The Ramsey Show - App - Talk to Yourself the Way You Talk to Your Friends (Hour 3)

Episode Date: September 29, 2020

Debt, Career, Relationships, Home Buying Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR 

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is the Dave Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Dr. John Deloney, here with my good friend and co-host, Mr. Anthony O'Neill, and we are taking your calls about your relationships, about your money, about what's the next right thing to do. Give us a call at 888-825-5225. It's 888-825-5225. Anthony, how are we doing, man?

Man, I'm doing well, man. It's been a beautiful day and just great. Love talking to people. Helping people, taking care of folks. Man, I love it. How's your move going? It's going great. Moved in great. And just me and the girls is getting situated and it's good. Excellent.

Excellent. All right. Let's go straight to the phones here. Let's go to Daniela in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Daniela, how are we doing? Better than I do. How are you? The exact same.a, how are we doing? Better than I deserve. How are you? The exact same.

Fantastic. How can we help? Well, I'm wondering what to do because I understand, Dave, unless your net worth is over a million dollars, to buy a used car with cash, of course. Correct. And I was in a predicament where I needed to buy a used car and I didn't have enough saved up, and so I had to go to my credit union and get a loan.

So now I've been working with that snowball, and that's the next in my snowball to tackle, and my loan's for about $2,000. My annual income is about $20,000 a year pre-tax. And I have about $10,000 of debt left. And I'm trying to sell the car. But there's just so much wrong with it that I legally and morally cannot sell it. And it's worth scrap metal value at this point.

So I don't know what to do because I know Dave would say sell it and then go to your credit union and get the difference is from what I've heard recently. Yeah. So let's back up a little bit. What do you do that you make $20,000 pre-tax a year? I am, I just got a new job. I was laid off because of coronavirus. And I am cleaning houses. And yeah. Good for you. Just kicking butt, figuring out any way you can scrounge together some money? Yes, sir. We were homeless for a little bit in between for COVID with my fiance and I.

And we just really started the year with nothing and worked our way up from the bottom to here. I want to tell you that's inspiring and encouraging. And we've got a lot of folks who come here and say, we've paid off $250,000 and we've done this and that. But I also want to applaud folks in your situation who started this year with very little and COVID took very little and gave them nothing, and you have put yourself in a position where you're not above any job, you're not below any job, you are scrapping and scratching and clawing, and I want to applaud you, okay? Danielle, I want you to hear me. We're talking a lot about heroes and firefighters and nurses, and they should be applauded, but I want to applaud the folks behind the scenes.

As a friend of mine says on the back row of the United States, making stuff happen every day with everything they've got, and I want to applaud you. Okay? Yeah. Good for you. So walk me through your debts total. What's everything that you owe? The next step here in your baby step is your car. What else do you got looming out there? Well, I have a stupid tax loan that I took out for my credit union previously so I could build up credit to get an apartment because, well, you need to have a credit story to get an apartment. Well, that's a lie.

Right. So now I'm in a worse spot than I would have been if I would have just had that extra down payment. Hey, do me a favor, Daniela. Daniela. Yes, sir, here's my guess. My guess is that you talk to you in ways that you would never let somebody talk to your little sister

or that you talk to you in ways that you would never let somebody talk to a waitress at a pizza joint. So at least on this phone call, I want you to talk to Danielle the rock star like I'm talking to her. Okay? Okay. I don't want you to call yourself stupid. I don't want you to call yourself an idiot.

I want you to say, here's where I'm at, and I'm doing brave, hard work trying to climb out of a hole that I dug, and we're on to the next, and we're on to the next. Cool? Is that a good agreement? All right. Good agreement? All right. Good deal. All right. So walk me and Anthony through. Anthony is the financial guru here at the table.

I'm not that bright. So walk us through your next debt. So you've got a tax loan. How much is that for? That's about $2,000. Okay. It's a credit union also. And what's next? That would be the car for about $3,000.

Okay. How much is the car worth about $3,000. Okay. How much is the car worth? $3,000. The car's worth scrap. The car loan is still outstanding for $3,000, right? Okay, cool. What kind of car is this, Daniela? This is an 07 Ford Fusion.

