The Ramsey Show - App - One Year Of Sacrifice Changes Everything (Hour 2)

Episode Date: October 9, 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. Thank you for joining us, America. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. Jade Walshaw, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today.

Thank you for joining us again. 888-825-5225. Mark starts off this hour in Springfield, Missouri. Hey, Mark, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. I got a question. I know how the baby steps work, but I've got a little bit of a quandary as to where I need to put my wife's student loans in this because she is still in school and not having to pay on them. So do I

put them in because she's got 12 loans? Do I put them in where they go and slow my snowball down or do I put them at the end and continue my snowball until I get to them I'd put them in where they go she's got 12 of them so I'd list I'd I'd put those in smallest to largest along with your other debts and you might have one student loan and then a credit card and then a student loan and then a car payment and then you know it doesn't all have to be by group. And I think sometimes in our minds we want it to be that way, but that's okay. Just put them in as they go smallest to largest. How much student loan debt is there?

It's $58,000. And how much other debt is there? There's two cars. One is $9,000 and one is $13,000. And the student loans, only one of them is more than the first car. So I'm going to be paying, we're going to be doing like... 11 student loans and then a car. Yeah, it's $46,000 that I'm not going to be building.

What's your household income? Yeah, you won't be building any snowballing because you don't have any payments on those to cancel out. I got you. Yes. That's a good point. So what's your income? The household income is $170,000.

And when does she graduate? She'll graduate. She's doing part-time schooling, so she's got, I think six semesters left and we can have both of the cars paid off before that are they are they subsidized or are they unsubsidized she's got two that are getting taxes they're not taxes uh interest yeah and the rest of them aren't. Say 58 and 46, right? You said 58,000 in student loan debt and how much other? Yeah, and then 9,000 on one car and 13 on another.

Oh, okay. So 31 and 58, right? So 89,000. It's less than that. No, we're at 80,000. We're right at 80,000. no we're at 80 000 we're right at 80 000 yeah okay all right 79 000 i added it wrong okay um and you make 170 000 yes okay explain to me why you can't pay all this in a year because we have eight kids wow they don't eat that much you can raise eight kids on 100 grand well we the eight kids are all teenagers you can raise eight kids on a hundred grand man there's sports there's food there's all that stuff it's just it's a year of sacrifice yeah um because it 170 minus 79 is one year you're debt free i mean if you can't do it in a year you

have to do it in 14 months uh i think you're looking you know when you said she's going to be six semesters and you're just going to barely have two cars paid off you're not making any progress at all no we'll we'll have we'll have the two cars paid off by august of next year yeah you ought to have you ought to be done by august next year the whole stinking thing are close so are you paying cash for her college as she goes yes we we have stopped with the student loans we are paying cash for everything now. Good. And what is she studying? She's getting her master's in business. Like, it's not the MBA, but it's a business.

Okay. And her intention is to do what with her career with eight kids? To help me run my business. I see. Okay. While you have eight kids? that are teenagers okay yes all right yeah good well you're doing well with your business sir is the 170 000 taxable net profit on your business or is that your gross revenues the the hundred a hundred of it is from my business

that's the uh the profit taxes and everything no that's before taxes and everything before before expenses yes what do you take home from the business as payment um well i've been taking home uh just eight hundred dollars a week now what are you paying taxes on on the hundred thousand dollars of revenue that this business creates you do not have a household income of $170,000. That's why you couldn't see doing this, because you don't have a net profit of $100,000 on the business. That's your gross revenues.

Okay, yeah. I'm not sure what it will be this year, because I didn't make this much last year. What did you make last year? Last year, I only made $50,000. Gross. Gross, yes. Did you net anything on that? Not much.

