The Ramsey Show - App - You're Still Broke If You Got The Debt! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: July 14, 2023

Jade Warshaw & John Delony answer your questions and discuss:  "I feel like if I pay off all my student loans I'll be broke!" from the blog: How to Pay Off Student Loans Quickly: 10 Steps for Success The new Income-Driven Repayment Plan being offered for student loan forgiveness, What to take into consideration when figuring out if you need to move closer to work, from the blog: Ramsey Cost of Living Calculator How to set boundaries with family that won't stop pressuring you about how you spend your money, from the blog: How to Set Boundaries: 7 Simple Steps "Should I refinance my house or take out a loan to pay for home repairs?", from the blog: How to Keep 3 Common Home Repairs From Busting Your Budget Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Here's an EveryDollar deal just for our listeners: get a 14-day free trial PLUS $15 off your first year of premium. Click the link below and start budgeting today! www.everydollar.com/jade Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3cEP4n6 Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Interested in advertising on The Ramsey Show? https://ter.li/s64ye3 Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

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🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods, moving in storage studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money.

I am your host, Jade Warshaw, joined by the incomparable Dr. John Deloney. Doctor! I think there's many, many more comparable. I think we're good. The infamous Dr. John Deloney. How about that? That feels good, man. I like it. Love it. I'll take it. All right, guys, we are talking. We're hanging out, talking about, again, your life, your money. Give us a call. The number is 888-825-5225. We'll talk about whatever it is that's going on in your life. All right, let's go to Marisol in Chicago, Illinois. What's going on, student loans, as we know, the interest rates will start to hit in September. That's right. I have $70,000 in loans. I have in my savings account just enough to almost pay them all off. Ooh. And the problem is that I'm one of those that have been in school for long enough to probably be a

surgeon and I'm almost done. I'll be done next fall. Thank God. But I'm paying it cash this time. So I did not get any more loans. My only thing is that about $45,000 of the loans I have to pay off is unsubsidized. And those rates are quite high and they're fixed. They're about majority or about 6%. And although I have the money in my savings, should I just pay it all off and start over? I just feel like I'm going to be broke. Let's walk through this because it may be as drastic as that or it may not. Let's make sure we've got some other things in place before we just jump to taking all the cash. As you walk through this, can I say one thing real quick

and then I'm going to turn it back over to Jade? I can't help myself but comment on this. The way you just described that is indicative of how the entire country is dealing with this issue. And I, is it okay if I just call you out and we're friends, we'll still be, we'll still be best friends after this.

Yes, go ahead. The way you described it. If I pay all this off, I'm going to feel like I'm broke. I know, right? I want you to know you're broke right now.

You're broke right now. You're broke. It feels good, but you owe $70,000. Yeah. Okay. So I don't want you to feel like it's going to feel a different kind of broke. I get that. But I don't want you to pretend in your mind or do some mental gymnastics that like, I'm all good here. But if I do this and I take care of the thing that I said I was going to take care of, that suddenly I'm going to be in a worse financial position. You're in a scary position right now as is. Okay, I'll turn over to Jade. John, such a good point that you just made. And Marisol,

we're not picking on you, girl. We're talking about the whole world. This is basic math. If you have $70,000 minus $70,000 in debt, you have zero dollars. You're broke. So even if you feel like you have money because you got savings, you're still broke if you have the debt. So basic math session over. Marisol, back to you. Let's go back and see foundationally if we're in a good position to actually pay off these

loans. So my first question to you is, do you have any other debt besides the student loans? No, I don't. Very, very good. My second question to you is regarding your savings, this $70,000, is this all the money in the world that you have? This is all I have liquid. Okay. And then the money that's non-liquid, how is that invested? Is it stocks? I have money, stocks and 401k. Okay. How much do you have in the single stocks? Not much, maybe 5,000. So not much there. 5,000. Well, it's significant when we're talking about student loans and savings. Okay. So here's where I'm at with you. The way we teach, and you

sound like you're kind of familiar with this, we would pay off all of our debt in baby step two using the debt snowball, which for you is your student loans. And then quickly after that, we would want to get three to six months of expenses saved. And that's kind of, I want you to know that that's what we're shooting towards if we take this money to pay off your debt. Okay. And in this case, I truly believe that you need to pay off this debt. I think that you are going to experience a freedom that you've never felt before. I think you're going to want to rip your shirt off and run through a countryside because that's how good it's going to feel to be debt free. And then you've got, you know, you've got this 5K in stocks. You could keep it in there or you could liquidate it and put that into your, you know, start building up your three to six months fund again.

