The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Pay My Dad's Debts While He Battles Cancer? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: November 14, 2018

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🎵 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. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. This is your show. Thanks for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225.

Aaron is with us in Indianapolis starting off this hour. Hi, Aaron. How are you? I'm doing great, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Awesome. Well, my dad moved in with us a couple years ago and no longer works due to health issues. He's got stage four cancer. While he was working, he purchased a car and

getting back and forth to work to get rid of his old clunker. And now that he's not working with the car, the insurance, meds, and things like that, his Social Security is the only income at this time. So that's obviously not going to cover it. I know he's getting a little behind on stuff. We're trying to help him out. So I'm wondering if we should just go ahead and pause our debt snowball and start working to kind of help out his situation, since he does live with us at the time now and out, as one family just kind of work on...

No, I would not pay his debts. I think it's wonderful that you're giving him a place to live and you're taking care of him while he's fighting cancer. But there's no point in paying his debts. It doesn't serve any purpose at all. He needs to sell the car, doesn't he? Yeah, we currently have it for sale. Just haven't gotten any hits on it, so I can start lowering the price

to make it a little more marketable. Yeah, absolutely. And how much other data has he got? Just basically the, I think it's just the car, and, you know, I had a storage unit. He had a storage unit with a bunch of stuff in it? Yes. Well, I guess we need to sell off the stuff and get rid of the storage unit

and use that money, right? Yeah. Okay. That money, right? Yeah. Okay. That's fairly easy. Yeah. So, I mean, if you sell the car and you sell the stuff out of the storage unit, he doesn't have any expenses if he's living with you. Right, then it's just his medical stuff after that. Yeah, and don't sign for that. Right. I mean, you can take care of him without you getting on the hook for a million dollars worth of cancer treatments.

Right. And so don't blur the lines on what taking care of him means. You see what I'm saying? When you go over and start stepping into his financial obligations and taking those on, that's a whole lot different than taking care of him while he's fighting a cancer fight. Right. And how old is he? He'll be 65 next month.

Okay. And you said stage four. What's the prognosis? It was three to ten initially, but that was, I think, before they saw the bone scans and saw kind of where all it spread. So I think that's kind of three to ten is definitely a little progressive. Months? Three to ten months?

No, I'm sorry. It was three to ten years. I'm thinking the three years is pushing that. Yeah, okay. All right no i'm sorry it was three to ten years i'm thinking the three years is pushing that yeah okay all right i'm sorry i'm sorry you guys i'm sorry you guys are having to walk through this the least of his problems then are cars and storage units but to relieve stress you can clean out those two things and get rid of the help him get rid of those two obligations without you having to sign up for his debts does that make sense yes sir okay so i mean uh yes you take care of him he's your dad and that's wonderful and i think i want to completely hear you you know embrace that and

i'm so sorry you guys are facing this it's such such a gut-wrenching thing to go through emotionally. Okay? Now, then let's deal with what happens someday. We all pass away. What happens when he passes away? If he has debt and he passes away, it doesn't get paid. But if you start taking it on, then his debt survives him, and you are now obligated. Almost. Yeah. on then his debt survives him and you are now obligated so yeah and so um a real cold way of saying it i don't want you to misunderstand my lack of compassion because it's not one i've got i hear you i know what you guys are fashion but but make sure you take care of him but let his

debt pass away when he does does that make sense you know, if you die and you owe money and there's no assets, which is his situation, they don't get paid. They don't get paid. And so that's what I mean by there's no reason. Let's do the best we can do to get this off of him. But, you know, on a scale of 1 to 10, this debt stuff is a 1 and cancer is a 10. Right? Right. In terms of things to worry about this debt stuff is a 1 and cancer is a 10, right? Right.

In terms of things to worry about, things to be stressed about or whatever. So I want to concentrate on that, but I'm so glad you're there for him and that he's got a place and you can take care of him and those kinds of things. And it's the way it should be. So, hey, thanks for the call. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money.