How many miles? That I bought from. About 150. 150,000. What's wrong with the car? There's an airbag sensor fault. So the airbags were not deploying in the event of a crash. Okay.

Yeah. And there are some various other sensors and cosmetic issues as well. Because it's Michigan, there's some rust and whatnot. Okay. as well because it's Michigan. There's some rust and whatnot. Okay, so nothing that's impacting the car from driving as far as the engine transmission, gas pipe, none of that?

Other than a possible sensor for the transmission, no. It's getting you to point A to point B, right? Yeah, it's getting me from A to B. Okay, all right. So here's the thing, Danielle.

We don't have a car problem. When a screener says, how do I get rid of my upside-down car? You got $3,000 that you own a car. I don't think you need to be trying to get out of it. I think what you need to be trying to do is just go ahead and line it up inside your debt snowball and pay it off. Okay, do you have a car that the airbag is not working properly? Yes. Okay.

It's still getting you from point A to point B. Do you have a car that has a lot of miles on the end, doesn't look as good, doesn't look as beautiful? Yes. Okay. It's still getting you from point A to point B. So with that being said, this is what I want you to do when it comes to the money side of things is line up all your debt from smallest to largest and pay it off. And then once you pay it off and then once you get your income up, then let's start talking about how do we start looking

for a better car. But right now you don't have the financial means to even get a better car. But right now, you don't have the financial means to even get a better car if you got out of this car. Okay? Okay. So right now, go ahead. The process I was thinking about doing, because I'm engaged and we're trying to pay cash for the wedding and cash for that. And so that would make us a two-car household.

Okay. And so his car's paid off. Mine's the one upside down. So I'm trying to figure out how to... If you're cleaning houses, if you're going from place to place to place to place, and you have a $3,000 car that's not worth $3,000, pay the thing off, right? Yeah. Pay the thing off.

Here's the thing. You're not upside down that much. It's a $3,000 car. Right. Right? So just pay it off and drive it. You'll be all right. And Danielle, I want you to change the way you talk to my new friend, Daniela.

I don't want anybody talking to her mean. I don't want anybody talking to her ugly. She's a person of value. She's kicking butt. She's turning things around. She's a person of value. She's kicking butt. She's turning things around. She's worth being nice to. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Families all over the country are discovering a faith-based and budget-friendly way of meeting health care costs, whether they're anticipated or completely unexpected. For example, take the Olcheski family from LaGrange, Texas.

Jeff and Carice had just celebrated the birth of a new baby boy. Shortly after, they had another expensive medical issue come up. They could have faced a huge financial setback. But thanks to Christian Health Care Ministries, the Olcheskis were spared from a ton of medical bills. As members of CHM, they're part of a group of believers who financially and spiritually support each other. CHM is the longest serving health cost sharing ministry and is a Better Business Bureau

accredited charity. It's Christians helping other Christians, and it shared nearly $97,000 to help the Olcheskis. To be a part of Christian Healthcare Ministries, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. CHM is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. Let's go out to Amy in Palm Springs, California. Amy, how are we doing? Hi, Dr. D. Hi, Anthony. Thank you so much for taking my call. You bet. How can we help?

I have a relationship question. My fiance, who I've dated for 10 years, is a huge procrastinator. And his response to things that I tell him to do is that I'll do it later or I'll do it after work or I'll do it tomorrow. But he never does anything until the very last minute and it stresses me out. So I nag him and I end up being the annoying person. How do I deal with someone who is a procrastinator? I wonder if I'm approaching it the wrong way since it doesn't seem to be effective

and I'm a bit frustrated. I wanted to hear your and Anthony's thoughts. Anthony, what do you think? No, you're the expert in this field, Doc. I know, but I want to hear from you. How do you help somebody stop procrastinating? You can't help someone stop procrastinating. Say what?

