The Ramsey Show - App - Quit Running a Race With Ankle Weights On – Pay Off Your Debt! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: May 24, 2023

Dave Ramsey & Ken Coleman answer your questions and discuss: "My wife and I disagree about what to do with profits from a rental", "I'm 16-year-old and will make $100k next year; how should I use it?" "How should I use my bonus check?" Selling the house to pay off debt, from the blog: Should You Sell Your Home to Knock Out Debt? Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Join a Personality-led FPU class. Click here! Enter The Ramsey Cash Giveaway for a chance at $3,000! https://bit.ly/TRSgvwy Shop our bestsellers during the $10 Sale! https://bit.ly/TRS10Sale Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3cEP4n6 Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Interested in advertising on The Ramsey Show? https://ter.li/s64ye3 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods, moving, and storage studios, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author of the book Paycheck to Purpose, host of the Ken Coleman Show, is my co-host today. As we answer your questions about your careers and work and money, and Ken's show is all about your work and your career,

and we'll both jump in on whatever you want to talk about. The phone number is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Green Bay, Wisconsin. Craig starts this hour. Hi, Craig. How are you? Doing great.

How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Just a quick question, bottom line up front. Am I being a stick in the mud and not wanting to spend money? So some details. 38, married with six kids, $200,000 household income. Our house is worth probably $900,000.

We owe $475,000 and have no debt outside of the mortgage. My wife has a 2015 van with about 90,000 miles on it, and it's worth about 15 if we were to sell it or trade it in. I'm fortunate that I have a company-provided truck, so I have no vehicle expense there. We're in the process of selling a paid off rental where we're going to be keeping about $120,000. I want to take all of that and throw that all off at our mortgage. And my wife wants to upgrade her van to maybe a $45,000 or $50,000 suburban and, and use, you know, 30 to 30 to 40,000 of our, uh, rental, you know, our, our, our income coming back on the, on the rental house.

And I guess I'm, I'm struggling with the whole reverse engineering cause I wouldn't take off or I wouldn't take a loan more on the mortgage to go toward a car, but I guess I'm sticking the mud for thinking what I'm thinking. I don't think sticking the mud is the right analogy, although she may have called you that. No, that's me being critical of myself. Thus the phone call. Well, no, I think you're just, you know, you are the nerd. You are like I am at my house.

You're the numbers cruncher. And you also happen to be the saver. And she's more of the free spirit and more of the spender. And neither one are right or wrong. And you need each other. Larry Burkett used to say if two people just like get married one of you is unnecessary so um you need opposites generally attract and that's a good thing so we balance each other out uh my wife is the natural saver at our house and i'm the natural spender at our house i'm in charge of fun and uh she's in charge of killing it no i'm kidding but

the careful so careful yeah this could get back to her she might actually listen to the show one day who knows but um so yeah no you're not being a stick in the mud you are being yourself and she's being herself and there's really not a wrong answer here here's what i'm thinking when i heard your whole story this purchase of this van van, this upgrade of this van, she spends a lot of time with six kids while you're out there earning all this income. And so this is a quality of life thing for her. This is not a frivolous expenditure in her mind. The other thing I'm thinking is that this is not a pattern that this

lady consistently wants to buy crap and you guys don't make advances on your wealth building plan. That's not really who she is. This is a fairly rare request for her. I know that because your numbers tell me that because you don't have a bunch of other mess that she has made. So she's not an overspender. She's not like a congressman, you know? I mean, right? Yeah, this is the biggest one with multiple zeros. She's reasonably frugal for a spender.

Yes. Yeah. She's not immature. She's not a princess. She's not always wanting something new. I know that because your numbers, the fact that you're debt-free with six kids making $200,000, you've got almost a million dollars or better than a million dollars net worth,

tells me that she's not. Okay? Because she would have destroyed that were the pattern there. So this is not a pattern given the life situation. I'm going to go with her on this. And, Craig, can I challenge your mindset, Craig, in a positive way? Okay? I'm not getting on you.

