The Ramsey Show - App - How to Show My Co-workers Appreciation on a Limited Budget? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: May 28, 2021

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is The Ramsey Show, and it's where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life, your money, your work, your relationships, and beyond. I'm Ken Coleman, and I'm joined by my colleague Anthony O'Neill. We're Ramsey personalities. Both have shows as a part of the Ramsey Network, and we are here for you this hour. 888-825-5225 is the phone number.

888-825-5225. Let's go to Boston, Massachusetts to get us started this hour. Samantha is there. Samantha, how can we help? Hi. Thanks very much for taking my call. You bet. So I am a professional pastry chef,

and I work outside of the home in my industry, and that's all fine and good. On the side, I sometimes make custom cakes for people, mostly people who come to me and ask me to do something. I'm not really big on promoting and trying to sell myself because I'm busy enough with my actual job job. But friends, friends of friends, acquaintances, people who've been at parties that have had my cakes sometimes come to me and want cakes and things like that. And we're talking like the kind of cakes you would see on television, like a custom sculpted car. Things that the going rate is like $350. Like that's the legit rate that I can, that's what the market will bear. That's what I,

you know, can reasonably charge and they take me a really long time. So that's what I do charge. And that's no problem when it's a fairly affluent client. I don't really have too much. I personally wouldn't pay that much for a cake ever, but that's what I do. So that's what I charge. Sometimes though, it's a friend or a friend of a friend who I know is broke and I know cannot afford that. And it's definitely a want, not a need. It's beyond their means. They're not someone who's in a position that they should be spending $300 on a cake. But it happens often enough that I just don't know what to do when someone comes to me and they show me something really elaborate and it's got to feed 50 people and they're excited

because they know someone who can do, you know, has the skill set and can do something in their circle. So they want to get me work and they want to show off like, hey, I can, you know, I know someone who can do this and look what I brought to the party. It's amazing. But I feel picked in my stomach when I know I've been to their house. I've spent time with them socially.

I know how they live and I know this is not something that they can reasonably afford to spend on a cake. And so I end up either under quoting dramatically or, you know, trying to get out of doing it. And I'm, I'm just at a loss of how to handle that because it seems to be happening more and more. And like I said, if this was just strictly, I was running a business and I needed to just fuck up and say, okay, this is, this is, I have to charge and this is what I have to do. I have to find a way to price reasonably. I think I'd be okay with it, but it's this, you know, it's this weird gray area where they're like, they're sort of friends, but more importantly than that, even the friends I can charge what my time is worth,

but it's the fact that I personally know them and I know that this is not something that they should be spending that much money on based on their situation in life. Right. Any thoughts? Yeah, I do. I have a couple quick thoughts. First of all, you are absolutely a sweetheart of a person. I mean, your heart is all, is all just kind of overflowing

out of the phone and I think that you have to relax. So I think there's two responses. You don't feel good when you make a cake for less than $350. You've made that very clear. It doesn't feel good to you because it takes a lot of time. You already got a full-time job.

So I wouldn't make the cake unless you feel good to you because it takes a lot of time. You already got a full-time job. So I wouldn't make the cake unless you feel good about making the cake. And you don't feel good about making the cake if it's less than $350. So what you're doing is because you are smart with your money and you probably listened to the Ramsey Show for a long time and you know too much and you're going, they can't afford that. And you're placing

their reality on your shoulders. And I don't think that's your burden to bear. So you can say pass in those situations where you know somebody can't afford it, or in your words, it's not a good use of their money, but you're not their financial counselor. You're somebody who makes a really nice cake, and they want a really nice cake. And I've been on the show with Dave before, Samantha, where someone will call in, they work for a bank, and they're trying to get out of debt, and they're like,

Dave, I work for a bank that gives out loans. And he's like, no, you're not a criminal. You're not doing anything unethical. It's your job. I get it that it's a disconnect in values, but it doesn't make you a bad person for making a cake for somebody who may not be spending their money wisely. But in that situation, Samantha, instead of letting it eat you alive, just say, I can't do that right now.

Sorry, I'd like to. I can't do it. That's one option. Okay? Okay. And then you need to also get back to the point where you go, I'm only going to make cakes for this. It is what it is.

