The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Give My Son Money to Buy a House? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: June 29, 2020

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave 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. My co-host today on the Dave Ramsey Show, Ramsey Personality, Chris Hogan, author of two number one best-selling books, the latest being Everyday Millionaires. The phone number, 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. David is with us to start off this hour in South Carolina. Hi, David. How are you? I'm doing good, Dave.

I have a question for you and Chris that I've never heard you guys touch on before and wanted to get your thoughts on. Okay. So me and my wife, we are on Baby Step 7, and we don't have any kids currently, and we're looking to do foster to adopt. One of our heartbeats is to treat these kids like any normal kid. So how do we fund college not knowing whether we're going to get a kid when they're six or 16, just that wide range?

What would you guys invest in? What are you guys' thoughts? How should we plan for that? Very nice. Yeah, no, that is. You know, as I look at this, David, and you guys are starting to think and plan ahead, you're right. There is the unknown of the age and stage in which they may come to you.

But I want you to keep in mind, you know, you have many ways that you can start to save money. You might look at just establishing a gross stock mutual fund that's outside of retirement for you to be able to save toward. Again, that might go towards college. It could go to a wedding or a home down payment. It gives you options without it being in a person's name. It can be in you and your wife's name.

But you've got a lot of options as you sit down and you start to look at that. You're in Baby Step 7, and so you should have some money. And it just can stay in your name you don't have to have a quote-unquote college fund in the kid's name and in this situation you know you got plenty of time uh even if it's a 16 year old you don't have a lot of time between now and the time they go to college but you've got the money to take care of this you just would merely be moving it into their name, right? Depends. If my wife decides to stay home, that'll cut our income significantly, so we may not be able to cash flow it like we'd want to.

And it won't matter whether you put it in his name or your name at that point. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, you know, just pile up cash in your name, wealth in your name, like Chris is saying, and then you've got the option to do whatever you want to do with it. And as God sends you the appropriate child that you're supposed to take care of here, which is awesome, then you'll know exactly what you've got to do and lay your planning out. But you'll be fine. You've got plenty do and lay your planning out but you'll be fine

you've got plenty of room here in this good job oh it is good tanner is in idaho hi tanner how are you good how are you guys better than we deserve what's up so uh we my wife and I, are wanting to start saving up for a down payment on our house. Good. And I know that the Roth IRA has, I mean, first of all, a good rate of return, a really good rate of return generally. And also, I believe that from what I understand, that you can take money out of a Roth IRA to, if you're buying, if you're using that money to buy your first home, you can take that money out of a Roth IRA with no penalty and no taxes. So I guess I just want to get your thoughts on that, what you would recommend and why.

Start with a Roth IRA does not have a rate of return. What you invest the Roth IRA into has a rate of return. And what we recommend you put your Roth IRA in is in good mutual funds. So you could use good growth stock type mutual funds if you wanted to, to save money for your house. Not sure I would recommend that unless you got five years or longer, but if you're going to, you could do that and not mess up your Roth. Your Roth needs to be used for retirement, not for house savings. Yeah. Tanner, what kind of debt do you all have right now? Currently, we've got the only debt we have is a student loan that has about $1,000 left on it.

We're going to pay it off here in the next couple of weeks. Good for you. Good job. How old are you guys? 26. What's your household income? About $60,000 a year. Good for you. Well done.

Well done. Yeah. Tanner, I would tell you this, buddy. Write that check. Pay off that $1,000 a year. Good for you. Well done. Well done. Yeah, Tanner, I would tell you this, buddy. Write that check. Pay off that $1,000 student loan debt. And I want you to build up a fully funded emergency fund, three to six months of expenses. And then start saving.

And then baby step 3B is start saving for the house. I'm not going to tell you to liquidate. I really am not. Well, and I wouldn't use a Roth as a savings vehicle for a house. No, yeah, not at all. To answer your question. You can only use mutual funds. That's okay. But that's taking a savings vehicle for a house. Yeah, not at all. To answer your question, you can only use mutual funds. That's okay, but that's taking a little risk with that money.

