The Ramsey Show - My Parents Just Told Me I Owe Them $114K

Episode Date: January 26, 2026

💵 ⁠Get Money Help from Ask Ramsey!⁠ 🚢 ⁠Book your cabin: Save $300 this week only! ⁠ George Kamel and Jade Warshaw answer your questions and discuss: "How should I respond to my parents asking for my 529 funds to be repaid?" "How can I build wealth so I can leave an abusive situation?" "My husband bought a home without telling me, should I be concerned about this?" "How do I address my girlfriend's debt before proposing to her?" "How much of my income should be my mortgage payment?". Next Steps: ✔️⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Help us make the show better. Please take this short survey.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📞 Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 weekdays from 2–5 p.m. ET or⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠send us an email⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. 📲 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app!⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📈 ⁠For help with investing, get connected with a SmartVestor Pro 💵 Think you're good with money? Take our free quiz! 💻 Need help with your taxes? See who we trust. Connect With Our Sponsors: Get 10% off your first month of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BetterHelp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Boost Mobile⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to switch today! Go to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Casper Sleep⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and use promo code RAMSEY to learn more If you want your car to keep going and going, trust ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Christian Brothers Automotive⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Find a local shop and get an exclusive Ramsey discount of 10% off 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! Debt collectors hassling you? Take back control of your life at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Guardian Litigation Group⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Find top health insurance plans at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Health Trust Financial⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Use code RAMSEY to save 20% at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Mama Bear Legal Forms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ NetSuite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ today to learn more Get started with ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YRefy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or call 844-2-RAMSEY Visit⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Zander Insurance⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for your free instant quote today! Explore more from Ramsey Network: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Ramsey Show Highlights⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🧠 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Dr. John Delony Show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🍸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Smart Money Happy Hour⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 💡 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Rachel Cruze Show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 💰 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠George Kamel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🪑 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📈 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠EntreLeadership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brought to you by the Every Dollar app. Start budgeting for free today. Normal is broke and common sense is weird. So we're here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsey Network in the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio, this is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, joined by best-selling author Jade Warshaw. If you know, you know, give us a call at AAA-825-2-2-25, and we will do our best to help you take the right next step for your life and your money.

Sarah is going to kick us off in Chicago. What's going on, Sarah? Hi, thanks for taking my call. Absolutely. How can Jade and I help? So I'm 30. My husband's 31. Our household income is about 235. My parents had set up a 529 plan for me when I was young, which I ended up using to pay for the majority of my undergrad and grad schooling. I did take out a couple of federal loans just to cover the remainder of my grad school, which we still owe about $35,000. on. Recently, my parents asked me to pay them back, roughly $114,000 for the money that I used from my 25-29 plan. What?

Come again now. So is that the money they put in, or is that the balance of the account? That was the balance of the account. That's wild. They don't even understand math. Like, they may have put in 30 grand that grew to 114, and now they want you to pay the money. the 114. The interest. They want you to cover the compound growth that cost them nothing. Was this ever the plan? Like had this ever been stated to you ever at any point that you would have to

pay this back? I don't remember it that way, but my dad is a lawyer. So naturally he had created a promissory note. Couldn't you sign it? Yeah, before I was. Okay. Have you read this note now as an adult? Yes. And what does the fine print say? It says that I promised to pay my parents. All sums paid to me for my secondary education, including without limitation, tuition, housing, and living expenses. Including interest. Sums is the interesting part. All sums paid to you. Yes.

This is diabolical. I definitely didn't understand that when I was signing it. I kind of understood it more as like my requirement. You know what? Let him take you to court. I think this would be a hilarious way to end the relationship with his daughter. What a way to go. This is wild.

Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. What was your relationship like prior to this with your parents and or just dad? Pretty good before this. So it's kind of coming out of left field. Are they broke? They've been pretty. Like, what's the underlying reason? and why now, you know, over a decade later, they're like, hey, remember that contract you signed when you were a child?

Yeah, have they brought it up at any other point other than now? No, not really. And how long have you been out of school? I graduated grad school about a year and a half ago. Okay, so, okay. When you brought it up or have you brought it up? I just basically asked them, I told them I was. wasn't aware it was alone.

And what they said? They sent me the contract. They sent me the contract. And then they said, let's talk about it. And so we're going to talk about it tomorrow, which is why I'm calling. Okay. So you need prep for tomorrow's conversation. I want to figure out how the best, yeah, prop the conversation.

I'll tell you right now, if I'm going to, I believe you when you say I had no idea that that's what I was signing. If you know in your heart of hearts that you did not know what that was and that you had no idea that you were going to pay back this money. If you can say in your heart of hearts that that's the case, then I think that you go in there and you say, hey, guys, I had no idea. I was 18 years old. I don't even remember this paper. I know that I'm looking at it, that it's signed. But when I tell you, I had no understanding that that's what this meant. I am telling you the truth. There is no part of me that understood that I would be paying back this money if I had.

I would not have signed this and I feel very blindsided by this and I don't have the money. And I would like to ask if this can be forgiven because everything that I do know about money tells me that a 529 is there for education. So I am under the impression that that's what this money is for. And I would just say it like that and see what they say. Yeah, I don't want to come off like as ungrateful or entitled or like, I'm trying to take advantage of them. I want to own up to my own debts.

But if you didn't know, I definitely would have made different financial decisions. I'm not going to, I'm not saying this was the case, but I'm just telling you as a person who's listening on the other side, there was an imbalance of knowledge. Here you have a grown man who you trust, who is a lawyer who is giving you a paper to sign. And you just go, okay, and I sign it.

that do you see what I'm saying you're not in an official office you're not in a space where you're like okay I'm going to sign for my loan and you don't even remember doing it who knows if he slid that to you one morning while you were eating a waffle right just oh yeah go ahead and sign this for me real quick okay like I don't know how it happened all I'm seeing is I'm sensing that there is a balance of power here a balance of I'm going to say of knowledge and power and it feels I'm not saying he was intending to but it feels like he may have taken a advantage of that, whether intentionally or on accident. And either way, that's what I would say is I just feel like I didn't know. And I'm asking if there's a way to, we've let it go for this long. Can my 529 just be for my education, which is what it's intended to be for? Okay. And if they decide to not do that, should I, do you think it would be reasonable to offer like some money or me in the middle? Maybe, yeah. Okay.

Because at the end of the day... I would find out what their contributions were. What they actually put into the account. Did he actually say $114,000 must be repaid in the last conversation you had? Yeah, he gave me a loan payment schedule. Based on the final amount that was in that account. Because I don't think this would ever hold up in court that someone would have to repay compound growth. I think all sums repaid could be interpreted as the money that they advanced you, essentially, to be invested in this account.

which would be a fraction of that 114. Yes, yeah, because it's been in there for, I don't know, 15 years. But either way, we can all agree this relationship just turned into a transaction. Yeah. And it's not going to be undone. Like Thanksgiving is forever going to be different now. And so that part is on him. You can do what you can if you want to keep the relationship alive.

You can never repay this. And again, he can try to come after you. And I don't know what if he has any legal standing to come after you from a dad to daughter, you know, 529 perspective. But I would honestly, if you want to consult with your own attorney and say, hey, what is actually in this? Does this actually hold up? Should I actually be worried? What is actually my obligation based on what I signed? I would at least get that clarity. And Sarah, here's another thing. Here's another take for you because there is a relationship here. What does, how does this make you feel, first off? Forget the money part of it.

I'm a little hurt by it and blindsided, like you said. Yeah. My whole life I was like, oh, my parents kind of, I was really grateful for them setting me up. I'm in a really good financial spot right now. I think you need to tell them that. Yeah. You start with that. You need to share that.

I'm grateful. And I didn't understand what I was signing. And also tell them how you fear this could affect your relationship. Just I think if you lead with your heart on this and how you're really feeling and the gratefulness, the blindsidedness, how you're afraid for the future of the relationship, keep it less about money. I think you might have a better shot. Goodness gracious.

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I don't know. Play backgammon and drink some espresso, I guess. You could have like a coffee with George, like a nitro brew. I'm going to have a coffee hang out. So come join us. And here's who this is for. This is not for everyone. This may not be for you in this season.

This is for people who are on baby step four or higher. Exclusive. You've paid off the consumer debt. You have the emergency. Fund. You're investing for the future. This is your chance to mark the milestone and celebrate big. When is it happening, Jade? February. Oh, gosh. I laid you up, Jade. I know, but I was formulating another thought. I'm sorry. Go ahead and go ahead and do it. March of 2027, which means you have plenty of time to budget for this trip. And you can get the cab and now. If you're like right up on it,

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I can't wait March 2027. Wow. It's going to be, it's going to be the cruise of the year. Sailing takes me away. Gosh. If I could sing like, I would be singing the entire time on this show

if I had that voice. I'm just going to keep doing a medley. Just sit right back and we'll tell at the Gilligan's Island. I can go on the cruise thing forever. So many great cruise songs. There is. All right, Jade's going to make a playlist

for us to listen to to get psyched for the cruise. Yeah. In the meantime, here's where you go. to learn more. There's a great trailer video. There's all the info you need, all the different cabins you can book. Go to Ramsey Solutions.com slash events to learn more and lock in your spot or click the link in the show notes. I am stoked. What was your favorite thing last time? My favorite moment from the,

okay, John Deloney and I had this hairbrained idea to do stand-up comedy. Oh, that's right. I almost forgot. It was 11 p.m. I went, who's even showing up for this at 11 p.m. Over 800 people. It was standing room only. That's right. In this venue. Yeah, I was shook by that. And that was, I peaked early. That was the best stand-up of my life. The people were having a great time. John Deloney did a killer set. And maybe we'll do it again. We'll see. I think you should. I think you should. It was awesome. And how about you? Any favorite memories? I think what stands out to me is Ken and I doing a dance battle. Oh, wow. I saw the video from that. He did. Let me say this. I didn't know that people were still doing the worm.

Yeah, exactly. And I'm not going to tell you. I was going to say don't tell which one of us did it, but now you know this. Ken calling it. So fun. Truly, truly. Come celebrate with us if your baby's step four or higher on the Live Like No One Else Cruise. Ramsey Solutions.com slash events.

Click the link in the show notes. Stoked. All right. J.D. is up next in Denver. J.D., thanks for, you know, allowing us to have a little fun there. What's your question today? Of course. I've just been through some pretty tough financial times recently,

and I just don't even know where to start and how to get back up. on my feet. Man, what's the thing on your mind right now when it comes to, hey, I don't know what to do next? Well, the biggest pressing issue is I was in a car wreck, and so it does not sound like insurance is going to be too kind to me because I did not have full coverage, and so reliable transportation so I can get back to working. Are you okay physically? I think so, like walked away and everything. But honestly, that's one of the last things on my mind. How recent was this?

Oh, that was on Monday. Oh, goodness. Oh, wow, this just happened. It hasn't even been a week. Yeah, and on Tuesday, I got laid off, so, you know, really good start to my week. I'm sorry. That is just... Is there like a JD voodoo doll out there?

