Managing Money Well Matters At Every Income Level

Brought to you by the EveryDollar app, start budgeting for free today.

Normal is broken, common sense is weird, so we're here to help you transform your life.

From the Ramsey Network in the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio, this is the Ramsey Show.

The phone number to jump in, triple 8, 825, 525, triple 8, 825, 525, 225.

Alongside the lovely Rachel Cruz, I'm Ken Coleman.

We're excited to be here to help you today.

We started off with Lucas in Austin, Texas.

Lucas, how can we help?

Hey, I am calling it because I was looking for a way to manage my finances better.

And I'm 28 years old, I'm single.

I have some credit card debt, as well as some student loan debt.

Okay, so just an overall direction is what you're looking for from us.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, yeah, so how much debt does all that total?

So it's probably closer to about 30,000?

30,000?

Okay, how much of that is credit card and how much is that student loan?

So it's 14,500 in credit card and student loan is about 20,000.

20, okay, cool.

And how much do you make a year?

I make about $32,000 a year or like 16 an hour.

Okay, what do you do?

I work in like mobile device repair and sales.

Okay, for like a cell phone company type thing in the store.

Yeah, basically.

Perfect.

Okay, great.

Yeah, I'd love for Ken to jump in on just the career side because I think you still have

so much ahead of you.

What do you want to be?

Well, right now, I'm kind of in and between spot because, you know, I like what I do and

I like working with, you know, physical technology and things like that.

But then like trying to transition to something a little bit more, you know, viable for

the future.

Like what?

Probably trying to get into more like, I get data processing and things like that.

Okay.

So have you done enough research to know what that could look like as far as position

A, position B, position C?

Not yet.

I'm still kind of in the phase of trying to figure out like which direction to go with

it.

I mean, I've been looking into more like data science and things like that.

So that's kind of where I'm at in trying to transition my career path over there.

Okay.

Well, real quick.

And then we'll get back to Rachel here and kind of walk you through what you need to do.

But you do need to increase your income.

And I'm saying that separate of us trying to figure out which long term direction that

you're going to go.

So while you were in the process of discovery, and I'm going to help you that in just a moment,

you still need to be making more money because right now at 28 and single with the debt

that you have.

But one thing you have is time and you need to make time.

So whether that's some freelancing in the same space that you're in or doing some freelance

and technology.

And again, we're not talking about a career choice.

We're saying, I need a second job and I need to make an additional two to three thousand

dollars a month.

That would be the goal that I would give you.

So what you would do is say, what can I do now that will allow me to make an additional

two to three grand a month?

Because you're at 32,000 a year, I believe is what you said.

And so you need to increase that and that will allow you to get through the steps that

Rachel's going to walk you through.

But here's what I give you.

Quick advice.

I love that you have an idea of the direction you want to go.

What I would do is use this idea that I've introduced before called the proximity principle

and it's simply this.

I want to get around people that are in the space or spaces that I am considering.

And that's lunch, that's coffees, that's, hey, will you connect me to somebody over here

that you know, and you want to do a good old-fashioned term paper.

And you're going to sit with this person and ask enough questions that you could do

a term paper on their job.

We're talking high school term paper.

Nothing complex.

And what you're doing there is, is you're getting clarity on the role itself, what it takes

to win in the role, what it takes to get qualified the role, how I get placed, how I move up.

And in doing all of that, your head and heart are going to get connected.

The heads of the information, the heart will be the emotion to say, I'm excited about

that.

And I'm going to give you, at the end of the call, I'm going to give you my book, find

the work you're wired to do.

It has the clear assessment in it.

It's going to take about 20 minutes.

It's going to really help you.

So that's my gift to you, okay?

Okay.

I appreciate that.

Yeah, but listen, more money.

Now Rachel, he starts making more money.

What does that look like to pay off his debt?

Yeah, because those are your two big parts of the equation, Lucas, is the income side and

the expenses side.

But you're probably only bringing home what, three grand a month ish, would you say?

It's more, yeah, it's closer to about two, about two thousand a month.

So how are you paying, are you, are you living at home?

So I live with two roommates, I only pay about $600 a month and I rent two rooms in a house.

Perfect, good for you.

That's, that's great because the living expenses is usually one of your highest line items

in the budget.

So for a lot of people, they're paying, you know, a thousand, you know, even two thousand

for mortgages.

I mean, it's just like it just can get so high.

So that 600 is, it honestly, I mean, that that's a great place to be because honestly, Lucas,

when you leave your job at five o'clock, I would go work somewhere from six to nine and

I would do that four times a week and on, and I would do one weekend.

And it's seriously, if you can get two to three thousand dollars, you could have, you could

have this all cleaned up in 10 months, which is wild.

To think you could have all your debt paid off, but you have to have a goal from an income

perspective.

And that's going to be your biggest back.

I don't think there's many expenses you probably can cut, that's going to make that

big of a difference.

Do you know what I mean?

So there's something so encouraging about this that you do have the time.

And it's just going to be hard.

It's just 10 months of just grinding it out.

But a lot of people do that, Lucas, sometimes for two, three years to get on the other side

of it.

Yeah, there's a lot of upside.

It's just going to be the work is the equation, that part of the equation is going to be really

big.

And like Ken said, it's not, it may not be career stuff, right?

I mean, you may be waiting tables bartending, like whatever it looks like to go and earn some

extra money.

And then I think for you, Lucas, just from a long term perspective, be looking at what

you want to do long term and start actually kind of building out a career that you love

and your passion and your good at.

So you're making more like 60, 70, 80 thousand a year down, you know, down the road.

So that would be my two big goals for you.

But if you hold in the line, we'll get you Ken's book and then we'll also get you every

dollar.

This is our budgeting app.

But it also will look at your entire financial picture and help walk you through how to do,

how to basically do the baby steps so you can enter in your information in that app and

it really walks you through.

But when you're looking at your debt to attack it, the debt snowball is what we recommend.

And so taking those credit cards is how many credit cards is that 14,000?

So it's between two credit cards.

One credit card is basically, I applied for it when I was younger and it gave me a 14,000

credit limit.

And I was like, I don't need that much, but I ended up living off of it because I was

making like 10 to $12 an hour at one job and I had to have some sort of extra income

because at the time I was paying for an apartment that was $1,400, so I just kept putting rent

on that card and eventually I just maxed it out.

And the other card, yeah, and then the other card was like $500, and yeah, that's kind

of where that's at.

Okay, so I would have a goal to get $1,000, do you have anything saved at all, any cash?

Not really.

Okay, yeah.

So yeah, so your first goal to get $1,000, we're at the end of February right now.

Make it a goal by March 15 to get $1,000.

Whatever that looks like, you got to sell stuff, you got to work extra.

And then from there, you're going to start saying, okay, with this $500 credit card, we're

going to pay that off.

And having an aggressive goal at the end of March, mid-April, that credit card's gone.

And then you're going to start attacking that 14, or the other credit card with the rents

and then start attacking the suit alone.

So you do it by smallest to largest, but yeah, hang on a line, Christian, we'll pick up

and we'll get you all that stuff, Lucas.

But excited for you in this new journey you're on.

I love entrepreneurs, don't forget guys, I started my company on a card table myself.

So I know what it's like to have people counting on you, your team, your family, not to mention

your customers.

And when you're the one signing the paycheck, you can't afford to fly blind.

But I'll be honest, early on, one thing that nearly sunk us was wasting time with spreadsheets

that didn't add up because business units didn't talk to each other.

I finally told my team, just fix it.

And they did.

We got NetSuite.

That was years ago, and we've never looked back.

See, NetSuite isn't just for tech giants, it's built for growing businesses like yours.

Over 43,000 businesses already run on NetSuite, including a lot that started just like you.

And now with built-in AI, NetSuite is helping them even more.

It's one system connected to every part of your business for real time insights.

But guesswork, NetSuite AI flags, inventory issues, cash flow risks, even supplier delays

before they become problems.

So you can trust the data, stop wasting time, and make the right decisions faster.

Take a free product tour today at NetSuite.com slash Ramsey.

That's NetSuite.com slash Ramsey.

Alyssa is joining us now in Atlanta.

Alyssa, how can we help?

Hi.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for taking my call.

Sure.

My question to you is, should I move out of my house, which is owned by my mom and her

partner?

They are not married.

They have two mortgages, which is the apartment I live in, which I pay in full for every month

is $2,600.

They have a home that they live in.

Their mortgage is $4,300.

They moved out of my apartment eight months ago to move into their home.