It is. It's not a recommended thing, but I definitely would not. I don't mess with retirement funds. They're to be used for retirement. So I wouldn't cloud your Roth with that. No, I really wouldn't either. And you guys only own $1,000 in the student loan debt. It's about to be gone. Get your three to six month in place. You guys save up cash for this home down payment. You can do this without touching the Roth.

Mike's in Ohio. Hey, Mike, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave, how's it going? Better than I deserve. How can we help? First of all, thanks for having me on. It's a pleasure. Sure. I am midway through Baby Step 2. I got maybe like 15 grand left. And I currently have three cars. One of them is a Jeep, which is our family car.

We owe about $6,000 on that. The other is a Fleece, my truck. I have been for about another year. And then I just bought a 2010 Toyota Sienna for $1,500, and it's worth about $7,000. My question was, do I sell the Sienna and pay off the family Jeep, or do I keep it for when my truck is gone? What's your household income? About $60,000. Okay. And so you make $7,000, right?

Or $6,000. Yeah, after insurance and taxes and everything come out, it's more like $4,000 a month. No, I'm talking about the profit on the Sienna. Oh, yeah, yeah. I can make exactly enough to pay off my Jeep pretty much. And it's a really nice Sienna. It's like a

steal. I don't think I'll be able to find another $1,000 car. Hold on, Mike. Let me ask you a question. Who drives the Sienna? Well, I will drive the Sienna, and my wife makes fun of me. But you drive the Sienna right now? No, it's actually just sitting in my driveway. I just bought it.

Well, why do you have it? He bought it to flip it. He bought it at a deal. I bought it to flip it. Oh, okay. Bought it at a deal. Deal, yeah. Okay, 12 months from, what's the truck worth?

I have a 2019 Dodge Ram, so. So it's going to be turned in at the end of the lease. It's a lease, yeah. And then you've got to buy something else. I'm going to go ahead and flip it. You can find you another car deal in a year. Pay off the Jeep? Yep, yep. Let's go ahead and flip it. You can find you another car deal in a year. Pay off the Jeep? Yep. Yep.

Let's go ahead and accelerate this and then start saving towards a car for a year once you've gotten your emergency fund in place. Get Sienna out of there. Yeah. Yeah. Make money. That's a good move. You did a good thing there.

No, it is. Good deal. Good job, Mike. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Families all over the country are discovering a faith-based and budget-friendly way of meeting health care costs, whether they're anticipated or completely unexpected. For example, take the Olcheski family from LaGrange, Texas. Jeff and Carice had just celebrated the birth of a new baby boy. Shortly after, they had another expensive medical issue come up. They could have faced a huge financial setback.

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Chris Hogan, Ramsey personality, is my co-host here on the air today on The Dave Ramsey Show. Tax day is approaching fast. Yes, they moved it to July 15th. That's only a couple weeks away. And if you need a tax extension, of course, that would give you to October 15th. That's only if you really need it because it does not extend the fact that you owe money, and you will still be penalized and charged interest if you do not pay on time, even if you don't file on time.

So better off to get the taxes done. If they're complicated and you need some help, we recommend one of our endorsed local providers for tax professional help, for professional help, one of our endorsed local providers for tax professional help, for professional help, one of our tax local providers. The endorsed local providers will help you with that. They'll get it done, and it absolutely works. I use a professional. I would never – I don't pull my own teeth, and I don't do my own taxes.

It's that simple. So go to DaveRamsey.com slash ELP and click on Tax Service. And by the way, they're pretty similar things. No, that's the truth. But you know what? Using an endorsed local provider, which I do, they made everything nice and smooth. I'm very grateful for them. Janet is with us.

