The Ramsey Show - App - Control the Controllables, Don’t Wait for Washington To Save You (Hour 1)

Episode Date: June 28, 2024

from Ramsey Network you're listening to the Ramsey Show I'm your host Jade Warshaw joined by your other host Dr. John Deloney we're taking calls for the next couple of hours about your life and your money. So give us a call. The number is 888-825-5225. And we will get into it. We'll get knee deep in all the things that you're going on and what's going on in your world. So give us a call. Let's go straight to these phone lines, John.

We got Alex who's in Boulder, Colorado. What's going on, Alex? Hi. I am in a bit of trouble, Colorado. What's going on, Alex? Hi. I am in a bit of trouble, actually. Okay. So I guess I don't want to even start. So I guess in the last year,

I've been building up some debt, kind of hiding it from my family. And it all recently came out and pretty much is tearing apart my family at this point. How much debt, man? About $50,000. It's all credit card. What are you buying? So that's the worst part is not really buying anything.

It's actually streaming. So I used to play video games a lot. I'm actually in the military. So I used to, you know, play video games as a way to kind of cope. And basically I got into streaming and watching other streamers play video gaming and kind of helped pass the time, especially when I'm at work. And I just kind of got into the whole gifting subscriptions.

Couldn't really control it. I can say I've never been addicted to anything ever in my life. But it has got to be the closest thing. Yeah, you can't. Well, you're right. I can't say that, yeah, I guess. The definition of addiction is a pattern of behavior that continues after the person knows that it is hurting me.

And I continue to do it anyway. Can I tell you, Alex? Sure. This is me just being straight up with you. I don't know if I fully believe you. What else were you spending? $50,000. I only see that in extreme,

like you suddenly have somebody else that you're courting or you're struggling with drugs, you're struggling with drugs, you're struggling with gambling. It honestly, I know it sounds crazy, but that literally is it. It was, uh, you just sit there watching Twitch and you're just gifting thousands of dollars away to people. Yes. Uh, I, I, I got so into the hype. Um, uh, you know, you drop that $500, you know, 100 subs, everybody goes crazy. And, you know, they hype you up. And I got so into it. I don't know, it just kept happening. I just kept doing it. And I wasn't keeping track. I wasn't paying attention. You know, as soon as one credit card

max go straight to another one. Over course of time how how how long did it take you to acquire this debt it was over a year bro i'm having a hard time with it same i'm having a hard time with it like so are you married i i am i'm married uh i have kids and uh and that was that was the hardest part was uh once I realized how bad it was and I, I, I. Dude, you would know, man, you, Alex, you would know, like maybe for sitting there trying to explain this to your wife or something, she'll buy this, but you would, you, you had to actually go open new credit cards. I did.

So you didn't just open your eyes and there was $50,000 when. Well, no. So, so the credit cards were old ones that we had zero balance on that we had used from years prior when during COVID we were using... My wife wasn't able to work, so it was just my income that was supporting us. And mortgage rates in Colorado are not very good at all,

and they haven't been for a long time. And we just basically were using credit cards to kind of survive once we came out of that uh and she was able to start working we were able to pay them down um we even refinanced the house at one point to be able to get some money back to so you're making let me let me ask a little bit of a more tactical question you've got fifty thousand in credit cards. You've got to make minimum payments. Is that what raised the flag to her? How did she not notice, hey, there's hundreds of dollars going out every month in minimum payments? I'm guessing you guys keep the money separate so she couldn't see that.

Well, so I actually went and opened up a checking account on the side so that way I could have some of my paycheck. Right. But she's still seeing hundreds of your she's still seeing, hey, hundreds. There's a lot less money coming in than there used to be. And that didn't raise any red flags for her. I'm just trying to understand the landscape of your marriage? All I can say is that we were never really good with finances when it comes to keeping track. As long as we knew we had money to do things and pay things, we weren't really paying attention as much.