Dave, my husband and I both purchased the newest iPhone earlier this year before getting on your plan. I say we purchased. We financed it. Should we include this in our debt snowball because it is actually part of our phone bill? All debt is in our debt snowball because it is actually part of our phone bill all debt is in your debt snowball if you're paying payments on your yeah you would pay that off so um yeah put it in your debt snowball uh just because you're paying the payment as a part of your phone bill doesn't mean you don't have a payment you have a payment and so now clear it up clear it up as fast as you can uh just like you would any other debt and so forth so there you go open

phones at 888-825-5225 that question came from the ramsey baby steps community which is a private facebook group of ours that uh has almost 100,000 of you or maybe more than 100,000 of you now and more now. And they're telling me. And so go check it out. There's all kinds of wonderful discussions and a few crazy things and all that kind of stuff. And so, yeah, let's get her done and jump in and check it out. The Ramsey Baby Steps Community.

It's the Ramsey Baby Steps Community. And that way you'll know it's the actual one. Because there's a few of them out there that are not authorized or official. Somebody just started up and said, we're going to talk about Dave Ramsey. Well, you're allowed to do that. I'm mad at you about that. But this is the official one, so there you go. Changes everything, right?

Dave, my wife and I are gazelle intense on paying off our home in six years, but it means putting a total of 33% of our take-home pay with the extra payments towards the mortgage. It works out in our every-dollar budget, but are we crazy? I don't even know. You can put whatever you want to on it. As long as while you're doing baby steps six, you're doing baby steps four and five. Fifteen percent of your income going into retirement, something towards kids college. And then if you jack up and add to what you are putting on the on the house, that's wonderful.

Get her paid off. I don't care. Nothing wrong with that. Thanks. Thanks for following us on Twitter, Joe. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. 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,

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Thanks for helping us. And if you know somebody out there looking for work, this is the best place to work. Ten years in the Nashville area. The reason is it's the best place to work. Pretty simple. Leticia is with us in Houston. Hi, Leticia. Latasha. I'm sorry. Latasha, how are you? I'm great. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Okay. So I have a friend, and he is actually the one that introduced me to your program. And he started your plan about a year ago.

Started driving for Uber, picking up extra, you know, shifts and all that good stuff to pay his debt off. Paid off all his credit cards and his store cards. All of a sudden, he changed, and now he is determined to save a 20% down payment on a house. He's got $17,000 saved towards a goal of $33,000. We got into an argument yesterday about what would Dave say, and I called you, literally, to tell him specifically what would Dave say. So I'm hoping that you could give sort of a call to action. He listens to you every single day. And according to him, he wants to do everything like you, but I feel like he's not willing to sacrifice for success the way you have.

And so I'm hoping that this will kind of whip him back into shape. You just brought your friend to the woodshed. That's nice of you. But you care about him. That's awesome. Okay, so are you saying this gentleman still has debt? Yes, he has about 44. We talk about everything financially.

He's got 44K, 11 in the car, and 33 left on his student loan. Okay. Well, I mean, if he listens to me every day, he knows the answer to the question, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, you could have an argument and say, I don't want to do the stuff that Dave Ramsey teaches, but you can't have an argument that says, I'm going to ignore the baby steps and still say i'm doing what dave remsey teaches that would be kind of ludicrous isn't it yes i mean so i don't understand how

there was an argument because i mean he knows the answer i mean what i what would i do i would work the baby steps which means that i would be paying off my debt before i bought a house and so the money that he saved towards the down payment should be used on his baby step two. I think he might be motivated by something else. So he's got a live-in girlfriend, and she has a child. They're fantastic. She's not pushing him to purchase the house. I think in his mind, he's trying to get into a house and stop renting for the benefit of, you know, all of them together, even though they're not yet engaged. Bull crap.

If you want to do what's right for your family, you work the shortest possible way to wealth. And the shortest possible way to wealth is not with $44,000 in student loan laying around and going buying a house. That's just crap. That's not true. Okay? And so that may be what's motivating him, but it's not truth. It's not the truth. And so, you know, and you don't have to buy a house to get married.

There's no law that says that. You got a kid. You're already acting like you're married. So you might as well be married. You know, let's run and get married this weekend. Just call a preacher. You know, let's get married. Because you're doing everything else that way.

And then let's rent and let's work the baby steps. And that's the shortest possible wealth to shortest possible route to wealth the shortest possible route to stabilizing and sustaining his family that he has as a family i assume that's his kid right uh no oh okay well then that's a different thing okay yeah so now he's got to decide does he you know is he going to marry this young lady or not and that's his roommate and so that's his roommate. And so that's who happens to have a kid. So, yeah, you do whatever you want to do there.

