The Ramsey Show - App - When Your Small Business Isn't Making Enough Money (Hour 3)

Episode Date: February 25, 2019

The show about you

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. This is your show. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Jonathan starts off this hour in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Hi, Jonathan.

How are you? I'm doing good, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, my question is on whether or not to sell my house. Right now I'm on a pause, baby step two. I'm in school part-time, and I'm a single dad,

and I work part-time as much as I can. And I'm just finding that I'm having trouble keeping up. My house is paid off. I don't have a house payment. But just with the regular expenses that come with a house, I'm just not able to keep up. Uh, I'm trying to figure out if I should sell or not and just wait until I get out of school. I am planning on selling it within the next 18 months because, um, I'm planning on getting married or that's what it looks like in the

next 18 months or so. Cool. When do you uh graduate from school i will graduate not this fall but the fall after that okay and so a little over so about 18 months for that as well uh yeah pretty close i'll uh i'm i'm thinking we'll get married next summer and then that fall i will be graduating about december i guess gotcha okay and what's your degree in uh history education my long-term goal is to be a professor to get my doctorate in history okay and how are you going to pay for all of that uh well uh i'll have my four-year degree which i can teach teach in Arkansas. They have programs where you can teach in a high school, and the high school will pay for your master's degree because they get more funding if you're more qualified.

Got it. And I think that has a couple years you have to work for them. And then the Ph.D. would just be out of pocket. Yeah, so you'll be a history teacher. What does your potential fiancé do? She's in school right now getting a biology degree, but she's just now finishing up her second year. She's thinking about switching majors because if she's going to switch,

she has to switch now. But she's wanting to potentially be a biologist, and she might switch to writing. So she's conflicted on that right now. Okay. Yeah, let's think about a career choice of what we're going to do for a living after studying for four years okay that's realistic and that that makes sense so um what's the house worth uh i talked to an el, and he believed that after what I will get is about $30,000.

Okay. And that will get you out of school? Yes, sir. Right now I'm able to keep up with just the bills. I mean, daycare is eating me alive. It's $120 a week, and my bills for a week are about $300, so that's over a third. But I'm able to keep up with just the week-to-week regular expenses, but, like, the heating and air went out, and I need a whole new unit,

which is $3,000, and I just have no way to – there's no way, you know. There's no way at this point to do that. Okay. And it's february yeah yeah well i have i have i have uh uh space heaters now and i bought some nice space heaters but that's getting us through for now yeah okay sell it i'm with you okay i'm with you this house this house is no longer a blessing it is not congruent with your future goals and so what we want not congruent with your future goals. And so what we want to do is align your future goals.

We want to get you married, get you to being a history teacher and paying your bills and eating, taking care of your kid and getting her graduated and into a career that's lucrative and so on. So, yeah, that's exactly what I would do. I would sell it. You're not going to live there. It's not your long-term plan. It helps you get to your long-term plans. There's no reason to keep it. Yes, sir.

Okay. Now, when you rent, rent the cheapest thing you can rent. Yes, sir. I mean, I kind of have a problem being a 25-year-old able-bodied person doing this, but would low-income housing be something to look at or would they i mean morally would that be okay i don't i don't know i just morally it would be okay but you don't need to i mean you got 30 000 bucks in your hand you only got to make it 18 months till you graduate get your teaching certificate and go to work and so you know um and when you don't have this house to deal with all the time,

you may be able to work more even. Sure, sure. You know, so, you know, you don't, you've got, you can rent something inexpensive in Fort Smith, Arkansas for you and your son. You don't have to rent something super fancy. It is, it's an adventure for 18 months because it's probably not even where you're going to live. You're probably going to move again after you're married. Yes, sir.

Yes, sir. That's what we plan on doing. So is she working now? Yes, sir. She works at her family owns a business here in town she works part-time at. Okay. Very good. What kind of business?

They run a skating rink, a roller skating rink. Okay. Very good. What kind of business? They run a skating rink, a roller skating rink. Okay, cool. I imagine you can pick up some hours over there, too, because you need all the income you can get right now. And your kid can hang out at the roller skating rink. That wouldn't be bad at all. And you get to see your fiancé. Anything you can do like that, man, anything we can do to add to this equation. This is a short period of your life. anything we can do to add to this equation, this is a short period of your life.

