You Can Make Progress Even When It Feels Impossible

Summary

Episode Summary: "You Can Make Progress Even When It Feels Impossible" on The Ramsey Show

Release Date: May 5, 2025

In this inspiring episode of The Ramsey Show, host Ken Coleman and co-host Jade Warshaw address a variety of financial challenges faced by listeners, offering practical advice and strategies to help them overcome obstacles and make meaningful progress toward their financial goals. The episode underscores the belief that no matter how dire one’s financial situation may seem, advancement is achievable with the right mindset and actions.

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Caller 1: Kathy from Dallas, Texas – Navigating Divorce Amid Massive Debt

Time Stamp: 00:44 – 08:26

Situation:
Kathy shares her troubling experience of discovering nearly $1 million in debt after filing for divorce from her husband of 27 years. She was previously a homemaker, trusting her husband to manage the finances. The debt includes $160,000 in unpaid income taxes, $80,000 in unknown credit card debt, and a $550,000 mortgage on her husband's office building, for which she was an unintentional guarantor.

Key Points Discussed:

• Debt Liability: Kathy likely faces responsibility for half of the debts due to joint accounts and the mortgage guarantee.
• Asset Evaluation: Their primary home is paid off and valued at approximately $2 million, which could aid in debt settlement.
• Legal Proceedings: The division of assets and liabilities will be handled through legal channels post-divorce.
• Financial Responsibility: Emphasizes the importance of both spouses being actively involved in financial management to prevent such situations.

Notable Quotes:

• Ken Coleman: “Everybody's got to have their brain on and looking at this because really, this is what happens when you don't.” ([04:19])

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Caller 2: James from Fort Myers, Florida – Co-owning a Home with Parents

Time Stamp: 12:20 – 19:14

Situation:
James and his wife co-purchased a house with the financial assistance of her parents in exchange for childcare services. With expanding family needs and the parents’ indecision, they seek advice on moving out. The house was purchased for $300,000 and is now valued at $550,000, with a remaining mortgage of $220,000.

Key Points Discussed:

• Financial Breakdown: Understanding the initial investment versus current value and outstanding mortgage.
• Parental Hesitation: The parents are unsure whether to sell the house or continue co-owning, complicating James and his wife’s plans.
• Strategic Advice: Ken and Jade recommend setting clear financial boundaries, possibly selling the home to split profits and eliminate debts, ensuring a fair resolution.

Notable Quotes:

• Ken Coleman: “So let's talk about how to dig you out of this.” ([05:00])
• Caller: “Hopefully it's fair for both parties.” ([07:23])

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Caller 3: Terry from Manchester, New Hampshire – Dealing with Small Claims Court

Time Stamp: 21:36 – 30:03

Situation:
Terry reports receiving two notices of being sued in small claims court for what appears to be the same $1,800 credit card debt listed under different names. After verifying with the court, Terry acknowledges the legitimacy of the lawsuits but lacks the funds to settle, having only $1,800 available from an emergency fund and an investment account.

Key Points Discussed:

• Debt Verification: Confirming the legitimacy of the court notices directly with the court.
• Settlement Strategy: Ken advises negotiating a settlement with creditors, potentially offering the available $800 as full payment.
• Proactive Measures: Emphasizes the importance of financial awareness to prevent legal actions stemming from unmanaged debts.

Notable Quotes:

• Ken Coleman: “You got to get your hands around your finances.” ([23:54])
• Caller: “I'm tired of dealing with it. Can I just give you $800 and it be settled in full?” ([26:16])

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Caller 4: Ruth from Washington D.C. – Teacher Considering a Career Move

Time Stamp: 32:50 – 43:08

Situation:
Ruth, a 16-year public school teacher in Washington D.C., feels burnt out from managing a large and diverse classroom. She is contemplating a move to a Christian school, which offers 80% of her current pay and requires a significantly longer commute. Ruth seeks guidance on making this transition without derailing her financial stability.

Key Points Discussed:

• Career Transition: Exploring opportunities outside public schools, such as private institutions or corporate training roles.
• Financial Planning: Emphasizes the importance of continuing with retirement savings (baby step four) even while considering career changes.
• Long-Term Security: Encourages Ruth to prioritize retirement contributions to leverage compound interest for future financial health.

Notable Quotes:

• Ken Coleman: “If I were you, I would follow the baby steps as they're written because you are going to retire one day and compound interest is your friend and time is your friend.” ([40:49])

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Caller 5: Serenity from Houston, Texas – Budgeting for a Bachelorette Party

Time Stamp: 45:06 – 57:08

Situation:
Serenity is grappling with attending her best friend’s bachelorette party, which is outside her budget. Having already covered the flight and hotel expenses, she has only $400 remaining for the three-day weekend, while each planned activity costs at least $150.

Key Points Discussed:

• Budget Management: Ken advises prioritizing activities within the $400 limit, possibly attending only selected events to stay within budget.
• Communication: Encourages Serenity to openly communicate her financial constraints to her friend to find a middle ground.
• Alternative Solutions: Suggests finding cost-effective or free alternatives for activities to participate without overspending.

Notable Quotes:

• Ken Coleman: “If you want the results, you just gotta do it.” ([49:17])

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Caller 6: Alexis from Mississippi – Balancing Mortgage Payoff and Retirement Savings

Time Stamp: 67:19 – 73:38

Situation:
Alexis, a stay-at-home mom with two children, and her husband, who earns $55,000 annually, owe $65,000 on their house. They aim to pay off the mortgage swiftly while also initiating retirement savings, lacking existing retirement plans.

Key Points Discussed:

• Baby Steps Progression: Ken confirms that Alexis has completed baby steps one and two, and should now focus on saving three to six months of expenses (baby step three) before proceeding to retirement savings (baby step four).
• Prioritizing Retirement: Emphasizes the necessity of dedicating 15% of income to retirement savings even while managing mortgage payments.

Notable Quotes:

• Ken Coleman: “You've already done baby steps one and two essentially, which is you get a thousand dollars saved for baby step one. Baby step two is you pay off all of your consumer debt, right? Everything except the mortgage.” ([69:14])

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Caller 7: John from Charleston, South Carolina – Athlete's Investment vs. Mortgage Payoff

Time Stamp: 71:03 – 85:00

Situation:
John, a professional athlete in the automotive sector earning $200,000 gross annually, alongside his wife, a nurse earning $50,000, is nearing the completion of baby step three. He seeks advice on whether to prioritize paying off his mortgage early or focusing on retirement investments, considering the unpredictability of his athletic career.

Key Points Discussed:

• Investment Focus: Ken advises maintaining the focus on retirement savings (baby step four) to capitalize on compound interest, rather than diverting funds to early mortgage payoff.
• Career Uncertainty: While acknowledging the unpredictability of John’s career, Ken emphasizes the importance of an abundance mindset and continued investment for long-term financial security.
• Future Planning: Encourages John to build a financial bridge for post-athletic career life, ensuring sustained financial health.

Notable Quotes:

• Ken Coleman: “You really want to take advantage of the fact that you don't owe much on your home, and you've got to start piling cash for retirement. That's why, baby step four, 15 of your income.” ([84:26])

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Caller 8: Catherine from San Diego, California – Returning to Budgeting After Burnout

Time Stamp: 78:07 – 87:59

Situation:
Catherine, a 46-year-old single mother, seeks help to reinstate her budgeting practices after experiencing burnout from excessive overtime and a recent car accident that resulted in new debts. She now has a $7,000 car loan and a $1,000 credit card balance, which she had previously managed without issues.

Key Points Discussed:

• Emotional Recovery: Addresses the emotional exhaustion that has hindered Catherine’s ability to maintain her budgeting routine.
• Debt Management: Plans to pay off her car loan with an upcoming bonus while managing the credit card debt.
• Budget Reinforcement: Encourages Catherine to re-engage with budgeting principles, involve her daughter in financial discussions, and use tools like EveryDollar to regain control over her finances.

Notable Quotes:

• Ken Coleman: “You have to remember, nothing takes away from the 15%. We got to do that.” ([86:55])
• Jade Warshaw: “I've never met a 13 year old who's really thrilled about you cutting some of their.” ([86:10])

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Overall Insights and Conclusions

Throughout the episode, Ken Coleman and Jade Warshaw emphasize the importance of adhering to the Baby Steps framework, maintaining proactive financial management, and fostering open communication about money matters within relationships. They advocate for a balanced approach to debt management and investment, ensuring that listeners prioritize retirement savings while addressing immediate financial challenges. The hosts consistently highlight that progress is possible regardless of current financial hardships, reinforcing Dave Ramsey’s foundational belief in financial empowerment through disciplined planning and informed decision-making.

Closing Notable Quote:

• Ken Coleman: “We're always teaching how money is just a joint thing... Everybody's got to have their brain on and looking at this because really, this is what happens when you don't.” ([04:39])

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This episode serves as a testament to the resilience and strategic planning required to overcome financial difficulties, offering listeners valuable insights and actionable steps to achieve financial stability and growth even in the face of daunting obstacles.

Transcript

[Ken Coleman]

Foreign to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today. This is the Ramsey show, where America comes to hang out and have a conversation about their life, specifically their money, their career and work and their relationships. The phone number to jump in today is 8888-255225-88825. 5225, alongside the fabulous Jade Warshaw. I'm Ken Coleman. We're here together for you today. Let's get it going. Kathy's up in Dallas, Texas. Kathy, how can we help today?

[Jade Warshaw]

Hi. I find myself in a lot of debt because my husband has. We've been married 27 years. Sorry, I'm rambling already. We've been married 27 years and I've always allowed him to handle the finances. I quit my job, stayed home with our four children and have just trusted him with the finances. And in the last couple of years, I've just slowly been uncovering a lot of dishonesty and finally ended up filing for divorce after I found out most of it. I'm still not sure I know everything, but I think there is a close to $1 million in debt right now and I'm afraid that I'm, I'm going to be responsible for half of it if in worst case scenario, hopefully I won't be on the, on the.

[Caller]

Kathy, what kind of debt is this? Million?

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, there's about. He hasn't paid income taxes in three years.

[Caller]

How much is that?