Someone, like, just really, you burned them? Like, this is a lot of bad luck in one week, man. I'm so sorry. That's what I've been asking everyone, like, hey, did I do something? Really terrible without realizing it. That's just like it's coming for me. When Murphy hits, he hits hard. And so it feels like it's all coming at you at once.

So we need income and we need a vehicle. Yes. In that order, because it's hard to get a vehicle without the income. Do you have anything in savings? I've got about $400 or $706. Okay. And are you single? Yes.

Do you have roommates or are you living alone? Well, I was living in my van because, The one that got totaled? Fairly, yeah, a fairly similar thing happened in September. And luckily, my family was really kind to me. And they said, so long as I'm staying productive, I can say it. Their place ramp free until I get back up on my feet. That was a lifesaver.

So are you still there now? Yeah. Okay. What type of work were you doing that you got laid off from? So I was working industrial in conveyor belt repair for like mines and power plants. Okay, so maintenance, repair? Yeah, like field technician. If you were to look for a job in your area today, what kind of job would you be looking for?

Luckily, my experience is pretty vast, so I can go work for a lot of like material reprocessing sites, a lot of other industrial technician jobs. So I'm not too stressed about finding a new job. Good. When they laid me off, they gave me a recommendation letter. It was just due to them doing layoffs and me being like. lower on the list, Duke's seniority. Did they do severance? They did not, but they gave me recommendation letters and a whole list of places that

they're in good standing with that if I apply for, like, I could probably get a job on the spot. Okay, great. So really, it's just a matter of you doing your due diligence and locking in something as quickly as possible, but you and I both know there's just that lull of I get hired, I do all the training, I finally do work, and then I finally get paid, right? The first paycheck is easily six weeks away at the very least. So the good news is you've got a place to stay, right?

You've got a place to lay your head. The thing I'd be wondering about coming into this is because you mentioned your insurance, you were undercovered. I want to know, is there a bill coming your way for damages? So far it does not sound like it. It sounds like they, I'm so frustrated about the situation. They found 50-50 fault, even though it was not 50-50 fault. But it sounds like the coverage that I did have should cover the other driver's damages fully.

It's just I don't get anything for my damages because I only had liability. Okay. Have you been in touch with the adjuster? I tried calling her this morning, and we had a phone call, but it was not. very productive. Okay. I would try to move this part along so at least we know. We have some closure on what the next steps are. If you're going to get a check, if you're going to be in the red, if you're going to just be, you know, break even and be flat on this. But either way, we need transportation to get to that job that you will inevitably get. Can you borrow a car from family

or anything like that right now? No. I wish this had happened. Well, I wish this didn't happen the first place. But I wish this had happened like a year ago because my family got rid of all their old They had like five vehicles and traded them for just two new reliable vehicles. And of course, they use those to get to work every day. Cool. J.D., I'm also wondering, you seemed like you really were questioning the 50-50 fault. If you really do feel like I know I wasn't at fault on this, you might contact a lawyer and see what they say. I wouldn't spend a lot out of pocket at this point, but just get somebody's opinion. Maybe there's a family member that knows someone that you can run this by.

And in the meantime, it's time for some sidehouse. You are signing up for everything you can to get some income in the door to go buy a $2,000, $3,000, $4,000 car off Facebook marketplace in the next few weeks. Good luck, man. With interest rates finally dropping, now could be the window you've been waiting for to buy a home or refinance. But don't just rush and blind. Sit down with someone at Churchill Mortgage who will tell you the truth and walk you through a plan to position you better for long-term success. Listen, markets go up and down. That's nothing new. But the fact remains, building equity through home ownership is still one of the best ways for Americans to create safety and security in their lives. That's why I've recommended Churchill for decades. Their team of trusted advisors helps you build a simple, clear plan to buy or refinance a home the smart way. So don't let the market or headlines or experts, on the internet tell you when you're ready to buy or refinance a home. You can decide that

with guidance from a team who actually cares about your future. Go to Churchillmortgage.com today and start your plan. This is a paid advertisement, NMLSID-1591, NMLS ConsumerExist.org, Eagle Housing Lender. Michelle is up next in Raleigh, North Carolina. Michelle, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be on this one with you all. We're excited, too. How can we help? So really quick background. My husband and I bought our house in 2020.

He deployed last year, and we went from at that point 100,000 down to all round up to 57,000. We also saved up 10,000 for a porch. And then because of his deployment, we're getting $15,000, $16,000 back in taxes, which I know what you all say, like, you know, try to make it zero. And last year we owed. So I think it's just because of the deployment. And I, my husband and I are trying to decide, are we allowed to get a driveway or should we keep paying off the house?

So you want to take the $16,000 and put it towards paving your driveway? Yes. Okay. No other debt? No debt. just the mortgage. Do you have a savings aside from the 16K? Do you have like three to six months of expenses? Yeah, we have another 15,000 emergency fund. And then we have 10,000 saved up for the porch. And now we're getting the 16,000. So last night I was like, that's almost $40,000 like

we could, you know, pay a lot on the house. Like if I whittled down the emergency fund or we could just have fun. What's going on with the driveway? We're both getting tired. Just gravel and we would like concrete. Will it cost the whole $16,000 or what will it actually cost? Between 10 and 12. We're still giving quotes.

Now this is not like big chunks of money, but it's just things that I like to be in place before you do other fun things. Do you guys have life insurance? Yes. Do you, are you investing 15% into? Yeah. Okay. So you're doing, you've done all the things. You've literally, you literally have extra money.

Yes. Why not? You are allowed, Michelle. You've been blessed by the Ramsey gods. Congratulations. You get a new driveway. That is what I needed. You don't need our permission, but I understand.

We could keep going. Well, that's the thing. It's hard to let go of the gazelle intensity that you had and, you know, baby step two paying off consumer debt. And when you move to four, five, six, we say you move from intensity to intentionality. And so it's okay if the mortgage doesn't get paid off in five years, and instead it's five and a half. You are still doing better than 99.999% of America. And so the key is you have a goal and you're aiming toward it.

And so how much longer will it take to pay off the house at this rate? Three years. That's awesome. How old will you be then? I just turned 32, so 35. Do you know how weird that is to be 35 years old with a paid four? house. Amazing.

With no debt. Very nice. You're doing great. There's a point, Michelle, and I'll be honest, I struggle with this from time to time, but especially when you're doing a plan that's very intense, like the Ramsey plan, and the way the first few steps are, you do have to be intentional about flipping the switch in your brain where you're not just building your life, you're actually living your life. And I have had moments where I'm like, man, I need to actually enjoy the thing that I've created

instead of just like, let me just put this other brick in place, you know, like there's a point where you do have to stop and go, I'm just on the outside of this thing, creating it. I need to get on the inside and start enjoying it and start living it and start being a part of it and just, you know, enjoy the fruit of my labor a little bit. And I think that's where you're at and it's a great place to be. There's a time and a place for the intense and, you know, balls to the wall feeling. And then there's a time to put your feet up and go, Life is good. We've done good. Let's get that porch done. Let's get some concrete down. Congrats, Michelle. And please tell your husband, thank you for his sacrifice and service. I will. Thank you. You guys are awesome. Living the plan. That's what it looks like, right there. All right. Ryan is up next in Miami. What's going on? Ryan, how can we help today? Hi, thank you so much for having me. Sure. I have a quick question. I got a decision I'm trying to make, and I can't decide what to do.

I have some debt that I want to pay off, but I'm kind of a unique situation, so I don't know what to do. I have about $97,000 in student loans from law school. Shortly after I graduated, I fell backwards into some money by sheer luck. And I was told, you know, don't pay off the- What spot did you fall? I just had a curiosity. I'd like to visit that spot. What do you mean you fell backwards? Like, was it an inheritance that you didn't know about?

I got a personal injury settlement. I'm just short of a million dollars. Oh, wow. Are you okay? That's a serious payout. Yeah, I'm fine. Now, I got some arthritis in my knee. I got some injuries that are kind of unique for a young man to have. But, you know, all in all, I'm whole. Wow. Okay. I consider myself a very fortunate person. So where's your quandary? Well, I didn't know what to do with the money. You see, so the advice I got was to invest it, don't pay off the debt, and, you know,

use the growth or the return on the investment to pay off the debt over time. And, you know, I was in some kind of investment with a financial advisor. It didn't perform well. I didn't like it. I actually pulled the money out of that and ended up buying three single-family homes that I now leased to people. So my current plan has been to use the rental profit, you know, live off my base pay for my day job, use the rental profit to pay down their student loan debt. But I really hate making all these payments, and it's eating up all the money I make every month.

Did you buy the, you didn't buy the rentals in cash? I paid for them outright. Okay. Yeah, three single family homes outright. What are they worth? Let's see. one one's about 300 one is worth about

250 the other I would say high twos low threes kind of at 290 range probably what do they cash flow totally every month one rents for 1800 one rents for

1900 one rents for 2000 a month after homeowners insurance property taxes maintenance repairs about 37, $38,000 a year. Okay. And what's your base pay? Or how much are you bringing in from your job?

For my day job, my base pay is $70,000 a year before taxes. And then I just got a bonus. It's like a once a year bonus recently to $10,000. I mean, if you like these properties, you paid for them in cash. If they're cash flowing, I would. would just use your income and the cash to pay down this $97,000 bill. I mean, if you wanted to sell one of them off, you could. But I have a feel, I mean, it's just you, right?

There's no family. No wife. I'm a single guy. I'm 30 years old. I live in an apartment. Yeah, no wife and kids. Not even a dog. What do you have in savings?

What's your cash position right now? Let's see. In savings, I have about 90. 3,000 in a savings account and about 20 in a checking account. Well, you buried the lead, man. You could pay off your debt today. My worry is

I would like to get into a primary residence and own a house that I live in, so that's another hesitation I have. That's two different things. There's a time and place for that, but it's once you're completely debt-free and you have a fully funded emergency fund. And think about it.

