[Applause] live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions it's the ramsy show we help people build wealth do work that they love and create actual amazing relationships George camell Ramsey personality host of The George camel popular YouTube show and co-host of the super popular smart money happy hour is my co-host today we're back live and at it as you folks are hey have you got the cobwebs blown out from the eggnog yet are you back at it are you ready to rock and roll is a game on is there a reset is there a cycle that needs to be broken my buddy joo's got everybody resetting and we're breaking the cycle so whatever it is you got to do there's got to be a thing and you got to do something different you got to set these New Year's resolutions in process make a habit happen and uh one of the things that we want you to make a habit of is making sure you go ahead and order George's book it comes out next week next week George that's crazy yeah so you can just for a couple more days get all of the pre-sale elements with it and it's called Breaking Free from broke the ultimate guide for more money and less stress and it's a very Millennial cover uh but it's only it's not just for Millennials that's right 25 to 55 anywhere in there or a little younger a little older 15 to 55 there we go well a lot of people are saying hey what is the book I can give to my team that they'll actually listen to it is is but I hope this is the year people break free from broke Dave there's too many people out there and it's not about income we're having people call in and make 200 Grand oh no income's everywhere and they're drowning in payments a lot of lot of people would make a lot of money and spend it all this is the year think they're in Congress or something I think America's going to unplug from The Matrix this year because they're sick of this toxic money culture of debt and payments and they're stressed out about what's going to happen in the economy and I just want to hold the financial mirror up and go you're going to solve this it's not up to anyone else that's it that's how it's done so the book comes out next week if you order the $20 book today you get about $100 worth of goodies with it including a couple months of every dollar oh that comes with it anyway that's right whether you buy before or after three months of every dollar premium the audio book which is going to be enhanced with some cool production the ebook audio book it's going to be the best audio book we've ever done I love EXT extra production on it yeah um we got a live event happening the launch week that you'll get access to as well as a video talk I did called show the money all if you pre-order yeah so about $100 worth of stuff if you pre-order right now Breaking Free from broke so we'll start the year with a commercial but we'll keep going so the deal is that um and I want to I'm actually going to carry this over in the next segment because I just looked up and saw how much time I spent yaking about nothing but the uh um sorry about that guys that was one of my New Year's resolutions to not do that stop yaking it's not uh no I can't stop yaking it's like quiet out there if you do that but the the um um set setting and keeping goals because the thing we have figured out that is unique at Ramsay that the rest of the financial world still struggles with basically is that personal finan is 80% Behavior it's 20% head knowledge you really fix the person in your mirror or you're just screwed I mean you're just not g if you keep doing what you've been doing you're going to keep getting what you've been getting and continuing to do the same thing over and over again expect a different result is the definition of insanity and so it is time to break free from the cycle and that's why we're doing this live stream called that as well but the the but I want to talk about that in this next segment a minute and but let's set that up a second because I don't think any of you want to miss this next segment it's it's really de dialing into from a business perspective treating your life like it's a business how am I going to set my Revenue goals my expense goals and my profit goals you know that's what you do for business you set a budget and uh how am I going to do that in my personal situation because everybody's a little bit introspective this time of year you know I got an email from a friend of mine's doing dry January so everybody's going to try to do something to be a little better version of themselves right and um I I think you should anyway yeah I mean we have a lot of areas finan is what we focus on but now with Dr John delone here we're covering mental health goals and relationship ship goals and Ken Coleman's got work goals if you want to up your career and so it's expanded and you've talked about how you you don't want a flat tire in any area of life as well where you You're great with your finances but your marriage is on the brink you've got to excel in all the areas yeah or you're a great parent but you're broke all the time you know that's that ends up by definition eventually not being a great parent you know by definition and and so but if you work all the time and you never see your kids you got a pile of money then you you you know again you're out of balance and people talk about life balance bance but um I don't want to talk about it in that sense cuz sometimes that's code for I want to do I just want to go over here and not do anything call that life balance um I want to I want to kick back and call that life balance no I want you to kick in I want you to get it I want you to get after it and whatever the area is that you need to attack I want you to do it you know wholesale and wide open so you know basically I'm not talking about dreaming uh you know dreaming is good having a dream is a good thing being a Dre dreamer has a negative no want no one wants their kid to marry a dreamer yeah hey Dad I'm getting engaged and he's a dreamer oh crap they're going to live in the basement that's code for unemployed that's code for I'm me I don't do much yeah so you don't want to be a dreamer but having vision is a good thing well having a dream is a good thing but just only the ne the negative connotation is a dreamer means without action and so you want to step into action and 41% of Americans make New Year's goals or resolutions only 8% in end up keeping them I don't I can't believe it's that high only 8% I would have guessed lower than that but we're going to talk about in this next segment exactly how to lay out for any area of your life how to lay out a goal and how to make it work and how to stick to it for the rest of this year so if you've kind of had a oh I lay or maybe you're really game on well I'm going to give you a little bit a little fine tuning for that next time next segment here a and we're going to lay it out in a way that that you're not going to be confused at all about what it takes to win in any given area and bottom line is it takes your mirror that person that they have to step up well I you teach this in entree leadership a lot but I love the business analogy going hey what if we treated our personal life like it was a business like there was really something on the line because a lot of times when it's just us Dave we can let ourselves down all day long but you can't do that in business and I think we need to have that level of of gravity when it comes to our goals this year yeah I'm going to get around to investing someday but not treat it like it matters well you ought to treat it like it really matters because it does I mean retiring and eating Alpo is not a plan you know retiring and having the the you know the dad blame government you're living on social insecurity after working your whole life you're going to let the government which is well known for its ability to handle money take care of you that's a dumb plan that that's a definition of mediocrity minus about six degrees so you don't want to do that but that's what's going to happen if you're on Coast mode you can Coast through the society and have a relatively decent lifestyle high stress but relatively decent lifestyle instead I would rather just turn on the turn up the heat and let's go get it let's go do something different and all that leads to more peace more confidence less stress that's what this is all about so stay it's going to be good stay tuned for the uh magic formula nothing magic about Dave's laying out the secrets for can you believe the show secrets and there is no magic I just hate to tell you all that it's just Grandma's Old Common Sense that'll work those of you that want to lose weight here I'll help you with it eat less whoa saved your money for a DI you and Jenny Craig got got something going on saved it for saved the money on a diet book you can use it for one of ours this is the Ramsey Show [Music] hey if you're in over your head with student loans and tired of getting calls from collection agencies if private student loan debt is taking away your financial piece and you don't see any way out you need y refi they're not a a debt settlement company and they're not connected to a bank why refi refinances defaulted private student loans that other places won't touch and gives you a custom loan built for you based on your ability to pay so when you refinance your private student loan debt with Y refi you'll have a payment you can afford with a low fixed interest rate you couldn't get anywhere else to help you stick to your budget and work the debt snowball and you can save thousands of dollars to learn more about this custom refinancing option and a lumpsum payoff option you could qualify for after 24 months call 8442 Ramsey or go to Y rei.com [Music] Ramsey George camel Ramsey personality is my co-host today welcome the ramsy show folks we're glad you're here this is a show that actually helps you want to win at your life uh we started years ago talking about your money we still talk about money a lot but we talk about every area of your life we were talking before the break there about dreams dreams with work clothes on are called goals and you better put some work clothes on if you want to get something done um you know it's funny to me that every time I'm lucky it's usually around the time I'm wearing work clothes um my luck tends to happen the more I work it's just this honest correlation you know I get more luck the more I work and that's pretty simple the way this is so dreams that put their work clothes on are called goals now a lot of people talk about setting goals but let me tell you if you don't set the goal correctly you have zero chance almost of hitting it and it has to have really there are five components of a properly set goal and if you dodge any of them you lower your probability of hitting it almost to zero the first three for sure if you don't do the first three you're just done there's not there's almost no chance you're going to hit it the so I want to lose weight I want to make more money I want to uh have a better career I want to graduate from college uh I want to whatever so the first two things a goal has to be is you if you say I want to lose weight you're not going to that's not enough that's a Dream It's fuzzy the first two things a goal has to be specific and it has to be measurable so a go losing weight is a measurable event earning more money is a measurable event I want to get out of debt that's a measurable event now we've got to get very very specific how much and by when that's a that's another piece of the puzzle here the third one is time limit yeah when you have those three together it's magic cuz now it's reality yeah well when you put those three together math automatically happens so you know let's just use the weight example A lot of people talking about that this time of year I want to lose weight you won't okay that it's measurable but it's not spefic okay how much do you want to lose oh 30 lb okay now we measurable and specific now then the question is do you want to lose 30 lb over 10 years and how many times do you want to lose 30 pounds that's an important piece of the puzzle yeah so you know you I want to earn more money great how much I want to earn $100,000 this year okay how how how soon do you want to do it now when you put a time limit on it and you know what the amount is automatically your brain starts doing sixth grade math long division right so if I want to lose 30 lbs when I want to do it over 3 months I say instantly everyone said that's 10 pounds a month instantly you're going some of you are even going further and saying that's 2 and a half pounds a week and then you start automatically saying what has to be true that's not true now and so I'm going to raise my water intake lower the bread and sugar intake and um increase my uh aerobic activity to 30 minutes a day these are magical things that you do if you're losing weight right if I want to earn more money okay well are you're on commission you need to make more sales right so how many more calls do you need to make to make the sales I had a guy tell me one time he said I'm going to earn 100 he's working for us he said I'm going to earn $100,000 this year and I said no you're not he said what do you