The Ramsey Show - App - I Have Really Big Dreams but a Really Small Wallet (Hour 2)

Episode Date: October 26, 2020

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. My co-host today here on the air, Anthony O'Neill, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author. Open phones here as we talk about your life and your money. 888-825-5225.

That's 888-825-5225. Starting off this hour is going to be from Oregon. Courtney is calling. Hi, Courtney. How are you? Hi, Dave and Anthony. How's it going? Great. How can we help? So I just turned 21. And my question is, do you think that I should focus on intense and work to pay off my debt first or freeze my baby steps and cash flow

school to find a different career path? Now, are you currently in school right now, Courtney? I'm not. I actually was accruing debt from school, and I started listening to Dave, and I stopped immediately. Okay. All right. Talk to us a little bit more about where you are right now. How much school do you have accomplished currently?

So I only did two semesters. I have about 4,500 that I accrued from did two semesters. I have about 40 or 4,500 that I accrued from those two semesters. And I'm currently working a full-time job. So I'm not doing any school at the moment. And what are you going to school for? If you go back to school, because yes, you're all going to cash flow it, but I want to make sure you're making the right decision by going back to school. What would you go to school for? Well, in my dream scenario, I would love to cash flow it, but I want to make sure you're making the right decision by going back to school. What would you go to school for? Well, in my dream scenario, I would love to be an entrepreneur and go to school for business or real estate or things like that, you know? Okay.

All right. So going back to school to be an entrepreneur, you don't necessarily need a degree to be an entrepreneur. But I like the mindset of getting a business degree. But what do you want to do? I'm sorry, what's your dream entrepreneurship? Like, what do you want to own? Well, I would love to have real estate and have a business or two. I mean, the sky's the limit.

I have really big dreams and a really small goal. Well, here's the thing for me, and I'm curious cause Dave is an entrepreneur and I want him to talk into this. But for me, I have some concerns of you going back to school and you really don't know exactly what you're going to school for. And so I love the fact of you cash flowing it. But my care, my, my thing that I'm teaching to young people, specific, specifically your age is I want you to have a vision. What are you doing?

Why are you doing it? So this way you can complete school. I don't want you to start going back to school again. And then you drop out again because you change your mind. I mean, let me help you. It's hard to complete a goal as tough as the one you're signing up for. When your dream is still in the clouds,

you can't, you know, when we ask you what you want to do, when your dream is still in the clouds. When we ask you what you want to do, I'd like to own some real estate and maybe a business or two. You didn't say, I want to own a business that does X or Y or Z. You just vaguely want to own a business. There's not enough energy in that because of the lack of how it's not specific enough to give you energy to push through you've got you know you got to say i've always wanted to own a business that does this and that and in general you just like to would like to own some stuff yeah and that won't that won't push you through when the rain comes out and the thunder and the lightning is going and you don't want to go to class.

But you'll bust through the wall if you get real specific on your goal and where it is. So we always teach that dreams are a good place to start, and that's where you've started. Pull them down out of the clouds and kind of blow off the mist. Blow it off. And then when you kind of see the structure of your dream a little bit more, it starts to become what we call a vision. Yes, sir. And then a vision with work of see the structure of your dream a little bit more, it starts to become what we call a vision. Yes, sir. And then a vision with work clothes on is called a goal.

And then you know the very specific steps that you have to do to hit your goal, which comes from your vision. And then when someone asks, you can say, I'm living the dream. Absolutely. And then once you identify that, then you can answer the question, well, do I need to go to school for this? Is school one of the things i need to go to school for this is school part is school one of the things you need to do exactly because you're gonna have a whole bunch of things you need to do to get to live out the goal yep that came from your vision so that you're living the dream yeah and um but uh just you know so i want you to spend some more time thinking about

you know when when you're when you're 45 years old and you get up and you go to work what are you doing yeah what are you doing at work yeah and it could be somebody you're working for it could be you own the business yeah i don't care and then that'll then you can kind of back into some of this but uh yes cash flow it and in the meantime while you're figuring this out you could go ahead and clean up the 4500 i don't think it's a prerequisite absolutely i mean you could stop and not pay on it while you're in school. That's perfectly legal. Pay it off when you get out of school. But we've got a lot more going on here than just do we go to school or do we pay debt?

