The Ramsey Show - App - He Has $100K in Debt and Wants To Buy a New Tesla… (Hour 3)

Episode Date: March 23, 2023

Ken Coleman & Jade Warshaw answer your questions and discuss: "My boyfriend has over $100k in debt and now he wants to buy a new Tesla", "I owe my ex-wife money...", "Should I cancel credit cards as they're paid off?" How to use extra money. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Take our FREE 3 minute assessment: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

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🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studio. This is the Ramsey Show, where we help you win with your money,

win in your work, and win in your relationships. I'm Ken Coleman. I'm joined by Jake Warshaw this hour. The phone number for you to jump in and get your question answered is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. And it's tax time, Jade, and boy, I'm going to try to get through this without saying words that have to be bleeped out. I do not like the taxes, but we got to pay them. And that means there's a whole lot of questions about taxes. What's changed from this year to last year, all that stuff. We understand that. And we want you to have a better handle on them. So let's unpack a question, Jade, from one of our listeners. I want to roll over my traditional IRA

to a Roth IRA. How do I calculate my tax liability? I'm trying to figure out how much I could afford to roll over so I don't have too big of a tax bill. What would you tell them? Well, the purpose of converting from a traditional to a Roth IRA is you want those after-tax dollars, right? You want to be able to pull from that money later on in life and not have to pay taxes on it. So basically what you're doing is you're going ahead and paying taxes on all that money that you put into your traditional Roth, you know, before tax dollars, and now you've got to pay the taxes on it. So it's probably, you know, it's going to be hefty if you've got a lot of money that you're rolling over. Absolutely. So the rollover to the Roth IRA is a good idea. You'll pay that chunk in taxes now,

but from here on out, your Roth IRA investments will grow tax-free. So to learn more about this issue and get connected to one of our pros, these are trusted men and women who we have vetted, who understand what we teach, why we teach it, and they understand the tax code. They know how to take care of you. Head to ramseysolutions.com slash taxpro. That's ramseysolutions.com slash taxpro to get connected with one of our Ramsey-trusted, endorsed, like one of our endorsed local providers, and they can guide you through this. So ramseysolutions.com slash tax pro. And I will say I have a local tax pro and every year I'm grateful for them when I can sleep

without stress over my taxes. I don't want to go to jail. I'd look terrible in one of those jumpsuits. Orange is not your color. No, so there not. No, no. So there you go. All right, we're going to get to the phones. Let's go to Lynn, who joins us in Wilmington, Minnesota. Lynn, how can we help? Hi there. I've heard about you guys from my mom yesterday, and thank you for taking my call. Yeah, welcome aboard. What's going on? Yeah, so recently my boyfriend and me had a talk about financial situation and we had a different opinion about buying a car or not because his car was taken to the auto shop and they recommend him to buy a new car as soon as possible. And his opinion is buying the Tesla Model X, which is $43,000 or something. And my opinion is buying a cheap car, which is

$5,000 or $7,000 because he has too much debt on his bills. How much debt does he have? I just want to get some insight. He has about, without the mortgage, it will be roughly about $100,000 in debt. How much debt do you have? I don't have any debt. Okay. Why are you guys, are you guys living together? Are you planning to get married? What's going on? Yeah. Huh? Yeah, so we are planning to get married. Initially, it was supposed to be this May,

but then he couldn't save money for the wedding, so we kind of pushed it back to next year. I'm raising my hand here because, Lynn, I'm going to have a Mama Jade moment with you. Sure. All right. Or Big Sister sister whatever you want to go you're surprisingly younger looking big sister whatever you want to go with I want

to talk to you woman to woman about this because you have some smart views about money and you're you're you have very uh good instincts when it comes to your money you have no debt uh you're looking at these cars and what you're saying makes perfect sense to the other person here which is me and i'm going yes lynn makes good decisions your boyfriend is not aligned with you on those good decisions you and right now let's let's i'm just calling spades spades he's not your fiance yet you're still at boyfriend level and there is i don't want you making decisions as though you're already fiance i don't want you making decisions as though you're already married and locking yourself mentally into that because you're not

aligned financially and what i can tell you is if that goes unchecked this is going to lead to major problems in the future. It's already a problem now. It's already a problem now. And I'm just going to say this, and I know people listening, even you, maybe too, Lynn, when you're having this kind of dissension as a boyfriend-girlfriend, it ain't worth it.

