The Ramsey Show - App - If You Don't Have a WHY, Find One (Hour 2)

Episode Date: April 24, 2019

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Music Music Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. This is your show. Thank you for joining us. Open phones this hour. of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. This is your show. Thank you for joining us.

Open phones this hour as we talk about your life and your money. It's a free call at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Starting this hour off, Shirley in New York. Hi, Shirley. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, sir. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? I'm calling because I need your opinion about my current job. I have a pension that I've been grandfathered into, you know, like the old systems. I've been there for about 12 years. Now,

my question is, I'm looking to move to another state. I don't know if I should stay and wait for the pension or just go for another job with another pension. Okay. What do you make now? $114. What do you do? Corrections.

Okay. And you're thinking about moving to where? Texas. Texas. And what kind of field would you go into there? Probably a police department. Okay. And what would you anticipate making there?

It would be a definite pay cut for the start. I believe they start at 2323 to $30 an hour, I think, after you do the academy. Now, I'm also doing your baby steps. I have about $10,000 left, which, of course, I'm going to wipe out before I do anything. Gotcha. Okay. So what are you moving to Texas for?

New York has become too expensive. Okay. All right. But you're talking about a $50,000 a year income instead of $114,000 a year income. New York is more expensive than Texas. It is not twice. Okay. So we need to do a little different thing on your career.

Is there anything else that's drawing you to texas in particular um just getting away from the snow and that's pretty much it so you don't have family there you don't have something that's drawing you outside of work and money and warmth warmth okay so somewhere in the south in other words is what you're saying. And a lower cost of living wherever you could get the best possible law enforcement type job, because that's obviously where your passion is and where you've been trained. And, you know, you're coming out of corrections. You go into police work, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, Texas is one one place you can hit at. But obviously you could I mean, there's nothing saying you can't go to Georgia, nothing saying you couldn't go to Florida, right, and so on.

Right. So anyway, I'm not trying to sell you against Texas. Texas is fine. It's a wonderful state. Anyway, I would not make this decision based on the pension. Okay. I think you need to make the decision more based on the other things we're talking about here i want you to find a better job than you have in your mind uh i wouldn't cut my pay in half

pension or no pension uh i mean i and i don't think you have to by the way uh if you have a plan where you say okay i'm gonna land i'm gonna 60 year one, but I can see a path back up into 80 or 90, well, yeah, that's going to equate to 114 in New York, just taxes alone. New York's taxes are ridiculous. So that alone is going to set you free. You go to an income tax-free state, that's 5,000, 1010,000 for you right there. So now then what I would do is with your current pension, if you have a level of vesting, and you may or may not after 12 years, if they allow you to roll over a lump sum, I would do that. I would take your lump sum distribution and roll it directly into an IRA.

No, they don't allow me. What they'll do is they'll vest me out and then pay me what I've earned in my pension, starting the date that I was supposed to retire. Okay, okay. So you'll get it, but you'll get it later, and it's just a reduced amount. And then you get the new one later if you did a pension there, and the two together would probably come close to equaling what you would have gotten anyway. Yes.

So you're fine. It's a break-even in that scenario. The last thing I'd comment on is I don't want you depending upon a pension for your retirement. It can be part of your plan, but I want you to use your baby step four and put 15% when you get there into yourself, put it into 401Ks, Roth IRAs, and that kind of thing, so that you've got money aside from pension money, over and above pension money to retire with.

Hey, we're honored to have you listening. Thanks for calling in. Jamie is with us. Jamie is in Palm Springs. Hi, Jamie're honored to have you listening. Thanks for calling in. Jamie is with us. Jamie is in Palm Springs. Hi, Jamie. How are you? Better than I deserve, Dave. I hear you. How can I help? Well, I'm very new to your education and about three months now, and I'm getting ready to really embark on baby step two. Um, and I just,

I, I kind of don't know where to start. I've got a, uh, a handful of, you know, things here, but,

uh, to break it down, um, I went through a divorce last year and I also had a medical condition that came up that caused me to not be able to work pretty much nine months out of the year. Wow. And so my income was completely peeved and therefore I went from having zero debt as

of like last June to I have $62,181 in debt as of today. And there's a couple medical bills that I haven't opened yet that I'll be adding to that that just came. Break that down for me. What kind of debt is that? Okay, so where do you want to start? How much on credit cards? How much on credit cards? Credit cards, like revolving credit cards, about $8,200.

