The Ramsey Show - App - The Cold-Hard Truth About Student Loan Debt (Hour 3)

Episode Date: July 10, 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. You jump in, we'll talk about your life, your money. It's a free call at 888-825-5225. And some say the advice is worth exactly what you pay for it. Norma is with us to start off this hour in Greensboro, North Carolina. Hi, Norma, how are you?

Hi, Dave, thanks so much for taking my call. I really appreciate it. My pleasure. How can I help? Yes. So my parents and I are really trying to figure out how to or what to do with this Parent Plus loan they took out for me over 12 years ago. Of course, had I known then what I know now, things would look totally different but the loan is now at $72,000. My parents are in no way able to pay for this. My dad is supposed to retire in September. We're all freaking out because we're worried they're going to garnish his check. My husband and I are trying to figure out what we need to do to pay this off whether we need to sell our house or take out a loan.

We don't know what to do. We're all kind of panicking. I feel burdened by this because this is their only debt, and it's really holding them back. And so I just need guidance. I'm willing to do whatever we need to do to free them of this. Why have they not paid it off? Their own financial crisis. My dad only makes about $1,800 a month. Why have they not paid it off? Their own financial crisis.

My dad only makes about $1,800 a month. The loan or the payment is like at $1,000 right now. Why did they agree to borrow $72,000 if he makes $1,800 a month? Well, this was 12 years ago. And then it was not at $72,000 with the interest and them not being able to pay. That is where it is now. What was originally borrowed? Yeah. What was originally borrowed?

I believe it should have been about $40,000. So your dad took out a $40,000 loan and he made $20,000 a year? No, at that time he was in California. He made significantly more. The job closed, so it was kind of like just a crisis after crisis, and they had already taken out that loan. How old are you? I am 31.

And what's your household income? So our household is about anywhere from $3,000 to about $7,000, just as in the last two to three months. My husband just left his job. We're both working our own businesses that are doing better than it was prior, so we're hoping to be able to take care of some things. And how much debt do you have? We have my husband's student loan at $39,000,

and then our mortgage at $108,000. We have about $60,000 in equity in our house. Mm-hmm. Okay. Well, your parents are the only ones that are liable for this loan legally. You know that, right? Mm-hmm. Okay.

Morally, you want to help your parents because they have made a mess and they did that to um to help you yes and so you feel the moral obligation although at the time they took out the loan you guys did not even have a handshake that said you are responsible for this they fully intended to pay for it they just never have right and they still feel like they want to handle it but they're they know they can't and i know they can't right what's their house worth they don't have any they live in an apartment so they don't have any debt outside of my student loan they don't own a house. Okay. Mm-mm. All right. And how old are they? My dad's going to be 65 in September, and my mom is like 58. Okay.

And why does your mom not work? She's had some medical challenges that have prevented her from working. What are the nature of her medical challenges? A lot of joint pain. Mm-hmm. challenges? A lot of joint pain. And I actually just got diagnosed with Lyme disease, so I'm kind of stepping into that similar. So I kind of understand the severe fatigue where I'm barely working 10 to 15 hours and I'm beat. So she deals with some serious pain issues.

Okay. That's sad. Okay. Because really, what it amounts to is between the two households, somehow we've got to find $72,000, because otherwise they're going to take their tax returns and their Social Security until they get their money. Okay. So they would garnish my dad's check. They'll take everything. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That's a federally insured student loan, which gives them access to anything that's federal. Okay. Yeah, that's a federally insured student loan, which gives them access to anything that's federal. Okay.

Nothing else can get at it, but that can get at it. Okay. So I'm not going to panic, but, you know, between the two of you, you need to sit down and do a budget and start putting $1,000 a month on this thing, and then soon after, you guys get your husband's student loan debt cleared up, then and only then do you put extra money on this. But if you get a little bit started, get $1,000 a month started on it, they're not going to do anything at that point.

