The Ramsey Show - App - Don’t Let an Emergency De-Rail Your Debt Free Dreams (Hour 3)

Episode Date: August 5, 2022

Ken Coleman & George Kamel discuss: Being $15k underwater on a car, Deciding between job options, What to do with the proceeds from a home sale, Using retirement to fix a car.   Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, this is The Ramsey Show, where we help you win financially, professionally, and relationally. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell is my colleague, and he joins me this hour as we answer your questions. It's a free call, 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225. George will answer your money questions.

I'll chime in. And I'm here to answer any questions around your world at work. You feel stuck, burned out, dealing with toxicity, want to pivot, want to start a side hustle, you want to get promoted to make more money i'm your big shovel guy all right that's what i do over on the ken coleman show helping people win in their work and so i want to bring some of that to the show today george and i genuinely like uh hanging out together we sit about uh six feet away from each other if that if that i usually butt up a little closer. Yeah.

Well, you're just trying to get a little bit of wisdom. A little wisdom. But anyway, we're having fun today and we want to have fun while helping you, so let's go. Jared is up in Orlando, Florida. Jared, you're on... Excuse me. How can I help? I almost said...

You see what I did there? Almost. Wow. I stopped it. It's not hard. Yeah, you do it every day. How can we help? I almost said. You see what I did there? Almost. Wow. I stopped it. It'll have to stay hard. Yeah, you do it every day. How can we help, Jared? Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call. You bet. So I have a car problem.

So I was in the military several years ago. I went through about a two-year period where I went through five cars and racked up a ton of negative equity. Wow. What happened? I was 21 years old and really didn't know what I was doing. I bought a car that was about three times what my salary was with a cosigner at one point. I just kind of spiraled out of control. How old are you now? Now I'm not in that situation, but I'm moving to New York, so I no longer need a car. Until a couple months ago, I was about $25,000 underwater on my car loan.

Now I'm about $15,000. It's the only debt I have, but I'm not really sure what to do since I have to move in a month, and I can't bring the car with me. The car was worth about $30,000 as of about two months ago, but I Kelly Blue Booked it a few days ago and I noticed it dropped another $3,000. So now I'm wondering in this kind of short period of time I have to deal with this, do I either leave it at my parents' house and just keep making payments on it and throwing more money at it than just a payment to get rid of it as fast as possible? Or do I take out a loan to cover the negative equity and then just pay off the loan as fast as possible?

My income right now is about $100,000 net, and that's going to be going up to about $175,000 net with salary. And then with bonus, we're probably householding and clearing about $270,000 a year. So it's going to be a short-term issue over the next few months, but I don't have $15,000 to throw at it right now. How much do you have? An emergency fund or just like how much do I have? Just general cash, liquid cash. It's just $1,000.

I've been paying off student loans and everything, and that's all gone. This is now the last problem. This is your last final debt? Yeah. Okay, so what is the car worth, and what do you owe? The car is worth, what Kelly Bluvick says, about $27,000, and I owe about $43,000 on it. Ouch. Okay.

And it was, like I said, it was worse than that. I threw about $10,000 at it over the past couple months, but, yeah, that's kind of where I'm at with it. Yeah, so you're about $15,000 or $16,000 underwater. Yeah, I mean, your best bet may be, and this is for America's sake, the only time we would ever tell you to get a loan is when you are upside down on a car and you can go to your credit union and get a loan amount for that amount and pay it off as fast as possible. And it's nice that you don't need a car because you don't have to turn around and go

buy another one. Yeah. So that's a strange blessing in the situation. Do you guys think that it's worth doing that? Because my income, like I said, is going to be going up to where I think, what it's looking like, how I've calculated it out, it would take me about two to two and a half months to pay off the loan where it's at right now. But, I mean, I don't think the interest rate is so much an issue. I mean, it's a really bad interest rate. It's 8%, but in two months I don't think that's going to make much money.

