The Ramsey Show - App - My Spouse Is Using Credit Cards Behind My Back (Hour 2)

Episode Date: August 7, 2020

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is the Dave Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. My name is Anthony O'Neill. Co-hosting today with me is the one and only Dr. John Deloney. 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225 is the one and only Dr. John Deloney. 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225 is the number. We're talking about your life, your money, your mind. And Dr. D, this is your month.

You're launching your show at the end of this month. We are in it up to our eyeballs. There's a whole team of people. Man. What can we expect? We can expect real talk. end of this month we are in it up to our eyeballs there's a whole team of people okay man what can we expect we can expect real talk okay we can expect man we got to get some more light back out in the media yeah it's just a it's just despair and doom and gloom and sadness and people are walking through stuff man and and anthony i've i've just sat with people for years in the worst of the worst moments.

And I'm convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt because I've seen it. There is light at the end of these tunnels. It's just so hard to see sometimes when you are just in the pit of despair. You've made decisions you don't think you can ever walk back. You don't believe you have any dignity anymore. People you love are no longer with you. It just feels like it's all over. And so this show, man, it's going to be a call-in show it's going to be a it's about helping people figure out what the next step is

that's how to regain some light in their life and then go get it man go get it you know that's that's amazing uh you know you have some of the top producers in the company with james and kelly i tell you what man i lucked out we got zach and and James and Kelly. We got a whole squad, man. They are studs, and they are top, best in the country at what they do. I love it. What's your YouTube channel so the people can come check you out and subscribe? YouTube.com slash John Deloney. YouTube.com forward slash Dr. John Deloney. It's actually John Deloney on the forward slash.

Yeah, not even doctor. Yeah, not even doctor. My mom named me John, so that's what I like to go by. Yeah, I love it, man. Y'all, go check them out. I mean, the guy's having some real conversations, some heavy conversations. And if you're experiencing something or you're going through something and you want some counseling, some wisdom, some guidance, give my brother a call. I'm telling you right now, you will enjoy it.

Going out to Arizona, we're going to have a conversation with Nate. Nate, good afternoon. How can Dr. D and myself help? Well, good afternoon. I actually have a question about opportunity costs. I guess the scenario is I am now on babysit seven, two and a half years. Congrats!

That a boy, Nate! Way to go, man. Thank you. 64 of that was student loans, and I have watched your podcast before, so thank you for lighting that fire. I'm about 75k net after taxes and everything like that. I have 20k in my emergency fund, 15k is invested. I'm an MBA major. So I kind of thought I could play stock markets and I'm not doing bad, but

having done mutual funds with my Roth IRA, like Dave teaches, oh my gosh, so good. And I'm loving the dividends that get returned off those mutual funds. So now I'm at a position in my life where I need to make a decision. My rent renegotiation was coming up and since I'm a veteran, everyone was like, go get a VA home loan. But I've never really been a home person. I don't want the maintenance and I don't care. But everyone I talk to says, that's the best investment you're going to make is owning your own home. But I guess my vision for my money is, if the home was $150K, I would rather have $150K in mutual funds and live off the 20% returns, 15% returns. Because those are things I am reaching now with the funds that I have. And I'd rather get a paycheck at the end of the year when those mutual funds pay out.

So I guess the question is opportunity cost. If I were to get a home, I could dump my excess amount. I live on 22K, so I have about 50K I can throw into the house, get that paid off in three, four years. Or live minimally still, put that all into some growth mutual funds that are going to pay some dividends and stuff like that and live off those funds. And then if I want to buy a house, you know, those dividends could possibly buy a house sooner rather than later. And I guess I don't know what the opportunity cost is and what Dave would think about that. So I heed you too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Dave was here. He would say the same thing I'm saying.

Babysit number seven, you're building wealth and you're giving. Okay, that's babysit number seven. All right. So right now it's about your experience. What do you want to do? Okay, you don't have any debt. You have a fully funded emergency fund.