I never really cared what she was spending money. She never really cared what I was spending money on. And it didn't get to that. Like I said, she didn't realize like five or eight hundred dollars could be gone and her not even notice yeah wow bro jade and i make a lot of money and i will tell you i'm like a bird dog i know if money's missing sheesh all right so how can we help man yeah so i mean at this point i mean the basic thing is I'm just terrible with money obviously and I

have no idea what I'm doing that's not the problem bro like you're living in an altered reality like you have to go get beneath that like if we take you at your word which I'm telling you right now I've just been doing this for too long I'm struggling

with it if I take you at your word, which I'm telling you right now, I've just been doing this for too long. I'm struggling with it. If I take you at your word and when MasterCard said, I can't let you have any more money. And then you went open up another account to keep paying that bill. And this isn't just, oh my gosh, I was just clicking on something and suddenly I was 50,000 bucks in the hole. You knew step by step by step along the way. I'm going to keep going down and if i take you at your word something about watching other people play video games and you giving them five hundred dollars at a time brought you more life made you feel more alive than your

own home than your own life that you're creating here. That's what you have to deal with. Because that's a case of you are living this quiet life of desperation and these little, I can't even wrap my head around this. And like, dude, my whole career has been sitting with people who've made some wild choices and I've never heard this. Not $50,000. I've seen $5,000. I've never seen $50,000. The second thing is,

is then you're a guy that doesn't tell his wife the truth. The third thing is you're a guy that put his kids financially at risk. Those are the things we need to deal with. Alex, are you telling us that you're done? Like you've called in to talk about the money aspect of this. So that makes me think, okay, he thinks he's finished with this behavior. What is causing you to think that you're finished with this behavior is what I want to know. Otherwise, what I tell you is not going to matter at all. Yeah. So, I mean, we've started doing family counseling, marriage counseling. I've deleted all my accounts.

I've given my wife access to every single thing that I have. Did you give her the receipts? Yes, I gave her access to every single bank account so she can look at the history and see every single transaction. Okay. All right.

Good for you. I mean, we've been married for 17 years and I love my wife more than anything. She's my best friend, and I honestly have no idea why I got into it. I think that's part of the counseling that we're going through. Good for you. I'm trying to understand. Good for you. I'm proud of you.

I just know that I don't want to lose that. Okay. I'm proud of you on that, man. You're going to have to work through the money side of it. You're going to have to follow the baby steps and pay it off. Hang on the line. We'll send you a copy of Total Money Makeover and help you on your journey. Best of luck to you, brother. This is The Ramsey Show from Ramsey Network.

I'm Jade Warshaw. Next to me is Dr. John Deloney, bestselling number one author of Building a Non-Anxious Life. Love it. Hey, Jade, last night was the first debate. We'd like to go ahead and give our thoughts on the debate. All right, let's go out to Newark, New Jersey and talk to Christian. God help us all. What's going on, Christian? Heyian hey guys thanks for having me you're welcome um so for about a year me and my wife are planning on getting a two hundred thousand dollar addition but it doesn't the numbers don't make sense so i want to sell the house go live with my parents and buy a nine hundred thousand dollar house our dream, and she's not really on board with it.

Okay, let me... That's a lot of swings, man. Yeah, let me run this back. So you were wanting to make a $200,000 addition to the house? Yes. Okay, and what... What's the addition? Yeah.

A two-car garage with about 550 square feet above it, which is two bedrooms and a master bath. Okay. And if you did that, would it make that house worth $900,000? So my dilemma is, are mortgages $2,400? Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Just answer me that question right quick. Because then the other plan was that you were going to go buy a $900 Wait a minute. Go. Just answer me that question right quick. Because then the other plan was that you were going to go buy a $900,000 house. That's why I'm trying to understand. Right now, we could sell our house for 700. Okay. So if you did the addition, you're hoping that you putting that money in, you would at least make it.

Does that make sense? I don't think it would be worth 900. I think it would possibly be 800 or less. Oh, okay. Because of the comps. Okay. So the addition would suddenly make it beyond the nicest house in this area? Yes. Okay, gotcha.

