The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Hide an IRS Bill From My Husband? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: August 28, 2018

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Music Music Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, 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. The Bible says in Proverbs, hope deferred makes the heart sick. When you lose hope, it makes your heart sick. And here's what happens to a lot of folks. They become bitter when they lose hope because they feel stuck and they don't know what to do. lose hope because they feel stuck and they don't know what to do so they lash out at anything

except themselves find something in someone to blame right it's the government's fault it's the man's fault it's the administration's it's the gop it's the democrats it's dave ramsey's fault it's dr phil's fault oprah did it i don't know who did it but somebody did it it couldn't have been me and when you lose hope and you get stuck and then you try to intellectually defend your lost hope it makes you look foolish and so what happens is i i get all this stuff and you if you read anything out there floating around the internet pretty quickly you'll find a lot of Dave Ramsey hate stuff. But most of it is based in that right there. It's I told you you could win.

I told you it could happen. You have lost hope and don't believe it can happen and are bitter. And so I am evil for that reason. And I have to be um marginalized otherwise the message that i bring might have some validity and it might make you deal with you and so for instance i got into a thread the other day of these angry uh millennials um yeah you know if you listen to the show very much i'm a huge fan of millennials uh but i'm talking about angry entitled snowflakes that are that are really just pissed off and everything because they feel stuck and they're bitter.

And this whole thing of, you know, Dave Ramsey doesn't understand. One of the guys was like, I hate baby boomers. What? Really? Get out much, son? I mean, really? You hate all baby boomers? That's okay.

But this is what you get when you use social media. So, you know, this young lady, you know, one of these angry snowflakes, Dave Ramsey posted a video about how student loans are stupid when trying to build wealth. And I just want to know how he suggests first-generation low-income students get an education on their own to actually generate wealth-building income without obtaining student loans. I just want to know that, which means that she doesn't think it can be done. By the way, I just, out of curiosity, I clicked on her little profile thingy,

and undergraduate in fashion merchandising on her profile, her Twitter profile, master's degree in education, and currently working on a Ph.D. at a very expensive private university. Very expensive. I won't name the university because I'm not trying to get you guys to attack this girl. It's not about the girl. It's about the concept. But, I mean, so apparently, I mean, it's not just we have to have money to get an education.

We have to have more degrees than a thermometer. I mean, this chick is collecting degrees at a rapid rate and an expensive rate, too. So I got to thinking about it. Have you heard the thing that tuition has gone up so much since you were in college you baby boomers you just don't understand inflation adjusted tuition the cost of college colleges are evil they have gone through the roof have you heard this have you heard this argument it's generally done with a high pitch like that as if it was a beagle chasing rabbit have you heard the argument okay if you haven't heard it you haven't heard the whole college discussion the cost of college and that student loan debts are evil and that everybody's been taking advantage

of right so i got to thinking about it it has gone up a lot now i've been telling people i've been on the air for almost 30 years i've been teaching this material staying out of debt for living on a budget paying cash for things for almost 30 years. And all during that 30 years, I've been citing various studies that indicate that the inflation rate of tuition is around 7%. And so, for instance, if you invested your kid's college fund in a good mutual fund and it made 10% or 12%, your mutual fund is going up faster than the cost of inflation, so you're in good shape. Now, inflation in general is measured by the CPI, the Consumer Price Index,

and it has averaged around 2.9% for the last 40 years. Okay? So tuition is going up at a 7% rate. Everything else is going up at about a 3% rate. Now, I'm 58, so I was in college. I graduated in 1982. And so I got to thinking, I wonder if they're right. I wonder if the math stands up to what they say.

And so I remember what I paid because I could barely get the money together. I paid $235 a quarter tuition. So four quarters in a year, you know, to go to school for a year was 940 bucks basically a thousand dollars a year right to go to college in 1982 i graduated now if you inflation adjust 940 to 940 dollars from 1982 at the normal inflation rate of 2.9 that means if if tuition was going up like everything else was going up, that would, instead of being $940 to go to college, would be just under $3,000. Okay?

But tuition at the University of Tennessee, where I graduated from, is not $3,000 a year. I looked it up. It's $13,006 for in-state tuition for a year right now. So I wonder what 940 to 13,006 is since 1982. What's that percentage increase? What's the inflation rate of tuition at the University of Tennessee where I got my degree in an in-state college?

