The Ramsey Show - App - Nothing Will Change Till You're Ready To Change (Hour 2)

Episode Date: October 12, 2023

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Number one best-selling author, Ken Coleman, of the book Paycheck to Purpose, and host of the Ken Coleman show is my co-host today. Ken talks to folks if you don't know about their careers, their jobs, how to make more money, how to love and how to deal, how to love your place and how to deal with your employer and proper things to do around the workplace. So we're going to do that and your questions about your life and your money at 888-825-5225.

If you haven't heard, we are all celebrating around the Ramsey Place right now. Lots of screaming and confetti going off. We found out a few hours ago that Dr. John Deloney's second book, Building a Non-Anxious Life, debuted at number one. Number one best-selling book in Americaica today in the non-fiction section pretty stinking cool and that's because a whole bunch of you bought the book to help folks yourself or someone else deal with anxiety and uh in a real world way not in some kind of cheesy way not some kind of egghead way uh no magic pills but uh the six daily choices to build a non-anxious life in a very anxious world congratulations to dr john he's on the road doing podcasts and television and so

forth in another city but uh our congrats to him absolutely big big big deal and the and the the street continues for ramsey solutions so we're blessed to be able to help people in that way. So the next one. Who's up next? George? George is launching. We're launching a pre-sale on George soon. Very exciting. It'll come out in January.

It'll be the launch date. But we'll start talking about it soon like we didn't just now. But, yeah, anyway, that's how that happens. I actually didn't even mean to do that, but that was well placed. I'll have George pay me later. I did that with Rachel's kids' book the other day. I said something on the air. And then she kind of – she, like, wanted to announce it on Instagram first,

so she was like, you kind of spoiled my announcement. Yeah. I'm very excited about that project, too, because it is so stinking cute. I've actually read it myself at my desk. It's so well illustrated, and it's so stinking cute, but full of actual great knowledge. Yeah, it myself at my desk. It's so well illustrated, and it's so stinking cute, but full of actual great knowledge. Yeah, it is a wonderful kids book. A lot of fun.

So we'll be talking more about that when we're supposed to. That's right. We will stop talking about it now. When we're allowed to talk about it. That's right. I just get confused. I think I own the place, so it throws me off. His name's on the building.

All right. Ron is in Asheville, North Carolina. Hi, Ron. Welcome welcome to the ramsey show thank you so much for taking my call dave sure how can we help uh my father is 84 years old he five years ago asked me to manage his finances he's had a stroke he has now has mild dementia he lives with my wife and I for the past two years. And my father approached me close to a year ago and offered to pay $10,000 toward my daughter's college tuition. And then recently approached me about getting a lawn tractor and he bought, he paid for nearly half the cost. And I have two siblings who are accusing me of manipulating him, taking advantage of him. And my father, almost on a daily basis, expresses his gratitude to my wife and kids and I

that we keep him out of the nursing home, keep him out of assisted living, and he's very happy where he's at. He does not pay you any rent? He does not. The only thing that he contributes is a couple hundred dollars a month for food expenses, $25 for his cell phone expense, and then he pays one-sixth of the electric costs for six members of our household. But there's no rent.

Okay. And then, so $10,000, and what's half the lawn tractor worth? He contributed $5,200 toward rent. Okay. And then so $10,000 and what's half the lawn tractor worth? He contributed $5,200 toward it. Okay. So he gave you $15,000 for two years' worth of care plus the monthly bills you told me about. And I've taken a doctor's appointment, taken him to physical therapy twice a week. I got that. But he paid you $15,000 for two years of care so far, right?

Yes. And you're promised no additional money, right? Correct. Okay. And you're promised no additional money, right? Correct. Okay. And does your dad have money, a lot of money or a little money? No, he brings in about $40,000 a year from Social Security and a pension. Does he have a nest egg? No.

