The Ramsey Show - App - I'm In A Big Mess! (Hour1)

Episode Date: September 29, 2023

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it is The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Talking about the real thing. I am your host,ade warshaw i am joined by maybe my favorite co-host ever dr john deloney over here to my right we're gonna have a good time give us a call the number is 888-825-5225 we'll talk about your life let's talk about your money we'll talk about your mental health and wellness but before we get into that dr john we were just in the nyc we were in new york city this morning party in the usa we were partying in the usa we were in new york um for a media dinner we got to sit and hang

out with a whole bunch of cool folks yesterday and then we did some media this morning and then we got on a plane and flew here just in time to save america i'm like pinching myself somebody has to good grief i'm like what is happening i i went on social media yesterday and I was like, alright, you know, come check out the TV. We'll be on Fox News with America's Newsroom. I was like, wow, that's crazy. Then this morning I was like, hey, come check out the TV. We'll be on here with Fox and Friends. I was like, wow,

that's crazy. Our life has just really been cool and it's all thanks to you guys. Thanks for listening to the show. Thanks for sharing the show. Thanks for tuning in whenever we talk. We couldn't do thanks to you guys. Thanks for listening to the show. Thanks for sharing the show. Thanks for tuning in whenever we talk. We couldn't do it without you guys. And without further ado, we got to take it to the phone lines.

We got Jessica in NYC. We just came from there. Jessica, what's going on? Yeah, hi. Well, thanks for visiting us. It was fun. I bet. So I am,

my husband and I are trying to start to prepare for my retirement in approximately five years. I am a teacher locally, and I will be retiring with a large pension, approximately $100,000 a year. But I also have an opportunity to get a lump sum, which is quite significant. How do you determine what is the best course of action, whether to take the pension? And I know Dave usually says to take the lump sum, but due to me being so young and potentially being able to collect for an extended period of time and get spousal benefits for my husband, I just want to know, is there a calculator or a formula that you use to pick? Yeah, you know, all I can tell you is what I would do, and I'll tell you the reason why I would do it. And then if you have some information that kind of contradicts that, feel free to share it.

The reason I would take the lump sum, and in my case, you being a little bit younger is actually a good thing, because I would take the lump sum, and then I would get with a smart investor pro, and I'd reinvest it. And you are going to get a better rate reinvesting it in good growth stock mutual funds across the four types that we teach you're going to get a better rate of return than you were ever getting with your pension um because even the way we teach it we say like hey we we suggest for people to invest 15 of their income right but if somebody calls in here and says hey uh i've got a pension and i'm putting you know 10 into it does that count as 10%? We tell them no, count it for like 5%. And we say that because of the rate of return that you're likely getting on that pension. And so in your case, if I were you, you're going to walk away with so much more money

because if you get with the right investor and in the right funds, you're going to have an awesome rate of return. I mean, what are you, 50? I will be 50 this year. So I have about five more school years after this one. Oh yeah, that's great. And I mean, you're going to retire, but I'm sure you're going to go on to do other things. It's not like... I'm going to work. I'm a worker. Yeah, I can tell. So there's no doubt that I'm not going to work, but I am concerned because my husband is not going to have a pension or a retirement. We do have a four or three B, but I am concerned to make sure that I am preparing for him and leaving a legacy for my kids.

100%. If you take the lump sum, how much is it? It's estimated at $1.33 million. Girl! I would do it right now. Yep. Let me tell you two other things. Let me tell you two other things.

The first one is you are never guaranteed tomorrow. Right. And I wouldn't have a job if everybody lived to be 95 years old, right? And before this, I spent a lot of time in homes in the middle of the night hugging husbands because their wives had passed away. And I have had health issues okay i'm a cancer survivor from 36 so if you imagine your kids and your husband you've got this incredible pension that makes you're getting paid six figures and then you get sick and then something happens and then they're out and he's 60 years old with nothing versus you

got this so i it almost feels safer to me to know I've got a million dollars in the bank that is going to compound every seven years. If invested properly, it's going to double. And so you're thinking, man, if I live 21 more years, right? Just to the average, it'd be a little below average. Then you would have three, four, four million dollars, right? Four and a half. I mean, so you see what I'm saying?