You're already investing 15 you're already living way below your means i think that it's time for you to enjoy it okay i think sometimes we can get so so so gazelle intense that we forget to actually live and enjoy life i think in the first you know baby step two baby. Yes, we need to be gazelle focused. But once you get to baby step seven, you've worked so hard to where you don't have to be as gazelle. You should be able to enjoy it. And so for you, if I was in your shoes, I'm asking myself, OK, money's no issue. You know, what do I want? And I'm saying I want a house. And if I can put 50K towards that a year and buy a hundred and fifty thousand dollar house you're

going to pay it off within three years you can get some equity building on the house and building on the land that you have it's a win-win situation for you and one of the key things that our good friend Chris Hogan talks about in his book is that a lot of the everyday millionaires have a paid for mortgage and that is equity growing in your home and so i think for you i'm saying go ahead and get a house you're not talking about buying a 400 half a million or a million dollar home you're talking about buying a hundred fifty thousand dollar house so i will go get the go get the house uh keep investing and then after you do that i would definitely sit back and ask yourself okay where else can i invest some money? Because that's exactly what Dave would say. Right now, you're not wrong either

way. I think you just got to ask yourself, if I eventually want a house, why wait? Just go get a house now and go ahead and get the equity building for you. If you don't want a house right now, then don't buy it. Hey, Nate, you called us. Can I go spelunking with you for a minute? Please. Yes, go for it. You're a veteran? Yeah, I'm an Army vet, four years. Give me a 30-second rundown of your childhood.

Go. Moving a lot. That's about it. Okay. You know what? I was going to try to piece together what you told me in 30 seconds to land there yeah and so the this i anthony is is is right and underneath what anthony just said is i get a sense of a guy who either is scared of or doesn't know how to be home. And I think one of the great curses of our time is that

we have taken home and turned it into a house and turned a house into an investment vehicle. And when we do that, we never fully put roots in the ground. A mentor of mine, Dr. Richard Beck, asked a question that has haunted me for years, and he said, how different would we treat people if we could never move? What conversations would we have with our neighbors, would we have in our local schools and our churches if we knew this was just it? And so, Nate, I want to pose this question to you consider thinking of a home as a base as a place to anchor in not just as a mutual fund investment it's a way of being and then you're going to invest in your local community and you know what my guess is when you start developing deep deep relationships

when you start really learning what it means to be present and be home, you're going to get a feeling in your heart that is going to far exceed the joy you get from a mutual fund return at the end of every year. That was good. Only right here on The Dave Ramsey Show. I'm going to go to bed. costs, whether they're anticipated or completely unexpected. For example, take the Olcheski family from LaGrange, Texas. Jeff and Carice had just celebrated the birth of a new baby boy. Shortly after, they had another expensive medical issue come up. They could have faced a huge financial setback, but thanks to Christian Healthcare Ministries, the Olcheskis were spared from a

ton of medical bills. As members of CHM, they're part of a group of believers who financially and spiritually support each other. CHM is the longest-serving health cost-sharing ministry and is a Better Business Bureau-accredited charity. It's Christians helping other Christians, and it shared nearly $97,000 to help the Olcheskis. To be a part of Christian Healthcare Ministries, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. CHM is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. Welcome back.

We're going to go out to Rochester and have a conversation with Matthew. Matthew, good afternoon. How can Dr. D and I help? First of all, I just want to say, hey, Dr. D, hey, Anthony O'Neill. It's a very high honor to speak with you. Oh, man, it's an honor that you would actually give us a call. Thank you for the opportunity. So how can we help you?

Yes, so me and my wife, we started last year with August of 2019 with $84,000 in debt. And we are around $71,000, $72,000 in debt right we are around 71 72 thousand dollars in debt right now okay and i just had a quick question um regarding some uh just some communication and how do i go upon this so i'm pretty much a lot of our of my income that I have paid off my debt with has been just like my part-time side hustles like DoorDash and Uber Eats and things like that. Um, and I went to go make a payment today of $300 and for, because we have two credit cards left.