Where did he get the $15,000? He had saved that up in his account. So now he's broke. No, he has about $4,000 in his checking account right now. So he gave you almost all the money he had. For a lawn tractor. Right? Yeah, $5,200 for a lawn tractor right yeah $5,200 for a lawn tractor and then $10,000 for the college expenses okay well um so i guess the what do your brothers and sisters suggest you do what do they think the plan is uh they want transparency on his checking account

my brother is insisting on getting online access so he can track dad's expenses and outflows of money and my dad is is saying no my dad is very is your dad still of his right mind with the dementia he has mild dementia and is he capable of saying no legally that's a good question um we've actually got a doctor's appointment coming up and i'm going to ask the doctor you think he's clear-minded i think so okay that's what i'm asking i'm not asking about the doctor all right yeah and so um okay so here's the deal um your dad needs to handle your siblings not you right he's still clear-minded it's still his money he still gets to decide what he wants to do right it's not their problem it's not their money so he needs to call them both and tell

them to shut the hell up okay it's none of their business right Right. None of your business. Okay? He's not taking advantage of me. I gave him $15,000 for these two things. That's less than I would have paid were I in a nursing home situation, and I've got a much better living situation. I'm very happy with this arrangement, and it's not any of your dadgum business. Shut up.

That's your dad's job. He needs to make those two phone calls. And no, I'm not giving you transparency to my stuff has he given you power of attorney uh he doesn't has not given me power of attorney but i am a co-account holder with honest checking account yeah well you need to get power of attorney just for his sake to take care of him because your brother's an idiot. Okay. He's a bitter. I mean, it's not like he had $2 million and you went and stole a million and bought a yacht.

Right. It was $15,000, which he would have spent in two months in a nursing home. Right. And he's been at your place two years. Right. And he'll be there two more years at least. Right. That's if you guys can take care of him as this gets worse.

Does he have long-term care insurance? He does not. But I'm an RN by background, and we do have engaged palliative care as well, so they can keep an eye on him that way. But, I mean, it's a blessing to have him there. We're enjoying our time with him. And it's a blessing that you can do this, except for the fact that your siblings are all torqued out about almost no money. Right. I want visibility and transparency into the $4 that he has. Oh, brother.

Let's major in minors, dude. Seriously. Tell your dad to reparent those two and tell him to run, to go away. You can't make them stop being who they are, but he can put a boundary up, and he should while he's still of right mind. Because this is not going to get better. It's going to get worse. These people are going to get madder and madder and madder because it's who they are

yuck this is the ramsey show ken coleman ramsey personality is my co-host today open phones at 888-825-5225. Recap just a second before we move on to the next caller. If you are an adult and you are of sound mind legally, meaning you are legally, medically capable of making your own decisions, you are morally, spiritually, and legally allowed to do whatever you want to do with your money you are under no obligation to share it with your ungrateful heroin addict son there's not a moral or legal obligation half that money's no half that money's not yours honey it's his money it's not yours if i decide to give you nothing that's what you get nothing nothing honey just like the cheerios right i remember that's

what you get nothing honey it's not your freaking money. You don't have rights to it because you hit the DNA lottery. It's not your money. Well, my grandfather, it's not your money. Your grandfather, he owns his money. If he decides he thinks you're a twerp and doesn't want to give it to you, it's not your money. You get nothing, honey.

Just like the Cheerios. Keep that in mind. You got no obligation, no entitlement, no claim of any kind. If someone's of their right mind. If they leave a will and cut you out out of the will it's their money ta-da so some of these people they lay claim on stuff before people are dead it's a little weird yeah we have an epidemic of deserve you know it's i deserve this i deserve that and and it's just it's a deserve epidemic that's it it's right next to the dessert epidemic

which i have fallen break well no comment next question please all right moving on hamilton new jersey natalie is on the line hi natalie how are you hi i'm good how are you better than i deserve'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Okay. So me and my husband, we were on baby step two for a while, and then we went back to baby step one. Ever since 2019, we bought a house, and then we ended up getting cars because our cars

were falling apart, and we were having a baby and all that stuff. So anyway, when we bought the house they said we needed to get a new roof within the next year or two and that was 2019 but now it's 2023 and we need a new roof and it's going to be like seven thousand dollars and we don't have anything saved for it and we're trying to figure out yeah yeah like we told you not to buy a house while you're in debt and you you did it anyway. No. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, pretty much. You did.

