The Ramsey Show - App - How To Get Better at Saving Money (Hour 3)

Episode Date: July 22, 2022

Rachel Cruze & Dr. John Delony discuss: What to do with profit from a house sale. Dealing with a high-interest underwater car. Saving money. 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

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, this is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I am Rachel Cruz, hosting this hour with Dr. John Deloney. Answer your questions about career, relationships, money, life, all the things. So you can give us a call, a free call anywhere in the country at 888-825-5225. Up first this hour is Jessie out of Grand Rapids. Hey, Jessie, welcome to the show. Hi. Hey, thanks for taking my call, you guys. I appreciate it so much. I feel like I'm calling

a couple of friends. Well, I've read your books and I listen every day and we are, my husband and I are both big fans. We're only about two years away from Baby Step 7 ourselves. Amazing. Yeah, congratulations. Thank you. But I'm trying to not let the PTA wreck my life. I say this because I got involved a couple years ago and, you know, involved with the treasury part and the president part and a lot of it's not familiar to me. But the stress of the finances is so hard because our personal finances are keyed in and we got that figured out.

I'm just trying to come up with a way for this PTA group to really be successful financially. We have almost $35,000. I just feel like from the outside, trying to help organize how the bookkeeping is done, how the transparency is done. There's just not a lot of financial options out there to do this. And so what I was thinking is, is every dollar a good option? And if I could propose this to the group, you know, what your thoughts are. Because I know obviously, Rachel,

every dollar is your thing. And so I'm wondering what you think. Yeah. Well, I think, I mean, so you're saying use every dollar for the PTA for your kids' school. Yeah, for the school group. To keep track of all the expenses that come out of it,

the funding that comes in. How often is it funded for you guys? Like how often do you guys get it? What happens is, you know, every two years you hand this off to a different group. And so everybody historically has done finances different. There's a spreadsheet that was given to me that is just mind-numbing to look at. So, you know, we have money coming in from different events every month, much like income from a book fair or an ice cream sale or something.

We've got income, and then we have events that we do, so we budget and plan for that. So it's really the same exchange, it's just there's a lot more hands involved. And, you know, I know the previous caller was talking about a marriage. I feel like this is even harder because there's about 10 of us. Oh, it's so much harder. It's like, I just, I'm trying not to let it, you know, this is the stuff that when I can only imagine people are stressed about home finances, the way they feel. Um, I, we don't, we fortunately don't have that. I mean, it takes me 10 minutes to do our budget, but the PTA keeps me up at night. You're such a good member of your community, Jessie. Jessie, sometimes I'm just laughing.

I've worked with multiple PTAs, and they do great, great work inside of schools, and they're always an adventure is probably the nicest way I can say that. Yep, yep. A lot of times – yeah, so, Rachel, I don't see a problem with using the budget. Oh, sorry. Yeah, to answer your question, yeah, I think it's totally fine, and I think, you know, instead of a home category with electricity and rent and mortgage, it could be an event, like whatever the event is,

and you have listed out specifically the expenses out of that event, and you guys track and the thing with every dollar though is it's a there's one every month so it will roll over to the next month which shouldn't be a huge issue you just would have to keep track of yeah money coming in money going out and all of it but yeah i think you totally i think you totally use every dollar and just link that bank account um or the school account to the app and then again it's it again, all the categories are completely different than what a household budget looks like. But having the line items and stuff, I think it'd be a great way to track it.

I think it's much easier than like an Excel sheet. Where I've seen PTAs be really successful is when they do the hard conversations that aren't about money, but they're about values. What do we want to do this year? And what do we want to accomplish? And then let's, let's duke it out and vote and get mad and whatever,

until we come up with a list of priorities and then the order of the priorities. And then those can create budget categories for you. And then following through, it becomes pretty easy. You don't have to lay at night stressing over where the money's going to go. Cause it's just going to go to the next value property. It's going to go to the next priority and the next priority after that. And if we have anything left, then we're going to buy

computers or we're going to buy whatever the thing is or throw the big party at the end of the year. But it just becomes about, let's have a values conversation and a priorities conversation and the money will flow from there. Love it. All right. Up next is Tashae from Buffalo. Welcome to the show. Hi, thank you. Absolutely. How can we help? So I'm currently upside down on my car loan. It was originally a 72 term loan. I have 25 payments left to make on the car. My monthly payments are $359 each month. The Kelley Blue Book value for the car is $4,900, and right now I owe $10,500 on the car. So, yes, I'm very upside down.

