The Ramsey Show - App - How Do I Create Strong Family Boundaries? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: April 2, 2021

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where dad is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author, and my daughter is my co-host today here on the air. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Dave's in Fort Worth, Texas.

Hi, Dave. How are you? Mr. Ramsey, I'm doing fine. Thank you for asking, sir. Your time's valuable, so is mine, so I'll make it quick. Okay. your time's valuable so is mine so I'll make it quick okay I me and my wife just found out we inherited $315,000

it doubles every 10 years and of course like every other normal I guess silly American we have debt bad debt we have debt, bad debt. We owe $150,000 on our house.

We have $8,000 in a credit card debt and some student loans. Basically, it totals out to being almost $200,000. So that would leave about $150,000 or so in the account. But the thing is, we want to use that for retirement because we can get more out of that than we can my retirement at work. So I was wondering if you would endorse the idea of instead of paying off the house, of course, we're paying off all the other debt. That's silly not to pay that off. But if paying off the house, we put we put 50 000 down on the house and refinance it to a lower rate and then we just slowly pay that off whenever uh and it gets paid off when it gets paid off yeah how old are you guys uh i'm 33 my wife is 26 how long you've been married

five beautiful years and we had the only way only way we're leaving each other is through death sir okay i wasn't wasn't questioning that trying to figure out where you are okay yes i know i'm just very very excited yeah so uh who passed away who left you the money uh it was her uh grandma and her dad had her her grand her granddad was really good with money, and they left it to her, which, of course, me marrying her, she signed it over into both of our names. Okay. And now we're here.

Okay. So, number one, let's back up a second. All right. Yes, sir. An investment doubles. There's a little nuance in mathematics called the rule of 72s. And if you divide the rate of return from your investment into the number 72, it tells you how often it doubles. So if you say, I got 10% on my money, your money would double every 7.2 years.

So if you're telling me it's doubling every 10 years, that means every 10 years, then that tells me it's invested at 7%. Okay, that makes sense. That's what that tells me. So number one, it's not doing really great in an investment there. In good growth stock mutual funds, you should make considerably more than that if you invested it the way we taught you. So the question is not what i would endorse the question is what what causes you guys at 50 to be in the best financial condition to have the most possible money which of these strategies and that's the

way we look at it right yeah i mean it's the math of setting you guys up well in the future so what i would do if i woke up in your shoes is i would pay everything off and i would use the fact that you have no payments to become an aggressive investor then and so i would max out all my retirement accounts 401ks roth iras anything i can do uh do some other investing. I would increase my generosity. The problem with that idea is you. You and your wife have handled money horribly. Yes, sir. And if you keep doing that after you pay off everything, you're going to wake up at 50 back in debt.

Yes, sir. If you keep making the same stupid butt decisions. Now, I used to make stupid butt decisions. That's how I can recognize them because I got a Ph.D. in stupid. And so Ph.D. in D.U.M.B. Right. So I know what it feels like. So the problem is you have to change your behaviors as a part of this advice or the advice is wrong if you're going to continue to handle money like you're going to continue to

handle it i would recommend staying in debt that way you won't get further in debt you know but if you'll do it right and take those old house payments and old payments that you don't have anymore and use them to grow then you're going to be fine and that's what i would tell you to do yeah yeah and i think that will make granny smile grandpa smile from heaven and say hey these kids are out of debt and they are on a budget and they're never they raise their right hand and put a brand in there take a tattoo tattoo, whatever you want to call it, where I say I never, never, never, never will dishonor my grandmother, grandfather's memory by going into debt again because I misbehaved. Yeah, because there's a process that you are refined. When you go through baby step two and you've made decisions that you and your family are in debt,

you work the progress and the program to get out of it. There's sacrifice involved. And through that sacrifice, majority of people at the end of it are like, oh, never again. I've made it through. I've trudged through this problem and I'm done. I'm never looking back.

