The Ramsey Show - App - I Fell Off The Wagon And Went Back Into Debt! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: October 14, 2022

George Kamel & Kristina Ellis discuss: How to utilize early retirement payments, How to get back on the Baby Steps when you fall off the wagon, What you should watch out for when taking over the family business, Introducing high school students to Ramsey principles. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET 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 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studios, this is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Ramsey personality, George Campbell, joined by my colleague, Mrs. Christina Ellis. And we are here to take your calls about pretty much anything you want to talk about. As long as we have an answer. If we don't, we'll tell you straight to your face.

But we got a pretty good track record here. And we can talk about getting out of debt, investing, building wealth, going to college debt free, how to get out of those crummy student loans that are hanging around your neck. And the number to call is 888-825-5225. If you've been a long time listener, a first time listener, and you're like, well, I'm not one of those people who calls in. I'm going to encourage you. I think today is your day. You've been sitting on the sidelines.

And I know you have questions because I get about 78 Instagram messages a day with like four paragraphs. I'm like, you got to call into the show. I can't sufficiently answer this because then we're going to go back and forth with my little thumbs. Easier to do it talking to you. So 888-825-5225 is the number to call. Ernie is kicking us off in Wichita.

Ernie, welcome to the show. Hey, thank you. And I'm only two weeks into this, so I'm taking that chance today. I love it. Well, we appreciate that. How can we help? Well, just some coaching. I'm looking for some coaching on whether to just jump in and pay off our house.

My wife and I are retired educators, and we have the means through an early retirement incentive from our district, I think, to pay off our house that's within five years, that's on a 3%, a vehicle that's on a 3%, and a vehicle that's on a 0%. So in one year's time, I believe that we can pay all three of those off and be debt-free. I love it. So first of all, congratulations, and thank you for your service to your community. We need awesome educators out there, and it sounds like you guys had a good run. How long were you educators for? My wife for 37 years. She's been retired four years now and 35 for me. I'm two months out of it. Wow. That's incredible. Okay. So let's talk about

this early retirement. How much are you getting? Well, it's a pretty sweet deal, and you don't recognize it when you sign up for things in your 20s, but she's receiving her version of that. And we've been just for the last four years just throwing that straight into investments with our advisor. She's pulling like $65,000 a year to stay at home. It's called the bridge. It was intended to bridge us from age 60 to age 65 when you can start pulling Social Security if you're interested. So we're basically earning our paycheck for not coming to work. And that goes for how long? For five years. So we're three, we're four years into her five. My five years starts in April. I had to retire prior to age 60, so I wouldn't lose out on part of that benefit.

So starting in April, my share of that is going to be six figures, probably $115,000, $120,000. Awesome. For five years. A year for five years. And my thought was we have around $87,000 left on our home, and we have two vehicle loans that are a little Honda that we're three years into, so we've got two years left on it. What's the loan on that? I'm sorry, I don't have the monthly in front of me. No, just the total loan. What do you owe on the car?

Probably 20. Okay, and the other car? 28. Okay. Is that all of your debt yep okay pretty good and do you have any other here's no discover bills you know uh do you have any other money in savings uh quick hand on hand stuff probably uh 15 000 and then beyond the five years, what happens then? What are you guys going to do for retirement? Do you have any other retirement savings?

So we're receiving our Kansas public employees retirement. So we have that for a lifetime. And we're pulling in between the two of us probably $6,000 a month from that. Currently? Well over currently. And that's on top of the five-year deal when you get your full income for five years. Sweet deal, man. Yeah.

Well, if you guys can put this to good use, we can get rid of all this debt. But right now, you don't have a pile of cash to throw. Are you getting these checks monthly? Mine will start monthly. She has been receiving hers monthly and it's been rolling straight into Roth. Okay. So what we've been living on prior to, so prior to my retirement in August, it was my paycheck and her retirement from the state. We're currently living off of my retirement and her retirement, and we're not touching anything. We're adjusting to coming home with less money, making due,

making some adjustments, and trying to save as much as possible. But our retirement, our own personal savings through 401ks and Roths over the last 35 years, we have over a million dollars worth of money in investments. There we go. That's it. Don't bury the lead on me, Ernie. Sorry. So you guys can withdraw from that tax-free at this point? Yes.

