The Ramsey Show - App - Don't Co-sign for Your Roommate's Car! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: September 9, 2019

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Music Music Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Open phones at 888 eight two five five two two five that's triple eight eight two five five two two five starting off this hour is mark in

texas hey mark welcome to the dave ramsey show hey dave how are you doing better than i deserve what's up hey uh i just have a weird situation with the renter. Anyway, sorry, a little nervous here. That's okay. The renter originally paid three months in advance, so that was starting June 24th. Oh, sorry, it was June 1st. Anyway, he ended up passing away June 24th. Oh, my goodness yeah so uh his uh you know rent was paid till september the 1st but his ex-wife and uh son haven't picked up any of the

stuff over that period of time and uh anyway i just didn't know what my options were or something like that yeah have you had any contact with them yes uh i have and anyway uh like i said they haven't done anything for two months but uh you know i guess i just was showing them some grace and was like hey uh if y'all want to you know do it week by week to give y'all some more time, that would be fine. And it has, but here it is, September the 8th, and they still haven't paid. And I, you know, confronted them, hey, where's the money? And she got real belligerent and basically was like, well, you know, you're not allowed to get on the property.

And you have to do an eviction process that can take months months and that's just the way it's going to be. And, you know, threaten to sue me and stuff like that. Okay, well, she doesn't have any standing to sue you. She's the ex-wife. Right. Okay. Well, I mean, you've been nice and what you got for it was she's a butt. Right.

So the way I pay that back is in like kind. I'm going to get an attorney today, and I'm going to throw his stuff out there as quick as the law will allow me to. I would have been really, really merciful and kind for a long time. It's horrible. The poor man died. Oh, my gosh. It's a horrible thing. But then when I'm trying to be nice to you, and your answer is be a butt back um well we can we can handle that if we have to it's kind of sad but if you

want if you want to dance let's dance so uh you know i'd call a lawyer today find out what your rights are and what the process is i have never had and all the years of landlording i've never had to evict someone who's already passed away. I don't know how to do that. I'm not sure the estate has any standing since the individual's not living. But, you know, my guess is that neither one of these characters even have the money to get the U-Haul to get the stuff out of the house. Am I right? Yeah, it's just a weird situation. You know, usually everybody just wants to come sweep in and get anything of value,

and it's just out there. Is there anything of value in there? Oh, you know, not really. Maybe $2,500. Yeah. Top, you know. Yeah, more trouble to screw with it than anything else probably. So, well, I would ask an attorney if you can move it into storage and put your house up for rent.

And then if they decide to sue you, then I would sue them back in return. I don't know if you have to go through an eviction proceeding. I really don't. If I were in your shoes, I would ask for legal counsel. And then I would weigh that against taking my chances and just putting that in storage. You might get sued, though. I mean, you need to know what you're up against, right? But her threatening me was the end of me being nice.

That was the end of it. So, I mean, if she had said, you know, gosh, we're still trying to recover. Our hearts are broken. And, I mean, he is my ex, but I still cared for him. And my sons just tore all the pieces and can you give us another week and i would have said instantly yeah no rent just i'll give you another week but let's get this thing wrapped up and i mean you would have been kind right back you know but the way you get and you just get more flies with honey people it's really not hard

all right radonna is with us radonna's in in Illinois. Hi, Radonna. How are you? Hello. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can I help? I was calling today because me and my husband, we're behind on our mortgage, like $7,000 behind. We got a lot of credit card debt, and we don't have a budget, and I want to start paying the bills off, but I don't know where to start.

I know I need to have a budget. How did you get behind $7,000 on your house? I had gotten a payday loan, and it started out to be just $2,500, and it turned out to be $5,000. All we got was $25,000, and I wound up trying to pay that back because they was on me every other week. So I was paying them, paying them, paying them, until I just found it said I'd just take the money instead of paying the mortgage and pay them off the five thousand what's your house worth about a hundred and last time i looked online it's been a

while about 130 well like 100 between 100 and 125 but we still owe almost $100,000 as well. Uh-huh. Okay. And how many months behind are you? Today, three. Three? Because the mortgage is $1,600. Okay, three months behind. What's your household income? I bring home every month. I mean, every two weeks, I get paid.

I get paid about $700 a week, and my husband gets about $1,200 every two weeks. So we probably both make around about $3,500, $3,500 each. Yeah, so this house payment is very, very tough to make even if you were current. Well, if I was current, no. Yeah. They wouldn't. Yeah, I mean, you've got about $4,000 a month coming in. You've got a $1,600 house payment.

