The Ramsey Show - Don’t Let Your Present Reality Define Your Future

Episode Date: March 13, 2025

📈 Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a Free Personalized Plan George Kamel & Dr. John Delony answer your questions and discuss: "My parents sold their farm 2 years ago to my sisters for $1," "How do I pay off $230k of student loans?" "I can't drive my truck due to a title issue," "What's the impact of pausing retirement?" "My husband wants to amend our prenup," "My husband isn't on board with the Baby Steps" Support Our Sponsors: 🌱 Get 10% off your first month of BetterHelp 🏥 Learn more about Christian Healthcare Ministries 🏡 Get started today with Churchill Mortgage 🔒 Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe 🏦 Go to FAIRWINDS Credit Union for an exclusive account bundle! 🥗 Save 15% on your first Field of Greens order with code RAMSEY ⛨ Find top Health Insurance Plans at Health Trust Financial 💸 To find out more about student loan refinancing, check out Laurel Road 💻 Visit NetSuite today to learn more 🗂️ Use promo code RAMSEY for 18% off at The Nokbox 💵 Learn more about Timothy Plan 🏛 Get started with YRefy or call 844-2-RAMSEY 🔐 Visit Zander Insurance for your free instant quote today!  Next Steps 📱 Watch the full episode for free in the Ramsey Network app. 📞 Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET or click here! 🛒 Preorder Build a Business You Love Now at Ramsey Solutions 🏠 Get organized and prepared to buy or sell a home.  🤓 File your taxes with 100% accurate software that’s 20% of the price. 💵 Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app! 🎟️ Get Tickets to the Money & Relationships Tour 💰 Don’t pay extra for simple tax filing needs. File your taxes with 100% accurate software that’s 20% of the price Listen to more from Ramsey Network 🎙️ The Ramsey Show   🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💡 The Rachel Cruze Show 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 💰 George Kamel 🪑 Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman 📈 EntreLeadership Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Live from the Ramsey Network, this is the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create amazing relationships. I'm George Campbell, joined by Dr. John Deloney and we're taking your calls at triple eight, eight two five, five two two five. You jump in, we'll talk about your life, your money, your relationships, whatever is going on. We're gonna put it out in front of everyone

to help you take the right next step. Jillian is gonna kick us off in the great city of Scranton, Pennsylvania. What's going on jillian hi uh... thanks for taking my call mine is not so much a money problem uh... my parents sold our family farm to my to oldest

sisters without telling me without telling anybody without a conversation i found out accidentally i'm just wondering how do i deal with the lack of respect? Oh man. What was the story? The farm has been in my family since 1852. It is totally my mother's farm.

I understand that it is her choice to do with what she wants. I don't have a problem with that. I'm happy it's staying in the family. I have a problem with it. I have a problem on your behalf. Sounds like she has a problem with you. If she left you out of this. Why?

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I didn't even have to say anything. You're welcome. If my mom just gave the kitchen table to my sister without at least letting me know, I'd at least like, like really?

Right? I mean, like that's a huge thing. You have a right to be upset. Yeah. Be upset. Well, yeah. And also we. I'm not even supposed to know. Here's the kicker. I'm a right to be upset. Yeah, be upset. Well, and also- I'm not even supposed to know. Here's the kicker, I'm not supposed to know.

There is no one who is supposed to know. I found out, let me rephrase that, my son found out by accident. So I'm really not upset. I'm glad it's staying in the family. I just, I'm upset because of the lack of conversation that she didn't trust me enough to have a conversation with her.

That's it. So there's a, you're right, mom can do with mom stuff, whatever she wants to do. And I'll also say this. I hear on this show of nightmare after nightmare of parents who have land and they just leave it all to the kids, right? That's always a disaster too. and they just leave it all to all to the kids, right? That's always a disaster too. Well, they have the money to fund it. Now, my situation, financial situation is different from my sister's. They have the money to take care of it. Whereas my financial situation is a little bit different. So I completely understand and I am not resentful of them for their wealth. I'm not resentful of my mother for hers. I'm very glad that they're going to take care of it. I'm just upset that she didn't trust me enough

to have a conversation. I don't ask her for money. I don't live with her. I don't depend on her. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. You don't have to qualify. You don't have to go through a litany of reasons why you have permission to be heartbroken

that your mom didn't even honor you enough with a conversation? Well, I know why she didn't, but she doesn't approve that I'm divorced. She does not approve of it at all. Oh, geez. Okay. What about your sister? Why didn't your sister sit down and say, hey, here's the deal?

Same reason. They still have dinner with my ex-husband like almost every other week. So you were excommunicated from the family post-divorce. Yeah. There's a bigger thing going on here. Yes, yes, yes. You know that good old Catholicism, you know, an annulment chink, you know, when I got divorced,

I didn't even care about an annulment. My ex-husband went for the annulment and let's just say the tribunal, if you've ever been through an annulment or know anything about it, it's not fun, it's not pretty. No, but here's the thing. I wouldn't here's the thing. This is bigger than the farm. This is, I mean, your parents, your family's still having a relationship with your ex-husband. So like there's a very real, they chose him over you. Yes, yes they did.

Okay, so let's just stop there. Put a period. That's where the pain is at. You have a right to be upset and sad. Okay. You know, I thought I was over it because it was 10 years ago. I mean, the divorce was 10 years ago. The divorce was 10 years ago and it wasn't pretty. I mean, he left, I won't even go into it, but it was just a nasty time in my life. Yeah, okay, let's put a period at the end of it. Let's don't go into it. How can I help you today? Yeah. Okay, let's put a period at the end of it. Let's don't go into it. How can I help you today? No, I'm just, I just needed to know that I'm not. You're not crazy. No.

And I'm not being gaslighted. Like it's not my own mind gaslighting me that I did something wrong here. I mean, you might have, but it was a 10 years ago and adults, regulated mature adults have hard conversations. And if you're, if your mother, she's allowed to do what she wants to do with her money, and if she feels in her soul that you violated some sort of moral contract that so to the point that she's gonna cut you out of 200 or 100 year old family property, fine.

But yes, I agree with you that you're worth a conversation. And there's a cowardly aspect. But yes, I agree with you that you're worth a conversation. Yeah, that's all I was, I guess I just needed to hear. There's a cowardly aspect to, I'm going to, like, I'm going to do this thing, but then I'm not going to have the courage to be open and honest about my values. I'm going to do it under the table. Right, I mean, my sisters, I can understand.

We've never had the best relationship, so I understand where my sisters took a step back. I totally understand that. I don't, but I'll trust you that you do. Here's the thing. All of this has happened, period at the end of that sentence. The question that you have to answer is what are you going to do now? And here's a hard truth I'm gonna give you. Every second that you choose to dwell on this is a choice for you to be miserable in the present and in the future. This has happened.

Right. And it's not cool, a betrayal, whatever words you wanna say, all those are real, then the big question is what are you gonna do now? Well, you know, I'm not upset for me, but I'm yes you are Yes, you are and be okay for my daughter because she loves this property. She loves this land She moved in with she not allowed to go on it Um, she is in fact, she's living with my parents like great

My daughter and I had an argument my parents took her in. So, okay, so great So let's let's like I don't think I'm, like, I don't think you're being honest. I don't think you're being honest with yourself. You are upset and it's okay to be upset. And it may come a day when your sister sells this to your daughter. That's a problem in the future. Right. You have no control over it. You have no control over it. Let's just exhale and say, I can feel my feelings. I'm allowed to be sad.

And my daughter's living with my parents. I miss my daughter. Maybe you want to repair that relationship, et cetera, move on, on, on, whatever. But let's stop trafficking in the, here's the thing they did. Yes, what they did was not cool. I'm all about having values and I'm all about

putting a stick in the ground, but an adult has a hard conversation if they're gonna do something related to values, period. Okay, it's this. Right, and since they chose not to, I just, I ride then, like say nothing to them. I mean, I know, but. Well, what's it gonna solve?

