The Ramsey Show - App - I Quit My Gambling Addiction but Still Live Paycheck to Paycheck (Hour 2)

Episode Date: September 1, 2021

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Thank you. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where dad 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, Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author and host of the Ken Coleman Show is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Ken's new book, From Paycheck to Purpose, The Clear Path to Doing Work You Love, is on presale. It will be coming out in a month or so, and we have it on presale with this is an unusual offering.

We always offer a lot of goodies with a book when we have it here on presale. Usually give you about $100 worth of bonus items when you buy a $20 book early because we want you to buy it early because it helps us, helps Ken, helps the bestseller list, and you get a deal because you get all this stuff. So we bribe you. In this case, we've got two possible ways to bribe you. That's pretty cool. Get Hired Bonus Pack, which is the e-book, the audio book, Ken Coleman's Get Hired digital

course, Ken Coleman's resume templates, the one live stream access from paycheck to purpose live event, and the Ramsey Plus extended 30-day trial. And all of this is, gosh, it's close to $200 worth of stuff. And the Get Promoted bonus pack is very similar, but it also has the Ramsey disk assessment and the live stream access as well in the Ramsey Plus extended. So check all of this out at Ramsey Plus, I'm sorry, at RamseySolutions.com in the store if you want to get a great deal on Ken Coleman's book. And if you really want to get a great deal, go ahead and pre-purchase that and pre-purchase

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Ken is here to help you with that. 888-825-5225. We're here to talk to you about your life, your money, your career. Ken is here to help you with that. 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Tim is in Pittsburgh. Hi, Tim. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave.

Really happy to be speaking with you today. You too. What's up? All right. So, hey, I just got a new job. It's my second one out of college. I'm doing pretty good. They're offering to give me a company car, and I went ahead and accepted it.

I'm asking you today if I should sell my old one or if I should keep it kind of for a while because I'm a relatively new employee. What is the old car? The old car is a 2018 Ford Focus. So it's worth $5,000? I looked at the blue book. The blue book on it is about $11,000. Oh, it's more than that. Okay.

All right. Okay. And what are you making? So I'm making $70,000 with my base salary. No, not yet. Oh, what do you owe on the car? I owe about $8,500 on it. Sell it.

Okay. That was easy. So you have $3,500 in your pocket. If the world blows up, go buy you a $3,500 car. That's kind of what I was thinking. My parents had told me, hey, maybe you should hang on to it for another couple months. And I was saying, you know, I really do not want to have the payment on it and then the insurance and everything. The company car I'm allowed to use for my personal miles, and they pay for everything.

So I'm like, this is a simple answer. And it's a better car than a Ford Focus, too. Oh, yeah. Yeah, this is called a blessing. Yeah, this is great. Exactly. That's what I thought. Good call, Tim.

I think you made a good decision, sir. I'm glad we could confirm it. Keith is in Carbondale, Illinois. Hey, Keith, what's up? Hey, Dave and Kim, how are you guys doing today? Better than we deserve. What's up? So we've been doing airplane for quite a while,

but unfortunately before we started that, my wife attended a private college back in 2006 where she took out about a $60,000 private student loan that her father co-signed on, which we obviously know now that that was a horrible idea. In 2008, her parents filed for bankruptcy, and then that sent her loan into default. And ever since then, there's been no payments that have been made towards that student loan. It's been kind of floating around ever since. A couple weeks ago, she got a letter from a credit company,

and they now said that her loan is $80,000, but they would be willing to settle it for $20,000. Do it. So we're not sure if it's, you know, how to make sure it's legit or if we need to, like, go talk to an attorney or someone to make sure that that's all, you know, a true statement or from a reputable company. They have the account numbers and everything accurate? We did ask for proof at one point,

and they sent, like, photocopies of what the loan looked like, and it was accurate with when she originally took it out. But they kind of talked to us, you know, in prior years, but more recently, you know, a couple weeks ago they offered to settle it. But in the document or in the letter, the one-page letter, it doesn't say that it would necessarily settle it in full, but it does say a settlement amount. Yeah, that's what they meant, but just say I need further clarification that if you accept $20,000 cash as settlement in full of this debt

that nothing further will be owed, I'll accept that. I'll accept that in an email. Okay, and just get that in writing that they would settle that in full and not be able to come back for any more money later down the road. Exactly, and the more formallooking that document, the better. But I'm not going to sweat it too much. It's a fairly standard practice in that world, so it's not – that doesn't smell like a scam to me at all. It sounds like a normal thing.