Got it. Okay, so now tell us more. My screen says that your wife doesn't agree with this. No, so if we put a hundred of our own money and a hundred he lock that brings our mortgage from 2400 to 3600 and if they raise our taxes that would put us close to 4000 a month and i'm not comfortable with that what percentage of your take-home income is that uh we take home around 10 000 a month okay okay so there's a lot wrong with this initial plan a i don't like you borrowing against your home to do upgrades

because you're putting your own home on the line in order to do that um why is there this urgency to make to do all of this why is there an urgency to do a heloc and if in order to do that. Why is there this urgency to make, to do all of this? Why is there an urgency to do a HELOC? And if you don't do that, then we've got to move and buy a $900,000 house. Why is there the sense of we've got to do something? Well, we have three kids, six, eight, and 10, and the boys share a room. So we want to, we want something bigger. We have a big eating kitchen with no dining room, so we want a dining room to be able to host family, host events. And the clock is ticking.

We want our dream home. And I feel if we sell our home, we'd be in a position to buy a beautiful home and half an acre, cul-de-sac, extra bedrooms. But, bro, what do you think the payment on a $900,000 house is going to be? Right, with today's rates. Well, it would be less than getting an addition because if we sell the house after realtor fee, we would take home a little over $450,000.

Okay, so you put half down on it? No, we would put about 60 to 70% down on it. How? Oh, you've got 100 cash. Oh, you've got the 100 cash. Okay. We have close to 300, but I wouldn't. So how much in all are you putting down between cash and equity? Oh, on the addition? No, no, no. If you go, if you do what you say you do, which is you sell your current home, you take that equity, you put it towards a down payment, and you put other cash that you have sitting around towards a down payment on a $900,000 house.

How much cash is that that you plan on putting down? I would want to put down $600,000, $650,000 tops. Okay, $6 600, 650 tops. Okay. 650 tops. And that gets you where you want to be. What we would teach is the payment all in HOAs, everything, taxes, insurance is no more than 25% of your take-home pay. So that gets you there. That gets me to 32, 3300. Okay. So where's, Okay, so tell me where your wife is in all of this. So that we don't have to have the headache of waiting for a buyer and mile away and take our time six to nine months and find our dream home. Take that $600,000, put in a six month CD of five and a half percent interest. Does she like your parents?

Yeah. Well, originally when we renovated the first floor during COVID, we stayed there for four months. How old are you guys? Thirty five and thirty seven. four months. How old are you guys? 35 and 37. Ooh, with three kids? So a family of five going in? I don't know any wife in America that would want to take three kids and their husband and move back in with

their in-laws. I don't understand the urgency. Me neither. You seem like you've got to panic. Here's the deal. I shared a room with my brother my entire childhood until my sister went to college. And was it great? Nope. Did I hate it?

Yep. Did we all live? Yep. Like, would it be cool to have a dining room? Absolutely. Do you have to have one? No. Like, I don't understand what this, like, you've've got something like like on fire inside of you what

is it man enough to sell your home i don't know what's going to happen before the election or during election so now we're talking homie listen i've been there i've been an anxious lunatic mess i sold my house and moved my family into a residence hall a dorm i've been there you got to take a breath and don't do the next wild thing you're trying Brene Brown calls it dress rehearsing tragedy you've already you've already created this this um new tax hike that's going to happen and you've already figured out how you're not going to pay for it you've already figured out this other bad thing that's going to happen and you're trying to solve it now and you're trying you're that. Man, your family needs a stable presence right now. They don't need running around and selling this and moving this and going into my mom and dad's

house. I've been where you are and I've been so scared and I walk around with my family's asleep, not knowing what's coming. I've been there, man. You got to go talk to somebody. I'm telling you. You're going to end up making a huge mistake. Either relationally, either financially, or both. So what do you suggest? I didn't realize the addition is around $300 a square foot for top of the line. I don't want you borrowing money for anything. If this is a home that y'all love... We have about $250,000 to $300,000 in our savings

in our stock portfolio. You suggest we just pay it outright instead of taking a HELOC? I would never put my family's house on the block for a living room. Ever. Or for a garage. Well, we already have a garage with a sunroom attached to it so here's the thing here's the thing it's not about that here's the thing a my take on this

