I Trashed My Credit Now Can't Find A Place To Rent

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Ramsey Show Highlights Episode: I Trashed My Credit Now Can't Find A Place To Rent
Release Date: May 27, 2025
Host: Ramsey Network
Duration: Under 10 Minutes

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Introduction

In this episode of The Ramsey Show Highlights, Sarah, a single mother of six, reaches out to seek advice on overcoming financial hardships exacerbated by personal challenges. Hosted by The Ramsey Network, the episode delves into Sarah's struggle with poor credit, eviction, and repossession, alongside the emotional toll of supporting her family during a difficult time.

Caller Background

Sarah has spent the last decade working as a travel nurse, earning between $16,000 to $18,000 monthly. However, due to a personal crisis—00:10—where one of her children attempted self-harm, she ceased traveling to provide local support, resulting in a significant reduction in her income. This salary cut strained her budget, revealing her lack of effective money management despite previous high earnings.

Sarah’s Situation:

• Income Reduction: Transitioned from travel nursing to a local contract with lower pay.
• Family Struggles: Single mother of six; one child’s mental health crisis.
• Financial Issues: Poor credit score, eviction on record, repossession.

Key Concerns Addressed

1. Finding Affordable Housing Despite Bad Credit
2. Managing Emotional Stress and Guilt Over Financial Decisions

Expert Advice and Discussions

1. Overcoming Housing Challenges

Sarah's primary concern is finding a new, affordable rental given her poor credit history.

Ken’s Advice:

• Community Outreach: 02:18 "If you're not involved in a local church, there's a church on every corner in your neck of the woods. Swallow any pride and give the people of a good church a chance to help you."
• Personal Connections: He suggests seeking rentals through personal networks rather than corporate landlords, emphasizing the importance of human connections in securing housing.

Jade’s Support:

• Human-Centric Rentals: 05:45 "Find a rental that's from a human being, not from, you know, a corporation or an agency. People who can go, hey, I know you. I see your situation."

Sarah acknowledges her supportive church community and plans to reach out, reinforcing Ken and Jade’s recommendations.

2. Emotional Support and Self-Forgiveness

Sarah grapples with feelings of shame and guilt over her financial missteps and inability to provide as she once did.

Ken’s Reassurance:

• Self-Forgiveness: 02:18 "You aren't pathetic and you are going to have to forgive yourself."
• Acknowledging Strength: 06:29 "I don't think there's a tougher organism on the planet than a single mom. You've already proven to everybody who knows you that you're tough as nails."

Jade’s Empathy:

• Human Kindness: She echoes Ken’s sentiments, highlighting the natural human desire to help those we care about once we understand their struggles.

Ken further motivates Sarah by recognizing her strengths and resilience, encouraging her to view her current struggles as temporary and surmountable. He emphasizes the importance of maintaining her budgeting efforts and assures her of her capability to overcome the financial storm.

Practical Steps Forward

• Budgeting: Sarah mentions she is actively working on budgeting through Every Dollar Premium and acknowledges that her lack of budgeting was a core issue 06:22.
• Church and Family Support: Leveraging her existing support systems to stabilize her situation temporarily while she rebuilds her financial standing.

Notable Quotes

• Ken on Self-Forgiveness:
  “You aren't pathetic and you are going to have to forgive yourself.” 02:18

• Ken on Strength:
  “There's no way I'm betting against you, Sarah. No chance.” 07:00

• Jade on Human-Centric Help:
  “Find a rental that's from a human being, not from, you know, a corporation or an agency.” 05:45

Conclusion

The episode provides a compassionate and practical approach to overcoming financial and emotional challenges. By emphasizing community support, personal resilience, and effective budgeting, Ken and Jade offer Sarah a roadmap to regain stability. Sarah’s openness and determination, coupled with the expert advice from The Ramsey Network, underscore the possibility of overcoming even the most daunting financial setbacks.

Final Encouragement: Ken leaves Sarah with a powerful message of hope and resilience, reinforcing that her efforts to budget and seek support will lead her to a more secure and stable future for her and her children.

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Note: Advertisements and non-content sections have been excluded to focus purely on the substantive discussions and advice provided during the episode.

Transcript

[Dave Ramsey]

Brought to you by Y Refi Refinance your defaulted private student loans [e-mail] Ramsey.

[Sarah]

I have a two part question. A little bit of background. I was have worked for the last 10 years as a travel nurse and I was making pretty good money anywhere from like 16 to 18,000 per month. And I'm a single mom of six and in December one of my children actually unfortunately tried to hurt themselves and so I gave up traveling and I took a local contract to be there to support them and it came with a huge pay decrease. And so suddenly my budget was not very good, very affordable anymore. But unfortunately I had never really managed that money well. Even though I was making a lot, I was spending even more. So I do have poor credit. I have an eviction on my record. I have a repossession on my record. And so when, when I kind of found Dave and money makeover and I sat down with every dollar budget, the clear answer was to move out of our rental because we have a very expensive rental home. But as I started looking, nobody would rent to me. So the first part of my question is if you have any suggestions for alternative renting like rental avenues to kind of get us out of this because that would free up a lot of my budget. And then the second part of my question is I've heard Dave say he has a PhD in dumb and things like that. On the I am having a really hard time with the shame and the guilt of not being able to provide for my family because I made so many poor decisions. And if you guys have any advice on how I kind of jumped that hurdle of the emotional weight.

[Ken]

Well.