As a matter of fact, I might counteroffer. Well, that's what I was wondering. Should we ask if they would go lower because they offered 20. Originally, it was 60. Now they say it's 80. Yeah. And they're offering 75% off of the balance. I wasn't sure if we should offer less than that.

Just say, you know, if you can come down a little more, I think we'll do it. And just see what they say. Okay. And see how far. And if they say no way, then do it. But if they say, okay, well, we'll do 15. Then that one sentence made you five grand. Right. Right. Okay. it but if they say okay well we'll do 15 then that one sentence made you five grand right right okay and uh now the only the only caveat is that they did say it has to be paid by the end of the month

and if they don't receive the payment by the end of september that they could change the terms which was a little bit yeah well that would be normal though the offer is not you know standing forever so have you got um uh have you i mean have you got the way to get the money together? I don't care if you borrow it because you're already $60,000, $80,000 in debt, and we change that out for $15,000 or $20,000. That's a good deal. So even if you put it on a credit card, I'm okay with that. Okay.

Yeah, we've been doing the steps. So we actually paid everything else off besides the student loans. So we actually have been kind of moving through the steps to get to the point where, you know, if they do reach out again, we'll be ready to, you know. Oh, good. How much do you have? So we have a $20,000 emergency fund. Oh, good.

Good. Well, call them and settle the deal, man. Write them a check. No electronic access to your checking account. Must be in writing. That's the two rules on settling a debt. You're going to be taxed on the difference. There'll be a 1099-C coming where your debt forgiveness is taxable event, and that includes private student loans. This is the Ramsey Show. Work doesn't have to suck. There's a reason you can't shake the feeling you were meant for more than just another J-O-B.

61% of people aren't even engaged at work, let alone doing work they love. That's why Ken Coleman, America's career coach and national best-selling author, wrote his new book, From Paycheck to Purpose, The Clear Path to Doing Work You Love. And it's available for pre-order right now. If you're looking to change jobs, get hired, or trying to figure out the work you were uniquely made to do, you need this book. Ken walks you through the proven stages that landed him his dream job and thousands of others. Plus, if you pre-order from Paycheck to Purpose today, you'll receive our Get Hired bonus pack valued at over $100 for free. It includes the audio book, e-book, resume, templates, the Get Hired digital course, and

more. Pre-order from paycheck to purpose at Ramsey personality, host of The Ken Coleman Show, and author of the new book, From Paycheck to Purpose, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. New York City, Benjamin is calling. Hi, Benjamin, how are you? Good. Thanks for taking my call, guys.

Sure. What's up? So I drew up a product design for how to secure your bicycle wheels to your bike to protect it against theft. I have $5,000 in the bank. I have no debt. I want to know, am I in a position to protect it against theft. I have $5,000 in the bank. I have no debt. I want to know, am I in a position to pursue it, and how should I also? I reached out to these companies that claim they'll help you throughout the whole process and get a license from a manufacturer.

I want to know if that's a good way to do things. I mean, in return, it didn't sound very good, but I just don't know. Yeah, they're 90% BS. I'd stay away from them. Yeah. They want to help you get the patent, and they want to help you get distribution, and they want to help you get manufacturing, and they want you to give them $10,000 or $15,000 up front,

and then they run out of money, and then the whole thing doesn't happen. So, no, I want you to gut this up. What you're engaging in is a very difficult process, but they are not your silver bullet. I've had the privilege to interview several founders that started companies from scratch, very, very small, and now are very successful. And they did their own legwork on all of this. Manufacturing, they did it all. Distribution, they did their own homework. It had to make sense to them.

I think the advice I'd give here is what we give to people when it comes to investing. Don't make a decision until you understand it. When you sit down with one of our smart investor pros, when you sit down with manufacturers, when you sit down and learn about distribution, don't make a decision unless you understand it. Don't ever take someone else's advice. If it doesn't make sense to you, you can get really, really ripped off. It can be really devastating. Yeah.