is a i don't want you making this decision until a couple of things are a little bit more in focus number one you and your wife have to be on the same page and it doesn't sound like you are it sounds like this is kind of one of your crazy things. And she's like, dude, cool out. We're fine. That's what it sounds like from what you've said. Number two, I'm with John. If you guys do get on the same page and you decide you want to move on, yes, do it all in cash. Whether you decide to add an addition to your existing home, whether you decide to move forward, the keys here are we're using cash. And if we're doing the down payment deal, we're putting all the equity on the down payment because ultimately we want this house paid off. And I don't want that payment to be any more than 25%,

like I talked about before. So those things need to get cleared up. I just, right now, based off what John asked you, based off of what you said, it feels like you're running away from something and a house should be something that you run towards and you're happy about and you both want to do it and it's not like this thing that you do out of panic or fear it's a thing that you do out of this is the next right step for our family and you can take your time and you have think things through and there's choices and right now it just feels like a somebody pulled the fire alarm and he's like where do we go the election election? And Christian, listen, I've been there. And here's the worst part. You go with you.

Whatever you sell, whatever you buy, you go with you. So tonight after dinner, I want you to hold your wife's hand and say, I've never said this out loud, honey, but I'm scared. And I'm going to talk to somebody before I just take the whole family on another adventure. She will probably breathe and sleep deeper than she has in months. Your move, my brother. We'll be right back. You're listening to The Ramsey Show. I'm Jade Warshaw. Next to me is Dr. John Deloney. John, did you watch the debate last night? I actually did not. I was on that text thread with you and Rachel Cruz andz and and others and then i got caught

up this morning um but i think it's important to have this conversation based on this last caller yeah i don't know anybody the whole building is buzzing we have a thousand people that work here it's buzzing my phone was blowing up all evening all morning till midnight yeah and i did watch some of the after stuff if anybody is listen watch that last night and is at peace um you should probably go see somebody right i don't know somebody who's not their heart's not beating a little bit faster yeah like completely unbothered what is happening and my my like please if you've ever been at the slightest bit convinced that the person in the white house is going to save you oh now we know i think the answer we all got our answer and so what that means is we have to look in the mirror yeah and say okay as for me in my house what's this going to look like yeah and the worst thing you can do is as as my great mentor, Dr. Andy Young used to say,

facts are your friends, man, when you're heading into a crisis. What is true here? What is true here is maybe in your house, we go out way too much and we've got to start putting some money aside. Maybe in your house, all right, we're about to buy a fancy car. We're not buying that car. Maybe as for you in your house, we've got to pay some, it's time for us to take control of our money. It's time. And by the way, if you already know who you're going to vote for turn the news off turn it off turn it off that's the word if you already know don't just baste in this no don't baste in it um but here's the deal as for me and my house that's where we are and we've been saying that dave's been saying that for 30 years yeah it's the person in your house

that's going to make the most difference um so my hope is that people start meeting their neighbors and they start asking each other like hey man how can we figure this thing out and let's go from there yeah let's go from there i have zero to add to that because it's exactly right and i would be beating a dead horse by adding well i mean it's it's true you know i i probably fed into it a little bit too much last night. I stayed up late. And you're right, John. The one takeaway is I just got to do what I got to do. Like, I got to do what I have to do for my family. And the changes that, I mean, it sounds trite, but it's true.

Like, the change that you want to see, you have to start doing those things in your own home. If you want taxes to go down, which means you get more money in your pocket, then that means you've got to do the things in your own budget to get more money back in your pocket. If you want, you know, there'd be more jobs, then you need to start applying for more jobs. It's like, do more and do those things and try not to let, it's like, there's just things you control the controllables. There you go. There's things that you can control and there's things that you can't control. And you know. And if you need to make your and there's things that you can't control. And, you know. And if you need to make your phone calls and make your, send your emails, send them.

Make your phone calls. Get on the horn. Can I just say this? Like this is, I'm going to get off my soapbox after this. If there was ever a time, pray for your leaders. Pray for the people who have leadership over you. That's the best thing you can do. And all the energy that you want to put into

commenting on social and, oh my gosh, I can't believe this. Like, if you're that person, like, spend some of your time praying for our leaders and pray for our country. Pray for yourself. Pray for your own, like, interaction and reaction to all this stuff. Because everybody who's listening to this is not a Christian person. I am. So just filter it through this, what Jade thinks, like we're thermostats in this world and we have the ability to set the temperature by the way we react and the things that we say and how we handle the things that might cause other people to like do that. And so like, let's, let's do that. Like, let's be thermostats and let's set the temperature at a nice, comfortable 68.