They've already proven themselves, what they think of you, and your ability to have a conversation. Okay. I mean, so they've, they, behavior's a language. You can clearly see what they think about your ability to have a hard conversation. And you've been able to see their character. Correct.

And I would say, I'm going to say it's my mother. It's not my father. I think he would have had that's my mother it's not my father I think he would have had that hard conversation because he's not afraid to is he still alive very much what oh yeah he's very much not absolved of this either no I but it was always in my mother's name like it was never it doesn't matter she came into it both parents can choose to have a hard conversation and if one person in a marriage is doing something that lacks integrity, the other person can say,

well, I'm gonna talk to my child. Correct. He was an accomplice in this. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, he would have had to sign the papers. So all this to say is, yes, you have a right to have your feelings heard. And the question all of us need to ask

whenever we find ourselves in hard moments like this, especially when we find out things happen in the past is, we're going to grieve it and we're going to ask ourselves, what are we going to do now? I'm going to tell you, move to the future, man. Stop dwelling on this because you're just going to be miserable in the present. This is the Ramsey Show. Hey, what's up guys? It's Jade Warshaw. And look, if there's anybody who knows student loan debt is a problem, it's me. My husband and I had $280,000 of it, but we were able to dig ourselves out and you can too.

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All credit products are subject to credit approval. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell here with Dr. John Delaney. Lexi is up next in New York City. How can we help, Lexi? Hi, good afternoon. I was just calling because I've come through a realization that I've made a lot of really bad financial decisions for a while I was blaming my parents and being upset about

it but I feel like I should also stick to accountability. Yay! It's a big day. Yeah welcome, welcome to adulthood that's awesome we're proud of you. Yes, so I just I wanted to get some advice because I'm in a lot of debt and I've been working on paying them off but I still feel like I'm kind of drowning and my mom's currently asking me to help buy a house and I don't know like I just yeah I even know your financial situation and hard no yeah how bad is it how much do you owe so I'm in about two hundred30,000 worth of debt, and that's student loans and then some credit

card debt. I did pay off one credit card recently and I closed the account. I got that advice from your show that I'm just working on finishing paying off the other one. $230,000 in student loans? Like what, are you a doctor? No, but that is what my dad wanted me to become so he taught me to picking out the loans and staying in school But what was the degree and did you finish?

Yes, I got two degrees I got an undergrad in public health and then I got a master's in health administration Gee, and are you working in that field? I'm currently working as a care coordinator. I make about 54 K a year. Yeah, dude, you took out $230,000 for a MPH. I mean, what's the highest possible money you could make as a public health administrator? Probably like around 75, 80K a year. Gosh.

Oh boy. Are these private schools? Yeah. Yeah. But the student loans are with like the government. No, I know they are, but this is a, are you a first gen college student? Yes. Yeah. So there's the man, it's such a brutal trap where parents are like, no, no, no, no, no,

my kid's going to go to this fancy school. Make me look good. And then they're going to, yeah, they're going to be the, they're going to carry it. Yeah, that was what my dad said, because I had realized that freshman year and I was saying, I don't know if that's a good idea. Yeah. So I was being so excited about it, that I got into a really like nice school. And all the loans are in your name, right?

Half of it is in my name and the other half is in my mom's name. So is it a parent plus loan or what? Like is she liable or are you? Yes, parent plus loan. Yeah, but she's hitting you up for money to buy a house and so she has no she wants me to put my name down for it because I have pretty good credit no Hey, listen, they like I say this with all love to your family. They have Given you such horrific financial advice up till now. You've got to stop listening to them. Okay Like you you've carried your dream as far as you can carry it because

now this is your nightmare. If you told me you owe 230 grand and you're you were finishing up med school, you're finishing up nurse practitioner school, then I would be sad for you but man there's a path. This is gonna be really tough because even tapping, I mean, the highest possible paying job you could get as a public health official with a MPH master's in public health. Yeah, it's 75 or 85.

So I have a master's in health administration. So I'm looking to go into like administration and hospital management. Yeah, but then the federal government just announced they're hacking all the NIH jobs and that's gonna trickle down through administrative positions at hospitals. Okay. Yeah.

And you're living in New York City? Yes. How are you surviving making 50 grand with 230 and loans in New York City? Well, I'm currently renting out a bedroom and paying a monthly rent. I think you need to move to a lower cost of living area. What's keeping you in New York City? My family. Yeah.

But what are they doing? I mean, just to see them and hang out with them? To be, because I have a chronic illness. So I originally did want to move out when I started college and go to a different state, but my mother didn't think that was a good idea because she was worried that I was sick. So are they helping take care of you? Are you working full time?

No, I'm still, I'm taking care of myself pretty well now. I take care of myself, all of my medical stuff. I make my own appointments, go to them. I'm pretty independent now. If that's the case then I would move. I find a job, if you can make 54K in Idaho, you're gonna have a better shot at paying off these student loans in your lifetime. But New York City is not the place.

Here's the thing, you have run up against a hard truth and this hard truth is math. And I know you want to honor your mom and dad by doing whatever they say and carry their dreams forward. I get that and I know that's a hard thing that George and I are asking you to do. And I know you want to stay in New York City and I know that you want to make sure that you don't make your mom stressed out with her worrying and all this stuff. You have a math problem, a very serious math problem. And that is, you owe the United States government $230,000 and you make $50,000 a year.

It's just a math problem. And it's catastrophic. It's really tough. And so you're going to have to get serious about, where can I live, where my cost of living is as low as humanly possible get serious about where can I live, where my cost of living is as low as humanly possible and what job can I get? Can I find a rural hospital that will pay me a hundred grand to be an administrator

at a small hospital so that I can get to pay in the stuff? I mean, you're going to have to think very radically and you might tell your parents, I'll be back in five years when these loans are gone. And God help you if you sign for a mortgage or something like that. I mean, you just, you can't afford that. You know what I mean? Have you started having to make payments yet?

For the student loan? Uh-huh. Yes, I started making payments. I was on the SAFE program, but it seems like they're changing that. Yeah, they're changing every program. And we've been, and not to, you don't, you don't know this, but we've been telling people

for years, don't count on the federal government coming to your rescue on these loans. Cause you never know what an administration is going to do. And then here we go. We got a new administration that's cutting everything. And so, yeah, man, geez, I'm sorry. What is your take home pay every month? About $2,800 to $3,000. And what's your student loan payment every month?

I was paying about like $100 a month on it, but then I had stopped paying. You know what that's going to do, right? Your $230 grand is going to turn into $300 grand had stopped the interest. You know what that's gonna do, right? Your 230 grand is gonna turn into 300 grand. Because the interest still keeps cooking. The interest is higher than what you're able to pay. No, they stopped the interest. They put it, I forgot the term, they had put it on, like something they said like- Four minutes. You didn't have to pay at the moment because I guess they were figuring out everything

as things were changing. Well, you've got to find out what's actually going on there because the interest can still be growing. Even though it's a, hey, you don't need to pay, don't worry about it. And the interest keeps growing while you sit there. And so that's the math for you to solve is I need to make the most money

with the lowest living expenses possible. Because otherwise, even if you're able to pay a thousand bucks a month toward your debt, which I don't know you could even do, it would take you 20 years to pay off this debt. And that's if the balance didn't grow by a cent. Okay. And so you're gonna have to debt snowball this thing, but I don't want it to take 20

years. I think Lexi has a lot of life to live. That's what I've been doing. With the credit cards, I've paid one off already. How many more do you have? I just have one credit card left and there's one thousand four hundred. Okay. And then what's your next smallest balance if you split up all the loans? No, that's it. And then the next thing I would have to tackle is just paying off the student

loans. That's the only credit card I have left. I don't have any other. Yeah, what's the what's the smallest loan balance you have out of all the loans? I'm guessing they're split up amongst many loans. Oh no, I consolidated them. Oh no. Oh, okay. Because I had talked with another financial advisor when I was at- I think you need to stop talking to people.

Yeah, stop talking to people. Stop talking to people. And he had said it would be best to consolidate it all together instead of paying a bunch of people. Yeah, you got bad advice, I'm sorry. When two knuckleheads on a podcast that you don't even know are the only ones speaking truth to you, I'm sorry, I hate this for you.

