The Ramsey Show - App - I’m 15 & My Parents Are Charging Me Rent! Is This Legal? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: March 1, 2023

George Kamel & Dr. John Delony answer your questions and discuss: "I’m 15 & my parents are charging me rent! Is this legal?" Why wealth won't solve your problems, Saving up for a car, "Should I pay off my car?" "My employer wants me to get a credit card", "Should I sell my truck?" Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Take our FREE 3 minute assessment: https://bit.ly/3nInETX 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

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work they love, and create amazing relationships. I'm here with my good friend, Dr. John Deloney, and we're taking your calls at 888-825-5225. Let's kick off this hour with our friend Matthew Cross, across the line there over in Canada, yonder ways. Matthew Cross? Across the line. Across the line, across the country. There's no pond there, so I had to say line. I didn't know how to say it. Matthew, welcome to the show.

I'm sorry that I exist. Hi, how are you guys? We're doing well. How can we help today? Okay, so before I ask my question, there's a bit of context that I got to give. So I'm 16 years old. I work full-time, and I do that on a part-time schedule. So I'm doing 12 to 13 hours a day, three to four days a week, because I'm still in school full-time, and I do that on a part-time schedule. So I'm doing 12 to 13 hours a day, three to four days a week, because I'm still in school full-time.

Oh, so by part-time, you just mean you're not doing this five days a week? Yeah, yeah, exactly. I was like, what kind of life hack is this? So you're working full-time, part-time? Yeah. But I got it. But anyway, I pay for most of my own stuff. I bought my own car. I pay for my insurance, my gas, my phone plan, a lot of my own food. I bought my own car. I pay for my insurance, my gas, my phone plan, a lot of my own food, even especially on the days where I'm working.

And on top of this, my parents have decided that it's fair, uh, to charge 15% of my income as a rent or tax or, uh, whatever, whatever you want to call it. Now you guys are smarter than me. You don't have anything in this, so I'd like to know whether or not you think that's fair or I'm just overreacting and thinking that it isn't. So how much do they want to charge you? It's 15% of my income, so this month it'll be close to $500. And you're 16?

16. I don't know what the laws are in canada but i don't think in america you would have legal standing to charge a minor rent i don't think it is legal but you know what's what's the motive behind it have you just had a conversation with them say hey what's what's going on here why all of a sudden do you want rent money? Like, are they broke? Do they need money? No, no, it's kind of interesting because for my dad, he says it is about the money. He says it's not fair that he should be the only person to like provide for the family when he has working children, right? He made you. Hold on. You're here because of him. You didn't ask to be here he brought you into the world yeah that's you should tell him job you say well well well if it isn't the consequences of

your actions dad so that's my dad's side because and the reason he thinks that's fair is because when he was a kid, he had to pay 50% of his income. Oh, right. And he probably had to walk up and down uphill nude in the snow to school both ways. Like, whatever. Like, good grief. Okay.

And then there's my mother. She has a slightly different side. She doesn't think that it's about the money. It's about, well, according to her, real life, there's rent, there's expenses and whatnot, and this is real life, so this is what we're teaching you. All right, so let me push back on that for our general audience. There was a great camp, right? A camp was a name for a mixed martial arts school called Shoot-A-Box out of Brazil.

And they had some of the greatest fighters in the world. Vanderlei Silva was out of there. Shogun, who was that? I mean, it was just the who's who. And they were known for having practices where they just beat the tar out of each other. They would do really intense workouts. They'd do really intense physical training They do really intense, um, physical training, but they would just fight every day. And they were known for being the most intense fighters in the ring, maniacal. Like they would win fights before they even got in

there. And I never missed a Shogun fight. I never missed a Vandalize Silva fight. I never missed Shoebox fights because they were so, I mean, they were so entertaining to watch. They were just insane. And those guys' career was significantly curtailed because the idea was you're going to get hit in the ring. So what we're going to do is we're going to hit you a bunch before you get in the ring. And that's going to make you better in the ring. And that works for a very short window of time until all that cumulative damage makes you where you can't even climb up in the ring anymore.

