The Ramsey Show - App - Look Through Your Windshield, Not Your Rear-View Mirror (Hour 2)

Episode Date: October 31, 2019

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225 that's 888-825-5225 jared starts off this hour in florida hi jared welcome to the dave ramsey show how are you better than i deserve what's up well um my wife and I, we have about $50,000 left in debt. One of them is a $25,000 loan, a home improvement loan, and it's about a 15% interest rate.

And we've had it for five years, only five years left of it. But I was wondering if we could get another loan for the same amount with a lower interest rate to pay off. What's your household income? Right at about maybe $100,000. So how quick are you going to pay off your $50,000 in debt making $100,000? The plan is to do that within the next 18 months. Good. Okay.

So the amount of interest you would save would only be over the 18-month period of time, and it really wouldn't even be on the whole balance. So the current interest rate you said was 15% on $25,000. Have you shopped for a different loan? I don't know yet if I should because it was a $30,000 loan. It doesn't matter. It's a $25,000 loan now. That's what the 15% is being charged on.

And you got 15% on $25,000 for 18 months, although it won't all be there during that 18 months because you're going to be paying it down to zero at that time. So it's probably an average over the 18 months of half of that, give or take. So we're probably talking about $10,000 or $15,000 over 18 months average. And let's say you reduced it 5% and it was $10,000. That'd be $500. Oh, I see. Savings. that'd be 500 bucks oh i see savings so if you if you could get a 10 loan it'll it'll probably

save you between 500 and a thousand dollars if you could find a 10 loan which is fine that's okay if you send me 500 a thousand dollars i'll take it you know but but it doesn't solve your 50,000 dollar problem what solves your 50,000 dollar problem is the man in your mirror gets tired of being in debt so much that he closes down half his lifestyle and gets his mess cleaned up. Gotcha. So that's the secret sauce. You're the secret sauce, not the interest rate. Yeah, the interest rate's ridiculous, which is one of those reasons you say,

never again. Never again am I going to do that. Never again. I've learned some things i'll never do again and that's one of the things because you got ripped off for sure so if you can find a 10 loan over at your credit union you want to move that over there as long as there's no prepayment penalty then that would be okay and then go ahead and knock it out in 18 months and you'll save 500 to a thousand dollars but it doesn't it doesn't get you out of debt get you out of debt is paying three to four thousand dollars a month on these debts for the next 18 months which pays off fifty thousand dollars there we go chris is with us in

oregon hi chris welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hello, Mr. Ramsey. Thank you for taking my call. My pleasure. How can I help? Well, I just have a question. I am, my children are grown and out of the house, but I don't have an inheritance for them. And I thought, well, maybe I should take out a life insurance policy with them as the beneficiaries and as a inheritance so to speak because i don't have any retirement saved up

yet although a friend of mine has um i watched your your videos for the financial peace university and i'm like yeah that's that's very, very smart. Let's do that. Okay. So I'm completely debt-free, which is wonderful, but that's the question. Yeah. No, you do not use life insurance to build an inheritance, and the reason is they make money on life insurance all insurance all insurance is profitable to the company which

means if you live an average number of years or more they're making a lot of profit on you and i would rather that profit that you would have paid them go into investments because there's no moral obligation for you to leave them in inheritance i think you probably have left them in inheritance of character you've left them in inheritance of a whole lot of other things and so that's what i would do hey jump on it that's what that's the plan so um yeah uh no you don't use an inheritance to build an investment open phones at 888-825-5225 it's a free call you jump in we'll talk about your life and your money up next is going to be jennifer in illinois hi jennifer how are you hi dave how are you? Hi Dave, how are you? Better than I deserve. How can I help? It's such an honor to speak with you. I'm going to ask for some advice regarding

asking an employer to help with student loan repayment and so my husband and I are both physical therapists. We both work for the same company and other companies in our area offer, you know, approximately like 200, $250 a month to help us with student loan repayment. And our company doesn't offer anything like that. And so my husband and I have been toying around with asking if they would offer us somewhere between like 250 to 350 for the both of us, maybe for like a certain number of years of commitment to the company. We've worked for the both of us, maybe for like a certain number of years of commitment to the company. We've worked for the company for like three to four years, and we've been told we're good for leadership roles, things like that.