It's not going to be like this for long. And you'll be, you know, two years from now, three years from now, things are going to be completely different. So everybody's going to be fine. But, yes, I would use the proceeds from the house to set you up to win over the next two to three years. Kristen is with us in Dallas. Hi, Kristen. How are you?

Good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? I have a question about Roth. My husband and I both have a Roth 401k option at work. Good. My question is, we can fund those at $5,500 apiece per year, right?

No, you can fund a Roth 401k at work up to $18,000 a year. Okay. Payroll deduct. Okay. Can you have that and an individual Roth at the same time? Yes. Can you fund them both in the same year? Yes.

Okay. What's the limit on the individual Roth? $5,500 unless you're over $50,000 and then $6,500. Okay, so just so I understand, we could both fund an individual Roth IRA at $5,500 apiece and up to $18,000 apiece in our Roth 401k. Yep. If you can get to $18,000 with your income and the withholding amounts, the total max, have you got a big income?

Yes. Yeah. Then you can get to 18. Okay. Yeah. I mean, if you're making over 100 and you're putting in 20%, that's going to get you to 18, right? Uh-huh.

And so that's going to max you out. And they can match on top of that. Right. Okay. And you can make that top of that. Right. Okay. And you can make that a Roth if they have a Roth 401k available. The only thing that's not matching, the only thing that's not Roth in the whole equation is the matching. And so if your 401k at work is Roth and they match, great. The matching portion will not be inside the Roth. It will not grow tax-free because that money has not been taxed yet.

And your Roth IRA as well. All of this in good growth stock mutual funds. I recommend four types. Spreading evenly is what I personally do. Growth, growth and income, aggressive growth, and international. We'll be right back. Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ to share their major health care costs.

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This is the Dave Ramsey Show, a talk radio show that's actually about you. Wow. Mike is with us. Mike's in Columbus, Ohio. Hey, Mike, how are you? Hey, Dave, thanks for taking my call. I'm doing great. Good. How can I help? Well, I've got to be honest. I'm a little scared.

This is my first time listening to your program, and I'm loving what I'm hearing so far. Okay. And I hope it's going to be a long, beautiful relationship. Okay. But my wife and I, we just got married last april good we're expecting our first child this april any minute yeah yeah we're down to the wire um so around the end of the year i lost my job and she still has hers but at that that same time, I opened up a business, a small business of my own. And we live in a smaller town just outside of Columbus.

So, you know, the money isn't overwhelming that's coming from the business, you know, even so much that I'm not even really able to pay myself very much at all. So my question is, you know, how do I get started in relieving the debt that we both have from our school loans and start securing a future for our kids? Well, I mean, you've already told us what's going on. You know what's going on. There's two sides to the equation, the income side and the outgo side and the income side's hurting right and so we got to fix that so how do we fix that you know i mean the uh what did you used to make at your old job i was making around 60,000 okay and what have you pulled out of this business uh that you started at the first of the year so far?

Not nearly that. What have you pulled out? Personally or... Personally, to use to take care of your family. Maybe $1,500. Okay, all right. And so what kind of a business is this? It's a small, it's a unique retail, so like tabletop gaming. So it's an activity center, essentially.

Okay, all right. And so here's your prognosis then, and I think Common Sense has already told you this. That's going to have to get up and running, or you're going to have to get a job. Oh, correct. And that's the plan, you know. At least once, you know, everything has kind of settled from the childbirth and everything like that. What does your wife make? She makes around $35,000.

Okay. And so your household income is down 70% and more with her being off having a baby. Right. So you don't have a very long fuse on this bomb. Correct. Yeah, like you probably just need to get a job. I would agree. Okay.

And then you can work the other thing as a side hustle. But I don't think this, it doesn't sound like this thing's going to, it would need to go to $6,000 or $8,000 a month next month, and it's not going to do that realistically the business personally for me or the business the business you would need to be able to pull that out of the business to feed your family because your family used to make a hundred thousand dollars a year now both of you were going to be out of work when she has a baby right you got a hundred thousand dollar drop in income give or take here that's eight's $8,000 a month.

So that's what I mean. It's pretty dramatic. And so, yeah, this will scare you, having a new baby. You know, so, yeah, I think your business, I hope it takes off. I hope it makes you $100,000 a year someday. But it would be a very unusual business that went from $1,500 to $8,000 in one month. Well, I guess I should say, you know, $1,500 is what I have taken personally for my family.