68, is that good? A buddy of mine was texting last night. He's a pastor. He's a great friend. And he just said, I'm praying for our country. And I just wrote back, pray louder, pray louder. And then after a while, I was following along with the debate. And I said, I don't think you've got the right number.

And he said, I keep getting a return to my prayer. New phone. Who dis? It was awesome. But yeah, that's great. New phone. Who dis? Wow. Okay. But yeah, just so you know, like we know what's going on, but we are not going to, I know some of y'all are like, get into it, guys, get into it. We won't. We shan't. As for me and my house, we shan't. Let's go out to Portland and talk to Jessica. What up, Jessica? Hi, John. Hi, Jade.

I'm so excited to talk to you guys. You are my heroes. We're happy to talk to you, too. We're glad you're here. That's a low bar, Jessica. Speak for yourself, John. All the time. No, thank you so much. What's up?

But I'm hoping that you can help me with a huge mess. My husband and I are on baby steps six and we've kind of landed into this big financial mess, not of our own choosing. My husband's dad and his wife are at the end stage of their life. My husband's dad is on hospice care right now, and he's got maybe a couple of weeks left. And his wife is borderline dementia, and she doesn't really have the ability to hold it together enough to keep track of their finances. So it's something that my husband and I have taken over for them just in the last couple of weeks. And what we found out is super scary. They have about

$70,000 worth of debt and only 18,000 saved in their monthly income is it was almost 7,000 with him alive. But then when he passes, it's probably going to drop down to around 3,000 a month. And that's all that they have, all that she has, to kind of keep things running for the rest of her life. And part of that $70,000 is an RV trailer that he just bought last year. And he owes $53,000 on it. But it's only worth, we went to look to see what we could sell it for, And we think we can maybe sell it for $35, maybe $40 if we're lucky. And what we're wondering is, because it needs a repair also, it's broke.

So it needs about $4,000 worth of repairs just to get it sellable. To be worth $35. And we just wonder, yeah, to be worth $35. And his name is the only name that's on it. His wife's name is not on the RV. And we're wondering if we can let it go back to the creditors. No. Or if we should work to pay it off.

No, don't do a voluntary repo. That's going to be horrible. I wouldn't do that. They've got $18,000 saved. Assuming that you have control over this money, I would just take that $18, on and um what is the rest of it it's a there's a trailer how much is the trailer the trailer is only three and we already have it sold so it seems to get the money for that so it's just the car yeah and is there any life insurance here when he passes yeah there there might be about 30,000 but I'm worried that they're not going to pay because it's a non-smoking policy and he only stopped smoking a year ago so I don't understand I don't know if they're going to say well he only

stopped smoking a year ago so now we're not going to pay I don't know how that works you'll have to get with somebody to find out the clarity on that but I think that you can clear out a lot of the, the just craziness of this by selling. Like you said, you sold the trailer already do the same thing with this RV. If you need to close the gap, use that 18,000 that they have saved, or at least keep a thousand of it,

but use the 17,000 to do that. And then the $3,000 a month. Okay. So tell me about the mother-in-law. Tell me, I hate to ask these questions, but like timeline, like what's the situation if she ends up, you know, being alone? Is she coming to live with you guys? Is she going into care, a care facility? She doesn't, she's not a good patient. She would make a terrible patient in a care facility or a hospital she she really actually doesn't want to live after he dies

she um i feel like she's going to deteriorate very quickly so she's going to have to come stay with you guys well she's a smoker and we don't want her to smoke in our house well then then you might end up putting her in an apartment where she's got a you know a care nurse or something like that whatever it is my point is that judging by the numbers you guys are going to be on the hook for figuring out the best way to do this and i want to make sure that you guys get the power attorneys of attorney that you need ahead of time so that when the time comes we do you can make the call like if we're selling their house we're selling that house so that we can provide care for her. They have no house. They have no assets whatsoever. Okay.

