The Ramsey Show - App - You’re Doing Better Than You Think! (Hour 3)

Episode Date: November 14, 2023

Live from the headquarters of Radio 4,, this is The Ramsey Show. It's where we help you win with your money and with your work and with your relationships. All of those somehow are very interconnected. We want to help you win in all three areas because that means you're winning in your life. 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225. That's the phone number to jump in. I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw joins me this hour and we are here for you. So let's get to it. We're going to, this is always exciting. I always love when they tell us on the screen where people are from because it gives you an idea like the world's a really big place. Yeah.

And we've got Janae on the line, but I think this is Missoula, Montana. Is that right, Janae? Missoula, Montana, yes. Also a little bit of a, it's a hard S, not a soft S. Missoula. Correct. I got it. Missoula, Montana.

It's like a Z. Yes. Yes. How can we help? So I am a relatively new widow, and I had a series of unfortunate events this past year, and I resorted to racking up credit card debt, which I knew was a big no-no. But I'm living on half of the income that my husband used to bring in, and now I'm backpedaling because I can't pay the debt off and so I am either contemplating credit card like debt consolidation or just closing the accounts out

and just seeing if the car the credit card companies will work with me. I'm very limited on the income that I can make and so I just don't know what the best option to do is. What happened? So my husband was ill and had a very rare tumor that the NIH was studying and he developed COVID and essentially died from COVID. So sorry for you. Yeah, I was a stay-at-home mom. He was the breadwinner for, you know, 21 years of our life. We had four kids. Wow, I'm sorry.-at-home mom. He was the breadwinner for 21 years of our life. We had four kids. Wow, I'm sorry. Any life insurance?

Yeah. No life insurance, no savings, no 401k. I'm sorry. Oh, my gosh. I do want to say that we hear this a lot, like something traumatic happens, and there is more spending that happens in a lot of cases after that, whether it's just out of emotional spending or whether it's truly like, I haven't figured out how to make life tick without this major breadwinner. And in your case,

because there was no insurance and because you've got four kids, that does put a wrench on it. How old are the kids? So my oldest is 20. And so he's not really in my, he's in my household, but not directly in my financial household. I have a 17 year old son, a 12 year old daughter and a 10 year old daughter. And I don't have a traditional income. I rely on death benefits. And the reason my two girls have health issues. And so one of them takes a medication that's like $9,000 a month.

Wow. So I have to rely on Medicaid. So my income is very limited as to what I can bring in to have her medicine covered. Yeah, so let's dive into that. So what is the limit in order to get the medication covered via Medicaid? What's the limit on you financially to what you could actually earn? $26,000 a year. Isn't that crazy?

Yeah, it's keeping you in poverty. Let me ask you this. The two girls and their health issues, is that also keeping you at home? It would not allow you a traditional, let's say that we could get child care, we got a great job with great benefits that help with it. Let's just assume all of that. Is that even possible for you to be able to work outside of the home it is possible i do clean homes so i i have a couple of homes that i clean a couple times a week um to get some cash but you're keeping it low on purpose yeah but you're but you're capped. I am capped.

I am capped out to what I can bring in. And so my kids go to the doctors quite often. And so multiple times a week, my schedule kind of has to be flexible. But if I could find a job that I could get this all taken care of, that would be amazing. Well, can we play out some real numbers to see what it would take? Absolutely. Have you done that? I mean, I don't want to do work you've already done, but what if we sat?

Yeah, go ahead. I was going to say, what if we sat? So one child's medication is $900. Did you say a month? $9,000. $9,000. Oh, $9,000. Girl.

Okay, I feel it. I feel it. That's $9,000 a month. And then do you have a mortgage? I do not. I rent. What's your rent? It's currently $950, but it's going to be going up at the first year to $1,250. Can I ask a question again about this medicine? If you had regular insurance, what portion of the 9 000

would the regular insurance cover so whenever we did some research because my husband offered a great job offer years ago and marketplace and stuff like that we could not find an insurance company that would cover the medicine because it's human growth hormone and she takes a lot of it. And so it's kind of one of those tricky medications that I don't know the ins and outs of it. I just know whenever we contacted health insurance companies about three years ago, we could not find one to where the raise that he would be getting would even be beneficial for us. I see. What was he making before he passed? $48,000 a year.