But you're not going to keep this car, and so there's no real need to go down that path. I'd rather you be $16,000 in debt than $43,000 in debt if we can do that by the end of the week. And then you knock out that debt in, what, a month or two with your income? Yeah, that's what I'm thinking, yeah, about two months probably to knock out a $14,000 loan. So that would be my plan. You know how much you owe. We're going to put this upside down car up for sale. We're going to try to get top dollar for it. I'm going to be listing it private on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist and Autotrader.

I'm going to get in touch with Carvana and Vroom and dealerships and see who will give me top dollar for it so I have the least amount of loan to take out. Then we're going to cover that upside down amount with a loan from your credit union or wherever. Then we're going to, we don't need another car. So that's a blessing you don't have to deal with. And that will get you out of this thing in another month or two, instead of months down the road. Okay. Yeah. Sounds good. I think that was the way I was leaning. So I'll do that. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Jared. That's what we call a stupid tax, Ken. And, uh, you know, he, he made his mistakes in early on and and now this guy, he's crushing it. He's cleaning up his mess. Proud of him.

I think that's the takeaway for people that are new to the show and listening and watching and hearing this story. He owned it. He's not defined by it. He's digging his way out of it. A lot of people carry this shame and guilt and they don't know what to do and they get frozen.

The truth is, we just put all that baggage down and we take the right next step for the future and go, all right, I made the mistake. I'll never make it again. Let's move forward and build wealth. Yeah. And I think that's the right mindset as opposed to, well, I'm never going to get out of this. Well, I'm just going to have to drag it around. It's fascinating. I was thinking the other day, I wanted to ask you this and I forgot to ask you this. What is the average, do you have an idea what the average car payment Americans are driving around with? I know years ago it was about $400. It's up closer to $600 now.

Is that right? Yes. That's the average car payment. And the loan terms are becoming longer and longer. Like 72 months, I see. Yes. And even, they'll go longer now. I mean, they'll go as long as you want, Ken.

They'll just go, hey, you want to pay this stuff in 10 years? Right. They don't care because the depreciation is your problem. They're going to get paid. And they're making interest for a longer period of time. So they're happy about it. Wow. So don't do it, guys.

Yeah. What's the going interest rate on a car loan? Oh, boy. That's a great question. I don't know. It's not pretty. I'll tell you that much. Yeah.

Yeah. Fascinating. Yeah. So I asked that question because, you know, it's people just as soon. I'm seeing about three, almost 4%. 4%. For new cars. There is still the mindset in America, George, it's not gone anywhere.

No. That like, hey, you got to have a car payment. Yeah. You know, $600 a month. It's brutal. And these, the interest rate can go up, you know, as far as 20% on car loans, depending on your credit and what you're coming to the table with and your down payment and all that. And so the truth is most people doing that are buying cars way beyond their means, way beyond their income. Of course. Because they can afford the payment.

And so we say, stop asking that question. Start asking, can I afford it in full, in cash, instead of can I afford the monthly payment? Because that's how broke people talk. And we want you to be wealthy. We want you to be financially free, have peace in your life. And when you save up and you pay cash for a reasonable car, it changes everything. Yeah. Like a 2013 used Tesla.

That's right. That's what you did. I got no one to impress and yet Ken's impressed. It's a good looking car. Thank you, Ken. I'm not kidding. It's fantastic. I'll take you for a ride after the show. Yeah. Let's do that. I want to do the thing where you hit the button and it goes really fast. I don't know if I have that feature. I don't know if it's that

fancy. I'll have to look into that. Alright. I'd like to try that. Alright. Don't go anywhere. George and I aren't know if it's that fancy. I'll have to look into that. All right. I'd like to try that. All right. Don't go anywhere. George and I aren't, and we're going to be back in just moments to take more calls. This is The Ramsey Show. welcome back to the ramsey show i'm ken coleman ge. George Campbell joins me. And we are here to answer your phone calls. 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Adam is on the line in Pasadena, California. Adam, how can we help?

Hey, guys. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. So I'll jump right into it. I've been working for a general contractor for almost the past 11 years. And I have two job opportunities ahead of me. One is with the city of Los Angeles, which pays me more and has benefits and all that stuff. Or there's another job with the Caltech University in Pasadena, which is a couple blocks away from my house. It also pays more, but it's kind of in the middle ground.

