The Ramsey Show - App - Getting Out of the Paycheck-to-Paycheck Cycle (Hour 3)

Episode Date: November 15, 2023

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. I am Jade Warshaw. I am joined today by Ken Coleman. I am the money personnel and Ken Coleman is the work and career personnel, but we dibble and dabble, you know, into a bunch of other things. So if you want to give us a call, we'll talk about what you want to talk about. As long as it has something to do with your life, your money, your work, and your relationships, the number is 888-825-5225. The phone lines are open, but I see we've already got David in San Antonio, Texas. David, what's going on in your world, dude?

I have a quick, short question. Would you recommend a person who suffers from emotional, spontaneous shopping stay out of the shopping malls? David! Wait a second. You don't get to hang up yet? That's too. David! Wait a second. You don't get to hang up yet? That's too juicy. But wait a minute.

He knows the answer. David, you know the answer? Well, what's your recommendation? Do I just not bring as much cash into a Walmart or a shopping mall? Or do I not go at all? We're going to dig deep and find out how deep it is.

Before you dig, I want to also just make a connection with David. I suffer from emotional, spontaneous eating. What type of things do you eat, Ken? Oh, boy. Chips and salsa. Okay. I go the salty variety. I don't want to make this about me.

So David's in good company. I want to learn. I'm going to see if what you say to him about emotional spending helps me with emotional eating. I want to know, David, what does this spending look like? Are we talking about, hey, I go to Target and next thing I know I've spent $500 on a credit card? Is it I come back because it's the Lexus Christmas to remember and I bought my wife a new car like how deep does this go i'll walk into a shopping mall with say four hundred dollars my attention is to buy one item

and leave but you know how a shopping mall is the next thing you know you see this you want that you may be with a woman she sees this you want that she wants this and the next thing you know that 400 is gone i so i i totally get it but here's the thing you know, that $400 is gone. I totally get it, David. But here's the thing. You came with $400. This is key. Did you go with $400 and you only spent $400, or did you go with $400 and you spent far more than $400? Okay, that's a good question.

I didn't think about all that. I see what you're saying. Do you see what I'm saying? No, what's the answer? You actually asked a question. It could be both at any given moment. I mean, it depends. I mean, not that I go to the mall a lot, but you know.

If you go over the $400, the extra money that you're spending, is this you putting it on a credit card? Yes. Okay. Here's what I would recommend. In general, I think that we all can be emotional spenders, celebratory spenders, I'm sad spenders, whatever that thing that provokes you. I'm a celebratory spender and eater, by the way.

So knowing what those things are, like some of us, it's like, I like spending money and these are my space. Like, it seems like you have identified the mall, is it? For other people, it might be home goods. For other people, it might be um i don't know whatever you know bass pro shops whatever it is right so some of us know the key areas like if i go in that store i will buy something so i would avoid those stores also there's some data out i just read this don't go shopping when you're in a sad or mad state of mind. There's actually, yeah, like it's people go out and you don't even have to be in the mall to want to go buy something when you're sad or mad. That's right. So that's the other part.

So the first part is identifying what is the store that just, I can't leave without spending something. And then the other part is identifying what type of spender am I? Like I said, I'm a celebratory spender. I get that. I'm a celebratory spender I get that I'm a celebratory eater I get that you David need to look and go what is the emotion I'm feeling when I feel the need to spend so that's number two now practically speaking this is just me when whenever somebody says hey Jade I can't stick to my budget or hey Jade I'm spending

like crazy you want I just tell people I'm like you need to take the the plastic out of your wallet and that comes in two parts number one if you have credit cards you need to cut those jokers up never to be seen again and your debit card also needs to come out of your wallet and you need to replace that with a stash envelope of cash that only gets you what you need. So David, you're not the guy who needs to keep $400 of cash in your wallet in and of itself. You probably need to keep $25 or $50, and that gets you through the day. Don't take a woman to the mall with you. I know, that's right. I gotta add that. Don't take these women out. You can tell he's got an issue with this. David, you take a lady to the mall, what happens you pal i overspend he overspends