Did you roll another car into this purchase? No, I didn't. How did it get so upside down? I haven't heard that at all in the last 24 months. So the original loan amount was for $14,000, and my interest rate is 20.2%. Oh, geez. When I got the loan, I honestly was a little bit younger, and I really needed a car

quick because my last vehicle was totaled. I had gap coverage. The insurance paid the whole thing out. So I kind of just didn't look at the terms. I looked at the monthly payment and saw I could afford it and that was it. Yikes. So we learned our lesson, right? Oh, yes. Good. Never again. How old are you? How old are you? I'm 26. Okay. Hey, I learned this lesson at like 38. You won, okay?

So you'll never do it again. It's a $10,000 or $5,000 to $10,000. Let's celebrate that for what it is. Is that cool? Cool, yeah. All right. It is what it is, and then we're going to move forward on it but i am sick to my stomach for you yep okay so so what what's your income what do you make a year um right now i make 32 but i just accepted a new position that starts um in august for 39

okay um and i'm doing gig work outside of that as much as I can. How much do you think you'll make doing that? Probably $45,000 between the job and gig work. Yeah, that's great. Okay. And what other debt do you have besides this car loan? I do have student loans. I have $22,000 of student loans. And then I also have 8,000 of

credit card debt that I'm using the snowball method to pay off. Okay. That you're using what to pay off? What did you just say? The snowball method. Oh, okay. Yes. Okay. Yeah, I've paid a couple of cards off already. So I just have the one big one that's $8,000. Okay, and do you have any savings? I have $500 in savings, but the car keeps being repaired every month, so it's kind of eating away at the savings. Yep, absolutely. Okay, I'm going to keep you on the line because I want to circle back and just give you some points on how to attack this and what to do next.

So stay on the line. We'll be back. I just saw a study that really made me sad. It showed that families owning life insurance in the U.S. was at its lowest point since the 1970s. After what we've been through the past few years, I'm just lost on how people don't make this more of a priority. How are you going to make sure your family needs are met if something happens to you? This is why getting term life is an absolute necessity. Rates have never been cheaper and the whole process to apply is pretty simple with many companies not even requiring an exam anymore.

This is why I send you to Zander Insurance and I have for almost 25 years. They'll make sure you get the right protection at the lowest cost possible and they're there for you and your family every day. I challenge all of you to make sure your families are protected. It needs to be a top priority. Call Zander at 800-356-4282 or visit Zander.com. That's 800-356-4282 or Zander.com. so right before we went to break uh we had to share on from Buffalo and she's upside down on her car. She can Kelly Blue Book it right now for forty nine hundred owes at ten thousand has credit card debt, student loan debt and is just trying to try to figure out really what to do next. Would you say that's the overall picture?

Yes, yes, that's accurate. Okay, so for where you're at in the car, so you're saying it needs repairs consistently? Yeah, so in the last three months, I have spent $350 at least every single month for the past three months. And I just want to sell the car at this point and trying to figure out if that's the best thing to do. What's wrong with it?