mean you're not going to pay me and I said no you you I I read the sales reports you don't make enough calls to make enough sales on average with our average order value on that call to make $100,000 and and so how many you know $100,000 is 8,333 a month that's $2,100 a week what are you going to do to earn $2,100 a week and then you figure that out then and what's it take to do that and you're willing to do those steps boom you've done the long division you've done the math right I'm going to pay off you know a lot of times people call in and they go well you know I've got $75,000 in debt okay what do you make well I make $660,000 okay if you pay off $25,000 a year that's 3 years so instantly we're doing we're setting goals with you when you call in here for you uh but also inspiring You by showing you that you know if you did roll up your sleeves earn a little bit more money and lived on less than you make you could pay off $225,000 a year that's $2,000 a month you do that for three years you paid off $75,000 you start to do the math and then the math gives you hope cuz you can really do 30 pounds in in three months that's not an unreasonable loss for most people now you shouldn't do that you would disappear I would float away Into The Ether if I did that that just one of my legs would be smaller but you know that's all but the uh but you know other people are right so everybody's got a different thing but 30 pounds is doable 30 PBS is doable you got you have to make the goal reasonable but you want it to be a little bit scary I think it's too easy let me tell you what if you don't write it down that's the the fourth one it makes it hard to do too once you write it out there's something that happens the Bible says write the vision and make it plain it says it in habach one of the Old Testament books write the vision and make it plain so when you write down I am going to lose 30 lb 10 lb a month 30 lb in 90 days 10 lb a month 2 and2 pounds a week then you step up on the scales and you're up a pound you got you got a baseline you go now I got three and a half pounds I'm screwed you know I really got to get out of the cookies here I mean you you start to make the adjustments of what you've got to do put up the Christmas cookies there's enough already I'm talking to myself now but the but the uh but I mean I'm going to I'm going to pay off this debt if I'm going to pay off $2,000 a month and you look up and you've only paid off a th000 well you're off goal and when you write out your debt snowball when you write out your budget which is your monthly goals for money then you've got it in writing if you want to earn more put it in writing and then start talking about what you're going to do to cause that to happen cuz something has to be different for you to be different Hello if you want to be out of debt and you're in debt something has to be different so what's going to be different oh I'm selling some crap I mean we're amputating the Tahoe here uh that that boat that's been sitting out there in the yard that we act like we use and we don't use it's gone I mean you know yes I have a $9,000 riding lawnmower I'm an idiot so I'm selling it yes okay I mean you're an idiot if you have $9,000 riding lawn mower and and you owe $99,000 on it now if you if you're a billionaire and you have a $9,000 running you P cash you pay cash that's okay that's an idiotic butt thing to do people do that so sacrifices must be made well something has to change and generally it feel change always feels like a sacrifice it may not be as sacrificial as you think it may be you just look up and you go oh there's $50,000 in my savings account I owe $35,000 on this stupid but student loan and apparently Joe Biden is not coming to the rescue hello are you just now waking up to that and so I mean he can't even find anyway but the um yeah so oh my gosh are you just now W so if the change could simply be you're going to reduce your savings account by $35,000 Ready set go boom done it's still going to hurt a little bit tap out done just like that and the last one is the goals have to be your goal that's the unexpected one in the mix here well other people let people set goals for them my mama always wanted me to be a dentist I'm not going to you my parents told me I should stop wasting money on rent and buy a house yeah that's a terrible reason to buy a house yeah and and yet didn't fund any of this suggestion nope you know they don't pay your bills my friend said I should always have a car payment yeah but he ain't paying it so hello you know oh people are always people always got opinions about everybody else's stuff and you know my dad always wanted to be a be a preacher I'm not going to your church unless you're talking about God your dad God the father but other than that I don't you know for people whose Earthly father called them into the Ministries they don't make good pastors hello and so you know I all you know but you need to say so my wife wants me to lose 30 PBS that's a is that a trick question no it's not a trick question it won't work until I want to lose 30 I I could want to do it to please her that's really that's really horrible that's that's wastified right there I mean my wife wants me to earn more money no that won't work my mama always wanted me to I don't care what your mama wants it's time to be a grownup if you're 25 your problems are now your problems you can't blame them on your parents anymore you're like an adult walking around in like a large body and stuff and you need to freaking act like it so you can't the days of blaming Mama and Daddy are done so that expired exactly now seven areas we recommend you set goals for certainly financial goals intellectual goals you're going to read a book this year how many non-fiction books are you going to read this year there's a direct correlation between your income and the level of non-fiction books you read read a book family goals how you going to break that out spiritual goals prayer time Bible reading going to church physical goals we talked about losing weight exercising run a marathon career goals social goals you should set goals in these areas and they should be specific they should be measurable they should be in writing and they need to be your goals not you living someone else's life otherwise it doesn't work this is the ramsy [Music] show if you're like most people your home is your most valuable asset and when you want to make improvements it can feel like everything costs too much or takes too long but something as simple as custom window coverings from blinds.com can completely change your space and add value to your home we've recommended blinds.com for over a decade so you know you can trust them from blinds drapes and shut to motorized Shades they make it easy and affordable to upgrade your entire home and their team is ready to help with everything from design consultation to measuring and installation plus there are never any misleading quotes or hidden fees everything's backed by their 100% satisfaction guarantee and shipping is always free Cy blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window coverings visit blinds.com to save up to 40% off everything sitewide go to blinds.com for more [Music] [Music] information [Music] George camel Ramsey personality is my co-host today Alyssa is with us in Naples Florida hi Alyssa welcome to the Ramsey Show hi hey what's up oh not much just taking a break in my workday okay how can we help so um I just got remarried in October and my husband and I you know after the wedding really sat down and took a a good look at our combined finances Good and we definitely made a lot of uh debt choices independently and now coming together trying to figure out how we can tackle that hopefully you know for the new year planning on you know having a kid um I already have a 9 old daughter and trying to get those you know figured out so that we're not constantly worried about savings and being able to retire sounds like you need to do all the things that all of us need to do yeah feed babies retire get out of debt save money right right um and part of the thing that that's a little bit frustrating is you know between our combined finances we're bringing in about 11,500 a month and still feel like we can't you know we've only got about 3,000 that our savings um not able to really contribute to retirement or anything like that so trying to figure out how much debt do you have um so student debt we've got about 140,000 um who's the law I'm the mental health therapist ah okay so I've I've got I've got about about 90 um he he has about 40 and that was you know from the his parents pushing him to go to college um so he has debt with no real what other debt have nothing really to show for it um car payments um about 60,000 total in our cars you ow 60 on your cars okay um and then we've got uh a mortgage that's got about 240,000 M okay that's as far as debt goes okay so Alyssa looking at these numbers Let's ignore the mortgage for now and focus on the Consumer Debt you've got about 190 or so in Consumer Debt and you guys are bringing home what 130 140 Grand M and so this becomes a great math equation where we go how much of margin can we create every month to throw at that smallest debt that's all we're focused on no saving no investing we're not eating out we got to make some sacrifices here how quickly could you pay off you know could you throw three four $5,000 a month at the smallest debt tried I think for me it's the fear with my daughter um making sure that we have enough because with me with me being self-employed and him doing construction and things like that I get worried about catastrophic expenses you know what I'm worried about you make $130,000 a year and you're freaking broke that's what I'm worried about I think you need to be worried about that you're driving cars you can't afford and you have a lifestyle that's absolutely asinine and that's nothing to do with a nine-year-old what what does she need that's thousands of dollars a month worth when you say I need to take care of her it's more it's more just in case yeah you know well there's no bit but you're not doing anything about it you got $3,000 so that's a complete red herring that's absolutely you're not you're doing nothing about that except creating anxiety right yeah so it's time it's time for a pinion for Action some urgency here and say okay the more dramatic we more dramatic we change our life the more dramatically we change our life the more sacrificially we change our life the the faster this is going to turn around and we're going to have a pile of cash and we'll be out of debt Yeah the more you just goof around with it cuz here's the deal you guys just you guys have no idea where this money goes right and so we're going to get you on a detailed written budget so here's the thing what kind of mental mental health professional what kind of work do you do um so I do counseling like therapy depression anxiety stuff like that okay all right and so what you do is is is there's some parallels to what we do so you can use you can be physician heal thyself okay um so cuz here's the thing you you are an objective Observer to someone's misbehavior right and you look at that and go hey you ought to try this because the way you've been doing it not working you know this yelling and screaming at your wife not working you know this zero activity sitting in a dark room adding your to your depression so you need sunlight and vitamin D and activ so you need to and exercise and be in sunlight helps with depression am I wrong no so you send you send somebody because you're in but they're sitting in the dark room they don't see it so what I want to do here is I just want you to say okay if I hired you you're a smart person if I hired you even though you're not a financial professional it's because the stuff we're dealing with here is sixth grade math if I hired you to look at this and say you come in objectively and you look at this family they make $13 $140,000 year they have $3,000 their name they have $660,000 in car debt and they have student loans have been hanging around so long they think they're a pet they feel stuck you could objectively look in from the outside like you do every day and look at this the way George and I are looking at it right now going uh these people need to tighten things up they need to sell a car or two uh they're not going on vacation cuz they're broke cuz and if they're sick and tired of being sick and tired you'll change your process and if you cuz you if you look at this objectively from the outside I can see in a three minute radio conversation with you I I can see 40 or $50,000 a year here that you could throw at this and you'd be out of debt in no time but it's going to mean you're driving different cars you're not going on vacation you're not eating out and uh it's not going to be comfortable for a while until you set some new grooves in your brain yeah so we definitely already decided on completely cutting out vacations okay we had like huge conversations you know with family of like go you know even like big family Crews and just saying sorry we can't do it um You're Gonna Learn to say no a whole lot yeah say no so you