The Ramsey Show - App - DAVE RANT: Paying Cash for School Is Not Privilege! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: November 15, 2019

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🎵 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. Well, ever so often, something happens that lets me know that I have a long career ahead of me, that there will always be room for this show and our advice. We posted a simple little thing on Facebook that I've said a thousand times and on Instagram, and some of you have gone absolutely ape. You have lost your ever-loving minds.

Parents, this was the post, don't encourage your kids to take out student loans. Encourage them to make plans to go to a school where cash can be paid for college. Academics are important, but they do not cause you to be successful. We all know highly educated broke people. Now, that's a fairly consistent Dave Ramsey message.

That is not new information to the universe. But I got to tell you, some of you, when you are on social media, lose your minds. Some of the meanest people on the planet seem to hang out at Facebook. And a few of them on Instagram and the rest of them are on Twitter. Oh, my gosh, y'all. Calm yourself. Chill your little self down. I've been called names.

I've been harassed. The only thing I'm sure of is a couple of death threats and that'll probably happen by the end of the day because i dared to say that you can go to college without debt i'm out of touch i don't know anything about the real world oh and my favorite is you know listen i understand if you don't have hope how you feel trapped i understand that but you need to guard your tongue and you need to guard your spirit because when you get crazy like this it makes you look stupid so i mean who can seriously afford to pay cash at 17 or 18 years old sarcasm sarcasm sarc sarcasm, sarcasm.

You know, and it just goes, I mean, it's just, I don't want to read them all, but my favorite was, not every, this is what you always throw out, especially liberals, right? Not everyone is born with privilege to be able to pay for their college education. There are ways to do it cheaper, but this is a very privileged mindset. Darling, the only privilege I have is the privilege of having common sense and the ability to do mathematics. That's the privilege that I have. It is not a privileged mindset. It is a mathematical freaking fact.

But, man, you guys are going nuts. Some of you are. But, man, you guys are going nuts. Because I dared to say that you should not be part of the $1.5 trillion student loan debacle and that you can become educated without going into debt, you people are angry. Some of you people are really nuts. So let's just do a little basic math, okay? Just a little basic math. Here's the actual statistical facts today not that i'm out of touch not that i don't know how the real world works and you ought to

come out here and visit us little people oh bless your stupid butt little hearts some of you are absolute buttholes man seriously pull your head out of your butt and do some math. This is really not that hard. Here's the deal. The average state university annual tuition in America today, in-state tuition today, is $9,500 a year. The average person delivering pizzas five nights a week in America today makes $1,500 a month at their night job. Lots of my Uber drivers, as I get in their cars across America, are making $1,500 to $2,000 a month as their side hustle doing Uber. Some of them, it's their full-time gig. So let's do a little math, okay?

Let me help you with this, because some of you, the sixth grade was education, higher education for you, apparently. $9,500 versus $1,500 a month. $1,500 a month is $18,000 a year. Can you pay $9,000 if you have $18,000? Is this hard for you? Can you pay $9,000 if you have $18,000? Yes. Can you find...

Listen, you should not be in college if you cannot successfully deliver a pizza. You should not be in college if you can't successfully drive for Uber. That is not privilege, stupid butt woman. That is mathematical facts. Now, can you live at home and drive pizzas and have enough to pay your tuition and your books? Easily. Times two.

But you have to work while you're in school and you're not doing minimum wage flopper whopping jobs if you're going to flop whoppers you probably can't pull this off you actually have to use your brain you can make 25 an hour cleaning people's toilets get you a leaf blower rich people are afraid of leaves they will pay you serious money kid knocked on my front door a couple years ago had a pressure washer in tow wanted to pressure wash my driveway and seal it he walked away with 1500 bucks a day later now he had some cost of goods sold a little bit of equipment invested in a day one day you know why i gave him a job he's knocking on the door i'm trying to play cash for college all right i didn't need my driveway sealed but i want it sealed after he did

that just seal it buddy i'm doing it we're doing this yeah you can pressure wash you can wash people's dogs you can walk people's dogs you can clean people's toilets you can drive for uber and you can work your way through a state school while living at home. Or you could actually live in the dorm and do that because you've got another $9,000 or $10,000 to work with here in a year. But you are working instead of playing beer pong in your off hours. When you're not in class, you're working. Well, I'm afraid my GPA will go down. Your GPA goes down more from beer pong than it does from working.

