The Ramsey Show - App - How to Shift Your Mindset When You're a Spender (Hour 3)

Episode Date: August 16, 2019

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Starting point is 00:00:00 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. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. It's a free call at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Nathaniel starts us off in Chicago this hour.
Starting point is 00:00:55 Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Nathaniel. Thanks so much, Dave. I'm happy to be here. Good to have you, sir. How can I help? Well, I just had a question. I'm trying to change my mindset to being more of a better saver. As a kid, I was a pretty good saver, and then a little tiny incident happened, and then I kind of changed my mindset over, plus my father's more of a spender. So I just want to work on being a better saver, trying to get that mindset again. Okay.
Starting point is 00:01:25 So if I were standing on a stage in front of 2,000 or 3,000 people or 5,000 people, which I often do, and I say, how many of you are spenders? And they raise their hand. And how many of you are savers? And they raise their hand. Which time would you raise your hand? Spender? Yes, sir.
Starting point is 00:01:40 Okay. Because I'm a natural spender. My wife's a natural saver. She gets great joy out of saving. I only get great joy out of what saving produces, but not out of the actual act. So you and I are more on the same page, same team is what I'm saying in that sense. So as a fellow spender, what I have learned is I get two things. I get three things from saving.
Starting point is 00:02:07 Number one, I have more money. It's how you build wealth. And I do want to build wealth, even though I'm a spender. I'm not a saver, but that makes me an investor. You know, it's fairly easy for me to invest because i can think long term i want to build wealth and then then i have to ask myself okay why am i willing to do that why do i want to build wealth well so that i can do a couple of three things number one i can increase my generosity which most spenders are pretty generous people not all of them but most spenders have a
Starting point is 00:02:42 tendency towards generosity and get joy from helping someone. If you walked up to somebody standing in the grocery line, and it was a mom, and she was struggling with three little kids, and it was evident that she didn't have the money to pay for her groceries, and you could hand a $100 bill and pay for her groceries, is that the kind of stuff you do? Oh, yes, sir. I'd love to. That's your natural bent, right? I mean, that would give you joy. It's more than spending 100 bucks on yourself right oh yeah yeah and i figured out i can't be generous like that if i'm broke that's true and the only way to not be broke is safe
Starting point is 00:03:17 so i save not for the benefit of saving but for so i can do the things that savings allows me to do does that make any sense right and so i had to say do the things that savings allows me to do. Does that make any sense? Right. And so I had to say, okay, the way to build wealth is to invest. When I'm wealthy, I can give with outrageous generosity. I can always give, but when I'm wealthy, I can be outrageous about it. And so that gives me great joy. The second thing it gives me is I can do stuff I want to do.
Starting point is 00:03:44 There's things you like to spend. I figured out i could spend more if i had more right and so as a spender i i get to live in my strengths i can spend more if i had more and so if i if you get wealthy enough you can walk in a store and look around and go i could buy everything in here i mean can you imagine like a billionaire walking into costco you know they don't think about it right they go okay they don't think about what something is buy whatever they want to buy so it increases your ability to spend by building wealth and that's the living like no one else so that later i can live like no one else we might change it in this conversation and say spend like no one else so that later i can spend like no one else in other words not spend so stinking much now so that i got more later and i can do more for me
Starting point is 00:04:30 mine and generosity later uh and then the last thing that uh the wealth building does for me as a spender is it enables me to give people that i love that are savers peace of mind. My wife gets great peace of mind as a saver from us having a very large emergency fund, from us having some money. And she's not warped. She's not toxic. She's not a greedy person. She's not any of those things. But, you know, having $30,000 or whatever number you want to put on it in a savings account for an emergency fund gives her peace that I don't even understand because it doesn't do that for me. But the emergency fund gives the security gland of the saver the ability to relax.
Starting point is 00:05:19 And so it's a gift I can give to my spouse, those closest to me to me my kids whoever it is that worries about money i'm not a worrier about money i just i i'll just go make some more it doesn't worry me and that's how spenders think usually we try to out earn our stupidity sometimes spenders think that way so what you gotta do is just think through okay what as a spender what gives me great joy and how much more of those things could I do if I built wealth? So if I spend like no one else right now, which means not so much, later I can spend and give like no one else. Good question, Nathaniel. It's a good discussion.
