The Ramsey Show - App - Your Financial Spiral Will End When A Proven Financial Plan Begins

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

📈 ⁠⁠⁠⁠Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a Free Personalized Plan⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ken Coleman and Jade Warshaw answer your questions and discuss: "Should there be a cap on credit card spending or is it not necessary as long as 15% is saved?" "I sold my home and cashed out my retirement. I still have $63,000 in credit card debt and no way to pay it off." "How do we get ahead while living paycheck-to-paycheck?" "My girlfriend hasn't paid me back the money I loaned her." "My husband entered into a debt consolidation program without me. Is there a way for us to get out of this?" "I leased a car and now owe $50,000 in mileage fees. I'm trying to settle with them but they won't send anything in writing!" "My girlfriend is pressuring me to buy a house, should I listen to her?" "Is it okay to encourage my wife's family to sell their property?" "My fiancée and I make less than $1,500 month, how do we get by with so little income?" Next Steps: ✅ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Help us make the show better by taking this short survey!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📞 Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 weekdays from 2–5 p.m. ET or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠send us an email.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🔗 ⁠Share the Ramsey 101 Playlist!⁠ 📱 ⁠Download the free Ramsey Network app! ⁠ 💵 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🏠 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get organized and prepared to buy or sell a home.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ❤️‍🩹 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get trusted insurance coverage that fits your budget.⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📈 ⁠⁠⁠For help with investing, get connected with a SmartVestor Pro.⁠ Connect with our Sponsors: Stop paying more and start shopping smarter at ⁠⁠ALDI⁠⁠ Get 10% off your first month of⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠BetterHelp⁠⁠ Go to ⁠⁠Boost Mobile⁠⁠ to switch today! Learn more about⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Christian Healthcare Ministries⁠⁠ Get started today with⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Churchill Mortgage⁠⁠ Get 20% off when you join ⁠⁠DeleteMe⁠⁠ Go to⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠FAIRWINDS Credit Union⁠⁠ for an exclusive account bundle! Save 15% on your first ⁠⁠Field of Greens⁠⁠ order with code RAMSEY Find top Health Insurance Plans at ⁠⁠Health Trust Financial⁠⁠ To find out more about student loan refinancing, check out⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Laurel Road⁠⁠ Visit⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠NetSuite⁠⁠ today to learn more Use promo code RAMSEY for 18% off at ⁠⁠The Nokbox⁠⁠ Learn more about ⁠⁠Timothy Plan⁠⁠ Get started with ⁠⁠YRefy⁠⁠ or call 844-2-RAMSEY Visit⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Zander Insurance⁠⁠ for your free instant quote today! Explore more from Ramsey Network: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Ramsey Show Highlights⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🧠 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Dr. John Delony Show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🍸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Smart Money Happy Hour⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 💡 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Rachel Cruze Show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 💰 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠George Kamel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🪑 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📈 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠EntreLeadership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ramsey Solutions is a paid, non-client promoter of SmartVestor Pros. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy⁠

This is the Ramsey Show where America hangs out to have a conversation about their money, about their profession, and about their relationships. The phone number to jump in is 825-5225. 825-5225. 825-5225. Alongside the fabulous Jade Warshaw, I am Ken Coleman, and we're here to help you. Jade's gonna help you save money,

and I wanna help you make some money as we work together to coach you up today. We started off with Taylor in New Orleans, is all I like to say, NALANS. Taylor, how can we help? Hey, good afternoon. Thank y'all for having me on. You bet. As I said, my name is Taylor. I'm married. I have three children. I have a five-year-old, three, and a one-year-old. My wife and I would like to get some help and some advice from y'all in

regards to our budgeting. I wouldn't so much say that we have a money problem but I would say that we have a problem agreeing on what to do with our money. Oh. And I think Dave said it before I think one of us could be considered more of a spender whereas the other could be considered more of a saver. Let me guess, you're the saver. That's my guess as well. Right. Trying to find a happy medium so that we can both be happy,

enjoy life while also saving. And more importantly, I just possibly don't want to work forever. Sure. I'm happy to elaborate on that from here. Well, let's get right to the problem. Where are we not on the same page? It'd be with regard to spending, specifically credit card spending per month. How much? So individually, I spend probably on average around $2,500, $3,000 a month on my credit card, and she's been closer to $5,000 plus per month.

Well, wait a minute. Whoa, hold the phone. How much do you actually bring in in actual money every month? Because that- That, for sure. Are you all running all of your expenses on a credit card? Is that what you're doing? Not everything. For instance, we pay our credit card off Is that what you're doing? Not everything. For instance, we pay

our credit card off each month. Our house note's taken out of our checking account and our checking, excuse me, our house note is really our only reoccurring debt. What's your take on that? And that's kind of a hard question. So I work on commission and through a job change a few years ago It's been hard for me to come out my wife. That's me the same question What's a good month and what's a bad mouth that stays the same? Yeah, but what's Sure a lower month would probably be around around 6500 to 7500 okay take home and then a higher month could be closer to,

it could be 20,000 plus, kind of just depends. So what, tell me what's the purpose of the credit cards and all this? Because for me that just creates, there's already the unknown with the fluctuating income and then adding the credit cards with no real feeling like no real boundaries around it. Feels like it's just adding more chaos to the equation.

So why do you and your wife and let me also add you make a fine income. So what's the purpose of the credit cards and what is it serving? It's a really good question. I've considered getting rid of them. I don't really have a good answer as to why we have them. I've had a credit card since I guess I got out of college and I've fortunately always been able to manage it. At least as far as I can tell,

like I haven't racked up a bunch of debt. So I've just kept the credit card and when my wife and I got married, got her one too. Is it a credit building thing for you or is it a, we can just spend on here and not really have to think about it until it's time to kind of tally it up sort of thing if you had to point to one reason what do you think it is? Even if it's not you your wife's reasoning behind it, right?

Initially for me it was credit building I I just kind of got used to budgeting comfortable budgeting with what I knew I was going to spend on my credit card And I guess I'll point out a while back, like years ago when I originally had this conversation with my wife, she was paying some bills automatically on her card and then I was paying some bills automatically on my card. We've since changed everything to be auto-draft

from my card for the majority of it. So a lot of, like some of my charges are necessities like bill, credit, so okay, so the majority of your $2,500 is your household bills and then a little bit of spending for you. Am I to understand that the $5,000 she's spending per month is just kids clothes and all the fun things? Is that what it is? Because you opened up this call and it felt like to me, Jay, correct me if I'm wrong, I was feeling like the way you were saying this, you're a very kind man, and I think you're a gentleman,

but it felt like my wife is blowing a bunch of money on her credit card, and I'm taking care of serious stuff. I got some audience folks that are shaking their head in the lobby. So is that what's going on? What is she spending the $5,000 on? For sure, y'all. I, you hit the nail on the head. I would consider the way I say it is, I think she's buying a lot of things. I would hope that this call excites both of us and her to look at more long-term- Is she listening to this call? ... theory and investments. Well, here's the problem. She knows that I'm on. Yes. Oh, she does. Oh, this is great.

And there's no boundaries, right? And by boundaries, I mean, there's the problem. She knows that I'm on, yes. Oh, she does. Oh, this is great. And there's no boundaries, right? And by boundaries, I mean, there's no budget. There's no plan set ahead of the month that says, here's what we're spending our money on and here's what we're doing with the excess after we've spent our money on the things that we want to. Now here's the, do you see what I'm saying? And so I-

For sure. I would say for you guys, I mean, I'm always gonna tell people to cut up their credit cards, but for you guys, it's like a no brainer. I feel like for you guys, I mean, I'm always going to tell people to cut up their credit cards, but for you guys, it's like a no brainer. I feel like in many ways, it's just creating more chaos around the subject of money and it's creating a free for all because I don't know what the limit is on these credit cards, but clearly it allows you to go out of bounds when she feels like going out of bounds. And the great thing about cold hard cash, Ken, when it's gone, it's gone. However, I think Jade's right. Like there's no more.

However, I think Jade's right. But Taylor, I feel like the bigger issue is the fact that you guys don't have a very clear spending plan every month and whether you're paying cash for the five grand as Jade is suggesting, or you put it on a credit card, the stressor for you is how much money you both are spending, whether she's

spending most of it or not. This is a we thing. I'm assuming you guys are not separate accounts. You guys are joint banking account and you guys are together on this. Is that true or false? That is true. We were separate when we got married and I thought it worked fine. We've since made it joint after our first child. That's good. I thought it worked fine. We've since made it joint after our first child. And I do want to mention that we, so I try to max out my 401k. I come close or I've, you know,

a couple of years, a little short of it. She contributes the, you know, full, she's not maxing it out, but she takes advantage of her company match. Now she's working a little bit less now that we have three children. So she's not going to be able to max out her four or one. Sure.

Let's cut to the, let me cut to the chase. Because we got about a minute left. And here's what I'm thinking. Absolutely. I want to get Jade's take on this. After listening to all this, you're stressed out about how much she's spending. And that means you guys got to get on the same page

with a real budget, like Jade said. But more importantly, I think this is a marriage conversation about what you're valuing. And we don't have a lot of time to discuss this, but to me, the big question that I have for you is, and I want you to give it to me in 10 seconds or less, all right? Just spit it out. How much money out of the 5,000 that she's spending do you want to earmark to something else, which is what's created stress for this call? I Would like to have at least 2,000 of that earmarked towards savings investing charitable. That's what I thought not just spending That's the starting point Jade. I want to give you the jump in here But I think that's where he's got to get to with her

Yeah And the way to do that right now you're doing the budget the way I used to do a budget which is I plan for all The things I know I have to pay for a house, car, you know, phones, things like that, but everything else is up for grabs, treat yourself money. You need to take that treat yourself money and plan every dollar of that money as well. And yes, it can include some of the fun things your wife wants to do, but it also needs to include the really important things like planning for the future that you want to do. You guys got to get together and talk this out, share your feelings around this stuff, and then come together with a plan.

Let's go to Ann, who's joining us now in Dallas, Texas. Ann, how can we help today? Hi there. I am a 56-year-old woman that had decided to quit my job in the FW and come to my 92-year-old mom and be able to honor her and take care of her while living on our family farm. And I have now, um, as of the end of May sold my house and emptied my retirement and savings and paid as much into credit card debt as I can,

but I still have another $64,000 to pay. And I have an immune system issue that causes intense and immense pain. So during the time that I'm not taking care of my mom, I am having to more or less lay down and be in bed and I'm trying to figure out how I can get the sixty four thousand how I can get the $64,000 of credit card debt paid in behind me. It's very important for both my mom and I to be right with God. Okay. All right, so a couple quick questions here for Jade and I. When you said you emptied your retirement, does that mean it's all gone?

Like there's none of it left? And do you have any income? Okay, do you have any income coming in at all? Only my mom's government income. And how much is that every month, Ann? That is 2300 approximately. And Ann, how much did you have in retirement? How much have you gone through? I mean, we know there's the credit card debt,

but how much retirement have you gone through? I went through all of the retirement because I had a disease that nobody understood while I was coming up paralyzed for years. And I ended up into a lot of it then trying to get different people to tell me that it ended up being toxic mold and toxic chemical poisoning causing my immune system and my body to fight back and so I was in hyperbaric treatments and everything the company I was with, um,

put me in a lot of those after they realized what was really going on with me. And so now I am the youngest child. Uh, the other two are estranged and my mom was out on our family farm where my grandma, grandfather and grandmother built it in the ths. And that she does not want to move. She feels like, can you tell me, can you tell me how much the farm is worth? It's a right now, I can sell it on the market for half a million. Half a million. OK. And can you tell me, can you go back? Thank you for telling me all the backstory that does help.