You're gonna have to go find some more jobs and you're gonna have to get radical about it and you're gonna have to work multiple jobs. And there's only one way to do this, you can't cut anything from your life, you're gonna have to just make more money and if the death's not in your name I would not be worried about it right now if it's in mom's name worry about that later focus on the ones that are in your name consolidated it all together it sounds like that could have happened

oh hang on the line Lexi I'm gonna send you a copy of my book Breaking Free from Broke I hope it gives you some encouragement along what might be a long journey. Parents stop asking your kids to mortgage your dreams. Statistics show that half of Americans don't have enough life insurance or they don't have any at all. I don't understand this, John. Why don't people want to take care of their family? They think they're not going to die or something?

Well, I used to be one of those guys, I didn't even this, John. Why don't people want to take care of their family? They think they're not going to die or something? Well, I used to be one of those guys, I didn't even think about it. And one of my buddies said, hey, the only reason to not have life insurance is if you hate your wife and kids. And I immediately went and got term life insurance. That's a gut punch. For decades, Dave,

I've sat across people who've lost a spouse, they've lost somebody important to them. Me too. And they don't know what to do next. Terrifying. You're going to have a crisis here. You know, you got two options while you're sitting and talking to a young widow. She's concerned about how she's going to invest all this money properly and not mess this up, or she's concerned

how she's going to eat tomorrow. That's exactly right. These are the two options. It's saying I love you to your family. Term life insurance. Jeff Zander and the team at Zander Insurance makes it easy and affordable. I've used them personally for 25 years. They're the only people I trust. Go to zander.com or call 800-356-4282. This is The Ramsey Show, 88825-5252. I'm John Delaney joined by George Campbell. Listen, Dave Ramsey and I are going on the road and it is gonna be as though my show and the Ramsey show had a kid without an edit button. That's gonna be amazing dude. We're gonna be on stage together talking

about money and relationships everything from how to what's going on with our kids these days and how to how to raise good kids, how to handle money the right way, how to deal with all the changes that are going economically in the 21st century with money, with family, with kids, with marriages, how to make friends, all of this. We're gonna be talking about everything. So we're gonna be in Louisville on April 21st,

we're gonna be in Durham on April 23rd, Atlanta in the beautiful Fox Theater on April 25th, Phoenix May 5th, Fort Worth, Yee-Haw, my Texas brethren need to come out. It's gonna be a hot show. May 7th in Kansas City. We got to right the wrongs that happened in Philadelphia a few months ago and Dave and I are committed to doing that. We're gonna be in Kansas City on May 9th.

So go to ramsysolutions.com slash tour, or if you're checking this out on podcast or YouTube, you can click the link in the show notes. It's gonna be wheels off, I cannot wait. Can't wait. Pump for it. Let's go to the phones. Jared joins us in Brunswick, Georgia up next.

Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Jared, how can we help? Hey y'all, huge fan of the show first off. Just wanted to say that. Thanks man. I had a quick question. Yeah, of course. I had a quick question, yeah of course, I had a quick question

about a situation that I'm in with a car dealership. They sold me a vehicle that the state has now rejected the title on and so they did a little bit of digging for me and they figured out that the guy who owned the truck before me, he did not put the right mileage down on when he went to the DMV. The mileage didn't match up with what the state was seeing on their end, so they rejected the title. That is not your problem. That's the car dealership's problem. That's what I figured. So my question today was, they've kind of been trying to give me the run around

and I've been calling them. And I'm kind of just wondering when I need to put my foot down and say like, all right, well. Yesterday. Yeah, yesterday, but today. Yesterday, okay. So you need to have the title cleared. And so have you talked to the DMV or the title office

to understand what needs to be done to clear the title? Yes sir, so they need a wet signature from the guy who owned the vehicle last and Toyota has told me they can't get in touch with him because he's military. Hold on, but this is Toyota's problem. I would get an attorney and I would drive the car back to the dealership and say you can give me Another car that's exactly the same as this one You can refund my money or my attorney is gonna call you because you sold me a fraudulent car period That is their job to go get the title and they can get in touch with them

It's not gonna take a pigeon carrying a piece of mail to get in touch with this guy That's right They have all the information when they sell a car from this guy and they can get in touch with him and they need to. But it's their job to track him down, not yours. Okay, great. Well, that answers my question then because really I was just trying to figure out if I needed to get an attorney and get everything straightened out.

And I would go, I like to, I mean before before I'm gonna sue somebody, I want to make sure I've given somebody an opportunity to do right. And so I would try, I would go back to the dealership. Was this a new car? Oh, no, I'm sorry. It wasn't. It was a used car. Okay.

My question is, can you go to the DMV and request a corrected title? Not without his signature. Is that right? Not not without the wet signature. So you need that lien release. That's right, yes sir. Well actually, the dealership needs that. Yes sir, that's right.

They essentially illegally sold you a car. That's right. Okay, well that's good to know because that gives me more... If I'm in your shoes, like again, we're not lawyers, but I would contact one and go, Hey, we need to put some heat on this to get this done because right now you can't even drive the vehicle. That's right, yes sir. So do you need to get to and from work? What's your situation right now? I have a workshop that my company lets me drive. Okay. Well I would take it to the dealership today and I would say here's what's going to happen. You're going to give me a new car right now and you're all going to deal with this. You're going to refund my entire purchase price, title and license and everything and we're going to shake

hands and pretend this never happened or I'm going to get my attorney and I'm going to sue you for the cost of this car plus because you sold me an illegal car. Okay. Can I follow up with another small question? Yeah, sure. So, I know y'all are going to kick me for this, but I did finance it. Of course you did. We're done with those ways. I've been married for 10 months now and we're completely debt free and we decided to get

serious. Thank you guys. Good, so it's paid off. It's a good motivation for sale. Absolutely. Okay. Yes sir. So maybe this is your gift. I guarantee you they're going to figure out a way to get you another car.

And maybe they're going to give you a 30 day loaner while they figure this out. Right, but yeah. The silver lining is you're not paying payments on a car that you can't drive That's right, that's right. The lender doesn't get a red How old are you? I'm 26. Okay, this is I'm saying this not as like looking down at you I'm saying this as I've been in this I've been in your seat before. Okay, this is one of those Adult conversations, this is one of those adult conversations. This is one of those like grown man conversations

that you never thought you're gonna have and here they are, right? Not by your hand, but in your lap, but somebody did you wrong. And so I'm gonna show up there and I'm gonna go get this thing taken care of. So well done, man. Thanks for the call.

And I would definitely call a licensed attorney and have one in your pocket for, they're gonna give you the run around, they're gonna look at you and say, oh, he's 26 and we're gonna hem haul and whatever. Here's what's gonna happen today. I leave here with a new car, a fully refunded TT&L, and you keep the keys to this illegal car that you sold me,

or I'm gonna sue you. And I've got to have a car to get to and from around my neighborhood, so there you go. Man, that sucks. Sorry that happened, man. That's a bummer, dude. Let's head out to one of John Delaney's favorite places, Fort Worth, Texas. Allie joins us there.

What's going on, Allie? Hey, how are you guys doing? Doing great. I have a question, and I've got the perfect people for this. What is the long-term effect of pausing retirement to pay off debt. You become debt-free faster, so everything in your life gets better. I know that's not what you're asking, but.

Yeah, so you're saying that the downside of him losing out on my 4% match I was getting for two years, what happens with that money? Right, and I mean, we're fairly young, so I'm 31 and my husband's 30, so we still have a long way to go before we even retire. How much debt do you have? I know about it.

So we have 20,000 in my car. We've got 32 in my husband's truck. I know they weren't the smartest purchases, but we're fixing it now. I do have 10,000 in student loans, but my grandmother is actually going to pay that off this week for me. So it was a huge gift. Yeah, I know. I'm so grateful.

