The Ramsey Show - App - Don't Take Your Car to a Dealership for Repairs (Hour 1)

Episode Date: November 14, 2018

The show about you

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, 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. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. James starts this hour off in Washington, D.C. Hi, James. How are you?

Hey, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. My pleasure. How can I help? So, Dave, basically, to make a long story short went to go visit you know family end up getting to atlanta and car just went kaput still got three years on it um took it i had it told to the dealership the dealer told me there's about 16 different error codes three of the error codes is dealing with transmission

he said that just he was like you know if you were looking to get a new car he was like now's the time but wait a new car a car dealer was trying to sell you a car you're kidding no sir shocking what happened yes sir and he was just telling me he was like you know basically right now it's just i'm still making payments on it and i'm trying to knock it out as fast as possible i'm paying a thousand dollars a month on it but at the at the time how much how much do you owe on the car? $12,000. And what do you think it's worth were it running? I did Kelly Blue Book, and the way it's running, they'd max me out at $5.

No, I mean, let's pretend it was running properly. What would the car be worth? What would it be worth then? $9,000. Okay, so you're $3,000 in the hole, plus or minus your repairs. Okay? And so what you need to do is take the car from this dealer to a legitimate mechanic who's not trying to sell you a car and will give you an honest estimate on actually fixing the car.

See, you've never even heard what it'll take to fix the car. You just had error lights on. Yes, sir. We don't know if an'll take to fix the car. You just had error lights on. Yes, sir. We don't know if an oil change will fix the error light. So we need to find out not whether a car dealer is trying to sell you a car, but we need to find out exactly what it takes to fix this car money-wise. And this guy's not wanting to do that. He's wanting to just say, oh, you have error lights.

Your place looks like a Christmas tree. And so now we're just going to plug the computer into it, and let's figure out what those error lights mean. And I would take it to a legitimate mechanic away from this car dealer. Get a bid on getting it fixed. You're going to have to fix the car. You can't sell the car for $5. And even if it's $2,000, you've got to fix the car because that makes it worth $9.

And so even if you don't keep the car, you've got to fix the car. So you can't afford to take the hit this guy's wanting you to take. And, of course, he's trying to move you up in vehicle. And the last thing you need to do is move up in vehicle. You're in debt. You're trying to get out of debt. You're trying to go the other way. So, listen, here's the thing.

It is frustrating as crap to have a car break. We are such a car culture that when our car doesn't work, it's like our right hand doesn't work. You know, it's like having your, it's worse than breaking your your cell phone you know it's worse than breaking your phone if your cell phone went out and your car went out in one day people just sit so inside the road and suck their thumb that'd be it'd be over you know we're so tied into that it's so frustrating so it's such an emotional thing and every time i get super super emotional about something around a purchase, I'm getting ready to make a mistake.

Every time I get desperate, right after that's when I get stupid. When I get desperate, I feel forced into a corner. I feel like I've got no other option, and I start using language like that. That's about the time I'm about to do something colossally stupid that five years later I still regret. And that's right where you're standing. And so just go get the car away from that guy. Get it to a, you know, do a little research. Jump on Google.

Find out, you know, some of the people around that car dealer in that area. Have it towed. Spend a little money. Move it over to another, to an actual mechanic, and let's get an estimate on what it takes to fix it. And get away from somebody that's trying to sell you a car. Seth is in Phoenix, Arizona. Hi, Seth. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hey, Dave. Hey, what's up? I'm glad to be on the air with you. Hey, I just want to say I believe you're inspired by God and my wife and I are very grateful for the work that you do. Well, thank you. You bring me a huge blessing

in our lives. Thank you. How can I help today? My question is, my wife and I, we've been married for a year and a half. We just moved back home

from Seattle and are living with my parents. We're $8,000 in debt and we make $32,000 a year, and we currently have $3,500 in cash. The thing is, my wife is pregnant. She's due on March 4th.

We know what you say about baby step two and pregnancy, so we're currently paying the minimum on our debts until our baby comes. Our car, though, it's on its last leg. It's working great now, but, I mean, it almost has 200,000 miles on it, and the transmission's been a little funny. It's okay. We just don't know how long it'll last. No, drive it.