Can you tell me how much of your retirement you went through, much you've spent on this move taking care of your mom? Trying to get the diagnosis. How much is that cost you so far? No, I did the move itself was $11,000 from Dallas right you know, I didn't the reason I'm asking I'm trying to get a clear peg on this and because I want to make sure we help you in this call. That's why I'm trying to stick to all the facts. You said that you went through all your retirement.

I'm trying to get a peg on how much that was so that I can make a fair call on this. Okay. My guess on what I had just in retirement right before I came down, came to my mom's was about 50, 60,000. 50 or 60, yeah. Okay. Yeah, 60,000 max. I've already used the other part.

And how many years have you been taking care of her? How long has this been going on? This is only a year. Okay, one year. I came out here in April of 2024. What are her responsibilities out of the 2,300 that she's getting, I'm assuming this is her Social Security, correct? That's correct.

All right, so out of that 2,300, is there a surplus after you take care of whatever bills are there for her plus you, groceries? I'm thinking everything. Do you have any surplus at all? In her Social Security, I try to keep our separate and and I and her social security we have about 800 for groceries a month and because of our limited eating we don't eat that much so we usually have three or four hundred

a map of minimum okay left over. Do you have a payment coming in as well? Did I hear that? No, I do not. Okay, so you guys are both living off of her $2,300? Well, not until this month, but that's correct. Why, Ann, are you not eligible for any assistance, any government, any disabled, anything? At the time I was working I was making approximately a hundred thousand dollars and so I felt as though and I'm a pretty tough person except for my physical issues so I was so no I didn't I didn't go and try to make any extra money on my disability. Okay and and there's none available to you? Or is it, there is, but you're just not taking it?

There could be something available. I just know it takes about two years to get, so I would rather try to make more money faster some other way. Well, okay, I'm all for that, but here's what I heard, and that's where my brain's been going while you've been sharing this stuff, because you told me that when you're not taking care of mom, you're so physically either exhausted or in pain you're

having to lay down. So realistically, could you do something from home to where at least you're sitting on the couch with a laptop or something like that. That's my question. Yes, for a period of time I should be able to do that. How long? I would say from five to ten hours. Okay. They would be a little different. This is me, but my friends were afraid I'm gonna kill myself because I just am a worker bee kind of person and work and manage and I've run businesses before and I've been in several different kinds of HVAC plumbing.

You're saying that because you're such a hard worker. That's why they're saying that? Because you'll just do everything. They think if I go get a job that I'm never going to be able to rest and recuperate from stress. All right, sweetheart. So here's the deal, though. I don't think it's go get a job in that situation.

I'm saying, thankfully, it's 2025 and there are a lot of remote work from home type jobs where even if it's just customer service online, okay, just as a, I'm just making this up. I mean, this isn't truly made up, but I mean, customer service rep, where you're sitting down and they give you a script and you're very intelligent and you're very capable. And if you could do that seven to eight hours a day

and you're making 15 to 20 bucks an hour, I'm just throwing this out there, that's a game changer for you. And now it's gonna take a while to pay off 63, $64,000 in credit cards. However, if you can put $1,000 a month and start knocking that out, and maybe your physical situation,

I mean, you can do this. Your mother's 92. What's her health situation? Her health is huge and awesome. And she, I w she hasn't really gone to the doctor in over 40 years. A medical doctor. She's like a freak of nature. She is. I mean, you know, like a freak of nature. She is. I mean, you know, she turned 92 today, and every once in a while she'll say she's 102

or 202, and I'll go, you know, I have to put those, that many out. But she has always been, I grew up with no processed sugar, no processed flour, no TV. Well here's the deal, Ann. Our time is running out. I understand. And so, Jade, I want to give you the final word here. She can make money, needs to start making money right now. Yeah, you're only 56 years old. You've got a lot of working years ahead of you.

And I also want to know about this farm. Are you set to inherit this farm? I know you said the other kids are estranged. Tell me what the deal is with that. Well, we got 40 seconds. Yeah, tell me in 10 seconds. We have a trust and it's me. Okay, great.

So here's what I want. Like in an ideal world, I hope your mom does live till she's 102. But I really want you to get yourself out of this survival state and into a more homeostasis state of being with your life. Because when the time comes that you inherit this money, I don't want you to be in this mode of survival because then that money is going to go like that.

You're going to sell that farm and it's not going to be the blessing you want it to be. So spend these next 10 years getting yourself an order like Ken Coleman just told you. And I think that that money and that farm will end up being a great blessing to you. All right, folks, buying or selling a home is a big deal. Obviously, a lot of clickbait headlines out there that's confusing people. Should I stay on the sidelines? Should I get in? All of that stuff. And that's why we want to make sure that you're aware of the latest and up-to-date, accurate

trends. And so we've created ramsysolutions.com slash market. You can click on the link in the show notes if you're listening on podcasts or on YouTube. But this is a great link, ramsysolutions.com. And what we've done here is we're giving you all the latest market trends. There's a lot of free tools to help you buy a home or sell a home with confidence. It's a massive financial decision. And you just don't want to wing that.

And so a great, great link there for all of you. Ramsesolutions.com slash market or again the link is in the show notes, however you are participating in the show. All right, let's go to Caleb who joins us now in Orlando, Florida. Caleb, how can we help? Hey guys, thank you. I think it's taking my call. You bet.

So just a quick question. Hey guys, thank you. I think it's taking my call. You bet. So just a quick question. Me and my wife, we just finished the financial coach master training. We use every dollar. We're very familiar with the show. Our issue isn't so much that we, I guess, don't manage our money properly. It's more of an issue of the income versus the outcome. And we've minimized the outcome as much as possible. We only have $17,000 worth of student loan debt. That's the only debt that we currently have. We got rid of our credit cards.

Just really trying to get ahead. And I don't know, we feel like we just simply need to make more money, but that's becoming very difficult. I recently tore my ECL. We recently welcomed our first child. She came five weeks early. She's only a month old. So just trying to get ahead like in this crazy market and just kind of looking for some advice

about that. All right. Well, then let's take your word for it that this is an income issue. to get ahead like in this crazy market and just kind of looking for some advice about that. All right, well then let's take your word for it that this is an income issue. And so let's look at what your combined income is or was. If your wife is, is she deciding at this point to stay home? Is she going to go back? Give me the financial picture prior to baby. What was the income so roughly 60,000 and

I say roughly because I'm full-time at Publix she's part-time at Publix so her hours very drastically week to week but roughly 60,000 combined is she planning to go back so yes if she has to The goal is she's currently putting in for remote positions, but it took us six months to find the jobs at Florida. We went six months when we moved here without a job at all. Okay, so... Because it's not long to find anything. Okay, so was $60,000 the combined income or just yours?

Yes, that's the combined. So how much was hers of the 60? Closer to the 20-25 of that. Okay, so if we don't want her to go back to work, we've got to replace 25. Let's be aggressive in your numbers. So we've got to replace 25. And that gets you to 60. And the 60, you're saying you cut it to the nub and 60 was barely getting you guys by. Yeah. How much margin did you have in your budget when you're paying off debt? How much is extra going towards the debt? So right now we were paying the minimum payment on the student loans, which we would like to be attacking that more.

But with the monthly income versus the monthly outcome between our rent, car insurance, stuff like that. It's just, I mean, Yeah, but how did you get ahead on the other debts that you paid off on the same income? We didn't have any. We've been very lucky to not have any credit card debt or anything like that. We've always managed to pay that off. Got you.

And then we got rid of the credit card. So what'd you do to your leg? What'd you say that was? I tore my ACL. Oh, ACL. Yeah, yeah my ACL. I had ACL surgery. Yeah, yeah. Okay. I heard something else. I was like, I'm not sure I've heard that one. Well, listen, have you had surgery on it? I have not yet, no.

That's brutal. My oldest son went through it, so I watched him go through it. I know it's tough. However, on the other side of the surgery, after about a week, week and a half or so, you can work. And I don't, you're, I assume you knew what we were gonna say. But bro, you're only making $35,000. I'm not knocking you, but the answer to your question is more money. If you guys have taken financial coach training with us, then you know the ins and outs. You got a pretty low amount of debt.

17,000 is peanuts compared to what most people are carrying in debt. You said you've cut your expenses to the absolute bone. So this is an income issue. And an able-bodied guy, and I know you got an ACL, but you're still able-bodied, you're gonna be fine. You gotta get a job, and you are looking north of 60, that's what you're looking for because that's gonna give you some margin, you know, and you know you guys were

60 together, so north of 60 gives you a little bit of margin. So the question is what can you do? Can you do a trade? Yeah, we used to do car detailing and house have a construction background. It's just been incredibly difficult to find connections in this area. Like I said, it took us six months, just to get a job in publics like the market in Orlando is ridiculous. I'm hearing that from from What do you mean it's ridiculous hard to find a job in public. Like the market in Orlando is ridiculous. I'm hearing that from... What do you mean it's ridiculous? Hard to find a job? Yeah, like we're we put in, and this is no joke, like we were putting in

hundreds of applications a week. I got news for you Caleb, this is you're not gonna like the sound of this at all. But sending hundreds of applications out and with no connection to anything, you might as well be trying to spit in the wind in a convertible going 90 miles an hour. That's how effective that is. It's like playing the lottery. I'm going to put out hundreds of applications. Listen, I've coached this before. And, Kayla, I'm not beating up on you. I'm just telling you, people think, rightly so, well, I sent all these applications, I heard nothing back, because that's the only exchange. But you've got to get out in your car and drive up to construction sites.

What did you do in construction? What was the actual skill set that you had? Mainly sheetrock. Bro, don't tell me you can't hang sheetrock all over Orlando, greater Orlando. If I came down to Orlando today, see, I can catch a flight probably in about an hour. It means I'd get in around five. I could drive around construction sites with you and we'll get out and say, get over here, Caleb.

And I'm a walk in and I'm all slick and I look like a city slicker. I got white tennis shoes on. I can still walk into there and go, hey, who's in charge of this operation? I am. Some dude will tell me, I'm the contractor. How's your sheetrock crew? You got a good sheetrock crew?

You got any losers on there that are all drugged up and they miss three days a week? You're all over there. How about my guy, Caleb? This guy's responsible. He's got a baby at home. Uh, he's got a bum knee, but he's going to be full speed in about three weeks. Guy can hang sheetrock with his eyes closed.

You got any work for Caleb? Well, I do, or I don't, but I got a buddy who does. I'm telling you, Caleb, you got to get in the truck and start driving around to construction sites and you you gotta tell your story. And you will get work. Okay. None of this, I've sent out applications and it took me six months to get a job at Publix.

Yeah, because you were playing the lottery. You're actually lucky you got a job at Publix. That is true. You gotta get some boots on the ground, Ken's point. I know I'm a little fired up on this, Jade, but this is an income issue. And if you can hang sheetrock, then you can hammer a nail. And you can do about six other things.

Or even the car detail. I feel like you've got a couple of skills and a couple of businesses that are just sitting in your pocket. You said that you detail cars. You said that you did the FPU, or I'm sorry, the coaching. I'm like, put this stuff to use. You got to go out and make it talk. I love that you did the FPU or I'm sorry, the coaching. I'm like, put this stuff to use. You gotta go out and make it talk.

