The Ramsey Show - App - When to Get Out of A Car Lease or Pay It Off (Hour 1)

Episode Date: September 20, 2018

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Music Music Music Music Music Music Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice.

I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. This is your show. Thank you for joining us, open phones this hour hour as we talk about your life and your money. It's a free call at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Sarah joins us to start off this hour in Cleveland, Ohio. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Sarah. Hello. Hi, what's up? So we have two leased cars and we pay way too much

money, like $775 a month for the two of them. My original thought, of course, was to pay them off or sell them. But since we have like 20 months left on them, I'm trying to decide, like, should we take our extra cash and pay the cars off early and then get rid of them, or do we take that extra cash and we save it for when the leases are up so that we can actually purchase cars? Well, the idea would be, so you're not going to keep these at the end of the lease is what you're saying. You're not going to have the money to pay them off at any point in the process.

No. Okay. No. So what you do is you find out what the buyout number is at the end of the lease. Yes, so I did that. How about, did you find out the buyout now? Yes, so we're upside down on both of these cars. About $6,000. Sure, that's not the point, okay?

So the point is that you're going to ride it. If you sell the car today, did you find out what it's worth today and what it would take to pay it off today? Correct. Okay, and that difference is $6,000? Correct. Okay. $20,000, and is it $700 a month each?

No, altogether, $775. Okay, what is one of them? One is $400,. Okay. $775. Okay. What is one of them? One is $400 and one is $375. Okay. So $400, you know, basically we're comparing if you keep it for 20 months, what it costs you, and then you turn it in, right? Mm-hmm. Or if you sell it today. We know what it costs you if you sell it today.

It costs you $6,000, right? Right. Okay. If you keep it 20 months, 400 times 20 would be $8,000. Right. And so, but you get the use of the car for $2,000 for 20 months. So it's kind of on the bubble. I'd probably sell it.

Okay. Now, the other one is how much? It's $375 and 20 months left on it. Okay. Now, the other one is how much? It's $375? Mm-hmm. And 20 months left on that? Yes. And is it $6,000 in the hole, too? It's about $5,000.

Okay. So it's on the bubble, too. Mm-hmm. Same equation. $375 times 20 months is going to be more than $5,000, but not a lot more. It's probably going to be $7,000 or whatever. I haven't done it yet in my head or put it in the calculator, but you see what I'm doing. So I think the advantage to you is to be free of this mess, and that might be worth a little bit of money.

For sure, you're saving money. The only question is, by selling the mail, the question is, are you saving enough to justify the loss of the car for 20 months and uh that's the part that's on the bubble but you got such a mess you probably just need to dump both of them i agree okay so get rid of them it's that simple get them sold borrow the six thousand to five thousand that's eleven thousand and you got to get probably borrow a little bit more to get a little bit of um get you a couple of beaters to drive around while you clean this mess up. And the good news is that once you're done, you're done. It's over. You don't have to do this like 20 times.

But if you'll drive like no one else later, you can drive like no one else. We don't tell people to drive junk cars their entire life. We tell them to drive junk cars when they're broke. And then when you're not broke anymore, get you a better car. And then when you're a millionaire, if you want to get a new car get a new car but pay cash for it all along don't be driving stuff you can't afford and by the way the definition of driving something you can't afford partly is you didn't pay for it your payments on it by definition you couldn't afford it i got the money in the bank to pay it off then pay it off but 99 of the people say they have a payment means they bought a car that they couldn't pay off doug is with us and i couldn't pay for couldn't

afford doug is in tulsa oklahoma hi doug how are you hello dave i'm finishing financial peace university next week and i'm very grateful for your work uh thank you. I'm calling about a 10-year-old debt. This is an auto repossession from 2008. This is our last commercial debt. I owe about $3,000 on it. I don't contest its validity. However, it's 10 years old. I've been received some counsel by some friends who, I don't know if they know what they're talking about or not, but say I'm not legally or morally responsible to pay that debt to a debt agency that bought the debt.

