The Ramsey Show - App - You Won't Die From Not Going to a Restaurant! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: March 12, 2020

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions,casting 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. Thanks for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Greg starts off this hour in Boston.

Hi, Greg. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Dave, how are you? Pleasure to talk to you. You too, sir. How can I help? So I have an investment property with a partner of mine and we are going to be selling it in May and I would just want some background as to capital gains and if I have

to pay capital gains or capital gains tax on the first sale of a house. What will the house sell for? $761,000. Okay. And so your net on it would be around $700,000. And what is your basis? You've been depreciating it. How long have you owned it?

I have owned this for about five years and um i assume you've depreciated it every year on your taxes correct that is correct you all right do you know what your adjusted basis is i do not okay what'd you pay for it uh 465 okay i'll give you a guess and say you probably have depreciated it down to about 300 adjusted basis. We'll use that as our example. Okay. If your adjusted basis after depreciation is 300 and your net sale after expenses is 700, you have a gain of 400. You following me?

I'm following you. And I'm assuming you are splitting this 50-50 with your partner? That is correct. So you would have a gain of $200,000. And do you make over $400,000 a year household income? No. Then your capital gains rate is 15% of your capital gain. So your capital gains bill is going to be around $30,000.

$30,000? Okay. Out of $200,000. No. Okay. Give or take. I mean, I'm not going to be exactly right, but that's going to be fairly close. Yep.

Now, the next question is this. Who owns the property, an LLC, a sub-S, or you two as individuals? Us two as individuals. Okay. If you wanted to do a 1031, you can talk to your tax advisor and see if that's possible i think i'm not sure but i think you can take your portion without him without the partner and roll it into another property of greater or equal value um and then that would take your 200 000 and move it into another property and you can not pay any capital gains

because a 1031 is basically a trade. You're trading one property for another. You're rolling your gain into the next property. Someday, if you sell that property while you live, you will pay capital gains on it, no matter how many times you roll it. You can roll it and roll it and roll it in a 1031, but it costs about usually $1, it roll it in a 1031 but um it costs about usually 1500 extra to do a 1031 closing because it has to be closed into an irs approved escrow account

and then that escrow account money is used to purchase the next property and um it's somewhat like a direct transfer rollover for an ira that regard. But you have to have a certified title company that the IRS certifies for 1031s, and then you can get all that set up ahead of time, check with your tax advisor, see if you can break this partnership up and do that. Do you want to keep owning rental property? Yes, I do. I mean, it was something that my wife and I are discussing just because we're in a good spot on our mortgage.

We don't have any debt currently. And if I could avoid the capital gains tax, and we are interested in investing in real estate. If it saves you $30,000 and you're going to keep the money in investment real estate anyway, that's the income-producing real estate. Income-producing, income-producing, like kind. You can't go buy a piece of raw ground. You can't go buy a lake house for you to play in. Okay?

It has to be an income-producing property. On the same value, now, if I sell this property in the mid-sevens, do I have to go buy? Well, I guess I assume if we can split it off it will be half okay you're half i assume but that's where it gets tricky a i don't know if you can split this partnership up and move it that way but since it's two individuals in a general partnership i think it's possible that's the part i'm not a% on. And logic would say, which when you apply logic to tax law, that's laughable, but logic would say that you would take half of the $700 or $350 because it's the number net of expenses.

So when you pay your commissions and whatever negotiating you do, whatever else you do around the thing, that's your net. But your worst-case scenario is only $30,000, and you're going to put $170,000 in your pocket. It's still been a really good day. Kathleen is with us in Dallas, Texas. Hi, Kathleen. How are you?

Good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hi. So my husband, he's feeling pulled toward mission through our church. At this point, it's just short-term because he's in his working years. But my question for you is that we are debt free except for our house.

But we have our next few quarterly taxes payments. Those are saved up. So we do have some money in the bank, but they're kind of spoken for. But we do not have our six to 12 months of expenses saved up. So my dilemma here is these trips, I mean, they're a couple thousand dollars. First, he kind of wanted all five of us to go, which would be $10,000. Now he's thinking just himself and our daughter, which would be $4,000. But I'm kind of feeling if he's willing to be taking these higher risk type trips,

one he did already with Central America. He's willing to go now to Kenya. Your household income is what? It's about $350. How much? About $350,000. And why don't you have your three to six months done? We just last year finished paying off our medical school debt and a personal loan.

Last year? Yes. But you make $250,000 a year. We do. And so how much do you have in your emergency fund? We have about $100,000. But that being said, we have high quarterly tax payments. No, no, no.

