Transcript

Comfort Is The Enemy Of Progress - Attack Your Debt Now! | January 12, 2026

From The Ramsey Show · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 2 h 6 min · 24,472 words · 441 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Comfort Is The Enemy Of Progress - Attack Your Debt Now! | January 12, 2026", an episode of The Ramsey Show published January 12, 2026 (2 h 6 min, about 24,472 words). It mentions 14 people, works and ideas, including Every Dollar, Fair Winds Credit Union, Health Trust Financial, Declan, Christian Healthcare Ministries.

What this episode is about

The discussion emphasizes the critical need to confront financial challenges, particularly debt, rather than remaining complacent in difficult situations. Host George Camel and author Jade Warshaw provide actionable advice by addressing a caller's dilemma about co-signed debt and the importance of taking responsibility for one’s financial commitments.

Key takeaways

  • Co-signing is like a financial marriage; you can’t ghost your partner when payments are due.
  • Retirement cash flow may feel like a safety net, but it can quickly turn into a tightrope walk.
  • Financial intimacy, like physical intimacy, requires communication—don’t let bills be the elephant in the room.
  • Selling assets may seem like a quick fix, but it's crucial to address underlying debts first.
  • Combining finances can feel risky, but it’s often the best way to escape debt isolation and reclaim sanity.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 15:00: Every Dollar, Fair Winds Credit Union
  2. – 30:00: Health Trust Financial, Christian Healthcare Ministries
  3. – 45:00: Declan, Every Dollar, Bismar, Boost Mobile
  4. – 1:15:00: Guardian Litigation Group LLP, Y RefI
  5. – 1:30:00: Fair Winds Credit Union, Virginia Beach, Virginia
  6. – 1:45:00: Every Dollar, Ken Coleman's Find the Work You're Wired to Do
  7. – 2:00:00: St. Paul

Notable quotes from "Comfort Is The Enemy Of Progress - Attack Your Debt Now! | January 12, 2026"

  • Weird. So, we are here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsay Network in the Fair Winds Credit Union studio, this is the Ramsay Show. I'm George Camel joined by…
    about Fair Winds Credit Union · at
  • Thing two. And then you guys can start to get your head around this. we're going to give you every dollar before you get off the phone because the truth is George and I can…
    about Every Dollar · at
  • And when you're self-employed, there's no HR department to lean on. But that's where my friends at Health Trust Financial come in. For over 20 years, they've been helping…
    about Health Trust Financial · at
  • Well, there's there's a few options. One is the health sharing types, and we have a great partnership with Christian Healthcare Ministries. That's one option you can look at…
    about Christian Healthcare Ministries · at
  • It's a reason not to. All right, Declan is in Pittsburgh. What's going on, Dean?
    about Declan · at
  • Listen, don't fall for buy now pay later cell phone plans that drag you back into debt. Boost Mobile keeps it simple with no contracts and no nonsense. Keep the phone you…
    about Boost Mobile · at
  • Brian is in Bismar, North Dakota. What's going on, Brian?
    about Bismar · at
  • More noise or more stress. You need help you can trust. That's why I recommend Guardian Litigation Group. Guardian isn't a call center reading from a script. They're real…
    about Guardian Litigation Group LLP · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

Books & papers

Companies & orgs

Products & tech

Places & events

Full transcript with timestamps

Brought to you by the Every Dollar app. Start budgeting for free today. Normal is broke and common sense is weird. So, we are here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsay Network in the Fair Winds Credit Union studio, this is the Ramsay Show. I'm George Camel joined by author Jade Warshaw. We are so excited that you're tuning in today. We're taking your calls at88255225. Annie is going to kick us off in Houston, Texas. What's going on, Annie?

Hey, how's it going? Great. How can we help? All right. Yes, sir. Um, I've been uh I have a dilemma. There's a I had an ex-boyfriend years about five, six years ago and we got motorcycles. I sold mine, but we co-signed for each other and now I have

Yeah. Right. Um, but anyway, uh, he hasn't made a payment. I don't care about my credit, but they keep calling and they're like, it's a binding contract. So, my question is, what do I do? I haven't seen the bike in over four or five years. I don't know if he's alive or dead and they've came to my house and checked, you know, it ain't there.

They went to come repo it and it wasn't there. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Here's the bad news, Annie. It doesn't matter where that motorcycle is and it doesn't matter if he's dead dead or alive. You owe that debt.

That's That is exactly what co-signing is. It's you taking on that debt cuz they don't trust him to pay. And I think they were wise.

How much is it? Okay. It's like about $10,000. Yikes. And what about your bike? Have you since paid yours off or what happened to one that that that you guys co-signed together that you that you drove?

Oh, I sold mine. So, yours has been gone. Where are you at financially? Do you have any other debts? Do you have money in savings?

No, I don't have any money in savings. Uh, I've been retired for a year and I'm trying to go back to work right now. So, I'm barely making my bills and I can't afford to make that.

Where's your income coming from? Uh, retirement, like a 401k, social security. No, I work I work for uh TVC.

So, you have like a pension. Uh, yes, sir. Evidently, yes. It's a Yeah. So, what is your monthly income as it stands without you going to work?

Uh, like 1,600. And what do your monthly bills add up to? Um, more than 1,600? Yes.

Okay. So, are you floating the gap with credit cards? No, actually, I'm married. So, uh, yeah, I got married, so that's how we do it together.

Okay. What's he make every single month? Uh, probably about, let's see, 9 18 about 3,000.

Okay. And I I don't know. I'm guessing based on the way you're talking, but are you guys combined money or are you separate?

Uh, I take care of the bills and he just puts money in my account. So, I take care of all the bills and then he takes care of like his truck and stuff.

So, you're you're separate for all intents and purposes. It doesn't sound like Does he have savings?

No. Okay. Well, the best way to do this would be combining your money together to go, okay, how are we going to make a plan to pay this old debt off?

Now, I don't know if he's willing to do that. And it sounds like he doesn't have the ability cuz he's broke, too,

and he's got a truck payment of his own. No, his truck is paid off. But, uh, we're trying to, uh, get him another truck. So, I'm trying to go back to work cuz his truck is actually broke down and we're trying to fix it.

So, trying to pay for the repair or you about to go buy a brand new truck with payments?

Uh, cuz you don't have any money. Right. Right. Well, that's why I need to go to work is so that way we'll have more money on top of that. But his truck is old and he's Well, he's trying to fix it. So, right now that's what our goal is to fix it. Well, I I think work is a great place to go right now to make more money to get us out of all of this. And the motorcycle, this old motorcycle debt, that's just part of the the bigger picture that we need to clean up. What other debts do you have?

Um, I have a couple of credit cards. Um, my debt's probably about 10,000. Well, you had 10,000 just on the motorcycle.

No, no. Yeah, but I'm talking about Yes. I guess I guess 20 about 20,000. So So here's what I hear. Um and here's a couple of I just want to bullet point this so that you have clear uh homework for tonight. First things first is tonight it's it's Friday night here. I know some of you might listen not listen to this till Monday, but I want you to go out either on a date or tell your tell your husband tonight is date night at the house. And over dinner, I want you to say, "I've really been thinking, and I don't feel peace about our finances. I feel stressed. I feel like we're disconnected. And I would really love for us to get aligned financially.

I would love to be in a situation where what's yours is mine is and mine is yours. And that we really are a unit on this. And I want you to to open up the lines of communication on that. Tonight's not the night to to create a plan uh to pay off debt. Tonight is not the night to say it's time to sell a vehicle. Tonight is just the night to say, "Here's here's what I'm afraid of. Here's what I've been feeling. And here's I would just like to have this intimacy with you where we're one-on-one with our with our money." Right?

For you in your own time until the next meeting that you're going to have with your husband, I want you to start writing down debt. Here's all the debt. Here's all my money. And then the next meeting with him, I want you to go with him and say, "I started writing things down. here's what I started writing down. Slide it over there and say, "Is there anything you want to add to this list? Cuz I'm just trying to get my head around this." Right? And and keep that conversation going. That's thing one and thing two. And then you guys can start to get your head around this. Uh we're going to give you every dollar before you get off the phone because the truth is George and I can only talk to you for so long. And you're going to need something and someone to walk with you.

And every dollar is going to do that. It'll be like you have George in your pocket.

And so that's the key to this. Every dollar is going to ask questions about you. You're going to answer it and then it's going to tell you the next right step. Uh and in this case, George was right. Money coming in. So, income coming in, you getting another job. That's going to be so key. But then after you've done the budget, you're going to realize, are there some things that we can cut out? Uh what percentage of our take-home pay is is our our our rent or our mortgage, right? You're going to see things that might need to shift. And all that needs to be done together with your spouse. And I personally call us back. like call us back and tell us how it goes because there's several steps to this. I would never want you to think it was a light switch that was supposed to happen in one conversation or in one phone call uh to our show. So, keep walking down the road. Don't get discouraged. There's

going to be several steps to this, but just take the next right step. So, so what's the answer? Even though I don't know where the bike is, haven't seen it in 5 years,

you got to stack up the money that you have to at this point assume it as your debt. forget he ever even existed because your name is on it and legally that's all they see. If they can't find him, your name is on it and you will feel it. It will if if it doesn't get paid, your credit's going to get destroyed. It's going to keep you from doing the things you want to do. So add it to the list of debts. The best thing that you can do in this situation mentally and emotionally is say, you know what, this is a mistake I made.

This was the part I played. Forget all about him cuz he's somewhere eating a sandwich. He is not thinking about you and he clearly doesn't care about, you know, clearly doesn't care about his finances. So, you pay it. Don't spend another ounce of energy thinking about him because it's just wasted mental calories and emotional calories. And because the debt is, you know, 6 years old, they might be willing to settle. If you can scratch up $3,000 and call him, say, "Hey, listen. I don't know where this guy is. I don't know where the bike is. He's an ex. I'll give you three grand if you can call this debt paid in full and clear from your credit and move on with your life emotionally and financially. We're rooting for you, Annie. Hang on the line. We're going to get you hooked up with every dollar.

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Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. If you missed it, we had an awesome live stream that happened last night. Depending on when you're hearing this, you can go check it out and watch the replay. Ramseyolutions.com/livestream or just head to our YouTube channels. Jade and Dave just held court on stage and it was a wonderful time. So, be sure to check that out if you're looking to uh kick 2026 off with a bang. Laura is in Salt Lake City. What's going on, Laura?

Hi. Um I'm just trying to figure out where I go from here. my uh my husband and I my husband's a contractor and I'm a stay-at-home mom and we've owned our own business for 12 years and in the last three years he was been partnering with his brother and just splitting profits 50/50 and I was okay with that until this recent year we've got a job that's taking over a year and I do all the paperwork so I do I run the business side of it and so I asked for this job if I could get like 5 10% for me cuz I felt like it's a more cuz I've got workers comp and employees and subcontractors now with this year-long job. And he said no. He doesn't feel comfortable doing that because um this is where I got a little upset.

He said I'm a wife that helps out and doing a little bit of paperwork doesn't mean I get a cut of the business.

Like the full business as a whole or you just trying to make are you trying to get him to pull more salary like payroll for you? You mean the No, I mean this job. Like we own our own business. It's a small business and we've been we've been fine. And I technically own 49% of the business. That's what it is on the paperwork.

Yeah. Yeah. But I do like 10% of it because I just do the paperwork. But I thought I was a business partner.

Well, you are arguing about splitting 50/50 with his brother for this big job. He said, "No, we can't do that. You're just helping you're my wife and you're helping me out." So I don't have to do the paperwork and I can spend more time with the family

and so and I just for the last 12 years I thought I was a business partner and so I just

I think this is I think this is more about I think this is more about the disappointment of how he views you versus like a money or like a business thing. At least that's what I'm hearing. you feel disrespected, belittled, like your work doesn't really matter.

Just that though, like I do when it's a 20 $30,000 job and it's a few receipts and some hourly work, it's not a big deal to split it 50/50. But

I mean, this profit's going to be about $200,000. So, you want to cut the profits? you I want a I want a piece of profit because it's a lot more work for me to do a $200,000 or well

that's the question. Yeah. Do you receive a sal you ever received a salary? No, it's not a salary. It's our business or partners.

