The Ramsey Show - App - Nothing Extraordinary Happens Within Your Comfort Zone (Hour 3)

Episode Date: October 30, 2020

Debt, Education, Career, Relationships Sign Up for a FREE trial of Ramsey Plus TODAY: https://bit.ly/31ricKt  Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/2QEyonc Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR

Coming to you live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions and broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is The Dave Ramsey Show. It's where America hangs out to have a conversation about life and money. I'm Ken Coleman, hosting The Ken Coleman Show as a part of the Ramsey Network, also joined by Anthony O'Neill, who is a part of the Ramsey Network as well. Both of us are part of everything that we're doing here at Ramsey Network, also joined by Anthony O'Neill, who is a part of the Ramsey Network as well. Both of us are part of everything that we're doing here at Ramsey Solutions to help you live your best life. And we're together this hour on The Dave Ramsey Show, answering your questions, 888-825-5225.

His show that's blowing up on YouTube, Anthony's just crushing it over there. It's called The Table. New episodes every Monday. AnthonyO'Neill.com is the place to connect with everything he's doing. Join him on Instagram at Anthony O'Neill. The Ken Coleman Show is Monday through Friday, part of the Ramsey Network. Again, all the details at KenColeman.com, and check me out on instagram at ken coleman all right uh let's get to the phones anthony we've already been having a blast today we're gonna

keep going with it jacob uh is joining us in new york city the big apple anthony here he is jacob how can we help hey there guys how are you How about yourself, man? How can we help? Doing very well. So I'm 29 years old, and I graduated college about six or seven years ago. My parents, they generously offered to pay for my education, and they took out student loans to do it. There's about $14,000 left in student loans, and I'm getting married next year. And I wanted to know if I should pay off my student loan before getting married or if I should continue to allow my parents to pay the minimums on my loan. I mean, great question. I don't think there's a right or wrong answer in this situation. I mean, because I'm assuming that your parents said, like you said,

that they will pay for your education. And if they said that, then there's nothing wrong with you making sure that they that they stick to that. But if you're in a place financially to where you can go in ahead and just cut the check for fourteen thousand dollars and it doesn't impact your future and your future wedding, I would absolutely, there's nothing wrong with that neither, you know. And so I would do that. Let me ask, Jacob, what do you want to do? Are you wanting, are you feeling like you want to bless your parents by paying the $14,000 off?

Is that where you're leaning or not? Not necessarily. It's more so that I didn't know if the debt was going to have a great impact on me once I'm married. Well, the debt is in your name and in your parents' name. And so will it have an impact on your credit situation? Yeah, it is. It will because you're in debt. It's on your credit reports on your parents credit report. But as far as in if you have the means to pay it off and it doesn't impact you, go ahead.

If you're saying I don't I do not have the means and I do not want to pay it off to know I mean, go ahead and make your parents or allow your parents to stick to their words so it's really up to you right now but will it impact you on your credit and moving forward yes it will good stuff thank you for the call jacob all right let's go now to birmingham alabama daphne joins us there daphne how can we help hey guys Thank you for taking my call. I am 51, and as I was sitting here waiting, I realized that today's the anniversary of three years out from my divorce. I have four kids. Three of them are still in school, in college, I should say. I have a good job. I work for the government, but I still have to work a second job to make ends meet. I'm not very happy at all, and it's just, you know, it's a depressing job,

and then I'm always worn out because I'm working 60 hours a week, you know, and I, you know, it's just tough. And I listen to you guys or listen to this show almost every day in the background at work thinking, how can I get out of this, and how can I make my life different so that I'm not this way for the rest of my life. I feel like half of my life is over, so yeah. Yeah, well, first of all, we don't know how many days we have. None of us are promised tomorrow, but I would not—

Oh, I know that. And I know you do, but my point is it's not about half your life being over. It's that, hey, the next chapter of your life is yet to be written. And at 51, you're not too old to start writing new pages and write new chapters. And in some ways with the divorce, you've already been kind of kicked out of the nest relationship wise and that you've got a new chapter there. And, and so this is about figuring out what are the steps that you need to take to get where you want to go. So, Daphne, I want you to suspend all doubt about how old you are and how much life has gone by. I want you to suspend all fear of failure, what others might say.

