The Ramsey Show - App - How Do I Deal With a Collector Who Won't Negotiate? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: September 29, 2021

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Thank you very much. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is the Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your money and your life. I'm John Deloney, joined here by my good friend and rimson personality, George Camel, and we are taking your calls on life, on money, on relationships, on what to do next. This is your show, America. This is your show.

These are your challenges that you're walking through, and lucky for you, George and I are stumbling through our lives as well. Fans have clamored for this dynamic duo, John, and we are back. Yeah, and we have a packed house out there in the lobby. Just one sweet man out there. It's so great. Hey, there's nothing like a guy who says, you know what? It's Wednesday.

I'm not even going in. I'm not even going into work. I'm going to go hang out with George and Deloney there at the Ramsey Solutions. That's how you know you're winning at life. This is how you know you're winning? This is how you know. But it is Solutions. It's how you know you're winning at life. This is how you know you're winning? This is how you know. But it is fun. It's fun.

I always love doing the show with you, with your prowess in the mental health arena relationships and my knowledge of basic math. We can conquer the world. We can do this. Hey, so tell me about, you had a big event last night. How'd it go?

We did. It was the Game Plan Livestream. It was myself, Christy Wright, Dave Ramsey, and I kind of opened it talking about goal setting and really goal success because I've had a lot of goal failure in my life, and so I've done a lot of digging, a lot of research, and I tried to unpack it for the audience. And, of course, Christy Wright came up to talk about balance and priorities,

how to do the right things at the right time and actually fit all these goals into your life. And, of course, Dave closed the night with the Game Plan. Just went full Dave. Budgeting, getting And of course, Dave closed the night with the game plan. Just went full Dave. Budgeting, getting out of debt, generosity, and he's slight, as he usually does. And it was a great time. We had a few hundred people in the room with us. We had tens of thousands on live stream. And I hope a lot of lives were touched and helped and people feel like they can get back on the horse. So you mentioned that you've got some experience with failure. I've never experienced that. As someone who has only achieved, John.

What's that like, George? Well, we've talked about goals a lot and identity-based goals and James Clear, his book, Atomic Habits, and how helpful that has been because I always thought it was all about outcomes. I was always focused on just the goal and achieving that success. And I never really stopped to think about starting with identity first. Who are you? The person I wanted to become. Yeah. Not just what I wanted to accomplish.

And then actually creating systems, processes, habits around those things. I was like, oh, you have to do that too. There's action involved. I just thought you could write it down on paper and then it would happen eventually. What I found is when I write a goal down, and you've done more digging into this than I have, when I write a goal down and that becomes this psychotic focus for me i start cutting corners and other things i start not doing

things let's so let's say like i got to make this much money by the time i'm this this this old i will stop showing up and stuff with my kids because i'm going to hit that number. I will take a third job when I really don't need to. I've become so single-focused, single-minded on this goal that the things that actually matter and that bring me life, they go by the wayside. Instead of looping back, and I love the way James Kirsch says that, who are you? Yes, you want to get to a bench press number or a goal weight, but start with I'm a person who stewards their body. And that tends to shift by degrees. I'm not going to eat that donut today. I'm going to stop with two cups of coffee instead of 17.

I'm a person who honors my body. The weight takes care of itself, right? And it's much more sustainable that way. The outcomes naturally happen as a byproduct of the person that you want to become and the habits that you've created, the disciplines. Because what I found is motivation runs out real fast. So fast. I'm real excited at the start, and people experience this with debt payoff, and they go, okay, I'm done with this second job. I'm done with the sacrifices.

I'm done cutting expenses. I just want my life back. And they fall off the wagon. And so creating those habits and those disciplines, remembering your why, having accountability, having tools in your tool belt like Ramsey Plus or podcasts or Total Money Makeover, whatever that might be for you is so crucial to getting here. And we have the debt-free screams and most of them say, what it took is we went through FPU as a couple. And that's what got this thing started. So there has to be this outside force that sometimes is the ignition that starts things for you. And then you can carry on because of your why and because of the habits.