[Jade Warshaw]

About 160.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Jade Warshaw]

There's about 80,000 in credit card debt with cards I didn't know existed. There's a $550,000 mortgage on his office building that I was a personal guarantor on.

[Caller]

And you didn't know about it?

[Jade Warshaw]

I signed it. It's my signature. But I don't remember doing that. I'm just. Like I said, I feel like an idiot because I've trusted.

[Ken Coleman]

All right, hold on a second. While we're on this list, I want to just cover what, what you've given Jade so far. How much of it are you on the hook for?

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, I'm assuming all. I mean, our taxes are joint. The credit card, Some, some say they're from his business, but others say I just started opening the mail recently and I'm seeing this. The only card I was aware of has is maxed out at 30,000.

[Caller]

Did you.

[Jade Warshaw]

And the rest are other ones.

[Caller]

Did you know, is there anything else on the list, by the way, before we keep going through. So so far we're at. We're not at a million yet.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. Well, on 2. In 2019, my father passed away and left me a significant amount of money. And he immediately started asking me for money to help with his businesses and said he'd pay me back. And I've totaled all that up, and it's about 500,000.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Jade Warshaw]

So I'm counting that in the debt that he.

[Caller]

And when he was borrowing that money, do you have any idea what it was being spent on or it's just kind of that cloud of businesses?

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, he would. He would say taxes or payroll or this bill or that bill.

[Caller]

And is there any record of that? Like, did you guys. Other than you just talking about it in the kitchen?

[Jade Warshaw]

Right, right.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, you can probably kiss that 500,000 goodbye.

[Caller]

Yeah, so.

[Ken Coleman]

So let's take that off the debt list just for the functionality of this.

[Caller]

My guess is that. How long has it been since you filed the divorce?

[Jade Warshaw]

Two weeks.

[Caller]

Oh, okay. My guess is that, I mean, Ken, they're probably gonna look at this and split it down the middle based on how long you guys have been married.

[Ken Coleman]

And based on that, your name's on these things.

[Caller]

Yeah, Your name is on it now, right? I do. I hate this is happening, but there's a part of this where you do have to. It's like he did these things, but you also have to own your part in it, which is, you know, he has an office building. How do we think it got there? You know, there's all these things cropping up. How do we think that we're paying for him? And, you know, here on the show, we're always teaching how money is just. It is a joint thing, that coup. I don't want to say venture, because it makes it sound business, but it is this thing that we both work together. We're both plugged in. We both are dialed in as to what's going on. It can't just be. He handles that. I handled this. Everybody's got to have their brain on and looking at this because really, this is what happens when you don't.

[Jade Warshaw]

So, yeah, I'm realizing.

[Ken Coleman]

All right, so let's talk about how to dig you out of this. So if I'm. If I'm paying attention, I'm trying to. We're really talking about. And I think Jade's right. Let's assume that you're going to have to pay half. Hopefully that doesn't happen. But we haven't even started this fight, so that means you would. You would owe 250,000. If the judge Split it down the middle. Is that correct?

[Jade Warshaw]

Approximately. I'm anticipating in. My lawyer thinks we'll end up finding more, but yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

Are there any houses today? So my question is, what about your house? Is your house paid for?

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, so our house is paid for. We sold a house and we cleared. We rolled part of it over into the new house. So it's paid for it.

[Ken Coleman]

How much is the current house worth if you were to sell it today?

[Jade Warshaw]

I think it's probably worth maybe 2 million.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay. Okay, so that's good news.

[Caller]

Yeah. Any other assets?

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, it was all of his business holdings, but I think they're all gone from what I can tell. But he. The problem is he won't tell me anything. He's not. I. He will not give me any information.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, it's not your problem anymore because this is going to get hashed out between the lawyers. So the way you started this call is how do I get rid of this debt? And best that we can tell, what we're operating off of right Now, Jade, is 250,000. We think worst case scenario, we can't guess.

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

What may be out there. But what we know today, how would you get out of it? And that becomes the issue. You haven't worked in how many years?

[Jade Warshaw]

27. I just got a job last week.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, good. What are you doing?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, I'm an attorney.

[Ken Coleman]

No way. Well, hello. You hit that detail. What kind of an attorney are you?

[Jade Warshaw]

Appellate. So I don't know anything about this financial stuff. I'm learning, believe me.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, but what?

[Jade Warshaw]

Can you never be in this position again?

[Ken Coleman]

No, we're not beating up on you. We're actually trying to help you here. So my question is, what are you going to make this year?

[Jade Warshaw]

130.

[Ken Coleman]

Great.

[Caller]

Okay, great.

[Ken Coleman]

All right. So between the house is an asset, Jade and you making 130. This is not the end of the world. That's the one thing I wanted to hear.

[Caller]

You'll probably split the debt in some form of fashion.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Caller]

You'll probably split the assets in some form of fashion. Hopefully it's fair for both parties. And it sounds like there's going to be enough assets for you to clear your debt and still have a decent amount of money. My guess is something's going to happen with this house. You're probably going to sell it and split the profits is usually what I suggest. Especially if there's not kids living at home, that kind of thing. And then. Yeah, whatever debt you're on the hook for, you'll take that money and pay off that debt. And you'll likely have enough money to go out and probably buy another house outright, depending on what you choose. And you'll ride off into the sunset. And like you said, you will have learned many, many lessons out of this.

[Ken Coleman]

What's the big one? What's the practical takeaway? Let's fast forward. Let's be positive. Kath, going to be too soon on some of this, I'm about to say, but I'm leading my, my partner here somewhere, so let's assume we're all clear of all this mess. She meets another fabulous man and she's in a relationship, she's in a married relationship. What does she learn from this practically and tactically? What does she do different next time?

[Caller]

Different. The different move is everything is 100. Like we're keeping everything above board. We're talking about it. Um, and anything that you have questions about, you're saying out loud. You have something to bring to the table, he has something to bring to the table. No one gets to just, quote, handle it. You know what I mean?

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah. No excuse, Kathy, to not know anything or very little. So now you know and get your head up. This is not fun. You're getting ready to go through a really tough deal and you're in the middle of the storm right now, but you're going to be okay financially and you're going to be okay emotionally and you'll be, you'll be okay long term. So appreciate the call.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, it's tough stuff, isn't it?

[Caller]

Yeah, it is. It's just so duplicitous to be Word.

[Ken Coleman]

Of the Day by Jade Warshaw, folks.

[Caller]

I think you know a guy.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, boy. On behalf of all men, I'm sorry.

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

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[Caller]

I put $5,000 in your lap. I set it right here. Ken Coleman. What are you doing?

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, wow. I mean, this is probably not the best example because I'm, you know, I don't have to worry about the. The. The debt snowball or the baby steps. I'm gonna go.

[Caller]

I know, I know.

[Ken Coleman]

I'm gonna splurge. Sp on. On me, mom, the family, you know. Yeah, Something like that. Something fun.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Ken Coleman]

That's what I'm doing. Yeah.

[Caller]

Put it towards a trip.

[Ken Coleman]

5,000. Yeah. Yeah. Something really fun of surprise for Stacy first.

[Caller]

Surprise.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[Caller]

Look at you. That's this.

[Ken Coleman]

I've been married a long time.

[Caller]

Good job, Ken.

[Ken Coleman]

And so you immediately go, hey, I found some cash in the form of Jade. Put it on my.

[Caller]

Put it on my desk for some.

[Ken Coleman]

Reason, and we don't know why, but that's the deal. And so I would. Something special for mama.

[Caller]

Something for mama. Always.

[Ken Coleman]

Always. And then, I don't know. I'd have to think. I wish I had a quick answer for you.

[Caller]

That's all right. I put you on the side.

[Ken Coleman]

I guarantee you clothing.

[Caller]

Oh, okay. Okay, then.

[Ken Coleman]

And. And with clothing comes the accessories of shoes. You know, I have a shoe problem. You're very aware.

[Caller]

We do. We both do. We both do.

[Ken Coleman]

We're both recovering shoeaholics. If That's a thing?

[Caller]

Yes.

[Ken Coleman]

All right. James is up in Fort Myers, Florida. James, how can we help today?

[Jade Warshaw]

Hey, guys. How are you guys doing today?

[Ken Coleman]

We're doing well. What's going on with you?

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, about seven years ago, the wife and us, we decided that we had a baby on the way and we decided that we needed to get a house. And at the time, her parents said, hey, we're in the process of moving and you guys need some childcare. Since it's very expensive where we live. Let's just get a house together and we will watch the kids for you guys and you guys can work without worrying about babysitting. So we purchased the house together under both of our names, and now we're at a situation where we got more than just one child and we are ready to move out and we're in the financial situation to go, but they're really not ready to go. So we're trying to figure out what's the best way to move out because we are either considering refinancing and just taking our names off and taking the portion of the profits that we would make from the house ourselves, or just selling the house outright, which. And they don't know what to do. And this market has everybody pretty concerned. So we're just trying to figure out what is the best.

[Ken Coleman]

So break the numbers down for Jade real quick. So give us an idea of what everybody put down, what the house, what's owed on the house, what it's worth. Give us some of those numbers.

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, when we first purchased the house, we put about 20,000. And in that 20,000, I believe we had about like 12 to 13,000. And they had about 7,000 in it.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay.

[Caller]

And listen, I'm already a little concerned because you're speaking in abouts, so that lets me know. This is not written down anywhere. This. There. There was nothing.

[Ken Coleman]

Yikes. And not much. So what's the house?

[Jade Warshaw]

But the house is worth a lot more now. So we purchased the house pre Covid and it was about 300,000. And now the house is worth about 550,000.

[Ken Coleman]

What is owed on the house?

[Jade Warshaw]

Somewhere around 220,000.

[Caller]

Okay, so you owe 220 is worth 550. They don't have the money to buy you out. And they probably don't have the financial status to keep this loan anyway. Right. Is what you're telling me.

[Jade Warshaw]

Because we were thinking about just taking like whatever portion, like, you know, whatever profit would be from an appraisal. We'll split it in half. And take that and go buy our own new house with it.

[Caller]

Right, but how can you get that money?

[Jade Warshaw]

Exactly the situation we're kind of stuck in.

