Rock Bottom Doesn’t Have to Define Your Financial Future

If you've ever said I'm not in crisis, so I don't need therapy.

I want you to reconsider.

“The time to take care of your mental health is before things fall apart and talking to”

someone can help. Get started at betterhelp.com/raimsy and save 10%. Normal is broken, common sense is weird, so we're here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsey Network and the Fairwins Credit Union Studio, this is the Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, joined by my friend, Dr. John Delone.

And we're taking your calls at Triple 8-825-5225. Steve is going to kick us off in Hartford, Connecticut. Let's go and on, Steve. Here you go, you're going great, how are you? Oh, hang it in there?

What's your problem today?

What's going on? What? Don't cheat George. Steve? Steve, what's your problem?

Unless you just want to celebrate a win today. No, what's up, man? So, I'm going to interesting situation. Back in 2018, I had purchased the house with my stepfather at the time, and it seemed a good idea.

We were putting the percentages that was going to get me into a house, a little bit sooner I had a growing family, and they were supposed to all be there six months out of the year.

Fast forward to a couple of years ago, him and my mother had split up, and at this point

in time now, my mother is living downstairs in the in law apartment of which I am responsible for all the utilities right now. And it's really hindering my ability to make any progress on my debt snowball and make some progress in the baby's debt, and I'm just wondering, you know, should I look at this to sell this house?

My mortgage is super low, my mortgage is under $1,000 a month, and I do have some equity in the home, but I'm wondering if it makes sense for me to sell uproot my kids, find somewhere else to go either raise my mortgage or even have to potentially get a rent, or if I should have just a conversation with my mom, start trying to get some utilities from her. If they're a sticky situation, I don't know where to go with them.

I'm so confused. So let me get the facts straight, you, your ex-stepfather is on the mortgage, my ex-stepfather is on the mortgage. We're going to get really weird here. So my ex-stepfather is actually my mortgage holder, and he owns a part of my house.

So he is the bank, and he doesn't live there anymore. He's not living there anymore. If your mom lives there, and you're saying you can't pay off your debt because the utilities that your mom isn't paying for are crushing you financially, I'm saying that with utilities, the extra utilities that I have for the house, it's a, you know, 2500 square foot home.

I live in 1700 square feet, but I am responsible for all utilities and all expected of the home insurance and everything. Yeah, that's like a 150 bucks a month. I just don't want you blame in mom for, you know, the $40 extra in water bills, that

“that's why you can't get a head financially.”

So my electric bill during the tender winter month is over $750 a month. I have electric heat, so my utility bills are in $72,000 range a month. So what's the ideal situation? Your mom pays rent, or your mom gets out. Yeah, that I don't know.

I feel like I should get out of this bill, like I said, my mortgage isn't high. And my mortgage is only a list in the thousand dollars a month, so I don't want to pay sell, but I also kind of don't want to be in your deal any longer either. I kind of want to be that to me, that's worth it to get out of this weird deal with your stepfather that, but that sounds like the real issue.

Is that the real issue is your mom using $500 a month in heat in the basement? Yeah, there's a little bit more to see my mom side too. Yeah, I don't think that's the so we want to share here, but it's also kind of affecting my relationship with you and my mother. Okay, we just didn't want to make this about the surface level, you know, dollars and

utility bills. There's more there, which is cool. You don't need to share it all.

“And then on the, could you, do you want to keep this house that's step one?”

If you had it on your own, would you want to keep it, and if you could afford it? I'm 16, 60. I love, I love the neighborhood, I love where my house is. I don't, I don't, with with the in-law apartment that's downstairs, the house doesn't make sense for me to own it 100%.

Okay, but I mean, could, could you go to a mortgage company and buy your ex stepfather out? Just get a mortgage from them, get a mortgage from them, buy him out, get him out of there, and then have a hard conversation with your mom about whether she's going to pay rent

rent or in there.

Like, I could, I can't, I can't legally rent it.

So, you can't rent a room in your house, it's not a room, it's a 1100 square foot

“in-law apartment, but is there a Connecticut laws that say it's not zoned for rent?”

I don't, it's not, it's not currently set up right now if you have someone externally outside of my, my family living it, it's connected into my house, there's, it's, okay, well, that's not against the law, that the awkward or weird, but it's weird, it's weird. Okay, it could be weird, and again, I've lived in Texas in Tennessee, I could rent my roof if I wanted to, but you may have different laws of Connecticut, but yeah, if you don't want

strangers walking in out of your front door, I get that. All things are pointing to, you sell this house, you get out of this weird ex stepfather situation, mom then needs to go find her own place, and you start a new chapter. That feels like the cleanest thing to do. Yeah.

That has nothing to do with you, because let's say your rent goes to $1,500 or your mortgage

comes to $1,500 a month, or $1,700 a month, you're still, you're solving for the relationship issues that you got in this deal, but you're going to be dollar for dollar, about the same, right? Yeah. What do you make a month?

Yeah, I can come about 7500 hours a month. Great, so even if you're mortgage or even if you rented for a while until you figured out where you wanted to buy, you'd be just fine. Yeah. So this is all purely relational.

I do have four, I have four kids, so I do need some space. Are you single? I'm married. Okay. And does your spouse live in the same house?

She does. What does she think about all this? She's about the same as where I am. She'd be happy to start fresh new house without all these financial family ties. Yes.

Okay.

“I think you've got your homework, or home shop.”

Yeah. But I still want to challenge you a one thing, and then I'll let you go. How old are your kids? I got eight year old, I got a seven year old, a four year old, and about to be a one year old.

Okay. So you're fully in it. You're going to do six, and again, I know people all over planet earth live in different arrangements, and that's awesome. But you're sitting in a 2,500 square foot house.

You're going to do life with six people in a 1,500 square foot house, or a 1,700 square foot house? That's where I am right now. That's not my living space in 1,700 square feet. I know, but you're telling me that's all you need, and you've got too much house.

Do you have too much house for you and your mom to be there, or could your family expand it? Use this basement space too. We could expand use the basement space, it just doesn't, it's a raised ranch, so it doesn't really make sense to downstairs and be kind of hard to split my family up in the space.

So, having both, I don't think makes sense to be logically to buy him out and want to own the whole thing.

“Is he going to be willing to sell if you put this on the market?”

Yeah, I'm sure. What would he get out of it versus you, as far as the proceeds? He's going to get his percentage. Okay. Yeah, it's sell today.

Yeah, I would take what you can get out of that, and if you can't afford to buy a home based on those proceeds, it's the one you want, then you just got to wait and maybe rent somewhere for a while until you can't afford it. But this whole thing is just so intertwined, I would just want out emotionally, best of luck.

, you know, one of the first things I discovered working in the

financial world is how absolutely devastating it is when the breadwinner of a family dies, and there's two little life insurance, or none at all, grieving families are suddenly left behind scrambling to pay bills, and trying to make ends meet. I also discovered that there are a lot of rip-offs in the life insurance world like that whole life crap posing as an investment opportunity, what you need is level, term life insurance,

usually 10 to 12 times your income, which is the smartest, most affordable way to protect your family. The key is finding an independent broker who represents a ton of companies and works for you, not for the insurance company. This is exactly what my friend Jeff Zander and his team at Zander Insurance are all about.

for over 95 years, so you know they'll be there when you need them.

“Zander is the real deal, and that's why they've handled all my personal insurance for over 25”

years. Trust them, and you can too, visit Zander.com for instant online quotes or for a more personal touch, give them a call at 800-356-4282. Todd is in Pittsburgh up next. Todd, welcome to the Ramsey Show.

I thought you said God is in Pittsburgh. He's also the hottest in Pittsburgh. All right. God ain't taught her there. What's up Todd?

Hey guys, thanks for taking my call.

My wife and I just got married December 27th, or in Baby Step 3, we now have four kids who are blended family, and I want to know what is the best way to invest in the kid's future when they are all vastly different ages. Ooh. Are you trying to be decide what's fair, versus like, hey, one kid's about to go to college

to invest the same for the four-year-old. Exactly. So their ages are 7, 10, 16, and 17, and my wife and I, my wife didn't get help with college when she was growing up. I went straight into a family business and construction, so I didn't go to college.

So we are cool with on how to even invest for the kids. Well, what do you want to do for these kids? I mean, I would like to be fair, but I understand that because of the difference in age. It would be nice if I could, you know, just give them, put up all the same amount for each of them.

Like I said, we're just in Baby Step 3, but I'm just kind of looking ahead because we're looking for Baby Step 3 to kind of be a breeze. And it's just nothing I really know, but I don't know if there's a certain type of account to put up for each of them or what. I'll tell you, I had a similar situation, not with a blended family, but I worked in universities

for 20 years. And part of working at a university for that long is you get some sort of, if not all of your tuition covered for your kids, if you work there. And then I left and took this job. And so I didn't have any college savings because I was working in colleges.

My wife was working at university and I was just our plan. And so I have a 16 year old right now and a 10 year old. And so the way we've handled it is we came up with a dollar amount that we want to have saved for each kid. But that means I had to accelerate the savings for one kid and I'm slow playing it for

the other. If you look at my budget every month, I'm not being quote unquote fair. I'm holding back more money for one kid than I am for the other.

“But the number we're going to try to get to is going to be comparable, right?”

Right. So and I think part of this is pretty solvable for you all because you don't have any money for the 17 year old right now, right? Right. And so some of that problem takes care of itself.

You might want to look at the to younger kids and say, okay, we want to make sure this is different for them to. But you're 16 and 17 year old have found themselves like life just happened. And so you all need to have some honest conversations about what we can afford and what we can afford and what debt has done to us over the years.

And here's the options in our local area for community college, low cost, state tuition. Like you just need to have those honest conversations with the 16 and 17 year old. Okay, yeah, so with the 17 year old, he's getting ready to go to the Marines. Okay. Great.

That's not one salt amount with his first card.

Great. So which only ended up being five, five hundred dollar full of danger, which is grand great. That's awesome. That was, that was a good start.

Now, I don't, I just don't have any expectations as to what to do from here on out, and then if I do come up with a number amount, or you guys helped me do that, where does that money go until it needs to get it out?

“So if you want to invest that money, which if we're talking about investing, that's a five”

plus year time horizon, which means it doesn't make sense for the 16 or 17 year old if you're

But for the seven and 10 year old, you could invest for college in a five, twenty nine savings

plan, for example, or an education savings account. So you're going to earmark that money for college. It's going to have great tax advantages, and you'll have the power of compound growth for the next, you know, eight to eleven years.

“So that's one place I would put some money if you want to help cover college.”

Now the good news is, let's say they don't go, you can also change the beneficiary anytime. So anybody, it's a pretty loose definition of family that you can change that beneficiary to, and with the new secure Act 2.0, you can roll over up to thirty five thousand dollars over time into a Roth IRA for that child. So it can become kind of a bonus retirement account for them as well.

So that's one way to invest. And I like what Deloni is saying here, I would make it more goal-based rather than monthly contribution-based. So the goal is all the kids go to school without debt if they choose to go to school. The goal is every child gets a paid for cash card that's reasonable.

