The Ramsey Show - App - You’ve Made Perpetual Bad Decisions (Hour 3)

Episode Date: March 7, 2023

Dave Ramsey & Ken Coleman answer your questions and discuss: Saving up for a dream car, Itemized vs. standard tax deductions, "I've had a series of financial disasters", "What should I do with $260K?" Cash-flowing car repairs. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Take our FREE 3 minute assessment: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods moving and storage studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Thank you for being with us, America. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, host of The Ken Coleman Show and author of the number one bestselling book, Paycheck to Purpose, is my co-host today.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Donna's starting off this hour, Baltimore, Maryland. Hey, Donna, how are you? I'm fine. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So I am looking at retiring within five years, but I want to get my dream car before I retire. And I hope to have it this year. So I'm calling because with my financial profile, I want to know what would you do if you were in my shoes. Okay. What is your net worth? How much of a nest egg do you have? Well, I'm single. I'm 62, and I have a retirement fund that's valued at $533,000. I do have a home, but I have a mortgage that is about $97,000 left on it. What's it worth?

About $275,000. Okay. All right. So you've got a net worth of about $750,000. And do you have any money other than that? Not really. I just have my emergency fund. Okay.

And what's a dream car cost? The dream car is a used car, and I'm budgeting $40,000 for it. It would be maybe like a Lexus. I want an SUV, so it would be maybe a Lexus or a Volvo or maybe a Genesis if I could find one within my price range. I like it. And what do you make? My gross amount is $163,000. My take-home is $93,000, and I guess that's about $7,200 each month.

Okay. What have you got coming out of your check? I know. I seem to have a lot. I looked at that, too, and it was like great day in the morning. I mean, I have my medical insurance, my dental. I have my retirement money that comes out, vision. And I'm single, and I pay a lot in taxes.

Yeah, well, we don't pay that much in taxes, but okay. All right, wow, good for you. Well, whenever you can pay cash for it, I would buy it. So, Dave, here's the thing. Here comes with my plan. Because I can take money from my retirement without being penalized for it. And the goal is what I would like to do, but I don't have to. I'm just telling you in my heart what I would like to do. I would like to buy this car maybe this year or next year at $62,000, $63,000 so that I can have some years of driving it. Well, you like 20, I mean, years.

20 years for driving? You make $163,000. Yeah, I mean, you're probably driving to your 80. I hope so. I do too. Or you'll be gone. I mean, you're probably driving to your 80. I hope so. I do too. Or you'll be gone. I mean, there's a lot of choices here, but yeah. So, I mean,

I just bought a truck and I never dreamed it would be the last truck I would ever buy. I never thought about it. I'm 62 also, so I just don't think that way. But the too much drama on this car purchase. But yeah, I don't know why you can't too much drama on this car purchase. But I don't know why you can't save up $40,000 making $160,000.

Like in a year. I don't know why either, but my numbers went. Oh, I'm sorry. In a year. In a year. One year. In one year? Yes.

$40,000 out of $160,000. Now, I'm also trying to pay down my house, so I'm also taking a lot of that take-home money and throwing it at my mortgage also. That's that old money's finite thing. It's going to go one place or the other. Right. So if you want to slow down the paying of your house, I would do that before I would pull money from retirement.

Okay. But I do want you to get your house paid off. I before i would pull money from retirement okay yes but i do want you get your house paid off i don't want you to buy this car and i want you to keep money putting money in retirement i'd love the house to be done for you retire right and that's what i wanted you to yeah and by the car yeah before i retire because i'm debt free except for yep yeah yeah your house your house is debt free and you've got $550 that turns into $700 or whatever, and you've got a paid-for car, and your emergency fund's in place. That's what we call being set up for retirement.

You did a great job then, but you need to try to lay out the numbers. I don't care which order we do it in. Let's pay off the house and then buy the car, or buy the car and then pay off the house. But I would not drain retirement to do it. I don't think you need to here. I think you've got a fabulous income, Donna, and you've got a lot of options. Yeah, and she's been disciplined, you know. So far.

