"I have 350k Of Debt And Haven't Filed Taxes In 8 Years"

Summary

The Ramsey Show – Episode Summary: “I have 350k Of Debt And Haven't Filed Taxes In 8 Years”

Date: December 12, 2025
Hosts: Dave Ramsey & Ken Coleman

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Ramsey Show features a wide range of callers facing challenging financial situations—from those considering family property arrangements to a business owner drowning in tax and credit card debt, as well as success stories and common struggles. Throughout the episode, Dave and Ken provide practical advice, stress the importance of honesty in relationships, highlight the consequences of poor financial planning (particularly with regard to debt and taxes), and underscore the power of budgeting, communication, and personal responsibility.

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Key Discussions and Insights

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1. Family Real Estate Compounds & Trusts (00:42-07:55)

Caller: Teresa from Providence, RI

• Scenario:
  Teresa is considering, alongside her ex-husband, their children, and extended family, a “family compound”—multiple homes on the same property, held in trust, so every family member has a share.
• Issues Discussed:
  • Concerns about joint ownership and the complications when someone wants to exit.
  • Risk of family disagreements leading to financial gridlock.
  • The pitfalls of designing overly complex family entanglements.
• Advice & Notable Moments:
  • Dave (03:12): “There’s more downside than upside here. All the variables would have to work perfectly for everyone to come out intact. And as we all know, all the variables never work out perfectly. I wouldn’t do it.”
  • Suggests, if they want to be close, to buy homes near each other but individually owned.
  • Emphasizes need for marketable, separate parcels for each family member.
  • “About the only thing I’m sure of is there are no forever homes except heaven.” (04:35)
  • Ken urges celebrating the “win” of happy, harmonious family brunches rather than risking chaos with complex property ties.

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2. The "Affordability Crisis" for Young Homebuyers (07:55-10:37)

• Topic:
  Why young adults feel unable to buy homes.
• Dave’s Take:
  • The real problem: Gen Z and Millennials are “trapped” by student loans, car payments, and credit card debt—not home prices.
  • “When Gen Z and Millennials say it’s not affordable, they’ve first been screwed and trapped in all these other debt payments.”
  • Urges young people to break free from “big banks” and debt cycles.

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3. $350K Debt & 8 Years of Unfiled Taxes: What Now? (10:37-19:15)

Caller: Carlos from San Francisco

• Scenario:
  Business owner, $350,000 in debt (credit cards, commercial line, SBA disaster loan), hasn’t filed taxes—941 payroll or otherwise—since 2017/2018. Business shrunk to a handful of accounts. Extremely stressed and fearful about potential legal consequences.
• Key Discussion Points:
  • The unbankruptable nature of 941 payroll taxes and IRS obligations.
  • Proactive vs. reactive action with the IRS—emphasizing turning oneself in is much safer than waiting for discovery.
  • “Not paying income taxes is not a criminal offense. Not filing is a criminal offense.” (15:15)
  • Steps recommended:
    • Immediately consult a reputable tax professional—Ramsey recommends their Endorsed Local Providers (Tax ELPs).
    • Prioritize getting current on filings; the IRS will often work with you on back returns.
    • Stop paying unsecured creditors (cards, commercial lines, maybe SBA)—focus every available dollar on taxes.
    • Only consider bankruptcy later, after dealing with non-dischargeable debts.
  • Ken’s Reflection:
    • Encourages Carlos to revisit what made his business successful in the first place and try to replicate those strategies.
    • “In times of failure, one of the great exercises is to identify that success formula and repeat it.” (18:56)
• Emotional Support:
  • Dave encourages Carlos to seek community support:
    “The answer to being terrified is to be in community and have friends. Lonely people are super terrified more than people who have friends in their corner.” (17:19)

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4. Retirement Fund Dilemma: Saving vs. Living (22:44-28:38)

Caller: Darrell from Orlando, FL

• Scenario:
  61-year-old, wife retired, considering reducing 401(k) contributions (currently at 16%/~$34K per year) to free up more for fun and charitable giving.
• Discussion:
  • Darrell has a net worth of $2.1M, zero debt, house paid off.
  • Dave reassures him their savings will double in roughly seven years, and he can afford to “take the foot off the gas” if he wants a better lifestyle in the present.
  • “None of this is going to put you anywhere near anything except really wealthy.” (27:08)
  • Dave applauds his discipline, noting Darrell is living the American Dream.
• Notable Quote:
  • “The American dream is alive and well. There are Darrells out there everywhere, boys and girls. Your communist college professor was wrong. They're everywhere.” (27:44)

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5. In-Laws, Boundaries, and Holiday Stress (29:01-33:02)

Caller: Amanda from Columbus, MS

• Scenario:
  Facing pressure to host violent, alcoholic in-laws over the holidays while working to get out of debt.
• Discussion:
  • Dave: The real issue isn’t financial but relational—setting and enforcing boundaries.
  • If they visit, insist they stay at a hotel and make clear rules about visiting her home (sobriety required).
  • “This has nothing to do with you being on Baby Step Two. This has to do with setting boundaries.” (30:17)

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6. Mom Blew Her Inheritance, Should I Rescue Her? (33:05-38:05)

Caller: Andrew from Los Angeles

• Scenario:
  Mother burned through $300K inheritance after widowhood, now low income, considering selling her house or moving in with her son.
• Dave’s Guidance:
  • “Her plan should be she gets a job. Your plan should be you get married and start a life. There’s no ‘our plan.’” (35:45)
  • Dave firmly tells caller not to take responsibility for his mother's poor money habits and to encourage her to seek employment.

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7. Budget Conflicts & Marriage Communication (38:05-42:19)

Caller: Josh from Orlando, FL

• Scenario:
  Struggles with spouse overspending and not sticking to a budget—he creates the budget, she wants no part in it.
• Instruction:
  • Both spouses need mutual investment in creating/installing the budget.
  • “You can’t do a budget and then come in like Moses from the mountain... It doesn’t work.” (39:45)
  • Ken: It’s about understanding not just process, but values—why do you disagree about money?
• Insight:
  • Real change and relational improvement only come when both partners own the plan (“when we listen to debt free screams, it’s so obvious that once both are on the same page, the momentum is incredible” 41:50).

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8. Honesty and Debt in Premarital Relationships (44:24-49:23)

Caller: Gina from Boston

• Scenario:
  Single mom, considering marrying fiancé who’s hidden $100K in debt, only disclosed student loan debt (hid credit card/defaulted debts).
• Dave & Ken’s Advice:
  • The real warning isn’t the debt, it’s the breach of trust and secrecy.
  • “The big question is not the debts. The big question is, is this guy going to lie to you every time he’s ashamed?” (46:29)
  • Both recommend pre-marital counseling and possibly postponing the wedding until trust and honesty are fully restored.

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9. Safe Second Home Purchase Decision (49:23-52:26)

Caller: Pat from Iowa

• Scenario:
  75-year-old couple considering buying a $300K Florida winter home; net worth $1.3M, good cash flow.
• Advice:
  • Dave says "yes"—they’re more than financially able, especially since they've rented in Florida for years and know what they're getting into.

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10. Should We Have a Baby While on a Tight Budget & Uncertain Immigration? (96:14-104:51)

Caller: Emily from New York

• Scenario:
  Young Canadian couple in NYC, $30K in student loans, tight monthly budget, only one income due to visa restrictions; wondering if it’s responsible to have their first child now.
• Advice:
  • Dave: Don’t wait for perfect circumstances; “We don’t tell people not to have babies due to debt.”
  • “If I woke up in your shoes and you both want a child and God wants you to have a child, I would go have a child.” (101:14)
  • Encourages careful budgeting but supports moving forward.

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11. Real-Life Transformation: Debt-Free Scream (106:35-114:34)

Guests: Paul & Britton from outside Savannah, GA

• Story:
  • Paid off $127K in 27 months (student loans, IRS, cars, HELOC, credit cards)
  • Income grew from $120K to $212K.
  • Catalyst: Picking up Dave’s “Total Money Makeover” at Goodwill and reading it cover to cover together.
• Marriage Impact:
  • Reduced money stress, improved communication.
  • Their 17-year-old inspired to avoid student loans; 9-year-old now asks “Is this in the budget?”
• Advice to Listeners:
  • “The main thing is just stop doing what you’ve been doing and start today. Budget. Actually do the budget. We talked about it and talked about it, and it was just time to start.” (113:23)

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12. Elderly Widow Struggling Post-Loss (117:38-126:12)

Caller: Sandra from Houston

• Scenario:
  66-year-old widow, lost husband (primary breadwinner), $113K mortgage, $10K in credit card debt, falling behind on bills, adult kids at home, overwhelmed.
• Advice:
  • Discovery: Multiple income streams (assistant, eBay, Social Security) add up to ~$84K/year—should be enough.
  • Problem: Disorganization and overwhelm after loss, not a lack of resources.
  • Solution: Ramsey coach to help her organize finances, prioritize house over other bills, stop paying low-priority debt, and keep the house.
  • “You have enough to pay these bills. What I’m gonna do is put you with a Ramsey coach and see if we can get you straightened out. You just have to get on a real tight budget and learn how to run every dollar and make this money behave.” (124:51)

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13. Investing Advice: Ignore the Noise, Stick to the Fundamentals (76:33-85:13)

Caller: Chip from Atlanta

• Scenario:
  Retired phone company executive, $2.2M nest egg, overwhelmed by conflicting investment advice (annuities, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs).
• Dave’s Core Advice:
  • Stick with what works:
    • ¼ Aggressive Growth
    • ¼ Growth
    • ¼ Growth & Income
    • ¼ International Growth mutual funds (with long track records)
  • Avoid annuities and excessive bonds; “asset allocation theory” is often misapplied.
  • “I don’t have a ‘Dave plan’ and a ‘plan for the little people.’ … If you actually do the crap we teach on this show, you actually are going to be where Chip is—$2.2M at 60 years old.” (82:43)

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Memorable Quotes & Timestamps

• “All the variables would have to work perfectly for everyone to come out intact. And as we all know, all the variables never work out perfectly. So there’s so many negative things that can happen… I wouldn’t do it.” – Dave on family compound idea (03:12)
• “Not paying income taxes is not a criminal offense. Not filing is a criminal offense.” – Dave (15:15)
• “Your vote counts… You can’t do a budget and then come in like Moses from the mountain.” – Dave (39:45)
• “The big question is not the debts. The big question is, is this guy going to lie to you every time he’s ashamed?” – Dave (46:29)
• “None of this is going to put you anywhere near anything except really wealthy.” – Dave (27:08)
• “If you actually do the crap we teach on this show, you actually are going to be where Chip is—$2.2M at 60 years old.” – Dave (82:43)
• “We talked about it and talked about it, and we decided it was just time to start. We were done. Sick and tired of being sick and tired.” – Paul & Britton’s advice (113:23)
• “If I woke up in your shoes and you both want a child and God wants you to have a child, I would go have a child.” – Dave (101:14)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Family Compound Complexities: 00:42–07:55
• Affordability Crisis for Young People: 07:55–10:37
• Carlos’s $350K Debt & Unfiled Taxes: 10:37–19:15
• Retirement: Save or Enjoy Now?: 22:44–28:38
• In-Laws and Setting Boundaries: 29:01–33:02
• Supporting a Parent Who Blew Inheritance: 33:05–38:05
• Marital Complications Over Budgets: 38:05–42:19
• Premarital Trust & Debt: 44:24–49:23
• Buying Second Home in Florida: 49:23–52:26
• Having Babies on Tight Budgets: 96:14–104:51
• Debt-Free Scream Story: 106:35–114:34
• Retired Caller Investment Strategies: 76:33–85:13
• Widow Needs a Budget, Not a House Sale: 117:38–126:12

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Final Thoughts

This episode underscores The Ramsey Show’s core values: own your mistakes, communicate openly, avoid or aggressively eliminate debt, invest simply and wisely, and don’t be afraid to ask for help. Whether just starting their journey, facing a crisis, or celebrating a win, listeners are encouraged to “just start”—and to know financial peace is possible, even after setbacks.

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Transcript

[A]

Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today. Normal is broke and common sense is weird. So we're here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsey Network in the Fair Winds Credit Union studio. This is the Ramsey Show. I'm Dave Ramsey. Ken Coleman, number one best selling author, Ramsey Network star of front row seat is my co host. Today open phones at 888. 825-5225. Teresa is in Providence, Rhode Island. Hi Theresa, how are you? I am good.

[B]

Gentlemen, how are you?

[A]

Better than we deserve. What's up?

[B]

Excellent. Are you in a good mood? That's the first question. Because I need you to sit back and think. I want you to count to three before you answer my question.

[A]

Wow. Okay. I can't wait to hear what this is.

[C]

I will say as his co host, I just spoke with him for about five minutes. I think he's in a fabulous mood. I don't know if that helps you. No, I had nothing to do with it. Don't give me any credit.

[A]

Wow, this is interesting. Okay, need a weather forecast before we bring the question do.