Janet is in Florida. Hi, Janet. How are you? Hi, Dave. My daughter told me to call you, but you helped her. So, um, I have, um, a daughter and a son. My daughter is very financially comfortable. My son makes still, I don't know, 35,000 a year, and he's about ready to buy his own house. He's not married. So I told him that, you know, I would give him, you know, 70 to 90,000 in cash to help him get this house. I have social $6,500 a month. I have a financial advisor, money in stock and

money market, $500,000 in there. So I thought this would not be a big deal to give him this. It would, you know, be part of his inheritance just early. So my, you know, so I do worry, you know, that one day, you know, that something might happen to Social Security or my pension. I have a state Florida pension. So I think, well, you know, as long as I have my pension and my social security, I'm gold, you know, but I, you know, I think, well, I am in my late sixties, anything could happen. I don't have long-term care, long-term health care. Um, but I'm, you know, I'm in pretty good health right now. Janet, are you planning to do

the same thing for your daughter or is this just for your son? Just for my son. With a stipulation in my will that whatever money that I give him would be deducted from

the will. Are you feeling good about this idea, or are you nervous about the idea of giving your son this money? Do you know what? My husband was an accountant, so I'm a widow. Yes, ma'am. And he took care of all the financial stuff. So when it comes to financial stuff, I'm very nervous making decisions. At

first, it wasn't a big deal, but now I'm a little bit nervous when my financial advisor said, well, are you certain about this? You know, this is one-fifth of your money, you know, if anything happened. My accountant was, she says, you know, no one can see in the future now is he going to pay cash for a house with this or take out a mortgage he's he's just paying cash okay so if you give him 90 000 he's buying a 90 000 house he has some money to pay for the rest of it okay so but he's not going into debt is he is he wise with money? Yeah, he's very frugal with his money. Okay, so you're not giving a drunk a drink.

What's that? You're not giving a drunk a drink. You're not participating in him misbehaving. He's like a yoga person, you know? Mm-hmm. So he's, yeah. I don't mean literally a drinker. I mean, if he's misbehaving with money. I understand what you're saying.

Okay. If he's misbehaving with money. Janet, let me ask you this. One more question, then Dave's about to render a verdict. I feel the rumbling. I feel the rumbling in my spirit. But, Janet, was it your idea to give your son the money, or was it your son's idea that you give him the money? You know what?

It was mine my my mother gave me money from you know from my dream house okay so you know i did i i had a we'd had a house and this was a better house so i figured well how old is he he's 45 and he's single yes okay and how much money has he saved he has he said he has around after he pays for this house he'll have around 30 000 okay good okay all right i don't see any problem i thought I would do it if I were you. Because you're not assisting him in misbehaving, which is what I was meaning earlier. And it's not going to put you in a position that you're without food or that you're going to have, it's not going to damage your wealth to the degree.

And I like the adjustment in the will so that he gets a little less than. And, you know, it's rewarding. Good. He's been very wise with his with his income, which isn't a lot in order to get to this spot. So I like it. I think you're doing a wise thing. I think 90 is the limit and it is a fifth.

So it is a little bit nerve wracking. And it's good that you had to think through it and talk through it. That's smart. That means you're not being drug around by your emotions or you're being wise. You're seeking counsel and thinking about it. You're doing that. If I woke up in your shoes is how I answer questions here, I would do this. Now, you do need to see your tax person

because you cannot give away more than $15,000 in a year to an individual unless they're a charity without getting into gift tax. But your estate is small enough that you can file one piece of paper called a unified estate tax credit and you will use up some of your federal estate, which won't be a problem. Tax exemptions, you're in good shape there. You're not going to run into any problems, but you need to file that piece of paper to keep from getting hammered with gift tax. But, yeah, I would do that. See your tax person. Make sure you do the taxes.

Remember that phrase, unified estate tax credit, and that's what you're going to use, and that will keep you from having to use, and that'll keep you from having to pay any gift tax. But I would go forward with it. I think everything here sounds healthy, and my guess is the daughter probably is okay with it, the man's sister or whatever. Right. You know, Dave, when I talk, when I hear things like that, you hit on it. You don't want to enable someone that's misbehaving, so that's obvious. But then at the same time, being clear in what she's doing, and she's obviously reaching out to try to get some wise counsel. Yeah, and it sounds like there's good communication between her, the daughter,

the financial counselor, everybody that's involved. And so, you know, when you've got everybody on the same page, there's not any ducking and hiding behind something. And it's just this is what it is, and here's how I'm going to handle it. And, by the way, it's my money, so I can do with it what I want to do with it. And it doesn't leave her in a lurch. It doesn't leave her in a problem. Then, you know, she's going to be fine. That's good shape.

