The Ramsey Show - App - My Wife Got Scammed in an Internet Affair (Hour 2)

Episode Date: June 12, 2023

Dave Ramsey & Dr. John Delony answer your questions and discuss:  Budgeting for medical expenses,  from the blog: How to Get Help With Medical Bills, "Is there a gift tax for 529 contributions?" Planning to build a house, "Should we pay off vehicles or send kids to private school?" Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Join a Personality-led FPU class. Click here! Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3cEP4n6 Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Interested in advertising on The Ramsey Show? https://ter.li/s64ye3 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods, moving, and storage studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Open phones around here at 888-825-5225. My co-host today, Dr. John Deloney of the Dr. John Deloney Show, a podcast on Ramsey Networks that is unbelievably, fabulously popular. And, of course, number one best-selling book of Own Your Past, Change Your Future.

He deals with the mental health space and the relationship space. And so always a fun one-two punch when he and I get to serve together on these microphones. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Naomi is in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Hi, Naomi. What's up? Hi. First, I just want to say thank you so much for taking my call.

I know that I've been listening to you a lot over the past couple months. I guess I'm a new listener. And it's just so obvious and apparent that everybody there genuinely cares about the people you're dealing with and really tries to help. And I just find that so inspiring and encouraging in today's society. Thank you. That's the best compliment I've had today. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. That's true. Thank you. That's the best compliment I've had today. Thank you very

much. I appreciate that. That's true. And thank you for noticing that. How can we help you? So I'm calling because I have a question about how to deal with or manage ongoing medical expenses. It's not one lump sum. It's not one thing. My son is sick. He's been sick for 10 years. And over the course of the 10 years, you know, there's been some ups and downs, but you could say that the medical expenses have, you know, probably averaged about 20% of our income. And yeah, and my husband is, he's a pastor, so there hasn't always been a whole lot of income, you know, to go around to pay things. So we don't have a lot of debt.

In fact, we only own our house. I don't know how we could afford to do what we do if we had anything like a car payment or anything like that. How old is your baby? Well, now he's 16. He was six. What's the nature of his illness? He has chronic Lyme disease.

15% of people who get Lyme disease, it doesn't go away with the 30-day treatment of antibiotics. And he actually got it when he was three and a half, which made it more severe. He didn't get the normal kind of treatment that adults would get, like a strong enough antibiotic. So he's got some neurological things going on. Yeah, and he's been up and down. He actually was doing a lot better.

And then he got COVID. I mean, he got COVID two years ago, and that put everything way back, set him back to debilitating headaches, and the treatment protocol that we found that had been working for four or five years suddenly wasn't, and it's like a whole new amount of medical expenses and things trying to get him back to where he can, you know, at least function. How's his energy level today? Energy?

He's, it comes and goes, but he's better. He actually, with the COVID, he started getting, like, debilitating migraines. Yeah, that was three years ago, right? How is he today? COVID was, like, how old is he right? How is he today? COVID was like, how old is he today? How is he today? He's not as good as he was, you know, in 2020, but he's better than he was at the beginning of 2022.

So I guess he's in the middle. Okay, so here's the reason I'm asking you all these things. Number one, to check on him. But number two, what you're calling about is how to budget for this. And, of course, it's impossible to predict exactly. But we can say, based on what we know of the history, the COVID episode and the improvements since COVID, on that not emotions but what does logic tell you factually that you think is a reasonable forecast for the coming three or four years that you're going to be paying medical expenses and i assume you've got a health insurance as well so you know what out of pocket do you need to budget

for a reasonable person that would project what you guys have been facing? Because it is a chronic thing you're dealing with. It's ongoing. The only question is how bad it is going forward. Not how bad it has been, but how bad it is going forward. Now, I know you and I can't project we're not God, but you can tell me based on his prognosis today, take your mommy heart, which is wonderful, and set it aside for a second. Just look at it from your brain and say, based on his prognosis today, take your mommy, uh, heart, which is wonderful

and set it aside for a second. Just look at it from your brain and say, based on where he is today, where do you really think you're going to spend in the next 12 months and 24 months and 36 months? And then just put that in the budget monthly. If you think it's going to be $10,000, put $800 a month in the budget. Out of pocket I'm talking about. If you think it's going to be $3,000, put $250 a month in the budget. And so, you know, anytime you're dealing with something chronic, I've got a friend that has Crohn's disease.

