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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 to hear from you today.

Alongside the incomparable, the denim-wearing nicely trimmed beard.

Keep going.

I paid you good money on Venmo for this.

George Campbell, folks.

One of my favorites to be with the people.

The people like us, they tell me.

Well, we try to keep things

light.

In a world that is heavy, calls that are heavy.

We give you the truth and we get you to smile along the way.

He's George Campbell.

I'm Ken Coleman.

We're here for you.

Heavy topics.

But we're going to do it it in a light-hearted way and have some fun.

Let's get right to it.

Keith is joining us in Portland, Oregon.

Keith, how can we help today?

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

Okay, tell us what the problem is.

Where can we dive in?

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.

Why is that?

The way that

my money comes in, it's not,

I don't get a normal paycheck.

It's not a nine-to-five job.

I get paid by the mile.

And how many miles I drive is basically up to my employer.

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?

Currently, nothing.

Okay, so

you're not paying on it.

So, what are your bills?

I'm not paying on it, but it's,

well, we have the mortgage, which is about $1,200 a month.

Okay.

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

Okay.

I got a car payment, which is

$509 a month.

Okay.

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.

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?

I get paid every two weeks.

I thought you said it was irregular.

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

So what's a bad month?

What's a good month?

Because it's not zero.

No, a bad month, a bad month is

net

29,

about 2,900.

Okay, well, that covers all the bills you just said.

So a bad month still allows you to survive.

What's a good month?

Maybe 38, 39.

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

yes well why aren't you getting more opportunity in the truck

it we have contracts the company i work for has contracts with albersons and uh kroger fred meier group

okay i'm 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 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.

What's your degree in?

I was paid to stop my degree my senior year.

Okay, what were you pursuing?

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.

Okay.

Okay.

And then you never finished.

But you have your debt hanging around anyways.

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.

Right.

Okay.

And what's your car loan?

What's the whole balance?

22.

No, 21.9, I think, is what I got left on it.

So 22 on the car, 80,000 in student loans.

Any other debts?

Credit card balance, medical debt, personal loan?

The school, the mortgage.

Not counting the mortgage.

You told me the 80 for school and 22 on the car.

Anything else?

I have

approximately $3,500 in personal debt for

charge-off accounts

for businesses that

I'd done business with.

Okay.

So we're over $100,000 in debt.

We're making $70,000.

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.

Yeah.

So are you wanting to stay in the trucking world?

I'm sorry.

Are you wanting to stay in the trucking field?

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 in a nowhere mid-management

making maybe $45,000, $50,000.

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.

Because right now, you said you live with your mom.

Is she covering half the bills or are you covering all of her bills?

She's getting,

she gets

Social Security.

Okay.

And are you paying $1,200?

Is that the whole mortgage or is that half?

No, no, it's the

mortgage.

That's just the mortgage.

That's, yeah, the mortgage, and that doesn't count the insurance and

everything else.

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?

One giant one from what I understand.

They did a consolidation?

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.

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.

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And then also Every Dollar, our 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.

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All right, we're going to Paul in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Paul, how can we help today?

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

We're having a little too much fun today.

What's going on with you?

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 an active, present, godly leader for my wife and kids okay i appreciate the question that's about 75 000 feet in the air we need to get a lot lower

all right so let me give you some backslides well let me dig let me dig and it might save us all some time okay so when somebody asks that question uh we're talking to somebody who um

is feeling guilty um 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?

Actually, for me, it's the other way around.

I just recently started a new job after being laid off for three months.

Okay.

And it's a good job, it's 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.

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?

Almost two,

eight, ten, and twelve.

Okay, I can tell you the 12-year-old.

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

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 have to do the second job.

How much more money do we need to make?

I'm short about $1,200 a month.

Okay.

What are you making?

I'm making $61,141 a year.

Okay.

What were you making?

I was making $82 a year.

Doing what?

Software developer.

And what are you doing now?

Computer programmer analyst.

Similar, but not quite the same.

And is that the reason for the drop in pay?

Is because the role is that much different?

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.

And

the remote gig was with a company that's not local?

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

Okay.

Well, so, 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?

Well, I would either 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.

Yeah, but the benefits are so great.

You can't even live.

You can't live off of it.

You can't put food on the table.

But man, this 401, 403B is amazing.

The match is great.

So had I asked you a minute ago, did you take this job because you were a bit desperate and you just needed AJOB?

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.

Yeah.

So

I'm...

Yeah, we're, you know, scratching through the couch cushions, you know, looking for better changes.

So, George, would you agree?

Second job is absolutely a must right now and the kids, you know, that's a band-aid.

Yeah, it's a band-aid, though.

We got to solve 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?

Yeah, we had started the

baby steps about five months ago and got the,

you know, got the baby step one completed.

We were starting on step two,

you know, barely started into it when I got laid off.

How much debt do you have right now?

What's the total balance excluding a mortgage?

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

Okay.

So we got 10 grand to knock out and that'll free up how much in payments every month?

That'll free up something like

$700 a month.

Okay.

That's nice, right?

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.

And is your wife at home with the kids all day?

And are they in school?

What's going on there?

She is at home all day.

She homeschools, well, three out of four of them.

