The Ramsey Show - App - The Math Won't Change Until YOU Change It (Hour 1)

Episode Date: November 28, 2019

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, 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, as one family just kind of work on... No, I would not pay his debts. 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. I haven't got any hits on it, so I'm going to turn it on 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'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, and it's just his medical stuff after that yeah and don't sign for that right i mean that's it i mean you can take care of him without you know you getting on the hook for a million dollars worth of cancer treatments right and so um you know that there's 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 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, and I'm thinking the three years is pushing that. Yeah, okay.

All right. I'm sorry. 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 help him get rid of those two obligations without you having to sign up for his debts. Does that make sense? Yes, sir. So, I mean, yes, you take care of him.

He's your dad, and that's wonderful. And I think I want to completely hear you know embrace that and i'm so sorry you guys are facing this it's such a 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 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 i you. I know what you guys are saying.

But make sure you take care of him, but let his debt pass away when he does. Does that make sense? Yes. Because, 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, things to be stressed about or whatever or whatever. So that's – 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 your debt snowball. If you're paying payments on your iPhone, yeah, you would pay that off. So, yeah, put it in your debt snowball.

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, yeah, clear it up. Clear it up as fast as you can. 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 go check it out there's all kinds of

wonderful discussions and um 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 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.

15% 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 house, that's wonderful. Get her paid off. I don't care. Nothing wrong with that. Thanks for following us on Twitter, Joe. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know that if you combine the data breaches that have occurred in the past 12 months,

almost every American has had their personal info compromised or hacked? Over 50% of our listeners and viewers tell us that they or someone in their family has been a victim. And 70% of those folks have had it happen more than once. See, this is unbelievable. Once thieves get your info, the risk never goes away, and they can use it whenever and however they choose. It truly has become an issue of not if, but when. That's why the only plan I've ever recommended is through Zander Insurance.

I actually sat down with them, and we put together a plan that I felt provided the best protection, but didn't waste dollars on things you could easily do yourself or were just gimmicks. The key is getting protected before you're a victim, and it's too late. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. We are all at risk, and it doesn't make sense to wait. Numbers don't lie. That's Zander.com or 800-356-4282. Matthew is in Atlanta. Hi, Matthew.

Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? One question. I'm like $92,000 in debt, and I try, and I can't really get started on the baby steps. I'm seeing if you can help me out.

Why do you think you can't get started? I just don't have the additional income. I work out of town, so my budget changes all the time. And sometimes we get paid for dim. The next time we don't get paid for dim. So it's really hard for me to, I want to get a part-time job, but then I can't find anything because I'm only in one location for a couple weeks at the time. And I'm just, I'm struggling.

I can't really figure out what to do. Gotcha. You're single? I'm married. Okay. And what is the $93,000 in debt? I got a personal loan that's $9,800. A student loan that's $9,800, a student loan that's $11,700, my mortgage is $48,000, and an auto loan for $23,000.

And what's your income? I personally make $45,000, $46,000, my wife makes $11,000, $12,000. So a total of $56,000, $57,000 a year. Uh-huh. Okay. Well, you've got a car you can't afford, for one thing. Uh-huh. A $23,000 car does not fit in this equation that you gave me. That's one of your problems.

So what I would do is jump on. Have you tried the every dollar budget? I have. Okay. So the system works like this, man. You've got $57,000 coming in. You look at what your monthly income is going to be for the upcoming month. You can estimate that pretty close.

Now, you might be a little off because you may or may not get the per diem. All these other things could pop in or out. But you're going to be pretty close to what your take-home pay is going to be for the upcoming month, the month getting ready to start, December in our case today. And so then you list out what are you going to do with that, and you give every one of those dollars an assignment, taking care of food, shelter, clothing, transportation, and utilities before you do anything else, the basics of life, right? Once we've got food, shelter, clothing, transportation, and utilities before you do anything else. The basics of life, right? Once we've got food, shelter, clothing, transportation, and utilities taken care of,

then, and that's your car payment, your house payment, your lights and water, you've got money set aside for food, then we begin to work on, you know, the baby steps as soon as we can find any other room in the budget. But you've got room in this budget. This is doable. But you do have a car you can't afford. And so part of what you're looking at is you're going to end up selling this car in order to get ahead because a $23,000 car in a household that makes $50,000

is too much car. When you have more than 50% of your household income tied up in things with wheels and motors that are going down in value, it's very difficult mathematically to get ahead and build wealth, like almost impossible. And so this car is what's killing you here. That's one of the things that's got you stuck. And so I'm moving out of that, and I'm going to get on a detailed written plan. I think you can do this. But I think you and your wife are going to have to sit down together, decide that this is important, and we're not doing anything with money except what's on this page.