They say it's normal wear and tear. So just new wheels, new tires, getting brakes fixed and things like that. It's just all kind of happening one after another i suppose usually here's what i don't want you to do i don't want you to get annoyed with a car that's got regular maintenance stuff on it and just get so frustrated you just sell it and then put yourself in a hole um i understand if it's if you're telling me the transmission's going out and then the alternator's broken and we have some real problems. Like then there's some systemic issues with the car. If you've had just a really bum run of luck the last three or four months and you got

to change this and change this, get the brakes, then man, then I'd say just bite down on your mouthpiece, get in there and swing a few more months and hang on to this thing. You know what I mean? Right. Yes. Yeah. So looking at your numbers and everything i mean one option is yeah you you sell the car you take out a five thousand dollar loan for the difference and then you are where you are with no car so that's not a great option because you're going to need a car so you could pause the debt snowball save up a ton of cash go get a 1500 car crappy car that's going to get you here or there but it's reliable and you're going to drive it for for eight months save up some more cash on the side a little bit sell it replace you know keep moving up slowly in car that could be the option or uh knock out this credit card debt work like insane hours like i'm talking like

60 hours a week you have two extra jobs you just go nuts on this and pay off the credit card the 8 000 and the car the ten thousand dollar car loan that you have currently um and then look to see okay can i sell can i sell it after that? So those are really the two options and both kind of get you where you're at. Now, if you hate the car and you're just like, oh, would you rather, yeah, take out the difference in a loan, put that and be paying that off

because that's gonna be smaller than even your credit card, $8,000 bill and go drive a crappier car but could have maintenance too right so i mean that's yeah we're never going to tell you you should go take out a car loan okay and get out of this mess like i i like as rachel as you were saying that it sounds like the next three or four years of trading and hanging on and doing some repairs and then upgrading a car to get right back to this same $4,900 car right I'd rather see you pause the baby steps and just repair this thing get it knocked out so that's going to keep you going for the next 24 months or something 18 months right paul i'd rather you just stop and get the same thing

care of and then just say this is gonna be my car for a while i am upside down i signed um i made a bad deal and we're just gonna hammer this because really the math that we always say is if you can't pay the car off in 18 to 24 months then you need to sell it but the 10 000 to where you're at i think you're i think you're gonna be able to pay it off i think you could if you went went which went bananas yeah and that's the other thing is is in this season of the debt snowball and all of it i know it feels like setback you know when you have these repairs and all of that um but man if you if you can just you know make another 20 grand 25 grand a year doing extra stuff part-time you know three or

four nights that you're out you know driving uber eats whether it's that or it's walking dogs like i don't care what it is but it's amazing what people are paying now for jobs oh yeah and labor than what they were even 12 months ago i mean like what you can make doing things and even getting creative i mean i've heard people now are renting out their backyard. So it's like an app to rent out your backyard for like a party or something. And so people are doing that for a night and making like 400 bucks. And it's like, sure, why not? I mean, I don't know.

The last Uber ride I took, the guy just on the way to work flips on his light. And he says, I just make an extra 50 to 100 bucks on the way to work and then on the way home. And I just pick up somebody in my neighborhood who's going to the airport or something yeah and he leaves 20 30 minutes early and so there's it's a matter of figuring out and it's also the other side of the equation you cannot eat out for the next 12 months you cannot buy another item of like you got to shut down spending um and get this stuff This is scary broke stuff. This is scary stuff. You're not safe. Let's get this stuff paid off.

Yeah. So the expenses side of your life is going to be really important, cutting everything back and then upping that income. But yeah, but when it comes to the car, I know it's frustrating, but what you were hearing, even it's kind of normal repairs of whether you have a car.

Here's what I would do. Like if that's my sister, that's me, that's me. I would take that car to a mechanic that i trust and say what's it gonna cost out the door to get this thing up to where it needs to go like wheels tires brakes what give me a price all across the board what's it gonna cost and then i'm gonna pause the baby steps for a few months save that money up and go get it all done so then i can drive this thing on and I'm gonna let that rage

and that anger like I hate this car I hate this car I hate this car that's gonna propel you to work those crazy hours and those wild jobs and get this thing paid off and move on all right up next is Cindy out of Omaha hey Cindy welcome to the show hi thanks for taking my call absolutely how can we help so um my family I started reading um reading Total Money Makeover to get on the same page for finances before we get married. And I'm getting ready to sell my house because I'm going to move to Florida where he is. And I'm just trying to figure out, will it be debt-free after I sell my house and pay off my student and my car loan? I'm trying to figure out what to do with that extra part if I should fully fund my Roth IRA because I am self-employed. So I don't cut a lot into that.