I love that you did the coaching thing, but you just signed up for a straight commission job that you gotta go beat the pathway for. And as much as I love that, I think you'd be better off hanging sheetrock, detailing cars while you're not at Publix. You gotta replace your wife's income, bottom line. Like 25 grand, dude. Now. And

so you got to go do it. Caleb, listen, I am for you. And I'm not mad at all, but I'm going to tell you something with a baby. It's time for you to get out there and hustle, bro. You got people relying on you. And you are letting life happen to you and you need to happen to it. In fact, are you working today at Publix? No sir. Get in the truck right now or the car and drive around five different places that are building right now and stick your nose out there and give somebody your cell phone. And for all those applications you sent out, you ought to be making as many

trips around. So if you got 100 applications, make 100 trips in the next 30 days to construction sites and watch what happens. You got to get after it now. All right, time for our Ramsey Show Question of the Day, which is brought to you by why ReFi, Default to Private Student Loans, could feel like a wall you'll never be able to climb but why refi may be able to help You get over it. They'll work with you to explore a payment plan

Tailored to your situation. You can go to why refi comm slash Ramsey. That's the letter Y Ref y comm slash Ramsey it may not be available in all states All right today's question comes from Randy in Delaware. He says, I've been seeing a lady for over a year and she has borrowed over $1,700 from me that she has not paid back. I'm a single- Randy. Ooh, I'm a single father with over $20,000 in debt.

My wife passed away and I'm living on just my salary. I have a nine-year-old son and my daughter is 24. I am serious about this lady, but it bothers me that she has not fulfilled her promise to pay back my $1,700 after nine months. How do I approach her about this concern? Randy! Listen.

Oh man, Randy. Sometimes I read these questions ahead of time and sometimes I don't cause I just wanna feel the impact in the moment. What are you feeling right now? I'm feeling impacted. Yeah, how? Well, it's two parts to this Randy.

There's two parts to this. A, you lent her the money and whenever you loan money, there's always a risk, right? There's a risk that the person's not gonna repay it. That's the biggest risk. And then the secondary risk is that because they don't repay it, or even if they do, it will affect the relationship in some adverse way, right?

Those are the two biggies of why we say don't loan money. And you hit the nail on the head on both of them. Number one, she's kind of being a scrub and not paying the money back. And how are you supposed to feel good about this relationship because now it has the ability to create like a little bit of bitterness. You take her out on a, Randy takes,

let's call her, you know, Sheila. Randy takes Sheila out on a date. Let's call her Sally. Randy takes Sally out on a date. He's not gonna feel good about picking up her steak dinner. He's already bothered. Okay, I'm gonna talk to Randy like I would be talking to Randy if he showed up here and we had a cup of coffee. I would look at Randy and I'd say, Randy I'm gonna tell you what the problem is. You are serious about this woman Sally, aren't you?

He'd go, yeah I'm serious about it. I go, yeah and she knows it, aren't you? And he'd go, yeah, I'm serious about her. I go, yeah, and she knows it, doesn't she? And he would go, she knows it. She's not paying the 1,700 back ever because Sally, is that her name? Sally, Sally. Sally Sheila. Sally Ride. Sally is banking on closing the deal.

Is this what you think? I know, I know what's going on. He has made her feel like she's the deal. Is this what you think? I know. I know what's going on. He has made her feel like she's the one. He told us in a simple email that he is serious about her. She knows he's serious. She thinks the $1,700 is already their money and he's going to forgive it because he's going to put a ring on. I don't know. Sally could be a rolling stone. Sally could be a rolling stone that's like, hey, Sally is just here for a little while. All right. Let me flip this for a second. I might get in trouble for this with you, but I'm going to do it. Okay. Get in trouble. If you and Sam were dating, okay, this is not you and Sam real

life, but this is you and Sam. Okay. This is male, female. Got you, got you. And Sam loaned you $1,700, and you had not paid it back. Same deal, nine months. You're a human being. This isn't a Jade or Sally. This is a human being and a woman who feels like her man is serious about her. Are you gonna be in a hurry?

Is any woman going to be in a hurry? Is any woman going to be in a hurry to pay the $1,700 back? I think I would. I think if I really was like- If you think that you guys are going to be an item and get married? If I was on, like if I was dating Sam, that means I'm like, I've got respect. And not that I would ever do this, but if I had borrowed money, I feel like it's a great opportunity for me to show what type of person I am. You're gonna pay that back if you think you're gonna be two instead of one?

Come on, this is a human question. It's hard for me to put myself in that position because I can't even imagine being in that position. I'm gonna tell you what's going on. This woman feels like he's in love with her and because he's in love with her, And because he's in love with her, she doesn't have to pay the money back because it's their money.

There's a guy in the lobby with his thumb up in the air. He knows I'm spitting truth right now. But then why would they even like- That's why he should have never lent her the money. But why would they even come up with those terms if they were on that level? At that point, it's just like- These aren't terms.

Well, he's clearly saying like she was supposed to pay it off within a term because it's been past nine months. No, no, it wasn't a term. He's saying here, it's been nine months. Where's my money, honey? But the problem is she said to him in a moment of weakness, I need $1,700, baby. But my point is this, my point is... And he gave it to her and now she's never gonna pay him. Ken you don't go 2015 Rihanna talking about pay me what you owe me don't act like you forgot to the woman you love and want to marry You don't do that. I know that's what well, but that's the point

I'm making he needs to reconcile the fact he's never getting this money back I think he needs to close the deal close the deal and then get the resentment. Or it's going to end badly is what I'm getting at. My point is, is I'm not throwing shade at Sally, Sheila, or whatever you called her. I'm saying I think this is a pretty typical human behavior when you're in a pretty close relationship. That's he's the last person she's thinking about paying back. Oh, here's my other point. You don't borrow money. I know. He's already done it. So I'm saying to him, pal, you need to marry this woman.

I think I'm just going out here on the phone. Because he's not getting the money back. Okay, I'm the exact opposite. I think she's a Rolling Stone. I think that he's vulnerable and because he's gone through a lot and found a nice looking lady. And she might have taken a little bit of advantage,

but she has no aim to stick around. Okay, would you also agree she probably has other debts? Yeah. That are much bigger than what she owes this poor schmuck. He's never getting the money back. Okay, that's all I'm saying. He's not getting it. He ain't getting it.

Hands up if you agree with me in the lobby. Look at this, this is real time. Wow, you guys are really giving this lady a lot of credit. I'm giving her zero credit. I'm just saying she's not, she's never paying it back. That's what they agree with me. No, she's not. Like I agree. She's never paying it back, but I also don't think they're getting married. Raise your hand if you think they're going to actually end up getting married. Okay. See, there you go. There you go. So. Well now in this case, he, uh, well now this changes everything. See I wasn't even going that far down the road.

I was telling him to cut his losses. Yeah, yeah he does. But now if like they cut their relationship losses, he needs to do that sooner rather than later. Agree. But I think he's smitten. Yeah, well, she's shown a piece of, I feel like she's, if what you're saying is true,

I feel like she's shown a piece of herself. Cause there's a little integrity there, cause they're not married yet. He hasn't even proposed yet. Be one thing if it was his fiance, he hasn't even proposed. If you borrow money, you should pay it back. Whether it be to a credit card company, your grandma, you know, whoever it is, if you borrow money, pay it.

But relationship one-on-one here, you shouldn't even borrow money or lend money to your fiance, you would agree with that? I would agree with that. I am a, like, I have a hard line on that. I think that if you would like to give someone money and you have the money to give, you should give it. In his case, it doesn't even sound like he didn't,

he clearly did not have the money to give. That's why he made it alone. And I think that's when you get into hot water is if you don't have it to give, sometimes you can't give it. And that's just hard, you know, when people you love are asking. If Stacey and I were dating and she asked me for money, I'd say, honey, you gotta marry me

because it's all yours at that point anyway. Until then, I'm not loaning you a nickel. I mean, I'm just telling you. I'll tell you what Sam Warshaw did do. This is terrible. What did a bad. This is oh Don't do this. This is he okay my car. I was driving a Jeep Liberty and The the AC and the heat on it was bad And so when winter came my heat wasn't working and he got in my car and was like you've been driving around like this

And I'm like, yeah, he's like, I'm gonna get you a car. And I thought he was being a hero. He co-signed a car for me. This is pre you guys getting out of death. No, we weren't even married. We weren't even married. Oh, you were dating. He co-signed a car for me.

We were just about getting engaged. This is all part of your story. This is all part of you seeing the light, paint off half a million. That's why I'm saying like, you might be right that he was smitten, because I think that a guy like love goggles will make you do anything. That's what Sam did with you.

Yeah, but it's a good thing I married. That's a fact. Married him, otherwise he would be up the creek. See, here's the problem with our guy. What's this guy's name? Randy. Randy! Listen, here's the problem.

Every guy wants to be the knight on the horse. Exactly, knight in shining armor. And it's one of our kryptonite problems and this girl bat her eyes at him and she cried and he swooned and gave her $1700 and he might as well have lit it on fire. Alright? Not getting that money back. Just don't do it ever. It muddies any relationship, whether it's romantic

or any kind of relationship, don't give friends or family a love. This is The Ramsey Show, where America comes to have a conversation about their money, their profession, and their relationships. All three of those areas are very tied together. One's not working. They

tend to affect the others. Alongside Jade Warshaw, I'm Ken Coleman. The phone number is 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225 is the number. Let's go to Lisa in Detroit. Lisa, how can we help? Hey, I'm calling them because my husband, he entered into a debt consolidation program. He has about $30,000 in debt. We are not in the program together. And I was wondering if there's any alternative or way out of this. To give a quick breakdown, again, I have about, he has $30,000. I'm not included.

I have about $13,000 debt. I'm on a fixed income secondary to a disability. I'm an end stage renal failure. We have five kids, no savings. And I don't know where to go from here. Gosh, I'm so sorry. I was wondering if there's any way you can help. Okay.

I'm sorry you're going through what you're going through. It sounds like unbearably tough. Five kids. Is there a reason that yours wasn't included? Can you give me just some more insight as to how you guys are thinking through this? Because that was my first question. Why just his and not yours? Not that it was a good choice. I'm just wondering. Yeah. First of all, he didn't, I didn't know about his debt. We don't have our credit. We don't have joint accounts. Okay. He has his own credit cards. I have all mine. And he maxed out his out without my knowledge.

So he tried to fix the problem and went into this program. And I feel like it's made everything worse because his credit just keeps decreasing and decreasing. And I feel like we're going to be stuck for the next 10 years now. Okay. Okay. So there's the marriage side of it where there was a lack of trust and trust was broken there. So right now you're still keeping the money separate. It's hard for me to talk about this one thing and not talk about your marriage, Lisa. So what's the deal with the marriage? Are you guys, do you forgive him?

Have you guys fixed this? Are you going to counseling? Are you leaving him? Like what's, tell me what's up. Well, he has one chance left on this bet that he is a charitist secondary to gambling. We have involved his family, everybody's involved. And basically if he goes back one more time, we will be getting divorced. Right now we're trying to work through it.

We have older children. Two of the kids are older. He's my second marriage, but we do still have a seven or a nine and a 12 year old. Okay. And a 17 year old that's younger. Okay. So you've done the right thing in keeping the money separate because of the gambling.

