The Ramsey Show - App - I Owe $430K for a Degree I Can't Use (Hour 3)

Episode Date: November 1, 2018

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, 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. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Jonathan is with us to start off this hour in West Palm Beach, Florida. Hi, Jonathan.

How are you? Doing well, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Thanks for taking my call. A career question. I've been working for Super Regional Bank for the last 10 years,

been promoted four times in the last six years, and I'm coming close to hitting six figures in my current rule because of bonuses, and I'm looking to get into our wealth management division. However, I've interviewed twice in the last two months for the same position, sat down with our wealth director, asked her specifically what it is that she's looking for, and she's brought on people with more experience than I've had from outside of our bank. And so my question to you is, in the next eight or nine months, I should be able to

pay off $45,000 in student loan debt. That would be the rest of my debt. And I'm not sure if I should just wait to see if another position is opening up or there's a junior program that might be coming into existence early next year. I feel like I've hit a roadblock with my employer. I know everybody up and down the food chain, have great relationships, and I'm just stuck on what I should do. So they will not answer the question what you need to do to qualify?

They did, and it was working with our new advisor, which I have. I've referred to the client firm in the last two months of the segmentation that we look for for wealth management. And I have others in my roll decks, if you will, but I'm not necessarily willing to keep giving them over when I'm only going to get pennies on a dollar, if you will, while as much as I like working with this guy, he's going to get more money than I am if he lands the deals. Mm-hmm. Okay. Well, that Rolodex is of no value if you leave this company, though.

Right. I've never signed any waivers. I mean, it's unheard of in my position as a personal and business banker to have the success that I've been having and to take the leap, secondly, to take the leap from where I'm at. It's not impossible. It's just unheard of. So I'm the number one banker in the state of Florida for my bank. I have all the accolades, and to be honest, I don't care, Dave.

I just want to be paid for what I'm worth. I mean, there's no other banker in my world that's making the amount of money that I am. And that's not the drag. That's just like I'm ready. I mean, if this junior position can open up, then I heard that I'm on the short list. But at the same time, if that doesn't happen, after June of next year, would I say thanks or no thanks and already have three offers in my other hand?

But that's the thing. If I go to another competitor, I'm going to have to start from the ground where I was at of being just a personal banker just to show that I'm capable of doing... I mean, I think it's just a way of life. No, there's lots of people who hire financial advisors that don't start as personal bankers. Right. All kinds of people in the financial world do that.

I mean, they hire. I guess I'm just married to my company. I drank the Kool-Aid. I mean, it's one of the super recent banks that you haven't passed on the air. So, I mean, I know that we're doing something right. Yeah, but you said the marriage is bad. True. You're married, but your marriage is bad.

So, we either have to heal the marriage or we need to end it. And so, I think you're on the right track. And I think you put yourself some, you know, basically you're flow charting out your critical thinking here and you're saying, okay, if I can't get into this or that by this date, then I am going to have to look elsewhere, you know, and I don't know what this or that is or what that date is, but I think you just lay that out.

And I think then you'll get some peace about this. You're feeling all this pull and um stress because you're feeling the you know all the hard work you've done reputation you've built the uh promotions that you've gotten the loyalty that you have on one side on the other side of the column is the frustration that you can't move in the direction you want to move or haven't been able to yet. And so there's going to be a point that the frustration is going to mean more than all the other stuff, and it's going to cause you to leave. At what point is that? And go ahead and decide that now, and then your stress goes down and so you say okay if i can't land one of these two or three different way avenues to make a move inside my organization by this date give yourself a date i don't care if

it's next summer i don't care if it's september i don't next year i don't care when you do it but when you give yourself a date certain and then you just go and then we're just going to see how this plays out if it doesn't play out that's my day day. I'm going to pull the ripcord that day. We're jumping parachute or not. And we're out of here. And, you know, you start as that date approaches, you start looking for a place to jump to in a way that you can do it. That's not, you know, not detrimental to your household, obviously. But, you know, all of that stuff doesn't matter to you in the past is what you said.