Once you don't have these student loans, it's all pure cash flow. So you can save up a down payment real quick. And I might change my advice on that. Now that you throw the fact in that you want to get a personal residence, I might say, yeah, take the cash that you have, pay off the student loans, and then I might sell one of these properties to free up some cash. So you've got to, you've re-uped your emergency fund and now you have cash to come in and buy whatever house you get for you, that needs to be in cash. So maybe you're selling two of these properties to have what it is

that you truly want. And maybe that leaves you with one rental property. Because what I wouldn't want for you to do is to put a mortgage on your personal residence. And now you've got rent people living in paid for houses and you're not even living in a paid for house. Right. So maybe you sell off two of these to get what you want. I'm not mad at that. It's all about your timeline or urgency. If you really want your own home, then I think you might go, hey, I'm going to sell one of these because I don't want to have to save up for the next three or four years. That'll speed up the process. You have a lot of options. You've done a lot of things well, but you sort of became a landlord by default because some dude told you it would be a good idea. And so the good news is you have options,

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details. So if you want your paid-for car to keep going and going, trust Christian Brothers automotive, visit cbac.com slash Ramsey to find your local shop and get an exclusive Ramsey discount of 10% off your visit. 10% off, up to a $250 value. See store for details. Kelsey's in Austin, Texas up next. Kelsey, welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for taking my call. So I'm working the baby steps and I just need some advice. I am a real estate agent. And so all of my income runs through my business account. I have an S-Corp. And I like to keep about three months of my payroll in there just to keep my anxiety levels at a lower level, just in case like a month is slow or a deal falls through. I'm a single mom with two kids. So I guess I'm just wondering if that amount in my business

account would be enough to consider as a starter emergency fund or if I should have that starter emergency fund in a separate account. So I like that you're doing that. The only change that I would make is this is not an emergency fund. So whenever you're a person who's on irregular income, whether you're in real estate or just anything that has those major opportunities for fluctuation, it is smart to keep a month's worth or, you know, two months worth, whatever you feel like you absolutely need a side. Yeah, just in case something happens, a deal falls through or it gets pushed later. And that way you can continue to live your life. But that's not your emergency fund because that your emergency fund is there for the things that emergency funds are there for, something that's completely unforeseen,

something that's completely necessary and something that is completely urgent, right? That's your roof, you know, your car falls apart, that kind of thing. This is just part of your budget. This is just part of, in many ways, it's just an extended cushion for you letting your budget adjust to a regular income. So I would not, to clarify, you can have this money here. Maybe you take half of it and you have, you know, a month and a half. Only you know how much your income truly fluctuates and what you actually need there. But maybe there's some of that that could also go towards building a dedicated emergency fund. Okay. Yeah, I could definitely at least start the $1,000 just to have that there and then put some towards debt, especially once I have things like under contract, it feels a little safer.

How much debt do you have? I have $46,000. Yeah. What kind of debt is that? So, 22 of that is credit card from just putting my head in the sand after a divorce. And then $13,500 on a car, and then my AC went out over, like, Thanksgiving. So I had to put that one on a loan, so it's $10,000 on that. Ouch.

Okay. So do you have a business checking and a business savings account separate from your personal? I have, like, I run the profit first model in my business account, so I have a couple of accounts in there, so I stash a little bit away every month or every closing for profit, and then I have a personal checking. Okay, good. So they are separate. Yes. You're not doing this all from one bank account. No, yeah, I finally got all that in order a couple years ago. And how much do you have across your personal checking and savings that's not tied to your business? Sorry, can you repeat that? How much do you have a cross-checking and saving in your personal life?

Oh, I could probably have, well, I would have $1,000 in savings, and then personal is just obviously I pay myself every month, so I pay about $6,000 in payroll every month. So the good news is once you start paying down, so if you do $6,000 in payroll, what do you have $18 dashed aside? Is that what you have in your business? I like to stash 20 just because, like, with the payroll, there's taxes associated with it, So it works out to me about six months. Do you really feel like you need three?

I feel like you could get, I mean, only you know, I'm not trying to push you because I know that you're, this is your sole thing. But if you don't need three, I would knock it down a bit. And then the other thing is, the good news is once you start paying off this debt, the amount that that needs to be, because that should be a bare bones budget, not like your bells and whistles budget. You'll be able to knock that down because once you pay off the 10K, that's a payment. you don't need to make any more out of your budgeted money once you pay off the car. That's a payment you won't need to make out of your budgeted money. So as you're paying this debt down, you're also able to reach over and pull a little bit of that extra. Does that make sense?

Yeah. Yeah. Like right now my payment, my debt payments are like $600 a month. And then I think it's going to go up in June as long as, I mean, I'm going to try and get the smallest credit card knocked out. before, you know, before June, but then in June the AC loan, like it was 0% for the first few months and then it'll be 10%. So it's going to go up a little bit. So what's your current plan to pay off all the debt? What's the timeline and how much can you throw at it a month? I am throwing at it as much as I possibly can. I'm doing extra side hospitals on the nights that I don't have the kids and like just trying to throw everything at it. I just have gotten a little. I mean, this is my first month actually doing a budget in every dollar and like I thought I had it all planned out. And then. you know, things happened that I didn't account for. And so I was like, oh, man, I kind of missed

the mark this first month. Well, it takes a couple of months. I mean, just to be honest, it takes three months and some to really lock in. The first month is experimental, truly. And then after that, you kind of start learning your behavior and you should be locked in in the next 60 to 90 days for sure. Yeah. I would have a game plan to go, hey, my goal is to put $2,000 a month toward the debt, minimums plus extra. That gets me out of debt in 23 months. Once you start doing that, kind of math that shows me that you're serious about getting out of debt. Because now you kind of know the benchmark. You know if you're ahead or behind instead of just, well, hopefully I'll have some extra to throw at it. If life doesn't get crazy, you need to pre-decide, hey, no matter what

happens, this is what we're going to do. And then we'll shift everything else around it. The nice thing about real estate is if I have, like, you know, an extra closing, it can knock out a really big chunk of that. When's your next commission check? Do you know? My next commission check, is that we said? Yeah, when is that coming in? Tuesday. Woohoo. How much is that going to be? Yeah.

It'll be $6,000. Okay. Okay, good. So you have your month covered and, okay, good. I like this. Okay, so it sounds like you've got it set up. Like you've got the system set up. It's just now letting it start to work for you.

Yeah. Hopefully you can start making progress soon and every dollar will definitely help. Jenny is in Miami up next. Jenny, what's going on? Hi. Thank you for taking my call. So I'm a little nervous. My question is me and my husband, we have about 500,000 saved.

We've been saving for a home for quite some time. The issue is that we don't have much in retirement. I'm 40. He's 45. So I'm like really debating here if we should really put as much toward a home or we should allocate some more towards a retirement account. So that's kind of eating at me because we have a. bought yet. We're looking at the moment, but that kind of doesn't worry me. It doesn't worry me

him much, but me it does. Are you guys investing at all right now? Honestly, no. Like, I have, because I work for a hospital, so I believe it's a 4-3B, so there is money in there without me having put anything in there as of yet. 18, $18,000, I believe, are 19 for me, and I think on his is maybe $3,000. He just started contributing to that. Okay. What do you guys make a year? Well, this last year, gross was both of us a bit overtime about on $148,000. Awesome. Okay. And what's this house going to cost?

We're trying to stick to $600, but it is Miami. So it's definitely difficult, but we're trying to stick with that, even if it has to be some repairs or anything like that. So we're also having those things as well. Sure. And you're renting right now? What's your rent cost? You're going to think. $1,400.

Okay. We've been lucky. Yeah, that's amazing with your income. That's fantastic. And I'm thinking through this, you have $500,000 to put down. Does that include your emergency fund? Do you have a separate emergency fund from this $500? So back to everything.

That's everything across the board. We wouldn't put all that. We would definitely leave our majority of the fund. We haven't had about $40 would be less at minimum for the emergency fund. Right. So we put $460 down on a $600,000 home, for example, or $650,000. So you have a $150,000 to $200,000 mortgage, which is very reasonable for Miami. And the good news is you're going to be able to pay that off fast.

So here's the deal with the, should I put it toward retirement or not. I would suggest you guys start investing 15% of your $150,000 income today. Okay. And then put as much down on that house as you can. And here's the simple reason. It reduces the amount of mortgage you need, which in turn reduces the mortgage payment, which then frees up way more money to pay down the house. to live your life in the meantime. And so it's a good middle ground play right now because you guys

are 40 and 45. And so my guess is you end up paying this house off in the next seven years max. And the good news is if you keep doing what George said as you're investing 15%, if you invest 15% of your income starting now a little over 20,000 a year, you're going to have $2.6 million in retirement if you retire at 65. That's calculator numbers. That's not an opinion. And so that's the truth. The faster you get the house paid off, then you can max out investing. You'll be making more by then. I have no fear that you guys are going to be just fine if you become completely dead free and then you invest all of that margin you create. You know, every year I hear the same excuses for why people don't get the life insurance they need to protect their families. So this year, let's clear the air and look at the facts.

Having 10 to 12 times your income on a 15 or 20 year plan is in many cases, just plain cheap. That amount of coverage lets your family keep the lights on and keep food on the table while they're grieving. Second, life insurance through your work is not enough, especially since these plans go away if you change

jobs. You need to have your own policy so you're not without protection when your family really needs it. Third, stay at home parents need life insurance, especially those with young kids. People don't realize how quickly the cost sat up without

someone at home taking care of things. So no more excuses, folks. Get the protection your family needs. Go to zander.com or call 800356-4282. They've been my choice for all my insurance for over 25 years and are the only people I trust. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fairwinds Credit Union studio. I'm George Camel, joined by Ramsey Personality, Jade Warshaw. Open phones at AAA 825-225. Sarah is in Memphis up next. Sarah, welcome to the show. Hello. Hey, how can Jade and I help?

Hi. My question is, how should I be investing to build wealth, but also to leave an emotionally abusive relationship. Oh, gosh. How long has this been going on? This relationship has lasted going on four years. Are you safe right now? Yeah, absolutely. It's no physical abuse or any of that, but it's just too toxic for me to stay. I feel like I'm not evolving. Are you guys living together?

Yes. Okay. Okay. So what's your timeline? On what? On exiting the premises? It's not like, I would say I want to leave with definitely within the next like six months, six to eight months. Okay. Tell me what you think. Tell me what. what's precluding you from going now. Because when you say, how can I build wealth?

Wealth is different than I need first and last month's rent to be able to get into my own apartment. Wealth is like a 10, 20 year journey. And so right now it's, hey, what is the next step I need to take? What is the minimum amount I need to leave this situation? We'll get to wealth later. My dilemma right now is I have, I did have roughly like $10,000 saved. I've recently paid off my car and got rid of absolutely all my debt.

I'm waiting on my title in the mail. I currently have about $8,000 left in my account. The reason I didn't, my lease was up, the reason I moved in the retirement because my income at my job is quite low. I only make $17 an hour. So I was a little bit worried about getting an apartment just due to the requirements.

Okay. And so I'm trying to figure out if I should be like investing with $8,000, like maybe buying a quadplex. No. Living one. Okay. I like that's what I'm trying to around. Let me say this back to you.

Let me say this back to you and make sure I've got it. So you've got zero debt at this point. You've got $8,000 cash, $17 per hour. What's that equate to a month? What do you bring in after taxes every month? I think around like $2,300. Okay. So no to your thing about investing.

Right now cash is your friend. You need liquid money because you're trying to get a place. I would in the $17 per hour are you working 40 hours a week or are you part time how many hours do you do? Yeah I work a little under 40 maybe like 36 hours Okay and okay What kind of work are you doing?

Medical assistance Okay so are you wanting to stay in that field No I'm currently looking for jobs to expand my income right now To hopefully like build my savings account Well, yeah, I'm saying, are there, you know, the next step rung on the ladder in the medical world from assistant to XYZ? Can you move up in the field and place that you're in right now? Or is this it? No.