Minus whatever y'all withdrew. So I'd pull it out. Here's the second thing I would tell you. And I'm just telling you this, like if I was sitting across the table from my mom, I personally, I don't have any secret info, but I don't see a path forward for all these pensions to pay out as they've promised,

similar to Social Security. They've been so heavily leveraged and borrowed against and bonded out. I don't trust the fact in 30 years they're going to be paying what they are. I don't see a path forward, especially with our grownups in Congress acting like children throwing crayons at each other. I just don't see it. John, you make a good point. And that's a good thing to remember, Jessica, is A,

a pension can die with you. And you mentioned wanting to take care of your family. So that's one thing. Or if your company goes under, that also puts your pension down the tubes. If one day New York had, we were just there and everyone we talked to talked about how New York hasn't come back yet, the real estate, all those shuttered first floors of all those buildings that used to be just hopping if it would not surprise me if New York has to um sit down with the union and negotiate and it'd be a bloody battle and you know it would be but I just don't I don't see a path forward 30 years from now now hopefully I'm wrong I would do anything to be wrong um but man, I'd much rather have $1.1 million in my checking account that's under my control that I get to decide what happens to down the road than to hope New York makes good choices

because they don't have a great track record. So Jessica, you're going to take that money, get with that SmartVestor Pro. You're going to invest it across four types. We teach this all the time 25 into each category you got growth growth and income aggressive growth and international that's what you want to do that is the path forward do you have any questions well what if we wanted to take some of that money and purchase some real estate oh i would ask since i'm going to hustle anyway i would ask if

you are in baby step seven and if you are i Baby Step 7, and if you are, I would say yes, do that. It becomes part of your portfolio. At that time, you will be. Yes, that's the way to do it. We're going to relocate and get off of Long Island, which is ridiculous. Yes, ma'am. That's the way to do it.

When you're in Baby Step 7, you pay cash for real estate, and you become even wealthier than you already are, which is pretty dang incredible. I love calls like that, John. That's awesome. Very cool. And thank you for being a teacher.

And I'm looking at the statistics, Jade and Jessica, thank you for not just quitting this year. I know that's right. You're going to ride out for five more years. Thank you. Those kids in New York are lucky to have you. Yeah. And you're modeling for them what a hard worker looks like

and a thinker looks like. I'm so grateful. That's awesome. In more ways than one. I love how she's wanting to take care of her family. I love when people really dial into their money, not just for the now, but for the future, because the choices we make can cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars when it comes to investing, what we're looking at, what we're not looking at. So I always admire when people are smart enough and diligent enough and intentional enough to call in and really get the right advice for their money.

Hey, and by the way, this is just an N equals one experiment, but my parents both changed careers in their 50s, and they are incredible into their 70s. So your husband says he's not going to have anything. He could if he chose right now to start doing something different. It's not too late. This is The Ramsey Show. What's going on, everybody? You're listening to The Ramsey Show. Thank you for listening.

I'm your host, Jade Warshaw, joined by John Deloney. Give us a call. We'd be happy to take your call. We'll discuss whatever you want to, as long as it has something to do with your money or your mental health. John over here is really the best guy to talk about mental health and wellness. Tell him what you do, John. I'm not the best guy. There's some really good ones out there, but we'll talk to you about your relationships, mental health, whatever's going on in your world, your emotional health.

Life has gotten sideways for everybody and it's a mess. It's a mess. I like the way you talk about things though, because for me, there's no like lingo. Like it's not over my head. It's like, oh, I can do that. Like that's me. He's talking to me. So that's one of the things I like about the way you speak to the people, John, including me. I'm one of those people.