The business itself is pulling anywhere from $4,000 to $6,000 a month. But it's got expenses. Exactly. There's a difference in gross and net. I mean, the only thing your business is good for for your family is the net. You can make $2 million a year gross and net. I mean, the only thing your business is good for for your family is the net. You can make $2 million a year gross and spend $3 million doing it. Then your family has nothing.

Right. You know, so your gross doesn't matter. All that matters is how we get it. It's on the way to net. That's the only reason it matters. And so, you know, so again, this thing has to have an extremely steep curve for the money that's coming home, or you're going to have to get employed pretty quick and work the other thing as a side gig. Does your wife have paid maternity leave? Yes.

Okay, well, that's good. So it's not a drop of $100,000. It's a drop of your old income, then, because her $35,000 will continue to come in. Right, and during this time that i've been starting the business i have also been searching for work so good yeah i mean that's the answer because here's the thing let's pretend that you call me back in uh two months and the baby's here and everybody's healthy and everything is going good and you have a job making 65 and she's still getting her 35 in and the business is going well now we got some really

good money coming in here i mean you're making over a hundred thousand dollars a year household income at that point to be able to attack your debts and you know get everything paid off build your emergency fund secure life for you and the kid and the wife and it'll be great man you're on your way but it is a you know this business is not a career replacement yet. Could it grow to that by this time next year? Very probably. If you can continue to do what you've done initially, if you can keep it on that kind of a curve, by this time next year it might be a thing that you won't have to work except at this.

But for now you do. For now you do. It's basic survival skills. thanks for the call steve is with us in akron ohio hi steve how are you good how about you dave better than i deserve what's up so my wife and i are on baby step two um we actually just started the program in january and we're doing really well um the only thing that we have left are our cars. And the next vehicle would be mine. I have about $14,500 on it,

but it's only worth about $9,000 to $10,000 if I sold it. I am going to be deploying for the military next year, so I'm looking to get rid of my car because I don't want to pay on it while I'm gone. There's a thing through the military that you can get out of leases if you deploy. I was wondering if I traded in my truck on a lease and then turned in the lease when I deployed and just kind of washed my hands of the whole thing, if that was a smart move, or just stick to the baby step two as planned. Hmm.

Well, the only difference, I mean, your car is a, the $14,500 is a debt. Her car is the lease? No, we have no leases right now. We financed both of them to own. Oh, you mean go get a lease with the idea that when you deploy, you could walk from it? Correct. And I would have the lease for just a couple of months before I'm allowed to turn it back in. My business ethics bell is going off. And that's the trouble that I had was the ethical portion not necessarily the financial yeah i mean the

purpose of the military relief act is to keep you folks who are serving the country and protecting all of us from being under undue burden it's not to use the law to shyster somebody right and i'm sorry but i kind of think that's what that is i don't think you meant it that way you're just trying to find a strategy but i think that's the net result. Because if you flip it and you said, would you want somebody doing that to you, you would say no. Absolutely not. Yeah. And that was my biggest dilemma in the whole thing, and that's why I wanted your help walking through it. I was having an ethical debate with myself about it.

Good for you. You're a man of honor. Good for you. And thank you for serving the country, too. Thank you, Dave. No, I would not do that. okay thanks for the call open phones at 888-825-5225 man and then occasionally you hear people say the militaries people aren't good folk let me just tell you i work with military all the time they're good folk they're men like that right there women like that right there

they're incredible are they all perfect oh good gracious right there, women like that right there. They're incredible. Are they all perfect? Oh, good gracious, no. There's 500,000 of them in just the Army alone. You know, of course there's not all perfect people, but they're good people. People that choose to serve their country and be underpaid primarily in the process. You know, I have a different kind of code than some people live by. I just love helping military anytime I can.

Good stuff. Good stuff. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being who you are. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. You know, I get asked all the time, at what age should I buy life insurance? Let me be clear. If you have a family, if there are people depending on your income,

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Andy is with us in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Hi, Andy. How are you? Hey, I'm doing well. Yourself? Better than I deserve. How can I help? So, first of all, I would say thank you for all you've been doing.

I'm a big fan. I started watching some of your videos on YouTube. Inspired me to try to get my financial future in line. Cool. I'm 19 years old. I work two jobs, and I'm bringing in about $22,000 a year. Wow. I do not have any debt.

