Lisa (2:07)

Right now I am in a two bedroom apartment. I moved out of like the town I raised my kids in, and I moved into a less expensive area, but it's still very expensive. I'm, I'm currently looking like I was trying to keep, you know, my. One of my kids has graduated, but one of My kids still comes home and I still had that need to, like, have a bedroom.

George (2:25)

You can hold on.

Lisa (2:26)

Yeah.

George (2:26)

You got to stop.

Dave Ramsey (2:27)

It's an air mattress in the living room.

George (2:28)

Yeah. You got to stop this mess because that. That feeling of having to. Everything all right for them is what got you in $130,000 of debt. So you gotta stop today. They're grown. They love you. You don't have to prove it. It's inherent. Okay?

Dave Ramsey (2:42)

Because here's the truth. You being a burden because they have to cover mom's expenses for the rest of her life because she's broke is so much worse.

George (2:49)

Come on, George.

Dave Ramsey (2:50)

Than them sleeping on an air mattress because mom can't afford $3,500 in rent, which is totally reasonable.

George (2:56)

What's your commute right now? And how far can we get you out of town to get this?

Lisa (3:01)

Yes. Right now is great. Like, I'm. I'm 10 minutes from my job.

George (3:05)

This is the problem.

Lisa (3:07)

Yeah.

George (3:07)

We got to get you out into the country where. Where rent is $1,000 a month for a one bedroom.

Lisa (3:13)

Yes.

George (3:13)

Okay. And I'm laughing, but I'm being serious. Your rent is going to keep you from freedom here.

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George (3:51)

Your rent is going to keep you from freedom here. So your first order of business, while everybody else is going out for Valentine's Day, you're going to be on the computer searching for a new place. When's your lease up?

Lisa (4:05)

It's up in June.

Dave Ramsey (4:06)

Okay, perfect.

George (4:07)

Perfect. Yeah, it is perfect. That gives you time to find the spot. It gives you time to tell your kids, hey, we're moving. And that's wonderful.

Dave Ramsey (4:17)

Think about it. You went down to 1500 instead of 3500. That's two grand a month you could be throwing at your debt.

Lisa (4:24)

That's. That's. I've been looking for an apartment. I have been looking. I've downsized my look to one Bedroom apartment.

Dave Ramsey (4:30)

Good.

Lisa (4:31)

And there's. I. I think you're right. I think I have to expand my commute distance because I'm still hitting a wall with prices.

George (4:38)

You have to think about it. It's a must.

Dave Ramsey (4:39)

If it's this or bankruptcy, I'll take a 20 minute commute. A 25 minute commute. Because that bankruptcy will destroy your financial life, at least for the next seven years.

George (4:48)

Yeah.

Dave Ramsey (4:48)

Which puts you into your mid-60s by the time you can even recover.

George (4:52)

Now, what. What about your car? Do you have a car payment?

Lisa (4:56)

I have. I have a. I have. I own my car. I'm making my son's car payment.

George (5:00)

Right.

Dave Ramsey (5:00)

No, no. Lisa.

Lisa (5:03)

What?

George (5:03)

Your name is not on it.

Lisa (5:04)

Graduated. I know. He just graduated.

George (5:06)

Is your name on it?

Lisa (5:08)

Yes.

George (5:09)

What? Why? Why? Why? Why? Okay.

Dave Ramsey (5:12)

Well, this is fun. Then you get to say, hey, son, I got to sell this car.

George (5:15)

Yes.

Dave Ramsey (5:15)

Hope you enjoyed driving it.

George (5:17)

Yes.

Dave Ramsey (5:17)

Tell him it was basically a rental. Hope you enjoyed driving the rental.

George (5:21)

George has never been more right. But you have to do it right. How much is the car worth?

Lisa (5:27)

It's 17,000 maybe.

George (5:29)

And how much do you owe on it?

Lisa (5:30)

It's lease. So the car that he has is lease.

Dave Ramsey (5:34)

Oh, no, that's even worse. Cause you can't get out of this thing unless you have the lump sum to do a full buyout.