And no one I'd rather talk to than you. Okay. Well, there may be a statute of limitations that is run in your state to where you're not technically legal, but I've got to tell you, it's going to be a thorn in your side, and they're going to be a problem in your life until you clean this up morally they lost money on a car you promised to pay for that you didn't pay for so i disagree morally you do owe some money now the question is what and what is reasonable and what is reasonable in your situation okay um number one have you talked to them? Yes.

Okay. I've already paid $1,000. The original was $4,000. And you've already given them $1,000. You've already given them $1,000. That's correct. When? Within the past 45 days.

Okay. All right. So the account's active again now. And are you able to just write a check and pay the three? No. Okay. All right. Well, I mean, it is very reasonable to make them an offer and say, I don't have three.

I have one. And if you'll settle this three for another one, we got a deal. If you don't, then I'm not giving you any money right now until I have some more money. Okay? And so to settle it for less than the full amount, given that you don't have any money, if they chose to accept that, there's nothing wrong with that. Now, if you call me up and you say,

I got $100,000 in the bank and I owe $4,000 on this, I'd say, write a check, you owe the money. But when you don't have the money, there's nothing wrong with offering them a settlement for money you do have. Then if they take that, then that was their choice. So you've not ripped somebody off. They made a decision. You know, I have a company that owes me $40,000 that has not paid me for 15 years. I will never see that $40,000.

If they call me up out of the blue and offer me $4,000 for that $40,000, I would take it in a heartbeat because I just figure that's a bird in the hand and I am never even going to see this bush. I mean, seriously. These people are never going to pay me. It's gone. I'm not bitter about it or anything. I just think about it every morning.

I'm kidding, but you see what i'm saying so you know that that so that that would be on my part though if i said no you still owe the money you know because you owe me you know then you still owe the money morally you follow me so if you want to make them an offer and they don't take it that's fine i don't have three thousand dollars right now and i'm not sending you payments i'm gonna save up money and make you an offer and if you don't take it, that's fine. I don't have $3,000 right now, and I'm not sending you payments. I'm going to save up money and make you an offer. And if you don't take that, I'm going to make you another offer. And if you don't take that, someday, maybe I can pay you.

But if you want the money right now, we can wrap up the account for $1,000. Maybe scrape together $1,000 and settle that. Get it in writing. Be sure you get whatever you do with this company on this hold of debt in writing so that when it's settled or when it's paid, it's gone forever. You don't want them coming back even if you pay the whole $4,000 and say later, oh, we forgot about the fees. There's another $7,000 in fees we forgot to tell you.

No, you need in writing that this wraps up the account, concludes our business. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Can you believe this real estate market? Home shopping has become so competitive. There's a ton of new buyers in the market, and bidding wars are the new normal. Folks are under a lot of pressure to offer more money to get into that house. Don't do that. Get certified instead. The Churchill Mortgage Certified Home Buyer Program is a game changer. You can quickly position yourself as a more reliable buyer, and you get an upper hand

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NMLSconsumeraccess.org. Equal housing lender. 761 Old Hickory Boulevard, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027. Jacob and Emily are with us from Hannibal, Missouri. Hi, Jacob and Emily. How are you guys? We're doing great, Dave. How about yourself? Better than I deserve. I see you're debt-free. How much have you guys paid off? We have paid off $43,000. Wow. How long did this take?

It took us nine months. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? We started around a couple thousand, maybe five, and now we're up to about 54. A month? A year. $54,000 a year? Yes. Okay, cool. All right, good for you guys. What do you do for a living? Well, my husband is a pastor, and I am a stay-at-home mom. Love it. What kind of debt was this $43,000? It was all student loans. Time to kick all... All Jacob's student loans.

Time to kick out Sally Mae. It's all Jacob's fault. Okay. I love it. Yes, yes. He, yep, they were all his. That's fun. I love it.