And so it's powerful stuff. We talk about the wheel of life that Zig Ziglar coined and how we've got to be balanced. And you talked about this just a moment ago. But you get a flat tire. And I made this reference of, hey, if you never skip leg day but you skip all your son's soccer games, you're a really strong dude and a really weak dad. Yeah, yeah. That's not a place you want to be. And so Christy was so helpful in setting those priorities.

I want to let people know you can actually go back and watch the replay on The Ramsey Show YouTube, on Dave's Facebook page. So go watch this. It's about an hour and a half. Sit down with your spouse if you've got one. If you're kind of like where a lot of people are when they go 18 months, there's been a lot of failure, a lot of set goals and a lot of things not happen. Yeah. So what's it like transitioning to stage, man? Like you're doing a great, great job. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you. You know, I'm learning from, from you guys. I'm taking cues from Dave and Christie and you, and

really wanting to take this message to, to our audience and to our fans and do it in a fresh way, in a way that only I could do it, hopefully, right, from a younger kind of millennial perspective. Someone who was in debt, who paid it off, who now, you know, my wife works here, so we're so dunked in the Ramsey plan. And so I'm just fired up. I'm like, we've got to get everyone on this. We've got to get all these people who are Ramsey-ish. You've heard this. I'm Dave-ish. And when they go all in you get exponential change exponential

growth and that's what i want for people listening just before just for this is some inside baseball here but um george and i were getting ready to come out um to do this show and he has ramsey underoos on and it's uncomfortable back there in the changing not a thing but it's not a thing but you know if we made them people you know if know, if you build it, they will come. They absolutely would, man. So what things are you working on right now? So we've got the Fine Print Podcast is the thing that I'm most excited about. We just released an episode about cryptocurrency, trying to help people understand it and how this falls into your financial plan.

Because you can't stop hearing about cryptocurrency. That's because all of the world's economic systems are going to implode and we have to move it all to digital zeros and ones. You've been reading the same articles they have, John. Well, duh, don't you know? It's just basic common sense that we're going to have no more money, George. It's going to replace the dollar by tomorrow. By 4 or 5 this afternoon, I think.

Oh, my goodness. It's already that time in another country. Exactly. It's already happened time in another country so who knows so we explored this topic in 30 minutes in a narrative storytelling way we have some experts on we have real life stories a 17 year old kid who can't remember the password to his computer and now is locked out of

$462,000 worth of cryptocurrency it's pretty wild stuff so I encourage you guys go listen to this and again this is not an anti-crypto episode. We're not here to bash crypto. I think it has its place. I just don't want it to replace your 401k and your Roth IRA and your retirement plan.

This can be fun money. Like if you're going to Vegas or you want to put a little bit of your entertainment category there once you're out of debt and you're already investing 15%, that's fine. The conversations I'm hearing around any number of things, I don't want to just focus on crypto, but they all stem from a place of fear, and it's all coming down. And so it's people hedging, and without a doubt, crypto is a terrible hedge.

It might be a monetary replacement. It might be something that you play with, right? But as a, this will help me if this all falls apart. It's a poor thing. And we are always telling people two things. Number one, the tortoise always wins. Tortoise, like making a series of small, repetitive habits that you do every single day

gets you where you want to go. It's not going to get you there fastest. It's not going to get you there in the sh want to go. It's not going to get you there fastest. It's not going to get you there in the shiniest car. It's always going to get you there. And nobody makes good decisions when they're panicked. Nobody makes good decisions trying to avoid calamity. You make good decisions when you're calculating your measure. That's why I'm so happy that the Fine Print podcast

you're putting out there is out there in the world. It's giving real information in a controlled way. Work doesn't have to suck. There's a reason you can't shake the feeling you were meant for more than just another J-O-B. 61% of people aren't even engaged at work, let alone doing work they love. That's why Ken Coleman, America's career coach and national best-selling author, wrote his new book, From Paycheck to Purpose, The Clear Path to Doing Work You Love, and it's available for pre-order right now. If you're looking to change jobs, get hired,

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We're taking your calls on money, on life, on relationships, mental health, marriage, anything you've got going on in your life, give us a shout. I'm John Deloney, joined here with my good friend George Campbell. Let's go out to Alex in Louisville, Kentucky, in Louisville. What's up, Alex? Hey, guys. How are you? Outstanding. How are you, man? Hanging in there. Good deal, brother. So how can we help, man?