We still, with the money that she paid in for her taxes, we still got a tax return. And we have fixed that. I know that you don't like to hear tax returns, so we have fixed that. Honey, I'm still trying to figure out if your business is making a profit. Do you know what a profit is? Yes, I know what a profit is. It's your taxable income on the business. Yes. On $50,000

did you have to pay any taxes? No. Then you lost money on the $50,000 worth of revenue. With what my wife paid in on her check. Your wife's check's got nothing to do with your business's profitability. You need to hire someone to run your books. Yeah, you need to sit down with a bookkeeper and learn how to do a set of books. That's the next hire you need to make. You don't even have any idea if you're making a profit.

Because a profit is your gross revenues minus the expenses associated with the business. Equals profit. And I'm not sure you made a profit on 50 grand, so I'm not sure you're making a profit on 100 grand. Thus, I think you're trying to raise kids on 70 grand actual revenue, which is your actual other income, not business-related income. And, yeah, you're not going to pay it off in a year doing that. So we need to figure out whether this calculation is right to tell you if my advice was bogus but i had bad information from you

even still they're still gonna have to walk through a debt snowball and if the business is not making money they're gonna have to find more money coming in yeah in order to make this happen fast with eight kids you need to quit running getting a master's degree to run a business that isn't profitable making money yeah not making money, yeah. Might be an idea. Because that's losing money at that point. Yeah, it's already losing money, probably. I can't tell. I can't tell because he doesn't know. But anyway, yeah, get to the bottom of it.

Let's figure out if you're making a profit or not and if you're expanding that. Because you definitely increased your revenues, but I'm not sure you increased your profits. Because if you lose 25 cents a watermelon, you don't just get a bigger truck. That's not how this works so um all right uh then based on all of that what would i do yeah i might pay off the car first and let the student loan set to the side for a minute at least get rid of one of the dadgum payments out of your tight budget but i can't tell what your budget is so it's really hard to tell you if it's worth doing that. If you truly made a profit of $100,000, which I think we've established you didn't, then you had $170,000 actual household income,

then I would go back to my original thing and say, shut up and pay off the loans in a year or 14 months if $79,000 should go away. But I don't think that's the numbers. So I think it changed in the middle of the conversation. It did. This is The Ramsey Show. Jade Walsh, all Ramsey personality. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

Jade is my co-host today. By the way, folks, I do a show called the Entree Leadership Podcast, where I take calls on small business, and we talk about the five stages of business and what it takes to level up in those five stages, the six drivers that do that. We've got a whole system for teaching small businesses to grow and run. It's the playbook. The book Entree Leadership is our number one bestseller. It's the playbook that we've used to run ramsey and we've grown it in 30 years from a card table in my living room to about a 300 million dollar company so we'll walk you through this stuff and when you're at that beginning stage

is it called a treadmill operator when it's just you and all the revenue and all the production counts on you you kind of just own your job at that point when you're a small business person and you're doing all the work and the revenue comes in because of you, the production comes in because of you, all that kind of stuff. It's a one or two, maybe a three-man lady show, whatever there. That's the normal way everyone starts, but those are the stages that you have to get things in place, like a good set of accounting

books a good set of books uh to where you know what's happening with your money if you do not make the money behave and those of you in the construction world the remodeling world you do job costing and you know which each job is profitable so you learn to do your estimating properly you you know you set up you know can i afford to hire someone well you have to can i afford to buy a piece of equipment or can i afford to rent another space uh you have to be able to take look at your numbers and see if you have a profit to be able to do that because a business that doesn't make a profit is called a hobby it's kind of a harsh hobby actually because you're delusional and i've done it accidentally a time or two.

Do you run a not-for-profit? Not intentionally, but there's a time or two that I almost have, yeah. So if you want to learn more, Entree Leadership is one of the top business and leadership podcasts out there. You can join me. I do it once a week, and it's on the Ramsey Networks, and we would love to have you join us. And check out the whole Entree Leadership brand. We've got events you can come to. We've got a whole subscription process where we coach you called Elite, and so all of that falls into that bucket for our last caller. Jeff is in Cleveland, Ohio. Hi, Jeff. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hello. Thank you very much for taking my call. I really appreciate it.

