Stop Letting Others Call The Shots With Your Money

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start budgeting for free today. [MUSIC] >> Normal is broken, common sense is weird. So we're here to help you transform your life from the Ramsey Network and the Fair Wins Credit Union Studio.

This is the Ramsey Show. I'm Dave Ramsey, Rachel Cruz. Ramsey personality, number one best selling author, co-host of the Smart Money Appie Hour, my daughter, is my co-host today. Open phones at Triple 8, 825, 5225.

Sam is in Boise, Idaho. Hi, Sam, what's up? >> Hi, I have a question and it is, how do I protect our financial future without me has been 100% on board knowing I can't change him.

“And what can I logistically do on a day-to-day basis?”

>> You can't. >> Okay. >> There's not a wall that you can put up the protect your family from goals and values that are not aligned. >> They have to become aligned.

>> So he is just like slower to get on board than I am. >> So he's like making progress. >> He's probably slower at everything than you are. >> Problems will change. >> That might be, you might just be a wee bit enthusiastic, is that what it is?

>> That's pretty valid. >> Okay, let's help our patients with the poor guy. Now, I'm serious, I mean, no, you can't change him. And we certainly don't want to change him into you. I don't want to change my wife into me.

My wife is way slower to make decisions than I am.

My wife is always going to default towards saving, not spending.

>> And Sam, I'd be in your boat. Winston would be like your husband. As our therapist said, I'm very urgent, and I feel that from you too. So maybe we're like, "Norlate," I guess. >> So I mean, is that what's going on or is he just dug his heels in and goes,

"Hey, the whole idea of saving money and getting out of debt is stupid." And I'm going to spend everything. He didn't really save that.

“>> No, I think he just caught up in the urgency of, "Oh, no, we need a truck."”

Or, "Oh, no, we need this." Or, "Oh, my friends have this." And then all the long-term goals get thrown aside. And so, like, we've gone through the baby's devs. >> No, then we just sit down and say, "No, wait a minute, wait a minute."

We have long-term goals, and we agreed to those. And you're going to keep your agreement with me. >> Okay. >> Because in the moment when you're not all hot and bothered about buying a new truck, your brain is actually working.

But when you get all hot and bothered about buying a new truck, your brain shuts down and quits working, I know, because I do it. You do too, everybody does it, right? >> Yeah. >> And so, what you, but you've got to be called back to when we were sane.

“And when we were sitting at the kitchen table on the children were asleep,”

and there was a candle burning, and we were doing a budget, and we were thinking about what things were going to be like when we were 60. And we were 35, and yes, we can buy a truck, but we have to do it in the line with the way we said we were going to learn our lives. And you just call back to that.

You call back to that, and, you know, and so, and Sharon and I do that to this day, and we've been working this stuff for 45 years, but we'll have to sit down and go, "Now, how is that aligned with this?" And we may have an argument to make about it, but, or maybe there's a slight adjustment or something, but you can't just go off the rails and go, "Yeah, we've been working for three years

to get out of debt, and I'm going to screw it all up by going to get in the truck payment." >> Yeah, where are you guys at Sam financially? Do you guys have a lot of consumer debt?

>> No, so we paid off our debt twice now, and we're almost paid off with the third round,

so we have a truck loan for 10,000, and a mortgage for 107, and that's it. >> So, the third time you went back in debt is what you're talking about. >> What's the truck? >> You just keep talking, you just keep going back. >> Yeah, we can't make it through baby 73, because mostly, I mean, I don't like point the finger,

but mostly because of his purchases, correct. >> Yeah, motor cycles, side by side, trucks, and you went along with those. >> So, behind my back some of them? >> Okay, this is not a money problem, this is a marriage problem. >> Yeah.

>> You can't do things behind your spouse's back, because you're afraid of your spouse. >> Trying to avoid conflict, just absolutely took the whole thing up and fired.

>> Yeah, yeah, first of all, it was definitely like the, he knew I,

“was doing the numbers, and the numbers weren't going to add up to another monthly payment.”

And so, he did it anyway, because he wanted the cool shiny toy. And so, then he's like, that's breaking his word to his wife. That's a serious problem. >> Right. >> And there's not, and if he is willing to do that here, then that can also move into other areas,

he's willing to break his word with. >> Right. >> And so, this is not okay, it's not okay pattern. >> Yeah, it's more of a, it's a trust issue. >> Yeah, when you get to the, to the core of it.

>> Yeah, we, we agreed on this and we agreed on this and we agreed on this and you threw a 45-year-old hissy fit, bought an F-150. >> Correct. >> Yeah, that's just bull crap. Okay, that's not, now I'm not going to take up for him, okay.

Instead, I'm going to throw him in the marriage counselor's office and let them weigh along him a bit about breaking the word to his wife. You cannot build relationship with people, you cannot trust. Trust is the foundation for relationships, broken trust breaks relationships, period. It's a foundational issue, basic psychology, basic relational IQ.

>> Yeah, and that would, I mean, send, send most people should send those words. Yes, and into a place of questioning everything, I'm like, oh my gosh, okay, if you're doing this.

“>> You're laughing at me about that, what else you're talking about?”

>> What's happening, yes, like, what is breaking down here, and so it's either him having to grow up and not only face the conflict, but also tell himself no, because he's functioning like a child. And if something doesn't get turned around, right, and not only in your marriage, but him. >> It's like a kid on this, where you're going to hit on the cereal aisle, throwing a fit, because he wants fruit loops.

>> It's going to continue. >> Yeah, he's only 45 years old, and it's got a $65,000 on an F-150. >> Yeah, so I would be looking forward today, but it could be a bit of self a rato, but you know.

>> No, but Sam, you know, I've Dr. John Zalini in my head, but you know, when he always talks about,

when you're approaching these conversations, making it not a U statement, even though he's been doing the action, it would be very easy to be like, you've done this, you know, what's going on in U, Sam, what's happening, the fear, the second question here. >> I've got him trying to-- >> Yes, I mean, what is going on inside of you, that's his wife, and bringing that to the table, and telling him we need to sit down with someone and figure this out,

because this cannot continue to be a pattern where this becomes normalized. Not only just for the money sake, but again, we're going deeper than that. It's for your marriage and for the health of your relationship. >> I don't want to be your mother and walk around behind you and clean up your poop. >> No, because what you want on the other end is complete freedom and honesty.

And vulnerability will be like, I'm really-- I'm dying for a new truck, let's talk about it. Let's see if we can make the numbers work, right? And then you kind of get to this place and you're like, we can't write now,

“but let's map out a way that we can get there, like two grown adults, and that's what you”

want at the end of the day, if you guys having the same set of values, maybe wanting to use your money for different things, but you at least have a plan that you're both working towards.

And so that would be the goal, Sam, for you guys, and it probably will take a third party.

I mean, honestly, a counselor to kind of start that direction, that road to healing and getting you guys in a new set of values systems, because this is a mess. [ Music ] >> If you run a business, you already know this. Bad information leads to bad decisions.

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Paul is in Richmond, Virginia, hey Paul, how are you?

Better than I deserve, what's up?

“All right, well, I've heard issue with a solar company.”

I was standing to make it a long-term deal with them, and I was trying to find a way I can get out of it. How are you scammed? The sales rep made promises to me that made me, well, I'm going to say made me, but little need to make the deal. He promised that I would not have an electric bill because the company that,

am I allowed to say company names? Let me hear the story. It doesn't matter.

Well, the company, he said the company was going to pay my electric bill and trade that I pay

them for the solar. He showed it to me from his iPad that the company was going to pay it. And also that another thing that was that I could walk away after five years if it didn't work in my favor. So those things were kind of the biggest thing that Laura made to go and all with the audience.

Were those things in writing? He did not have anything in writing. He had the, he told me his contract that he had that for me to sign was on his iPad. So he showed that in writing on his iPad, just not in favor. And you didn't get a copy of that? He said they don't give out paper copies.

“Or an email did he email you the document like a doc you signed?”

No, he did. He did. He did not. He did not. Okay. I'm, I'm curious. Why did that at the time? Why did that bull crap line not concern you? I mean, he says, well, you can't have a copy of the agreement you signed. That would concern you for the moment he said that regardless of what it was. I agree. I saw it on the iPad. He said this in the contract.

So I read it myself and I'll say, okay, cool. And how long ago was this? Has it been the five years or less than? No, it was last April. Okay. And, and so the two things are, A, you could get out of it anytime up to five years. If it didn't work and B, um, that they would pay your electric bill and they have done neither.

I'm guessing. I found out in June, no July the last year that they had not done either. They didn't pay the electric bill and that's when kind of everything started roller. Yeah. And so when you confronted them about that and said, I need a copy of the contract that the salesman told me this. What did they say? They sent a copy of it. Obviously it wasn't the same thing that, you know, the salesman showed me.

And they just were like, we're not backing out of it. We got you. And this is where we want to be. Are they still open? Um, the company that the finance company is the company that installed it in that the salesman worked for is under bankruptcy.

“Okay. There's a couple of those deals. You need to check federal trade commission dot gov ftc dot gov.”

