The Ramsey Show - App - How Should I Handle My Car Repairs? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: June 26, 2020

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live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is Dave Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Anthony O'Neill, sitting in the studio with my good friend, Dr. John Deloney, and together we're hosting, I believe, the number one radio show in the world. On planet Earth. On planet Earth. The Dave Ramsey Show. Where else can you get some solid money principles and solid life principles?

I mean, it's amazing. Five days a week. Five days a week with a multimillionaire, with some up-and-coming multimillionaires. I'm a thousandaire. You're a thousandaire? We're crawling towards it. I believe in speaking what I seek, so I want to be a multimillionaire. So I'm excited.

But we'd love to have a conversation with you. 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Give us a call. We're talking about your life and your money today, and we're going to have a good conversation. Let's go ahead and get it going, and we're going to go out to California

and have a conversation there with Carter. Carter, how can Dr. D and I help, man? Hi, guys. I had some questions. I'm currently in Baby Step 2. I recently started the whole baby step process and realized I was doing some things out of order. So I've paused my deposits into my Roth IRA and I'm going to be putting them towards my debt. That's about $360 a month now going to debt. How much debt do you have total, Carter? Currently $7,885.24. Okay. So, you know, down to the penny. I like that. All right, go ahead. Now that's between student loans and a credit card, about 2,500 in student loans and a credit card, about $2,500 in student loans, about $5,500 in my credit card.

My question is that money with the CARES Act, I'm currently not accruing interest on the student loans till November and the credit card is. So I know I'm supposed to pay the smaller one first, but would it be better to pay the one that's actively accruing interest, that $360 per month, or throw it at the student loan that isn't? What's your total amount in student loans again? Student loan, we're looking at the exact number. Hold on. $2,416.68. the exact number hold on uh two thousand four hundred and sixteen dollars and 68 cents the single credit card is sitting at five thousand four hundred and sixty eight dollars and 56 cents okay and what's your total income right now as far as a household i'm sitting at about 60 000 a year 60k ahmm. And just to make sure I'm correct here,

the only debt you have is the $7,885. Correct. All right, yeah. So I want you to stick with the debt snowball, all right? So here's the thing. This is not a math problem. This is about a momentum problem. Psychology problem.

Psychology problem. That's right. All right, so I want you to stick with the debt snowball you said uh that your student loans total is about 24 16 uh correct and your credit cards are 5 468 dollars so if you line that up in a debt snowball you actually are attacking the student loans first because that that it will be the lowest form now um stick to that stick that that snowball method works man okay and you're gonna save just a couple of bucks on through november you know what i mean and here's the deal on that 2500 bucks you should be paid off making 60 000 a year right

anthony i mean he should be paid off by then right yeah you know here's the thing that i'm always asked this question especially when i travel travel going into colleges and churches and corporation places. Like, hey, man, should I adapt over here? Or, hey, should I do this? Should I do that? No. Just follow the proven plan. Do you know how many times I have tried to wrestle up a scheme when I'm trying to pay something off?

You know what I mean? My poor wife has had to deal with that. Like, hey, what if I've got this new idea where I can take this credit card And dump it onto this one and that one's got mileage on it And then I can roll it And I end up in a bigger mess than I ever I ever started with right Yeah man I think we're always looking for shortcuts

Yes We're always looking for excuses We're always looking for ways to get around the proven system Or we want to save 50 bucks right So let's do it out of order this time Just pay the thing off Going out to Missouri, keeping the conversation going. We're going to have a conversation with Lacey. Lacey, how can Dr. D and I help? Yes, I listened in the last few days to your podcast for a debt-free degree. Okay. And I have,

I'm about a year into schooling. I'm going back to school as a teacher. And one of the things that you said was not to, and maybe I misunderstood, but not what. All the schools in my area are Title I schools, so I would definitely be teaching at a Title I school for a substantial amount of years. And so what in there am I missing? Well, you're not really missing anything. And the whole purpose of me saying don't depend on the government to pay off the student loans. I know several teachers who actually went into a Title I, into a rural school, and they honestly didn't get the student loans forgiven. They didn't qualify for the particular grant. What I'm saying is I want you to control what you can control. And let's just say, for an example, they do forgive your loans.

They do give you that particular situation. Then you're okay. But I want you going into it saying, you know what? I'm going to get an education. I'm going to cash flow it. I'm going to pay for it. I'm going to do everything that I possibly can do to go ahead and pay cash for this. So that's what I'm saying.