But give us a call. Triple eight, eight to five, five to two, five. And we'll chop it up. We got Ashley in Columbus, Ohio. What's going on, Ashley? Hi, how are you both doing good? How are you? I'm good.

I'm a little nervous, so I wrote down my question. That's awesome. Just a slight background. I've had three surgeries in a year and a half, so the fact that John Delaney is on here talking about mental health, these surgeries have definitely weighed on me mentally. Because of that, we slid back into baby step two due to all of the medical bills that we accrued with that.

We were making really great headway until earlier this month we received a letter in the mail stating that we had a $2,000 bill that was about to go into collection. We had never received notice of this bill prior. So when we inquired more about it, it was from 2021 to two years ago for physical therapy from my first surgery. We got negotiated down from the 2000 to about 1300. However, we're having a problem with the office giving us a final bill in writing that that is going to be our final notice. And I don't want to be on the hook for $600 when I can't get anything in writing. And honestly, I just want these medical bills gone for my mental health and well-being. Have you driven over there?

I have, and I've talked to a supervisor, and they said, we'll give you dates that it went over. It came down to a dispute from my prior insurance and my prior employer, but they're not willing to give me anything in writing other than the bank. And the most recent bill we got was 1800. So it came down a little bit, but I'm afraid again, we're going to be on the hook for all of that. If we can't get something in writing. Do you have it? I have a voicemail from them. No, no, no, no. Do you have $1,800? Not really.

We've got our $1,000 emergency fund and slightly over that. We have about 12, and so we're working pretty quickly to get all of that. You said the bill was in collections, right? No, it was the final notice prior to collection. Okay, got it, got it. Let me tell you what i would do and jade tell me if i'm wrong i'll do just about anything for peace in my home and i would probably um as your husband as your neighbor as your someone that went to church with you, as your sister. I would go drive Uber. I would go babysit.

I'd go wash cars. I'd go do something and scrounge up this money and just pay the stupid bill and be done, move on. Yeah, and that's what my husband and I talked about as well. It's just not worth my soul. Now, my friend George Campbell, he would get a tent and a very bougie, nice tent, because that's how he rolls.

But he would go park it in front of the hospital or in front of the PT place, and he would sit there every day until they finally... So that's how he rolls. So everybody's different. I personally, if they actually did the therapy and they did the work that they're claiming that they did, I would pay them the money and be done with it. I would try to figure out a way to make it happen. And here's the other thing. You know this as well as I do. One of the things that surgery,

the mental health toll surgery takes is there's that scary sense that my body let me down. There's something about me that's not working right. And then there's that pervasive pain that hurts all the time. And they work you through therapy to slowly take teeny tiny little baby steps with that pain. One of the ways you regain trust in yourself is not through standing in front of the mirror and manifesting. It's a whole bunch of little wins. And my promise is, if you and your husband scrounge and scratch and claw and get 1800 bucks and just get this stupid thing paid out, even though it's going to cost you some

time, you're going to miss some t-ball games, you're going to miss whatever, you will stand a little bit taller. That's a path, right? You'll have little step, little step, little step, boom, y'all are done. You're out of our life. And then you'll say, all right, we did it. And then that will catapult you into getting back to baby steps three and four and on. Okay. Yeah. And that's, that's kind of what's our second, um, kind of our fallback, like, Hey, we have no choice, but to pay the 1800 and we don't take the discount. And that's kind of the end of the story with that. And we move on to the next medical bill. Um, and I agree with what you said. It, you know, I do feel like my body has failed me

since it's my story. That's how, literally, it's exactly how I feel. And one of the best ways to get confidence back in your body is to slowly begin to use it again, right? Both intellectually, both working really hard towards a purposeful goal and doing physical things, right? And it's just one of those things that you feel like, I'm going to do this workout and tomorrow I'm going to feel like a million bucks and you don't,

you look in the mirror and you kind of look the same. It's the little bitty things that accumulate over time. And then suddenly something's going to happen and you're going to be strong and you're going to think, oh, wow, I'm back, right? It's awesome. It just takes a bunch of little steps over and over and over and it's disciplined and it's annoying and it's slow and it just happens and it happens and you're all going to get there and get it done. I agree with that wholeheartedly. I'd pay it.