I've tried. Do you know what, you know, I think a lot of your skills would transfer in the medical field to other assistant work, because you could be an executive assistant and go make 70, 80 grand. Okay. So I don't want you to just limit yourself going, well, this is the only. only thing I can do. You've got to think about what skills can transfer. And I'm going to give you our friend Ken Coleman has a great tool and resource called Find the Work You're Wired to do. And it comes with a get clear career assessment. And that will actually lay it all out for you. And so that will help you immensely. And then on top of that, do you have any community right now,

friends, family nearby? No, that's the problem. I don't, I don't have anyone to like, you know, stay at their house for that amount of time or help me out in this situation. So kind of was like this was kind of on the option. Well, I'm wondering. Can you get a roommate even? That's what I'd say. I'd be looking at rent in your area and what you can, and think about it through the lens of a roommate. It's like, okay, who can I split this with? Because I think if you can get a roommate, and I'm not saying you live like that forever, but this is just for you to get out of a toxic environment to your own point. And to get someplace where it's a split cost,

that's what I'd be looking for. That's the research I do tonight. Have you done that? Any research on apartments? I've already tried that option and yes, I have been looking for apartments. Honestly, the roommate situation probably is unrealistic in my case. I don't have anybody. I was looking about renting a room like the Airbnb or something like that. And how much does that cost? I haven't gotten to practice yet.

I was thinking about doing that as of today. That's why I think that's a good starting point. See what it'll cost you. I mean, the cheaper, the better, cheap and safer are the two things that you're looking for and it's just you right yeah okay okay i know you don't have people close to in your life but i would jump on some local facebook groups and you can see their photo their name and say hey can we meet at this coffee shop and see if this is a good fit so i know it's a scary step but it's a much safer step than the situation you're in right now and the truth is you can't afford an apartment on your own

right and so that's the next step and then we can work on the work and career piece to get that income up. But right now, $2,300, you can survive if you can split a two-bedroom at $6,000, $800. Yeah, right. And so that would be my next step. Is roommate followed by income? And do you have a separate bank account, separate from your partner? Absolutely, yeah.

Okay, good. And they don't have access to it. They don't know your passwords. No. Do you have, like, shared location services on, on your phone? No. No, I'm pretty good. I'm pretty clear to exit if I can figure out what I can afford, but I just wanted clarity on if I should be focusing on investing and that would be my way to move out.

I would not invest a dime. So in the steps, you'd go, hey, I don't have any debt. Now I need a fully funded emergency fund of three to six months of expenses, and then I can begin investing. But right now, we need some stability in a foundation. So you're close. If you can get your income up and get in a safe situation with where you're staying and get the emergency fund, now we're cooking with gas.

Now we have the recipe to build wealth. Because right now one emergency could tank you, and now you have no money to build wealth with. Okay. So you're doing all the, the right things. I would not wait six months, Sarah. I would be gone by this weekend. Yeah, once you find an Airbnb or once you find a roommate, in many ways, I think your chances are better. Well, they're both the same thing. If you rent a room on an Airbnb, you have a roommate,

and this is somebody that you don't really know very well, and you're up in their place. But the good news is you can, if it doesn't work out, you could easily move to someplace else versus a roommate. I guess you'd be locked in lease-wise. So I kind of see what you're doing there. I think for you, the ultimate thing is the price on it. Because usually, in order to make progress, we don't want rent to go over, you know, 25, 30% of our take-home pay. For you, that's a very low number at $2,300 a month. Talking like $600. Yeah.

So, yeah, $600, $700 range. Luckily, you have no debt way to go on that. But that's what I'd be looking for, if at all possible. Okay. Okay, natural. I understand. Thank you. You bet. You're welcome. I'm wishing you the best getting out of the situation.

Jade, when it comes to abusive situations, it's so easy to tell yourself, well, it's not that bad. And I can just wait another six months. I'll be okay. You never know when people are going to shift into another gear. That's my thing. Yes. You need to get out. And she's taking all the right steps on the financial side. She's got no debt. She has separate accounts from this partner. She's got some money in the bank. Now is the time to go. have some random arbitrary number. Once I have $12,000, then I'll feel comfortable. That's you justifying why you're going to stay in the situation. You need to be out. And if you need to call a hotline, you need to get into a woman's shelter, you do whatever you need to do to get out of that

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Sarah is in Boise up next. Sarah, what's going on? Hi, thank you for taking my call. Sure. So I'm in crisis mode, and my question is, how do I manage my husband's business since he had a stroke about a month ago? Oh, my goodness.

What is his current health? physically he's doing very well it was a large stroke and somehow physically he's good but the area of his brain that was most affected affects his reading writing understanding of spoken language and ability to speak accurately Sarah I'm so sorry so he's not available to consult with yeah I mean your life flipped upside down overnight yeah wow so what is the the pressing thing that, like, I got to figure this out tomorrow? He is a business owner, and he has one employee. He does, my husband does pretty much everything for the business, and his employee is not able to take over. What kind of business is it?

Essentially, it is a pilot school. Okay. Is there a physical location? Like, give me a picture of all the things tied to this business. So he has several airplanes that are housed at a local airport, and he pays leases to have slots for those airplanes and hangers. And so he pays those leases by check every month. He has an employee who is not getting paid because my husband's not here to run payroll. Do you have any knowledge of all of that?

Is this something you could even step? Even if you wanted to, you had the capability. Is this something you could go, all right, I can figure this out. I can pay the bills. I can handle payroll. I know enough of who to contact to figure out what to do. My problem is we don't have power of attorney or anything set up, so I don't have access to his business finances.

What I do have is a wad of cash that he keeps around, and I can pay the leases by cash until he gets out of the hospital and can come home and can do it through the business, yes. Wow. So he's still in the hospital? Yes. And he'll be there for the next one to three months. So I just need to keep it going for a few months until we see where things are going to land. And he has enough communication ability. You know, he's been trying to communicate to me about his work. but there's a lot of guessing what he's trying to say he can't get it specifics

so I'm just trying to keep things going as he's recovering and hoping that we'll be able to talk about it in a few months I just don't want everything to fall down is this your only source of income no I make a good income and I can cover our personal expenses

good how much are you making significant 150,000. Okay. Okay. So the biggest concern is there could be leases piling up that are past due and you wouldn't know, you wouldn't be receiving them because they might be in his email or something that's password protected, right? Correct. Okay.

I did get a bill in the mail from a mechanic. Okay. And so I could just call them, but I can't pay it out of the business. I can either pay it by cash or out of our business. personal accounts. Do you guys have any money saved, you guys, aside from the business? We have about $2,000 left. I've used $3,000 of it on business expenses so far. Okay. So, yeah, I would kind of start, this is very tough. You're not lying that this is, this is a tough situation. I would start by compiling as many folks as you can. I would sit down with the employee

and I'd be like, what do you know? Tell me anything you know. If there's any numbers for anybody that you have, please give them to me. And I would just start trying to, you're almost a detective on this, trying to figure out the mechanic. I'd contact them and say, do you know of any, tell me what you know and just derive as much as you can. Because you might find, yeah, I know you said there's no power of attorney, but you might find out that maybe he was working with somebody that was just kind of helping him with some of the accounting or some of the numbers. Okay. And then the next thing, I'd be talking with the doctors and saying, what's the timeline for us to understand his recovery? What can we expect in the next couple weeks regarding speech? Those sorts of things.

Do you have an estate planning attorney? No. Okay. I would contact one today and say, hey, what are my options here? Because one option, if he can't understand or communicate decisions right now, then you likely need to go to court to request guardianship or a conservatorship. and so the judge would have to grant you legal authority. And if he is able to, you might have a shot here to get that power of attorney. So the estate planning attorney can help with that step, and that's a big step. That unlocks a whole lot for you to be able to manage and run this business and just keep it stable.

As, you know, just get the bills paid. Is the employee, are they aware that, hey, you're not going to get a paycheck? There's no money coming in to pay you with. Yes. Yes. I've let him know that I don't have access to that. And he said that he will do everything that he can and continue working. And that if he reaches a financial point that he can't continue, then he'll just get a second job.

Okay. And keep doing his part of the business and logging his hours because he knows that we will make good on it. I'd also look into, since your husband's been paying him, if you know even what bank your husband's using, if you can get with an attorney and say, let's go to the bank, let them know what's going on so we can get access into this account. I think there's those things that I would do to just, I mean, obviously you're in a situation where this person cannot verbalize what they need. So working with the lawyer to get access is going to be what you're going to need to do.

Are you a joint owner on anything? How would you use that cash? If, okay, so let's pretend, let's play that out. Let's pretend you get with a lawyer, you go down to the bank. They're like, oh, okay, we see what's happened. Yes, you're obviously legally married, whatever, whatever. You get into the accounts. Then I'd work with, then I'd be hiring somebody to say, help me understand what we have here.

Is there money? Can you look back? Can we now look at a past tax return to find out kind of what the situation is with the business? Then from there you can decide, is this something I can keep up? Is this something we maybe need to sell? By then you've heard from the doctors about recovery. So there's part of this. It's kind of like a puzzle that has to come together for you to decide,

is this going to be something that you're going to keep or is this something that needs to be sold and maybe in the distant future he can reopen this again based on his knowledge but not based on the previous business okay yeah man i'm sorry that this is happening this is this is really you got a new full-time job of just trying to track all these things down and it's not a fun thing to deal with it's not something anyone could even plan for sarah so i'm so sorry you're going through this i'm glad that you at least have an awesome income on your own and can cover all the bills. Do you have any margin each month just on your income alone? We are still paying off our personal debts, so all of our margin is going into that. How much debt do you have between personal, the business, everything?

Well, I don't know about the business debts. I don't know. I don't think that there's any business debt, but as far as personal debt, there's a car loan for $34,000. Okay. And a credit card for $2,000. I would look into selling that vehicle if you can, you know, even make what it's worth. You know, if you can get $34 for it, do you have another vehicle? Yes, but it needs work. How much work?

I don't know. I don't know anything about mechanics. Okay. But I'm just wondering if you can sell that, you just... Before this happened, my husband told me it was unsafe to drive. Okay. Well, I would do some homework. You can jump on Kelly Blue Book website and find the private party value for that car.

You'll just type in the VIN number for the vehicle and answer a few things. It'll tell you what the car is worth. And if you can sell that, you free up that car payment. So what is that car payment every month? $500. So you just get $500 a breathing room. And now we can, if the repair is $1,000, great. Let's go ahead and do that.

That is well worth it to free up $500 a month forever. And so there's all these pieces. You have a lot of variables that are in your control, and that's all you can do right now, is focus on what you can control and bring in all the community you can find, bringing in all the professionals and experts at your disposal to help you through this.

