The Ramsey Show - App - What’s My Next Right Step With Money? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: January 22, 2024

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Dr. John Deloney, number one best-selling author, is my co-host today ramsey personality and host of the dr john deloney show on your past change your future was his first one you can check that out or how to build a non-anxious life second number one bestseller just came out last fall check it out as well jonathan is with us in fort myers florida hey

jonathan what's up in your world? Hi, how are you doing today, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I had a situation happen a couple years ago during COVID. My mother passed away. She was actually killed by her new husband. Oh, my gosh.

Man. Yeah, they were both in their late seventies. Um, and they, uh, they left me with quite a bit of money. So, uh, I had never, uh, I never made more than about 85 grand a year and then was left with a couple million dollars. And I, I hope I've been doing the right steps, um, with what I've done with it. I just wanted to get mostly some reassurance that I've been doing the right things or what you would recommend moving forward with this. Oh my gosh. How have you navigated the last few years with the loss of your mom? You know, the first year wasn't too well, you know, kind of,

you know, kind of went backwards probably a little bit and then trying to i got a couple kids and i tried to get myself together and be better for my kids and i think i've been been doing pretty well the last two years how old are you jonathan uh 36 okay and i assume he the uh the husband's been put in jail? No, he killed himself afterwards. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. In our house that we grew up in. Oh, I'm so sorry.

Geez, man. Well, that just makes it, I mean, managing $2 million that you don't know how to manage is freaky enough, and then you put this layer on it, it just gets super freaky, right? Yeah, yeah, it's a little more than that. We were left about $2 million, $2.5 million from our parents, and then he left us another $1.1 million. Oh, wow. Which we weren't expecting.

We didn't know that we were written into as well. Wow. Does that money feel weird? Are you happy to spend it? Uh, I, I, I've spent,

I haven't really, I wouldn't say I've spent it. I've used most of it to, to live off of the last couple of years from the, from the, the new husband. Um, uh,

he left us two IRAs, a traditional IRA and a Roth IRA. So I've been pulling out. Let me get past all the, and just answer your question. So how much money do you have today? Today, let me just flip over here. I've got total between properties and everything. Yes. flip over here i've got total between properties and everything yes i would say about um three and a half million okay all right and you're still working making 80 no i haven't been working since

the day she died oh wow okay what did you do for a living i worked in restaurants mostly um bartender sommelier and server okay and the reason i didn't go back to work was a lot of that the reason why i made good money was because i was i was always forward about my my life and talking to people about things in my life and i just felt like i couldn't do that anymore well you can't go into this story part of the story anyway wow okay are you are you married still or single no i've never been married i'm single you said you had kids okay yeah two children uh one that i have full custody of one that i split custody okay an important part of your recovery moving forward is you're gonna have to get uh you're gonna have to get a job yeah you're gonna have to get a

purpose a thing to do a thing to go to a thing that you are a part of that the world's going to be better because you were a part of it you got that yeah i feel that as well okay yeah it's time it's time to go back to work jon Jonathan. Doing something. Yeah, I'm actually starting a business this year, a tour boat business. A what business? Tour boat? A tiki boat, tour boat. Oh, okay. All right.

You're buying the boat and going to do tours. Yeah, and do trips on the boat. When? The boat's going to be delivered in April or May of this year, and we should be operating by June. Okay. What did you spend on that boat? $220,000 total.

Okay. Okay. All right. Now you're going to be leaning in, learning how to run a business, learning how to handle and operate the boat. You're going to be leaning in on all of this. I really want you to go make a living for your sake, because at 36, doing nothing is not a plan, okay, emotionally, spiritually.

John's right about that. Now, so let's pretend that you're making a living. You don't need this money then, right? So now we just need to invest this money well. Yes. Okay. Jonathan, I buy two things for investments um the first thing i tell people and i was with a bunch of wealthy people this weekend do not put money in something

you don't understand don't do it because i do it don't do it because somebody else says to do it or you read an article once that's a that's a nightmare way to lose money put money in something you understand now that may mean you need to go to school a little bit by sitting with an investment advisor and letting them teach you. But I buy real estate that I pay cash for because I like the real estate business. I've done that already. Okay. And I buy mutual funds. And that's all I buy.

