"We Desperately Need To Buy A New House"

Summary

The Ramsey Show Highlights – Episode Summary

Episode Title: "We Desperately Need To Buy A New House"
Host: Dave Ramsey (with Financial Coach)
Date: June 19, 2026

Overview

This episode features a heartfelt call from Marie, a listener overwhelmed by financial stress as her growing family faces space constraints in a small home and a burdensome solar panel loan. Dave Ramsey and a Ramsey Network financial coach offer tough-love guidance to unravel the urgency behind Marie’s desire to move, challenge past financial decisions, and provide strategic next steps for her family's future.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Marie’s Situation: A Crowded House and a Heavy Loan

• Family Size and Home: Marie shares she has a small two-bedroom, one-bath, 900-square-foot house, four kids, another on the way, and all three older children share a room ([01:31]).
• Financial Stress and Loan: Their biggest outstanding debt is a $40,500 solar panel loan that isn’t scheduled to be paid off until 2047 ([00:07], [00:33]).
• Motivation for Solar: Marie explains the initial decision was driven by “homelessness for two years” and the need to stabilize fluctuating utility bills, which Dave and the coach immediately critique ([00:53], [01:04]).
• Current Financial State: The family has a household income of $84,000, monthly mortgage of $1,400 set to increase by $300, and faces additional challenges due to Marie’s chronic illnesses and three children’s special needs ([05:21], [06:03]).

2. Reckoning with Past Decisions

• Solar Panels Critique:
  • Dave Ramsey bluntly points out the flawed logic in trading a $47K loan for minor monthly savings on utilities:

    "You completely surrendered major long term debt for a tiny little movement in your monthly budget. And don't blame it on you being homeless." ([01:06])

• House Purchase and Windows:
  • Dave challenges Marie for buying a house that never really fit her family’s size ([02:04]).
  • Dave also criticizes the urgent replacement of old windows, labeling these drama-driven decisions ([07:01]).

3. The Perils of Desperation-Driven Choices

• Recurring Theme: Dave repeatedly highlights the damage caused by high-emotion, “desperate” choices:

  "Every time you've done drama, you've made bad decisions. Anytime I get feeling desperate, right after I get desperate, I get stupid. And most people do." ([07:01])

• Pattern Recognition: He asks Marie to recognize this destructive pattern and urges more careful, emotion-free decision-making:

  "If you don't break it, it's never going to go away." ([07:01])

4. The Reality Check on Moving and Recommending Solutions

• Equity and Sale Constraint: With little to no real equity (especially factoring the solar loan), moving up would be financially reckless ([02:51]).
• Don’t Move Yet: The financial coach advises there simply isn’t the money to move up right now, cautioning against compounding errors:

  "You don't have the money today to move up in house. You just simply don't. And we don't want to add insult to injury." ([06:19])

• Short-term Advice: If the house is sold, consider renting a larger space rather than buying again too soon ([06:39]).

5. Navigating Solar Loan Forgiveness Hopes

• Facebook Scams and Legal Avenues: Marie asks if recent Facebook ads touting loan forgiveness are real, leading Dave to flatly declare:

  "Everything on Facebook is a scam, all of it. This is not a place to get solid information." ([04:05])

• Legit Research Steps:
  • Dave and the coach guide her to look up legitimate resources like ftc.gov for any class action lawsuits or Federal Trade Commission rulings ([04:53], [04:58]).
  • Attorney Consultation: Suggesting that it’s worth paying a lawyer several hundred dollars to pursue real due diligence:

    "I would pay a lawyer 500 bucks to research it for me and check it out against 47,000. That's a good investment." ([07:01])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the solar loan’s absurd timeline:

  "It's 40,500 and we'll pay it off by the year 2047. Might as well be dead by that point."
  — Marie ([00:07])

• Blunt assessment on drama-based decision making:

  "Every time I get feeling desperate, right after I get desperate, I get stupid. And most people do."
  — Dave Ramsey ([07:01])

• On the flood of conflicting information online:

  "Everything on Facebook is a scam, all of it. This is not a place to get solid information."
  — Dave Ramsey ([04:05])

• Dave’s tough-love wrap-up:

  "You should not have bought that house to stop being homeless. You should have gone and rented something that fits your family... I'm picking on you... But I'm loving you. Well, hear me because see this pattern real clearly and if you don't break it, it's never going to go away."
  — Dave Ramsey ([07:01])

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Important Segment Timestamps