Well, I think, Jade, you're right. I mean, Lynn, let's fast forward for a moment. Let's assume that you guys are married, okay? I want you to go there with me. And he comes home and tells you this at the end of the day. You guys are married. And so now you've assumed his debt. And he tells you this. What is your reaction if you're married? So actually we've been friends for almost eight years and we've known each other for quite a long time. And when I come into this relationship, I'm willing to take his dad with me and I'm willing to share. No, no, no. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. That's good. I'm asking you, what would be your reaction if you were his wife

and he came home and told you, hey babe, the mechanic said I need a new car and I just think I'm going to go with this $43,000 Tesla. What would you say to him? Yeah, we talked about it and I was asking him, why don't you think of buying a used car, which is $7,000. But he doesn't want to do that. That's the problem. He doesn't think you like to do that. And that's what't want to do that yeah that's the problem he doesn't think you like to do that and that's that's what i want to get to you lynn don't marry this dude unless unless he has started to shift his mindset and go you know what lynn some of the things you're saying i want to move towards that you guys need to have real conversations about how you view money not just you saying i think you should do this and him going oh i don't want to do that you need to really talk

and say what do you think about debt because i don't i do this and him going, I don't want to do that. You need to really talk and say, what do you think about debt? Because I don't believe in debt and I don't want to hold debt. Do you believe in debt and do you want to hold debt? And are you willing to shift on that? Because if you're not, we're not aligned. And here's the thing, Lynn, I get it. This is your dude. You've been around him for a minute. If this is not working out, there's somebody better just flat out. So I'm just going to let you know that I know it's tough, but I'm trying to keep you from a lifetime of heartache and frustration. That's all I can say. Yeah. And Lynn, if she's mama Jade or sister Jade, I'm just this dude over here who's willing to just shoot it straight. Your answer scares me.

I thought that you might go that, well, if I had the wife card, I'd tell him it ain't happening. And the first thing you went to is, well, we were friends for a long time. And now this, I think you're scared to lose this guy. You are. And because you're scared to lose him, that you're willing to put up with his immaturity and his nonsense. And Jade is absolutely 100% correct. This will wreck your life. It'll wreck your marriage and you will end up resenting this guy that you think you can't live without. Yeah. Be friends. If you've been friends for so long, just be friends and cut the rest of it loose and go find you a dude that you align with and you can build wealth with. Walk away. We might find out if he values you or the Tesla more.

Oh boy, there it is. I went and did it again. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. I'm joined by my colleague, Jade Warshaw, and we are here for you this hour, 888-825- 5225. That's 888-825- 5225. Let's go to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Tim is on the line. Tim, how can we help?

Guys, I'm so glad to have you two instead of Dave because I know Dave would be yelling at me before the end of this conversation. Well, Tim, I've been known to yell. For every time I've heard that. That's the first time it's ever happened. I'd like to pause for a moment because most of the time it's people telling me how disappointed they are.

Dave, are you listening? I'm just kidding. But, Tim, we got you. Jade has the best laugh. It's like blood pressure medicine. It reduces my blood pressure whenever Jade laughs. Oh, good. Wow.

Wow. I think I found your next product. There we go. Tell me a joke, Tim, and I'll ease the mood right for you. Well, you'll be laughing before we're done. Okay. Oh, that's a good setup. I'm 62 years old. 33 years of marriage just ended. I owe my wife $35,000 as part of the divorce agreement. And that was to, that was to keep the house. My choice was to keep the house. And that's what Dave would yell at me about doing. So I'm debt free except for the house. I don't have, I don't have much in 401k. So I need help determining from where to draw this $35,000 is, you know, I'm thinking two or three things, home equity loan, my emergency fund, or my 401k. So what do

you? When do you have to have it? Is there a certain time limit that you're underneath as far as getting her the 30 foot? 90 days. Okay. How much do you have in your retirement? I'll end up with about 180. When you say I'll end up, what's the timeline for that? At the end of the divorce, I'll have 180. At the end of the divorce, once it's all split up, you'll have 180. And is this traditional funds or is this Roth funds? There are $20,000 in Roth. That's all. The rest is traditional 401k.