Okay. I've got about a total of about a 1.8 million in real estate. Okay. And it's making money, right? I have one house that's going to be worth about 1.2 million and I'm planning on renting that. Going to be? When? Why is it not worth that now? It's about to be finished being built and I think in march or april of this year it'll be done okay all right so you're gonna have and then i have a i have another rental house and then i have the house i live in okay that's fine great now manage those to where they make a good return

on the amount of money you have tied up in them and then sit down with a good uh someone like a smart investor pro you can find them at ramsey solutions.com and they'll help you sit down and start to understand some mutual funds and invest it but i mean if you make 10 on three million dollars average across that those investments then you'd have 300,000 a year coming in uh if you don't touch it in seven years that three at 10% would be worth about $6 million. In seven more years, it would be worth about $12 million. In seven more years, it would be worth $24 million. That's 21 years from today.

You're 36. That puts you at 57 with $24 million. I like that. Okay. That's you working, providing your own living, not touching these investments, and letting them just grow at an average growth rate of 10% a year. And that's invested in mutual funds and real estate. Now, it's a little more complicated than that, but basically that's how the math will roll out.

The trick here to the thing is put money in stuff that's steady and is predictable, not super conservative, but we're not taking any big risks here. is put money in stuff that's steady and is predictable. Not super conservative, but we're not taking any big risks here. We're not trying to reinvent the crypto world or some bull crap like that. And don't buy a tiki boat for a quarter million dollars and then six months go and be like, well, I'm going to do this and I'm going to buy a snow cone stand and then you're going to small business yourself broke. Yeah, stay on track with that.

And so you're now in the tiki boat business for the next decade buddy and you're going to make a go of it you don't get john's right you don't get to change dr john deloney ramsey personality is my co-host and is with us in new orleans hi ann how are you hello i'm fine Thank you so much for taking my call. Our honor. How can we help? Okay. My question is, my husband and I, my ex-husband and I, were a co-signer on my son's condo back in 2004.

And since that time, my son is unable to pay his mortgage because he's unemployed he lost his job since 2004 no no no we paid purchased the condo in 2004 this past april he lost his job and sent and he's been unable to pay the mortgage how many times did you pay it since 2004? Oh, it's happened before, about 10 years ago. He ran into trouble paying his mortgage, and he was able to do a forbearance, and of course, I assisted financially at that time. And you keep using the word unable. Is he unable, or is he unwilling? Now, why do you not have a job one of my best friends in the world is a paraplegic he is unable no no he's physically capable okay he has not and he has not found a job since april he says he's looking one of the hottest

one of the hottest hiring markets in human history he's chosen not to work i guess so okay let's use i just want to be i just want to call a spade a spade because it helps us make decisions right yeah now yeah understand you're still on the mortgage yes we my ex-husband and i are co-signers so we're responsible for paying the note if he does not. And he's not been paying it. Yes. So I have been paying it since April. My ex-husband made about three of the mortgage payments. So now I want to know what would be the best avenue for me to convince my son to sell it,

let it go for foreclosure, and I told him, or else you get a job and you pick up the payment. But I don't want it to go to foreclosure because I don't want it to affect my credit. My credit rating is 820. Every time it's paid late, it affects your credit. Yes, I understand. So I just don't know if there's any options for me. Is he on the note at all?

Is he on the note? My son is the owner of it. Yeah, he's on the note. She's the co-signer, yeah. You can't force him to sell it. You can just talk him into selling it. Will he sell it if you tell him to? No, he's dragging his feet about that. Yeah, no kidding. to no he's dragging his feet about that he really doesn't well he's dragging his feet because

he knows you're going to pay for 20 years you bailed him out yes i understand that and you've probably given him some stern talking to's over the last 20 years and then yes i have you still paid it so yeah he's dragging his feet because you taught him how to i think you have to sit down and say i'm not paying this rent i dave i'll leave it to you i mean it's gonna just gonna ruin your your yeah you're you're gonna get foreclosed on if he gets foreclosed yeah that's how this works so can you afford to buy him out i could but i i just don't know what my best options are because if i buy if i if he would sell me the condo, then it's mine, right, for me to do what I want with it.

Exactly. And then you just sell it. Then you sell it and resell it and get your money back out, and at least that way you didn't lose anything. Yeah, you could just say, all right, let's give it a praise. I'm going to buy it from you. And then you put it on the market and sell it. That's what's best for you.

That is unbelievably aggravating. And it's not necessarily what's best for him. What's best for him is to experience some pain. But he's not going to in this scenario unless you do that's the problem with co-signing you get to experience the pain with him and he's going to play chicken with you

and you've got a lot more to lose than he does financially right yes i do yeah and what's the what's the condo worth maybe about 40 000000 worth 45. No, I would. Well, he would be, he would be lucky if he could get 60 for it. Oh my God.

