The Ramsey Show addresses several real-world financial challenges through practical, empathetic advice. Nicole, a single mother, faces overwhelming debt and expenses, including a costly duplex and unstable child support, but can stabilize her finances by increasing work hours, reducing costs, and refinancing her car loan to eliminate $27,000 in debt. Dolores, a parent of a graduating daughter, is encouraged to reconsider wedding gifts through financial math, revealing that her retirement and savings are sufficient to allow for generosity without financial strain. She is advised to shift from a strict parental role to a supportive, relationship-focused one to preserve her daughter’s dignity. Michelle, managing small buy-now-pay-later debts and a high-interest car loan, is shown how a budgeting tool like EveryDollar can uncover hidden income and free up $250–$500 per month to pay off debt, potentially saving years. Jane’s marriage is strained by financial secrecy and distrust, requiring counseling to address deeper issues and establish transparency. Corey, a 55-year-old on disability, is urged to create a tight budget to manage his $3,300 monthly income, with long-term goals of retirement savings and home ownership. James and his wife are advised to prioritize debt elimination—using their future income to pay off $130,000 in student loans—before pursuing a home purchase, a strategy that accelerates progress and reduces long-term financial stress. The show consistently emphasizes focused, intentional budgeting, transparency, and emotional health as essential to financial resilience.
Brought to you by the EveryDollar app, start budgeting for free today. Normal is broke and common sense is weird, so we're here to help you transform your life from the Ramsey Network in the Fairwinds Credit Union studio. This is the Ramsey Show. I'm Rachel Cruz, hosting today with Jade Worshaw and we are taking your calls at Trebley 825-225. So give us a call, you make the show happen people, so give us a call if you have a question again. The number is AAA 825-225. All right, let's go to Nicole and she is in New Hampshire. Hi Nicole, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you so much for taking my call. Absolutely, how can we help today? So I'm a single mom of two kids and I'm in about $130,000 of debt, which I finally had to encourage to look at last night and I'm wondering if the bankruptcy is my only option. I am a nurse and I work full time, but I'm about $2,700 in the negative every month to pay all my necessities and my debt. How much are you bringing home every month from the $130,000? I bring home $5,200 a month. Okay, and there's no investing, right? Nothing, there was a very little bit, like $30 a check that I just stopped. Okay. Something is going towards that. What's the 130 of debt? What does it consist of? So credit card is $20,000, personal loans, which are basically all debt complotation is $39,000 and then they have $21,000 of student loans. I have an auto loan, sadly, of $37,000, medical debt, $8,000 and then I do have a mortgage. How much do you pay every month for the mortgage? The mortgage is $4,000 and I own a duplex, so I pay $2,000 a month. Okay, that's a little bit of a scary situation and I just want to call that out. First off, I see where there's a little tightness on your budget just from the rent alone that you're paying on your side of the mortgage of the duplex. It's not quite half, but it's getting up there and I'm guessing with maybe all in it might be about half. So there's going to be a squeeze there and then the other thing that's really precarious about this Nicole is, if your renter leaves and it takes you a while to fill that gap, I mean, you are up against it. Do you feel that? I'm terrified to be honest with you. Yeah. Okay. How much is the duplex worth and what do you owe on it? I'm just curious. So, I have to duplex on the market, I'm sorry to try and sell it. We owe about $4.43 and it's worth about $5.30 so it wouldn't walk away with much, but I was hoping maybe at least to enough to make a bet. Yeah. I think that's good. And that's more, and it's been over a month and it's not selling and they want to go down on price, but if I go down on price, you know, I might just, you know, break even, aren't. So I'm just, I'm really scared. Well, no average median days right now in the market for real estate, just nationwide is 61 days. So, I would give it two or three months, you know, so before you lower the price to your point, just to make sure that you're getting as much value out of it as you can. Are you, are you receiving any child support or anything Nicole, I'm just curious. So my life is a mess, my, I have two different fathers from my kids. My first one pays very little and always has and then I just went through a separation a couple months ago, which has been absolutely heartbreaking and I'm not getting anything from him and why are you going through the courts, or are you trying to settle this with them as individuals? I'm trying to settle it as individuals because this person is really trying to hurt me, you know, they're saying they'll hire a lawyer and try and get full custody. And I don't have money for that, so I'm trying to just like skate through and, you know, agree to what he says, which right now it's 50/50 custody and so that he doesn't have to pay anything. I don't know if that's a good idea for you. I think I would consult a lawyer and I know you don't have the money, but when you really think about how this is going to play out long term, these are the types of situations you want to get ahead of and make sure that you're protecting yourself, protecting your kids. Now, if you're looking at me going, Hey, if he, if there's a custody battle, I think that I, I don't have a good shot. I don't even want to go there. That's a different story. But if you think that you, you know, if he's just staring, yeah, I think I would sit down and this is one of those times, honestly, gosh, if you can lean into your community in any way, if you know people who know people that can contact you with a lawyer, I really would look into that Nicole. I know you have your hands full with a lot, but I do want to encourage you. I feel like you're making a lot of good movements forward. You've already got the duplex up for sale. You're nursing. I'm guessing you're working as many overtime hours as you can. Well, being a single mom, so before I had my babies on my six months old, I worked full time, like my whole life, I always have, but now I'm working about 32 hours because, you know, it's a lot, but I am planning, I'm already applied for a second job and things. So I am going to try and work more, but still, I mean, I'm negative 2700 every month and the, my dad just keeps going up because what happens is I'm not behind on anything. Actually, I've never had a late payment in my life, which is also scary me because I don't want to file bankruptcy. I've tried so hard to bring myself out of poverty and stuff growing up in that, but what happens is I don't have enough for all my basic necessities and then my minimum payments, but it just overdrafts into credit. Right. Well, I think there's two levers we can pull here that it's going to make a big difference. Number one, and I'm going to say this with as much delicacies I can, but it is also the situation that we're in. You've got to work 40 hours plus. You have to. And I know you have a six month old. I know you want to be home with the six month old, but you've got to work more hours because the math is telling us that your 2000 or 27 over in the only way to remedy that is to add income and to cut things back. So the first lever is as much as it pains you, you're going to have to work more and depend on friends, family, and daycare to kind of float you because you've got to be able to work. And it won't be forever, Nicole, but maybe for the for a year or two. Yes. Who at least gets some bearings because if not what Jade saying exactly, exactly right, you're going to just keep going in that whole mathematically and it's such a hard reality and it's so heartbreaking and we sit here both as moms on the other side of his microphones and I can't imagine what you're walking through. It's so difficult. But in it, that strength of saying I'm going to make a really hard choice that kind of goes against everything in me, but for the long term, it is the best choice. That's right. If I teach four walls here, I'll go through the four, but daycare is going to be your fifth wall. Okay. So four walls is you're going to make sure that you're handling rent, utility, transportation, obviously food and groceries and then for you, the fifth one is going to be daycare because that is a full-blown necessity unless you have friends or family that can help you out. The second thing, the second lever that I think we may be able to pull is this car. You said it's 37,000. Do you know what it's worth? Yeah, it's worth about 30. Okay. I just got up last night. Okay. Well, here's the good news. You've paid all your bills on time so I don't think your credit is in the toilet and I think you could probably go down to a credit union or anywhere that would offer you a fine loan for the difference. And maybe a few thousand dollars more to get a cash card. To get a 10,000 dollar car, all right, I'm sorry, $10,000 a loan, pay the seven, get a $3,000 car, which is going to be a piece of crap, Nicole. But at least you went from 37,000 on that line at them to 10,000 and you just saved yourself 27,000 dollars of debt by that monthly payment. Yeah, but Nicole, if you hold on the line, Kelly's going to pick up and we're going to get you a financial coach just because as a single mom and you are working to climb out because we want to tell you though, we see situations like this and there's some hard, there's a hard year to ahead of a lot of sacrifice and things coming up. But it's actually going to put you in such a strong position and that you can do this. You can do this. Single parents out there, I mean, y'all are incredible. And so continue that string. Don't lose hope Nicole, but stay on the line, Kelly's going to pick up. If you have an aging parent who's been diagnosed with a chronic illness, you know how overwhelming navigating the medical system can be, coordinating with doctors and insurance and trying to understand systems that were built to confuse you all while still running a household, working a job and raising your own kids, it all feels impossible. Helping people in this situation is why solace exists. Solace pairs you with a health advocate who steps in and takes on the logistics, the appointments, the insurance questions, the medical billing questions, the frustration of what does any of this even mean? So you can focus on being present for your family. When solace is covered by Medicare and insurance nationwide, making it accessible for people everywhere. 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By going to solace health dot com slash Ramsey that solace health dot com slash Ramsey or click the link in the description Up next we have it Dolores and Birmingham, Alabama. Hi, welcome to the show Hi, thank you for taking my call I almost feel guilty asking you this question, but I think here it goes. Oh, can't wait. We love some we love some guilt and shame around here Now you're great. Here's now here's the deal. Okay, my daughter Okay, my my daughter just graduated from college in the spring of this year. Good job. She's an engineer And she became engaged to a young man. Um, and he's like two years old and her. He's an engineer. Okay, my husband and I put her through college We paid for everything. I mean the sorority her rent, her tuition, her everything. So she graduated from college with zero student loan day. Amazing. Well done. That's a that's such a good yes, and and and hopefully I'll say as well. I have new old student loan debt, which I'm proud of that. Yeah, so they're getting married and she came to my husband and I said, how much are y'all going to give me for my wedding? And I said I'm thinking they're both making together over 200 K, you know, and my thing is my husband is going to retire Um, in the spring of next year. We have always lived beneath our means. I mean, we, you know, I drove a 2012 car. He's his is a 2018 truck. Um, we have zero credit card debt. We have, we have our nest egg in our um, in our checking account. Yeah, you know, our house isn't quite paid off yet, but but my husband and my husband and I are betting head on this. He, he feels like we should give her something. I'm like, no, he said we've done our part. The opposite of like the mom is always like, what is your husband? What is your husband? What does your husband want to give? Like if there was a dollar amount, what does he think is fair or reasonable or generous? Well, okay. To me, nothing. Him is like, well, we're going to give her some like, you know, maybe 20. I said, no, listen, we have $62,000 in I keep counting. We have $62,000 by death in our in our side of the account. And that's it. Well, and then his 401k. Yeah, and how much would y'all have in retirement? How much do you have in retirement? Because you may not be able to. Yeah. Well, yeah, he's got a 500k right at 500k. Okay. And then we have, we owe 107 on our house, 177,000. Our, our mortgages is 720, but we have no car loans. We have no credit card debt. You know, and, and, but, you know, like I said, we've lived beneath our means. Or I think we have. You get the gold star, Dolores, you've done great. You really have. Okay. So my question to you is, I just want to know from the emotional standpoint, are you not wanting to give her money? Because you feel like you can't afford it. And it stresses you out financially. Or you think we've done all these things for you. And you're so entitled for coming and asking. And you, regardless of if you had $5 million in the bank, would that change, would that change your answer? Well, of course, I mean, if we hit $5,000, we'd be doing destination waiting somewhere, but, but my point is, you know, I told my husband, I said, when he retires, you know, he's, he's not going to get that overcome, you know, money and, and, and I said, they have those who will have time to build up their next day. But this is it for us. We'll be on retirement. And then he's got to, you'll have a retirement, and then our social security. How old are you guys? We're about 65. You're both 65. Okay. So if we ran some numbers, I feel like putting some real