The Ramsey Show - App - I'm in a Huge, Huge Big Mess! (Hour 2)

Episode Date: November 3, 2023

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help you build wealth, do work that they love, and create amazing relationships. I'm George Campbell, joined by Dr. John Deloney. This is your show, America. Give us a call at 888-825-5225. It's been an amazing launch week as we've celebrated the launch of my new book, Breaking Free from Broke.

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We're not doing that one yet, John. We'll work our way up to the merch. One lucky person is going to get, you're going to tattoo their name on your arm? I think that's more your audience. That's what they're looking for. I think this is the perfect moment for a crossover. I don't think my target demo is tattooed guys. That's cool if they are.

I don't know if they're out there. I think the fintech community is... I think mine's more like former Apple Store employees. That's about my speed. That are like, ah, the sun. That's it. Ah, the sun. But I'm really pumped about this book.

I've been working on it for a year straight. And the whole point of it is to help people have more money and less stress. And I do that by first exposing this toxic money system, the way we've all stumbled into it. Some of it was our fault. Some of it was well-meaning guidance counselors and teachers and parents and who knows what else, a TikTok video that you took some advice from. And so I just want to just crush through all that noise and tell you the truth about money and hit every objection in your mind and then show you a path to break free from that and have more time and money than ever before. So that's it. If you want to check that out, if that sounds interesting to you, go to ramseysolutions.com slash store and pre-order today. John is up next

in Fort Collins, Colorado. John, welcome to the show. Yes. I just am looking for some input on possibly changing jobs. I have about $20,000 in debt. I like where I work. We're on big step two. But we're making things work as is, but it's tight financially. I have an opportunity to make a jump to where I get a sign-on bonus of like $5,000. And then on top of that, I'm going to be making about $5 to $6 more an hour, plus more overtime. But I would be gone more.

My wife stays at home. She homeschools and takes care of the kids, so this would be a stress on her being at home with the kids more. My guess, what I would want to do is when I leave this job, cash out my 401K and pay off all the debt. And that would give us breathing room. No. On the other side of that. No. Don't do any of those things you're talking about. Severing your leg off may make you way less, but it's not the solution to the problem. How much do you make in your job right now? Anywhere from $5,500 to $6,500 a month. That's what I take home.

And you owe $20,000, then y'all are free and clear? Yeah, $20,000 is what we owe. And what's this new job going to net you? What are you going to bring home every week from it? Anywhere from like $65,000 to $75,000 a month. So it's basically going to be $55 to $75 a month. So it's basically going to be $1,000 extra a month? Yes. I will tell you, I would much rather see you keep the job that you love, that allows you to be with your family, that gives you peace and on a daily basis day in and day out and you and your wife sit down and say for the next six months i'm going to get up at five o'clock in the morning and drive people to the airport via uber or lyft and i'm going to drive in the evenings when i get off and i'm going to earn that extra 12 grand on my own and knock this stupid stuff out okay because you're making a

long-term shift decision you're changing the entire dynamic of your family for $12,000. If you told me it's $20,000, I would say, y'all need to sit down and have that conversation. But just $1,000 a month feels like a million dollars to you right now because you can't breathe. But I think there's some things y'all can do right now that doesn't upend your family so much. Okay.

Does that sound right? Yeah, and that's kind of what i'm looking for um and that's probably the advice i need or are you just exhausted dude and just ready for this to be done well i mean yeah i mean i am exhausted but at the same time this is a job that i do like um it's close to home but the job that i would be going to was a job that I did before, and it caused a lot of stress on my family. Yeah. But it's like the financial stress of trying to get out of debt.

If you told me you were $50,000 or $100,000 in debt and— You're going to double your salary? It may be different. Right. Dude, I'm all about—I just got through with it. George and I were just talking off air. Writing a book in our jobs and doing our own shows plus trs plus being on the road traveling doing speaking gigs plus doing internal video shoots for the business units and rams like when you put a book on top of that one group of people suffers the most and that's our families

because that stuff is done in the mornings before everybody wakes up and it's done at nighttime and it just erodes things. And when you're on the road, you're right in hotels. So you get home exhausted. It's just chaos. And then you have to go on the road and sell it. But here's the deal. It's a season.

