The Ramsey Show - App - How Do I Set Myself Up for Financial Success? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: January 9, 2023

George Kamel & Jade Warshaw answer your questions and discuss: Setting up a marriage for financial success, "Should I borrow money for a certification that can increase my income?" "I lost $85k in single stocks", HR Block offering tax refund advance loans, Updating payroll tax withholdings, What to look for when buying a home, Selling an upside down car. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm George Campbell, joined by Jade Warshaw this hour, and we are taking your calls, America, at this number, 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Hatton kicks us off this hour in Oklahoma City. Hatton, welcome to The Ramsey Show. How are you doing? I'm doing very well. How are you all doing? We're doing good.

How can we help today? Yes, I had gotten myself into a little bit of debt to the tune of about $7,300, but as of right now, it looks like I'll have that loan paid off in mid-February. Cool. So I guess my question is, I mean, I've pretty much been trying to go scorch dark at it for the last several weeks, and I'm getting married in September. Congratulations. Thank you. How can I start my marriage off and make sure that it is going to be successful financially?

Because I don't want to end up in a situation like this again. And I also wanted to factor in that I will be graduating from college this coming April. Wonderful. Exciting. That's really exciting. How old are you? I'm 24. 24. What are you graduating from?

What degree? What are we talking? I am graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Ministry and Bible from Amherst University in Montgomery, Alabama. I should be graduating summa cum laude. Very cool. Very cool. So, um, you planning on going into ministry, being a pastor or what? I'm actually working with a church down in Southwestern Oklahoma now. Cool. I love it. Is your bride-to-be, does she have any debt? No, she will not have any debt coming in. Very good. Is she coming in with any

kind of assets or money, savings? She will have a savings account, yes, that she'll be bringing over. Good woman. That's fantastic. Well, you're alluding to how to set yourself up already, which is get out of debt and have a pile of money in the bank. That is going to cause the least amount of money fights and money problems as you guys start this life together. Absolutely. And having the same views on debt too. You know, it sounds like both of you value

a debt-free lifestyle. And so coming into the marriage on the same page as far as what your values are surrounding money. I think, you know, you guys have, you've set yourself up. I mean, I think you're going to get rid of this loan for $7,300 lickety split. Your wife's got no debt. And I think as long as you continue to operate your life like that, no debt, follow the baby steps, you're going to be calling back here in, I don't know, 12 years, 16 years, whatever the time is, you're going to be a baby steps millionaire. Absolutely. And you guys plan on cash flowing this wedding, I assume?

Yes, we have all of our bigger ticket items paid for now, and we're just going to try to cash flow the rest. And I'm also going to be going on for graduate degrees, but by the time I get this loan paid off, I'll be able to cash flow all the way through with scholarships and all this kind of a thing. That's awesome. Is that what the loan was for? It was for school? No, it was a personal loan because I'd run up some debt on a credit card and I had taken it out to get out from under a higher interest rate.

I see. I got it down to about 6.5% and I just made about another $1,150 worth of payments on the loan and it's down to about $2,100 now. Good. And you cut up the credit card, right? Yes. Is the account closed? I have not closed it yet, but I'm going to be getting on the phone. I just closed an account. Shut her down. With one place and I'm going to be getting ready to, yes. Good. Do that today. Do that today, Hatton. That was one of the best decisions I made

was cutting up those cards. I know that's right. I thought they were a blessing to me because of the airline miles and the cash back and the credit score. I didn't need it. And you don't either, Hatton. You guys are doing great.

And I want to gift you Financial Peace University as a premarital counseling gift. It's one of the best tools to get on the same page, have common goals, common language to talk about money. So I want to gift you one year of that. Watch all nine lessons with your bride-to-be, and that will set you up for success, my man. Thanks for the call. All right, Abby's up next in Boise. Abby, welcome to the show. Thank you. How are you? We're doing great. How can we help?

