Your Financial Comeback Starts Today

Summary

The Ramsey Show – "Your Financial Comeback Starts Today"

Date: October 20, 2025
Hosts: Ken Coleman & George Campbell
Special Guest: Bear Grylls

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Ramsey Show focuses on the theme: No matter how deep in financial trouble you are, you can start your financial comeback today. Ken Coleman and George Campbell (filling in for Dave Ramsey) field live calls from listeners facing pressing, often emotionally charged, money problems. Through practical advice, tough love, and humor, they demonstrate how anyone can take control—and start the journey toward financial peace. The episode features real-life debt struggles, budgeting challenges, family and career crossroads, holiday spending anxiety, and an inspiring conversation with Bear Grylls about faith, resilience, and purpose.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Tackling Overwhelming Debt – Small Steps, Big Change

• Theme: Facing seemingly insurmountable debt is daunting, but breaking it down and controlling every dollar gives hope.
• Example:
  • Keith from Portland, OR (01:07–08:37):
    • Truck driver, ~$70k/year income, $80k student loan debt, $22k car loan, $3.5k personal debt, supporting his mother.
    • Irregular pay and feeling stuck, not paying even student loan interest.
    • Hosts recommend: Take control of every dollar, find stable/increased income, and attack debts smallest to largest.
    • Quote:
      • “Very simple formula: use EveryDollar, get control of your money, and then go make more money. Those two simple things change your life.” – Ken Coleman [08:37]
    • Gifted career assessment and budgeting tool for practical next steps.

2. Balancing Family, Work, & Finances

• Caller Paul, Knoxville, TN (10:29–20:19): Recently laid-off, new government job with great benefits but low salary. Balancing family time vs. financial pressure.
• Advice & Discussion:
  • Temporary side gigs are a Band-Aid; root issue is long-term income needs.
  • Both spouses may need to work, even in a homeschool setting.
  • Emphasis on solving the math problem first to reduce stress and improve family presence.
  • Quote:
    • “You’re not going to be present with the family until you solve this math problem.” – George Campbell [17:23]
• Budgeting Challenge:
  • $10,948 in non-mortgage debt resulting in $700/month payments.
  • Once debt is gone, cash flow problem will dramatically improve.

3. Holiday Guilt & Giving Strategies During Debt Payoff

• Aaron from Little Rock, AR (21:23–30:44):
  • Single mom, 3 kids, juggling 3 jobs, paid off $5k debt in 2 months; worried about Christmas gifts while still $29k in debt.
  • Quote:
    • “How much of this, if you can be honest, is out of just guilt for, like, what they’ve been through?” – George Campbell [24:38]
  • Discussion:
    • Kids value experiences more than pricey gifts.
    • Set realistic, equal budgets (suggested: $100/child).
    • Creative ideas: family outing, meaningful small gift, or collective big gift (e.g., a used PlayStation they all share).
    • Teach generosity—kids choose a gift to give to someone else.
    • Quote:
      • "Kids don’t understand the concept of what a thing costs." – George Campbell [24:11]
      • “Get mad at the debt… not at yourself.” – Lexi, debt-free guest [112:14]

4. Using Savings to Attack Debt & The True Cost of Car Loans

• Natalie from Sacramento (43:43–52:11):
  • $12,500 in savings, $87k in debt (credit cards, two student loans, $44k car loan).
  • Advice:
    • Reduce savings to $1,000, throw all extra at debt (Baby Steps).
    • Strong recommendation to sell the newly purchased, underwater car to free up $667/month in car payments.
    • Quotes:
      • “Imagine I just started giving you $1,000 a month. That’s what selling that car will do for you.” – George Campbell [47:28]
    • Focus on dreams (adopting, moving out of state), not the temporary comfort of an expensive vehicle.

5. Passive Income Myths as a Student & Planning for Grad School

• Gabe from Pittsburgh (53:43–63:14):
  • 1st-year nursing student, $30k saved, wants to generate passive income.
  • Hosts bust the “mailbox money” myth: passive income is rarely truly passive and often risky, especially for young savers.
  • Focus instead on stacking cash for future grad school costs (projected $100k needed to avoid debt).
  • Quote:
    • “You’re going to take a step forward and three steps back if you graduate with $200 grand in student loans.” – George Campbell [61:26]
    • Use high-yield savings, resist lures of crypto/single stocks.

6. Complex Family Money Dynamics

• Nicholas in Washington (65:34–67:36):
  • Paying family cell plan as others “joke” about not paying their share.
  • Hosts: Set boundaries; don’t allow yourself to be the doormat (“Draw a line… I’m out.”).

7. Merging Lives and Assets Before Marriage

• Joseph in Los Angeles (67:51–74:14):
  • Both partners have significant real estate assets/debt.
  • Guidance: Combine finances post-marriage, pay down debt, simplify by selling off excess properties.

8. Buying Classic Cars as an ‘Investment’?

• Joel from Fairfax, VA (76:19–84:39):
  • Considers trading in a paid-for car for a classic muscle car as a “growing asset.”
  • Strongly advised against it for retirement planning: classic cars are costly hobbies, not secure investments.

9. Young Adult Ready for the Next Step but Tempted by Risky Shortcuts

• Jeremy in Dallas, TX (85:48–94:26):
  • College grad, $50k saved, job offer out of state, wants to skip renting for a mortgage (possibly with girlfriend’s mother as co-buyer).
  • Hosts: Hard “no” to buying with anyone but a spouse. Rent, get established, stack more cash.
  • Quote:
    • “You’re considering buying a house with your girlfriend’s mom? This is next level stupid.” – Ken Coleman [90:51]

10. Debt-Free Success Story: Lexi’s Journey

• Lexi from Melbourne, FL (106:22–115:44):
  • Paid off $56,569 in student loans in 1.5 years earning $120k as a project manager and side gigs (Uber, dog-sitting).
  • Sacrificed social life, but now experiences peace: “It feels like a weight’s been lifted off my shoulders.” [113:45]
  • Key advice: Forgive yourself, make debt the enemy, stay laser-focused.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “We don’t gift when we’re resentful… This is not the spirit of giving.” – George Campbell, on family plans and boundaries [66:25]
• “I’m going to challenge you. Maybe we need to change that homeschool rhythm because if she is an able-bodied working adult in the house and you guys are in the position you are, this is about a better life.” – Ken Coleman, on shared family contribution during tough times [16:40]
• “Life is bigger than a vehicle. We can always get another car, can’t we?” – George Campbell [50:27]
• Bear Grylls on His New Book (32:32–42:10):
  • “If this is true, it changes everything–in all our lives, in all interactions, for all time. So it’s like that—I stand behind. This is, if it is true, this is the greatest story ever told.” [39:57]
  • “Preach the gospel of Christ every day, in all places, to all people, at all times; where necessary, use words.” [36:39]
  • “So many people know the nativity or the crucifixion… but no one’s ever written the story of Christ as a short, punchy thriller.” [34:12]
  • “You’re an amazing mom regardless of a thing you buy them. Right?” – George Campbell [24:55]

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Important Timestamps

• Financial Comebacks & Debt Snowball | 01:07–08:37 (Keith)
• Family vs. Finances | 10:29–20:19 (Paul)
• Holiday Spending & Guilt | 21:57–30:44 (Aaron)
• Bear Grylls Interview | 32:32–42:10
• Should I Use Savings to Pay Debt? | 43:43–52:11 (Natalie)
• Passive Income & Student Questions | 53:43–63:14 (Gabe)
• Combining Family Assets | 67:51–74:14 (Joseph)
• Classic Cars & Retirement | 76:19–84:39 (Joel)
• Young Adult Homeownership Temptations | 85:48–94:26 (Jeremy)
• Lexi’s Debt-Free Scream | 106:22–115:44

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Episode Flow & Tone

The episode maintains the Ramsey Show’s signature style: honest, solution-driven, and encouraging (with direct, sometimes blunt advice and plenty of light banter). Throughout, Ken and George balance empathy for callers’ struggles with accountability and actionable steps, making the episode as entertaining as it is educational.

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Final Reminders from Hosts

• “Remember, there is ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that is to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.” [125:49]

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For Listeners:

• Resources Highlighted:
  • EveryDollar app (budgeting)
  • Ramsey Baby Steps Plan
  • Free Budgeting 101 Workshop
  • Ken's Career Assessment
  • Bear Grylls’ new book: The Greatest Story Ever Told

Takeaway:
No matter how dire your financial situation, today is the best day to begin your comeback. Get mad at the debt, take control dollar by dollar, and move forward with clarity, hustle, and hope.

Transcript

[Sponsor/Announcer]

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

[Ken Coleman]

Normal is broke and common sense is weird. So we're here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsey Network in the Fairwinds Credit Union studio. This is The Ramsey Show. 888-825-5225 is the phone number we'd love me today alongside the incomparable the denim wearing, nicely trimmed beard.

[George Campbell]

Keep going. I paid you good money on Venmo for this.

[Ken Coleman]

George Camel, folks. One of my favorites. To be with the people, the people like us. They, they tell me, well, we try.

[George Campbell]

To keep things light in a world that is heavy. Calls that are heavy. We, we give you the truth and we get, we get you to smile along the way.

[Ken Coleman]

He's George Campbell. I'm Ken Coleman. We're here for you heavy topics but we're going to do it in a lighthearted way and have some fun. Let's get right to it. Keith is joining us in Portland, Oregon. Keith, how can we help today?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

Well, I could really use some advice in regards to getting my life along a better track both personally and financially.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, tell us what the problem is. Where can we dive in?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

So currently I'm a truck driver. I'm making about $70,000 a year. I have about an $80,000 school debt, you know, and I'm at a place financially where I can't even make the interest payments. Not even attacking the principal.

[Ken Coleman]

Why is that.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

The way that my money comes in? It's not. I don't get a normal paycheck. It's not a 9 to 5 job. I get paid by the mileage and how many miles I drive is basically up to my employer.

[Ken Coleman]

I'll tell you what, let's reverse engineer this and I'm going to ask some questions for George to gather some info. He's going to help you on this. Let's talk about your bills. So besides the student loan debt. Well, first tell me what is the collective amount that is due every month on the student loan?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

Currently nothing.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

Nothing.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay. So you're not paying on it. So what are your bills?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

But it's bit. Well, we have the mortgage which is about twelve hundred dollars a month.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

The insurance comes up to about another $650 a month.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

I got a car payment which is 55 09amonth.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

And that's not counting my medication which comes up to about maybe 110 every month. And then just the normal day to days I have an electric car. So whatever my other Bills are. I share everything with my mother because I help take care of her.

[Ken Coleman]

So tell us a little bit more about the irregular payment. I understand it's irregular, but on average, if you look at the last 12 months, how often are you getting paid?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

I get paid every two weeks.

[Ken Coleman]

I thought you said it was irregular.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

Well, it's irregular as far as the amount comes.

[George Campbell]

So what's a bad month? What's a good month? Because it's not zero.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

No, a bad month. A bad month is net 29, about 2,900.

[George Campbell]

Okay, well, that covers all the bills you just said. So a bad month still allows you to survive. What's a good month?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

Maybe 38, 39.

[Ken Coleman]

And is that related to activity? So if I understood what you said, your paycheck amount is directly related to how much you're in the truck?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

Yes.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, why aren't you getting more opportunity in the truck?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

We have contracts. The company I work for has contracts with Albertsons and Kroger. Fred Meyer Group.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, I want George to take the take over here, but I. But this is. This is how he and I kind of tag team. I'm just wondering, is it not time for us to get a more reliable trucking job? And we also have a degree that we have a student loan for. And we'll get to this, but I'm just wondering if this is not the time when George helps you with the budget part of this. We need more consistent and quite better income. So we'll come back to that. But I'm just going to stick that in your ear so that soaks in a little bit. George, take over.

[George Campbell]

What's your degree in?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

I was paid to stop my degree my senior year.

[George Campbell]

Okay, what were you pursuing?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

Started out studying to become a business turnaround, so I was studying accounting. And two years into that degree, my parole officer told me that they weren't going to allow me to be licensed. I went to prison for an aggravated battery. And after I got out, I started studying to become a business turnaround. And then I ended up switching to communication after they told me that they weren't going to license me.

[George Campbell]

Okay, okay. And then you never finished, but you had the debt hanging around anyways?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

No, no, that was when I was building the debt. I was going to school and collecting the financial aid so I can study to get that degree.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

Right.

[George Campbell]

Okay. And what's your car loan? What's the whole balance?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

22. No, 21,900, I think is what I got left on it.

[George Campbell]

So 22 on the car, 80,000 in student loans, any other debts, credit card balance, medical debt, personal loan.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

The school, the mortgage.

[George Campbell]

Not counting the mortgage. You told me the 80 for school and 22 on the car. Anything else?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

I have approximately $3,500 in personal debt for charge off accounts for businesses that I'd done business with.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

But.

[George Campbell]

So we're over a hundred thousand in debt. We're making 70. I'm just trying to get to the math of it and kind of take the emotion and the story and the narrative out because obviously you've been through some things and you said on the call, I want to turn around my life and money is just one part of it. So are you wanting to stay in the trucking world? Are you wanting to stay in the trucking field?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

It's the only thing that I could think of that I can do that's going to pay the money that I can make. Now before that I was. I was in a nowhere mid management making maybe 45, $50,000.

[Ken Coleman]

And I'm fine with that. I think short term we just need to focus on the money. And you need a better trucking job, you need a better driving job. But I think George can help you with this budget right now.

[George Campbell]

You said you live with your mom. Is she covering half the bills or are you covering all of her bills?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

She's getting. She gets Social Security.

[George Campbell]

Okay. And are you paying 1200 bucks? Is that the whole mortgage or is that half?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

No, no, it's the. It's the mortgage. That's just the mortgage. That's. Yeah, the mortgage. And that doesn't count the insurance and.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Yeah, everything else.