There's a couple of those deals that they have shut the solar companies down or they've gone out of business and they are releasing people from the liability of the finance contract because of that. You need to see if this particular company is one of those. I don't remember the names of them, but there's two of them that are floating around out there. One of them was real big with the Obama administration. The whole thing turned out to be a scam and they ended up dumping

the whole thing. It's very embarrassing for the Obama administration. So, um, if they're one, if it's one of those, then you know, it may be that it's you just have to contact an attorney or contact

federal trade commission, either one. But first thing I would do is go on ftc dot gov if I were

you into a little poking around about that particular name and see which of the solar companies are having the debt forgiven because they were scams. Um, the sounds like it could be one of them. Um,

And, um, you know, we would subpoena the, um, we would find the salesman who doesn't work

anymore because they're now bankrupt, but I would find the salesman who put him on the stand and invalidate contract because he puts you into a contract on a fraudulent basis. And I, I think you can be released from that. I'm not a lawyer, but, um, probably going to cost you some money to do this, but, um, uh, uh, uh, you know, some attorneys fees probably to get this done, and you're going to push really, really hard on it. But it's probably worth it because it's

probably a lot of money. Mm-hmm. But I don't have a magic button that you can push that's going to make this go away easy. I don't have that one. The closest thing would be if you're one of those companies that the FTC has shut down. And so FTC Federal Trade Commission.gov, that's when

“you want to check out. And then get on the phone with an attorney if you're not one of those. That's what”

you're doing. Sorry, Paul. Yeah. Now, when I do something, um, that leaves me vulnerable,

or hurts me financially, I always look in the mirror and go, just like Paul was Paul owned his

part of it, um, and say, okay, I, I did something stupid here that left me open. And so when someone says, um, oh, we're going to do this, but I can't put it in writing. Let me help you with that. That's code for they're not going to do it. If it's not in writing, it didn't happen. And if you don't have a copy of it in writing, it didn't happen. It's just missed. Okay. And so, you know, don't get so freaking

ginned up by a salesperson or by the year need to own a product, like I'm going to get solar, um, to the point that you leave yourself vulnerable for that. And I've done a lot of stupid stuff. And every time I do something stupid, and it costs me money, and Paul, this is going to cost you money. It's going to cost you attorney's fees probably before it's over. Every time I cost me money, I call that stupid text. And I have paid so much stupid text in my 65 years on this earth.

My goal with stupid text is to never pay the same text twice. If I'm going to do something stupid,

it ought to be a new stupid thing, not one I did before. And so since I have a whole collection of

“stupid things that I don't do anymore, now people call me wise. And that's how wisdom comes from.”

It comes from all the stupid things you didn't do, that you don't do anymore, that you learn from. So at least go back and say, okay, as soon as that little butt said, you can't have a copy of it. It's only on my iPad. You should have tossed him on his head out the front door. Get off my property, skum burger, you know, instantly. Have you ever been scammed? This was like a sophisticated scam with like a salesman. No one is scammed. It was just a lying salesman fair.

Salesman lied. Yeah, I've been lied to by salesman. Have you been scammed? Have you fallen for a scam? No. It's good. Good for you. No. Not that I can think of. I can't think of one. Okay. I probably have, but I just can't think of you. You know who scammed me last year?

“Who? The USPS. So I thought. Oh, the text. Do you remember the text? Did I go to text yesterday for a moment?”

I get them all the time now and I say, I will not be giving you my information because I gave it to them. Oh, wait. Yes. I had to get it up to you. Yes. Because I was legitimately expecting a package and it said my package was lost. And so you have to like enter in all your debit card. I should pay the fee. I know. I know. I was waiting on my package. When someone was like, babe, did you check out? Did you look at the website? And I was like, I mean, I copy and pay it was y'all. It was terrible. Anyway, I won't do that again.

And I've saved a lot of people. I told this on smart money happy hour, George and I's podcast. And I've saved a lot of people. People will DM me and be like, I got the USPS. You're a good mother one guy. Your mother got that exact thing two weeks ago. It sent to me and said, hey, take care of this. We need to get this back. Yeah, I know. And I went, uh, no, I'm not going to take care of nothing. This is a scam. So any calls any text? I learned my lesson.

Yeah. I don't trust them. I don't trust them. USPS does not have your text number. No. No. And neither does the IRS. And neither does a Nigerian prince.

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bundle from FairWins Credit Union. You get a high yield savings account, a no fee checking account, and the Ramsey Bee Weird Devacard. Go to FairWins.org/Ramsie to learn more and make the switch today. That's FairWins.org/Ramsie. Ensured by the NCUA. Cam is with us in Nashville. How are you? I'm great. I saved up Dave $1.6 million in investment. I plan to use it for my retirement. I've also been using it as my emergency fund. My question

to you is do I leave my six months of emergency fund in my investment account? Or do I pull it

“out and put it in a bank or do I put it in under my mattress?”

In the software. So it's more psychological than it is mathematical. Mathematically, you would be fine to just leave it sitting there and you've got so much money. You've done so good. Congratulations. Way to go. You're a multi-millionaire. You've got enough money that if you need money, if you need $10,000 to, I don't know, a barrier relative that dot broke in Seattle. And whatever. I'm making this up. But you could just reach over to the

mutual fund and do it with role. Wouldn't be a big deal. And so mathematically, that's okay. I personally would coach you to sit and label something as an emergency fund. And that's psychological. And the reason is, I don't know if it needs to be six months, it could only be three. That's fine. And just put it in a high-yield savings account. If everyone's credit, you know, or something like that. Okay. And just something simple. And the reason

is, then when an emergency hits, you don't stop and think, okay, is this a good time to pull money over my mutual fund? Because it could hit the day that Trump bombs I ran and the market drops three percent that day. And Kim's like, I'll just, I think I'll just put it on a credit card and pay it off after the bombing is over. You know, this is the kind of crap that goes through

our minds if we're doing, if we're only doing math. And it's almost always the way it

life works. You know what I mean? That the emergency happens at exactly the wrong time. That's part of why they call it emergency. And so I like having that money sitting over there in a stupid, underperforming high-yield savings account, not doing nearly, it's not doing nearly

“as good as my investment. That's what I mean by stupid, okay? But it's purpose is not to invest.”

It's purpose is a buffer for me to keep my hands off my investments. Gotcha. So that's psychological, right? Yep. If 100% of the time, we all knew we would dip into the S&P index fund and pull the money out

for the emergency, no matter what the market was doing, but we just don't. We always play these

middle-gimnastics with ourselves. And so I have to trick myself into being smart. Yeah. Well, and for me, there's just like an ease to having that high-yield savings account. And we do, we have fair ones since on the app. And we have that. And then we have a whole other, you know, high-yield savings account that we have for other savings that we're doing. But just that, look, that emergency fund is stayed there. And we've, we'll be fit up still. Like

one time, we still have that. And there's just, there is for me where we are.

“The reality is, you probably, honestly, trust in your situation, whatever situation.”

In my situation, you're probably, we have an emergency. You probably got it in checking. You're probably not going to touch the emergency fund.

You don't need six, because you've got a bazillion months in good after tax investments.

And so you're fine. You're, you're not going to have a problem. It's just a matter of remembering that personal finances are 80% behavior and I have to account for behaviors when I make these decisions. So it's an excellent question, by the way. And again, congratulations, I'm so proud of you. You've done so well, millions of dollars.

“Wow, very cool. All right, Bianca is in Tampa. Hey Bianca, what's up?”

Hi. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. I couldn't. So my husband and I were so thankful we got introduced to financial peace

university through a church. And I was over the last year and a half, we paid off all of our debt.

Yeah. Credit cards, student loan, my husband's car payment. And I mean, we've been kind of working on this before, but we just really started focusing on it after we enrolled in financial peace university. And so we're at this point where we have our emergency funds set up, where we're doing retirement, putting money away for our kids. But there's a caveat of, I'm still leasing a car. And we didn't pay that off because we had this belief of like,

it's not really mine anyways because we've just been borrowing it, releasing it. And it has $10,000 left on the lease for about a year and a half. And I'm wondering if I should just pay that off.

Yes. Okay. Should I buy out the lease? Is there any benefit to buying out the lease when the car

is done? Okay. No, you're buying it out now. Okay. So do you think I should just pay it off? When it is $10,000 the remaining payments on the lease or the buy out? That's the remaining payment for the lease. So I out is 42,000. Yeah. Do you have $42,000? Yes. But I do like the car that much. If you want the car, pay your car off. If you don't

“do, you need to sell your car. And so I guess because I don't own it as a lease. No, you need to”

you on it. Okay. It's a alternative method of financing. And it's a horrible method of financing. You have a car payment. We need to get rid of your car payment. Okay. Okay. So just pay off the remaining lease balance, which is-- No, we need to pay off $42,000 or you need to get rid of the car. Okay. Okay. One of the two. Okay. So what's your household income? I'm around 180 a year. Okay. Well, you're doing really, really good. Except you did some mental

gymnastics. I'm whether or not you actually own this car. Trying to not deal with it. It feels like you're renting it, though. It was with the lease like this. It's not hers. This is not hers. This is Lexus. Okay. And so you have to pay it off or dump it. It's just like you have a car debt. Just pretend like you have a car payment and a car debt. Because you do. You have a car payment and you have a 42,000 dollar pay off. And you have 42,000 dollars in the account. Look at the

car. Do I like the car? 42,000 dollars worth. If I don't, it's time to sell the car. If I do like the car, then pay it off and keep it. You can do that. Make it 180. You're doing really good. Everything else, like you told me is on point. Yeah. You just manage to do an avoidance technique here. And I avoid, I just sidestep that thing. You just let it drive on by. No pun intended. Yeah. And so,

“yeah, but now it's still there. So folks here's the thing. And let's go deeper into her”

position, I guess, on this. Car leasing is now 78% of the new cars that leave the lot. And a car lease when you back out the numbers on it. And a closed-in lease works like this. You have a series of payments at the end of the payments. You then pay a lump sum to own the car. Or you turn the car in. Okay. And that's what you can run a financial put those numbers. That stream of payments and a lump sum into a financial calculator. As opposed to the actual MSRP,

the sticker price, and back out what the cost is of what's called cost of capital in a lease. And that is your interest rate on average is 14.2% right now. So you borrowed money at 14% to buy your car on payments. And the car company knows that. That's why 78% of them leave. The lot right now are leases. They make more money on leases than they do putting you on payments. So there's more lease cars than just having a car loan. Yep. Yep. And not included in the car

debt that we're seeing increase. You know, we've noticed that a trillion mark the other day with

considered debt. However, it's exactly what they are. It's a contract to pay payments.

“That's debt. And it's at a 14% interest rate. Cap cost of capital. Okay. And so, and guess what?”