Okay. Plus you have this fantastic income. Yes. So I see that you've got two options here. One is you withdraw from the retirement accounts if you don't have all the money and we pay off the cars today. The cars would come first. And then the other side of this is you could use your future income,

which you have plenty of for the next five years, to clean up all of this debt. And after the five years, you're completely debt-free and you never touch the retirement account, and it continued to grow. Would it be smart to, because we are doing fine with just our two public employee retirement, our six grand-ish a month, when I start pulling that in April to just, let's get rid of all of that in one year because that monthly paycheck from that bridge payment, in one year's time, I will have received enough money to have paid off certainly the house and the two cars, certainly the house and one car, and maybe two cars. I mean, instead of waiting...

I want all of this gone in a year. And so regardless of how you mix it up, and also, I'd cut up those Discover cards. I want you to discover freedom instead. And you guys are going to have a much better retirement without playing with debt. You don't need to. You guys have built such an incredible level of wealth. There's no reason to try to do the 0% or the 3%. You're throwing out all the interest rates. Ernie, you don't need this anymore. You don't need the lenders. You've become the bank, my friend. That's why you do this stuff. Yeah, you said you're new to this. You're doing so great. But just have that little bit of a mindset shift where you go, we aren't a family that does debt. No more debt. We've got the money to move forward with such freedom in retirement. That changes the game in retirement, man. Now,

what could you do when you don't have a payment in the world? Not a mortgage payment, not a car payment. You're not worried about the interest rate. You're worried about Ernie and his family and his legacy. When the team gets together at Ramsey Solutions, we talk a lot about our mission to change America's toxic money culture because it makes us mad to see people get trapped by debt or to watch kids sign away their future with student loans. And for the folks who work here, this isn't a J-O-B. This is a mission to change lives. And if you share that passion,

you've got to check out all the exciting roles Ramsey Solutions is looking to fill ASAP. There's never been a better time to find a job doing work you love. We especially need developers and UX designers and writers to help us build digital products that actually change people's lives. And you can see what it's like to do work that matters before you ever apply. Go follow us on Instagram and Facebook by searching Ramsey Careers and go apply for your dream job. Sorry, your dream job at ramseysolutions.com slash careers.

That's ramseysolutions.com slash careers. And before you ask, we don't have any remote positions. We are all under one roof, multiple buildings, but multiple roofs here in just south of Nashville, Tennessee. So if you're looking to make the move, it is worth it. It's a wonderful city and a great place to work. ramsaysolutions.com slash careers. Open phones this hour at 888-825-5225. Bea joins us up next in San Diego. Bea, welcome to the show. Hey, guys. Thank you so much for having me. Absolutely.

How can Christina and I help? Okay, so I'm kind of nervous. It's all right. You're going to do fine. We're freaking out, too, if it helps. Thank you. Well, it's kind of bad, but, uh, so I called back in, I want to say like April, 2020, uh, for my debt-free screen. And it was, um, with, uh, Steve Ramsey and Dr. John

Deloney. And I was like, super excited. Um, especially like heading into a pandemic, I just felt like super relieved that I had gotten out of debt. Um, but like heading into a pandemic, I just felt like super relieved that I had gotten out of debt. Um, but then like I saved up the emergency fund. I started investing, like doing everything that, um, like following the baby steps. And then I, um, kind of like drained my emergency account to start a Roth IRA um with like a financial pro and um I never really got like my emergency fund built back up before like Murphy started hitting that's how it goes I know so I kind of of ended up back in debt and I was like, well, I'll make a goal

to pay it off in a year. And that year passed a couple months ago and I'm still like looking at this 10 grand that I owe. What kind of debt is it? It's on my car. Okay, so you didn't have the emergency fund, you had car problems, you had to get a new car, and so you bought a car on a loan? Yes. Okay. I bought it for $14,000, and over the past year, I've only really paid off about four of it. You've just been making the minimum payments pretty much? Yeah, I essentially just like rounded up to like 500. So it's like I've been making extra payments on it. I just haven't been like intentional with it.