[George Campbell]

Well, here's what you got to do. You're going to have to decide that you're going to take control of every single dollar coming in and every extra dollar beyond your bare bones bills is going to go towards knocking out these debts. And you're just going to look at it from smallest to largest. Right now you've got a mountain you're looking at. You need to break these all out because. Are these all student loans? Like are there 11 student loans in this mix or is it just one giant one?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

One giant one.

[George Campbell]

From what I understand, you did a consolidation.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

I think they consolidated. I called and told them that that's what I wanted to do, but they held off. I explained to my circumstances and they.

[George Campbell]

So are you in like a deferment forbearance situation where the interest is accruing and you're just not needing to make payments? Because you got to start making payments because that Balance is going to go from 80 to 100 real quick when you're not attacking it. So hang on the line. I'm going to gift you Ken Coleman's book, find the work you're wired to do. It comes with a get clear career assessment. I hope that helps on the job search as you build something out of that. And then also every dollar or premium budgeting tool to help you take control of every dollar coming in. We're rooting for you to turn around your life, man. You've been through a lot and you just got to climb out one day at a time, one step at a time.

[Ken Coleman]

Keith, very simple formula. Use every dollar, get control of your money, and then go make more money. Those two simple things change your life.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

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[George Campbell]

This is a paid advertisement owned by our Edge and seller guarantee are available for qualifying borrowers and select loan types only and not available in all states or locations in mls.id 1591 in mlsconsumeraccess.org Eagle Housing lender.

[Ken Coleman]

All right, we're going to Paul in Knoxville, Tennessee. Paul, how can we help today?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Hey, George, Ken, How y' all doing?

[Ken Coleman]

We're having a little too much fun today. What's going on with you?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Well, I have a, I'll give you my question just at the very basic, it's simply how do you or I as a husband and father, balance providing for my family with being, you know, an active, present godly leader for my wife and kids.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, I appreciate the question. That's about 75,000ft in the air we need to get a lot lower.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

All right, let me give you some back.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, let me dig, let me dig. And it might save us all some time. Okay, so when somebody asks that question, we're talking to somebody who is feeling guilty because you're spending a lot of hours outside the house working and maybe you're getting a little bit of pressure or ask or your heart's a little sad because you're away from the family. Is that true?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Actually, for me it's the other way around. I just recently started a new job after being laid off for three months.

[George Campbell]

Okay.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

And it's a good job, great benefits, but according to my budget, it's not enough take home pay to make ends meet. So my first instinct, you know what I was originally thinking was I need to get a second job. You know, flip burgers, stock shelves on the weekends. But if I did, I wouldn't see much of my wife and kids.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, but how much more money do you need to make? So you've been laid off for three months. Part of this is you've been home probably for a good amount of that time. Yeah, you got used to it. And how old are the kids?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Almost to 18 and 12.

[Ken Coleman]

I can tell you the 12 year.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Old, I'm working from home at my previous job too.

[Ken Coleman]

That's what's going on. Your kids are okay. The two year old has no clue. Two year old has no clue, has no understanding of time. So the two year old's not going, boy, daddy's not around like he was. The 12 year old's getting to the point where they don't care. If I'm being honest, I got three teenagers, so I think you're making this thing a little bit bigger. You've got a responsibility first and foremost to take care of the family and make a contribution. So more money, less time is okay for a season if that's what it takes to work into a better situation. So let's look at the numbers. All right, so how much more money do you need to make? Which is now you're going, well, I need this much more and that is why I have to do the second job. How much more money do we need to make?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Yeah, I'm short about twelve hundred dollars a month.

[George Campbell]

Okay, what are you making?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Making 61, 141 a year.

[George Campbell]

Okay.

[Ken Coleman]

What were you making?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

I was making 82 a year.

[Ken Coleman]

Doing what?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Software developer.

[Ken Coleman]

And what are you doing now?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Computer programmer, analyst. Similar but not quite the same.

[Ken Coleman]

And is that the reason for the drop in Pay is because the roles that much different.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Mostly part of it is just the area I'm in doesn't, you know, it's kind of a lower cost of living, so the income is generally a little bit lower.

[Ken Coleman]

And the remote. The remote gig. The remote gig was with a company that's not local.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

It's. It's close, but they were just paying at a higher rate.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, well, so in. And I know you can't see the future, but what would need to be true for you to be getting back to the 80, the 81 or whatever it was.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Well, I would neither need, you know, some kind of promotion at the job I'm at, or I could find something else. My big issue is the job I've got. It's a government job. The benefits are fantastic. You know, if I included all the benefits, you know, I'd be making, you know, probably 82.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, but the benefits are so great.

[George Campbell]

You can't even live.

[Ken Coleman]

Can't live off of it.

[George Campbell]

Can't put food on the table. But, man, this 401, 403B is amazing. The match is great.

[Ken Coleman]

So had I asked you a minute ago, did you take this job because you were a bit desperate and you just needed a job, or did you take it because it's got a great path to what you want to do? I know what the answer is now. You just took it because of a.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're, you know, scratching through the couch cushions, you know, looking for.

[Ken Coleman]

So. So George, would you agree second job is absolutely a must right now, and the kids, you know, that'll lead you to get a better job.

[George Campbell]

Yeah. It's a band aid, though. We got to solve the. The root problem here because I don't want you working a side hustle for the next 12 years to make this work. So what's at the root of this? Do you guys have debt you're trying to pay off?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Yeah, we had started the. The baby steps, you know, about five months. Got the, you know, got the. The baby step one completed. We were starting on step two, you know, barely started into it when I got laid off.

[George Campbell]

How much debt do you have right now? What's the total balance excluding a mortgage?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Excluding the mortgage, I'm at $10,948.45.

[George Campbell]

Okay, so we got 10 grand to knock out. And that'll free up how much in payments every month?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

That'll free up something like $700 a month.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, that's nice.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

Right?

[George Campbell]

That becomes the new number because I'm going Hey, once we clear this debt now, this is the foreseeable future, we got to clean up that $700 gap and we can do that I think with a full time job in the long term and some short term side hustles. Right now, is your wife at home with the kids all day and are they in school? What's going on there?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

She is at home all day. She home schools well, three out of four of them and you know, just, yeah, generally, you know, keeps the house running, keeps the kids from burning it down.

[Ken Coleman]

Is she hands on with the school or like my daughter who's doing online, she does it all in an online program and my wife is not involved.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

I know she's pretty hands on at this point. You know, the older ones are getting a little bit some online stuff, but you know, a lot of it. Yeah, she's. Well, she's working.

[Ken Coleman]

I'm going to challenge you. You didn't call this show for us to just clap for going to challenge you. Maybe we need to change that homeschool rhythm because if she is a able bodied working adult in the house and you guys are in the position you are, this is about a better life. And I don't, you know, I'm not going to just, you know, there's a way for these kids to do homeschool and she can work some more.

[George Campbell]

And maybe you're home in the evenings and she goes out to do the side hustle. If she's just dying to get out of the house, she can go make the money and you can be home with the kids if you want. But I don't think this is about being present with your family when you're a stressed dad at home all day knowing you're 1200 bucks short. You're not going to be very present with the family until you solve this math problem.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

That's a good point.

[George Campbell]

Is your mortgage eating up a lot of your take Home pay mortgage is.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Eating a pretty, pretty significant amount. I've got 172,000 on the mortgage. It comes to about twelve hundred dollars a month.

[George Campbell]

And what are you bringing home every month?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

And I am. Well, I don't know yet, but I just started this job but based on salary and benefits and everything, I'm bringing home about 3,900amonth.

[George Campbell]

What if you stopped all investing for a season? How much are you investing?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Right, yeah, actually that is stopping all investing. There's a mandatory 5% that comes out for paint for pension. But you know, the only thing that's coming out is that 5% and medical, dental, vision and taxes.

[George Campbell]

Okay, well, in the interim, we're gonna have to get hustling on the weekends and evenings. Maybe once the kids are down, you help put the kids down and then you're out for three hours doing side gigs. But I would be applying for better software development jobs. There's no reason for a guy in your shoes with your skill set to not be making six figures.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

Yeah.

[George Campbell]

So I think you got to bet on yourself and find that role where your skill set fits perfectly. Whether it's remote in person, doesn't matter. But we need to start making 100 grand if you want to not be.

[Ken Coleman]

That's right.

[George Campbell]

Struggling to margin every month.

[Ken Coleman]

And the. I will tell you this, in today's economy, we are seeing the slowdown in the, in the hiring and so I acknowledge that. But I will tell you that with your technology skill, you should be looking at not just any side job you're looking for. Technology roles that are in your field are going to pay better. So let's not just go get any second job that's bringing in money. Let's try to get the best. Now what you're doing, I admire you. Let's, let's band aid it at first, but we want this to heal. So contract work in technology is the best chance you have to get paid. And again, it's not fun advice, but your wife's got to find a way to work as well, something. And again, doesn't mean she stops the homeschooling. But we've got to free up some time for her somehow. Some ways that friends, family, whatever for a season to get rid of this debt. And once we get rid of the debt now, we got a little bit more breathing room to the tune of $700 a month. And then hopeful you are making more. So listen, it's a hard road, but it's a clear road. So thanks for the call and you can get there. We're cheering you on.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

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[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

All.

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[George Campbell]

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[Ken Coleman]

Hey, folks, our EveryDollar team is offering you a free live budgeting workshop this month in Budgeting 101. You'll learn how to make a budget with EveryDollar and you get tips from our experts and even your questions are answered in a live Q and A. This is budgeting 101 and it gives you support you need to stick to the budget. You can sign up for Budgeting 101 for free. This is a free workshop. Ramseysolutions.com workshop ramseysolutions.com workshop Aaron is now joining us in Little Rock, Arkansas. Aaron, how can we help?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Hi. Yeah, thank you for taking my call. I really appreciate it.

[Ken Coleman]

You bet.

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

I started the baby step about two months ago. I'm a single mom of three boys and I have three jobs, one corporate job and then two side gigs I do. I have paid off about $5,000 in the last two months of my debt. Great job, super excited about that. But looking forward, Christmas is coming and I heard on one of your guys shows a price limit for each child instead of, oh, you know, they'd like this, they'd like that. So I'm trying to get a opinion on what a good price range is.

[George Campbell]

Oh, we get to decide how worthy these children are.

[Ken Coleman]

This is a lot of, a lot of power for Christmas gifts. Wow.

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Yeah.

[George Campbell]

And how much debt do you have left to pay off?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

I've got just about 29,000.

[George Campbell]

Okay, 29K. So at this rate, we're going to knock it out, you know, by summer. Is that the goal?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Yeah, yeah. I mean at the very latest, the end of next year.

[George Campbell]

Okay.

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Assuming, you know, nothing happened.

[Ken Coleman]

I feel like George should be George Claus on this because he's a little tighter, a little cheaper than I am. Yeah, I'm a little bit more generous. We just know this.

[George Campbell]

I would get a little more frugal and creative and Ken's going just buy the thing they want. Do you know what they want?

[Ken Coleman]

No, I wouldn't say that. But man, that's tough. How many kids?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

I have three.

[Ken Coleman]

How old are they?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

They are 11. 8 and 5.

[Ken Coleman]

11, 8 and 5. Boys, girls, boys, all boys.

[George Campbell]

Party.

[Ken Coleman]

See, part of the problem is I'm out of that game. I don't know what an 11 year old, an 8 year old and 5.

[George Campbell]

Year old are they wanting like motorized scooters like, what are they into these days?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

They want PS5s, which I've told them is not within my budget. And.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, yeah, no, we're not doing that. Certainly not plural. Yeah, that's wild.

[George Campbell]

That's a wild ask.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, I hear. Listen, okay. I'm not trying to be a politician. Do you have a number, by the way? I'm going somewhere with this.

[George Campbell]

Do I have a number?

[Ken Coleman]

What did you spend last year on them?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

I have no idea.

[George Campbell]

Oh, well, that's probably because here's the thing. Kids don't understand the concept of what a thing costs. So if you were like, I'm spending $100 on each of you. They don't care.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Yeah, yeah.

[George Campbell]

It's more about what did he get versus what did the other kid get?

[Ken Coleman]

Did you go crazy last year? That's why you don't know how much you spent?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Yes. Yeah, I know. I've gone crazy every year. You know, I don't. I haven't kept track of how much I've bought them for Christmas.

[George Campbell]

How much of this, if you can be honest, is out of just guilt for, like, what they've been through and endured?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

90%, probably. Yeah.

[George Campbell]

Okay. And is it working so far? Have you been able to just, like, buy their love?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

I mean. No. No, obviously not.

[George Campbell]

Because the truth is, you're an amazing mom regardless of a thing. You buy them. Right?

[Ken Coleman]

That's right.

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

What's the number you have in your head? Because you don't call us and ask a question like this without a number in your head.

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Yeah. My absolute top is probably like 500. 500 total per child.

[George Campbell]

Goodness gracious.

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Absolute top. But that's why I'm calling, because I.

[Ken Coleman]

Feel like, okay, I knew George was going to react.

[George Campbell]

My heart said 100 buc each. We're all going to have a great Christmas or do something that's an experiential thing where we spend 250 and it's like the day of their life. You know what I mean? Like, we're going to the arcade, we're doing Chucky, and it's a thing they get to do instead of a thing they compare and go, well, my toy was better than your toy, and it ends up at a good six months from now.

[Ken Coleman]

I agree. I'll tell you something. This is an idea we got from a couple that was mentoring Stacy and I when we were younger and had younger kids. And I thought it was great. And. And. And that is the idea that, biblically speaking, Jesus got three gifts. Right? The idea Was, let's go less gifts, and let's make those gifts significant. And to George's point, maybe an experience, not money. You know, is there some type of fun experience or something we collectively do as a family? Right. That's really special. And you can explain to them. But we did this early on because we wanted our kids to appreciate the fact that you had one really, really awesome gift, and there were some really good gifts. Well, you're trying to take the value of all the things and competing with my friends. What do my friends get? And we were trying to make it a little bit more central to the fact of what are we really celebrating at Christmas? You know, is it just the gathering of things? And we get down on Christmas morning, and we just can't wait to see all the amazing stuff we got. We've lost sight of what Christmas is about. And so I'm with George. I think $500 per kid in your situation is nuts. It's too much.