So I am just calling. I am hospice nurse and also a director for two branches here in Idaho. And I recently started following Dave Ramsey. And so now I am wanting to get out from under the debt that I have. With that being said, I am a salaried employee. And so I have a cap on the income I bring in, obviously. And so looking into it, being a nurse, there are a lot of different options. And I have found an option that I could get an additional certificate and kind of pave the way for making kind of whatever it is that I'm willing to put in. Now, with that being said, trying to get debt-free, this is going to take another probably about $7,000 to $8,000 in order to get this licensure. And so I was wondering if that is something I should do now

or if I should wait until I get out of debt to do that. How much are you making right now? Household income is about $188,000 a year. $180,000? Uh-huh. And that's you and your husband combined? Yes, ma'am. Okay, just double checking. This feels like a both and to me. I think you can continue paying on the debt, but set aside some money to get this certification. How much would it increase your income by? Well, again, that's going to depend on how much I work and I'm a worker. So it could be anywhere from, you know, an additional, you know, 25 to five grand a month, or the sky is the limit. And it could replace what I do now, other than this is my love. So I want to add to it. Don't really want to step out of it,

but I do want to have some options because salary is just hard for me because I know I work 60 hours a week. And you know, you've got the cap. How much debt do you guys have? So we just purchased a home in March. And so we've got the home debt of about $550,000. And then I've got about $5,000 in credit cards. And I owe about $18,000 on my forerunner. And that's all the debt that you have between both you and your husband? Yes, ma'am. Perfect. So you got $23,000 in consumer debt.

We can clean that up in a few months, right? Very quick. Oh, for sure. And so here's my goal for you. I would do the debt first. I'm cleaning off this $23, right? Very quick. Oh, for sure. And so once you're out here, I'm cleaning off this $23,000 in consumer debt. I'm going to save that emergency fund and get that certification and cashflow that. And you'll be able to do that all within the next, what, six to nine months? Should be. Well, here's the other thing. I'm sitting on about a $30,000 money market account.

Abby, don't bury the lead. What are you doing with the savings account? Until I started listening to Dave. Okay. What am I what? So let's do it like this. Let's do the baby steps in order. So you've got, let's keep out of that $30,000 that you have in the money market account,

let's keep $1,000 set aside for baby step one. Let's put everything else on your debt, clean up your 23,000 there. And then you should have plenty. Six left over. Yeah. Plenty left over to start you on your three to six months and then get that built up. And then, you know, definitely cashflow this certification. It sounds like it's going to ROI in spades. Oh, and you freed up those payments at that point. And so, I mean, within a few months, you could be completely debt-free with a fully funded emergency fund and cash flow to certification.

That sounds good. That's the path I'm going down, Abby. That is awesome. Good for you. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. this is the ramsey show and about this time of year we get flooded with calls on this show because everyone is looking for a fresh start with their money, especially after a tough couple of years. So if that's you, you can't wish for things to change and just expect it to happen. You've got to do some things differently when it comes to money. You've got to have a plan. And we've got the perfect plan for you in Financial

Peace University. This is the course that will help you rethink how you manage your money. And you will learn step by step how to pay off debt and how to build wealth. And nearly 10 million people have taken FPU, followed this plan, and changed their lives. I'm one of those people. Jade is one of those people. This stuff works. Don't try to reinvent it. Don't try to do your own plan.

We got the plan for you. And when you intentionally follow this with focus intensity, this year will be different. You will have more peace in your finances and your life. So start Financial Peace University right now at ramsaysolutions.com slash FPU. That's ramsaysolutions.com slash FPU. Man, I hope people take advantage of this and I hope they sign up for the class, George, because it is a true life changer. It's one of those where when it comes to working out you're saying oh this is gonna be the year i start working out yeah and then it just doesn't happen yeah this is one of

those where like you get in the boot camp and you're around other people and you're like this is actually i'm having a good time i'm fired up yeah i want to show up again next week you got to show up and i got to tell people you know this plan it works when you work it you can't you know you can't log in and only do one class. You got to finish it through. You got to do all the classes, see it through till the end and follow it. Don't, don't make up your own method now. Cause once you start making up your own method, that's when you go by the wayside. Believe me, I tried it. And you know, after the nine weeks of watching all the videos, going through the lessons, doing a budget, if you hate it and you thought your life

before was so much better, you can always go back to that. You can always go back. And that's the thing. Do the courses. You can do the courses on your own in your own time. If you can get into a group like a coordinated group, I love that method as well. That's the best setting. Matter of fact, George, I think, no, I know that I am going to coordinate an FPU class. All right. You said it live in front of America. I need to see how many people are interested george because look i'll do it whether it's 10 or 10 000 okay well you're talking to way more than that right now it feels like you have an unfair advantage to get people in this class look who wouldn't sign up for the class with jade well i don't know if you're the real competition is who would sign up for my class versus your class oh that is not a bet i'm

willing to george are you trying to, are you trying to take me on, George? No, I would never compete against you, Jay. I'm frightened. Are you trying to step to me? You should step to me. Let's do it. You're too competitive for me. I would just let you win the game just because it would make us both lose. We could do it together, George. We could coordinate a class. Well, no matter who's coordinating, go through this class, ramsaystolutions.com slash FPU. Love it. All right. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Byron joins us up next in Colorado Springs. Byron, welcome to the show.