And now, 15, 20 years later, almost all of the gyms have very limited full-on contact sparring. They save the hits for the gym. And so I am sick of parents saying, well, I'm going to hit you now because the world's going to hit you later as though that's going to help you later. What I want to do is give you a context, what love looks like and connectivity looks like. So when the world hits you in the face, you are anchored into something way stronger. And I'm not

talking about making soft, weak kids. I'm not, it's not it at all, but we don't have to go all the way over here where I'm going to start charging you weak kids i'm not it's not it at all but we don't have to go all the way over here where i'm gonna start charging you rent now because one day it's going to charge you rent they're going to show you how you clearly matthew clearly are light years ahead of people your own age i don't know any 16 year olds who are where you're at right now paying cash for their cars covering their own gas and insurance buying their own meals so the idea that actually go ahead i did actually borrow money for my sister to buy my car but i i did pay her off two days ago actually okay good so here's the other side of this there's not a lot you can do yeah that's fair and so here's where this breaks my heart is the moment you turn 18

you're probably gone and they will have lost the relationship and influence with their son and I hope that it's not too late for them but if I'm you I'm probably gonna wait I'm gonna bide my time until I'm 18 and then they won't ever see me again I'm out of here

and I hate that for all of y'all because i i it's just not healthy or good for anybody but that's the world they're creating and i don't know that you have another option unless you're gonna move out at 16 which i don't know that that's a wise deal too um are you in high school right now uh yeah i am i mean you're an impressive kid I would just be proud if I was your parents. Yeah. But here's the deal. The other side of this is you go, all right, I'll just stop working. And what happens then?

They have to cover all of your bills, plus they get $0 in rent? Yeah, I wouldn't say it. Is that what would happen? It sounds a lot like the Canadian government, which is going to penalize you for the better you do. Right? They're just going to keep penalizing you more and more. What if you said, hey, I really want to focus on school, Dad. I'm not going to work anymore, and now I need money to cover all these bills.

What would they say? They would just cut off everything. You wouldn't have a car anymore, you wouldn't have a phone, you wouldn't have gas. You'd get zero dollars. Yes. Do you help out around the house, taking care of the house? I try to, but not usually, which is another reason why they say they charge it. Because, like I said, I'm gone from when the sun comes up to, like, everybody's in bed when I get home.

Because you're in school and working and working your tail off. Yeah, exactly. This whole thing just feels arbitrary to me. Yeah. So I'm going to have a few conversations with them to get to the heart of what this really is about because if it's just like i'm gonna financially abuse you because that's what my dad did and it made me the man i am today that's just bad parenting it's just to put that on your sorry man i'm sorry um i can't think of they should be cheering you on until they are hoarse and i'm sorry that they're penalizing you for being a go-getter.

And I hope this doesn't ruin your relationship long term, man, because you're all going to need each other down the road. But I'm just heartbroken for you, my man. Absolutely. But you're a minor. You live in their house. And it's their rules. Thanks for the call, man. This is The Ramsey Show.

Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Dr. John Deloney. If you like this show, which I assume you do if you're still listening, please consider subscribing, leaving a review, and sharing this show with friends. That is how we continue to make an impact on this toxic culture we are up against every day and we so appreciate all of you who have already subscribed and left reviews and shared it with so many people so john uh a video stumbled across my page from producer james and i thought it was a great video for both of us to talk about okay and it's with uh the very intelligent dr jordan peterson on an interview he did on some guy's YouTube channel. Great.

Who has like a bajillion followers. Let's do it. Not some guy. So I want you to play this clip and get your take on it. Let's do it. You know, because people say, I'd be happy if I had $400 million. It's like, you think you could handle that responsibility, do you?

Like you're so sure of that, that all of a sudden you'd have all this money dumped on your you can't even control your household budget you live from paycheck to paycheck now somebody's going to dump a treasure on your steps and that's going to fix your life it's like okay how much you're going to give to your relatives like none oh that'll work out real well too much so then you're going to take away their responsibility from them are you and you're going to get that balance exactly right and then what are you going to do with that money because as soon as you got the money the parasites are going to come in and take your money yeah it happens unbelievably quickly you know you'll see well

the average family fortune lasts three generations that That's all. Because money sitting around not being carefully monitored, it's like water. It just disappears. It's up in the mail. Yeah. Man, here's my initial thoughts on that, George. One is, I would say this is a cultural issue, but I think it's as old as time.

