The Ramsey Show - App - If You Took This Money You Would Feel Like a Little Kid (Hour 3)

Episode Date: April 10, 2023

Dave Ramsey & George Kamel answer your questions and discuss: "My husband refuses to give up his credit card", "My parents offered to take over my debts and have me pay them back..." "Which debt should we pay off first? from the blog: How the Debt Snowball Method Works, Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3cEP4n6 Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods, moving, and storage studios, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships thank you for joining us america open phones here at 888-825-5225 george camel the co-host of smart money happy hour with rachel cruz is my co-host today and announcing uh this week a brand new youtube show the george camel show on youtube uh produced course, here by Ramsey Networks.

Joe, exciting week for you. We've got an incredible team that produced this. I'll take Joe Campbell. It's a different spin. But this is big. I've done a lot of things with the Ramsey Network, with Borrowed Future, Fine Print, Ramsey Show, Smart Money, Happy Hour. But this one is truly me, just the purest form in all the snark, all the pop culture,

all the deep dives, all of the nerdery. And I really just want to help people understand the truth about money and how to actually win because there's a lot of myths and a lot of hope stealers out there telling you the wrong ways to do it. And so I just want to swim upstream and try to help people do it the right way. Because that's what happened for me. I went from negative net worth to millionaire by following a proven plan. If you listen to the show, you know the plan,

and I just want to show people it still works today, even in this economy. Stacey's in Shreveport, Louisiana. Hi, Stacey. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thank you for taking my call. I'm a little nervous. No problem. Never lost a patient. How can we help? Okay. It's just a question. How can we help? Okay. It's just a question that my husband and I disagree on.

He's had an American Express card since he was 18. He's 52 now. That's precious. And he says that he cannot shut that card down because if he does, it'll destroy his credit. And we don't use that card. We don't use any card, that card. We don't use any card at all now, but he hasn't used that card for many, many, many years, but he still pays a $250 annual fee to keep the card. And right now we're like turning no more credit cards anymore at all.

I've convinced him. He was a credit card user. I'm not. And I'm saying that we shouldn't pay this annual fee. We just shouldn't have that credit card at all. And he just is in total disagreement because he says his credit will tank if we do that. So that's why I'm asking you. He doesn't use the card? He doesn't use the card, no. He had three other cards that he was using, but now we're not using it as of this weekend. So you're not borrowing any money anywhere ever?

Well, we have debt. Oh, okay. Well, yeah, we have debt. Let me help you. An American Express card that you don't use does not affect your credit. Okay. It only affects your credit if you use it. He says if he shuts that card down,

he doesn't pay this annual fee, it's going to tank his credit. He's wrong. Okay. He's mathematically wrong. It's not a philosophy. Mechanically, the way the algorithm is used at FICO to create a credit score, it has to do with activity.

If you have zero activity on your accounts, you don't have a credit score. Okay. It's based on activity. And so if he puts it in the drawer and never gets it out and pays $250, it's not helping nor hurting his credit in not one iota. It's not how it works. I guess he said that since he's had it since he was 18. It doesn't matter. Is it a pet or a card? It's doesn't. It's not how it works. I guess he said that since he's had it since he was 18.

It doesn't matter. Is it a pet or a card? It's a pet at this point. I think it's a pet. It's largely emotional. I remember getting rid of my blankie when I turned into an adult, and he needs to do the same. That's all this is. It's just a blankie at this point, and it's special to him because it walked with him through all the seasons of life.

But it's not helping. It was the first person that told him he was an adult. It was his first love. Yeah. Well, he thinks that all of our kids should get a credit card when they turn 18 to get their credit going. Well, let's talk about that for a second, because I think that's the core issue, not whether you keep a stupid American Express card for $250 and don't use it, which is irrelevant.