So you can't do a financial dossier on everybody who buys a cake from you it's going to drive you crazy right so if you know too much it's not too much but i know what you're saying you don't feel good about it go hey i can't do that right now i got a full time gig and i can only do so many cakes i'm sorry. I would have loved to have a cake for you. I can't do it. Or then get over the fact that you're cutting your prices. Which one makes you feel worse, selling them a cake at $350 or selling them a cake at $150 and doing the work of a $350 cake for a $150 cake? Which is worse for you? Oh, good question.

I know. That's why I do what I do. I haven't turned down one yet because they get excited. They know me, and they're like, ooh, I have the perfect cake for this person for their birthday's coming up. And they want to be generous. They want to be nice and do something nice. Well, you just answered your own question.

You just answered your own question. You would rather steeply discount your pricing to make these people feel good. So if that's kind of a ministry for you, great. I'm thinking that. Yeah, yeah. Good. Yeah, I was wondering, can I look at it like that? Of course.

Of course you can look at it like that. But I wondered if that was just, I don't want to be like the cop out, like, well, this is what I do for a living. And I think that's the thing that women especially tend to do is like, well, I'll just give away my work. No, don't do that. Now, listen, I'm telling you not to undervaluevalue it's their problem if they can't afford it i run into people all the time that do something amazing i go how much does that cost and they tell me i'm like well that's

not going to happen for me right let me ask you this question people would say that let me ask you this question samantha and you probably already said this so if you said this i apologize but are you debt free right now? I did not say it, but I am, except for my mortgage. Except for your mortgage. So you have a fully funded emergency fund? Yes. Okay, cool. And again, this may be an unpopular opinion, but I still think you're doing a ministry at $350 per cake. You know, now, if you want to go down a little bit lower, that's fine. But I don't want to say you're doing more ministry or it is a ministry because your cakes are a little bit cheaper.

You know, I still think you still do ministry at $350. That's ministry into my home. Do you long term, Samantha, want to have your own thing or is this always just going to be something fun on the side for you? Yeah, that's a good question. Probably just on the side. Yeah. Well, then you get to decide. You get to decide A, who you do a cake for, and B, what

you price it at. Stop overthinking it. Stop feeling guilty. If you're okay discounting your cake prices for people that you know or friends of friends who can't afford your normal price, then be fine with that. But if you also feel like it's too

much, you can't serve the whole world. It's not your problem that they can't afford your cake. You've be fine with that. But if you also feel like it's too much, you can't serve the whole world. It's not your problem that they can't afford your cake. You've got to stop taking all this on you. But at the same time, you've got an amazing heart, and that's why you do this. And Ken, if she discounts those prices, she can't say, well, you know it's worth $350. Yeah. You can't get upset about it. Exactly.

That's right. You've got to decide. But if you'd like to send one of those cakes to Anthony and I, we would be happy to sample that and reply. I like that you said sample. I was about to say, I ain't paying $350 for no cake. Yes, he did. Yeah, exactly. Neither am I.

But that's just because we don't value that. But hey, good stuff. Hey, thank you for the call, Samantha. You are a great lady. You're doing great stuff. Love it. All right, folks, don't move. More of the Ramsey Show coming right up.

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And we're taking your questions about your life, your work, your money, your relationships. Hey, you want to move up the ladder? I'd love to help you figure out how to get promoted. Hey, you got some relationship stuff and money, especially if you're single, AO is on call, ready to go. And we are here to help you, 888-825-5225. Hey, big news. The Entree Leadership Summit 2022 has been launched. It has been announced. The dates, and here we go. It's going to be May 22nd through 25, May 22nd through 25, 2022. That's at the Hy Ramsey, Chrissy Wright, Dr. John Deloney, Jamie Kern Lima, the founder of It Cosmetics, Jay Leno, longtime host of The Tonight Show, Will Goddard, who's one of the top American restauranteurs, Jade Simmons, a classical concert pianist, Dr. Henry Cloud, bestselling author of Boundaries,

and Pat Lencioni, the bestselling author of Ideal Team Players. If you're a business owner or senior leader and you want to be in the room and grow, the Entree Leadership Summit is a fantastic event. If you'd like to register, text the word SUMMIT to 44222. Text the word SUMMIT, that's two Ms, to 44222. That's 44222. All right, all those numbers, I'm all confused. 888-825-5225. I know that's the number to call in.