But the baby steps are the baby steps. I mean, there's no time in the history of this show that I told somebody to go buy a house while they were stealing that. It's just I've never done it. I've been doing this 30 years, and I'm just unbelievably predictable. It's almost boring it's so predictable. Eddie is with us in Los Angeles. Hi, Eddie, how are you? Hey, pretty good. Thank you for taking my call. Sure, what's up? Pretty much, I'm $30,000 in debt. $10,000 of it is on a car loan, and I had gotten out of debt, but this is

the second time I'll find myself in it. I have one rifle that is worth... I'm former military, so I've got one rifle that's worth roughly around three grand. And I owe $10,000

on one car. I can get like close to nine for it if I sell it. What's your income? What was that again? What's your income? $58,000. Okay.

Are you single? Recently engaged. Okay. Congratulations. Thank you, sir. And thank single? Recently engaged. Okay. Congratulations. All right. Thank you, sir. And thank you for your service. And what kind of rifle is it?

Thank you, sir. What kind of rifle is this? Well, it's actually, it's not a hunting rifle. I used to be a sniper. It's called CPAC, Close Precision Engagement Course. I was a military cop. It's a counter sniper rifle. Okay.

I know it. Yeah. I've got a Barrett.50 Cal in my closet, okay? So, yeah. It's a.300 Win Mag. Yeah, I know it. Yeah. It's a fabulous gun.

However, it has absolutely no, it wasn't your grandpa's gun. It doesn't have any nostalgia. And you could buy this gun again easily when you have three grand and you're not broke anymore. So this is my question. A friend of mine wants this gun, and he has a Nissan Maxima. He's willing to trade it for me. I was thinking to do the trade and go and sell the car so I can easily unload close to $10,000 off my debt. What do you think about that? Not a bad idea. Not a bad idea.

Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm a gun guy, so I get that this is a big decision for you, especially since this is a gun you've used to save lives with. Right? Actually, I haven't. decision for you, especially since this is a gun you've used to save lives with, right? Actually, I haven't, but I mean... Well, I mean, it's the type of gun you were trained on, right? Yes, yes, yes. Okay, so that's what I mean. Well, a.308 NATO, but this is a little bit more high power, yes.

Yeah, I mean, but the point is, it means something to you. It's not just an item. It's something that actually emotionally means something to you, and that means you're willing to sacrifice something that means to you to get to something that means more to you, which is getting yourself stabilized for this engagement and this new marriage and that kind of stuff, which means you're a man.

Good job, man. Well done. Thank you. And you live like no one else. Get yourself out of debt, and later on you'll be able to purchase another another firearm um that you that you want as a hobby and um and and you can do that later when you've got some wealth and you'll be on your way to wealth but yeah you've got a you're willing to live like no one else so that later i can live and give like no one else now for those of you

out there that aren't gun people this is the same thing as discussing with a lady selling her engagement ring. Okay? That's how this feels. Or a guy who's got a classic car in his basement. That's how this feels. Okay? This is an emotional transaction. It may not be to you.

I understand. But, you know, those of us that tinker around with those firearms, you know, we understand. We understand. I've got several of them I don't care anything about. If I need to sell them, I would. And I've got a couple of them, it would be one of the last things to leave my house. So that's it. So there you go.

Hey, thank you again for serving your country, sir. I appreciate you. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. One question I get asked all the time is, do I need life insurance? Listen, the whole point of life insurance is to replace your income for someone who counts on you. So if you have a spouse or you have kids, yes, you need term life insurance. It's the only way to protect them until you're out of debt and have built up your wealth. You're only digging a deeper hole if you waste money on cash value plans since it robs you of the ability to make real progress.

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In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Glenn and Misha are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Hey, Dave. How are you? Welcome, welcome. Where do you guys live? Atlanta, Georgia. Oh, fun.

Good to have you. Thanks for joining us. Thank you for having us. Yes. So how much debt have you two paid off? We paid off $65,000. $65,000? Yes. Yes. Very cool. How long did this take? It paid off $65,000. $65,000? Yes.

Very cool. How long did this take? It took us 56 months. Okay. And your range of income during that time? Well, we started at $50,000 and ended at $90,000. Okay. Very good.

And what kind of debt was the $65,000? Well, we had three credit cards. We had some family debt, debt from the wedding, and student loans. Okay. So, a little over four years. Yes. Coming up on five years, you've been working on this. Yes.