numbers to this might make this a more reasonable. When will he retire in the next two years? No, he's going to retire in March of 27. Oh, okay, coming up. Okay, March of 27. And how much are you guys? Okay, let's just do it. Let's pretend we don't put a dollar more into your retirement. So if we just let the 500,000 sit in grow. From age 65 to let's just say 75. Let's make it a nice round number. And we put nothing else in it. And it's invested well in good growth stock mutual funds. It's 1.3 million dollars. So if you don't touch the 500, if you don't touch it, now you mentioned that there's social security. Is there any pension or anything else to add? Well, he has a, attention from work. When he retires, he'll get a check from that. How much? Social security. So well, it depends anywhere from three to five. You know, it depends if you get the the ups for 70% or 50% or Is it enough for you guys to live on? Are you guys needing to tap into the 500,000? Well, he told me that he said when we retire with his retirement check and then his social security and my social security, he said, "We'll probably be making right at 100K." That feels right. I mean, seeing this believe in, I'll have to see that first. Well, that's the math that I'm wanting to do with you because a lot of times, Delores, we make decisions that are kind of just based off of a feeling. And when it comes to when it comes to money, you have to make the decisions based off of the actual math and the numbers. So social security, you're right. There is some talk out there that it could deplete and that it could go down. The pension feels pretty solid and the fact that you've got $500,000 invested feels solid. Okay, so the truth is, if you leave that money alone and it's invested well, I don't know what it's invested in. But if it's invested well, then you should be around $1.3 million in the next 10 years. Now the other truth is you've got $62,000 in cash and you do have this $107,000 mortgage, which I would like wanting to pay off as well. So that being said, you have some financial obligation, but I do think you have a little bit of wiggle room on this that if you wanted to be generous to a certain extent, I think that you could, I heard some entitlement. I'm not going to lie. From the daughter. Yes, yeah, going in and expecting. You know, I don't want to go there, but you know, when we were paying all the bills and she was working on, she's a smart cookie, she was tutoring and she was working for the college. Yeah, and she was spending her money on her things, her nails and her, she was on clothes and she was, you know, and I think it's probably a stereotype to a degree of, you know, old school way that the wife, you know, the bride pays for the wedding, the groom pays for the honeymoon and rehearsal. Right. Like there's like a traditional way that goes about it. And so she, because how old is she? Is she, she just turned 23? Okay. So she's young. So there's, there probably is a go to in her mind of, yeah, mom and dad are going to help with the wedding. How much are they going to help with? Because we're probably going to plan the rest, right? I don't know what her posture was in that conversation, but I would give her a little grace that maybe she really just assumed. I don't know. And you would, you would wish there was some more gratitude. I hear you. I hear you. Yeah, I would. Yes. So, and so, but I think as a parent, I think you and your husband have to come to an agreement first and foremost. I'm with Jade. I think there's a little bit of financial wiggle room that if you, I would hate for you to, because she sounds like she's doing great in life. She sounds responsible. Yeah, it's responsible. And I just wonder, Glorious, if you're going to, I just don't want you to have regret looking back and being like, man, I was really hard on her. And very stingy at 23. I probably could have helped in some degree, you know, if you want. Like, if you set out by your dress, right? Right. Well, that's true. That's for the seat. She hasn't included, you know, she hasn't talked to me anything about the wedding. I mean, she, you know, she, she's really planning it on home, which I'm glad because yeah, it sounds like you're very hurt. There's probably some, some other emotions that are driving this decision that are deeper than just the money. And I think I would, and I would want to, and I would want to shore up that relationship, regardless of if you put money, right? Just so that you guys have a good relationship going forward on what is possible. But I will say she's 23. And if you, and if you still are coach Dolores as mom, and that's your, that's your posture, you're going to lose your adult daughter, probably. But if you go in as a friend and say, you know, that you, you know, do you mean your desires and, and you shift that role as a parent, I think it's really hard for parents to do that. I think you probably have a better shot at giving her her dignity as an adult and also being her mom and being involved. Right. So that, yeah, so I don't want you regretting a decision because of this current frustration that you're in. Right. You know, my husband's, you know, he's one of these that want to just give her whatever, you know, but I said, no, we got to think about ourselves. Yes. And that's fair. You do. As adults, you have to, I mean, George will say it all the time, you have to put your mask on first. But I think your mask is on. And I think it's secure. And I think if you keep going down the right path, it'll get more and more secure. I think there's money that if you guys wanted to say, hey, we'll pay for the rehearsal dinner and your dress. If you wanted to pick two things, do it like that. Or if you wanted to say, we'll give you 10,000 bugs you could do that too.
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So go to zander.com or call 800-356-4282 to get your term life insurance quote today. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Well, the live like no one else crews is almost full. Almost all the cabins are gone, but there are still a few left. So don't miss your chance to join us on March 14th through the 21st, 2027. It's coming up, you guys. This is a, you know, when we announced this a few months ago, it felt like far into the future, but it's coming. It's right around the corner. - You know it. - And this is a great cruise, you guys. We're gonna be in the Caribbean. We're gonna be having some great entertainments. Obviously all the Ramsey personalities. We're gonna be there. We're gonna be teaching, hanging out. We're gonna stop at Cosymale Grand Cayman. The Bahamas, it's gonna be fantastic. So we'd love for you to join us. And for a limited time, we actually are doing a deal. We're the third and fourth passengers sale for free. Plus you can unlock a free cabin upgrade if you use code, sale with Dave. No spaces when you check out. And make sure to reserve your cabin, because again, we are, we are taking on the sea. And we have the entire ship. It's gonna be all Ramsey. And we are so, so excited about it. So make sure to get that offer. And you can get more details and book your cabin if you go to RamseySolutions.com/events. All right, let's go to Michelle and Dallas. Hi, Michelle. Welcome to the show. Hi, ladies, thanks so much for taking my call. I'm so grateful. Yes, absolutely, thanks for calling in. How can we help? So I have been working the baby stuff since August of this year. I've got baby stuff one down. And I am like really trying to get at this debt. I've got a couple more smaller buy here, pay here, buy here, pay later that I have here. Yep, yep. Which you know, always gets everybody. But just to student my question. I have a 2023 Santa Fe that I financed years ago. And I'm looking to kind of get rid of that so I can get the $740 monthly payment back into my budget and be able to knock out the rest of my debt. I don't know what the process is in order to get that done. So do I go get a quote from a dealership? Do you like how do I go about getting alone from someone, especially since my credit is not in a great place right now? That's such a good question. I mean, yeah, the first thing I would do is I would check Kelly Blue book and I would type in all the information about your 2023 Santa Fe and find out what it's worth and you're gonna be able to find private sale. You're gonna be able to find third party sale, all that stuff. And then you can look at that I go, usually the highest number is gonna be private sale. And then from there, I mean, what did you, what do you owe on the car? - I owe 21,000. I did the Kelly Blue book thing and it looks like I can get maybe about 10 to 12,000 for it. - Okay. - Max, 'cause it's got a little bit of damage it got into an accident, that sort of stuff. So that still puts me kind of upside down so I don't know what the next step would be to get alone from a credit union or a bank being that I've got this huge off-handing debt as it is. - Is your credit destroyed or is it somewhat intact? - It is low 600, so there's been a couple of rough years in the past two years and so I've been trying to work on that like I said since August, I decided no more debt. I want to get things fixed. I have nothing to accept for the emergency fund and we have nothing in retirement so I don't have any other recourse. I can keep the car until it gets a little bit better or further along in the loan, I guess. - I would be really hoping to make it down in camp on this. - I check with some credit unions and see what my options are out there because the truth is, depending on the interest rate that you have on this, I mean obviously any loan is not gonna be a good idea. So you want to make sure that it's something reasonable but the idea here is to go backwards. Here's my issue though, because yours is a really kind of tight equation to where it may not even benefit you to do this because I'm looking at this because I go okay, let's pretend you can only get 10,000 for a private sale. Now you need an $11,000 loan just to cover the difference but then you gotta drive something. So now maybe we're at 16 and that's only 5,000 off from what you own. Do you see what I'm saying? I don't know that that would be worth the hassle and worth the trouble for you. - Like it's one thing if it's, you know, your underwater 3, 4,000 but yeah, I mean, nine to 12,000 is a pretty big jump. So what other debt do you have, Michelle? - So like I said, a couple of buy-and-out paylators, I've got the car itself and then there's about 40,000 in student loans. - Okay, how much is all the buy-and-out paylator? Are those small, like a couple hundred or a couple thousand? - That total is about $800 left. - Okay, okay. So once those are paid off, the car is the next big one, right? - Yes, exactly. - Okay. - Oh, go ahead. - Well, now I'm just gonna say, I mean, at that point, 'cause how much margin do you have going to the car? After the buy-and-out paylator is done, how much extra money can go to that? - That would be about $250 a month possibly. - And is that what every dollar is telling you? - I have not done every dollar yet. - Okay, so here's what I really would love for you to do. How are you doing your budget now? - I'm in a paper. - Okay, here's, I really want you to do this and we're gonna give you a couple of months for free, but if we give you every dollar, most people that work it, they're finding on average, $300, $335, it's like, they feel like they got a raise 'cause they're finding all the money that's kind of been, you know, hidden and going out in all these different places. So if you follow the prompts, when you first sign into every dollar, it's gonna ask you what your number one goal is because we've just found that if you focus on one goal at a time, you're gonna hit it two times faster, okay? So when you put in there, you need to say, my number one goal is to pay off, buy now, pay later to pay off my debt. And it is going to literally scour your budget with you to help you find every cent, and it's gonna say, hey, what about this, what about this, what about this? And that money is gonna all go to this debt, and my guess for you, Michelle, is that you're gonna go from $250 to probably $500 that you're gonna be able to find a month. - Yeah, absolutely. - To be able to put at this. And then when you do that, it's like, oh gosh, I can have buy now, pay later, pay it off so fast. And when you see that number, Rachel, it's just motivating to go, well, what else could I sell? What else could I do to make this go faster? - 'Cause how much, once the buy now paid later, is that the $250 you're talking about? That'll be freed up, okay, and then that's all your margin for the whole month, that extra payment and that anything else that you have. - As of right now, well, no, this probably a little more, I started a second job recently, so there might be a little more, I do have a kid in college at the same time, and I think we'll see, you're so. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Okay, I'm kind of trying to work on just thinking if you find, yes, so that payment will be freed up once the buy now pay later is paid off. So that's $250, and I bet every dollar will find you, hopefully, three to $500. So that's 750 extra going on this car, and then plus, hopefully, your other job, right? So it's that snowball effect, really, that's going in. But we always say, Michelle, if you can't pay the car off in 18 to 24 months, then you probably do need to sell it. But I think you can do it, I would think in 18 months. I mean, an extra thousand bucks a month puts you a little under two years, and I just think that there's going to be enough throughout the next year to pay this car off. Yeah, that I think is going to be worth it. I really do. - And we didn't talk about you working extra or anything like that, did we? - No, not really, I just mentioned it. So I took an extra part time job. So I'm working total about 70 hours a week. Like I said, I really wanted to attack this debt. And so, and I had to get myself out from the whole, essentially, because there's behind on bills and that sort of stuff. - So you're at full capacity. Pretty much. - Okay, I just wanted to check, because that's the other lever in all of this is. - Yes, but back to the car, since that's basically going to be your next debt that you'll pay off, 'cause you'll have the buy now pay later, hopefully, paid off next month or two. Let's just pretend that you could get 12,000, that you'll be underwater 12,000 Michelle.