The budget, you're the boss of it until you get it done. And once you get it done, then it's the boss of you. It's going to tell you what to do. Because that way you go, no, we can't do that because we have more important goals like getting out of debt, more important goals like building wealth, more important goals. And you don't need to see the inside of a restaurant unless you're working there. And so, yeah, you probably do need some extra work.

You may need to look at your overall career track and go, is this working for me? Because you're not making a ton of money considering they're running you ragged out of town. So is there another direction you can go long term with a career that's another thing you could look at here but that i think you can do this matthew you keep working on it you call me back if i can help more steven is with us in dallas texas hi steven how are you hey dave i'm great good how can i help we got um 80k in my 401k and 80k in my bank so I've got a decent amount saved, but I'm not really sure what to do with the savings. Okay.

I'm not really sure what the future holds. Gotcha. Okay. How old are you? 27. Cool. Where did all this money come from? I'm a programmer, so I just save.

I don't spend on anything, basically. Okay. That works. You're single? Yep, single. Okay. what do you make in a year 105 which is actually a 12k raise from um like a month ago so ding ding man way to go very cool thank you okay so what do you want to do with money well um there's not much. So I figured I'd get a house or something. Okay.

But I don't know if it's the right financial choice, and I want it to be the right financial choice, not just something to do. And I've also considered moving overseas for a couple of years. And something like Sweden, I think it would be easier to buy an apartment there for the time that I'm there and then sell it when I leave. So I'm not sure that I want my money locked up anywhere, and I'm not sure that I want it locked up in the housing market here or index funds here. Or in Sweden. Yeah, or in Sweden.

That's another thing. If I go over there for a couple of years, it could very well get locked up in the market there. Yeah, I'm thinking in a foreign country that you don't know the economy and you don't know the market. That's where I rent. And so, you know, what I would do right now, how old are you? 27. 27, okay. As weird as this sounds, since you just got a $ twelve thousand dollar raise uh i'd start shopping for swedish jobs yeah and i think it's time to go well i i definitely

am considering it i there's just a couple things that are keeping me here um and that's that i might start working for my dad and if i do do that, that would put the Sweden thing on hold. Okay. Permanently. And the problem with renting in Sweden is that they've got long lines, and you've got to wait in line for years, and basically you have to find a second-hand rental. Mm-hmm.

Okay. Well, it's up to you. I don't care. But I would not, if you're heading overseas, I would not buy something here, and I would not buy something there. Okay. I know I wouldn't do that. Is there a safe investment? Well, yeah, I mean, a savings account is safe.

If you're leaving the money alone five years or more, then I would move towards some mutual funds with this money and at least park it in something, at least something like an index fund at a minimum. But you've got to be planning to leave it alone a while to do that. But, you know, I think when you make your life decisions on where you're going to land, like are we staying and working for dad, are we going to Sweden, or what's the plan, then that's going to tell you what to do with the money. The $80,000 that's not in the retirement. Now, part of that money needs

to be set aside right now as your emergency fund not to be touched but the other part is what you can buy a property with once you know where you're going to settle right so we set aside three to six months of expenses out of that 80 000 as your rainy day fund, your emergency fund. And in your world, that sounds like $15,000 probably, something like that, because you don't spend a lot of money. And I think $15,000 would go a long way if you had an income blip. And then you need to decide, you know, can you make as much money working with your dad? Is that a career choice you want to do long term? Is that your best plan? And if it is and choice you want to do long term is that your best

plan and if it is and you're going to do that now then let's do it and just you know sweden is a place you visit on vacation then um but if you're going to make that journey and make the you know make the work move then do it sooner rather than later if i were in your shoes because you've done very well you may you know how to money, and you know how to save money and live on less than you make. So you're way ahead of most people, much less most 26-year-olds. I mean, you're killing it, dude. You've done very, very well.

