The Ramsey Show - Make Decisions Based on Guidelines, Not Headlines

Episode Date: March 11, 2025

📈 Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a Free Personalized Plan Ken Coleman & George Kamel answer your questions and discuss: "My wife has been hiding credit cards from me," "I signed up a loan not realizing that the interest is 48%..." "Can I afford to buy a home?" "We make $130k and still overspend," "My company is getting hit hard by the tariffs," "My mother added me to her credit card. I've removed myself but what how do I get it off my credit report?" "I've fallen into the personal loan trap and I can't get out!" 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! 🏠 Get organized and prepared to buy or sell a home.  ☂️ Get trusted insurance coverage that fits your budget. 📖 Preorder Build a business You Love today. 💵 Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app! 🎟️ Get Tickets to the Money & Relationships Tour 🏘️ Find a Ramsey Trusted Real Estate Agent 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

Hey guys, Dave Ramsey here. Me and Dr. John Delaney are coming to a city near you on the Money and Relationships Tour. It's happening soon, so don't wait. Get your tickets at ramsysolutions.com slash tour. This is the Ramsey Show where America hangs out to have a conversation about your money, your profession, and your relationships. The phone number to jump in is 888-825-5225. I'm Ken Coleman joined by my pal the Natalie attire George camel ladies Wow all I could think of was your profession is Ken's obsession I think it's a good tagline I like that that's a great call I want to help you make more money I'm

the work expert if you're new to the Ramsey world and that's what they say anyway I don't like actually calling myself an expert but I'll tell you what I can do. I'm going to help you figure out how to make more money in your work so that George can help you with the budget. What do you do with that money? Paying all debt, investing and that's the one-two punch today. And we also think we're kind of funny. We try. We try to make this show enjoyable when we're together. We're gonna give you the same advice, but we're gonna have a little fun. So if you don't like that, I'm sorry, there's nothing you can do about it. That's Ken's way of saying kick rocks and pound sand if you don't like that. That's exactly right. Speaking of helping people, you ready to go? Let's go. Let's go to Zachary in Omaha, Nebraska. Zachary,

how can we help today? Well, long story short, we just found the Ramsey show here about a week ago. Wow. Congratulations and welcome. Trying to get out of debt. And as we were sitting down and going through, getting our debt listed smallest to biggest, to start the baby steps, I had found some debt

that wife's been hiding from me over and over again credit cards mainly how much and she is well we have one maxed out credit card for about a thousand dollars and the biggest disappointment is is it's actually maxed out on McDonald's because it was connected to her app and we had gotten rid of paid this credit card off twice since you thought we had gotten rid of it she told me she had closed it out and that's a whole lot of combo meals yeah was this was there's a lot going on here was she sneakily going behind her back to McDonald's yeah and not telling you say just, he works really early in the morning.

And just stopping and getting Bethesda, Brito's and stuff. It's easier to pay on the app, skip the line, head to work. And it just got out of control. Okay, so you thought it was coming out of the debit account. I mean, excuse me, your debit card or your bank account, and it was actually on a credit card. So was this malicious that she knew that it was not tied to the cards that you were aware of?

No, I was aware of the card, but I thought it was closed out, but she just says that out of habit, being that we're still connected, there was that line of credit there. She has very big problem with spending. And recently, because of this, we've had and we talked to any of the side of that i am going to take over the financial side with bills and stuff

okay currently she paid her that paid mine and i am taking over and then we've got a budget that where we put money in savings we started all this and then we've got without without mortgage, $16,000 now with that credit card, with our joint credit card, some medical bills and a 401k loan. What's your combined income? Combined income is about $1,900 bi-weekly. We each make about $44,000 a year. So, what's your question for us?

I'm a math and numbers guy. How can I go about this to include her, to help her with taking over the finances? I want to be able to include her and hopefully maybe show her the numbers and the best way to go about it, taking on all the finances, but yet help her so she can eventually, hopefully control money a lot better by herself. Well, I think number one, we have to realize that this is not a, you know, you're not the chaperone here. You are as guilty of making a lot of stupid decisions as we all are. So I think this needs to- Oh, absolutely.

You lead first by going, hey, I have not done a good job handling money. I haven't done a good job leading us in this area. I want to work together on this. Here's what that's going to look like. Do you agree? We're going to meet weekly for a budget meeting. We're going to track every transaction.

There's going to be nothing hidden. Everything's got to be on the table if this is going to work. Are you in? Do you feel the unity and teamwork in that conversation versus a, well, I'm taking over because clearly you can't be responsible for, you know, very different condescending tone on that second one.

Yes. And so if you wanna get her on board, it's gonna start with you leading with empathy and creating a vision for what this is going to look like. And then her agreeing, yes, I agree to that. Great, now we can actually set some accountability based on what we agreed to in the past. Which means we have cut up all credit cards.

Have all credit cards been cut up and closed? Hers, yes, mine, no, not yet. And why is that? Just haven't done it, I guess. It is definitely something I wanna do. I wanna get rid of it. If I'm the wife and I see you still with your credit cards open, I'm going,

whoa, whoa, whoa, butter. Like, how are you gonna be over here telling me how it's gonna go, but you won't even cut up your own cards? Yeah, Zachary, if I might, and I don't want you to feel attacked at all, but I just am getting a sense that there's a real reason why you haven't done it for your own cards yet.

What is it? Because when you paused, I've just done this enough. I got the 10,000 dollars. What's going on? There's a reason. Right now, the way I use my credit card, right or wrong, I mean, I have all my auto pays come off of it because they were living paycheck to paycheck. There it is. And my goal is to have money in

the account so that we don't have to do that. Gotcha. And okay so let's own that. So let's own that. So when George asked you, you were like I don't know. No you know exactly why you haven't done it and you haven't fully submitted to the idea of a budget and actually every dollar being, that's why we call our budgeting app Every Dollar. You haven't submitted to that. You need to download it.

In fact, you know what? We'll do you one. What can we give him, George? Let's give him Every Dollar Premium for a whole year. So you guys, it'll be- We're gonna get you started. It'll connect to your bank account. Here's what you're gonna do.

Cut up the cards and you can set up auto pay on your debit card. Yeah. So that's gonna be a little bit of homework for you to do and she can sit there and you can walk her through it. So she has total awareness about here, here's where all the bills are, here's how I pay them. Bring her into it instead of saying,

hey, I'm gonna handle it, you step away. Let her be a part of it. And in that process say, hey babe, here's the deal. In me leading us now and doing this, like we're not using credit cards. So if we don't have it budgeted for Mickey D's, you know, burritos and hush, what do you call them? Hash browns? Hash browns, yeah. Almost said hush puppy. I got seafood on the mind. But like babe, there is no wiggle room on this. Do you understand?

Like, I'm not trying to control you. Like, we're in this together. And so if we budget $50 a month for McDonald's, that's it. And I don't know how far that'll get you. Well, I feel like maybe we gotta start eating at home and cooking together as a family. Well, no, I knew you were gonna say that. While we're in debt.

I'm the fuddy duddy. Well, no, I'm just trying to teach a little bit. Here you come over the top of the rule. I got all fired up. Go ahead, scream at him. You're not gonna see the inside of a restaurant until when. Well, Zachary, I just think if there's a commitment that we're both not gonna eat out, it changes the game.