They don't disclose the interest rate. You know why? Federal trade commission disclosure route regulations do not apply because it's not considered borrow money. So there's sad step in everything and screw in you people. Hello Ford Motor Company. Hello General Motors. Hello Toyota. You're screwing people and you're getting away with it. Hey, guys, healthcare is one of the biggest stress points in your budget. It's confusing.

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“Christian is in Savannah. Hi, Christian, how are you?”

Hey, brother, how you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hey, so my wife and I are getting married next month. And we're blessed to be in a good financial position. But my question to you is, if you're starting over, what principles would you follow to build a strong family and lasting wealth over the next few decades? Wow. That's an eight-hour seminar. It's a really good question. There's a lot of layers to that.

Are you asking beyond money, Tristan? Yeah, he's a strong family. Yeah, I agree. I agree. It's beyond money. Yeah. We're blessed to be in a position that we are financially, so money is not really an issue. The way the Ramsey's would view this at my house is it would start with a foundation of faith. And so we would start with a spiritual foundation and say, "All right, God is in charge." And now let's learn what he would say about these things. And that's where a lot of the things we

teach here on the air of come from is from scripture. I mean, we present them in a non-scripture

“non-weird way, but most of the time. But it comes down to, okay, how are we going to do this?”

So an example of that would be one of the things I learned when I started over was that I didn't ask my wife's opinion about anything. I just went and did whatever I wanted to do. And she was okay with that because she was raising babies and I was running a business and so she didn't really want to go look at every piece of real estate I was buying. I was in the real estate business and I, you know, and I didn't ask her opinion. And so that's a huge mistake to not be

constantly communicating about the items in our life. And so who can find a virtuous wife for her worth as far above rubies? The heart of her husband safely trusts her and he will have no lack of gain. And so once Sharon and I got aligned with, I don't make big financial decisions. She doesn't make big financial decisions. And we're in agreement on a budget without the two of us know when everything. And being aligned on that. And so, you know, I had some 14-year-old sedos at the

Lake House. And so I bought new sedos the other day at the Lake House to upgrade for the grandkids and everybody to ride on. But I didn't, you know, just call up a sedo dealership and go bring me

through what the situation was. It looks like the stupid things were, you know, time to upgrade."

And we got the money any issue with that. No, none whatsoever. But she did not walk down on the dock and go, aren't those new? That didn't happen that way. So we're in agreement or in alignment. That's a big deal. And that has saved me like we don't make large generosity plays, philanthropy. We don't write large checks to ministries and support of them without us both talking about it and praying about it. So we make decisions together. That's principal number one. And that's a

big deal. That saved me a lot of angst in my marriage and my relationship. And it's also saved me a lot of money because it kept me from doing some stupid stuff. I would have done probably

all my own without her speaking into it. And she might have done it on her own without me speaking

“into it. So I think that the spiritual foundation and out of that comes things like I will have”

no lack of gain if I listen to my virtuous wife. And so out of that comes, you know, a godly man lives in inheritance to his children's children. And so I'm going to plan an estate that changes my family tree and that includes the character of the people I'm leaving the money to. If there of poor character and I leave the money, it ruins their life because you become more of what you are when you get more money. And so, and we started talking about that to Rachel Cruz when she was

three years old to her brother and her sister when there was three years old. So, you know, you have to be a worthy steward. You know, and you know, if you're faithful in the little things, you'll be given more to manage. This is a teaching for your children. So I'm going to teach my children to give so that they don't think the whole world is about them. I'm going to be entitled little brats, right? It's not about you. You know, and so I'm going to teach them to be givers. I'm

going to teach them to save, which is a sign that they have some discipline and they can delay pleasure, which is a sign of emotional maturity. I'm going to teach them to spend and enjoy their lives because our Heavenly Father, if we being evil, know how to give good gifts to our kids, how much more so the blessings come from him. And so, all of these things come out of that whole mindset. So Rachel, you kind of sat and experienced that, I guess, on the other side,

being raised in that environment. In perfect, not perfect. Yeah. But we had a, it was very intentional. Yeah, very much so. And I think, you know, money can easily become an over and an over safety net

“if you will. Yeah. And so you have to be careful with this balance. And that's why the generosity”

piece, I think, is really big. I feel like it does, it keeps you in check. When you write a literal big check to something, there's, there's something, there's something that just happens in the character for you are. So that generosity piece, I think, is huge. And that plays into the character of you. You know, generous people are usually pretty humble people. That's definition of humility. I think it came from Rick Warren. But he said, humility is not thinking less of yourself, but it's thinking

of yourself less this way of, of servanthood and looking at others, right? And what's going on in them, it's not all about you. Because money can easily become the, the center point of your life. Because you have the ability to go do whatever you want. Because you have the money, right? And so that it can easily become that your life is about you, that orbit. We put them back.

Tristan, I was going to ask you, is this, do you guys have kids? Is this your first marriage?

Or you got, where, where are you? The first marriage? Okay, we have both say based. Good. How old are you guys? I'm 29. She is 25. Okay. Yeah, that's great. And I'll just say for Winston and I, I feel like one of the things we've learned in, we've learned 16 years. So there's a lot of people in very much longer than us that probably have more thoughts on the marriage piece. But I found the healthier we are as individuals, the better our marriages. Like when I find that Winston is

like working on himself and he's doing work over here. And if I'm doing that, learning and growing over here. Like there's something about that where I think for a little piece of me getting into this,

“I thought marriage is the missing link. And that's what's going to like create this better person”

of who I am. And I think the more we've gotten into what, the more I'm like, whoa, and Rachel takes care of herself. She's a better version of her and St. Winston. And it's created a healthier marriage when that's been our perspective. And so there's something, there's something great that, and then the thing that you told us, you told me early on a marriage which I loved was just serve each other. I think I was so worried about the roles and who's supposed to do what and

what marriage formulas, it's supposed to look like. And I remember you said, Dad, just serve each other.

And so there's not that that hierarchy really wasn't, I didn't see that as much with you and mom.

It was a very equal level playing field. Yeah, but the best time you were old enough to see it, that was there because it wasn't what I just just read. Exactly, yeah. Before you were born,

“I think that's, I think that's big. I think that is for for each of you to feel like you are heard”

and respected is big. Yeah, submit yourselves one to another. Says in Ephesians. Okay, that's serving each other. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and so I'm going to put your needs ahead of mine. I'm going to put the needs of the family family unit ahead of my own little selfish desire for a new pair of shoes or purse or a gun or a car or a fill in the blank thing. Yeah, and there's nothing wrong with any of

those things. By the way, Ramsey's have all those things, sharing this week, Dave this week, you know,

every one of those things. But it's not, those are not ahead of the good of the family unit's goals. It's not ahead of, they're not going to interrupt my generosity because I bought too many guns. Right, right. I'm not going to interrupt my generosity because I bought some CDs. Yeah, and another a myth that I think we can kind of get into as well is that if I just have enough money, there's a level that problems for the most part kind of go away. I can just fix it.

“You know what I mean? No, the more crap you own, the more repairman you have to know. Well, that”

but also like you're so human and people in your community mean that it's still life is still going to happen.

And so it's not, it's not this oversight, do you know? Like I'll say in earlier and there's something that I think,

I, I don't know, we can kind of creep into and you're like, oh, gosh, but it's not like it's almost full. We're gripping. We're getting our, we see, God is, you don't say God is my provider. You say my mutual fund is. Yeah, right. Yeah. And that's a dangerous spiritual grail. Yeah, I agree with you completely. [Music] Hey, you guys, did you know that there are thousands of data brokers whose entire business is collecting

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Welcome back to the Ramsy Show and the Fair Wins Credit Union Studio. Kim is in Baltimore. Hi, Kim. How are you? Well, I've been better. So, I'm sort of in a crisis situation at the moment and I really need to move by. I'm a 56 year old state home mom. I've been married 23 years, about three years into our marriage. My husband has been asked to quit my career to help open a business. So, I did so.

I worked in the business with him for about two years and then got pregnant, started a family had kids. So, I've been staying at home with the kids for the past 17 years. Sometimes he's controlled everything. He doesn't let me have access to any kind of account. I know nothing. He doesn't let me have access to anything. I get an allowance from a credit card once a month. Once that allowance cuts off, it's done for the month and I have to wait for the next month.

I have money again that allowance is supposed to cover my gas, everything for the kids, foods,

“stuff like that. It's not a very generous amount. How long has that been going on?”

That's been going on the better part of the 17 years. Pretty much. Why are you tolerated it for 17 years? Because I'm an idiot. I was scared. I've been scared. What are you scared about? I'm scared. Yeah, I'm scared of chance. Yeah, and I'm scared like any time I go up against him, he punishes me by like taking stuff away or making my life even harder. Anyway, I have no access to anything.

He doesn't hit me at all. It's just verbal and financial. Where is your family? They're all gone. I don't have anybody. He has parent locally that will stop at nothing to help him.

“Oh, I'm not cared. I don't care about him anymore. Um, so your mom and dad are gone?”

Yes, they've been gone for 20 years. Your siblings are gone?

My sister, yes, she came to the suicide. I have one sister, but she had basically had not anyone to do

any support. She's been alcoholic and not in the place. Do you have kids, Kim? Yeah. I do. I have two kids, twins, boy. How tall is he? Yeah. We're 17. But, but this gets worse. So anyway, I recently found out he's having a fair She can't leave behind my back. Yeah, right? She couldn't leave behind my back. And in the process of opening the second location of our business with her, so she has some more to work.

He doesn't know that I know any of this information yet. He recently went to the bank to get any business loan to open this shop.

“I don't know how that's going to play into like jet. You know, like, if you opening this shop and making it look like he has more debt.”

And, you know, wanting to divorce me, I did see that he has reached out about what you to get to the war. Within the attorney, his father is his accountant and him and his father hide everything. Basically, they make it look like the business in the loft every year. But every single thing that he buys right down to his ED medication goes on a business card. So he's paying for everything with business expenses. But then claiming that he doesn't make anything. And, like I said, his dad and him hide all of this.