And it comes with a reward at the back end. Hey, it's going to be a bananas year. And then we're going to get, hopefully if it sells well, we'll get a little bit of income windfall, and then we don't do it again for a couple of years. And so, you see what I'm saying? So if you're doing something for a season, dude, I'm all in. Work like a maniac. Just go guns a-blazin'.

It's when you say, I'm just going to do this indefinitely, and I already have done this job before. I know it's going to stress me out. It's going to stress the family out. For $12,000? Man, you can earn $12,000 doing other things before or after the job you have now. Fair?

I would agree. What's your job? Heavy equipment mechanic. I work for the fire department right now. Oh, cool. So you're a handy guy. Yeah, I guess. Do you know how much you can make just doing handyman work in your neighborhood and posting on Facebook?

And I'm not talking like complicated stuff. We're talking changing light bulbs, framing up some photos, that kind of stuff. How much do you think you can make an hour? I have never looked into it. I'm going to tell you right now because I pay these, and it hurts my brain that I paid them this much, $50 to $90 an hour is what people charge for handyman work in my neighborhood. You want me to blow your mind even more? My friend Gustavo Menendez came to the United States.

He married a missionary, and he was an engineer, but the U.S. wouldn't recognize his engineering degree because it was from another country, so he had to make make money and he had a truck and a couple hundred bucks. And he now has an unfathomably successful mobile oil change business where he comes to your office, he comes to your house and changes the oil in your car in your driveway. You know what I would pay for someone to come to my house out in the woods and do that? Because it costs me a whole half day of my life to do that. I got to drive an hour to the place. I got to wait. And it says 10 minutes and it ends up being an hour and a half. And I got to drive an hour back. It's unbelievable. And you with your mechanic skills could fill up Saturdays and

Sundays and nighttimes and mornings with oil changes in people's driveways, and you would have your debt paid off in no time. It's about seasonality. And then I want you to start to ask yourself, what am I going to do in five years, in 10 years? Are you going to own your own mechanic shop? Is there a path forward? I think that's the question you need to be asking. Do I love this work and what comes after this? But man, I wouldn't quit your job right now, not for 12 grand.

I'd find that money. scratch and claw, get it. Hey, you guys, health insurance costs are only moving one way, and that way isn't down. And if higher costs aren't enough, the wait times to see your doctor are longer, and it's harder than ever to get anything approved through the bureaucracy. So if you feel like the system is working against you, try a biblically-based alternative to health insurance, Christian Healthcare Ministries. CHM is a health cost-sharing ministry that's helped hundreds of thousands of families like yours take care of over $11 billion in medical bills since 1981. And CHM has also helped them stay true to their values and avoid miles of red tape. And CHM support goes far beyond meeting financial needs. They'll also

help meet spiritual needs. Members become part of a family who will pray with them and for them when they experience a medical event. So listen, y'all, there's no better way to take care of health care costs. CHM programs start as low as $98 a month. So learn more today and join at chministries.org budget. That's chministries.org budget. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I told you what time of year it was. It's the annual listener survey time of year, but it's also Christmas cash giveaway time. That's here too.

You could win one of our $500 weekly prizes or the grand prize of $5,000. That's just our way of giving away Dave's money. It's the most fun you can have with money is giving away your money followed by Dave's money. So enter every day to increase your chances of winning at ramsaysolutions.com slash giveaway. You can also get some meaningful gifts for Christmas during our $12 sale. We've got bestselling books on there for12, like the Total Money Makeover, Baby Steps Millionaires, and Own Your Past, Change Your Future for just $12

each. And, John, this is exciting. Questions for Humans Conversations cards are as low as $10 right now, plus the popular Questions for Humans Christmas edition is back, though sold out last year, so get them while you can. Hey, and we got a new one. We got two new ones this year. Thanksgiving. We're going to save your thanksgiving if you are already dreading thanksgiving just

sitting around the table staring at that one family member who will not shut up about politics and has an opinion on every there's every family has that one person that's still talking about covid just can't let it go. Stop. I got you. Questions for humans Thanksgiving. And then we have a new one. And this was people were just asking and asking and asking for it. So we sat down with experts, kids and grandparents.

