The Ramsey Show - App - You Don't Need to Be Debt-Free to Get Married! (Hour 2)

Episode Date: June 8, 2020

Home Selling, Debt, Budgeting, Business Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR 

🎵 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. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. My co-host today, Chris Hogan, Ramsey Personality, answering your questions as well.

You jump in and we will talk. Ashman is with us in Texas. Hi, Ashman. How are you? Hi, Dave Ramsey and Chris. How are you doing? Great. How can we help?

Hi. So I'm recently divorced. I have four small children, and I was awarded my house and my car in the divorce. Well, my mortgage went up from $1,252 to $1,540 because they came and reappraised the house. And so I'm kind of, I can afford it, but I kind of don't want to afford it. So I'm thinking about selling it. The only dilemma is, is that I have a broken lease on my credit report. I just tried to call and settle with them but they did not want to take my settlement and so i'm just trying to see should i just stay in the house or i don't really know what to do got you so tell me this right now how much do you think the home

is worth um i could probably sell the house for about $170,000 and I owe $140,000. Okay. And you're just guest ballparking on that, correct? Yes. Okay. And then how much do you owe on the car? I owe about $8,800. Okay.

And how much is that payment you're making each month? $673. Okay. Whoa! Whoa! my goodness. That's big. So what's your household income right now without any kind of alimony or child support, just your income right now?

About $20,000. Is that a year? Yes. Okay, and then are you getting alimony and child support as well? Yes. Okay, all right. How much alimony and child support as well? Yes. Okay. All right. How much alimony and child support are you getting?

I get $1,700 a month. Okay. So what makes you think you can afford to keep this house? Because I've been affording it. No, you can't. No, you haven't. No, you haven't. You just got divorced.

This is over 50% of your take-home pay is your house payment. Yes. You can't do that, hon. It's not going to work for you. This house is not a blessing. It's a curse. It has been. Yeah.

You need to sell it. I'm sorry. I know you and the kids have already been through a lot, and I know you hate moving, and I know you hate moving them away from their buddies or whatever, but you guys not being financially stressed out is going to be more important for them long-term than trying to hold on to a house that's a part of a broken dream that turned into a nightmare. I'm sorry. So how do I move out if I can't get an apartment because of the broken leases?

You can. You just have to talk to a landlord that you can teach them what's going on. I've gone through a divorce. Here's my income. I can afford this. That broken lease is way in the past. I've just not ever been able to get it settled. I'm going to get it settled one of these days and just talk them through it.

And you tell them it's there. You don't let them discover it. But, you know, this happened in the past. It was a long time ago, and this is what's going on. But it doesn't matter. You've got to find another place to live. And what in the world? I mean, what is your interest rate on this freaking car?

Well, my ex-husbandband when he bought the car he tacked on his uh like ten thousand dollars onto the loan of the car and so because we had four children and this was the only car that we had that could carry out for i took the car because i was a stay-at-home mom and i didn't have any money to go and finance a new car which this is going to make sure you have no money. A $673 car payment? Yes. Oh, my Lord, honey. Okay, so here's what you're going to do.

You're going to sell the house. You're going to take some of the money from the house, and you're going to buy another car, and you're going to sell this car. Or you just pay this car off. Pay it off from the sale of the house. But you cannot, you know, when you went through this divorce, let me tell you what you got. You got handed all the bad eggs in the carton. You got handed a house you couldn't afford and a car payment that is jacked up.

You got screwed in this divorce settlement. You may have done it to yourself because you thought you needed all this stuff but the net result is you end up with two things both of which are bad and both of which need to be cleaned up so if you're going to keep the car sell the house pay off the car and get you a rental place and we want you to go through financial peace university as our guest we're going to walk with you you and help you do everything you can to make the money that you've got coming in stretch. And then long term, you've got some career things you're going to have to do because four kids on almost no alimony and no child support at 20 grand is going to be very tough. Yeah.

And so I want to encourage you to reach out to get connected with one of our real estate ELPs. These are people that are going to walk you through the home sale process, will be able to guide you, and also probably be able to guide you with getting connected on places to rent. So go to DaveRamsey.com slash agents. Again, these are people that we trust all around the country. Hey, where'd she go? Let me see here. Okay, I'm going to bring you back up.