So how did Medicaid allow that? That's what I'm wondering. So my son was in our home, and he was a minor, and then my husband was in our home. And so they go by how many people are in your home, and now that my son is no longer a minor and my husband is deceased, my family went from six people in my home to technically four people in my home. So they deduct about $10,000 per person who is no longer considered under your household.

I see. Okay, I get it. The math, the math, math. This is so maddening to me that you get penalized, you get some help, and then you get penalized. Because $9,000 is extraordinary. Even if you were making $150,000 a year, that's almost all your take home. You know, it just eats up so much. And you've got debt. How much credit card debt have you racked up? Just under $20,000.

So I had a master move at the beginning of the year, and that went septic, and that was a domino effect, and I was not able to do my normal house cleaning for about five months. And so I just started. I was like, well, I'll just use the credit cards and I'll just work extra. And then that, it just was too big of a problem for me to get my feet back under. And so I have not been using the credit cards for months now. Does Medicaid cover the entire amount of the medicine?

Yes. Medicaid, so my two daughters both have open heart surgeries, multiple ones. They cover 100% of all of their medical needs, medications, surgeries, even if we have to travel to Seattle for their surgeries. And they also kind of provide travel assistance. So out of pocket for my children's medical needs is zero. I pay nothing. I would just I would want to look into other even if they're outside insurances, anything else that might have the ability to cover this, because you living on twenty six thousand dollars with a year with four kids, I don't see how that's sustainable long-term. And I would just want to get as much information as I can. At the very least, can we connect her with Xander and see what the heck could be out there that could help offset this $9,000 a month that you're paying?

Hey, I wish we could have been way more help to you. I feel like we spent more time learning than helping. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to get you connected for free to one of our best financial coaches here in the building, and they're going to walk you through what you can do. Hang on the line. We'll take care of you. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw joins me. Hey, if you're new to the program or you've been listening for quite some time, we would love for you to help us spread the word. If you're enjoying the program, like the videos you're watching on YouTube, give us a follow on podcasts, and then a five-star review and share, share, share whatever platform that you listen or watch on. We would be so

grateful. We want to help as many people as possible get out of the system, the matrix, if you will, where they just think they're broke and working a sucky job and having an okay or crappy relationship is just, well, that's just life. We want to help as many people as possible, so do help us do that. Let's go to Houston, Texas, where Kristen awaits. Kristen, how can we help? Hey, glad to be on. I have a question for a question being baby steps four and five primarily okay um really on how to actually make them both happen at the same time okay is it just baby steps four and five or baby steps four five and six four five and six but i mean we can't afford to pay off our home early yet. So we're, you know,

we're working towards getting up to that 15% reach right now. We're doing about 11 and a half percent of our income for retirement. We're also putting some for the kids and we're kind of worried that our, we're not going to have as much as we want saved up for the kids because we had our kids really young. Right. So we have a lot more time before retirement up for the kids because we and our kids really young right so we have a lot more time before retirement versus when the kids are going to go to college i mean our daughter just turned seven and she's going to graduate high school at 17 so 10 years left of that but we still have 35 plus years so let's retirement let's work through these percentages a little bit so i can understand where your money's going so you're completely debt free except the mortgage. Let's say there's 25% that's going to your mortgage. Is it that or less or more?

I think it's just under with the mortgage property taxes and insurance. I think it's about 28. Okay. So that's a little higher. That's okay. Then let's say you're giving 10%. Yes. Okay. So there's 35% and let's say 15% is supposed to go to retirement. So we're at 50% of our income, in your case 53%. What's happening to the other 50% of your income? Because that's assuming you're investing. I'm keeping this house going. You know, groceries and the kids.