And for you guys, you guys were handed a gift, Dave. And that's not a bad thing. I don't think that that's wrong at all. And that's a blessing. But exactly to your point, the refining that people had through that process of baby step two, you guys are skipping that. And that's a blessing. But exactly to your point, the refining that people had through that process of baby step two, you guys are skipping

that. And again, not bad. But recognizing and understanding that, that yes, those habits that you guys have had have to break. You have to change the way you're viewing money. And you and your wife sitting down together and doing that. And then just on the more tactical side of it, you guys are young. And so the whole idea of the retirement, you're going to have

plenty of time. Plenty of time. Plenty of money for retirement yeah what i would just prescribe to you will make you worth 10 million dollars that's right that's right so paying everything off there's this this level of like oh you get you get a redo not everyone gets like the get out of free jail card and you did and so use it properly get rid of everything or all the debt and then you guys together continue to work the plan, and then that money that was left, it will grow, and you guys will continue to contribute more. Yeah. So if I were in your shoes, that's what I would do.

But I would be so afraid of myself because of what we're talking about. If I were in your shoes, I might even write out, type it out on your computer, print it out, a contract with myself, and both of you sign it, that because we did this, in order to honor the memory that this inheritance comes from, we are pledging to always do a budget. We are pledging to always live on less than we make. We are pledging to always be generous. We are pledging to never, under any circumstances, for any reason, ever borrow money again.

And write it out. And both of you sign it. And, you know, and then if you ever get like, you know, I got to buy, we need a better car. And you start whining and you start getting, then you get that piece of paper back out and you go, uh-uh. No. No. Because if you don't do that so let's do this i'm going to give you a gift to go with the inheritance it's a year's subscription to ramsey plus the two of you go through financial peace university the two of you get on your every dollar budget and wait 60 days to do anything with this money just park it to the side pretend like you don't have it and do this stuff for 60 days and you can give yourself the confidence that you are going to do anything with this money. Just park it to the side, pretend like you don't have it, and do this stuff for 60 days,

and you can give yourself the confidence that you are going to change instead of this just I promise I'll do it to myself thing. I would want to know that I wasn't going to screw this up if I were you. This is The Ramsey Show. This time last year, we didn't know how our lives were going to change. We didn't have a clue that COVID, job loss, and homeschooling were about to take over our daily existence. And you may be feeling like last year got away from you. Maybe you lost complete control of your money. Or maybe you had to find a new job quickly to make ends meet.

The bad news is a lot can happen in a year. But the good news is a lot can happen in a year, but the good news is a lot can happen in a year, which is why now is the time to think about where you want to be this time next year. And if you're looking for a proven plan to get back on track, our number one bestselling book, The Total Money Makeover, will walk you through the seven baby steps for getting out of debt faster, creating a budget you can stick to, building real wealth, and becoming outrageously generous. Get your copy of the Total Money Makeover today at the online store at DaveRamsey.com or call our Ramsey concierge team at 888-22-PEACE.

That's 888-22 today here on the air. Donica is with us in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Hey, Donica, how are you? Hi, Dave. Hi, Rachel., how are you? Hi, Dave. Hi, Rachel. Thank you so much for taking my call today. Sure. What's up?

So my husband and I, we're on baby step two. We recently welcomed our first child, our baby girl, four weeks ago. Yay! Thank you. So our household income is one hundred and forty two thousand. And we have that debt balance of one hundred and forty eight thousand. We throughout the pregnancy this year, we actually were still we were saving for the arrival of our baby. But we were also paying off that we paid off about $30,000. But we were wondering, should we sell our house

in order to kind of speed up the debt payoff process? The $148,000, does that include your home? It does not. What is the $148,000? What kind of debt is the $148,000? $109,000 of that is student loans, and the rest is consumer debt, one car loan and credit card. How much is the car? The car is $9,500. We got rid of one car. This is the only car that we have right now. And you paid off $30,000 so far. We did, yeah.

How long did that take? That took, we started off our payoff journeys January 2nd of this year and we stopped last month. We had her, we had Victoria a month ago. So yeah, we stopped in the last month or so to kind of get situated. Okay. How much would you get from the house if you sold it? The balance is about $212,000. We're hoping that we can sell it for a little over $300,000. Maybe $300,000, maybe $305. Okay, so around $75. Yeah.