And before you know it, you're not going to have any payments, no debt. Before you know it, you're going to have this three to six months built up again. And this time the math will actually math for you and you'll actually have money. How does that sound? Logical and scary. Yes. And that is correct. That is the correct answer. John, talk to the scary part. It's scary. You're going to find you have this artificial cushion that you rest your head on every night, which is cash in the bank. And you pretend I don't have this humongous hole right outside my back door, which is $70,000 of student loan debt.

And also, I just want to speak to something that Jay just said. I heard it once at a live event, a speaker, we go to live events all the time. And I heard a speaker say something that it's rare that I walk away and something, a sentence that is uttered just lodges itself in my soul, almost tattooed itself on my chest. And here was the sentence. Whatever responsibilities you outsource at some point will be used against you.

If you outsource, I'm just never going to worry. I'm just going to have Instacart bring my food. I'm just going to have Instacart bring my food. I'm going to have Instacart bring my food. And you don't knowacart bring my food i'm gonna have instacart bring my food and you don't know where your food comes from at some point covet happens and the grocery stores stop and everybody goes whoa what do we do now right in this case i can promise you it's human nature it's human history all of it the government will not wipe away let's say they figure out how to do some gymnastics

and they knock these loans away and some other loans away. They will come back to you with their handout and say, we want ours now. Whether that's in taking power from you, taking autonomy from you, demanding votes back, demanding higher taxes back. This whole idea that they've got to come rescue us is not a rescue. It's an ROI investment on their part because they're going to come back for their piece of flesh. And I want no part of it. And again, I had six figures in loans. Jade had six figures in loans. I promise you, I did not know what I was signing. And I signed my name on the piece of paper that said, if you help me go to college, I'll pay you back.

And it was a matter of selling my house and moving into a residence hall. It was a matter of integrity for me and my wife that said, we said we would pay this back. Even though we were children and we didn't know what we were doing, we're going to pay this back. And so there's an integrity part to this.

And let's say you pay this all off and next weekend, all the loans in America go away. I still think you did the right thing and I still think you're going to walk two inches taller. You're not going to have $70,000 in the bank. That's for sure. No question about that.

Will you be scared? Absolutely. Yes. But you're going to be able to breathe. You're going to always be able to know I did the right thing. And when someone says, the next time the government says,

you can't, you can't, you can't, you'll be able to go, yeah, I can. Come on, John. Yes, I can. I can because I did already. That's what I'm talking about. Go out, Marisol, pay off these loans and breathe in that good air, that free air. That's what I'm talking about.

I love seeing people make the choice to get free. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, what's going on, guys? You're listening to The Ramsey Show. I'm Jade Warshaw, joined by John Deloney. And this show is all about you guys. It's all about what you're facing on a day-to-day basis when it comes to your money, when it comes to your mental health, when it comes to your career. And that's what we're discussing on the show. It's a call-in show. Call in. The number is 888-825-5225. And we'll chop it up with you. We'll help you sort it out and figure out what's the next best step for you. And that being said, we've got, you know, a lot going on in the news right now, John, with student loans and everything going on like that. And today, as of hours ago, Biden came through and issued yet another executive order of some

sort. Yeah. Executive order of sorts. Yes. Issuing yet more forgiveness for borrowers, which in the past we've been we've been seeing these trickle through, you know, things for disabled folks, vets, people who their school went out of business. And, you know, I'm definitely not mad at that. The one that came through today, $39 billion of forgiveness for around 804,000 borrowers. And so, of course, everybody's like, Jade, what does this mean? You know, is this for everybody? Is this for me? You know, what does this mean you know is this for everybody is this for me you know what does this mean and i'm like well if you really look at it this is for folks john who signed up for these income driven repayment plans uh you might see it labeled as idr and you're like what the heck is an idr plan income driven repayment plans and these are people

