The Ramsey Show - App - You Can’t Outearn Lifestyle Creep (Hour 2)

Episode Date: February 8, 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 amazing relationships. I'm Rachel Cruz, hosting this hour with bestselling author George Camel, answering your questions. So give us a call at 888-825-5225. All right, let's hit the phones, George. Let's hit it.

Go straight to it. Let's go to Tori in Louisville, Kentucky. Hey, Tori, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you for taking my call. Absolutely. How can we help? Well, I have some, well, I need some advice on what you all would suggest my husband and I do to pay off our debt. My husband is currently working two full

time jobs and going to school. So we are making the most we have ever made. However, we are both miserable because he's never home, and I have taken on the majority of the housework with our children, and I also work. So my question is, do we power through like we're currently doing to pay off our debt quicker, or would you suggest that he scales back on his work, we buckle down tighter on our budget and pay off the debt, which might take a little bit longer. Okay, how much debt is left? We have $75,000.

Okay, and how much are you guys making currently with him working two jobs, you working a full-time job? We bring home an average of $10,000 a month. Okay. What kind of debt is the $75,000? We have two car loans, a home equity loan, two credit cards,

and then one student loan for him, but it is deferred at this time, but it is included in that $75,000. Okay. What's he going to school for? He's a nurse practitioner. Okay. So when is that over? That schooling? He's a nurse practitioner. Okay. So when is that over, that schooling? Two and a half years.

Wow. Okay. He's working two full-time jobs while becoming an MP? Yes. This man's impressive. So he is. He is a firefighter. So he actually does 24-hour shifts.

Goodness. On his days off, he teaches at our community college. He teaches the nursing classes. So by the time he gets home, he is exhausted. It really has affected our whole lives, our marriage, our children, our health. Sure, sure. What's the current trajectory? If you keep all of this in your life, how soon will you be out of debt? That is a good question. So we recently have not been great with our money so we recently just january 1 started working with a dave or with a ramsey coach on our budget um so we've

completed baby step one um so i'm not i would think within probably 18 months maybe how much are you throwing at the debt total, including extra payments? Well, we've just hit baby step one. Yeah, so Tori, so you guys have been working this much. Where was the money going? Out the window. So did you increase your lifestyle as he took on the extra jobs?

We did. I mean, we did. So we bought the two vehicles. I would sell these cars. I don't know what they're worth and what you owe on them, but that feels like a better sacrifice than losing your husband right now. Sure. Where are the car numbers for us real quick? So my vehicle, we owe about $23 on it.

I recently looked at what it was worth because I was considering selling. Upside down, probably. About $2,000 upside down. It's about 21. It's not huge. Now my husband, he purchased a truck and it is the worst thing we've ever purchased. It is the worst lemon ever. He doesn't even feel comfortable selling it to anybody. So he's just kind of driving it around as little as he can. How much is it? We owe $6,800 on that. Okay.

Okay, that's okay. Do you think it's worth about that if you're lucky or what? Oh, he doesn't even think we could get that out of it. Okay, so Tori, how long have you guys been on the schedule, the 90-hour-a-week schedule? He's about two and a half years. So why, Tori, I'm a little bit confused, because usually when we talk to people on this show, just in this perspective,

they're working two, three jobs. They're going crazy because they're putting extra money to the debt. They're doing it for a reason. Why did you guys choose to do this lifestyle two and a half years ago, working-wise? I think we were just, you know, we weren't good with our money at that point okay and so it's just to keep your life afloat yeah just to keep going okay okay um because what i would say tori is that this level of sacrifice we've seen people do it and they do it for a period of time maybe not maybe not two years but you know a good six nine months and then maybe they take a it for a period of time maybe not maybe not two years but you know a good