You like the house? We are grateful for it. We don't see ourselves staying here for longer than two more years, honestly. But we are grateful for it. But we would have somewhere to go. Our parents, they have a couple extra rooms in their home. So we're wondering, should we make this large sacrifice? We will be willing to if it means that we can, you know, pay off our debt and get on to, you know.

Okay, so I answer questions on this show about what would I do if I woke up in your shoes knowing what I know about getting out of debt and how it leads to peace, freedom, all that kind of stuff. Okay? Right. And so here's the way I would map it out if I were you guys. And that way you get a real clear picture of the tradeoff. Number one, you are not in a position to move in with your parents. I would not do that.

Okay. So if you sell, you're going to rent. Okay. That's what I would do. Okay. You have a new baby. You have a good life. You make $142,000 a year.

You don't need to be in your mama's basement. Built-in babysitter, though, but it will keep going. That's a mom with three. I'm like, kind of nice. Spoken like a pro. Kind of be nice. Keep going. Keep going.

I think we're picking up three of them in the morning. Okay. Anyway, let's map it out. If you sell the house or if you don't sell the house. Okay? Okay. If you don't sell the house, I think you're on a $45,000 to a $50,000 a year debt reduction, beans and rice, rice and beans, which puts you out of debt in somewhere around three years from today.

Okay. And I did that based on $30,000 done in nine months, and you were pregnant. Yes. Okay. So now things are going to be normalized a little bit. You can cut this lifestyle down to nothing. You can just have one singular focus, babies here, and that is for three years fifty thousand dollars a year and you are done okay okay uh and that's going to be three very long very tough years because you

are going to have no freaking life during those three years right okay that's that's possibility number one possibility number two is you sell the house and you still have a year to get out of debt while you're renting and then you're going to start saving to repurchase so if it takes three years to get out of debt staying there and it's three years before you're ready to buy again, even though you sold and are debt-free. That's what I would weigh out. Okay. And so then you can also reach out there and say, seven years from today, if I go this way, this is where I'll be. If I go that way, this is where I'll be.

And seven years from today, you're going to be in a different house anyway. You told me that. Right. Seven years from today, you're going to be debt-free either way. Yes. And seven years from today, you will have either sold this house and been a renter for a little while and then saved up and bought the house, or you will have had this house and you will sell it.

And it will be worth more five years from today when you sell it and move into the seven-year house right so so there's not a right or wrong here that's what you're saying either way you're going to get there yeah and i think for you guys i mean donna since you i mean i we talked to some people and they're like no i'm in my dream home oh should we sell it and it's like this like sadness i mean it's just terrible you know that you know that departing with that house, but you've already kind of emotionally detached from it. You're like, oh, we'll be out in probably three years.

So almost the emotional side, it may be easier just to go and sell it, move out, accelerate that debt-free journey and then save up and then pay for another house later for that down payment. But again, neither one's right or wrong. I honestly think mathematically seven years from today, you're going to be in about the same place either way. Okay. I see it. The way I laid that out.

So I don't care. But here's what Rachel did pick up on, okay? You already sold one car. You said, well, sell something else. Now I'm ready to sell the house. It's like you guys are ready to get out of debt. There's this, I'm selling everything, right? Yeah.

That's you communicating that to us this is the way your spirit's working right now and so uh that's what rachel picked up on and she's got you selling the house for that reason right right but but mathematically i think you're okay so i think you just have to sit down and weigh out uh but i would personally i would not advise you making this kind of money with a brand new baby. I don't think you need to be in your mama's house. Okay. I just don't think it's necessary to accomplish these goals. And the advancement of these goals is so small due to that decision that it's definitely not worth it in my mind.

Okay. Yeah. We did have some reservations about that. Because if we rent, we would probably be spending the same amount that we're paying on our mortgage. We pay $1,500 a month for our mortgage. We were probably going to spend the same amount here in Florida. Yeah. And you might even have a little better house, too.

That's possible. You might move up a little bit if you did that. I don't know. Here's another thing you can do that will help you with the decision is gather real facts, not concepts. Go shopping for rentals this weekend. It may make you throw up and you say, I'm staying in my house. Or it may make you go, my God, I can rent that for $1,250. Oh, my God, I'm selling this house. And so, I don't know. I don't know what kind of marketplace you're in, but sometimes

when you put real facts on your ideas, your ideas don't have the shine anymore. It's so true, though. Like, the facts take the emotion out very quickly, right? It's like you can kind of dream up this whole thing, and then you go actually see, no, this is literally what will happen. You're like, oh, wow, okay. And it does. It helps make the decision. Yeah, like, ouch.