So far. And now all of a sudden it's like, I've got to have this car right now, you know. And you know what? The thing about the car is that it'll be very exciting for her for about a month. And then you pretty much adapt pretty quickly. That's just how we humans are it kind of wears off no matter how awesome it is doesn't mean you don't appreciate it doesn't mean you're not grateful for it but the buzz that she's feeling right now the pull

it's gonna wear off pretty quick yeah you know it's a car it's just i mean maybe a thirty thousand dollar car you know why does it got to be 40? There you go. And then move up later in car. Buy a 30 and then buy a 50 later, like after you retire. I mean, if the goal is to pay off a house, then I wouldn't stop that much. I wouldn't slow down very much on that. You know, cars are interesting emotionally. Yeah, oh, because they're a large physical item. And we tend to think when we buy one that it's going to be around longer than it is

it's it has because it's large it takes up space it it feels emotionally like it's going to be around and we really go through more cars than most of us think oh sure she's she's the way she's talking about that she's going to have it for 20 years. And probably not, really. Probably not. I mean, if you've got a million-dollar net worth, a 20-year-old SUV is probably not what you're driving. Right. Well, just to be real, a Lexus SUV at $40,000 still has got a good chunk of miles on it.

It's not a low-mile product. Those SUVs are expensive. Oh, yeah. I heard the rumor. Yeah, right. miles on it you know it's not a it's not a low mile product those suvs are expensive no yeah so the rumor yeah yeah right so it's which is crazy well i mean it's fine but but it's interesting it's you we assign the type of permanence to a car purchase that we assign emotionally that we assign to buying a house and it's just not the same no you can jump in and out of cars you don't want to but i mean if she bought that my point is three years from now she could easily upgrade so you're right by 25 yeah it's probably a sizable upgrade for you know

and then move to a 50 that's correct you know uh three years from now after the house has paid off and you're 65 and because it's not like you are you know you can buy a car at 65 and never buy another car again in your life you can do it but um you know as long as your health holds out and your ability to drive holds out it's not likely you're likely going to upgrade change do something it's we how long do people generally keep a car in america not that long really it'll fool you i'm gonna drive it till the wheels fall off yeah it says everybody and nobody does it that's true it just doesn't happen very often this is the ramsey shadow ken coleman ramsey personality is my co-host a lot of folks have questions about taxes right now

we get that here's a question from one of our listeners what's the difference between an itemized deduction and the standard deduction well the standard deduction is a set amount that you can subtract from your taxable income it's like your automatic tax freebie. The amount you can deduct based on your filing status, let's say you're single, you make $70,000, your standard deduction knocks off $13,000, so you only pay taxes on about $57,000. An itemized deduction is one of the specific expenses

the IRS allows you to deduct from your taxable income when it's time to file your taxes, stuff like charitable giving, your home interest, that kind of thing. And so in the example of the guy above, if you're giving and your itemized deductions, you're giving, your home interest doesn't exceed $13,000, then you would not do itemized. You would just take the standard deduction because you get more savings on your taxes than you can actually write off with a standard deduction that's given to you before you do

anything else. That's the way this thing works. Now, here's what's interesting. They raised the standard deduction considerably. It's up to $27,700 for for a married couple you don't pay taxes on 27 000 okay um to the point that you've got to have very serious itemized deductions that was raised on the trump administration you have to have very very serious itemized deductions to even bother with doing an itemized filing. And consequently, only 13% of Americans last year did itemized.

87% did standard. So let me help you with another part of that then that's interesting. The idea I'm going to keep my home mortgage because of the tax deduction doesn't apply unless you don't take the standard deduction. So, and 87% don't. So people saying they're going to keep their home mortgage for the tax savings is mathematically a bunch of crap because most of you aren't. 87% of you are not writing off your home mortgage.