I think that was the right move. So let's think about knowing what we know, which is like you said, he's on, this is the last chance. And if this doesn't work out, you're gonna, you know, piece out. So let's first talk about this 13,000. Right? Because the money is separate as of now because of the gambling. What are what are you earning? And let's talk about what it would mean to pay that money

off. Okay, right now I'm I am about 4700 a month. Okay, that's take home from Social Security. And that's my total debt is the 13,000. I have no other income. I don't have any retirement. I don't have any savings. And do you have margin out of that 4,700? No.

After all your bills are paid? Well, I paid a mortgage, which is pretty high. It's about 3,200 a month. And he pays all the utilities. And how much does he make? He makes, bring home about $500 a week. Okay, so he only makes $2,000 a month? Right.

Wow, okay, so there's the issue. Is he working 40 hours a week? 40 plus, yes. What's he do? Um, he works at our, uh, steel factory. Um, the thing is, is that he borrowed out of his retirement without me knowing also them. So there's $200 a week that comes out for his retirement loan.

How much was the total loan? Um, the total loan for the retirement total. He's done it over a few different times. No, how much did you take that total? So 25,000 out of that. Okay, 25,000. So what I think, and this is, you guys have to sit about this, but I kind of think, Lisa, you're in charge of the money from now on.

Not just your money, but all of the money, because if he even takes the $2,000, he's a recovering addict, right? So it's not wise for him to have even the money that he's earning in his possession to make decisions with. That's what I would say. So going from there, I think, I mean, that's a decision you guys have to make tonight. Is that something that's possible? He's sitting right there, I think, I mean, that's a decision you guys have to make tonight. Is that something that's possible? He's sitting right there, isn't he? Yeah, he is. He's sitting right here.

Can he hear us? I took it off speakerphone. Oh, yeah. No, no, no, no, no, because that'll affect the quality for everybody else. Ask him. But, you know, he's listening to what you just told us. I agree with Jade. If he wants to save this marriage, and it sounds like you guys have hit some pretty nitty gritty talk,

would you just sit in front of him? Like he knows he's got one more shot. I agree with Jade. I couldn't agree more actually, that he needs to relinquish all control of money because he's broken so much trust and the only way to build it is to take his hands off of it and behave and get healthy and let you manage the money. But I would just say this from an income standpoint, what

did you say about your professional status? Currently I'm on disability for social security because I'm an end-stage renal failure. Oh bless your heart. So you can't do much, correct? No, no. Okay. Now I have, I feel like I'm coming in with a wrecking ball and I apologize, but I really am saying this because I want you to find some peace in the time that you have. A big issue guys right now, so there's the gambling, right? And there's the issues going on between

you guys relationally, but financially the biggest issue, like the biggest elephant in the room is your mortgage. Yeah, it's too much. It's half of your income. It's half of your combined income. And. And you see that we just bought the house and I had the money to put down.

I had saved up the money, but I put a lot of it towards renovations, which wasn't smart when we first moved in instead of putting it on credit. But I'd spend like a new deck, I paid 20,000 cash for it. I made some really bad decisions. Yeah.

How long ago is JustBought? What does that mean? A year, one year. So yeah, that honestly, I'm just being, I'm being your, your best friend right here, just telling you the truth. That is not going to change. Like the weight that you're feeling from this is not going to change because that's your mortgage and unless you can find a giant chunk to put on this thing and you know, try to

recast it so that the payment works this it's it's not gonna work for you because you won't have margin to pay off the debt whether it's the 13,000 or the 30,000 and so there's two there's two major pieces of this financial equation one the house I think you need to consider selling it and downsizing into something that you can't afford and then this other piece is what's your husband's name? You can make up a name if you want. Jonathan. Jonathan has got to earn more money. He's got to double his income at the very least this year

because he's like barely bringing anything in. And so those are, financially speaking, those are the two big dogs that you need to contend with. Secondarily, yeah, both of you need to be in counseling. Obviously, he needs to be in counseling and therapy for the gambling addiction, but you do too, Lisa, because this is really affecting you. Plus, you've got this end-stage renal failure that is definitely taking a toll on the decisions you're making. And since he's there, you can tell him I said this, he has got to get his income up. Part of the deal of paying you back and earning trust is he needs to go earn some more money to dig this mess out. Alright, Eric is up next in Indianapolis. Eric, how can we help?

Okay, so my question is, I have a debt with Chrysler Capital. I leased a truck in 2016, I turned it in 2020, I was way over in the mileage, they would not sell me the truck, which I was counting on them doing because it had over 100,000 miles on it. So I turned the truck in, they told me I owed them $91,255. So I started the debt snowball in March of 2022. I had $125,000 in debt and year to date I paid off all my credit cards and then we have $49,56 so I paid off about 60-70,000. Okay. So I called Chrysler Capital and I wanted to make a one-time payment and you know paid off say look if this went to debt collection you're gonna get 10 cents on the dollar that's you know if it's 49,000 debt collections, they're going to give you $5,000.

I said, right now, I will give you $7,208. And that, if I gave them that, I would have paid the full sticker price for the truck plus $12,156 all my risk payments paid on time plus $79,011 which would be over $65,000. I think that's really, really fair. So they came back and they said, well, we could do $20,000. I said, don't you get it? I want this over and done with. The reason I want to open and done with is being towards in October.

I have to get a full knee replacement and I'll be out of work for three months. So I'm trying to wrap this up. So she said, well, hold on. She said, well, we can do 15,000. I said, you're not listening. I don't have 15,000. Well you could send us $7,208 and make payments. I said, I'm not doing that. I said, I'll call you back in a week. I'll call him back in next week. I said, so what are we doing? She goes, best I can do is 15,000 and you can make payments. I said, so send me something in writing.

And they absolutely refused to send me anything in writing as a payoff that my debt's been reduced to 15,000. If I call them up and ask what my balance is, it's still 49,568. So I don't know what I could do. Can you go down there? Can you go down there to the place where you bought it and have this conversation in person?

No, well, I'm dealing with Chrysler Capital, so they're in Texas. Okay. Okay. I live in Indiana. I moved. I'm a native New Yorker. I grew up in New York and I moved to Indiana during COVID because my friend was working as a CNA. That's an essential job. And I didn't have any work. So I started here as a CNA, which is a temporary first time. time I didn't pass the state.

How many times have you gone? That's okay. How many times have you gone back and forth to get this thing in writing? I call 15,000. Yeah. She says, I can't do it. I'm sorry. You have that she's on this.

And I suppose we, she's a financial manager. I only talked to her. Right, right, right. And she can't get you something in writing? She says, no, you have to pay it off first and then I'll get it approved. I said, so you have nothing. I said, you're saying me you need all the money?

I said, don't you understand? I've been paying you $600 a week since April of 2024. What's the problem? And so when you ask her, hey, why can't you just email me, you know? Right. What does she say? She says she can't do it.

Yeah, she doesn't wanna work with you. I mean, you figured that out. So can you request somebody else when you call in? Can you say, I want to speak to a different agent or I want to speak to somebody else on the phone? Well, you know, she is a financial manager, so I don't know the next step up. I don't know who I have to ask. I would tell her, I'd be like, give me the next person

on the line, because you and I can't work together anymore. We've hit an impasse. Right. Yeah, I could do that. That's what I would do. Let me tell you. We don't have any tips or tricks've hit an impasse. Right. Yeah, I could do that. That's what I would do. We don't have any tips or tricks on this one. This is just pure belligerence.

Yeah. So they get tired of dealing with you. You know, sometimes when you call in, you can tell by the person that picks up, like this person is not gonna help me today. You know, you could just tell, they just don't have the get it factor. And it could be that she's made this personal

for some reason, and she just is not gonna help you. And so it could mean, let me let somebody else handle it. Cause he, and reminder, hey, all these calls are recorded. I'm recording these calls too. Tell her, tell her I'm recording every single call because when this goes down, I'm gonna have my proof of everything that you've said. And just remind, be as much of a bully to her

as she's trying to be to you. then demand speak to somebody else right right and this is gonna be this you're gonna have to pull teeth to get this done yeah I'm gonna stay on her you might have to use some of that New York charm of yours if you know what I'm saying yeah I got plenty of that. I can tell. Do you have a cousin Vinny by any chance? No, well, just so you know, I grew up with all Italians, so. I'm telling you. I knew it.

I had a feeling, Eric. I would be talking about some of these cousins of yours that are not great citizens if you know what I'm saying Yeah, she doesn't want to know how you broke your knee. I got a deal. You can't refuse. You know, right? Yeah, man. Listen, I wish we had seven tips and you know, this is not a term No, but here but here's my question choice. Okay, paying them. I No, but here's my question, Church. Okay. Keep paying them. Well, you're on the hook for the lease.

You're on the hook for the lease. So paying it down is only going to... There's two sides of this, and here's the thing. As long as you continue to make the payment, they're like, hey, this guy's making a payment. They don't care. They just want you to pay the thing off. I've never had any experience with this kind of thing, so I don't have the foggiest idea what his options are. I have not either.

I mean, once something enters collections and it's like, hey, it's no longer with Chrysler Capital, it's with somebody else, that's when they know they're not getting their money. The fact that these are still the people that you took the original loan with, that might be why they're giving you so much. They're not incentivized, Eric, to get out of this deal

because you're not delinquent. Right. And I'm not telling you to intentionally miss payments or something like that, but I am telling you that default is usually, that's the point where it's like, we're not getting money from this guy. They sell that debt off. And then at that point, anything that they get is whipped cream. So I just don't think you're at that point. I think that's why they're struggling to make a deal with you. Yeah, I agree. So they told me, when I said that to her,

I said, I know how this works, this is just gonna go to the collection. She said to me, and I think she's being honest, she said, well, no, it's not going to collections. We're gonna handle everything in house. So they do have a legal department. And at one point, I did get a lawyer to try to, you know, to get the debt reduced. And my not my not so broke brother-in-law used to be a lawyer. So

but on what would that be? I mean, was there anything that was wrong that took place? Or did you just beat the heck out of this truck? No, I was, my game plan was to buy the truck, finance the truck when the, when the lease was up. Okay, the lease is up, I want to buy the truck, you know, give you a down payment and I'll make payments, you know, I, that, that was my game truck. You know, I'll give you a down payment and I'll make payments, you know? That was my game plan. Oh no, it's got more than 100,000 miles. So the same people that lease me the truck won't sell it to me after I made all my payments on time.

Come on. But was it in the, I'm asking, was it in the, like you signed a lease contract. In the lease contract, there's nothing in there that says if it's over the miles, they're not gonna to sell to you. Nothing. I have a copy of the contract.

Okay. Well then, yeah, maybe you get your brother-in-law who's the lawyer to help you with this. You know. Well, he's retired. Well, but he's got nothing else to do. I just, I'll be honest, I've never heard someone be on the hook for this much money after a lease gone bad. Well, I went way over in the mileage. someone be on the hook for this much money after a lease gone bad?

Well, I went way over in the mileage. I mean, if you read the contract, it is, you know, it's legit. You know, they, they really have, uh, they really can enforce it. If they want. Oh yeah. You're not in good position. That's why I'm saying, but you, you were saying it wasn't in the contract. I'm like, something's in that contract that they're holding you to. Yeah.