can say yes the way we say it is you live like no one else so that later you can live and give like no one else so if I were prescribing to you from the outside looking in the way I'm asking you to do for yourself I could look at these numbers and say these people have a really tough 2 and 1 half years ahead of them so that they have an awesome life the rest of their life yeah and it's worth it and it works because it is just math it's just sixth grade math but it has to do with controlling my the the the angry little boy or little girl that lives inside of each of us and making that little person who throws a fit on the cereal aisle and wants Fruity Pebbles no no cuz that little kid he rises up I want a new car I I deserve I mean I have a I have a master's degree I deserve a good car no you don't you're freaking broke you deserve Freedom not this life of stress and the math does give me hope in the situation make 11 the beautiful story about your the beautiful part about your story is Alyssa you um you have the income and the parallel would be if you were sitting with a patient who is um Master's degreed in something you you they have the intellect to adjust their mental behaviors to to adjust their mental health with behavior shifts that you with directions you can give them they have the capacity and you didn't call me up making $30,000 with these numbers thank God you call me up making $130,000 with these numbers yeah so you can do this and the correlation is very simple the deeper you cut the more sacrificial and weird you are and it's going to feel very strange for the first 90 days um and then it'll get to be a normal Rhythm but the deeper you cut the faster you're out by the way that works for all of you the deeper you cut the faster you're out and uh I'm I'mma rip the Band-Aid off guy yeah just uh pull it off one hair at a time thing no thank you that's a lot of pain well that's why you like to amputate the Tahoe just do the big stuff knock it out it's a stupid car you'll get another one stupid car there's more tah I got a lot of stupid cars now and you know but I didn't used to I mean it's a stupid car it's a stupid house you know it's just stuff and you can get you some more stuff but you can't get your life back this is the Ramsey [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Show hey guys I've told you before about Christian Healthcare Ministries a Health cost sharing Ministry but listen to Jenna a chm member she says one of my biggest concerns about entrepreneurship and motherhood was figuring out how to take care of our health expenses but we have found a solution that works for us in an incredible way she loves that with chm she can help other families who need it and receive help back when her own family has an eligible medical event chm has been a godsend for Jenna that's her chm story and it could be yours learn more and join at chministries.org [Music] budget [Music] [Applause] George camel Ramsey personality is my co-host today Luke is in Tuscaloosa Alabama where they are crying this morning hey Luke welcome to the uh ramsy show not too many TS to clean up this morning on my how's everything going better than I deserve oh my goodness tell me uh how we can help today uh yes sir um I'm just looking to uh get a plan together on uh possibly buying a house uh not necessarily in a set time frame um dating a girl currently that kind of has her stopwatch clicking on me and I don't want to go through the whole Renning process if I don't have to so uh we're just kind of wanting to get your's opinion on that so you've got a girlfriend she's wanting you to propose you're wanting to buy a house there's a lot going on here and you're wondering when is the time to buy a house um yes sir how old are you uh I'm 24 when will you get married uh probably in the next year and a half or so you got any money uh I currently have about 53,000 uh sitting I know y going to get upset with me but uh in a second account I'm not upset with you I'm happy you're 24 years old got 50 Grand that's fair that's that's you're stud man I thought you going to say but I have 100,000 in debt you got any debt oh no sir currently uh looking at the parents and have been blessed that they have given me that opportunity that's incredible I would just stack up as much cash as you can until this wedding and we'll cash flow it and then we'll talk about buying a house but I wouldn't do it before you guys are married no I would she's going to want a different house than you the one you picked out oh that is 100% for certain okay yeah so um ideal is you guys pile up as much cash as you can and somewhere around a year after the wedding you're purchasing okay that's ideal the reason that's ideal is it gives you enough time of being married folk to make a better decision together because you'll make a better decision after you've been married a year than you will one after you've been married one week okay and you because you will have learned to work together on other things as well during that year that first year of marriage is very interesting so um you know you just take that time get to know her she gets to know you and the way we always joke about it is we say it takes about a year to know how far away from your mother-in-law to buy but that you know that's about that's about the measure so um but that you know there's some truth in that joke that's why it's funny but the uh uh but yeah that that's that's what we look at and and but that means you're going to be like uh 26 years old which is okay with me it also means you're probably going to have $100,000 yes sir which is okay with me love it does she have any debt uh not that I'm aware of um she comes from a pretty well off family that doesn't mean a thing oh I know it doesn't mean a thing but from what I've heard and seen it doesn't look like she does okay okay that just might delay it if she did but it sounds like you guys are both going to get married completely debt-free with a pile of money in the bank which is the best case scenario before you start talking about putting a ring on on uh this finger as an engagement you need to know everything about her financial life and she needs to know everything about yours yes sir now one follow-up question um what do you suggest I do um because obviously $53,000 sitting in the bank is not doing me any good I mean it's doing me a lot of good just sitting there but I feel like I could use it elsewhere you know Finance or some kind of account with a Financial Manager of some sort I don't think I'd get fancy you might do a high yield savings account which might pay you in this current world what three or 4% something like that instead of a half a percent if the bank I don't know what the bank's paying you but talk to that bank about a high yield savings account if they don't have one shop around and find one what are those paying that you're yeah I'm I got one that's about 5% right now but you can easily find one that are in the four range yeah four and five is but I really don't I'm not going to try to get rich on this money I just don't want to lose it and I want to I want to be with it which is what you're asking I don't want you pay a half a percent or something silly sitting in checking but you got like a 2-year time Horizon you don't want to go investing in the market and all of a sudden your account dipped 20% because of a bad year yeah you're not going to buy a house because of the amount of money this account makes you're going to buy a house because of how wise you are putting money into this account the savings rate for sure that's where that's where this money's coming from Johns in Rock Hill South Carolina hey John welcome to the ramsy show hey there thank you so much for having me better than great man how can we help all right so my question is I'm on baby step number two just kind of started following y'all stuff and I'm super stoked about it um my wife and I are teachers and we are set to have some loans forgiven not through the Public service loan program because I have learned through y'all that that is not a good route to go but um our state South Carolina will forgive loans um for teaching in high areas of need um wife is special ed teacher and I teach out a school with like lowincome students yeah at what rate do they forgive it so they actually don't forgive it they pay it yes yes uh um so my mine can be uh they will forgive up to 5,000 after five years of teaching $5,000 after five years yes o that's nothing okay what's the other one um so they will forgive uh 17,500 of my wives after five years okay so that's $5,000 a year no no it's not five years you said oh neither one of these we're screwing with y'all need to just get out of debt just go ahead because total we have 64,000 yeah but 225 of that is you're waiting Five Years on $22,000 now I don't I want you to have a life yeah and you won't be locked in some of these things forgive like $10,000 a year and none of the ones you're doing do that so that's why I was asking how it worked but um no that's not that's not generous enough for me to be wanting to stay in debt and also to have the golden handcuffs you may decide to change the direction of your teaching career and you don't want a lousy thousand a year Mo motivating you on that right um so follow up with that I'll be to the point I only have one year left until I could get that 5,000 well that makes a difference okay yeah I I'll take it then if it's one year I thought we were starting Ready set go today what about your wife what about your wife how long to the 175 yes sir she has uh three years left um so that is a little more touch and go I'm I'm probably okay with both of those now that you changed my time Horizon um would you guys stay in those careers in those areas if this wasn't on the table one year he will so take the five grand but her three years sure I will um the the question is with her um special ed is just a very difficult field umer support is is not where it needs to be and we have a one-ear old and one on the way so her ability to stay in the field we we're not really sure with that so yeah I'm leaning towards like hey should we just pay it off I'm with that I'm with that or here's the other thing you could do and this is what I was going to recommend at the close of the call is go ahead and set a separate savings account up with that amount of money in it to where you have paid it off it's in your debt snowball but you're holding the money and then the day she decides I want to be with my babies instead of the string of strain of this job uh boom you pull a trigger right the check it's done ah okay that's that's that's very smart Okay that takes a pressure off of her to stay in the job uh pass when she should um with little babies and then uh but your five is going to be here in 20 minutes I mean right right you don't even have to if you want to set that aside too until the five hits you can but um it just gives you an extra bump towards your baby step 3 emergency fund then cuz you still got what 40 grand left after even after both are would be forgiven uh pretty much unfortunately we both have Masters um in teaching and um so yeah what's your household income uh household income is uh teaching salaries is 105 and then I work in the summer so it's about 115 altogether good for you okay good very cool well I mean you're going to be okay you're going to be fine it's just a matter of kind of analyzing the you know where the squeeze meets the juice right and and yeah that I so always if even if there's a forgiveness program we go along with we say set the money aside in savings which keep takes away the golden handcuffs that's the big thing you want to do there so good question man good question you're sound like you're a good dad a good husband proud of you keep it up Happy New Year this is the Ramsey [Music] Show [Music] [Music] live from the headquarters of ramsy solutions it's the ramsy show where we help people build wealth do work that they love and create actual amazing relationships George camel Ramsey personality is my co-host today open phones at 88255 225 thank you for joining us and happy New Year to you Dalton is with us in Indianapolis to start this hour hi Dalton welcome to the ramsy show Hello thank you for having me sure what's up so about a year ago um soon after I got my first job I invested into an i iul due to talking to my parents financial advisor and since after having kind of see some of your work and I saw I one of the videos you guys talking about it and I kind of looked into it myself I kind of decided I would like to get out of this however the problem is is there's a surrender charge so I have about um I've been invested since last November and I have about like $1,500 invested but if I were to try I can't transfer it into anything else if I try to leave it I'd be left with $400 and the surrender charge isn't go away until like another 10 years and I'd have to keep investing so I'm not sure what to do about this well it sounds like you've lost $1,100 to me yeah and um yeah make note that this guy screwed you MH putting you into this product I mean put you in a product that the only way you avoid surrender charges is 10 years mhm oh man how old are you