So how long have you guys been married? We have been married four years now. So what happened nine months ago that made you decide to knock these loans out this fast? Well, nine months ago was when we started Baby Step 2, but it was started four years ago when we got married. At the time, Jacob was still in seminary, and so we had to put any accomplishment on debt payoff on hold while we finished that so nine months ago is when we got to our income actually went up and we could actually start

baby step two ah okay very cool good for you guys well done so what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt? You pay off $43,000 in nine months. How'd you do that? I would say that it's priorities and sacrifice. You can do whatever you prioritize and, you know, then make the sacrifices to make that happen. And that's how we did it. I mean, it was important to us to get it done, and we did. Cool. Jacob, what kind of a pastor's position you got?

You're a senior pastor, youth pastor, what? I'm a sole pastor at a small congregation north of Hannibal. Okay. All right. Very cool. Did you say sole pastor? Yes, sole, like as in only, the only pastor. Oh, O-L-E.

Yes. Okay. Okay, I thought, well, I need to know about this new position. Okay. All right, good for you. That's fun. Which denomination? Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod.

Wonderful, wonderful. Okay, good for you guys. Thank you very much. We're very excited. So, young pastor, out of seminary, gets all the student loan debt paid off. How does that change how you feel in the pulpit? It's actually, it's amazing because it's not something that I have to worry about. There's a big, you know, when you talk about owning your house, you feel differently towards what you have.

And there's no longer any fear of, is this going to work out, and the like. You don't have to have those hard questions or hard conversations as much, because, you know, money isn't a problem anymore. Yeah, it takes a strain off, it sure does. It does change the way you think about everything and pretty important stuff. Very well done, gang. Proud of you guys. Did you have cheerleaders helping you, cheering you on? We did.

Our parents were supportive, both sides. But we didn't publicize a lot because of my career choice, being a pastor and the like. So no one really expected us to be doing this. And having moved around three or four times, no one knew we were crazy enough to actually follow the plan. I love it. So we were the plan. I love it. So we were laying low. I got you. Okay.

Well, very well done, you guys. We got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Retire Inspired, number one bestseller. That is the next chapter in your story to continue your ministry, and you'll be able to be incredibly generous as you build wealth. So very, very well done. One more thing to say here. Okay.

Dave, I just wanted to thank you for giving us a forum to celebrate. When you're around people who are still struggling with their finances, sometimes it's hard to know how to celebrate. Like, they're struggling. You don't want to rub it in that you've succeeded. So I really appreciate the opportunity to be able to celebrate oh that's very nice good insight good insight well done jacob and emily hannibal missouri 43 000 paid off in nine months making 54 000 a year count it down let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one, we're debt-free!

This is how it's done. This is how it's done. You know, this is one of the few places, I can't even think of another one right now where adults, sophisticated, highly educated in some cases, adults are loud and screaming and celebrating their own accomplishments. Now, there's a lot of people doing that at the football game. I got that, okay? But that's someone else's accomplishment that you're yelling loud about. But what a great idea that you get what Emily brought up. I mean, a place to celebrate winning.

Because you don't want to brag when other folks that are hurting are sitting around. That's how it feels, doesn't it? But you need a place to do that. And you can brag here. I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you. I believe in you. You can do this.

I know it can be done. I've seen people just like you do this. So this is your safe place to celebrate. You know, you need to get a group of friends that it's okay to have an occasional forum where you just sit. Like, I got a group of guys that I hang with, and I just ask them all night. I said, all right, you guys don't get to brag very often. I want to hear something really great that each one of you is doing.

And we went around the room for about an hour and listened to each other. It was pretty amazing some of the stuff some of those guys were doing. I had no idea. It was like the same situation. You can't just go up to your friend. It's like name-dropping or something, you know. You can't do that. Did you hear about my new best-selling book you know you just can't do that with your friends it's just kind of like tacky you know but but when you're sitting with a couple of

other authors and one of these guys has sold 10 million books and it was just like and he had no place he could yell touchdown you know touchdown baby you sell 10 million books? That's a touchdown! And that's like four bucks a book royalty. Hello. Do that math. He just made $40 million. Touchdown! You know, I want to celebrate for him.