Good stuff. It is. Open phones at 888-825-5225. We do recommend long-term care insurance for people that are over 60 years old. In her case, that nest egg that she has may get used up for that, and that would be fine. Right. I probably would self-insure in her case through it but uh if she wanted to pick up a long-term care insurance policy that's something

else to think about uh to keep from that nest egg from being cracked and scrambled that's right in the event of a prolonged nursing home stay this is the dave ramsey show The Bumsy Show. Most people's money problems come from not paying attention. That's why before I spend a dime of my money on something, I do the research and make sure it's going to live up to what it claims. Recently, I got a great pair of sunglasses from a company called Shady Rays. When you're looking for sunglasses, it feels like your options are limited. Name brand sunglasses cost too much and the cheap knockoffs are ugly and really don't protect your eyes. Discovering Shady Rays is a game changer. With Shady Rays, you can count on premium sunglasses that protect your eyes and are affordable. They give people the best

overall value in sunglasses. They also replace your shades with a brand new pair if you lose or break them from day one of your purchase. And they guarantee your sunglasses for life. Plus, they offer an exclusive for Ramsey Show listeners. Go to ShadyRays.com and use the code RAMSEY for 50% off two or more pairs. That's ShadyRays.com, code RAMSEY. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debtbt Free Stage, Chris and Stephanie are with us. Hey guys, how are you? Good.

Great, thank you. Good to have you guys. Where do you live? Louisville, Kentucky. Welcome to Tennessee. Thank you. Thank you. Honored to have you here in our offices.

Thank you. How much debt have you paid off? $31,000. Very cool. And how long did this take? 24 months. Good. And your long did this take? 24 months. Good. And your range of income during that time?

We started off at $106,000 and ended up about $145,000. Nice jump in two years. Thank you. Thank you. Part of it was a promotion. Some of it was also just side hustle. Stephanie and our daughter Ella here just babysat and just crushed it. Awesome.

Yes. What kind of debt was the $31,000? Well, we had a car, we had credit card debt, and a little medical. What do you all do for a living? I'm in supply chain. I'm a manager of a procurement team. I'm a preschool teacher. Oh, very cool.

Good. Very cool. So what happened? What caused this to happen? So in the family, I'm the one who does the numbers and the finance and pay the bills. And I was looking at things, and I just saw our position was untenable. We were going down a path. I'm like, this isn't going to get us where we want to go.

I knew what we had to do. I knew, listening to you and Chris, what we needed to do to get there. And Steph needed it too, but the challenge is getting her on the same page because she wants to give to the kids so much. So I knew if I got the kids on board, I could get her on board. Oh. So. It's a reverse tactic.

Well, it was after a lot of prayerful consideration and that, that's what came to me. And Chris mentions high definition dreams. So when we started the conversation, I said, you know, after we do this, we can celebrate. And the kids, the kids go, can we go on a trip? I'm saying, sure. Where do you want to go? And they said, LA. So that became our mantra. Anything we did was, will it get us closer to LA? I like it. And I could tell a funny story. I want to say to say. I had to get some dental work done. I had to get a root canal. And we were in the dentist's office, and Hayden was with me,

and I was paying the bill with our flexible spending. It was not a credit card. And he leans over and he goes, is this necessary? Is this going to get us to L.A. closer? Like, Mom, can you just walk around with a root canal? I'm like, I promise it's okay. Yes. So it was awesome because they are already, like, watching.

Well, is this going to get us to L.A.? I don't know. I like it. Then they closed down L.A. Did you get out there before they closed it? No, we're doing it next year. Next summer. Yeah, next summer is our goal.