Ouch, ouch, ouch. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Matthew's on Facebook. I come from a very dysfunctional, toxic family. How do I set up strong boundaries with an entire family in order to protect myself and my wife? The boundary conversation, it's a big one. I mean, I would say for sure it's gonna have to be something that you if if you're married that you guys sit down together and say okay here are the things

that we're gonna have to put into place and then once you and your wife decide that it has to be communicated uh to the other family so i don't know if that's boundaries around money i don't know if it's time i don't know what boundaries specifically you're talking about i don't think you said and no but um but, it has to be clearly communicated. And usually with the more unhealthiness that's in a family, the harder those boundaries are going to be received, if you will. Well, that's accurate. And reading into the wording that you used,

I think you've probably got some pretty messed up people here. You didn't just say toxic. You didn't just say dysfunctional. You said dysfunctional and toxic. So, I mean, you like put mayonnaise on the bread here, buddy. So pick up Dr. Henry Cloud's book, Boundaries. I don't predict pleasantness in your future, but I predict more unpleasantness if you don't deal with this.

So deal with it. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Rachel Cruz Ramsey personality is my co-host today here on the air this is the Ramsey show Lisa is with us in Tampa Florida hi Lisa how are Hi, Dave and Rachel. Hope you're having a blessed day. We are. How can we help? Yeah. I'm about 60 and my husband is too. And we've been FPU coordinators. I could do a commercial for you for about seven years. Thank you. And it's been such a blessing to us. And, you know, I can testify we've seen lives changed really forever. And because of your teachings, my husband and I are heading into retirement looking pretty darn good. And we had a 15-year mortgage, and our house is going to be paid off six and a half years early next year.

Yay! It's awesome. So I'm so excited about that. But as we're heading into retirement, this is my question, Dave. I have two very dear friends who have pointed me in the direction. I'm interviewing two financial advisors and they have very different opinions. You know, with us being 60, one says a trust is good. The other says I wouldn't do a trust if you have beneficiaries. And one says, well, let's put some of your money into annuities. And the other one says I don't like annuities.

Because right now my money, a lot of it's in the stock market. And we're just looking to get a little, you know, different opinion and maybe get some of it a little less aggressive. So what do you think? Are either one of them SmartVestor Pros? I don't know if they are. Well, then they're not. My friends recommend it on the news.

Then they're not. Okay. So the first thing I would tell you is get a third opinion, and that's get with a SmartVestor Pro off our website. And that's not just to send you to them for business. That's not the point. The point is what you're running into is a philosophical problem that the financial world has. And the financial world is taught to be arrogant.

They're taught to tell you what to do because you don't have a brain. And then roll their eyes, in a sense, if you don't have a brain and then roll their eyes in a sense if you don't do it instead what we teach you and you know this from financial peace university is your job as the owner of the money the manager of the money for god is to get someone with the heart of a teacher and then you learn what the options are and i don't care what they say. You have enough information that you decided, based on the information you gathered, whether this is right for you. So, what is your net worth?

We have saved now about $750,000. Excellent. I don't know why you would need any annuities in that, personally. Okay? Yes. The only advantage that the variable annuity gives you is it can give you a guarantee of principle if the market turns down, and it can give you a guaranteed floor on the rate of return. But as you know from Financial Peace University, we don't teach variable annuities unless your house is paid off, unless

everything's maxed out, and then unless you are really worried about one of those two things, inordinately worried about it, because you're going to pay an extra fee for the annuity, and your money is going to be trapped yet again. That's what I didn't like about it, it's going to be trapped. Yeah, That's what I didn't like about it's going to be trapped. Yeah, again. It was to start with in retirement, and now it's trapped again. And so I'm 60.