Hey there, guys. Really appreciate you having me on. Absolutely. So, yeah, here's the situation. Kind of lost a lot of money in the stock market, put my family in debt. I've got a wife and three kids, so kind of disappointed a lot of money in the stock market, put my family in debt. I've got a wife and three kids, so kind of disappointed in what happened. But long story short,

during the stock market boom, and I believe it was 2018, 2020, with GameStop and AMC, kind of got into the stock market with that, made a lot of money through the options trading of the stock market. And didn't really know what I was doing. So I brought $60,000 to about $130,000 and then lost it all.

And so that's kind of where it gets a little bit fishy too. I started trying to make it back. Took out a $25,000 loan, put it in the stock market, lost it all. And that's kind of where we're at today. I've got a car loan for about 40K. We're about 7K in medical debt, 5,500 in a credit card payment. And we've also got our mortgage to pay for. So I really dug myself in a hole, guys, and really looking for help right now. I'm sorry to hear about this, man. You touched about the hottest stove you could touch,

and I hope you are done with playing with single stocks and options trading especially, which is one of the riskiest versions of trading there is out there. Yeah, I'm done with that completely now. What's your income? $120K per year. Okay, and is that household? Is your wife working outside the home? No, she is a stay-at-home mother.

Okay. What kind of work do you do? Engineering, defense contracting. Cool. Is there any opportunity to work more to clean this up? Yeah, I would be willing to look into that. I just, I guess I don't really know what would be feasible with time and opportunity costs. I haven't really explored that option. And that $25,000, was that a personal loan? How'd you take that out to use in the stock market? Personal loan, correct. Okay. So if I'm adding this up correctly, are we talking about close to $80,000 or so in debt,

consumer debt? I think after we calculated it, we're around $98,000 actually. I probably might have left a few things out of there. Okay. Okay. One option is to get rid of the car because that would clear 40K. That would clean up half your debt tomorrow. What is the car worth? Right now, we currently own about 40K on it.

I believe I checked out CarMax, and their cash now offers about $35,000, I believe. Okay. Do some more homework on that. Check with a bunch of different dealerships, check private party value, because if you can get $40,000 for that and you get any money in the bank, anything in savings? No. Anything non-retirement? Yeah. I was going to ask, is the stock money completely gone? There's nothing left? It's completely gone. Okay. All right. So that puts you at this baby step one, which is we got to get $1,000 in the bank as soon as possible. Do you have that?

Next paycheck, yes, we're going to start to pay off all of these debts, smallest to largest, regardless of interest rates. And the car obviously would help clean this up. Even if you took a small loss on it, it would clean this up. Obviously, you need another car. Do you guys have another vehicle you could use, or could you buy a cheap $5,000 car? Yeah, we've got family in town, and I'm sure we could definitely use one of their cars for a bit. Because right now it feels overwhelming and I think getting rid of this car would emotionally and financially benefit you and you can always get that car later and do it with cash and do it the right way. Okay. So that is one thing you could do. I'm just giving you options here. Are you currently investing at all in anything? We have our retirement account that's untouched. So it's... How much have you been contributing to that? So I guess before I lost everything at the stock market, I was doing the company match.

So it was about 8%. But then when everything kind of went down, I stopped contributing and just tried to start using all the money to pay the debt. So we're not doing that anymore. Okay. Let's keep that paused until we get rid of all this consumer debt and we have a fully funded emergency fund of three to six months. Now, the good news is you have a great income. You make 120K and you've got 98,000 in debt. Now, if we clean is you have a great income. You make $120K and you've got $98,000 in debt. Now, if we clean up the car, that leaves you with about $58K. And now you're going, all right, I make $120K and I got $58K to pay off. How quickly could we do that? How much could you set aside from your income, having paused all the investments at probably, what, $30K, $40K a year towards this debt? Yeah.

