“You Make Too Much To Be This Broke”

Summary

The Ramsey Show Highlights — “You Make Too Much To Be This Broke”

Date: January 15, 2026
Podcast: The Ramsey Show Highlights (Ramsey Network)
Host: Ramsey Network Team (Financial Advisor 1 & Financial Advisor 2)
Featured Caller: Cynthia

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Episode Overview

In this episode, the hosts take a call from Cynthia, an engine builder who earns a strong income but struggles with consumer debt and emotional spending. The conversation centers around confronting financial chaos, the impact of grief on money habits, and practical steps toward regaining control and eliminating debt. The tone is compassionate, candid, and motivational—classic Ramsey Network style—combining empathy with tough love and action-oriented advice.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Cynthia’s Financial Situation

• Income: $94,000/year before taxes.
• Assets: Home is paid off; owns two cars (one is paid for, one has a $7,000 loan).
• Debt: About $32,000 total, including personal loans, car loan, buy-now-pay-later schemes (Zip, Afterpay, PayPal), and credit cards.
• Current Practices: Contributes 16% to her 401k; recently made a budget using EveryDollar.
• Spending Behavior: Admits to emotional spending of $500–$600/week on clothes, with items piling up unused.

Emotional Context

• Trigger: Cynthia lost her son in 2018, leading to a period of uncontrolled spending as a coping mechanism.
  • “After my son passed away, I just went on a spending spree.” — Cynthia [01:18]
• Self-Awareness: She acknowledges the problem and wants change, especially after a “wake-up” moment around New Year’s.

Grief and Money

• Advisor’s Empathy:
  • “You make way too much money to be this broken, out of control. Yes, but your heart was broken.” — Financial Advisor 1 [01:52]
• Permission to Forgive:
  • “When someone loses their son and their heart is broken and they make some spending mistakes, that doesn’t make you a bad person. It just means your heart was hurting. You’re okay. But don’t live the rest of your life this way—for you. For your sake.” — Financial Advisor 1 [08:04]

Taking Control: Budgeting & Accountability

• Budgeting: Cynthia created a budget with the EveryDollar app and found about $2,000/month unaccounted for due to frivolous spending.
  • “I was like, where that money at? … Look in your closet. You wear your clothes one time and give them away.” — Cynthia [04:02]
• Accountability: The advisors recommend she continue tracking every dollar and enlist her honest friend as an accountability partner:
  • “Give your friend access to the EveryDollar app to be your accountability partner. Tell her to bust you if you don’t do anything except get out of debt.” — Financial Advisor 1 [05:04]

Practical Steps Outlined

• Sell Unused Items: List unused clothes, shoes, and purses on platforms like eBay and Poshmark to generate extra cash.
  • “You have enough crap to last you for the rest of your life.” — Financial Advisor 1 [05:05]
  • “Why don't you put them on eBay?” — Financial Advisor 1 [06:27]
• Debt Payoff Plan:
  • Pay off $2,000 in back home taxes immediately.
  • Use an incoming $10,000 check to pay down debts, following the smallest-to-largest (debt snowball) method.
  • Apply the identified $2,000/month cash flow surplus to remaining debts.
  • With this approach, she could clear all debts “by the end of the year—or sooner if intense.”
    • “If you take that [surplus], I mean, you’re going to be done with this by the end of the year.” — Financial Advisor 2 [06:10]
• Behavioral Change:
  • Avoid shopping environments and online sites unless selling something.
  • Rely on support from friends and stay accountable daily.
  • Use motivational literature to stay focused:
    • “You’re the prime candidate because your emotions were driving you, and this will just help you stay motivated even more going into the new year.” — Financial Advisor 2 [07:49] (offering a book gift)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Breaking the Pattern:
  • “Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired yet?” — Financial Advisor 1 [02:45]
  • “Yes.” — Cynthia [02:48]
  • “Enough to change?” — Financial Advisor 1 [02:49]
  • “Yes.” — Cynthia [02:51]
• Encouragement & Affirmation:
  • “You already had a pretty good plan before you called us… You were working the stuff we teach exactly the way we teach.” — Financial Advisor 1 [07:10]
  • “Let’s get this mess straightened up and in his memory, instead of having a pile of shoes, let’s have a pile of money.” — Financial Advisor 1 [08:33]
• Confronting Emotional Spending:
  • “No buying nothing, Cynthia, you have enough crap to last you for the rest of your life.” — Financial Advisor 1 [05:05]
  • “Don’t go in a store. Drunks don’t need to go in a bar.” — Financial Advisor 1 [07:24]