What do you mean by middle ground? Sorry, I'm a little nervous, guys. That's okay. You're doing great. I just didn't know when we compare the L.A. job, city of L.A., and Caltech, you said both pay more, but then you said Caltech is more middle ground. I didn't know what you meant. You got it. So right now, after taxes, I think I took home about $46,000.

The city of Los Angeles job as a carpenter starts at $90,000 a year before taxes with a pension and benefits. And then Caltech is $72,800 a year before taxes. They don't have a pension. They have more of like a 401k and that after three years, you're in full control of your money. So you can kind of choose where they put it or how much you want to put in and they also have benefits are you doing uh carpentry for both yes yes i'd be working for the city of los angeles i would be doing street services which is far more brutal than what i do now now i'm a uh i'm more of a woodworker i do custom cabinetry woodworking furniture things of that nature um at cal, I would be kind of doing the same thing I'm doing now, but more in a school setting.

So that would be building dorms or lab tables. How old are you? Repairs, maintenance, things like that. I'm 37, and I just had my first son, and he's four months old. Awesome. Congratulations. So the reason I asked that, Adam, is what's your long-term play? What's the top of the professional mountain for you as you sit here today? You don't have to hold yourself to this answer, but what's that look like for you?

Because you're a young man, so when you're 50 or 45, where do you want to be professionally? You know, I just want to be secure, and I know that sounds like a fear thing, but I stayed with the current contractor that I'm with under the pretense that he was going to mentor me and I was going to take over his shop when he retired. That was kind of the carrot in front of the horse. Is that what you wanted, is to run your own shop? It was what I originally wanted, but now... What do you want now?

And I know you want to be stable, so I'm going to push back. Everybody wants to be financially stable. I'm asking you, assume financial stability. What kind of work would you love to be doing over the next five, ten years as you kind of finish out your professional journey? What's the top of the professional mountain for you? I mean, it would be great to run my own company, although that's a big hurdle and I've seen a lot of failures throughout here. Okay. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I love what I do. I love doing woodwork. Yeah. That's my point. So here's the deal. It's a craft. Right. So you love the craft that you're doing now.

And so, sure, you love to own your own business. Forget about the fears and the hurdles. If everything were ideal, you'd eventually like to work for yourself in the space you're in. Correct? Sure. Okay. All I'm trying to do is help you go, all right, because we need to know this when we make decisions like this. The reason I walked you through that quick exercise is because on paper, the city of

LA seems to make more sense. On paper, if we just look at, well, it's 90,000 versus, I'm rounding up, 73. But I don't want you looking at it that way. I want you going, okay, long-term, what do I want to do? And for right now, we're not holding you to this, but for right now,'re not holding you to this but for right now it's i want to stay in the craft that i'm in i'm a craftsman i work with my hands and and so i want to be doing that kind of work and maybe work for myself but i want to keep moving up so the question becomes will caltech give you a better ladder or will the working for the city of la give you a better ladder and i'm removing finances right now i'm saying what would give you a better ladder? And I'm removing finances right now. I'm saying, what would give you the best opportunity to continue to advance?

I would say the city of Los Angeles has more opportunity because it's broader, whereas Caltech is a school that is affiliated with JPL. So that's nice, but there's not as much room to grow. A lot of people love their job there, and from the research I've done, tend to stay there for a long time. So it's hard to get, say, the boss's job or a promotion if someone already is holding that position. Whereas the city of Los Angeles has several different departments. So you can bounce around.

You're still a carpenter, but maybe you're working street services or you might be working general services. You could go to Parks and Rec. You could work at LAX. Exactly. And because of all of that you just named, think about all the connections you're making, which could lead to some tremendous private sector opportunities. You're going to be meeting a lot of people, right? Sure. So I like the city of LA, Joe. Okay. Okay. I appreciate that. Yeah. But one last thing I was going to say is I live two blocks away from Caltech, and there would be zero commutes, zero wear and tear on my car, zero gas, zero time wealth loss driving my truck to and from work every day. I mean, we're looking at a couple hours every day to and from work with the city of Los Angeles. So I always take all those things into account.

