The Ramsey Show - App - How Can I Get Rid of This Debt? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: November 29, 2023

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🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work they love, and create amazing relationships. I am Rachel Cruz, hosting this hour with my good friend and Ramsey personality, Jade Warshaw. And we are taking your calls. It's a free call anywhere in the country at 888-825-5225.

Answering your questions on life, money, relationships, career, anything and everything. So first up, we have Calvin in Portland, Oregon. Hey, Calvin. Welcome to the show. Hey, how are you doing? We are doing great. How can we help? I just wanted a biased opinion on this. I just made it to baby step three. Right as I was transitioning jobs, I had left a previous company due to some disagreements about the way things

should be done and undercutting management and so forth. The company I came to had made some promises and benefits. They matched my pay. But when I got here, they didn't hold up their end on a lot of things. They're doing some shady stuff, not following kosher regulations. And we're really kind of scurrying over the residents by not taking care of the units that we're turning. Currently, I have a potential job offer with a pretty reputable company

who's offering better benefits, a retirement fund, a better schedule, things like that. Okay. How old are you? 22. Okay. fund, a better schedule, things like that. Okay. How old are you? 22. Okay.

And the first job you left, what was the disagreement over your last job? I had been promoted after working there from a service tech to manager after a year and a half. Whenever I got the management position, I was pulled aside and told that I'm the youngest in the company, I'm inexperienced, and they're going to be taking charge of my property. And that was something they hadn't done to any other manager before. Whenever I tried to talk to HR and things like that, try to come to some kind of solution. It got pinned on to me. And eventually my schedule started getting changed.

They started threatening my job. And so I ended up putting in my two weeks. Okay. Can I ask a clarifying question? When they pulled you aside to have these conversations, was the reasoning simply because you were the youngest in the company and some people didn't like that? Or was the reasoning you're the youngest in the company, therefore we're finding performance issues? Was there any performance issue on it? Or it was just

like, we don't like that you're doing well at a young age. Does that make sense? Am I missing something? No, that makes sense. And that's one of the things that I was struggling with understanding and had tried to get clarification because I had never been written up. I had been talked to probably one or two times, you know, just flip up previously. But other than that, I had good reviews from my residents. Everyone else was saying I was doing a good job. Everything was kept up. Yeah. And Calvin, what's your line of work? Property maintenance. Property maintenance. Okay. Yeah. Because I think the thing about careers and stuff, and if I was talking to 22-year-old Rachel, I would tell her this. There's a lot of crappy

businesses out there. There's a lot of crappy bosses. There's a lot of stuff that you run into and you're just thinking, oh, wow, these people don't keep their word. They're doing some shady things. Like that is a reality, Calvin. That is a reality. There's also a reality too.

And again, I would tell 22 year old Rachel this, that Rachel, you don't know as much as you think you might, that there could be problems within different circumstances that are Rachel, you don't know as much as you think you might, that there could be problems within different circumstances that are Rachel problems. Rachel may think it's everyone else's problem, but it's really Rachel problem. And Calvin, I'm not saying you're one or the other, but usually that's what we find,

especially if when you say there was a job you just left because of questionable leadership, which could be very legitimate. And then you come to a new job and find out again, just like point A, there's crappy people and crappy businesses, and you're thinking, oh, jeez, I picked the wrong one. I need somewhere that's reputable and great, and you're going to thrive, and it's going to be awesome, right? I am going to give you the benefit of the doubt that that is your situation. But I would say also, Calvin, just to have the humility always,

and I still at my age in this too, that when issues do arise, there are times that it's us that were the issue, not always everyone else. So just always keeping that in the back of your head, Calvin. But if you really are working for a company that did not hold up their end of the bargain and did not do things they said they were going to do. And then even the way they run things, you just don't morally feel good about.

