The Ramsey Show - App - There's No Correlation Between Ring Size and Marriage Success (Hour 3)

Episode Date: March 20, 2020

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

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental 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. Thank you for joining us. Open phones, you jump in. The phone number is 888-825-5225 888-825-5225 james is starting off this hour in pecos texas hi james welcome to the dave ramsey show hey how's it going good how are you i'm doing pretty good i just started listening to

you here recently by chance because well it's the only radio station I get out here. You're stuck with me, brother. So every day I've got you on the radio. I guess my question is, I make about $140,000 a year. I currently have $91,000 worth of debt. But I really, really, really need to replace my house. You know, where do I start to pay enough to be able to achieve the goal of getting the house? The catch is $50,000 of that debt is my land, which is a part of my inheritance. I don't have to pay that immediately. That can be paid at any time.

What's the other $40,000? An RV and two trucks. And what's the... The RV I use for work, so I have to have it. How do you use an RV for work? I live wherever I work. My company pays me to use my own housing. I just move it wherever I work.

Gotcha. Okay. And so you're married then? Yes, sir. Okay. And what's the emergency on your house? My current house is just, I mean, it's falling apart. It's a three-bedroom.

I've got four kids. It's too old. I'm constantly having to fix broken pipes and walls and door jams, and it's just, it needs to go. It's a single-wide trailer house. Oh, okay. I really need a double-wide. Okay. Well, let's start with this.

You're not wise to invest in mobile homes because they go down in value. None of them go up in value. So, no, you don't need a double wide. Is this on the land that you inherited, the family land? Yes. Okay. So what we need to do is start working towards you building a home. That's what we need to do.

You make $140,000 a year. Let's build a house. And let's just get rid of the junky single wide. Because that double wide, you pay $70,000 for it and in five years it's worth nothing. Right? It's going the wrong way, dude.

I want to go up, not down. And the house will go up in value. And of course, you're probably not in the market to sell any of this stuff anyway, with it being on family land, but either way, the land is in your name, right? I'm sorry? I said it'll stay in the family forever.

Yeah. So the land is in your name though, right? Yes. Okay. This particular portion of the land. All right. Good. Well, here's the thing. First thing is that you jump on every dollar and download the app. Your wife does the same thing. I'm going to put you into what we call Financial Peace University.

I'm going to pay for it, okay? And you both can watch the videos, even if you're separated from her by work, because the whole thing's online. And or where is the home? Where's the family property where she lives? It's in Fort Worth, about 400 miles away. Good. Okay.

Well, she also can attend the classes. I don't know if there'll be one near you, the way you're describing where you are, but there's about 12,000 or 13,000 of the classes operating in churches out there. So she can attend the classes too, but you both can follow along and both be doing the lessons at the same time because it's totally online. All right, I'm going to give that to you, and so is the EveryDollar app. Now, that means the two of you are both working your budgets together, even though you're separated by several hundred miles.

Okay? A lot of military families do this when someone is deployed. In other words, this is what we're used to doing this with couples that are living like you guys are. Now, once we're doing all of that, we've got every dollar behaving in a certain way. Then the only question is, what is the best order to do things? What's first? What's second to hit your goals? Okay.

$140,000 a year, $90,000, but 50 of it is the land. Okay. Correct. And so what I would do is look at selling the 40. How much do you own your truck? So what I would do is look at selling the 40. How much do you owe on your truck? My truck that I use for work is I owe $25,000. And then my wife's truck I owe $6,000.

Okay. So you have a $25,000 truck that you got out in the workplace destroying it. Jeez, man. Okay, that probably needs to be downgraded to about a $6,000 truck too. And then you got out in the workplace destroying it jeez man okay that probably needs to be downgraded to about a six thousand dollar truck too and then you're living in the rv so we're going to list all your debts not counting the farm forty thousand dollars uh when you look at 140 versus 40 i'm saying you're paying all this off not counting the farm not in probably a year but you're going to be on beans and rice, rice and beans, and so is the family back home. And we have this goal of getting all these trucks and RVs paid off

because if you had no payments except the land, you'd be in shape to go get a construction loan that would pay off the land and build you a house. Okay. That's about a year and a half, two years away with what i'm talking about and the family just lives the way they've been living in the meantime or worse and we get out of debt you do whatever it takes to clear all these debts because that sets you up because man think about if you had no payments you'd have money Well, I just started this new job.

