The Ramsey Show - App - My Financial Advisor Has Been Accused of Being a Crook (Hour 3)

Episode Date: April 10, 2020

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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. This is your show. Thank you for joining us. Open phones this hour at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225.

Kristen is with us in Los Angeles. Hi, Kristen. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi there. I've been watching your show a lot for the past couple of years, so I'm really happy to be on here. Well, thanks. How can I help? Well, I do watching your show a lot for the past couple years so i'm really happy to be on here well thanks how can i help uh well i do have mistakes that i have made throughout my college years and i ended up with a hundred thousand dollars in debt and unfortunately i've had 20 000 of it go to collections the past four years ago and after two years they graced it and they forgave it but my student loans have still gone to that $84,000 with those interest.

And right now I'm trying to work on my mental health. And I'm trying to balance what I should prioritize because I do work full-time at my job. My medical deductible is $1,800. And that looks about $108 a month that I'm paying to help my mental health, but that's coming out of the money that I would pay for my student loans. Okay. What is wrong with your mental health? Well, I've lived most of my life with depression and ADD,

and lately with this past year and everything that has gone on, I've had to prioritize it as a necessity and it has helped, but it is something that's going to be constant every month, checking in with psychiatrists, counselors, and having to pay those bills in order to maintain it. And so my monthly expenses, I only get like maybe $300, $400 a month that I can usually afford if I'm really being short on my money. And my student loans, they're expecting me to pay upwards to $250 a month total. And so that's usually the least amount of money that I have. So I'm trying to pick and choose what's the best option.

Gotcha. Okay. How old are you? 29. What do you do? I'm a photographer, actually. And I are you? 29. What do you do? I'm a photographer, actually, and I really love my job. And what's your degree in? I have a BFA in film media studies.

Oh, good. Okay. So you're a photographer on video or still? My degree is particularly in broadcast. What do you do for a living? Oh, I take pictures at the Disneyland Resort. Oh, okay, cool. So how many hours a week are you working at that? Full-time, it can usually range from 38 hours to 48 on a very busy week. week okay and um and what is your income in a year i approximated at 35 okay all right um well we have as you can imagine uh folks that struggle with depression um or orD in an extreme level, or ADHD, often have financial issues, bipolar in particular.

And so I've had the experience of working with folks dealing with that for many years, decades. I'm not a mental health professional. I don't know anything except just experience of watching this and dealing with it. The good news is that I've seen a lot of people deal with it and actually put it in their past, work past it or work it down to where it is such a minor issue that it no longer runs their life, they run it. And that's in the process of what you're doing, trying to get on top of this. And I commend you for that. Well done.

Thank you. What I'm telling you is there's a lot of hope. The other thing I've seen is there's two sides to the money equation that affect both of those things. One is the cause and the effect, okay, meaning that sometimes depression obviously causes energy to drop, hope to drop, and so there's initiative that goes out the window sometimes. And so people don't work much, you know, that are depressed. Yes.

And so that causes the income to go down and causes the money to have a problem. And then guess what? It spirals because when you've got financial stress, guess what? That's depressing. Right? Okay, so that's kind of one side of the equation. The other side of the equation is I have actually seen a sizable increase in income be part of the fight to win against depression.

Not that money makes you happy. That's not the point. But the lack of stress around life as related to money makes it easier to fight depression is that logical absolutely and so my recommendation not as a mental health professional but just as a guy who's walked with folks like you that are facing the kinds of things you're facing all these years is let's do something really, really, let's go crazy on the income side. What can you do with that camera and double your income in your off hours? I want you to go bananas, kiddo.

I have a feeling you are way underpaid for the level of talent you have looking through that lens. You have not only been formally trained, you have a passion for it, you have an enjoyment with it, and I think you're probably better than $35,000 a year. Thank you. Do you? I think so.