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Yeah, well, I'm a little nuts, so, you know.

[Ken Coleman]

No, you're awesome. You're fine.

[George Campbell]

Well, you've got a generous spirit. And right now, we just. It's a luxury to be that generous with where we're at financially. And the kids can't understand that right now. I don't think you need to go to them, be like, hey, mom's broke. It's gonna be a different. Like, we don't need to be somber about it. Let them write a letter to Santa and say, hey, what's something fun that you would want to do that Santa could grant you as a fun gift? And maybe they start thinking in terms of experience instead of stuff, and that might kind of flip a switch in their brain.

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Yeah, I mean, in the past, we've always done, you know, quite a few of what you want and then something you need and something to do. So we have to.

[George Campbell]

And what if. What if you did this? What if you said, I'm gonna give you something? And then on top of that, you're gonna give something, and it lets them flex some generosity muscle, and you put that into the budget? Cause I think that will distract them from the thing and make them go, man, that was actually more fun to give that person $10 or $50 than it was to get a thing.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, Stacy did that one year with our kids. They all got really great gifts, and they had to choose one that they had to give away.

[George Campbell]

Oh, that's fun.

[Ken Coleman]

And she took them down to the children's hospital, and it was a great experience.

[George Campbell]

That's really cool.

[Ken Coleman]

And it wasn't like. Like we didn't cheat for them and go, here's a really ratty present and make it easy for them. You know, it was like something they had. They felt it. And that's a great idea. And I forgot that she did that.

[George Campbell]

Yeah. And maybe it's one big, like, bigger gift that they can all enjoy. All three of them. You know what I mean? But I don't think everybody needs their separate thing to feel special. I think we need to break that right now before it becomes a entitlement where they go.

[Ken Coleman]

What did you say? You said 100 a kid.

[George Campbell]

I feel like 100 a kid is fair. Like 300 bucks all in.

[Ken Coleman]

What is a PlayStation 5 going for these days? A used one?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

I don't even know.

[Ken Coleman]

I would see what. Do you know what a used one goes for?

[George Campbell]

I couldn't tell you. One of these nerds in the booth probably knows.

[Ken Coleman]

Anybody in there. I know a brand new one's probably 600, 700. I think 600 is new.

[George Campbell]

You could probably find a used one for maybe 400.

[Ken Coleman]

I just know that, like, three little boys like that. A PlayStation that works. That's pretty awesome. And if you can get it in that budget, then there's your. Hey, guys, here's what mom's doing. She's paying off debt. Here's what. Do it. But I got you all this. And that's the gift that keeps on going.

[George Campbell]

Yeah, I was right. It's. You're looking at. I see one for 250 out here on Facebook Marketplace.

[Ken Coleman]

There it is. 250 for the used PlayStation 5. By the way, James just got into his laptop quickly. I don't know if he's getting one for himself.

[George Campbell]

I might buy one right now off Facebook Marketplace.

[Ken Coleman]

Will the engineer, you have an opinion on this?

[George Campbell]

Okay. It's a scam. Wow. Way to trust.

[Ken Coleman]

It's 500 for a used one.

[George Campbell]

It's going for. That's closer. It's like 475.

[Ken Coleman]

Super Helpful Guy in the lobby giving me a lot of head shakes and thumbs up and down, but that's very helpful.

[George Campbell]

That's not even the concept of the game.

[Ken Coleman]

I don't think he knows. I think he's too old to look that up. Will, you're saying 500?

[George Campbell]

It's like price is Right. This is fantastic.

[Ken Coleman]

We got the audience involved. All right, I see you, sir. That's enough. Okay. Go get a cookie.

[George Campbell]

I would start exploring ideas. Aaron and I would try to shy away from getting the expensive thing or getting them each a thing that will appease them. Because nothing's gonna appease them. They're always gonna want for more. The next game, the next thing.

[Ken Coleman]

But here's the deal. Here's the narrative. Those guys are not too young to understand a mom's going through something tough and that she loves them and that their quality of life is still the same. I think it's okay to teach them. I really do. They're gonna be okay. I remember thinking that I had it all. And as I grew older, George, I realized how poor. My dad was a pastor of a small church. We had nothing. And I thought life was great.

[George Campbell]

You didn't know any better.

[Ken Coleman]

I didn't know any better. I had jeans with patches on them. You remember those? Did you ever. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[George Campbell]

Simpler times.

[Ken Coleman]

I thought it was normal. I thought everybody had patches on their knees.

[George Campbell]

My final answer is let's do a dream day. And each kid gets to do a thing during that day, and we all experience it together and we keep it in the budget at 300 and we get creative and have some fun. And they're going to remember that way more than a toy. Promise you that.

[Ken Coleman]

There it is. Final word from Georgie Claus.

[George Campbell]

The gift that keeps on giving.

[Ken Coleman]

Ho, ho, ho.

[George Campbell]

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[Ken Coleman]

All right, welcome back. This is really Fun. From time to time, George, we get an opportunity because of the size of the show and Dave's friends, right? Fods friends of Dave. And we get a chance to get some really special people in studio with us because they're doing great things. And this is another one of those days in studio with George and I right now. The one, the only, the icon. Bear Grylls, ladies and gentlemen. So that's really fun. Bear, welcome.

[Bear Grylls]

So kind. That's such a nice introduction. Thank you.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, I got to tell you, having talked to Bear, we recorded a show a little bit earlier for front row seat that'll be coming out. Looking forward to that. Bear could read the phone book and I'd be inspired.

[George Campbell]

Yeah. How much of your success do you attribute to a great accent?

[Bear Grylls]

I don't know. Probably a little bit of it. I think we all stand on the shoulders of giants. I think maybe that's one of them. Maybe that's one of the pillars.

[Ken Coleman]

I don't think it's the reason for it, but I think.

[Bear Grylls]

And my name actually may be.

[Ken Coleman]

That's true, the name. Let's be honest, you're rather handsome. I'll take the culture. I'm comfortable saying that. And then you throw in the accent. How do you. How do you fail?

[George Campbell]

Yeah. And then you got talent, character, you know, entertainment value. Yeah, you got it all.

[Bear Grylls]

Barry, you are so kind, but you, like, make anyone feel better.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, we're trying to, but, you know, you might be thinking he's here to talk about one of his newest shows. He's not. In fact, this is a brand new book, came out this week. It's called the Greatest Story Ever Told. And this is a fantastic book. Just came out this week, wherever books are available. And I think this might surprise some. It won't surprise others who have followed your journey. Know that you are a man of faith. What is behind what is this story and what's behind it?

[Bear Grylls]

Well, it's telling the story of Christ as a, like a, as a thriller, you know, just start to finish. Because I think so many people, myself included, you might not just like, read the Bible, you know, if, if you have faith. The Bible obviously is like milk and honey. It's beautiful, but it's, it's straight. It's, you know, and I think so many people I meet who a, have never read it, but also don't know the story. You know, we tend to know stories maybe like the Nativity or the Crucifixion or the Good Samaritan. And I just realized out of all the millions of books have been written over the years, nobody's ever written the story of Christ just like as a short, punchy thriller that kind of introduces people to the story of Yeshua is what I call him in. In. In the book. So we take a strip it right back away from the sanitized versions. Sometimes we get of. Of. Of Christianity. And certainly that, that's what I was brought up with. It's like we had to go to church as a kid at school and everything was in Latin and I just thought God speaks in Latin and he has white robes and generally looks quite angry, you know. And for me, it's been a life journey realizing the character of Jesus was just free and beautiful and radical and fun and everyday people just wanted to be with him and whose counterculture and turned everything else on his head and was healing and challenging. So that's been the journey. I wanted to write it in a book. It's been, to be honest, the most. This has been the hardest. But the best thing I feel I've ever done, I get more people responding to me about this than any TV show I ever done I've had. I mean, we published it a few months in the. In the UK and it went straight in at number one. And I get messages all day, every day from like people of every faith, every culture, all around the world. And they say the same thing basically, which is I had no idea of the real story of Jesus. And as you know, it touches all of our lives. A real story, like, empowers our lives and is light and love and like I say, proudest thing I've ever done.

[George Campbell]

I love that. Well, I'm curious. We end every Ramsey show with this line. Remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the prince of peace, Christ Jesus. So we have an underpinning of faith at this company, and you've taken that everywhere you've went in Hollywood and Netflix. How do you sort of bring that faith underpinning into everything you do?

[Bear Grylls]

Well, I really like that. I think it was St. Augustine this said, preach the gospel of Christ every day, in all places, to all people, at all times, where necessary. Use words.

[Ken Coleman]

Yes.

[Bear Grylls]

And I love that. I think it's trying how we live our lives a little kindnesses, you know, the Wild does itself as well. I think it's what I love about the show Running Wild I do is I get to introduce people to the great outdoors and that lights them up. And that's like really is that not wrapped up in faith and everything and connection and friendships and having an understanding and a love of. Of each other and the outdoors as well. So I don't know. I like that part of it, but I kind of think it's a shame if faith just gets boxed in a corner of our lives to Sunday. You know, for you guys, as, you know, so many of your listeners, it's like it's where we build our confidence and our hope and our aspirations, where we secure our futures, how we interact with people. And that was the Jesus that I got to learn about through this book. And we work with some brilliant theologians from the chosen TV show, from the Come and See foundation, who have been incredible and supportive and encouraging for the Greatest Story Ever Told. But I feel like it's no longer my book. I feel like it's out there and it's touching lives, and I'd give everything else up in a heartbeat to have done this one.

[Ken Coleman]

He's Bear Grylls. He's hanging out with us here on the Ramsey Show. The new book is the Greatest Story Ever Told. What I love about this is you did your homework, you dug in deep with theologians, and this is written in first by five eyewitnesses. That makes this really fun. As you began to construct the book that way, was there something that surprised you? Maybe you didn't know as you began to put this together, I think, just.

[Bear Grylls]

How human Jesus was. You know, we always get the idea of the. And also how human the disciples were. I mean, I always thought the disciples were, like, old. You know, the average age of the disciples, 15 to 25.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

Wow.

[Bear Grylls]

They were like just regular young guys, young girls. And so I wanted to write the great story from eyewitness accounts. So we start with Mary, his mother, just nervous, young, scared, having a child out of wedlock, you know, becoming pregnant. And her journey of faith and trust through to Thomas, who's super skeptical of this Yeshua, who turns up on the scene and refuses to be persuaded by rumors of miracles. And then it goes to the friendship with this reckless, impulsive fisherman, Peter, through very clinical, sort of John, and then eventually with Mary Magdalene, who's just young and broken and just had her life healed by this guy. And so it's their interactions, because I think all of us, this story, the great story ever told, is all of our stories wrapped up in it. You know, whoever we are, whether we're the nervous or the excited or the scared or the broken, he affirms and heals everywhere. And still to this day, we look at 2000, almost 2000 years on, and we're talking about him, and he's changing lives. And long may that continue.

[Ken Coleman]

You know, it's interesting. This is a bold claim. This is a pretty bold title when you think about it. To the cynics, because we have a wide audience, some people are going, all right, I'm an atheist or I'm a cynic or whatever. What makes it the greatest story in your mind?

[Bear Grylls]

Well, if it's true, you know, this isn't like, could be the greatest story ever told or potentially the greatest story ever told. If this is true, it changes everything in all our lives, in all interactions, for all time. So it's like that I stand behind. This is. If it is true, this is the greatest story ever told. And I feel that in my life, you know, I have many struggles and doubts still, you know, all the time. But through it all, ever since I was a young teenager and I prayed a prayer under a tree, just saying, please, God, be with me. Amen. That was it. A light was lit. It's never gone out. It's helped me through my time with the Special Forces as a young soldier, through the summit of Everest and many jungles, deserts, mountains over the years since, through family life, through, you know, through many moments. That light has never gone out. It's been the great, empowering presence, and it's a privilege to be able to share it wider through this story.

[George Campbell]

That's beautiful. Yeah. Thinking about everything that you have done, I feel like you gotta believe in God to be doing some of the wild things you've done. You've gotta have a higher power, you know, fueling that journey.

[Ken Coleman]

Is there.

[George Campbell]

Is there something that you have coming up next that you're like? This scares me a little bit because you seem a guy who's fearless, who's ready for anything.

[Bear Grylls]

I'm not fearless. And I have many, like I said, really genuinely many struggles, many doubts. It's like the journey of life, isn't it? But I love my job, you know, I still continue with the day job away from this. We've just finished filming season nine of Running Wild, which is going to be great, but this is in my heart, I love it.

[George Campbell]

Well, I'm really inspired by the fact that you took this message using your gigantic platform and said, this is what I want to put out there. This is more important than any show. Anything I could be doing.

[Bear Grylls]

Well, people always ask, they go, what helped you on the summit of Everest or in these jungles and mountains? And I don't want to stand up and say I did it on my own because I didn't, you know, I need like a human. It's like a glove without a hat, you know, without faith, we're just this little limp thing, you know. But with that hand inside of ourselves, we can all live life.

[Ken Coleman]

Bear, thank you for being with us. The book is the greatest story ever told. On sale anywhere, everywhere you can find books. You're a good man. Thanks for being with us. Thanks, Bear.

[Bear Grylls]

Thank you, guys.

[George Campbell]

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[Ken Coleman]

Welcome back to the Ramsey show in the Fairwinds Credit Union studio alongside George Campbell. I'm Ken Coleman. So glad you all are with us. We're having fun today as we take on your heavy questions. George is going to help you manage the money. I'm going to help you try to make more money. Let's get to it. You ready to go, George?