I'm not going into a situation racking up all this debt and relying on the government to take care of it. Yeah, I dealt with that, Lacey, with my law students that I worked with years ago, where they were promised, if you work in a nonprofit organization for, I think it was 10 years, we'll pay your loans back. And so we had students who had the opportunity to go make a jillion dollars in corporate America, but they had, their heartstrings were towards the least of these in their community, and or they wanted to work in public defense. They wanted to help folks, the criminal justice system, whatever it may be. So they took jobs working for nonprofit organizations

at a lesser pay for the heart of the matter because the government had said, hey, we're going to pay you back. And then they got to year eight, year nine, and now they're finding out that the government's not holding up their end of that bargain. They're saying, nah, we're good. You're good, man.

So they've looked at a decade of their life, a decade of their earning potential. Not that they wasted those years. They served the communities that they lived in with vigor. But they cashed in on a program that's not going to pay them back. And so if I hear you correctly, Anthony, I think what we say here is, man, don't rely on the government 10 years. You don't know what the world's going to look like 10 years ago, right? We don't know what the world's going to look like 10 days from now right now, man. I mean, we really don't.

And honestly, in the state of the United States today, we don't know what the world's going to look like in the next six months. That's right. But I know what I'm going to look like. And you said it best, control what you can control. I'm going to control what I can control. I am the provider of my house. I will do what I can do to make sure that my future is depending upon the choices that I make. And so if I make the right choice today, I can't blame nobody else. I can't blame the White House.

I can't blame the president. I can't blame Dave Ramsey. I can't blame you. I can't blame my parents. The only person I can blame is myself because I made the choice. And I'm going to make the choice to make sure that my future is bright, that my children are starting off at a place that they will love. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Families all over the country are discovering a faith-based and budget-friendly way of meeting health care costs, whether they're anticipated or completely unexpected. For example, take the Olcheski family from LaGrange, Texas.

Jeff and Carice had just celebrated the birth of a new baby boy. Shortly after, they had another expensive medical issue come up. They could have faced a huge financial setback. But thanks to Christian Healthcare Ministries, the Olcheskis were spared from a ton of medical bills. As members of CHM, they're part of a group of believers who financially and spiritually support each other. CHM is the longest-serving health cost-sharing ministry and is a Better Business Bureau-accredited charity.

It's Christians helping other Christians, and it shared nearly $97,000 to help the Olcheskis. To be a part of Christian Healthcare Ministries, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. CHM is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. while you all were on break i was on youtube checking out uh the amazing tubers who every time i get on the show uh john i i love youtube i love what they bring to uh just a show and so i really want to shout out the youtubers thank you so much for logging on every single day it's about 2 000 of you all on there right now and just checking out their

comments checking out what's on their mind um it's absolutely amazing so i love you all we love you all i know dave loves you but every time i get on the show whether it's by myself or with dave i log on and have a conversation with them so if you want to join us you know definitely log on to davramsey.com um and click the link for youtube or go to youtube.com forward slash uh dave ramsey live you can watch us there live but if you have a question uh i'm gonna be on here for a little bit more a little longer let's have a conversation 888-825-225 uh 888-255-225 and uh john let's keep this thing going man i'm loving these people let's go out to uh my home

state north carolina and have a conversation with zach i mean how are you doing zach how can dr d and i help well i'm i'll be honest i've better, and I'm hoping he can help me with a small little bit of advice. Well, come on, Zach, what you got? Well, I got a marriage that is kind of hanging on by a thread at the moment. I'm not going to go into details as to why unless, if you need to know why, you can ask. But I'm starting short, just having some struggles lately. And after the recent problem, my wife is with me right now.

I drive a truck for a living. She's been riding with me. But about two weeks ago, we tried to solve some of these problems and it almost actually ended. She ended up staying on the truck with me but she continued acting like nothing ever happened but building up to the point where i thought we were going to split up building up to that point i just to try and calm myself and keep myself calm since she was right there in the truck and to try and contain the pain i was feeling i kind of just like to the future, tried to figure out escape routes

and, like, plan B, C, and D for what was going to happen if the marriage ended. And she turned around and changed her mind, kind of acted like nothing was going on for a little bit. But up until that point, she kind of burnt me out. Like, I want to save the marriage, but I have almost no energy to try and save the marriage. And I'm trying to find some way to keep that going until we can get to marriage counseling because it's going to be at least two months before I can pay for it. Sure.