And so then there becomes an inherent accountability. And so if you guys get on that budget every single week, sit down, track your transactions against your one checking account that is shared That's going to create some momentum for your money and for your marriage I think this communication is only gonna help the marriage. I think so too Zachary love love that You just joined us a week ago. Hang on the line. We're gonna get you taken care of with every dollar You guys can do this

Love that you two want to work on it sounds like there's some harmony here early on and that's all it takes to work. All right, real quick before we go to the break, if you're going to cheat at McDonald's, what's the one item you get? Because you're Mr. Budget. It's on the dollar menu for sure. I'm going value man, you can. I got you paying for a cheeseburger. You just want to bring back the snack wrap. Yeah. All right. I think it's fries for me. This is the Ramsey Show. All right, I think it's fries for me. This is The Ramsey Show. What does the future hold for business? Ask nine experts and you'll get ten 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 earning millions or even hundreds of millions, NetSuite helps you respond to immediate challenges and seize your biggest opportunities. With one unified business management suite, there's only one source of truth for the visibility and control you need to make quick decisions. NetSuite's real-time insights and forecasting help you see into the future with actionable data and when you're closing the books in days not weeks you can spend less time looking backward and more time focusing on what's next and speaking of what's

next download the CFO's guide to AI and machine learning at netsuite.com slash Ramsey it's free at netsuite.com slash Ramsey. It's free at netsuite.com slash Ramsey. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. Thrilled to have you with us America. 828-825-5225 is the phone number. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell is alongside. Karen is up next in San Antonio, Texasas care and how can we help hi you guys sure appreciate you and taking my call today you know uh... i am and i don't get the fact that i'm on the way out by uh... sixty six i have a small business that's kind of struggling and

recently had heart surgery eccentric center no kids, no family, two dogs, two dogs, little social security of some from my business and credit cards. I managed to get into a situation, I borrowed money from a personal loan, an online personal loan company, nationally advertised, all that kind of good stuff. Went through the whole process because I wanted to pay off some debt, to get rid of my credit card and to invest in a vehicle for my mobile salon. And managed to find out that the interest rate is somewhere around 48%.

Oh my goodness. And it's front loaded. I mean, I heard the 48%, but I thought, that's no big deal because I'm gonna pay this off like very quickly. And so I didn't pay attention enough to hear that it's front loaded. So the amount of money that I borrowed.

Most of your payments are going to interest essentially, not touching the principal. Absolutely. How much was the loan for? Half and half is what it is. I ran a thing this morning. Half and half is going to principal. How much was the loan? For $29,000.

And how soon were you planning to pay that off when you just stared 48% and went, ah, no big deal? How quickly were you planning to pay that off? Those were your words. Within a year, within a year. So you were okay with a 48% for a year? I've never heard anybody say that before. That's an extra 15 grand in interest alone.

Yeah, well, like I said, you know, I'm kind of ridiculously stupid at this particular point. Yeah, no, I mean- I'm'm here to bash you. I'm trying to understand the desperation that led you to this. Yeah, that's what I mean. Is this for your business? Yes. What's your business? It's dog grooming. Why did you need $29,000 for a dog grooming business that's struggling? To go into the next phase and, excuse me, didn't expect that. It's going into a mobile situation, a mobile grooming situation with a very specified market

that nobody's really tapping into it at this point. What is the market? You know, well, I don't really want to say it out loud on the... Oh, competition. You don't want to give away your shark tank idea here. Okay. Well, I hire mobile groomers. I'm just curious because I pay these people and I understand how the business works. And I've used a mobile groomer as well. Right.

But this was a... The concept was a little bit different. It's a larger grooming situation where you have two people inside and then you... We're situated in an area, a contracted area, that we would be there for three or four days and we would take care of a certain population. So the only reason only reason we're digging it's kind of like a pop-up got it but the only reason we're digging on this is we're trying to figure out how we help you get out of it so the question is was the 29,000 for like a van or some type of vehicle or was it just the equipment or was it just other stuff it was you're breaking up on us karen and then

i'm sorry it was part for the vehicle and and then the other part for the conversion of the vehicle to the unit that I was trying to achieve. How much could you sell this thing for to someone else who does mobile grooming? I believe in easy 40, 40, 45,000. And what's your total debt that you owe? Everything but the mortgage. On the vehicle? No, just everything, all your debt.

Because you said you had other debt and you took out this debt to try to pay off some other debt. So what is your total debt load right now? Okay, total debt load with, the thing that I took out before was about $31,000. Then I have $8,000 on MX and about $8,000 on Citibank, and that's it as far as what I owe.

And about $4,000 on the RV that I bought to live in. So you're living in an RV right now? Yes, that's correct. I had a plan originally. We all have a plan until life punches us in the face. So how, if we were to sell this, can you sustain yourself on just regular pet grooming? Or do you have to be mobile? Well, it's part of, you know, to continue on with the mobile business just because of the culture of employees and such since COVID. I have a standalone, I mean, I have a stick and mortar business also, but I was going

to keep it in a small sense so that we could still maintain- Is that profitable? Is the brick and mortar business profitable? and they keep it in a small set so that we can still maintain. Is that profitable? Is the brick and mortar business profitable? Right now, no. So, here's what it sounds like. You're jumping from unprofitable to unprofitable to unprofitable, hoping to strike gold at some point.

Yeah. And instead, you just keep digging a hole by maxing out these cards and jumping to another piece of debt to try to cover the other debt. And so, we're trying to stop you from playing the shell game and number one, create a profitable business and two, get out of debt. And that might mean a clean slate where you get rid of this mobile grooming truck, you sell it, sell the RV, you rent for a while, get rid of all your debt, create a foundation and then start slow and with cash.

Yeah, I just, and to that end, Karen, we're trying to solve for you here. Could you make similar money just grooming for somebody else, just somebody else who's got a business and they're looking for a solid person like you, you're not going to flake on them, you've got the skill set, can you make the same amount of money working for somebody else as a groomer? If I was able to work full time and work as hard as I used to, yes. Like I mentioned before, I'm 66 and I have a base maker and a stint. What is your yearly income from all of this after all of your expenses? Barely anything because everything I have goes back and forth.

That's what I'm saying. You could go work a retail job and not break your back doing this and instead get out of this completely. And what about 20 hours? Just work part time. They need groomers. You're a dream for somebody. Yeah, I know.

I'm trying to find one. I know, but Karen, listen, we want you to sell all this stuff and you got Social Security coming in, work 20, 30 hours, do whatever you can, but selling the RV and selling this van gets a whole lot of money. I don't have the van yet. That's why I borrowed the money to... Where is the money right now?

Well, I was afraid to spend it once I figured out how much it was going to cost me, so I kept it and just let it pay itself. Wait so it's the money bank. Can you just go ahead and pay off the loan then? I could but it would take everything pretty much everything. Good. It better than paying 15 grand in interest that you don't have. Yes Karen this is get out of jail here. This is get out of jail. I thought the damage was done and you already bought the van and did the renovations, but if you have the money sitting there. Oh yeah, no, no, it's not even there yet. Hit the rewind button.

The bank gave you 31,000 at 48% interest. That's it, rewind this whole deal. And you have the 31 grand. Do it, I'm sorry for the sound effects. No, it was great actually, I liked that. Really? Karen, hit the rewind button and get out of this deal. Go work for a local groomer who is going to be thrilled

to have a 66 year old, experienced, non-flaky, Gen Z groomer. And they're gonna pay you well and you get some breathing room. Am I right, George? Absolutely. And what's the RV worth? You owe 4,000 on it.

What could you sell it for? No, I owe 40,000 on it. What could you sell it for? No, I owe 40,000 on it. Oh my goodness. And what I could sell it for is about between 35 and 40. Do it. It's a 24. Do it. And this is where the hell am I gonna live?

Rent somewhere. With, over some old lady's garage because she needs some companionship and she wants somebody who can... I'm telling you where there's a will there's a way. What's your payment on the RV? Um, 4-4-4-4-4-4-4-1. Okay, take your 4-4-4-4-1 that you'll save by getting rid of that plus your social security

plus your part-time hours and you can afford rent somewhere. You might need it, you know, to... There's some gold... I guarantee there's some golden girls in your community that would have loved to have a roommate. I mean, you gotta look, you gotta find it. You gotta happen to life, Karen. And we've been talking to a lady who life has been happening to her.

You gotta flip the script here. We told you exactly what to do. This is doable, but you gotta do it. Change your life. This is The Ramsey Show. 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, your home address, your kids' names, your name, everything is just out there for scammers and spammers to find.

That's right. And then once they remove your information, then they're going to send you a detailed report telling you where they found your information, when they removed it, how many hours they've saved you. I mean, it is incredible. So detailed and it's beautiful. I love these reports. So far, get this, they've reviewed 27,000 listings on my behalf, removed me from 240 data broker sites and saved me 77 hours of time.

It's incredible. Absolutely amazing. And Winston and I now get fewer texts, weird emails, spam calls, hours of time. It's incredible. Absolutely amazing. And Winston and I now get fewer texts, weird emails, spam calls, all of it. I love it. So you gotta be sure to check them out. Ramsey fans get 20% off their annual plans. Just go to joinedeleteme.com slash Ramsey.

