The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Leave Before More Layoffs? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: June 7, 2024

Welcome to the Ranty Show, where we help you win with your money, win in your relationships, and win in your work. 888-825-5225 is the phone number, 888-825-5225. I'm Ken Coleman. Dr. John Deloney joins me, and we are together for you this hour. Let's get it started in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Justin has been waiting. Justin, how can we help? Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call. I have a little bit of a career question. So, my wife and I are on baby step four, five, six, trying to pay off our house. We've got about 250,000 left on it. I make a good income at $425,000 a year, but I was just told by my boss a couple of days ago that, um, we're doing our

second round of layoffs and the company, he can only tell me has nine to 12 months left. Um, I don't know what happens after that. There could, you know, could be something that saves us. But my question is, do I ride the ship down? It's I've been told, you know, I'm one of the few that needs to stay or should stay, or do I go ahead and try to find something else? Um, the big goal of ours obviously pay our house off. That's a major thing. So kind of wondering, and it feels like the right thing to do to stay to kind of help out. But what I don't want to do is shortchange our family

and call short of the goal. Okay. So let me ask a question. Did you say that your boss told you the company's got nine to 12 months left before it's done? So he basically told me that he could quote unquote, I'll guarantee my salary and bonus for the next nine to twelve months um without really knowing what's going to happen after that he'll guarantee his own no actually i think there's going to be quite a few cuts and i think i know i'm sorry so the boss said he could only guarantee his own salary for the next nine no no no i asked him how much longer we have and and we're a small, tight team, and he told me he could guarantee my salary.

Oh, okay. All right. All right. I'm sorry. I just want to make sure I understand this. And how many people in the company? There's probably right now about 30. Okay.

And this next round is going to take us down to maybe half that. Okay. I will tell you, if it were me, I'm sure John will weigh in on this as well. If it were me, I would not feel any kind of sense of duty to go down with the ship. It's not your ship. I love loyalty. I really do. I'm not going to tell you that's a bad decision.

I'm telling you, I would be, starting today, looking for opportunities to replace my $425,000. I would start today. Now, I could be fine with a both-and, meaning I'm going to start looking, and I'm looking aggressively as though I've got to replace that in the next 30 days. That's how aggressive I would be. That's me personally. And then as you see what the market bears, you could say to them, all right, if I got another company that says they want me and I can make a nice move, maybe you ask for a 60-day start. So hey, instead of starting in two weeks, this is my current company. They're struggling. I'd like to be able to help them. I mean, you can try some creative

things there to ease the burden of you leaving, but you are on a ship that's taking a lot of water, and it sounds to me like it is absolutely going down outside of a miracle. And I would just tell you that's not your responsibility. No matter how good they've been to you, no matter what they've done for you, you've got to do what's right for you in a situation where you don't have any control over whether the company gets better or dies is that true yeah i mean for you for sure yeah i mean i play a key role but again yeah i'm not going to keep this place john what do you think i mean i i'm already sending out applications for you while you're talking that's right i saw him he applied for you yeah i've already applied seven jobs

here's the thing. Ken said it. You've worked really hard for them, and they've paid you an excellent wage for your work. That's the arrangement, and that's the agreement. And I think sometimes companies want to put the burden of, well, you owe us. It's like, well, no, I've been doing my job, and you've been paying me for my job and if he

your boss sat you down and said hey um this thing's going down and we're about to lay off 50 percent of our workforce and when you have a small company those numbers sound a lot more dramatic they're about to cut your company in half and so if they did that and he said i'm i am literally on my hands and knees begging you to stay i'm gonna do x y and z for you because i know it's scary for you and your family but that's not what he's doing he's like bro i need you man i need you it's gonna be and bro i need you is not gonna pay your electric bill when this thing's out here's the other thing i'd like to point out john uh him saying the boss saying i can guarantee you nine to twelve months that doesn't feel like a

guarantee there's no he can't guarantee he might change that tomorrow he didn't say that yeah he did say that he couldn't guarantee that but that was likely the situation i know but likely doesn't pay the bill exactly and so listen you you how much are you making again 425 what do you do i work for an investment company. Okay. I'm in their operations group. How hard is it to get another investment job? Well, I mean, that's the thing because over the last five years,

I started as a construction manager and became a principal. I feel like a unicorn. So I think part of my question is like I could get a good income, I believe in myself, but I'm kind of my question is like, I could get a good income, I believe in myself, but I'm kind of in a unique situation. Okay, so let me ask you this. How long have you been making $425,000? I just got this notch up a few months ago.