And, you know, to this as well, Courtney, I want you to invest. I want you to go on Amazon. I want you to buy King Coleman's book, The Proximity Principle, because inside of that, I hear in your voice a little bit of you really don't know what you're good at. You don't really know what you want to do, and he'll help you identify your sweet spot. So I want you to invest $10 into getting this book. Go to the KingColemanShow.com website. Why don't you give her one? Well, no, because I want her to invest into it, Dave.

Okay. Yeah, I want her to spend $10 because I think if she can invest into it, she'll the book and complete it okay and if she does that she'll call back i'll give her something else okay you know i mean i just thought you didn't want to give away ken stuff i didn't know i mean i would love to give away ken stuff it doesn't hurt my pocket but no this is for her though steven is with us in missouri hi steven. How are you? Good. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can I help? So I'm a little bit scared at the moment.

I've been watching your show for about a month or so, and I've been watching some clips of where some orthodontists who have gone through school come out with a million dollars in debt. Currently, I'm $15,000 in debt with a combined income of $30,000, which is me and my wife. And I have a 21 month old son, and I'm not sure how to go about saving for college because I don't want to go into debt. How old are you, Steven? 24. 24. Okay. So you're not, have you graduated from a four-year school? No, I have not yet. So I'm currently in a three-month program for dental assisting,

and I graduate from that in about five weeks. And so once I graduate from that, I'll be working as a dental assistant while I go through my undergrad years, or at least that's the plan. Yeah, yeah yeah okay well the good news is there are a lot of large dental companies now uh the mom and pop dentist is still around but there's some big companies the good news for you is there's some big companies and getting on with one of them they might have an education path that they pay for all the way through and i'd be looking for that even if you made a little less but they pay for all the way through. And I'd be looking for that. Even if you made a little less, but they paid for your dental degree, oh, ding, ding.

Yeah. That would be a big deal. Yeah. Because honestly, it should scare you. And when you get into the business around these guys, it's going to scare you even more. I think dentists have a tendency to go further in debt than MDs. Absolutely, Dave. Absolutely.

And here's the thing. Four or five hundred thousand is not unusual. No, it's not. I mean, actually, and something we're working on, I can't. And here's the thing, too. $400,000 or $500,000 is not unusual. No, it's not. I mean, actually, we're working on it. I can't say what we're working on, but we interview a dentist who has $980,000 in debt. In debt. You can say it. We're working on a documentary.

Yeah. Okay, cool. You the boss. We're not ready to launch it yet. Right. Yeah. It's still an edit, but it's pretty cool. Yeah. It's a follow-up but it's pretty cool. Yeah.

It's a follow-up to the Borrowed Future podcast series we did. Yes. Yeah, the documentary version of that. And, yeah, you never know where you might see that. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Folks, I love telling you about well-made, well-thought-out products. Today, I'm talking about Grip6 belts. I don't know about you, but I'm not a fan of traditional belts. They never fit right and they're uncomfortable. Grip6 belts are unique. Owner BJ designed a truly modern minimalist

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That's GRIP6.com. Anthony O'Neill Ramsey personality is my co-host today here on the air open phones at 888-825-5225 Vance is in Wilmington North Carolina hi Vance welcome to the show how can we help good day gentlemen um biggest issue I guess is budget staying on track. I make $56,000 a year currently. I unfortunately lost my job at the beginning of the year and had to sacrifice for less money per year. And as of right now, it just seems like a vicious circle. You get paid, then I am basically paid most of my paycheck in credit card payments just to be broke before we get to my next paycheck and have to put it all right back on credit cards

how much credit card debt have you got right now it's not um eight thousand okay and how much do you owe on your car? We have the van we got because of so many kids is $16,000. Okay. What else? Outside, I only owe $1,400 left on my student loans. Our home in Wilmington is actually paid off. What's it worth? Tax value is about $148. How many kids?