And he's got just a constant thing. It's a chronic issue. And he's constantly writing checks. he's got just a, it's a constant thing. It's a chronic issue. And he's constantly writing checks. He's constantly making his deductible. He's constantly making his co-pays, right? Because it's just, he just fights with health. It's just, it's sad. It's awful.

It's hard on him. He's tough as nails, but man. And, but that's the thing. You gotta, you just gotta, you gotta go, okay, quantify it because you're asking me about the budget. So we got to quantify it. So $6,000 a year, 500 bucks a month. I'm just going to put it in the month like I got a car payment.

And I'm just going to put it on there, set it aside. I don't need it this month. Don't need it next month. But I'm going to need it sometime during this 12th. It's probably going to happen. And so I got to get ready. And we're just, you know, and it's here's what's weird. When you do that math and you lay it all out, it will calm you down about his health.

Hello. Okay. Yes. Yes. I'm here. So if the amount I put in the budget, which I would say would, I don't know, maybe like $1,600 a month, but then that just makes our budget tend to not work. Are you really going to spend $1,600 a month?

Yeah. That's $20,000 a year. Absolutely. $20,000 a year out of pocket. Out of pocket. Well, it was more than that last year i didn't ask about last year i asked about next year um i you know i would i would probably hope for maybe like 15 or 16 000 out of pocket next year okay then if that's if that's what you're

really going to spend then you really need to put that in your budget. And here's a hard conversation that y'all are going to have to have. I had somebody call into my show this morning, and we have a very similar conversation. Him and his wife adopted. They had a beautiful two-year-old daughter, and then his wife passed away. And he was set up to be a high-powered accountant, and he had to change his career trajectory and take a totally different kind of role because his life changed. And maybe your husband has wanted to be a pastor. He's in it.

But reality financially is sitting before him saying you can't continue to make this much money in this kind of job and take care of your sick child. And that's a hard conversation. It's a conversation that none of us want to have, especially when we feel like we've got a calling. But, man, we've got to look at our kids. And the way I would phrase this is we have to choose reality. We've got to own reality that sits before us. There's a financial reality and a purpose reality.

All those things are real. If you can't afford it, you've got to find something and figure out something else. And what that guy's facing, what that mom's facing is very real. Very real, very scary. We had a guy named Chris at work here. And he's out on disability. So, ouch. This is The Ramsey Show.

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

miles of red tape. And CHM support goes far beyond meeting financial needs. They'll also help meet spiritual needs. Members become part of a family who will pray with them and for them when they experience a medical event. So listen, y'all, there's no better way to take care of healthcare costs. CHM programs start as low as $98 a month. So learn more today and join at chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budgets at chministries.org

slash budgets. Hey guys, if you're wondering whether to buy or sell a home this year, here's what you need to know about the housing market. There's still more demand for homes than there are homes to buy. There's still a shortage. Median home price is expected to keep rising just at a slower rate than the crazy time back in COVID. But I mean, it's still going up and interest rates haven't stopped going up. So what's this mean? It means if you're buying a home, you may still face competition to big price tags. And if you wait, you're going to face more competition and more price tags. So if you want to sell your home, good time to sell it. But of course, it's going to sell slower than the crazy times when you got 89 offers in one weekend. Those days are gone and

they should be gone. They were not healthy. So it's good. Life is good to buy a home, to sell a home. Now's the time. Go to RamseySolutions.com to find an agent that we recommend ramsey solutions.com slash agent they're ramsey trusted these are top performing agents around the country who our team has vetted and trust to serve you well they did not get their license last week and they've not sold only two homes and they're not your uncle well probably because you know you don't pick your agent by him being your uncle or a friend at church who just got her license and she's so sweet. No, that's just dumb. Don't do that.