So have you made a prototype? I made it, but not out of the correct materials, so I can't properly test to see if it actually protects against theft. Okay. What will it take to build a prototype? I really don't know. I'm guessing I'd have to go to somebody who, like, pours metal, and she would make a mold for me and pour one of them. Could it be just done at a machine shop? Possibly.

I guess so, yeah. It's not such a complex piece. Yeah, if it could just be cut rather than molded, it'll be cheaper. And so you might find somebody to mold it, but you're going to pay for the mold then. And here's the problem. When you pay for the mold on a prototype, you're going to change it, and the mold's going to go in the trash. And so your mold cost just goes away then. And with a machine shop piece, it's just a custom-made version,

and it's going to go in the trash too, but you're not throwing away the process of manufacturing in there, the mold itself. So it may work out. I don't care if you bid it out both ways. Get somebody that does both and get a test on it and consider several different materials. The reason I'm sending you to a machine shop is if you can get some guys

in a machine shop who kind of catch the vision of it and they kind of think it's catch the vision of it and they kind of think it's fun to work on it uh they're inventors also they invent they invent stuff every day and so they can't keep themselves from doing it and so they'll they'll kind of help you with your design and they'll go oh man don't make it out of this kind of metal make it out of that kind of metal it'll it'll be lighter and it'll work better and it'll be cheaper and they'll kind of start becoming your little advisor there in the process because they'll plug into the situation even if it's an old crusty dude that's been doing it a thousand years he'll have an opinion

especially that guy dave yeah but it's harder for him to get excited about it oh sure he's seen a thousand thousand of these things come and go but and get you a prototype. And then the next step is, and this is how the folks do it all the time, and we've worked with folks in Entrez leadership all over the nation that have brought stuff to market. We've brought things to market, not bicycle stuff, and not exactly the same thing. So the next step is to try to sell some of them off of the prototype and get some orders for the first run. And that will pay for your first run. So if you could get three bike shops to order 500 of them or order 50 each and you so you got to order for 150 and that might pay for your first 500 or whatever that you run and oh by the way let me just tell you two years after you

start making them it's going to look completely different you're going to do it completely different you're going to throw so much crap away it's going to blow your mind because it's going to change it's going to morph it's going to it's going to iterate it's going to change and so this is going to be an adventure for you sir but uh but it sounds like it's something to be fun don't spend any money you don't have it's going to be cash only and pay as you go but if you can get orders for 100 and they'll you know give you a deposit on those orders that'll that'll help you go. But if you can get orders for $100 and they'll give you a deposit on those orders, that'll help you go to a little manufacturer and get some of them poured or get some of them machined or whatever it has to be done.

And then you can get going from there. And there have been people that have started all kinds of – I mean, start reading books on the subject. You're going to find lots of entrepreneurs that have done exactly what you're doing. Oh, yeah, so much information out there. I love sending them to a fabricator. You know, I'm thinking these guys that are working on cars. They can fabricate all kinds of stuff, something like this, and test it, test it, test it.

I think that's great advice, Dave. I mean, you get it in a local bike shop, and we prove that it can work. Now we can go. And he doesn't have to sign off thousands of dollars to somebody who's going to make your invention huge. Just run from any of that. Don't look to get discovered. Yeah. You know, listen, ideas are a dime a dozen.

People who can implement them are what are rare. Yeah. And, you know, somebody comes in here and says, I want to show you this idea for Ramsey to do, and you have to sign an NDA, and you have to do all this stuff. I'm just like, you know, I'm sorry, I'm busy. That's right ideas are a dime a dozen people who can do them are hard to find and so you're the secret sauce in this it's not your idea um and you know by the way for those of you that don't ever get around

uh folks that work like that with their hands I had the pleasure growing growing up with them, and I have a couple of friends that, well, I'll tell you a guy that did exactly that. And it's a business that's hundreds of millions of dollars. It's Ronnie Barrett. Yes. Made the Barrett.50 cal. Yes. And he made a.50 cal machine gun in a machine shop. Yeah.