Trying to make this phone work here. How much is the settlement on the old bad rent lease thing? It's $3,200. Okay, here's how you fix it then. Okay, here's how you fix it. You pay off the car, and you pay those guys off when you sell your house and then it's gone okay and you you know you get it in writing from them that it's paid in full and then if a landlord asks go you wave that piece of paper in front of that landlord and go paid in full i

got no car payment i got no house payment i make twenty thousand dollars a year and i got another twenty thousand dollars a year coming in in child support and i can afford your rent and you get you something with some cheap rent that you can put everybody in even if it's uncomfortable right now it's more uncomfortable to be financially run over by a bulldozer and that's where you are right now you're getting run over and it's temporary ashman it's temporary it's the first step to healing after the marriage ended. That's right. That's exactly right. I'm so sorry, honey. We'll walk with you. Get a real estate ELP off the website like Chris told

you to do and hang on. Madison will pick up and we'll give you a year subscription to Financial Peace and get you through the class and get in the you get in those classes. There's coaches in there. The Baby Steps Tracker is in there. The Every Dollar App is in there. Use all of it and help you turn this around.

And we'll walk with you as you heal this process for your family. What a mess. Man. You know, one of the things, if you're out there, and I hope you're not, but during COVID we've seen the divorce rates go up yeah and um if you're out there going through a marriage ending event um whether i'm i'm not advocating that this is right but i am saying it's a statistical fact typically the lady makes less than the gentleman not always but the typical statistical scenario is.

And, you know, you're going through a divorce. Don't take on a payment you can't afford in order to protect the children's friendships or their school district. Right. Because it's going to stress you out and freak you out, and you've jumped from one bad situation into another situation that's worse. That's exactly right. While you're at it, go ahead and get a property. Don't take the house.

Get a property you can afford. Yeah. Business leaders, now more than ever, we need people with the right skills to support our communities, especially the frontline workers who provide resources and care for those most in need. To help, LinkedIn is offering free job posts for healthcare and essential service organizations that need to quickly fill critical roles with the people who help us all. If you are hiring for one of these organizations, free job posts on LinkedIn can help you quickly find the right people for your frontline.

LinkedIn Jobs can help by screening candidates for skills and experience you're looking for and putting your job post in front of qualified people who have what you're looking for so you can find the right person to quickly fill critical roles. To post a health care or essential service job for free, or if you're in another industry and have hiring needs, visit linkedin.com slash ramsey. LinkedIn.com slash ramsey. Terms and conditions apply. Chris Hogan co-hosting with me today here on the Dave Ramsey Show.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Katie is with us in Michigan. Hey, Katie, how are you? Hi, Dave. I'm great. Thanks so much for taking my call. I appreciate it. Sure.

What's up? So I have a question about Baby Step 7. We've been in Baby Step 7 for about a year. And my question is around budgeting on Baby Step 7. We've been in Baby Step 7 for about a year. And my question is around budgeting on Baby Step 7. At this point, we have kind of extra money at the end of the month, I would say. You know, we're checking all of our boxes as far as saving for retirement. And I guess I just am getting to the point where I sometimes feel guilty when I go to make purchases on things because I think that I should be doing something else with it.

And so I'm just wondering, you know, how should I be budgeting on Baby Step 7? So your home is paid for. Correct. Congratulations. Well done. And so what is your household income? We make about $150 right now, but it'll go up to about 175 in january great very cool good for you well what chris and i have taught with uh people we're working with and that are wealthy uh chris has done a lot for instance with professional athletes a lot of nfl players

and so forth apply the same formula applies here and it's also what sharon and i do um we have a baseline budget that we run our household on x okay i'll just make up a number okay it doesn't have to be this it's not a suggested number all right but let's just say we took 120 000 that's 10 000 a month and that. And that's a nice budget, pretty fat budget to operate your household on. And you put your basic 15% into retirement there. You know, you're planning vacations and furniture and cars and stuff out of that. And you're just living life out of that as if that's all you made and you just ran your house on that. I mean, it's not like super thin, but it's not super fat, right? and you're just living life out of that as if that's all you made and you just ran your house on that.