Prove it. Yeah, I definitely can try working my butt off and doing those. Yeah, let's take side gigs. You're freaking in Los Angeles. Let's take side gigs. Let's take pictures of dogs. I don't care what you're doing, but let's go turn that camera into money and see how exciting it would be to make $70,000,

and then we're not pinching pennies and worrying about choosing between my counselor's bill and my student loan bill. Because a $500 a month income, that's only $6,000 a year, changes the entire question you just asked me, doesn't it? Yes, yes, it does. And you're only working 38 to 48. Lots of people work 80. I don't want you to work 80 the rest of your life, but how cool would it be to make an extra $40,000 for the next two years

and almost completely alleviate the student loan debt and maybe in the process find legs to what God wants you to do with that camera? Yeah, very true. I'm going to send you a copy of Christy Wright's book, Business Boutique, because I'm not sure what your side hustle is, but it might be some kind of a thing where you're doing it on a self-employed basis running your own business. I really think you're getting ready.

This is real pivotal time for you. All that you've done has brought you to this point. And this stress may birth something really cool. It may force you to go out of your comfort zone and go use that camera. Make some money. Unapologetically, make some money. $10,000 in your hand extra would change your whole outlook. Only $10,000.

Ah, you can do this. Hold on. I'm going to send you a copy of Christy Wright's book. I really see big things for you. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. show. For most of us, health care costs seem to increase every year, and saving money on health insurance feels more and more out of reach. For example, take the Olcheski family from LaGrange, Texas. Jeff and Cherise had just celebrated the birth of a new baby boy.

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CHM is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. Kristen is with us in Des Moines, Iowa. Hi, Kristen. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up?

Well, I'm calling with good news. We are pregnant with our fourth baby. Yay! And, yes, we're due in mid-June. And we were finishing up baby step number two when we found out we were pregnant. Well, we've got a big shovel and we had a big pile of debt. So we finished that up. There was about 9,000 left. And then we started on baby step three and built that up and started four or five, but I'm struggling with going to six. And so I was hoping you could help me and let me know what you think I should do.

What are you struggling with? Well, cause I don't know exactly. I mean, well, our income is great and so i just kind of started piling the money and now we have a hundred thousand dollars sitting there in the last six months um and i don't know should i cut it back down to about 20 um i'm working two jobs because my one job does not have any benefits it's a small business so no short term so i'm working an as needed job as a nurse practitioner and so i've been bringing in an extra you know uh double six-figure income and so i'm not going to have any maternity pay when i'm on leave so i'm going to have to use that income and so are you single No, I'm married. What does he make?

He makes about $50,000. Okay. And you make what? I make $140,000 at the job that doesn't have any benefits, and then my side job I just pick up. And it's a six-figure income. It just matters on how much I work, but I'm not going to be doing that once baby comes. I'm just doing it to prepare for baby.

What do you do? Are you a doc? I'm a nurse practitioner. Okay. Yeah guessing all right good yeah it's a pretty good side job that's why i was guessing okay so um yeah all right um so the deal is this what does your household need while you're out on maternity leave to subsidize to lay with his income to replace the fact that you're not making any money, right? Right. Probably about $3,000. A month?

A month, yeah. Okay. How many months are you going to take off? Three. That would be $9,000. Let's double that and call it $20,000. You've already got your emergency fund that were you called it 20 right yeah so we're gonna have 20 as an emergency fund i'm gonna set another 20 over

the side to make sure everything's okay uh you want to set 30 over there i don't care just to make sure everything's okay 50 000 on the house and then you know i'm just trying to make sure you're okay you know, while you're out. Sounds like you guys are saving almost all your income already. We are. Yeah. So, I mean, and, you know, you've been working your butt off. So, what's the long-term plan with four kids for you?

Well, I also have a direct sale company that kind of took off, too. I guess I didn't mention that. But I don't know how that income is going to go, like a multi-level marketing. I haven't touched that either. So I don't know. Maybe I can just live off of that and not even go back to work or just work part-time. Okay. Yeah.