And yet it does matter to you because you're not being recognized for it. It's not getting you to where you wanted to go. And it feels you feel like you're being disrespected in that regard. And that's what's underlying your statements. It's what I'm hearing anyway. So I'll just give myself a date certain. And let's lay out a couple things and say one of these things has to happen by that date, or I'm going to be in the job market. Hey, thanks for the call. Brandon is in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Hey, Brandon, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Good afternoon, sir. Hey, what's up? So my wife and I started the Baby Steps about three weeks ago. Cool. And we're currently on Baby Step 2. I just sold my truck that I was making payments on, and I wanted to get your opinion or advice.

We have about $7,000 in savings, and we were talking about spending maybe four thousand on a replacement vehicle how much debt do you have not counting your house oh about eighty thousand whoa and what's your household income it is around 60 60 62 okay and what's the what was the truck? How much was it? I owed $17,000 on it. Okay. And now you don't. Okay. Good. And now I don't. Okay. Cool. And what's the rest of the $80,000?

$30,000 of it is solar panels on our home. Another $11,000 is a deck and a fence that we had installed this past summer. And we have another vehicle that we owe $20,000 on. And then the rest of it is credit cards. Yeah, I think $4,000 is correct. I agree with you. And you've identified by now that you have a problem with home improvements, right? Like you're addicted to home improvements or something?

And you're going to have to work on that as part of this. But, yeah, definitely $4,000. Get you a little something to drive. You may want to get rid of that $20,000 one. Do the same thing again. And let's get this thing geared up here. Hey, I'm glad you're getting it. I think you can do it.

I'm here to help. You call me back if I can help more. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Let me tell you a story about two families that are very much alike in a lot of ways. Both families have two working parents and a couple of young kids. Each has debt and has struggled to make ends meet. But they're starting to make headway with their budgets and smarter decisions with money.

They have dreams and plans, and the only real difference is that one family has the right amount of term life insurance, and the other doesn't. Big difference. If one of the parents die, and that does happen, their well-being would be destroyed. Paying for the mortgage, utilities, food, and that does happen, their well-being would be destroyed. Paying for the mortgage, utilities, food, and other bills would be impossible, let alone saving for education or retirement. That's why every day I talk relentlessly about getting term life insurance. Just go to ZanderInsurance.com or call 800-356-4282 and see how inexpensive it really is.

Be the family that takes those deliberate steps to be different and responsible. It really does make you the hero of your story, and it puts you on course for better things ahead. You know, the real estate market is so hot that a monkey can sell a house right now. A monkey can sell a house right now. And everybody and his brother and their sister and their dog, too, get in the real estate business when it's like this. And just because you know somebody in the real estate business does not mean they know what the flip they're doing. As a matter of fact, you know a whole bunch of people in the real estate business that

don't know what the flip they're doing. They've sold two houses in their life. And just because Uncle Charlie's your uncle doesn't mean you need to list your most expensive asset with Uncle Charlie. Uncle Charlie might be a good uncle, but he'd be sucking as a real estate agent. Think about it. This is your most expensive asset you own. And you're getting ready to entrust it to somebody that doesn't know what the flip they're doing.

So that's why you need to get somebody that has a long track record of doing a great job and sells a bunch of houses. This is a marketing consultant. It's what a real estate agent is. has a long track record of doing a great job and sells a bunch of houses. This is a marketing consultant. That's what a real estate agent is. And they know, you know, somebody sells, you know, 50 to 200 houses a year. And if they're not high octane, high protein with a proven track record, you don't need to use them. Our endorsed local providers are the top 10% of agents in your area who have the expertise to help you find the right home at the right price.

And so go to DaveRamsey.com, click on ELP for real estate. One family did that. They said we had the best agent ever from the initial contact to the post-closing phone call and all the steps in between. Rosa, our ELP, was incredible. We get that kind of write-up every single minute. These agents are incredible. So I know your little friend might have their little feelings hurt if they don't list your house with you.

But I've got to tell you, that's just stupid. Don't do that. Don't give your most expensive asset to somebody based on the fact that you have a relationship with them, but they have no expertise and knowledge. That's just dumb. You're asking for trouble. And so don't do that, guys. Our question of the day comes from blinds.com. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee.