What did you move from? So I moved from probably about $375,000. Okay. And what before that? Well, that would have been like probably $250,000. Okay. So let's play. About $150,000.

Let's say this. Let's say you made $150,000. And somebody knocked on your door and said, hey, for four years, you get to live outside of the matrix. You're going to get to go to some fancy meetings we're going to pay you almost half a million dollars and then when this is over you're gonna have to go find a new job and go back to go back to earth yeah you would have taken that deal every which way from sunday wouldn't you for sure okay and so having some perspective on this you want you scratched off a lottery ticket with a group of guys

that clearly don't know how to do business because they're about to be over. Right? Right. And they paid you half a million dollars for the ride, for the last little leg of the ride. That's amazing. And so you've been able to pay off everything you own. You're hustling to pay off your house,

which is you've changed your family's financial trajectory because you've been wise with your money. You don't have a bunch of Lamborghinis and Porsches, do you? No. No, you've done great. And so if you go back to 175 grand, I see that as still winning in a really amazing way. You see what I'm saying? It won't be the, remember those days. And I mean, that's the way I look at my job right now. If Dave Ramsey had said, hey, I want you to take five years off of your regular life, and I'm going to transform your life, and you and Ken are going to get to travel the country and speak and do all this cool stuff, and then you have to go back to the regular,

I would have taken that job every, I would have taken that all the time, right? Yeah, but that's also a worst-case scenario. Worst-case scenario. And Justin, you live in a really good market. Charlotte's a great city. It's really popping, great job market. You said you're a bit of a unicorn. I would spin that into all of those things that make you a self-described unicorn,

show you multiple jumping off points. And I'm going to give you my get clear assessment. I think it'd be fun for you to take just to kind of validate who you really are and help you with some direction. So I'm going to give you that with the book, find the work you're wired to do. That'll, that'll be helpful to you, but I would be moving quickly.

Like John said, I move quick. We both said that we're like, Hey, let's go now. Let's look for stuff. And here's the deal. If it gives you nine more months or six more at that income,

man, to John's point, bank it gravy. But man, it's time to move on. And you listen, this is, they're doing you a favor, this boss, in the sense they haven't laid you off yet. That was the guy of integrity. Called you in and said, this is ending.

Yeah, and he's like, hey, I got about this much time on the clock. He doesn't really know that, so I'd cut that in half. I'd say you only have about six months to make a move. So I'd get after it pretty quick. Hang on the line. We'll get you the clear assessment and the book, Find the Work You're Wired to Do. All right, quick break. John and I will be right back. Do not move. So I'd get after it pretty quick. Hang on the line. We'll get you the get clear assessment and the book, find the work you're wired to do. All right, quick break. John and I'll be right back. Do not move. This is the Ramsey show. Welcome back to the Ramsey show. I'm Ken Coleman. Dr. John Deloney is with me. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Ramsey Trusted Pros shop the market and compare insurance quotes so you don't have to.

Your pro will compare quotes, discounts, and bundling deals for you at no extra cost. Ramsey Trusted Pros will make sure you have all the coverage you need and nothing you don't need. Ramsey Trusted Pros are interviewed, vetted, and coached to make sure they're market experts who have your best interest at heart. Do you have the right coverage that you need from your insurance based on your individual needs? Find out at ramseysolutions.com slash coverage. That's ramseysolutions.com slash coverage.

Hey, can I just say something? Of course you can. This is just a peek behind the Deloney home curtain. Uh-oh. We're buying a house, and I went through it the OG way. I reached out to Churchill. Yeah. And the main man, David Porter.

Took care of me. Amazing. Yeah. Used a Ramsey-trusted real estate person, because I have this weird thing about, like, if I'm going to keep saying this on the air over and over again. Right. She was amazing. Her name's Cassidy. She air over and over again, she was amazing. Her name's Cassidy.