Prior to that, we were seriously paycheck to paycheck. So this new opportunity here, I'm hoping is an opportunity to get this stuff paid off. There you go. And that's not going to happen accidentally. It's going to be with a detailed plan of attack. What do you do? I work out in the west Texas oil fields. What do you do? I work out in the West Texas oil fields. What do you do?

I do flow back. Okay. And that's very detailed with an exact game plan to create an exact reaction, an exact result that you want. You don't do this. You don't pull off your job accidentally, right? Right. It's cause and effect.

And that's what this thing I'm talking about is. You're going to crank down to nothing on the expenses, and you're going to keep making – you cranked up your income, and that's what sparked the conversation. And we're going to clean up this dadgum mess and then, you know, get a plan drawn to build a house and get a builder lined up and start talking about building a nice home on this. And that pays off the $50,000 inside that construction loan as well. So then all you end up with at the end of the story is a mortgage. And on a 15-year fixed rate, and you're going to walk your way right through that. So hold on. Kelly's going to get you signed up for Financial Peace University.

Again, it includes every dollar plus, which connects to your bank. It includes all the lessons and all the stuff that you and your wife are going to do together. This is the class on money they should have made you take back in high school, but nobody did back then. Now we've got it in a bunch of the high schools, but there you go. So hold on, dude. We'll take care of you. Thanks for being a new listener. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options?

Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ to share their major health care costs. Christian Health Care Ministries is the original health cost-sharing ministry. A Better Business Bureau-accredited organization, CHM members share to pay each other's medical bills. It's not insurance. It's Christians financially and spiritually supporting each other. It's what Christian Healthcare Ministries has done for

over 35 years, and our members have shared over $2.5 billion in medical bills. To learn more, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you're here. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Ryan follows us on Twitter, at Dave Ramsey. Do CPAs actually work at those tax preparation places? That depends on the tax preparation place you're asking about. Not always, no.

It's not required by law. You can have an enrolled agent if you want, and that's somebody who's, you know, another qualification. That's all of our tax ELPs are either enrolled agents or CPAs, one of the two. If you're talking about our tax preparation places that we recommend, some are CPAs and some are enrolled agents. And both are qualified to do taxes, by the way. tax or preparation places that we recommend. Some are CPAs and some are enrolled agents. And both are qualified to do taxes, by the way. Lisa's on Twitter. How can I explain to my family that a bad credit score and a good credit score are not the same thing? Lisa, if you have to explain that a bad credit score and a good credit score are not the same thing,

I don't think we can help your family. How can I explain that fat and thin are not the same thing? Black and white are not the same thing. Good and bad are not the same thing. That doesn't even make sense. So having no credit score versus a good credit score is not the same thing as a bad credit score. Now, if you want to say having no credit score versus a bad credit score is not the same thing, that would, I guess the point is, I think we're discussing the wrong issue. Let me back up.

Let's just back up for a second. So someone wants to talk about credit scores. The first thing you have to explain to them is that the only way you have a credit score is how you interact with debt, how much debt, the kind of debt, and whether you pay your debt on time. If you have no debt and no accounts open with debt associated with them, like credit cards that you pay off every month, but that's still showing as debt, okay? If you have no debt type accounts open, which I don't, and I haven't had for decades, if you have no debt accounts open of any kind, you will soon have no credit score. Because your credit score is not really a credit score.

It's really an I love debt score. So when you cease to have a credit score, it's because you've ceased to have debt for a period of time. Now, is that bad? No, that is not bad because you are what's known as debt free. And that puts you in a position to become wealthy faster than any other method. And more likely than any other method. And more likely than any other method. Because your most powerful wealth building tool is your income. And when you give all of your income to some stupid bank, also you can have an I love debt score that's high.

That makes you a stupid bank supporter. Not a wealth builder. Your goal is to build wealth here, not to make the banks wealthy. So we get our goals confused when we start talking about credit scores. If you have a very, very high credit score, it's because you have paid a lot of interest, a lot of interest over a long period of time. You love debt. The higher your credit score, the more you love debt.

And it shows, because mathematically it's impossible to have a high credit score otherwise. It's how the algorithm is set up by the FICO folk. It's what they do. So, I guess if you want to explain to your family that a high FICO score is not an indication that you are trending towards wealth, as a matter of fact, quite the opposite, that's how you would explain it. Now, that would make sense. But a bad credit score and a good credit score are not the same thing. No credit score and a good credit score are different things. I think a high credit score is a bad thing, is what I'm saying. Xavier is with us in Atlanta. Hi, Xavier. How are you?