And from what I thought that I would have, I had a balance of just $350 left to pay. I come to find out that we have $1,350 left to pay, and it was actually used last month on our Target credit card. So I've been working really hard, and she's still using the credit cards. That hurt, huh? So it's just a lot of emotions right now, and I don't know how to confront her about it

because she's just the kind of person that gets really defensive really quick. So I just don't know how to go upon communicating that with her. Do you want to heal your relationship, or do you want to be right in this one? And I'm not asking that as a, that's not a loaded question. That's just a, do you want to use the word confront? So do you want to, do you want to stand your ground and say, hey, I can't believe you did this or do you want to know what in the world's going on? Just what's going on.

Now, did y'all have a conversation about this, Matthew, though, when you started this journey? Did you all both agree that we're not going to use the credit cards and we're going to pay off the debt? We're not racking up any more debt. We're going to pay off our debt. Was that a clear conversation in the very beginning? Yes. Has she done this before? Yes. What she done this before? Yes.

What does she buy? She likes to go Target. What at Target, though? A thousand bucks is a lot of money. Yeah. Just odds and ends stuff, just things that sometimes, just for herself, pretty much.

You know, groceries, things like that. But yeah, $1,000 is quite a bit from what I thought we had. Yeah. So there's two layers to this. Number one is a word that I learned when I joined the Ramsey ecosystem, which is financial infidelity. Y'all had an agreed upon goal and she cheated on you. She didn't tell you.

She went and ran up a thousand bucks in knickknacks. And that hurts. You're going to have to deal with that. The second part is you're going to have some anger because you are grinding yourself to a nub to try to meet this joint goal. And now you're further back, right? Right.

And so the word you used was confront. That's, I want to go to war. I want to stand my ground with my helmet and my shield and my sword and ready to fight. And if that's where you are, then that's where you are. Or you don't confront as much as you sit down with the bill in a neutral location and you say, hey, what happened? Where are you? And if she wants to lie or she wants to get frustrated with you or she wants to turn around and make this your fault, then you've got a bigger situation, right? But I think this idea of confronting, I think that's a choice you make,

and there's no going back from it, right? And it might be that moment, man. I'm thinking about this out loud as I'm talking to you. Yeah. I'm still having a problem understanding, if you all had the conversation in the beginning, why is the credit card still in the house? How come it's not cut up?

You know, I think another reason why that might be is, and I've told her many times that, hey, you know, just from what I learned from you guys and Dave and Dave's playing, you know, credit doesn't matter and she, you know, because our goal is to eventually get a house someday. She's like, well, our credit score matters because we need

a house. Yeah. Okay. So she's not fully bought into the vision she's not yeah yeah she's not no no she's not so and like another thing too i wanted to mention too is she keeps saying oh yes i'm i'm on board i'm on board and i and told her, to a point you are. I mean, my thing of being on board is saying, hey, we do a budget every month. You know, we do it the right way. I want to do it, you know, to a T. Check this out, Matthew. We hear you. I can give you all the practical advice, but it's not going to work.

Doesn't matter. Right now, you and's not going to work. Doesn't matter. Right now, you and your wife have to get on the same page. Bottom line. I can tell you, hey, cut up your credit cards. All right, do this. Put more money over here. You have that. Right now, what you're missing is you and your wife are not on the same page.

Matt, there's something else here. Sorry, Anthony. There's something else here. Sorry, Anthony. There's something else here. Is there violations going on bigger than this? No. This is the only thing. Y'all are fully in sync with your marriage. You're fully in sync with raising your kids.

It's just this one thing. She just keeps using the credit card. Right, yeah. Do you feel loved and respected by your wife? I do. It's just at this point is, you know, working 14-hour days. You know, we have a six-year-old at home I'm missing, you know. Yeah.

You know, saying goodnight and things like that where I'm, you know, busting my butt every day. And then and then it's just racking up the credit card. So it's like all this progress that, you know, I thought we were making is just getting lost. Here's my suggestion to you. This is what I'm going to recommend, Matthew. I want you to talk to her. I want you to schedule a place, go out to dinner, take her to her favorite restaurant.