Sure. What's up? I'm 52 years old. My wife is 51. And a couple years ago, she was diagnosed with a form of dementia. So we are navigating that. As far as our financials go, we have a will, a financial power of attorney, health care power of attorney health care power attorney

a living will in place good um she's no longer on the deed of the house but she has lifetime access to the residence through the will um she has no property or any bank accounts in her name at all we have our six month emergency fund why did you take everything out of her name? That's what the attorney had said. For what? Because she might misuse them if her dementia is advanced? It might be for

Medicare or Medicaid. I'm not sure. Medicaid is for poor people. That's welfare. Yeah. No, that won't work. Okay. Okay, and so you were doing real good. You got all the documentation in place.

And how much do you have in investments? As far as our Roth, we have 340. And as far as my workplace 401K, I have 95,000. Within the last couple months, probably maybe three months, uh, I stopped contributing to my 401k and my Roth so I could pile up money. And a couple of weeks ago I paid off my house. Good for you. So we're, so we're on step seven. Um, which kind of brings me to my question. Um, with Ohio and Medicaid, uh, the spouse can have up to $140,000 in assets, except if you put the Roth IRAs in payout status, in an RMD payout status, those are

not counted as assets. So one thing... so hey hey hey listen yeah um you're trying to figure out a way to put your wife you didn't mean to but you're trying to figure out a way to put your wife in a welfare nursing home oh medicaid medicaid is medicaid is welfare you don't want to do that it's for poor people and you don't need to do that okay and's for poor people. And you don't need to do that. Okay. And the guidelines are there to keep it from people that are only poor people putting people in those nursing homes. Okay. Okay. And you're not poor people. You can take care of your wife, man.

I'm so sorry you're facing this, but you've done a great job with money, and you're in a position to love your wife well. Yeah. Yeah. Just want to get everything that I can out of the way. Yeah, I know, but the goal is to take care of her. The goal is not to put her in a Medicaid nursing home. Right, right. Let's change the goal.

And you evidently make good money. What do you make? I make about $73 a year. You've done a really good job on $73, dude. Is she still working? Oh, no. She's on Medicare. She's Is she still working? Oh, no. She's on Medicare. She's not able to work or drive, no.

So it's advancing then? Yeah. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry, man. That's tough. So where are we today? Does she know everyone still, or how far progressed? We have appointments every six months.

Last appointment, you know, the doctor was able to notice some decline. She'll go through some more testing in another six months. But she is able, you know, she is at home. She knows you? Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay. But you're noticing deterioration. You know, it varies. Some days are better than others. Yeah, always, yeah.'re noticing deterioration. You know, it varies.

Some days are better than others. Yeah, always, yeah. Yeah. All right. Okay, you're right to do what you've done. Every single thing you've done, I agree with. I think you've done a wonderful job, sir. You're a good man.

Okay. And I would agree with your last part of your financial moves to pile up cash and pile up cash and pile up cash and the next stage that is fairly inexpensive compared to nursing home is in-home care yeah okay and so if you can pile up another hundred grand before you need in-home care you probably have that earmarked then to take care of her to pay for a nurse or help of some kind, of some level of professional to come in and help you. And there may be a few days at the end of life that she will have to have care that is beyond in-home. But maybe not.

Maybe not. I can tell you this, okay? Sharon and I have got, we're multimillionaires, and so I'm 63. I do not have nursing home insurance. I'm a multimillionaire. I will be at home. I can afford full-time care for my wife if something happens to her, and you can too because you've done such

a good job um but you're catching it way earlier but i mean by the time if something happens to sharon and she's at home i can provide all the services of a nursing home privately with a private freaking butler okay yeah and it's still less expensive than a nursing home but i've just got that option and you've just about got yourself in that position you know in a very heartbreaking situation you have been very um intentional and wise i'm so proud of you well thank you i've just followed your principles well you you you've had a you had an extra um grenade thrown in the middle of it and so uh and it throws you off kilter but you know only if you are completely broke it listen if you go visit a medicaid nursing home

and you go visit a private care nursing home that you pay for you'll see what i'm talking about okay there there are a few of them that are excellent, but it's government housing versus private residence. Okay. I mean, it's welfare. It's what it's for. It's okay. I'm not mad. I'm not talking down my nose at somebody or something like that.

