The Ramsey Show - App - What It Means To Live Paycheck-to-Paycheck (Hour 3)

Episode Date: February 13, 2024

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, this is The Ramsey Show. It's where we help you win in your life, specifically with your money, in your work, and in your relationships. The phone number to jump in is 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225 888-825-5225 I'm sitting next to the incomparable George Campbell. I thought you were going to say incompetent. No, no, you've been great today. Pretty wild how close those two words are.

It's only a thin slice between the two sometimes. And boy do I know. I know, because it's live, man. And you never know what's going to happen, folks. It's one of the great joys of doing live broadcasting. I'm Ken Coleman. I'll be your host this hour, George Campbell co-hosting with me.

Let's get to David now in Orlando, Florida. David, how can we help today? I'm just kind of getting into this. I started listening to you guys a few months ago, and I'm trying to pay off a little bit of personal debt that I have but I am unsure of

the best way. I've read through the steps and I'm working on paying down roughly $20,000 in personal debt and maybe $5,000 in school loans and then I have $ 5,000 school loans. And then I have 20,000 vehicles.

So I'm just trying to figure out, like, I don't know. So it's a new concept of not just kind of, all right, make more money so you can survive. And that was always my answer was I'll just make more money. Out earn the stupidity. I'm glad you're here, man. Welcome to our crazy the way you're not alone david no shame in your game here we've all been there so what's your income all right uh before taxes maybe 320 a year whoa fantastic what do you do uh work with computers and cybersecurity. Nice. See, I'm trying to tell people.

We had a guy earlier in cybersecurity making $50,000, and we're like, what are you doing, man? David, really quick question. How much was your education, and what did you get? I think total would be probably $60,000 or $70,000. Would you believe we had a young guy that was how much in debt? $270,000 in student loans for a computer science degree, now making $50,000. Can you believe that, David? In cybersecurity. That's what he told us. Schools.

Different schools, different prices. Exactly. I said I got a bachelor's in computer information systems. Well, David, congrats on the big shovel. Yeah, that helps a ton. My goodness. So now it just takes, we got to go, how little can we live on to throw the rest of the debt? And that's where a budget comes into play. Have you actually done a budget laying out your income minus expenses? Some, but probably not a great one. As I said, in my household, we kind of split everything. So half of what I make goes

into all of the house. Are you married? All of the house things. Yeah. Okay. So what's the total household income? Is your spouse working outside the home? Yes. She brings in, before taxes, like $150. Wow. My goodness. So you're telling me you guys are making $470,000 gross income? Somewhere in that ballpark. And you're in $45,000 of consumer debt? Yes. And I guess as soon as we split it, I think of my personal consumer debt. I said outside of that, we just have the house and then her car

and then whatever personal debt she has. She doesn't have any school loans. Okay. I would encourage you, this is an aside, but to combine finances completely and attack these debts together with both of your incomes. Okay. What's stopping you guys from doing that right now? I think we learned that the system really worked well when we started doing this way i said early on in the marriage it was one person makes more and it felt like

they weren't paying their part in and they're like all right each person pays in their part that goes toward all the things yeah i used to do that when i had a roommate but when i got married that wasn't gonna fly with my wife because if my wife stays home, I don't go, well, you're not bringing any income. That means you don't get to eat out this month. And so I think it creates a weird tension in a marriage that doesn't need to exist. Whose idea was this, yours or hers? Are you both equally for the separating of the finances? I think we're both equally for it.

I think this was before maybe the high point of our earning, and it would fluctuate one person making $60, $70, and then it was like, all right, well, you have to put in your portion for the people who's being a forwarder and married and all that. It never seemed to equate out. It was like, all right, whatever half of what you make is goes into the family pod. And it pays for vacations. It pays for pay bills.

Oh, we get it. Child activities. All of that stuff. It's just George is suggesting this for a reason that we're unified. But I can tell when he made that suggestion, it was like me saying you should eat kale for three meals a day for three straight months. You were like, okay, thanks, George. I don't think you're going to do that. I just think it's going to speed up the process

and it's going to create a better marriage, both and. Okay. I agree. What's your wife's car loan? I think she has maybe $20,000 left on it. Okay, so you're $65,000 all in on consumer debt in this household, right? Yes. You make $ $65,000 all in on consumer debt in this household, right? Yes. You make $470,000.