Let's go to Newtown or Newton. I'm not sure how you say that. I'll say Newtown. We'll take a guess there. Caroline joins us. Caroline, how can we help? Hi. I have a question about Baby Step 4.

Okay, go ahead. So my husband and I make $165,000 a year, but we pay $37,000 a year in daycare expenses for our children and $15,000 a year in healthcare benefits. So I didn't know if we take 15% out of our income, after our take-home income, it's like 23% of our take-home income. And I wasn't sure if you take large, high daycare expenses into account. What do you mean? What do you mean? Hold on. Help me out here. Break this down again you're paying your your household income is 165 000 a year correct gross okay gross all right cool so baby step number four is you're going to invest 15 of your gross income and either into a 401k or a Roth IRA or Roth 401k. So then after you make that investment, then you pay your bills.

And so your daycare just goes inside of your normal budget from whatever you have after your net pay. Now, your health care should be coming out of your check automatically through y'all's employer. Or are you self-employed? No, the healthcare costs do come out of our paycheck, but our daycare costs are 28% of our income. Right, but what Anthony's saying is it doesn't matter. What Baby Step 4 is is you're taking 15% of your income and you're investing that towards retirement.

It has nothing to do with daycare. Yeah, and your daycare, that's an expense that you and your husband signed up for. So it's just like me. I have a golf expense. I chose that expense. And so I think what you've got to do is just go ahead and take 15% out. And then also after that, you've got to add your daycare to your budget, and that's a part of it. Okay.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you for the call. Yeah, absolutely. 888-825-5225. Let's go to Paula, who joins us now in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Paula, how can we help? Hi, Paula. Hi, guys.

How are you guys doing today? We are living the dream. What are you doing? Living the dream. I'll show a quick question for both of you, because you guys are two of my favorite Ramsey personalities, of course. So I do coaching and staff developing for a child care corporation. Um, about, and it, it comes out to about $10,000 more than what the offer is of what I make right now. Um, now my dilemma is, um, that, um, I do travel for my company. I live in Oklahoma city, but I do travel for my company.

And so, um, and so the travel would be, it would be really a lateral move. Like the insurance would basically be the same. Um, the, um, you know, the only thing that will be different would be the pay. And then let me say this, I would lose my company car that I did, that I do drive because it's a lot more travel to states that we have schools in the states that I live in, but it would be a lot more travel as far as more faraway travel. Because I do fly some, but sometimes, you know, it's just easier just to jump in the car and drive. By the time you get to the airport, wait two hours, you know, that kind of thing. Sure. Okay. So, which job?

That's the only thing. It'd really be a lateral move with a pay increase. But the thing is, also, I love my job. I'm not unhappy. Okay. So, that's the only question I have. All this money stuff, it's basically a wash. I never make a decision in my work about money. It's always about meaning, because again, if I'm doing work that I love, that produces a result that I care deeply about, I call that passion and mission, then I will adjust my lifestyle and I'm going to be very happy. So the current job you're in, you love it. Does not sound like we got that emotion for this new offer, correct? Right.

And, I mean, I would love to do this as well. But this is another question I have for you, Ken. Not to leave you out of the conversation, Anthony. That's okay. But this is another question. So because of the travel, because at least when I'm in Oklahoma, I can maybe a couple times, maybe every other month, every three months I work in our schools in Oklahoma. This would be total, you know, mostly travel away. And so I wouldn't be in Oklahoma as much. And so I'm, you know, I'm in and I'm only home on the weekends.

Like I'm traveling now. I'm driving home now from, you know, and I'm only home on the weekends. Like I'm traveling now, I'm driving home now from, you know, and I'm only home on the weekends anyway. But I was wondering, let me ask you this, if because of this new position, could I even negotiate some more time at home with this new job?

If I, I'd even keep the same pay that I have if maybe I had like three days a month that I could be home during those days. Maybe, but Paula, you've got to stop. Stop giving me all these reasons. Thank you. Listen, you love your current job. Right. You're trying to talk yourself into this other job. And if you take it, unless I'm missing something,

you're not super excited about this new job offer. Or this new job offer doesn't offer you this unbelievable ladder. If it's true, you haven't told me yet. So that's the two-part question. Do you love the work that you'll be doing in the new job? That's A. And then B, will it lead you up the ladder that you want to climb? Yes. It will? want to climb? Yes.

