The Ramsey Show - App - Picking Up the Pieces After a Tragedy (Hour 3)

Episode Date: January 19, 2022

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us, America. Dr. John Deloney, best- for joining us, America. Dr. John Deloney, bestselling author and host of the Dr. John Deloney Show. Ramsey Personality is my co-host today as we answer your questions about your life, your money, your relationships, and your work. We're here for all of that on the Ramsey Show. Roy is with us in Morristown, New Jersey, to start the hour off. Hey, Roy, what's up?

Hey, Dave. Thank you so much for taking my call. So I am in a bit of a pickle. I am a 43-year-old immigrant. I don't have a college education. I just graduated high school. I was on my own for the longest time, self-employed. And November of 2019, I lost my business. Then the pandemic hit.

Then I divorced it. And I find myself today $444,000 in debt without any income. And with credit card debt, IRS debt, child support debt, all incurring fees and interest, I'm just not sure where to start this part Wow I'm sorry man you've been through hell yeah yeah you're in it right now aren't you where'd you I sure am where'd you immigrate from? Israel. Where?

Israel. Israel. Okay. Yes. Okay. What kind of a business did you have? I owned a small business where I would buy the secondhand phones, iPhones, from a company called Brightstar that did Apple's logistics. I would bring them into my office.

I would separate them, test them, and then refurbish them and resell them. And why did that not work? Oh, it worked great for about eight years, and then I got an email from my vendor from ByStar saying that they're going to stop selling the product because they signed an exclusive contract with one of my competitors. So you had only one customer? One vendor, correct, yeah, which was the most reliable because it was basically everything that was returned to the Apple store

or the online store would go to Brightspot. They would do the logistics. So it was the only dependable vendor in my market, yes. How did you come upon that opportunity? So I've been in the cell phone business for about 15 years, and, you know, through a lot of research and just trade shows, networking, I found Brightstar. Okay.

All right. Well, and it worked for a while.'s interesting yeah eight years did very well so what kind of debt is the 444 so we're looking at uh 70 000 in credit card debt we're looking at 60 000 irs so the irs basically it's capital gains tax. I started investing in 2013, and because I lost my job in 2019, I sold half of my portfolio in late 2019. So what is the other $200,000 or $300,000? Okay, so we have small business loans from the SBA. How much? For $128,000. Okay. And then I have a current support order

from the judge due to my divorce at $7,500 a month, and he did that retroactively as of like six months before and putting me $70,000 in debt from day one. That's back child support. Correct. Well, I wasn't really back child.

I mean, he made it retroactive, yes. Like, I wasn't ordered to pay one he made it retroactive yes like yeah i wasn't i wasn't ordered to pay one but he did order me to pay one he said okay we're going back seven months so you got a dollar amount and not a percentage i got a dollar correct okay but you have no job no income right now correct i've been trying, applying left and right. My issue is, one of my issues is that at $7,500 a month, just for support, I need to find a job that pays me over $120,000 a year with no college education. That's a very tough ask.

No, what you need is a lawyer. Yeah. Because most child support is based on your income, not a fixed amount, and you need to go back before the judge and say, this is what I'm making, nothing. And when I do get a job, Your Honor, I'll come back in and we'll set the percentage by law because every state does this by percentages. Was there something – did you do something? That's a stout amount, or were you making just – He was making bank.

A ton of money before you lost your business? No. No. So basically what the judge went off was, my wife's attorney was very savvy in convincing the judge that the capital gains tax that I was taxed in 2019 was $250,000. And the same thing for 2020 was $250,000. So she convinced the judge that somehow I was making a quarter million dollars a year. I'm not sure how the judge didn't know the difference between capital gains and earned income, but that's pretty much what he went off. Yeah. Your attorney sucked, and you do need a new one,

and you do need to go back in there and reset this because it's not tenable. You have to. You can't not. Number one, it doesn't work. You can't pay it. You don't have any money. And number two, you can't set your career up based on your child support you set your child support up based on your career and so that is not your income and so you've got to get that that that's a side issue the rest of this stuff still sitting there

um and you do need to go make some money. Your best shot, though, at making money is not going and getting a job. It's finding the next opportunity because you have an eye for things. You have an eye for business. You have an entrepreneurial ability. The only thing you screwed up in your business model was you depended on one singular customer, one singular vendor for everything, and that gave them the power to put you out of business. That's a lack of diversification. you don't want to do that you need to build a business model out that has many many vendors and many many customers and that way if one of them goes sideways it doesn't shut you

down it it just is an ouchie and so um that's going to be your play i mean you before you start talking about how you're going to pay off debt uh we have to talk about how we get income. And so you can go get a job if you want to, that's fine. And then you go get before the judge again, or a different judge and with a different attorney and get these numbers reset to a reasonable amount. I'm not about people not paying child support, you need to pay child support. But you also need to pay the amount that is a percentage of your income, not some mythical number. And this is pretty bizarre. And also, it feels like you made one mistake back in 2019, and then you borrowed some money to try to cover that mistake, and then you borrowed some more money to cover those mistakes.