So basically my question is how do I get my wife to start dreaming again? We're about $110,000 in debt and that's the actually we've talked it, paying all this off and really getting with it and getting this out of our life. But the other day I finally sat down and actually truly totaled everything up.

Not just, uh, I think it's about this and this and this. So that's when I came up with just over $110,000. And Hey, stop right there. Put me in your seat, man. Was that a scary moment? Yeah. I mean, you know, it was bothersome to begin with, but I mean, I didn't think it was that many digits.

And, you know, it really bothered me so much the other day. I mean, I just couldn't work. And I mean, I talked about it nonstop. I mean, I've never really had any problems with anxiety or panic, but I think that's the closest thing to a panic attack that I've ever had. Absolutely. And so I'm ready to, you know, take on another job. There's FedEx and UPS over here.

And, I mean, they're pretty flexible and they actually pay pretty decent I mean that'd be a whole nother 30,000 we can add to the pile a year but you know when I bring that idea up it's uh well I don't want you to get another job because now you know we get home and I really need your help with the baby and um you know she could see herself through my eyes she'd know that I, she's an awesome mom. And I thought I was an awesome dad for being a first-time dad. And then she comes home when I have them for the day and he still wants to go to her. So she's that good.

Well, how old's your baby? Nine months. Yeah, brother, don't take any of that personal, man. I lost a lot of sleep and had a lot of heartache with my first child wanting mom instead of me. And I thought it was because I wasn't as good as her and I was screwing something up. Not the case, man. That baby's got a lot of stuff going on that has nothing to do with you. So don't take that stuff personal. So have you sat down with your wife? I can hear it in your voice. The word I would use to describe what I'm hearing is scared. Like this is the first time this thing got real. Have you sat down and told your wife that you're scared?

You're scared for your future. You're scared for y'all's small family. Any more kids are going to come along does she know what this is actually doing to the inside of your guts and inside of your heart i don't think she knows that i mean i just think she knows it bothers me but yeah i grew up in a you know family where we just make the payment just make the payment just make the payment and uh and i make the payment. Man, just make the payment. And, I mean, I really, to this day, my mom and dad, God love them, are still like that. But I don't want any of that, and I don't want any part of it. I am, you know, admittedly, I am the spender.

But, you know, that's where she's kind of the anchor to all this. She really helped bring a lot of that in. I feel like if I could just get her to dream with me and see that it bothers me, I would, you know, we would actually, you know, get somewhere. But I don't know how to even, how do I have that conversation to where it's productive and that it actually, you know, I don't want to say the wrong thing and, you know, come off as, you off as being a jerk. Yeah, yeah, totally.

So I'm going to give you part of it, and then George is going to walk you through the back half of the plan part. I think there's two keys here. You're right. Setting down and painting a picture together of what the future could look like if you guys got a hold of your finances, a hold of your communication, a hold of being on the same page when it comes to raising your kid, what is time, all that is extraordinary.

The path into that is vulnerability for you. It is sitting down and looking at your wife because right now she thinks this is like you're annoyed like your favorite football team is losing. You know what I mean? She just has dumped this over into things that husband rants about. Not, hey, I'm having a panic attack. My body is starting to revolt on me because I'm scared.

So you get a babysitter, which is going to be hard for a nine-month-old. Y'all get a babysitter and you go out somewhere. And you sit down and say, hey, this is going to be a tough conversation. I'm going to be honest as I can with you, probably in a way you never have. And I'll tell you, if you're speaking from the heart, and you're talking about you, not her, you're not going to say the wrong thing. If you make this into an attack mode and you go after her, then that's just nonsensical and silly.