Oh. And we have a grandparents and kids deck. That's fun. So if you take your kids to Thanksgiving or Christmas, you can go on a date. And their grandparents aren't just going to hand them digital babysitters. They can actually sit and talk and communicate and learn all about your parents. I'll be home for Thanksgiving, so I'm going to give it to my parents and say, can you ask my two-month-old

these questions? Exactly. See if we can get her talking. It'll be perfect. I want answers. I'm going to do a question with you. What are one or two things you'd like to be thankful for next year that i'd like to be this is aspirational gratefulness aspirational uh gratitude that's right uh i think uh my health i think it's taken for granted and with some recent family stuff i'm

like wow like this is all we have and it goes quick we got one body yep one health so you know i want to make the most of that i want to to be more grateful for it and with action steps. Excellent. Like moving my body, like John says to do. Here's another one. When did you last write a handwritten letter? Who was it to and what was it for? I'm going to say my wife's birthday.

When was that? Last year. Gosh, I'm the worst. Well, probably to a team member here. I do some thank you cards to the team. That doesn't count. How about you? You do it every day, I'm the worst. Well, probably to a team member here. I do some thank you cards to the team. That doesn't count. How about you? You do it every day, I'm sure.

I do a lot. So listen, here's what I think would be really cool. What if you, she doesn't listen to the show, let's be honest. No. What if you wrote Whitney a handwritten letter just telling her what an amazing job she's doing as a brand new mom? Ooh. That would get tears flowing in the best way.

I mean, you don't want to just make your wife cry there's other ways you do that too i've seen it but i think just like saying hey i i just want you to know i see how amazing because i say it a lot but there's something about having it written on paper that hits she can go back to it and go back to it and go back to it and go back to it yeah that's good all right last one what's the most binge worthy tv show show right now? Oh, man. I'm going to do one that's not going to embarrass me. How about that? Fair. It's Gilmore Girls.

You love Gilmore Girls. Well, I did just watch the Beckham documentary, which for those of you who think I don't know about sports, I still don't, but I also watched the Beckham documentary. I know. There was a soccer player next to one of your favorite pop stars of all time. Victoria. I was watching for Pop Spice.

I'm going to say The Bear on Hulu. I keep hearing about this. A great show. Got to tell you what I stumbledice. I'm going to say The Bear on Hulu. I keep hearing about this. A great show. Got to tell you what I stumbled into that I'm exactly 10 years late on? Homeland. Oh, that feels very Deloney. You think you're an extra on Homeland. I dream of one day just getting a knock on my door in the woods,

and the CIA is like, we need you. And I'm like, I'm in. Gosh. That won't come. What a weird dream. The YouTubers came. Look at us connecting, John, thanks to these cards. We're friends now.

I wasn't even tempted to pull up my phone and ignore this conversation because they were so good. Questions for humans, ramsaysolutions.com. Save your holidays. Yeah. So reminder, the giveaway is happening at ramsaysolutions.com slash giveaway. And then check out the $12 sale at RamseySolutions.com slash store. And while you're there, you'll see my book there. It's not $12 because it's brand new.

Eventually, we'll make it to the $12 sale, but it's worth adding to cart, and maybe you'll hit free shipping if you get to $50. There you go. All right, let's get to Valerie in Atlanta, Georgia. Valerie, what's going on? Hi, thank you both so much for taking my call i greatly appreciate being here sure um sometimes i try to use humor to get through things so if i say something and y'all are laughing at it but i'm serious at the same time i am new i'm kind ofsey-ish, trying to be much more involved. I was on the Ken Coleman show not once but twice. He didn't tell me I was a hot mess, but I've heard Dave Ramsey say basically some of the things that I'm experiencing, I'm a hot mess. I have the mind of a gazelle,

but I'm waddling around like a penguin. I can't get anywhere. That's self-aware at least, Valerie. I appreciate that honesty. So how can we help? If Ken Coleman couldn't help you, who can? What's going on? I'm sorry. Oh, you're good.

You're good. So you're 58, and you sound like you're scared to death. And he's thinking, yeah, John, you can you can help me that's why he hooked me up with you he said i really probably needed needed to talk to you um i wanted to come to the book signing we don't have any money so basically i'm married to somebody much i'm trying to talk fast and if i talk too fast let me know but i'm trying to get it all in because it's a big mess okay a huge huge big mess go for it i had an accident four years ago um can try to get it all in because it's a big mess. Okay. A huge, huge, big mess. Go for it. I had an accident four years ago.