And, you know, just generally, you know, keeps the house running, keeps the kids from burning it down.

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?

I know she's pretty hands-on.

At this point, 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 on it.

I'm going to challenge you.

You didn't call this show for us to just clap for you.

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.

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.

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 $1,200 short.

You're not going to be very present with the family until you solve this math problem.

That's a good point.

Is your mortgage eating up a lot of your take-home pay?

Mortgage is eating up pretty, uh, pretty significant amount.

I've got uh one hundred and seventy two thousand on the mortgage.

It comes to about twelve hundred dollars a month.

And what are you bringing home every month?

And I am well, I don't know yet, but uh I just started this job.

But uh based on my salary and benefits and everything, I'm bringing home about thirty-nine hundred a month.

What if you stopped all investing for a season?

How much are you investing right now?

Yeah, actually,

that is uh stopping all investing.

There's a mandatory 5% that comes out for pension.

But

the only thing that's coming out is that 5%

and medical dental vision and

taxes.

Okay.

Well, in the interim, we're going to 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.

Yeah.

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 $100,000 if you want to not be

struggling to find margin every month.

And I will tell you this: in today's economy, we are seeing the slowdown 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.

They're 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 bandaid 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, it 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 hopefully 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.

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Erin is now joining us in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Erin, how can we help?

Hi.

Yeah, thank you for taking my call.

I really appreciate it.

You bet.

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 to set

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 an opinion on what a good price range is.

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

This is

a lot of power for Christmas gifts.

Wow.

Yeah.

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

I've got just about $29,000.

Okay.

$29K.

So at this rate, we're going to knock it out, you know, by summer.

Is that the goal?

Yeah.

Yeah.

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

Okay.

Assuming, you know, nothing happens.

I feel like George should be George Claus on this because he's a little tighter, a little cheaper than I am.

I'm a little bit more generous.

We just know this.

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?

No, I wouldn't say that.

But man, that's tough.

How many kids?

I have three.

How old are they?

They are 11, 8, and 5.

11, 8, and 5.

Boys, girls?

Boys.

All boys.

Party.

See, part of the problem is I'm out of that game.

I don't know what an 11-year-old, an eight-year-old, and five-year-old are.

Are they wanting like motorized scooters?

Like, what are they into these days?

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

Oh, yeah.

No, we're not doing that.

Certainly not plural.

Oh, that's wild.

That's a wild.

That's a wild ask.

Well,

okay, I'm not trying to be a politician.

Do you have a number, by the way?

I'm going somewhere with this.

Do I have a number?

What did you spend last year on them?

I have no idea.

Oh, well, that's probably not.

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.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's more about what did he get versus what did the other kids get.

Did you go crazy last year?

That's why you don't know how much you spent?

Yes.

Yeah.

I know.

I've gone crazy every year.

You know,

I haven't kept track of how much I've bought them for Christmas.

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

90% probably.

Yeah.

Okay.

And is it working so far?

Have you been able to just buy their love?

I mean, no.

No, obviously not.

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

That's right.

Yeah.

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.

Yeah.

My absolute top is probably like 500.

500 total?

Absolute top.

Right.

Per child.

Goodness gracious.

Absolute top.

But hence why I'm calling, because I feel like I knew George was going to.

My heart said $100 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 Chuck E.

And it's a thing they get to do instead of a thing they compare and go, oh, my toy was better than your toy.

And it ends up at a good wheel six months from now.

I agree.

I'll tell you something.

This is an idea we got from a couple that was mentoring Stacey and I when we were younger and had younger kids and I thought it was great.

And

that is the idea that biblically speaking, Jesus got three gifts, right?

And 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.

We were 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.

Yeah.

Well, I'm a little nuts.

So, you know.

No, you're awesome.

You're fine.

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 and be like, hey, mom's broke.

It's going to 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.

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 do that.

And what if you did this?

What if you said, I'm going going to give you something, and then on top of that, you're going to give something.

And it lets them flex some generosity while

you put that into the budget.

Because 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.

Yeah.

Well, Stacey 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.

Oh, that's fun.

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

That's really cool.

And it wasn't like, like, we didn't cheat for them and go, here's the 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.

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 an entitlement where they go.

What did you say?

You said 100 a kid?

I feel like 100 a kid is fair.

Like 300 bucks all in.

What is a PlayStation 5 going for these days?

A used one.

I don't even know.

I would see what it is.

You know what a used one goes for?

I couldn't tell you.

One of these nerds in the booth probably knows.

Anybody in there,

I know a brand new one's probably $600 or something.

$600 is new.

You could probably find a used one for maybe $400.

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 we'll do it.

But I got you all this.

And that's the gift that keeps on going.

Yeah, I was right.

You're looking at uh, I see one for $250 out here on Facebook Marketplace.

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.

I might buy one right now off Facebook Marketplace.

Will the engineer, you have an opinion on this?

Okay,

it's a scam.

Wow, way to trust.

It's $500 for a used one.

It's going for, that's closer.

It's $400.

Super high.

Super helpful guy in the lobby, giving me a lot of head shakes and thumbs up and down.

He's very helpful.

That's not a constant.

He's not in the game.

I don't think he knows.

I think he's too old to look that up.

Will, you're saying 500?

Oh, it's just like price is right.