That comes out to less than nine bucks a month. Super affordable. It's amazing. So again, that's joinedeleteme.com slash Ramsey. Make sure to check it out you guys Welcome back to the Ramsey show alongside George camel. I'm Ken Coleman the phone number to jump in is triple eight eight two five five two two five the Ramsey show question of the day is brought to you by why refi with why refi you can take control of Your defaulted private student loans with a plan that works with your monthly budget.

Visit wirefy.com slash ramsey, that's the letter Y, R-E-F-Y dot com slash ramsey, it may not be available in all states. Today's question comes from Drew in Nebraska. He says, I'm trying to figure out if I can afford to buy a home. Together my wife and I make $250,000 a year and our jobs are secure. We're expecting a baby this summer and really want to buy a home. The house we would like to build is around $650,000.

We have 80,000 saved for a down payment. We have no debt and our emergency fund is done. We're comfortable paying about 2,500 bucks a month in rent. We would like to build this summer and potentially finish by the end of the year. Is this something we can afford? Well, Ken, this is like a common core math problem and I don't think he's gonna like the answer.

I don't think so either. I got my mortgage calculator up here on the Ramsey website. I love it when you talk nerdy. I know, and here's the deal, you're gonna have PMI, because right now you guys have about 12% down, 80,000 into 650, tracking? Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Which means you're gonna have to pay PMI,

which will likely be at least a few hundred bucks, maybe three, 400 bucks or even more. And so you said we're comfortable paying 2,500 a month in rent, that mortgage would be closer to $6,200. So that's a lot. Now you guys make great money. You stelt.

250,000, I mean, that's serious. And so if you wanna look at 25% of take-home pay, let's say they're bringing in, you know, 15 grand a month or so. Well, that's probably a three, $4,000 mortgage would be comfortable for them, which just tells me it's a patience thing. We either have to save up more down payment

or we need to lower the build of the house or look in a different area. And so this isn't a, no, you can't do this. This is a, we gotta be patient here. And let me tell you, the baby lives in your room for the first six months. So you already bought some time there. Not my room.

Next up, no, Ken's out. He's out on that. It's going to the nursery immediately. I'm not a fan of that parenting strategy. Just gonna call that out. The baby needs to sleep in its own room. So there's one part of it, but really a baby, you can live where you are for the first year

or two of the baby's life and survive. And so my take is have a little patience here and let's wait on this home purchase because number one, having a baby is a lot already on top of moving and building. There's a lot of moving pieces there. And so I would encourage you guys to just stay put where you are and continue saving

and I believe I have my computer plugged in if we want to take a look at that. Oh, you're gonna show people what you're doing. I thought it would be fun. I thought it would be fun to show them if I can. I don't know that I'm capable. You gotta select, this is like trying to get your phone to work in your living room on the TV

to show everybody the family video. There we go, all right, let's see if this works. See if dad can figure it out. Is it working, James, do you like that can figure it out. Is it working, James? Do you like that? Here it comes. There it is. Oh, I like that.

So I'll even zoom in for you, Ken. I know you have bad vision, you don't have your readers on, but that's what it's looking like, 6,200 bucks. Mr. Smarty Panth, I'll put my readers on. And you can go in and play with the interest rate. No, I can't see it, it's too far away. There you go.

So private mortgage insurance, the property taxes, home insurance, HOA dues. So you can play around with the numbers on this real estate mortgage calculator to figure out, hey, how do we get this within 25% of our take-home pay, which by the way is after taxes, but before other deductions. So we're not talking about after the 401k,

after the health premiums, just take out your taxes, state and federal, and then see what your take-home pay would be and aim for a quarter of that. And again, it's just a parameter. If it's 26%, we're not going to yell at you. It's just a parameter to make sure that you can get through the other steps, but congrats on the impending baby.

It's exciting. By the way, I'm going to fully commit to the readers now on the air since you outed me. You outed me, so I'm going to go ahead. It's giving Clark Kent. Well, you know, it makes it a little easier to read folks because I'm very mature. This week's average 15 year fixed mortgage rate dropped

as 5.79%. I wanted to mention that. Now this is the lowest since October 2024. So if you're thinking about buying a home you love at a price you can afford, and it becomes very possible when you work with a Ramsey trusted real estate agent. These are pros that are handpicked to guide you.

Find a local pro for free at ramsysolutions.com slash agents, ramsysolutions.com slash agents, ramsysolutions.com slash agents, or click the link in the description if you're listening or on podcasts and watching on YouTube. Show notes is a treasure trove, as I like to say, of all the information. But you know, now's the time to move if you feel like you're ready to move. You can't guarantee that these rates are going to keep dropping. Yeah. Well, a lot of people have these golden handcuffs, Ken, because they refinanced or bought in 2020, 2021,

and they're going, well, I got a 2% or 3% rate, I'm stuck. And I hate that for people. Yeah, I do too. Let's go to Seattle, Washington, where John is waiting for us. John, how can we help? Hi, sorry, this has to be kind of brief, but my wife's a big fan she listens to

you all the time we have the every dollar premium we've been trying to budget every month for the last five months or so. I am I work in corporate America I do marketing digital marketing and my wife is a part-time home school hybrid teacher she makes 18,000 a year. I make 105,000 a year. We have roughly $200,000 left in our house. We have no other debt, nothing at all. Uh, my wife and I struggle to be under budget with the every dollar app every month. We're always spending more than we're taking in.

I do do any of the shopping. I'm just at work. She takes care of our one-year-old son and it's just very difficult to get under budget each month. So I don't know. I've tried to talk to her about this. She just has issues with spending too much. So is she paying every single bill in the household? So she does the grocery shopping. I pay all the other bills. So our son goes to physical therapy. So as you look at the budget and the bank account,

where would you say most of this money is disappearing to? Groceries, by far. Okay, and are you saying that you feel like she's overspending on groceries? Yeah. Oh yeah, like we're spending easily over $1,000 every month on groceries. And is there a reason, have you asked her,

hey, what's going on with the groceries here? Can we change our grocery store? Are we wasting food? Like, how can we do better in this area? I try, she tries to make everything in one stop. So we have Safeway out here, which is like, I guess Kroger now for everybody else, but also going to Costco.

She just likes to only go to one store and buy everything. So a lot of the Costco bills are three to five hundred dollars she does that sometimes twice a month plus going to Safeway and then things can get up you know 1200 bucks easy on groceries but even then are you guys taking home nine thousand a month what's your take-home pay for both of us it's about six thousand okay a month. That feels awfully low for you guys to be making gross close to $130. Well, yeah.

And again, our mortgage is not very high either. It's about $1,600 a month. Like I said, there's just lots of things that just seem like they sneak in there. This is more than groceries is what George is pointing out. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.. Even at a thousand bucks in groceries, you guys still have five, $6,000 of random other bills. And so I think there's more to it. I mean, what are you contributing to this?

You sound like you're pristine the way you've set this up, but I gotta believe that you've got some habits. Yes? Not really. I don't buy anything on Amazon. I don't buy anything on Amazon. I run a lot, so I buy running shoes like every other month. That's about it. I there about $150 and I do got very athletic. I run against college kids in D three schools, but I have a coach that $150 a month. That's all I really spend on myself. Okay. So you have your fund money, you've got John's fund money, 150 bucks, you've got groceries. It's run money, sounds like it to me.

But there's still a lot of money to be accounted for in here, and this is going to be a conversation with you and your wife sitting down with accountability saying, here's what we, okay, if we need 700 and groceries for some reason, that's the limit. And once we go over that, it's over. You guys gotta sit down, you called us for help, the bottom line, you said she's a big fan, so she's opened all this stuff. You guys gotta sit down you call us for help the bottom line you said she's a big fan So she's she's opened all this stuff You guys get to sit down and track spending for 60 days so that you just have a really good idea about what's going on Mm-hmm and we've tried we've tried and no if you've actually tracked it against the budget

The budget will tell you very quickly where your money you're too busy running. What are you running? No, no, no, I Not run. I'm running from my fears, I guess. Yeah, you are. She buys a lot of stuff on Amazon that she thinks, oh, our son needs this and our son needs that. We did have a car that was a gas guzzler. We did get a new car and that was paid for by generosity from a family member. It's completely paid off. You guys can do this, man. This is communication. I hate to keep simplifying this. And we're here on one side.