Five children. What ages? The oldest is 21, 20, 9, 6, and 4. So you're not feeding the 29-year-old. No, no, no. They're out of the house. It's incidentals. They're out of the house. You know, it's incidentals. They're pretty much self-sufficient.

It's just incidentals with them. They either are or they're not. They're not pretty much. Well, you know, you get the occasional call of... You're broke. So when they call, just go, I'm broke. So I can help with that. Let's cut off the incidentals to the grown kiddos.

All right. Now, then, the other thing that's going on is this. You guys are – I can tell, Anthony, and you can tell, too, there is not a written, detailed plan here. Absolutely not. That's what I was going to say. Yeah. We've tried, and it's always gone way far left.

You know, and it never thought of again. Well, you didn't try hard enough. Because. Yeah. So I think the problem here is not really the money problem because you're making fifty eight thousand dollars. Yeah. We need to make more money. But we know people who are making thirty five, forty thousand dollars in,000, and they're budgeting, living below their means, and they're making things happen. So right now, you have to get on the plan. And I can say this respectfully but straightforward. You have to stop saying exactly and just do it. Yeah, the thing is the way to approach the budget differently, and this should help you, Vance, is you're not writing up a template for the perfect month from heaven because that never occurs. Right.

Instead, you are saying November starts Sunday. So you have homework between now and Sunday. You and your wife put the kids that live at home to bed, turn off the stupid freaking television. There you go. And you can just get out a yellow pad if you want, or you can jump on every dollar and download the app for free. But what you're trying to do here is you're going to say, okay, what income will I have take-home pay?

How many checks have I got coming in in November, and what are the dates? And that's your income. And then you give every one of those dollars a name in order of importance so the first thing on your list i'll help you with this is food and i'm not talking about eating out because you're broke you're not eating out i'm talking about groceries for cooking from scratch at home okay food you know what the next one is lights and water you know what the next one is shelter how much is your house payment um right now the only thing we have to pay now is oh it's paid off you don't even have a house insurance and taxes right and so shelter yes sir

so we're taking care of basic necessities so if you've taken care of food shelter clothing transportation you pay the car payment you put gas in the car and this is all written out as an exact game plan you've still got a lot of money left after you do those things in your monthly budget and you're going to go where's my money been going right that's what anthony are doing and i are doing looking at your numbers we're going where's the money been going? Right. That's what Anthony and I are doing looking at your numbers. We're going, where's the guy's money going? This is how it's easy for us to presuppose you're not doing a detailed written game plan. If you will do that and spend November's income on November's bills exactly, and then whatever you write down is what happens, nothing else. Get the stupid credit cards out and have a plastic surgery party.

Yeah. Chop those puppies puppies little bitty pieces as a matter of fact if you have firearms go ahead and put them out in the backyard get violent with them put some 45 caliber holes in their butt i mean do something where this is set up where you are viscerally remembering the day the, the year that sucked is the year we turned it around. November 2020, baby. That was our year. And you drive a stake in the ground emotionally and you say, never again. I'm not living like this. I can tell you when we did it.

When we went bankrupt. Absolutely. When I went homeless. That's when I did it. Yeah. When you get sick and tired of being sick and tired, you'll do whatever it takes. Yeah. So the written game plan, start this weekend and we'll put you and tired you'll do whatever it takes yeah so the written game plan

start this weekend and we'll put you and your wife into ramsey plus so you can go through financial peace university and so you can get the premium version of every dollar and with the baby steps tracker we are experts on leading you through this process but to anth Anthony's earlier point, you've got to really do it. Yeah. Yeah. And you've got to have enough thing because you're really not stuck. Your math is not stuck. You're disorganized.

It's chaos. You've got to spend, and then you get to the end of the month, and you haven't got any money. And you know what that is? It's normal. Yeah. That's a normal person. Yeah.