he gets soft like butter he's like i gotta spend she's just because she's looking at something you want to make her feel special david that's correct that's correct you need to tell her ahead of time well like jade's advice show her the envelope and say i only have fifty dollars in this because this other lady in my life named jade said i could only have 50 maybe don't show her the envelope because we don't want her thinking that will take care of the lady problem yeah it will it's what i'm doing for him i'm helping him out david's got a lady problem he does he does but maybe don't show her fifty dollars and say this is all the money I have. You'll find out. Yes, I would. Nope. Disagree.

That might make the pool shrink real quick. No, it'll tell you whether or not she likes you for you or the stuff you're getting her, David. That is true. I know what I'm talking about. You're not blaming women exactly because everybody has emotions now. Oh, no. This is not on. I'm not blaming women. I'm blaming you and your weakness for women.

Okay. It happens. That's right. I didn blaming you and your weakness for women. Okay. It happens. That's right. I didn't get this cardigan without some experience. I know what I'm talking about here. You got to be careful. That's your kryptonite. You're laying it out there.

100%. Let me just go one tab deeper. Do you think that the majority of the spending that you do is on other people or other women, or is the majority of the problem that you're spending on things that you're buying for yourself 50 50 50 it's 50 50 so what i would say is reserve like if you're dating around like if you're you know swiping left or swiping right and you're you know going out with different ladies what is that a dating app oh okay gotcha like tinder or whatever oh i'm not in that world I'm not either, but I got my ear to the pavement, Ken. You do.

So I know what's going on. You are up to date. If you're dating, don't spend like big bucks on these like just a weekend date. Once you find a lady and it's like, this is my lady, then you can start creating like a larger budget for what you might want to spend to wine and diner. Do you have debt? I have about, I'm about a hundred in

credit card debt. Oh, no, that's another conversation, David. A hundred thousand? You didn't tell us about that. No, 100. Oh, okay. Just a hundred dollars. That's nothing. Okay. Yeah. So we're paying that off. Yeah. It just may look. I'm telling you the envelope, I like you, but this is how much I like you on this date. Set yourself a clear budget. Get the envelope, clear amount of money in there. This is for dinner.

We're not hitting the mall afterwards. It's for dinner and a movie. We're keeping it simple. We're not going to extremes, Ken. No concessions at the movie. But ladies, okay, it's poll time. No Annie Ann's pretzel in the mall. James, it's poll time no auntie ann's pretzel in the mall james it's poll time if you're a lady and you go on a date and he shows you a 50 envelope

and says this is it this is all i got turn on or turn off you tell us is this a good thing are you like this is a responsible male or is this a bad thing i think it depends on how he looks i really do because that would give if the guy showed me a 50 envelope and said this is a responsible male or is this a bad thing? I think it depends on how he looks. I really do. Because that would give, if the guy showed me a $50 envelope and said, this is it, it would give me Uncle Boo Boo vibes. And I would be like, I don't know about this guy. I just, he can keep it a secret is all I'm saying. Just take me out. You don't have to tell me everything.

All right. That's fair. Put it in the poll. Let's see what people say. Maybe not the best procedure, but a great principle. I'll give you that. This is The Ramsey Show. You're listening to The Ramsey Show.