[George Campbell]

I'm pumped.

[Ken Coleman]

Natalie is joining us in Sacramento. Natalie, how can we help?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Hi. I was just curious if my husband and I should use part of our savings to start to pay off our loans faster or if we should just keep that in the bank.

[Ken Coleman]

Tell us more.

[George Campbell]

How much do you have in the bank?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

And I are both veterans. We have about 12,500 in savings.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, and what's your debt situation?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

We have about $87,298 in debt. We have two student loans and a new car and a credit card.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, give us those amounts. Walk us smallest to largest. Like we would be working through the debt snowball.

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Yeah. The credit card is 1903, so 1,903. The student loan is 19,581. The other one is 20,978. And then the car loan is 44,836.

[Ken Coleman]

What is this car?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Yeah. So it's a 2022 Forerunner.

[Ken Coleman]

And what. What is it worth? Kelly blue book value. Do you know?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

I don't.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay. Wow. How many miles is it?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Just over 30,000 and it's a 2022.

[Ken Coleman]

I'm do a little research, George.

[George Campbell]

Okay. While you do that, what is your household income?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

So our income is. I have this between the two paychecks is 4,960. And then we get VA disability and that's about 4,080. 4,090.

[George Campbell]

Okay, good. So we have a great income here because you guys are bringing home nine grand.

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Yeah.

[George Campbell]

Correct.

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Yeah.

[George Campbell]

Okay.

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Yeah.

[George Campbell]

So I think one thing that could alleviate this immediately. You're asking the best way to pay this off. Yes. You should use your savings. Except $1,000. That's the baby steps. Baby step one, $1,000. Baby step two, attack the debt using the debt snowball. So anything that's not the thousand dollar starter emergency fund we're going to use to start knocking down this debt because that'll knock out your credit cards and a good portion of one of the student loans.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

Yeah.

[George Campbell]

And if I'm in your shoes and you really want to get out of the situation, I would just sell this 4Runner. Now you might be underwater on it, which is what Ken was angling at.

[Ken Coleman]

They are. This is an estimate and I don't have all the details of where you are in the market, but you're underwater. It's somewhere between 32 to 40 thousand dollars.

[George Campbell]

So that's your next homework assignment is figure out what you could sell this car for. Private party value. So you can go to kbb.com and look at that to see, hey, if we could sell it for 40 and we owe 44, going to use 4,000 of the savings to clear the title and maybe use some of the other money in savings to get a different car. Right. You need something to drive around in. You're both working full time.

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Yeah. His truck is paid off. So it's just this now. My car died, so I had to get a new one. That's kind of.

[Ken Coleman]

Hold on, hold on.

[Bear Grylls]

Whoa.

[Ken Coleman]

You didn't have to get a 40. You didn't have to get words.

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

I know.

[Ken Coleman]

You didn't have to get.

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

I know, I know.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

No.

[Ken Coleman]

So what's your. What's your car payment?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

60. Wait. $667.

[Ken Coleman]

All right, just for fun, I want you to just you know, figure out what that would do to your monthly budget. That's a lot of money.

[George Campbell]

You would get an $8,000. That's a net race. So that's more like 11 or 12,000 gross.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

Yeah.

[George Campbell]

So imagine I just started giving you 1,000 bucks a month. Would you go, yip de dee doo? Yeah, that's what selling that car will do for you.

[Ken Coleman]

And you have to look at it that way, or else it's. Ken and George are mean. They're not fun. They're telling me it's unrealistic. Well, it's not, but, you know, getting a piece of junk that gets you from point A to point B for this season of your life. This is for a season. This is not, like forever. I think that's huge for you.

[George Campbell]

What caused you guys to want to actually turn this ship around?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

I've been listening to you guys on YouTube a lot the past month, so.

[George Campbell]

So we just got into your head because we didn't show up. You had to be kind of looking for something.

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

We want to. We want to move out of California, and we want to eventually adopt and get a house and all that. And I know we cannot do that with all this debt. We need to work on this debt now.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

Good.

[George Campbell]

Is your husband on board? Is he as fired up as you are?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Oh, yeah, completely.

[Ken Coleman]

And you've got the income?

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

Completely.

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

He's actually wanting me to spe more to. To pay towards the debt than we have been.

[George Campbell]

But what's stopping you?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

That's. I've been trying to build up our savings. I'm thinking about.

[George Campbell]

For what reason?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Putting money down on a house.

[George Campbell]

No, no, no, no.

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

That's too far in the future. I know. I see that now.

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

I see that you've been listening to.

[Ken Coleman]

Us for a month. So have you heard us talk about the baby steps? I don't want to just assume anything.

[George Campbell]

Yes.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay.

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

And that's why I'm like, okay, well, I've done step one, technically, step two, but I have part of step three, but I need to just stop and do it step by step.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, you've got 12,5 in savings. Let's get right back to the start of your phone call as we've now dug into this. So what. What do we tell people to do if they've got $12,500 in savings and they have debt? What do we tell them?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Pay it towards the debt.

[Ken Coleman]

How much. How much do we take out of that 12. 5.

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Well, I'm assuming it's going to be the 11 5.

[Ken Coleman]

You got it. Tell her what she's won, George.

[George Campbell]

Raise to the tune of a thousand dollars once we sell this car. So here's what I would consider doing. Instead of using these savings to pay down the debt, I would get out of this car situation first. And so you might be underwater by a few grand.

[Ken Coleman]

That's true.

[George Campbell]

Let's, let's use that to clean that up. Then we're going to take, let's say another 6 or 7,000 and get yourself a used reliable car. Do a pre purchase inspection. It's probably going to have a hundred thousand plus miles on it. It's probably going to have some stains that you'd rather not see. But this is for a season. This is not your forever car. This is like a year or two max as we get to a place of financial stability because you told me you want to adopt. That's a big dream of yours, isn't it? You want to have your own place, your own house in a different state. That's a big dream of yours, isn't it?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Yeah. Yeah.

[George Campbell]

So that dream is bigger than a vehicle. We can always get another car, can't we?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Yep.

[Ken Coleman]

So most of that savings or not most, but a good chunk of it's going to go to whatever this beater is. Right. And I'm thinking a $5,000 car max.

[George Campbell]

That clears half your debt. That's like cutting your jail sentence in half.

[Ken Coleman]

That car payment now goes into the debt snowball. That's huge. You can make some real ground up, can't you?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

So your husband's right. It's rare that we say this on the show. It's mostly the wife is usually right. And I've been married 27 years, so I'm conditioned to say my wife is right.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

Right.

[Ken Coleman]

But in this case, your husband's right. You need to be putting more into this. And you guys are rice and beans. If Dave were here, he'd be going, you guys don't see the inside of a restaurant unless you're waiting tables and it's rice and beans, beans and rice. And you guys are just absolutely on fire to get this out of your life. That same intensity continues into that emergency fund of three to six months. Now we can begin to save for the house and begin to check this out.

[George Campbell]

You knock out this car, you got 42 left, and you start throwing four or five grand a month at it. You're done with this in eight months.

[Ken Coleman]

Woo. I like that.

[George Campbell]

So this house is going to be a whole lot closer versus keeping this car around. While it goes down in value, you stay underwater. I think this thing is, is tanking your financial future. Get rid of it.

[Ken Coleman]

You know what bear grills would say?

[George Campbell]

What's that?

[Ken Coleman]

Jolly good.

[George Campbell]

Spot on.

[Ken Coleman]

Not quite. I'm working on.

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[Ken Coleman]

All right, Gabe is up in Pittsburgh. Gabe, how can we help today?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Hey, thank you for taking my call. Basically I'm a first year college student. I, I have $30,000 saved up from working in high school. And I'm basically wondering what I can do for passive income with this. Save money I have while I'm working in college or while I'm in school right now.

[Ken Coleman]

So first of all, good job to save up $30,000 from high school. That's fantastic.

[George Campbell]

And you're going to graduate debt for eight.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Yeah, my parents are paying for school.

[George Campbell]

Nice.

[Ken Coleman]

So you want, if I understood your question right, you're asking us for our ideas on how to take some of the 30,000 and, and create some passive income. Is that what I'm hearing?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Correct. So I'll just let this is what I've done so far. But I'm sure there's stuff I could be doing better. I have three grand in a Roth. I have ten grand in the CD that's paying out 4% in a month. So I get 400 on that. I have another ten grand in the money market and then I have seven.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

Grand in my savings you may not.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Playing around with a little bit of stocks. Okay, well, you may not like 500.

[Ken Coleman]

Bucks, you may not like my answer. And I can tell you tiktokers and Instagrammers will hate my answer. And that's okay because I don't care. I have interviewed over my time here at Ramsey alone a lot of people that are experts in passive income income. And I will tell you that every one of those people, I'm looking at Will Rudder, who's engineering today on the board. He's heard me do a lot of these. Every one of them Will told me there's nothing passive about what I'm teaching. The concept of passive income is I'm putting my money to work for me and I'm not. Some people call it mailbox money. I like to joke about it. George has heard me say it a thousand times and there's just not such a thing. So they'll go, okay, we know what passive income is and I'm an expert in it. But it's not passive. There's a lot of work that goes into it or a lot of work that is on the front end of it that then gets you to the place where it's a Tim Ferriss thing. George, where it's a four hour work week or whatever. And so I think of like a digital product. I created a digital product here at Ramsey. It's called the Get Clear career assessment. It's been very, very successful. It would meet the definition, George, of passive income in that people buy that all the time while I'm sleeping, traveling, doing this show right now. And it is being delivered off of a website with very little effort. Okay, that's the Eva, but there was a lot of blood, sweat and tears on the front end of that. So my answer is at this stage of your life because you're in school. I'd love to hear if you got a couple ideas and George and I can shark tank it. But my initial knee jerk and George may disagree with me. George, my initial knee jerk is to actually have you tell him how we would have him start investing that. What's the best way to invest that 30? And let's go ahead and get that working for us over the next three to four years because that's going to give us some better options. I think you're in such a great place. That's what I recommend. George, is that too conservative? No.

[George Campbell]

And Gabe, based on the way you're talking, you know a lot about, you know, finances and investing. You've done your homework now you're a little scattered. You got your money all over the place and you're thinking about single stocks. And so my fear for someone like you is you're on the precipice of losing your lunch because you go, oh, dude, I could get 10x my money if I put it in crypto, maybe. Or you could lose it all tomorrow. So it's your choice. And so you get closer to gambling and speculation than you do investing. So back to your question. Passive income. I totally agree with Ken. Instead of asking, how can I make money, ask what value can I create based on my passions and skills? Now we can go, oh, that's a digital product. That's a. You know, for me it was music. I did an album and I just got a sweet check for $10 this month, Ken.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, you know what? Let's go ahead.

[George Campbell]

Work I did 10 years ago.

[Ken Coleman]

Let's go ahead and plug the album because you did some hard work.

[George Campbell]

Check it out on Spotify, Gabe. So that.

[Ken Coleman]

No, seriously, what's the album?

[George Campbell]

It's called the Great Coward. I know, truthfully, I was a musician. I passed.

[Ken Coleman]

I know you were. You're a good musician.

[George Campbell]

And here's the thing, Gabe. I did that album and like Ford reached out to license the music on their YouTube channel, and that made me more money than anybody streaming it on Spotify. So what I would do is go, what can I bring a value to the world, to people out there who have a problem? How do I solve that in a way that only I can do? That's going to get you a lot closer than following a TikTok that says to buy a laundromat and buy an ATM and do leverage real estate, which I'm scared is what you're going to fall into if you continue down the path.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

Path.

[Ken Coleman]

Do you have an idea?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

I had just put in like the 300 bucks into the stock market just because I, I was new to it, but I haven't even thought about doing like a crazy amount or getting into crypto.

[George Campbell]

Well, what's your goal here?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Like, too risk oriented. I don't know. I mean, I'm. I miss work is really what it is. When I'm in school, I'm mad that I can't make more money. But I'm in school. Definite I'll be working.

[Ken Coleman]

What are you.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

As soon as I'm done.

[Ken Coleman]

What are you in school for?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

I'm in nurse. I'm in. I'm a first year nursing student at the University of Pittsburgh.

[Ken Coleman]

Do you want to Be a nurse. Nurse.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

I want to be a nurse. Anesthetist.

[Ken Coleman]

Great. So this is part of the journey, right?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Yes, it's part of the journey. The first four also is your.

[George Campbell]

Are your parents cash flowing, all of that schooling? Because that's gonna be pricey.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Just, just undergrad. Undergrad.

[George Campbell]

Oh, that's what I'm getting at here.

[Ken Coleman]

So what's the graduate?

[George Campbell]

I'm scared. You're about to go 200 grand into debt.

[Ken Coleman]

I'm a little nervous. This call changed, which is good. I mean, you're. What's your plan? What is it going to cost you for your grad program?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Well, you need it. After my four years, I would have to work for two years to get experience. I'd be getting a nursing salary. So I'd be making money in those two years as I'm getting my experience before I can even apply to graduate school.

[Ken Coleman]

Right.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

And then I should have a good bit saved up then.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, but then also I. But let's pause how much I love this, but I want to get real numbers here. Here. What do you. Because every grad school costs different. It's different. And a lot of times we get sucked in, we humans, to the, to the sizzle factor on a school when nobody cares. In fact, my wife just had knee surgery a couple weeks ago and I was with her when the. When the Nestus came in. And you know what, George? Neither one of us thought to ask where they went to school. So what are you thinking? What's the cost that you're looking at, that you've researched.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

For graduate school? It's probably looking at around 100 to 150,000.