six nine months and then maybe they take a break for a little bit then bring on an extra job to get out of debt right they're doing all this for a purpose so if that was the case there's a part of me that would say okay um you know if someone was calling in and they hadn't done it yet but they're like we're looking into this if we just power through for two years we could get all this cleaned up like i i feel like i would be like yes yes yes you guys have been doing it for two and a half years just to keep your lifestyle afloat which obviously is more of a lifestyle than what you were you know expecting because you guys went into debt for it too um and so i don't want you i don't i don't want 90 hours a week to be the norm on how to just support your life right like that's not i don't want you calling us two

and a half years from now being like, well, we still have 75 in debt and he's still doing this. So we need an end game here. And that's what we're trying to show you. And based on math, if you bring 10 home a month, you said, can you put five of that toward debt? Cause that would get you debt free in 15 months. And like, like live on nothing tori like nothing so i yes we could i did like our what our four walls um yeah payments would be and it was about four thousand thirty five thirty five hundred perfect so that means there should be in a perfect world sixty five hundred dollars of take-home pay left to throw at debt with minimum payments plus extra. And once you do that math with the debt snowball calculator,

you should be debt-free in a year. Yeah. I can do about anything for a year. If it means freedom on the other side. And you're calling us, though, two and a half years after all this, so you guys are exhausted. Like, two and a half years of nine... I mean, like, that's... It's not sustainable long-term, right?

That's how you guys are doing it. It's not. And I wouldn't recommend that long-term for anybody. The second full-time job, would it just take an extra year? Because I'm okay with that. If this takes two years for you guys to clean up and you survive it. Yeah. Yeah.

But here's the deal, Tori. I'm like, you guys have to be so committed to this process because if you're not, you will look up in two years and hadn't made much of a dent in this. If you're not like really committed to that process, you know, and maybe you guys stay on Tori through, through the summer and maybe in the fall he, he pulls back,

you know, it doesn't have to be today, but you guys kind of do a game plan and just say, but, but we understand like we're, we're parents, we're human. Like we know that it takes and just say, but we understand. Like, we're parents. We're human. Like, we know that it takes a lot of sacrifice.

And we don't want your mental health to be an issue. You know, we don't want this idea that parents are just workaholics and they're far away. But people do all the sacrifice and do what you're doing for a goal of becoming debt- free so that they don't have to do this anymore. Right. So so there's a reason for the sacrifice and we're all for that. But you guys have been doing it for two and a half years and you haven't made any progress. So my fear is if you if you kind of pull back from the work side, you know, have your money habits really change. So I would just tell you guys, if you can do it for a little bit longer

and maybe bring in some of that income and then really get into the habit of budgeting, living on nothing, putting money. And once that habit really is instilled, then maybe you pull back a little bit from work knowing it's going to take you a little bit longer because I don't want you guys, yeah, to be suffering for too long.

It just sounds sustainable. That's right. Yep. But you guys got this, Tori. You can do this. This is The Ramsey Show. One of the principles that we really push people towards is savings. So whether you're saving for an emergency fund, saving up for a down payment on a home,

for a purchase, buying a car, vacation, and where to put that savings is a question, George, I feel like I get a lot on social media and different things. It's probably the number one question I get in the DMs is what's a good high-yield savings account? You guys talk about this. So we're going to talk about what a high-yield savings account is and the pros and cons. You just went to the punchline. Oh, I ruined it? Here, here, back up, back up. All right, go again.

Back up 10 seconds. So people always ask, George, you know, on social media, where should I save this money Oh, I ruined it? Here, Carol, back up, back up. All right, go again. Back up 10 seconds. So people always ask, George, you know, on social media, where should I save this money? Should I save it, you know, in a,

just a savings account? Under a mattress? Do I? Invest it? What, you know, there's high-yield savings accounts, there's money market accounts, like there's all these places.