And I just feel like a hypocrite. That's all right. Hey, you know what? Dave's not here. We're going to treat this like a Planet Fitness. This is a judgment-free zone today. We're not going to beat you up. The fact that you called, you showed up, you were vulnerable and honest, it's okay. Yeah. How much debt did you pay off the first time?

Oh, my God. Like $47,000. Wow. How long did that take? It took me about a year and a half to do that. And that was the same person who stands before us today saying they can't pay off $10,000 in a year. Yeah. Why is that? I honestly, I really hate to like, I've been actually thinking about that for a couple days now, but when I was paying all that stuff off, I lived on like the East Coast, and I didn't really like have much to like do where I lived,

and now I live in San Diego, and I'm doing all these like crazy fun things. What I'm hearing is your lifestyle creeped up. You got a little bit lazy and we went, we're in California, let's have a good time. And here we are back at Scrooge. Yeah, and I'm just like, I don't need to pay off my card. But in the back of my mind, I'm like, why do I have this stupid debt?

I hate this. When you called in back in 2020 and you were talking through your debt-free scream, what was your why in that moment? When they were asking you what motivated you to pay off $47,000 in debt, what was your motivation then? Honestly, I had two motivations. I kind of wanted to prove to my family like you didn't need to rely on debt um because like my whole family background is like you know we lost our house during the 2008 recession and

all that stuff so I've just kind of always had like financial trauma surrounding my family um so like that was my biggest push was to like be an idol for like my younger siblings. Does that make sense? It absolutely does. That was your never again. You said my family tree is going to look a lot different because of the decisions that I made. I think we need to channel back to those days and go, I know it.

I hate to be here. And I made decisions that weren't great. And I use my emergency fund as an investment tool and I know I made some mistakes. Great. Let's pick it up and move forward and go, what can we do now? So what is your income? It just increased. I make about $8,000 a month. B, that's an amazing income. Why is this debt not gone, you know, two, three months from now? That's a great question. Can you live off nothing for the next two months and clear the debt?

I hate this car, too. So in my brain, I'm like, I don't even like my car. It was just something I bought real quick in, like, in the thick of it. How much could you sell the car for? I don't know, probably $12 000 and how much do you have in the bank i want to say around 7 000 okay this is a non-issue b if you want to be debt free today go sell the car and get you a $5,000, $6,000, $7,000, $8,000 car. Yeah.

That you like more. And B, who are you hanging out with in San Diego? It sounds like you've changed communities. You've got a different lifestyle. Do you have any other friends who are frugal, who are kind of thinking the same way you are about money, or at least the way you want to think about money? No. thinking the same way you are about money or at least the way you want to think about money um no honestly like all my friends are into like the whole credit card point thing and all that stuff but um but are you married every time oh no okay no no no no no no no no she said okay i'm just figuring out who we can use to keep you accountable on this journey

because it sounds like it's pretty lonely, and you're just out there living la vida loca with no one to tell you, hey, maybe we should pay off some debt and make some grown-up decisions. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and this is also like my first time sort of like living alone too. So like back when I paid off debt, I, you know, I had like roommates that were like a part of the process and they were just like checking things off with me and stuff. So now it's just me and my dog.

That's fun. Well, it sounds like you do great in community. I would encourage you to find a local FPU class and actually go to that and get cheerleaders around you, get other people around you who are walking through this journey, who are motivated, who aren't going to be people that you're comparing yourself to and feeling that FOMO. You want people around you who will be your cheerleaders and are excited for you paying off debt, not talking about the latest credit card reward deal.

Yeah. Have you been through FPU? That's not a bad idea. I have. When did you go through it? I actually, twice I think I've been through it. I used to make it like a yearly goal to do it again, but then since the pandemic and all that stuff and all the stuff shut down,

I just kind of lost track of doing it this year. Well, you know what they say, be third time's the charm. And so what we're going to do is gift you Financial Peace University for one year. It's got the latest videos in there, including new lessons with Dr. John Deloney and myself. And I hope that's the motivation you need. I can't sit here and make you motivated. You've got to find your own why and use that to drive your budget, your behavior, your lifestyle. And you have an amazing income. And you have money in the bank. Throw six of that at the debt, take it down to four, and this month we're debt-free on your next paycheck.