This idea that happiness is over there. Joy and satisfaction is somewhere where I'm not. And I always want to caveat that with, if you're struggling to eat financially, yes, happiness is where I'm not hungry, right? So there's some reality that if you're being abused or you're in a relationship, somebody's cheating on you or something, yes, happiness is not in this, right? But as he was saying, if I just had a million dollars, if I just had $10 million, if I just had $100 million, then fill in the blank.

And I think him calling those things out, it's not accurate. That's not true. Because as we all know, like wherever you go, you go with you. And so you're going to be you with the same insecurities you're just going to have 400 million dollars to try to wallpaper and duct tape over man the numbers just get magnified and the as the great biggie small said no money more problems right that's true there is a reality to that there is some truth you can you can buy a plane and get places faster and you can you don't have to worry about food great you have to worry about your dad saying

i'm never talking to you again you have to worry about your brother coming out of the woods and saying hey give me this and your cousin and that one friend you had like it's the the problems and challenges are just unique and different but it all goes back to this core issue happiness and joy is where i'm not and i think if you can find happiness and joy where you are, then as he said, that's an old biblical principle, be trustworthy with a little and you'll be trustworthy with a lot. And it rarely works in reverse. Well, and I love your talk on how winning won't make you well. And I feel like so much of our society is just going, well, if I had more money, John, everything would be so much greater. And like you said, if you're in a poverty situation, more money will change your situation for the better.

And anybody who says otherwise is lying. And most people that hear this are not those people. Right. But they go, John, no, dude, I'd take $400 million today. I think I'd know I could handle it. I would too. And I would know it's going to come with some very significant challenges. And even change the numbers.

$400 million is obviously an insane number. But even take- $4 million. $4 million, a million, $500,000. And now you have the relationship issues because everyone feels like that's not fair that you got this. I should get a cut. I raised you.

I'm your aunt. I'm your cousin. I need the money. Don't you remember that time? Oh, you're too good for us now because you're... It just changes stuff. So there's two pieces of this equation. Number one is the contentment issue of going like, if I just had this over... And it's over there. The other piece is a stewardship issue of going, why would you get more to manage when you can't manage what you already have?

Right. And we're talking to the middle class and above here. We're talking to the people who make 40, 50, 60, 250 grand and still live paycheck to paycheck. And they're talking to the middle class and above here. We're talking to the people who make 40, 50, 60, 250 grand and still live paycheck to paycheck. And they're going, if I made more money, that's the problem. Inflation, John, the cost of eggs. I talked to a guy the other day. We did a man on the street and he was like, well, how is anyone supposed to afford rent with cost of eggs? And I go, you're really going to sit here and blame eggs being $3 more as to why no one can get ahead in America.

Right. And so there's a stewardship and contentment issue. And we say money makes you more of who you already are. That's right. It just magnifies. It's a magnifier. So if you're a broke person who's a jerk, you're just going to be a rich jerk later on in life.

And if you're a generous person who doesn't have a lot, when you do have some, you're going to be a philanthropist. Right. And- It's an interesting, if you just said you know a financial advisor i saw this on twitter and it was a great exercise they say i like to ask my clients this helps me know exactly where they're at if you had 20 years and 10 million dollars what would you do and just to see how they would spend that money what they would do helps get to the root of what they really value

and you've said show me your bank account and your calendar and I'll show you what you think is important. And so money is just a tool. It's not a moral issue. Money is amoral. It's like a brick. You can use it to build buildings or through windows. And so when you finally figure out how to use it as a tool for good, it changes the way we see money.

Yes. And if you were to look at my bank account, you would say, man, that guy really values guitars and gummy candies. And that's okay. You're doing it debt-free, John. You're on a good level. It's not okay. It's not okay. All right. Let's go to Yasmary in Boston, my hometown. Yasmary, welcome to the show. Hi. How are you doing? Good. Thank you. So my question is, I'm 15 years old and I'm currently trying to save up for a car and I have about $800 that I have saved. And my parents said that they will match whatever