So the question is the question is on a job like that I hear what you're saying. What you're saying is more emotional. I'm talking about on paper at this point. If they're 50/50, are are your brother uh your brother the the the brother and your husband is that 50/50 on paper or is it

you're own contractor his own business and so they just have a deal that they when they do jobs together they split the profit 50/50.

Okay. So my my thing is this. So you're saying in essence the profit should be split in thirds and

I I don't think third because I'm I'm not doing a third of the work isn't that much. I asked for 5 to 10%.

So then the other question is this. Let's let's just look at it as it is. Just take emotion out of it for a minute.

Okay. um the brother, even though they're working on this and they're separate businesses, does the brother have somebody who does the paperwork for him on his side of the business and has all that and then what you know, he takes that. Do you see what I'm saying?

Both businesses are probably set up similarly. So, the other side of this conversation would have been for you to say, "Husband, if we're doing more work on this, shouldn't we be taking more of the profit? Should should this be a 60/40 split with your brother or do you see what I'm saying?

Said because at the end of the day you're just a wife helping out. Okay. But did he say those words exactly? You're just a wife. I'm I'm trying to go after

I don't think he said he said you're my wife and you help me out. Okay. I just want to know if he was on the phone. I feel like he would be like, "No, no, here's what I said."

Because what what I'm getting at is if the money's going into you guys' pot, it's both of your money. And that's a whole other conversation if you guys don't view it that way. But it's both of your money. And what I'm saying is although what he said sounds disrespectful. I wasn't there, but it sounds disrespectful. There's two different conversations here. There's what's fair financially for you guys' business, not you and him separately, but the business. And then there's the conversation of how we treat each other with respect within our marriage. Does that make sense?

Yeah. So if the deal if the deal with the businesses is it's a 50/50 split, then that's that deal. Now then there's a conversation of well honey there's two of us on the payroll. It would benefit both of us possibly if you received a salary or if I and if I received a salary. Now if you're trying to split hairs and the salary would remain the same and you guys would just have your names on it differently. I do think that's splitting hairs.

Okay. Are you following what I'm saying? Uh I think so. So, it's like, so, uh, my husband and I own a business together, and this is true. If the if, if Sam is profiting, if he takes $200,000 as profit on the business, right? Let's say I'm staying home with the kids. That's our money. It's our profit. Now, if I'm helping him out and I say, "Oh, the $200,000, it feels weird that zero of that is like written in my name. I'd like for you to write 50 of it in my name, so you make 150 and I make 50." That's me splitting hairs cuz the 200 is going into our account anyway.

Now, if I said, "Sam, I've been thinking, you know, you're working and I'm working. If there's room, I probably should take a salary, too. It's good for all of us. It's good for the business if we're making more and we can profit more into our pocket. So, for the work I'm doing, maybe you can pay me, you know, $30,000 a year on top of your 200,000." That's a conversation to have based on the work.

Yeah. And it doesn't have anything to do with the other vendors. Yeah. It was um the he asked he's like, "Well, what if we do hourly?" But the problem is it's a random phone call here and there or it's um hey, can you pick up this uh these supplies? Can you go grab the trailer? Can you go grab the cement?

So, it's just random thing. It's not a clock in clock out thing I do. I just I'm always on call doing it. Mhm. So, it just sounds like there needs to be a set amount.

It sounds like there needs to be you guys need to figure out what that split is. And it I it sounds like it needs to be some sort of a set amount, some sort of a a commission that you get for the work that you do. That's set. And then there's a list of responsibilities that go along with the money that you earn in a month. So, that could be anything from this this this that

instead of a percentage because I asked for a percentage and that's very huge. I I think percentage is confusing because again they're viewing it as entity versus entity. Your guys's business with the brother's business. You're not an entity. You're part of part of your business entity. So I think that's what caused the confusion. But if you're just like, "Hey, put me on the payroll. Let's figure out what that means." That's one conversation. I think that's great if you can afford it.

I think the other part we never ironed out is your life shifted, right? When you stayed home, it wasn't the same as it was before. Yeah,

but we never had a conversation about what this looks like now. And he views you as well, she works with the bis on the business, but she's not pulling the weight that me and my brother are, right?

Yeah. And that's that's where he said it. He said that as well. And we just never acknowledged that when you stayed at home because you guys, you know, are married and live together. It's easy to let those things slide. And I think we should have had a conversation going, "Hey, I know that this has been our business. It's going to shift now. my brother's going to be stepping in to shoulder some of the weight of this and you will be more of an employee in the business and here's how that's going to be laid out financially. I think it's just we need a

conversation we never had. Exactly. And so maybe that turns into he pays you a salary or a part-time hourly wage and you keep track of how much time you've spent on the business and that's what you're paid. I don't know what that looks like for you guys. You also need to find out the other truth of that is uh if you weren't there to do the job, would he absorb those responsibilities or would he have to hire out? And that's a really good way to determine.

And what would he have to pay for that person? Uh-huh. Yeah. Cuz if you don't want to do anymore cuz you're fed up with it, then just say, "I'm not doing it."

Doesn't change how much you get paid. Mhm. I thought about that, but it just it would hurt the business more.

Exactly. It's sticking it to the man. You're you're sort of uh you know you're you're hurting yourself in that regard.

Mhm. Yeah. Cuz if it's truly y'all's money and it goes into the same bank account and you're married filing jointly, then you're really just hurting yourself to make a point. And I I I would rather you avoid that.

I can't do that cuz then it would just Yeah. Yeah. Then a hard conversation is your next step. Laura, I wish you the best. Running a business is already complicated. You don't have time to become a health insurance expert, too. And when you're self-employed, there's no HR department to lean on. But that's where my friends at Health Trust Financial come in. For over 20 years, they've been helping families and small business owners cut through the confusion and find the right health insurance plan for their stage of life and budget. Health Trust Financial offers unbiased advice and there's never any pressure. Health Trust Financial helps you shop smarter and avoid overspending. Most of their clients save hundreds of dollars every month. Real savings you can put back into your business or toward building wealth. I've worked with them for over two decades and they're the only Ramsay trusted

health insurance advisors. So get clear on your options and talk to a real person who can help you make confident decisions about your health coverage. Go to healthtrustfinancial.com today. That's healthtrustfinanicial.com.

Michelle is in Vegas up next. What's going on, Michelle? Hi, thanks for taking my call. I have a question with regards to Cobra. So, we've currently been on Cobra for about a year. We're going to be transitioning off in the next 3 to six months. I should have done this sooner, but I didn't. Um, I'm looking at these alternative health sharing plans and just kind of curious what your thought is on those when I compare what I'm paying for COBRA versus what a med share or a health sharing plan would be.

What are you paying for Cobra right now? Uh, it's going from 1,600 to 1,700 and that's a family of four.

Okay. And unless my my son went away to college and I've got to pay for separate insurance for him because my plan doesn't cover him in Colorado.

Okay. And neither of you have insurance provided through your employer? Correct.

Okay. And that's going to stay that way for the foreseeable future? I think so.

What do you guys make a month? A month? Um, eight. Okay. So, this is a big chunk of your your world paying for this health insurance,

right? Well, there's there's a few options. One is the health sharing types, and we have a great partnership with Christian Healthcare Ministries. That's one option you can look at that could make sense for you guys depending on your situation. Another is just shopping the marketplace. And we have another partner, Health Trust Financial, that's fantastic for that that can help you save. And so you might find out, hey, it's actually not much more or it's less than we're paying right now depending on your situation.

Why what would keep you from just shopping the marketplace? Because the the truth is if you pick one of those plans, it's going to be regulated. If for some reason a claim is denied, you can you can fight it and there's somebody in your corner and there's regulations around it versus some of the others that don't have those protections. Like I I'm trying to understand what your values are around this. Is it the faith-based thing? Is it the money?

A little bit of everything. I'm looking at it where I've been paying, you know, $20,000 a year for insurance plus another $3,000 when my son went away to school.

And I know with some of these health sharing plans, it's going to be, you know, $500 a month plus a $12,000 deductible.

But I'm looking at it where I'm like, why am I spending $20,000 a year on insurance? That's okay. You know, it's, you know, it's not great. It's okay. You still got co-pays and things like that. One of my sons just had a diagnosis where they don't cover the pills that they want him to take and that's going to be out it's you know if I don't go through the drug company that's going to be out of pocket $6,000. So I'm just I I think I'm frustrated and I'm just thinking what are the alternatives?

Yeah. I I I do think so if you're considering this, one of the things that I would say could be a con to a health share is if you do have a chronic illness,

pre-existing condition. Yeah. Pre-existing condition condition. Health shares are good for you're healthy, you rarely go um you you know you agree with the whatever status it is that that is faith-based of the community or whatever it is. Um, and yeah, if to get the the lower payment that's helpful, but in your case, I'm wondering because there is a pre-existing condition. There is

there's some imminent healthare needs. So, I might shop Health Trust Financial and just see what they can find you in the marketplace. And then if you're, hey, I I need another option. I would look into Christian Healthcare Ministries as an alternative.

Yeah. Because in your case, in your case, if I put a claim through, I want to know that it's going to be covered. And I want to know that I can hold them to a standard in order to to as close of a standard as we can. We all know that insurance is not the funnest to navigate, but I want to know that it's got some standards around it.

And I already know they're not going to pay for this drug. My health insurance is not going to pay for this drug. So, I can go through Fiser and they'll give me a two-year kind of cover

as it you're talking about as it is on on your COBRA coverage. Yeah. Well, but that could change if you shop the market and find the right plan for you.

And is there do you think it would be best if you guys found an employer like one of you has a health insurance plan? Would that be more beneficial?

Probably. Mhm. Possibly. I mean, we don't really have any other bills like that's our house is paid for. we have investments and all that. So that's

So you're in a good place financially, but you're just sick of paying this astronomical rate.

Yeah. Yeah. Disgusting. It's it that's actually a trend right now. If you follow social media, it really is a big trend that people are tired of paying premiums and a lot of people are going to wild business like not having insurance coverage at all. And the truth is, George, you know this bankruptcy, one of the one of the biggest causes of bankruptcy is medical debt. And so it's not something that you want to, you know, play around with. It's something you really want to do your research on. And the truth is,

no one likes paying a bill. No one likes playing paying a premium. It it feels it feels thankless. It feels like money going down a black hole. But when it when it it comes time that you need that coverage, you're like, "Oh, thank God I have it." It's a safety net.

It's a transfer of risk. That's all insurance is. And right now it stinks to pay 20 grand a year, but it would stink a whole lot more to have a $500,000 bill.

And so, and it doesn't take much. So, I would not go without coverage for a single day, but I would start researching like my life depended on it through those options that I just gave you. Those are places I would start personally uh healthrustfinanicial.com to reach out to them, and I I hope they can find you a great option that is cheaper than what you're paying now.

Okay. I appreciate it. Best of luck, Michelle. The health care system is broken. I think that is a bipartisan, nonpartisan take. It just sucks.

Yeah, it does. Oh man. Let's go out to Danny in Witchah. What's going on, Danny?

Danny, are you with us? Yeah. Hello. Hey, what's going on? How you doing? Great. How can we help?

Well, uh Colin, uh I'm 50 years old. Uh recently had a heart attack. Oo. Um, I'm about $60,000 in debt. Um, I've got about $18,000 or so in a uh old 401k plan from an employer. Um, I I don't have any savings at the moment. Um, just I I make decent money. Um,

how much do you make? is I know that I I make about uh $6,000 a month a minimum. That kind of that fluctuates um to you know to about 26 7500. I drive a truck.

Is it just you? Um it's well I have a 17-year-old son at home. Okay. So, it's just him and I. Um, about $11,000 of that debt is because I, you know, I was in fair mode after this happened and I knew I needed to cut start cutting expenses cuz I was going to have medical bills coming in. I I do have insurance, but still. Um, so I got out of my apartment lease and found uh a cheaper place to live. I was paying 1300. I went down to $850 a month for uh rent.