I am Jade Warshaw. You are Ken Coleman, and we are your co-hosts together today. Give us a call. The number is 888-825-5225. We'd be happy to take your call. Now, our question of the day is brought to you by Neighborly. Neighborly is your hub for home services. When you need to make repairs, schedule routine maintenance, or get local help for home improvement projects, go to neighborly.com slash Ramsey, your source to find and schedule reliable home service providers

in your area. Today's question comes from Derek in Oregon. What do I do with the leftover money at the end of the month when I'm budgeting in every dollar? What say you, Judge Jane? I say you follow those baby steps, Derek, and whatever baby step you're on, that's where the margin goes. And that could be anything. And for anybody who's listening for the first time, I'd be happy to just walk you through those baby steps. So, you know, where your money, you can assess your own personal situation and go, okay, where does my margin go? Um, baby step one is a thousand dollars saved. If you are in debt and you're looking for a way out, baby step one, you just get a thousand dollars starter keyword starter emergency fund. Then after you've done that, and by the way,

for your starter emergency fund, you pull that from any Then after you've done that, and by the way, for your starter emergency fund, you pull that from any money you might've had before, or you go out and get it, you work. The average person is able to get that money in about 30 days. Then you move on to baby step two. Baby step two is paying off all of your debt except your mortgage. Now, this is where we're going intense. And if you have, again, if you have a stash of money, maybe you got 20k in the bank You've got money in stocks. That's non-retirement money You take all that money plus the margin in your budget you throw it at your debts from smallest to largest

That's called the debt snowball and that is baby step two Then after that we head on over to baby step three This is where we're stacking up three to six months of an emergency fund So if you're listening and you're like jade, I don't have debt. I mean, I've got my mortgage, but that doesn't count. Okay. Now you're on baby step three. That's where your margin and your budget goes to baby step three, stacking up three to six months of basic expenses. It doesn't have to be your full fledged, full budget with all the bells and whistles. Okay. And after you've done that, if you're like, okay, I've still got some margin we're investing 15 which happens to be baby step four and we still have some money left over

Now you can throw that towards a 529 for your kids. You can throw extra towards your mortgage Okay, and that's where that margin goes if you're on baby steps four five and six your margin is paying 15 to retirement Anything after that you're putting towards your kids college it's not a particular amount whatever you can get and then whatever is extra after that you're paying off your house early and that's how this thing works and i can't say it enough when it comes to budgeting i'm going to call myself out here ken and you can tell me what you think okay i'll call you out i used to think that a budget was simply a list of your debts and as long as your money is paying for your debts and you know what your debts are and your

month-to-month bills car notes uh hair appoint you know those things that are mandatory car notes rent um insurance cell phone as long as you've paid for that in your budget you're fine and everything else is just up for grabs everything else is treat yourself bag if you is a grab bag you don't have to budget that money yeah no that is not a budget as i understand it's not a budget a true budget is a zero-based budget meaning you take your paycheck and you give an assignment and you get to choose some of the things are mandatory and like this, I'm a responsible adult. I have to pay these things. And then you're also, though, assigning that other half that used to be the Trecho self

money. You're giving that money an assignment, too. And it's OK if one of the assignments is hair appointment. It's OK if one of the assignments is dog food. You better believe I have to get my hairs did. You got to get those hairs did, Ken. You know, John Maxwell once said that a budget is telling your money what to do. That's right. And I think that is a very simplistic but powerful way of looking at the process of budgeting.

Yes, zero base because I've told every dollar where it's going. That's right. Why we have the every dollar budgeting app. That's why it's called Every Dollar. You tell every dollar where to go. And by the way, I talk specifically about every dollar in this new little quick read that just came out today. It's called Money's Not a Math Problem. And I call it Money's Not a Math Problem because we're dealing with things that happen in your mind when it comes to money. But the other play on this is I'm talking about budgeting and I'm talking about every dollar and every dollar does all the math for you. So again, it doesn't have to be your math problem. Let every dollar figure out that math problem for you. Okay. Ken Coleman. I see what you did there. Yeah. That's a seamless