Do I, yeah, do I invest it into the market? What do I do? And one of the places we always talk about investing is? A high-yield savings account. Oh, that's right george we'll edit that in post i'm just so excited it's one of the things i love the most couldn't wait to talk about an old high yield savings account but now it's a great spot hysas or hisas for short no no no one

calls them that it's's fine. God bless. So this is just literally a high interest savings account. They're generally online banks because the brick and mortar banks can't afford to dole out as high of a rate because they've got a lot of overhead to pay for. That's right. So traditional savings accounts average about 0.35% on savings, but plenty of high yield savings accounts offer rates of over four, even over 5%, which is amazing. Yes. Yeah. It's been incredible. And even when all the rates,

mortgage rates, you know, everything has gone up, debt, all the things. Silver lining, savings rates go up. Yeah. Savings rates go up and, you know, you earn more interest. And so that's what we really found. And Winston and I, we have a high yield savings account. We have one for our money market and one just for short term savings that we just put money in. And I love it, again, because you obviously get a high rate of return for a savings account, right, compared to a traditional savings. It's really safe. You can get your money out anytime. For some accounts, you have a limited number of transactions you can do per month. So you can't use it as just like a full-on checking account. But it's pretty easy to access.

And yeah, we use Ally. Yep, I use one called Marcus by Goldman Sachs. Again, we don't have a Ramsey partner advertiser in this space, but these are just the ones we personally use. So we can tell you at least that much. And the key is to do your research on these. I don't trust the ones that are offered by credit card companies or Apple, which makes you have a Apple credit card to use their savings account or Capital One or one of these companies, the big banks. And so while these are huge companies, Marcus by Goldman Sachs and Ally, I have not noticed they've been marketing debt products or using my information to sell me those products. That's a key here.

Yeah. We would say though, this is not a place to park your money products. Yeah, that's fair. That's a key here. Yeah, we would say though, this is not a place to park your money long-term, right? So investing- Don't mix it up. Savings is not investing. That's right. Two different things. Even if you're getting some interest.

Yeah, and I always say, George, my rule of thumb is kind of that five-year mark. Is that yours or is yours shorter, longer? What do you think? I'd say depending on the situation, three to five plus years is that's, I'm going to invest that money versus parking it. Yep. But, you know, home down payment, what worries me, Rachel I'm going to invest that money versus parking it. Yep.

But, you know, home down payment, what worries me, Rachel, people want to invest their down payment. And I go, yeah, but three years from now, what if the market took that dip at the worst time when you want to buy that house? Yes, yes. The 50 grand turned into 40 grand all of a sudden. So that's risky. But a good example of this, let's say you are going to buy a house and you have $10,000 saved in a high yield savings at 5%.

Well, over the course of 12 months in your sleep, you're going to make $500. And if you have $100,000, doing the math, at 5%, that's $5,000 over the course of 12 months that you would gain. And a good point, Rachel, here is that income is taxable. People don't realize that. Now, it's not the end of the world to get taxed on $500 or $5,000. Right, but the interest that you're accumulating, yeah, that's a great point. This is not free money. Yeah, it's not the end of the world to get taxed on 500 bucks or 5,000 bucks. Right, but the interest that you're accumulating. Yeah, that's a great point. This is not free money.

Yep, that's a great point. Yeah, and the emergency fund specifically, you guys, that three to six months, like this is a great place to park that. And while we say it's not an investment, you want to be able to get to it quickly. So your worry on that is not, oh my gosh, am I making a high rate of return?

It's really just the idea that it is cushion. I can get to it if I need it. Something big comes up, a job loss or a medical emergency. But while you're at it, you might as well put it in something that's low risk and still make something, right? So versus just putting it in a traditional savings account. Yeah, high yield savings account's great. But remember, your emergency fund is insurance, not an investment.