She was amazing. The Xander team was amazing at shopping everything all over planet Earth to find the best deal here. You went through the Ramsey Trusted Car Wash? I went through the Ramsey Trusted Car Wash. And I'm sitting here, a guy who defaults to being anxious about decisions, and I got peace because I got David Porter and I got Valerie and I got Cassie. I got these experts in my, in my court. And it just,

it makes me feel good about looking across the country and saying, if you don't know where to turn and you get well wound up like I do, here's a, here's a gang that will walk with you. These are Ramsey trusted pros. They're good. And they're good for the Deloney family. So what I hear you say is that using Ramsey trusted pros in every area that we recommend

will lead to a non-anxious life. Oh, my gosh. Did you see what I just did there? You're the best. Did you see what I did there? Is this an addition to your book? We just put a little appendix? It's an appendix.

An appendix on the bestselling book, How to Live a Non-Anxious Life. One day I'm going to be as good at the radio as you are. Well, it was right over your left elbow. That amazing and i was paying attention to you and i saw a potential promo there but in all honesty that's why you're the pro that's what we're saying but all to say is if you're really the jury's out on the ramsey trusted pros they're incredible low anxiety and they take care of you yeah it's good it's real it's a real thing not just a shameless book promotion correct but by the way i mean you're allowed to do that if it's not your own as long as you do that for a colleague it's considered okay don't do it for yourself people that's fair that's fair for those of you who want to do this one day geez all right

ethan is up in big bear is this a place it's a place it's where tito ortiz's uh mma camp used to be up in big bear i love that you pulled that right out of your ear. Ethan is there in Big Bear, California, a place I'd like to go. Ethan, how can we help? Hey, sir. It's a pleasure to be on the show here. My uncle was the one that got me onto your program. So I'm 23.

I'm currently on Baby Steps 3B. I'm here with my wife, too. We have a question. We're looking to buy a house, but we're ready to do it. We've already been approved for a mortgage and everything. We found a house we really like, but I have two small questions. One was, I don't know if I should give up the rent that I'm at currently. I mean, we have a pretty decent house, and it's right off the cliff,

and it's only about $500 a month. And I'm not sure if it would be worth it to give up the place that we have now for a house, which is going to be about $2,200, $2,100. The house we're putting an offer on, it's like 200 grand less than what it's actually worth. It just needs work. But I'm kind of at the tipping point whether we should make this swivel point to our next journey in buying a house or should we wait a little bit? Am I doing this too young? All right. Slow down. Slow down a little bit. Slow down. There you go. You're excited and you've done very, very well.

It's that low oxygen up there in Big Bear, man. That's right. And did I hear you say the rental house is on a cliff? Yeah, not like the house is about to fall down. It's about 75 feet away from the cliff. Oh, no, I knew it wasn't falling over, but it sounds like you've got a great view, so there's a little bit of that going on too, huh? Mm-hmm. That's correct. All right. So here's the deal. What is your income, combined income or solo income? Combined income this year, it's going to be about $140,000. $140,000. And how much do you have saved for this house? Down payment. Down payment, we were looking to put down 5%. I've already have my emergency fund and everything.

Okay, you have no debt at all? No debt at all. All right, you said the house purchase price was what, $200,000, or was it a little bit more than that? It was $275,000. $275,000, so quick math on that. So you're looking at about what, $13,000, $14,000 down payment? Yeah, that's correct. Okay. And what will your monthly payment be?

It'll be just around $2,000 a month. Okay. And your take home is what, about $10,000? Yeah, just around $10,000. I'm a $10,999. So 1099, so I try to be really conservative with my money. Okay. What do you do? I have two jobs. I'm a very part-time construction job, and then I also do solar as well. Okay. Well, John, I want to bring you in here. The concern I have, he's right there in our ratio that we teach. I'll let you take that. But I'm a little concerned that it's a house that needs a lot of work. It's a good deal, but it's also half of what he said. And that scares me to death because I know what it's like when you buy a fancy house

and problems happen with fancy houses. Well, and you've got a guy that you know how to do this work yourself, right, Ethan? That's correct, yeah. It's mainly drywall, you know, paint and flooring. Sure. Oh, okay. So,

yeah. Can I just tell you what I would do if it was me? You fall within our ratios, so we're going to stamp it. If you want to buy this house, go buy this house. Okay, you're 23, is that right?