Congratulations. But once you make your life choices, that'll tell you what to do with this money. In the meantime, if you're going to leave it alone five years or more, I'm talking about moving some of that above $15,000 towards an investment, $15,000 being an emergency fund. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. We'll be right back. 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 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?

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. Yes. 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's 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 health care 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 push through Murphy. You push through having a kid. And you pay off $65,000 all during this time. Yes. Yeah, 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, Glenn Jay, and we had a wall leak. So with all that, we were able to just work through it. 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 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 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. It was fabulous. 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 on your honeymoon though oh my gosh that was one of those things that i felt like I had to have. I had to have it. So, yeah, he found out on the honeymoon.

When we came back home, we had to. Paid off the hair extensions. Paid off the student loans. Paid off the credit cards. There we go. Game on. Through that, we also graduated together last year. That's awesome.

Yes. That's awesome. Well, well i mean you've learned to fight through stuff not with each other but i mean you learn to fight through the the persevere through the the struggle you know because you you've this has been a grind absolutely so uh who were your biggest cheerleaders um i think that it would be me and my wife who were our biggest supporters and our parents and our parents supporters. And our parents. And our parents, yes. We had support from our parents and family members who would just help out with babysitting. And just, 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.

Glenn and Misha and Glenn from Atlanta, Georgia. $65,000 paid off in 56 months, making $50,000 to $90,000 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! 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 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. We'll be right back. Juan is with us in Canada. Hi, Juan. How are you? Good.

How are you, Mr. Anderson? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I started listening to you about one month ago. I had my emergency fund and everything, and now I'm trying to save for college. I am currently 19 years old. I live at home. And basically what my question is right now is, would it be better for me to pay year by year in cash for school?

Or would it be better if I put it in a mutual fund for the four years? me to pay year by year in cash for school? Would it be better if I put it in a mutual fund for the four years, get the OSAP, which has no interest while I'm in the four years, and right when I'm done school, pay everything that I have in the mutual funds towards school? I would pay cash for school. I would not play with borrowed money. You're going to get yourself in trouble. Because nothing ever turns out like you think it's going to turn out. And then you'll end up with that debt hanging over your head if you're not perfect with it.

And nothing is ever perfect. So just pay cash as you go. Tabitha is in Charlotte, North Carolina. Hi, Tabitha. How are you? Hi, I'm good, Dave. Good. How can I help?

Okay, so we just have been listening to you nonstop on YouTube. My husband and I found you, and basically I hear your name more than I hear my name around the house. So we are trying to get some of our debt taken care of. About a year ago, my husband lost his job and is making a lot less money, and we've just kind of been fumbling and struggling through the last year. What did he used to make? He used to make $70,000. What does he make now?

He makes around $41,600, so a pretty big job. Why did he take such a pay cut? Well, they let him go at his other job, and so he went into another. He restores cars, so he went into the same kind of line of work, but just the local place that we had around here, we're kind of in a very small town, and it just didn't pay very much. So that's what, you know, it's like we can't afford to move to go someplace where, you know, he can make more money or anything like that right now, so we're just kind of trying to get through it right now. Well, for $30,000 a year, you can't afford not to move right yeah yes uh that is if he can if he can make 80 one place and makes 40 another place um it's time to be at the other place yes so that's when we

it's an income issue yes it is and because of that we've had to drop some bills just recently. And so that we can we were stretching ourselves out from this other job, we had a little bit of leftover, we had some a few $1,000 in the bank, and that kind of carried us through. And now we're completely out. And I, my health went downhill over the last year I um have adrenal insufficiency so I cannot work right now and so it's been a big struggle because now we've had to let some bills go um and that's why I'm calling you to kind of see how much do you own your car how much do you own your cars we have two cars that are paid off um they're totaled but they drive um they're both totaled um in hailstorm we used to live in colorado and so they're worth um okay i haven't looked them up they're not worth $200 each okay that's no they're not that's not the point so what bills have you got that you can't pay we have um we have our house we're paying on um it's $165,000 on the loan. And then we have $30,000 of debt, which is $20,000 of credit card type, line of credit type stuff, and then $10,000 of medical bills.

Okay. All right. This is an income issue, isn't it? It is, yes. And so if he's going to stay in that line of work and he cannot make $80,000 in your town, you need to be in a different town. Yes. He won't be happy to hear that, but I'm happy.