But the other thing I wanted to just lastly ask is, I've been with this guy for 11 years and he hasn't done anything to kind of lift me up. There's no more ladder for me to climb and that's why I'm leaving. But it's not without a heavy heart. So I just wanted to make sure you guys, or maybe get your opinion that I was on the right path, I guess.

Yeah, you are, and you have no opportunity to grow, so you shouldn't feel guilty about pursuing growth. You're a good guy. Absolutely. Could you move closer to work, Adam adam if you took the city of la job um to be honest i probably could but it varies so often that which department they might send you to you it would be kind of uh you're going all over i don't yeah yeah i'd be going all over and i've lived in the same uh rental for the last like 10 years because i'm really good with

the landlord because i do all the repairs myself and he hasn't raised my rent so i would love to I've lived in the same rental for the last 10 years because I'm really good with the landlord because I do all the repairs myself, and he hasn't raised my rent. I like that. I would love to do all the baby steps. I mean, I'm not in debt, but I don't have anything else kind of handled other than about five grand put away. Well, you're about ready to get a big raise. Listen, Adam, here's the deal.

Yeah. I don't like the commute. The commute sucks. There's no way around it, but that's LA. So, I mean, that's here's the deal. Yeah. I don't like the commute. The commute sucks. There's no way around it. But that's L.A. So, I mean, that's part of the deal. You know, moving around isn't really an option because of the city of L.A. is so vast and you might be doing projects. I would take the L.A. job primarily because of the raise and the connections. Because I don't think you're going to have to stay with the city of la very long

if you have your head up and you're making connections you're talking to people on the job uh that would be my goal yeah and if a year or two from now the commute's killing you and it's not what you thought it was you can leave yeah i just think you are stacking connections big time over the next year two years so yeah i would take I would take the LA City job. The Caltech job, it's just going to force your hand down the road anyway, because you're not going to have any growth. You've been with a guy for a long time where there's no ladder, and you know how that feels. Why would you go from one ladderless place to another ladderless place? Well, that's hard to say, George. Ladderless place. But this is a good point, Ken. If you're a leader out there and you're not giving your team members

opportunities for growth and talking about what that looks like, they're going to leave. And that's what we're seeing right now is people want growth. We're designed for growth. And if we're not advancing, and we're not talking about getting a raise every 10 minutes, I'm talking about, is there room for me to grow in this company long-term? That's correct. And if you don't have that as a leader, they're going to go find another leader who cares enough to help them grow. George, you're all over it. In fact, the data backs up your opinion.

That's rare. Saw an article this week, a new study out. The number one reason people left their jobs over the last six months, they did not feel that they had professional advancement opportunities. And that's not always about money. No, it's actually not money because the third factor was income. They actually want a chance to grow and do more. We are creatures of progress, leaders.

You've got to make sure you're answering that question for people. So they don't want a better job. They want a better life, George. There it is. I'm going to drop my pencil on that one. Pencil drop. Don't move.

More Ramsey Show coming up. the ramsey show continues from our ramsey solutions worldwide headquarters george camel is with me i'm ken coleman we're so excited that you are with us. 888-825-5225 is the phone number to jump in. We'll talk about your work situation. You want to make more money, get out of a toxic situation, figure out what that business idea is. We'll talk about your work and more money, that bigger shovel. And then George is here to answer your money questions.

But first, we want you to find out for yourself why Blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window coverings. You get free samples, free shipping. And with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more if you use the promo code RAMSY to get the best deal. Today's question, George, comes from Alex in Chattanooga. I'm $52,000 in debt and am engaged to be married. I earn $40,000 a year working at a warehouse and am studying to become a software engineer, which could potentially earn me an entry-level position starting at $80,000. The software course I'm taking says it should take six months to complete. My question is, should I put extra free time hours I have into studying so I can become an engineer as fast as possible and double my income in six months?