It's that simple. It's just you have to decide, am I going to do this stuff or am I going to keep living in this shame and guilt and baggage? Or do I just want to move forward completely debt-free once and for all? You get to decide. I hope you make the right choice. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, host of the Fine Print Entree Leadership Podcast, as well as co-host of Smart Money Happy Hour, joined by Christina Ellis, bestselling author. You can check out all the

shows I just mentioned, as well as this one on the Ramsey Network or wherever you listen to podcasts. Open phones this hour at 888-825-5225. Ryan joins us up next in Kansas. Ryan, welcome to the show. Yeah, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Absolutely. What's going on? Well, my wife and I, we're both 45 years old, and we will be completely out of debt in about three years, mortgage and house and everything. Awesome. That's great. We're excited about that. My wife will be taking over her parents' catering business

probably in the next three or four years and just kind of having a hard time figuring out kind of the finances how we're going to do that that type of thing so just kind of wanted to get your guys's input um they've kind of basically have said that they want her to kind of run it and then kind of split the profit 50-50. And I don't think they really plan much for retirement. I'm not sure if that's necessarily the best way to do it. We want them to have a good retirement. We want them to enjoy retirement.

But it kind of feels like it's going to be a pretty big burden on my wife and a strain on the business. We would rather not have to take out a loan to buy the business, that type of thing. So they're saying, hey, instead of you buying the business from us and giving us money, we can do this where we get a certain percentage of the profit over a certain period of time. Well, the period of time is kind of the,

I mean, they're kind of. They want it forever? That's their retirement plan? That's pretty much. Yeah, I'm not taking that deal. Yeah. What happens if they live 35 more years? That's what, yeah, that's what I asked too. We need this on paper. We could be retirement, and we could retire at 65 and still have to work to fund their retirement. Yeah. You said seems like several times. Have you all actually sat down with them and had a very clear conversation about the numbers, where you've actually seen the numbers and had clear expectations laid out? No, we've tried.

We did this about a year ago. They're very secretive about how much they make, how much the business makes. That's always good, taking over the business from people who won't tell you anything. Yeah, and so it's just, you know, we love them, but it's just kind of frustrating because we never know. I mean, they're both 75. We want them to enjoy retirement. We don't expect to get the business for free or anything like that. We're willing to work with them.

That's why I think settling on a number, it's like what does the business bring in? What's the top line revenue? You have no idea. No idea. I know my wife has no idea. If this wasn't her parents' business and someone said, hey, you want to take over this business? I won't tell you how much it makes.

I won't tell you anything about what our net profit is, but do you want to give us 50% of the profits forever? You would tell them to kick rocks and pound sand, wouldn't you? Exactly, yeah. And so we're not going to move forward with this until they're going to be honest and we're going to see these numbers on paper, not just hearsay. Well, and even then you may not want to move forward with it. But your wife wants to take over the catering business? Well, yeah, I mean, she's worked for him for, you know, 20 years. You know, it's hard work. That's different than does she want to,

just because it's comfortable and it's what she knows. Yeah, she wants to, but she kind of wants to know how much she's going to be making, you know, and that kind of thing too. Is she working there full-time right now? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, what does she make right now as a full-time employee? She makes $50,000. So ideally, she's making a lot more than that if she is an owner of the business. Now, that's before the split profits. Yeah, and that's the only thing. We don't know. We don't know if it's going to be...

They may be pulling in $60,000. And now we've got to split that, and it's $30,000. Yeah. Okay. Well, I would tread lightly, carefully, with legal documentation, not because we don't trust them, but because we don't want relationships

to get severed in this process. Right, okay. So, also, I would parse this out. You taking over this business is not their retirement plan. Their lack of planning does not constitute your emergency in this scenario. Okay. And so if the plan is, hey, unless this goes perfectly and this business runs perfectly, we can't put food on the table. That's a dangerous situation. And so I would make sure that we have very clear rules on what this is going to look like, because what happens if there's a down year?