This is about your heart right now. And you let her know, honey, I did all the math, and we're $110,000 in the hole, and I'm scared. And the only way out of this thing is sacrifice. We aren't safe. We've put our baby in a position, in a vulnerable position. We've put our marriage in a really precarious position. And then the second part of this thing is a plan.

And so George can walk you through, hey, here's what this actually looks like. Because you've come to your wife and complained about stuff before. You've ranted and raved about stuff before, and then she's rolled her eyes and moved on because that's the right response to someone just ranting and raving about nonsense. The second part of this is saying, and here's the plan. Yeah. So let's dig into some of the financial part because I think part of this is you do need a why, like John's talking about. You need to have that conversation with her on a date night and go, hey, let's dream about what our future could be because right now it's obviously our present is not great. And so I think getting her to dream about that aspirational future and then coming up with a plan to get there. And sometimes that takes math where you go,

hey, look how much we're paying in interest. Look how much of our money is going to lenders every month. And once you do that, she may get fired up. And if you guys haven't been through Financial Peace University, something where you can get on the same page, I'm happy to gift you guys a year of Ramsey Plus where you can dig in that. But what is your household income right now? Right about $120,000. $120,000. Okay, great income there.

And you have $110,000 in debt. What kind of debt is this? So it's a little bit of a mix of student loans. We have home repair loans, about $30,000. That's for a mold remediation foundation combo. That one hurts, huh? That one hurts. Oh, yeah, it really hurts.

Nothing like buying a house that you love to find out it's got stuff growing in it and it's falling apart. That one hurts. It was supposed to be taken care of on the buy, but it was not, and the contractor closed the business. So that really hurts. So there's that, and there's a personal loan there, and then I think about $15,000 in a truck loan. The other car is paid off. Okay. Well, you've got a great income here. or yeah, $15,000 in a truck loan. The other car is paid off.

Okay. Well, you've got a great income here. And if you guys can, you're saying you're willing to take on the side job to make this happen, right? Oh, I've done it before. I'll take three jobs. I mean, I don't care. But I don't want to do that because I want to do whatever we do together. Yes.

Make sure you're on the same page with it. But if you let her know, hey, this is a temporary sacrifice to get us out of this mess, and here's the expectations. I'm going to be gone two nights a week, three nights a week, whatever that may be. And we're going to clean this up six months faster if I do that. I think that will help you guys start to dream together. But I think if you can live on a portion of your income, you can get rid of this debt in two years following our plan.

Most people can do this in Baby Step 2. Do you have any money in savings, any cash right now? Yeah, just $1,000. So that was part of where we kind of sort of followed you guys for a little while without calling it the Dave Ramsey plan, I've tried to start to introduce it, but without the dream, it just seems like it was still full of joy. Well, you hang on the line. I'm going to have Kelly pick up and gift you guys a year of Ramsey Plus,

and what I want you to do is get on the EveryDollar budget. You'll get EveryDollar Plus through that, and you'll get access to Financial Peace University. Just make a commitment. Sit down. Start to watch some of those videos. Dream together. Find that why. Develop a plan, and show her that you can get out of this in under two years.

I think they can do it in 18 months. 100%. He's willing to work for it. Yeah. If he's able to get that second job and he's making $150,000 a year, they owe $100,000. $110,000. You can pay off $55,000. If they could look pretty Spartan for a year, they owe $100,000. $110,000. You pay off $55,000. They could look pretty Spartan for a year.

They could knock this thing out quick. I get that question a lot. How do I help them? And the reality is all we can control at the end of the day is our thoughts and our actions, the things that we do, the things that we choose to think about and ruminate on and spin out on and so often instead of saying how do i get them to get on board it's how do i invite them into what i'm feeling and that's sitting down saying i'm scared to death and i got a plan This is the Ramsey Show, 888-825-5225. Taking your calls on life and money.

Let's go out to Quinn in Columbia, South Carolina. Hey, Quinn, what's going on? Nothing much. It's really, really good to talk to you guys. You too, my brother. What's up? How can we help? So I am a 20-year-old student. I'm a student. I'm a university student in computer science. And I am making a little bit more money than I expected to at this point. I have two jobs. One is as close to full-time as you can get in school, and then I've got another little freelance development thing that I do on the side, and then I'm also a TA.