It means even if you mismeasure or you pick the wrong color, they'll remake your window blinds for free. Site-wide savings are happening right now. Take an additional 5% off if you use the phrase Ramsey. Go to Blinds.com slash Ramsey. Mia in Massachusetts. Dave, my company recently merged with another, and some layoffs occurred. Some people I worked closely with were laid off, and I'm worried my job might be next.

My husband and I are in the middle of baby step two. We have $31,000 left to pay. My question is, should we pause our debt snowball and start a mini-emergency fund in case I lose my job? You would stop all things, and you wouldn't build a mini-emergency fund. You'd build a huge one until the storm passes, and the storm will pass one of two ways. The threat of the layoff goes away, or you get a new job. But you don't change the baby steps around. You just don't do them. You just say, a storm is coming. We're going to stop all debt reduction. We're going to pay minimum payments on everything, and we're going to pile up cash.

There's a problem coming. Then when the problem goes away, because it's not a permanent problem, you're either going to go get another job or the threat of the layoff will pass, one of the two. And, you know, once that goes away, then you take all the cash out of that account and throw it at your smallest debt. And you run down and right down your debt snowball you really won't lose much ground if you're just as intense saving as you were paying down debt and then you use all that savings if you don't need it because of a job problem you use all that savings to run right down the debt snowball you lose very little ground just a little bit of interest is all you'll lose because your savings won't earn as much interest as the debt is piling up. James is in Lexington, Kentucky.

Hi, James. How are you? I'm pretty good today, Dave. How about yourself? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Well, I've got myself in quite a mess right now, and I'm not really sure where to start to get out. Okay.

To start with, I have currently about $430,000 in student loans. Yes, I was in medical school. I had failed two sets of boards after three years and then was recently dismissed. And so about 80 of that, 80,000 is from undergrad and then other courses later on to get into medical school, and the remainder is for medical school. Right now I have the debt, but no degree that I was planning to use to actually be able to pay that back. At this point, I don't really know what my options are to try to dig out of this. You're right. That's a mess.

I'm so sorry. That's scary. It is. How did you get that far into it and then not be able to pass the boards? I did fairly well in the first two years, but it was just, I think, being able to, I guess it was one thing to take the exam every few weeks or every month, but being able to retain that and then to recall it to the level of detail that I needed for the exams. I just couldn't put it all together at the end.

Is there any way you can re-engage and still have a shot at finishing? Not without having to reapply and then go through the process all over again. And also have to take out more loans. So when did you flunk the last one? That was this past spring. And so I let go this summer. Okay. So since then, what has been your plan?

Well, I've basically just been getting by. I was able to find a job, first of all, as a substitute teacher, and I was hired as a high school biology teacher. But my loans are on deferment right now, and I have some forbearance to go. But at this point, I'm not sure. Any of the other career options, I've thought about physician assistant, other programs like that, but it requires going into more debt. I'm not in a position where I can work and then pay as I go,

plus pay off the loans I've got now, too. Yeah, so what would it take to be a PA from where you are? I would have to take about another year of classes. I would have to take some other entrance classes, and then two and a half years for the program itself. Wow. And that's probably at least another $70,000 to $60,000 to $70,000 in tuition and living expenses. What about nursing?

My undergraduate degree was in biology, and then I did pre-med. And so none of the med school work you've done applies to anything else? No, none of it. I have the debt, but none of the courses, none of it actually I can transfer to anything. Wow. Well, I mean, the only thing I know to tell you is to try to assess some kind of a career, and that's what I'm poking at here. I don't know enough about that world to try to help you.

But we obviously need to get to the point that we're making some good money to begin to pay this through, right? And so I want to lead you towards something that we're making some good money to begin to pay this through, right? And so I want to lead you towards something that's six figures to try to plow through this with and or get on maybe with some kind of a hospital type of a company that would do some student loan pay for you as part of your signing bonus, that kind of a thing. Obviously, you're not going to be doing that as an MD, but the PA idea is a good idea, something around the biology or medical field. But I want to move you well beyond high school biology teacher to pay off $430,000 in debt, right? Exactly.

