The Ramsey Show - App - I Want To Pay Off My Student Loans. Where Do I Start? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: January 11, 2022

Investing, Retirement, Home Selling, Debt, Education, Budgeting As heard on this episode: Sign Up for a FREE trial of Ramsey+ TODAY: https://bit.ly/3rZTUAx Tools to get you started:  Debt Calcu...lator: https://bit.ly/2Q64HME Insurance Coverage Checkup: https://bit.ly/3sXwUn5 Complete Guide to Budgeting: https://bit.ly/3utmVXi Check out more Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3fHhbVE

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the 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, Dr. John Deloney. Ramsey Personality is my co-host as we talk about your work, your relationships, your life, and your money. All right here on the Ramsey Show. You call in with questions about any of the above. 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Tracy's going to start us off.
Starting point is 00:01:04 This is our Columbus, Ohio. Hi, Tracy. How are you? Hi. This is such a happy moment. I can't believe I get to talk with you today. Thank you so much. Well, I'm honored.
Starting point is 00:01:14 I can't believe I get to talk to you. How can I help? Okay. I don't know if you want. I have everything written down. So I just retired from teaching after 36 years in July. And then, yeah, what I realized was I made a giant financial mistake, but I got everything. I've got my good stuff down too. I really didn't do much in the way, I didn't know how to invest. So can I tell you what I did do? And then you could tell me what I should be doing next.
Starting point is 00:01:47 Okay. So, well, I've been out of debt most of my life. So that part's good. I have $189,000 in moderate stocks. It's a thing called Voya. I have two cabins and 13 acres. It's all one complex. It's worth at least $400,000.
Starting point is 00:02:16 I have a condo in South Carolina. I paid $90,000 for it, so it might be worth $100,000 right now. I got that right before the pandemic hit. It's very modest. My income right now is $41,000 a year. I have $10,000 in my emergency fund. I have $85,000 in savings. I have a small piece of land that's worth $7,000 to $10,000 right now. Where was the part that you did wrong? Well, it's been a very big adjustment to live on $41,000. Oh, you mean quitting your job. Okay. Well, no, everybody told me like I should have. Well, no, not everybody.
Starting point is 00:02:54 Wait a minute. I just don't think I did what I should have done for investment, and I don't know what to do now. Do the cabins on the 13 acres generate an income? Yes, I have $40,000 now. I just got the last one paid off about four years ago. I go through a rental company, so they're vacation rentals. What do you make a year on them?
Starting point is 00:03:22 For each cabin, I clear $40,000 a year. So you make $ make 80 000 a year off these cabins i'm sorry that's incorrect i'm i am so sorry i'm a little bit nervous that's okay um i've got 40 000 per each cabin saved up right now i've been what do they make a year what do they make a year okay what do they make a year profit 40,000 profit each cabin so $80,000 a year yes I'm sorry yes sir and you have a $41,000 income plus an $80,000 income yeah I really haven't been using that income I've been putting it back into the cabins because they always need work okay i'll talk about if you have to put the money back in you haven't made a profit yes profit is after your expenses and includes repairs or upgrades right now this year i'm at 40 40 000 i i i don't think you're
Starting point is 00:04:20 making 80 000 profit i think you're probably making80,000 profit. I think you're probably making $50,000 profit. You probably need to put $30,000 back in in expenses and repairs, upgrades every year, keep them going, keep them moving along. But that's okay. That still means you have a $90,000 income to live on if you budget it out that way, which I think you can do. You've done a good job. Good job.
Starting point is 00:04:40 Okay. So is your house paid for in Columbus as well? Yeah, I paid it off in seven years. What's it worth? I would say it's probably worth $125,000 to $150,000. It's a condominium. You're getting real close to being a millionaire if you're not. I'm trying, and I bought for my Christmas present from one of my friends. They bought me the Baby Steps Millionaire, which I'm about to get.