That is a valid reason to switch. So if you have another opportunity, even if the opportunity didn't even have all these great benefits that you laid out, that would still just be a reason to say, I don't feel comfortable working. Because if I can't trust them to not comply with certain regulations I can't trust them with me right as as an employee and how they're going to treat me oh yeah that's right um and then if for some reason this one doesn't work out then you do have to do what Rachel said and be like okay maybe I'm what's my job process selection looking like am I going on the Craigslist and looking at stuff that's you know

just like the wrong option but you know I I'm with Rachel 100% I do think that I think you're young going in as much as you can ask really clear questions going in of and and really understand what the expectation is for your benefit anytime it's like okay when I get here what is your expectation what does when you say this is what we expect you to do what do you mean by that like get as much clarity as you can so you know that you're hitting your mark right and I think that's the best thing that you can do in this next situation absolutely up next we have Kevin in Huntington West Virginia Kevin, welcome to the show. Hi. Hello. How can we help? Okay. I have, I'm not very familiar with your all's stuff. I've kind of just started watching some of your

highlights and stuff on YouTube recently. But enough to get an idea, a basic idea of like the debt snowball stuff. And I've gotten myself into a little bit of a bond. Like I'm not, I'm not drowning yet. Okay. But I kind of see that if I keep going the way I'm going, I've kind of just been jumping from crisis to crisis and juggling everything and making it work for a while. Yeah. I kind of see that if I stay on that path path that I'm going to be drowning before too long. Okay, so Kevin, we're up against the clock a little bit,

so I want to make sure we get to your question and situation. So how much debt do you have? I have $63,000 total. Okay. 47 of it is between cars. Um, 2,900 of it is, uh, credit consumer debt. Um, I have 9,000, uh, student loans and a 3,800 in collections. Okay. Um, some of that, some of the credit, some of the consumer debt is like, uh, like rent a center kind of stuff,

like weekly payments. And my question is, those aren't necessarily the smallest. You know, Kevin, I'm going to keep you on hold for a second. We're heading into a break, a hard clock. So if you'll hold on to the, hold on the line, putting you on hold, we're going to come back to you after the break so that we can really walk through these numbers, especially as a new caller. I want to make sure Jade and I kind of get a full picture of your situation and help you best because I think this could be a turning point for you, Kevin. I'm excited. So stay on the line. We'll be right back with you. So we held over a call from last segment and we're going to talk to Kevin in Huntington,

West Virginia. He's a newer listener to the show and has $63,000 in debt, everything from cars, credit cards, student loans, and trying to figure out, you know, this feeling like he's on the cusp of possibly living crisis to crisis, like he's kind of right at that edge and possibly wanting to do some things to change that so kevin thanks for holding on the line yep okay so as we were talking you were saying some of your consumer debts i think of the 2900 that was credit cards is also you were saying was it uh furniture from Rent-A-Center? Yeah, yeah, like stuff like that, like a bed. I had to buy tires for my truck, and I financed it, weekly pay kind of stuff. How much of it is that?

About $3,000. Okay, and what does that amount to monthly? Well, it's weekly pay. Okay, weekly. Each one of those comes out weekly. The cheapest one is $21 a week. The other one's $30 a week. The other one's $74 a week.

Can you give it, what happens when you give back the Rent-A-Center stuff? Like what happens if you're like, I don't want to rent it anymore? Nothing. They just get it back. so the payment's the payment you can't go you can't say i don't want to rent it and get out of it no yeah no i can take it back and i just don't have that stuff anymore so i don't have the payment the tires i couldn't right i don't have the payment anymore okay i would go through and go what can i? Like, obviously you need tires on your car, but is there a way that we can save up some quick cash and get you the tires you need and get, because I want you to get out of that as quickly as possible because the interest on that I'm sure is not great.

No, it's not. And that was my question because I recently got my side hustle. I got a job basically to do nothing. I'm on call for a record service where if I get a call, I have to go out and work, but it's overnight and I usually don't get called and $300 a week. And I can get out from under like the one is $206. So I could pay it off the check and that I'm off from,