Lisa (5:39)

Right.

George (5:40)

When's the lease up?

Lisa (5:41)

Or he could take the payments over.

George (5:43)

He could. When's it up?

Lisa (5:45)

I have to. Look, I'm not sure. I think it's another year.

Dave Ramsey (5:47)

Is he working?

Lisa (5:49)

He just started a job. He just started an internship. So. Yes.

George (5:52)

Okay. So I would have that conversation. I'd say, son, I made a mistake and I'm really sorry. I. Because it's going to affect both of us. I agreed to pay this lease. I can't afford it. I'm over here struggling. This lease is good for one more year. We either need to. You either need to take this on completely. If you can't afford it, I'll pay whatever little bitty portion that you can't afford to pay. But this is going to. And. And put it in George's words, if I don't fix myself now, I will end up being a burden to you later on in a greater way. And I don't want that. And hopefully he can understand that. But, yeah, the tables. The way we've been doing life with money and kids has to change today. And I'm glad that you called in because I think that you're starting to understand that. But I can't stress that these are not going to be. They're easy to understand, not easy to do, right? You know?

Lisa (6:48)

Yes.

Dave Ramsey (6:49)

So here's the math on this. If you say, you said you make about 7,500amonth if you keep the side job, right?

Lisa (6:56)

Yes.

Dave Ramsey (6:56)

Are you doing any investing right now?

Lisa (6:58)

No. A little bit to my 401k, but I stopped that.

Dave Ramsey (7:02)

Good. Let's pause all investing to clean this mess up so that we can actually retire one day. That's the goal. And right now, investing is not helping us get rid of the mess. So let's say you could, you know, you make 7,500 and you lived on 4,000. That's fair, right? If you move this, if you switch your renting situation, that frees up 3,500 bucks a month to throw a debt. Right. With 130 grand in debt, you're done in about 37 months, three years.

Lisa (7:26)

Right.

Dave Ramsey (7:27)

And that's if you do no other changes. If you can just cut your rent down and throw that amount of the debt, we're done in three years. I think you can do even better with this with your, you're very talented, you have a lot of high skilled, you know, you have a lot of high skills. I would use that to your advantage. Live on as little as you can for two years. Let's say your 60th birthday. Let's celebrate you becoming debt free. How cool would that be?

Lisa (7:48)

That would be amazing. Really amazing.

Dave Ramsey (7:50)

It's possible. I mean, you can crunch the numbers and go, all right, this is the margin I need. I need $4,000 a month, come hell or high water to be throwing at this debt. And then do the debt snowball, knock out the smallest balance first for you. The IRS debt goes to the top because they can really screw up your life and garnish your wages. So I would attack that first, but once you're done with that, just debt snowball it. Whatever. The smallest card balances, attack that first. Minimum payments on the rest.

Lisa (8:14)

Okay, you can do this. Making my minimum, keeping my minimum payments.

Dave Ramsey (8:18)

Yes. Don't get behind on anything if you can help it.

Lisa (8:22)

Yeah, I'm already a little bit behind on a lot of the payments.

George (8:25)

Is anything in collections credit card wise?

Lisa (8:28)

No, not one credit card is actually. Yes.

George (8:31)

Okay, so go ahead and settle that one.

Dave Ramsey (8:33)

Just try to get current on everything and then attack the IRS debt, then debt, snowball the rest. That's your goals. We're going to cover four walls, basic food, utilities, housing, transportation, insurance. And then beyond that, we are living like broke college kids because right now your kids are living more lavishly than you are. That's pretty wild. Like I think college kids should be broke. That's the stage of life. Not a 58 year old woman who's trying to provide for them. So you have done more than enough. You don't need to earn your kids love by going deeper and deeper into debt. Right?

Lisa (9:04)

Okay.

Dave Ramsey (9:05)

You got this, Lisa. We're cheering you on. I'm going to give you every dollar premium version to connect your bank accounts. Have all the transactions come through because you make great money. It's time to put every dollar to work cleaning up this mess. Create your free every dollar budget today. The simplest way to budget for your life.