So I've got three streams of income, and two of them are pretty substantial. What does substantial mean? streams of income and two of them are pretty substantial. So now total substantial to me means about $50,000 as a full-time student. Dang, Gina, that's substantial to all of us, man. Congratulations. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. So, and of course that's pre-tax, but I've gotten into the habit of every paycheck, I take a thousand dollars off the top and I put it in my investment account. So I've been doing that for a while and, uh, about, you know, the better part of a year. And so, well, I guess not the, yeah, almost, almost six months, I should say, cause I've got a little over $10,000 in there now. And, um, and, and I'm getting to the point

where, uh, it's about to go up a little bit more. And so, um, I don't know, like I just opened up my Roth IRA and essentially what I wanted to ask you guys is, as a 20-year-old, how can I best set myself up going forward? You know, after this, I'm in my last year, so next, you know, about May of next year, I'm going to start working full-time, and I'll be making more then. So I'm just, I'm kind of looking for general direction as opposed to just saving, because I feel like that's kind of, you know, that's kind of tapped, not tapped out, but like there's only so much I can get you.

To everybody listening to this call, I'm going to turn it over to George. To everyone listening to this call who's complaining about the quote-unquote next generation and these kids don't work hard and they don't do it, everybody take notice of Quinn because there's some ballers out there who are absolutely grinding and getting it done, man. Quinn, you're an inspiration, and I'm grateful for the call, man. What an absolute stud, dude.

That's awesome. Who taught you this? Thank you. I mean, my dad's an entrepreneur. He got laid off, so he started a company. And so that was a big inspiration for me. My parents have always been, you know, my whole family really has been pretty fiscally responsible. And just here and there, I've had mentors that, you know, especially like my uncle is one.

He always, he pays every dime. But, you know, he's going to retire at 55 and he's going to live a good life afterwards. So, I don't know. It's kind of just been a culmination of my experiences at 20. And everybody else listening to this, your kids are watching you. They're not listening to you. They're watching you. You want to create children like Quinn, do right by your money, do right by your relationships, work hard. You get laid off, step up and create a job for yourself. Good job to you, Quinn. Shout out to your family.

George, what in the world should this guy be doing? Well, you're already crushing it. And so we tell people to, you know, while you're in college to be investing in yourself. Obviously, you're already investing. You're doing great. I want to make sure that you can get through college debt-free. Is that the case? Yes, sir, it is. Yeah, my family's been able to cover that for me.

Fantastic. And you graduate next year? Yes, sir. I'll graduate in May. Awesome. So once you're out of college, you'll be making a lot more money, and we teach the process called the Baby Steps. I'm not sure if you're already familiar with that, but do you have any debt whatsoever?

You're completely debt-free? No, sir. Completely debt-free. And do you have a fully funded emergency fund? I assume you don't have a ton of expenses right now as a student. No, I have no personal expenses to myself apart from, you know, if I want to go out or anything that's not essential to school. I don't do much because I don't have a ton of time left over, but I do have about $2,500 in my account right now. Okay. This would last me reasonably long because I don't actually have so much.

You don't have many expenses. Okay, that's great. Yeah, so your next move out of college would be to get that emergency fund in place because you're probably going to be getting your own place, an apartment or whatever you want to do there. So your next thing would be making sure you're investing 15% of your household income into investment accounts, retirement accounts, which I don't think you're going to have a problem doing. You're going to have that margin, and you're already starting to do that, which is great. A Roth IRA is a great start to max that out, and depending on your career and your workplace, you might have a Roth 401k option. And that's a great place to go as well. And if there's a match, obviously, you're going to be taking that as well. So you're going to be fine on the investment part. After that, you're not

going to have kids in the next year or two. So you want to focus maybe on what does it look like for me to get into a house that I can afford? Maybe you could pay cash. I mean, a guy at your age who's already doing this well, what an inspiring story. If you could save up and pay cash for a home in South Carolina, if that's where you're going to plant your roots. So that's what I would be doing is just stocking away as much cash as possible. After I've invested that 15% into retirement, you've got that emergency fund in place. But, man, you're doing so well. I'm just proud of you.