[B]

Okay, here we go.

[A]

Dark and stormy.

[B]

I have an ex husband. I have two children. My ex has a girlfriend and a son. And we are all great friends. We give white trash new meaning, without a doubt. Every Saturday we go to brunch together and then we have a misery and we do something together that's miserable. That's why we call it the misery trip. But my point here is neither one of my children who are 23 and 21, financially sound, out of school, in good careers, no debt bank in their coin like you read about, can't buy houses. So we're thinking of a family compound. We're thinking of, do we put it in a trust? Do we have each person have a quarter say in it? What happens when one of them wants to leave this compound? Do we have to have a vote so that they can go out, but they have to have equity to go with them so they could buy their own house. Not that I think anybody would ever leave the compound, but just to throw it out there as a possibility. So we want to do it the right way, but we all want to have our own little independent houses on this land. Can it be done without, I don't know, shotgunning each other? And you should know in our family dynamics we have very expensive purses and very expensive guns. And I will agree with you, two guns to a purse is absolutely correct.

[C]

I will say this sounds like a great Idea for a reality show.

[B]

Oh, yeah. We could put Kardashians out of business. No doubt in my mind.

[A]

Wow. Well, y' all are a lot of fun.

[B]

So my. My problem is both kids want to do houses, but they can't afford it.

[A]

Yes, they can.

[B]

Singly.

[A]

Yes, they can.

[B]

Well, they can in five years.

[A]

Well, so what? They'll still be in their 20s. People buy a house in their 20s, first time. That's not an end of the world.

[B]

All right, all right, fair enough. We were all talking about if we did it and we kind of put a trust together, because I'm on the hill coming down, I don't want anything in my name.

[A]

I think there's more downside than upside here. This is one of those things that all of the variables would have to work perfectly for everyone to come out intact. And as we all know, all the variables never worked out perfectly. So there's just so many negative things that can happen from this that outweigh the few positives that. I wouldn't do it.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

You could get stuck. This weird relationship you've got could go sideways again. You know, it could be. You know, the kid could get stuck in there and. Or marries a girl who doesn't want anything to do with this compound, and then he's stuck. And then we have to have a communal vote, like it's communism or something. No, this just.

[B]

No, I'm against it. Just maybe all buy houses on the same block.

[A]

That'd be fine. Or if you bought a piece of property and everyone had a. Had their own parcel that was marketable and everybody's not pissed if they sell it later, you know, then.

[B]

Oh, that's an option then. So just get a larger piece of land where it can be parceled out to each of us.

[A]

But again, as long as everybody's cool. When I sell my house and move.

[B]

At that point, I don't. Well, the right. The older ones were. Like I said, I'm on the hill down.

[A]

So I never mean.

[B]

I was looking not to put anything in my name necessarily.

[A]

Well, I'm not that. That doesn't matter. Just whoever has a piece of property, they have their own life and they have boundaries and they have legal rights and they have relational rights to at some. At some point, someday sell this house. Because about the only thing I'm sure of is there are no forever homes except heaven. And so at some point, your son is a grandfather, and he wants to move away where his kids are in Phoenix. And somebody's going to be pissed if with the whole thing's based on. Well, you're the one that broke it all up, you know, And I don't, I don't need that thing. I just don't need any of that. So our kids, our three kids live within a mile of each other and within 25 minutes of Sharon and I. But everybody owns their own thing and everybody's allowed to buy or sell. And we talk about it sometimes as just, you know, family relations. One of ours bought it, sold a home and moved up considerably the other day and we were cheering them on and we have a discussion about it, but we don't get to say, no, you can't do that, or we're mad at you.

[C]

Yeah, that freaked me out just listening to that. And I would say this. You got to know when you've got to win and take the win and be okay with the win. And I think the weekly brunch where you guys are all happy in this crazy scenario is a win. I think you should leave it there. That's a miracle in and of itself. So enjoy the weekly brunch. Don't try to make this whole living thing this controlled community. It just feels weird and someone's going to be let down.

[A]

Yeah, good question. Good question. And you know, it's kind of a theme I've been on for the last two weeks, Ken, and I'll circle back on it too, because one of the driving motivations was a 23 year old can't buy a house. Okay, our 26 year old can't buy a house in Orlando, Florida. Well, A, they can, but B, they can't have been first victimized by the large banks, the car companies and the student loan machine. And so if you're 26 and you have a $1200 car payment because you got screwed by Lexus Motor Credit believing you were building up your FICO score. And then you ran up a bunch of Visa debt because you're building up points that matter not to anyone, anything. And then you went and got a degree for $180,000 from a university that some somehow supposed to make you successful in a degree field like left handed puppetry or German polka history. And then you can't figure out why you can't get a good job and you're $180,000 in debt. And then you know, and you just keep going where these big banks, these car companies, the FICO program, the student loan program has trapped the Gen Z's and the millennials. Now the millennials and the Gen Z signed up for it. I went broke in my 20s because I was such an idiot. I signed up with these types of people and they took my head off. But when people start Talking about a 23 year old, 26 year old, it's not affordable now. It's because they first and foremost have been screwed and they're trapped in all these other debt payments and that makes them think they can't buy a house. No, they got to get out of that mess.

[C]

That's right.

[A]

And quit playing footsie with these big banks. Because let me tell you, Citibank runs washed up actors on there saying, what's in your wallet? Bradley Cooper does not really live in a lobby, boys and girls. I'm just saying, you know, and at some point, y' all got to go, I'm not going to get screwed by you people anymore. I'm not going to take it anymore. I'm not going to do business with people who piss on me all the time. I quit. And when Gen Z and millennials start doing that, they get out of debt. The affordability crisis in air quotes will really start to. You know, one of the first things I discovered working in the financial world is how absolutely devastating it is when the breadwinner of a family dies and there's too little life insurance or none at all. Grieving families are suddenly left behind, scrambling to pay bills and trying to make ends meet. I also discovered that there are a lot of rip offs in the life insurance world like that whole life crap posing as an investment opportunity. What you need is level term life insurance, usually 10 to 12 times your income, which is the smartest, most affordable way to protect your family. The key is finding an independent broker who represents a ton of companies and works for you, not for the insurance company. This is exactly what my friend Jeff Zander and his team at Zander Insurance are all about. They shop the term life companies to find you the best options and they've been around for over 95 years, so you know they'll be there when you need them. Zander is the real deal and that's why they've handled all my personal insurance for over 25 years. I trust them and you can too. Visit Zander.com for instant online quotes or for a more personal touch. Give them a call at 800-356-4282. Carlos is with us in San Francisco. Hey Carlos, how are you doing?

[B]

Well, thank you for having me.

[A]

Sure. How can we help?

[B]

So I kind of did what you probably did a long time ago. I Started a business, and it was booming. Made my first million in a couple of years, and it just kind of went. It just. My financial life just spiraled out of control. And now I don't know if I should go bankrupt and figure out a way how to get back on track. I haven't done any. Any payroll taxes and I owe since 2017, 2018. I also haven't filed taxes since I was 2017, 2018. And credit cards. I have over $70,000 in credit card debt. I have a commercial line of credit, which is another 30,000 that I owe the bank. I took an SBA loan out, which is the emergency funding. This is during the PPP time. Sorry, I might have. It's the one for Covid. I qualify for that because I didn't file my 2021 or 2020 taxes. So I had to actually get a loan out to keep my employees on board with me. And that's 132,500 there. So altogether it's well over $350,000 in debt.

[A]

Is your business still open?

[B]

It is. I just had to let go of all my employees, and I had to minimize all of my accounts. Currently, I think I have, like four or five accounts that I drive to every single night. My industry is janitorial business. So, yeah, it's. It's tough.

[A]

So what are you making with the three or four accounts?

[B]

So it's 9777. That's per month. And I did the math on all my expenses, they equal out to about 7,877amonth.

[A]

Are you married?

[B]

I'm engaged.

[A]

Okay. When do you plan to get married?

[B]

Oh, Jesus. Not anytime soon.

[A]

Okay. All right. What does she make?

[B]

I'd probably say around 3,000amonth.

[A]

Okay. How old are you?

[B]

20. No, 38. Sorry. 38.

[A]

All right. Well, it's a really, really scary situation, and it didn't happen suddenly. It's happened pretty gradually. So really, really bad news for you that apparently you're not aware of. 941 payroll taxes are not bankruptible, and neither. And neither is the irs. So all of your taxes are going to be there if you file bankruptcy. I'm not sure if this SBA loan is bankruptible because it's Covid related. It might be. Certainly the credit cards in the line of credit are bankruptible. You're not the problem. Doesn't go away with bankruptcy, is my point. You've still got a massive problem. And so the first thing I need you to do before we even talk about bankruptcy, Is when you get off the phone, I want you to go to ramseysolutions.com and click on Tax ELPs. Endorse local providers. Find the tax person in your area that we are as Ramsey trusted, and I want you to sit down with them and develop a strategy to get caught up on your filings. Typically, when you have not filed this far back, they'll take three years tax returns. You don't have to go all the way to 2017. And then you, of course, owe those taxes. And I don't know what they'll do with the potential owings from those others. The 941s, however, you withheld taxes on your employees. Right?

[B]

Right.

[A]

And then didn't pay it.

[B]

Correct?

[A]

Yeah. That's a trust account. And those live forever. That's. And that's. The IRS puts that in the extremely serious bucket. Yeah, that one is, like, really scary. So you need to develop a strategy with a tax person on the 941s and on getting your returns caught up. Because here's what's scaring me. Apparently you didn't realize not paying income taxes is not a criminal offense. Not filing is a criminal offense.

[B]

Correct.

[A]

2561 people went to jail last year. They put people in jail for not filing. Okay. And you have not filed a lot. So I want you. But. But I've never in 35 years of doing this, seen someone actually get prison time or get criminally charged if they come forward. But if the IRS comes and finds you, you're going to be screwed. So you need to take care of this proactively. Tomorrow you need to meet with a tax tax person and start developing a game plan on your back taxes and your back 941s, then you can. Whether or not we. You know, what I would do is just not pay the credit card and cut it up. I would not pay the commercial line of credit and I would not pay the sba, which, by the way, is what happens if you file bankruptcy, right? Yeah, they don't get paid, so I would not pay them. And I would take all of the cash flow above living expenses and start dumping it, first and foremost on the 941s and then secondly on whatever back IRS taxes you have. And if one of these others comes after you and tries to shut you down or foreclose on something or whatever, that might force you into bankruptcy. But we're going to address the non. The things that are not bankruptible, which is the IRS in this case, before we bother with a stupid Line of credit or credit card.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then you go to working as hard as you can work, and you properly pay and file your taxes every day for the rest of your life from this day forward.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

That has affected your ability to do business because it's a monster in the closet.

[B]

Absolutely.

[A]

Yeah. And you wake up in the middle of the night and you don't know why. I know it's called stress. And you're hurting. You're hurting and you're scared. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It's terrifying. So that's what I would do. Are you in a good church by chance?

[B]

I don't go to church. I do believe in God. I just don't have the time to. I work.

[A]

You don't have the time not to. Now you need a. You need a relationship that is above and beyond hard work. You're not afraid of hard work. You've just made a mess. And you need some people in your life that love you regardless of how messy you are, and that's the place to get it. So I'm going to suggest you plug into that, because the answer to being terrified is to be in community and have friends. Lonely people are super terrified more than people who have friends in their corner. Make sense?

[B]

Absolutely.

[A]

Yeah. So get. Get some people in your corner.

[C]

I have a homework assignment for you, Carlos. We don't have time to unpack it, but what I would have loved to have sat with you on is to identify what was going right. In other words, what was working when you were really killing it. You started the call saying, we had some great success. I think you mentioned over a million dollars of revenue. I think you need to, at some point spend enough time to write it down and say, what was working? What was I doing? Right when we were crushing it? And in times of failure where businesses can go up and down, one of the great exercises is to identify that. Now, here's the reason for that.

[A]

Go back to doing that.

[C]

That's right. What has to change? What do I need to do in order to start doing that again? Because that was a formula that worked. And I think right now you're in a desperate situation. And so if you can get some clarity through that exercise and start to repeat that again, that's your best chance to make more money and dig yourself out of this.

[A]

So, Carlos, when you're working really, really, really hard and you're managing the money, we're going to buy food, lights and water, shelter, transportation, and pay taxes, back taxes, in your case, and that's all you need to be doing right now. Complete focus on that and complete focus on any new accounts you can add and start growing the business back again with a proper accounting system that keeps you caught up on these things because where you are is terrifying. I'm sorry, man. You call me back if we can be more help as you're fighting through this. We'll help you any way we can.

[C]

Hey, guys. You know those too good to pass up holiday promos?

[A]

Well, they can be great.

[C]

But with every spin of the digital wheel, the newsletter, sign up the coupon code, you're giving away your data.

[A]

You think that info just stays with the store? I doubt it.

[C]

It goes into the corners of cyberspace.