So I think they're very happy with us. So what do you make? The two of us together make about $150,000. No, what do you make? $80,000. Okay. If you moved to one of the companies that paid for student loans, what would you make? I honestly don't, I think it'd be like a lateral transfer. I don't know if they per se

offer me more money to come to a different company. $250 a month is $3,000 a year. Right. That's a 3% pay raise. Correct. Whoopi. a year right that's a three percent pay raise correct whoopee you going into leadership is going to give you a lot more than three percent pay raise correct okay so uh i don't mind you asking them say hey you know some of the other companies do this i wondered if you would throw that in that's you getting a three thousand dollar a year raise on your eighty thousand dollar income yeah it's a nice raise but it's not it's not that great a raise right oh absolutely no he had offered it to we had a front desk person who

went to pg school and he basically offered her you know hey if you come back you'd work for us for two and a half years we'll help you with tuition. And when we found out that he had offered it to her, we kind of felt like, well, why wouldn't he offer it to PTs who already work for the company? Yeah, well, ask them. That's a fair question. But here's the thing. Don't trade a $10,000 or a $20,000 a year raise

for a $250 a month student loan repayment benefit. You follow me? So, yeah, I mean, don't get caught up in the little things. Don't step over dollars to pick up nickels. It'd be okay if they want to do this, and it's a fair thing to ask in the right spirit, and you're not entitled to it, but it's an okay thing to ask. You know, I get asked all the time, at what age should I buy life insurance? Let me be clear. If you have a family, if there are people depending on your income, now is the time to have term life insurance.

I don't care if you're 20, 30, 40, 50, or whatever. Your age is less important than your financial situation. If you have debt and a lack of savings, it makes no sense to risk your family's financial well-being based on the cost of a term life policy. Term life rates are just plain cheap, even if you're not in perfect health. And the best way to compare those rates is through Zander Insurance. Zander only sells the plans I recommend and shops among the top companies to find the best rates and the right coverage for you. Call

800-356-4282 or visit zander.com. You got no excuse to put this off, folks. Bad things happen to people all the time, regardless of age. And it's your responsibility to deal with this. That's Zander.com or 800-356-4282. here's the interesting thing about goal setting goal setting that is not written down the details of what has to be true for you to hit the goal and what the goal is with a time limit it's specific and it's measurable you emotionally own it and you write it down if you don't write it down the power goes out of the goal now there's nothing magical about writing it down there's just something that happens in your brain that causes you to be more likely to hit the

goal when you've thought it all the way through enough to write out not only what the goal is when you're going to hit it but how you're going to get there the bible says in habakkuk write the vision and make it plain write the vision and make it plain. That's what Christy Wright has done with her goal planner for 2020. Now, these goal planners are amazing. I did not know anything about this world, but apparently it's a big deal to have one of these two-and-a-half-inch thick goal planners that's got all the inspiration in it, all the quotable quotes in it, all the tracking, all the different things in it.

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order some in here so that you guys could get them for Christmas. We still ran out. We couldn't get enough in, but we've done a better job of anticipating the demand this time because there is actually a huge demand for this and so the gold planner for 2020 is on sale now of course it starts in january for 2020 right and it's on sale at daveremsey.com for 49.99 now there's a downloadable process to get you through 19 if you don't have the Goal Planner for 19. But Christy Wright's 2020 Goal Planner on sale now at DaveRamsey.com. Be sure to check it out. Melissa is with us. Melissa is in Canada.