Well, you're going to need another car like we were talking about. So that's a, you know, 15 to 16, $17,000 loan issue you're looking at to take out from the credit union. And so that it basically will save you probably four to five months if you're having $1,000 a month on working. So I think you can make that call to say, no, it's worth to go through all the credit union stuff to do it so I can save five months on my debt snowball or you may be like, you know what, by that point, it's, it's all the hassle and I don't know if the five months is worth it, right? You could even put it in a timeframe perspective for you to be like, what's worth it for me? Work in five extra months for this car or be in done five months sooner to start attacking my student loans. So that can be kind of a way to look at it too. But hey, can I just say well done, Michelle? Very good. Unbelievable. I mean, you started this in August. I mean, you are, you're killing it. Like this is the gazelle intensity that we talk about and you guys having one focus goal is so important. So your money going everywhere, have that one goal in every dollar is built to help you help you win and succeed on that goal. Right now you've got the opportunity to do two of the best things at the same time. The outrageously generous and keep more of your money away from the IRS. It's called the education freedom tax credit. Right now there are kids all over the country who can't get the education they deserve because their families can't afford it. That's just not okay. But when you contribute through ACE scholarships, you'll give a kid a real shot at a better education. And in exchange you'll get a federal tax credit up to $1,700 for individuals or $3,400 for married couples filing jointly, meaning it could end up costing you nothing to help. They've given over 120,000 scholarships to families, almost $400 million. Guys, this is a no brainer. Learn more about ACE and this amazing opportunity at educationfreedom.org. Well, it's that time of year because in a few weeks we are doing a special giving edition of the Ramsey Show and we want to hear from you and all the generosity in your life. If you were the generous person or you were one that received something generous that changed your life, we just want to we want to hear about it because this is a part of our message that we're very passionate about the fact that you live like no one else to live and give like no one else and there's really true blessing from a tactical sense of when you receive money or you give money and you're helping something, things move. Like it is such a needed resource in our world today and the fact that we prioritize it and encourage it is something that's really near and dear to our hearts but we want to hear how it is happening in your life and so maybe you tipped a waitress like a hundred bucks, you know, or even more, you know, something big there or you bought Thanksgiving dinner for a family who couldn't afford it. It can be creative. It can be, you know, something that you feel like maybe it's mundane and you kind of get bored of it but we don't care. We want to hear where, where and how you are giving. So go to RamseySolutions.com/ask and put giving in the subject line and we do this around Christmas time every single year. It's one of our most popular shows who beloved it and so it's going to be coming up on December 17th. So start sending in your stories today because again, we really do. We want to hear from you because it is so encouraging when we see the bright spots of humanity because it's happening and it is such an incredible thing that we hear of what people are doing not in the world. So we want to hear from you again. That's RamseySolutions.com/ask and put giving in the subject line. All right. Let's go to Jane and Columbus. Ohio. Hi, Jane. Welcome to the show. Hello. Thank you. So my question is, how do I get out of debt when I'm married to someone who keeps his money from me? Mm. Oh, no. I hate to hear that. Tell us more about what that looks like. How long have you been married? So we've been married 10 years. I was a business partner with him for eight of those years and recently parted ways with the business because of that reason. I was, you know, I was the one that was to be taking care of the bills and whatnot and he was keeping money from me. So I wasn't successfully able to take care of the bills. It's just a small portion of what I'm dealing with. So can we both agree this feels a little bit more like a marriage problem, not just a money problem? Yeah. Yeah. I definitely would agree 100% with you on that. Okay. I think it's fair to say that because anything I say from this point about money, just know you guys are going to have to get to the root of whatever is causing this distrust, whatever is causing this, because I mean for you, this is going to result in bitterness over time. If it's not. Yeah. I'm curious what he says, Jane, when you're like, hi, where's the money? Where's our money? We're both working in this business. I mean, like what, what does he say? No, I'm just, I have an account over here and you're not allowed to see it and what's going on in it. Yeah. He just keeps it from me like it's just gotten pretty, pretty deep over the years and now it's to the point like I just started working on my past my insurance test and started working on my own. And I literally, I started working in October as a full-time position. And now it's, I feel like it's even worse since I've started working like now I'm responsible for all of my, you know, all of my debt and he's not helping me with that. It's just kind of like kind of snowballed the wrong way I guess. What do you, I mean, you know this guy better than either of us, obviously. What do you suspect, you know, with your intuition of being this man's wife, what do you suspect is that play? Is it a controlling thing? Do you think he's hiding something? Is there shame? Do you feel like maybe the business isn't performing as well as he wants it to, like what do you suspect is going on? You know, someone else, I mean, like what, yeah, what are you thinking? Honestly, I mean, I feel like the business is performing well. I do like hear bits and pieces about like the money that comes in and if I was to assume I would say he has like $30,000 locked up in a state that I have not access to. So yeah, I mean, as far as I don't, I really, I really don't know. Like I, I don't know maybe fear, I really think there's hidden debt, I don't, I don't feel like there is. And I feel like he's pretty open with it and I don't know, I can't remember what you said. I don't know the answer of when you say, hi, I want to share finances. I want, I want us all to be on the same page and I want access to that account so that we can work together. What does he say? Oh, absolutely not. He would tell me that I can't manage money basically. Okay. Okay, so he's calling it off on you as it's your problem, not mine. You're the reason I can't share. You're the reason. Okay. So has there been any, has there been an event? Was there a financial event in the business that maybe you messed up on and you miscalculated something and he lost trust in you? Like did something happen? No. Okay, so yes, I did take money out of his safe. He put the safe that I don't have access to. He put his key to the safe in my safe that I used to put my medicine in and I seen it one day and I was like, oh, I remember him showing me how to open the safe and I used that key and open the safe and there was like $5,000 in there. So this was like two years ago and like I, so I took that money and I like, I, we got into an argument. I was advised by our pastor and his wife, what did you take the money for, finish that part? Because I was upset. I was upset that he was hiding it from me and I was like, I didn't do any, I gave it back to him ultimately. No, no, no. Tell us the whole story. Don't leave anything out. So you took, you opened it up, you're like, holy crap, there's $5,000 in here. You took it and then explain what happened. He realized it was gone or you told him that night and I took the $5,000. Tell us what happened. No, he, he definitely realized it was gone. I feel like you may even potentially have cameras in that particular area. How long did you keep it from him? I kept it from them for like maybe a couple of days. Okay. So let's walk there. Let's halt there. So you guys have some toxic behaviors. Okay. I want to highlight that and while I think that what you first highlighted is, is not a good thing. It's not a good thing for him to lock you out. It was also not a good thing for him to keep $5,000 maybe without you knowing. But you guys both have these tendencies that are unhealthy and it goes back to the very beginning, which is like your marriage itself, there's something going on. Why does he have security cameras in the house? Why would he not tell you the thing to the safe? Why would you?
take the money out of anger, right? Not telling where it is, hold that for a couple of days, right? So there's a lot going on here. And I think you really, I guess my next question is, what if you go to him and go, hey, I've been looking back over the past couple of years, months, I've really been replaying some of my actions, and I'm not happy with them. And you know, I would like to change the way that we're just interacting going forward. And I don't know that I have the tools to do it on my own. Would you be willing to go to counseling with me? Right. What do you think he'd say? And it's all on you, you're putting it all on you for the purpose of the conversation. Right, right, and I would, absolutely, definitely, like, I definitely okay with doing that. I mean, I feel like there's maybe a percentage of a chance that he would a low percentage. That is, we have tried counseling before, and I don't know, I just thought it hasn't revolved. What was the main reason that you guys went in the first place? It was just because we couldn't get along. Like, we were, it was just not good. We weren't in a good place. There was trust issues on my part with, is he messing around and isn't that? So yeah, you know, and we've grown, we have definitely grown over the years for sure in our marriage, and it has gotten stronger, but like, I just feel like now, if the huge hurdle with, yeah, from the 500%. Well, and what's wild is money is like a language. Like, how we communicate and handle money? It's saying something, right? So he does not trust you, is what it sounds like. And or, in his, not in his defense, he's, he is sneaking around and pulling money to the side, not letting you, not loving his wife well, because he's keeping something from you. So not good, right? Maybe reasons around it, I don't care. Actions not good. Not good. You know, your level of probably some resentment of what Jade said. And all of that is, it's bubbling up in the secrecy, the dancing around. And so you guys, you guys have to learn, that you, it's, you guys are a team. When you are married, we are locking arms and we're us against the world. And when that's not the case and the perspective, it gets really bumpy. So I would, I would go sit down with somebody. If you are your parents, our own Medicare, listen up. Just because a Medicare plan work this year doesn't mean it's the right one for next year. Premiums, networks, prescription coverage, all of it can change, even if your health hasn't. So if you just roll over your plan, you might get stuck overpaying or not getting the coverage you need. But sorting through Medicare plans is a mess. There are more than 24,000 of them. That's why I recommend chapter. Their advisors compare all of those plans to find the exact one that makes sense for you. Your health, your doctors, your budget, and using their services cost nothing. In fact, chapter saves Ramsey fans an average of $1,100 a year, which is why they're the only Medicare advisors I recommend. Look, Medicare, annual enrollment is happening right now. Don't assume this year's plan still works. Review it with chapter before the window closes on December 7th. Just go to askchapter.org/ramsey. Askchapter.org/ramsey or click the link in the description. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show in the Fair Winds Credit Union Studio. I am Rachel Cruz, hosting with Jade Warshaw. So give us a call at AAA8-825-225. We're here to answer your questions about life and money. All right, let's go to Orlando, Florida. And we have Corey on the line. Hi, Corey. Welcome to The Show. Hi, how are you all? Hi, we're doing great. How can we help? I am a recently divorced 55-year-old on full-time disability. And I need to learn how to navigate life after many years of marriage and doing this on my own. Oh, Corey, I'm sorry. When did it all-- When was it all finalized? Okay. Oh, so it's very fresh. Oh, I'm so sorry. Um, so you're trying to navigate this new world as a 55-year-old. Did-- how did the-- what did the financial implications? What were those in the divorce after everything was finalized? I got a house. The house, okay. Okay, so all the assets were-- Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, the house is pretty much paid for real. It was 15 grand on it, so I got the house. We got everything else in this. Okay, how much is the house worth? 350. 350, okay. That's good. And-- Go ahead. Well, I was going to jump to income, but did you have a question? I was going to say the same thing. Perfect. We're on the same wavelength, me and Jadar. So what's coming in a month for your disability? 1700 before the insurance impact. 1700? Yeah. Can we ask what's the nature of the disability? Does it really preclude you from doing any work whatsoever? Or are there some things that you feel you could do? Tell us more about that. It's a-- it's a-- it's a birth issue to which I've had been birthed. I worked as many years. I actually worked with my orthopedic. Thank you for the eye on me. And yeah, I've already almost been in a wheelchair a couple of times. And yeah, I just-- I couldn't maybe go off it, but then I'm afraid that I'll get bad again and then I can get back on it. Okay, so you-- I want to make sure I heard you because I had a hard time hearing you. You work for your orthopedist? Did I hear that? Good, and I work. I kind of-- he works-- I work for-- he does a lot of his surgery. So he keeps an eye on me when he comes in to do surgery. So how much a month are you going to pay for that, Corey? I'd say probably about a month or so again, four taxes. And because I was able-- I worked here around till I got canned. And I do have the 403B there that I just started in January, so it's very little. But what's the total income you bring in every month between full-time disability, which was a 1,700, the orthopedist, tell us the totals of those incomes? Before taxes and everything, maybe 3,000? Total. Yes. Okay. That's before taxes? Yes. Okay, so you're only making like a thousand bucks then with the orthopedic, is that right? Yeah, probably around there, yeah. And how many hours is that? How many hours do you work to get the thousand bucks? About 18. Okay. And can you tell us what's the limit? What's your annual limit that you could make before you would lose the disability? I don't know any-- I remember 1,600. That's the most you can make on your own before you lose it. Yes. Okay. Okay, so here's-- and you may have said it, but I'm not going to lie, I'm having a little bit of a hard time understanding some of what you're saying. The nature of your disability, you said you're afraid of it coming back. I always have it. Some days it's worse than others, and even my orthopedist said he's not sure how long it's-- I had it a replacement, hitman placement, and some other things. I was really unsure how long it's going to last. Understood. Okay. Is there a timeframe? Is there a like, "Hey, this could be a five-year window, and then you're back to needing a hip replacement?" Because here's what I'm doing in my mind. I'm going okay. Based off of what you're bringing in, you're kind of capping yourself at 3,200, which if you can live on that, okay, but if you have a window of time where you can go above and beyond that, and really shine, and work 40 hours a week, and then if you hit the wall again, now we pull back, right? But then I can pull back. The problem is, if I pull back, I can't get back on the disability. I don't know how to-- I don't know. Any other thing is insurance. Insurance is expected, but I thought I was expensive when disability understood. It's really good. Okay. So we're limited right now, then, to the $3,300 that we're bringing in about per month. Yeah. I've thought about what you said. I'm kind of scared too, because my head could get out totally next week. It could be five years. It could be 10 years. What do you need a month to sustain with just food, shelter, utilities, everything? I don't know. I'm fine with that. That's what I'm trying to figure out. Okay. So, but what did you do in, you know, October of last month, for instance? Do you know how much everything costs to keep the house running? Yes, there's my head is thinking what it goes. There it is. Yeah, it's really well actually. We have solar panels, so that piece is like you know, like, Drick, we have a well, so that almost no water should partly water.