So right now, I'm in the house with him. He doesn't know that I know that he's having me there or starting a business. I don't know what to do. I don't have any funds to get in the turn. In fact, he's laughed at me before in the past when I brought up the war. And he laughed at my face and told me that I don't have access to money.

And then I could never fight him because I can't afford an attorney.

And he's right. So I don't know what to do right now. I don't have so many legal questions to ask. Yeah. And let's first establish that he's full of crap. Okay. You have accessed all kinds of money. Once your attorney shuts him down and takes half of what is in the accounts. And then Marron, they'll do that fairly quickly. And so, you know, if you get half of everything as in his account, you get plenty of money for an attorney to fight him for years.

And so that he's bluffing or he's an idiot and doesn't know what he's talking about or both. But he's just got you. He's got you buffaloed as well. We would call it got you cowed. And you believe that he is stronger and smarter than he is. And he's not. He's not that bright. He's not that smart. And he doesn't have the law on his side. So yeah, you do need an attorney. And you do need to leave as soon as you're possibly can and you do need to load the kids up and take them with you. But we just got to figure out where you're going to go. Where you're going to go to a domestic violence shelter.

You're going to call your church, talk to your pastor. And then you get on the phone once you get out of there and find some, you know, find some legal counsel that will take on this guy. And because legal counsel can get paid, they just got to get paid out of those accounts that he has control of. And it's very possible. Very easy.

“They can't you can't get like $10,000 deposit up front because you don't have $10,000, okay, but but you need to explain to him what's going on here. And some good divorce attorney would kind of think this is going to be fun.”

Great. Mama, they're going to mock the floor with him.

I know there's a good local attorney. I've called I haven't an appointment with her, but it's her first available appointment. It's not to August 18.

Well, call her up until I'm telling you the teller of a, I, a toxic abusive situation and you need to move the attorney. You need to get an appointment sooner. I told him that these, that's the first they have. I've tried a couple times. They did put me on a leading list. More than call another attorney. I'm calling another attorney. Okay, where you, you're, you're, you have to be done letting other people set the agenda in your life. An attorney that can't see me to logist might not be my attorney. A guy who won't give me any money might not be my husband.

A guy who has an affair probably not going to be my husband. The accountant who's his father and his committing fraud to avoid taxes might go to jail. Great. I mean, by the way, tax fraud is criminal.

The accountant's father and the moron husband. And so, you know, maybe he may be a call to the IRS and say that you've got some players over here. Y'all let it check out.

“Am I correct in my thought that he's not legally allowed to be putting all this stuff on business expense? Like, I mean, that's what I'm talking about.”

Everything. I mean, that's not legal, right? No, it's not. And at a minimum, it doesn't survive in audit and a maximum, it could be criminal. And depending if they're hiding income and revenue from the companies, they don't pay taxes. That's criminal. Right. There's tax avoidance and then there's tax fraud. There's two different things. Okay. So anyway, but that's not, that's not the issue here. You know, that's just, is one more notch in the belt that says this is a bad guy. It doesn't really affect you because you're not going to be there anymore.

Right. Right. Yeah. Are you involved in a church at all? I am not. Okay. All right. Hang on. I'm going to have Christian pick up and we're going to hook up with one of our financial coaches in the area and get you plugged in with a good church and get you plugged in with some good attorneys. And see if we can't get you out of there pretty quick because this is this is done terrible. I'm so sorry for normal situation. What you've described is not something anyone should stay in. Hey, I want to talk to you for a second about love and not love like in Titanic or something. I mean, responsible love. The kind of love that moves you to take care of the people closest to you.

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“John is in Minneapolis. Hi John, how are you? I'm doing good. How much so?”

Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, I wanted to kind of pick your brain on my situation. So I am debating, filing bankruptcy, getting a secured credit card to potentially buy my first house in two years. But I'm cool good. I got myself into about 12 grand worth of debt and I could pay 15-hour bucks and file chapter seven and start saving now, but it is relevant to say that I got a better job since then. I now make anywhere between 10 and 25K a month. But I also have a goal. You make 10 to 25K a month and you're worried about $12,000 in debt?

Yeah. I was out lame on that sounds. I know. Yeah, but that's a tax that I have your rate because it's good. Well, baby. You make $25,000 a month. You could have lived on 12 and paid off 12 in one month.

“So you don't think it's worth it to say good money. Oh, I think it's a sign.”

You make so much money. Go pay your bill to it. It's up and down, Dave. Well, between 10 and 25K a river.

$120,000. It's a $2,000. It's a $2,000. It's a debt. That's it. You didn't call me with 1.2 million in debt?

Right. I guess that sounds silly. Yeah, okay. So let me back up. Let me back up three steps. Okay. This money, this money, this income is

Okay. So if you make $10,000 a month, that's $120,000 a year. If you make $25,000 a month, that's $300,000 a year. So you're making a hundred and a half to three hundred somewhere in there in the coming months.

But your brain is not caught up with that math yet because you've never made that before.

And you certainly hadn't made it lately. Right. And well, I'm also also, I my girlfriend has good credit and I'm trying to get mine back on track. But I have to take her to the debt first. Well, the bankruptcy won't happen at that, John. Bankruptcy, put you out of the house business for two to three years. And by the way, they're not going to let you file chapter seven. There's a means test when you go to file a chapter seven, which wipes all the credit card

out. And the means test says, looking at your income, do you have the ability to pay this back? And the judge is going to go, Oh, and they're going to throw you into a chapter 13 for five years.

So your plan's not going to work even if I would go along with it. I'm not going to go along with it.

Because it's not good for you. So what will be much better? So you were making

“nothing before hardly. I mean, you must have no income. I had a low income before, did you?”

Like six to eight grand a month ago wasn't that much? Well, that's more than I was thinking. I'm bad, John. What's your life, what's your life, so like I don't understand? You do with all this money. If you don't have a house, how much is your rent? My rent is only 900. I had a reposition of vehicle and I sensed credit off a lot of my debt, but I still have this, this chunking and I went down. I bought two use, two use,

two cars that we got it on trade at the dealership. So I had good deals on. And so I haven't planned on

that's what I kind of do is just plan on keep paying cash. The vehicle is about my girlfriend. I want to upgrade her vehicle and I'm also hoping her wife out her credit. No, you're talking about filing for bankruptcy and upgrading your girlfriend's vehicle in one sentence. Like the, no, no. I think your priorities are all over the place. Do you feel that? Do you feel chaotic? Do you sell cars for a living?

I'm the finance manager of four dealership. Okay, I thought so. Okay. All right, so let's slow down a little bit. All right. Girlfriend has started to become in this conversation high maintenance. She wants a car, she wants a house. She gives... She gets enough things until you get your grown-up life straightened out, honey. You got to get your grown-up life straightened out and you don't be buying cars for people you aren't married to and buying houses with people you're

not married to. And you certainly don't do that too. And you certainly don't do that to make them

“happy because they're not worth being married to if that's what makes them happy.”

So morning, morning, morning, morning. Okay. So now, so we're going to set her aside and let her have her little life while we date her and we're going to look at John. Now, John makes six to eight to ten to twenty five thousand dollars a month. So I want John to sit down and say, do the math. You know how to do math. You're a finance manager for God's sakes. So down and do the math and say, okay, where is my $10,000 going? Where is my $12,000 going?

Where is my $8,000 going? And then make it behave. I want you to buy food, shelter, close. You have $900 rent. Very good. Okay. Pay the cars off. Any car that is in your name is to get paid off or sold and you need to clear these debts. Now, then, as you know, you're sitting in the chair looking at credit reports every day, credit reports age out. Anything that is not a bankruptcy stays on seven years. But approximately three to four years out an old repo and old defaulted credit

car that has now been paid off and made good. An old repo that has been cleared up and made good. The deficit has been negotiated out. All of that that's three or four years old hardly counts

“against you anymore. It might bump your credit score, but you can go get a house. But you need to put”

these things all paid off, all cleared, so you can get the credit report clock ticking because when they tick off seven years, they will all disappear. But chapter seven bankruptcy's 10 years, though, my friend, it stays on their 10 years. And when you haven't filled out an application in your office at Ford to get a Ford motor credit loan, it doesn't say if you file bankruptcy, it doesn't show up on your credit report. It says, "Have you ever filed bankruptcy?" And if you say no and you have,

while I was making $15,000 a month, and I had $12,000 worth of debt. That would be stupid.

“You don't want to do that. I'm out of loss rewards. I'm just kidding, I just can't get in his”

brain. I'm not sure I don't understand his logic. Maybe she wants a nice car, she wants a nice house, and he wants to improve. But that has nothing to do with him filing bankruptcy. I mean, I just don't agree. He thinks it's a shortest way to get there. Of all of it, though, I don't, it just makes no sense. So yeah, John, I would make a, I would make it a goal. Live on four grand a month. It's plenty with your rent, lights, cell phone insurance, and throws six grand this month at the debt.

And the next month, the same, you're completely debt-free, get into emergency fund. And I

would work on John. There's a lot of, she needs, you said she wants a new car. He's like,

"No, no, she doesn't want to. I want it." There's a lot of ego in all of this. I, I would, I would do some work on John. If I were you, John, I would. I'd get to the bottom of what some of this, that you're grasping at. You're grasping at a reality that's not there. And it's, and it's so interesting to hear you talk about it. Because I, I don't, I don't, I don't get it. I'm at a loss. I am at a loss. Yeah. And I think our audience is too. Everyone just can't. We all just

kept looking at each other. I think no. I don't get it. I don't know. I don't know. Well, it, it's, and big, because he thinks the most extreme. I think that's it, too. Bankruptcies the most

extreme. I think if he called and was like, I don't know, I'm thinking about doing debt collections

and letting it go, you know, letting it go to be bad debt and be sold and trying to go she ate. Like, even that, I'm like, okay, that's not a smart thing. The bankruptcy. I'm like, that's just the most, it's one of the most extreme things that you can do to yourself financially. But somebody on TikTok told him that in two years, you can get a house if he has no death

“starting today. And the best way to get rid of the debt is bankruptcy. And yeah, all of that, of”

course, was TikTok law, which doesn't, isn't real law and isn't how bankruptcy really works. There's a means test. You were very empathetic when you go on when you go in. I'm not, I'm not, I'm just trying to, I'm just trying to, I'm just trying to make sure it hears me. That's all. John, we are for you. We are for you. We wish it a win. Yeah, I don't want in that to be shame, but we're just on the same list by it.