I'm doing excellent. Thank you so much for having me on your show. Sure. Is it Javier or Xavier? Xavier. Xavier. Cool. How can I help? Yes, sir. All right, so just giving you a little background, me and my wife make $45,000 a year. We're currently renting an apartment for $700 a month. We're on baby step two. We're paying off our car debt, which is around $12,000, and I'm really wanting to just smack it in the face and get it out of here. But right now, we have a four-year-old child,

and we've been living in these really horrible apartments for about four years. And so it wasn't that bad when my son was very young and small. But I'm reaching a point to where we either need to find somewhere more suitable or maybe I've had colleagues and friends that have told me about FHA and first-time down payment assistance programs that might help me find some type of property where I can also, kind of like a duplex, where I can also rent out and kind of steady my payments. So my question here is, would it be wise with the step that I'm on to continue where I'm at, even though it's really a horrible situation for me and my family, or look for a nicer apartment, or just go ahead and try my, get educated on

home ownership and getting a house or a duplex. Okay, nothing down and duplexes are a bad plan for you. Okay. You're just desperate to get out of the apartment. You're getting ready to do something stupid out of your desperation if you're not careful. So you need to do this in the right order and in a way that is wise. Now, how quickly are you going to have your car paid off? Two years. That's too long.

You shouldn't take two years to pay off a $12,000 car, not making $45,000. That's only $6,000 a year. That's lame. Okay, you need to get after it. You need to get out of that apartment sooner than that. Does your wife work outside the home? Yes. Okay. And your household income is 45 000 yes but um i'm i'm currently in a trade apprenticeship and within two years that income will have doubled okay which is when you need to buy a house okay now your son is Yes. And you're in a horrible apartment at $750, okay? Is it unsafe? Yes. Like crime?

There's mold. Crime, yes. Actually, a few weeks ago, someone was shot in the apartment complex. Okay. Yeah, it's time to move. And so you need to just rent the cheapest thing you can find that's not moldy and crime-ridden. Okay? But it's time to move.

And the money that you pay extra in rent between now and then is going to have to be made up for by extra jobs. You guys are going to have to work like crazy people for the next two years to make sure that not only does this car get paid off and not only do you build your emergency fund and not only do you pay the increase in rent, but on top of all of that, you save your down payment. And then you're going to be ready to buy in about two years but um every dollar you pay out in extra rent to have a little bit better situation is going to slow down how quickly you buy

exactly yeah and so that's the paradox but if your son is unsafe your family's unsafe you're a good dad to look at that and go i'm not gonna you, there's no amount of money in the world to put my kid at risk, right? So if it slows down how quick you buy a house, it slows down how quick you buy a house. But buying a house wrong because you're unwilling to pay a little bit more rent to get in a safe situation and get yourself in a mess financially because you just get all jammed up about buying a house. And your broke friends at work are now giving you financial advice about how to buy a house, that's a bad idea, dude. So now just go rent you something a little bit better and finish out the plan. Hold on.

I'm going to send you a copy of the Total Money Makeover to help you. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you're here. Danica is with us in Syracuse, New York. Hi, Danica. How are you? Hi, Dave. I'm great. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up? So I'm about to graduate from my undergrad, and I have no debt, and I have about $5,000 in savings. And I'm going to be going to graduate school, which will be anywhere between five to seven years for me. And I'll be making about $25,000 a year with raises each year. And my thought was that I would save up to buy a house in my second year and then rent rooms while I'm living in it to help pay for the mortgage. And I just wanted to ask what your advice was for that. How are you?

You're $25,000 a year stipend and grad school's free? Yeah. So grad school, I'm going to be working for the school. Right. So they waive my tuition and then they pay me for my work. Got it. Okay. And so you have a $25,000 a year income while you're studying to get a master's degree in what?

I'm going to get a Ph.D. in mathematics. Okay. All right. And that's a seven-year process? It's anywhere between five to seven years. Okay. All right. and then your plan is to be a professor of mathematics i assume yeah that's the plan okay teaching higher ed okay good for you cool all right um well there's a seven years a long time so you could do this uh what i tell

folks to do is to make sure before you buy a home that you are debt-free and that you have an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses and that you have a good down payment above that. I don't want you moving into a house broke and hoping roommates are going to pay for it. You're going to create a stressful situation for you while you're supposed to be studying. Right. Right. So if you've got, are you out of debt?