Let's see here. What do you make? What do you make? Yeah, what do you make? Right around $100,000. All right, what's yours? That's another question. When you talk about the emergency fund of three to six months, there's a big delta in three to six months.

So, I mean, there's $16,000 right there if I go from six down to three. Oh, there's a... I'm not really comfortable. I don't know. I don't... Jade may yell at me on this one, but I'd start there because we give you that rule of thumb, that wiggle room. And so if you can come up with 16 by reducing it from six to three, the other part I was going to get at is I really wanted to know if you've got a tight budget because it's just you now. And I'm very sorry that your marriage has come to an end.

And I don't want to be insensitive, but I'm going to talk to you man to man right now. And man to man, I mean, you got Jade, the grocery expert here. I would be living on nothing, and I would be taking as much of that take-home pay and putting it towards the 35. So what could you scrape for in the next 90 days? How much a month? So you got three months there. How much could you save, I mean scrape, for 90 days? How much a month? So you've got three months there.

How much could you save towards the $35,000? Very little. $3,000 maybe. Total? That's not very little. That's something. How much is this house worth? It praises at $380,000.

Okay. And that's at $0275,000. And that's what i figured dave would yell at me about and and i will get out of it in a couple years but i just need a couple years to get my head together sorry hold the phone hold the phone let me go back you said it's worth 380 and you'll owe 275 so you paying the 35k for it wasn't like then you own it free and clear with no debt so you have to pay 35 plus then you'll owe 285 no no i i i don't i i'm getting confused so the 35 is basically to buy out her the equity okay helped up from the 270 to 380 i'm buying out that equity basically i wish you wouldn't have done that is there any chance to go back on I'm buying out that equity basically. I wish you wouldn't have done that. Is there any chance to go back

on that? Can we change that? No, it's all signed. Okay. Alright. I don't know that you're going to be able to afford to keep this house in the long haul. I'd sell the house. You're fine. I knew that's what Dave would say. I was hoping you guys would.

We all drink the same Kool-Aid, so that's the problem. He made the Kool-Aid, I hate to tell you. He stirred it up. And here's why. But like I said, I just want a couple years to fix up some things, maybe make it worth more and help me. I think you're going to end up, now, don't get me wrong. If this thing is in shambles, you're probably going to have to do some things to get it

sold. But if it's just, you know, you're running the mill, if it if it could be a turnkey house for someone and you just wanted to do products or projects for, I wouldn't do that. The longer that you spend with this, I think the longer you're going to end up losing out. Sometimes when you've put a lot of money into something and you've got money sunk into it, you feel like you need to hold on to it longer because you don't want to accept it. In this case, Tim, with what you've got in your nest egg and what you would owe on this home, I don't think that you can keep it. I hate to tell you that because I'm sure it's a family home.

It represents something to you. But it's like Dave says he talks about his friend's book uh Necessary Endings by Henry Cloud and sometimes you've got to have a necessary ending to something um and you know I hate to tell you that and thank you and thank you for thank you for even listening to me because I feel like you're, you know, I'm sitting here trying to tell you what to do after being married. You've been married 33 years. I've been married 15, you know. Well, to be fair, he called and asked you. He did, but I just, it's an honor to even be able to talk with you about this, Tim. And I'm sorry about this, Tim, but here's the deal. You already signed the papers. And if you sell this, I did some quick math on a $380,000 house. You can pay your 6% on that.

I thought you said $270,000-ish is what you owe. So you're going to have to look at this as I'm paying $35,000 to make whatever the rest of that is. So I don't know if it's $80,000, a quick math or whatever, not a mathematician. But the point is that you've got to get out of this. And putting yourself into a really tough financial situation to scrape together $35,000 makes the divorce even worse. It's like insult to injury. You know that old phrase? You add insult to injury?

Well, you've been injured, and why pour salt into that wound with trying to get out of this? You just don't have any options. So I'd sell it, and I would make it a clean break. Go get yourself a nice little bachelor pad apartment. Get you a little condo. And start building up your finances and heal. Yes. And move on. But this is, you're going to compound the pain. Yeah. Look, I mean, life looks different now. Yeah, I mean, it sucks.