How many kids? Activities and we have two kids. Okay, you know, groceries and the kids. How many kids? Activities. And we have two kids. Okay. Two kids. So for four people in the house, what's the income, combined income for you and your husband? So I just started a part-time job. So we don't know how much that'll end up being over the year, but my husband makes $115 a year. Okay. What I'm going to propose, what I'm going to propose is that something ago, what I'm going to propose is that something in your budget, the other 50%, something there is inflated. Because essentially, what you would have if you're not, you know, I think you said you're at 11%. So the other, you know, 54%

of your budget is inflated somewhere. So are you on an every dollar budget yes we've been using every dollar and i do know one area is inflated and it is our property taxes because we just bought this house and they didn't purchase the value and so that should be going down a few hundred dollars a month oh okay so that's good so that's going to help you get from 20 to 25 yes and so in January, how much of this should I dedicate to actually getting 15% to retirement? Yes. Or should I, you know, do like 13 and a half and then have a little bit more for the college, the kids college fund? I would do the 15% no matter what, because their time is going to come no matter what,

when you have to retire, right? What I would start talking about with the kids, how old are they? We have a almost six year old andold and a seven-year-old. Okay. So you've got a little bit of time there. And it's not to say that you can't put any money aside because, again, with Baby Step 5, we're not saying it has to be this specific amount. I mean, if you can get $50 and $100 in there every once in a while, that's something. But I want you to get to this 15% as quickly as possible. And then as things start to change with your property tax or whatever the

thing you said that was inflated right now, you're going to start to see a difference. That $300 to $400 is a big deal, but I really want you going through your budget with a fine-tooth comb because there might be some other areas that for you seem normal. But when you really start to peel back and go, okay, what's a bigger priority for me to do this or for me to make sure I'm getting at least $100 a month into a 529, right? And then the thing with the mortgage, you might, you know, right now, again, it's about being intentional. There doesn't have to be a layer of intensity to that whatsoever at this point.

So if you had, you know, ideas that you were going to be paying double payments in this season, maybe you're not because of the age of your kids, But there will be a season where you will be able to do that. But I really want you to look at this in term of percentage because this plan works for a reason and it works because of those percentages. So for some, you got to really look and say, okay, what's the 50% going to? Is somebody in private school? Is there something about your budget that kind of feels like oh maybe that's what it is other than that property insurance for three or four three hundred more well so had a three-month emergency fund for a long time but we have been working towards the full six months right now about a four and a half months so we are still contributing a few hundred dollars every month

there it is and we and we have been putting a hundred dollars between the two kids every month. Wait a second. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. This is it. This is the money. This is where your money is. You're doing the most.

You're doing all of it. Should I pull back on the emergency fund then and be okay with the four and a half months? No. I mean, if you guys do what you think is if you used some of it and you need to replenish it back to six months go on and replenish it i want you to get back to 15 whatever it takes you to get to 15 investing and if you want to replenish your savings back to six months and if if you're putting a hundred dollars a month in your 529 that's great The biggest thing with that 529 is projecting out

to the future and really understanding what's actually going to be there when your kids get to college. So you can start having those conversations now. But I think you're doing better than you think you are. I think the couple hundred that you're putting aside to try to replenish this emergency fund, plus the overage that's going on with the property tax right now, I mean, that could be $600. That's a lot of money, right? Yeah. So it just seems like you're kind of in this limbo phase. Once that fire goes out, then you're going to be like, oh, there's the money. That's where it went. Yeah. I'm hearing a mindset, Kristen, where you're just feeling almost guilty that you're not doing as much as you'd like in each step. The steps aren't a

taskmaster. They are a guide and you move within the steps when you need to. So it feels like you're beating yourself up a little bit and you shouldn't be. You're doing enough. You're fine. If you want to replenish or boost the baby step, I mean, baby step three, then do that. And to Jade's point, we just want you getting on a consistent investing, but don't be beating yourself up over this. You're not doing anything wrong. You're doing right. You're just doing a lot. Does that help? Definitely. It's always nice to have another perspective because yeah, when you're in it, you kind of see all the flaws and not the strengths necessarily.