You can't hang out at the frat house all the time. Wah. I couldn't have the college experience. We're not talking about the college experience, doofus. We're talking about an education here. Getting an education, a four-year degree in four freaking years. You can go to community college for less than that your first two years. In the state of Tennessee, community college is free.

There's a couple other states it is, and it's dadgum near free in a lot of other states. Get your first two years out of the way for half of that or less. You can even go to a private university, which is $34,700 a year, but now you've got to start making some real money. College choice and being willing to work at a job that is not minimum wage, that is not your life goal, so you can make some money, is how you go to college debt free. So, before you draw out your sarcasm, mean women on Facebook, my God, y'all are mean. Seriously, it's unbelievable.

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It's just the smarter, more affordable way to protect your entire family. And it's the only plan I provide to my team. Zander.com or 800-356-4282. Thanks for joining us, America. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Frederick is with us in Wisconsin. Hi, Frederick. How are you? How's it going?

Good. How can I help? I'm just wondering if me and my fiancé should file bankruptcy. Okay. Well, I don't know why both of you would. Who's in debt? Well, we both are. I think I'm a little more with my student loans.

How much do you have in student loans? About $74,000. And what other debts do you have in student loans? About $74,000. And what other debts do you have? I have current two credit cards, or right now two. I've been listening and following the steps. I've wiped out one. So I have two left, about $2,000, and then about $15,000 in other debts, which is collections and whatnot.

But we also have a cosigner for her on her Jeep, which is a $5,000 collateral loan. And that's kind of the question, if I file or if we both file, would she lose the Jeep? Okay. And how much debt does she have? That's kind of a mystery right now. We're trying to get all that together through the credit. Why is it a mystery? Well, she knows a little bit of it

and she's told me what she knows, but there's medical stuff that I don't know from the past that I'm not really sure what she has. What do you know about? Right now, I just know she's been through a divorce. There was this loan that I know and then some student loans. How much is her student loans?

Roughly $7,000, $8,000. And what's the loan that I know and then some student loans. How much is her student loans? Roughly $7,000, $8,000. And what's the loan that you know? It's through one main collateral loan that I co-signed for. Oh, the Jeep. Okay. Yep. And then you think there's medical, but do you think it's $200,000 or $10,000 or $2,000? I'm not sure.

I'm guessing it's a guess. I know she said she has a lot of medical, so I'm thinking probably 50 to 100, anywhere in there. You don't have any idea, though? You don't have any idea? Yeah. She said a lot, and you don't even know what a lot means to her. Right, yeah.

Okay, what does she make a year? Roughly 3232,000. And what do you make? $36,000 roughly. Okay. All right. No, you would not file bankruptcy. And let me tell you why.

Okay. Okay. There's two things that are going to happen here. Number one, student loans are not bankruptable. So you would be filing on $2,000 worth of credit card debt and $15,000 worth of stuff that's in collections that could be settled for $2,000 or $3,000 probably. It's ludicrous for you to file bankruptcy. You cannot keep the Jeep unless you pay the bill in any form of bankruptcy.

Chapter 7, Chapter 13, period. If they have the title, you will pay the payment or you will lose the Jeep. Bankruptcy does not keep you from doing that. Bankruptcy can allow you to slow down and deal with the back payments in a Chapter 13 if you're behind on the Jeep. It can do all that, but you're monthly going to pay the bill or you're going to give up the Jeep. How much is the monthly payment on the Jeep? We've been paying $600. No, what is the monthly payment on the Jeep that they dictate?

It's like $285. And why can the two of you, between $70,000 worth of income, not find that and keep it current? It's not that we can't. We've been paying on it. We were just wondering if it would be taken away if we did. No, it's not. The Jeep will be taken away if the debt is taken away.

Okay. Besides that, you don't file bankruptcy on $5,000, man. You do not have enough debt that is bankruptable to cause you to clean up anything. So you're looking for an easy way out here, and there's not one. You need to get on a detailed written budget, and she needs to get on a detailed written budget. Separate budget. You are not married. Okay?