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[C]

And sell it to spammers, scammers, and generally bad people. The FTC just reported consumers lost over.

[A]

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[B]

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[B]

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[A]

Half a point drop in the Fed. What's that gonna do to mortgage rates? Probably going down some more. What's that gonna do to the housing market? Probably gonna heat up a little bit. So Merry Christmas. If you're buying or selling a home, it's a big deal. And with the clickbait and the headlines and all the data out there saying that you can't do it. It's awful. It's horrible. It's not. It's not great, but it's not to the point you can't do it. You can do it. Home prices have held steady, steady all through the winter. They're hovering right around 424,000 median sales price in America. Mortgage rates are at five and a half and probably going on down. With this. They generally follow the Fed. As we all know, they're not directly tied, but generally follow it. If you want to learn more about the housing market trends and get free tools to help you buy or sell with confidence, go to ramsey solutions.com market and always remember that There are Ramsey trusted real estate pros that you can get connected [e-mail] as well. Darrell is in Orlando. Hi Darrell, how are you?

[B]

Hi, Dave. Hey, Ken. How are you guys?

[A]

Great, man. What's up?

[B]

Just got a question for you. Luckily it's kind of a good question, but really I want Yalls opinion on this. I'll throw out the question and then we'll fill in the details after for you to formulate your, your thoughts. So the question is, my wife and I are both recently 61. So she's retired. I've got nine more years. So what I'm thinking, what we're considering, would it be reasonable for us to cut back on our 401 on my 401k contributions to free up some fund money for us?

[A]

How much are you putting into your 401k percentage wise?

[B]

Percentage wise, 16%. Which right now is about 33, 34,000. It's the max plus the K catch up.

[A]

So you make two, you make 200 a year.

[B]

About 220. Yep.

[A]

And so 34 from 200 is. 167. 166. And you can't have any fun on 166.

[B]

Oh no, we're having fun now, but we're thinking we could have maybe a little more fun, do a little more giving, that kind of thing.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

We're, we're empty nesters.

[A]

Why do I have a feeling I'm going to hear a ridiculously large number in this 401k right now?

[B]

It's, I wouldn't call it ridiculously large. Well, a little bit of background and thanks to your teachings, Dave, our net worth is about 2.1. 1.3 of that is invest cash investments. The other 800 in real estate. So my thought is the, if I don't even touch the money that's there, it should probably double over that nine year period.

[A]

It'll more than double over the nine years. Double in about seven. Assuming you're invested in good mutual funds.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, they've done well.

[A]

Yeah. Does your wife work outside the home?

[B]

No, no, no, she's.

[A]

Oh, you said, you said that earlier. Okay, so what are you talking about?

[B]

Reducing this, cutting it back from maybe 16% to like 10% and free up about about 12,000 a year, about a thousand a month, which is, you know, I kind of look at that as maybe an extra cruise.

[A]

Okay. Well, you're certainly okay. And yeah, you're right. Your 1.2 in mutual funds would be 2.4. You know when you're 68 and when you're 75, it's going to be 5 million. And that's if you don't touch it and you just let it grow. And I got a feeling you're going to be able to do that. Houses paid off, right?

[B]

I think so. Yep.

[A]

Okay. Zero.

[B]

Real estate's paid off.

[A]

Zero debt, no debt. Okay. Well, I mean, kind of what we're doing is sometimes the way people view retirement is suddenly okay. Like, you save, save, save, save, save, save, save. Then you retire and you live off the savings. Okay.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And so what we're doing is kind of going for the last. Last nine years, we're just kind of going to go in the middle. We're going to save a little less, save a little less, and use that money now rather than later. And is it going to hurt you? Not substantially. Yeah, I probably would do this. Yeah.

[C]

But I'm just curious if you told.

[A]

Me at half a million dollars in saving in your investments, I would say no.

[B]

Yeah, I get that.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

And, Darrell, I have no problem with what Dave said. I always lean that direction, live life. But I am curious, with your income and no debt and just how responsible you've been, this is all about $12,000.

[A]

Yeah. That's good.

[C]

Could Dave and I not find $12,000 in your existing budget?

[B]

Oh, we could, but it's just like. Like I said, we. We do things now. I mean, you know, we go on trips with our friends, but, you know, this would be a little extra here again to not only maybe do an extra trip or two, but also give some more to our local charities and that kind of thing, which we do quite a bit of now. But this would just. I mean, it. The way I look at it, it's about a hundred thousand, $108,000 of spending now to versus. I did the math. There's a difference of about 180,000 at the 16% versus 10%.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So.

[A]

Well, not. And you're not counting what it's going to grow to over that nine years, but still, that's. That's okay. It's not. None of this is going to put you anywhere near anything except really wealthy. And so, yeah, you're fine. You're fine. And I think I would do that. And in your situation, it's what your desire is. So there's one of the things that we get a lot of, Ken, and this is not that call, but it's like, I've saved and now I don't know how to have fun. You know, I've got this big old pile of money now. How do I reprogram my brain from being frugal all the time to actually enjoying some of it? And so, you know, Darrell doesn't have that trouble. No, no, but Darrell's okay. He's done a good job. And you've got, you know, you're a multimillionaire at 60. Congratulations, sir. The American dream is alive and well. There are Darrells out there everywhere, boys and girls. Your communist college professor was wrong. They're everywhere. This, this is the greatest land the world has ever known. The greatest opportunity for someone who has nothing to become wealthy in the history of mankind. There are Darrells everywhere. And we've got the data to prove it. Pick up. Baby steps, millionaires. The book, the latest, not the latest, one of the latest, best sellers I've had and the study on millionaires is the white paper in the back of it. You can look at all the research. It's there. There's a lot of Darrells out there and he's done a great job. Oh yeah.

[C]

And I want to make sure people caught this. He's still talking about working nine more years and as Dave pointed out that 2.1 or whatever it was million is going to double, more than double in that nine year period. And then through their 70s it's going to double again. And if they their 80s. So I mean long term the amount of money he's got already is going to be way more than enough as it just does compound interest.

[A]

Amanda is in Columbus, Mississippi. Hi Amanda, how are you?

[B]

Hi Dave. Thank you for taking my call.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

So my question is, how do my husband and I navigate money and in laws during the holidays? So we are, we'll officially be out of debt in 18 months. We have about $105,000 left with a combined salary of 162,000. We both decided not to travel while we were in the process of paying off debt because we're broke. So we couldn't even afford to travel.

[A]

Good.

[B]

However, my in laws are wanting to come see us. We don't have the greatest relationship. The biggest issue is that they both have an alcohol problem. My father in law is very violent and unpredictable when drunk. He's like tried to attack my husband, he's attacked his daughter, they verbally attacked me.

[A]

What's that got to do with travel?

[B]

Well, they're basically saying that we want to come see you, that's fine, come.

[A]

See us, get a hotel.

[B]

Well, we told them that but the issue is, is that they drink. And so even if they're visiting, if.

[A]

Anybody'S visiting your home and gets violent, they just have to leave. But they have a hotel.

[B]

Yes, they will have a hotel. We did make it clear that we, you know, we didn't want them to stay with us.

[A]

I mean, this has nothing to do with you being on Baby step two. This has to do with how you're gonna, how you and your husband are gonna make a decision of someone coming into your home potentially drunk and potentially violent. That's all this is, has nothing to do with travel, has nothing to do with Baby step two. It's just how am I, what kind of boundaries am I gonna put up? What kind of communication am I gonna have? I wish Dr. John Deloney was here. But I mean, you, you're done. You don't want them to come and you don't want to be near them. So again, hang anything do with Baby Step two. But if you, if your husband wants to have him come to the hotel and visit, come by. As long as you guys are sober and not violent, you're welcome to come by. But don't bring the drunk and don't bring this violence with you, or it won't work out. You know, that's all that is. This is Dave Ramsey. We all want to know that the money we give to charity is doing something that matters, that it's making a real change, giving someone lasting hope. And here's one way to make sure of that. Give to preborn. They're the real deal. Proven transparent and changing lives every day. I trust preborn, and you can, too. They're on the front lines of the battle for life, partnering with clinics to offer free ultrasounds to mothers in crisis. Because when a mom sees her baby on that screen, something changes. It's not just a decision anymore. It's a person. And 80% of the time, when a mom sees that ultrasound, she chooses life. Your $28 gift provides one of those ultrasounds, just 28 bucks, to the reason someone chooses life. And at every clinic, the gospel is shared, giving moms the chance to choose life and find real hope in Christ. $28. One ultrasound, one heartbeat. One mom who realizes she's not alone. That's the kind of life changing impact your giving makes through preborn. Go now to preborn.comramsey or call 855-601-2229. That's preborn.com Rams Ramsey. Andrew's in Los Angeles. Hi, Andrew. How are you?

[B]

I'm good, Mr. Andrew. Thank you for taking my call.

[A]

Sure. What's up?

[B]

I. I have a question. So, about 10 years ago, my dad passed away. And so my mom, she took on a lot of the life insurance money, and so she downsized her house about three years ago and used half of that. Half of it to pay for the house and use the other half to show his income. Well, she's been nickel and diming that for the past three years. And she's out of money.

[A]

So if she downsized her house, why did she need to use the insurance money?

[B]

She sold it. And so she used. It was half of the insurance money and half of the equity that she made from her previous house.

[A]

Oh, I see. How much insurance money did she receive?

[B]

I want to say roughly 300,000.

[A]

Okay, so she used 157 years after he passes.

[B]

Yeah, no, I'm sorry. She used. So she received about 300 from there and then received another 250 from the last previous house that we had. So she. She got you. She used the equity to pretty much pay for this new house three years ago.

[A]

How much was it?

[B]

So she's been. Right now it's 240,000 it's owed.

[A]

Oh, she owes money on the house?

[B]

Yes. And so my question is, what should we do? Me and Marciante are planning to buy a house in the next year. I'm suggesting maybe she sell the house and she can help me invest in a house. And so she has a place to live with us, where my brother is suggesting she rent out the house and use that to pay for itself. And might I also mention she has zero debt also, just other than the house.

[A]

So the house that she currently lives in, she owes 250 on.

[B]

Yeah, 240. Yes.

[A]

And what is it worth?

[B]

Roughly five.

[A]

Okay. And so why does she. She. For ten years he's been gone. Is she not work?

[B]

She. No, she was not working.

[A]

How old is she?

[B]

She's 57.

[A]

Okay, well, there's the problem. Huh? It's not the house that she needs to get a job. She thought 300, 000 was 3 million. It's not. And now she needs a job.

[B]

So what should our plan to be?

[A]

There's no our plans. Her plan should be, should she gets a job. Your plan should be you get married and start a life. And no, you don't move in with her. And no, you don't use any of her money. And she needs her money. And no, we. We don't have a plan. She needs a plan. She needs to get A job and quit burning through this cash. And you need to get married and have a life and just wave over there at your mom and say, I love you.

[B]

I'm scared for her.

[A]

I'm scared for her, too, because her habits are horrible. Cannot believe somebody's gone. She's 47 years old when he died and she's developed zero income since then.

[B]

57. She's been unemployed for maybe five years.

[A]

No, she's 57 now, you said yes. Yeah. So he died 10 years ago.

[B]

Roughly.

[A]

Yeah, 47. That's how that works. Yeah. So. Yeah. And so, I mean, she's not working, dude. Yeah.

[C]

Yeah. It's not your problem. What we're trying to help you see is, is that while you have the emotions and you can have the emotions for her and feel bad for her and be scared for her, but also have. Live your own life.

[A]

Yeah, I'm scared for you, Mom. You need to get a job. Matter of fact, you needed to get a job five years ago when you lost the other one or whatever happened five years ago. So she worked five of the 10 years. But otherwise you're going to lose this house because you're going to burn through this money. This is not. There's not enough money here to support you. Have you not figured the math out on that, Mom? And I love you. I'm cheering for you. I sure hope you go get a job and I hope you quit burning through this money because that's what really, really, really desperately needs to happen. And I'll, you know, I'll introduce you all this Ramsey stuff and they'll help you because we'd love to help her. That'd be. I'd be happy to do that, but. Wow. Yeah, you don't. You. You're not in a position to rescue her and you using some of her money to buy you a house that she lives in. Yeah, that's a little self serving. No, thank you. Now, I'll pass on that one too, let you know. You guys need to just love her for where she is and coach her and cheer for her and hopefully she'll follow some of that. And that's where I would go. Josh is with us. Josh in Orlando, Florida. Hi, Josh. How are you doing?

[B]

Good, sir. How are you?

[A]

Better than I deserve. What's up?

[B]

Yeah, so it's a. Struggling to pay off a mountain of credit card debt and helping with my spouse, sticking to a budget.

[A]

How does putting together. How does putting together the budget work at your house? How involved is your spouse putting it together?

[B]

I'm the one selling the budget. Yeah, they don't.

[A]

So she's having trouble sticking to your budget that she didn't have a vote on? No. Shock. Yes.

[B]

It's problem is it was up to me to create the budget. She did not want to be involved.