And now she wants to leave them.

And we're trying to figure out what the best, what the best move is.

She wants to leave him, is that what you said?

She wants to leave him, and she wants to either move into my apartment, or really she wants

me to move into her house.

The one that they're paying for together, have him move into the apartment, so no one

gets, quote unquote, burned.

But that's going to be a big change in my life, and I'm going to take you all over

right there.

Let's just pause.

Okay.

I appreciate we're honored that you called for our opinion, and believe me, we have opinions

and we'll give them to you.

But before we get there, let's just go where you are.

Where are you at?

Oh, is your knee jerk reaction?

What is your feeling right now?

What decision do you think is right for you?

Tell us.

So my ideal situation would be to, I told them when they moved, I'm like, if I'm going

to be paying everything, I'm paying the property taxes to be my own landlord.

Why not just give me the gift of the home of the apartment, which they didn't do?

My immediate reaction would be to have my mom move in, though it would be a big change

because I've been a business out of my house, so it's going to be a little bit tighter.

My mom is very pushing me to move into the house because she feels like we would be

able to get in to another house.

Pause real quick.

I'm sorry, and this is because I'm not really clear and I don't want to confuse you or

the audience.

So you're seeing apartment and house.

You're currently living in a place and you said your first reaction was for mom to move

in with you where you are now, correct?

Yes, because they just moved out of the apartment, which they owned, that I was in.

I'm living in to move into their house.

So they took on a $400,000 problem, that's, I don't even care about that.

And the musical house is just confusing.

So you think the best movies for your mom to move in with you, but it comes with some

headaches.

That's what I heard.

Correct.

Alright, so if you think that's best, we start there.

And I can tell you, Rachel and I just said, her house is not your problem.

And mom is trying to manipulate you, my viewpoint, to move in to help her with a mortgage

that she can handle.

There's no boundaries.

Oh, she's leaning on you almost like a second.

She wants to break up with a boyfriend.

Him move into your place.

This is wacky.

Yeah.

Is your name on any of these properties from like a legal perspective of owning?

Mine is not on any property.

Okay.

And then they're going to break up.

So Alyssa, I mean, this sounds extreme.

I almost, which would probably piss your mom off, but I almost would just move out,

get out of the middle of this triangle and just go rent an apartment, be a complete

buy standard in this and then be able to help and coach your mom of, hey, mom, yeah,

these properties, because I bet both of their names are on right on the apartment and

the home, which is going to be a mess for your mom, because they're going to have to

possibly refinance to get one name off the loan.

I mean, it's just going to be, it's going to be a disaster.

And so if I were you, I see disaster playing out with unhealthy mom with no boundaries.

And this would be a, this would be a harsh move, but it would to say like, hey, I have to,

I have to step away.

And, and then from your point of strength, be able then to come in and help where you

can and where it's appropriate, but not out of this desperation of your mom, because

she can't get her act together.

Are you lost?

That sounds mean.

But no.

No.

I had one more thing for you.

Sure.

I don't think they've been together for over a decade.

So with that said, I don't think that one of them are going to go through the headache

of taking each other's name off.

Like they trust each other enough, although they shouldn't, they trust each other enough

and they know that they're both stable enough to, yes, they may not, but that's everybody's

me.

But what is, how does that change?

Okay.

Great.

How does it change what we're telling you that you should do?

No.

That doesn't, that doesn't change.

You just what?

Well, I just, I mentioned 30,000 dollars.

Yeah.

So I'm not paying that much.

I pay about $2,600 a month in total with everything.

And my goal this year is, I'm like in the baby steps, and my goal this year is to pay

off my 30,000 dollars in debt, which is more than possible.

Yeah.

So I just don't know.

And it's just going to be more difficult, but I guess why is it going to be, what's

going to make it more difficult?

If you move.

If I move.

Why?

Yes.

Give me some evidence.

You may be right.

I think you can find it.

What?

In my area, it's probably going to be more expensive.

I am going to need a two bedroom at least in order to continue running my side business.

What is your side, my home?

I am a laxer.

A laxer.

Oh.

Yes.

Sorry.

Got that one a little late.

Okay.

Great.

But I mean, I appreciate the service.

Yeah.

I mean, okay, two bedroom that's fine, but you could get a roommate, split a three bedroom.

You know what I mean?

I would challenge you to find some small studio.

I would just look into it.

Do you know what I mean?

Because the reason to do all of this is not really a financial move.

It's more of a boundary play because.

Yeah.

You got to get out of this mess.

There's just a relational entanglement or you either have to just have a strong boundary

with your mom.

That's some point in your life, right?

I mean, it sounds like she's, you're just like the third wheel and you're the safety net

for her when things go south.

And that's just not a, that's not a blossoming relationship.

You know what I mean?

From a, from a daughter to a mother.

So I'm just.

Yes.

Yeah.

I got used to living by myself, so I don't really want to live with her.

Yes.

And you don't have to.

By the way, that's going to create a problem.

And, and, and mom's going to try to manipulate you.

I have a good feeling that if you tell mom or you do what we're suggesting that mom's

going to throw the darts at you.

Am I right or wrong?

That's right.

Okay.

Okay.

So are you prepared?

You don't have to be on this call.

But I mean, how prepared do you think you are to be able to stand up to that?

Anything from prepared?

Okay.

I hear the emotion.

I hope you guys have such a minute.

Yeah.

Hey, what emotion?

What are you, what are you feeling?

Sadness.

What's going on?

Sadness to be prepared on her own, but I mean, I've told her a million times, you know,

my goals.

It's a fail.

My debt this year.

And I've been doing a great job at that.

And this is just kind of going to do something in the middle of that.

I'm going to take on a lot more expenses, a lot more stress.

Maybe farther from work, the job that actually pays me good and that I want to try to make

100,000 a year for him.

So it's just a lot.

I know.

Well, first of all, you're a good daughter.

And there might be some thoughts that enter your head that I'm not a good daughter.

Maybe your mom, not saying that she will, but she might throw some statements at you that

make you feel that way.

And I want you to, before you leave us to know that you're a good daughter and you are

making really good decisions for you and your future.

And you can't reach out to how many times we take calls with children and adult parents

where you really aren't going to be able to fix mom's stuff.

And this is what Deloney says all the time is, you know, when you put the boundary up,

if the other person on the other end throws a fit and decides to, you know, from an extreme

standpoint in the relationship or stopped, that's, that was their call.

You didn't ask for that.

You're not wanting to break a level of relationship with your mom.

You're just trying to set up your own life.

Alyssa, how old are you?

23.

Oh, you okay.

You are young.

Oh, bless you.

You are young.

Yeah, this is a great move.

Alyssa, listen.

This is going to be a pattern that you set for the, for the rest of your life, you know?

I know you're sad right now, but I would rather you experience the sadness of this necessary

ending than deal with madness and this is setting up for that.

And I don't mean just the angry feeling.

I mean, like some insanity of this revolving relationship between your mom and this guy.

And it's so co-mingled that I think the further you get away from this and set up financial

and emotional boundaries, woo, I think you're going to be great.

I'm going to recommend a book by our dear friend, Dr. Henry Clouds, called Boundaries, read

it and then follow that up with necessary endings.

That's your one, two punch.

If debt collectors won't stop calling and you feel like you're drowning, you don't need

another company selling debt relief dreams.

You need real world help.

And that's why I recommend Guardian Litigation Group.

Guardians not a call center.

They're actual attorneys who can step into the courtroom and fight back when creditors

try to sue you.

Now look, debt settlement isn't pretty.

I still rather have you get out of debt the old-fashioned way.

But if you're facing bankruptcy and need a way to stop the bleeding, Guardian gives you

a path forward and they don't charge a dime up front.

Guardians attorneys have helped over 55,000 people across the country settle more than $600

million in debt.

They'll help you stop living in fear every time the phone rings and take back control

of your life.

Go to guardianlit.com slash ramsy.

That's guardianlit.com slash ramsy.

It's earning advertising.

Results may vary and no specific outcome is guaranteed.

All right, let's go to Tiffany next in Phoenix, Arizona.

Tiffany, how can we help you?

Hi, my name is Tiffany, I own two properties that are like no other than income producing.

One, I have perpetual problems with that cost me at least $1,000 in repairs and the other

one has been vacant for over six months and I just lost my job and I can't keep up with

the payments and I don't know what to do.

Okay, tell us about the properties.

Property one.

That one broken the broken property.

What is it?

What kind of property is it?

What do you think it's worth and what do you owe on it?

Give us some numbers.