Starting point is 00:05:57 Thanks for letting me get on a soapbox. Cody's in Los Angeles. Hi, Cody. Welcome to Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? Awesome. So, yeah, I'm obsessed with investing. Cool. I'm 26 years old, and for the
Starting point is 00:06:14 past few years, I've been doing it, and I just want to know if it's a healthy way to live. I make good money, but I live almost paycheck to paycheck. What do you make? I'd rather not say, but it's, you know. Well, nobody knows who you are. You're Cody in Los Angeles. There's a couple of Codys there. Okay, it's nearly six figures.
Starting point is 00:06:37 Great. Okay, so you make a couple hundred thousand. Yeah, and, you know, I'm out of debt. A few years ago, I got out of debt. Good. School loans. I sold my car so I can walk to work. A few years ago, I got out of debt. School loans. I sold my car so I can walk to work. You're single?
Starting point is 00:06:49 I have a girlfriend. I've been in a relationship for a while, but not married. No kids. No mortgage. Are you generous with her? Yeah, we still have fun and live a good life. If I asked her, what would she say? She would say that we live a good life.
Starting point is 00:07:06 Okay. Yeah. Good. But just for me, you know, I don't buy myself anything. Like I said, I don't have a car. Would I want a car? Yes. But I worry about things in the future, you know, like things I'll have to pay for in the future. So I save as much as I can now.
Starting point is 00:07:26 Okay, there's only three things we can do with money. We can give it, spend it, and save it. That's all you can do. One of those three things. You can give it, save it, or spend it. Saving being investing a subcategory of saving, right? And so you need to be doing some of all three. And so you need to get, you make a couple hundred grand a year.
Starting point is 00:07:51 You're a young man in Los Angeles. You need to get some joy from your money. And in addition to investing joy, you get joy when you invest it. We know that. We've established that. You're obsessed with investing. It's not a bad thing, by the way. Most of the rest of the culture, particularly around you in Los Angeles, would be obsessed with spending so you are truly in a unicorn you know i mean there's nothing wrong with this it's a great attribute
Starting point is 00:08:12 to have but all you're asking me is are you out of balance yeah pretty much because you know i see like the lifestyle of all these these people that live in la and you don't do that they have no well no but i would like to be at a point in my life where in the future, you know, I'm able to, you know, just have the money to do that. I'm willing to delay gratitude now. Exactly. You're delaying pleasure to win,
Starting point is 00:08:36 and that's a sign of maturity. But while you're doing that, make sure you're enjoying your money and giving some. Make sure there's a generosity item in your budget and charity in your budget, and make sure's a generosity item in your budget and charity in your budget and make sure that there's enjoyment in your budget too. But I don't think you're too far out of balance by the fact you're asking the question.
Starting point is 00:08:54 We've been voted one of the best places to work in Nashville 11 times. You want to know how we do it? Well, our team has been using LinkedIn jobs for years to find the best people from all over the country to come and help us change lives. Think about it. LinkedIn has more than 600 million active members.
Starting point is 00:09:14 I'm talking about people who come to LinkedIn to make connections, grow their careers, and discover new job opportunities. In fact, 90% of LinkedIn users are open to new opportunities, but not actively scanning job boards. This means LinkedIn Jobs gives you access to an entirely different demographic. Don't wait. One hire can change the direction of your company. Post a job today at LinkedIn.com slash Ramsey and get $50 off your first job post. That's linkedin.com slash Ramsey. Terms and conditions apply. Roberto is with us in Pittsburgh. Hey, Roberto, how are you?
Starting point is 00:10:19 Good. I'm like yourself, Dave. Better than I deserve, sir. How can I help? So, my wife found you about a year ago. We just had our third child this year, and she was kind of bummed that she hasn't been able to stay home with the kids. So she wanted to get us out, and we have a pretty big hole. But in the past year, we've been able to pay off five loans. We still got a long way to go. My question I have, though, in doing ours from lowest to highest,
Starting point is 00:10:51 I know you say about doing save the house for last. No, the house is not in that list. It's in baby step six. Right, right, right. That's what I mean, saving it. Yeah, okay. When you have a student loan that's $20,000 more than your house, would you pay your house off first?