So the bottom line is he still believes that being in debt is the best way to live your life and to prosper. He doesn't believe that now. I think he did. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Because there's no other reason. He needs to be confronted on this because there's no other reason to build your credit. You don't need credit unless you're going to borrow money yeah and i think that we'll see we might well we have a mortgage right now and he works in shreveport i actually live well we live

about an hour and a half away but an hour and 20 minutes away so we rent an apartment in shreveport as well. So we had talked about buying something like a little townhome there because his kids live in Shreveport. So this is our second marriage. So you have two mortgages? So you would go... We don't now. We're renting an apartment.

So we want to preserve our credit so that we can go into debt. And we want our kids to go into debt so that they can get into debt. Why? So they can build their score, so they can get into debt. that why so they can build their score so they can get into debt why would they build their score because we can build our score and we if we're in debt we can build our score and then we can go into debt this whole fico thing is a dog chasing its tail okay it's designed for the banks by the banks to prosper only the banks okay and so if you're not going to go into debt if you're not going to teach your kids to go get a car loan if you're not going to teach your kids that debt is a survival

mechanism because see your fico score is a has zero indication of your net worth i can hand you a million dollars today it does not change your stupid credit score one iota okay your income could go to a million dollars a year it does not change your credit score it is not an indicator of financial health it's an indicator of how much you play kissy face with the bank that's it that's all it's for yeah so it's for so if they want to buy a house and they had zero credit score i think you did that george i you know what it's the very first video that launched on my YouTube channel today, Stacy. You can't, I mean, that's not even a pitch, but it's right there, how I bought a house with no credit score.

You got to go pull up George Camel on YouTube, and you and your husband watch it tonight. Okay, so you don't need credit to buy a house. You don't need a credit score to buy a house. Even if you're borrowing money? Even if you're borrowing money. It's called manual underwriting. I'll walk you through it in that video on the YouTube channel.

But it's real simple, and I did it myself. Once you're out of debt, about six to 12 months later, the credit score disappears. You close all the accounts, and then you go through this process. You need a good down payment. You need to have your income. You need to have your W-2s, a little more paperwork. But it really didn't break my back, and I got a great interest rate because I had a good down payment on a 15-year fixed rate. I recommend your kids do the same if they want to build wealth.

Or they could be 52 in debt hanging on to their blankie. It's up to them. It's up to them. I mean, but he did ask somebody, I said, don't ask the bank, but ask some, and he asked a financial person at the place he works, the car dealership he works at, and she said, do not get rid of it. I mean, she said, your credit score will go way down. Don't do it. It's worth the 50 points on your credit score to pay $250 a year. And I totally disagreed.

But I said, well, I'm going to ask Dave Ramsey. I'm going to call Dave Ramsey. Do some of your own research. I mean, I can just tell you the algorithm on the way FICO works. We've been trashing FICO for years. They would have come back and haunted us by now if we weren't telling the truth. It goes to FICO. Yeah.

Don't worship at the altar of the great FICO. And a finance manager at a car dealership is just a dumb banker. I mean, they couldn't get a job at a bank. Their incentive and motive is to get you into debt and keep you in debt. That's how they make their money. All they do is deal with people in debt all day long. They just want you in debt. They lost hope a long time ago.

All the time. And so, yeah, they worship at the altar of the FICO. So a 40-point move, a two-point move on a FICO scares them to death because they worship the great FICO. When you have a zero FICO score and you pay cash, you don't worship there anymore. This is the Ramsey Show. George Campbell Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. We're so glad you're here.

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slash get clear you can get it in the store at ramsey liz is with us in anaheim california hi liz welcome to the ramsey show hi there can y'all hear me okay absolutely what's up all right uh first off uh super nervous so sorry no trouble um really appreciate talking to you both and uh i was in jade's uh zoom class awesome for you good good good and uh mr ramsey you helped bring me back to god so wow i'm honored yeah yeah um okay so i'm just gonna read my question because I'm so nervous. So I have about $17,000 in debt. I'm about halfway through my debt snowball. It started last year.

Let's see. My parents offered to pay my debt off, and then I would pay them back when I'm able to. Should I go ahead and take this offer? But my thing is my parents, we have a strained relationship. We butt heads a lot. They don't agree with the Ramsey plan, even though I've been following it. And they wouldn't have me continue to tithe to my church if I were to kind of do this with them. So I'm not sure what to do.