I want you to keep every piece of paperwork on this. I want you to keep this paper trail, especially if it's been inconsistent. The thing that's probably consistent is the account number. So they'll be, if there's ever a discrepancy, you'll be able to see, hey, this account went from 2000 to 1800. I paid it. You you know you'll always be able to see that so always keep the paperwork um especially if you are dealing with a collections uh company you definitely want to keep the paperwork because those jokers will come back you know five six seven years later talking about you didn't pay because you made a settlement. So always keep the paperwork always in a file

folder. And do not give them your checking account number. They're going to ask you for the routing number so they can just direct withdraw it. Do not. Oh, that's such a good point. Don't, don't, don't send a money order or have your bank wire it, but do not, do not, do not, do not, do not give them your information because you'll have money leaking out of your account for the rest of your life. Absolutely. Yeah. In this case, definitely. All right. Let's go to Manuel. Oh, let's go to Naya. She's in Orlando, Florida. What's going on, Naya? Hi, how are you doing? Doing good. How are you?

Good. So I just had a question. Me and my husband just recently decided to do the baby steps. Good. Our income just recently dropped because he lost his job from like $80,000 to $50,000. And we were already kind of like living paycheck to paycheck before that. So I wanted to know if we should catch up on past due bills first before saving an emergency fund or do we do the emergency fund catch up on past dues and then go into paying the debt? Okay. So I do want you to do the baby steps in the order. I do want you to get, because here's the thing, that thousand dollars, if you don't have that money, you're going to just go, you're just going to go more and more into debt and these things are going to get more and more past due. But the key to making this work, because I don't want you to rob Peter to pay Paul, the key to making this work is you've got

to get that income back up. He lost his job. What's he doing in the meantime um i have uh he's been kind of working my business um i have a bakery uh so are you paying him no okay that we get so it started off as a hobby like literally since we needed extra money like i literally popped the tin out in my front yard. That's great. And we just sell like cupcakes and stuff to the neighborhood and whoever walks past. That's great for you, Naya. But right now, right now, he's got to get a job that pays.

I want him applying to like eight jobs today. And this is not the be all end all. This is whatever's local, this Home Depot, this Amazon. This is whatever he can get very quickly and start making money very, very quickly. I'm going to give you a couple of numbers so you see how quickly this needs to happen. The average person gets their thousand dollars saved in 30 days. That means you're selling stuff. That means you are working day and night. That means if cupcakes are making you a little bit of money, but you can make more money doing Instacart this week in this month, you're doing Instacart.

Stop making cakes. Right now, we're doing whatever's going to make us the most money because not only do you need to get this thousand saved, you've got to get caught up on your bills. And if it's rent, we're getting caught up on that one first. If it's IRS, we're doing that one second. Then we're working the debt snowball. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you for listening. You're listening to The Ramsey Show. Thank you for listening.

You're listening to The Ramsey Show. I'm Jade Warshaw, your co-host with, together with, Dr. John Deloney. We're taking your calls all afternoon long, 888-825-5225. We're going to do it up with the neighborly question of the day. Today's question of the day is brought to you by neighborly, your hub for home services. Neighborly is your one place to find reliable HVAC plumbing and electrical providers near you. Brands like AirServe, Mr. Reuter, Mr. Electric have local professionals ready to help. So stop wasting time scrolling