And God knows normal sucks. You don't want god god knows normal sucks you don't want to be normal and i don't want to pick on him i wouldn't say this to everyone then don't i won't but i'm just saying i think when i hear people say i make this kind of money but when i get my paycheck oh i spend it all over here i go well this is what i hear dave lack of discipline you don't have a plan yeah there's there's no plan there's no discipline to sit here even tell yourself no this is what we're going to do we're going to get on a budget we're going to stick to this budget and we're going to get out of debt write it down go over it with your spouse so both of you look at it you pinky swear and spit shake this is a freaking contract yes you're not allowed to do anything else with money yeah because this one worked when you put it down on

paper right then if you don't live it exactly that way then it won't work it won't work and you go well you know we were tired from working so we went out to eat i'll kiss my butt you cannot do that stuff i mean you just you cannot wuss out yeah but i mean in our culture today the idea of going without restaurant food for an entire six month period of time people think we'll die it'll be over our whole life will be over because it's it's a it's such a form of entertainment but you know what too dave you can talk to this i can't it's it's even harder to tell your kids no i can't help you you know it wasn't for us because our kid number one our kids were little and number two we're like old-fashioned parents we actually think we're in charge.

And so no is a complete sentence. I don't need to give you a further explanation. I own you, and I can make another one that looks just like you. So, I mean, we're old school. We were old school. And Sharon's worse than I am. I mean, she's a hillbilly mother, man. I mean, it's just like knock you on your noggin. You're going to do it.

And, you know, stop your whining. We're not going out to eat. Why not? We'd leave church when they were little. Rachel would be in the back seat yakking. You know Rachel was yakking. Yeah. She could talk.

She can talk, man. And she'd be going, I want to go out to eat. And we're going, we're going to the nicest restaurant in America. Where's that? Sharon's Restaurant. They got where they hated. Don't tell us Sharon's Restaurant. Don't tease us and tell us we're going out to eat and we're going to Sharon's restaurant. They got where they hated. Don't tell us Sharon's restaurant. Don't tease us and tell us we're going out to eat and we're going to Sharon's restaurant.

But she does cook better than any restaurant anyway, to start with. It's not like they were getting microwave crap or something. The woman actually cooks. And so, you know, I mean, it's amazing. And that's how Rachel grew up. Yeah, that's good. And then when you did get to go to a restaurant, it was an event. It was a big deal later on.

And so you had more of a tendency to behave while you were in a restaurant. Absolutely. Because it was an actual privilege rather than an entitlement. Well, that's good, Dave. At least you have a wife that cooks. Pray for me, because this generation don't know how to cook. Man, they have these neat things called recipes. Yes, they do.

Recipe book. Just follow the directions. That's it. Even I can do that crap. I can do that, too. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll see you next time. Anthony O'Neill, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today here on the air. You jump in and we'll talk about your life and your money together. We'll work this out, boys and girls.

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Today's question comes from Jeremy in Pennsylvania. I am a nurse anesthetist with a household income of $208,000. Started my debt-free journey May 2019. Hospital pays me $15,000 a year for student loan reimbursement. Approximately three years into five-year contract total will be $75,000 assistance. Only debt other than the house is $35,000 student loan debt. Should I drag out the student loan repayment to maximize on the stipend throughout work? No.

I want you to go ahead and pay it off. Bottom line. Okay. When I first read this, $75,000 is what I saw, but $35,000 is my debt, $15,000 against that. It's done in two years. Yeah. So I might drag it out, but the way I would do it would be,

and I'm changing my answer on you. We talked about this during the commercial break, and I agreed with you, because I misread it. Because it would be like one year and what i would do is just set the 15 000 in a savings account as an additional emergency fund i see i wouldn't do that for five years right that's too much right but for one year to get a free 15 grand i might set it aside in savings and then if something happens you had a 15 on the job you can bail and you just pay it off if you have to leave the 15 on the job you can bail and just pay it off

if you have to leave the job yeah but if you're still sitting there anyway and you got another 15 000 bonus check to pay that off i might do it for one year now let's one year the first year right now that knocks off 15 of the 35 that only leaves 20 right and i would only do it for so i would go ahead and pay off uh to the 15. Keep it there. Keep a balance of 15. Now, do they, let's see here. You know, the other thing I would do, Jeremy, is I would look at your contract and. Can he pay it off?