It's a duplex, it's worth probably around $320 and I owe about $260 on it.

Okay, and then let's call the second property, the vacant property.

Give me the numbers on that one.

I'm at the triplex and I owe like $406 and they say it's worth $500 but I don't think

it's worth that much.

Who's they?

A real estate agent told me that it was worth $300,000 but I don't think that's true either.

Well, you just told us $400,000 and then you changed it.

I'm sorry, I wrote $500,000.

You said that they said it's worth $500 and you owe $406.

Did I get that right?

That's correct.

Okay, so why did you throw $300 out?

There's a big gap there.

The real estate agent that I spoke to said he told me because it wasn't selling to drop

it down to $300,000 but it's worth more than that.

Okay, well then you need to interview several real estate agents.

Go ahead.

That's the third real estate agent that I have tried to get to sell the property.

Have you tried any of the Ramsey, well they're not Ramsey real estate agents that are connected

to us and our Ramsey trusted program?

Ramsey trusted program.

Ramsey trusted program if you tried any of those.

No.

Okay, go to our website and the Ramsey trusted and talk to some real estate agents.

You don't have to take those three opinions at this point.

You've got some urgency, so let's find somebody that really knows the market and that

is really aggressive.

The challenge that you've got is the duplex and the triplex.

Those are not your most favorable properties and I'm guessing that you're probably in

an area where real estate is slowed down.

Is that true or false?

Well, the real estate agent I talked to say that it's good until they put on the market

so I presented it.

I know, but see, here's another thing.

You've got to go get your own data, right?

This is not hard to find.

You've got to get your own research in this thing and by the way, this is readily available.

You know your zip code.

You can go pull this information from realtor.com, other reputable sources and let's just get

a knowledgeable, some comps on these triplex and duplex.

But you definitely need to get rid of these.

But what my hope is you don't go ahead.

I have done that.

The comps that I had for the vacant home was 480 and then for the broken home, the comp

was at 320.

Okay.

I made a check on property.

Great.

I've done a research.

Great.

Great job.

And how long have they been on the market for?

Well, the vacant home, I pulled it from the market.

I was on the market for about a month, about two months.

Okay.

But I pulled it just to see if I can get a renter because I can't keep up with these payments

and then the duplex.

Okay.

Let's look at your income really quick.

That's not on the market.

Okay.

So that's not my job.

I know.

So what was your income prior to losing your job?

About 90,000.

What were you doing?

I worked in marketing.

Okay.

What happened?

Late off?

Fired?

What happened?

No, I got fired for burnout and stressed out.

And what was causing you stress?

My mortgage is.

Right.

Okay.

Uh, I think this is a bullshit.

I thought evictions.

I had three evictions last year.

I still have one.

Uh-huh.

As being a landlord, you might like you having to do it as a landlord?

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah, totally.

Oh.

Turnovers.

So how much is the, how much is each payment per month?

Uh, my flex is 2600 and the triplex is 3400.

Mm.

Okay.

So yeah, that's six grand just in those payments.

How far behind are you?

I'm not behind.

You're not behind.

Okay.

That's good.

So Tiffany, right now, average days on markets, and this is across the US, not in the Phoenix

area specifically, is about 78 days.

Right.

And we're about to go into a season of, of real estate, right?

Everything kind of starts opening up after the winter and your, your May, your April, um,

all of these months really start generating people that are looking to buy.

Now, this looks like, I mean, I'm assuming you wouldn't be able to sell like the duplex

and the triplex as separate units, it has to be all probably within one unit.

So are you looking for like an investor, would an investor be the type of buyer?

Because it wouldn't be a single family, like it's not a single family home, right?

No, that's correct.

It's not.

Okay.

So that, that is going to make it more difficult because it's more of a niche, um, you

know, buyer that you're looking for.

But average days, so I would give yourself 90 days, um, to 120, like it may have to go

through the summer.

But the problem is, is if you start getting behind, then yeah, I mean, short, a short

sale may have to come into play if you can't get these off.

Well, that's why we need to look at the money right now.

So the income, so are you on a severance right now?

Well, how long have you, have you been out of work, um, just found out this week, I have

a month severance.

You have a month severance.

Okay.

And if, let me, let me go back, and this is somewhat of an unfair question, but I think

it's important.

If, if we had 30 days ago, sold those, tripe those two, let's call these properties,

okay?

What are these properties?

Do you think you would have gotten fired?

Probably.

You do think you still would be.

It's okay going on for that.

You just have been going on for about two years.

Okay.

And so the stress, and I want you to be really honest, because again, we're protecting

you here, but we, we need to be gut level on us.

Is that the single source of you, just simply you couldn't get the job done.

You were almost a zombie because you were so stressed out.

Is that what I'm understanding?

Yeah.

Okay.

So I want to go back then.

Do we not have the stress of these properties?

Do you think you would have been in a state that would have led to you getting fired, yes

or no?

Why would you try to go?

Okay.

If these properties didn't exist in your portfolio, and you didn't have any of this

stress, do you think you would have gotten fired?

Let's go all the way back for two years and it's been going on.

Would you have gotten fired?

No.

Okay.

My point is you aren't broken, but you are burdened, and that's what's going on.

So we got to remove these two burdens.

Let me tell you what I would do.

We have short time here, but I'm going to tell you two things I think you got to do.

Number one, I think you need to go get a really aggressive real estate agent, keep finding,

but I would not rely on them.

Is there anybody that are there other duplexes and triplexes around these properties?

They're not single standouts, right?

No, just go right there.

I don't want to need that.

I would be knocking on doors and finding who owns them and say, I'm willing to make

a deal.

Yes.

And the deal is up to a point that you don't have to pay anything, but you can get out

of these things.

I don't even care if you profit one dollar, but as long as you don't owe anything on these

things anymore, and we remove these from your life, it's like taking a giant millstone

that's been hanging around your neck, and you've been out there treading water, and that

is going to lift from you, me.

That would be step one.

So I would take it on myself to go cut a deal.

Hey, I got these properties.

I screwed up.

I'm stressed out.

This is the bottom dollar that I'll take, but I'll take it today.

And I would go try to do the deal on your own while trying to get an agent.

Now, we've got to move to income.

You are going to get free of these things.

So you have to summon up every ounce of energy and strength that you have, and you have

got to get back on the horse.

You've got to maybe go back to your current employer and say, I'm going to fix this.

I would take that stab.

Give me one more shot.

Maybe you don't have it.

I understand that may be unrealistic, but I'd put everything on the table, and you've

got to get out there.

If you're working from home, whatever it is, but 90,000 is not going to be replaced by

some odd jobs, you're going to have to go back and get into marketing and get in as quick

as you can, or you're looking at four to five jobs.

That's your reality right now, because you got one month before your world gets really,

really bad.

So I hate that you're in this, but here's the good news.

I believe in you.

You can't get out of this, but this is going to have to be like, ah, like everything you

got to not get broken by this.

Statistics show that half of Americans don't have enough life insurance, or they don't

have any at all.

They don't understand this, John.

Why don't people want to take care of their family?

They think they're going to die or something?

Well, I used to be one of those guys.

I didn't even think about it, and one of my buddies said, hey, the only reason to not have

life insurance is if you hate your wife and kids, and I immediately went and got termed

life insurance.

That's a gut punch.

Oh, you're telling me, and for decades, Dave, I've sat across people who've lost a spouse,

they've lost somebody important to them, and they don't know what to do next.

Me too.

You're going to have a crisis here, and you got two options while you're sitting and

talking to a young widow.

She's concerned about how she's going to invest all this money properly, and not mess this

up, or she's concerned how she's going to eat tomorrow.

That's exactly right.

These are the two options.

Take care of your dad-gum family.

That's right.

And term life insurance can replace income, have debts, cover funeral expenses, so your

family can actually have the opportunity to just be sad, to just miss you.

That's exactly what it's supposed to be.

It's saying I love you to your family.

Family life insurance, Jeff Zander and the team of Zander Insurance makes it easy and

affordable.

I've used them personally for 25 years of the only people I trust.

Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282.

Hey, if you're sick and tired of working so hard but having nothing to show for it, don't

get tuned down.

It's normal, but normal is broke.

Our every dollar budget app is going to help you find extra money.

Every month it's going to build you a personalized plan to beat the debt so you can build wealth.

In just 15 minutes you're going to find thousands in margin that's hidden from you.

So go start every dollar, and you can do it for free in the App Store or Google Play.

All right, Eric is up in Dayton, Ohio, Eric.

How can we help?