So I think that's not a lot of it. As long as you go make one of these six-figure incomes somewhere, and you've got two or three of them floating around to add with his 50, you guys are going to be fine, right? Right. So we don't have to have a pile of money to offset that, because you're not going to pull up and just stop, is what you're telling me. No, I'll make six figures one way or another. Yeah, that's what it sounds like, at least. And then, so, you know, I think you set 30 aside for maternity leave, set 20 over in your emergency fund.

Does that make you comfortable? Yeah, I think so. We were in so much debt. I'm not trying to get you into debt. No, no, no. We went from this frugal lifestyle that we just haven't maintained it. All I'm trying to say is let's just think through this logically. Part of being logical with personal finance is addressing the emotional need,

and that's all I'm doing. I'm saying you've got an emotional need, an actual need of maternity leave. And we said it was $9,000. We've upped it to $30,000. Does that cover the emotions, please? Yeah. Yeah, really. Did I bump up my husband's truck?

I don't care. If you want to move him up in truck, that's fine. What's he driving? How old is the truck? Oh, it's a 2006 Dodge pickup. Okay. And so it's worth $10,000? Yeah.

And he wants to move to a $20,000? Mm-hmm. Well, you got the money. I don't care. It doesn't matter if it's for or after baby. This is the time you do this. You're working baby steps four, five, and six simultaneously. The extent you buy couches, trucks, and vacations slows down your six.

Oh, and stop and have babies, that kind of stuff, you know, slows down your six. But so what? You're going to be okay. You're still going to hit all of your goals. You're still going to be millionaires, if not multimillionaires, when you get to retirement age. So I think you're killing it. You're doing really good. I think you're killing it you're doing really good i think you're doing better than you think you are i just want you i just want you to think

through this from a critical thinking standpoint what is needed here and so if we put 10 on his truck and 30 to the side and 20 to the side i think i still got 40 left to throw at the house and if you want to wait till after the baby comes to do that just as an abundance of caution so what but don't be just piling up cash over there over the next five years and call me up and go, I've got enough in my savings account to pay off my house. No, you should have already paid off your stinking house. Okay? So, you know, five, ten months, nine months, I don't care, whatever.

But let's have a plan to systematically work these steps over time. That's the issue. Heather is with us in Sacramento. Hi, Heather. How are you? Hi, Dave. I am us in Sacramento. Hi, Heather. How are you? Hi, Dave. I am so thankful to be talking to you. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? I just wanted some advice on how to talk to my ex-husband about money. A year ago, I got full custody of our daughter, and I had had filed for child support and he got really abrasive

with me and through just not wanting to have that confrontation i dropped my request it's been a it's been a year and i went back and refiled because um back in december because he said we should support his child. Hello. Right, exactly. Even if he whines about it. We have two kids. My daughter and his daughter live full-time, and he pays child support for his son. And in December, my ex-husband texted me and said he was going to claim our daughter on this year's taxes. He doesn't have that right.

I know. I know. I know. And so that just kind of poked the bear. And so I went back and filed and he texted me over the weekend saying, hey, I really want to work on communication, yada, yada. I'm like, okay, I can be decent. We can, you know, walk on communication. And so... Are you remarried now?

No, I'm in a committed relationship with my boyfriend. Okay. All right. For how long? For how long? We've been together for two years. Okay. I've been separated from my ex-husband for three.

Yeah. All right. So, you know, we work together for him to see our daughter. He only sees her about four times a year. And so first thing Monday morning, he texts me asking, hey, you know, I really appreciated some compassion for my situation. If I have to pay a set amount each month, I'm not even going to make rent and this and that. Give him a total money makeover book. Yeah. Call the Wambulance.

Child support's not 100%. Not even in California. He can pay his child support, make his rent, and eat. Yeah. Call the Wambulance. Child support's not 100%. Right. Not even in California. He can pay his child support, make his rent, and eat. Right. I'll give him compassion. He needs to take care of his dadgum kid. He's a father.

Right. Well, and he has five kids living in his house. He's had two more kids since we separated. And he wants to do a, hey, let me know what you need as far as money as you go. No, what I need is you to start paying child support. Right. Yeah. This guy is a master manipulator, and he's self-centered as crap.