It will? Yes to both of those. So you will love the new job? Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Well, then I don't know what we're talking about. Take the new job. Well, I don't want to be motivated.

You know, money is not a motivator for me either. Well, wait a second. I know that. You already said that it was basically a wash because they're paying you $10,000 more, but you're going to lose the company car. So that's a real expense for you. So you said it was a wash, not me. Here's the deal. If it is a good opportunity for you to move up the ladder, meaning can you move up the ladder faster and

better with the new job versus the current job yes or no yes well this is this conversation is over paula stop thinking about it take the job and yes if you want to ask them if you can uh be home a little bit more fine they've offered you the job certainly can can mention it. We don't demand it. We just ask. But you're just overanalyzing this. And, folks, let me just – and, again, I'm not picking on Paula. Listen, all of us overthink. Break it down. I'll speak for you, brother.

I don't overthink. Will I love the work? Will the work, the offer, allow me to move up where I want to go? The answer is yes and yes. Stop thinking. Start doing. My goodness. God kicks a door open.

I don't go, God, are you sure? All right, don't move to The Ramsey Show. Welcome back, America. You're listening to The Ramsey Show. We're coming to you live from our Ramsey Solutions World Headquarters in Nashville. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague, Anthony O'Neill. And, oh, it's our favorite part of the show, A., as I look through the glass. Oh boy, in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage is Tracy. Hi Tracy, how are you? Hi Ken, how are you? Hi Anthony. I'm telling you, we're having a blast. So now where do you live?

I live in Columbia, South Carolina. Alright, so drove in from Clarice. Yes, drove in, originally from Memphis, Tennessee. Alright, so we got a Tennessee gal here. Yes sir. Do you know how to make really good barbecue? Oh, you know I do. Come on. I'm telling you, I just had a feeling when you said Memphis because that is where the good stuff is. Awesome. So how much debt did you pay off? So I paid off $36,522. Wow. And how long did it take? Took about 14 months. 14 months. And what was your range of income during that time? I made about $79,000. Wow. What do you do?

I am a Master Sergeant in the United States Air Force. Oh, well, thank you for your service. You are a great American. Thank you. Thank you. I enjoy what I do. Currently, I'm stationed at Shaw Air Force Base. I'm the Superintendent of the Financial Management directorate at the 9th Air Force.

Okay. Well, thank you so much. That is so awesome. What type of debt was it? So half of it was student loans, and then the other half was credit cards. Oh, so you were super normal. Super normal. Yes.

Oh, I love it. Okay. So what happened? When did it happen for you to go, all right, I love it. Okay, so what happened? When did it happen for you to go, all right, I'm going to knock this out? So how it started, how my financial peace journey started was I had a first sergeant who introduced me to financial peace. He came up to me and just told me his story. He invited me to his church to see what fpu was about i joined went to the next fpu class i think it was 12 weeks um we went through everything i learned the um

all the tools it took to become debt free but i was davish the whole time just you know doing um i knew i didn't want any more uh loans i didn't want any more um credit cards but uh january of 2020 i got promoted so i was super excited but i still had that gloom of debt over me yeah and i was like i'm not doing this anymore so i vowed january of 2020 that any extra penny was going towards debt i was going to you know work that every dollar app every night and just make sure my money was going where it's supposed to be going to get out of debt well i love that now what church where are you a member of in columbia so in columbia i'm a member of Shandon Baptist Church okay okay okay and did you take FPU there no I took FPU at in Wichita Falls Texas at First Baptist Church okay I was stationed in Texas yeah we know exactly about that church a very very very good church so what did it

take uh throughout this year and two months to get out of debt? So it took, you know, I love to travel. So that's where most of my money was going to. I love, I have a large family. We love to just get up and go. So it took just being intentional and making sure that, you know, my money was going where it was supposed to go. Yeah. Yeah.

Not eating out as much. Not eating out. That was a go. Yeah. Yeah. Not eating out as much. Not eating out. That was a big thing for my family is not eating out as much. So. Okay. Okay. Who are your biggest cheerleaders? So my biggest cheerleaders were my family.

First, my mom. My mom has been my support system for a long time, forever. So my mom was my biggest cheerleader. My oldest daughter, Taylor, Ava, Aubrey, and Alana. Those were a huge part of my fan base. But my mentors, every one of my mentors, I let them know what my goals were financially. And each one of them always checked up on me to make sure that I was still getting after those goals, even though life was still happening. So Tracy, I'm looking at the math, right?