What else? Well, my mortgage as well. Okay, but you just have the car loan and the truck loan. Correct. So how about this? If we're gonna talk about, I don't wanna miss out on investing, why don't you just sell the truck and the car today and invest the payment you were making?

So that is something we talked about. When I looked at the different debt snowballs, just to look at all of our options, we're newer to Ramsey. Awesome. If we pause my retirement and my husband's retirement, that opens up another $1,000 in our debt snowball. Ding ding. Which is already at $1550.

So really that debt snowball is $2550. My car would be paid off November of 2025. The truck would be paid off by August of 2026, worst case scenario. Okay. So we're not talking about a long time if you paused investing. No, not at all. You're talking about a little over a year.

Correct. Okay. So you're talking about essentially your match, whatever you're investing now, that thousand bucks a month that you guys were investing, so 12 grand a year, essentially, you'd miss out on 12 grand of compound growth in your accounts. But how much are you investing right now? What percentage of your income?

So mine is about eight. My husband's is about, it's either six or eight, I can't remember, but I'm not vested. I wouldn't be vested until after we paid off both of the cars anyway. Okay. My husband's vested up to about 4%. Here's the good news. You guys are gonna double your investing rate. And so missing out on the thousand bucks a month is not gonna make a dent when you guys are doubling that

for the rest of your life from 32 to 65. And if you wanna talk about what you're missing out on, you're paying off the next two years depreciating assets. That's what you're trading. And if I'm your shoes, if you want to get to investing that bad, sell the car, sell the truck, buy something reasonable in cash. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Alright, so I was born and raised in Texas and I love the myth of the lone cowboy. You know, the guy who doesn't need anyone or anything. It's a fun story and it's a lie.

In our self-obsessed society, we're obsessed about our own diets, our own workout routines, our own jobs, our own social media feeds, everything. It's easy to forget that no one can do life alone. And I don't care if you're an introvert, an extrovert, or whatever you want to call yourself, we all have to have a community and a support system to do life with. It's time to shift the focus from doing it all by ourselves to knowing that we can only be well and whole when we ask for help. Therapy can be a great source of help and support for any area of your life. And if you're thinking about starting therapy, try BetterHelp. BetterHelp is a hundred percent online therapy

so it can fit with your schedule. To get started, just fill out a short online survey to get matched with a licensed therapist. If it's not the right fit, you can switch therapists at any time for no extra cost. This month, start to build your support system with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash deloney to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp.com slash deloney. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. Christina is up next in Raleigh, North Carolina. Christina, welcome to the show.

How can we help? Hi, Dr. John and Mr. George. How are you guys today? So good. What's going on with you? Yes. To keep it quick, I am stuck in an auto loan that I'm trying to get rid of. I'm 25 years old. I really want to be debt free in

the next couple of years and I just don't know what to do. We'll get to that. I have no financial literacy, no financial strong background. I was silly for getting involved with this car now that I found you guys a few months ago and I realized how silly I've been with my money and I just wanna be better. I really just wanna be better. Hey Christina, can we tell you, George and I have both been there and we're so proud of you, dude.

Welcome to the cult. And to learn this at 25 is such a gift. So don't feel like it's too late. You're right where you need to be. Awesome. Welcome to the gang, dude. We'll help with it all. We'll help you with the financial literacy. we'll help you get out of this debt,

and you are the solution. And the fact that you're calling tells me you know that now. So how much debt do you have? I have $88,102. I like the exact numbers here. Now, you said you have an auto loan. How much is that out of the 88? So I actually have two auto loans one was repossessed and that was 24,000 800 I'm sorry 24,000 800 yes, and then the one that I currently have on my recredit report it says 24,000 102 but on the actual statement balance in my account it says

22,000 142 dollars that I still owe. I don't know the difference in that. Okay. So you have 20, almost 25 on one, 22 on the other. That's 47. What's the other 41? So I have $37,809 on student loans, and then collections, $1,170, and then credit cards is $671. Okay. We can do this. How much do you make? Last year, based off the taxes, I made $31,000. I do have another job, and so I calculated that I'd make about $52,000 if I remained how I am this coming year. Okay, what's your degree in?

I have an associate's in criminal justice technology and I'm currently pursuing a bachelor's in forensic psychology and I'll graduate next spring. What are you gonna do with that job? So my main goal is to be a youth advocate. So right now I just applied for a state position to be a juvenile officer slash counselor. I'll come in making about 40 based off of my current experience in education. When I graduate, that bumps me up the closer to the 50,000 range.

But you're making more than that now. Yes, but I do have to cut back necessarily on the hours given that I do do work in my ministry. And so, what I'm finding is that I'm a little too busy for God, and I really want him to be my focus, but I also just want to be debt-free. So, I don't know how the balance works with that. Well, the balance is ministry is a luxury when you're broke. Yeah.

Yeah. Or more importantly, ministry, you made a bunch of decisions for the last four or five years that are going to prohibit you from doing what you want to do or really feel called to do. If you don't owe anybody anything and you want to go live a life of poverty in order to serve the least of these, I'm all about that all day, every day. But you made decisions beforehand now and you've set yourself up to where you don't get to decide what you do next, you don't get to decide to follow God's call,

you got to pay the bankers back. You get what I'm saying? Yes, sir. And so it's a bummer and I'm heartbroken for you. And I've met students like you who are so, their hearts are bigger than the state of taxes and we need more people like you. And that's why I really want you to buckle down for the next two years and get all this madness out of your life so you can go do what I think you're called to do, which is just sit with hurting people and help them improve their life, right? Yes, sir.

All right. Are you in? Yes, sir. All right, because here's what's going to happen. You're going to get this forensic psychology degree and in your last semester, everybody around you is gonna start talking about going to grad school. And then you're gonna have a teacher who brings you in. They're like, hey, we see something special in you.

We want you to go to grad school. And it's only $85,000 to get a master's in social work. And you'll make a bajillion dollars more. Yeah, and you'll make 60,000 instead, right? And so you're gonna have to hold the line for the next two years. Okay? Yes, sir. You in? Yes, sir. Okay. All right. Awesome. Now the main thing we need to get out of is this car

You said you're stuck in it. What does that mean? Why can't you sell it? Okay, so um, I've been listening to you guys for a few months so I try to do the steps like googling like Kelly blue book and so my car is worth 8,400. And when I called my bank, so I just got my tax refund and I use a lump sum of that to catch up on my payment. And when I looked at my statement, I noticed that the money didn't move.

So I called them personally and they said, well, every day that you're late, it's interest added. And my interest is already 23%. And yeah, I'm not lying. So what was the original loan you took out for this car? It was originally, I believe, the 24,000. Okay, and you're telling me the car is only worth $8,000 now? Yes, sir.

Why? Is that private party value? No, because you had a repo on there and so you had to go to a shark to get a new card. Did you roll a bunch of negative equity into this? Well, the repo, I didn't have anything. I kind of just went in and my brother helped me co-sign, and we just got that card straight out from the beginning. So the repossession had nothing to do with this card per se.

I mean, it hurt my credit, hence me needing my brother, but. Yeah, but why would a car depreciate that much in value in that short of a time? I don't understand how it's only worth a grand. I have no idea. I did ever, I put in my VIN number direct so that way they can go pull up the whole entire history. And you did private party value, not trade in? Yes, sir.

Did you go to a local Toyota dealership or did you go to like Bob's Auto Lot? Like Tote the Note, no credit needed? Yes. Oh no, it was in a buy here, pay here kind of situation. It was like a regular car dealership, but they help people that aren't like financially there. So it wasn't like the main brand.

Yeah, they don't help you, they prey on you. Gigantic quotes around help. Yeah. They sold you a car for three times what it was worth. Yeah. And they prey on people who are desperate for a vehicle. Yeah. I'm sorry they did that to you.

It's wrong and it's unethical and I hate that for you. And your name's on the note. And then you still owe the 25 grand on the repo with no asset to show for it. Yes, sir. And I try to contact the company, but they continue to send me to another line that just cuts out. And so I try to talk to management and all that, but they, no one gave me direct answer of how I can start doing monthly pay so I can get that down or get that out. So I don't even know how to do-

Have you been sued yet for it? No, sir. I did get a letter in the mail saying that they did sell it. Okay. And that- What's the difference you owe? I think it was still like 20 because it was a totaled vehicle that they were repossessed.