uh 20 good Lord man I'm sorry this is we file this one under stupid tax and we've all paid our version of it but I hate that you have to deal with this and lose at 11100 the only the only other option is continue to pay them money and lose even more yeah what are you paying into this thing um it's 150 a month what do you make um 22,000 a year my gosh gosh what do you do for a living Dalton I'm a diesel technician okay all right well um as painful as it is and I'm I'm hurting with you right now and I'm kind of angry at this character for putting you in this thing um as painful as it is I I would stop now and let me just tell here's an interesting story I was 22 and a guy that was in the in a fraternity that my wife had been the little sister to the fraternity came to our house with Northwestern Mutual sold me a whole life policy and I've got a finance degree I should know better um and oddly enough Dalton that was a long time ago but it was 15 a month and when I discovered like you have about a year in that I had to stop that I'd been screwed then I cancelled it and you know how much of my cash value I got zero I lost about the same amount you're going to lose and I was 22 years old but that doesn't mean that I would you know staying in it would have just been worse yeah you're going to pay 1,800 this year just paying into that thing the bad news for Northwestern Mutual in my case is is that I've gotten to tell the story now for 40 years about how they screwed me they've lost a lot of customers than you know it's cost them a lot more than the little bit of money they got out of me and I've gotten almost as much satisfaction as the money they got out of me so it was worth it yeah but you're not going to get that opportunity I doubt as a diesel mechanic you might you might tell some other diesel mechanics not to do business with this particular guy but yeah I'm sorry Dalton but the actual actual proper correct thing to do is just if you have a hole in your pocket so up the hole don't keep putting money in it yep yeah that's kind of why I figured but um you know I just want to make sure there was no other options but you know and don't be mad at your mom and dad they don't know any better the financial advisor should know better but a financial adviser that sells universal life is not a financial advisor a financial advisor that sells universal index is an insurance agent they're not a financial adviser yeah that's what I kind of started to learn because my parents also are invested to him and I found out what he has him on is also another life insurance product so I think he just you know he does he doesn't really do in Ms he just sells Insurance yeah he makes a lot of money on it too oh M like he made as much as you lost on this deal this year yeah that's the other thing so I talk about this Dave in my new book Breaking Free from broke I have a whole chapter on investing traps and I took a lot of time on the permanent life insurance section because too many young people are falling for this it's come back around it's got you know the Tik Tock idiots have stepped up and are really hammering this stuff well they call themselves Dave tax for free wealth strategists that's what they they don't call themselves financial advisers anymore cuz it's it's cooler to call yourself a wealth strategist here's the here's the dumb butt part of that okay taxfree wealth strategist now let me tell you how you get taxfree money out of a permanent life insurance policy number one you pay into it for years and years and years years pass this thing he's got no he's got no cash value right now after a year of paying in 150 just what we've been telling you for years they keep it all once you get past that you finally build up a little bit of horrible Pocket Change piss poor returns and you got $2,000 in there you keep doing it for your whole stupid life and it would be a stupid life um and you got 50,000 bucks in there you know how you get your 50,000 bucks out taxfree borrow it you borrow it well guess what if you go to the bank and borrow $10,000 it's taxfree borrowed money never is taxed it's Dumber in hell but it's not taxed it sounds cooler when you put tax free in front of it that's unbel believable yeah of course it's taxfree you idiot not you not you Dalton but they they are yeah Dalton but the the the the guy I'm a tax-free wealth strategist well of course you are the way you get your money out you borrow your own stupid money out of this policy and you pay them interest of course it's taxfree borrowed money has never got taxes on it that's dumb don't poke holes in their genius strategy Dave it's a gen there bunch of gen I'm a I'm a taxfree wealth strategy I have a hot take for every investment TR hot take go down the bank and borrow 15,000 bucks that's taxfree here's what I say I said permanent life insurance as a wealth building tool is a legal scam pedal by insurance agents posing as financial advisers it gives them fat commissions and locks you into a lifetime of stupid tax Dalton is exhibit a and luckily he's getting exhibit a he's B he's B Dave did it before it was cool now it's trendy on Tik Tok that's why it still makes me mad oh my goodness of course the guy the the fraternity grow right that makes it even worse you know how long he was in the business about 20 minutes after he sold our policy he was gone cuz that's how 80% of those agents are out of the business in one year so much turn 80% well they must lose their soul in the first three months no they don't lose their soul until they sold all their family and friends there and then when they try to sell it to individuals who are actually using their brain instead of the relationship to make the sale then they find out they lost their soul oh that's what happens and they get out of the business they run out of steam but the business is set up to the industry is set up to milk your your sphere of influence so they put you in there as a greeny they milk your sphere of influence your natural market and they tell you go after your friends and young people and college we're going to serve your natural market oh my gosh with a tax-free wealth strategy shoot me brilliant just shoot me this is the Ramsey [Music] Show [Music] [Applause] [Music] well you've all played the telephone game the first person Whispers a message to the second person who Whispers it to the third and so on around the table until the original message has completely changed multiply that confusion by a 100 if you run a business with different software systems that don't talk to each other that's why there's Nets Suite by Oracle in the early days of ramsy we were using different systems for all of our business units we needed one single source for accurate data Nets Suite was the software we used to optimize and take us to to the next level netw week gave us the visibility into all of our numbers so that we could communicate across departments and plan ahead better and as we grew it scaled with us net week worked for ramsy and it will make a difference for your business too join the more than 34,000 customers who trust netsuite to help make them smarter and make better decisions and level up their operations to learn more get a free product tour at nets.com Ramsey that's netsuite.com [Music] Ramsey [Music] George camel Ramsey personality is my co-host today deian is in Atlanta Georgia hi Dean welcome to the Ramsey Show hi hey what's up so my husband was laid off yesterday on New Year's Day um oh my God yeah happy New Year yeah really he he is he was a direct operation so he was right under the owner for a Luxury Landscaping and hardscaping um company that works in Buckhead um they work on Comm commercial homes and all kinds of stuff so the business owner um basically has lost his behind and is dissolving everything and we kind of have the opportunity to not purchase the business from him but get the equipment purchase the equipment for from him what he for what he owes on it and then um he will give us his client book freely um and he he's been very open like wants to so he's closing up shop he's closing shop and there's a lot of money left to be made on the book scheduled and he's washing his hands with it um so my question is like how what's a lot of money um right now they probably have two to three months on the books and I think there's about $250,000 on the table give or take uh on the table being gross revenues not counting expenses right correct what will those what will those Jobs net you have any idea I I don't know your husband's office manager you ought to know his margins yes yes what would it cost for you to buy all the equipment so um one machine he owes $30,000 it's worth 60 another he owes about 30,000 it's worth 60 and then he has another machine that's brand new um it's worth 30 and it's he owes about 30 okay what do you guys have in money um we have about 30 to 40 35 to 40 in cash just hidden away um we have 16 in the bank and um we still owe 11,000 on his truck his personal trck do you have to buy all of the equipment for this deal to happen um would he give you the client book anyways you bought two of you bought the two 30 over 60s and leave the 30 over 30 for him yeah he he will give us the client book no matter what he's very he's very encouraging and will be very helpful it's he's very sad about the situation you know but um he just gave up he just gave up yes he did he just gave up why did he lose his butt if there's all this money laying there you know I from an outsider perspective I honestly I don't know but they all Drive Porsches they have a big old house in in Buckhead and it just looks he's he's selling his house he's fing bankruptcy it's just all not good okay um well there's a lot going on here number one let me stop with the last state if he files personal bankruptcy and tractor number one he owes 30,000 on it and it's worth 60,000 he can't sell it to you oh okay his plan was he's told my husband this week to take all the equipment that is owed on back to like the tractor company and and give it back to him and just say here you know I'm done and doesn't matter anything if you buy it from the tractor company that's fine but here's the thing anything that happens within 90 days of him filing bankruptcy that was an asset can be undone by the bankruptcy court oh okay it's called a preference period and you're you're not allowed to give one creditor preference over another so for instance those voluntary repossessions your husband takes the equipment over there turns it in that dealer is not going to turn around and sell it to your husband the next day that's $60,000 tractor for $3,000 right and if your husband buys it for 30,000 and it's worth 60 the bankruptcy Court's going to come in and say we could have got more than 30 for that tractor and giving it to the creditors okay and they're going to take it away from you yeah that's not good no okay so um this guy he he doesn't if he is If he if he he files bankruptcy 90 days from now you'd be safe okay but if he if he files bankruptcy immediately which it sounds like this guy's very um emotional impulsive yeah and is probably gonna file soon because he's in freakout mode yeah he's yeah yeah probably yeah ouch okay what if we you know what what I would do what I would do is do what he said to do and um see if you can talk the dealer into selling it to you as you take the keys over there okay but you need to turn it back into them and then if they it's been repoed and what the bankruptcy court would then have to do I'm not a lawyer but I deal with this crap all the time the bankruptcy court would have to come in the trustee of the bankruptsy would have to come in and come to the dealer and say that repossession that you did you've got to undo it it which they usually won't do that but they would undo an individual transaction that benefited your husband versus the Creditor okay you see what I'm saying yes so here's our strategy okay I got I got I got down in the weeds there for a minute but yeah the book of business you sound like you are excited about it is your husband yes okay you think he can take it and run it so in that case what I would do is first thing you need to do is do an autopsy and you really do need to know what the crap went wrong right why this book of business is not worth hanging around for okay what what is wrong what is this guy doing is he doing cocaine I mean what's the deal what happened here you know I got to know if it's the business model that's broken you don't need the book of business of a broken business model right no thank you but yes I'll take the book of business if I can figure out what caused it and if the book of business is clean and I can still cut the deals with those guys and they can I can still make that profit I'll step into that and go do it and then I would buy one or maybe two of these pieces of equipment with cash okay if you can get them for 30,000 and they're worth 60 so that's more cash than we have so that was my you have oh no you only have 30 you've got 40 and eight and 16 right right yes two what do you guys what do you make well he did make about 880,000 a year and we pay and I make um we paid off all of our debt except the one truck except the truck yes