This is fantastic.

We got the audience involved.

All right, I see you, sir.

That's enough.

Okay, go get a cookie.

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 going to appease them.

They're always going to want for more.

The next game, the next thing.

But here's the deal.

Here's the narrative.

Those guys are not too young to understand that 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 going to 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.

You didn't know any better.

I didn't know any better.

I had jeans with patches on them.

You remember those?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Simpler times.

I thought it was normal.

I I thought everybody had patches on their knees.

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.

There it is.

Final word from Georgie Claus.

The gift that keeps on giving.

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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.

It's so kind.

That's such a nice introduction.

Thank you.

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.

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

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.

I don't think it's the reason for it, but I think my name actually may be true.

That's true.

The name, let's be honest, you're rather rather handsome.

I'll take the coffee.

I'm comfortable saying that.

And then you throw in the accent.

How do you fail?

Yeah, I think you got talent, character, you know,

entertainment value.

Yeah.

You got it all, Barry.

You are so kind.

You like, make anyone feel better.

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 this story and what's behind it?

Well, it's telling the story of Christ 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 you have faith, the Bible obviously is like milk and honey.

It's beautiful, but 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 that 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 the book.

So we take it, strip it right back away from the sanitized version sometimes we get of

Christianity.

And certainly 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 that the character of Jesus was just free and beautiful and radical and fun and everyday people just wanted to be with him and he was 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

difficult 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've ever done.

I've had, I mean, we published it a few months 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 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?

Well, I really like that.

I think it was St.

Augustine

said,

preach the gospel of Christ every day in all places, to all people at all times.

Where necessary, use words.

Yes.

And I love that.

I think it's trying how we live our lives.

A little kindness is,

you know, the wild does it so often 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 each other and the outdoors as well.

So, I don't know.

I like that part of it.

But I...

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.

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 person

by five eyewitnesses.

That makes us 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 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.

Wow.

They were like just regular young guys, young girls.

And so I wanted to write the greatest 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 and miracles.

And then it goes to this 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 greatest 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, look at us.

We're 2,000, almost 2,000 years on.

And we're talking about him and he's changing lives.

And long may that continue.

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?

Well, if it's true, you know, this isn't 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 that's beautiful yeah thinking about everything that you have done i feel like you got to believe in God to be doing some of the wild things you've done.

You've got to have a higher power, you know, fueling that journey.

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.

I'm not fearless.

And I have many, like I said, really, genuinely, many struggles, many doubts.

That's like the journey of life, isn't it?

But I love my job.

You know, I still continue with the day job, but 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.

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.

What 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 limp thing, you know.

But with that hand inside of ourselves, we can all live life.

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.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you.

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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?

I'm pumped.

Natalie is joining us in Sacramento.

Natalie, how can we help?

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.

Tell us more.

How much do you have?

My husband and and I are both veterans.

We have about $12,500 in savings.

Okay, and what's your debt situation?

We have about $87,298

in debt.

We have two student loans and a new car and a credit card.

Okay, give us those amounts.

Walk us smallest to largest like we would be working through the debt snowball.

Yeah, the credit card is $19.03,

so $1,903.

The student loan is $19,581.

The other one is $20,978.

And then the car loan is $44,836.

Woo, what is this car?

Yeah.

So

it's a 2022 Forerunner.

And what is it worth, Kelly Blue Book value?

Do you know?

I don't.

Okay.

Wow.

How many miles is it?

Just over 30,000.

And it's a 2022.

I'm going to do a little research, George.

Okay, while you do that, what is your household income?

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.

Okay, good.

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

Yeah.

Correct?

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

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 $1,000 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.

Yeah.

And if I'm in your shoes and you really want to get out of the situation, I would just sell this forerunner.

Now, you might be underwater on it, which is what Ken was angling at.

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 $32,000 to $40,000.

So that's your next homework assignment:

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 $40,000 and we owe $44,000, great.

We're 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?

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 a good one.

Hold on, hold on.

Whoa, you didn't have to get a 44,000.

You didn't have to get awards.

I know.

You didn't have to get that.

So what's your car payment?

$60, wait, $667.

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.

You would get an $8,000.

that's a net raise.

So that's more like $11,000 or $12,000 gross.

Yeah.

So imagine I just started giving you $1,000 a month.

Would you go, yip-dee-dee-doo?

Yeah.

That's what selling that car will do for you.

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.

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

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

So we just got into your head?

Because we didn't show up.

You had to be able to do that.

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.

Good.

Is your husband on board?

Is he as fired up as you are?

Oh, yeah, completely.

And you've got the income.

Completely.

He's actually wanting me to spend more

to pay towards the debt than we have been.

What's stopping you?

I've been trying to build up our savings.

I'm thinking about

putting money down on a house.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

That's too far in the future.

I know.

I see that now.

I see that.

Well, but you've been listening to us for a month.

So have you heard us talk about the baby steps?

I don't want to just assume anything.

Yes.

Okay.

And that's where I'm like, okay, well, I've done step one.

Technically, I'm on step two, but I have part of step three.

But I need to just stop and do it step by step.

Well, you've got $12,500 in savings.

Let's get right back to the start of your phone call as we've now dug into this.