This is money that's made to protect you. It's not made to make you more money. So don't be freaked out if you're not getting a certain interest rate. At the end of the day, it's not going to be life changing. That's right. But I think it's a great option. And right now it's the highest rates I've seen. When my wife and I were saving up for a house, interest rates on savings accounts were 2%. I was jumping for joy. Yes. Because of all the free money we were getting from this 2%. So now that it's 5% or more, goodness gracious, I have a lot of, you know, it's a great time to be saving up for things because of that reason. That's right. Exactly. Yep. And you guys, the way to find savings, one of the best things you can do is

be budgeting. Making sure you see, okay, here's my income, here's everything. And we talk about, you know, giving, saving and spending and what that looks like and to really be intentional with putting money aside, letting that be a habit. And so if you have never budgeted before, maybe you are a budgeter, I really recommend downloading EveryDollar. It really is the best way. There's a savings category on EveryDollar. So you can kind of automate that and go, all right, we're going to do a direct transfer from our paycheck or bank account to our savings account every month. And the budget will help you track that. And it's all right there.

Yep. So every dollar is amazing for budgeting and to get you in a position to be able to say, yeah, we actually can find margin here and save some money. Again, for whether it's a car, vacation, down payment, emergency funds, a high yield savings account. It's a great place to park that short term savings. To make sure they are FDIC insured or NCUA if it's a credit union. That's a good point to call out. So when you're on the website, which the ones we mentioned are, but you want to make sure that it's insured. I think it's up to $250,000 per depositor. So that's pretty sweet. It's good. All right, let's go to the phones. We have Aiden in Dallas. Hey, Aiden, welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for taking my call.

Absolutely. How can we help? I'm just getting ready to purchase a new truck. I'm just trying to figure out what... Truck, yeah! Oh, George loves a truck, Aiden. How much I can really afford when it comes to buying a truck or what would be smart. All right. How much do you make a year, Aiden? This year, I will gross anywhere in between from $95 to about $115. Okay. Amazing. And what debt do you have?

My current vehicle will be paid off in about two months. I owe about $300 to my Mac dealer and a little under $500 to my Cornwell dealer. Okay. And how much do you have in savings to buy the truck? I have about $8,000, but I'm trying not to touch that so I can keep on growing that for a down payment on a house. $8,000? Yes, I plan on trading in my current vehicle.

Trading in for another, like a truck with a payment on it? Yes. What kind of truck are you going to buy? I'm still trying to build my credit. What truck are you looking to buy? I'm looking to buy a 2500 or 3500 diesel. What year? Early 2010s to late 2010s.

Okay. And what is that going to cost, you think? It all depends. Anywhere I can get the trucks I'm looking at. I could get one for anywhere between about 20 to 40. Okay. That's a big range. Well, Aiden, you're probably not going to like our answer. If you listen back to this call, Aiden, you're going to hear that you have a lot of priorities right now, don't you? Yes. You're trying to pay off debt. You're trying to buy a house. You're trying to

get this truck. And I found that when people are doing too many things at once, they don't really make progress on any of them. And it usually leads to poor financial decisions. And right now, you can turn the ship around pretty quick. I mean, making $100,000 and you've got, what, a few thousand in debt left? Yeah, not much. And so we can clean up all of your debt within three or four months? Yes.

And in fact, you have $8,000 right now you could use to pay off the car and pay off all of your debt. You could be debt-free today. Yes. And that would leave you with how much in savings still? A few thousand? Yeah, a few thousand. There you go.

So that's going to be your starter emergency fund. Yeah, that'll be your starter emergency fund aid. And then whatever cash you have beyond that, you can put with the truck you're going to trade in and you only are going to buy a truck that you can pay for no more payments because debt is stealing this income and especially with a car you are taking a loan out and paying interest on an asset that's going down in value mathematically it is not a smart move aidan so i would stick with the truck you have pay it off drive that for a while save up and pay cash for your next six. Six months from now, you're going to be able to save up and pay cash for it.