But if you've got the means, your job is not to try to dodge using your money. Your job is to use your money because that's what it's for. It's to take care of her. Yeah. I think he's done a great job. It was such a difficult situation. They're so young. Early 50s. That's tough. And early onset has a long lifespan. It does. Potentially. So this could be a decade. But thankfully he did set himself up. Pa could be a decade. Yeah. But thankfully, he did set himself up, paid for a mortgage.

Man. He's been investing. He couldn't have done any better. Very wise. Very wise. Heartbreaking. This is The Ramsey Show. Jade Walsh, all Ramsey personality, is my co-host today in the lobby of ramsey solutions you can

drop in and have free homemade chocolate chip cookies and coffee anytime you want we do this show from one to four central time monday through friday it's completely free to come in and watch ugly paint dry on the wall no we're here it's fine it's fine we're very entertaining so you don't want to miss it there's always 50 to 200 folks sitting out here. There's a museum or whatever you call it, a timeline of everything that's happened around here. It's fun to visit the lobby and have an experience as a part of your Nashville visit. We'd love to have you in the lobby. Also, there's a stage right in front of our windows.

We call it the debt-free stage. On it is David and Lisa. Hey, guys. How are you? Good. How are you? Better than I deserve. Welcome. Where do you live? We live in the Austin area, a little town called Liberty Hill. Oh yeah,

fun. Welcome to Nashville. Good to have you guys. So how much debt have you paid off? Paid off almost $300,000 or right at $300,000. Wow, good for you. And how long did that take? Real slow, five years ago. Took about five years to get rid of it and your range of income during that time uh we started at 125 000 and we ended last year at 360 what do y'all do for a living uh my wife is retired now those are the agreement of paying off the house but um i do say i'm percent commissioned salesperson in the hvac industry okay commercial hvac oh yeah way to go man amazing so your house is gone and paid off house is gone and paid off looking at weird people wow what's the house worth um 500

nice how much is in your investments uh the last year has hurt us a little bit, but right around $400. So you're right at a million. Yeah, we're right there. Way to go. Baby steps, millionaires, paid for house. How old are you? I'm 41. And I'm 42.

All right. Amazing. That feels good. Yeah. How does it feel to not have a payment in the world? It's amazing. It's nice. It definitely feels special.

So we feel like we've been blessed and we don't feel like we deserve what we have well you do deserve it but we're better than we deserve yeah there we go wow so is it only the house or was there other debt included in the 300,000 we had 242,000 on the house and then we had about 50,000 in cars and then we had the rest was credit cards so we did the credit card we did the snowball got credit cards first and then we had about $50,000 in cars. And then the rest was credit cards. So we did the credit card. We did the snowball. Got credit cards first. And then we actually traded some cars.

We did some things to get rid of that debt. And then we just worked on the house. We actually paid $192,000 in the last 16 months. Wow. You've been making serious money. Lisa, what did you do before you retired? I've worked as a receptionist. I worked as a school as a paraprofessional for five years.

Okay. And you said, I'm in, but when we're done, I'm done. Yes. I'm not mad at that. I like it. Yeah. I want to focus on our daughter, Claire, who's here with us today. It gives you a reason to push forward like that.

That's excellent. Now you're just an old retired person at 42 had your reward at the end i love that yeah so what else are you planning to do i mean you've got you don't have a payment in the world is there a trip is there something fun that you're going to do to celebrate this is kind of our trip we kind of no you gotta do better than that we got we got it all cool but you gotta do better well we came in saturday to do this and then we're gonna go to nashville till next weekend this was kind of our whole like we wanted to do

this i've been a couple of times on business but they've never been so it's something that we want to do together oh we love the area so we're gonna we're gonna head into nashville tonight and stay till saturday yep oh good that's fun yeah you'll have a blast you'll have a blast thank you guys no we appreciate you. I mean, like I said, one of the things that we find interesting is I have a degree in history, and I fell into HVAC and just never got out. And we feel like God has a plan for us because we should never have done what we've done. Not with I wanted to be a teacher.

