The Ramsey Show - App - How to Address Family Anger Issues (Hour 1)

Episode Date: August 13, 2019

Dr Henry Cloud, Debt   Tools to get you started: Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE   Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR 

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us, America. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Ellen is with us, and Ellen is in Illinois starting off this hour. Hi, Ellen.

How are you? Doing well. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? Okay. Me and my husband, we're 54. We just started your baby steps back in November.

And we have about, as of right now, about $88,000 still to pay on baby step two. Mm-hmm. I suffer from a chronic heart-lung condition. Mm-hmm. And my psychologist, who I love dearly and trust very well, asked me point blank last week when I was going to go on disability. Now, I'm not on IV medication. I'm not on oxygen yet. I do need to get myself a handicapped placard now. I work as an IT technician.

Most of my stuff is phone support. So it just really shook me up. And I'm thinking, we're still in baby step two, and we have next to no retirement, and we still have over $100,000 left on our house, and I just, you know, I'm just overwhelmed. I understand. So What do you make And what does your husband make My husband makes about $89,000 And I make $57,000 Before taxes

That's gross So let's run out of worst case scenario Let's just wave a wand And today, poof You are on SSI Government Permanent Disability. By the way, it's not waving a wand. It'll take months, maybe years.

But anyway, aside from the fact that we're dealing with that. But let's just say you went from $57,000 to $20,000 a year. Oh, $20,000, okay. Okay, probably what it is. It might be $30,000. I don't know. But somewhere in there. Somewhere between there is probably where your SSI will land.

And doing that, you are also allowed to work a certain amount. And you could do some IT, you know, from home, part-time, on your own schedule, contract-wise. Okay? Okay. And so you could add another $10,000, we'll say, on your own schedule, contract-wise. Okay? Okay. And so you could add another $10,000, we'll say, if that's what they allow. Let's say they allow that. Okay? So we've got $20,000, $30,000.

We've either got $30,000 or $40,000 worth of income instead of $57,000. Your husband makes $90,000. So you've got a household income in excess of a hundred thousand dollars you're 54 years old i'm not panicking just i'm just overwhelmed with just i know but did you hear the math i just did yes i did because the way to not be overwhelmed is to have a plan to eat the elephant you eat an elephant a bite at a time. And you're overwhelmed because there's an elephant standing in front of you called $80,000 worth of debt, $100,000 mortgage, and no retirement.

Three big things called an elephant, right? Yes. So what are we going to do? Well, we're a family. Apart from the fact that you physically are suffering and hurting with these ailments. But apart from that, you're a family that makes in excess of $100,000 and would continue to make in excess of $100,000 in Illinois, and you can pay off debt, pay off your mortgage, and build some wealth.

I mean, you've got 10, 15 years or more to do that of your husband's working life left. And so, you know, I think this is very doable. Are you going to end up worth $10 million? Oh, I doubt it unless something changes in this story, but it can change. But I think you can move towards disability if that's truly where you are. Now, your psychologist is not a medical doctor, neither am I, so you need to talk to one about whether you're disabled or not. I don't know.

I assume you are based on what you're saying, okay? But if you just run that idea to ground and you say, okay, I'm going to start the process of permanent disability, which is going to involve part-time work and a disability income from the government. In addition to my husband's $90,000, we're going to get on that budget, and we're going to work through $80,000 worth of debt, just like we were before, because it really doesn't change your equation but about $20,000 a year. Oh, wow.

Okay. So you're making $57,000. If you make $30,000 on disability and another $10,000, that's $40,000. That's $17,000 difference. So if it's $27,000, you're going to be fine because your husband has a really good income, and you will still have some income coming in. It's not like you're going from $57,000 to $0,000. So that's my point. I think if that's the way this is going to unfold, then you're going to be fine. Oh, and by the way, it's going to take

a year to get there, so you're going to make 57 this year, one more year in this equation, and you're going to make that much more progress in the process. So applying for disability I don't think means you just have to quit. I don't know. You need to check on that, find out exactly what the process is to be declared by your medical physician disabled, not your psychologist, and then have that done in such a way that you will be approved for your government SSI, which, you know, know when you turn 65 you would convert that just to social security at that point and again your husband is going to work from now till probably

70 most people do these days and uh you guys are going to be just fine these numbers work you're going to be okay open phones at 888-825-5225. Marsha's on Facebook. I retired at 55 by selling off some stock. I was able to pay off my house and my car. I have no other debt. What goals should I set now for my money? Marsha, there's three things that money is good for. It is good for living, giving, and investing for the future. The future includes your continued retirement with dignity and changing your family tree.