And you can look over each other's shoulder and cheer each other on and coach each other regarding the budget. But your $36,000 should be simply going to pay off the credit cards, which you've already started doing, and then let's get those collections cleaned up, and then let's start that long slog through the $74,000 worth of student loan debt. It's going to take a while. You're going to be in debt a few years until you're married. All she's got today is to pay this Jeep off and the student loan off. $12,000 makes her debt-free, not counting the mystery medical debt that we don't know what it is yet,

which, if it's really old, can be settled for 25 cents on the dollar. Right. So it's just bankruptcy. If she's got $200,000 in medical debt, she might be bankrupt. But you're not bankrupt with a $5,000, $280 Jeep payment when, between the two of you, you've got $70,000 coming into this house, especially given that you're going to lose the Jeep. So thanks for calling. Folks, that's how collateralizing a loan, taking a lien on something works.

When they take the title to your car, when they take a lien on your house called a mortgage, when they take a UCC-1 is typically how it's done on a boat. When they take a lien on an asset, what that means is you stand good for the loan and the asset stands good for the loan. And they're going to milk both of you, you and the asset, until they get their money, meaning that they're going to take the car and sell it if you don't pay the bill. It's called repossession. And whatever it brings on the repo lot, they're going to chase you for the difference or whatever

you still owe. So both of you, the car and you, are standing good for it. And that stands true. Those liens are not taken off of stuff in bankruptcy. In a Chapter 13, you can pay payments on things that are secured creditors, or in a Chapter 7, you can reaffirm in most cases, meaning you agree to pay the payment and all the back payments to get to keep the item, or you can give up the item in a Chapter 7 and give up the debt.

But you never in bankruptcy get to keep the item that has a lien against it, and the debt, but you never in bankruptcy get to keep the item that has a lien against it and the debt goes away. There's not a single instance in bankruptcy court of that happening. Okay. And that's assuming the lien is perfected, meaning it's properly filed and all that. But, you know, I'm not talking about nuances in legal theory. I'm talking about the practical fact is you have a car payment. You're going to keep the car payment until you get it paid off or you sell the car. You do not get to keep the car without the car payment. You do not

keep the house without the house payment. And that's how that works. And that even works in a fire. Your house burns. Your mortgage company has as much rights to the insurance check as you do until the mortgage is paid. So the first thing they do is they take all of the insurance check when your house burns, they pay off the mortgage. If there's anything left called equity, you get that money. And if you want to rebuild, you get to do that either in conjunction with your current mortgage company and the checks are used directly for the rebuild. But you don't get the money. If you have a $600,000 house and it burns and you owe $500,000 on it, they're not going to give you a check for $600,000. They're going to give the contractor a check for $500,000 to rebuild.

Or they're going to give the mortgage company a check for $500,000 and give you one for one. And you own a burned-out lot then. But you don't get to keep the house and keep the money. You don't get to keep the house and do away with the mortgage in any scenario. That's why bankers, why these companies put liens on stuff, and there's two types of credit that you have, secured and unsecured. And so usually when you look through it through that lens and you realize that the IRS and child support and criminal restitution and student loans are not bankruptable, you're not getting rid of the IRS, you're not getting rid of your student loans,

and if you have criminal restitution, you're not getting rid of that, and you're not getting rid of child support, and you're not getting rid of alimony and bankruptcy court. All of those are staying. So what are you left with? Well, and the guy I was just talking to's case, he's left with a little bit of credit card debt and a little bit of stuff in collections. And she's left with a little bit of something on medical.

We don't know what it was because he didn't know what it was. You see how this is working? So all of that to say that people say Dave Ramsey is against bankruptcy. I'm against divorce, too, but good people do it sometimes, and I'm not mad at you if you do it. But if you're going to do it, don't file bankruptcy on $10,000 worth of debt. For goodness sakes, that's just silly. Because all the rest of it is not bankruptable if you keep the asset and the rest of it's student loans. If you keep the Jeep and the rest of it's student loansable if you keep the asset and the rest of the student loans. If you keep the Jeep and the rest of the student loans, narrows it way down,

the list that's actually bankruptable is so small it makes it not worth it. That's the summation of this story. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Claudia is with us. Hi, Claudia. How are you? Hi, Dave. I'm doing great. How are you?

Better than I deserve. Welcome. Where do you live? Thank you. I'm from Atlanta, Georgia. Oh, fun. Well, welcome to Nashville. And all the way up here to do a debt-free screen.

Yes, sir. Look at you. How much have you paid off? I paid off $57,000. I love it. How long did this take? 24 months. Wow.