How are you, Melissa? I'm well, Dave. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? I'm just looking to get some direction on making a good move going forward. I'm 58 years old, recently separated, just been through a, we call it a consumer proposal, I think it's like your Chapter 13, and just trying to look forward on what I can plan

for my future going ahead. Okay. Chapter 13 in the States is a repayment plan on debt in bankruptcy court, and that's what you've been through? Yes. So are you through with it? Are you through with the plan? I have about five years left of $150 a month to be totally finished. And you said you're separated, so your marriage ended too? Yes. I'm so sorry. Thank you. Wow. What a hard time. How long were you married? 37 years. Oh my goodness. What brought the marriage to an end?

The money problems? They were added to it, but my husband chose substance abuse over our relationship. Oh, it leaves you making really tough calls. I'm so sorry. That's hard. It requires a lot of courage on your part. So what is your career?

What do you make? I'm an accounts payable person, and my income is about $70,000 a year. That's good news okay yeah you have 150 dollar a month bill on the old debt what other bills have you got uh well after the consumer proposal um i did the stupid sister thing and uh went and purchased a car on with a loan and a credit card so i have about four thousand dollars in debt and the car is about um i have 21 000 on it's a used car it was 21 000 but i think it would sell for about 15 okay all right well i'm probably going to reverse that trend and get me a junkier car and let's get rid of that debt and let's get the credit card debt cleaned up and then we say all right if we work till 68 that's uh 10 years at 70 000 and um we're going to start saving

like a maniac so that we retire at 68 with some money and reverse the trend that has been your house to this point um the only reason to look in your rear view mirror on stuff like this is to learn what not to do going forward. But it's not to get a baseball bat and beat yourself with it, because we've all got stupid butt stuff in our rearview mirror. The rearview mirror is smaller than the windshield because the windshield is full of grace. And the rearview mirror is condemning. For all of us, right? Yes.

And so, I mean, think about for all of us, right? Yes. And so, I mean, think about all the stupid butt stuff I've done. And I publicize it. It's even worse. I sell books about it. I mean, it's ridiculous. So, you know, you just, but you've got to go some never agains. I was with some very successful guys having dinner last night,

and one of the entertaining things we did is we were around the table saying things we would never again do and all of us were older than 30 of course and so there's a good long list of things that we've all done that we will never again do you have to have some no matter what and you've got a bunch of those in your rearview mirror so now you just you know i'll send you a copy of the book the total money makeover and you're just going to work the baby steps we're going to get rid of the stupid car and the stupid credit card, and we're going to get rid of the debts associated with them, and then you're going to build an emergency fund, and then you're going to get high gear saving money. Matter of fact, I'm going to send you two books.

I'm going to send you Chris Hogan's Retire Inspired because you're going to. You can do it. Actually, it's considering what you have put up with you've been you've been trying to you know pull a water skier with the boat anchor out you ever done that i've done that i left the anchor out this summer i was trying to pull one of the kids it kind of wakes makes the boat funky you know it won't go with the speed it's supposed to go and you can't you can't figure out what's wrong you're gonna feel like you cut the anchor line and you're just like wow there's all this power now.

I can do all these things. And so, yeah, you've been doing this under a cloud for so long trying to have a life. And now you get a life. And don't you feel guilty about that? It's time to move on and time to go win. And you can do it. I know you can do it. So I'll send you Chris's book. And I'll send you my book, Total Money Makeover,

and his book, Retire Inspired. And you call me back as you're working through this. I'm going to be here for you. And you and me together over the next decade, you're going to get rich. And then we're going to giggle about this. That's how you do it. It's very possible. Mathematically, it's possible.

And you're going to surprise yourself you really are because i don't know how many of you out there have been through something like she's been through but when you've been dragging and slogging and sloshing through the mud of dysfunction and you just can't get moving and then you suddenly get up and you're you're up on like like, dry ground. I mean, you feel like you got a whole new lease on life. You feel like you got a whole new speed, a whole other gear. And it's going to be like, woo, game on, let's do this. Yeah, it may take you a little while to get past some of the negative emotions

and things you've been dealing with, but when you put some of that stuff in your rearview mirror, kiddo, put the pedal to the metal, you're going to see a whole different reaction you're going to see things change and a lot of us have done that a lot of us have been through that i'll never forget i can show you the stoplight on charlotte avenue in downtown nashville where i pulled up after we had signed the bankruptcy papers. I'd been fighting to not file bankruptcy and to pay all my debts for two and a half years. One year we made $250,000. The next year we made $6,000. My roof was leaking, my air conditioner was out, and my wife hated me.