john who have been paying their student loans for the past 20, 25 years because they were told if you make this payment for 20 years and you make X amount of qualifying payments, you'll at the end of the road, you'll have forgiveness. 25 years, John. Wow. You'll have forgiveness. And then you get there. You sweaty you're tired your body's aching your back is broken and there was nothing they say nah we changed our mind and now finally these folks are getting their money so hey it's a good day for our parents, right? If they had student loans. But here's where I'm at. And here's for me where I think it's just painful. These plans that are for these folks 25 years in, they're like,

finally, I'm getting my money. These are the same plans, John, that they want borrowers today to get into because student loan payments are coming up. You're going to start have to start making your payments in October, right? Hey, we don't want you guys to have to pay too much. You know, we don't want you uncomfortable. So why don't you jump into one of these income driven repayment plans? The new one, I believe, is called the SAVE plan. Y'all can correct me if I'm wrong. They're always changing the acronyms on this. But the idea is, hey, you can jump jump on the site you're automatically enrolled when payments come back and you can just jump on the site and go ahead and um you can go ahead and submit your own estimate of your income and

and we're not we're not going to require any qualifying documents to see if it's right so people are just going to make up a number i make 30 grand and i could pay 15 come on and that'll be good and just kick that just kick that can down the road for 20 25 30 years and at the end you know there'll be a little buckle of gold at that rainbow except that in in in 24 years we're gonna have gone through what six, six presidential transitions? Come on. 12 Senate transitions. Who knows, man? And with the data coming out yesterday, there was, folks are beginning to talk more and more about the psychological, the mental health aspect of owing people money.

Yes. And it is sleep inhibitory. It messes up your sleep. It messes up your relationships. It makes you not want to live. It makes you not want to be married. Wow. It makes all inhibitory. It messes up your sleep. It messes up your relationships. It makes you not want to live. It makes you not want to be married. It makes all these issues. And so what we're saying is,

I want you to be unwell for 20 years. Go to the college of your choice that you feel most passionate about and study what you want to study and just give us a little bit every month. Choose to be miserable. Yeah. And not be fully present because you have this hovering

over your head, this black cloud, as the article said, hovering over your head. And then in 20, 25 years, if you're lucky, we'll take it from you. Yeah. I mean, John, you painted a beautiful picture in an earlier segment. There was a caller who had a certain number of student loans. She had $70,000 of student loan debt, and she had $70,000 of savings and she was feeling some type of way about using the savings to pay off the debt. Her exact words were, if I pay this off, I'm going to feel like I'm broke. Yeah. And I was like, you are broke.

You are broke. You are broke. And like the picture that you painted, I thought was brilliant. And I kind of wanted to elaborate that. It really is. When you have the money sitting there to pay these loans, guys, and you're not paying them, it is like you live in this beautiful home, right? And it's everything you want. It's modern.

It's got all the right surfaces. You know what I'm saying? It's got the marble countertops, but outside, right outside your home is a giant black hole, desolation destruction and you just ignore it every day you have to stay in the house you gotta stay in the house you can't go anywhere you can't go outside because but your brain knows it's there your reality yeah your brain knows it the reality right that you owe the government this much money and i just for me guys and i know you

guys are like jade wow you don't have to yell about it, Jade, or you're doing the most, Jade. And it's for you. The reason I get mad about this is I care about you. I want the best for you. I know how that feels. I know how it feels to not be able to sleep at night. I know how it feels to have that effect on your marriage, the way you work, all the decisions that you make are so that

you can pay bills. That's a load of crap, man. That's for the birds. And I don't want that for you. The way I feel about this is there are so many things that want you to think that that has the power, but that's not true. You have the power. But some of you guys are so, I can't say that on the radio. Some of you guys are so intent on can't say that on the radio some of you guys are so intent on being right instead of being happy you'd rather be right that the government owes me this and they're the ones that'll take care of this mess and they need to figure it out but i'm trying to give you the answer that's going to make you happy and give you peace and give you freedom and that's you taking back your power you taking back your power, you taking back your autonomy, right? You being able to just

financially self-regulate on your own instead of depending on the government, instead of depending on credit cards, instead of depending on all those other external factors to do what you can do for yourself. And if you don't get nothing else from this, understand, I want you to be free. I know you can be free. And I know you have inside of yourself the power to be free, period. Period. Preach, man. End of sentence. It hit me last night. I had just gotten home from a long walk by myself and it hit me. Every single thing in the ecosystem that young people and young adults are growing up in right now, and quite honestly, older adults too, is that you can't.