And the other issue, I mean, right now, you know, I'm 34 years old, and so I have all this debt and no, I mean, I have an emergency fund, but no retirement savings, nothing at all. So I don't know. Well, I'm not worried about that until we address your income. We got to address your career track, which gets you to your income, which solves the debt problem and then solves the retirement problem. I'm not in a panic about that today.

I mean, if you were 66, I might be, but you're not. You've got time to work through that. You've just got to reset here and land on your feet from a career standpoint and find something that you can use this biology and medical aptitude that you have, short of MD, to try to get some income coming in. James, that's all I know to tell you, man. I'm sorry you're facing this. Wow. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Why in the world would you trust some random guy in a cube when getting your mortgage?

Do you really think he cares about your long-term money goals? Well, he doesn't. Those companies care about getting you into whatever home loan program they're pushing that week. When it comes to ordering a cheeseburger, the meal deal works fine. But let's get real, people. We're talking about the largest investment you'll probably ever make, so don't be naive and trust an order taker who pressures you into a pre-packaged loan. My friends at Churchill Mortgage have been helping my listeners for over 25 years. Call Churchill Mortgage and get custom solutions from an expert within 10 minutes. It's simple. They'll shoot straight with you and quickly show you the real way to save money.

Call 888-LOAN-200. That's 888-LOAN-200 or visit churchillmortgage.com. This is a paid advertisement. NMLS ID 1591. NMLSconsumeraccess.org. Equal housing lender 761 Old Hickory Boulevard. Redwood, Tennessee 37027. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Jared is with us. Hey, Jared, how are you? I'm doing good. Welcome, welcome. Where do you live, sir? I'm doing good. Welcome, welcome. Where do you live, sir?

I live in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Whoa, bit of a haul to Nashville. Yes, sir. You can't get there from here. You can. It's a long ways off. Yeah. Well, welcome.

Good to have you here. Here to do a debt-free scream. How much have you paid off? A tad over $30,000. Good for you. And how long did that take you, sir? 13 months. Wow.

And your range of income during that time? It was just above $60,000 to nearly $70,000 probably this year. Cool. What do you do for a living? I drive a truck over the road. Okay. So you put us on your plan to drop by here then. Actually, I drove down here myself.

Oh, did you? Yes. Okay. Just for this. Wow. Okay. Well, did you? Yes. Okay, just for this. Wow. Okay. Well, I was hoping you picked it up along the route. Oh, my gosh. Wow.

So how did you start doing this 13 months ago? What got you engaged? A buddy of mine, he kept talking about this Dave Ramsey guy for about six months, and then just driving, I listened to it on audiobook, and it's about halfway through it, and I'm like, got to do this. All right. Cool. What kind of debt it was with the $30,000?

It was $3,300 was credit cards, $7,000 to a family member, and just under $20,000 in student loans. Okay. Cool. Cool. What was your degree? I don't have a degree. Okay. Just have the debt. What was your degree? I don't have a degree. Okay. Just out of the den.

What were you studying? First, I was studying aviation, and then I was studying engineering after that. Okay. All right, cool. So you had $20,000 left over from that and $10,000 in other stuff? Yes. Okay, cool. Very cool.

Very cool. So you're out there in the truck driving over the road, and listen to the audio book, and you say, we're going to do this. So what was the key for you that allowed you to get out of debt? What was the main thing you learned that said, I can do this? Doing the budget, tracking my spending, figuring out exactly where all my money was going and then uh just uh just having the ability to say no i know not you know your book uh talks about the uh the excuses the mental gymnastics people make to justify stuff and i realized i was doing all of them so i had to stop doing that yeah i hear you wow very cool how old are you 35 all right good for you have you ever been debt-free as an adult no sir wow ever now

you're here yeah how's it feel awesome well congratulations we're very proud of you man thank you thanks for stopping in and doing your debt-free scream here very good stuff very cool and we got a lot of uh over the road truck drivers particularly with xm yeah and in the podcast as well and picking us up that way so we're glad you're glad you're in our audience sir we got a copy of chris hogan's book for you retire inspired and that's the next chapter in your story for you to be a millionaire so uh who was your biggest cheerleader uh at first i kind of didn't have any um probably the uh the memory of my grandfather uh he was dave Dave Ramsey before there was Dave Ramsey.