[A]

But she has to get involved once it's created and look at it and have a vote. Because we two adults need to accomplish our common goals that we have in this marriage, which is survive and prosper.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

So, honey, we got to sit down, look at this together. This is what I think it looks like. Now, I need you to look at it and make your changes, and then we are going to both agree to stick to after we make the changes, because we actually have to be adults, devise a plan and follow it. Children do what feels good, and we both have to be adults in this. And gosh, I need your help. I need your vote, I need your set of eyes, I need your wisdom, and I need your input, and I need your buy in. And all those things come together, but you can't do a budget and then come in like Moses coming down from the mountain with two tablets and go, this is what God says. It doesn't work.

[B]

Yes. And one struggle is we come from two different perspectives on budgeting and money. I was raised more on the Ramsey method, and she comes from a Hispanic household, and they more of the freely spend and the bills.

[A]

That's not a Hispanic disease, dude. That's just a disease. Everybody's got it. Gringo's got it too, man. So, you know, that's just. No, that's hillbillies, Cajuns, Italians, we all got that same disease, man. So, no, that's. It's called growing up. And I'm gonna live on less than I make. I'm not in the US Congress, and so we need to sit down together. But it's about her being a grown woman instead of a little girl who's being taken care of by her man. That's bullcrap. So the two of y' all sit down together and work on this together. Ken, when people work together like that, it's. It increases communication cooperation. You're agreeing on your dreams, you're agreeing on your fears. It changes everything.

[C]

Yeah, it does. And I think in this case, it's less about, obviously, the. The race of somebody, but it is the environment that they grew up in. And so your household was very different with how they approached money, and her house was different. So now we've got to get on the Same page. And I think I would be asking more questions of your wife. And I would be asking her, is it the principle of every dollar knowing where it's going or is it the process that you just don't like? And it seems. And I would ask these questions, you may already know the answer, but to get her in a conversation, she's not on the witness stand. You know, you're not attacking, you're just going, hey, help me understand. What about the budgeting process you don't agree with or don't like?

[A]

I need your help.

[C]

Yes, but the more you can get understanding of why she thinks or acts the way she does about money, the better chance you have at getting on the same page. And so this is a conversation, it might end up in counseling in a good way. Not a crisis, but a, hey, we need a professional to help us communicate our fears, our desires around money so we get on the same page. But Dave, you're absolutely right. When we listen to debt free screams, it's most obvious when you hear the story, no matter which spouse brought the idea home or Dave's book or whatever has happened, once they fully get on the same page, it's unbelievable momentum. And we hear it all the time. And by the way, it's not just money momentum, relationship momentum across the table.

[A]

Yeah, the typical debt free scream says it changed our marriage. That's right before we started working together. It increased communication, it increased cooperation. It's just so much easier. But I would just frame it in. I need your help. We gotta be two grownups and we gotta do this together. Your vote counts.

[B]

The holidays can come with a lot.

[A]

Of pressure to spend.

[B]

Family, friends, Secret Santa at the office, all the things, things. But y', all, this season should be about peace, not payments. That's a big reason why I love Fairwinds Credit Union. They share the Ramsey values of helping you reach your money goals without debt. And with the Fairwind Smart Bundle, Ramsey fans get a no fee checking account, a high yield savings to grow your emergency fund, and the exclusive Ramsey Beware debit card. It says debt is normal, be weird right there on the front. So every time you use it, it's a reminder that you're doing your money differently. So this Christmas, skip the credit cards and celebrate progress, not payments. Spend with peace of mind, knowing that you're sticking to your budget and staying debt free. And check out the Fairwinds Smart Bundle [e-mail] Ramsey and open up the Smart Bundle and grab your exclusive Ramsey Beware debit card that's fairwinds.org Ramsey Fair Winds is federally insured by the NCUA.

[A]

Welcome back to the Ramsey show in the Fair Winds Credit Union studios. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality number one best selling author and host of the front row seat on Ramsey Networks. He's my co host today. Gina's in Boston. Hi Gina, how are you?

[B]

Hi Dave, thank you for taking my call.

[A]

Sure. What's up?

[B]

Yeah, I think I really need your wisdom today. I've been following you now for almost a year. I'm a single mother of two boys, both teenagers now by solely raised myself but I'm about to, I'm engaged and about to get married middle next year. He's a very good man, very hardworking but I think he's dealing with financial situation. He has multiple debts and lots of things that don't just seem right with him. And most of these things he didn't tell me. I got to find out over the course of our dating for about a year because I was able to step in. We've put in some structure but I'm a little bit worried about what happens when we get married. How do we make finances? What do I do?

[A]

How much debt does he have?

[B]

Of about $100,000.

[A]

Okay. And what does he make?

[B]

About 58.

[A]

Okay. And what kind of debt is it?

[B]

80,000 student loan which he abandoned until I made him pick it up again. And so he started making payments on that and then the rest between credit card debts and different debts that have been defaulted.

[A]

Okay. Did you say that he didn't tell you about these debts and you had to find them?

[B]

He didn't tell me except for the student loan.

[A]

Okay. Why?

[B]

I don't know. So when I stumbled on it, I asked questions and I went straight to the government side. I did a case look up and I saw a series of about three or so debt and he claimed that, I mean he knew about some of them. I don't even know. It didn't make any sense. No answer. But why didn't you tell me? He said he was worried. He was scared that I would, you know, feel bad about him or not trust him. But he's willing to start making payments and so he together were able to put a structure. I did pray. Now the seven baby steps introduced him to Dave Ramsey and well, the big.

[A]

Question is not the debts. The big question is is this guy going to lie to you every time he's ashamed?

[B]

That's what I'm worried about. And so I don't know how to make Progress with, you know, settling down and we made finances do it. Separate those things.

[A]

Yeah, I think, I think you guys need some good pre marriage counseling because trust was broken and you're uncomfortable with a lack of trust.

[C]

Yeah, I agree. There's a good sign that when you brought up the student loan that he said, okay, I'm going to pick it back up. I think he wants to please you, but he's got to get healthy himself. So I think Dave's right. Some premarital counseling and maybe some one on one counseling for him. I would press pause if you were my sister or cousin or family member and you told me this, I'd say I would press pause. And I'm going to tell you that.

[A]

Today until you can answer the question and look in the mirror and say, I completely trust this man. You really shouldn't put a ring on something that you don't trust. It's a bad idea because that parlays into a whole bunch of things then. And so, well, he was ashamed. Okay, I get why he hid it, and it's perfectly logical. But there's one person on the planet that you have to trust and that's got to be your spouse. And if you can't, then that's either a sign of the relationship is struggling or broken or you know, one or both parties, how we're interacting. And sometimes that is, everyone should spend time on premarriage counseling. By the way, the data says that the likelihood of your marriage surviving is greatly increased with in depth premarriage counseling because you not only learn how to talk to each other, you learn how to deal with all the rest of the family in that process and boy, that's a thing. And so on. So, yeah, you guys need to do that anyway. But in this case, you could dig this out. It might not be anything serious, but you can't. You have doubt. And doubt is not how you walk down the aisle. Not on something as major as trust. So, yeah, you got to get where say I trust this man. I'm committing my life to spending my life with this man. That's a lot of trust. And so, yeah, and you're a single mom with two kids and he's going to be involved with the kids. You got to be able to trust him and he's got to be able to open up to you. You got to be a safe place to say, I made a mistake, a safe place to have a discussion that's uncomfortable. And maybe you are, maybe you aren't. I don't know. But. But I would spend it on that. Pat's in Iowa. Hi, Pat. What's up? Hi.

[B]

Thanks for taking my call.

[A]

Sure. How can we help?

[B]

I like an opinion whether I can. My wife and I can buy a winter home based on our financial situation.

[A]

A winter home. Where's the winter home?

[B]

Florida.

[A]

Oh, a winter home where it's warm in the winter.

[C]

That's what I was wondering, too.

[A]

Where are we going? That's pretty cool. I thought we were going ice fishing for a minute. Okay. All right. And so.

[C]

Yeah, you've already got it in Iowa. You're in it.

[A]

Yeah. You already got. You already got that figured out. Okay, cool. So what does the Florida home cost?

[B]

Well, we're thinking around 300,000.

[A]

Do you have 300,000?

[B]

Well, yeah, we do. Like, a little rundown of where I'm at.

[A]

Sure. How much? What's your net worth?

[B]

Well, our net worth is about 1.3. And net income, Social Security and two pensions is about 85. And our yearly RMD is about 22.

[A]

And what's your. What's your age?

[B]

We are both 75.

[A]

Okay. All right. What's your current home worth?

[B]

Current home's worth about 280.

[A]

And you got family in that area?

[B]

Yes, sir.

[A]

Okay, so you're gonna have 300 and 300 in real estate. 600 out of 1.2. And the other six or 800 will be in your retirement, I assume? Yes, I would do that. Yes.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

If I'm paying right. I'm sorry, you have no doubt?

[B]

No. Okay. And we rarely really touch a portfolio except for the rmd.

[A]

Yeah. So how much time are you already spending in Florida?

[B]

Four months.

[A]

What are you doing when you're there? What kind of. Of housing. Are you just renting a house?

[B]

Yes, we're running a house. We've been doing this for about eight years, and the rent runs about 13,000 for the four months, and we figured we could use that to cover the maintenance on something we buy.

[A]

Yeah, easily. And it goes up in value. Yeah, actually, that's exactly what I was going to suggest because some people think they want second homes and they've never done it. And. But you've been doing it. You've got. You've. You've. You've had your practice run, you've tried the shoe on. It fit. So, yeah, that. That even ensures even more that I'm doing this. Way to go, man. Congratulations. Retires a millionaire.

[C]

Yeah. So fun. And boy, oh, boy, getting out of Iowa in the wintertime. Have you ever been to Iowa. I bet you have. I remember a February. It was a speaking gig at one point, and I remember getting out of the car to go into the hotel, and I couldn't breathe for 15 seconds. This blast of cold air hit me, and I'm like, who lives here? And I went around the town interviewing people. How do you do this? No, it's great. I love that.

[A]

So that's very. That's a classic. There are. Are you old enough to where like, you're. When you're growing up, people had the goal of someday retiring in Florida, no question. Okay. It was like. It was like the retirement state.

[C]

No question.

[A]

When I was a kid. That was like you had arrived. Yeah. If you got a place in Florida.

[C]

And that's Boca del Vista or whatever it was on sign Build. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. The holidays are full of traditions. Some of these traditions we love, some we just survive. And in addition to the traditions, let's be honest, this time of year can also be a time of noise and pressure and loneliness. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to ask yourself what really matters to you this year. And therapy can give you a space to do just that. To think, to breathe. To ask yourself, what do you want this year? And to make room for peace. That's why I recommend BetterHelp. BetterHelp has over 30,000 licensed therapists that have helped over 5 million people worldwide. With an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars. BetterHelp is online, so it fits around your schedule, even during the chaotic holiday time. You get online and just answer a few questions, and they'll match you with someone who fits your needs. And if your therapist is not the right fit, you can switch anytime for no extra cost. This month, start a new tradition by taking care of you. Visit betterhelp.com Ramsey to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp. H-E-L-P.com Ramsey.

[A]

Well, if you feel like me or, you know, feel like sometimes you're starting from scratch with your money, I don't feel that way now, but I remember feeling that way. It's not because you aren't disciplined. It's not because you're not consistent. It's because you're emotionally overwhelmed. And emotions are part of personal finance. Managing your money. Part of it is managing the emotions. In her new book, what no One Tells yous About Money, Jade Washaw gives you a clear picture, a clear, guided process that helps you diagnose the emotion and put together a system to actually follow common sense while admitting that there's an emotion involved. Hello. Pre order right now for $24.99. This is an incredible book. Get over $100 in free. Bonus items, an enhanced audiobook, early access to the ebook, and instant access to an exclusive video. Your financial checkup with Jade, an exclusive three week online book club and live Q and A with Jade. Pre [e-mail] or click the link in the show notes and we'll get you started. You really should try this one. Andrew's with us in Chicago. Hi, Andrew, how are you?

[B]

Good, how are you? Dave and Ken?

[A]

Better than we deserve. What's up?

[B]

So I just got a quick question basically regarding investments. So my wife and I, we've been married for going on three years now. We've got a five month month old daughter. We've worked through the first three baby steps, paid off everything except for the house, got our three to six months saved. And we both invest into our 401k through like our workplaces. And we're just looking like where do we go next to get to that like 15% that you guys recommend?

[A]

Okay, so you maxed your 401ks?

[B]

Yes sir, I am. I match at 3% at my work and my wife is same with her employer through her school.

[A]

Now Max means you put all you can put in, not up to three.

[B]

Sorry, I didn't match my.

[A]

No, I'm sorry, Max. So have you got a 401k that has a Roth option?

[B]

It does not. No, that's what I was going to ask about.

[A]

Okay, so here's the thing we found out. Match is best. So get all the match you can. You've done that with your 3%. Does your wife have a match?