You're taking the standard deduction. And so that's just malarkey. So that's just kind of how the tax thing works there. Most people are going to take the standard deduction again 87 percent do and the reason is a married couple would be as high as 27 7 single 13 000 some change there you go so for more tax tips and software that can help you file with confidence uh go to ramsey solutions.com smart tax ramsey smart tax guides you through the online filing process with low upfront pricing, no hidden fees,

and we're not going to try to sell you a credit card like they do at TurboTax. So just want to be real clear about that. ramseysolutions.com slash smart tax. Lee is in Denver. Hey, Lee, what's up? Hi. So my question is how do you prepare for what feels like a perpetual financial disaster? It's like I get through step one and start working on step two,

and then something comes up and step one is totally back to zero. Okay. Sounds like a lot of drama. Yeah. Perpetual financial disaster is not one i've ever heard that's interesting so uh you've you just had you you you can't seem to get ahead because you get getting keep getting kicked off the ladder is that what you're saying kind of yeah yeah so what happened give me like two or three of the examples. Okay, so it really starts back in November. My boyfriend broke up with me and moved out, and I was stuck paying for the place I live by myself, which is $1,600 a month. Have you moved?

No, and the reason I'm not moving is I did find a roommate, but my landlord actually really likes me as a tenant and said that he would drop my rent $200 if I signed another lease come May. And what do you make? So last year I made about $60,000. Right now it's looking like way less than that because I started a new job in pursuit of a career instead of a dead-end job.

This is not a perpetual financial disaster. This is perpetual bad decisions. Yeah. I mean, the other thing that is really causing a financial disaster is I got a car a year and a half ago. I've been working on paying it off because it does have high interest on it, and it got stolen two weeks ago, so it took away my income.

Praise God. Did it have insurance? I did, yeah. Good. You got it out of the high interest rate. They're going to pay it off, right? No, so I'm upside down in the car and because of how essential my car is,

they're not totaling it. There wasn't a lot of damage they found it the next day. So I'm still stuck with the car. And what I do with it is, I mean, I travel for my, I am in health care. I do sleep studies. But I also drive for Uber on the side to kind of supplement what I'm making in health care. So how much do you owe on this disaster of a car? About $10,000, and it's worth maybe $7,500.

And how much are they going to give you for the damage? They're paying, I think, about $3,500 is the damage estimate on it, so not enough to total out the car. What's your interest rate? 21%. So again, I'll repeat myself. You have not had perpetual financial disasters. You've had perpetual bad decisions.

Okay. 21% is in the stupid zone signing up for a lease you can't afford with your live-in boyfriend who takes office in the stupid zone you set yourself up for these things these weren't things that happened to you you caused them okay okay so that if you want to stop having them then that's the that's the way to fix it is we've got to start thinking with a clearer head so what you want if i woke up in your shoes what i'm going to do is put 3500 on this car and i'm going to work day and night night and day have absolutely no life until i get this car paid off and i'm going to move out of this stupid apartment you can't afford with a roommate that isn't going to pay, that's your next bad decision, and get you something very, very cheap that you can afford. Because if you had a lower rent and no car payment and you worked like a crazy person, you could have some money.

And to that end, I'd stop doing the Uber because you're just, you're putting more miles on your car. You can find other hourly jobs right now that can pay better than uber and allow you to stock up more money and not be causing you know damage to the car and all of the gas money you can do better on that second third job like give an example ken well target at 20 bucks an hour so yeah take take a big box store like a walmart or target you should look at 17 to 20 bucks an hour you know and you're pulling extra hours. And work all the time. All the time.

All the time, Lee. As a waitress, let me tell you, restaurants are dying to find people. A good high-end restaurant. A good, nice restaurant where you're going to get good tips. Yep. I mean, you're making more of your time. You're not driving that car. I want you working so much you are freaking exhausted

and you have no time to party. Right. Yeah, and I was doing that last year. I was doing 80 hours a week in security. Security doesn't pay anything. Yeah, I was making, I think, 18 hours during security. Oh, that's better than I thought. Okay, good.