And, hey, Quinn, one more thing. Thank you. The temptation here is because I know how your mind works, and you have a unique mind, and that is one of abundance mindset. You see money everywhere, and you aren't afraid of hard work, and then you think, I want my money working for me. It's just sitting here. I'm making $50,000. Here's what I want you to do. I want you money working for me. It's just sitting here. I'm making $50,000. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to be really patient.

You have a few months to get through until you're done with college. Your number one investment right now is Quinn. It's getting out debt free. You're going to be annoyed slash shocked at how much it costs to move and get suits for your new fancy job. I don't know if you're going to be working

in computer science. You may just be able to go get a bunch of punk rock t-shirts and get suits for your new fancy job. Or I don't know, if you're going to be working in computer science, you may just be able to go get a bunch of punk rock T-shirts and get through it. But getting set up in a new place, all that costs money. And so here's what I want you to do. I want you to fast forward six months after your first job. I want you to be in your new place with a car that's reliable, with clothes. I want you to be debt free six months after college does that make sense yes sir so start thinking about it's it's incredibly expensive

to get a moving truck and to move if you're gonna be in south carolina you may get a job in atlanta you may get a job in new york los angeles wherever you're gonna go i want you to get through that season debt free so sock this money away and you're going to think ah it's not working for me it is because you're working a longer game here but you are the best investment until you are in that first job and then you're getting paychecks and then man then we're then we're um we're putting it in the different accounts and we're off at the races there what is what a stunt let's go to Jonathan in San Antonio hey Jonathan what's, what's up, brother? Hey, I appreciate you taking my call.

You got it, man. What's up? I'm just calling. I'm 24 years old, looking to purchase my first home, and I don't know if I'm kind of crazy for doing what I'm about to do, so I wanted to get some insight from you guys. Well, let's define crazy. You're talking to two pretty stable guys. So great call, Jonathan.

At least one. What's up? Great. I appreciate it. Yeah, well, I'll start. The home is $415,000. My current annual income is $105,000. I don't have any debt.

And that's kind of where I'm at right now. Of course, I've got the home I'm looking at, and I'm just trying to figure out if what I've got going for me right now is enough to afford what I'm about to do. How much cash do you have to put down? I've got, well, if you want me to be brutally honest, the whole story is the down payment will be a gift, and it's going to be about $85,000. So that's a start.

Sweet gift. He's gifting you $85,000. So that's a start. Sweet gift. He's gifting you $85,000. That would be my father. Wow. That's pretty rad. Yeah, it's a good situation, so I'm very appreciative. Okay.

So you've already got that about, what, 20% down there? Yeah, that'll be right up about 20%. That's great. Well, that's going to help you avoid that private mortgage insurance, which is awesome. Are you putting any of your own money into this as well? You know, it was a thought. I've got about 30 or 40,000 available cash and then an additional, I'd say, 30 or 40 in retirement funds. So I don't know if it'd be smart to use some of my available cash towards this now

or if I should save it and continue saving. It would be smart to use the liquid cash. It would be dumb to touch anything in retirement accounts. So you said you had $30,000 to $40,000. I would get as big of a down payment as you can on that house because that's going to do two things. It's going to lower your monthly payment because you have way more equity, and you're going to be able to pay that house off a whole lot faster because of that.

You're going to have more margin back in your budget. Is that on top of an emergency fund, or is that your emergency fund? So that kind of includes. I would say that $30,000 is all I've got in cash across mutual funds and available cash. I'd say I'd take about five to six as an emergency fund out of that, so it would be $25,000. Yeah. So you'd subtract that emergency fund out, use the rest on top of the down payment, and you're going to be in great shape. Yeah, do the math.