I'm not, I think you're telling the truth, but I think she might be telling the truth. What if little junior does need all of this stuff? He's a year old. He doesn't need anything. I don't know what he needs, but you know, dad's at work and running. I know.

Yeah, a little less running and a few more meetings. That's what we need to do. This guy, those running shoes aren't cheap. That's why I don't run, Ken. I save so much money. This guy's so much into running, he's got a coach that's coaching him how to run. That's next level. I'm going to start racing against elementary school kids.

That's my version. What are we doing, man? I'll tell you what, I'm not running. I'm sitting on this break. This is the Ramsey Show. I'm not running, I'm sitting on this break. This is the Ramsey Show. You know, one of the first things I discovered working in the financial world

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at 800-356-4282. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell is alongside 828-8255-225 is the phone number. Isaiah is going to join us now in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Isaiah, how can we help? Gentlemen, thank you for your time today. I just started a new job about nine months ago. I work for a medical supply company And you know, obviously with everyone's paying attention to the news These tariffs are kind of scaring us as a business and a company and so my question to you guys today is You know, we're on baby step two. We're taking the course right now. So we're like on our seventh or eighth week in the course And we've been paying off debts and it's been feeling great

but with these tariffs, there's you you know there's communications and stuff from our uppers or CEOs and they've been very good with us but at the same time there's there's no guarantee that our jobs are safe so my question to you today is do we continue to make these extra payments with a high concern and in job security or do we hold off on making those payments to kind of see how things go and just save that money? Or should we just save it? Tell me what's going on.

Where are you guys getting your parts from? These medical supply parts, I'm assuming, is what you're talking about. Yeah, yeah. So a few years ago, they moved everything from China to Mexico. So obviously that has a big impact on our business to the point of significant losses.

So hold on a second. Hold on, hold on. I just gotta ask a few questions. So your company is importing medical supplies from Mexico, correct? Exactly. Okay, and all of them or some of them of your inventory that you're offering, how much of the business

is affected by imports from Mexico? Yeah, it's a complicated structure, but I would say probably, you know, we're set to lose 17, 18% of our business. Why are you losing it? You guys are just going to stop buying and selling those? Well, just... No, do we have to get hit with the, do we have more profits? Yeah, exactly. We'll lose most of our profits and that's kind of my concern is just how that impacts us. That helps. That's why I'm digging in. So you're talking about

your profit margin is definitely gonna get hit, but you're not necessarily losing business. No. Okay. And what is your leadership? because here's the other part of this equation, it's how much of that costs are you guys gonna pass along to your customers? You understand? That's why guys like me, free traders, I don't like tariffs, never gonna like tariffs, so don't at me or send me hate email,

I'm not gonna read it, and I'm right, so we'll just leave it at that. Tariffs become taxes, It's just that simple. So are your leadership, are they talking about, hey we think we're going to actually lose accounts because we would have to offset our increased cost by importing these parts from Mexico and now they're more expensive due to the tariffs. And we can't offset that by passing along to our customers. So therefore we feel like we're gonna get really hit hard. I mean, what are they communicating?

Cause that will help George and I in answering your question. What's been communicated to you? Or are you just looking at the headlines? No, they've been communicating and everything's on a table. We'll try to eat some of it, obviously, but we also, it's a medical field,

so there's set contracts and fees and stuff that are already locked in. So you can't raise the price. So they locked in the price at a dollar a needle, and now you guys are getting charged $1.10, and so you're losing money on the contracts, essentially. Essentially, yeah. Okay, by the way, while I'm here,

I'm just gonna leave this here for all of you who want to be educated on things beyond just your personal money. This is why I don't like tariffs. You have fixed contracts and this creates a problem. So when there's the retaliation tariffs from Mexico, that now affect US businesses. I know trade wars are never fun. Okay, I'll leave it at that. There's your geopolitics lesson for today. Okay, so George, does this constitute a storm

where we would say pause the baby stuff? I think that still leadership is actually saying, here's what's going to happen. And hey, phase one, here's what happens. Phase two, layoffs. Here's who goes. And you know, even Ramsey did this during COVID. Our team communicated, leadership said,

here's what's gonna go down if things take a shift. And then you kind of know the game plan. And so I think there's not enough information right now to go I'm gonna pause. Because this could be a year long, this could be three years. We don't really know how short term this is. And if there's a short term storm I'd say let's pause and save up. But if this is gonna be four years of who will they or won't they. I don't think it's gonna be.

I do think that I do I can't predict be. I do think that, I can't predict this, but I do think that the tariff situation is going to be settled at some point in the near future. And can you guys, will you guys change suppliers next month and then this will be solved in 90 days? Yeah, I would keep my ear to the ground. I'd keep my ear to the ground, Isaiah, on this. But how much debt do you guys have?

Yeah, so we have about 15 to 16 thousand in consumer debt and then another 36 in student loans. And over the past five years we've paid off probably 70, 80 with no real intensity. But now that we're taking the course, we're trying to stick to the course and do what we're told. Yeah. What's the 15, 16K outside of the student loans? You know, one of them's a private student loan,

one's medical, and then one is a refinance that my lovely self did a long time ago. Okay, so how quickly would you get out of debt? If you just stayed on the Ramsey plan, how quickly would you get out of debt at this point? You know, we're shooting for probably two, three years. Three more years to pay the rest of this debt off? Something like that.

It's kind of where we're at. That feels like a long time based on, I mean, what's your household income right now? I think it's like 120. So 120 grand and you have another, what, 40, you have 51 grand left in debt? Yep. So why can't out of that 120,

you take 25 and be done in two years or less? I feel like that's even conservative. Well, yeah, I mean, I'd say two or three years, yeah. So I'm thinking we get really intense about this and try to knock this out very quickly. And if you do get wind that, hey, layoffs are imminent, they are happening, I would then pause and save up.

But right now, I don't know that there's enough ammo to go, we're gonna push pause on life and just stack up cash. I'd wait for a little more communication. I concur. I just feel like everyone's on edge, and so leadership is preemptively communicating. Now his is legit where their business is affected directly and instantly.

You know what, I feel like we need to take a couple of minutes here and talk about guidelines versus headlines. Ooh. Can we do that? I like where this is going. So here's what you're gonna see in the headlines. You're gonna see the stock market drops yesterday, almost 900 points.

I haven't looked at it today. You're seeing the tariff news, right? Trump's not backing down. Canada's bowing up. Mexico's bowing up. You're seeing the tariff news, right? Trump's not backing down. Canada's bowing up. Mexico's bowing up. Are they going to negotiate what's going on? China's getting involved.

You know, you're going to watch all these headlines. Now I'm seeing stuff, and I look at all the different news sites, by the way. I'm apolitical in my news gathering because I want to know what people are seeing. You're going to see headlines about, is a recession going to happen? You got realities right now of stagflation is kind of hanging out. For those of you who didn't pay attention in the sixth grade, stagflation is where inflation goes up

and the economy goes down into a recessionary state. That is real. So you got all these things. If we're not careful, George, we get so focused on the headlines and we feel like, oh boy, I gotta be nimble. What am I gonna do? I gotta get in front of this storm when it's not actually a storm. And then I want to say we've got to be focused on the guidelines. The stuff that we teach makes you recession-proof. Yeah. You know? Not owing people money, having emergency funds,

that's the goal is getting to that financial piece to where no matter what's going on in the headlines, your family's gonna be okay. Yeah. So in this case, would you tell our friend Isaiah, hey, I might be looking for a different job. I wouldn't be doing that. In a similar field, I wouldn't.

And maybe have something lined up in case you gotta. That's what I was thinking. I wouldn't pause the baby steps, but I would say, all right, let me look at what, if worst case scenario happens. Which by the way, based on what I was thinking. I wouldn't pause the baby steps, but I would say, all right, let me look at what, if worst case scenario happens, which by the way, based on what I could pull out of that situation, again, this is the negative side of tariffs that nobody wants to talk about if you're in love with one side of the aisle.