Those are good goals, and then the number changes depending on the ages and what you guys can do. Right now, your emergency fund is the priority over saving for the kids. And followed by that, your own retirement is the priority before investing for the kids. So what's your household income?

Between my wife and I, I'm probably about 180. Fantastic. That's great. So we're talking, I mean, we got our 20 seven grand or something.

“If you do 15 percent of that, that's baby step four.”

So if you're walking through the Ramsey Plan, you're in baby step three, saving up three to six months of expenses.

Once you've got that covered, now we start investing 15 percent of our household income

into retirement accounts. So if you've got a match through your employer, start there. You have access to any Roth accounts, like a Roth 401(k), Roth IRA, let's fund that. And if you still haven't hit 15 percent, go to the traditional accounts. And then any money beyond that 15 percent can start going towards kids investing goals,

like college. Okay, that makes sense. And for short term savings goals, like you're talking about with a 16 or 17 year old, a high yield savings account will do the job for that. That's going to keep the money liquid.

It's not going to fluctuate with the market. And so you're much better off there versus the kid turns 18 and the market took a dip. And now you're stuck. Yeah, my 16 year olds college fund is in a high yield savings account. It's exactly where it is.

Okay, great. And so that's better, of course, versus a brokerage account or something like that. Yeah, the brokerage account. Now that's something I utilize for my kids. That is for future goals that are non-education-related.

So I have a two year old and an infant. So I'm saving up going, all right, I want to cover their wedding one day. I want to be able to help them get a car, maybe a home down payment. Those kinds of things. And so I'm going to invest outside of the 529 for that and just a brokerage account

in low cost index funds. Okay, great. So those would be the three places I would put money is 529 for education, high yield savings for any short-term goals, and brokerage account for any long-term goals for the kids. And let me just free you, brother, none of this is going to be exactly fair.

And what I mean by fair is there's no way you're going to be able to find and another $500 great running car, right? When the 7-year-old is 16, trying to get a car, a beta car is going to be $10,000. Yeah. And hopefully you're making two 80 at that time, right?

Yeah. And you're going to be in a better place financially when that 7-year-old is going to college. And so it isn't going to be fair. You're going to be doing much better by then.

And just go ahead and build in the psychological cushion for your oldest getting back from the reins, be like, "Are you kidding me? You bought so-and-so?" and you'd be like, "Yup." Right? And that's just part of being a parent.

Right?

“I think that's what I needed to hear the most.”

Thank you for that. Yeah. You got it, actually. Do the best you came with what you got when you got it. The only thing I'll ask is, be as honest as you can with your kids in real time.

It is a, it can be embarrassing. It can be shameful, you could feel, not, you shouldn't be ashamed, but you could have feel shame, like, "Hey, 17-year- or 17-year-old's going Marines, but hey, 16-year-old, this is the situation we've been in, and this is what we're going to have to contribute. We're only going to have $10,000."

And so let's go through the honest options here, and let's figure out what's right. It's just being as honest as you can, and then look at your 7 and 8-year-old and say, "Let's

make sure this never happens again."

And so we're going to start putting more away for them to have different opportunities. Which is awesome. Yeah. It's when they're surprised that that's when the resentment starts to build up. Because nobody told them they didn't know.

They saw one sibling get treated differently, so communicate openly and honestly with all four kids. Yeah. So hey, here's where we're at financially. Here's what we want to cover.

Here's what we can cover right now. I mean, you got to figure out a plan, 16-year-old, because we can't cash flow four years

It's going to look different for you.

Thanks for the call, man. Great question.

“If you run a business, you already know this.”

Bad information leads to bad decisions. And right now, AI is everywhere. But AI is only as good as the data behind it. The best AI is built on the best data.

That's why I recommend NetSuite.

NetSuite is the number one AI cloud ERP and more than 43,000 businesses run on it, including us here at Ramsey Solutions. Where AI isn't bolted on, it's built in. And it connects everything that runs your business, accounting inventory customer data all in one place, because when your numbers are connected, AI actually works like it's supposed

to. NetSuite's AI helps flag cash flow problems, spot inventory issues, close your books faster and cut down on manual reporting. If your revenue is at least seven figures, go to netSuite.com/Ramsie for a free product tour.

That's netSuite.com/Ramsie. If you're working the baby steps, the best and fastest way to do it is by using every dollar. It's more than just our budgeting app. Now the plan is built into it.

It's got an opinion that can help you win. You can track your progress, get personalized recommendations, get coaching, that will help you free up more money and work the plan even faster. It's like having one of us walk with you every day 24/7, showing you the next right step and holding you accountable.

So start every dollar for free, get it in the App Store or Google Play.

“Money is in Toronto, up next, Betty, welcome to America, what's going on?”

Thank you so much for having me. I just feel just so desperate for help right now, I am in my mid 30s, I've been married for 10 years and we have five kids together under 7 and I thought we were doing really good with our baby steps on 4 or 5/6 and then I just found out that he's been just hiding some debts that I didn't know was happening.

Cool, man, how did you find out? I just had a feeling something wasn't right and when I asked about it, he was very defensive and nope, nothing and I just had the boldness to keep pressing and then he was like, yeah,

this is why I haven't wanted to fully share an account because my account is always negative.

And then what did he actually give you the facts afterwards was he honest or did you have to keep pressing? So the numbers did change a little bit and he did look a little scared and I just tried to be very calm, very safe, so he would feel comfortable telling you the truth and I said I need to see your account which still hasn't happened, so go ahead, go ahead.

And I said I want you to see a account fair with me because we will figure this out and we need to stay together, we have five kids, I'm forever tight to him.

“Okay, I'm going to give you some hard reality, okay, how much money does he say he owes?”

It's not much, but like every pay, about 40% just goes to whatever he's been spending. So his check goes into his account and 40% just gets eaten up and then 60% I see for the household expenses and all right, but he's still negative, every pay.

I call this financial infidelity, he's been cheating and lying to you, okay?

And so first off, I want you to not think you're crazy for this blowing up your world.

It did. Yeah. Okay, you're at home managing five kids, a family of seven, trying to feed them, on allegedly 60% of the paycheck, okay?

“You should feel like the rug got pulled up from under you because it did.”

And you're also right to ask, what else have you been lying about? What else are you hiding from me? Because we had this little secret world that we built together and you were out of it. You stepped out of it.

You're not going to have any sort of ability to rebuild this marriage until you know how

the depths of where these things go. I would recommend you pull a credit report today on both of you, okay? He'll have to pull his credit report and if he says no, then I can't think of a bigger red flag. Because again, I'm giving you the worst case scenario here, okay?

But when this happens in this way, it's not uncommon for what's being hidden is not just screwdrivers and motorcycles.

“But it could be hotels, it can be dinners, it can be addictions that you don't know about.”

Everything is now on the table. And so I want to pull a credit report and not just look at his account, I want to see who he owes money to. And I want you to pull your credit report and this is going to sound caustic. I want you to pull a credit report on all of your kids using their social security numbers.

Because when people call into the show all the time and they don't realize how bad it is and people start gambling or people get it over the head and they pull a credit card out on their nine year old and use that social security number to get a quick thousand bucks here or quick $2,000 there. And so that will give you the big picture of who you owe to what, who your family owes

to what.

“Hopefully you have nothing on yours and your kids have nothing on theirs and his is minimal.”

And what this is was a scared, embarrassed husband that took the easy way out and he is ready to stand tall, take his medicine and y'all can rebuild trust. Worst case scenario is you're in a way bigger mess than you know yourself to be in. But you can't you can't go to an untrustworthy person and demand that now you be trustworthy and think you're going to get any sort of nervous system stability from that because they've

proven themselves to be untrustworthy over a long period of time. And so I need to see this stuff with my own eyes. So how do I get a credit report done like I got you how to. Or just as simple as it's all free. It's annual credit report dot com and you can pull free weekly online reports from all three major bureaus that's Equifax, experience, and

trans union. And so you'll just go through the steps and treat you never pay for this.

This is free. So just go to that website and you can get that all done annual credit report dot com. And that like John said, that will be the full truth and nothing but the truth. So regardless, I really don't care what he says, I want the reality of the situation. And again, if he's unwilling to do that, that speaks to much deeper things. He's hiding. There's an alternate life here. And that tells me he doesn't want healing in this marriage.

And he's not willing to come clean. Right. And let me say this, I want to applaud you for what you say you were calm so that he could feel safe enough to come forward. I want to applaud you for being in control, feeling big feelings, but being emotionally mature. But you don't owe him dishonesty either. Okay. Yeah. You're right to be enraged. You're right. You're right to be sobbing at the table because this man lied to your face into

the face of his if y'all's five kids. And so you don't also owe him a silver platter that he can gently put out his receipts on. Right. And so what I when I mean be you're responsible for the emotional like mature next right action. That means I'm not going to hit him. I'm not going to swear at him. I'm not going to punch a hole in the wall. Everybody deserves dignity and respect. But you you're dang well going to know I'm pissed off. Yeah. You're

going to know that everything in my life, I'm questioning it now. Right. And you're not crazy. And you don't owe him a false sense of yourself so that he feels comfortable coming forward with it. Right. Yeah. That's not your responsibility to massage his ego through this also. You guys share an account or is everything? No, he wouldn't share

Would you have a joint? But he has his own as well. So 60% he

diverts to the joint account 40% diverts to this secret account. That's his. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, starting today, he's going to divert 100% into this joint account. Okay. Or you separate if he's untrustworthy and he's going to destroy your financial life further. Yeah.

“And Betty that that's a great point that George brings up. You need to get really clear on”

your what I call your or what statement. Because because if he looks across the table from you tonight and says I'm not pulling a credit report and I'm not giving you access to this account

period. You have to have your or what statement ready or me and the five kids are going to my

mom's house or well okay then I'll just just have to live with it. And you mentioned we have to fix this and stay together because we have five kids together. I need you to say that's the picture y'all created and that picture is over because of his financial infidelity. Now y'all have to rebuild something new and I hope it includes him and you and those five kids in the same house all

“working together to build something amazing. I hope that's the case. But you have to have the courage”

to say or what comes next and then be willing to live into your own boundaries there if he looks at you and says I'm not playing. Hey guys healthcare is one of the biggest stress points in your budget. It's confusing and most of the time it feels completely out of your control. But there is a better way to handle it. Christian healthcare ministries isn't health insurance. It's a health cost sharing ministry where Christians share each other's medical bills and it's not a new

idea. THM has been around since 1981. It's predictable and proven and they've shared over

13 billion dollars and medical bills for their members. Plus you get more flexibility. There are

no network restrictions and you don't have to wait for open enrollment. Now let's talk about how CHM helps your budget because programs start at just 115 dollars a month and many families save hundreds of dollars a month compared to traditional options. So if you are tired of feeling stuck, check out Christian healthcare ministries. Right now CHM is offering new members a 50% credit towards their first month of membership. Go to CHMministries.org/budget and use promo code

Ramsey. That CHMministries.org/budget and use promo code Ramsey. Sarah is in Jackson, Mississippi, up next. Sarah, welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for taking my call. Absolutely. How can we help today? So me and my husband got married two weeks ago and we are

“get free. Thank you. How was the holiday? Did you guys go on a trip?”