• Marie’s Introduction and House/Solar Panel Discussion: [00:07] – [02:13]
• Current House Value and Equity Analysis: [02:41] – [03:00]
• Solar Loan Forgiveness Query/Facebook Warnings: [03:36] – [04:53]
• Family and Financial Reality Check: [05:21] – [06:19]
• Advice on Renting Versus Buying: [06:19] – [06:47]
• Dave’s “Drama Decisions” Monologue & Final Advice: [06:55] – [End]

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Summary Flow

Marie’s urgent call to “desperately” move was met with a candid financial and emotional autopsy by Dave Ramsey. Recognizing a cycle of panic-driven choices—buying a cramped home, expensive windows, massive solar panels—the hosts urge Marie to pause, research legal options for the solar loan, and consider renting as a bridge while getting their financial house in order. Throughout, Dave delivers tough love, emphasizing that desperation leads to repeated financial blunders, and that clarity comes from slowing down and seeking facts, not Facebook ads.

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For listeners in similar situations:
This episode is a timely cautionary tale on the dangers of quick fixes and the importance of slowing down, analyzing patterns, and choosing the next step with both your head and heart.

Transcript

[Dave Ramsey]

Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today.

[Marie]

So we desperately need to buy a new house. And we are trying to become as most debt free as we can. I don't think we're going to be able to do it all by the time we need this house. But our biggest loan is our solar panels. It's 40,500 and we'll pay it off by the year 2047. Might as well be dead by that point.

[Financial Coach]

What in the world.

[Marie]

So long. It is so bad. But the reason we did it was because we were homeless for two years before that and our budget was so tightly needed, we couldn't have our bills fluctuating every month. And then sometimes it would go to 400, sometimes it would go down to 80 and we never knew what we were going to get.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, you meant stop place. Please tell me you know how stupid this is now that you traded $47,000 for $100 fluctuation in your utility bill.

[Marie]

Yeah, it was like a 300. Yeah, it was, but it's.

[Dave Ramsey]

But still, either way, there's no possible way any of this math accomplished what you wanted to accomplish. You completely surrendered major long term debt for a tiny little movement in your monthly budget. And don't blame it on you being homeless.

[Financial Coach]

Tell us why you desperately need. Which is a strong language to move right now, why you need a new house.

[Marie]

We have a two bedroom, one bath, 900 square foot house. We have four kids and one on the way that's coming in December. We have our three oldest kids sharing a room and the baby sleeping with us in our room. But my boys, my, my oldest are boys and they're getting to the age where they need to be.

[Dave Ramsey]

How long have you been in this house?

[Marie]

Four years.

[Dave Ramsey]

How old were they when you moved in this house?

[Marie]

11 now. So.

[Dave Ramsey]

So you, you already were the old woman in the shoe when you moved into the house.

[Marie]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

You barely fit in there when you bought it.

[Marie]

Wow. Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

You don't even know what that is. You gotta look that up after you get off the air. Okay, the better than living in the street. So yeah, you remember being in the street, but you also bought a house that wouldn't handle your family and now you're, now you're realizing that it certainly wasn't a crisis when you bought it and things have not changed except by one baby. Okay, now, now what is this house worth?

[Marie]

This house has about 35 to 40,000

[Dave Ramsey]

in equity right now, not counting the solar panels.

[Marie]

Oh yeah.

[Financial Coach]

Take that out Then So nothing.

[Dave Ramsey]

So it doesn't have any equity when you pay off the solar panels because they're attached to the house. And what's the house worth?

[Marie]

About 235. We're at 186 right now. And after all the payments we've made,

[Dave Ramsey]

don't wait for the interest rate to be perfect. Before buying or refinancing a home. Talk to Churchill Mortgage. Smart buyers buy the home they can afford now and then refinance later if rates improve. Churchill helps you make decisions with confidence instead of guessing. And Churchill Mortgage has a webpage with special offers just for our audience. Go to ChurchillMortgage.com RamseyOffer this is a

[Financial Coach]

paid advertisement in MLS ID 1591 in mlsconsumeraccess.org equal housing lender.

[Marie]

We're at 186 right now and after all the payments we've made. So,

[Dave Ramsey]

okay, now my screen says, my screen says should we get our solar panel loan canceled? Why would you be able to get your loan canceled?

[Marie]

Well, you know how Facebook is. As soon as you start going in and searching something, it sends a bunch of ads your way and you never know what to scam.

[Dave Ramsey]

Everything on Facebook is a scam, all of it. This is not a place to get solid information.

[Marie]

Yes, that's why I was calling, because it's. They sell a really nice story. So my. I keep seeing this, the same name as alone, which I'm sure is done on purpose of the people who sold us the solar panels and saying that because they were making shady deals and things like that, that people are getting their loans forgiven.