[Caller]

So the what I would do. There's a couple ways you can look at this. Sorry. There's a couple ways you can look at this. You can go to them if you haven't already and sit down and say, hey, this has been a seven year run and it's been good. But I don't think any of us intended for this to be forever. At least I, we didn't intend that. And if we didn't communicate that we are sorry, that is our, you know, and try to put some of the onus on you on this that you, you should have done a better job communicating that you didn't want this to be forever. Also try to be really understanding. Hey, I get. Feels like it's not the best time to be buying a house.

[Ken Coleman]

We're.

[Caller]

You're. Neither of us are likely going to get the interest rate we had before and that is a loss. I hate that. I'm sure you guys hate that too, right? So you're setting this up in a way that is really just aware of the facts is really what it is. And then you're saying, here's what my wife and I would like to do. We're going to move out and we need to have access to our portion of that money, which means that you're going to have to move out as well. And this is the part where I would be very direct about what is going to happen and then let them say their piece and hopefully it goes swimmingly and you guys can set a timeline and say, okay, here's timeline. Six months, da da, da da. And keep going from there. If for some reason that's not the case, then this is where. And I pray it doesn't go to this point. But this when you might have to get a lawyer involved and say, okay, I did this thing with my family, I want to sell. They're not selling. Can I get a judge to force this sale? That sort of thing. And that, my friend, is where I hope this does not go.

[Ken Coleman]

Have you floated this idea to them?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, we have. We sat down with them a few weeks ago and we discussed exactly what we wanted and they were super indecisive because that's where really stuck on because they, they just didn't know what they wanted to do. And we're like, well like let us know. And then they said, oh well, we'll think about it. And it's been a kind of like that, that situation and they've been very great. So, so I don't want to seem like they haven't been.

[Caller]

No, I get it.

[Ken Coleman]

So the good news is is they weren't, they weren't mad about it. They just kind of kicked the can down the road.

[Caller]

I think the problem was you put the ball in their court instead of saying here's what we're going to do and here's what we need from you.

[Ken Coleman]

And they may need some direction. Jade, in other words, when you tell those guys and you already told him what you wanted to happen, so presumably when you sat them down and told them what you were going or wanted to do, you played out the numbers. They mean if you have it, you probably need to do that.

[Caller]

That's also true.

[Ken Coleman]

Here's how we see this going down. We walk away with this. You walk away with this. They, they just, it seems very passive and that to me tells me they're very afraid.

[Caller]

And I think Ken is right. If you let them know what your is, hey, we're going to take our cut of the money and we found this neighborhood over here. We're going to purchase like and you let them see there's a way to go forward out of this. I think that'll also help them get an idea as to what they can do. I don't know if their income situation is the same as yours. It's likely not, but at least you know, that is giving them an idea. Okay, we, this is what we could do. And yeah, I think that you need to speak in no uncertain terms of saying here's what we need. Here's what we need the timeline to be because here's what we're going to do and here's what we want you to do.

[Ken Coleman]

Question for you, Jade, because they are his in laws, I think his wife needs to take the lead. I wanted you to speak to that.

[Caller]

Yeah, Ken, Yeah, Ken is right.

[Ken Coleman]

She, this is her. She needs to be talking to her mom and daddy, not putting it on you. And I'm not not saying that she's not but I wanted you to speak to that.

[Caller]

You're. Ken said it. He's right. Let, let your wife do the talking. Otherwise I wouldn't want to be you is all I'm saying.

[Ken Coleman]

And let me also say, I hope it doesn't happen, James, but there's a reason why if you were to call us in the front end of this and say should we do this? We'd have been like no, in slow motion, you know, because you can see that this thing could get messy really fast. It's already messy. The question is, is it going to spill out further?

[Caller]

Because you both have. You both sound like very nice people, very reasonable people. Like for the listener, for the people listening. Let you see that these are all good people with good intentions and no ill will. And still it's an uncomfortable situation.

[Ken Coleman]

And I'm gonna say this. I'll give enough time for my colleague to say something different if she disagrees. I think this has ripped the band aid off type stuff. You guys already sat down and we slowly started to pull the band aid off and they were like, ooh, ooh, ooh. And it's like, come on.

[Caller]

Oh, yeah, get the hair in there. Get it all in there.

[Ken Coleman]

It's gonna sting. I think the next conversation is your wife takes the lead and we rip the band aid off. That's the only thing I think that's going to work now because, yeah, there's pain. Regardless, let's do the least amount of pain possible. Oh, it hurts, Jade, but I want it to hurt for just a little nanosecond.

[Caller]

Remember Clubber Lang?

[Ken Coleman]

Oh.

[Caller]

Rocky.

[Ken Coleman]

Great reference. Jade wins the Ramsey show today. I've been helping people get out of debt and change their lives for over 30 years. So I know change isn't always easy, but it's worth it. And here's change that's actually easy and worth it. Switching to Boost Mobile. Boost gives you nationwide 5G coverage for reliable calls and streaming. And their plans start at just 25 bucks a month for unlimited talk, text and data. With Boost Mobile, there's no junk fees, no contracts, and they offer a 30 day money back guarantee. Plus their customer service team is made up of real people, not robots. So switching is easy. So go to boostmobile.com Ramsey that's boostmobile.com Ramsey Foreign let's go to Terry in Manchester, New Hampshire. Terry, how can we help today?

[Jade Warshaw]

Hi. So the reason for my call is I got two notices of being served in small claims court over a, over two different credit cards, it looks like. And so I went and I looked at my credit report, you know, because you always hear, you know, who really owns this stuff. And it looks like it's on there a couple different times under a couple different names. And so I'm just kind of a little confused of what to do.

[Caller]

Is it. You said it's on there a couple of different times under a couple of different names. Is that like different credit card names?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like. Like this one. It. I don't know if I can say who's actually the person suing me.

[Caller]

No, it's okay. I just. You're saying it's the same amount, but it's listed in. In several different ways, and you're positive that they're not several different debts is, I guess, is what I'm getting at.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, I'm fairly sure it's that they aren't different debts.

[Caller]

Okay, but you did not pay them.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. Yeah, because they're kind of. These are. Because according to this, you know, the paperwork that I got, you know, I haven't paid these since July and August of 22.

[Caller]

Okay. Does it look familiar at all, or are you contesting that you even. Is it fraudulent?

[Jade Warshaw]

I. I don't think it's fraudulent, but I'm not sure, you know, what I'm gonna say. No, they. They. They are probably true to me.

[Caller]

How much?

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, what's happening right there? Can we. Can we learn a little bit more about that response?

[Jade Warshaw]

You know what? I just don't want to assume because, I mean, there's. I don't have a whole lot of. I guess it would be considered consumer debt on my. On. On my account.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Jade Warshaw]

It's probably, you know, five to $8,000 in total.

[Caller]

Okay, well, how much are these car.

[Jade Warshaw]

Payments and the house and student loans and stuff?

[Caller]

How much are these contested bill. What you're being sued for? How much is that, Terry, Combined.

[Jade Warshaw]

Because it's the same company. Sue me, I guess, for two different credit card lines. It's only eighteen hundred dollars.

[Caller]

Okay, my guy.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, but the thing that I'm hearing here, I'm just pointing this out real quick. Jade's on top of this. But for everybody listening and watching, you don't know what's going on in your finances. That's what's. That's what we're hearing. And so you don't have a clear grasp of what you're doing with your money. And that's the bigger issue here. What you're calling us about today is symptomatic of the fact that you're just kind of floating. Yeah. Just all over the place. Am I right?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. I mean, we know now what we spend our money on because, you know, we went out and signed up for that. For that. Every dollar.

[Ken Coleman]

Great.

[Jade Warshaw]

You all have.

[Ken Coleman]

And you got sued. That woke you up.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. And so. And so I went and I looked at. Because I haven't. It's not like I've gotten any notices lately, like, hey, you owe this bill or whatever.

[Caller]

Huh?

[Jade Warshaw]

You know, and so, like.

[Caller]

Like, do you think it's a scam is what I'm asking you? And how do you know? Okay, well, let's. Let me. Terry, Let me. I like you, Terry. I like you a lot. Let me level with you and give you a couple of steps here. First thing is, I think this is relatively new for you. You got the thing in the mail. It kind of, you know, made your stomach do a flip flop because it was scary. Right? But you really haven't done much due diligence on it yet. So I would. Yeah, call the number. You know, if there's a. If it's telling you the court. Right. Call the court separately from the number on the. You know, don't use the number that's on the. The sheet. Google the number. Get the real number. Call and say, hey, is there a docket for this? Is this really going on? Find out if it's real. Then if you know, hey, this is.

[Jade Warshaw]

I did that. I did.

[Caller]

Okay, I did.

[Jade Warshaw]

I did call the court. And they said, yeah, because there's a due date. Like, I have to respond by. Because there's no, like, actual court date that's been set.

[Caller]

Sweet. Okay.

[Jade Warshaw]

Want my response to this?

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

These two lawsuits was like, okay, so it's real. And, and. And so it's. Yeah, so it's step by step. Hey, this is what you got to do, because, you know, I'm. I'm not going to go hire an attorney.

[Caller]

No. And don't. And then, Terry, let me take it to the next level. Do you have the eighteen hundred dollars?

[Jade Warshaw]

No.

[Caller]

What do you have? Can you get the $1800 or can you get enough to settle?

[Jade Warshaw]

No, because, I mean, we've got about $1,000 in our emergency fund. I've got about 800 that I could pull out of a investment account.

[Ken Coleman]

What if we did a big yard sale, Terry?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, I mean. I mean, yeah, I could probably do that. I have. Yeah, because we've been talking about that. Even our kids have been saying, hey, are we going to do a yard sale this summer?