What do you mean? What do you mean what do you mean i mean i don't control another person's uh way they think stop it anthony you're being revolutionary here hey amy he's exactly right uh at the end of the day there's nothing you can do what i can tell you is you can absolutely make sure that your relationship ends up in a dumpster fire, and that's by nagging, by trying to control him, by trying to beat him up with a stick. That is a surefire way of getting off the tracks. Now, he's got responsibility for getting this thing off the tracks, but that is not a way to get it back on, right?

Have you sat down with him outside of a hard conversation right so let's say you said hey i need you to pick these towels up please pick these up and he's like all right as soon as this commercial is over i'll get them and then you go to read a book you go to re-roof the house whatever awesome thing you're doing you come back and the towels are still sitting there and he's asleep and then you you lose it you take this towels you think about smothering him with them and then you just throw them at him instead and then y'all have a big dust up have you ever outside of that situation have you ever been out on a date with him have you ever had dinner with him and said hey tonight i just want to talk to you just you and me go to a restaurant or sit down at your house wherever

you need to do it and say i don't feel like you're taking me seriously. I don't feel like you're a contributing partner to this relationship. I ask you to be a part of things, and part of it is we agreed on cleaning up. We agreed on doing these things together, and you're not helping. In fact, you're not being honest with me when you say you're going to do it and talking about it in an off-scene situation. Have you ever tried that? No, I haven't. Okay. when you say you're going to do it and talking about it in an off-scene situation. Have you ever tried that? No, I haven't.

Okay. I've actually, you know, when he doesn't do things, like I tell him to clean his room, I remind him daily to do it. And then when he finally does do something that I wanted him to do after weeks later, I say, oh, good job, or I praise him, and it doesn't seem like it. Amy, this is your fiance or your pet? Yeah, I'm confused.

My fiance. This is your fiance or your son? My fiance. Amy, you're telling it. How old are you? I'm 32. How old is your fiance he's 34 and you're telling him to clean his room yes okay flip flip flip amy amy amy amy i can't i just can't be quiet i can't be quiet here um and i want to respectfully say this. I don't think the problem is on him solely.

I think it's on you. Part of it, too, because here's why. You've been with this guy for 10 years. This hasn't just started. And if my daughter came home and said, Dad, I have to tell my grown man who's 34 years old to clean his bedroom. And the only way he'll do it is if I give him praise. No disrespect. That's what I do.

I'm not going to say that, but I'm just going to say I'm going to say that's what you do with a young child or a pet. Right. So you're dating a grown man, but it sounds like he's a little boy in a grown man's body. And then it makes me question you because it's like what are you attracted to so i think the communication problem is on both sides not just his but you as well because how can you go 10 years and you just told us that you've never even said something to him so i think i agree with you y'all both need to go out there and just sit down and have a clear communication and you need to voice everything that you're concerned about he needs to voice

everything he's concerned about and at that table y'all need to identify all right do we want to move forward because 10 years dating someone man I wish I could so Amy imagine that for us How's that conversation going to go? Ten years Honestly I don't know how to start it Okay I guess I can Are you more And I'm not being ugly here

Are you more his mom or are you more his fiance? Are you more his Maternal figure who takes care of him And cleans up after him and makes sure the bills are paid? Or are you preparing to marry somebody that y'all are going to be co-partners, co-create a future together? That's a second option. So that's where you feel like you are or that's what you want to do? I want it to be that way. There you go. So I know where you want it you are or that's what you want to do? I want it to be that way. There you go.

So I know where you want it to be. Where is it now? It's right now where I'm doing everything. I'm being more of a maternal person. Okay. So what I need you to do is this. After a long time together, couples get in ruts, they get in routines, and all of a sudden you look up and you have a conversation with two guys you've never met and say,

hey, how does this sound? And we both lose our minds. But I don't want to miss the pain here. I don't want to miss the you're stuck in the same railroad tracks, you are in a rut, and you have your foot on that gas, and that car is just spinning a hole deeper and deeper and deeper. You have to, have to, have to create a future together with a shared vision. You've got to stop telling a grown man to go clean his room. You've got to stop saying, I want to build a future with a guy that I've got to remind with praise to do basic hygienic things. You're going to have to have a voice in your relationship where

you say, Hey, here's what I need to be whole in this relationship. Here's what I need from you as a partner. What can I do to support and love you? That's what relationships are. They are not tell somebody telling other grown people to clean up after themselves and then patting them on the head and saying, good boy and getting them a Whopper with cheese and going on about your day. Amy, I'm going to say something and this is my opinion. This is not Dave Ramsey's opinion. This is not John's opinion.