I don't have a dime in annuities because I'm very comfortable with market fluctuations. I'm very comfortable with principal fluctuations on my accounts. They're not going to make or break me. They're not going to make or break you. You're millionaires, and you're going to do fine. Okay? They're not going to make or break me. They're not going to make or break you. You're millionaires, and you're going to do fine, okay? So I do utilize trusts, but only for estate planning purposes because my net worth is in excess of $25 million, and that's the only time you get into net worth issues with estate planning,

meaning the federal estate tax does not kick in until then. Okay. And so I've had to utilize some of them, and I'm also using them in a couple of places just for risk management. And the last piece I'm using a trust for is a transfer of this company to the kids. Is it true what he said, though, about the trust, that if you have beneficiaries, you don't really need a trust? Well, it depends on what you're using the trust for.

You can use a trust for saving money on estate taxes. You don't need it for that. You can use a trust to execute your wishes. If you have beneficiaries and a will, you don't need it for that. Right. The only thing it could save you uh you're in what state florida i don't think you've got uh much of a probate tax in florida i don't remember but that your state probate tax it might save you a little bit on that it's not worth the cost of the hassle to run your life out of a trust i wouldn't do it right so two strikes yeah two

strikes against those two annuity and i didn't. Yeah. Okay. But the point is, I want you to get with somebody where you learn, and you're not even doing what Dave Ramsey says. You're doing what Lisa knows to do. And Rachel, it's just so important to get your hands around it. You and Winston make your own decisions. You don't come ask me what to do. No. In fact, I tried to ask you once, and you're like, you guys can figure it out.

I was like, no, really, tell me. Tell me what to do. But no, there's something really, truly about understanding the entire process and sitting down and doing that. And like you said, but it's true that you make the decision that you're comfortable with because the moment you start to be uncomfortable is when is when I think anxiousness comes in. Right. Some anxiety and like, oh, I don't know about the future. Did I make the right decision? To be confident in the decisions you're making is to get out the facts. Yeah. And I don't ever want to care what George told me. So even with a medical doctor, Sharon makes fun of me because I question everybody. It's like, you need to tell me why you're doing this. I'm not going to just trust you because you've got a white coat.

You know? You've got to tell me why we're doing what we're doing. A lawyer. This is the way to go. Okay. Why? You know, I'm giving you a lot of money here to teach me why I'm going to take this legal action. And I think the reason people don't is it's intimidating to admit, hey, I don't know what's going on.

So I feel safer just saying, you just take care of it, okay, okay, right? Digging into all the details, it's intimidating, but you have to to be able to get the answers you need and you want for your life. Well, you don't have peace if you don't. If you don't make the decision, you don't get peace. If someone else makes your decision, you don't get peace, and you don't get the results. On the extreme, this is how these athletes lose all their money,

these actors lose all their money. They give it to a guy, and then they go, where'd my $100 million go? I have no money. Because the guy screwed off with the money, you know? Freaking Bernie Madoff or something, right? And so you don't turn your money you earned over to someone else. You use them to teach you. And you make the decision.

They might implement it with you because they brought a good idea and that's your financial person now. Right, right. But you don't put money in something you don't understand. And, Lisa, you're going to do great with this. You've done so good. I'm so proud of you. Millionaires, way to go. Everyday millionaires right there talking to them and teaching FPU seven of the years.

That's awesome, man. Very, very cool. Aaron is with us. Aaron is in Cincinnati. Hi, Aaron. How are you? Hey, I'm doing pretty good. Thank you guys for taking my call.

I recently just finished Hogan's book, The Everyday Millionaire, I think it was. Yeah. So my question is, I'm on baby step four. My company matches 6% of my 401k. We do have an employee stock program. Should I put my money there? No.

The Gramps and Team isn't a big fan of the individual stocks? No. We teach rock, paper, scissors, we call it. I want you to take 0.15 times your household income, and that number is our goal. Okay, 15% of your household income. So how much is that uh i make 45 you make you make 45 000 a year okay so that's going to be like seven thousand dollars okay just making that's pretty close but okay so we got to get to seven grand the first thing you

do is match your company have a match yeah they, they match up to 6%. Okay, so 6%, and we take 6% of times your, and how much of that is, how much of the $7,000 we need to get to is that? Not enough. You're not there yet. Okay? So we're going to do the company up to the match. Now, is your company 401k or Roth? Yes. Perfect. Okay, because match beats Roth beats traditional. That's the rock, paper, scissors.