Yeah. Okay. I'm telling you, if I was a 23 year old 1099 guy who was working jobs over here and jobs over there i would not shackle myself to a 275 000 fixer-upper just yet not when especially now if you if you had $2,000 worth of rent, but if you look at what you'll, like, just imagine this. The $1,500 a month gap between your $2,000 a month payment and your $500, if you just save that $1,500 a month and put it in a pretend house payment fund, at the end of this year, how much money is that? That's got to be at least $13,000, I believe.

No, it's more than that. It's way more than that. $1,500 a month. You've got $12,000. You've got $6,000. It's $18,000. $18,000 you're going to put in there. You see what I'm saying?

And suddenly, you've got $18,000 plus $13,000. If you wait one year, and every year after this, and so we buy houses because they appreciate. You just found yourself in a unicorn stable with 500 rent an amazing house at a young age i love the fact that you're out there hustling and i'm hoping that this leads to either you starting your own shop and then you get your feet underneath you and you've got your own business and you've got a reputation and you're crushing and you don't need a 1099 from other people. That's my goal.

So I would love for you to be 26 and have $100,000 cash in the bank. And then you go buy a fixer upper and big bear and it's game on. Do you see what I'm saying? I understand. Yeah. I completely agree with you. The reason why it's so low, I mean, it's right now it's at 325, but they're willing to take our 275 offer. It's a foreclosure, so it assessed for 445. You got it. Let me promise you, if you're in the foreclosure game, A, it's always got stuff that you don't know, and if you're

a guy that can fix stuff, there's always going to be a foreclosure for you to go pick up for a steal. Always. Ethan, I'm with John on this. I'd sit tight. You're young. You got a great view. At 500, I would stack cash.

Yeah, I would force you and your wife to practice saving $2,000 a month, and then you put $500 towards your rent, and that $1,500, we're going to have a goal that this time next year we have $18,000 more in cash in a high-yield savings account. And then let's reassess. And then the next year, let's do it again. more in cash in a high-yield savings account. And then let's reassess. And then the next year, let's do it again. Next year, let's do it again. I agree. Is that fair?

I like it, yeah. Do I have time for another quick question? You do not. We're running to break. Sorry, brother. Sorry, buddy. I want you to know, as two older guys who are down the road, the world is yours, my friend. You're going to be able to take it all because you're a hard worker and you're a good man and you're thoughtful about what comes next good for you man yeah

stay the course ethan enjoy the view and that low rent that's our advice this is the ramsey show welcome back to the ramsey show 888-825-5225 is the phone number. I'm Ken Coleman. Dr. John Deloney joins me, and we are here for you. Let's go to Austin, Texas, and Walter is joining us there. Walter, how can we help? Hey, how's it going, guys? Good. I can't complain. I'm on baby step six.

Hey. Excellent. Well done, sir. Let's not just move by that too quickly. How long did it take you to get there? Well, I'm 34. Wow. About 34 years, I guess.

Okay, I see what you did there. Reason for my call, I've been a police officer for about eight years now, and it's been really good for my family financially, but everything else has been really difficult. It's taken a lot of toll on my family, on myself, on myself both mentally and physically. And I mean, I'm concerned for my safety every day. I'm concerned for my family's safety sometimes. And it's, I'm starting to think maybe it might be

time for a career change. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I grew up in the home of a police officer. I know that world. And I remember my mom asking me as I went off to college, please don't do that. Because every day my husband went to work and I didn't know if he was going to come home. So I got that. I got it through and through, man. And I spent my career working, walking alongside you guys. So what do you think you want to do? So, uh, when I was in the army, I was a crane operator. And when I got out of the army, I worked in logistics for a pretty large company. Um, it was a good job, but I was young. I didn't really know my worth and they were underpaying me. I didn't see a way upward. And a friend of mine from the army became a police

officer and he was like, oh, it's great. You know, we get like 300 hours of PTO a year. You get a pension. And I was like, cool, sign me up. He left out the part where people try to kill you, people hate you, they spit on you. Yeah, been through all of that. And I got an offer from a friend of mine who works for a security technology company to do project management. And I looked into it. I had like a lunch meeting with his director. I think it went really well. My biggest concern is, as a government employee, I have civil service protection

and I have a pension. Those are kind of difficult to give up. I have a three-year-old and a seven-week-old, and I've got a mortgage. But the pay increase from leaving would be significant, and the peace of mind for myself and my family would... All right, let's jump into the fear first, and then we'll talk about your future, okay? The losing the pension and all of that stuff, you're talking the time you served up to this point, if you walk away now, you get nothing. Is that what I'm understanding? So I'm not vested until I hit 10 years. So I get some money, and I get like 1,000 hours of PTO paid out at I think like 80%. Okay.