Yeah. Just drive it for a while. You don't have to drive it for two years. You don't have to drive it for two years. You've got to drive it for $8,000. Mm-hmm. Actually, $5, five thousand dollars because you got three already that's all you are from being debt free right so get debt free build you up an emergency fund if the car goes out while you're building an emergency fund we'd call that an emergency if it doesn't go out we're not going to call it an emergency until after the emergency fund and then we're going to save up and buy a car with cash.

Okay. Good point. Well, as far as the house goes, what do you think we should do? I mean, my wife, she loves my parents, but obviously she wants a place of her own where she can... Well, go rent something as cheap as you can rent. The cheaper you rent, the faster you get through this car and debt issues,

and the faster you can start saving towards buying something. I don't blame you for wanting your own place, but don't go rent the Taj Mahal. Go rent the cheapest possible thing you can that's safe where your family's not at risk in some shooting gallery or something. I'm not suggesting that.

But, you know, get something that's as cheap as you possibly can. And then the other thing you guys are going to do, I suspect after she has a baby, she's heading to work. Because your household income is very, very low right now. And so we've got to do some things to get your all's income up. Meantime, while she's pregnant, you need to be working an extra job delivering pizzas or something and get your income on up even a little bit further. I'd like before the baby comes for you to have $8,000, or really about $10,000 in the bank.

And then the day baby and mommy come home, you write a check and you're debt free. Ding! Just like that. Okay? And then you finish up your emergency fund and then you save up for a car, and then you start saving up for a house.

But all of that's going to go faster with more money coming in. No kidding, right? That's how the math works. So you work extra, and she's going to go to work when the baby comes after reasonable, normal maternity leave, that sort of thing. Because that's where you guys are right now. It's a stage of your life you're in. And hopefully you can get your income up far enough.

If she wants to stay home, then she can later. But right now, we've got a couple things we've got to pull off here, which is getting this family settled in and get your life started off. You're doing good stuff, man. You've got this. You can do it. And I'll walk with you. You call me if you need some more help.

This is The Dave Ramsey Show. I get asked all the time, when in the baby steps is the right time to buy life insurance? My answer is typically now. Life insurance is not part of the baby steps because it's needed when your family has debt and not enough savings to provide for their financial needs. That's when they're at the highest risk. And no matter where you are in your baby steps, it's a necessity, not a choice. This includes working husbands and wives, as well as stay-at-home parents. It's pretty expensive to replace those stay-at-home parent responsibilities. I only recommend term life insurance since it's the most affordable way to get the right amount of coverage and not break your budget. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282.

These are the guys I personally use. Term life insurance is inexpensive and your family needs this no matter where you are in your baby steps. That's Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. Zander.com. Many, many years ago, I met a lady who was starting a ministry from the ground up called Proverbs 31 Ministries, ministering to other ladies and teaching other ladies. And I have been blessed to watch her and become good friends with her as Proverbs 31 has absolutely exploded. And she has become one of the top speakers in America today. Communicators, writers, number one best-selling author repeatedly, and an absolute joy, and now has written a book that just rips your heart. It's amazing.

So I called her. This book, this brand-new book, I want her to talk to you guys about it because I think it's absolutely incredible. Lisa Turkhurst is with us. What's up, Lisa? Well, hi, Dave. I'm so honored to be with you today. Well, we're honored to have you, ma'am.

It's a pleasure. Well, to start with, your cover's upside down on your book. You know that, right? Yes. That was done intensely, but it wasn't done intensely. Can you imagine how horrified I would be today? I picked it up, and I did exactly what you intended for me to do. I did a double take on it.

And having known behind the scenes what you guys have been going through and what you've gone through, I suddenly, it didn't take me but about a nanosecond to figure out what you're up to with this book. The title of the book, folks, is called It's Not Supposed to Be This Way, Finding Unexpected Strength When Disappointment Leaves You Shattered. I'm not going to steal your lines here, steal your thunder. Why did you write this? Well, I wrote it because I think all of us are dealing with disappointment in our life.