Everything was out of control. Everything I touched turned to poop i mean it was just gross your life looks like a country song you know i'm talking about and i finally after fighting and fighting and fighting and fighting and fighting and fighting and fighting and fighting i ran out of gas and i gave up and i signed those bankruptcy papers when i pulled up to that stoplight driving away from that lawyer's office, I still remember the sensation of 5,000 pounds coming off my shoulders. It was like I could breathe, like something had been sitting on my chest for two years. That's what you're going to experience.

This is The Dave Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Jake and Haley are with us. Hey, guys. How are you? Hey. Great. Thanks, Dave. Thanks for having us. Absolutely., how are you? Hey, great. Awesome. Thanks Dave, thanks for having us. Absolutely, good to have you guys. Appreciate you being here. So you guys are from where? Lincoln, Nebraska. Welcome, good to have you. How much debt have you paid off?

$71,995.99. Awesome, and how long did this take? 32 months. Cool. And your range of income during that time? $40,000 to about $110,000. There's a little jump. Somebody got a job that didn't have one what? Yes. Yeah, kind of, sort of. So when we got married about three and a half years ago, Haley was just out of school, and I was working freelance building websites. Haley got a job, and it was kind of whatever.

And then we just worked really hard at building the business and I actually got to hire Haley to come on and work for us so now we work together. It's a good time building websites in Lincoln.

Very cool. Good for you. What was your initial job? I was a customer service rep at a company in Lincoln. Okay. But the website business has exploded.

Yes. It's doing well. Thanks a lot to your teachings, Entree Leadership. I'm kind of like just reading as much as I can from what you teach. Cool. Good for you guys. Well, well done. That's great.

I'm proud of you. It's a lot of fun. What kind of debt was the $72,000? Yeah. There's the big question, right? Student loans. Student loans was a big part of it. And a car.

And a car. Yeah. We were normal, as you say. We'd get married and, yeah, kind of everything. Okay, all right, so you're fairly normal. You get married, but it wasn't long after you get married you start this. You said you've been married three and a half years, and only 32 months later you're out of debt here.

So what's the story? How did you get hooked up with this? Yeah, that's right. So a co-owner of our web design business, his name's John. He's kind of one of our biggest cheerleaders as well. He was like, you know, I was 18, 19 at the time. He was like, you should listen to this guy. So, I started listening to him and started

telling Haley once we ended up dating and got engaged. I was a little hesitant at first. I can imagine. I thought you were super intense. I am. But listened to the first. Apparently, so is he. So I'm thinking this is probably we ganged up on you, huh?

A little bit. But I really did like it, though, after a little bit of bribing. I thought it was a little too much at first. It was Dave and Jake versus Haley for a while there. She came on our side. Don't worry about it. Yeah, exactly. She's probably worse than you and me now, but yeah.

Oh, she definitely is. Now she's on every dollar. Hey, you know what? How about if we move this around, we can do this. When we're flying for business trips, she's over there calculating. What if we move this over? We can get out of debt like four days faster. It's like, oh, my gosh.