Yeah, you know exactly what to do. Don't you? I think so. Yeah, what should you do? Just continue with what I've been doing. Yeah. And just tell them thank you, but I love you, but I got to do this on my own. You're exactly right.

You're a sweet girl. You are. You're a sweet lady. Thank you for having a good heart the way you do. You have reached a point in your life that you're now a grown-up. They're no longer your mommy and daddy. They're your parents. They're now your parents. My kids are grown like that too.

They actually have opinions that I don't always agree with. Can you imagine that? And you know what? I still love them, and they still love me, and they're allowed to do that and still be in the family and all that kind of stuff. I don't get to control how they handle their money, nor do I want to. I don't get to control whether they tithe at their church.

I don't get to control their spiritual decisions. I would obviously have an opinion about all of it but it doesn't matter yeah i got opinions about george too but he gets to make his own decisions he's an independent adult and uh we're friends we can have a good discussion we can have an argument even um a fun argument sometimes we do that george and i do and rachel and i do my kid you everybody. That's all okay to do, but that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about control. Yeah. And I don't borrow money from family on principle.

If they said they wanted to gift it, even with the strings attached, I wouldn't take it. And so it went from a bad idea to a terrible idea real quick. And the truth is, you don't need them. You're going to pay this off fast. You've been doing the hard work. It's giving you dignity to do the plan on your own without having to do this weird reverse allowance thing to your parents who you already have a strained relationship with. And it's only going to hurt the relationship if you take that money.

Yeah, it is. It's going to make it worse, not better. And they're trying to be nice, but they're trying to influence you to do what they want you to do rather than letting you be a grown-up, and that's a control function is what that is. And they mean well. I don't think they're bad people. I'm not saying that at all.

But you can't let folks interrupt your spiritual walk, interrupt your spiritual walk. Interrupt your financial decisions. You can learn and you can have discussions, but you can't let people have control over those things, regardless of what they do. So George is right. Even if it was a gift, if it had no tithing and we're not going to do any financial plan you agree with, which happens to be ours in this case, then that's a control function,

and that's what you've got to stay away from. So you already knew what you needed to do. But say this out loud, Liz. Here's what's interesting. I can hear it in your voice. I can hear it in your voice. If you took this money, you would feel like you were eight years old.

Oh, yeah. I still feel like that a lot anyway with them. Yeah. And that they return you to your childhood. And so the reason, I could hear it in the way they're trying to control and trying to lord over you. Yeah. The reason I could hear it in the way they're trying to control and trying to lord over you. And I've had to learn that here at the office with my son working here and my daughter, Rachel, obviously on the air with me. I've had to learn if I'm going to argue with them, I cannot argue in my dad voice.

I have to argue in my friend that is arguing voice. That's a different tone, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. There's a different tone, isn't it? Yeah. There's nothing demeaning in that tone. That's just like you and your buddy over coffee or a beer having an argument, right? And that's kind of a fun thing almost. It's a joyful kind.

It's a conflict searching for truth. It's not a conflict searching for control. Yeah. Yeah, that eight-year-old thing tells you the truth right there yeah yeah oh yeah and you're what 25 no 32 turning 33 this month are you are you are you single i'm single okay have you ever been married? No, my sister just got married actually a few weeks ago. That's wonderful. Okay. I was just wondering, what I was probing at is if you had been through something that hurt maybe

and that this was an open area in your emotions. I'm not Dr. John Deloney, believe me, but, um, yeah, you just sound like a very kind, sweet person that, um, is trying to find your own footing. And this is a really big step emotionally. Even if, even if this made you a bazillion dollars and it doesn't,

it's not worth, it's not worth the payoff. No. Yeah. So you're very kind. And I would just be that. Mom and Dad, I love you. Thank you so much.