Zach, first, thanks for calling. I can hear your throat is constricted, man, so I want you to do me a huge favor and exhale for a second, okay? I'll bet you didn't take an inhale. You didn't take a breath through that whole conversation. So, what's wrong with your marriage, man? And I know it's complex,

but I want you to distill it all the way down. What's wrong with your marriage? To try and keep it as brief as I can, my wife... Now, part of it is... Zach, Zach, Zach. What's wrong with your marriage?

Straight to the point. What's wrong with your marriage? Okay. She wanted out twice. I think the first time this happened, she tried this at the end of 2018. I stopped her, tried to fix it, but we haven't made any progress because I haven't been able to afford marriage counseling because of financial issues. It just hasn't gotten any better in almost a year and a half. Why does she want to leave you, Zach?

And I know she's standing right there and you're talking to both of us. I want you to talk directly to me. Why does she want to leave you? We've had a few issues. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Zach, Zach, Zach. Why does she want to leave you? She says she's not in love with me and there's some communication issues going on. So why does she not love you?

The way she describes it, it's not that she doesn't love me she she's we're basically roommates at this point there's no passion there's no intimacy there's we're just best friends that share them that share taxes that's basically it is she okay so is she right is she being honest is that is that a fact is that true kind of yeah not kind of a fact? Is that true? Kind of, yeah. Not kind of. Yes or no. Is that true? Yeah. Yeah, I guess it'd be true. Do you want to be more than roommates with her?

Yes, very much. Do you still have passion and love for your wife? I do. Okay. Do you still... No, I'm not going to ask that question. I. Do you still... No, I'm not going to ask that question. I'll let you ask that question.

You can go ahead if you want to. No, he was going to ask you, and I don't even know, but he's going to ask you, are you all still connected intimately? Do you all still have a physical relationship? Right, I'm not married. The best way I can keep... I'll try to keep that PG for for the sake of the show it's a simple yes it's a yes or no we haven't we haven't had good a good intimate relationship in almost two of the five years that we've been married okay so here's the deal zach you've told me that you love her that you want to stay married to her, you want to have a passionate relationship with her.

Okay? The only thing you can control in this situation is you. And for 40% of your marriage, you haven't been intimate, you haven't had a good connective relationship physically. I can hear in your voice that you love this lady and you love this woman and that you are struggling to figure out what to do because she's not reciprocating that love. And so you've got really two choices. I know finances are tight. I know that you've done a mathematical calculation in your head about, hey, in a few months, I'll be able

to afford this so that I can go do that. If you love this woman and you want to remain married to her, then you're going to have to stop and fight with everything you have, with all that you have to keep this marriage going. And I would give you a list of strategic tips, but I don't know you all that well, and it would take an hour to unwind it all. But what I'm telling you is if I'm telling you that I love you and that I'm telling you that I'm committed to you and you're saying, well, you know what? In two months, we're going to figure this out. That doesn't communicate to me that you're on the same level with me. And so I do it. I'm out. I'm just going to cash out. So you have to decide right now what is important to you. And is there a local college

in town that's going to have interns that will meet with you too? Do you have a pastor that you can go sit and meet with? Do you have a couple that you know that's been married for a while that has dog fought with each other, which all marriages have, that would sit down and talk to both of you? Or have you taken your wife out for dinner if you're Anthony, breakfast if you're in the Deloney house, and looked at her and said, do you want to still do this? You know, but I don't know if I would ask that question, Dr. D,

and tell me if I'm wrong. If I'm the man, I'm going to tell her this is what I want. I want this marriage, and I am willing to put in the work to fight for this marriage. And I think before

you do that it sounds a little bit like she's off somewhere and so i'm going to recommend a book i'm not a marriage counselor that's i'm let you do i'm a money guy but for me uh it sounds like he doesn't really know his wife's love language so i'm going to recommend he gets a book love language and then read for him only those are two books i recommend because you gotta know how to articulate and talk to your wife and feed her what she needs to open up and i think when he could show her i'm fighting for it and i'm doing everything on my side to be the best man possible now he puts it back into her shoes and if she wants to leave then that's on on her. But he got to fight. And you're right. I don't think it matters whether it's a husband

or it's a wife. I think, like I was just telling him, dude, you're saying in a couple months we'll do this, I'll get some money to get it. If you want to be in it,

you let the air out of the tires of the truck and you figure it out. But I also want to always encourage folks, sit down and have a hard conversation on the front end.