Yes. You're too, you've got some kind of mental health, something or other, so you're never going to be able to have a normal relationship, a normal job, a normal whatever. Yeah. You've got some sort of disability. You're never going to be enough. You owe people money, and you are too unable, you're never going to be enough you owe people money and you

are too unable you will never be able to pay this up because you're weak and you're not strong enough you don't worry we got you we got you and slowly but surely our ability our responsibility our belief in ourself and confidence which doesn't come from thinking it comes from doing all that erodes because we begin to outsource every little bit to the government, to this other person, to the bank, to the local person saying, oh, you can't do that either. Let me just pat you on the head. I'll take care of it for you. And we are giving away our souls. And it was this moment of, I can't be more proud to be a part of a team that just looks at everybody, whether you're a multimillionaire or whether you are a single mom with two kids trying to figure out how

to breathe, that we look you in the eye and we treat you with enough dignity and respect to look you in the eye and say, you can too. I know that's right. And that voice has just been stolen from us. It has. To the point to where people, John, they get a little bit angry. They get super angry. They get offended almost

that we would imply that they can do it on their own. That's right. It's become almost an insult. You should read the comments on my website. It is. It's not almost. It is a sense of disempowerment.

You can't. You can't. You never will be able to. Somebody's got to come bail you out. I'm still haunted by what the great Mike Rose said a couple years ago during COVID when he said the great tragedy of COVID was we told 300 million

Americans, hey, just go home. You're not essential. We don't need you. We'll just mail checks. And we got to see in a psychological experiment what happens when you have no purpose and you just go home and they just mail checks. We all went crazy. That's right. It's not the way to health and it's not the way to wealth.

Hear the message. You are essential in the quest to freedom. You're the secret sauce. You can do it. This is The Ramsey Show. All right. You're listening to the ramsey show we're back again taking your calls triple eight eight two five five two two five let's go straight to the phone lines we got ed from nyc new york city what's going on ed hey guys how's it going? Thanks for taking my call. Thank you for calling. How can we help? Yeah, so I just graduated with a master's.

I decided to take my first job near home to move in with my parents and save money, but the commute is pretty tough. I don't have much time, like, outside of work and, like, commuting. I don't really want to rent out there. It's pretty expensive. And I kind of feel like renting is a waste of money. I'm wondering if I should just kind of like suck it up and continue commuting or rent closer to work or even maybe buy a house. What kind of work do you do, man? Mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering specifically.

So why do your job in the most expensive place in America to live? I mean, that's where all the engineering jobs are. The other options are like L.A. or San Francisco. I mean, there's other places, of course, but this is also kind of a small company, and I'm just hoping I can move up fast. Except, can I throw one wrench in there? Yeah, sure.

You live with your mom. Yeah. Can you afford? You live with your mom, dude. Are you making money now that you have your job? Are you making enough money? Forget renting, forget buying for just a second. Forget how you're living.

Are you making enough to live on your own in the place that you would need to live to be close to work. Yeah, I wouldn't be saving much, but yeah. Okay. So what I would suggest is, like John very eloquently put, getting out of mama's house. And I would find something that you can rent until you're able to buy. So when you're renting just to rent and you ain't got no plan and you're just, you know, then you could say, oh, I'm just throwing money down the drain. But when you have a plan and you're saying, no, I have an, you know, an intentional end to this and it's serving a purpose, then you're not throwing money down the drain. You are being smart is really what that boils down to. And here's what it looks like to pull apart these variables here. The reason I asked you if you have to live there, you said,

yes, to do the thing I want to do, I have to live in one of three of the most expensive places in America to live. Okay. So that variable is covered, so it's off the table. I'm not going to not live in San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York. So that means you have to own the other variables. Where am I going to live? What's this job in this place going to cost me? For you, it's going to cost you a couple hours of living at mom's house and having to live with your mom and having to commute, or it's going to cost you extra money and rent. And so it's kind of like you want to have all of it work out where I want to work and have the money to do whatever it is I want to do. It's just not the reality. And so just make peace with renting for a season. How old are you, Ed? Just turned 24. 24. Yeah. I mean,