You know, I think it's going to be good for me. I've decided it's good for me to work my way through this, and I'm going to do that. But I appreciate you cheering for me on the sidelines. Yeah. And just say that and just keep on trucking, kiddo. You're going to be out of debt in a year. You're amazing. You've already done a great job.

How much has your life changed in one year? Wow. You don't even know. I can hear it. I'm hoping to do my debt-free scream in the fall. I'm so excited. I can't wait. All right, let's do it.

We'll get it scheduled. I'll hold on and make sure you talk to Austin before you leave so you can get to him and make sure you get your debt-free scream set up. And you remind us of this conversation when you're doing the scream, okay? All right. All right, kiddo. Way to go. Wow. Very cool.

I'm proud of her. That's very neat. It's a hard thing to do. Yeah. Moms and dads, it's a very difficult thing. I think, George, it's the most difficult stage of parenting, having your children become adults. And I hate that phrase. I was writing it in a blog thing I was doing the other day about work.

And adult children, I still don't know what to call my kids that are adults. Because they're your kids. They're not kids. They're not children. They're adults. My offspring that are adults yes i mean you know i mean what do you call because adult children sounds like an oxymoron yeah doesn't it and so you've got to moms and dads you got to um man well the goal i got it's hard

it's hard to not just at easter dinner not to go you know that's a dumb butt thing i've ever heard in my life but you just said they're adults you know, that's a dumb butt thing I've ever heard in my life. But you just sit there and go. But they're adults. You know, I wouldn't say that to one of my friends, and so I'm not going to say that to a grown offspring or whatever they are. That's hard. I love it. I think Meg Meeker said it.

You know, the goal is to raise adults, not kids. Yeah, raise functioning adults, not functioning children. That's Andy Andrews, actually. There we go. I knew it was one of your friends. This is The Ramsey Show. George Campbell, Ramsey personality, is my co-host in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage.

John and Courtney are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Great, and you? Better than I deserve. Where do you guys live? We live in Blairstown, New Jersey, which is about an hour northwest of Newark, New Jersey. Okay, cool. Good to have you guys. Welcome to Tennessee. And here to do a debt-free scream, how much have you paid off? $169,900. I love it. How long did this take? 29 months. Way to go. And your range of income during that time? Approximately $160,000 to $190,000. Wow. Very nice incomes. What do you guys do for a living? I am a speech language pathologist. And I work in law enforcement.

Ah, very good. Very cool cool what kind of debt was the 170 uh there was some credit cards a solar loan a car a truck and student loans y'all were normal yeah but you figured out normal sucks yes yes all right we're not normal anymore you're weird now way to go so what happened to you guys 29 months ago what got you started on all this ramsey stuff so we actually came down to Nashville in October of 2019 and I attended the business boutique conference oh yeah and I took a picture with Christy Wright posted it on Facebook and one of John's co-workers Darwin actually reached out to us and said you're Dave people you're Dave people and John's John's like, who's Dave? Who's Dave? I came to see Christy.

So yeah, I asked him, who's Dave? And he went into that he's following your program. And then I think him and his wife actually came down in February of 2020. And he sent me a text message asking if he bought me a book, would I read it? And I asked him what book? And he said, The Total Money Makeover. And I said, sure, if you buy it, I'll read it. And February 2020. Wow, what timing. Yeah.

We read the book and then we got all set for March of 2020 to start the snowball. And then the world shut down. But we still managed to work through it. And here we are. I don't guess it shut down in law enforcement no it did not did speech pathology shut down so i was out of work for a couple weeks i have my own practice so that was more by choice than by any sort of law or anything and was doing a lot of telehealth okay wow well you got options when you're self-employed yes

you can apparently we learned that you can just options when you're self-employed yes you can apparently we learned that you can just decide if you're essential it was interesting so hey way to go you guys so right in the middle of a dad blame pandemic you decide you're going to get out of debt so did you put it on hold or did you plow on we plowed on once you got on the horse you're going to ride huh okay? Okay, cool. Very cool. So did the pandemic work in your favor because of extra hours or hold you back because of reduced income? I don't think it really did either other than motivate us seeing that what could happen and why we should have better handle on our money. But I did take on an extra job during the pandemic and have kept going since.