self-promo. You know, I will beat that drum. All right. Let's go into the phone lines. We got Robert from Las Vegas, Nevada. What's going on going on robert hi uh thank you for taking a call um i have a question um bought a house a year and a half ago first time buyer and i'm late in my life and i would like to try and pay off the house much earlier than the 30 year typical 30 year mortgage yeah so i'm thinking i'm thinking five to six years, maybe seven years. Love that. And so I can, so I can enjoy the, the, the house. Yeah. I love that. I don't think I'll be around 30 more years to enjoy it after I retire. Sure. Um, well, I mean, I hope that you have a long, full life, but I get this feeling of wanting to pay off your house. I love that. My only question to you would be to make sure you're at the right point in your financial

journey to actually start taking those steps. So let's dig a little bit deeper. Is that cool with you? Again? Okay. So we just walked through those baby steps here a minute ago. What baby step would you be on? Do you have debt? Do you have money saved? I don't have any debt except for the mortgage and one car payment. Okay. No credit cards. I've got some cash, yeah. How much cash? $35,000. Okay. Would you call that about, how many months of savings would you say that is? Is that three months? Is it four months? Six months? It's right around five. About five months. All right. So I got to jump in because we got the car payment you said we have no debt except but the car payment is debt so how much

do you own the car? Well good question um I don't know the amount I owe but it's a monthly payment of 350 and it's only because I got in a car accident that totaled my almost paid off car. If you had to guess what you spent on the car, what do you think you, what do you think you spent? Is it 20,000? Is it 40,000? Oh no, no, no. It's probably more like 15,000. Okay. So Ken, I'm glad Ken dug deeper on that. I would take some of the money out of that saving stash that you have enough to pay off that car completely.

And I would get that debt out of your life because it's draining 30, you know, 350 bucks a month from you that you could be using to pay off your house. So I would pay, I would pay that debt off, get it out of your life today. Then, you know, you've got five months. If you wanted to build that savings back up, you could, or if you're like, look, I'm fine. If that brought you down to three months and you were fine with having three months of savings, we suggest three to six months. So if you want five again, you could take some time and build it back up. And then my next question to you would be, are you investing 15% of your income in retirement?

No, I do not have any retirement yet. I just got this better income a couple years ago and were able to buy the house, like I said, about a year and a half ago. And so basically my plan is to pay the regular mortgage and then throw a lot of extra cash at the mortgage for the next five to six years. I know you want to do that, but I also want to make sure you've got plenty of retirement and cash on hand as well. So what I would love to see you do is also start investing 15% and you've got this new job, this new income. I want you investing 15% of your gross salary and I want you doing that every month so that you can start having compound interest work for you so that when you do, you know, go on down the line, this money is there. And then after that, when you've got that extra money, now you can start putting some extra

on your mortgage, however much you can or however much you'd like to. You do not have to be intense about this, but I do want you to be very, very intentional about getting this mortgage paid off. And these all work together. I think right now you're just one track mind. I got to do the mortgage, got to do the mortgage because you want that piece, right? I think everybody wants the feeling of not owing anybody anything, but there's methods. Yeah, there was a plan for the retirement. It was like five years towards the house and then the next five years will be just all towards retirement. Yeah. Since I wouldn't have any major debt. Look, look, Robert, at the end of the day, you can work your plan if you want to. I'm not mad at you. You're grown, man. If you want to work the plan that you had and that you

created, you are free and clear to do that. But if you call us, we're going to tell you what our plan was and what our plan is and the plan that's worked for millions and millions of people, a plan that's been around for over 30 years. So it's your prerogative. Bobby Brown said you can do what you want to do, but I'm going to tell you what Ramsey Solutions says. So it's your world. This is The Ramsey Show. This is The Ramsey Show. I am Jade Warshaw, one of your hosts for today.

I'm joined by Ken Coleman, your other host for the day. Ken, it's fun to host with you. It's fun to take calls. If you're interested in calling us and getting our take on your life, your money, your career, whatever's going on with you, you can give us a call. The number is 888-825-5225. And it would be really our great honor to just discuss that with you. Absolutely. So the phone lines are open. We've got Elizabeth who's in Charlotte, North Carolina. What's going on, Elizabeth? Hey there. How are you guys?