Except it can't go but one way. Okay? Match beats Roth beats traditional. So you do the match first, then you do the Roth, and if you still haven't gotten to 7,000, then you would do traditional. In your case, you're going to be able to do Roth all the way out with individual even if you had to. But probably just all in your company 401k is going to get you there, dude.

This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. Thanks for joining us, America. We're glad you're here. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Haley is in Denver. Hi, Haley. How are you? Doing good. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? My husband and I surrendered two vehicles back to Ford Credit back in July of 2020.

And our plan was to save up a lump sum to cover the deficits and hopefully pay it off within the next year or so. They've already turned it over to an attorney and we got a garnishment letter. And we have a substantial amount of other debts as well. So we're wondering if we should be considering bankruptcy or if we should try and crawl our way out of this. Okay, let's back up a second. There's no such thing as a garnishment letter. There's a letter threatening a lawsuit, in which case if they got the lawsuit then if they win the lawsuit then they could execute on the lawsuit and then they could garnish which is a six month to a year process okay so the letter has come threatening you from an attorney is all right yes okay all right

because a garnishment notice would have occurred long after a lawsuit occurred, and you lost the lawsuit, which, by the way, you will lose because you owe the money, okay? So that's not a question. Right. So what is the deficit balance with Ford Motor Credit? One of the vehicles was a $10,000 deficit, and the other one was $15,000. Okay. And what's your household income?

My husband's a truck driver in the oil field so depending on the weather he can make anywhere between $40,000 and $80,000 a year. What do you think he'll make this coming year based on the way things are going today? Probably about $85,000 with my income um because i make that's good news um about what is your house payment you make 40 to 50 as well yes okay yeah okay and he'll make 60 so you'll probably make oh you're probably you're probably shooting that low he's probably gonna make at least 60 so um and he's gonna work all work because you've got a mess on your hands. So how much is your house payment? $2,250 per month.

What do you owe on the house? We rent. Okay. What other debts do you have other than this? We have some tax bills, state and federal. How much? The total is about $11,000. Okay.

And we're on payment plans with those. Good. And then we've adjusted our taxes so that that doesn't happen anymore. Smart. And then credit card debt, we have about $35,000. And then we bought cars cash my parents helped us out with that so we owe my parents about 8 000 and we're paying them back on that as well okay that's it yes are you current on the credit cards or are they in default no we're current so the only problem you've got is the threatening letter from the lawyer? Yes.

Okay. You might be bankrupt, but it's not for two more years. Okay. It's going to take that long for this to completely unravel, and that's if you do nothing. And instead, I'm going to show you how to save it, okay? Perfect. It's going to be some sacrifice and some work, but you can do it. We're ready. All right. We need a change. Yeah. I can, but you can do it. We're ready.

All right. We need a change. Yeah, I can tell. I can hear it in your voice. There's a resolve in your voice that's very powerful. And you've had your I've had it moment. You'd never want to be here again. I can hear it.

Am I right? Yeah. My husband and I want to adopt a baby, and we can't do it like this nope you can't you got a mess on your hands i want you to too but we're going to get this mess cleaned up real fast okay here's what we're going to do um ignore the letter they're going to do nothing for right now okay okay number two i'm going to put you intosey Plus, which is our full system on how to handle money. You and your husband, and he can do it while he's on the road because it's all online. He can follow along with the classes with you, and you're going to take the Financial Peace University class,

and you're going to take Rachel's Know Yourself, Know Your Money classes now in Ramsey Plus. It's all free. I'm going to give it all to you free, but you have to do everything in there, okay? Okay. And you're going to get on a budget, and you and your husband are going to work on the budget together because it's on an app called EveryDollar, and he can carry it on his phone in the truck with him, and you guys can email and talk back and forth and text back and forth, and you'll be working together even though he's gone a lot. Okay. You've got to work together, okay? Okay.

He can't be out spending money while you're trying to get this mess cleaned up. You're both adults. Got it. Is that going to work? I'll have him listen to this. Okay, good. Yeah. Good.