That's it. That's it that's it i just want your mindset right now to go we're doing a great job bro you're ahead we're ahead of just about everybody in america have you seen the data so give yourself a break focus on the priorities not the productivity part of this i think we get hung up on well dave says uh jade says right right four five and six at the same time wait a second life happens uh the steps are there for a reason there's a reason why three's before four yeah in the point of four five and six obviously brilliant what i just said i just heard how silly that sounded what did you say there's a reason why three's before four but the point is the emergency

fund is more important yeah i know but the emergency fund is more important than the 15 percent that's right there's a reason important than the 15%. That's right. There's a reason why we have it there. So if you feel comfortable with six months, then that's what you do. Then back up. I guess that's the point I'm trying. There's not a wrong madness. Yeah. Don't get hung up on how well I'm doing in each thing at the same time. It's what matters most to me within the steps yes so Kristen deep breath get off this phone call going I'm doing great I'm going to continue to do great that's right and I'm going to be fine yes yeah and I'll have to have my husband hear that too because that's right oh you know what's

great about this more critically than I do okay so this is great Kristen you know this is on YouTube right now right yes so you could just you could just have him get to this moment and go, look at what Jade said. Look at what Ken said. Look at the guy in the goofy shirt. You got to listen to that guy. Doing great. And so what's his name?

His name is Michael. Michael. You're doing fine. Relax. Yes, Michael and Kristen. Take Kristen out for a steak dinner, man. I know that's right. Y'all been working hard.

Come on. You guys are crushing. All right. Don't move. Quick break. Come on. I know that's right. Y'all been working hard. Come on. You guys are crushing. All right. Don't move. Quick break. We're back with more of your calls. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, you guys.

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and your relationships. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw joins me. The phone number to jump in is 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225. Diana is on the line in Providence, Rhode Island. Diana, how can we help? Hi, I just had a question about a car lease. Okay. My lease is up in May. I owe approximately $18,000 on it. I was wondering if I should go trade it and buy a car.

In May? Or sell the car back and go buy and take a hit for $2,000 and buy a car for approximately $8,000. Okay, walk through that again. So one option is to buy it at $18,000? Correct. And the other option is to come out of pocket for $2,000 and just get out of the lease? Yes. And then you go, do you have some money set aside?

Because you said buy a car for eight grand. So that means you've got the eight grand set aside if you do that? I don't. I was going to do a home equity line of credit. Well, no. No. Okay. Let's see.

Let's look at this. Do the entire advice singing, please, like it's a musical. You don't want me to do that, Ken. Well, maybe you do, but I'm not going to. So the first question is, what other debt do you have? I have about $38,000 in credit cards. $38,000 in credit cards. And I own a home, and I owe about $23,000.

$230,000. $230,000 on the home. Do you have any money set aside? Do you have any cash that you could get your hands on? Stocks, some money? Nothing. What's your income? I just pull out of my retirement.

Well, no, don't pull out of your retirement. $105,000 a year. $105,000 a year. So you've got some money coming in. It's just you? Are you married? Do you have kids? I have a kid, 10 years old. Okay. So here's the thing. I'm not opposed to you getting out of this car and taking a hit if I felt like you could take it without going into debt to cover

another car because you need a car. It's you and your 10 year old. You've got this 18 000 that if you bought turned around and bought the car and then you've got the 38 000 of debt um all right so let me let me just jump in really quick while you're thinking here what how would you come up with the two grand out of pocket or in other words how long would it take you to scrape the two grand together so that when you did turn in a lease, you had it? Probably two months. Okay. How's your credit? That's the problem.