And just for a moment, I want you to tell me, what would you try or what would you do professionally if you could make the money you wanted to make and you knew you couldn't fail? What would you try? What's that thing that you've always wondered about? I've always been inclined to help people, especially people who have been through anything that I've been through that I definitely know about. I do have a heart for people and being able, but you know. Who would those people be? Who would the people, and would you help in a counseling setting?

Would you help in a? Yeah, probably. Yeah. Look how quickly you got into that one. So let's just play this out for a second, okay? Would you want to counsel couples that are struggling to keep their marriage together? Would you want to counsel people that have gone through substance abuse? Would you want to counsel kids? I mean, who are those people you would most love to sit across from and help them dig out or help them

avoid? Well, married people who are having problems, single parents, you know, single women who have already, you know, and I already do that in my small group, you know. Look at you. Setting a church. So really it's that relationship and family counseling. And so then you look at that and you go, okay, what would it take to get there? Okay. So four simple questions.

I understand. But I want to paint a picture for you. Okay. So what do you make right now with both jobs? You've got your government job plus your second job. What do you make ballpark? I make about 40 at the main one and I make another 65. Okay. So right about $47,000 is your gross. Okay. All right. And, and, and so for you to make ends meet, are you able to cut expenses even more? I've cut just about all there is to cut.

Okay. But at $46,500 in Birmingham, you're barely making ends meet? Do you have major debt still that you're dealing with? I do have some debt. I have a car. I have two car payments, and I have some credit card debt. Okay. Are you working Dave Ramsey's plan, the baby steps to get out of debt? I have started that. Well, why do you have two cars? One's mine, and one's my daughter's.

And you're paying for both of them? Yes. How old is your daughter? Well, no, actually, I take that back. She does make her car paint. I guess I just kind of... Here's what I want. I want you to hang on the line. Two things. Will you

stay with us over the commercial break? I want Anthony to walk you through your next steps financially because you just started listening. You just started with Dave. Anthony's going to help you on that. Then I'm going to walk you through the steps on how you can be a professional counselor and make really good money and be thrilled going in and be filled coming home. Oh, we're going to help her. It's going to be fun. Don't move folks. The Dave Ramsey show continues just in a minute. just folks i love telling you about well-made well-thought-out products today i'm talking

about grip six belts i don't know about you but I'm not a fan of traditional belts. They never fit right, and they're uncomfortable. Grip6 belts are unique. Owner BJ designed a truly modern, minimalist belt made of high-quality materials with no holes, no flap, and no bulk. And the buckles come in really cool designs and are interchangeable. I personally own these belts in different styles. And talk about affordability, Grip 6 belts come with a lifetime guarantee.

And that means if you no longer like or fit the style of your belt, you can replace them for free. Plus, I like the way these guys do business. Grip 6 is determined to help build and modernize American manufacturing. To learn more and get this month's Dave Ramsey special, visit GRIP6.com. That's GRIP6.com. Welcome back to the Dave Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague Anthony O'Neill, and we're taking your calls this hour on the Dave Ramsey Show,

888-825-5225, 888-825-5225. All right, so we held Daphne over because we took her call a couple minutes before we had to move into a commercial break. And she's going to rejoin us here in just a moment from Birmingham, Alabama. And she's 51 years of age, been divorced three years, and she's got a good government job. But there's no juice. It's just a stable job for her. She makes $40,000 there, and then she's got a second job that brings her in about $6,500. So she's right at $47,000. But we found out right before we went to the break, AO,

that she's barely making ends meet. You've got three kids in college and one that's out of college. She's barely making ends meet on about $47,000 in Birmingham. And you said, huh? And so we started to ask a question. She's got some debt. Now, the context for this, folks, is that she's got some debt. We're going to dive into that and get her straight, figure out what that path is going to look like and give her a timeline. Then I'm going to come back to what we started with because she said, I'm unhappy in my career. She really would love to do counseling. But right now she's overwhelmed with this idea of how in the world can I afford the education necessary and the licensing and make that transition when she feels like she's barely keeping her nose above water. So that's where we are.

And so we said, okay, AO needs to work on this. So Daphne, get ready to go. Get ready to write and have some thick skin here because doctor's got to go to work here. All right. So welcome back, Daphne. AO, take over. So Daphne, let's break this down. And I know you're new to who we are as an organization. That's fine. So I'm going to walk you through this process so I can help you.