Very good. So between the two of you, who's the spender? Well, probably me. But you know, it's that mom thing. It is so hard to say no. But looking back now, it's a good thing to say no. You can't give them everything. They have to learn. She's 13 and like Chris said, she's been babysitting with me nights weekends she gave up a lot of sleepovers and handed that money over to get to la yeah so that's a lot for a kid to do

yes it is that's impressive it is yeah yeah that that's that's that's a good stuff you guys that's beautiful i love it very cool all right so when ask, I know that you paid off $31,000. They say, how'd you do that? What do you tell them the keys to getting out of debt are? Well, I think definitely communication, number one, between the two of us. And number two, the budget. The budget is key. The EveryDollar app is fantastic.

Love it. Yeah. I think that's what's... You've got to have a reason to do it. You're Love it. Yeah. I think that's what's... You've got to have a reason to do it. You're at LA. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly.

And the way we couched it with the kids is you hear no, but think of it as not right now. Because after we hit these financial goals, things open up. Yeah. Absolutely. And I think they've really bought into it. So that's... Live like no one else, so later you can live and give like no one else.

Amen. Absolutely. And it's amazing the seed we're planting today and how it's going to change their family tree, their kids, their grandkids on out into the future. So that's just – it's amazing. Well, and you're giving them fantastic life lessons, right? Sacrifice is required. Absolutely. I mean, you don't just come to lessons, right? Sacrifice is required. Absolutely. I mean, you don't just come to mom and dad to get money.

Right. Right. You got to work hard. And so I'm proud of you all for teaching them, right, and helping them to see what happens, especially when teamwork happens. Yes. Between mom and dad. That's cool. That's precious.

Thank you. And that's fantastic. And I'm proud of you all because you all really unified as a family toward a goal. Yes, sir. Right? And that's fantastic and uh i'm proud of you all uh because you all really unified as a family toward a goal yes sir right and that's that's fantastic and that's something they'll never forget so when you go to la here's what i want you to do i want you to take a photo and you got to send it in to us okay all right so we want to see you all in la as a unit we will do it that's fantastic that really is very cool very well done you guys very well we've got a copy of who was your biggest cheerleader i forgot to ask outside of outside your family i would well okay

outside our family i mean we have some friends that and this goes back to like how did you do it it's so hard again for me to say no and friends are like let's go on a trip and we're like no let's go out to eat no let's we hated the no people, but our friends stuck with us and they understood. And but I think just us four. Yeah, really. You know, they would sit in and do budget meetings with us and look at the numbers. Just yeah. Yeah, we were very transparent.

We opened the books and said, this is what's coming in. This is what's going out. This is where things stand. So this is how we got here. We did dumb stuff, you know. Yeah. Well, not only will the math making $150,000 a year basically for the rest of your life or more, not only will the math cause you to be able to change your family tree,

but the lessons that this last 24 months with these two, they'll never forget them. Right. I mean, when Hayden's dating some old girl out there, and he's 20 years old, and he's thinking about getting married, or 25 years old, and he's going to look around and go, is she going to be smart with money? He can't keep himself from doing it after this. I mean, you know? Right.

And, you know, Stephanie's not going to marry a guy who won't work, because she knows how to work. You know? So that's a good thing. I mean, you've set them up, man. This is beautiful. Very, very well done. Not Stephanie. Ella. Stephanie's the mom. I it back stephanie knows how to work too but i mean yeah

definitely but ella knows how to work i'm sorry so good good job you guys very very well done thank you all very well thank you we've got a copy of chris's book for you everyday millionaires that's definitely the next chapter in your story and i'm with Chris. I want to see that pic from L.A. when you get out there. That's a deal. All right, Chris, Stephanie, Hayden, and Ella from Louisville, Kentucky. 31,000 paid off in 24 months. Most unified whole family I've seen in a long time. Very well done. Count it down.

Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah! scream three two one we're dead free absolutely that's cool very well done yes it is man that's fabulous you know the um that's the kind of weird stuff that we've done with our teens and you've done with yours. Yes. Is the old work thing and the saving and giving. And, I mean, we opened up our books and showed, we didn't show them every little detail like that. Right. Because we were already, by the time I was a teenager, we were already in the wealth area. And we didn't want them to, their minds to be fried.