And so, man, we've got to get to where we, if we have one, we fall down, we dust ourselves off, and we keep on a path moving forward. We don't just keep piling in on these mistakes, man. And the next time you start your business idea, you start it with cash and you run it with cash, not with debt. That's right. Because some of your credit card debt and your SBA loan had to do with your startup, and some of it had to do with trying to hang on after you crashed. And so, to John's point, so you've got to say,

I'm swearing off of debt for startup and I'm swearing off of debt for startup, and I'm swearing off of debt for survival. So as a guy, you've been through it. What's the point when you look in the mirror and say, is bankruptcy right for me? When do you get, what's, when you don't have any other way to do it. Okay. And there's, you know, it doesn't fix his situation because the day, if he had zero debt, he still has zero income. Right. And you have to have an income. Got to have a job.

So we got to go, we got to fix that. And the child support's not bankruptable and neither is the IRS. So the only thing he'll be bankrupting on is $70,000 worth of credit card debt. Oh, the SBA is bankrupt. But no. Ugh. Wow. Sorry, brother. For a lot of you, last year was another year of just trying to survive.

But you don't have to live like that. You can have confidence in your money and your future. So if you're tired of being stressed out all the time, you can decide to make a change. You can follow a plan that works. For almost 30 years, Financial Peace University has helped millions of people take control of their money. You'll learn our proven plan to save money, pay off debt, build wealth, and give generously. Watch FPU on demand or get plugged into a class for encouragement and support from other people. You don't have to face another year of stress and worry. You can have confidence in your money.

FPU is only available with a Ramsey Plus membership. Start for free by visiting RamseySolutions.com slash FPU. That's RamseySolutions.com slash FPU. Thanks for joining us, America. It's a free call. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Thanks for joining us, America. It's a free call. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Tanya is with us. Tanya is in Cincinnati.

Hi, Tanya. How are you? Fine. How are you, Dave? How are y'all? Hey, what's up? Nothing. I was calling because my husband died in November. And before he had died, shortly before he had died,

we had been listening to you guys for a long time, but shortly before he had died, we had saved up our thousand and was starting to pay on our... But when he died, I had to move in with my brother. So I'm wondering, um, should I be saving to get my own place right now or should I continue paying on our debts that we had? My goodness. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.

What happened? What happened to him um he was fighting a drug addiction with cocaine and um we had when he would want to go run off and get high he would get violent with me so we got into a fight and then he left and um got a hold of some drugs that have fentanyl in it and overdosed. I'm so sorry. How old are you? I'll be 40 in May. You got kids? No. I had two children that died.

My goodness. A lot of tragedy. How long ago was that? My first child died in 2012. My second child died in 2013 my goodness wow uh okay the baby steps are a process for prospering building building wealth, and so on. Right now, I can't breathe if I'm you, and I'm not worried about that. I want to get where I can breathe again first.

Right. Okay. So are you working? Do you have a career? I did do a paper route for nine years. And I got into it. I had quit doing that and started doing DoorDash full-time, so that's what I do now. How long have you been doing that?

I started doing it when it first came out just like as a side hustle, but I've been doing it full-time now since September when me and him got into it. It brings in, depending on how I work, you know, like during the funeral and stuff like that, I didn't do too good, but usually it's anywhere between $8,000 to $1,000 a week. What do you want to be doing two years from now and three years from now and five years from now um three years from now i would like to be in my own place, have a nice little cushion where I don't have to worry about, you know,

if my car breaks down, breathing again, like Dave said, and five years from now, I don't really know five years from now. To be honest, I don't really know five years from now. To be honest, I don't really know. Okay. Well, what I would concentrate on right now is the basic necessities of life. Food, shelter, clothing, transportation, utilities. necessities of life food shelter clothing transportation utilities and um so that

involves you getting your own place um not a huge rush on that because but you're door dashing and you're making between 40 and 50 thousand dollars a year that's what you're telling me okay and you should be able to run a budget on that you You said you're living with your brother, right? Correct. And what's he charging you rent? Anything? Nothing, actually. It's him, his wife, and his three kids, three dogs.