Yes. That's tough. That's part of your problem. How much are your car payments? One of them is $400, and the other one is $425. Okay. Yeah. By the time you pay your car payments and your house payment, you don't have any money left.

Not really a lot, no. No, like none. That's $800 and $1,600, right? It's $2,600, and your take-home pay is about $4,000. This is why you're, yeah. So you bought a bunch of stuff you can't afford. So something's going to leave. You're either going to cause it to leave on purpose or they're going to take it.

And you need to decide very, very quickly what it is. If I were in your shoes, I would stop paying all bills. I would sell both cars immediately. Even though we have them through an account, like even though they're not paid, how can we get rid of them? You'd have to sell them for what they're worth or cover the difference with a loan but you've got two four hundred dollar car payments that are completely out of line the house is probably out of line but you can try to save it you're not going to be able

to save it and keep the cars you're not going to be able to keep the cars and and and you know if you keep the cars you're going to let the house go so something's going to go and you got to decide pretty quick because you don't have enough math room in this to make a turn you're going to have to let the house go. So something's going to go, and you've got to decide pretty quick because you don't have enough math room in this to make a turn. You're jammed up in the corner, kiddo, mathematically. Hang on. I'm going to have Laura pick up and see if we can hook you up with one of our coaches in the local area there that can help you avoid the foreclosure. It can be done, but you're going to have to take some radical steps here, kiddo.

You've painted yourself into a corner. You're getting paint on your feet. It's just a matter of what color it is. Hold on. Laura's going to pick up, and we'll walk with you through this. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Business leaders, if you're not using LinkedIn jobs, you're missing out. Our Ramsey Solutions Company page on LinkedIn has over 100,000 followers. That's 100,000 potential like-minded people our team communicates our current openings to.

We also post our jobs on LinkedIn because we know the best candidates already have jobs. And LinkedIn makes it easy by doing the legwork for you. It's no wonder a hire is made every eight seconds on LinkedIn. And over 600 million members visit LinkedIn to make connections, learn, and grow as professionals and discover new job opportunities. Get started today with LinkedIn Jobs and get $50 off your first job post. Visit LinkedIn.com slash Ramsey. Terms and conditions apply. One of my favorite neighbors just dropped by. A neighbor to us right around the corner here.

Patsy Claremont is with us. She's the author of over 35 books. She's trained hundreds of speakers and leaders on how to teach and how to speak and how to tell great stories. She's a wonderful storyteller from the platform, and she's been a professional author and speaker for over 40 years, one of the founding speakers at the original Women of Faith conferences. And she's talked to literally millions and millions of people, and we are honored and excited to have our friend Patsy join us at the SMART Conference this year over in Sacramento,

coming up in just a few weeks, not far away. Welcome. Well, thank you so much. It's great to be here. May I say your new home is wonderful. Well, thank you. Yes, even the drive-in, I could feel my blood pressure going down. I thought, this is beautiful.

Lots of trees and nice fields and things coming back here in the country. It's nice. It's nice. It probably won't be that way forever, but for now, we'll enjoy the cruise down the lane to get here. Very nice stuff. So I'm going to sidebar just a second. One of the things we said in your intro, and of course you and I have known known each other a long time and you've helped even with some of the ramsey personalities how to craft a message and how to speak clearly from the stage what do you think that the best

communicators do from the stage that separates them well they have a lot of heart and they know where they're going if you don't know what you're going to say, you can get lost along the way. So if you have put in the effort to really get in touch with your story and to learn how to tell it well, it's far more likely that you're going to be able to speak to someone sitting in each row. What I see that people lose so often is they get caught up in trying to deliver content and forget to be a real person. It takes a lot of heart to be able to communicate to another heart. You have to know the language, and the language is authenticity, being able to tell the truth. And to do that, you have to have some resolve inside of you before you step up there.

You know, you've been through a tough time or two, and I've been through a tough time or two. And I think there's something about that that makes you get comfortable in your own skin where you just go, you know, it just is what it is, and I hope we can connect. And if we can't, I'll be okay, you know, it just is what it is, and I hope we can connect, and if we can't, I'll be okay, you know? Yes, I just had open-heart surgery earlier this year, and I was reminded of how vulnerable we are, and I found myself coming out of that once again committed to telling the truth, to being real, so that God can use that reality to help another person take an important step in their life. You've developed this online course called Shaking Your Tree.