I thought, but just partly why I thought for the house, 'cause I knew my utilities were like, "Mommy, this isn't about. " - Okay, well, I'm just trying to think at 3,300, let's just, we'll just say that's your top. No debt, no debt, which is great. How much is your mortgage a month? - I don't have, it's actually my husband, my wife. That's my hour of money, he's paying that. I don't have to pay until it's gone. - Okay, so it's just that, okay. - So you can make it on 3,300 a month right now. - Yeah, okay. - I think so, I just don't know how, I'm just not very good, I just don't have to. - How to do, yes, how to budget it, yes. So the budget is gonna be your best friend, Corey. It's gonna make you have a lot of control, a lot of say over where the money goes and even looking at contributing to your 403B and then maybe even throwing a little bit into a Roth IRA and start this retirement 'cause you're 55. - Yes, that's my biggest worries. I have nothing 'cause that really can't long. - So what I would do is-- - Or a 1K and his pension. - Yes, that's right, that's right. So we have to think about that. So there's gonna be a couple of things. So we're gonna give you a couple of months of every dollar for free and I want you to sit down and do a budget. You're probably not gonna have a ton of line item. So it's just great, you know, you'll have lights, you'll have water, there'll be some utilities there. The mortgage is paid for some food, but I really want you to map out how much does this take me every single month to survive. And then beyond that, if there is, you know, even 500 bucks, you can go to our investment calculator and plug that in and just say, okay, what does this look like if I invest this amount of money every single month? And I think the goal is just to get to that point and then Corey, there's a good chance that when you get to retirement age at 65, you may sell this house 'cause it's gonna be worth maybe 450 at that point and go buy a condo somewhere and bank a couple hundred grand to throw when your retirement to live off of. And so there may be a plan doing that, but that's gonna be way in the future. The first thing I want you to do right now is to do a budget. (upbeat music) When you take your car to the shop, you're probably thinking two things. How much is this going to cost me and is it going to get done right? What you need is a mechanic who will give you transparent information so you can make the best decision for your car and your wallet. Christian Brothers Automotive is the official auto repair shop of the Ramsey show because you can trust them to take care of your vehicle the right way. Their digital vehicle inspections let you see exactly what their technicians see, giving you confidence on which repairs are urgent and which ones can wait. Plus every repair is backed by their nice difference warranty. Three years or 36,000 miles with a guarantee like that, you can walk away knowing that your car and your wallet are taking care of. Schedule your service today and get 10% off your visit at cbac.com/ramsey or click the link in the description. That's cbac.com/ramsey. 10% off up to $250 value. See store for details. (upbeat music) - Up next we have James and St. Louis. Hi James, welcome to the show. - Hey guys, thanks for taking my call. - Absolutely, how can we help? - So me and my wife are trying to figure out what the best course of action is between my student loans and saving for a house right now. We really wanna buy a house within the next year, year and a half and wanna have a decent size down payment put on it. But I also have quite a bit in student loans and we're just trying to figure out the best way to allocate our funds. - Okay, how much student loans do you guys have? - I currently have 130,000 in student loans. - Okay, what was your degree on? - I'm in attorney. - Okay, good. How much do you make a year? - So I currently make only 76 for this year, but I'm a federal clerk and then next year I'll be going into a more lucrative job making, like 215 to 235. - Oh right. - I'm going to do some stuff. - Perfect. - When you say next year is that like early next year or like November next year? - Like August of next year. - Okay, that's good. Okay, 215. And what's your wife do? - She's a CPA. - Okay, and what does she earn? - She earns 81 right now and it increases around $10,000 each year roundabout. - Okay, so here's what we found. You mentioned two major goals. You mentioned pay off the student loans. Also we wanna buy a house. And here we have found that when you focus on one goal, you can accomplish it two times faster. Okay? And I think that's usually what is people's dilemma, right? They're competing. It's like, I wanna be a stay at home mom. I also wanna pay off my debt. I also wanna, you know, plan this trip to Mexico. So focusing on one thing, and in your case, I think if you guys focus the full power of your income specifically at paying off the debt, you would be shocked at how quickly you'll accomplish that and then be able to accomplish the next goal, which would then be focusing all of your income at saving for a down payment. - Okay, 'cause we were thinking like, she really wants to buy a house. We don't really like the place we're renting right now. - Of course not. - But nobody likes the place they're renting right now. - We are broke, you're broke. You're negative $130,000 net worth right now. - Right. - So just because we don't like it, you know, I don't always like getting up early to work out, but I do it 'cause you don't even mean like, sometimes there is a reality of like, there's a mathematical financial reality. We do have to sit in and be grownups about it too. - Right, no, for sure. We were just thinking like, and I mean, this could be completely off, but we were thinking we could save up like $50,000 over the next year through the minimum monthly payments on the debt and then pay off the debt within a year once I start making good money. - What's the interest rates on your student loans? Is there between six and nine or eight percent? - Exactly, so you're going to let those continue to accrue. 'Cause if you're making minimum payments and we're talking about student loans, what you're paying is barely covering the interest. And so they're gonna continue to accrue when we're saying, hey, let's solve a couple of math problems. Here number one, let's solve for the interest accruing by paying these off super fast. Let's solve for the momentum part of this, which is if I focus all of my intensity at one thing, I can accomplish it faster. And let's solve for the piece in this equation, which is if I can eliminate my debt, I can go into my home purchase. Number one, I might have more money to spend. - Yeah, on a home at that point. - And I can say faster, and I know whatever I get, it's gonna be a blessing and not a burden. So here's what I wanna challenge you, 'cause Rachel, here's what I think's going on. I think you guys are young. I think you've graduated. I think you're gotten engaged, you've gotten married. - And making 150 a year. - You're making just 250 a year. - Pretty good. I mean, that's amazing. - And in y'all's mind, the house is the next box to check. And it's like, well, we're supposed to buy a house right now. That's what comes next. And we're challenging you to say, hey, it doesn't necessarily have to go like that. There's, you can do this in a good, better and best way. And the best way to do this would be to clear out your debt, save three to six months of expenses, 'cause do you have any other money saved? - Yeah, we currently have about 15,000 cash saved, and then we have, we max our off every year. - And we have those maxed out. - Okay, so that's 14,000. That's 30,000 that the student loan could be thrown at the student loan. So yeah, I would pause everything. 'Cause how old are you guys, James? - I'm 25 and she's 20, 30. - Okay, so here's the thing. You're trying, it's what Jade said at the beginning of the call. You're trying to do 18 things with your income. And $150,000 is a lot of money, but it's not a lot when you're trying to do 18 things. You know, I'm just making these little dents here and there. So if you wipe the slate clean, if I could, if I woke up in your shoes, I'd take a big pill of contentment for the next three years. I'd be like, we are gonna learn contentments and not that we can't just do everything we wanna do right now because our money is limited, but we're gonna put our income to the best possible next step to get us where we wanna be long-term. The best thing you can do, James, is to get out of this debt. That is the best thing you can do. Not retirement, not short-term savings, nothing. It is to get out of debt. And when all of your focus goes on that, I think you guys can clear that up in 18 months, especially when you guys start your new jobs. All of that, like that snowball will be rolling. So I really have faith that you guys can limit your lifestyle, not go out to eat, do nothing, but look at that $130,000 in the face. And which is actually $100,000 when you put your 15 and you start your Roths. So you got $100,000 technically that you gotta find in the next 18 months, and I think you can do it. I think in a year and a half, you can do this. When he starts making $2,15, if they're like, hey, we're just gonna live off her income and knock this out. And then save a three month emergency funds. You guys don't, you're not gonna have kids. Yeah, you're okay if you don't go to the full six months, save three months, put that away, and then stockpile down payments. And gosh, and you guys could be chunking some money away in a major way. And you'll look up, I promise you, James. and you will be, I mean, even in five. She'll be 28, she'll be 30, like that goes so fast, the financial house that you would have built at that point. Yes. Oh my gosh. Unstoppable. But when, again, when you're trying to do all these things, you're going to make a little bit of progress, but you're not going to see big waves where you'll be in five years if you do your plan. I promise we'll be mathematically more financially behind than if you do it this way. Yeah. Right. Now, if you go and do the house first, you're letting your emotions lead you and you're setting a course for that in your life financially, like I, I do whatever feels best. And that student loan will be around forever. I promise. If you, because you're not going to have the intensity to pay it off, so you, you'll have that student loan, I bet for the next eight years. Yeah. Thanks. Okay. Awesome. Thanks guys. Yep. Absolutely. I don't think we can bend some joy. I don't think so. He was like, look, gotta go. Give me out the call. These, y'all. Listen. Here's the thing. It's not my money. It's not my house. I will go home and sleep good at night. Yeah. Listen. And it's, it's what I, I get it. Like I, when you are in your early 20s and they have, I mean, they're smart people. They're doing so well. And they're so smart. I mean, you get a law degree. Yeah. She's a, what was she? A CPA. A CPA. Yep. I'm like, they know how to run numbers. Yeah. James's wife are not, like they, they know. But here's the thing. You can get caught in the cycle of what everyone else is doing. Yeah. Exactly what you said of like, oh, well, this is it. It's not a big deal. Okay. It's okay. But the people that again, we say it over and over, but it's true that focus their income. And they're like, I'm going to get myself in a position that may not look flashy. But from a, from a piece and a number standpoint is very flashy. Yes. When you're not a negative $130,000 net worth, you actually have a positive net worth is which is going to be much better than your neighbor. Right. You go buy a home that is reasonable. You're not trying to go out of your, you're not trying to buy a lawyer home. You're just being reasonable. And you know, you have a reasonable mortgage, a good down payment. Like all of that, what that does and creates, because then you have way more income than your neighbor who's living paycheck to paycheck. You have margin that you get to go and do things with, continue to invest. And I mean, all of it. So it's not the flashiest way from the appearance standpoint. Our plan isn't. It's not. It's sex because we like, we like, we like everyone wants to win, right? The ego loves to feel like we are ahead. We are winning, but it is, there's a, there's a humility piece to it to do it in the right order. There is. And to strike while the iron's hot, you know, right now they have no children. Yes. Yes. Because what I worry about is they're going to be making, he's alone, it's going to be making 2, 15 come real fast. And it's going to feel like, oh, this didn't own payments. No big deal. Yes. Yes. And like sticking in that comfort zone, like the comfort zone is a great place, but my pastor used to say nothing grows there. So when you're comfortable, it's like, yeah, I can keep doing this. I don't need to make extra payments. Yeah. Like an easy part of our budget. And then, you know, what happens? Mom wants to stay home. Yes. Suddenly you feel that student love. And then you're the article title that everyone sees, you know, that you're making 6 figures and you're still paycheck to paycheck people are like, how does that happen? It does. Little, little steps at a time, but you can make a lifestyle with that. I love a good sale. I also love the holidays, but if you're like me, sometimes those two don't mix well because six promo codes and a commercial later, it's so easy to convince yourself that you need just one more scented candle or a waffle maker shaped like a Christmas tree and some flannel pajamas. The temptation to spend more than you budgeted for is real. That's why I love having a bank that keeps my free spirit in check. And for me, that's Fairwind's credit union. 