It's not like super thin, but it's not super fat, right? Yeah. You pick a number and decide what that number is. I'm going to use that number as an example. That will leave you $55,000 left over starting in January to get you to $175,000. Did I do my math right? Yes. Okay.

Anything over our basic budget that I'm talking about there we apply a percentage to and um the percentages go uh basically uh the first 50 percent go 40 to taxes 10 to tithe so half of it's gone with my giving to my local church and with the government. Then I got the other 50% that you can allocate three ways, and you need to put something on all three, and I don't care which one you do. Some percentage on additional giving, some percentage on additional investing, and some percentage spent on lifestyle. Okay. So if you put 10% on lifestyle, that gives you another $5,000, $6,000 a year to goof off with

in addition to what you had in your regular budget, as an example. Well, that would leave you 40% to go between additional giving and investing. Or you could do it a different way. But whatever you want to do, do something towards giving, something towards that. And Chris, what we found with folks in this situation is that gives them permission to enjoy their money. It really does. Katie, I was going to ask, are you struggling with having fun? A little bit. I think that, you know, there's some like fun things that we want to buy, and I just struggle, like, oh, should we be investing this somewhere else? I'm also thinking, should we be saving more for college, like, up front,

so that we don't have to save later? I just struggle to spend a little bit. But did you understand, Dave's talking about the ratios. What that's going to do is allow you to make progress in multiple areas. You all have earned that right to be able to do that. Now, how you allocate it, as he was saying, is up to you and your husband. But in looking at it, you have this opportunity, that permission to enjoy. And Katie, believe it or not, that's something people will struggle with because they've worked so hard to either get out of debt on baby step two or work so hard to attack and pay off the house that their brain is in attack mode when it needs to be in this enjoy mode.

You're still making progress. So just sit down and talk about it. But Dave, you're right. That ratio kind of allows people to still make progress. And that's a good thing. Well, it keeps the super saver from only thing well it keeps the super saver from only saving it keeps the super spender from only spending it keeps the super generous from giving it all that's true and you need a good rhythm of life as you always you know in general teaching

kids we do the same thing we teach kids four skills when it comes to money work so that you can give save and spend that's right and it's the same same exact principle there and if you can get that rhythm in your life then you can always be generous you can always be thinking about the future for your kids college or investing or whatever in the investing category you could dump some of that more money if you want to in college over there but once you've given yourself a formula then when i I get a royalty check in, I've got a percentage of that that I know I can book Sharon a nice trip. Or we can just enjoy that. Or, you know, we can upgrade a car.

Right. And I don't have to think about it. Right. Because I'm not being irresponsible. It's permission to spend that money on us. That's right. Because I know on the other percentages, I've got my increased generosity in the Family Foundation. I know on the other percentages, I've got my increased generosity in the family foundation. I know on the other percentages, I've got increased investing.

Right. And so I'm still doing all the smart stuff, but also get to use some of the money straight up for enjoyment. That's right. And you know you're going to have that tax side. Yeah. Oh, yeah. The taxes and the tithe is before I start. That's right.

The only thing you get to pick is the other 50%. Oh, that's good. That's good. And so you don't get to pick the first 50%. Right. If you're an evangelical Christian and you tithe now you may not be you may not be have that as your baseline but that's the baseline for giving on me and then beyond that i want to increase my giving uh because it increases my enjoyment as well outrageous generosity is always fun

so great question that's a really really really good really good question. So, Katie, hold on. Let me send you a copy of the book, The Legacy Journey. It's where I talk about all of that. Fair warning, it is the only book I've written that is 100% for the Christian audience. So if my faith somehow makes you ill or something, just use it for kindling. But it's a straight-up Christian book. It's a biblical view of wealth and generosity so our other stuff is based on scripture but is is uh done in such a way that even people who are not don't share our faith can still enjoy the stuff you probably won't like this

one unless you do because i'm straight up preaching at you the whole time on how to do this and what the bible says about money oh yeah so all right j Johan is with us. Johan is in California. Hey, Johan, how are you? Hi, Dave. Hi, Chris. How are you guys? Great. How can we help?

