The Ramsey Show - App - Your “Dream Truck” Is Making Your Life a Nightmare

Episode Date: April 8, 2022

George Kamel & Rachel Cruze discuss: Does it ever make sense to move into a trailer? Should you let your job pay off your student loan? Paying off a student loan with a 401(k) loan (don't do it), What to do when your debt seems overwhelming. Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Ramsey personality, George Campbell, joined today by Rachel Cruz. And we are excited to take your calls about your life and your money. So give us a call, 888-825-5225. Sarah's kicking off this hour. She's in Los Angeles. Sarah, welcome to The Ramsey Show.

Hi, how are you? Doing great. How can we help? So my husband and I, we currently own our house um if we sold it it would be right around 580 to 600 we owe 238 000 on it um we don't plan on staying in california we would like to run out of here as fast as we can but that's not going to be for about another year. So we're thinking of selling our house, moving the family into a fifth wheel because the market's so high and we still have so much equity here. We can place the trailer at my in-laws house and they

have a couple of acres and we would just be paying utilities. We plan on selling our house in about a year anyways. So ultimately we're just worried that if the market drops, we'll lose everything that God has blessed us with. Would it be better to sell high or keep it as an asset? Well, what's the issue with keeping the house right now? It's not an issue. I mean, we're more than fine to stay here. We've purchased the house really low.

But just fearful that it's going to go down. Do you want to get out of California? Or is it we love this house, we just want to move to the trailer? Like, what's the heart behind it? No, we want to get out of California. Like I said, we would run there if we could. But as of right now, I'm finishing school, so I should be done with my license. So, Sarah, why don't y'all move to an apartment for a year?

If you really are that fearful with it going down, the market correcting itself, like going down or whatever, and then you lose all this equity, because you know you're for sure going to leave. You know for sure I'm leaving in 12 months to go somewhere else. Why, like the mobile home situation, why not just go rent an apartment for a year? It feels like a lot of sacrifice when you don't really need to be. So that's kind of why we're on the edge about it. So we do have two kids, both under the age of 10, and we have two dogs. So everyone, I mean, all my heartbeats are going with us.

So to find an apartment, that would be a lot. And we ultimately, like, before we wanted to move, we wanted to buy a trailer. We were saving up for a toy hauler trailer because we go camping and we do all that stuff. So I was thinking, well, if we just do it now, we can live in there for about six to eight months until we're ready to move. And, I mean, let's say we find land in now, we can live in there for about six to eight months until we're ready to move. And I mean, let's say we find land in Tennessee that we want where you can at least stay in the trailer while the house is being built. Or we go to Arizona because either way, we're going to places where my husband can transfer for work. Sure. So that's our ultimate.

We always say we do not make financial decisions when we're fearful or when we're drunk because never turns out good either way so it's a very fear-based decision is what you're doing none of this is hurting you guys financially uh i don't think now the conspiracy theorist in me could go a lot of different ways but if i'm level-headed right now can we mute her like there's no there's a you know there's no indication that it's absolutely going to crash. Is the market going to correct itself eventually? But you're in L.A. It hasn't corrected itself since, I don't know, the 40s.

I don't think you need to worry about losing a bunch of money here. I really think you're fine. And Sarah, honestly, it kind of sounds miserable being with two kids and two dogs and a husband in a camper. Does that sound tough to you? It sounds awesome. You're a better woman than me. I don't know. Maybe I'm just not very campy. You're not very outdoorsy. But my mom said the same thing. You'd have to pay me to go on that reality show. Sarah, if y'all, I mean, this, it's not a right or wrong. If you guys want to, because it sounds like an adventure and all of

this and you're going to move anyways, I mean, y'all can, but it's really, you're really making this decision completely out of fear with no indication of anything else. So I wouldn't, I would stay put where you are. And then in a year, six months, eight months, whatever you said that you're, that you're done with school, you guys go find a place. You're going to be shocked when you sell this house, you're going to get 600 grand for it. You said it could even go up from now. Who knows? And then you're going to get, you're going to find much cheaper places. No FOM cheaper places in your trailer which is a depreciating asset come to nashville it's where everyone from california is coming and oh some people are saying no people