What do you owe on it? 30. Okay. And he's got 11 more years. Okay. Go, go, go tell him that,

um, you know, he can no longer screw up your life with his laziness he needs to sell you this condo even if you buy it for whatever have a real estate agent give you an appraisal buy it for that amount put it back on the market and resell it and he needs to move okay yeah that protects you i'm for some reason i thought this was a six hundred thousand dollar condo it's a sixty thousand yeah just you can you're you're you may lose a couple thousand bucks here or there by moving all this gyration around but you need to get out of this trap you put yourself in and

the trap is co-signing you can't get out of the trap you're either going to be an enabler or you're not going to pay and then he's going to get foreclosed on which means you're going to have a foreclosure on you and then they're going to come around looking for all of you wanting some money out of y'all because the condo won't bring enough at repo to even cover the old mortgage on it but it's a piece of crap condo to start with and i'm the one and i'm sorry will you forgive yourself for the divorce finally yeah yes you're still trying to make that right with him stop it's 20 years yes you're gonna lose you're gonna lose some money but you're also gonna lose your relationship

with your son's not worth it yeah i i would i would buy it from him have him move out and turn around put it right back on the market and sell it and if you lose a little bit that way that gets you out of this trap and then you have a standalone relationship with your son that's mother's son that is no longer cosigner because cosigner is putting a strain on everything it's making you do things you're not you don't feel good about and it makes you resent your son every time that phone rings you you feel your chest tighten up because what's he going to ask like it's it's altered your relationship what's he going to ask for now yeah this time because you're aggravated with him like we are for being lazy not working since april my god how

much does it take to pay the condo note on 30 000 bucks i mean you can you can do like do uber one day a month and pull this off this is about the laziest human i've run into uh it's pretty rough i mean really yeah think about it it's just i mean it's not like it's a lot of money hey i don't even know how the boy's eating well yeah i do and yeah and making sure he's got groceries yeah so and you gotta stop it it's time you put him on put him out and let him figure out how to do life and just love him from a distance uh that doesn't include your checkbook for the rest of his life and that's the biggest favor you can do him and yourself and moms and dads out there never ever co-sign it's not an act of love it's not it's it's the ultimate enabling and it locks you into enabling because out of self-preservation you have to cover the stupidity of the other party

what about this dave i'm trying to think of how this situation for her could go wrong is there a moment when and again i know I'm speaking in ratios here, but $50,000 against what Ann has is not a lot of money. Can she buy this thing and hand it over to him and dust her hands off, walk away? Is that too much enabling? I wouldn't do that, no. Yeah. No, I think it's. I think he's not going to move is what I think.

He's not going to sell it. To his mom? Yeah. Well, then I would just take the pain of being foreclosed on you would i just stop okay you're either gonna sell it to me or uh the days of me giving you money are done they're over and that's what i'm getting either you're gonna sell this to me or you're gonna have to figure it out okay i'm done okay because that's this is so bad for him yeah she stunted his emotional growth i mean he's six years freaking old yeah he can't i can't get a job since april to pay condo notes on 30 000 bucks

this is lame yeah this is really a lame especially when we talk to elementary school teachers trapped in a new york apartment during covid who pay off six figures because they drive and scratch and claw and flip and do whatever they got to do. Yeah. Right. Yeah. It's tough, man. Could sell enough clothing out of his closet. Plasma. Simon sale. Plasma your way to that one. It's just, it's just not any money. So, um, yeah, honey, you got it. You got to get him free of you and you got to get free of him in order to have a decent relationship with him and in order for him to ever be a real man. And it's going to cost you that precious 820 that you're really proud of. It's going to cost you that.

Who gives a crap about that? Let that stupid thing go. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. That condo's never been laid. She paid it on time every time. Every time. It's never been laid.

It wouldn't be 820. This is The ramsey show dr john deloney ramsey personality is my co-host today ryan and hayley are with us on the debt free stage yep right here in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions. How are you guys? Wonderful. How are you? Better than we deserve. Where do you live? Lewisburg, Kansas, about 45 minutes south of Kansas City. So yeah, you need to be wearing some Kansas City gear today for sure. Of course. Yeah. Wide right, baby. Heck yeah. Here we go, man. Here we go. Way to go. Good stuff. So how much debt have you guys paid off uh 458 680 wow love it how long did that take uh six years six years and your range of income during that time well when we first started it

was around 100 our peak was 260 and we went down to 112 now okay that was with the job change. Okay. Alright. Very cool. Good, good, good. And $459,000. What kind of debt was this? A little bit of everything, of course. So we have a few cars that we paid off. Of course, our student loans we paid for. Credit

cards and our house. Alright! Looking at weird people. Yes. I love it. Very good. Great job. What's this house worth?