This is my opinion. So I, I will take all the heat from you too when I say this, but I want you to ask yourself, do you have any insecurities with inside of yourself? Cause I think that maybe you should step back and ask God, should you be dating? Because any woman that will allow a man to do that,

I question, does she know her own value? And I hear a woman who is valuable. I hear a woman that is sweet. I hear a woman that is caring, but I a woman that is sweet. I hear a woman that is caring, but I wonder, do you know that's your value? And,

and, and if you don't, I would definitely say step back. And even before you meet, really talk to yourself and really get to know yourself. So this way, when you go to him, he's going to see a different woman when he looks into your eyes and says, OK, that's the woman that I want.

I'm going to change. And if he doesn't want that woman, he's going to walk away or you have to walk away because the only way this change is by you. You can't depend on him because he's not changing. You have to make a change in yourself to force him to change or you have to be willing to exit especially after 10 years i i think this is a great example of so often anthony women are conditioned to make sure everyone else is okay yeah everyone else's needs are taken care of yeah i will pat you on the head i'll clean up up after you. I'll do all this other stuff. That's a nurturer in a woman. Well, but it's also a frustrating social conditioning.

And on the other side, guys live in this world where I'm just going to sit here. What guys? Not me. You're the exception. No. Yeah, you are. Not none of my peers. You don't be just sitting there.

That's right right if your wife ever told me she had to tell you to clean up her room i'm telling her to leave you today trust me she won't be telling you that real talk this is the dave ramsey show Thank you. We've got a packed out lobby full of Ramsey team members here to watch. Inside baseball. a packed out lobby full of Ramsey team members here to watch Inside Baseball. We've got two beautiful people on the debt-free stage, including one of our very own Ramsey team members. We've got Brady and Nikki Steed. How are you two doing? We're doing awesome. We're glad to be here. Feeling good? Yeah. So tell us about yourselves. Brady, what do you do for the company? I'm a software developer.

I work with EOP. Excellent. I could tell because your swag was like, yeah, we're doing good. That's exactly right. You spoke just like a developer. Your beautiful wife said, we're doing great. And you said, I'm doing fine. Excellent.

Excellent. Like a true developer. And Nikki, what is your trade? What do you do for a living? I work retail. Retail management. Outstanding. Very good.

So you are here to do your debt-free scream. How much have you paid off? We paid off about $28,000. $28,000. How long did it take you? Nine months. Nine months. Okay.

Did you sell a kid or a cat or something? No kids. What did you guys do to kid or a cat or something? No kids. What did you guys do to crank that out in nine months? It was purely based on our budget. We lived on less than our means, and we threw all of our extra cash at the debt. Stop the insanity for a second. You mean you spent less money than you made?

Yes. Exactly. I don't even know what to do with this revelation. That's incredible. All right, so what got you guys motivated nine months ago to say we're going to burn through $20,000 in debt and start living for tomorrow? It was actually our church.

We went through financial peace together. It was in 2018, and we both were actually in the class together even though we weren't dating at that point. Uh-oh, we have an FPU love connection? We do, yeah. Whoa! Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Did you just say y'all started this eight months ago or eight years ago? No, two years ago. Two years ago. 2018. 2018. I'm sorry. I was about to say, boy, y'all moved quick.

How long have you been working here, Brady? I started in January, about eight months. January. So, okay, cool. So you was on this journey before joining our team? Yes. Okay. All right. We started right after the wedding in October of last year. Okay. All right. So y'all met in class. We met just before class. It was a big church. We had known each other, but we hadn't ever really talked. What's the name of the church?