And so that way, when you get off of this phone call, you can have some steps to do. So at 51, you're making about forty six thousand dollars a year, correct? Correct. All right. So average um single individual in america today is making about forty eight thousand dollars a year so you're right around that ballpark all right so this is where i have some small questions i want to see like what what can we do what's your total amount of debt right now how much debt do you have totally? Well, with those two cars that I was telling you about, it's like $21,000. Okay, $21,000 in debt, all right? And one of those cars, you co-signed for your daughter, correct?

Correct. How much is that car? How much it worth? How much is owed on it? Yes, how much do you owe on it? About $3,800. Okay, $3,800. Okay, $3,800. Okay.

Is your daughter working? How old is your daughter who has this car? She's 19. 19. Okay. And is she working? Yes. Okay.

So here's what we need to do. Do you have any savings at all right now? No. Okay. So here's what we need to do. I think you need to write up an agreement with your daughter and that she needs to take 100% ownership of this vehicle and she has 12 months to pay it off. Is she living with you? Yes.

Oh, yeah. She has six months. Okay. This way. This way. Now she takes ownership of her life. That frees you up of $3, yeah. She has six months. Okay. This way. This way. Now she takes ownership of her life. That frees you up of $3,800. Takes you down right down to about $17,000, $16,000, $17,000.

You're making $41,000. I mean, $40,000 a year. Within this actual time frame, if you get on a budget, do you have a written plan for your money right now? I just started that this month. I love it. She's brand new. I love it. All right.

So you're going to stick to that for three months. And I heard you earlier. You said, hey, I've already cut off on some things. And I love the fact that you've already cut off on some things. But I really want you to get very, very detailed. I'm talking about if you have a little small subscription that you do, if you do $5 for your nails, I need every single penny.

If you spend 50 cents on gum every month when you go to a particular store, I need you to write that down and I need you to see where else can you cut if you can, but if you can't, making that kind of money, you should be debt free within about two years. So by 53 years old, 12 to 18 months, you should be 100% free from your debt. And I think then you will have freedom to do exactly what Ken can walk you through on how to get into the career

field. Uh, but right now within 12 to 18 months, you're looking at you only have to pay off about $17,000. And so how much is your mortgage payment? I don't have one. I rent. Okay. So how much is your rent payment? It's $850,000.

$850,000. Beautiful. We're in a beautiful situation. This is not bad. Yeah, you can get out of this. What is your other debt? Because you've learned the debt snowball, correct? You've heard us talk about the debt snowball where you take the smallest. Okay, good. So the daughter's car is $3,800, I know. But you have credit

cards as well? Yep. Yes. So what's the smallest debt you have? $1,000 credit. One that has a $1,000 balance on it. Okay, great. So that's your number one target right now because AO told you what to do with the daughter. The daughter needs to be fully responsible. But I'm curious, how much is your car actually worth, and then what's the debt on it? Okay, the debt on it is $11,500. And how much is it worth? Not that much. What kind of car is it?

65. It's a Ford Escape. Ford Escape. How many miles are it? 114. Yeah. Okay. All right.

And it's just a pit. Yeah. My dad's already had to bail me out a couple times on it. He said, Daphne, you drive this until the wheels fall off. Exactly. That's right. Yeah, you are. All right.

So you understand the debt snowball. So here's the deal. You've got to cut everywhere you can cut, and you get some momentum going on that debt. I know you're working 60 hours, but you can do this. You're going to have to bite the stick, and you're going to have to really gut this thing out. And here's why. Because a better future is on the other side of this so once you get out of that debt you got then you can put all that that energy emphasis and energy

into that emergency fund where you sleep really well at night now you're looking at what would it cost me to get into some type of counseling uh a counseling degree and what would that look like if i did that online because a lot of schools will offer that online so you don't have to get up and pack your whole life and move. And so you're asking four questions. What do I need to learn? What degree? What certifications?