So, tell me your story. So, we had a lot of life that happened between that 56 months. We attended college without accruing any more debt. Oh, good. Cash flow college. Yes, we did. That changes the numbers. It does.

The numbers are probably even more if we included other things outside of our debt. But then we also had our son, and then we also had a lot of Murphy that also caused it also as well to make the time just such a long period of time. Yeah. So you really just had to lean in and persevere, didn't you? We did. It came with some challenges as well, just because of the time that it took for us to get through it. Because, you know, when you're doing something this long, you can get to the point where you're wanting to quit. 26 times. Yes, if not 56 times. Yeah, really.

So what's your degree in? So mine is in administrative management. So I got my bachelor's in administrative management. I have a bachelor's in integrative studies with a concentration in healthcare management. Very cool. And that's what both of you do now? Well, I'm actually a manager at Delta Community. I don't know if you guys heard of them.

At what? Delta Community Credit Union. Oh, yeah. Okay. Sure. Yeah. Okay. Cool.

Very good. Yes, and I work for a health insurance company. I'm a certified pharmacy technician. Of course. Okay. Perfect. Very cool, you guys. Yes.

So you push through all the education. You pushed through Murphy. You pushed through having a kid. And you paid off $65,000 all during this time. Yes. That's like a lot of stuff happening at one time. Yes. It was a lot.

And we also had to cash flow, of course, our classes and got braces. We had to get an AC unit. we had an ac unit that went out of course we had our baby glen jay and we had a wall leak so yeah wow with all that we we were able to just work through it and just keep pounding so what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? I would say the key is discipline. You definitely have to be disciplined to get through it and also just working together to just make it through. In your case, don't quit. Absolutely.

Don't quit. That's a big one. Don't quit. And I think that having a why for what you why you're doing it is extremely important um just because of the amount of time that it will take if it does take you a while or if it takes you a short period of time either either case it's um can be tough because you have to balance those challenges that you have with either yourself or with the person that you're with um i mean, of course, we had our fights, if not 56 fights, you know, that put us through some

challenges. But at the same time, it was the biggest blow up that you had during the time. Well, the biggest argument. You remember it? Yes, I can definitely share this. So on our honeymoon. Oh, no. During our honeymoon, somehow I found out that she took out a personal loan.

And the personal loan was for some hair extensions. Oh, my Lord. Yeah. You didn't. You didn't. I'm still ashamed. Yes. I see it. Yeah. Yeah. It was. You didn't. You didn't. I'm still ashamed. Yes. I did.

Yeah, it was. That's fabulous. Yeah, definitely. I didn't even know you could do that. I didn't either. That's great. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, that'll cause a fight. Absolutely.

On your honeymoon, though. Oh, no. Yes, absolutely. That's wrong. That's so wrong. Oh, my gosh. That was one of those things that I felt like I had to have. Yeah.

I had to have it. So, yeah, he found out on the honeymoon. And when we came back home, we had to. Paid off the hair extensions. Yes. Paid off the student loans. Paid off the credit cards. There we go.

Game on. Yes. Through that, we also graduated together in May of 2017, last year. That's awesome. Yes. That's awesome. Well, I mean, you've learned to fight through stuff, not with each other, but I mean, you learned to fight through the, persevere through the struggle,

you know, because this has been a grind for y'all. So who were your biggest cheerleaders? I think that it would be me and my wife who were our biggest supporters and our parents and our parents yes support from our parents and family members who would uh just help out with uh babysitting and uh just it was it was a lot we really had a lot of support from our family. Yeah. Very cool. Cool.

Well, we're proud of you guys. Well done. Thank you. Very well done. We got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Retire Inspired. Awesome. Number one bestseller. And, of course, that is the next chapter in your story. Absolutely.

For you guys to be completely debt-free. But now we'll close that chapter. Now we move on. We become wealthy and outrageously generous as you go along. Absolutely. So very, very cool. Congratulations. Did you bring Glenn with you?

Yes, we did. Oh, well, let's get him in the shot here. And so we can have him be part of that debt-free scream. Has he been practicing his debt-free scream? Oh, he's been practicing. He's been practicing. Hopefully he'll say it right. We'll see.

We'll see. All right. All right. We'll see. We'll see. All right. All right. Glenn and Misha and Glenn from Atlanta, Georgia. $65,000 paid off in 56 months, making 50 to 90 and a lot of life in the process. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Are you ready?