Now, it's to varying degrees, but anytime we have an expectation of something being one way, and then we have an experience that doesn't match that expectation, the ground between those two, our experiences and our expectation, that's the ground where disappointment grows wild and free. And I think sometimes it's a small disappointment like we didn't get a job that we were expecting to get or we didn't get a bonus that we thought we were going to get. It could be all the way from that to an absolute devastation in life like what I've walked through in the past couple of years, my husband's infidelity, breast cancer, and having surgery where I almost lost my life. So to varying degrees, we all experience disappointment. And I think it's hard for us to talk about our disappointments, and yet it's crucial

because if the enemy can isolate us, he can influence us. And so I wanted to give a chance to bust open some of these topics that we shy away from, our disappointments, our devastations, our disillusionment. I wanted to bust that wide open with great vulnerability and absolute raw grit and give people the opportunity to just start talking and processing together so that we can heal together. Yeah, this is pretty raw. It's pretty real. So who'd you really have in mind?

This is a catharsis book for you, I can tell. But who'd you have in mind other than that when you were writing it? I had in mind the person who wakes up at 2 o'clock in the morning. They're sitting on their bed. They feel utterly alone in the realities of life that are making them cry and have sleepless nights. And you don't have a friend that you can call at 2 a.m. And so I wanted to be that friend through the pages of this book that reminds them it's not always going to be this way. God isn't picking on you. He has handpicked you.

He has not cursed you with what you're walking through. He has entrusted this to you. And not only will you get through this, but you're going to grow stronger. You're going to develop an unexpected strength in the process that you're going to need in the future. And so I wrote this book to meet any person that's in that devastated season. I wanted to meet them there, but even more than that, Dave, I wanted there to be a book that you could hand to a friend who's going through something and you have no idea what to say to them. And instead of giving them bumper sticker, Christian-sounding answers, you could give them a book and say, you know what, my words might fall short, but here's someone who's really been through it, and I think their words will deeply touch you and help you.

Yeah, especially if you know some bumper sticker slogans, it's really difficult to not throw them at someone that's hurting um i attended a funeral this morning with one of my friend's father and um i learned a long time ago not to do the cliche bumper sticker things but i i always think about that when i'm around a situation like that um you know because everybody's always got something something to say uh you know they're quoting the Scripture that is accurate, but completely freaking inappropriate to bring up at that moment. Yes, and I think

when you've walked through a hard season and people have done that, I get it. You know, everybody feels a little awkward, and they want to say something. Like, I totally get it, and I've done it before. And I think to some extent, especially when we're Christians, we feel this pressure that we're supposed to know the right thing to say,

and we're almost supposed to kind of make some kind of explanation for why God would allow this. But what I encourage people is God doesn't want to be explained away. He wants to be invited in. That's why God says, just sit down and weep with someone who's weeping. You don't have the perfect answer, but your presence and just your comfort of, hey, I don't understand exactly the emotions you feel, but I'm going to sit here with you, and just your presence is enough. Ministry of presence. That's what we've called it.

That's great. So you mentioned cancer. You mentioned infidelity. And I knew, you know, as your friend behind the scenes, a lot of the things you were going through. How do you decide when you've got major stuff like that, what to share in a book like this? It's complicated.

I always tell people, you know, I'm a very vulnerable person. I've been vulnerable in my ministry from day one. I've always been very committed to not hiding things. But when this first started unraveling in my family, I didn't want to invite the weight of public opinion into our very private pain. So I decided for 18 months to keep this private. And at first I really struggled with that because I didn't want my audience to eventually find out and think I was keeping secrets. But I've come to understand there's a big difference between secrecy and privacy. Secrecy is for the purpose of hiding.