I'm out from under that one. And that frees up 2132 to roll into another thing with the debt snowball. Yeah. I, for me, things like Rent-A-Center, that's akin to like payday loans and stuff. It's really just scraping the bottom of the barrel. So I'd want you to get that stuff clean. And honestly, like I said, I'd be looking and going, what can I just give back? And if you're making $300 doing this wrecking service, how quickly can you save up what you need for tires, baseline, you know what I mean? And just get yourself back on your feet in that way. And then you've also got,000 in credit. I want you to go through even further with a fine-tooth comb and really list each debt in order from smallest to largest, because that's going to give you not only a clearer picture of truly what's going on, but it's going to break it down in a way that you can, like you

just said, hey, this one is for, you know, $2,000. I can tackle that. And it's going to help you see it in its smallest form so that you know, okay, like, what is it going to take? How many hours do I need to do? Okay, I can pay that one off. And you're just going one by one, line by line. Yeah. For the cars, Kevin, how much you said 47,000 for cars. So how much is each car? For my truck, it's $700 a month. Or what's like the total loan? Sorry. Well, 22,000. 22 for your truck. Okay. And what's the next car? My wife's SUV. It's 24-3. $24,000. Okay.

And then $2,900 on credit cards. Yes. That's including the... The rental centers. That's right. You were saying that. Okay. Yep.

So, yeah, if you'll break those out per credit card, per rent-a-center... $700 on one, $300 on another another um a thousand for uh a bed 500 for my tires and 200 for a computer um then like if i paid off the computer with the check that i get today yep yeah yeah that's exactly right and then $9,000 in student loans. Is that right? Yes. Okay. And then some in collections. What's your income? Like you and your wife's combined income? Combined our take-homes of just over $100,000. That's a take-home. Okay, good. So $63,000 in debt, $100,000 take-home. You know. There's a part to this where I go, okay, what would happen if you guys lived on $60,000 and you're going through this? You've got $40,000 just in your

money that you can put towards this every year, plus- $300 a week side hustle. The side hustle and your wife getting a side hustle. When you look at it like that, you realize, Kevin, that you can knock this out fairly quickly 18 to 24 months right well that and yeah and now like that was why i called because like the debt snowball it's it's i think it's the list smallest to largest right that's right exactly take on the and like some of these weekly payments aren't smallest but if I attack the weekly payments first and got them paid off really quick that has me paying like $2,500 a week towards the $2,500 a month towards the next. Well the

smallest to largest is not the payment size it's the size of the debt the total debt. Okay oh okay. So you look at like if you like you said with those renter centers I think you said one of the total debts was $200 one of the total debts was $ was 300 right yeah and so those would be my small that's right i was thinking payments nope by by the balance by the balance and you want to stay current on everything so you'll stay current on all the payments pay off that smallest and then kevin you guys you know you and your wife because you know i mean even just this picture the debt, this isn't to shame or embarrass you, but it's a picture of like, this is normal. You guys were just kind of doing what you wanted and you make great money and you're probably feeling like, how are we broke? How do we feel

like we have no money and we have to go to rent a center for our furniture when we make $100,000 a year combined? This shouldn't be like that. is not how it should be and so as you guys start this process kevin i would really encourage you to lean in when you start to feel these wins because i would bet you kevin that you make you guys may look up at the 24 000 suv and be like man could we sell it for 26 000 get 2k and get a crappy car for a little bit and knock this out even sooner because there's a taste of freedom kevin that you guys have never had i've never experienced and for you and your wife doing this process together it is huge it's huge so i want you to stay on the line because we want to give you financial peace university for you and your wife to go through together

and you guys it's our seven it's our lesson course. And you guys walk through that and every dollar premium. And this is our budgeting app that connects to your bank. And it's really going to help you guys list out very specifically, hey, here's our paycheck. Where is it all going? This is going to give you a roadmap to get this stuff paid off. And I think, yeah, with the side hustle and everything, Kevin, this is it. I mean, yeah, your question was, what's the best use of our side? 18 months, I bet.