Put it in the calculator, 7.16%. Tuition inflates at about a 7% rate and has since I got out of school. And it's continued to. So let's talk about this for a second. Can you get $13,000 a year? I mean, if you're lower income, you come out of a lower income house, can you work and make $13,000 a year? Yeah.

Yeah, you can. I mean, to start with, in the summers when you're off, you work 80 hours $13,000 a year? Yeah. Yeah, you can. I mean, to start with, in the summers when you're off, you work 80 hours a week, right? And you don't work some stupid but minimum wage job. You walk dogs, you clean toilets, you get something where you babysit, where you're making $15, $20 an hour. And you can do that, walking dogs, cleaning toilets, and babysitting.

Delivering pizza. Driving Uber. You can make more than minimum wage okay so can you come up with thirteen thousand dollars a year that's a little over a thousand dollars a month you can make that working part-time while you're in school that doesn't cover housing and it doesn't cover books it doesn't cover food we still got to cover those but that's tuition So can you do that? The answer is yes, you can do that today. You can go debt-free to school. Now, you can't go to school where a little snowflake that's angry at me is going to school because that's expensive.

Because I did look up Vanderbilt, which is in my town. And Vanderbilt is not $13,000 a year. Vanderbilt is $49,810 a year. Now, Vanderbilt is a wonderful school. That's four times as much, by the way, as University of Tennessee. It's a wonderful school. Is it four times better? Well, crud, no.

Absolutely not. I know that because I went to University of Tennessee, and people that went to Vanderbilt worked for me. So I don't know that that makes, you know. If you've got the money and you want to spend $50 50 grand a year on Vanderbilt, that's fine. But don't tell me you can't go to school debt free. You've chosen not to go to school debt free and you've chosen to stay in school so long that you're going to be mummified by the time you get out collecting all these degrees. This is what your problem is, kiddo.

This is the Dave Ramsey Show. All it takes is one emergency trip to the dentist to blow your budget quickly. Now, I'm not a fan of dental insurance. I think it's a waste of money. But there is another option. It's called One Dental, and it's not dental insurance. One Dental is a discount program that functions like a membership club. Think of it like Costco. You join for a small yearly fee, and you save big time every time you use it. I'm talking discounts on all procedures from routine cleanings all the way to root canals. Plus, you can choose from tens of thousands of dentists from all across the country, including orthodontics for kids and adults.

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Patrick is in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Patrick. Hi, sir. Thank you for taking my call. Sure, man. What's up? Well, I'm about $236,000 in debt. And my question is, I have 24 EE bonds that haven't fully matured yet, and today they're worth about $12,500. I'm wondering if I should cash those in to pay off some of my lower debts,

or if I should wait until they're fully matured, and if they're taxed if I cash those in in any way. They might be taxed, but not much because you haven't earned anything. They make less than 1%. They're crap. Yeah, cash them in immediately. Never buy EE bonds. Horrible rate of return.

Bad place to park money. Yeah, these were... When you say $236,000 worth of debt, are you talking about mortgage included? Yes. How much of that's your mortgage? $200,000. Okay, so you got $36,000 we're beating up, and you got $12,000 of these things to throw at it. Yes.

Very good. And your baby step two, we call it. You know what i'm talking about when i say that yes sir okay good good so what kind of debts the 36 000 uh 6 800 is education um and 30 of it is a truck that i'm looking right now to trade in or sell um but i owe a little bit more than it's worth right now 12 000 will cover that plus pay off the education right yes and get you get you another car what's your household income 55 000 yeah a 30 000 truck doesn't fit you're making good decisions brother sell the truck

use the ee bonds to pay off the education loan buy you a little car to get around a little truck to get around and cover the difference when you're in the hole on the truck, okay? Okay, sounds great. You've got a plan, man. Get after it. You can do this. And, you know, you're going to drive like no one else, so later you can drive like no one else. I want you to get you a nice truck, but I want your nice truck to get you.

This one's got you around the neck. You feel it? Yeah, you do. Natalie is with us in New York. Hi, Natalie. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up? All right. So I have some money to throw at some debt, roughly $25,000. So my question is, I have a loan against my husband's annuity, roughly about $25,000, where we're paying it back, I guess, quarterly. And so we're paying it back, and, you know, 5%.

We're paying ourselves back, essentially. Then we also have a car loan of about the same amount. We have about three years left on that. It's below 2% interest, so i just don't know which that's the only two loans you have um i mean other than my mortgage yes okay all right i'll pay off the car pay off the car yeah and then i'm gonna go over and pay off the 401k as fast as i can because you don't have a car payment anymore now and let's get that 401k loan and never borrow on that 401k alone again so here's the thing here's the thing your mutual funds in that 401k loan and never borrow on that 401k alone again.