It's right at 350. Good for you. Man, that's awesome. How old are you two? 35. And have a paid for house. And now don't have to work as much. Still took a different job and downsized one job and all that kind of stuff.

Finally got to do a thing he likes to do. He doesn't have to work. Very, very cool. excellent job excellent job well for those of you out there in america that don't know we have a program here at ramsey called smart dollar and it's from the financial wellness side of things what happens is companies uh buy smart dollar and provide the uh the financial curriculum to free to their employees and it's having a massive impact on employees all across america u-haul had a bunch of their folks come on here a few months ago and do debt-free screams we've had you know costco has taken their folks through it it's uh and companies of all sizes not just huge ones like u-haul and costco but i understand that your company bought Smart Dollar, and that's what got you guys started.

Is that right? For the most part. I mean, we were already doing the program really before, but it just added an extra when we started working there. Because I started working there about eight months ago. Oh, okay. So you were well on your way. And this just helped you the the new job that you got that you love yep is the company that has smart dollars yep well

that's good it's great okay so a little bit worried about it there for a minute all right and so your company name that furnishes smart dollars what uh strategy llc strategy llc what do they do uh it's a marketing company web development and then it okay what do you do i'm in the it side okay cool and hayley what did you used to do i'm a nurse you're you are a nurse okay okay good very good so what happened this many months ago they all just decided before strategy llc was doing it you are you guys were already game on and then you you 60 months into this or six years into this you knock it out what got all this started john's right well we you know we got married back in 2017 and then you know we started making some decent money and so when you make decent money you go out and buy new things oh of course bought

three new vehicles within like six months um brand new so you know a lot of depreciation for two drivers that makes sense yeah yeah they have toys too. Motorcycles. Motorcycles, you know, all that. So we bought those. And then, you know, when we're paying $2,000 a month on just payments for three vehicles. Good Lord. Yeah, it kind of is overwhelming. It was a wake-up call.

Yeah, kind of a wake-up call kind of thing. So then our son, he was born 19. He's staying home today. But he was born 19 or he's staying home today but uh uh he was born 19 or 21 sorry 21 and uh we were like we just want to have a good life for him and so we just kind of buckled down before um and just went after it so okay very fine so you ran into us earlier yeah so and then it was just added on to when you went to work for uh strategy llc yep okay it was it was awesome program hayley how did you convince him to sell the motorcycle we didn't oh okay they're all paid for and we have to keep them you just paid them off okay we paid them off

she's smiling we we got to keep them she's riding we did she has her own as well so what are these you married You married well, Ryan. Harleys. They're Harleys. So I've got a Street Glide and then she's got a Sportster. I love it. Very fun. You are so much cooler than I am, Haley. It's embarrassing.

That's a very low bar, but you're way cooler. Man. Yeah. Way to go, you guys. Thank you. And you're how old? 35. And you have a paid-for house, $350,000.

How's that feel? Amazing. It's just different. I mean, it's hard to imagine it, really. We actually paid our last payment, and it was like October 1st, I think we did, and it's still not settling yet. We had made the goal to ourselves that we wanted to pay it off by Christmas, and that would be our Christmas present to ourselves. so we really cranked down and worked extra shifts and um he

was working a couple of extra side jobs to make the extra money and we were able to pay it in October not in December I love it yeah very cool very cool man that's it's a great place you are six years is a long time to crank on this. It is. How did you stay with it? Well, we really were hyper-focused on it the last two years mainly. We really enjoyed your podcasts and the books and everything that we've been reading over the years. But the last two years are really when we've been cranking down and focusing on it.

A lot of our culture will tell us that success is a dollar amount. And we don't often ask the question, what do I actually want to be doing? We just get good at something and then they reward us with money and we do more of it and we do it faster and then all of a sudden we're making great money

and everyone's telling us, look how lucky you should feel and inside you're dying, right? Oh yeah. Talk to the person who feels like they have golden handcuffs, they're stuck because, quote unquote,

they make all this money. You look like a guy who's free. Y'all look like a family who's free and y'all made a choice to basically cut your income in half, right? We did. But it looks like it was the right thing for y'all. Yeah.

You just gotta, I mean, as long as you focus and you work and if you have a spouse, you work with them together. You have to do it both together. It can't be separate. And that's the biggest thing.