Ken coached me along a little bit about trying to get a better paying job. I was making six figures. I'm not even making but $16 working a big box retail now, and it's extremely stressful. And the hours are from 11 to 8, so I can't really get a serving job at night or do other things. But anyway, long story short, I've been doing a lot of trying to get a new job. I've been in counseling twice a week because I had to learn to walk again. I had to learn to get out of bed by myself. My husband was by my side. This happened in another

country in the Netherlands. But when I came home, I couldn't do anything. And he was still stuck in the Netherlands. I was back here in the state and couldn't do anything by myself. I had to go to therapy and everything. This happened about four years ago. So I'm a financial wreck. Fifty eight. No savings. Don't even have. I can't even pay my bills. My my money doesn't even cover my bills but i'm so anxious and sometimes honestly i do still like and term life insurance policy because dave says have term rather than whole i do have that and i feel like i'm more more dead than alive i mean i can't i can't get out of this mess. I just don't know. Where's husband? Husband is 75, can't work here in the States legally, and he's retired. So he is somewhat on the same page with, you know, he does help a little bit every month, very little, because he's still got a place.

It's a long story, but, I mean, he does not even have a green card in our country because that's $5,000 we don't have. So you're the sole income for the house making $16 an hour. How much debt do you guys have? We have as a couple. I mean, it's me. This is all prior to us being married. $47,000. Go over that. That's why I'm in such a horrific, horrific shape. And Ken told me to talk to you guys because not only am I anxious every day and nervous and just a financial wreck, 20 of that is two parent plus loans. I'm 14, five upside down in my truck,

have tried to work out a settlement. Don't know. I mean, like, I can't even buy a hoopty. There's no way to even go out and buy one of those to get, you know, to do the side hustles. I'm not an excuse maker. No, you're stuck. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Yeah, I'm stuck.

A couple things. You're stuck. And you ain't going to hear that from George and I, that we're going to clown on you. You're an absolute mess. And I want you to make complete and total peace with your body. If the anxiety alarms weren't ringing off the hook inside your body, I would tell you you need to go to a physician immediately. Your anxiety right now means your body is working about perfectly.

It's perfect. Okay. So hang on the line. We're going to roll this call over. We're going to go to break and then we come back. We're going to walk you through some potential challenges and some potential opportunities. This is a mess and this is very, very hard. Okay. Stay with us. We'll be right back right here on The Ramsey Show. Welcome to the Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. We were on the line with our friend Valerie in Atlanta. Let me recap her situation for you. She's 58. Her husband's 75.

He can't work in this country, and they can't afford the green card. They're $47,000 in debt between parent plus loans and being upside down on a truck, and she's making $16 an hour working retail and feels stuck along with an accident that has left her kind of picking up the pieces. So, Valerie, are you still with us here? Yes, sir, I am.

Did I sum it up accurately? Pretty much, yes, sir. Okay. So, sir. Okay. Yes. So, hey, I want to jump in here. And I know that you have been repeatedly hit upside the head over the last four or five or six years, right? Yes. And when that happens to us, often we develop some pretty amazing defense mechanisms.

And so I want you to do me a favor. And I want you to tighten your hands really tight right now. Can you do that? Can you squeeze both your hands as tight as you can? And then I want you to relax them and open them up completely. Okay? Drop your shoulders. I'm going to rattle a bunch of stuff off for the sake of time,

and then I'm going to hook you up with a couple things at the end of this, okay? But I want you to think through some of these things, all right? Thing number one. I want you to write a letter to your former self that used to make six figures. That woman is haunting you right now. Because you used to be incredible, right? Yes. Yeah.

And I think you still are. You're hanging in there. You're a boxer that's on the ropes, but you're still hanging in there. And all you can remember is when you used to be champ. And you can't see that actually the fighting that's going on right now, you're actually stronger and tougher than you used to be. Okay. I want you to write her a letter and say you miss her. And, but she's gone now. And so what we're going to do is we're going to deal in the reality that we have here. We're going to shift that identity to who we used to be, to who we are. And we are scrappy and tough now. Number two, I want you to

have a hard conversation with your kids and let them know, I signed these Parent PLUS loans. I can't pay my bills to eat. And I want you to tell them this is embarrassing. This is hard. This is scary. Whatever words you want to use, but that you need them to help with the cost of their college education, at least for the foreseeable future. And they might tell you, forget you mom, we're not doing that, whatever. You're right. I signed my name on it. And if you want to watch your mom drown, then you can watch that. But I need some help. The third thing is, I drove by this morning, my daughter and I went to breakfast, and I drove by a McDonald's, and on the sign, it said $20 an hour.