there's no more room you're welcome everyone's like no here's the other problem you're buying a trailer at the top of the market too so you going to pay top dollar for that trailer that's going to depreciate in value the day you buy it while letting go of an appreciating asset. And so that's one of the reasons of many, I wouldn't do this right now. I'm not mad at you living in the fifth wheel and having a good time with the family, but right now you don't have to do that. I'd finish school, stay in the house, stay put. You're going to be okay. And when it's time to move out of California, you can do that. You're going to have, stay put. You're going to be okay. And when it's time to move out of California, you can do that. You're going to have plenty of equity. You're going to have paid

down the house even further while it's still holding value or appreciating. Okay. Sarah, but if you want... Yeah, I think it is great advice. But if you want to go to the camper, and that's where your heart is, and that's where you and your husband want to do it... We deflated Sarah. All of her dreams of camping

with the dogs and the kids. I know. You're so sad. You're so sad right now, Sarah. How about this, Sarah? How about you take a long weekend or a week and go camping in a trailer with the family without having to buy it all and move your whole family and sell the house and all the stuff that goes along with that? Yeah. That's an idea.

And then if you love it and you go, we could do this for the next year, just live in this camper and trailer, then it's a different situation. But right now I feel like it feels like a rash decision and we're making some justifications. And you're not in a terrible financial spot where I go, you've got to get out of this house ASAP. Yeah, we're definitely not. And the house is great. My husband and I make enough to cover it. But I don't know.

Like I said, I want to run from California as fast as I can. Well, can you run now? I mean, can you still do your school? Can you do it online? No. So I found a work program, so they're actually paying me to work, and my hours are accumulating. Yeah. Well, you're going to still be in a camper in California, though, so your change of California doesn't really matter. You're still in California at the end of the day. Yeah. Well, thanks for the question. Appreciate that.

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like a weird topic, a heavy topic. They're like, oh. But there's just growth, right? You're learning how to handle your money better. Hopefully you're learning about your marriage. If you're married and parent, like all these aspects of our life, including yourself, what makes you tick?

Why are you doing what you're doing? And learning that is so great. And he outlines it beautifully. So that's huge. Yeah. 20 years of experience and his PhDs and he packs it into a conversational book to help us all grow personally. Go check it out. It's just $20. RamseySolutions.com. You get all those bonuses, all those goodies if you do it before the book launches. And we're about a week away. That's crazy. Okay. Go check it out. RamseySolutions.com. Hey folks, there's never been a better time to find a job doing work you love that matters to you. That's why I can't

wait to tell you about the exciting roles open here at Ramsey Solutions. And these aren't your average jobs. These are life-changing jobs that matter. You might think we're just a radio show out in the middle of sticks in nowhere Tennessee, but we're so much more. Our creative team is over 120 people. Our marketing team has over 100 team members. And our product engineering team is over 250 strong. With over 1,000 people on the entire Ramsey team, we are breaking into new products and ways of delivering hope to the masses. Digital products are the future. So, in order to help more people with these digital tools,

we need more talented team members to join us. Especially developers, UX designers, and writers. You could be a great fit. So come do work that matters with us. Find all of the open roles at ramseysolutions.com slash careers. That's ramseysolutions.com slash careers. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, joined today by Rachel Cruz. It's a free call, 888-825-5225. Mark joins us next, all the way from Anchorage, Alaska. Mark, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi, thanks for having me on the show.

Absolutely. What's going on with you? So, just a quick snapshot. In February of 2020, I had $283,000 of student loan debt. Wow. I was engaged. And so me and my wife went to Financial Peace University then. And since then, so now we're down to $49,000. Wow. Amazing. So you paid down almost $240,000? Yeah, since then.

So we've been going pretty serious. That's incredible. In a short amount of time. Good for you. Yeah. And so I guess my question is, I'm down to 49. My work pays $20,000 a year, and they've done that the last two years

that I've been doing this, so $40,000 was from them. So my question is, should I get down to the last 40 and just let my work finish it off, or just keep going? What are the stipulations of this payoff? Is it as long as you're employed here, we'll pay off $20,000 for the year?

It's a one-year contract agreement, yeah. So I just say I'll work here for one more year and then they give me $20,000. And when did you sign that? When was like the last one? Well, so the last one I just signed. So the next 20 will be coming really soon. Okay. So this is April.

So you'll probably be with them. Obviously, you have to be with them through next April for them to pay it. Well, they give it to me up front, and then if I left early, I would have to pay them back. Oh, okay. Okay. Is there interest with the payback? Or is it just due in full? Well, they give me a little bit more than 24, or they give or they give me like $24,000 and it gets taxed.