I'll be honest and I'm not going to lie about this I kind of am a little salty about folks who have a good enough relationship with their parents that they can live at home and save some money for a while because I I wouldn't have been able to do it it would have just been I tried for one month and after one month my dad came in and goes hey I'll pay your your first month's rent and I was like bye Felicia we're gone I was gone so, I think, you know, you've had this opportunity to stay with your mom, save some extra dollars. That's great. That served you well. I do think it's time for you to get out on your own at 24, especially since you do have this job. And since you said, yeah, I could get, I could get a place, you know, even if you want to get

some roommates and, you know, to make it a little bit cheaper, because again, when you're renting, let's clarify, you're kind of camping, right? This is not renting, living in luxury. You're trying to save money. So I wouldn't say to rent the most expensive place or rent your dream house. I'm not saying that. I'm saying camp for a while, save up the money, and then re-evaluate. Because to John's point, you might be like, hey, to actually buy, I might choose to live in a different state. I might choose to live somewhere less expensive. So take it one step at a time. But right now, we're renting, we're saving, we're camping as renters, right? And that's what I would suggest. What do you think? I mean... So here's where I've seen it in my world. I've seen friends of mine

who were on the... They were looking for a tenure track professor job and of course they start with the ivy league schools they start with the fancier schools and in their particular discipline there's just no jobs open for one year or two years then they find themselves getting an offer at a smaller school that isn't a huge name name and a smaller town and that goes against i'm a city person i went to college in los angeles i went to grad school in New York. That's just who I am. And then a couple of years later, they're like, oh gosh, dude, I get to sleep. And I walked to the supermarket and I'm a part of this small community. And so it does, when you start putting all the variables on the table,

what was important for me was to say, I want this kind of life and I want to do this kind of work. And now I'm going to reverse engineer where I do that. Not let the geography dictate the life I'm leading. If you want to do that, that's all good. I'm going to live in New York. I know people, I've got friends. I will live in New York until the end of time. Cool. You're going to live in 400 square feet for $5,000 a month and, and, and, and, and whatever it is, right? That's just life. That's the life you chose. Awesome. Be happy with it. Just don't choose a life and then be frustrated by your own choices. That's right. That's a good, good call out. Ed, thanks for the call. Hopefully

we were able to give you some direction there. In the meantime, let's take a look at Chicago, Illinois, where we got Natasha on the line. What's going on, Natasha? Hi. Happy Friday. Happy Friday. What's going on? So my question is for Dr. John Deloney. I hear you guys talk a lot about boundaries and I want to set one with my family and extended family, but I'm afraid that they're not going to listen to it. What can I do without severing the relationship? What are they asking you to do that you don't want to do they are my parents are pressuring me to stop renting because i'm throwing my money away and move into a mobile home claiming that i can save a little bit on the monthly payment i know i love america we're the best pay off my debt and make no clear i've made it loud and clear. I have taken financial

peace university. I know the steps verbatim. How old are you? And I'm currently I'm 28 turning 29 in a couple weeks. Okay. I want you to repeat after me. Okay. They do not do not get a vote.

Get a vote. I've heard that too. The conversation is over there. Conversation's over there. So here's the cool thing. Do you work for them? No. Do you owe them money?

Kinda. Get that paid off as though it was a foreign country coming for you. Pay it off ASAP. It's not my smallest debt though. How far is it from being your smallest debt? It's the last debt on the list. Oh! Okay, how about this?

Who cares? They don't get a vote. They can run their... And listen, they're your parents. They're supposed to give you their insights and opinions because they know everything. Everything. And you're the one living your life. And so when they say, you know, you're just throwing money

away and you should be moving into a trailer park home that's going to depreciate so fast your head will spin off sideways, you could say, man, thank you so much i appreciate that insight near near to the time conversations like that and they just don't listen instead they they try to counteract it like hold on hold on hold on you can just leave if somebody chooses to not respect me then i get to choose to not be in their presence.