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Well, as you are working the Ramsey plan and the Ramsey baby steps having a budget and knowing where your money's going and also having a goal to know what you're shooting for, whether that is saving for an emergency fund or getting out of debt or saving for a down payment, all of that coincides in your numbers and knowing what they are month to month and that's where every dollar comes in. You can check out every dollar for free in the App Store or Google Play and as you create your first budget, a lot of people, I mean they can find thousands of dollars in hidden margin that they didn't realize was happening. So again, everything from your month to month transactions and where your money's being spent to using that margin to work towards your goal every dollar's built for you. So download it for free today. All right, let's go to Brady and Fort Worth, Texas. Hi, Brady. Welcome to the show. Hey, y'all. How's it going? Hi, doing great. How are you? Good. I had a question. Right now, I am currently driving a Toyota Tacoma that I owed $25,000 on, but the vehicle's worth $50,000 and I work at a Lexington. Wait, what? Wait, wait, wait, wait. You're used Tacomas worth $50,000? Yes, man. Well, it's a 2025. It's still pretty new. Oh, okay, okay. That's fair. That's fair. Sorry, yeah. I should specify. But anyways, I work at a Lexus dealership and one of the benefits of being an employee here is we get really, really good lease deals on our Lexus vehicles as an employee. So I was wondering if y'all think it'd be a good idea for me to sell my truck and take the profits to help fund a wedding that is coming up probably within the year and to kind of help start a life with my life. What's that got to do with the lease deal? You're going to trade in the Tacoma and pick up a monthly payment on a lease? All right. Correct. It would be temporary and I've kind of crunched some numbers. My total operating cost for my Tacoma right now, which includes insurance payment and my estimated gas is about $1,100 per month. And on the lease, I was working with the salesman on. It's one of our nice hybrid vehicles that gets great gas mileage. My monthly operating cost on this lease would be about $400 and I was thinking about taking advantage of our temporary lease until we get past wedding season and get stabilized. And one of the other benefits of doing this is we can kind of break our lease whenever we want it with no penalty. So in a time drive, get a cash car and get back to it. So you will have rented a car for a number of months essentially. Correct. That doesn't feel good to me. That doesn't sit right with me. I'd rather you take your money and pay down this Tacoma if you're going to keep a car or I'd rather you take this and go, hey, let me sell this Tacoma, I get $25,000. Let me just buy a $25,000 cash car or a $10,000 cash car and then put $10,000 on to the sale. Or yeah, the $25,000, yeah, from, yeah, if you can not be on speaker, that would be great. Yeah. I would say sell the Tacoma, do you have nothing saved for the wedding? We have some service. I have about $5,000 in my savings right now, but in my head, I thought, man, it'd be nice to have about $30,000 and see what we can do with that. Or $20,000 and go buy a $5,000, $6,000 car. Yeah. Or when is the wedding? All right. So the proposal yet to happen, but if all goes well, the wedding will be in no business. My guy. We're taking it. We're taking it. I like to think it whole. Okay. Here's what. I like your style. I appreciate you. I appreciate you. You know, we need more men like you that are actually foregaking. Yeah. You're thinking about it. And even, yeah, they're not even playing on it. So when do you think the engagement will take place? I feel very confident and March sometimes. Middle March, early March. So so far, we've got like four good months. We've got December, January, February, March. That's just the engagement period. Do you have the ring? Not yet. I'm hoping to go score a ring this December when all the jewelry stores are running some good promotions. And you got the cash for that? I got the cash for that. Okay. More than the 5,000 that's in your account. Correct. I have cash set aside for that. Okay. Okay. Amazing. Amazing. So let's pretend she says yes in March. And now let's just pretend you guys are like going fast six months is the wedding. Sure. So you're telling me that gives you 10 months to save up. What do you think between your income and maybe what she would put towards it for the last six months? What do you think you could save up for a wedding? Gosh, it's hard to say but I think just based on our income alone, if we stuck to it, I feel pretty confident within six months, we could probably save 75, maybe $10,000, $7,500, $10,000, maybe. Okay. And that's not even including what you could take from this Tacoma. So what if you said, okay, we saved 10,000, I take 15 from the Tacoma sale.
That gives us a $25,000 wedding, assuming your parents add nothing to this. And then you buy yourself a $10,000 cash car. And now, not only have you cash flowed your life, you've cash flowed an engagement, a wedding, a car, and you actually have something when it's all done. You didn't just rent a vehicle for a year and throw $400 or however many dollars down the toilet that you can't get. And there's nothing to show for it at the end. Gotcha. Yeah, so that's what I would do, Brady, because also at the end of all of us, you could look up and be like, all right, the $10,000 car hasn't lost a ton of value in a year. And if I want to step up again, then we'll just save a little bit of each month and then sell it, step up in car and move your way up. Because I mean, with Jay-Zhan, that could be close to $45,000, that's just going out in lease payments. And you have no car to show for it at the end. So no, I would not take the lease, even though I understand how you mathematically did the numbers to make it feel good. At the end of the day, when you look out, I'd rather have the car in my possession, outright. And I probably would at this point, I think $25,000 cash to put towards wedding and car for just downgrading at Tacoma. If you could take men love their trucks, but if you could do it, if you could do it, Brady, I think that's what I would do, for sure. All right, let's go to Faith in Rockville. Hey, Faith, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you. I'm so excited. I'm a super fan. Oh, well, thanks for calling in. How can we help? Excited to be on. Okay, so I recently changed jobs. I was with my prior employer for close to two decades, and I just, I had an amazing opportunity to change jobs. And my question is that I was contributing all those years to my prior employer for 1K. And now, obviously changing numbers, I'm stopping those contributions. I'm contributing to my new employers for 1K. But the question is, what do I do with the prior employer amount of money that I have in that account? And every other person I talk to seems to be having, be giving me different advice. So people say, just leave it there. I'm like, I trust you guys. I'm going to call the show. Okay, yes. Has anyone told you? Some people are saying, just, just let it be there. Some people are saying, well, knowing if you let it be very tight to your prior employers, you should put it in a traditional IRA on your own. You should move it. Some other people are saying you should move it to the new employer. So what do you guys think? I'm going to go with option B, I think on your list. So it was, yeah, just roll it over to a traditional IRA, because it'll be in your control. I'm with the people that, yeah, if you keep it with you, with the company that you're no longer at, you know, they're going to do with it as is as they're going to invest it the way that the way they want. And you're not going to be part of those discussions or understand those decisions. So having it in your control is really big. And making sure it's traditional to traditional so that you're not penalized by all the taxes, because if you rolled it to a Roth, you would owe taxes on it. So if you go traditional to traditional, that's, yeah, that's another question I had. Because actually, I say 401k, but in that file, there's actually a component that's 401k, a component that after taxed Roth, okay, and a piece that's like traditional IRA. So it's like, I said 401k, but yes, so you're misleading because it's like split. Yes. So the 401k and the Roth 401k, yes, we'll be with your employers. Your, your traditional IRA or Roth IRA should be in an individual account for you. But if you contact a smart investor pro, they can help you walk through the mechanics of actually moving what needs to be moved so that you're not hit with a huge tax bill. But it's a great question. There's probably a good amount of money in their faith if you've been with them for two decades. So well done on the savings end and yeah, rolling it into these accounts so that you have full control. That's going to be key. Every year you might be overpaying for health insurance and never even know it, especially if you just renew the same plan year after year, not because it's the right plan, but because sorting through premiums and deductibles and networks sounds like a nightmare. That's how you can end up leaving money on the table. Don't do that this year. Now that it's open enrollment, I want you to talk to the folks at health trust financial. You'll get an actual human being who knows his stuff inside and out. And they'll look at your situation and help you find the coverage that fits your life and your budget. We've trusted health trust financial for over 20 years and they're the only health insurance provider we recommend. So don't just renew out of habit and hope everything works out. Take a few minutes and know for sure you're getting the right coverage at the right price. Just go to healthtrustfinancial.com to connect with an advisor today or click the link in the description. That's healthtrustfinancial.com. Well, next week, November 19th, Dr. John Zaloney and I are going to be doing a whole show. We're going to dedicate it to money and relationships. It's actually just going to be a theme hour. And we're going to take the entire hour and take calls from you when it comes to your money and relationship. So if you do have a hard time managing money with your spouse or navigating hard conversations, we want to hear from you. We want to help and talk it through with you. So you can write your question to ramsysolutions.com/ask and put money and relationships there in the subject line. And we'll get you scheduled. So that show again is going to be November 19th for one hour. We're going to do a money and relationships theme hour. So we want to hear from you. So go to ramsysolutions.com/ask and send us your questions and put money and relationships in the subject line. All right, let's go to Sydney in Austin, Texas. Hi, Sydney. Welcome to the show. Hi. Hello, hello. How are you doing? I am good. I'm excited. Good. Well, thanks for calling in. How can we help? So my wonderful husband and I just got married six months ago. And when thank you, thank you. When we were dating, when we first got engaged, even before I met him, I was, I always knew I never wanted to change my last name. And he was fine with that. He never cared. It wasn't much of a conversation of, you know, anything past, hey, I don't really want to do this. I have my reason. I like my name. And now that we're married, he really wants me to change it. I have my list of reasons why I don't want to, but I told him that I would consider it. And so I'd like to know why I should change my last name. Man, what a financial question. You may have come to the wrong place. This is interesting. I want to know the reasons. Yeah, well, it's what makes you not want to do it. Okay. So one, my last name is objectively better. Do you have a horrible last name? Yeah, it's like, because that's, yeah. It's not horrible. But I have a, like, I have a stronger last name. There's no way to spell it wrong. Everybody always gets it right. Okay. So I did like, okay, if I don't say your last name, I don't know. Okay. Stronger. That's subjective, I would say. Stronger last name. His last name isn't bad, but it's just, it's not quite mine. Do you not have any brothers that can carry on the family name? I do have a brother. He, he's been with his, his, his girlfriend, I guess I would say, for over a decade. And they don't have plans to get married. And I don't know that she will ever change her name. They're both physicians. And I think they like their last name. Did you have a opinions, Sydney, before you met him? Or is it, is it his last name that you don't want to take on? 100%. I've had this really most of my adult life. Okay. Okay. Before I met him, you know, in between dating, I, I like my last name. My mom never changed her last name. And I, my last name was also part of, I, I actually used to work in the TV industry. And so I had a great last name that was that I didn't need to change for, you know, work purposes. Yeah. Yeah. And so on top of, you know, the paperwork of it all, I do feel like it's a bit of a big deal. Let's be honest. It's really not. So I wouldn't throw that in the list. That's kind of, it can be annoying, but it can be done. Yeah. Okay. I'm glad you're saying that. I guess I felt like it was a big haul. Yeah. You bring your social security and your birth certificate and you fill out a paper. That part's not a big deal. But I am interested in, okay, you worked in TV. So you feel like you have an identity attached to it. I think everybody's identity is attached to their name.