So if I pay them back, I have to pay back like $24,000. Gotcha. Got it. I mean, it doesn't sound like a terrible plan. You're not stuck in a five, ten-year contract. But I wouldn't slow down. No, just one year to one year. Yeah, and I would not, because, I mean, you guys have been killing it.

So I'm like, I wouldn't slow down paying it off to wait for next year so if they so you had 49 left and if they're going to pay another 20 um yeah they get 29 i mean you're saying you want to get it down to 40 and then they'll just pay it off for the two years right exactly and then we could start you know build our emergency fund and then start paying for a house because we're in an apartment now that's an interesting predicament. I mean, it doesn't sound like a bad deal. Sometimes these student loan repayment programs through employers are a little scary with all the stipulations and the red tape

and the strings attached. This one doesn't sound like there's a lot there. It doesn't, but I just know how much progress y'all make, Mark. I'm like, man, if you just continued on this road, you wouldn't be, quote-unquote, handcuffed to a job for two years. You are for one, technically, I guess, with this $20,000. But you could knock off the rest.

What's your income? Household. Oh, sorry. It's $160,000. Okay. I mean, this thing could be gone this year, and I think it's a cool benefit from the employer, and it feels like, well, there's so much I'm missing out on free 20 grand, but I also see debt freedom months from now, and you have the emergency fund, and you're investing, and I think there's a net gain on that side, too, that needs to be acknowledged. Yeah, that's kind of where we're at. How quickly could you pay this thing off if it was just on

you well which with well because i already signed this other 20 so with that and we were planning on being done august at the latest july if we really got after it that's amazing i mean i would because you could have your emergency fund i mean you guys could be through baby step three on 3b by the time this next contract would be up. What's your future goals financially? Well, I mean, we want to have as big a down payment for a house as we can. So we want to do that. And then later, I mean, we just want to live in New York.

And you want to stay in Anchorage? You want to stay with this employer and this job? Yeah, right. Yeah, that's the thing, too. I have no problem here, and we like it here. Yeah. Well, I'd strongly consider letting them do this $20,000, but beyond that, just get rid of it in the next few months,

get the emergency funds, start working on the down payment. I just feel like your goals are too important for the remaining $20,000 to be paid when you make $160,000. So that's my take. I'm taking what I can get right now, but I'm also attacking it with a vengeance and moving on with my life. Right. Y'all are doing great, though, Mark. Awesome job. Absolutely amazing. Thanks for the call. We're moving on over to Louisville, Kentucky. Megan joins us there.

Megan, how are you? Hey, good. Thanks for taking my call. Absolutely. What's going on? Well, my husband and I are debt-free except for our house, and we've been working. Actually, we've been a little bit disagreeing. I've wanted to throw everything at the house and we do want to buy land and

build a house preferably as soon as possible. But he, he wants us to kind of throw everything at building up money to do that. He just came my direction and said, okay, okay, we'll throw everything at the house. And now I'm second guessing myself and said, okay, okay, we'll throw everything at the house. And now I'm second guessing myself and going, should we throw everything at making a fund to buy land and build a house? So what is the order when you're going to sell the house to get the land?

I mean, eventually we would. Yes. But my concern would be that all of our money would be in equity in the house, and as soon as we sell it, then all we have is land and no house. Well, if you can only afford the land and no house, then you're not ready to buy the land. You're trying to buy the land while still living in the house and then build this other house while you're still living in this house, correct? Okay. Yes, you're right. What I'm asking is that we would want to buy land when we have the money. We would want to build a house when we have the money. We can't do either of those.

While you have your current house. Yeah. Yeah. You'll have to sell your house and rent somewhere. Okay. I guess we were hoping to not rent somewhere. I didn't know if you just, because we would be, we would end up putting more into rent than what, even if we had all the equity in our house, and we sold it for 100% equity, and we were in an apartment,

we would be paying so much more than what we have been on our mortgage. Yeah, but it's not the monthly payments that's the concern. It's the amount of money that you take then to put and buy a land, have a down payment as you guys start the build process. You know what I'm saying? Like you need that chunk of money to be able to start that process. What's it going to cost for the land plus the build? I don't know yet. We don't have a particular, we don't have a specific plot of land in mind because we've just gotten to the point where we could. Gotcha. This could be a few years away.