Starting point is 00:11:10 No. Pay the student loan off first. Always a student loan. Yeah. Yeah, we're going to get rid of all debt that's not a mortgage debt first and baby step two and knock it out as fast as you can. How much have you paid off already roberto um so we did about 20 000 in the past year great and what's the balance on the student loan
Starting point is 00:11:32 uh just one of her student loans is 82 000 another one she has is 28 okay good well the 28th is the next one you just list your student loans they're're not one. It's not by category. It's by individual loan amounts. Okay, so 28 is your next one then, it sounds like, and you're going to knock that out pretty quick, and then you've got to get through the 82, yeah. What's your household income? We make about $100,000.
Starting point is 00:12:03 Okay, good. All right. Well, if I were in your shoes making that kind of money, I would want to do more debt reduction than $20,000 a year. $20,000 out of $100,000 leaves $80,000. I think you can do more than that. As a matter of fact, I know you can. People that call in here do it all the time, and over the last 30 years of working with people, they do it all the time.
Starting point is 00:12:24 So I would tell you to turn the heat up you've had some success very well done um i would just say let's take what's working and turn the heat up on it and let's because what the reason you're calling really is it's like this mountain of student loan debt is ominous it's just overwhelming it's like i paid off 20 but i got a hundred to go and at this rate i'm gonna be six more years on this well i don't want that's what i say i don't like the rate i want you to crank up and uh crank down the lifestyle even more um make you know even more sacrificial choices and throw more and more and more at because here's the thing if you can get this to 40 000 a year instead of 20 000 it's done in two and a half years.
Starting point is 00:13:06 Now that starts to be more reasonable, and you can see the light at the end of the tunnel then that's not an oncoming train. Bob's in Detroit, Michigan. Hey, Bob, how are you? Great. Thanks for taking my call, Dave. Sure. What's up?
Starting point is 00:13:19 I'm debt-free, thanks to you, and just retired this year. And I've been with a financial advisor for about four years now. And my average rate of return, he just sent me a report, is like 9.5%. But they changed their fee structure where they're charging me 1.35% on my money. So I figure I'm losing money over the long term based on what I'm making. His fees are eating up more of my money than I'm really making. So what should I expect to pay a financial advisor? Well, most of the people are moving to that model.
Starting point is 00:13:58 It's called a managed fee model, a managed account model or whatever. And they're charging a flat. You're right. Over the lifetime, it is more expensive than just paying a commission up front when you do a buy. Because, for instance, if you take $100,000 and you get charged 5.75% on a typical mutual fund buy, you know, that's 5.75%, right? But if you take $100,000 and you don't get charged when you make a buy, but every year you get one, 1.3,
Starting point is 00:14:28 well, it doesn't take but five years to get up to where you were, right? Everything after that, you're going in the hole on these fees. That doesn't bother me much. If you're earning enough because of their management, that it justifies them. Okay, let me give you an example. Let's look at it this way. Let's say that without them, you made 10%.
Starting point is 00:14:51 With them, you made 12%. Well, they paid for themselves then, didn't they? Yep. And that's what I want to see. I want to see that you show me that you're making me more than the S&P by what you cost. Because I can buy the S&P without you in an index fund. Correct. But if you can make me more than an S&P, by the way, my guy does have that.
Starting point is 00:15:21 And, you know, our smart investor pros know how to look at a trend line and say well these mutual funds have outperformed the standard and poor that's the only reason that anybody would pay an advisor is to help pick out funds that are going to outperform the market and to give you advice when times are good or when times are bad and you know to help you kind of stay on the track it's worth all that too so i know a lot about mutual funds a lot about investing and i use an advisor and so i i you know i'm not hypocritical when i recommend that folks use an advisor uh and if you want to sit down and talk to some others and do some interviewing with them, that's not a bad thing to do ever so often,
Starting point is 00:16:07 especially if you kind of got this head tilt you've got right now. Just click on SmartVestor at DaveRamsey.com. Put in your info. It'll drop down a list of the people we recommend in your area. We call them SmartVestor pros. I'm not in the business, but this is the people I recommend. One of those SmartVestor Pros is who I actually use. And, again, charges me a commission when I buy a fund.