[Caller]

Here's what I would. Here's what I would do in your shoes. I would try to work until you get the actual court date. I'd work on piling up some money, and I would ask, is it too late to make a settlement? Here's what I have. I have $800, but it's all I have. I'm in debt. I'm trying to work my way out. I don't even know if this is really real, it could be fraudulent, but I'm tired of dealing with it. Can I just give you $800 and it be settled in full? So I try to make that deal and see if you can. It may be beyond that point, but it's likely not. So I would. I would try that and say, hey, I. I didn't even know this was a thing. This is my first time hearing about it. If I had known it was a thing, I would have been happy to pay it. You know that. Spilled milk. Can I. Can I please make a deal? Here's the money. I'm ready to give it to you today. And then I. Yeah, I would go into the emergency fund and I would knock this thing out and be done with it and. And make a deal. Yeah. For 800 or 700 or whatever they'll take. And that way, I just don't want you spending a lot of mental calories on this. It's eighteen hundred dollars, which is a lot of money, don't get me wrong, but it's not something that I want you to lose sleep on for months on end, especially if it's money that you truly owe, which it kind of sounds like you do.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, I'm sure I do. It's just, you know, back in 20, 22, 23, I had a bunch of medical issues, and so I wasn't working, and the bills piled up. So this is probably true.

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

You know.

[Caller]

Yeah. So let's knock it out.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah. You got to get your hands around your finances. This whole time, I'm sitting here listening to you, Terry. I don't know if. If either one of you, Terry or Jade. I'm pretty sure James, our fearless leader, has seen the viral July 4th video. Every year, it's the. The guys in the wheelchair, and his buddy lets him light a bottle rocket. Have you seen that video?

[Caller]

I have, because James showed it to me, and the whole time I'm just.

[Ken Coleman]

Wanting to yell, good, loud, Terry, Terry, Terry. I don't know why my brain went there. I wanted to say, Terry, you don't even know if it's real credit card debt.

[Caller]

That's good reference. That's. That's a good reference.

[Ken Coleman]

I didn't want to interrupt you.

[Caller]

No.

[Ken Coleman]

Because I was like, if I throw. If I. In the middle of you giving advice, I start going, terry, back away, Terry. Good Lord, that you would look at me like I had horns going out.

[Caller]

Yeah. I'm glad you set it up, because I kind of forgot about that. But that is an excellent Reference.

[Ken Coleman]

And I want to say for our audience who's going, what is Ken talking about? Is it really that funny? It is, absolutely. Just type in Terry Fireworks on YouTube and sit, welcome and enjoy yourself. Because it brings me so much joy. Every year, I find seven new people to text that to James every July 4th.

[Caller]

I'd never seen it until James showed it to me.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, this is perfect. Yeah, this is perfect. James, I had no idea that you introduced Jade to that great, glorious. It would have been a great metaphor even if this caller's name wasn't Terry.

[Caller]

But it was just.

[Ken Coleman]

It would have. It works both ways. What's the lesson? We want to back away from the mess, get our hands in there. Every dollar. Which, by the way, he did.

[Caller]

He did. He's doing the right thing. He had his thousand dollar emergency fund. And my guess is, and we didn't ask him this, but my guess is he was feeling great about the fact that he was making some progress. He did. Every dollar. He had the emergency fund. He was working on his debt, which wasn't much, but he was making progress. And then this thing kind of rolled in. Set him back a little.

[Ken Coleman]

I want to point out, James, our studio audience is watching it on their cell phones right now. There's a dude who looks like Joe Rogan out there who is shaking.

[Caller]

It's funny.

[Ken Coleman]

It's one of the great videos of all time. Do we have it to roll? No, we were going to. We were going to kind of bump out with a video without audio, but we can.

[Caller]

Yeah, because you can't. You can't play the audio, I don't think.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, if you just go on YouTube and do backup Terry, you'll find it. Yeah, backup Terry. Am I right, folks? They are thanking me out there. Everybody's loving it. Look at these people enjoying that video. That's the gift that keeps on giving, by the way.

[Caller]

It really is.

[Ken Coleman]

You ever have a bad day, just watch that and think, well, I could be Terry.

[Caller]

Oh, you don't want to be Terry.

[Ken Coleman]

Terry.

[Caller]

Terry's been through some things.

[Ken Coleman]

Back up, Terry. Oh, man, that's good.

[Caller]

Foreign. Hey, guys, what's up? It's Jade Warshaw. And look, if there's anybody who knows about student loan debt, it's me. My husband and I had $280,000 of it, but we were able to dig ourselves out. And you can, too. If your student loan payment and interest rate are burying you, refinancing could be the solution. Now, I recommend contacting my friends at Laurel Road today through their Online application. You can get an initial rate quote in less than five minutes. And if you have a more complex situation, you can schedule 30 minutes to talk to an actual human being. Thank goodness Laurel Road makes it simple. There are no fees involved and you could save thousands over the life of your loan. Remember, you should only refinance if it makes sense in your situation. So if you're looking for a low rate or a shorter term so that you can pay off these student loans fast, talk to my friends at Laurel Road about their competitive interest rates and how you could actually get a lower rate by signing up for autopay. Listen, nobody's coming to save you from your student loan debt. If you want it gone, you can't mess around. Go to LaurelRoad.com Ramsey to find out more about about student loan refinancing. Again, that's LaurelRoad.com Ramsey.

[Ken Coleman]

Ruth is in Washington D.C. ruth, how can we help you today?

[Jade Warshaw]

Hi, I'm public school teacher who I'm 16 years in. I still need 14 more years till I get full retirement and it's gotten really hard and I've. Sorry. I've applied to a Christian school. Yeah, it's 80% of the pay, none of the retirement, but almost. I mean currently I have 29 students of all different ranges of ability, of ability to speak English. You know, one is on the autism spectrum. Very A couple major behavior problems including parents that are combative and like the Christian school is a cap at 18 and you know, even if the parents write a mean email, the kid gets.

[Caller]

Sent on their way.

[Jade Warshaw]

You know, like totally different environment, totally different. And I, I'm far enough along that I'm kind of invested. You know, maybe it's a couple bad years, you know, but it's, it's one of those things where I, I commute three and a half miles in a 17 and a half year old car that can only go so far. Like I don't trust it very far. Right. But it is my debt free car so it is my transportation. The other school would be a two and a half hour commute every day because of traffic and.

[Ken Coleman]

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. The Christian school would be two and a half hour commute.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, it'd be an hour there and an hour and a half home.

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

Outside of D.C. the traffic is.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh trust me, trust me. I, I grew up in the, on the coast of Virginia, so not too far from you. And I know what traffic is like in Northern Virginia and, and down and all that. So I get that.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. Well, but it might be an enjoyable day.

[Ken Coleman]

No, I think that's a fallback. I think that's probably our last option to escape the burnout that you're experiencing right now. But I don't think it's our best option. So what do you make now? What's your income?

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, I think it's 82. I'm projected to be about 88 next year. Okay.

[Ken Coleman]

All right.

[Jade Warshaw]

On my contract.

[Ken Coleman]

And you've been teaching for a long time, so my question is, if I'm you, my first. My first move is to look at private schools in the D.C. area. First move, just to go, okay, it doesn't have to be a Christian school and doesn't need to be an hour away, but I know the amount of income in Washington, so I'm going to start. First thing I'm going to do if I'm you is I start looking at private schools, the very expensive ones, where they pay their teachers very well. And again, you've got a very different clientele, so I'd start there. The second thing I'd start looking at is community colleges or colleges. If you're qualified for that. You may not be, but I'm just throwing out my immediate reaction. Okay. Third, because you've been teaching for 16 years and you're trained trainer, I would be looking at training jobs, jobs where the company will bring you in and they'll train you on how they need you to train, whether it be training through HR or something like that. But I would be looking at any kind of training job in corporate America because you're already qualified.

[Caller]

And.

[Ken Coleman]

And so they can look at you and go, here's a. Here's a woman's been teaching for 16 years. She knows how to teach. That's where I would be starting, because I think sometimes public school. I know. So I've talked to so many, so many teachers over the years. I've counseled them on the. On the Ken Coleman show. And. And they all think the same thing, that they're only qualified to teach in a public or private school setting, that they can't do anything else. And that's just simply not the case. You would admit to Jade and I today, that you know how to train people, don't you?

[Jade Warshaw]

I hope so.

[Ken Coleman]

Come on.

[Caller]

You do.

[Ken Coleman]

Ruth, you know how to instruct, correct?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, so I would be looking at anything that involves instruction. And imagine how fun it would be to instruct somebody who wants to be instructed.

[Jade Warshaw]

Exactly.

[Ken Coleman]

All right, then. So we've got to open up the possibilities And I would put the situation that you brought to us, the two and a half hour commute for an 80% pay. Absolutely. Last worst case scenario, Jade.

[Caller]

Yeah, last ditch effort on that one. I just think there's too many opportunities that can. Very eloquently laid out for you.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah. So what, let's, let's just brainstorm for a minute or two. What does your brain do with the information I just gave you? What started popping in your head? Give me the fears. If you've got fears. If you've got questions about what I said, hit me.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, I mean I spent most of my teaching in kindergarten, second grade, so I feel like teaching adults. I would, you know, want them to sing a song or, you know, do a dance while they learn it and. No, you might just not work.

[Ken Coleman]

No, you wouldn't.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's how I teach.

[Ken Coleman]

I know that's how you teach because that's how you had to teach a kindergartner.

[Caller]

You figured out what will help them learn this and then you came up with a solution for how they would best learn it. And you would do the same thing with adults. You would say, how will they best learn this?

[Ken Coleman]

That's right.

[Caller]

And then you'll come up with a solution on how that that will happen.

[Ken Coleman]

Why aren't you thinking about some of these high end prep schools and private schools in the D.C. area?

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, so I'm not quite in D.C. i'm a little bit out.

[Caller]

And how far out?

[Ken Coleman]

I know the area. How far out are you?

[Jade Warshaw]

Two counties.

[Ken Coleman]

Are you, what are you in Loudoun County?

[Jade Warshaw]

Prince William.

[Ken Coleman]

Prince William. Okay, well what about Prince William County? I mean there's a lot of spillover. What are the. Okay, here's a homework assignment. I'm going to speak to you in your language. I want you to find all of the private schools in your county and a county or two over. You don't have to go into the city because of that nightmare of traffic. But. But have you done that?

[Jade Warshaw]

I've looked at some of them, probably Faucier county, so a little bit the other direction. So I'd be going against traffic, but the pay is much less than 80% of my current.

[Ken Coleman]

At the private schools. Yeah, the high end ones.