Right. But we did, like, here's what the electricity for the house costs. And let them look at the bill. And they go, that's a lot of money that's why i keep telling you turn off the light that's exactly right you it's a reason for that right it's just not an accidental thing right that's right absolutely cause and effect yes yes when you do stupid you cause daddy to have to spend more than I should. Yeah. Yeah, turn off lights.

But let them have a little sticker shock there. When those youngsters there got involved in that household budget, they saw the whole thing. They had the benefit of seeing the transparency of that. They were completely bought in. That's so powerful. Absolutely. Well, for Ella, though, as a young lady who's babysitting with her mom to turn over money toward the – I mean, that's just – that's team. Yeah.

That's in. I love that. Beautiful stuff. Proud of y'all. Well done. Very, very proud. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Check out this headline courtesy of politico.com. Emergency relief screw-up hits five million student loan borrowers nearly

five million student loan borrowers who got a break on their monthly payments from congress have been hit with incorrect information on their credit reports that's what happens when you just sit around and trust the government to take care of your money issues. Refinance your student loans today to take advantage of the historically low rates Splash is offering. Go to splashfinancial.com slash Ramsey. our scripture of the day romans 12 12 love one another with brotherly affection outdo one another in showing honor william arthur ward said the mediocre teacher tells the good teacher explains the superior teacher, the mediocre teacher tells, the good teacher explains, the superior teacher demonstrates, the great teacher inspires. Wow. That was a good one.

That is a good one. That's wall worthy right there. So, good stuff. Excellent, excellent, excellent. John is with us in Texas. Hi, John. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave.

Hi, Chris. Thank you for taking my call. I'm having trouble hearing you, John. Can you hear me? Yes, sir. That's a little better. Oh, okay. Well, thank you for taking my call. Sure. How can we help? So I am new to your show and a little bit about me. I'm 28 years old. My wife is two. We have a nine-month old. I am a student working on my doctorate degree, and I have a nine-month-old daughter. So I have about $300,000 in student loans, $40,000 in personal loans, $26,000 in credit card debt. You're working on what kind of a degree? A doctorate degree. In what?

Organizational leadership with a focus in healthcare administration. With a plan to do what? Within five to ten years, hopefully be in an executive leadership position, vice president, COO, or CEO. Why do you need a PhD to do that? It's a little bit more leaning into the healthcare administration side so I can get a better aspect of that realm. Okay. I have about $17,000 remaining on my SUV, and my wife and I together have about $116,000 remaining on our mortgage. Right now, we bring home a total of about $57,000 together after taxes. And so last year, my parents advised me to go file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, so I went to an attorney.

I've been retained with her or early of next year, because she wants to see how the elections turn out and see if maybe with the new party coming in, if she can bankrupt or file Chapter 7 of my student loans. I'm skeptical about that, but it's the only advice I've been given up to this point. So I guess my question to you guys are... So what do you file bankruptcy on? Your student loans aren't bankruptable. Your mortgage isn't bankruptable if you keep the house. What do you file bankruptcy on, a car?

No, the $40,000 in a personal loan and $26,000 in credit card debt. So my question was, should I continue on this path to do this? Should I do it sooner? Or should I even follow Chapter 7 and follow through with a different set of resources or steps to getting when do you graduate um in about two and a half years and you're not you're you're not working but your wife is we both are working i work full- as well, as well as being a full-time student. Oh, I see. Okay. But your household income is $57,000? Yes. I bring home about $38,000 after taxes, and she brings home $19,000 after taxes.

And your undergrad is in what? My undergraduate is in chemistry. Hmm. Okay. Chemistry and then respiratory care. So I'm a respiratory therapist. How are you paying for this PhD for the next two and a half years? So unfortunately, I did take out a student loan on top of what I already owe. I mean, if you file bankruptcy, you're not doing that.

