The Ramsey Show - App - The Similarities Between Bankruptcy and Divorce (Hour 3)

Episode Date: July 2, 2020

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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. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host on the air this hour. Open phones here as we talk about your life and your money. The phone number is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Let's head straight to the phones and talk to Eric in Illinois.

Hi, Eric. How are you? I'm good, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure, man. What's up? I am currently about $90,000 in unsecured credit card debt. I'm 14 months done with a debt settlement program through a company.

Oh, no. And I'm starting to second guess whether or not I should have done this and what are my options. Should I withdraw from the program? Should I continue doing what I'm doing? Should I file bankruptcy? It's $90,000 in credit cards. Yes.

You've been with them nine months, so you're nine months at least. I'm sorry? 14 months. 14 months. I'm sorry, so you're at least 14 months behind, right? Yes. Because you stopped paying least 14 months behind, right? Yes. Because you stopped paying them and so did they. Correct.

And then they've been taking a payment from you every month and they're building it up to make lump sum offers and try to settle after they put you into default on every one of these. Right? Correct. Yeah. These people suck. They're complete scam artists.

And then worse than that, that's the theory of how it's supposed to work, but worse than that, they haven't actually followed through and gotten the settlements done, and they don't return your calls or emails. Is that right? Sounds about right, sir.

Okay. Yeah, you got to stay on them. Yeah, they're incompetent. They never have an answer for you when you call them back. Yeah, they're incompetent, and they don't care, and they've not executed on what they promised, and what they promised to start with was a bad plan. But they haven't even executed on that, and that's what we run into.

Man, I'm so sorry. I can hear it in your voice man you were trying to get help oh um what is your household income um on the books i make probably about 70 what's that mean what is off the books mean well i also well i also deliver pizzas and i probably make about two grand a month take home with that. Okay, so we're dealing with $100,000. Are you single? Yes.

Okay. And other debt that you have other than this $90,000? Nothing. I don't know if it was a bad thing or not, but I just paid off my Snap-on-Tool account, which was $1,600, and my car, which was $1,600. So I don't have any other debt out there. What do you do for a living? I'm a diesel mechanic.

Oh, okay. That's the Snap-on-Tools. Okay. Good. So you're paying cash for that stuff from now on, as you do need tools to do your business. Good news is diesel mechanic can make some money. Why aren't you doing more diesel mechanicing than delivering pizzas?

You'd make more money on your side hustle. Yeah, I don't really have a good answer for that, except that I haven't found anything that I can do part-time or... Yeah, okay, or shade tree or whatever. Yeah, I'd be poking around looking for that because, as you know, you're a pretty valuable commodity. I mean, I know diesel mechanics that when they're cranking it up, they're working a bunch of hours, but they're making $100K. And so you're making $100K, but you're doing it through pizzas and doing it the hard way. So, all right, so here's the deal, okay?

If you file bankruptcy, what will occur is of course your credit is destroyed oh hello your credit's already destroyed right it's about a 560 you're in default and you're on 90 000 worth of credit cards for 14 months your credit's screwed. Agreed? Agreed. Okay. Bankruptcy will, I mean, maybe it's an 8 out of 10, and bankruptcy is a 10 out of 10. So you'll just finish it off, but it's already on its last legs. So we're not worried about your credit.

That's not our goal number one. Goal number one is for Eric to get his life back from all of these shysters that you've gotten involved with, from credit card companies to debt relief companies. So if you file bankruptcy, it makes it go away, and the credit is destroyed. So Chapter 7 bankruptcy is a possibility. I view bankruptcy from a moral perspective to be like divorce. Sometimes it happens to good people, but I would, if I were there, and I went through a bankruptcy in my 20s,

and so I've experienced the hell that it is. It's not a fun process. It's an anal exam. You won't like it. The, you know, it's it's it's bad and so but aside from that i i would want to know from a character standpoint that i had done everything i could to save my marriage and then some more before i actually went through a divorce i'd want to know and i did i left it all on the field i had no regrets i had done everything I knew how to do before I filed. And so that's how I'm going to answer the question.

