The Ramsey Show - App - Debt Isn’t the Solution, It’s the Problem (Hour 3)
Episode Date: January 2, 2024...
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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show,
where we help people build wealth, do work that they love,
and create actual amazing relationships.
George Campbell, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today as we answer your questions
about your life and your money.
Open phones at 888-825-5225.
Ray starts off this hour in Oklahoma City.
Hi, Ray.
Welcome to the Ramsey Show.
Hey, Dave.
I've watched some of your videos and stuff, some of your YouTube things,
and I've put myself into some major issues.
Started about three years ago, I guess, when I medically had to leave my job,
and it took me about a year and a half
to even get Social Security disability going on.
I am retired military,
and I'm drawing military disability also,
but I've had to borrow from some very high-interest loan places
in order to survive for the longest time.
And now I can't get out of the cycle because I can't get a consolidation loan
to pay off all of them and refigure my cash flow.
So what is your military disability income?
Let's see.
Okay, so military retirement, I bring home about $1,900 a month.
Social Security, I bring home about $2,400.
And disability is $39,000.
Okay, on top of that.
Yeah.
So you've got $8,200 a month coming in.
Yeah. Okay. The problem is with car payment and all my loans and rent and bills and everything, I'm shelling out about $88.
Okay.
How old are you?
I'm 60.
What's the nature of your disability?
Bad knees, bad back, PTSD.
Okay.
And the PTSD is what costs the last job?
No, the knees and back is what costs the last job.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
Because I physically cannot work anymore.
I can't sit for any long periods of time.
I can't lay down for any long periods of time.
I can't stand for any long periods of time.
You know, I just, my back is completely shot.
I have massive trauma in my back and my knees and the military has basically deemed me unemployable
because of physical restraints. Um, I'm not supposed to pick up more than 10 to 15 pounds
at a time. Are you, are you married? Yeah. What does she make? Uh has a consulting business for a company,
but she doesn't really make anything.
Everything she makes, she puts right back into it for right now.
And she really doesn't make a whole lot because she just got started with the company.
Doesn't sound like a good deal.
Nope.
I'm pretty much having to cover everything.
Okay.
I'm sorry for the mishearing.
I'm sorry for the mishearing.
Thank you for your service and what an incredible price you paid.
And I've spent the last two years trying to rebuild my credit yeah well
you don't need credit credit is your problem um what how much debt do you have um all together
cars credit cards and high interest loans okay how much do you owe on credit cards?
Probably about eight.
What do you owe on your cars?
The one car that I owe on is still got about
22 on it.
Okay.
And
what is the other debt the high interest loans okay and how much are
those if i were to pay them out completely um we're looking at about 25k okay all right
you have 100k coming in. All right. And, um, so I think the challenge is, is that the two of you need to do two things. One is you need to sit down together and get on a detailed written budget. We're going to put you into financial peace university and into every dollar of the world's best budgeting app. And I'm going to pay for it as my gift to you to say thank you for your service. Okay.
Okay. And, but you make a thank you for your service, okay? Okay.
But you make $100,000 a year, man.
Yep.
Okay.
You can't work because of your physical condition, so you have zero need for a $22,000 car.
Well, that's the light's car.
Yeah.
It's gone.
Shouldn't make any money.
We're selling it.
We're getting a cheap car.
What do you got?
What do you got?
2015 Versa Note.
That's paid off.
Okay.
We need to get her something that's paid off.
Because y'all are broke.
And you're out of control.
And you're going to have to do some radical things to get in control.
And that's the two of you sitting down together
she needs to get a job that actually pays money and then the two of you can take the hundred
thousand you got coming in and the money that she actually makes and get rid of a car payment
and then you can clear this up in less than a year you don't have anything here that's not doable, but you've just all this stuff has happened to you.
And the trauma of this whole situation is caused you guys to get paralyzed and you're just not dealing with it.
But you've got the math to deal with it.
The math is there.
Four thousand dollars, four thousand dollars a month and you're debt free in a year
if you keep the car yeah i know but that's the problem is i don't you know
well you got 88 coming in do that if i do that you know then do i so do i stop paying on stuff
and just snowball it no we, we're going to.