Right, yeah. I mean, there's so much fluctuation with catering in general, and a year like COVID was really hard. Yeah. And the thing with her mom, there's a lot of the baking and decorating. And so when she retires, she's going to have to hire somebody to kind of fill that role.

I don't know. I think it's just going to be kind of a strain on the business to support. Yeah, you may have to hire outside people, which will be another expense, which will reduce profits. It sounds like it's very messy and sticky, especially with the emotional aspect.

I'm sure that the fact that the parents don't have a lot of retirement and savings is nerve-wracking. So then your wife may feel a little bit of an obligation to continue forward with this business to help her parents. But I would also challenge you to consider the option of selling the business to someone else. Potentially, if your wife doesn't want to keep this specific business, maybe she wants to start her own catering company from the ground up. The parents can still sell the business to someone else. And then they have that clear boundary, that hard break, where they no longer have their foot in the business. They no longer have control of the finances. And then they could possibly have a little nest egg to move forward with in their

retirement. And again, you want that in writing. We. We would buy it from them, and they're like, well, we're afraid we're going to run out of money for retirement. I know it sounds harsh, but that's not your problem. And so you say, hey, I'm willing to purchase it outright, but we're not going to do this deal where you just get 50% forever. We're not comfortable with that. Unless you say you get 50% up until X number, and we call that good. And if you never hit that number, that's a risk they're taking as well. A number of years to do that. All this to

say, this is messy, and it's given me anxiety. And so I would tread with a lot of caution here and get everything on paper. And even in the contract, you might want to say, hey, we have the right to sell this business and give you half of whatever the sale is and call that good. And if they go, well, that's not enough for us. Well, sorry. That's what we agreed to. Because who knows? I don't want your wife stuck with this because now she's trying to cover her parents' retirement plan. Yeah. I would also encourage you, when you sit down to have this conversation, you may need to have a third party in the room, like an attorney who can kind of bring some reality to that conversation. Because with it being her parents, it might be easy for

them to say, hey, like, don't cross this boundary. Like, I'm the parents, you're the daughter. They can bring in a lot of emotion and drama and manipulation. We raised you. You owe us this. And you need someone who can be completely objective and just bring the facts and say, this is what is normal in a business transition. This is what is expected. And it's not personal. It's not feelings, but this is, this is what is healthy parties and they they'll have ways they can structure it to where it protects both, both of you. Okay. So, and what are you working full-time outside of this business? Yeah, I teach. Yeah. So I, I work full-time and, and've got a 401K and an IRA. So we're on a good plan, I think.

We just kind of need to get this ironed out. Yeah. Well, and you guys being completely debt-free, housing everything three years from now, is going to help out this whole situation because you've got wiggle room and margin in case the business takes a few years to get off the ground if she does take it over. Okay. All right. Well, I appreciate so much, you guys, for your wisdom.

Yeah, absolutely. Appreciate the call, man. And I'm going to send you a copy of Dave's book, Entree Leadership. And this is his playbook for how he started this business on a card table in his living room and now has grown it to this amazing empire. And I think it's going to help you guys get some parameters and boundaries and help you understand the right way to run a business because I don't know how this business has been running. We don't know anything about this business, but this will lay out exactly how to do hiring and firing and structure pay and a lot of the leadership principles as well, because she hasn't been in

on that leadership role. She's been an employee. And so it's a very different side of the coin there. Yeah. And family businesses can be tricky, but thankfully you've seen several successful family businesses through hosting the Entree Leadership Podcast. It can work, but... Only with a lot of intentionality and a lot of honesty. Exactly. So hang on the line. Jenna's going to pick up. We're going to send you a copy of Entree Leadership, and I hope that helps you guys make a wise decision about this family business. And if it's not right, it's okay to say no thank you, and the business goes away. It gets sold. It's not your problem. Thanks for calling. More of your calls coming up. 888-825-5225. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Christina Ellis this hour.

This is The Ramsey Show. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Lily is in Austin, Texas. Lily, how's it going? Hi, how are you guys? Doing great. How are you? How can we help? I'm doing good.