Me and my husband are on different. My husband doesn't have the same mindset as me. Yeah, so where's his money for the roof? He didn't have it with his mindset, does he? No. Yeah. It's not working. No.

So $7,000 roof. Is the roof leaking? It's not leaking. Good seven thousand dollar roof the roof leaking it's not leaking it looks okay so far how much debt have you got um well not including the mortgage we have like 109 000 on what and that is mostly student loans 80,000 in student loans um 20,000 between our two cars and then 5,000 in credit card and what's your household income um per month it's about like 9,000 okay so about 120,000 a year after taxes and everything taken out okay i can't help you until you guys decide you're ready to change your lives yeah i kind of think you are because i kind of hear fear in your voice i think you're scared because he's because he's continued to not change

and you all keep doing the same stupid butt stuff over and over, don't you? Yeah, and we budget every month, but it's like every month we set aside things. Yeah, it doesn't follow through. It's a wish. It's a dream. You're not really leaning in. The two of you have not sat down, taken each other's hands, and looked deeply into each other's eyes and says,

nothing happens here until we get this debt cleaned up. We're about to be on beans and rice, rice and beans, and we're going to clean up. We're going to quit buying anything until we get this debt cleaned up and we're going to live on nothing. And we're going to make every dollar scream. Every dollar is going to behave. Y'all are nowhere near that. Yeah. You wish you were, but you're not. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So what, what, what, what is going to get him moving in the right direction you have the money to clean this up once you have once you have the will yeah um i did sit down with him like actually a couple days ago and i actually finally listed out like all the debts that we had and like and we you know figured out like okay the debt if we did the debt snowball we'd be like pay it off within like five years just paying the minimums and doing the debt snowball yeah and so you would be dead you should be dead free in about two and a half years

yeah if we really if you did what i teach you to do you have the money to do it you don't have the will to do it what did he say when he saw this pile of debt and his wife terrified sitting in front of him? Yeah, it's almost like it's laughable because it's not funny, but it's like because we're just like we knew the student loan debt was bad. When you lay it out and say I can do it in two and a half years if I would commit to it like an adult and quit being a child, what's laughable? It's not laughable. It's laughable? It's not laughable. It's very doable. It's not, yeah. It's very doable.

What's holding you guys up from doing that? I don't know. Every year, every month, it's like I feel like our gift budget is crazy every month. We're like, because we have so many family and friends and weddings and baby showers. It has nothing to do with it. It has nothing to do with it there's nothing to do with it no i know yeah you know what it is the two of you are not working together you don't agree that you have to sacrifice deeply for two and a half years to clean up this mess once you agree to that the gift budget goes away we just tell people no i can't do it i'm broke i'm so broke i can't put a roof

on my own freaking house of course i'm not buying you a gift i mean it's real simple did he resist it when you laid out the the debts for him what was his reaction you didn't answer that no no he he was actually on board he said yeah like that sounds good but it's just a matter of like well now we have that but then we also have to get a matter of, like, well, now we have that, but then we also have to get a roof. So how are we going to afford? Because we can't wait three years to get a roof. You don't have to get a roof.

It's not leaking. It's just looking like it's going to leak. That's right. Yeah. The roof is not your problem. The problem is you make $9,000 a month, and you keep buying crap you can't afford, like a roof. Yeah.