And pay off one at a time?
I'm going to pay off one of these high-interest loans.
How many different loans are there?
I don't know off the top of my head.
There's a lot.
But there's varying amounts.
List them out, smallest to largest, and take out $4,000 of them this month
and take out $4,000 of them next month.
That's $8,000 of the 25.
Right, but that's the problem.
I don't have, I mean.
You have $8,800.
But that's what I'm saying.
So do I take four, do I just stop paying on them?
You pay minimums and you attack these.
But you can do this.
You can do this.
I think selling the car is going to help out.
Freeing up that payment will give you a little bit of margin to start this process.
Yeah, and you've got to do a written game plan for your money.
You write down $8,800 at the top of the page or $8,200 at the top of the page,
and then you work down into this.
There should be margin in this.
It should not all be gone those
interest rates there's not enough not enough debt here to cause that hang on we're going to get you
signed up for everything is our gift george camel ramsey personality is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. Open phones at 888-825-5225.
The Ramsey Show question of the day
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Today's question comes from Lauren in New Hampshire.
She asks, do your parents' debts pass on to you after they die?
Things like credit cards or failed business debt?
The age-old question.
So the question is, is any of this debt in your name?
It sounds like no. So let's assume that there's no debt in the child's name. Parent passes away.
They have credit card debt, failed business debt. My understanding is that this would come from
their estate before anything gets paid out in the form of inheritance. If your dad lives in an
apartment and owns nothing and has $20,000 in credit card debt in his name,
it does not pass to you.
The credit card company will simply not get paid.
He died a pauper.
He died with no money.
It does not pass to you.
Now, if he owns a house that's worth $100,000 and he has $20,000 in credit card debt and he dies, the credit card company will get paid out of the value of the house
before you get a distribution.
So the house is sold, $100,000, $20,000 goes to the credit card company,
you're going to get $80,000 if you're the only heir.
That would be the way it works.
So you're right, the estate would stand good for the debts.
But when you die, what you own stands good for what you owe
debt does not pass generationally in the united states but it does come out of what would have
been your inheritance if there is an inheritance now have you seen creditors try to come after the
family for debts illegally unethically and yes. And people get scared and go, okay, we'll pay it?
Yeah, they'll have one of these debt buyers that buys stuff at pennies on the dollar,
and they'll buy a bazillion dollars worth of debt,
and then they just start calling everybody in sight,
and they call you up and they go, your dad, you owe this because your dad,
and just see if they can intimidate you into paying it.
Your dad died, and they try to get you to pay it for your dad you know and uh you owe this and you're like
oh well we're gonna put it on your credit they'll threaten you and lie and all that some of them are
really really unscrupulous there was a real movement by the federal trade commission a few
years ago to shut a bunch of that down um there's you know another batch of things they find in the
debt is let's say someone filed bankruptcy and the debt was discharged in bankruptcy court so you don't owe it anymore
legally at all it was clear they'll still try to collect it oh my god just intimidate you
well you know it didn't it didn't your bankruptcy didn't clear this so we're gonna put it on your
credit and we're gonna sue you and we're gonna go see your wages and they start yelling at you
on the phone and people you know people that are you know uh uh i don't know that that aren't mean and
nasty like me they'll they'll cave and give them a bunch of money you know and so yeah it happens
all the time but but it's not a it's that's an illegal unethical practice so don't fall for it
yeah don't fall for it but the point is, no, Lauren, you don't owe money.
If your mom and dad die with a bunch of debt, you don't owe their debt.
But it will come out of the sale of their assets before you get an inheritance.
That's the thing to remember.
Ravi is in Austin, Texas.
Hi, Ravi.
How are you?
Good.
How are you doing, Dave?
Better than I deserve. What's up?