Privacy is for the purpose of healing. So I chose to keep this private for about 18 months. And then it became very apparent that the story was going to leak out. And I was either going to have to answer to the rumor mill or I could get ahead of the story and just tell it with truth and ask for prayer. And so that's what I did. And, you know, what's really fascinating is we're three years into this journey. My husband and I are in a very sweet place. We're walking the hard road of restoration. And last night when the book released, at the very end, in front of a live audience,

I had an opportunity to invite my husband up. And I asked him this question, are you okay with what was written in this book? Because I wanted him to have the opportunity to speak into that in front of the live audience. And he said something that I thought was very fascinating. He appreciated, I gave him the chance to read every word of this book and change anything that he wanted to. But he said, you know what Lisa, I have the opportunity now when I walk into a room, I don't walk into a room and wonder who knows about the story.

Everyone knows about the story. But I have the opportunity to walk into the room. I don't have to be the victim, and I don't have to be the villain. I can walk in as a redeemed man walking in victory, and that would have never been possible if we would have chosen to not share the story wow that's powerful there's a cleanliness to that isn't there that's amazing there is and i think to some extent the audience was shocked um that we were able to have such a vulnerable conversation in front of 400 people but you know know what? It was beautiful. It was the collective human experience.

Look, we all have crap in our life. We just do. We all have mistakes that we've made. We all have areas that we wish we were stronger, that we wish we weren't so weak. I mean, whether we're dealing with financial issues or relationship issues. The book is just...

Go ahead. I'm going to cut you off, Lisa. I want to make sure we mention it. It's not supposed to be this way, my friend Lisa Turkhurst. Lisa, thanks for stopping by. Thank you so much, Greg. Bye-bye. There's nothing smart about smartphones if your wireless plan is blowing your budget each month. Pure Talk USA offers smarter wireless with unlimited plans starting as low as $20 per month. You never pay data overage fees and we never turn off your data. No contracts, no hidden fees.

And if you're thinking our low cost means less coverage, think again. Our voice and data service covers 99% of Americans and our 4G LTE network provides the fastest internet speeds like more expensive carriers. We operate on the largest GSM network in the U.S. to ensure

you receive reliable coverage virtually anytime, anywhere. Plus, you can keep your same phone and number and add multiple lines to save more. We're so confident you'll love Pure Talk USA that we invite you to try our service risk-free. Just visit puretalkusa.com, enter promo code SAVEDAVE, no spaces, and receive 50% off your first month. That's puretalkusa.com, promo code SAVEDAVE, no spaces, and receive 50% off your first month. That's puretalkusa.com, Augustine and Julia are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Hey, Dave. Hey, we're better than we deserve.

I love it. Where do you guys live? We live in Ackworth, Georgia, just north of Atlanta. Right. Well, welcome to Nashville. Thank you. Good to have you. And you're here to do a debt-free screen.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. How much debt have you paid off? We have paid off $387,879.62 and cash flowed an additional $80,000 of expenses during that time. Wow. How long did this take? Four years and three months. Got it.

Wow. And your range of income during that time? Our range of income was from $60,000 to $200,000. That's a little jump. Yes, sir. So what kind of debt was the $388,000? It was three mortgages and just a little bit of credit card debt, about $2,000 in credit cards. So you paid off your house? Yes, sir. I'm looking at where people are. 100% debt free. We are loving it. Love it. What's your house worth? Probably $325 to $350. Woohoo! I love

it. Touchdown. Yes. Well done. That's worth four years of struggle. Amen. Good job. No payments. How old are you two? I'm 36. I am 40 years old. Well done. You did it by 40. Yes. That was our goal. Boom. Just like that. So tell 40 years old. Well done. You did it by 40. Yes. That was our goal.

Boom. Just like that. So tell me the story. What happened four years and three months ago that put you on this journey? So it goes back a little bit farther. About five years ago, one of your staff members, who's actually a cousin of Augustine's, gave us the FPU Home Study Kit. And we watched that. We loved the principles.