Doing good. How are you? I'm doing well. Thank you for taking my call. I'll get straight to the point. I'm newly divorced and I have three children that I'm taking care of alone now. One has autism. I have two in braces.

And my question is, I'm caught up in a cycle of payday loans. I just started listening to your show last week. So my normal job, I'm working five nights a week as a nurse. And so now that I've heard your show, I have now picked up every day that I have off. I work a shift or double. So pretty much the reason I can't work anymore is because I only have a sitter at night. So I have to do what I can when I can, but I've got to get out of this debt. How much do you make before you get into overtime? About $76,000. And what do you

think this overtime, I know you're brand new to this, but what do you think the overtime is going to make you in a given month if you're able to keep up the schedule? Probably an extra $2,000. Per month? Per month, yes. Okay, all right. So at this point, I just want to make sure for clarity, at this point you're five nights a week, or at this point are you seven nights a week?

I just picked up, put it this this way last week i heard your show i was doing five nights a week now i'm doing every night a week okay now you're doing every night a week okay very very cool um so tell me more about this payday lender and tell me more about the debt um okay i have a car, $24,000. I have about $15,000 in credit cards. And then I have probably two personal loans. That's about $5,000 together. Okay. Like I said, I'm paying for two sets of braces. One child has been through like three. You know how you start all over, you take them off,

and then they put them on to do something different? Oh, do I? So what's the total debts on that combined? over you take them off and then they put them on to do something different oh do i oh so what are the what's the total debts on that combined um right now i only owe about 250 more dollars on the braces but i think they're going to start over with something else with one of them one of the kids and that'll be probably another five thousand and do you have to do that okay we'll talk about that in a minute what else do you have i got expertise? Okay, we'll talk about that in a minute. What else do you have? I got expertise on that issue. Yeah. Tap me when you're ready.

I will tap you in, Ken. What else do you have, Elizabeth? Let's see. Other than the payday loans, I just have rent because I don't have, of course, I'm not buying now. I have a rent of like $2,000. Rent is $2,000. Okay. How much are the payday loans?

You didn't tell me. Oh, the payday loans together, I could probably pay them off with $3,000. $3,000. Okay. How much are the payday loans? You didn't tell me. Oh, the payday loans together, I could probably pay them off with $3,000. $3,000. How many of them is it? It's four. Okay. So four payday loans equaling $3,000. Okay. Do some quick math for me after your taxes, after everything like that with your overtime what are you bringing home taking home per month um I haven't gotten my first check with the overtime yet but I'm pretty sure it'll be close to seven seven thousand good job mama yeah good job uh okay so are you on

a budget because me talking about this means nothing if you're not on a budget. You know what? I just I haven't I just got everything written down. But my thing is now I have to break bad news to everybody that we're not buying anything for anything. I know that's right. You know, I'm dealing with the pouting, but I'm like, whatever. Y'all don't get they'll get through it. This is going to be temporary. This is going to be a temporary sacrifice to win before you leave Austin's going to give you every dollar because I want you on a budget that is going to make this as easy as possible for you okay because on every dollar you're going to put everything in there and you're going to really be able to see at the end of the rent at the end of the bills at the end of everything what is my margin to actually be

able to start paying off some of this debt and first things first um elizabeth i want to give you a little bit of breathing room do you have any money saved i have not one dime because i've been putting everything trying to catch my bills i've never been behind on my bills and now with all of this happening all my bills are behind and And I'm like, I can't stand it. I'm freaking out. You just feel like you're freaking out. Yeah. I want you to tonight, because you're going to get the every dollar budget after this call.