Starting point is 00:05:05 Awesome. We got on your pre-shipment. Well, thank you. Okay. So I think the only thing you need to do is probably a little bit of polish, a little bit of tune-up. This feels disjointed in your mind. These things are kind of just a patchwork of things rather than a it's like everybody's
Starting point is 00:05:25 playing their own instrument and you aren't leading the orchestra exactly that's the way it feels when you presented it to me um and so i i think you need to kind of get these ducks to line up and waddle together get them get them or fly together or whatever metaphor we want to destroy here but um and let's try to get this thing uh like you know let's dial these cabins in and make get them to making money or stop it and sell them one let's look at these stocks and go can we move that 200 000 or so or maybe more into some good mutual funds with a smart investor pro that can create some income okay that'll create some income as well and i think you pretty easily you're going to have a hundred thousand dollar your income to that can create some income. That'll create some income as well.
Starting point is 00:06:09 And I think you pretty easily are going to have $100,000 a year income to work with to enjoy your retirement, number one, but number two, to continue to invest and do some other things with as you go along. I think you've done a better job than you feel like you have. I think most of your lack of confidence is just the the lack of a coordinated overall effort versus each one of these independent things as i look at them they all look pretty good i'd move the stocks but the cabins you know i probably probably manage them a little tighter a little tougher uh make them make them cough some cash rather than just dump it all back in every time. And, you know, you got a lot in savings, probably too much,
Starting point is 00:06:51 unless you're getting ready to buy something with some of it. And, you know, you got that little 7 to 10 acre piece of land. What's the plan with that? If it's just to sit on it, fine. But is that because it's going up in value? Is this an investment or is this just something you bought and you never got rid of? So you kind of need to go through these things line by line and go, okay, are they serving my retirement or are they draining my retirement?
Starting point is 00:07:16 And I think a smart investor pro, you sit down with them, can help you get a lot of that done. Something I've noticed in my life, Dave, my mood or things going on in my life affect when i sit down and look at something so when i'm hearing here also that i want her to be aware of is when you leave a job of 36 years even if you loved it there's just a sense of grieving like your life's going to be different now what's it going to look like and there's this there's it can be that hollow feeling and then you sit down and look at your retirement it just feels like so much and it's all over but she's doing a great job you've done it you've done a wonderful job 36 years as a teacher and you're a millionaire yeah man are really close and by the way the third largest
Starting point is 00:07:53 group of careers number three most likely to be a millionaire career list is teacher yeah so take take some time and grieve the fact you're not teaching anymore you missed the camaraderie you probably not going to miss all those meetings with the parents and all the drama, but you're going to miss some of that stuff. Miss some of the kids and don't miss most of the parents. And then make a great plan for what's next. You're halfway home. You're halfway home.
Starting point is 00:08:17 Have some fun. You've really done a good job. Really done a good job. Let's just get these ducks in a row and make them fly the way you need them to fly to get your goals, your current set of goals hit. This is the Ramsey Show. for a lot of you last year was another year of just trying to survive but you don't have to live like that you can have confidence in your money and your future. So if you're tired of being stressed out all the time, you can decide to make a change. You can follow a plan that works. For almost 30 years, Financial Peace University has
Starting point is 00:09:20 helped millions of people take control of their money you'll learn our proven plan to save money pay off debt build wealth and give generously watch fpu on demand or get plugged into a class for encouragement and support from other people you don't have to face another year of stress and worry you can have confidence in your money f FPU is only available with a Ramsey Plus membership. Start for free by visiting RamseySolutions.com slash FPU. That's RamseySolutions things going on around here we just had Christina Ellis on last hour as our newest Ramsey personality joining the crew and the newest one on the air with me anyway. And wonderful, wonderful young woman.
Starting point is 00:10:33 Glad to have her as a part of the team here. And you'll be hearing a lot more from her, particularly in the college loan space. She was featured in the documentary we did about student loans called Borrowed Future. That has been a big hit. Also, today is launch day, the day that Baby Steps Millionaires has officially gone on sale in bookstores and online. Those of you that have ordered it, it's in the mail on the way to you. And we appreciate the bazillion of you that have bought one in advance. Thank you for all your support.