Give your church some love. First Baptist Orlando. Beautiful. So let's say you're in lesson two. Dave or Hogan's up on the screen ranting and raving, and one of you looks up and locks eyes with the other one and y'all just knew, right? He was actually kind of

doing the intro for the videos too. Ah, okay. Yeah, I was coordinating. Oh, very cool. And she saw her future husband coordinating things. Yeah, my leadership, I think. Your leadership, right.

So what did you guys do to get out of debt? We just lived on less than we made. Oh, so nothing special like earlier. That's just your answer for all the things. We just lived on less than we made. We paid our bills. We had a lot of obstacles along the way.

We had to replace my car twice. He had a hospital visit that we cash flowed. So living off of one car for about two months before the wedding. And then until we moved up here, we got a car from one of my bridesmaids. She was getting rid of her car and she said that we could have it. That's a bridesmaid gift right there, man. Usually you get a flower or a, or a note. You got a car. That's fantastic. Yeah. We were literally living in two different places and she would come pick me up every morning. Then I'd drop her off at work and then I'd go pick her back up again

and she'd take the car home. So we did that for two months before we got married. So y'all got a real glimpse into what working together towards a common mission is going to be. That's fantastic. So I'm pretty sure I know what the answer to this is going to be, but what would you say the key to getting out of debt was? Sticking to the budget. Ta-da! Look at this. America, I hope you're hearing the magic at play here. Just have a budget and stick to it.

Do people in your life think you are crazy? Who are your cheerleaders? What were the people around you saying? Yeah, I definitely had a lot of push to get a new car when I was having to replace both of mine um or replace it twice but i was really adamant about getting a used car and i'm very thankful for that so but we had families that were super supportive um so in our church and now that i'm here everyone everybody yeah so i gotta ask you got two young people

completely debt free you have young people listening to the show right now 17 million listeners listening every single day and they're like man I'm young and I hear them they're saying get on the budget but you know what budget is cool that's the B word that I really don't like and I don't want

to rock with it I want you to say something to that millennial, to that young person that's listening, that's in your shoes now where you were two years ago. Why, why should they pay off their debt now rather than waiting until the future? Well, I think that like Dave says, your biggest wealth builder is your income. Yeah. And so you can either give all of your money to Sally Mae or to the credit card companies, or you can keep it for yourself. Yeah. I love it. I know for me, although we don't have kids right now, like I've seen Rachel Cruz's video describing like the little girl and her experience, like how that moment changed things

for her and for her siblings. And although we don't have kids, like there's still things that we can be doing as a newly married couple to like prepare for when we start to have kids and make a difference in their lives, even though they're not here yet. And so like, for me, that was a big thing of being able to kind of start a new leaf for our family. So Anthony and I have taken several calls today of people in their 40s, 50s, or 60s who just have to have a new car. Yeah. They have to. It's inconceivable that they would buy a used car because one time,

and then because what would you tell to a couple that's twice your age, that's been married twice as long, that are just adamant they've got to have this new car? They're not going to be able to go four-wheeling together if they don't have this new car. What would you tell them? I would probably say that they're trading off comfort now for their future. And putting money into something that is going to depreciate in value and eventually you're going to get rid of it you're you're really hurting yourself brother if this development thing doesn't work out for you there's another microphone right here on the side of the table it'd be awesome so we've got brady and nicky who paid off twenty eight thousand dollars in nine months by doing drum roll please

following a budget and just paying their bills uh we have a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires, because that's the next chapter in your story. You can swing by the second floor and have him sign it if you'd like to. All right, so Brady and Nikki, all the way from down the hall, paid off $28,000 in nine months, making more than they than they spent right let's hear it let's hear your debt-free scream ready yeah three two one we're debt-free you know john one of the things i like about what uh nikki said was not nikki but br John, one of the things I like about what Nikki said was not Nikki, but Brady said one of our team members. He said that they're trading their future for comfort today.