You do not have to do this alone. I'm wishing you the best navigating your husband's health issues, the business, and just the grief of what the next chapter of your life looks like. Thanks for the call, Sarah. Hey, guys, George here. Listen, just because it's 2026 now, doesn't mean 2025's ideas all go away. Some things are timeless. Like if you want to win with money, it's still the same playbook. Budget like your money depends on it, avoid debt like $10 lattes,

and build wealth on purpose. But here's the truth almost nobody tells you. Most banks make money when you lose yours. They want you swiping, overdrafting, and racking up fees because that's how they stay rich while you stay broke. And that's why I tell people to go with Fairwin's credit union instead. They actually want you to win with money and become debt-free. And their smart bundle gives you a no-feet checking account, a high-yield savings account, and my favorite, the new Ramsey-branded debit card that says debt is normal, be weird, right on the front. It's not just a piece of plastic with your money attached, it is a declaration. It says you're not buying the lie anymore. You're taking control of your money for real. So this year, forget the gimmicks from the big banks, forget so-called rewards that

keep you broke, and instead partner with a credit union that actually backs you working the baby steps. Go to fairwinds.org slash Ramsey to get started. That's fairwins.org slash Ramsey, insured by the NCUA. Up next, we've got Jennifer in Memphis. Jennifer, welcome to the show. Hi. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. What's your question today? My question is, how best do I approach a conversation with my husband

who recently purchased a home as an investment without telling me? had no knowledge, didn't know it was a plan. It came up fast, I guess, and called me after he did it. And my question around that is how best to approach that conversation. Do I approach it from a financial perspective of understanding, can we do this? Or more so in the fact of the personal side. I'm struggling being a numbers person focusing on the financials. rather than the emotional side.

That's my question on how best to approach that. When did this happen? Yesterday. Oh, listen. This takes impulse purchase to a new level. This is wild. I applaud you. The fact that you had enough self-control

that would be like, I'm not going to even mention this. You've held this to a radio conversation. I applaud you because I would have been like, what? So good job. That's great. How did this all come up?

about as far as him telling you, like, what, what happened here? Well, so long story short, he is a, this is his goal. He wants, he's good at it. The man has a 2% error rate in life, which frustrates me. Um, but he, he's got a hundred percent error rate with his marriage. Yeah, well, how mad are you on a scale of one to ten? How much does this just like, hack you off? You know, it's surprising to normally it would like, I'd lose it. Um, the fury is not my normal. So I'm trying to like listen and go, is this an opportunity to have a discussion? Because we do struggle with his impulse control.

Okay. Because he is a very, he's a very smart person. The fact that you're not shocked by this tells me there's been a pattern of this, your whole marriage. This is the biggest. Usually I'm involved, but we've done some pretty high stakes investments that he researched. He's smart. So he's not impulsive, I wouldn't say. Hold on.

He has a high risk threshold. And you trusted it. He's impulsive. He bought a house without telling you on a whim. Well, it wasn't a whim. So come to find out, he's known about this. He's researched it. It was an auction. Okay.

How much? $750,000. Oh, man. Was it cash? No. We have very good net worth. What is it? My net worth.

Yeah. about two to 2.1 million. Is it all real estate or is some of that? Can you tell us what that is? Yeah, majority real estate. We have very good equity in our home. And then we have an investment in some land that's in high, very nice area. So it's worth quite a bit.

And then we've got some other assets. So our cars are paid off. Okay, good. What debt do you guys have? So when I say they're paid off, we do have a loan on one of them. So I shouldn't say that. We do have a loan on one of them, but it's going to be paid off here soon. So total debt is $798,000.

And that's including this? $690,000. Well, now it's double that because there's a $750,000 mortgage. Does that include the new one? No. What's the mortgage on that? The new one? Well, so we have.

haven't closed on a loan yet. But it was $750, right? Yeah. Okay. Okay. So the first question you asked was do I approach this from basically the dollars and cents side or the emotional relational side? I would go, the dollars and cents side is kind of like goes without saying. I think I would go first for the emotional relational side since honestly that's the most important problem at hand is if you're going to do these approaches, I understand what our history has been. I am not, the point is not to insult intelligence here. The point is to say that I'm part of this marriage. And when we make decisions like this and I'm not included, I feel like I'm not a voice that matters.

That's what you're telling me is my voice doesn't matter. And I need to know is that how you actually feel because that's the way you're acting. So I would make him understand that what you're, what you're. feeling is not consistent what you think his intention towards you is. Does that make sense? And that that's not going to work for you going forward. So I would get pretty strong on this because in my mind, and I'm not trying to project onto you, but in my mind, if you can call me right after the deal, you could have called

me right before the deal, right? It's the same amount of time. Nobody, you know, and I understand it was an auction. Yeah, I thought he wouldn't get it. because he texted me actually is how he told me. I think he legitimately didn't think he did it. But this is not a Pokemon card on eBay that I bid on and went,

oh my gosh, babe, I won. But the fact that he was even going to an auction means I have the intent to purchase something. And once the auction starts, here's the truth. Once the auction starts, sure, you could be like bidding and be like, I don't have time to text, I'm bidding. But when you knew, I think I'm going to go to an auction today,

that's the time you email and go. I'm thinking about going to an auction today. here's the property I'm thinking about bidding on. If we get it, here's the extent that I'm willing to bid to. What do you think about that, right? That's a conversation that should have had. He knows that. Go ahead and remind him of it.

And I would just, I think, Jennifer, for you, you're going to have to decide how serious you're going to be about this because, to George's point, seems like there's been a bit of a pattern. And it's not to say that he's not a smart guy or doesn't, hasn't had great luck or great outcomes with his knowledge. I'm not saying that, but it's not put you in a place of mattering, and you do matter. And that's the part that needs to be figured out here. Now we can go back, once that's deciphered, now we can go back and talk about, okay, keeping this house. What's it going to turn into all that stuff? But first and foremost, how much do you matter in this relationship when it comes to our money? I think that's where we've struggled our whole lives,

I'm risk adverse and he's obviously risk taker. And we've always struggled with the fact that he does do his research. He does. He's willing to take a risk. But Jennifer, that's not the problem. You being risk averse and that's not the problem. That's just you guys having personalities. The problem is your vote weighing and mattering when it comes time for the rubber to meet the road in a decision.

That's the piece. So don't your challenges, because I can, like I said, You're very, very patient. But your challenge is going to be when you have this conversation, not to get bogged down in those minutia, right? Because that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how smart he is. It doesn't matter how risk averse you are. None of that matters.

What matters is, do I matter? Does my opinion matter? Because so far it has not. And that is not okay with me going forward. And if this continues to go forward, here's what that's going to look like on my end. That's what you have to decide. And that's a firm conversation. So that's my advice to you.

And again, I can't say it enough. Has nothing to do with smarts or not smarts. I don't care if he won the lottery. This is still financial infidelity. I mean, think about if this was a person. He went, well, he didn't cheat on me impulsively. He's been talking to this girl for months. That doesn't make it better, does it?

No. And so if he... He was looking at this house, you should have said, hey, you know, I've been looking at this property. I think it could be a really great investment. Here's what I'm thinking. You guys aren't communicating at all when it comes to money. I mean, my wife and I don't make purchases over $500 without talking about it first, let alone $750,000. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I don't make anything without asking. I think, again, this is the first time he's done without telling me. It's always been he's brought it to me and then I tell him no.

Which is why you got to put the line in the sand on this, because what you don't want is for this to be seen as, oh, that wasn't that bad. I could maybe do this again. This is you putting your stake in, putting your line in the sand. Hey, do you earn? Are you a contributor of money in the house? Okay.

I just wanted to check on that. I think that's the hard part. We have substantial annual income. And he, you know, he uses, the debt, obviously, to build wealth and he has. He's built... Fine, fine, fine, fine. All of that.

Fine, but you need to make sure he understands, and you need to understand, too. This is not a money conversation. Has zero to do with prior success. You cannot let the conversation go in that direction. It's about respect on your name. That's it. Well, Jade, we just took a call where the husband bought a house without telling his wife. Unreal.

Pretty wild. And, you know, Buying or selling your home is a big deal. It's the biggest financial decision you'll ever make. And with all the clickbait headlines and conflicting data out there, it's hard to know what is actually happening with the housing market. So we are here to make the latest trends easy to understand. We've seen mortgage rates dip, which is nice.

We've 30 year for the first time in a while is under 6%. And 15 years, been dipping down along with it, which is nice. So if you want to learn more about the housing market trends and get free tools to help you buy or sell with confidence, go to ramsysolutions.com slash market or click the link in the show notes if you're listening on podcast or YouTube. All right, let's get to the phones. John joins us in Portland up next. John, welcome to the show.

Good afternoon, gentlemen, and Ms. Jade there. Thanks for including me in that. I was concerned. I was happy to be called gentlemen. You're a hoot on the show. I enjoy listening to you guys almost every day. Oh, thank you. How can we help?

So I'm looking to get engaged with this young lady that I've been dating about nine months. And I'm just getting into figuring out her financial situation. And it's really a freaking mess to be an understatement here. Oh, boy. So she's co-living with her mother, her sister that is married, her other sister that is married. And, of course, herself. And they all co-signed signatures and such and incomes to be able to afford and purchase a home together. Whoa.

Six of them? So they're all on the deed. They're all on the mortgage. Right. They're all in this mortgage. And then there's a food truck business that they run as a family business and there's other incomes. And then there's private and business credit cards all mixed together. And my girlfriend's credit score is tied to all of these as a co-signer.

and two auto loans that she's also tied to. Oh, boy. Okay. So I'm going, okay, so if in six months, if I was hoping for a spring or summer wedding here, that like I cannot join finances with over $100,000 of small bets and a house that I have zero equity or input in. I don't think she has equity in any of those things. She's been coaxed into signing as a co-signer and all of those things. things, but does not have equity in any of those things.

How much of this does she understand? It sounds like you are well-versed in the world of finance, and I'm worried she just is like, oh, I didn't understand all this. I just signed because it was family, and I thought it all worked out. I don't know if she understood the weight of when you sign a co-sign a loan like that, how much are you on the line for? I don't think she really understood that. She doesn't understand that if they all default, that it all reflects on her.

and that she could be the one that's responsible for all of it. Correct. So there's another curveball here. One of the sisters has cancer, and so her and her husband aren't really working. And so they're kind of like soaking up some out of the household. They kind of pool their money together in the house. And her mother wants to go back to Mexico. So she's Mexican, but I don't think debt companies can chase you,

and collectors can chase you once you're on the other side of the. the border kind of an idea is from my understanding. So her mother is, you know, obviously participating and created some of this debt. And I think that they're all going, oh, well, now she's found this nice guy. In other words, me. Okay. Let's not go. What do I do with this?

Let's let me go back to what I think is the most important things first, because there's a lot here. I'll try to tackle some of them. I know George will tackle some of them. So first things first is the conversation where you're kind of getting her to understand your fears around this. And then, and only then if she's in a space to move forward, here's what I would say is the ultimate goal. The goal is to find out first, hey, this mortgage situation, who can buy you out? Like, who can buy out your portion so that you can get your piece? and can we get folks to refi and get you out of this?