I guess my only concern would be our mortgage is currently $3,000 a month. So it's a pretty big chunk. And what's your take-home pay? $7,200. That's a hefty chunk. And that's on a 30-year? Yes. Yeah, you're looking at 42%.

We need to get this income up asap yeah sudden suddenly selling the car is not an option we need to do that this is a necessity yeah okay because right now you're not going to have a lot of margin to throw at the debt if half of your income is going towards the mortgage alone that's right byron you're going to have to do everything you can you're going to have to work more and I know we talked about it earlier and it was like, oh, what's the opportunity cost? At this point, it doesn't matter. You need to pick up. You need to be working 80 hours a week. If your wife can pick up work, if she can do something inside of the home to earn money, you guys have really got to get that income up. Here's the good news. You've got a lot of small

debts, so you're going to be able to feel those wins quicker. I hate debt, but I like when it's broken up like this because you can feel the wins. And you start doing a budget, man. We're going to give to you one year of every dollar premium to get on a plan. You're going to start selling stuff. You're going to start finding money in the couch cushions. The kids are going to get involved. This is going to be a family affair to get this debt out of our lives once and for all. And you'll never look back, man. You'll never dip your toes in those waters again. He learned his lesson. Of those volatile single stocks.

And man, that's a tough situation. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, joined this hour by Jade Warshaw. We're taking your calls at 888-825-5225. Well, Jade, last week we were talking taxes, talking about all the tax changes, talking about why refunds are a bad idea. Yes. And then some fans sent us this, and it is from H&R Block. Here's their big headline on their site. Up to $3,500 could be yours within minutes of filing. Apply for a refund advance loan at the end of your tax prep, and you could get up to $3,500 the same day you file. Why do I hate this already? 0% APR, no loan fees, no credit score impact.

I hate that they're making this about, they're using like credit and credit card language and all that crap. You know what it reminds me of is that old like JG Wentworth, like it's my money and I want it now. Like it's that crap. You know what it reminds me of is that old like JG Wentworth, like it's my money and I want it now. Like it's that vibe. George, what a throwback. There's such a lack of patience in today's society that we're like,

I know I'm getting my refund in April, which by the way, is just a loan to the government interest free. Not a gift. And on top of that, they're like, I can't wait until April because I'm so broke

and need the money so desperately and HR block is going to be my shining knight on the horse. I hate this. To save the day. I hate this for a lot of reasons, George. It's really just perpetuating a unhealthy mindset about money. It really is. And the way it works, if you're wondering, if you're approved, the loan funds are loaded

onto an H&R Block prepaid MasterCard, which technically is a debit card. But it doesn't act like a debit card in the ways you might think because in the fine print, which you know I check, there's a link to the fee schedule. Come on. They don't even put the fee schedule under the FAQ, under the dropdown. They put it on a whole other page. Give us the fine print. Oh, my goodness. I mean, it would take me hours to read this off.

Give us the high level. There's $5 for a cash reload fee. There's a 4% check to card fee. Three bucks for ATM withdrawals. 35 bucks for over-the-counter withdrawals. 150 if you do an ATM balance inquiry. 150 for ATM decline. Five bucks for inactivity.

35 bucks if you lose your card. I'm getting mad. I'm getting mad right now, George, because... So, broke people are needing this. And so their answer is to nickel and dime them to keep them broke. This was your money. This refund was already your money. You already loaned it to the government at zero percent.

And now they're loaning it back to you and they're charging you for it. It's insane. And here's what they say. You don't pay until your refund arrives. You can wait to repay your loan until the IRS delivers your refund. And when it's time to repay it, we've got options. Well, why does that mean? That's pretty open-ended.

Why don't you just wait anyway? Why don't you just wait? This is pointing to such- This is America, Jade. I don't wait for nothing. Well, you're going to learn today. Prime now. Prime now.

No, no, no, no. I hate this. I just- Two-hour delivery. 30 minutes or it's free. That's the America I live in. I will wait to get all of my money. And if you're in such dire straits that you got to take out a loan or whatever this is

to get your refund advance. And I hate the way they say it. They try to make it so positive. Refund advance to get your money early. And then, you know, all those list of fees that you're, why can't you just wait? Why can't you just get your stuff in line, file your taxes as early as possible, which means you get your refund as early as possible and just wait to have your money. And better yet, like George said, adjust your withholding and take that money and just

add it to your monthly checks so you can just leave all of this in the dust behind you. Amen. What about that, George? H&R Block, you done riled Jade up, okay? You done done it. And now we're dogging H&R Block a bit and there's some fine people who, you know, might prepare your taxes at H&R Block. They're not all bad people. Some of them are really quality, but some of them just had to go through like a little online course and now they're preparing your taxes and they only really do simple tax returns, which you could then go do for free.