Starting point is 00:16:31 And so most of them, though, are moving to this managed account type process that you're talking about. And it's okay as long as they justify their existence. Chris is with us in Raleigh, North Carolina. Hi, Chris. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Thanks for taking the call. Sure. What's up? So about three years ago, my wife and I, we got out of debt. And since then, we've had two children. And we recently moved to the Raleigh area and sold our home and made a decent profit from it. And we're going to be looking at buying another home soon.
Starting point is 00:17:06 Good. And was wondering, would it be best to take all of our earnings that we got from that home sale and put it into another home, or take a 20% deposit and put that down and take the remaining and put that in the savings? Well, my goal is to get completely debt-free. So the best way to do that is throw it all at the house because I want to get the house paid off. I'm assuming you have no other debt. Correct.
Starting point is 00:17:32 And you would be on what we call, if you have an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses independent of this discussion, I'd have that, and then I'd be putting 15% of my income into retirement, and that's what we call baby step four. That comes out of your income, though, not out of this lump sum. And so I'm throwing everything at the house, putting the house on a 15-year fixed, and then turning around and saying, you know, how can we knock this house out as fast as we can? We were on baby step six until we moved. Yeah, you put yourself back there, and you wouldn't have extra money sitting in savings if you're in Baby Step 6, because Baby Step 6 is throw all extra money at the house.
Starting point is 00:18:14 Okay. Right? And so let's just get back on that. And in a sense, this is a different version of a Baby Step 6 question, but that's very much where you are. So, good question. Thanks for joining us. Gerald's on Instagram. Dave, should I be looking to buy a house while I still have student loans?
Starting point is 00:18:36 I don't feel good with paying rent and throwing my money away. Well, you are throwing your money away. It is, you know, you're paying to rent so you need to keep in mind when you're renting you want to rent the least expensive thing that is reasonable while you get these student loans paid off but no you should you should be debt free have your emergency fund in place plus a down payment when you buy if you buy a house broken in debt that house is not going to be a blessing. It's going to be a curse.
Starting point is 00:19:06 I want you to get a house. I don't want your house to get you. So get the student loans cleaned up. Rent as cheap as you can to cause that to happen as fast as possible, right? Because we're camping here. That's all renting is. But it's not a way of life. We're passing through.
Starting point is 00:19:21 We're not staying here. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. This is big news, guys. You need to stop and listen. The Fed decided not to raise interest rates. That means you've got a small window of time before rates rise again. Here's the deal. Most people are paying too much interest on their largest expense, their home. So you're freaking crazy if you don't take 10 minutes to call Churchill Mortgage right
Starting point is 00:20:11 now and see if they can save you money before rates rise again. A mortgage through Churchill could save you thousands, or better yet, reduce the time until you're debt-free. Can you imagine how it would feel to no longer have that payment looming over your head every month? Just go to churchillmortgage.com or call 888-LOAN-200. Their team of experts will give you more clarity about your options and more peace knowing you're saving significant money in the long run. Call 888-LOAN-200. That's 888-562-6200 or churchillmortgage.com. Thanks for joining us, America.
Starting point is 00:21:12 We're glad you're here. What if you could help people in your community understand and win with money? You know, if you're passionate about the stuff we teach on this show, then join us. Help us change lives by leading a financial peace university group in your area. Doesn't take a lot of time. It certainly doesn't take any financial training. I do all the teaching. You coordinate and lead the discussions in the group.
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Starting point is 00:22:17 even if you pick the wrong color they will remake your window blinds for free. Sitewide savings is happening right now. Plus, take an extra 5% off at blinds.com slash Ramsey. Blinds.com slash Ramsey. Victoria's in Washington, D.C. Dave, I'm in the unique position where I have no debt, no credit score, but no money at the moment either. I have help to get me on my feet and good-looking job prospects. The downside is that I'm currently living in D.C. where things are ungodly expensive. I'm entering the world with a blank slate. I have no problem living frugally and working hard.