[Ken Coleman]

All right, now here's the next question. Do you have the patience to work as a nurse for X amount of years to be able to fully cash flow that? No, you do not. And that's okay. But here's the deal. Yeah, it is a good question. Tell you why. Here, let me give you a little truth. This is my challenge to you, George. I know that this from coaching so many people, you know, who weren't happy and they wanted to get from point A to point B, everybody. If I went on the street with a camera crew, you and I have done this before. And I said, hey, are you willing to do what it takes to get the dream job?

[George Campbell]

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

[Ken Coleman]

And then I go like this. Are you willing to wait as long as it takes and the answer cools. And we just saw it with Gabe. Now, Gabe, that wasn't a gotcha question to make fun of you or to attack you. It was to make you see, wait a second now I'm going to give the baton to George, okay? He's the anchor here. He's going to sprint home on this one. Walk him through why you were afraid if he does what we just heard him say he's planning to do, which is take out a little bit of debt or some debt. Walk him through that.

[George Campbell]

Well, Gabe, you're going to take a step forward and three steps back if you graduate with 200 grand in student loans instead of being cash positive, which you are now. And so the goal for me, for you, is to stay in this position. And so now it is. I. That's why I was asking what your goal is, because most people that are younger just go, I want to have a million by the time I'm 25. And I go, why? They go, I don't know. I just feel like I'm running out of time. Yeah, and so you have time and you have a lot of skills. You're a really sharp guy. So now my goal is how do I save up 150,000 three years from now?

[Ken Coleman]

Well, he needs a hundred cash flow. Gabe, did I hear you right? You need 100, right?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Yeah, about 100.

[Ken Coleman]

All right, so this 30, George. Gabe, this 30 sits in a good.

[George Campbell]

Account, like a high yield savings account.

[Ken Coleman]

High yield savings account. Because we're only needing 70 more now. In your first two or three years as a nurse, if you're living like nobody else. Question is, can you save up the other 70? The answer is yes.

[George Campbell]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

George is a savings wizard. George, he could make savings.

[George Campbell]

Yeah, yeah, just a high. So the thing with your CD is your money's locked in there until it matures to whatever month you know you're locked into. 12 months. And so if you're going to need.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

This money four months.

[George Campbell]

Four months. So high yield savings. Right now the rates are about three and a half percent. If you want a great one, go to Fairwinds.org Ramsey. They've been a great partner of ours. They have an awesome high yield savings account and checking bundle. I would open that up and just start stacking away money. Working, stacking away money. Every summer I'm working, stacking away money. I would not get on Robin Hood and choose some single stocks. I would. Would not try to create passive income through a business right now. Use the skills you have, do what work you can do, and just stack that money in a high yield savings and cash flow college.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

All right, I appreciate it, guys.

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[Ken Coleman]

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[George Campbell]

Today's question comes from Nicholas in Washington. My parents, adult siblings and I are all on a family phone plan but live in different households. Everyone agreed to pay their portion to the sibling who is designated the account owner. A few years ago, I started paying the monthly bill to prevent recurring overdue bills and plan cancellations. Since then, that sibling hasn't paid their portion and when another sibling found out, they stopped repaying their portion too. I can and have been paying for both siblings. What the heck. The remaining siblings and parents pay regularly and everyone's aware of the situation to the point of joking about it at family reunions. I want to maintain good relationships by prioritizing family over finances. But is there a gentle way to convey that they're taking advantage of me? Or should I use Dave's principle of gifting and not loaning money to family in this situation.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, boy, Nicholas, you've become a doormat.

[George Campbell]

Yeah, we. We don't gift when we're resentful, and we think it's going to put a band aid on it. This is not the spirit of giving. I don't understand why you haven't just shut down the account and go, all right, everyone. Every man for himself. We're all grown adults. Let's get our own phone plans. They're not.

[Ken Coleman]

That's where I went. Why are we, as adults, on the same cell phone plan?

[George Campbell]

This is crazy. My parents, adult siblings. Like, this is just a toxic codependency, and they're taking. Of course they're taking advantage of it. They realize they can get a free phone plan out of the deal and still be friends with you.

[Ken Coleman]

Hey, I tell you what really rubbed me the wrong way is that everybody jokes about it. They're all laughing at him.

[George Campbell]

Exactly. They're not laughing with you. They're laughing at you.

[Ken Coleman]

I think so. Yeah.

[George Campbell]

I would. I'd put a. Draw a line here and go, hey, guys, I'm going to get my own phone. My phone plan. I'm out. You guys can figure it out if you want to stay on this, but I am out of the situation. Jump onto Boost mobile. It's like 20 bucks a month. It's not that expensive to have your own phone plan. There's really no benefit here for everyone being on the same plan in different households. It's messy.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah. Just this. Just the reading of the question shows you how complex this thing is. It shouldn't be complex.

[George Campbell]

There should be a riddle here to get to pay.

[Ken Coleman]

I have my own cell phone plan. My siblings. Siblings, they're adults. They have their own cell phone plan. What are we even talking about here? Makes my head hurt. Joseph is up in Los Angeles. Joseph, how can we help?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Hi.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

My girlfriend slash fiance and I are planning to get married. And we're wondering how to combine our finances. Each of us has significant assets and debts.

[George Campbell]

What kind of assets are we talking about?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

They're almost all real estate. House adu, commercial building, raw land, and.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Then some money in bank accounts.

[George Campbell]

Okay, so you're wondering how do we combine this once we're married? What should we combine? How and when?

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

And things like how do we treat bank accounts?

[Ken Coleman]

And.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

We want your advice on how to do it.

[George Campbell]

Well, what's the end goal here with all of the. All of these assets? Are you wanting to have them all paid off and in both of your names and build wealth together?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

Basically, we're Using them for our retirement.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

We're older. I am retired.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

She'll be retired in five years. We need to live off the asset.

[George Campbell]

Okay, so this income will go to both of you as one unit, presumably.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

Yeah.

[George Campbell]

Okay.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

I was going to guess that's your advice. Yeah, yeah.

[George Campbell]

The simplest way, and this is what I did, is you have a checking account. She has a checking account, correct?

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Correct.

[George Campbell]

I would transfer the money from her checking into your checking and make it a joint checking. And so her name would get added to yours. And then same with savings. You have one high yield savings account account, and that's our emergency fund. Maybe we have another high yield savings account with both of our names on it. And that's for sinking funds and, you know, whatever it is, property maintenance and repair funds. And I would have your names on everything because I think building wealth together is a whole lot more fun and you move a whole lot faster than playing tit for tat of, well, that's your property and my property's doing well, but stinks for you.

[Ken Coleman]

Good luck.

[George Campbell]

Which I don't think is the spirit of what's happening, but it. What ends up happening when everything's split.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Yeah. Okay, so what I heard is two.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

High yield accounts and one checking account. All of them with both our names on them.

[George Campbell]

Yes. And then with the assets, I would go, okay, do we want to liquidate any of these properties? Is one a nuisance? Let's kind of combine all of our playing cards here and then see what the next best move is. Because the goal would be to get out of debt as soon as possible across the board.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

The debt that we're in is 1.2 million in debt. It is almost purely mortgage.

[George Campbell]

Okay.

[Ken Coleman]

All of these houses, right?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

Yeah. And one of them said a fabulous interest rate, 2.75 and keep it till you die.

[George Campbell]

Why even ever pay it off?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

Exactly.

[George Campbell]

There we go. I was just trying to get you to say that out loud.

[Ken Coleman]

He trapped you there. I don't think you realized, Joseph. You walked right into it.

[George Campbell]

My face was telling a different story. No, here's the thing. If you're listening to our show, we know that debt equals risk. More debt equals more risk. $1.2 million as she's trying to enter retirement. There's a lot of risk here, and it might mean she works longer or one property, you know, takes a nosedive and there's some vacancy. There's a big repair. It's just going to add stress to this new marriage, especially in this later stage of life. I would personally Want to simplify. So I would try to angle it as soon as we're married to go, how can we get rid of this debt in the next few years so that you can step into retirement with a whole lot of peace?

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah. How old are you?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

I'm 64.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay. I was wondering because you. I thought I heard you say we want to live off these assets and, and, and you're not going to be able to live off of the rent. You know, we start looking at all the numbers here. It's not that impressive. It just rarely is. So how much equity do you have in each of the properties?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

See, there's, there's a $5.5 million commercial building.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

That's debt free.

[Ken Coleman]

Whoa, that's great.

[George Campbell]

How much is that cash flow?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

There's 100. About 16,000amonth after all expenses and that.

[Ken Coleman]

I strike what I said because it's rare we have somebody tell us they have a cash commercial building.

[George Campbell]

What's your total net worth versus her?

[Ken Coleman]

Hers?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

Mine's about 7.5. Hers is about 1 million.

[George Campbell]

Okay. So combined we're already stepping into this with 8 million plus net worth with a great income. Now we can just simplify and go, all right, can we get rid of one and become totally debt free faster? Just to simplify our life, not have any payments, because you're still going to be raking in 20 plus grand a month once this is all said and done.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

And, and oh, by the way, she's a teacher with a good retirement plan.

[Ken Coleman]

Yes.

[George Campbell]

Amazing.

[Ken Coleman]

So with the commercial building alone, I mean, what do you anticipate your monthly expenses are once you guys get married?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

Oh, let's see.

[Ken Coleman]

I'm not talking about that. I'm not talking about the debt. I'm talking about because right now the debt's kind of on the table where I'm headed. I'm just curious. A comfortable life, paying the regular bills. What do you think you guys are going to do?

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

Need and taking the debt payments out of it.

[Ken Coleman]

Yes.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

Give me a second here.

[George Campbell]

Carry the two.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, he's got his eraser.

[George Campbell]

Some zeros on the end of this math problem.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

I think we'd be.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

I think we'd be real comfortable on 12.

[Ken Coleman]

Right. So I, I'm just challenging you to go. Okay, good on you with the, with the commercial building.

[George Campbell]

Building.

[Ken Coleman]

That's our, that's what we say. If that's what you're going to do, do it that way. Because now you do have 16,000 in cash flow and this thing's worth $5 million, you can unload it at any time.

[George Campbell]

But if you only have that, you get to live your retirement dream. That's the only property you own.

[Ken Coleman]

But I would consolidate those other real estate pieces that have debt on them by selling them. I consolidate, get rid of all that debt is what I mean. Not consolidate.

[George Campbell]

I would get rid of the debt.

[Ken Coleman]

And take what I'm going to make on that, consolidate all that profit it and invest that and keep it simple. Then you're really cruising. That's what I would do. Right George? Am I wrong?

[George Campbell]

I mean you're already on the path. You're just so close to being debt free. It's sort of a just a no brainer to just simplify as you enter this new marriage. As she enters retirement, man, you guys will be sitting pretty with a bunch of paid for cash real estate. Dave Ramsey smiling somewhere right now.

[Ken Coleman]

I love it. Good job, Joseph. I hope, hope this, I hope this woman knows that she's got poor judgment other than you just being really wealthy. Close the deal, man. This is exciting. You guys are going to have a great life together and truly live like no one else. Get rid of the debt and live large. Buying or selling your home is a big deal. And boy, depending on what headline headlines you're looking at every day, there's a lot of conflicting data out there. Can scare you, can create a lot of doubt and this is a big decision. So we want to make the the big decision with a lot of good information. And here are some of the latest trends. Median home prices dipped a bit last month to 426,000. That is typical as we head into the fall and buyers have more options in negotiating power while sellers are facing more competition. Mortgage rates, rates dip slightly in September and I will tell you, just yesterday we saw a dip this week. So you know, what is that going to do? If they keep dipping a bit, people are going to start rushing back in to try to get a better rate and that can make prices go up. So now might be a great time to get in if you're ready to learn more about the housing market trends and get free tools to help you buy or sell with confidence. We got you covered. Go to Ramsey Solutions. That's ramseysolutions.com market Joel is joining us now in Fairfax, Virginia. Joel, how can we help today?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Hey, thanks for taking my call. How are you guys?

[Ken Coleman]

We're having a blast today. What can we help you with?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Well, let me, this is more of a what if question. So I know that when you buy a New car, it loses value as soon as you drive it off the lot. My question is, what about restored classic muscle cars? My dad had one grown when I was growing up. And I have to do some research and I found that those have grown huge in value. And so I was kind of toying with the idea. I have a paid for 23 Bronco Sport. If I traded it in and got something that grows in value, would it help with net worth? And if it helps, I have numbers in front of me if you need those.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, give us some of the numbers.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

All right. I will be 56 in December. Single, never married, no kids. I make 95,000 a year. I'm on baby step four. I unfortunately got a late start. So to play catch up, I'm setting aside 25% of my pay. Net worth is about 194,000, including the the Bronco Sport. 25 grand in a high yield savings. 4.1%. 750 in checking because I just paid the bills. Another thousand in savings, and then I've got two 401ks that together are just north of 143,000. I'm renting because housing is just too crazy expensive. And I've moved so many times, it just never made sense. So that's pretty much it.

[George Campbell]

And what is your goal? To retire by a certain age with a certain amount of money.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Well, at this, with the numbers I have and at this stage in life, I honestly don't have any plan on retiring. I'm just going to keep working until I pretty much can't. I know in the past I've heard, you know, quote unquote, no new cars until you have a million dollar net worth. With my numbers, I don't know when I would ever hit that number. So I don't know if you guys can calculate that. I don't know how you figure that out. Well, I would, I just.

[George Campbell]

In your shoes, basic question. Should I invest in a classic muscle car? No.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Okay.

[George Campbell]

Under no circumstances would we consider that an investment. It's a liability disguise as a hobby. And maybe it grows in some value if you store it and maintain it perfectly. But I would not sell your perfectly good car. It's. You've. It's paid for the bronze Bronco.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Yes, sir.