So, you know, generosity. I'm going to have fun with money on generosity. I'm going to have fun with money by enjoying it. And some people, that means buying a a painting others means travel others means clothes others means classic cars i don't care you enjoy a portion of your money you give with outrageous generosity that will bring you great enjoyment and you change your family tree by continuing to invest and um and you continue to do that always if you do those three things with money whether you're six or 86 you will be having you have built a proper plan for your money the problem is people leave one of them out

or two of them out and then they get in trouble. So live it, give it, and invest it to change your family tree. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options? Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ to share their major health care costs. Christian Health Care Ministries is the original health cost-sharing ministry. A Better Business Bureau-accredited organization, CHM members share to pay each other's medical bills. It's not insurance. It's Christians financially and spiritually

supporting each other. It's what Christian Healthcare Ministries has done for over 35 years. And our members have shared over $2.5 billion in medical bills. To learn more, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. Well, it is appropriate that the very first guest in the new Ramsey Studios, that is a non-Ramsey personality, but almost. You're like a Ramsey faculty member without the personality. Dr. Henry Cloud is with us, author of the book Boundaries, which is one of my favorite books ever written.

As a matter of fact, several of his books, Necessary Endings, Integrity, The Power of the Other. Some of my favorite books, one of my favorite writers, one of my favorite guys. A good friend is with us. He speaks often at our smart conferences, and you see him around our stuff all the time and drop by town, drop by here in Nashville to hang out, and our very first guest, and you're family, but you're our very first guest. It is so cool to be here. I got to to tell you you got to come see this place you know if you're getting near nashville you got to come it is so beautiful day i'm so happy for you guys and how blessed y'all are and how you bless

some it is so cool well thank you thank you i appreciate it we're we're like a kid i mean it's christmas morning around here every day right now. It'll wear off eventually a little bit. I don't know. It may not wear off. But the public starts coming in later this week, and we open up the doors, and it's going to be fun to see their interaction and reaction to all of this stuff. So our new location here in Franklin, Tennessee, you can look it up. It's pretty easy.

You just hit Google Maps and put in ramsey ramsey headquarters dave ramsey show it'll all show up there we've got it all set up with them and the apple map if you use that one too it works on that so henry cloud wrote the book boundaries i read the book years ago i was completely goggled over the book loved the book heard him speak at a distance uh before i was doing anything like this and just huge admirer and uh since then over the last uh almost 20 years we've been good friends and uh gotten to know henry and uh he sold over 15 million books two million of boundaries so uh done radio shows uh speaking all over america works with corporate america so you guys got a new project called boundaries dot me let's talk about that yeah

well you know the whole boundary thing it's a path right you you you got to learn you got to learn the concepts but then we have to walk that out and so what i want to do is be able to coach people and become their boundaries coach and so you go to boundaries.me and you sign up and i'm going to become your coach over time and there's all sorts of content and assignments and tips and and groups you can join people that struggle with the same issues you do it's really been fun really been fun very cool by the way if you want to talk to dr cloud he's going to be with us for a couple segments and if you've got questions about, we'll open up some phone lines right now. The phone number is 888-825-5225. And Kelly will clear that up, and we can talk about boundaries or whatever.

So basically, you're going to be able, with boundaries.me, you're going to be able to actually get in there and coach folks. Yeah, I'm going to show up on your screen. And if you go on there right now and you join, there's over 60 courses that are available to you with different contexts. Like, you know, Dylan, what do you do with a narcissistic entitled person? What do you do with a controlling relationship? How do you know if someone's narcissistic and controlling? I guess you have to go in and learn that. You wake up and hate your day.

Because you have to interact with this fool. Exactly. hate your day because you have to interact with this exactly you know you know the way you the way you know that is you increasingly part of it is you increasingly find that this relationship is is taking from you much more than is mutual and you're you're feeling more like an object you know than a person and you narcissists, there are no relationships. It's all transactional. It's all about what you can. They're takers instead of givers.

They are takers instead of givers. And, you know, we are designed to give. One of the, if you do the happiness research, you look at all the research that's ever been done, the happiest people are givers. The problem is that a lot of givers get in relationships with controlling and irresponsible people, and they're giving, but they're not really giving, they're giving in, and that doesn't lead to joy. You're being used, and that's where boundaries really help you get in control of your life so you can actually give to the people that either need it or deserve it.