Hey guys, how are you guys today?

Great.

How are you, sir?

You're good.

Hey, I look in for some advice on how to convince my wife that it's a smart idea to sell

one vehicle that we have paid off.

It's worth about $32,000 to pay off the other that we have and not have any car payment.

And your wife is not on board with this.

She not.

You try to sell her car.

It is her car.

My car is paid for.

Oh, okay.

It's over.

Yeah.

It's a heart.

It's a heart.

A battle.

It is.

So it's paid for your yours is a truck and what is she drive?

Yes.

She drives the Durango.

And you want to sell her?

I thought you said you wanted to sell your truck.

Yes.

So my truck and pay off her Durango and that's why I'm confused as well.

She's not for that.

Oh, I thought you were trying to sell her car.

Well, she she thinks basically the difference of what my truck is worth compared to us paying

her car off is about $8,800 to $10,000.

So she's afraid.

My what I would like to do is take that $10,000 and go buy a pay cash for a used car.

She is just afraid of what comes with the maintenance and upkeep of buying a new car.

What's her vehicle?

Got it.

Okay.

Now I'm up to date.

Okay.

So this is all about vision casting Eric.

Right?

You got a cast vision.

Okay.

And you got to do it in a way where she goes, aha, because she's got some fear, okay.

And who among this Eric are really clear thinking when we're afraid?

Yes, you would agree.

Yes.

Okay.

So nothing wrong with your wife.

She got some fear and it's clouding her ability to see your plan.

So you have to come at it that way.

All right.

So this is the way I would come about it.

What is the payment on her Durango every month?

Well, we're paying just shy of double payments on her Durango now.

So she hurt her insight is, well, why do we need to make this drastic decision if we

can just pay it off?

Maybe she's right, but you got to answer my question.

I'm going to walk you through.

Maybe she's right.

So what are you guys paying?

I know it's a double payment.

Are you guys paying every month on the Durango?

It's 550.

Okay.

550 bucks a month.

But the payment is.

All right.

And if we continue to do the 550 double payment, when would the Durango be paid off?

In about two, two, just over two years.

Yeah.

Okay.

That's, that's, that's more information.

The way I would come about it is, what are you thinking?

Because you, you made a funny scrunchy face and I really want to go to you, I want to go

to you immediately.

No, no, it's not off the top of my head.

It's just, that is, that's so long to be, yes, we're keeping.

All right.

I just wanted to make sure.

Cat cast the vision.

So here's what I would do.

I would say, babe, we're paying 550 bucks a month and at that rate, it's going to take

us two years to pay this off.

Okay.

All right.

So you do the math on that and just play it out, show it the numbers.

So that's 24 months at 550 a month.

Multiply that.

1000.

Because he said double payments, they'll haven't paid off in two years.

No.

Yeah.

I thought the double, okay, hold on.

That's the single payment.

I thought it was 550.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

That's the single payment.

No, that's the single payment.

Why do I ask you?

I think you asked for it.

He didn't give it to me.

I said, what's the double payment?

You said 550.

Eric, I'm following you.

Every guy.

But he didn't give me the numbers.

So it's 1000 actually.

Yeah.

They're putting away about $1,100.

For actually paying $975 a month.

Okay, but in all fairness, I did ask for that number.

I said, what are you paying?

It's okay.

Eric, I was, I can't ask how much is the payment.

I said, you gave the payment.

And you said double and I said, what's the double payment?

Here's the deal.

Anyway, a thousand bucks.

A thousand bucks.

It's a thousand bucks.

For two years.

For two years.

You got to show her those numbers versus your plan.

It's so good.

Well, I actually made a spreadsheet.

Oh, look at you, Eric.

But what are you?

I made a spreadsheet.

Okay.

My anticipation was to have, and we would pay this car off right now.

Okay, so let's just get to her fear.

Her fear is.

But I'm going to address it.

Here's the deal.

I'm trying so hard to get here.

You got to show her that the thousand bucks a month

that we're paying is easily going to cover any kind

of mechanical issues that she's worried about.

Oh, I know.

I mean, it's not a village idiot after all.

I got you, kid.

I feel like I'm talking about teenagers from you too.

Oh, kid, I mean, the vision casting is,

you're afraid that we're going to have mechanical problems.

So then you tell her, I'm going to buy for 10,000,

a Toyota or a Honda or something or X-Men or Miles.

And I can do research and show her

that the average mechanical cost on a car like this

is whatever.

Yes.

And between our emergency fund and the savings

of almost a thousand bucks a month,

we would be able to cover the mechanical

and now we're out of debt.

Eric, that's what you have to have you

have you shown her any use cars for 10,000 dollars?

I haven't really, okay.

I've seen a clip and then I'm going to leave like,

$800, $800, they're like a toy or a canary.

Yeah.

So I think that's always a shocking thing for people.

People here use car and if I'm heard,

she's just like, that just means it's a beater.

It's going to be crappy.

We're going to have to deal with maintenance all the time.

You know what I mean?

Like, that's kind of the stereotype.

But when you actually go and look at use cars,

they're fine.

Really?

I mean, there's some that are rough

that you're like, okay, that's probably not going to be great.

But you go get a mechanic to look at it.

You make sure there's no big issues going on.

And I'm telling you, yes, and I think for her,

that's where the Ken's vision casting can come in.

Is her actually go car shopping

and see what you're talking about?

Oh, look at this.

Ken's pulling it up now.

That's what I do.

That's what I do, folks.

Look at you, Ken.

Look at GMC Acadia for...

2016 GMC Acadia for $8,900, only 120,000 miles.

GMCs aren't expensive to fix.

They got all of the parts.

Let me give you...

Look, there's a view.

Oh my gosh, here about a 2015 Subaru.

These things run forever.

And let's do one more just for fun.

Oh, here we go.

Let's go the 2016 Honda Civic, 182,000 miles.

Yes, but that car's barely getting started.

It looks great, the paint's nice.

They're asking $8,900 for it.

You walk in there with $7,500 in $100 bills

and you walk out of that.

That's just a quick, quick search.

So, again, I know it took us a while to get there.

She needs to be along with the ride.

It was painful, but we got to show her no more spreadsheets.

Just, here's the deal.

We just free up $1,000 a month in our budget.

We can easily cover, and this is for a short term.

And we save up Rachel for the next $20,000 cash car.

Mm-hmm.

That's where I even tried to show her

that taking this paint in a $5,57 plus what we're paying,

and putting it to the house after this car is paid for,

we would then pay our house off

within the next five years after that.

Oh my gosh.

And she didn't go for that.

So, it's really her fear, Eric.

Is her real fear just a used car?

Is that what she is scared of for real?

Just keeping up the maintenance.

She doesn't think where she asked me.

She said, do you really think we're not about a shake?

We're not at our own, not about a shake.

No, but it's just the level of intensity you want out.

Yeah.

So that's what I would go about it, though.

Like, if what it's doing to you, it's stressing you out.

You hate this.

And so, to her, she may not feel the pain as much.

She's like, I said, really that big of a deal.

Oh my gosh, Eric, you're being so dramatic, all of this.

You need to verbalize exactly what you're feeling

and what you're thinking, and it's almost this like,

hey, this would be a gift to me and my sanity

and my peace, like, you know what I mean?

It's more of that for you, because she's not rattled by this.

Which is fair.

She can pay, she does none of our finances.

Okay, so then that's part of the problem.

Crazy question.

Actually, Eric, this is for you and Rachel.

Okay.

Eric apparently is you and I against me.

Well, it sounded like it earlier,

until America realized where I was going.

All right, fun, serious question.

In this case, is it okay for your marriage to just do it?

I don't think you're going and buying anything.

You're selling your car.

I think you go, we're at an impasse, but babe,

I'm going to do it anyway.

What say you?

Is that bothering you?

That's a terrible idea and I would not do that.

She would kill me.

She'd freak out.

Okay, then dole do it.

Okay, she's got to come to the table.

You guys need to be doing a budget together every month.

Like, y'all, you're running on two separate tracks

and you're by yourself in this.

You're isolated and stressed.

And that's the core issue here for you

and that's what she needs to hear.

Last thing.

Is that her husband is not a piece.

Take her to seal a $10,000 car.

Take her to see it.

Test drive.

Take her along.

I think that's your shot.

You've worked too hard to get control of your money

just to let strangers control your data.

Think about it.

Just about every time you sign up for a newsletter,

grab a coupon code or start a free trial,

your personal info, like your name, email address,

phone number, and more,

get scooped up and sold by data brokers.