Not yet. We've both been at work. We're both in the lottery and so as soon as we get a time where we can take some leave or planning on taking a little holiday. I could hear you smiling through the phone. We're both still very excited. I love it. I'm so happy. I love love love. I just think marriage is good. So good for you. So what's your question? So we have $98,000 in cash combined. We just finished combining our check in account and savings account. And so we have $98,000 in cash. And

currently we're bringing home $50,000. And we're trying to figure out how much money we should spend on a vehicle. We really need to upgrade one of our vehicles. So out of that 98 grand, we're trying to figure out what is like a good amount to put towards a vehicle. And your annual income is 53,000 a year between the two of you? Yes, currently, but we're expecting it to go up within the next six months. Okay, too. Do you know an exact number or is it just sort of you're not sure yet?

In about six months, we're expecting to start making a hundred grand between the both of us. We're anywhere from a hundred to a hundred and ten grand. Wow, that's awesome. So you're about to double your income. Yes. Okay. And what's the urgency of the purchase? Does this need to happen tomorrow or six months from now? It can happen six months from now. So, like currently, I'm driving a 2005 Honda Odyssey.

you know, they're both having some issues. And we know that it's soon going to call some order repairs of vehicles than their work. So we've just been shopping around. I would like you to know, I just learned about this in Sunday School, women who marry men with Dodge Chargers get a express pass to heaven. Because generally men with Dodge Chargers are not marriable, but you did it. And so congrats. And that's free. Yeah. That's impressive. I'm just playing. But congratulations.

Here's the parameter for cars. Number one, you pay cash. You're going to do that, right? Yes, we are. Number two, we're going to buy used unless we are net worth millionaires,

to where we can stomach that major hit under appreciation that cars experience in the first few years.

Okay. And then number three, you want to make sure that all the things with wheels and

“motors in your life don't add up to more than half of your annual income. That's why I was digging”

at your income. And if it's going to go up, well, that changes the numbers drastically. Because right now, you should have no more than $26,000 in cars as far as their value goes. But six months from now, that number can change. Because it's a smaller part of your world. So now you could have $50,000 worth of cars sitting in the driveway. So that's where I'm trying to go. Okay. Can you wait six months to where you can get a nicer to you car? Because you have the money to do it. It's not going

to hurt. You're not going to even dip into this 98K if you go spend 25 today.

So what are you guys wanting to get? Because that really, basically, what is the car you can afford

in cash today that you think would last you at least the next five to seven years? Okay. So we failed. The reason we started asking these questions is we found a 2001 Ford Bronco with 12,000 miles on it for 32 grand. And so it's a little bit more than that $26,000. But it's, you know, we've got the 32 grand for it. We just couldn't decide if, you know,

“it kind of hurts whenever you let go of 32 grand. Yeah. I mean, it will hurt. And that's why I”

actually like it. Too many people. We've lost friction when it comes to purchases. And all you see is a $400 payment that the car salesman worked out for you on his paperwork. What you don't see is the interest you're paying, the length of the loan, how you got screwed on the purchase, the extra warranties they threw in there because you're not going to feel it in your payment. And when you write a check for 32 grand, you go, okay, let's treat this car differently.

We're going to treat this purchase differently. We're going to go slower. What is it about an O1 Broncos have been redone? I'm sorry. It's a 2021. I'm sorry. Yeah. Okay. I heard 2001, 2001. Well, that's an expensive Bronco. It must be like completely redone and like in those doors.

Yeah, those guys who go redo Broncos, they do amazing. We're out of the wrong. Okay. 2021 Bronco,

“32 grand. Here's my catch. I would wait until your income actually goes up and this becomes sort”

of a celebration of your newfound income. But I would not buy it today because there's just too many variables. Okay. Yes. That's some good advice because like we're both so undecided about it. And I told him, I was like, we're having this much doubt about it. Maybe we should wait. Yeah. He won the lottery marrying you. Yes. Yes. And hey, George, tell me if I'm wrong here. I find that I get in trouble. When I say, I'm going to, I have this much money to go. I'm

going to date myself. I'm going to, I have this much money to go spend at the mall. I've got 500 bucks to spend at the mall. I need to get a pair of pants and some shoes and a shirt. I will figure out how to spend all 500 dollars. Where I've seen successes, I have a boundary. I can't go beyond this 500 bucks. But I need to go buy a pair of shoes and some jeans and a shirt. And then I only spend a couple hundred bucks. You know what I'm saying? And so I would love for you guys to

plant to dream about what kind of cars do we want? Actually, and what cars are going to last us for a while. And then over the next six months, you can keep your eye open for you because you might find this exact car in two months for 19 grand or 18 grand. And instead of saying, okay, we have this much to spend because you'll figure out when it comes to automobiles, especially how to spend exactly 50% of your income. And that's like a stretch goal, right? And you don't have to spend that

much. And you two are awesome at driving used cars. That's your life. It looks like your your identity isn't in them. And that's awesome. I would, I would sit down and say, what do we actually want to have together? And then plan that way. Okay. And let me tell you, a $3,000 repair as much as it would suck on a really old car is still so much cheaper than $32,000. And so that's what I want to encourage. Too many people go, well, I had a repair. So we had to get a new

things a clunker. So even if you have to buy yourself some time for the next six months,

“until your income goes up. And this becomes a no-brainer, it's worth the patience to do it right”

and go slow. But you're all, all things considered. It's all green flags in my book. Okay. Also, we'll I'll be sure to tell them. And thank y'all. You'll definitely brought some clarity to the situation for that. Happy to do it. Thank you for your sacrifice and service to both you. Oh, thank you. You're so glad we get to do it. Yeah. And the last thing I'll tell you is you got the Honda. So you're probably going to be driving that until the apocalypse.

I do have one rule in my house. The wife should be driving the nicer car. I just, I don't like it

when the guy drives a nicer car. I'm with you. That's always, I've always had a weird thing about that.

It just feels like it's always always. So especially if she's, you know, toten the family around and the guy has like a sweet sports car that's just for him. I'm like, all right, you're a grown man. One thousand percent with you. The other thing is, and John people get screwed on this. They go to the dealership and the dealer says, hey, you know, for five grand more, we can get you into the brand new one. We've got on the

lot. Look at this. It's got to these extra features. And hey, if you do the financing, we'll knock a thousand bucks off. Yeah. Now of a sudden, you are buying a brand new car that was way more. They suckered you into the warranty and the paint protection package. And are the giant dock fee dealer fee. They just throw on there. And you're so star-eyed. You just want to get out of there after six hours and go drive this thing. And by the way, that five thousand extra

you spend on the new one, you might as well set it on fire because the moment you drive it off, it's gone. You just lost it. Yeah. It's now worth what you were about to pay for the used one.

Yeah. New car will depreciate 10% the moment you drive it off a lot. There you go. And within the first

five years, 60% on average. Yeah. That's pretty wild. I love love, love buying cars that are five years are older because of the depreciation has burned off so much. Yeah. My last car, one owner, 4,000 miles on it. And I got 26% off of what I would have bought at brand new. So I'm all right. I'll deal with that. I'll take you. And I, you know, I could have bought a new it would have been fine. But I just like going 25% off feels pretty good. And I've got cash. So yeah.

And I'm not afraid. We've got to have walk away power. That's the key. You walking with a check of here's our budget. Either make it work or we'll go down the street. And eventually, if they want, you know, defeat their family, they're going to go, all right, we'll take it. Don't let them bully you. Focus on the out the door price. Have your principles and value stick to it and you will make a wise decision when it comes to those cars. Love it.

[Music] Let me tell you something I see all the time. People are working hard trying to get control of their money. And then their phone bill shows up higher than expected again. And they don't even know why.

“That's why I want you to switch to boost mobile. Here's the truth. Your phone bill should fit”

your budget, not the other way around. Your wireless company is counting on you just paying it without asking questions. With boost mobile, you can unlock big savings compared to the so-called big guys. Bring your phone. Keep your number and pay just 25 bucks a month forever on their unlimited plan. No contracts, no confusing fees. And that $25 price is locked in forever. And if you're skeptical, that's fine. Boost mobile backs it up with a 30 day money back guarantee. Meaning you can

try it without feeling trapped. So stop overpaying for something you use every day. Go to boostmobile.com/ramsy to make the switch today. That's boostmobile.com/ramsy. $25 forever requires customers to remain active on boostmobile and limited plan. Welcome back to the Ramsy Show and the FairWins Credit Union Studio. I'm George Campbell, joined by bestselling author, Dr. John Deloni, and we're taking your calls at triple 8-825-5-225.

“Rachele is in Sacramento up next. Rachele, how are you doing? I'm doing well. How are you too?”

Fantastic. How can John and I help today? So my husband and I are considering purchasing a new home our house is currently up for sale. We've identified a property that we would like to purchase with the equity from the sale of our current home. We would have a rather several down payment looking to put down at least 50 if not 60% on a new house. My husband has thought of the idea

of getting a first-leaning he-lock with a sweep account versus a conventional mortgage. And he's

explained to me that with this first-track he-lock with a sweep account rather than getting into a 15 or 30-year loan, we would be able to pay off a 400,000-dollar mortgage in eight years.

Oh, it's all good. So I was wondering, it sounds great. I've never heard of this before. So I was wondering

what you guys thought about that. So this in the in the TikTok world is called Velocity Banking. He may have heard about it on social media. I don't know where, you know, this is it, but it's a trend where they call it like a mortgage accelerator and the idea is there's this revolving line of credit, almost like a big credit card that's secured by your house, but it's your only loan on the property. So you're right. It's your first lean and that there is no mortgage there.

And so then what you do is you dump all of your income into this he-lock, draw it out for expenses, and if you do it perfectly, you can save a little bit on interest, which supposedly pays off

“the house faster. So that's what he is wanting to do. There's still a lot more risk with it,”

and it sounds sophisticated and it's more complex and that doesn't make it better. So have you guys priced out a traditional 15-year mortgage on this? We've priced out a 30. We have not priced out a 15. Okay. I would price out a 15 and see if you guys can afford that payment where it's a quarter of your after tax monthly income. And if not, it tells me the house that you're looking to buy is too much house.

So your recommendation would not be to do a first line.

No, I wouldn't do it. This was the count. No. And I think the way he found this was probably online and there's a bunch of people out there who are proponents of this. And again, it's called velocity banking. You can look this up on social media and it's going to be some slick dude telling you how this is the hack. Here's the only hack that works. You get a 15-year mortgage which is going to have a lower interest rate than either of these and then you pay it off aggressively.