I want to just give you a different thought process. You're winning. Yes. You're winning financially. For real. And this rental house is another giant win on top of all of the winning you've done to this point. Celebrate the win by getting a really nice car that your wife really wants and understand that you're not losing in any way, shape, or form by spending reasonably on a really nice Suburban for your wife. And I just think you have to shift your mindset here. You're still winning, and you need to celebrate this big win by being able to bless your wife and your six kids.

I think you reframe that, and I think you'll sleep a little bit better. But you've been so intense, and we're proud of you. And it's what got you to this point, but we've got to learn. I don't work out very much. I know people can tell that when they see me. But I've got some friends that work out like crazy, Dave. And they tell me, I've got to have a cheat day. I've got to have an off day if I'm going, going all the time.

And I think it's the same thing in this gazelle intensity. You've earned this. She's earned it. No, they're not even at gazelle intensity stage, though. They're really, but they have been for so long. At intentional stage. That's right. Yeah.

Yeah. So, yeah, you drive like no one else so that later you can drive like no one else. That's right, I love that. You live like no one else so that later you can live and give like no one else. These are, no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but it yields a harvest of righteousness, and that's where you are. You have yielded a harvest, and you've done a really, really, really, really good job. A, B, this is not a pattern on her part.

This is a singular situation. And if you hadn't done a good job or this was a pattern, I probably would have sided with you. Like if you had a bunch of other debt laying around or something and you want to do this instead of paying off some student loan debt or something. I mean, nope, nope, nope. Get rid of the student. But you guys have been so superb, and this lady, I can just tell by the numbers, she is not an unreasonable person. You married up.

Well done. Yeah. Well done. Yep. Good stuff. Open phones at 888-825-5225. The first time I was blessed, I'll name drop to get to meet the great Zig Ziglar. Sharon and I had lunch with him and Gene at this little Italian restaurant.

About halfway through the lunch, Zig says, Dave, you know, I don't really respect a man that won't marry up. And I got to tell you, I deeply respect you. Only Zink could say it like that. I think that's a compliment. Somewhere in there. I think. I think that was good.

That's great. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, you guys. Health insurance costs are only moving one way, and that way isn't down. And if higher costs aren't enough, the wait times to see your doctor are longer, and it's harder than ever to get anything approved through the bureaucracy. So if you feel like the system is working against you, try a biblically-based alternative

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So listen, y'all, there's no better way to take care of health care costs. CHM programs start as low as $98 a month. So learn more today and join at chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budget. Ken Coleman Ramsey, personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us. We're so glad you're here. If you're listening to the show and you're trying to piece together what we teach on our own, you can do that.

It's called common sense. You could have done it before you came to us. Live on less than you make. Chop up your stupid credit cards. Nobody ever got rich on credit cards except the credit card companies. So this is really not rocket science. And there's like, I think we have had, they said the other day, something like 4 billion minutes of YouTube viewed of this show now. It's bizarre. It's like 1,100 years worth of YouTube has been now viewed of this show and me and you and everything else.

And so the YouTube channel is massive. If you want to wander through all that stuff and try to figure out what we do, you can do that. But that's not the most efficient way. No. The best way to do it is just take the class. You'll just be the nine lessons in just a few weeks. And the average person who takes Financial Peace University is debt-free

in less than two years, everything but their house. House is paid off an average of seven years. It's a proven system. Ten million people have been through it. Now, again, you could do it with a total money makeover book for $10 at Ramsey Solutions right now, but that's harder. This is the easiest way to get the whole thing going, and it's the most efficient way for your dollar, bang for your buck. So we're pouring jet fuel on the whole thing right now the ramsey personalities ken coleman included uh dr john deloney included rachel and jade's classes are already going but they're leading financial peace university classes

they're the coordinators of some of the classes online if you want to be in a personality coordinated fpu class you can still do that for ken or Deloney or George Camel. Jade Warshaw, Rachel Cruz's classes are closed. They're like four lessons in already. You waited around too long on those, but you can get in on these and don't have FOMO. Go to FPU.com or RamseySolutions.com and click on FPU, either one. Thank you for joining us. Mason is in Idaho. Hi, Mason. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. How's it going?