And your range of income during that time? I started at $60,000 and ended at $80,000. Wow. What do you do for a living? I am a business analyst in the banking industry. Okay. Well, you've done really, really well. What kind of debt was the $57,000?

I had $32,000 in student loans, a car loan, 401k loan, IRS debt, and then the rest was credit cards. Whoa. How much did you owe the IRS? I mean the KGB. I owed them $1,300, but I wanted to pay it right away. They have the highest interest rate. You're right.

Yeah, I told you to put that at the top of the debt snowball. Oh, yeah. And how much was the car? I financed it at $23,000, but by the time I started this journey, it was $6,000. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah. And did you sell anything big to get out of debt?

No, I just sold some items online, but nothing big. So what happened 24 months ago that put you on this journey to debt freedom? So 24 months ago, I hit a really low place in my life. I was struggling to pay the utility bills, and I decided I needed to do something about it. I was really stressing out about money, and I have a 10-year-old son, so I wanted to set a good example for him. And at the same time, I pulled my credit report

and saw that someone had stolen my identity and opened a couple of accounts in my name. And when I saw my credit score, it dipped like about 50 points. So this was before I found you. I was really focused on increasing that credit score. Like I just wanted that 750. So I started researching, I went online, and I found a Facebook group that they glorified the high credit score. And someone was posting, they posted about finally reaching that 750. And reading through the comments, someone mentioned Dave Ramsey. And Dave Ramsey thinks credit cards are dumb and a credit score is just an indicator of debt and not wealth. Well, I was intrigued by that.

So I looked you up online. They were hating on me, but that intrigued you. That's funny. It was a Dave Ramsey fan trolling in the comments. So I read your book within a couple of days, and I just got on the plan. And needless to say, my credit score goal now is a zero. There you go. Good plan. I like this plan. plan yeah and you are 100 debt free yes do you own a home no i i'm saving up well i'm still in baby step three right now

right good for you good for you well done thank you well done i'm proud of you so what's the key to getting out of debt you pay off 57,000 in 24 months I mean you've been on beans and rice kiddo oh yeah and it helps that I'm a vegan so it wasn't hard in that sense um I would say the key to getting out of debt um especially to single moms out there that you are the key to getting out of debt once you decide that your why is bigger than your excuses and things just start happening. Same thing happened to me. I finally decided that I was sick and tired of living like that. Your level of disgust is what drove you.

Exactly. And I just found the information. I found your plan eventually. And once I decided that I was tired of living that way, then I just stuck to the plan. And of course, the budget is huge, whether you like an app, a spreadsheet or a notebook, just sticking to the plan. And no matter how many bad things happen and try to derail you, just stick to the plan. When I was in the journey, just Murphy came to visit us so many times. My son broke his arm, so we had a really hefty emergency room bill.

I suddenly got sick. And those moments were hard, but I didn't realize at the moment that they were faith-building moments and courage-building, because Murphy was going to come again in the form of a job loss. So I lost my job five months before I became debt free. Wow. Yeah. But amazing things continued to happen. When I lost my job, I paused the snowball like you recommend.

So I piled up cash, about three months of savings. And once May 1st of this year came, my last day at work, I didn't have another job secured yet. So I just held on to the cash. But 14 days later, I found a temporary job. And it was less than half of the income from my previous job. But it was perfectly okay because I had learned to live on less than half my income. Anyway, because you were getting out of debt. Exactly.

That makes sense. Exactly. So once I got that job, I got one month's worth of severance pay and my vacation payout. So I was so strict and good with my budget that I realized that I could become debt-free that same month that I became laid off. Wow. Yeah. Okay. And now you make what?

Well, I make more than the job that laid me off, almost $10,000 more. It's about $ 10,000 more. It's about 88. And I just, Dave, I want to tell you a quick story about that. You came to speak at Elizabeth Baptist Church in Atlanta, and I waited for you backstage. And at that time, I was getting laid off, and I let you know that I was getting laid off. And you were so encouraging. You told me that it was going to be okay because I was going to find a job making more money. And at the time getting laid off, I just couldn't fathom that, that that could happen. But once I became debt free, I no longer had that burden of debt over me. So I just went on interviews with so much confidence.