Yeah. Um, built his own house with cash. Yeah. I mean, everything about used vehicles and, you know, it was very wealthy. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good, that's a good motivator. Yeah.

And then probably about halfway through it, I got a friend on it and, uh, watching him, watching his mind clicked, hearing it in his voice uh and kind of helping him in the early stages that was awesome too very cool well well done sir very well done we're proud of you good job can i give a shout out to a couple people sure uh brad scott and jess kyle jason my dad, and my grandma. You got it. Very cool. Well, well done, sir.

All right, Jared from Grand Forks, North Dakota. $30,000 paid off in 13 months, making $60,000 to $70,000 a year. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. I'm debt-free! Yay! Woo-hoo!

This is how it works. Love it, love it, love it. Well done. Oh, fun stuff. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Brandon's in Fort Lauderdale. Hi, Brandon. How are you? Hey, Dave.

I'm doing all right. A little nervous about what I'm deciding to do next, but I appreciate you and your team taking my phone call. Certainly. How can I help? Dave, I just wanted to run something by you. I just turned 24, and I currently have about $16,000 worth of credit card debt. Some of it was because of irresponsible spending that I recognize, and another portion of it was I had to lean a little bit on my credit because I was out of work for a few months.

I'm calling today because I've been receiving flyers and flyers in the mail from a lot of different debt settlement companies, and I finally decided to just try to call one and get some information. And I've been speaking with a representative from one of them for a while now. And he's basically put me in a position where it sounds like it's a very enticing offer to drop my debt from $16,000. They say they can settle it for $13,000. But I have done my research i know my credit would take a big hit i don't personally morally really want to do it um but as of right

now i'm making the minimum payments on everything i've i've downloaded uh the every dollar app which i highly recommend um i've started your debt snowball i've cut up their credit cards i'm doing everything just short of picking up your total money makeover book. How much do you make? I make, after taxes, I take home about $1,900 to $2,000 a month. What do you do? I fly as a flight attendant for an airline. Okay. Because you're starving to death, aren't you?

Yeah, Dave. I mean, it's tough. Yeah. And because you work in a pretty irregular schedule, don't you? Yeah. Yeah, I do. And we have a cap on how many hours we can fly in a month, so it's not even like I can pick up extra shifts. Yeah.

I mean, you have to pick up an extra job, but it would have to be something you could work on on an irregular basis. Yeah. How much notice do you have on your schedule? Well, I'm lucky enough to know my entire month's schedule in advance, so picking up a second job wouldn't be totally crazy. Be totally crazy not to right now. So, okay, here's the answer to your first question. No, you don't do debt settlement because they're going to destroy your credit, and there's no point in that.

I'm not about you building your credit, but I don't want to just destroy it, especially for three grand. Plus, the vast majority of these things are mismanaged, and you're going to end up in the biggest mess you've ever dreamed with one of these guys. There's only one that I would even possibly recommend, and I wouldn't recommend it in your case. We've dealt with customers for 20 years where we had to go in and clean up where these guys did not do what they said they were going to do.

Basically, their plan is don't pay your payments. You get behind on everything. And so then they try to negotiate a reduced amount based on the fact that you haven't paid your payments. And that's not a plan. It's only $16,000. So here's the deal. $1,000 a month income changes your life. Yeah.

In 16 months, you'd be out of debt. And so you need an extra job until you decide what you're going to do with your career field. And really, you're 24. When you're 30, you don't need to be doing what you're doing right now, making what you're making right now. There has to be a path out of this. Agreed? Yeah.