Yes. Because I don't want him to go read two books. I don't want him to go through a bunch of i don't want to lose out a couple of driving jobs and plan a bunch of stuff if she's already out if she's already cashed out she's cashed out now she's threatening him is she baiting him is she doing whatever she can to say do you love me yeah or is he just going to fight and cash in yeah he got a decision he has a decision to make right now and then you're going to fight and cash in? Yeah. He has a decision to make right now, and then you're going to fight for it. And then if she still wants to go, she can go.

I agree. But go all in. And read those two books. They're both great books, by the way. And I could be wrong. No, you're right. You're right. I just think that ladies want to see the man fight.

And I think sometimes... You're right. I'm going to be quiet. Both of them. I want my wife to fight for me, sometimes... You're right. I'm going to be quiet. Both of them. I want my wife to fight for me, too. You're right. You're right, because my wife better fight for me. This is Dave Ramsey Show. Most people's money problems come from not paying attention.

That's why before I spend a dime of my money on something, I do the research and make sure it's going to live up to what it claims. Recently, I got a great pair of sunglasses from a company called Shady Rays. When you're looking for sunglasses, it feels like your options are limited. Name brand sunglasses cost too much, and the cheap knockoffs are ugly and really don't protect your eyes. Discovering Shady Rays is a game changer. With Shady Rays, you can count on premium sunglasses that protect your eyes

and are affordable. They give people the best overall value in sunglasses. They also replace your shades with a brand new pair if you lose or break them from day one of your purchase and they guarantee your sunglasses for life plus they offer an exclusive for ramsey show listeners go to shadyrays.com and use the code ramsey for 50 off two or more pairs that That's ShadyRays.com, code RAMSEY. Before the show, we probably had, before the show went to break, we had a great conversation.

And this is why I'm happy you are on the team because we can really dive into deeper conversations around the life topic i'm not a marriage counselor don't want to be a marriage counselor because i'm not even married i need counseling so i can get i think we all need counseling know, but these are the kind of conversations that you even dive deeper into on your YouTube channel. Right. And I want you to tell the world, America, what are you doing on your YouTube channel? What kind of conversations are you having? You actually just had a very uncomfortable conversation with actually my local pastor about race and what can Caucasian people do?

How can they learn? How can we learn as an African-American? It's like, man, you're hitting some heavy, deep topics. So what all can we get from your YouTube channel and how can we find you on YouTube, bro? Man, thanks for that. Right now I've got a series called Everything You Know About Anxiety Is Wrong. And I'm frustrated and annoyed that people have been led to believe

that anxiety is only a genetic issue or it's only a biology issue. And we've just completely forgot talking about this crazy world we've set up for ourselves. And so you can go there and learn more about anxiety, what you can actually do about it. Yeah, the conversations we had with Dr. Faison was something else. And what's cool is he pastors a church in the neighborhood where I rent a house.

And so I'm a nerd. I've been to a lot of college classes. I've got a lot of information stuck in the front of my head. But it was something else listening to somebody's experience in my neighborhood and i think as a culture we are always going to the next podcast and the next book and the next streaming thing to get more information and we don't listen to people's narratives we don't listen to people's stories and often people's experiences qualitatively speak deeper and are more informative than some of these data points, right? And so, man, what a gift.

And so head over to YouTube.com slash John Deloney. Okay. And it's cool. And you're YouTube. I'm trying to catch you, man. I'm about 130,000 subscribers short of you right now, Anthony. Hey, man. You're doing some extraordinary work over there, too.

This is not a competition. I think having you on the team, and this is what I tell people, you are important just as much as Dave, myself, Hogan. Because we can talk about money principles all day long, but if our marriages are not good, if our minds are not healthy, if we're not doing the right things in life, it doesn't matter how much money skills we have. We have to be good mentally, which is why I see a therapist, why I talk to you, because I want to make sure that I'm mentally healthy. So, again, you guys, I want you all to go over to YouTube.com forward slash slash John Deloney or just go on YouTube, look up John Deloney. And you can check out mine as well. But I really want you to go over there and look up John Deloney's YouTube because I think what he's doing is important. And so I appreciate you, brother.