Better than I deserve. What's up? Good. So I'm 16 years old, and me and my brother do landscaping. He's the owner, then I'm his lawn care manager. I'm going to bring in probably about $ 000 this year and closer to 100 next year wow i just want to put that money as i'm still living at home and don't have a ton of expenses they pay off your parents house oh my gosh wow what are you doing again uh we we do lawn care

and landscaping uh we do a lot of work we have a really fancy golf course we do a lot of property down there so wow and you said your brother's your boss and you're the lawn care manager how old's your brother he's 19 19 man yeah i don't want to hear anybody griping about young people i mean i don't want to hear anybody griping that you can't find something to do to work out there oh my gosh he's projecting Oh, my gosh. He's projecting $100,000 next year. Why not? Why not? That's a good story.

Way to go, young man. Mason, you're amazing. Congratulations. Wow. So your question is what to do with the money? Yeah, I just was like, investment. I mean, we're definitely going to move out at some point, so it's safe for a house and all that. You plan to go to college?

No, sir. Yeah, attaboy. What's wrong with college? Nothing, Dave. It's not bad. house and all that but you're going to you plan to go to college no sir yeah that a boy what's wrong with college nothing dave bad it's not bad but he does smart people smarter if they take the right stuff if they need it okay so what are you going to do with your life mason uh definitely do this for the next couple years become keep the manager going definitely get up there we'll see where this business goes it's definitely growing we have four trucks and we're having to buy a truck about every other month it seems like but um and then i don't know i'm kind of thinking about maybe going into crane work uh we have some cool classes over here for that so okay so the reason i'm asking all that

is not to be facetious it's to say say the first and best investment someone in your age group can make, 16 to 26, is in knowledge. That may or may not be a four-year degree. That may or may not be a formal series of classes, but knowledge. And the thing you do need to do is be a continual learner the rest of your life. So you're always going to conferences, reading books, taking the occasional class or whatever. And, and, or in your case, maybe you are pursuing a certain certification in crane operation or whatever that is. But I, that's the best use of this money because it's going to give you the best rate of return. Knowledge has the best use of this money because it's going to give you the best rate of return.

Knowledge has the best rate of return of any possible investment. Knowledge that actually has utilitarian use in the marketplace. Okay? That make sense? So, yeah, getting tooled up, getting your brain and your hands tooled up to go do the next thing is always the best money maker. So that's where I want you to do with money first. Secondly, yeah, you can begin investing. And if you don't need to set aside a bunch of money for a four-year because you're not going that route,

then you can start to think about Roth IRAs, file a tax return, do a Roth IRA, get with a SmartVestor Pro. They'll help you do that. And you can get a real head start on that uh but if you told me you weren't going to four year and you needed this money for that i'd be okay with you just setting it aside for that you know any of those are fine any of those directions wow yeah really impressive and see this is this is this is going to be an entrepreneur no he already is whether he takes the crane classes or not i'm telling you this young

man is going to be creating jobs from a company that he has started. And this is the entrepreneurial path. And I just couldn't be any more excited to hear a story like this. And I want to be very clear. Dave's having fun with me, but I'm not anti-college. assuming that you have to go to college to be successful and spend four years, time and money, on a degree that you don't even want and may not even be able to use. That's my position. This young man is an exhibit A of he doesn't need the four-year degree. What he does need is, as Dave pointed out beautifully, continuing knowledge, continue to grow, and education is not

exclusive to a diploma at a fancy university. Education is, like Dave said, reading books, listening to podcasts, going to conferences, sitting with successful business women and businessmen who are winning in the field you want to be in. And so what a great story. 19 and 16-year-old brothers, Dave. Yeah. Crushing it. Had the exact same situation just the other day. I got some work being done on one of our properties.

Yeah. And two of these big track hoes come up. Yeah. Major cranes. Yeah. Grabbing rocks, grabbing stuff, right? Talking to the guy running it. And he's like 30 years old.

And he owns the thing. He goes, I started listening to you. No, he's 40 years old. I'm sorry. He said, I started listening to you 20 years ago. Wow. On talk radio. And he goes, I was cutting grass.

I was running a lawn care. And I expanded into irrigation. And we expanded into tree removal. And I bought a couple pieces of heavy equipment. And he said, now I own $2 million worth of heavy equipment. And I run a heavy equipment operation. 100% debt-free the entire time. Absolutely.