So I have a small mobile car detailing business. I was wondering if I should save up for a shop to do my detailing out of, or should I save up the 20% for a house and do the mobile and detail out of my house? Ah, Johan, right now, are you doing it on mobile? Yes. Okay. How much are you making right now, each year?

Right now, so the first year I made, it was kind of slow. I made about $7,000. The second year was about 15 now um I'm averaging about three to five thousand a month okay is this your full-time job yes okay good good so you got a good little small business going there and what would opening a storefront do for your income? I'm hoping so. Because now I can only fit like three cars a day.

With the shop, I can fit like five or six cars a day, or even I'm willing to stay overnight at the shop and detail some cars. So I'll be able to put more cars in. Okay. You're still doing them all by yourself? Yes. How can you do more in a shop than you can do mobile? Just because of the drive between?

Yes. And people can drop off their cars at the shop for overnight. Johan, I would tell you this. I would avoid the storefront. I would avoid bringing on that overhead. I'm going to dig in and grow your business. Look out there and figure out ways to help people learn more about you. Secure an auto dealership for you to go in and be able to knock those cars out.

Grow this business organic. Yeah. Yeah. Try to get where you can do more cars in one location, maybe a large business or something, where you can do more cars in one location than having to jump around so much without having to take on the storefront. I'd buy a house before I did that. Yes.

I think you're just at the beginning stages of this business. You're doing good. I just keep hustling, keep grinding, man. You're a go-getter. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, folks. Hey folks, Father's Day is just around the corner. If you're looking for the perfect, unique gift to give dad, I've got it. Grip 6 belts. If dad's like me, he's not a fan of traditional belts.

They never fit right and they're uncomfortable. Grip 6 belts are exceptional. Owner BJ designed a truly modern minimalist belt made of high quality materials with no holes, no flap, and no bulk. And the buckles come in really cool interchangeable designs. I personally own these belts in different styles and talk about affordability, GRIP6 belts come with a lifetime guarantee. That means if your dad no longer likes the fit or style of his belt, he can replace it for free. Plus, these guys do business right.

They make their products and source their materials in the U.S. So show dad you love him and get a GRIP6 belt. To get the Dave Ramsey special, visit GRIP6.com. Welcome back to the Dave Ramsey Show. My co-host today, Chris Hogan, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author. Alex is in Texas. Hey, Alex, how are you? Better than I deserve.

Cool. How can I help? So we finished with Baby Step 1. Now we're on baby step two. And so you tell us that we have to go ahead and get the, you know, work on the lowest balance to the highest balance. Well, my wife and I have been discussing about her student loan. By the time we get to the student loan, her student loan, there'll be about two years. And so she says about two years she'll be able to apply for um it's they they basically will uh waive what the balance that she owes because she works at a high-risk school so she says we should just skip that and just pay the minimum on that student loan

and work on the other ones who is paying it well what it does is that she has like a special uh like like a grant that if she works a certain amount of years so that's kind of high uh from who school should be from the actual student from sally may one of those loans now she doesn't either that doesn't exist there are high risk there are high risk forgiveness programs but they're associated they may be managed through Sallie Mae, but they're probably associated with your state. There may be a federal implication, but I don't think she's got good information. Because that's what they mentioned to her, like, you know, in two years she'll be able to apply

and have the actual loan be forgiven. Up to how much? Up to basically, by that time you know it's i think it's not seventy nine hundred dollars how much and so by seventy nine hundred dollars that's her total student loan debt no her student loan debt is 15 that they will forgive seventy nine hundred dollars two years from now yes and. And what is your household income? Household income after taxes? Either.

Okay, after taxes is about $6,000. Okay. It fluctuates because they get commission. Yeah, and how much debt do you guys have, not counting your home? $300,000. $300,000? Yes, sir. That's not counting your home 300 000 300 000 yes sir that's not counting the home right yes what do you have cars credit cards personal loans uh second mortgages just different uh yeah we got it wow okay so wait a minute.

You have $300,000 not counting your home. Yeah, so that's what she says. Like, it's a small dent. It's not even in the discussion. Break the $300,000 down for me because I'm having trouble here. How much is credit cards? Credit cards is about close to $150,000. Oh, okay.