Starting point is 00:23:01 How do you suggest I go about getting my financial life set up? My fear is that somehow I will mess Well, it has everything to do with income because you've got no outgo. You live frugally, you know how to manage stuff, and you just need to create an income. And until you get the good-looking job prospects going, take some not so good-looking jobs to eat and keep the wolf away from the door as they say meaning that you can get your light bill paid and you keep food on the table and you don't run around doing a bunch of stupid stuff with money like running up a bunch of credit card debt all because you're waiting on the job, quote-unquote, right? So it's all about jobs, lots of them, until you get this moving. Steven is in Phoenix, Arizona.
Starting point is 00:23:57 Hi, Steven. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hey, just give me a quick call. First off, I want to say thanks so much for what you do.
Starting point is 00:24:07 I've been listening to the show for about a year now, and my wife and I were about a month away from having Baby Step 3 completed. And so my question for you is this. We currently own two homes. One, our primary residence happens to be immediately next to where I work. I mean, I have no commute. I'm right next door. The other one is a rental that we currently have renters in.
Starting point is 00:24:37 Our mortgage on it is about $600 a month, and we get $1,100 a month, so we're making about $500 a month there. The reason I'm calling is because of the fact that we bought the primary home with a VA loan before we started listening to you, and recently we were blessed with our first baby, and so my wife decided to stay home with him, and so that reduced our income from about $105,000 a year to about $70,000 a year. So we're outside. Right now, we still have a 30-year mortgage with the VA loan, and so if we
Starting point is 00:25:12 were to refinance it to a 15-year, it would be outside of that window that you suggest of the 25% of our take-home pay going towards housing. So I just wanted to call and get your perspective on what you would do in our situation. Okay, so your current house payment on your personal residence is more than 25% of your take-home pay since your wife came home? If we were to refinance it to, currently no, but if we were to refinance to a 15 and a half, it would be yes. Okay, all right. Well, no, I wouldn't do that. How much equity is in the rental? About $100,000.
Starting point is 00:25:48 And what do you owe on your home? We owe $280,000 on our home. Okay. Do you like the rental? Yes, I do. It works great. We have great renters. Okay.
Starting point is 00:26:03 Well, just continue to pedal through. I mean, you're on Baby Steps 456, and so you're going, just continue to pedal through. I mean, you're on baby steps four, five, six, and so you're going to just continue to beat on this. And, you know, I'm going to work to get my home paid for, and then I'm going to work to get the rental paid for. Those are long-term things to do. Meantime, of course, you're going to continue your career track, and your income is going to go up. You're probably going to look at refinancing someday down the road.
Starting point is 00:26:23 But in the meantime, there's no need to. You can pay extra on a VA loan. There's no prohibition to doing that, and so you can pay it off as fast as possible. But you don't have a lot of wiggle room to do that with other than whatever income you can pull off of this rental. Rental is not making that much money. $500 is $6,000 a year. pull off of this rental rental is not making that much money uh five hundred dollars is you know six thousand dollars a year that's one heating and air system away from losing money in a year uh that
Starting point is 00:26:53 that's uh you know a few rent a few months of it being empty uh all of a sudden you're you're not making money so you haven't got a lot of spread in this. It sounds like you do when you say, I'll make $500 a month, but you don't really make $500 a month after repairs and vacancy is factored in and other stuff. So it's okay to keep that rental, but I'm not going to defend it like it's the best thing going because you haven't got a lot of money coming off of it. But if you want to hold on for a little while
Starting point is 00:27:24 and just kind of continue to work the plan, see how you turn out, you can always look off of it. But if you want to hold on for a little while and just kind of continue to work the plan, see how you turn out, you can always look up and do that later if you want to. Ryan is in Middletown, Ohio. Hi, Ryan. How are you? Good. How are you? Better than I deserve.
Starting point is 00:27:37 What's up? My question is, me and my girlfriend are currently renting. We are working on baby step number two, wiping out some debt. We have, as of yesterday, just paid off a $2,000 credit card. We're looking whether we need to continue chipping away at our current debts or if we are better off to purchase a home and get away from renting at the same time as we are working on these. Never buy a house with someone you're not married to.
Starting point is 00:28:09 Never. If you want to buy a house, that's fine. If she wants to buy a house, that's fine. We can talk about that. But never buy a house with someone you're not married to. You're entering into a general partnership, and that is a dangerous methodology. Lots of people who break up really wish they didn't do that. So it's a whole different world than going through a divorce.