If you can get some kind of a payment plan working with them, $1,000 a month will take care of it. You put in $500, they put in $500. And your dad's just going to work more. And he's not retiring at 65. Okay. He has $72,000 in debt and no money and no assets. And so he's going to be working more.

And you and your husband are going to be doing everything. You can't get your income up. And you can put in $500 a month if you want. But no more until you get your house in order. When you get your house in order, then you're in a position to do charity. And that's what this is, is charity. Okay. Can I ask you a question?

Sure. If I take over, if my home, we take over the student loan payment, $1,000 and my dad still retires at 65, would they still take his checks or no? That's as long as, if we're making the regular payments, they can't touch his Social Security. If you make a deal with them and pay the payment that is the deal, they're not going to do that. But that doesn't work.

That doesn't work. You guys don't have enough money to do that. You just took on $100,000 plus in debt with your household income, and you are telling me you are fatigued with Lyme disease. That doesn't work. He needs to keep working. Is selling the house just not wise at all? No. It's not.

It's not. Because here's the deal. If, God forbid, your parents were to pass away, the loan is gone. Mm-hmm. And so I'm, you know, there's cold, hard facts in here, and there's a lot of feelings and a lot of things you want to take care of mom and dad. But, you know, you don't make $300 thousand dollars a year and you're not worth two million dollars if you did and you were i'd tell you to write a check and that's fine pay it off i got

no issue with that i'm not mad about this but you just you guys have your household to watch over first and frankly your parents have done a crummy job in the last 12 years. 12 freaking years, and they didn't take care of $40,000 in debt. They've done a crummy job. And so, you know, they really have. And, yeah, I understand they had some setbacks and they had some things happen. I've had things happen to me. But 12 freaking years for $40,000? And didn't pay a dime on it.

Not a dime. Not once. And so, yeah, he's working. He's working a while longer. It won't hurt him. It'll be good for him. I know he's 65. I'm 57. Work. It's okay. You got $72,000 in debt.

Work. And you guys get your budget tightened up and jump in there and help him. I'm with you on that part of it. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. up and jump in there and help them i'm with you on that part of it this is the dave ramsey show for years i refused to endorse any company that claimed to get people out of timeshares i told my listeners it's a horrible product and that unfortunately they didn't have a lot of options. Then a few years ago, I sat down with Brandon Reed, the owner of Timeshare Exit Team. Brandon walked me through the timeshare industry and I learned that you

can't sell them and you can't even give them away. And then we talked about Timeshare Exit Team's process. Every ownership situation is different, which is why they have more solutions than any other company. And that's when they earned my respect. Don't call any of the imposters out there, and there's a lot. The only timeshare exit company I stand behind is Timeshare Exit Team. They have exited thousands from their timeshare burden this year alone. Yes, you will write them a check, but they stand behind their guarantee their guarantee they will get you out or they'll give you a full refund call 844-999-EXIT online at timeshareexitteam.com Thanks for joining us, America.

Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee, which means even if you mismeasure, if you screw up your own order, they guarantee that. Now, who does that? Blinds.com does. Site-wide savings right now, you can get your window blinds at 5% off, an additional 5% off, plus the sale that's going on. But you always use the slash Ramsey. Use the Ramsey promo code. Christy's in Kentucky.

My husband is the beneficiary of an inherited IRA. He's currently invested in an annuity, drawing 1%. Well, that sucks. We're discussing the possibility of cashing it out. Yay. And paying off debt. Yay. If we cash it out after taxes, there'd be enough to pay off all our debt except our home.

This is not our retirement. What do you recommend? Oh, I would definitely cash that out. Number one, it sucks. You have a horrible fixed annuity there. Good God. One percent. Somebody ripped your parents off, man.

That's something else. What a horrible job. Anyway. Yeah. And so, yeah, you're going to pay income tax on the entire amount. It is a taxable event. There is no penalties on this. And, yes, I do not recommend

you cash out retirement, your retirement, to pay off debt and pay penalties and taxes. But I do recommend in almost every case you cash out enough of an inherited IRA to become debt-free. Athena is in Chicago. Hey, Athena, welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, thank you so much for taking my call. Sure, what's up? So I'm at a crossroads right now in my life. I actually just left my husband about a month ago.