Are their siblings involved? No, we're the only ones. Then you guys are definitely going to be the ones that are making these calls. And just know financially, put yourself in the best situation that you can, because where these numbers fall might leave you guys on the hook to be shelling out a little bit of cash, unfortunately. But you're on top of it. This is The Ramsey Show.

You're listening to The Ramsey Show. I'm Jade Warshaw. Next to me is Dr. John Deloney. And if you haven't, guys, I want you to check out our Ramsey Trusted Pros. If you're talking about buying a house, if you're talking about selling a house, our Ramsey Trusted Pros shop the market and compare insurance quotes so that you don't have to. So your pro will compare quotes, discounts, and bundling deals for you at no extra cost. Ramsey Trusted Pros will make sure that you have all the coverage that you need and nothing that you don't. Ramsey Trusted Pros are interviewed, vetted, and coached to make sure they're market experts who have your best interest

at heart. So you want to make sure that you have the best coverage. That's what you need to do. Before I said buying and selling a house, it goes to show what I was talking about. I'm talking about insurance here, people. You got to have insurance for houses too, man. I mean, you do. But what I'm talking about here is if you're trying to get insurance for all the things that we say that you need insurance for which is uh you know for your home obviously for your auto life insurance call renters insurance uh even identity theft insurance is a big one uh what else there's a lot umbrella insurance on that last call like you've got a husband who's passing away yeah oh life insurance and then you have a kid saying how am i gonna take care of mom she's not doing well

and there's 30 000 bucks that may be a fraudulent policy yeah let's talk about that not helpful guys talk about that john because so many people i cannot tell you how many times i say do you have life insurance and they go oh yeah i have it work. No, that is not like you're doing good. If you get $25,000, it's a high five policy. That's enough to get you through the funeral. Yes. That's it. Pay a bill. That's it. And we're talking about 10 to 12 times your income. The whole purpose of insurance is to mitigate risk. It's to cover the things that you can't afford to pay for. And one of those things when it comes to life insurance is who are the people that are dependent on your income?

In this case, the wife with dementia would have been extremely dependent on his income. So if he passes away, which we know, you know, over time, then she needs that money. And so we say 10 to 12 times what you were making in a year. That's what you need for the people who depend on your income. So when it comes to insurance term life, you need it, guys. You need it. And if you're like, Jade, all of this is so overwhelming for me. I used to be that person. We will do this for you. Again, if you don't have the right coverage, if you're not sure how to find it, if you go to ramseysolutions.com slash coverage, we'll make sure that you have everything that you need.

And by the way, let me just throw this in because it's important to note. It's not a baby step. Okay. So for all the folks listening, because I know we have a lot of people who are in baby step one, baby step two. This is not you going, well, when I'm out of debt, I'll do that. No, you do it as soon as you find out about it. And I get it.

You're like, Jade, that's the last thing I want to spend money on. Don't you know I have bills? Yes, I do. But you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. But I do know this. I've sat with multiple women whose husbands are dead in the next room and they look at me and they have said these almost identical words. I don't know what I'm going to do next. And my conversation shifts from how do we grieve and who do we call to? We're going to have to help you get a job on Monday.

Yeah. Don't put your spouses in that position. Even a car accident. Right. Because you don't have the right coverage and you hit somebody and then they hit somebody. Man, that's just hollowing me, dude. Bro. I remember those. It's a lot, but we're here for you.

We're here for you. We will take the hard part out of it. Again, ramseysolutions.com slash coverage. Let us do that for you. All right. Let's go to Jaden who's in Denver, Colorado. What's going on Jaden? Hi there. Yeah. So I'm, I'm 20 years old. Um, I make about 40,000 a year and,, and I have three kids at home. I'm $22,000 in debt. Jaden? Okay.

Yeah, can you hear me? Yeah, you broke out for a minute. Oh, I'm sorry. So, yeah, I'm 20 years old, have three kids at home. I make about $40,000 a year, and I'm $22,000 in debt. Okay. I'm just trying to figure out just how to pay off this debt and kind of just set an example for my kids so they can kind of do the same thing that I did. Is it just you raising the kids or do you have a wife? No, I have a wife, yeah.