Or should I focus on the job I have now, put those extra hours of free time towards working overtime to save $10,000 in a year for our wedding and then get back to baby step two after the wedding? This is a true combo question, George. Wow. What do you think there? What's your money advice here? Well, I like the fact that six months from now he could be doubling his income. I like that a lot. Because that means an extra $40K versus an extra $10K of working overtime.

But truthfully, the priority right now is we've got to make sure we can cash flow this wedding, get through that completely debt-free. Then we're going to have combined income. Hopefully his spouse is going to be working so we can really tackle this debt. Because right now, making $40,000, trying to tackle $52,000, you're not going to make a ton of progress. No. I'm with you. But I'm going to challenge you.

A little both-and. I'm going with what George says. Absolutely focus on the overtime, doing whatever you've got to do to cash for the wedding, obviously. But I also think, you know what, this is the time to lose a little bit of sleep. Stay up late, finish this course. Getting up early when I'm not overtime. I'm working to get this course done as well.

I'd like to cash for the wedding and have a great job before I'm married. And figure out the financial aspect of the wedding. What is it going to cost? How can we shave that cost down? Who's paying for it? If it's just on him and the spouse, that's a different situation versus family chipping in. So have those conversations to figure out what that number is. You've got to hit by the wedding date to pay all the vendors and get married. So I borrow a little gazelle intensity from our baby steps, and I'd put it towards studying, hustling, overtime. Look, you're getting ready to get married, so she's planning the wedding.

She wants you out of her hair anyway. That's true. I was no help. I don't know about you. Oh. You know, but I also told Stacey, look, babe, I'll go for the registry of the, what it was at the, I guess I just said that's what it is. You register for all these gifts. She wanted me there for that. So I was like, okay. You scan the cake stand that you'll never use. A hundred percent. And, uh, you know, I did that, did, you know, but other than

that, you know, there are a couple of key questions you wanted my opinion on. Other than that, I stayed out of it. You didn't choose the flowers? No. Oh, sad. The key there is to start your marriage off on the right foot, a little relationship advice before we get into the calls. Whatever she says she wants or she asks you, hey, what do you think of these flowers? Always start with asking another question. What do you think about them? Oh, that's a life hack.

Because you want to know, is she meh? You want to be on the right side of history. Or is she really, yes, is she really excited about him? So it's always good to go, huh, what do you think? Because now you look interested and you look engaged. What we're really doing is we're trying to figure out which way we're going. Because if she's meh, then you go, meh. Smart man.

If she's like, I really like him, you've got to go, I love him. How many years have you been married? 24. There you go. I've not done it right. Proof's in, I really like him, you've got to go, I love him. How many years have you been married? 24. There you go. I've not done it right. Proof's in the pudding. Yeah, well, hey, I made that mistake recently. She bought a new chandelier for the bedroom.

Wasn't thinking, George. Came in, she caught me off guard. I wasn't prepared. She goes, what do you think? And I was like, it's fine. Oh, no. No, no, no. Last words.

The answer needs to be, I don't like it. I love it. You scared? You had me in the first half? Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, I didn't do that, George.

I'm going to come over and see the new chandelier. Yeah, sure. Bet it's wonderful. I'm going to tell Stacy, I don't like it. I love it. There you go. Brittany is up in Indianapolis, Indiana. Brittany, how can we help?

Hi, thanks for taking my call. I sold my house and I'm now living with my boyfriend. I walked away from closing this week with about $130,000 in cash. Whoa. How does that feel? It's amazing. I have followed all of the baby steps, so now I'm completely debt-free. And my question for you guys is, what's the best way for me to invest this money? And most of it I'd like to invest short-term to have for a down payment on a house in the future or a wedding or both. So what's the time horizon here? Are we talking two years, five years? I would think somewhere in that window of two to five years.