There's something in my wife's childhood that when she says that i'm feeling used when we're in talking about a relationship somewhere with with another you know group of people or another individual when she says that the way she says it that it's visceral used yes that word used is it comes from not a good thing. She's not rising up and calling them blessed, right? No, it's not. Once you're on that list, you don't want to be on that one. But you know what?

She's speaking from the deepest part of her heart, and she's in touch with the way that we are designed. And we're designed to know when we're being used or when we're being taken from or when we're being controlled or trespassed against. Now, the problem is one of my favorite Bible verses is in Hebrews. It says that solid food is for the mature who through practice have had their senses trained to discern good from evil. Now, what you're talking about there is she senses. She feels it. Something dynamic here.

Some dynamics going on that doesn't feel good. It's not right. And everybody has that little button, but they get talked out of it. And people use guilt and manipulation and anger to talk them out of their senses. And, you know, I hear Christian lingo thrown at that. You're not supposed to judge me. Right. And I always just say, yes, I am.

Right. Because it's scriptural to judge you. You're supposed to judge these spirits. That's right. And people don't make the distinction between, you're not supposed to be the judge like god and sentence people condemn them right but we are supposed to evaluate ongoing the people in our lives you go to psalm 101 david gives a whole list of the kind of people that he's not going to tolerate the arrogant the narcissist

the proud the liars the faithless he says i'm not going to have anything to do with them. And then he says something cool. He says, it's the good people that I will allow to minister to me. He chooses his relationships. Yeah. And there's an amazing thing that happens. I mean, that's a mental health wholeness and a spiritual health wholeness that comes with that. And there's a correlation between people who learn to do that without being angry about it. Right.

But just say, no, you know, setting boundaries. I'm not going to allow you to do this in my presence or to me or around me. And I'm going to distance myself from you if you're going to do that. The more you do that, the more you gather good people, the opposite around you, the more you're successful in every area, whether it's your parenting, your marriage, your money, your career. It affects your ability to walk away from this trash and toxicity. It opens up success in every area. It's amazing.

It's a treasure trove. It is a treasure trove. It is a treasure trove. You know, the original Boundaries book, we talk about the – a boundary is a property line. And so you've got a property line, and within that property, it's like a house or your apartment. Within that property line are your treasures. You know, that's the good stuff.

And so you lock the door, and then you open the door to let good people in or you open the door to to give to good people or to you know bring good things in your life but if a thief shows up you lock the door and that starts a whole new path of having everything about your heart your mind your soul able to invest in a whole different path. And good people start to show up because you're not attracting flies. You know, if you don't have boundaries, you will actually attract users. And if you do have boundaries. You put off an aura, your body language, your voice tone, everything.

It's just victim looking for a place to happen. That's exactly right. And you know what? You can go to a party and just, if somebody is, you know, extremely codependent and drawn to destructive relationships, that user across the room, it's like they recognize each other. And then they just go down that path again. Yeah, there we go. Until you wake up, and you can wake up. Yes, you can wake up.

Dr. Henry Cloud is with us, author of 15 million books have been sold, lives over in Los Angeles. Stop by our first guest here on the Ramsey Show in the new Ramsey Studios. Hang around. He's going to take your calls right now. The phone number is 888-825-5225. If you've got boundaries questions, check out boundaries.me and sign up where you can get a personal coach and all kinds of lessons to learn about these things. So boundary questions,

just questions for Dr. Cloud coming up next here on the Dave Ramsey show. Over 15 million books sold. Dr. Henry Cloud, probably best known for the book Boundaries, but that could depend on where you ran into it. So certainly Necessary Endings has become a standard around here. Boundaries, of course you're writing ties together. I mean, the power of the other, the integrity, necessary endings, they all have a thread through them all the way from boundaries.

And so you can check out all of the materials and hundreds of lessons and develop a personal coach on the boundaries issue at boundaries.me. Just go check it out. Give it a cruise. Look at it. Take it for a test drive. See what you think. Boundaries.me. Just go check it out. Give it a cruise. Look at it. Take it for a test drive. See what you think. Boundaries.me.

It's life-changing, life-giving material. All right, you ready to take a couple calls? Let's do it. All right. Chris is with us in Illinois. Hi, Chris. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, fellas.