So what do we tell people to do if they've got $12,500 in savings and they have debt?

What do we tell them?

Pay it towards the debt.

How much?

How much do we take out of that 12.5?

Well, I'm assuming it's going to be the 11.5.

You got it.

Tell her what she's won, George.

Raise to the tune of $1,000 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.

That's true.

Let's use that to clean that up.

Then we're going to take, let's say, another $6,000 or $7,000 and get yourself a used, reliable car, do a pre-purchase inspection.

It's probably going to have 100,000 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?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So that dream is bigger than a vehicle.

We can always get another car, can't we?

Yep.

So most of that savings, or not most, but a good chunk of it is going to go to whatever this beater is, right?

And I'm thinking a $5,000 car max.

That clears half your debt.

That's like cutting your jail sentence in half.

And all of us money.

That car payment now goes into the debt snowball.

That's huge.

You can make some real ground up, can't you?

Yeah.

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.

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 charge.

Check this out.

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.

Woo!

I like it.

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 tanking your financial future.

Get rid of it.

You know what Bear Grills would say?

What's that?

Jolly good.

Spot on.

Not quite.

I'm working on it.

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All right, Gabe is up in Pittsburgh.

Gabe, how can we help today?

Hey, thank you for taking my call.

Basically, I'm a first-year college student.

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 saved money I have while I'm working in college or while I'm in school right now.

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

That's fantastic.

And you're going to graduate debt-free?

Yeah, my parents are panther school.

Nice.

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 create some passive income.

Is that what I'm hearing?

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 10 grand in a CD that's paying out 4% in a month.

So I get 400 on that.

I have another 10 grand in a money market, and then I have 7 grand in my savings.

You may not be playing around with a little bit of stocks.

Okay, well, you may not.

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.

And I will tell you that every one of those people, I'm looking at Will Rutter, 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, you know, some people call it 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 Ferris 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 event.

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'd recommend.

George, is that too conservative?

No.

And Gabe, based on the way you're talking, you know a lot about

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 in 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, you know?

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 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.

Well, you know what?

Let's go ahead and work I did 10 years ago.

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

Check it out on Spotify, Gabe.

So that's...

No, seriously, what's the album?

It's called The Great Coward.

I know, truthfully, I was a musician in a past life.

I know you were.

You're a good musician.

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 leveraged real estate, which I'm scared is what you're going to fall into if you continue down the path.

Do you have an idea?

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

Well, what's your goal?

I'm not going to be too risk-oriented.

I don't know.

I mean, 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.

I'm definitely working

as soon as I'm done.

What are you in school for?

I'm in nursing.

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

Do you want to be a nurse?

I want to be a nurse anesthetist.

Great.

So this is part of the journey, right?

Yes, it's part of the journey, the first four.

Also, are your parents cash flowing all of that schooling?

Because that's going to be pricey.

Just undergrad, undergrad.

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

What's the graduate?

I'm scared you're about to go 200 grand into debt post-grad two.

I'm a little nervous.

This call changed, which is good.

I mean,

what's your plan?

What is it going to cost you for your grad program?

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.

Right.

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

Okay, but let's.

But let's pause.

How much?

I love this, but I want to get real numbers 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 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 nestedist 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?

Mom, for graduate school, it's probably looking at around $100,000 to $150,000.

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.

I'll tell you why.

Let me give you a little truth.

And this is my challenge to you.

And George, I know this from coaching so many people

who weren't happy and they want 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?

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

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 are 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.

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 a cash, you know, cash, 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, 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.

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?

Well, he needs $100.

To be heard,

Gabe, did I hear you right?

You need $100, right?

Yeah, about $100.

All right.

So this $30,000, Gabe, this $30,000 sits in a good account, like a high-yield savings account, a 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, the question is, can you save up the other 70?

The answer is yes.

Yeah.

George is a savings wizard.

George, he could make

savings.

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 this money, four months.

Four months.

So a high-yield savings.

Right now, the rates are about 3.5%.

If you want a great one, go to fairwinds.org/slash 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 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.

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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?

Oh boy.

Nicholas, you've become a doormat.

Yeah, 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 where I went.

Why are we as adults on the same cell phone plan?

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.

I tell you what really rubbed me the wrong way is that everybody jokes about it.

They're all laughing at him.

Exactly.

They're not laughing with you.

They're laughing at you.

I think so.

Yeah, I would

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.

Just 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.

Yeah.

Just this, just the reading of the question showed you how complex this thing is.

It shouldn't be complex.

There shouldn't be a riddle here to get.

I'm an adult.

I have my own cell phone plan.

My 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?

Hi.

My girlfriend/slash fiancé and I are planning to get married, and we're wondering how to combine our finances.

Each of us has significant assets and debts.

What kind of assets are we talking?

They're almost all real estate.

House, ADU, commercial building, raw land,

and then some money in

bank accounts.

Okay.

So you're wondering how do we combine this once we're married?

What should we combine, how and when?

Yeah, and things like how do we treat bank accounts?

And

we want your advice on how to do it.

Well, what's the end goal here with all of these assets?

Are you wanting to have them all paid off and in both of your names and build wealth together?

Basically, we're using them for our retirement.

We're older.

I am retired.

She'll be retired in five years.