Okay. All right. And how much is medical bills? Medical bills that I'm aware of at the moment, $7,000. And then I had in August taken a consolidation loan. And that's the main reason I was calling you for $10,600. What did you consolidate? Medical bills. Okay. All right. Because I was off work and I needed to continue paying my health insurance out of pocket. Okay. And so my understanding of it was that the $600 was the fee. I got $10,000. I called yesterday because I'm getting ready to do my babysit too, knowing that I had made between, you know, $3,000 and $4,000 worth of payments already to find out, you know, what the payoff is.

And they've only subtracted $343 from that loan. I was not aware or I blissfully didn't read the findings of the 53.67, and I only found that out yesterday, which is what prompted my call today. 53? 5-3? 5-3.67. Good Lord. They are automatically withdrawing from my bank account, which I've heard you say is a bad thing.

Well, only if you're in a fight with them, and you're not in a fight with them. They're winning. Okay, what's the other $25,000 in debt? There's, well, okay, so. You've only given me $25,000. You have $60,000. Oh, yeah, that's what I mean. The math is off.

So I have a Jeep Grand Cherokee that I bought a couple years ago. Hold on a second. When we come back from this break, we'll keep talking. I'll help you walk through this, kiddo. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. There's nothing smart about smartphones if your wireless plan is blowing your budget each month.

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We operate on the largest GSM network in the U.S. to ensure you receive reliable coverage virtually anytime, anywhere. Plus, you can keep your same phone and number and add multiple lines to save more. We're so confident you'll love Pure Talk USA that we invite you to try our service risk-free. Visit puretalkusa.com or call 844-862-3677. Enter promo code SAVEDAVE and receive 50% off your first month. That's puretalkusa.com. All right, we're talking to Jamie in Palm Springs, California. She's got a 53% loan on $10,000, $8,000 on credit cards, $7,000 on medical.

Thought she had $62,000 in debt. So let's get to the bottom of the rest of it because that's 25. Where's the other 35? You were telling me Jeep Cherokee. Jeep Grand Cherokee, and it's tied up in a divorce kind of situation. I also have a house tied up in the divorce. Basically, my ex got to keep the house in lieu of alimony, and I got to keep the Jeep, but I still, you know, owe the money on it.

And so if I want to sell it or whatever, like the clause in the divorce is that they get it. They get to just take it over and continue to make the payments. And so January 24th, 2024, both the house and the car have to be paid off or refinanced at that time. Okay, so how much do you owe on the Jeep Cherokee? I owe $41,613, and I'm about $10,000 to $6,000, depending on if I slice it up. So the divorce is final, but that's what the divorce decree says on those two issues, the Cherokee and the house? Yes. Okay.

And he's in the house? Yes. But your name's on that mortgage, and your name's on the Jeep, and his name's on the Jeep? Correct. Crummy divorce lawyers. Okay. We yeah bad news all right and are you working now so i'm back to work part-time um the year i bought the jeep and when everything was great i was in the like 170 i make commission um, um, 175,000 range, but last year I only made 40,000. Okay. What were you doing? What were you doing when you made 175? So I sell

property and casualty insurance. Okay. Is there any reason to think that you can't get back to that? No. You can get back to that? Yeah, I definitely can get back to that. It's just going to take some time. I've only been back to work for three weeks. Okay, good. I'm glad your health's recovering. You've been through hell, kiddo. What a mess.

All right. Well, do you have... There's one other thing. Okay. So it's a good thing, though. Going through all this, you know, yesterday when I found out about the loan, I was looking at some stuff through all this, you know, yesterday when I found out about the loan, I was looking at some stuff, and I, you know,

was turned on to you by a friend and coach of mine who's helping me, and she reminded me that I was contributing 12% to my retirement, but since I was off work, I wasn't even on my rate. I went in and checked it yesterday, and there was a company I'm part of that was sold, and, like, the dividends were supposed to be transferred into my 401K. But for whatever reason, there's, like, $26,000 that they can't absorb, and they're like, well, how do you, what do you want to roll in and do something else? I didn't make enough money. And I could take it as a cash out, and the only thing I would pay is 20% put aside for taxes.