Thanks for having me on. Dr. Cloud, certainly appreciate everything you've done. Social media, big fan on there. I basically have a situation where in trying to follow some of the things that you put out, I have an adult sister who married someone that has a number of anger issues, OCD, things of that nature, and it's really rubbed off on her. And the past four years, she's basically just kind of blown up, gone off the edge. And my family has tried to work with her on this. My parents flew from the Midwest out to the East Coast to try and deal with this, and she literally slammed the door. She has the anger and OCD, or the guy she's married to? So the guy she's married to does, and it slowly rubbed off on her to the point of where Christmas time four years ago, my parents went through a long

separation and divorce and Christmas time four years ago, she just became hypercritical of every little thing my mom would do and kicked her out of the house and on Christmas. And so my mom's like, well, all right, I'm flying home. I'm not going to sit here and deal with this. And then for four years, just some really vile stuff. And this has never been the person she, she is, but calling my mom and threatening physical violence. And, um, you know, yeah, my parents flew out there and just, they didn't want to reason. And I finally kind of threw some of your direction and said to her and to my brother-in-law, listen, you know, the way that you guys choose to deal with mom and dad is between you. But as for me, I'm not taking a step further until you want to sit down and speak rationally in person. And I haven't heard from

him since. So just really, you know, to see someone that was so mild-mannered become so angry and vile and verbally violent, we're just kind of, you know, we put it all in God's hands at this point because that's really all we can do. Well, how old is she? 41. 41. So nothing like this in her history at all? Nothing. The most mild-mannered kind. I used to have to order cheeseburgers for her at McDonald's when she was a kid growing up

and just has made a complete 180. Yeah. Well, a lot of times you will see if somebody's, you know, that passive for that long, sometimes it's like you see this big pendulum shift and all of a sudden, you know, the inner terrorist sort of shows up. But the thing I'm concerned about with her is you're saying that this happens in a context of a relationship. You know, if you've got a lot of anger, and I don't know how severe the OCD is, but that can really spill over to where she may be feeling like a captive, you know,

because his issues are sort of, you know, cornering her. That could be adding to the anger. But I'm really concerned, you know, when you hear somebody threatening violence, I would take a hard look at that because, you know, you don't know what's going on. It could be biochemical. She could be headed for a psychotic depression. For somebody that out of character to threaten violence, I would look at probably the family trying to take some steps to maybe call a good psychiatrist in her area and meet with him or her and say, here's what's going on, describe it, and what can the family do to try to step in and at least be,

you know, whether you call it an intervention or whatever, be a bridge to getting her some help. Because the way you're describing it, this is on a regressive path that I would try to contain and put some limits around. And so that was not just as simple as just saying until you can behave, stay away. Well, no, it's not. And I understand why you did that, and that's good. But while you're doing that, she's also in a closed system, it sounds like, that's not moving upward. And I would be concerned about that as a family. Now, ultimately, you know, you try to get her to treatment.

You try to be a bridge to treatment. You try to do everything you can. And sometimes, ultimately, the family does have to say, well, look, you know, that's all we can do. But I'm concerned about the sort of acute onset of this and in a context. So I would probably look at it pretty closely. Cool. Dr. Henry Cloud with us. Open phone is a 888-825-5225.

Sharla is with us in Wyoming. Hi, Sharla. How are you? Doing pretty good, Dave. Thank you so much both for taking my call. Sure. Your question for Dr. Cloud. Hi, Sharla. How are you? Doing pretty good, Dave. Thank you so much both for taking my call. Sure. Your question for Dr. Cloud. Hi, Dr. Cloud. We have a situation here. We just went and got my stepfather-in-law. He's been diagnosed with a terminal illness, was bed bound for six weeks without us knowing, and has been given eight to 12 weeks to live.

So he'd been estranged from us for 20 years of marriage that my husband and I have been together because of alcoholism. We are pretty much the only family that's paid any attention to him. So we dropped everything and went and picked him up and have had him move in with us. But in the middle of all this, that cost us a pretty significant amount of money, about $3,000 there. We're in the middle of baby step two. And I just want to know, boundaries wise, the first boundary we set, of course, was no alcohol in the house. And he's pretty much bound to that. But having these financial discussions, is it fair to kind of talk with him about his money that's coming in and what expectations are with us, like a rental agreement, that kind of thing?

And he's got how long to live? Eight to 12 weeks. He has a monthly income of about $3,300 with $300 of expenses. And I assume he has no assets. He has no assets. He has nothing. And so we're just trying to be wise with setting up cremation, but also the expenses we've incurred, but also having compassion and love in his last days.