It's got to look different now. And it sucks. There's nothing about this, Tim, that's wonderful. And I feel like we're the bearer of bad news for you. But like you said, I think Dave would have said the same thing. I don't think you can keep this house. And we're pulling for you, man. Yeah i think dave would have said the same thing i don't think you can keep this house and we're pulling for you man yeah you're listen listen you're fine you're gonna be okay if you make the adult decision here there you go it's tough it's so i just i feel for him

that's that's not easy man i know and i and and again it's what kind of how much pain do you want to deal with you're already in pain from the divorce. Yeah. Don't add financial pain to it. I thought when he first explained it, I thought that once he gave the $3,500 or the $35,000, the house was going to be his, no money owed. No, no. Yeah. But once we dug further, so. Yeah.

And look, look at it this way. He's got a fat emergency fund. Okay. He's doing good. Nice apartment. Save up money for down payment yeah then he's not going to feel that that constraint because if he did that deal he's going to feel like he can't breathe and he's going to have this house and it's going to be a burden not a blessing and that's really where we're at that you know sometimes the decisions

that we when you guys call in and we have to be, you know, the bad cop, it's not because we want to be a bad guy or tell you no, or tell you it's because we want to, we want you to avoid more pain. We don't want you to face that pain. We want to make it easier for you. Um, it's not just cause we just, I'm gonna tell you something right now. Get high off saying no. I've been married almost 25 years. Stacy divorced me. I wouldn't want to live in that house. I'd want a fresh start. Too many memories. Too many memories, man. There's a ghost on every corner of that house.

You know what? It's going to be okay. We just want you to stay financially stable. Move forward, Tim. Better days are ahead. So sorry for your pain, but you're going to make it through. Thanks for the call. This is The Ramsey Show.

Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. I'm joined by my colleague, Jade Warshaw. We're taking your questions this hour. 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225. Our question of the day is brought to you by Neighborly, your hub for home services. Spring is here, finally, and it's time to take care of those projects that have been on pause. But you don't have to do them yourself.

Neighborly has the top quality local service providers in your area like Mr. Handyman, Glass Doctor, Shelf Genie, Precision Door Service, and many more. Find the help you need to get started at neighborly.com today. All right, today's question comes from Jeremy from the Ramsey Baby Steps community. You can find that on Facebook. He says, should I cancel my credit cards as I pay them off or wait until they are paid down before canceling them. I just want my credit score to go up. All right, Jeremy, let's unpack this a little bit. You could go ahead and cancel your cards today, which is what I would do if they allow you. Sometimes they do make you pay them off first, but at the very, very least, what you need to do is cut those jokers up. Cut them

in half with some credit cards. Do what we like to call a plasectomy. And the purpose of that is to make sure you don't use them anymore. Because if you're getting out of debt, let's get out of debt and make sure that we don't go back. So cut those credit cards up. Sometimes they do make you pay it off before you can cancel it.

So if that's the case, then you'll have to wait. But once they're paid off, close the account. Never to be seen again. But I do want to talk about this final piece of this question. Um, Ken, uh, it's just his little tagline here. He says, I just want my credit score to go up. Yes. Um, and I want to hit that because if you're in the baby steps community, that is letting

me know that you're interested in the baby steps. And part of the baby steps guys is we are the baby steps, guys, is we are doing life different, differently, whichever you prefer. We have decided that we are going to pay cash in life and we are not going to depend on credit and credit scores because we know that a credit score is really just an I love debt score. It's I got to go into debt so I can keep my credit up. And so I can keep my credit up. I got it can keep my credit up. It's an endless cycle. It is a game that is rigged and you lose every time. That's right. And so let's get into the habit of just going, you know what? Yeah. When you get out of debt and you don't owe anybody money and you don't play the game, your credit score will go down to zero. That is not a bad thing.

It doesn't go to zero overnight. It is a steady drop. And I'll be honest, Ken, when I was walking through this with Sam, it is psychologically because we've been trained to believe that we need credit. It feels, it makes you feel some type of way. You're like, okay, I really, I feel like I just jumped out of a plane. I hope this parachute works. That's the way it feels. But trust, I'm telling you from experience, trust and believe your credit score will eventually drop to zero and a zero credit score is, trust and believe, your credit score will eventually drop to zero,

and a zero credit score is just as good as a high credit score. You can do all the things with a zero credit score that you would have done with a high credit score. The only caveat is you sleep better because you don't have debt. There it is. What a life. I like it. Good case.