100%. What are his reasons? His main thing is he feels like we won't be a true family unit. If we have different last names. There is a piece of that. With kids. Right. Yeah. So then what would the kids? Would it be a hyphenated last name? Well, so I kind of offered that up. He does not seem interested in that. And I know he he never he never felt this before. He never had never voiced this before and I'm like he just didn't like sit with that. And maybe maybe he changes it too where it's like okay we really are in this together. Life wrong. And I know that if I often to do this he wouldn't change his last name. So are you guys do you consider yourself to be I wonder where you guys sit just in your values? Do you guys consider yourself to be like traditional or do you consider yourself to be very progressive? Like because that's what I'm hearing here. I'm hearing one set of values that feels a little bit more traditional. Another set of values that feels a little bit more progressive. And I don't think either of them are wrong or right. It's just based off of what you guys decide together. Truly. I mean there is a piece of it. I will call this out. You were very forthcoming and saying here's why I stand. And he said that's fine with me. So he changed you didn't change it doesn't sound like. But yeah I mean I'm gonna tell you I don't have my ideals might be a little bit different than you but I don't think that there's like a wrong or right on this. No I just think things can get complicated just from a logistics standpoint. I would say that with kids and medical forms and checking into hotels using different debit cards for reservations. I mean things when you're not synced up from a logistics perspective with bills and different things. There can be a mismatch of a little bit of that extra confusion. So that could be a thing to think through. Would you do a hyphenated last name? Would you do like I would? And I actually technically already have like last names. So I'll drop the first one and I'd happily throw his on there. Or so you have a hyphenated last name. Yes. Oh no, a triple. Are we adding a trick right? So yours would be a triple. I really only use the one last name of mine. How old are you Sydney? I'm 31. Okay. Okay, next week. How old is he? He's 31. Okay. Would you let me ask you because I'm like now it's like a beautiful mind out here. Okay, would you both be willing? Let's give real names. Let's pretend it's like your last name is Dean. His last name is Williams. Would you all would you both be willing to switch to a hyphenated Williams Dean or Dean Williams? So everybody does it. Right. I would. I don't know that he would. I don't think he would. Okay. And then if you did a hyphenated Dean Williams, would the kids be Dean Williams or would the kids just be Williams? Exactly. That's a really great question. What would you want? Because I wouldn't mind. I would prefer the hyphenation. Okay. And so for you, this is a full identity play. It's correct. Yeah. Identity. Okay. Yeah. It's really like I've always liked my name. I feel, you know, not just, oh, I like my name. And that's my name. But, you know, I've used my name in ways that was important for me and in other ways that are just your name. You know, so there's part of this. Can I just offer this? And again, I'm not saying wrong or right. But there is. Go ahead. The family unit thing, I think, is big. Because I'll tell, I'll say this, and I may come at this more with a, quote unquote, traditional mindset. There's that there's a spiritual thing for me when I get married, I'm choosing to lock arms with that man. And it's, and we have created something new. And I have, and I, I mean, Ramsey was my last name for God's sakes. And I'm in the, right. It's talking about confusion. You know, it'd be much easier for me to be Rachel Ramsey right now. But it was, for Winston and I, it was important. And even in my parents, and I mean, my parents were supportive, for sure. There was something about us creating something new for ourselves, which I know I took his last name, obviously, and his family's, you know, that I get that. But for me, I'm like, this is our, this is our thing. And like, we are the cruises. I've decided to do my life with you. And there was something bigger to me of this, it's this unity play to me of we're, we're in this together. And I don't know. And, and I think you probably have a different opinion on the other end of that, which is fine. But there's just something about it that it's more than the name. It's like a, I am leaving what I was. And I'm joining together with this person. And there's something deep there that happens. And when we share a name together, this is our unit. In the moment that we have separate names, long term, could feel not always again. I'm maybe making this a bigger deal. It could feel like, gosh, there's been a lot of confusion. We don't feel like a unified front. The cruises, the unity, I mean, the deans are here. And I don't know. There's something about it. It's like, this is our family unit. And it's, it's stamped with our name. And we are, we are one. I'd simplify it even more and say, if he said, will you marry me? Like, will you marry to me? Then you're said, yes, I will. You take his name. If you had said, Bob, will you marry to me? And he said, yes. And maybe he's going to name Bob. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fairwinds credit union studio. I am Rachel Cruz, hosting this hour with Jade Warshall. So give us a call at triple eight, eight, two five, five, two, two, five. We are answering your calls on life and money. All right, let's go to Crystal and Baker's Field, California. Hi, Crystal. Welcome to the show. Hi, Rachel. Thank you for taking my call. It's a good to see or talk to you. Yes, absolutely. Thanks for calling in. How can we help? Well, just to get right to it, I basically am kind of struggling to build a cushion for my salon and then also completing baby step two. I'm just not sure how to get both of them going. I've paid off probably, I don't know, 13,000 or so in the last couple of years in my debt. So I have about 3,300 left in credit card debt and $12,000 school loans still. So that's what I have to complete for baby step two. Okay. And I'm just like trying to figure out how to keep a cushion for the salon and also, yeah, yeah. So yeah, you have the business side that you're working on and then you also have your personal goals like in your quote unquote house finances, if you will. How much are you for the salon? How much are you paying yourself every month? How much are you taking home? So because I'm a sole proprietor, I'm not really paying myself. I'm just taking out of business as needed. I would love to get to a point where I could just pay myself a certain amount. Yeah, right now I'm just juggling about 26 bills in a month altogether. Okay. So your business and your personal finances are pretty intertwined. Right. Yes. Okay. So that would be the first step. Crystal, the homework, just to make the accounting easier for both sides is you need to separate it. You have two accounts. Do you have a household checking business? Yep. Yep. I do have a business account and business savings. And then I also have a personal account with personal savings and all the money from the square that I use to take payments at the salon, those into my business account. And then every time bills are due at home, I transfer over what I need that's going to come out of my personal account right over like that. And that's what I've been doing it for 10 years. Okay. So 10 years. So if you look back, if you look back and say over the course of one year, what's the what's the average amount that you've pulled out of the business to cover your personal bills? And I think that's a fair way to look at this is what I'm paying myself and I can start to set this. I see. Okay. So basically I pay myself two thousand a month. Okay. For the house bills. Okay. Perfect. That was for the salon bills. Home bills are 1575. Okay. And then I have 425 left. But what okay. And what are you doing for like groceries and stuff? Like where are you? That's what I the 1425. I have left. I use for like that groceries and saline stuff gas. Okay. So 19. So $2,900 total is what you're pulling out of the business on a given month? Yep. Okay. Great. So about $3,000 a month is what you pay yourself. How much is in the business savings? Yeah. Right now like $600. Okay. So and it's it's been staying that way over the course of 10 years you've not been able to kind of do you have ups and downs?
- And then down sort of a couple thousand and then to nothing. I go shopping one time for a product, that's $1,000. I mean, yeah, I just need to build the cushion for it. - Yeah, are you growing your clientele? Have you been raising prices from a business perspective and wondering how it stayed? - I have rose, yeah, I rose in my prices three times in 15 years. So I waited too long the first two times. I haven't made quite a big jump. And then I raised them just recently about year and a half ago, just a little bit, you know, about 6%. - Do you have any debt on the business, on the salon? - No. - No, okay, great, okay. Okay, so what I think I would do crystal for right now is, I mean, having summertime earnings is gonna be great. It's gonna make you feel, you know, more safe 'cause that's your income producing job, right? So I would, I almost would say at this point, you have $600 in savings per month. What would you say, like an emergency fund would feel good per month if you, to have an extra 1,000 bucks a month or something in there. I'm just trying to get like a pretty slim emergency fund for the business so that we can jump pretty much into your personal finances. So if you had probably 2,000, since it thinks, it takes 2,000 for to operate the salon a month. So if she had a $2,000 cushion, yes, that kind of, I think that'd be fair. So I think let's make a goal to get $2,000 set aside for the business and we're not gonna touch it, it's kind of your emergency fund. So that means you have to pick up some extra clients, work a little bit more, we're gonna kind of get this into gear there. And then we're gonna shift over to your personal finances and then, and that, your next goal for your personal side is gonna be anything above the salon. You may be paying yourself more, right? We're gonna keep it running, but at that point we have the emergency fund in place. So then let's pour some gasoline on the personal side. So pay yourself more than you would, but that money is not gonna be going to expenses, it's gonna be going to savings, $1,000. And then we're gonna be working extra and we're gonna be making more in this business and it's not gonna go to the business remember that at that point then it's gonna be going to paying off this debt. And so I really, I wonder if you really kicked this into gear, Crystal. Are you working five days a week? - No, I had a feeling that would come up. - Yeah, I wanted to ask that too. - Yes, I've cut it down the last three, four years. I've been working three days a week. - Why? - You've got this debt. - I'm just tired. I'm so tired. - How old are you, Crystal? - I know 44. - Okay. - You've got to work about 10 hours. - A week or 10 hours a day. - 10 hours a week, yeah. - Okay, yeah, 'cause they're long days. And it's so long, you're standing up. I mean, I get it, it's a lot. But do you want to do a 40 hours a week or would you rather do this as maybe a side hustle and do another type of work? Because for you to be burnt out at 44, you've been doing it 10 years. For me, that's a little bit of a signal of, it's a good point. - Do you need to make a shift? - Yeah, I need to do it 10 years, but my own salon 10 years. - Do you enjoy it? Do you wanna keep doing this? - I love it. - Okay. - Oh yeah. - Okay, so Crystal, I think. - But for me to give them 100%, I have to be 100. And I feel like 40's was just too much. 'Cause I'm very rarely, well, I have a break. And, you know, so. - Okay, well, I would say. - I don't know what you guys probably know how it goes. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, are you married, Crystal? - Yes. - But is my amazing husband is here with me? - Oh, hi, amazing husband. What does he bring in? What does he bring in a year? - He brings in 6100 net. - A month. - A year. - 98,000 a year. - 98,000 a year. - Okay. Well, then you're not alone in this game. We should have been bringing him into this mathematical picture. - I got it right. - I think you guys need to be looking at this income and saying, Crystal, what can I do for, and give yourself 18 months. And I'm gonna just bust it for 18 months. I'm gonna work five days a week. You guys are gonna cut the budget at home. The money that he brings in, the 6,000 a month. I would be looking at that and scrutinizing that and you guys get to work and pay this off. And I think all this can be done. That was the hidden part of the equation, Crystal. Next your 100 grand a year. Not bad. - Hey guys, Dave Ramsey here. Every day on this show we help people work through real money problems and figure out what to do next. Now you can get that same kind of help anytime with Ask Ramsey. Ask your money question and get answers built on Ramsey principles we use on the show. Whether you're making a decision or just want something explained, Ask Ramsey is here to help. It's fast, simple, and free to use. Go to RamseySolutions.com and try Ask Ramsey today. That's RamseySolutions.com. (upbeat music) - Our question of the day is brought to you by Ask Ramsey, your free AI money tool that provides personalized that money answers based on Ramsey principles. Visit RamseySolutions.com/AskRamsy. Today's question comes from Lacey in North Dakota. She said my husband and I just found out that we're expecting our first baby and I want to be a stay at home mom when the baby arrives. I've been at my current company for five years and they do not offer paid maternity leave. I have six weeks of sick time banked. Would it be ethical to act as if I am coming back? So I get paid for those six weeks or should I just be honest about not coming back? Unfortunately, I cannot cash out sick time. It has to be used. - Interesting. - Oh, cash. She can't like cash it in for payments, if you will. - Okay, so there's a lot around this 'cause there's like legalities around this. And then there's I guess a little bit of a moral discussion around what's right or wrong, per se. 'Cause here's the thing, if she walks in and says, hey, I know I have this sick time, I'd like to take it, but I also don't think I'm gonna plan to come back. Legally, the employer can't just say, well, you're pregnant, so we're gonna fire you. Legally, you can't do that, but also it says that you can't fire because of retaliation. Like, I'm firing you out of retaliation of you saying this. But then they could say, potentially, they could fire you and say that it's for another reason. - Yes. - So, that's a very great area. - On the theater taught across of it all. - Yeah, I mean, I know people that it's like they've had PTO and they take their vacation. And then they put in their-- - Yeah, they put in their two ways. - Well, because it was a benefit of them, they're making sure, hey, when I worked at this office, I had these benefits. I feel like I should be able to have them and see them through for a while employed. - Yes, so, yeah, this was one thing. I know, 'cause we were talking at the break, I was like, I know, with Ramsey, we pay regardless if you come back or not, because we were running into an issue of like, oh my gosh, people took it and then at the end, they're like, okay, I'm not coming back. Which they can do, but that's the thing is, you can do that. - But it's like, hey, can you let us know in just in case? - Yeah, but it has like a, from like a leadership perspective, okay, now we have to fill the spot, but at, but listen, I mean, if it's a benefit there for you, I mean, I would take it. - I think I probably would too. - Yeah, and it's not even, I don't know, I'm just trying to put it in another perspective. - Well, it's like your PTO, I mean, it's anything that you have from a benefit. Yeah, like it's, it's like if you, I don't know, you had best in-- - You had best in, like investing. Yeah, I think you're 401K, I'm gonna use my 401K, put money in, but I know I'm gonna leave and put, you know what I'm saying? - Yeah, I'm gonna stay until it vests and then I'll, - Yes, peace out. - Yep, I don't know. - Well, hope that helps, Lacey. - Yeah, we work that much, how much-- - Congratulations, though, yeah, I agree, I agree. All right, let's go to Mark and Tallahassee, Florida. Hi, Mark, welcome to the show. - Hi, thanks for having me. - So, I guess in a nutshell, I'm looking for some advice on how to balance, like an emergency phone, as well as pan off debt, while my family's also dealing with health issues and some job uncertainty. - Ooh, gosh, that's a lot. - Yes, okay, let's talk about-- - Hold it one time. - Yeah, and that doesn't happen, thanks life. Okay, so you said emergency payout debt, what's the emergency that's happening? - Oh, no, I'm sorry, like the emergency phone, as far as you know, savings with our, trying to pay off our debt at the same time, but also, you know, just kind of worried about the short-term outlook. - I hear you, 'cause there's a job loss opportunity, or a job loss situation probably happening. - Absolutely, you know, my wife's job is kind of uncertain, right now they're doing some layoffs, and then I'm going through some health issues for the last five months, and I'm not sure what my long-term situation's gonna be either. - Okay, sorry. Okay, so what are they saying? Let's start with the job, what does she earn? - She makes about 90,000 curves. and what type of work does she do?