Yeah. And I always remember what you said and you believing in me. I couldn't understand that that was possible, but in fact it was. And when I got that job, it's just incredible because I no longer have any debt. You make more money than you ever made in your life. Exactly. I love it when a plan comes together yes there you go kiddo i'm so proud of you thank you so getting right off was was a blessing well done very well done so who was your biggest cheerleader in your life while you're doing all of this um i would say my mom she let me live with her for a year oh wow um so i saved a lot of

money and she's here with you today yes she's here okay and of course your son my son yeah his name is leonardo okay and you brought leo with leo with you to do the debt-free screen yes sir okay you're going to join her over there then all right very cool well congratulations thank you so proud of you very well done we've got a copy of chris hogan's book for you retire inspired and that's the next chapter in your story there's no stopping you no sir there's no stopping you you're going places i love this yeah and if i just may say one more thing um God works in mysterious ways because the month before I found your book, I had been baptized. So I decided I wanted to do things God's way. So when I read your book, it just made perfect sense that I wanted to manage my money that way.

And a month after I read your book, I got that job making $20,000 more. The same job that laid me off, but it's okay. It helped a lot. That is awesome. Absolutely amazing. Well, well done, well done. Very proud of you. Thank you.

Good job. And you've changed your life. You've changed Leo's life. Yes. And I know your mama's proud as well. Yes. So very good stuff. All right.

It's Claudia and Leo from Atlanta, Georgia. $57,000 paid off in 24 months, making $60,000, no, $80,000, no, $88,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! I love it! Yeah! Single mom doing that.

There you go. Yeah, that one's got a fire inside of her. She sounds real sweet, but she's got a fire inside of her. That's good stuff. You know, if you lose your job, it is not a law that you take a job making less. Matter of fact, it's not unusual at all if you just lift your head up that you actually get a job making more. That happens all the time.

This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hello, how are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Carrie is with us in Amarillo. Hi, Carrie. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hello. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Okay, I have a question. My husband and I make about $140,000 a year. We have very good jobs, five children.

About six years ago, we bought a business from some family friends. And at that time, we didn't have any debt, not even even on our home except for a vehicle in a rental house and when we went into this business venture we financed it personally so credit cards personal loans and we expanded and now i'm in a situation where we give more to the business than it gives to us and it's not our main source of income but it's becoming a strain because we're more to the business than it gives to us and it's not our main source of income but it's becoming a strain because we're having to pay multiple debt payments so i'm not sure what to do if i should close the business but i don't know how to handle the debt once i do that well it's just personal debt okay yes yes it's all together yes i understand we finance how much

how much credit card debt do you have? Quite a bit. If you saw my list right now, you would go crazy. I'm about to go crazy then. You're going to give me your list. How much credit card debt? Credit card debt is about $30,000. Okay.

What's the rest of it? And then the rest, we have a total altogether with the $30,499,000. That is with four properties in there as well with mortgages. Okay, how much of that is mortgages? The mortgages, let me see. We've got 47,800 on one. I have 41,100 on one. I have 38,000 on another.

And then I'm missing it. And 43 on one. So only 170 or so of the 500 is mortgages. What's the rest of it? The rest are credit cards. You got your personal mortgage in that too yes i do oh what is that we are home that's the 47 8 which we refinance to purchase the business um but we do have a truck payment in there our truck that's um at 29 and that's the only car payment that we have but the rest we did um some personal loans and then credit cards are the rest.

Okay. You got a lot of personal loans then because I'm still like $300,000 off. Yes. There are several in there. And then there was one big business. It was like a business loan that we did get towards the end. But that one actually, they came back with a settlement on that one did get towards the end but that one actually they had a they came back with the settlement on that one for 40,000 so that would take off um part of that 499 out of that we one thing that we did do and I have a question which was probably not the right thing

we I made the decision to work with a debt consolidation program, not realizing what that is until we got involved. And it really hurts your credit. And they only pay those that they can at the time when you're depositing monthly. Yeah, they screw up everything. It did, yes. So I don't know where to go. You need to end that as your first place to go. I did, yes.

Okay. What are the properties worth, not counting your home, the other three? The other three? I have one that's worth about $70,000, and then the other two are about $60,000, $65,000. Okay. All right. Well, let's just get all those sold. They're not making you any money.

Okay. We've had the business for sale for a year and a half, and it hasn't sold. Yeah, but the properties don't have anything to do with the business, right? It's personal. That's just where we run it. Yeah, I mean, that's our business location. It's a commercial property. It's a commercial property, okay.