Yeah. machine gun in a machine shop yeah yeah and uh now they're now they're used in virtually every army in the free world yeah and our every former military in the free world and uh but ronnie is one of those guys that's what made me think of it is um he he uh is a spatial savant. He can see things in space and see how it's going to work together. And a lot of the guys that can see things in 3D and gals are in these shops. Yes. They're the ones that can help you figure out. And they'll help you shoot holes in your design idea. Oh. Because they can see how it works or doesn't work immediately.

And they'll know the metallurgy and which type of thing. So a fabricator is just a good people to have in your corner. I love watching these custom car shows on Netflix and Amazon Prime where they're building these cars from scratch. And it's these kind of people. They can see stuff that no one else can see, and they can fabricate anything. And that's how you're going to do this, sir. So I'm excited for you. Can you tell?

We think you ought to go do it. Yeah, with cash do it slow don't look for a fairy godmother there's not one that's right there's no dust that's going to turn you into keep you from turning into a pumpkin cinderella you just is and so have at it you know you just got to gut this out you got to scratch and claw your way through. You can do it. If it's going to be done, you're going to do it. If it doesn't get done, you didn't do it. That's what it's going to come down to. And, you know, that's true of so many things in our lives.

It is. It's all to us. If it is to be, it is up to me. I don't know who said it, but it's been around forever. Yeah. Keep looking for a pill you can take to get out of debt. Blake Thompson used to have that commercial we had on the air called Detanol. You can take this pill and get out of debt.

Yes. Detanol. Yeah. Everybody's looking for a magic pill. Yeah. It's not a magic pill. This is the Ramsey Show. Dave here. We just launched a brand new listener survey.

We want to know what you think about the show. You'll be entered to win a $100 Amazon gift card. No purchase necessary. Take the survey at RamseySolutions.com slash survey or text survey to-789. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Author of the brand new book, Paycheck to Purpose, The Clear Path to Doing Work You Love. It's on presale right now with all kinds of great deals in a bundle at RamseySolutions.com.

In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, on the debt-free stage, Kyle and Allie are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Doing good. Welcome. Where do you live? Brazelton, Georgia. Brazelton, Georgia. Just north of Atlanta. Okay, wonderful.

And how much debt have you paid off? $105,000. Good. How long did this take? 27 months. All right. And your range of income during that time? So when we started, it was right between $80,000 and $85,000. And then last year, we finished just under $120,000. Cool. What do y'all do for a living? So I'm a physical therapist. And I'm in real estate, but my main gig is being home with our girls. That works. Good gig. All right. Love it. What kind of debt was the 105,000? Yeah, so it was student loans, a car loan, and a personal loan, but the majority of that was graduate school, was physical therapy school. Okay. So you guys were kind of normal. Very normal. How long have you been married?

Well, actually, today is nine years. Oh, happy anniversary. So, you know, I was like, what would be more romantic than going to Ramsey Solutions and doing our debt-free scream? So, you know, we're happy to be here. Quick, someone get the rose petals out. Oh, my gosh. Nine years a day.

Wow. I love it. Well, you know, the older you get, the weirder things are that are romantic. I'm just saying. Very cool. Good job, you guys. So what got you started 27 months ago on this journey? So really, the birth of our first daughter got us started.

I found out I was pregnant. And we would just have times during the month where we would look at our bank account and wonder where our money went. And when she was about two months old, we sat at a kitchen table and just listed out all of our debt, and we were just crushed by the amount

and just felt very discouraged. And so Kyle had started listening to the podcast, and that really kind of pushed us to start to follow the plan. Yeah, so at that point, I got a second job. I work primarily outpatient orthopedic stuff, and I got a second gig at a hospital. And at first I was working like one or two Saturdays a month, but then, you know, like Allie said, we were kind of hit the point where we were sick and tired of being sick and tired.

So I got to where I was working pretty much six to seven days a week. There was one stretch. I worked 40-something days in a row without a day off. The craziest thing I ever did was last year during COVID, the hospital I worked at had these weird night shifts where you're sort of screening people in the emergency room. So I would work my daytime job from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., go home for a little bit, and then work at the hospital from 9.30 p.m. to 5.30 a.m. Whoa! Go home, take a nap, and then go back to my daytime job at 8 o'clock. So it's pretty crazy.