How are you paying for your PhD? I haven't filed yet. I know. I got that. But if you file bankruptcy, you're not getting a student loan. I was not aware of that. I mean, so. All right. I'm trying to figure out where to start.

John, you right now, my friend, do you feel the weight of this right now? I do. Do you really? Because you said you just recently found us. And so what you're hearing is the wheels turning as we're processing because you've been sold a fake dream if you think bankruptcy is going to fix it. OK, because it costs money and you've already had this attorney on retainer and they're telling you we're going to wait for the election to find out if listen to me. Student loans are not bankruptable. OK, those aren't going anywhere uh and so i i i want you to start to look at this and feel it and not look for the quick fix but look for the fix here's the problem that's certainly

why why i'm trying to find other resources because that made me so skeptical when she said that yeah she was trying to push she was trying to push this back and and so that's why i wanted to find other resources out there and i found you guys that's more of a um yeah i appreciate this so i i've got to figure out a way to get you guys to get your income moving sooner than two and a half years from now and that's what's that's what my hold up here is because i'm not trying to the thing is the debt is always not the problem it's always the symptom of what's going on and when including when i lost everything went bankrupt 30 years ago so i know how scared you guys are and this is a huge pile up on you guys um and so you have bet the farm on this Ph.D. turning into serious income. I did, yes. I mean, with $300,000 plus continuing to pile it up.

So I'm probably going to start talking to health care companies now about working there and letting them pay to help you finish as their their continuing ed program pay to help you finish your phd and you go ahead and get your career track started now instead of a 38 000 job you've got a chemistry degree you've got the intellect to step into this you've got a lot of the training to step into this and let's accelerate the phd completion and let someone else pay for that get that off of you and then get your income up to begin to address the 300 while you're doing that you can address the other stuff you can file seven if you want to and clean it up clean up some of that stuff uh but but you've got to in good

conscience you can't continue borrowing if you're not going to pay other people you owe from a moral standpoint. And you've got to stop and address that as well in this. So I can't, I can't recommend you, uh, that you not pay someone in bankruptcy. And then while you're on the other hand, borrowing money on the other, out of the other side of your mouth. Right. And so, um, that, that's just inconsistent from an integrity standpoint for me so um i got to put a stop to the bleeding meaning we got to have a way to complete this phd without any more debt um and that that keeps us a from having any more debt and then b it gives us the leeway to say okay can we fight through these other types of debt, or do they need to go

into bankruptcy? You guys are just under an amazing amount of stress. And I'll tell you what, Dave. What I'd like to do, Kelly, get his information. I want to get him connected with one of our financial coaches. Yeah, you guys are going to have to have somebody walk with you. To sit down and unpack this. And we'll pay for it.

Yeah, and the first session. Instead of you filing bankruptcy, let's have him sit down with one of the coaches. That's a good idea. Absolutely. Because we've got to find out, Dave, with this doctorate program, this could be the kind that you've got to go to school for three years and then spend two years writing your doctoral dissertation. Well, he said he'd have it completed. Oh, well. But the thing is, you're so far into this, I can't pull you back.

But the bet that you've made is untenable a three hundred thousand dollar bet on the phd causing you to have a degree in executive health care is that's an untenable bet um is it a reasonable thing to get a phd sure sure you've done it in an such an unreasonable way it's put you under all this stress i'm so sorry i know you're scared so what we can do is walk with you and we'll just pay for it don't file bankruptcy um let's see if we can help you get this turned but you're gonna have to you're gonna have to attack this from multiple fronts not merely getting rid of the credit card debt and the personal loan just getting rid of that that you've still got all the other mess yeah and. And it is still getting worse if you don't make that better.

And that's what's scaring me here for you, brother. You hang on. Kelly will pick up, and we'll pay for your counseling. We'll help you get some help. We'll get you some help. Chris, good job. Thank you, sir. That was a good suggestion.

Good suggestion. That puts us out of the day. Ramsey Show and the books. 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. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free screen live on the show, make sure you visit DaveRamsey.com slash show and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.

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