I've been saying that for a year. Well, I mean, you can't just sit here and act like these numbers. You can't put your hands over your ears and go la-la-la-la-la-la-la and make the math change. Right. The math is not going to change until you change it. But, I mean, if he can make 80, what I don't understand is how he was making 75 or 80 in the same field, in the same town, but now he can't.

Well, he was actually traveling, well, not traveling, but commuting, and he was doing race cars, and he he does car restoration but he's done both and so then he's now in a we're in a smaller area and he's just doing the restoration and that's just what's around here yeah but yes we've been so what what does he got to do to get his income up does he have to move does he have to go back to race cars and get away from restoration uh does he have to do both? What's he got to do to get his income up? I would say that we definitely need to move. We have nothing in our savings right now. And we've dropped some bills. That's not a good thing, but we've had to let them go.

The dropping the bills doesn't scare me. It's not dealing with the cause of the bills being dropped. It scares me. You can't just sit there and look with causing what, it's not dealing with the cause of the bills being dropped that scares me. You can't just sit there and look at this and think it's going to change. You've got to do something to get your income up. And the thing is he has the ability to make the money. And so I don't care if he takes a temporary job going on the road

with a race car team building race cars for two years and he's going to be gone a bunch. But it's not what he wants to do the rest of his life. I don't want to travel like that, but for two years, I've got to do that and get my house straightened up here. Or we've got to move to a town where I can just be a restoration high-end mechanic and make $80,000, which actually you could do in a metro area. I mean, is he ASE, what do you call it, certified?

No, he's not. He's just self-taught and has just he's really good at what he does and so he's yeah he's been doing a lot of custom stuff it sounds like okay right and exactly and that's obviously like if you're depending on the area you know you either get really high rollers or you don't have you know much going so yeah you're gonna have to get to a market where there's guys or people that are willing to pay that to work on a car. I mean, work on a specialty car is what it amounts to. Or he's going to have to move back towards the race car side of the equation.

I don't care which one you do. But all I'm telling you is you have a math problem, and the only way to solve the math problem is with his income because you're not able to work. That's what you told me. And so this is not going to go away until you address that issue. Hey, thanks for the call. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Robbie's in Louisville, Kentucky. Hi, Robbie.

Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, my wife and i just finished uh financial peace university at our church and we're working through the steps and uh we're on um maybe step two right now and making our way through the debt snowball and uh we've had a bit of a car issue hit us we've

um our engine went out and um and so we, in the past, one of the things that's really zinged us with our debt is making poor decisions when it comes to vehicles. And so we were just trying to figure out kind of what the best route to go to handle this would be. Okay, so you have a car that the engine's out on. What do you mean out? It blew up? Yeah, I believe it's a blown gasket that went out, so they basically told us it's shot and you need a new one. Well, a blown head gasket doesn't mean you have to replace the engine. Well, he said that's what he told us, and he said there was other issues.

How many miles are on the car? A little over 150,000. What kind of car? It's a 2010 Mazda CX-9. Okay. I think the cheapest route is to get the head fixed, get the head gasket fixed. You can pull the heads and do that. And he may not want to do that.

You may have to find a different mechanic that doesn't want to sell you a new engine. But, I mean, I don't know that vehicle. I don't turn wrenches anymore. to find a different mechanic that wants that doesn't want to sell you a new engine but um i mean i don't know that vehicle i don't turn wrenches anymore but a blown head gasket does not institute it does not necessitate a complete engine replacement now if you told me the engine had 300,000 miles on it there's probably not much there i mean if you did a head you know redid the heads you know the compression might blow it but But I think you just fix the car. You need a new mechanic, it sounds to me like. That's going to be your cheapest route to get out of this.

So, hey, you got to do it on the cheap. You got to do it on the cheap because you got to fix it enough to sell it anyway. That or a used engine from a junkyard, one of the two. But I'm thinking just have the heads fixed. And you may need a different mechanic to do that. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. Our thanks to James Childs, our producer, Kelly Daniel, our associate producer. I am Dave Ramsey, your host, and we will be back.

Hey, guys, this is Blake Thompson, senior executive producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know over 15 million people listen to The Dave Ramsey Show every week? And a lot of those people listen to one of over 600 radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, head to DaveRamsey.com slash show.