Starting point is 00:11:03 Thank you for your confidence. How ordinary people built extraordinary wealth and how you can too. On Thursday night, Rachel Cruz, George Camel, and I will be doing an event called Building Wealth in 2022. Over 100,000 people have already registered for the free live stream. The 1,600 tickets in the room sold out very, very quickly, but we'd love for you to watch the live stream. We're going to be talking to you not only about the current state of affairs with NFTs and Bitcoin and all the different things and nothing down real estate that are booming out there right now. There's a huge get-rich movement out there, a huge get rich movement out there and wealth building movement out there and we're also going to talk to you about what real people have done that have caused them to
Starting point is 00:11:48 really build wealth not mythology and uh things that are that can be proven with data things that can be proven uh with experience and with story so you're going to enjoy this Thursday night, the 13th at 7 p.m. Central Time. The easiest way to the best way to view it is to go to Ramsey Solutions dot com slash wealth. You'll be able to watch it there after you register or we'll hook you up with a link and you can watch it at Facebook or at YouTube, wherever you want to do that. But we'll set you up with all of that. If you pre register, it is completely free ramsey solutions.com slash wealth luke is with us in tulsa oklahoma hey luke welcome to the ramsey show hey dave hey john appreciate all you guys do sure what's up hey congrats on the new book thank you all right All right. Yeah. So, so I, uh, I bought a first home
Starting point is 00:12:46 about nine or 10 years ago. It's, uh, it's been a rental for about seven years and I just paid it off two days ago. Wow. Good. So thank you. Um, I, I have a mortgage on a home now and I'm wondering if you have any guidelines as to, uh, when to keep it or to sell it, to knock off some on my primary. Just wondering your thoughts. What do you owe on your primary? We owe about $420. And what's your household income? It's about $275.
Starting point is 00:13:19 Oh, wow. Excellent. And what's this rental worth? About $2,000, maybe a little more. Okay, good for you. Thank you. So, I mean, the one option is to sell the rental and throw it at the $420,000, making it $220,000. But looking at the ratio of your income, $275,000 to that $420,000, I see you paying off this house in, what, three, maybe four years?
Starting point is 00:13:46 Yeah, I was a little higher, but somewhere around there. Yeah, we got private school and things like that, but I could do it in four, I think. Yeah, if you're going to crank it out to ten, I'd sell the rental. Okay. But if you're going to go ahead and knock it out in three or four or whatever, something like that, then I'm probably going to keep the rental. That's assuming you like the rental, and I kind think you do yeah it's great it's easy easy money uh you know paid off so uh yeah i do like the rental yeah it's just it's a pure cash flow so if you if i
Starting point is 00:14:17 looked at these numbers and it was going to be 10 years i would sell you tell you to sell the rental gotcha even if you like it but the fact that you've got this big shovel to knock this hole out pretty quick allows me to go ahead and knock it out, you know, move that direction. Kelly is with us in Monroe, Michigan. Hey, Kelly, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, guys. Thank you for taking my call. Sure.
Starting point is 00:14:38 What's up? I need to pick your brain on mine and my husband's vehicles. He works for one of the big three automakers, and one of the benefits of his level in the company is that we drive two company cars. There's insurance and maintenance included, but there's still a payment that comes out of my husband's check at the end of the month. It's not much, though. Yeah, it's $1,071 for two brand-new cars. Yeah, but it includes insurance.
Starting point is 00:15:09 It includes depreciation. It's basically a lease plan, an employee benefit lease plan, right? Okay. Does it include fuel, too? No, I wish. That'd be nice. Okay. But does it include maintenance?
Starting point is 00:15:23 Some of them do. Yes. Yes, it does. Yeah, you can't touch this. Okay. But does it include maintenance? Some of them do. Yes. Yes, it does. Yeah, you can't touch this. This is a great deal. Yeah? Okay. It's a fabulous deal.
Starting point is 00:15:31 You can't drive those cars or a car half that expensive for what you're spending. You're spending $12,000 a year. Yeah. You add up the insurance and add up the maintenance alone. Okay. And even if you want cars half that expensive and you're getting the benefit of driving brand new cars, this is not a car lease from a car dealer. This is an employee benefit.