So I don't know how strict those timelines need to be. Well, it depends on your risk tolerance and when you might need the money. Because the fear is a year and a half from now, you go, man, I really need the money and the market's down and now you're selling at a loss. And Brittany, here's the question i have all right george is going to help you out on this but but i gotta know i mean if your boyfriend's on the phone with us right now is he thinking two to five years as well because this money's your money it's not right it's not our money even though you're you're uh shacking up with him it's not his money and i'm just wondering wondering, I'm playing the older brother

role here. George, I'm a little nervous about this. I was going to say old man, but I like older brother. Well, either one works. I'll receive it. Brittany, seriously though, how serious is this relationship? Well, we're 30 and we've been dating for almost three years. So I would say it's pretty serious. But my dad is listening, I'm sure, and he would appreciate that comment. Hey, Dad. It is definitely my money. I got your back, Dad. I'm asking the tough questions today.

No, I'm being serious here. Three years you've been together, and you think it's going to take two more years for this guy to put a ring on it? I don't think it'll take two years for an engagement, but I'd like to be able to plan a nice wedding and everything like that. The point I'm making is... And I don't think I need $130,000 for a wedding either. You do not. You do not. My point is, this is your money until the day you get married. You hear me? That's what I want you to know. I think your dad wants me to tell you that. Absolutely. He would appreciate that. And my boyfriend is debt-free besides his mortgage,

so I feel like we're in a really good place. Okay. All right. Now I feel like I can get out of the way, George. Thank you for that, Ken. I'm trying to help out Brittany and Brittany's dad. And try as you might. So Brittany, do you have a fully funded emergency fund? I do. And there's no other current financial needs, upgrades, repairs, car upgrades that are in your near future? I don't think so. I thought about maybe upgrading my car, but there's nothing wrong with it. Okay. Well, let's leave that alone for now. So if that's the case, if I'm in your shoes, I'm probably going to invest in an S&P index fund or some mutual funds, and you can connect with a SmartVestor Pro on our website who can help you navigate all that. Because that $130,000, you could see it grow at 9%, 10%, 11%, 12% over the next

three to five years if you play your cards right, which could really help with this down payment. You might be able to put 50% down and pay off this house really fast in your 30s. How cool would that be? Yeah, that would be awesome. I love that. So go get connected with one. You can interview a few of them and choose your favorite that you have the best personal chemistry with that you trust the most to help navigate what to do with this $130,000 to help it maximize and grow over the next few years. Okay. Thank you so much. Hey, and I got to know, what's the guy's name?

His name's Mike. Mike needs to commit. Mike needs to go shopping for a ring. Come on, Brittany. If he asked you today, would you say yes? Yes. Man, I'm telling you. We should do an engagement on air sometime, Ken.

That would be fun. We need to send this clip. Mike, if you're listening, call in. We'll have Brittany on the other line. Yeah, we'll officiate the whole question asking. I'm sure Ken got one of those online licenses. Yeah, I'm just saying, like, she's ready. She's sharp. She's sharp.

She's got things going on. What are we waiting on? The pressure is on, Mike. I got to tell you, I'd show him this clip because, Mike, I think it's time for you, pal, to draw a line in the sand and tell Brittany you want her to be your wife. What are you waiting on, man? Jeez, George.

This is fun. These guys. We're having a good time. I don't know what I'm doing. Ken's half joking, but, Mike, seriously, call us. I know you're listening. If you're debt-free and you're having a good time. I don't know what I'm doing. Ken's half joking, but Mike, seriously, call us. I know you're listening. If you're debt-free and you're a Ramsey fan. I'm not joking.

Let's get Mike on. Get him to call in. I'll tell him how to do a great setup to pop the question. We've got to make sure Brittany's not listening. That's true. You see what I mean? All right, folks. More of the Ramsey Show coming up. the Ramsey show continues from our Ramsey Solutions Worldwide Headquarters just south of Nashville, Tennessee.

I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell is with me. Our scripture of today comes from Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. Our quote of the day from Francis Chan. Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.

George, this maybe you should start to question your guitar hobby. Wow, that was a personal attack on a Friday, Ken. Gosh. No, you're wildly talented actually. You got no skills on the six string. I think it's jealousy. Oh, 100%. But You got no skills on the six string. I think it's jealousy. Oh, 100%. But I got no skills on the golf course.