Yeah, our side hustle money. And it's just, yep, throw out that smallest debt amount. And as you guys start to really make this traction and this progress, you're going to feel it. And it's going to be amazing. And we're here for you. So keep watching the show and listening for that encouragement. Because the way you're going to view money is totally different than how you've lived and it's going to feel uncomfortable at times it's not

going to always be fun during the season of sacrifice but the more you guys sacrifice and really buckle down yeah the traction you're going to see is amazing look and you you hit the nail on the head you know a hundred thousand dollars you think all right we're we're doing well like the average family is somewhere around 67,000. So if you are above that mark, kind of status tells us, hey, that's good. You're doing well. And it does feel weird when you're like,

wait a minute, I'm buying my furniture at Rennecenter. Like I told you- I can't buy tires. I can't buy tires. And I told you during the break, I knew this couple, they were older than us. But when I was in college, I went to their house and I remember them saying like,

our furniture is from Rennecenter. And they had two giant SUVs that were brand new. And I remember thinking, wow, they've made it. But their situation was probably very similar to what we just heard. And I've said this before and I'll say it again. When you start to make these changes, it will show. So if you try to do this in a vacuum or in the quiet, like you have to just accept, hey, if I really want to do this and I want to do it faster, I might drive a different car. Yeah. Like people might see me going from driving a 2023 Infiniti down to, you know, a 2015 Camry. And they may ask me questions about that. And that is OK. Number one, it's none of their business unless you want it to be their business.

But if they ask you, there's no shame in saying, you know what? We were out of control and we're getting our life back. Yep. Like let's normalize that as the status symbol of. Amen. I'm getting my life back and I am being a responsible adult. And when you give back that bed to Rent-A-Center and give back, you know, the tires to Rent-A-Center, that is you being a responsible adult. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show and standing on the debt-free stage, we have Connor and

Julian with us. Welcome, you guys. Hello. Thanks for letting us be here. Well, congratulations. We always know when there's people with headphones on the debt-free stage that there's always a good story. Where are you guys from? We're from Oklahoma City. Okay, awesome. And how much debt did you guys pay off? We paid off $288,000. Amazing. What kind of debt was it? So it consisted

of student loans, rental property, as well as our primary residence. Wow. Paid off your house. We did. Amazing. How much were you guys making during that time? We started at $74,000 and finished right around $103,000. Okay. And how long did it take you? 38 months.

38 months. Wow. Amazing, you guys. Okay. So 38 months ago, what happened? What caused this radical change of paying off almost $800,000 of debt? So I got started on the plan before we got married. We were still dating at the time.

And once we got married, we hit it hard. I told her kind of the game plan. She knew what she was getting herself into because I was already hardcore on the Dave Ramsey plan. And so then from there, once we had a combined income, we just hit the ground running. Okay. So what was the debt? I guess we're, what was the debt going into the marriage? Was it who had the rental property? Who had the student loan? So I had the rental property. It was actually a previous primary residence from my first duty station. Okay. So. Wow. So my question is, I'm looking at a rental and a house. What are properties worth so that was kind of the key we that was

how we paid off we sold the rental property which was a big part of paying off our primary residence wow how much was that how much of that was so we sold the rental property we left with about a hundred thousand dollars in equity and we sold that good for you amazing so that added of course to the 288 absolutely amazing. Amazing. Was that a hard decision to make? Because a lot of people that call this show, they love a rental property. They always want to keep it. And especially in the military, it's definitely not the norm to not keep the property. But I had purchased that property right before kind of really diving into the Dave Ramsey plan. Yes. So I knew when we left that that was the best decision to make.

Okay. And what branch of the military are you in? Army. Army. Okay. Thank you. Thanks for your service. Yeah, definitely.

So what caused you to dive into the plan? Like how'd you get acquainted with this plan? How'd you find it? What was your first reaction? So I have always been pretty financially oriented. I've always had an interest in it. But I think my dad was getting tired of me asking him questions about finances. He purchased the Financial Peace University CD bundle and had it shipped to my house.

I went listen to that about two times over on my way to work every day. And I just bought in, dove in at first. So great. And how long have you guys been married? We've been married for just over three years. Three years. Okay. So, so Julian, you knew what you were obviously getting into.

He's very focused. You can tell. Connor knows what he wants. Oh yes. So what were you thinking when you, when he brought this up? I guess I'm assuming when y'all were dating, even this was a conversation. Oh, absolutely. So I was not a stranger to Dave Ramsey.

I, my parents in high school made us do the financial peace class with our youth group. So when he told me that he really wanted to do it, I said, I mean, that's fine. I'm not the money person. I don't ask me my advice. So I was, I was, I was ready to do it. Yeah. It was, it wasn't as hard to switch using like just my debit card to just using like straight cash. It wasn't as hard as I using like just my debit card to just using like straight cash. It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be because it made me actually, you know, like not spend all my money. Made me, you know, budget. So you went like full cash mode, like full cash envelopes.