So it wasn't that much of a difference. But on my credit report it still shows a full 24 loan. Well what happens usually is they repo your car and let's say it's worth 20 and they'll go sell it for 10 and you're responsible for that gap. That's why I'm confused why this amount is so high. If they had sold the car. The only way is if you bought a $50,000 car and they sold it for 25 at auction

just to get it off their hands. You know the difference. You know the difference. Mm-hmm. So you need to do some homework and find out what that car actually sold for and verify this. Otherwise you dispute it and get it off your credit report.

Yeah. Until somebody will be honest with you, I would dispute it. You can send a letter to your credit report saying I'm disputing this charge because it's not factual. And they'll have to prove the debt. Yeah, they've got to prove, they've got to show a bill of sale

for what they sold that car for, and then you're responsible for the difference. Yes. But let's pretend in this scenario, you owe all the money. All 88 is owed, there's no way to get out of this. You're gonna need to go increase your income by about double. Cause here's the deal,

I want you debt free in two years, would you agree? Yes sir, that's my plan too. That means you need to throw 44,000 of this debt every single year. Okay. That looks like close to four grand a month you need to be throwing at this debt. You're not even making four grand a month right now.

Do you see the gap in the math? Yes sir. So we need to get your expenses down as low as possible to where you're just able to survive, but we're not doing anything else. I don't care if you have three roommates and four jobs, I would rather see you debt-free in two years than hang on to this debt for the next decade.

And so it's gonna be a lot of hard work, Christina. I hope the financial literacy helps. I'm gonna send you my book, Breaking Free from Broke. It's gonna come with three months of every dollar premium to help you with budgeting and making every dollar count. And that's what you need to do for the next two, three years while you fight these debts. We're also gonna send you Financial Peace University,

so give you a step-by-step plan that will help you out as well. We're on your team. You call us anytime. Welcome to the gang. We're gonna get you cleared up, okay? That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. Thank you to all the folks in the booth, to my co-host, Dr. John Deloney, and to the gang. We're gonna get you cleared up, okay? That puts this hour of the Ramsey show in the books. Thank you to all the folks in the booth,

to my cohost, Dr. John Delaney, and you America, we'll be back before you know it. Rachel, do you ever get these sketchy text messages that are like, hey, you need to update your address and verify so we can get you the package you didn't order? Yes, I have, George. Sketchy and never trust them. And that's why we recommend Delete Me.

They help with that. Yeah, they do. Delete Me actually goes in and removes your information from data broker websites. And it is an incredible service that everyone needs. And there's a lot of shady companies out there that solely exist to sell your personal data to bad guys. And that means your info, like your email address,

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Ramsey fans get 20% off their annual plans. Just go to joinedeleteeme.com slash Ramsey. That comes out to less than nine bucks a month. Super affordable. It's amazing. So again, that's joindeleteme.com slash Ramsey. Make sure to check it out, you guys. From the Ramsey Network, this is The Ramsey Show,

where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create amazing relationships. I'm George Campbell, joined by number one bestselling author, Dr. John Delaney, and we're taking your calls at triple eight eight two five five Two two five Marlis is in Seattle, Washington to kick us off this hour. What's going on Marlis? Hey there Well, I've got a bit of a it's a bit of a financial a bit of a personal question

my husband and I entered into our marriage in 2017 and each came into our marriage with separate assets and I had a greater net worth than he did and we did sign a prenup that said that our separate assets would remain separate. After our marriage, we moved into my home, which I can own separately and it's been our primary residence since, and it has greatly increased in value. And he's recently requested, um, an amendment to our prenup that gives him an equitable stake in my home.

Um, which is at this time, my greatest asset and, uh, has without, you know, splitting hairs, basically said he's not going to contribute to housing costs anymore, cost of living here, as long as I'm not contributing any portion of the equity over to him. And so I'm kind of at a loss as, as what to do financially as I still have the greater net worth. And I don't know what other married persons do in this kind of situation where he's not, I don't feel that he's completely out of line since we are married and we do reside here, but we had an agreement and now he's feeling differently about it. So, he's throwing a grown-up temper tantrum.

He's throwing an absolute grown-up temper tantrum. He's throwing an absolute grown-up temper tantrum. He's being a child. I'm going to take my ball and go home if you don't do what I say. That's not how marriages work. Marriages celebrate each other when two people are, let's take the home equity off the table. I'm a writer, part of my job at Ramsey's a writer, my wife also writes. She writes historical fiction. It's never gonna sell. There's not a market that would be the same as one of a book on anxiety, right? When my book does really well, she cheers for her husband.

And in her world, her book did pretty good. It did really good. And I celebrated her. I didn't demand, hey, by the way, you sold more than we thought, so you owe me a piece. That's not how that works. I can't imagine this happening. There's not other things going on in your marriage. There's not other things going on in your marriage.

There's truly not. It really boils down to just this one financial issue. We have three kids together. Other than this, we're mostly happily married, other than, you know, trivial things here and there. When this got brought up, I was a bit blindsided by it, to be honest. Do you have a mortgage? I do, yeah. And you guys be honest. Do you have a mortgage? I do, yeah. And you guys, how do you guys cover the mortgage? The mortgage is $41.50 a month and he contributes $1,600 of that. So I still pay the greater share. But he has no stake in this house.

He doesn't, no, it's just was more when we, when we initially moved in together, he was paying X amount in rent somewhere else, right? And we decided to cohabitate shortly before our marriage. And he brought that money that he was paying in rent over as a contribution to this house. But essentially he's renting a house from his wife. Yeah.

So I'm trying to play devil's advocate to see his side and I'm going, yeah, I think I'd be a little bit ticked if I was paying my wife rent, but I have no stake in the equity of this house. It's not in my name. It's not part of my wealth building journey. I wanna go buy my own house and build some wealth then. Do you see his side?

I do, I do. And that's actually the exact phrasing that he uses. And I do see that, but I also see it as no matter where you live, you're going to pay for housing unless you own it free and clear. You're going to pay for housing no matter where you live. So I do understand that. But he does own his separate real estate. So he brought a piece of property. And he's renting it out. He owns separately. He's renting it

out. In addition, I assisted him in buying a property in 2021. So it's an additional investment property. What do you mean assisted? I'm on it with husband. I'm I used my income and credit to help bolster the deal. If he tried to buy it by himself when he already had the other property, he wouldn't have been able to purchase it. I get none of it. It's against my credit, but I don't get any of it. And it is a net positive property. You guys have created a real complicated financial situation.

So y'all came in and y'all said, hey, have both of y'all been through divorces where y'all got burned? I have not been married and I haven't been burned. But I've been through a difficult separation where someone tried to, again, take advantage of me financially just because we were together for so long. Okay, so here's the deal.

Y'all signed a prenup that says, hey, what I'm coming into this marriage with, I'm gonna keep, what you're coming into this marriage, you're gonna keep, okay? And it specifically stated it didn't stop us from ever having joint property together in the future, just mine is mine, entering with his is his. Yeah, but you don't own the house free and clear,

and so therefore I would say in that prenup Here's the equity that I came in with now every equity dollar that we build together You're gonna have a stake in that would be more fair to him. Don't you think I? Think that's a great suggestion. So I think there's a compromise here. That's what I was hoping from in this call Yeah, let me I want to go one step deeper though I'm telling you right now as somebody who works with married couples, your language is unnerving to me. And here's why.

Y'all are not building a thing together. You're talking as business partners. In fact, you're not even talking as business partners do, because business partners even talk about hours. You're talking about my income and his income. His house and my house. My house and his house, and he pays for my house. That kind of language, I'm going to revise what I said.

I don't think he's being a child. I think he's realizing how completely exposed he is. And like George said, he's paying rent to his wife. Y'all need to share a single checking account and y'all pay for the mortgage every month. And- Yeah, we don't, we file taxes separately. We, he has a business, he files that separately.