If I were you, I would file bankruptcy only after I've done everything I could do. Now, I can give you some stuff to try if you want to do that. Yes, I'm willing to listen. Call debt relief people up and tell them they get no more money and you're not working with them anymore. Cancel it. Okay? So how much have you been sending them a month?

$11.45. And how much can you scrape together if you go hog wild and crazy? Can you save $3,000 a month? Definitely. I've just started doing your budget app in the last couple weeks. I just started listening to you in the last couple weeks. Okay. So what we're going to do is make a list of these credit cards, smallest to largest.

You're not going to pay them anymore. You've already quit paying them. They're already in default. We're going to leave them there. That'll keep them somewhat pliable. I think that over the next 12 months, you can settle this for somewhere around 25 cents on the dollar so somewhere around twenty thousand dollars makes you free but it's going to entail a lot of hours of you on the phone with absolute morons called credit card collectors and

negotiating with them okay so you call. What's your smallest credit card? Probably $6,000. I don't have exact numbers. Okay, we'll use that as our example. That's your smallest one. You call them up, and you say, I have $2,000. Do you want it? I have $90,000 in other credit card companies. If you don't want it, I'm going to call the next guy on the list.

Do you want it or not? As settlement in full for this debt. And you begin to argue with them, and you get them to $2,000, 30 cents on the dollar, 20 cents on the dollar. In lump sum cash. You can only do that as you pile up the cash each month at $3,000 or $4,000 a month, right? Correct.

Making sense to you? Yeah. So you settle the smallest one, then you settle the next smallest one, then you settle the next smallest one. I really think you can settle this for around $20,000, $25,000, and I think you're debt free in a year, and your credit will begin to heal after that, and you're not bankrupt. You just need a plan. Now, you've

got a lot of heartache dealing with credit card collectors for the next year. They're a pain in the butt. You're not dealing with intelligent life. It's the island of misfit toys. It's a problem. Get it in writing every time you do this and do not give them electronic access to your checking account. I'm going to walk with you, Eric. We're going to give you Ramsey Plus Financial Peace and a financial counselor to help you for free for the next year. We're going to get you out of this if you'll walk it. I'll show you how. Hold on. 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, Ramsey Personality, my co-host on the air. Couldn't have told it by the last segment because you were enthralled by debt relief companies. I didn't know. My brother used to be a herpetologist at a zoo and i thought that's the only place where snakes lived i didn't know they also had jobs where they attacked people who

were had gotten in over their heads on things man herpetologist hey man we got a the deloney family we got some characters you guys are uh no i mean you're that's that's i mean i just i would i didn't know what it was i would I would have been impressed. My brother's a stud. My brother's a herpetologist. Hey, so. My brother's not, so. You talked about, you kind of hinted at the hell that is bankruptcy.

Yeah. Walk me through that from my nerd world. The toll it takes on your soul, on a marriage. Like, what does it do to the... You can probably tell me more than I can tell you. Shame and vulnerability. If you think about the list, you've seen the list, we've all seen it, and it's probably somewhat statistically true that out of these 10 things,

if four of them happen to you in 12 months, you're in real danger. Of hurting yourself, right. Yeah. of them happen to you in 12 months you're in real danger of hurting yourself right yeah it's a i mean like the loss of a spouse a loss of a child a loss of a long career job the uh a long hospital stay bankruptcy divorce those kinds of you know you get this list of horrible things that happen to people right well bankruptcy and divorce are on that list right and so uh they're a little different than a medical problem obviously but um you know the house fire losing your home to fire okay is on that list devastating right emotionally so what does that do that's different than i guess a less minor trauma it's it's an emotional trauma isn't it yeah but it feels like a bankruptcy would be somebody calling you out as a failure to yourself right it's like this it's surrender though i mean yeah it's complete i'm lost when you when you walk out of your marriage that's

how you feel that's i suppose i've never been through that that's exactly right but the like when you have a divorce you're fired from a job you but you the thing about losing a job losing losing your marriage is you have the loss right you grieve the loss but there's this other more insidious thing there which is you don't trust yourself anymore bankruptcy same way yeah and that's that's what i'm asking i've never been through it yeah that's the same way i felt like it destroyed i mean i was arrogant cocky i was powder ground me to powder after that and it took me forever to get to where i had a sense of confidence again and part of what allowed me to do that was finding these biblical financial truths something that i could have confidence in that was beyond my own intellect right because my own intellect got me into a mess. Right.