Well, you've done it before. You can do it again, but this is going to be a shorter time span, and you're coming out on the other side debt-free and walking the baby steps, and now you've got financial freedom. I mean, you should not ever have a boyfriend leave and leave you in a lurch ever again because you've already done that one once. You don't have to do that one again. You should not ever sign up for a 21% interest rate on a car ever again.

You've already done that once. You never have to do that one again. See, my goal when goal when i was young lee i did a lot of really stupid things that's how i can recognize this i mean i got a phd in dumb i've done every stupid thing you can do but my goal was to never do the same stupid thing twice and so once you've got a whole bunch of stupid things on your resume already and you never do them again, you start to become what they call wise. Because all the stupid stuff is more in your rearview mirror. That's what happened to me. Yeah.

And here's what we know. Now people ask my advice. I know. Amazing. But, you know, here's the deal. You will change when your pain forces you to or your desired future inspires you to. And I think in this case, you've got to take both of those the pain and a desired future for a better life and put them together and get after it busted what you're

going crazy yeah making a lot of money and doing nothing to spend it clear this car up get out of that lease get you a place where i know your landlord likes you. I bet he likes you. Yeah, I bet he does. Most landlords are good. No. He wants to do her a favor for her to sign a longer lease. Yeah. He's such a nice guy. I'm going to help you out here.

Yeah. Nope. This is The Ramsey Show. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage. Patrice is with us. Hi Patrice, how are you? Hey Dave. Good to have you. Where do you live? Long Island, New York. Well welcome to Nashville. All the way here to do a debt-free scream and how much have you paid off? $76,000 000 all right and how long did this take you two years and four months look at you way to go kiddo and your range of income during that time about 40 000 and my best year during that time was 80 000 with overtime cool what do you do for a

living usps letter carrier all right so you get a lot of ot with that huh a lot of ot people don't want to come to work dave they didn't want to come in so you pick up the extra route yes okay because you got the t-shirt says if you're broke go to work exactly especially when it rains people don't come to work in the rains i don't even like it in the rain no that's like a usps thing you're supposed to deliver the mail in the rain the sleet the snow i mean whatever right yeah you would think you would think but that gives you opportunity absolutely you can do whatever you want to do pick up so what's it pay an ot an hour um after eight hours you get time and a half so my rate is 23 my base rate so 34 50 and then after eight hours i mean after 10 hours you get double time so 46 yeah you're reaching for that. I like it. How many hours were you working in a given week?

Anywhere from minimum 60 to even 72 hours. Wow. Sometimes 10 days in a row, breaking all type of labor laws. Just working. I'm all for some civil disobedience. That's great. Talk about hustle and grind. You get after it, kiddo.

Yeah, it's there. What kind of debt was the $76,000? All student loans. Okay. What's your degree in? Sociology. Okay. on grind you get after it yeah it's there what kind of what kind of debt was this 76 000 all student loans okay what's your degree in sociology okay i don't use it and so now you're a letter carrier i like it okay and you're making money i'm proud of you way to go how'd you get connected up this ramsey stuff uh actually i was doing some work at my uncle's house and i was like dude how do you have this house in long island like you know taxes is crazy and he goes i was davish and he hands me the book total money makeover and then he showed me the youtube videos and i was just hooked since and i listen to you every day when i'm on the route

you and john can and it keeps me going wow wow that's right i'll be thinking about that next time i'm on the microphone here though somewhere there's a letter carrier in long island yeah i like it i like it way to go yeah very very cool where did you go to school i'm sitting here and i'm going a sociology degree and 76 000 is two months i'm just curious i started off at nassau community and i transferred i was there for four years so i was there pretty long and then i transferred to City College, and I wanted to live closer to campus, so the apartments there in New York City are pretty expensive. So I took out the maximum $10,000 per semester, and I actually didn't start paying off.