Okay, that's wrong information. That's a 20% withholding. It is not a 20% tax rate. You'll be taxed at your tax rate, whatever you make. Yeah, they withhold the 20% for taxes, and then I guess at the end of the year I would get a refund or a pay or whatever. Yeah, or you'd pay more if you make $175,000. You'll pay more on it. Yeah, take that money and pay off the $10,000.

Okay. The $10,000 or the other debt? No, the $10,000. Fifty-three percent! Oh, my gosh! Okay. Yeah. If you don't get your income back up to six figures in six months, you need to sell this Jeep.

And if you do get it back up, you've got to get the Jeep paid off, regardless of the divorce decree. You have got to get rid of this debt. A $40,000 car debt is not going to cause you to win with money. Right. So if you need to go amend the divorce decree and pay an attorney to get some dadgum common sense injected into your nightmarish mess you had back there that's fine but this jeep debt has to go away right now the ten thousand dollar debt goes away and we're going to use the rest of the money above that to start paying off medical or credit cards

we're going to list them smallest to largest and get in attack mode and then as soon as that's all gone we're going to start paying off the jeep and if you have to pay a lawyer to go get that figured out and do that with some common sense as opposed to the way your divorce degree was put together which was ludicrous um you need to go you need to have a separate life and you own your own freaking car and not have to stay in debt till 2024 that's so toxic and ridiculous so you got to fix that you got to work around it but yeah take the money right now immediately and pay off the ten thousand dollars the 53 and then let's take the rest of your debts and put you on baby step two uh which is the debt snowball list your debts smallest to, pay minimum payments on everything but the

little one and attack the little one with any money you got left over. Work your way right down that list as fast as you can. And as money comes in, you work your way down that list. Your largest debt, not counting your home, being the Jeep, it'll be the last one you get to. But you're going to have to come up with a plan on how to deal with a divorce decree by the time you get there. So all of that.

Wow. Well, I'm glad we're here to help you. Hold on. I'm going to send you a copy of the book, The Total Money Makeover, which will help you know how to lay out this whole baby step system I just did for you and exactly what to do when and why. Step by step by step. So you can do this.

You can do it. You've been through enough. You're tough. I mean enough you're tough i mean you're a scrapper you're gonna be all right thanks for the call jessica's with us in oklahoma city hi jessica welcome to the dave ramsey show hi dave hey what's up um well i wanted to get your financial advice on where to pull my step one emergency fund and how to handle small payday loans. Right now, my husband hasn't been working as much. They're not. He's in the oil field. He moved rigs and there haven't been any rig moves lately. So he's not bringing in as much income as he was um so in not having enough income i have completely put off paying the small payday loans oh lord so now i've got

them calling me how much do you owe these how much do you owe these loan sharks um well in all i've got four loans and in all it, it's about $3,000. Okay. Okay. Number one, you never set foot in that building again after you get these paid off. No. This is poor people stuff. You're going to be poor your whole life if you do this.

You are being completely, it's 800% interest. They're loan sharks. You can never go back in there do you hear me i i understand 100 number two your household is desperate enough because of your husband's drop in income that you did this stupid thing i've done stupid things too i'm not picking on you but this is stupid okay so we have to fix the desperation on the income if all rigs aren't moving then something is he's have to go move something. It may be pizzas. Yeah.

I'm door-to-door. I mean, start delivering pizzas tonight. You can make $1,500 a month delivering pizzas, you know, five nights a week. So today's the day, baby. Got a lawnmower handy? Let's cut some. Yeah, I didn't think about that, honestly. I more so thought, know i mean he's

still going to work so he's just not bringing in as many hours yeah so on the off hours he's gonna have to pick up some income because your household's getting desperate did i miss something no because there's not many people wandering to payday lenders that aren't desperate so i'm assuming you're desperate yeah yeah yeah it. It's scary, isn't it? It is. It's very scary. And now that they're going after us and it's making it worse. Well, they're just bullies.