And one of the key things that I'm always teaching people, especially throughout my tribe and on my megaphones, is that do not allow your comfort zone to become your kill zone. Don't let the very same thing that's comfortable to do today be the very same thing that kills your dreams, that kills your vision for tomorrow. And we can clearly see from Brady and Nikki that their future is going to be better because they were willing to be uncomfortable. And their uncomfortable was we're going to live below our means. If we make $1,000 a month, we're going to live off of $600 a month and put the extra $400 to wars our debt so that in the future we can say yes to our goals, to our dreams. We can buy the things that we want. So America, I hope you're hearing. And I hope every young person who was a millennial, who's in their twenties, who's in their thirties are listening to this young couple. They are debt-free with no children.

Do you know how much peace and how much freedom that's going to be when they can have a child and they don't have any major responsibilities? If she gets a call in a couple of weeks that says, hey, we're going to have to cut your hours, you know what that's going to be? Annoying. Annoying. That's it. It's going to be frustrating.

But she's not going to trip. It's not going to be catastrophic. Come on. Right? Come on, John. And let's look at them, Anthony. They're both dressed well. They're both beautiful. They're both smiling.

Yes. The sacrifices they made didn't kill them. It gave them joy. Come on, man. It gave them joy. Yes, sir. You can do it, America. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. the scripture of today is second timothy 2 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of

many witnesses and trust a faithful man who will be able to teach others also. Oren Woodward says, Average leaders raise the bar on themselves. Good leaders raise the bar for others. Great leaders inspire others to raise their own bar. I love it. Inspire others to raise their own bar. Love it.

All right, let's go to Phillip in Burlington, Virginia. Phillip, how are we doing, brother? Phillip. We're doing great, guys. Thanks for taking my call. You betcha. How can we help, brother? We're kind of at a point where we've been kind of mixing six and seven a little bit,

and I'm kind of trying to figure out to have a conversation with my wife about just paying off the house. We currently have probably about a year and a half for it retiring. And the plan is to have it paid off by then. And we've been making a lot bigger payments above our mortgage on the house with that plan. On the other hand, for me to talk to her, I'm trying to talk myself into paying off the house, but on the other hand, we both really like having all this extra cash in the bank right now. Sure. So how much cash do you have in the bank?

About $200,000. Okay. And how much do you own the house? About $178,000. Okay. And how much do you own the house? About $178,000. Okay, cool. What's your annual income gross as far as income combined? About $160,000. $160,000. Okay, cool.

And what do you need for three months? What's your age? I'll say six months. For six months of an emergency fund, what does that number look like? About $200,000. Nah, it's not no $200,000. Phillip, when you're debt-free, how much is your mortgage payment?

About $1,300. Okay, $1,300. So it sounds like maybe you need about $5,000 a month. Would you agree? Yeah, we could probably survive on that if I had to i mean what do you need remember emergency fund covers your emergencies so as far as not your emergencies but you know your your your expenses what does it take for you to live every single month not go out and travel the world every single weekend no what does it take for you to to live our monthly expenses are probably about five thousand okay so five thousand so you need thirty thousand dollars pretty much in your

account bare minimum okay you said you owe about 160 correct 178 178 okay cool so what i would do is i'll go ahead and minus 30 000 from that 200 you have in your savings account. If you want to pay it off and go ahead and just make that one large lump sum, you can be debt free within the next two months, two, three months. And then you spend the rest of this or the rest of these next few months. And you just go ahead and get your emergency fund back up if you want some more in there. But I mean, for you to live, you need six months, 30,000, 35,000, minus that from $200,000 pay off your debt. And here's why I say pay off the mortgage, because our good friend Chris Hogan did a book called Everyday Millionaires in America.

If you haven't read this book, I want you to read this book. And what he studied was the reason why people like school teachers and firefighters and police officers became millionaires is because they had a debt free home. They paid off their mortgage. And so I would highly recommend if you have the funds, go ahead and just pay off the mortgage and then just go ahead and build your emergency funds back up some. Jump on a phone with a smart investor pro to help you invest a little bit more into your retirement and just start building wealth. That's baby step number seven. So that's what I would recommend.