Absolutely. I love it. Connor is hardcore. I can tell. Okay. So what was the hardest part because you're newly married right and I just feel like especially that stage I feel like there's different stages of life like when you graduate college after you get married there's certain points in life that

it just feels like everyone around you is living at a certain right like lifestyle degree of what they're doing so what was hard about that did you feel like that was kind of around you and you had to push back or were you were you so focused that you didn't feel like there was a lot of temptation? Um, no, definitely. There was definitely some temptation. Um, a lot of, a lot of friends didn't really understand what we were doing. They didn't appreciate that we couldn't always do all the things that they were doing. Um, but for the most part, like our families were all completely on board. Like we had a strong a strong uh cheerleader squad so i would say all in all the the the friend group part was the hardest part of it yes for sure on the social side absolutely yeah i could definitely see that

so what would you say the key of getting out of debt is if someone asks someone listening or watching right now and they're thinking oh my gosh we we're newlyweds we have all this debt and look at them on stage they're they've done it what would you say to someone that things that they have to do to make this progress this process work so i'll say two things one one general and one military specific i'd say general is living living on less than what you make i think we all know and that's a common thing i know that gets said on here um but for military specific specific, it's not trying to do what's popular and what everyone else is doing. I think it's very popular in the military for people to try to acquire a home at every duty station. And then people end up with four or five houses in four or five

different cities. And that's where we were for a second. And I was like, that's not going to work. That's not the best way to do this. And once I saw that we could pay off our primary residence by selling the rental property, it was hands down, easy decision. Well, can I ask about that? Because that I could imagine the influence of that, like there's all these people around you, they're doing this thing. Was it as simple as going, hey, you guys are doing this, it doesn't seem to be working well for you. Like, how were you able to reconcile that? Because it is hard to look at what everybody seems to be doing, especially if it looks

like it's working and do the exact opposite. Talk more about that. So for me, it was a little bit easier because both of both the houses were on 15 year fixed mortgages. So where a lot of people have it financed on a 30 year mortgage and they're like, oh, well, I'm making $200 a month rent to to their mortgage and we were never making a profit off of the rents because we were we had a higher mortgage at a 15 year and so that also are you know we were at a point where I was like well we're really one

bad brew for HVAC system away from a bad time so that's when I was like this long distance landlord is not not for us. We're not gonna do that. You started turning on your brain and thinking about like what this really, really means for your situation. I love that. So good.

Okay, so how does it feel? It's outstanding. I mean, it's crazy that you guys own your home. How old are you guys? 28. I'm 25. Holy crap. Wow.

Wow. I mean, that's so remarkable, you guys. That's unbelievable. So all the hard work and the sacrifice which i know part of this was the rental um house that you sold but but 180 000 came from you guys living it out and so if someone asks was it worth it what would you say absolutely no question amazing and i just say that the one thing on that is, is a lot of people, if they saw our story just from afar, they might think, oh, you know, that's, that's an easy way to, to pay off debt. But I want people to know that we got extremely lucky with the COVID-19 market on how much our house in El Paso appreciated.

So that was a huge part of, and like I said, that was luck. That was not the norm as far as buying and selling real estate goes. So we got lucky in that regard. I don't want people to think that anyone should just buy and sell a house like that. That's a very good point. That's so great.

Oh, you guys. Well, Connor and Julian, you're amazing. And you're in your late 20s, mid 20s, and you guys have done it. And I'm like, and now seriously, people call the show in their 50s and 60s. And they're like, why didn't we do this earlier? And you guys get such a head start. And so I see you have some cheerleaders next to you here on your left.