You're about to lose money on your house. Don't do that. Jessica is with us in Philadelphia. Hi, Jessica. How are you? Hi, Dave. I'm doing great and freaking out a little bit because I made it on air with you. How are you?

I'm freaking out because I made it on air with you. What's up? Jessica, he is freaked out. Trust me. Trust me. This is Dave, freaked out. So my question is, we sold our home last year when prices were ridiculous, and we have a good amount of money to put into a 529 and an ESA for our children,

but I don't want to trigger a gift tax. I'm pretty sure that has nothing to do with a gift tax. Okay. You can double-check your tax guy because I'm not 1 that has nothing to do with the gift tax. Okay. You can double check your tax guy because I'm not a thousand percent sure, but I've never heard of somebody getting hit with a gift tax putting money into a 529. To start with, you'd have to put in more than whatever the limit is this year, $12,000, $15,000, whatever it is. I can't even remember.

I'm trying to pull up a cheat sheet here. Anyway, yeah. 15,000 bucks whatever it is but um can't even remember trying to pull up a cheat sheet here anyway yeah so uh well that's what i was running into 16,000 16,000 if you're going over 16,000 you'd have a gift tax this year but the uh uh but um yeah i but i'm pretty sure this has nothing to do with gift tax i'm pretty sure if you're putting it into the college fund that doesn't apply to this pretty sure if you put it in your minor children's name it doesn't apply to this but um but i'm not positive so you could double check your tax advisor if you're working with a smart investor pro to open the 529 or if you have a 529 with them they certainly could answer the question uh they would know off the top of their head but i've never heard of somebody being gift tax doing that so i doubt i'm pretty sure it's exempt from that so but again double check because my tax i'm always quick to say when i'm not positive and i'm not positive on that one

tim's in cedar rapids iowa hi tim welcome to the ramsey show hi Hi, how are you? Thanks for taking my call. Sure, what's up? So I'm 39. I'm completely debt-free. Good. Yeah, well, I guess I shouldn't say that. We own a downtown building that we owe $38,000 on. We are going to be... Hey, I'm John Deloney,

and I'm six feet tall, except I'm 5'8". I know, I'm John Deloney, and I'm six feet tall, except I'm five inches. I know. I forgot to say that. I have $160,000 saved up cash, and we're looking at probably going to be building a house next year. Cool. We own where we are right now, so we're probably going to tear down the existing home and build on our place. I want to take and pay off the building right now.

Is that something you would... My wife doesn't really want me to. But she doesn't think it's going to... She doesn't... How do you put it? She doesn't see the problem of making the monthly payment on it of the $200 or whatever that we owe. Yeah, okay. And I'm like, well, we can just turn that over to the house.

Yeah, if it's not a problem, then it won't be a problem when it's paid off either. Correct. Her point was it's irrelevant. So it's irrelevant. Pay it off. It's not irrelevant because you're going to have a different switch that flips inside of you when you have absolutely zero debt. Now, what's your household income? Oh, I'd say probably right at $100,000.

Okay, so how much are you going to spend on the building project? Well, right now we're looking at maybe $160,000, $180,000 house. That's why she doesn't want you to pay off the building. Because you're going to turn around with $120,000. How are you going to have the money to build a house you want? Correct, because, I mean, we still got to keep $20,000 in our emergency fund. Yeah, but you got $160,000, you said, but if we pay off a $40,000, $38,000 mortgage, we can leave me $120,000, and you're wanting to build $160,000.

So where are you going to get the other $40,000? That's why she doesn't want to do it. Correct. Yeah, that's it. So instead of having a mortgage on her house, she would rather you going to get the other 40? That's why she doesn't want to do it. Correct. Yeah, that's it. So instead of having a mortgage on her house, she would rather you have a mortgage on the building, and I'm probably agreeing with that. What's the house?

