The Ramsey Show - App - My Wife and I Don't Agree on How Serious Debt Is (Hour 1)

Episode Date: June 18, 2021

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is the Ramsey Show. It's where America hangs out. A conversation about your life, your money, your purpose, mental, emotional health, relationships. Hey, we're talking about the whole enchilada because you matter. I'm Ken Coleman, host of The Ken Coleman Show on the Ramsey Network, joined by my colleague Anthony O'Neill, who's host of The Table with Anthony O'Neill, also a part of the Ramsey Network, and we are together for you,

taking your calls, your questions to help you get where you want to be. The phone number to jump in is toll-free. It's 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225 is the number. Let's start it off with Ricardo, who joins us in El Paso, Texas. Ricardo, how can we help? Yes, sir. Hello, and thank you for having me on. I have a family of four.

I'm the only one working. Uh, currently I have a house that the kitchen, uh, the remodel never got done and, um, it's going to be about 10,000 to, uh, repair it. Uh, and I'm just trying to prioritize everything that I got. We recently made the decision to go debt-free. And we're just trying to get a good plan of action. Yeah.

So, Ricardo, let me ask you this question. We've got a problem with Anthony's mic. We'll try to figure that out. And, Ricardo, let's find out here what the debt is made of. $107,000, if I heard you correctly. Break that debt down. Anthony can still hear you, but we'll get his mic fixed here in a second. Ricardo, break down the $107,000 in debt.

No, it's actually $140,000. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. You're breaking up, by the way, too. While we're talking about me not understanding you, let's try to get that phone up to your mouth. So you got $140,000 in debt. Break that down for us. What is that made up of? Yes, that's made out of $120,000 in in uh real estate basically or home and then um 125 000 in student uh loan debt and the rest is credit card and medical bills cool so how much is that ricardo um uh on the uh other debt again

i just got my mic fixed so i'm hearing you better yeah so basically it's it's about roughly around 110 115 000 for for my home okay and then it's about 25 000 in uh student loan debt okay and then it's another uh about 20 000 uh just in medical and credit card debt cool so outside of your debt right now, we're going to take away the mortgage, all right? And so what I understand from the question is, where do I prioritize my money? Do I take care of the kitchen or do I take care of my debt?

Let me ask you this question about the kitchen, my guy. Is the kitchen functional? As far as in, is the oven working microwave sink is it functional no okay so what's not functional about the kitchen basically um about six months ago we decided to to remodel it so we gutted it out, and, you know, it was just a poor choice. And we never – and now that we want to get out of debt, you know, we're kind of looking at the whole picture as, you know, we messed up. What do we do?

Do we get the kitchen? I got you on that, Ricardo, but what's wrong with the kitchen? Is the oven not working? Is the stove not working? Do we have a refrigerator? There's no appliances and there's no cabinets. Okay. All right. So here's the

thing. That's not a kitchen. That's a room. Yeah, exactly. So here's the thing. You need a kitchen, man. You need a kitchen. Now, you don't need a laid out kitchen right now in the process of paying out your debt, but I'm going to say that you're going

to continue your debt snowball as far as in paying your minimum payments on all of your debt but you need to get your kitchen functional and up and running all right so you need to get your stoves in there um you need to get you know uh everything functional now what i'm saying functional is you need to get your things in there so you and your family can eat and cook. Now, you may not need to go in there and put the most laid out cabins in their cabinets in there, but you definitely need to go ahead and get everything situated in the kitchen so it can be used wisely. So I'm going to say your priorities are to get your kitchen up and running and functionable. Then once you do that, then you're going to come over here to your debt, and you're going to attack all of your consumer debt, excluding your mortgage. So you're not going to worry about your mortgage.

You're just going to attack your student loans and your credit cards and all consumer debt. And you're going to line it up from smallest to largest. But, Ken, he has to get the kitchen. Yeah, look, let's define that. If we get the electric working, now we have outlets, and we can plug in a microwave and a fridge. We don't even have to have cabinets. I know women out there are going, Ken, have you lost your mind? But here's the deal.

When we talk about just making it livable to where we can actually cook something, a stove is nice. But a microwave and a toaster oven, Kelly, I think that would cover a lot of things. You're going to need a stove. We got to get the latest stove. You're the money guy, but I'm saying bare bones if we get the electric working and we get water running, a faucet of some type if we need that.