I want you to take all of the imaginary pride you have, and I want you to, you are locked into an 8 o'clock to 11 p.m. job or whatever time you work right now, I want you to be very honest about your local area. And it might be working at fast food. It might be working two fast food jobs, McDonald's in the morning, Taco Bell's in the evening, or Arby's in the morning or whatever.

I don't care because right now we've got to get that income up. Okay? It's going to be a swallowing of pride that you, it's going to be, I just hurt for you. And you're going to come out on the back end of this. So strong. The next thing I want you to do is I want you to call the social security

office and see what the status is. Have you already done that? What do you mean? If you have a disability that prohibits you from doing the work that you used to be able to do, you may be eligible for Social Security early. I can actually, I'm going to tell you, four years later, I am walking now. I'm getting out of bed by myself, and I'm fine. Mentally, I'm a mess.

Okay. But physically, I can, I'm being real, I can actually work now. I've been applying. That's why Ken said, get some help with your mental state and, you know, ask John for some advice on being so anxious. And why do you think you're a mess? Um, I'm a mess because, well, I feel like i'm a failure i mean you're asking me the total picture feel like i'm a failure okay not true hold on not true go to the next thing what's the next thing um i feel like i'm not good enough okay not true go to the next thing my kids uh i feel like i'm a failure to my my grown kids my kids are grown

that's false that's that's that's not true what you've just told me is a lot of feelings and you're being run by your feelings not by data and so it's an old cognitive behavioral technique that any counselor should have had you do which is to write down these feelings that are burying you, and then I want you to demand evidence from them. Is that true? I feel like a failure to my grown kids. Is that true?

Did I raise them? Hey, they're grownups. They can see you however you want. They may not be true either, right? I want you to to take these thoughts and i want you to write them down all these feelings and challenge them take them head on and if you can't see the forest from the trees call your kid hey i've been really wrestling with this idea that i'm a failure is that true no mom we freaking love you. We miss you. And I want you to take those on. I don't think your body's screwed up. I don't think you're a mess. If I had a 75 year old spouse, my wife was 75 and I loved her and she couldn't work and she

was drowning in her own shame and she was getting older and I was terrified and I had this wreck and I used to be a six-figure earner and now I'm making 16 bucks an hour. I'd be anxious too. Every person on the planet would be anxious. That's why I don't know that the anxiety is the thing to go solve right now. I think the thing to solve is fighting, going to war against these negative bullcrap feelings because they're not true. You're not a failure. You're still standing.

You're absolutely incredible. You have fought back from not being able to get out of bed and now you're working. Now I want you to see that worth more than $16 an hour because you're worth more than that. I want you to hang on the line because this isn't just a one and done thing. Okay. We're going to do a couple of things. Number one, I'm going to hook you up with three, nope, six. I'm going to hook you up with six months of free counseling with my friends at BetterHelp. You can do that from home so you

don't have to drive anywhere. Okay. It's online. The second thing is we're going to hook you up with three sessions with a financial coach with Ramsey financial coaches for free okay they're going to walk through your budget specifically and they're going to help pull you apart and show you that it is that bad and here's some ideas or it's actually not that bad or actually maybe it's in the middle you're going to get some data, some facts. Okay? The third thing is I'm going to send you three months free of every dollar. The app that you can track your money. And you can begin to get some little wins, little bits of control over this thing.

Slowly and surely. Anxiety comes when we project the future is going to be a certain way. And it scares us. And we start trying to solve it in the present and it's an imaginary future. You have to head into that anxiety. I'm terrified about what comes next. Cool. I'm going to go figure out what comes next. I'm terrified. I'm not going to have enough money. Cool. I'm gonna go get a second job and a third job because now I can get up. I'm terrified about my feelings. Cool. I'm going to see a counselor

and I'm going to use CBT techniques. I'm going to see a counselor and I'm going to use CBT techniques. I'm going straight after these feelings that aren't true. We're going right into the storm and we're going to hook you up with people to walk with you. Thank you for being brave. Thank you for the call. You are awesome. Awesome. Awesome.