You need to clean this mess up, and you'll be able to get a roof. Okay. You'll be able to get a roof. You can get a roof, but the two of you need to get on a detailed budget together and deeply sacrifice, cut everything out of your lives. No eating out, no vacations, certainly no buying anything that's not necessary to exist. Scorched earth lifestyle and nine thousand dollars

a month you can clean up a lot of debt on that kind of money you got a good income but you just misbehave with it continuously and you guys are going to have to fix that when you fix that the stuff we teach with every dollar financial peace University Total Money Makeover book, it works and you'll be able to do it. But you're still not there. That's key, folks. I hope you heard what Dave said because we as humans, we want to fit in. We want to do whatever it takes to make everybody happy and the gifts is not the reason they're in the hole they're in, but it is the reason why they haven't decided to make change yet. They're more willing to be uncomfortable and deal with financial stress and anxiety and

not be able to be able to do this, this, this, this, and this. Things that don't really matter. And that's what happens. You've got to get to a point where you go, none of this other stuff matters anymore. It still matters too much until you say, I've had it, which you've said many times on stage and in our FPU videos. But until you get there, you won't make the change. Yeah.

It's that way for everybody. It's true. I'm going to be kind of smart-aleck with her, but it's sad. It sure is. It's really sad because the stress, you can hear it in her voice. Oh. And so that goes away when you get on a detailed plan and you commit. But you have to reach the point that you don't care what other people think.

That's right. The only thing that matters is you and your husband on one page. The kids don't get a vote. Your mama don't get a vote. Nobody gets a vote. And we're cleaning up this mess. We're not buying anything else until we get this dadgum mess cleaned up. I'm tired of living with my stomach in my throat.

I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. When you reach that point, you will do what it takes to win. This is The Ramsey Show. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Thomas and Abby are with us. Hey guys how are you? Good. Hey Dave how are you? Better than we deserve. Good to have you. Where do you live? We live in Edmond Oklahoma. Oh fun. Welcome to Nashville. How much have you paid off? $208,000. Good for you and your range or how long did that take? A little over four years. Good. And your range of income during that time? We started at about $30,000, had a peak of $140,000, and then we actually are currently sitting at $90,000.

Okay. All right. Cool. Good for you. What do you all do for a living? I'm a teacher, and she actually got promoted to CFO, Chief Financial Officer, or Chief of Family Operations. Chief of Family Operations.

Oh, okay. All right. Stay-at-home mom. That's why we're back down to 90. Okay. I like it. financial officer or chief chief of family operations chief of family operations oh okay all right stay at home that's why we're back down to 90 okay i like it good for you guys so the uh 208 000 what kind of debt was this oh man that comprised of just about anything you can think of get my little notes here got uh student loans car apartment repair uh credit card and what's the last one oh our house way to go weirdos paid for house you're so weird oh what's this house worth uh we bought it for 175 and it's currently sitting at about 265 yeah paid for yes sir how old are you two i'm 32 and she's 31 you're a paid for house you're so weird none of your friends have're paid for. Yes, sir. How old are you two? I'm 32 and she's 31. 31. You're a paid for house.

You're so weird. None of your friends have a paid for house. No. Y'all are weird. I love you. You're amazing. How does that feel to be that young and not have a house payment or anything? Amazing.

It feels so good. Feels like my grass. Yeah. Take the shoes off and walk through the backyard. The grass feels different. Good for you. that's amazing so four years that's that's a that's a long haul uh was there a moment where you maybe caught a little extra momentum or you kind of went from okay we're just gazelle gazelle gazelle but now we see the finish line I'm curious what that looked like. Well, I think when both of our careers really took off as teachers, that's when we were able to really be like, okay,

we have income coming in. We can make this happen. Military disability. Yeah. He gets military disability. And so we were able to really have good paycheck coming in every month to be able to pay that off and just stick to it yeah and uh we also had a we got married uh in October and we signed our mortgage and then started in January I started looking at the like looking at the bills I was like wow we're in a lot of debt we got the house we got cars we got a credit card hanging out and I sat down with her and I made a budget out before she was really on board with it and And I said, hey, we can get the car paid off in about three months, which is about $10,000. Yeah. And I don't know, for me, I'm T-Rex arms all the time.