So I have no debt on my name. There was some debt. I cleared it out last year. The only thing we have
is our mortgage, which currently is at $350,000. I have a stable job. I earn around $150,000 from
a job. I have a wife and two sons, and I have $200,000 in a savings account, I cannot figure out if I should invest
in a real estate and then create a passive income or are there other better options that I should go
for? I don't know if you'll like my answer, but if you filter this through the Ramsey Baby Steps,
which people have followed to become Baby Steps million millionaires you would be at what we call baby steps four five and six so invest 15 of your income we're saving for the kids college and any
extra money we're going to throw at the mortgage principle so we have found that one of the keys
to building wealth long term is to get a paid for house in the mix and it's not one of the keys to
building wealth long term is not keep a 200 or,000 mortgage while I go do real estate that I learned on TikTok.
Gotcha.
That didn't come up.
That never comes up when we interview millionaires.
What always comes up is we dump money in our 401k, our Roth IRAs,
and we paid off our house, and I've got $800,000 in my 401k,
and my house is worth $600,000 and it's paid for
and I'm 53 years old. That's a typical millionaire. And so 800 and 600 is $1.4 million net worth,
right? That's a typical millionaire. So we're always going to lead you first to be debt-free,
which you've done. Congratulations. Great job. Second, to have an emergency fund at baby step three of three
to six months of expenses and then exactly what george told you four five and six is 15 of your
income which is just out of your 150 income going into retirement uh starting kids college funds you
can do that out of your 150 as well which as well, which leaves the $200,000. I'm assuming you have other money other than just the $200,000.
And I'm going to pay off my home as fast as I possibly can then.
And with you, I think in your situation, you're going to have a paid-for home in two or three years.
And then you can invest even more.
And you can invest in a brokerage account, max out retirement.
Incredible. incredible ma'am Robbie what I did when I when I followed that a thousand years ago
I am I'm still blown away to this day and I know the math I know compound interest I know what it
looks like but I'm I took an old house payment and rounded it up 500 bucks when I paid off the
house and I put that amount of money into a separate mutual fund. And how fast that one mutual fund was a million dollars blows me away to this day.
I look back and I go, that stinking, that was a breakthrough.
You know, and so that's why I know the math works is I actually lived it and walked in it.
The key wasn't you leveraged debt.
The key was your savings rate, your income was freed up because you didn't have any payments.
I didn't pay off the house and then spend the house payment i paid off the house payment and took the house payment plus some
and invested that plus invested more but that one account just not having a house payment
how fast that one account became a million dollars in mutual funds was blows my mind that's amazing
it's just amazing cool goal to have you take like three thousand bucks a month that's thirty six
thousand dollars a year going in. How fast that blows up.
I mean, you're not talking about five, six, seven years.
It just blows up.
It's crazy.
So, yeah.
But we don't think about investing $3,000, $4,000 a month.
We don't think about that.
Well, we're trying to do 17 things at once.
That's usually our problem.
Exactly.
Amanda's in Phoenix.
Hi, Amanda.
Welcome to the Ramsey Show.
Hi, Dave. Thank you so much for having me. Exactly. Amanda's in Phoenix. Hi, Amanda. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave.
Thank you so much for having me.
Sure.
What's up?
Hey, so first of all, I just want to briefly thank you for everything that you do.
It's so important.
I remember listening to your show when I was 12 years old on the radio.
Wow.
Yeah.
It's now I'm 25, so I wasn't really taught much about finances growing up.
I kind of had to teach myself, worked at the bank for four years since I was 18,
and so got married young.
We've been married for six years.
We're finally on the same page of like, hey, finances are really important,
and we're realizing we kind of suck at managing it.
So we've gotten ourselves into a little bit of debt.
I am feeling overwhelmed.
I feel like I'm kind of in over my head with it.
I'm just wondering where to start
We've got about 30,000 in
Auto loans
7,000 in or more like 10,000 credit card debt, but that's it. We don't have a house
We're trying to save up for one trying to get a savings. I just want to know where to start how much in savings
We've got about 500 right now
Nothing yeah, and how much is your household income? It is between $75 and $95 a year now. So we're in a good place to start doing that.
How old are you guys? 25. Okay. Oh, you said that earlier. I'm sorry. Okay. Yeah. No, you're okay.