Good stuff, John. Thank you for that. One last thing, Valerie. The first thing you buy is food. The next thing you need to buy is shelter. The next thing is utilities. We're paying for light, paying for the water bill. And the next thing is clothing, basic necessities.

That's it. That means the car loan folks, they can kick rocks and pound sand because you don't have the money to pay. The student loan companies, they can also kick rocks and pound sand because you don't have the money to pay. You come first. The creditors, they can wait. And I love John's advice about getting the kids to pitch in. Even though it's legally on you, I think the kids need to step up and help mom in her time of need. And we can get you outside of this upside down truck situation. You need to go over there and say, listen, you got a bad loan on

your hands. I need the difference to get out of this mess. And you're going to have to fight that to get out of that mess and get you something you can drive to work. But we are rooting for you. America is rooting for you. And John hooked you up with so many resources that I hope helps you take the right next step. This is The Ramsey Show. so so so so so so Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. Today's question of the day is sponsored by Neighborly, your hub for home services.

When you want to repair, maintain, or improve your home, stop wasting time scrolling through pages and pages of providers and Googling around. Neighborly is all you need to remember for a nationwide network of local home service professionals. Visit neighborly.com slash Ramsey to find reliable help near you. All right, today's question comes from Monica in New Hampshire. She writes, I have a question about the debt snowball. I feel like I've been doing it all wrong. My two debts are my car loan and student loans. My car loan is $8,500. My student loans total a whopping $120,000, but this is split over 16 different loans. 12 of the loans are lower than the car loan. My loans are in deferment since I'm in school, but interest has started. Should I stick with tackling the car loan or turn my gazelle intensity to the smaller student loans? Thank you for your

help. Ooh, this is like a Common Core math riddle. Jane has 16 loans. Except there will be an actual answer to this one. Yes, we can actually solve this puzzle here. Okay, so loans are in deferment, you're in school, interest has started. Should I stick with tackling the car loan? I assume she's working while in school, which I like, that there's income coming in at the same time uh or turn the gazelle intensity to the smaller student loans i'm gonna this is what i did personally so i'll tell you what i did i had you know 12 13 different little loans and it was so much more freeing to see them as little ankle biters and list them out smallest to largest than it was to see $120,000 in student loans. So baby steps.

I would do it. You can do it in a spreadsheet, but what's really helpful now, I didn't have every dollar back then, but with every dollar, when you list out your budget, you can list all of your debts, smallest to largest. It does it for you and you'll list out your minimum payments, your loan balances, and that will show you what to tackle next and how much margin you have in your budget to throw with that smallest debt. So absolutely, let's tackle the smallest one first. Let's knock out that little one. You have 11 more student loans to go. Then the car loans will sit in the

mix. Then you'll have those last four student loans, and you're going to free up so many payments along the way that you get this thing called hope and momentum and motivation, and that's what keeps you going, and it's why I love the debt snowball. Yeah, there's something powerful. You can spend nine months knocking that car loan down to $3,000 or you can spend nine months and you have 16 loans and now you only have six

and there's just something psychological about that. We say that all the time. It's 80% behavior, 20% math, right? And so the psychology, the behavior part, these tiny little wins over and over and over again. So I love that advice, George. That's good. Well, and 12 student loans are lower than that $8,500 car loan. So that tells me you're going to knock these out so fast and you're actually going to get there faster. And the math, people like to argue about the debt avalanche and

paying the highest interest first. The math is negligible, but what isn't is the psychology that will get you to the actual finish line. And so, love it. Way to go. Call us up when you're debt-free, Monica. We'll celebrate with you. All right, Logan is in Atlanta up next. Logan, what's going on? You with us? Yes, sir. What's going on? Hey, so I have a question. I'm 20 years old and I do travel construction work and my company has a 401k type plan. Not exactly a 401k. I'm on step two. I recently just started the plan. A friend recommended it to me. I got the $1,000 last week, and now I'm, yeah,

so I'm looking to see what to do with that money. Awesome. How much is it? So it was a 20, every $20 you put in, they only put in 10. So until I got my debts paid, I was only putting in about $40 a week. It's only $800. Okay. What's your debt total?

Hold on. Did they keep their match? Did they just keep their money? It's like this deal where until 15 years, you're not 100% vested. Until 15? 15 years? Yeah.