But you don't have to have the full cabinets and all this stuff is all I'm getting at. You're right, Ken. But now, as a man who's been married 23 years, I'm doing everything I can to get that kitchen done pretty quick. Because you want to make Mama happy. And he's making're right, Ken. You're right. But now, as a man who's been married 23 years, I'm doing everything I can to get that kitchen done pretty quick. Because you want to make mama happy. And he's making good money, man. So he can literally pay that and pay all his debt and be debt-free within a matter of two

years. So cash flow that kitchen. Because you've already started, it looks like. Ken already broke it down. So he's got $10,000 that he's got to kind of cash flow through. And then you put all that momentum on the rest of it. But he's in good shape with the money he's got to kind of cash flow through. And then you put all that momentum on the rest of it. But he's in good shape with the money he's making. If we separate the mortgage, which you told him to do,

he's in really, really good shape. Really good shape. And I'm grateful that he actually called in and asked this question because it lets you know that he's intentional. He is determined to get there, and he's going to get there. But get the kitchen done. Because at the same time, let's be real, Kent. If your wife didn't have a kitchen and you told her we're going to pay off this debt, you may be sleeping on the couch, bro, until you get the kitchen.

Listen, I agree with you. I think you're absolutely right. I'm just trying to help him go, hey, if we get functionality in there and now we can do something and actually live a little bit more comfortably, then mom is going to be a little bit more at ease with suffering. Because it's no fun living out of crates and things of that nature. Certainly cabinets go a long way to making it livable. But the reality is for him to realize that if he buckles down, they can knock this out, he's realized some of the things they've done in the past that they're not going to do again, don't beat yourself up.

The only thing I want to say to folks, I heard it on him, Anthony. He's beating himself up a little bit. Look, as Dave says a million times, he's got a PhD in DUMB. We've all done it. It's okay. The light is at the end of the tunnel. You got this, Ricardo. Thanks again for the call. All right, don't move. He is Anthony O'Neal. I'm Kent Coleman. This is the Ramsey Show. I saw some recent financial statistics, and there was some pretty troubling news.

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This has to be a priority. If your family is in this situation, you need to get this done. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show, coming to you from our Ramsey Solutions Worldwide Headquarters in Nashville. Thrilled to have you with us. Phone number to jump in on the conversation about you, your life, your money, relationships, your purpose in work. We're covering it all. I'm Kent Coleman, joined by Anthony O'Neill. And that toll-free number is 888-825-5225.

888-825-5225. Let's go to Charlottesville, Virginia, where Anna joins us. Anna, how can we help? Hi. I'm entering the third year of my undergraduate career with the goal of graduating from law school

debt-free, and my question is this. I have the ability to graduate in three years, but I'm wondering if it may be better to take a part-time senior year and leverage the resources of my university and build a stronger resume and mature a little bit? Because law schools typically want older individuals anyway, and I want to get into a competitive law school. I love this idea. Tell me a little bit more about the experience that you'd want to gather in that year. Well, I'd like to be going as a part-time student, so I would also like to be doing an internship of some kind, working, building my resume in the workforce, but also getting some more classes under my belt and expanding on my extracurriculars while I'm there.

Sure. Well, I love this idea. The reason I asked the question is I was curious about what you would do. I'd like to know a little bit more because here's what I don't understand, and maybe you can help me. I don't understand how one year is going to make that huge of a difference as it relates to, well, law schools want someone older. I didn't really buy that as a great reason because it's one year. So the difference between 22 and 23 or 23 and 24, to me, unless I'm missing something, and again, I'm not in law school admission, but I thought the idea of you getting some really great experience, maybe working for

a law firm, if that's what you're talking about as an intern, I love that. But just taking one extra year and slowing down the education process to get another year of age. I'm not sure that's as big a deal as you think it is, but I certainly believe getting some experience, maybe working for a law firm or specifically a lawyer or maybe clerking for a judge or something, anything like that, I think that's all wonderful and looks really good on the acceptance process. But I'm curious to know what specifically you have in mind to do besides the part-time school and taking more classes. Because I don't think taking additional classes mean anything to law schools.