I said your emergency fund. Oh, our emergency fund. We kind of have it. It's just all lumped together. Yeah, it shouldn't be. We have about $100,000. How much is your quarterly taxes? How much of that is allocated to quarterly taxes?

We have about $35,000 each quarter that we have to okay so 35 of the 100 is set aside for quarterly taxes right correct does that leave 65 for your emergency fund then well so i kind of like to have the next two quarterly tax payments reserved so i'm counting 70 of that, you haven't made the income yet. As you make the income, you don't get to do that. Okay. As you make the income, you should set aside your quarterly estimates. Every time you pull money out of the practice and bring it home, you ought to be setting aside your quarterly estimates in a separate savings account,

which means that you have $65,000 clear and you make $250,000 a year and he wants to spend $4,000. Yeah, spend $4,000. Yeah. Spend $4,000. Okay. Yeah, you're okay. You're not dying here. No, we're not.

If he wanted to spend $40,000, it would be different because you don't have that. But $4,000 you've got. You make $250,000 a year. Yeah. Go on a missions trip. Take your kid on a missions trip. It's wonderful. And he's feeling called to do that.

Yeah. I think you can afford it. Now, what you need to do that. Yeah, I think you can afford it. Now, what you need to do is start budgeting for it and saying, what's the rhythm on this that we're going to agree to so that we don't have to have this strained discussion every time? Because right now, it's a strained discussion because it wasn't a plan. And you can't play the God card and say, oh, God said, because God believes in planning too. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. I love talking about companies that know how to do business right.

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How can I help? I'm so excited. So a couple weeks ago, my husband found you on YouTube, and he's been listening to you religiously and doing everything you say. And I'm pretty excited because we're in a lot of debt. We're only 24 years old, and we make pretty good money. He makes the mechanics. He makes flag hours, but it's a pretty decent amount to be in the debt that we're in right

now. Yeah, so what's your household income? His is about 70 to 80, but it's not steady because of's flag hours. And mine is about $30 to $40. Okay. So you're making like $1 to $110, all right? Mm-hmm. And how much debt do you have? So we had a lot of credit cards, so I just like, because we got a house we couldn't afford,

and we put it on like letting people borrow, borrowing money from other people, and then getting credit cards. And I know credit cards are bad, so we stopped. How much debt do you have? $20,000. $20,000? Yes. And is it all on credit cards?

No, we got a loan. No, we got a loan that was a lower interest rate to pay off the credit cards. How much do you owe on your cars? $11,000 on my car. Is that in the $20,000? What? Is that part of the $20,000? my car. Is that in the $20,000? What? Is that part of the $20,000? No, no, no.

It's $20,000 plus the $12,000 on my car. Plus the $11,000 on your car. That's $31,000. $11,000 on my car. And how much of student loans? And plus the mortgage. No student loans. I paid all the school off.

And how much is your house payment? $1,300. Okay. That's doable. Once we get you on a budget yeah all right so how can i help so we we kind of try to figure it out we put our lowest like the lowest thing that we have to pay off first and the highest thing and then we got my husband in the budget because he was spending a thousand dollars on like airsoft and going out with his friends and then another thousand dollars on like lunch money and stuff like that.

And another $1,000 on us going out to movies and stuff like that. So it was about $3,000 of extra stuff, not including any pills or anything. And now we went down and I'm getting him $200 a week for food. Not just food because I'm making his lunch, just for extra stuff. For whatever he needs to get. what can i help you with today so he doesn't want to spend any money not go to anywhere not do anything because we were trying to get out of debt which is understandable but i don't think you'll be able to do that for very long why he i say maybe one day a week go to one restaurant. Why?

Because we've gone out every single day for the last five years. Stop, stop. So you make $100,000 to $110,000. You owe $31,000. If you lived on beans and rice and stayed out of a restaurant, you could be debt-free in a year and some change, maybe 14 months. And so I've known a lot of people over 30 years that have worked on this idea, and none of them died from not going to a restaurant.

Oh, I understand, and I know it's doable. But I just think going from such extremes, maybe going to the movies for $6 one day a week instead of never going again because if we never go again, I feel like after a month, we're just going to give up on it. I don't think anybody said never. I think we said for 14 whole months. A long time.

And we're just used to going out every weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and then and you're broke yeah because of that yeah i know how's that working for you not very well okay so it's time to change yeah and so the whole idea the whole idea is if you're kind of new to this and he's jumped in and he's gone whole hog can tell, and he's driving you nuts. Okay? So, but here's the thing. Why don't you guys try something that's radical for 30 days? Hold your nose. And see how you do.