Here's the deal.

Freedom isn't only being debt free.

It's also being free from companies

cashing in on your data.

And that's where DeleteMe comes in.

DeleteMe's privacy experts find your personal info

on these shady data broker sites.

They get it deleted and they keep it gone.

It's like having a digital cleanup crew

that scrubs your online life.

So you get way fewer of those spam calls, creepy texts,

and scam emails that make you wonder

how they even found you.

Guys, the less noise in your digital life,

the more time you have for what actually matters.

Because when you protect your privacy,

you protect your peace and your freedom.

So go to joindeleteMe.com slash Ramsey

to get 20% off their annual plans

and take back control.

That's joindeleteMe.com slash Ramsey.

Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fairwinds.

Credit Union Studio.

I'm Ken Coleman alongside Rachel Cruz.

Excited to be with you all, AAA 825 5225.

Is the number Nate is up in Colorado, Nate?

How can we help?

Hey, guys.

Hey, guys.

Hey, guys.

Hey, guys.

Hey, guys.

Hey, guys.

Hey, guys.

Hey, guys.

Hey, guys.

Hey, guys.

Hey, guys.

Hey, guys.

Hey, guys.

I'm calling because I'm not really sure how to move forward.

I had a very serious health situation

and depleted all of our savings.

And I'm not sure how to move.

I've got four kids and a wife.

I'm not sure how to move forward.

Oh my gosh.

What happened?

Getting out of debt and everything.

The long story short, I was an army for a long time.

OK.

And doctors are trying to help me.

They recover from long-term injuries

and too many doctors are involved

and ended up on 19 different medications for multiple years.

Oh my gosh.

And it was just killing my liver.

I had the heart attacks and it was really bad.

And I technically have neither supposed to be here.

We were literally planning my funeral.

Oh my gosh, Nate.

And now I'm here.

And I don't know what to do.

Yeah.

Well, when we say here, where does it put you physically?

Are you able to work?

Are you on disability?

We got to walk through kind of your realities.

Let's start with those two questions.

So I work through, you know, I'm supposed to be in the hospital,

but I worked through it all through God's help.

I was able to maintain myself enough to work.

Do you still have that income?

Yes, sir, I still work.

I make just over $100,000 a year.

OK, great.

And you foresee God willing, health, allowing,

continued to make that money, correct?

Yes, sir.

The damage is permanent.

There's no fixing it.

OK.

You can prevent further damage, but what's done is done, basically.

Do you have any other income that's coming in

from your military service or anything like that?

That's part of the income.

Yes, it is part of the total income I gave you.

OK, got you.

Is there one last question here?

And we'll start walking through the debt.

Do you have opportunities where you are,

or potentially in the same industry, to get a raise

to where that number goes above $100,000?

I believe so.

I mean, technically, yes.

That depends a lot on the company you work for.

I understand, but the reason I'm asking is

that needs to be a part of this strategy.

In other words, you don't have to answer that question

on the call, but your homework assignment

is, what can I do to increase my income?

That's enough to me.

Going to school currently, full-time and working full-time.

For one, to try to finish my degree

so that I can get out of trucking and do accounting.

OK, OK, so you want to move into accounting.

How much school left do you have?

I will graduate next May, not this May,

but next year, 2027 May.

All right, how much is that costing you?

Or is it coming?

It's free from the VA.

In fact, I actually get paid to go to school.

Perfect.

Oh, OK, great.

All right, on Bring Rachel in here,

and let's talk about the real debt.

Yes, so how much debt do you guys have?

So my wife is two months away from being debt-free.

We have two credit cards left.

That total, one credit card is $9,487.

And the other credit card is $4,619.

And actually, tomorrow morning, that credit card

will be smaller, one will be paid off.

The 4,000?

And then, yes, ma'am.

Oh, my gosh, amazing.

And then April 1st.

I'm sorry, between April 1st and May 1st,

we will finish off the 9,000.

OK, amazing.

Now, why did you say my wife is almost debt-free?

What do you mean by that?

Well, when I got sick, I was actually running my own trucking

company.

OK.

I'm sorry.

Now you're fine.

And I was doing really well.

Yeah.

And to keep our family afloat, I just kind of went into survival

mode.

And I just said, OK, well, if I die,

I don't want my wife's credit to get destroyed.

So I just focused on making sure the rent was paid

and her bill got paid.

But my credit, obviously, I couldn't make anything.

I mean, we were fairly living.

OK, I hear you.

And so I was able to salvage hers.

But my credit is just destroyed.

OK, that's OK.

Yeah, I'm not worried about that right now.

So are the two credit cards, are those under her name or yours?

Yes, ma'am, they're under her name.

They're hers.

OK, so is that all the debt that's in her name?

Yes, ma'am.

OK, wonderful.

And then what debt do you have?

It's not overwhelming amount.

It's just a lot of small credit cards

that have been in default for like two years.

Oh, that's great, are they in collections?

Yes, yes, ma'am, I'm sure they are.

I just, nobody's contacted me about it.

OK, so what I'm getting phone calls, it's just there.

Yeah, OK.

So in a way, it's kind of a good thing

because when they hit collections, you can negotiate

and get out of them.

So total, you said it's a bunch of little ones.

So probably a total of what, 5 grand, 10 grand,

or what are we talking?

It's just under $14,000.

Right now, it's if at $13,913.

And they're all defaulted, and probably all in collections,

all 14,000.

Yes, ma'am, everything you want to do.

OK, so here's what I would do.

I would pull your credit report and see the last company

that held that debt and try to contact them

and try to get any real time of who owns these debts

because they're probably even sold off.

So it's kind of like a, it's going to be a part-time job

for you to kind of like go through the spider web of it all.

But where you can get that?

And then in the meantime, after you guys pay off her,

I'm going to say, I'm going to say you're both of you

because we'll talk in those terms.

Once the $9,000 credit card is paid off in April,

then I would save because you guys are amazing at what you're doing.

The fact you guys are snowballing this so fast.

I would save 5,000, 6,000 as quickly as possible

and then contact the collections and see what you can negotiate

because I bet they'll take half,

or even less than half of that 15,000, OK?

So I want you guys to do that.

So once that's taken care of, is there any more debt?

No, ma'am.

No, OK.

Yeah, Nate, can I just tell you just?

No, I'm just warming.

It was just careifying trying to think.

Oh, I can't imagine trying to stay alive.

And by the way, you're a human.

I'm having a hard time.

Yeah, I'm having a hard time finding light insurance.

Yeah, you might.

I've got a $100,000 policy.

You just had a baby girl that was not planned.

Yeah.

It's just, I'm just.

You're a good man.

Hey, you're a good man.

I really are to take care of my family.

And you're doing it.

Listen, great job, Nate.

You're doing so well.

The fact that you guys are going to pay this debt off

in the next two months.

And Rachel just gave you a step-by-step plan.

Don't stress about that collection stuff.

That is secondary.

You're going to be fine.

You're going to be OK.

You just keep showing up for your family the way you have.

You're a good man who's been through so much.

By the way, you served our country.

And you sacrificed so much.

You're a great American, too.

And we appreciate you.

You're going to be fine.

You're doing a great job.

You guys, the next step is get that emergency fund in place,

right?

And then the begin the investing.

And I believe it's all going to work out.

You just one day at a time.

Hold on the line, Nate.

We're going to pick up during the break,

because I do want to mention something

that's when you mentioned life insurance.

I do want to talk to you about that.

We can talk off air.

So hang on.

And hang on.

But yeah, do an incredible night.

You're the CEO, the accountant, and the sales team.

You don't have time to moonlight as your own benefits

department.

That's where health trust financial helps.

In fact, health insurance is one of the biggest

and most confusing line items in your budget.

And most of you are overpaying, because you're stuck

figuring it out alone.

You don't have time to figure out

all the fine print about networks and deductibles.

My friends at health trust financial

have been helping Ramsey listeners for over 20 years.

Their focus is simplifying health insurance

and serving people with empathy.

No pressure, no games.

They give you clear, unbiased advice

that fits your life and your budget.

Most of their clients save hundreds of dollars every month.

That's real money.

You can put back in your business

or into the baby steps.

So stop wasting your time, your energy, and your money.

You run the business.

Let health trust financial handle finding

the right health insurance.

Go to healthtrustfinancial.com today.

That's healthtrustfinancial.com.

Brian is up in Denver, Colorado.

Brian, how can we help?

Hey, nice to be with you both.

Thank you.

What's going on?

So my grandfather passed away.