You just, well, he said we're going to do it, let's all do it. Woohoo! And it's like, whoa, hold on a second. This has real economic impact, and this is an example. So in that situation, you cannot control what the White House does. So we say you control what you do in your house. And so don't stop knocking out debt,

but start looking for a fallback plan if for some reason you got laid off. And it's a good lesson in diversification for business owners out there. You can't just rely on one supplier because if something happens to that supplier, prices, they shut down, whatever it is, COVID, now you're stuck and your whole business relies on that.

So it's important to have backup plans. And to tie a bow on all this because I'm trying to inform you folks, this is why if you're gonna do tariffs, you've got to deregulate, you've got to cut taxes for businesses because the whole goal of this is to not be reliant on foreign countries for imports. Let's make products in America.

American made products. I'm all for that. And you've heard of small businesses. That's the backbone of the economy right there. Not good. There's your lesson from the headlines. Follow our guidelines. You'll be okay.

This is The Ramsey Show. 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

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888-825-5225 is the phone number. I'm Ken Coleman. Thrilled to be joined by my pal, the well-groomed George Campbell. It's hard to find. I would add hygienic, but thank you. Well, I was going to take people to that mental image, but you did. So I do find you to be very hygienic. Thank you. You know, a little known behind the I do find you to be very hygienic. Thank you.

You know, a little known behind the scenes fact here before we get to our first call, George brushes his teeth and mouth washes before every show. That's actually true. Thank you. I stay fresh for America. So, and the guy's got a real minty fresh breath coming at me when he throws a comment.

So I thought you all would appreciate that. Excellence. Excellence, what it's all about. That's right, excellence in the ordinary. It's a Ramsey value. Nicole is joining us now in Sacramento, California. Nicole, how can we help? Hi, thank you for taking my call.

I was calling because I needed some advice on far as what I should do next. Little backstory, last year my mom handed me a Capital One card, no explanation, nothing about it. I threw the card in the closet, didn't think about it. A few weeks ago, you guys had on the caller asking about a friend wanting to be an author user on a card and neither host at the time was a fan of that.

My eyes immediately. You're breaking up on us, Nicole. Are you, you're not in the closet with that credit card, are you? No, no, no, I'm not. I'm not, I'm sorry about that. But I pulled my credit report to find that this account was on my credit report, I called the credit card company and

asked them to remove me as an authorized user. And they said that that would take about two days, but now I need to know what I need to do next because I want this off of my credit report. How long has it been since you've been removed? Maybe about two to three weeks. Okay, yeah, it'll take longer than that for it to fall off the report. It's gonna be more like a month or two. And you can also contact the credit card issuer.

You can also go online and file a dispute with the credit bureau saying, hey, I'm not a user on this account, please remove it from my report. And so you can do a few things to just kind of check in on it and expedite it, but it should be falling off here shortly. Oh, okay, okay.

Did you see anything else on your report? Was it just that one card? It was just the one card and I don't know if it even matters with it being a FICO score there because I've never had a credit card. I have never applied for any credit whatsoever. So that's why I didn't understand the authorized user thing and why that was even done and then to see that on my credit report. Yeah, that would bother me too.

If someone did that behind my back, that's not cool. Have you talked to your mother about this? I have not had the conversation yet, cause that was an immediate headache, kind of, you know. Yeah, well you called us, so I figure you're trying to avoid this conversation. Do you think it's not going to go well? Uh, I just, I guess.

Feels like it's a, Well, no, I don't think it won't, it won't go well. It's like, I just kind of am annoyed that I even have to, Yeah. You're trying to cool down before you call mom. And maybe it's a boundary. And you know what I love about this, Nicole, is that you have the discipline to get rid of it. And I feel what she's feeling. She's like, do I really want to have

an unnecessary conversation? Because she shouldn't be having it in the first place. Well, what I would do, Nicole, is freeze all of your credit bureaus. Just freeze all the accounts so no one can do any of that anymore. And you can also check your credit report weekly for free at annualcreditreport.com.

And so you can check back in on this. I might check every two weeks or so. You don't have to be like on top of it, but I wouldn't worry about it because you're not in debt and you're off the card. And so the risk is gone. It's just the annoyance of having this thing fall off. I think it's a text.

I'm gonna go with a text on this, Nicole. Okay. I think I'm feeling you and I'm going, I don't wanna talk to mom about this, but maybe a text. Hey mom, listen, I don't need a credit card, don't ever want credit cards, don't do credit cards. I went ahead and close it out, but just FYI, don't need one, thanks, and just let it go.

You know? Yes, yes. It's just, I get you, you're going, I don't wanna burn the calories trying to explain to mom all this stuff. It's not that she's going to be angry. It was so out, it was just so out of the blue. How old are you?

It's just, I'm 30. That's a weird thing to do to your grown adult child. I can see it. Was she worried about you? I think she must've got a deal or something. Maybe she clicked on something. Really? Yeah, there's no reason to be worried about me.

I've never had issues with money. It's like I hang on to my money and never... I just want to get to the bottom of it. I know, but I think Mom must have clicked on a deal or saw some... I don't know. It feels like you got to go through a few steps to get an authorized user. I know. So it just feels like a weird thing.

It is a weird deal, but I think she had proper motivations. Just she didn't get how you do it. So anyway... Let it go. That's my two cents. I'd let it go. I'd do a text and I wouldn't do a phone call on those kinds of things.

It's like trying to explain a way of living to somebody who doesn't live the way you live. That's a lot of brain calories. It's a lot. It's a lot. As you would say, the juice ain't worth the squeeze. That's what I would say. I would say that.

And it's true by the way. Samantha's up in Syracuse, New York. Samantha, how can we help? Hi. I guess that's like a two-part question. So my husband just finished building a house for us. With his bare hands? We saved up a lot. Pretty much. He did 90% of the work. See, George and I, we cannot even process how

manly he is and how talented he is. I couldn't draw a house let alone build one. That's impressive. I couldn't build a house with popsicle sticks. Couldn't do it. Well, about like four years ago I gave him this idea that I wanted to sell the house we had. His family had land. It didn't work out that way. We sold the house. We bought a piece of land near his family and had a really old trailer on it. We lived in that trailer for two years while we saved up about 20 grand before we started building, but we also used 40 grand to buy the land. Hey, I just want to tell you, we got two minutes and I know you have part one and part two. Yeah sorry. So we have, that's all we had up until January for debt is our mortgage and it was one, it's 190 grand. That's all

we have. Okay. In January I totaled my car. Oh no. So it, yeah it sucked. I hit a deer. So it paid off my loan. I ended up getting two grand. I was, you know, I was on top of it. So that's not the end of the world. My husband hadn't had a vehicle loan in the five plus years or whatever. So he went out two weeks after I totaled my car and bought himself a $33,000 truck. So I'm just wondering where to go from now. I got about $6,500 in the bank for savings. And I'm just wondering where to go from now. I got about $6,500 in the bank for savings and I'm just wondering. And you don't have any car.

You're a one car family right now? Well, no, no, we have cars. They're just a matter of beaters at this point and his nice truck. So we kind of just bounce between his nice truck and the beater to get me to work right now. Okay, so you have two cars total? We have three cars total. He has his old truck that the beater to get me to work right now. Okay, so you have two cars total? We have three cars total.

He has his old truck that didn't have a payment. It's in rough shape, but it does the job. Okay. Then we have an older car and then we have the newer truck right now. So we have three vehicles, two of which are paid off. We've gone backwards here financially. So I would look into selling the truck.

I don't know if you can convince them of that and you don't need a new car. You need to buy cars that you can afford in cash and keep it that way for the rest of your life. So this is gonna be a come to Jesus moment, but it's not gonna be, well you got a new car so I get a new car too. It's gonna be, hey, we need to figure out a plan

to become completely debt free, and that means selling your truck and buying two cars in cash and selling the rest. I agree, this is a tough conversation, cause my guy went out and just got himself a new truck. A man and his truck will not soon be parted. And so now he's got to say, what?