I just did a debt consolidation program, and they hadn't paid any of my credit cards for approximately six months, so my credit just dropped. Okay. Yeah. any of my credit cards for approximately six months until my credit just dropped. Okay. Yeah, and you know, in some cases, it's like if you have an $18,000 car loan, you know, and you're trying to get out of it or a car loan in general, we might tell you to get a small loan for the difference so you can get out of it and get just a cash car,

$5,000, something like that. So at least your debt's going from 18 to five, right? In this case, that might not be the case because of your credit. Do you drive a lot in that car? Yes. Here's the thing. The $18,000 car with your income, the fact that you have an $18,000 car that you would purchase or that you'd be trying to get the lease off of doesn't bother me as far as the price of it but because you've got this other almost 40,000 in debt I kind of hate that for you how quickly could you pay off uh let me look at this your credit cards in the debt snowball how many how many are there is it just one or two or

is it lots of little ones it's about there's eight there's eight and do they all are they all less expensive than the 18,000 car paying the the car the 18,000 combined no individual are they all less expensive oh yeah okay are they in the debt consolidation program though that's what i'm not understanding did yes but i was gonna try to get a personal loan and pay him off. Okay. I think we're trying to look for an out, but at the end of the day, you've just got debt, and you're just going to have to pay it off because you don't have the money to get a less expensive car. You don't have the way to get a loan to do that, and you don't have the credit to do it. That's my question, Jade, so I got a question. Yeah. Okay.

For you and Diana, if it's going to take you two months, give or take, to come up with a $2,000 to get out of the lease, how long would it take you? I mean, is it fair to say that you could, let's say six to eight months from now, have about six to eight grand? If you started working extra hours, you started doing everything you can. Here's where I'm going. That's right. Because how much time do you have before you have to make this decision? It's due in May. Oh, you've got time. Okay. So here's where I'm going. There you go, Ken. I'm working like a maniac. Yes. And I'm going to save up money. I'm going to get out of the lease. Yes. And I'm going to fork over the two grand. Plus I'm going to have about six grand and I'm going to get myself a decent car. That's right.

And it's not great, Diana. It's not great, but it'll get you from A to Z while you get out of this situation. Yeah. Crucial piece of information is you've got time. I'm thinking we're deciding today. You've got time. So get $6,000. As much as you can save up. Yeah, because watch what happens. What's the lease right now? What are you paying every month on that lease? $375. So we get a $375 raise in about six months.

Hey, let's go. Now the $375 goes into paying off. So you can get out of this with $105,000. And listen, you can find a way, Mama Bear. Yeah. You don't have a baby. You've got a 10-year-old. So we figure out some super cheap childcare, whatever.

You're working like crazy. Let's see if we can make an additional 50 grand. I'm going to put that challenge out there. Could you make an additional 50 grand in 2024? And I think the answer is yes. Wow. And if that whole 50 grand, minus taxes, of course, goes toward getting out of debt, I think you're free quick. Well, at the very least, if she has 105 income, they can live on 50 of it.

That's exactly right. Like, where are you cutting expenses? What are you selling? How much are you working? I think you can get out of this, but I would definitely get out of the lease. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's good.

All right. I appreciate it. You helped greatly. I owe you guys. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's good. All right. I appreciate it. You helped greatly. I owe you guys. You're awesome. By the way, I love that Rhode Island accent. Can I just say that?

Yeah. Gotta pock the ca. When she started talking about the ca, I was like, yeah! I wish I'd talk like that. I got this goofy

Southern thing going on. I like that Rhode Island accent. That's fantastic. That's good stuff. Hey, how about our backyard? We take calls from local. Ashley's calling from Nashville. What are you talking about?

You have no idea what he's talking about. Folks, I try to keep her on her toes. Let's go to Ashley, who's calling from Nashville. Hi. Hi, buddy. I'm very excited. Hi. So, quick question.

My fiance, his company just decided to give a 12% contribution directly to the 401k, so does he need to contribute the additional 50% or just the three or additional 3% with that? Is it a continuous match or it's just they just did this one-time thing? No, they're going to continue to do it as he's working. That's a 12 percent every single year. It's not a match. You know, when it comes to baby step four and for those listening, baby step four is putting 15 percent of your take, you know, 15 percent monthly into retirement. The reason for that, and I kind of want to get to the reasoning first, and then it'll inform why my answer is what it is. The reason for that is we want you building the muscle of investing your own money into retirement, because he's at this job now. But let's just say on down the line, he decides to go work someplace else. And they don't do that match or they don't do that contribution over the course of the year. You want to know that no matter what, you've built it into your lifestyle and you've built it into your budget that we just invest and we invest 15% and this is off the gross number and that's just our habit in

life. So yes, all of that to say, yes, I still want you investing your 15% and think of any match or additional contribution or anything like that. That's just icing on a, on a very delicious cake. You know what I'm saying? Oh, making me hungry now. That's great that they're matching that much or that they're contributing that much. It sounds like even regardless of what you put in. So that's really good. Yeah, I love it.