Okay. Um that allowed me to get rid of a storage facility I was paying $140 a month on $140 a month on.

Okay. Um what's your question today? Just to make sure we can help you. Yeah. My question is I know the baby steps. I know you know the death snowball the saving a thousand. But I'm during the heart attack they found that I have aortic aneurysm and a bicusive heart valve which is going to require surgery at some point. They don't know.

It it could be three months, could be three years. They just they don't know. It's it's it's imminent though. Um my question is knowing that um should I start stacking money and get to a certain point and then get onto this that snowballing because obviously there's going to be some recovery time with that and not knowing exactly when that point for the surgery is going to come.

Yeah. Danny, you're in storm mode right now. you've you've had a a catastrophic event with this heart attack and you've got some things coming up on the burner and if I were your in your shoes, I'd do two things. I would I would call up my insurance and I would let I would have a conversation about the things that are going getting ready to happen, what will be covered. I would want to know very clearly what's my out-of- pocket max for the year, what's my deductible.

Uh and that's that is the amount of money that I would aim to save up because you know this like you know the rate is going to fall. What's that number?

Uh my out of pocket uh individually is 9,200. The deductible is 3,000 and that that's individual total is twice that. So 84 184 18,400 family which and then

so 9,200 for you. I I'd save up $10,000. And then the next number you need to know is you need to find out what's the recovery time. So how much time am I going to miss from work? What's that equal up to? and that's your emergency fund that you want to save up. So, calculate if if it's going to be a 3-month recovery, calculate what that's going to be and save up that cash. Um, and that's the best thing you can do. Knowledge is going to be power in this situation, my friend. And once you've got all that taken care of, you can push play on the steps. And man, we're we're hoping that the surgery goes well and that you recover swiftly, my friend.

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Yeah, some some great demos in there and uh kind of the principles behind it all.

Yeah, love it. All right, Jerry is in West Palm Beach up next. What's going on Jerry?

Hey, how you guys doing? Good. What's going on with you? Doing good. I was just calling because uh my question is that my wife and I, we potentially can be out of debt by the end of this year, but she currently wants to move to a new apartment because of an ongoing roach issue.

Oh. Um and the money that we would use to pay off debt would be used to purchase a new apartment. So, I was calling to see if we should use that money to buy the apartment or to

Do you own the apartment you're in? Uh no, we're currently renting, but that would break the lease. Uh, well, the lease isn't in until November 31st. So, we would use all the money that we would use to pay the debt out this year. It would have to be saved the entire year in order to pay for first, lasting security uh towards the end of the year

on a new apartment. Just you're renting a different one. Yeah. Yeah. We're just renting. We're on baby step two.

What is that number for first in security? Well, we're not sure yet. Um, here in Florida, uh, we estimate that for a 21 it probably be around 21,100 2,200 a month.

And and so that's the first thing is finding out exactly what the numbers are to find out how it's going to affect your debtree uh journey and and getting real numbers around that versus um guesstimates. I call it something here that um I I can't do roaches. Yeah, I think that's a reasonable thing to be like, I don't want to live with a roach infestation. My big question is why is the apartment not doing anything about it?

Well, we have a pest control company that we use, but um the efforts that they've been putting there haven't been working that well.

We need gas station in the entire apartment complex. Somebody coming to your thing spraying the little

I want Terminator Ghostbusters. A Catholic priest waving something. I mean, I want everybody up in there.

The bomb where they cover the whole building with fabric. Exorcist. get what you have to get up in there to get the roaches out. And if they don't handle it, I think you have the right to fight them to get out of this lease without without, you know, paying any fees.

Well, the the lease actually said that we're in charge of pest control. That's So, you pay for pest control?

Yeah, we pay for pest control. And that that's the problem. Do you see what I'm saying? If you're just uh your pest control, what you pay for is just going for your unit. But if the whole building has an infestation problem, you can spray till the cows come home and all your corners, but they're going to keep coming down from the guy upstairs who you know where it all started. So that that Yeah, I'd be up and out of there. I'd sit with your wife and figure out what's it going to cost. Sometimes, you know, the baby steps, George, you know this sometimes it feels like two steps forward, a little step back, two steps forward, a little step back, and it's just like that. But in this case,

roaches. Yeah. it just can't happen. And the five grand, you're sort of just like prepaying, you know, the first month, last month, the deposit, hopefully you get back. And so, there's a little bit of the sunk cost up front. Uh, but I think it's well worth it.

Mhm. And I would just try to make up for lost time once you guys are in that new apartment. Let's work twice as hard to get out of debt by the end of the year regardless.

All right. Great. That's good advice. I appreciate it. I'd be getting I would also here's here's how much of a nerd I am. I would be uploading the lease agreement to chat GPT to then act like my lawyer to tell me how to get out of this thing and see what they are responsible for.

And so maybe that'll help Jerry. I don't know. But man, that's not a fun problem to deal with. And I'm I'm with your wife on this one.

I have threatened to move before. Does that work? No. Um I think Sam knows cuz I've threatened to move over many things, but when we live in South Florida, we have what's called Palmetto bugs.

Oh. which is really just called a giant roach that can fly. Oh, I hate those. A these people in the audience are like, "Girl, I know what you're trying." A pal meadow bug can be like the size of the palm of like they're big and they they you can't get around it. Like you could spray all day, but they like water. So if you're by the Glades or if you're by if you have pipes in your house, they can come in your house. So basically everywhere we've ever lived, I threatened to move.

All right. You just convinced me to never move to Florida. Thank you, Jade. It's a reason not to. All right, Declan is in Pittsburgh. What's going on, Dean?

Hey guys, thanks so much for taking my call. Sure. What's going on? I'm trying to decide if it makes the most sense to move out to California to live with my wife's grandmother and her special needs uncle, help take care of them, and save some money in the process and knock out some more debt.

Wow. Is your wife going with you? Oh, okay. I was like, is this a solo adventure for Declan? Okay, so you're considering moving from Pittsburgh all the way across the country to California to save some money.

How can you save money moving to California? Help me understand that part. Yeah, exactly. It's kind of a Goldilock situation. So, uh, my wife's grandmother has a really nice house that we'd be able to have our own section of the house. It's a large house.

How large? um like five five bedrooms, three full baths. Um so we'd have two bedrooms and a whole living room to ourselves with the kids.

Oh, you got kids. How many kids? Two kids and two and a three-month-old. A 2-year-old and a three-month old.

What about the jobs? Help me understand the job situation. So, I work full-time. I'm fully remote. Um I make 80K a year and my wife is currently stay home 80,000.

Okay. And then you're you are going to have additional jobs on top of this to take care of.

Yes. So my my wife would be able to be the full-time caretaker for my uncle or for her uncle um who's special needs.

And he just he's just great. He just needs help, you know, with making food and like little things like that.

So we're it's be easy for her to stay home and take care of him as well. So it's kind of a perfect situation there. Does grandma or the uncle have any income to speak of?

Yes. Okay. Um I know grandma has grandma's doing great and she has rental income that from other property. Yeah, she's she's doing just fine.

What about uncle? Uh no, he's he's fully disabled so he doesn't work. Does grandma pay for uncle's needs?

Yes, fully. Okay. But she doesn't have someone else. Instead of a caretaker that they'd hire, they were just like, "Yeah, let's have family do it and they can live for free and that's the trade-off."

Exactly. Yeah. I don't know about this, but also Yeah. Go ahead. Um, was this something that was the request made or was this something that you guys had a hankering to do? Like, you know what?

No, the request request was made. everyone like we would love to go spend more time with their family in California, but they are looking for someone because their current caretaker is leaving and Uncle Danny is uh he's kind of someone who needs someone who he knows and is comfortable with. And so they're asked if anyone in the family no one else wanted to do it except we said we would.

Okay. So you want you want to do this? Yeah. Yeah. I think it would be I think it'd be great to have some extra income, spend um spend a while in California with some family and

help me understand the extra income. So So help me. So right now you're making $80,000 a month. What's your What do you pay on rent and housing right now?

We have mortgage. We on our house it's 1,200 a month. So 1,200 a month for Is that just the mortgage? Tell me living expenses, uh lighting, all that stuff, utilities. Um, we're looking at basically at the end of the month we're breaking even. We're we're paying our minimum fund debt, but we're not getting ahead.

How much debt do you have? We have 45,000 in student loans. That's it. Yep. That's it.

And you're breaking even. Yeah. Yeah. So, something needs to change. I don't know if the move is the next step. I personally wouldn't do it to try to save money. If you just want to do it for the adventure of it and you think you can make it work, go for it. I don't think you're going to pay off debt much faster because of California's taxes.

Yeah. You factor that. Well, we It's actually funny. I I did a lot of research into the taxes and my bracket. We would be saving because we have a huge local income tax here. 2% local income tax that we would not be paying.

Would you sell your house? If we sold our house, yeah, you would sell your house. And what would you make on that? probably about 20,000 in equity.

20 grand in equity. Well, then you got fees. You got moving costs with a 2-year-old and a three-month old. Dude, I got kids your age. I wouldn't do any of this.

I wouldn't do this either. I I just wouldn't. I would pass for now, and I would try to make more money and cut expenses, but this feels like a Hail Mary.

Mhm. I wish you the best with the decision, Declan. It's a big one. After the holidays, a lot of people start feeling budget pressure, and it's a wake-up call to get intentional. So, listen, don't fall for buy now pay later cell phone plans that drag you back into debt. Boost Mobile keeps it simple with no contracts and no nonsense. Keep the phone you already own and pay just 25 bucks a month forever for unlimited data, talk, and text. That's real long-term value, and real peace of mind. So, budget like you mean it and go to boostmobile.com/ramsey today to make the switch. That's boostmobile.com/ramsey.

Restrictions apply. See boostmobile.com/ramsey for details. Welcome back to the Ramsay Show in the Fair Winds Credit Union studio. I'm George Camel, joined by best-selling author Jade Warshaw. Her latest book, What No One Tells You About Money, launched this week, and we have, it feels like birthday month. We're just celebrating all week, all month long. It's a It's a great book. So, pick up a copy if you haven't already. Ramseyolutions.com. Brian is in Bismar, North Dakota. What's going on, Brian?

Good afternoon. How are you guys? Great. How can we help? Hey, so my wife and I were just wondering if we are crazy for wanting to pay off our our house before we have kids.

Is it crazy? I mean, I wouldn't call you crazy. Wouldn't put you in the looney bin for it, but I also wouldn't recommend it.

Yeah. What's the timeline on this? And how old are you? So, my wife and I are both 22 years old, and we're hoping to pay off our mortgage in about 20 to 24 months.

Yeah. I mean, if it lines up with your timeline, who cares? That's totally personal.

And can I tell you the honest truth? It could take you 24 months to get pregnant. So, I wouldn't just wait to start trying until then.

Unless that was part of your plan all along and you're like, "Hey, we want to be married for a while before we have kids." I mean, what what it's a values conversation. So, is this is this a sacrifice in you guys's eyes or are you just concerned with how other people are viewing it?

Um, it is sort of a sacrifice. We um we're holding off on like going on trips and upgrading on cars in order to do this.

Um, but part of it is also we want to make sure that my wife can be a stay-at-home mom without me having to worry. Mhm.

And on top of that, I would like to switch jobs to something a little bit more controllable with the schedule.

Mhm. Um, and that would cause me to take a step back and pay. Yeah. I mean, like I said, it's totally values. Uh, my husband and I when we were uh first married, we figured out that we had a bunch of debt and the timeline on ours was we knew it was a long horizon for us. It ended up taking seven and a half years to pay it off. The whole timeline in total was closer to 9 years to be honest and our choice was to wait. I would never put that on anybody else because ours was very extreme. Yours is not. But at the same time, you want what you want. So if you say this is the type of stability we want, this is what we want our life to look like when kids come on the scene.

That's totally your choice. Nobody else has to understand that. But just know um from a a principal standard on our side, that is not part of the deal. You don't have to say we're going to postpone our family uh until XYZ is true with money.