I'm just going to ask you straightforward. I want you to bless somebody. Yes. You were close to $40,000 in debt. Yes. Making $80,000 in income. I'm going to assume that you're a single mother. Yes.

And I see three, four. Four little girls. Four beautiful, beautiful queens out there. Yes. And so that means 50% of your income went towards paying off debt. Absolutely. And then you have a lot of people saying, if I got all these kids, I can't do this on my own. One, here's a question. How did you do that?

And then two, what was the hardest thing throughout this journey in the process of getting out of debt? So how did I do it? I brought them along the journey. I let them know what I was trying to do. Wow. So just making sure they would sit with me. And as I'm trying to decide on purchasing something, they're like, no, mom, we're trying to become debt free. Remember that?

Let's put that to the side. Let's wait on that. Let's hold off on that. Which one was that? Because one of them is back there laughing. All of them probably laughing. Ava, she'll come and sit next to me. I see.

Yes, yes, yes. I love it. What were the conversations beyond the specifics of those decisions that kind of came out of that? These young ladies are watching their mother take on a monumental task. So the conversations about just college, because I had to explain to them why I had that student loan debt, what student loans are. So the conversations that came out of it is that you can get scholarships. You can get grants. You can pay your way through college.

You don't have to go into debt. No, you lying. So lying right now. That was, yeah. What? Not this time. What was one of the toughest things or biggest sacrifices in this journey? One of the toughest things was, like I said, travel, just sitting still, sitting, sitting still and knowing that knowing to live like no other today so I can live and give like no other.

So just just being still and knowing that I won't be in debt forever. This process won't be going on forever. So see, that's very interesting because you love travel.'s a big part of your family uh memories and experiences it's kind of like this is an expectation this is what we do so is it was it worth it to put off those trips and how beautiful is it going to be when you get on that next trip absolutely it was worth every every minute every moment everything that we've learned my our money money means so much more to us now. Yeah. You got another trip planned?

Not quite yet, but we're going. You're thinking about it. Yes, absolutely. On our way back home, we're going to go through Memphis to visit granddaddy. I have a fun question. What you got? If God brings the right man, is marriage in your future? Oh, man, that's a good one absolutely

i am absolutely ready to get married so tracy now listen uh don't don't let no knucklehead come in here you worked hard yes that's right you don't work hard he need to come here working double hard yeah absolutely yeah all right tell him to get his stuff in order before you even let him put a ring on it exactly you know what i mean tell him you got his stuff in order before you even let him put a ring on it. Exactly. You know what I mean? Tell him you got two brothers over here. A brother and a vanilla brother that got your back. I appreciate the vanilla because I thought you were going to say pale. I haven't been out in the sun yet this year, but I appreciate the vanilla.

I'll take that. All right, so we got the ladies with us, right? We got the girls. We got Taylor, Ava, Aubrey, and Alana. Did I say that right? Come on up. Are they going to do this with you? And my mother.

Oh, yes. My mother. This is Evangeline Hardaway, but my kids call her Baba. All right, y'all, come on up. We got to do this. I'm assuming, Tracy, that they've been rehearsing. Oh, yes. Because they got the matching outfits, the dresses.

They look lovely. Look at those girls. Come on in. Squeeze on in, y'all. All right, everybody in. And all right, so is everybody ready? Have we got Mama in there? There she is.

Look at that smile. She's proud. That's great. All right, so here we go. If everybody's ready, we got Tracy, who paid off $36,000 in 14 months, making $79,000. She's joined on stage by Mama, Tayla, Ava, Aubrey, and Alana. Let's hear your debt-free scream. One, two, three.

We're debt-free! There it is. Holding that note out, too. I like that, Ayo. She sings in the choir. You can Holding that note out, too. I like that, Ayo. She sings in the choir. You can tell. You gotta hold that note. Oh, that is so awesome.

You know, Tracy, you inspire so many people. Absolutely. Thank you for sharing your story with us. A single mom can do it. You can do it. Absolutely. Love that story. Thank you, Tracy and girls and mama for sharing that journey with us.