I graduated in 2012. I didn't pay off until recently. So all that time, all that interest. It was just laying there building up. Yeah. It's just a true penalty. It really is. And for you you just said i'm over it yeah and if it wasn't for you guys i probably would still have that debt because where i live and my family just people have debt so it really was normal it's kind of like everywhere yeah by the way yeah

it's normal everywhere not just with you but way to go what are you dreaming about because you're young because you could do anything man you are you dreaming about because you're young because you could do anything man you got you got stuff girl i i want to i want to get into real estate too but like you preach you know you have to cash flow and then i listen to people at my job and they buy stuff on credit they drive around bmws and they and they don't work their shift no they don't that's really true but i definitely um i dream just to be a homeowner and be a babysat millionaire i think you're on your way one more thing i want to add that with the post office they have a tsp which is yeah which is really good and um i'm doing 15 right now

and they got the roth tsp now yes yeah get dropping in that c plan. Yeah. I like it. CNS, I did pretty good last month. Yeah. That's awesome. And people at my job say, I got kids and I can't put that much in. I'm like, well, stop going. They order lunch. I bring my lunch to work. They'll go out and order food. You were eating in the car a lot, weren't you?

Yeah, I always bring my lunch. They call me the cheapest one in the office. You're the richest one, too. Yeah. You're the debt-free one, yeah, for sure. Everything's paid off 100%. How does it feel to be free? It feels great.

I get to come to the Dave Ramsey show on a random Tuesday and call out of work. So, yeah, I can do whatever I want, basically, yeah. Yeah, you got choices now. That's what it gives you. And you can choose a different career. You can choose to make the most of this career you can choose a lot of different things and yeah you know what's interesting about your story is is that um you took power you you you walked out of this very powerfully you have a lot of power now that you didn't have yeah dr john you believe in you right yeah he talks about um carrying these book

bag um bricks in your book bag and um it definitely felt like that you know you walk around life and you're like I got all this debt how am I gonna and you're just going through life but now it's like I I owned I put the book back down you know I own my life now and I could do whatever I want you know I don't even have to work for the post office come 10 more years you know once I get my 401k up you know i plan on maybe buying a laundromat or something i don't know all these thoughts come in my head but i could do whatever i want now now and you know how to do it now yeah and by the way dave the dreams will continue to flood through your head because now there's no limits yeah so people

that are in debt have a hard time dreaming and and there's no telling what's going to come out of that that head and heart of yours and you're going to do some incredible stuff you really are this this one's special right here there's a work ethic there's a swagger yeah you're going you're going somewhere like i said dave there's money out there he's got to go get it it's america man i got man. I literally have goosebumps right now. Say it again from the back. If I can do it, I started at, when I started working at the post office,

I wasn't even a career employee, meaning I didn't have any benefits. I was making $17 an hour. But with the hard work and overtime, man, I was able to make way more than that. So anybody out there listening, you guys can do it no matter what you're doing, no matter how little money you're making per hour i paid off seventy six thousand dollars and the way i was

able to do that was i actually broke it up into ten thousand markers so every ten thousand dollars in my head i was like all right i'm one step closer and to be honest the last probably like seven thousand was the hardest because you're right there. Yeah, it's harder to finish it off. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? Your why. You have to have a reason at the end. What's yours?

Mine was to get a house, to be a homeowner. Good dream. Yeah. Like your uncle, huh? Yeah, exactly. How'd you get this house? Read this book. I like it. Very cool. Thank you, Dave? Yeah, exactly. How'd you get this house? Read this book. I like it.

Very cool. Thank you, Dave. You're amazing. You're amazing. I'm so proud of you. I'm honored to get to meet you. Very, very cool. I have an easy prediction to make. This one's going to leave awake.

Oh, no question about it. So impressive. Good stuff. Good stuff. Hey, we got the live and give bundle for you that's the baby steps millionaires book uh the prediction of your future and the total money makeover book to give away to someone that uh you run into like you a few years ago very cool and financial peace university if you've not done it yet you should do it if you have uh then give it

to somebody and pay it forward here and help people get moving so i'm so proud of you very very very well done you're amazing let me ask you this who was your biggest cheerleader uncle uh honestly the podcast like i said i listened to it i listened to it every every day on my route mom every day listening and it's what kept me going because a lot of people don't understand when you tell them they they just man what do you mean yeah they don't what do you mean just put it on a credit card yeah when you're when your broke friends are making fun of your financial plan you know you're right on track huh yeah good stuff patrice you're amazing well done patrice from long island 76 000 paid off in two years in four months making 40 to 80 with some serious ot count it down down. Let's hear a debt-free scream.