Oh, you're tearing down a property. You own the land already, and you're living on the land now. Correct. Correct. Where are you all going to live when you tear the house down? We're either going to have to rent a place or possibly live we either have a camper we can live in okay um yeah all right so budget the house carefully because 160 000 even in cedar rapids is certainly not the uh it's not a mansion no no it's it's just an easy well let me tell you

you can blink and this will be 260 right yeah i know so you need to lay out a game plan in detail and start drawing a plan and figuring out your you know your actual materials cost, your actual contractor cost, what are you really going to do. I'm building a home right now, and me and the builder have had a lot of discussions for three months before we broke ground, and we have three pieces of paper. We met last night, and we managed to these three pieces of paper, the schedule, the budget, and the blueprint. And we have to stay on track on all three, the schedule, the blueprint.

But it was all planned on paper three months before we broke ground. We ordered the windows and the appliances two months before we broke ground because of supply chain. They'll be sitting in the warehouse early. So we're not going to slow down. We're going to be on time. We're going to be on budget. And we're going to stick to the freaking plan.

And if you don't do that, you're a nightmare for your builder, and you're going to blow your budget up, and you're going to be four years building a pretzel. Mm-hmm. You follow me? So if you guys will do all that planning and laying out, then you may figure out we're not going to build for a little while. We're going to save money for a little bit more.

And that could be a possibility, too. Yeah, it could be. I don't care what you do. You may choose to bill for $120 and pay off the building. I don't care. You can do any of these you want to do. But here's what you're – right now you have a vague statement of, well, we want to build a house, and that's the end of your information you don't

have any more information other than you want to put it on that lot where that house is you got now that you're going to tear down but you really need i want you looking at blueprints i want you talking to the builder i want you to get budgets and supply you know what's your lumber package you're going to run you know how long is this going to take because if it's going to take two years if it's going to take two years if it's going to be three years from now before you need to write the last check well you can afford to save up a lot making a hundred i also want you guys to sit down and create a five to ten year plan for your family because you really want to get this building paid off she doesn't want to

have a mortgage on this new house y'all are planning on building and she wants a new house and she wants a new house y'all in some ways are kicking some of this down the road sit down and let's come up and you have a game plan for your house have a game plan for your marriage have a game plan for your finances over the next five to ten years yeah and just and just follow the plan out we're at the end of the story we're living in the house she wants paid for and the building's paid for there you go and now worry what number of months out there is that five 60 months is it 64 months and you can lay that out it's number of months out there. Is that 60 months? Is it 64 months? And you can lay that out. It's sixth grade math. Dave, I had a buddy in college that was

connected to the building industry. And a builder told him something important once. He said, I can always tell the difference between the millionaires who are buying a house and the middle-class guys with the big loan because the millionaires come in with the ads from the appliance store and said, we agreed on this one. And the middle-class guy with the big loan because the millionaires come in with the ads from the appliance store. It said, we agreed on this one. And the middle-class guy with the big loan says, I don't know, man, what do you think? And he said, there was that attention to detail. We're going to do it like this that preserves that millionaire status over time. I told my builder I'm going to pay him a little extra because I'm about to drive him and my wife crazy. I'm a project manager from hell. I mean, it's just detail, man.

It's detail. This is The Ramsey Show. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Thanks for being with us, America. Open phones at 888-825-5225 thanks for being here hey based on our rankings we're in the top 10 podcasts in the entire world top 15 podcasts in the entire world uh and that has gone up recently uh based on our ratings on radio uh based on our spotify and our apple numbers and our YouTube numbers.