And a high school graduate. Yeah. And he just kept working, did good work, opportunities presented himself. He learned it, acquired it, did it, expanded it. And I wonder how many people he employs. A bunch. You see. I mean, you've got several million dollars worth of equipment.

It doesn't sit idle. That's correct. So he's creating jobs. Yeah. This is how this is how america works boys and girls just a little lesson for your economics class that's true carl marx was not there this is the ramsey show open phones at 888-825-5225 our friend mike rowe would be real proud i was just getting that kind of thing uh we were talking about this in the uh america's labor crisis event we did a few weeks ago that you

were a part of and we were talking and mike and i were talking about on stage that the he's not he's about as hardcore pro tradesman as anybody you'll ever meet and almost anti-college but not completely anti-college but you know you know, what we all agree on, regardless of where on that spectrum you land, is A, a useless college degree is useless and too expensive. And so getting a degree in German polka history, you're going to end up being a barista. Okay, this is just dumb. All right, and you're going to pay $250,000 for the opportunity to draw somebody else's coffee. And so nothing wrong

with being a barista but if that wasn't your goal and that's where you end up by default that's what i'm making fun of so don't you barista that don't let the barista union start sending me hate mail okay but the uh but he our point was that the currency all along has been knowledge yes and somewhere the switch got flipped and it the currency became a college degree. Yes. And it's not a college degree. No. The currency that moves you into the next thing, the thing you spend to go into the next section of your life is knowledge.

A college degree can represent that, but it is not the currency. That's right. This is The Ramsey Show. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. This is The Ramsey Show. Tracy is with us in Orange County, California. Hi, Tracy.

Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Thanks. Well, you guys are not going to be as proud of me as you were the first two callers. Okay. Sorry to bring it down. Oh, well, there's Tracy and then there's Tracy. Okay. Okay. So I've got a bonus coming next month, about $13,000. Way to go. About 19. Well, here's where it goes down. I've got about $19,000 in credit card debt with 17 cards open, and I pay about $754 a month on those cards. Now, yes, my husband is not happy with me at all.

So he's the saver. My question is, do I pay off as many of the lowest cards as possible and 30% on the bigger ones? I'm trying to figure out what I should do with my bonus money to get rid of as much of this debt as possible. Okay. Let's answer that, but let's kind of circle around it for a second before we do, okay? Okay.

Because it does affect uh the importance of the answer and i won't change the answer but um are you done yes you're done you cut them all up i'm done yes you hesitate they are they are all cut up every one of them no well i had to think about it for a second but i'm looking at them right now in the trash. My husband and I have had many heated discussions about it, and I don't want to waste money. This has become a thing. Okay.

It has become a very serious thing. Okay. And are you two now going to move from him having serious discussions at his wife's credit card debt to now working together and handling money together and never going back here again. Correct, because as he says, on paper we do really well, but I have a spending problem, so I don't want it to affect our marriage as it is, and I'm done. Well, I want you to be able to continue to enjoy money as a vote on the budget that you do together,

but that will also ensure some accountability that you're asking for and willing to do for not overspending. But I still want you to be able to spend. We don't want to go all the way to his side and you have no oil at all on the joints and start to squeak. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So enjoyment of money is part of the process as well. But overdoing it, obviously, is not the process. So having said all that, that's important because if you're not doing the things

that we've been talking about for the last few moments, no answer to your 13 000 is going to work because this crap's going to grow back exactly okay so that that's why i wanted to set the table there for that so having said all of that then let's just list them smallest to largest regardless of the interest rate balance smallest largest balance and pay off as many as 13 will do you said there's 17 cards i'll bet bet you that gets rid of 14 of them. Well, I've got eight that are under $1,000, and I've got nine that are over a $1,000 balance.