You're still with this company? Yeah, you work for the mob? Well, I'm only about a year into this company. I'm 20 years old. Yeah, dude, you're young enough that you don't realize that they are taking so much advantage of you. You're working for unethical people. I've never heard of it taking 15 years to vest.

Yeah, the percentage, it goes up every year or something like that. So they held your money for a year. They made interest on your money. They matched your money. And then they're like, eh, we're not doing this anymore. Here's your money back. We'll keep the interest we earned off your $800, and we're going to keep the money that we're going to match 15 years

from now. Yeah, I guess so. Yeah, it's called sketchy. So, I was wondering what to do with that, and I'm going to get into a Roth when I get my debts paid off. So, yeah, I was just wondering what to do with that money.

Should I save it? Aaron, baby step two. You already have the $1,000, so any money above that, let's start throwing at the debt. So, what, I was just wondering what to do with that money. Should I save it? Throw it at the debt. You're in Baby Step 2. You already have the $1,000. So any money above that, let's start throwing at the debt. So what's your next smallest debt? Okay. So, yeah, I have a car loan, and then I have two. I have an ATV loan, and I have a personal loan for a truck that I owned previously.

I fixed so I could sell it because it was giving me a lot of problems. It was just costing me money to own. You have an addiction to wheels and motors, don't you, my man? Well, yeah. Sell your ATV, dude. I was under the impression that it was going to build up my credit. So I purchased that when I was 18 and I found out that that was not the case. What! Oh, boy. Dude, your ATV is sold this weekend, okay? Let's go on. Logan, I'm so glad you're 20 because you have so much time to never make dumb mistakes again, and that gives me great joy that you're only like two years into adulthood, and you can undo a lot of this and still have the next 40 years to build wealth and not remain broke.

Yes, sir. So what is the next smallest debt on the list? So it's, I have a $1,700 debt from a truck repair. That one's the first. And then the ATV is second and I owe about seven on it. What's it worth? What could you sell it for? I think it's probably only worth about four.

So I was planning on trying to pay it, get the difference, and then try to sell it as fast as I can. Okay. And the personal loan? Well, the personal loan was for the truck fix. That's the smallest one at $1,700. And then the car loan? And then I have a car loan at $17,000. What's this car worth? Probably about $12,000 to $13,000. Goodness. And what do you make? I make about $50,000 a year.

Okay. Oy, oy, oy. So we're underwater on pretty much everything in our life, and I want to get you above water, and that means sacrifices, no more toys. It means working double. Can you work overtime? Can you pick up three more jobs? Well, I work out of town, so that's not actually possible for me. Can you go get a

different job doing the same thing locally? I'm not sure. I get pretty decent hours working out of town, and a family member is in this business and he's very high up and he's kind of guiding me to get to where he is. So that's kind of the main reason I'm working for the company. Logan, your company sucks. I don't like this plan. And if I was doing a consulting gig and I was sitting with your president of your company behind closed doors, I would tell him the same thing. He's taking advantage of 20 year olds. Yes, sir. Could you make $25 an hour locally doing construction?

I'm not sure. It's not really something I've looked into. I make about $22 right now. I just got a raise. So listen, homie, this morning, I just mentioned this on another call. This morning, I was taking my daughter to breakfast and I drove past a sign at a McDonald's that was starting at $20 an hour. And this is in rural Tennessee.

And if you worked at McDonald's in rural Tennessee, you'd make almost the same money, except you'd get to sleep in your own bed and you wouldn't have to travel and you could have friends and community and possibly work a small weekend job to make a little bit more money. And probably have better benefits than what you have now. I promise you would have better benefits. You have this picture, dude. I'm just telling you. If you were my brother or my son or a close friend of mine, I would tell you, I don't work for people I don't trust.

Period. I just don't, man. Life's too short. And if they're going to do this to you, they're going to take advantage of you, then pat you on the back and then say, look how great we are. Dude, I'm out. I'm out, man. I'm going to start doing some homework, Logan, to see what jobs are available in my area. Talk to people who are doing those jobs. How much do they make? Do they enjoy it? And I'm going to try

to work locally so that you can bust your butt, work overtime, and not be on the road and stuck in this cycle, man. Get a girlfriend. Hang out. Enjoy your life. Smile. Gypsum's caught in salsa, dude. That's what it's all about. That puts this hour of The Ramsey Show in the books.

We'll be back before you know it. Thank you. you