Three, two, one. We're debt-free! We're debt-free! Love it! Well done, well done, well done. Oh, man. Life is good. Wow.

Absolutely amazing. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. Find out for yourself why Blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window coverings. You get free samples, free shipping, and new promos. Use the promo code Ramsey. Karen is in Tennessee. My husband and I are debt-free except our home, but do a lot of shopping online. How does the envelope system work when you shop online?

Well, it doesn't. The envelope system is not for things that you buy online. It's for things you buy when you're out walking around. If you're in the mall, if you're in the store, but if you do everything online, you've got to have a budget and that holds you to it. Jump on EveryDollar at EveryDollar.com Make sure you've got your budget going. And all the envelope does is it tells you if you're running out of money in a category. For those of you who don't know, for instance, if you're setting up your food budget,

that's one you generally, some people buy it online, some people do delivery, grocery delivery and that kind of stuff now, but most people still go to the grocery store. So let's put the amount of money we're going to spend at groceries in an envelope in cash and go to the grocery store. And when the cash is empty, that means you quit buying. And it makes you realize when you're busting through a category on budgeting. And so that's what the envelope system is. But all it is is just a category.

It's all it is. So the EveryDollar app, if you're sitting there in your recliner getting ready to buy something on Amazon Prime, you jump over, check the app, do I have the money in that category to spend? Because I'm getting ready to spend money. And if you don't, then you don't click Prime, right? You just move on and do something else and quit impulsing your butt off online. But if you've got the money and you want to buy something, I don't care. Buy it. That's the point.

You're just making your money behave instead of wondering where it went. That's the whole process here. So, hey, good question. Good question. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. alicia is in augusta georgia hi alicia how are you hi dave i'm nervous actually we've never lost a patient you'll be okay um well thank you so much for taking my call i um got really excited and stopped by mcdonald's so my kid can be quiet in the back seat um so i have a question uh we are very new listeners um we are debtfree as of two weeks ago. We just sold my husband's truck.

As soon as I heard you, I was all in from the get-go. You had said not to do any of the baby steps without your spouse being on board. So it was a whole two days for him to listen to your audio book. Oh, wow. Okay. To get him on board. So it was a whole two days for him to listen to your audio book. Oh, wow. Okay. To get him on board. But so we're debt free and we've been doing the envelope system for about two months now. And we've always been doing four and five. Now I'm wondering about baby step six. My husband retires in four years. I did big math and realized we can pay off the home in four years. However, being a military family, we make PCS in those four years.

So we don't know where our next duty station may be and we don't plan to retire here so my question is should we work the baby step six or um should we just invest that extra money no i'd go ahead and work baby step six because you'll sell the house if you move or no not if you move you're going to move is what you told me you're not going to stay there after after the military and even if the military doesn't move you you'll move after the military so we're not going to stay in this house but when you sell the house they're going to give you a check right you don't lose the money and you know and what you're doing is you're stabilizing overall so 15 of your income going into retirement is baby step four saving for kids college is baby step five and as you find money beyond that yeah let's go ahead and pay down the house or pay off the house, either one.

And because you're certainly just going to put a for sale sign in the yard and turn that into money when you leave, right? Right, yes. Yeah. Well, thanks for your service, and tell him thanks for his service. We appreciate you guys. Sasha is with us in Washington, D.C. Hi, Sasha. How are you?

Hi, Dave. Great. Thanks for taking my call. D.C. Hi, Sasha. How are you? Hi, Dave. Great. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? Okay. So, unfortunately, my mother-in-law passed away just a few months ago. She, however, did leave us two houses.

So we want to be wise in what we do with those. And so I wanted to get your advice. Where are they? One's in South Carolina and one's in Virginia. Okay. So one has a small mortgage on it. And we're thinking about putting that on the market. And it would bring about $100,000 after the sale.

And then the other one is paid off. And it's cash flowing right now. It's $1,650 a month. We could sell it quickly for $240, or we could put $30K into it in renovation and then sell it for about $300. Okay. I would sell both of them now.