I would love to be able to play the guitar like you do. Thank you. George is very, very talented, folks. Thanks for the plug. Don't ever forget it. All right, Cody's up next in Orlando, Florida. Cody, how can we help? Hi, Ken and George.

Thanks for answering my call. Sorry, first call. You bet. I'm a little nervous. Oh, you're doing great. We're going to be so nice to you, and you're Thanks for answering my call. Sorry, first call. You bet. I'm a little nervous. Oh, you're doing great. We're going to be so nice to you, and you're going to get great answers. Don't promise that, Ken. I don't know how I feel about this.

All right. I'm trying to make her feel good. Okay, thanks. You bet. I just had a quick question. So my husband and I finally started the Baby Steps full commitment. We're trying our best, and we're still in baby step one. We only have about $370 saved so far.

We just started this month. But, well, we started last month. But our car, my car had some pretty bad maintenance that needed to be worked on, and it's still in the shop. And it's a lot more than what we have in emergency fund. So I'm asking if we should take some money or really it would be all of it out of our retirement to cover that cost. I know that's wild, but I'm going back and forth just because it seems like the only other option besides selling the car, I guess, is taking out a credit card without interest for the first 60 days.

So we try our best, work really hard to pay it off within that time to have no interest and then just cut up the card. But I don't want to do that still, but I would love to hear your thoughts. Well, Cody, the short answer is no. The shorter answer is no. And these are both bad options. And I think you backed yourself into a corner where you go, well, my options are rob my retirement or put it all on a credit card. And the truth is you've got more options than that. So how much is this repair going to cost? Right now? Well, the estimate a couple of days ago was about $2,252. But they've since recently found out that it was worse than they thought when they finally put the car back together, they said.

So it might be about 100 or 200 more. I'm still trying to get a hold of the agent to get the answer on the total, but it's still in the shop, so they're not quite sure when they can get it. Is this an engine problem? What's going on? No, yeah, so I think this is partially my fault unfortunately um i i think i'll they estimate that i was driving with the emergency brake on without realizing and that really messed up the brakes the rear brakes and the calipers and everything on the calipers so but even replacing brakes and calipers is not $2,500 yeah that's why I was going to go in and ask why it's a little bit more than I thought

because he did break down everything in terms of each individual cost. Did you go to a dealer? Yes, but I went thinking I was only getting a wheel alignment. Yeah, of course. Don't take it to a dealer. Cody, Cody, Cody, Cody. What kind of car is it? I didn't know. That's okay. only getting a wheel alignment. Yeah, of course. And I would be a great dollar. Don't take it to a dealer. Cody, Cody, Cody, Cody. What kind of car is it? I didn't know.

That's okay. It's a Honda Civic. Okay. Do not take it to the Honda dealer. Okay? So I want you to go get, this is just like a doctor. You're going to go get a second, maybe a third opinion. I want you to talk to everybody you know.

I mean everybody you know. I'm talking Facebook, social media, anything. Everybody you know, church, civic clubs, everybody you know, I'm talking Facebook, social media, anything, everybody you know, church, civic clubs, everybody you know, go, hey, I need a reliable, honest mechanic. Who do you go to? And let's get one or two options. Take the car in. If you've got to have it towed, you've got the money. It's a small amount of money, but you've got to give that car over to an honest mechanic. Do not tell them what the dealer charged you. Just say, hey, I need this looked at, and let's get some other options. You go to a dealer, and God bless dealers, but you go in for a windshield wiper fixed,

and they come back with $900 of things you've got to have done. It's total garbage. That's where they make the most of their money. Don't give them $2,200. Get a second or a third opinion. All right, now, George. Now, when you do that, you said you have a spouse? Yes, and also it's already in the shop,

so they've already been working on it and did most of the work already. Oh, no. So that's where I kind of was like, yeah, I can't take it. So you authorized this for them to do all of this work for $2,500? You signed off? Yes, and then I regretted it, and that's why I'm calling. I'm sorry. Well, I didn't know that.