Okay? Yeah. There's no baby step for having kids. And I'll tell you, Brian, I I lived your story. It just wasn't that intentional of like we're not going to even try to have kids before we pay off the house. But my wife and I, we paid off our house in 26 months. And then when we did have a kid, she was able to stay home with with less stress. So, I think those steps will happen. I just don't think you need to use the house payoff as the excuse. But if you want to wait two years to have kids, do that and be paying off the mortgage early. But I don't think it needs to be this like we're not gonna even try until the house is paid off.

See what I'm saying, right? Yeah, I get that. But I think you guys are going to get there regardless. And uh we need more parents like you, more fiscally responsible parents in the world.

So I wish you the best with the house payoff and uh with with having kids. All right. Thank you.

Glad we could settle the debate. Not crazy. Not crazy. I listen, I wouldn't change that for the world on my end.

But if we were like, "Hey, don't have kids until your baby steps seven." We would

No, we can't say that. We can't say any of it to anybody. Population would decline. We can't have that.

Population decline. Mike is in Houston, Texas. What's going on, Mike? What's your question?

Great. Thanks for taking my call. Um, my question is about accidental life insurance. Accidental death uh life insurance. I got a quote uh from, you know, somebody just kind of sent in the mail. Uh the reason I'm questioning whether I need it or not is the the premium is just so low that it almost seems like why wouldn't I take it? I'm 60. My wife's 61. We make about 150,000 a year. Have no debt. Uh net worth is about 1.8. House is paid for. It's about 400,000. The rest is in uh mutual funds. um 401k, IAS, things like that, and plus some savings.

Do you have term life? I do. I'm sorry. Yeah. And I also have a term life policy uh for both my wife a smaller amount because she never worked. Uh it's about 100,000 and I have about 500,000 on myself. So again, I'm wondering, do I need again? It's just such a

What were you What were the numbers on it? What were you trying to What's the amount of money money you're trying to obtain

upon accidentally dying? Yeah, that's kind of how we all know, not intentionally.

Exactly. That's assuming the if you die an airplane, it's $400,000, but the premium is only 20 bucks a month.

So, what would happen if you upped what if you upped your policy from uh one uh I'm sorry, from 500 to 700? I'm sure it would be comparable, if not less. It's n it's it's not because I have looked at that. So again, in order to change my health life insurance policies, upping it actually puts it into a different, you know, I'm kind of

Yeah. And so the the term policies even changing a little bit makes it uh not affordable. So

well, the truth is accidental death insurance is a gimmick insurance and and we never recommend that. And I don't do it because it's a good deal and it's a low amount. The truth is you don't need it. If something happened to you, she's going to have $500,000. If something happens to her, you got 100 grand plus all of your retirement money. So you guys are at the point where you could consider yourself self-insured, right?

Yeah, that's right. It's kind of in that balance right now of, you know, I feel like I could be, you know, but I don't I don't feel like enough to where I drop the life insurance.

I would never tell you to drop it, but how long do you have left on the term policies? 10, right? Oh, by 10 years,

10 years from now, your wealth has doubled, if not tripled, right? Possibly. Yeah.

And just based on stock market returns and your income. Yeah. And if something happened to you, your would your wife be able to live on the nest eggs that you have. You've got the paid for house. You'd have, you know, uh, over, you know, 3 million sitting in your 401ks. Do you think she'd be able to live off that?

She She would. 300,000 a year. Yeah, she would. And that's where the the just the the anx coming in. It's like it's just a small dollar amount. It's almost just a gamble. It's like gambling. You throw another quarter in there and see if it hits or not. Um is why I was questioning it, but you almost I guess you had me when you said it's a gimmick.

It is a gimmick. I mean, think about it like this. You could you could like let's go down this hole. You could play it like that. Um I would never recommend it, but it's kind of like what we say with things like crypto and single stocks. when your when your stuff is done right, you've done the baby steps, you've got extra, those things are considered gambling. It's like play money at that point. But in this case,

it just is I mean, it's all none of it's necessary. But it's just redundant. Yeah. You don't need it cuz then it's like, well, what if you get the accidental death and you don't you don't get in a car accident and a hurricane doesn't land on right on your face. Like what? You don't get the money at that point. So, it's at that point if I'm going to throw away that kind of money and I really am like give me the $400,000. The better gamble would be to pay a little bit more on the term life

and to do it like that. But really, you're once that policyy's done, you're going to let it lapse anyway or you're going to let it go anyway because you don't need it.

So, it's really at this point we're really just looking at it logically and logically it doesn't make sense.

I would skip it and put that 20 bucks in a fun money line item and have some fun instead of freaking out. But man, how if your wife would be so mad if you died of natural causes after paying for this accidental life insurance for so long?

Gosh, just passed peacefully in his sleep. Dang it, Mike. $100,000 was on the line. I hope you live a long life, Mike. Want to put that out there. I love entrepreneurs. Don't forget guys, I started my company on a card table myself. So, I know what it's like to have people counting on you, your team, your family, not to mention your customers. And when you're the one signing the paychecks, you can't afford to fly blind. But I'll be honest, early on, one thing that nearly sunk us was wasting time with spreadsheets that didn't add up because business units didn't talk to each other. I finally told my team, just fix it. And they did.

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That's netswuite.com/ramsey. Mary is in New York City up next. What's going on Mary?

Hi guys. Thanks for taking my call. How are you? Sure. We're doing great. Good. Um, I just have a question about how you would handle a situation when you disagree with your spouse about going into debt.

Tell us the tell us the tea. What's going on? Um, so it's regarding our vehicles. Um, we both drive uh paid off vehicles. I drive a 2022 Ford Expedition which we bought um used uh went into a little bit of debt but paid it off very quickly. My husband drives a 2019 um Toyota 4Erunner and has wanted a truck for a long time and is kind of done waiting. We've prioritized other uh financial goals for a long time and now he just thinks he wants to go into debt to get it.

Why would you have to go into debt? What about Well, let me ask a couple questions. You guys still have debt or everything's gone now?

Everything's gone. We have a fully funded emergency fund. Um, we have three kids, two of which have 529, so we're saving good

uh for their college. We we fully fund our Roth IAS every month. Good. And um so you're financially

you're financially responsible adults is that is what I would say. What What is on fire that he needs to sacrifice all that you've built? I mean, can why why can you guys not save up and pay cash for this truck?

Yeah, I I think we can. I think it would take some time to save up the difference between the trade in value and then we've got some other money set aside. Um,

how long would it take like our I would say probably a year, maybe less than that if we were working extra hard.

Well, forget the trade in. What if you sold at private party and got five grand more for the 4Runner and then use that towards the truck on top of your savings?

So, I would actually do some math and go, okay, what truck are we getting? Are we getting is it a used truck?

It is. And it's about 55,000. Okay. And what could he sell his forunner for a private party?

I would say probably about 30. Okay. So we have a $25,000 gap. How much could you guys put aside right now towards that savings goal every month?

Uh every month probably between a,000 and 1500. Okay. So this is going to take longer than a year based on that math. Well, we've got another we've got about 15 um we've set it aside for our kit for our oldest daughter's vehicle, but that's about five or six years down the road. So, we could use that that's outside of our emergency fund. So, uh we were thinking we could also use some of that cash to to fund the car.

And then you'd restart the the car fund for her. Correct. Okay, that's reasonable. Mhm. And they should also be working too

that hey, if we put this much away every month January or December of 2026, you can get the car.

I want to get to the bottom of him though. Uh because what when you tell me this um Mary, I'm thinking everybody wants a brand new car tomorrow, right? Like I'm looking out in the audience. You do you want a car tomorrow? Do you want one? We all want a brand new car tomorrow. So, like there's this adult part of us that says that's not the way the world works. And I I personally consider it pretty pretty abnormal, not in the Rams verse, but out in the world. Pretty abnormal to say, "And not only do I want a new car, a new to me car, but I could save to get it in a year." That's pretty spectacular. And I think that he needs to be brought back into like brought back down to earth to say most people would love a brand new car and could not afford to save up because they've got other debt, other other things to worry about. They could not save up for it for a year. So it's almost like he's lost perspective on

what you've accomplished and what it allows you to do that is so much different than the average American. Does that make sense?

Yeah, I agree 100%. And I think that's why I'm calling because um this is just sort of a fork in the road and I'm kind of to the point where I'm like, "Okay, do we just do this?" So he kind of

No, don't concede. Cuz here's the thing, okay? His brain is ahead of his bank account.

It's that simple. Yeah. And so you need to say, "We worked our butts off to get out of debt." It is a value of both of us that we are not a family who goes into debt. We're done. That's an old us that is gone. that toddler raging inside of us, that instant gratification, that's that's the past. We're not doing that in the future. We're adults. We've been thinking about a long time. Let's save for a long time.

And so, if he wants it faster, work harder, dude. Go make more money. Cut more expenses.

Mhm. That's the conversation to have tonight. I don't know if we can convince him. You don't get between a man and a truck.

Uh, I would I would stand firm. There are very Okay, this is we're getting into marriage stuff here. So, George, there's very few things that with Sam I put I like put my steak in and I'm like, you know what? And I'll tell him ahead of time, this is something I don't think I'm going to budge on. Like, we're going to have this conversation a lot of times like

hey, we have a comfy couch cuz you'll be sleeping over there. Yes. Be especially like if I know that I if I know I'm right and I'm talking I always think I'm right, but when I really think I'm right, I there are certain things that you have to say, you know what? And I think this would be one of those, Mary, that I would say, "This is something that is very important to me, and I don't see myself rolling over on this anytime soon, and here's why." And I'd be I'd be getting firm. I'd be getting in my stance. Just saying.

Yeah. And I feel like I've done that. Um he thinks I'm a hypocrite because we went into debt to buy my vehicle um against his will

three years ago. But was it against his will? No. No. Um, it was not. It was back when you were both stupid, right?

Yeah. And now you're both smart. Like, you got to remind him of this. Be like, that was old us. We've transformed since then. We were both doing stupid stuff back then, but then we got smart. Why would we go back?

Well, I I get to do it once, too. You know, it truly is just the toddler inside of us, and it's going, I want Big Tw. And you're like, you can have Big Twuck one year from now. I want Big Tw now. And it's like, okay, we can all throw our tantrum, but at some point he has to realize that he has a family. He has a wife. It's not just him making stupid decisions. It affects other people in his life, namely you right now.

Yeah, I agree. So, he's going to have that truck and it's going to be so much sweeter when he walks in there and writes a check and walks away and he actually owns that truck instead of being underwater on it or worrying about a payment after you guys work so hard to get out of debt. Now you're back in baby step two, stressed out with three kids. You guys have a lot of expenses coming up.

Uhhuh. Between college and cars, he's got fatigue, sports, he's got he's got Is this a midlife crisis, Mary? Is he just done? He's like, how old is he?

A little bit 37. Uh, you know, I talk about this in the book. I'm going to go to this real quick because, and I'm probably gonna Let's go ahead and send them a copy. I don't know if he'll read it. Maybe he'll do the audio version. But, um, I talk about this. It's this fatigue that sets in um and it makes you mad. It makes you angry. It's in the anger chapter when you're making a good income. You've done so many things right, but you're still not at whatever you think the finish line should be. And there's just certain things that you think, I deserve that. I work hard. I did this. And and you look at the list of accomplishments and you go, I deserve to have XYZ. And in his mind, it's I deserve to have this truck.

And that is such a dangerous place to be. that I deserve because it is just we saw it with co when there was the revenge spending.

We had to be locked up in our houses and we couldn't see our families and we had to wear a mask and as a result I'm going to buy all the Lululemon that my Italy. I'm going to Italy and it is a it's a natural response. So, I'm not mad at your husband, but I do want to stop him from doing something that I think he's actually going to regret because then next thing you know, he's going to be the one calling the show talking about I bought a truck and next thing I know, I lost I lost my job, my wife's mad at me, right? So, we're just trying to help him. I'll send you a copy of the book.

What's your household income? Okay. Thank you. What Hey, what's your household income, Mary, before you go?

Um, about 170. Okay. And what's your car worth? probably 55. We we bought it for I think 60 back in 2023 when we had our third.