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you being with us william's in San Antonio, Texas. Remember the Alamo. What's up, William? Oh, good afternoon, Dave. I had a rather unfortunate financial incident in our marriage. Happened last fall. My wife got victimized in an internet fraud and not only lost a sizable amount of cash, but also took out some loans to help these people. And some of those were short-term credit card,

things like buying gift cards. And then there were two installment loans. One was for $23,500. One was for $17,500. The rest of them, the smaller credit cards and such, I'm using the snowball method to take care of those, but I need advice on the installment loans. When it comes to this fraud, it's usually one of two things. Usually it's some sort of romantic interest or it's some sort of somebody crying out for help with medical assistance or some sort of injustice what is it in your in your in your situation uh uh it would it would be the former uh my wife and i have been having been having some problems, been together for 25 years, and things just kind of, I don't know, they happened, and I didn't see the warning signs.

How's your marriage now? But it's much better. I've been getting therapy, and she has been too and we've been making some inroads and just uh basic stuff like how we speak to each other and i'm proud of you man that's hard try try try well here's the thing i have a bunch of people tell me well i would i would divorce somebody that would do that, and I'm not going to throw away 25 years. Okay.

I said I would make a full year as a concerted effort to get this thing turned around financially and emotionally, and part of the emotional thing is me. I realized I needed to do some work, and so we're both doing therapy, and it seems to be benefiting. Well, you're a beacon of light for men who find themselves in emotional situations without the right tools and the toolkit, and you can do one of two things. You can just take up your toolkit and go home, or you can storm the gates of hell and try to find more tools, and that's what you're doing, man, and I'm proud of you.

I'm proud of you. Amen. Thank you. It's awesome. What's your household income, sir? $69,000. Okay. Does she work outside the home?

No, we're both in our mid-70s. No, we're both retired. Oh, boy. So there's money there to take care of the short-term stuff. What do you mean money? You have a nest egg? We still have some resources, a 401k, and I have some money in my account. All the debts are in her name. What is the... How much money is in your account? $45,000.

And how much money is in your 401k? About the same. And not counting these two installment loans, how much miscellaneous is there? The little credit card mosquitoes. Yeah, I'm going to say $9,000, $10,000. Okay. All right. Yeah, I'm going to say $9,000, $10,000. I've got an income tax refund check coming in. $2,000 is going to get knocked off for that.

I would write a check out of yours today and pay off all the credit cards. That leaves the $40, 40 and close all the accounts. Okay. Now, that is a gesture on your part towards the healing that you're searching for. The 40 is still sitting there. We'll come back to that in a minute. Then I want to meet with her and her therapist and your therapist and however y'all are doing this marriage stuff and somehow you've got to get some checks and balances and start to incrementally rebuild trust

that you're not throwing good money after bad and this doesn't happen again because in the back of your mind you're if i clean this out and this happens again i ain't got anywhere to go that's what's happening in the back of your mind so you've got to know that this is solid going forward before you write any more big checks. But $9,000 in the scope of your life, you would pay that right now for healing. And I would. Yeah. Yeah. Let's get rid of all the mosquitoes.

Get it down to 17, five and twenty three five. And then let's just sit there with those two while we work on this relationship. And as your trust reaches closer to 100 percent, and that is going to require some demonstrations as well as on her part and your part and healing and some time to rebuild. And as that is rebuilt and you approach 100% on that, then I'm going to start trying to figure out how to get those paid off. But right now I want to clear the white noise, the clutter out of my mind with all these little bills. Because every time you write a check on this, it picks the scab. It opens the wound. And I'm trying to get it down to right in just two checks that's very

perceptive you're right now i mean i get pissed off all all over again every time you do this and you have to go through the whole process you've been doing in therapy start forgiveness again you start to have to go back through the whole thing and you just you start having all these conversations between your ears we all do this that's how i know i i wouldn't be guilty of it no not me but yeah but i mean yeah you write checks for things you're that remind you of bad things it's bad so dave at what point does and again in service of choosing reality just owning this is where we find ourselves do two people in their 70s have to commit to going back to work for a year and earn another forty thousand dollars to pay