You know, it reminds me of, it's like golf. The lower the score, the better. Let's go. See, it's just reverse of the rest of the world. And that's where they try to get you. Well, not a low score, Ken. A zero score. Oh, I know. But I hear what you're saying. You know what? It's spring, Jade. I'm looking for chances to talk about golf. Come on, Ken. Don't rain on my parade, please. All right. Esther's up next in Logan, Utah. Esther, how can we help? Hi, thanks for having me. I'm a big fan. Oh, that's very nice.

How can we help? So my husband and I just recently got married about nine months ago. We're both in college. I'm in my last semester, and he's just about to start his first. We were gifted FPU for our wedding wedding and we're in the classes right now and we will be done with baby step number three here soon. Way to go. Um, thank you. Thanks. Yeah, it's been awesome. Um, so, um, we've been able to build this up a little bit faster than normal because my husband and I have a window washing slash

residential cleaning side hustle. Um, and we project to have an additional $15,000 plus have our emergency fund done by the end of the summer. And, um, we don't own a home right now. My husband's tuition is paid for in full because he's a member of the military. And so we're just wondering, what do we do with this money that we have from our side hustle? We'll have about $15,000. So his tuition is paid for in full. Do you have any cost on your tuition? I don't, no. I'm almost done.

And I just pay for it in cash and we get some federal aid help because we're young and married. So good. Very good. Very good. So you basically have $15,000 of money that you could go into Baby Step 3B. Once, you know, you said by the end of the summer, you'll have your emergency fund done. You'll have $15,000 extra. If you're looking to buy at any point, I'd roll that money into Baby Step 3B, which is saving for a down

payment for your home. If that's something that you guys are interested in doing, I don't know if you had any other plans to travel or do something different, but if you're kind of walking that path, then yeah, start saving up. 15K is a great place to start and just keep it rolling. What are your careers going to be when you get out of school? My husband is doing aerospace engineering and he wants to commission as a pilot in the Air Force and I'm going into marketing. So another thing along with that is that we think that we can get our down payment covered by the VA, by a VA loan. So I don't know. We just like, we know that we won't have to pay for down payment. We were thinking of maybe upgrading a car with that $15,000, but we also realize that that means

our largest asset to our name will depreciate. And so you don't know about the best option. I mean, do you need, do you need a car or is it just like, I, what I don't want you to do is see a pile of money sitting there and think, what do I need to do with this?

I need to do something with it. Um, that's not always the case. Sometimes you just got a nice little pile of money sitting there and that's okay. you know, you can earmark it for something in the future. It doesn't need to be spent right away. Typically, we would suggest a conventional loan. But it doesn't look like you're really there yet. You know, I don't want to force you down a route just to give you something to do.

Does that make sense? I think that you're going to come out of college. You guys are going to be looking for jobs. You're going to find those jobs. Just let this money sit, keep it in a high yield savings account, make you three or 4% on it and just cool out. You guys are doing a great job. I'm proud of you. You're doing great. Yep. I agree with Jade and just pile more onto it. So we're at 15,000. Let's just pile more money up and let's see what life dictates. Listen, I can tell you this now, again, I'm approaching 25 years of marriage and what Stacey and I thought we would do in our first two, three years of marriage tended out to be very, very different. And the plans we had, and I'm sure you would say the same. Let me just tell you this. You have no idea what

life is going to do and how it's going to twist and turn. And cash is good. I'd pile the cash until you know exactly. It should not be a situation, and by the way, I'm not in any way criticizing you, Esther, but you should never be in a situation where you're calling people like us saying, what should I do with this extra cash? It ought to be really clear. This is the thing that we are going to do. And we know why within the right perspective of what's next in our life. And I think for you guys, as you start life together and you start thinking about building that life together, And I use that word very intentionally. Yes. Building a family, growing a family, building a home, you know, building a lifestyle.

Well, there's some building costs, if you know what I'm saying. That is true. That's true. So. Very good, Esther. Yeah. Just marinate. Just marinate for a while.

I like that. Let the juices get into you. So. I like that. You know, just stack the money in there and have a little cash party once a month where we get online together, maybe with a little bubbly. I like it. And say, how much money do we have this month in our pile?

Just watch it grow. And watch it grow instead of feeling like you got to burn it. That's good. And I think that's the advice. So I love it. I got to tell you, I feel like there's been a theme through the show today of some young couples. Yes.