Talk about that. Well, Shaking Your Tree, I was looking one day at a tree and I thought, it's got roots, it's got shoots, and it's got fruit. That's the story we all want to be able to and experiencing the fullness of life. And from that is coming some good stuff that other people can come along and benefit from. Wow, that's great. That's fabulous. Fun stuff. And you've been doing a coaching course. How's that going? That's going well. We do it by Zoom. I also do it one-on-one. And I have a little video course called Shaking Your Tree that's available. But I really enjoy helping people plug into their story. I love to help them learn how to tell it, whether it's from a platform or written form in a book.

And I love opening them up to the depth and breadth of their own creativity i've known people who have gone through a lot of tough things and they never got they never could get to the point they were comfortable enough with what they had been through to be able to share it and and so instead they still were trying to put a still trying to put a cover over it you know and and on stage that or with a microphone talk radio in particular the industry i'm the world i'm in is so intimate uh if you're not real everybody knows it everybody knows it well i think people are embarrassed by parts of their story because they believe the lie that they're the only one. And I get that. I was an agoraphobic. And I remember when I was

going through those years where I could not leave my home, I didn't know of anybody who was in that kind of emotional predicament. So I thought I was the only one. And the more I gave in to fear, the more fear demanded of me. And then it moved its relatives in, which was anger and resentment and blame and whining. And I had the whole array. You had every cousin there. Oh, I invited them all in and bring your luggage, please. So they were unpacking and riding my home into my life.

And it wasn't until I began to say the right yeses and the right noes. I think yes and no are two of the most powerful words we've been given to speak. They will get us into trouble or out of trouble, depending on which way we take them. But they're powerful words that help us set up personal boundaries and make measurable progress of development and growth. So when you're at Smart Conference, are you going to do your fear talk for us? I'm going to talk about the power of yes and no.

I'm going to talk about the fact that we have more potential than we give ourselves credit for. And I don't care how much we've done or how far we've come. There's more. But your story is so powerful. It is such a great story story i want to hear it again at smart conference so you got to weave it in i gotta weave it into the talk because it's a great story of overcoming fear because you were homebound for how many years well i covered about six years in my life two years of slowly withdrawing two years of almost never leaving home, and two years of slowly learning how to

get back out. Now, that was just that part of it. There are other aspects of it that I kept bumping into as I continued out the door and forward. I never anticipated that God could take someone as broken as me and give me a platform. And he gave me a platform out of my weakness and his strength. And that's where I think people who feel embarrassed with their story and don't want anyone to know, don't understand that it can be transformed into great counsel and hope for other people. And there's something about telling your story when it helps others that gives you a sense of your purpose and your destiny.

I think it is the completion of our healing, too. It was for me. When I started finally saying out loud in public i filed bankruptcy i was stupid i lost everything my wife about killed me we were embarrassed you know when i started telling those stories and other people went yeah well me too i went really you i thought you were ken and barbie y'all look pretty i figured it was just the ugly people that had this but no it was uh there was a catharsis to that process oh there is it does benefit us but i found that that's kind of god's economy anytime he requires

something of us he gives us much more back uh there's but you don't realize it going into it you don't purpose it for that reason but later you look and you think whoa i'm the one that's learned so much i think you guys can hear the wisdom 35 books worth of wisdom professional author speaker for over 40 years again one of the founding speakers of women of faith a lot of the ladies that came out of the women of faith movement over their speaking career to patsy's training patsy claremont is our guest this segment she will be with us at the smart conference when we do that in coming up in sacramento california november the 16th there are a few tickets left but not a ton and that's yet one more reason you should come and spend the

day with us because you'll get information like this lady thank you my friend thank you so much honor to have you patsy claremont ladies ladies and gentlemen. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Let's talk about low interest rates, baby. I know right now that Churchill Mortgage can get qualified buyers into a 15-year conventional loan for well under 4% with no discount points or no hidden fees. Listen, if you're even thinking about buying a home or refinancing, do it right now. These rates are incredibly low. Here's what I'd like you to do. Take 10 minutes and call Churchill Mortgage and see what you can qualify for. So even if you have to get creative and buy something further out of the city

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NMLSconsumeraccess.org. Equal housing lender. 761 Old Hickory Boulevard, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027. Well, in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the Death Freeze stage, one of our own team members, Tony Hendricks, is with us. He's an email marketing coordinator, been doing digital marketing with us for a couple of years. His wife, Sarah, here to do a debt-free scream. Way to go, guys. How much have you paid off? We've paid off $50,000 in 18 months. Good for you.