Because that's the only way is to refy this mortgage so she's not on it. So that must happen. It must happen. Same thing with these auto loans. This is, it's just so serious. So that conversation of her understanding that, that's why I say that's like paramount to this entire thing working because after that she's going to have to have some serious conversations of I need to refy the mortgage, I need to refy these auto loans, and I need to

find out how to get my name off of these credit cards because if I were in your shoes, I don't think I would move forward with marrying her until that's done because you are going to get, that's a horrible way to start off your marriage, period. It's just going to cost problems. Is she willing to essentially be exiled by her family? Does she want out of this? Or is she like, no, everything's great. I like everything that we're doing right now. She honestly has confided me that she's very stressed about the financial situation

because I explained to her a lot more of the depth of like, you don't have equity to play with as a bargaining chip. It's not even about equity. You're only stuck with the liability. It's not, yeah, it's not even about the equity. I think that that's burying the lead a little bit. The biggest, the thing that you guys have to be, most concerned about is the risk on her life when these people stop being interested in paying,

especially because there's so many involved. It's very easy for Bob to go, you know what, I'm not working in this season. It's okay. Five hundred people are paying it. Mom goes to Mexico and goes, good luck, guys. Now what? Now she's on the hook for everything and collectors are coming after her and suing her. And that's what she's up against right now. That's the thing you need to be laser are being focused on is the risk. Forget equity, forget any of that other stuff. It is risk, risk, risk on her head right now. And so to start to reduce some of that risk, I looked at like, yo, you guys need to sell these cars because one of their, their cheapest car, they are at an 18% interest rate on it. And so I was like, you guys cannot be paying $750 a month on a 2018

Nissan Pathfinder. Yes, you're right. They need to sell it. They're underwater. They're underwater by a 5K on that one. They got offered eight for it. I was like sell it, but they don't have any money to pay off the loan so the dealership will take the car. Then whoever's, whoever it is that's driving the car needs to see if they can

get a loan for the difference. And they need to be selling it private party. The dealership's always going to give you a super low ball offer. Correct. Yeah, they have to have their margins. So they might actually be able to sell it for what they owe on it if they sold a private party instead of going to the dealership.

The people who screwed them over and begin with. I think they owe just about even with KBV on the vehicle. Do they need it to get from A to B? No, so I'm a mechanic for a living. I was like, look, I'll find you a Toyota Camry that needs a water pump and a timing belt for $1,500, put $80 of parts in it and ship it, and you guys can have reliable transportation. Who's is it?

Is it the sister? Is it the sisters? No, this is what my girlfriend drives and her mother and who, whoever else needs the car. So, okay, so it's your, for all intents and purposes, it's your girlfriend's car. Correct. So what you need to do is you need to go with your girlfriend and say, hey, we're getting alone. Once we find out KB, if there's a difference, we're getting alone for the difference.

And then we're going to sell this and you're going to get your mom and your sister to agree to that immediately. Is that the case for both cars, by the way? Yeah, so there's another, there's a 2024 Dodge Roj. Ram 1500 La Rammy that they have. They're paying about $1,000 a month for on the payment, and they owe $385 on it, and it's got to praise the dealership last week for 34. And who's the main driver? That's one of the one of her brother-in-law drives that mostly. And so, and he's currently not working, so I don't know how he gets the privilege to be driving the vehicle. Are they all like chipping in to cover all these payments? Correct. They kind of just pull all their money in a pot and

pay bills out of that. And some months they have enough for all the stuff. Okay. Okay. I'm going to be straight up with you. There's so much toxic codependence happening here. Well, well.

Oh, yeah. Yes. Yes. But I think what you more, like we can look at it on the outside and say toxic code depends. But it sounds like it's a, it could be a cultural thing of this is just how we survive and this is what we're used to.

Your work is cut out for you. And I don't know if you're going to be able to win this battle, my friend. This is deep, deep, deep, deep, deep. This is going to be a part-time job for you just to help her. She's going to need to pull her a credit report and go line by line and go, how do we get you off of this? How do we get you off of this?

Explore all the options. And then she's going to have to fight with the family and be excommunicated for ditching them in their time of need. And I don't know if you want to be the guy who's responsible for that. Welcome back to the Ramsey show in the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio. I'm George Campbell, joined by Jade Warsha. open phones at AAA 825-5-2-2-25. Jake joins us next in Madison, Wisconsin. Jake, welcome to the show.

Hey, thanks for having me. Absolutely. What's going on? So I am in the process of building myself a house and looking for some guidance on if I should take the 15-year mortgage option where the payment is about 31% of my monthly pay, or should I take some of my six-month emergency fund and try to get that down to like 29%

or is there some other route I should try to pursue? Cool. What's the house going to cost? Total, what we're tracking at right now is about $380,000 all set and done. Okay. And how much are you going to put down? So I've already put about $180,000 down of my own money to get the project started before I even went to the bank. How much more do you need to get it percentage-wise to where you want it to be? I believe it's close to 20,000, which I do have. That would just be most of, like I said, a six-month.

It would be most of it? What would it take your emergency fund down to as far as months? About two. Okay. The most I would personally be comfortable with is three months. If you're like, hey, I'm going to take three months of the fund out, leaving three months, in there and then I'll restock it once we move in, you're going to be okay. And so that's not on fire. And if it's 29% nothing is on fire because the truth is your income will go up over time.

Sure. Right? And so that percentage will go down. Yeah. And the other thing is when we talk about the 25% parameter, which for everyone listening, we tell people, hey, if you're going to buy a house, do it once you're out of debt with an emergency fund, you've got a solid down payment and make sure that you get a 15-year fixed rate conventional loan, where the payment is no more than a quarter of your take-home pay. But when we say that, you've got to remember, this is after-tax, but before other deductions. So we're not going to include the, you know, 15% in retirement. We're not going to include the health care premiums. It's just after-tax. So have you done it based on that math?

I would say not entirely. I was doing it more so including like the 15% that I would have in retirement and all that. Okay. Because then my guess is once you redo the math, you'll go, oh, it's actually like 20% of my after-tax income, but before the deductions. Yep. Okay. Good. That makes sense. So you're in great shape, man. I'm proud of you. How did you do this? So I had a house on 30 acres previously that I sold for quite a bit more than I owed on it. I was able to take those proceeds, pay off my car, and then my parents were kind enough to let me and my girlfriend live in their basement while we're building this house.

and basically every month that we've been there, I've been able to set aside quite a bit of cash to kind of get the savings muscle down. And you're completely dead free? Yes. Fantastic. Man, green lights over here. Congrats on the new house. I hope the build goes smoothly. Hope it's on time.

Is it on track so far? Yeah, we're about three months ahead of schedule. Wow. We're some technically now in general contractor. My dad is helping me with that. He's like an inspector, so he's got all the schedule. the certifications for that. So I've been able to do a lot of it myself and kind of cost savings all over the place here. Yeah. Yeah. Cost and time savings. Time savings has been the big one for sure.

Yeah. Well, congrats, man. Super excited for you. Best of luck with the big move and finishing the construction. Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate the insight and the discussion. Happy to do it. That's, that's what you want. That's a good best case scenario right there. Good for him. I'm happy for him. If you're arguing about, is it 28% or 25%? It's the right argument. Yeah. Versus most people who just go, well, we just needed a house, and it's 54% of our take-home pay. We're like, oh, my goodness.

This is a hard one to crack. All right. Nora is in Nashville up next, right down the road. What's going on, Nora? George and Jade, I am just calling because, sorry, of course, somebody tries to call me as soon as I'm on the school. Who can be more important than us? Put him to voicemail.

Nobody is more important. Unless it's my husband or my kids. Truth. There's a lot of people ahead of us. So I came to the event and actually, Jade, you gave me your book. Nice. I'm the one who asked the questions. I gave it to you from the stage?

From the stage. I remember you. Yep. Yeah, yeah. So it lit a fire and the next Tuesday we joined Financial Peace University. Yay! So we're trying to get our emergency fund together and like things are so, tight, but I just started selling stuff on Facebook marketplace. And so since the 14th,

I've gotten $2.30.52. Way to go. Way to go. And I'm still selling stuff. Someone's coming at like 4 o'clock to get something else. Got to take that call. So once I get that $1,000, I was looking at the every dollar app, and it looks like I should pay my IRS debt first before I attempt. my smallest debt. Is that true? Yes, ma'am. Okay. How much is the IRS debt?

It's $2,266. Mm-hmm. Good. Yeah, that's one debt that always jumps to the top of the list no matter what, because it's just such a volatile situation to be in. And so we want to get you out of that as soon as possible. So, yeah, that or if you had back rent or back mortgage, those things would jump to the top of the list.

How much other debt do you have? So we have about 62,500 and yeah, that's it. Great. So what can we help you with? What can we help you with? Was it just the IRS thing or was there something else? Well, I mean, I make good money, pretty good money like my husband and I together, make about 117. But I've just been really irresponsible, like I said at the event.

and it's just trying to like get my behavior on track. Have you seen some traction? Yeah. Like I haven't used my credit cards. I haven't been on like Clarna or PayPal paying for. Did you cut up the credit cards? Cut all of them up. Great.

Great. Now do you want to know what I would help if I were in your shoes? If I had a problem with impulse spending things like Buy Now Pay Later, Clarna, I would do a couple of things. A, I would start with my phone. because that's usually the thing that speaks to us the most. Obviously, unsubscribe to all the ads. I would take Amazon off my phone.

I would take those apps. Anything that's an app, I would take it off my phone that has the ability to purchase things with, just so it's not talking to me all day long, you know? Okay. And I would really... I'm subscribing to, like, the emails that get sent, you know, like from all the places that I've bought from before.

I'm like, okay, let's just unsubscribe from all this. It gets addictive. When you start to go, look how many inputs are just trying to get my money from me. It's pretty wild. Yeah. And I'd set up notifications that notify my spouse when money is spent both ways. So you get the little text when a transaction comes out of the bank and so does he. It's just an added layer of accountability and transparency because it's easy to go through the drive-thru when you're thinking, oh, I can just go through, I'll get these fries, so-and-so probably won't see it, I can get away with it. But if you know their phone is going to light up,

with the, you know, notification. $5.95 spent out Wendy's, then you're less likely to do it. Oh, that's my favorite. I get all the transactions texted to me. And so I'm always texting my wife. What's this? What was this about?

Or usually it's more like, would you get at McDonald's? Oh, yeah. Have you had your, looks like you had your break today. Did you get some for me? That's always, you have enough for the whole class? Yeah. That becomes a fun discussion once you're not broke and out of debt.

So we're rooting for you, North. Thank you so much. If you're holiday ham, to last longer than your New Year's resolutions, then I got a fresh challenge for you. Make this the year you take control of your financial future with an actionable plan. Sound intimidating? You don't have to do it alone.

SmartVester pros are financial advisors who can walk you through what you need to know about retirement planning, wealth management, and anything in between. Find a pro near you at ramsysolutions.com slash smartvester. Ramsey Solutions is a paid non-client promoter of participating pros. more at ramsysolutions.com slash smartvesters. The Ramsey Show question of the day is brought to you by Y-R-R-R-R-E-Fi.

You don't have to stay stuck in defaulted private student loans forever. Y-R-R-R-E-F-R-E-F-E-Lones, take back control with affordable refinancing options that actually work. Learn more at Y-R-R-E-F-Y dot com slash Ramsey. That's Y-R-E-F-Y-N, not available in all states. Oki-Dokie. Today's question comes from Vince in Rhode Island. He says, my wife and I are buying a used car, but instead of paying cash. We're thinking of leveraging the debt, considering we can get a low interest rate. We'd invest the 30,000 into Vanguard funds and contribute more each year to fund a family cabin down payment. We're in our 30s, have over 200,000 and 401ks, no other debt, have an emergency fund in place, and a steady income.