Well, here's here's what I want to throw out there. Our parameter around cars and things that go down in value, boats, motorcycles, whatever, is that it should add up to no more than half of your annual income. So, the truth is you guys are going to have way too much car considering your income and your financial world. And so, here's my compromise. He can have the truck now if he goes out and gets a $25,000 car and sells his 4Runner.

Could we find a sweet truck? I suggested that. How much better are they 5 years later? Is the technology really that much better?

I I don't know. I don't really care about trucks, but he he does. Well, he just wants the newest, shiniest thing. I would say here's the compromise. We can use whatever cash we have now to get the truck that we can afford with that amount of money. And if we can't afford that, you want a nicer truck, we got to wait. And we have to make more money. It's way too much of our world to have $110,000 tied up with things going down in value even when we make 170.

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Today's question of the day is brought to you by Y Refi. When it feels like your private student loans have buried your future, YFI can help you dig out with a low fixed rate refinancing and a clear path forward. Go to yrefi.com/ramsey. That's the letter yfy.com/ramsey. Not available in all states. Okay, today's question comes from Jenna in Illinois. She says, "My husband and I are in baby step two, but are also in stor mode as we'll have our first baby in a few months." That's exciting. My question is, how do you deal with the pregnancy cravings? This is not going where I thought it was. If I let myself, I would be building this baby on McDonald's French fries and Oreo cookies. So far, I've done my best to limit those cravings and not let them take over. But this is not easy. Is it okay to splurge on a drive-thru French fry order once a week? The cravings really do get wild sometimes, and the

emotions the emotional swing is crazy. Should I work on letting the cravings pass or can I splurge a little until they go away later in my pregnancy? Oh my gosh, I I love this question. This is real. This is not what I was talking.

Yeah. Okay. What's your take, Jade? I fight me in the comments if you must. You're all, you know, some of us pregnancy is one of those once in a lifetime, some of us twice in a lifetime, four times in a lifetime thing. Go get some French fries for crying out loud. Please, woman, go get the French fries. Uh, that's all I have to say on the matter. My sister told me this and she either told me this to make me feel better or maybe it is scientific, but if the baby asks for it, it's cuz you need it.

There you go. You just need to have it. It's science. It's science. It says that you need energy. if you crave carbs or you need it's telling your body something is what she told me. Pre-dad George would be like, "No, you stick to the plan no matter what." And then I had to deal with a pregnant woman with cravings. I don't want to get in the middle of a pregnant woman and her craving. It is Yes, ma'am. I am on it.

Now, could you do things? Um, you know what? I think she went the I think she was salty like salty snacks

and then it switched to sweets with the our latest. Can I tell you mine? If that crispy cream light was on,

the hot sign's on. You bet. Stop. Better bet Jade's in that drive-thru. You could not stop me. You still can't stop me.

I do think limiting it is good because it can turn into a habit. And I would try to go, hey, what cravings can we accomplish through shopping at the grocery store versus eating out cuz that's where it triples or quadruples.

Yeah, cuz that's the market. A potato is a potato. Um has great ones in the air fryer.

I was going to say you can get Now it's McDonald's fries are top tier. Their diet coke is top tier. If you know, you know, it's different.

You can't get a Diet Coke from the store and it hit the same. That's just the truth. Ask any woman.

That's true. But are there Can we get Oreos from the store? Sure. And that's a grocery line item.

Um, so if those are your cravings and you can grocery shop for them, I would say fair game.

How much is a McDonald's? Let's You want to know what I would do to make you feel better? What's the math on it? How much is a McDonald's large fry?

I would say I don't know, three or four bucks. Probably $5. Oh god. This price is right. $2.

$4 time. Yeah, I was going to say four bucks. Okay, so four bucks once a week. That's about, you know, you're talking 16 bucks a month.

Uhhuh. That's not bad. 20 bucks a month after tax. I would cut something else out of the budget in order to make this the priority that it needs to be.

Put a cravings line item and set it for that $20 amount. That's right. And then you kind of have the permission to spend without guilt and without getting in a fight. You could lower uh hypothetically you could lower your grocery budget by six $16 and just make a sub and just say you know what I will make this I will make this happen

sacrifice in another area so that you don't lose your progress trade-off but there's not a lot you can do and the thing with pregnancy cravings they they'll just switch and you're like well I just bought nine pounds of pickles and now you hate pickles you can't stand the smell of pickles

that's my life it does happen what was Whitney's aversion um I want I don't remember if it was coffee.

Oh, the smell of coffee. She's going to correct me. It's all a blur when you have a pregnant wife. It's there's a lot going on, especially when you got a toddler and the and she's pregnant, you're surviving.

Yep. Yep. Yep. So, no shade thrown at Jenna for wanting some fries once in a while.

All right. Colton is in Huntsville up next. What's going on, Colton? Hey, how are you doing?

Great. What's your question? Uh, so I uh retired from the military. I'm 38. uh moved up to Huntsville, Alabama to take a sales job after I tried some sales in Florida and figured I might be pretty good at this unique opportunity and it's just doortodoor cold calling all day every day on churches, schools, and businesses selling LED signs. Well, my first year I made about $100,000.

Woo! Uh so it's going pretty good. Well, now this year is my second full year and I've made about $52,000.

Whoa, dude. You can sell some LED. Yeah. And uh my retirement's about 68,000 a year tax-free. Um I don't have anything else set up. I mean, I've got healthcare the rest of my life. My

Yeah. Well, thank you for your service, by the way. And I'm glad you've transitioned uh into the workplace so effectively and spectacularly.

Yeah, it's been Yeah. Well, yeah, it's been good. I like people. I like I like.

Now, was this just a random good year or is it you like I could do this every year? This is consistent.

Oh, well, it's a unique situation cuz I'm basically also in a roundabout way operating as a COO of the whole company because uh it's just a unique situation with the way the business structured. So, I I grinded a lot harder than I did the first year. This year I probably won't stress myself out as much to to hit this level because we're just not internally set up to handle this amount of work by myself because I have to go quote the job, sell the job, acquire the customer, see it get installed, close it all out every you have enough money, can you hire an assistant? Can you?

Um, that's that's been recommended. Now, I've done a very good job delegating and and and paying people on the side to close things out so that I could move on to other jobs and and other, you know, things like that. But I haven't thought about that yet. But I just I wasn't set up. I didn't see it was going to happen this way. So, I didn't have a LLC or anything set up. So, he's just been cuz I'm a 1099 straight commission.

Have you set aside money for taxes? Well, I've saved about 430 of the 502 that I've made this year.

Oh my gosh. You don't need it. That's That's what's crazy about this. Yeah. So, I Yeah. So, I've saved it just all out of fear of I didn't know what my taxes were going to be. I didn't know what

Yeah. You might have $150,000 tax bill. So, I'd be on those quarterly estimated payments and and not be shocked

because you could get penalties and fees. hired an accountant and then a lawyer to set up an LLC so that this next year I start getting paid through the LLC, start it auto itemizing. I got a 401k that I'm going to set up. I just I owe about 280 on my house. It's worth probably 350. That's the only debt I have. No credit card debt.

So, what's your question? My thing uh is do I just my I have this huge goal of not having a house payment. Um, and my I guess my question is, do I take 70,000 and max out and put into the contribution my 401k to avoid taxes on that or do I just eat what my taxes are going to be, see where my money's at, and pay the house off?

If I were you, I would invest up to 15%. Assuming you've got 3 to six months of of expenses set aside. If you don't, take some cash, set it aside, earmark it as an emergency fund. If I were you, I'd do 6 months. Um, I would then uh make sure you're investing 15% once you get that 401k set up. That's that's the magic number you want. 15% of your gross income,

which that's 75 grand if you made 500. Yeah. Like I could max contribute this year the way I've got set up is 70 grand. And I didn't know if

if I should do that or just pay the taxes, what I'm going to take the hit that I'm

How old are you get hit with? I'm 38. Okay. I mean, you're basically frontloading a new retirement fund right there with 70 grand. That's gonna That's amazing. Now, if you want to pay off the house,

the rest of my life is about 70 grand taxree and then of course it goes up with inflation.

Yeah. But if you wanted to pay off the house today and you just still have money left over to pay all your taxes and then we'll, you know, then you're really set up to build some serious wealth cuz if you keep making this money and you just invest most of it, you're going to have about 10 or$20 million at 60 at 60 years old. Yeah. Yeah. And so that's that's just kind of where I was at is do I take that lump sum and go ahead and put it into a 401k to avoid paying taxes on it and get it invested or do I just take the hit that I'm going to get hit on tax?

Well, the good news is the house is going to get paid off. Yeah, it's going to get paid off fast regardless. I would get with your tax accountant and go, "Hey, what's my best tax-saving strategy so I don't give the IRS more than I have to

and any money left over, pay the taxes with, and whatever's left after that, throw it at the mortgage, and you'll pay off the house next year."

And Colton, good job. Well done, my guy. Well, guys, we've been celebrating all week long Jade Warshaw's new book, What No One Tells You About Money is officially here. If you've ever known what to do with your money but still couldn't follow through, it's not a discipline problem. Your emotions are getting in the way. Frustration, fear, shame, anger, all of that shows up in how we handle money. And this book brings behavioral finance down to earth. And Jade and her husband have lived it. And she unpacks it masterfully in a way that will grip you. You'll read this book in like two days max. It helps you understand what's really happening.

Gives you a practical approach to master those emotions that are sabotaging your money. You can get your copy for $24.99 at ramseyolutions.com/store. If you're on YouTube or podcast, just click the link in the description. Sarah is in Chicago. Up next, what's going on, Sarah?

Hi. So, I'm 23 and I graduated college in May of 25. And when I graduated, I had two full-time jobs making over $8,000 a month after taxes. And lifestyle crew kind of hit me. So, for my grad gift, I bought a used Porsche for 20,000. And then I moved to Chicago, which doubled my living expenses. And then unexpectedly last month, one of my jobs ended. It was a contract. And so now I only have one job. And I realized I could barely cover my bills with that job. And so I stopped investing for my 401k, which left me like a $200 buffer after. But then my student loan payment deferment period ended. And so now I have a 500 monthly payment that just does not fit in my budget and I can't afford it. So

So now you're back in the red like negative 300. Exactly. What's the income? 4,000. What did it go down to?

Um so now after tacos I'm making like 4,900 and my basic budget is like 4,700. Okay. So what it sounds like happened and it happens to the best of us. You got excited cuz you were you were doing well. Um, and I get it, but you kind of started doing things out of order. And so now what I think George and I are going to attempt to do is is get you back on track and doing things in the proper order.

We're going to right size, as they call it in the corporate world. Right sizing. You were investing. It wasn't quite time to invest yet. You were buying a car, but it was time to pay off the student loans. It was like kind of all jumbled up. So, first off, the student loans, is that is that the only debt you have, or is there other debt? Um, besides the car loan, just those two.

Okay. So, the student loans, you said about 500 bucks a month, but what's the the the full amount?

It's 46,000. Okay. And then the car, what's the full amount of that? 20,000. Okay. And there's nothing else? No credit cards, no medical, nothing else?

No, nothing else. Okay. Do you have any money saved? I have uh 60k total like 40 45 in investments and 20k or 15 in my emergency fund.

So $15,000 emergency fund. I love that you said that. So the way we would teach it and remember the the point is to do this in the right order. Um if I were to tell you, oh great, $15,000 saved in the in the in the face of debt, it's not really your money, right? Because you owe 46,000 to one place and 20,000 to another. So, is it fair to to say that that's not actually yours?

Yes. Yes. So, what I would suggest you do, but it's also fair to say, well, I need a little bit of a of a buffer, Jade. So, that's the way the baby steps are set up.