I feel like this is the third instance where we've had a young couple who are not drowning. Yes. They're dreaming. We, yes, we have seen a lot of smart people with options, Ken, options. What a concept. I know. I like it. I love it.

I like it a lot. I'll tell you what else I like. We've got one more segment to go. People are standing by on the phone lines. We've got to take care of some business, but don't go anywhere. Jade Warshaw, Ken Coleman, together

here on the Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. Ken Coleman and Jade Warshaw with you. Today's scripture of the day is James 1.12. Blessed is anyone who perseveres when trials come. Such a person is of proven worth and will win the prize of life, the crown that the Lord has promised to those who love him. Our quote of the day, Tony Dungy. I had the privilege of interviewing Coach Dungy many years ago. A total prince of a man. Okay, I believe you. Absolutely great dude. He said, champions don't do extraordinary things. They do ordinary things, but they do them without thinking too fast for the other team to react. Excuse me. They do them without thinking too fast for the other team to react. They follow the habits they've learned. I love that. Yeah. Good stuff there. Let's go to

Lubbock, Texas. That's where the old Texas Tech Raiders are, if I'm right. Lubbock, Texas. Melissa is there. Melissa, how can we help? Hello. It's an honor to be speaking with both of you. Oh, thank you. How can we help? Yes. So I am pregnant.

I'm doing gym seven. Oh, wow. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. We're excited. You should be. But my husband is offered a position at a banking company, and training starts on May 22nd.

Okay. And he is required to be there for seven weeks. It's paid training. It's Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., and he's afraid if he takes it, he won't be there for the baby's birth. Is it local training? Yes, local. So you're afraid that if you go into labor at 10 a.m. and he's at work, they won't allow him to step away for the birth?

Yes, or if he ends up leaving, either way, they won't accept him back. Now, do we know this for a fact? We don't. We just know that it's really difficult because I have been trying to get into the company and I've been always denied for it. I've been trying for applying five times now and he finally was able to get in. And so we just assume it's going to be difficult or... Okay. Okay. Couple of things. All right. I thought, now correct me if i'm wrong i thought you said that he's worried that he will miss the birth is it he or is it you or is it both of you or are you saying hey take the job man what where we stand on this yeah so i think of it more as him preparing us for the future and I just be in birth and have a baby and he'd be back and he's like thinking ahead and he's thinking more like he's exchanging that

experience for money yeah he's not he misses it he's not um but I'm gonna answer this I'll let jade weigh in I think it'd be great to get a man's perspective and a female perspective but if I'm talking to him man to man I I'm going to go, look, dude, first of all, I can't conceive. I can't conceive it. Doesn't mean that it's not real, but I can't conceive of a reality where he gets the job. He goes to the training. He's been in training for a couple of weeks and you go into labor and he tells them what's going on that they're going to go well man i tell her to call her real quick and tell her to hold on until 5 30 that would be terrible i feel like they would be jerks so i can't conceive of that all right now when you first started

asking the question i was wondering if he was going to be away, which is why my first response was, is this local? I cannot imagine that they wouldn't say, go be with your wife. Okay. But can I just tell you with no evidence at all, I think it's going to work out. And I think he should take the job. And if for some reason, these people won't let him get to the hospital, I don't think it's something that he should worry about. I think at that moment, if they don't let him, then we walk and you go be with the birth of the baby and he's there. And we figure something out because you don't want to work for people like that anyway, Jade. Am I right? Look, let me tell you. I know.

I just leave in anyway. I'm not the career person, Ken, but I can't imagine, like you said, I can't imagine a place being like, no, you got to stay here and fill out this worksheet until 8, you know, whatever. Right. If that happened, I would tell that job to get to step in. That's my point. So there's no chance that he's going to miss your baby being born. Do you understand what I'm saying?

Yes. It's just that we have less than $100 in the bank, and we don't have any savings, and we're also $20,000 in debt. So he's afraid of losing any income. Well, I still think we're operating in a place of fear with no— we haven't even asked yet. Yeah, first of all, you guys are— We've got to find out.

That's right. So he needs to just first of all he's working right now yes yes okay when does he have to tell them that he's taking the job is it is it waiting on his formal signature or acceptance uh they told him that he just had to do a background check and that he could go in on May 22nd to start training. Okay, so May 22nd is when he would officially start the training. Yes. So when would he leave his current job to start that training?