It could be, yeah. That's why, so with all the, with this time, say we're looking at three years, I didn't know if I should put a portion, like have a separate fund where I'm not throwing every single thing at the house, but I want the house paid off. I mean, we've been doing this Dave Ramsey thing. How close are you to want the house paid off. I mean, we've been doing this Dave Ramsey thing. How close are you to having the house paid off? If we were hard, hardcore, on paper, we have 20 years. But if we were hardcore, I think we could do it in four years. Okay. So why not go at this house,

and in four years, you have a fully paid for house that's appreciated. And so it's a four savings account on that front and then you cash out with a hundred percent equity and you can buy the land build and like rachel's saying if you want to keep living in the house you know there are ways to do that with kind of rent back programs and things like that from the new buyer but it feels like this build is gonna this is a long process to buy land and build on it yeah yeah and it's still kind of a dream again like if there was if you guys had like hey there's a specific neighborhood a specific lot and you had like or or a plot of land that you know of that you're like this is what we want

it's up for sale like if there were actionable things um it could be but it still kind of just feels like a dream which is an awesome dream and a dream that you guys 1000% can do and you can even do before it's a paid for house like but but as of now um i would put it yes i would still put it towards my mortgage and be paying it off um because also there's a chance that that dream changes in two years right like who knows the world we'll be living in two years and it's like that savings fund turns into the i want want the new car fund, and I want to upgrade this fund, and you lose that money. Yeah, I would just continue what you guys are doing. You're doing a great job. And either way, you're going to come out on the other side okay, whether it's with equity or cash in a savings account.

Yeah, but nothing wrong with throwing it at the house. That's a nice four savings plan. And with homes the way they are, it's just going to keep appreciating. So good luck with that whole process, Megan. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, joined today by Rachel Cruz. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. Find out for yourself why they are the number one online retailer of custom window covering. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every single month, you're going to save even more. Just use the promo code Ramsey to get the best deal.

Today's question comes from Anthony in Ohio. I've recently reached a $50,000 savings goal for a down payment on a home that I plan to purchase next year. Before I pulled the trigger, I was considering giving my recent college grad son a gift of zero debt and wipe out his $30,000 in student loan debt. If I did this, I plan to replace the money. My plan to replace the money would be to borrow from my 401k savings plan. No, no, no, no. As a loan, not a withdrawal, and pay back over time. My 401k currently has about $500,000 in it. I'm 47, and I plan to work another 20 years. The only downside I see

would be taking money out of the market. Is that okay to do for my son? Anthony, your heart is great. Sweet guy. Let's talk about that. Great, great heart for your son. Your heart is heart is great. Sweet guy. Let's talk about that. Great, great heart. Your heart is great. Your plan is terrible. That's how I feel. This is a terrible option. Do not do the 401k loan. You're right that you're taking money out of the market. You are robbing yourself,

but your 401k is for retirement, people. Let me remind you, it's not for emergencies. It's not for getting rid of debt. It's not for going on vacation. And it's not to get your son out of debt. He's going to be okay. He signed up for 30 grand in student loan debt. What happens is you do this, and all of a sudden, you're not set up for retirement. You don't hit your financial goals. And now you need your kids to help in your old age.

And his son's going to be calling us going, my dad took out a 401k loan to pay off my student loan debt, but now he's broke and I'm trying to help him. Those are the kinds of calls we get. Or my dad had to leave his job and now he owes all that debt back as a 401k loan. If you leave the job, it's owed at the next tax period. So he's going to be saying. Yeah, you have your goals, Anthony. You have 50,000 saved for the down payment and you've got to stay on the course for that goal. So on top of robbing yourself with these 401k loans, here's what we found, Rachel, our state of personal finance research that our team did. Seven out of 10 people who borrowed from their 401k in the past year

because of COVID said they regretted that decision. On top of that, more than half of Americans, 56%, now feel that they're behind on retirement goals. So on top of robbing from your retirement, there's stress involved. And if you leave your job for any reason, you have until next year's tax filing to pay that back in full, the entire balance. And I don't like you being that dependent on your employer. Yeah, so Anthony, I mean,

if this is something you wanted to do, right? Like the idea with parents in college, we always say if you are able to help your kids go through college, that is a blessing. That is a gift. It is not a requirement as a parent to do that. But that's a beautiful legacy to leave, right? So you, as the dad, was like, okay, I wasn't able, obviously, to help him.