Okay, so we know we've got eight of them. That's 8,000, and then there's another 5,000, so I'm going to be pretty close. It might be 13 instead of 14, but depending on how those balances land. But the good news is and i tell you i i have sat with people tracy in the past like years ago when i first started doing this and i was amazed at what it does to your emotions like when we would make a list of all of their debts smallest to largest and then we would look over and say hey you have eleven thousand dollars in a savings account and they would have these people maybe in those situations have a little seventy five dollar

medical bill from diagnostic because if you drive near a hospital they send you a seventy five dollar diagnostic bill that you don't even have to go in you just drive past they send you a bill it's like automatic it's like a camera on the car and so you know you get all these little mosquito bills i call them little tiny ones and we make a And we make a list of 30 or 40 things when people first start this that have been just hanging around because they were disorganized and chaotic. And we would take $10,000 and wipe out like three quarters of the list. And it feels like you did more than you actually did mathematically. You see what I'm saying? Yes. more than you actually did mathematically you see what i'm saying yes and when you knock out uh 13

14 of these things you're gonna you're gonna get that sense of emotional momentum yeah and tracy i'm gonna challenge you i mean first of all every penny so let me make sure you hear us every penny of the 13 so that's gonna leave you with six thousand dollars left and i would keep the momentum going because i think you're going to get a real shot of dopamine when you strike a check and you cut it down to $6,000. But then I would be selling things. I would be looking for extra opportunity to make some money and put it on paper just as you list out all of those debts.

Knock out the rest of it real fast. How quickly can I knock out the $6,000? And I think if you do that before we cut the check for 13, so it all happens, one, two, punch, I think you're going to be surprised how quick you knock out the six. It's going to change your marriage. It's going to change all this emotion that's been around these heated conversations. Yeah.

Congratulations. Yeah. And we're thankful to have you in the listening audience and proud of you. As you say, Dave, she's sick and tired of being sick and tired. Yeah. That's when you finally say, I've had it. That's when you're ready to change. Until you had your I've had it moment.

And she has. Yep, you can tell. And no one can have it for you. Isn't that the truth? Your husband can't have it for you. It's right. It's true. I now value my marriage and the quality of my marriage, not just my marriage,

but the quality of my marriage above the spending pattern. I've had it. And that's an adult decision right there. It's not a baby. So she said we weren't going to be as proud of her as the other two. I'm proud of her. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think she's doing really good.

I absolutely agree. Because, you know, in some ways, the constitution that it takes emotionally, you're gonna have to really go after this change the way you live and think uh that's to be admired tracy yep it's to be admired that's uh change isn't easy transformation is one of the hardest things humans do oh yeah yeah so you know it's interesting you're talking about the this idea that um go ahead and lay out the plan for the other six thousand that's very so there's two things here. You guys need to listen in here very clearly. If you're fighting debt, number one, when you pay off smallest to largest,

you get a positive feedback loop. Okay. This is telling you you're winning. You're winning. You're winning. You're winning. You're winning. There's a light at the end of the tunnel.

That's not an oncoming train. And so you will keep with something that gives you a positive feedback loop. That's a psychological phrase. Go look it up, okay? So if you're getting some wins, if you go on a diet and you lose weight, you'll keep doing it. If you go on a diet and you gain two pounds, you quit. Negative feedback loop, positive feedback loop, okay? So you need things there.

The second thing that happens is, and we do it here on the air with people, and they don't even realize we're doing it to them, is that when you lay out the math for the first time and you go huh i really can do that in about four months oh i never by christmas where the the math when you lay out a plan even though you've absolutely done nothing yet you just laid out a plan that's all you did you just recognized it is doable yes but you've actually done nothing your stress goes way down yeah because your hope goes way up oh it's so true and that's from a power of focus you know what we know from psychology research that

when we focus on something intently we begin begin to see it everywhere. The example that they give in research studies is when you go buy a car, last time you bought a car, live studio audience, you can play along with me here. You remember commenting on how you saw that blue minivan or whatever you bought everywhere over the next week? Even your kids were like, hey, there's our car. Well, the god of cars didn't just drop them in on the road. It's that you focus so intently on a purchase like this that we begin to see it. And as you described, Dave, when we begin to see that I can pay it off in four months, six months, 10 months, here's what happens. You begin to truly see the opportunities

to make more money, to cut expenses everywhere, and it becomes so believable. And that's what makes it so achievable. Because all of a sudden you go wait a second this is this is i can do this and the power of belief is unstoppable yeah hope yeah it's hope i i can see it exactly was i i actually have hope in an area i've never been good at money i've always been behind on my bills it's always been chaotic you have all these negative self-talk things all these negative messages and some of you if you talked to my friend the way you talk to yourself, I would smack you. You don't talk to people I like like that. You know, don't talk to yourself that way. Be nicer to yourself.