What did I create? I love it. That's awesome. Well, very cool. So what do you tell people, Haley, the key to getting out of debt is? You were in charge of it. Eventually I was. Yeah. I just consistency. I know everyone says it, but I think sticking to the budget and being willing to cut down on certain lifestyle things was super important because I think we kind of started and as we went along we were realizing there was more and more areas we could cut down on to actually make it go faster so

for sure the budget and and being on the same page about it yeah that's a big deal so talk about uh all joking aside I mean we're kidding around about it but you come into this a bit reluctant um how was the process to where you actually did, what caused you to say, hey, I think this is real, we can do it, even if these two guys are crazy, but all kidding aside, I mean, what kind of an emotional process, was it sudden, or was a certain thing that happened, or a series of things that happened? Tell me how you changed your mind, so to speak. Yeah, so I... Or what changed your mind, I guess yeah so what changed your mind i guess

better way of saying it so before i was kind of all on board he was already paying a lot of payments towards the student debt and so i was like what are you doing at first um but then i saw the snowball start to work and i think that's where it switched for me where i realized we can actually do this because i think when we first got married i was like we're going to be in debt for so long um and so I think once I saw it start to kind of start slowly go down um that's when that's when it switched for me and that's when I actually just dove all the way in and I went a little crazy so but so it goes from um he's actually doing it number one but number two that allowed you to look at the math and go, wait a minute. It's possible.

This is real. Yeah. Before, you're kind of just overwhelmed and hadn't even done the calculation. Yes, totally. I think it was a sense of hope of this is actually doable in a reasonable amount of time, not 30 years later. Yeah, so advice to someone viewing this that's a little bit reluctant or wondering or they're feeling overwhelmed, do the math. Yeah.

Because it might open up your eyes. Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. Yeah, and not just the math. I mean, you talk a lot about an FPU and a lot in your book as well.

It's about hope. And math nerds will kind of look at this and the Twitter trolls will have a lot of hate about some of the teachings you have that kind of huge air quotes here break financial principles on paper but the hope part and the behavioral part is really what stuck with us and you pay off that first one and you're like oh small win yeah yeah i think that's what it was the hope part of it for sure yeah but in your case what we're talking that that's exactly right.

Hope is powerful and turns everything loose. I completely agree with that. In your case, you got hope from looking at the math though. Yeah. And honestly, listening to your podcast, that was super motivating for me. I started hearing those debt-free screams and I would get chills and all excited. I'm like, we could actually do this because I was hearing people who had a similar story to ours and I realized that's us.

And they're doing it. We should do it. Yeah, we kind of proximity principled our way out of debt, I guess you could say. I'm with you. That's good. I like that. Coleman will like that. So how old are you two?

I'm 25. I'm 26. Wow. You guys are rock stars. This is incredible. There's so much ahead of you that's so awesome. You're going to kill it. Very, very, very well done. So your co-owner was a cheerleader. Who else was your biggest cheerleader?

Definitely. You know, we didn't tell a ton of people, so we didn't really have any other cheerleaders. We didn't have any haters, but people who knew, some of our close friends thought it was kind of weird. They're like, why are you guys doing that? But definitely John and actually some family too, I would say. Yeah. Good. What was the hardest part of this? Oh, man. I think the hardest part for me was seeing money come in every month and then just seeing it go out and knowing, oh, my gosh, all that's going to the bank.

We don't get to keep very much of this. But it was also super motivating for me too because I'm like, I don't want to do this anymore. I want to keep this money. So that was the hardest part, but it was also motivating too. We were a one-car family for a while. That was hard. That was tough.

We ended up buying a little hoopty, like you said. Good. There's a picture of it. I remember. Yeah, there it is right there. It was Cooper saying hey. We were driving down the road one time, and I hear this rattling, and the muffler, like, bounces down the street,

and this huge, like, Ford Raptor just blasts over it. I have this huge smile on my face, like, this is temporary. We'll get out of there soon. That's great. Yeah, you ought to pick it up off the street. Yeah, seriously, got to go around and, like, oh, boy. Put it in a box and sit it on the wall in the garage. That's awesome.

Yeah, always remember. Point that to your grandson. I remember when that happened. That helped me get out of debt. That's so good. I love that. How's it feel now that you're out? Oh, my gosh.

It's amazing. Was it worth all the sacrifice? Yes. Are you kidding me? Completely, yes. Yeah. It's incredible. Yeah, and when we're leading FPU, we talk a lot about the behavioral change

and how it changed our brains, especially as a young married couple and how that has enhanced our relationship and how we can attack things together now. It's just been so fun. Just how we can go about taking down any challenge now. We feel kind of invincible at this point. Well, you've got a pattern of working together to overcome obstacles.