Yep. Don't let the bank steal all your income, Aiden. Don't give them payments. Hey, you guys. Health insurance costs are only moving one way, and that way isn't down. And if higher costs aren't enough, the wait times to see your doctor are longer, and it's harder than ever to get anything approved through the bureaucracy. So if you feel like the system is working against you,

try a biblically-based alternative to health insurance, Christian Healthcare Ministries. CHM is a health cost-sharing ministry that's helped hundreds of thousands of families like yours take care of over $11 billion in medical bills since 1981. And CHM has also helped them stay true to their values and avoid miles of red tape. And CHM support goes far beyond meeting financial needs. They'll also help meet spiritual needs. Members become part of a family who will pray with them

and for them when they experience a medical event. So listen, y'all, there's no better way to take care of health care costs. CHM programs start as low as $98 a month. So learn more today and join at chministries.org slash budget at chministries.org slash budget. So one of the things we love to do around here, George, is put on events. We love a good live event. We love a good live event. Our team is really good at them. Yes. Some of the best events in the country. And sometimes we're out traveling to different cities. But this time, George, we're going to do one in our backyard here at Ramsey Solutions up on the hill in our

new event center. And we are doing the Total Money Makeover weekend, you guys. This is going to be a full weekend on May 10th and 11th. And we are going to help people when it comes to the subject that we talk about all the time, which is money. So actually the night before on the 10th, George and I, we may or may not be doing a live recording of Smart Money Happy Hour, our podcast. So actually the night before on the 10th, George and I, we may or may not be doing a live recording of Smart Money Happy Hour, our podcast. So you can come and participate in that. And then an all day event that next Saturday with all the Ramsey personalities. And it's going to be really fun. We're going to talk through obviously the baby steps and different parts of your money and your life. And we're going to do lots of Q&A as well. We find

that people, you know, have, whether it's specific situations or even, you know, just the generic problems that we all run into when it comes to money. But to be able to have conversations with you guys throughout the weekend is really important to us. So it's going to be, it's going to be really fun. Our labor tickets are only $99 only for a limited time. And if you want to get the best deal on tickets, again, this is it. So go ahead and buy your seats, buy your tickets, because we only have 2,400 available. And so you can do that at ramseysolutions.com slash events. Love it.

People come from all over the country, even the world, to come to these events, which is so amazing. So go start budgeting for the travel and transportation and lodging and all the fun stuff. And Nashville is a great place just to hang out. So extend your trip and enjoy it while you're here. RamseySolutions.com slash events, May 10th and 11th. Looking forward to that. Yes. Love to hang out with you guys. All right. Up next, we have Sarah in Charlotte. Hey, Sarah, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you so much for having me. So my question for you guys is currently my husband and I are renting an apartment for about 32% of our net income. And in order to get closer to that 25%, we have to move to a low income house house, like a low-income community.

And I'm not sure if that's wise, you know, because sometimes crime is higher in low-income communities. I just wanted to know if you guys had any takes on whether we should jump from our 32% to 25% by finding a cheaper apartment in a low-income community or what you think. I appreciate your intensity for the plan, but that 25% is really a guideline, and it's not a set in stone. If you're at 26, time to move, bucko. So I don't think this is on fire. You guys sound like you're doing a good job paying attention to every dollar,

and my assumption is your income will go up over the next year, correct? Potentially. My husband put in some applications to become a police officer, and it could potentially go up a little bit, but it's going to stay about the same. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I would say, Sarah, I mean, obviously we don't want, you know, you in a situation that maybe you feel unsafe or whatever, you know, it may be for you. I mean, yeah, you want to be able to find a place that you feel good at. And I would say, too, that, you know, just because a situation is different doesn't always, you know, make it bad. Right. make it bad, right? And so I think there can be some places that you may overlook because of just the thought of, oh gosh, the high crime or whatever it may be, but to really do your research and dig

in because there's parts of cities that may be lower income, but they're great neighborhoods and great people and all of it. So I would do my due diligence to really look and see. I mean, ultimately, I want you to feel safe. I mean, I think that's a fair value to have in life. But also, you know, to maybe look at, yeah, maybe our life, maybe where we are, though, where we live will look different than maybe what we thought because of our income. And George is right, like that 25%, it is a guideline there. But when it starts to creep up in that 35%, 40% of your take-home pay, that's what it does. It just limits the amount of income that you can use for other things,