You are making some bank doing that. Yes, for sure. But you're about to kill yourself. Oh, my gosh. Right. Wow. How long did you do that? So I did that normally once a week, sometimes twice a week, and did that for maybe a few months.

A few months. But, you know, we were just really, like you said, just banking up as much as we could, and, like, everything was going towards debt. So it was great. Wow. Yeah. So you kind of emotionally hit the wall and say, this is a desperate situation. It requires desperate times.

And you were so desperate that you turned on our podcast. Yeah, right. That's good. But yeah, you know, and during those days, you know, it's hard to stay motivated. It's hard to, you know, go to work on Saturday and Sunday. And I actually lead worship part-time at our church. So there would be Sundays where I'd go to church, lead worship, go to the hospital after that. But the verse you guys always quote is Hebrews 12, 11.

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but in the end it yields a harvest of righteousness. So that was something that really just motivated us. It's a short term. It's not if we're going to get out of debt it's when we're going to get out and how fast and how fast right so that really kept us motivated the whole time you live like no one else later you can live and give like no one else by the way if you work like no one else later you can work like no one else so you kind of work now like whenever you want to yes exactly so you're like you know you're just working part-time at 40 hours. Exactly. You feel like, you feel lazy.

Right, for sure. She drives her crazy because on weekends I'm like, I need to be doing something. I need to be doing something. You're fine. Yeah, we're home, spending time with the family. Down, boy, down, down. Exactly. I want to ask you about those intense work moments.

Let's call it a short season, but it was a season where you're really getting it after it and so when you're physically exhausted and your brain starts going i don't want to do this i can't do this where did this conviction the gazelle intensity where did the emotion kick in when the physical wasn't there um yeah i'll have ally touch in about like our our why a little bit um if you want to talk about that um well really just um we couldn't get keep going anymore we just remember our girls um we actually had our second baby um back in february so um we knew that we wanted to create a good future for our kids and that was just the biggest thing for us and physically you know um it's kind

of amazing what the human body is capable of doing on an hour of sleep. So, you know, really just going home, looking at my girls. I got three girls at home. So, you know, that really just keeps you motivated for sure. And knowing that it is a temporary amount of time. It's not I'm working 80 hours a week. Now, you couldn't do that if you thought it was a way of life. Exactly right.

Right. I guess you could, but it would not be very fun. It wasn't fun anyway. That's amazing. amazing you know you've been preaching a little bit you know i'm thinking of isaiah you know when he talks about those that wait upon the lord will mount up on wings soar like eagles they will run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint you were running but you weren't weary because of the emotion. Those girls' faces kept popping up. That's right, for sure. That's so awesome. Yeah, that's powerful. Wow. All right, so now you pay off $105,000 in 27 months.

We know one of the secrets is lots of hard work, lots of hours. What are the secrets to getting out of debt in addition to that? Lots of sacrifice and being on the same page. We really had to be united as a team. Because he's gone, and when he's there, he's tired. Right. Exactly. Right.

So we started parenthood, and then he started working all the time. So it was tough. It was really tough. Yeah, for sure. But definitely worth it. Definitely a team effort, for sure. Yeah. And just kind of fun little aside, we were actually here at Money in Marriage in February

of last year, right before the world shut down. Oh, my gosh. That's right. And we met Rachel and took a picture with her right here and said we'd be back next year. And we did. Here you are. And you did. To our screen.

All right. We'll let her know you did that. That's awesome. Very, very cool. Well, congratulations, you guys. Thank you. Outside of the two of you, who were your biggest cheerleaders? Definitely our families. Thank you. Outside of the two of you, who were your biggest cheerleaders? Definitely our families.

For sure. They thought we were crazy at times, but they supported us. Yeah, lots of friends and family, people at work, you know, saw me, you know, working all the time. And they were kind of inspired by that and just would kind of encourage us or me going through that for sure. And actually at the time, one of my office coordinators at my clinic that I worked during my day job, her and her husband were going through their debt-free journey.

So we would kind of keep each other accountable. And one of the pictures I sent him was my 99 Toyota 4Runner, 273,000 miles. That's a big part of the story because I didn't have to get a car payment. And there would be times like, man, that 2021 TRD Pro looks so nice. But just talk me off the ledge here.