Thank you so much, Ashley, for the call. All right. So we got to do these things called commercial breaks, but hang on because we have another segment coming your way with some great calls. She's Jade Warshaw. I'm Ken Coleman, and this is The Ramsey Show. After these messages, we'll be right back. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw is with me. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Our scripture of the day comes from Proverbs 21-31. The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory belongs to the Lord.

And then our quote from the Iron Lady herself, Margaret Thatcher. You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it. Love it. Isn't that true? Yeah. All right, let's go to Irvine, California. Bonnie is awaiting. Bonnie, how can we help?

Hey, Ken. Hey, Jude. It's such an honor to be speaking with both of you today. Thanks so much for taking your time to speak with me. You bet. I'm a little nervous, so sorry. You're doing great. That was quite an intro.

You're crushing it. What's up? Thank you. I have a question regarding completing a bachelor's degree. I have an associate's degree, which I earned in 2020, and I've been working full-time in insurance since then. I recently applied to a four-year university, and I got accepted, and I'm just having gold feet,

and I think it's not the right decision for me to go based on my finances. Okay, let's see if there's any evidence to back up your gut. How about that? All right. Absolutely. All right. So you don't think it's a wise decision because your finances paint the financial picture for us. Well, you know, overall, my husband and I are doing really well. We make roughly about 125 before taxes. Okay. And we, the only debt that we have is $3,000 in credit cards, which is just mine. And then we also have about $33,000 left on a loan from his parents that they provided a down payment on our home for. So I'm paying them back for that. And then

roughly about $323,000 off on a mortgage. Okay, so $36,000 of consumer debt, and how much is the schooling going to cost if you were to do this? So it would be about $16,000, and that would be going full-time for the next two and a half years total, yeah. And that means you're not working in the insurance job? It would be, actually. Oh, you could? I would be. Yeah, I would be working full-time, only 35 hours a week, trying to tackle both, yeah.

Okay. Yeah, the reason that I'm getting cold feet is because there are personal reasons that I want to complete this, but ultimately I just feel guilty spending $16,000 to complete school when I don't know if it's necessarily going to get me ahead in life. Well, that was my next question. I love the personal reasons, not going to question those at all. And because of that, I'm going to say, I think you should do it, but I think you should do it later, not now. Absolutely. I don't think you should feel guilty about considering it. And I don't think this ought to be about guilt. This just ought to be about, you know what, it matters to me to get the degree one day, but I'm going to do it when I can. And when I can is certainly

after we pay off $36,000 in consumer debt and then get to the point where I can cash flow or I have saved it up to then be able to do it. And I think the degree is always going to be there. And I think you should put it off. That's what you're thinking and feeling. And I couldn't agree more with your feelings here. Yeah, it's definitely coming from wanting to plan ahead and set things right for the future. Like my husband and I really want to start a family in the next couple years. But I'm just, you know, kind of reverse engineering it and going, well, if I'm going to put all this

time and effort into completing school, you know, I could be spending just the same amount of time getting a part-time job, maybe making $20 an hour. And I, you know, I was doing the numbers and I'm like, I could, you know, I could earn $16,000 in one year versus paying it over two and a half years. I would just, I'd press pause. Not the delete button, the pause button. It's going to be there. You good with that? Absolutely, yeah.

Yeah, you're awesome. I think it's simple. Press the pause button. Yeah, you bet. Thank you for the call. I love it, love it, love it. Let's go to Mel in Salt Lake City. Mel, how can we help? Hi.