Yes, I have no debt. Okay. And you have, and you said you had $500? No, about $5,000. $5,000. Okay, good. That's probably your emergency fund, making $25,000 while you're in college. That's a small emergency fund, but you're in a small situation, okay?

And so, you know, now we need to save up a down payment for a house, and if at that point you can buy a home on a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage where the payment is no more than a fourth of your take-home pay, I might look at doing that. That's going to be pretty limiting on $25,000 in Syracuse in terms of what you can afford to buy. Not going to be a lot of rooms for roommates. And don't buy it based on a roommate paying you because they might not. Right, okay. And you might have to go through this ugly thing known as an eviction,

and you might have to learn some of those kinds of lessons. So you need to build it out in such a way that it's fail-safe with the margins that you've got involved in your life. Because what happens with houses is I'm a big proponent of owning your own home and a big proponent of real estate. But what happens is when you buy a house and you're broke and you don't leave margin in your life meaning you have too big a payment or you're counting on the roommates to pay it or something like that then something happens the house can actually become a larger curse than it was going to be a blessing and so home ownership doesn't work very well when you're broke that's why i tell people to again be out of debt have an emergency fund and then have a

down payment because it doesn't it'll come back and bite you otherwise, and it'll steal all of what should have been a blessing. And I want you to get a house, but you also need to get a house in such a way that you can sell it because when you graduate with your Ph.D., there's a fairly good likelihood you will be teaching at a different school than you got your Ph.D. at. Fairly good likelihood you will be teaching at a different school than you got your PhD at. Fairly good likelihood. I mean, they may hire you there, but you might get a better offer somewhere else.

And then guess what? You got a house you got to sell. So way down the list of things for you to worry about in the next seven years is a house. But if you want to get one, those would be the parameters under which I think it'd be reasonable if I were in your shoes. Sue is with us in Nashville. Hi, Sue. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi.

Hi. So I have a question about whole life insurance. Here's the deal. So we have a policy. It's about $35,000. We've had it for like 20 years. It pays for itself. So we're not a pocket.

The reason I'm asking is I need to know if you think I should cash it in. We do have some term life insurance on my husband also. Not the 10. You recommend 10 times income. We don't quite have that much. We have about $550,000 of the term life insurance, but we also do have some debt, about $18,000. All right. Well, the debt is independent of the answer. It tells us what we would do with the cash value, but it's independent of the answer, okay?

Whole life life insurance, so your cash value is how much? It is about $8,000. $8,000. And the face that pays if you value is how much? It is about $8,000. $8,000. And the face that pays if you die is how much? That's $35,000. That's what it is. That sounds right. Because the actual insurance is $25,000 and cash would, yeah, if you die, it would be $35,000.

Does that sound right? No, you don't add the cash value to the face. No, sorry, you're right. It's like it was a $25,000 policy and and they said upon death we get $35,000. And right now if we cash it in, we get $8,400. Okay. All right. Then it's a $35,000.

It sounds like you've done paid-up additions or something as you go along. So first let's stop and explain this. No insurance is free. No insurance pays for itself. What happens is you've got $8,000 here that if it were making 10% in a mutual fund would have made $800, right? Instead, it's making about 2% in this whole life policy. And so instead of $800, you're making about $160. So you're basically losing 640 bucks, give or take a year on what this money should have earned.

And they're making that on the money because they're holding your money and they're paying you 2%. And so that's how they can afford to give you a $35,000 policy for free, quote unquote. Yeah. Because it's costing you like, you know, $600 a year in lost interest that you should have been getting. So it's costing you like you know 600 bucks a year and lost interest that you should have been getting so it's not free i guess what i meant was we are i know i know you know what i'm talking about i know exactly what you're talking about i just wanted you to understand that it's not free is all there's no payments coming out but you're losing money on that investment if it were invested better and so so, yes, I would cash out the whole life life insurance policy,

and, yes, before I did that, I would go to Zander Insurance, and I would get a quote on 10 to 12 times your husband's income on him, and you'll probably see that you can beat the insurance you've got now on the term. And for what you're paying, you know, easily, for what you would make up the difference on this $8,400, easily can, you know, buy the rest of it. And so, you know, price out how much term life insurance you've got now, $550, and also then price out whatever 10 or 12 times his income is. Get that insurance in place before you drop any insurance and then yes

i would drop whole life life insurance whole life life insurance is basically the payday lender of the middle class it sucks it's a horrible rate of return and oh by the way the eight thousand dollars that you paid extra to build up in there they keep it when you die they only pay the face value that's all they pay whatever the face value is if's all they pay, whatever the face value is. If it's $35,000, if it's $25,000, whatever it is, that's all they pay. They don't pay the face plus the cash value. Your cash value is gone, and that's why we don't recommend it. It's a horrible, horrible place to keep money hidden.