So, you know, that was a little part of our debt-free journey. But yeah, lots of friends and family at work for sure. So the whole method of plugging into us was 100% the podcast. Yeah, I would say we had heard of the book. Obviously, Dave Ramsey was kind of a name growing up. We grew up in church and heard your name a lot. But the podcast was really, you hear so many inspiring stories of people who are single parents or they just lost a loved one and they go through it.

It's like these people can do it. Why can't we do it? Exactly. All I'm doing is working 150 hours a week. I mean, it's no big deal. Sure. Wow. Well, congratulations, you two.

Very proud of you. You're amazing people. Rockstar young couple. Very, very cool. How old are you? 32. 31. She likes to let me know she's 31.

I like that. Four months older than her. Another month of it. Robbing a cradle. That's what she did nine years ago. Congratulations and happy anniversary. Very well done. Got a copy of the Legacy Journey for you

and the Total Money Makeover as well. Kyle and Allie, Atlanta, Georgia. $105,000 paid off in 27 months. One of the hardest working guys we've run into in a while. Making $80,000 to $120,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one.

We're debt-free! Yeah! Well done, well done, well done. Absolutely fabulous. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. If you haven't heard, two of our Ramsey personalities have brand new books coming out. Both of them will be national bestsellers. Ken Coleman's new book, From Paycheck to Purpose, The Clear Path to Doing Work You Love, is on sale right now, including two different bonus packs that you can choose from.

Either you want to get hired or you want to get promoted, and you choose the appropriate bonus pack. It's about $200 worth of stuff when you buy a $20 book from him. And the same situation for Christy Wright's new book, Take Back Your Time, The Guilt-Free Guide to Life Balance. Now, this one's getting ready to end because the book's getting ready to come out. September 13th is the last day to pre-order. So you've got about a week and a half, two weeks to do this. And you get $50 to $100 worth of bonus items when you pre-order the book. So you do want to pre-order these books because you get all these goodies with it for free.

So here's an idea. You could spend $40, $20 on Christy's book, $20 on Ken's book, and you'd get close to $500 worth of stuff added on there. That's pretty stinking incredible. So you want to be sure you get all that lined up. And all happening over at RamseySolutions.com right this second. Ken Coleman is my co-host today. Doug is with us. Doug is in Tampa, Florida. Hi, Doug. is my co-host today. Doug is with us.

Doug is in Tampa, Florida. Hi, Doug. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Thanks, Dave. I was calling because a little background story. I used to be an addict and gambling, and I've gone ahead and been sober for three years now. Good for you. Well done.

How'd you do that? Well, honestly, lost everything. Okay. I was kicked out of the house, lost a car, kicked out of another house. And so that's kind of where I was leading to. Did you get help from somebody, GA, or what? No. Actually, my daughter's, my fiance now,

was just by my side and said that, you know, in order for us to keep a family together and for me to be around my daughter was either to clean it up or not be a part of her life. And I couldn't really see that in the future so um wow kind of a little ultimatum and and uh so i picked it up and went on with it so you've been dry three years yep and for you um so i you know i was able to get the finances back under control uh start paying bills on time because working was i was able to get the finances back under control, start paying bills on time because working was, I was able to see the money coming into the account.

I did, you know, I have debt with the evictions and the repos, but no active debt, no credit card, no student loans, anything like that. So the reason I'm calling is because I back to the situation to where I'm not spending money at a casino, but I'm, you know, I don't know where my money is going. I see the paychecks coming in by the end of the week. I'm back down to the point to where I'm getting scared to where bills aren't going to be paid on time. And I don't want to relapse per se and get back into the situation where I go make three, $400 real quick just to pay the light bill. Yep.

I like that. I like it. I like it. You recognize the tightness in your chest and your throat, right? Yes. Yeah, that's smart. That's wise. Okay.

Now, your fiancé, did you marry? We are getting married at the end of the year. Okay. Well, congratulations on that. Okay, so here's the thing. I want you guys, it sounds like you're married, or it sounds like you're living together with a baby, right? Yes. Okay, so you know, as soon as you're married, you need to be sure you're doing this, but between now and then you can practice working together on the budget.