through pages of results when you can just visit neighborly.com today. All right. Today's question comes from Josh in Oregon. Josh writes, I have no debt except for the house and I have one credit card. I've never paid a penny of credit card interest. I treat it like a debit card and pay it off every two to three days. Next year, my husband and I will accrue $12,000 in medical bills due to having a baby and my husband's medical condition, meaning our insanely high max out-of-pocket. My brother recently showed me a few credit cards

that have a $1,000 bonus if you spend $4,000 in the first three months. Since we have medical bills and the cash to pay the bills, he suggested we get the credit card and use it to pay our bills get the credit card bonuses and immediately pay it off with cash i know you're very against credit cards but what is your opinion on this go you called the wrong show um yeah dude you called the wrong show and i think that you should go with your first instinct because you said basically what does it say john she said that she knows that we don't do credit cards right i think she said that on there except except hold on she's special she's special and

there's a medical condition a baby oh so she's the exception to the rule correct oh well in that case i'm still gonna have the same advice that we always have. No credit cards. I would never, ever, ever. And this is being real. I would never, ever, ever suggest anybody to use a credit card really ever. The only time is if for some reason they had like a maybe if they were upside down on a car, right? And their credit was shot. And so they couldn't go to a credit union, you know, to get a little extra money to get out of that upside down situation. Then maybe I'd say, okay, do it on a credit card, right?

Because they're going from a large amount of debt to a much, much smaller amount of debt. That is the only time you would probably ever hear me say the words, here's how you could use a credit card. But in this situation, you have money. You have money and $1 thousand dollars to shuffle around debt in order to get a thousand dollars in in the time it took me to answer this call you could find a more productive way to make a thousand dollars i'm just saying all right so here's my two here's my two challenges with this i actually get the math on it

yeah the math is fine you You'll make your money. Cool. Assuming everything goes according to plan, John. Assuming everything goes perfectly, right? So I know the stress of having a baby. I know the stress of having medical conditions. I don't know why anyone would elect to add additional stress to that situation.

I know. To add more chaos. Like, okay, we got to remember to pay this one off because this one's got a thousand. We're going to roll this one over to the 4,000 and then we're going to spend this in the three months. We've got to make sure we get this bill back. I don't know why anyone would do that.

That's number one. Okay. But that's not enough for the math folks. I get that too. It's everything is worth it if you get that thousand dollars or whatever. Here's my beef. These credit card companies are not your friend.

And so you are the rare. And when I say rare, you're an albino unicorn. Okay. You don't exist in their world because if people like you existed in mass, they would close. They'd go bankrupt. They wouldn't exist. You pay it off every two to three days. Cool. So that thousand dollar bonus you're going to get is going to be paid for with late charges by that single mom who cannot breathe in Southern Arizona, whose husband just left her and she can't see the light of day. Somebody's paying that thousand bucks and it sure as crap ain't the credit card company. And if it's not you, it's people that they've been preying on, that they are desperate. That's why I quit using them when it came to airline points.

I travel all over the place. It makes perfect sense for me. I'll just get reimbursed and I'll get all these free miles. And it occurred to me, wait a minute, those flights aren't free. I love flying Southwest, but they are not my friend. They're a great service that I give money to. So somebody's paying for those flights and we dug into it. It's people who are in deep, terrifying financial trouble. And those are the folks that call the show every day. Those are the folks that email us and DM us every day. And they're literally dying inside.

I'm not going to let a single mom who can't breathe pay for me to have a thousand dollars in bonus cash or a free flight to Dallas. I refuse to be a part of that game. I love that. I actually really like that way of thinking about it. And I think that probably if you were to take a poll of all the various Ramsey folks here, we'd all have a different reasoning for the credit cards. And I love that reason. That's definitely something to chew on. My reasoning is slightly different, but similar, but different. My reasoning behind it, I mean, we can get into math stuff and debt and all of that, but mine is, and you can tell me what you think about this, John. I don't like a company who a mass majority of their profit and revenue is based on people defaulting.