Before you go there, I want you to sit down and I want you to come up with a vision for your family. I want you to write down a clear vision and I want you to show it to her. When you go to the dinner table and say, babe, this is the vision that I have for the family. This is why I want us to show it to her. When you go to the dinner table and say, babe, this is the vision that I have for the family. This is why I want us to get out of debt. Do you agree with this vision? Do you see?

Do you want to make any changes? You know, we want to go here. We want to be able to do this for our kids. We want to build a house. We want to have financial freedom. Do you agree? And I think that's where you start the conversation because i feel as if she's not really on because she doesn't really clearly see the vision and i

could be wrong because i'm not there but i think that's the first place to start if everything else is great one thing i know about like myself if i don't see the vision it's hard for me to really focus on that so i want you to do that take her out to eat y'all have a conversation about your vision and make sure that both of you all are on the same vision then from there you need to cut up the credit cards and start doing the practical stuff but right now you and your wife need to be going down the same lane going down the same path after the exact same thing and I fully agree with that and and you need to let her know how much this hurts yeah and you need to let her know I'm putting these hours away from my kids away from you away

from time I can never get back and that money's been funneled into the knickknacks at Target. Yeah. You know what? Go ahead. You know what, Matthew? I want you to stay on the line. I want you to give Kelly your name and number. John's going to hate this,

but I think you and your wife should probably call into John's show. I think you and your wife should have a conversation with John, and you just walk them through this thing together. Yeah, we can take that call. Yeah. Let's help them out. Something here doesn't feel right, Matt, and I hope I'm wrong. But you've got to decide

are you going to confront and you're ready to go to war or are you going to sit down like Anthony said and you're going to let her finally hear the vulnerability in your heart and say this hurts. Here's the vision I have for our family. Will you go there with me? Will you go there with me will you go there with me can we go there together

and we're going to walk you through this man we appreciate you for calling in this is the Dave Ramsey Show most people's money problems come from not paying attention. That's why before I spend a dime of my money on something, I do the research and I make sure it's going to live up to what it claims. Recently, I got a great pair of sunglasses from a company called Shady Rays. When you're looking for sunglasses, it feels like your options are limited.

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John, good afternoon. How can Dr. D and myself help? Hey, good afternoon, guys. I have a question. I woke up in the morning with like a what would Dave kind of do kind of situation in my head. Anyway, my accountability partner wants me to build my emergency fund up to 24 months because I'm still paying off my house at the moment, and pandemics and stuff kind of take a while to subside and run their course.

That's the thought that the accountability partner has. So I see myself like I can pay off a house in like two to three years, so I'm kind of like why build my emergency fund in 24 months because it's going to take me 24 months to build it up to that point. I feel like I should just drop my 401k down to like 6% and then use that other, you know, percentage out of the 15 as extra payment on my house to pay off the house within the next two years. And then after that, double up on my 401k investment contribution to build back up to where it would be if i were not to some pause to a certain extent in front of him yeah i see what you're trying to say john

how much debt do you have any other debt right now outside of your mortgage uh no i'll pay off everything else okay so you're debt free and how much is in your emergency fund right now? Right now, it's $35,000. Okay, $35,000. What's your monthly expenses? Monthly expenses is $10.50 plus $9.95 plus $10.23, so we'll say $3,000. About $3,000 is your monthly expense is all you need to survive in Atlanta, correct? Yep, that's correct. All right, so inside of these monthly expenses, because it seems like you list like three or four items,

do you have food in there? Do you have clothes in there? Do you have travel in there? Do you have haircuts? Because you sound like a sharp young brother um you know what i mean it sounds like your monthly expenses are a little low okay so i do not have traveling i i started travel because i kind of blow the budget out as if okay if i do a cut back what can i get down to so right now that three thousand dollars is kind of a midway where i have groceries, petrol, toiletries, restaurants, everything now and then.

I do have haircuts in here. Okay. What do you do for hobbies? Hobbies? Well, everything's kind of messed up right now, but I can't really do hobbies. But sporting stuff, flying airplanes, remote control cars, biking, running, exercise, so forth. Cool. So right now, if you have $35,000 in your account and you're saying, let's say worst case scenario, you need $5,000 a month.