And then what else do you think you lose? You're talking about the government benefits, like the insurance stuff? Our insurance is okay. Then what else are you worried about if you walk away from the police force? Civil service protection. It's nice to know that I'm going to have a job pretty much no matter what. Okay. So let me address both of those right away.

First of all, Walter, you're going to be fine. All right. So I would not put my life in danger, keep walking through the stress and all of the things that led up to you calling us today where you've already decided I need to walk from being a police officer. I wouldn't gut that out for two more years, all for a pension. You're going to make really good money, whatever it is that you do. And by using our principles and investing and saving, you're going to be fine. So you aren't doing anything stupid by walking away from something that has reached its end. It's killing you. It's killing you, and it may end up. So let's be really clear about that okay so so i'm going to show you a path

forward uh and we'll walk with you on this process but you're not walking away from from anything amazing okay you served you protected you did it well and now it's time to move on so the project managing thing did it light you up from an excitement standpoint of the day-to-day, or was it just exciting because of the pay bump? No, it was actually really cool. They took me through their training facility where they train the new technicians. I actually like working with technology and computers, and I enjoyed managing people. That was one of my favorite things to do in the Army as an NCO. Perfect. So project managers, this is what I love about this.

Project management is an opportunity to do people and process work. And it sounds like you did some logistics before and the technology piece and the leadership piece for the military. So that's what I want you paying attention to. What can I do going forward that I can use my skill set? You've got some people skills. Sounds like you've got some process and logistics skill. How can I use that to do something I really, really enjoy, that talent to do something I enjoy? And I think that's the key for you. So if it sounded exciting to you and it combines some of the stuff that you're past up to this very point, you can say, I've been really good at this, Ken and John, and I've always enjoyed doing this.

Right? And if we can see some evidence from your past work in future opportunities where you go, I know I like that work and I know that I can knock that out. I know I've got the chops. That's a simple way of going, all right, now I see what my options are. So are you leaning towards this project management situation, or are you still kicking the tires on other things? That would probably be, I think that would be the best fit.

Great. What's the income? What I like to do. They told me since I have never officially been a PM, they'd probably start me out at about 87 to 90. Great. What do you make now as a police officer? Not including overtime, I want to say about 76, 77. So a nice bump, but what's the future look like? You get into PM, and what does that look like?

Oh, my buddy who works there, he's been trying to get me in as a senior PM there after four or five years, and he's already making 125. Come on. And I will tell you, John, that I believe that project managers have a great opportunity to go as high as the C-suite if they want to because of the collective skill set and experience. As you keep growing, I just think project management is one of those versatile careers to set you up for executive leadership. The call out I have for you, can I challenge you on one thing, Walter? Yeah, of course.

You're a guy that has, have you been working nights or working days? I worked nights for about four years. I'm on days now. Okay. Are you working 12s or 10s? 8s. I'm a detective. Wow, okay, so you're a detective.

I'll just cut to it. You're a great project manager. Yeah, you're going to make a great project manager. In fact, you're going to have to back it down about 30%. You're going to make everybody crazy. My dad was a detective. Trust me. Here's the deal.

You're a veteran, correct? Combat veteran? No, no, no. No. Okay. I served, but I didn't deploy. Okay. You're a veteran.

You're a police officer who's been running nights, running days, running all sorts of ups and downs and sideways for the last 12, 15 years. Here's what I want you to hear me say clearly. You're going to take this new job and Walter will go with you. If you need to go see a counselor to process some stuff you've seen and experienced, please go do that. This new job will not save you. If your marriage is messy right now,

you being home more might pour gasoline on that fire. If you're worried about the health and safety of your family and you're watching the news all day, every day, and you've just reached a boiling point, I need you to go talk to somebody because Walter's going to go with you to this new job.