Yes, and I am looking into that right now, Dave. Yeah, because you don't make enough. I mean, and I'm not picking on you, and I'm not shaming you. I'm just saying I think you are worth more than this in the marketplace doing something, and I would try to figure out what that is, or if there's a path in the flight attendant world to making good money, and I don't know what that is or if there's a path in the flight attendant world to to making good money and i don't know what that is i don't know enough about that part of aviation to to be helpful to you but you may know you should know you're in that world but i mean is there a thing where in

five years you're going to be making triple i mean uh for pretty much any uh flight attendant no matter what company you work for, it's kind of just taking your licks and sticking around for 10, 15 years, and then you start making close to $40, $50 an hour. But the thing is, I don't love the job. So I am on my way out. The nice thing is I have been having interviews recently for a supervisor position that would almost double my income. There we go.

There we go. Now you're thinking. Okay. Let's do that, and let's pick up an extra job in the meantime and make an extra $1,000 a month, and let's stay away from the debt settlement program. You were treating the symptom instead of the problem. The problem was your income.

The debt reduction or the lack of debt reduction was the symptom. So let's get your income up temporarily and long-term, and then you're going to have this fixed. You got it, Brandon. Hold on. I'll give you a copy of the Total Money Makeover to get you going. Our scripture of the day, Philippians 4.13, For I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength. Bruce Lee says, if you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your

work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus. And you must not stay there. You must go beyond them. Ooh, that's good. Bill's with us in Tucson, Arizona. Hey, Bill, how. Bill's with us in Tucson, Arizona. Hey, Bill, how are you?

I'm doing well, sir. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, a few years ago, I was homeless, living in my car, and one day God basically told me, you need to do something right now or you're going to wind up under a bridge, and if you wind up under a bridge, you'll die. So I wound up going to truck driving school.

And now I'm an over-the-road truck driver. And I'm wondering what to do with this money because this job can go away in a heartbeat. Also, my mom's not in a real good situation. I'd like to set her up. I paid for three things when I got this job. I wanted a decent living doing something I love that would enable me to help people. And I feel like honoring my father and mother one way would be to help take care of her.

And I just want to know where I should start. What should I do with this? Good for you. Well done. So what do you make? I figured it up last night and take home i've averaged about 4,500 a month for the last two months very good congratulations well done sir well done you made a decision and you acted on it very well done all right you're right. Jobs don't go on forever. Nothing is forever. And so, do you have any debt? Yes, I've got about $30,000 in student loans, and I've got about $1,500 left on my car. Okay, cool. Good.

Well, the first thing I would tell you to do is to set aside $1,000 as your starter emergency fund, and then I want you to attack this debt as rapidly and aggressively as you possibly can with complete focus and reckless abandon, where we're just pounding on the debt. Because the best way to put yourself in a position to survive a job layoff and or to take care of your mom somewhat is to get rid of the debt. Because once that's gone, you've got nothing left to do but pile up some money, right? of a job layoff and or to take care of your mom somewhat is to get rid of the debt because once that's gone you got nothing left to do but pile up some money right yes sir so i think you can clear this debt up in no time because you know just keep your expenses down while you're over the road and um knock it out in you know as fast as you can uh as a matter of fact a few minutes ago i had an over the road

truck driver on here doing his debt-free scream did you hear him i heard him yeah he paid off thirty thousand dollars in 13 months yes sir making about what you're making i had one other question for you this company i'm working for doesn't pay me by the mile they pay me a percentage of what they make. And I have the opportunity. I'm not ready to do that right now, but I have the opportunity to buy my own truck for about $50,000. And that would more than quadruple my income, but it would also about double my expenses. So I, I, I've got to do some more number crunching, but I believe that would be a substantial pay raise, and I was just wondering, should I hold off on that?

Yes. I would not do that deal. I would hold off. I want you to say, if you're going to do that, I want you to pay cash for it, number one. But number two, the grass is not necessarily greener there, because what you have to do is you're now running your own business, and you've got to set your own loads up, and you may very well take a pay cut.

And so – Well, no, it would still be through this company. It would be the same thing. They would just take a – they would take a smaller cut, and I would get a bigger cut. Yeah, but then when you get laid off, you own a tractor. Right. No, thank you. No, thank you no thank you so i'm gonna uh if i'm gonna do that

i'm gonna do it with cash and that's down the road so let's get debt free let's build an emergency fund after that of three to six months of expenses let's set some money aside to send mom some and then we'll start saving for the tractor i've've been giving her about $500 a month so far. I want to bump that up, but I also want to buy a piece of land, partially as an investment, but partially so she can get out of where she's at. Not now. Let's get this mess cleaned up first. Okay.