[B]

I am 90% sure. It's the same at match at 3%.

[A]

Okay, perfect. That's easy. That means we still need to put 12% of our household income away somewhere. What is your household income income roughly?

[B]

Probably right around that 90,000 a year. Roughly.

[A]

Okay. All right, cool. So 15% is, you know, 14,000 and some change. Right. And so. And we're already putting 3% away. So let's call that 3,000. So let's just say we need to put another 10 or 11,000 away. You both can do a Roth IRA and just go to ramseysolutions.com and click on SmartVestor Pro. And click on SmartVestor. You'll be introduced to one of our SmartVestor Pros or two or three of them. And you can choose which one you want to work with. They've got the heart of a teacher. They'll sit down, teach you about this, and then show you how to do it and help you actually create the Roth IRA in some good growth stock mutual funds. And it sounds like you guys need to be putting away somewhere around 10,000. So you could put, you know, 5 or 6,000 each into a Roth IRA and have a really good plan going with the 3% over at work. And the 3% over at work also needs to be in good growth stock mutual funds. If you take your options that you're allowed to invest in down to the Smartvestor Pro, when you sit down with them, they'll help you pick out your 401k options while they're getting your IRA signed up. And then if you want to open a 529 for your kids college, you can do that there too, too. Very easy to do. And, but it's, you know, it's like anything. The very first time you do it, there's a little bit of intimidating intimidation. But investing is really not that intellectually challenging. There's not that much to it. And, but. And so once you get started on it and you start understanding it, you're gonna go, oh, that's all there is to it. Oh, that's it. No big deal. And you'll be just fine. So that's really good question. Very well done. You're going to be very wealthy. That's cool. You're getting started early. I love it. I love it, I love it. Very good. Carlos is in Austin, Texas. Hey, Carlos, how are you?

[B]

Hey, Dave. It's an honor to talk to you. I've been listening to your show since I was 14. I'm 26 now.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

My question is. So my wife and I, we recently lost our baby, and this kind of got us rethinking, like, you know, what are we doing with our lives? So I just had the question, is it a good idea to take money out of our investments and pay off our house, or should we just leave that money and let it keep compounding? And I kind of had hopes of leaving my corporate career and trying to retire and live off of that at 26. Yeah.

[A]

Man, I'm sorry that you lost your baby. Yeah, it's heartbreaking, but, yeah, doing. Doing nothing, Doing nothing for the rest of your life because your heart is broken is a method of hiding from the pain. And if you don't want to work in corporate America, I don't blame you for that. But we need to be doing something.

[B]

Oh, for sure. Yeah.

[A]

You're too valuable. You need to be adding value to our lives out here.

[B]

Yeah, I think it's just how do we do the corporate exit? You know, and my idea was like, well, I want to. This year I've been doing stock option trading and anyways pretty much quit that.

[A]

Good.

[B]

So everything going on? Yeah. It's kind of funny. I asked AI, I said, what would Dave Ramsey say if you knew I was trading options? He said something like, you're playing with fire in a food douse and gasoline. So that kind of woke me up.

[C]

Hold on, let's get it. Let's get the real man's. Let's get the real version.

[A]

That sounds pretty good.

[C]

That's what I thought.

[A]

I'm going with that.

[C]

I'm curious to know what your current, current nest egg is, if you have one at all. By the way, you set this question up. What is your financial picture as far as investments?

[B]

Cash, like 420.

[A]

How much in your, how much in your retirement accounts?

[B]

Well, that's counting my retirement.

[A]

Oh, that's your retirement accounts. Well, you've done really well for 26. But dude, you're not ready to retire. I mean 420s. No, not to retire.

[B]

I mean my whole. Your dream I guess was like, oh, you know, if I keep doing the stock option trading I can, you know, create a new income and leave my corporate job.

[A]

But yeah, I think you do need to create a different income. Not there. And I think you do need to leave the corporate job after you have created a different income. But I, but I don't think you need to retire.

[B]

Yeah, you're.

[A]

You don't have enough money to retire.

[B]

Right. That's kind of the problem I was facing.

[C]

Here's a fun exercise. I'm going to give you my book. I'm going to give you my book as a gift. Find the work you're wired to do. It has about a 20 minute assessment in it. It's going to spit out, with the help of AI, a really good job description where you can use what you do best to do what you love to produce results you care about. And I'm going to tell you it's a great exercise in this time of hurting hurt. But it's also going to set you up because I think you know the answer. I don't have time to pull it out of you, but I think there's a couple ideas that if you could make a smart financial transition from where you are today to where you want to be. I think you would pull the trigger on it and I think that's the kind of life you're looking for. So hang on, we'll give you that book. But I want you to really lean into the results and ask yourself, who are the people I really want to help? What problem or desire do they have have and begin to lock into what your why is as it relates to work. And I think you'll find it'll help you heal as you see that even though this is a devastating loss, you and your wife aren't on the shelf. You will recover from this pain in time. And I think this pain will inform you, both of you and how you live your life going forward and begin to look to the future as you heal.

[A]

Yeah, I would not spend my energies trying to escape. I would lean into my marriage relationship really hard because she's hurting as much or more than you are. And I would talk about that. I would talk about, you know, who have we got to see to help us process and work through grief? What is the process there? Because this is a new experience and it's a difficult experience and not working is not going to make it all feel better. That's the problem. And so I think you're barking up the wrong tree on that part. It. Foreign.

[B]

Hey, it's Rachel Cruz. The holidays are here, which means family time and giving back and remembering what the season is all about. And let's be real, it also means shopping, y'.

[A]

All.

[B]

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[A]

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[B]

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[A]

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[B]

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[A]

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[B]

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[A]

What more could a busy mom ask for? So for more information about Amazon's low.

[B]

Prices and easy affordable holiday shopping, head to Amazon today.

[A]

Our question of the day is brought to you by why refi defaulted private stuff. Student loans don't just disappear, but you can make them go away. Why Refi offers low fixed rate refinancing that gives you hope and a path forward, A clear path. Go to y refi.com ramsey. That's the letter y, r, e, f, y.com/ramsey. Not in all states.

[C]

Today's question comes from Bobby. In Idaho. My financial advisors tell me I need long term insurance for estate planning purposes. Purposes. I'm 50 years old and he told me that a term policy may not reach out far enough considering my age and that a whole life policy would be permanent. I'm leaving a home to one of my children and would like to leave the other children my life insurance proceeds. Which type of insurance would you recommend? Well, I'm going to get out of the way because you know, Dave's not said a whole lot about whole life but in the past and I feel like this is a perfect time to let you maybe hit a teed up ball down the fairway. But we would always say term life. Tell them why, Dave.

[A]

Yeah. So Bobby, you don't have a financial advisor.

[C]

That's right.

[A]

You have an insurance agent. Financial advisors don't tell people to buy whole life. None of them. Everybody in the whole financial world thinks whole life is crap except the people that sell whole life and their life insurance agents that sell whole life life. And they're dinosaurs. They're dying off because people have learned to add in modern day America. So. Well, here's what I would recommend. I would recommend whatever money you are going to put with your life insurance agent that instead you actually get with an investment advisor and put that money into like a real investment. Life insurance is not an investment. Life insurance does not leave an estate. We're not trying to leave your children wealthy by you buying life insurance. Bad choice. Much better off. Take what you were gonna pay in premiums and just use it to become wealthy and leave that wealth to your kids. If it's not as much as the policy and you die too soon, oh well, your kids are gonna have to be on their own. Oh well, weren't most of us. Hello. So you don't leave someone wealthy with life insurance. Whether it's term life or whole life life period. You certainly don't do with whole life. And so no, you know, the only reason you carry life insurance is if you have a family of children at home and a wife or a husband at home that need to replace your income. If you die, you are beyond that and this person is just trying to sell you some crap. And so you need to do what's known as run away from this person. And I don't think you need life insurance at all term or anything. I wouldn't tell you to do that. Based on your question, I would go a different direction completely. Bijou is with us. Bijou's in Long Island. Hi, Bijou. What's up?

[B]

Hi, Dave. Great to talk to you again.

[A]

You too. How can we help?

[B]

When my dad passed away last year, he left my mom $96,000. No problem. She has. She had brain surgery, so she's not all there. So I convinced her to put the money into an auto renewing CD with my bro. Brother. And October. Oh. So we wouldn't touch it.

[A]

And with your brothers?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Why?

[B]

Because she only has two sons, so it would. We thought it'd be like an easy split putting it in a cd. I. I didn't think of anything else.

[A]

Okay. I don't know why your brother's on it. That's what I can't figure out. So what happened? How can we help?

[B]

Yeah, so in October, we had a falling out, and he kind of separated himself from. From us.

[A]

And who's us? You and your mom.

[B]

My mom? Yeah.

[A]

Oh, okay.

[B]

And after the falling out, my mom. We were kind of like, you think he took the money? And I was like, mine's in the CD in both our names. You can't.

[A]

Yes, she can.

[B]

But it turns out he took it. Yeah. And he took it out in March. So we're like, oh, what do we do? And I'm like, I don't know. My. This is my fault for even suggesting it. And when I went to the bank, they're like, you can change the course. But I was just like, you know, I talked to you before, and, you know, you're the Christian guy, and I was just wondering, you know, what better advice? Because I don't want to just deplete it and get him worse. Getting more angry at us, you know, I'm sorry.

[A]

We're worried about pissing off somebody that stole $96,000 from their widowed mother. I couldn't care less if he's pissed off. I want to put him in front of an 18 wheeler.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

That's like one emotion. Yeah. Back in March compared to the fight in October. I was like, whoa. He kind of playing this.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I kind of talk about it and stuff like that, but, you know, we're like, it's gone.

[A]

Okay. So have you talked to him since you discover he stole your mother's money?

[B]

No, he. He separated himself.

[A]

I know you, but you don't. You don't have his phone number.

[B]

Number. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

[A]

But you didn't call him and say, hey, you stole Mom's money.

[B]

I did that.

[A]

Oh, what'd he say?

[B]

I was like, hey, who's. He Turned everything back on it, saying, hey, you did this. You can't have everything. Like, it's not you.

[A]

It's not me. You took mom's money?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay, so you do whatever you want to do. Wow. I don't know. Because you guys were so dumb, you put his name on it. If it's really stealing or not, ethically and morally it is. I'm not sure it is legally, because his name was on the account. Did he fraudulently sign her name, or did he just sign his name and took the money out?

[B]

When I went to the bank, they just told me, one person can take everything out.

[A]

Yeah. Okay, so it was just a joint on the account. It wasn't. Yeah. So he technically hadn't done anything legally wrong. It's March. It's been a year. My guess is the bum has spent the money. Don't you think?

[B]

I couldn't even tell you. I mean, like, we think.

[A]

Well, I mean, what would you think if you were gonna guess?

[B]

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Based on how we know him. Yeah. Yeah, he spent it.

[A]

So your mom's completely cold broke.

[B]

Now, I know she still has income from disability and Social Security and stuff.

[A]

Like that, but, I mean, she don't need money.

[B]

Was. Yeah, she has a small checking account, like 14,000 in there, but not. You know, she didn't have any plans for the 96, and it's supposed to be for the both of us anyway. It was just that he took it all versus half and took it now versus after her passing.

[A]

Is she ill? How old is she?

[B]

She's 81. And she had a. She had a brain tumor, A glioblastoma. They got the majority of it, but it kind of left her worse for wear.

[C]

As sad as this is, Dave, I don't know if it's worth the money and time to try to get nothing. I just don't know if there's anything to get from it.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, your only option here is to hire an attorney and pay them to go after him, but you can't. Attorneys and courts don't make people have money when they don't have money. And if he spent it all, it's just gone. And even if you won a lawsuit, you can't get blood out of a rock, right? And so you're gonna spend. You're gonna spend $10,000 chasing your mom's money. I don't care whether you or your brother Got any money? I couldn't care less. Y' all are like grownups, and you should be taking care of yourselves. But I do care that he stole from his widowed mother. So like a new level of scum, you know? And so, you know, on that basis, you have to decide. You have two options. One is you just throw up your hands and say, forget it. It's not worth. Was a dumb thing to do to put his name on the account, which it was a dumb thing to do, and I'm just gonna forget it and I'm gonna walk away because there's not anything I can do about it anyway. Anyway. Or you could spend $10,000 and never get a dime or might get a little of it if you sued him. Maybe, you know, but I. You know, I don't. What would I do? As painful as it would be for me, I would just walk away.

[B]

My mom has the same thing, because she doesn't want more trouble at this point. She just wants, well, this guy's not worth.