If somebody chooses to affirmatively disrespect me, to not treat me with dignity, even if we disagree, and I disagree all the time. Me and Dave disagree about a lot of stuff. We disagree, disagree. But our disagreements, especially ones behind closed doors, are always done with we respect each other. Because he's a smart guy. He knows I'm a smart guy. He knows I love people and I love my faith and he does too. And so we're on the same team. We just disagree with stuff. You're not going to

treat me with respect, then I have a choice that I'm going to walk away. And the way I like to say this is if somebody chooses to treat me with disrespect and somebody chooses to take my dignity from me over a simple, something as trivial as an opinion or the way I'm choosing to better myself financially, then they are choosing to not be in a relationship with me. And that is so harsh and it's so hard. I want you to practice saying, hey, I appreciate you guys. Hey, I'm going to head out. What? You're leaving? Yeah, I'm going to head out. Y'all have a great week, i love y'all and then just go and just go you've heard what they have to say and as the great uh yes bye felicia bye felicia that's all i'm saying come guys are listening to the ramsey show where we have a conversation about

your life your money what's going on in your world i'm jade warshaw joined by number one best-selling author john deloney how we doing doing good man. Give us a call. The number is 888-825-5225. And as always, I want to remind you, if you are a new listener and you are interested in just learning more about what it is that we're talking about on this show, we talk about so many different financial concepts on a daily basis here. You might hear us use phrases that you're not quite familiar with. You might hear us talk about baby steps and you're not quite sure, well, what is baby step three? What is baby step five? Go to ramseysolutions.com and click on that get started button. And we're going to help

you figure out the next best right step for you on your financial journey. And that's going to be based on where you are today. We like to meet folks where they're at, put the cookies right there. Look, we say put the cookies on the bottom shelf. Sometimes, John, I need to just leave a trail of cookie crumbs on the floor for some of these folks because I want you guys to get it. I want you to understand what's going on with your life. So go to RamseySolutions.com, click that get started button, and we're going to help you out wherever you're at. That's how that goes. All right, let's go to Ella in Houston, Texas. Ella Umbrella, what's up? I am trying to think of a way to pay off my credit cards and I need to get some repairs on my house

and I was wondering which would be better to refinance from my mortgage company or just go through a loan or a finance company. What's making you feel like in order to do these things, you've got to pull it out through different sources of debt or tap into your home equity? Well, I didn't know which way would be better. Okay. Let's see if we can talk through that a little bit. How much credit card debt are we talking about? Close to $8,000. Okay. How much for the home, you said home repairs? Yes, I need a lot done.

I need a new air conditioner unit. Okay. And my floors need redoing and I need new windows because these are really old and they're not energy efficient. Okay. And need painting all through the house and just a lot of repairs. Oh yeah, I need a new roof. Okay. Okay. So how much are you earning currently? What's your financial situation? Monthly or year? Monthly or year? You said mostly? Monthly is a little over $3,600 a month. Okay. A little over $3,600 a month. How old are you? 79. Okay. And what type of money is this? Is this coming

from retirement? Is this coming from? Retirement and pension. Okay. And is it just you? Yes. Okay. Who's telling you, you need to do all these aesthetic things? Who's telling me? I know it has to be done. I mean, my insurance, house insurance has already told me I needed to replace the roof because, um, it's leaking.

I need to seal some parts of the ceiling because of the leaks. Oh, don't get me wrong, absolutely. But when I think of, if I look at the list, let me back out. Both Jade and I are going to plead with you. I might even beg. Please don't borrow money.

Not at 79 years old, not ever. I don't want you to be beholden to some bank that's going to keep you from sleeping every night. I would much rather you figure out a way to pay for this in cash over time. Air conditioner, emergency. I grew up in Houston. That's brutal roof replacement and especially in a in a community like houston it will mold and cause

a disaster you gotta get that fixed yeah but sometimes if all i can afford is a five thousand dollar fix then i'm gonna have them not replace the whole thing i'm having to fix it so i can save up. Is that inconvenient? Yeah. Am I going to maybe be redoing some work down the road? Yeah. But I'm going to put my head on my pillow every night there in that town knowing that nobody owns me. We're going to recommend you not do that.