So here's the thing. Here's the thing. Your mutual funds in that 401k would have made like 20% in the last 12 months. Instead, you paid yourself five. Right, right. Never do that. Yeah, never do that. So let's get that paid off as fast as we can, but I pay off the car first. And as soon as you possibly can.

Micah's with us in waco texas hey micah how are you hey dave i'm uh i'm honored i'm also very nervous it's okay we've never lost a patient how can i help well um uh one baby step we were on two. Now we're back down to one. We just got an IRS bill, and we've almost paid off the first one, and now we got this one. My husband's job is very labor-intense, and he is just now coming on board. I've been gazelle for over a year, and he's just now coming on board, and I'm a little worried about telling him about this. Why are you ending up behind with the IRS? How's this happening? Stupidity?

No, I mean really, mechanically. Is somebody working self-employed and you're not doing quarterly estimates? No, no. You're underpaying on your withholding no what had happened was i was stupid enough to listen to somebody and they said oh they could do creative math and they said well you can um you can um claim this this this is deductibles and then of course we've never done this before and through ignorance we got um we got into a little bit of a pickle and we accept that and we're getting it paid off but um okay so

he doesn't know about this one so you misfiled your you you had two you did not have enough withheld because you believed you had deductions that you didn't have, and that got you behind once. Now, what is the second one? Well, we didn't realize what was going on until later. Then the IRS started sending us, hey, you're being audited. Okay, that doesn't make sense. I'm like, okay, what's going on? Whoa, whoa, whoa, stop, stop, stop, stop.

This doesn't make sense. Okay. Last year you filed your taxes a year ago. Yes, and we did that correctly. Listen, and you discovered that you were short because you screwed up. Yes. Okay? Yes.

I got where that one comes from. But once you discovered you were short, you didn't go correct it? No, no, no. We did correct it? No, no, no. We did correct it. This is two years back. We're taking care of our mistake from two years back. Then how did you get a new one? You just got a fresh IRS bill that you didn't see coming that you don't want to tell your husband about.

That's what you told me. No, I knew this was coming i i just was hoping that i could um um get out from under some debt before it hit okay all right listen there's a high correlation between people who work together with their spouse and whether or not they're able to build wealth. So your husband and you working together and always knowing, both of you knowing everything that's going on, is the only possible way to have a high-quality marriage and build wealth. It really is. I mean, the statistical evidence that if you lie to your husband, it doesn't work out,

and the statistical evidence if he doesn't get on board and the two of you don't work together to solve all financial problems. But so far, you've been gazelle intense. He's not really on board, and you're hiding stuff from him or tempted to hide stuff from him. And see, these are two different things, but they both indicate you've got to get on the same page. So I think you sit down with him, and you turn off the television and put the kids to bed. If you've got kids and you look deeply into his eyes and go enough, enough, I'm tired of doing this by myself. I need you to be a man.

I'm tired of being mommy and you're the little boy and I need you to get on board with me enough. And, um, you know, he's not a bad guy. He's just ignoring this and thinks it's going to be okay to the point that now you feel ashamed because something's out of control and you're doing it by yourself. And so the two of you need to be working together. And any surprises you have, the two of you fight them together. No, you do not hide this from him. And, yes, you use this as an opportunity to pull him further on board.

And I mean, he has really no right to criticize you because he's not doing anything. If he's not helping, how does he have a seat to criticize? So, I mean, he don't like the way it's being handled. Maybe he ought to get involved. Hello. So, yeah, that's what's going on. But no, you can never deceive. You can never lie.

You can never hide stuff from your spouse and work out. I mean, who wants to be lied to? Who wants to have stuff hidden from them? Only somebody's weird or got problems, that's all. He doesn't want you hiding stuff from him. You don't want to be lied to. I don't want Sharon not telling me something because it's unpleasant. No thank you.

That's not how relationships work, especially the one you're supposed to be closest to on the planet, your spouse. So, yeah, you tell him everything. All of you tell each other everything. Do you know 37% of Americans lie to their spouse about money? You tell him everything. All of you tell each other everything. Do you know 37% of Americans lie to their spouse about money, according to a survey? That's hard for me to believe. But when you think about it, number one cause of divorce in America is money fights and money problems.