I can tell that already. Yeah, yeah. I got no use for people who don't take care of their kids, man. But what's the best way to approach that conversation? I don't think you're going to fix him. No, I'm not. I don't think you're going to fix him. No, I'm not. I don't think he's going to be happy. I think I'm just going to be okay with him being unhappy.

Okay. That's how I'm going to approach it. I'm going to be kind and gentle but firm. Right. It's like, you know, you brought this child into the world. The law says and morality says you should take care of this child. It really is not rocket science. Sign up and pay the bill.

That's how this works. And, is not rocket science. Sign up and pay the bill. That's how this works. And, you know, I'm sorry that it's not, you know, he doesn't pay anything now. Hello. So maybe it'd be a good idea if he just kind of got practicing again, taking care of his kids. It's a good idea. That's why we have this in the law, because it's the proper thing to do. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Be more intentional with your time and money. Sign up for e-meals and let them do the thinking for you. They have a shopping list generator that makes it incredibly easy.

You can have your meals organized and planned for the week and have your groceries waiting for you when you get to the store. The average customer saves $2,000 a year and two hours a week. Get a free two-week trial at eMe St. Louis. Hey, guys, how are you? Hey, Dave, doing great. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. We are debt-free and here to do our stream.

Awesome-ness. How much have you paid off? Paid off $43,000 in nine months. Wow. And your range of income during that time? Well, we started at 60. At the height of it, we were at 89. And our current income, we have settled back down to 65,000. Way to go, guys. Very well done. What kind of debt was the 43? Well, about 10,000 of it was credit card debt $14,200 of it was BN student loans. And $18,700 of it was a loan on a truck.

Ah, okay. So what did you do to get rid of it that fast? In nine months, you kicked it out. You must have sold something. Well, you know, when we started, I own a preschool program, and business was slow. So that definitely affected the income we had when we started. But almost as soon as we decided to get this going, business picked up, which was great. And I also picked up a side job bartending at a local brewery, and I also taught horseback riding lessons one day a week.

Oh, my goodness. You guys went crazy. Yeah. And Dan was putting in plenty of hours at his job, too. Yeah, way to go, guys. Excellent. Excellent job. So what got you started on this nine months ago?

You got fired up. Well, my sister several, several years ago gave us your Total Money Makeover books that I promptly put on a shelf and forgot about until it was time for me to, well, until I graduated college. And I actually worked your snowball plan after college and got my own debt paid off. So I was debt free when we got married. But, you know, like I said, business was slow at the time. And I remembered what being debt free felt like and just trying to make ends meet. It wasn't necessarily one big thing that happened except that I was just sick and tired of being sick and tired and worrying about money all the time. Yeah.

Okay. So it just kind of clicked. Yeah. And so, Dan, she sits down and goes, is it time to do this, or did you sit down? Who was the initiator on this? No, it was definitely her. I think it was a little bit hard to start on the program, I guess. It was kind of one of those I didn't exactly see an end game until I started listening to the daily podcast and your books and whatnot.

I kind of needed to see a little bit more of a plan before I kind of went all in on it. Yeah, okay. All right, cool. Well, you do have to understand why we're doing it. Nobody wants to deeply sacrifice because it's fun it's not that would be weird no you know so good good for you man well done you guys how's it feel to have no debt uh it feels incredible so amazing so the biggest thing we did to you know move the needle was we sold my truck. That was our biggest loan.

Oh, okay. Right. So I went from a very nice truck down to a $1,000 car. Oh. This was a little bit of an adjustment. Yeah. But since we've been debt-free and we've started saving money, we were able to upgrade me in a car and just go to a dealership and write them a check.

Yeah, that feels good, too. That's a completely different place to be, for sure. Very cool. So how far into the nine months before you decided to sell the truck? Well, that was our last debt. Oh, okay. We were pretty much on our way, and we were kind of just looking at how much longer do we want to be working the snowball versus how bad do we just want to be done with it. So by then you're emotionally on board. You're deep into it by then, and you go, okay, let's flip this switch and be done.