He can do it because he's not afraid of hard work. He just doesn't know what to do. Yeah. I know him. I grew up with him. I know guys like him. I've known him my whole life. I love truck drivers.

They're some of the hardest working guys on the planet. They love their families. This guy works. my whole life. I love truck drivers. They're some of the hardest working guys on the planet. They love their families. This guy works. He's a worker. So he's a good man. But he just doesn't know what to do. But now when we tell him what to do, dude, you got to go do it, okay? Because I'm the guy that's, Rachel and me, we know more about this than anybody.

We can show you how to do it. All right. So now, so we're paying the minimums on the taxes. We're paying minimums to mom and dad. We're paying the minimums on the credit cards, and we're not paying the cars, and we're going to be on a tight budget. Does that sound right so far? Yes.

Okay. Now, what you're going to find when you get on that budget is you're going to feel like you've got to raise because you're out of control with money, and everybody who's not on a budget is out of control with money, and everybody who gets on a budget feels like they've got to raise. You're going to feel like, wow, where the flip has all this money been going? You're going to have that thought, and that would be a normal thought. Be ready for it. Okay.

And, Rachel, one of the videos immediately when you sign up for Ramsey Plus is going to be Rachel showing you how to do the budget. Yeah, the budget's going to be powerful for you, Haley. I mean, honestly, when you start to work this plan and you actually know, okay, this is our income and this is where it's going, because then you can look and say, okay, you're going to cut out a ton. I mean, you guys make a good amount. You make good money and you can clean this up.

Yes. Okay, so now we're paying minimum payments and when we find money from working extra and spending nothing, you're not going to see the inside of a restaurant and you're not going on vacation. You're not going to see the inside of a restaurant, and you're not going on vacation. You're broke. You're going to be doing nothing but getting out of debt and eating beans and rice, rice and beans. Okay? Okay.

Better than bankruptcy. Yes. Yeah, I don't want to have to do that. All right. And now what we're going to do is we're going to list all of your debts, the $8,000, $11,000, and the different credit cards that are in total of $35,000, smallest to largest. It's going to be a dinky butt little credit card. It's going to be your little one. You're paying minimums on everything, and you're going to put all the money you find on that smallest debt.

Boom, it's gone. Because you've got a little $235 credit card, don't you? Yep. Knock it out. A couple of them. We're going to knock a couple of those out. That's going to feel good, isn't it? First time you've made any dead gum progress in a long time.

Mm-hmm. It's going to feel good. You're going to feel powerful because you are. You're going to do this. I can tell. I've done this for 30 years. I can tell when somebody's BSing me and when somebody's ready, and you're ready. Do you think that we can get through all of those deaths before anything happens with a garnishment on

the vehicles yep because you're not they're not going to surprise you one day with a garnishment they're going to sue you and you're going to lose the lawsuit and that's going to take two or three or four months during that time we're going to stop everything and pile up some cash, and they will take about 20 cents on the dollar. Okay. So you can settle that 10 grand for about two. You can settle that 15 for about three. Okay. But you've got to have the cash in your hand to do it, and you've got to be mean to them because they're jerks.

Yeah, I called them on Monday and tried to offer them a lump sum. They wouldn't take it yet, but maybe in a few months they will. Yeah, they'll soften up. And besides that, they won't take it in the first conversation anyway. They just want to see if you're going to call your mama and get $80,000 out of her. Yeah. Didn't you have a relative that'll help you with this? Yeah, they do all that crap, right?

Are you a deadbeat? Don't you pay your bills? Are you not an honest person? I mean, you get all these stupid butt conversations from these collectors. Don't put up with them. You can do this. All right? We're going to walk you out of this.

Say, I'm not bankrupt. Say it over and over because you're not, and we're going to show you how to win, kiddo. You call us back if you need help, anytime, because it's going to be

a scary, hard process, but you're going to do it. 18 months from now, you're going to be really close to being free. That's my prediction. Two months from now you're going to be really close to being free that's my prediction two years from now you will be free hang on kelly's going to pick up and we're going to take care of you this is the ramsey show Have a friend or family member that needs a daily dose of Ramsey advice in their life? Let them know about the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast.

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