Was there any life insurance or any money that was left over? No, no life insurance. We only had our $1,000 in the bank and our paycheck that was coming up following week yeah okay who paid for the funeral it was collective uh a whole bunch of different people and his family um funeral wasn't everybody threw some money in the hat and we got it done okay pretty much all right well baby, I'm sorry. What I would tell you to do is right now, how much debt do you have? I've got $9,900 in student loans, $3,900 on an Amazon card, $500 on my secured card, $500 as a family loan to my sister. I've got one payday loan paid down the road.

I only have that $55 left, and I arrest about 1,000. Okay. Get the payday lenders out of your life and never set foot on that place again, okay? All right. They're completely con artists. They're scam. You step you got to stay with me yeah and then you need to get the irs cleaned up as soon as you can and and then i want you to pile up some cash and get you get your little apartment okay and let's set up house and then let's keep working and begin to i guess you begin to clean these debts up i don't know why you wouldn't.

Food, shelter, clothing, transportation, and utilities, survival is first. Sustainability is first, okay? And a payday lender being gone, the IRS being gone is part of that. And then you've got an inexpensive little apartment and you're making $40,000 or $50,000 a year. And then you begin to work on your long-term money goals and work in the baby steps. And you need to begin to work on your long-term career goals. I'm going to send you a copy of Ken Coleman's book. And as you're healing and you're getting where you can breathe again, let's go ahead and read that.

Because I don't want you door-dashing as your full-time job when you're 50. Right. I mean, it's a wonderful thing right now, because you're making decent money, you're working your butt off, but you're making decent money and you can survive on it, but I don't think that's your long-term play, is it? No, I've always wanted to open up. Like me and my husband were talking to a realtor about,

because the paper route we used to have, we would get like $20,000 to $25,000 in Christmas tips every year, so we were going to use that this year to put down as a down payment on a home. And I was going to open up a dog kennel for um like injured dogs and dogs that needed you know a foster home to live in temporarily now there's you start to have some goals okay you start to think about something that makes your heart beat again and doordash doesn't make your heart beat it puts money it puts food on the table and pays the electric bill but it doesn't make your heart beat. Right. That's what we were looking for a while ago in our earlier question.

So, um, hang on, I'll have, uh, have the guys pick up and give you a copy of Ken's book. But I think first and foremost, you got to take care of you. You've been through hell. Okay. A little bit. Yep. Not a little bit. You have been girl.

A lot. I mean, you got, you got, you, you got the crud knocked out of you here, and you're carrying around a lot. The folks that have been close to me in my life that were in relationship with somebody who was a cocaine addict, I need you to hear me directly, okay? You're worth being loved, and you're worth being well, and you're worth being well and you're worth being safe. Do you believe that? I need you to hear me. I know I'm worth being safe.

And you're worth being well and you're worth being loved. And it's been a long, long time since that. Have you felt that? Is that right? Yeah, people who are addicted to cocaine are hard. Well, they're in love with powder and nothing else,

and so they don't show you any love, and it's been a long time since you've felt that, and then you've got the abandonment to go with it now. So what a mess. I'm so sorry. on kiddo we'll walk with you we're here if you need some help you call back anytime this is the ramsey show Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Steph is with us in Austin, Texas. Says on my screen, you are debt-free, sir.

What's up? Hey, how's it going, Dave? Good, man. How much did you pay off? $46,000. Cool. How long did this take uh total 16 months good and your range of income during that time um it stemmed from i believe it was like 65 up to about

um a little over 90 good good good for you what do you do for a living yeah i'm a i'm a sorcerer or a recruiter for a tech company i thought you said a sorcerer i was like sweet what's the difference i guess it's like man we just stepped into harry potter world or something a sorcerer okay okay and um john i can't take you anywhere. I thought he said sorcerer. I know. I heard you say that, yes. But I, yeah. Okay, so $46,000 in debt.