you? She's in the health care industry, manages wellness plans. So when you say that there's layoffs taking place like in her direct area, the girl that she's working with, you know, got laid off and Bob who she worked with got laid off, is it that close or is it further out? It's more a company-wide and then also within her department, I guess you could say. It's because the company's trying to cut back basically. Has she started looking or does she have reason to believe she could be let next because of her performance? Like does she have what's her thoughts? She has good performance. She's not worried about that. She has started looking a little bit. Some of the so they offered a severance to opportunity for some of the older employees and a lot of her direct supervisors around her have taken up on that. Okay. And so it's just seems like there could be some uncertain like are they going to close their department? Do you know Mark time frame wise? Are they planning on doing this till the end of the year or will that go into 2027? There's no info on that. Okay. Okay. So we have to we can only work with the info we have. So that's good to know. From a health perspective, what's going on with you? Are you able to work or is there? I've been working. Yeah. I had an unexpected neck injury about five months ago, four and a half months ago. And I'm going through doctor's appointments take forever to even get to a doctor. So I'm on to the next one and just trying to figure out what's going on. But it's a challenge every day. But I've been pushing through muscle up and going to work. Yeah. But I don't know one year, two years down the road. What that looks like. Okay. How much do you make? I make about 90 growth also. Okay. Okay. And do you guys have insurance? We do. It's two months before. Okay. Okay. So that that part is that's good. And what's your emergency fund now? So this is non-traditional, I guess. So the way I have most of my money tied up in CDs. Okay. They're like four and a half percent interest. But they're on short term. So like five months out of month CDs. And then I have one coming up in April and one in February. But they told about $60,000. Okay. Well, that's good that you have this money. And when those CDs mature, I would just keep them liquid. Just keep them in a high yield because you guys have to your point a lot coming up. Okay. So I think it's fair to say that you guys have so much going on that the debt might have a temporarily paused right now. Right? There's times where we kind of pause the baby steps to just kind of get a sense of what's going on. And right now I would actually move that kind of to the bottom of the list until I figure out what's going to be our margin, specifically not so much with yours, but with hers. So I think my first thing on the list of like, these are things I need to do. I'd be telling your wife, let's start looking because she's going to feel better if there's something that comes her way. Maybe she'll make more than $90,000. That's in your area. That feels good. That would take a lot off of you guys's plate. Next on the list, I'd be looking at the debt. How much debt do you guys have? It's not too bad. So I have a truck that I bought new the summer that I owe 54,000 on it. And then I have 6,000 and do that loans. And that's it. That truck is now a lot. I have 168 on our mortgage. That's a big truck. Yeah, it's a new truck. So I also can meet one hour to work every day. And so I just wanted something a little bit newer just for reliability purposes. I don't know. I think that's a big stretch. I'm going to take it easy on you because your neck hurts, but that's a big old truck. But yeah, how much is your wife's car? What is it worth? Well, hers is paid off, but I don't I guess value wise. It's probably out in 30,000. Yeah. So you guys have close to the amount of cars that you have sitting in your driveway accounts for what you make a year close to it. Yeah. So that's not that's that's a lopsided way of looking at net worth and assets just as an FYI. I do have an extra vehicle that's paid off as well that I'm working on trying to sell. It's probably worth about 30,000. It's more of a collector's vehicle. Well, here's what I would do. And I think this would simplify your life immensely. You're not going to like it. I would reach in the $60,000 and I'd pay off that small student loan and get it gone. And I would look at this truck and I'd sell it, Mark. I would sell it and I would get a three-year-old truck substantially cheaper and I would use cash to pay for it. And then I think that's going to simplify your lives. And until this storm comes, I'd stack back that emergency fund as high as you can get it. It's the holiday season. So here comes all the excuses for not sticking to a budget. It's just this one time. It was on sale. And how about this one? I'll start fresh in January. Yeah, right. Money's not a math problem. It's a plan problem. And without one, your paycheck will disappear on you so fast. That's why we built every dollar. It helps you give every dollar a job before it's spent. So you're telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went. Every dollar is backed by the same proven plan that millions of everyday people have used for over 30 years to beat debt and build wealth. Get on a money plan now so you can get into the new year already making progress. Not excuses. Start every dollar for free. Download it in the App Store or Google Play today. We wish we could get to every call and question on the show. But if you do have a question, specifically a money question, you can actually head over to our website and use Ask Ramsey. It's our free AI tool that is built and trained on money principles. Ramsey money principles. And you will get the answer that you would get if you called in on the show. So we'll always love for you to call in. Again, our number on the show is 828-255-225. But if you want to if you want a quick answer, you can use Ask Ramsey. So head over to RamseySolutions.com or you can click the link in the show notes or if you're listening on podcasts or YouTube, we'll put it in the description. All right, let's go to Sarah in Austin, Texas. Hi, Sarah. Welcome to the show. Hi. Thank you so much. Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. So my question is we have a potential opportunity to get some of my husband's inheritance early if we need it, which I'll get into an effect, but I'm wondering if it's worth it to do that to pay off our house. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, let's talk through numbers. But we do find the earlier you can do better financially and get yourself ahead. That's going to actually do more for you mathematically versus waiting to get in inheritance in like 15 years if that makes sense. Right. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, walk us to the numbers. Okay. So we're actually doing really great. We have just about $6,000 in debt outside of our mortgage, which we will plan to pay off by the end of the year. So that's exciting. Right. And then what's left left on our mortgage is about $275,000 and we pay like by monthly. So we pay more every year. So it's, you know, it's going to be like less than 30 years. And, you know, it's not my inheritance. It's actually from my mother-in-law. And I would have never even dreamed of asking her because she's not my mom until I found out that she told us she told us that my husband's brother used part of his inheritance to buy their first home. And I was like, oh, wait a second. I didn't know that. I was like, that's okay. I love this for us. We should do this. And so I brought it up to my husband. I was kind of nervous because I was like, it's not my mom. I don't want to ask for the money early when it's not my mom. And he said, you know, I just think the money's going to grow more in the accounts that it's in now rather than paying it off. And, you know, like the value of our house is not going to grow as much as whose money is going to grow in the next 10 or so years. And then I ran the numbers through AI. And AI agreed with my husband. And I was like, oh, no, that's not what I wanted to hear. Yes. But I've been watching you guys forever. And I'm like, I feel like paying off your house is what you want to do. Do you guys? I wonder what you included in your in your runnings because there's the lump sum of money that's sitting there growing. But then if you guys have a lump sum of retirement and you suddenly start investing your mortgage payment, what does that, is that the comparison that you ran or pretty much, although now that I'm thinking about it, because this is a little while ago, I don't remember if I actually don't remember if I compared it to our investment accounts. And that's, I think that's the numbers that I would run because we're talking about.