The first thing you need, you just need a,000 bucks. It's you. You just need a,000 bucks between you and the rest of the world so that if something comes up, you can deal with it without going into debt. So, that's what I would do. I'd put $1,000 aside and then that would leave you $14,000 and I would take that and I would throw it at this debt because the next step is for you to pay off your consumer debt. And so with that 14, you're going to come, you know, very, very close to knocking out the car. And then as you're paying off the debt, you're going to work to increase your income so you can do it even faster. And then after the debt's gone, now we can start to save up an emergency fund and it will actually be your money.

it will actually be what it's intended to be, which is a safety net and a sense of security against all the things that might try to come at you versus what it is today, which is kind of just this nagging feeling that it's there, but it's not really yours and there's the debt there. Let's we're trying to solve for peace here,

right? Yeah. How does that hit you? Um, I' I've listened to you guys' show for a while, so I know that you guys you typically talk about doing like the $1,000 emergency fund, but it really scares me. I I was a foster kid who like aged out of assistance, so I don't have like there's nothing I can fall back on if let's say I lose my other job. Like I mean, I can I can go back to being a server or doing anything like I will never, you know, but it just really scares me to have nothing in savings, you know? Like that really scares me.

like 1,000. It's like that my rent is $2,200. I couldn't even pay my rent, you know? Like that scares me.

Here's the alternative, though. It scares me to have you sitting with $66,000 of debt and it's going to take you forever to pay it off if you're the normal American. And so, this is a scary move that makes you really, it lights a fire under you to get out of debt faster cuz right now you're kind of comfortable with the emergency fund and comfort is the enemy of progress in this case. And so once you throw that at the debt, you're like, "Oh, game on." Like, "We're in this thing." So, do you have a bunch of student loans? Are they broken up or is it one giant loan?

It's a bunch. And some are um It's a bunch. Yeah. So, you could probably knock out with the 14K if you got smaller debts that are smaller than 20K. You could probably knock out a few student loans right there, which frees up those payments, right?

Yeah. Which could get you at least to a break even point. And then what is your rent every month? My rent is uh 2200 and there's a big problem.

Are you living alone? I do. Okay. That's eating that's eating your lunch right now as far as your take-home pay to to rent ratio. It's 45%.

Is there a way to get a roommate? Yeah. Um, in my current, um, it's probably the simplest, but like in my current living situation, I couldn't have a roommate, but um, I I could like when this lease ends, I could move somewhere else, but that my lease isn't until October, so that's not like helpful, you know, until October.

Yeah. Uh, what about take picking up a second job? I'm super open. Like I've been like interviewing and stuff but it's you know um right after the holidays people are interviewing but you know especially I work in tech so it's just multiple interviews if you take months so it's just like nothing right now but I'm open to like getting a serving job or something like that. I mean that I think

I do that immediately until the job that you really want does open up. It's going to do it's going to help out your budget number one but it's also going to help out your mental state because that feeling of oh my gosh I'm just barely making it. I don't have a job. I'm not making the income. you don't want that to persist. And so bringing in income, getting your budget right side up is really going to help you. It's going to help you perform better in the interviews. It's going to, you know, all of that is going to be affected by that.

Um, I want to send you a copy of the book because the fear that you were talking about earlier about being a foster kid. I talk I talk in the book about fear of of the fear of doing a certain action um can actually keep us in a more scary place. And George said that it's scarier to sit with $60,000 of debt and it's almost like you're not able to see how scary that is because of this other fear that's operating over here that we can actually do something about. And so I want to walk you through that because this is so common and it makes a lot of sense. I have empathy for that and I want to validate like I that makes total sense that you would be you know have that scarcity mentality in that way. But it doesn't mean that it's an excuse to say stay that way. I think we can walk you through it because right now you're calling in the show.

So, you're up against it regardless, right? So, let's get you from against that wall and get you moving forward and not let that fear stop you from the progress that George and I both know that you can make.

Are you living in the city, Sarah? Yes, I live like downtown. Okay. Do you need a car right now? Um, I mean, in Chicago, no, you don't need a car. But I think I'm from like rural Illinois, so I'm just very used to having a car. I don't know how to not have a car. But I I mean, I think Chicago has great transit, so I

Yeah, I mean, that's what I was going to say is I mean, you could really get out of debt much faster. You take your 14 plus the the Porsche is worth 20 at least.

Yeah. That's pretty wild. That's half your debt gone right there. I would do that

because here's here's the napkin math. If you don't sell the car, but you take the 14, apply it to your debt, leaves you with 52,000. Now, if you apply 1,000 a month, you're done in 52 months. You apply 2,000 a month, you're done in 26 months, about 2 years. Right now, we don't even have a dollar to scratch together because of our budget.

So, that's where I'm just showing you the reality. If we stay the same, you are going to be in debt for a long time. If you decide to make some drastic changes, two years from now, you could be debtree. you make two grand a month take home from this other job where you sell the Porsche. Now we're making progress. That's the goal here. So hang on the line. We're going to send you Jade's new book, What Noone Tells You About Money. We're rooting for you, Sarah. You got this.

Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fair Winds Credit Union studio. I'm George Camel here with Jade Warshaw taking your calls at88255225. Megan is in Virginia Beach. What's going on, Megan? How can we help today?

Hey, thank you for having me. Absolutely. Um, I need some advice, y'all. And it really, it boils down to two things. The first is, um, how to approach the conversation with my husband about the benefits of combining our finances. And the second is whether that's even appropriate. So, to give you a little bit of context, my husband and I have been married for 2 years. Um, I came into the marriage with uh a mortgage, about $280,000 in mortgage, um, but otherwise no debt, and he came to the marriage with close to $300,000 in student loan debt and no assets.

And, you know, this is something that obviously we knew we had talked about. Um and unfortunately he was unemployed for the first year of our marriage. Um and it has since regained employment. He's doing well. Um but during this time our finances have been completely separate. um you know he's jade some of the things actually that you talk about um I think he's got some emotional baggage that's tied to that amount of student loan debt and he's concerned that you know should we combine finances there's a possibility that um the creditors may come after combined assets or they may try to um adjust his payment schedule based on our combined income and I think that those are all valid results but Um some of the conversations I've had with him are well I would I think there's major benefit to combining our incomes because um just the visibility, right? We would be on the same page. We would be able to plan for

things together like retirement. We wouldn't have to have the conversation about who's going who's going to pay for dinner on Friday night, who's picking up the you know like stuff like that.

And um you know he's making a little bit of money now. Um, he hasn't started paying the student loan debts yet. Oh my gosh. It's a different story. But

what does he make and what do you make? Yeah. So, I make about $140,000 a year. Um, and he makes about 130 right now. Okay. But he owns his own business. So, after all of the overhead, I think last year he took up he took home about 40.

What? Oh, so his income is only 40. It's not 130k. Yes. When you say took home, like on his taxes,

his revenues were 130, but his his salary after expenses, he really made 40 according to the IRS,

right? Right. And so, you know, part of that is owning your own business. Uh, you know, we he writes off a lot of things overhead right now.

What did he go to school for? I'm sorry. Lawyer. And what kind of business does he do?

He's got his own law practice. Okay. How long How long has he been at it? about five years

and each year he's made 40,000 or less or more. Um well he uh no this year has been the best year. Um but I will say that

let me ask you a question. Is he a good lawyer? He he is that's where I was going is that his earning potential is going to keep keep going. And so what's holding him back?

Can he go work for someone else and make 50, 60, 70, 80K today? He can, but he won't.

Why not? He won't. He can't work for other people. Why? He doesn't play nice with others.

Kind of. He's tried. But he's really a lawyer. Truly. Tell I I I need to understand that because if it's if it's a real thing, it's a real thing. But if it's just a preference, then we have something that we actually need to talk about, right?

Yeah. So, I've structured this conversation by saying because I've brought this up before, you know, why don't you go to local law firm ABC and yeah, you're going to have some taxes that are come going to come or your some payments that are come expenses that are going to come out of your payroll, but at the end of the day, like we can budget and we can, you know, start to get on the same same page about these things. It's not like feast or famine.

Yeah. um building a business is is is different than just being good at the task that the business does,

right? Yeah. And he it's a good question. Um and I'm just we're we're looking at just basic napkin math going if you make 40k, you're not going to pay off 300k.

Yeah. And that's kind of what I've been struggling with in in addition to the conversation of combining our finances.

Here's the thing. You you you married this guy. I'm just going to I'm going to try to shoot you straight here. You married this guy. So So you are one today. You're one. Um the things that you're talking about Yeah. Yeah. You could benefit from a counselor. It seems like there's some things that you're uh frustrated with, unhappy with, and you've had the conversations and it seems like it's to no avail. you could use a third party mediating between that so that you guys can come to a way that you discuss this and it actually makes progress cuz right now it feels like you you've just hit a wall and you feel like it doesn't matter what I say he's not listening on on the issue of him making 40,000 for the fifth year in his own law firm that's not really a law firm. Okay.

Now, as for the com combining of money, I do believe you need to combine your money because at that point, we're talking about goals and a shared lifestyle, shared values, and so I think that's important to do. Is it that he doesn't want to combine or is it that you don't want to combine because of the things you listed earlier? No, actually I've been a complete com uh I wanted to combine um just because you know I married I knew that he had the student loan debt but at the end of the day like you were saying the goals and the values are much more important to me than you know other things that we can work through that I knew about.

Good. Um but he has been hesitant to combine the finances because um at some point he's going to have to start paying on student loan debt and there he's concerned that his payment is going to be larger because there's the value.

Here's my thing. I think that's BS. I think this is all about pride and shame. I think so too.

And he doesn't want to drag you into his mess cuz he made it and he's a big man and he's going to take care of it. I don't think this is about a restructured payment that he's worried about.

Because if the goal is to pay the debt gum thing off, then the payment amount doesn't matter anyway because you'd be paying well above whatever they'd assigned to you anyway, right?

Yeah. Right. Well, yeah. I And I've always been I think it's also kind of a diff differences in how we approach debt because I've always been aggressive when it comes to repayment.

Um, hence the no debt. Well, this goes back to the goals and values part, which is if you combine these are the things that you talk about over your your money meetings. You you sit down with your spouse and you say, "Okay, you share here. Here's where here's what I'm feeling." And I I said told somebody this earlier today. You sit down and you say, "You know what? I've been feeling there's a disconnect with our money. Um I feel like this is an area that we really could work to be closer on and have more transparency and have more support for one another. I want to support you. I see the debt that is in your name and I want to help. I want us to be one on this and I would love if we could get on the same page. That's the first conversation and start to bring those walls down. That's why I said a mediator can help. And then we need to once you get on the same page of yeah, let's pay off this debt. Now it's how

intense how intense are we going to get? The byproduct is the budget cuz I'll tell you it's a lot easier to pay down 300,000 with 180,000 income instead of 40,

right? And so you are the light at the end of this tunnel. You just need to convince them that this is our debt and we're going to pay it off together. And there's no shame here. Put it down. Let's get to work.

Send her a copy of the book. Christian, please. Thank you. How many times have you started January saying, "This is the year I'm finally going to get my money under control." But then months go by, and you still feel broke. You work too hard to keep living like that. Look, there's only one way to move the needle on your finances this year. You've got to have a plan. So, start by downloading Every Dollar. Every dollar is way more than our worldclass budgeting app. In 15 minutes, we'll build you a personalized plan to free up extra margin in your budget and use it to beat debt and build wealth.

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Alex is up next in Chicago. What's going on, Alex? What's your question today? Hi, guys. Uh, I'm just kind of calling to see if I uh can make a career change and become like an entrepreneur in my foot in life.

Okay, tell us more. What are you doing now? I'm a heavy equipment operator. I make pretty good money. I'd say I made six figures last year, which I guess just ended a couple weeks ago. And that was my first year making that much money. So, I kind of got a lot of life coming at me right now.

100,000 or 200,000? Yeah. 100,000. 4,000. Okay. Way to go. And what you said you had a lot of life coming at you. What does that mean?

Yeah. So, my my daughter just turned one, actually, New Year's Day. Uh my other daughter is going to be born in April. Uh and I just closed on a house.

Woo. Well, I'm getting married in October of this year. So, Okay. Okay. So the question is, you're wanting to transition out of your job doing heavy equipment into possibly starting your own business. What would the business be? The the same thing you're doing now just on your own or something different?