Hi, how are you, Mel? I'm good. My question is pretty straightforward. Should we sell our current home to pay off the debt that we have and move into my parents' home who are going on a church mission for a couple years? Or should we keep it and rent it out? We're feeling a little bit tight because we're about negative $1,400 every month. And that's like earlier this year we cut out all of the extras. Why are you negative $ every month um that's just like basic needs i mean this is like basic necessities okay so you aren't making enough money yeah what's what's the income

between you and your husband like a hundred thousand about a hundred thousand he makes about wait a second okay and how much debt do you guys have? Total $180,000. Okay, $100,000 bringing in. Yeah. So what would... Hold on, she was about ready to give us something. $130,000 what? Well, I was going to say the monthly payment for just loans, we have about $60,000 in student loans, $53,000 in car loans, and 60,000 in credit cards.

Okay, I'm looking at this. So the monthly payment for all of that is $26,087. Okay, the cars, 53,000 in car loans? Yes. We got to get out of these cars. So do we, I mean, we owe 26 and 27 on 2016 cars that are 125 000 miles one of them um one of the reasons that was one thing we had car problems all year so we we just put into that car almost ten thousand dollars this year we had the transmission had to be completely rebuilt so

none of they're not worth anything is that what you're telling me no no they're they're worth i mean we could so if you sold the 26,000 one what would it what's it worth on kelly blue book um it's in the low 20s okay like 21 23 so are you like maybe 3,000 upside down? Probably. Okay. And then what about the 27,001? That one's in good shape. We could break even on it. Okay. Break even on that. How quickly could you guys live on one car for a while?

We have five kids. You've got five kids. Okay. That's something in the equation here. Here's a super quick question. I'm going to get in and get out on this one. If you all sell your house, clear off all this debt, and go live rent-free with mom and dad,

or not at their house while they're on this mission, it may bail you out, but it's not going to change your life if you guys don't fix what got you into this mess. You guys are living way, way out of bounds. Yeah. I think that you guys can make this happen. And I think that whether or not you live in mom's house for a while or not is kind of besides the point. I want you to look at this situation and see where the problem is. The problem is you keep taking on debt. You've got student loans. You've got cars you can't afford. So I think you're gonna need to feel the pain

a little bit on this thing. And I would get rid of one of the cars. I'd take the hit on the 3,000, scrape up $3,000 as quickly as you can and get out of that one and scrape up a little bit more money. And one of you is gonna be driving a beater for a while. And then I'm gonna look at this 100,000 income

that you're making. And I'm gonna look for any way that you guys can add to that income over this period of time. Because I don't really like the idea of you guys renting out your personal home. I don't know how long your family is going to be on the mission field, but if they should come back sooner, suddenly it's like, oh, okay, we've got to kick these folks out.

Either sell it or stay, but don't rent it. Exactly. That's creating more problems for you guys. And, your house what's it worth about 800,000 800,000 like a 200 200,000 dollar equity yeah 200,000 equity and when did you buy it um about two years ago yeah what does your husband want to do he doesn't want to sell the house i would not sell it i wouldn't i would work through this debt i think you guys can do it and i think it's going to teach you a really great lesson at the end and i think there's going to be some pain involved here but i think that you guys have the ability to get your income up a hundred thousand uh000 with $180,000 of debt,

I think that there's some real moves that you guys can make to even this out. The average person is getting out of debt in two years and under. I think you guys can be done with this in three years maximum if you guys work hard. If you don't, you know,

this is up to you guys how quickly you work this thing. What can each of you guys do to bring in some extra money? I mean, I feel like I'm maxed out, honestly, like with time and I'm going to kid it. And he does, he also does a bunch of side hustles. He does music work, he does voiceover interpreting.

So that's aside from his 85 job. Getting these cars cleared out and you each getting a couple of beaters is going to be the ticket to you guys cleaning this up super duper fast. Okay. So that's thing one on the list. And then we're just going through those baby steps, man.

Hey, thank you for the call. Jade Warshaw, great show. Thanks to everybody in the booth keeping us on the air. Thank you, America. This is The Ramsey Show.