Starting point is 00:28:33 The home will be individually. It won't be together. It will be by a home. Like you would buy it and you'd have a roommate. Yeah, okay. But no, and then secondly, to answer your first part of your question, I really would not buy a house until you're debt free and you have an emergency fund in place because here's what happens.
Starting point is 00:28:53 I want the house to be a blessing to you, not a curse. And when you move in a house with payments everywhere and no money, the water heater will go out the first week and three weeks later, the heat and air will go out and four weeks later, the roof will leak. I mean, you're asking for trouble. And owning a home is more expensive most years than renting. But over the course of it, with it going up and so forth in value, then it becomes a great investment. So I'm a firm believer in buying a house, but not when you're broke.
Starting point is 00:29:22 And right now, you're broke. You're still getting out of debt. So if you're the one buying the house, it's not your girlfriend because there is no we. You're not married. You have a roommate. So you just, you know, you get out of debt. You have your emergency fund in place. You have your down payment. Then you buy a house and buy a house on a 15-year fixed where the payment's no more than a fourth of your take-home
Starting point is 00:29:48 pay. And if you'll keep that that clean, then you won't have regrets later on the financial parts or on the relational parts, either one. Good question. Thanks for joining us. Open phones this hour as we talk about your life, your money. It's a free call at 888-825-5225. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Our scripture today, Proverbs 3, 13 and 14.
Starting point is 00:30:59 Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. John F. Kennedy said, Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. Marie is with us. Marie is in Chicago. Hi, Marie. Welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show.
Starting point is 00:31:26 Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? Hi. I need your help in deciding what is okay to include as income when determining what my mortgage should be. Right now I have my main job, my normal 9 to 5 that I've done for over 10 years. But for the past two years I've worked a side job.
Starting point is 00:31:46 And I'm newly divorced, thankfully debt-free, but that also adds an additional $500 a month in child support. I'm just feeling a little nervous about including the side job and the child support when determining how much mortgage I should get. How old are the kids? Kids are 16 and 12. Okay. So some of the child support goes away in two years?
Starting point is 00:32:12 Yes. And the rest of it goes away in six years? Correct. Right, okay. So what's going to happen to your main job income, not your side income, but your main job income during that two years and during that six years. Are you on an upward trajectory with your career? Yes.
Starting point is 00:32:31 Okay. So it could be that your loss of child support two years from now will be offset by your increased income at your day job? Yes, I agree with that. Okay. So we don't have to worry about that too much then. I would not include the side job because I don't want to have to do a side job to make my money work. Okay. Does that make sense? That's what I was thinking.
Starting point is 00:32:54 Yeah, so I would include the child support. I would include the child support with the anticipation that your day job is going to go up as much as your child support loss is going to be two years and four more years after that, you know, two-year mark and six-year mark, because it should go away at 18, I suppose, right? Correct. Yeah, 18 years old for the kids, yeah. And so I'd include it now on that, but I probably would not include the extra job, because then you're chaining yourself to that extra job, and I don't want to be chained to it.
Starting point is 00:33:30 Okay, yeah, i agree with that i was just in my rental which is eighteen hundred dollars a month which including all the other income is really comfortable but just on my my primary income right now would be that'd be almost half yeah well your primary income plus child support though, probably is reasonable. Right. Yeah, and I think that's a fair way to look at it. So, hey, good question. Carol is with us in Dallas, Texas. Hi, Carol.
Starting point is 00:33:55 Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? I started reading your books, and I got far enough in that I found out that I am too in debt to start your program right now. No, you're not. You didn't understand the program.
Starting point is 00:34:17 Well, I had every, because you said you had to be current on all your credit cards. Well, before you start the baby steps, you've got to get current. But getting on a budget and being responsible with money is my program. Right. Okay. Well, that's what I'm trying to do. I'm working on that. Good. My problem is I'm 57, and I'm self-employed.
Starting point is 00:34:32 I'm a pet sitter. So most of the time I know how much I'm going to get at my job. I have my longest-term customer, my most prolific customer. And so I'm not always sure, but I know it's going to be good. Anyway, so I was keeping up with all my, everything was current. You know, you looked at my credit report. It looked good until two months ago and one big job got canceled, you know, all of a sudden, unexpectedly.