I would have saved us 17 minutes. Okay. So you're on the hook for this. Call it a stupid tax. We've got to move forward. We've got to pay for this. Yeah. I'm going to get in touch with them and say, listen, I can't pay for this in full.

Can I get on a plan to pay this off as quickly as possible and see what they say if they're willing to work with you? I hope they are. And on top of that, we're not pulling from retirement and we're not going to credit card debt. What we are going to do is we might lose sleep doing side jobs here and selling every single thing that we own that is not tied down to the house. We're listing it on Facebook marketplace and Craigslist. We're asking people around our community what we can do to pick up some extra jobs. And we're going to cash flow this thing, which means we're pausing the baby steps temporarily to cover this emergency. So how quickly could you save up $2,000?

Well, my hope is, well, okay, I shouldn't say hope, but when I worked out the plan, we should be able to pay it off by next month, like at the latest. Great. Obviously, we're going to try to work really hard to pay it off this month specifically. We do have that $400 in emergency to put something toward it, but that's, yeah, that's all we have right now. Well, just be honest with them and say, listen, I can put 10% down on this payment for this car repair.

That's all I have right now, and this is a good faith payment I'm making, and the rest is going to be here on this date, and here's what this looks like. And they may not release the car until it's paid in full, and so you're going to have to figure out an arrangement to get around until then. But onward, upward, you're going to get through this, Cody.

You guys are on your way. Proud of you. Thank you so much for the call. James is up in Wichita Falls, Texas. James, how can we help? How are you guys doing? We're having a blast. We've got about two minutes or so, so we're going to try to help you out.

What's the question? So I am wanting to know whether or not I should save up for my wedding, pay off my remaining debt, or just cash flow the rest of my school. Whoa. Can we do all of this and not go further into debt? That's the question. And if that means pausing on the debt snowball, I'm okay with that. Can you cash flow college and cash flow the wedding? So the wedding is being paid for by her family. Nice. So why are you saying you have to focus on the wedding? Well, it's more so my marriage rather than the wedding.

What's there to focus on? Just trying to figure out whether or not I should save up more, because I only have about $4,000 saved up. I don't know if that's going to be enough to cover us. To cover what? Just cover the marriage. Marriage doesn't have a... I don't even know what that means.

There's no built-in cost to being married. Is she going to work? Yes. All right, then. She's an emergency room nurse. All right, well, then she's fine. She's covering herself. I don't even know what you mean by cover the marriage.

There's nothing to cover here other than, you know, there are going to be some moving expenses. Where are you guys going to live? I'm going to live in Dallas. In an apartment? Yes. Okay. So we do need to make sure we've got moving expenses covered after the wedding, which is probably going to be in the ballpark of a thousand bucks, maybe? About $1,500. Okay. so $1,500 is for that, so we're good there. The wedding's taken care of. We need to focus on cash flowing college. How much further do you have to get to graduate? I will be done in May. Nice. And do you have the money currently, or have you already paid? I do. All right, so once the final bill is paid,

then we can go after attacking this debt, and if the wedding's paid for, then we're good. So as soon as you've got those two things buttoned up, let's start attacking this debt and clean it as much as we can up before we get married. Okay. That's the game plan. There it is, James. I love that. Boy, that's the first time I've heard that one before.

I didn't know there was a built-in cost to marriage. How much do I need to cover the marriage? It's like a dowry. Like you just give Stacy upon the wedding day, here's $5,000. Oh, man. That's fantastic. And a sheep. Yeah. That's a tradition in many countries still. You got to come with cattle. I don't know how that works. You got to have a cattle offering. I did have a camel at my wedding, so maybe that was part of it. Yeah. Well, that was a great prop. George Campbell, always fun to be with you, pal. You too. Thanks to Kelly and the crew behind the glass for all they do to make the show so great.

Thank you, America, for listening. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, folks, Ken Coleman here. Did you know The Ramsey Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world? Get your daily dose of advice on life and money. Check out all of our shows from The Ramsey Network wherever you listen to podcasts.