I never got to do it. So I fell into HVAC sales and never got out. But it doesn't always work out the way we plan. So how did you originally get connected with us in this process? I've done FPU through church a few times. And we taught it once at our house during COVID and everything. And we saw you when you came to Austin a couple years ago. Yeah, you've come to Austin a couple times. Actually, I have a constant reminder of a key chain with your...

Yeah. Live like no one else. Yeah, live like no one else. So we have a constant reminder. But it's something that we've supported and we love. And we have family that my dad, we grew, we grew up like in debt all the time. And my dad's running the program now. We're running the program.

My brother just sold some houses to pay off his debt and stuff. So we've got the family is in a better place because, you know, we're all following, you know. Changing your family tree. Absolutely. All the limbs. That's what we're trying to do. Lead by example right yeah well done very well done what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is i mean you're

debt free in your 40s house and everything baby steps millionaires pretty impressive just commitment being on the same page you know we've sacrificed a lot and said no to a lot of things what was the deepest cut on the sacrifice the thing you remember that was the biggest ouchie? I mean, probably vacations. And family stuff. We used to do a lot of barbecues in the summer times and during football season where we'd have people and we kind of just cut it all off because it got real expensive. Oh yeah. Doing it every weekend, it starts adding up real fast. So we made a lot of sacrifices where we were those crazy people where we just weren't doing a lot of fun. And we were trying to do little day trips here and there

instead of like big vacations. And we've become professionals at having breakfast for dinner at least twice a week. And we've continued that. I was going to say breakfast for dinner. Is that really a sacrifice? Because that's legitimate. It's a sacrifice for them.

But now all that stops no we well no i mean i mean if you want to do it you can do it but the breakfast on your i mean it says on your keychain live like no one else so later you can live like no one else and give like no one else and we and we plan to enjoy this now yeah and we plan to and it's it's just something that's hard to break when you've been doing it for five years. I know, but it's football season, dude. Get the barbecue going. Get the barbecue going, man. Get it back going again. It's time.

You did a good job. You've won. You sacrificed to win. Now enjoy the winnings. That's right. Well done. Proud of you guys. Very good.

What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? You told me that, right? You said commitment and sacrifice, but I didn't let David answer. Yeah. So the hardest thing for me is finding contentment. I know Rachel talks about it all the time, and my wife tells me all the time. It's just finding, we've worked together really well, but the budget is the biggest thing. You always say to let the other person, you know, I'm the one that controls the budget,

but I've always given her, you know, she's always looked it over and made some change. I forced her to make a change every single time so that she was committed to the process. But working together through the whole thing, I mean, I couldn't have done it without them. I mean, the process of, you know, I kind of bribed her a little bit with the retirement thing. As soon as we get it done, you can retire.

But in reality- I think she just gave you her terms. Yes. I don't think you bribed her at all. You this is this is what it takes to get me yeah this is what it takes to get where we want to be so good we're excited about it good terms of surrender well done very well done all right you guys excellent job hey we've got the live and give box for you uh baby steps millionaires you've made it there or almost so close we're calling it and depending on what the market goes up today or tomorrow there you go and a total money makeover book to give away to someone and a financial peace university membership to give away while you're continuing to lead classes thank you for leading the classes it makes a big

difference people go to those classes as you know their life gets changed and uh you guys it's because of people like you coordinating so thank you for being a coordinator we really really appreciate it and you're a perfect example too i know right we appreciate everything you do yes well god bless y'all all right david and lisa and claire austin texas area 300 000 paid off house and everything weird people baby steps millionaires did it in five years making 125 up to now 360 count it down let's hear a debt-free scream three two one we're debt-free i love it yes man oh man oh man hey those two leaned in they sure did pretty incredible the whole family that's that's that's well done well played this is the ramsey show jade washall ramsey personality is my co-host today podcast reviews five stars the jada rant

on the student loans was powerful she really painted the depth of the problem and the hurt that can come from them the best rant i've heard in months it should be required listening every semester of high school and college way to to go, Jade. A Jade rant. A Jade rant. There you go. Have you previously named that? I think they got it from the Dave rant. I think it's a subsidiary.