I wasn't jealous of him. I am a little. But I want to celebrate for him. Dadgum fiction authors. They sell a lot more than we sell. Oh, man. How fun, though. Yeah, you got to have that. They sell a lot more than we sell. Oh, man. How fun, though. Yeah, you got to have that.

That's a good point, Emily. Thank you for that insight. Robert's with us in Tampa. Hey, Robert, what's up, man? Hi, Dave. What's happening? I am going to make it, bro. I got a couple of questions I'd like to ask you to get some help on.

I've been listening to your program for about three years. It's my first time being able to get through, but I'm happy to do that. Okay. How can I help? So, well, I've got about $40,000 worth of debt, and I got an IRA, and I'm wondering if I should cash the IRA to pay the $40,000 debt. How much is in the IRA? $200,000. How old are you?

Okay. Do you have any other money other than the IRA? So she's got another $150,000 or you've got another $350,000? Okay. Well done. Good job, Robert. 150 or you got another 350? I'm sorry. Both of us together is 350. Well done. Good job, Robert. We took the weight off. You retired and you're not broke. That's a big deal. Touchdown, man.

I'm a 30-year retired military person. We just tripped away a piece at a time. Thank you for your service. Here's what you do. You take the money out of that $200,000 IRA and you pay off that debt today. And whatever that debt is, you stop doing that. No more borrowing. You got plenty of money. Get yourself on a budget. Get those dollars invested where they're creating an income for you

and you can enjoy your retirement. You have earned it, sir. You've done a great job. Well done. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know that if you combine the data breaches that have occurred in the past 12 months, almost every American has had their personal info compromised or hacked. Over 50% of our listeners and viewers tell us that they or someone in their family has been a victim. And 70% of those folks have had it happen more than once. See, this is unbelievable. Once thieves get your info, the risk never goes away, and they can use it whenever and however they choose.

It truly has become an issue of not if, but when. That's why the only plan I've ever recommended is through Zander Insurance. I actually sat down with them, and we put together a plan that I felt provided the best protection, but didn't waste dollars on things you could easily do yourself or were just gimmicks. The key is getting protected before you're a victim, and it's too late. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. We are all at risk, and it doesn't make sense to wait. Numbers don't lie. That's zander.com or 800-356-4282. Aaron and Crystal are with us in Washington, D.C.

Hey, guys, how are you? Good, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. I see you're debt-free. How much have you paid off? Dave, we paid off $193,981.48. Woo! How long did this take?

Two years. Love it. And your range of income during that time? We started at about $155,000 a year take home and finished at about $185,000. Cool. What do you all do for a living? I'm a photographer. And I'm an IT project manager excellent what kind of debt was the 194

thousand dollars what kind of debt wasn't it there was uh some cars on there uh i had uh 80 000 in student loans and i had uh a dog and a burrito and a couch all on credit you financed a dog yeah how much how much did you pay for your dog? $300, Dave. Okay. I didn't have $300 that I needed that dog. I hear you. Well, I mean, it's probably worth $300, but not on a credit card.

So what kind of dog is this? It's a pit bull mix. Oh, cool. You still got him? Yes, we do. Good, good. He's a paid for now. He's a paid for pit bull.

I love it. That's good. That's the best kindfor now. He's a paid-for pit bull. I love it. That's good. That's the best kind to have. Cool. So how long have you two been married? Two years. Okay. So that's what started all of this.

You get married and say, we've got to do this thing now. We've got to get out of debt. Tell me about the adventure. Tell me about the journey. Well, it started actually a little before we got married. I took FPU at my church, and then when we started dating, I actually dragged Aaron to the next class. So we took it together while we were dating, and then we got engaged, and then it was on separately, of course.

And our goal was to be able to pay cash for our wedding. So half of my guns got sold. My Maserati got sold. Oh! Maserati and guns both. Man, you cut to the bone here. Ouch. Yeah.

She's worth it. Man, I'm telling you. Wow. Look at this. So how much of the 194 was from selling stuff actually that stuff just went to pay for our wedding oh okay that'll do oh my gosh that's so fun the 194 started on our uh the day after our wedding, sitting in a little cottage that we rented, signing our wedding gifts over to the bank. How old are you two? I'm 34.