Academia, what it taught me about money, got me into a mess. Right. And so I couldn't, that was a shifting sand. That's exactly right. I couldn't build on that. Yeah. And so I found an anchor point that helped me get confidence in that. And then I regained, and then it started functioning, regained confidence in myself. But it's a self-esteem destroyer.

Now, people say it's not. They say, ah yeah that was an easy divorce but i always call bs on that 100 of the time you know that was easy that was it was it's just a one of those things 100 of the time i tried that business idea just didn't work out just lost everything we lost our house but yeah it's just a house we're getting to the house and that's that's just bravado bs that's exactly right yeah because it hurts and that will come out in other places yeah it's one of those things that says you know for the rest of your life i'm a person that went through a divorce for the rest of your life i'm a person that filed bankruptcy one of the big failures so give me one or two baby steps

no pun intended that you would like the day after you look around and who you were, not what you had, who you were is powder. What's the little win to start walking your way back out of that? I think it's the benefit that I got from it, personally. I think it was, I figured out I was not what I own. I figured out I was not what I do. It's the difference in being and doing. And so we put our having, we put our identity in what we own or what we do. What do you do for a living? Guys are like, what do you do? First question. First question.

What do you do? It don't matter. Right. And what do you own? It don't matter. Right. Because there's never been a rider truck following a hearse. ain't taking it with you that's exactly right so you know all that stuff right so you go back through that but and and so um that's why i don't want somebody to file bankruptcy the other reason i want to file is they oftentimes can work through it you got a guy they're making 100 grand for 20 grand he could clean this mess up that's right and a lot of

crap he's gonna put have a lot of uncomfortable nasty conversations with stupid people right but 20 000 bucks out of 100 000 a year he could be debt free in a year in 12 months he will have experience that the sun keeps coming up every day yeah and then 12 months he's he's done yeah he shook hands and he squared up with those folks and whatever he bought on that stuff he'll never do it again that stuff, he'll never do it again. That's right. He'll never do it again. There's too much cost. I'm fascinated by the, and I've had a few of these experiences in my life at a more minor level, but when you lose trust in your own decision making,

you have nowhere to go but the mirror. It's a different kind of trauma. It is, yeah. Because anxiety works the same way. It's like being betrayed by your own body. You know in your head there's nothing happening here, but your heart's racing. You're having an anxiety attack. Yeah, you can't breathe.

You're frustrated. And you know it's not real. But your body's just run off down the road on you, right? Well, it's the same thing sitting in a horror movie. I know it's not real, but it still scares the crap out of me. That's exactly right. Yeah. That's why I don't go to them.

I get scared. Brad's in Ohio. Hey, Brad, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, how's it going, Dave? Appreciate you and Dr. Deloney having me on. Sure. How can we help? Well, my question is in regards to, I guess, red flags or kind of pitfalls you can fall into

when you're looking for a partner or a spouse or just dating in general. I mean, I'm 28 years old. I just recently moved to Ohio, took a 30% pay increase, and made the decision to live with my sister and brother-in-law in their basement so I could pay off my debt. And I've gone from $50,000 in debt to $30,000 now. Good for you. In the course of four months, yeah.

But I'm starting to date, and aside from living in my sister's basement. That's a great first line, right? Hey, what's up? Yes. I'm Brad. I live in my sister's basement. Now, I know you're probably going to tell me that the right person would understand, the right woman would understand the situation and be more than accommodating.

But in general, what are some things to look out for? Because I don't want to fall into one of those circumstances, like you guys were just discussing, where I I'm a statistic where bankruptcy leads to divorce and so on and so forth. So are there any indicators early on in a relationship when you first start dating that could, you know, could provide some insight and, you know, where you could not fall into that pitfall? Dr. John. Hmm. I would quote our good friend Henry Cloud on that, which is when somebody decides they are all in on you, somebody decides they want to get to know you, they have a picture of you in their life. And that can be after one date and two dates. That doesn't mean you go get married, but they start saying, I want to be with this person.