All right. So if we're going to focus on one thing at a time and filter this through the baby steps, your next step would
be baby step one, $1,000 in the starter emergency fund. You'll have that next paycheck, right?
Okay. Yes. Then baby step two, we're going to focus on consumer debt. So we're not saving
anything. We're just focused on paying off all of our consumer debt, that 40K using the debt
snowball, smallest to largest balance, regardless of interest rate.
Once we knock that out, which you guys will do probably in the next year, you'll focus
on a full emergency fund of three to six months of expenses.
So those are your next steps.
Yeah.
Plus or minus selling the car.
$30,000 car is really high in this situation.
You may keep it, but it's going to cost you an extra year of getting out of debt.
You'll leapfrog this thing if you get rid of that car. Yeah, you'll move even faster if you move down in car. You
really bought too much car. It's not the end of the world, but it's close. It's right on the bubble.
Yeah, something to think about. Hang on, I'm going to send you a copy of the book,
The Total Money Makeover, to get you started. Restarted after your 12-year-old listening.
This is The ramsey show
george camel ramsey personality is my co-host today in the lobby of ramsey solutions
on the debt-free stage david and ellen are with us hey guys happy new year happy new year to you
good to have you guys.
Where do you live?
I live in the old Pueblo, Tucson, Arizona.
Ah, very fun.
Well, welcome to Nashville.
Thank you.
Great to be here.
And how much debt have you guys paid off?
We've paid off $87,368.
Very good.
How long did that take?
Two years and five months.
Very good.
And your range of income during that time?
It was between $91,000 and $95,000.
Very cool.
What do you all do for a living?
I currently freelance in communications and PR field.
And I'm a public school teacher.
Oh, very good.
What grade do you teach?
Fifth grade.
Fifth grade.
That's an awesome grade.
It's a lot of fun.
They understand the good sense of humor.
They're not quite middle school.
They're not insecure yet.
They've not lost their minds yet.
Completely.
Good for you.
Welcome.
Very, very cool.
What kind of debt was the $87,000?
It was the rest of our mortgage, Dave.
Oh, look at you weird people.
It's Ramsey official now.
Paid for house.
I like it.
Wow.
What is this paid for house worth?
Conservatively, about $250,ly about 250 very cool and how much
do you guys have in your nest egg in your retirement i think between all our investments
and assets and stuff we're right hovering around half a million all right way to go congratulations
halfway to the baby steps millionaires way to go thank you good stuff okay what happened two years
and three months ago that put you on this debt-free journey well it was about a about a
little more than three years ago my wife came to me and said i think i want to get the house paid
off before our son graduates from high school oh i like it and so we had about a six-year time frame
and so i looked at the numbers and i saw that our mortgage statement where it was and i said okay
divided by six years oh i think we could do. Then I dug into the numbers a little more.
I said, I think we could do it in five years.
And then we started working on,
we had just finished Baby Step 2.
We were working on through 3, 4, and 5.
And we started doing all that.
And as we did it,
and we started to accelerate the process,
we started to see this number was going to come down.
So once we got through Baby Step 5,
which was we promised to have a certain set of number aside for Daniels College, we flew through that really, really quick.
And so I went down and looked at it and said, you know, I think you could do this in three more years.
It had been 12 months.
We got like $60,000 done.
And I said, okay, let's just attack it.
So we started attacking it.
And then we were on pace to have it paid off in March of this year and then
came out July and my
wife came to me and said we had some money in the next car
fund. We were saving up for a
BBC 3B and she told me
how much is left in the mortgage? I said it's just
under 15. She goes, how much do we have in the
next car fund that we could use?
About 15. She goes, let's pay it off now.
So we paid off in July.
And so we ended up spending the rest of the year then kind of building up that fund back up.
So really kind of today we're actually on Baby Step 7 now officially.
Oh, you were there.
You're just buying a car is all.
Yeah.
Very good.
We had a car that we really enjoyed, but I knew that we would not be able to take out a loan to get the next car.
And we do about, what, 30,000, 40,000 miles a year.
We're heavy drivers.
Not David, though.
Thank goodness.