That's what I really want you to do, Phillip, but it's really on you. When I get to the end, like he said, 18 months out 24 months out of of my projected retirement date yes i want to have no debt yes zero i want to have the risk side of my portfolio on that end of the fulcrum yep be zero yes so if it comes down to having a little bit more extra in the bank account yeah versus having a mortgage or reversed, I want zero. And think about it, though. He said their living expenses is $5,000, which includes their mortgage payment. I think he said right around $1,300. So technically now their living expenses goes down to about $3,700.

Right. It's lower. It's lower. So it's like, wow. So now you just created so much freedom and so much peace to where, I mean, even I would want to know, like, well, what's the $3,700? You know, because that's a lot that you have to have to live off of in expenses. So I'm paying off the home mortgage.

All right. Let's go to Jawad in Omaha, Nebraska. Jawad, what's going on, man? Hello. Hi. How are you both doing? I'm sorry. I'm pretty new to this program, so I don't know your names.

I am John Deloney, and this is my compadre, Anthony O'Neill, and we're here to help, brother. How can we help? Hi. So just to give a little bit of history, it's not been more than probably 15 days that I am, while I'm driving everywhere, sitting everywhere. I'm listening to the Dave Ramsey show for having all these good comments and stuff, helping people around.

So I thought I would just give a call and see what advice I can get to help me a little bit in there. Well, outstanding. We're glad you're with us, man. How can we help? Yeah. So here's the thing. I am making around uh that's my total household income um i'm making around a hundred thousand dollars okay um and then uh my wife uh my wife is not working because i have two babies uh one is about two years old and one is

about eight months old oh y'all are in it right now, huh? Yeah. Your house is hopping. Not a lot of sleep going on in that house, huh? Not really, because we have back-to-back babies. However, one happened by accident, but yeah, it's back-to-back babies. Hey, it's all good, man. All right, so I'll cut you off. Go ahead. So, yeah, the thing is that we are renting right now, and I told my wife to take care of the baby so we can have babies grown at home and stuff.

So I'm making about $100,000 a year. And then at the beginning of the year, I make a plan with me with the current debt I have. So I'm going to break them down for you. I have about $9,700 on my card that I have financed. And I have about $4,000 on my credit card. And I have about $28,000 to I think it's about $26,000 on a personal loan that I had. Beginning of the year with this income and the savings we do

and everything, I am making a plan that by the end of the year I will pay off everything. Believe it or not, when the year end comes, I still owe there. Hey, Juwan, we're running out of time, man.

How can we help you? What's the question you have for us today? Yeah, so the advice I need from you is I am planning to purchase a home. Do I have to pay off the debt first or do I have to start to gain the down payment and then purchase a home? Have to. We're not going to tell you what you have to do. What you should do and what we want you to do is we want you to go ahead and pay off your debt and not just pay off your debt, but go ahead and get at least three to six months in your savings account.

For you being a young guy, sound like you're a sharp guy, I'm cool with you having three months in your savings account, especially in Nebraska. So it should be okay there. Then from there, we have this thing called Baby Step 3B alright and on 3B that's when we set aside at least 10-20% to put down on a home but since you are new and we don't have

enough time to walk through this I want you to stay on the line Kelly's gonna give you Ramsey Plus free for a year I want you and your wife to go through this from all the details when it comes to Financial Peace University

and just go through all of it because I want to make sure that you get all the information so you can do this right because the fact that you called in to talk to two guys who you don't know, we want you to meet the guy,

Dave Ramsey, and some of our other teammates like Chris Hogan and Rachel Cruz who we all will help you walk through this process to make the best decision for your future. So thanks for calling in, man. Such a great question. I love hearing somebody who's driving along.

They hear Dave, and suddenly their life has changed. Yes. And they say, what's the next step? I love it. I love it. I love it. Well, Anthony, thanks for spending time with us. I want to thank producer James Child and associate producer Kelly Daniel.

Thanks to everyone listening to this. I want you all to hear me. You can change your life. It starts today. It starts with other people. Do it. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. On your smart speaker, you can add our skill by saying, Alexa, open the Ramsey Network skill.

From there, you can listen to all our shows. Ask Dave money questions like, how do I invest my money? Or what is the debt snowball? Find out more at Dave Ramsey.com slash smart speaker.