I end up saving. Awesome. And I'm just wondering whether I should put the money in a CD or in a high yield savings account and which way will help it grow faster over the next year and a half? Love that question. Well, I'm a big fan of the high yield savings account over the CD, and it's for a very simple reason. The money stays liquid. And if you needed that money for any reason, car or otherwise, you're going to be dinged with a penalty in that CD. And the other thing is the CD has a fixed interest rate. So let's say the CD, it'll give you 4% right now. That's about what you'd get. Well, the problem is what if your high yield savings account goes to 5% because it's a variable rate? Well, now you're missing out because your money's locked up for the next 12 to 18 months in a CD instead of growing even more in that high yield savings

account. And let me also say this, it doesn't make all of that difference when we're talking about one year and a few thousand dollars that's the timeline we're looking at right yeah when would you be getting a car how how long from now so i can get my permit when i'm 16 so by december december of this year yes of this year i can get my permit. So are you hoping to save up like $2,000 and then your parents are going to put in two and buy a $4,000 car or something like that? Yeah, I'm just trying to get a reasonable car. The other thing too is I don't have a job

and I'm just trying to find some low stress things I can do that won't interfere with my school and stuff. Okay. So we're talking evenings and weekends? Yeah, probably. But I'm just not sure what types of jobs I could potentially get at 15 in this area. I mean, I think retail and hospitality are great options. That's what I did at your age.

I'd even work at the school that I was going to even over the summer. I kind of worked as an IT person, fixing updated computers. I worked at Burger King for years. I mowed lawns and also worked part-time with a landscape company. I also was a maintenance guy at a local church. I want to challenge all young people, unless you have some very clear personal challenges, don't look for a quote-unquote the lowest stress job. Go ahead and get a job where

you can work really hard and shine the brightest even when you're tired and i think there's something that's really powerful about what you can discover about yourself in those in those positions i was a doctor's office receptionist at 15 and i was making 12 bucks an hour and i thought like i was like i'm rich i am rich and i just worked you, you know, weekends. I made $425. But it was enough. And so start to look around your community and see, hey, what would pay the most and give me the most experience or whatever you're looking to do later in life? Or just what would give me the best paycheck right now? If you want to be an attorney someday, see if you can get a job just getting coffee in a legal shop, right?

Or something you may want to do, like work in a doctor's office if you want to go to med school someday. And just set a goal and say, hey, I'm trying to save three grand. My parents will match it. That'll get me to six and start researching what kind of cars could I get for six grand. And you'll be there in no time. And maybe you wait a little longer and save up even more. We're cheering you on. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Dr. John Deloney. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever met a natural-born leader? I thought you could say natural-born killer. That's different. Natural-born leader.

This one's rhetorical. No, you haven't. There's no such thing. Because leaders are built, they are not born. And the great thing about that is that you get to decide what kind of leader you're going to be. So if you want to take your leadership to the next level, join thousands of business leaders who have already grabbed their seats for Entree Leadership Summit. It's happening May 30th through June 2nd in Nashville, Tennessee, right here in our hometown. You're going to learn from some of the best minds in business, leaders like Malcolm Gladwell, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Manit Chauhan, Willie Robertson, and so many more. This is not a leadership conference you can afford to miss. It's a game changer for leaders and business owners,

and it's why it's already almost sold out. So if you want to learn more about Entree Leadership Summit, just go to ramsaysolutions.com slash summit. That's ramsaysolutions.com slash summit. I went in, I was up at the entree floor a little while ago and they have a thermometer there it is it is almost sold out man the energy on the entree leadership floor is electric that's yes and they love nothing more than serving business owners and business leaders like you all so looking forward to that event john you're going

to be speaking there yes yes yes yes do you know what you're speaking about yet i do oh all right i. I won't let the cat out of the bag. Good. But it's going to be good. You're always a favorite with that credit. I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be fun. All right. Let's get to the phones. 888-825-5225 is the number to call. Judy joins us in Denver. Judy, welcome to The Ramsey Show. How are you doing? Great. How about yourself? We're doing wonderful. How can we help today? Yeah. So about 15 months ago, I was in a traumatic car accident. I work in the healthcare field and I was a pedestrian going across the street and I was hit by a car. Oh my gosh. What happened? So I have a, huh? What happened? So I have a, I have a lot of injuries. Um, I have a brain injury, um, a tibial plateau

fracture in my knee. Um, my nose had to be realigned and, um, oh my, I have a lot of scars on my face and things like that. I'm so sorry. I'm on workman's comp right now, and I'm on light duty. Oh, this happened while you were at the hospital? On my way to work, yes. Oh, my goodness. Okay. All right.