The automatic cars aren't out there yet.
So I knew that we'd have to have something set aside for the next car.
So that was great.
We were able to work that out.
And we pretty much by now have
refilled that very cool keep working on a little bit little by little very cool it just occurs to
me that the people listening on the podcast or radio don't know what we're laughing about
so david is sight impaired right yes okay how much how much sight do you have david i'm a i'm
legally blind i'm not totally blind so i have some things i have kind of an idea where you
guys are that kind of stuff.
Yeah, but definitely not driving.
Definitely not driving or flying planes or that kind of thing.
Elon's working on it.
Yeah.
We saw the white cane thing going, so we knew something was going on, and we knew what our joke meant.
But the rest of the team, the people looking into their microphones and speakers didn't know what we're laughing at.
So anyway, okay, cool.
So Daniel is with you
and he's graduated now
or getting ready to graduate?
He's in the sophomore year.
Sophomore.
Wow.
You beat the graduation
big time.
Yeah.
So we got a couple years
of investing to work on
and get some things going
so he'll be ready to go.
Sounds like he's going
to get a sweet
graduation gift.
He's going to do well.
Such a smart kid.
I was really worried
that we'd have to really
spend a lot to get him
somewhere good,
if not scholarships.
But we knew that
was very important.
You know, paying off the house
and giving him this legacy
and this fresh start.
And he's been through the process
every step of the way.
There's no way
he's going to have a car payment.
He saw mom and dad sacrifice
and work so hard
to get to where they are today.
No, absolutely not.
He's been through the process, and he especially has been participating lately
as far as he participates in some of our budget meetings,
or he knows we talk about things.
He'll hold us accountable sometimes.
We'll go through a storage.
Mom, that's not in the budget.
Or is that in the budget, Dad?
Or something like that.
That's fun.
There we go.
What an annoying but beautiful piece where your son is like, Mom, you really don't need to be buying that.
It's awful.
Accountability with my sophomore.
I taught him too well.
He's almost worse than me, actually.
He is.
So if I recant this story correctly, recount, you guys were working the baby steps exactly and you got to four five and six but in
four five and six you just realized you could turn up the heat a little bit and it's six years turned
into less than three yeah it was funny it was about the spring of the pandemic so it's 2020
and i was applying for disability and getting rejected i was going through vocational rehab
to get my new skills and techniques and stuff
so I could be able to get back to work
and do the things I wanted to do.
And that was about the time we got a big windfall.
We had the COVID stimulus checks.
I got disability approved,
so I had a bunch of back payments coming in
at the same time of tax refunds coming in.
So we had a big block of money.
In spring of 2020, we were able to finish the car.
We had financed that. We paid off the last of that.
We got through Baby Step 3B
mostly, Baby Step 3, and then we got
to 5, where we had his college fund
already set up, but we hadn't really put any real money
into it lately. So we committed ourselves
to say, let's start this up. And so we
used a lot of that money to kind of speed us
through that process somewhat, so that we
got to Baby Step 5 and 6. We're going to do those simultaneously us through that process somewhat so that we got to baby step five and six.
We're going to do those simultaneously at the initial plan.
But because we got so much extra money through her working in her school being a quality school, she gets bonuses and things like that for the things they do at their school.
And so we ended up speeding through the – instead of doing $20,000 in like a year and a half, it took six months.
We spent through it really fast.
And so that's why that whole timetable went from six years to five to four to now two and a half and it got done so
well what normally happens when you actually put this down on paper once you start living it and
you start winning you do end up turning up the heat right and dialing and dialing and dialing
and dialing and dialing it's a natural process people generally get out of debt a lot faster
than they initially think they're going to.
There was times that it became like a little bit of a game sometimes.
We would come out to the last week of the month, and we think we have a limited grocery budget.
Okay, we've got to do $60 this week.
And she's like, let's do it.
Let's go.
And we'd do it in $55 or something.
She'd be all proud, and we'd do these kind of things.
We'd have these little games to kind of make ourselves get our push through.
And it was just amazing how we started doing the budget six, seven years ago.