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Today's question comes from Max and Ohio. I am a 70-year-old retiree. My wife and I prepared well for retirement. I have no debt including our home. I would like to lease a car for three years and then give it back and repeat the process every three years. At our age, I don't want to worry about paying for car maintenance. Considering that we can easily afford this, is it okay for us to lease rather than buy a car? Leasing a car does not get rid of maintenance.

You're still responsible for the maintenance. You're thinking because you're driving a newer car, you're not going to have any of the paying for maintenance. I wonder if the maintenance is not included

in a lease. If the warranty for-- Well, the warranty would be on the new car whether you bought it

in cash or whether you lease it. And the quality of the car not needing as much maintenance might be what he's referring to. I want to drive a nice car so I don't have to worry about it. We're just not worrying about paying for car maintenance, paying for you to pay for car maintenance, but he don't want to pay for it if there's not much. Like a brand new car, you don't have a lot of maintenance on it.

“Yeah, that's true. So that's what I'm thinking. He's thinking about it. I want to drive a nice car”

that doesn't require a lot of maintenance. Okay. If that's what you're saying, it's ridiculous to do it the way you're talking about. You should just buy the car. And go buy brand new car if you're it sounds like you're multi-millionaire. If you're multi-millionaire, you want to go buy a 100, a thousand-dollar car, go buy a car. Just try to check. And then three years later, if you feel like that car's getting old, then run another check. Get your another one. And you're going to take a

loss on that car. And but you're going to take a bigger loss if you release it. Because 100% of the loss in value is built into the lease. So whatever you would lose by buying a new car and trading it every three years, you're paying for it in the lease. You're going to lose more than that by leasing because the lease covers at least that plus a profit, plus a cost to capital. And the interest, yeah. So your theory breaks down. And if you think that least cars have less maintenance

than cars that are paid for that are the same exact car, they don't. And there is no lease maintenance program. Now you could rent one at Hertz and Hertz will keep it. But that would be like super expensive,

“right? If you want to go over Hertz or dollar rent a car and rent you a car at the whole time,”

they'll maintain their car. But you're going to pay through the nose for that obviously. And that's not what you're talking about. So I'm thinking that what he's talking about is that a nicer car doesn't require as much maintenance. And if I get a new car every three years, then we're going to know what I'm talking about. And if you can afford to do that and you want to do that, I don't know

the problem with that at all. It's just you're losing a lot of money in the first three years,

it's going to car loses its most value. Because cars lose 70% of their value in the first five years. And so a hundred thousand dollar car becomes a thirty thousand dollar car in five years. And so that's burn and cash. But if you got a lot of money, you can afford to do that. Okay. I just bought a brand new Ford Bronco Raptor package. But I can afford for the thing to be worth nothing in a few years. I can afford for that. It's not going to affect my life. I've got enough margin.

And if that's you, you're going to margin and you want to do this, I'm fine with that. You know,

“that's that's why you've worked. But don't don't lease it. No. No. Horrible. Horrible.”

Horrible. That I mentioned at Horrible. Rachel is in Huntsville. Hi, Rachel. What's up? Hey, Dave. Okay. So I am newly married and we are in the process of blending a family of five and getting a mortgage, taking care of a rental property, getting it set up to be rented. And still on babysept to. So right now, my question is one of one of one of you that had the house that's going to become a rental property used to be your house. Yes. Why don't you just sell it? So he

could be a possibility. Yeah, it is possibility and clear up all your debt. So it's a it's a tiny home. And it probably wouldn't clear up all the debt. It might bring 130. And so the house that we're in. Now, it, you know, it was a fully remodel. So I have to refund it because I have a hewlock on it, a personal loan and the original $60,000 mortgage. So yeah, but if you sell how much other debt do you all have other than what you just mentioned? Um, I have it all out. So like $9,000 in credit card,

$7,000 in student loans and $18,000 in credit card. Okay. And that's not. And then on the house, you've

I'm sorry, 60. And the, he lock is how much? 88. 88. And a $15,000 personal loan. So one 70 total is what

personal loan was on the house. Yeah, I was just a needed extra that didn't want or didn't have

“it in the house. So on the $5, 150, so $200. What's the house worth?”

$2.35. Woo. Okay. You max this thing out, didn't you? And the, the tiny house is it's worth $1.30. What's owed on it? Nothing. Oh, perfect. Sell it. Clear up. $9, 7, 18, 15. And then refinance the 60 in the 88 on a 15 year fixed. Okay. Um, I mean, my husband is really wanting the rental income. I already have someone. That's stupid. We're going to borrow on your home. You're $235,000 house to buy a tiny house for rental income. Gross. No. Yeah. And it's effectively what we're talking about. I original question

was, you know, like, right now with the mortgage was I going to do a 15 or a 30. And I wanted, you know, we're going to do a 15 because we're going to get rid of all the stinking debt. Yeah. When you only got 60 in 88, you're only got 60 in 88. And that's your only debts. And you refinance those on a 15 year fixed right now. You're talking about five and a half or so. It's pretty wild. Yeah. Five and three quarters. You're going to be in great shape. You're going to know payments anywhere. You paid off your car,

your student loan, your credit card, your 15,000. And woo, we're free. We don't trade a tiny house rental may only bring one 30. I know, but you owe nothing on it, right? Right. Okay. So one 30 in my hand, we'll pay off 15, nine, eight. That's it. We want a bit bit bit bit bit. Nine, seven. Are you to even pay off a bunch of the he-lock? Pay down the he-lock. So, so don't even don't even do a

refog of mortgage. I think you can pay off the he-lock and everything else and only have your first mortgage.

“Yeah. With 60,000. That's what you're paying off. What's the interest rate on the 60?”

Seven and a half. A little bit of little rough. Yeah. And the new, the ones that the ones that I'm looking at right now to do the refog house he-lock in personal. The 15 year is 6.625 and 1,700 dollars in length. Yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't do that. I'd sell the tiny house and be debt free with $60,000. I don't my home. And then the thing is a 100% free. Get on a budget with your new husband, the two of you though your income's in together. And let's go get rich. Yes. And then if you guys want to buy a tiny

home and rent it out in a few years, you can do that. Well, if they want to, some people today doesn't want to, Rachel may want to. You Rachel, you may want to. Yeah. Well, but if you'll do, just don't want to. Like, this is your ticket out. A tiny home has a tiny market.

“Nobody wants it. Yep. That's why there's, that's why there's just a fad. Yeah. No, no, no. I'm,”

if you get 130 for that thing and clean up all of this. Yes. This is the ticket. Definitely what you want to do. Mm-hmm. And then you ask yourself what I've taken alone out on my home that

a $60,000 mortgage to buy a tiny home to rent. The answer would always be no. And effectively,

if you don't sell it into ball, this is the same thing. [Music] Let me tell you something. I see happen way too often. People fall behind on their bills and they wait. They hope it will work itself out. It won't. That's why I recommend Guardian Litigation Group. Here's the deal. If you've missed payments, collectors are calling,

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last callers facing. And it's one of the reasons you will hear me be so incredulous and so quick

“and harsh to judge on something. Because it's the technique I'm using. I'll just share it with the”

inside baseball. Okay, here we go. It's called a sunk cost analysis. A sunk cost analysis is simply this. You don't make decisions based on how you got here. You make decisions that's a sunk cost. You make decisions based on where we're going. So five years from today, what do you want your life to look like? Not five years ago, all these things happened. You don't do your analysis based on all the trauma or the bad decisions or what you thought was a good decision. But now that

you're married, it's not a good decision anymore because you don't wouldn't do that if you're married. And all that kind of stuff. So all that matters now is we're getting married and we're moving forward together. She's got some kids. She has a house. I have a tiny house. That's all that matters.

How we got here or what my little dream was prior to this doesn't matter anymore. The second

and the way you can determine the best shape five years from today is to reverse engineer where you are. And you ask yourself the question, if I instead of that item, if I had that pile of money in the middle of my kitchen table, would I buy that item? You can do that with anything. You can look up like, you know, there's an old joke that says there's two great days of owning a boat today. You buy it the day you sell it, right? Which means that usually by the time people get rid of a boat,

they're sick of their boat. Now, I'm a boat person. I've got a couple of boats and I'm not sick of them at all. They're excellent boats, they're master crafts, world's best ski boat, there's an advertisement for you. And you know, so, but I'm not sick of them. And so, but I do know what they're worth. And if I look down on the dock at that boat and I say, that boat, there's not true. I won't make, I won't use real numbers. But let's just say that boats worth $40,000. Okay. And if I had $40,000 in the middle of the table,

kitchen table, and I didn't own that boat, would I go buy that boat today? If the answer is no way

then sell the boat. Because you'd rather have the $40,000 than the boat. That's the reverse engineering of it. Okay. So, if you look up at her situation and you say, I can rent out my tiny $130,000 tiny house for 500 bucks a month. Meanwhile, I can pay payments on $9,000 worth of credit card debt, $7,000 worth of student loans, $18,000 worth of car, $15,000 worth of personal loan, and $8,000 to $88,000 worth of heat lock.

That's going to, those payments are going to be a lot more than the rent that that tiny house will bring in. And that tiny house being sold will clear up all of those payments. So, the way you

“would reverse engineer that and say, if I didn't own this tiny house and the only way I could buy it would”

be to borrow $88,000, $18,000, $15 on a personal loan, $9 on a credit card, $7 on a student loan, and $18 on my car to go buy this tiny house. Would I go buy this tiny house by doing it that way?