We need to live off the assets.

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

Presumably, yeah.

Okay.

I was going to guess that's your advice.

Yeah.

Yeah.

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

Correct.

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, and that's our emergency fund.

Maybe we have another high-yield savings account with both of our names on it, and that's 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 is doing well, but stinks for you.

Good luck.

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

Yeah.

Okay, so what I heard is two high yield accounts and one checking account, all of them with both our names on them.

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.

The debt that we're in is $1.2 million in debt.

It is almost purely mortgage.

Okay, because of these houses, right?

Yeah.

And one of them's at a fabulous interest rate,

2.75.

Oh, and keep it till you die.

Why even ever pay it off?

Exactly.

There we go.

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

He trapped you there.

I don't think you realized, Joseph.

You walked right into it.

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.

How old are you?

I'm 64.

Okay.

I was wondering because I thought I heard you say we want to live off these assets.

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?

Let's see.

There's a $5.5 million commercial building that's debt-free.

Woo!

Oh, that works great.

How much is that cash flowing?

There's $100,000,000 a month.

Oh, okay.

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

What's your total net worth versus hers?

Mine's about 7.5.

Hers is about $1 million.

Okay.

So combined, we're already stepping into this with 8 million plus net worth with a great income.

And so 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 breaking in 20 plus grand a month once this is all said and done, right?

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

Yes.

Amazing.

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

Let's see.

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 need?

And taking the debt payments out of it?

Yes.

Give me a second here.

Carry the two.

Yeah.

He's got his eraser.

There's some zeros on the end of this math problem.

I think we'd be real comfortable on 12.

Right.

So

I'm just challenging you to go, okay.

Good on you

with the commercial building.

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 five million dollars You can unload it at any time But if you only have that you get to live your retirement dream That's the only property you own 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 I would get rid of the debt and and take what I'm gonna make on that consolidate all that profit and invest that and keep it simple.

Then you're really cruising.

That's what I would do, right, George?

Am I wrong?

I mean, you're already on the path.

You're just so close to being debt-free.

It's sort of 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-forward cash real estate.

Dave Ramsey smiling somewhere right now.

I love it.

Good job, Joseph.

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

headlines you're looking at every day, there's a lot of conflicting data out there.

It can scare you, can create a lot of doubt.

And this is a big decision.

So we want to make 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 at negotiating power while sellers are facing more competition.

Mortgage rates dipped 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 ramseysolutions.com slash market.

That's ramseysolutions.com slash market.

Joel is joining us now in Fairfax, Virginia.

Joel, how can we help today?

Hey, thanks for taking my call.

How are you guys?

We're having a blast today.

What can we help you with?

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 when I was growing up, and I happened 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.

Yeah, give us some of the numbers.

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 Bronco Sport, $25,000, in a high-yield savings, 4.1%,

$7.50,000 in checking because I just paid the bills, another $1,000 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.

And what is your goal?

to retire by a certain age with a certain amount of money?

Well,

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'd figure that out.

Well, I would.

In your shoes, the basic question, should I invest in a classic muscle car?

No.

Okay.

Under no circumstances will 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 paid for, the Bronco?

Yes, sir.

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

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.

Well, but in the what-if, and 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.

Oh, no, no.

This would have been my driver.

Well, but that's going to hurt its 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 Carol 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 exist.

So George is right.

It's a luxury.

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

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

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

But as a daily driver, and again, I'm in the long process, good lord, it takes forever, of restoring a 1972 convertible Volkswagen Carmage Gia.

And she's, she's, she's a cherry, she's a beautiful, but it takes a lot of work.

And I, I'm not going to tell you how much I've put into her so far.

And George knows I just got a quote to finish the interior, and it was a little steep.

And at this stage, I'm going, I don't know if I want to do that.

Ken clutched his pearls when he saw that.

Yeah.

Well, but

I didn't think it was going to be that much.

But

I'm going to drive that from time to time with Stacey 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 beating this thing to a pulp because you can get really feverish 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.

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

um not if you're flipping

up you know if you're restoring old ones that's what i'm saying that's the only scenario where if you've got the equipment you got the know-how which takes a lot of cash flow to even do that it does so in your in your shoes joel i would love to see you get into a house and stabilize your housing costs yeah because in the meantime rents 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 uh to where it's not crippling you financially So that becomes the goal.

You have a great income.

You did get a later start, but if you're good to work for the next decade, you can build some serious 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.

Oh, yes.

Well, where I'm at, it's half a mill already.

And I'm just like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Exactly.

So that's why I would dial 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

okay 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 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?

Well,

the guys and all the men in my dad's side of the family, we were big B Wick guys.

And so I was looking at probably a 71 or 72 GS convertible,

something along those lines.

Have you looked into what those cost in decent shape?

I'm just curious.

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.

Yeah, yeah.

There you go.

Well,

I'm going to aim a little lower.

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 and the way we treat it.

So thanks for calling.

That's really interesting stuff.

Yeah, George, you know, boy, oh boy, you can get, well, you can rack the expenses up

with an old car.

You just can.

It's a premium service.

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.

Yeah, absolutely right.

But would you, do you see yourself in an old car one day when you're in your 70s?

One day.

You know what I watched?