Tonight, I want you to work on that. That in between your shifts, on your break, because I know you're working tonight. I want you to get this every dollar budget up and running. Because when you see the numbers, you're going to get some peace. Just knowing what the situation is for real, for is going to give you peace and first things first i know you want to get these bills i want you to get quickly a thousand dollars saved that's right and when i and you're probably like jade you just add a thousand dollars to my plate sell something go through these kids rooms look at these tvs sell this stuff and get you a thousand

dollars and you let me tell you what that's going to do for you, Elizabeth. You are going to be ahead just by doing that of the majority of Americans. And I know you don't, you may be, the majority of Americans can't cover $1,000 emergency in cash. So just having that, you're going to go, okay, winning at life. And then you're going to move on and you're going to start going through these debts one by one. You're going to list them smallest to largest. So it sounds like the either the braces is going to be first or one of these payday loans is going to be first. And with all this extra overtime, you are going to knock these bad boys out with you're coming at them with a club, like with a sledgehammer.

You're knocking these things out, going as quickly as possible. I love that you already told the kids, we're not doing it. When it comes to Christmas, I ain't got no money, right? We're not doing that, okay? And then I wanted to take a serious look at this car.

Okay. I've already thought about selling it. Okay, what could it go for? What I've already thought about selling it. Okay. What could it go for? What I've been seeing, well, I probably could get 22 to 23 for it. Okay. So a thousand bucks upside down? Yeah. Okay. So what you could do, you could go over to a little credit union and see if they'll give you a loan for the $1,000 plus a couple of other thousands so you can get you a cash car. So essentially, you're going from $24,000, $25,000 in debt to $5,000 or $6,000 in debt. You could do that since you're a little upside down and that would get you out instantly. Go to a little credit union. Don't fool with SoFi and some of these other jokers.

Make sure you get a person that you're talking to and you're saying, look, this is my situation. Okay. So you could look into that, but this is, you know, you got a little bit of a journey in front of you and you're going to walk it. Do you feel like you have the tools? I put it this way. I'm motivated, very motivated, very motivated. Well, let me, let me say this, Elizabeth, you're actually okay. I know what you're feeling, and I'm glad you feel this way because it's got you awake and it's got you motivated. But I also want to encourage you. I don't want you losing sleep tonight. You're going to be able to come up with $1,000 for that baby, that first baby step emergency fund pretty quickly, okay? And the amount of money you're bringing home right now,

if you budget, if you do what Jade tells you, she's going to give you all kinds of great goodies. And, but if you actually get a hold of the 7,000 take home based even on that car payment, you're okay. You're, you're not, you're okay. If you actually just get control of the money and go, all right, beyond giving the speech to the kids, which is the first step. Yeah. But I will say you're okay. I want you to breathe easier. Intense, yes. Wary, worried about the situation you've put yourself in? Sure, a little bit. But you're going to be okay. And so get that $1,000 first, then work your way through the baby steps, and you'll knock that car out. You'll be fine, or you can pay the car down down then sell it when you got more margin in the car sure you've got breathing room i want to make sure if you keep this overtime up and you get in the budget you've got room in

that budget to where you're not going to be panicked you're going to be out of this debt quicker than you realize that's right that's what I want you to hear. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever set foot in a payday loan store ever. Again, now let me also say on the braces, because I want to get practical. Listen, I have three kids. All three have had braces. The multiple times too. Here's what I'm going to tell you. I'd be on the phone with the orthodontist and go, give me the real, real. Yeah. Do we need to do this right now? If we can wait six months, can we wait 12 months? Remember, you're in charge of the kids' teeth, not the orthodontist. That's right. And unless something bad is happening that's going to cause issues down the road. Like for real issues. Press pause. We did that. I had to cash flow three sets of braces, plus my wife braces, plus retainers. And we did it when we could do it. And by the way, the kid's teeth are fine. So I'd press pause on that if you can. This is The Ramsey Show. You're listening to The Ramsey Show. Thanks for listening. Our scripture and quote of the day,