“Here's the thing that if you take out, if you have a $400,000 mortgage and you all put down”

50% and you have $200,000 left, there is no secret loan that makes you not have to pay back $200,000. Plus interest. And so the only true way, like so like we can do a 30-year note, but we can pay it off in eight years, you're still going to pay back that money plus interest. And so if you all want to

pay it off in eight years, that's amazing. Pay it off in eight years. But that just means every month,

you're going to be paying more towards the principal balance to pay it off faster. But there's not like a secret loan you can do that you pay back a hundred grand to pay off $200,000. Should you do what I'm saying? Like the whole hack is technically you can get a lower interest rate. And technically you can take that lower interest rate that you're paying and pay off more principle. But the same thing applies just paying it faster.

Understood. The way he was explaining it to me, and this is kind of where my brain starts to shut down in my eyes, the blades over. Same girl, same. He was the finance. He was more the finance person. He was explaining to me that it gets paid off quicker because they compliment interest daily. Yeah, the way it's calculated. That's where the interest rates come in. But there's still all of the elements of a heloc, which is a variable interest rate,

which means the payment can go up. The banks can freeze or call the line, which adds more risk to it. It's a rolling line of credits secured by your home. And so all of that just makes me go,

“why are we doing all this? Why all this gyeration to maybe save a little bit of interest?”

I, I, a hundred, especially with all the volatility in the world right now, like go back 10 years in your life. Can you have imagined now? Right. No, none of us could have. And so with all the volatility in the world, the chances of me touching a variable interest rate is zero. Right. Right. And so you can get it. Firstly, if you got in today in the banks, suddenly Jerome Powell comes up tomorrow and says, Hey, because of x, y, or z, we're

raising interest like man, y'all are on the hook for it. Right. And there's far more of these ending up in foreclosure versus a 15-year mortgage. And so that's where I go, okay, why aren't we doing a 15-year mortgage and just putting extra on the principle? It's the exact same thing without all the extra risk and complexity. And I'll, I'll go one more. I'm putting my baggage out in the world, so this may not be you and your husband. But if you give me a revolving line of credit, and suddenly I don't

like my floors, I'm going to get new floors because it's not real money. It's just coming out of the coming out of the revolving line of credit. Oh, we need to fix this cabinet, we need to get a new fridge. Let's just go ahead and do it. It becomes not real money. And yeah, I'm just going to lock myself in and pay it off. And if I want to accelerate and pay it off faster, I'm going to do that.

puts enough of a wedge between you guys that you don't do this. And here's my rule of thumb, George.

If somebody's explaining something to him, you know how I learned this from of all people, Ashton Kutcher. Not on my bingo card. And here's why he was talking about somebody who's asking him once on a panel, why do you seem to have so much success with these companies you invest in as an

“angel investor? And I forgot all, I think Airbnb and pop chip and Uber, so he got in on the ground”

floor of all six. And he said he, I think he dropped out of high school or maybe he finished high school, but didn't go to college. And he said his one line was explain this to me and like I'm a high school dropout or explain this to me like I'm a high schooler. And if they couldn't do it, I didn't invest.

And so for me, when somebody's trying to explain to me a thing we're getting into and hey,

Deloni, I want you to invest in this thing. If my eyes start glazing over, that I'm out. If you can't explain it to me very simple, here's why, here's the terms, here's the payout, or here's the risk we're all going to take together. If you can't do that in a sentence or two, I don't want to participate in it because it's not worth all the complexity because now the more variables, the more fragile the whole system is. And the more dependent it is on

other people to do what they said they're going to do. And what those other people said they're going to, I'm out. I'm out. It's too fragile. Well, there's a lot of people that talk about these

things and I see very few people actually doing it. I've never heard of someone saying,

yeah, the way I paid off my house early was I did velocity banking. I know zero people who told me that line. There's a lot of people talking about it though. And so that tells me something. It gets the clicks and the views, but it doesn't work in reality. And you don't see the people who foreclose on their home. They're not sharing that on Instagram. They're only sharing the wins. And so I'm always very cautious with any financial advice on the internet that I don't

understand. And we always tell people don't invest in anything you don't understand. The same applies to crazy mortgage hacks. Here's a hack. Get a small of a loan as possible on a short of a term as possible and pay extra towards it. There you go. So the real question is, how are you going to a project with your husband in a way where you come to a compromise? And I hope that compromises go with the thing that you both understand that you both can handle.

Hey, George Campbell here. Let me pull back the curtain on something you may not know.

“If you're in debt and collectors are threatening lawsuits, the worst thing you can do is ignore it.”

That's exactly what they're counting on. Because when you do nothing, they can take you to court. And if you don't respond, they can win by default and even get access to your bank account. And that's why I tell people about Guardian Litigation Group. Guardian Litigation is not another debt relief company with some bait and switch tactic and empty promises. They're an actual law firm with real attorneys. And from day one, you get an attorney who represents you. They step in when

collectors are trying to push you around and they handle it. So instead of panicking, you've got a plan for peace of mind. So if you're back into a corner and facing imminent legal action, don't stick your head in the sand. Ignoring it will make it worse. And Guardian Litigation is who you contact when it gets worse. So go to Guardian Lit.com/RAMSI. That's GuardianLIT.com/RAMSI. It's funny advertising. Results may vary in no specific outcomes guaranteed.

The Ramsay Show question of the day is brought to you by Wireify. If your private student loans are in default and you're not sure what to do next, Wireify can help you explore refinancing with a low fixed rate and payment plan based on what you can actually afford. Go to Wireify.com/RAMSI. That's the letter YREFI.com/RAMSI may not be available in all states. Today's question comes from Carlos in Texas. He says, "My pre-teens son has his own YouTube channel

“and he's on pace to earn over 5,000 bucks a month soon. Should he be tithing on this income?”

How much should I encourage him to save or invest versus spend? He understands taxes so we've got that part down, left his own devices. Of course, he's a pre-teen kid. He would buy all the legos in the world." Yes. Of course. That means he's a good regular pre-teen kid and he's an adult in his life to help steward how he spends his money. Yeah. So he's on pace to do 5 grand a month soon. That's 60 grand a year. That pre-teen is making. Which tells me he's 11 or 12.

Some people, and I'm assuming tithing, it means you're a person of faith.

And so tithing, some people tith off the top line, meaning you would tith at 10%, 6,000 bucks a year. If you're making 60, some people tith on after taxes are gone. What am I bringing home that I can spend? They tith off that. Every one of those things is a matter of you and your spirit. But I do George think it's important to teach kids. We save a piece of our money. We give away a piece of our money. Even if you're not a person of faith, generosity has all, it means wired into

us. It's part of our psychological and emotional and spiritual health. And you have money to spend. In George, I like the idea with a pre-teen kid when it comes to spending. So after you've saved a chunk of money after you've given a chunk of money, I like to let young kids. My kids kind of buy

what they want to buy because that's the way they learn. Oh, I wish I had that hundred bucks instead

of that completed Lego set. Or maybe they get that completed Lego set and it's great. And they learn what they like and don't like. But man, watching my 10 year old navigate, I got $50 and I want to go buy a thing. Are you sure? Yeah, I really want to buy it. And then the next time she wants to she earn, say that somebody wants to buy something, then we could say, hey, where's that thing

“you bought last month? Or two months ago, or three months ago? Oh, yeah. Do you really want that?”

No, I don't want to. They sort of learn. So they learn temporary facts of stuff. Yeah, telling a pre-teen, you don't really want those Legos. They're like, yeah, I do. And so I like letting them. When they have their spend money, kind of let them buy what they want to buy, and let's obviously not not grant that thought or something, but like within your family's values. But I like them to learn that lesson, but they should be saving some. They should be giving some. And that's

going to be a personal decision. Yeah, and at this age, it's less about, you know, you got to be legalist, particularly percentages. It's more about, hey, are you kind of budgeting this money like a business, like a profit and law statement? So I would have him jump on every dollar, make a free account and put his 5,000 there, and say, all right, money give 10%, 500 to the tithe. I want to invest 1000. Before I ever get to enjoy the money, I'm going to sort of eat the vegetables. Do the things

I know are good for my future. Good for me now. Invest a thousand bucks. Maybe you save 2000 bucks. He probably has some goals to like get a car one day when he's 16. And I would spend a thousand bucks. I feel like it's a reasonable amount out of five grand for a kid with no expenses. Let him do it. Let him see what's actually worth putting his money into and what's not and even reinvesting you to the business. Yeah. And maybe you want upgrade equipment. Yeah, that's right. There you go.

“And for a young kid, especially, I think it for adults too, but for a young kid, I think it would be”

valuable. Let's say he's 12 to say how much, if you make 60 grand, which by the way, if you're living off YouTube, they change their algorithm every other week, and so that's to luck to you. But college, would we want to put $150,000 in a college fund? So let's reverse engineer that by month, what would we start saving now that would get us that amount of money? You want a car when you're 16? You're 12 now. So that's four years away. Let's say we want $20,000 for car. What would we

start saving now? So creating long-term sinking funds will teach him at a young age. Like, okay, if I want something big, like college, like a house, like a car, I got to start planning now for those things when I get there. And if you can teach about taxes about quarterly estimated payments and self-employment tax, and extra 15% to least one. Like, as soon as that check hits as a count, 30% goes into a savings account, earmarked for taxes. Yes. If he learns that now,

he's never going to be calling in saying, I owe the IRS 150 grand, because I didn't realize,

I owe taxes on this money. That's adults call him to the show doing that. So yeah, 12

“year old can figure this out. Dave, I think I heard Dave say this once that one of the greatest tricks”

the government ever pulled was the automatic tax deduction that if every American had to write a check every month for taxes, tax office and hand over a check or the cash. We'd be paying a lot more attention to what the government spends. We're going to be throwing some tea in the harbour again, I've correct. So you want to change culture. You want to create a generation of libertarians. Have your 12 year old start making some money and saying, oh, you made $5,000 bucks this month,

2400 bucks, not yours. Like, why not? Well, you know, how we got to keep these pet projects going. That's a great problem to have. And again, we don't know how long this is going to last show. Enjoy the ride while it lasts and make sure that he keeps his head on straight and watches his mental health because YouTube is a can be a wild place. All right, John is in Orlando, up next. John, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for having me guys. We're doing great. What's your question today?

Okay, so I'm 52. I have a nine year old son who has 56 years. I make about 65,000 a year.

25,000 in IRS debt and 25,000 in credit card debt.

I have just come upon and some of these trading cards, baseball cards that I have good away. And they are now worth a lot of money. They're liquid up to about, I'd say, over 200,000. Wow. Yeah, they're like show hands on your working cards. They're signed. I don't have any savings. It's along. The divorce was bad.

“Yeah, you based on what you just told us. You went through a pretty rough season, huh?”

Yes, it was really bad. I lost my dad. I lost my job at 12 years. Then I got divorced. I, well, my son was born in, I wanted to do the exact same, but in December. I lost my job,

the following January. I bought my first house six months before that. That room did too.

And then I got divorced two years later. It was just, I lost my dad nine months before my son 10 months before my son was born. So anyway, though, made bad choices. The 401(k) was empty now. I wanted to lose my job. I stayed at home. My son for nine months, and that was a great time. But we went through my 401(k) at that time. In doing that. And because I was in a different thing at that time, they wanted to take the taxes on that money from the 401(k) distribution. That was early.