It was not a healthy relationship, and I kind of uprooted my life where I was living and moved back in with my parents now. They've been really supportive. And I really, I want to kind of restart my life. I have kind of like career goals that has nothing to do with what I've been doing in the past. And I wanted to ask your advice on what's the best way for me to get to my career goals, given my situation right now that I'm living with my parents and I don't have any debt and I do have some savings. I have my own car, but I don't have a job right now. And I, yeah, I'm just wondering what would be the best way to get to a vision that isn't really, like, has no roots right now. Wow. How old are you?

I'm almost 30. I'm 29. How long were you married? Less than a year. Oh, wow. Must have been bad. It was an abusive relationship, so it was good that I got out of it. Yeah, you don't want to be in an

abusive situation for sure yeah and so do you were you working in a position before you said what were you doing before well I've been doing a lot of things I have a I guess you could say a very prosperous degree I'm really good at like analytics like working in Excel and I did all kinds of different work and digital marketing and academia so I know I can go and make a lot of money so you have a degree in what now in applied mathematics and economics okay and you've used that in data management and data mining and so forth and you used to make how much? I've made anywhere between, using that degree, anywhere between about $40,000 to $70,000 a year.

That sounds reasonable. Okay, and now that you've got some experience and you're in the Chicago market, you could do that again, but it's not what you want to do. What is it you want to do? I want to, I have a dream. I mean, I love to write. So, but what I really am passionate about, I really want to help people. I'm really interested in like psychology and even something either going back and actually becoming like a licensed psychotherapist or just becoming a personal coach and being able

to help people in other ways and maybe writing. So yeah, it's not really laid out exactly how, but I do just want to help people by like communicating with them and helping them with their problems. Probably got a lot to do with what you've been through, huh? Yeah, it actually does. makes sense okay um well how long ago did you move in with your mom and dad it's been about a month um yeah i have i have a 30 year old daughter okay and so if i were talking to her with the limited information I've gotten in two minutes from you, so in other words, I don't know you extremely well, but I'm hearing several key things going on. You've been through a really traumatic, wounding, hurtful experience and process.

And it's going to take you a little time to heal from that. So I would personally encourage you not to make a major career or educational path decision right now while this is all raw. I would give yourself about a year to heal. And during that year, let's poke around on, let's go ahead and get back in the job market and get your good position, making $60,000 or $70,000 a year. I'm not saying do that the rest of your life. I'm saying give your emotions and your spirit time to recover. You'll make a better decision. Things are pretty raw around you right now.

Or you're a psychopath psychopath one of the two if you don't have some weird moments in every day right now with what you've been through then you've got then you've got issues you're not a human okay and so you're not you know so give yourself a little time and during that year um you know join a a non-profit and volunteer coaching young women. Go by the domestic violence shelter and offer to volunteer and coach and sit and talk. Write a blog. Use your writing skills on some of your experiences and your thoughts as you spend this year healing. And so exercise some of the muscles in the area that you think you want to move into. That will keep you energized, moving in the right direction. And with the information you gather by exercising those muscles,

the experiences you have during that year, with that, with the healing, and with some money that you'll pile up during this year, you can make some really good quality decisions about this time next year about what you want to do. But there is nothing on fire here that says you have to start school and go get your PhD in psychiatry today. As a matter of fact, I think that'd be a mistake today to make a decision that's that big and that heavily invested based on the fact that you've got a heart for hurting people because you've been through hell. And I think it's wonderful you got a heart for hurting people. Larry Crabb says the best of us that are healers, including me, are wounded. He wrote a book called Wounded Healers.

And those of us that walk with a limp because we've had something happen to us or brought it on ourselves, as in my case, going broke in my 20s, having to start over, those of us that walk with a limp, we are better healers because we understand when somebody's hurting. I understand people when they're hurting and scared financially, like people that have never been there don't. And you can intellectually grasp it, but when you've been where you've been, you see things differently.