for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. That's Jeremiah 29, 11, one of my favorites. And Babe Ruth said this. He said, it's hard to beat a person who never gives up. Love that. Love it. Love it. Love it. Hey, give us a call. The number is 888-825-5225. We want to talk to you. We want to know what's going on in your life. And we will help you as best as we can. Talking about myself and Ken Coleman over here to my right. Let's go to the phone lines. Ken, we've got Portia who's in Dallas, Texas. What's going on, Portia? Hi, thank you all so much for taking my call. You're welcome wanted i am extremely extremely stressed out right now um it's mostly because i'm in kind of like stuck in between a rock and a hard place right now okay i am having

the i want to finish my nursing program um at school but i'm also in a lot of dads and I have six babies um that you know I have yes I am married my husband does have and I do also have two bonus babies so total we total have the bonus babies tell me about these bonus babies so when I got married um I had five he had three. We had a daughter last year, and so we technically have nine. Oh, my word. What is the range of ages? Wow. Sorry, I just... So both of us have boys who are now 17. Both are graduating next year. Okay. I have a daughter 16, all the way down to a daughter that's one.

Okay. So you're just exhausted. Wow. Yes. So I have recently pretty much argued my whole entire family down. I work full time. Let's go there. And I pretty much recently argued my whole family down that I can continue working and going to school at night. And it's been a hassle.

Now, to add all of that, you know, info to injury, but I also pay out-of-pocket for my schooling, which is roughly around $2,600 a month. Wow, okay. Yeah. And so right now I paid the first payment, of course, and I'm continuing to go to school. Not only that, but I have to pay daycare.

We also pay someone to help out with children on Wednesday, Thursday, Saturdays while I'm at school. Is the problem the money or you're at your wit's end? The problem is the money and I'm at my wit's end because I'm not sure if I should continue to pay out of pocket for my schooling because I feel like this would put me in a better position or if I should try to pay off debt. Okay, so let's get a quick snapshot of the finance part because you've already said you talked your family down,

which tells me the family's going, we need you at home. Is that fair? Well, the kids are like, Mom going we need you at home is that is that fair okay well the kids are like mom we support you we got it my husband's like you have a lot on your plate and a lot of family is like well poor shit you know that's right you do it but you do all right so what's the financial picture how much debt do you guys have so myself i, I am, I mean, it's going to be around maybe $80,000. And student loans? That's me being a very modest, no, no ma'am, that's, student loans are $73,000. Okay. I can't get student loans or anything anymore, so I've been paying out of pocket to finish my degree. Okay, so $73,000 in student loans, $80,000 in other types of debt. What are the other,

what does that $80,000 consist of? No, no, no, no, no, no. You said $80,000 in other types of debt. What does that $80,000 consist of? No, no, no, no, no, no. You said $80,000 total for you, correct? No. Well, so total, it's $175,000. And this is just for me. I'm going to be completely honest with you. My husband didn't have any debt, but his car broke down recently. My vehicle was stolen. His car broke down, and so he has to get another car which i mean it's a thousand dollars a month total for the insurance and the car so slow down for a second because we're going to help you but we got it you got 175 000 in debt i don't care who's it's our debt okay so 175 total is what you're dealing with with debt correct yes for the entire household are you, with your full-time job and your husband's full-time job, and you paying $2,600 a month in nursing school,

are you guys paycheck to paycheck? Are you not having any money left over at the end of the month? What's that look like? Yes, it's pretty much paycheck to paycheck. I was doing a lot of overtime to kind of make ends meet and then pay for school. Okay, one other quick question. One other quick question. of overtime to kind of make ends meet and then pay for school. Okay. Well, what is the end amount? One other quick question.

Jay's going to help you on all this, but I'm trying to gather info quick, okay? Because we don't have a lot of time. We've got four minutes, all right? So we've got to help. Okay. All right. How much nursing school do you have left? How much before you would finish the program? Two years.