Starting point is 00:15:54 Okay. It sounds a little like a lease. Yeah, I've looked at these numbers many, many times. We've got Nissan in our community. They have a similar thing that is absolutely incredible. But I've looked at the big threes. They're up there, too. And you guys, I i mean i think you may even have a better deal than the nissan folks have got it's it's a it's a bargain though you can't operate a vehicle for
Starting point is 00:16:13 that i mean i drive a a ford raptor right that's what i don't know maxed out roush whatever 70 80 000 truck right i can't operate that thing in depreciation how much it loses in value in insurance and in maintenance i can't operate it for what you're doing two cars okay that's right it's a deal and these are nice cars too you got good cars these aren't little you're not got the bottom of the line you got the big dogs yes you want to tell me who it is uh chrysler okay so what are you driving uh i have a wrangler my husband drives a ram 1500 yeah okay i rest my case yeah that just tells me i was completely right i thought i was right but that nails it yeah yeah those are great cars too and uh and what. And what a great benefit for working for a big company like that.
Starting point is 00:17:07 It's very cool. I'm just thinking I think you should kick one of those up here at the office, Dave. We don't make cars there, John. That's well played. That's what you did there. That part, yeah. We do have deals on counseling with John Deloney. You do.
Starting point is 00:17:21 You do. Unlimited. Unlimited. Unlimited. And I'll help you with your budget i'm trying and it's worth every dollar i'm trying guys i'm trying yeah he's working it but it's um no that sounds like an incredible i'm just thinking about paying car insurance every year i mean what yeah yeah you can't twelve thousand dollars i mean for two cars yeah that you probably can't buy the insurance not on those cars because those are expensive i mean that's that's they're driving a hundred thousand dollars plus worth of cars and uh and they're doing it for a thousand bucks a month so that it that's that is
Starting point is 00:17:55 not folks boys and girls that is not a car lease that you get at the dealer this is an employee benefit and it is a phenomenal benefit it's a great one especially if you want to drive a nice car yeah you know so there you go um if you want to drive a hoopty maybe not but it's a pretty good deal pretty good deal open phones here at 888-825-5225 by the way let's just hit that as a drive-by just in case some of you are new. The car fleece, I call it a fleece because it's a bad idea, right? You're getting sheep fleeced here. That was bad, but I do it all the time. It's like a dad joke.
Starting point is 00:18:34 I've been doing it for 20 years, right? I've been doing it for 20 years. But, you know, when you add up what a lease is costing you, and there's a way to put it in a financial calculator, the residual value at the end of the lease, which you can buy the car for, plus your payments, as opposed to the manufacturer's suggested retail price sticker, which is what the lease is calculated on, and you back out, you can actually figure out what you are paying for the money. In the lease world, you're renting, so it's not technically an interest rate.
Starting point is 00:19:06 It's called cost of capital. But the effective interest rate on the average car lease in America today is 14.2%. Leasing sucks. Don't do it. Just want to make sure we weave that into this whole conversation of there. That was better than the goat noise. That was good. There's a sheep.
Starting point is 00:19:28 Goats don't get fleeced, farm boy. This is the Ramsey Show. Thank you. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. On the phone, Randall and Krishna are with us in Sacramento, California. It says on my screen, you guys are debt-free. Congratulations. Thank you, Dave. Thank you. It feels so good.
Starting point is 00:20:32 Love it, love it, love it. Well done. How much did you pay off? We paid off $95,000. Love it. How long did this take? 26 months. Say again?
Starting point is 00:20:45 26 months. Okay, 26 months. And your range of income take? 26 months. Say again? 26 months. Okay, 26 months. And your range of income during that 26 months? We started at $100,000, went up to $140,000, and went down to $120,000. Very cool. Good job, you guys. Absolutely amazing. So what kind of debt was the $95,000?
Starting point is 00:21:13 Well, Dave, it was mostly in student loans. We had about $5,000 in credit cards, which we knocked out in the first month, and the rest of it was student loans. Wow, good for you. How long have you guys been married? Well, we actually got married throughout the process. We found out about the baby steps in June of 2019. And one of the things you preach is you can't be playing house, so we got married in October. All right. Good for you guys.
Starting point is 00:21:42 Very cool. Love it. Love it. So you dive in, and how did you connect up with us? Yeah. So actually my brother was the one who connected us. Um, funny story. We had a trip planned to go to Mexico to visit my wife, my soon to be wife's family, to get their blessings and everything. And it was just a few months before that that we were introduced to you by my brother. And right before we left on the trip, we really contemplated whether or not we should actually go on this trip and instead just, you know, start on this debt-free journey at that point.