[A]

I don't care if we have trouble with this guy or not. This guy, you want trouble? He needs to go away, way away, and stay away. He doesn't want to see me again if I'm you. This is not good. Not because of what he did to you. I couldn't care less what he did to you. But you just. I mean, there's a couple things in the Bible you don't steal from, okay? Widows and orphans. And when you look that up, the things that happen to people that steal from widows and orphans, it's really nasty. This is the. Is a Bible thing you don't want to get across, okay? And so I. I don't want to be this guy. He's in. He's in God's crosshairs. It's bad. Wow. Don't let big grocery bills spoil your holiday plans. Shop at Aldi first. They've got USDA choice meats like beef, pork, and even your turkey, along with fresh produce, holiday desserts, and more. And you'll find all of them at the lowest prices of any national grocery store. A family of four can save up to $4,000 a year by shopping at Aldi. You don't need a membership or some loyalty app either. So stop overpaying. This holiday season, go to Aldi US to find a store near you that's Aldi US Savings.

[C]

Based on regional analysis of Aldi versus select competitors. Prices may vary by location, product availability, and the market. Market.

[A]

Chip is with us in Atlanta. High chip.

[B]

Our you fantastic Dave, Ken, I hope you all are doing well today.

[A]

Better than we deserve. How can we help?

[B]

Well, you know Dave, I've had the blessing of being married 30 years. No, 30 years. So I can't even get it right. Retired 30 years, 20 some odd years. But because my wife introduced me to you many many years ago, I thought she was having an affair, but it was just Dave Ramsey she was listening to.

[C]

Who is this?

[B]

Got me some round glass and a goatee. No, I'm just kidding that way. But we've also been teaching Financial Peace University for many years and making a difference in people's lives and we appreciate it and graduated from SCMT this year.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

A lot of thank yous for these things, but really my call is on the retirement. So I've been with a big phone company for 30 years and as you know, the big AI and everybody else kind of pushes us out the door. It was kind of time to go, but I've started a financial coaching business on the side, so still going to be doing some work.

[A]

Good for you.

[B]

Helping people and trying to make a blessing and a difference in their lives. Got an NFL player that was broke to zero and trying to get him out of debt. That's terrible. But we can do. But the question is, is when it comes to the retirement planning, the funds, and I've talked to some of your smartvestor pros. You know, I feel like I'm in the toothpaste aisle, Dave, because you know, people want me to do index funds and ETFs and mutuals and annuities and bonds and oh my. And I feel like a beer hunting season.

[A]

Who are the people?

[B]

Well, the different ones are different, different brokers. So you have your major brokers that I'm talking to, their fiduciaries, but I'm also talking to financial planners through my church that are quote unquote qualified, certified. They may not be vester pros. And none of your pros have sent me in any weird direction. They've given me some good advice but like I said, it's just a lot of confusion with the ets, the, you know, mutuals, the bonds. And you know, the biggest one was, you know, one of my, my financial planners wanted me to put a million and a half in an annuity. I'm thinking, no, why? And then another one wants me to do at least the old 60, 40 rule where he puts about 40% of my money in the bonds, which I'm like, yeah, why? And my dad did that.

[A]

How old are you?

[B]

I'm I'll be 60 in April.

[A]

Okay. And what size is this nest egg?

[B]

We've got 2.2.

[A]

Okay, good for you. Good for you. Okay.

[B]

Good for my wife. She's the one that kicked my rear.

[A]

What? Well, you know, let's just quiet all, all the noise. I don't do any of the things you're talking about.

[B]

Yeah, I know.

[A]

I'm 65.

[B]

We don't teach it either.

[A]

I'm 65, so why would you.

[B]

Yeah, I'm in agreement.

[A]

Okay, well, that's.

[B]

This is what we teach. I'm going to have your four buckets.

[A]

My personal, you know, mutual fund portfolio with my smartvestor Pro is 1/4 in Aggressive, 1/4 in International, 1/4 in Growth, and 1/4 in Growth in income, all with long track records. I hardly ever change funds. I buy funds that perform as well or better than the funds in their same categories and they almost always do. And I just don't worry about it. And they just grow. I mean, the S and p was up 17% this year. So far. Far. And my funds are up more than that.

[B]

It's been a crazy couple of years.

[A]

Yeah, so I mean, why do I need to do anything else? Mine's all been converted to Roth over the years, so it's all growing tax free. It'll all be left tax free in the inheritance. There's no RMDs on Roth, so I'm completely free of tax and free of tax constraints. And I don't touch any of it. I don't need any of it. It's all just growing more and more.

[B]

And more and more.

[A]

And it's very simple. You do not need bonds. You do not. See, the bond thing is based on a theory called asset allocation. And the theory of asset allocation is that as you get older, you should take less risk. And the problem is that the financial planning community, some of them have over index on that theory to where they take a 60 year old and start putting him in bonds. Now, if you don't smoke, you're not obese, and you're fairly healthy at 60. The data tells us you're going to live to 90 on average. So that means these morons are putting you in bonds for 30 freaking years. That's stupid.

[B]

Agreed.

[A]

Okay, then why do we, why are we even entertaining that?

[B]

As I said, I'm like looking in the toothpaste and I should know better.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, your teeth are clean and your breath smells good. Just keep using the one you've been using.

[B]

There you go.

[A]

Just, you know, I mean, it's that simple. It's. Yeah, there's enough. There's enough opinions out there in the financial world. They're like armpits. Everybody's got one. It usually stinks. So, you know, it's like.

[C]

Well, I think this is. You know, this is actually an interesting. This is a great guy, but here's a guy who has taken our financial training, has lived out the principles. He gives his wife a lot of credit, and yet he was allowing all of the flashy sales pitches, what. He kept calling the toothpaste aisle to create some doubt. And I think that. I appreciate him calling you, but I think this is important that everybody rewind and listen to what Dave said, because. Because these are facts and how the stock market has performed over decades. And so if you can return to the fundamental facts of the investment strategy that Dave teaches and that we teach here, it's a nice reminder. So write it down, save it, and listen to it when people come at you with all these pitches.

[A]

And I think it's important to say that not only is this what we teach, we've taught it for 30 years, but also it's what we do.

[C]

Correct.

[A]

I don't have, like, a Dave plan and then a plan for the little people. You know, there was a financial person that was big in the news for years ago and had their portfolio on Money magazine. And they're like, well, that's not what you tell people to do. And the person said, well, you know, I'm in a different situation. No, I'm not in a different situation. I'm the same situation all y' all are in.

[C]

You eat what you cook.

[A]

That's it all the time. I kill it. I drag it home, I eat it. It's that simple. And then I tell y' all exactly where the deer are. Let's go get one. You know, I mean, come on. This is not. This is not. This is where the ducks are. Go get you a duck. I mean, what. What is it you want? I mean, so it's not a. This is not a thing. It's.

[C]

By the way, it's also.

[A]

There's not. You know, there's no secrets of the rich.

[C]

No, And I want to point out it's not a suggestion, Dave. That's kind of worked out for you.

[A]

You.

[C]

It's worked out for everybody who's ever adopted that plan. It is a solid strategy. Those four types of funds never had.

[A]

Anybody call me and say, I did this for 25 years, and I hate you. Right Never had that hate mail. Correct. Most of my hate mail is on people who think something's going to turn out some way and they don't like the suggestion and they've never done it. And that's where the hate, that's where the trollers come from. The, the trolls. And so I get to be Billy Goat Gruff, you know, and so that's it. But the, you know, if you actually do the crap we teach on this show, you actually are going to be where chip is $2.2 million at 60, at 60 years old. This is, you know, you're not going to have 40 million in Bitcoin, but you're also not going to be bankrupt. So you get to choose. What game do you want to play here, boys and girls? But we eat what we cook. I mean, we cook what we eat. We eat what we cook. We are not in here telling you to do something and then we don't go do it because we've got more money or whatever. I didn't hit a certain point and quit doing the stuff. I hit a certain point and did more of the stuff. It's like, well, this is fun. Let's do it again. It's called touchdown. That's how you score a touchdown. I want to score another one. Let's do this again. Let's do this again. Let's do this again. Over and over and over and over and over again. Rinse and repeat. My pastor was making fun of me. He said, dave, you say the same thing over and over. And I said, so do you.

[C]

Fair point. You know what, Dave? I think it'd be awesome. Hit the four funds. Hit our core financial strategy for people so they don't have to rewind. This is how much we're going to serve people.

[A]

A fourth in growth, a fourth in growth in income, a fourth in international, and a fourth in aggressive growth. All with the longest possible Track record, preferably 10 years or more. If you're buying an independent mutual fund for an IRA from your SmartVestor Pro, like a Roth IRA, you definitely can choose funds that are longer than 10 year track record inside your 401k. They may or may not, but get good long track records. And then, you know, look at them once a year and go, wow, look at, at this. This is what's happening. And some years they go up, some years they go down, but most years they go up. And some years they go way up. And like this year. Welcome back to the Ramsey show in the Fair Winds Credit Union studio. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Ken Coleman Ramsey, personality number one best selling author, host of Front Row Seat, a long form interview program on Ramsey Networks. Absolutely incredible. He's my co host, Alex is with us in Charlotte, North Carolina. Hey Alex, what's up?

[B]

Hey Mr. Dave. How you guys doing?

[A]

Better than I deserve. What's up?

[B]

Awesome, man. It is truly an honor to speak to you guys. I just want to say that I hear you every morning to and from work and I just gotta say I think you have, you have changed my life. And, and I haven't even did my, my debt free screen yet. But I have a quick question. I need some advice. I need to know what to do. What? I promise that I did my 14 year old two years ago. She was 12 at the time and I told her that I would do her sweet 15 and her sweet 15 is five months away. It's right around the corner. I was kind of hoping she would kind of forget about it, but that didn't happen. And. Okay. I am 36, I'm married, four kids. Between me and my wife, we make 175,000 a year. We have a paid for rental home that brings in about 15,000 extra. So that's 190 a year. The only debt we have is our mortgage. We owe 230,000. We have, I have 25,000 in my Roth IRA, my wife has about 60. I gotta say that we, I did some not so Bright Things 3, 4 years ago before you came into my life. And I think we're in the right track now. But this party is gonna cost us around 25,000 and I need to know.

[A]

$25,000?

[B]

Yes.

[C]

For what?

[A]

For a 15 year old it's a.

[B]

It'S a sweet 15. It's something big that we do in our culture, how we were raised and at the time when I promised it.

[A]

I'm sorry, I'm. I'm so confused. What culture are we talking about?

[B]

I'm. I'm Latino, I'm a Hispanic.

[C]

Well, let me, let me go deeper real quick. Go back when you were a kid. So I mean 25, 30 years ago, what did the part, what did this traditional 15 year old party consist of.

[A]

Now like when you were a kid, describe the. Because your mom and Daddy didn't spend $25,000 on your sister.

[B]

No, closer to like 9,000, but that was. It consists of a venue, a band, decorations. The dress alone was like $3,000. Which my brother paid for it already.

[A]

Your brother paid for your daughter's dress?

[B]

Yes, she's my Brother's my daughter's godfather, so it's kind of falls on him when. And he did the purchase of the dress already.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

You didn't answer my question though. Like, what did it cost? What did it cost when you were a kid?

[B]

Maybe seven to 9,000.

[A]

How old are you? You said you're 36?

[B]

Yes, sir.

[A]

So 20 years ago, you're saying your parents spent $9,000?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And they had, they obviously had some money.

[B]

No, I can, I can say that we don't have a Dave Ramsey in Spanish for us guys or for the guys who don't speak English or don't understand, you know, well, how they pay for it.

[C]

How they pay for it.

[B]

They just, they just work. They just work non stop. That's. That's all I remember my dad just working non stop. And that's how they did it.

[A]

Okay, so let me, let me move that over into the land of gringo for a minute to try to relate. All right.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

So it's, you know, it's normal or traditional in the Anglo community for me to pay for my daughter's wedding. Okay. What is not, not dictated by the tradition is what we spend.

[B]

Correct.

[A]

It would be commensurate with common sense and with our income. Okay. So, You know, you've got to decide in context of your world what reasonable the reason you're calling me is. It feels unreasonable to you.

[B]

It does.

[A]

The amount, not the tradition. The tradition is very normalized for you. You made that clear. I got it. I got it. I learned something today that I didn't know. Okay? It's very normalized for you and that's fine. The tradition of me paying for my daughter's wedding is very normalized for me. I didn't think anything about it, but also didn't spend money I didn't have and we didn't go spend money that was crazy as a ratio, just because I was guilted into it. And this feels very much like the language you're using around describing this. You sound like a man who is trapped.

[B]

I honestly feel like that.

[A]

Cornered.

[B]

That's exactly how I feel.

[A]

And I have trouble as a dad being cornered by my teenager. It's quite the other way around.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Does it? I do the cornering. They don't.

[B]

Yes. So it makes it, it makes it hard on on me to make that call because she is close to perfect. She helps with straight a kid.