I watched Father of the Bride and Steve Martin tooling around in that car.

Made me go, that's what I want one day.

See, now.

Sign Sign me up.

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?

No, no, no idea, folks.

No idea.

My car drives itself at this point.

Many of you listen to the Ramsey Show because you're sick and tired of getting nowhere with your money.

You work too hard to live paycheck to paycheck with no money in the bank.

But here's the deal.

Just listening to the show won't change that.

If you want different results, you have to do something different.

We've helped millions of people save money, ditch debt, and build wealth.

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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 over.

Jeremy is up in Dallas, Texas.

Jeremy, how can we help?

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.

So unfortunately, part 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 and 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 world

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?

Well, you do have the same chance.

I 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're 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, ooh, 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.

Oh, yeah.

So

what's your job situation right 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.

$65,000 with a car.

And what's the stipend?

$10,000.

I mean, bro.

And what is your actual fear here?

Because there's not a math problem.

Are you wondering, can I afford rent?

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

Why would you jump into a mortgage right out of college in a city you have never lived in?

What's the rush?

I guess it's just because

my dad, he has always told me not to rent, and I guess that's stuck with me.

There it is.

So dad said renting is a waste of money, son.

You should become a homeowner.

Yeah.

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.

Yeah.

Is he covering your down payment?

No, my girlfriend's mom, if she would be willing to go out with me, but If that's not the case, she would not like to move anything.

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?

Yeah.

Does that sound in any way risky to you?

It's true.

I'm just trying to be serious.

Do you think that sounds smart?

No, not necessarily.

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

I have.

And what'd they say?

They trust her a lot, and they really like the family.

And if she's willing to do that, they were fine with it.

Okay, I'm going to bring George in because George loves to tell horror stories.

George, let's fast forward to the story.

Let me crawl over to the desk, get my jaw off the floor real quick.

I got to tell you, Jeremy, this is absolutely ridiculous that your parents haven't freaked out over this.

Your parents are good people.

Are you trolling us, Jeremy?

Are you trolling us?

Oh, is this a fake call?

No, I'm not.

All right.

George, where does this go?

Let's say the girlfriend.

Take us down all the things that could go wrong.

Let's 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.

Or I want to keep the house.

Do you see where this is going?

It's going to get messy real quick.

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.

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.

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

If I waved a magic wand, you would move out, take this job offer, 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 $100,000 saved, and that's actually a decent down payment

on the cost of a home these days.

And so once you get into that, do a 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 to a great start.

Here's what I don't understand.

I thought you said you were moving away from where you live.

Yeah, I would be.

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

They live in Tennessee.

That's where you would be moving?

Yes.

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

Yeah, yeah.

And the job offer is there.

So I kind of thought of it in this way as more of like a way around things so that I wouldn't have to.

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 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?

You're absolutely right.

Well, then what are you thinking?

We don't even know if we want to marry her.

I tell you what, if you were my younger brother, I'd reach to 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 being fun.

James the Prussier looks like he's going to 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 you and go, this could be a horrible, horrible mistake.

All right.

You're good.

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.

How old?

22.

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?

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.

You work your butt off for your money, but your money's never going to return the favor if all you do is hope for the best.

If you're ready to learn how to make your money work for you, check out the SmartVestor program.

SmartVestor can help you find advisors who specialize in retirement planning, charitable giving, advanced investing strategies, and more.

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Head to ramseysolutions.com/slash smartvestor to get connected.

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Learn more at ramseysolutions.com slash smartvestor.

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 end at ramseysolutions.com slash getaway, ramseysolutions.com/slash getaway, or you can click on the link in the show notes.

And

it's popped up on my schedule.

I guess I'm going to be at the November and February.

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?

Yeah, sure.

Okay, correct me if I'm wrong.

It was how to win

at

love?

Love and work?

Home and work?

Something like that.

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

You know what my speech title is.

I just know what I'm talking about.

I need that.

It's a good sort of work-life-marriage-balance talk.

Because a lot of people want to crush it at work and then their marriage suffers.

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 and marriage getaways.

Oh.

And

it's about, hey, my spouse is a workaholic.

How do I support him?

Or he feels lost.

You know, it's that guy.

So I'm taking some of the biggest questions, the ones that have been submitted the most, and I'm teaching to those questions.

I love that.

So very fun.

Very fun.

And I'm told Mrs.

Coleman might be making an appearance at the February one.

Whoa, that's something to show off.

I'll tell you what, to know Stacey is to like her.

That's worth the price of admission to see Stacey 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?

Hi.

Thanks for talking with me first

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.

Well, the magic wand here is we need to make more income to have more margin.

Now we can cut expenses too, and you probably should, but it sounds like there's an income problem.

How much do you guys make a month?

A month we make about $4,700.

What are the credit card minimums?

Oh my goodness.

Just the minimums are almost $1,200.

Okay, and you can't do that and cover the rest of your bills.

What's your do you have a rent or mortgage?

We have a mortgage.

It's for $900 a month.

Okay.

So that's not the problem.

Right.

What got you into all this credit card debt?

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

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.

No, but what caused how much credit card debt total do we have?

What's the balance?

Total credit card is 29,000.

What got us into 29,000 of credit card debt?

I don't think it was your son.