Okay. So right now you need $30,000 to really be in a good place. That's six months. Single guy, I'm okay with you even having three months because you'll be able to find some level of employment to help push you through. So three to six months minimum, $15,000 to $30,000 minimum is what you need in your emergency fund. I am not a fan of you counseling out and going down on your investments because how old are you, John? Let's say 36.

36. All right, cool. So you're my age. Okay my age okay so right now john time is on our side and if you go down on your investment you're taking away from compound interest so a lot of people think all right i'm young i'll go in the head and i'll stop my investments or come down a little bit and then i'll just dump a lot down the road and catch up on it. No, timing is our best friend, not the amount of money we put into the investments. It's the timing. So with you being out of debt, you having a fully funded emergency fund, you need to be investing 15 percent. And no, you do not need 34 months or 24 months in your emergency fund. The only way I would say I would consider it is if you're on baby step number seven and you just want to have an extra cushion, you know, a year's two years

worth of living just set aside for you. I will be like, OK, I'm cool with that. But in your age right now, I would just go ahead and pay off the houseman. Keep that six months in there. I'll take five thousand dollars000 out go ahead and put that towards the mortgage and just start attacking that right now can you really think about this I want you to dream with me here John you're 36

you'll be 38 years old debt free no mortgage making good money $30,000 in your savings account, your net worth sounds like it's going to be over a half a million, $500,000 with a paid off mortgage, good income, good savings account, all your investments in there. I don't know a lot of 38-year-olds in your place. So I'm suggesting don't worry about going to two years of emergencies.

No pay off the house so you can have freedom and you can really go after your dreams. And I, and I understand what your financial advisor is trying to do. Like, Hey, we don't know what's going on with COVID. I know one thing about COVID is not going to dictate my future.

It's not going to stop me from doing the things that I really want to do. You are in great conditions. The average person in the world right now can't afford to pay for a $400 emergency. You have $35,000 in the account. You are in a great place. Pay off the mortgage. Tell your financial advisor, your coach uh thank you so much for caring about me uh but i'm going to pay off the house make sense man yes make sense hey man appreciate you so much for calling in you know one of the biggest problems john that i have with coaches is you know they come from a good place i think you know they really do you know but hey man get we don't know how long kovat's going to be we want we don't know how long this is going to be but to tell a 36

year old who is debt free to put uh to have a hundred thousand dollars just sitting in the savings account and still have a mortgage when he could take that same money and pay off his house in two years and have 30 000 that i'm confused confused. But I understand the heart. Be safe. How about we be wise and safe at the same time? Yeah, I think the insecurity, the unknown, is making everybody grasp its straws. We're all trying to grab whatever control we can and man we're not there's no way to control your way through this this

pandemic it's just gonna be uncomfortable we're gonna have to deal with our addiction to comfort man and part of that is you got six months in the bank. You got a paid off house. That's about as safe as you're going to get, my man. You know what I mean? It really is. I mean, it really is. But I like him. He's a sharp young man. I love that guy, man.

Good for you. You know, you guys, every day you can follow Dr. D or myself on Instagram. You can follow me at Anthony O'Neill. We take our questions and we bring them here on the show, give them to our producers so we can answer some of your questions. So you can follow me at Anthony O'Neill. We take our questions and we bring them here on the show, give them to our producers so we can answer some of your questions. So you can follow me at Anthony O'Neill on IG. I do ask some questions. I think we got some questions. I got a social question for you that came in from Chris from Facebook. Okay. He asks, I'm 14 years old and I mow lawns trying to save for a car. Should I set my price about the same or a little lower than the competition? I mean, you know, it all depends on what you want to do.

I mean, if you want to get, sometimes they say you can work hard or you can work smart. And work hard means you get out there and you beat your competition. So if they're charging $25, you're going to charge $20 and give them some extra stuff so you can get the work and get it up there. Or you can charge a little bit more and say, you know what?