Starting point is 00:22:16 But we did decide to go on a trip and we just hit it right off as soon as we got back from that trip. Okay. So you go and get her family's blessing to get married and come home and it's game on get out of debt exactly like it good for you okay and 26 months later boom boom you're done absolutely yes we also had the opportunity to meet you at the smart conference before covid hit you You were here in Sacramento, and we went to do our, just to get motivated by everyone around us.
Starting point is 00:22:51 Oh, very fun. Good, good. Well, smart conference is a good way to do that. I can't wait to get those going again. It's a blast. They're one of my favorite conferences that we do, a day long where we touch every area of your life. So good stuff.
Starting point is 00:23:09 $95,000, what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? I would say commitment. You know, just sometimes we would fall off the wagon and overspend at the grocery store, but go back and revisit the budget and um you know just be forgiving and and start over um and at the end it was like oh we gotta stay on in the budget we gotta stay in the budget so just you know that commitment to it i think uh the every dollar app is you know something that we look at every hour so so yeah it's the same commitment. Thank you. What was the hardest thing you two went through in your marriage?
Starting point is 00:23:46 This is hard. Culturally, it's hard, like, making this commitment every month. One of you overspends. The other one's just gritting their teeth because they just underspend. How did y'all manage this together? Yeah, so, you know, I think the hardest part is, as many people would say, is telling people no. You know, we live in a society where, oh, it's the weekend, let's go out to eat at a restaurant. Oh, let's go out and do
Starting point is 00:24:11 this. Oh, let's go out and do that. And, you know, unfortunately, we've gotten to the point where, you know, everything that people want to do revolves around spending money, spending money, spending money. And so when you're on this journey and, you know, you constantly have to tell people no, you constantly have to tell people why you're telling them no, it's sometimes difficult to keep saying that. But we had each other, we knew that we were doing this for a purpose. And now, thankfully, we can start telling people yes and do all these things that we've been missing out on for these past couple of years yes and also something that we got to mention is that we had a baby along the way as well he's turning one this month incredible congratulations
Starting point is 00:24:50 yes life is good y'all were seeing the pics on uh on youtube beautiful beautiful and i also have a daughter and uh she's in middle in high school i'm sorry and just having to say no to her as well. Why you work so hard, but having to say no to her and not doing all the fun stuff that other kids her age get to do was a small sacrifice for a bigger picture. It was a whole 26 months. Yes. It wasn't for 26 years.
Starting point is 00:25:24 Try telling a teenage girl that. I know. I know. I know. I'm just reminding you that you did the right thing. Congratulations. Good work. Well done.
Starting point is 00:25:34 Well done. Well done. You guys are free. Congratulations. How does it feel? It feels amazing. You know, I always told him, my husband, if we can do this we can do anything now like seriously now that we are out of debt and we have all this money coming in it's just like oh we have
Starting point is 00:25:53 all this money we can just buy a car cash in three months like wow this is amazing so it's very well done very excited that's amazing yes yes yes yes you got it you're on the way well we got a copy of baby steps millionaires for you that's definitely the next chapter in your story that's the way things are going and the direction you're going is just absolutely incredible so uh the advice they will listen to you every single day thank you so much well thank you we're honored and uh we're proud of you guys you've done incredible you're heroes also got a copy of total money makeover to uh get you going and let you give that to someone else and disrupt their lives and get them moving in this direction so that's what we're all about around here stirring up a holy ruckus so uh you guys are incredible well
Starting point is 00:26:40 done well done well done all right randall and Kirshna, Sacramento, California, $95,000 paid off in 26 months, making $100,000 to $140,000 to $120,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one, we're debt-free. Yes. Yes. So cool. Well done done you guys very very well done proud of you alec is with us in raleigh north
Starting point is 00:27:15 carolina hey alec what's up so much man how you doing today better than i deserve how can we help love to hear it man um well my question is is coming into next year, I'm a young guy. I felt like I was doing really well financially for someone my age. And then I've made some bad decisions, some uncontrollables happen. So I have more of like a mindset question. How can I like regain my confidence in building wealth and, you know, kind of moving forward? Because last year was a tough year for me. I made some bad decisions.