I don't see anything with it. We have separate checking accounts. Everything is separate. Why did you guys get married? It seems like you want to keep your lives separate. No, no we're great friends. We enjoy doing everything together. We enjoy our family together, our off time together. We enjoy each other but financially I think it and it may have been more me because I have had someone try to take advantage of me financially

But I really try to protect my finances And so I think he's calling that out The data tells me that couples that share a checking account build wealth greater wealth over time Period it also shows that couples that share a checking account Quote-unquote may be more exposed, but that's marriage. It's both of us with both feet in the same boat. And the reality is when you marry somebody, they can hurt you and they choose every day to love you.

And that's the way this thing works. And so if there's great wealth inequality when someone's getting married, then I'm okay with a prenup. And I've even come around with some different ideas on a prenup, that's for a whole nother call. But I'm telling you right now, you guys have got to begin to be on the same page

and sharing money and filing jointly together. Otherwise you're just great business partners who share a house. together. Otherwise, you're just great business partners who share a house. What does the future hold for business? Ask nine experts and you'll get 10 different answers. Economic growth or a recession. Business taxes will go up or down. AI will help us work or it will replace us all. But there's no such thing as a crystal ball. That's why more than 40,000 businesses have future-proofed themselves with NetSuite by Oracle, the number one cloud enterprise resource planning system. Ramsey Solutions uses NetSuite and you should too. Whether your company's

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Eric is in Atlanta, Georgia coming up next. What's going on, Eric? How you guys doing today? Doing great. How can we help? daughter purchased a home, it was probably last year, with the understanding that in three years she would leave the house to me and her mom, once she's got a new position on her job. Well, it come up a little sooner than we thought. So she's wanting to leave the house to meet me and her mom, but we can't afford the, for the mortgage. So she was wanting to put 50 to $70,000 down on the house and get the mortgage lower so we could afford it.

But she was told since she has a FHA loan that she could not put that much down and get the payments lower. So her next option would be to sell the home and to give us the 50 to 70 thousand to put down on us a home, but our credit is not up to par yet. Well, what do you suggest? It sounds like you guys can't afford to live there. Why doesn't she just sell it

and you guys go live somewhere you can afford? That's what we was thinking. Yeah, I don't see, it sounds like this deal sounded nice and now reality is hit and the math is she's gonna gift you $70,000 to prop up your life in this house? Yes. But why would she just gift you $70,000?

Just out of generosity? Yes, yes. Is she unbelievably wealthy? She makes pretty good money. She's not there where she wanna be yet, but she makes pretty good money. She's not there where she want to be yet, but she makes pretty good money. But where is she going to go? She was going, she's moving, moving, moving out of state and she was going to rent an apartment. But doesn't that cripple her ability to buy a house in the future if If she gives up $70,000, that would have been a down payment?

Yes. I just, yeah, I don't see a world where this works out or she's not resentful or doesn't hurt her financial future. I would rather you guys live where you can afford to live. What is your rent right now? The mortgage is like 2700. Where you're at right now? Yes. Okay.

And what's her mortgage? Well, no. We all stand there together. Oh, you live there. She was going to leave. Yes, yes. Oh, okay. We all live there together.

So she sells, you got to move out and live somewhere. Right. What's your household income? We probably make 68,000. Okay. So could you find a place to live that's, let's say 1500 a month? Yeah, we could.

I mean, it'd be a stretch, but yeah, I think we could. I'll tell you what's a stretch, becoming a homeowner when you're broke and can't afford the property taxes, the insurance, the maintenance, the rising costs of all of that over time, plus the mortgage, that's tough. Right, that's what we was thinking as well. Because here's the thing, Eric,

I don't want you calling back a year from now and you go, man, we can't afford this house. We got into it with my daughter trying to front some money to get the mortgage lower, but it's just too expensive for us and now we're stuck with it, what do we do? That's the future. Right.

Do you guys have any money right now saved up? No, we don't. Do you have any debt? No, we have probably 15,000 in debt. Okay. For the car, just another car. I would focus on getting a financial foundation for yourselves by getting rid of the debt, getting a fully funded emergency fund in place of three to six months of expenses, and then

begin saving up a down payment to where you can do this on your own independently instead of relying on your daughter to help fund this while you guys are still in a bad financial situation. Right. So I think we have to have a hard conversation that this dream is no longer a reality and that she needs to just go ahead and sell the house, take whatever profit she gets and roll that into a future house. Okay, that's what we've been thinking as well. I'm sorry, I know it's not the news you wanted to hear, but it's what I would do. If you were my dad, I'd have this hard conversation with you and say, dad, as much as I want you to be able to stay here, it's going to be too expensive for you guys to afford and I

don't want to put you guys in a financial bind in these kind of weird handcuffs. Right. Who was wanting this all to happen? Was it more on your daughter's side or was this your idea? Oh, it was her. Her idea. We had our own spot. Well, we had a town home.

We lived in the house and she was begging us to move in with her. She didn't want to stay there by herself and she was going to leave the house to us. We didn't, we thought long and hard about it and we just went on ahead and did it against our better judgment. But that's where we at now. If you wanted to keep it, the only way to do it would be like an assumption loan or a refinance.

But my guess is they're gonna say, hey, we can't grant you this. And even if they did, the bank will grant you way more than you can actually afford. They don't care. And so I think right now, the best thing to do is just to go find somewhere you can rent affordably, get rid of the debt, get the emergency fund,

and maybe a few years from now, we can revisit you guys buying your own place. Man, I hope that helps. That's what I used, thank you. That's a tough situation, Eric. Sydney is up next, joining us in Portland, Oregon. How can we help Sydney? Hi, I had a question regarding insurance. So my husband and I, we canceled our IUL plans

and we're planning to get term life insurance. Good. But we're wondering if you folks have or like recommend some type of insurance that covers like, if we get sick and we're unable to work or is that what disability is? Yeah, there's a few things. I mean, health insurance would cover you if you get sick,

but if you're talking about replacing income, you'd wanna look into long-term disability insurance. Okay. That's what we would recommend. And usually you can get it through your employer. John and I have that through Ramsey. It's very affordable through an employer because of the group plans,

but you can get it on your own. It'll likely be roughly one to 3% of your annual salary. And that will cover about 60 to 70% of your income. Okay. And then for short-term things, just an emergency fund would do the trick. Three to six months of expenses saved up would cover you for the short-term.

And so that you don't need to buy short-term disability insurance, just get the emergency fund in place. Do you guys have that right now or are you still getting out of debt? We're still in baby step. Yeah, we're still trying to get out of debt. Okay, how much longer to go?

We got a longer to go? We got a ways to go. Oh boy, is this like a five year? Is it 10 years, two years? Well, we have about $200,000 in debt. So we're making our way. What's your household income? We make 175 a year. Good, good, good.

Okay. Yeah, I would focus on- Yeah, we're all new to this, so we're, you know. Yeah. Well, that's great. You're asking really good questions and I'm glad you got rid of that index universal life policy.

It's one of the worst, most expensive products money can buy. And as you probably learned, it combines two things that should never be combined, insurance and investing. Yeah. Who sold it to you? Who hates you that much that they would sell you that policy? An old college friend?

Family. Oh no! Of course, of course. Hey, too bruté. Oh, that is awful. Of course. Man. How much were you paying for it? So my policy was around $400 and then my husband was around $300.

You guys are paying $700 a month for the pleasure. Yeah. What was the payout at the very, very end when they give you part of your own money back? Oh, I couldn't tell you. I know like if like the death or the death benefit or whatever was like a million dollars for mine and then 500. But what was the cash value? Like when you surrendered the policy, what do you end up

getting back? Oh, I couldn't tell you that. I don't know. Pennies probably. It sounds like you haven't had it very long, hopefully. We've had it for two years now. Okay. Just enough to be angry. But it was kind of something that just like is in the background, you know, like we just pay it every month and, you know, just don't worry about it. That's how the insurance salespeople like it.