If Boo Boo is doing my taxes, I can do my taxes. Thank you. If Boo Boo can sign up for the H&R Block course and do my taxes, then Jade can get Ramsey Smart Tax. If Boo Boo can do it, you can too. That's the theme of this segment. Well, thank you for that, Jade. Good times.

All right, let's get to your calls, America. Andrea joins us in Kansas up next. Andrea, welcome to the show. Thank you. What's your question today? My question is, I'm really new to Ramsey. I'm just on step one, maybe step one. But the first thing I want to do is adjust my deductions on my paycheck

because currently I claim head of household and zero. So they're just taking out the most that they can. And then every year I get a refund. But I'd like to figure out how I know how much deductions I need to adjust so that I break even at the end of the year and I get my money throughout the year. I love it. What a perfect question after we just talked tax returns and deductions and withholdings.

So you need to work with your employer and HR to adjust those settings. And there's a great calculator on the IRS website. I don't say that often, but if you go through and fill out all your information on that calculator, they will tell you exactly what you need to set up with your deductions and withholdings. That's right. They can estimate that. Have you done that yet, Andrea? I have not. I talked to my HR department and they had me log into Paylocity and she said I could just do it all myself, but I'm not very familiar with the program. You could do it yourself. What they're going to have you do is pull up that W-4 and make those tweaks.

But what George was saying is first, do your due diligence and use that calculator to find out and estimate what your withholdings should be. And then you'll be able to know what it needs to look like on that W-4. Okay. Are you working with a tax pro already, or have you been doing your taxes yourself? No, I've been doing them myself. So, I mean, I don't have extremely complicated taxes, but I just want to try and get out of debt and make the most of my money. So, I figured this was the first step. Well, if this is a pain point for you, you can always reach out to a pro that we have vetted in your area at RamseySolutions.com and click on Ramsey Recommends.

We've got tax pros called endorsed local providers in the Wichita area to help you navigate these waters and make the most of your money. Okay. Thanks so much for the call. Appreciate it. Cooper is up next in Lubbock, Texas. Cooper, welcome to the show. Yes, sir. Thank you guys for having me. Absolutely.

What's going on? Yes, sir. So I'm actually 19. I'll be 20 here in the next couple of months. I just secured a job as a firefighter here in Texas, and I've been with the same woman here for six years. We are now looking to get married and buy a home. And I just had a few questions on what to watch out for, what to look for as far as loans and everything goes.

Love it. That's exciting. Wow. This is incredible. What's your income? So they're actually starting me out here at $65,000 a year. Great. Good for you.

What's her income? We have been, you know, we've been working for the down payment and such, and I think we've been able to put away roughly $20,000 together since high school. Cool. When do you plan on putting a ring on it? Here, you know, in the next couple of months, we're kind of looking, you know, probably late March, early April.

Okay. Well, for sure, I want you guys married before you purchase this home together. Absolutely. And so I'm not trying to speed up that you get married when you need to get married, but do not buy a home together before you're married. That is a recipe for disaster. Absolutely. I'd even suggest, George, waiting a year. Yeah.

I mean, could you guys rent for a year, continue to save up a down payment, which gives you more options when it comes to housing? Okay. There's just so much going on that first year of marriage, Cooper. It's your whole life has changed. Everything you know is different. And so throwing a home purchase on top of that is a lot. And so I think just-

You're trying to figure out which way the dishes go in the dishwasher. Okay. That's a whole year right there. It is a whole year. Because she's got a method. So I love the goal of being a homeowner. You're 19. Dude, you're going to be so far ahead of the game

if you are completely debt-free with a pile of money in the bank and you're down payment. Is that your situation? That is currently my situation. Neither of you have debt. You both have savings. Yeah, we both have savings with work and debt between both of us. That's great.

And that one year gives you time to save up more of a down payment. Yes. And so the parameters to help you out with this, we've got a great calculator on our website at ramseysolutions.com to calculate your mortgage, but we want you to do a 15 year fixed where the payment is no more than a quarter of your take-home pay. And with your situation, it'd be so cool to put down 20% or more to avoid that PMI, private mortgage insurance, where you're just handing the lender more money for fun to protect them. That's a bad plan. Yes, sir.