Starting point is 00:27:46 And I just want to make sure I get back on the right track. Kind of bad decisions. Yeah. Well, I'm very spiritual. And I used to run a psychic business. I got very aggressive with investing in my business because I wanted to make sure it was flourishing. And also I have a lot of mental health issues, and I felt like my mental health was hurting my job performance.
Starting point is 00:28:11 So I got pretty aggressive at investing in my mental health, trying to fix my anxiety so I could perform better in the workplace. Where was the mistake? Yeah, there's no mistake taking care of your mental health. Did you put too much money in your business and then it went belly up? Yeah. So basically with my business, I sold a lot of my stocks to invest in my business. I hired some business coaches, some other things.
Starting point is 00:28:34 And then as far as my mental health, I also hired some more holistic people there as well. And I put a lot of that in my credit card. And then also I had some like legal issues with my old company that kind of cost me some money that I ended up having to put on my credit card as well. So how much credit card debt have you got now? So I have $6,000 worth of credit card debt and $8,000 worth of student loans. Yeah. So one of the things we believe around here is the windshield's bigger than the rearview
Starting point is 00:29:04 mirror, and that's called grace. You check the rearview mirror to figure out what you did wrong so that you don't do it again, and you use that to course correct, and you stay looking forward. You need to have a clearly defined goal of where you're going, and you learn from your mistakes and move on. That's the mindset change. We all do it, and that's the beauty of a new year. You get that fresh start Our Scripture of the Day, Ephesians 1.18
Starting point is 00:30:07 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people. Winston Churchill said, All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word. Freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225.
Starting point is 00:30:41 David is in Pittsburgh. Hi, David. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Hi, Dr. John. What's up? Good to see you, man. Hey, guys. So I have quite the situation right now. I am $253,000 in debt in student loans,
Starting point is 00:31:07 and I have two car loans that i'm paying off right now and just trying to figure out what i need to do are you a doctor i am a pharmacist pharmacist okay what do you make uh our household income me and my wife, is $200,000. Okay. And what do you owe on these cars? Well, my wife's car, she owes $35,000, and my car is $17,000. Okay. All right. And so you make what, $100,000 and a quarter, she makes $75,000? A little bit more than that. I about uh 150 and she makes about 50
Starting point is 00:31:47 okay cool how much do you own your house uh i don't have a house we uh actually rent how long you been out of school uh six years okay all right are you ready to do what it takes to get out of this mess? We are. We both are, actually, I should say. We have our first financial peace class on this Sunday. Good. Awesome. Good for you.
Starting point is 00:32:17 Okay. Because here's the good news. You make good money. You have a good shovel. The bad news is you're in a deep hole. If you call me up and said you were in this hole and you made a hundred thousand dollars a year it's a lot more bleak than if you make 200 a year follow me yes sir and you've got good you're in a good career field i don't know what does she do? She is a nurse for an orthopedic surgeon. Wonderful.
Starting point is 00:32:47 Awesome. Okay. So the great news is both of you have wonderful extra job opportunities, ER or whatever, to pick up some ridiculous hours for a short period of time, and you probably could get close to doubling your income, but you'd be working like absolute maniacs for a short period of time and you probably could get close to doubling your income but you'd be working like absolute maniacs for a short period of time the good news if you did that is you could be out of debt in a year and a half depending on how maniac you get if you just try to do it with 200 it's going to take you four years and you're going to have to sell her car
Starting point is 00:33:22 yes sir are you ready uh we're we're in we're we're going for this so it may mean that she's got she's got a nursing job for a surgeon she probably likes the guys or the man or woman she works for it's a good setup it may mean that she goes and gets a contract job and doubles her income. $50,000 for a nurse is pretty low. She goes full-time and also does weekend stuff, too. Are you ready? I'm ready. I'm ready to do whatever I need to do.