I don't want you over-leveraging yourself as a 24-year-old. Yeah, you're walking in with – it looks like you're about – yeah, it looks like the math works out. It's a lot of house for a 24-year-old. Yeah, make sure that payment is no more than a quarter of your take-home pay on a 15-year fixed rate. You'll be in great shape, man. Way to go. This is The Ramsey Show, 888-825-5225. I'm John Deloney, joined here by George Campbell. We're taking your calls on life and money.

Let's go to Sabrina out in Buffalo, New York. Hey, Sabrina, what's going on? Hi, I'm a senior in college, and my boyfriend's also a senior in college. And I guess two weeks ago, we found out that I am pregnant, and last week I got proposed to. And we're kind of just wondering how do we take care of our baby while we're still graduating and how we like that started in marriage I was just telling somebody before the show came on Sabrina that I've had a chaotic last few weeks and I am going to retract that statement 100% so you're having a baby. Congratulations.

And he proposed to you. You don't sound super excited. Tell me about that. Oh, I am. I'm still kind of in shock over the whole thing. Yeah, I can imagine so. So what are you studying? I'm studying computer science.

Computer science. Okay. And what's your, I guess, did you say yes? Oh, yeah, we said yes. We're getting married in December. I'm super excited. I plan on marrying him like two years from now, just not now, if that makes sense. It makes total sense.

And so what's your fiancé going to do? He's going to be a mechanical engineer. We're super lucky because we kind of both have job offers. I mean, I'm still looking, but the current offer I have, I'm going to be making $130,000, and then he'll be making $90,000. Outstanding, outstanding. Okay, so drill down your question for me. You graduate, you're a senior, so you're going to graduate in May, is that right?

Yeah, both of us are. Okay. And are you going to be able to navigate your final trimesters in school? And what's your spring semester going to look like? I was going to be lucky. I only have two classes left. But because of financial aid, I'm going to have to take 12 credits. So I was just going to take the easiest classes I need to graduate.

Cool. So in that very seat, as a dean of students at several colleges, I worked with students in your situation. And so what I would recommend you do is to go meet with the school health clinic. Go meet with the dean of students' office, whoever that person would be that would walk you through that. Let them know. And make sure everybody's on the same page, just your college resources.

You're paying a bajillion dollars for those resources, so this is a great moment to put those to use. And you're going to get – you all are getting married pretty quick, right? So you're getting married in just a few months here in December? Yeah, because we didn't want to be married right when the baby was about to pop out. Those are your words, not mine. I wouldn't have said that, but cool. I'll let you have that one. So tell me, distill your question down for me.

It sounds like you are just, it sounds like you were skiing, and then the skis float from under you, but you didn't let go of the rope, and you just get that face full of water for about 250 yards before you finally let go. And now you're bobbing in the water, and everything is like, whoa, everything changed. Do you have a particular question? Or you just want someone to walk alongside you and say, we're rooting for you. And you guys are going to be doing great financially. You're going to be, if you make some wise choices financially now, make some wise choices on, this is happening two years early,

everything got accelerated, but we're going to be highly connected. We're going to get some premarital counseling. We're going to make sure we're on the same page, both how we're going to raise this baby, how we're going to love this baby, where we're going to live. The word I want to infuse in your soul here is intentional. You're a computer scientist and you're marrying an engineer. You all intentionally build things.

I want you to take that level of intentionality to your relationship that's just been put in hyperdrive. But beyond that, do you have a specific question that we can help with or do you just want us to cheer you on here? I think both of us are going to be graduating with, I think, $30,000 of debt combined. And we were kind of just wondering if we should probably, I guess, financially, what we should do in order to pay off this debt. Because should we pay off this debt immediately or should we wait until we're kind of settled

and what exactly should we pay off this debt immediately or should we wait until we're kind of settled in what exactly should we be doing? Yeah, George can hop in here with walking through the baby steps, but absolutely, you're going to want to get this thing out of your life as soon as possible. You're going to want to enter into this new season of your life as a wife, as a mom, as a brand new computer scientist.

You're going to want to walk through that life with as few strings or attachments to other people as possible. And yes, knock that debt out. George, walk us through the baby steps. So what we talk about with the baby steps, in baby step two, you're paying off all of your consumer debt.