And I've never been where you've been. You've never been where I've been. But we see things through different eyes after that. So I think God will use this hard time in your life and use you to be a healer in the future, which is what your desire is. But let's give it a little time to decide exactly how tactically how that's going to manifest itself and go make 80 grand next year and bank all of it and get yourself out on your own

and be a self-sufficient, confident, competent young woman that regains her confidence after an abusive thing. That's an important step. And, you know, that's what I would tell my own 30-year-old daughter is let's decide today not to decide, but to begin to take little baby steps in the right direction, exercise some of those muscles. And I think there's a lot of wisdom in that. You're going to do what you're going to do. But that's what I would do if I woke up in your shoes,

or if I heard this from my own daughter, that's what I would tell her. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Okay. Okay, I need you to listen to this, because one normal routine that everyone does can cause total chaos in your life. I'm talking about the simple act of using Wi-Fi. When you're on Wi-Fi anywhere in public or at home, you're at risk of hackers easily seeing every site you visit and every search you're doing online. It doesn't matter if you're on your cell or your laptop. They can see you visiting websites, streaming or downloading, uploading photos, files and more.

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You can be secure in seconds. Download Hotspot Shield by Anchor Free today. Annie is in Bismarck, North Dakota. Hi, Annie. How are you? I'm awesome. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Oh, Annie. How are you? I'm awesome. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up?

Oh, nothing. Just calling to let you know I paid off all my debt. Debt-free Annie. I love it. How much have you paid off? I paid off $50,000 in three years. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? I started at about $40 and ended at about $59. Good for you. What do you do for a living? I do office work, and then while I was doing this journey, I had a ton of side jobs. What was the best money-making side job you had? Well, I did a lot of serving, so that was probably where I made the most. That was a lot of it. As a waitress?

Yep, yep. I was a waitress. What kind of restaurant gave you the best tips? Oh, man, I don't know. Usually just kind of the popular. I mean, I live in a smaller town, so just the more popular one around town, I guess. So one where there was a lot of tables, where you had good work, where you were standing around. Yeah, usually the more busy ones. I worked at like a sports bar for a while, and during football season it was crazy, things like that.

Yeah, okay, cool. Good for you. Well done. What's your day job? What do you do during the day? I'm an office assistant. During football season, it was crazy, things like that. Yeah. Okay. Cool. Good for you. Well done. Yeah. And what's your day job? What do you do during the day? I'm an office assistant. You said that.

Okay. All right. Cool. What kind of debt was the $50,000? What was that? What kind of debt was the $50,000? I had $2,000 in credit card debt and then $7,000 on a car loan. And then I had a $41,000 Monster student loan debt.

Wow. What's your degree in? I had two degrees. So I had a degree in communications and graphic design, and then I also had a degree in administrative assistant. Ah, which is what you're doing. Okay. Very good.

Yep, exactly. Very cool. So what happened to you three years ago that put you on this journey? Well, rewind a couple years ago. My sister, she's a huge fan of you, and she suggested I should take the Financial Peace University class. So I did that after college, and that was probably about six years ago. So it took a little while for it to kick in, but I think once I started making my student loan payments,

and it started out probably under $40,000, but then after the interest, it just kept getting higher instead of smaller. So you woke up one morning a couple years after school and said, this is going the wrong way. Yeah, exactly. So I might have to get serious. Yep. Okay. Yep, and I was already living like a broke college student, so I figured now's the time to do it and just get it done.

Yeah, knock it out. Well done. Well, I guess your sister was cheering you on, right? She was, yeah. She was my big support throughout the whole journey when I'd have to work the long serving hours. Yeah, your feet get tired. She keeps me motivated. Yeah, your feet get tired, and carrying those trays, your back hurts.

Yep. Yeah, good for you. Very good. Well done. So how old are you? Thank you. I am 29. I just turned 29.