I think again, uh, we've given you our best advice. You got to try to get somebody else on the phone and see if you can get them to work with you. She's not going to play ball. She, by the way, she's not incentivized to do so. And if you truly think it's an illegality, then get with a lawyer and see if they can look at it. Yeah. Yeah. I'd get that retired cousin. Vinny. Vinny. Get him on the phone. Vito. of dude if your name is veto. You're a boss I wish my name was Vito be a much bigger deal

Hey so many of you have shared the show through whether it be podcast YouTube You're just sharing, sharing, sharing. We're so grateful for that. And that's how the show grows. It's just the algorithms and all of the things, the likes, the subscribes, the shares. So thank you for all of it. But we're very excited about it

because we have made it easier now. Here in the month of June, we have launched the Ramsey 101 playlist on YouTube. So our YouTube channel is very, very popular. And the playlist is the basics. Think about, you know, your math 101. We're talking basic stuff on a college level course, if you will. And our playlist on YouTube is what are the baby steps, how to pay off debt with the debt snowball, how to build an emergency fund. As three really practical examples, we're talking just 101 how to win with our process, and that is on YouTube.

And you can share it by clicking the link, the top of the show notes to open the Ramsey 101 playlist on YouTube. You can text it, you can DM it, you can send it in a group chat. You can just say something like, Hey, thought this might help Ramsey 101 playlist, super easy for people. One click and they're in and it's very, very helpful. If you're listening on radio, by the way, you've got the playlist featured at the top of our YouTube channel. So here's our question for you, the audience today. Who's the one person you're going to share the

playlist with? Think about it. There's a person who's not familiar with it, with our content, with our content, with our show, but they're struggling financially. Jade, who you thinking? Who you got? We'll put you on the spot. I'm really thinking through this and I don't know very many people that don't know about Ramsey. I'm always telling people about what we do around here. You don't have a friend down in South Florida? They all know. Those folks really know.

All right. I'm trying to think who it could be. What about you? Classmate on Facebook? No, I'm not on Facebook. Yeah, I'm not gonna retro back to high school for this one. Who would I share it with? I'll tell you what, I'm gonna share it with a couple of my son's buddies that are in college. That's a great idea. Because they're new into this, they're beginning to slowly, you know, get some independence financially, they're working hard. He's a rising sophomore, maybe some of his buddies. That's a great idea. I don't have their cell numbers, but I have to get them from him. Yeah, that's a good idea. Yeah, somebody young, somebody young. When we get this information to somebody in their teens and early 20s, and if they get it, it's a game changer. So absolutely that's my

choice. Let's go to Jose in Austin. Jose how can we help today? Hi, I'm 24. I have two kids. I make about 70k a year and my girlfriend makes about 40k a year. We're currently renting at the moment and it's pretty cheap. It's like a thousand bucks a month. It's a three bedroom, two bath. It's actually like one of our friends but we've had some complications with like the house. There was like mold growing and we did date the owners took care of it and then but my girlfriend wants to buy a house now that she has a job. She, she was a stay at home mom for the first two years with the kids.

And I was the only one working and now she got a job and she's making about 40k a year. And, um, now she's like persistent on getting a house and she's kind of like, kind of forced me to get a house. And then I'm, I'm kind of between getting a house and between not, I've been listening to Dave Ramsey for about three to four months now. It was actually one of my coworkers who told me about it. And, um, I have about $17,000 on the car loan.

Um, I got it a year and a half ago and I was thinking about selling it but if I sell it I'm only gonna get like $15,000 and she needs a car to get work. So it's kind of like boil this for me to sell it. She doesn't have a car at all? She has a car now which is a $17,000. I have a car, I have a truck paid off already but she has her car and it's $17,000 left so that's about 400 bucks a month and I've been trying to pay it off and I also have like appliances and other stuff that we got whenever we first moved into that house. How much is that? It's about, so I just

paid off 800 last week which is for our washer and dryers. I have like 600 left on like my refrigerator and a microwave. And then a thousand on an Amazon gift, like a store card. Cause we needed, we did, we were pretty dumb and did Christmas shopping on there and bought a lot of stuff that we did. And then all combined together, we have like 6,000 total and any credit cards.

Okay, so can I ask a couple questions just to clarify for me? The two kids, that's you guys as kids together, right? Both of them? Yes, ma'am. That's both of our kids. And that's another thing about childcare. We pay about $1,300 a month in childcare. Okay, that's not bad.

That's actually really good. Because how old are the kids? It's three and one. That's excellent. Usually it's double that. And how long have you guys been together? We have been together for four years now. Four years.

We were like just like boyfriend and girlfriend. And then once we had kids, we decided to move in together. Okay, so if you don't, let me, let's take this layer by layer because there's a couple of layers I wanna attack. One, I wanna deal with the housing issue because you can't stay in a place where you said there's mold, right? Yeah, no, but they got it fixed.

It did get fixed. So it's not, it's no longer an issue. Okay, great. It's not an issue anymore, but she's still complaining. She's like, oh, this place is way too small. And it might be, but you're not ready to buy's like, oh, this place is way too small. And it might be. But you're not ready to buy a house. So let's talk about that.

And then I'll go back to the other issues. You're not ready to buy a house for many reasons. A, you still have debt. B, do you have any money saved? I have an emergency fund of two thousand dollars. OK, that's that's I'm glad that you have that. But that's not nearly enough to put as a down payment on a house So the proper time and way to buy a house is you pay off all your debt first you save up three to six months

So you've got that cushion then you start saving up your down payment and you save up your down payment until that house payment is In a comfortable spot, right and we would recommend no more than 25% of your take home So it's not eating your lunch every single spot, right? And we would recommend no more than 25% of your take home. So it's not eating your lunch every single month, right? So you guys have a while until you get to that point. That doesn't mean that you can't move out of this tiny apartment and get a bigger apartment, but you're definitely not ready to buy a house. Now let's talk about the big elephant in the room,

which is why are you with this girl for four years and have two kids together and thinking about buying a house, but not marrying her. Yeah, I know. What's up with that dude? Yeah. I don't know. And honestly, it's on me.

Yeah, tell me more. So we did split up. We did split up for a while. We were split for like a year. Why? There was some things that happened in between and it's probably my fault. Okay, so it's on you? We were going to get, we were, not fully on me, but we were going to get married.

We were going to get married. We were going to get married. We were going to get married. We were going to get married. We were going to get married. We were going to get married. We were going to get married. We were going to get married. We were going to get married. We were going to get married. We were going to get married. There are some things that happened in between and it's probably my fault. Okay, so it's not fully on me, but we were just getting along and you know, we wouldn't

say nice things to each other. So we were like, okay, you know what, I just feel like it's bad to go like the kids in this household. Okay. We're constantly arguing. So I think it's best if we just go both ways. Okay. And then you got back together.

And then we got back together because I guess we really loved each other. And we're like, you know what? We don't deserve to give this to our kids. You know, we decided to bring them into this life. Yeah. Did you do some counseling? Yes, we did. We're still doing counseling at the moment. I got it. Okay. To that end, I just want to jump in. Jade's got you on the money stuff, but I just am sensing something here and I'm just going to ask you a question man-to-man here, okay? Are you taking the lead on financial stuff in the home? I know you're not married and it's

not ideal, but you guys are doing a lot together. You need to have separate finances, that's what we teach her. But regardless of all that, does she follow your lead? Can you put a stop to making some unnecessary purchases at this time until you clean it up the way that Jade's led you or you feel like you got no sway? So that's the thing. I'm hoping that she can hear this call. I'm hoping that it's out there so she can hear it because she thinks that whatever you guys say is kind of like nonsense. And I've told her, you know, I feel like we need to pay off.

We can't pay off all of our debt, at least pay most of it, because it takes up like a lot of our income at the end of the month. And then I also was like, I want to have like 10 to 12 thousand dollars saved up after a dollar. Yeah. Do you know why she thinks it's nonsense? Can you speak to that? Do you feel like you can or because if we know what the why is and we can help combat that.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't I really don't know why I feel like she's very young. She's 21 I feel like she's a little bit immature at times and she doesn't like see things my way. Listen, you're both young and you're both immature both of you together. Yeah, you got to stop participating. Uh-huh. So she doesn't have to agree with us. That's not part of the deal. This is y'all's relationship.

And there's a lot of muddy lines here. And I would say one of the things that needs to get clear pretty quickly is you go, I'm no longer participating in any debt, period. Yes. So that's what we're actually doing. We're not doing anything on credit. Everything's on cash. I've been listening to his audiobooks as well.

Keep doing it, keep going. And keep your money separate until you're married. Don't put anything in her name in your name. ["The New York Times"] ["The New York Times"] All right, how many of you out there that are listening or watching are sick and tired of being sick and tired and living paycheck to paycheck.

Yeah. So the first step is you've got to get a budget to figure out where the money is coming and going. That's the deal. So we've got some free budgeting trainings this month. You can sign up for free at everydollar.com slash webinar. Everydollar.com slash webinar. Now this is free.

And you're going to learn step by step how to make a budget and then stick to it using EveryDollar. Sign up for free at everydollar.com slash webinar. All right, John is up in Denver, Colorado. John, how can we help? Hey guys. My wife has joint ownership of a property worth about 20 million dollars. Whoa!

And yeah, I wasn't sure if maybe it's time to cash that out and start putting it to work for us, the family, and how would I, if I should even have that conversation with her. Well, you gotta tread lightly. So it's her and it's your wife and who else? Who else are the joints? It's my wife, her two sisters, and her mother. Okay. And what's the deal? Like, what do you know about it? Is it in a trust? And what's the time frame? Exactly. It was in a trust for a while. The youngest sister just turned 18. So now it can be

sold. So, I mean, I just see it sitting there and it's like, maybe we should just take it now. Well, you know, I mean, I'm not expecting it to go down to nothing, but you know, that's enough to change our lives if we just cashed out right now. What's your wife saying? She thinks that this property is going to be such a headache. She honestly almost wants nothing to do with it. And I'm just thinking, you know for How much is worth it's worth dealing with what's on it? Is it just land? It's just land. So you guys sell this you make five million. Everybody makes five million. That's the deal

Right, who's some capital gains, but yeah, sure Who's who's the one that doesn't want to pull that lever in the mix? I think they're all, my wife and all of their sisters are kind of just whatever about it. Why are they whatever about it? Because they have a weird dynamic about money and their family and they honestly,

I just don't think they want to deal with the potential of making their mother angry. Why would selling it make their mother angry? Tell me you're you're like, I feel we're missing side No, this is like an onion. Tell us get right to it. I'm sitting here listening and listening listening I'm going I don't think I've got the full story. So your mom your wife's family is very wealthy. Is this it? Through through this real estate and that's pretty much it okay, so this is the one big nest egg and What is to explain the part about the mom being mad about them selling this now that they're of age explain that

She owns a share of it. Also. She is just She sees it as almost like her legacy and doesn't want to see it go away and she's always been really bad with money She's gone through bankruptcy before she's considered doing it a second time recently And part of the issue part of the issue is that? They are concerned that She will do some sign find some way to put this as leverage for her you know collateral for another loan or something. Okay stop. Alright so let me so okay so you're saying the share if you sell this land what would she stand

to make her share? Her share would be five million. Okay alright so they're your your wife's and the sibling they're all worried what she would do with the five million? No they're they're all worried what she would do with the five million? No, they're worried that she might find some way. Because my wife and her siblings, they've never actually sat down and talked to the lawyers or read the will or anything. So they're worried that she might have some way to weasel it into her name. And so that's why they're almost all just like, I don't want anything to do with this.