No, no, no, no.

I have

undiagnosed

alpha holic

and I'm working with a therapist on that now.

Oh, wow.

So it's just been:

we would max out credit cards, get more credit cards, max those out, and get more.

Have you stopped the bleeding?

Because we can't help you at all unless you decide I'm done borrowing money.

Oh, yes.

So have you cut up the cards?

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

Cut them up, close them.

You still owe the money.

Cut them right now in the air.

Yeah, do you have them with you?

I don't.

That's unfortunate.

I'd be more than happy to cut them up.

Have you done a freeze on all of your credit?

Yeah, on the credit bureaus?

Yes.

Yes, I have.

So nobody can take out debt in your name, including you, without jumping through some hoops.

Okay, what other debt do you have outside of the 29 in credit cards?

I do have $11,000 in loans.

Just personal loans?

Yes, personal loans.

Okay.

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

Okay, so no more debt outside of that.

You got $40,000 in debt, plus you got the mortgage.

Right.

All right.

And are you both working full-time?

We do.

All right.

So who's making what?

Because right now I'm seeing about a take-home pay per year, about $56,000.

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

Why are the income so low?

What are you guys doing for work?

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 long enough to see the benefits if we can't eat.

I know.

And we have collectors knocking down our door, taking us to court.

So screw the benefits.

You guys need to go double your income.

Right.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah, 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.

Are you an enrolled agent?

Do you have some qualifications there?

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

Okay.

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

Yep.

You know,

let me just interject real quick.

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 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.

Right.

And so 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.

Okay, that sounds, that sounds good.

That's kind of where I was.

going.

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 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

okay

okay

and then the 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 you know

I mean, what are you saying you're going to go back into debt?

She's saying it's possible.

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

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

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

Cut up all the cards.

And then that's a line in the sand saying, I'm done.

I'm never borrowing a dime on these cards again.

Okay, great.

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.

And you're still, of course, going to owe 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.

Right, right.

yeah 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 uh 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 oh i don't ever want to experience this again so whatever pain i'm trying to take care of with the shopping oh boy uh i would 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?

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 them know: hey, I can't pay this.

It's simply too much.

The interest is racking up too fast.

Can you work 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 Camill here.

What if I told you that you had thousands of extra dollars hiding in your budget right now?

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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?

I'm great.

How are you?

Good.

Where are you from?

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

Oh, that's a lovely place.

All right, 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?

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

Wow, a year and a half.

That's getting with it.

And what was your range of income?

$120,000.

Okay, and what do you do for a living?

I'm a project manager for a corporate job, and I also dog sat on the side almost every single weekend and drove Uber every time I wasn't dog sitting.

Oh, 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.

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

Give us an idea.

So you would show up on a Friday night after work and you baby, you dog sit.

I said babysit.

You dog sit all through the weekend.

Is that what a normal thing would be?

Usually.

Sometimes it's the whole week as well.

My question is.

How much would you make?

Give us an example of how much you'd make in one dog sitting job.

In one, maybe $300 for a weekend.

That's pretty good though.

That's not bad.

And it's not like a lot of hands-on work.

You got to 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.

And you can leave them.

You can't leave kids.

So dog sitting is a little bit more.

You know what else?

The dog isn't going to throw a fit and cry and all that stuff.

Dog's happy to see you every time.

And dog owners like me are happy to pay knowing someone wonderful is taking care of them.

It'sn't extraordinary how much we Americans spend on our dogs.

It's insane.

But hey, it helps people become debt-free.

I love that.

Okay, and then how many hours on a given week during this process of getting out of debt, a year and a half, were you driving?

How many hours a week on Uber?

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

Wow.

So maybe like like 10 hours a week.

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

No.

And 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.

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

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 off the debt.

And my parents recommended the Ramsey program.

And by the first video, Dave was so motivating that I was like, I got to go gazelle in town.

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

Yeah.

So did you miss out on life?

Did you have FOMO where you look back and go, man, that 18 months, I could have had some amazing memories and experiences?

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 got to be honest with your friends and your family.

It's like, this is my goal.

I'm going to go hardcore for at least a year.

It took me a year and a half

I'll meet you next year on the next trip and they were all like okay cool like are you still friends with the girl group right like no one's gonna disown you no wow and they still you're still invited for Christmas yes I gotta say that's impressive

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 you were you would have been a bridesmaid is that right did i catch that you just not go on the trip or the trip the yeah Oh, it was just a trip.

You weren't saying no to being a bridesmaid.

Right.

I was like, well, I considered it.

I love it.

Is this you at the wedding?

We have the fit.

There we go.

What is this photo of this?

This is just me and 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.

Oh, so that's fun.

So there is life on the other side of gazelle intensity.

That's what we need people to hear.

And that was a free event.

So just know that you can go and do free stuff.

How'd you find like free events and things like that?

Like Facebook groups.

Okay.

You and George are like

you guys are.

I love a free activity.

Yeah, you guys are just kindred stuff.

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 rip-off.

Yeah, yeah.

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

You couldn't pay me.

He's at home on Facebook playing words with friends because it's free.

So you guys.

If I lose, at least it's not in front of my peers.

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.

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 to go with them.

Wow.

But you know what?