And how much on these cards? On the cards, they're basically $60,000 on two. Okay, so that's $210,000. What's the other $90,000? Student loans? Yeah. So you got a bunch of student loans too. Well, the student loans, but it's actually the one that we're discussing is that

because she has different student loans from different student loan companies, and so that's what she was telling me for the amount that we owe. I thought you said she had $15,000 in student loans. Now I got $90,000 in student loans. So you've got $75,000? No, it's actually what we're discussing is that those 90,000 15,000 are are there different companies that she owes oh so she they're all her student loans yes but they're all from what we're discussing is those 15,000 they said they

will be able to only waste $7,900 of it. So that's what she says. It's such a minimum amount. She says, why worry about that section of student loans, where in two years we'll be able to pay that off? So that portion of that student loan, we should skip it and concentrate on the other bigger loans. Okay, well, Alex, let me just help you here. I've read through and I've heard about people talk about student loan forgiveness. I've listened and read about mortgage loan forgivenesses.

These programs aren't real, okay? There is so much red tape and so many different nuances inside of it. I don't want you pinning your hope to this thing that isn't going to work out. So I want you guys to make a decision about what you're going to do for your future. This is about payoff, not forgiveness. It's okay if you park it for two years because it's going to take you longer than two years to clean up this mess and and give it a shot but if you don't cross every t and dot every i you're not going to get it and if you do get it it's a very unusual thing now it's not the 10-year program

it's a high-risk thing and usually that's a five-year basis right or a four year basis is that what this one is exactly five years because i said you told us that that might actually work but um you got bigger problems than that what did you run up on credit cards if you ask me i don't know how long have you guys been married 21 years okay all right and so when when are the cars going to be sold the phone is going to be it's uh you heard the statement yeah you heard the statement right you need to be in two hoopties yeah you need a skateboard. Man, you didn't see anything anywhere in any store that you hadn't bought. And so you're going to have to go.

You're going to let the pendulum swing all the way the other way and have a complete change of heart. And you're over here discussing an $8,000 forgiveness when you've got $150,000 in student loans and $60,000 in cars. So the cars need to be gone this week or up for sale this week. Don't even go look at Amazon. Matter of fact, don't even say it. You need to get out the cards and have a detailed, in-depth plastic surgery at your house. You are way overdue for that. And then we've got to get you on a really tight budget.

And then if you want to park that to the side, do the paperwork, and hopefully you get that $8,000 forgiven, that's fine. But you know what? You have a $300,000 story. $8,000 is just a little sidebar discussion. Yeah. So in that sense, she's right. I hope you can get it forgiven, but it doesn't solve your problem. You've got such other issues you've got to deal with that are such a bigger deal.

So make sure – hang on. I'm gonna have madison pick up we're gonna make sure you get you in financial peace for the 14 day free trial and you guys get in there start watching the videos and get on the same page and you really need to sell so much stuff the kids think they're next yeah you're really gonna have to clean house here man you have a mess and radical radical change in your behaviors um it's like you're going down the road down the interstate at 110 miles an hour the wrong way we just stopped and got you off the interstate now go under the bridge and get back on going the right way and set your speed limit set your screws at the speed limit, and you'll get back. And you're going to change directions by 200 miles an hour here.

Yeah. I mean, that's what you've got to do. And so it's going to shock your system. It's going to shock the system of your crazy family. It's going to shock the system of your broke friends that you've been running around with spending money you didn't have on stuff you didn't need to impress people you don't even really like it's going to shock your system and you are you need your system shocked big time and so it has to be a radical change otherwise you're going to be bankrupt in two years because you don't have a middle ground here this is going

to take you out with a six thousand dollar income this is going to take you out and that's what's gotten you on the phones what's gotten you thinking about this so we'll walk with you but dude you cannot play with this this is death by plastic that's what you're facing if you don't put these things up and chop them up and end it it you know if you have a small problem you can do a small adjustment yeah but when you got a radical problem you got to do a small adjustment. Yeah. But when you got a radical problem, you got to do a radical adjustment. I agree, Dave. I'm with you. And he's got to get her on board. They've got to sit down and have a heart to heart today about this situation, because you're right. I see bankruptcy in the future. If they don't, they don't make a change. They're not going to fix it. I know they can fix it. They just have to make that decision.