I teach graduate level students via Zoom in the evenings when our son is sleeping. That's a great gig. Way to go. Hey, just for the listening audience, because a lot of folks that have graduate level degrees like you do can do that and make some good money. Do you mind telling people what you get paid for that? I make about $35,000 a year doing that. Wow. And you teach one class a year or two? Mm-hmm.

Wow. Incredible. When your kid's asleep. Mm-hmm. That's a nice side hustle. Very nice side hustle. You guys are incredible. I thought that was going to be the case.

That's why I dug in, yeah. So you were throwing over like half your income at this debt. What kind of sacrifices were you guys making? How did you do this, especially living in a higher cost of living area where most people would say, you can't do this where I live? I don't really feel like we felt like we sacrificed that much. I always thought we overspent kind of generally speaking. But once we made the budget and focused, it was a lot easier.

We make great money. Let's just put it to use, pay off debt instead of getting more. Exactly. You don't realize how much nickel and diming you do when you're not focused on your budget and when you actually bear down and focus on it, you realize, okay, well, I spent $10 here, $20 there, and it all adds up at the end of the month.

So the total money makeover, you read that, and then you just what listen to the podcast and did this yes listened religiously even our son asked us one day that if he marries a girl who has student loans he now will have debt right wow that's incredible he's already picking out his spouse sharp kid this is great you need to find this out in the third grade good stuff very very cool all right what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is i feel like it's so cliche but definitely the budget i definitely think it's also uh celebrating the wins uh in the beginning with the smaller loans, you see it a lot faster.

You're paying off, paying off, paying off. And you see the loans disappear off our spreadsheet. And then once they got a little bit bigger and it took longer to pay a single debt off, once we got to the end of it, we kind of celebrated either with a sushi lunch, as our son loves to have or you know something like that just just to keep the motivation going yeah your son has good taste that free girls and sushi yeah he definitely does how old is he seven he's seven he's going places he's going places he's got he's got a big future ahead of him very cool so when you're reading

through the total money makeover or you're listening to the podcast what was the primary thing that made you say we've got to do this i feel like for a long time i had suggested to john that we budget in some way not specifically the snowball or anything like that but um he usually always found a reason why we needed to spend the different money that we spent. But once he read the book, he was very much on board. And I said, you understand what this means. We can't go on vacation.

We have to sell everything that we don't use. He's like, yes, I understand. Wow. So for you, what was the thing that turned you around on this? I don't know. I just wanted to retire as a millionaire and uh not have to ever worry about money again so long-term vision yeah you bought you bought the belief that you really can live like no one else and later live and give like no one else absolutely

so you came to nashville to celebrate what else you're doing to celebrate uh we're doing a pool renovation right now um so hopefully when we get back the contract it'll be starting that uh the week or so yeah be ready be ready by the time the weather's warm in jersey yes very good very cool good for you guys very proud of y'all great work hey we've got the live and give box for you it's got the total money makeover book in it which you can give away that's what got your journey started and of course the baby steps millionaires book which is the next step in your journey and financial peace membership as well to go through financial peace university either use it or give it away it's the live and give box all right let's bring this young genius up uh you said he's seven years old what's his name

giovanni giovanni all right very good he loves uh sushi and debt-free girls. This guy's crushing the game. That's very good. He's killing it already. Good lineup. John and Courtney, $170,000 paid off in 29 months, making $160,000 to $190,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one.

We're debt-free! Yeah! Woo! three two one we're dead free i love it that's how it's supposed to be done george incredible and regardless of where people are at because they may look at this amazing couple and go well dave i don't make 160 grand or i have more to i've there's always an excuse people have to not do the plan. And I love what John said where he just went, I looked at the facts and I realized I need to be thinking longer than what's happening this weekend and think about what does the next five years, 10 years, 20 years look like?