Yes. Yeah. Lindsay more or less said we can take the time to pay it off or if you want to sell it, we can sell it. Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. Good for you, man. Well done, you guys.

What do you tell people the secret to getting out of debt is? Well, obviously the budget is very important, you know, telling your money what to do. But a couple of other tactical things that I, or, you know, more realistic things that I found was when I go grocery shopping, this is actually advice from a friend who's also on your plan, is when I go grocery shopping to count down how much money we have in the grocery budget so that when I get to the register, it's not a huge surprise that we don't have any money left. So that was very, very helpful.

We did eat a lot of leftovers, so that helped too. Yeah. And lots of meals with my parents and the in-laws from them inviting us over. We didn't pass down any free meals, that's for sure. Very cool. Well, good, you guys. Way to go. Congratulations. I'm very, that's for sure. Yeah, very cool. Well, good, you guys. Way to go. Congratulations.

I'm very, very proud of you. So did you have people cheering you on or people saying you were crazy? Yes, we had a pretty good support system while we were going through it. Obviously, Lindsay's sister and brother-in-law were the ones who introduced her and me to the program. And our family was great. I don't want to say they always necessarily understood exactly 100% what we were getting at, but they were very supportive nonetheless.

They're very proud of us now. And we also have several sons who are working your baby steps along with us, so that was very, very helpful too. Yeah. Well, way to go, you guys. Very well done. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's retire inspired book for you. We want that to be the next chapter in your story.

It's signed by him that you become millionaires and outrageously generous as you go along. OK, yeah, looking forward to it. Proud of you guys. Dan and Lindsay St. Louis, Missouri, forty three thousand dollars paid off in nine months, making $60,000 to $89,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one, we're debt-free! Yeah!

Oh, that's it, man. That's fun right there. Way to go, you guys. Way to go. Very, very well done. I love it. Mike is with us in Daytona Beach. Hey, Mike, how are you?

Hey, I'm doing great, Dave. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure, what's up? Hey, I wanted to run this by you. I'm 58, My wife is 57. We're almost debt free. Our debt, our consumer debt is $21,000 on our cars. And that's all we owe consumer wise. We owe $44,000 on the house. But it's a private mortgage. It's got a balloon that's due January 1st. I'm in a job where I'm paid a commission and this month I'm going to make an extra $25,000 next month

I'm going to make an extra $10,000 to $15,000 and if I were to put that on our house it will almost get us completely debt free and certainly if we made our regular payments by the end of the year we would then be the house would be out from under us and I know that's going out of order with

your baby steps but my wife and I just wanted to run this by you. Do you feel it's okay to, in this situation, to reverse the baby steps? You've got to, or you're going to have a serious problem in January. Okay. You don't have a choice. I mean, you've got a balloon, which, by the way, is a really bad idea to ever sign up for a balloon. They pop, man.

I mean, if this hadn't come through, you would have been in a mess. If you couldn't get a mortgage, you lost your job in October, I mean, you could lose your home over this. So never, never. Well, we lost our homes in the recession, so that's one of the reasons why we want to pay off the home before we tackle the last year. Yeah, but never sign a balloon again. They're dangerous. The home's in a recession, so that's one of the reasons why we want to pay off the home before we tackle the last year. Yeah, but never sign a balloon again.

They're dangerous. I'll never sign a mortgage again, Dave. Well, a balloon... We're not going to be dead after this. Yeah, a balloon puts crosshairs on your forehead, man. It's a bad... You know, you're aiming a gun right at your head. Do not do that.

So, yeah, you've got to clean it up. You've got this thing staring at you. Now, the individual that holds the note sold you the house how long ago? do that so yeah you got to clean it up you got you got this thing staring at you now um the individual that holds the note sold you the house how long ago uh we bought it in 09 he would extend it i mean we've every payment spent on time we paid ahead on the principal that wasn't what i was asking for us it's more of a safety and security no. No, no, I want it gone. We just don't ever want to lose a house again. I want it gone. I want it gone. Here, let me ask you this. You said $25,000 and $15,000, right, were your bonuses?