We just were, we were helping each other, kind of feeding off each other. And I think that's the best thing. Or if you don't have any spouse or anybody, you got to find somebody to keep you accountable. Yeah, absolutely. Did you get some positive peer pressure with the guys at your company all doing this at the same time? Yeah. I mean, they're actually, it's actually pretty cool because they're all that know we paid the house off and they're all like you know now we want to do this too so yeah you're inspiring them that's kind of yeah it's very good feeling i mean we don't like to you know we're not those type of

people but it's kind of really inspiring and stuff even for us to be here so yeah there's a difference between bragging and setting an example correct and you just set an example well done good for you guys i'm so proud of you thank you thanks who was cheering you along who was telling you to go for it i mean really everybody yeah our whole family both sides um my son yeah your son he's even though he's only two he's he just been our like emotional support. He's been hanging in there with us. Yeah, my dad started me a lot. When we would drive around, he'd be listening to your podcast. And this was a long, long time ago.

And just never really did it. And my dad passed away in 19. And so that was one thing I wanted to do is I wanted to finish this. I wanted to do this and kind of, you know, for him. Yeah, absolutely. Well, he's smiling. Oh, yeah. Smiling from heaven at you right now. What a way to honor your dad, man.

That's cool. Yep, very cool. All right. We've got the Live and Give box for you. That includes the Baby Steps Millionaires book. You're on your way to that for sure. Total Money Makeover book, Financial Peace University. You'll be able to give that away since Strategy LLC is furnishing smart dollar to their whole team.

And tell them thanks for us. We appreciate it. Sure. That's pretty incredible. This is what happens, employers, when you furnish something like financial wellness like this to your smart dollar program, to your employees. They're set up to win like this. This is incredible. All right, Ryan and Haley.

Wow. Kansas City, $459,000 paid off in six years, making $100,000 to $260,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Ready? Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah!

Love it! Woo! Woo-hoo! Love it. Way to go, you guys. Hey, you mentioned something, Dave, that I don't want us to lose. Now that that company put this benefit out,

they're really successful. He's going to be a better employee. Yep. He's going to be a more peaceful employee. Yep. They get to pay him less. He's going to be a better employee. He's going to be a more peaceful employee. They get to pay him less. He's going to knock it out of the park for him. Yep. Smartdollar.com. Check it out, boys. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, number one bestselling author, is my co-host today. Dan is with us in Greenville, South Carolina. Hi, Dan.

How are you? Hey, I'm good. Hope you guys are doing well. We are, sir. What's up? So a question for you about the, I'm on an all-commission position, and in reading your book, in regards to the Hills the hills and valleys account that you have set up um so i've got myself budgeted out to the end of april and then i've got some about 12 000 extra

on top of that do i throw that extra 12 000 straight at debt or should i be adding another line item into my budget no just throw it at if you're in baby are you in baby step two correct yeah just list your debt smallest to largest every excess dollar you can squeeze out of your budget above your basic living expenses um you throw it at that now do you have any money do you have down months below where you never where you don't even make enough commission to cover your basics yes yeah so commercial real estate so for instance um december commission check was 67 000 for december but the first the the probably

six months before that it was zero to a thousand dollars, you know, it really varies. And so I have to budget myself out for months at a time. And my worry is that I throw some extra money when I have it at some debt, and then maybe a deal doesn't go through or a deal gets extended. And I, there I am with a paid off car car but i should have had money in my in my account so that's that's what i'm struggling with there yeah it's you know what we're trying to do is reasonably predict the volatility and how long have you been doing this three years commercial real estate okay i mean you you probably could get some comfort from looking at the patterns if you went back three years. You should see a trend line up in your income overall.

Your overall income should be going up over three years. You should be making more three years in than you did the first year, right? Correct. Okay. And you can tell if there's some kind of a rhythm at all to, you know, about how often you see checks coming and going but um yeah you just you know the valley account if you're gonna have an extreme volatility like you do where you literally have zero or have a thousand dollars or something um then you've got to set aside money for as many months um in that valley account because you're in a Valley to cover your basic needs

until you get another check-in. Yeah, that's exactly what we're talking about. So, you know, there's not a – we have to try to predict the future is what we're doing, right? Which, of course, is an imperfect science. But, you know, if you had six – this is not your emergency fund this is money to eat with okay this is us planning to make no money for four months so we set four months of basics aside in a separate account that's called the valley account you do that when you have a

hill like december with twenty sixty seven thousand dollars in month. So the trick is to try to ascertain with some kind of pattern, if you look on your look back, you know, how often am I going to have to dip into this account to eat and to keep the basic lights on. And everything above that, then, you need to dump. But you should reach a point where you're getting something every month. You should not continue to have zeros the rest of your life. I mean, you ought to be able to get your pipeline full to where something is coming out all the time.