What do I need to do that if that's what you want to pursue? I've got another idea for you as well. But then you would say, all right, so now that I know what I've got to learn, that's your qualification stuff. What do I need to do? What experience would I need to kind of eventually move into that? And then how much is that going to cost me financially? And then how long will this take? And now we've got ourselves answers and we've got a plan. And all of a sudden you realize, hey, I can do this. Now, in the interim, while you're hustling, you should be looking and seeing

what jobs might be available in the counseling sector, maybe government agencies, that social working and things of that nature, private counseling centers, maybe even nonprofit and religious organizations. Are there some administrative jobs or some support jobs for the counselor so you're not qualified to sit in and do the counseling, but maybe instead of that second job, which you can't stand, or maybe in that first job bringing in you 40, can you match the 40 that you're making with the government job that you're so bored with? Could you step into that space and be very close in proximity to the actual counseling work

so that you really get a great idea of what you want to do and it will further fire you up? Does that make sense what I'm saying? Yes. And Daphne, you can do and it will further fire you up. Does that make sense what I'm saying? Yes. And Daphne, you can do that, can't you? Daphne, come on, Daphne. You can do that, can't you? Yes. Yes, you can.

Is it going to be hard, A.O.? Heck yeah. Yeah, it's going to be hard. And you can hear it in her voice. But Daphne, listen to us. You got into this over years. Yeah. You're not going to be able to get out of this in six weeks, but you can get out of it.

And I'm going to tell you something else. If the daughter, the 19-year-old daughter is living with you, you know what? Charge her rent. Yeah, she could jump in and start doing some stuff. What can you sell? Start looking at if I'm going to work 60 hours a week and I'm already bone tired, can I work in a better situation and make more money? What you have to do is you get your head up, your eyes up, and you're going,

this is my desired future. I don't want to stay in a dead-end job. I don't want to be stuck financially. I want to take control of my future. That is going to be uncomfortable. Ayo, what do you tell people about being uncomfortable and comfort? You got some words? Yeah, absolutely. I'd rather be uncomfortable than comfortable because there is nothing, nothing extraordinary happens with inside the comfort zone. There it is. That's a good word. Hey, don't move. More of your calls

coming right up. Anthony O'Neill, Ken Coleman here with you on The Dave Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague Anthony O'Neill as we take you through this hour of The Dave Ramsey Show, 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225. Taking your calls. Let's go to the phones. Nicole is on the line in Eugene, Oregon. Nicole, how can we help?

Hi. I am struggling. I have read the total money makeover. I have a really strict budget. My husband and I have meetings and have gone and done this for months. And my husband still continues to spend outside of the budget and we get in little spats about it and I just try to be patient and I I just don't know what to do next like I he's totally supportive of paying off all the all of our student loans

really from me but definitely our loans he definitely is supportive but yet he keeps spending outside of the designated budget. And so I just don't know what to do at this point. Yeah, this ain't a money question, Ken. Nope, this is a relationship marriage question. So let me start, Ayo. I know you're going to jump in

but I'm going to ask. I'm single. I got to dig. I got to dig a little bit. I've been married 22 years, but you can speak to this. Here's the deal. I'm curious about what you're saying when you go, he's supportive on paying off the debt, but he's not supportive in sticking to the budget.

That seems like there's a massive conflict there. I want you to explain to me how you believe he's supportive if he's not sticking to it. Okay. Like, he's supportive. Like, he'll do what I – I'm the nerd, so he'll do what I designate. You know, like, this is the amount. And he'll look at it, and he'll go to the meeting and be like, okay, great. But he doesn't fight with me about it and he doesn't say anything negative.

He wants to get it done, but when it comes to doing it, he just always makes mistakes. No, he's not making mistakes. He's not opposed to it. He's not making mistakes to it he's not making mistakes he's philosophically going yeah yeah i think it makes sense i think it makes sense not to eat junk food it's like it's like him going to the doctor and the doctor goes you got a heart condition and you're gonna have to eat this way and you can't eat this stuff anymore you can't do this do you understand what i'm saying and it's like the patient going, yeah, I totally understand. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then they get back into their routine and they go, I can't do it. I got to have the Doritos. I got to have the milkshake or whatever it is.

So understanding and agreeing that it's a good thing versus doing it, this is not a mistake issue. This is a discipline issue. And so the small spats are eventually going to turn into some really big things. So how long has this been going on? I have a two-part question. How long has this been going on? And when you have the disagreements, when you go, hey, hubs, what's the deal? We had a budget and you overspent. You didn't do what we needed to do.