Yeah. And how rational is he? Completely. And is he connecting with you and receiving your help or fighting it, or is he cooperative? He's receiving our help. He's more attached to the animals than he is to the family, which I'm assuming a lot of that has to do with the previous alcohol abuse,

and he's grateful for it. But he's not fighting you. No, not fighting us at all. I just don't want to overstep bounds inappropriately on saying, hey, it cost us a lot to come get you, but still cover ourselves. We have four kids, one going to college this fall, and just trying to be wise. Yeah. Well, certainly you lead with a compassion, but I don't see anything wrong with having just a, you know, when the end is coming, there's nothing wrong with having just a compassionate discussion about, you know, there's, we don't know when it's coming, but as you know, it's going to be pretty soon, and we need to know how to help you take care of your money.

We need to know how to take care of some of these expenses, and we'd like to talk to you about how to do that. That's not compassionate at all. I think it would be easy to say, personally, $3,300 a month for three months is barely going to cover a funeral. And so we need to bank your check to prepare for your end expenses as a method of taking care of you. We're taking care of you while you're alive, but we also want to help with your final care, your final expenses. And so, you know, basically, you know, we're not going to charge you anything for living here, but we're going to take, we want you to take your entire check and set it in an account for your final expenses. If there's any left over after final expenses, we will collect that as our rent.

But really, I think you're probably going to burn this money. If your dates and times are right, mathematically, you're not going to have any big money income to you. You're barely having enough for a funeral. Yeah, that's not like a compassion you do in the course of your normal discussion. Exactly.

Dr. Henry Cloud, the website is boundaries.me. Be sure and check it out, guys. Thanks for stopping by, brother. Hey, it's good to be here. Congratulations on the whole new headquarters. It's really beautiful. First guest. That's you, baby.

How about that? This is the Dave Ramsey Show. I'm going to go ahead and get started. Peyton is with us in Louisiana. Hi, Peyton. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? Well, my wife and I, we are on baby step number two right now. I work in outside sales, and I cover about three states, and we travel a lot in a company truck right now that's paid for by the company, and they pay for gas and insurance and all of the above. My wife and I are really anxious about paying off our student loans, but we have learned that these company trucks may be taken away pretty

soon, maybe by the end of the year. We don't know how much they're going to give us, like a stipend and mileage and things to help cover our own vehicles, but we don't know all the details on that right now. Basically, we've got about $7,500 set aside, and we don't know if we should be saving up to purchase a vehicle in cash like we would like to, or if we should be putting that money onto loans and just wait and see how it plays out. There's just so many unknowns that we didn't want to be caught off guard. Well, the higher the probability that you're going to lose the truck the higher the probability i'm stopping your debt snowball and getting ready to buy a truck right it's definitely getting taken away oh it is definitely 100 yes sir okay and you do you know your timeline

100 by the end of the year i I don't know exactly the timeline. We haven't, just assuming it's going to be the end of the year or maybe the beginning of next year. Why do you assume that? It's rumors around the company. Rumors, okay. Is there not someone you can ask and just say, hey, I've got to start saving money.

Can you give me a date that this is going down? I have asked everyone that I possibly can in the company and apparently even my manager and his boss doesn't really know a timeline right now okay so how many miles are you putting on a truck a year um well we're putting about 45 000 a year easily. All right. So regardless of the stipend, you're either going to buy a truck and drive it 50,000 miles a year, or you're going to quit this job. Right? Right. I mean, they're either going to give you, if they give you $2 or they give you $2,000 a month,

really isn't going to change your decision, I'm guessing. Right? Yeah, that's about right. You decision, I'm guessing, right? Yeah, that's about right. You know, I guess you might. What do you make a year? Well, you know, I get paid a salary and commission, but somewhere around $70 a year. Okay.

Unless you're willing to walk away from this job because the stipend's not big enough, we've just simply got to get ready for this. So I would stop everything. Okay. Okay. You're not in baby step two if you have seven thousand five hundred dollars baby step two is one thousand dollars and everything else is on the debt okay so you're all you're already you're already not on baby step two so anyway just stop everything and let's just pile up cash and get ready to buy a truck by the end of the year and as soon as you

have enough in your account to buy the truck that you're thinking of, then you would stop saving. So your wife makes what a year? Well, she works part-time. She makes about $14 an hour, so somewhere around $18,000 a year. Okay. All right. And so you've got a $90,000 household income, give or take, so you keep that in mind.