um I quit my job working in the banking industry okay so you let me stop you then you got 16 and you said you had 40 other yes 41 or something 40 in cash 40 okay so you got 56 all right you get one piece of equipment you pay off the truck and the rest of it's your starter emergency fund MH can you pull off the projects with that you can rent the equipment go rent equipment and do the project okay yes he could rent the equipment yeah rent the equipment cash flow the rest of the equipment you need do not let that dealer talk you into financing that equipment okay don't go back in debt it's not worth it you'll get listen if this if this business works it will cash flow enough to buy equipment for cash I agree so just take your time buy your equipment take the which which of the two $30,000 worth 60s is the best deal and the best piece of equipment take that one if the dealer will tell sell it to you for 30 when you take it over there and turn it in on his former boss's behalf okay if they won't if they try to jack it up above the loan then no don't do it and do not buy it from your former boss buy it from the dealer after repo okay because the bankruptcy court will come take it from you okay it's like it's like buying stolen goods from a fenced operation kind of gotta even if you didn't know they're stolen you're screwed when the police come yeah we don't want that yeah that's where you're going to end up it's called a preference period in bankruptcy you can look it up and you'll see what I'm talking about but yeah I I would buy I'd spend 30 on this and I'd pay off my truck and I'd have a little bit of cash and let's get going let's get going resurrect this business yeah sounds fun she she's got her head around it oh absolutely that's what was giving me a lot of hope I have hope for this this is the Ramsey [Music] Show hey folks you know that sinking feeling when you make an offer on a house you love and then you hear there's another offer you need the Churchill Mortgage home buyer Edge super fast pre-approval and a secured interest rate plus a $5,000 seller guarantee gives your offer the best chance of being accepted the home buyer Edge from Churchill gives you an advantage over those other guys go to Churchill mortgage.com today to learn [Music] more [Music] George camel Ramsey personality is my co-host today open phones at 88255 225 Sabrina is in San Antonio hi Sabrina welcome to the Ramsey Show hi sir how are you better than I deserve what's up hi so me and my husband we are on Babys set 2 we're almost done we have about 12,000 left on our car and my husband keeps trying to convince me that we should trade it in because we have I guess equity in it right now and so we have 12,000 left I Kelly BL bed our car it's around 22,000 he is thinking we should upgrade to um a bigger vehicle um so this value of the new vehicle would be 25,000 so about 3,000 more um and so I just wanted to see your opinion I refuseed to go to the lot because I don't you know want to make a bad decision so um we have about six months left projected um until we pay it off and he just thinks we should trade it right now and we're going to pay it off regardless this year um so that's kind of his mindset I just want to get your opinion how old are you guys uh we're 29 28 and we've done the stupid um 10 years of car payments and I'm so over it but he just thinks we should upgrade to the biggest one which is the Yukon right now we have a a GMC of kadia so he's want more why do you need why do you need to upgrade um his reasoning or you know the big reason would just be more room uh we have four kids and um so there's really no trunk space um so it's I know it's silly but you do know they have large SUVs that are cheaper than 20 don't you yes does he uh yes he does okay so part of the problem is we are not on baby step 2 you are he's not yeah he's wanting to stay into debt it sounds like he's trading in one car payment for a slightly bigger car payment yeah like his his like view is cuz I told him you know um you know the way Randy does it is we we cash flow and then we trade it in and then we pay the difference and he's like well why don't we just do that now and then pay it off um all that once but I'm like no I'm so ready to be done and he's like it's just 3,000 more and I'm like well that's just well the Dealer's not going to give you 22 for you trade it in no that's true too but but let's just stay with the concept for a second the concept though is he's willing to be in he's willing to continue to borrow money to get what he wants y when he wants it yes you got a fifth kid in the family you didn't even know it yes so I don't think the car is the issue I think the car is revealing the issue that you all are not on the same page okay yeah yeah and if I'm you that's what's disturbing because here's what you would really do if you wanted a bigger car you would um buy an $188,000 one instead of a $225,000 one and that would get you out of debt faster and you'd have a bigger car correct correct yeah so I think we have a discuss I think the two of you need to have a discussion about the fact that the way you feel about debt and the way you feel when he acts this irresponsible responsibly and contrary to what you believe and how you want how you're you thought we were I you know it sounds like this honey I thought we were agreed that we were getting out of debt and staying out of debt and now you're coming in here and extending the time that we're in debt to buy something that we obviously can't afford why didn't you come in here and suggest we buy something1 18,000 that is larger because there's $18,000 isvs out there agreed agreed yes yeah and why didn't you bring that in and then we to had something to talk about cuzz that gets us out of debt faster and we get a larger car but instead you're scaring the crap out of me that I'm going to have to struggle with you the rest of our lives on this money issue this is really scary for me and you ought to bring that up to him that way okay cuz you don't really you you know you laughed but you don't really want to be married to a little boy you want to be married to a man that's walking along beside you yeah shared goals and it it's not cute that you're the mommy it's not fun for you that's why I ask how old you guys are cuz I was a little bit thinking you were a lot younger honestly like you were 22 or something and he still hadn't grown up you know but um but maybe he's 29 and I but you know no I would not go along with this I would not go to the dealership I will not sign this I don't believe in it you're scaring the crap out of me but the car is not not the problem the problem is that you would bring this in here knowing how that's going to make me feel that you disrespect me on that level if I'm you that's how I'm feeling yeah it' be like you know let's let's pretend Sharon Ramsey came in and suggested we borrowed money can you imagine how that would go you know I mean it's I'd get pay-per-view tickets to see yeah that would be a hillbilly knockdown oh my gosh unbelievable that'd be a one of those fights right but I mean obviously we we've had those fights long ago in our marriage we got past them but I I I want you I'm really concerned that you use this opportunity to get the two of you on the same page more than I'm concerned about the car transaction M and maybe bringing up we could buy one for 18 why didn't you bring me that is a good way to start talking about it but most of all if I were you I would talk about how it makes you feel when he um you know how it makes you scared that that he you know he's going to mess up everything after you guys have worked so hard to get it cleaned up MH you know it's just at least he didn't come in and go I want to borrow $60,000 and buy a brand new something you know he didn't say that so he he's still thinking he's siling still think he's going to get it paid off in in a year but but you know that means he's kind of like a two you know on a scale of 1 to 10 right he's not he didn't go to he didn't take it all way make the problem slightly worse yeah yeah but but but the big problem is is that that's a slippery slope I mean once you stick your toe in that water The Vortex will suck you in you know it's just like it's hard to go on the lot of a car dealer and not leave without a car it is dangerous it is cuz they're fabulous cars and they're me even if the Sal even if the salesman sucks the cars are fabulous start looking at these new features and you're like oh man we got a lot more room these little kids are on top of each other I'm having to you know the one benefit though of having them on top of each other is you can discipline them all at once that's easier just you can reach you can reach them all oh that might be a that's the parenting style Dave used to do back in his day I did I grew up in the day when your mother would reach across the back seat and you could not find a way you could not get away there was no escaping there was no dodging it's hard to do in the Yukon it was Within Reach I'm just saying well some of them have automatics that do that now automatic moms they just is that a thing I'm kidding that's a feature moms would pay for I would pay for it as a as a grandparent but there you go just zap you in the seat if you're misbehaving just a little z z z z there you go oh so yeah the key here is either sell the car private and uh you'll she'd have 10K left after that and they'd save up and pay for a car with cash or wait pay it off then they can sell it and upgrade with cash either way or if you want to reduce the debt okay she said she owes 12 It's Worth 22 and if you sold it for 22 and you bought something for 18 you would only owe eight you know and you pay that off in less than a year yep but the that does that's not really the strategy the the reason for bringing that up is to point out that he didn't bother to go that direction it was going if he had gone that direction I'd have actually maybe gone with him you know saying sure yeah you you want to move up in car and down in debt yeah that's a plan up in size but not in value y um actually move down in value and down in debt but up in size yeah I'm for that it's like people call up and say you know we ow $122,000 on our car and it's worth $112,000 uh or $10,000 or whatever or you know but it's a you know we have a you know a tiny little Honda or something and we've got like two kids on the way what are we going to do well you can move to a $12,000 van it's a break even scenario but don't go further in Deb people use all these events to justify further in debt it's so easy to justify going into debt especially cars well Dave is for the safety and reliability no it's not it's for you it's for you it's for you little boy little girl I want my TWU that's how that's how they sound I want my TW my TW I'm sure your sounds like that I want my TW my TW that's Dave's Grand kid right there this is the ramsy [Music] show [Music] George camel Ramsey personality is my co-host today lots of things happening here at the first of the year you know when you get stuck in a rut it's kind of like being stuck in an orbit the gravitational pull of stupid is amazingly powerful it will hold you in that orbit is that an Einstein quote I I made it up it's the new Ramsey theorem Ramsey theorem of stupid gravitational pull but now I've been stuck in an orbit on something you know it's just your habit is you got a dumb habit you got a habit of not paying attention to your money as an example and if and so when we're doing this thing on this huge it's already over 200,000 people registered for it live stream on the 11th of January it's completely free uh and and you got to go to Ramsey solutions.com and register for it it's it's called breaking the cycle and what we're doing is we're breaking out of the orbit of stupid you got to break the cycle and sometimes it feels like oh it's a family cycle sometimes people in in my world in the Christian call it a generational curse right well it's not a generational curse once you're 26 it's just you're being stupid it's in our DNA to be broke Dave it's not in your DNA to be broke it's in your behavior that's causing you to be broke and you've glorified it by blaming it on your family no you can't do that anymore you got to break the cycle get a break the cycle and the way you break the cycle is with new emotions and new knowledge and new ways of viewing things a new paradigm and all of that comes from intersecting with someone that can sling shot you out of that orbit break the cycle and that's what we're going to do it's completely free live stream on January the 11th and we do not want you to miss it it's uh so 7:00 p.m. central Time 8:00 Eastern Time make sure you sign up because even if you can't make that exact time we'll send you a link to watch it and we're doing a special giveaway with this Dave this is cool we haven't done this before $10,000 $11,000 to 10 different viewers now signing up won't get you in the deal viewing will get you in the deal because we're giving away during the live stream to viewers okay but uh 10 different viewers are going to win $1,000 to jump start their new year we're going to announce the winners live that night as we're