Don't worry about them. So you got $1,000 saved, you said? No, I don't. I'm trying to figure out where to pull the emergency fund. What kind of income do you currently have? Right now, he's bringing in about $70,000. Okay. And you couldn't live on that?

Well, we can. The problem that we're running into right now is we've got a wage garnishment going through. And then before that, we had another wage garnishment. And then we've also got two more wage garnishments lined up. Okay. You've lived out of control for a long time. It's time for y'all to stop this. Hold on.

We're going to have Kelly pick up. We're going to hook you up with one of our coaches, and we're going to pay for it. And we're going to put you in Financial Peace University, and we're going to pay for it. You've been living in desperation of desperation for a long time. It's time to stop it. So we've got to stop this right now. You make $70,000 a year, and you're broke.

This is The Dave Ramsey Show. I'm joining me this half hour, Ramsey Personality, number one bestselling author, three times now, four times now. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey Personality, my daughter. And the Contentment Journal is now officially a bestseller. Congratulations. Yes, thank you. That's what BookScan says. Yeah, very well done. Kind of crazy.

You hit, what, number four or something? In the self-help, yeah. Yeah, number two, three, four, something like that. No, I think it was four, yes. It wasn't number one, but it was close and very nice. I mean, and we didn't even expect it to be a bestseller. It just sold like crazy. But, I mean, we expected to sell a bunch of them.

Yeah, right, but to hit. I didn't know a journal would hit on the bestseller list. I mean, on the advice list. Yes. I don't know if it hit the list, but BookScan had it. I saw it, yeah. However all that works. Yeah, it's definitely bestseller.

I should know that, but I don't. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Michael and Lauren join us. Hey, guys, how are you? Hi, Dave. Hi, Dave. Welcome. Where are you guys from? From Bedford, New Hampshire.

Cool. A little bit north of Boston. Boston area. Very nice. Here to do a debt-free scream. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. How much have you paid off?

Paid off $165,000. Awesome. How long did that take? About 42 months. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? Started about $110,000 and last year finished about $160,000. Good for you.

Good job. What do you all do for a living? I'm a firefighter paramedic. I'm a speech-language pathologist in the schools. Very good. What kind of debt was your 165? We had everything, Dave. It was student loans, car payments, multiple cars, an iPhone, financed a couch.

Good Lord, you were normal. Yeah, Dave, we had everything. You just went out there and bought stuff. It wasn't anything we couldn't buy. We could finance this. How much down, how much a month, that's all we cared about. So this is a radical change in your life. Yes.

So this is what, three and a half years? Three and a half years. Nice long trek. Yeah. Tell me the story. How did it all happen? Well, it's interesting when you say that when you're kind of a financial mess that inconveniences become emergencies and lauren's um her lease was up so i mean we knew when we

signed it 36 months later we were going to have to trade the thing in but of course i waited till the 35th month to make it an emergency so walked into a dealership and i don't know what happened next but we came out with two new cars and oh my god even, I, Dave, I don't even know what I paid for them. I just knew that the monthly payments were about the same and that was all that we cared about. And of course I was scheming and went home and Googled, how do I pay these off as fast as possible? And your name came up and I read the book and I mean, it was, it was from there, it was was from there, the light went on in terms of what we were doing wrong. And, I mean, Lauren got on board. We read the book, and here we are 42 months later.

It's unbelievable. Wow. Yeah. So the Total Money Makeover started for you guys. Yes. Wow. That's what did it. I mean, it's amazing what your ministry and what you teach, how much it works.