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Important Timestamps

• Cynthia shares her background and income: [00:10]
• Reveals her debt situation and emotional spending after loss: [00:35]–[01:27]
• Advisor’s tough love: “You make way too much money to be this broke.” — [01:52]
• Cynthia’s realization and budgeting breakthrough: [03:07]–[03:33]
• Discussion of budget, accountability, and EveryDollar app: [04:49]–[05:04]
• Establishing her debt payoff plan with upcoming $10,000 windfall: [05:39]–[06:03]
• Suggestions to sell unused items: [06:27]–[06:53]
• Advisors praise Cynthia’s progress and encourage follow-through: [07:10]–[07:24]
• Empathy and closure: Addressing the impact of grief on finances: [08:04]–[08:33]

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Summary & Takeaways

This episode underscores how unaddressed emotional pain can fuel destructive financial behavior—even for high earners. Cynthia’s journey illustrates that awareness, budgeting, and honest accountability are the first steps toward reclaiming control. The hosts provide a blueprint for debt freedom—practical, empathetic, and insistent on behavioral change. They emphasize that financial mistakes in the wake of grief are understandable, but with support, structure, and determination, change is absolutely possible.

Key takeaway:
"Let’s get this mess straightened up and in his memory, instead of having a pile of shoes, let’s have a pile of money." — Financial Advisor 1 [08:33]

Transcript

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[Cynthia]

I make $94,000 before taxes.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Good for you. What do you do?

[Cynthia]

I'm an engine builder for the military.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Very cool. Good for you. Good, good. So you're in the military or you just work civilian for the military?

[Cynthia]

I work at. I work in another place and I just only do military engines.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Cool. Okay, good. How can we help?

[Cynthia]

I'm like $32,000 in debt.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Mm.

[Cynthia]

And I got. My home is paid for and I gotta pay for Jeep Wrangler, but I bought another car just to drive back and forth to work to save money. But I got like a lot of zip afterpay paypal. You know how you just don't want to spend your money? And I got a personal loan and I just want to know what's the fastest way because at my job I'm already doing like 16% in my 401k.

[Financial Advisor 2]

So I have a feeling. Do you have a stack of money saved somewhere? Do you have money saved?

[Cynthia]

I did, but I don't know more because after my son passed away, I just went on a spending spree.

[Financial Advisor 1]

And when did he pass away? Huh?

[Cynthia]

2018.

[Financial Advisor 2]

So you said you've got a bunch of.

[Financial Advisor 1]

So did you borrow money for the car that was cheaper in quotes?

[Cynthia]

Well, I got like a seven thousand dollar car loan I left owing seven thousand dollars on it. Now everything is current, but it's just like I'm throwing my money away. I don't know where my money go. Half of the time I'd be like, I make good money.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Yeah, you do make good money. You make way too much money be this broken, out of control. Yes, but your heart. But your heart was broken.

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[Financial Advisor 1]

But your heart was broken.

[Cynthia]

Yeah, I'm out of control, babe. I need help.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Okay.

[Cynthia]

Like five, six hundred dollars worth of clothes a week.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Oh, wow.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Yeah.

[Financial Advisor 1]

My dad used to say that half of solving a problem is realizing there is one. Cynthia, I think you realized it.

[Cynthia]

Yeah.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired yet?

[Cynthia]

Yes.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Okay. Enough to change?

[Cynthia]

Yes.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Okay. Because I think you can. You make enough Money to straighten this out. As soon as we straighten you out, right?

[Cynthia]

Yeah.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Have you looked at how much it is when you combine it all together? All the buy now, pay laters and the personal loans, all that? How much is it?

[Cynthia]

Yeah, like, I got. I. I got them wrote down in a tablet at home. And so I got, like. I came over, y' all came. I saw y', all, like, on New Year's, the day before New Year, and I just went to write down everything that I had.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Good.

[Cynthia]

And I was good. I'm gonna get my life together.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Good.

[Cynthia]

And I won't go. I went. I came to the store to return some stuff.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Okay.

[Cynthia]

And I would like to put the money back on my debit card. And my friends, they did. The first time I ever seen you go in the store and come out without nothing in your hands, I said, I'm on a budget. I can't do it no more.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Okay, so you create. Did you create a budget, or are you just saying you're on a budget?

[Cynthia]

No, I created.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Good.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Yeah, you get on every dollar. Did you do it on every dollar?

[Cynthia]

That's where I did it at.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Great.

[Financial Advisor 1]

All right.

[Financial Advisor 2]

What did you find? Did you. Did you find. Tell us what you found.

[Cynthia]

That I was, like, having, like, I got three, $600, like, into debt, but I have, like, $2,200 left, and I was like, where that money at? And. Okay, my friend, like, look on the floor. You got shoes stacked up to the ceiling. You don't even put on your feet. Look in your closet. You wear your clothes one time and give them away.

[Financial Advisor 2]

That's a friend. That's a true friend, to tell you the truth. So you got $2,000 of margin every single month. And. And it's just going to crap. Crap, Basically, yeah. And did I hear you say it's only 30 $600 of debt?

[Financial Advisor 1]

No. Yeah, 32.

[Cynthia]

I got $32,000. But, like, when I pay my stuff off a month, I have, like, that left. But I increase.