Like, I don't know. But we, I don't know, like three months in, we were really getting to where like, all right, we can pay this off. It was kind of unrealistic for me. But once we got to that three month mark and we were on that last car payment, I mean, that was, that was the,

okay, we can do this. Like, let's keep this going. I did not marry a crazy man. I thought for a minute I did. Yeah. That's still,

that's still, still jury's still out. But yeah. Wow. Yeah. I changed because there's something about the math that speaks to you and gives you hope yeah and no one can make your brain do that but you right and we kind of kept that momentum going too so after i sat down and she was like okay show me this budget thing show me exactly what you're doing and uh sat down we got every dollar and really mapped out everything that we're uh that I was our my

personal goal and we sat and grew as a couple made it our goals and she said she was like hey I I was like I think we can knock this out make a deal with me before we like you heard my son in the back uh before we have babies give me three years to pay off as much debt as we can and she's like all right you know baby fever to the max and uh sure enough uh about three years after that or about four years after that brought baby boy in the world and uh three months after he was born last payment on the mortgage i love it very cool well it worked out good stuff man way to go what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? Oh, man. Teamwork, honestly. I mean, sticking with each other through it, through our weak points. I mean, anytime he was weak, I'd be strong.

Anytime I was weak, he would be strong. Just reminding each other what the end goal is and that delayed gratification that, you know, this is worth it. We can make this happen. So, yeah. And for me, anytime that we were kind of feeling sorry for ourselves and we just didn't make

that extra payment that we wanted to, what we have us saying in our house is, your effort is bad and you should feel bad. Just no excuses. Yeah.

Wow, that's strong. Yeah. Look at you. Way to go, guys. What do you tell people the key to getting out is now? At the end of it, the saying, working together, all that, right? Yeah, just teamwork and making a budget. You have to stick, guys. What do you tell people the key to getting out is now? At the end of it, the saying, working together, all that, right?

Yeah, just teamwork and making a budget. You have to stick to it. You have to have that delayed gratification. If you skip out on anything, it's going to be worth nothing. So now that the house and everything is paid off, what's the first big thing you do to enjoy this? Oh, it was actually yours, too. Oh, what did we do?

Bought you a couch. Oh, yeah, we bought the couch. It's true. I mean, i really wanted a new couch and when we we moved in we had this just ratty gray couch that we got from did you keep a picture of it oh no we should have it was in bad enough shape or we decided we shouldn't sell this we should just give this away we just gave it away i didn't i regret that i didn't keep a picture of the worst hoopties we drove yeah i've got pictures of most of my cars from over the years but i didn't get a picture of the worst hoopty because i was just so ashamed and

i hated it so bad and i wish i had that picture that would be a great put up on the screen in the seminar you know it'd be great but now i don't have it oh well hey and you don't have a picture of the couch but it's gone and we're on to the next couch life is good and i got a 46 inch tv that was my little spot right in front of the couch everybody's winning i tell her i want to watch football looking like this just like it's tennis i love it yeah are you celebrating after the big win over Texas? Are you involved in that side of the rivalry? No. Look at that.

Go Pokes. Yeah. Oh, okay. I see. We're Pokes fans. But, I mean, if they're playing, if OU's playing Texas, we'll do a little boomer sooner. All right. There you go.

There you go. So fun. Well done, you guys. Well done. Congratulations. Very proud of you. And you brought your son with done you guys well done congratulations very proud of you and uh you brought your son with you what's his name his name's troy ah very fun who was your biggest cheerleader outside the two of you oh man just our village uh our family and our friends they were all rooting for you rooting for us nobody making fun of you thought you were crazy

no i mean now you got a paid for house yeah yeah they were all very excited to hear that that's what we wanted to do and once we made it happen i mean they were very proud of us so yeah very cool very cool we've got the live and give box for you that's the baby steps millionaires book the total money makeover book and a financial peace university membership enjoy some of those give some of those and that's what that box is for so thank you thank you for coming all the way to nashville you guys are heroes i'm so proud of you very well done you've changed that little man's family tree and he doesn't even know it yet your life is going to be amazing wow incredible heroes all right thomas and abby and troy oklahoma city edmond oklahoma to uh8,000 paid off house and everything in four years,

making $30,000 to $140,000 to $90,000 with a CFO. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah! Yeah! That's how it's done ladies and gentlemen Getting more and more and more of these 28 to 32 year olds with a paid for house

It's extraordinary paint the picture dave. What do you think statistically is going to happen? They stay on this we're talking millions and millions of dollars if they save the house payment from that house from 32 to 62, it's probably right around $10 million. That's phenomenal. Just the house payment. Now that's a phenomenal story. Just the house payment.