I really do. Let's go out to Oklahoma and have a conversation with Brian. Brian, welcome to the show. How can Dr. D and I help? Hey, guys. It's great talking to you. Thanks for taking my call. No, thanks for calling in. How can we help, man? Well, so my wife and I are on baby step five, and my call is in regards to my vehicle. We both have a paid off four car. Mine's worth about $6,000, Kelly Blue Book, and trade-in value probably 3,000 to 4,000.

I took it to the repair shop to a reputable mechanic here in town and he looked through it and there was a few things wrong with it. The total repairs, if I was to fix everything, at one time would be around $6,600. I could opt for just fixing

a few of the things for cheaper but I just kind of wanted to get your guys' feedback on that, as if it would be wise to go ahead and fix everything, if I should just fix the major stuff for the time being, seeing as how the repairs equal up to the total value of the car. Yeah, you said you're on Baby Step 5, so you're pretty much saving up for your child's college graduation. Yes, sir. We actually were on Baby Step 6, but we just had child's college graduation? Yes, sir.

We actually were on baby step six, but we just had a baby last week. Congratulations, man. Congrats. Congrats. Congrats. Nice. I appreciate it. How much do you have on reserve right now, liquid cash?

$18,000 liquid cash. $18K. Okay. And outside of that, how much is that? Is that all three months, or is that three plus extra? Yes, sir. That's three plus extra. Three to six would be anywhere from 10 to 15 and then the 3,000 above the 15 would just be extra. Okay. All right. All right. All right. All right. How much would it cost you for the

major repairs on the car? I believe for the most important things would probably be around 4,000, 5,000 maybe. Yeah. How many miles on a car? 160,000. What kind of car is it? That's a 2012 Chevy Cruze. Oh, it's a Chevy. Okay.

2012. What do you want to do? Well, if I was to fix everything and able to keep the car for a few other years i'd be totally okay with that um i guess my only concern would be to pour that money in and for whatever reason have to pour more in shortly down the road if something else went wrong yeah but i'd like to keep the car okay all right but let's talk about that um i'm i'm cool with spending about 4k i would before i drop 4k to fix the major issues on the car i'm going to look at some more mechanics and see if i can get this around maybe three thousand dollars um to get

fixed now dropping three thousand dollars on a chevy especially a chevy cruze um it's a reliable car you should be able to get another hundred thousand miles out of this car um so i'm a huge fan of that because what i don't want you to do what you just having a kid less than you know a month ago you're at a week weekend to the game i don't want you really being stressed right now about purchasing a car so if the the car is worth $6,000, you have some options here. Here are the two options. You can sell the car for $6,000, take $3,000 from the $15,000

so you're not going into your emergency fund and go buy you a car for about $10,000, $9,000 to $10,000. And you may be able to get you a car for another right around 80 to 100, 110,000 miles. Get you something like a Honda, toyota or you can fix the car for 4k and keep that but then you really don't know if other problems will happen with the car

so you gotta weigh your option either one is cool but i'm not trading in the car because you're gonna lose a lot of money there so i'm gonna personally sell the car, get the 6K value, add in the 3K on that, get you a good, reliable car there. Or I'm going to try and find me a mechanic that can fix the car for right around 3K and then stick with the car from there. That's what I'm going to recommend to you. And, Brian, I'm old school like Anthony. I don't keep my cars, man. I don't always look at everything ROI. And I've got an 06 Toyota that I drive now that I'm hoping to last another 20 years or so.

But I'm like you, Anthony. Man, I'm going to keep putting money into it. I just don't look at cars on an ROI like that. If it's a good car and it needs to be fixed, let's fix it and keep it, man. I like that. Good stuff. Okay, awesome, guys. Well, I really appreciate it. Hey,, let's fix it and keep it, man. I like that. Good stuff. Okay, awesome, guys. Well, I really appreciate it.