And 52% of Americans' marriages end in divorce. So that kind of does make sense if you think about it. But it also indicates that lying to your spouse is probably not a good idea. Hello. This is the Dave time to buy life insurance? My answer is typically now. Life insurance is not part of the baby steps because it's needed when your family has debt and not enough savings to provide for their financial needs. That's when they're at the highest risk.

And no matter where you are in your baby steps, it's a necessity, not a choice. This includes working husbands and wives, as well as stay-at-home parents. It's pretty expensive to replace those stay-at-home parent responsibilities. I only recommend term life insurance, since it's the most affordable way to get the right amount of coverage and not break your budget. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. These are the guys I personally use. Term life insurance is inexpensive and your family needs this no matter where you are in your baby steps. That's Zander.com or call 800-356-4282.

Zander.com. In Stamford, Connecticut, Palin is with us. Hi, Palin. How are you? Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up in your world? Thank you so much for taking our call and being on your show. It's so exciting. I see on my screen you're debt-free. Congratulations. How much have you paid off? Thank you. A little over $40,029. Good for you. And how long did this take? It took about 12 and a half months.

All right, cool. And your range of income during that time? It was $115,000 to $116,000. Good for you. And what do you do for a living? I'm a nurse in Connecticut. Okay, good. You're working a lot.

I'm working nurse in Connecticut. Okay, good. You're working a lot. I'm working a lot. So how much, what kind of debt was this $40,000? Well, it was a little of everything. I took out a retirement loan a few years ago, and then I decided to treat myself with a new car, and then I had lots of credit card debt. So what happened 12 months ago that got you on this plan? Well, I was in school to get my master's degree in nursing for nursing education. And I started, you know, thinking, oh, you know, when can I retire? And started looking at my money and was like, oh, well, how can I retire? And started looking at my money and was like,

oh, wow, how can I retire if I'm going to retire in debt? Yeah. So I got online and started to see if I can, you know, learn some more about financial planning, and then I came across your show, and that was it. I started listening to the show, and I read the total money makeover and was like, I have to do this. There's no way I can, like, retire with all this debt.

Good for you. Yeah. So you just rolled up your sleeves and got after it then, huh? Yeah, pretty much. Cool. So what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? I mean, you paid off $40,000, girl. Well, number one is to find out your why.

Like, why do you want to get out of debt and, you know, set your intention? And so my why was, you know, eventually, like, you know, stop working but retire in, like, dignity, not to have to borrow money from families or anything like that. And the second is you have to set a budget. There's no way that you can do this without setting your budget. And then the third is to just be gazelle intense, exactly what you say. You have to, like, just get in there and just do it. You have to get fired up and mad about it. Yeah, I mean, you did.

You got down to beans and rice, rice and beans to make this happen, and it looks like you picked up some overtime maybe, did you? Oh, yeah, yeah. I was working a whole lot, and every dollar that I made that was overtime went towards the debt, started to do meal planning, and forget Starbucks. That was out of the question, just making coffee at home. We started doing game night at home instead of like going out and just hitting it hard. Yeah. Way to go. Way to go. What was the hardest part for you over the last year? The hardest part was like looking at that number and staring it in the face. And I thought, oh,

yeah, I have like this, you know, finance thing, you know, down pat. But looking at that number and, like, being real and truthful to myself was like, oh, boy, you know. And being a single mom and, you know, making sure that, you know, my children share the journey with me so that they don't make the same mistakes in the future. That's how you change your family tree right there. Good for you. Yes, yes. How old are the kiddos?

My oldest one, he's working right now. He's 24. And my little one, he's here. He's 10. Okay. And how old are you? I am 44, Dave. Have you ever been debt-free as an adult?

No. And now you are. No, thank you. I'm proud of you. Well done. Thank you. Very well done. Did you have people cheering you on?

Well, I had people that thought I was a little crazy. Yeah, I bet. Yeah, so definitely being a single mom, and, you know, I look to the show to get the inspiration. So, you know, every day listening to the show, and sometimes if I was working, I would just catch it later on YouTube or something. And listening to the podcast and hearing all those people scream that they were debt-free, I was like, well, if they can do it, I can do that, too. That's right, and you did. Twelve and a half months later, boom, mic drop.