And let's get the negative thing out of there. And it's not heebie-jeebie mysterious stuff. It's just like, gosh, I can actually do this. And hope deferred, hopelessness, hope deferred makes the heart sick. But when desire comes, ha ha, yeah, it is the tree of life. Oh, that'll preach. This is the Ramsey Show. Based on our ratings and our rankings in the podcast and YouTube world and the radio

world, there's a whole bunch of you who are new. Thank you. We're glad you're here. And if you want to learn more about what's going on, what they were talking about on the air and everything else, hit the get started button at RamseySolutions.com. It's a free process that will lead you kind of into where you are and the different places we can take you depending on what your needs, wants, and desires are.

So check it out. Click Get Started. Completely free. No obligation. No salesman will call. RamseySolutions.com. Josh is in Phoenix. Hey, Josh, welcome to the Ramsey solutions.com josh is in phoenix hey josh welcome to the ramsey show hey sir how's it going better than i deserve what's up yeah i have a question

for you so i want to know would it be smart to uh sell my current home to buy a smaller home to have zero or little to no mortgage to be able to pay off the rest of my debt. Are you single? No. You have children? Three kids. Three kids. Okay.

One's getting ready to graduate in two days, actually, from high school. Wonderful. What's your square footage? I'm at 3,700 square feet right now. And what's the house worth? It's worth about a million. Okay. And what do you owe on it? $555,000. Okay. And what's your household income?

I'm retired, so with my pension and my part-time job, I would say about $12,000 take home. And how much do you have in a nest egg? I'm sorry? How much money do you have have in a nest egg uh i'm sorry how much money do you have saved in a nest egg um about 20 000 saved okay your wife doesn't work outside the home how do you pay a 555 thousand dollar mortgage with twelve thousand dollars uh my mortgage so my mortgage um is about three thousand a month um i had another house that i had previously owned and sold um to put down on this house and i bought it um but the interest rates are pretty low yeah but you make twelve thousand dollars a year you said no no twelve thousand dollars a month oh i misunderstood yes i feel so much better for you i was so worried about you

josh how's this guy living a million dollar house with a poverty level income i couldn't figure it out okay yeah life is better already okay do you have any debts other than the house yes i have a credit card debt about 41 000 and car debt about 53 000 and and then i also have a heloc that is about 50 000 okay and what's the big car um the big car is going to be uh about 30 000 of the 53 okay um correct 30 of the 53 okay all right so basically 150 grand makes you debt-free and you make 144 000 or so a year correct okay all right uh do you hate your house i actually love my house does your wife hate your house she She loves it, but there's three rooms in the house that we really don't use, and it's going to be four soon once. I would sell $50,000 worth of cars before I would sell a million-dollar house.

Okay. And I probably would do neither, actually, in your case. But what I would want to do is look up. What you've identified is that this $150,000 in miscellaneous debt is a problem. That's what you've identified. And that the house is overkill, given that one kid is leaving. But the house is wonderful. You love the house.

It's a great investment. It's doing well. There's no problems with it. So, in your case, if I woke up in your shoes is how we answer questions here i would just double down on a budget and talk to your wife and say if we keep this house we got to stop overspending and we got to clean this stupid debt up and that's going to involve rolling up our sleeves and plowing through 150 000 worth of debt in about three years or two years and or selling some cars and doing it a little faster i don't care which you choose to do but you guys have just been sloppy

okay you make enough money to not be this in our debt agreed right i agree yeah that's sloppy that's all it is that credit card debt was just crap you just here or there picked up something something popped up and you didn't have any cash. You only got $20,000 saved. And so basically, all the money comes in, all the money goes out, and only the names are changed to protect the innocent. Correct. Yeah. And that's not picking on you. It's just recognition of where you are and where you've got to go if you want to not be where you are, right? Correct. And that's kind of where I'm at now i just i want to get out of