A lot of guys get out of service jobs and they think that that's going to fix them realizing that it wasn't ever the job itself. It was, I'd created a world that was so chaotic and anxious. And then I tried to go do a service job and it melted me from the inside out. And so dude, it is time for you to go. I hear it in your voice. Go and go whole and do the work you know you got to do on yourself, on your marriage, with your kids as you transition to this new role. And you're going to knock it out of the park, man. Yeah. Great advice there. Walter, thanks for serving our country. Thank you for serving your local community. You're the best of us, and I think your best days are ahead, so go with confidence. This is The Ramsey Show.

Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. 888-825-5225 is the phone number to jump in. I'm Ken Coleman. Dr. John Deloney joins me, and from time to time when we get a question we don't feel like maybe we can handle by ourselves we like to phone a friend and it's nice when your friend is george camel uh resident financial guru and so we dialed him up and he joined us from 20 feet away this is a big honor it's an honor to join tweedledee and tweedle phd on the show for to end it out in an hour i I like that. I receive that. Here's the thing you have to know about George is he works for hours on these little quips. Yeah. It's all I have, John. It is all you have. It's fair. That's fair. All right. But first we got to get to our scripture

of the day. You too. So stop the sniping. All right. Let's, let's get around the Bible for a minute. Proverbs 29, 25. It is dangerous to be concerned with what others think of you. Oh, but if you trust the Lord, you're safe. That feels perfect right now. And our quote today from none other than the great philosopher, Fred Durst, where we get these quotes sometimes, I do not know. The lead singer of Limp Bizkit, if you're curious. So there you go. The people- I think we all know why that quote is in there. It's for John, I know. To walk around with an ego is a bad thing.

To have confidence in yourself is a great thing. Okay. Sometimes you just got to keep rolling, rolling, rolling. I think that basically contradicts itself. But what else do you expect from Fred Durst? He probably wasn't even sober when he wrote that. Well, number one, you just got to have faith, the faith, the faith, Ken. George Michael, I'm with you there.

Okay, let's get to the phones rusty is joining us now in dallas texas rusty how can george john and maybe me help you you can be ringed out there so can you hear me we can go for it rusty what's up so um i've been wrestling with something that would help really shorten i say really but would shorten my baby step number two uh so i have no credit card debt i have one paid off vehicle and i owe on another vehicle about 27 000 it's worth about 22 um and i've got two student loans. One's about $9,300, the other's at about $12,000. So where I'm getting at is if I got rid of this other car that I'm upside down on,

I could shorten my debt payoff time from about 16 months down to six. Do you think that's worth it? Why don't you sell it? Do you have another car that you can drive so you don't need to go buy a new car after this? Correct. I mean, I've got a stay-at-home mom,

a wife and kid at home, so that's why we have two vehicles. You go down to one car, you'll survive for a while, is what you're saying? Right. How much do you have in savings? Just following the baby steps. $1,000.

$1,000, yep. How quickly could you scrape together another $5,000? A couple months. Okay. So that's one option, a couple months. Here's where I was going. One option. Here's one option I had.

So the vehicle I have that's paid off, it's worth about $18,000. So what if I get rid of both, get a couple cheap cars, and then I can completely pay off that $27,000? Yeah, that would give you the cash today because you're underwater by $5,000. Subtract that from the $18,000 you sell it for, you have $13,000 to go buy you something else. Right. I like that i guess where i was getting at is like um we're talking a difference of you know 10 months less than a year is that worth it because i'm going to be going from uh lower mileage vehicles to something you know higher mileage but well get a pre-purchase inspection on it don't make a bad purchase here get a

pre-purchase inspection choose a reliable brand like make a bad purchase here. Get a pre-purchase inspection. Choose a reliable brand like a Honda or Toyota, and you'll be all right. I mean, if I was in your shoes, John Kent, I would be selling both and just bringing the car down, downgrading for a season. Yeah, I think I would. I'd do the same thing. He makes an interesting case, though. It is like, okay, how much time and money is it actually going to save?

And then there is the headache for, you know, and I've heard Dave say it many times to somebody, you don't have to sell your car if you can knock it out pretty quickly and it's a quality car so i do think this is an interesting scenario i'm kind of i could go 50 50 on i can sense his urgency to get out of this faster yeah so if you're willing to sacrifice more yeah that's so and that's where i think it's there's difference of opinion or um i call it a soul tax. So I would do this today because it sits on me different than it sits on Ken. And Ken's like, no, I want a quality car that's going to get me from A to B.