I could be wrong. Well, I'm kind of trying to figure out how I can make the most money to save up and graduate debt-free from law school because I'm worried about paying for college my fourth year because I'll be paying for a lot of my living expenses on my own, but I do have parents that will help me out financially a little bit. So I'm just trying to see maybe what's the best path forward. Would it be better to graduate and just work full-time from that point on or try to get a better internship so I have more experience, so I can have a great lineup of jobs before I enter law school? Okay, if it's money, A, you can weigh in here,

but if it's trying to save up for law school, I think it's better to go ahead and get finished with your four-year degree, which you need for law school, and then I'd work even if it took a couple of years uh to save up for law school because law school a is not going anywhere all right and b you're absolutely right this is mr debt-free degree guy right here yeah yeah man i was about to say i i want to see you uh get done go ahead and finish it out and then go out there and start working and grinding and start saving for uh for school that's that's what i want you to do. Don't waste time in college trying to prolong you getting into law school.

No, graduate, get a job. If you're going to stay at home, be wise while you're at home, be stacking your money, and then get into law school as soon as you can and pay for it cash and 100% debt-free. Yeah, thanks for the call, Anna. You got this. This is going to be fun. All right, next is Melanie in Sacramento, California.

Melanie, how can we help? Hi, Ken. I hate my job, but my degree only allows me to do the one thing. What should I do? Yo, I'm sorry, Ken. I had never heard a call like this. She didn't say, hey, Ken. She said, hey, Ken, I hate my job.

You know why? Because she knows me. Melanie knows me. That's what I do every day. I'm dealing with people that are like, I can't do this anymore. All right, Melanie, let's dig into this. What is the degree field or the degree in? What field is the degree in that makes you feel like I can't do anything else outside of this field?

Speech language pathology. Speech language pathology. All right. And I understand that's a very specific career. I get it. I get that the training for that is very specific. But when you say you don't feel you can do anything else because you have such a specific degree, are there ideas and things that you have in your else because you have such a specific degree, are

there ideas and things that you have in your head and you go, oh, there's no way they're going to take me? I want to know what you're thinking about. Well, I try to see if there's anything else I can do with speech language pathology and all they do is switch the place that you work, not what you do. But I wish I knew more of what I really loved. I know I like working independently. I'm detail-oriented.

I'm really organized. But usually any place that has those qualifications listed, they want some sort of administrative degree or business degree or technology degree. Not true. Not true. Not true. Do you have evidence to tell me that I'm wrong on that? Mm-mm.

You don't, Melanie. No, I guess not. All right, so we'll get to that in a second. Let's go back just a second. Why do you hate your job? Is it the environment or is it that speech pathology and all that's involved there just sucks the life out of you? I want to know.

I don't like 90% of what I do. I don't like the content. I'm also extremely introverted, and speech pathology is people one after the other. So at the end of the day, I'm totally drained. At the end of the week, I'm totally exhausted. Fascinating. Okay, this is great. Why did you think, this is a two-part question,

why did you think that you would love or that speech pathology is a thing that you should do, and then what's the 10% that you don't hate? Give me those two answers. All right. I got the degree because I needed it out of college, and I knew I could get a job with it. And I didn't really find out the full content of what it involved until the second week of grad school. And I really should have job shadowed someone. I didn't know that.

Yeah, it's okay. I don't know. All right. That makes sense. All right. Now, what's the 10% that you don't hate? I don't hate the paperwork right, that makes sense. All right, now what's the 10% that you don't hate? I don't hate the paperwork, believe it or not, and I like, to some extent, working with articulation, which is how a person produces sounds.

Yep, so here's the deal. I find it very interesting. I'm not surprised by that. Can I tell you why, Melanie? Because you told me and Anthony two minutes ago that you're very detailed and organized. Yep. So I'm not shocked that you go, I like the paperwork! But yet you put A.O.

and I in a job where we've got to do paperwork and we're banging our heads against the wall. Why? Because A.O. and I are not detailed nor are we organized. Nope. But you are. So I would tell you that there's a gigantic neon blinking arrow saying, I'm really good at details.