I would aim for 20% or more, do the 15-year fix, jump on the calculator, and then it'll tell you, hey, you really should afford a $200,000 home. And you might need to go, all right, we're going to get a condo or a townhome if we want a home in the next year. Or you say, we're going to wait and save up more, and that'll give us more options. So you guys are putting yourself in an amazing place financially to do this. And also remember, you're cash-flowing the, you're cash flowing the wedding. There's a lot of upcoming expenses you got to worry about too, which is why it's also great to rent for a while, get your bearings under you before you jump into this. Hang on the line. Austin is going to

gift you guys one year of Financial Peace University as kind of a pre-pre-pre-marital counseling. So that's exciting, man. Congrats on the impending engagement and marriage. You're crushing it at 19 years old. This is The Ramsey Show. you're listening to the ramsey show i'm george camel joined by jade warshaw this hour this is the ramsey show you know we love generosity here, and we also love things that are free. And a free way to be generous is to tell someone about this show, to share it, to leave us a review, wherever you're listening, wherever you're watching, to subscribe. That is some great free generosity. It costs you nothing. So if you enjoy this show, we want to impact the most amount of people this year and especially get it into new people's hands and ears. Oh yeah. And so please, please, if you enjoy the show, do all of those things. Costs you nothing. It costs you nothing. I feel like that's a quote right there. It costs you

nothing to mind your business. I feel like I've heard that one. To mind your business. Zero dollars. I like that. It's a little snippy. I thought you'd use that on your kids or something. I might tonight. Put them in their place. I might tonight because my son. Let me know how it goes. I can't use that on my dogs. They don't care. They don't care.

I like that. It costs you nothing to mind your business. It's free. It's free. Give us a call at 888-825-5225. We'll talk about your life and your money. Kevin has decided to do that over in Miami, Florida. Kevin, welcome to the show.

Hello, George and Jen. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. We're doing good. How can we help today? Yeah. So I have a question regarding a vehicle that my fiance is financing. We're trying to sell it because she can't, well, we can't really, or she can't really afford the payments. So we kind of want to figure if we should sell the car or keep it and try to pay off as quickly as possible with some savings that I have right before the wedding. How much are the payments? So yeah, so the payment is $425. And how much is the car worth uh the car loan is 25 000 and we looked at um we looked around to see how much they would give us on um ebk and it's about 20k

okay is that private party value or is that like trade-in, dealership? Private, it's about like 21. And then dealer is about 19, 20. Okay. How much money does she have in savings, if any? I think the only savings she has is really the savings that we've been putting, well, her savings towards the wedding. Okay. Which is how much? Yeah. I believe she has maybe, I believe it's about $2,500.

Okay. And then we've been cash flowing the wedding. So the only money that she has is the $2,500. And do you happen to know what her income is? Yeah. So her income is about $2,000 a month. Okay. So yeah, this car is too expensive for her. I just want to reiterate that, you know, right now until you're married, you are keeping these finances separate. And if I were her, I would sell this car. I'd sell it and I would use the proceeds to cash flow something that's less expensive that I would pay cash for. And, you know, you never know. If she doesn't have any other debt, you could throw some of this into that wedding fund.

Does she have any other debt? No, it's just basically the vehicle. Okay. So she's underwater on this car, you're saying, where it's only worth $20,000. She owes $25,000. So we need to come up with $5,000 fast. And so she has a little bit of that in savings. How quickly could she save up another $25,000, so we need to come up with $5,000 fast. And so she has a little bit of that in savings. How quickly could she save up another $2,500?