And so I don't think there's a right or wrong here, but I'm always going to solve for peace in my home. And Ken would probably take the nicer car that's going to last longer. Fake Ken. Actually, real Ken. I drove a Taurus that didn't have air conditioning for years because I just did not want to pay too much for a car. So I'm with you on that. I mean, I've driven crap for a long time.

So I would actually get rid of it. I could see both sides of it. Well, a 13K will get you some decent car these days, even with the market. Oh, my gosh. Absolutely. Don't make me start looking cars up. It's my favorite thing to do on this show. So, yeah, I think we're all in agreement here. You've got options, Russ.

You've got options. I don't think there's a wrong or right, but I think we'd all get rid of the debt today. Is that what I'm hearing? Yeah. Either you do it today, sell both cars, downgrade, or you come up with a difference in cash that you're underwater on to get rid of this payment in a few months. Does that sound good? Yeah.

Yeah. I think we've got a decision here of three. Oh, majority decision. We don't know. The three of us never agree on anything. We don't. This is incredible. That's amazing.

George, you wrote the majority opinion and we voted with you. I wish I had my gavel. We need our three gavels and the powdered wigs here because that was. You and the wigs. You always want to get a wig on. I just think if a judge. No, not any wig. The judge's wig. You know, the one with all the curls on it that's kind of fun the audience sweeten it go out to sweet francis all right thank you john is the adult in the room now

wow st louis missouri francis is waiting francis how can we help hi um thanks for taking my call i was calling to get help settling collections. We're trying to go through the baby steps, and we've been hung up on this one that's in collections because they're not willing to work with me. What do you owe in collections? Credit Karma, it says that it's like $3,300, and then when I call them, they say it's $4,100. So I don't know what that extra that they're tacking on is. I'm assuming commission or something for them. Are there fees? What was the original balance? The original balance was $3,300.

Okay. And you've called them and said hey i'm willing to pay 3300 to settle this and they say no you owe more um well originally i when i first started talking to them i didn't have the 33 um so i offered them 15 okay and then they told me the 41 and then um how old is this day um Like three and a half, four years old. Okay. And how much money do you have in the bank if you were to settle today? We could settle today, technically.

I'm being a little stubborn about it because they've been, the first time I called, they told me that they wouldn't take a check because I was like, I'm not giving you my debit card information. We have 64 in savings. So we're trying to settle this for the 15. Why haven't you paid your bills? $64,000? No, $6,400. $6,400. Oh, phew. Okay. Take it easy.

I got it. I was like, what is going on? No, no, no, no, no. Wow. Here's the deal. Like John mentioned in the last call, you're paying a sole tax just to fight this thing every day. And so if they're truly unwilling, you owe $3,300. Say, listen, the original balance is $3,300. I don't know what kind of wacko fees you guys threw on here. I'm willing to pay you what I owed and no more. That's your worst case. Best case, you go, hey, I'll give you two grand. Call it

good today. And I want you to tell them, I'm recording this call and if you refuse to take my payment, then when you sue me and it goes to court, I'm going to pay this I'm going to play this recording because I tried to pay you and you wouldn't take my money. then when you sue me and it goes to court, I'm going to pay this I'm going to play this recording because I tried to pay you and you wouldn't take my money. I like that. That's a pro move. And you're right, Francis. Don't give

them access to your checking account. Don't give them a debit card. Give them a money order or cashier's check. Is this a college or a university or is it some type of a trade school? A university. What do you owe a university? That's why, because usually the student if you owe money, loans pay the university, and you're paying the loan company or the federal government.

What do you owe them for? Well, I also have student loans. I have $5,500 in student loans. That's not what I'm asking. What do you owe the university? Just for everything that my student loans didn't i didn't take loans out on everything yeah but a student a college doesn't loan you direct do they no it's from like um i don't remember what the loan company is but i got my student like mojila or something like that so

it's not the college that you're dealing with it's some it's some knucklehead private loan that makes more sense the collections is it says it's from Southwest Baptist University. I've never heard of them. Maybe they're in cahoots with the collection agency because they can get a cut of it or something. Who knows? I'm fighting it, but worst case, be done with it. Just pay it. Pay what you owe and move on with your life. I'm a Baptist. We like getting paid.

Good show, guys. John Deloney, George Campbell. I'm Kid Coleman. Thanks, James James Childs this is the Ramsey Show We'll see you next time.