Oh, I'm so sorry about that.

Yeah, hey, 96 years old, he crashed.

Oh, wow.

That's a great life.

Yeah, he did a lot in his life.

And I inherited some stuff from him

that I wanted to talk to you about.

Including a giant Alaskan salmon that he caught in 1986

that somehow got left in the will for me.

So I'm trying to figure out what to do with that.

Like on a wall?

Oh, and you guys?

Like on the wall or like on a wall?

Can I just tell you?

Is it still in the freezer for eight?

So it came with a plaque and he named the salmon big hog.

And now I have my grandfather's big hog.

And I don't know what to do with it.

The only thing that's right now.

I'm so excited.

Let's go ahead and get this one out of the way.

This is the least important of the question.

But what do you do with it?

You hang it in a place of honor.

This is your grandfather's prize fish.

He went so far as to name it.

I would think patio covered patio would be a great spot.

If you've got a kind of a man's room in the house.

Great spot.

I mean, it's a story to tell.

And it honors your grandfather every time you tell the story.

And I would come up with a good story.

If you don't have it.

And bellish a little bit.

I wouldn't make it any better.

Listen, I would stop the tape measure

and found a perfectly suitable place in the living room

with my wife for reasons.

I'll never understand if he's the idea.

Well, good for your wife.

I've been married long enough.

I have.

I get it.

Notice I didn't mention the living room.

That wasn't all my, I know better than that.

But whatever your man land is in your house,

that's where it goes.

That's great story.

And as Rachel said, create a good fish story.

Yeah, like he almost lost his arm or something like that.

Let's get some drama in it.

And then he was okay.

And he got the fish, reeled it in,

took him an hour and a half.

I don't know.

Something special.

Sounds great story.

But anyway, this is the type of advice people need

to call into their ends and show for.

I agree.

We could do more than just money.

By the way, I got more where that came from.

We changed the lives in so many ways.

All right, so now could we help you?

Now could we help you?

How can we help you?

Yes.

So I found out through this passing.

And I'll say this one's very grateful, very blessed,

to be in the situation, that through the course

of three different kind of life events in the future,

I'll be inheriting a total essentially

of 3.5 million from him.

Wow.

Wow.

Yes.

How many great kids are there?

There's four of us.

And it's interesting that you ask that question,

because one of them is through a $10 million

generation skipping trust that some

of his commercial real estate assets

is in totaling about $10 million.

So it gives you about four ways.

Your parents didn't get.

Correct.

So my parents now get all of the income

for as long as they're alive from those properties.

OK.

But they're passed along to us ownership-wise

in the trust once his children have passed along.

So that's way down the line.

Wow.

OK.

Oh my gosh.

So the other element is that he's leaving me $100,000.

Now I will receive at some point within two years

of his passing, which will be two maize from now.

So I don't know when that would be coming.

Come today to come in a year and four months.

And then the other element of it

is that when my grandmother passes his wife,

I'll be receiving a $1 million municipal bond

that pays out a lousy 2%.

But I'll be getting that when my grandmother dies.

That they worked out through their state

that she gets once he passes.

And then I'll get that once she passes.

She's 90, and I hope she lives 30 more years.

But that's the third element of it.

So the reason I'm calling you is I didn't anticipate any of this.

And since 2020, I've been building up

my own brokerage account with stocks and ETFs.

And that account now has $155,000 in it.

And my plan was to never touch it, just keep it growing.

However, now that I have these other things

coming in the future, the question for you

is is it OK or is it still stupid

to be able to pull out money from that brokerage account

to pay for some home improvement projects

that straddle the line between want and need?

If we have a second kid down the line in a couple of years,

we could really use another bedroom.

And so for me, and we're doing home construction work

here coming up soon.

So it would be ideal to get it all done in one slew

while it's happening, as opposed to having

to move out a couple of times.

So is it OK for me to pull 40, 50 out of that now?

Pay another 10K in capital gains taxes next year,

given I know what's coming to me.

Or is that so?

Yeah, no, I think that's fine.

I would say you could pull 40 or 50 out of 150

in a brokerage account.

Anyways, regardless of the inheritance.

I mean, that's cash for you all to use now or later.

Or like you said, never touch it.

I mean, yeah, you get to make that decision.

The whole idea of just never touching that account

was something that you, that was a role you put on that money.

No one forced that.

So I would say I would be a little bit more flexible with it.

And I'm assuming you guys don't have any debt

and have an emergency fund in place and everything, correct?

Yeah, about $40,000 emergency fund.

The only debt is our mortgage for $1,000 a month, $500,000

left on the way.

What kind of retirement savings do you have at this point?

I know you're a young man, but I'm just curious what

your 15% is looking like in babysit for.

Yeah, it's, I don't know, normal.

I'm 36 years old.

I worked professionally for the first half

of my professional life, not making much money.

So there wasn't much there.

Sure.

But over the past five years, I've had a pretty good job

and have been contributing 4% for the last five years.

OK.

That's great.

Yeah, so I would, you just doing 4% is at the match?

Yes, correct.

Yeah, so I would, I would be investing 15%.

So I would be upping your retirement.

I would totally use some of this money in this account.

And then that will be replenished with the 100 grand cash

that's coming to you in the next year.

Now, the rest, the bond, I'd understand that,

but the other big chunk, the 2.5, that is in real estate,

correct?

That's not.

Yeah, so that's the current valuation

of what is commercial real estate properties

in Los Angeles.

Perfect.

OK, wonderful.

So yeah, that's exactly what I would do, Brian.

I know that's what a beautiful legacy

that your grandfather just built up, passed down generationally,

and still has grandkids intact, right?

Brian, you know, you've stayed out of debt

and built up your own emergency fund, your own brokerage,

like you're doing it.

And then that's the beautiful thing

is that what money magnifies, and when money magnifies

great habits and stewarding money well,

that's a wonderful thing.

This money's not going to ruin you.

It's actually going to continue.

You're going to pass that down generationally

through your kids and so on.

So wow, that's amazing, absolutely amazing.

So yeah, I would use part of the 150

to cash flow some home renovations,

and it's OK if it's a once.

That's totally fine.

You guys have the cash for it.

You're in a position to do it.

And then when that $1 million bond comes

when your grandmother does pass, yes,

I would probably cast that out and invest that,

and that $1 million sitting in a brokerage account.

Long term is going to be a beautiful thing too,

and that's in the future, which is awesome.

That's huge, and that's going to fast forward

your retirement savings.

And obviously, you continue to be as smart as you've been.

Yeah, don't slow down your stuff.

You guys are in great shape, but act like none of it's coming.

It's the idea here.

And then you got a big decision to make.

We got to find out where we're going to put that salmon.

I think America wants to know, by the way,

how big of a fish is it?

Did you measure it?

Yeah, well, the weight, thank you.

First of all, thank you for all that.

I appreciate it.

The weight of big hog is listed on the plaque.

I don't know much about salmon.

I asked my friend who's a big salmon fisherman.

He told me if it's 25 pounds, that's a huge salmon.

The weight of this salmon says 73 pounds.

It's huge.

Oh, it's like, and what's the size?

How, what is it end to end?

Do you have any idea?

Oh, gosh, I haven't measured it.

What would you guess?

Would you get enough to struggle to get through the door frame?

I could tell you that.

Oh, so basically a yardstick, at least a yardstick wide.

If you know what a yardstick is.

Oh, yes.

OK.

Yes.

Hold on.

Smokes.

And then you'd be more excited about that fish, then.

Were you walking the house?

Well, you know, listen, I've heard people talk about millions

all the time.

When was the last time you heard anybody

talk about a 70 pound plus salmon?

That's pretty special.

Yeah, not like a tuna, a salmon.

A salmon.

And they're not saltwater, right?

Salmon or freshwater.

So that's in a river somewhere in Alaska.

Oh, yeah.

Where did he catch it?

Tell us real quick.

Where did he catch it?

Yep, Alaska.

No, there it is.

Unbelievable.

And what's funny is, there was a giant bear

that had been stalking that thing.

Big hog.

And bear people looking for him.

He's no longer there.

Where is he?

Grandpa got him.

If you're waking up tired every morning, you don't need more caffeine.

You need better rest.

And that's why Casper mattresses are engineered to help you sleep deeper and wake up refreshed.

And this isn't just one Georgia's opinion.

Thousands of five star reviews prove it.

Plus, Casper mattresses ship-free and come with a hundred-night trial.

So you've got nothing to lose.

Sleep is a must and you deserve the best.