like getting out of debt and investing and all of that. So how much do you guys make in a year? We make about $55,000. Just my husband works, and I'm a stay-at-home mom. Okay. How old are your kids? My son, he's almost two. Okay. That's great. So great. Yeah. So, I mean, I think you guys talk about it. Look at the budget. Do you guys have a lot of debt? We do, but luckily it's just to a

family member who paid off our debt. Okay. How much is that? It't have um it's almost 50 okay okay and are you guys working on getting rid of that uh we are yeah okay that's great yeah and once that's freed up you know that that's gonna feel a little more is it a monthly payment you're making yeah we're trying to do a monthly payment and it's pretty low right now like if we keep right now we're only uh trying to give about 250 a month so that'll take us like 10 years to pay them off goodness gracious yeah i wouldn't do that i would be changing something in that formula which is probably going to be the income um on making more i mean you know and what's so hard, Sarah, is, you know, math. It is what it is, right?

And so being able to look and say, okay, this is the amount of money that we have. And so we want to be wise with it. We want to be on a very strict budget and know exactly where that's going. But I also don't want this debt hanging around you guys for 10 years to a family member. And even though they're probably not charging you interest, a relational standpoint, it's just, it just gets weird over time. And so. They'll see you go on vacation and go, whoa, whoa, whoa, they owe us money and they're going on this trip. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Even once you're out of debt. So I would just make a plan to pay that off more aggressively. And that might mean making more income. But the

point of the 25% guideline is so that you're not house poor, is so that you have more money to pay off debt. And so again, nothing's on fire here, but I would make a plan to increase income over the next 12 months to create more margin to get rid of this debt faster. That's great. All right. Up next, we have Larry in Evansville. Hey, Larry, welcome to the show. Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call today. How are you doing? We're doing great. How can we help? So, um, I'm recently found you guys and I'm really trying hard to figure out budgeting type things. Uh, I grew up in a family that, you know, didn't really care about it, you know, and I'm trying to figure it out and I've looked at every dollar and I'm just overwhelmed with things like I try and budget and then something comes up and it's just very overwhelming and I'm just overwhelmed with things. Like, I try and budget, and then something comes up, and it's just very overwhelming, and it's just, I'm to the point of,

I'm tired of, you know, living every paycheck to paycheck, and, you know, the next week I'm broke, and it's just hard. And I just need help budgeting. I need to figure out, like, where do I start? What's the problem right now when you say i feel broke and are the are there too many bills after your paycheck show up so what happened is um you know a couple years ago i got i i did some bad things i got addicted to some things after an accident i had and you know i i i screwed up our family and when i did that, it meant a lot of death for my family. I'm sorry.

And I'm trying to get out of this. And I try so hard. I work, you know, 65 hours a week. And it's just, I don't know. I honestly can't tell you exactly where it's going. You know, I am paying down the debt that I'm doing, but then also, you know, car repairs come up. My kids need something. Yeah. Yeah, how many kids do you have? I have three.

How old are they? Two, five, eight. Wow. So you guys have been through a lot, Larry, over the last... How long has this journey been for you guys have been through You've been through a lot Larry Over the last How long has this journey been for you guys And are you sober now I've been sober for over a year now

A great guy from Boston You know took me up there and helped me out Yeah It's just the last six years before that You know I was working but I'd leave the job Because you know something would happen Or I wouldn't go to work. And, you know, I'd get behind on things. And, you know, I'd say, oh, I'll push this off for now.

And it's all just coming back to haunt me. And I'm trying so hard to budget money. Yeah. So, Larry, we're coming up on a break. If you'll hold on the line, we'll come back to you, if that's okay, in our next segment just to kind of walk through more of your story and to help you with

just the overall picture because I think budgeting for sure is a piece of it. But there's a lot of life in there and possibly some debt and we can run some numbers and kind of help you walk away with a game plan.

Does that sound good? Yeah, I appreciate it. Okay, absolutely. So hold on the line. Yep, hold on the line, Larry. And you guys listening and watching right now, we will be back. Welcome back.

