it on a big whiteboard with our goals. And it's just really kept us gazelle intense. So, yeah, you guys are a power couple without a doubt you're amazing way to go so proud of you thank you good work good work good work all right we got the live and give bundle for you the financial peace or the total money makeover book the baby steps millionaires book both number one bestsellers and of course a one-year membership to financial peace university if you've done all of those or read all of them, give them to somebody and help them. That's what they're for, the Live and Give Bundle.

So I'm very proud of you guys. You're an amazing, amazing couple. Cade and Mackenzie at Twin Falls, Idaho. $227,000 paid off in the first nine months of marriage at 31 years old. That's house and everything. Shut up. $155,000 to $188,000 income. Count it down.

Let's hear a debt-free scream. All right. Three, two, one. We're debt-free. Yeah. That's how it's done. I wanted the service dog to bark. if price could have barked during the debt-free scream and excitement that would have been it would have been making history

you know i think price is on the job i don't think i don't think he's gonna be a true professional except just taking care of miss mckinsey that's the plan right what an amazing couple wow very good stuff very cool hey guys the point of these debt-free screams is to remind all of you and there's thousands of them now on youtube literally thousands that we we meet people that have come back from the edge of suicide they've come back from cancer they've come back from divorce. They've come back from divorce. Prison. They've come back from losing a job. They've come back from every possible addictions. We've come back from every possible thing that life can throw at humans.

And in the midst of coming back from those things, also decide we're going to get our finances right. We're going to get our life where we don't have the weight around our neck, where we can't breathe at night. I remember when I was broke, George, and couldn't pay my bills. You wake up in the middle of the night and feel like some 300-pound man standing on your chest. That's not how you're supposed to live. That's not how your heart's supposed to feel. It's not the way you're designed.

So pay the price. Do whatever it takes to get free. And then come over here, hang out at Ramsey, and we'll put you on the debt-free stage and celebrate your victory because you're victorious. You're a victor. Well, and there's so many reasons and excuses people have out there more than ever of why they can't.

And what's amazing to me is when you realize it may not all be your fault, but it is your responsibility. The day you realize that is the day you can begin to take control. Man, good one-liner. Thank you. If Twitter was real, we could put that on Twitter. I'd tweet it, but it would just go into the abyss of negativity. Yeah, it would just be sucked into the black hole. Oh, well. Hey, it was good on the air, though. Thank you. Good job. Good hour. That puts us out of the Ramsey Show in the books. Hey, George Camel here. If you love the show and you want a deeper dive on your money journey, we've got a weekly newsletter that gives you helpful articles and tips on following the Ramsey way. Just go to RamseySolutions.com today to sign up for the newsletter.

Again, that's RamseySolutions.com to sign up for our weekly newsletter.