I want you to have no payments, and then save up and buy that piece of land if you want to. That can be your mom thing. But let's get no payments and an emergency fund of three to six months. I'm talking to a guy who 15 minutes ago was homeless, right? It's the way it feels, right? You know, just the other day, right? I mean, this is recent history in your life.

You were living in your car. So what I'm trying to do is get you in a position that you're never there again. That's goal one. And that means no debt and an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. And so you've got $15,000 cash in the bank you don't touch for anything, and you have no payments in the world. You're not vulnerable anymore. Does that make sense?

Yes, sir. Then we start talking about land and tractors and all these other things. Okay. Can I ask one more question? Yes, sir. Sally Mae hasn't been hounding me yet, so I've been pounding at my car trying to get it paid off. Should I contact them now or wait until the car is paid off and then try to get a hold of them? They got $4,500 a month.

You only owe $1,500 on the car. Pay the car off. Okay. And then try to get a hold of Sally Mae. Yeah, like this month. Okay. Where's your money going? Thank you very much.

Yeah, you should have plenty of money, right? I've got a fair bit, yes. Yeah, I mean, when you're making money, you're not used to having any, and you ought to be able to throw big chunks, like I'm thinking $3,000 a month towards your debt. Something like that, yes. Yeah, which your car is only $1,500, right? Yes, sir. Yeah, so that's like a half a month.

So, yeah, you can go ahead and call Sally. You're getting ready to start pounding her in the face. We're about to give that old woman her eviction notice out of your life. Right on. Because you're going to clean her up in about 10 months. Then we're going to build up that emergency fund because I want to get the vulnerability,

the risk away from you. Then you can be in a position to be a blessing. But it takes strength to be gentle. It takes strength to be giving. You can't give if you're not strong. And so I want to get you in a place of strength so that you can be a blessing to your mom, so that you can grow a business and own your own deal rig someday if you want to do that those kinds of things are what i'm aiming you towards and so hold on i'm

going to have a have our team mail you out a copy of the book matter of fact i'll just give you the audio book because i'll be better in the truck that's what the other truck driver told me jared told me he did so i'll have them give you a copy of the audio book so you can listen to the total money makeover as you're driving and it'll get you going on this and show you exactly why I'm hounding you on this. But I'm proud of you, man. You're doing good stuff. And I want you to call me back and tell me how you're doing sometime. And if you need more help or have more questions, you let me know.

You've got some good goals, some good solid things. You've got a good heart, and you pulled yourself up. I'm proud of you. Well done. Very well done. Open phones at 888-825-5225. I don't know if there's another radio show on the planet. Matter of fact, I'm sure there's not.

Where in the same hour, I can talk to a guy that's $420,000 in student loan debt from a failed medical school attempt. Didn't get his MD. And 20 minutes later, I'm talking to a truck driver who was recently homeless and has had a job for two months. Where else does that happen?

It doesn't happen anywhere else but here. This show is about you folk and you're pretty amazing some of you get yourself into amazing messes but you're pretty amazing the stuff you can do when you decide to i mean isn't that guy inspiring to you he's inspiring to me um and i'm scared for that other guy i'm worried about him right now hey he's in a mess and you know it's our fault because we allow congress to guarantee four hundred and twenty thousand dollars for a student loan for a guy that didn't even get his md and you they're not forgivable there's only know, you can't get rid of it. You can't bankrupt it.

He's got it forever. And he didn't graduate. Next time you call me about going to medical school, I'm going to remind you of that guy right there. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey guys, this is Blake Thompson, Chief Production Officer for The Dave Ramsey Show. This hour's up, but you'll find more on our YouTube channel,

where we have over 6 million YouTube views each month. You can find debt-free screams, millionaire hour clips, Dave rants, and so much more. Go check it out.