Starting point is 00:35:05 And then my dad got some unexpected medical bills. My dog has cancer, so that's a vet bill. So, you know, the devil's come calling now, and I don't know who to pay. You're too broke to pay other people's medical bills. I don't have any choice. He's 90 years old, and I take care of him.
Starting point is 00:35:32 You don't have to pay his bills. What are they going to do? Sue him. He's 90. Well, I know. And the medical bills, those are kind of on the back burner for right now. Yeah, so you're not paying his medical bills. You're broke.
Starting point is 00:35:48 Not right now, no. No, not period. Period. Not unless you're a millionaire. Okay. Well, he has his... Okay, that's fine. That's a side issue.
Starting point is 00:35:59 We're trying to get your budget balanced right now. So what kind of debt do you have? It's mostly credit card debt. How much? And there's no student loans. There's no children in the house. I don't have kids. I'm 57.
Starting point is 00:36:19 He's 90. He's disabled. How much credit card debt do you have? Oh, I haven't actually sat down and added it up myself, but I was told from my bank when they were trying to help me that it was $78,000, but I believe they were including my mortgage in that or his mortgage in that. We owe about $33,000 on the house, and my car is, we owe $20 000 on the house and my car is we owe 20 000 on my car i did you know i was going to try to sell it and trade down like who is we well i just refer to my dad
Starting point is 00:37:00 and myself as we oh okay so is he is So does he owe the money on your car? He co-signed for me. Oh, Lord. I had a 10-year-old car that was paid for, and a girl with no insurance hit me, totaled my car. And you didn't have insurance? I did. Well, then why didn't you buy a car with the insurance? I got $7,000 for my total car.
Starting point is 00:37:24 So buy a $7,000 car. Okay. So you have a $20,000 car. What's your household $20,000 for my total car. So buy a $7,000 car. Okay. So you have a $20,000 car. What's your household $20,000 car note? And you have some amount of credit card. We have no idea what it is. And what's your household income? What do you make?
Starting point is 00:37:36 Not your dad. What do you make? So far this year, I've made a little over $7,700. Okay. That's your problem. Yes. You're trying to live below the poverty level. Well, yeah.
Starting point is 00:37:51 You do not have an income. And I did get a part-time job. You need a full-time job. Well, my pet sitting at this point is making you poor. But it's too lucrative to turn it down. It's not lucrative. You're starving to death. You can't say lucrative when you say $7,000 in six months.
Starting point is 00:38:16 That's not lucrative. Well, like I said, my biggest customer, she took a month off to go out of state for the summer carol so carol you're starving to death you're starving to death you don't have an income well okay we need to get your income up five fold five x pharmacy tech school thirty five thousand dollars not seven thousand dollars school. $35,000, not $7,000. That's where your problems are. When I'm 65, I will have a pension coming from AT&T. What are you talking about? You're chasing your tail. Listen, you're
Starting point is 00:38:59 starving to death. I know. You're 57. You want to wait eight years to talk about how we're going to get out of this no oh no but i was just letting you know that that that is coming i mean it's not your answer though your answer is you need a job i know that's your answer badly and and i and i want one but i don't want to give up my pet sitting until I have one. Okay. Well, that or we have to get the pet sitting where it makes five times more than it's making now. If I cancel all my pet sitting jobs in anticipation of getting a job.
Starting point is 00:39:38 No, just go get a job and then cancel them. I try. Like I said, I got a part-time job. Okay, honey, that's all I can do. That's your problem. You've got to get an income coming in. You've either got to go way up on your prices, on your pet setting, and get more of it to do,
Starting point is 00:39:56 or you're going to have to get a job and then quit your pet setting. You're starving to death. That's what your problem is. $7,000 income. It's a pretty simple equation. Hope that helps. Thank you for the call.
Starting point is 00:40:11 That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show and the books. Our thanks to Kelly Daniel, our associate producer. James Childs is our producer. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. We'll be back before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey guys, this is Blake Thompson, Senior Executive Producer of The Dave Ramsey Show.
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