What kind of debt was that? Yeah, all of it, or not all of it, but most of it was my student loans. I believe $35,000 was in student loans, and then the rest was in my vehicle. Cool. How old are you uh 27 now yeah 27 good good all right so what happened 16 months ago that woke you up plugged you into this ramsey stuff yeah um coded yeah that's really what happened um you know got uh scared straight huh yeah for real that was that was really what. You know, I think everyone was kind of just scared in regards to, like,

you know what was going to happen. You know, I was afraid I was going to lose my job for whatever reason. And, yeah, I just, you know, got pushed to working at home and started listening to a bunch of podcasts. And next thing you know, I came upon the deaf degree from Anthony O'Neill and heard that and I was like, wow, that changed my life really. Then I started listening to the

Obviously Dearest show and from then, just went in overdrive and I had money saved up. I believe I had maybe like $9,000 or $10,000 saved up and I didn't really know what to do with it. And, you know, obviously listen to the show and the podcast,

it just put everything in perspective. And that's how I really, you know, kicked off my journey by knocking out about 9,000 in my first month. And from then it just really kicked off. And every month then just started powering cash to pay it off as soon as possible cool you did a great job man congratulations all right you did it you're a professional you've uh you've actually done it it's not a theory you paid off 46 000 in 16 months tell people what the key to getting out of debt is um i think for me um i wrote this down, but the three things I thought really may help me get through it all was one, just the budget.

Once you figure out how much is coming in, how much is going out, that really gives you a better understanding of where you can prioritize your money. So that was the first thing. Then realizing that it's okay to say no to your friends. They're always going to be there. The ones that, you know, truly love you will respect you for it and, you know, understand you and what you're doing. Well, 16 whole months. I mean, it wasn't 16 years.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And granted, I still had my fun during that time, I guess. And the last thing was just, you know, making mini goals, just always having a goal in mind at the end of the month or quarter, however you want to, you know making many goals um just always having a a goal in mind um at the end of the month or a quarter however you want to you know measure it out but yeah that was those were my i guess three big things that kind of helped me um you know stay motivated through it all excellent excellent well done very good good job man how's it feel to be free oh it feels uh it feels. It feels weird. I think

growing up, I didn't really know what debt was. Honestly, I really didn't. Even when I got to school, I didn't see student loans as a debt. I think nobody really does until just... Yeah, I don't really know.

It feels weird. It feels weird. I think I'm one of the first individuals in my family to become dead at a young age, and now it's just learning to combat and making wealth and really changing myself and my future family. That's awesome, man. I'm proud of you, brother. Well done, sir. Very proud of you. Excellent, excellent work. Absolutely. Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous. Good, good, good, man. I'm proud of you, brother. Well done, sir. Very proud of you. Excellent, excellent work. Absolutely. Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous. Good, good, good, good.

We've got a copy of Baby Steps Millionaires for you. That's the next chapter in your story for sure. And so we want you to go on now, and now that you've gotten rid of this debt, you go ahead and build some wealth and be outrageously generous in the process. And you are set up to do that. And you've got a good career field you're in. You are set up to do that and you got a good career field you're in you'll be able to do a lot with that keep killing dragons those those sorcerers make good money so keep killing dragons and finding crystals and stuff yeah great man

shut up john oh my gosh i'm gonna crack up and not be able to get back from this so all right now here's what we're gonna do you got that we're also gonna send you a copy of the total money makeover book for you to give away and disturb someone else's life and uh in a good way and so we're proud of you man all right steph count it down 46 000 paid off in 16 months, making $65,000 to $90,000. Let's hear a debt-free scream. All right. One, two, three.

I'm debt-free. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. That wasn't a scream. That wasn't a scream. That was a debt-free statement. That was like, I did it. I'm debt-free.

I know, but if you're cool and you're hip and Austin, it may be against city rules. Maybe he's in his office. Oh, that's true. Or maybe that's how sorcerers are. He was in his wizarding class, and he couldn't yell out loud. You are not right. Oh, my goodness gracious. All right, open phones at 888-825-5225 you jump in we'll talk about your life and your

money tax season is upon us i know try to contain your excitement no one no one likes doing their taxes i hate my taxes i hate them especially when you realize the big software companies and if you've been doing your taxes one of those software companies you find out what they're up to every year they lure you in saying you can file for free but then when you're knee deep in the filing process they sucker punch you punch you with up charges loan offers credit card pitches and all the other distractions i was just trying to do my taxes well there's a better way to do it it It's called Ramsey Smart Tax. It's our online tax filing software. With Ramsey Smart Tax, you can get all the deductions, all the forms, and every tax break you deserve. The best part is the price.