I'm really good at organization. I'll bet you you love work that drives efficiency. I'll bet you love work that is systematic in nature. True or false? True. So you need to do that. And I've got news for you. You could go make really good money being an executive assistant and it does not require an executive assistant degree. You

have a really impressive degree. Just because it's in speech pathology doesn't mean that you can't do anything outside of speech pathology. You are organized and detailed. You'd be a great project manager. You would be a great project manager. You would be a great executive assistant. You might be somebody who works really great behind the scenes coordinating details. There's all kinds of work like that out there, Melanie. So here's the exercise for you. Here's the homework assignment. You promised me you're going to say yes and do this? Yes. Here we go. I want you to go look locally in your area, Sacramento, California, look at job boards, and I want you to look for everything that has the word detailed, organization, process, project, project manager,

anything that is organizational in nature, that drives efficiency, that creates excellence. Melanie, look at those job descriptions and say, do I think I can do that? Do I have the talent to do that? Do I like doing that work? Does that work? Produce a result that makes me happy? And when it goes yes, ding, ding, ding, go apply for it. You're qualified. I promise you.

Alright, don't move. A.O., Anthony O'Neill, Ken Coleman. With you this hour, on the Ramsey Show. Welcome back, America. You're listening to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague, Anthony O'Neill. We're taking you through this hour. 888-825-5225.

What are your questions? You got questions about money? You got questions about relationships? You got questions about your work? Stuck in a dead-end job? You want to get promoted up the ladder to get a bigger shovel? You got some... I always like to bring this up when A.O.

sits in with me. You're single. You've got some relationship money stuff as a single. This guy's a resident single expert. I've been married 23 years. I know nothing about being single. It's because I'm functionable. Yes, we now know.

Welcome to live radio. Sometimes we professional speakers get all excited, and we take a real word, and we make up a word, and you said functional. But I told AO at our Entree Leadership Summit recently, in front of 4,000 leaders, my entire talk was about systemizing talent acquisition. And a couple times my wife said, how many times, Kelly, you were listening? Three or four times I said systematized. So, I mean, I've been there. I've done it. It just happens and you just roll with it.

Here's the good news. Everybody knows what you mean. And my wife even said to me, she goes, I thought you might have been trying to be funny about it because you kept diving into it. So Kelly remembers that. So there you go. Thank you, Kelly, for keeping score.

But you know what, though? Here's a good thing, Cam. We have a functional couple on the debt-free stage. We actually do live on the debt-free stage in the lobby is Sean and Emily here to do a debt-free scream. How are you? Good. How are you? Good.

Where are you guys from? A little town called Bernie, Missouri. Bernie, Missouri. Is that like Bernie as in Sanders? B-E-R-N-I-E, like it's a name? Okay, very nice. And drove all the way in, I guess. Yep, about four hours this morning. Okay. Oh, cool. That's not bad at all. All right, so tell us how much debt did you pay off? About $76,000. $76,000. And how long did it take? 23 months.

23 months. And tell me your income during that time. About $80,000. Okay. So held steady, about $80,000? It took a jump and then kind of back down. I actually read your book and took a new career path. Did you really?

Yes. Well, we've got to mention the book so people can buy it at home. The Proximity Principle. The Proximity Principle. Yeah, thank you very much. Thank you. My kids appreciate that. My wife needs a new pair of shoes.

Okay, so what were you making before you jumped up to 80? Probably about 70. Okay, so good. So somewhere between 70,000 and 80,000 during that time. What do you do? I'm a youth minister now. Really? Yes. What were you doing? I'm a youth minister now. Really? Yes.

What were you doing? I was working in a factory 10 hours a day. Wasn't really happy with the job. Yeah. Read your book, kind of got close to some people at our church. Wow. Position came available, and I jumped on it. Well, AO's a former youth minister.

Absolutely. What do you love most about being a youth minister? Gosh, it's the kids, man. Just interacting with the kids and taking them on these trips and seeing them grow. I wouldn't trade it for the world. I'm a little jealous right now. Oh, you are? Yeah.

The youth minister is making $70,000. I sure enough was not making $70,000. We are making it. Together. Together. Yeah. We haven't gotten to emily yet emily what do you do i'm a second grade teacher oh good for you that's awesome how long you've been a teacher

um five years five years that's so fun favorite thing about being a second grade teacher is oh it's just every day is a different day i never know what i'm gonna get into when i go to work every day that's the truth and the kids i just just love them. The kiddos. I love it. Okay, tell us about the debt. What kind of debt was it? A little bit of everything. Student loans, credit card, medical debt. Cars.