Uh no, it'd probably be something pretty different. Honestly, I was looking at getting into real estate and I was talking to one of my buddies and he was saying that uh home inspectors make really good money and that when he it was specifically mobile home inspectors, he was looking at purchasing one and he said that the only guy in the area was booked out for like a year.

Um I was looking to transition into that. So, what's I'm trying to get to the core of what's driving this. Is what's driving this? I don't like my current job and I'm just looking for something else that seems like it could be interesting. Is what's driving this? I need to make more money and this seems like something that could make me more money cuz it's not I love mobile home inspecting so let me go do that. Right. So, what's driving this?

Right. Well, um I guess being dream of mine as well as uh like last year, like I said, I made good money, but I worked a lot of hours and I just want to be able to be more present in my daughter's lives.

Okay, I see. So, it's it's it's time is what you're trying to get back. Yeah, I guess. Yeah.

Okay, that's a good place to start. And I I I think that's noble. I love that. Do you have any debt? No debt?

No, I'm debtree. debtree. Um getting getting ready to get married. I'm about to buy

Yeah, you got the mortgage. Uh is your your soon tobe wife, fiance, will she be working or is she going to stay home with the kids?

She's uh she's currently a stay-at-home mom and she probably will be up until they go to school, I'd say, at least.

Okay. So, probably about five or six years, you know. Okay. So, what do you guys need to to live and to accomplish your financial goals? Could you live on? Because here's the thing. Home inspectors, I just looked it up. The average salary is 55 to 62,000 a year. So, I I don't want you to jump into this and go, "Well, I'm going to be making more. I'll own my time. I'll be an entrepreneur." It may be a grind and you might need to own your own home inspection business long term to be making six figures.

And you might Yeah. And you might have to be an ex like really really good at it, which is brand new for you in that area. So, there's I feel like there's a huge curve there. So, here's my question. I like to get the dock, you know, the boat close to the dock. So, could you start to go through the the training education process, pass the exams, get licensed if that's required, and you know, maybe a year from now we would revisit this and see if you're still into it and you want to pursue it.

Yeah. I don't see why I wouldn't be able to to, you know, start the process now, but then go fulltime a year, you know, whatever the timeline is.

I'd actually take a step I I would, this is just me based on what I've heard you say. I would take a step back. I would uh I I would do Ken Coleman's Find the Work You're Wired to Do and figure out what it really is that you would be wired to do that you'd be really good at that you could go into business on your own or that you could pursue as a as a different path because this really does and there might be more to it that you didn't say, but it kind of just sounds like, oh, here was an idea. I'll just go with that.

Just a random buddy off hand and now it's like total career change. Yeah. And and before you sink time and money and effort, I would really explore your option. Nothing's on fire here. So, you've got time to really narrow it down and go, you know, what do I want to do? What would I be good at? What would really light my fire? Because long term, you're going to want something that you're passionate about doing. So, you actually stick with it. The money is not going to be enough. The time thing won't even be enough to sustain you if it's not something that you really really want to be doing. So, that's what I would do if I were in your shoes. I would just drill down a little bit more on what what that career needs to be,

okay? And I'd meet with some people who do home inspections for a living and get their take on the business and your area and what's going on, where you can make good money and, you know, what's the difference between working for a company versus yourself. I would get all of that laid out and then decide from there. So, we're going to send you a copy of Ken Coleman's Find the Work You're Wired to Do. There's a Get Clear Career Assessment inside of that. So take that and use those results to then start to narrow down that next thing for you if uh you know the heavy equipment life isn't for you.

Okay. And then when would I know like when I'm prepared to make that leap into becoming you know an entrepreneur?

It really is like George said earlier. So knowing that your wife is going to stay home. Uh calculating what your mortgage is going to be. So there's a couple of principles I'd go by. Number one, your mortgage can't be any more than 25% of your take-home. So that's going to be so so so key because for a lot of people that's the make or break. So working backwards and say here's what we think the mortgage is going to be. Here's what we think it's going to take to operate our lifestyle and knowing exactly what that number is. So you say okay I need to be I I need to find a way that I'm doing the job I'm doing now while starting the new business and slowly but surely that business is going to start making more and more money. So you're going to have a period where you're actually working more now.

Yeah. you're going to be juggling a lot. And then the goal is you go, "Okay, if I scale this home inspection stuff to full-time, this is what I could realistically be making. If I was doing this 40 hours a week instead of eight." So, that's when you know, okay, I'm very clear and you'll know it. You'll go, "Oh my gosh, I love this. I'm making good money doing it. If I left tomorrow, I know I've got enough, you know, leads in the pipeline and connections and work that I could leave this heavy equipment job and go do my own thing."

Okay. Yeah. I guess my my whole thing was like I'm only 22 so I'm pretty young. So I got like a lot of time where like now I could, you know, make the jump. I feel like before it's like I'm solidified. I see a lot of the guys.

But making a jump with a pregnant wife and a one-year-old and a new home is not the time you want to go eat, pray, love and and pursue your dream. Right now you have a family to feed. We can't risk a drop in income.

Yeah. And to your point, you're 22. You have time. You have time, my friend. Do this the right way. Um because what's going to happen is when you start this, here's what could happen. You say, "I'm just gonna make the leap. I'm just gonna jump." You get into it. You hate it and you're not making any money and you're like, "Dang it, why did I do that jump?" Whereas the way we're talking, it also allows you to get your feet wet and decide, do I like this? Is this right for me? You haven't let your big job go yet, right? and you can make the choice and and slowly decide versus I'm just going to jump with both feet and you know God will protect me. They don't want to do it that way.

And uh Alex, we're also going to send you a copy of Dave Ramsey's latest book, Build a Business You Love. And that'll help you on the entrepreneurship side to really get a clear picture of what this is going to take, how do I grow this thing, and not just let it be a little side project and side hustle. Uh and I'm confident, dude, you're 22. You're making $104,000. You're not scared of hard work. That's really the the secret sauce of being an entrepreneur. People think, "Well, Jade, I want to be my own boss and work four hours a week.

You're going to work more than everybody else." Yeah. You That is not entrepreneurship. You got sold a course and a lie. Entrepreneurship is working 80 hours a week for six years just to get the thing off the ground to hope that you can sustain it and then it's still work from there. Ask Dave Ramsey. He's been at it for 30 plus years.

Nothing about it is easy. Nothing about it is passive. If anything, it's more work. But it's rewarding if that's what you're wired to do. So explore it. I wish you the best. And those books are going to be really helpful. Jay, too many people, they I like that he's at least thinking about this at 22. Too many people call us at 42. They're going, "Hey, I hate what I've been doing for the last two decades and I'm burnt out. I'm fatigued. He's doing this from a place of strength right now."

Absolutely. And so time is on his side. I think one of the most dangerous things people can do is get rushed. Cuz when you're rushed, you get sloppy. And when you get sloppy, you make mistakes. He's got time. And most of us do have time. We make it seem like, you know, we're backed against a corner, but we're not. There's options and there's time. And we can take our time and do it right. Like the song says,

When you're tired of feeling stuck with money, there's just one solution. To get different results, you have to do something different. No one accidentally wins with money. You have to have a game plan and that begins with our getstarted assessment. Go to ramseysolutions.com/start. Answer some questions and we'll show you what steps to take next. Don't stay stuck. Take control of your money starting today. Go with ramiesolutions.com/start.

Are you staying on track with the baby steps? You can take a quick quiz to check your progress and get a personalized plan made just for you. Simply head to the show notes of this episode and click on the link titled, "Are you on track with the baby steps?" and complete the quiz. Nicole is in St. Paul, Minnesota up next. Nicole, how are you today?

Good. How are you? Great. How can Jade and I help? Um, I have a question. Um, I am a stay-at-home mom. I have been for over four years now. And I have just been hearing some stories about stay-at-home moms being stay at home moms for 10 plus years and then all of a sudden their husband's wanting a divorce and they have nothing. No financial um, no credit cards in their name, no retirement accounts in their name. Um, and I was like, "Oh, that's me. I don't want to be that person just in case in however many years if something were to happen. Um, and so I'm just wondering what steps I should be taking now to prepare myself financially.

How does your marriage feel today? Like how do you feel about your marriage? Is it in a good place? Do you feel like you guys have been in a in a tough place?

We've been in a tough place um for probably over a year now. Okay. So, is that am I right to say that that could affect how this conversation could go and his openness to the conversation?

Yeah. I mean, I'm not sure honestly. Um, I feel like I I don't suspect that we would want to do that. Um, like to get a divorce or anything but

I mean the conversation about you saying essentially, hey, um, you know, I've been thinking about our money and I've realized I I kind of feel disconnected from it and I've been disconnected from it of my own valition. I haven't paid attention. I haven't, you know, I've kind of let you handle that and I'm realizing that wasn't the right place for me to that wasn't the right stance for me to have on this. It's it's it's our life and I need to it's almost like you putting the ball in your court and say, you know what, I I need to kind of step up here, right? I think that's a good way to approach it.

Um h how do you think he would receive that? Is he open to full transparency? Your name on everything along with mine. Yes, honey, you are the beneficiary on my 401k. right here. I'll show it to you. Like, is he open to that?

Yeah. Yeah. I think so. I used to take care of our finances of like the budgeting and planning and all that. Um, but then just more responsibilities got in my plate, so I gave that to him. And it's and I do feel like if I were to bring it up to him of like, "Hey, let's talk about all this." He'd be like, "Yeah, let's do it. Let's get you on that."

Oh, good. Um, but I but I have a I have a lot of hard time trusting that he'll follow through with that. And so I'm feeling like I I will have to do it if that makes sense.

Well, I think that's okay. If I mean I will say when it comes to money, there does tend to be uh certain spouses will take the lead more so in certain areas, but as long as the transparency is there and both people want to participate in their best in the areas they're best suited, I think that's okay. So if you have the conversation, he says, "Yes, 100%. Here's the password. You know, if you want to pop in there and and just check it, that's cool." Yeah, I think that's great. Um

Okay. Um now, as far as the if the worst happened, right, nobody nobody plans a divorce. So, if if the worst happened,

uh would you be protected? The first step is yes, I'm 50/50 on everything. We do things in both of our names, but there's a lot of it that will go into the hands of the courts. And

in most states, assets accumulated during marriage will be evenly divided 50/50. And you know, if you're a stay-at-home mom, there's going to be spousal support on top of child support. So, unless he's a deadbeat, we've gotten these calls. So, I'm not saying it's out of the ordinary. We get the calls we're like, "Oh, yeah. He just doesn't pay and we can't find him."

Find him. No, I hope that's not this guy. I hope he's an honorable man of integrity and character and takes care of his family, even if in in the event of a divorce. Um, but you know, knowing where the money is at, the accounts, the debts, the passwords, the insurance, making sure that your wills are in place. These are things you should do anyways, regardless of what's going on in your marriage. But I think that's wise. And being a joint owner on the accounts or do you guys have a joint checking account?

We do. Yep. We just have we have one we have one bank account. Both of our names are on it. All of our savings accounts are are there.

Good. Okay. All that stuff is going to help. Um, and I don't even like talking about it in a way cuz I'm not trying to to predict that for you. But I think um,

for the most part when we do get those calls about dead beats, there are there were red flags.

Yeah, there were markers there that indicated that this this person might might end up being that type of person. And it doesn't sound like you have that. It sounds like you got spooked by something you heard. Um, and it's kind of like could could you get in a car accident? Yeah, you could, but are you're a safe driver? You wear your seatelt. You do you see what I'm saying? And so what George and I are suggesting are all of those normal precautions that you should take that are going to keep you safe. Um but

I can't say that there's a 1,00% guarantee that somebody couldn't turn out to be a deadbeat, if that makes sense. The good news is

the good news is you're a smart woman. If if you needed to, you could land on your feet. And I believe that just by talking to you.

Great. Is there is there hope that we're going to resolve this? Like can you guys go to marriage counseling or is this like hey we just this is a fork in the road and it it could go either way.

Um I mean we're doing marriage counseling currently. Good. Um and I think it's helping some. I think this the big part is um I think they like the trust of feeling like I can depend on him in these really major things.

Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Rebuilding trust is I mean that's paramount. The whole relationship is built on that and when it's broken I mean you it's crazy cuz it takes forever to build and you can break it in an instant and then you got to rebuild. And so I'm sorry you guys are going through this. Uh it's it's not a paranoid hypothetical in your life. This is a a real concern and you have a right to be worried. And then I would go do the things I can control. I would work on me. I would work on my marriage. I would make sure that I have access to the accounts, that I'm a joint owner on anything I can be, that I'm legally protected as far as wills and life insurance and beneficiaries. All of that is wise. Uh, can I ask a question about the kids?

Yeah. How old are they? Um, four, two and a half, and two months. If it made you feel better, um, and I'm not saying you need to do this. I'm just I'm just putting myself in your shoes. If I had true worry about the future of my marriage, like truly like, man, I don't know if we're going to get out of this, there might be part of me that would start thinking, if I were to work, what would I be doing? If if if I had to pick up a job, just hypothetically, if I had to pick up a job, what would I do? What would that look like? Would I need a degree? Would I need money? If I had, you know, having that conversation with your with yourself could be a good thing. Again, I I'm stepping very lightly because I'm not trying to I don't There's a difference in trying to plan for a disaster that you know is imminent versus

Mhm. um just putting some bad juju out there, I guess, for lack of a better word.

You're planning a new life and you're sort of already living it in a sense. Like I'm not trying to You see what I'm saying? But only you know where you're at in that relationship and if you were at the point where it started being at I just don't know. I don't know. that would only that would be the smart thing to do for you and your children and and for him too because you want everybody to land on their feet. So, I'll just throw that out there.

Nicole, we're wishing you the best. I hope that there's healing and restoration in this marriage and that this is a thing you never have to deal with and just a thing that you had to think about for a little while, but it is a real concern. And th those calls are heartbreaking when she's like I'm like, "Okay, what's your income?" "Well, yeah, you got divor. What's the child support, the alimony? Oh, he doesn't he hasn't paid. The court's ordered it. He just doesn't.

You have a dead beat, somebody who hasn't been in the workforce for, you know, 15 years, like that sort of thing. It's tough. It's very tough.

But I I do think it's wise. And if you were working before kids, you know, keep those skills sharp. There's nothing wrong with that. And maybe you the kids the marriage is great, the kids go to school, and you decide I want to go back to work anyways.

Right. Exactly. Exactly. And so, man, that's that's tough. Um, we always say that, you know, marri mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar mar marriage is grand, divorce is 50 grand and that it turns marriage into a business transaction and that's really sad but then it becomes okay who gets what? What accounts go where and it just kind of becomes this split this chasm that you have to deal with and I mean you got young kids in the mix too which just makes things way more complicated and it's heartbreaking.

So the best thing to do is prevent a divorce and have a healthy strong marriage. have the accountability and transparency. And that's why we recommend combining accounts. Then there's no surprises. You can't have financial infidelity. When she gets transaction alerts on everything I do, which is what we do in my family, I'm like, when did you spend? Okay. I'd rather have that than I didn't know you did that.

Oh, absolutely. I have every password. Every single one. Sam Waraw, watch your back, bro.

Don't try it. He would never. He never would. All right, let's cut to the chase. It's easy to get discouraged about crazy house prices and interest rates, but when you have the right real estate agent to help you buy and sell the right way, you'll have confidence to make smart decisions. Ramsay trusted agents aren't just experts who guide you through buying or selling. They're people you can trust to have your back from the first call to closing day. Find a Ramsey trusted agent near you at ramseyolutions.com/agent.

That's ramseyolutions.com/ scripture of the day, Hebrews 13:16. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. Mark Twain said, "Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest." True words. Deborah is in Dallas up next. What's going on, Deborah? How can we help?

Yes. I was wondering um I wanted a prenup. I've never been married before. Uh my fiance has and I just feel like I've worked hard. I've saved. And I just want to know is that a good way to protect myself in the event that something happens. Of course, I don't want a divorce, but you know, things happen. So, um, just here to get some advice.

What's your net worth? Uh, it's about 600. 600,000. Yes. How much of that is your home and how much of it is it a business that you own?

Um, I don't own a home. I actually uh sold my home in the height of COVID and made like 130,000. and I put that in my uh IRA. Um so 330,000 is IRA, 120,000 is just my personal savings.

And then I recently did an investment in a real estate property where I'm going to make anywhere between 130 to 150 off of a one flip.

Okay. Um and how much is the debt on that? Uh the debt on that is 310, but of course I did a hard money loan. So once that loan is paid off, I pay that back and the profit from the sale of the home will go to me. Again, it's estimated um based off the appraisal of the home before I finish my flip. I would profit anywhere between 120 and 150,000.

Oo, that's a risky deal. Okay, that's a different call. Let's tell us about him. How long have you guys been dating and engaged for?

We've been dating um four years. We've been engaged almost a year. Um he was previously married for 20 plus years with two children. Um they are grown now. Uh and he had to of course split his assets, his retirement, his

they have to sell their home and of course his net worth isn't as high as mine and I'm just married.

Uh he did not but he was kind of just left with you know not a lot after the divorce.

Okay. What do you make and what does he make? We both make the same thing. I'm about 100 grand a year.

Okay. Okay. Does your family have a bunch of money? Is your family quite wealthy? Are you standing to inherit a bunch?

No. Okay. So, what's you think his net worth is maybe a few hundred grand? I don't even think it's that.

Okay. So, the general I'll tell you the general parameters around prenups. It's not a never and it's not an always. It's if there is a huge discrepancy in net worth and in income, then it could be wise. And it's really to protect against crazy family versus I don't trust this person and I think it's going south. Now, in your case, you know, 600,000, you've done very well and I'm very proud of you, but the incomes are about the same and it's not like you have 5 million and he's in crippling debt. And so, I don't think the variance is so far that I'm like, "Oh, girl, you need to get a prenup yesterday."

this is a if you both feel like this is wise and you both feel like this is the move, you can do that.

Well, he's against it. And why why is that? I like to know the heart behind why he's against it.

He just said that, you know, he's never asked me for anything and he feels like that uh prenup is um the doorway to saying, you know, we're going to be divorced. And I tried to explain to him that that's not the case. that, you know, while we're together, as things as we grow financially, we'll both, you know, benefit from what we have and what we grow together. But in the event that something happens, I would like to maintain what I came into the relationship with, which would be the myra, my personal savings, and the uh rehabing business that I started with the homes.

Um, but he just says he doesn't he doesn't want to do it. He thinks that's a prenup is saying, you know, we're going to get divorced.

How old are you guys? I am 45 and he's 53. Have you brought this before a counselor or it's just been the two of you talking about it?

It's just been the two of us. We only had one conversation. I kind of left it alone cuz I was like, "Well, I guess we're not getting married." And he was like, "Well, I guess we're not." M

and I kind of just left it alone cuz I saw it was getting a little heated. I mean, it wasn't a heated conversation, but I could tell it

impass. Yeah. So, I didn't I haven't brought it up since, but I really really wanted to

I'm I'm trying to get underneath this to go how much of this is maybe the shame and baggage and trauma from his divorce and now it's sort of triggering all of that of like, well, you think I'm going to go back to that and you know, he's sort of having to relive that.

Yeah. Is that part of it? I don't know. He said that Yeah. He said that he was young when he got married the first time. And I was like, and that's my point. We're not young anymore.

So, you know, I I look at this as a protection instead of a bad thing, like a safety net instead of a bad thing. But he's just he's just against it. And I don't know what to do.

Was he did he have com did he have fully combined money with his previous Yeah. Um they didn't have combined money. He just took care of the household. He took care of everything, paid all the bills, and she was free to willy-nilly do whatever with her money.

I'd love to I'd love for you to explore that more with him cuz it it feels like and I don't know, this is just a few minute call with you.

We're strangers after 4 months. Uhhuh. It almost feels like I could see him thinking, you know what, I don't want to do that again. I want to be fully combined. I want there to be trust. I don't want to be there this business where I'm over here and she's over there and then if it goes our separate ways I'm just left here. I could see I can see his side of it. I'll be honest just given the numbers I would not suggest it for you. I wouldn't say yeah you need it. Um I can understand your emotion around it. Uh specifically well this is a second marriage you know is is there a chance that

this could h you know what I mean? I could see your side of it too. I think there's a lot of emotion here to work through. I would suggest working through it with with a counselor, somebody who can see both sides and give you guys the language to express what's really going on at the heart of this. Um, and I would say to both of you, if you were both on the line right now, I would just I'm going just say this because this is what I would do. Pray for an open heart, both of you, and and say, "Let me be open to what they're saying." Because if either of you is coming into this very closed off, it's going to be hard. But if you can pray to be open-minded and have an open heart and really seek to see the other person's heart on this, it's going to it's going to help this come together. And I don't know where it's going to land for you both, but I think that that could not hurt it won't hurt

the process. Okay? So, I think that was one conversation I would dig deeper and say, "Hey, I don't want to let this stop us from getting married. I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I just want to get to a place where we can understand each other." And maybe that means you do get a prenup. maybe means you don't get a prenup. But we have to align on this before moving forward. And time is of the essence. You know, I don't want this to drag on for 3 years of an engagement will they won't they over over this piece of paper.

And it's also you got to look at the laws. Maybe it's hey in Texas only things that were acquired you know during the marriage get split. And so you might go hey even without the prenup he's not going to touch my IRA from before we were married for example.

Gotcha. So, I'd also get clear on what the the laws are because it may be a moot point and we fought over nothing.

Got so I hope that helps. Thank you for the call. Thank you. All righty. Bye, guys.

Bye. Oh, man. That's two calls in a row. Yeah. You know what? I think I'm going to go out on a limb here. With social media, you see a lot more of people's stories. You can see other people's lives, how it pans out. There's a lot of people telling you a lot. And you it's up to us to synthesize that and say like how common in this is this how real is this? Am I at risk? And I think we are just open up open edge cases that are crazy. You don't hear about the ones where they just split at 50/50 and it was amicable and they walked away or whatever it is.

And so that's the hard part. And I mean we the previous call they were going through some struggles and she was a stay-at-home mom wondering am I protected in the case of a divorce? And you got one that's on the post end of that of, hey, we found new love, but he's been divorced and I want the prenup to protect what I've built. And that's another part of marriage is are you aligned on the financial values and goals of all right, he's not doing well with money, but I've done really well and therefore I don't want to hitch my wagon. Well, that's that could be a red flag. No, I don't that's not their case.

He's doing really well. He makes great money. He's not in crippling debt. He just had life happen. But the red flag going back to that it matters cuz you and I we've taken tons of these calls and there's always something there's that thing that you noticed and you ignored and in this case she's been with this guy four to 5 years you know you can see are the red flags there and if they are listen to them if they're not there assume goodwill and assume hey this is a good guy even if it doesn't work out we'll work it out

absolutely hey that's the end of this hour but remember there's ultimately only one way to financial peace and that's to Talk daily with the prince of peace, Christ Jesus.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Comfort Is The Enemy Of Progress - Attack Your Debt Now! | January 12, 2026"?

George Camel (Host), Jade Warshaw (Host), Annie (Guest), Laura (Guest), Michelle (Guest), Nicole (Guest), Deborah (Guest).

What is "Comfort Is The Enemy Of Progress - Attack Your Debt Now! | January 12, 2026" about?

The discussion emphasizes the critical need to confront financial challenges, particularly debt, rather than remaining complacent in difficult situations. Host George Camel and author Jade Warshaw provide actionable advice by addressing a caller's dilemma about co-signed debt and the importance of taking responsibility for one’s financial commitments.

What is mentioned in this The Ramsey Show episode?

14 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Every Dollar, Fair Winds Credit Union, Health Trust Financial, Declan, Christian Healthcare Ministries, Boost Mobile. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Comfort Is The Enemy Of Progress - Attack Your Debt Now! | January 12, 2026"?

The episode runs 2 h 6 min; the transcript is about 24,472 words in 441 timestamped sections.

More from The Ramsey Show

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.