Huh? And she's got to hold the line and he's got to agree or else this is going to be ugly. This is The Ramsey Show. If you need health insurance for yourself or your family, you might be lost in a maze of confusing terms, overwhelming options, and questions about networks. Not to mention high costs and bad service from insurance companies that don't care about what you want. Common concerns like those are why I'm proud to recommend Health Trust Financial. They've been working with Ramsey for over 20 years and they're the only Ramsey trusted health insurance

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of the maze by going to health trust financial dot com today health trust financial dot com. 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 Ken Coleman.

George Campbell joins me this hour. The phone number is 828-825-5225. Let's go to Dylan who's joining us in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Dylan, how can we help today? Yeah. So I have fallen into the personal loan trap. Uh-oh. Well, the good news is my the personal loan trap. Uh oh. Well, the good news is my co-host today is George Campbell.

Oh boy. He wrote an entire book about this. Be aware of the traps. Right, if you fall for the trends, you fall for the traps. There it is, signature quote. What's going on? Why are you falling for these traps? Man, it's so easy it seems like.

Oh. So easy to do what? To go into debt? Traps. It's so easy, it seems like. So easy to do what? To go into debt? No, to fall for the predatory stuff, like interest rates and stuff. Okay, but what did you actually, what happened? What'd you take out debt for? So I got a trip, actually last year in July with my mom to Boston.

It was, it was a fourth of July trip and I took that alone for that. That sounds like it's on you. I don't think you've felt, I think you jumped voluntarily. How, how old are you Dylan? I am actually 40. I turned 40 in February. So a 40 year old man decides to take his mom to Boston for July 4th. I mean, I get it because I like history, but I mean, that's like, I mean, like how are we

taking out a loan for that? That's not like a big deal, like that big of a thing. You could have saved up for that. Am I right? Right. How much did you take out? 11,000. Goodness gracious. Would you sit in the front row of the Boston Pops? No. What were you doing for 11,000 in Boston for July 4th? So I used it for other stuff. There we go.

Oh, here we go. Dylan, we gotta be honest with each other if we're gonna make this relationship work. Is that fair? Yeah, I got you. Okay, so how much total debt do you have? About 30,000. Okay, and what do you make a year? I make 85,000 was what I made last year. Okay, and what kind of debt is the 30? You got 11 in the personal loan? It's all personal loans. All personal loans.

Why is that? Yeah. Interest rate. Did you not, yeah, but like a credit card, did you not have any credit cards? I'm just curious why you went personal loans all the way. No, I don't have credit cards at all. Okay.

He draws the line there. You draw the line. So what's the interest rate on all this debt? It's quite a bit actually. I looked at it, it was like, one was like 300%. That's what I'm saying. These are not like personal loans from your credit union. These are like payday loans.

300%, I'm dizzy. Why did you darken the door of a payday lender? That's, yeah, I don't know. Like you actually drove to the payday lender and went, yep, this is it. This is where I'm gonna get some money. I think I know what it is, Dylan. Can I take a stab?

Can I take a stab as to what's going on? Cause this is how you started the call. You kind of started the call kind of going. You're presenting as a guy who feels like he's unable to fight the temptation of these type of loans. That's the way you presented. Is that a fair analysis? That is fair.

Okay, great. So it feels like the reason, based on what evidence you've given us so far, is you just get this spontaneous hair, this idea of like, oh, I wanna do this, or this will be fun, and you don't have the cash for it. And so you just decide, well, let's just go get some loans right now and I'm going

to go do this and figure it out later. It sounds like it's that simple. You can't control your impulses. Is that right or am I wrong? His dogs are barking, I'll tell you that much. Yes, they are. Dylan, did I just stump you there? No, I think you're right.

Okay. Okay. Well, here's the deal. We can't solve the current debt if we don't stop going into debt. And so can you make a truce with me and everyone listening right now that you are not gonna touch another diamond debt?

Yes. You're not gonna go, you're never gonna be in the parking lot of a payday lender ever again. Agreed? Agreed. Okay. Because right now it's like the hot light

is on at Krispy Kreme and you can't help yourself but stop in and get a few dozen. And we have to stop, we gotta get to the root of what's causing that. I don't know what, if it's something you're running from, if there's a vice in your life, but a guy making 85K in Oklahoma should have a pretty good life, don't you agree?

Mm-hmm. Like if you told 15 year old Dylan, like, hey man, one day, you're gonna be making $85,000. And here you are going into debt instead of being able to just save up and pay cash for things. I think you're profoundly sad about your life. That's what I think.

Is there truth to that? Yes, there is truth to that. And you're using this sort of these loans as therapy to try to go, if I can just have this as a coping mechanism and buy more stuff and take more trips, I'll distract myself. Yeah, and Dylan, I just felt that, and I was willing to take a risk there,

and I don't say that to shame you, but I think you need some therapy. I really do. I think you've gotta get to the bottom. See, anytime somebody does something like this, it's only a manifestation of something else. It's the symptom, it's not the bottom. See, anytime somebody does something like this, it's only a manifestation of something else. It's the symptom, it's not the problem. And it just sounds like you just need something to medicate the sadness or an uneasiness, a lack of just satisfaction. And I think if you can reframe

that with some help through a professional, I'd call better help. I really would. I mean, I'd start there. And it's affordable, it's convenient, and I'd start figuring out what's going on there because a phone call with George and I isn't going to snap you out of this, if I can be completely honest with you. Because the temptation is going to present itself tomorrow or the next week and quite

frankly you're not going to be hearing George and I's voice. You need to get to the bottom of this thing and begin to see, oh I've got some pain and if I can get healing on that, all of a sudden I'm not tempted by this medication in the form of these trips or whatever it is you're doing where you go get quick money to get a quick high, the quick high of life. And I think that's what's going on. I hope that encourages you, but I think that's what you need

to be dealing with right now. George, I wanna give you a thought. Well, we can hit the financial piece and I'll send you some resources, including my book, Breaking Free from Broke, that'll walk you through all of this and then give you some encouragement. We'll put you through Financial Peace University

if you're willing to join a local class and go week after week for nine weeks with a group of people who also have made dumb money decisions. Would you do that? Yes. Awesome. Okay, so after the call is done,

we'll get you on with Christian and he'll hook you up with those resources. Let's talk about the debt for a second. What is your smallest current balance? It is like $500. Okay. And I assume you got nothing in checking and savings right now. I have $100 in... So I have a credit union as well with the company.

And I have $200 in there. But you're still... You're living just down to the bone, down to the wire every single week. So the way to get out of this is we need to cut our spending down to nothing and increase our income. So can you work overtime? Can you take on side hustles in order to get your income up in the short term?

Yes, I've signed up for overtime. Great. So here's the deal. Once you have that 500 bucks, we're gonna just throw everything we can at that next smallest debt, because the problem with these payday loans is they grow like a cancer

because of the interest, as you've seen. It's hard to get out of them. It's why it's a cycle that we see a lot of low income neighborhoods. It's why payday lenders sit there, because they're willing to take your a hundred bucks and they're gonna get a hundred bucks out of you by the time the month is over.

And so you gotta attack these things aggressively to get rid of them. And if you do that debt snowball method, you can get out of 30 grand, make an 85. It's gonna take a lot of sacrifice. It's probably like 18 months of your life is gonna just look like work, work, work, work, work, no time to spend, no time for trips.

Okay. Do you have anything you can sell? Have you bought any toys, items that you could sell to help get rid of this debt? No. You owe nothing to your name? Just a car, but it's paid off. Okay, good. Well, that's the plan, man.

Hang on the line. Christian's going to pick up. We'll send you a copy of my book, Breaking Free from Broke. We're going to send you Financial Peace University, go through all nine lessons, and get some professional help where you can get to the root of what's going on here. Because I agree with Ken, if we don't get to the root of it, we're just gonna stay in the cycle.

Yeah, I agree. And I got a weird feeling like the pup was agreeing with us. You know? I do feel like that. Did you feel that? That was like the pup was in the background going, Ruff, Ruff, Ken's onto something. Amen, amen, you know?

I think the dog is feeling the anxiety as well. These dogs, they can feel things. It's just a hunch folks I don't know if that's true But I felt like he was really chiming in when we were dropping in the hot stuff So I don't know. All right quick break George and I are gonna discuss the value of denim jackets and then we'll be right back This is the Ramsey show Hey guys, George Campbell here.