We were just talking to Larry, the segment before, and he was asking us really, how do you start budgeting? What does this look like? If you're just new to this process because it just feels like something always continues to come up car repair something for the kids yes throughout the month and they've walked a a hard journey um he was telling us was

just some addiction and he's been sober a year and they're really trying to get in this place where they can get control of their money was Was that a good summary, Larry? Yeah. Okay, wonderful. Okay, so tell me this, Larry. How much do you guys make in a year, just household income? So my wife makes about $30,000, about $28,000 before taxes. And then me, you know, I just started back working about a year ago. And past year I made about 51 you know consistent saying you know with the same employer that's great what do you do I work in home health care

I work with like mentally handicapped individuals yeah okay it's uh something I've loved for a while yeah that's great that's great so you guys are making around around80,000, $81,000. And what debt do you guys have? So we have a car that got repoed a couple years ago because of me that I'm working to pay off just to get that out of there. We got my wife's car now that we had to have because we had to have reliable transportation for her. How much is that? It's about $8,000 right now.

$8,000, okay. And how much is it that you're repaying for the repossession? About $14,000. Okay. I bought it for about $16,000, but I owed $14,000 and just basically stopped paying. Yeah, okay. So the two cars what else and then uh we have uh combined between like just little loans that we tried to get to get by um you know and loans to

family we have about you know 15 there okay um you know and then medical debt we have about 6 000 but i'm trying to get some assistance from like their financial aid there. But, you know, that's just a process of trying to get that figured out right now. For sure. Anything else? Any credit card debt? That's it. That's it with like the 15, you know, there's some credit cards, uh, which is about, uh, you know, 1500 of it. Okay. The rest is loans, but like family little loans just here and there that I thought would get me by to where I need to be. Then I found you guys and realized that there's something I'm doing wrong. I finally built up the courage and then off the embarrassment that I have to call you guys and

figure it out. I'm tired of it. I'll tell you this. I think you've won probably the hardest battle. Money is nothing compared to fighting and becoming sober and walking that whole journey, Larry. So if you can do that, you can do this. Okay. So just hear me say that. It's an amazing thing when people find freedom in one area of their life, it seems like it opens up the door in other areas that they long for that same level of peace and freedom, you know, that you've found in that part of your life. And now that's transferring to your money and money, you know, was and is possibly in the present still a stressful, a stressful place. But we want to be able to walk with you and give you just some peace for a plan, you know?

And I think it's one of those things too, Larry, that it can carry a lot of shame and a lot of guilt because the hard thing with money is that you see the numbers of the past that stay with you and you have to, you know, face those and figure out what to do. But just know what you've done in this last year, you can do this. Like year, you can do this.

You guys together can do this process. Is your marriage in a good spot? You and your wife? Are you guys on the same team, just at least from the financial standpoint, that you guys are wanting to work a plan together? Yeah. I mean, we've talked about it a lot.

She just, you know, not the best with math, so she leaves it up to me. I don't want to, you know, stress her out too much, but, you know, I talked to her about it, but I'm just still ashamed of it to, you know, talk too much. Okay. Okay, so, yeah, what I would suggest as we start working through the budget is I do want her to be involved, and she doesn't have to be the one that is all excited about it and gets in there every day and all the things, but I want you guys to be in a constant communication and be on the same team

because that's going to help with these day-to-day things because if the kids pipe up and want something, there's a good chance you guys are going to look at them and say the famous words I always heard growing up, it's not in the budget. It's not in the budget. There's going to be times that you guys as a family are going to look at them and say the famous words I always heard growing up. It's not in the budget. It's not in the budget. Like there's going to be times that you guys as a family are going to have to make some hard decisions to make these numbers work. And that's part of the process, right? That you're that you're learning how to do this and define margin.