He went $30,000 in student loan debt. So if it's in your heart that you're like, man, I would love to help my son pay this debt off, then do it. I think that's great. But don't do it out of a 401k loan. And if you have the ability, because you probably make great money when you have half a million dollars in your retirement, which is awesome. So if you do have margin and you do have the ability to say, hey, hey, son, I would love

to, you know, gift you 15, I'd love to help pay off $15,000 of your day, whatever, right? Like with your own money outside of everything else. With cash. You can, you know, as long as you're not enabling them and that's a whole discussion. But I think that that's fine. That's a gift. That's a blessing to do that. But don't do it through a 401k loan.

There's too many people out there who feel like a 401k loan isn't really debt, Rachel. I'm just paying myself back. No biggie. It's not debt. You pay taxes twice, right? Yes. And that's a whole other piece. You're paying taxes twice a year.

Here's how it works. The repayments are made with after-tax dollars. You following me? So the money that's going in has already been taxed, and then you're going to pay taxes on that money again when you make withdrawals in retirement. Now, I'm fine. Uncle Sam taxed me once.

That already stings enough. Twice is just insult to injury. Don't do this. Save up, pay cash. The 401k loan is not your emergency fund. It's not your getting out of debt fund. It's to help you cover retirement. Thanks so much for the question, Anthony. Do the right thing. Brandon joins us up next. He is down the street here in Nashville, Tennessee. Brandon, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hey, thanks for having me.

Great. What's going on? So basically I'm calling because I'm 24. I recently married last year of June. We have a five-month-old kid. Oh, congrats. And thanks. And I am scared for myself. I know that I haven't been doing the best. I am trying, though, every single time.

I just got out of the Army in January. I got a good job. It's so good that I plan on staying there for life in Portland, Tennessee. And I'm making about $6,500 a month. $2,300 of that is from the VA tax-free. I'm in $64,000 in debt. And $52,000 of that is vehicles, which is a truck and a car and 12,000 of that is credit cards. Every paycheck I get paid weekly, I put money in the savings and I pay everything as much

as I can. Aside from that, take care of the family. But I'm getting scared because I don't, I'm, I have a problem where I have a spending problem. My wife is great. She's more of the savings person. And I have this problem where if I see something, I'm afraid if I don't get it, then I'll never get it again. Well, I'll never have the opportunity. And, um, fourth about of the 6,500 a month, about 4,000 of that goes away to all that stuff. And I want to be, yeah, I'm struggling to where, I mean, I have money. I'm surviving, taking care of the family good. But obviously I'm not where I want to be.

Dude, you are worth more than surviving, Brandon. And thank you so much for your service to this country. Yeah, absolutely. So here's the deal. You are a dad now. This is not 21-year-old Brandon having a good time, living his life. This is Brandon as a father, as a husband, and that means we have to make adult decisions, and that means these vehicles are probably gone this week.

And it means we're not going to have the fanciest, newest toys. We're going to drive a beater car because we have to get our family to financial safety. And I can feel that fear in your voice. You told me you're scared. So are you willing to do something so that you can remove this fear and stress out of your life? So here's the thing. Before I go to the vehicles, we're moving on April 21st, and that's where we had 9,000 savings. You guys are probably going to be mad at me for this. I'm not mad at you. We had no furniture. Right now we're living in a place where it's life-threatening.

I wouldn't say life-threatening, but it's very disgusting. We are very organized and everything, but my family is living with roaches. Thankfully, the kid can't crawl yet. And the renter guy, he just, it's all under the table. I mean, he's nice. He's a good guy, but he's lazy. So we're moving immediately to a very nice place, very nice apartment complex. So that's where all the money went.

I outright bought a very good bed, couch, everything that we need to survive and live comfortably um back to the vehicles i am willing to but i'm also scared because okay my dream my dream vehicle is a tacoma and i have it i got it brand new 2020 you're living the nightmare dude brandon you can get a tacoma later there's there's there's lots of tacomas if this was such a dream you wouldn't be calling us this is so so brandon i hear such a scarcity mindset with you. So here's what I want to reset. All of this, the decisions that we're going to be talking about in this phone call, it's for a short period of time. I feel like the Ramsey show, the brand gets such a bad rap sometimes.