There's not games and there's not shenanigans and there's not hoops and trials. There is a, um, genuine desire to get, to be connected with somebody, to learn about them, to be with them, not over them, not about them, but for them. And, um, so I, I always, I'm not one that believes there's one person for everybody. I think to have a good marriage, you wake up every day and decide, I'm going to love this person with all I got and I'm gonna do the best i can with the tools i got today when i screw up i'm gonna say i'm sorry and that marriage is a daily decision that i'm gonna love i'm gonna love i'm gonna love and so i think for you you have to list out what the values are who you're looking for what you want to be a part of and then you've got to um work as hard as you can to be for somebody and And that's what I'd be for for you.

And once it does get serious, I'd spend some time in pre-marriage counseling. There's a lot of statistical data that says a good in-depth pre-marriage counseling is highly correlated with success on marriage. And because it forces you to look at what we call the four things that are out there. And if you can find out that you're largely in agreement on these four areas, you've got a good shot, and that's money, in-laws, religion, and kids. If you can be largely in agreement on those four things, you're going to go a long way. And lastly, I've heard it said that if she says she's not crazy, it usually means she is, so move on.

That's at the point, Bradad when you tell her you live in your sister's basement and that will clear itself i'm not crazy i'm not crazy oh good i'm glad next date oh this is the dave ramsey show Most people's money problems come from not paying attention. That's why before I spend a dime of my money on something, I do the research and make sure it's going to live up to what it claims. Recently, I got a great pair of sunglasses from a company called Shady Rays. When you're looking for sunglasses, it feels like your options are limited. Name brand sunglasses cost too much and the cheap knockoffs are ugly and really don't protect your eyes. Discovering Shady Rays is a game changer. With Shady Rays, you can

count on premium sunglasses that protect your eyes and are affordable. They give people the best overall value in sunglasses. They also replace your shades with a brand new pair if you lose or break them from day one of your purchase. And they guarantee your sunglasses for life. Plus, they offer an exclusive for Ramsey Show listeners. Go to ShadyRays.com and use the code RAMSEY for 50% off two or more pairs. That's ShadyRays.com, code is with us. Hi, Kristen. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you, Dave?

I am better than I deserve. Welcome to Nashville. Where are you from? Springfield, Missouri. Oh, cool. And how much debt have you paid off? Just over $40,000. Okay, good for you. How long did this take? 21 months. Good for you.

You did it quick. And your range of income during that time? Between 50 and 57. And I did sell my house in that time frame. Oh, okay, cool. So how much of the 40 was paid off because of the sale of the house? Anything? 21.

Oh, okay, so half of it. And the rest of it you did about $1,000 a month then. Yep. Good. Good for you. Congratulations. Well done. What do you do for a living? I am a campus director of a health and wellness school. Okay. So where are you living since you sold your house? In an apartment. Ah, you're a renter. Yes. Okay.

So what kind of debt was the $40,000? Normal stuff. Student loans, credit cards, car, Christmas a couple years before I paid off. Okay, so walk me through this. You're bebopping along. Everything seems to be okay. And 21 months ago, something lights your fuse. What happened? It was about December of 2017 that my brother and I were at my parents' house for Christmas. And he gave me a hard dose of reality. We were looking at my budget, and he said,

you've got to make a change. You make a decent living, but you have nothing to show for it. Wow. And it was one of those moments. Is this your big brother or your little brother? My big brother. Okay. So you guys got a good relationship because he could bust you.

Yeah. Yep. He and his wife have gone through this journey, and my parents have been supportive as well. Oh, okay. All right. So they were a little bit enthusiastic Financial Peace graduates, and he steps on little sister and says, you got to get it. Yes. I got you.

Okay, good. I like this guy. All right. He loves his sister well. So he calls you out, and then what happened? And then he and his wife bought me an FPU kit, and so I took the class at my church. About a few weeks into that, my daughter was with me at the classes, and she cut up my credit cards during our class. Wow.