Hey, man, we appreciate you for calling in, man. You know, America, that's what it's all about. When you can call in and just have a real good conversation, let's walk through this process. Because, I mean, let's look at it. The average American would have been like, you know what? Bump it. I'm not putting this money in the car. I'm going to go trade in my car and go finance a $20,000, $30,000 car,

making $35,000, $40,000 a year, which is just dumb. It's just stupid. It's dumb. But when you really step back and you really look at your principles and the vision for your life, it's like, yo, I just had a kid. That's his priority right now. And so I think both of those options are are definitely okay you know my acra has about 200 000 miles on it right now so it's about halfway done it's about halfway done like how you said that it's a halfway it's a honda car it's a honda

plus yes so i'm like if the car broke down today am i going to put $10,000 into the car? No. But if it broke down today, would I put $2,500 into the car? Absolutely. I think there's a pathology about everything in our lives. Is it ROI? Does it ROI? Does it ROI? Does it get you where you need to go? Does it give you a roof over your head?

Yep. Yes. Well, a car doesn't give you a roof over your head but i was talking about a house too right that's why they don't let me talk about money folks oh jesus and i don't i don't talk about marriage fix the car youtube is telling me anthony this is out of your lane stay in your lane fix the car i feel you youtube hey you guys this is the number one talk show in the world the dave ramsay show We'll be back. You know I don't sit back and just trust that politicians have my best interest in mind,

which is why, if I had student loans, I would not be waiting around for the government to save me. Right now, Splash Financial has some of the lowest rates they've ever had. If you have private student loans, get your rates down now. No one's going to fix this for you. Take control of your own money. Go to splashfinancial.com slash Ramsey. That's how they will know you're one of our listeners. Splashfinancial.com slash Ramsey.

If you head over to youtube.com forward slash Anthony O'Neill, YouTube.com forward slash Anthony O'Neill, you'll see a real relevant and relatable conversation to where I'm talking to. I'm not saying I'm talking only to this particular audience, but I do believe, Dr. D, that sometimes a lot of the content that is created in America today is geared towards that wiser individual. I can't say older because Kelly and Dave get on me when I say older. But to that, you know, a little bit wiser generation. And then you have a lot of content created for that younger kid generation. And so on my side of the channel, I'm really having that conversation to where I'm talking to the 20s and 30s about life, about money. How very millennial of you to feel left out about something else, man.

Jeez Louise. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. But, you know, I just really love having that conversation. Teaching them, you know, hey, here's how you go to school debt free.

Here's how you graduate debt free. Here's why you need to avoid credit cards. Here's how you start building wealth. Here's how you date properly and how you have a budget for dating. Here's how you start off your marriage from a financial perspective. So really having that young, relevant, relatable conversation. So head over to youtube.com forward slash Anthony O'Neill. This week, we actually interviewed my childhood crush, my high school crush,

my friend Cherry Johnson, who was the best friend to, what's her name, on the hit sitcom show Family Matters. And so she saw one of my videos and she reached out to me. She's like, y'all want to talk to you?

So I brought her on my show, but we had a great conversation about how even her as a celebrity believes in being debt free, doesn't have a credit card pay cash for her stuff still have a still making a lot of money from the show family matters and investing it she says she says her zach words i have a dope car but i'm driving a toyota i'm like that that's what i'm that's what i'm talking about so uh to uh just watch

that interview and to we have some great stuff coming up, you guys. Some major, major names. Trent Shelton, Pasatori Roberts from Sarah Jakes Roberts out there in California. We'd love for you to check it out. So go over there, and we'll have a good conversation over there. YouTube.com forward slash Anthony O'Neal. Going out to Texas, we're going to have a conversation with Natalie. Natalie, good afternoon, and how can Dr. D and I help? Hi. Thanks so much for taking my call today.

Yeah, thank you for calling in. Awesome. So I am a stay-at-home mom, and I have three awesome kids. My husband is our sole income. Okay. And he take-home pay-wise makes about $75 a year, which is awesome. We're very grateful. And so my question, though, is my husband and I are on baby step two.

We've started with the smaller debt, and next we'll be tackling a small loan that we have used to kind of do some repairs on our house. But my question was, our current projection to pay off would be May 2022 and I think I have a little bit of guilt because I am staying at home with the kids and I previously was working and I'm debating if I should take a part time job because

I think my husband bringing home a take home and doing so well I'm very grateful and he's a great man but I do kind of feel bad that these kind of weeks seem so far off does that make sense I just can't decide if I should take on a new job yeah yeah Natalie how much debt do you all have right now okay so um we wrote down all of our debts. We currently have a little over $40,000. That's in two cars that we have. It's not including our mortgage, but it's two cars, the small one that we had, and we're paying off the other ones.