[Sarah]

And just feeling so pathetic.

[Ken]

Well, let me jump in. Let me jump in real quick. I'm so glad you're sharing that with us, but you aren't pathetic and you are going to have to forgive yourself. You know, the kids are doing their thing, that's going to all cycle out. I think a lot of this is a tremendous amount of guilt and shame over the kid who's trying to hurt themselves.

[Jade]

I agree.

[Ken]

And that's pretty dark. It's pretty dark stuff. And there's no way for you not to personalize your child's pain. There's just no way not to. So I don't have any fix with my words. It's impossible to fix. But I do hope you listen to me and you do forgive yourself on the things that maybe you should forgive yourself and then also realize that you're not to blame for a lot of this stuff. Either blame for the financial decisions. Sure. But who among us hasn't made dumb financial decisions when we weren't healthy?

[Jade]

Exactly.

[Ken]

So you're a part of a pretty big tent, and I hope that helps you with shame. Let me move practically real quick to the first thing that came to my mind on the rent situation. If you're not involved in a local church, there's a church on every corner in your neck of the woods. And I would swallow any pride or whatever issues you have with faith, and I'd give the people of a good church a chance to help you. And I would go in and I would tell them your story, and I would be, if I were in your situation, looking for maybe an elderly couple, Jade, an older widow who's got some space over a garage right now. Your kids can adapt to anything, and I know you can adapt anything. And just a safe place. She doesn't care about credit score or they don't care about credit score. But finding something like that, I just believe that when we ask for something like that, we can find it. When you seek, you find. And I would be going that route. I'm not saying that's the only route. I want to bring Jade in, but I did. That just popped into my mind for some reason, to give you a season to get stable. Because the fact of the matter is, if your kid's not hurting themselves and you're not having to come back to where you are, you could have dug out of this, Correct?

[Sarah]

Yes. And that is a plan. I do have a wonderful church family. I do want to say that. But like you said, I will swallow my pride and go lean on them wherever.

[Ken]

Lean on them. No, if you've got a church family. If you've got a church family, I'm saying go to them and say, I can't do this alone in this circumstance, but once I can get my kid back, you know, on the rails and all that kind of stuff, then you can dig out of this. Because with your background, you can make good money. So this is temporary.

[Sarah]

That's the plan. We have good church family support and good family support that when he is in a little bit more stable place, other people can step in to be there in that role, and I can get back out and make a lot of money quickly.

[Ken]

Good.

[Jade]

Yeah. This is. This is a temporary situation. That's the good news. The hard news is it's a very tough temporary situation. Right. It doesn't make it any easier. I agree with Ken wholeheartedly there. The people that love you are the people who want to help you. And you have to ask yourself if, if I, if a close friend of mine were in the, the same situation, you would almost be hurt that they kept it from you. Right. Because you want to help. And so you have to remember that people have a heart like that. Yeah. I, with Ken, I think, Ken, I think you almost basically covered it. Find a rental that's from a human being, not from, you know, a corporation or an agency. People who can go, hey, I know you. I'm looking at you. I see your situation. I believe you'll pay me. As opposed to trying to go to apartment complexes or like I said, ones that are owned by big conglomerations. Yeah.

[Ken]

On the other side of this. Have you learned how to budget? Do you have. I know you're familiar with our materials, but how can we bless you today?

[Sarah]

I, I'm working on learning it. I did. I purchased every dollar premium last month and I'm trying to. To work on that. And yes, and more importantly, I've learned what the problem was that I just wasn't budgeting.

[Jade]

Yeah, that's good.

[Sarah]

And I've really. That's hit home to hear all of you, but especially Dave and Minnie makeover that I'm just not even watching my money. So it's leaving and I don't know where it went.

[Ken]

Did you say you have six kids?

[Sarah]

I do.

[Ken]

That's what I thought. How old are you?

[Sarah]

I will be 40 next week.

[Ken]

Okay. And I don't normally ask a lady her age, but. But there was a reason that I asked. I want to leave you with this. I've already gave you the pep talk on shame and forgiveness, but I want to remind you that I don't think there's a tougher organism on the planet than a single mom. And you have already made it a long way at the age of 40 with 6 kids, you've already proven to everybody who knows you that you're tough as nails. Am I right?

[Sarah]

Yeah.

[Ken]

Yeah. So hear me, you can do this. I love that you were so honest and vulnerable with this to say, hey, I know what the problem is. Jade and Ken, I just didn't budget well, guess what? That's something that's forgivable and you can learn that. And now you were just trying to hang on to survive and you didn't know how to budget. Now you know how to budget. You're getting better at it. You're going to keep getting better at it. And when you get through this storm, you're going to come out on the other side. And I'm not saying you won't have tough days ahead, but you won't have to go backwards financially. There's no way I'm betting against you, Sarah. No chance. You got me. I mean, there's no. There's nothing you wouldn't do for those kids. Am I right?

[Sarah]

No. Nothing.

[Ken]

All right. So shoulders back, head up. Forgive yourself. No shame in your game, Mama. And we got six kids that we got to take care of, one who specifically needs you. So you got to take care of you during this season. Get safe, get stable. You'll come out on the other side of this, and you're going to be fine. And your kids are going to talk about how great a mama you were, too. So hold on to that. And we're here for you. Call back at any time. You got ME?

[Sarah]

Yep. Thank you.

[Ken]

All right. Head up, shoulders back.

[Dave Ramsey]

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