Let's say you bring home $250,000 plus. That's about 55% take home with that income. Okay. Is that fair? That seems fair. That's about $21,000 a month. If you guys aren't investing, or even if you are, that should be $21,000 to $25,000 a month you're taking home.

Okay. So the question is, can we live off of $5,000 and throw $20,000 at the debt and be done in three months? Probably. I can't imagine that we couldn't. And that's where the budget, instead of a probably, the budget says, yes, if you follow this math and process, which you do in cybersecurity, there's a lot of processes and you're a process guy, you will be out of debt in three or four months completely, not just your debt, her debt too. And then you're going to free up all of those payments that can now go toward investing and spending and enjoying life. Okay.

So I'm going to gift you our every dollar premium budget to help you lay this out. And you're going to list income at the top, both of your incomes, every single paycheck gets its own line item. Below that is going to be every single one of your expenses from food, utility, shelter, transportation, insurance, whatever it is. And for the next three or four months, you're going to hunker down and go, how little can we live on to get by to throw the rest of the debt? And I'm telling you, if you do that for four months, you guys will be debt-free. Okay. No, that sounds great. And you're going to list out your debts from smallest to largest balance. Even if it's three different student loans making up to 5K, split it all out,

pay them off smallest to largest balance, ignore the interest rates. This is about momentum and progress. And I'm telling you, man, call us back if it doesn't work because I will be shocked if you don't call back three months from now saying, dude, we're debt free. It worked. Yeah. And. No, that sounds good. David, we're going to challenge you to sit down and have a new conversation, a different conversation about how George challenged you, and I agree with him, to combine your finances and what that's going to do, not just for your financial prowess and the ability to multiply things, but also just for your marriage. Couples that do this together, that do money together, they have better lives because you're either growing apart or you're growing together.

And I found people with separate finances, they tend to grow apart. And I'm not OK with that. Yeah. And I think they are apart from day one. It's just a different life. I got my life and expenditures and you got yours. And oh, by the way, we've got this little pot we're contributing to. Listen, couples that Venmo each other. Y'all good, bro? Yeah. Y'all good? I don't know. What is happening? It's like my fantasy football league. We all put $100 in at the start of the season and you know, hey.

That's not the kind of fantasy I want to live. Well played, George Campbell. Folks, he's going to be here for the rest of the show. You don't want to miss more of those quips. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back, America. You're joining the conversation about your life. We do it with you. Here on The Ramsey Show, I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell joins me. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Time for our question of the day. It's sponsored by Neighborly, your hub for home services. There are some things around the house you can handle yourself.

I can't, but maybe you can. But electrical problems probably aren't on the list. You know what you do, George, when you have electrical problems? What do you do? You contact Mr. Electric. Naturally. I don't mess with that stuff. You're not going to call Mr. Plumbing. You're going You contact Mr. Electric. Naturally. I don't mess with that stuff. You're not going to call Mr. Plumbing.

You're going to call Mr. Electric. For a licensed professional with upfront pricing near you. By the way, I'd try the hackle. I don't know if it'll work. They might not like it, but I'd try it. Good luck. Find Mr. Electric online at neighborly.com slash Ramsey. Today's question comes from Angela in Utah. I keep hearing about

78% of people in the U.S. living paycheck to paycheck, and I am wondering if we are these people. We do not have debt, we paid off the house, have our one-year emergency fund, paid cash for college for our son, and have IRAs. We try to live a modest lifestyle, but we need our paychecks to fund it. Does this mean we live paycheck to paycheck? Do we need to be very wealthy to not need income at all to not be paycheck to paycheck? Well, good news, Angela, you're doing great. You are not in the bucket of what we would call paycheck to paycheck. And here's how I know that.

The idea of paycheck to paycheck, this can mean a lot of things depending on who you ask, but my definition is if you cover your just necessary bills and have nothing left over, you are paycheck to paycheck. But you guys clearly have a lot of money left over. You're able to fund retirement. You're able to save up the emergency fund. You're able to pay cash for college. And so that would, by definition, mean you're not paycheck to paycheck. Now, yes, you need income to keep up your current lifestyle and make it sustainable and cover bills. That's normal. But the idea is if one paycheck went missing, you guys would still be okay.

You have your emergency fund. You've got your bills taken care of. So that's how I see it, Kent. What do you think? I agree with you. That concept just is that we have zero money until we get paid next time, and you are not in that situation. I mean, a one-year emergency fund.