[George Campbell]

And you're going to sell that to get a muscle car that you would then drive as your vehicle?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Yeah, I mean, I'm not actively considering it now. It was just a what if question. So that's what I'm asking a second opinion.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, but in the what if it. To George's point, I didn't think that you were going to drive it. I thought you were thinking about maybe flipping these things because.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Oh, no, no. This would have been my driver.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, but that's going to hurt its value. Value. You're talking about these cars. These cars that get. I did some research while George was talking to you. A 1962 Shelby Cobra, which is an absolutely phenomenal machine. My gosh, I couldn't help myself, James. I love old cars. Sold for a record 13.75 million. But it was the first Shelby Cobra ever made and was owned by Carroll Shelby. So I'm giving you the extreme here to back up George's point. And you know, if you look at. Here's another one. A 1970 Plymouth Hemi Cuda convertible, believed to be the only surviving Canadian export version, sold for 2.7 million. So that's a lot less than 30. So they have to have like. It's not that they're just in good shape at that kind of level, George. They have to be extremely rare, like a rookie baseball card of like a Babe Ruth. And it doesn't, you know, some. So George is right.

[George Campbell]

And it's a luxury. It's a luxury hobby for people that can afford to put the money into this.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, they're putting a ton of money into it.

[George Campbell]

Even if they lose money on it, they're just happy because they're car people.

[Ken Coleman]

But as a daily driver. And again, I'm in the long process. Good Lord, it takes forever. Of restoring a 1972 convertible Volkswagen Karman Ghia. And she's a cherry, she's a beaut. But it takes a lot of work. And I'm not gonna tell you how much I've put into her so far. And George knows. I just got a quote to finish the interior and I was a little stuck. Steep. And at this stage, I'm going, I don't know if I want to do that.

[George Campbell]

Ken clutched his pearls when he saw that.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, well, but I, I knew. I didn't think it was going to be that much, but I, I'm going to drive that from time to time with Stacy when the weather's really nice. And right now it's like I'm going to get several other quotes and see if I can get that down a few thousand dollars. All right, so I'm, I'm, I'm beating this thing to a pulp because you can get really feverish about a, about an old car. But is it a great long term investment no, it isn't a great one. And it's only a good investment, George, if you are flipping these cars right to where you. Again, you have the know how.

[George Campbell]

And at that point, you got to hang on to them for a pretty good while for them to appreciate in value over time.

[Ken Coleman]

Not if you're flipping.

[George Campbell]

If you're restoring old.

[Ken Coleman]

That's what I'm saying. That's the only scenario where, where if you've got the equipment, you got the.

[George Campbell]

Know how, which takes a lot of cash flow to even do that.

[Ken Coleman]

It does.

[George Campbell]

So in your, in your shoes, Joel, I would see you get into a house and stabilize your housing costs.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

Yeah.

[George Campbell]

Because in the meantime, rent's going to keep going up. And so if you're, you're 56, I would love to see you have a home by the time you retire to where it's not crippling you financially. So that becomes the goal. You have a great income.

[Ken Coleman]

You're.

[George Campbell]

You did get a later start. But if you're good to work for the next decade, you can build some serious wealth. Wealth. And so I might dial down some of that investing and get into a house faster because that housing market is also a moving target. You know, the average home price is over 400,000. If you wait another five years, it could be 600,000.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Oh, yes. Well, where I'm at is half a mil already. And I'm just like, yeah, exactly.

[George Campbell]

So that's why I would, I would dial back your investing to 15% and then use that extra cash flow, every dime you can, to throw into a high yield savings account, and within the next three years, work up a down payment and get yourself into a home.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Okay.

[George Campbell]

And the car dream, I think, is a cool dream. I would just separate it from, well, two birds, one stone. Get a cool classic car, drive it around. It becomes my retirement. That's a, that's a fool's errand.

[Ken Coleman]

It's a, it's a fun car, and I think you can get one. I have to ask, if you had the money, what are you buying today? What is this classic mobile that you would be driving around in?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Well, the guys and all the men in my dad's side of the family, we were big Buick guys. And so I was looking at probably a 71 or 72 GS convertible, something along those lines.

[George Campbell]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

So have you looked into what those cost in decent shape? I'm just curious.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

I found a couple between 30 and 40,000. My father had a 1970 model. I've seen those go for anywhere from 80 to 130,000.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, yeah. There you go.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Well, I thought I'm going to aim a little lower.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah. But here's the deal. Down the road, when you get financially able to do it, you know, might be a fun nostalgic thing, but again, you got to treat it like any other car in the way we treat it. So thanks for calling. That's really interesting stuff. Yeah, George, you know, boy, oh, boy, you can get. Boy, you can rack the expenses up with an old car. You just can. It's a premium service.

[George Campbell]

It truly is a hobby. I don't think many people have made it a quote unquote business or an investment. And sometimes you get lucky and you bought at the right time and it went up in value or you had the funds to really invest into it and you found the right buyer at the right time. But, man, I would much rather stick to the stock market so I can retire one day.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, absolutely right. But would you. Do you see yourself in an old car one day when you're in your 70s?

[George Campbell]

You know what? I watched Father of the Bride and Steve Martin. Tooling around in that car made me go, that's what I want one day.

[Ken Coleman]

See?

[George Campbell]

Sign me up.

[Ken Coleman]

All right, see, you know what? When I get the old gear done, I'm going to teach you how to drive a stick. That's what I have to start with. And then let you drive. Boy, you've never done that, have you?

[George Campbell]

No.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

No.

[Ken Coleman]

No idea, folks.

[George Campbell]

No. My car drives itself at.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

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[Ken Coleman]

Welcome back to the Ramsey show in the Fairwinds Credit Union studio alongside George Campbell. I'm Ken Coleman. So excited that you are with us. 888-825-5225 is the phone number. Jeremy is up in Dallas, Texas. Jeremy, how can we help?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Hello, well, thank you guys very much. I just wanted to ask, do you guys think college students nowadays have a better chance of being just as or more successful than our parents in today's world? And I ask this because as a college student myself that's about to graduate with no student debt, I have $50,000 saved and I have a job lined up. Fortunately, unfortunately, inside of the state I live in and away from family, I'm nervous to move out. And I know a lot of people my age in this situation feel the same way. But I know a lot of people are nervous and don't know if they can move out financially. But do you think people in today's.

[George Campbell]

World.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Have the same chance that our parents did? And also people in my situation, what can you give to them that don't know if they can move out financially?

[Ken Coleman]

Well, you do have the same chance, I don't think. You know, you get into a crazy game if you start going, well, what are the chances back in the 60s? And, you know, and that probably seems like ancient history to you, but no, I think college students have the same exact chances of being successful. I think they have some things that are going in their favor. I think that older generations, you might be able to say, well, maybe they had a couple advantages because of this. But the one that sticks out to me, George, is the student loan issue that just was not a handicap to people that are older. But in your case, Jeremy, you were the asterisk. You don't have any debt. So I think the second question is the one that we can tackle, and that is, how do you overcome this barrier to entry, this thought process that, oh, I can't live on my own or I can't move away? George, you want to tackle that one first? I've got thoughts, but.

[George Campbell]

Oh, yeah. So what was your. What's your job situation right now?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Now, well, I'm from Dallas, but I have a job offer in a separate state, away from family. I would get a stipend to take the position and move out. I'd also get a free vehicle and entry salary is 65,000 before.

[George Campbell]

65,000 with a car.

[Ken Coleman]

And what's the stipend?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

10,000.

[Ken Coleman]

I mean, bro, I don't.

[George Campbell]

And what, what is your actual theory here? Because there's not a math problem. Are you wondering, can I afford rent?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

I would prefer not to rent, but more of a mortgage.

[George Campbell]

Why would you jump into a mortgage right out of college in a city you have never lived in? What's the rush?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

I guess it's Just because my dad, he has always told me not to rent. And I guess that stuck with me.

[George Campbell]

So dad said renting is a waste of money. Son, you should become a homeowner.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Yeah.

[George Campbell]

And that's in the back of your mind? Dad is not going to be proud of me if I rent. Yeah. And he's going to be telling me how much I need to get into a house every time I talk to him.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Yeah.

[George Campbell]

Is he covering your down payment?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

No. My girlfriend's mom. If she would be willing to go out with me. But if that's not the case, not like moving.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, Jeremy, this entire call, you have sounded like somebody who's way ahead of the game and on top of it. And then you just threw the ultimate curveball. You're considering buying a house with your girlfriend's mom?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

Does that sound in any way risky to you? I'm just trying to be serious. Did you think that sounds smart?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

No, not necessarily.

[Ken Coleman]

Have you told your mom and dad that you're considering this?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

I have.

[Ken Coleman]

And what'd they say?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

They trust her a lot. And they really like the family. And if she's willing to do that, they were fine with it.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, I'm gonna bring George in because George loves to tell horror stories. George, let's fast forward to the desk.

[George Campbell]

Get my jaw off the floor real quick.

[Ken Coleman]

I gotta tell you, Jeremy, this is absolutely ridiculous that your parents haven't freaked out over this. Your parents are good people.

[George Campbell]

Are you trolling us?

[Ken Coleman]

Jeremy, are you trolling us?

[George Campbell]

No.

[Ken Coleman]

Is this a fake call?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

No, I'm not.

[Ken Coleman]

All right, George, where's this go? Let's. Let's say the girlfriend take us down. The all the things that could go wrong.

[George Campbell]

I'll play this out. You're going to call us in a year and here's going to be the call. I sunk all of my money into buying a house with my girlfriend's mom. And we just broke up. What do I do? She wants to keep the house. Hmm. Or I want to keep the house. Do you see where this is going? It's going to get messy real quick.

[Ken Coleman]

You and her. You're not even the girlfriend. Which we would tell you is stupid. This is the girlfriend's mom, which is next level stupid.

[George Campbell]

Already planning to live with your future mother in law is just a bad plan relationally. So here, Jeremy, here's what I would do if I could just.

[Ken Coleman]

So funny. I got to tell you. I don't think anything about this is funny.

[George Campbell]

If I waved a magic wand, you would move out Take this job off rent, maybe even get a roommate or two to help you stomach the finances and just learn to live on your own for a little while. Rent for a year or two, keep stacking up that down payment with this new salary you have, and then a year or two from now you have a hundred thousand dollars saved. And that's actually a decent down payment, you know, on the cost of a home these days. And so once you get into that do 15 year fixed rate mortgage where the payment's no more than a quarter of your take home pay, that's going to allow you to pay off that home really early. And then you're going to be financially free at a very young age. But if you shortcut it, that scares me because you're going to fall flat on your face and you are off.

[Ken Coleman]

To a great start. Here's what I don't understand. I thought you said you were moving away from where you live.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Yeah, I would be.

[Ken Coleman]

So where does the girlfriend's mom come into the equation?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

They live in Tennessee.

[George Campbell]

That's where you would be moving.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Yes.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, you're moving to be in the same place as your girlfriend?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Yeah, yeah. And the job offer is there. So I kind of thought of it in this way is more of like a way around things so that I wouldn't have to.

[Ken Coleman]

There's not.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

No, no.

[Ken Coleman]

You think this is a way around something to whatever, not pay rent, be smarter with your money. This is a way into a massive, massive, massive pond of scum and disgustingness and danger and all kinds of stuff. You don't even know if this girl's the one for you, do you?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

You're absolutely right.

[Ken Coleman]

Well then what are you thinking? We don't even know if we want to marry her. I tell you what, if you were young, you're my younger brother, I'd reach through the phone and cuff you right upside the head because this is crazy talk. You are too smart for this. You got a great job, no debt, a stipend, a free car. Just go date this girl and let's see if she is the one, right? And then let's kind of check these boxes off. I mean, this is craziness to me, you know, like it's. And by the way, I'm. I'm being fun. James the producer looks like he's like he's gonna swallow a frog. I wouldn't violently hit you. I'm just saying, like, I'm trying to go snap out of this. Like this is. Somebody needs to kind of grab you and Shake and go. This could be a horrible, horrible mistake. All right.

[George Campbell]

Because of tldr. Just slow, slow down. You've done such a good job and now all of a sudden you want to go 90 miles an hour and you're going to get in a wreck if you live your life this way. So just rent for a year or two or three.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

Who?

[George Campbell]

You're how old?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

22.

[George Campbell]

Let's play this out. Oh, boy. At 25, you own a home. You know the average age of a homeowner in today's world? World? No, it's like 38 years old. So you're already so far ahead of the curve, you're already so more successful, so much more successful than most Americans who are retired, who are broke. So if you just keep this up, live your life debt free, rent on your own, get a house when it makes sense, and don't do it with anyone else unless you're married to them. That's the key, man. Good luck.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Foreign.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

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[George Campbell]

Ramsey Solutions is a paid non client promoter of participating pros. Learn [e-mail] SmartVestor.

[Ken Coleman]

Two weekends George. Not one, but two. Two weekends are on sale now for money and marriage Getaway. It's three incredible days with your spouse here in Nashville Learning the tools to strengthen your connection and deepen your intimacy. Join Dr. John DeLoney and Rachel Cruz in November or February. Early bird pricing is available now. Tickets start at $749 per couple. You can get those tickets for the lowest price before they [e-mail] getaway ramseysolutions.com getaway or you click on the link in the show notes and it's popped up on my schedule. I guess I'm gonna be at the November and February.

[George Campbell]

I did see you on the lineup. Very excited I might come see your talk. It looked like a good one. It was. Can I tell them what it is?

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, sure.

[George Campbell]

Okay. Correct me if I'm wrong. It was how to win at love.

[Ken Coleman]

How love and work. Home and work.

[George Campbell]

Something like that. It was kind of like a how to win at work without losing your life at home.

[Ken Coleman]

You know what my speech title is.

[George Campbell]

And I know what I'm talking. I need that. It's a good sort of work life, marriage balance talk, because, you know, a lot of people want to crush it at work and then their marriage suffers.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, it's not a traditional talk, George. You're going to like this. What they have done is they have accumulated all the questions they've been getting at previous money in marriage getaways.

[George Campbell]

Oh, and.