All right. We're going to go out and celebrate with them. Don't move. More Ramsey Show coming right around the corner. Welcome back, America. You're listening to The Ramsey Show. I'm Kent Coleman, joined by my colleague, Anthony O'Neill. We're so excited that you're with us as we take your calls about your life, your money,

your mission, and your work, your relationships. We are here for you. 888-825- 5225. 888-825-5225. You know, Kent, before we go to Dan, I really wanted to just make sure

that we just highlight what just happened. I don't want to fly by that. This was a single mother of four kids, Tracy, right, from Columbia, South Carolina, who lived off of about $30,000 in one year. I want to hear this. I want you all to hear this. She lived off of $30 thousand dollars in income with four kids as a single mother so she could pay off nearly forty thousand dollars yes so when y'all call in

here with these excuses and you don't have any kids and you make fifty thousand dollars a year forty thousand dollars a year you talking about you can't pay off thirty thousand dollars i'm gonna be like dave hush up because i mean if you see what she can do, then there's no excuses. The greatest enemy to our success is our excuse. If you genuinely and truly want to do it, you will shut up with the excuses and go after it. So I just want to highlight that. Tracy is my hero.

And then when we went out there, Kim, what did she say? I just graduated master class, so she can go out there and teach other people how to Yeah, she Tracy is my hero. And then when we went out there, Kim, what did she say? I just graduated masterclass so she can go out there and teach other people how to do it. Yeah, she's a financial coach. Just finished our financial coach master training. If you missed it last segment, go check it out. The podcast over here on YouTube. Rewind it. That's why we do the Debt Free Screams

is so that you can hear the journeys of others and be inspired to overcome your own challenges. Ayo, I love that you called it out. And on top of that, serving our country in the Air Force, just a phenomenal, phenomenal lady. And what a joy it was to meet those beautiful little girls. I will tell you, the youngest one could have co-hosted the show. She really could.

She has so much personality. We should have brought her in here and had her done a segment with us. It would have been the best segment in the history of the show. She is just such a fun, fun, fun little gal. So good stuff. 888-825-52 history of the show. She is just such a fun, fun, fun little gal. So, good stuff. 888-825-5225 is the number. Let's go to Scranton, Pennsylvania, where Dan joins

us. Dan, how can we help? Hi, Ken and Anthony. I'm actually calling from German, Pennsylvania, the birthplace of first aid. Oh, fantastic. I thank you guys for your financial first aid, and Ken for your career first aid, and A.O., for your educational first aid. Thank you, sir.

How can we help you today? My wife and I are in Baby Step 2. When we began our total money makeover last July, we put our second mortgage into Baby Step 6. But now with our income plus the minimum payments that we made on our second mortgage, We're wondering if we should put it into Baby Step 2. When you say second mortgage, what kind of mortgage did you take out? It was a mortgage. It was going to be a home equity loan. The bank told us to.

Yeah, yeah. So if it is something like that, then yes, you're going to go ahead and add that into Baby Step 2. Okay, so your primary mortgage will go ahead and stay in Baby Step six. But anything extra that you took out, yes, that's debt. I mean, well, actually, it's all debt. But I do want you to go ahead and add that in Baby Step number two. Thank you for the call, Dan.

All right, let's see. Abel is up next in Seattle, Washington. Abel, how can we help? How are you guys doing? Shout out to Tracy for paying off all her debt. Hopefully, I can get there too. Yeah, how can we help? How are you guys doing? Shout out to Tracy for paying off our debt. Hopefully I can get there too. Yeah, you can. You can. Yeah, so right now I'm upside down on my

car. I make about $24 an hour. It's like $50,000 a year. Okay. And I just needed help just getting out of this. Okay. What kind of car is it, man? 2018 Mitsubishi. Okay, man? 2018 Mitsubishi. Okay, yeah, Mitsubishi.

How much do you owe on it? $24,000. I wrote some negative equity onto it also. Oh, Lord, Jesus. How much is it worth? About $15,000, $16,000. Oh, my Lord, we in a problem. Okay, what other kind of debt do you have?

Right now, I have no credit cards, luckily. Student loans? I do have student loans that are in deferment. How much are those? It's about 50. 50K. Okay. All right.