[Jade Warshaw]

The ones that, I mean it's been a couple years since I looked at a particular one, but they are high end.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay. I'd still look is my point. You have got. Here's. You don't know what you don't know. You're giving me two year old now? Again, I'm not thinking there's going to be a big difference here, but first thing you said to me as well, I looked at another county, not the county you were in. So my point is, is yeah, my.

[Jade Warshaw]

County doesn't have high end ones.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, great. So. But my point is, is you see what we're doing here. If I were coaching you for an entire hour, we would be turning over a lot of rocks. And, and so you need to be looking online at openings that are involving instruction. Okay. If nothing else, go into chat GPT and, and put in everything that you have learned how to do as a teacher. And don't say helping kids with glue and popsicle sticks. I mean, I know how to lesson plan. I know how to instruct and teach, you know, whatever, whatever, whatever. And begin to just see what is out there and then go to these job sites and start to see what's out there. Then another thing you've got to do is you got to talk to everybody that you know everybody and say, hey, this is what I've been doing. I now am looking to transition into any kind of role where I'm spending most of my day in an instruction capacity and watch the opportunities get suggested to you that you have got to put the word out and then let things come to you. You've got to go look. And when you look, you will see things you have not seen before. You tracking with me?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

Ruth, you remember the last time you and your husband bought a car, like a nice car? You remember seeing it everywhere for about three or four or five days. Isn't that a phenomenal effect? That's a psychological effect. And what that is is the power of focus. And we are so focused, Jade, on buying that car. Then we begin to see it everywhere. And the car ferry didn't just drop that in. And so what I'm trying to teach you here is to focus. I heard you about to ask a question. Hit us with a question. What you got?

[Jade Warshaw]

I. So when you work for the government, you have like the state retirement, which is a good retirement, but it like obviously you can't take it with you. I mean, not that it disappears, but it wouldn't be something that I should be concerned about changing out of?

[Ken Coleman]

No.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Ken Coleman]

Because you said you have 16 years before you'd be able to get it correct.

[Jade Warshaw]

14.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, 14. Sorry. I want you to imagine really quick 14 more years of what you've been experiencing that drove you to tears at the start of this call. Is that worth it?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

Is that worth it?

[Jade Warshaw]

No.

[Ken Coleman]

No. Because you can go make more money doing what I'm telling you to do. And you're going to invest that money the way we've taught you to invest that money. Jade, final word on that. I think she needs a. I need a little pep talk here.

[Caller]

My final word is I want you to, to do a vocab rehab. I hear a lot of you saying things where it was just this and I just did this. I want you to start talking about what you do as a profession with a lot of power and a lot of authority. You're, you're a person who's good at their job, they're great at what they do, and I want you to sound like it and stop kind of selling yourself short like you've got a lot to offer and anybody would be great to have you.

[Ken Coleman]

That's a good word. Go.

[Jade Warshaw]

Rubbish.

[Ken Coleman]

Go.

[Caller]

There's a time in your life and at the baby steps for renting. But you don't want to do it forever because when you rent, you're still paying for a mortgage, just somebody else's.

[Jade Warshaw]

Plus, rent means instability in your budget.

[Caller]

Because it always goes up, never down. So when you're ready to buy, make sure you work with a mortgage partner. You can rely on Churchill Mortgage. Churchill is Ramsey trusted to help you make the move from renting to home ownership.

[Jade Warshaw]

Wisely. Churchill understands that when you buy a.

[Caller]

Home the Ramsey way, your mortgage payment will be a consistent, manageable part of your monthly budget.

[Jade Warshaw]

Plus, when your home is paid off, that was your largest expense.

[Caller]

Now it's extra money in your pocket.

[Jade Warshaw]

And an asset towards turning you into.

[Caller]

A baby steps millionaire. Get started on the American dream of home ownership [e-mail] that's churchillmortgage.com.

[Ken Coleman]

You guys. I get it. Inflation is hitting hard right now. Milk, bread, meat. The price of everything has gone up. So you can complain or you can do something about it. Like shop somewhere. Stuff costs less. I'm talking about Aldi, the newest sponsor of the Ramsay show. Aldi gives you a no nonsense approach to shopping and prices that won't bust your budget. Listen to this. Aldi shoppers can save up to 36% on a typical shopping trip, which adds up to about $4,000 a year for a family of four. So stop overpaying for groceries and start shopping smarter at Alt Aldi, where you'll save with the lowest prices of any national grocery store. Find a store near you today at aldi.us that's a L D I us this is the Rainbow Ramsey show, where America talks about their money, their profession and their relationships. Triple 882-55-5225 is the phone number to jump in. AAA 825 5225. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by the fantastic and talented lady, Jade Warshaw. Always fun.

[Caller]

Thank you, Ken.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, there you go. You got to turn that mic on after I brag about you. There. Let's get right to it. You ready to roll?

[Caller]

Rock and roll.

[Ken Coleman]

Serenity is joining us in Houston, Texas. How can we help today?

[Jade Warshaw]

Hi, y'all. I just want to say how much my boyfriend and I love this show and it's such a pleasure to talk to y'all. I'm doing great. How are y'all?

[Ken Coleman]

Great. We're happy to talk to you. What's up today?

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, so my best friend has itinerary for her bachelorette party, but it's outside of my budget and I don't know how to tell her that.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, how much outside the budget?

[Jade Warshaw]

So she's an engineer, she makes six figures. So every activity is at least $150.

[Ken Coleman]

What do you ask? What do you estimate the total trip going to cost you?

[Jade Warshaw]

The total, I've already paid for the flight and I already bought the hotel and I didn't want to spend any more than I spent on the hotel flight. So I have about $400 for a three day weekend.

[Caller]

Well, it sounds like you're in it now, Serenity. You bought the flights and you bought the hotel.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[Caller]

Are they refundable?

[Jade Warshaw]

No, they're not.

[Caller]

Oh, man. So now you're going to be at the restaurant just eating the chips and drinking water is what you're saying.

[Ken Coleman]

Are you in the wedding? Presumably.

[Jade Warshaw]

So it's just going to be her siblings in the wedding.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, listen, here we go now. You and I went viral one time before talking about one of these type of trips.

[Caller]

It's so I. Listen, I feel as though, can I just. Serenity, give me a moment to just rant for a minute because I'm sure your, your bestie, like she's your friend and everything like that, but I do feel like it can be a little tone deaf to have these big bachelorette trips. You already, if you're already in the Datgum wedding, you already have to get a dress or a tuxedo. And then don't let it be a destination wedding.

[Ken Coleman]

Not in the wedding wedding. Did you catch that?

[Caller]

You're not in the wedding at all.

[Jade Warshaw]

No, no. Just the siblings are the only ones in the wedding.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Ken Coleman]

And Shoot. Now, let me. So this is great. Let me get a little more information because I knew she was about ready to rent.

[Caller]

I was.

[Ken Coleman]

So you've paid for the hotel and the airfare, and if I heard you right, you have $400 of spending money for this weekend. Three day weekend, correct?

[Jade Warshaw]

Correct.

[Caller]

But how much did you spend on the flight in hotels so far?

[Jade Warshaw]

They were about 350 each. 350 for the hotel. 350?

[Ken Coleman]

Girl. Well, so what's the so?

[Caller]

Well, I mean, why get into it? Do you have debt? It's like, clearly this is bothering you. Is it because you have other financial goals? And this is really just.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes, Yes. I just wanted to show up for her, you know?

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

Is there anything happening that's not 150 every time they go do it? Like, is there some. Is there like.

[Jade Warshaw]

No. And I was gonna suggest it, but I don't know if that takes away from her moment, you know, how many.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, sorry, I'm asking a few more questions. How many events does she have scheduled and what would that cost you? I'm trying to be real here. At 150 per pop, how many things does she have scheduled and what's that gonna cost you?

[Caller]

Ken, I'm busting.

[Ken Coleman]

I know you are busting, but you're gonna bust too soon on this deal. I gotta get some information. Well, how much are we talking about? Serenity?

[Jade Warshaw]

Honestly, if I was to do everything on itinerary, I'll be spending about 650.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, you have 400 to spend. I'm saying I'm trying to help her with a reality. I know you're upset that she's even going, but my point is. See, this is how we went viral before. I'm. I'm trying to help her in the moment. So in the moment, okay, you can do two events.

[Caller]

Yes.

[Ken Coleman]

That's all you can do. You got two events at 150, that leaves you a little $100 and you come up with a headache, miss it.

[Caller]

I don't think it's too late to not go.

[Ken Coleman]

She can't get refunded.

[Caller]

Here's the thing. Usually if I spend it, I'm going to spend it. Usually with the hotel. If you go back, as long as it's more than 24 hours notice, usually you can get that back.

[Ken Coleman]

But she said she couldn't. So let's clarify. Serenity.

[Caller]

Did you go to the hotel, you know for sure?

[Ken Coleman]

All right, that's what I'm saying. So now here's the deal. I'm always thinking about the big picture.

[Caller]

All right?

[Ken Coleman]

This isn't just a money play. So she wants to be a part of this weekend.

[Caller]

Yes.

[Ken Coleman]

Special lady in her life, long time friend. I say go and you budget the 400. You got 400.

[Caller]

I mean, you can only spend 400.

[Ken Coleman]

So you can have a 400 worth of fun or.

[Caller]

Or.

[Ken Coleman]

Or bachelorette activities. Am I right?

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. Yeah. That's reasonable.

[Ken Coleman]

And here's. You have two options. You tell her, hey, listen, I'm getting out of debt.

[Caller]

And so you can't tell her that.

[Ken Coleman]

Sure she can. She could speak straight up and go, Look, I've got 400 to spend. I'm going to come to this outing, and I'm going to come to this outing. I can't do the rest. I said she has options. She didn't have to do that.

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

I'm not suggesting she does that. But I don't know their relationship or.

[Caller]

You know, what she didn't get in the wedding.

[Ken Coleman]

We've all. I'm gonna be real, straight up right now. We've all been to a thing where we didn't want to do all the things.

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

And we go, I got a headache. Or my stomach doesn't feel very good right now. I mean, come on. I think it calls for that because we want it. You're there. She feels loved and supported. You don't want to feel ostracized for your being.