[Ken Coleman]

And it's about, hey, my spouse is a workaholic. How do I support him? Or he feels law. You know, it's that guy. So I'm taking some of the biggest questions, the ones have been submitted the most, and I'm teaching to those questions.

[George Campbell]

I love that. So very practical, very fun.

[Ken Coleman]

And I'm told Mrs. Coleman might be making an appearance at the February one.

[George Campbell]

Whoa. That's something to show up.

[Ken Coleman]

I'll tell you what to know. Stacy is the liker that's worth the.

[George Campbell]

Price of admission to see Stacy Coleman.

[Ken Coleman]

I'm telling you right there. So there you go. Should be fun. Let's go to Tracy in Houston, Texas. Tracy, how can we help?

[George Campbell]

Hi.

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

Thanks for talking with me. First off, I have a situation going on to where we have a lot of credit card debt and just making the minimum payments. We're kind of having to teeter between groceries or paying all the minimums. And I'm wanting to start the snowball rolling, but I don't have the extra money to put toward any of the smaller bills. And I was wondering if there was something that y' all could. A suggestion or advice that y' all could give me to help get that started.

[George Campbell]

Well, the magic wand here is we need to make more income to have more margin. Now, we can cut expenses, too, when you probably should, but it sounds like there's an income problem. How much do you guys make a month?

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

A month? We make about $4,700.

[George Campbell]

What are the credit card minimums?

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

Oh, my goodness. Just the minimums are almost twelve hundred dollars.

[George Campbell]

Okay. And you can't do that and cover the rest of your bills. What's your. Do you have a renter mortgage?

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

We have a mortgage. It's for $900 a month.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Okay.

[George Campbell]

That's not the problem.

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

Right.

[George Campbell]

What got you into all this credit card debt?

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

Well, my son lost his job, and he's.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

He's grown up adult.

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

He was staying with us, or he still is staying with us. So he's helping pay, you know, bills and all those kind of good things, but he's actually looking to move out. And so I was like, I need to get this.

[George Campbell]

No, but what caused. How much credit card debt total do we have? What's the balance?

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

Total credit card is 29,000.

[George Campbell]

What got us under 29,000 of credit card debt? I don't think it was your son.

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

No, no, no, no. I have undiagnosed shopaholic and I'm working with a therapist on that now.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, wow.

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

So it's just been we would max out credit cards, get more credit cards. Max those out and get more.

[George Campbell]

Have you stopped the bleeding? Because we can't help you at all unless you decide I'm done borrowing money.

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Oh, yes.

[George Campbell]

So have you cut up the cards?

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

I'm actually thinking about closing the accounts and I was like going to get your opinion on that as well.

[George Campbell]

Cut them up, close them money.

[Ken Coleman]

Cut them right now on the air.

[George Campbell]

Yeah. Do you have them with you?

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

I don't.

[Ken Coleman]

That's unfortunate.

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

More than happy to cut them up.

[George Campbell]

Have you, have you done a freeze on all of your credit.

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

Yeah, on my, the credit bureaus?

[George Campbell]

Yes.

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

Yes, I have.

[George Campbell]

So nobody can take out debt in your name, including you, without jumping through some hoops. Okay, what's. What other debt do you have outside of the 29 and credit cards?

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

I do have 11,000 in loans.

[George Campbell]

Just personal loans?

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

Yes, personal loans.

[George Campbell]

Okay.

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

And then the rest of it is just our monthly, you know, just our regular monthly bills. Electric, gas.

[George Campbell]

Okay, so no more debt outside of that. You got 40,000 in debt plus you get the mortgage.

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

Right.

[George Campbell]

All right. And are you both working full time?

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

We do.

[George Campbell]

All right, so who's making what? Because right now I'm seeing about a take home pay per year. About 56 grand.

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

Yeah, it's. I make about 30,000 a year and he makes about 32,000 a year.

[George Campbell]

Why are the incomes so low? What are you guys doing for work?

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

Well, we work for the county, and so the pay is lower, but the benefits at the end, if you retire with them, are greater. For example, we're not going to live.

[George Campbell]

Long enough to see the benefits if we can't eat. I know we have collectors knocking down a door taking us to court. So screw the benefits. You guys need to go double your income.

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

Right? Okay.

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Okay.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

During the tax season I do. Do I prepare taxes? And so that does bring in some extra that I'm wanting to throw at it.

[George Campbell]

Are you an enrolled agent? Do you have some qualifications there?

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

No, no, I'm not an enrolled agent.

[George Campbell]

Okay. I'm just wondering. I think you could go, you know, do that and make double tomorrow. Yep.

[Ken Coleman]

You know. Okay, let me just interject real quick there. You need to create some type of a visual, an exercise to where we identify what is it that I can do right now to make more money and just begin to create a possibilities list. George just gave you a really great suggestion there. But you have got to be able to see, in order to believe, leave that you can actually make more money. We've got to get that income up and we can't be doing things that are like prospecting. Well, if I spend this and I do this, then I might be able to make this. It's like, no, I need to exchange time for money right now.

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

Right.

[George Campbell]

And so to. To your question, I want to make sure I answer it. You don't have to juggle between. Do I make the credit card minimums or food? You always cover your four walls first. And if the credit cards don't get paid, they don't get paid. So four walls are your food, utilities, housing, transportation, and we're talking bare bones. This is not. Well, I guess we're going to eat out instead of making the minimums. No, this is. What do we need to survive right now? How can we cut all of our expenses down to the bone and then we'll get to the credit cards once we can create enough income and create enough margin to start to climb out of this.

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

Okay, that sounds. That sounds good. That's kind of where I was going.

[George Campbell]

And that might mean some of them go to collections, and you're going to have to deal with that later. And so you're just kind of kicking the can down the road. But you got to eat first. And so I don't care how much they're calling you, hassling you to make your payments. If you can't make it, you can't make it.

[Caller 3 (Natalie, Aaron, Joseph, etc.)]

Okay.

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

Okay. And then the actually closing of the accounts is not. I mean, would that be okay? Because I know myself that I would just call and go, oh, well, I lost my card.

[George Campbell]

You know, I mean, why are you saying you're going to go back into debt?

[Ken Coleman]

She's saying it's possible.

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

No, that's what I'm trying to. I'm trying to alleviate any possibility.

[George Campbell]

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

[Ken Coleman]

You should close the accounts, freeze your credit, the whole nine yards, put up some accountability, cut up all the cards.

[George Campbell]

And then that's a line in the sand. Saying, I'm done. I'm never borrowing a dime on these cards again.

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

Okay, great.

[George Campbell]

And they're probably going to offer you some deal to try to stay. Just say, nope, I'm done. Cancel, cancel, cancel. I'm done.

[Ken Coleman]

Done.

[George Campbell]

And you're still, of course, going to owe on on those accounts, but at least you can't rack up any more debt and they won't send you offers for more line of credit to bless you with.

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

Right, Right.

[Bear Grylls]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

I mean, like, I'm glad you're. You're seeing a therapist, but I would get advice from the therapist on who can be in your life from an accountability standpoint. Boy, oh, boy, you're gonna have to take some extreme steps here, but you can do this. But you gotta sit in the pain long enough to go, ooh, I don't ever want to experience this again. So whatever pain I'm trying to to take care of with the shopping, oh, boy, I, I, that, I don't want to deal with that because it's creating more pain that I am not enjoying. And you're feeling it right now. So I appreciate the call. Glad you called us. Final thoughts, George, on this.

[George Campbell]

I mean, you can try to at least call and negotiate your interest rates down for now to alleviate some of the pain and let him know, hey, I can't pay this. It's simply too much. The interest is racking up too fast. Can you work with. With me? That might at least let you get your head above water for a moment to start to actually make progress. What's up, guys? George Camel here. What if I told you that you had thousands of extra dollars hiding in your budget right now? Listen, I know how crazy that sounds. You're thinking, dude, I'm broke. My money's tighter than the middle seat on a spirit flight. But believe it or not, you've got more margin than you think. And our EveryDollar budgeting app helps you find. In fact, the Average person finds $3,015 on average in just the first 15 minutes. That's like giving yourself a huge raise without an awkward conversation with your boss. Now, look, this isn't magic. You're not hitting the lottery. This is just your money that we're helping you reclaim and reorganize. And everydollar shows you how to make the most of it so you can make faster progress on your goals. So don't miss out on thousands of dollars of margin. Go start everydollar for free by downloading the app in the App Store or Google Play. Play right now.

[Ken Coleman]

All right, we're going to go out into our lobby where Lexi is standing on the debt free stage. Good afternoon, Lexi. How are you?

[Lexi]

I'm great. How are you?

[Ken Coleman]

Good. Where are you from?

[Lexi]

I live in Melbourne, Florida, about an hour from Orlando.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, it's a lovely place.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

All right.

[Ken Coleman]

Very nice. And I guess you're here to do a debt free screen. That would be the assumption. All right, great. All right, give us the numbers. How much did you pay off?

[Lexi]

I paid off $56,569 in student loans in a year and a half.

[Ken Coleman]

Wow. A year and a half. That's getting with it. And what was your range of income?

[Lexi]

120,000.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay. And what do you do for a living?

[Lexi]

I am a project manager for a corporate job. And I also dog sat on the side almost every single weekend. Drove Uber every time. I wasn't dog sitting.

[George Campbell]

Okay, which one's more lucrative? Like what was your rates? Like, what were you pulling in per hour so people can understand what they could be making.

[Lexi]

Yeah, dog sitting. I mean, other. The corporate job made the most money, but dog sitting was the most. Especially if there's multiple dogs and I stay in the dog's house.

[Ken Coleman]

Give us an idea. So you would show up on a Friday night after work and you dog sitting. I said babysit. You dog sit all through the weekend. Is that what a normal thing would Usually.

[Lexi]

Sometimes it's the whole week as well.

[Ken Coleman]

My corporate jobs, how much would you make? Give us. Give us an example of how much you'd make in one dog sitting job.

[Lexi]

In one, maybe $300 for a weekend.

[Ken Coleman]

That's pretty good dough.

[George Campbell]

That's not bad. And it's not like a lot of hands on work. Like you gotta be there, make sure they're fed, make sure they get out. And it's not like you're hustling like an Uber or Instacart.

[Lexi]

And you can leave them. You can't leave kids. So dog sitting is something else.

[Ken Coleman]

You know what else? The dog isn't gonna throw a fit and cry and all that stuff. Dogs happy to see you every time.

[George Campbell]

And dog owners like me are happy to pay. Knowing someone wonderful is taking care of them the way they are.

[Ken Coleman]

Isn't it extraordinary how much we Americans spend on our dogs?

[George Campbell]

It's insane. But hey, it helps people become debt free.

[Ken Coleman]

I love that. Okay, and then how many hours on a given week during this process of getting out of debt? It's a year and a half were you driving? How many hours a week on Uber?

[Lexi]

Uber was about three hours in the evenings, or I'd drive into late at night on weekends if I wasn't dog sitting.

[Caller 1 (Keith)]

Wow.

[Lexi]

So you didn't have maybe like 10 hours a week.

[Ken Coleman]

You didn't have much of a life, is what we're getting.

[George Campbell]

No.

[Lexi]

I moved to Florida two years ago when I started the journey. So my life was basically paying off the debt. And now I finally have community and friends.

[Ken Coleman]

What happened a year and a half ago to start this intense journey?

[Lexi]

I was new to Florida, just got an apartment down there and renting, and I felt like I was drowning in the student loans. And I was thinking about what job I wanted to do, and I was like, I can't leave this job. I need to pay. Pay off the debt. And my parents recommended the Ramsey program. And by the first video, Dave was so motivating. I was like, I gotta go, Gazelle.

[Ken Coleman]

Wow. So only one video and you're all in.

[Lexi]

Yeah.

[George Campbell]

So did you miss out on life? Did you have FOMO where you look back, go, man, that 18 months. I could have had some amazing memories and experiences.

[Lexi]

Yes, for sure. I missed a friend's bachelorette trip one Christmas. I didn't buy anyone gifts, thankfully. They didn't care that much. But you just gotta be honest with your friends and your family is like, this is my goal. I'm gonna go hardcore for at least a year. Took me a year and a half. I'll meet you next year on the next trip.

[George Campbell]

And they were all like, okay, cool. Like, are you still friends with the girl group?

[Lexi]

Right? Like, no one's gonna disown you. No.

[George Campbell]

Wow. And they still. You're still invited for Christmas?

[Lexi]

Yes.

[George Campbell]

I gotta say, that's impressive.

[Ken Coleman]

That's a controversial move right there. Like, the Internet would have. We don't care what the Internet says, but, boy, would they have an opinion on you not going to.

[George Campbell]

Going.

[Ken Coleman]

You were. You would have been a bridesmaid. Is that right? Did I catch that?

[George Campbell]

Or did you just not go on the trip?

[Lexi]

Or the trip? The. Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, it was just a trip.

[George Campbell]

You weren't.

[Ken Coleman]

Did not. You weren't saying no to being a bridesmaid.

[Lexi]

Right?

[George Campbell]

I love it. I love it. That's. Is this you at the wedding? We have the fit.

[Ken Coleman]

There we go. What is this photo?

[Lexi]

This is just me in my. That's. I went to a meetup group in Florida and we made bouquets, and that's where I met some of my girlfriends.

[Ken Coleman]

Fun. So there is life on the other side of Gazelle Intensity. That's what we need people to hear.

[Lexi]

And that was a free event, so just know that you can go and do free stuff.

[George Campbell]

How'd you find, like, free events and things like that, Like Facebook groups. Okay.

[Ken Coleman]

You and George are like, you guys.

[George Campbell]

I love a free activity.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah. You guys are just kindred students.

[George Campbell]

I enjoy it more because when I pay for an activity, I'm going, what does this cost me per minute to enjoy this thing? This is a ripoff.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah. Yeah. I can't get George to come out with a bunch of guys and just have a nice pose. Poker night.