How do you even know? If nobody's read the will, how do you even know how do you even know that doesn't make any sense how do you even know that this is theirs we've been told by the mother-in-law oh listen I think that here's what I think and can please weigh in I think that and I'm not saying anything please understand if I were in your shoes I'd be having a lot of questions too, because $5 million is not a little bit of money. It's a lot. So I kind of think that you're sitting to the side, your eyes are getting big because you're seeing, oh, there's some potential here, but truly there's no facts around the situation. It's odd to me that there's this major piece of

possible money and no one's moving towards it, no one's reading the will, no one seems to care. I almost wonder if it, what's really going on. And so I feel like your homework is sit down with your wife and have the conversation say, Hey, what the heck's going on with this $20 million property? Are we selling it? Are we going to read the will? Like what's going on? Like, can you talk to your wife like that? Just candidly? Yeah. And I have, and she, she's just said to me, you know, I, I don't expect to get anything from my mother when she passes. I don't expect anything from this. I don't, I just assume that this is going to be a non-factor in my life.

So I just want nothing to do with it. How did it come up? How did it come up to where you called us and told us all of this stuff? Like how did this seems like something just popped up recently? Because the mother-in-law, she talked to my wife recently, who then talked to me. She talked to my wife about potentially selling it and to pay off her debt. And of course, my wife would get her share. And I wasn't around when this conversation happened, or I would have been telling my wife, yeah, you should probably do this or really consider it. So when my wife finally told me, I was like, well, why didn't you say, yeah, let's do this?

And she was just like, oh, I don't know. I just didn't really- Okay. How many other siblings are involved? Two. Okay. First of all, we get these calls a lot. The details are different, but the scenario is the same. You're the brother-in-law. And by the way, it's funny, I mean, excuse me, you're the son-in-law, and you keep going,

the mother-in-law. You don't go, you never once on this call said that I heard my mother-in-law or whatever her name is. It's like the mother-in-law. So it feels like your wife's response sounds like a person who is exhausted in the relationship with her mother, that there are probably some emotional boundaries that are there, and she's almost completely apathetic because she just, the idea of even dealing with mom on this doesn't even feel like

it is worth it. Am I about right on this? Yeah, that sounds pretty accurate. Because in a normal situation, You'd be jumping. She would be like, yeah, mom, I'm thrilled to get my cut. It sounds like she's resigned herself to say, even though I guess it's your father-in-law who left this land? It was their grandmother.

The father-in-law is not really in the picture. Okay, so it sounds like when the grandmother passed, left this land, even though it sounds like when the grandmother passed left this land even though it sounds like your your wife is Like already entitled to her percentage of it. You're it sounds like your wife is just resigned to saying hey I'm not fighting this battle. I'm doesn't even want to look in I'm happier with just waiting until my mom passes And then it'll just go directly to me and then I don't have to fight her about this. That's what it sounds like will just go directly to me. And then I don't have to fight her about this. That's what it sounds like.

Yeah, that's pretty accurate. By the way, okay, so based on that, your position as her husband, and the, or one of the son-in-laws, or whatever the situation is, you don't get a vote. You get to give an opinion to your wife. It's family business.

But other than giving an opinion to your wife, there's nothing you can do. So, you know, should you encourage her? Sure. Be great for you guys financially, but she's got to then corral the other siblings, I guess, or go to her mom and go, mom, I think it's a great idea. I'm for it. But then who knows what the other siblings are gonna say. Yeah, because at what point, the question is how much are you willing to force the sale of this and possibly for your wife that's the question and possibly really mess with relationships. That's an interesting question. Do you have a good

relationship with your mother-in-law? It's okay. What does that mean? That's not an answer. We exchange pleasantries and we're friendly with each other. We talk. It's on a have to basis. Have you ever had a fight or anything? No. Well, OK. My point is you're a grown man. And if you want to call your mother-in-law up.

No, Ken. No, hold on a second. You didn't even let me finish before you disagree. If you want to call your mother-in-law up and go, hey, my wife said that you said this. Oh no, Ken! And she asked me for input on this. What is the situation?

Just listen. That's a normal conversation. Ken. He can totally do that. No, he can't do that. Why? Why? Without the wife knowing?

No, she would need to be okay with it. I didn't say behind her back. Just say, hey babe, you care if I bring the subject up and see where your mom's really at on this deal? Of course you gotta get buy-in from the wife. I don't know, I think this is a bad idea, Ken. No, it's not. It's called being an adult and that's if your wife's okay with it. Just to see where it sits.

This aggression shall not stand. Look at the audience. They're saying thumbs down, Ken. Well, I have a good relationship with my mother-in-law. I could absolutely do that with my wife's approval. With the wife's approval. Did you guys not catch that? I mean, even still, it's some dangerous territory. You know what? I reserve the right to be wrong, but you all are wrong. This is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about their money, their profession and their relationships. All of those are intertwined and if one of them's off, it can make a mess and we want to help you avoid a mess or get out of the mess alongside Jade Warshaw. I'm Ken Coleman.

Phone number is 888-825-5225. Eric is up in Cincy Nati. I'm super fanatical today, apparently. Eric, how can we help? Yes, so right now, me and my wife are in baby step two, and I'm wanting to know how long I should work a part-time job because we have a two-year-old toddler at home and my wife is also pregnant right now. Oh, wow. Do the end of August. So we have a little bit of a nest egg saved up and I'm wanting to get a part-time job to keep tackling the debt snowball. Perfect. Wanting to know how long should I should do that. You should do it until you don't need to do it anymore.

It's a part-time job, number one. So let me be more specific. Obviously, when baby comes, you're going to hopefully tell those folks, look, my wife is due at such and such a time. And as a result, that's going to affect my ability, but I need this job, want this job. So given this, whatever your, I gotta be careful on this because the maternity leave for dudes

is something that is a thing now, and I've never understood it. I get hot water because people think I'm a caveman, but whatever that is on your day job, and same thing, tell them, you gotta communicate to them. But my point is, to the extent that the wife will let you out of the house, because you got a marriage first, that's the deal, I'd be working as much as I could to pay off

this debt, you know? And so if the baby weren't in the picture, the new one coming along, how long would you have anticipated needing to work this part-time job to get out of debt? That one would still be uncertain. We have about little less than 89k in debt and based on the map on the Every Dollar Act is what I really love using. It would be about three years for us to get out of that 89k debt. What's your income? What are you making with the part-time job right now? Part-time job isn't solidified. I've got the interview Wednesday or four o'clock in the afternoon What are you making now my day?

my day job is About 26 an hour doing 40 hours a week and minimum and what is that? And then my wife hey do that math for me right quick and tell me what that is a month for you. Bring in about 2,300 a month after insurance. And what would the part-time job pay? 11.75 an hour. Doing what? It's literally just a drive through like convenience place. That's literally two minutes from my house. Okay

I understand why you did that super close job. I get it, but you need to make a more I think you can $11 an hour is not a good exchange for this extra time to be away from mama and the two little ones Yeah, what do you know how to do? Is there something you can do on the side for people and set your price? You seem like a guy who knows how to do things aside for people and set your price? You seem like a guy who knows how to do things. Yeah. So my daytime job at the moment is a security technician and potentially I'm

working talking to another company that if God opens all the doors, I would turn into a programmer for security cameras and access control. Great. I'm just telling you to spend any extra time away above and beyond. Cause that's putting a strain on, on your wife. that's putting a strain on your wife, it's putting a strain on you. However, we're okay with this extra strain. That's why I immediately started off with,

you gotta do this part-time job to bring an extra income as long as it takes. Because if mama's gonna stay home, even for the maternity leave, you need that extra income, and this is gonna get you out of debt earlier while the kids are are little. See the two-year-old doesn't understand time. So it's gonna hurt your heart. Let's just be real. It's gonna hurt your heart to be away from them. But you're doing it for a season and I think a lot shorter season in three years. That's where Jade's going with this deal.

She's trying to figure out your money thing. So Let's keep going with jade, but let's acknowledge that it doesn't make any sense For you to be doing a part-time job and making 11 an hour when you're worth 26 an hour at the baseline Then you're gonna you will loathe being away from your family for 11 You're already not gonna want to do it. for that money, you are going to hate it. Great statement. You know? So, here's my thoughts on this. First off, you are in baby step two,

you do have a baby on the way, so I do wanna highlight this teaching because I think it's important. Any money that you do stack up during this time, you're kind of holding it and keeping it in a fund, a baby fund, just to make sure everything goes right with the pregnancy, everything goes right with the delivery. So just remember that we still want you grinding it,

but just keep that money to the side. And then once the baby's born, then you throw it on whatever your smallest debt is. And yeah, I think that to Ken's point, now's the time to really figure out what can you kind of crank up today that you can start making money. Even if it's knocking on the doors in the neighborhood

that's really nice, that's around you, and starting to, it's summertime, start mowing lawn. Anything that you can set the schedule, because that's the other thing that's gonna give you peace when you have a little baby. Having that control of saying, I get to set my schedule, I get to set my rate, that'll keep you doing these side hustles a little bit longer because you've got a really a three-year two and a half year train

in front of you and so Setting it up that ways. I think it's gonna help you long term. Yeah, I totally agree head down For a season and you guys can get there. All right, let's let's talk about this. Yeah, I want to chop this up Yeah, so let's talk about this. Yeah, I wanna chop this up. Yeah, so let's talk about young couples, babies, on the way, similar to this scenario, and they're in baby step two. There's like a lot of new people joining us all the time. There's the intensity, we preach gazelle intensity,

if you haven't heard us talk about that before, just a quick kind of metaphor. You ever seen one of those nature shows and you see a gazelle in the Serengeti, the savanna trying to get away from that lion? Right. It is everything they got to get away. And this situation comes in here.

I want your thoughts on this, because I know my thought is just do whatever, as long as the wife is not yelling at you and come home, help me, she needs help as well. What's the level of intensity like in that scenario from your point of view? Not as just a money expert as a woman. I think it's a mental shift,

because, and I'm gonna speak on this from a little bit of a different perspective. I think what happens is we go, baby's on the way, family's my first priority. Yes, family is your first priority, whether it be your marriage part of the family, then your kids part of the family, right? It's usually one and two, right?

But then we really forget, and our mind immediately goes to the way I show that something is a priority is I spend time with it. When really there's this whole part of it that's like, hey, what are the different ways that you value a priority? If you say your family's a priority, there are more than one ways to show that. Time is just one of the many. Another way that I show that my family's a priority is I take care of my body. I eat healthy. I make sure I'm going to be here for the long haul, right? Another way I take care of my family and make sure that

they're the priority is I go out and work and make sure the lights stay on and that there's food on the table and that tuition is paid, right? So instead of laser focusing in on this one small aspect of what makes a priority, a priority, which is time, we have to look at the seasonal component and say, well, in some seasons time could be a priority and other seasons going out and grinding that ax and making some money. That's the priority. And that's how I prioritize my family. And so depending on what your financial situation is, that really does speak to how you bullet point how to make that a priority.

But you got it with the relational component is you got a wife at home with a couple of babies. You got to smooth that one out. You got to smooth it out. You might, but have that conversation with her and then she'll start to say, Oh, okay, I see. He does prioritize us. And that's a vision casting. I love that you laid that out. Just cast a vision, short season, we're gonna do this.