[Caller]

Ramsay, what are the activities? Are you allowed to tell us, or does it involve.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, I like this even more.

[Jade Warshaw]

So it's basically like the biggest things on the list are just dinner and brunch.

[Caller]

Okay. So I feel like you can.

[Jade Warshaw]

Everything on the menu is like, maybe minimum, $40. Minimum.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, well, now I can get around that.

[Caller]

Right?

[Ken Coleman]

That's where you, like. You make a couple friends, you know? Any other girls going on this trip?

[Caller]

There you go, Ken.

[Ken Coleman]

You see where I'm going?

[Jade Warshaw]

It's a group.

[Ken Coleman]

Hey, but you know the girl, so.

[Caller]

You'Re not the only one feeling this.

[Ken Coleman]

I'm telling you what I'm saying. I'm sitting here like this. I'm looking at the menu, and I'm. And I'm. I'm going, hey, Jade, you want to split a salad?

[Caller]

Huh? This is where you call up the friend that whenever something happens, y'all just look at each other like this. You don't have to say anything.

[Ken Coleman]

You just look like this.

[Caller]

You call up that friend.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[Caller]

And say, are you thinking what I'm thinking?

[Ken Coleman]

I ain't spending 40 girl.

[Caller]

Exactly.

[Ken Coleman]

Or however it is you all talk to each other. That's my best impersonation.

[Caller]

Just that. Girl, have you looked at this menu? Because I am not the one. I am not going. How can we make this work? You and me, let's get together. Because I'm only trying to spend 400. That's how we're doing this.

[Ken Coleman]

I mean, Caesar salad, soup.

[Caller]

Yep.

[Ken Coleman]

I could stretch $400. You know, you don't want to go to brunch. How come you're not coming to brunch?

[Caller]

We're not ordering alcohol, unfortunately.

[Ken Coleman]

You know, I got to get my TPS reports in. You know, I had to leave work. You know, I mean, come on, now.

[Caller]

Don't tell her to tell a lie now, Ken.

[Ken Coleman]

Come on, now, see, I don't think that's lying. I think that is just socially kind of. We're just creating some harmony. I don't want to come to everything. Don't tell me you've. You've skipped out on some invite. I bet you Stacy and I've invited you and Sam. And you gave me a little excuse at once or twice.

[Caller]

You never giving me an excuse, kid. I would never do that to you.

[Ken Coleman]

But you've done it before.

[Caller]

I've done it before.

[Ken Coleman]

All right. I think we could call a little white lie. That doesn't hurt anybody.

[Caller]

Oh, yeah, but I like the idea. Yeah. You get together, let's keep it real. The other bestie, the other one of you that's not in the wedding, and y'all make it happen. Because guaranteed, stuff like this, we think, you know, we're isolated. We think we're the only one. And I promise you.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[Caller]

Somebody else is feeling like you're feeling.

[Ken Coleman]

By the way, serenity. Since I'm so full of helpful tips on this call, I'm feeling pretty, pretty, pretty good right now. How long do we have before we go on this trip?

[Jade Warshaw]

It's next week.

[Ken Coleman]

Next week?

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Ken Coleman]

I'm gonna sell two or three hundred dollars worth of stuff around my house that I don't need.

[Caller]

No.

[Ken Coleman]

Yes.

[Caller]

I am not selling my stuff to go to your wedding. Like, that's period.

[Ken Coleman]

I would.

[Caller]

Ken, you're trying to please too many people out here.

[Ken Coleman]

What'd you say? Serenity. Say it again.

[Jade Warshaw]

I could try to hustle five helps of money.

[Ken Coleman]

Then we make everybody happy. And we don't go backwards in our baby steps journey. Jade, you're too cheap. You got to be no man. Gotta be a friend.

[Caller]

Gotta, gotta go a 1200 friend.

[Ken Coleman]

I still gotta get the gift 600 max.

[Caller]

I still gotta get the gift.

[Ken Coleman]

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[Jade Warshaw]

Hi, thanks for taking my call. So I have been helping my baby sister through the baby steps and she's actually further than my husband and I. She's just about to finish step three and move on to step four. She doesn't need to do five. She's only 20, she's not married, she doesn't have kids. And so I just need some guidance on like how to help her with step four and six. I know that she needs like a Roth IRA kind of thing, her investments, because she's self employed as a tattoo artist. So she doesn't have like automatic retirement going in. And she's very like, tell me what to do with my money and I'm gonna do it because I helped her get to where she is now, living on her own and that kind of stuff.

[Ken Coleman]

Wow, that's great. I thought this call might go a different direction. You started with I'm helping my baby sister, but seems like this is going well.

[Caller]

Yeah, that's good. I mean, I think you're a great sister for pointing her in the right direction and I, I want to make sure it sticks with pointing her in the right direction versus kind of what you said of tell me what to do and I'll just do it. Especially when it comes to the investing part because that's the part where we do want to have more of a hands on approach and making sure that she's really understanding it for herself versus my sister told me to open this up and put my money right here. And so I'm just going to do that because the truth is, you know, being in the market can have volatility and we don't know what her sense is going to be around that. And so if she has a day where she sees her investments go down, I don't want her to look at you and go, you told me to put my money here. And now, you know, the stock market's had a down day. Right. We want her to make, we want to make sure she understands it. So let's go back to just the basics of what you're telling her, which is, yeah, you're right. If she's self employed, a Roth IRA would be a wonderful place to start. And if she finds that she's able to fund that fully and still has money to go out of her 15%, then she could sit down and set up some other types of funds. Maybe she does a SEP, maybe she does something else. An individual 401K, something like that. Okay, that's where she would go with that. But what's important is that she's learning what this all is and what this all means. Right? Because you can tell her, hey, invest your money across four different types. That's what we would say, you know, growth and income, aggressive, growth international. And you could go through all that stuff with her. But if she doesn't understand it, again, it's just her taking your advice and not doing her own due diligence. So do you think that you have a grass enough of a grasp to really teach her or what do you think?

[Jade Warshaw]

I think I have like an intermediate level grasp, which is why I'm not feeling super confident because my husband and I are still in baby step two and she is progressing further and I haven't, like, we're focused on baby step two and she's getting further down the line. I'm like, oh, no, she's gonna need help again soon. Like in the next couple months. She'll have her six months.

[Caller]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

You know, saved up and with the investments and stuff, like, you've not actually done it. I've not actually done it. And she, I know that she, she's very open with me about her finances. I know that she can fund the 15% and have money left over to save for a down payment on a home or if she wants to upgrade her car or whatever. She's 20.

[Caller]

Like, great. You know, so what I do is I. If I were in your shoes, I would get Financial Peace University. Matter of fact, we'll gift it to you. And I'd sit down and I'd watch the investing lessons with her. And I'd watch it one, one night, like in the week or whatever, pop popcorn, do whatever. And then I'd go back and watch it again because it takes some time to get it in there. And then if she feels confident, like, hey, let's look into these Roth options. Then it's like, okay, now we're looking at it, we're seeing what it is, and we're kind of putting the teaching together with like, practically actually doing it. And if there's still any question on what do I pick? Then it's like, okay, let's go to Smartvestor Pro. Let's sit down with them and let's see if they can help Teach it. Because I just don't want her to do it because big sister said, do it.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, right. Yes, yes. And she's very. I did, like, sit down and show her, like, the investment calculator on the Ramsey side. Like, this is for your future. This is like, kind of what, you know, like, is this something you want to do? Do you want to set yourself up in the future? You know, and stuff like that. And she's very, like, just watching our parents having gone, they went through the baby steps, they became millionaires, and now they lost it, and they're divorced, and she's like. And they have to work past retirement. Like, that's how bad.

[Caller]

Yeah, that's.

[Jade Warshaw]

It is. And so she's looking at that and saying, I don't. I don't want to do that.

[Caller]

You know, that's good.

[Jade Warshaw]

Which is so great. At age 20. I mean, my goodness, like, she's not even fully brain developed yet.

[Caller]

No, you're doing great. You're teaching her the philosophy, right? You're teaching her the baby steps. You're teaching her kind of like that overarching thing. But, yeah, for the details. Make sure she gets that advice from a deeper source and make sure that she's understanding it and not, like I said, not just doing it because it was said to do.

[Ken Coleman]

I think it's a great point. The only thing I would add to that, Jessica, is, and you've done this, it sounds like stay in the posture of guiding, not directing, because that older sister could be very easy. And as she starts to make other moves, moves that maybe you wouldn't make, doesn't mean that they're against what we teach at Ramsey, but it might be different than what you would do. Just stay in that guide stature, and I think that'll help your relationship as she continues to mature. A great job, both of you. That's such a great story. Debbie's up in Tampa, Florida. Debbie, how can we help?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, thanks so much for taking my call. I'm kind of feel like I'm playing, like, financial pin tail on the donkey. I'm not really sure what I'm. I'm supposed to be doing here. My husband recently passed away. I'm going to say about eight months or so ago. Thank you. It was rather unexpected. No life insurance. Yes. It had an annuity of quite literally $7,500. And our boys are 13 and 17. So one of them I will be getting. Yeah, it was a health issue, and we're about 18 years apart. And so there was a lot going on there health wise for him. So one of my sons will be getting Social Security about 2,000amonth for the next four years and the other son will be getting the same 2,000amonth for maybe another 12 months. And you know, I make about 4,600 after taxes, after investing, after, you know, my health, my dental, all that, I do have term life at 500,000, which is about you know, 10 to eight times actually my salary. So I have investment about 300,000, you know, so that I'm kind of secure there. But what's happened now is I have about 97,000 in a HELOC and I have about 94,000 in credit cards. So we have a primary home and I also have an investment rental that I have.

[Ken Coleman]

Tell us about that really quick. How much do you owe on it and what could you sell it for?

[Jade Warshaw]

The rental I bought for 175. Right now it's at 2.875. So that tells you it's yeah, 2 875. And right now the mortgage on it is 113.

[Caller]

What could you sell it for?

[Jade Warshaw]

About three, three hundred and fifty. Okay. And we depreciated the basis on it to about a hundred thousand.

[Ken Coleman]

So I, I'm sorry, you broke up. How much do you owe on it?

[Jade Warshaw]

I'm sorry, 113.