Yes. Okay. Well, I'm glad you guys are getting term life. Like trying to get rid of it. Yeah. Have you got term life in place yet? No, but I know to go through Xander. That's the one. Xander.com. They'll get you hooked up. John and I know to go through Zander. That's the one. Zander.com, they'll get you hooked up. John and I have our policies through Zander.

You're going to be paying a fraction of the price. And with the money you're saving, the difference in premium, you can go get out of debt and be free and one day use that money to invest. This is the Ramsey Show. We get tons of calls from listeners like you who ask really good questions about real estate. So we built a single place on our website where you can find all the answers anytime. We call it our Real Estate Home Base. Everything you need to prepare to buy or sell a home with confidence.

So if you're ready to take the next steps toward your home goals, visit our Real Estate Home Base at ramsysolutions.com slash real estate. ramsysolutions.com slash real estate. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell here with Dr. John Delaney. The Ramsey Show question of the day is brought to you by Wirefy. With Wirefy, you can take control of your defaulted private student loans with a plan that works with your monthly budget.

Visit wirefy.com slash Ramsey to learn more. That's the letter Y, R-E-F-Y dot com slash Ramsey may not be available in all states. Oh, this is a good one for you, George. Today's question comes from Matthew in Rhode Island. All right, so cash is king, but in a digital world where paychecks are direct deposit and bills are paid online, how would you set up your accounts

to utilize the envelope system? When our budget was cash-based 20 years ago, it was much less stressful. Now banking is digital and I struggle to set up my accounts. I have a savings account, a checking account, we deposit everything into, a checking account where we transfer grocery and gas expenses to be paid from. Oh, here we go. Yeah. He's making this super complicated. And another account that everything left over from our first two checking accounts is transferred

to and all remaining bills are paid out of it. I feel like I'm over complicating the process. Matthew, my brother, I'm going to turn this over to George, but I have been there. I used to have a checking account for almost every bill. Like this is my electric bill account and dude, it was chaos. Yeah, that is wild. So the Envelope system is great for your bills that are more variable and in your control. So things like groceries, where you're like,

I don't wanna overspend, I can cash this out. But these days I do more digital style. So I have my every dollar budget, which I don't wanna overspend, I can cash this out. But these days I do more digital style. So I have my every dollar budget, which I don't know, there was no, it says when our budget was cash-based, but you're not mentioning anything about your budget now. So here's what, I'll tell you what my wife and I do. Maybe this will help simplify it for you. We have one joint checking account.

Me too. That's where everything, that's all of our spending money for the month, every bill gets paid, and we have one high yield savings account. Me too. That's where everything, that's all of our spending money for the month, every bill gets paid, and we have one high yield savings account. Me too. That's where we have the emergency fund. And if you wanna have another savings account for a short-term goal like vacation fund,

you can set up another savings account for that, auto transfer some money there. I would not have five checking accounts moving money around like some kind of weird shell game. And so how do you do the envelope system in that way? Well, use cash where you can and where you can't, check the budget. And so before you make the purchase,

go how much do we actually have left according to transactions that really happened in our every dollar budget? And if you have every dollar premium, this is easy because we track, you know, you track the transactions, but the bank statement will show up right there of what that transaction was.

And when either of you drag it over. If you spend it, you get a notification on your phone. It'll tell you, hey, somebody just bought something at Costco, somebody just bought something at the hardware store, whatever, and it keeps everybody on the same page. So the solution is track your transactions daily. Just once in a, you know, before you go to bed,

pull up the phone and see what transactions showed up from every dollar and track it to the right category. And you'll know, hey, we have a little money left. And with EveryDollar, there's a cool paycheck planning tool. So you can basically digitally fund your grocery bill. Let's say you have, let's do easy math, $500 a month for groceries. So EveryDollar can fund 125 bucks per week

in that line item. So you know, I have 125 bucks for groceries this week. When the next week happens, it's gonna fund another 125 in your budget so that you know how much you have left to spend that week. So that's a way that's been really helpful to me to set up my budget. I have my sinking funds in the budget.

I mark them as sinking funds. So I know I'm saving up for that long-term purchase, whether it's insurance, a vacation, whatever it is. So every dollar I think is the key to your problems and where you can use cash and utilize the envelope system method more physically, that's the way to do it because you're gonna feel more pain

and more friction with those purchases. And so Matthew, I hope you see this. If you do, reach out to me and I'll hook you up with every dollar on me and see if that helps with your situation. But I love the intentionality. Just took it a little overboard. Yeah, well, I mean, this was me. with every dollar on me and see if that helps with your situation. But I love the intentionality. Just took it a little overboard.

Yeah, well, I mean, this was me. I was trying to protect myself from myself. So it's like, all right, this is gonna be my grocery debit card. And when it's gone, it's gone. And this is gonna be my whatever bill's paying debit card. But I just made it so complicated. That's, every dollar's cool

because it's almost like a digital envelope. And I do think the paycheck planning tool will help him, because it sounds like he's trying to make sure that the bills are covered and that we don't run out of money. And so another factor that could help is having more buffer in the account. And the ultimate goal, if you can get to where all of your monthly bills

are in the account, let's say your monthly bills are $5,000, on March 1st, if you can have $5,000 sitting in that checking account, that really helps. And then whatever amount is over that, come next month, you can sweep the rest into savings and leave that five grand for next month. That's the simplest, most freeing way. I know that takes a while for people to get to, but having a buffer will definitely help

you. Great question. Brittany joins us up next in Wisconsin. What's going on, Brittany? Hi, John and George. It's crazy. It's so surreal to be talking to you right now. This is real life. Everyone says they're so nervous. I feel it now.

I get nervous just sitting next to John, so I get it. And George is smarter than me, so I feel nervous too. So we're all nervous together. Okay. So my question is, will a basic will, through mama bear legal forms, protect our children's custody and inheritance? And the reason why I ask this is because we would like separate people for custody and handling their inheritance. When you say custody, are you in a blended marriage? No, no.

Okay, so tell me what you mean by custody. You mean like who would get your kids in the event that you and your partner died? Yes, correct. Okay, that's the same, that's the will I used. So I had a really extensive, over the top, a state plan when I was in Texas. When I moved to Tennessee,

the attorney who wrote that for me was a colleague of mine at the law school. And he said, hey, by the way, this is only a good in Texas. So you gotta get a new will. And so right when I got to Nashville, that's the first thing I did. I didn't even work at Ramsey yet. And I went to Mama Bear Wills just in case my wife and I

died in a car wreck going to dinner. My two kids are sitting here in Nashville and they don't know anybody. That was the first thing I did. And since then I've gotten, I went and sat down with another attorney and had a more, a trust drawn up and all that kind of stuff. But yes, it will be, um, it w it, it would take care of you.

Yes. There's a, I don't know that we can fully answer it on in a five minute call, but the will will allow you to name a guardian for your children. But a court will still have to approve that guardian based on the children's best interest. And so there could be more to it there where you wanna look into something. You definitely need a will, but you might want something beyond that.

And again, the will will direct where your assets go, but it won't control how and when they're distributed. So if you're looking for something a lot more nuanced, then you could look into a trust later on where you set that up and you can lay out exactly what happens and when it happens versus a will just saying, here's who gets what. Here's who will take care of the kids. And so I think a will is a great start and you can talk to, you know, a state attorney

and go, hey, here's my situation. Does this require a trust? But mama bears, that's all I have right now. I just have a simple will through mama bear legal forms. I have a mirrored will, so my wife's will, we just swap all of the names, and that's as simple as it gets. And most people just need a basic will,

but I don't wanna assume based, I don't know all the intricacies of your inheritance and custody, it sounds complicated. Yeah, I think you're using the word custody, which I consider a legal term. I think you're using the word custody Which is which I consider a legal term I think you're considering that with guardianship like who where my kids gonna go live, right? Exactly. Okay. Yeah. No, that's simple enough then and then again inheritance is just well, here's who gets what yeah And so I think a simple will is all you need based on what you've told us so far

And mama bear walk you through all of that and you if you feel like, man, I just, I need some more. I need to get another opinion. You can look into a trust and work with an attorney at that level. But it sounds like you're on the right track. I'm glad you're looking into this. How old are you guys? We're 27 and 29.