And regardless of your income, you've got to make a decision. You're going to be there 10 years from now. So where do you want to be? Yep. You're going to do something. You're going to work for 10 years. Where are you going to end up be yep you're gonna do something you're gonna work for 10 years where are you gonna end up because you're gonna do the work you might as well get the prize you know run as paul says run in such a way that you get the prize you know it's you have to push on through and do this it's the the moral of the story on hundreds and hundreds and hundreds now i

guess thousands of debt-free screams on YouTube is you can do it. Yeah, talking to you. You're out there riding around your car right now. You're on the treadmill. You're going for a run. Talking to you. When are you going to decide to change your entire life and go through the process of starting with becoming debt-free so that you can

build wealth so that you can be outrageously generous. It puts you in a whole new place, boys and girls. This is The Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day, James 5.13, is anyone among you in trouble let them pray is anyone happy let them sing songs of praise abraham lincoln says i have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that i had nowhere else to go he's got away with words that's fabulous oh taylor is with us in auburn alabama hey taylor welcome to the ramsey show hey dave and george thank you for having me on sure what's up so my wife and i for our first nine years of marriage got all the way to baby step six

and uh change of jobs stepped in the ministry four four kids, and 10 years later, got $7,700 of credit card debt and a $7,700 credit card, or excuse me, a car payment as well. And just wanting to know what to attack first, should I stop retirement to start paying these things off? Our budget is stretched, and it just seems like there's not a whole lot of options. Yes. I would definitely pause investing. How much are you investing right now? Right now it's $350 a month. That's 350 more to throw at the debt. How much other money do you have to throw extra on top of the minimum payments? Probably if we stopped putting, we try to put $400 in savings every month too. If we stop that, we could stop that and throw that at it as well. How much is in savings?

$8,000 right now. It's dwindled a lot. $8,000? Yeah, I wish it was a lot more. Okay, I'm just making sure you didn't say $80,000. What's your household income, sir? $130,000 combined. My wife is a teacher. I'm an executive director, profit ministry.

Where's all your money going? Well, a 17-year-old, a 15-year-old, a 12-year-old, and a 10-year-old. We've got $225,000 left on a house. And we took a big step into building that house, purchased land and sold land, and it cost more to build than we anticipated. And so that's where a lot of the money went originally. And right now, just with four kids and life, we've really stopped eating out. We've cut as many expenses as we can. We've developed a budget, got the EveryDollar app. But it just doesn't seem, life insurance policies, four kids in four different schools, activities, et cetera.

Four private schools? No, four public schools, but got kids that do show choir and band and trumpet rentals and uniforms, travel, et cetera. Okay. I still hadn't found $130,000. So are you sure you and your wife are doing a written budget on every dollar and both of you are agreeing for where every dollar is going? Well, we started this month. Oh, okay.

Totally honest, I can tell you. Is it the last year, year and a half? No, you haven't been. There's been money going out the door in places that we're going, man, car expenses, getting oil changed, three cars, one needs a new set of tires. I mean, there's just all kinds of things. The way you keep describing all this is not executing a budget. It all sounds like chaos.

Yes. It's managing you. You're not managing it. That's the way your verbal pattern is coming off. Okay. it that's the the way your verbal pattern is coming off okay so yeah i think you guys need to get on a really really detailed in-depth with the television off and the kids in another room detailed budget that you and your wife are really looking at and saying this month how here's what's coming in this month here is what it's going to exactly and i think there's more room in this

budget than uh you then you've described and you may have to cut back on some things that are kid projects i don't know but that that's something you all will look at and decide but um but you know you've got a thousand dollars a month we know right there and once you get the piece and the control that that detailed budget will give you you'll be able to release seven of the eight thousand and start working the baby steps again so stop all savings stop all anything you're right back at baby step one you need a thousand dollars and then everything else goes on your other stuff. So it sounds like we're going to pay off one of these $7,700 debts. There's two debts that are $7,700? Yeah, they're exactly the same amount right now.