And the answer is, hell no, not even close. You wouldn't even think about doing that. You know,

not even close. You know, no way would you try to $500 rental income for getting rid of all those payments. Ever, no way, doesn't make sense. And so that's why it's instantaneous for me to give that answer, but all I did was I just reverse engineer it. If you didn't own it and you had $130,000 sitting in the middle of the kitchen table, and you could either pay off all of this debt with it or you could go buy a tiny house, no one in the right mind would go buy the tiny house. It's a ludicrous mathematical

equation, not even close. And it doesn't matter how we got here, that's where we are. So you reverse engineer it and you ask yourself, what I do that? No, I would not do that. Be assonine to do that.

“I'm not doing that. And so that's why we can answer her with such force so quickly.”

And you can do that for yourself anytime. You say, okay, I've got money in a stock. My grandpa gave me a stock. Well, I don't care. I don't care who I don't care where you got it. You have X on stock and you have $400,000 in X on stock. I don't know anything about X on.

one way or the other. But you just ask yourself, if I had $400,000 in the middle of the kitchen table,

“would I go buy X on stock? Probably not because you were not well diversified, but you just got it”

from your grandpa. And it's not like it's his family Bible. It's stock. It's not, it's not got a an emotion tied to it. And so if you wouldn't go buy it again with that same amount of money, then don't keep it. And if you do that, if you practice that exercise, you can make decisions on whether to buy an investment, whether to keep an investment, whether to buy an item, whether to keep an item instantaneously. It's the same part of your brain that says, I'm going to throw all this

stuff away because I'd brother have a clean closet. It's the exact same part of your brain that you're

using. It's the clutter out. Yeah. It's a declutter. It's a cleansing process. And you say, would I do it again if I hadn't already done it? No, then undo it and sell the car, sell the boat, sell the X on stock, sell the tiny house. Whatever it is. But if you go, oh no, I think in the next five years, the best possible investment on the planet is a tiny house, bringing $500 in rent on $130,000

“investment, which by the way sucks as an ROI. But if you really believe that's the best thing,”

then you should keep it. But you can't possibly believe that. Okay. Not, not, not. All right, Katie is whether it's in Portland, Oregon. Hey, Katie, what's up? Hi, thank you guys so much for taking my call. Sure. How can we help? Um, so, okay, my husband and I just speak, just combine our finances. This week. We've been next this week. It's brand new. Okay. How long you all been married? We've been married for three years. How many? Three. Three years. Okay. Good. Okay. Yes. We've been together

for eight and a half years. Um, and that entire time, it was made very, very clear that we were

never going to be combining finances. Um, the reason for that being key had a previous marriage

and through a bunch of different things, ended up having to go bankrupt and had a lot of trauma where finances are, um, or concerned. And so I never expected to be combining finances with them. Even though something I really wanted. Um, but because of our debt and just our situation, um, he did come to me and finally said, hey, okay, I guess this is something we can try because I don't think I'm going for it. No, that's fine. That was hard for him. It was incredibly hard for

him. And it, it happened immediately after a big moment of conflict. And so I, I just think there was a lot of trust, a lot of humility. Good for him. I, he's in great man. Um, I had been sending him videos with your dices for a little while. So that may have helped. Um, but yeah, so my question really just boiled down to we've been sitting down trying to figure out how to restructure, how to combine, how to do this smoothly. Oh, it's messy, isn't it? It's a very, and it brings up

all the emotions every time you look at a number. And every time I look at him, he looks like he's going to puke and I'm so bad. Just giving him a hug. Um, I, I hope him. And remind him, remind him, they, you think he's a great man. Let me just tell you, this is a hard thing you're doing. Okay. But it's worth it. If it is, if it is, if it is strenuous and it's causing your stomach to come up in your throat, both of you, that makes, that means you're good human beings.

You're facing awkwardness to get a better future. Well, um, we were gifted financial piece university by our neighbors who have become a very best friend. Um, and they are the biggest fans of you guys. And they believe so much in your property. Let me tell you what. And so,

“let me, I'm big fans of you and your husband. Hey, and I want, I, I think the way you've approached”

this conversation and his humility and what he's doing, but that does, is not going to mean it's going to be easy. I can only promise you that it will get easier. When we combined our finances, I almost puked every night because I was used to being in complete control. And I no longer was. I was now accountable. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show and the Fair Wins Credit Union Studio. Andrew is with us in Philadelphia.

Hi, Andrew. How are you? Hey Dave here, Rachel. It's a good to walk you guys today.

And that is to should I leave my current stable job to pursue going back to school for the

“like a more fulfilling job? Okay. What would you be going to school for?”

So, I would like to hear back to school for to become a marriage and family therapist. Okay. So, do you have your undergrad already done? Yes. So, you'd have to finish your master so that you can get licensed and do your break-ups. How long is that? Is that a two year? Two year. Yeah, it's usually a two year program. And it costs what?

It costs $34,000. And then I do have, I get a little bit of research kind of on it. So, I'm a veteran and I have a hundred percent disability. And then I looked into the they have a vet center scholarship program, which will pay for a hundred percent of the tuition. I think they give you like a $13 a month starting expense. Yeah. The only is the only catch to

it all is that I would have to, you know, basically at the wind of the VA for six years to go wherever

they need me. Oh, no, I'm not doing that. No. No. Because the VA is going to pay a half a market place. Imagine time family therapists can make a hundred to a hundred and a half. You're not going to make that the VA. You know, it makes 60 with the VA. Okay. So, it's not worth that.

“34,000 out of pocket. I'd rather do. So, do you have any money saved?”

So, I'm on babysept here right now. I got out of bounds. I would say probably like 13,000 left a gallon of like 18,00 on a credit card in the 11,000 and like original student loans. Okay. So, by marriage and family therapist, you mean you would be like opening a practice, charging people in hourly rate to sit down and help them with their issues. That would be the end goal if I did that scholarship program. Oh, I would not do the scholarship program. I've already

established that. What are you doing now? The six years of the six year trades not worth it. What are you doing now? What are you making? Right now, I'm a utility locator for a construction company. I'm making about 35 to 45,000 a year. Okay. Okay. So, if you, but the military has a program that you don't have to go to work for the military, that's just part of your GI bill. And they'll pay you a stipend plus a bunch

of your tuition with no requirement to go to work for the VA. So, I've used my GI bill. You already have used it. Yeah, I've used the full 36. Oh, okay. Yeah.

What was that used on? That was for my second grad. You're undergrant psychology.

Okay, cool. So, you've been pursuing this for a while. Okay. Yeah, it's kind of been a big thing for me since I got out of the military myself. And how much do you receive and disability income? It's about 39, 100 a month. So, call it four grand a month, plus you make 30,000, right? Yes. Okay. So, we're talking about about an $80,000 income. Yeah. I would say about that. Okay. All right. And you sound like the words you're using your

single. I have a girlfriend. I am divorced though. Okay. But I mean, you don't have two incomes or all that. So, you got to girlfriend. Okay. All right. I'm wondering, Andrew, if you can do some of this while you work full time and do night classes. I've had, we, I've known one or two people that have done that. And seeing if you can work your way through, it may take you a little bit longer. But to keep the income going, so you could somewhat cash flow. It may not

be next year, because we don't want you out of debt with an emergency fund for you jumped into

“all this. But, um, that's what kind of was my thought originally, because I've been listening”

guys for a while and I know not to dig out more loans or anything like that. For sure. Okay. But I want to do this. I got to cash flow it. Yeah. I kind of around the numbers roughly and it's like, okay, I don't really make enough right now to do that essentially. Um, so I have to, you know, I don't like that at all. Let's, let's let me back up two steps. Number one, the answer to your question is, yes, you need to go do this. Then the, the only question remaining after we

make that statement is, how do we do that in a, what, in the wisest possible way? I would rule out giving up six years of my income being in half and trade that for 34,000 plus living expenses. No, thank you. I don't think that's a good trade. So I'm going to rule that one out if I'm you. Uh, so that means I have a $34,000 barrier and I make $80,000. If I can find a way to run an adult program, an adult master's program and they're out there, uh, I don't know what's available

in the filly area, but they're out there. If you could even an online thing and knock out half of your

have your emergency fund, then start saving towards the 34,000 and cash flow while working and

“making $80, that sounds ideal to me. Um, then the second part, the third possibility is, um,”

some, some big move, because your, your 3900 goes with you wherever you are. So the bulk of your income is going to follow you no matter what, because that's the disability income. So if you could go make 30, uh, work in weekends building decks and move to a city where you could have an inexpensive master's program and finish this thing up for 34k in two years, that's 17 here. You could do that. Okay. Yeah. What's the nature of your disability? Uh, it's mostly, um, I'm saying, you know,

mental health stuff and then, um, I've my new, you got all jacked up in the military. Okay. So maybe building decks is a bad example. Okay. With a jacked up knee, right? But I mean,

“but, you know, my, that's why I asked. But anyway, I don't care what you do. I mean, even if you're”

working the psych ward as a, as, as a, um, an orderly or something to get your, uh, to get some, practical, um, proximity to what you're going to be doing, but you're making 30 in there and you're working, you know, uh, three, 12s or something like that. And then you got the rest of time off to go to school. So I mean, just build your life out to where you go to this. I think you do need to go do it. That's the answer to the question. I just want you to do it in a way that three years from now,

you're sitting in a private practice, and you're, you know, you're going to make your first

hundred and, uh, and you're going to, then you're going to move towards 150 because a high quality,

“private practitioner ought to be making a hundred to a hundred and a half.”

Hmm. Yeah. I feel like it takes a while to get established. Yeah. Yeah. When you go the private practice. Well, well, well, that's, but that's the, that's the most lucrative route. And it's the route by which you control, uh, what clientele you serve the most, um, if you're working for an institution of some kind, like say the VA, they're going to have, they're going to control who your client is. You're not. And, um, that, that may take a lot of the fun out of this idea.