Is she working or is she at home with the kids? She's at home with the kids? She's at home with the kids. She was working right before she had the baby. And then the company, they had sold to another company and let her go. Okay. So she chose to stay home by default, not because that was the plan. It was like as a reaction. Right.

I mean, childcare out here is just extremely uh expensive so that's another factor of it too what do you do for a living man i work in asphalt okay is there what are the ways you can get this income up you got three kids you're in denver colorado there's just no way you can support a family on that man and you know that yeah i know we've been you know just nickel and diamond um right now i have applied for um other jobs i'm trying to uh get hvac certified and uh become a plumber and electrician. Okay, great. Are you actively in a program? No. I'm about a week into after applying.

So I applied about last week. What does that cost? So if I go through the company that I applied through, they pay for the schooling, and I just have to sign an 18-month contract with them. Okay. And what will you make that how will that change your income um coming out of school um the foreman let me know that uh they they had a guy coming out of school at 38 an hour okay and you'll be able to work full time at 40 hours? Right. Yes. Yeah. Right now I'm making about 22 an hour working 60 hours a week. Okay. Okay. So that's going to be a nice jump for you. How old are the kids?

Oh, I have a five-year-old, a three-year-old and a three-month-old. Oh, okay. Yeah. You're in the thick of it. So the five-year-old, a three-year-old, and a three-month-old. Ooh, Lordy. Okay, yeah, you're in the thick of it. So the five-year-old's going to be going to kindergarten soon, yeah? That'll help your wife out. And what was she doing before this? What was she earning? Does she have a degree? Tell me more about her.

No, so she was doing housekeeping at a local hospital. Okay, what was she earning? She was getting about $35 local hospital. Okay. What was she earning? She was getting about $35,000 a year. Okay. So there was a time, there was a life where you guys were making, you know, almost $80,000 a year, and now you're down to $40,000. Is there a situation where you can make this work with child care? As of right now uh no like i've i've i've tried uh because i got sisters and brothers all around

and um kind of like reached out to them about you know maybe paying them to watch my kids and it's just it's not it's not happening yeah it's not gonna happen so even like a part-time is there i just want to make sure you guys are attacking this from every angle. Even like a mom's day out where she can work part-time. Something where she can bring in, I mean, even $800 a month would change you guys' world right now. Or she gets a job at a daycare center. Right. Yeah, I really haven't thought about that. The other alternative, brother, is you're going to get hours, pour an asphalt in this madhouse summer heat.

And then you got to go drive Uber, man. Y'all just don't have enough money. Right. And bro, I've had two kids. I haven't had three. I don't even,

I can't, I can hear how tired you are, but I've never even personally experienced this. I wouldn't wish that on anybody working asphalt out in the summer to go have to go drive. But man, y'all got to have some more money. When does this HVAC thing turn around for you? When do you expect to be making that salary, that hourly?

So, yeah, so starting out with them, I'd be making, so 24 an hour and two nights a week for five years, I'd be going to school. So as soon as I, probably in about five years. Oh, it's five years? This is a five-year turnaround? Yeah, so about five years, I'll be making close to $40 an hour. Okay, we got to do something sooner than that.

You can't hold on for five years. Yeah. What's your living situation? Are you renting? Are you in a renting are you in a house tell us more yeah i'm renting right now um my wife talks about uh buying a house but you're not near it you're not near that yeah hey that's exactly what i told her you're between a rock and a hard place and the only thing that's going to change this this is not something you

can cut cut away at a budget although we're going to make sure you have a budget before you leave here. We got to find ways to get the income up. And unfortunately, I think some of it lies with you, but I think your wife holds a key in this as well. I think there's something she can do part-time on the side at nights. You guys have to look at your schedule and you're playing a game of chess to find out when there's hours that you can do something, whether it's from home, whether it's getting in your car and driving around and she brings the kids with her to do the delivery. But you've got to get creative. There's not going to be anything fun about this, but you are going to find margin. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll see you next time.