And you've been with us about two years, so you started working on that after the two years. So I'm not going to ask your income because I don't want to mix it up with your team members here. That's kind of embarrassing and fun and all that. Inappropriate, whatever the word is. But so very cool. What brought you to Nashville to Ramsey Solutions originally? A very checkered career path. So prior to coming to Ramsey Solutions, I've been laid off about four times. And I wanted a very secure place to come work and a place where I felt like I was going to be investing much more than just myself and profits, but people.

And finding Ramsey Solutions was just an absolute godsend. It was a long interview process, but it was so worth it just to get into these doors and to start really affecting people's lives in a big way. Yeah, we had nine new team members start this morning. One of them said it's harder to get on at the FBI. So did you guys, were you here in Nashville or did you move from somewhere? Yeah, so I'm originally from Atlanta and I moved here back in 2015. And I've been living in Murfreesboro since 2012. I moved to MTSU for graduate school.

Okay, so you guys met here then. And how long have you been married? We've been married a year on September 1st. Oh, wow. So in the middle of this get out of debt thing, you guys get married in the middle of it. That's right. Okay, so tell me the story. How does this dating relationship go down?

You're working at Ramsey. You're getting out of debt. And how does this come up on the date? What date number? Date number one or date number six? I think for Sarah's sake, I'm not going to mention the date number. Whoa! But no, we were together about six months.

Okay. Not when I started working here. We were together about four months when I started working here. And we took FPU together around six months after us starting to date. Oh, okay. So you were talking about it pretty early in your relationship. Oh, yeah. Sarah will tell us.

What happened, Sarah? Right. So we met in the summer of 2017. And then Tony was going through the interview process in October. And then he was required to do FVU as a part of the higher on process. And I had never gone through it myself and I was still making payments on student loans. And I was like, well, you know, I'll go along and do it with you. And so we took a class at New Vision in Murfreesboro and I decided that. So at that point you weren't engaged, though.

We were not. Okay. All right. Wow. Okay. So it got real serious, you know, the whole job thing and joined a cult and we required you to go to the class and all that stuff, right? Yeah, pretty much. I love it.

Very cool. So talk about a dating relationship that's getting obviously progressively serious. Going through a class required by your job about money. How did those conversations around that go? Surprisingly easy, I think, for us. We had gotten to a point in both of our lives where we were very comfortable with who we were as people. And, you know, we felt ready to start forming our relationship and who we were as a couple. And so us being together at that point, we had already started talking about getting married and everything like that. And so being able to talk about our finances, you know, it was very easy for us just because it's going to happen at some point.

We have to know about each other's stuff going into a marriage. And it set us up so well ahead of our marriage. And for anybody who's dating anybody and wants to know more about them, start talking about money because it's very revealing. Oh, it gets real fast. It gets very real. But Sarah, being a very frugal saver, she wasn't carrying a lot of debt. I was. I'm the spender.

Happy to admit it. But Sarah really just was willing to be open from the get-go, and it made the entire process so easy. And it was just so easy for us to get on the same page and made our start to our life very, very easy. And, I mean, there's a reason we're standing here today. Yeah. So you're frugal, Sarah. You're the one that already kind of had your act together, and you're looking at him starting to clean up his act. That kind of had to help his chances.

His stock had to go up. Did it? Yeah, you know. Answer a little faster when we were going through the class and i saw tony's openness and willing to you know just kick some bad habits to the curb and and i had student loan debt too i wasn't totally debt free when we met and things like that and so um i think we just saw it as an opportunity to start implementing some new life practices and a lot of self-control and just kind of got us on the same page as we went through the FPU class.

That was very transformative for us. Very cool. What do you do for a living? I'm in the admissions office at MTSU. Oh, cool. Okay. Great. Great.

Great school. All right. Fun stuff. Well stuff well congratulations you guys hey we're very very proud of you all thanks for letting me put you on the spot on all this relationship stuff but you know what we get a lot of folks out there in our in our listenership that are asked those kinds of questions all the time and um since i've been married 38 years i have no idea i mean i wouldn't even know how to begin a conversation like that. And so it's a different world to start this whole process single and in your relationship, your dating time, your engagement period, and then your young marriage.

So once you get married, I can kind of help you from there. But, man, that other stuff, I'm, you know, I can't help. So way to go, you guys. Very, very, very proud of you. Good stuff. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? I'll let you take this one. Yeah.