“And I had also inherited some money from my dad. And I was saying wanted from that too.”

Unfortunately, I wasn't in Florida at the time. Or else, I would have been fine from what I've heard. So anyway, what I want to ask is, I had this debt as these cards that are probably been worth one month down the line. But I have this debt now. And I want to lose something from my son. And I can't just live and take it. I'm like, just at the end of it, I just can't do it anymore. Yeah. So I'll tell you this, John, what I'm going to solve for peace in the present, not go

man. What could I have if I hung on to him for five more years? I'm paying off the debt. All of it. That's 50k. I'm setting up an emergency fund for myself of six months of expenses. I'm going to fully fund a Roth IRA for the year to set myself up for the future. And then maybe you have some leftover to enjoy and spend and set aside some for taxes. Because you're going to have capital gain low in that. Yeah, my work does offer 4% back, which I haven't

signed up for yet because I didn't know if I was going to go bankrupt before I realized what I had. Not anymore. This is your fresh start. Right. Pay off the debt. They offered that the 401(k) pre-tax or the IRA was up to 4%. Yeah. I love the after-tax option because then it's going to grow tax-free for the rest of your life. And so I would definitely pay off the debt, get the emergency fund, get the 4% at least, fund a Roth IRA. And if you hang in the line, I'll send you my book

breaking free from broker. They walk you through that whole plan, but I would sell these cars to

give yourself a fresh start. They never look up their potential future value again.

Sell them and be done. Okay, guys. Let me ask you something. What would it take for you to switch your bank?

“Because if you're still earning next to nothing on your savings, you need to check out Fairwind's”

Credit Union. And I know what you're thinking it might sound like a hassle. Moving your direct deposit, updating bills, getting a new debit card, feels like a lot. But here's what most people don't realize. Staying where you are could be costing you hundreds of dollars every year. Y'all, the average savings account pays less than half a percent. So let's say, for example, you got $20,000 saved. You might earn around $70 a year. But with a Fairwind's high yield savings

account earning 3% APY or more, that same money could earn you over $600. And that's real money that you can use towards the baby steps. So don't let temporary comfort keep you stuck. Check out the smart bundle from Fairwind's Credit Union. You get a high yield savings account, a no fee checking account, and the Ramsey Bee Weird Devacard. Go to Fairwinds.org/Ramsey to learn more and make the switch today. That's Fairwinds.org/Ramsey. Ensured by the NCUA.

Buying or selling your home is one of the biggest financial transactions of your life.

right price. And the Ramsey trusted program is the only way to find a top agent you can trust,

“who will help make your home a blessing, not a burden. Super easy, you can compare agent profiles,”

interview them and choose the right one to work with. You can find a local Ramsey trusted real estate pro for free at RamseySolutions.com/Agent or click the link in the description if you're on YouTube or podcast. Jordan is in Miami up next. Jordan, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you, sir. How can we help today? Hey, I'm just trying to figure out how I get out of this moment. I'm just wanting to keep going just with my life in general. I'm not like a

point. I'm not like a breaking point. My life where I'm fairly stuck in the city and that with the

job I just I'm not doing that. And I'm 3,000 miles away from home. So it's kind of a little hard for me. Yeah. Hey, do me a huge favor. Talk right into the phone brother. Um, what why are you stuck in Miami? Um, so I recently bought a car called a dealership that they claims had no problems. That's in my head at home. And I had a friend who does door to door sales. He was like, hey,

“what do you themselves need? I'm like, you know, what's going to hurt doing my reach in Nebraska?”

My car is transmission problems. I take it to Subaru. They can't buy it off me. So I actually

would have storage in it. Fly out down here with the rest of the money I had. And now I'm just struggling

with sales. I just, I'm just lost of what I need to do, plus I'm in debt. So, but I mean, when you say stock, can you legally move tomorrow? Yeah. Could, could you get a bus pass or could you like just suck it up and call your parents and say, I need a bus pass home and go home? I don't have dirt. Okay. Could you work really hard for the next 30 days and get a bus pass and go home and get out of this mess? That's true. That's just you. It's like, I'm feeling everything I do. I got to the

pass and you guys and I've been busing my butt out there 10, 12 hours a day and trying to snake yourselves doing door to door sales. What are you selling? That's control. Are you making money doing it? What's your average week or month of like? So, average week is around 4,000. That's just in like, fill commissioners. You want to go out of $1,000 personally. For a grand a week? For a market. It makes out the commission.

So, we'd sell $1,000, but that's from a company. Okay. What are you taking home? What ends up in your bank account at the end of the week? A thousand bucks a week? So, you're making about $2,400. Take home pay? Doing this? Yes, yes. Okay. And that's going to stay that way for the foreseeable future. I mean, this is you bused in it. Yeah. For 600 a week. What's stopping you from going to find a different job in Miami? Well, the way they have it around here is there's $0,500. It's like a hotel room

with three rooms and it's just a ramp problem and I don't have, if I tell them like, hey, I need to find a new job. I don't know if they'll allow me to stay so it's either. So, you're living rent free as part of the deal? No, it's $8,000 a month.

“So, you could find a couple of roommates and go elsewhere. Yeah. I think you think you're”

in hand in your servanthood, man. Right. I don't think you're a stuck as you think you are. I think you're just depressed. Yeah. And you don't have the energy to get unstuck. Right. Where's your parents, brother? What happened to them? When did they pass away? Uh, last year. Okay. Do you have siblings? Um, they're also passed away. So you lost everybody in your family? We were taking runs with a drunk guy and advice in their

trick. Man, I'm so sorry, brother. You got any friends in the area? Uh, I'm with my best friend, the one who's kind of like, because I haven't worked in an Idaho, just as like, doesn't manufacturing companies doing, um, like, our triggers just for a, you know, safe thing hour. And I was miserable. And here's like, dear, we got to get you out. We got to,

He doesn't have thought of Miami. And that was just like, yeah, man, let's do it whatever. And then

I'd like can't get words. This dealership screwed me over with my drink. I fed up a lot to buy it.

“What do you own in the car? 21,000. And what's it worth?”

About 25. Is that in its current condition, it's worth 25? No, it's 30 minutes in fireworks like eight grand because there's transmission problems. And you can't afford the new transmission, obviously. No, and what other debt do you have? The stores here in Nebraska. What other debts do you have?

I have a personal loan for those three grand. I was hoping to use that to kind of just get me a little

place forward, warm in Miami. I mean, it's so far, it's not, it's not going horrible. I just think I find a way to get myself out of this mentality where I'm not good enough to or work, like I'm not trying enough to make these sales or keep going. Bro, I, I know you feel like you're at the bottom right now, but I'm telling you right now, I've been doing this from a whole career. It's, you had a massive loss in your life and you

got to go sit down with somebody and then you can say you don't have time or you don't even have

“the resources. I'll, I'll give you six months free with better help, but I think you're going to”

need some in person sitting with somebody to metabolize the amount of grief and loss you've experienced in the last year. I'm just telling you, therapy changed in my life. I'm still here because of it and it's worth it and you're worth it, but you got to go sit down and talk to somebody. You're not going to be able to power through this because there's nothing to power through. Right. It's not going to get it. A dream car is not going to get it. Even another job isn't

going to deal it. Yeah, 16 hours. Another job might give you some margin. It might keep you from feeling like you're living a failure factory, right? I couldn't do, I would be terrible at door-to-door salesmen. I would do it if that's not like I feed my family, but I'd be terrible at it. I don't want you doing something that you're terrible at that is just compounding this vision of yourself in the mirror. Yeah. And it's like, I do have a dream. I want to help people

like, I want to, like, I want, I'm always talking my parents about this because they've always

noticed it about me. I want to, like, I want to help people, especially really the situation

“in right now. Like, that's what I want to do. I want to be able to tell my story or, you know,”

help them. I want to be a psychology. That's awesome. But listen, you can't give what you don't have. And so the best therapist I know as friends and colleagues, myself, the people who are best at helping others have had their own journey getting the help they needed. Right? And it's you just open in your hands up saying, okay, I've tried a new car, I've tried a new job, I've tried a new state, after a new location. It's time for me to get with a professional and face his head on. Right?

But I would tell you, I don't think you're broken. I think your body is trying to take care of you, man. And it's just saying, hey, we got a lot to metabolize and a lot to process and a lot to walk through. It's so, so much, brother. Okay. So hang on the line here. I'm going to hook you up with six months of better help. License counseling. You can get started today. You can reach out to them today. And then hopefully they can connect you with some resources in your local area.

I'd also like to get them a copy of your book. Yeah, I'll send you a building on an extra slide. If I'll send you the audio book and the regular book, maybe you can listen to it while you're walking door to door. But it's not going to be the thing that fixes you in this moment. I don't think you're broken. I think you need fixing. I think you need healing. And I think you need somebody to sit with you for a season. But man, we're praying for you and we'll be walking along. We'll give you

the resources we got. We'll send you every dollar, too, to get your money screwed on straight. But man, for as hard as you're working for 600 bucks a month. Maybe a fast food job or something would help. Hey, you guys, did you know that there are thousands of data brokers whose entire business is collecting and selling personal information, things like your home address, your phone number, and even your relative's names? You guys, that is just crazy. But that is why I use delete me,

because those companies that pull information from public records, social media, and all kinds of

yourself means going site by site, filling out forms and hoping they actually take it down. It takes

“hours and then it can even pop up somewhere else again. But delete me's team of privacy experts”

removes your personal information from hundreds of those data broker sites. And within a week, you'll get a report showing what they have found and what they have removed. And they keep scanning and cleaning up your data year-round. So take back control of your privacy. Go to joineddeleteme.com/ramsy and get 20% off your annual plan. That's joineddeleteme.com/ramsy. Sean is in Daytona Beach, up next. Sean, welcome to the show.

Absolutely. How can we help today?

“I'm the merchant marine. I'm the merchant marine for about 20 years. Do”

me a huge favor, Sean. Talk directly into the phone for me. Sure. There you go. I am a merchant marine. I've been wanting for about two years now. Awesome. I have multiple jobs, but my time area is in the merchant marine. My other is I'm an overgrowth

broker and I'd be construction and that's all to be up to. But basically what ended up happening

me was I was married for 10 years and I had moved up pretty high none of the ships. I was doing about 110,000 a year for myself and then my next life. I was doing an additional maybe 50 or so. We had the bills associated with $160,000 a year household. During COVID, I got forced to step away from my job because I didn't get back soon, since I didn't trust it. Also, I wanted to retire to be home with my young child. So basically, I forcibly retired with

$100,000 in the bank and then we got hit by a hurricane and I had to do a second mortgage on

the home for the SBA tech, you know, pay for the roof, the fence and everything that got destroyed and then we got talked into the solar panels and while I was working 10 jobs and making about 10-8, I got what I was making on the ship. So my ex-wife decided that because, and this is what she said to my face, because I was making less than her, she lost all respect for me as a man and that she cheated on me with someone who made way more. And yeah, everything's wrong. So the

divorce happens just settled middle of last year and I went back to the ship because I was not

mentally healthy and in order to keep my kid through the divorce, I basically had to swallow all

of the bills for $150,000 in your household and by stepping away, I lost my promoted positions. So now I've gone from about 110 a year and personally down to about 74. So I have about $250,000 worth of debt and almost all of that is in the household, but I'm just so stressed. Yeah. All right, so how can we help? Well, I just think I might need somebody to tell me that she might, my five-year plan is somewhat workable and that I'm not insidious but it's

five-year plan to what's the goal for you? To be able to actually retire and actually go see my son. How old are you? He's six. But he is barely in the past, I'm 37.