And then I decided I'm going to sell my house because I can make a huge dent in my debt. And so it's just her and I, and so it gave me the opportunity to simplify, downsize, and we made it happen. And I sold my house a month later and I'm now fully funded my emergency fund. Look at you. Wow. So how old is your daughter? Nine. So how poignant is that when your own nine-year-old is cutting up your credit cards in financial peace class? That makes me cry. Yeah. And she listens to the podcast with me. She has Financial Peace Junior. She started a side hustle making bracelets. You've changed the trajectory of your kid.

Yes. Yes. Wow. And so we have a deal that whatever she saves up for her car, I'll match it. So there's going to be some skin in the game. There you go. Yes. I like it.

That's a 401 Dave. That's what we did at our house. We matched it, baby. That's good. You've done so good. Thank you. I mean, your whole perspective on this subject and your actions and your behaviors and your beliefs have all changed completely.

Yes. I'm so proud of you. Thank you. It comes from your principles and the steps work. You did a great job. You did a great job you did a great job wow you got to feel considerably different it's so freeing it's empowering just having conversations with people sitting in the hot tub at the apartment complex and they're like i'm so

broke i have nothing and i'm like you don't have to make a lot of money to be free you just you have to have a budget you have to make a plan and you have to stick to it and it of money to be free. You have to have a budget. You have to make a plan, and you have to stick to it. And it can happen. You've turned into your brother. Yes. It's an everyday conversation just in general. It's going to be a great conversation. Some guy's going to be like, hey, listen, this lady in the hot tub was telling me.

It's going to be fantastic. You're going to be on the debt-free stage one of these days. That's exactly right. This lady in the hot tub in the apartment. Hey, so tell me this. What encouraged you to bring your daughter along on this?

I want to leave a legacy for her, and I want her to know that you can do it. You have to set a plan, and just to know that you don't have to live in debt. I mean, I don't have

a payment to make other than my normal living expenses, and yes, I would love to have a new car. I just got crazy hail damage on my car. And it's a 2013. So I saved the money and I want to get a new one, but I don't want a payment. So until I can save up for it, it's, it's the Honda fit all day. Yeah. And I know, you know, this Rachel Cruz says it best with more is caught than taught, but a lot of parents take the easy way out and they just bark at their kids. They ask them to do things.

They yip-yap at their children all day long. And you did the legacy shifting thing, which is you took that baby girl that I'm looking at right now by the hand and let her walk with you. You handed her a pair of scissors and you said, together no more. And, man, you're talking about 100 years from now, because great-grandma decided to do something different. The whole family lives different. Yeah, we have it on video, and we put those credit cards in a clear Christmas ornament, and I put 2018 on it.

And so now we know 2018 was the year that mom cut up her credit cards. Good for you. Good for you. I love it. You got it dialed in yeah so you go from getting called out to your brother to actually doing it to now you're calling out people in the hot tub you've gone through the full transition gone through the full transition and the uh so what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is you did it you have to stay

focused you have to have a plan it's i have a vision board on the side of my fridge it's been sitting there for a while and it's just a reality check but you have to stay focused and know your why my daughter's my why um and just freedom and get her college ready and just be able to move forward and and not feel the pressure of payments every month man that's amazing way Way to go. Thank you. Congratulations. So I guess your brother and your mom were big cheerleaders. Yes, my parents and my brother and sister-in-law and I have some friends back in Springfield.

Michelle and Duan were going through, had taken classes as well. And so just supportive people and taking friends to go to Panera and write a budget together, that kind of stuff, just to keep accountability. My daughter keeps me in check, too. I said, Lexi, we're not going to eat out this week, and maybe we'll think about celebrating at one point. And I was taking her home one day after work and school, and I said, I'm so exhausted.