[Caller]

Oh, 113, yeah right.

[Jade Warshaw]

I bought it for 175, I owe 113.

[Caller]

Hey, if I were you, I hate to cut you off but we're against the clock. If I were you to get better settled on this, I'd probably clear that that rental and take the profits and pay off the debt. As much as you can agree. And I would never go into debt again. You can't afford to. Right now is the time to, to continue to build up that retirement account. And yeah, stay out of debt. That's my best advice to you at this point. I'm sorry for your loss, so sorry.

[Ken Coleman]

But this, this investment property is a gift. Get out of it, get completely debt free and then continue to rebuild. You'll get there. That's what we would do. So hopefully you will do that.

[Jade Warshaw]

You spent years trying to get everything.

[Caller]

Just right for your family.

[Jade Warshaw]

Now you need an easy way to.

[Caller]

Make sure your important financial documents are.

[Jade Warshaw]

As organized as the rest of your house.

[Caller]

Well, good news, Knockbox, that's N o K box, as in next of kin.

[Jade Warshaw]

Box, is a complete system that helps.

[Ken Coleman]

You be sure that you leave happy.

[Jade Warshaw]

Memories, not a mess when you pass away.

[Caller]

Knockbox is a simple way to organize.

[Jade Warshaw]

Important paper and digital documents, IDs, tax returns, insurance policies, estate plans, accounts, and.

[Caller]

Other personal history in one manageable place. Your family will feel your love in every detail you take care of.

[Jade Warshaw]

So start taking care of [e-mail] Ramsey a well organized legacy is a gift to your family.

[Caller]

That's nokbox.com Ramsey People ask me all.

[Ken Coleman]

The time, George, what's your number one money saving hack? Glad you asked. Nothing makes me happier than helping another frugal friend. So here's the hack. Get on a budget. Seriously, how are you supposed to save money if you don't know how much you're spending in the first place? And that's what makes the EveryDollar budgeting app a game changer. With EveryDollar, you'll get a clear picture of your spending, and from there, it's easy to see where you can get more intentional cut back and save more money. So how much money are we talking here? Well, the average EveryDollar budgeter frees up $395 in their first budget. That's the hack. And if you ask me, I think you're way above average and you'll save even more. So what are you doing still listening to me? Go download the EveryDollar app for free and start saving more money right now. All right, time for our question of the day, which is brought to you by. Why refi? Why refi refinances defaulted private student loans that other places won't touch, and they're going to help you get your life back. So kick your private student loan debt to the curb@y refi.com Ramsey that's the letter y r e f y.com Ramsey it may not be available in all states.

[Caller]

Okay, today's question comes from Alexis in Mississippi. She says, I'm a stay at home mom with two children. My husband earns about $55,000 a year. We owe $65,000 on our house, and that's our only debt. It seems like we're stuck, though, and I would love to get some guidance on how we can move forward on the baby steps. Neither of us have a retirement plan. My goal is to pay off the house as soon as possible. But I know investing in our future is also important. So how do we do both? Great question. Hey, congratulations on being debt free. Except your mortgage. I think for a lot of people, that's the biggest hurdle. Right, Ken? So the fact that you're over that, or maybe you never dealt with it to begin with, is a major win. So really it's just walking the baby steps up. So you've already done baby steps one and two essentially, which is you get a thousand dollars saved for baby step one. Baby step two is you pay off all of your consumer debt, right? Everything except the mortgage. So essentially now you're on baby step three, which is when you're stacking up three to six months of expenses. You didn't mention in the question that you had that. So I'm assuming that you need that. So three to six months of Ken, what I would say kind of like your bare bones budget, like you don't need your bells and whistles budget. That's going to take you a long time to do and we want to get you to that investing step. So yeah, three to six months. I base that, Alexis, off of a couple of things because a lot of people ask should I do three months or six months? And it really does matter, Ken, about a couple of things. A, what's your health like? You know, are you a person that is in and out? Is there a possibility that you might not work? You know, you go bouts where you're not working. So that's going to play into whether you want three or six months. You look at are both spouses out earning income. If it's, you know, if you're a stay at home mom, that'd be another good reason to go for six months. So these are the sorts of things that I'm looking at when I'm determining that in my world, can I just like 6 months period. Honestly, I agree, but I'm just, I.

[Ken Coleman]

Was going to get your take on this. As I was reading that they've, they only owe 65,000 on the house. Not a lot.

[Caller]

No.

[Ken Coleman]

But it looks like she was torn between do we pay the house off sooner versus the 15% baby step four. And we know the answer and I think she kind of knows that. But we want to see her and if she can even work part time after the husband and if he's making the income, let's get the 15% done every month now we're paying towards our retirement. And if she wants, that's baby step four. And if she wants to work towards, you know, paying the house off, if they've, if they've not been investing with the kids for their futures, stick with the plan because in the end the momentum in baby step four and five will propel them to six to pay the house off. It's not that much. Don't take it out of order. And you can understand the Intensity, right?

[Caller]

Yes.

[Ken Coleman]

But you really want to take advantage of the fact that you don't owe much on your home, and you've got to start piling cash for retirement. That's why, baby step four, 15 of your income.

[Caller]

You gotta do that.

[Ken Coleman]

So vital.

[Caller]

And I think probably what you're feeling. And Ken. Ken touched on it. You know, at $55,000 a year, if that's the gross, what you're taking home, you know, once you've put the. The 15 away, it doesn't leave a whole lot to do. All the things you want to do in your budget plus put what feels like a substantial amount extra right on the mortgage. Plus, you got to think about kids, college. So Ken is exactly right. No, nothing takes away from the 15%. We got to do that. And Ken is right. If you can find a way to supplement your income so that it feels like you're putting more on the mortgage, that's a good deal.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah. All right, let's go to Charleston, South Carolina, one of my favorite, favorite cities in the South. John is there. John, how can we help today? Hey, I hope you guys are doing great.

[Jade Warshaw]

I got a. I got a funky situation for y'all that I need your opinion on.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, we can handle funky, all right. It doesn't scare us.

[Jade Warshaw]

It's funky. So my wife and I are next week. We are about to complete baby step three.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay.

[Jade Warshaw]

Super pumped about that.

[Caller]

Congrats.

[Jade Warshaw]

I'm confused on where to go next. So my wife is a nurse. She makes about 50,000 a year gross. And I am a professional athlete, and I make about 200 gross.

[Ken Coleman]

What sport that has.

[Jade Warshaw]

I'm not really allowed to say what sport, but it's in the automotive world.

[Ken Coleman]

It's in the what?

[Jade Warshaw]

Automotive world.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, okay.

[Caller]

All right.

[Jade Warshaw]

It's a little funky. Like I said, it's funky.

[Caller]

Keep going. We're tracking with you.

[Jade Warshaw]

My question here is. I know my next step here is to start the 15%.

[Ken Coleman]

Yep.

[Jade Warshaw]

All the time. Paying off the house with my job, my salary, and how long it will last is very unpredictable. And when I say that is basically the way my contracts laid out is X amount of money for X amount of years.

[Ken Coleman]

But that they have the ability to.

[Jade Warshaw]

Fire me basically if my performance goes bad or if I get hurt.

[Caller]

Well, so far, everybody's job is like that. So so far, it's not too funky. So keep going.

[Ken Coleman]

I'm thinking one of the things you need to do is get a better phone. I think that's probably what all of us are wondering we're having a hard time hearing. Well, yeah, you're coming in and out. So are you in a tunnel? Are you moving around?

[Jade Warshaw]

Is this any better for you?

[Ken Coleman]

It is. That's good.

[Jade Warshaw]

Sorry.

[Ken Coleman]

All right. Sorry.

[Jade Warshaw]

Sorry.

[Ken Coleman]

So what is your current contract length right now at making? 250 a year for how many years? How many years you got left?

[Jade Warshaw]

I have two more years left on my current contract.

[Caller]

Right.

[Ken Coleman]

Are you doing, are you doing well right now? How's your performance?

[Jade Warshaw]

Oh, it's great. It's great. And it has the potential to go up if I continue to do well.

[Ken Coleman]

What would cause your performance to start going down? Since you can't tell me what sport this is? What, what, what in the world would cause, what would have to be true for you to get into a place where your performance dictates them firing you?

[Jade Warshaw]

It's, it's more along the lines of like week after week bad performance, which isn't really concern. My biggest concern, honestly, is the average lifespan of an athlete in this Sport is about 10 years.

[Ken Coleman]

And how far are you into it?

[Jade Warshaw]

I'm about three years into it.

[Ken Coleman]

All right, great. I'm not seeing a massive problem. So let's go back to your financial question because we only got about three minutes left. What is it that you need to know about your money?

[Jade Warshaw]

I basically, I'm curious if I should focus on paying my house off instead of going towards the investment side of things, just throwing all my money at the house. No, I'm making the money that I do.

[Caller]

Yeah. No, I would not do that because then you're making, making some sort of assumption that once this career path is over, you'll never make money again and you'll never make, quote, this kind of money again. And that's absolutely not true. If anything, I would follow the baby steps as they're written because you are going to retire one day and compound interest is your friend and time is your friend. So take advantage of this time frame that you have and start investing now because, well, in, in a month, when you're done with baby step three, but you know what I'm saying, so that you can have that time for that compound interest to compound. And in the meantime, like you said, if, you know there's kind of a seven year stretch for you, that's the time to start thinking, can, how can I reinvent myself? What's next for me? What does this look like?

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, you got time to build a bridge. So what's happening is you're, you're approaching us. It's a very good question, by the way. But you've got a scarcity mindset, right? Very good. And, and so what you want to do is move into an abundance mindset and go, okay, I've done all this hard work work to this point. My wife and I have got a great combined income. We're making great progress. We're about ready to start going all in on our retirement planning and then we'll move to baby step six when we get there. But you, to your point, you kind of know none of this is going to be a real shock out of nowhere. And I'm sure you've allowed yourself to wonder, what would I do if I weren't doing this sport? And so begin to lay the groundwork by making connections. Act like you're gonna get fired tomorrow. As far as professionally, yes, that's right. But financially, don't act that way and continue the course as Jade has told you. So let me ask you this really quick. Why is it that you can't tell us the sport? I know, I know you said you couldn't, but I'm curious to know why.