Here's what life is gonna look like on the other side. It's a buy-in. Don't have to be a caveman about it. All right, Springfield, Missouri is where we're going next. Aiden is joining us there. How can we help? Hi, my name is Aiden Thompson and I need some advice on how I can control my money better and finance it better with my fiance because we are struggling to figure out ways to pay

our bills the correct way. Okay. Our bills, does that mean you guys are sharing finances before getting married? In theory, yes, we have separate accounts and everything. But we're trying to, in theory, control them as one set of separate people. So you're living together? Yes. Is this a rent or a home mortgage? This is a rent. We live in an apartment. Okay. What do you guys make?

I make probably about $800 a month and she probably makes about $400 a month. Okay. Well, there's your problem. $1,200 a month. That is, I mean mean you barely can live in a cardboard box for that. How old are you? I'm 22. 22. What do you do for a living? Well I have three jobs. I work at two restaurants and then I just got a third job today. Time out. You are not doing much work at all. Eight hundred dollars a month is what you're bringing in with three jobs? Roughly. I just got my third job today. How many hours are you working? I'm working at one of my jobs about 30 hours and then I'm about to quit my second job. Okay, so what can you can you tell us what they are so that we can let them

know about themselves live on the air? Because anybody that's not paying to work 30 hours, and you're not even are you waiting tables? Basically yes, but I just bring out the food okay listen dude. Oh gosh. How old are you again? 22 okay, you need to go get a job at a grocery store or Walmart or somewhere else where you're making way more than you're making now. Amazon Flex, anything else. Like you bringing out food, I don't know if you've done the math on that, $800 divided by 30 hours ain't much, all right? That's crazy to me. So you call and I appreciate that you call, but you need some income. And so you're shooting for $15 an hour, $12 an hour, $20 an hour.

I mean, anything more than what you're making right now. And what is she doing for 400 bucks a month? She is an at home, um, CNA nurse. How many hours is she working? Three? She works about probably four to five because she only has one client right now. Okay, what is she doing with the rest of her time? She does like door dashing and all to make up the extra money that we can't.

And how much does she make from that? Because you said she makes 400 bucks Is that total? She's not what I'm aware of probably she's not working Aiden Can she instead of trying to build up her own book of business? Can she go work for a company that will? Do work for hire for her? like care doctor like she probably do work for hire for her?

Like care, like. She probably, she can, we've talked about trying to get her a better paying job because she loves what she does, but this job that I've tried talking to her about isn't working her. She's not actually doing it. That's the problem. She might love the idea of doing that work, which is great.

She's just got to actually go out and be able to do that work because what you're describing is just a couple of hours Oh for the whole week So either she needs to get with a company that will send her out on jobs Or she needs to get very very serious about getting on all the sites that would book her as you know individually to come out and be a care nurse Yeah you know, individually to come out and be a care nurse. Yeah. Are you stumped right now? I'm just doing some math over here.

I didn't want you to think I left you hanging. I'm just doing math. He's making 26 bucks a day. Yeah, 26 bucks. You can do that. You can triple that today just by mowing lawns. It's summertime. Just by going out and be like, can I, do you see what I'm saying? I just by mowing lawns. It's summertime.

Just by going out and be like, can I, do you see what I'm saying? I just want you to, I don't want you to fall into just this pattern of, well, this is what I got. And that one's not enough. I'll just go get another one just like it and just keep stacking up these bump jobs.

I want you to go, this is not good enough for me. Like I, I'm a hard worker, I'm a smart guy, like I deserve more than this. And look for the opportunity, and if you can't find it, start creating it for yourself. Get in the car and go to construction sites and say, I'd be willing to be a laborer. That means you're carrying bricks around,

you're carrying drywall, excuse me, plywood and throwing it up to these guys. I did this as a 19-year-old. You can make more money as a laborer on a construction site than you can carrying out food. Do you understand what I'm saying, Aiden? I need to hear something from you. Yeah, I completely understand what you're saying.

Is there a reason why you've not gone after these things? Did Jade hit the nerve here where you just think, well, I live in a small town, there's not a lot there, I got what I got, and it's just not getting me through? What's going on in your mind around making more money? Well, I have a side business on my own, but I've applied to other construction companies because I did work for a mowing company at the beginning of the summer, but they let me go Because I got injured and they didn't want to keep me for however long I was gonna be gone from my injury. Mm-hmm What were you making when you were in lawns for them? I

Was making $16 an hour boom So you're healthy go back to them and if they won't take you, go somebody else. But this idea of you don't need a side hustle, you don't need a side business. You're broke and you got a woman that has said yes to marry you. When's the wedding? Next year, June 28th. Great. Who's paying for it? So we actually have a free venue and we're not going to cater any food so that we're

going to keep it on the cheaper end and more kind of like a potluck kind of thing. Okay. Love the potluck idea. Well, how much is your rent by the way? Our rent is $1,000. So you guys are existing off of $200. It must be going on credit cards. Well, actually we don't have any credit cards. So how are you eating

and putting gas in your car? So I donate plasma every uh for two days a week so that normally is for my gas and then for food we have to normally go to food banks. Can I ask you why are you make you're a 22 year old smart bright guy why are you putting yourself on a struggle slice why are you doing that why are you choosing that going down and donating plasma that's like that's pursuit of happiness next level broke you don't have to be there you are fit you are young you are smart you have the world is your oyster. What's the answer to that? She asked you a direct question What's the answer what's really going on that? That's your option? I Mean I shouldn't be in theory punishing myself for these low labor jobs

And I should probably go out and find these higher paying jobs that are gonna help me get through life. Yeah, yeah, and you can I You know I just what I want you to hear from me is I think there's something are gonna help me get through life. Yeah. Yeah. And you can. What I want you to hear from me is I think there's something in your own mind that's making you feel like maybe you're not able to accomplish, but I think you can. I did not hear anything Aiden that would make me think, well, he's got a good reason for having to reach lower.

I only hear reasons that you should be reaching higher. And I just think that it's your own mind that's kind of getting in the way of that. Yeah, I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. I wanna give you guys a pre-wedding gift. It's called, find the work you're wired to do. And it's got about an 18 to 20 minute assessment in it. If I give it to you, will you promise me you'll take it?

Yes, sir. All right, now here's what it's gonna do. It's gonna spit out for you how you're wired. In other words, what you're really good at doing, what you enjoy doing, and the results that motivate you. Because all work creates result. Do you agree with that? Yes or no? Yes sir. Alright, so if you could spend most of your day using the talent that you have to do something you love to produce a result that matter, that'd be a pretty good day, wouldn't it? Yeah. Do you also agree that that's your best chance of making income? Yeah, I truly believe that.

All right. I'm going to give this to you as awareness to hopefully shake you out of this cycle of I'm just down on my luck and life got me behind the eight ball. As I think Jade nailed it, you're worth more than this. It's time to start acting like it. And it's gonna change everything for you guys. You guys are subsisting on less than the poverty level. And there's no reason for it other than sheer belief

and the effort that comes with it. So hang on the line. We're gonna give you the book, find the work you're wired to do. Please take the assessment and then read the book. It's about a 45-minute read. I'm going to coach you to move forward. Please do it for your future. I'm telling you, you can do this, but you got to start acting on this today. All right. If you are tackling debt or if you're trying to build wealth, you know what you can forget about?

You get so locked in on everything you're doing there, you forget about basic protection. In other words, insurance. Having the right coverage can impact how long it takes to actually get out of debt or build the wealth that you want to build. Think of insurance as a shield around your loved ones in your wallet your bank account Right if disaster strikes, and we know it does So we want you to take the coverage checkup This is a free online resource

And it's going to create a personalized insurance action plan based on where you are right now in your financial situation go to Ramsey solutions calm slash Checkup Ramsey solutions calm slash checkup this ramsaysolutions.com slash checkup. This only takes a few minutes. And again, could save you money or it could actually protect you from financial disaster. That's why we want you to do it. I can give them a quick rundown

of the different insurances. Go on. Why not? Why not? Why not? So I think this is important, Ken, because like you said, it can kind of fall under the radar. And a lot of us think erroneously when you start working the baby steps,

you kind of get the idea that, oh, I'll do this when I'm out of debt. And that's just not true. Insurance is not a baby step. It's something that you do as soon as you find out. You don't wait till you get out of debt. So obviously if you're a homeowner, you have homeowners insurance,

but if you're a renter, Ken, you need to have renter's insurance because if something happens to that place, it catches fire or whatever, you're a renter, Ken, you need to have renter's insurance. Because if something happens to that place, it catches fire or whatever, you're out in the cold, somebody breaks in. If you don't have renter's insurance, you're on the hook for that, okay? So obviously there's that,

then of course you gotta have auto insurance, but you need to make sure that you have the right type, and so doing that coverage insurance is really important. You gotta have collision comprehensive, liability, all that stuff. All right, umbrella insurance. A lot of people forget about this. When your net worth hits a certain amount, right?

When you're, you know, over 500,000 net worth, you need to have umbrella insurance. And we say get one million in coverage, that's what you're looking for. You need to have that. Health insurance. Right? If you don't have it through your job,

if that's not a luxury that you have and you're self-employed, you still need to make sure that you reach out and get that. And we have health trusts and some other options here, but make sure that you're covered. You have the right amount because we know bankruptcy, usually it's a result of medical bills. Okay?

So make sure you're covered. Health insurance is important. Of course, we talk about long-term disability. A lot of people forget about that. I'm not gonna lie, Ken, long-term disability, if you don't get it through your job, it's gonna cost you a pretty penny. It can be a little expensive, but just think about it.

There is a very good chance that at some point throughout your working career, something will happen and you're not able to work for a while. So think through these things. What would happen if you stepped off the curb today and broke your leg? And if your mind goes blank or you realize there's nothing in place. I personally would be in a fetal position, sucking my thumb and crying. Listen, I mean, but think about that. It only takes, it don't take much for you to be, you know, at a capacity.

So there's that long-term care. We don't talk about this one a whole lot, but this is about when you get be, you know, at a capacity. So there's that long-term care. We don't talk about this one a whole lot, but this is about when you get older, right? When you're old and you're no longer working and someone needs to take care of you. Don't leave that for your kids to have to, I mean, think about the call. We got a call today, Ken.

The woman sold everything she had to come take care of her 92 year old grandmother and ended up in so much debt because there was no money there to take care of grandma. So that's something you can do today. We talk about getting this in place when you turn age 60, right? Make sure you're getting the right amount.

If you have a high net worth, you probably don't need it because your nest egg can fund it. But these are the things that you need to be thinking about and thinking ahead. And then of course, we talk about term life insurance. You can get that through Xander. I don't think I need to go over that.

If you listen to Ramsey, even for a hot minute, you know that we suggest that. And if you can get some ID theft protection, you can also get that through Xander. That's for your identity basically being stolen on the interwebs, right? And you can get that for super cheap. It's just peace of mind.

So these are the things you need to be keeping in mind. Life happens. You never know how life is going to happen, but insurance is a shield against that. That's right. So again, we want you to go to ramsysolutions.com slash checkup. This is free little quick five minute coverage checkup. You can click on the link in the description if you're listening on YouTube or podcast, ramsysolutions.com slash checkup.

Jay, that was great. It's kind of like George talk nerdy segment. You know, you just nerded out there and it's fantastic. People benefited from that. Let's go to Scott in San Diego. Scott, how can we help today? Hey guys, thanks for taking my call. I appreciate that.