Failing. Failing. Their customer has to fail for them to make money. Of course, they get money on transactional fees and all these other things. But the money that they accrue in late fees and overbalance, I'm like, wait a second, because I can go. There's plenty of companies out there. I can go to Jordan Brand and buy a pair of shoes, and I don't have to fail in any way in order to get the service.

That's right. Like I can go over to Publix, use their grocery store service or Instagram or Instacart, grocery shopping app. I don't have to fail in any way to get value from their service. Anytime a business's main profit source is the failure of their customer, think Blockbuster. I mean. They didn't make money on renting movies. They made money on your late fees. Yeah.

You had to lose. You have to lose. For them to win. They will go away. Yeah. If you provide a service like an incredible shoe. Yeah. That has value, that looks cool.

And we're just here to serve you. We want to give you fashion. I'll give you my money. You give me fashion, right? That's a fair transaction yeah but if they fall apart or if when the new jordans came out if they suddenly pushed a button like maybe one uh fruit company that makes cell phones does apple and they push the secret button and your phone starts working out as well yes yes the big red button only make money when their customers fail yeah i have a major problem with that. And then, okay, let's keep rolling this out

because we got time on this clock, John. So there's that part. Let me tell you my next part about credit cards. They get into your psyche and they have told us for decades, you can't exist without us. And so brick by brick, they've torn down our confidence

to be able to handle money as individuals because they've said, hey, your paycheck's not enough. You working hard 40 hours a week is not enough. You need supplement. You need extra. You need more. You need to be able to keep up. And here's how you can do that.

We'll give you this piece of plastic. We'll loan you our money at insane interest rates. And now, there you go. Now you're good. Go play. And so now we talk to folks all the time who call in and they're like, Jade, I'm terrified. I'm terrified to cut up my credit card. It has nothing to do with I want to get the points and the rewards and this. No, I'm just

scared that I won't be able to manage my money without the safety net that I've had in my life for five, 10, 15 years. That's crazy. And I hate that a company has had the ability to destroy our confidence in that way to just go, oh yeah, yeah. I mean, if I make $3,000 a month, I can only spend $3,000 a month. Like I can go into, I have the confidence to say, I go into the grocery store and I just only spend $200.

I have the ability to tell myself no. And I have the ability to say, oh, if I say this is the goal and this is the plan, yeah, I'm confident that I can stick to that. But we've totally wiped that out of our consciousness and out of our confidence. And now we're like, oh, I don't think I can say no. Like, I don't think that I can actually stick to this. I better keep that piece of plastic as my fail safe. So that's argument number three. You got another one? I got a number four

let's go so they're going to give you a thousand dollar bonus if you spend four thousand in the first three months cool what they are banking on is that you're gonna spend four thousand dollars in the first three months they're gonna give you a thousand bucks they'll get that money back oh yeah they will get that money back and here's yeah. They will get that money back. And here's how. The research shows you spend more money when you're swiping plastic than when you're paying with cash or even coming out of your debit card. Yes.

And so you might pay this thing off every two to three days, but your expenses are higher percentage-wise than if you were just carrying cash around. That's right. Because it doesn't matter. You're going to pay it off later. Mm-hmm.

So they're going to get their $1,000 back in transaction fees that you otherwise wouldn't be spending. They're going to get their money back. Come on, John. Opt out of the game. Don't play with predators, man. Do not play the game. We're not playing with you guys when it comes to these credit cards. We are only going to tell you what we know to be true.