So go to Casper.com slash Ramsey and use promo code Ramsey for 25% off mattresses and

10% off everything else.

That gives you up to 1,200 bucks off the snowmax mattress, which is the exact one I sleep on

every night.

That's Casper.com slash Ramsey code Ramsey, exclusion supply.

Columbus, oh, I'm sorry, couldn't hear myself in my ears, everybody.

I'm not having a, you know, attack or some kind.

The court got pulled out.

I was like, yeah, I can't hear myself.

The wire's shorting out.

That's what's happening.

So let me see if I can manually adjust that.

Okay.

All right.

It's live.

Folks, you gotta keep pressing through Joseph is up in Columbus, Georgia, and I can hear

myself.

I hope I can hear you, Joseph.

How's it going?

All is well here in Columbus.

Does that have a couple of questions for you?

Okay.

Go for it.

Thanks for taking my call.

Sure.

Yes.

I am married.

67.

My wife is 68 and we both are retired and we both enjoy traveling.

There are a lot more than me.

We got a question about getting a credit card for using those lounges that got lounged

and all those things to secure your lounge.

Yeah.

Yeah, I got a question about getting a credit card for those purposes.

You don't want to sit among the people.

You want that private experience, huh?

Well, at first, my wife wanted it, but then when I experienced it, I thought it was pretty

good as well.

So, yeah, I don't carry any credit card debt, but I wondered, I know I did the Dave Ramsey

program back in 2011, and she did it a year before me, and we both have been debt-free

since that time, and just wanted to get your opinion on what do you think that's

a wise idea to try to get a credit card for that purpose?

Yeah.

So, the way I would look at it is choosing to do that.

On one hand, some people, it's like, it's just not a big deal.

You pay it off every month.

You get the privilege of being in the airport lounges and whatever.

And then on the other end of the spectrum, it is kind of saying, hey, I'm going to shift

my philosophy around how I do money, and I'm going to choose now to spend on a card

that I'm going to have to pay off every month.

And what we have found data wise is that you do end up spending more when you spend with

a credit card.

And so, there is something to be said of, hey, I'm going to shift my financial philosophy

for an hour once a month in a lounge.

And so, to me, not worth it, they're nice.

I've been in them before with friends, and yeah, they're fine, but they're also just fine.

You know, I could sit at an airport restaurant and get a glass of wine and a dinner and call

it a day.

You know, you are a woman of the people.

You like to be out there among the folks.

No, but yeah, so to me, Joseph, it is shifting into an industry that I just have a lot of

disgust for.

I just don't like the credit card industry, and I like playing their game.

I don't like the fact that a lot of miles and cashback and everything, the way they make

their money is off of people who can't pay their bills and end up, you know, having

to pay interest and all of it.

It's just, I just don't like the game.

And so, I choose not to play it.

Honest question, Joseph, because it's been a while since I've done any of the lounges,

right?

But isn't that a function of how many miles, air miles you have?

You don't have to have the credit card to have access to those, do you or do you?

Some of them you do.

Some of them, if it's named by the credit card, I've seen those.

But if it's like a delta lounge, that's what I'm saying.

That you can accumulate if you're flying delta and you're near, obviously, the, the

world headquarters.

So I would, you don't have to have a credit card to experience that.

Certainly if you're flying delta, I would look into it, but that's just a function of

your, you're, you're stacking up miles and then you get privileges.

Okay.

All right.

Yeah.

Oh, that sounds good.

I appreciate your insight.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thanks for calling.

Have fun traveling.

Oh, I love that.

Sarah's up in Las Vegas.

Sarah, how can we help?

Yeah.

My question is, my husband has a potential job promotion, opportunity within the next

few months, along with that is a requirement that we have a five year old or newer four

door vehicle that we have to supply, which we don't have right now.

But the only way for us to get that would be to use our almost fully funded emergency

fund.

So the question is, do we forego the promotion completely because we can't do that.

We can't provide the vehicle.

Or do we use our emergency fund and get the vehicle if we get the promotion?

How much more will the promotion be?

Well, it's base plus commission.

So I don't really know.

Okay.

The boss is hopeful and optimistic that it could be up as much as double.

Explain to me why the four door vehicle that's required for this.

Oh, he, because the job would be an outside sales person and he would likely need to use

the vehicle to transport things to job sites or whatever, it's just a requirement for

the company.

Okay.

Got it.

And do you guys have a current car you could sell and put some cash towards it?

We do.

But it's not.

It's already a really old B dot car.

It wouldn't be a significant contribution, but we could.

Yeah.

Because if it has to be a five year or newer, if you went on the five year, how much

money are we talking?

Are you seeing that you're like, okay, this is how much we'd have to spend on this car?

The research that he's done so far, he's found things in the 13 to 15 range, but it would

be nice to go up as much as money, but that's that's more than half of our fund.

I just want to look at this from every angle possible here.

So when would he have to take this job or when would he start?

In other words, actually, the better question is when would you have to have the car if he

takes this?

That we, that's not a hard and fast deadline.

We don't really know.

The job could start as much as soon as two months from now.

The vehicle requirement could maybe be fudged through the end of the year, but we don't

know.

Okay.

Well, okay.

Well, well, well, well.

So when can we know that answer?

I don't know.

A lot of I appreciate the I don't know, but I'll tell you what I would be doing if I was

in your shoes.

I would be getting the answer to that question.

They've offered in the job question, but I haven't received the answer.

I don't know myself.

Well, who'd you ask it of?

My husband, when he was telling me about this in the first place, well, hubs needs to get

these answers.

Here's why it already sounds as though we have a gap here to where I love how you used

to fudge, right?

But if they're going to give you a little bit of leeway, you can't be the only people

that have ever been in this situation before.

Yeah.

Well, it's where they don't give you any allowance.

And I guess let's just assume it's into the year, okay?

Could you guys, I got to believe you guys could scrape together 13 to 15,000 dollars

between now and the year?

Yeah.

Thousand bucks a month.

Yes or no?

Yes.

No.

Well, actually, maybe.

What if you sold some stuff?

For each of them, I came over and we're around your house looking around.

What could we yard sale and could we sell enough stuff to make $25,000?

Even if the car's $3,000, you know, that's $3,000 out of $13,000, you know, the other

car, right?

Yes.

That's my point.

Well, here's the exercise.

Okay.

What do you and your husband need to sit down tonight and go?

What do we need to do to come up with 13 to 15,000 dollars?

And the other thing is he needs to start giving you some answers on how much time he has.

Because if he can double his income and it requires us to sacrifice and scrape and sell

and go do extra jobs between now and that, I would absolutely do it.

Yeah, but I wouldn't consider this an emergency, Sarah, because you guys have, yeah, so I would

have a really hard time.

I would have a hard time with it.

Now, if it was in the next 30 days and it's guaranteed, I would probably pull some

money out to get this done, but you guys have to end the year.

So you have plenty of leeway and runway to be able to save and pay for this car.

Now, if you've got to take 1,000 bucks out of the emergency fund to round it out, that's

why.

To double my income?

Sure.

Yep.

Exactly.

I think there's some flexibility in the spirit of it.

Push hard to say.

I don't want to touch that emergency fund.

Yeah.

And what you guys could do, do you guys have debt at all, Sarah?

Just for mortgage.

Okay.

Good for you guys.

That's awesome.

Yep.

So, I mean, I would see this as a, yeah.

I think it'd be fun.

I think it'd be a fun adventure to go.

How could we...

We need a thousand dollars a month.

Yeah.

How do we do that?

How do we generate that?

I actually think that's fun.

I think it's worth doing.

I would talk to hubs about that tonight.

But yes.

Anything in the counteroffer, by the way, Rachel, go, hey, listen.

I want this.

I can do this.

You got to give me just a little bit of leeway.

Here's my plan.

Here's what I'm doing.

Yeah.

And I think if they want him, it sounds like they do, they can play ball with you.

But it sounds like a good deal.

I would buy a $13,000 card.

A double man?

Yeah.

Sure I would.

Yep.

After the holidays, a lot of people start feeling budget pressure.

And it's a wake-up call to get intentional.

So listen, don't fall for buy now, pay later, cell phone plans that drag you back into

that.

Boost mobile keeps it simple with no contracts and no nonsense.

Keep the phone you already own and pay just $25 a month forever for unlimited data, talk

and text.

It's real, long-term value and real piece of mind.

So budget like you mean it and go to boostmobile.com slash Ramsey today to make the switch.

That's boostmobile.com slash Ramsey.

Restrictions apply.