Okay. Wholly owned subsidiary. Okay. I drive every morning as an Uber Lyft driver in New York City. I listen to the podcast with my passengers. Some don't pay any attention, but those that do listen, ask, and become interested. I share my experience and my baby steps that I'm at, and I really enjoy getting compliments from the other Ramsey followers. Wow. They get into the Uber. Yeah. Glad I'm not the only listener in New York City. Well, I'm-

I love that. I'm glad you're not too, but I'm glad both of you found each other. No, I'm kidding. Dave, that's how I found you is somebody had you on the car radio. No way. My brother had you on the car radio. Well, there you go. Forced listening. There you go.

Laura's in Sarasota. Hi, Laura. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than we deserve. What's up? So I have a question.

We're paying off the last of our debt i have about 66 000 on my car i just want to know do you think i should be able to get my nails done while i do that i am unqualified to answer this question as i am to answer can i get my hair done when you uh do this so however jade is sitting next to me with fluorescent nails. She is qualified. So what Sam and I did when we were paying off our debt is we kind of, I did not get my nails done. And every so often I was able to get my hair done. So it was a trade-off because it can get expensive if you're going every two weeks and you're doing the hair thing and you're doing, I don't know, you're getting your eyebrows, you know, whatever done. It gets expensive. Another thing I'm inexperienced at.

Dave, you don't do, you don't wax your eyebrows. There's just a whole bunch of these things I don't know anything about. So the point is it's a lot of grooming. It can get expensive. Some of it, it's like, yeah, you need somebody to cut your hair every now and then, or you need, you know, whatever that is. But nails truly is one of those things that it is a luxury to get your nails done laura it's about fifty dollars each time so and how often how often would this come up every two weeks yeah it was right on the hammer yep okay all right and so i i you know i grew up redneck hillbilly, so I don't know anything about this, but when I was growing up, people did their own nails.

Is that a possibility? See, I worked in the professional industry, and I have really brittle nails, and so when I don't have them done, they look gross and disgusting. I wasn't going to say gross and disgusting. I mean, like, I mean, my little sister and, like, they would paint stuff on there do y'all still do that i mean do humans do that do them themselves ever no everybody all the women are shaking their head you can paint like i'm from another planet you can paint them but she wants an application that's going to make them hard so that they don't break and i will say um laura you can you can buy the

dip powder and you can do those yourself. And it is a lot less expensive. I don't do it, but I have friends that do it. And that might be. Did you do it when you weren't getting your nails done? No, because I. But yours weren't brittle. No, they weren't brittle.

See, I'm learning so much today. You can even buy the jar of like the hard gel that you can polish on. And so that'll save your nails without you having to get them done where's rachel cruz when i need i feel your pain that look i feel her pain is that's a sacrifice but it's only temporary what's your household income we make about 200,000 and the 66,000 on the car is the only thing we have left. Whose car is it? We bought it at the interview. It's mine. Sell the car. Yeah, we are. So we are. That's our plan. We're going to sell the car. Good. Obviously, we're upside down on it. So we're going to take our three to six months and pay off

the difference. And then I'll get like a $20,000 car and we'll pay that off in about three to four months. And then we'll pay the house off. Wait a minute. How much do you have in savings? We have about $15,000 in savings. And that pays off the difference when you sell the car. But then you were going to go finance a $20,000 car? Yes. No, I don't think I would do that. Wow. Hmm. Okay, so here's the thing. I mean, we had a lot of fun with your nail question,

and it's fine to talk about $100 here. You make $200,000 a year, and you've got other problems than $100. So how deeply do you – I mean mean it feels like he cut your nails and cut your nail budget back and he's still buying like tools and stuff at home depot or something i don't know where in the flip is 200 000 going then we can't pay 66 off minus 15 which is 51 in about four or five months why don't you pay this car off our our house payment is about 3100 a month because we bought at the height still that should be fine everything okay so you have a 36 000 a year going out on a house payment you make 200 um yeah i guess that's a good question maybe we need to sit down. Do you do a budget? We are going to start doing a budget. Okay.