“Okay, why do you need to retire in five years or else? Where did that come from?”

Well, I don't need to. That's trying to do what I would like to do. At least retire from this career. When I say retire, you mean you have enough assets that replace your income to

remain in the area of my home. Got it, so you just want like an on-core career that keeps you local. Well, okay, I mean that's the land and over the road truck or an emergent mariner. Okay,

“here's the thing, again, I know these conversations are really compressed and so”

what I'm hearing is and none of your plan is going to work unless you make this change, okay? You have to take ownership of all the choices you've made because the way you told that story, other than your wife being like a horrific human, right? Other than that,

every choice you made from, I had to get a second mortgage. I got talked into the solar panels,

even though I had a hundred grand in the bank. I had to do this. I had to do that. I chose like, I want you to take ownership of I made some choices that have landed me here or I made some choices that gave me no margin and then boom, I got hit with a literal hurricane and a hurricane inside my marriage and I had no cushion because I made some choices and when you take that level of ownership, it's, this is all neuroscience, brother. It puts you back in the driver seat of your own life

and it begins to, I'm going to wear a bit, I made some mistakes here. Okay, awesome. So I'm hard-pressed to believe that a guy that works as hard as you do that has the skill set you have could not find a $75,000 a year construction job or a building job in your local community. Am I crazy? Now, we're actually, that doesn't work. I have a look. There's very few jobs in my area that would pay that without forcing me to go get an entirely different skill set. Okay, you have like

“seven skill sets. Get an eighth one. Yeah, yeah, stop and that's what I'm saying. Like, the picture”

you had of your life, it's over now. It's ended. And so the question before you is, do you want to keep doing it live in a life where you won't see your kid till you're 11? And I'm not, I'm not judging that. I just want you to take ownership of this is the choice I'm making. Or I'm going to sell this house and get a one-bedroom apartment because this dream is over. Well, I didn't really get to that part, but currently the house is on the market. Okay, great. And it should sell somewhere between

250,000 to 230,000 which was given me roughly about 10 to 15,000 cash in here. Amazing. Is that

after you pay out the solar, pay off the second mortgage? Yes. Awesome. Okay, great. Amazing. I'm proud

“of you. Did that? That gets rid of a large majority of the debt. What other debts are there”

in this 250K? I'm just managed to pay out $25,000 worth of credit for debt wealth and out here. Amazing. That's awesome. So I've found an additional 58 hundred worth of credit card debt. My ex-wife's car loan is still in my name. But she pays on that, thankfully. But basically, what I'm saying for my future is I need to be a marketing ring because it's for my child's health insurance. We're in charge. No, nothing. Got it. Okay. So, amazingly. I personally, I personally, like you

just laid out a map and I'm hearing a man stand up and get in the driver's city of his own life. I'm going to sell this house and I'm going to have 15 grand in the bank and I'm going to pay off this 50 hundred dollar credit card. I'm going to owe nobody anything. And then, do it. If you go make $50,000 as a school teacher, it will come with health insurance. Personally, I'm going to,

I would choose less money and more time with my kid than I would never see my kid for this

quote unquote free healthcare. That free healthcare is coming at a major cost to your relationship with your son, to your psychological well-being, to your overall financial well-being. And so, you make some sacrifices like you're making right now. I'm going to be a one-bedroom apartment dad right now. That's the world. That's the cards I've got. And I'm going to be a teacher. And on the weekends, I'm going to drive trucks. And in the evening, I'm going to repair. I don't know

people's front porches or something because you've got that skill set. I'm going to do what I got to do to scratch and claw. I'm telling you, man, that kind of hard work gets rewarded over time.

it's still trapped in this vlog, yes, I got it. And dude, I've got personal family and friends

who are locked into a forever blue collar life that's killing them because I get a good deal on health insurance or whatever. And that's just not a trade. This 160 grand lifestyle, you're income got a kind of half. Yeah, so 74,000 are lifestyle now. And so you're going to have to make changes to your life, your budget, your career, to have this life you want. We're rooting for you. We think you have more agency than you think.

Yeah, and you're doing it. You're doing it. You're doing it. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show and the Fairwin's Credit Union studio. I'm George Campbell here with Dr. John Deloni taking your calls at Triple 8, 825, 5225. Carson is in San Antonio up next. What's going on Carson? Hi, thank you for answering my call. Sure. So I learned about the Ramsey last year and I've been following the death snowball. I paid off over $40,000, so pretty cars, cars,

and wedding that last year, but congratulations, man. Oh, thank you. Just raise by that. Thank you. And we have two dead left, but these are really big. So I have $180,000, so stay in Lone, send also $180,000 of mortgage. They're both at $5.85%. So it's a bit of a merit on to pay these off. But I did learn that my family has the history of cancers, like Lone Cancer, if I were a cancer. My dad actually went from San Colleges to Lone Himpah, he doesn't have cancer,

two battling stage four, Lone Himpah and Cancer, you're a lay there. Oh, I'm sorry. It's okay. But I also had cancer with all genetics. So I guess my question is, I'm a little bit scared where I guess I'm scared to death that something might happen to me before I finish this marathon. Right. And I do want to leave something from my wife and daughter. I know Dave Ramsey wants

he says to, like, pay off all the dead to cite some mortgage first. I just wanted to know,

because a federal student Lone's will potentially die with me. It's something happens to me. So I just wanted to see if it's reasonable for me to potentially pay off my mortgage first before my student Lone's. Wow. That's actually, you know what? That's a good question. I will celebrate that question. That's an interesting dilemma that you find yourself in,

“especially because the numbers are so like they're exact, right?”

Interest rates, dollar amounts, exact. How much do you make a year? I make a hundred and thirty notes and dollars. Okay. Yeah. As a pharmacist. Yeah. And how old are you? 28. Okay. What ages did your family get diagnosed? So my dad got diagnosed when he was 50, but I also have other family members. I got diagnosed

a lot sooner and like in the 40s and so. Okay. Because my hope and prayers that you never get

diagnosed, but also that if there was, if this was to happen, this is a decade or two or three from now. And therefore your student Lone's will be paid off. If you stay at the pace, you're going for would the student Lone's be paid off in four years? Yeah. I hope so. I'll try my best year. And then the mortgage is another three to four years. As your income's probably up by then.

“So we're talking about seven years. You're completely dead free. How's it, everything?”

By thirty five. So that's the kind of goals I would be setting versus which one should I pay off? I still feel like the debt snowball because of you probably have multiple student Lones, right? It's not one giant one. Yeah. That's correct. So free up those payments along the way makes me, I'm still team student Lones, but I totally think your logic here is justified to grapple with it. I assume you don't have term life insurance. Did you try or did you not qualify?

I don't know. I happened and tried that yet. Actually, you just heard about that. Not too long ago. I was looking into it today. Today, to go to zander.com and apply and be honest with, you know, your health situation. We're not asking to commit fraud here, but if you can get term life insurance, you have solved the problem of what happens if something happened to me, how would my life pay the mortgage? Boom, problem solved. 10 to 12 times your income and term life insurance on a 15,

20 year policy will do the trick. So you make it as, "Hello, it just makes me feel like I guess my life a little the meaning if I were to have less something behind, you know?" Did you, did your dad pass away? Oh, not yet. He's still battling. Okay.

“Okay. So, I want you to remember what I'm about to say for the rest of your life, okay?”

Okay. Are you a good husband? Are you a good dad? I'm a bestier, yes.

but we have a cancer in our culture, which is we ask somebody, "What are you worth?"

And we answer that with a number. And I think that's insane. It would be, it would be amazing

to be 35, 38, and oh, nobody anything and have a paid for house for your family. That would be awesome.

“And the truth is, you dug a $180,000 hole for your family in pharmacy school. So I think you have”

a responsibility to knock that out. Okay. Also, this is me playing Devil's Advocate all across the board. Okay. I also don't trust in 10 years that that's still going to be the case. At some point the United States is going to have to deal with a $2 trillion hole that is student loans, and they're going to have to deal with their $30 or $40 trillion deficit. It would not surprise me in the least. They've already made student loans not dischargeable by bankruptcy.

It would not surprise me if they stopped them dead on, I mean, that they go away if you pass away.

Okay. That I have never even heard of that being a possibility. But here's what I'm trying to get you to do.

Projecting 10 years out on what might happen is a good idea. But to drag 10 years from now,

“the crisis that might exist in 10 years and try to solve it in today. That is what we call that anxiety.”

Right. And so the fact that you're a good husband, the fact that you're a good dad, you've been burdened through this debt, getting your family taken care of. And you're on a trajectory in seven to 10 years to, oh, no, but anything including your home, that is a huge, huge win. And you have some signals that you're going to pay attention to. So you're going to be one of those guys like me that goes and gets cancer screenings every year. I'm going to pay extra close attention to my

blood work. And I'm watching the AI advancements on cancer detection close very closely. And they're getting astonishingly good at catching stuff really, really early. So I can imagine a world in three years and four years where you're able to know in 10 years and 15 years I've already got signs that we weren't able to detect now. All that to say is if you're going to imagine the worst case scenario in 10 years, the honest thing is to also imagine the best case scenario. And then make

informed choices in the present. Do you know what I'm saying? Yes. And so, man, recognizing I have a heightened risk of cancer because of the the set of genes that I got. That is you being honest with reality and I'm going to take every responsible measure I can. Also, not counting on the government to do a thing in 10 years. That's two elections from now, brother. You tell me, right? Who knows, right? So I'm going to see that I'm not going to rely on that either. And I'm going to get really

good life insurance with George and I both have with Zander. I was with Zander before I started working at Ramsey because I trust them, right? And I'm going to work really hard and get this stuff knocked out. Okay. So I'm going to say, well, hey, I'm going to do a little space here. Here's one other variable. What happens it? And again, I'm just being ridiculous now. But what happens if your pharmacy

“closes or sells? If you have to move to Nebraska to do pharmacy there, the beauty of a pharmacy”

degree, you can do it anywhere. But that student loan is going to travel with you. You're mortgage won't. Right. And so let's take care of the thing that's going to follow me around the longest and let's knock that sucker out and then let's get our house taken care of. But man, really great insightful question. So your homework, one thing you do, right? Right as soon as we're done with this

call, go to zander.com. You're looking at one, one and a half million in a term life policy 20 to 25

years, get as long as you can with the healthist of your family and that you'll sleep well at night, no one your family is taking care of. Hey, summers rolling in soon, vacations, camps all the fun. And if you're already thinking, man, I hope I can afford all this. You can enter right now for a chance to win $10,000 in the Ramsey May Cash giveaway. $10,000. That's breathing room. You can fix the car. Say yes to plans.