Or if I should just save all of that for looking at a house. We are going to rent for probably the first year, so we know exactly where we want to be. Yeah, that's great. So how much money will you have left over after you've sold the house, paid everything off? How much cash will you have left over after you've sold the house, paid everything off? How much cash will you have? About $30,000.

And so I should actually say we are going to take and put $16,000 to fully fund a six-month emergency fund. Okay. Okay. That's great. So you'll have $14,000 left. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I would go – and again, you guys are – you're going to rent for a little bit so there's not really a house discussion you you could put it away and just know hey here's a great down payment uh heading for a house you know in not

nine to twelve months when we start looking um but i do love the idea too of funding funding your roth putting some cash in there and continuing on that so um i mean either one's fine the 14 grand i mean it's a it's a great amount of. So even if you took a little bit, funded the Roth, kept the other in a baby step 3B, saving up for a down payment just to get you guys a head start, I think is awesome. So that's probably what I would do. I would take some out and fund the Roth. And then I would leave the rest in an account specifically for a down payment and then continue to save towards that, making sure that, yeah,

if you guys can hit a 20% down in a year that's that's the dream okay awesome thanks so much yep thanks for the call congratulations on your new marriage yes good luck so fun and premarital counseling reading uh total money makeover good for them it's great that's fantastic get on the same page absolutely okay so what do you do when you come across something that helps you in your life and it helps your life go better? Well, you tell your friends about it. And so whether it's a great book you've read, a new restaurant, a movie, you just tell your friends about something awesome that you've experienced. And so that's one reason why the Ramsey Show has grown to be one of the biggest business

and finance shows really in the world because millions of you tune in every single day and help share it with your friends and family and tell them about how it has completely changed your life and how you have used the stuff that we've talked about on the show to change your life. And they share how they've cut up credit cards, how you guys have gotten out of debt and build wealth and how your marriage and relationships are so much

stronger and you've reached your career goals so much around this. So whether you found this on podcasts, YouTube, local radio, don't keep it to yourself. Share your favorite episode of The Ramsey Show with your family, with your friends and help them get hope that they need in our world today because no one should miss out on a good thing. welcome back to the ramsey show up next is i... I'm going to do this, y'all. I'm going to do this. Guadalupe from Des Moines. I was about to do it. Oh, you were?

Guadalupe. Let's see if I got it right. From Des Moines. Did I get it right? Yep, Guadalupe. Guadalupe. Beautiful. So great.

Muy bonita. What's up? Well, I just want to see how I can get better at saving money um we're currently on baby step number two okay but um like I think I know how to but it's just getting there like I need somebody to like help me out um we uh I don't know where to start we we make over 120 120 000 a year um and uh we have a brand new truck and we have some medical bills and then we have the house and then that's all we have for debt but i i'm like i just feel we should be able to put more money away. Yep. Okay. So how much is the truck payment a month?

The truck payment is 400. How much is it in total? What's the total loan as well? 26 right now. Currently we owe 26 on it. Okay. 26. Um, and, uh, um, but it's, it's, uh, um but it's it's uh um it's we have a lot of uh how can i put it stuffitis yeah um we buy a lot of things um so it's just trying to like figure like and and we don't know we don't need those things so it's just so why do you buy them um it's not me um it's my husband he likes to he likes hobbies he likes to you know just go and get it now and i'm more of the i'll put something in my cart and i'll be there for months until i finally commit that i actually need it um so it's

just trying to convince him like how can I convince him how to save and how we don't need all these things. Is he on board with when you bring up paying off debts all of that? What is his?