To be honest, I don't think that quickly because she's very—her margins aren't great, especially as we're saving for the wedding. Is she working full-time right now? Yeah, she's working full-time. We're a full-time student as well as me okay um i'm wondering if there's a better job out there that can get her more than two grand a month if she's working full-time i'm wondering the same thing and have you actually set the date for the wedding or is it still yet to be determined no yeah we have the wedding um late april okay so

the date is set so you're kind of under the gun here. Are you guys having to pay for this all yourselves or is family involved? Our parents helped us some with the venue, but we've been paying everything off ourselves. Okay. And are they in a financial position to help anymore with the wedding? If you went to them and said, hey, listen, we can't cover this. We've got a situation with her car. And so her wedding savings has to go towards

solving this problem. Would they be willing to pitch in more or could you scale down the wedding? I don't think they'll be, they're financially able to help as much as they would like or as much as they have before. Kevin, what's your situation financially? What are you bringing

home? I'm bringing home about $2,200 a month. And are you a student as well? Yeah, full-time and full-time student. Okay. And do you have any debt? No. Cool. So again, don't put a dime towards her debt until you guys are already married. Yeah. And the other thing she can look into is a personal loan from like a credit union locally to cover the difference of the amount you're upside down on. And so if she can put $1,500 towards it, that means she needs another $3,500 in a personal loan to get out from under this. And it's the only time we would tell you to go into debt, which is really just reducing your debt

load currently. That's right. From $25,000 in debt to $3,500. That's a much more manageable number for her with her income. Would you agree? Yeah, no, definitely. Okay. And yeah. I would just look into that as an option because her income's not there to save up this money anytime soon And she'll just need a beater car to get around for now Maybe she can borrow one from family whatever she's got to do To get to that wedding to where you guys can combine finances. Hopefully you've graduated you can increase that income exponentially Putting you guys in a much better place financially. It's good advice george. Woof That's a that's a tough situation. And y'all, car payments.

Man. It is just killing America. And interest rates have skyrocketed. Unbelievable. And so it's a terrible time to buy a car with a loan. It is. It always was, but it's an especially bad time right now. Yeah, and that loan was eating up a lot of her money.

She was only bringing in $2,000 a month. Yikes. All right, Cody's up next in Tyler, Texas. Cody, cody welcome to the ramsey show hey thank you for having me absolutely what's going on well uh i've worked in the oil field for 13 years and about six months ago eight months ago on my way to work i got rear-ended by a drunk driver oh Oh, shoot. I mean, there's an upside to it because I got a good settlement from it. Are you all right? Yeah, now I am, yeah.

I am now. Any residual effects? Are you still going to the doctor? Are you healed up? For the most part, I'd say my brain's 80% now. Oh, man, that's scary. I'm sorry that happened.

Oh, thank you. three days after the wreck i can't get to my favorite mexican restaurant but i'm doing better now that's a problem if that hey if that's one of your top concerns you you're doing all right by the grace of god sir all right so what's your question is it is uh i got uh after everything was paid the lawyer all that i got a five hundred thousand dollar settlement wow cash in my bank account and i'm trying to figure out if i should invest it or start a business do you have any debt no no debt how much do you have already in savings um well since the wreck i wasn't able to work for a while, so it dwindled down. But altogether now, it's about $540,000.

Cool, cool. And do you have a retirement account through your employer? No, I was contract. Okay. And then are you a homeowner? No. Are you wanting to be? Because I would rather you put that money into a home than put it into a fun business venture right now.

Absolutely. And not that you have to put all of it into a home, but you have the ability to set yourself up. If I was to go that route, should I wait? I mean, with this kind of money, I would pause anyways and I'd get a solid team around you. Number one, you need a real estate expert. A tax pro would be great.

An investing pro. You can connect with all those at ramseysolutions.com. But I want you to walk with a lot of patience with this kind of money because you've never handled this kind of money, I assume. No, sir. And so it's easy. It's like you just won the lottery. And what we find with lottery winners is they lose all of that money. And by lose, I mean they spent it.

Yeah. They go broke instantly, correct? It was about two months that I've gotten paid, and I've kind of just been hiding, almost going crazy, because I don't know exactly what to do, and I don't want to make those mistakes. When do you think you'll be able to go back to work? Or is that...

I don't think I could work on a drilling rig anymore. I think those days are behind me. Those are over. Well, we're going to send you Ken Coleman's book from paycheck to purpose to help you on the career side. And on the financial side, I'm going to walk real slow. And if you want to get a place with cash, that's reasonable. Do that. The rest, you can just park in a high yield savings account for now and don't mess with it. That's what I would personally do to make sure this wealth works for you down the line. Wow. That's quite the would personally do to make sure this wealth works for you down the line.

Wow. That's quite the situation. Thanks for the call. That puts this hour of The Ramsey Show in the books. Dave here. You can find all of our shows with the Ramsey Network app on your smartphone. It's the only place to listen to the entire back catalog of episodes. Download the Ramsey Network app in your favorite app store today.