And how severe is the TBI? What's that? How severe is your brain injury um it's not it's not terrible um my biggest uh problem is being able to track um like up and down and also to retain um when i read. Sometimes I can't remember what I read. It's a short-term memory. Okay. Yeah. So I don't have, like, dizziness and stuff like that, but I do have a lot of that effect. And I didn't, like, nothing affected.

Just, you know, like, I can still move my arms and all that stuff. I'm so sorry. So how can we help today? Well, I've been following you guys for quite a while. And unlike most of, I think most of your followers, I paid cash for my house about 20 years ago. Wow. But I have a car payment, and I have the money there. Judy, why do you have a car payment? Why do you have a car payment?

Because, well, when I got hit, I was in the process of trying to get it paid off. Like, I was picking up extra shifts and things like that. And, um, so 12,000, and then I have 70,000 in, in savings, but I have a fear of, because I'm on work comp that, you know, I don't know for sure if I'm going to be able to return to my old job and things like that. Are you cleared to drive? Yeah. Okay. I just want to make sure you weren't paying on a depreciating asset that's just frozen in your driveway right now. Is there any other financial implications of your accident? Was there a settlement, insurance check, anything like that?

None. That has not happened yet. I do have an attorney for both PI and for the work comp. Okay. Do you have any disability insurance? There will be eventually, but I'm not at MMI yet. Okay. I'm still paying off this car. I probably would pay it off too. Because it frees up the payment and that 12 grand swing wasn't going to be the thing

that saved you anyways if you couldn't get back to your other life. But what will take the stress off is not having any payments. That's your only debt? Yeah. I like the idea of having a, and I'm

thinking about this purely for the mental stress, having no rent, no car payment. And at least when it comes to, nobody's going to be knocking on your door, depending on what happens next, except for the tax tax man. Right. So it still leaves you with 58 grand in savings and not a payment in the world other than your normal bills okay is your salary uh the same as it was even though you're only on light duty yeah i didn't get the only difference is i was working nights and i was getting i was getting anywhere between um 250 and 375 extra but because we were doing crisis pay at the time of the accident I was getting about 23 extra per hour. Okay, that some of that should be or all of that should be considered as part of the final

settlement because the idea of a settlement is we're gonna make you whole and whole Judy worked crisis shifts at night and made jillions of dollars um judy now who's uh got an uh an iron knee and a brand new beautiful nose um is not able to work those shifts right so we're that that's that's the point of the settlement is to help make Judy whole. And so I would begin, I don't want to say anything negative about anybody, but if I'm not mistaken, my guess is people have been really, really, really nice to you,

very kind and very accommodating and very friendly. And I don't want that to cloud your ability to say, okay, here's what my life's going to be like in the next five years, 10 years, 20 years. Let's go ahead and have some of these uncomfortable, hard conversations now. Or as soon as we get medical clearance where the doctors say,

this is about as good as this is going to get, or this is going to be the way this is for the next five to 10 years. It can be hard to engage in those conversations after your coworkers have been so kind. But if there's some fault there, man, we need to go ahead and have those conversations sooner rather than later. Well, I don't think you're going to regret paying off that car today. I'm heartbroken for you. And the best thing you can do is just try to get better and get back to what you were doing. And I cannot imagine going through a traumatic accident like that. And George, I can tell you that one of the things that makes us bananas with anxiety is when you get literally hit by a car walking on your way to work, right?

The last thing in the world you would think would happen. That little what if voice gets really loud. What if this happens? What if this happens? What if this happens? And for those of us who haven't experienced that kind of trauma, it's easy to say it's not going to happen. She can't say that anymore because for her, it did happen. So when her body is sounding those alarms, those alarms are real and they are sounding for a reason. You then have to say, okay, yeah, that could happen. I could pay this car off and all of a sudden all these crazy things happen and I only have $58,000 left to make do with the rest of my life. That could happen, but it probably won't.