And I'm 33. Okay. All right. Very good. Very good. Wow. You're impressive. Very well done.

So it was game on, and the first two years of your marriage, you did this. So what's the secret to getting out of debt? You pay off $194,000 in two years. Big things are a couple of T's. There's tithing and there's teamwork. But the biggest one is living below your means. Like we make in the six figures, it sounds like a lot of money, but if you notch down your expectations about three

notches from how you think you should be living, that's probably a little bit more accurate. And then if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I have an iPhone 6, Dave. Oh oh there you go okay so no upgrades you live beans and rice rice and beans live way less than you make let's get this thing attacked right definitely good for you guys did you have cheerleaders we had the tractors we had the family members that thought we should be building a rental empire on debt like they were doing or that we were foolish to not be traveling

or enjoying our first couple years of marriage together you know we're free now and i think we enjoyed it just fine yeah you didn't die from it anyway. No, not at all. And you're 34 years old. You've got the rest of your life to live with no debt. You had $194,000 weight around your necks when you walked down that aisle. Wow. That's impressive, y'all. It really is.

So you didn't have anybody hardly cheering you along, huh? No. Well, we actually started leading FPU while we were going along this journey. And so we did have some cheerleaders in our classes. Sure, sure. So that was helpful. Yeah, and that's also the ultimate in accountability, to coordinate a class. Going through, it's one thing. Coordinating a class while you're doing it, that's like, I can't be fake. I actually have to do this stuff because I'm up front.

Yeah. Yeah, it's the hypocrite test, right? Yeah. Nothing to make you learn something like teaching it, you know? Wade, well done, you guys. Well done. Well, we got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Retire Inspired. You got cheerleaders here at Ramsey.

We're proud of you. I'll just tell you that. You're dadgum heroes, man. this is so fun 34 years old making 185 not a payment in the world why because they got a brain and they decided they were going to make money behave instead of wondering where it went way to go you two way to go all right aaron and crystalline in washington dc y'all can go Congress, teach them something if you want. $194,000 paid off in two years. $155,000 to $185,000 minus a Maserati, minus the guns, plus a pit bull.

Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Three, two, one. We got this! I love it. I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it. That is so fun. You know you're in full-on consumption mode when you finance a dog.

I mean, really. That's full-on consumption mode. I love it. Those guys are great. Such smart people. Such wise young couple. Well done. Mark is with us in Cleveland, Ohio. Hey, Mark, what's up? Wife and I are looking at trying to make a hard

decision. Okay. Short and sweet. We've got less than two and a half years to pay off our current house people that we had, thanks to your wisdom. You're breaking up a little bit. You have two and a half years to pay off what? The only debt we have left, our house. Cool. And we got there, thanks to your wisdom, a little bit of hard work, and trying to stick to our guns with limited cheerleaders. But the confusion has approached. We had stumbled across, prospectively, our dream house, project house, trying to figure out, just because we can, should we?

I'm sorry, would you move into the house? No, no, no, we're still living in our current house. I know, would you? If you bought the Project Dream house, would you move into it? Within a few weeks, yeah, there's a couple things that have to get done before we move in. But you'd sell your house? Yeah, yeah, yeah, we would buy a house. So the Project House price is what? $180,000, $200,000. house yeah yeah yeah we would uh we would buy so the so the project the project house is the

project house price is what uh 180 200 000 and what's your house worth um 125 135 okay and what's your household income uh about 90 95 okay what's the balance on your home now about 33 okay so you're probably going to go from 33 up to000 up to about $80,000, $90,000 in mortgage, right? Depending upon how we do this, yes. Yeah, and then you're going to reduce that really, really quickly. And how old are you two? I'm 43. She'll be 43 in a couple months. One more time, what was the income?

About $90,000, $95,000. Okay. Yeah, I mean, it's within the guidelines we teach. It's hard to go further in debt while you're trying to get out emotionally, and I don't want you doing that very often. But if you did it one time, and then you said, okay, game on, we're going to lean into this. This $90,000, new $90,000 or $100,000 mortgage is going to go away super quick. That's not the end of the world.