All right. And then what would your increased income be? What are you projecting if you were to finish nursing? How much more could you make? At minimum $80,000. I'm currently at $54,000. Okay. All right. So, all right, Jade, I just want to try to gather really quick and hand it to you, but I will tell you, I want her pressing pause on nursing school. Nursing school will still be there. So she's going from 54 to 80, not increasing 80,000. That's correct. Okay.

But she's got two years left. So what's the, I want to know combined income. What money do you guys see monthly in your hand every single month? So I make 54, he makes 60. Okay. So I have a calculator. Okay. 54 and 60.

Is that after tax? Is that pre like, I just want to know in your hand when you, when y'all get your two checks, what do you get for the month? Oh, um, one second. We're probably both looking around. We're probably looking at 88,000 a month together. Okay. I love that. Now, what I want to call out here is you've got to know your numbers when people call in here the first symptom of i that i see of just pure chaos is when somebody can't tell me what they earn every month and i'm not trying to call you out but what i do want to call out is money is expensive the money that you earn is expensive portia it is costing you your time away from your kids it is costing you your sanity it is costing you your time away from your kids. It is costing you your sanity. It is costing you your sleep. These dollars you make are expensive. Let's treat

them with care and like they are worth what we give to them. Fair? Right. All right. That is fair. It's fair because, girl, you are getting it. You are working hard. But they're also in big time. And you're in big time debt. So I want you to know, go home and get your numbers. I want you on an every dollar budget, okay? You're going to plug in this income and you are going to know your numbers. And then you're going to start working down that list. You're going to say, okay, we got $8,000 or $8,700, whatever it is. And you're going to go line by line and say, okay, first things first, you know, groceries.

And you're going to go through the most important items. Rent first, food, utilities, transportation. That's the the most important items rent first food utilities transportation that's the first most important stuff get your giving in there and you're going to go line by line and then you're going to see okay what's left after all those important things are done what do we have left that's called margin and with the margin we're going to go through and that's when we're going to decide okay school versus debt ken coleman said i think you should hold off on the school well which, which finds me $2,600. It's a lot.

That's what I'm saying. She can put towards debt. I agree with you. I agree. I think that you could essentially, guys, put the pedal to the metal. And with your income, you might have the ability to pay this off in the next two to three years. And then you're going to have this complete freedom to really go out and pay cash for the things that you want to do. You'll be able to really, truly focus on school. How old are you? I am 35 and I am having a hard

time focusing on school because of everything else that I have going on. 100%. That's not fair to you, by the way. Yeah. It's not fair to you. So take care of you. You and hubs get together and fix this. This is going to be a two to three year gut busting slog. Like get after it to get this dead out of your life. And then here's the good news. You get through the nursing school with no stress. You're going to get a nice chunk of change. I want to throw one other thing out here, but it's not for now, but it may be for maybe a year from now. I would like for you to just dig around, talk to people. You're in the know. You're going to nursery school.

Be interested to see if there's any hospital or clinics or anybody that would be willing to reimburse you for your schooling. Ooh, yes. Because if we could, if, now I still would press pause to get life under control and budgeting and be a mama and all that. Yeah. But maybe six months to a year from now where you get a little bit of of margin if you could get that reimbursed or someone pay for your nursing because right now in america all over this country we have a a need for nurses they're quitting they're burning out at a very high rate not to freak you out just keeping it real here but if you're committed to it i would like to see her potentially see could she get that nursing reimbursed or paid for.

I like that. I think there's a good chance. Only after she does what you tell her to do. I think there's a good chance of that. This woman is a super woman. Nine babies she's taking care of. Going to nursing school, working, it doesn't get any crazier than that. I'm proud

of her and I know that they can get through this debt if they work together. Ken, that was a great three hours, buddy. I need to take a nap after that last call. Look, let me tell you something. When it comes to your life and money, you can tell me that you won't do it, but never tell me that you can't. With God, all things are possible. This is The Ramsey Show.