broadcasting so that's pretty cool must be present to win apparently like that even digitally yeah you got to register to win at ramseys solutions.com breakthe cycle the whole thing's free Dr John deloney Rachel Cruz George caml Jade washaw navigating money anxiety bad money habits that keep you stuck practical money tips that actually work we're going to help you break free of the orbit of stupid that's what we're really good at around here we are we are good at it we're probably the best in the world at it and um it's one of the reasons this podcast just showed up on Apple the other day as was the number one podcast in the world that was incredible out of all the podcasts millions of podcasts in the world and we roast to the charts thanks to you all out there listening sub hovering around 10 or 15 sometimes up or seven up to five but I don't I don't think we've ever even broken three and then we hit number one in December we beat all the True Crime podcast out there that's there's a lot of those it's gracious we're in the wrong business apparently well maybe not but yeah so hey thank you guys by the way for spreading the word about the show you're the ones that did it thank you for sharing the show and for clicking the five star reviews and subscribing and all that kind of stuff all that stuff helps the algorithms on that and it drives people to know about what we're doing here and you you are our only marketing plan so God help us thank you thank you thank you Tru and you help us uh ramsy solutions.com breakthe cycle January the 11th and uh man we'd love to have you view it with us Samuel is in Madison Wisconsin hi Samuel welcome to the Ramsey show how are you doing better than I deserve what's up um I just have a quick question my uh family or my parents are in a financial ruin and I want to uh I want to help them out and so I just I need some help I guess how old are you 18 what do you make uh 37 a year what's the situ sitation with your mom and dad hun um well my dad has been jobless for since we moved from Madison um four years ago but their plan was to uh for a summer take us out on a camper and travel the United States and stuff but my mom got stage four cancer so he's been taking care of her for four years and it's she's on like hospice and stuff so I'm the only one that is currently working and I'm trying to help him as much as I can and um I'm actually debating on getting a second job that's one of the main reasons I'm calling you so your 375 is supporting and he's taking care of your mom while she's on hospice yes but I'm getting a second job so I'm probably gonna be pulling like $100 a week because uh I got a bunch I got money saved and savings and stuff like that but I'm not paying their bills I'm just paying for their gas they the phone bills like no uh I'm living by myself yes but I'm still paying their uh part of their pay you're paying for their what their WiFi the phone bill um some of the propane how are they eating if your dad's not working uh my dad's living off his Roth IRA at 50 years old how much is in the Roth uh that he does not disclose but it's bad what's the plan on once the Roth money runs out um God only knows I mean I'm uh I'm setting up I have about $1,500 in Investments and I just opened up a Roth IRA because my company that I work for doesn't getri to my 401k till I'm 21 so what what what hour what hours do you work now uh third shift so I work a 7 to 7 7 P to 7 a yeah uh 700 p.m. to 7: a.m. yep okay all right and cut can I be brutal for just a second cuz you're in an awful situation honey I'm my heart's aching for you yeah how long does the doctor say your mom's got well they just told her that she they they can do no more like she's untreatable um she has a tumor the size of a basketball yeah and the hospice is saying she's got how long on don't know she's just on bunch of uh she's on a morphine and this other this is a matter this is a matter of days and maybe a couple of weeks am I wrong no I mean they gave her a month to live that was four years ago and by the grace of God he's kept her alive so um we're just I mean we're living on hopes and prayers right now but I want to help them as much as my my dream I'm not trying to be I'm not trying to be mean I'm not trying to break your hopes or prayers or not I'm not messing up your Miracle okay I'm I'm all in for that stuff but um if that if the miracle doesn't come it doesn't sound like she's in very good shape to me no she's got uh she has major edema so she can barely walk um she's swollen and the main reason I'm calling you now you have any brothers or sisters yeah but I don't really talk to them because they do other things no other fames helping oh my grandparents are my grandparents are taking care of my mom while my dad is uh doing like side side stuff just getting extra like he's jobless but he's got a friend that's hires him for like a seasonal work so but that just got done so all that money went towards paying off the camper in the truck but now he has nothing until he takes back his I mean opens up his Ro area again okay um your your dad is able to work then when your grandparents are there and if you're able I would prefer you to spend some of your day taking care of your mom and your dad to be working and your dad needs to sell and your dad needs to sell his camper that's the um that is the main thing that I want to get to is that he's still living on the dream of going with my mom and all of us and traveling the country and that's just holding them back yeah well you you don't even talk you don't even talk to your brothers or sisters you're not traveling the country with them oh yeah and your mom's not leaving with hospice in a camper he needs to grieve this dream and move forward with reality somebody's going to have to help your dad out hun you working more is not the answer I think your dad has got to make some changes and if you can help him to make those changes and I don't know how you do that at 18 years old big burden that's what we pray for I I don't I don't think you working and throwing another $300 a week at this is fixing it your dad's going to have to make some moves and I'm I'm so sorry you're facing this hun what a horrible thing to have to go through when you're 18 this is the ramsy [Music] [Music] show [Music] [Music] live from the headquarters of ramsy solutions it's the ramsy show where we help people build wealth do work that they love and create actual amazing relationship George camel Ramsey personality is my co-host today as we answer your questions about your life and your money open phones at 88255 225 Ray starts off this hour in Oklahoma City hi Ray welcome to the Ramsey Show hey Dave watched some of your videos and stuff uh some of your YouTube things and I've put myself into um some major issues um started about three years ago I guess when I medically had to leave my job and it took me about a year and a half to even get Social Security Disability going on uh I am retired I am retired military and I'm drawing military disability also but I've had to borrow from some very highin loan places is in order to survive for the longest time and now I can't get out of the cycle because I can't get a consolidation loan to pay off all of them and refigure my cash flow so what is your military disability income um let's see okay so so military retirement I bring home about 1900 a month uh Social Security I bring home about 2400 and disability is 39 okay on top of that okay yeah all right so you've got you got you got $8,200 a month coming in yeah okay yeah the problem is with car payment and all my loans and rent and bills and everything I'm shelling out about 88 okay um how old are you I'm 60 what's the nature of your disability uh bad knees bad back PTSD okay and the p ttsd is what what cost the last job no the knees and back is what cost the last job oh okay okay because I just I physically cannot work anymore I can't sit for any long periods of time I can't lay down for any long periods of time I can't stand for any long periods of time yeah um you know I just my back is completely shot I have massive trauma in my back and my knees and the military has basically deemed me unemployable sure because of physical restraints um I'm not supposed to pick up more than 10 to 15 pounds at a time yeah are you are you married yeah what does she make uh she has a um she does a Consulting business for um a company and but she doesn't really make anything everything she makes she puts right back into it for right now and she really doesn't make a whole lot because she just got started with the company doesn't sound like a good deal NOP I'm pretty much having to cover everything okay sorry I'm sorry for I'm sorry for the Miss thank you for your service and what an incredible price you paid um I know and I've spent the last two years trying to rebuild my credit yeah well you don't need credit credit is your problem um what what how much debt do you have um all together cars credit cards and high interest loans okay how much do you owe on how much do you owe on credit cards um probably about eight and what do you owe in your cars the one car that I owe on um is still got about 22 on it okay and um what what is the other debt the high interest loans okay and how much are those if I were to pay them out completely um we're looking at about 25k okay all right you have 100K coming in all right and um so I think the challenge is is that the two of you need to do two things one is you need to sit down together and get on a detailed written budget we're going to put you into financial piece university and into every dollar the world's best budgeting app and I'm going to pay for it as my gift to you to say thank you for your service okay okay and but you make $100,000 a year man yep okay you can't work because of your physical condition so you have zero need for a $22,000 car no that's the lightest car yeah it's gone shouldn't make any money we're selling it we're getting a cheap car what do you D what do you got um 2015 versus a note that's paid off okay we need to get her something that's paid off cuz y'all are broke and you're out of control and you're going to have to do some radical things to get in control and that's the two of you sitting down together she needs to get a job that actually pays money and then the two of you can take the 100,000 you got coming in and the money that she actually makes and get rid of a car payment and then you can clear this up in less than a year but you don't have anything here that's not doable but you've just all all this stuff has happened to you and the trauma of this whole situation is caused you guys to to get paralyzed and you're just not dealing with it but you've got the math to deal with it the math is there $4,000 $4,000 a month and you're debt free in a year if you keep the car yeah I know but that's the problem is I don't you know well you got 88 coming in I do that if I do that you know then do I so do I stop paying on stuff and just snowball it no we we're going and pay off one at a time or I'm GNA pay off one of these high interest loans how many different loans are there I don't know off top of my head there's a lot but there's you know list L list them out smallest to largest and take out $4,000 of them this month and take out $4,000 of them next month that's $8,000 of the 25 right but that's the problem I don't have I mean you have 8 8800 but that's what I'm saying so do I take for do I just stop you pay Min you pay minimums and you attack these but you you're you can do this you can do this um I think selling the car is going to help out freeing up that payment will give you a little bit of margin to start this process yeah and you've got to do a written game plan for your money you write down $8,800 at the top of the page or $8,200 at the top of the page and then you work down into this you should have there should be margin in this it should not all be gone those interest rates there's not enough not enough debt here to cause that hang on we're going to get you signed up for everything as our [Music] gift [Music] George camel Ramsey personality is my co-host today thank you for joining us America open phones at 88255 225 the Ramsey Show question of the day is brought to you by neighborly your hub for Home Services there are a lot of things you need to remember when the weather gets cold thankfully neighborly has a free winter maintenance checklist that can help save you time and hassle check it out at neighborly docomo neighborly docomo in New Hampshire she asks do your parents' debts pass on to you after they die things like credit cards or failed business debt the age-old question so the question is is any of this debt in your name uh it sounds like no so let's assume that there's no debt in the child's name parent passes away they have credit card debt failed business debt uh my understanding is that this would come from their estate before anything gets paid out in the form of inheritance if your dad lives in an apartment and owns nothing and has $20,000 in credit card debt in his name it does not pass to you the credit card company will simply not get paid he buy he died a popper he died with no money it does not pass to you now if he owns