The other thing you keep in mind is this. This truck purchase has nothing to do with anything except getting the job done. You are going to destroy the value of whatever you buy because of the miles you put on it. Yes, that's right. The question is, how many $100 bills do you want to take a torch and light on fire? Because every dollar you put in this truck, that's what you're doing with it. That's exactly right. So you need to buy a good truck because you're putting a lot of miles on it. It's got to be reliable because you've got to get to these jobs.

And it's got to be reasonably comfortable. Okay? Now, truck's a truck. You're going to get what you get on comfort. So it's not like we're all over the map here. But you don't need a $30,000 truck to do this. You don't really need a $20,000 truck to do this. Right. Because whatever you buy, you're just lighting that money on fire now i think a ten thousand dollar truck might be a little

lacking i might be a little bit worried about putting fifty thousand miles on that puppy and not expecting it to lay down at some point causing me to miss an appointment and i don't want that so somewhere between 10 and 15 is my guess and based on your income you've already got 7 500 if you said 15 is my budget um and i'm going to replenish this account uh after i get out of debt real quickly because i'm going to have to buy another truck ever so often right because two years now you know we have yeah two years from now you're going to put a hundred thousand miles on this thing yeah that's exactly right and that's our concern and we've been listening to you a little bit too and your advice in the past has been to buy you know if they have a year model set buy that year model and sell it every year yep and don't waste your money on a

new car so exactly definitely take that advice yeah and um when they start setting a year model if they set that if they set that year model too high um i'm going to push back on that decision back to management because basically they are dictating that you are burning more 100 bills that's right that's exactly right yeah and so i'm gonna i'm gonna stand pretty strong on that because the only reason they set a year model is not, well, the main reason they set it is so you don't get caught with some hoopty and you're on the side of the road, okay, and can't get your job done. That's the main reason they set it.

Now, some of these corporate goobs set a year model because they're all worried about the prestige of their employees, which if you're that freaking worried about it, don't cancel the company car policy. But anyway, you know, so just just but that's just right you know that is let me just tell you this is not going to be a raise for you this is going to be a net loss no man unless they give you two thousand dollars a month which they're not going to do this is going to be a net loss for you they're probably going to come at you with $600 or $700 a month and act like that's a big deal.

And that means you're taking a pay cut on this decision. Yeah. Most likely. So anyway, let's get the truck bought. Then let's work baby push play again on our total money makeover, $1,000 in the account, work baby step two, get out of debt, and then re-up your truck every so often. And just part of your monthly budget is you pay yourself a car payment, especially if you get out of baby step two, to replenish and purchase a truck every couple years is what you're going to want to do.

So buy a low-mile $15,000 and plan to buy another one in two years, and that thing is going to have gone down. It's going to have gone at least in half, if not more, during that two years based on putting another 100,000 miles on it. You're going to turn a 15,000-hour truck into a 6,000 or 7,000-hour truck probably, depending on equipment, what you buy, what the market does, all that kind of stuff. But that's probably about where you are. So, hey, good question, man. We appreciate you being a listener.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Speaking of cars, Erica's on Twitter. My car needs a new engine. Should I get another car or pay $6,000 on a credit card to fix it? I don't have the cash to do either, actually. Well, you could sell the car as is and get salvage for it. First thing I would do is get another opinion or two. Who said you needed another engine?

Why do you need another engine? I'm not sure you need another engine. I'm not sure I believe this diagnosis. It might be a repairs in order on a car like this. But no, we're not putting $6,000 for an engine on a car. It's probably not worth that that'd be my guess based on this tweet anyway so um no you sell the salvage and you buy a hoopty and you start again and you pay cash every time you move up and you draw a line this and say i'm never having another car payment again in my life. Now, another possibility is after you get a good diagnosis

and you really do believe from a good mechanic or three that you really do need to replace the engine, if you're dealing with an old car, an old used car, you can buy a salvage used engine from the salvage yard, the junkyard, and have a mechanic buy it and install it for you. And that would be a lot less than $6,000. A lot less.

So, check that idea out as well, Erica, and we appreciate you following us on Twitter. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. Our thanks to James Childs, our producer, Kelly Daniel, our associate producer and phone screener. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, and we'll be back. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know you can now listen to The Dave Ramsey Show on Pandora and Spotify? For all the ways to watch and listen, check out our show page at DaveRamsey.com slash show.