Good for you. Well done, well done, well done. Thank you so much, David. All right, we've got a copy of Chris Hogan's retire-inspired book for you. That's the next chapter in your story to be uh not only debt free but now move towards millionaire status so you can hit that why that you were talking about that debt free retirement there we go there's something to reach towards good job all right balin and and it's forty thousand dollars paid off in twelve and a half months making 115 count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Okay. Ready?

Orlando. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Great job, kiddo. Well done. Good job, good job, good job. Andrew's in Kansas City. Hey, Andrew, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hey, thank you so much for taking my call. Sure, what's up? Okay, so my wife and I just started listening to you. We had no clue the shape that we were in. It was a real eye-opening moment. So anyways, we got enrolled in one of your classes. It's going to start next month. And we've got a lot of debt, but we do have some in savings,

and we also have some money in our kids' savings. So the question is, do we take money out of their savings to put towards debt, or do we just leave that there? Well, as you're working the baby steps, what we teach people to do is use all of your savings that is not in a retirement account to work your baby steps. Baby step one is $1,000 saved, a starter emergency fund. Two is to start paying on debt.

How much do you have in savings, not counting the kids? We've got about $15,000 in savings. Okay, so you would take that down to $1,000 and throw the $13,000 or $14,000 difference at your debts. How much debt have you got, not counting your house? It is about $24,000. Okay, and what is the $24,000 on? That is all credit cards.

Okay. Have you cut them up? We haven't. We haven't used them. Tonight. Okay. Well, we were going to wait until we started the class. I didn't know when we should. It's okay.

You can cut them up tonight. You don't have to start the class to have plastic surgery. Tonight. Right. And I just started paying attention to our finances. I thought that she knew what she was doing. You're going to laugh at this, but I thought she was really good with credit cards, and so did she. We haven't paid a penny on interest.

Really good with credit cards is like saying I'm really good at juggling swords. Yeah. It's not going to end well, you know. So, no, cut them all up tonight. good at juggling swords yeah you know it's good it's not going to end well you know so uh no i i cut them all up tonight let's let's draw a line in the sand and say this has not brought us to where we want to be we're changing direction uh right and uh oh by the way if you get completely out of debt and hate it you can always get credit cards they'll give them right back to you right so if i'm so if i'm wrong it's not a big deal. So just cut them all up tonight, get on a written budget.

How much money is in the kids' savings? It's $3,000 to $4,000. How much is your household income? Well, that's the thing. She just quit her job. She's just working part-time because she's in school full-time. What's your household income? Right now, about $50,000.

Okay, good. You can make it without cashing out the kids' stuff. And I would leave the kids' stuff alone. Technically, it's your money because they're minors. You can do with it what you want to. But it just feels weird as a parent to use that money. It's not enough money to solve the problem. And the problem is not so big you can't solve it.

So let's just leave it in there. Use your savings and don't add any more to any savings until we get these debts cleaned up. Cut off the credit cards tonight. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options? Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ

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No, I don't. I've heard people mention laddering multiple term policies together versus having a single policy. Is this something you recommend, or can you give some additional insight? Yeah, I don't recommend 30s. I'm not against them, but it's a better deal to take out a 15 to a 20-year level term. If you're young, go ahead and take out a 20. You're probably going to add some insurance as you go along, as you just get married. Then as you start having kids, you may want to add some insurance as you go along, as you just get married. Then as you start having kids, you may want to add some.

As long as you don't lose your health, the laddering idea is what I ended up doing. I didn't call it that. I didn't intend for it to be that sophisticated. But I just ended up adding insurance as I went along. And then the older policies dropped off. The good news is term life insurance is such a good buy, and it has continued to drop. Like back when I was buying insurance on me for everything, you know, as I got older, as long as I wasn't overweight and hadn't lost my health and wasn't smoking or something,

then my term policy, I could actually buy it for about what I could five years ago, even though I was five years older because prices were dropping. So, I mean, term life insurance is just such an easy goodbye that that's what you do. So, yeah, you'll buy a 20 now, and then you may add another few hundred thousand later and another 20, and then you may add another 20. And, you know, as long, again, as long as you don't lose your health you're not going to see substantial huge jumps in price uh and you're going to be okay and most of this is going to happen in the next 10 years so as you start adding babies you're going to go i don't think we want a lot more insurance you know yeah so that's okay you should have on term life insurance about 10 times your income maybe to 12 times your income so if you

make fifty thousand dollars a year you ought to have five hundred thousand to six hundred thousand on you so if you die your spouse could take six hundred thousand invested let's say they made ten percent on the money and if they did that'd be sixty thousand dollars a year which you only make fifty in our example. So that's pretty good. So they only have to make like 8% on their money if you carry 12 times, and you put it in good mutual funds, and they'll be fine. See, that's what we're going to do.