And any marriage that has that pattern can overcome a bunch of obstacles. And you always got them. Always got them. Way to go, you guys. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you. Every Day Millionaires. You'll be one in 20 minutes the way you're going. So proud of y'all. Well done. Thank you.

All right, it's Jake and Haley from Lincoln, Nebraska. $72,000 paid off in 32 months, making $40,000 to $110,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! And the crowd goes wild. I love it.

It never gets old, you guys. Proud of you guys. You're heroes. Very, very well done. 25 and 26 years old. $75,000 in 32 months. So when are you going to do this? I'm talking to you. You think it's somebody else? this? I'm talking to you.

You think it's somebody else? No, I'm talking to you. When are you going to believe that this is possible and then go freaking do it? Come on, people. Let's turn this whole nation around together. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Will is with us in North Carolina. Hi, Will. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hey, Dave. I hope you're doing well. I am, sir. How can I help? Good. I've got a refinance question. So my wife and I, we're 30 years old. We're completely debt-free except for the house. We're currently on a 30-year

mortgage with about 26 years left at a 4.125 interest rate with about $179,000 left on this house, which is about $1,350 a month with the whole pity payment. Got it. My question is, I want to knock this house out. So I've been looking at a 15-year, and I was quoted with closing costs rolled into the interest rate at a 3.75% on a 15-year, which would make my payment $16.45 a month. That's slightly higher than the 25% you suggest for our take-home pay, which is about $62.50 a month. That's slightly higher than the 25% you suggest for our take-home pay, which is about $62.50 a month. So my question to you is, what should we do? I already pay more on our mortgage every month anyway. Yeah. If you pay the payment that they're talking about you paying, you'll be out of debt in 16 years without doing a refinance years without doing a refinance.

Okay. Without doing a refinance. Okay. So, in other words, if you take a 30 and pay it like it's a 15 based on your interest rate, if you said $179,000 at four and a quarter, four and an eighth, I'm sorry, for 15 years, 180 payments, and then use that as the P&I, plus your taxes and insurance, that'll tell you the payment to make, how much extra principal to do, and that will pay it off in exactly 15 years.

So you do not have to do a refinance to go from a 30 to a 15. You just pay it early, and it pays off exactly. There's no prepayment penalty. Now, no need to send out in more than one check a month because uh mortgages are capitalized once a month and there's no no benefit to doing it or more often than that um and and then the second thing is it's possible a refinance will work but basically we're talking about a quarter of a point plus an eighth is all here so we're talking about a quarter of a point plus an eighth is all here. So we're talking about three-eighths of a point. And, you know, the likelihood of you recouping your closing costs

with three-eighths of a point anytime soon, it's not going to make it worth it. Okay. So from 375 to four and an eighth is not enough of a spread to recoup the closing costs to make it work. In other words, the reason you refinance is not to go from a spread to recoup the closing cost to make it work the reason you in other words the reason you refinance is not to go from a 30 to a 15 it's to get a lower interest rate that makes sense versus the closing cost and this doesn't so i wouldn't i would just pay this like it's a 15 and not worry about it and you know and if you get in a pinch you back it off if you have to

since you're over your 25 but i don't think you will it off if you have to since you're over your 25%. But I don't think you will. I think you're going to be a very detailed person. You're very dialed in here. You're very aware of your numbers. You're going to hit this exactly where you need to hit it. So life is good, brother. I predict you'll be out of debt in about 10 years if you start paying this right now like it's a 15. All right.

Up next is Mike because you're going to pay extra as you go along. In other words, that's how that's going to happen. Mike is with us in, what in the world? Mike is in Ohio, I think. There he is. Mike's in Ohio. Hey, Mike, how are you? Good, Mr. Ramsey.