Even talk to your supervisor, can you pay it off and then still receive the benefit a year later? If you go ahead and pay it off now, can you get the money a year later as a benefit? Yeah. Because they might do that. Because they're saying student loan assistance. Yeah. See, sometimes they want to pay the actual student loan directly, and sometimes they're just going to assist you in paying it.

Yes. Meaning if the money's coming to him, I'll bet you he could talk them into, you know, going ahead and saying, as long as I show you a receipt that I actually did pay it off, that you give me that a year later. That might be another way to get at it. That'd be good. And to the people listening right now, that's a good one-year plan maybe. But if you're in there just thinking you're looking at five, six, seven years,

we don't want you to do that. Not unless it's $50,000 a year or something. But if it's for $15,000, you need to just get out of debt. Yeah. Besides that, your income is low right now for a nurse anesthetist. Say that three times fast. And, I mean, just to get the degree, you have to be able to say it. But your income is a little low.

Most of them are making 300. So you're probably at the beginning of your career. Yeah. And so you'll probably see that bump on up. Yeah. So very cool. Good stuff. All right. Dave. And so you'll probably see that bump on up. Yeah. So very cool. Good stuff. All right.

Dave is with us. Dave is in Louisville, Kentucky. How are you, Dave? Hey, Dave. I guess I'm better than I deserve. I have a quick question for you. I make about $45,000 a year, and I actually only have about $10,000 left on my home mortgage. So I'll have that paid off in well under a year's time.

But my question for you is, I have several friends, and they know I was new. They've approached me about Amway, and I didn't know if for someone like me in my position, where I'm soon to get out of debt debt or even for someone that's just fresh out of debt is Amway a smart decision for me well I think the thing that happens uh with the multi-level organizations is uh they think if you're breathing you're a fit and so they come at everybody uh the truth is there's two skills I've got i've got three friends that make seven figures in amway and i've got 3 000 friends who hate amway because they are driven nuts and i'm one of them okay so it's a it is a valid way to make money okay uh but there's two skills you have to have

on the short term you've got to be really good at sales. And, you know, just hamming it up and, you know, getting the party set, because you don't make any money just recruiting. The money is made on the short term with the actual sales of the products. And so you've got to get good at sales. On the long term, the people that have made seven figures that make serious money, a million dollars a year kind of thing okay and they do exist and i know them personally um uh they are master recruiters motivators and trainers of salespeople and so they motivate and train the people that you're talking to that motivated and trained the people that they're talking to,

that motivated and trained the people that they're talking to, and they build these huge organizations, these huge hierarchies. But it is a very high turnover world in multilevel. Very few people stay in multilevel very long, and so it's very high turnover. So you're constantly rehiring retraining and motivating a sales team so if you can see yourself being a big-time recruiter trainer and handling a high turnover sales force then you could do very well in a multi-level amway being one of them okay long term short term the uh the way to make money is just be in sales. Now, if you say, I am neither one of those, then this is not a fit for you.

It's not what you do. I hate the idea of everything you're saying, Dave. Then you would not go into that. And that's where people get disillusioned and, you know, you get all the bad stories because somebody gets drug into something and they're like, you know, I don't even like people. Why would I want to be in this? You know, I mean, I don't want to be in people's houses doing these parties. I don't want to do that.

You know, whatever it is that you're doing with the process. Now, I like sales. Yeah, yeah. And I run a big organization. So we recruit, hire, and train people here. So I could actually fit into that genre. Obviously, I don't, and i'm not in it but um it the the the problem is is when people get hyped up you can you make all this money and and you know

and if you were having if i always challenge people that are in multi-level if you had to actually pay these people a salary you'd never hire them yeah but you'll recruit them yeah and get them in there anyway. But they're not qualified. Yeah. They don't have the right skills. And you just fill up your hierarchy with junk. Yeah.