We were excited about it. But we kind of just did Davis for the first year. We didn't have any consumer debt at that point. We saved a little bit towards an emergency fund. And then we got to the point

where we were selling one of our default rental homes. It was under contract. We sent the payoff information to the title company. They responded, thank you very much, but we also need the information for the two outstanding liens on the home. And this was a home that he had purchased before we married,

so I had no idea about it. And I said, well, I have no idea what you're talking about. And she said, yeah, there's $36,000 in liens on this home. And so to say that I panicked a little bit might be an understatement. But it turned out that it was a clerical error that these liens had not been removed in error. One of them was a first-time home purchase grant. And then the other one was a HELOC. And I might have called them stupid for having a HELOC in the first place, but it all turned out to be an error.

But just that panic and that worry and stress of having $36,000 was enough to get us focused. At that point, we were making $60,000, and we started living on a written budget. We completed our three- to six-month emergency fund. And then fast forward another 12 months and God blessed me with a great part-time job that doubled our income to $120,000. So at that point, it became more feasible as we were just dreaming and talking about, you know, what to do with this extra income. And so then we were like, let's just put all this money towards our mortgage and get this house paid off. So we just stayed at the same level of living off of his income

and just started becoming gazelle intense and just pouring money out to our mortgage. He had a tax business that just started to grow and just become successful over that same period of time. And then we just stayed intense, and here we are. Okay. So you just worked your butts off, caused your income to go up, and used all the extra income instead of on lifestyle to knock these mortgages out. In that period of time, though, Dave, I lost my job. I mean, there were still some hiccups, yet we still stayed focused.

We had our emergency fund. We added three kids to our family during that time, so now we have six. We have six kids. Wow. And the number one question we get asked is how can we afford them? And I feel like we get them, you know, I tell them all the time, we got them at Black Friday special. But again, we just live within our means and just continue to push and not give up. I mean, we have the five G's that we focused on. God, our goal, which our goal was, man, we feel like mortgage is debt

and we didn't want to be the debtor slave. So we tackled it and went after it. And then after... Giving was important in our journey. We've always made giving a priority. Our pastor frequently made the statement that statistically, and the majority of people, as their income goes up, the percentage that they give decreases. And that was always a challenge for us. And we did not want to fall into that statistic. So as God blessed our income, we continue to faithfully tithe and believe that God honored that and blessed that as we faithfully stewarded what he gave us. So you said you're in Johnny Hunt's church. We are.

First Baptist Woodstock. He's a good friend. Yeah, we love him. It's a wonderful church. Yep. Good man. Cool. Well, very good, you guys. So I think you gave us the keys to getting out of debt. Who was your biggest cheerleader while you were doing that? Both of our parents were really supportive, encouraging. My parents were awesome. We had a default rental house in Indiana. And so my parents were just key in helping us to sell that and look after that. His parents have always been there to help us with whatever we need and encourage us along the way, so probably our parents.

So you sold both rentals? We did sell both rentals and then paid off our primary residence. Okay. Very cool. Very cool. How does it feel not to have a payment in the world? I don't think it's hit us yet because we were talking about this. And we're going to continue to do what we're doing, stay like gazelles,

and continue to put that money back in to investments, to retirement. Because we want to be on your show again when you have the millionaire show. So we're going to be on there. You will be soon. Yes, that's our goal is to focus on our future, the kids' future, and just really now we're able to just sincerely bless others and give like we've been blessed. Well, I mean, you don't have a payment in the world, not even a house payment. You're making $200,000. Ding, ding.

You're going to go fast. I mean, and your giving can be outrageous. Yeah. We're looking forward to that. You're in that exact position. Yeah. The everyday millionaire, you're on your way. No doubt about it.

Well, well done. We're so proud of y'all. Thank you. Very good. Great job. Very cool. Well, obviously, we've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Retire Inspired. That's what we were just talking about.

That's the next chapter for you guys to continue to invest now and enjoy some of the money and give some of the money out and live like no one else so later you can live and give like no one else and yeah you're doing it yeah you're doing it you're really doing it i'm so proud very cool and you brought all the kiddos with you we did all six of them and their names and ages let's do roll call hayley is 16 priscilla is six little aug Augustine is five. Angel is three. Sophia is two. And Lucas will be one next week. All right. Good-looking gang.