See how you feel about it. Because here's the thing. The more radical your sacrifices, the more radical your results. And what we teach folks is if you'll live like no one else, later you can live and give like no one else. Now, you are an adult. You make $110,000 a year. You can go out to eat or go to a movie.

You have the right to make that decision. But you're calling me and asking me how to best win with money. And what I've found is that if I will just say, I'm going to do something completely different and kind of shock the system, shock my emotional system, my spiritual system, my family system by completely changing directions for a short period of time. If you get out of a bunch of debt and you hate it, you can go right back in debt. It's okay. I mean, you'll be able to do it. They'll let you get right back in. So the thing is what you've been doing, the way you've been living has caused you to be where you are.

The more you approximate that, the closer you continue to live like you used to live, the less, the more you're going to look like you look right now financially. And so you've got to change. Now, does that mean you're going to do that the rest of your life? No. But what this amounts to is, is you guys have been, you've been acting like little children. You just been doing what feels good. And adults devise a plan and follow it. Children do what feels good. And it's a maturity thing. Whether you're 54, 24, 14, 84, it's a maturity thing. The ability to delay pleasure for a greater result

is an indication of emotional and spiritual maturity. Living like no one else so later you can live and give like no one else is hard, but it's worth it. Now then you've got to decide what you guys are going to do. But the thing you've got to do is look past the momentary pain to the greater gain. You've got to look past and say, why am I doing this? Because that baby I'm hearing in the background wants a better life. I want to change my family tree. Why are you doing this? Because that baby I'm hearing in the background wants a better life. I want to change my family tree. Why are you doing this? Because I'm sick and tired of make $110,000 a year work, busting my hump, doing side work and being broke. So something's got to give. And that's why your husband, he said, you know, he works on cars. I mean, he knows if you do one

thing to a car, car's not going to run. If you do another thing, the car, the car's going to run. It's a, it's, you're going to, you going to create the result you want. You control the controllables, and then you decide what you want to do. So that's how you do it. That's exactly how you do it. So I'm going to put you two through Financial Peace University, and if you'll go to the class and through the class together, I'm going to pay for it. If you'll hold on, Kelly's going to pick up. Then you'll start to get your hands around what I'm talking about. And it stops being an argument about going to a freaking movie and starts being a decision to change my life.

And then you can decide what of that you want to do. People do all kinds of different things. But this is what we're teaching. And, and if your husband is going completely overboard, then, you know, if you're in that group and financial peace, some of the people in there will talk to him about that. I mean, if he's starving his children or something, or he's not willing to buy clothes for his own children, then that's a problem. That's not what we're talking about. But yeah, stopping things that are entertainment,

which going out to eat is entertainment, going to a movie is entertainment, in order for a short period of time, in order to hit a bigger goal for a noble reason, yeah, it's worth it. And I do recommend that, living like no one else. So later you can live and give like no one else. Larissa is in Nashville. Hi, Larissa, how are you? I'm well. How are you doing, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? Very good. Thank you for taking my call.

I am calling because I am wondering if you could help me and my husband prioritize. We have sort of a two-part thing going on. One has to do with our careers, following our chosen careers rather than the jobs that we're working. And the other one is we are trying to get out of debt. And we're in the middle of Financial Peace University. And we're getting a lot out of it, but we are having a hard time with budgeting because we have more going out than we have coming in. So what do you need to amputate?

So that's the question. We make about $58,000 a year. I'm a stay-at-home mom. I am a writer as well, but I'm not getting paid for that, a songwriter. And I have run an Airbnb business out of our home, and my husband works as a real estate appraiser assistant during the day, and he works at a restaurant at night. Now, after working as an assistant for three years,

he's realized he does not want to do this job, and he's hardly getting paid any money for which is five for waiting tables at night. Tell you what, hold on. We'll come back from the break. I'll get the rest of your story and see if I can help you. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. With more frequency than you know, I get calls and emails from people dealing with the recent loss of a spouse or a parent. You can hear the struggle and the heartache that they've been experiencing. And at a time they should be grieving, what breaks my heart the most is the strain and tension that they're going through because of money, especially when it's a situation

that could have been avoided. If you have a family, it is your responsibility to have term life insurance. It's one of the things you do to say I love you. And yes, this is an ad for Zander Insurance. But since this is one of the most effective ways I have to get my point across, so be it. For over 20 years, I've been telling you about the importance of term life insurance and protecting your family. Listen, you need to check out Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. I can't say it enough. Protect your family. It's what you're supposed to do.

Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282 all right we're talking with larissa in n Nashville, and they got a lot of bills. She's writing, but not for any money yet, her songs. Her husband is making $58,000, and they're trying to figure out how to reverse the idea of too much going out. And so I asked the question, Larissa, what is it you need to amputate? So the question has been whether or not we should sell our home and we owe about 189,000 on it and I think the house has appreciated quite a bit since we bought it five years ago what is your house payment my house payment is 1620 a month okay

and your take-home pay on 58,000 is what a month a month um that's like about 5,000 no no 5,000 a month is 60,000 a year that would not be your take-home pay on 58,000 yeah so I think so it's it's for 4,800 or 5,000 it it varies a little bit, Dave, because coal works. So you're saying the $58,000 is not your income. That is your take-home pay. That's our take-home, yes. Okay, all right, all right. And so one-fourth of that would be somewhere around $1,250.

So you have a house payment that's a little bit high. What do you owe on your cars? We don't have any payments on our cars. What other debts do you have? Well, we have about $50,000 in student loan debt. We owe about $15,000 to the IRS because of waiting tables and not cutting taxes and getting behind on payments. And then we, in the past three years since we've had our son, have racked up about $35,000 in credit card debt. Since we've had our what? Son.

Son. Yeah, my husband was out of work for a little while. Okay, and so $35,000 in credit card debt? Yes. Okay, so what we have is an income problem. Your house payment's not out of control. It's all the other debts that are riding you down. You could sell your house, and if you've got enough equity,

you would clean up a bunch of this debt. That's a short way out. I probably would rather see you guys do some things to increase your income. I would try that for a year and, you know, take extra jobs and different jobs and that kind of thing. Your songwriting, unless it's going to produce revenue, may need to sit on the shelf a little bit while you go make some money. But let's get your income up for a year and see if we can make a turn on this. All right, in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Matt and Mandy are with us.

Hey, guys, welcome to the Ramsey Solutions lobby. Thanks, Dave. Hi, thank you. Where do you guys live? We're from Sunfield, Michigan. Very cool. Good for you. And here to do a debt-free scream yes how

much have you paid off thirty nine thousand six hundred and fifty four dollars and seventeen cents i love it how long did this take 10 months good for you and your range of income during that time we were from 95 to 105 okay what kind of debt was this? It was my temper tantrum debt. Your temper tantrum debt? We had done Dave-ish for a while, and I really wanted to have the house remodeled. It's a very small house. It's not huge, and I was just sick and tired of it and decided that I wanted it done. So it was a camper to live in while we were doing it and our home remodel okay and then you decided in 10 months to go in reverse and have a temper tantrum about that yeah i was really mad at myself right after it was done i loved having the house done but i was furious because i knew

better and um yeah so we just decided to get gazelle intense and be done cool and we joined our brother and sister-in-law after uh we had talked them into doing it before so okay so they were already on the path which further shamed you so matt where were you during this ride working okay cool very cool so what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is stick to it stick to it diligence uh make a meal plan and shop at aldi okay all during the 10 months yes okay cool so who were your biggest cheerleaders our brother and sister-in-law okay family yeah and what got you started on this originally? Originally, I was a single mom before I had met him, and I had student loans, and I just wasn't sure how I was going to

get through it, so someone had introduced me to you. And so then I had talked to him about it, and we really wanted to make a better path, and we just kind of got off from time to time, and finally decided it was just time to get it out and get it done okay tired of giving our money to the banks yeah yeah i hear you really sick of paying interest and stuff how's it feel now that you're free that feels great it feels amazing this trip has been great cool very cool so when you were covering the 40 when you said 40 000 there was emotion in your voice. What's that from? It was a lot of, there was some struggles.

I lost my brother in September. And I had never wanted to be more debt free than at that moment, so I could pay for his funeral, and I couldn't do it. Oh, my gosh. That does change your why, doesn't it? It really does, yeah. Yeah, that's living like no one else, so later you can live like no one else and give like no one else.

Yeah. Wow. I didn't want my mom to have to carry that burden, and she did. But never again. Never again. You've changed your family tree yeah yeah when you have a moment like that that's the i've had it forever moment i mean that that one that one sears deep on the heart and you'll never go back no you'll never go back it's not a dave ramsey thing anymore at that point it is a mandy and matt thing yeah we are not doing this anymore because you

can you can tell you can teach your grandbabies that same lesson you know that's the kind of those are milestones or markers where there's a tipping point in your life so i'm proud of y'all well done thank you well done you've gone through some roller coasters and some ish to not to temper fits to temper fits i like it that's good it's good. It's a good way to get there because it's permanent. It is permanent. Sometimes if it's too intellectual and there's not enough emotion, not enough spiritual in your transformation, then it doesn't stick. Yeah. And you fall off the wagon.