how it affects you all right so obviously one of the benefits of paying off the mortgage early you have piece like financial piece don't yeah, but then the other part is now we're officially in baby step 7 you can invest far beyond 15% and for you guys what's your mortgage payment it's about 2200 a month so if you added that 22 let's just hypothetically let's pretend you're already investing 15% and you added 2200 on top of that and you're doing that on top of your current nest egg over the course of however many years you're playing this out that's the math that I would do and my guess is you might shake it now that being said how much is the I just read numbers real quick how old your mother-in-law she's 81 oh okay okay let's go it sounds it's so morbid to talk about you know I know let's say um her mother lives to 94 so we've got you know potentially 14 13 more okay let's okay we're gonna give her 15 just for the yes for the vibes out out there we just yeah we'll pay that for okay so if you invest so if you guys took your took the money and paid off the house and instead of paying 2200 a month to the mortgage for the next 15 years and you invested it it would be right at a million dollars in that investment account yeah so my starting from zero starting from zero exactly yeah what do you already have I'm just curious what do you already have set aside um I believe we have about 125,000 in investment okay and then the other question that I want to add to this is what is you guys's annual income yeah so that's what makes me a little nervous I make about 125k but a lot of that is not I have I'm a side gig queen okay so it's not like about I would say 30,000 of that is like let's hope let's hope I do the same next year which has been consistent so we'll say 125 and what's your husband make my husband is not currently paying himself he owns his own company and it's been very struggling last couple of years so everything he's making is putting back into his business so you're just living off of your 125,000 yeah okay so even if we're investing 15% of that that's uh 18,000, 750 a year which uh uh 1500 a month so if you added the 1500 a month and this is just hypothetical you're right 15% plus the 2200 on top of your 100 and I mean 37 $37 nest egg 3700 a month going into all of it yeah that'd be it so just the numbers I ran really quick was if the you did the mortgage payment plus your 15% you guys invested that with your current investments at 125,000 in 15 years it'd be 2.3 million wow I like the sound of that so that's the number I be comparing with but you the number and let it grow until yeah mother and law passed Sarah how much debt have you guys paid off so far you said you have 6,000 left how much was there originally um that's a great question the car payment was 18,000 now we have about three left um wait wait we listened to you we got a used car and we pay for a second car cash yeah and then my credit cards were about 12,000 now I have about 3,000 left on that okay yeah the only you know my only um and I want to say hesitation but just thought around people taking a lump sum whether people get that from a settlement or a life insurance or you know in your case an inheritance you know and they throw it at a lot of debt and pay it off I mean obviously it's amazing but sometimes it can mask the problems that created the debt in the first place right but I'm not worried about that with you guys because you guys currently we're working to pay off your consumer debt you're working hard for that and the mortgage it's not a debt that you're you know it's not the consumer debt you're in that you're like oh my gosh we keep going back into it right it sounds like your habits financially your bad ones have been changed to good habits and to me being free and clear of the mortgage at that point to say I could free you up some too if you're not wanting to work four side households which is great but he needs to get his business under under control for sure to be able to pay himself to sustain you guys right because I also those numbers we ran were assuming that you're still going to pay 2200 a month in investments right so if you did half of that and use the other half for margin that changes the numbers it goes down so you guys just need to kind of think through where this is but yet AI in your husband are correct on the on the mathematical usually especially if you got like a 3% mortgage right you know I mean you're there's gonna be a bigger spread right if versus 10% in the market there's a 7% but what we always say over and over again is that freedom of not having a mortgage payment that it's your choice do we spend that mortgage payment do we invest it do we give it you have autonomy over your life and that house will go up in value maybe not as aggressively as the market but what you never told us Sarah what's the full amount of the inheritance obviously if you took the 275 to pay off the mortgage what's the full amount we actually don't know the full amount but we anticipate between one and two million dollars okay yeah so there's a reality to that in 10 to 15 years - you know what I know you don't want to just bank on it but it's it's a reality I would 100% have my husband talk to mom and law and see if we can make this happen yep pay it off be free and clear you you work your butt off for your money but your money's never going to return the favor if all you do is hope for the best if you're ready to learn how to make your money work for you check out the smart vester program smart vester can help you find advisors who specialize in retirement planning charitable giving advanced investing strategies and more whatever your goals your pro will take the time to explain your options so you never have to invest in anything you don't understand head to ramsysolutions.com/smartvester the get connected ramsysolutions is a paid non-client promoter of participating pros learn more at ramsysolutions.com/smartvester our scripture of the day comes from Psalm 31 24 be strong and take hearts all you hope in the Lord all you hope in the Lord God the who man I always struggle with these dillani's always like it's hooked on phonics it's whatever version like whatever version you're used to reading that is fair yeah you read the message a lot yeah that like you get you get in the Lord everyone yeah everyone should just open the Lord it's the message version we'll start using like the the Bible app that reads it out to you so you know what I yeah I will use that on occasion all right let's go to rebound back entire and see is that what you say your name you're absolutely stressing me out right now to succeed in life you need three things a wishbone a backbone and a funny bone great we have it all right here Lord have mercy I will never forget doing this closing it out one time I with dillani it was like one of the hardest times I've laughed on this show and I didn't say the scripture of the day I just started saying be strong and take hearts all he and he was like what's happening to you and I was like I'm reading the scripture he's like oh I thought you just like like a dude oronomy just I just started preaching just started speaking the Lord's the Lord's word oh man all right let's go to Jonathan and Greenville South Carolina hi Jonathan welcome to the show hi I hope you guys are doing well today I have a question we've received a thirteen thousand six hundred dollar settlement from a car accident and we have about forty six thousand in debt between a car credit card and tax payment plan we're own okay and we have some goals like we want to buy a house and those types of things and we're just unsure what we should use the settlement on how we should plan for the next year should we get an extra job to pay off debt and those things okay is everyone okay from the wreck yes thankfully good recovery no no bad things good recovery good recovery how much are you guys making a month as a household right now we're making around sixty two fifty it just depends on self-employed and I bet any self-employed business it can very yes I can go up and down okay and the average this year should be around it should hit about eighty thousand dollars or so okay and my wife she she doesn't work just because we're trying to get pregnant and she wants to prepare for that because we've had a few miscarriages previously and that's always nervous for her around that I'm sorry okay there's a lot going on that you guys are trying to do yeah can you walk through what you owe on the car the credit cards and the
tax bill, just so we can see specific numbers. Sure. The car is about 34,500. And the credit cards are roughly $50, $600 in the taxes are roughly $50, $400. Roughly, I'm sure I'm missing a few dollar bills here there. Okay, great. So technically this 13,000 could knock off the taxes and the credit cards. How much would that free up a month that you wouldn't be paying if you paid those off? Around $360 or so? Okay. Two credit cards are on a payment plan from a few years ago where I was financially irresponsible. Have you cut them up? The credit cards? Yes, they have been cut up. We have some existing ones just for credit, but we've had the conversation recently of just cutting all existing credit cards. The ones that have no balances, the only ones that have balances are the ones on the payment plans from years ago. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of a separate conversation, but the whole point of getting out of debt is the idea that you're not going to go back in to debt again. So the credit, the credit score conversation kind of becomes a moot point, no? Right, right. Yeah. It doesn't really probably needs to cut the existing ones up. I believe probably the best way we should go about that. I think so too. I think because now you're becoming new people who live off the money that they make and you no longer sleep to the lender. So Jonathan, do you guys have any money saved on the side? We have a $1,000 emergency fund and that's I think what we have abruptly right now about $1,000, $1,200. Okay, great. Well, I mean, let's go. Jade's route, my route, probably the same. I think so, but I would, yeah, I mean, I would throw the money at that debt, get the credit cards done with, get the tax done with and you guys should have about two grand ish left, throw it at the car, whatever's left. So you got 32,000 and then you got an extra freed up almost $400 a month. Yep. That can go extra on top of that with the car, but this car is pretty, it's steep, it's steep because you're making 62,000 a year and this is basically half of your take home pay just in the one vehicle more than half. Yep. Yep. And it's it's it's expensive and we have wondered if we should even sell the car and I'm wondering too. Do you buy a beater or not a beater car, but enough to be a car, enough car to be a car. What's it worth? This car is roughly worth what we roughly about 33,000. I love that. Okay. So you could plan B, take some of this 13,000, go get sell this car, go buy a, let's say a, I don't know, an 8,000 dollar car, 5,000 knockout one of the debts and then you could be debt free if you guys could put an extra thousand bucks away a month and pay that other one off your debt free completely in five. Gosh. Yeah. Yeah. Five months and make sure that if you're prioritizing the debts that you pay, do the IRS first. Yes. That's right. That's right. Pay the IRS off first. Then you've got the car, you can get out of the car, get yourself a new car and then all your margin is going towards knocking out these credit cards. Yeah. That's exactly what I would do Jonathan. Perfect. Good to know there. Do you guys think that getting a second job will be good too to help my wife because she's also it's looking at stability like and because it's with the self-employment, it's like, hey, it's good. But if there's a moment where it does slow down in a month or pick up in a month, do you think that would be a good thing helping for her piece of mind from y'all's opinion? I think so. So there's one part of this that we probably should have said and it's true. She's pregnant right now, correct? We're trying to get pregnant. You're trying she's not she is she well, if we believe she is because we are need to take that test. Okay. So if you look up if you look up and she's pregnant, I'll be honest with you, I think I still would go ahead and sell the car and make that transition. Yes. But I might hold back some of the money as an emergency fund and until she gets through this pregnancy, because to your point, you guys have had some difficulties. Once you get through the pregnancy, everybody's home safe. During that time, I'd keep aside some of this money. I'd stack up as much as you can. Then once everybody's home, then I would press play knock out the IRS, knock out the credit cards and you're totally done. But I would go ahead and do the car. Yeah. Do the car was harmless. Yes. And take the car. Yeah. And I would see if you can find a good eight nine thousand dollar car out of that 13. Yes. That can that can last you, you know, do you mean like two to three years? I think that would be the goal. How much is the car payment a month? Five ninety nine. Okay. Okay. So 600 bucks. Yeah. Because that would be 600 bucks. Or yeah, dollars back in your pocket. Yep. So yeah, that's that's what we would do. And your goal would be save up, try to save up your deductible or your out of pocket max during now, you know, for the next nine months. And listen, good luck to you. I hope that this goes really, really well for you. I think it will for sure. Yep. And and if it if it's not to your question about her getting, you know, a side job, or even if she is pregnant, you know, talk to your doctor, because I do know people, you know, with stress, I don't know. There's different journeys with it. And I do want to be really careful. But I do think possibly just even for her, I think there's something good about it doesn't have to be every day, but getting up and doing something, right? Going somewhere, you know, there's a time that you have to be somewhere, you have to get up, you have to get dressed like there's just something about that productivity versus, you know, sitting and you know, it's a lot of yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, there's a, I don't know, there's a reality of movement and not being, you know, just settled. But also medically, talk to your doctor and everything. I don't want to push anything that, you know, he says differently. Yeah, for sure. differently. But it's a good question, Jonathan. So yeah, yeah, you guys, the, I feel like a little bit of the theme this hour was the cars. It's just a lot of car agree. And if you think about it, like again, if you can pay it off in 18 to 24 months, we say you can keep it, but that's another two years of being in debt and you sometimes kind of think, is that even worth it? Just go for it. Yeah, so selling it, if you can. It's a good thing. Jade, great show. Thanks to everyone in the booth and remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. (upbeat music)
Podcast Summary
Key Points:
Nicole, a single mom with $130,000 in debt, faces severe financial strain due to high living costs, including rent on a duplex and child support gaps, but can improve her situation by working more hours and using a car loan to reduce debt.
A financial coach is recommended for Nicole to help navigate her complex budget and prevent long-term financial collapse, emphasizing that temporary sacrifice can build long-term stability.
Dolores, a parent of a college graduate, questions whether she should give her daughter money for her wedding, but math shows that their retirement funds and savings provide significant financial security, allowing for generosity without financial risk.
Dolores is encouraged to shift from a strict parental role to a supportive one, preserving her daughter’s dignity and strengthening their relationship, even if only giving a small amount.
Michelle, a working mother with debt, can reduce her monthly payments by $250–$500 through budgeting with EveryDollar, enabling her to pay off her buy-now-pay-later debt and eventually sell her car for significant savings.
Jane, married to someone who hides money, faces marital tension rooted in financial secrecy and distrust; counseling is recommended to rebuild trust and establish transparent financial communication.
Corey, a recently divorced man on disability, must create a detailed budget to manage his limited income and plan for retirement, with potential for future home sale and investment in retirement savings.
James and his wife, with student loan debt and a housing goal, are advised to focus entirely on debt elimination first—using increased income after new jobs to pay off $130,000 in loans—before saving for a home.
Summary:
The Ramsey Show addresses several real-world financial challenges through practical, empathetic advice. Nicole, a single mother, faces overwhelming debt and expenses, including a costly duplex and unstable child support, but can stabilize her finances by increasing work hours, reducing costs, and refinancing her car loan to eliminate $27,000 in debt. Dolores, a parent of a graduating daughter, is encouraged to reconsider wedding gifts through financial math, revealing that her retirement and savings are sufficient to allow for generosity without financial strain.
She is advised to shift from a strict parental role to a supportive, relationship-focused one to preserve her daughter’s dignity. Michelle, managing small buy-now-pay-later debts and a high-interest car loan, is shown how a budgeting tool like EveryDollar can uncover hidden income and free up $250–$500 per month to pay off debt, potentially saving years. Jane’s marriage is strained by financial secrecy and distrust, requiring counseling to address deeper issues and establish transparency.
Corey, a 55-year-old on disability, is urged to create a tight budget to manage his $3,300 monthly income, with long-term goals of retirement savings and home ownership. James and his wife are advised to prioritize debt elimination—using their future income to pay off $130,000 in student loans—before pursuing a home purchase, a strategy that accelerates progress and reduces long-term financial stress. The show consistently emphasizes focused, intentional budgeting, transparency, and emotional health as essential to financial resilience.
FAQs
No bankruptcy is the only option if you're deeply in debt and have no income. Instead, focus on increasing income, cutting expenses, and using tools like budgeting apps to manage your finances. For example, working more hours or selling assets can help reduce debt without filing for bankruptcy.
If your car is underwater, consider selling it to reduce debt. Use a tool like Kelly Blue Book to find its value, then apply for a new loan to cover the difference. However, ensure the new loan interest rate is reasonable and that the savings outweigh the hassle.
Yes, but it's important to base your decision on math, not emotion. If you have savings and a stable income, a modest gift can be generous without compromising your financial security. Consider giving toward specific items like a wedding dress or rehearsal dinner.
Hiding money is a breach of trust. Address this directly with your spouse and consider couples’ counseling to rebuild financial transparency. Focus on mutual accountability and shared financial goals to strengthen your relationship.
It's possible, but prioritize paying off student loans first. Focus on one goal at a time—clearing debt allows you to save more and build a stronger financial foundation before buying a house.
Use a budgeting app like EveryDollar to track all your spending. Set one clear financial goal (like paying off debt) and let the app help you find hidden expenses. This can free up extra money to allocate toward debt repayment.
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