Three, two, one. I'm debt-free! Yeah! Woo-hoo-hoo! Wow! It's a master class in momentum, you know? She said, all right, I'm going to tackle the first 10. Believing you can.

Yeah, and just getting after it. Believing you can and then doing it. Oh, man. It's just powerful. It really is. It makes us glad we're here on these microphones every day. So true. And, you know, I'm sitting here thinking for a second, everybody wants to drive Uber and I'm not knocking Uber at all.

But here we're talking about a postal carrier making $40 an hour at certain points when she's double time. Ding, ding. Come on. This is the Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day, James 3.13. Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. Samuel Cooleridge said, common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom. Ooh, I like it. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Drew is in Atlanta.

Hi, Drew. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Hey, Ken. Hey, what's up? What's up, Cole? I'm just looking for some general financial advice. I'm willing to buy a house, but I'm also trying to plan for retirement.

You know, I want to be a millionaire when I retire like everybody else, but I have about $260,000 saved up in cash. I don't have any debt. My car is paid for, but it is about 10 years old. It still runs fine, but I know I'm going to need another one in the near future probably. Just kind of trying to figure out should I throw all of my money or most of it at a house to try to buy it in cash or should i take some of it to try to start investing because right now as far as retirement goes all i have is my 401k it's got about a hundred thousand dollars in

it how old are you starting to try to 36 sir man you're doing great. Congratulations. Where'd you get $250,000? I just save a lot. Try to live on little, you know. You're single? Yes, sir. What's your income? Before taxes, it's probably like $70,000. You're from $65,000 to $70,000, depending.

That's before taxes and 401K and everything comes out. You're just a savings maniac. I it way to go man you've done great i'm proud of you excellent job what do you do for a living i'm a nuclear medicine technologist what's your what's the what's the i'm just curious what's the ladder look like for you financially what's what does it look above you what does it look like above you um there's no real ladder it's just you know occasional raises they're pretty small raises okay all right i hadn't heard that title before that's uh sounds very impressive okay good there's only 14 000 of us in the country so it's not extremely common okay okay excellent well um what would i do if i woke up in your shoes and i had a hundred thousand in my 401k i'm 36 years old i make 70 000 i got 250 000 260 000 in the bank

um i would set aside an emergency fund out of that of three to six months of expenses and i would buy a house the rest of it house yeah all of it and uh then and then i would if you if that doesn't buy the house with cash which it might not in atlanta okay then you know you finish paying off the house is your next big goal and as soon as while you're putting 15 of your income away towards retirement and um into good you know into your 401k into good growth stock mutual funds, Roth 401k preferable. You keep doing that baby step four, 15% of your income into the four types of mutual funds we're talking about around here all the time. If you take out a little bit, let's say you put down $240,000 and you took out a $60,000 loan and you got a $300,000 house, right? And you pay that off very, very quickly.

And then once you've done that, then you're headed towards being a millionaire very quickly because you've got the real estate going up in value, and now you're going to load up your 401K and your Roth IRAs and do your longer-term investing until you get to that million. But that's going to put you there in probably five years. About five years? Yeah. Okay. That's about how far out you are. Should I look at – I'm sorry.

That's okay. Go ahead. Should I look at investing any money now through like a firm like Edward Jones or something? Not beyond 15%. 15% of your income going into 401K. If you're going to take out a small mortgage, your next goal is put it all on the mortgage. Okay. Until your house is paid off.

When that's paid off, then get with a smart investor pro at ramseysolutions.com. Find somebody to help you do investing, and you do your Roth IRAs, and you max those out, and you max out everything you can put over at work, not just 15%. And then we figure out what we're going to do beyond that if you want to do even more because you just love saving money.