What's happening in the argument? What's his response? How long has it been going on and then what's his response okay so we've probably been at this about almost a year paying on about 75 000 well actually more than that um 100 and 125 000 and we're down to 70 ish um that's good and yeah and so and then i'm sorry the second part was how how did this how does he respond how does he respond i want to know what his answer is to you when you challenge him on not sticking to the budget he just said well so they're most of the things are really innocent like well we needed to get some tomatoes

or we needed this food, so I went and got it. And I said, well, we don't have it in the budget. We need to wait until the next paycheck in, like, five days. And he's like, well, we can just go get it now, and I'll just take it from my gas money account. And I'm like, no. Okay. Because it doesn't get planned. Okay, so now let me ask you a question so

this is not a major he's not he's not veering off the budget big time he's just playing a little bit of i'm transferring money from the envelopes okay a little bit different situation nicole let me ask this question yeah jump in let me ask this question oh oh he's making a face he's making a face. He's making a face. I just want to ask a question. Okay. Sometimes the nerd can be too much of a nerd. And I believe sometimes nerds can be very, very, very, very anal. And so, and I'm not saying that you are, but I do want to pose the question to you could you say would you say that nicole sometimes is too much of a nerd um i don't think that's the problem and most nerds and most nerds say that okay but hold on this is a man who will spend on credit cards like crazy like he just gets out of control if he so i don't know but we haven't historically has he done that since you guys have been on the debt

free journey uh he has not had the means to do so okay all right so here's what ao is saying he's going look because what the way it sounded to us yeah is that is that your husband is just fighting against you and he's just completely ignoring it but when you explain how much debt you guys together have paid off that's amazing and then what you described to us nicole all we have all we can do is operate off what you say what you said was he wants to go buy tomatoes for a certain reason you're five days away from the next paycheck where you would be able to dip back into the envelope. He's going, well, I got some gas money and I can pull from the gas money to buy the

envelopes. He's not putting you further in the debt. He's not stopping the momentum. He's just pulling from different envelopes. To the spirit of that, that's not as big of a problem. Yeah, it's really not. If that's all that it is. If that's all that it is.

Yeah. Well, I mean, there's a lot of things I do. Like, anything I've done, it's kind of on my own. A lot of these things are like, I'm the workhorse of it, and he'll kind of go along with it. Okay. But, like, planning our wedding, like, buying our house. Okay, let me tell you what's going on. The tomatoes are a deal.

That was just the most recent thing. All right, listen me tell you what's going on. The tornadoes are a deal. That was just a recent thing. All right, listen, Nicole. It's okay. Can I tell you what's happening? Please do. Tell us. You've got a lot of resentment built up over a lot of things. Absolutely.

And I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm not saying that he doesn't deserve a little bit of grief over how he's acted. I think he needs to grow up. But what I'm hearing from you are two things. Number one, you guys have made tremendous progress. You really have. You should be proud of yourself. I also understand that you are the driver.

But I also know that you probably want to stay married, and this guy also needs to grow up. And I'm going to tell you what's going on that concerns me. There's a lot of resentment. And again, I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm saying that you need to get healthy and we need to get healthy. So I'm going to tell you that the next couple of months, budget needs to include some marital counseling.

And I think you two need to go. I'm not saying you're in a crisis, but a lot of people hear counseling, and they go, well, we're not throwing stuff at each other. We're not swearing at each other and yelling at each other in front of the kids. I didn't say that. What I'm saying is there's enough resentment there for the long haul that you two need to come together and get healthy. And he needs to sit with you with an experienced and ideally a Christian, I would prefer a Christian marriage counselor, because they're going to look at the whole picture,

and he and you need to sit together, and he needs to hear you share objectively in front of somebody who can keep you guys on the rails the resentment that you have and the exhaustion emotionally that you have, and you feel like you're doing all the work, and you're having to drag him along, and you want more support from him, and all the things that he's not giving you right now this has got to be addressed right now because ao the rest of this journey is still going to be tough and if this resentment keeps building this is bigger than the envelope invading for her yeah you can hear it is it