He doesn't like having debt. It's more like how how can I? I've been listening to your guys' YouTube channel, and it's like you think you're normal because you have a car payment. And to me, I'm just like, we have a paid car already. We don't need to have another car payment. If we can pay this car off asap it'd be

awesome but like we we also have credit like we have credit cards and we're i'm paying three thousand dollars a month on credit cards like they get paid off every month but yep i'm like we can be putting that money towards savings yep and it's trying to, like, I've used the word Dave Ramsey. I'm like, Dave Ramsey says this. I want to try a new track, okay? Often we get stuck in a rut and we try the same tactics and they don't work. And then we get frustrated. So we try the same tactics, just louder and angrier and harder. And then they especially don't work. And then we get frustrated. And so we tried the same tactics, just louder and angrier and harder.

And then they especially don't work. Okay. So you and, or your husband get something from getting a new package in the mail or from having a shiny new, there's something that is bringing your body something, right? You're getting some sort of benefit from this,

even though that benefit might be killing you. Like, think a cigarette calms you down, did it right now, in the moment, and it kills you, right? Yep. So I want to try a different track. Instead of talking about Dave Ramsey, instead of talking about,

let's pay off our debts, let's pay off our debts, instead of talking about math problems, I want you to sit down with your husband and say, I'm scared. Okay. I want you to sit down with your husband and say, I'm scared. Okay. I am terrified that we are going to spend ourselves into oblivion. I'm tired of waking up at 2 a.m. unable to breathe. I'm tired of you having to take extra shifts. I miss you. You have to take extra shifts so that we could pay this $3,000 credit card bill off of just crap, stuff we don't need. And I don't feel safe in my own house anymore.

Would you be willing to join me in creating a home that we both can go in? Let's start there. Because now getting out of debt is part of a path that y'all are going to take together towards a common goal. It's not about math. You'll have math problems and you'll have great discussions and I want a new bow and arrow. Yeah, well, I need tires. You'll have those discussions and disagreements and fights and they'll be spectacular, but they will be in service of a greater identity. And that is we are a family who is safe and we're a family that doesn't borrow money because we are never going to be slaves to somebody else. That's who we are.

And now let's create the behaviors that fill that. You see the total difference there. Yeah. One is nagging about, Oh my gosh, you got a new truck. And one is, um,

when you pulled up in that new truck, I didn't think you look like a big, tough, cool guy. I thought, oh no, how are we going to make this payment? And then I couldn't breathe. Right. That's a totally different conversation. And if he's a husband who looks at you and goes, ah, get over yourself. Now you got a harder conversation. Yeah. Then you got some more marriage, marriage stuff. Yeah. To dig yeah to dig into but but in the obviously the perfect world is that he says okay okay and honestly for i have found with the spouse that's reluctant but wants to get they're not like totally against the idea but they're like i don't know logistically i don't even know how to get if you can map out detailed detailed the debt how much could go each month towards the debt what you would cut out create

a budget and just say hey if we cut out this expense and show them and show the math though and show the pathway out because your husband probably like john and i are is the spender of the relationship john and i are both in each of our marriages and so if i if my husband came to me and was like hey sell your car we're never going out to you can't go shopping get off amazon we are paying off debt i'd be like that is not a fun life so i don't know what life you're living over here but like i want to enjoy life but if you told me hey i as your husband i don't i i am stressed i am freaking out i can't breathe everything right that john just told you to say if my spouse came to me and

said that and said and here here is what the next 26 months could look like of our lives and it's not going to be fun because it does mean i'm not going shopping i may have to sell my car whatever sacrifices are involved but there is an end game if he can see the end game that hey you can get back to enjoying stuff because we're not against stuff i think people think that about rant the ramsay solutions like oh you guys are so cheap. I'm like, no, we are for stuff. We just don't want your stuff to have you. And you guys are in a position where it has you, whether it's spending because it feels good and you're stressed or and you're spending with money you don't have. So now you're going into debt for it. So we can have stuff

later in life. That's not the problem. But how we're going about it is what is killing us. And so having that timeline, I think, really helps see an end game versus this being a forever long path. And you guys make great money. Yeah, you're doing good. You make great money. In Des Moines, Iowa. It's not like you're making $120 in Manhattan. You know what I mean?