And we just kind of found our space and said, we're just going to figure out a way to do this and do it right.
And we just find money.
Money pops up everywhere, even though nothing really changes in terms of our income.
It was messy, messy, messy in the beginning.
Yeah, when you start paying attention, though, it cleans up and it dances. It gets
in a line. It dances the way it's supposed to dance.
It's really been fascinating.
Some of the biggest things we did was when
we had really lean months. We weren't
on credit cards. We weren't going to go into debt, but
we found a way. God provided us the
guidance, the way for us
to get through our budget and be able to manage.
It wasn't easy. We had to drop a lot of
streaming services. We had to
read the books we had in our bookshelves,
watch the DVDs in our shelves.
That was really all entertainment we had for a long time there.
Yeah.
And now we have some lease margin to at least enjoy some of that stuff,
and we can still put a good amount of money toward investing.
Stream like no one else now.
There you go.
Yes.
Hey, we got a copy of the Baby Steps Millionaires book for you,
the Total Money Makeover book for you,
and a Financial Peace University membership.
That's the Live and Give box to say thank you for coming from tucson to nashville to do your debt-free scream you guys are amazing you're heroes i'm so proud of you well done thank
you thanks for bringing daniel to share in the debt-free scream as well it's something he'll
always remember he's got to be proud of his mom and dad and he's shaking his head 87 000 paid off in two years and three months house and
everything they're weird they did it making 91 to 95 count it down let's hear a debt-free scream
here we go guys three two energy And that's how they do it in Tucson, boys and girls.
I love it.
Well done, well done.
This is The Ramsey Show.
Our scripture of the day, Isaiah 43, 18 and 19.
Don't remember the prior things.
Don't ponder ancient history.
Look, I'm doing a new thing.
Now it sprouts up.
Don't you recognize it?
I'm making a way in the desert.
Paths in the wilderness.
J.P. Morgan said, the first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you're not going to stay where you are.
Oh, there it is.
That's kind of like breaking the cycle.
You got to move.
Yeah.
Or breaking free from broke.
That's what we do.
Breaking the cycle is the new live stream that comes out January the 11th, and we're giving away $10,000.
Ten people will get $1,000 each.
You can sign up for free at RamseySolutions.com.
Breaking free from broke is Georgia's new book, which comes out.
January 16th.
Just a few days later.
Just a couple days later.
That's the theme, I guess, of 2024.
We're all going to break free.
We're breaking something.
Something's going to break.
Breaking free from breaking the cycle.
We're breaking free from broke.
We're just breaking something.
We're breaking stuff.
You've liked breaking things for many decades. If you want a you want a cake you got to break some eggs i'm just saying
i like is that an old timey saying i haven't heard that one could be yeah could be it feels
like a sharon ramsey could be a really old timey saying so hey check it out guys george's new book
comes out in just about 10 days here and so if you still want to get all the free 100 worth of goodies with the
pre-sale you can still do that breaking free from broke at ramsey solutions.com mary is with us
she's in seattle hey mary welcome to the ramsey show thank you happy new year happy new year how Happy New Year. How can we help? Okay, so I was an idiot.
I was in love with a man that convinced me to co-sign on a 2019 Jetta in the fall of 2021.
I'm not in that relationship anymore.
But anyway, last summer I convinced him to turn the vehicle back into the dealer, basically voluntarily repossess it.
He could not pay the payment on time.
And I was also helping him and he made more than me.
But anyway, so Volkswagen hasn't said it hasn't sold the vehicle yet at auction,
but when it's sold, of course, we, me and him,
are going to be on the hook for whatever is left on the loan.
So I want to know if there's anything I can do.
He does have a settlement for Harley that he got in an accident and wasn't his fault, and he's going to get compensated for that.
I was also a cosigner on the Harley because I was stupid, but that bike has been paid off.
He's just waiting for the settlement.
I'm wondering, can I put a lien on a settlement, or what can I do?
I have text messages from him saying that he will pay off the JETA, but I don't trust that
that's going to happen. It sounds like that's a correct assessment to me. Where was that girl? Yes.
Oh, Mary, I'm so sorry.