That's plenty. You got cash for your son, the IRAs. She doesn't tell us, but I guarantee you, when you see a person that's got a one-year emergency fund, I can tell you their IRAs are chock full. And they probably have a bunker just in case something goes down. In Utah, nonetheless. Good point.

So yeah, I mean, the way I look at it, when we do a zero-based budget, income minus expenses equals zero. So when my wife and I sit down to budget, every dollar is accounted for. There's not just money sitting around because we've put it all in its proper place. Maybe that's investing in retirement and 401ks. Maybe that's putting it away in the high-yield savings account or spending. But it doesn't mean that we have no money. We've just allocated every dollar intentionally. Yeah. And where are you on the emergency prepping? Where are you on the scale to, you don't care at all to you've got a bunker? I'm in the don't care at all. And here's my thing, find a friend who's got the bunker and set up an arrangement. So like John Deloney, that's my buddy. Yeah. Something goes down, I'm going to John's cabin in the woods.

It's going to be awkward when he doesn't let you in. That's the hope is that they actually let me in. Yeah. I am on the not doing anything at all because I believe that there's just no matter of if they want to, whoever they is wants to cook you with the drones and all the things. Yeah. They'll find you. I'm just heading to the beach.

Well, I'm ready for the good Lord to take me at that point. You know what I mean? Why stick around in a post-apocalyptic- Yeah, I don't want to be there. Left behind tribulation universe. I'm going to go out, get myself a good margarita, sit on the beach, sand between the toes, and when it all ends, I'm going to watch it happen. It's going to be great.

Drink your Gumby Slumber and take a long slumber. Well, this is a great suggestion. There we go. Great suggestion. All right. There's your segment on emergency prepping from Ken and George. We really don't care. So not the show for that topic. Julie is waiting for us in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Julie, how can we help? Hey, thanks so much for taking my call. What we're looking for is a solution to reduce our workload. My husband currently works full-time and we have investment properties as

well. Okay. Tell us more about his job. What does he do and how much does he make? He does maintenance type work and he makes approximately 52K per year. Okay. And are the rental properties paid for? They are paid except for 250K. And how many properties? Yeah. 15 properties, 18 doors. Okay. And how many are paid off?

I would say 60 to 65% of them. And do you work outside the home? I manage the properties. What kind of revenue, what are you guys paying yourself, if anything at all, from these rentals? Yeah, well, I would say on average, we bringing in about $6,500. Profit? Yes. $6,500 a month profit, and then are you guys paying yourself out of that, or are you just putting that money back into maybe a fund or something that takes care of expenses? What are you doing with the $6,500 a month?

Yeah, so up until recently we were not having that much income because we've just paid some off recently. So it generally just rolls over in the checking account or we have it in a savings account as well. And what are you wanting to do? What's your question? We just work a lot. My husband works 40 hours a week and goes to work and then almost two to three times a week he needs to go out and make a repair we work a lot of saturdays when there's turnover with cleaning and things like that it's hard to find people who want to do that kind of work that are reliable um so are you wanting to have him quit his full-time job? Well, that's my question.

I don't know if that's a wise decision. You know, we have medical benefits to his full-time job. Well, and the revenue, your take-home pay from these rental properties, will it increase if he's working on this full-time? What would that do? Yes. We paid about $55,000 last year for someone to do repairs that my husband would then be doing. And he's capable of doing every single one of those repairs? It was just a time issue? Yes. It's just a time restriction. What's your equity on these? So I know you've got, I think you said 16 properties, and you owe $250,000 total across all of those. Right.

So of the ones that are paid off, what's your equity? Oh, probably around the same. What do you mean the same? What do you mean the same? What do you mean the same? $250,000? Yes, probably closer to $400,000. So 15 properties total are only worth $650,000? I'd say 15 properties total are worth about a million.

Okay. Well, you owe $250,000, which means you have 750 in equity. Right. Okay. You see where we're going? And the reason I'm asking this question, Julie, is because if he would prefer to walk away from the current maintenance job, and the only thing keeping him there is benefits, then you want to get to a place where you're self-insured, right? And the only way to get self-insured is to look at,

can we cash in some of these properties, pay off the $250,000? So George is doing the math for you. So that's why I'm asking that question because I want George to kind of weigh in. I personally would start unloading some properties, remove the debt, and then look at what's the plan to get him. And do your homework on what it's going to cost. Yeah. Because I've got friends who do this, Julie, full-time.