How much cash do you have on hand? Any savings or cash at all? Not much. Not enough to do you not do that. How much cash do you have on hand? Any savings or cash at all? Not much. Not enough to do any of the repairs. How much? Oh, a couple thousand is all. Like $2,000? Yeah.

Okay. Where does that money go? For credit cards and food and gas. Okay. So you're getting, you're pulling about $3,600 a month to live on. What's your, you know, your nest egg? How much is that? If you don't mind me asking.

It's not much. Like I said, I don't have any more saved up than about $2,000. No, I'm talking about you said you draw some of the money from a pension, and I thought you said you draw some money off of a retirement. Yeah, I get about $3,600 a month. I'm going to get over $3,600 a month. And is there a nest egg that that's coming off of? Yeah, how much is in those retirement accounts? How much is in those retirement accounts? How much is in my retirement?

My Social Security is all I get in my pension. Oh, okay, okay. So it's Social Security and it's pension. Gotcha. All right. And I'm guessing you, I mean, the payments that you get from your pension, you can't access that in any other way. No.

Got it. Okay. And then, too, if I don't get my repairs, the insurance, house insurance will not go through. Sure, that happened with me, too. I understand how that happens. What's your mortgage payment every month, Ella? $910. Okay, $910. Where's the rest of that money going? What I'm trying to get at here is I want to make it to where we're paying off this credit card debt. It's $8,000. I know that feels like a lot, but I think you can get that knocked out pretty quickly if we get you on a

budget. And if it's the house, you know, $900, okay, that's working for you. But what else are you putting money towards besides that that's taking the rest of this $3,600? And is there a way that we can start paying off this credit card? And then is there a way that we can start looking at these, you know, repairs in order of importance, little by little? Because AC, you know, if your AC is going out it's the middle of summer that's top of top of the list right and then some of the other things like painting might be you know last on the list yeah so I think it's a matter of getting these listed in order of importance and finding a solution that fits in your budget because at the end of the day that's all you've got. Oh, I have one more thing that I have to get done. My vehicle, I was told that I have to have a new engine because they've already fixed

all they can and it's going to cost them $6,000 to $8,000 to replace the engine for the labor and the parts. So, and my inspection is due next month and it won't pass inspection. I would, I would get a second opinion on that. I sure would. On that car. Okay. Oh, I have. I've already got, yeah. What's the car worth?

It's a 2012 Dodge Caravan. I'm not sure. Just make sure that the repairs aren't worth more than the vehicle itself. Yeah, well, they suggested that I just not repair it and get another one because they said put more money into that. That's right. But that's also easy for them to say because they don't have to sleep at night. You know how much you're struggling with those credit card payments? You know that scary feeling that you have? Yeah.

Okay, imagine taking a $10,000 roof and a $7,000 air conditioner and putting that on top of that credit card. Yeah. I get that you're being told by some professionals and maybe some family members that you got to do this and you got to do this and you got to do this. But at the end of the day, here's what I, here's all I can do. You got to do what you can afford to do. And so I would pause on, I would go down to bare bones. I can only pay for this. I can only pay for my rent. I can pay for the bare essentials on my food. And that's going to be it for a couple of months. And I'm going to meet with a roofer, maybe two of them down there in town and see who can take care of this for the quickest and the

least expensive. And is there a senior citizen discount? And if I pay you in cash and we're just going to get that roof knocked out and it's going to be uncomfortable for three months. And that's how we're going to live. We're going to do the same thing with air conditioner and if you can duct tape and baling wire that thing together so it gets you a little bit of cold air we're going to do that too maybe get a window unit and just sit in one room or put it in your bedroom but we're not going to borrow money because i don't want you just losing more and more sleep because your body is going to wear that honey okay, okay? That does it for this hour of The Ramsey Show. We'll see you next time. Hey, what's up, guys? It's Jade. If you love the show and want a deeper

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