And yesterday I was up until 3 o'clock in the morning on, on an Excel spreadsheet, creating a budget. Um, and the one problem I'm kind of running into, um, I'm kind of making the budget kind of as, as a checklist. So as my income comes in, um, I basically, you know, okay, here's my money set aside for my phone bill. Here's my money set aside from savings, car savings, all that sort of stuff. I'm kind of wondering how can I incorporate my spending into this checklist? You know, like, so let's say I budget for a $200 tithe and, you know, I make more or less. How does that affect my budget, or how can I make my budget correct, I guess I should say, if that makes any sense.

What kind of phone have you got? What kind of phone? I've got a Samsung S7. Okay, so that's a smartphone, right? Yes. Okay, so that's a smartphone, right? Yes. Okay, Android. So jump on the Google Play Store and download the free app called EveryDollar. Yep, I've got it. Okay, it should show you exactly how to do that.

It'll have a column that is what your predicted budget is, and then you come in and make the change when you do the actual, and then it adjusts for you instantaneously on the fly. It's a lot easier than a spreadsheet. It works in your mind like a spreadsheet works, but it's designed to do your budget for you. It's exactly how it works. And so it takes about 10 minutes to lay the budget out and not all night with a spreadsheet. And then you just go back in and you make your adjustments as your month goes along.

And so if you do pay for the every dollar plus upgrade where the bank downloads, then when you run something on your debit card, it's going to pop up on your phone and you just take your finger and drag that charge up into that category and it will adjust automatically. The thing is very robust. I mean, our guys, we spent millions of dollars developing that. It works. And that's a much easier way to do it than a spreadsheet.

I'm a spreadsheet yellow pad guy myself. And actually, when we sat down and had our initial design meetings on every dollar, that's how we said, you know, the proper way is not for have something do it for you. It's for you to do it. And then you make your adjustments through the month so you feel money. And I wanted it to feel like in our team, the designers wanted it to feel like when you're using it, like you would a spreadsheet or like you would a yellow pad, even if you're more primitive than a spreadsheet. But I like to be able to tell money what to do and then know it did it.

And that's what you're talking about. And that's how every dollar is designed. So that's what I would do. That's the easiest way. The best thing I've got to help you is that. All right, Elizabeth is with us in Cincinnati. Hi, Elizabeth. How are you?

Hi. Hi, Dave. I'm fine. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? Well, I'm calling regarding my HELOC, and I wanted to know your opinion on whether I should refinance our mortgage to include that. We owe about $60,000 left on our mortgage at 3.25%.

I think we have about nine years left on that, and we have about $40,000 on the HELOC. What's your household income? About $88,000. Okay. Well, it's kind of on the bubble. Here's what we've discovered, and I just use these rough and dirty big numbers in my processes, but I've discovered that if something is half of your annual income or less, it's doable to knock it out fairly quick.

And so what I would do instead of refinancing it is pay it off in the next two years. What other debts have you got other than your home? We have no other debt, but we have teenage boys that are getting ready to drive, so we'll need a third car. And we pay for private school. That you're going to pay cash for? Oh, yes. Okay.

I have some cash set aside for that. Good. My problem with the HELOC is it's driving me crazy, that you're going to pay cash for? Oh, yes. Okay. I have some cash set aside for that. Good. My problem with the HELOC is it's driving me crazy because no matter how much extra I pay on it, it doesn't seem to go down. Or it will if you pay $10,000 on it. Well, I just paid $6,500. And it went down to $6,500. It did, but it's still at $40,000, so it's making me crazy.

Well, I mean, it was at 46.5 then yes okay so you knocked out part of it okay you were over half until the other day yeah well i just adjusted my uh with my deductions at work so i'm no longer putting in my retirement but that makes me nervous too good yeah well i'm not asking you to do that for very long, just for a short period of time. Yeah. But you've got some stress points around education that are stressing your budget, for sure, with private school and colleges and so forth.

College coming up, private school today. But I think that's all the more reason to get rid of it. I mean, you can refinance it and just put the whole thing on a 15-year. It's not the end of the world because it's kind of on the bubble. I mean, until the other day, it was more than half your annual income. So, you know, you paid that $6,500 on it, and that changes my answer, but that was not information I had early in the conversation.