Ours is already much lower than the leading competitor, and you won't have any hidden fees. And there won't be any cross-sells or promotions or anything else pushing you into doing something stupid with your money and your life. Don't do that. No. So here's the thing. We have a promo code that will make it free to file your federal taxes. Go to RamseySolutions.com slash smart tax to get the promo code and file without the surprises. RamseySolutions.com slash smart tax. And that will get you there without a doubt so good stuff

so here's the thing it is interesting for those of you listening that um some of you have everyone has a different starting point because of their upbringing their area of the country their uh family lineage uh their race creed color national origin trauma trauma everybody's got a different starting point and so when i talk to someone like steph and he says you know the big part of this is the breakthrough here is i'm the first one in my family because my i didn't even realize student loan debt was really dead right that's a that's a starting point and other people are going well i already knew all this stuff some of your some of you have a really good starting point where you already are way ahead and all you need to do now is get disgusted and do it and go

do it yeah you got to get your butt in gear get get some action going you know and others of you you know we know you can do it because other people have started way you know you have what's known like a race in the backyard when you were a kid a head start that's right it doesn't mean you get to win doesn't mean you're you know but you do have a head start because you got you actually know things your family actually taught you things you know you knew this was stupid but you did stupid anyway that's a head start yeah that's a head start but just to discover the idea that this is actually debt that's starting back their ways yeah that's a pretty interesting to make it this far this fast that's pretty interesting

thing there so fun fun fun this is the ramsey show Thank you. Our scripture of the day, Matthew 18, 24, where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am with them. Helen Keller said, alone we can do so little, together we can do so much. Lindsay is with us in St. Louis. Hi, Lindsay. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Thanks for taking the call. My pleasure. What's up? Great. So my husband and I own five rental properties and four of them have loans. They all have a positive cash flow each month and it's not income that we rely on currently but we hope to be financially independent and then that would be our sort of income once we stop working what is the total debt on all of them if you totaled them all up total it's right at 105 000 that pays off all of the properties? Yes.

Wow. We bought them pretty well. So, wait a minute. These are inexpensive properties then? Right. They're single-family homes. That are worth what each? They would be worth anywhere from probably $50,000 to $75,000 each.

Yeah, okay. They're in a small town. Yeah, cool. I like this. Yeah. It's like numbers from the 70s or something. Yeah, okay. They're in a small town. Yeah, cool. I like this. Yeah. It's like numbers from the 70s or something. Yeah. Okay.

Got five houses with a mortgage. Jeez. That's great. Okay, so what's your household income? Right now, at the beginning of 2020, my husband and I both left our jobs and became independent contractors. So we do construction and remodeling. So it varies a little, but somewhere around probably $75,000.

Okay. And what do you owe on your personal residence? Nothing. And you're debt-free except for this $105,000? Correct, yes. Okay. And your question is how to pay them off or when to pay them off or should you keep them or all that, right? Right.

All I would do is just, I would just treat this like it was $100,000 student loan debt. Let's get rid of it. Crush it. Yeah. I would, you know, I think you could pay it off in like three years without any trouble. And then you'd have the whole portfolio free. Yeah. in like three years without any trouble, and then you have the whole portfolio free. Yeah, and that's what we've previously just kind of let the business take care of the business and haven't really put any of what we consider

our personal money towards them. So that's what I just didn't know. Yeah, I think it is all personal because you're personally liable on these mortgages. Right, yeah. And so you need to pay them off. Yeah, let's get them paid off and because here's what's going to happen you're going to have so much money then

that you're going to be able to pile up these rents and buy another property with cash yeah and then buy another property with cash and then buy another property with cash and that's what i've done then you're going to run this small town, Lindsay. Lindsay the landlord. This is my town. Lindsay, my town, the landlord. Just call me the landlord. Yeah, I like it.

I like it. This is great. I'm proud of you. This is fun. Thank you. So how far outside of St. Louis are you? I live about an hour or so north of St. Louis. Do you want to reveal the name of the small town?

I don't know if you do, since it's a small town. Well, the town that we have the properties in is Louisiana. It's what? Louisiana, Missouri. Yeah, yeah, I know it well. Okay. It's over by Troy, right? Yeah, it's pretty near to there, yeah there yeah yeah that's where my mom's from is

over in there okay wow interesting wow okay cool that's a great farming community is what it is yeah yeah fun fun fun fun fun all right well let's do it get it get it you're you're amazing i've had a lot of calls i haven't had five mortgages with $100,000 total. Yeah, that's a new one. That's impressive, man. Well, it's been a long time since I've talked to anybody about a house for $75,000 either. But I used to buy them for a lot less than that back in the day. But cheap houses. But that was a long time ago.