So I am almost 73 in a month or so. I'm debt free, but I'm paying 650 bucks a month for $350,000 worth of term life insurance. And I'm wondering, is that a good investment or should I cancel it and invest that money somewhere else? Why is it so expensive? Well, once I turned 70, I had a 30 year term all the way up to 70 and then once I hit 70, each year, last year I was paying 550, this year it's up to 660 I think it is.

And it's only for 350 of coverage? Yeah. What's your net worth? Yeah. Well my balance is paid off on 800,000. I've got a little over a hundred thousand and I wrote my wife's got about 20,000 in that another IRA there. I've got about 48,000 passive income coming in from retirement. And then I'm still working actually. What's your income? But total for about 125,000 a year.

Yeah. Okay. Well, so, I mean, Jade, we talk about this all the time. Somebody your age, I mean, if you had a higher net worth, I think it'd be a no brainer. I mean, I think at this point, here's the question. If your age, I mean if you had a higher net worth I think it'd be a no-brainer. I mean I think at this point here's the here's the question. If you were to die tomorrow because the 350 is on you, you know, would your wife need that 350,000? You know that's the question. That's what I'm calling it. I don't know. I don't think she does. Well you know. Yeah. Yeah. Well of course, yeah, no, she wouldn't. But. Well, you know. All of my... Yeah. Yeah.

Well, of course, yeah, no, she wouldn't. But I think Oakland came out, I wouldn't want her to have to sell the house or think she had to sell the house. Exactly. And all of my kids, they're doing well. So how long is this new term? How much is this? How long is this new term for?

It just started this in May, and it'll go a year, and then it'll go up again next year again. Oh, so it's on a 12-month rollover, essentially. Yeah, it's a 12-month rollover every year. Because of your age. Exactly. Okay, so I'm thinking through this. I don't have a hard opinion on this,

and I know Jade's got an opinion on this. I'm thinking through this. I don't have a hard opinion on this, and I know Jade's got an opinion on this. I'm walking through this with you, Scott. So let's take the $650 right now, okay? And over 12 months, okay, we know that that is close to $8,000, right? Quick math. Right. 100%. So if you were to take the $8,000 and invest that, you know, and you invested that for,

I mean, let's play this out. How many years, let's say you were going to keep the insurance for her, how many more years would you in your mind want to pay for it? Well, as it keeps going up, I'm thinking, and really, Kim, you tell me if this is goofy, but I'm thinking, okay, hey, let my kids start paying for it. Because, you know, listen, when we leave, obviously, their kids are gonna get their inheritance. It's like, hey, if you guys want this life insurance,

you can pay it. No, I don't like that. I don't like that. No, no, no, your kids, I think that's creative and innovative, but I'm glad you're laughing about it. I think that's a bad idea. If my parents came to me and said,

you gotta pay my life insurance to get the inheritance, I'd go, okay, Pop, we'll talk later. What else are you putting aside monthly into your investments? Yeah, since you're still working, what are you investing? You know, we're not really, I've got an IRA that I've put in 100 bucks a month. You know, I haven't really put a lot of money into that over the last few years.

So you're not investing 15% And I'm not no, but let me ask you this because because last year I called a financial guy Kim you'd mentioned to get a yeah, I heard you talking about getting a professional to help us I called them somebody I knew and I said look I wanted to take all my money out of my IRA and put it By Costco stock. My daughter works for Costco. I know Costco. This is a terrible idea.

Well, okay, yeah, you say that, but let me tell you, if I would have done it last year, 40% of it was up last year. So I know it sounds, because everybody's like, oh no, you gotta diversify, you gotta do this. Well, Costco is not going anywhere. People gotta eat. You don't know that. A smart investor know, Costco is not going anywhere. People got to eat. If their stock has been- You don't know that.

A smart investor diversifies their investments. That's number one. And I want you to walk away with that because that is 100% true. If you put all of your eggs in one basket and that basket catches fire, then you're on fire. Give him real quick math on what you punched up.

Yeah. Hey, don't just take this money and invest it because you're going to be left with less and you're going to have to do it over a longer term. I think for now, you need to really get on a budget. Make sure you're investing 15% of your income because the more that you can invest now, the quicker you can get out of this crazy expensive coverage. You need to start doing the right thing now.

All right, our scripture of the day comes from Romans 15, 2. Our goal must be to empower others to do what is right and good for them and to bring them to spiritual maturity. Our quote of the day from Harry Kemp, the poor man is not he who is without a scent, but he who is without a dream. That was for our Aidan, our caller, remember him? Mm-hmm. Speaking of a cent, I don't want to spend more than 30 seconds on this, but I got to get your hot take

on the fact that they're removing the pennies from the American money system. It just makes sense. Oh, gee, see, it even took me a second. That's like did James write that for you? Nope. Oh, that's right up his alley. He loves a pun.

He loves a good pun. He really does. Listen, I'm going to miss the old penny. It's going to be a while before we don't see them in circulation. My only quick question is and I've literally know nothing about it. You were the person who told me about it earlier today. Does that mean that if I walk into a place and I've got three thousand pennies, they won't give me money for it?

No, it means they're, I don't have the article in front of me, but they're taking them out of circulation and I think they're going to start not creating them. So meaning, no more minting. And does that also mean that it will remove the the nomination of a penny? Yeah, so things won't be 99 cents anymore It'll have to change that because think about it first They stop making them and then they slowly pull them from circulation, right? And if that's gonna take I mean, I don't know what the articles are saying, but that's gonna take a while because you know

I hope they never take away what the quarter. I love a quarter. I got an emotional connection I just realized just now to a quarter. I got an emotional connection, I just realized. Just now, to a quarter. Yeah. Remember the half dollar? When I was a kid, there was 50 cent pieces. Those were a big deal. My grandfather gave me one once,

and when he gave it to me, he did this number. Flipped it to me. Oh, flipped it? Oh yeah. That's a serious piece of metal. It's thick. If you get hit in the cranium with that, you get hit in the dome with a half penny or a half dollar. The two dollar bill, remember that?

Yeah, very special. My husband keeps one in his wallet. I'll ask him next time I see him. Let's go to Thomas in Portland, Maine. Thomas, how can we help? Hey, how's it going guys? Good. How are you today? I'm doing all right. Doing all right. Well, my question for you guys is that I'm recently got told that I'm gonna be getting an inheritance upwards of 70,000 or more and to be honest I don't know I want to make the right

choices with it and I just want to put it somewhere where it can just grow and I could just ignore it and it could just become something amazing. Well great. I have a few ideas that I want to spend some of the money I would like to do something nice for myself. Who'd you get the inheritance from? My grandmother. Okay. She had recently passed away in October of last year. So sorry for that.

How much are you thinking on spending? The amount that I was looking to spend would be about, probably about $20,000 of it. Okay, so spend 20 and invest 50. All right, well you got the queen here to tell you what to do with that 50. What do you got for him, Jade? I got questions, nothing but questions, Thomas. Tell me, do you have debt? I mean, I somewhat, I have a personal debt with my brother for like $2,000 which is part of why I was gonna take that 20,000 anyways and give $2,000 of that to my brother. Good move. Other than that, no. No car note, no student loans, no nothing.

No, no, I own my car at the moment. Cool. It's one of those $2,000 beaters that, you know, gets me to point A to point B and it's made me happy but that's the other part of where I wanted to use that money for you. Good man. We upgrade upgrade a car This is a good plan. I like that. Yeah, what about do you have any money saved? Not not the 70,000 just your own money saved No, I had a terrible mishap word I I moved and then unfortunately due to having to move and to be honest the people were very nice to me but I had to move again after a month

of living at this one place and they basically drained me of everything that I had saved so I was like, oh. What's your income? I make I'm I get paid by weekly and I get paid about 1250 every two weeks. What do you 25 on it among? What do you do? I'm a I'm a Support provider for people with mental disabilities down syndrome autism things like that I go to I go and I stay in the home. I live there for three days and I basically do whatever he needs.

Does that mean you, what's your living situation for rent? So I do have my own apartment. I, cause I do rent my own place. I paid 1200 a month for it. It's a nice two bedroom place. That's five minutes from the local grocery store and close enough to where I don't have to spend too much time driving and spend money on gas. Okay, so I'm gonna bust your bubble just a little bit, but not too too much. 70,000 is a nice chunk of change, but I don't think it's gonna be the lump sum.

I don't think it's gonna set you free in. I don't think it's gonna set you free in the way that maybe you think. Cause I'm just going through this. I'm like, okay, you got, let me say this. You're gonna have to be very careful because you gotta pay your brother the 2000. That's, that's nothing, but that leaves you with 68. How much were you planning to spend to upgrade your car?

I was trying, what I was trying to do is to spend about like 15,000 on it and I was hoping because I have no credit I have zero credit I we're talking about buying it outright in cash not financing it okay pretty pretty much I was looking to spend 20 20 to 25,000 if that. I'd say spend 20. That leaves you with 48. Now you don't have any money saved to your name.

So I think that you need to use some of this and keep it liquid as a three to six month emergency fund. And if I were you, I'd probably do it on the six month side since it's just you and truthfully your incomes on the lower side Right now, so I would save up six months. So for you What's that look like? What's six months of expenses for you? Yeah, roughly, okay, so we'll take that out now, you know Okay, so we'll take that out now, you know You're at 36 you could take that money And then if you wanted to what I would probably do is I'd maybe keep it in a high yield

If you wanted to because the next thing around the corner for you is once you start getting your income up You could think about buying a house. That's probably more than a five-year horizon So maybe I would go ahead and invest this money Okay, just drop it into a brokerage account and keep it there and let it grow. So it can be your down payment on a house. I like that idea for you. Okay. And cause I again, I don't know all the details, but all of that. So I mean, going forward, putting it into a brokerage account, I mean, where does it go? I mean, how does that entirely work?

Okay, that's a good question. So you would invest that money the way we teach to invest any money, whether it's your 401k, you know, money for retirement or money for, like I said, that's non-retirement that you can pull out at any time with no penalty other than taxes. It's across four different types of mutual funds.

So they're growth funds, growth and income funds, aggressive growth funds, and international funds. And all a fund is is just a big old group of a bunch of different companies that meet that criteria that a bunch of people are funding and investing in. So that's all it is. So if you have, I said growth and income, so these are like big companies like

Walmart, they're making big bucks all the time. They've been around for a long time. They're paying dividends and there's not a whole lot of surprises going on. Then you have the international ones, which are good to have because if things aren't going so straight, so good state side, usually things are doing better internationally. So that helps balance that out. And you've got the aggressive growth funds. Those are usually smaller startups or usually tech companies, things that really have, can have a really high upside,

but also have a little bit more risk and they can have a downside. So when you're investing in all of these, they're kind of balancing each other out. And we do find, obviously, there's days that the stock market is really high, there's days that it's low, or there's weeks that it's doing well or not doing well. But we find that over the long haul, if you're a long haul investor, five years or more, you are going to see the

upside of that. So that's what I'm talking about. That's what I would do. I think this is really great money that you have. Yeah, I'm only gonna just add to this Thomas, I want you to go to ranzysolutions.com. As soon as we add to this, Thomas. I want you to go to ranzysolutions.com as soon as we're wrapping up here and I want you to just search SmartVestor Pro. It's gonna bring you to a page where you can put in your zip code

and it's gonna give you a list of SmartVestor financial professionals that we have vetted. They're independent, but they are professionals and they'll walk you through in several means, meet with several, to find the one you really like and they'll help you invest the rest of that money the way that Jade has coached you.