Just the house payment alone. Wow. It's mind-blowing where they're going to be. And most American young people, young couples, kids getting out of college have no idea of that stat right there. Well, that they could have that kind of money if they would put four years of, you know, four years of sacrifice. Because, you know what, the first four years of their marriage, I mean, they cleaned it up. They did.

House and everything. It's awesome. Wow. This is The Ramsey Show. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Laurie is with us.

Laurie's in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Hi, Laurie. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I just started listening about a month ago because that is super intimidating. And so a quick question. My husband is in grad school and we have quite a chunk of debt from it,

but he just accepted a job with a $30,000 sign-on bonus that we'll get next week, even though he doesn't graduate until August of 2024 and so we're not sure how we should use it and we've kind of come up with some options. The first is to pay for the next nine months of living and tuition and not take out any more loans. The second is to keep it and use it for moving help or a possible down payment for a house or three is to just pay off some of our debt now to get the interest down and then take out loans to pay for the rest of our tuition.

The first thing you've got to do to get out of debt is stop borrowing more. Okay. So option one. Okay. And so what's his graduate degree and what's he going to be doing? He's going to be a nurse anesthetist. Fantastic. Okay.

And so how much debt have you got? We have $155 right now. Okay. And that includes his student loans? That is all student loans, nothing else. Okay, good. And he's going to be making what, $250? $210 starting.

Okay, good, good. Almost like I've done this before okay and um yeah so you're you but you currently make what nothing because you're living on student loans right right i do nanny and so i bring in sixteen hundred dollars a month which just pays for like utilities and if i were if what does it cost you a month to live right now? Our rent is $1,400. So probably, I'm trying to add up, like, cell phone bills and stuff, probably around, like, $1,800 a month.

Yeah, let's call it $3,000. Okay. Okay. I want you to live on that when he's making 210 okay and you'll be debt free in a year and would renting be the best option right out of yes you do not need to buy a house you're broke okay you're in debt up to your eyeballs okay and you don't need to buy a car, and you don't need to go on vacation. You have $155,000. You make $210,000 when he passes his bars and everything in August goes to work. And the problem with people in that world is that they make good money.

He chose a fabulous career field. And they make good money, and they think that gives them permission to wait forever to deal with this i'm telling you to deal with it right now yeah okay and to that end laurie quick question is there a reason why you aren't working full-time and making more money than that i'm on a stay-at-home mom okay i just have little little kids at home with me that's all okay well i got you that's that's awesome just wanted to make sure I understood that situation because we'd love to see you make more if you could. So $40,000 a year. $3,000 a month is $36,000, okay?

$40,000 from $210,000 is $170,000 minus taxes. You can just about pay this off in a year you can come real close it probably be 14 months but you're going to live like you're living now not like you've been dreaming of living when your husband has the big time job he's a nurse anesthetist no he's a broke nurse anesthetist yeah that's what you need to think about because all the people graduating with him are getting ready to do really stupid things while they still are sitting on 200k in student loan debt okay i promise you if you go if you go with that herd you're gonna go over the cliff with that herd right yeah which is why i just started listening to you because i was like

this is super intimidating and so i didn't know how to tackle it. And so what would our monthly payment look like then to try to get that done? If you did $155,000 in 10 months, it would be $15,000 a month, right? Oh, my gosh. Okay. Just simple math. If you do it in 20 months, it's going to be $7,000 a month. You're going to do somewhere between there.