I'm on commission. I sell real estate. Okay, you've got two big commissions. What I'm thinking is if you call him up and say, if I pay this off six months early, would you discount it at all? Okay. And he might discount it, and you just knock it out this summer with those lump sums put together you know you might get you a discount and save you some money uh that's one of the beauties of an owner carried note sometimes you can pull

that off Dental insurance is great if somebody else is paying for it. But if you're footing the bill, OneDental.com is a much better way for my listeners. OneDental.com is a discount membership that gets you unlimited lower rates at the dentist, not just for cleanings, but even dentures, implants, root canals, braces, and more. Whether you're getting a plan for yourself, your family, or your business, OneDental.com is the way to go. Visit OneDental.com. Our scripture of the day, Proverbs 22, 6, Train up a child in the way he should go.

Even when he's old, he'll not depart from it. Frederick Douglass said, it's easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. Ouch. Kathy is with us in Boston. Hi, Kathy. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up? I'm so lucky to get a hold of you today. I had scary, scary news. Your phone is breaking up. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Can you hear me now? Yes, I can. Okay, I'm near a window now, but I got the front, my local paper today,

and there's a scary headline saying my financial advisor has been accused of scamming clients more than one million dollars how much have you got with them more than one million dollars you do we do what's it invested in? It's invested in mutual funds. Do you have statements that show it? I get statements from a company called Pershing every month. Does it show the money in the investments? It does. It does.

There's about 14 pages that come every month with the investments listed. Okay. But Pershing is not the, that must be the broker that the advisor was with, but not the actual mutual funds. Right, right. Pershing is the broker, I believe. Do you have the actual mutual funds, the statements from the actual mutual funds, or do you know what funds you're actually in and what your account number is with the mutual fund? Not with the mutual funds, no, just with Pershing. I know, but I'm saying you don't know the name of the mutual fund

that Pershing has put you in. I'm sure it's on the statements, correct? Should be. So, well, one thing you can do is immediately call the SEC, the Securities and Exchange Commission, who's probably after this guy. And, you know, tell them you're freaking out and what can they tell you about the investigation and what you should do is your next step. That's that's one thing you would do. The second thing I would do is i would pick up my statements and say all right i'm supposed to have money in abc mutual fund and my account number is so and so call that mutual fund and go okay this is kathy so and so my you know i'm supposed to have x number of dollars in this mutual fund, and I need to verify that there's actually money in that fund in my name.

Okay. Okay? Okay. And I'm not familiar with the name Pershing, so is that a larger firm that he's supposed to be a local branch of, or is that the name of his firm? Well, he's actually a local branch of united planners okay call them i looked up on i looked on up on the internet and they're in arizona okay call them too okay and start you know tell them what's going on that you need to know how to take your

statements apart and here's my hope okay that your money actually got into those mutual funds. If it actually got into those mutual funds, you're probably safe. Okay. That's my hope, too. But if he's diverting it as a complete crook, a complete fraud, a bank robber, basically, if he's diverting, embezzling the money, and then printing off falsified statements, then you may have a real problem. That's possible. Okay?

So the SEC, the Securities and Exchange Commission, is your ruling body on this. Get in touch with them immediately in your area. They'll have a location or an agent assigned to the Boston area that you can get some help from. And then call United Planners, whoever that is that they're a part of, that he's somehow a part of. Get some information from them. Number two. Number three. Try to reach the actual mutual fund company.

And so mutual funds are called families of funds, which is the brand name. Okay? Okay. And so an example would be Fidelity is a brand name, and Campbell's is a brand name. Now, Campbell's has chicken soup, and they have vegetable soup. Fidelity has a whole bunch of different mutual funds, so Fidelity's not what you're looking for. You're looking for the actual fund.