And you are debt-free. How does it feel? I am debt-free. I am 29. I just turned 29. And you are debt-free. How does it feel? I am debt-free. It feels awesome. It's been so good the past couple months. It's just a weight off your shoulders. Yeah. So what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? I would say you just have to start. You just, I mean, you just got to do it.

I really, I'm kind of old school, and I really like writing everything down. So when I started, I just jotted down everything I owed and kind of came up with a game plan and worked on my debt snowball. And I think just seeing it visually on paper or even, you know, if you have it on your computer just helps a ton. Yeah. Keep you motivated. And celebrate the little victories, too.

So every about five thousand i'd pay off i would just give myself a little celebration and then just keep chucking away at it so what does an any little celebration look like usually it's just going over to my sister's house and ordering pizza okay nothing crazy maybe or if it's like i'd go shop at one of my little boutiques by myself, just a little shirt, and then go back at it, you know. I got you. Okay.

That's cool, though. Every $5,000, and you had 10 of those to get to $50,000, and you did that in three years. And so every three or four months, you go, woo-hoo, and then you go back at it. Yeah, you go back at it. That's a good plan. Then go back at it. Yep. That keeps you moving.

Very well done. Very well done. Very well done. It does, yeah. Did you have anybody saying you were crazy? Not really. I had a lot of support system. Actually, when I paid off my last payment, I went over to my sister's house to do my little celebration with our pizza. We were just going to have a girls night and i went there and

she actually threw a surprise party for me with all of my friends that were like supporting me throughout the whole process so it was like the best way to end the journey and everybody was looking at our youtube channel i think i have a picture of that party with the little signs yep yeah and she made a signs. She went all out. Actually got a good Last Supper look to it there. Yeah, well done. Yeah, exactly. That's what it is. That's fun.

Very good. Well, congratulations, and way to go, sis, for the support. That's excellent. What's her name? Yeah, Nicole. All right, way to go, Nicole. Good job. You talked her into it.

You put her in Financial Peace University. You encouraged her, and you celebrated at the end. That's a good sister. Well done. Way to go, Nicole. Good job. You talked her into it. You put her in Financial Peace University. You encouraged her, and you celebrated at the end. That's a good sister. Well done. Yeah, she's awesome. Yeah, good stuff. Good stuff. Wow.

Love it. Love it. Love it. We got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, number one bestseller. It's called Retire Inspired. That's the next chapter in your story, Annie. You're going to be a millionaire. You're on your way, and you're going to be outrageously generous as you go along,

and there's going to be a lot of Annie celebrations in the future. Yay! Yes, there will be. I'm excited. $50,000 paid off. Annie in Bismarck, North Dakota, took her three years, making $40,000 up to $59,000. Waiting

tables. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. I'm debt-free! There we go. Love it! Well done. Well done.

Susie's in Austin, Texas. How are you, Susie? Hi, Dave. I'm doing good. I want to let you know that this summer I decided I wanted to get serious about our finances and not have to live paycheck to paycheck. So I read your Total Money Makeover and even got my college-age kids the book. I can't remember the name of it right now, but the one about not making certain financial mistakes and got my husband on board. And I'm kind of wanting to figure out if we're on the

right track and kind of figure out what's the best way to handle all this. I should say that I realized after listening to your program and reading your book that we actually make really, really good money, but we had the past year, a lot of expenses that were sort of out of control. I had two surgeries. We also ended up having to get two cars. We paid off the past year and a half. We did pay off two cars knowing we were going to need to get a used car for my son. And then my car, the engine went out.

And unfortunately I did buy a new car, but I was able to trade in my old car. So I didn't buy a real expensive car. Okay. How much debt do you have? So we have $60,000 in debt, which is... What's your household income? Our household income is between $170,000 and $180,000 in debt, which is... What's your household income? Our household income is between $170,000 and $180,000 a year. Okay. And so you realize it's ridiculous that you're in debt at all?

Yes. You've been spending like you're in Congress and it's time to quit. Right. Well, and so we have started, we're on baby step two, and we're trying to get my daughter... Yeah, but the first step to getting out of debt is never borrow again. For anything, for any reason, ever again. Never borrow money again. If you're not ready to do that, I can't help you.