[A]

That does not earn you the right to visit the land of stupid.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

That's not what we're doing. So I Think. You sit down and you say, honey, I love you. You, I'm proud of you and who you are. As per the tradition. Two years ago, I promised that we were going to do this. Your uncle has bought the dress. We are going to have a very nice party. And here is the budget that I am setting for the party. You don't get to set it. You're 15.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

You don't get a vote. You just get to come. That's how it works. Okay? And so when Rachel came in and said, you know, Winston came in and asked for my permission to marry Rachel, we sat down, we said, okay, here's what we're going to put towards the wedding. We didn't say, how much do you guys want? And they were like grownups. They were adults coming out of College. They weren't 15 year olds. So, you know, honey, I'm going to help you with your car. I'm going to decide how much that is. You don't tell me with my money what I'm gonna do. And so I don't know what's reasonable here. Maybe 25 is reasonable, but I'm not going to be held hostage by outside forces in my own freaking house or by a 15 year old or even by a tradition. Now, I may want to honor the tradition because it's part of who I am and part of my cultural history and makeup. I don't have, have any problem with that at all. I wanted to honor paying for the wedding.

[C]

You know, might be time to learn what a potluck is. Have the family bring a dish to pass. I mean, I don't care if you.

[A]

Cut it in half. I'm okay if you said, or if you said 15. I'm just not okay that someone else is setting the number. Yeah, he just rent. He's like, like somebody point a gun at him or something. Said, you're doing this. No, no. So I, I'm gonna flip this, the power structure here a little. Alex. That's, that's where you need to go. And then you can honor your wonderful daughter in context with the culture. When you're tired of feeling stuck with money, there's just one solution. To get different results, you have to do something different. No one accidentally wins with money. You have to have a game plan. And that begins with our get started assessment. Go to ramseysolutions.com start, answer some questions and we'll show you what steps to take next. Don't stay stuck. Take control of your money. Starting Today, go with ramseysolutions.com start. If you're wondering where all your money went in 2025, that's normal. And normal is broke. But next year can be different. Get a head start by downloading every dollar. Every dollar bills you a personalized plan and coaches you to find the extra money and then put it to work. To beat debt and build wealth. We're going to show you hand to hand how to work the Ramsey plan. Exactly. Just answer a few questions and you'll find thousands of dollars on average in just the first 15 minutes. That's extra margin to move your plan forward. And every dollar still has the same great budgeting features to help you tell your money what to do. Hey, don't go another year feeling broken, stressed. Start every dollar for free in the App Store or on Google Play. Emily is with us in New York. Hi, Emily, how are you?

[B]

Hi. Good. How are you?

[A]

Better than I deserve. What's up?

[B]

So my question is about if my husband and I are financially prepared to start a family or if we should wait a little longer to be responsible.

[A]

You're ready?

[B]

Maybe. I see. Would you like the background or is the dad of blanket answer?

[A]

I'll take the background as a courtesy. But here's the thing. We don't tell people to not have babies due to debt. We tell them to not have huge numbers of babies. But your first baby start a family is a wonderful thing. It's the best thing you'll ever do while you're alive. And we don't tell people to not do that because of a certain dollar figure around it. But let's hear it and I can give you some reassurance. How much debt do you guys have?

[B]

Okay, so we actually just have 30k of student loans that are completely interest free between the two of us.

[A]

Okay, cool. And what do you got? Is that your only debt?

[B]

That's our only debt.

[A]

And what is your household income?

[B]

So that's the issue. Is that. So our household income is $120,000 base salary with $50,000 in equity. And that's equity.

[A]

What's equity mean?

[B]

Equity means. So it's basically just registered stock units paid out quarterly. Because my husband works for a large company and that's part of their compensation package.

[A]

So he can cash those out. How often?

[B]

He can cash them out whenever. After they vest. Like there's a vesting period.

[A]

How long do they take for them to vest? That's what I'm doing.

[B]

Asking this year. It'll vest at the end of the year and then after that it's Quarterly.

[A]

Oh, wow. Okay. So he makes $170,000 a year, including his stock bonuses.

[B]

Yes, but not this. He won't make that this year because he just started with that company. We're also both 24, so there's a few considerations. We just recently got married, but we're living in New York City and our rent is crazy. We don't have a car where our budget, despite the salary, is pretty tight. We don't have a lot of free cash every month. And we.

[A]

Are you working?

[B]

That's the problem is that we actually had to move to the States for this job for my husband. So I had saved. Him and I together had saved about 150k before we moved here. And then I had to give up my job thinking I'd be able to get another job. But the immigration restrictions on what jobs I'm allowed to work have been so tight that it's been a few months and I have nothing. So before we moved here in our home country, I was making about 80k and now I'm making nothing. And I feel like I'm just kind of sitting around at home. And I've always wanted to be a mom. And I've always wanted to be a stay at home mom. And we're like, do we just start a few years earlier than we thought we would, or should I?

[A]

So are both of you. He's not on a green card. What's he on, HB1?

[B]

No, he's on a TN visa, which is because we're from Canada.

[A]

Okay, both of you are from Canada. So you're on a green card card.

[B]

No. So we'll work towards the green card process eventually if we want to stay in the US long term. But right now he's just on TN and I'm on a dependent spousal visa.

[A]

Okay, so what is the plan? Are you planning to stay or not?

[B]

We'll see what his business requires as it's more of a following a passion for work thing that is about immigrating somewhere specific. So if the company requires him here, we'll stay here. If they require him in Canada, we'll go to Canada. Canada.

[C]

What can you do?

[B]

Right now that's another factor.

[C]

What kind of work can you do? What kind of work can you do that? Is immigration allowed? Let me, let me. Let me rephrase. You told us there were a ton of restrictions, so I'm wondering what kind of work can you do that's not restricted?

[B]

Yeah. So to try to explain. So basically, you can get a visa if your work aligns with exactly what you did your undergraduate degree in. And I did my undergraduate degree in a science, and then I had been working in consulting and project management and a business role before we moved here. And none of those qualify for a visa in the United States because it has to be a very specific technical job. Like, my husband's an engineer, but project management does not qualify. But I don't have any technical science experience, despite my degree. So I'm having a really hard time finding a job that I'm legally allowed to work because I never planned to move to the States.

[A]

Now, does he have. Does in this situation. Does he have health insurance?

[B]

Yeah, he has really good health insurance.

[A]

Okay. All right. And it will probably transfer where you. To go back to Canada and have great health insurance there, right?

[B]

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So we do find. And with all the health care stuff, it's more just. I don't. I hear all the time. Oh, okay.

[A]

So here's the thing.

[B]

You don't need anything.

[A]

Three years from today, you will not be in this situation.

[B]

Correct. Once if we get a green, something's gonna happen.

[A]

You're either gonna get a green card or you're gonna go back to Canada, Right?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. So. So this is a temporary. This income is a temporary thing based on all the story that you've told us. And if I woke up in your shoes and you guys both want a child and God wants you to have a child, I would go have a child. That's what I would do. And there's, you know, but do I want to be irresponsible and say neither one of us are working? No, I don't want to do that. Or do I want to be irresponsible and have, you know, 10 kids and we make $30,000 a year and can't figure out a way to feed them, that's irresponsible to. It wouldn't want to do that. But to have a child when you're making 120,000 and you've got an uncertain immigration process looking in front of you in the next five years, I would definitely live my life.

[B]

Life.

[A]

I wouldn't put my life on hold for his company, which is, in a sense, what we're doing. And so, no, I wouldn't do that. And. And I think you can afford it. I think you can make it. And, you know, you've got labor and delivery covered. And, you know, babies are not as expensive as. Everybody acts like it's not the end of the world. And I think you guys can pull this off. You do whatever you want to do. But that's what we would do at our house.

[C]

I, I just am so frustrated for I, I, I just bang my head against the wall metaphorically as I'm listening to this. You know, here's a law abiding Canadian, she wants to work. And the, the goofball rules that the government comes up with sometimes makes me.

[A]

Want to just scream. Yeah.

[C]

You know, because this is an opportunity to work. And if I understood her correctly, Dave, she can't do anything. Like she can't even go to Walmart and work.

[A]

Right. Right. She, unless it's something to do with.

[C]

Her degree f. Right.

[A]

Her degree field. That's what she said. I don't, I'm not, I'm not knowledgeable about any of that.

[C]

I am not either but wow.

[A]

But it's, it is frustrating. But either way, bottom line is she ends up at home and that makes her say I want to be a mom. Yeah. So may, may that may be a blessing.

[C]

I would tell them get into every dollar, learn how to budget because I know that my parents, they scrapped by I don't know what your parents situation was but they hardly had any money when I was born and they figured it out. It out. And in some ways it's a, you know, that's a great way to get really responsible.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. It just, it makes you pay attention and every dollar is a good way to pay attention. You're exactly right. You got to make every dollar behave. You know and you need to anyway. But especially wakes up when you got another human you're supposed to be responsible for. And that, that's a, that extra responsibility gives us that adults devise a plan and follow it. Children do what feels good. So we're going to do this. So and you know, I think she'd been very responsible asking the question. I kind of poked fun and said yes, just go have baby. But, but you know, but, but I think it's a responsible question. Which means they're going to be okay. Yeah.

[C]

Well, you know, I loved is she told us how much money they saved before coming to the States. This is a couple that has learned how to be disciplined. It's a lot of money. They saved $150,000.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. And he's making 170. They can make it on that. This stuff vests you can cash out. Don't hold that stock and stack it up and starve to death. You know, cash that stock in, take care of that baby. You, you'll be okay. Let's just go on. Everything's going to be all.

[B]

Sam.

[A]

It's one of the best times of the year, but it's also the time of year when people let their money get totally out of control. Everywhere you look, it's just buy, buy, buy. So you start swiping the credit card and suddenly it's January and you got a mess on your hands. Don't let that happen. Tell your money where to go instead of wondering where it went with our budgeting app Everyday, every dollar not only helps you stay on budget and in control of your spending this holiday season, it also helps you find extra margin in your budget. Thousands of dollars of it. And every day will coach you to build better money habits and attack your goals faster than ever. So while most people will be starting in January with a taste of regret in their mouth, you'll already be winning. Start everydollar for free by downloading the app today. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt free stage. Britain and Paul are with us. Merry Christmas, guys.

[B]

Merry Christmas.

[A]

Good to have you guys. Where do y' all live? So we're a small town outside of Savannah. Richmond Hill, Georgia. Oh, yeah, Very nice. Beautiful area. Cool. Well, welcome to Nashville. Thanks for having me. And all the way here to do a debt free scream. How much you paid off? You want to do 127,000. I want to get it down to the penny. $197.08. I love it. How long did it take to pay other off?

[B]

27 months.

[A]

Wow. And your range of income during that? Two and a half years. We started around 120,000 and we're knocking on the door 212. Wow. That's a big jump in that period of time. What do y' all do for a living? I'm a commercial insurance underwriter and I just sell fertilizer to golf courses and landscape companies. Oh, good time to be doing that. Well done. I just. Yeah, good for you. So what kind of Debt was the 127,000, Dave? We had the millennial package.

[B]

We had.

[A]

From car loans to debt consolidation loans. We heloc. Heloc. Yeah, that was a good one.

[B]

Credit cards.

[A]

Credit cards. What else do we have in there?

[B]

Personal like family loan, student loan.

[A]

Oh, yeah, both of us.

[B]

And irs. Yep.

[A]

Irs. Oh, and even the irs. And we put a cherry on top. All right, there we go. Go. So yeah, we had them all at the full package. Absolutely. The deluxe package. All right, so what happened two and a half years ago? Because how long y' all been married 11 years. 11 years. All right. And what happened two and a half years ago that gave this little wake up call here and you say, okay, things are about to change.

[B]

Well, for me, we were. He was just turning 40, I was about to turn 40. It was around tax season, and I looked at how much we made, and I was like, this is crazy. Why do we have no money? And then he kind of had the same wake up call around the same time whenever we got the heloc. And so I was just in Goodwill one day and I saw the total money makeover, and I was like, I.

[A]

Think I'm just $1.99.

[B]

I think I'm just gonna get this.

[A]

You bought the total money makeover in Goodwill? That is awesome. That's the best part of the story. I love it.

[B]

Yeah, he read it in about two.

[A]

Days, and then he told me I.

[B]

Had to read it. So I read it in about two days and it just kicked off everything.

[A]

Yeah, we were done, Dave. We. Our septic system went out and we had to take a HELOC out to fix that. So that was it for me. And she was. We were there at the same time. We'd both been there, a couple, you know, apart, at different times. We hit that moment together and, you know, through God, found you guys, and you just flipped the switch and went hard, hard from day one, both of you together, there was no one catching up, no one to let. No one. Not at all. Just the timing was perfect for both of you. Sure was. Wow, that's. That's unusual, but it's very cool. Yep. It took a few tries. And this one. This one.

[C]

Is there a moment in this process where you guys began to very much experience the momentum? You know, we talk about the debt snowball ball. And I'm just curious, as a couple, who did this? Do you remember when you felt that momentum, like, okay, this is starting to pay off? We can see this.