definitely is and i'm trying to be careful because i'm not married you know but i do think that there's something deeper inside of her that needs to be addressed. She gave us one piece of evidence. The fact that he ran credit cards up really fast, that broke trust with her. Trust needs to be rebuilt. This is a marriage counseling situation that can really avoid some major problems down the road. So thanks for calling, Nicole. Thanks for being vulnerable here because i

know this is tough get your chin up tell him hey i want to go to counseling we need to get healthy because it's going to allow us to finish this race it's going to be more enjoyable for you i need to work on some stuff and so do you this is two of us not just one two of us all right don't go anywhere more of the day rsey Show coming from our Ramsey Solutions headquarters in Nashville. Ken Coleman, Anthony O'Neill, taking you through this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show. 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Our scripture of the day.

2 Peter 1.3, his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. And our quote of the day from President Theodore Roosevelt, be practical as well as generous in your ideals. Keep your eyes on the stars, but remember to keep your feet on the ground. My, my, my. You like that, don't you? I do.

888-825-5225. Let's go to the Motor City, Detroit, Michigan. Tricia is on the line. Tricia, how can we help? Ken, hi, Anthony. Big thing, I just want to say thank you. I spoke with you back in May regarding, we were talking about the job switches and if you're burned out in your role just because of COVID. Me, I am in a good job.

I just want to say thank you. We were kind of on the fence about taking that position, and I took it. Okay. I couldn't be happier. Nice. We were kind of on the fence about taking that position, and I took it. Okay. I couldn't be happier. Nice. We are almost done. Almost done with step two. We're right there, you guys.

Nice. How much left do you have in baby step two? Just over $9,000. $9,005. As soon as we get lower than the $10,000 mark, it seems like we just are hammering away at it. We're a couple weeks away here, so I'll be really excited to just throw in crazy amounts of money. We'll have paid off close to $90,000 in under 18 months. Wow.

Okay, so you were breaking up a little bit. I want the audience to hear this. So you called me on the Ken Coleman Show, you had a, should I take this job question? Um, this was actually, you were talking, you were on with, um, Dave actually. Oh, it was Dave and I. Okay, great. Yeah, it was you and Dave. I talked to both of you guys. I was a nervous wreck and I'm a nurse. I'm in, um, I was in leadership, just really burnt out. And, um, I was on the fence about going back into nursing education, which is really my passion and my love. And, you know, it's just like things happen for a reason.

A job was posted that really spoke to me and something that was within my background, and I switched over into the industry, and it's probably been the best decision. Oh, that's great. Did you make more money? Oh yeah. Yes. And when I talked to you guys, we were like, oh, you're not going to make any more. I mean, it was almost a 30% increase in pay. Wow. That's huge. So good for you. And you were nervous. You were scared. You called

Dave and I, you basically basically said should i take it yes and you were like you know it's that heavy heavy weight of you know nursing leadership and you know leaving the four walls of a hospital and dave was like listen no job is you know safe like you're not protected by an institution and it's just one of those things you take your chances and this really is you know pretty much a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You just do it. So that's what we call calculated risk. And it wasn't that risky. You weighed your options.

You decided to do it. Good for you. And I want you to – the reason I asked a couple follow-up questions, I want you to tell our audience that are considering, you know, can I make a switch? Can I make a career switch, a job switch while still paying off debt? What is the answer and is it worth it? You absolutely can. It is totally worth it.

You know, around the time when I called you guys, we kind of went into storm mode, worried. I wasn't sure what was going to happen even with my job working in the hospital in the COVID situation. So we just started piling the money away and not touching it. And I will tell you, you see a big figure in your bank account, and you think, oh, I'm going to totally spend that. And I said, you know what? We're pulling the trigger on just paying off some more debt. And we just threw it at it. Student loan's gone forever.

And I made the switch to a different job. And, I mean, I don't have the stress that I did. I'm spending more time with my family. We've, you know, done so many things that I didn't have the weight of that stress on it. And believe me, I miss those folks. But, you know, this was the best choice for us. Yes, good for you. Trisha, Anthony, I am so proud of you.

Love it. You did it. That is so great. Thank you for listening. Thank you for calling back in and giving us an update. I love the updates. And you've got to call in or come here and do your debt-free scream.