Does this sound like a good plan? No. No. Here's my thing. You're doing. You're doing. so much right. I think it's just a patience, a patience issue because you've done, like you said, there's no debt. You've got the 401k set up and, you know, you've got the emergency fund squared away. Why, why divert, like, why abort the plan and go into this lifestyle of debt for a vehicle that you can pay cash for? Pay cash for the vehicle that you want. And there's, and then from there on, yes, go ahead and go ahead and invest for this cabin down payment. Why can you? Why can you? Can you not do both and do both of them the right way is what I would say. George, you got me?

It's just so, I'm so confused. I'm like, you would invest the 30K that you would have spent on the used car, but then you've got a car payment. So now your income's locked up there. Just invest what you would have paid for that car payment and paying cash. Easy, easy button. You can do all of it. And if 30K feels like, oh, I don't want to sink that into a car, maybe rethink buying a $30,000 car.

Yeah, get a cheaper car. You can do both of these things. you just need to do them both the right way. And you can do them both almost simultaneously. You just need to do them both the right way. Get the car. You guys are in Baby Step 4, so you're investing 15% of your income and buy the card and cash,

and then any extra money you can save up or even invest for that cabin down the road. It can all be done. Just do it in the right order. Don't go backwards. Don't go backwards, please. Thanks for the question. David is in Los Angeles up next.

David, welcome to the show. David, are you with us? Oh, yep. I'm here. Hey, how are y'all doing today? Doing great. So my wife and I were going to plan to get pregnant later this year. And when we do eventually have a baby, I'm going to need a new car. Right now, mine only has two seats, and I'm probably going to need something with at least four.

I was looking at getting a UVV because the prices on them are pretty attractive, at least compared to a normal gas car. But the one thing that has me worried about them is the amount of depreciation that they get hit with every year. it seems like I depreciate way quicker than a gas car. And I just wanted to know, is that something that I should be factoring into like my car buying decision? Or should I just completely ignore the depreciation and go for whatever a car fits me? Are you paying cash? Yes, I would pay cash, yeah.

Okay. What's this car going to cost? What exact car are you looking at? Because I think that appreciation, it really depends on the make, the model. Now, EVs, obviously, it's, think about iPhones. How many people are in the market for an iPhone 8? Yeah, probably not very many. Right. And so the price is going to be a lot lower because everyone wants the latest and greatest technology. And so EVs can have a steeper depreciation, especially when, you know, Elon's changing the price and the model every day. And you're like, oh, man, I just paid 30 grand for it. And it's only worth 20 now. So that is something to think about when it comes to resale value. But if you're going to drive the thing for a long time and you pay cash for it, you don't have to worry as much about depreciation.

Okay. Yeah, I do typically drive my cars for a while. It's just like my car right now has barely appreciated it all. I got a pre-COVIDemic pricing spree. So, you know, that's kind of working in my favor right now. But being able to get out of it whenever I want to just seems like a really nice option to have. And I feel like I'd be a little more trapped with an EV if I did go that route. What are you looking at? I'm looking around $25,000, $30,000 to spend on a used one.

Okay. And what can you give you like a making model you're looking at? Sure, yeah. I'm still looking around a little bit right now, but right now my frontrunners probably one of the Hyundai Ionic fives. They seem to be some of the best deals out there, at least for the used ones in my opinion. Okay. And have you looked at the depreciation on them, those specifically? Yeah. So currently they're like, you know, about half the price that they were new. And I've done some research online and they're still forecasted to lose another half in the next like five or so years. Yeah, that tracks. So have you looked at Tesla as well? well to compare the depreciation? I have.

I'm not a huge fan of the Tesla's just with everything buried in the screens and stuff like that, so I was trying to go for a more traditional car fuel. Some analog controls and things like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I've experienced this because I've purchased EVs now. My last two have been EVs. And looking at that appreciation really just hurts your soul.

And then I have to remind myself, who cares? Do I like the vehicle? It's paid in cash. They can never be underwater on it. And yes, I'll take a lick when I go to sell it and go, oh, my gosh, I paid so much more for that. But that's the nature of cars. They are just boxes that exist outside and go down in value. And you'll find that with any car, but EVs can, depending on the make and model, go down and value a little faster because people want the latest and greatest.

And especially if it's, it hasn't kept up with technology. And so that's the key. You just need to know going in. There's pros and cons. Okay. So yeah, don't treat it as like I'll save so much money on gas. Treat it more as like this is the kind of car that I enjoyed driving and I should go with this. I never use like the math to justify it. I just go, I enjoy it. I like not having to stop by a gas station. That's just me. Yeah, that does seem like a huge perk in my opinion. That really seems nice to be able to come down to your car every morning and have a full charge and full tank to go wherever you need to. I still have to go to the gas station to fill my wife's car because I'm a gentleman and a scholar and I get Brennan. It might be in the same boat. Yeah, she's got a gas car that I would probably still need to float every now. Yeah. That was the compromise. She was like, I don't feel good about having all EVs, like, just in case you want to have the ice car. But I think you guys are, you're on the right track, man. The fact that you're paying cash, you guys are debt-free. You're investing. Car's just become a thing. And now you can buy a more enjoyable one that makes sense for your family.

Perfect. Yeah. Thank you so much. Yeah, I wish you the best starting the family, man. That's a big step. Austin is in Salt Lake City up next. What's going on, Austin? Hey, guys. I got hopefully two questions. If you got time, I'll make them quick, but if not my main one. My wife and I are also preparing to have a baby this year.

And currently maxing out, yeah, maxing out our HSA. I'm just wondering, should we use the HSA to pay for health care expenses like that? Or if we can, she would cash for them and let that HSA continue to stay invested and build. and do the whole save the receipts and you put down the line type of a deal. I'll say this. That's what Dave Ramsey does. Dave Ramsey has never touched his HSA. He maxes it out every year and he cash flows it because he can. And so if that is you and you're in the case to do that where you go, hey, we can cash flow it. It's not going to, you know, bust our budget to do that. We can max it out.

Then yes, keeping the majority of it invested is always going to be beneficial. And like you said, a lot of people don't realize hang on to the receipts. you can reimburse it later on, and that money will show up in your bank account. So it's pretty cool how that works. Yeah, I agree. Jade may have different thoughts, but... Nope, that's what we did. That's exactly what we did.

Okay, cool. That's kind of what I was thinking, but I just wanted to take your guys' opinion on that. And then if you got time for another quick one, I just got married over the summer. So we've been married about seven months now, and we've combined our finances, combined our lives and everything. I already had a house in our vehicles before we went into the marriage. I'm just wondering, should I, is our way or do I need to get her on the title of the house or on the mortgage or like on the title for the cars or does that really matter? It's not really necessary.

Technically, it's going to roll over to her anyway as your spouse if something were to happen to you. If it were something that she was like, I just feel better about this. then you could. Yeah, nothing's on fire here. So if it just makes you guys feel more united, awesome. But there's no like this is really going to benefit us in this explicit way. It's not really the case. You guys have legal protections as a married couple.

And so you're doing all the right things, man. I'm proud of you guys. Wishing you the best with this baby. Very exciting. Thank you. Two calls in a row. Look at this. I know it.

That's the best thing you can. do, I think. It's outside of the baby steps. But we tell them, hey, there's no baby step to have a baby. If you want to start a family, go for it. Go get it. And you'll work even harder to sacrifice to take care of that little one. And it's a good time. When you're tired of feeling stuck with money, there's just one solution. To get different results, you have to do something different. No one accidentally wins with money. You have to have a game plan. And that begins with our get started assessment. go to ramsysolutions.com slash start, answer some questions, and we'll show you what steps to take next. Don't stay stuck. Take control of your money starting today. Go with ramsysolutions.com slash start.

If you're wondering where all your money went in 2025, that's normal. And normal is broke. But the good news is this year can be different. You can get a head start by downloading every dollar. Every dollar builds you a personalized plan and coaches you to find extra money and then put a work to beat debt and build wealth. Just answer a few questions and you'll find thousands on average in just the first 15 minutes. And every dollar still has the same great budgeting features to help you tell your money where to go. So don't go another year feeling broke and stressed. Start every dollar for free in the app store or Google Play. Marie joins us up next in Charleston. What's going on, Marie? Good afternoon, guys. So my biggest question, I'm a single mom with three young

kids. I was widowed in 2023. And I'm just, I have a limited budget because we are currently living just on Social Security survivor benefits. And I'm trying to go to school, get a certificate so I can add to that once my four-year-olds in school. So I'm trying to right now with where I am, knowing I probably won't be out of school until next year. Trying to figure out what my wisest steps are going forward. I've never been good with money, and I just want to do better for them and for our situation. Well, that's a great why. That is what's going to fuel this journey, is those three little ones that you're taking care of.

What's their ages? My youngest three are eight, six, and four. Okay. And what's the certificate that you're pursuing? Health information technology. And what's on the other side of that? what job are you aiming for? I'm kind of looking for something that keeps me the ability to have flexibility in remote.

So that's one of the reasons I chose that path. Okay. And are you cash flowing this certificate? Are you able to pay for it all? I'm actually able to get it through financial aid. So it's Pell Grants. I'm able to get through all of it with Pell Grants. Great.

When will you be finished? I think it's not this coming December, but the December following. Okay. So you've got two full... But I have a potential to do... do to go into like an internship that or like to where I can do on the job kind of clinical type training at the hospital and make money through a portion of that okay okay so end of next year and then in the meantime we're going to be living off of these survivor benefits which is how much

per month so right now I take in about 52,000 a year 50,000 700 a year okay is that enough to cover all of your bills it it is and And I do have quite a bit of credit card debt that I was left with because of my late husband's Was your name on them? Opened a bunch of credit cards in my name. Oh, okay. How much? Yeah.

Right now, without my car, I have $27,000 left in credit card debt. And then what about with the car? With the car total of, it's just under $70,000. I had to get a new car this last year. Your car is... 43,000? It's a 2022 Subaru. What's left on the loan?

It's 33. 33 and some change. Goodness, that's a huge portion of your yearly income. It is. It is. And the thing that I do have going forward is I am in a relationship with someone that it is leading to a marriage. And he's encouraged me to not try to...

Because if I tried to sell that, I'd be really... upside down at this point. I wasn't wise when I bought it and I'm clear about that, but my financial situation will drastically change once we're married. I just, I'm with the Dave Ramsey plan that you don't combine those things until you're there. Are you engaged? So I'm trying, not yet, but it's hopefully the spring. Okay. Okay. It is, it is in our conversations, it's a very active topic. We're just, I need to, there's a aspect of this that I, being that I haven't always been financially responsible, there's a percentage of me wanting to do this and struggle. I need to feel the struggle.

Yeah, I don't want you. I don't want you. I don't think you're in a position just yet, and I hope you get there, but I don't think you're in a position just yet to like write on this. And I don't think that you are. I just want to caution you against thinking about, well, in the future, I'll have this financial help because this is leading to marriage. Correct.