That's not over in the stupid column. It's just you slowed down your overall plan to get out of debt. But you can do it. You can pull that off, I think. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Lynn is with us in Gary, Indiana. Hi, Lynn. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi.

It's so nice to be able to talk to you. You too. Here's my question. I'm about $1,000 away from being debt-free, and I'm so excited and thankful to God for that. But I have some stock, and I'm wondering, well, I'm with Home Depot, my employer, and I'm wondering what factors you take into consideration when you decide when it's time to sell. Okay. Some of it I paid $89 for, and it's now at $211 or thereabouts. Mm-hmm. And I'm happy with that.

Sure. I don't want to be greedy. And what is the total value of this stock, of all of it added up? I want to say it's about $7,000. I sold some of it a while ago to pay off my student loan and uh and so i only have about seven thousand dollars now good do you have an emergency you don't have your emergency fund yet because you're on baby step two right um i'm on what am i on baby well you're paying off debt do you have do you also have a rainy day fund? I have an emergency fund, and it's at about $1,000, well, about $700 now.

Okay, that's what we call baby step one is the $1,000. And then you pay off all your debt except your home, and then you build a fully funded emergency fund, which is three to six months of expenses. And that's in a simple savings account or money market account before you start investing of any kind, okay? Yeah. And that's the proper order.

I've kind of gone back and forth on. I know. That's the proper order, though, that we're teaching and that, you know, a good financial planner would teach something very similar to that. You need to have yourself debt-free and have your emergency fund before you start your investing because otherwise your investing can get torn up when you, you know, a car transmission goes out. You got to fix that. All of a sudden you're cashing out the stock and you didn't really want to cash it out,

but you had no savings to cover that. So that's why you need the rainy day fund. So what is your household income? About $40,000, $45,000 per day, two jobs. Good. Good for you. You're a hard worker. Okay.

Well, what I would say is this. There's nothing wrong with Home Depot. It's a hard worker. Okay. Well, what I would say is this. There's nothing wrong with Home Depot. It's a wonderful, wonderful company. And it sounds like they've been good to you. So that's good news. And I don't have any issue with any of that. I don't buy single stock. And my overall recommendation for people is to not own single stock if it's more than half your –

I mean, if it's more than half your i mean if it's more than 10 of your total nest egg it sounds like well you have a nest egg in addition to this right oh yeah i've got a about 94 000 in a my 401k and uh okay with the exception of you've still got a thousand dollars in debt and the exception of you don't have an emergency fund, if you had those two things in place and you wanted to hold this stock and you just like it because it's less than 10% of your nest egg, then that would be fine. But you've got these other two things that take precedence over owning this stock. And so for that reason, I would sell the stock and be debt-free and start building my, finish

up my fully funded emergency fund. And then you can buy some more stock as you go along if you really want to do that. You obviously got an employee stock option plan of some kind that you're taking advantage of or they're awarding you shares as bonuses or recognition or whatever. They're a good company that way. They've got a good culture. So you'll replenish that over time. But I want you to have an emergency fund and I want you to be debt emergency fund, and I want you to be debt-free

more than I want you to own stock of any kind. And so, again, we're not making a judgment on your stock or when to sell your stock or that particular company. All I'm saying is I wouldn't own stock while I don't have an emergency fund, and I've still got debt. So I would use it to clear those two things up and then rebuild your Home Depot stock if you want to later. Good question. Thank you for joining us. Our question of the day comes from blinds.com. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. That means if you mess up, I have messed up. You

ever mess up? I mess up all the time. I even mess up right here on the radio in front of 15 million people. Go figure that. And then people tell me about it on Twitter. If you mess up and you mismeasure, you get the wrong color, blind won't fit the window because you goofed, they will remake your blinds for free. So their satisfaction guarantee even covers your screw-ups. That's pretty cool. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos every month,

you save even more. It's risk-free, baby. Yeah, use the promo code RAMSEY when you're at blinds.com. Lindsey's in Arkansas. My husband and I have been debt-free for baby. Yeah, use the promo code RAMSY when you're at blinds.com. Lindsey's in Arkansas. My husband and I have been debt-free for 10 years thanks to your plan. We recently ran our credit scores, and they're both in the mid-600s. If we've had no debt to include mortgage, how can we have a credit score? Thanks.