Anyway, so I would, I might refinance it in this case and just get the strain off of it. You put the whole thing on a 15-year fixed. Rates are low. And, you know, almost half of your mortgage debt is this HELOC. It's the worst thing I've ever done, and I wish I knew about you before I did it. What was the debt from? What did you borrow it for? Well, we redid a kitchen and updated our HVAC.

Ah, okay. So it was about a $50,000 ton of money to begin with. So given that college was on the way, you would have had that to do over, you would have done it with cash and a little bit slower. Yeah, I've never had that much cash to do that kind of thing, but I haven't had to incur any debt for anything else. I've always paid for the tuition, the cash, and the car. We haven't had a car loan in years. I kind of have the feeling that you are white-knuckling this budget.

By that, I mean you're kind of hitting the big parts and not really doing the details, and I don't think your husband's looking at it with you. You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. You're always right. Okay. Those two things, if you'll add those two components to your budget, I think it'll also increase your efficiency with the money and relieve some of the stress associated with all this.

You're carrying all this emotionally by yourself. Yes. Yeah, and I think it'd be very wise to get him involved, not because couples that work together where both are involved. He doesn't necessarily need to do the bills because you're the administrative one. Your mind works like mine. You've got that nerd mind. But I want him to emotionally carry the weight of college, private school,

and HELOCs with you as you make these decisions, and the monthly budget as well. He needs to look at it with you, and you need to really do the fine-tuning on that. When you do the fine-tuning is where you get this lift, this sense that you've got to raise. So I encourage you to do that with every dollar, just like the last caller. Thanks for calling in. Mark's on Facebook. Dave, should I jump into the stock market right now or wait a little longer? Mark, you should never jump into the stock market.

And you should never jump out of the stock market. See, that word there, that tells me where your emotions are. You should ease in and ease out. And by that, I mean you should never invest in the stock market unless you are going to leave the money alone at least five years and if you do that you don't have to worry about the daily volatility the shooting up and the shooting down and the news headlines of oh it's a record day up yesterday it's a record day down the day before i I mean, you don't need to hear all that.

You ease in. Don't jump. Just step in and do it with this sense of solid, this sense of you're stepping on solid ground, and you're going to be there a while. Like, don't get in. Don't buy real estate, and don't buy mutual funds unless you plan on leaving them alone five years.

You'll regret it in either case. I love both investments. I do a lot of both. But don't put money in there unless you're going to leave it alone. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Our scripture of the day, Proverbs 22.6, Train up a child in the way he should go. Even when he's old, he'll not depart from it. Frederick Douglass said,

It's easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. Ouch. Kathy is with us in Boston. Hi, Kathy. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve.

What's up? I'm so lucky to get a hold of you today. I had scary, scary news. Your phone is breaking up. Your phone is breaking up. I'm sorry. Can you hear me now? Yes, I can.

Okay, I'm near a window now. But I got my local paper today, and there's a scary headline saying my financial advisor has been accused of scamming clients. More than $1 million. Ooh. How much have you got with them? More than $1 million. You do? We do.

Ooh. What's it invested in? It's invested in mutual funds. Do you have statements that show it? I get statements from a company called Pershing every month. Does it show the money in the investments? It does. It does.

There's about 14 pages that come every month with the investments listed. Okay. But Pershing is not the – that must be the broker that the advisor was with, but not the actual mutual funds. Right. Right. Pershing is the broker, I believe. Do you have the actual mutual funds, the statements from the actual mutual funds, or do you know what funds you're actually in and what your account number is with the mutual fund? Not with the mutual funds, no, just with Pershing. I know, but I'm saying you don't know the name of the mutual fund that Pershing has put you in.

I'm sure it's on the statements, correct? Should be. So, well, one thing you can do is immediately call the SEC, the Securities and Exchange Commission, who's probably after this guy, and, you know, tell them you're freaking out and what can they tell you, okay, about the investigation and what you should do is your next step. That's one thing you would do the second thing i would do is i would pick up my statements and say all right i'm supposed to have money in abc mutual fund and my account number is so and so call that mutual fund and go okay this is kathy so and so my you know i'm supposed to have x number of dollars in this mutual fund and i need to verify that there's actually money in that fund in my name okay okay okay um and um is i'm not familiar with the name pershing so uh is that a larger firm or that he's supposed to be a local branch of or is that the name of his firm well he's actually a local branch of United Planners. Okay, call them.