a house that's worth $100,000 and he has $20,000 in credit card debt and he dies the credit card company will get paid out of the value of the house before you get a distribution so the house is sold $100,000 20,000 goes to credit card company you're going to get 80 if you're the only Heir that would be the way it works so you're right the estate would stand good for the debts but when you die what you own stands good for what you owe debt does not pass generationally in the United States but it does come out of what would have been your inheritance if there is an inheritance now have you seen creditors try to come after the family for debts illegally unethically and illegally yes and people get scared and go okay we'll pay it yeah they they'll have some one of these debt buyers that buys stuff at Pennies on the dollar they'll buy you know a bazillion dollars worth of debt and then they just start calling everybody in sight and they call you up and they go hey you're your dad you owe this cuz you're dad and just see if they can intimidate you into paying it you know your dad died and they triy to get you to pay it for your dad you know and uh you owe this and you're like oh well we're going to put it on your credit they'll threaten you and lie and all that some of them are really really unscrupulous there was a real Movement by the Federal Trade Commission a few years ago to shut a bunch of that down um there's you know another batch of things they find in the debt is let's say someone filed bankruptcy and the debt was discharged in bankruptcy court so you don't owe it anymore legally at all it was clear they'll still try to collect it oh my God just to intimidate you and you know it didn't it didn't your bankruptcy didn't clear this so I'm going to put it on your credit and we're going to sue you and we're going to Gar toe your wages and they start yelling at you on the phone and PE you know people that are you know uh uh I don't know that that aren't mean and nasty like me they'll they'll cave and give them a bunch of money you know and so yeah it happens all the time but but it's not a it's that's an illegal and ethical practice so don't fall for it yeah don't fall for it but the the point is no you no Lauren you don't owe money if your mom and dad die with a bunch of debt you don't owe their debt but it will come out of the sale of their assets before you get an inheritance that's the thing to remember Ravi is in Austin Texas hi Ravi how are you good how are you doing Dave better than I deserve what's up so I have no debt on my name there were some debt I cleared it out last year the only thing we have is our mortgage which currently is at $350,000 I have a stable job I earn around $150,000 from a job I have a wife and two sons and I have $200,000 in a savings account I cannot figure out if I should invest in a real estate and then create a passive income or are there other better options that I should go for I don't know if you'll like my answer but if you filter this through the Ramsey baby steps which people have followed to become baby steps millionaires you would be at what we call Baby Steps four five and six so invest 15% of your income we're saving for the kids college and any extra money we're going to throw at the mortgage principal so we have found that one of the keys to Building Wealth longterm is to get a paid for house in the mix and it's not one of the keys to Building Wealth longterm is not keep a 200 or $350,000 mortgage while I go do real estate that I learned on Tik Tok got you that didn't come up that never comes up when we interview millionaires what always comes up is we dump money in our 401K our Roth IRA and we paid off our house and I've got 800,000 bucks in my 401k and my house is worth $600,000 and it's paid for and I'm 53 years old that's a typical millionaire and so 800 and 600 is $1.4 million net worth right that's that's the typical millionaire so we're always going to lead you first to be debt free which you've done congratulations great job second to have an emergency fund at baby step three of 3 to 6 months of expenses and then exactly what George told you four five and six is 15% of your income which is just out of your 150 income going into retirement uh starting kids college funds you can do that out of your 150 as well which leaves the 200 I'm assuming you have other money other than just the 200 and I'm going to pay off my home as fast as I possibly can then and uh with you I think in your situation you're going to have a paid for home in 2 or three years and then you can invest even more and you can invest in a brokerage account out retirement incredible ma'am Robbie what I did when I when I followed that a thousand years ago I I am I'm still Blown Away to this day and I know the math I know compound interest I know what it looks like but I'm I took an old house payment and rounded it up 500 bucks when I paid off the house and I put that amount of money into a separate mutual fund and how fast that one mutual fund was a million dollars blows me away to this day I look back and I go that stinking that was a breakthrough you know and so that's why I know the math works is I actually lived it and walked in it the key wasn't you leveraged debt the key was you your savings rate your income was freed up because you didn't have any payments I didn't pay off the house and then spend the house payment I paid off the house payment and took the house payment plus some and invested that plus invested more but that one account just not having a house payment how fast that one account became a million dollars in mutual funds just blows my mind that's amazing it's just amazing cool goal to have you take like 3,000 bucks a month that's $36,000 a year going in how fast that blows up I mean you're I'm talking about five six seven years it just blows up it's crazy so yeah but we don't think about investing three $4,000 a month we don't think about that well we're trying to do 17 things at once that's usually our problem exactly Amanda's in Phoenix hi Amanda welcome to the Ramsey Show hi Dave thank you so much for having me sure what's up hey so um first of all I just want to briefly thank you for everything that you do it's so important I remember listening to your show when I was 12 years old on the radio and yeah it's now I'm 25 so I uh wasn't really taught much about finances growing up I kind of had to teach myself worked at the bank for four years uh since I was 18 and so got married young um we've been married for six years we're finally on the same page of like hey finances are really important and we're realizing we kind of suck at managing it so um we've gotten ourselves into a little bit of debt I feeling overwhelmed I feel like I'm kind of in over my head with it I'm just wondering where to start um we've got about 30,000 in uh auto loans uh 7,000 in or more like 10,000 in credit card debt uh but that's it we don't have a house we're trying to save up for one trying to get a savings I just want to know where to start how much in savings uh we've got about 500 right now oh nothing okay yeah and how much is your household income uh it is between 75 and 95 a year now awesome so we're in a good place to start doing that how old are you how old are you guys 25 okay oh you said that earlier I'm sorry okay yes no you're okay all right so if we're going to focus on one thing at a time and filter the through the baby steps your next step would be baby step one $1,000 in the starter emergency fund you'll have have that next paycheck right okay yes then baby step two we're going to focus on Consumer Debt so we're not saving anything we're just focused on paying off all of our Consumer Debt at 40K using the debt snowball smallest to largest balance regardless of interest rate once we knock that out which you guys will do probably in the next year you'll focus on a full emergency fund of 3 to 6 months of expenses so those are your next steps yeah plus your amount of selling the car $30,000 car is really high in this situation you may keep it but it's going to cost you an extra year of getting out of debt you'll Leap Frog this thing if you get rid of that car yeah you'll move even faster if you move down in car you really bought too much car it's not the end of the world but it's close it's right on the bubble yeah something to think about hang on I'm going to send you a copy of the book The Total Money Makeover to get you started restarted after your 12-year-old listening this is the Ramsey [Music] Show [Music] George camel Ramsey personality is my co-host today in the lobby of ramsy Solutions on the debt-free stage David and Ellen are with us hey guys Happy New Year Happy New Year to you Year good to have you guys where do you live live in the Old peblo Tucson Arizona ah very fun well welcome to Nashville thank you great to be here and how much debt have you guys paid off we've paid off 87,3 168 very good how long did that take 2 years and 5 months very good and your range of income during that time it was between 91 and $95,000 very cool what do youall do for a living I currently Freel in Communications and PR field mhm and I'm a public school teacher oh very good what grade do you teach fifth grade fifth grade that's an awesome grade it's a lot of fun they understand the good sense of humor they're not quite they're not in they not lost their minds yet yeah completely yeah good for you welcome very very cool what kind of debt was the 87,000 it was the rest of our mortgage Dave look at it weird people it's Ramy official now house I like it wow what is this paid for house worth conservatively about 250 very cool and how much do you guys have in your nest egg in your retirement I think between all our investments and assets and stuff we're right hovering around half a million all right way to go congratulations halfway to the baby steps millionaires way to go good stuff okay what happened 2 years and 3 months ago that put you on this debt-free journey well it was about uh about a little more than three years ago uh my wife came to me and said I think I want to get the house paid off before our son graduates from high school oh I like it and so we had about a six-year time frame and so I looked at the numbers and I saw that our mortgage statement where was and I said okay divided by six years I said oh I think we could do that then when I dug into the numbers a little more I said I think I think we could do it in five years and then we started working on we had just finished baby step two we were working on through three four and five and we started doing all that as we did it and we started to accelerate the process we started to see this number was going to come down once we got through baby step five which was uh we promised to have a certain set of number aside for Daniel's College we sque we flew through that really really quick and so I went down and looked at and said you know I think we could do this in three more years it been 12 months we got like $60,000 done and I said okay let's just attack it so we started attacking it and then this summer we were on Pace to have a paid off in March of this year and then came out July and my wife came to me and said we had some money in the next car fund um we were saving up for a BB set 3B and she told me how much is left on the mortgage I said it's just under 15 she goes how much do we have in the next car fund that we could use oh about 15 goes let's pay it off now so we paid it off in July and so we ended up spending the rest of the year then kind building up that fund backup so really kind of today we're actually on baby step 7 now officially a you were there you're just buying a car is all yeah exactly well we had a car that we really enjoyed but I knew that we would not be able to take out a loan to get the next car and we do about what 30 40,000 m a year we're heavy drivers not not David though thank goodness um the automatic cars aren't out there yet so I knew that we'd have to have something set aside for the for the next car so that that was great we were able to work that out and we pretty much by now have refilled that very cool we'll keep working on a little bit little by very cool it just occurs to me that the people listening on podcast or radio don't know what we're laughing about so David is sight impaired right yes okay how how much sight do you have David I'm a I'm legally blind I'm not totally blind so I have some things I have kind of an idea where you guys are that kind of stuff yeah but definitely not driving definitely not driving or flying planes or that kind of thing yeah elon's working on it yeah we saw we saw the white uh cane thing going so we knew something was going on and we knew what our joke meant but the rest of the team people looking into their mic speakers didn't know didn't know what we're laughing at so anyway okay cool so Daniel is with you and he's graduated now or getting ready to graduate he is a he's in the sophomore year sophomore you beat the you beat the graduation big time yeah so yeah so we got a couple years of investing to work on and get some things going so he'll be he'll be ready to go sounds like he's going to get a sweet graduation gift he's he going to do well he's such