My question is more college related. Love that. My question is how can I present y'all's philosophy to an overwhelmed 17-year-old that is about to go to college next year? When you say overwhelmed, explain that to me. What does overwhelmed look like for? Our parents really didn't set up any accounts. They are not familiar with getting him ready to go to college. So just the prospect of filling out scholarships, things like that are not in front of him to do. So I recently found you guys this year, and I definitely want him to go this route.

It's ultimately his decision. But I just don't know how to present the philosophy to him in a way that he can be receptive to it. Yeah. Lily, are you his sister? Yes. Oh, way to be an amazing sister. How old are you? 27. Well, thank you. Thank you for doing that. We need more sisters and siblings and mentors who are willing to step up and get in the gap and say, hey, you don't have to go into debt for college and I'm going to walk you through this. So I'm really thankful you're taking ownership of that.

Thank you. So whenever you talk to him about college right now, does he get defensive? Is he receptive? What's kind of his perspective and take on it? Right now he's interested in going to community college. We live in different states and he wants to go to medicine as his field of choice. So I definitely don't want him to like go into that traditional route of just going, starting his biology degree and then just getting student loans left and right to cover everything when there are so many other options. But he has to put forth some work in order to get those options. Yeah, well, the very first place I would start is with our Borrowed Future documentary.

And the reason I love this is because it paints different stories of, one, why you shouldn't go into debt. So we've got stories about people who went into tremendous debt. We have somebody who is a doctor who went into a million dollars in student loan debt, and he's literally crying in the documentary because it's completely affected his life in a very dramatic way. But we also have success stories of people who went to school without debt, through scholarships, through working their way through,

through maybe going to a different college than they originally envisioned. So you kind of have that picture painted for a student where you don't necessarily have to just give them a bunch of tactics straight away, but they can see the why themselves. They can see the why through real life stories. So I would start there

because we've had a lot of students watch that and go, wow, like light bulb moment. I didn't realize that I could do this debt free. And then after that, I would start getting into some of the tactics. Once he's got that motivation, start walking through exactly how you do that. I love that community college is the first place that he's looking because a lot of states have free community college.

Do you know, has he looked into the different community colleges he wants to go to? I know Texas has some amazing programs. So he currently resides in Florida. I live in Texas. I've mentioned to him the alternative of coming to Texas because UT Austin is awesome, for example. So he's looking, but he just, he's centered into just going to one community college in the same district he's graduating from. And that's a great option, but there are so many that he could look into. Yeah, well, I do love that that's the first step that he's looking at. We've got some great resources to help him. We've got a book called Debt-Free Degree by Anthony O'Neill. I've written a couple books, Confessions of a Scholarship Winner and How to Graduate Debt-Free, to help walk through the every single step process of what he needs to know. So I personally won over a half a million dollars in scholarships,

got super motivated to apply that direction. But I also encourage students, even if they don't get scholarships, even if they don't get a full ride, there are so many different ways to go to school debt-free, especially now. There are incredible tuition assistance programs. So a lot of companies now will pay for your college education while you're earning money. And it sounds like he's pretty independent at this point. Like he's not going to have a lot of companies now will pay for your college education while you're earning money. And it sounds like he's pretty independent at this point. Like he's not going to have a lot

of help after high school paying for his bills. So having a employer like a Starbucks or an Amazon or one of the many companies that offer this, give him a paycheck every week and also pay for his college education could really help set him up for success in his finances. Okay. I would just encourage you to walk with him through this because it is overwhelming. You said he's kind of overwhelmed. And maybe you could even set up like a weekly call with him so that he doesn't feel like he's on his own. You know, pick up one of these books and go through week by week and say,

Okay, today we're going to talk about community college. I want you to come to our call with a list of five community colleges in the area. I want you to research their programs. I want you to research how you can transfer to a four-year school after that. And then maybe the next week, you talk about tuition assistance programs.