I looked up on the Internet, and they're in Arizona. Okay, call them, too. Okay. And start, you know, tell them what's going on, that you need to know how to take your statements apart. And here's my hope, okay, that your money actually got into those mutual funds. If it actually got into those mutual funds, you're probably safe. Okay.

That's my hope, too. If he's diverting it as a complete crook, a complete fraud, a bank robber, basically, if he's diverting, embezzling the money, and then printing off falsified statements, then you may have a real problem. That's possible. Okay? So the SEC, the Securities and Exchange Commission, is your ruling body on this. Get in touch with them immediately in your area.

They'll have a location or an agent assigned to the Boston area that you can get some help from, and then call United Planners, whoever that is that they're a part of, that he's somehow a part of, get some information from them. Number two. Number three, try to reach the actual mutual fund company. And so mutual funds are called families of funds, which is the brand name. Okay? Okay. And so an example would be Fidelity is a brand name, and Campbell's is a brand name.

Now, Campbell's has chicken soup, and they have vegetable soup. Fidelity has a whole bunch of different mutual funds. So Fidelity is not what you're looking for. You're looking for the actual fund. Fidelity Magellan would be an actual fund right uh if it's american funds an actual fund is investment company of america ica and american funds and so it's not just american funds you need to get a hold of it's ica with your account number to try to figure out if you've got money in that account literally and if you do then you're that's going to give you a lot of rest and you're going to get some sleep in addition to that the uh vice president of our smart vester program that um this guy's not a smart vester i'm sure

okay he isn't because i i tried to find one when we were I was getting ready to roll over this 401K, and there wasn't one in our area. Okay. All right. Well, the guy that is the vice president that runs that whole program for us inside of our company here is brilliant on this kind of a thing. And so even though we've got nothing to do with it, just to help you, I'm going to put you on hold,

and Kelly is going to connect you to one of our vice presidents, and he'll be able to give you also some better advice maybe even than I have on getting in here and getting you some peace that your money has not just been flushed down the toilet somewhere. So what a scary, horrible thing. Yeah, you roll a million dollars into something, and you look up, and the guy you're working with on the front page is being the next bernie madoff oh my gosh what a horrible deal yeah that take your breath away right there that calls your pulse rate to change ouch so hold on and kelly will pick up kathy and we'll try to help you and get you some help around this even though

as you and i said it's not not one of our guys by any stretch of the imagination, but I hate it when one of these guys does this because it discredits and makes everybody scared about doing investing then, and they shouldn't be because 99.9% of the people in the business are wonderful people. Ben is with us in Gainesville, Florida. Hi, Ben. How are you? Hey, Dave. I'm doing good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? That's good. So I recently got engaged to my girlfriend.

Woo-hoo! And we've been going over, you know, the important questions like finance. Mm-hmm. And she told me she has $24,000 in student loans so far, and she's halfway done with school. Mm-hmm. And I don't know where to go from there. Go where? What do you mean? In terms of how we should worry about that,

should we not even look at the student loans until after we graduate? She has some private and some federal loans. Are you both in school? We're both in school. We both have two years to graduate. Okay. What is she studying? She's studying nursing, and I'm studying engineering. You're studying what? Engineering.

Engineering. Good. And you don't have student loans? No, sir. Why? Because I did my first two years at a public college, not a university, and I transferred. Yeah. And how do you pay for it?

I work. Oh, there's that. that okay so how much does she work she works about 10 hours a week she makes about 4 000 a year not enough of course yeah okay and um so the first thing i would attempt to do is, do you all have a date set yet that you're going to be married? The end of June. Oh, cool. Okay. Well, until the end of June, there's not anything that you can do actually mathematically to combine this at this stage of the game. But between now and then, I want you guys working on a plan where, beginning at that date, your first goal is for you both to graduate with no more debt. Okay.

If you can pull that off between the two of you, you know, everybody working, all hands on deck, everybody's doing everything they can, we're all combined finances, we're married after June, and we're going to both get through the remaining of our school without any more debt, that's a win. If you can just freeze the 24 and deal with it after graduation and pay cash for this point forward, that's a big win. A bigger win would be if you could even do that and reduce her debt. But by far, the first goal is to have enough in the bank for both of you to graduate debt-free. Then go back and do that. So, hold on.

I'm going to send you an early wedding present called the Total Money Makeover Book. And I want you guys to use that as your guide to work through this process together. You'll get through it. You can do this. But you just need to have a very intentional discussion about where we're going from here. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's

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