But because of the baby on the way, we talk about going in storm and stork mode, John. So I want you to not pay off that debt until the baby's here and baby's healthy and you're healthy and everyone's doing good and whatever pile of cash you have, then you can throw that on the debt. And with this income, it's going to be gone within a few months after the baby's here regardless. So do you guys have any income right now or are you just full-time students? I mean, we work, like, I guess not minimum wage jobs, but, like, slightly more than that just to pay our rent because, like, both of us are on, like, basically full financial aid to, like, whatever, but we have to pay for, like, rent and food and stuff. Okay, and you're not

going into any more debt before you graduate? Like, whatever, like, I cannot make this year because of pregnancy, if that makes sense, because I don't know how much money. I probably won't be able to work next semester, if that makes sense. Yeah. Well, as much as you can avoid going into more debt, that's going to be super helpful as part of this process as you bring a baby into this world and really start your adult life a little earlier than you might have planned. So I would sock up as much money as you can until baby's here. And if baby's healthy and you've got that money sitting there, you can throw that on the debt. But either way, you need to get really focused on this debt because I want you to focus

on being great parents and being great adults and not have this other stress in your life. If we got to make payments to lenders. Yeah. Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to, Sabrina, we're going to give you, I was going to say I am, but George is here too. So we are, we're going to give you as a baby gift, we're going to give you a year's subscription to Ramsey plus. And I want you and your fiance in the next few months, I want you all to sit down and watch all of the financial peace university

lessons. I want you to walk through it together and create an intentional plan about what life is going to look like next semester, what life is going to look like a year from now, where y'all might want to live. You've got job offers in hand, which as George said, are phenomenal offers. The way forward right now is a cold water dose of reality, a cold water dose of planning, and high, high intentionality. And then, by the way, when this baby comes, everything you think you've planned is going to blow up.

Babies will do that to you, and your life's going to change in dramatic fashion. So the intentionality stuff you can do up front. So stay on the line. Kelly's going to get you a copy of that. I mean, it's going to get you a year subscription there. Let's take one more quick call. Let's go to Dustin in Indianapolis.

Hey, Dustin, we're up against the clock, so get right to your question, brother. Yes, I'm actually just calling because I'm trying to settle some debts. I'm trying to make a home purchase. I've got three lines of debt on my credit. I just tried to settle up with one today before I called you guys, and

they're not willing to negotiate the price, and they're just willing to negotiate the price and they're they're just not trying to send me any information at all i just don't know how to go about getting it taken care of do you have it in writing did you ask for that all the specifics of that i i asked and they they refused to give me they refused to give me anything well they're legally obligated to give you that information. You're holding a letter that says you owe them this much money, though, right? I don't have the letter.

I've got from the credit bureau saying I do. I owe them this amount. I mean, this is back from, like, 2018. It's a few years old. I'm just trying to get everything taken care of. Well, if you're proactive, you call them and you put the ball in your court and you need to make this on your terms and you say, hey, I'm happy to work with you guys, but we've got to get some of these specifics done and you need to follow the law. And so I need this mail to me in writing to

tell me exactly how much debt and what this debt was from. And then we can talk through a payment plan of what we're going to do to get this thing out of our life. And I would make sure that I in writing to tell me exactly how much debt and what this debt was from, and then we can talk through a payment plan of what we're going to do to get this thing out of our life. And I would make sure that I document the time and date that you made this phone call, who you talked to, what's the number you called. Make sure you keep records of these interactions. And here's a hard reality.

If they won't negotiate with you, you owe them the money. Usually they will, but sometimes they won't, and you've got to pay your debts off, man. Yeah. And that's your responsibility. And do not go buying a house when you've got this mess. Clean this up first. Follow the baby steps. Do it the right way.

You don't want to need this added stress in your life. That's an hour in the books on The Ramsey Show. George, it's good to be with you, man. Let's do it again. All right. We'll be right back on The Ramsey Show, George, it's good to be with you, man. Let's do it again. All right. We'll be right back on The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show,

make sure you visit theramseyshow.com and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.