these debts if she's of good health i mean i would talk to her therapist about this i'm not going to intervene in that but if she's of good health um sounds like both she's trying to re-earn trust and um you know i'm 12 stepping here but uh you know make good make good make amends yeah i think she goes back to work yeah and starts working on these other two loans i i think that's not because of financial but just i think that's a representative movement towards owning this it will give a place for that energy to you know you know make amends it is a 12-step thing and so you got to go back and where you can correct the wrongs it's part of being repentant or sorry you know and nobody wants to work in their 70s and that's where we find ourselves right and nobody wants to get

scammed by a romance on the internet but that's where we find ourselves. This is The Ramsey Show. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Brian is with us in Austin, Texas. Hey, Brian, welcome to The Ramsey show. Hey Dave, honored to talk to you, sir, and grateful for your ministry. And my wife and I are recently, we've discovered you guys and the baby steps and, um, we're beginning to think we're doing everything a little backwards and now that we've, we've learned about your stuff. So specifically we have three debt items. So we have two car notes and then a mortgage, those three items. No credit card debt.

The cars are $55,000 and $20,000, so about $75,000 total. However, we built up some savings and investments just in index funds. It's like $180,000 around there. And then we have more than that in retirement. So my question is, we want to send our kids just because just concerned about school curriculum, all that stuff. We want to send them to Christian private school. And what our question is, is how do we pay for that? Like, should we, I was thinking of just tapping in and drawing from our investments and paying that roughly 1010,000 a year.

But then my wife had a good idea. We're listening to you, and so we're like, man, or do we just pay the car notes off first? What's your household income? $94,000. Actually, well, my wife's going to be working part-time in the fall, so it'll be about $100,000, be about 100, 105 somewhere around there. Where did the 180 come from?

I used to, before my job now, I used to be in a higher income turning job. Why aren't you now? Because I'm in vocational full-time ministry now. Oh, okay, okay. Yeah. yeah that's fine i'm just curious i didn't know okay so yeah because the numbers just didn't they didn't they didn't add up okay and um that's good um what's the school cost it's 10 grand a year per kid um well it'll be for both of them. Okay.

For both of them. Okay. So $10,000 out of $105,000 is a budget item, and you write a check, pay off the cars. But I'm not sure a $55,000 car fits in a $105,000 income. Matter of fact, I'm sure it doesn't. Even if it's paid for. Even if it's paid for. What in the world is that?

Oh, the car? Mama paid for? Yep. Even if it's paid for. What in the world is that? Oh, the car? Mama's SUV? No. No, this is Dad's truck. He's in Austin. No, well, almost. It was a Tesla. I gave up my older car and finally...

You're a hipster pastor, man. Yeah, so that's cool. Yeah, here's the thing we so what would i do if i woke up in your shoes and why why is important because i want you to think for yourself not do stuff and you wouldn't do stuff just because dave said brian but um so what we've discovered mathematically is it's very difficult to get ahead when a large portion of your asset base versus your income is depreciating, going down in value like a rock. And so all cars with wheels and or motors, anything with wheels and or motors goes down in value, period.

Now, so when you have too many things with wheels and motors that go down in value versus your income, and this did fit in your old life because you were probably making $200 or more. And so $55,000 car is not a problem. But the numbers that we've crunched over 30 years of doing this say that if you've got more than half of your annual income tied up and things going the wrong way, you're going to struggle. So I would challenge whether to keep the Tesla or not.

You need to pray about that, think about it. I'm not going to tell you what to do. But you've got too much tied up in things going the wrong way versus your income. That's what I'm observing. Now, so at a minimum, I'd write a check and pay them off today. The next step I would consider is stepping out of that tesla and moving into a more reasonable vehicle for somebody that makes a hundred thousand a year okay yeah that's fair that makes sense and i think you can handle a ten thousand dollar