Maybe he wants to start at a four-year school and you can find an amazing tuition assistance program where he can kind of work through that. Maybe the next week is a little module on scholarships and you can find an amazing tuition assistance program where he can kind of work through that. Maybe the next week is a little module on scholarships and you can help him research, come to this meeting with 10 scholarships you want to apply for this week. I think that it's amazing that you're helping him

walk through this process because simply having a partner with him in this can help reduce so much of that anxiety. You know, I'm so thankful for my mom because she didn't have the money to pay for my college education, but what she couldn't give me in money, she gave me with in help. She was willing to sit in the library with me as I filled out scholarship applications.

She was willing to do the research with me and tell me it's going to be okay. I know you feel overwhelmed right now, but I am in the ring with you. You are not alone in this. It's so good to have a coach in the corner like that. And Lily, you're one of those people. Would you consider yourself like another parent to him? I'm the sister. But it's just like with having this big of a gap,

there's an extra level of responsibility because there is so much life experience in between us. Well, it sounds like you care more about his future and him going to college debt-free than your parents do. They're normal. So I'm starting to get him to come to the weird wagon. The weird wagon. That's my new favorite term for the Ramsey Way.

Well, Lily, we are cheering you on, and we're going to gift you a link to go watch Borrowed Future. And maybe you guys could, I know you're states apart, but maybe you could hit play at the same time and then get on the phone and have a conversation about it after. And maybe incentivize them, you know, maybe say, hey, I'm going to buy you dinner. I'm going to Venmo you some money to get some dinner as an incentive to watch this with me on a Friday night virtually. And then we're going to talk about it after. And that will start some really cool conversations that otherwise wouldn't have happened.

And then it's not you talking at him. It's him coming to you saying, hey, I heard this in that doc. Is that true about how the student loan? Oh, my goodness. Yeah, I want to take debt off the table completely. And so if you can help me get creative and find ways to do that, I'm all for it. And what's really cool is we're celebrating the one-year anniversary of Borrowed Future. And we're doing a big celebration, launching the film on YouTube October 17th at 7 p.m. Central with a watch party.

And if you don't know what Borrowed Future is, we keep talking about it. It's our award-winning documentary that uncovers the dark side of the student loan industry. And we believe every high schooler, every parent of a high schooler, everyone in education needs to watch this film and share it with someone that you know needs to see it as well. So you can, following the watch party on

Monday, you can view Borrowed Future on YouTube for free for the first time on demand. And of course, the film will still be available on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, RamseySolutions.com, where you can rent it ad-free. And so let's continue to disrupt this toxic student loan industry and show kids that there is another path that doesn't have to end with frustration and anxiety going, no one told me that I was going to end up $300,000 in debt and I don't have the dream job. And now I need to get a different job just to pay the bills. And it feels like I'll never get out of this thing. And what's so interesting is one of the most common things I hear from people

when I tell them what I do that I help people pay for college is I just wish someone would have sat me down in high school and explained to me that I didn't have to go into student loan debt. And it's crazy that there are so many 17 year olds that they don't have anybody having that conversation with them. No one's sitting down and telling them there is another way. You don't have to cripple your financial future when you're 17 and 18 years old. And I just encourage you to share this documentary and help students realize that they don't have to go into debt. Plant that seed. I know sometimes 17-year-olds can be resistant to that message. They can say, oh, like they're overwhelmed. Like

she said, her brother is overwhelmed. We were all teenagers. We remember. Right. But just planting that seed. You don't know how deep that seed will go. Just plant the seed and give them the opportunity to have that awakening. Amen. So join us Monday night for our Borrowed Future Watch Party, October 17th, 7 p.m. Central on our YouTube channels. You can go right now and RSVP, click notify me on the Ramsey Show's YouTube channel. We'll get a reminder going.

How cool it'd be if thousands of us all across the country are watching this together, sparking conversations with the next generation, helping them go to college completely debt-free. Love it. That puts this hour in the books. My thanks to my co-host, Christina Ellis, all the folks in the booth, and you, America. We'll be back with you before you know it. Have you been inspired to make a change with your money?

Want to know where to start? Take our three-minute money quiz to get a plan you can follow. Go to RamseySolutions.com and search for Get Started to get a plan for your money.