Well, I agree with you. After reading your book, I agree with you, and that's why we decided we're going to get really serious and get this. Yeah, so your son gets a $1,000 car or doesn't get a car at all until you get the $60,000 cleaned up. You make $170,000, you need to be debt-free in a year. One year. That's $5,000 a month on the debt.

If you can do that, and above that, you want to save up a little bit and get him a little bit of a car, put an engine in your car, get you a little bit of a car until we get the other side of this. Next year, you'll be able to buy cars and pay cash for them without any trouble because you won't have any debt. And you will have learned to live on a budget sacrificially for the first time in your freaking life. Y'all been spending money, kiddo. This is the Dave Ramsey Show.

Let me tell you a story about two families that are very much alike in a lot of ways. Both families have two working parents and a couple of young kids. Each has debt and has struggled to make ends meet. But they're starting to make headway with their budgets and smarter decisions with money. They have dreams and plans, and the only real difference is that one family has the right amount of term life insurance, and the other doesn't. Big difference. If one of the parents die, and that does happen, their well-being would be

destroyed. Paying for the mortgage, utilities, food, and other bills would be impossible, let alone saving for education or retirement. That's why every day I talk relentlessly about getting term life insurance. Just go to zanderinsurance.com or call 800-356-4282 and see how inexpensive it really is. Be the family that takes those deliberate steps to be different and responsible. It really does make you the hero of your story, and it puts you on course for better things ahead. Our scripture today, commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him, and He will do this. Psalm 37, 5. Steve Jobs said, be a yardstick of quality.

Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected. I actually had somebody say I was arrogant and mean. And I was neither. I just absolutely demand excellence. But I was not mean nor arrogant. I'm just not going to accept any less. So it's July, and my friends Bobby Grunwald and the folks over at YouVersion started this wonderful Bible app, the YouVersion Bible app.

Craig Groeschel, the pastor at LifeChurch.tv over in Oklahoma City, 10 years ago. It's hard to believe it's only been 10 years. This is one of the most impactful things to have ever happened to Christianity, and it's been done so quietly and with such excellence. I'm so proud of my friends. They've done such a good job. It was one of the first 200 free apps available when Apple launched the App Store in 2008. Listen to this. In the 10 years since, 330 million devices have the Bible on it now. Worldwide. Every country in the world,

most every language out there. That's bizarre. 330 million Bibles given away. That's amazing. I was not exaggerating when i said impactful people on new version have read 70 billion chapters of the bible opened it up and used it to read listen to this 70 billion chapters of the Bible. They've listened to 12 billion audio chapters of the Bible,

made 4 billion billion. Yeah, that's 1,000 million. Highlights, bookmarks, and notes. And they've completed 2.4 billion Bible plan days. We have a couple of the Bible plan things that we put on there on money, what the Bible says about money that you can read, what I say about proverbs and different things. I need to do a new one.

I haven't done one in a while. And pretty amazing, though. The impact of this is completely free. LifeChurch.tv out of Oklahoma City created it. LifeChurch has since become, I think, probably the largest evangelical church in North America. I'm pretty sure they are. If not, they are very, very close. And 1,700 different versions of the Bible, 1,200 languages.

Wow. Completely free. That's impact. That's impact. Congratulations. Happy anniversary, you version. Ten years, 330 million free Bibles given away as downloadable apps on your device. If you have an iPhone or an Android or a device, and you look down,

and it says a little Bible on there, and it says YouVersion, that you're one of them I'm talking about. I've got them on every device I own. When I'm digitally using Scripture, that's how I'm doing it, is on YouVersion 100% of the time. It's the only one I've got. And it's free. Pretty amazing.

I've spent millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars developing and iterating and growing this thing. But what a great return on investment. Very well done. Congratulations, Bobby. Craig, proud of you guys. Proud to call you friends. Well done.