What a horrible mess.
What a sad way to learn a horrible lesson, too, isn't it?
Yeah.
How old are you?
I'm 60, and he was 43.
So I had a little bit of the share complex going on or something the share complex you're great you're great okay so how much money how much money do you have
uh how much money do i have well i'm on baby step one i I'm just starting out. You don't have any money.
I don't have any money. I have $3,000 in credit card debt that I have consumer credit.
What do you make?
$61,000 a year.
Okay.
What was owed on the JETA, do you know?
$29,000 and change.
Okay.
All right.
All right.
Let's just make up some numbers for a second just to give
you an example all right let's pretend that that jada when he turned it in was worth 20
on the repo lot let's pretend that it sells for 12 okay it might get 15 for it um but um you know we could say nine anyway so let's say there's a
fifteen thousand dollar deficit when you're done right and they come to you as the cosigner
and they want fifteen thousand dollars well the first thing you tell them is what you told me
i have no money.
Right.
I don't have any money.
I got $3,000 in credit card debt, and I have zero cash saved,
and I don't have any money.
That's the first thing you tell them, which is also, by the way, the truth.
And you can tell them where he is and where his Harley account is and that he is getting a settlement and that they should get the money from him
okay um and help them get it from him that's the best thing you can do if that doesn't work and you
and i are both suspect it won't right then the good news is you can usually settle a
repossession deficit for somewhere around 10 to 20 cents on the dollar
and so if it's 15 000 1500 to 3 000 will settle it oh yeah okay so if you get to that point that
means you're going to a have gotten out of debt you're going to have built up some a little bit
of an emergency fund of five or ten thousand dollars or something before they get around to bothering you with this and then when
they call and bother you you say okay you go after him and they say well we tried and you say well
you ought to try again because i got no money and uh then they come back at you again then you say
hey uh just want to settle my part i don't want to settle his part so you can still
go after him for more if you want but i'll give you 1500 for my part and start working with him
and you'll have to joshua back and forth with him and argue with him some but you probably will get
it for 1500 or two thousand three thousand dollars and then let him leave his part there don't settle the whole debt say i want i want the portion but i need in writing from you that the portion of my
name is settled in full that i owe nothing that i owe nothing else and you go after him for whatever
you want right perfect okay that's a lot better than I thought.
Yeah, you're in better shape.
It's not going to kill you here.
But you do have to go ahead and get the rest of your money straightened up.
Yeah, and then you just have a $3,000 in credit card debt.
Is there anything else?
I own a house with my ex-husband, and we both pay half of the mortgage on it.
And it's probably worth about $800 800 000 here in seattle but we owe
like 170 who lives in it um myself my two sons and it's a there's a mother-in-law apartment so
the ex lives there too um but we're not together or anything we just yeah we get along it works for us and that was my choice many years ago when we divorced so wow
okay all right well then yeah you've got that asset you don't want them attaching that asset
so you do want to settle this right right so you do need to get the rest of your stuff under
control so you got a little cash built up war chest before the war comes yes yeah wow perfect well we're usually talking to a a 24
year old that did something like this but you can still give anybody that's dating someone the same
warning never co-sign for someone that never buy anything on debt in any way or even co-own
something with someone you're not married to.
Would you testify to that, Ms. Mary?
I will preach it to the mountains.
Absolutely.
I will never do that.
And it doesn't matter how good-looking you are and how good-looking he is
and, you know, how much of a share complex you want to have.
It's not worth it. Wow. That's a great testimony that's very good you did you did a good job mary we're proud of you
you'll be okay if you need more help we're here to help you okay thank you so much absolutely
thank you thanks for calling in what's your old quote dave testimony is a wonderful thing to have
getting getting one's a pain in the butt yeah that's what mary just experienced with her share complex oh that's funny oh she's great that was a fun way to end but yeah the the whole
cosigning thing man dangerous stuff obviously there's proof dangerous stuff if you need it
that puts us out of the ramsey show in the books we'll be back with you before you know it in the
meantime remember there's ultimately only one way to financial peace and and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Thank you.