And you just put it to, you just get to work on it and it comes true. It's not a theory. And, you know, like you say all the time, it's actually, it's true. It works. So you just have to put the effort in. Well, I love for you guys that so many couples I talk to, because we're young, right? I see you across the way. And it's like, you just become so okay with living this mediocre lifestyle. And I know some people are like, well, this is just the way it is right the fact that you wanted to change yeah and you said you know we're gonna put the work to it that's what I always give props to people I'm like you're the ones that did it day in and day out like I hear so many people say like oh my gosh you guys changed our lives yeah

it's like no you did like you were the one working 42 months out of this of you know paying it down and so that's always what's impressive to me is that you decided to change and you did it. Yeah. This was all self-inflicted. I mean, this wasn't something that we just woke up and it happened to us. I mean, these are all mistakes that we made. And, um, you know, when, when you come forward and realize the mistakes you've made, and it's really not complicated once you realize that the work is here, it needs to be done. And when there's a plan, it's, it's amazing how, if there's a plan, you can get things done instead of just kind of wandering through. I mean, you're right, Dave.

I mean, you wander into debt, but you can't wander out, and it's just amazing what we've been able to accomplish. It's just, it's been awesome. Yeah, we're proud of you. Well done, you guys. Very, very well done. You guys have kids? We do, yeah.

We have a daughter. She's four and a half. Awesome. How was she through the journey? She was great. I mean, she was so young young she really didn't know what was going on um but she you know we got he worked so much you know 90 plus hours a week at one point so her and i really had some good mommy daughter time um just doing free things you know just to keep the budget and um yeah she's been great very good yeah cool So what do you tell people the secret to

getting out of debt is? Well I mean you you have to have a plan and budgeting is important and intentionality I think is the biggest thing Dave that you mentioned and you know I try to read as much as I can and one of the most powerful books I read was by Viktor Frankl and the man survived the holocaust and he talked about how the image of his wife was what got him through I mean the man endured the holocaust by thinking about his wife and he said when

you have a why a man can bear anyhow and you just have to buckle down and get it done and if you don't have a why then you gotta to find one. And I have two. And it didn't matter what it took. It was going to get done.

And, you know, when we first heard you, Dave, I turned the radio off in disgust. I said, this isn't for us. There's no way we can do this. And it's just mind-blowing that here we are 42 months later on the other side of the dial. And what we've been able to get done is, I mean, in no short supply because of what you preach. And we're just so glad and just so thankful and blessed at what we were able to get done. It's just don't give up. Whatever you do, keep going.

And you'll get there. You'll get there. Well done. Well, congratulations. Very well done. Man's Search for Meaning. That's right. Great book.

Great book. Great book. So who were your biggest cheerleaders outside the two of you? My parents. I would be like, oh, this is so hard. We're going through this. And he's gone again. And they would always open their doors for us.

Guys, come over. Do this with us. And just kind of take our mind off of it. Certainly Mike's brothers and family have been there. You know, some of them kind of thought we were a little crazy, like, you know, what is this? You know, people don't really understand when you tell them. You are different.

You're weird. You're weird. Normal is broke. Exactly. You were normal before. And to anyone who listened, we'd tell them what we were doing, who you were, and, you know, we're paying it off. Look, we have the spreadsheet to show it like

we're crossing those lines off so we had it we had it right there very cool very cool well congratulations you guys thank you and his uh mike's brothers came down with you that's right dave and steve are here and my brother paul would be here if you could but we just have a great family and awesome support system and that's so so important to be able to have people cheering you on and pulling for you the whole time. Absolutely. Well, let's get Claire in the shot. Come on, Claire. And we've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires, of course.

That's the next chapter in your story to do this. And with Rachel being on here, she'll come out at the break and sign a contentment journal for you, too. Great. That would be awesome. We'll give you one of those and take both of them with you as our gift. We're just proud of you guys. We want to celebrate with you. All right.

It's Michael and Lauren and Claire from Boston, Massachusetts. $165,000 paid off in 42 months, making $110,000 to $160,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Ready? Three, two, one's hear a debt-free scream. Ready? Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Woo!

Yeah! That's how it's done right there. Man. Well, you're seeing this more and more and more with this age group. I had a grandma in the other hour doing that free scream that was a nurse. But this age group right here, your age group is plugging into this. It's happening, isn't it? Yeah, they're engaged.