There were a reward out of this. This, this like a lot of people are going to do what you want to do, and see who you want to see is. Yeah. I'm like working with people and that, that I don't want to be working with a group or whatever. And for six years, it's all in time. That's not, you don't want to sign up for that one. No, no, no, no, please don't do that one. But the, uh, but I do think you're, you've thought this, most of the way through, we've just got to get you there dead free,

cash flowing it, and, um, get your finish up there, maybe step two and get you there without, without, uh, selling your soul to the company store. [Music] 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 any time

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.

Investing can be really confusing. Three years ago, for the first time, we did an unusual

investing virtual event called Investing Essentials. And it was me and George Campbell and I basically used, I opened up my personal playbook, what, how do I do real estate investing? And I showed exactly how the returns were, the details, the nerd it out, right? And how do I do mutual fun investing and I nerd it out? And how do I view wealth spiritually and nerd it out? And all these different

that we don't do and why. So we went into the details of what's broken about some of these theories that are floating around out there. And we're going to do it again. This is only the third time we've ever done this. I'm going to add a little bit of new material to it, reducing taxes, navigating wheels and building legacy. I'm going to add some stuff in on those things. Take a start at $1.99. It's two nights, September 1st and 2nd. Investing Essentials virtual

event, George Campbell Dave Ramsey, me doing my playbook with George. My personal stuff. You

“know how Dave Ramsey does real estate. That's what I'm going to do. That's simple. All right. Get yours today at”

RamseySolutions.com/events or click the link in the show notes and we'll get you set up. Elizabeth is in Huntsville, Ohio, Elizabeth, how are you? Hi Dave and Rachel, how are you guys? Better than we deserve,

what's up? My husband and I are young married couple. We've always planned for me to be a stay-at-home

mom when we have children. Since I won't have my own income for those years during raising our children, how will we make sure to invest adequately for our retirement? Well, Elizabeth, I mean, funding 15% of your income into retirements are baby step four, and that's after you're out of debt with a fully funded emergency funds. If you start young, you guys should be okay. How much are you guys making right now? My husband makes $105,000 a year pre-tax. Okay. I'm making $20,000 a year pre-tax. Okay. Well,

just for fun. How old are you? I'm 20. You're 20. Okay. And you guys have anything in anything in savings right now? Yes. We have $15,000 in savings, which is four months of emergency fund for us. Okay, anything invested? We have invested about $30,000 in a Roth IRA on my husband's job, and he's getting used to getting 10% per paycheck. Okay. Okay. Well, just, yeah, I mean, if you you guys from 20 right now to let's say $59, which is retirement age, and you contributed $1100 a month,

which will get you to about that 15%. And that's if you're income never went up, Elizabeth. Okay.

Just on his. Like if you never got another raise and you guys just did that, you'd have $10.6 million

at retirement just from that 15%. Wow. So, I think you guys will be great. You're going to stay out of debt and keep your emergency fund in place and stay on a budget so that you put $15,000 out of $100,000 away every year. Okay, which is more like $1200 a month, but 1100 is what Rachel ran the number on, and that's fine. No, that's okay. That's okay. But, I mean, that's go, go, you can go to ramsysolutions.com,

“and look at the retirement calculator, and that's what Rachel was using. That's how she ran those numbers.”

We are currently out of debt. We have our house mortgage, but that is all of our debt currently. So, you continue to work to pay out, get the house paid off early, while putting 15% away,

while paying cash for everything else you do. And if you do that, and he never gets a raise,

you're going to have millions and millions of dollars. That's the point. And of course, if you work for 35 years and you never get a raise by definition, you're a loser. Because, and your house was not a loser. So, the chance you've worked 35 years and never get a raise is a zero, right? He'll be doubling his income. I mean, you know, you guys will look up in your 30s and yeah, US will be great. There'll be great. And that's the way the lowest round of the career field.

Yeah, totally. Yes. Yeah, you guys will be completely finalist, Beth. You're going to get lost. If you do it. Yeah, my point is, is that the calculation is conservative.

“Okay, so you're going to be fine, but you have to do the budget and live on what you make.”

If you run up a bunch of stinking car payments and go on cruiser as you can afford, and buy couches you can't afford, and it's been $40,000 redoing the nursery on a credit card because you had a baby and like run around being a normal American and then whine because you're broke, then you're not going to have any of that money because you're not going to have the money to put money aside for retirement. But you're not going to do any of that. No. Okay.

That's three old cars that we love. Well, I mean, you can even upgrade your cars. Just pay cash for them. That's the whole thing. There we go. Little Donald Elizabeth, then the beauty honestly for you guys start in a 20. Those calculations look different if you're in your 40s and 50s. Yeah, well, that's pretty amazing. All right, crystal is in Boston. I crystal, how are you? Hi, David Rachel. I'm great. How are you? Better than we deserve. How can we help?

wait and see if I need a partner and get married before buying a home? No. No. You're not in complete.

You're awesome. You're awesome. You're not in complete. Oh, thank you. No, buy a house. No, now the thing we would all put immediately after the comma, right? The after the exclamation point would be you may change houses after you have someone come into your life.

“Okay. Right, and that's what I'm concerned about. That's okay, sell it. It's a house.”

I mean, two years. That's okay. Is it a buy a house and you get married and you decide we don't want to live in that area, sell the house. Okay. Are you dating anyone right now, Crystal? No, I just really find up for a dating matchmaker. Okay. That's great. Well, I was going to say, I mean, if you had a serious relationship and you guys were talking about marriage and all of that, I probably would pause and just make sure it's the city you want to be in with this person.

You know, if they're in the picture, but if they're not in the picture, no, I would keep running, running your race girl. You're doing an amazing job. Yeah, way to go. Yes. Excellent. There's more.

“Yeah, there's studies coming out showing that there's more women homeowners than men right now.”

So you will be part of a wonderful pool in their 20s. Yeah. That's exactly right. And it's going to make you pick your on on who you date, too. You're not going to want to date somebody that's going to mess this plan up because you're working a good plan. Now, you know,

and yeah, I'm in my 40s. I'm divorced. No kids. No kids. Okay. So I'm always joking with the

guys and say, but be ready to know that after you buy this house, once you find her, she's going to tell you it was the wrong house. But I might not be the case with you. You might find somebody that just loves this house, you know. I'm going to usually have good taste in

“houses. I would say that. I think. Yeah. I'm just saying. No crystal. Yep. Keep moving forward.”

You're going to do not wait on some guy to come along to make it okay. No, no, no, no, no. You go be you girl. And then the guy will show up when he's supposed to. Yep. And yeah, and to the your point, you crystals she threw out like what? Yeah, but if it's not within two years, you know, oh, listen, if the right person shows up, marriage and a life with someone, and he comes in 12 months, and you guys choose to move cities, that's okay. Take the hit on the house. You're going

to be fine financially, right? I mean, like, don't, don't let that be the thing that scares you into not doing it with what may happen, because if that even happens, that's a great life. Yeah. And to your point earlier, if someone else is listening, and you're in a relationship that's getting progressively serious, and that two year thing is real. Yes. Then maybe you do pause, then. Yes, absolutely. She's asking with no one on the hook, you know, no fish on the line right now. And so,

yeah, let her be, and you're amazing, crystal way to go. Well done. Congratulations.

[Music] Hey, guys, Rachel Cruz here. And I love summer. There is more fun on the calendar, more time with your people, and way more chances to make memories. But, you know, what else there's 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

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as you'd hear on here on the air. And we're going to walk you right through the baby steps,

the fastest way to get out of debt and into wealth. You track your progress, you get personalized recommendations, you get coaching for your situation. It's like having one of us walking with you every day showing you the next right step and holding you accountable. Start every dollar for free by downloading it in the App Store and Google Play. Brandon is in, "Whoa, what in the world?"

“Did I want that? Did I do that? All right, let me try again. Brandon, are you with me?”

I'm Lucy Dave. Cool. How can we help? So a little bit of a quick backstory. I grew up in a divorced household had a relationship with my father at a young age. It wasn't a good one in my adult age. I decided to not have a relationship with him, especially after I started to have children due to the way that he lived his life. He lived his life for money, but in a bad way he is okay with doing things

the wrong way. Maybe messing some people over to in order to get there alongside just women and not a great exhibition. Yeah, I got it right. So you had the draw boundary and now we're on our way. All right. So now I have been told that and I want to clarify, I do not want this money at all, but I have been told that he is putting his will for my two young children, one who's younger than one and one that is seven to receive all of his inheritance.

Cool. How much is it? I don't know because I don't trust anything he says. Well, what do you think it is? He says that it will be millions. What do you think it is? I would imagine that it is a lot of money. Okay. My concern is a young child

who has never met their grandfather getting a large sum of money from them. How can I help

“God them and who knows what age they will be when this happens? All right. How old is your dad?”

He's only 55 now. Okay. So their kids will probably be grown. Correct. Correct. Blocking. And unless he's in poor health now, they'll probably be adults before they get this money. Right. Okay. Right. And a lot can happen between now and then, too. Right. Right. I guess my question mainly is, is how do I or do I mention to, I mean, obviously not now they're way too young, but it would point what I bring this up to them and

have a have this conversation with them and what would that conversation look like?

Well, the problem is that there's a high probability. This guy's a high roller

“and he might have nothing. Right. He could lose everything. And so we don't want to”

over that that's of actual possibility. Okay. So I don't want to overplay this. I certainly would not do it before teenagers and and I would not do it and you know, and I would gauge it based on if we have any rumors about his health. In other words, let's say you heard that he's gotten a stage four cancer diagnosis. Then, yeah, we're going to have a different discussion than if we've heard that he's doing great. Right. Right. Because it's more imminent and we

don't know what it is. I will tell you this, wealth does not run children. It exposes the fact that your children are already ruined. So you raised men of character, young boys in the men of character. You said their boys, right? Right. Correct. Yeah. You raised them into being men of character, men who know how to work, men who are generous, men who are honest, men who work a system and a plan. And then if they receive this money, it won't harm them.