Car, but two cars. Two cars? Yeah. Yeah, okay. All right. And so what was the turning point? What happened 23 months ago where you guys decided this is done, we're getting after it? Well, actually, I think our story kind of starts about four years ago.

We were attending church, and they showed a promo for Financial Peace University. And it kind of caught my attention, and I was like, well, okay, I don't really need this guy to tell me how to manage my money. So I was like, but I thought the $1,000 emergency fund sounded really good. So I did that. Hold on a second. You're telling me you saw Dave and you're like, this guy. I don't need this guy, but I do like what he's saying. Yeah.

Okay, that's fun. I said the same thing when I first met her. Then about two years ago, our daughter was actually hospitalized. And she wound up having to get air vac'd and when we got home we had you know about a five thousand dollar deductible uh then when we got back home we wound up getting a bill in the mail for sixty seven thousand dollars for the area back uh where they had billed insurance but insurance had denied it uh so that was kind of a little bit of a scary moment for us and kind of showed us okay okay, we need to get our stuff together.

And wound up resubmitting to the insurance claim, and they wound up accepting it, but it kind of opened our eyes. Yes. Boy, that really scared you. Yeah. Wow. Unbelievable. Yeah. So over the last 23 months, $76,000 is what you had to pay.

I mean, but y'all were making about $70,000. So that means y'all were on a mission. Pretty much, yeah. Tell us a little bit about that journey. How did y'all do that in less than two years? I mean, y'all were living on half of your income. Well, it started out, I think, I sold one of my vehicles. So I was driving a brand new Jeep. And I had about $10,000 in equity in it.

So I sold it, took that $10,000, and put it on the student loans. Wow. And knocked two really big debts off right off the bat. Right off the bat. Kind of started that debt snowball. Yeah. Our budget, sticking to our budget has helped tremendously, cutting out the things that we don't really need.

Yeah. What were some of the things that we don't really need. What were some of the things you had to cut out? Everything. Yeah, I was going to say. We have an internet bill and that's about it. What about meals? Because you've got two littles over there. So what kind of meal situation, what was that like?

We had a strict budget and definitely meal planned. We meal planned for like a month and used as much as we could for each meal and just tried to budget all that out. Yeah. Is there a meal that you're sick of now that you'll never eat again? Probably spaghetti. He loved spaghetti before this. Now it's a no-go. I'm with you. Yeah, I can see the pain on your face.

Yeah, that's fantastic. I love that. What was the hardest thing? What was your friends looking at you, your family, like, what was the, the hardest thing to do over these 23 months?

I think just stay content with what we have throughout it. You know, it's hard whenever you see everybody else going and buying new vehicles and things like that.

And I'm selling my vehicle to pay off debt. And so, that was pretty hard. Yeah. Who are your biggest cheerleaders in this process? I've got an aunt and uncle up in St. Louis, and they were pretty big cheerleaders. Yeah.

I love it. And our church family, a lot of people. We took this class at church, and so it was fun to talk to people that we had taken the class with and say, this is where we're at. And so that was a lot of help with it too. So before we get to the debt-free scream, because we definitely want to hear this before we go to break, what's next?

You made these sacrifices. Y'all, people questioned you. You sold your Jeep so you can be a debt-free family. But I just got to ask, I mean, what's the good thing that's coming next that's going to put a smile on y'all's face? The mortgage. Uh-oh. Watch out.

Brother Man said we're going to pay off some more debt. How much you got left? $30,000. $30,000 left? Yeah. Wow. What's your payoff date? Yeah.

I'm looking at maybe next summer. Heck yeah. Unbelievable. What? Wow. We have a small house. Yeah. That's okay.

We're content, though. Yeah, but it's about to be paid for. Yeah. And then that's a whole new strategy now. Never downplay the size of the house. Uh-huh. That's awesome. It's supposed to be a free house.

Not a free house. Debt free house. All right. Real quick. Encourage those who are early on in the journey or they're considering taking the journey. What would you tell them now at the end of your journey? It's worth it. Yeah.