They're in the rental investment property business. They are paying thousands a month in health insurance because they have to go get private health care out in the marketplace versus through an employer. And it's a huge cost that could make this not worth, the juice may not be worth the squeeze here is what I'm trying to say. And so where I'm going, Julie, is do we cut back on how many properties we own to where, because this is about time.

This phone call is about we're working on a property management company and they take a cut and it lowers your take-home pay, but it alleviates the time on Saturdays and all of this stuff that you're, you know, that you called in about. We got about 40 seconds. What are you thinking, Julie, about what we said? The other thing I did want to mention is we have the means to pay these off now. So you have the cash? I have the cash. I could pay them off. Do it. You know what that's going to do? Increase your cash flow. Yeah. I'd look at a property manager. It's going

to reduce your risk. And then you can afford to do the property management, take the cut, and still be fine. But you guys are trying to reduce your amount of time working on these things, so you've got to weigh it. You know, how much is it costing us financially to manage all these properties ourselves? This is a simple formula. You guys just need to cut back somewhere.

Pay more somewhere else. But I'm proud of you. This is a great situation to be in. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back, America. We're talking about you with you. This is The Ramsey Show, helping you win in your money, in your work, and in your relationships. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell joins me. And we're here for you this hour. 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Let's go to Birmingham, Alabama, not too far south of us here in the Nashville area. And Ryan awaits. Ryan, how can we help? Hey, quick question for you guys. I am 24 years old, and I work in the sawmill supply industry, and I'm a salesman. The what supply? I'm sorry, the what? I work in the sawmill supply industry. Sawmill, I apologize. Okay.

You're good. And I make around $45,000 a year. I have no benefits. I make no commission on any sales. And I do deliveries to kind of supplement what I do at the shop there. And I end up working a lot of overtime and being on salary, I don't get paid for that overtime. And I think last year through about November through October through December, I worked 76 hours of overtime and I didn't see a penny for it. And I have talked to my boss and it's kind of a hard situation because my wife's cousin is married to my boss and we go to church with them. We're very good friends with them. And I had a conversation about it telling him that I wasn't really exactly happy with working that amount of overtime and not getting paid for it. And he looked at me and he told me, you know, I completely understand if I was in your,

uh, your shoes, I feel the same way. And then the next day proceeds to send me out to a, um, out and I worked about 30 hours of overtime that weekend. And I had asked to have off Monday, the day off. And he told me that that wouldn't work. How should I go about handling that, you know, from the work life and the, I guess, family life, social life situation? I'm just really confused about how to handle it. Okay, so you need to handle it the way that you would want somebody to handle it with you.

So you put yourself in his shoes. And you've already been really up front. Yes. I'm going to reserve my real feelings about this guy because he's married to your wife's cousin. I could care less about the married connection. So I'm going to reserve what I really think about the guy and just tell you that you need to start looking today, period.

And when you find something that is something that you enjoy, maybe sales, you're good at sales, you got something that the compensation is matched up to your effort and there's no lid on you, you are in a situation where there is a lid on you. You have very respectfully, it sounds like, raised your objections and he kind of said, I understand I'd be the same way if I'm you, but sucks to be you. I need you to go out this weekend, and I'm not giving you money off. I mean, it's just tone deaf. So that's about all I'm going to say. I already went past the line. I said I wasn't going to say anything. I couldn't help myself. But here's the deal. You find something else that's better, that gives you a ladder. So better in the now and better in the next is our goal. Does that make sense?

And then once we find that, we accept that job and we get that deal done. Then we walk into him and you treat him with class, even though I don't think he's been classy to you. I think you go in and you just treat him like, hey, man, listen, I appreciate what you've done for me. You gave me an opportunity to work here. I appreciate it. I found a better opportunity for me and my future and so I'm tending my I'm turning in my

resignation and you wave to him at church and everything's fine that's right I feel like there's something beyond I don't think you're staying here because of the relationship are you worried that you can't find something better or that you don't know what that next thing is basically what happened was is we, me and my wife,