budget out of 105 if you watch your p's and q's and just send your kids to school as a budget item yeah yeah okay and i'm guessing they're going to school where you're pastoring yeah well it's it's similar philosophy different place but yeah it's real similar yeah okay something where you know the uh the curriculum and the output and so forth you're not yeah you're not able to wonder what kind of garbage they're getting fed right yeah exactly things get a little crazy so it made us rethink everything yeah i heard the rumor yeah a little yeah a lot okay so yeah i'm with you i'm with you on that part and i and the ratio for private school is a good ratio you got a great deal 10 grand for two of them that's that's amazingly cheap you know in today's world so

all of that the the biggest thing that doesn't fit in this math picture is that tesla just to pick on it again and so you can do what you want uh if i woke up in your shoes i would be driving a twenty thousand dollar car not a fifty five thousand dollar car and um and my wife would be driving her twenty thousand dollar car and we'd have a little more money in the bank and we'd'd be budget-ideming these kids. So you're right on track. And thank you for your service, and thank you for your hard choice to serve, to serve in the ministry.

That's a real call to take an income cut in half or more and to do that. That's pretty cool. Yeah, that's real cool. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Ryan is in Phoenix. Hey, Ryan, what's up? Hi, Dave. I'm a big fan, and I just finished reading Dr. Malone's book.

I got a question about my home. So we have a condo. We currently owe $208,000, but we're still paying a PMI of $180,000 a month. Good God. To get under the PMI, they say it'll be $24,711. I have cash on hand of actually $33,000. So I could pay that off, but I also have $92,000 in student loans. So I didn't know if I should take that cash on hand

and apply it directly to student loans or pay off the PMI. What's your household income? Well so I just recently lost my job but it I'm applying right now once I get my job back, our household income should be anywhere from $140 to $150. Okay. And how long have you been working on this debt situation? Only a month. I graduated in May, and a week later, I lost my job. So during that time, I went to Financial Peace University with my wife. we got on board with the budget but we're like okay it's really hard to set a budget because because i'm unemployed yeah okay yeah so all right so remember in financial peace university when we talked about

we get rid of all debt except the house and baby step two and the pmi doesn't change that pmi pisses me off. I'm with you. It's bad. Yeah. And I want you to get that other 24 on there as fast as you can, but I want your student loans gone because they're getting ready to come back at you guys

with these student loans. They're going to return that faucet back on and they're going to hammer you. Yeah, they're going to hammer you. Yeah, I haven't had a payment, so it felt like nothing. But now you do. But, I mean, it's going to wake gonna wake you back up man in the fall when it comes when it becomes very apparent that the biden administration is not able to forgive student loans so um yeah

i mean the supreme court has ruled and it's you know i'm sorry but so uh sorry but not sorry so the 33 000 you remember baby step 1 is $1,000. Everything else goes towards the debt. And so $32,000 goes on the $92,000. So now we have $60,000 left, and we're going to attack the $60,000 with a vengeance. And when it's gone, we're going to build an emergency fund. And when it's gone, we're going to start putting 15% of our income into retirement and kids' college and start paying down on the house,

and that's when you'll get rid of the PMI. Perfect. Thank you so much. Hey, thank you. Thanks for being a customer and financial piece. Welcome to our crazy gang. Dave, I think what you said is real important, man. If you have not been paying on student loans.

And no one has, by the way, statistically. For three years. 1% have been paying. If you haven't, they are coming back in September. Like a forest fire. They're coming. Make a plan. That might mean you've got to cancel a vacation.

That might mean you've got to sell something. That might mean whatever. Listen, you think inflation sucks? What are your student loans kicked back in and you didn't think about it and they catch you off guard? You've got a four-month runway to solve this. Don't slam your face in the bricks. Guys.

So get... Make a plan. Don't act like this isn't coming. It's coming. Get ready. Get rid of your student loans, people. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Dr. John Deloney. If you love the show and want a deeper dive on your money journey, we have a weekly newsletter that gives you trending and helpful articles and tips on following the Ramsey way.

Just go to Ramseyysolutions.com today to sign up for our newsletter. Again, that's ramseysolutions.com to sign up for our weekly newsletter.