You know that's next, right? Oh, yeah. We can't wait to we cannot wait to come there or come on hey drive down come on now come on down nashville so beautiful uh we're open people are in the lobby come on and uh we want to celebrate you i can't wait to meet you in your hubs give you a high high five. So come on down. That'd be great. I love that, Ayo. So good. Let's go next to Eric, who joins us in Omaha, Nebraska.

Eric, how can we help? Hi, Ken and Ayo. Thanks for taking my call. Great to talk to you guys. Yeah. How can we help, man? So 2020 has been pretty good for my wife and I. We were able to pay off her two student loans.

We still have $20,000 in debt and a car loan. So we're attacking that as much as we can. In June, we found out that we're expecting our first kiddo. Congrats. Hey. Thank you. So I'm just wondering should I switch what I'm doing, doing

Zellis on the car loan or because it's our first kid so I don't know what to expect, how much the hospital bill would be. It really all depends. Do you have good insurance? Yeah. It's okay. Well, yeah. Yeah, it really all depends. Do you have good insurance? Yeah.

No, it's okay. She's a nurse at a local hospital, so it's okay. No, it's not okay. She's a nurse at a local hospital, so her local hospital is going to give her some discounts and everything there. Yeah, you know what? That's a simple phone call to your insurance provider and say, hey, we got a baby coming. And based on the amount of days, how much is covered, I mean, a couple of questions on one phone call, you're going to know what your deductible is or what you're going to owe.

And see, right now it seems so scary. Ayo, take over. But I just wanted to point this out really quick that you're scared because you don't know what the answer is. And so you got to find out what the answer is. Yeah. And then also too, man, have your wife go in and ask the hospital, you know, like, hey, are there any discounts?

Do I get any kind of help or assistance when I do have a baby? But here's the key thing too. I got to ask this question. What kind of car are you driving for $20,000, man? No, we're young. Just gotten married. It's a were young. Just got married. It's a Ford Explorer. Okay.

Okay. How much is it worth? When we got it, it was $45,000. I'm not sure what the current value on it right now is. You paid $45,000 for a Ford Explorer? Easy, easy. So how old is the car? It was 2017.

We got it for the winter months, you know, in Nebraska. It could snow. All right. So here's on the money side, man. You can pause. I'll say set aside five grand. Okay. I'll say set aside in between three and five grand.

After that, you don't need anything more than that. I really don't think you need anything more than $3 dollars for my expertise i don't have any kids and um but you can go do how much is it going to cost you for diapers these are budget items that you can look up diapers and all the things what your monthly budget will be so you've got you know you know you've got uh the food and the bottles and your basic baby equipment but your monthly stuff yeah uh is going to be pretty simple you're you're you know you can figure that out with people who've got babies and you know all that kind of stuff yeah but but yeah listen dude you need to you need to figure out how much that car is worth you need to know because you owe 20 on it if that car is worth 30 or 32 or it's going

to be worth about 24 what would you tell him to do? I mean, for that right there, this is Eric's only debt. What do you make a year, Eric? We make about, you know, 70, 80,000. Yeah. I mean, if I don't have a problem with him keeping that, just aggressively paying it off. That's a lot of car. You know, he has a baby.

So I'm cool with that. That's his only debt. And so I have a problem with him keeping that, just aggressively paying it off. That's a lot of car. Yeah. You know, and he has a baby. So I'm cool with that. That's his only debt. And so I have no problem. But, like, you got to get aggressive. Like, no more minimum payments. Like, you should be paying $2,000 for this car every month and have it paid off by the end of next year. There you go. Yeah. Good stuff.

Hey, listen, man, we're happy for you. Don't be scared. Go get some information. Information allows us to think clearly, and when we can think clearly and see clearly, there's nothing to be scared of. All right, I want to thank our production team, the radio, and our YouTube team.

They do a massively amazing job every show. I want to thank my colleague, my good pal, Anthony O'Neill. Always great to hang with you. Likewise, Brad. But most of all, we want to thank you, America. This is your show. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show.

On your smart speaker, you can add our skill by saying, Alexa, open the Ramsey Network skill. From there, you can listen to all our shows. Ask Dave money questions like, how do I invest my money? Or what is the debt snowball? Find out more at daveramsey.com slash smart speaker.