You know, I think one word or two words, I suppose, that come to my head a lot is self-control. I think that that was a big practice for Tony and myself as we worked towards paying off a lot of debt. It was just saying no to some things, but not totally depriving ourselves of having a good time and going new places, but just practicing some self-control and teamwork for the two of us together. Yeah, and I mean, being able to sit together and talk about money in a real way, no matter what was going on or what we were experiencing, it was, I think that was a big key for us is like knowing that having these, what may seem like tough conversations when in the grand scheme of things, they were actually pretty easy considering our situation.

You know, being willing to talk about it and just sitting down and hammering it out and doing, and doing it right. You know, it, it really did change our lives in a big way just because we were able just to sit down and talk and that held so much value. Amen. Amen. Well, good stuff. Good stuff. Well, folks, as I said, Tony's one of our digital marketing guys over in the email marketing area who coordinates that. So if you get an email from Ramsey, it could have been Tony. It could have been Tony that sent that email.

It's possible. It doesn't come from my email address, so I'm fine to admit that. You never know at this point. That's right. I love it. Way to go, you guys. I'm sure you have a copy of Chris Hogan's Everyday Millionaires, but you'll get another one if you want one or whatever else you need. You know, the stuff's all here for you guys anyway.

How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth and How You Can Too. All right, it's Tony and Sarah, married 18 months, two years. No, you've been married a year. A year. A year. A year, newlyweds. But it took two years for Tony to get out of debt. He started the process totally.

Been with us two years. No, I'm sorry. You've been with us took two years for Tony to get out of debt. He started the process totally. Been with us two years. No, I'm sorry. You've been with us two years. You've been getting out of debt 18 months. You've been married a year. Yep. Now I got it right. Staggering at six months.

Make sure I get it dialed in. Perfect. Perfect. All right. And $50,000 paid off. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one.

We're debt free. Love it. Way to go, you two. Very, very well done. We have to figure out a way somehow to put a dating service tied to Financial Peace University. I mean, wouldn't you like to know that your potential spouse had a brain? Yeah, we could do that. Probably not.

But it would have been a good idea if somebody else had thought of it. Congratulations, you two. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, guys. At the Dave Ramsey Show, we really value your input. It helps us to know what's important to you so we can deliver relevant content to help you crush your money goals. We just launched a brand new survey, and we'd love your feedback. It only takes a few minutes, and you'll be entered to win a $100 Amazon gift card. No purchase necessary

take the survey at davramsey.com slash survey or text survey to 33 789 Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you're here. Jessica is next. Jessica's in Colorado. Hi, Jessica. How are you? I'm so great. How is next. Jessica's in Colorado. Hi, Jessica. How are you? I'm so great. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, my husband and I are having an exciting disagreement. I'm a math nerd. So, looking at the numbers, and by July of next year, we'll owe $17,000 on our house. And we have between our fully funded emergency fund and what we call our giant sinking fund is our usable savings. Sorry, I'm nervous. We have $25,000.

So I thought if we use the $25,000 in July of next year to pay off the $17,000, we'd still have a three-month emergency fund left. So I was basically asking if you would please side with me so I can win. Do you have any other debt? No, we're debt-free. We're in four, five, and six. Okay, very good. Why would you not do this? Right, that's what I'm saying.

Why does he not want to do this? Usually it's me that has a giant security gland, but I think that might be part of it, is he's worried that I'll freak out if we don't have that money in the bank, maybe. Okay, so if you wrote a check, if I understood, you had $25, you pay off $17, this is next July, and that's your calculation, which would leave you $8,000. Correct. Okay. And how long have you all been married? We are about to hit 11 years.

Okay. And how many of those 11 years have you had less than $8,000 in the bank? We were very poor in the beginning of our marriage, so I would say probably the first couple years. Only two years? So nine years, you've had $8,000 or more? I'm surprised. I would have guessed a lot less. Well, because of you, we got your book when I graduated college, and then a couple months later, we got married. So you were out of debt and building your emergency fund really quickly then correct i was able to graduate college debt free and then we got married debt free so we kind of started everything out really great okay so what's your

household income about 60 000 i'm a stay-at-home mom and he works outside the home okay so if you had eight thousand dollars in there in july you were debt-free without a house payment, how much money a month could you save to build your emergency fund up even higher if you wanted to? I mean, easily, we could save the $1,200 a month that we would be putting towards a mortgage. How much could you save? You're agreeing with me is what I'm hearing. How much could you save? About $1,200 a month.

No, you're already saving money now. Well, we're putting every extra dollar we have towards the mortgage right now. Yeah. That's not going towards retirement. So how much are you putting towards the mortgage today total? You're putting $1,200 plus what? Just the $1,200. Oh, that's the $1 today total? You're putting $1,200 plus what? Just the $1,200. Oh, that's the $1,200 payment.