$12,000 a month is be $7,000 a month. You're going to do somewhere between there. $12,000 a month is $144 a year. Okay. And you said try to stay at $3,000 a month for living and everything? It's what you're spending now. Why do you need to go up? True, true. Matter of fact, we increased. You said $1,800.

I went to $3,000. I almost doubled your budget. That's true. I mean, it's all kinds of luxurious compared to where you are now. Because here's the thing. Once you're living on $70,000 a year, it's really hard to live on $36,000. But if you're living on $30,000 and you get to live on $36,000, you feel like you've got to raise.

Yeah, my parents always tell me, don't go backwards. Once you go forward's it's a hard step this is the that's why this is the time to do it yep because if you if you kick the can down the road you go oh we're going to go ahead and buy a house and we're going to let this student loan sit over here and act like it's not a monster in the closet by the time you do all that and then you try to cut your lifestyle down after you've gotten used to the nice cushy lifestyle it's a lot harder than it is right now for you okay because right now while you're used to living on nothing keep living like a college student right right yeah and i could do a little enough i'm telling you in 14 months

y'all could be free forever think about it laurie i mean you got the rest of your life to make 250 000 a year and you don't have a payment in the world. You know how fast? I mean, think about it. You could save $100,000 a year for three years and pay cash for a $300,000 house. That's wild. When we talked about putting a little aside for a down payment, ignore that completely and just do student debt? Yes. Ignore it completely.

You're going to get there. My point is, when you have all this money and no payments in the world, you can do anything you want to do. You're going to get there. My point is, when you have all this money and no payments in the world, you can do anything you want to do. You're going to be in great shape. Please do this. Please, please, please. Will is in Tampa. Hi, Will.

How are you? Hey, Dave. How are you doing? I'm good. Thank you for taking my call today. Sure. What's up? So I've done a lot of stupid things with money for the past probably five, eight years or more. I finally got ahead and I've been listening to your podcast.

I'm in the FBU as well for the past month. So me and my wife, we did week one and week two. too um and one of my biggest worries right now is to you know create a nice uh fun fun for uh college for my kids i have a kid that's 12 and another one that's nine and cool kind of worry about you know how can i create that fun while you know paying for debt and all that you can't you're going to do it in baby steps, remember? You remember the baby steps? Yeah, but the thing is, my wife kind of doesn't trust me. The baby steps.

You can't ask me how to take care of college. Get out of debt first. Follow the baby steps. You're in Financial Peace University, for God's sakes. Yeah, but my daughter is 12. I mean, I probably have about what? You probably think it's gonna take eight years to do this i don't know the way that i'm going well the way you're going that's why you're an fpu so what do you make uh i make about 95 a year and with bonuses it can get up to 130

cool you got a great income what's your How much debt have you got, not counting your house? Not counting my house, I have $43,000 in my student loan, $16,000 in my wife's, and $29,000 in her car. Okay. She's going to hate this even more. I know she does. We've been coming back and forth about the car i want to sell it yeah i want to 30 000 car and y'all are broke people it does so is she going to financial peace university with you

she is are the two of you doing a budget together we are okay we are the question you guys need to sit down ask yourself is not do i want pain Are the two of you doing a budget together? We are. The question you guys need to sit down and ask yourself is not, do I want pain tomorrow? The question is, do I want pain 10 years from now? How long have you all been married? It's going to be 15 years next year. How long have you been making six figures?

About since 2016 can you not look at each other and say it's time for a change you make a hundred thousand dollars a year and you're broke for almost a decade y'all need to change something don't you yeah how biggest problem was that i know the problem is the two of you have got to look at each other and say it's time for a change and that means we're going to do whatever it takes so that the 10 year from now version of me likes the current version of me because you don't like the 2016 version of you because he's been stupid for eight years and i've been stupid i know what stupid looks like i'm not picking on you but you guys are y'all are broke and you make $130,000 a year. It's time to change something, man.

You can't keep doing the same thing over and over and expect a different result. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Ken. 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. Go to Ramamsesolutions.com today to sign up for our newsletter. Again, that's ramsesolutions.com to sign up for our weekly newsletter.