Stick to your budget without stress. We're giving away $110,000 grand prize and weekly $500 prizes. No purchase necessary. Go to RamseySolutions.com/giveaway.

taking my call. Absolutely. How can John and I help? Yeah, so I have a question. I guess about what

“household contribution amount should be. So I've worked really hard. I paid off my student loans.”

I bought a car in cash. I bought a house. And I paid off the house. Whoa. Yeah, so I've worked really hard. Congratulations. That's an understatement. I can't wait for the other side of this question. Oh gosh, okay. Yeah, so I guess the question is I am engaged. There are no plans right now for a wedding or we've been together nine years, but we're together and committed to each other. And I guess the question is, I've saved up enough to move to a more desirable area.

And I can buy that new place in cash as well. And so what is, how do you divide the bills? Like we're, you know, yes, you split utilities. And I know this is a weird situation. Like, how what's the contribution? You know, obviously he doesn't live with me for free. But what what is that number? And we just, I could even help. You're not kind of like the help that we give you. So he's been living with you this whole time, essentially. Yes, we've been living together.

How does it work now? So he basically pays essentially rent. He doesn't like the word rent, but, you know, we split the utilities in the bills. And he pays about, you know, splitting the utilities and then like $500. But we're moving to a much better area. Obviously, you know, the house is

“much more, even though I'm paying for it. Yeah. So I don't know how to divide it. Here's the thing,”

I have spent the last two years of my life done a dark, dark rabbit hole studying romantic relationships, okay? Is long as you're his, his landlord? Uh-huh. And as long as you're

his bank, there is always going to be inequality in your romantic relationship.

Okay. There's no way around that. Even you saying he hasn't liked the word rent. Of course not. Because it's a daily reminder that y'all are unequally yoked. Uh-huh. And the more you talk about how hard you've worked, you've been with him for a decade. So you, you leading the question with how hard you've worked in first to two just random dudes you're calling. He hasn't worked that

“hard. Which is not the case. I know. I know. But it's, it's the posture with which you're entering”

into this. And so the reason that we tell everybody to get married is twofold. One, your individual stuff becomes y'all stuff. And if you're not ready to do that, then the romantic relationship you think you have is not what you think it is after nine freaking years. The other reason we tell people to get married besides the spiritual stuff like take the Sunday school stuff and move it aside is because there is a legal separation baked into that. Meaning there is a

contract y'all sign. There's some financial protection in your protected. And so I can't in good faith tell you to do this thing when I know that data and this is secular psychological data. I mean economic data says if y'all get married in your stuff and his stuff becomes y'all stuff, the it's, it's, it ROI's in a spectacular way because you have two people hanging on to the same anchor point and allows two people to take bigger swings at life with, um, with margin.

But as long as he's paying you rent and he's Venmo and you for the Arby's meal y'all split last night,

it's always going to be years in mind and making a romantic relationship or that way long term.

Even the data says that co-habitating couples who live together over a long period of time, they don't do as well. Health wise, financial wise, happiness wise is those that say, I'm all my chips are on the table. I'm all in. And if you have hesitancy to go all in with him, I, that's a huge flashing red sign for me red flag as the, as the kid say. Okay. In your own words, why haven't you guys gotten married? Forget a wedding and all that.

Yeah, so there's, I guess, a bright a past with him. So he was married before it didn't go well.

I don't know if I ever love him. Then you need to have that conversation with him.

Because otherwise, I mean, I'm, I'm trying not to be ugly, right? I'm trying to like, I'm, know that I'm on your side. We have a team Courtney, but, but y'all are playing house, right? And, and he knows, let me tell you, he knows in his nervous system that you're not all in. And that makes you more his mom than his, than his fiance. That makes you more his landlord, addiction specialist than his wife. Yeah. And I don't want to blame you for that. I want you to trust your gut, but I want you to trust your gut all the way in either direction.

You go to him saying, yeah, yeah, that's hard. But yeah. It's real hard. It, tell me, push back on me. Am I wrong? No, no. Yeah, no, you're right. I just, I, I think I'm thinking of it as like, we are, we are together, but separate to an extent. You have a, you have a, you have a, you have a, you have a great roommate with benefits.

“I, I don't think you should make this move until you've solved this. 100%.”

And I'll tell you, I think you're worth being in love with somebody that you can go all in on. And honestly, I think he's worth that, too.

Yeah. And if you know right now, I'm never going to fully get there with him based on his past, based on the things that flare up now.

He deserves that honesty as opposed to a Venmo reminder, you owe me $500 every month. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I guess this is it. Yeah. And I was, I was approaching it. I'm like, what's the dollar amount? We, we disagree on the dollar amount. Yeah. That's, I, I call that a, that's the least of your problems. Yeah. I call those romantic proxy wars. That's not the real issue. Yeah, for sure. Okay. Thank you. I, I, I, yeah. And financially speaking, can George and I just both celebrate you.

“Amazing job. Oh, thank you. Do you all this on your own? Is it is a strongly impressive?”

Yeah. How old are you? I'm 39. Oh, I see. Well, please also don't have the Sun cost fallacy of well,

it's been nine years. Like, this is all I know. I basically grew up with this, I now I just got to stay in

because it's easy and comfortable, which I'm sure it is. And I'm sure he's a great guy. But yeah, I'm sure you guys both deserve. If you're going to live another 50 years, let's do it with some attentionality and some commitment and build wealth together. Instead of having this, yeah, we're together, but not fully, I just don't think that's, that's a way to live life. Oh, oh. And so I would solve for that before making the move. And I hope that if you do make the move,

you guys are married on paper at the courthouse. You combine finances. There's no problem. Somebody in my yard once, they came over. My, my daughter was like the flower girl. I mean, you don't have to have a, and we did it for free. Like, you don't, my manager took the photos. Like, you don't have to do a big elaborate thing, right? But there is legal protection there. And if there's a red flag, you can't move past. It's okay to call that out and say, hey,

it's been a great run of a decade. But I think we both deserve somebody that we can fully commit to. Yeah. Okay. I know that's not the answer you wanted. That's the reason you get the rent amount. I wish I could have been like, well, it should be 60% versus 40% based on a numeric. Yeah, we are fun fooders.com, that I judge. Oh, man. And I mean, I am rooting for. Oh, so hard. I like Courtney as a person. And I want to see her win.

“And I'm so proud of her. And the truth is she's proven to herself that she can build wealth regardless of”

the relationship and what's on the other side. But man, it's just so much more fun to do it with a true partner. A writer die to you. A writer die. Yeah. This is our money. This is our life. This is our goals. Instead of, yeah, well, we don't combine because I don't trust him to accomplish this financial goal that I have. Yeah. I trust you enough to live here and not murder me. I trust you enough to fill in the blank. But I don't trust you with my checking account. All of me. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. This is,

this is not one conversation. This is going to be a series of conversations. Maybe even some counseling to get to the root of this. I think to the fork in the road. Honestly, Courtney was so honest. And I mean, that's a brave thing. She said, like, I don't know that we need to get to the root. I think she's at the root. The hard part is, am I going to take that next honest? Just so scary. It's just like free falling into this next chapter. But you're worth it, Courtney. Thanks for the call.

Hey, guys, Rachel Cruz here. And I love summer. There is more fun on the calendar.

more of spending. Oh, between the extra groceries and gas and camp fees and family trips, it all starts to add up so fast. And before you know it, money stress starts to steal the fun out of everything. And that is why I love the every dollar budget app. Because it helps you plan your money, track your spending and find more margin in your budget so that you can put extra cash towards the goals that matter most. Enjoy your summer without the money stress. Download the every dollar

app in the App Store or Google Play and start for free today.

The Ramsey Cash giveaway is officially here. You can enter every day from my first to the 31st,

one grand prize winner will get $10,000 plus. It'll be $1,500 winner every single week. And you can enter daily to increase your chances of winning. Plus be sure to check out our sale going on right now. We can kick off your summer with books and assessments for just 12 bucks. Go to RamseySolutions.com/giveaway to enter no purchase necessary to win. John is in New York City up next. John, what's up?

Hey, are they going? Great. How are you? I'm okay. I'm calling with not the most concerning financial issue, but something torn about.

“I think he's the first world problem right now.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm trying to decide if I should keep my pet insurance for my cat. The monthly premiums are going up from $70 to $1500 a month and I know. Why is that? And you know, I mean, she's about 10 years old now. I got the insurance right when I got her. And it was like relatively cheap. There's a goal instead of going up. And last year on what the 70, that was, that was a big jump. It went for maybe like 45 to 70 bucks. And now it's 105.

Yeah, that's pricey. I'm the pet insurance world. Yeah, and to you know, I've been paying this for years. And have you calculated how much you've paid out over the years? I know between out of pocket cost plus the insurance. I'm guessing you'd throw up if you did.

I probably would. I probably would. I've actually never viewed the insurance.

Yeah, exactly. You've never used it. I would love for you just for your own emotional well-being just to map out how for the last 10 years.

“How much you've spent on pet insurance and what would have to happen to a pet to justify that cost?”

And by the way, George and I are split on this. We disagree on this. And so about I like to just look at it just the math. And I know like I love my dogs a lot, a lot, a lot. But just looking at the math, does it play out? Right, right. Or let me ask you another question. How much would you spend? Like there's probably going to be a max, right? Is it 3,000 or 5,000 bucks max they would cover? The health insurance? Yeah. And insurance? There's actually no cap.

Okay, so they'll cover if it's a 20 grand surgery the cat needs they'll cover it. 80% reimbursement? Okay. That's the deal. So what is you have a magic number that you would spend on a thing with the cat? I mean, I can't see spending more than like 3 grand for some, I get any of that. It's just a lot. Yeah. For a 10-year-old cat, a $3,000 surgery,

“like, and I would look into quality of life. Are you keeping that kind of life alive for you?”

Or for the cat, right? So there's all those kind of questions that one ask. Right. What's your financial picture look like? Do you have any debt? Do you have savings? We are no financial great. No debt. That's money savings. Okay, great. You're self-insured. As far as this cat goes, if something happened, you could fork over 3 grand if you chose to. Yeah. So the question is, is it worth paying now $12, $1,300 a year for the just in case

to avoid paying potentially 1 grand, 2 grand, 3 grand. So that's where I go, I don't think this is worth it at this point. You're better off talking away $100 in a savings account at this point to cover if something happened. Maybe a sinking fund for just pet needs in general, vet bills, all of that. Because as they get older, there's a higher chance there's going to be

a vet visit, which is insurance companies never lose, right? So that's why they keep raising the

shoes. Is this your only pet? Yes. Are you single? I have the girlfriend, we look together.