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need at the best price. Go to ramseysolutions.com slash insurance ramseysolutions.com slash insurance. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, George Campbell joins me. 888-825-5225 is the number let's stay right here in our neck of the woods elijah joins us in nashville why do you know eight

uh... to explain what's been going on is i've been going to work every morning by uh... a meter car at my parents let me use with my sister uh... i live my parents. I worked at the local post office. And I recently just got laid off because I wasn't able to keep up with the workflow.

Oh, I'm so sorry. What do you mean you weren't able to keep up with the workflow? I just wasn't fast enough. Like I couldn't get the mail out the window fast enough as I was delivering. Hold on a second, cause this will be material later. What do you mean? Were you a mail delivery? Were you a mailman?

Yes sir, I'm a mailman. Yes sir, I'm a mailman. And you just couldn't get mail delivered in the amount of time that they have allotted for you? Yes. Do you agree with this? Yes.

And what is the reason for why you couldn't get the mail out in time? I'm just kind of a slow human being. I tried my hardest and they recognized, they were like, hey, we saw that you tried your hardest. We're not firing you. We're just asking that you please resign because. Well, they fired you. I mean, it's okay to admit that.

I know it hurts. I've been fired before. It's the worst feeling in the world. But it wasn't a layoff in terms of, hey, business is struggling and we can't afford to keep you. It was, you can't do this job. Yeah, I guess you're right. And so it's okay to own that, but we've got to figure out what's next for you.

Well, and I got to ask another follow-up, George. And I'm not trying to pick, I'm trying to understand. When you say I'm a slow individual, I mean, what's really... I'm not very intelligent. And I'm not fast-moved. Like I just... How do I say this? So you have some mental challenges, is that what I'm hearing? That's probably what it is.

I mean I've always been slower than my schoolmates. I've had like, they always tell me, oh I went and did this on Friday night and I was like, wait, you were out? I was doing homework trying to figure out the lesson. Gotcha, okay. But it's not a diagnosed disability? It's not diagnosed or anything. I mean, I might be able to go get it checked out

at some point, but that's not my main concern right now. I get it, and I don't wanna hover on that, but let me just say this really quickly. It is important as we go forward for you to dive into what's going on. You may just have some processing challenges, which is very, very, very, they're calling this neurodiverse now. So the point is at some point you want to get to the bottom of this so that you can realize your limitations and then we can get you into a better situation.

But I know that's not the main reason you called. So, uh, but, but it is probably relevant. So go ahead, what's your question? You're right, yeah. I thank you for that. Calling that out actually made me think about it now. Okay, yeah. So they said they might be able to hire me

or hire me back in a different position, if that works better. Great. You know, cause they loved working with me. They were like, you tried your hardest. Yeah. We loved having you. Love that by the way. We loved working with me. They were like you tried your hardest. Yeah, we loved having you love that I have you back love that but yeah But they knew that that position just wasn't sure for me. So the problem here I'm having now is

I'm now that it's now that I'm unsure about my Position I do not have a personal vehicle for myself. Okay. I have $8,500 saved up and I have a check that's probably gonna be a thousand dollars coming this Friday from work and then I do not know because I don't want to buy like a $3,000 car because I want, you can't find a $3,000 car on car gurus or on, any of the more reputable car sites. We sure.

And I go to Facebook and all the $3,000 cars are like, Oh, just needs starter. Oh, just needs blank. And it's like, okay, well. Well, you have money. The number one rule is don't go into debt for it. And so, with the cash you have on hand. Yeah, so okay, let's say we buy a $7,000 car. Yeah.

What's wrong with that? And that's what makes me concerned, Yeah. What's wrong with that? And that's what makes me concerned, is I don't know how... I'm not sure that the $7,000 cars are good long-term. Hold on a second. Well, long-term is irrelevant right now. This is not the car you're going gonna be driving for the next 15 years. That's right.

But, you know, my last car before the one I own now was a $6,000 09 Civic. And so by the time I got it, it was already 10 years old. And so it's okay to drive something that's older. And here's the deal, get a pre-purchase inspection from an independent mechanic that you trust. That'll cost you a hundred bucks, 150 bucks. And then you know you're not buying a lemon.

You know exactly what you're getting into and then buy it from a reputable, reputable dealer person. Don't get scammed in the, in the, you know, in the deal here. Make sure that all the pieces are lining up meet in a public place if it's not with an independent dealer, but you can go to an independent dealer right now in the Nashville area and find cards for $7,000. I'm looking at them right now. I'm in the $5,000 range.

And here's a Honda CR-V. It's a 2002. It's old, but it's only got 115,000 miles. Hey, it's got a lot of life left in it. For a Honda, that's a great deal. And it took me 30 seconds to pull this up. But here's what you don't do. Don't go to the new dealership car lot and go, hey, can I get a $7,000 car?

They're gonna steer you into the nicest, newest cars and go, what can you afford for a payment, young man? Oh, we can make that work, 400 bucks a month, sure. That's what you gotta go and knowing exactly what you're doing, go in with a check, say, I've got 7,000 bucks and I'm leaving here with a car. And if they tell you no, go to the next dealer. And so it's gonna take some work.

Christian, I am emailing you that car right now, because it just so happens he's local, and I don't wanna say it over the, but I'm gonna at least give him a start. This car right here, I've got the link, I'm sending it to Christian, and he'll give it to you, so. Ken loves nothing more, Elijah, than researching cars, so you came to the right place.

But you're doing the right thing. The next piece is no interruption of income. So how can we get you a job ASAP this week to where you're not going with zero dollars? Yeah. So what can you do? Hopefully they'll take me back into training for the new position. And what if they don't? If they don't, that's what I'm concerned about.

Okay, but that's where I was at earlier. A big buffer of money so that I can find a proper job. Right, so we start thinking. You need to start thinking and start looking. So what is a position based on your past experience or even what the mail service is telling you they're going to reassign you? What is the position? What kind of work is it?

And do you feel that that's a good fit for you with some of your, it doesn't put you in a place of limitation, it puts you in a place of ability. What is that role? Something repetitive would probably work. Perfect. I think. What have you done in the past that has been something you've done well and you've shined in? Do you have anything? Mm-hmm. Anything you've done in the past? Well, I'm 21, so the only jobs I've done up to this point was I was a librarian at my

college and I was a, I worked at a McDonald's, not a McDonald's, a Burger King. Did you shine in those roles? In other words, you'd got the job done, it wasn't something where you were struggling behind other people. I guess, yeah. Great. The library job was particularly easy.

It was mostly just sitting there and going out. And it's a slower paced environment. Here's the deal. You know what I'm thinking? I'm thinking your big box stores, your Target, your Walmarts, your grocery stores, could you get into some type of, again, very repetitive, process heavy, it's not fast, you don't have to be fast, you just got to get the job done. Be thinking about those things because all of those places need people they can depend on. And Elijah, you got, you got character. This has been established that the poster, they said, man, you're a good guy.

We want you back. We just need you in a different role. That speaks to your character. So get your chin up. Number one, number two, get your eyes up. Start looking for some of those fallback opportunities and check out the link that Chris is gonna give you. We just got you a car that you can pay cash for, my man.

And it's still got plenty, a Honda, 115,000 miles on it. You can drive that to 2050. And minimal mechanic work. You drove a Honda forever. Love a Honda. I also, I warned you that you started, said chin up, eyes up, hopes up. There's your third one. Come on, bring it in. Right there.

That's an alley oop. That's as close as I'll get. Folks, they call that chemistry in the business. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey guys, good news. Presale is on now for my new book, Build a Business You Love. If you're a business owner, you know running a business is hard. That's why I wrote this book, to share what we learned over the last 30 years so business owners can grow your business faster with fewer mistakes. Pre-order your copy today and you'll get access to over $350 in bonus items only at ramsaysolutions.com slash store. ramsesolutions.com slash store. Preorder today.

Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. Thrilled to have you with us. Hey have you heard about Dave's new book, Build a Business That You Love? I have. Have you? Have you? Have you heard about it? Decided to read it. You know what I like about it? He says it's the baby steps for building a business, for growing a business. He gives the kind of the six stages of the business. Fantastic new book. And this is timely because we've got a new set of data that's come out, George, that says 70% of Americans want to be self-employed, but only 6% are. Wow.