Let's go get some Chinese food. She goes, Mom, remember we're not eating out. We're eating at home. Oh, man. So reality check from the 9-year-old game on game on well done so proud of you hero thank you thank you very much you've made a change in our lives so i really appreciate it we showed you how you did it i'm so proud of you all right so you brought your daughter with you what's her name her name is lexi lexi is nine years old right yes all right

beautiful all right life is good well we got a copy of chris hogan's book for you everyday millionaires because that for sure is the next chapter in your story lexi probably if everyday multi-millionaires yeah not messing around if you could say no to chinese food at age eight you could do anything you've won that level of self-discipline touchdown you've won way to go we're not going out to eat mom i'm changing my family tree that's incredible this is awesomeness awesomeness all right kristen lexi you've been practicing yes we have all right you know the debt-free scream? Yes. All right. Here we go. Kristen and Lexi from Springfield, Missouri. $40,000 paid off in 21 months, including the sale of a home. $50,000 to $57,000 income.

Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Woo! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Unbelievable.

Unbelievable. One of the things that we do around here, of course, I cry at an Applebee's commercial. I do, too. Two old men crying at the table here dave one of the things that that we do around here that makes me cry are those things but when rachel tells the story about i was that little girl oh man she was born the year we filed bankruptcy and she tells that story from stage i've heard it she's done it hundreds of times yeah i cry every time she does that huh because that was the year our family tree changed.

She was born the year we filed bankruptcy. And it was such a milestone. And that Christmas ornament, that is a valuable family heirloom right there. That's right. And Lexi, your kids are going to have that ornament on their tree. Amen.

And it's going to go down generation after generation because of what you did. That's a million-dollar... Ornament. Ornament. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Our scripture of the day, Ephesians 2.10, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Seth Godin says,

Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work. Seth's a great read. Guys, these are crazy times. This could be your never again moment. You could be coming through this and you say, never again am I going to be in this situation with money. Never again am I going to be at the mercy of outside variables because I'm broke. Never again am I going to be this deeply in debt. Never again am I not am I going to be without an emergency fund. And you heard her with her debt-free scream. What happened? Her brother calls her out and buys her a kit to go through Financial Peace University. The great news is what we used to charge for the kits, we now charge after a free trial for a one-year membership to Ramsey Plus. Ramsey Plus includes a bazillion things more than just Financial Peace University.

It includes the EveryDollar Sync, which allows it to sync up with your bank sync up with your spouse it includes the baby step tracker app a bunch of other classes so you learn you budget and you track you learn you budget and you track you learn you budget and you track and this is how you develop a whole new groove in your brain to handle money differently which is exactly what happened to her when she did that debt-free scream. This is how she did this over 21 months. And it makes you think differently because you are now thinking, and you weren't before.

Me too. I was there too. So if you're ready to do this, you're ready to get into Ramsey Plus, which includes Financial Peace University, you want to do a free trial, just go to DaveRamsey.com and look at the free trial for Ramsey Plus, which includes Financial Peace University. You want to do a free trial, just go to DaveRamsey.com and look at the free trial for Ramsey Plus. Check it out. It is our premium all-access everything. It's all in there.

It doesn't get any bigger or any better or any brighter. That's it. It's all there. All right, let's go to Mitch in Ohio. Hi, Mitch. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Hi, John. Thank you the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Hi, John.

Thank you for taking my call. Sure. How can we help? So I guess during quarantine, I started binging the YouTube channel, and now I'm kind of hooked, but in a good way, you've got me sort of questioning whether I'm doing the right things financially in terms of rent versus buy right now. So I guess on my own by accident,

I kind of stumbled my way to baby step four. So I think that part's good. Great. I guess I just have trouble deciding based on how much I have saved and my salary and my rent. Should I continue how I am or do I need to make a change? So that's where I could use some help. Okay. Well, you're out of debt. You have an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses, and you're saving 15% for retirement, and you're renting. Is there a reason you should buy right now or should not buy right now?