I would tell them to, if they start it, be patient. It's okay to be different. Be content. We've really relied on God, and he's really worked on us to be content with what we have. I love it. All right. It's more about that than us. Absolutely.

It's about these two littles right here. Let's get them in there. Eleanor and Ezra, we've got some help. We're going to bring them in here. I assume that Eleanor has practiced the debt-free scream a little bit. She's a little shy. Okay, that's okay. All right, let's do this.

We ready, family? There she is. And Ezra's there with mom, so here we go. All right. So we've got Sean and Emily from Cape Girardeau, Missouri. They paid off $76,000 in 23 months, making $70,000 to $80,000. Let's hear your debt-free scream. Three, two, one.

We're debt-free! Hands in the air. She did it. Way to go, Sean, Emily, Eleanor, and Ezra. That's what it's all about. Beautiful young family. Debt-free. Oh young family. Debt free. Oh, yes.

All right, don't move. More of your calls coming up. This is the Randy Show. The Ramsey Show continues from Ramsey Solutions headquarters in Nashville. Thrilled to have you with us. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague Anthony O'Neill, and we're taking your questions. What you got out there? You're struggling with the money questions of life.

You're struggling with maybe some relationship stuff. Maybe you're struggling on the job. You got a tough leadership situation, maybe a little toxic environment, bored in a job, needing more money. You're single and got some money questions and some unique situations there. Anthony O'Neill is our resident single expert. And, of course, as the married guy, I always love to hear what he's going to say. And it's always great fun.

If you're living paycheck to paycheck, let me just talk to you for just a brief second. You know it sucks. At the end of the month, you're barely covering all the bills, and you're never getting ahead. You feel like you're just stuck, stuck, stuck, stuck, stuck. You don't have to live like this. We want you to stop going in circles, start making progress. That's why we want to tell you about Ramsey Plus. This membership will show you how to make the changes you need

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Text the word trial to 33789. Text the word trial to 33789. Raleigh, North Carolina is where we go next. Nate joins us there. Nate, how can we help? Hi, Ken. Hi, Anthony. Love you guys. Thanks for taking my call. Thank you, sir. Hey, I'll try to be brief and respect your time. I'm a 35-year-old military service member. I'm married. We have six kids. We have $252,000 in debt, not counting a house. We make close to $150,000 a year. And we just finished Baby Step 1 after I took on a second job trying to get the plane up into the air, like Dave would say, and, you know, get a head start on Baby Step 1.

Now we're in Baby Step 2. We've started doing a monthly budget and allocation spending plan according to the total money makeover forms. My wife is the free-spirited one. I've took the Financial Peace University a couple years ago too and I've tried to show her the way.

It's taken up until now until she finally sat down with me over the past month, weekends in a row, going over the allocation spending plan and budget, she's the one of the mind with, well, we still got to do vacations. Vacations. She just loves the vacations, wants to take the family on vacations. And I understand that. And I'm the one who is like, well, we can take vacations, but we got to stick to a really tight budget. And we're living beyond our means.

Nah, man, you got $253,000 in debt. You can't take not even no cheap vacation. Yeah, I know. Yeah, staycation is... I've seen the article from Dave. Go ahead. Nah, listen, let's talk about the $253,000 real quick. Break it down for AO what that's made of. What it's made of?

Yeah, the $253,000. About a total of 14 items. One is definitely a timeshare. I've been listening to you guys talk about in days. One is three of them are student loans, two cars, several credit cards.

I've got a 2021 Nissan Titan Pro 4X. My wife has a 2020 Nissan Murano. Okay, what are the cars worth? Start with yours. Mine is worth, uh, worth... Blue Book. Kelly Blue Book today. Around $50,000. $50,000? How much do you owe? Right, $50,000. $50,000. How much do you owe on it? $10,000 more. Goodness gracious.

What about your wife's? I'm guessing it's the same situation. How much is hers worth? The Murano, hers is worth $40,000. How much do you owe on it? I think also $5,000 or $10,000 more. Wait, wait, wait. Are these 2020s and 2021?