debt i want to be debt free i had it once in my life and yeah i want to get back there again so i would like for you to be back there and retain this house if you can i think selling the house is a desperation play and everybody's going to be miserable because everybody likes this house and i don't think it's necessary to clean the mess up mathematically but what is necessary is you and your wife have a real talk about this budget thing we're going to tighten that puppy up yeah i agree and i it's interesting to see whether or not he's driving uh this house situation or she is it's not a bad move but i'm with you i think they can get out of it and keep that house and they're going to be in they're going to be better off in the long run when they're debt free and have this house that's just growing you need to change your

habits anyway that's correct so you might as well change them that's a good point and see if you can't clean the mess up yeah and keep the house now even if you sell the house you don't change your habits you got a mess yeah now here's what here's what i want to ask you because we have a lot of new people coming in all the time from all these different platforms uh selling the cars is an option you mentioned that but why in this case do you say you know what you don't have to sell the cars you can pay those cars off uh i just curious why you take that position well people to hear that basically it adds it's one-third of the debt okay so there's a 40 53 50 so it's basically 50 grand is each each each bucket that's right and he makes 150 right all right so what could we do and we got a 500 we got a three thousand dollar payment we got

a 555 thousand dollar mortgage so um you know it's not mandatory but it's going to lengthen the get out of debt plan by at least a year right right if you keep the cars right and um they're not quite high enough if one of them had been 53 or 50 and the other one was three right i'd have probably sold the 50. okay okay i'd probably pushed it because i'm looking at behavior patterns right i'm trying to tweak there and get that going but when they're both fairly you know 30 and 23 that kind of thing then there's no uh obvious offender right there of thing, then there's no obvious offender there, right? It's more of a general concept offender than this. Because it's doable. The point is, they could pay those cars off, and then they got something. Because I lean, Dave, I don't know if

it's the way I'm wired, because I drove a lot of crap cars for a long time. I mean, honestly, and just because we were paying off debt in Atlanta, and I was driving older cars and all that kind of stuff, I just lean towards, if I can get rid of the car, I'm getting rid of the car. Because I don't know if it's your teaching and being your friend for so long, but I go, this is a depreciating asset. And the house is not. Yeah, I'm not trading cars for a house. No. No way.

Never, never, never. Always a bad trade. And because here's the thing. Think about this. I was driving through a neighborhood the other day. I was cutting across a thing and i cut through this new neighborhood that was in the nashville area here so it was a basically right in the middle class in terms of uh price range it probably been 300 to 400 thousand dollar houses which is square that's median household price actually nationwide that's

the median home price right now and so i'm driving down and these nice homes that are fairly new less than five years old are lined up right down the street uh front opening garage doors small lots and i'm driving down through there and i'm seeing really nice cars right in front of all of these houses so they're they're sitting there with 50 000 60 000 cars in front of a 300 000 house and a hundred percent of those got payments on them absolutely and a hundred percent of those people are trying to run a race with ankle weights on right or trying to swim with a concrete block life preserver i mean whatever whatever bad metaphor we want to use here right but yeah yeah it's just and I'm going, this is the middle class.

It's exactly right. Big depreciating cars and car payments, smaller home. Yeah. Wrong, you know. See, and that's why, Dave, I've got this, and I appreciate your advice, and I want our audience to hear this. If it's me, I'm a momentum guy. I would probably sell the cars.

I want to sell my cars. I would sell the cars. I would, too. Because I have probably sell the cars. I want to sell my cars. I would sell the cars. I would, too. Because I have bought and sold cars my whole life. I don't get married to cars like some people do. I mean, some people get a car and they're like, it's so large. Selling it emotionally because it's a big item, it feels like selling a house. But you could do a car transaction six times in a week.

That's exactly right. It's not a thing. But house transactions are super expensive so and you got to move your butt every time you do those anyway so but uh but yeah i i don't get as attached to them and so i'm just like i'll get another one yeah that's where i land i bought a truck a couple years ago and i had about five weeks don't like it i just went got a different truck i truck. I mean, you know, it's a chain. It's not a big deal.

This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, folks, Ken Coleman here. Did you know The Ramsey Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world? Get your daily dose of advice on life and money. Check out all of our shows from The Ramsey Network wherever you listen to podcasts.