Okay, so we got two cars, and we have credit cards. What kind of cars do you have? Okay, so my husband has a used Toyota. Okay. We both bought used vehicles. Now, keep in mind, this is before we did the whole debt snowball and got on the ball with D3 and D. Okay, so you got a Toyota. How much is that worth?

Yes. That's a good question. I keep asking my husband. I know that mine is a Honda Odyssey. It's a van. Okay. And it's currently blue, but value a little over 10. How much do you owe on that? Let me pull that up. So if I remember right, we owe a little over 20.

The Honda is worth 10K and you owe $20,000 on that car? I know. Yeah, okay. So when we purchased the vehicles, we pulled them up. When we purchased the vehicles, my husband's was purchased because during Harvey it had gotten water damage. So we bought that one used at a local dealership. Then we bought our van because we had a minor accident with it, but it caused it to be where it wasn't fixable by insurance. So that one ended up getting replaced.

So I don't agree with the amounts I have. I got you. I got you. Here's my thing, Natalie. I don't want you to be feeling guilty that you are staying home as a mother um you know in my opinion um there's i i honor and i celebrate stay-at-home mothers because i believe that's a full-time job within itself so i don't want you to feel guilty for being a mother and providing for your kids because that's a job here's something

that i do want you to consider um and i want you to stay on the line kelly's going to give you a book when we get off of here i want you to read chrissy wright's book business boutique because this book is a great book that would definitely teach you how you can actually generate some income uh being a a stay-at-home uh mother um so i definitely definitely definitely want to do that now here's the thing too okay uh with making 75k a year uh i'm looking at how can we get rid of one of these cars? That's the first thing. What car can we sell so that way we can sit here and honestly figure out how can we lower the debt?

But to your initial question, do not feel guilty that you're staying home. I'm okay with that. But do figure out what can you do from home to bring in some income and you're going to be all right there. And Natalie, I want you to hear me directly because I'm going to piggyback off what Anthony said.

And I've experienced this in my own home with an extraordinary, brilliant wife who's also felt this. We have a culture that does not celebrate your choice. And we have a culture that says you are never going to be good enough. If you are a professional working woman who also wants to have a family and you will feel guilty if you are at work and you've got three kids at home, you're going to feel guilty. If you're at home with your three kids running, being the CEO, the chief officer of your home, and you're not in the office. And that comes back to a cultural issue, which comes back to a emotional and spiritual and psychological issue. And so what I want to challenge you to do on top

of what Anthony did, Christy Wright's book is awesome. I want you to spend some time with your husband. I want you to spend some time with a counselor or a pastor or a woman in your community that has some wisdom that you trust. And I want you to sit down and find peace in your heart with whatever direction you're going to take, because this is going to haunt you and haunt you until you can look in the mirror and say, I'm good with the partnership me and my husband have. I'm good as a mom. I'm good as a contributor here, whatever that looks like. And then forget what the people on Pinterest are going to say to you and forget what the people at church are going to say to you. They don't get

a vote. Make that decision with your community, make that decision with your husband and make that decision with yourself and then move forward in with your husband and make that decision with yourself and then move forward in peace because I'm so tired of this culture, beating up women. I'm so tired of it, man. They cannot win. And men,

we've got to play a role too and supporting and elevating the women in our lives, helping support their choices, helping not only with the math problem of it, but just sitting and listening and be present. And I'll stop my rant right there. Now's a good rant you know if we have more time brother i would i would rant on with you because we as men we have to step up and honor and celebrate um our ladies period whatever they decide to do we have to get behind them celebrate

them and continue to push them if my wife came to me and said hey i want to be a stay-at-home mother i'm saying you're gonna be a stay-at-home mother because that's a job within itself i don't want to be a stay-at-home daddy it's a hard gig man it's a hard gig i don't want to do it but i'll celebrate my wife who want to do it man that's right you know i want to thank zach for filling in for our producer james child the one and only the best associate producer kelly daniel dr d D, thank you so much, you guys. America, this has been fun. Remember, you guys, the caliber of our future will be determined by the choices and the decisions we make today.

It's been a blessing. It's been fun. It's been the best radio show, in my opinion. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. This is James Child, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. You can listen to Dave, Rachel Cruz, Chris Hogan, or the rest of the Ramsey Network anywhere with the Ramsey Network app on your smartphone. Catch all of our full shows, browse by topic, or send clips to your friends. Head to the App Store and download the Ramsey Network app.

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