People that shouldn't be in there. Yeah. And you know what, Dave? I did a network marketing company back in the old days. And I think one of the hardest things for me was I love sales, too. And I can sell something. I love talking for a living. But I hate

going around all my family and friends and the first thought is is he going to try and sell us yeah so I think if you get into this business you got to learn how to separate the business and family and you're not always trying if you look at everybody in your life as a prospect yes yeah then you just became one of those slimy transactional people. Exactly. And that's what turns everybody off. Yes. So you've got to just, you've got to have a little class.

Yeah. About it. And you've got to go, this is a way I can serve someone, I can help someone. This is somebody who actually sells. They might be good at the business. That's good. You know, this guy over here, he can't do it. And you're hiring him in there, he's just going to get mad at you later.

You know? Yeah. Quit looking at people with a dollar bill on their face yeah and that changes a whole thing so all of that to say i don't know you want to be in sales you want to be a recruiter then that would might be your answer otherwise it's not yeah this is the dave ramsey show We'll be right back. thank you for joining us america anthony O'Neill, Ramsey personality, joins me as my co-host today here on the Dave Ramsey Show. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Max is in St. Louis. Hey, Max, how are you? I'm good. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up? Hey, my grandparents set aside investments for all their grandkids. They purchased me 100 shares of Facebook years ago at $32 a share. Today that investment is worth right around $28,000. And so my question is, should I just leave it there or should I invest it elsewhere so that it is more diversified? Okay. Somewhere else where it's more diversified.

Yeah. I don't own any single stocks. I don't play the market. And you are betting $28,000 on one set of nerds. I mean, you are. Yeah. And I don't know what Facebook's going to do. Yeah. Yeah, and I don't know what Facebook's going to do. Truthfully, the social media team has got real, I mean, the IT or the tech world has got some real targets on their butt right now.

They've been misbehaving, and I don't know what that's going to result in. But Facebook has been screwing with us in business for a long time. We work with them, but about the time we figure out some way to utilize that stuff they figure out some way to charge double for it so do you and um and you know it's uh and truthfully there's a fatigue out there on social media in general people are just sick of it so i don't know i'm not saying that facebook's going to fail i'm just not betting twenty eight thousand dollars on their success i would rather have that $28,000 in mutual funds. And if those mutual funds own some Facebook, well, so be it. Yeah.

If they own some Google, well, so be it. But I don't buy single stocks personally because I don't like the risk. Anthony? No, Dave, you said it best. And I think listening to Max, he sounds real young, and he's like, man, that's Facebook, though, Dave. And I like what you said. You're putting all your money into not just Facebook but into one group of people, and I think I would rather be diversified. Now, if you can get it into Facebook and Google and diversify it, then great.

So when a company first issues stock for the first time, it called an ipo yep an initial public offering and i was on the air when facebook first launched the stock and it was so hyped that it went through the roof it was like a gold rush wow it went straight up and then six weeks later it went straight down because it was overhyped it was not based on valuation it was just based on people were just freaking out because facebook was cutting edge it was so cool in those days everybody was believing it was the big deal and it is a big deal obviously uh there are there have become a world player without a doubt yeah but the uh uh but i i mean i and people are saying don say, didn't you buy in on the IPO?

Nope, I did not. I did not, because I know a hype when I see one. And single stocks will get you bit. So that's what we wouldn't do. And, hey, thank you for the call. Absolutely. Raquel is with us. She is in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Hi, Raquel. What's up? Hi, Dave. Thank you for taking my call. Gosh, I'm so nervous. That's okay. We've never lost aquel. What's up? Hi, Dave. Thank you for taking my call. Gosh, I'm so nervous. That's okay. We've never lost a patient. What's up? I filed for a bankruptcy last week, and I have a rent-to-own house. The contract is pretty much run to own. Is there any chances that I can lose the house? Like, all my payments are up to date and everything.

I kept the house and my car out of the bankruptcy. Did you file Chapter 13 where you're paying payments in the bankruptcy or Chapter 7? It's Chapter 7. Okay. You didn't keep anything out of the bankruptcy. That's impossible. Everything goes into a chapter seven. Now what can happen is you can reaffirm the debt, re-sign for the debt on your car and re-sign for the debt on the rent to own if the lender will allow it. They normally do.