Sell both of them now? Yep. Let me tell you how I came to that conclusion, okay? If you take the pile of money that you would have right now, if you sold without doing the renovation on the one and the other one you put it up for sale on the $100,000 on that, you put that pile of money in the middle of your kitchen table and you ask yourself,

would I go buy a rental that I need to do a rehab on out of state the answer would be no okay you're not going to house flipping in another state from where you live at least you shouldn't okay because very unwise you can get yourself in a pinch hard to watch over contractors house is actually 20 minutes away from our house oh that would be okay that'd be a little different. Okay. Well, if you want to fool with that, then, it's at least in your neighborhood. So would you buy that house, renovate it for the extra profit if you didn't own it?

Well, probably not right now. Okay. Then let's don't do it right now. Let's go ahead and sell it. You see what I'm saying? A good way to ask yourself if you should keep something or when you should get rid of something is to say, if I didn't own it, would I buy it in this exact situation that I'm in today? Okay.

And if the answer is no, then it's time to sell it. And you inherited both of these houses literally. You got into this by default, right? And it's a wonderful, wonderful blessing. But I would just take that money and invest it in a way that you would invest it, not in a way she would invest it. Okay. We're on baby step two, so I'm imagining you would tell us to just go ahead and put that towards all the debt and move on to the next step.

Yeah, move on and get your emergency fund in place, and you've probably got more than enough to do all that. How much debt do you have, not counting your house? $245,000. Whoa. Okay, so this clears up all that. What in the world is that? Student loans? No, we have a business.

So most of it is business equipment. Okay. $165,000 of that. Okay. Well, then that makes the answer even that much easier. If you had $240,000 sitting in the middle of the table, would you go buy real estate with it, or would you pay off all your debt? No, you'd pay off all your debt. Okay.

Because you're going to have no payments. I mean mean what's your household income about 150 000 yeah and we just raised it about 40 000 bucks because you got rid of all these debt payments right yeah ding ding that's a no-brainer yeah all for sale signs on both of these tomorrow okay it's gonna clean up it's gonna clean up your whole life it's wonderful and then but you have to raise your right hand and promise never to go in debt again. Ever. For anything.

Because this is a get-out-of-jail-free card. You might not get another one of these. So, you know, yeah, that's a great deal. That's a great situation. But never go back into debt again. For anything ever. If you're going to go back into debt, I can't help you. But if you stay away from debt, then instantaneously I would sell those properties and get out of debt. Alex is with us in Columbus, Ohio. Hi, Alex,

how are you? Good, how are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Yeah, so me and my wife are on baby step number two, and we have about $175,000 in debt, majority student loans. Who's the doctor or lawyer? None, neither of us. My wife is getting her master's right now in social work, and I have a bachelor's in business and sports management.

We basically just want to know whether we should sell one of our vehicles and I have a bachelor's in business and sports management. We basically just want to know whether we should sell one of our vehicles or what we need to do to... What are the vehicles worth? My wife's car is about $7,400, and my truck is about $22,000. Your truck should go, yeah. Okay. You don't need a $22,000 truck. You're $174,000 in debt to get a master's degree in social work,

which is not going to pay anything like enough to have justified this debt. Right. Wow. Ouch. Ouch. I make about $40,000 take-home pay right now. What does she make? Nothing.

She's in school, right? Right, yeah. She has one more semester left. Okay. Yeah, for sure you can't afford this truck. I mean, you make $40,000. You've got a $22,000 truck. That doesn't fit.

But you guys are going to have to work very, very, very seriously on your incomes for the next four years. You need both of you raise your incomes dramatically in the next four years to begin to clear this kind of debt up. In other words, this education that you paid so much for has got to result in income. You've got to find a way to do that. She cannot get her master's degree in social work and go $100,000 in debt and come home and be a mom. She lost that option with the way you all did this. Does that make sense?

Right. Now, so go make some money and clean this mess up and for sure sell this truck. It doesn't fit. It doesn't fit in anywhere in this situation. I'm sorry, man. But that's, yeah, the faster you can clean this up, the faster you're going to get your life back. And that's where we want you to go. We want you to get, you know, we want you to have a great life and win.

And, man, that's just a, you're staring at Mount Everest going, I've got to climb Mount Everest here. And so you're going to need the equipment to do that, which is income. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey show in the books. Our thanks to James Childs, our producer, Kelly Daniels, our associate producer and phone screener. I am Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know that in 2017, Dave Ramsey Show listeners paid off $50 million in debt? That's pretty impressive. And it could be you this year.

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