I actually moved here about three months before I got married. I'm originally from Ohio. I went to school down in Florida. That's where me and my wife met. She's from Florida and we moved here. So we're about 10 hours from both of our families. We kind of like to be closer. But just right now, I'm just afraid of, you you know i won't be able to find anything there it is oh if i were to quit yeah and i think that fear is unsubstantiated 100 to give you a big word let's play that fear out ryan okay fear i'm not gonna be able to find

anything okay so we look um not being able to find anything just more of like something that would compare my wife does have a job and we make together about 85 000 years so we're not by any means struggling what do you want to do i right and i would and i eventually would love to um well before i went to college, my brother and I, we had a, a decent lawn care business when I lived back in Ohio. And, um, I would love to get back into that and doing, you know, general property maintenance, that kind of thing. I'm good at it. I know what I'm doing. And it was just my fear is, um, you know, my wife and I wanted to start to have kids. I would love for her not to have to work, but right now she has to. And I can't really plan my, I can't plan my weeks out

or anything because usually these trips I go on, I can't plan my weeks out or anything because usually these trips I go on, I know the day of if I'm going and if I'm going to be gone for three days at a time. And it's just, it's just a struggle because also my boss's father, who actually owns the company I work for, we have financed our house through him and he said he'd be willing to buy it back, but it's just, we're just tied in a lot of different ways, and I don't know how to handle it. Well, I just told you how to handle it. And the finance thing, I mean, he wants to get paid back. So if you handle yourself like a turd, maybe he changes the terms.

Maybe he tries to mess with it. You're not going to handle yourself that way. If you went up and said, hey, we're going to move. We need to sell the property. What happens next? He actually said whenever we want to sell the property, he would buy it back from us for how much ever is owed. Well, then for how much is owed? Wait, did he give you that? I don't understand. No, sorry. It was a mortgage. We had a mortgage through him, basically.

He was acting as our bank. So he gets the mortgage back with 0% interest? Right. We're paying about 5% interest right now. So he said whatever we have not paid off of our mortgage, that's what he will buy the house back for. That's what I'm saying. That feels like a crummy deal for you guys. You lose all of your equity? It's an awful deal. Exactly. Exactly. This sounds like a scam. Yeah. And a part of what I'm going through right now is we actually, the reason that the mortgage is so high,

the house was bought for about $150,000, but he tied into that mortgage the loan to remodel the house. And a lot of it was they did surface work, but our plumbing is bad, our duct work is bad, all that kind of stuff. And we just got quoted $17,000 to fix all that. And I don't know if I want to spend $17,000 into a house. Yeah, you got used, dude. You got played, and that sucks, and it's a stupid tax that you might have to pay at the end of this, but I'm getting out of this whole situation. I would get out.

Stop getting tied with family and weird boss situations. I mean, Ryan, you got a bad deal, and there's no fixing this bad deal. Get out of it now. Now, I want to go back to the other issue of the fear. George has a great, great perception there. Listen, if you want to get into lawn care, you're not making a ton of money right now. You're making $45 a year, I think I wrote down. Is that right? Right.

Yeah, that's correct. Dude, you could go make $45 a year for somebody who needs somebody who's a hustler and who will get out there and do a lot of the work and self-managing properties. I believe you can go from $45 to $ 45 right now with not too much effort in Birmingham. But more importantly, I would look to get into the lawn care business, property management business now. Here's why. Someone's going to pay you to learn how to do it for yourself one day.

I don't think this is a big stretch. But listen, instead of sitting around thinking about it and stewing about what would happen when you leave, start thinking about what you want your life to look like. You need to cut ties with these people. I think it's manipulative that you're in a manipulative, unhealthy, weird situation, and you need to be thinking about what you and your wife want to do, who you want to be, where you want to do it, how you want to do it. Take some ownership of your life. I think you've got to be moving into the area you want to be in the future, but have someone else pay you to learn how to do it. And with a path to $55,000, $65,000, $75,000, $100,000. Let's go. let's start looking today like when the phone

when you hang up you need to start looking and i already i already have been i've already started that down that process i've i've got a lot of connections in the town where i lived and i've handed out cards and everything i know it's doable i just would hate for because you know my my father-in-law is a very successful businessman and i'm just trying to i'm just trying to be as good as i can at what I do. You are, Ryan. You're terrified to offend somebody, and you've got to stop. I want to bring it back to George for the remaining 30, 40 seconds here

on what he needs to do on this house situation. Take it away. You need to figure out what the terms are that you signed to, if there are any, and get out of this deal as unscathed as possible and get your equity back. I don't like this deal where he gets it for whatever's left from the mortgage versus the market value. So you need to figure all that out, do your homework so that you guys get out of this thing with as much money as possible. Man, that sucks. Golly, that makes me angry. Time to man up, Ryan, and not worry about what

everybody else is going to think or say about what you are supposed to do with your life. You're a good dude. Own it and make some action happen quickly. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell joins me. Our scripture of the day comes from Isaiah 6, 8.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? And I said, Here am I, send me. Our quote from Thomas Edison, If we did all the things we are really capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves. I feel like that's got a sports reference for you, George. I don't think Thomas Edison was a big sports guy.