Who's with you today? So aunt and uncle that live locally here. And then our son, Logan. So you have a son, Logan. Oh, he's so cute. Oh, my gosh. And how old is he he is a year and a half year and a half okay well you guys we have the live and give bundle for you guys to enjoy or give away all the pieces within that's because you guys are definitely living like no

one else so we have connor and julian from oklahoma city who paid off $288,000, including their house, in 36 months, making $74,000 to $108,000. Count it down. Let's hear your big debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Woo! Amazing. Oh, absolutely incredible. i am shook i am shook they're not even 30 well that's it that's where i'm just like you can decide you can decide yeah and there's a and there's a road to be walked

down that but man what an incredible what an incredible life that they're about to dive into financially and in so many ways. Absolutely amazing. Congratulations, Connor and Julian. This is The Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day comes from 1 Corinthians 16, 13 through 14. Be on your guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous.

Be strong. Do everything in love. Dorothy Bernard said, Courage is fear that has said its prayers. Courage is fear that has said its prayers. There you go. I'm going to marinate on that. That's a good quote.

Yes. All right. Up next, we have Colin in Fort Worth, Texas. Hey, Colin, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you. I'm trying to figure out what I need to do. I am 21 years old. I am $42,000 in debt. And I just got laid off two weeks ago. And I'm in a bind kind of thing. I am borrowing money from my aunt and uncle, but I don't have any payments until about three weeks from now. Wow. What's your living situation? Are you renting?

Are you living with family? I am living with my aunt and uncle right now. They're helping me out. But one of the rules is with me living with them, I'm getting my GED. I did drop out of high school. Before I got laid off, I was making a crap load of money for my age. My sister always told me to listen to y'all. She told me to give y'all a call to help me figure it out.

That's where most of my debt's coming from is from cars. Just wasn't spending the money wisely. How much were you making? I was making from $1,800 to $2,500 a week. Okay. Okay. And what kind of work were you doing? I was an oiler.

I worked on the road. I worked in Kansas, New Mexico. I maintained heavy equipment. So are you trying to get back into that same field, or are you looking to do something else? I'm pretty religious in my life, and I don't necessarily, what I've learned over time is money is not worth it to me. And actually, I want to become a firefighter.

I've always wanted to be one. Okay. I want to go to school, and I want to try to work on that. And I know where I'm at in Texas, there's a program that pays for you to become a firefighter, but they only accept like a thousand people. And it's at the end of September. Okay.

So that's a long ways. Yeah. I'm trying to figure out a way to manage until then, or trying to get out of debt or figure something out. What's the 42,000, uh, Colin, what's that consist of?

I have a sports car, which is $24,000 of that, and then I have a GMC Sierra, which is the other, is a truck. And how much is that? It is, I think it's like $19,000 or something like that, or $18,000.

Okay, so it's all cars, literally two cars. Yes, ma'am. And then I have two other cars also. What? Okay, how much are those? I have a Chevy Tahoe. It's paid off. It's about $12,000.

I would say it's worth. And then I have a Honda Civic, but it has a blown-up motor right now. Wow. How much could you sell it if you just like without a motor with anything, just sell it? Yeah motor with anything Just sell it Yeah that's what I'm working on

I have a buyer for next week How much will you get for it About $1800 Is what he wants to offer But it's not going to last me so long Colin We got to sell up these cars Honestly Colin I would just have a massive car sale

I would sell everything I would sell all of them what could you get for the sports car you owe 24 24 000 how much could you get for it do you think so the problem with me i love cars and i'm a car enthusiast i've modified it and to a dealership they're offering 12 000 is what i got offered for the 24 000 okay not a dealership did you kelly blue book it yeah so kelly blue book came back at 16 000 but with the modifications they said it's going to be less so i'm stuck with trying to sell it private party yeah is what i'm stuck with is this because you did a bunch of stuff to it? Yeah, so it makes a lot more horsepower. It's a very fast car.

Interesting. So I've put about $12,000 into it, except for buying it also on top. What about the other car? What about the $19,000? Yeah. That's the most reliable vehicle I have, I would say. Okay, how much did you sell it for? I could sell it for around $15,000 is what a dealership offered me.