You guys are in a position where you can do a lot. And it may mean sacrifice of lifestyle. And I? Like you guys are, you're in a position where you can do a lot and it may mean sacrifice of lifestyle. And, and I also want you guys on a budget. I mean, cause if you're not being so specific with your paycheck, yes, it's going to four or 500, $600 can slip out and you don't even notice because you're just spending. And so really you guys getting together and saying, Hey, we're going to do this together and locking arms and knowing like,

this is a new way of life for a certain amount of time of the sacrifice. So we get out of this debt. Does that help? Yes. Yes. It's, I, I call it my,

my little notebook. And I showed him, like he finally looked at it and he's like, and his eyes just got big. And I'm like, this is what I have to explain like we need to like follow everything and and i also don't want you to be his mom you're not his mom in this process either i don't want to feel like his mom yeah because he does like he likes like

he likes nice things and he works really hard but i'm like we shouldn't just be paying off the nice things because you do work really hard. It's both and. We work really hard, and then over time, we can afford nice things. If we take something out on payments, I'm just borrowing it from the bank. It's not even mine. It's not even mine. Like, I want stuff. If I buy something, I want it to be mine, right?

Yeah. You don't want to own. Yeah, you want to own it. You don't want to owe on it. Yeah. Thanks for the call. is the ramsey show so Do not remember the past events. Pay no attention to things of the old. Look, I am about doing something new. Even now, it is coming.

Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43, 18 through 19. Identity is a person or identity is a prison. You can never escape. But the way to redeem your past is not to run from it, but try to understand it and use it as a foundation to grow. From the great philosopher, Sean Carter aka jay-z you gotta brush that dirt off your shoulder hey uh can you guys in the booth can y'all pull the scripture of

the day back up did i mess it up well you didn't call it out so all of a sudden you didn't say like today's scripture of the day is you all of a sudden you just said do not remember the past events the old rivers and i was like what what's happening here and then i realized what the time was but it's fantastic you start speaking this old oh well it was fantastic it's one of my favorite moments ever in the show's history that was the scripture in the quote of the day Sorry Thy river is in the desert I will make a new way Well guys she's officially Checked out on us It's the last segment of the show

We got this alright Alright John from Dallas Welcome to the show You're up next Hey guys how are you doing today We're doing great how can we help um so i'm 21 and my wife is 20 and 25 weeks pregnant um congratulations thank you uh we are on baby step two with our only debt being ten thousand dollars in in credit card. I say only debt, but it is a lot.

We have no personal car. I have a company car and they also pay for my gas and insurance. A coworker has a hybrid that I could buy. It's valued between $7,000 and $8,000, and he would owner finance it to me. But my wife is currently working as a mother's helper for her aunt. She pulls in about $1,200 a month. I make about $2,500 a month with my overtime. So $2,000 salary, about $500 extra a month in overtime. John, what do you do for a living?

I'm an administrative assistant for my uncle. Okay. You said about $2,500 a month? She's pulling in $1,200, so $3,700. So you're about $30 a year with overtime? Right around there, yes, sir. What's the long-term play being the executive assistant to your uncle? Absolutely.

He's one of just the smartest people I know. By the time he was 21, he made a million dollars the wrong way, as you guys would say it, um, gotten to a bad motorcycle accident, lost it all. And now has just crawled his way up. He's in his early thirties now and is just super successful. Um, he's able to find ways to make money and everything. And there's a lot of investment opportunities. What is your long-term occupational situation that this is getting you that way?

I mean, this is heading in that direction. Absolutely. So entrepreneur. I want to invest in some of the things he's doing. There's a rental car business that I manage that I'll be able to put my own cars into, um, eventually at no cost, uh, no management costs. Um, so he's teaching me how to get better at sales, flipping things, flipping cars. Um, and then there And then there's also an energy business that I can do sales in as well.