No, but I'm applying it. He's saying if we did all the things we're really capable of doing, we would astound ourselves, and this is my encouragement and pitch to get you out on the pickleball court with me. I know you're a little reluctant to do any kind of sport. I feel like over 30 you're asking for a torn ACL on the pickleball court. No, no. I've been playing for months, and I'm fine.

These hammies don't move like they used to, Ken. I'll tell you that much. I've played golf with you. What are the chances that we play pickleball? After seeing me play golf, I'm surprised you ever want to see me do anything athletic. Well, I think it's a lot less work. It's a lot less motion.

You just keep it in here. It's not this big, long swing. True story, James. I played golf with George one time on a Ramsey personality retreat. And I don't want to exaggerate here, but you swung at the ball on one tee, I think six times and never hit the ball. But by the end, everybody was laughing because I was just hitting air or dirt. Oh, I was on the ground. I was sitting on the ground beside myself watching you because you were really trying.

Yeah. And you weren't swinging hard. That's the other thing. It wasn't because you were really going after it. You were like an old woman missing it. Yeah. But I appreciate that you went out there and did it. But to be fair, I also destroyed you in mini golf one time.

That is such a rumor. There was no destroying. You snuck up on me because I wasn't taking it seriously. All right. Hey, bring Ken to the skate park and see how he does on a skateboard. There we go. I'll out-skate you any day. I will admit that I wouldn't be able to stay on the skateboard more than a second and a half.

That's an extreme sport, Ken. No, I couldn't do it. I have no ability on a skateboard. So there you go. It's all right. We stick to behind the desk because it's a safe place for us. It's a safe place. On the mic is a good place. How about Harold joining us in Milwaukee,

Wisconsin. Harold, how can we help? Hey guys, I'm a little nervous so I apologize. Well listen, you just heard the two of us talking to each other. How could you possibly be nervous talking to us? It's because George and Ken, by the way,

thank you for taking my call. You're doing great. Yeah, thank you. George, just want to tell you that your book has changed my life around a lot. Oh, my goodness. How about that? That means the world, Harold.

I'll be honest, man. I got one more chapter to finish up, which is tonight, but I'm a newbie i started listening to the show three weeks ago by a friend who kept telling me like you gotta listen to dave ramsey i'm like who's this guy he's talking about and um start plugging in and since to this day i'll listen to all your episodes back in november just to keep me going and going and going. But my question is, um, I am in $31,000 in debt, uh, 20,000, uh, in school loans and, uh, 10,000 is in my, uh, you know, credit cards and stuff. But, um, I think I make good money for, you know, last, last year I grossed out about $110,000. Um,

I have a goal, uh, and my why is my kids, my kids and my, my girlfriend. Um, but my goal is, uh, I want to clear my debt off, um, just because I want to be able to take my family on a real vacation. Um, I've never got to experience that as a kid, but I want to take my, my, my daughter to a Disney world, you know? I love it. And that's a great why. I love that. Changing the family tree, getting to have an amazing experience. Tell him how he does it, George. Well, we're going to help you break these chains, man.

You're going to never see debt again after we're done with you. You make $110,000, you're $31,000 in debt. So there's a simple math equation here, and it's how little can we live off of and how quickly can we pay off the debt with the margin we create? Correct, yeah. And not to cut you off. Within these three weeks, I, I paid off two credit cards, you know? And like I said, I, I'm not, I also, I forgot to include was I have two personal loans,

which are roughly about 5,000. One of them, I'm owning old $1,200. And I feel like if I pay that personal loan, that will save me a lot more money to keep going after more of my credit cards. But yes, I'm sorry not to cut you off, but I just wanted to- No, that's helpful. Well, I found the people who actually pay off debt, they follow the debt snowball method. And what you're wanting to do is, hey, let's free up the bigger payment. Let's do it this way. But we found that you're going to knock out these debts so quickly that it's not really going to make a mathematical difference, but it will make a

psychological and emotional difference when you knock out another two, three credit cards in the next month because of that momentum that you've created. And so you're going to free up the payments either way and make it 110. How quickly do you think you'll be able to pay off this 31,000 plus the personal loans with some intensity? I'm hungry. I'll be honest. I'm hungry. Eight months. Great answer. I'm hungry. My goal, I'm not going to lie, I told myself six to 12 months. Love it. But I'm trying to attack it as soon as possible. You got any savings?