All right. What else you got, man? That's really about it. I'm about to get a raise in about two to three years, and it's going to make me go up to about 80 to 90 a year. All right. Okay. Cool. Great. Cool. Great. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. All right. So here's the thing. Cars worth $17,000. You owe $24,000 on it because you wrote in negative equity. Do you have any cash in your savings right now? Just a thousand dollars. I've been watching you guys for the past month religiously. I'm rocking with you. I'm rocking with you. Okay, cool. How long would it take you to save up five grand? I would say about six months. Six months, you make $50,000 a year. I also own a home with my wife. Okay.

And I pay about $1,200. What does your wife make? The other side of the mortgage. She makes about $80,000. Okay, so wait, wait, wait. Yeah, now we're at $130,000. Now we're at $130,000. Now we're at $130,000.

Yeah, bro. Hold on. So between $130,000, it'll take you six months to get five thousand dollars well she also has her own credit card debt and student loans that she's paying and we just got married so we're trying to find a way to balance our finances all right well well we have we have two questions we have two things we need to address um it sounds like y'all are not combining everything together i'll let I'll let our married guy talk about that.

I'm a single guy. I talk to the single people. I'll let him talk about that. I'll jump in very quick because Ayo can get you out of this and tell you what you need to do. Abel, here's what we teach. When you're married, it's our debt. It's not her credit cards. It's not her student loans. It's ours. You're

still in a mindset. That's okay. We're not criticizing you. But this is leave and cleave. And I don't know what your wedding vows were, but we're joining together. And it's not just because of what we believe about marriage. It's because we've got to be on the same page to get out of this debt, or this is going to become bigger than a money problem. This will be a marriage problem. I can guarantee you that. So you started off the call going, I make 50. We didn't even know about the wife. We didn't know what she makes. No, this is how this goes. So you need to give AO the new number starting with, we make a combined income of 130,000. We have total debts, including whatever mama's debts are that you just married. All right. So I'd start over, and then A.O. can walk you through this.

But this is a combined situation here. Yeah, real quick. So what do you say combined income, total debt you all have? Combined income for the household is $130,000. I would say combined debt now would have to be about $100,000. Okay. All right, cool, great. So this is Wendy.

You're going to work the debt snowball, man. Have you taken Financial Peace University inside of Ramsey Plus you and you and your wife i have the app i have the i have the app i have i haven't got anything else i just have the dollar app every dollar app okay cool great this is what we're gonna do i'm gonna have you stand on line madison's gonna give you and your wife a free year subscription on can and i on ramsey plus to get you all in it here's what i really want you to do i want want you to consider selling the car. Okay. And you're going to take out a loan for the difference of whatever you do not and cannot sell it for. So let's say for an example, you sell it for 17. That means you're a negative 7,000. You're going to take out a loan for $7,000. Yes, I am saying

take out a loan. Why? Because you're going from $24,000 in debt down to $7,000 in debt in that car. All right. The reason why I said save up 5K because I'm going to take 5K and go pay cash for a car. You lower your debt. You don't have a monthly payment. And then what you got to do is you got to really work the debt snowball. Because now, let's say for an example, the car was the only thing that you had with 130 000 of income i'll say yo let's get very aggressive with attacking the car but right now

if we can get this thing down to seven thousand dollars or five thousand if you sell it cash then i love that math because we lower our debt and then also we pay cash for a car temporary and then once you and your wife become debt free, get a fully funded emergency fund, then you can go back out there and buy you a better car cash. But I want you to stay on the line. Madison's going to take good care of you. I want you and your wife

to go through this class together. So y'all pick a date night and y'all just go through this together and I promise you, you're going to learn a lot from Ken, myself, Dave, Rachel and our entire team here man but uh such a great question and that's something that i've been teaching you know uh singles like when we do get married it is we so if i get married and my wife has debt man y'all may see me on the debt free scream stage one day because now i'm back in debt so don't tell people this because you ain't going to marry some woman that's got debt.

I know you. I don't know. I can't say all of that. You know what I'm saying? If God presents me a woman that looks good with $25,000 in debt, I'm going to get her. We're going to pay that debt off in like two months though, James, real quick. I can't be in debt.

I hate debt. Hey, Abel, you can do this. You guys got a combined income to be able to do this, and you can actually go out and make some more money. You need to get gazelle intense. Do what we teach you in financial peace. All right. I want to thank our producer, James Childs, our associate producer today, Madison Browder, and my colleague, Ayo, and you, America. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit theramseyshow.com and register.

We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.