Ready to go. Have they been practicing their debt-free screen? We have been practicing. All right. Very cool. Good stuff. All right. It's Augustine and Julia and the six kids.

I'm not going to read them all off. $388,000 paid off in four years and three months, making $60,000 to $200,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Una, dos, y tres. We're debt-free! Great job, you guys. Great job. Oh, that's so fun. Very, very well done. Sometimes I read some of these things, and I really shouldn't, but I get drawn in like a moth to the flame. Some of the idiotic things that people say, like,

you can't do the Dave Ramsey stuff with a large family. You can't afford to not do the Dave Ramsey stuff with a large family. You can't afford to not do the Dave Ramsey stuff with a large family. And they obviously did it. What did they do? Let's look at their model. What did they do? They sold off the two rentals. That cleared some of the debt.

The equity from some of that helped clear some of the debt on the house. They cash flowed $80,000. They had three kids during the four years and note that their income went way up from 60 to 200 well this is not yeah yeah well i don't know i mean can everybody make that i don't know i'm not sure but i know that you won't if you just sit and say, well, I make $32,000 and I have 63 kids and I can't do this. Well, I know if you just sit in your poop, you know. No.

Get up. Let's have a different plan. There's a way to do this. There's something to be done here. Make a decision to live differently. That's all they did. There was no magic, no smoking mirrors. But this idea that you're, you can't do this, you know, all this victim language.

You can't go to college without a student loan. Boy, they're going crazy still on Facebook, aren't they? You people lost your minds, some of you, man. It's such an angry culture right now. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Carrie is with us in Amarillo. Hi, Carrie. Welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show.

Hello. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Okay, I have a question. My husband and I make about $140,000 a year. We have very good jobs, five children. About six years ago, we bought a business from some family friends.

And at that time, we didn't have any debt, not even on our home, except for a vehicle and a rental house. And when we went into this business venture, we financed it personally, so credit cards, personal loans. Good Lord. And we expanded. And now I'm in a situation where we give more to the business than it gives to us. And it's not our main source of income, but it's becoming a strain

because we're having to pay multiple debt payments. So I'm not sure what to do, if I should close the business, but I don't know how to handle the debt once I do that. Well, it's just personal debt, okay? Yes, yes, it's all together, yes. I understand. We finance it personally. How much credit card debt do you have?

Quite a bit. If you saw my list right now, you would go crazy. I'm about to go crazy then. You're going to give me your list how much credit card debt um credit card debt is about 30 000 okay what's the rest of it and then the rest we have a total all together with the 30 499 000 um that is with four properties in there as well with mortgages. Okay, how much of that is mortgages? The mortgages, let me see, we've got 47,800 on one. I have 41,100 on one. I have $38,000 on another, and then I'm missing, and $43,000 on one. So only $170,000 or so of the $500,000 is mortgages. What's the rest of it?

The rest are credit cards. You got your personal mortgage in that too? Yes, I do. Oh, what is that? That's the $47,800, which we refinanced to purchase the business. But we do have a truck payment in there, a truck that's at 29, and that's the only car payment that we have. But the rest, we did some personal loans and then credit cards are the rest.

Okay. You got a lot of personal loans then because I'm still like $300,000 off. Yes. There are several in there. And then there was one big business. It was like a business loan that we did get towards the end. But that one actually, they came back with a settlement on that one for $40,000. So that would take off part of that $499 out of that.

One thing that we did do, and I have a question, which was probably not the right thing, I made the decision to work with a debt consolidation program, not realizing what that is until we got involved. And it really hurts your credit. And they only pay those that they can at the time when you're depositing monthly. Yeah, they screw up everything. It did, yes. So I don't know where to go.

Yeah, you need to end that as your first place to go. I did, yes. Okay. What are the properties worth not counting your home, the other three? The other three? I have one that's worth about $70,000, and then the other two are about $60,000, $65,000. Okay.

All right. Well, let's just get all those sold. They're not making you any money. Okay. We've had the business for sale for a year and a half, and it hasn't sold. Yeah, but the properties don't have anything to do with the business, right? It's personal.