It ends up being hidden from you like forever and ever. Amen. So good question. Thank you for joining us. Open phones this hour as we talk about your life, your money. Brandy's on Twitter at Dave Ramsey. I'm expecting a tax refund. Is it enough?

It is enough to pay off my two smallest debts or enough to fund Baby Step 1. What should I do? Baby Step 1 is first. That's why we call it baby step one if we thought it was second we would have called it baby step two baby step one you need your thousand dollars to get started if you don't lay that foundation while you're trying to get out of debt you're going to end up with your car alternator out and it's 322 dollars you're getting money you're going to go back of debt. You're going to end up with your car alternator out, and it's $322. You're going to gain money.

You're going to go back in debt again, and you'll quit working the plan. You need a little bit of a baby starter emergency fund. Baby step one is $1,000. Let's do that before we start our debt snowball. I know you want to get out of debt. I want you to get out of debt, but I want you to get out of debt, not fall off a wagon later

the first time you hit a bump in the road. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. our scripture today is proverbs 27 17 iron sharpens, and one man sharpens another. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said, One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team. Weston is in Salt Lake City. Hi, Weston. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thanks for having me, Dave. I appreciate your time. Sure. What's up? I'm currently on Baby Step 6, and my wife and I are wondering if we should downsize our house.

We currently have a home value of $345,000. We only owe about $200,000. We're at a 20-year, 3.25% interest rate. And we have about 3,100 square feet. We originally bought this house three years ago because I had a roommate that moved in with us. We no longer have a roommate, and we don't even use the bottom half of the house. Would it be a good idea for us to downgrade? Well, if you want to downgrade regardless of financial reasons, you can, just because you don't want a big house.

There's nothing wrong with that. Do you need to downgrade for financial reasons? How much is your house payment? Our house payment right now is $1,380 a month. What's your take on it? Our income is about $47,000 to $5,000 a month. $4,700 to $5,000. Okay. There's no reason, based on the financials, that you would have to move down.

No, no. We're just wondering if it's a smart idea. I mean, our interest rate would go up to, I guess, 3.75? Yeah, the interest rates are irrelevant here because the cash flow is more important. The question is, where do you want to live? This house is not out of your range financially. You're okay. You're going to be okay in this house.

This house is not killing you financially. Oh, no. We're done with baby steps 1, 2, and 3. We actually took baby step 3 out a little further. So why is it you're wanting to move? Just because we don't use the bottom half of the house. It's more of a half of the clean than it is to keep. Okay, then that's just a personal decision.

I just don't like my house. And does your wife feel the same way? This is the house that my wife actually, or the house that she chose. She actually liked the house, and then she just, she doesn't care either way. It doesn't bother her if we move and find something smaller or if we stay. We're just wondering if the financials were better for us to reduce our house. No, the financials are not a problem. No, you're over-nerding this.

The financials are okay. You're fine on your math. The only question is just where you want to live. Lloyd is with us in Atlanta, Georgia. Hi, Lloyd. How are you? I'm doing all right, Dave. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up? I'm sorry. I just wanted to ask you a quick question. I'm one of those adults who are living with their parents forever. I'm 28 years old, finally got my butt in gear and graduated from college. Good for you. I have a girlfriend. Oh, thank you, sir. Thank you. I have a girlfriend now. And, um,

I found your book during the three months that I was unemployed. I've been working here for a month, uh, for 13 an hour, but I just got a call and I'm going to be working for 43,000 now on my next job. I start next week. So I wanted to know, where in the baby steps can I include making plans to propose to her, safer the ring and safer the wedding? Sooner rather than later. The thing is, if you're going, you've got, you have debt, I assume. Oh, yes, sir.