Yeah. Yeah. I'm not sure that Kelly Blublick value is accurate. Are you sure that's accurate? How did you pay off 40 grand almost 60 70 grand in cars in less than a year we traded in cars before so it was rolled over these are rollover cars rollover cars okay all right so pretty much what we have right here is is um um is if the Kelly Blue Book is right, I'm seeing about 60 grand in equity, and you're $253,000 in debt right now?

No, they're upside down in these. I thought you said he owed. No, we're upside down. Yeah, I'm sorry. He owes 10 more than it's worth. Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay. Maybe the Kelly Blue Book is right. I shouldn't be so glib about that, but they're upside down in these cars.

Yeah, okay. But this is a marriage. We've got some big-time marriage issues, man. You're acting, you're calling out like, well, my wife doesn't want to agree with me, but we've got a 2021 that either you all of a sudden saw the light or she talked you into this. So you're buying, you know, I mean i understand what you're rolling these cars over but man this is you this has to stop and you guys this is a marriage issue oh i think you guys need counseling i think you need counseling because it is the counseling next step yeah yeah that that to me is is step one because i don't

does it seem like you guys are fighting and throwing pans and pots at each other is that true no no but i mean we've we yesterday listening to dave talk with uh colton from iowa city about the same subject um yeah i mean we were we're fighting you know over um the same way as as anybody who's first starting out with the month-to-month budgeting. The first few months are going to be painful, like you said, like Dave said yesterday. So that's what we're going through. So let me talk to the money side of things because I agree with Ken. And here's the thing with the money.

Not married. I'm a single man, and so I do not want to give marriage advice. But one of the things on a money side that I can give advice to a married couple or a single person is that there has to be a clear vision for the future. Where are we going back? What do we qualify and call success for our marriage, for our family on the financial side of things? Is that so we can have financial freedom, so we can build our dream home, so we can take these dream vacations,

so we can pass down wealth and legacy to our kids? And if that is the case, $253,000 in debt, which half of it are in cars. Yep, half is in cars. So immediately, I think when you go to counseling the argument is not about money money comes next we need to get a clear vision of what do we want where are we going when we get that clear vision all the other stuff is going to be an easy conversation because now it becomes all right does this take us to our vision or does it take us away from our

vision so that's one thing i would do second thing from a practical tip get rid of these Now it becomes, all right, does this take us to our vision or does it take us away from our vision? So that's one thing I would do. Second thing from a practical tip, get rid of these daggone cars. Yes. You need to sell them. And this means that if you have to go take out a loan for $20,000 to cover the differences, you just went from about $110,000 down to $20,000 right there. Yeah, that's huge.

But your wife's got to be on board with this is the point. Or else, you see what I'm saying? I don't know if you're in a position where you just, if she's going to agree with you to do this. I mean, AO's right. You can make some major headway by selling these cars. And by the way, now's the time to do it because the market for used cars is at an all-time high, but I would do it soon. But could you go talk to her tonight?

I mean, let's be straight up with each other. Could you go in after this phone call and go, hey, I'm selling both these cars, or is she going to fight you on this? No, I can't even sell my truck because I'm stuck with it. I have a camper, so I need the truck to pull it. You got a camper for what? The family? Yes. Are you living in it? Yeah. No. No, I'm living in it. Get rid a camper for what? The family? Yes. Are you living in it?

Yeah. No. No, I'm living in it. Get rid of the truck. You can sell the camper, too. Sell the camper, too. Boy, you made a mistake telling us that. You do. The camper is cheaper to live out of right now in the Maryland area. Man, listen, man. But you just told me you weren't living in it.

Yeah, we're going to break, man. You're making excuses. I don't think it's just your wife. It's him, too. Oh, absolutely right. Well, yeah, you can't tell us on one hand you're not living in the camper and then say it's cheaper to live in. Come on, man. Listen, this ain't easy. You keep listening to the show, and then at one point you're going to decide it's time. Yeah.

Ayo's done. I'm done. I hit mute. He's done. I hung up on him. He hung up. He's had it. I'm sorry, Ken.

No apologies. Hey, he is Ayo. I'm Ken Coleman Ken. No apologies. Hey, he is A.O. I'm Ken Coleman. I want to thank you, America, for listening. This has been fun. And this is The Ramsey Show. Hey, guys. This is James, senior producer for The Ramsey Show.

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