[George Campbell]

You couldn't pay me.

[Ken Coleman]

He's at home on Facebook playing Words with Friends because it's free. So, you guys, if I lose, at.

[George Campbell]

Least it's not in front of my peers.

[Ken Coleman]

All right, so walk us through maybe what was maybe one of the most, you know, tough times. Was there a tough time for you? It was a low moment, and you pressed through. Take us to that moment.

[Lexi]

Yeah. Again, the time where I didn't have any friends yet in Florida and I was driving Uber. That's actually how I got a lot of my socialization. Since I work from home, I would talk to people in the car. The hardest part was showing up at the cruise port above Melbourne, Florida. I would draw people off for their cruises, and I was like, oh, I just want to jump on the ship.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

And go with them.

[Ken Coleman]

Wow. You know what? You can go on the Ramsey Cruise in 2027. Yes.

[George Campbell]

All right.

[Ken Coleman]

There you go.

[George Campbell]

That's something to look forward to. Well, you're impressive. Do you have any cheerleaders along the way that were like, I'm with you. I'll be here to cheer you on?

[Lexi]

Absolutely. My parents have been a huge help. They're the ones that recommended the program, and they're also. They're just paying off their mortgage now. They should be done by the end of this year, and then they'll be totally debt free.

[George Campbell]

Did you sort of, like, kick their butt a little bit to put it in high gear? When they saw you paying off debt, they're like, we gotta get on it.

[Lexi]

Yeah. We've basically been racing to see who could make it to this stage first. And I got it.

[George Campbell]

And you made it. Take that, mommy.

[Ken Coleman]

Bragging rights. I like that. I guess they're gonna be watching this later. Yeah. It's so cool. Fun. All right. What is the key, in your opinion, your journey? What would you tell people? The key is to getting out of debt.

[Lexi]

You have to get mad at the debt. Like, get so frustrated at the money. Not at yourself. I'd say forgive yourself and move on. But as Dave motivated me is like the borrower slave to the lender and you just have to get mad and do it motivates you to do anything you can to throw money at it.

[Ken Coleman]

Wow.

[George Campbell]

So make debt the villain, not the person in the mirror. And carry the guilt and shame. And go, of course you got us into this mess. Instead go, hey, debt, you're next. You're a thief. I'm coming for you. That's impressive. So what's next for you next?

[Lexi]

I would like to travel more since I haven't vacationed in a while.

[Ken Coleman]

Yes.

[Lexi]

My family doesn't know it yet, but I'd like to pay for them to travel as well. I just want to do an all expenses paid thing and I want to continue to help ladies with their emotions and finances as well.

[George Campbell]

That's awesome.

[Ken Coleman]

And what do you do for a living?

[Lexi]

A project manager. I also do life coaching on the side for ladies in their 20s to 40s.

[Ken Coleman]

So here you are.

[George Campbell]

You're how old?

[Lexi]

30.

[Ken Coleman]

You're 30 years of age, you're debt free. You have a very good job. Project managers who are talented, they can go a lot of different directions. We see them all the way up to C suite. There's just so much you can do with that experience and you're still very, very young. Young. What does it emotionally feel like? How would you describe it to people? That this is. Here you are on the debt free stage. This is the finish line for you. And before we hear you scream, what has been that emotional reality for you.

[Lexi]

Of being debt free?

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[George Campbell]

Yeah.

[Lexi]

It feels like a weight's been lifted off my shoulders and just knowing that no money is automatically going to come out of my account anymore and I don't have to worry about, can I make a couple extra hundred dollars here? And there's. It's just so much more peaceful. I feel like I sleep better.

[Ken Coleman]

And George, she's on the path. What would you say, knowing what, you know, her income, she now steps fully into. She's in baby step four. She's going after it. What does it look like a path to being a millionaire for her?

[George Campbell]

Oh my goodness. Well, are you already investing that 15%? Are you at that stage?

[Lexi]

Yes.

[George Campbell]

Oh my goodness. So from 30 to 60, even that 30 year period of just investing 15% of 120k, so you never get, get a raise, you're already going to be a multimillionaire. And so that's the good news. And so what you get to do now, especially at this age, you get to start dreaming big of like, what do I want to wear 35. Where am I going to be at 40? And so I'm just so excited for this path, especially because you got it. So young people are watching going, man, I wish I figured this stuff out at 28 and just did the hard work because now I'm trying to clean up a mess that's been 30 years. And so the future is so bright for you, and I hope you inspire a lot of especially single people out there who, who go, well, I'll clean up the mess once I'm married, once I got someone else to do this with, it'll be easier. And you went, no, I'm going to do this on my own. And so I'm so proud.

[Ken Coleman]

Can I just say, don't marry a dud.

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

I won't.

[George Campbell]

You can't.

[Ken Coleman]

Too hard. No. Dud. Stay away. Duds. You're too short. No one. No, no, no. Not at all. You've done so much good work. Okay, this is really fun. Let's get right to it. Lexi is here from Melbourne, Florida. Florida. She paid off 56, 500 and something. Something, something, something. She knows in a year and a half making $120,000. Take it away, Lexi. Let's hear your debt free screen.

[Lexi]

Can you help count me down?

[Ken Coleman]

Sure. You ready? Three, two, one. I'm debt free.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Yeah, there you go.

[Ken Coleman]

I love it with the assist, by the way. I've never done an assistant before.

[George Campbell]

I like that as an alley oop.

[Ken Coleman]

Gotta tell you, I got nervous, James. It was a lot of pressure.

[George Campbell]

I thought, I hope Ken can count down from three. Hope he remembers how to do it.

[Ken Coleman]

Believe me, I struggled there at first. A lot of pressure. Way to go, Lexi. Our scripture of the day comes from 1st Timothy 6, verse 18. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share our quote from Bill Murray. Whatever you do, always give 100% unless you're donating blood.

[George Campbell]

Very clever. I like that.

[Ken Coleman]

Why is that so stupid and so funny at the same time? It's a great. I love Bill Murray. Great, great, great quote. Today, Gary is waiting for us in Texas. Gary, how can we help?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Yes, sir.

[Ken Coleman]

Hi, Gary.

[Caller 4 (Tracy)]

Yes, sir.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

It's good to be here.

[Ken Coleman]

Good to be here as well. How can we help?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

I got a. Me and my wife got into this house and the house has started falling apart pretty rapidly and I've got behind on bills and house recently went into foreclosure. And I want to know if there's a way that I can get out of it.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, we hope so. Let's see if we can get out of it. Of it.

[George Campbell]

How many payments have you missed?

[Sponsor/Announcer]

Yeah.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

I think so far we've done this about five or six in a row. Yes, sir.

[Ken Coleman]

What's the total amount that you're behind?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

About 10,000 probably. I mean, it's $2,000 a month.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, so $10,000 were behind. And you mentioned that the house is falling apart. Is that the reason why you're not able to pay mortgage payment?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Well, like I said, I've got behind on work. I've had some things happen in my life recently that have caused me to miss some work. And we kind of got behind on the house payment. And then as foundations messing up still on sort of. This is not long after we bought the house.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

The ceiling started falling in. Heater went out during the first winter that we established here. I mean, all electricity.

[George Campbell]

So were you, were you cash flowing these repairs? Did you go into debt for these repairs? What's your total financial picture now?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Well, we're only about $3,000 in credit card debt. Really?

[Ken Coleman]

But that's the only debt you have?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

There's. Besides the house, of course, now, which is way too much for what it is.

[George Campbell]

What did you guys bring in last month as far as income? Income?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

I make about 8,000amonth.

[Ken Coleman]

That's good income.

[George Campbell]

So confused how you make eight grand a month and you couldn't make the two grand payment like you make that before making anything else?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Yes. I'm also helping. Helping my mom pay for a lot of stuff too, because she's in bad health.

[George Campbell]

So you're going to be homeless to help mom out.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

I mean, the house. The house is falling apart is what. So I'd be.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, wait a second, Gary, hold on, Gary. We're all over the place and we got to get on the same page. So let me just ask you a few questions to see if we can get some clear answers. Have you been cash flowing? Was what George asked. Have you been paying for the ceiling falling in, the electricity going completely out, all these things? Have you been paying to repair these things or are these things just sitting in disrepair?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

They're at the moment sitting in disrepair because they all started at one time.

[Ken Coleman]

Where is all the money going that you're making? You're making 8,000. Is that the total amount of income? Or is your wife. Is it a double income? What do do we got?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

She. She doesn't make very. She only makes about maybe 2,000amonth, bro.

[Ken Coleman]

That's 10 grand. That's 10 grand. How much are you spending each month on your mom?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

I'm not entirely sure. I'd have to ask her. She keeps up with that.

[Ken Coleman]

Hold on. Who keeps up with it? Mom?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

My wife.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, your wife keeps up with it. So, George, we have a budgeting problem. We don't even know where the money.

[George Campbell]

Gary, here's the good news. You could solve this in two months. Months. And just talk to the lender and say, hey, I know I'm ten grand behind. I'm going to pay five grand a month for the next two months and catch up.

[Ken Coleman]

That's right.

[George Campbell]

That's the actual solution here, is to set up a repayment plan and actually communicate with the lender. But I'm confused. I think there's something deeper that you're not telling us about where this money is going because you don't have a lot of debt and I don't think your expenses add up. Outside of that 2000 mortgage, which you can't even make, where is this 10,000 disappearing into? Because I don't think it's repairs either.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

I mean, we have money in our account, but how much? Like, but not right now. Probably about 5,000.

[George Campbell]

But I'm saying like $120,000 slips through your hands every year. Do you understand?

[Ken Coleman]

Why do you have $5,000 in your account right now when you are are $10,000 behind on your mortgage?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

We just started. We're just now started getting back up to where we were because I was only making. I haven't been at this new job for very long. I was only making about, in between four, maybe $4,000 a month. And then I recently got on to this new job.

[George Campbell]

When was that?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Just over a year ago.

[George Campbell]

Okay. And you just told me that you've been behind on payments for five months while making eight grand. So something's not adding up here, Gary. But number one, you can't help mom right now. Yeah, you're on the verge of losing your home and so you need to call the lender today and say, hey, I've got five grand to give you and I'll give you the next five grand next month. And then you do whatever it takes to come up with five grand next month. You understand?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

I mean, what am I supposed to do with her. Her though?

[Ken Coleman]

With.

[George Campbell]

With her? With Mom?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Yes.

[George Campbell]

She needs to figure it out because the long term plan can't be I just fund mom's life while I can't make a mortgage payment.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

All right, well, I'll just tell her to stop going to the hospital and stop having bad health.

[George Campbell]

Well, I mean, she's going to rack up medical bills, right?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

The what?

[George Campbell]

Does she have Medicare?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Yes, she has Medicare, but it's not covering her house and stuff like that.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, all right, so we're not trying to upset you, but. But you. You're only giving us, like. We're having to pull information out of you in order to help you. So we got to talk. What is the. What is your mom's housing cost? So let's look at what is your. Does she own her home? Is it a mortgage? Yes or no?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

It's a mortgage.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay. What is her mortgage?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Hers is about, I think, 1200amonth.

[Ken Coleman]

1200Amonth. Okay. And what would you say outside of the mortgage are her monthly expenses, Utilities and everything else? We're not talking health care right now.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

I'm. I'm not entirely sure, but that she covers that. I. I just help pay the house and stuff like that.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, you just help pay the house and stuff like that. You mean just the mortgage?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Yes, sir.

[Ken Coleman]

All right, but you can see we're trying to help you, and you don't even know if your wife was on the phone. Sounds like we might get a better play of the number, so probably. Yeah, but see, Gary, I mean, that kind of needs to happen. Not kind of. I don't know why I even said that. That you and your wife have got to get on the same page about where our money is going. Because the good news is, with the new job, George is right. You can dig out of this mess. But can I also say, I don't think George is heartless. George is one of the kindest people I know, and you were kind of like, well, what am I supposed to do? Well, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. This is. Just because you're the good son, and you are a good son, doesn't mean that you put yourself in financial ruin. Your mom. That's a separate set of circumstances. And you. Then. Do you have any siblings?

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

Not. Well, not. Not really anymore.

[Ken Coleman]

That's a pretty straightforward question.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

I don't really like to talk about it a whole lot.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

But recently, I've. Recently, I lost my brother.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, I am so sorry. But. But what I'm trying to figure out is this. Is. Is this truly all on you? And even then, if you're the only surviving child. Child to.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

I'm the only one that'll. I'm the only one That'll help her at the moment.

[Ken Coleman]

I understand, but my point is, is you've got to sit with mom and go, is it time for mom to sell the house? And if mom sells the house, we get rid of the $1200 mortgage payment. But then where can she stay? You know, is she.

[Caller 2 (Paul, Gabe, Jeremy, etc.)]

What I. What I was planning on doing was I was wanting to fix my house up and sell mine, and then I was going to buy hers since she's in bad health.

[Ken Coleman]

You don't have any money money. You're behind five house payments. I know, Gary, but, like, you've got to take care of your house before we can take care of Mom. And. And first of all, you got to get current on the mortgage payments. Who knows how much it's going to cost to fix this house that's falling apart?

[George Campbell]

You got to put your own mask on first is what this amounts to. You can't help someone from a place where. Where you're weak. And you've got to get to a place of strength, which means you have financial stability. Then we can figure out Mom's situation. But the truth is. Truth is we're doing a budget tonight. We could solve all of this. You got 10 grand coming in. We need 2 grand for the mortgage, 1200 for mom. There's still plenty of money left over, and you still haven't told us where it's disappearing to. So you and your wife need to come to Jesus conversation. Look at all the bank statements. It'll tell you real quick where this money's been going and what we should do about it next.

[Ken Coleman]

Remember, there is ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that is to walk daily with the Prince of peace, Christ Jesus. Jesus.