Starting point is 00:33:53 No, no, no. You're shifting on me. Are y'all ready? She's not. Well, I should throw one thing out there. We have a baby. We have a two-year-old, and we also have a baby on the way. That's awesome. Do you want a a then man you hit the gas do you want a a six-year-old who is still sitting with
Starting point is 00:34:12 struggling parents or do you want a four-year-old who has no idea what dead is that's the choice it's going to hurt either way i want my hurt to be over quicker well i don't think uh pregnant mama's going to be working weekend shifts in the er so dad is though but dude you are you're working all the time you're gonna be a ghost a bunch of calls today i'm ready to go good i like it and we're and we are selling her car yeah you gotta sell her car yes sir it's ridiculous yeah and uh and you already knew it, didn't you? Oh, absolutely. I know the baby stuff. Does she know it? She is beginning to know it.
Starting point is 00:34:50 She is fairly new to it, but she is in with us. Well, here's the thing. There is a direct ratio, and you can just discuss it with her logically. This is not about you using Dave Ramsey as a weapon on your wife or John Deloney or anything like that. That's not what we're talking about. But it's a simple math equation, darling. The deeper we sacrifice, the faster we're out,
Starting point is 00:35:12 and the higher the probability is that we ever get out. So you raise the intensity and you raise the passion level and the belief level that you both have to the highest possible level and cut to the deepest possible core. And the cut is spending. And the cut is you're not going to be home. You're going to be working all the time. Any pharmacy gig you can get anywhere, whether it's hospital ER on the weekends,
Starting point is 00:35:41 I don't know, wherever it is, you can use this degree to make the most money in the shortest period of time you don't want to do it for long but i am telling you for two years if you'll go bananas you can be free yes and um that's that's worth doing at your age especially live like no one else so that later you can live and give like no one else now what i would do is i don't think you get off the phone and you march in and say dave said sell your car that's probably bad strategy would you agree i absolutely so i think you guys go ahead and go to the financial peace university class and you start talking and a good way to have these conversations is ask a lot of questions that what could we cut what could we do that
Starting point is 00:36:26 would get us there the fastest possible way because the faster we get there the more peace we're going to have the more time we're going to have with our family the more money we're going to have later the faster we get there the faster we get to freedom because uh you know a lot of people in your situation you've already drugged this out six years half-assed doing it absolutely and you got to get you just got to get gang on man and i want to tell you this i i had i didn't have as much student loans as you did but me and my wife had six figures between us and so when i look at the income ratio the ratio is very similar and I had a two year old little boy
Starting point is 00:37:05 and I had a lot of guilt about how much extra work I was taking on and how much I was gone let me just tell you what years 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 with no debt with that kid has been like very very different very very different suck it up have a hard
Starting point is 00:37:22 18 months 24 months to get this stuff done get it done, man. The strange thing is, John, and for those of you guys listening out there, you listen to these numbers, okay, $200,000 income, $253,000 in student loans, 35 on one car, 17 on the other car. About $300,000 of debt. And making $200,000. But the ability to put another hundred on there legitimately and even more later if needed with her kicking in.
Starting point is 00:37:52 Absolutely. That's something to consider. passion-based thing that drives the sacrifice that it's not a uh a straight line it's on a curve the effect is on a curve meaning that if you do 50 of what i'm talking about in terms of intensity it does not give you 50 results it gives you 35. But if you do 80% of what I'm talking about, it's not going to give you, it's going to tip the scales over the other way. And you're going to, you know, when you're just going bonkers, you see these people and everything starts to, it's like a magnetic pull. It starts to move towards the goal. Everything in their life starts to form up and move into it,
Starting point is 00:38:51 but you don't get that kind of draw power, that kind of suction, so to speak, on it, attraction, so to speak, on it, without creating this tremendous speed and effort and intensity and force. If you come back 50%, all of a sudden your return on that's 25%. You can't do it right in the middle. Right in the middle doesn't give you middle results. It gives you horrible results. That's exactly right. And that's how you get nowhere in six years.
Starting point is 00:39:14 That's right. Was with that problem right there. So that's why when we say gazelle intense, it works, and you go bananas, and it pushes through. That is the deal. That's right. Good stuff. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, my co-host.
Starting point is 00:39:26 Ben and Kelly in the booth. James making this happen. Thank you, guys. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. 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 James, senior producer for The Ramsey Show.
Starting point is 00:39:56 Did you know over 18 million people listen to The Ramsey Show every week? And a lot of those people listen on one of our 600 plus radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, head to theramzyshow.com.

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