You won't fall off. No. You're done. And we do have to give Jesus a lot of the credit because he was walking right alongside us the entire time. Amen. Amen. That's exactly right. Well, well done you very well done we got a copy of chris hogan's book for you everyday millionaires you're on your way that's the next chapter we're hoping chapter

chapter two is closed and we're moving on to chapter three yes there we go and we'll show you how to do that signed by chris himself it's the number oneseller, and it's how all the millionaires got to be there, and they did the stuff like you're doing. And, you know, a lot of them that we interviewed had that kind of a moment of some kind where it's emotional, where you just say, uh-uh, I am never going to be here again. I'm never going to be here again. I remember one of mine. I had several, but American Express called my house and asked my wife why she would stay with a man that wouldn't pay his bills.

The collector was trying to be nasty to get our attention, and she called me crying at the office agreeing with him. And I was so pissed I was ready to go to Florida and whip a collector. But I'll never forget that. I mean, that was 30 years years ago and i've never done business with american express since but i paid that bill he did he did win that part of the argument because it made me so mad i paid it but i i thought you know what i'm never gonna be here again if american express calls my house now it's a wrong number you know and you have to have those things those those deep anger hurt type emotional things where a joy it's some kind of an emotional thing where you just go we're never going back and you

guys have had it so yes i'm sorry about your brother thank you well done you guys matt and mandy and the three kids names and ages we have gavin he's nine this is austin and faith they're both 17 awesome very good so faith austin gavin matt and mandy from lansing michigan forty thousand dollars paid off in 10 months making 95 to 105 count it down let's hear a debt-free scream three one. We're dead free! Woo-hoo! Yeah! Touchdown, baby! This is how it is done.

Well played. Very well played. So you need to get yourself in a position. You. I'm talking to you. You need to get yourself in a position. You. I'm talking to you. You need to get yourself in a position that you can impact those kinds of situations because you're not broke.

Money's evil. Money's not evil if you want to pay for your brother's funeral. This is the Dave Ramsey Show, Mike. Mike's in Philadelphia. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Mike. Hey, Dave. What's up? So a coworker introduced me to your show recently, and I got really intrigued, and I got to say I need a lot of help.

I'm $451,000 in total debt, $252,000 of that is student loans, and I have $185,000 in a home loan. And I only bring in $70,000 a year after pension and all that stuff taken out. It's more like $40,000. I just don't even know where to start. What do you do for a living? Law enforcement Okay And how do you get

$252,000 in student loan debt To be a policeman? I went to a private institution Because my mother wanted me to go there To be honest with you. And I went there originally for finance, and I didn't do good at finance, so I switched my major to criminal justice, and then I eventually went on for a master's for it as well, which didn't really help my employment eligibility as much as I thought it would.

Okay. Is your mother wealthy? No. Mm-hmm. No, my mother nor my father. I'm the first in my family to go to college. Mm-hmm. Okay.

Well, what we always look at mathematically, and you were in finance, so you know what to do with this, is I'm always looking at the ratio of what we call shovel to hole, the amount of hole that you're in versus the shovel that you have, your income, the debt you have to your income. Are you married? No, I do have a girlfriend who lives with me and her daughter as well. And what is this house worth?

The house is worth, I actually just purchased it. I'm not even going to, you know, I purchased it in September. Kind of off of a whim, my father passed away in July, and it was the last conversation we had. It was actually across the street from his house, and he really wanted me to get it. So I kind of, you know, jumped in both feet, I guess, to honor him. Yeah. And so you didn't put anything down, so the house is worth $185,000?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, okay. And you're how old? I'm 31. Okay. So when are you planning on marrying this girl? She's currently in school to finish up for nurse practitioner school. So I would say maybe sometime after that,

that should be done hopefully after January. And, um, does she have student loan debt? She does. How much? I'm not sure because she's not really on board with all this. She can't,

I've tried to bring this up to her when listening to your show recently, and her thing is I'm too busy with school and don't want to worry about that right now. Yeah. Well, I think you're the voice of experience that says it's a good idea to worry about it, otherwise you end up up a creek, which is where you are right now, and your paddle is real small. Right. Okay. Well, let's look at this a couple ways.