Because you're not even at engagement yet. So I just want you to be really focused on what you are doing. and how upside down are you on the car? I'm not quite sure. I just got it in June of last year. I know that as of right now, because I'm living rent-free, I'm able to live in a home that my mom owns

and I just pay utilities. Okay. So that is a huge help. I check on the car. I check on the car immediately. I'd go on Kelly Blue Book, see what the value is. The private party value. You're not trade in because that will make it seem like,

oh my gosh, I'm 10 grand under. I would never sell it. But if you can save up the difference with the margin you have because you're living rent-free, maybe you're $5,000 underwater. Okay, well, let's come up with $10,000 in savings. Five will cover the difference on the loan and five will get you something to get from A to B. Now, maybe you get a nicer car, but it doesn't need to be a $33,000 car. Right. It could be a $20,000 car. Those are still safe and reliable, even for the kids. It's not a death trap. Don't let anyone scare you into thinking that or even yourself. That's usually how we justify.

Well, I had to get a new car. The kids, you know, you got to have some reliable. Less debt is the goal. Less debt is the goal. Yeah, what's the payment on that? Right, right. The payment is $6.55. Yeah.

That would rock your world right now. Would change your life. Right. So. It definitely could for sure. I do, like the man that I see that him and his youngest daughter come over and eat all the time. So he does throw me $500 a month for groceries because he does care.

So that does help some. So like right now, without what he does help me with, my disposable income after paying my debt, which is $1,700 a month, and my just fixed expenses, like my bills, is $8.22. I bring, left over disposable, I have $1,800 left over without his help. And that goes towards your smallest debt?

That's what I'm asking, because I have, I know I have to have my, I haven't even started my emergency fund yet, and I know that that's like number one, step number one. So with the 1800, let's put it practically to... With the 1800, I take 1,000 aside this month when you're left with that margin, a thousand of it put it aside, savings account, done and done,

baby step one knocked out. Then you have $800 to look over at the credit cards and go, what's the smallest credit card? And so what's the smallest balance you have on one of those credit cards? I mean, I have something as low as 1.23 up to 5,300. Great. Great. So we're going to knock out.

Go ahead. Quite a few of those. Yeah. Knock I could knock quite a few of those. Knock them out all the way up to 800 bucks. And then if there's any other margin left out or that money that comes through at the end of the month, just go ahead and throw out at the next credit card. And you're really going to do that, Marie, until these credit cards are knocked out. I do like the idea so, so much of you getting in a cheaper car. Because not.

knocking that out is going to make this journey feel so much more feasible for you, plus it's going to free up money. Like I said, even if you go from a $33,000 car to a $23,000 car, that's still going to free up money for you. So please just be willing and open to do anything to lower the debt, if that makes sense. And our parameter around cars, just so you know, is that everything with wheels and motors in your life shouldn't add up to more than half of your annual income. And so we're well over that. And so even if you could. That's before I, like, really started listening and being active. Oh, sure.

Sure. I'm just saying in the sense of keeping the car, it's still too much of your world depreciating in value every day. And so I know it feels like, well, I'm already underwater. Well, let's cut it off right here and not be more underwater. Because if you did that right now, you said you have how much total consumer debt? Total consumer debt is $69,000. Okay. What's the extra nine?

Because you said $27,000 on credit cards, $33 on the car. That's $60. Is there more? I don't know. That's student loans. Student loans. Okay. Because right now I'm doing the math for you,

$1,800 and you have $69,000. It's going to take you $38 months. You're talking over three years at this rate. That's a long time. Yeah. And I mean, that's the thing for me is I want to, I have zero retirement. I was a stay-at-home mom for 10 years.

Right. So I have zero retirement. And, you know, unfortunately he passed, and because of the way he passed, he passed, he had life insurance, but we were two months shy of being getting the payout for that. So I've been kind of trying to float up for two years now. Well, you've done a great job. And I finally am to a point. You've done a great job. Keep going. You got to, the car is a huge part of this because I don't want this to take three years. So a question on the car. So what if I,

what if I don't have cash to buy a new one? You'll just go over to the credit union and you'll get a loan or you'll go to the bank and get a loan for the difference. At this point, just remember, Going down is worth it. So get you alone for the difference, however you need to get that done. If you've been working the plan, paying off debt saving and changing your family tree, I'm proud of you. And if you're in Baby Step 4 or beyond, it's time to celebrate. The Live Like No One Else Cruise is back March 14 through 21, 2027. Join the Ramsey personalities and me as we sail to Half Moon Key, Cozumel, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman on the ultimate debt.

free vacation. Cabins will sell out just like last time. Lock in yours with a $600 deposit at ramsysolutions.com slash events. Our scripture of the day, Isaiah 4110. So do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous hand. Simon Sinek said, when in doubt, be yourself. There you go. That's good advice. if you've got a good personality, Jade. Sometimes I'm told, hey, don't do that. Don't be yourself. Don't be that vulnerable.

Be a different version of yourself. Austin is up next in D.C. Austin, welcome to the show. Jade and George, thank you for taking my call. Sure. How can we help? Yeah, so between my wife and I have about 142K in consumer debt.

and a huge fork in the road right now. I've got a toddler and a kid on the way due this summer. So very precarious situation. And just trying to decide if I should do a single filing for Chapter 7 or go another route. I really don't want to do Chapter 7, but if I have to, if it makes the most sense, I will. But I thought I would call you guys for advice first. Well, how much money do you guys earn?

Well, right now we only make about 78 total, which is well below the median. Okay. Because I what? Late income, median household income for my area. Well, who cares about that? Is that both of you working? That's not the reason you guys are in this situation, Austin. Yeah, I agree.

The median is like, what, 79, 80? Okay. You're two grand short of the median. The problem is, We're $142,000 in consumer debt. So break this down for me so we can see if there's a way out of this faster. Yep. So myself, I have 72 to my name and then another, well, it's actually 181,000 if you include student loans.

Yeah, that counts. Tell us the debts and what they're each worth. So student loans, X amount of dollars, cars, X amount of dollars. Yeah, so student loans is 39. car is 17, 284, and then everything else is personal loans, personally guaranteed loans, and personally guaranteed credit cards. Okay, and how much is that amount? We'll do some nap and math here.

So minus the car. So if you subtract 17 from 142, that's all of the personally guaranteed loans and credit cards. Okay. All right. So you're talking about that can't, that can't, I mean, $125,000 between them? Mm-hmm. Okay. What was it for a business?

Did you have a failed business? What is all of these personally guaranteed loans and credit cards? Yeah, so the dream was basically to, you know, retire the wife from the military. And, you know, I went about it completely the wrong way, obviously, and, you know, I just dug myself into a hole doing business ventures, you know, Airbnb, and then you tried an Amazon store, and then after the layoff last month, we ended up having to live on the revenue from the Amazon store. So I'm not able to pay off any of the consumer debt that I used to get the Amazon store.

So that's where we're at now. Do you still have this property that you were doing Airbnb on? It was a – I made the mistake of doing rental arbitrage last year. Dude, how much TikTok have you been watching? Well, I'm actually not. This is like by the book, every TikTok like business hack scam out there. Yeah, you know, they sold me a dream and I got, you know, I own up to that. And it was, it seemed like a good idea at the time when, you know, my father-in-law died and I was just really trying to find a way to make as much money as possible to retire my wife.

So what is she doing now? I just went, I went about it completely the wrong way. Yeah. Listen, I think you ought to, at this point, you've got to just say that's in the past. I think you realize that it was erroneous, and I think you're ready to go the right direction. So the 78,000 of income, is that both of you combined, or is it just you working since she's pregnant? Both of us combined right now since she's full-time, active duty, and I'm still in the process. of getting work. I'm trying to get a certification

for cyber security down the road. What are you earning? What portion of that is your income today of the 78,000? What portion of that is yours today? Of the 78,000, what portion of that is mine? Yeah, what do you bring in? I'm doing some side gigs

in the meantime before school starts or if I get accepted. So monthly every month, how much money do you bring in? Every month. How much money do I bring in? Probably if I'm being realistic probably between a thousand and two thousand

right now doing side gigs with media and stuff like that. Okay so that's our biggest issue is I know that you're doing a certification for cybersecurity. How much of your day does that take up? So I'm not doing it yet. The program starts in

would start in March. Okay so I'm cutting you off a lot because I want to get to solutions and I don't want to fluff around on this. All right. You need to get a job instantly. Any job, any job, any job, not side gigs. You can fill in space with side gigs, but I want you to apply for anything that you think you could possibly get. I want you to make a list tonight. Your job tonight is to make a list of anybody you know that might know somebody that's hiring, that has an uncle that's hiring

somebody whose father-in-law is hiring somebody. And I want you to put the word out. I need to work immediately. I need, I need connections. If you know anybody and that, I mean, you're going to be like a dog on a bone trying to get a job because you can't make $1,000. You can't make $1,500 a month. Now your wife seems like she's kind of carrying the bulk of that, but like you said, there's a baby coming in the summertime. So her, she's getting, her, her situation of working is getting more and more precarious as the months go on. So this is your number one deal.

Yeah, the issue is we got a toddler, we got a toddler at home, and I need to get a job that I'll make enough to qualify for a county assistance. So that's the kind of the bottom in right now. It's like I wouldn't love to get a job. So you're saying you need to limit your income in order to get assistance. No, you need, what you need to do is find a friend because you're in a community. You need to find a friend that's like, hey, I need help watching with the baby sometimes because I need to go over here. If there's family in town, this is you reaching out to everybody, you know, because what I don't want is free to file bankruptcy.

That's what I'm getting at. Once you file bankruptcy, that is you losing all control. that is somebody else stepping into the situation and saying, you're going to sell this, you're going to do this. You're going to pay this amount and you're going to do this amount. And you can't bankrupt it on the student loans. They're going to take the car. And so a lot of this is not going to solve the major problems.

And you'll be able to do those things. We can look at this and say, why don't we just look at it and go, okay, here's what we're going to do. We're going to pay this. We're going to sell this. You can look at it and do that and not decimate your financial life for seven years. and you personally, right? Are you guys renting?

Yeah. What's that? Are you renting? Yeah, we're renting right now. Okay. How much is your rent every month? $2,500. And, who, that's steep for the income.

Is your wife going to continue to have income when she has the baby? Yeah, maternity leave. Good. Okay, good, good, good. At least we have some stability there. And then how much is she bringing in on her own? Is that another three or four grand a month? After taxes, $6,300.

Oh, great. Great. So once we get you working, I mean, right now, when you guys pay your bills at the end of the month, are you in the green or are you in the red? You should be in the green. It's really close. If we pay all the minimum, I think we're, if we're not breaking even, we're probably at a couple hundred dollars deficit. Okay. So we're going to give you every dollar because I want to know, I want you.

to know exactly how much money you have and how much exactly how much money you're spending. That's going to give you a lot of peace, just seeing the numbers there. And then you can say to yourself, okay, if we're in the green right now, at least we're kind of safe for a moment we're not operating in the red. Everybody else can wait, right? It can wait until you get a job. It can wait until you, because you're giving them the minimum payments. But once you get that job, it's attack mode on this debt.

Smallest to largest debt snowball method. You got to fight, man. Don't give up now. That puts the sour of the Ramsey show in the books. Remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.