I'm going to actually charge $30, but I'm actually going to water the grass for you. I'm going to come out here and do this and do that. It really all depends on how quickly you want to get the money. I'm going to say at your age, at the age of 14, I'm going to beat the competition. Undercut the neighborhood. That's what I would do, man. That's what I'm doing. I'm beating the competition.

$20, baby. $20. He's doing $25. I'll'll do 20 if you sign today if you say i can do it today i'm gonna do it and get get you 10 15 yards and you just kill it and here's the thing too okay chris and for anyone listening right now especially young people when you have a financial goal as far as i want to purchase a car i want to purchase a house make sure you have a budget that you're aiming for so don't just get out there and just start working and start doing things no set a budget okay i need to save five thousand dollars then backtrack all right to get five thousand dollars i need to cut this amount of yards at

this price and that will get me to that goal and so that's what you need to be doing right now and i mean you undercutting everybody so you can get to your best get it chris good good good good good question man i love it this is the day for empty shot August is National Make-A-Wheel Month. august is national make a will month yep that's the thing i didn't know that wow so i'm going to challenge those of you who don't have a will that's current to knock this out today an easy way to start is with our will preparation checklist it's a free guide that helps you think through the seven things you should consider like guardians beneficiaries and what happens with the little things you haven't thought of like your social media accounts wow i didn't know that huh that's interesting once you have your plan you can drop it into an online will

in about 10-15 minutes so here's what you do download our free will preparation checklist by texting will w-i-l-l to three three seven eight nine that's will w-i-l-l to three three seven eight nine it's an easy way to tell your family that you love them, that you care about them and that you want the best for them. And you're not leaving them with stress and headaches. But reading this man, I have a will, but inside of my will,

I don't, I don't have my social media stuff in there. That's interesting. Yeah. All your passcodes and your, and your where's your insurance, you know, your online insurance passwords and all

that stuff. Online insurance? What do you mean? Like if your insurance company, if you log in online and here's where all the forms are, right? All those passcodes and social media codes. Yeah. I don't know if I want my wife to have access to my social media. I'm just kidding.

I'm just playing. She'll already have access to my social media whenever I get married. But as far as I'm being a single person right now, that never thought about. I never thought about that. I understand. Never did. So, hey, man, that's that's awesome. You guys text will W.I.L.L. to three, three, seven, eight, nine. And if you're a single person you still need a will okay if you um are a person well i don't have a lot no you still need a will you know you still need a will and i believe it is a it is the hardest thing to do when i did my will i cried because i'm sitting here writing out permission for what my family needs to do when i'm no longer here i did the same thing deciding who's gonna get my kids yeah what songs do i want them to sing at my funeral i mean it's a it's an existential moment it's this reality that

is a hundred percent of us don't get out of this alive. It doesn't feel good. Nope. But it's the truth. It is the truth. And it is needed. I didn't even sleep that night. I was like, man, one day I'm not going to be here. And God said, you're right.

And thank you for making that day a better process. You're going to allow your family to mourn and not be stressed. And I have sat with countless couples, moms, dads, brothers, children, who've had somebody tragically or suddenly pass away, take their own life, and there is no plan. Yeah, man. There's no plan. There's no will. There's nothing in writing. And then family comes out of the woodwork. The state involved it just devolves into a mess you know let me do this

i'm gonna go to a call one of my vision is when i pass which is why i believe the will is so important is that i came into this world crying but but I'm going to leave this world smiling. When I am on my deathbed and I'm looking up at my wife, I'm looking up at my kids, I'm smiling because I'm not leaving them with bills and benefits. I'm leaving them with a will, land, wealth, joy, peace. And see, I had a different experience than you did. When I finished my will, I went home that night and I slept like a log.

Are you serious? There was something about having life insurance. There was something about having a plan. There was something about leaving my wife a roadmap, leaving my kids a roadmap for how they're going to navigate the world without me. And, man, I had peace. I had peace. I had peace. It was good. It was good.

I felt it. Make a will, make a will people. Again, you guys, I, and I didn't mean to live on this too long because I mean, I,

I'm just like, wow, it's a hard conversation, but I'm like, I actually feel so much better knowing that if I died as a single person, my mom, my family, they will have peace.