Everyone's like, you just want people driving crappy cars and not going on vacation. No, the slogan is you live like no one else. So later you get to live and give like no one else. These sacrifices branded is not for your entire life. If we told you to do it for your entire life, we'd be crazy. I wouldn't listen to us. This is for a short period of time. For a few years of your life, you're gonna get your crap cleaned up.

You're gonna feel the best, the most peace you have ever felt as a man to be able to take care of your family with cash in the bank living in a good spot maybe not driving your dream car all that's gonna be settled then you get to say wow brandon i really want a tacoma guess what you're gonna have the money to go get a tacoma brandon like like it's going to happen it's just not happening right now and the problem is this instant gratification and you're overcompensating right like you're in a crappy spot right now where you're living so we need to go get in a really nice spot with really nice furniture and all this. You got to find a middle ground, Brandon.

So I want you guys to, I mean, sell the cars tomorrow. I want you to get $1,000 ASAP. And then I want you to start working on this credit card debt and pay it off. But with these cars gone, it's going to help the debt amount. And I want you guys saving three to six months of expenses. And with your job, everything that you guys are doing in 24 months, Brandon, your life is going to look different. We're going to give you a free membership, a year membership to Ramsey Plus for you and your wife to work together on this plan.

Was she unclear? No, she was not. Thank you for that, Rachel. If you are driving your dream truck and you live with roaches, you are not living the dream. You're living a nightmare, dude. This is The Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day comes from Luke 6, 27 and 28. Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you. Martin Luther King Jr. said, we must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. Good stuff there. Open phones this hour,

888-825-5225. Randall joins us next. He's in Waco, Texas. Randall, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hello, how are you? Great. How can we help today? So, just kind of get started on a brief little thing. So, I come from a family of addiction and not a very wealthy group of people, and somehow I was able to break free from that, and I was in law enforcement for most of my adult life, and then me and my wife decided that we were going to start a trucking company and we did she quit her job and you're gonna everybody's gonna think we're full for some of the things that we've done but she quit her job we pulled her retirement put it all into this business so anyways i drive a lot and so i listened to you guys a lot just recently and um it wasn't until I started

listening to you guys that I realized I didn't escape the addiction that my family has my addiction is spending money um so that being said I've reared back really hard I have my thousand dollar savings um I've got a list of every, all my debts and things. Um, I have our houses paid for. Um, so my most important question, the reason why I'm calling is because I, the business that we started, I had to buy a new truck and the new truck is like $68,000 and we financed that. So the truck payment is about $1,400 a month. That being said, the insurance for the company that I started is also about $1,500 a month. So it just feels really heavy on that side of things because it makes my business bills about $4,500 a month, plus my home bills about $2,200 a month.

So I'm just trying to figure out the right path to go through. Should I try to ditch this vehicle and get something else, but I just really need something reliable. I don't need to be breaking down, driving 1,500 miles in a week. Sure. Well, Randall, I heard you say these words. It always gets me a little riled up when you said, I had to. I had to buy the $70,000 truck to start my business.

Right. You didn't have to. You chose to, right? Yes, sir. And so the good news is we can choose to do some other things, choose to make some better decisions. And so, yes, I would be getting rid of this truck. Can you find one that's used that you could pay cash for if you sold it? How special is this truck?

It's not special. I mean, it's special because it does the job, but there's no sentimental value or anything like that. I mean, there's another truck that I have my eye on, and it's about $20,000. I like that. But I don't have cash to pay $20,000 either. That would have to be another financing situation. But financing $20,000 seems like... So how much could you sell this truck for today? Yeah, how much is the car worth,

the truck today worth, the one that you have? Well, I haven't looked into that yet. Could you get more than $68,000 for it? I don't think I could get more than $68,000, but I could hopefully get at or around that number. Okay. Is that all of your debt? No.

Everything's broken down. The truck is $68,000. Me and my wife together have about $92,000 in student loans, and there's about $10,000 in credit card payments and such. Okay. Well, the way I do this is using the debt snowball, where I list them out from smallest to largest regardless of the interest rate, and we start attacking this thing. And that means we need to get this business revenue up,

or your wife needs to work a second job. I don't know what that looks like for you guys, but we've got to get this income up because your payments, you can't even breathe right now. Yeah, it's pretty tight. How much do you guys make a year, Randall? We haven't completed a full year, but so my wife, so whenever we started this, like I said, my wife, she, we made the decision that she was going to stay home. I have seven children. But they range from 21 years old and all the way down to one years old. So anyway, she stays at home with the baby.