[Financial Coach]

Is it a lawsuit?

[Dave Ramsey]

Was there a. Yeah, I don't.

[Marie]

There have been some lawsuits, but it feels a little shady, like I need

[Financial Coach]

to do some independent. You need to do some independent research on that. Don't go by Facebook if you want to know. Just research if there's a lawsuit pending against that company.

[Dave Ramsey]

Is there a class action lawsuit or is the Federal Trade Commission gotten a ruling?

[Financial Coach]

There you go.

[Dave Ramsey]

Go the ftc.gov go to ftc.gov federal trade commission.gov have you done that?

[Marie]

No. I was going to ask what are some good places to search because I go on Google and I get all these companies that pop up with the same stuff. So I don't want to go in the wrong direction and then go into debt because of a lawyer fee or whatever. And that was unnecessary.

[Dave Ramsey]

What's your household income?

[Marie]

84,000. Okay. We have our three. Our three. Three kids that are older, have special needs. So we Homeschool. I have several chronic illnesses as well.

[Financial Coach]

What's the nature of the special needs for the three kids?

[Marie]

Well, my oldest has severe anaphylaxis to a lot and they have, all three of them have ADHD and anxiety and two of them have autism. Okay. And I have Lyme disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

[Financial Coach]

Oh, my goodness. Boy, oh boy. Okay. There's a lot going on. What are you guys paying? What do you pay for the mortgage every month? What do you pay?

[Marie]

1400. And in November that will go up by $300. The windows on our house were cracking and it wasn't safe. They were single pane from 1984. So we have to get new windows for the house.

[Financial Coach]

So to answer, let's answer your question at hand. You don't have the money today to move up in house. You just simply don't. And we don't want to add insult to injury. The, the best thing I could think of is if you're trying to find another place that you could rent for a while that's got an extra bedroom that's in the same range, the seventeen

[Dave Ramsey]

hundred dollar range if you got your house sold.

[Financial Coach]

Huh? If you sell this house and that can buy you some time to save up a down payment.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. Okay. Marie, I'm going to be honest with you and love you. Are you ready for me to do that?

[Marie]

Absolutely.

[Dave Ramsey]

You sure? Brace yourself. Put your seatbelt on.

[Marie]

Okay. I know it's already ugly here. It's all good.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right. You guys make a lot of decisions that are large, decisions that are very drama based. Suddenly the 1984 windows were dangerous. No, they weren't. A window salesman called, suddenly we couldn't afford, we were homeless. And so we bought a house that doesn't fit our family instead of going and renting something that fit our family. And so we went from drama to drama to drama. Oh, and we bought $47,000 worth of solar panels to stabilize a $300, $200 utility bill with another bill that is equal to almost that. So all this stuff is you go to drama. And every time I do drama. And you too, Marie, every time you've done drama, you've made bad decisions. Anytime I get feeling desperate, right after I get desperate, I get stupid. And most people do. So if you feel this rising up anxiety inside of you that this house is a crisis, this utility bill is a crisis, this homelessness is a crisis, and you build up to where you justify doing something really dumb to get away from the crisis, you're making things worse every time you do that. You've made three large bad decisions in this phone call and they all were based on that pattern. So you've got to take a step back and take a breath and you've got a lot on your plate. I mean you got all kinds of special needs in the house. You're doing it all in 900 square feet. You were doing it in a homeless situation before. Those are all real stressors. But when you're in the cooker like that, you got to be real careful to move carefully and slowly on the next step. Otherwise you're going to step on a rock and fall in the creek. And that's what I do. I get desperate, I get a little jinky and all of a sudden I get stupid. And you've done three really large bad ideas. You should not have bought that house to stop being homeless. You should have gone and rented something that fits your family. You shouldn't have bought windows because they suddenly were a problem from 1984. Crap. Those windows were in that house when you bought them. And then you shouldn't have bought solar. So I mean, I'm picking on you. I told you to put your seatbelt on. But I'm loving you. Well, hear me because see this pattern real clearly and if you don't break it, it's never going to go away. And so I want you to stop. So yes, I want you to investigate and see if you can get rid of the solar loan. It's possible. I'll give you a 10% probability that this particular company has been set up by the FTC and the loans are being forgiven. You can check it out. Federaltradecommissionftc.gov I would pay a lawyer 500 bucks to research it for me and check it out against 47,000. That's a good investment. And find out if there's a class action suit or something out there or a Federal Trade Commission ruling out there to get rid of this that'll help you get this house sold. And then gently and carefully and calmly go rent something. Create your free everydollar budget today. The simplest way to budget for your life.