Now, it might take a little while to get there. It might be every other month or something. But otherwise, I'm going to put something else in your mix. You're only elephant hunting, and I'm going to put a few rabbits in your mix as well. I mean, let's try to do some lease deals or something that's a little smaller, a little more quick to close, that kind of thing, than just selling the $35 million apartment complex or whatever. If you're only hunting elephants, you may have this the rest of your life uh but but you really do have to get some something built up to where you're not sitting

around hungry waiting on one of these checks you're right so i but the magic is to predict the future that that's tells you how much you got to set aside for how many down months you're going to have and that's very difficult to do in your world, but that is the concept. You nailed it when you called in. Thanks for joining us. Nothing quite like, even in something as sophisticated as commercial real estate, nothing smells bad like a salesman that's broke.

Yeah, and the analogy you gave is good, and I think I could put that on everything, marriages, on work relationships, on jobs. So often we sit around waiting for the perfect situation. It's got to be a home run or I'm not swinging the bat, and you end up striking out a whole bunch, right, or you get real hungry. And then it makes you not an effective salesman. Yep.

But that elephant hunting man finding another way to get some money, I was going to ask him, like, for those four months, are you making calls all day? Are you out surveying properties all day and you just can't get anything? Because that may not be your calling, man. In four months, you got nothing. Man, that's tough. That's tough.

Yeah, and one $ million dollar deal does not take four months of 40 every day every day 40 hour work weeks that's right that's not how it works right it's all you're you know when you're on you're going to be on but you're not there 40 hours they got to talk to their team and their banker and their people and but not for 40 hours a week for four months you need to have other stuff in your pipeline and that's the nature of the real estate business i've been in it my whole life in one way or another. All right, Deborah is with us in Milwaukee. Hi, Deborah. How are you? Hi there. Thank you for having me. Sure. How can we help? Okay. My daughter's actually introduced me to your name in December.

Okay. And I've been listening to you quite a bit. So real quick, I'm retired. I've been retired for a while, and I'm $25,000 in credit card debt. Ruh-roh. Yep, ruh-roh was right. I guess as I've listened to you guys at different times, and I see that I've turned that blind eye to what was happening,

and so when I just look at everything, I don't know how to start everything. So I've signed up for everything that you have, and I got the book the other day. So how old are you? I am 68. 68. And how much in credit card debt have you run up? $25,000. $25,000.

Do you have any money? No. None. I mean, well, you know, I only have about $20,000 in my 401k because I've messed, well, about $30,000 because I messed that up too. What are you living on? Do you have a retirement income from your old job? No, that's done. And I get $38,000, $79,000.

That's my income every month. Is that Social Security? Yeah, that's our Social Security. It's Social Security. I get something from a job that I worked for for about 10 years back in the 80s. How's your health? My health is okay. Okay.

My health is okay, and I have a condo that I own outright. Good. That you live in? No, I do not. I live in a home with own outright. Good. That you live in? No, I do not. I live in a home with my husband. Oh. What does your husband make, pray tell? He makes over $100,000.

And I'm going to tell you, I listened to your... Debra! He and I have always been separate. Yeah, not anymore. Now he's married to a woman that's got $28,000 in debt, and he's 68. I thought you were a single 68-year-old lady living on Social Security, and I was about to put you to work until I discovered you have a husband that has $100,000 income.

And now I'm about to take some of his money to pay off his wife's debt, which is what he needs to do. Tell Bubba to step up and take care of this and by the way you need to cut up your credit card sister chop them all up and never do that again uh but you guys are uh you're together if he gets sick you're gonna take care of him and right now you're sick and he's gonna take care of you and y'all been playing house for a long long time and now y'all need to have a conversation about what the back 20 years is going to look like. And that's going to be all working together financially, health-wise, marriage-wise, house-wise. Y'all got too much money. You got an extra paid for a house over

here. You got too much stuff going around to be this broke. And they're scared about it. Yeah. Unable to breathe because of social security. The magic, listen, the plans are important. The books are great. Sometimes the magic is in that hard work or in that really hard conversation. That's where you are. Yeah. You guys need to sit down and talk about this, and he needs to help you pay it off. Silly to sell a condo to pay off this when he makes that kind of money.

This is The Ramsey Show.