You can go on the Ramsey cruise in 2027 yes yeah all right there you go that's something to look forward to yeah 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 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 we are basically 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 got to get on it yeah we've basically been racing to see who could make it to this stage first.

And I got it.

And you made it.

Take that, Mario.

Bragging rights.

I like that.

I guess they're going to be watching this later.

Yeah.

It's so 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?

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 wow 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

um i would like to travel more since i haven't vacationed in a while yes um 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.

That's awesome.

And what do you do for a living?

A project manager.

I also do

life coaching on the side for ladies in their 20s to 40s.

So here you are.

You're how old?

30.

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.

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?

Of being debt-free.

Yeah.

Yeah.

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.

It's just so much more peaceful.

I feel like I sleep better.

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?

Oh my goodness.

Well, are you already investing that 15%?

Are you at that stage?

Yes.

Oh my goodness.

So from 30 to 60 even, that 30-year period of just investing 15% of 120K so you never get a raise, you're already going to be a multi-millionaire.

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, where at 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 it, especially single people out there 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 can I just say, don't marry a dud.

You've all been hurt.

You've worked too hard.

No, duds.

Stay away, duds.

You're too sharp.

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.

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.

Can you help count me down?

Sure, you ready?

Three, two,

one.

I'm debt-free.

I love it with the assist, by the way.

I've never done an assist before.

I like that.

Isn't Alleyuke?

I gotta tell you, I got nervous, James.

It was a lot of pressure.

I thought, I hope Ken can count down from three.

Hope we are members had a big one.

Believe me, I struggled there at first.

A lot of pressure.

Way to go, Lexi.

Our scripture of the day comes from 1 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.

Very clever.

I like that.

Why is that so stupid and so funny at the same time?

It's a great song.

It's just really, I love Bill Murray.

Great, great, great quote today.

Gary is waiting for us in Texas.

Gary, how can we help?

Yes, sir.

Hi, Gary.

Yes, sir.

It's good to be here.

Good to be here as well.

How can we help?

I got

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 the house recently went into foreclosure.

And I'm wanting to know if there's a way that I can get out of it.

Well, we hope so.

Let's see if we can get out of it.

How many payments have you missed?

Yeah.

I think so far we've done this about

five or six.

In a row?

Yes, sir.

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

About

$10,000, probably.

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

Okay, so $10,000 we're behind.

And you mentioned that the house is falling apart.

Is that the reason why you're not able to pay the mortgage payment?

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

foundations messing up.

Stealing started falling.

This is not long after we bought the house.

Okay.

Stealing started falling in.

Heater went out during the first winter that we stayed here.

I mean, all electricity turned out.

So, were you cash flowing these repairs?

Did you go into debt for these repairs?

What's your total financial picture now?

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

That's the only debt you have?

There's

besides the house, of course, now, which is

way too much for what it is.

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

I make about $8,000 a month.

That's good, income.

I'm so confused how you make $8,000 a month and you couldn't make the two grand payment.

Like, you make that before making anything else.

I'm also

helping my mom pay for a lot of stuff, too, because she's in bad health.

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

I mean,

the house is falling apart.

So I'd be.

Well, wait a sec, Gary.

Hold on.

Gary, we're all over the place and we've 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?

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

And 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 we got?

She doesn't make very, she only makes about maybe $2,000 a month.

Bro, that's $10,000.

That's $10,000.

How much are you spending each month on your mom?

I'm not entirely sure.

I'd have to ask her.

She keeps up with that.

Oh, hold on.

Who keeps up with it?

Mom?

My wife.

Oh, your wife keeps up with it.

So, George, we have a budgeting problem.

We don't even know where the money is.

Gary, here's the good news.

You could solve this in two months and just talk to the lender and say, hey, I know I'm 10 grand behind.

I'm going to pay $5,000 a month for the next two months and catch up.

That's right.

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 $2,000 mortgage, which you can't even make.

Where is this?

$10,000 disappearing into?

Because I don't think it's repairs either.

I mean, we have money in our account, but.

How much?

Like, but not

right now, probably about $5,000.

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

Do you understand?

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

We just started, we 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.

When was that?

Just over a year ago.

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?

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

With her?

With mom?

Yes.

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.

All right.

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

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

Does she have Medicare?

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

Okay, all right.

So we're not trying to upset you, but

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 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?

It's a mortgage.

Okay, what is her mortgage?

Hers is about, I think, $1,200 a month.

$1,200 1200 a month 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

uh

i'm i'm not entirely sure but that she covers that i i just help pay the house and stuff like that okay you just help pay the house and stuff like that you mean just the mortgage yes sir 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 numbers.

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.

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?

Not

well, not really anymore.

That's a pretty straightforward question.

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

Okay.

But

recently I lost my brother.

Okay, I am so sorry.

But what I'm trying to figure out is, is, is this truly all on you?

And even then, if you're the only surviving child,

to just-

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

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 $1,200 mortgage payment, but then where can she stay?

You know, is she.

Well,

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.

You don't have any 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

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?

It's falling apart.

You got to put your own mask on first, is what this amounts to.

You can't help someone from a place 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, doing a budget tonight, we could solve all of this.

You got 10 grand coming in.

We need two grand for the mortgage, $1,200 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.

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