Over $380,000 In Debt and Only Make $57,000!!

John is with us in Texas hi John welcome to the Dave Ramsey show I'm having trouble hearing you John can you hear me yes sir that's a little better okay well thank you for taking my call sure how can we help so I am new to your your show and a little bit about me I'm 28 years old my wife is 2 we have a nine-month-old I am a student working on my doctorate degree and I have a 9 month old daughter so I have about 300,000 in student loans 40,000 in personal loans 26,000 and credit card debt you're working on working out of a degree a doctorate degree in what organizational leadership with a focus in health care administration with a plan to do what within 5 to 10 years hopefully being an executive leadership position vice president CEO or CEO why do you need a PhD to do that it's it's a little bit more leaning into the health care administration side so I can get a better aspect of of that room okay I have about 17,000 remaining on my SUV and my wife and I together have about a hundred and sixteen thousand remaining our mortgage right now we bring home a total of about 57,000 together after taxes and so last year my parents advised me to go file for chapter 7 bankruptcy so I went to an attorney I've been retained with her since August of last year however she's requested that we kind of suspend or we kind of push back the bankruptcy until later this year like December early of next year because she wants to see how the elections turn out see if maybe with the new party coming in if she can bank run or file Chapter seven on my student loans I'm skeptical about that but it's the only advice I've been given it to this point so I guess my question to you guys are hey so what do you found bankruptcy on your student loans aren't bankrupt of all your mortgages in bank right keep the house race on bankruptcy how are the need know the forty thousand and a personal loan and twenty six thousand credit card debt so my question was should I continue on this path to do this should I do it sooner or should I even follow Chapter seven and follow through with a different set of resources or steps to getting when do you graduate in about two and a half years and you're not you're you're not working but your wife is we both are working I work full-time as well as well as of being a full-time student oh okay but your household income is 57,000 yes I'd bring home about 38 after taxes and she brings home 19 after taxes and your undergrad is and your undergrads in want my undergraduate is in chemistry okay chemistry and then respiratory respiratory care so I'm a respiratory how are you paying for this PhD for the next two and a half years so unfortunately had to take out let's do it no one on top of what I already owe so if you if you file bankruptcy you're not doing that how are you paying for the bank how are you paying for your PhD I haven't filed yet I know I got though but if you file bankruptcy you're not getting a student loan I was not aware of that I mean I'm so all right uh I'm trying to figure out where to start ah John you you right now my friend do you feel the weight of this right now I I do do you really because you said you just recently found us and so what you're hearing is the wheels turning is reprocessing because you've been sold a fake dream if you think bankruptcy is gonna fix it okay because it costs money and you've already had this attorney on retainer and they're telling you we're gonna wait for the election to find out if listen to me student loans are not bankrupt able okay those aren't going anywhere they're and so III I want you to start to look at this and feel it and not look for the quick fix but look for the fix yes the problem and certainly why why I'm trying to find out the resource because that made me so skeptical when she said that yeah he was trying to pushing so to push this back and so that's why I wanted to find other resources out there and I drowned you guys that's more of a yeah I appreciate this so I got to figure out a way to get you guys to get your income moving sooner than two and a half years from now and that's what's that's what my hold up here is because I'm not trying to the thing is the debt is always not the problem it's always the symptom of what's going on and when including what I lost everything went bankrupt thirty years ago so I know how scared you guys are and this is a huge pile up on you guys and so you have bet the you bet the farm on this PhD turning into serious income I mean with three hundred thousand dollars plus continuing to pile it up so I'm probably going to start talking to health care companies now about working there and letting them finish pay to help you finish the as they're continuing ed program pay to help you finish your PhD and you go ahead and get your career track started now instead of a $38,000 job you've got a chemistry degree you've got the intellect to step into this you've got a lot of the training to step into this and let's accelerate the PhD completion and let someone else pay for that get that off of you and then get your income up to begin to address the 300 while you're doing that you can address the other stuff you can file seven if you want to and clean it up clean up some of that stuff but but you've got to in good conscience you can't continue borrowing if you're not going to pay other people you owe mm-hmm from a moral standpoint and you've got to stop and address that as well in this so I can't I can't recommend you that you not pay someone in bankruptcy and that while you're on the other hand borrowing money on the other out of the other side of your mouth right and so that that's just inconsistent from an integrity standpoint for me so I got to put a stop to the bleeding meaning we've got to have a way to complete this PhD without any more debt and that that keeps us from having any more debt and then B it gives us the leeway to say okay can we fight through these other types of debt or are they do they need to go into bankruptcy you guys are just under an amazing amount of stress and I tell you what Dave what I'd like to do Kelly get his information I want him get get him connected with one of our financial coaches yeah you guys are got to ask for my wallet and sit down and unpack and we'll just we'll pay for it yeah and anymore the first session said I understand you found bankruptcy let's sit down that's a good idea absolutely because we got to find out Dave with this doctorate program this could be the Condit you got to go to school for three years and then spend two years writing your doctoral dissertation well he said he can have it completed it no well but the thing is you're so far into this I can't pull you back mmm but the bet that you've made is untenable a $300,000 bet on the PhD causing you to have a degree in executive health care is that's an untenable bet is it a reasonable thing to get a PhD sure sure you've done it in such an unreasonable way it puts you under the all the stress I'm so sorry I know you're scared so what we can do is walk with you and we'll just pay for it don't file bankruptcy let's see if we can help you get this you're gonna have to you're going to attack this from multiple fronts not merely getting rid of the credit card debt and the personal loan just getting rid of that that you've still got all the other mess so yeah and it is still getting worse if you don't make that better and that's just that's what's scaring me here for your brother you hang on Kelly I'll pick up and we'll pay for your counseling we'll help you get some help we'll get you some

Channel: The Ramsey Show Highlights

Views: 1,612,517

Keywords: the dave ramsey show, budget money debt cash, real estate, insurance, how to make money, dave ramsey, save, credit card, compound interest, buying house, buy, snowball, Over $380, 000 In Debt and Only Make $57, 000!!, debt, money, how to pay off debt, budget, student loans, pay off debt, personal finance

Id: EvY7GTu86Dk

Length: 8min 59sec (539 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 06 2020