You don't cut your nails out until you guys get the rest of this fixed. Yeah. When you sit down and do a budget, that's going to reveal. The budget is like blood work. It reveals everything going on, where the money's going, where the problem is. And so when you sit down and do that, you're going to realize, oh, I've got bigger fish. Yeah. Nails, if you want to cut that that's fine but you're going to see all the little things that's making this difficult here's the thing if you guys have gone through your budget together

with a fine tooth comb and you've slam dunked your two hundred thousand dollar income towards fifty one thousand because you got fifteen thousand in the bank to throw at this. I think you're going to find a lot more opportunities to get your goals hit very quickly than your nails. And the fact that your nails were set over to the side is the issue while you guys still haven't done the budget. It kind of makes me want to fuss at him because you guys got to get in there together. And he's got to cut. I'm just telling you, there's some crap he's doing that's more than those stupid nails. When you get in the budget, you're going to find it. Yeah.

There's something that he's got that's his little pet thing. And he didn't want to give up the gym membership while he's making you cut out the nails, all that. I only know this because I'm the guy that did that kind of stuff so um but yeah i think when you both have a very clear printout of what's going on like jade said the blood work is done though you get your every dollar budget both of you're looking at it both of you say we're willing to cut deeply and then we're not going to cut out a hundred dollars a month for this or we are going to cut out a $100 a month because it's only for five months. I'll do them myself for five months, but you're giving that over there up, and we're not going out to eat, and we're not going on vacation,

and we're not doing this, and we're not doing that, and we're not doing this if I'm giving up the nails. That's a fair statement. Are you guys putting a lot into retirement? Yeah, so we actually did complete the financial peace university uh during the covert time and we paid off all of our debt and then we made a stupid decision we bought a stupid car and then we bought another stupid car and we don't have peace anymore so we're getting back into fcu and you've still got your retirement coming out. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And my guess is it's quite a bit. It's not just $15, is it?

It's not $50. No, it's more than that. I rest my case. There you go. Okay. Get back on the detailed Scorched Earth Baby Step 2 budget, the two of you together. Stop your retirement. Use all non-retirement funding to clear this car up.

You're right. It was a stupid decision. Yes, you fell off the wagon. Yes, you're getting back on the wagon. But that's not – we don't go straight to the you can't get your nails done while I put 15% into retirement. That's right. Thank you.

Hello. He's not following our system, okay? We're telling you to stop everything and get this done. And then I may cut the nails too – not cut the nails. Cut the nail – Expenditure. Treatment out. Whatever the flip you call it. And then I may cut the nails too, not cut the nails, cut the nail treatment out, whatever the flip you call it. Anyway, but that's more symbolic with your income that you've gotten everything else

going than it is actual. Yeah. Does that make sense? And sometimes because you're changing behavior, symbolic things, symbolic sacrifices are valuable. Okay. behavior symbolic things symbolic sacrifices are valuable okay i remember i had an old boy from the country at financial peace university one time he came in big old guy and his wife was sitting in a small group crying and she said i love my husband so much he just sold his knife collection and it was like his prize thing yeah it meant a lot but he said my wife and my kids future means more than those knives.

So he said $1,100. It didn't really matter because they had $60,000 in debt, but it was symbolic. I'm on board. That he's putting the family before me. Woo! This is The Ramsey Show. Dave here. You can find all of our shows with the Ramsey Network app on your smartphone. It's the only place to listen to the entire back catalog of episodes.

Download the Ramsey Network app in your favorite app store today. Music