Good work. Jennifer is with us in Savannah, Georgia. Hi, Jennifer. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Dave, I am so excited. You came to our church in um in December yeah wonderful place absolutely love you guys yeah thank you for coming um I told everybody about it and I had several friends there so um they were tired of hearing your name because yeah how can I help today Dave Ramsey this night um okay so my husband and I I are in a disagreeance on something.

We have paid off most of our debt. The only thing we have left is a van and a car. So the van we owe $8,500 on, and my husband is leaving for Saudi Arabia. Well, anyway, he's leaving soon for deployment. And so he's leaving in about eight weeks. And I want to just sell the van because we don't need it. He's going to be gone for a year. And, like, in the time that we have that he's going to be gone,

we can just save that much money or, you know, a lot more, and we could just buy one. And what's the other car? The other car is $13,000. It's a Honda Civic. Okay. And how many kids do you have? We have one right now. Okay.

And Honda Civic will do it for you and the kid while he's in Saudi Arabia? Right. Okay. And then when you come back, you'll have the money and cash to buy a car? Exactly. And why does he not want to do that? That sounds reasonable. He just thinks it's going to be a pain to sell it because we still owe on it.

And then he thinks that, you know, when he comes back, he's like, well, what if I don't have a vehicle to drive? What am I going to do? Because he'll come back for 30 days. And I'm like, well, we'll figure that out then. You can rent something. You can rent something. Or holler at somebody at the church and ask them, you know, you've got a serviceman here that's home for a couple days. Have you got an extra car?

Right. You know. And a lot of people would love to be a blessing to you guys. You serve your country. We appreciate you. So, I'm with you. I would sell it. Okay.

You win the argument. Awesome. And tell him thanks for his service, okay? Sure. Thank you, Dave. God bless. Lisa's in Los Angeles his service, okay? Sure. Thank you, Dave. God bless. Lisa's in Los Angeles. Hi, Lisa.

How are you? Hi, Dave. It's so nice to talk to you. You too. What's up? Well, my question is that right now my husband and I are in baby step number two. We had moved in with our in-laws, my in-laws, when we decided to pay off debt, which we have been.

We paid off about $9,000 in credit cards and also some personal loans. But now I'm kind of wondering when we should move out. We still have more debt, though. We have two cars, both $15,000, and we also have a student loan debt, $16,000. What is your household income? It is $60,000. And how long have you lived with them? A little bit. It's probably about eight months.

And how's that going? It's very good. That was a lot. We're not getting kicked out. know we're just we were used to having our own space and it's easier on your husband it's easier on your husband because it's his parents than it is you yes it's still weird for you it's it's gotten a lot better but you know we still want our own place but i don't know if it's the right time like i am willing to wait i mean if you am willing to wait.

I mean, if you tell me to wait until we pay off everything, then I'm going to wait until we pay off everything. No, I'm not going to tell you that. I only tell people to do what I would do. Okay. I would love that. Go ahead. There's not a chance that I could live with in-laws. I love my in-laws, and I could have lived with them for a period of time.

Eight months would be a lot, but after that, I would be over it. Okay. And I think Sharon would feel the same way about her in-laws probably. I mean, we love them, but I don't think we're going to live with them. And so not for long. And so if I'm in your shoes, I'm probably, you know, I'm going to set a date and say, you know, the one-year mark, four more months, and we're out of here. All right. And do as much as you can do during that time and sacrifice.

Now, when you move, you've got to rent something super cheap. I mean, because you've still got a lot of debt to clean up. You've still got a mess. So you've got to be careful when you move. Make sure you use that four months to search out and find a bargain. Hard to find something cheap to live in in Los Angeles, but you can do it. And you get the right situation, the right deal. And then you're going to be working extra jobs and other stuff.

There's going to be no picnic here. But I'm probably staying about four more months and I'm out of there. That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show and the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey guys, it's Blake Thompson, Chief Production Officer for the Dave Ramsey Show. This hour's up, but you'll find more on our YouTube channel, where we have over 6 million YouTube views each month. You can find debt-free

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