It will just accelerate them. Right. But if they if they if they receive the message that they don't have to work, and they're going to sit around and be a trust fund, baby, because some day when their grandpa dies, they're going to be rich. And they consequently become worth less than the money has harmed them. But the money didn't actually harm them. It just exposed the fact

that you were going to do anyway. And the further they are into that manhood, the more ready they are to receive and handle the wealth. Right. Okay. And when those conversations happen, if they are recent, right, if you do hear of a health scare, you know, and they're in their early 20s, be honest with them. Yeah. Like, hey, he's not doing good. And and he said he's going to leave you some money. I have no idea what that means. Yeah. But let's walk a little walk through it together

and kind of figure out what's a good plan. Here's what a wise young man does if he receives a million

“dollars. But also bringing the character of your dad, honestly, some people they don't last in wealth.”

So he may have that now today. And he may lose it. Yeah. Who knows? Right. Right. So I guess partial of my concern was, you know, it once upon a time, it was going to supposedly be left to me. And I said, me and my wife, it's vote. And so that we didn't want the money that we would just donate it. And that was just a personal thing to us because we came from. I know that I'm sorry, we if the money or because it was dirty money. Yeah. Why exactly? Yeah. Should should allow that

to play, you know, my children are just allowed them to have money. No, I appreciate you all

not wanting that because you've got a lot of emotion tied up in this relationship with your dad. But money is not dirty. Bricks are not dirty. You can use to take a brick and throw it through a window and be a vandal or you can take a brick and build a hospital for children. The brick doesn't care and who made the brick, a cocaine addict made the brick or a person of high moral character made the brick. It's still just a stinking brick. And, you know, so the money itself is technically not dirty.

But everything wrapped in it in the story of it feels gross to you, which is understandable.

“You would feel it key every time you looked around it. But for your boys just to get a million”

bucks and to be able to do something with that and go change the family tree for your grandkids in a healthy way because they're good young men. They have a spiritual walk. They're their quality people that serve and love the community. They love their family. They do conflict well, you've grown some men, right? You do that. This just becomes a blessing. And in the weirdest sort away from the weirdest possible source, but it does become a blessing. And so, yeah, they don't

have the strings attached to it. Yeah, like you do. Yeah. So folks, I'll pan back from Brandon a little bit. He was not asking this, but there's around this is the idea and I get this when I'm working with wealthy people a lot. I've worked on my life to build some wealth. How do I not let it ruin my children? We get that question all the time, don't we? Especially in a panel discussion somewhere where we're doing some generosity thing with multi-millionaires. How do I not let this ruin my

children? And our answer always is, money does not ruin your children. It just exposed the fact that

you did. So raise good kids. Raise children in such a way that they become excellent adults. And the money is not going to do. The money exposes who you are. It exposes who they are. That's all it does. Money magnifies the good parts of your life and character and the bad parts of your life and character and that of your children. Yeah. And the warnings, like even when you look at the therscripts, there are lots of warnings around wealth that you can't ignore. But that can

ruin you, the person that made the money and/or your children too. Yeah. So there's the natural warnings of it. You did not do something to your kids. It's not actually wrong by becoming wealthy and you did not do something spiritually wrong by leaving it in your family. So matter of fact there's

“lots of biblical indicators that that's what you should do. David didn't build the temple,”

Solomon did, with David's money. You should not feel uncertain about investing and you don't have to. That's why we created investing essentials. A two night virtual event where George Camo and I walk you through my playbook for investing and wealth planning will simplify everything from 401k's and mutual funds

at RamseySolutions.com/events or click the link in the show notes.

Our scripture today, second Corinthians, four 18. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is

unseen since what is seen is temporary. But what is unseen is eternal. Milton Friedman said nothing

“is so permanent as a temporary government program. Okay, Ashlyn is in Knoxville. Hey Ashlyn what's up?”

I'm good. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. How can we help? So my question is should I focus entirely on paying off my debt first or try to increase my income first and how to do so? What are you doing now? For work. So right now I am an hourly and commission based care

stylist in Alcoa, Tennessee. I'm probably going to make about 900 a month and my no my debt is a

little bit higher than that, not bad, but definitely higher than I would like it to be. How many hours you working? With my company I'm not allowed to go over 40, so it's usually anywhere from 36 to 38 hours, and you're making 900 a month? Yes. You're not getting paid as well. No, no, I'm not. But it's the only salon that contacted me and actually was able to hire me in the time period that I needed. Okay, well I would be looking for work that paid. Yeah, you're living on $10,000.

You can make more doing Uber. You can make more work going. Half the time you work at Target. Yeah, I'm looking for other salons, but unfortunately, living in Knoxville it's so competitive. No, it's not. There are not salons paying people $900 a month. No one stays in that situation. That's $10,000 a year, you can't exist on that. I'm telling you, they don't have people standing around working 40 hours for 900 bucks. Now, if you're working 10 hours for 900 bucks, maybe.

But you're not, you're not standing around there the whole time 40 hours a week, making 900 bucks. Nobody's doing that in Knoxville. Knoxville's not that, not that depressed, and neither's alcohol, what 10 to see, you're a marable 10 to see. It's one of the franchise locations of a smart style, so it's similar to great clips. Yeah, so get out of there. Yeah, I would go, go find a nice salon. There's, yeah, they're there for sure in Knoxville. Even if you're working as a, you know, front

“desk and your booking appointments for the first little bit, just get your foot in the door. If that's what”

you want to do, but more long term, you're, you're not making enough to exist. You need a job. Today. Okay. Today. Are you living at home, Masland? Are you at home? I am. I'm living with my parents. So no rent. No. Okay. I do pay for groceries for our family a lot. How much debt do you have? My debt is currently at $1,104. Most of that is from my credit card and other is from gym collections. That's making me pay it. And how old are you? I can pay it off. I'm 21. Okay. Good. All right.

So what you need to do is to set a goal and say, at Target, right there in Maryville, they'll pay you $2 an hour. Okay. Just working and there's a clerk. All right. And so here is obviously your, you know, hair stylist is obviously your goal, right? So now if I know I can make $2 an hour at Target, then I need to find a place where I can do my craft and make an excess of $20 an hour and start pursuing both. And so you can work weekends and nights at Target or whatever. I don't care.

Making some place, making $20. Okay. Up in West Knoxville somewhere, right at a retail establishment. There's people around there paying that right now in Knoxville, Tennessee. Today. Okay. And then, also, if you can work 20 hours a week on your hair stylist and get started, get a chair somewhere

“to get up, start to build your clientail. It takes a while to do that if that's what you're doing.”

But the problem is they're paying you nothing and your own commission and the only money you're

making or walk-ins that aren't your clients. Because because the type of organization you're in,

are repeats, but most of them are just walking and whoever's cutting, whoever's chair is open,

they jump in the chair. Yeah. The other stylist that works with me is making a lot more than that she's the only other stylist there. So I definitely need to try and find this along. It's just been difficult recently, because every time that I apply somewhere, I either don't hear back at all. After going in person, calling, applying online, bringing in physical application, or they answer, and they say they're not looking for anybody at that moment. Okay. So I've just been trying to

find any other jobs in the area that will work either around my schedule or that this along will

“work around the schedule for. Yeah. But honestly, if you lost the job you got right now,”

you lose much. You work 10, 15, 20 hours a week and being more than that someplace else. And while

you figure out this lawn thing and get your foot in the door somewhere, I don't know who that is or where that is, but I'm going to send you a book called The Proximity Principle Written by Ken Coleman that talks about what Rachel is saying, get your foot in the door, even if you're just the receptionist and you get in book and appointments, then you get started and you get in the organization, you get around people that are doing what you want to do. And that's where jobs come from.

It's not just from applications and follow-up. Okay. So this is harder than they told you at the school where you went to learn to be a hairstylist and you paid them. They told you this was going to be easy and they lied. This is not easy. Tony is in Jacksonville, Florida.

“Hi, Tony. How are you? You're good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up?”

Matt, I hear you say that all the time. But I can't believe what I was up. So I was in the army for 19 years and I'm 100% disabled now. And I've got a lot of debt and I really don't know where to start. I did just land a job. I was at the army for like a year with a dead end jobs between here and there, making $10 an hour and whatnot. But I got a job at Mars. We made all the combos that go out in the world. And I've actually got a lead position out

there. And I'm going to be making around 95,000 a year. Wow, good for you. I appreciate that. Well, that being said, you know, I thought it's a good time. Obviously, in my wife, we're not going to pull our credit reports. When we don't have money to make any debt, it's putting anything towards our debt. So of course, when I took the job, we went on with what our credit reports and we, you know, I mean, Excel spreadsheet, don't have much debt. We have in time like a payment plan.

“The only thing that sucks about this job is that it's been hour and a half away. And we don't”

have to get from money to relocate at the time. But my main question is, I hear y'all talk about a lot of resources of every dollar in this book and that book. And really, I don't own the house. You know, I got a car, no good. I got, yeah, and I got no debt. How much debt have you got? No, I got debt. If you got it's around 55,000. Oh, what? Well, my truck. I still owe 21,000 on the, we have a camper. I bought a couple of years ago that I owe 11 on the, and then the rest is

like credit cards. Okay. All right. Well, I personally would sell the camper. Might sell the truck. And as soon as you described the money together to move and get out of that lease and move up closer to work, I would, that's going to save you a bunch of money. And then I would get on the every dollar budget and start working these baby steps, list your debts, smallest to largest, and attack them in that order. We'll give you a copy of the book, the total money make over and give you

the premium version of every dollar and get you started. Okay. Yeah, Tony, instead of that Excel sheet, do do the every dollar budget, plug in those numbers that you, that you found out. And you'll start to see

pretty quickly. Okay, here's what's going out to everything. And then the motivation starts of,

if we sell the truck, how much does that free up per payment, right, per month, sell the camper? Sell the camper. What do we plan on that every month? That phrase it up. Do you search selling some stuff and get this moving? And with your income, you guys are going to do fantastic. Yeah. And you got the disability coming in from the military. Thank you for your service. I put this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know what? In the meantime, remember,

there's ultimately only one way to financial peace. And that's to walk daily with the prince of peace. Rise Jesus.