This is The Ramsey Show. You are listening to The Ramsey Show. I am Jade Warshaw this is John Deloney we're with you all afternoon give us a call 888-825-5225 we just came from New York City uh where we do something really cool there John um you know we get the opportunity to go on different people's television shows news networks podcasts and there's a lot of people that go into making that happen. So many folks behind the scene, producers and bookers and all these people. And I think Ramsey does something really cool by hosting a dinner to just say thank you, to just appreciate all the people that let us near them and let us on their airwaves and trust

us. And it was really cool to see that, how much goes into that. And so in the spirit of that, I really just want to say thank you to those listening now. Thank you guys so much for listening to the podcast, the YouTube channels, everything. I mean, the fact of the matter is John and I would be unemployed if it were not for you. And so we're just super duper grateful. I don't think we say it enough not for you. And so we're just super duper grateful. I don't think we say it enough. Thank you. And let's show people a little bit behind the curtain. He would never do this on the air, but Dave's a gruff guy on the air and he tells it like it is. It's when you see Dave in the lower basement of a building

and the way he interacts with and tips the bellhops in the shadows that nobody will ever see. Yeah. And the way he said 10 years ago, man, we're going to all these people's shows and there's the hosts in front of the cameras, but there's all these people behind the scenes making this thing happen.

And their life is, they're up at 3.30 the morning they're making up all the all the shows making sure everything's running doing far more work than us way more far more work than us and dave said we've been blessed beyond measure yeah i'm gonna fly my whole team up to new york and we're gonna take care of them for a night yeah and so it's just that there's a generosity that's staggering behind closed doors. This is pretty cool to be a part of. It is very cool. But just want to take that moment and kind of let you know what's going on.

Let us know that we thank you guys for listening. If you enjoy the show, it means so much to us that you even have the grace and just to share it, that you click subscribe. All of that. It means so, so much to us. Not only does it help us, but it helps somebody else. They get the message out. They get the word. They get that message that's going to change their money. That's going to change their mind. That's going to change their family. It's so, so, so important. Thank you. And with that, we're going to go to Manuel in Houston. Tejas, what's going on? Hello, guys. Thank you for having me.

You're welcome. Thanks for calling in. What's going on? Hello, guys. Thank you for having me. You're welcome. Thanks for calling in. What's going on? So I'm actually in a big mess. So I have a back story. I'm a starter, so you guys understand. About a year ago, I went through a really bad phase of depression. And, well, I made some dumb mistakes that I'm now paying for. I got myself into $70,000 of debt. I purchased things I knew I couldn't afford, but I just didn't care at the moment.

And, well, today I'm making roughly about $20,000 a year, maybe a little less than that. I am working on getting my CDO, my commercial driver's license, so I can make more money. It's just really hard to get right now. But to break it down for you, I have about $19,000 or $18,000 in credit cards and personal loans debt. I bought a car, a very expensive car. You guys are going to be so angry at me. How much? It was $50,000. I now own $46,000 on it.

And I also bought a motorcycle that I owe like $5,000 on it. You owe $5,000 on the motorcycle? Yeah. Okay. Which do you want to get first? Do you want to get John's take or do you want to get Jade's take? You get to choose, but you're going to get john's take or do you want to get jade's take you get to choose but you're going to get both uh either one all right here's the deal man first thing before you get

going i need you when this call is over to go look in the mirror and look yourself dead in the eye okay i need you to say the following i screwed up but i'm not a screw up. The game changes right now. Okay? Yeah. I need you to repeat that over and over and over. I'm worth fixing all this stuff, okay? The funny thing, you calling me and Jade 70,000 bucks doesn't make either of us blink because we've both had way, way, way more debt than that.

Okay? And both of us have gone through ups and downs. So, same team, all right? The $50,000 car that you owe 46 grand on, that's sold by the end of next week. Right? Yeah, and I've tried selling the car already. I just owe so much money on it, and they will only give me like $34,000. Who?

I don't have any money to pay for the upside down. If you look on kellybluebook.com, what's the car worth? Or have you done that yet? I've done it, yeah. I have $35,000. So it's worth $35,000, you owe $46,000. So $10,000 upside down? Yeah.