a smart kid I was really worried that we'd have to really spend a lot to get him somewhere good if not if not scholar ships but uh we knew that was very important you know paying off the house and and giving him this Legacy and this this fresh start and he's been through the process every step of the way there's no way he's going to have a car payment he saw Mom and Dad sacrifice and work so hard to get to where they are today no absolutely not he's been he's been through the process and he especially has been participating lately as far as he participates in some of our budget meetings or he knows we talk about things he'll hold us accountable sometimes come we go through a store Mom that's not in the budget or is that in budget dad or something like that that's fun there we go what an annoying but beautiful piece when your son is like Mom you really don't need to be buying that accountability with too well he's almost he's almost worse than me actually he is so if I if I recount the story correctly um recount uh you guys were working the baby steps exactly and you got to 4 five and six but in 4 five and six you just real realized you could turn up the heat a little bit and it six years turned into less than three yeah it was funny it was about the spring of the pandemic so it's 2020 and I was applying for disability and getting rejected I was going through vacational rehab to get my new skills and techniques and stuff so I could be able to get back to work and do the things I wanted to do and that was by the time we got a big windfall we had you know we had the covid stimulus checks I got disability approved so I had a bunch of back payments coming in at the same time of tax refunds coming in we had a big block of money at you know spring of 2020 we able to finish the car so we we had financed that we paid off the last of that sped through baby we got through Babys set 3B mostly Babys set 3 and then we got to five where we had his colge fund already set up but we hadn't really put any real money into it lately so we committed ourselves and say let's start this up and so we um used a lot of that money to kind of speed us through that process somewhat so that we got to Babys St five and six we're going to do those simultaneously the initial plan but because we got so much extra money through her working and her school being a quality school she gets bonuses and things like that for the things they do at their school and um so we end up speeding through the instead of doing $20,000 in like a year and a half it took six months we sped through it really fast and so that's why that whole timetable went from six years to five to four and now two and a half and it got done so well what normally happens when you actually put this down on paper once you start living it and you start winning you do end up turning up the heat right and dialing and dialing and dialing and dial in and dialing it's a natural process people generally get out of debt a lot faster than they initially think they're going to there was times that it came it became like a little bit of a game sometimes we would come out to the last week of last week of the month we have some we think we have a limited grocery budget okay we got to do 60 bucks this week and she's like let's do it let's go and we'd do it in 55 bucks or something she' be all proud and you know we'd do these kind of things we'd have these little games that kind of make ourselves get our push through and we just it was just amazing how we started doing the budget six seven years ago and we just kind of found our space and said we're just going to figure out a way to do this and do it right and we just find money money pops up everywhere even though nothing really changed the sech our income it was messy messy messy in the beginning yeah when you start paying attention though it cleans up and it dances it gets in a line it dances the way it's supposed to dance it's really really it's really been fascinating some of the biggest things we did was when uh we had really lean months and yeah we weren't on credit cards we weren going to go in the debt but we found a way God provided us the guidance to the GU the way for us to get through our budget and be able to manage and it wasn't easy we had to do we had to drop a lot of streaming services we had to basically had we had to read the books we had in our bookshelves watch the DVDs in our shelves that was really all we entertain we had for a long time there and now we have at least margin to at least enjoy some of that stuff and we can still put a good amount of money toward stream like no one else now yes hey we got a copy of the baby steps millionaires book for you The Total Money Makeover book for you and a Financial Peace University membership that's the live and give box uh to say thank you for coming from Tucson to Nashville to do your debt free scream you guys are amazing you're Heroes I'm so proud of you well done thanks for bringing Daniel to share in the debt free scream as well it's something he'll always remember he's got to be proud of his mom and dad and he's shaking his head $87,000 paid off in two years and three months house and everything they're weird they did it making 91 to 95 count it down let's hear a debt-free scream here we go guys 3 2 energy we de [Music] [Applause] and that's how they do it in Tucson boys and girls love it well done well done this is the ramsy [Music] show [Music] [Music] our scripture of the day Isaiah 43:18 and 19 don't remember the prior things don't Ponder ancient history look I'm doing a new thing now it sprouts up don't you recognize it I'm making a way in the desert paths in the wilderness JP Morgan said the first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you're not going to stay where you are oh there it is that's kind of like uh breaking the cycle you got to move yeah or Breaking Free from broke that's what we do breaking the cycle is the new live stream that comes out January the 11th and we're giving away $10,000 10 people will get $1,000 each you can sign up for free at Ramsey solutions.com Breaking Free from broke is georg's new book which comes out January 16th Jan days lat just a couple days later so that's the theme I guess of 2024 we're all going to break free we're breaking something Breaking Free Breaking Free from breaking the cycle we're breaking free from broke we're just breaking something we're breaking stuff you've liked breaking things for many decades you want if you want if you want a cake you got to break some eggs I'm just saying I like is that an old timey saying I haven't heard that one it could be yeah could be it feels like a Sharon Ramsey could be a really old time sing so hey check it out guys georg's new book comes out in just about 10 days here and so uh if you still want to get all the free $100 worth of goodies with the pre-sale you can still do that Breaking Free from broke Ramsey solutions.com Mary is with us she's in Seattle hey Mary welcome to the Ramsey show thank you Happy New Year happy New Year how can we help okay uh so I was an idiot um I was in love with a man that convinced me to co-sign on a 2019 Jetta in the fall of 2021 um I'm not in that relationship anymore um but anyway uh last summer I convinced him to turn the vehicle back into the dealer basically voluntarily repossess it he could not pay the um payment on time and I was also helping him and he he made more than me um but anyway so um Volkswagen hasn't said hasn't sold the vehicle yet at auction but when it's sold um of course we me and him are going to be on the hook for whatever is left on the loan so I want to know um if there's anything I can do he he does have a settlement for Harley that he uh got in an accident and uh wasn't his fault and he's going to get uh comp ated for that I was also a co-signer on the Harley because I was stupid um but that bike has been paid off he's just waiting for the settlement I'm wondering can I put a lean on a settlement or what can I do I I have text messages from him saying that he will pay off the Jetta but I don't trust that that's going to happen that sounds like that's a correct assessment to me um where was that girl yeah oh Mary I'm so sorry what a horrible mess oh what what a sad way to learn a horrible lesson too isn't it yeah how how old are you I'm 60 and he was 43 so I had a little bit of the share complex going on or something there the share complex you're great you're great okay so how much money how much money do you have uh how much money do I have well I'm on baby step one I I'm just starting out you don't have any money I don't have any money I have $3,000 in credit card debt that I have uh Consumer Credit what do you make 61,000 a year okay what was owed on the Jetta do you know 29,000 and change okay all right uh all right let's just make up some numbers for a second just to give you an example all right let's pretend that that Jedi when he turned it in was worth 20 on the repo lot let's pretend that it sells for 12 okay it might get 15 for it um but um you know we could say nine anyway so Le let's say there's a 15,000 deficit when you're done right and they come to you as the co-signer and they want $155,000 well the first thing you tell them is what you told me I have no money right I don't have any money I got $3,000 in credit card debt and I have zero cash saved and I don't have any money that's the first thing you tell them which is also by the way the truth and you can tell him where he is and where his Harley account is and that he is getting a settlement and that they should get the money from him okay um and help them get it from him that's the best thing you can do if that doesn't work and you and I are both suspect it won't right then the good news is you can usually settle a repossession deficit for somewhere around 10 to 20 cents on the dollar and so if it's 15,000 o500 to 3,000 will settle it oh yeah okay so but if you get to that point that means you're going to a have gotten out of debt you're going to have built up some a little bit of an emergency fund of5 or $10,000 or something before they get around to bothering you with this and then when they call and bother you you say okay you go after him and they say well we tried and you say well you ought to try again cuz I got no money and uh then they come back at you again then you say hey uh just want to settle my part I don't want to settle his part so you can still go after him for more if you want but I'll give you 1,500 for my part and start working with them and you'll have to Josh all back and forth with them and argue with them some but you probably will get it for $1,500 or $2,000 $3,000 and then let him leave his part there don't settle the whole debt say I want I want the portion but but I need inwriting from you that the portion of my name is settled in full that I owe nothing that I owe nothing else and you can go after him for whatever you want right perfect okay that's a lot better than I thought yeah you're you're you're in better shape it's not going to kill you here but you do have to go ahead and get the rest of your money straightened up yeah and then you you just have a 3,000 in credit card debt is there anything else I own a house with my ex-husband and we both pay half of the mortgage on it and it's probably worth about 800,000 here in Seattle but we owe like 170 who lives in it um myself my two sons and it's a there's a mother-in-law apartment so the ex lives there too um but we're not together or anything we just yeah we get along it works for us and that was my choice many years ago when we divorced so wow okay all right well then yeah you've got that asset you don't want them attaching that asset so you do want to settle this right right so you do need to get the rest of your stuff under control so you got a little cash built up War chest before the war comes yes yeah wow perfect well we're usually talking to a a an a 24 yearold that did something like this but you can still give anybody that's dating someone the same warning never co-sign for someone that never buy anything on Deb in any way or even co-own something with someone you're not married to would you would you testify to that Miss Mary I am I will preach it till to the mountains absolutely I will never do that and it doesn't matter how goodlook you are and how goodlooking he is and you know how much of a share complex you want to have it's not worth it wow that's a great testimony that's very good you did you did a good job Mary we're proud of you you be okay if you need more help we're here to help you okay thank you so much absolutely thank you thanks for calling in what's your old quote Dave testimonies a wonderful thing to have getting getting ones a pain in the butt y that's what Mary just experienced with her share complex oh that's funny oh she's great that was a fun way to end great but yeah the the the whole co-signing thing man dangerous stuff obviously there's proof dangerous stuff if you need it that puts us our the Ramsey Show in the books we'll be back with you before you know it in the meantime remember there's ultimately only one way to financial peace and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace Christ [Music] Jesus [Music] n