Okay, let's do this today or tomorrow. Will you commit in front of America to do that? To do what? To get your will, to get online with Mom Bear and get a will. Oh yeah, for sure. I was already on the website shopping around, seeing what my options were. And by the way, you may have somebody in your life, the person who will do the asset distribution to make sure my guitars go where I want them to go and to

make sure my retirement gets signed over in the right place. I've got a very, like a 30-year friendship with a guy and he's one of my best friends on the planet. He's the executor there. My wife is the one who will make the medical power of attorney calls. And I want my wife, if I were to die, I want my wife to have the privilege of being really sad and not having to get in and figure out all the nuances of a 401k transfer. Right? So I actually have a different executor than I would. You can have an executor

for one and somebody else is going to make life or death decisions for you. So you can get in there and whatever is going to work for you and your family. And it's a good call, George. Each person has to have their own will. Right. Because who knows what's gonna happen. For couples is the option you want on the website. So go check it out for anyone listening.

If you don't have a will, let this be your wake up call. Go get a will. 100% chance you die. Go get a will. mamabarelegalforms.com is the place to go. It's the ones that we trust and recommend and use ourselves. This is the Ramsey Show. ["Ramsey Show Theme"]

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or if you're watching on YouTube or podcast, click the link in the description. All right, let's go out to Gail in Louisville, Kentucky up next, what's going on Gail? Hello? Hey. I could cry right now. Don't cry.

Or cry, I don't know either way, it's fine. We haven't even given you a bad answer yet. It's fine. Is it happy tears? Yeah, we may give you terrible advice, then you can cry, that don't think they're giving you a bad answer yet. It's fine. Is it happy tears? Yeah, we may give you terrible advice and you can cry. That'll be fair. What's up? How can we love you?

Oh my goodness. So long story short, try to make this as quick as possible and our time is limited. But having said that, I'm on my third marriage, been together or been married for almost 10 years. Um, my husband's second marriage, we both got burned really bad financially,

really, really bad. Um, having said that, so when we got near, we had a financial conversation. What does your financial picture look like personally? What does mine look like? We had that conversation. Everything was great. Um, you know, what are we going to do? What does this look like? You know, as we're progressing in our relationship, um, moving forward having said that, you know, we opened a joint checking account, of course, and then he contributes money to it. I contribute money to it. You know, we pay all of our household expenses out of that.

He has his personal accounts and then I have my personal accounts. I'm following the baby steps. I've got 2000 in savings right now. My vehicle will be paid off this year. And then I am attacking some credit cards that I've got. Um, personally, which is great. I feel really good about this. Um, I've been putting in, I don't know, last two months, 70 to 80 hours a week to make sure I'm making enough money to take care of these things. Um,

so how can we help you? Sound like you're doing, well, yeah, my question is, is that I have had, you know, my husband keeps and he makes probably 15, $20,000 more a year than I do. And he's got a lot less bills and he's constantly screaming about money. And I'm asking him what is the problem? What is the problem? I don't understand why you're so upset all the time about money. After we got married, I had health issues.

I'm a diabetic. My father died right before we got married and he had health issues. I'm a diabetic. My father died right before we got married and he had a bunch of insulin left over, which is the exact same insulin that I took. So I didn't have to buy insulin for a while. I didn't have health insurance. So it cost me about $800 a month for insulin. Okay. Let me, let me, let me stop right here. This is your third marriage. This is his second and I'm telling you right now because I love you not cuz I'm This is no judgment. This is me. Just pulling up a seat at the restaurant. Okay. Yeah

You're on a trajectory that this is you're gonna end this one and he's gonna end his second one and here's why y'all still have not come together and and here's why. Y'all still have not come together and you're giving your the people who hurt you in the past you're letting them still sit at y'all's dining room table when you only dinner together every night because you have your money, your bills, your debt, your medical expenses. Let me tell you right now my wife if she has an $800 a month medical situation, we have an $800 a month bill. Yeah. Because both feet are in the boat. Both of our feet are in the same boat. My guess is your husband is walking around,

he doesn't feel connected, he doesn't feel a hole in his life, and he's just trying to find something to be mad at, and he's picking money. And so I love that y'all have that joint checking account, that's awesome. I want you to consider what George and I do, which is we only have one account. We don't have a joint checking account with our wives, and then side accounts where we like it all goes in the pot and if if we if you got a problem we got a problem. We got a problem yeah. And right now he's just doing his thing you're doing yours and you said you communicated about money you can look at reality all day long but no one is actually agreeing to change it. Yeah you gotta do the next right thing. Is he refusing to do this or have y'all even not put that on the table? They told me. I'm sorry. No,

you're okay. You're okay. He told me after we got married because where I worked I didn't have health insurance and I couldn't afford it at that time. I mean it was probably just, but anyway, and, and um, he told me, I said, thank you so much. Thank you so much for everything you're doing. Is he not willing to pay? He wasn't willing to help you? Well, no, that's the thing is, you know, I just don't really know.

Okay. But I said thank you so much. Now I've got insurance and I won't have to pay $800,000 a month for my insurance. Because now we've got insurance and he said, well listen, don't you go crazy going to the doctor because I can't afford that. And so listen, we're elephants and we hold those things, you know? I know, I know, I know. And that hurt.

That hurt. But still, you know, it hurt terribly and I said, well guess what? And I started crying and I said, you know what? You're not going to have to pay for a dime. No, yeah I know. Two wrongs don't make a right on that deal. And he said something he probably shouldn't have said, or that I know he shouldn't have said. And that triggered stuff that you've heard from previous two marriages in any number of

other years you've been on this planet and you responded by saying I'm gonna take my ball I'm gonna go home then yeah and now you got two people who are co-living in the same house and here's what I want for you and for him I want y'all to be married or die, both of us on the same roller coaster, ups and downs, and when you got a problem, we got a problem. And when you got a bill, we got a bill. And here's the deal, the research tells me when you put both feet in the boat, both of you do, that over time couples who are married well,

their net worth collectively goes up exponentially, like compound interest in a wild way. That's why those of us in our society who are, I mean, you go look at the richest of the rich, they keep getting married. Right? It's to their best interest. And I know that's hard to do in the situation. So I think the best move is a hard

I always recommend people when they have a hard conversation use an I statement like a couple of years ago when we first got married I got my feelings hurt and I Said then you're never gonna help me again. I'm not gonna accept your help and I was wrong and I'm sorry Then hopefully he says, I shouldn't have said that too, right? But we're gonna sit down and say, okay, we've both are healing from our past. And now let's both go all in.

How bad is it for your financial situation? How bad is it for mine? I'm gonna send you Financial Peace University, the course, the digital course for free, the nine lessons, you and your husband can watch them together and y'all can decide, hey let's get on the same page. I don't ever want to see you, my husband, my one love, that you all stressed about money all the time. And hopefully he looks at you

and says I don't want you worrying about your health all the time and we're gonna be in this thing together. Is this terrifying and scary? Yes. Can he look at you in the eye and say I'm not doing any of this? Yes. And you're gonna have to deal with that reality, which is another layer here. But let's see what happens if both of y'all say, I'm all in if you're all in. Game on. Hang on the line. We'll get you hooked up with Financial Peace University as our gift. We're rooting for you. You call us anytime. Thanks for the call, Gale. That puts this hour of the Ramsey show in the books. Hey, you're still here?

What are you doing? You do know that the rest of today's show is playing right now over on the Ramsey Network app, right? All you gotta do to finish the episode is search Ramsey Network in the App Store, Google Play Store, or just click the link in the show notes to download the app for free. Yep, you heard me right, for free. Then right there on the home screen, you can watch the rest of today's show. Ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom.

All right, I'm getting out of here. Enjoy, we'll see you on the app.