Yeah. That's everything. That's every extra dollar. You don't have any more money in your budget anywhere. I mean, because we're in 4, 5, and 6, we're kind of like not totally titled on the metal. So we use it. Okay. So if you're at $8,000, the next month you'd be at $9,200. The next month you'd be at $'re at 8 000 the next month you'd be at 9 200

the next month you'd be at 10 400 the next month you'd be at 11 600 right right okay uh and so i i would probably commit to building that emergency fund up a little higher uh above the three months since your husband is concerned about your security gland. He sounds like a good husband. He's so great. Yeah. And he wants to know that you feel comfortable. That's a good man. Yeah.

I like that. And so let's build the 8,000 up a little bit more afterwards. I also predict that something's going to happen between now and then that's going to make these numbers better, not worse. Right. This is all very conservative. Yeah, I think you're going to get there sooner or you're going to have more money or something. I think these numbers are dialed in. So, yes, you win the argument with the caveat that you take the old house payment and you build that emergency fund

back on up to about 15,000 then you stop it and you separate it from your sinking funds after that emergency fund should not be in the same account with sinking funds it is not but i was just trying to oh you're just giving me the whole picture. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So how much is in your emergency fund? About $16,000. Okay. Then I was about right. Let's work our way back up to that from $8,000 after you pay off your house. But, yes, I would pay off my house if it did not take me below three months of expenses in my emergency fund.

And I was at maybe step six and then you're at seven. So way to go well done i love it burto is next burto is in indiana hi burto how are you hey ramsay how you doing thank you for having me sure how can i help so my girlfriend and i were in a hundred a little over $190,000 worth of debt. Wait a minute. We aren't married. There isn't a we. How much debt do you have and how much debt does she have?

Well, I think I have about $150,000 in debt. You have $150,000 and she has $40,000? Yes. Well, she's a generous woman to be dating you. Okay, why do you have $150,000 in debt? Well, $128,000 of that is my house, and then the rest of that is on a car that I have. Okay, well, that's better news. At least you didn't tell me you got a student loan debt for $150,000 with a degree

in left-handed puppetry. So we're making progress. Good. It's a house and a car. And what's her $40,000? Well, it's actually our $40,000 because I co-signed on the vehicle that she got. She bought a $40,000

car and you co-signed on it? Yes. Okay. And what's your household income? So together it's about $160,000. Okay. And so you guys are walking around thinking like you're married, acting like you're married, violating about six different rules of relationships, asking for trouble.

When is it you're planning to get married? Sometimes soon, here in the next year or two. Okay. We've been together for about three years now. So what's the holdup? Okay. We've been together for about three years now, and we live together. So what's the holdup? So the holdup on what? Getting married.

Because you're acting like you're married. You're walking around talking about we, we, we, we, we, we, and you went and bought a car together, $40,000 worth that you can't, with your roommate. And if she decides to drive that car off into the sunset, into a ditch, and walk away from you, you know what you got? A $40,000 debt and a broken heart. Yeah. No divorce.

Nobody, no judge is going to help you. They're going to look at you and go, you made a mess. No judge is going to help you. Yeah married yeah you're right either quit acting like you're married get married combine your incomes then you would have we have an income because you don't have a household income dude not under the law now you may feel like you do all your friends that are shacked up like you are may feel like you do. But you don't have, under the law, you have a roommate. And you co-sign for your roommate's car that she couldn't afford. An expensive car that she can't afford.

And so it's a mess. Yeah, so your best shot at cleaning this mess up is uh as we used to say in the old days make an honest woman out of her and uh let's get married and now let's combine our finances combine our incomes and start to get these debts cleaned up and basically you've got two major debts that are cars is what you're telling me and then you'll work on your house a little bit later but you man you you have no idea you're walking around in a minefield and you don't even know it and you're going to step on something it's going to go click and it ain't going to end pretty for you so you really have got to you guys are going to straighten up here you're going to

make you made a mess man you really have i mean i know you don't think you think i'm some kind of weirdo or something that's fine but my job here is not to protect your feelings it's to protect your life and that's what i'm here for is to help you so i hope that helps this is old dave giving you the wake-up call ringy dingy this is Blake Thompson, Senior Executive Producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know over 15 million people listen to The Dave Ramsey Show every week? And a lot of those people listen

to one of over 600 radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, head to DaveRamsey.com slash show.