But the probably won't, that sentence gave me more peace and I've seen it give people peace. Like, yeah, you're right. We could get hit by a meteorite. You're right. We could all just be trading Bitcoin and we all missed it. We all missed it. But probably not. Well, those are two volume knobs and we tend to turn the other one real loud. Right.

Real loud. I like that. I mean, have you seen the news, John? Everything's imploding. The stock market's going to go down to zero. Or probably not. Probably not. Probably not.

Well, it's a nice reminder that we have control over those dials. And it's not easy. It's easy to say, oh, just turn that off, John. It's not that hard. It's wired into us. It's a daily choice. Sometimes a choice you make by the minute and by the hour.

But it's worth doing for your own sanity and your own peace, financially, mentally, relationally. Thanks for the call, dude. Thanks for calling. Cheering you on on your recovery. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Dr. John Deloney. Our scripture of the day, Ecclesiastes 3.1.

There's an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth. The great Robin Williams once said, change is not popular. We are creatures of habit as human beings. I want it to be the way it was. But if you continue the way it was, there will be no is. Now that's one to chew on right there, John.

Very poetic. You'll get it tonight, run a little PM. Yeah, the gears are stuck. That's classic John. Hey, that's what two PhDs gets you. All right, let's go to the phones. 888-825-5225. Serena joins us in Salt Lake City.

Serena, welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for having me. Sure. How can we help today? Yeah, so my workplace wants to set me up with a credit card for travel and events, and I don't want to take it because I've never had one. So wondering what do I do instead because I'm in baby step three. Do they want you to apply for one and get one, or do they want you to apply for one and get one or do they want you to just give you a company card i think it's a fly for one because it's like technically through american express but it's a business card that's through the company but it has your name on it is that the idea yeah it has my name on it it would go on my credit score which i don't care about and

it would i would have to just basically take receipts, and they would pay on the credit, I guess. Okay. How often are you traveling for work? Twice a year. And that's what the card is for, or are there other expenses that are more regular? No, just for flights and hotels and stuff, and during the event when I need to get food. Well, couldn't they just book that for you ahead of time? Are you traveling with other people? I am, and that's what we did last year, but basically they didn't like how complicated the process got,

so they were hoping I would do it this way or basically I could use my own money and they would reimburse me. So you can use your own money? Yeah, but since I'm in Baby Step 3, I'm hesitant to, I usually don't have the funds to cover how much that would cost. Yeah, if you're talking, hey, it's $700 for this work trip. You're like, I don't have the funds to cover that. So just to give you an insight into when George and I travel,

and I'm doing this not to kick you while you're down, I wanted to give you and business leaders listening to this another alternative. George and I are going to go be on an event. We're going to catch a flight next week. The company will book the flight. The company will book the rental car. And then on our desk will be an envelope with cash in it that we're responsible for. And I've had to, I've, I've lost a receipt on the road or I tip somebody a lot and I, and I've got to cover that cash, but I'm responsible for what cash is there. But the cash is just sitting on an envelope on our desk. And the idea, here's the deal. You're using your money either way. This is your credit card and your credit, and it's your butts on the line here.

And if your company decides to not pay you back, you're going to owe that credit card company the same as if you just use your own debit card and pay your own money. I hate that for you, that they've put you in this position. That's not your job to quote unquote reimburse. What would they say if you just went to them and say, hey, I don't do credit cards. I'm not comfortable opening one. Is there a business debit card you could open for me? Or can you book it all and give me petty cash for the road? What would they say?

I didn't ask on the cash part, but I did ask about the debit card and basically they gave me a weird look like why would I do a credit card? But I did talk to my manager and once I explained to him how I've never had one, he understood that it was more like a value choice than just simply me being difficult. Yeah. a card, but I did talk to my manager and once I explained to him how I've never had one, he was, he understood that then that it was more like a value choice than just simply me being difficult.

Yeah. And, uh, but I don't, I was knowing that their response was basically, okay, you'll have to use your own money and we'll just reimburse you. So I have a feeling that would be the response. When's your next trip? June. Okay. How long are you going to be in Baby Step 3 for? Probably for a few more months. Okay. Would they give you cash ahead of time if you said, hey, here's what this is going to cost. Can you give me the cash ahead of time? I'll deposit it and I'll pay for it. Could that work? I could ask. That's an option. I just think there's always more than one option. And so if they're just like, well, that's the only way, there's a lot of ways. And people think we're crazy because there's literally not a credit card in this company. Dave only has a business debit card. We have a business debit card. We use petty cash on the road and it works every time.