And I think it's so fun always with the families. I always say this all the time, but it's true. You know, you see the kids out there with it, and you're like, man, there is a family tree changed right there, right in front of you, just the generation. But yeah, it's a, I don't know, my generation, it is an interesting one because I think we saw our parents go through all the recession stuff, you know, for some of us, high school, college, early adulthood, watching all that stress. And yet, as we've seen with studies coming out recently that everything seems to be back the debt levels are back or even higher than it was before the recession but i think

people are taking on the fact of hey there is a reality that it doesn't always work out perfect right it's not always going to be that way and so taking that on and deciding to make a change and doing something different and they are just living proof of it. It's pretty inspiring. Well done. Well done. We'll be back with Rachel Cruz and your calls right here on The Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Rachel Cruz, four-time best-selling author, joins me this hour. The new book, The Contentment Journal. It's a journal, and it's broken into three sections, 90 days each, leading you on a journey towards contentment.

Also, now a bestseller. Hit the bestseller list. Congratulations again. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, thank you. Very cool. So the three sections, the mystery needs to be revealed. The three sections are oh sure gratitude humility and contentment and so it's 30 days on each so a total of 90 days and it's a guided journal every day you have a prompt and we started it last tuesday so a little over a week ago i just did on instagram because they were shipped out and everything it was two weeks since the launch so i've been going through it just on my stories every day and over a week you've been doing it on instagram leading people through it yep and um i don't know how instagram can you tell how many people are following you on that

uh total yes it's like all of instagram but i mean doing this journey with you oh yeah i'd say a couple of thousand okay yeah all right cool That's pretty active for every day joining you on there to do that. Yes. And it's really, it's great. Someone was asking me, like, what's it like going through your own journal? And I was like, honestly, it's been more thought-provoking and deeper almost than what I was expecting. Like one of the prompts was about, because again, we're spending the first 30 days in gratitude. So all these prompts around gratitude

and they're broken up into different areas of your life. So one of them was family and talking about, you know, what were the characteristics of your parents that you really are grateful for and writing those down and your siblings. Oh, that had to be a long list. I thought, my dad,

I have so many. It was amazing. Humility starts with humility. The next section. I went over to the next page. I was like, I need my own journal for just my dad. But I got so many at the very beginning of the day because I did it early. It was interesting.

I got a couple of messages starting out that that was a hard day for people because they had fractured relationships or death. It was interesting. I got a couple of messages starting out that it was that was a hard day for people because they had fractured relationships or death recent, you know, like their mom, you know, one girl, her mom passed away two weeks ago. And so talking about that, it was hard, but that they were all of them, though. Thankfully, at the end, like, I'm so glad I had to push through it, though, and really fight through and think through those things. And so I mentioned that on the story of like, guys, this is like a sobering day.

Like when I was writing it and preparing it, I wasn't really thinking much about that kind of thing. But you just see all of the sadness that's out there within that specific part of people's lives. And so I mentioned that and then I had so many of those other responses, but it's all good because even though

there's hard things in our lives that I push you towards. There's still something. Pushing towards that gratitude, there's hard things in our lives that I push you towards. There's still something. Pushing towards that gratitude, there's something to come out. So it's been a little bit more sobering and deeper, but it's been really good. So I've enjoyed it.

And it's a great gift. I even think about Mother's Day, and that's another thing I've gotten comments on. People are buying, too, because it's very giftable, and it's really pretty. And y'all laughed at me all the time because I kept talking about how pretty this is but i've never we've never done a book at ramsey

where we worried about being pretty i know but it is it's going to be attractive well designed we don't want to be horrible and be ugly but yeah this is a very and that's the one of the other comments everyone talks about is just like how nice and pretty it is so i appreciate that other people appreciate that that That's great. Good stuff. The new video series there is on Facebook and YouTube every other week, the Rachel Cruz Show, highly popular. And the most recent episode is about how to go to Disney without debt,

one of Rachel's favorite things to do, for sure. And also we've taken the audio off of that plus and minus comments from Rachel and turned into a podcast. And so the podcast episodes are on Apple and Spotify, Google, everything, all the different formats out there. And you can put the Rachel Cruz podcast show as Rachel Cruz show podcast has taken off. It's become a big deal. Yeah. And that's been fun because there's other um content and stuff that i put on that like on monday we released one i was in la and christine