$9,000. All right. We're going to deal with that. We're still getting out of this car. Because at this point, $40,000 is worth it to take a $10,000 hit so we're going to talk about that why real quick why are you only making $20,000 man um well uh I don't know how to do much um that's not true I don't believe that for one second not for one second yeah that's not true yeah can you deliver pizzas yes can you drive uber yes can you go find a construction site

of all those building sites out in houston and just throw brick yes hey yeah yes you don't want to work you're going to work tomorrow right and you think that what you know how to do is not important and it is important because that's what's going to keep food on your table that's what's going to pay off your debt it is so important yeah i agree are you in let's change that all right are you in manuel yeah i'm in okay we believe we believe in you and we can't believe in you more than you believe in you okay yes sir yeah okay uh we're locking that in so twenty thousand dollars i know you're working to get your, you know, so you can drive trucks. CDL, yeah.

But in the meantime, there's almost anything that you can do is going to make you more than $20,000. McDonald's. If you're working 40 plus hours a week. And I want you working. I mean, are you a single guy? Do you have kids? Well, I have a girlfriend. That don't count.

Bye, Felicia. And look, in this season,. That don't count. That doesn't count. Bye, Felicia. And look, in this season, we're eating at home. In this season, it's McDonald's at home and it's BYOB because you don't have any money, okay? And let her understand like, hey, right now, I've got to focus on getting my life together. I don't have the money to do, I like you a lot, but I don't have the money to just be taking you out

to whining and dining you not that you're doing that much anyway on 20,000 but I certainly don't want you using a credit card to do that so the game changes today we're going to get another job any job I want you doubling your income in the next month or two all right and you can do that we're doing that that's a yes all right yeah Next thing is I want you out of this car. How's your credit? I'm guessing it's in the toilet. Yeah, it's terrible. I completely ruined my credit when I took all these loans.

And I'm actually missing payments already. I just can't afford to make some payments anymore on my credit cards and personal loans. Yeah, I need you. So are you current on the car or you're behind? I'm current on my car. Okay. Just because I need the car. I live in a big city. I need I need you. So are you current on the car or you're behind? I'm current on my car. Just because I need the car. I live in a big city. I need to move around. Can you go sell that motorcycle this weekend for $5,000? 100%. I'm also upside down on the motorcycle. I don't care. How much? How far? They only give me like $3,000 or $5,000. So I'm like two grand

upside. If I were you, I would try to get, I would try to find the difference. If you can't get a loan or a personal loan, I try again, this is the one time I'd suggest a credit card. See if you can find, you know, a 10 or $15,000 balance. So you can get out of this car, give them the 10,000, clear the gap, then take 5,000 to get you a cash car. You're buying a car in cash, do your research, get the best car that you can get, and you're going to be $40,000 less in debt. Sound good? Yeah, I mean, I've tried that already. I used to work at a dealership for like two years, and I know how that works. It's just that there's no way nobody will give me a loan for that. I've tried selling it, I've tried getting a for so I can get another car and drive it around But you know, i'm just too deep in the hole, I guess All right

Then the next the next play is I want you to look deeper into that But the next play here is you've got to get your income up Because at the end of the day, here's what here's what we know is true You can pay debt off as long as you stop creating debt You can dig yourself out of the hole when my husband and I started out with debt, man, well, I want you to hear this. We made $30,000 combined. We had $460,000 of debt. When I tell you things are possible, it's possible.

But it demands you getting stupid on this debt. It demands you working so hard to get your income up. And I'm not talking about overnight. This is year over year, month over month gains. You're growing, you're getting better, you're earning more money, you're decreasing what you spend. And over time, your life is going to change. You're seeing the value in what you put out into the world. And that's what I need you to get out of this call. You can do it. When it comes to your money, you can tell me

that you won't do it, but don't tell me that you can't. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, what's up, guys? It's Jade. If you love the show and want a deeper dive on your money journey, we have a weekly newsletter that gives you trending and helpful articles and tips on following the Ramsey way. Just go to ramseysolutions.com today to sign up for our newsletter. Again, that's ramseysolutions.com to sign up for our weekly newsletter.