See boostmobile.com slash Ramsey for details.

If you have a simple tax situation like you haven't had any major life changes or big

investments, you need to use Ramsey Smart Tax.

It's affordable.

It keeps filing simple and it has the built-in support in case you need a little bit of help.

Filing early means getting the best deals and you get that tax stress off your shoulder.

So go now to RamseySolutions.com slash SmartTax, RamseySolutions.com slash SmartTax.

Brandon is up in Salt Lake City.

Brandon, how can we help?

Hi, well I just want to say that you predicted my call, yeah, but out such amazing content

and this one lets you know it's appreciated.

Thank you.

Yeah, so I have a pretty complex question but I'll keep it simple and then you guys

can ask questions I think I'll fill in whatever you need but ultimately my question is, you

know, I and my wife are both physicians and we're pretty financially sound and my father

is not.

He has a pretty well-paying job but still lives paycheck to paycheck and actually got

into some trouble this last year and had to borrow money from me.

He's actually collecting solar security now.

He's in his 70s and he has no ability to retire whatsoever and so has quite a lot of

debt.

And I'm imagining inheriting these troubles very soon and I'm just kind of curious how

you guys would recommend I'll go about.

Well, let's address what you mean by inheriting his troubles.

What are you going to do?

Well, I think ultimately I think I have our health is going to catch up to him or he kind

of made some morally ambiguous decisions and I'm worried that something like the other

folks looks crazy eggs are going to come home to rooster forever.

Well, his debt is his debt so whatever he's done there from a debt standpoint, that's

not coming to you.

Now in terms of like just taking care of him though and like I understand he's going

to be sure.

I understand that.

Yeah.

Are you married, Brandon?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

We're both physicians.

We make a decent amount of money.

Okay.

Yeah.

How much do you guys make a year?

So I'm in my final year of training now.

Next year together, about 500,000 years.

That's great.

Well, this is always a hard one because, you know, on one end of the spectrum it's, you

know, some people put up pretty tough boundaries and they're just like, I'm sorry.

You know, your decisions are your decisions and I'm not going to, you know, have to be

responsible for those.

And then on the other end, it's like, we're not going to let our parents, you know, be

homeless.

You know what I mean?

Like, like, there is a balance in all of this.

So what I would probably do is you and your wife need to sit down and run worst case

scenario.

And I would, and then I would kind of play out, hey, what would this look like?

How far would we go?

And then also put up some boundaries where I don't like that he's borrowing money from

you.

I think that either needs to be a gift because it's probably never going to be repaid,

right?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

It was a gift.

Okay.

Okay.

Now that can be a leaky faucet for a long time unless you, unless you put on, you know,

put up a, a boundary of dad, I'm, we're not going to give you any more money or dad.

I will help pay your mortgage for six months and that's it.

Or we know whatever it looks like, but those are, those are boundaries.

I think in a plan that you and your wife kind of come together and decide, hey, you

know, are we, what, what are we willing to take on because you're right.

I'm like, if he has no retirement and if it, if something happens to him, health wise,

he's not going to be able to work.

So he's going to have no income coming in.

What would, what's his social security payment every month?

Oh, man.

I don't know.

I don't know what that is.

I don't know what that is.

I don't know what that is.

I don't know what that is.

I don't know what that is.

I don't know what that is.

I don't know what that is.

No, the reason is, I think it's, it's, it's a dicey situation.

It's, it's also a very private person and for me to like become investors, finances,

and I understand that can be like a stipulation if he's helping the future that I have to be

able to be invited into his financial life, but to do that right now, I think he would,

he would blow up.

Great.

So here's the deal.

You know what happened?

You get to you guys like a, I'll go for it.

No, I'm just, I'm digging and you just, you just answered your own question.

He's super private.

He'd blow up or get angry if you, if you wait in.

So you know what you and your wife do exactly what Rachel said and that's it.

Don't do anything else.

If there's no one else to take care of him, we will.

And in that moment, you can do the best you can to guess what his, so security is.

But you go, okay, he's going to get that until he dies.

Yeah.

And that would be the only income he has.

We can't assume that he has long-term care insurance.

We can't assume that he has, we know he has no investments.

We know that.

So to Rachel's point, you plan for what you would do.

You guys are doctors.

So you also know the data if he had to go into assisted living, you know, what is the

average amount of time someone lives in that setting?

I mean, you can do some homework and go, okay, well, absolute worst-case scenario.

This is what dad situation is going to be.

And you know, if no one else can help pick up the bill, then that's something we got

a plan for.

And I think you can, it's almost like a, it's almost like planning for your kids college

here.

You may have to, you know, invest some money.

Where's your mom, Brandon?

Like, not, they're not together.

Oh, they're okay.

They're divorced.

Okay.

Do you have other siblings?

No idea.

Yes, I do.

But they, my other siblings are not capable of assisting financially.

Okay.

Unfortunately.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What kind of debt do you guys have?

Me and my wife.

Yeah.

So we don't own our home, but are planning by home next year.

But we're currently, we have a student loan debt, but our savings and retirement are

greater than our, any debt we have.

We have no credit card debt.

Our payment.

Walk us through that.

What's your, what's your medical, I mean, not medical, medical school, student loan, thank

you student loan debt.

What is that?

There you go.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So 300, 300,000 for the both of us.

Okay.

And then what do you have in savings?

Oh.

So we have about a hundred and twenty in savings and about 250 in 401ks.

Great.

So yeah, I went and touched the 401k, but obviously doing the Ramsey plan is to pay off

that student loan debt.

So half of it isn't savings.

And then what you guys, you'll make 500,000 so you could pay it off in six months, you

know.

So making sure that you get all that taken care of, of course, before you try to take

care of that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So making sure that you guys are in a good spot, which I think you will be pretty quickly

if you do that stuff and rebuild your emergency fund.

Um, yeah, this is always good.

Yeah.

Can I ask how, when he, like, if, you know, like the debtors come to collect and you

can only afford his apartment, if I end up paying for an apartment for him, does

that, does his debts in the apartment that he lives with the car he drives?

That all goes away.

But whatever I provide for him is not a part of that equation.

Uh, if it's in his name, then it has nothing to do with you.

Dets leases all of it.

Yeah.

But you could furnish an apartment under your name.

I'm assuming however, the apartment complex does that, um, so yeah, so like that, but

it's not really an asset because he'd be renting, but yeah, they couldn't come after

him in any way with that because it would be under your name.

Yes.

Right.

Okay.

Yeah.

I guess that was kind of my fear that his debts would make it prohibitively difficult for

me to take care of him.

That's right.

Right.

I hear what you're saying.

Yeah.

It's kind of independent.

Does he own a home?

No, no, no, no.

He, no, he, um, and just to get like a scope into this, he actually tried to go back to

school in the 70s and took out student loans to do that and then ended up not going to

go to school and just using that money to buy a car.

Stop it.

Oh, my God.

How much did you think he has?

Oh, man, if he told me $500,000, I want to be surprised if he told me $10,000, I would

be surprised.

Jeez.

Hmm.

Yeah.

Well, it, um, sorry, you're, sorry, you're carrying this bird.

It's terrible, Brandon.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But I would tell you this.

I want, and I say that, but I don't want to quickly say, make sure you understand

what you're supposed to carry and what you're not.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

That's going to be able to take care of him.

That's a burden.

But you do not have to worry about his debt.

You don't have to worry about his mistakes, you understand what I'm saying?

Like, once, you know, all that stuff will be written off, he didn't have a, you know,

a pot to pee in as the old phrase.

And so none of that's going to come back on you.

That'll get wiped out.

So you only have to carry the burden of taking care of dad when he can no longer take

care of himself.

And that's the medically.

You can't plan for it, but clean up your house first, because you don't want that to

be a stressor.

It's already going to be a potentially resentful burden, but, you know, and I want you

and your wife on the same page too.

I don't want that to be an issue.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

We're both very family-centric and she's like, hey, whatever we need to do, you know,

I trust you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And we're, we're definitely.

Yeah.

So if it does come to the points, and you probably know this, that of you having to

help financially, always give in terms of an actual item, meaning like, don't give him

cash, right?

That you, if you end up paying the rent, you pay the rent in the utilities, get a gift

card to the, to the grocery store, and it's like, you get a hundred bucks or four, you

know, whatever it is, as much as, yeah, not, not handing over cash, because he obviously

doesn't know how to, how to handle that.

So Brandon, you're, you're a good son and a good, and a good husband.

So yeah, we're, we're, we're with you guys.