Obviously, the credit card's a much higher percentage. Would you start at that one and then move to the car payment? Yeah, all things being equal, I'll choose the percentage, and it sounds like they're equal. One single credit card? One single credit card, yes, sir card yes okay all right yeah i think i'm getting rid of that and have a thousand dollars in the bank and uh and that's month one and then month two is we're aggressively attacking the car and getting rid of it

and then month three is we rebuild the emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. That's baby step three. And you're going to be there by Christmas. Okay. That's where you should be mathematically. And I think you could be there sooner because I can't, you know, make sure you haven't got a bunch of stuff coming out of your check at work. Are you getting a big tax refund? No. Paid federal $317 and got uh got 2 000 back from state that's about right then okay

all right good there's a lot of money leaks happening i i would stop the uh over withholding on the state if you have the ability to adjust the state without withholding without adjusting the federal i would i don't know how your state functions on that, but I'd try to do that because you're obviously over withholding a couple hundred bucks a month on state. And, yeah, that right there is $1,000 we found between those three things to get started on this, which means in seven months the other cars. Oh, yeah, and you freed up the credit card payment, so you're going to throw that on top of it until the snowball rolls.

So I think you can do this in six months easily. And the emergency fund too. I think there's more room than $1,000 in there that you should find. But, you know, you just start looking for nickels and dimes. And then when you get the emergency fund rebuilt, that's baby step three. Then you're back to four, five, and six. And four is you're putting 15% of your income into retirement. Five is kids' college savings.

If you're doing that, you need to stop it for a little while until you get this mess cleaned up and um what caused you guys to do this is you were uh not working a plan not working a system and everything happened to you instead of you happening to it the house being overbuilt uh the purchase decisions that didn't that you didn't have the money to buy instead of saying, no, you bought them anyway. And that's the stuff happening to you instead of you happening to it. Money is a wonderful slave, but it's a terrible master. That'll preach. It's amazing what happens.

You start paying attention and going, oh, we could do better there. We could do better there. We can cut that. Let's get rid of the whole life. Let's get term. And all of a sudden, you just a thousand bucks in your budget another thousand yeah there's probably two thousand making 130 grand i'd find another thousand if i were you yeah i think there's 24 000 a year out of 130 that you can get your hands on to clean this mess up

and to rebuild right quickly to where by this time next year you know you you could be aggressively putting into kids college if that's in place. Sounds like you got some teens. You got to get ready for that. And, you know, you'll have your emergency fund in place and you have no payments but your house payment. And that house payment is not completely out of control with $130,000 income. It's really not your problem. But this out of control thing is what your problem is.

You've been tailspinning on the ice for a while. And you can hear it. It's amazing to me that people make six figures, and they're still living paycheck to paycheck. And the data is showing us this, that there's increasing numbers of people making six figures. Fast majority of them, over 80%. And everyone's blaming inflation and all these things, but really it's our out-of-control spending. He wasn't blaming anything. He was blaming himself, which is, that's a healthy thing, not to shame yourself, but just to say, okay, recognize I'm the problem, and therefore, I'm the solution. And our behaviors are the problem.

Our chaos is the problem. So the solution is push the chaos out with systems and processes, very deliberate hustle and grind, leaning in, very detailed. And that's how you work. You just work the process. Just work the system. Just work the system. Just work the system.

And then all of a sudden, things start to come into control, and there's margin emotionally. There's margin relationally. There's margin spiritually. And there's margin mathematically. It all starts to come. But you have to impose your will on life or it will impose its will on you that's the one of the best days of your life looking back is when you realize oh i'm the

problem i can fix that yep it is it's very very empowering it's not shaming at all so good stuff man thanks for calling in taylor that's a really good question excellent excellent excellent george campbell good show today that puts us out of the Ramsey Show and the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there is ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, it's George Campbell. If you like what you heard in this episode and want to know more about getting started on the Ramsey Baby Steps,

go to ramseysolutions.com and click on the Get Started button. We'll help you figure out the best next step for you based on your specific situation. That's ramseysolutions.com and click Get Started.