[A]

You're going to love this one. So we had. I had a whole life policy that I was convinced to buy in my 20s. We cashed that bad boy out, paid off the IRS, and then a couple of the small credit cards. And we saw that number and the margin. You know, the margin started to show up, and so that got the ball rolling. The snowball, I guess we could say. So it just kind of went from there. But, you know, just accepting that mistake, I didn't even figure out how much I had spent on that policy leading into this moment. I just said, you know what? This is A blessing that that money's there, and it got us started. And from there, it's been a long 27 months, but it's gone pretty fast, too, at the same time, if that makes sense. What was the hardest thing y' all did during that 27? You got, like, teenage daughters, right? I mean, we might need to get them on stage to answer that question.

[B]

No. Yeah. Our 17 year old, Dave, was kind of a cuss word in our household for a little bit. I've heard you say that before, and it was kind of true.

[A]

Keep dad out of goodwill, buying books. Right.

[B]

There was no more eating out, so that was. That was probably the hardest, was getting the kids on board or just getting them used to it. But now, like, our nine year old will say for in the source, she'll say, hey, is this in the budget, Mom? So it's. She's there now, so. And our 17 year old is determined now to go to college without student loans, so.

[A]

All right, Definitely. So that's a breakthrough. Well done. Okay, so you did change your family tree.

[B]

We did, absolutely.

[A]

They're watching and they're participating, sometimes grudgingly, but they got it. It did click. We stopped for Chick Fil a twice on the way up here and didn't have to sweat about it. So a good change.

[C]

Everybody got a combo?

[A]

Absolutely. Even an ice cream.

[C]

Oh, you guys really are debt free. If you went for the ice cream. How did it affect your marriage?

[A]

The easiest way to say. It was such a stressor for both of us. And money stress led to just little arguments that we don't have to have anymore. There's still stress, and there's still life. But taking that money stress out of the equation, it's helped us. It's also helped us see that, you know, we can accomplish. If we put it together, we can accomplish, you know, whatever we want to do. It definitely brought us together for sure.

[B]

Definitely.

[A]

It makes you believe in that unity and the power of it. Absolutely. Yeah. That's pretty cool. Very, very cool. Well, congratulations to you guys. Thank you. I mean, y' all are amazing. This is a power deal. I'm so proud of you. We're excited to be here, for sure. Who was cheering you on? On in this process? We had a pretty good group of cheerleaders, actually. Through this process, we took FPU at our church. Oh, God. And then. What church are you in? It's Life Ridge Church in Savannah, Georgia. Since then, we've taught one college FPU and two adult FPU classes. Wow. Thank you. That helped Us stay accountable through the process. Teaching it. You have to do it. Absolutely. Kind of hypocritical if you don't exactly.

[B]

They were cheerleaders.

[A]

Our parents. Our parents. Our kids were. They were part of the time. Yeah, absolutely. Good. All right, well, very cool. Very cool. All right, so someone's listening and they just had to get a HELOC to cover an emergency at the house. And they're pissed off and they're wondering if they can really do it. Tell them what is the main thing that you learned in this process that you have to do if you want to get the out of. Of debt. You know that just stop doing what you've been doing and start. Start today.

[B]

Budget.

[A]

You can, you can talk about it. Yeah, and budget. Absolutely. That actually budget. Don't just talk about a budget. Actually do the budget. But yeah, just start. I mean really, that's the. You know, we talked about it and talked about it and we decided it was just time to start. We were done. Sick and tired of being sick and tired. Yep, absolutely. So that's it. Just. Just go. Just. You can do it. It doesn't matter what where you're at, just start. All right, Very proud of you guys. Bring your daughters up and let's introduce them. Get their names and ages and let them. Since they had to participate in all the pain, they can participate in the debt free screen. Absolutely, absolutely. All right, so this is Addison. She's 15. We just had birthday so forgive me if I get these right. This is Carson, she is nine. And this is Maddie, she is 17. All right, very cool. That's a beautiful family. Congratulations you guys. Proud of you. Very well done. Paul and Britton. Maddie, Addison and Carson. Savannah, Georgia. $127,000 paid off in 27 months making 120 to 212. And it all begins with the total money makeover from Goodwill. Count it down. Let's hear a debt free scream. Three, two, one.

[B]

We're debt free.

[A]

Yeah. Road trip to Nashville. Woohoo.

[C]

Very exciting. You know, it's hard to get three teenage, well two teenagers and a pre teen to get excited about doing anything with their parents. Those girls bought in.

[A]

That's good.

[C]

You could tell. I mean they were really. That wasn't like, oh, I got to.

[A]

Have to do this eye roll.

[C]

They got on the program and I love that.

[A]

Very, very cool. Well, what happens is the family trees really changed. You could change it with the actual math because you have a huge amount of money later and they would. Will have a huge amount of money. Later. But also, it doesn't change unless the people in the family tree are also transformed. So it all ends here. We're not doing this in this branch of the tree ever again. Ever, ever, never. It ends when you do that. It changes. It's a big deal, you guys. It's a big deal. Sam, Do you want to keep more money in your pocket and not Uncle Sam's? Then listen up. There are tax deductions and credits you could maximize before the end of the year by connecting with an experienced tax professional. Like a ranch Ramsey trusted tax pro. They know the tax code inside and out so you don't have to, and they can help you file when tax season rolls around. Get a trusted tax pro by going to ramseysolutions.com taxpro ramseysolutions.com taxpro. Our scripture of the day, John 15. 15, 1 and 2. I am the true vine, and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. Tom Brady said, to be successful at anything, the truth is, you don't have to be special. You just have to be what most people aren't. Consistent, determined, and willing to work hard for it. Amen.

[C]

7Th round draft pick. Just a reminder.

[A]

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, definitely one of the goats, for sure. All right. And Sandra is in Houston. Hey, Sandra. What's up?

[B]

Hey. Hi. How are you?

[A]

Better than I deserve. What's up?

[B]

I'm just excited to actually talk to you. I've been watching for so long.

[A]

Thank you.

[B]

I have a problem. I'm a widow. My husband passed away a year and a half ago, and he was my main source of income in our household. And I was working on a T shirt system, making like 24,000 a year, and he was making like 80,000. And, you know, we were okay, but I was in debt. And I always wanted to get one of these plans that you have, but he was never on the same page with me, so I couldn't do it alone. And it's true to say you have to be on board both. So we never really did any kind of budgeting. I handle all the bills, but never had help mentally, you know, from him. Just painless here. And so he passed away suddenly. Within three months, he had colon cancer. And. And now he's gone, and I'm left with all this. And now, before he passed away, he did tell me, he apologized. He said, I know you were right. He was a gaver. Are in a difficult situation. I want you to sell the house. But I know nothing about that. I. We have a home. We've had it for 21 years. It's valued at 420,000 and my balance is 113,000. People tell me go get a HELOC. But I just think that'll make me in a bigger hole. My question to you is, do you think it's wise to sell my house and use equity to. Because there's like. I don't have a lot of credit card debts but I do have like my lot next to his lot which he just paid off because we had life insurance to his job.

[A]

But he had life insurance through his job. How much life insurance did you get?

[B]

It was 50,000.

[A]

50,000. And you use that to pay off some debts.

[B]

This is lot 30,000. And yes, we fell behind in our house because the three months I was in the hospital I didn't work. There was no money coming in. So I had to pay like almost 7,000 for mortgage.

[A]

Yeah. To get caught back up. That was smart.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah. But then the homeowner association. I was behind on that. I'm still behind as we speak. And also behind again in my house. I have three adult kids but one does not live with me. I would have two daughters that live with me but they were a mess after their father passed away. Once a full time student about to graduate. The other one already graduated. She just started.

[A]

What. What do you make now, Sandra?

[B]

I still make 24,000. It's not.

[A]

What do you do?

[B]

I'm a teacher assistant. And how old.

[A]

How old are you?

[B]

I'm 66 years old.

[A]

60 years old. Okay. And how much other debt other than.

[B]

The house do you have credit cards? Like 10,000. A car we just purchased that I was. My other car was the transition.

[A]

How much do you owe on the car?

[B]

But we got it 11,000. Now it's 16,000. How? I don't know. The interest and only made one payment on it. And I just found out out that when I make one payment for 120. 420. Only 30. Go suit the principal because they're very.

[A]

That's not. That's not the point. Okay, so you owe 10 and you owe 16. And what else do you owe?

[B]

Credit cards. Oh, I said that my lot is going to cost me like 28,000.

[A]

Your lot?

[B]

My lot next to his? Yes.

[A]

You own a lot next door to the house?

[B]

No. No.

[A]

A lot.

[B]

I'm sorry. It's a cemetery lot. Great.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

We bought A double, because I want to be buried next to him. Him and Elijah just took care of his.

[A]

It's going to cost. It's going to cost how much?

[B]

28,000.

[A]

$28,000?

[B]

Yes. Yes. It's very expensive.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

That's a little ridiculous to die, you know, I mean, and I just, you know, I. I want to sell my house, but I don't. I've never done that before. I don't know how it works. Works. I have no clue. My oldest daughter said, mom, I'm on board with you. She just started a job. She said, I would do whatever you want. Let's sell the house and just start over.

[A]

All right, so you start over, but you still have a $24,000 income. That's still going to be troublesome. So regardless of what we do, you need to work. We've got to do something to work on getting your income up.

[B]

I'm also ebay reseller making like $2,500 a month.

[A]

That's another 30. So that means you have a $55,000 income.

[B]

Yeah. And then his Social Security, what do you call it? Spousal. I get like 20, 2300amonth.

[A]

Okay. That's another 30,000. That's a little different than 24. So I'm not sure. Why can't you pay these bills if you got that much money coming in?

[B]

Because we're. I'm behind on my house. The house payment is 1500, and it's an adjustable rate mortgage.

[A]

How far behind are you?

[B]

Two months.

[A]

Okay, because you have. Because you have 24 plus 60 coming in. You have $84,000 coming in a year. You should be able to pay a fifteen hundred dollars house payment. Yeah. Where's the money been going?

[B]

Well, I don't know. This crazy car I bought is $420 a month. Going 24.

[A]

So you paid the car instead of the house? No, no, no.

[B]

I just got the car. I just got it because I had another one I had paid cash for, but it was breaking apart and I had to get one. And drive times was tricking me into getting this crazy car in 2014 ferry. And, you know, $420 might sounded good, but I just found out that it's just all interest, you know, And I wish I could pay it off sooner, but.

[A]

But.

[B]

And I don't even know how my income. Every time we file for income tax, we'd always get a refund. So this time I want to get whatever I get. I want to pay it towards the, I guess a house Right. Because I'm. I'm a. I've been here for 21 years, and it's. It's emotionally hard to give it up. I had a close friend of ours. He came to see it as it is right now with nothing. Don't repair anything. We. They'll get. They'll give you, like, 320,000. But I don't want to go and put it.

[A]

No, that's not necessary. You know, if you're going to do it, get a real estate agent at Ramsey Solutions. It's Ramsey trusted. Go to ramseysolutions.com and put the house on the market for full retail. But I don't think you need to sell the house. I think you need to get in control. You may need to sell the car or even throw the keys back at them and let them take it back. But the house is not the problem. You're out of control because you got $84,000 coming in between the disability, the 24, his social, the 24, and your eBay business. And so, hon, you have enough to pay these bills. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna put you on hold, and we're gonna put you with a Ramsey coach and have him come sit down with you and see if we can't get you straightened out. Cause one of the things our book tells us is to take care of widows. So we're gonna go by the book, okay? And you hang on. Christian will pick up and we'll get you set up. Because I don't think the math. I mean, all I had was 24. It's one thing, but 24 is not all I've got here. So there's a lot more. And I think it's just. You're discombobulated after the loss of your husband, and it's hard to get organized and get focused. But I think if we didn't do anything but catch this house up, you catch it up pretty quick. And if we didn't do anything, I mean, you stop the credit card, stop the car, and just. Let's get the house. Let's save the house. House. And then let's keep the house current and keep lights on and food, and then we'll worry about what we're gonna drive, and later on, we'll worry about the credit cards, but let's get this stuff in the right order. You're paying the wrong things if you have to choose. So pay the house and lights and water and food, and then we'll figure out the rest of it, but I think you got enough to pay it all. Yeah. You're just gonna have to get on a real tight budget and learn how to run every dollar and learn how to make this money behave. But I think she can do it, Ken.

[C]

Yeah. And I think the encouragement is our coach is going to help you. Let's get her into every dollar. Let's get her in there for a year because this is going to walk with you daily. It's like being on the air with Dave and one of the personalities. You have the means to do it and I think that's what we want you to hear. You got to come up with, okay, what are my next steps? You can do this. And I agree. I would not sell the house. I think that's an unnecessary move.

[A]

Yeah. And, and you got $112,000 mortgage. That's a small, that's a really. You have a very reasonable thing to go into old age with here and try to get that cleared up.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

And the. How you got stung on the car and whoever's trying to suggesting you buy the. You sell your four hundred and twenty thousand dollar house for three hundred. Well that's not somebody, it's your friend. We don't do that. So that puts us out of the Ramsey show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace and that's to walk daily with the Prince of peace, Christ Jesus.