One of my favorite lines of Dave's, old Dave, is when people used to say, I can't believe you would ever give your employees a debit card with access to some of your company's checking accounts and he said he would always respond i can't believe you would hire somebody that you don't like to carry your business to customers with your name on it that you don't even trust with a couple of grand out of a checking account like how would you hire somebody that you wouldn't trust that way? And so I don't know. I just hate that Serena's business has put her in this position. You pay for everything. We'll cover you. That's not your job, man. That's the business's job if you're doing business travel. And if you travel with a coworker or a leader

and they want to put it on their card since they're getting reimbursed, they can have more rewards. Good for them. And you won't have to deal with this. So I would just look at every single option possible to get around this stupidity. Appreciate the call. All right, let's go to Jeremy in Louisiana. Jeremy, welcome to the show. Hey, how are y'all? We're doing great, man. What's going on? So I was wanting to know, I'm about $31,725 in total debt. Not that you're counting down to the penny, right? Should I sell my 2013 Toyota Tundra with a 22.99% interest rate? Oh, my gosh.

I know, I know. Which we can pay off in the next four months after we get our tax return. We're getting about $2,500 back. I've only got $3,600 left on it what's it worth it's anywhere between you know 12 and 15 we're thinking and then once you if you sold that you would net about 10 grand well I would probably do a private sale that's probably get everything. And like you said, actually, yeah, like you said.

So maybe 11 grand max. And then we have to turn around and get another car, right? No. My wife has a car, and I also work for an insurance company, so I have a company truck that I can actually drive around as well. So you don't even need this thing. I just have to pay the mileage, you know. Really, I don't. Because after we paid off the truck,

we would owe about $4,600 on my car. We've got some other credit cards and a bank loan. I mean, the most of the debt is my student loan, which is $20,825. What's your household income? Per month, we make $4,400 a month. Okay. So if we sold this car, how much does it speed up our debt snowball? Pretty much it takes out every debt but my student loan. I'm taking that deal. You're freeing up all those payments. You didn't need the truck in the first place. And if you want another truck down the road, we're going to do it,

and we're going to do it with cash instead of a 23% interest. Good gracious. Yeah, I know. Hey, Jerry, what do you do for a living? So I was at the time when I bought the truck, I was a paramedic and I just graduated paramedic school. So I said, I need a truck. And I bought that stupid truck. But right now I'm a claims adjuster for an insurance company so you are smart enough to know blood types how to stick needles in people how to like shock them back to life

how to cpr yeah and then you saw that 22 and you're like this is a great idea that's a deal it's a great idea it's a great idea did the salesman have a straight face when they showed you that it's 23% interest? How do you even deliver that news? He was very good. He totally had a straight face. He was like, this is the best thing for y'all. I bet he was like, I've seen people who have higher interest rates than you, man.

You're getting a deal. Did you just have terrible credit? Yeah, your credit must have been about as good as old dog poo. How bad was your credit? My credit at the time i think was about 650 and my wife had the coastline but she had a repossession on her credit god almighty jeremy that's a terrible rate i'm so glad you're listening uh here's what we're going to do as you're because you're going to sell this car by the end of this weekend as you're going to be

free i'm going to send you every dollar app for free for a year and the new FPU lessons because here's the deal. Y'all need to watch them again. Y'all are kicking butt, taking names, but y'all need to watch them again. You're one bad day away from another 23% car loan. We're not careful here. Hang on the line here and Austin's going to hook you up with FPU.

Y'all watch these videos together and remind yourself why you're doing this. God almighty, get rid of that truck. I'd walk back into that car dealership and have some words once that thing's paid off. I would not even go back in there again. Just a thank you letter for teaching me something about life. Thank you letter.

That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. My thanks to Dr. John Deloney, all the guys in the booth, and you, America. Until next time, spend wisely, save intentionally, and give generously. Hey, it's Dr. John Deloney. If you like what you heard in this episode and want to know more about getting started on the Ramsey Baby Steps, go to ramsesolutions.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 ramsaysolutions.com and click Get Started.