And they were really cheap. Bad houses. These aren't bad houses. These are great little houses is what these are. Not tiny houses. Little houses. There's't bad houses. These are great little houses is what these are. Not tiny houses, little houses. There's a difference, okay? Sarah's with us in Denver. Hey, Sarah, welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Sarah? Hi there, Dave. Sorry about that. That's okay. Thank you so much for having me. How can we help? Hi there, John. Yeah, so I've just started the Financial Peace University, which has been great so far.

I've surpassed baby step one, and I'm on baby step two. And my question, sorry, hearing a rote, but my question is the debt snowball, I'm having a hard time reconciling that only because I'm dealing with a couple of factors, being that I have seven credit cards at 0% interest. And what's the balance on the total? The total balance is going to be somewhere around, gosh, off the top of my head, maybe $15,000. And what's your household income? Income is about $82,000. And what do you do for a living?

I just started off as a software engineer. So I just switched careers. So now I'm actually able to manage my finances a little bit better than I was. You're asking a great question that a software engineer would ask, so that's perfect. So here's what we have figured out, because I would have asked the same question. I'm financial background, because the debt snowball is not mathematically correct. When you pay off smallest to largest regardless of interest rate, that's not mathematically correct. Mathematically correct would be to pay off the highest interest rate first.

The avalanche, right? Well, yeah, that's what other people started calling it years after the debt snowball was famous. Some character came up with the avalanche. But anyway, the concept doesn't work with the avalanche. And the reason it doesn't work is personal finance is more behavior than it is math it's 80 behavior 20 head knowledge if you try to fix a behavior problem with math you're going to struggle but you can fix math with a behavior change and so the reason i'm telling you all that is that the human heart needs to see traction

in your world we'd call it gamified so the debt snowball is gamified you're gamifying yourself when you pay off the little one regardless of the interest rate you're have accomplished a portion a tiny little portion an incremental goal that gives you hope that this is actually going to freaking work. Then when you pay off the next one, you go a little bit more excitement. When you pay off the next one, you get a little bit more excitement. When you pay off about four or five of these things or six of these things and this snowball starts to roll, regardless of the interest rates, you get so stinking excited and believing and hope-filled, and you get blinders on, and you start sacrificing deeper,

and your progress accelerates, and the probability of getting out of debt and the speed at which you get out of debt is even better with the debt snowball, even though it's mathematically incorrect. And there's been several studies actually done that prove that, by the way. Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing for me is that my student debt has been the absolute bane of my existence. Yeah, but you're going to get rid of it. You make plenty of money. It's going away.

It's all going away. And I kind of want it hanging out there to just keep that fire going. I want you to stay pissed off at it. But just get really mad at this whole thing and go, all right, I'm sweeping these mosquitoes aside, these stupid little credit cards, so I can just draw back and punch this student loan in the nose baby i'm gonna smack it it gets visceral and when you can kind of get that stuff going and instead of getting a net and instead of trying to mathematically analyze this that's when you're going to have more success and that's coming from a guy who's a math nerd.

And your math got you seven credit cards to begin with. Seven. And student loans. You were trying to win the 0% game, and you lost. So one of the best predictors of future behavior is your past. Not always, but it's a good baseline. You've tried the math game game and it hasn't worked. So just try something different.

Try something different. I mean, if a year from now you're worse off than you were, then change. And Ramsey was crazy. There you go. You'll have to get in line on that one, but yes, you're right. You know what I mean? I hear people

at the beginning of the year call my show about losing weight or fixing their marriage. Well, this year we're going to go back to our workout. Do something different. It's not work. Change the recipe. I keep getting chocolate cake.

I didn't want chocolate cake. Change the recipe. Change it, man. Change the recipe, man. Do something different. Do something different. Doing the same thing over and over again. You can do it, Sarah.

Do something different. Definition of insanity. John Deloney, thanks for hanging out. You're welcome, Sarah. Do something different. Definition of insanity. John Deloney, thanks for hanging out. You're welcome, man. Guys in the booth, great job today. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. We'll be back with you before you know it.

In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Have a friend or family member that needs a daily dose of Ramsey advice in their life? Let them know about the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast. It's a quick hit of advice about life and money in under 10 minutes. Check out the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.