I guess I just have watched enough that I'm questioning that very thing. Is now the right time? Am I saving enough? You're at the right time am i saving enough you're at the right step if in your personal life you are ready to buy are you single yes how old are you 26 are you involved in a serious relationship i am not okay uh do you want to own a condominium or a house right now? Well, I think I do, but I guess I just, I'm not sure if now is the right time, at least financially. Well, you're in the place financially where you would save your down payment, and buy a 15-year fixed where the payment's no more than a fourth of your take-home pay,

if you want to own um there is no sin in renting at this stage of your life for a little while i don't want you to rent as a as a way of life the rest of your life but if you rent for two more years um if you buy a house now what you're probably going to discover is what most young men that buy a house when they're single is, that it was the wrong house. When you get married, you'll get to do it again. But that's okay. You will make money on the one that you bought if you buy it right, and you will have been a real estate owner, and that's okay.

Or it was the right house. You've just put some smells in it that can never go away. So you had to go there. It's just the way it works. You had to go there. Ruth is with us in California you had to go there ruth is with us in california hey ruth your question for john and me hi good afternoon so um we just started baby step number two and my husband thinks it would be a good idea we would invest some money and um with some water slides and you know rent them out during the weekend and use that money for a baby step so you just want to buy water slides as like a side hustle yes what do

they cost yes they're between 1,500 to 22,700. A water slide? And then they rent for how much on the weekends? I'm saying about $150. Okay, so it takes 10 weekends to break even on a $1,500 of being booked. And last I checked, California is kind of shut down. shut down what are you gonna ride the slides with a mask on um people's backyards we've seen a lot of them and i think that's where he got the idea of them yeah i'm being facetious but not not much um yeah so what's bothering you about this You don't think these numbers are real.

I just think that we just need to pay off what we owe because I know that once we get How many other schemes and scams has he started and failed at? Does he always have an idea about another way you could do something? He's always trying to make extra money on the side. But it's never just working something. It's always with an angle. No, he was doing side deliveries to the truck drivers on the weekends. He was also doing side deliveries and getting money from there. But I think he's just so desperate to pay off all of our debts.

How much do you owe? We owe $37,000. And your household income right now is what? Monthly, about $5,800. Okay. I appreciate his entrepreneurial enthusiasm. I appreciate his work ethic, and he's willing to try something. I have concerns about the business model.

I don't think this is going to work exactly the way you all have it outlined in your head. I don't know, but I think there's three rules in – there's three rules in business when you're starting something, and you're starting a business here. It's what you're doing. That things cost twice as much as you think they're going to. It takes twice as long as you think it's going to, and you're not the exception. Those are the three rules. And so 10 weekends of break-even on a $1,500 slide doesn't include liability insurance.

It doesn't include somebody suing you for no masks. It doesn't include somebody suing you for breaking their leg or their collarbone or their kid getting a rash. And they tell all their friends on Facebook, and then you can't get any business or whatever. I don't know. But there's all this other stuff that I know in business happens. And I'm not being negative, and I'm not being a dream killer. I just want dreams to be real dreams and not nightmares. And so I think in your all's case, this is a reflexive thing to just try to create money,

and it's not really something you're that excited about the actual business. Like, woo-hoo, I always wanted to be in the water slide business. It's just, hey, here's a way we can make some money. And I would rather just go make some money without spending money, without having to start and run a business. There's more layers and complication to this than it's going to be worth in my mind. So I personally wouldn't do it. I wouldn't either. Even though I appreciate his – the reason I was poking at him a little bit

is because of stuff my wife used to say to me. You're scheming and scamming again. Because I was always looking for a shortcut shortcut and there's not a shortcut and i was always looking for not a get rich quick i was looking you know i did get rich quick that's how i got broke you know and this is not get rich quick but it's always like easy money it's just not any right and even just doing the quick math let's's say you do this 20 weeks, right? Yeah. So you're going to net, what, another $1,500 on the back end?

Yeah, you could make a whole lot more just delivering pizzas and not worry about it. You still got to wad that stuff up and drive it from site to site and clean it off. Yeah, just deliver pizzas, man. That's $3,000 over 20 weeks. You could do that. You can make a lot more than that in doing something else. Yeah, I think I'll pass. The break-even even on it is not thrilling and the layers aren't thrilling thanks for the call john good work today it's an honor have a good fourth of july weekend you too

that puts us out of the day ramsay showing 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. a lot of those people listen on one of our 600 plus radio stations across the country to find a station near you head to Dave Ramsey.com slash show.