So it's really teaching me a lot of entrepreneurial skills. 21. 21, okay. If you are working on, say, so let me put it this way. If you are using, if you say, I've got 24 months where I'm going to make 30,000 a year working overtime with a,

with a toddler busting my butt and, but I'm using this both as, um, a way to, to scratch out a living cause you're going to be scratching it out. But this is basically graduate school for you. You are learning invaluable skills and you're getting put, put in positions that you wouldn't

otherwise be for a long-term game. And here's the end date to this. Fine. If you are doing sales and you are managing an entire fleet of cars, you are being dramatically taken advantage of.

Big time. You're worth more than thirty thousand dollars if you're doing all that work and so either you've got a short i don't want to see you your family suffer because you've got this dream that keeps getting punted and punted and punted and punted down the road while you're making thirty thousand bucks okay um You work too hard and you've got your dreams, your aspirations are too big. Right? So either say, hey, uncle, this is awesome.

I've got to put more food on the table right now. Absolutely 1,000% do not borrow money from your, don't own or finance a car. Don't do that. Do not do that. But I do think you need a second car.

A car that you own, because does your uncle technically own the car that you drive? Yes. Yes. Yeah, you guys need a more individual family situation. You're in a very precarious situation because one day he gets mad and everything in your life goes away.

So think about it as fishing. You have one line in the water and a child and a spouse and you sitting right next to you saying, I hope this one bobber, you're not going to do that. You're going to have lines everywhere. And you've got one job that you're being dramatically underpaid for. His car is managing your whole life, right? And you just, like I say, you work too hard, man. You work too hard. You're too smart. You get too big of dreams to sit like this. So either sit down

with him and say, this is a 24 month plan and I want to know what the next move will be. Or, hey, I love you, uncle. You're great and you're wonderful, but I got to go make $50,000 because I got a young family to take care of now. See what I'm saying? Do you feel the pressure with the baby coming, John? How has that changed the dynamic for you? Absolutely. I mean, it's been there for the last 24 weeks. Yeah, yeah.

Of, you know, how do I increase this income? And there's, you know's there's unlimited opportunities and I have really learned so much and gained so much experience sure but you've got you've got a math problem right now and maybe this this unlimited opportunity shows back up in 36 months. Yeah. Because for the next three years, I got to go make $65,000 running on a yard crew and- Because here's the deal too, John. Driving Uber or whatever. Yeah. You make different decisions when you're out of debt, you have money in the bank, and you

have margin. You make different decisions. You can breathe. You can breathe. And so this, it doesn't feel peaceful to me. It feels like, oh gosh, I'm running,

running, which you would be, you know, with your situation and where you guys are at, not having really a car and baby coming, all of that.

And so there's something, John, you're 21 and I'm like, you have the amount of careers and jobs that change from 21 to 45 in people's lives. I mean, it's all

over the map. And so I'm not saying that what your plan is and in your head is never going to come to fruition. But there's a part of me if I'm your wife, too. I'm like, the dream goes on pause. Like we got to put food on the table, we need to get this debt paid off. We need money coming in for diapers and for like, like our life is about to just kind of turn upside down with this baby coming and so there there's a time and a place I think that says hey you're young enough honestly your age is encouraging to me you know I'm like if you're 45 and you're having to change career jobs like stuff it's a harder turn because you've been in it for longer and so you know because of your age and everything I'm like man would be tempted, John, if he can't show you an increase in salary or the value that you bring and a change in pay coming up pretty darn soon.

I'm going to probably just say, hey, I got to pause this. I got to go make some money and take care of my family. Again, for a short period of time. It doesn't have to be forever, John. But I would love to see you guys clean this mess up. Even if your wife can work extra from home, even while she's expecting, do something to clean it up. But don't put your family further in debt. No, don't.

Yeah, don't go get the car loan. Don't do it. Save up, pay cash for a car. Absolutely. All right, John, thanks so much for hosting today. Thanks to Ben, Zach, Andrew, Austin for a great show. Happy Friday, America. We'll be back. Hey, it's Rachel Cruz, co-host on The Ramsey Show. If you want to do your debt-free scream live on the show, visit ramsysolutions.com slash debt-free scream.

We'd love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story. That's ramseysolutions.com slash debt-free scream.