Okay. So here's the thing the way you stop living hand to mouth is three things obviously if we lower expenses that helps obviously if we increase our income that helps but the most important thing is to live on a plan a written budget will make you feel like you got a raise in your case what it'll do is give you peace right because right now money is a stress point it's a it's a it's a it's a an area of great anxiety and uh me and my fiance yeah well i mean she's scared she's scared you're gonna do stupid again you're scared you're just going to twist out and not know what to do and so here's the thing it's a pretty simple idea but you have to do it with a with great discipline and you will a get tremendous peace from this and b you're going to feel like you got a raise so here's how it works i want you

i'm going to i'm'm gonna sign you up for financial peace university to learn how to handle money and in that you get a uh for a year i'm gonna put you in the ramsey plus for a year okay it's a membership thing we're gonna put you in there for a year in that you also get our premium version of the world's best budgeting app it's all free for you okay it's called every dollar now the premise of doing a budget is this the number of dollars you have coming in this month not a template not the perfect month from heaven but this month today is the first in september what dollars are going to come in you put those at the if you just draw you know to get a yellow pad and put that number at

the top of the page and then i want you to give every and that's you and your fiance i want you to give every one of those dollars the two of you working together to do this an assignment the first assignment that comes out of that is food the second one is lights and water the third is you keep the transportation rolling and the fourth is you pay the rent. Now, if you've got all of that covered, and by the way, you can, then the rest of it is just kind of monopoly. Okay. Because once you know you have a place to live and the light's not going to be cut off and you've got food,

your stomach relaxes. That tightness in your chest starts to go down. And you go, and I've still got thousands of dollars laying here on this pad. I've got to your chest starts to go down and you go and I still got thousands of dollars laying here on this pad I've got to figure out what to do with and you give every one of those an assignment and then oh by the way you live by that once it's done. You don't spend money on anything anywhere anytime unless it's on that freaking paper. You're in charge of the budget until it's done and then it's in charge of you you get to decide it you get to decide it but then it tells you what to do how would i go about the uh the non-active debt per se uh worry about that after or

that's the last thing you deal with first thing we deal with is get this crap out of your life where it's all swimming around in your head and about to blow your, it's about, your head's about to explode, right? Right. We got to get rid of that first. But then once you get past all of that, then way down the list is going and cleaning up the past. Okay. And all you're going to do there is, you know, with the exception of if somebody's suing you or something, I would just list those debts smallest to largest, and I would look at the smallest one, and I would call that one and work a deal with them. Not a payment deal, a lump sum deal.

Just pile up cash. Yep, in writing. So it's a repo, a tenant eviction, and what else? Two tenant evictions and a repo. That's it. Okay. So have any of them given you a number? No.

I haven't gotten any judgments, nothing. No request for collection, no nothing? No, I haven't. And it's honestly been three years. I mean, so I haven't called up anybody. So here's what's going to happen. Let's say you call up landlord number one, and it was an apartment complex, corporate operation, and they say, we added it all up, and it's $6,000.

You say, I can't do that, but I do have $2,000. Okay. They'll take it. Okay. You may have to argue with them a little bit, but they'll take it. You get that in writing. In writing. Do not do it unless it's in writing.

And do not allow anyone to have electronic access to your checking account. You give them a money order, a prepaid debit card, or you give them cash and get a receipt. Okay. Perfect. I don't care what it is, a certified check, whatever. But don't let them get in your checking account because they'll clean you out. So each one of them are going to name a number that's going to go like the repo you can sell that repo for about 12 cents on the dollar okay and uh it's just for

the deficit it's what they sold the car for subtracted from the balance plus they've added all kinds of repo fees and legal fees to it you just got to cut that back down and hey man you're going to turn this around i can tell you you're a guy that's you've changed your life and now i get to be a tiny bit of the back side of the story so you hang on kelly will pick up and uh ken and i are going to give you ramsey plus for a year which includes financial peace university and every dollar the premium version a lot of other things as well but coaches are in there everything's in there it's pretty cool yeah he's gonna have a fun life yeah all that pain has been turned into something pretty passionate it's exciting that much manure there's got to be a pony in

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