And I'm on the road a lot. And I forgot what your question was. Yeah, how much you make a year? How much is it? Okay, yes, yes, yes. So typically I can bring home probably a minimum of about $10,000, maybe $15,000 a month. But that's not all profit.

So a lot of that goes into fuel and insurance and other things that are like other vehicle maintenance needs. Yeah. Okay. Well, I mean, I don't like this option, but you trading down $68,000 loan for a $20,000 loan feels a lot better to me to clear some of this debt and give you some breathing room. Right. That's what I was kind of feeling. I listen to you guys a lot. I bought the book and I've listened to it probably one day. I'm really trying to follow everything. I don't want to abandon the business because I'm hoping that it will do better.

It'll do better when you have more margin in your life, first of all, even if the revenue stayed exactly where it is today. But right now, you need every single paycheck coming in or else you're screwed. Yeah, and Randall, I would look at a couple of things because what you've just described, you guys have a full life, right? I mean, you've got seven kids. You're on the road working. And so this business that you guys have that is awesome. I mean, I really, I would really take into consideration,

okay, what am I actually, right? Because there's a lot of expenses here you listed out. So what is this? What am I actually bringing home for my family? What's my passion in this? Is it going to, are revenues projected to make more? Are we going to be growing this thing, right? Like I don't want, and I'm not saying it's a dead-end business by any means, but I don't want you in something that you're going to be losing money or it's not going to be growing and you're in this perpetual state of like, gosh, you're just gone all the time and you end up not enjoying it. So the job situation, the business, I really want you guys to look at and be serious at. Even though you make crazy life decisions, you know, she came home, you cashed out retirement, all of that to

start it. Take the emotions out. And I really want you guys to evaluate that business together and make sure this is the lifestyle that you guys want as your family on just a values aspect. And then when it comes to the debt, yeah, I mean, if there's anything, now seven kids, that's a full house. So, but if there's anything that she kids that's a full house so but if there's anything that she can do even staying at home to bring in some extra money or even that 21 year old if they can help support the family if they're living there no so she doesn't live there she she started her own family yeah and she graduated nursing school okay yeah she's starting beginning her own life yeah yeah so this is you guys you. And this is y'all's decision, you know, for what you guys have done.

And I hear a resolve, though, in your voice, Randall, that I think is great. I mean, I think you really are at the ends of your rope, meaning like. You're willing to do whatever. Yeah, what we've done has not worked. And so it is going to be this idea that it's a marathon. It's not going to be a sprint. And that's the hard thing is we are so used to seeing results so quickly. We want these things to resolve so quickly.

And that's one reason why we do say the debt snowball because you at least get these quick wins. So even this $10,000 credit card debt, like if it's multiple credit cards, list them out individually, right? Like you got to feel some progress. Yes, I want you guys to be doing that. So continue on what you, you know,

selling the truck like George said, but keep chipping away. And if there's any way to raise the income, again, I don't want you to abandon a business that you guys started by any means. I don't want to be, I don't want to give you that advice here on one call on a four minute radio call.

But is there anything you can be doing to be making more? Is there another job, another industry? I don't know. Just anything to kind of clean up this mess for the short term, I think. I mean, could you work for someone else right now and make more on your take-home pay after all of your expenses are gone? That could be an option to seek working with somebody or for somebody else.

Yeah. I'd get creative, man. I'd get real creative at this point and see what are my options. And you know what? Future, maybe we start that business back up but right now we've got to clean up a big mess and you've got a lot of people relying on this and you guys can do it Randall y'all can do this yeah you call us back we can help in any other way that puts this hour of the Ramsey show in the books my thanks to Rachel Cruz my co-host all the folks in the booth Kelly Ben James Zach Andrew I got

them all there they are in America thank you guys so much for listening. Until next time, spend wisely, save intentionally, and give generously. Hey, it's Rachel Cruz, co-host on The Ramsey Show. If you want to do your debt-free scream live on the show, visit ramsaysolutions.com slash debt-free scream. We'd love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story. That's ramsaysolutions.com slash debtfreescreen.