So let me let me throw out one more thing. The reason I'm leaning on you, brother, is because I love you and I want you to win at this, okay? I'm not fussing at you. I've been right where you are. But this is like you calling up the marriage counselor and going, we got serious marriage problems. My wife doesn't like the color of the drapes. It's like a deflection. The color of the drapes ain't the issue you got other issues

okay and sharon i might have argued about the color of drapes a couple times but that wasn't the problem there's other problems dealing with me i can just tell you that i won't say anything about her on public radio because i'm smarter than that i I'm scared of her. Everyone's scared of her. She's tough. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Let's talk about preventing the unexpected. Imagine your refrigerator goes out. You can fix your major appliances yourself with parts and expert advice from my friends at Appliance Parts Pros. They carry over 2 million appliance parts and offer easy returns. And anyone can do the job themselves

with 3,500 repair and how-to videos, plus live chat on their website. Save money and get your parts today at AppliancePartsPros.com. Thanks for joining us, America. I mentioned putting them into the 14-day free trial in financial peace, and there is nothing like a global pandemic to kick you in the butt and get your priorities straight. This is the perfect time to refocus on your goals and get on a plan that will help you win with money. It is time to take control. For the very first time ever, we are giving you, this is the first time we've ever done this in 30 years,

a free trial of the Financial Peace membership for 14 days. You get all the digital content, including all nine lessons of our proven plan. It's helped nearly 6 million people pay off their debt and become wealthy and outrageously generous. Full access to the EveryDollarPlus budgeting app, our newest app, the Baby Steps app, helps you track your progress all free for two weeks the whole enchilada baby it's free it's chris hogan rachel cruz dave ramsey anthony o'neill we're the teachers listen this is a chance for you to get serious about your future okay you're going to have the information to be able to watch.

Dave, this is the information we travel around the country teaching the people. So people can watch this in their homes, in their Snuggie, okay? Whoa. Put the Snuggie on, Dave. Whoa. Do you own one of those? No. Okay.

Do you? No. Okay. I don't know. Good. I'm glad. You got the American flag one, don't you? They don't make one my size, Dave. It's the ob1

but slap that thing on and seriously turn it on and watch this information turn on this fpu and watch it and especially the tools seriously the app tracker you're gonna have a chance this feeling people have felt dave throughout this this coronavirus and i'm gonna tell, I can get emotional because I've had some people reach out to me. And they said, Chris, I wish I would have done things different. I wish I would have been ready when this happened. I know. I know the feeling. Because, I mean, when I went through bankruptcy, all I could look back was, you know, because I did stupid stuff and it put me there.

And I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready for anybody to come along except my little plan and you know debt only works when debt works and that's when when everything works perfect and nothing ever works perfect so it doesn't work that's right and so we walk you through this and um it's 14 day free trial while folks have been hurting has been one of the most gratifying things we've done as a company and i don't know how much longer we're going to be able to do it but it's working so far, and it's financially working here, so we can continue to do it because enough of you are staying in after the 14 days. It makes it work.

So that conversion rate on it is good. But it's going to be worth it because when we can walk with you year after year after year in the groups, with the coaches, with continuing to feed every one of our live events that we stream, to get that stuff free. The membership has its privileges, as they say. It really does. And listen, you have access to a coach. I help train in Financial Coach Master Training over 20,000 coaches.

So when you're inside of this and you're plugged in, if you've got a question, you can get connected to someone to help you. It's like having a money personal trainer. So listen, it is a great opportunity. I'm telling you right now, the tools are there. You need to be there with the information so you can work it. DaveRamsey.com slash FPU for the free 14-day trial. DaveRamsey.com slash FPU. Kenya is with us in North Carolina.

Hi, Kenya. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. How are y'all? Good. How can we help? Good. I was calling because I have a question.

I just got engaged in February and... Yay! When's the wedding? Next September 5th, 2021. Why so long? Well, because I want to... So I have a question for my

debt purposes. I want to be sure that I'm debt free. Why? I'm sorry. Why? I'm sorry? Why? Because I want to be debt-free before we get married. Why? So that way I have more time saving.