Presumably the same day or what? I mean, the week before? Yes. Okay, these are two different issues. He needs to be working a second job right now he needs to be schlupping counters at the grocery store all night to get more money in the bank because baby's on the way we have two separate things here but once they do the background check and they clear him and say we want you he needs to needs to go, great, I'm in. And can I throw out a second thought here? Of course. I'm just going by, I don't know a whole lot about corporate America,

but when I came to work here, there's onboardings regularly. Yes. So if he can't make it to that onboarding, can he say, my wife is having a baby, this is her due date either can we be flexible that when the baby is born i can go or can we do the onboarding sooner is there a room to negotiate that well you know you don't have to negotiate i'm glad you brought it up jade uh because i was going a different direction of we're worried about the wrong things but to jade's point when they actually offer him the job he needs to say hey i'm happy to take it fyi sometime in the middle of the training presumably my wife who is great with child yeah is going to give birth just want to make you guys aware and he's just doing it as a normal human thing and if they go well no wait a second partner

uh you're not going to be able to leave the training because about that time is when we train you how to do tps reports if If they start doing that, then keep in mind, he's not left his previous job. So I'm glad you brought that up, Jay. It's good. This is a normal thing you need to reveal. And if at that point they go, well, that's not acceptable. He goes, oh, well then he take this job and shove it. And I'm now, is it the voice that got you? I mean, he went into straight like Yosemite Sam. Yeah, I mean, who's going to say that? But if they say it, Melissa, then now we've dodged a bullet because these are bad people to work for. Do you understand what I'm saying? Absolutely. And Melissa, he's not interrupted

his income. He's not going to quit his current job until he's signed on for the new job. He's not going to quit the job and sign on until he goes, oh, by the way. It's like as he's signing it. Oh, yeah. Hey, guys, this is great. Oh, I should probably tell you somewhere in this training quit the job and sign on until he goes oh by the way it's like as he's signing it oh yeah hey guys this is great oh i should probably tell you somewhere in this training and then just let it lay and then they're going to respond the right way or the wrong way yeah it could be open communication that's the best thing you can do it throughout the job process all the way up until the very end just be open honest tell them what's going on tell them the things you're struggling with tell them just be open now melissa uh, you both need to get busy. You need to sell some stuff. You need to cut some expenses.

He needs to go bust a couple of odd jobs, work a second or third job, and you need to put about four or five grand in the bank before baby gets here. And you can easily do that. Am I right, Jamie? Absolutely. And start looking around the house for things to sell. You might have something that you can offload and get you a couple of hundred dollars. Anything that you can do, because my guess is there's going to be a deductible involved here that you're going to need to pay. And I need to run this by you. What's up? I think a baby gift is in order. What do you think we should give them to help them pay off that $22,000 in debt? Let's do Financial Peace University. Austin is going to pick up after we're finished with this call and he's going to offer that to you. Now, I want you both to go through it and it's going to give you all the tools that you need going forward. Having a baby. It's a lot going on. You've got the debt you're trying to pay off. Financial Peace is going to give you the tools that you need, the confidence that you need. You're going to learn everything you need to know to make good choices with money and develop great habits with your money so that you can build wealth and be able to give and live the life that you love. Yay.

So there you go, Melissa. Thank you so much. You're welcome. We're pulling for you. Do we know if it's a boy or a girl? It's a girl. Woo! Tell us the name real quick.

Melody. Melody! I love it. Yay. It's so awesome. I love babies. Me too. She sounded like a baby, haven't it. Yay, it's so awesome. I love babies. Me too.

She sounded like a baby, haven't she? Yeah, she's young. I love it. Another young couple making a good start. I love it. Hang on the line, Melissa. We'll get you your baby gift, and we're so excited for you guys. Jade Warshaw, fantastic show. Thank you, sir.

Always fun to be with you, my friend. James Childs and the crew, thank you guys for keeping us on the air. And to you, America, we do this for you because it is your show. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Ken. If you like what you heard in this episode and want to know more about getting started on the Ramsey baby steps, go to RamseySolutions.com and click on the Get Started button. We'll help you figure out the best next step for you based on your specific situation. Again,

that's ramsesolutions.com and click Get Started.