Fidelity Magellan would be an actual fund, right? If it's American funds, an actual fund is Investment Company of America, ICA, and American funds. And so it's not just American funds you need to get a hold of. It's ICA with your account number to try to figure out if you've got money in that account, literally. And if you do, then that's going to give you a lot of rest, and you're going to get some sleep. In addition to that, the vice president of our SmartVestor program, this guy's not a SmartVestor, I'm sure, okay?

He isn't, because I tried to find one when I was getting ready to roll over this 401K, and there wasn't one in our area. Okay. All right. Well, the guy that is the vice president that runs that whole program for us inside of our company here is brilliant on this kind of a thing. And so even though we've got nothing to do with it, just to help you, I'm going to put you on hold, and Kelly is going to connect you to one of our vice presidents,

and he'll be able to give you also some better advice maybe even than I have on getting in here and getting you some peace that your money has not just been flushed down the toilet somewhere. So what a scary, horrible thing. Yeah, you roll a million dollars into something, and you look up, and the guy you're working with on the front page is being the next Bernie Madoff. Oh, my gosh. What a horrible deal.

Yeah, that'd take your breath away right there. That'd cause your pulse rate to change. Ouch. So hold on, and Kelly will pick up, Kathy, and we'll try to help you and get you some help around this, even though, as you and I said, it's not one of our guys by any stretch of the imagination. But I hate it when one of these guys does this because it discredits

and makes everybody scared about doing investing then, and they shouldn't be because 99.9% of the people in the business are wonderful people. Ben is with us in Gainesville, Florida. Hi, Ben. How are you? Hey, Dave. I'm doing good. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up? That's good. So I recently got engaged to my girlfriend. Woo-hoo! And we've been going over, you know, the important questions like finance. Mm-hmm. And she told me she has $24,000 in student loans so far, and she's halfway done with

school. Mm-hmm. And I don't know where to go from there. Go where? What do you mean? In terms of, you know, how we should worry about that. Should we not even look at the student loans until after we graduate? She has some private and some federal loans. Are you both in school?

We're both in school. We both have two years to graduate. Okay. What is she studying? She's studying nursing, and I'm studying engineering. You're studying what? Engineering. Engineering.

Good. And you don't have student loans? No, sir. Why? Because I did my first two years at a public college, not a university, and then I transferred. Yeah. And how did you pay for it? I work.

Oh, there's that. Okay. So how much does she work? She works about 10 hours a week. She makes about $4,000 a year. Not enough. Of course. Yeah.

Okay. And so the first thing I would attempt to do is, do you all have a date set yet that you're going to be married? The end of June. Oh, cool. Okay. Well, until the end of June, there's not is for you both to graduate with no more debt. Okay. If you can pull that off between the two of you, you know, everybody working, all hands on deck, everybody's doing everything they can.

We're all combined finances. We're married after June, and we're're gonna both get through the remaining of our school without any more debt that's a that's a win if you can just freeze the 24 and deal with it after graduation and pay cash for this point forward that's a big win a bigger win would be if you could even do that and reduce and reduce her debt but by, the first goal is have enough in the bank for both of you to graduate debt-free. Then go back and do that. So hold on.

I'm going to send you an early wedding present called the Total Money Makeover book. And I want you guys to use that as your guide to work through this process together. You'll get through it. You can do this. But you just need to have a very intentional discussion about where we're going from here. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately

only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey guys, this is James Childs, producer of the Dave Ramsey Show. I'm excited to announce that we're now carried on 600 radio stations across the country. To find one near you, head to DaveRamsey.com slash show. In times of uncertainty, there is one thing you can control. You. So it's time for you to say no to fear and yes to a plan. And that plan is Financial Peace University. Through FPU, nearly 7 million people

just like you have learned to pay off debt forever. Save for the future. Build wealth and become outrageously generous. And for the first time ever, you can start a free 14-day trial of a Financial Peace membership. This free trial includes all nine video lessons, financial tools, and downloads, a vibrant online community, and every dollar plus our premium world-class budgeting app. It's everything you need to start getting your money on the right track. This proven plan doesn't change with the economy or what's happening around the globe. Start your free trial of Financial Peace University today at DaveRamsey.com.