I do. I actually have about my emergency fund of $1,000 that I put to the side, but I also have an extra about $5,000 as well. Dude, that's amazing. So if you list out your debts smallest to largest, aside, but I also have an extra about $5,000 as well. Dude, that's amazing. So how many, if you list out your debt, smallest to largest, how many can you knock out with that $5,000 sitting in savings? I can knock out, I want to say two credit cards and a personal loan. That's amazing. And that's going to free up a whole bunch of payments, which you're going to apply to the next debt and the next debt. So I fully believe this debt's gone in six months, pause all investing,

just go scorched earth. I mean, cover food, utility, shelter, transportation, take care of the kids. But outside of that, you're just working, man. Yeah. And I'm not going to lie. I've been with my girlfriend for seven years and I want to put a ring as well this year. So that's probably another reason why I want to go to Disney World, just propose to her and surprise her. Oh, I love this. She's a great mom. I got engaged at Disney World. Did you? Yeah.

I didn't know that. You don't know the story? Following in the footsteps of greatness, Harold, with Ken over here. Harold, I'm telling you, she will tell that story for the rest of your life. It's a great move. But you've got to pay all this stuff off. I mean, like when this phone call's over, George, is he not cutting? You're knocking out those three debts.

Five grand. Boom. Let's go. Yeah, I yeah i will i will and then i do have one last question all right real quick because we got you got to get to it fast we got about two minutes harold yeah with the financial peace university i was thinking about uh buying it tonight to actually take like i don't know i guess once i start something i don't want to stop so like i'm so focused into this right now like i was thinking about investing in the financial peace university to probably help me more to like keep me going and going and going save the hundred bucks we'll gift it to you boom i know i don't know if that's your angling for but i'm in a good mood today and i like you harold bada bing bada boom and while we're at it i'm gonna i'm gonna send you a copy of the book

breaking free from broke so you can get someone else's journey started. Oh my God, thank you. How about that? I appreciate that. You just made my day. Yeah, I'll sign it for you and personalize it as well. So I'll get with the team, hang on the line. Austin will get you hooked up with Financial Peace University, and I'll send you a signed copy of the book. Since you're an inspiration to me, man, I love a guy who just decided one day, Ken, woke up and said, enough is enough. I worked too hard to feel this broke. I'm done with debt. I'm done with games. I want to leave a different kind of legacy for my family. Done with the chains. I got kids. I got a girlfriend that I want to marry and start a life with. What am I doing still playing around with debt? And can we just highlight the fact that he's got a great motivator in the form of

a vision that he really wants. He wants to take his daughter, take the girlfriend to Disney, you know, the magical, you know, the greatest place on earth, where they call it, everything. And that is pulling him forward like a magnet to knock this debt out. Harold, you did great. I know you're nervous, but man, you're just crushing it. And Financial Peace University is George's pre-wedding gift. I love that. It's a good way to look at it. And I will tell you, my friend, call up the Disney wedding department.

Tell them, look, I want to do something custom. Here's what I have to spend. What can I do? That's what I did back in the day. You tell them the budget. Yeah. Now, I'm sure times have changed. Do you think it's still going to cost a nickel and a bushel of raspberries to make this happen? Let me tell you something. I had five gifts delivered throughout the day at different times. Stacey thought I was in Virginia. I was there with a Disney staffer behind the scenes. Her father was leading her to different

places throughout the park. And she got five different gifts with a note saying, I sorry i couldn't be with you today was all a setup i didn't know you were such a romantic we ended up right below the castle tinkerbell flies over i pop out from behind us a sign bada bing bada bing bada boom put a ring on it 25 years later the magic is still congratulations magic is still there george campbell great show james childs our fearless leader in the crew thank you guys and thank you america this is your show this is the ramsey show Thank you.