But that's where I would start. And that's going to get you there very, very, very quickly. You're going to be amazed because, you know, seven years from today, if you're doing all of that, you're going to have $300,000 or $400,000 saved in just your retirement alone. And you're going to have a paid for, you know, $400,000 or $500,000 thousand dollar house at that point yeah and i would also say you're a saver so start saving now to replace that car you know because it's it's you said it's running fine but it's it's older and it's putting on some age so again plan for that and you're going to be great kevin is in denver hey kevin how are you good how are you guys better than we deserve what guys? Better than we deserve. What's up?

Hey, so I'm having some issues kind of budgeting with my career. I just started a new career about two years ago, started my own business. And it's peaking in the summer times, and it's pretty dead in the winter times. So I picked up a second job in the winter to help kind of pay for things. But I'm having some issues with my work van. It's my only vehicle. And they say it needs a whole new engine in it. job in the winter to help kind of pay for things but i'm having some issues with my work van it's my only vehicle uh and they say it needs a whole new engine in it so they're quoting me about five thousand for that which is a lot more than the van is worth so kind of trying to see how to get around that without uh taking out a loan to get a new vehicle i'll take it you have no money

yep uh i don't have too much debt, about $23,000 in debt. On what? Well, I owe $10,000 to my aunt. She helped me pay for my fair year school, the career I started, the new trade that I started. She helped me pay for that, so I owe her money for that. And then I owe about $5,000 from student loans that i used to have uh when i went to college for the year that i went um and then the rest is uh credit cards only about three thousand okay and what are you in what are you doing as your side job uh deliver packages for Amazon. What's that pay?

About $20 an hour, $20.75. And you use your car? No, I use their vans. Okay. All right. And you have absolutely no money? I probably have $1,000. Okay.

All right. I'd sell your van as is and take the money with that and put the $1,000 with it and get me a little car to get around for right now, and then I would work like a crazy person this winter to put together the money to buy a $5,000 van by spring. Okay. And then let's get this debt paid off and start working through your debts from there uh but i want you working like all the time yes sir like all the time 40 hours at amazon right now and then i do uh horses in the morning when i have time on the weekends 30 hours? 40 hours. Oh, we need to do a lot more than that. Yes, sir.

You need to be gone all the time. You're broke, man. For sure. For sure, for sure. You need some money, and I don't know where to get money except from work. Yeah. Definitely. What are you making in the farrier business?

Last year, I didn't have a second job. I made just under $40,000. Probably most of that is during the summer months uh probably get around six to seven thousand yeah so if you made 40 in the winter working like your tail off and 40 in the summer that's an eighty thousand dollar income right and and you can get this debt cleaned up with that and get a cash fan for five thousand dollars but yeah i don't i mean you don't need a fancy van you because you're going to beat the snot out of it anyway yeah that's why i got a 2006 chevy uh yeah cargo van right now and i already had 170 000 miles yeah so that thing's going to bring a cup that thing's going to bring a thousand bucks like it sits or maybe 1500 like it sits

with no engine in it and it's salvage and you put your thousand with it you buy a twenty five hundred dollar car to get you through the winter just to get back and forth to amazon's all you got to do because you're going to be working all the time yep and i still have a private clients for horses uh in the winter time too so that's kind of the issue with just a car yeah okay then we're going to get a really junky $2,000 van instead of a car. Gotcha. But pay cash for it. No payments.

You don't need any more payments. You've got enough payments. No, no, sir. I've never paid for a car. I always pay cash for a car. But you didn't need everything else. Everything else you went in debt for. So we've got to get rid of the payment plan here.

Let's get this stuff cleaned up, dude. Hey, well done, Kevin. Appreciate you calling in. We're here to help you if you need more. Ken Coleman, good show. Thank you, sir. That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. Our thanks to Austin, Ben, James, Zach, and Andrew in the booth. The booth dudes did it again. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.