You have an open account somewhere. If you have zero debt, let's say you had a credit card, and you don't have any balance on it, you haven't had a balance on it in 10 years, but the account is open, well, it'll run a score. You have to have closed accounts with zero balances as the only thing showing. Once you have that, your FICO will disappear in six to nine months. That's been our experience. Because the only thing they're picking up,

the only scoring method they use has to do some kind of interface with debt. So you need to find out what accounts are open or that are carrying a balance that you didn't realize. Something you're doing is triggering that. So that's what it comes down to. Jose is with us. Jose's in San Bernardino.

Hi, Jose. How are you? Hey, Dave. What's up? Better make it, brother. How can I help? So right now it's actually the birthday of school, and I'm going to be a third-year at California State University, San Bernardino.

And I got a full ride here, so I'm just a little bit worried because I'm having a little bit of financial issues. But overall, right now, I'm just living off my scholarship money, but I'm trying to help my family out. I'm sorry. You're a broke college student barely getting into school. How does you helping your family come into this conversation? It's because, like, to be honest, they're the whole reason why I actually, like, made this far. That's great.

That's wonderful. Someday when you're rich, you can help them. You're broke. Yeah, I'm not weird. No, you're rich, you can help them. You're broke. Yeah, I'm not weird. No, you're broke. When you're broke, you can't help other people, brother. You've got to take care of you first. Then you get yourself in a position to help other people.

Yes, sir. Does that make sense? Yes, sir. Okay. So what are we talking about here? Where are you going to get the money to help other people because you don't have any money? So I was thinking of working a full-time job at Amazon and not taking out loans because, like I said before, I'm not trying to be normal. I'm trying to be weird.

So I want to look myself in the mirror and say, hey, good job. You're not that person that took out a loan and you're not living off a debt. I thought you had a scholarship. I'm sorry? I thought you had a free ride. I got a full ride, but I feel like it isn't enough to help my family out. I want to be able to help me, but at the same time, I want to be able to help my family. Okay.

If you have the ability to work and earn enough to go through school and take on no debt and still have money left to give your family and you want to do that, that's fine. I think that's warped. How old are you? How old are you? About to be 20 in a month. Okay, so who is it you're trying to help? So basically my mom because she's diabetic,

and ever since I moved out closer to school, like I've just been a little bit more concerned about her health. She lives by herself? She lives with my brother that's already going to college and my sister that's going to graduate actually in two years from now. Your dad's not in the picture? I mean, if I ever find him, I'll ask him. Yeah, I hear you.

Well, he's not there from my point. So it is you guys. And your mom working? No. We are actually just living off with food stamps. Well, they're living off of food stamps and just whatever she can get by with, whether it's selling refreshments in the neighborhood or anything like that. I think you're right.

I retract my statement. I think you're going to be working and helping mom. Yeah, like that's the other thing so me being able to work i need to get around so i mean this whole life i've just been using transportation public transportation and i feel like it's just making it more difficult for me to get by just trying to focus on school and getting to work. And bottom line, I'm just thinking about what they're not doing. What are you going to be making if you work at Amazon full-time? Amazon, I'm going to be working for $11.50 an hour, so I'm going to be working full-time until $40.

So get you a little $1,000, $2,000 car to get around there, and you'll have the car to get around there. And you'll have the money to get through your expenses while you get through school, and you'll still be able to help your mom in this situation a little. Because it does sound like she's going to need your help, sir. You're a good man. You call me if I can help you more. Don't borrow your way through this, Jose.

Don't borrow your way through it. Hey, it's Kelly, Dave's phone screener. We finished 2017 with a bang as the fourth most downloaded podcast of the year. Thanks to all of you for listening and helping us spread the word.