So so in every dollar we talk about. Yeah. And as you said, you've walked through it, but your income minus those expenses equaling zero. And we have on every dollar premium, which we'll give you after this call, if you don't have that one already, it's our paid subscription part of every dollar, but what's so great is they have a payment, a paycheck planning application within it. And so what ends up happening, Larry,

we find that what's difficult is you plan out your month and you say, okay, we're gonna spend 600 on groceries. And then, but then all of a sudden the mortgage or the rent hits the electricity bill, like how all the bills are lined up. One paycheck of the first isn't going to cover it all. Right. And you run out of money before those bills are paid. And so it'll help you figure that out. Yeah. And it feels like you're broke in that sense. And so what the paycheck planning part of every dollar does is it's able to show you, Hey, we're here's where you're getting close to the red. So what can you rearrange in your budget to make sure that that paycheck goes as far as you need it to go with some cushion even till you're paid again on the 15th or however often you're paid. And so that that money then is going to be able to take you through it. And then there is a goal, Larry, I would say from budgeting, at least for me, George, is that you're kind of a paycheck ahead. So you always have that cushion. So instead of using the money that just hits your account, you're kind of using the money from the paycheck

before even just to give you some breathing room to not feel like, oh my gosh, our account is getting down to zero, right? And so that may take a few paycheck cycles to get in that place. But do you guys have any money saved at all? Do you have an emergency fund? No. Okay. You know, I've been trying and anytime I do it and then, you know, something comes up and. Yeah. What are the things that are coming up? You've mentioned that a few times. What are those kind of things? You know, just at the beginning of school year school, you know, my son, you know, has gained weight and lost a lot of weight. And, you know, so we had to buy him a whole new, you know, wardrobe of clothes and his mother, who is not my wife currently, you know, there's just a lot of, you know, stuff going on there.

Like she, you know, I feel like sometimes I have to replace her because she's chose other people over him. And, you know, I try and overcompensate. I'm not going to lie to nobody. Yeah. And I'm trying to get past that, but yeah, I hate seeing the way he's broken because of it. And yeah,

it's just messing with me. So, yeah. Which is very understandable. I mean, I see that and we see that a lot with families that there is that overcompensation of buying things for kids or wanting that and I'll tell you Larry though at the end of the day what he needs

and what he wants is is love and acceptance from the people in his life and that's you and so I mean and so that that is something that you you are going to have to be the adult in those situations and say you know that this toy is not going to be the thing that brings him lasting joy and acceptance and love. Like it's just not. And so knowing that, even though it is so easy just to run to stuff and buy stuff to make someone feel good for a moment, you know, there will be a boundary there.

So I think that there's going to be a level of discipline that you and your wife, I want you to get on the same page with her and say, okay, you know, once we do this budget, it's done. And the kids are going to ask, stuff is going to come up and we have to say, no, we have to stick to this because I want you to get a thousand dollars quickly. If you guys don't have any money saved, even getting a starter emergency fund of a thousand dollars, it's going to free you up. And as you go through every dollar, again, those are places where you're going to be able to say in categories, okay, we used to spend this much and not to eat. We're not doing that. And we're putting that aside

here. You really do sit there and take things away, lower those expenses. And then for you, if there is a way to up some income for the season, I think it's one of the best things that you could do just to bring in some extra money to get that $1,000 and then start working your way through this debt and working your way to pay this debt off. And I mean, there is hope in this. I mean, we get these calls all the time, Larry. You make 80 and you owe 43. This is a very fixable problem and it might take two years, but we can get out of this. So tactical things, Larry, you can add a miscellaneous category to the budget for some ankle biters. You can also print out your bank statement and that way you'll see a real

picture of what was spent in the last few months. That's going to help with this budget as well. Yeah. And give it three months, Larry. I mean, we're in February, March, April, give it April, May. Okay. Don't give up. Keep sticking with it, but hold on the line. Austin will pick up. We're going to give you Financial Peace University, our seven lesson course on money and every dollar premium just to make sure that you guys have the knowledge that you need as you start this journey. We're cheering for you. This is The Ramsey Show. you