So if you sold the Tahoe, if you sold the Civic, you could cover whatever you're upside down, truly in either car. Like even if you chose to take the hit on the sports car, I'd probably focus on the $19,000 car, the Sierra. And I'd get rid of those three for sure. Yeah. And then you're going to make 12,000, maybe, yeah, 1,800 from the Honda. So that's 14,000 that you're going to make off of selling the other cars. So you can cover some of the difference, the 4,000 with that that keep the sports car and you're gonna have ten thousand to put towards that yeah i mean honestly without a job right now colin i just don't like you sitting with a twenty four thousand dollar i don't know if you'll be able to get a

loan for the difference on all of these either um you know because usually we get we take a loan out for the for the difference but if he gets the 12k from the tahoe then he can cover he honestly could cover the upside down the 4 000 from the sierra and he'd probably be able to cover the other 5 000 from the sports car yep because what are you paying in payments for the sports car in the sierra every month combined i am paying 450 for the camaro. It's a Camaro. And then for my Sierra, I pay, I think it's like $270. I mean, look at that. That's $700. That's over $700 a month that you're getting back. That would feel... And insurance, I'm paying about $780 a month also for cars being covered.

I mean, look at that. And then you could take some cash and you could buy yourself a cash car. Like you said, you're into cars, so you know how to pick a car for $5,000. That's just going to be your temporary thing until you get back on your feet and then you can add money to that and upgrade. But I mean, you got $42,000 of debt. It's all cars and you don't have a job. Yeah. have a job yeah and the thing about this is like that house of cards came down but you get to build back up stronger and you get to build build back up on the right footage so it feels bad right now but it doesn't have to stay that way and i don't want you to think that we're like you know trying to take all your toys away from you and you know put you in the corner we just want you to get out

of this debt you're living with your uncle and aunt who are nice enough to do that and this is you going look I made a mistake I'm gonna make it right so I can get up out of y'all's house yeah so I can stop borrowing money and next time because there is gonna be a next time where you make great money and you're gonna treat it the right way and you're gonna buy things in cash and you're not gonna go into debt because you know you will have then known how it feels for that to cave in on you and you're never going to do that again yeah because colin you know you said earlier in the call that you i think you said something like i'm a religious person so i'm not money's not everything to me anymore you know and that's true but money is something when you don't have it all and you got two car payments so like there is a level of having money in its right position and i think that's what you were

saying which is very noble that yes money is not, but you do have to have it as a tool in life. So you have to learn to manage it, right? So you're either going to choose to manage it well and wise so that it doesn't become an idol in your life, or if it's the thing that you're stressed over and over and over and over and over every single month, living month to month in stress, it's going to become an idol. So as spirituals, we want to make it for it not to be, you actually can choose for it not to be an idol to have control over it. And I think that's one of the best things

that you can do, Colin. And I think that this is a wake-up call. I think there was a part of you that we all have, this like little inner child that kind of once and once and once, I see it when J.Crew has a sale or whatever it may be that you're like, it's what I want.

I want that. I want that. Yours happens to be cars. And I think, Colin, there's a level of maturity here that you're like, I'm a man. You're getting your GED, which I think is fabulous. And you want a career that you said is a firefighter. And it doesn't, you know, you said it's not going to make a lot, but that's OK, because money's not a big thing to me. Well, guess what?

You get an option to be a firefighter and maybe not make as much when you don't have debt, but you don't have that option to make that kind of money solely when you have all these car payments too. So that's the trade-off I want you to see that living without debt, not only frees you up financially and spiritually, emotionally, like we talk about, but it frees up your options. Like if you have no payments, then you can say, yeah, I'm going to choose to be a firefighter, make less than what I made in the oil fields but i literally can't because i don't have bills so like i have the freedom to choose that which is beautiful and that's what you're starting to see colin is that it gives you options like it gives you the ability to make decisions with your life

you know i was talking calling to this young couple when i first started speaking and they had close to 180 000 in student loan debt combined. They just got married out of college. They went to two Christian universities. They wanted to be missionaries. Whoa. And you can't, I'm like, I don't know. I don't know what to tell you. You have bills to pay. So Colin, this is the best thing for you. I'm so excited for you. Sell these cars, become debt-free, get a side hustle, work till September to be able to go be a firefighter and do what you want to do. I love it. Jade, thanks for being an awesome co-host as always. Thanks to all the guys in the booth. Thank you, America, for listening. Remember

to take control of your money and create a life you love.