[Financial Advisor 1]

My. You're not married, right?

[Cynthia]

No.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Okay, What I want you to do is I want you to keep this Every Dollar app, and I want you to give your friend access to the EveryDollar app to be your accountability partner.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Yeah. Because she's a good friend.

[Financial Advisor 1]

And tell her to bust you if you don't do anything except get out of debt. No buying nothing, Cynthia, you have enough crap to last you for the rest of your life. If you don't do anything except pay rent, work, eat, keep the lights on, you can be out of debt in no time.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Well, you don't even have rent to pay for.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Yeah, that's right. That's right. I'll come. I forgot that.

[Financial Advisor 2]

So how much you. When you look at your budget, how much can you put towards debt every single month? How much extra?

[Cynthia]

Well, I had. Well, I got like a $10,000 check coming on tomorrow.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Okay, great.

[Cynthia]

And so I said that I was going to take that and start. Well, I got my thousand dollar bill and then I said with that $10,000, I was going to take that because I got like $2,000 of back home taxes and I need to just go on and pay that too.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Yes, you do better.

[Cynthia]

And then just go on and start paying all my credit cards out the smallest to the lowest.

[Financial Advisor 2]

That's right. That's right. So the other 8,000 goes to that. And then if you just continue to take. I think I heard you say you had $2,000 in margin every month. If you take that, I mean, you're going to be done with this by the end of the year.

[Cynthia]

That what I wanted to hear. Okay.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Or sooner or sooner if you get intense about it. Because something tells me you do have.

[Financial Advisor 1]

More margin than 2,000 shoes and purses. Why don't you put them on ebay?

[Cynthia]

That's what somebody else said instead of giving them away.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Yeah, because it's brand new, basically.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Yeah, let's put them on ebay. People buy that stuff, man. I pay big money for it.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Yeah, because she's. This is not.

[Financial Advisor 1]

It's not cheap stuff. This girl buys good stuff. I can tell.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Yeah.

[Financial Advisor 1]

I think there's a name brand Cynthia laying there in your floor.

[Cynthia]

Oh, yeah.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Put that on Poshmark. Put that. Put that on the nice places.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Okay. Poshmark is ebay.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Poshmark. Yeah. That's where you get the nice high end stuff.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Oh, used.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Yeah.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Okay, cool. All right. There you go. See, I don't know this because I don't do that, but yeah. Good. Very good. Hey, Cynthia, I think you already had a pretty good plan before you called us.

[Cynthia]

Okay.

[Financial Advisor 1]

You were working the stuff we teach exactly the way we teach everything. We asked you, you answered the way we would have told you to do it. I'm very impressed with you.

[Cynthia]

Thank you.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Okay, now do it. Okay.

[Cynthia]

Okay.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Be, you know, act like your friend's standing in your back pocket and say, no screwing around. Time to be a grown up. No buying stuff. Don't be walking in. Don't even go in a store. Drunks don't need to go in a Bar.

[Cynthia]

Yeah.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Yeah. So just stay out of the store. You don't need to go there. And don't get on some website unless you're selling something. All you need to do is sell stuff and work.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Can I give her my book yet? Can I give her my book?

[Financial Advisor 1]

Absolutely.

[Financial Advisor 2]

You're the prime candidate because you're in. Emotions were driving you, and this will just help you stay motivated even more going into the new year. So Christian's back there. He'll pick up and give it to you. I think you're the first person I've given this book.

[Financial Advisor 1]

That's good. Very good.

[Cynthia]

Thank you.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Hey, and Cynthia, listen, here's the deal. When someone loses their son and their heart is broken and they make some spending mistakes, that doesn't make you a bad person. It just means your heart was hurting. You're okay. You're okay. But don't live. But don't live the rest of your life this way. For you. For your sake. Okay.

[Cynthia]

Okay.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Yeah. You didn't do a bad thing. You just. Your just heart was broken. Okay.

[Cynthia]

Okay. Thank you.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Yeah. Just go on. And now let's go win. Let's get this mess straightened up and in his memory, instead of having a pile of shoes, let's have a pile of money and get this thing worked out. Yeah, that's a different change on that. Because I got to tell you, the number of times that emotions, just like your book, activate, and sometimes it's a broken heart. Grieving.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Yes.

[Financial Advisor 1]

The loss of a loved one, the loss of a relationship, the loss of a job. Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes it takes people a while, depending on the severity and the weirdness of the situation. Takes longer than others. But, you know, the good news is something happened around New Year's for Cynthia, clicked into place, and she woke up and thank God, something popped up on Instagram. It was us. Instead of one of these goobers that are just telling, you know, so far, telling, you go in debt or something. Right. And she did everything. She already started doing it all.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Yeah.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Very, very good. Very impressive.

[Financial Advisor 2]

Take those moments and run with them.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Amen. I call that a God moment is what I call it. Well done, Cynthia. You call us back anytime, honey. We're here to help you. That's what we're for.

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