“Okay. Does she like the cat? Yeah. As though that-- I think it matters. She hates the cat. That's”

even more reason to cut the insurance. But I personally would, John. Again, this is not a make or break for you. Now, if your pet had like a history of health issues that were costing you a lot of money, and this insurance was a lifeline that was saving you a lot, I would get rid of it. But in general, our recommendation on pet insurance is just to self-insure, sock that same amount of money away in a sinking fund, an emergency fund, if there was an issue. Because the insurance-- it's like the

house always wins. And there are rare occasions where someone goes, "No, no, there was a one time

where my dog needed surgery, and it actually really worked out." And so it's more about peace of mind. And I think at this point with the age of your cat, at this point, just let it ride and when things come up, cash flow it. And if you decide you don't want to cash flow it, then you let that ride. And if it's the pet, you know, the cat's time, it's the cat's time. Because I have seen friends who they'll pour unlimited amounts of money to keep their pets alive. And I'm like, "Man, this is

it's getting to a dark place where you're like to John's point. Are you doing it for you or the cat?" Yeah, totally. I definitely don't want to be an out scenario, you know. Yeah, I definitely don't see myself being an out scenario. Yeah, and here's a thing. There's been a lot of talk. Arthur Brooks has kind of led the charge here about the role-suffering plays in our life. I can count on one hand the number of times

I cried harder than when I put down when my dog got so sick and that was the end for her. It was devastating. Like, literally devastating to me. That dog was my original writer die.

“And what I got on the back end of that hurt and that grief was, that's what commitment feels like.”

And that's what love feels like. And that's what deep relationship feels like. And sometimes we try to put these dollar amounts when it comes to your family. Yeah, dude. No question about it. I'm going to come to our pets. It's like, you enter into a short-term relationship. And that thing looks to you for love and care and support and all that kind of stuff. And it's amazing and awesome. But there's going to be grief on the back end of that. And sometimes there's people out there who

want to sell us things and try to extend that or push that off or pretend it's not coming. It's common. It's part of entering into a relationship with a pet. However hard that is to hear. And so preparing yourself that emotionally, that day will come. Hopefully it's a long time from now. And then getting a number in your head, this is what I'm willing to invest in this pet of mine.

And I've always got to check myself and make sure I'm not. My pet isn't living miserably

so that I don't have to deal with this grief. It's going to come. Right. Right. That's a good word. So John, what are you going to do? America wants to know.

“I, you know, honestly, I think I knew what I should do, which is the canceled one.”

But I just sort of needed somebody to tell me to do it. You know. I just, yeah, I know it's a logical thing. I'm like, you know, really, like fury that I can't flatten in like tomorrow or, you know, like, you know, a couple weeks. Something does happen. It isn't going to be like this. You go dang it. Why do I cancel it? Or would it cover this? I, I know. I feel like that's been the hell I felt deep to all 10 years

I've had this insurance. Yeah. But now it's an odd inside box a month. Yeah. That's the sunk cost fall. So you're like, I've already put this much in. I'm I might as well keep going. Right. Yeah. There's a really mental component to this. Yeah. Yeah. It is more mental than financial. And that's the hard part to grapple with. Or something mental. It's emotional. Right. Yeah. And the, the financial part. Well, let's talk

about insurance for a second. The whole point of insurance is to transfer risk. So you can't

bear the burden of your house fire taking your house and now you got to replace it. So we get home owners and insurance. And so that's the point of insurance. And at one point, you're self-insured or the risk is so low. And the insurance companies will just now, hey, we're going to make money on this because the risk is so low. And pet insurance definitely falls in that category. And there has been a change in the last decade, John, where people just care about their pets more than our parents

generation. Well, we're getting low near, low near as people. We're not getting married, but we have our dogs. Cats are feeling like the gap of human disconnection. Yeah. Or we don't want the burden of kids and paying for kids, but we'll get a dog. Yeah. Or we don't want the burden of leaving our house to go meet strangers to become friends. And so I got a, I got a dog that will come in and love me. And that's, I mean, this is speaking to my heart as a guy who's who gave more money to the

emergency vet than I have given to anyone place in my life. I could have furnished my house with the

as I've told you, John, or born broken. So we kind of knew going into it, you're kind of picking

“up a project here. I sure they got a dog from the pound of no weird expensive project.”

Dog from the rescue never has any issues. They live to be a thousand, happy, healthy. These pure

bread dogs, man. They'll get you. So hug your pets. Today, guys. 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. .

Welcome back to the Ramsey show. I'm George Campbell here with Dr. John Deloni, open phones at

Triple 8-825-5225, our scripture of the day, Titus 278, and everything, set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness, and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they've nothing bad to say about us. I like that. Be above reproach. Warren Buffett said it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently. Amen.

Kelsey is in Atlanta up next. What's going on, Kelsey? Hi. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure.

How can John and I help? Yeah, so I am currently reaching a vehicle and I am so excited to get done with

it. My plan was to buy a beater car once the lease is up. But I have another 11 months to go on it. I'm currently $5,000, $5,000 over already when I'm supposed to be. What are they digging near for that? What's the fee? It's 25 cents a mile. So by the time I figure it on average how much? Yes. On average how much I drive by the time I turn it in, I'm looking at an extra $5,000. I would pay for the overage on the mileage. So my question is should I go ahead and buy a beater car right now?

I'm taking the range of $5,000 to $6,000 and go ahead and park my lease to vehicle. Go ahead and just let that right out and then I'll have pretty much I'm allocating my money to spending it on a beater now instead of giving it to a dealer at the end of the lease. Does would that make sense? Hmm, it's a great question. Could you go buy the car outright? Yeah, what's the the early buy item out? I could. It would be a little north of $40,000. It's gracious. What are you driving?

“Right now it is worth $29. It is an EV and so it's depreciated immensely. Ouch. So you have to pay”

$40 to get it. But then if you sold it, you're 11 grand underwater. Immediately. There's charging you 25 cents a mile on an EV? Yes. Wow. It should be a vehicle. Yes. It should be. Okay. What EV is this? What's the making model in here? It's it's a Volvo C40 recharge and it's a 2024. Oh, all right. I'd probably put this in the stupid tax category. But you're saying hey,

yeah, instead of paying five grand in penalties because you're going to continue to go over the mileage based on your commute. Absolutely. Yes. You're saying just park it. I'd rather just use that five grand to get me a beater car so that when all of a sudden done at least I have a working vehicle. Yes. It's kind of one of my lines that. Of course, it kind of breaks my brain a little bit to have two vehicles at the same time. But it's definitely this is kind of one of that.

Yeah. I mean, that is a pretty wild solution, but it's it makes sense in my head. And I'm trying

“to think of there's other scenarios. I'm trying to go through like, what are all of the options?”

And then what's the one that sucks the least? Have you talked to the dealer about this? So I haven't talked to them about the scenarios specifically. I haven't looked to see if I'd be able to have someone else take it over and they will not allow that. Okay. By the time I.

I'm just assuming it's so unreasonable. So I could look into that. That's probably a great assumption.

Gosh. I still can't get over like on a on an engine, a gas powered engine, there's going to be wear and tear that's unique and different than on an EV. I just can't

“leave their charge you 25 cents a mile. That's yeah. Whatever I think they can't get worse,”

they get worse. It's impressive. Right. Leases are definitely my least favorite way to have a V. I was going to say own a vehicle, but you don't even own it. You're just renting expense. What's really payment? It's $660 a month. You're going to have to pay that for 11 more months. Wow. It's just parked. I have to pay it for 11 more months, those parked. I would try to level with them at the dealership, not that they're competent, nice people, but I would explain the situation. Say, hey, listen,

if I buy it out, I'm 11 grand under day one. After I already forking over 40 grand that I assume you don't have cash right now. Correct. The other option is the termination, which I would find out with the early these termination fees are. In case, this is a wild in case, in case it's the cheapest option. The cheap the lowest amount of stupid tax you could pay to get out of this thing, since they won't let you do at least transfer, because the buy out is not an option. And so therefore,

you might at least then sort of get rid of the other options to go, okay, my best option is just hang onto it, pay it, keep stay under the mileage, and save up for a beta car on the meantime.

“Do you have 29 grand, you have 30 grand to buy it from them?”

I do not. Okay. How much do you have? So right now, I have $6,000, and that is thinking from knowing that I'm going to potentially have to pay that and feed you when I turn it in. And I'm like very aggressively paying down student debt. So I just don't have that, that cash on me. That's great. Why do you make a month? $6,584. Okay, I love the specificity. That's great. And what other debts do you have?

So I've got a student loan, and that is $21,844. And that's it, student loan and the lease? Yes. Okay. Yeah, I mean, it's going to be hard to do both to chip away the student loan debt, pay the lease payment, save up for the beta car, but I like the idea of limiting the damage in fees were paying on this lease, at least if you do nothing else. And then I would see what your options are with the dealer. I would do a whole lot of research to find out, you know,

what your rights are, what your options are before you make any big moves. But my guess is it's pretty ironclad. I mean, you sign the contract here's the fine print, and they're going to say deal with it. Right. Yeah. And I'll definitely going to take your advice to see if there's any way I can have some wiggle room that I just am assuming I don't have right now. But if if that is not an option, would you suggest I just park it and drive a beta? Yeah. So what I would do, the math says that

might be the best option. That's the wild part as much as it hurts your soul to pay 660 bucks for parking the car. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry. It's already hurting my soul. I'm like,

if this can minimize the damage, I'm all in. Well, the good news is you'll never lease a car again.

Oh, you better bet. So that might have been worth all the fees in the world. If it means you're avoiding a bad money decision. So I'm rooting for you. You're going to survive it. And it'll be a fun story. You tell your kids one day to give us a lease. I give America who's listening, give them your opinion on the lease. On someone's saying they're like, I don't want to buy a car. I want to go lease it. What would you say this is your opportunity for a commercial?

It is the most financially irresponsible way you can possibly operate and quote unquote not own a vehicle. You don't do it to yourself. Thank you for that. Very helpful. Appreciate the call. And it's a good reminder on lease as John. So a car lease, people say, well, John, it's not dead technically. There's no like loan. It's just a contract where I have to

“pay this amount and there's no way out of it. For cool. If that's what you want to tell yourself,”

it's not dead even though there's a monthly payment attached that you have to pay. I'm going to call it a loosely a form of debt. And the depreciation is built right into your lease payment. So you're paying the most expensive part of depreciation to the dealer.

Well, and so think about I always like to ask myself who's getting rich. It's the reason I quit using

airline miles. And you know, I've talked about this all-fair, but like I remember getting a credit card with a ton of miles on it, because I had to make a huge purchase that I was going to immediately

Who's paying for these flights? I'm getting or these hotel points. And it was people who found

“themselves in financial straits or having to pay. And I was like, I don't want single moms who are”

struggling to put food on their table to pay for my free flights. I'm out of this program. So that is

what got me inspired to say, who's getting rich off what I've been doing next? And the lease is one

“of the greatest inventions for a car company. They get a brand new car. They give it to you for two”

years. You give them, you basically buy down all of their depreciation. You give the car back to them.

They have a gently used car that they have contractually kept. Now they can sell that. And now they still make a profit. They still, they sell a gently used car that's got very low miles that's perfect with no depreciation. And because you've paid it, right? It's brutal. Well, that puts this

“hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. Remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial piece.”

And that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.