Quick question here for you. I got some credit card debt, and i just went through a divorce after 21 years of marriage and i have about 109 right at 190 000 from credit card debt it has grown over years and years and what in the world did you buy on credit cards? Just life over decades? Yes. Okay. And what has happened is a card with, you know,

you get something in the mail, 0%, transfer it, so you do for six months or 12 months, and then you don't get that paid off, and then it hits you with a high rate. So I got $3,000 or $4,000. And then you keep overspending. Yes. Yeah, okay. That makes sense.

And so my job was eliminated, and I made $100,000 a year. I have a $1,500 a month VA pension. Well, lost my job, went through a divorce, and we're selling the home, and we have about $25,000, $30,000 a piece coming out of the home. I thought and talked to my attorney about, should I call the credit card companies, see if there's something that I can work out? I only have about $30,000, but I owe about $190. Are you current with them? No.

How far behind are you? Well, what I do is I send them something every month. I've never missed a payment, but I can't make the minimum amount due. So it is behind, but I do send them $100 or $150 a month. I know that's nothing so you got

you got all the credit cards debt in the divorce yes and you got 25 000 from my house all the cards were in my name okay and you got 25 000 from on that from the house what other money or assets do you have i sold uh our boat and i sold the extra car uh to put against the credit card debt so the only asset i have is a 1500 car so you've already paid that against the cards yes okay and what is your your income now that you're divorced? Right now that I don't have a job, it's only $1,500 a month, which is a veteran's disability. I am in the process, and I'm looking every day for a position. How long have you been out of work? Three months.

What do you do? Sales. That's good news. What's the last job you had and what were you making? I made 100,000 a year of medical equipment. Good, good. Well, the good news is you can get back on that bicycle and ride it. Because once you've made six figures in sales, you know what it feels like.

You have the muscle memory to go back to it, and there's a high gravitational pull that's pulling you back that way you're going to get there again i i can see that for you in your future you're going to get past this broken heart and all the garbage and the hurt and all the stuff you've had um working you know have to work through with all this stuff and now you're clean and you're just going to get the new job and we're just going to plow into this. So you can probably settle some of these. But you're, you know, what you can do is just list them smallest to largest and call them and, you know, offer them about 10 cents on the dollar the first round through and see if any of them take it. Okay.

Until you run out of the $25,000. And so, in other words, you make a list of them, and you go, okay, here's a $20,000 one, and we're going to offer them two grand. And 10 cents on the dollar would be $18,000, but you're not going to get 10 cents on the dollar. And, you know, negotiate up to 20 cents or 30 cents on the dollar and clear some of them with the $25,000. If you're going to do that, always get it in writing before you send them any money. Keep a copy of the email where you got it in writing.

In other words, credit card X says you owe us $10,000. We're going to settle for $2,500. You send them $2,500, and you keep that in writing, and you keep the proof that you sent them the $2,500 stapled together in hard copy form, not e-form, in a file drawer for the rest of your life because this will come up again. So in writing, and you settle it, and do not allow them to have electronic access to your personal checking account because they'll clean you out.

Okay? So you settle, no electronic access you get it in writing and your work is get as much traction as you can get with the 25 i doubt you'll clear it all up but you get a job making 100 you'll be able to clear up the rest of it well the attorney's divorce attorney says that uh what he recommends is i take this money um do whatever i want to do with it, spend it, give it to somebody or whatever, file bankruptcy, and just forget about it. What a great guy. That's the advice I give you.

Does that not feel slimy to you? That guy's a slime ball, man. That's absolutely not. No, you're not bankrupt. You have the ability to make $100,000 a year. You've got $25,000 in your hand. You clear this debt up. Guy's a slime ball.

Now, I guess I'm not even going to say anything else. That's good. I think we made our comments. Life's good. That puts us out of The Dave Ramsey Show. This hour's over, but you can find more great content on our YouTube channel. Catch the most watched Dave Rants, debt-free screams in the very popular everyday millionaire segment. Go to the Dave Ramsey Show YouTube channel and click subscribe.