How old are you, 28? I'm 31. 31, okay. Yes. You and I haven't been friends long enough for me to be as blunt as I'm about to be, but I'm going to tell you anyway, okay? I'm going to risk our friendship and just tell you the truth, okay? You told me in a five-minute conversation of two really stupid financial decisions

you made from the influence of your mother and your father. Right. You bought things you couldn't afford with money you didn't have, both because of influence of those two. At 31 years old, you're going to have to decide to love your parents but no longer be influenced to do financial decisions based on their opinions. Obviously, your father, God rest his soul, has passed, but even your perceived opinion of what he would have thought.

You cannot please these people anymore. They are breaking your butt. You make $70,000 a year and you're so far in debt you can't breathe, dude. Buying a house you can't afford and going to a school you shouldn't have gone to and paid twice or three times as much for an education, most of which you didn't even need to do the job you do. Am I wrong? Right.

No. Okay. Not at all. All right all right and so number one that influence has to stop number two uh you can't afford this house as a single guy making seventy thousand dollars a year you cannot afford 185 000 house making seventy thousand dollars a year as a single guy with my girlfriend's bringing in about 8989,000. Yeah, well, that doesn't count. You're not married. And if you're going to get married, you guys are going to have to get on the same page financially

because the number one cause of divorce in North America today is money fights and money problems, and she's not even willing to talk about money. So we're not willing to talk about marriage until we're willing to talk about money. Because you're going to get divorced as soon as you get married. That's what happens to most people. It is the number one cause of divorce. How long have you been on the force? Four years.

Okay. When you go on a domestic call, what are they fighting about? Money. Usually money, yeah. Okay. Tell me I'm wrong, all right right this is what's happening and it's dangerous call for you too because people are crazy but but oh lord so yeah you guys have got to sit down and go we can't keep this house unless we're getting married and we're not getting married

unless we're gonna get on the same page about the money and we can't combine our incomes with people we're not married to you can't go pay in her debt she can't go pay in your debt and this house isn't hers it's yours it's not in her name it's in your name so either way let's just go ahead and get married and combine everything and attack these two student loan debts and try to keep the house or let's just call it a day and get rid of the house. And then you guys figure out what you're going to do with your relationship and stuff later, go rent something or whatever you're going to do, whatever you're doing before. But, um, but you, you know, so several big issues I've already hit on real hard. Number one,

we can't afford a house. Number two, um, you guys, you need to be real careful about pursuing a long-term relationship until you can get on the same page about money. Number two, you guys, you need to be real careful about pursuing a long-term relationship until you can get on the same page about money. Number three, unless you're married, you can't afford this house. Did I mention you can't afford this house? And then lastly, we've got to do everything we can to get your income up with side hustle, side gigs. And you can get all kinds of OT in the department, right? My department, not so much.

I'd have to actually go outside of my department. Okay, they allowed you to do side work, though. Yeah. Yeah, and it's good money. Right. Yeah, security is what, $40, $50 an hour, right? Particularly private. Particularly private, yeah.

Private security, yeah. And you need that money because you're broke. So income up, out go down, get real focused and real narrowed in your decision-making so that you can clean this mess up because what you've got in front of you, this $252,000 student loan debt with a $70,000 income is a mathematical nightmare. So we've got to get your income up over $100,000. I'm going to guess and say you guys get married, and we're probably dealing with almost a $200,000 income at that point

when the two of you are going, right? But I'm also going to guess she's got a big pile of student loans too, so I'm probably dealing with $400,000 of student loan debt at that point. So probably you still can't afford the house you're probably still going to rent something cheap and you're not going to have any life for a while because you both have made a big hole that you're in and you can't get out of a hole while you're digging out the bottom so this is going to be very tough for you mike you got a lot of influences in your life that have all brought bad decisions. Those influences have to stop.

And then you've got to undo some of these bad decisions or course correct. Because five years from today, if you keep doing what you're doing, well, it's a lot sooner than five years from today. You're going to be bankrupt. You're heading straight at the wall with the accelerator on the floor. That's what's happening right now mathematically. And that's why you call me. I'm not picking on you.

I'm just saying you have to turn the wheel. You have to turn the wheel, and you have to let the foot off the accelerator. That's all this is. Hold on. I'm going to put you and the fiancé through Financial Peace University so that you guys can learn how to handle money, hopefully together, and hopefully we can salvage your relationship. This is The Dave Ramsey Show.

Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit DaveRamsey.com slash show and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.