Yeah, but we just financed it ourselves. Okay, and what did you pay for this business? We paid $180,000. Good Lord. The problem here is I think what – and the business is retail, so our inventory costs are really high, plus we pay someone to manage it, and that's where most of our expenses go. So you dramatically overpaid for the business then?

Yes. So how much are you asking for it? Right now we have the property for sale for $65,000, and then, I mean, we had it at $250,000, but we can't really get any offers on that. And so we lowered it to just $64,000 the property, which is worth $70,000, but we probably can't get that. And then we were going to negotiate on the business portion with if someone was interested, just because we can't really get a good feel

and people come in and look at it and then they don't want to take on the um you know how much it it takes to do it yeah well you're gonna you've got all the debt i mean you're just gonna whatever you can get out of the business will help you towards the debt so at least you can get it get away from this thing it's bleeding and you can get rid of these properties we have very good incomes and i know that uh we could do well it's just we made this business decision and we financed it the way we did and that was not the right way made this business decision and we financed it the way we did and that was not the right way so you overpaid and you financed it you overpaid and you financed it and you financed it the wrong way if you were going to finance it so yeah you just got a

you got a real uh big pile of stuff to shovel out here uh yeah i think that's what you do you know let's get the thing priced properly let's get rid of it let's get these other properties priced properly let's get rid of them let's just start cleaning up and then you'll be left with the residue which will be a pile of debt and um and you definitely don't need a thirty thousand dollar freaking car in the middle of all this for sure and so let's get rid of that i mean let's just start selling everything in sight and if it's not bolted down or even if it is let's sell it and then let's work our way through from there uh through whatever's left over at that point

and as you've done go in and settle some of these debts occasionally always doing that in writing and always doing it in a lump sum and no electronic access to your checking account but um i think you're going to get it if i i can't tell from the numbers they get a little fuzzy in our discussion but i think you're going to get this down to under two hundred thousand dollars worth of debt making 140 that'll take you a little while but that's doable i don't think the full half million is still laying there uh especially by the time we clear the properties, the business, and the car. And then I can start to see my way through this with your income, and that's what you do. So, hey, sorry you're facing this, but if you need some help,

more help on detailed stuff as you're working your way out of it, you call me anytime. I know you're scared. I've been there too. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Lee is in Los Angeles. Hi, Lee. How are you?

I'm doing well, Dave. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So I've been a long-time listener, and I'm in Baby Step 2, and I've got a little bit of a mountain of student debt. I make pretty good money, and I just landed a new job with a pretty significant income increase. And today when I was like trying to do the calculations, I was really excited

because I was like, hey, I will be able to really tackle these student loans. But after I did the math, it seems like I'm going to be making the same amount of money. And I haven't heard you talk about this before, so I'm just wondering, like, how can I reduce my taxable income? Or, like, I know that I'm not supposed to invest in, like, my 401K. My company does have a Roth 401K until I'm out of it. How much student loan debt do you have? I have $88,000. Okay. And how much is your new I have $88,000. Okay.

And how much is your new income? $100,000. Okay. And you're single? I'm in a long-term relationship, but on paper, as you would say, I'm single. Okay. Well, that's what the law would say. Okay.

Yes. And what did you used to make? I used to make $75,000. Okay. Well, you jumped a tax bracket, and they may have screwed with your withholding on what you're bringing home. But the other $25,000 is still there. I mean, you know, you're in a 30% tax bracket, so you're probably getting hit there. Actually, you're probably in a 22% tax bracket.

I'll have to look it up, but you're somewhere. I looked it up, and it said 24. That sounds right. Okay. And so a quarter on the dollar, right? Yeah. So if you got an extra $25,000, how much of it would go to taxes? A fourth of it.

So, you know, $6,000. So the rest of that should be available. And if they're withholding more than $6,000 on this, then you need to adjust your withholding. You may have too much coming back as a refund at the end of the year. So get your withholding set properly where it reflects your actual tax bill, and then you'll bring enough home and you can attack this. I think you can be dead for a couple of years doing what you're doing here.

You're going to have to lean into it. Thanks for the call. Hey guys, it's Blake Thompson, Senior Executive Producer for The Dave Ramsey Show. This hour's over, but you can find more great content on our YouTube channel. Catch the most watched Dave Rants, debt-free screams, and the very popular Everyday Millionaire segment. Go to The Dave Ramsey Show YouTube channel and click subscribe.