Why can't you do it together? Why can't you do it together after you're married? Finish it up. That's a great idea. Yeah, let's move it to this September. Okay. Dave, you can't just move wedding dates. Yeah, you can. I just did.

Kenya, how much... That's funny because we thought about moving it. Did you? But Kenya, how much debt does your fiancé have? My fian fiance is actually really great with his spending. I would say he only has his car loan debt.

So I would say roughly about $19,000. And how much do you have? I have $12,000. And what do you make? I make $24,000. And what do you make? I make $24,000. What's he make?

He makes up to about $32,000. All right. I'd put everything on hold, save you up a little money, get married in September, this one, and have you a basic, simple wedding, something under $10,000. You can do that if you all save like crazy between now and then. And then when you're married, let's get after it. And let's get it all paid off. You may want to sell his car.

It's a wee bit expensive. But other than that, you've got a plan here, kiddo. I don't believe in waiting to be out of debt to get married if that's your only reason to wait. If you're both on the same page. And it sounds like you're both on the same page of getting out of debt, right? That is correct. Yes, sir. Yeah. Kenya, do you have a big family?

I don't. My fiance does. Okay. Well, here's the thing. Can I tell you something? Let Uncle Hogan give you some guidance here. This wedding has nothing to do about the other people. Okay? I don't care about what they think. This is you all's day. So, so many people end up spending 30 or 40 grand on this

grand party for the whole family, and it's not about them. It's about you and your fiance coming together. So, you guys can do this on a smaller scale, and I agree with Dave. You could do it a lot sooner. It's about what you all are wanting, but I love the idea that you both have this mindset of attacking debt,

and I want you to keep that mindset together as you move forward. I'm going to give you a wedding gift. I'm going to give you financial peace for you and your fiancé, and you guys go through that as part of your pre-marriage counseling. You've got plenty of time to do that between now and this September. And if I were in your shoes, that's what I would do. I mean, the chances of me waiting 18 months to marry sharon ramsey when i met her was zero i would have drug her to the altar in about 30 seconds if i could have got away with it but there was a six month waiting

period required you couldn't let her get away that's exactly right because i had her talked into it i was afraid she'd change her mind but there you go so but the you know chances of waiting around 18 months um yeah it is uh you know just for some kind of a financial goal that's putting that's putting things in the wrong order as long as you're on the same page about the big four which is in-laws kids religion and money and if you're on the same page about money about getting out of debt that's the number one cause of divorce you got to sit down go through financial peace as part of your pre-marriage counseling get some good pre-marriage counseling and i personally don't recommend waiting until you're out of debt to get married um there are people that quote me as having said that i did

not say that ever in 30 years here on the air um but i do believe you must be on the same you must be aligned in your in your belief system yes i mean if he's going to stay in debt the rest of his life or you're going to spend money like a princess the rest of your life and he doesn't and he's a tight wad then you're going to have problems that's right that's not that i would tell you to wait until you got that straightened out that's a deal breaker but you guys are aligned you don't make a lot of money you don't have a lot of debt. We've got to get your incomes up, get your careers moving. You're young.

You're just getting started. You're going to do great. Yeah, and do the real premarital counseling, not this microwavable thing where you go sit. 20 minutes in the pastor's office is not premarital counseling. That is not. I'm telling you, you need to dig in. There are assessments and tools and things you've got to do. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, Dave, you need to dig in. There are assessments and tools and things you got to do. Yeah.

Yeah. Oh, Dave, that's a good point. Get the Sympa system from our friend Dr. Les Parrott. Les Parrott. Yeah. That's a good system. Which is a great one. Yeah.

Good stuff, kiddo. Hey, you hang on. Madison will pick up and we'll give you your first wedding gift because your wedding is going to be coming up quicker now. See what has happened here? You and me are giving giving wedding advice this is dangerous america dangerous this is this is swerving outside your lane i need to sign a waiver you do a liability waiver deeply and we're deeply in the kimchi here buddy start a new business dave ramsey

no that one would fail that's a terrible idea. It's a bad idea. You're right. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. You can now listen to The Dave Ramsey Show on Spotify, Pandora, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. For all the ways to watch and listen, check out our show page at DaveRamsey.com.