So text the word will to three, three, seven, eight, nine. Let's go out to Austin, Texas and have a conversation with Ian. Ian, how can Dr. D and I help? Yeah, thanks for taking my call. Basically, my AC on my car went out. I was hoping it would just be a refrigerant issue. Quick and simple. Turns out it's going to be around $1,500, including labor, to repair the car. It's valued at $1,000, and it has like 200,000 miles on it.

So I'm skeptical or I'm kind of wary about repairing it. I was wondering what you guys think. Should I repair it or start saving up for a new car? You don't need an air conditioner in Texas in August. Come on, Ian. Don't listen to him, Ian. What kind of car is it, man? It's a Toyota Corolla 05.

My buddy gave it to me for free, so there's the emotional aspect of it as well. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A Toyota is a beautiful beautiful car what's your um how much debt are you in right now yeah so luckily i don't have any student loans but when i was 19 i did get a contracting position i didn't really understand how taxes worked and stuff then so i am in debt like around three3,800 to the IRS at the moment that I'm paying off.

Okay. All right. All right. That's cool. We got it. How much do you make, Ian? Right now, if you include my bonus, I make $20 an hour, but I actually don't have that on my budget sheet.

So without that, I make post-tax $2,300 a month. You make $2,300 a month. Okay, cool. How old are you, man? I'm 22. Okay, cool. All right. This is what I want you to do, Ian.

I want you to go ahead and get the car fixed. Fix the car, baby. Yeah. And here's why. Toyota is a quality car. You're not looking at an engine problem. I drive an Acura TL 2011 with about 200,000 miles on it as well I need to put a brand new AC situation

in my car too so it cost me you know right around $800 to do that as well and so I'm going to recommend you do the same thing because the engine and the transmission in those cars are actually pretty quality and so spending $1,500 now to get that fixed it's going to save you thousands of dollars over the next couple of years

okay here's another tip that I want to give you to everyone listening right now. When you go back, could you want this car to last you a long time? Put synthetic oil into your engine and put premium gas into your tank. A lot of people think, well, to odor the car, then the cheaper I should go on the gas. That's false think about it as a human being the older you get the healthier you need to eat and so if you really want this car to last you longer you need to put quality a little bit more quality into the vehicle so you're 22 years old you're $3,800 in debt we need this car to last you at least another two years so while you're attacking your debt the car is going to last so So go ahead and get the AC fixed.

But to prevent any major stuff from happening to your car, do what I do, Ian. And what I want you to do is to put quality oil, go up a little bit. You're going to go from $30 to maybe $50 for an oil change to get synthetic oil put in the car. And then you're going to go from maybe spending 20 on a gallon gallon to maybe 30 35 but it's going to it's going to preserve that engine it's going to give a little bit more fuel it's going to be healthier for your car and you really get a lot more usage out of that car my mom was with me john and she said why are you putting the most expensive gas in this cheap car. And I'm like, Mom, because I need it to last. Do I want to put McDonald's into me at 60, 70 years old?

Do I want to, you know, just feed me a bunch of, I'm not saying gas is junk, but I want to feed myself the best stuff as I'm getting older. So I'm starting it now. And a lot of people, when I see them doing that with the gas tank, you know, I'm like, man, just spend a little bit more money. So that way your car lasts and lasts until it just can't last anymore. See, I just learned something. I don't know a lot about cars.

I do know that my wife and I drive two high-mileage Toyotas, and they're going to last forever. And we drove a Corolla, Ian. Yeah. Anthony, that Corolla is still driving. Oh, yeah. And it's going to get passed to somebody else. That car will be driven in the apocalypse. Oh, yeah.

Man, I took my Acura in, and it was like, man, Anthony, this car is perfect. Yep. Perfect. I was like, what are you doing? I'm like, well, you know what I'm doing. You put synthetic oil in there. You know, so they were like, man you you are amazing man listen america the caliber of our financial future will be determined by the decisions you make today i want you to make the right one and

make the right one and compound on the right one so that tomorrow it pays off this is the day Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit DaveRamsey.com slash show and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.