How much? Student loans is $23,834. Okay. Is that all? No car payment? No, no car payment. No car payment, but I have $65,000 in medical bills, and I have $2,000 in consumer debt,

which I'm wiping out with my tax return once it comes here. Good for you. Okay. So you got a new job and you got a new plan. Life is good. You're heading in the right direction, Lloyd. The only thing is this. So you got a new job and you got a new plan. Life is good. You're heading in the right direction, Lloyd. The only thing is this. Who's going to pay for the wedding?

It will probably be me and her. Okay. All right. So you don't have a lot of money for a wedding, and you don't have a lot of money for a ring. So as long as you guys are willing to do a wedding on a budget and a ring on a budget, meaning pay cash for the ring and limit that purchase, you don't need to be buying a $5,000 ring. You're just now getting started on your plan, you know.

So you're buying a less expensive ring, but that's okay. There's no correlation between ring size and marriage success anyway. And so you just get an inexpensive ring and do the proposal, and then we do an inexpensive wedding. And you can do that while you're working your other stuff. But you don't need a $20,000 wedding with the numbers you're giving me. You need a $7,000 to a $10,000 wedding with the numbers you're giving me. Okay.

And what budget would you propose for the rent? Well, never more than a month's income, and that's even if you've got all the money. So, you know, I'm thinking probably in your situation, maybe a grand or so. All right. Dave, thank you very much. Your ministry has definitely moved me in the right direction. I really appreciate it.

Well, I'm honored. I'm proud of you. You've got some really good traction here in a bunch of areas of your life all at the same time. Things are turning around for you, brother. That's good. If I can help further, you call me anytime. David is on the line in San Antonio.

Hi, David. How are you? Good. Thank you. Good. How can I help? So I'm just getting frustrated on getting started. My wife and I don't see eye to eye on finances ever, and she's always done the finances.

I've never said anything to her about it. And now that I'm figuring out how much we have in debt and we have $100,000 in debt, that's not including a $170,000 home. And she thinks the budget's silly. She thinks the snowballs are silly. So, I mean, it's just almost impossible to get started. I have money in an emergency fund. You know, I try to pay stuff off, and I know it's just difficult getting started. Okay. Well, I'm confused as to why she thinks the idea of being out of debt or the idea of having a plan is silly.

I don't know. I couldn't tell you. We're both college educated, and I don't know. I've always let her pay the bills. Well, she's handled the money, and you're $100,000 in debt. That sounds more silly than having a budget. That's what I said. Yeah.

But it comes off as, you know, hey, this is a personal attack on how I'm doing stuff, which it's not. You know, hey, we need to get out of this. Yeah, yeah. And, yeah, I think probably the first thing is that you owe her an apology for all the years of you not helping her with this subject and leaving it on her to make the decisions by herself and then just couch it. And this is not a personal attack, but I'm just very interested in helping now, and I want us to work together.

And, you know, if you guys can't work together on your life goals, you don't have a financial problem. You have a marriage problem. But it could just be your approach is lousy, that you're being a bull in a china shop, and you may just need to sit down and start talking about, I really am so excited about where we would be if we didn't have any debt. And the only way I know how to get out of debt is to have a plan to get out of debt. What do you think? You think we ought to stay in debt? You think this $100,000 is working for us?

I mean, you know, and just start talking to her like that. And instead of start throwing what we're going to do, what we're going to do, what we're going to do, let's talk about why we're doing stuff and why you're excited about it. And, you know, does that not make sense to you? And then back into the what. But a lot of times, guys, in particular, we start with the what and not the why. And that's the thing. So do that and maybe go through Financial Peace University together.

That might be a way to do it. So check in. Hold on, and I'll have Kelly pick up, and we'll give you a Financial Peace University membership. And I'm not going to give it to you if you can't get her to go, but if you can get her to go, because you don't want to go without her. It'll cause a divorce. It'll cause it to be worse because you'll get more excited, and she'll be less excited.

But if you can get her to go to the group with you, I will give you the program. It's called Financial Peace University. It's only nine weeks. You go once a week for nine weeks to the group, and then you've got a year access to every dollar and every dollar plus. And, you know, that's what you do there. So hold on.

I'll have Kelly pick up, and maybe if you can get her to do that, that might be a way to get you guys on the same page. And maybe she can start to understand why you're excited about this, not just what you're trying to do. There is a difference. So, hey, thank you for the call, man. Hold on, Kelly will pick up. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books.

We will be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there is ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but if you heard about a product or service and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry. We list everything that is mentioned during this episode in the podcast show notes section. Thanks for listening.