[Jade Warshaw]

It's, it's. There's certain things in my contract where.

[Ken Coleman]

I'm not allowed to.

[Jade Warshaw]

There's some names and stuff that I'm.

[Ken Coleman]

Involved with that are not allowed to be.

[Caller]

Is your name really John? Yeah, that's what I'm wondering.

[Ken Coleman]

I wonder if he's demolition derby guy because he's not making huge money or.

[Caller]

Like monster truck rallies.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, it's not NASCAR or IndyCar. Those guys weigh way war. So I'm trying to sit there and I'm just.

[Caller]

Yeah, it's killing me.

[Ken Coleman]

It's killing me. I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is. Yeah, I'm wondering, but I would say he said you got 10 years too. So that makes me wonder if he's just smashing other cars every weekend or something. But I don't think demolition derby pays that well.

[Caller]

Maybe he's like a. I don't know.

[Ken Coleman]

I would drive a monster truck and smash other cars.

[Caller]

I would go to a monster truck rally. That'd be fun.

[Ken Coleman]

All right, we'll get tickets. The Money and Relationships tour is halfway over and the energy in every room has been unreal. Each stop has been packed with real talk, big laughs and life changing moments. Now it's your turn. Come hang out with me and Dr. John DeLoney in a city near you for a night that could change your money, your relationships and your future. This is your last Chance to join us in Phoenix, Fort Worth or Kansas City the week of May 5th. Grab your tickets today at ramseysolutions.com tour. Hey folks, we'd love for you to subscribe to the show if you haven't already. And we'd love for you to share, share, share and leave a review. Why do we tell you this? Because we don't have any choice. It's the algorithm, folks. That's how we grow. We want to help so many people get control of their money, win in their work and have great relationships. And so we grow by you spreading the word in those ways. So we appreciate you joining us. However you are joining us, we'd love for you to subscribe, review and share. Thank you very much. Kathryn is in San Diego, California. Catherine, how can we help today?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes, this is more of a question about how versus what. I was on baby step five about 15 years ago and went through some issues and got a divorce and single momma now have a little 13 year old and I'm not doing terrible but I don't love the trajectory I'm on and I need to get back into budgeting and I'm wondering how do I get back to that place where I was, where I was budgeting every month?

[Ken Coleman]

Well, that's a very interesting question from someone who at one point was pretty far down the path. Were you budgeting back then?

[Jade Warshaw]

I was. And I think a lot of it has to do with being in burnout because I, I just came off of working six months of a lot of overtime.

[Ken Coleman]

Right. And the reason I did that question, because Jade's going to jump in. She's the budgeting queen here. But the reason I asked that question is because it seemed a bit odd the way you presented it. And now I'm starting to understand a little bit more. It's not the actual dotting, the I's crossing the T's of a budget. It sounds like you're just emotionally exhausted.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. Yeah, probably.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Ken Coleman]

How can we help with that? What's going on there? The idea of budgeting just seems like, is it that you don't feel like you've got enough, Are you paycheck to paycheck? And it feels like the last thing you want to do is try to get in this mess because you've just been holding on so tight. I just think there's something going on here that's not actually how to use a budget.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, I think it's, I'm not sure. I know part of it is the burnout and Coming off of the overtime. And now I'm going into a time when I won't be working as much overtime and hopefully recover from the burnout.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah. Okay. I think that's good. So, Jade, knowing that, hearing that, what, because you coach people, what do you think? I don't think this is as much tactical. How does she get back into it? What would you tell her to do?

[Caller]

Well, I have a couple of questions are what baby step are you on now? Are you back in debt?

[Jade Warshaw]

I. I do. I did get. Yeah. I. I had a car that I was going to keep until the wheel fell off. It was a beautiful old Camry. And I fortunately got hit by a car, so I did have to. It was totaled.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, no.

[Jade Warshaw]

So I have a loan for a car, a used car, and I think it's about 7,000 something.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Jade Warshaw]

I was planning on paying that off with a bonus I'm getting in August.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Jade Warshaw]

And then I do have. I have a credit card, and I usually, I've been paying off the credit card every month, but this is the first month that I wasn't able to pay it off, and I owe a little under a thousand. So I. From what I know, from what I learned before, I've never lost the principles. Like, they're there. And I don't want this car debt. I never planned on getting a new car, a new worker, or a replacement vehicle, But I see now that I didn't pay off this month, this balance for the first time. And that really scares me.

[Caller]

What about. Okay, yeah, I can understand that because it feels like something was lost here because you've always been able to do it. What happened? Okay, I understand that. What about your housing? Are you a renter? Do you own your house?

[Jade Warshaw]

I'm renting.

[Caller]

Okay. So my guess is this is just a guess. You can tell me if I'm wrong. My guess is you were doing this process, which is a fairly intense process, Katherine. You've been doing this for a long time, and at one point you had something more to show for it. And right now you're feeling like, man, in many ways, I'm starting at the beginning. And that's very daunting. Right. It's daunting to have to start and push, play again and go, okay, here we go again. And I think that's probably what you're up against more so than, like Ken said, the dotting of the eyes and crossing of the T's. Is that fair enough?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. I know what to do. I just. I've done it before. So I know what to do.

[Ken Coleman]

Here's what I'm hearing. Here's what I'm hearing. I could be wrong. Sorry to jump.

[Caller]

That's okay, go ahead.

[Ken Coleman]

But I keep, I think we keep coming back this point and the only analogy I can come up with right now is Catherine, it feels like you know how to exercise and eat right, but you just, when it comes time to hit the gym or to walk or to eat the really good meal, you just go, oh, I just really want the chips in queso instead. I, I keeps coming back to that and there's the giggle of confirmation. So that's what I think is going on. She knows, she said it twice. I know what to do. But when it comes time to sit, when the first check comes, when the first of the month, the check comes in, then getting back into that and having to make hard choices, because when I decide not to eat chips and queso at 10 o'clock at night and the last meals before 7 or I got to go to the gym, I'm giving up something else. I'm having to do something that initially is not fun to do.

[Caller]

That's right.

[Ken Coleman]

It's kind of yuck.

[Caller]

Yeah, I think, yeah, there's, there's a philosophical answer and then there's just kind of like the basic answer of if you want the results, you just kind of got to do it. Right. There's the bite, the bite, the bullet part of it. But I find that what makes it easier is figuring out why do you want to do this right? What is, what is the, the clear reason? And it can't just be vanity at this point. Right. The, the vanity reason is because I want to look, lose 10 pounds and I want my jeans to fit better. But a deeper reason is kind of more of a life and death thing where it's like, hey, I'm gonna retire at one point and I don't want to retire with nothing. My doctor says my cholesterol is high and I'm. Anything could throw me into a catastrophic event. Heart wise. Right? Those are the things that make us go, holy crap, like, I gotta get moving. And so you might have to have one of those moments where you go in the mirror and you just look at yourself and say, I'm. How old are you, Katherine?

[Jade Warshaw]

I'm 46.

[Caller]

You look at yourself and go, man, I'm 46 years old. If I don't get on the ball, here's what will be.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[Caller]

And you get real and you list those things out. Here's what I have in retirement. And I'm glad that I've made it this far, but I'm not done yet. I have to keep going. And that's kind of like. I mean, Katherine, I'm telling. I'm not telling you anything I haven't said to myself. And so I'm just relaying that message. And then you get. You start getting practical. You start putting those sticky notes on the. On the window of, you know, on your mirror every morning of what it is that you need to stay focused on of so that why is in front of you.

[Ken Coleman]

Yes.

[Caller]

And it probably has something to do with your daughter, and it probably has something to do with how you view yourself after your working years are over.

[Ken Coleman]

And how many months, Jade, would you say? Rule of thumb, it takes somebody to go from, oh, I hate budgeting to okay, I got this.

[Caller]

You know, you should feel at least like it's something that I know how to do this. And at least 90 days. You might not ever love it, but you know, you'll be proficient in it.

[Ken Coleman]

And don't expect the first budget to be great. Catherine. I've heard Dave Ramsey say that a million times. Like, this is a process. And so you just got to do it. You got to just rip the band aid off and go, I've got to start diving in. Which means I'm gonna have to change my spending. You said this is the first month either in a long time or ever, where you couldn't pay your credit card. So I think that's coincided with this phone call. Am I right? Right?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah. So what?

[Jade Warshaw]

My daughter, too. I just. Yeah, my daughter, too. I don't want her thinking like, you know, there's just an infinite amount of money we need to live means.

[Ken Coleman]

Let her see the budget. Show her.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, go.

[Ken Coleman]

Hey, Mom's making some changes. I want you to understand what I'm doing, but more importantly, I want you to understand why I'm doing it. And she ain't gonna like it. I've never met a 13 year old who's really thrilled about you cutting some of their. Your frills or whatever. Yeah. So be prepared for that as well. But, Catherine, I just sensed this entire call. And by the way, I just want to encourage you. You've been through a lot and you've just. You've just feels like you've come out of a season where you have just.

[Caller]

Been all grit status. Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

And your body, your mind, your spirit are just fried. And I think you're going, I can't start a new day discipline right now, and that's not the case, so be encouraged. You can do this. You've done it before. Yeah, Come on.

[Caller]

We know you can do it.

[Ken Coleman]

We believe in you. And by the way, you have to. You have to. There's a lot on your shoulders, and I know you can handle it. We're cheering for you the whole way through. Thanks for the call. Go call every customer. Hey, what are you still doing here? You know the rest of the show's.

[Caller]

Happening on the Ramsey Network app, right?

[Ken Coleman]

So you got to jump over there to continue watching. You can download it for free. Just go to your app store, type in Ramsey Network, it's completely free, and I'll drop a link in the show notes to make it easy for you. So if you're watching on the app, you're in luck.

[Caller]

But if you're watching anywhere else, this.

[Ken Coleman]

Show is over for you. So jump onto the app and let the fun continue. All right, go on now. Don't make it weird. Okay, I. I got nowhere to go, so you need to go. Okay, bye. Bye, now. All right, this is.

[Jade Warshaw]

It's getting weird over there, guys.

[Ken Coleman]

What do we.