That's just where we run it. Yeah, I mean, that's our business location. It's a commercial property. It's a commercial property, okay. Yeah, but we just financed it ourselves. Okay, and what did you pay for this business? We paid $180,000. Good Lord.

The problem here is, I think, and the business is retail, so our inventory costs are really high, plus we pay someone to manage it, and that's where most of our expenses go. So you dramatically overpaid for the business then? Yes. So how much are you asking for it? Right now we have the property for sale for $65,000. And then, I mean, we had it at $250,000, but we can't really get any offers on that.

And so we lowered it to just $60,000 for the property, which is worth $70, but we probably can't get that. And then we were going to negotiate on the business portion if someone was interested, just because we can't really get a good feel. And people come in and look at it, and then they don't want to take on how much it takes to do it. Yeah, well, you've got all the debt. I mean, whatever you can get out of the business will help you towards the debt. So, at least you can get away from this thing that's bleeding and get rid of these properties. We have very good incomes, and I know that we could do well.

It's just we made this business decision, and we financed it the way we did, and that was not the right way. So, I'm just asking you what to do. You overpaid, and you financed it. You overpaid, and you financed it. You overpaid and you financed it. And you financed it the wrong way if you were going to finance it. So, yeah, you just got a real big pile of stuff to shovel out here. Yeah, I think that's what you do.

You know, let's get the thing priced properly. Let's get rid of it. Let's get these other properties priced properly. Let's get rid of them. Let's just start cleaning up. And then you'll be left with the residue, which will be a pile of debt. And you definitely don't need a $30,000 freaking car in the middle of all this, for sure. And so let's get rid of that.

I mean, let's just start selling everything in sight. And if it's not bolted down, or even if it is, let's sell it. And then let's work our way through from there, through whatever's left over at that point. And as you've done, go in and settle some of these debts occasionally, always doing that in writing, and always doing it in a lump sum and no electronic access to your checking account. But I think you're going to get it. I can't tell from the numbers. They got a little fuzzy in our discussion.

But I think you're going to get this down to under $200,000 worth of debt, making $140,000. That'll take you a little while, but that's doable. I don't think the full half million is still laying there, especially by the time we clear the properties, the business, and the car. And then I can start to see my way through this with your income. And that's what you do. So, hey, sorry you're facing this. But if you need some help, more help on detailed stuff as you're working your way out of it, you call me anytime. I know you're scared. I've been there, too.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Lee is in Los Angeles. Hi, Lee. How are you? I'm doing well, Dave. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. What's up?

So I've been a long-time listener, and I'm in Baby Step 2, and I've got a little bit of a mountain of student debt. I make pretty good money, and I just landed a new job with a pretty significant income increase. And today, when I was, like, trying to do the calculations, I was really today when I was like trying to do the calculations, I was really excited because I was like, hey, I will be able to really tackle these student loans. But after I did the math, it seems like I'm going to be making the same amount of money.

And I haven't heard you talk about this before, so I'm just wondering like how can I reduce my taxable income or, like, I know that I'm not supposed to invest in, like, my 401K. My company does have a Roth 401K until I'm out of it. How much student loan debt do you have? I have $88,000. Okay. And how much is your new income?

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

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

I'll have to look it up, but you're somewhere. i looked it up and it said 24 for 2008 all right then that sounds right okay and so a quarter on the dollar right so yeah if you got an extra 25 000 how much of it would go to taxes a fourth of it so you know 6 000 bucks so the rest of that should be available. And if they're withholding more than $6,000 on this, then you need to adjust your withholding. You may have too much coming back as a refund at the end of the year. So get your withholding set properly where it reflects your actual tax bill, and then you'll bring enough home and you can attack this. I think you can be dead free in a couple of years doing you're doing here you're gonna have to lean into it thanks for the call hey guys this is blake thompson chief production officer for the dave ramsey show

this hour's up but you'll find more on our YouTube channel, where we have over 6 million YouTube views each month. You can find debt-free screams, millionaire hour clips, Dave rants, and so much more. Go check it out.