kane uh who's just a powerhouse she's incredible i had dinner with her and after dinner i was like christine can we just like chat for 20 minutes and i'll record it and i'll put it out as a podcast she's like yeah absolutely so we just taught you know and that released on monday and i've gotten so many so much feedback so there's fun conversations i have with people that when i travel and talk to them and uh so there's other good stuff on the podcast besides just the show there is definitely the show content but some added stuff yeah 20 minutes with christine kane's better than two hours with most people it was amazing i was like i have disney a disney podcast episode and then a week later, Christine King.

It's pretty good. Your life is good. Your life is complete. Caroline is in Miami. Hey, Caroline, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Your question for Rachel and me. Hi. Super happy, because hopefully you can take me out of my debt and my whole situation.

So I received $13,000 for closing my life insurance that had the cash flow. But my monthly payments are $3,168.53. So I'm negative every month, $368.53. So I was thinking of applying for a credit card that has a zero APR for 14 months to maybe take down my personal loan that I have $8,000 in my personal loan, $8,000 in my car, and $2,200 of credit card. So that's in sort of $1,800. How much do you owe on your car? $8,000. And what is your income?

My yearly income, I bring home $2,800 every month. Okay. And that's working 40 hours? Yes, sir. And that's with child support as well, 2,800. How many children do you have? How many children do you have? One, a 16-year-old.

She's trying to get a job, but nobody wants to hire her. She's applied for many places to try to help me out with the little things. I got you. Okay. So the $3,000, I'm sorry, the $13,000, you know, I kind of want to save it because it's a four-month saving, that if anything happens, I have four months that I can hold this down with that emergency money. How much is your car payment?

My car payment is $271 a month, but my personal loan is $366. But if I get that $8,000 and transfer it to that 14 months of zero APR, that I do qualify for $10,000 for it, I was thinking that maybe that monthly payment can be lower. I don't know. I just don't know. I mean, we're just doing the ballpark because I haven't done that balance transfer yet, you know, to see if it does

come back. I got you. Okay. Rachel? Carolyn? I know, too fast? No, no, no. I hate to say it.

I don't have a pen in front of me, so I was not writing down these numbers. But what you have to look at is that you cannot get yourself out of debt by just shifting money around and playing the game. And so what you need is a very focused plan to get yourself out of this mess. Right. And so applying for a credit card is playing the game, and that's going to do nothing to help the situation. And so looking and writing down and saying, okay, this is exactly the debts I have,

listing them out from smallest amount to largest amount, and taking maybe $1,000, putting that as your emergency fund, and then looking to see, okay, what can I do to pay this debt off faster? Is it selling the car and getting rid of that? Is it working extra, getting an extra job outside of the one that you have, doing everything possible to put as much income back in your pocket, not just to meet your monthly budget, but also to attack this debt. The credit, the $13,000 feels very comforting to you. And because you've been broke and struggling and scratching for so long as a single mom. I get that. I get that.

I hear you. I understand. But it's called you in order to keep that comfort. you're going to wander off into the land of stupid, and that's go get a credit card. All you're doing is kicking the can down the road. You're still going to have to deal with this eventually. And so let's go ahead and deal with it now. If you pay off that personal loan, your budget balances, doesn't it?

You told me your $300,000 in the hole is 366 right i'll be i'll be i'll i'll be doing you know the necessary bringing the 3168 a month and you know yep you would be your budget would balance you're not 300 in the hole anymore if you get rid of a 366 payment by using the 13 000 to pay off the personal loan and then let's start working on your car and as rachel said um we got to work on your long-term career and get your income up. And on the short term, we've got to pick up some extra work to get a little wiggle room, a little margin back in your life again. Hold on.

We're going to send you a copy of the book, The Total Money Makeover, to help you get started on this. No, let's just put you in Financial Peace University and give her a book. Both. Do both. And make sure we take care of you. Hey, this is The Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show.

If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit DaveRamsey.com slash show and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story. Live on the show, make sure you visit DaveRamsey.com slash show and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.