And I think that... Big gap. Big gap. The reason is because it's very hard. It's intimidating. So whether you're somebody who wants to own your own business one day or you've launched or you've been at it and you just... You can't get to the next level.

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plus all the good stuff, ramsysolutions.com slash store, ramsysolutions.com slash store. ramsysolutions.com slash store. And I gotta say, Dave always has his picture on the cover of the books, that's kind of his thing. Yep, that's a good photo. I think it might be his best photo ever. He's got the smize going. Is that what it's called?

I think, I don't know. A smize? Yeah. What's that? I think it's what Tyra Banks invented. I think that's what Dave was aiming for here. It's not a real smile? Yeah, we have the picture here for watching on YouTube. Oh, there it is, yeah. Yeah, it's what Tyra Banks invented. I think that's what Dave was aiming for here. It's not a real smile? Yeah, we have the picture here for watching on YouTube.

Oh, there it is, yeah. Yeah, it's not a teethy grin. No. It's just kind of a squinted smile. I know what I'm talking about. Feel pretty good about what I'm gonna drop on you in this book. Exactly, a lot of confidence there.

I like it. He's earned it. Yeah, he looks as cool as the other side of the pillow. I think he's got a shacket on, which you and I, let's just call it out. Dave stole that from us. He did. He made fun of us when we first started wearing shackets.

I think I dropped the word on him. Which is a shirt jacket, if anyone's confused out there. And true story, and he made fun of me. Shacket. Three weeks later, what's he wearing? Shacket. A shacket. You know what happened?

He made fun of us when we weren't around in front of Sharon and Sharon validated it. Oh, I like Ken's jacket. I think so. I think it's exactly what happened. So we'll never know. I'll ask him next time he's in. Well, Sharon. Kara is up next in Casper, Wyoming.

You ever been to Casper? Have not. Would love to visit. Me too. Kara, how can we help? Hi, thanks for having me on. You bet. What's going on?

So, my husband and I are looking for a home to buy, but we were wondering if it's financially smarter for us to buy a starter home within the next year or just save up for five years and buy our dream forever home. Oh, well, why don't you describe for George the starter, what the cost is, how big it is, and then what you consider the dream home and how much that is to get us started. Give us those descriptions. OK.

So starter would be under $250,000, maybe a three bedroom, two bathrooms. OK. We already have two kids, a three-year-old and a one-year-old. Are you all renting right now? Our dream, we are renting. Okay.

So our dream home would be around 400,000. And I guess in five years from now with appreciation value, 480. So it might take us more like six years. And you're sure that's your dream home? Yeah, when you said forever and dream, those are red flags to me, because as a millennial,

we have moved like four times since we've been married and every next home is the dream home. Yeah, so I'm not sure, but I am sure that we would be in there. I mean, I'm not sure of anything, but I would hope that we would be in there. There we go. That's the honesty I'm looking for.

That's what we wanted you to know. We just wanted you to know. Because a part of answering this question is for you to get to the mindset of going, that's what my dream is now, but in the grand scheme of things a lot can change. How old are you and your husband? So I'm 21 and my husband is 23. Oh, sweet. Well, time is ticking, Kara.

Sweet girl, you are truly, truly a child. And I don't mean that in a mean way. I mean, like, compared to me. Now, Ken has boots older than you, and I know, truly a child, and I don't mean that in a mean way. I mean, like, compared to me. No, Ken has boots older than you, and I know that for a fact. That's an absolute truth, by the way. Sadly. He takes care of them, but yeah.

Sadly true. Okay. So I wanna make the right choice. Yeah, so are you guys debt-free? We are, so we paid off $32,000 left of our debt last year, and then we're one month shy of saving up our six-month emergency. How's that, George?

So you're on the cusp of now getting into that Baby Step 3B, which is saving up a down payment. Yes. So even then, we're not even, this even starter home, it wouldn't be for another year or two. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, there was some hesitation there. You didn't say that with confidence. Do you know why he's saying it's a year or two away? Why?

We don't know how you're going to get up that down payment with your income. We don't know. You've got to explain it to us. How are we going to sock that away? Okay. How much do you plan on putting down? Well, if it's 250,000, hopefully 50. Okay.

But I saw a lot of nice homes in the 230 range too. Okay, let's say you're doing 50. How long would it take you to save up 50? So, so my husband, he makes $110,000 gross, so it's $90,000 net. And our yearly bills, just like rent and electricity, gas are around 30,000.

All of your bills only add up to 30,000 a year? So that's rent, electric and gas. So like all of them- Okay, I'm talking all in, groceries, insurance. Really, 38. So let's say four grand a month is your expenses and you're bringing home seven grand. So you got three grand spread that you could sock away,

maybe 3,500 if we get tight, right? So that's 42 grand in a year you could save up. So in a little over a year, you guys will have 50,000 saved up. And if you do it in a high yield savings account, that'll help speed it up a little bit. And so let's start talking a year from now, we're gonna start home shopping for a $250,000 house.

Sound good? Okay. Yeah, and is that smarter than waiting these, I'm guessing- That's what I would do. Because you hit the nail on the head. It's a moving goalpost. That $400,000 home five years from now

is gonna be a $520,000 home. And so I would rather you get your foot in the door with a very reasonable mortgage payment, 25% of take-home pay on a 15-year fixed. And then who knows, four years from now, if you keep doing 50 grand a year on that mortgage, you're gonna knock it out in four years. Do you see the math on that?

That is our plan to pay as much. Yeah, now you're set. And that's what my wife and I did. We rolled over the 100% equity in our townhome that we had in our town home that we had into our next home, which then gave us a very reasonable mortgage payment and then we paid that off fast.

So do you see how this kind of snowballs and allows you to not jump into too much home and add stress to your life? Yes. And it gives you options. So the reason we like you getting the starter home is what George just laid out. Because here's the deal, five, seven years from now, the dream home might be an $800,000

house with a nice pool. And you can get it. And every home is a temporary home until the Lord takes us to our eternal home. Isn't that right, Ken? Wow. Are you writing Christian greeting cards all of a sudden? I might write that down. That's good.

You should probably submit that to, like like Christian Hallmark or whatever that is. But Carrie, you with us on that? That's the smart play. It gives you momentum. Okay. Makes you become a great investor right out of the gate. You guys have no debt. And that home's gonna appreciate.

So that might be a $350,000 home five years from now and it's paid for. Okay. You tracking with us? Yeah, I guess I've never moved before, so I was worried about, I don't know how much that cost. But you've never been married before, right?

Like this is a whole new deal, you're only 21. So, you know. You guys are in incredible shape to even be doing this a year from now, at your age is, you are so far ahead of the curve. A lot of people aren't buying their home. I just saw the StatCan, it's moving and moving and moving.

Now people are entering home ownership into their 30s instead of their early 20s or mid 20s like it was back in the day because of home prices. And because of debt, it's holding them back from buying a house. So the fact that you guys are debt free, got the emergency fund, the down payment's gonna be there. You're not biting off more than you can chew.

That will help you build wealth. They're just moving slow and steady. That's right. And for all the reasons that that current house in the 400 range is a dream home, for all those reasons, most likely, it doesn't matter to the kids. They're so little, they don't even know. They'll look back on this first home and think it was huge. Oh yeah.

Do you remember that? I love that. Going back to your original house and you're kind of like, this was like a matchbox. How did we live in this? And I remember as a kid thinking, this place is huge. We had one little tiny bathroom. If you open the door, you'd hit the person on the toilet. That's how small this bathroom was

that all four of us shared growing up. I resonate with that. Yeah, we shared a bathroom with my mom and dad. But now the standard is, well, every kid's gotta have their own bathroom, boundaries, privacy. We've lost our mind. We've lost our ever loving mind. Wow.

All right, well, good hour. Good times. Man, thanks to George Campbell. Sorry it got apocalyptic there, Ken. I just had to bring it, bring us home. It was just very heavenly. You were just writing some great stuff there. Thanks to James Childs and our fearless crew

for keeping us on the air. Thank you, America, for listening. This is The Ramsey Show. 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. Bada bing, bada boom. Alright, I'm getting out of here. Enjoy. We'll see you on the app.