We want to replace your income if something happens to you for your family. For, you know, quick, easy quote, just go to Zander Insurance. It's who I buy my term insurance from. It's the best prices anywhere and the best service. They're just wonderful people. Zanderinsurance.com. Well, last April, we hosted our second Smart Money live stream event. And just like the first one, it was a huge success.

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It's a live stream only. It's only $19.99. So go to DaveRamsey.com. Click on the live events. You can find out where all the live events are. Or you can call 888-22-PIECE, 888-227-3223. And you can get the live stream of the Smart Money event. The Smart Money event is Chris and I walking through the baby steps,

but we do it with a lot of stories, a lot of humor. It's kind of the baby steps on steroids, you know. You hear me talk about them here on the air. Everybody calls it, I'm on baby steps, whatever, all that, right? But we're going to do it right there. You're going to see the whole thing. You're going to bring your spouse. You're going to bring your friend that thinks you're crazy.

You can bring your kid. It's 18 years old. You're trying to cause them spouse. You're going to bring your friend that thinks you're crazy. You can bring your kid. It's 18 years old. You're trying to cause them to have a financial brain. You bring them with you, and then you elbow them through the whole event. See, I told you. See, I told you. See, I told you. See, they get the whole thing on them that way rather than just hear you talk about this crazy guy on the radio or the podcast or YouTube or whatever it is you're talking about, right?

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Get your tickets before they are gone. Tessa's in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Hi, Tessa. How are you? Hello, Dave. Good. Thanks for taking my call. Sure.

What's up? So I kind of have a two-part question. Okay, so we're on baby step number two, and we have actually stopped paying our credit cards, so we're on baby step number two and we have actually stopped paying our credit cards. So they're in default now. Um, why?

But, uh, because, so we're self-employed. Both of us are. Um, I quit my business and my, so we just did not,

we had an income issue for sure. Um, and so are you working now? I did not. We had an income issue, for sure. And so... Are you working now? I am not. I am currently trying to find a job. I have two little girls. Okay.

What was the last job you had? I own my own boutique from home. What was the last job you had before that that made money, that they paid you to do? Um, it was... I worked at a gym. What was the job you had before that that made money, that they paid you to do? It was, I worked at a gym. And you made what kind of money? In the daycare. In the daycare.

Minimum wage, which around here is like $8 an hour. Gotcha. Okay. What is your husband making at his job, at his business? He is currently making around $45 a year. Okay okay and how much credit card debt have you got so um we have three credit cards two of them are maxed out at six thousand the third is maxed out at twelve thousand um but the credit card company just sent us a thing in the mail offering to settle with us. You don't have any money. I know.

So the thing is, is we have, my husband's a car guy, and so we have a ton of cars, and so we've been selling those. We have our $1,000 emergency fund, and we just sold a car for $4,500. And you got an offer on one of the $6,000s for how much? $25,000. Take it. Okay. You got it in writing.

You got it in writing. Do not give them electronic access to your checking account. Make sure that the statement is very clear of what you've got in writing, and you keep a copy of the cashier's check that you mail to them, and you mail it to them immediately. How many other cars can he sell to clean up this debt before his income goes up? Well, okay, so we have, we just sold another truck last weekend. We have another one that was for $500.

We have another one that we're selling tonight for $500. The guy's supposed to come over tonight. Good. He did stupid, yeah, like a month into listening to you, or two months into listening to you, and he bought another car with some of our savings that he came to the conclusion that we're going to sell. How many cars do you own? After you sell the $500 car tonight, how many more cars are sitting there? We probably have, like, 10 cars.

Good Lord. He's a car guy. No, he's not a car guy. This is like nuts. I'm a car guy. But a car guy means you like cars. It doesn't mean your family is in jeopardy because of your car addiction. Yeah, we got to start selling these things.

Like, all of them go but basic transportation. Immediately. You can't pay your bills. There's no discussion about this. These are all for sale today. Every one of them. The last two that don't sell, you get to keep. And both of you got to work to get your incomes up to get this done and cut up those stupid credit cards.

Hey, it's Kelly, Dave's phone screener. We finished 2017 with a bang as the fourth most downloaded podcast of the year. Thanks to all of you for listening and helping us spread the word.