Okay. And so what do you owe on your car? On my car, I owe $13,000. What's it worth? $10,000. Why would you keep something that's $3,000 in the hole? I just didn't. Like, I can pay it off, like, pretty quick.

If you can pay it off pretty quick, why did you file bankruptcy? Right. Well, if I don't have any credit card payment, I think that I can make it pretty quick. What do you make a year? Last year I made $60,000. I would recommend you turn the car in and the bankruptcy and buy you a cash car for $3,000. Yeah. Okay, another question about... You're not going to do that, are you?

No. Well, the thing... That's not going to work for me. Not bad. So the deal is if you're going to keep a bunch of debt, you shouldn't file bankruptcy. Nope. You should let the debt go if you're going to keep a bunch of debt, you shouldn't file bankruptcy. Nope.

You should let the debt go if you're going to file bankruptcy, and you've already filed. And so I would not do what you're doing. I think it's a bad choice, and I think you're going to come out of this without the freedom that you sought when you were after bankruptcy. Making $60,000, though, and she filed bankruptcy on a credit card debt. We don't know how much the credit card debt is. Nope. So the answer to your question is you should be able to reaffirm the car. You shouldn't.

And you should be able to reaffirm the rent to own. And I don't know if you should because I don't know the numbers on that. Both of those are at the lender's option, meaning the landlord on the rent to own and i don't know if you should because i don't know the numbers on that both of those are at the lender's option meaning the lender could the landlord on the rent to own could decide not to allow the reaffirmation but um when you file bankruptcy everything you have is in it whether you list it on the matrix or not it's technically part of the bankruptcy and you need to get reaffirmation on it and if your lawyer didn't tell you that you got one of those lawyers now dave on the rent to own part this is uh education for myself she's still renting so does she still have to get that reaffirmed with her just only the owning portion the contract okay

the contract yes even if you're a renter um you're you can bankrupt on your landlord oh and the landlord if you don't pay the rent and keep the rent current and then agree to see any legal money obligation you have or most any legal money obligation you have is released okay okay that would include rent i did not know that so you're out of your lease wow if you you know you could break the lease in the bankruptcy and not owe a dime. But if you want to re-sign the lease and you are current and the landlord wants you to, then that's fine. And if you want to re-sign the to-own portion, leasing with an option to own portion, then you would do that as well. Got you. Most of those you're paying more than you would be paying in rent to be an owner

later which you shouldn't be doing if you're broke yep you shouldn't be doing at all yeah it's not a good plan generally but don't do that if you're broke so the thing is if you're broke enough to file bankruptcy don't keep a car payment and don't keep a extra high rent right because it gives you the possibility of owning later. So what she's trying to do is just get rid of the things that were bothering her and keep the other things, which were actually the things that are weighing her down mathematically. Yes. And that's why you're not listening when I'm telling you what to do, then you're not going to get the result you want out of this.

Yeah. Because you can't, you know, the credit cards are the ones calling her and pestering her but the big freaking car payment at the high interest rate and the overcharged rent for the rent to own are what are draining her bank account yep and those are things she's probably you smack the mosquitoes and the bear eats you yeah you know instead of shooting the bear and not worrying about the mosquitoes. That's the problem. And that's what happens oftentimes when we go in and reaffirm everything. And, of course, child support, IRS, student loans, alimony are not bankruptable anyway.

Right. They're going to be with you forever anyway. And so I've had people that file, you know, you've got a $28,000 IRS lien that's not bankruptable and $5,000 worth of credit card debt, and they want to file bankruptcy. And it doesn't, you know, you're swatting at mosquitoes in the bear each year. Oh, man. You forgot the wrong, you're dealing with the wrong, the big problem was never addressed. Yes, sir.

And if she keeps both of these deals, then she's kept the big part of the problem. I'm guessing that the credit card, I didn't get that far in it because I'm not going to argue with a caller. Yeah. I'll tell you to do something, either do it or don't. That puts us out of The Dave Ramsey Show. On your smart speaker, you can add our skill by saying, Alexa, open the Ramsey Network skill. From there, you can listen to all our shows. Ask Dave money questions like, how do I invest my money?

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