Transcript

My Fiancé Broke Off Our Engagement Because Of My Money Habits | February 5, 2026

From The Ramsey Show · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 2 h 7 min · 24,484 words · 534 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "My Fiancé Broke Off Our Engagement Because Of My Money Habits | February 5, 2026", an episode of The Ramsey Show published February 5, 2026 (2 h 7 min, about 24,484 words). It mentions 14 people, works and ideas, including Rachel Cruz, Dave Ramsey, The Total Money Makeover, Know Yourself, Know Your Money, Fair Winds Credit Union.

What this episode is about

The discussion centers on the emotional and relational complexities surrounding money management, as illustrated by a woman's experience of her fiancé ending their engagement due to her financial habits and significant debt stemming from family responsibilities. The conversation emphasizes the impact of individual attitudes towards debt and money on intimate relationships, highlighting the importance of financial compatibility in partnerships.

Key takeaways

  • Breakups over money reveal the fragility of financial compatibility in relationships—love isn't always enough.
  • Debt triggers deep-seated emotions; confronting financial fears often feels like unearthing family trauma.
  • When volatility meets vulnerability, expect emotional explosions; finance anxiety dismantles relationships faster than bad credit.
  • Healing from money-related heartbreak demands introspection—rebuild trust in yourself before trusting others again.
  • Changing your money habits is not just financial; it's personal growth—a chance to rewrite your family legacy.

Who speaks in this episode?

  • George Camel (Host) · 51 min speaking
  • Rachel Cruz (Guest) · 51 min speaking
  • Rita (Guest) · 19 min speaking
  • Nancy (Guest) · 19 min speaking
  • Bri (Guest) · 19 min speaking
  • Dustin (Guest) · 13 min speaking
  • Ashley (Host) · 13 min speaking
  • Mary (Guest) · 13 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 15:00: Rachel Cruz, Dave Ramsey, Every Dollar, Every Dollar app
  2. – 30:00: Dave Ramsey, Guardian Litigation Group LLP, Every Dollar
  3. – 45:00: Rachel Cruz, Dave Ramsey, Xander Insurance, Fair Winds Credit Union
  4. – 1:00:00: Christian Healthcare Ministries, Fair Winds Credit Union
  5. – 1:15:00: Rachel Cruz, Dave Ramsey
  6. – 1:30:00: Every Dollar, Every Dollar app, Rachel Cruz, Fair Winds Credit Union
  7. – 1:45:00: Every Dollar, Dave Ramsey, The Total Money Makeover
  8. – 2:00:00: Every Dollar, Carvana, Dave Ramsey, Every Dollar app

Notable quotes from "My Fiancé Broke Off Our Engagement Because Of My Money Habits | February 5, 2026"

  • Transform your life. From the Ramsey Network in the Fairwinds Credit Union studio, this is the Ramsay Show. I'm George Camel joined by my good pal Rachel Cruz and we're taking your calls at88255225.
    about Rachel Cruz · at
  • Life. There's been a lot of codependency that has been toxic and it's time. I need to grow. And so, I'm going to send you a copy of Rachel's book, Know Yourself, Know Your…
    about Know Yourself, Know Your Money · at
  • More literally now I have been able to get as high as an offer as 272 from Carvana.
    about Carvana · at
  • Living. You're surviving. You don't need 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…
    about Guardian Litigation Group LLP · at
  • Well, Dave, on the show all the time, we get calls about cars, used cars. What's one thing you want folks to know?
    about Dave Ramsey · at
  • Hi. so as a family, we've been reading Total Money Makeover and we've been working to implement the principles and just started Baby Step 2. but my question today is regarding term life.
    about The Total Money Makeover · at
  • Create the income and replace it. That's all insurance is. It's a risk transfer to replace your income. Xander are the folks that we trust, the people I have mine through, my…
    about Xander Insurance · at
  • If you're looking for a more budget friendly way to save on medical costs and stay true to your values, Christian Healthcare Ministries is a great option to think about. CHM is not health.
    about Christian Healthcare Ministries · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Rachel Cruz — Person · Co-host / Ramsey Personality · 8 mentions · first at
    Co-host providing advice on money behaviors, relationships, and Baby Steps; her book is recommended to a caller as part of healing and money mindset work.
  • Dave Ramsey — Person · Show namesake / referenced expert; occasional on-air voice in ads/segments · 8 mentions · first at
    Central authority figure for the Ramsey method; referenced for quotes, principles (buy used cars, delayed gratification), and appears in recorded segments/reads.
  • Elon Musk — Person · Referenced public figure (quote attribution) · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned only as the attributed source of a motivational quote during the show’s closing scripture/quote segment; not otherwise connected to the episode’s financial guidance.
    Hold tightly to what is good. Elon Musk said, For quality of life, it is better to heir on the side of being an optimist and wrong rather than a pessimist and right. Did he say that? I don't know.

Books & papers

  • The Total Money Makeover — Book · Primary recommendation · 2 mentions · first at
    Book on financial management and debt reduction strategies.
  • Know Yourself, Know Your Money — Book · Primary recommendation · 1 mention · first at
    Book on understanding personal money behaviors and healing financial relationships.

Companies & orgs

  • Fair Winds Credit Union — Company · Affiliated · 4 mentions · first at
    Credit union associated with the Ramsey Network.
    Normal is broke and common sense is weird. So, we are here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsey Network in the Fairwinds Credit Union studio, this is the Ramsay…
  • Carvana — Company · Referenced · 3 mentions · first at
    Mentioned as a platform for selling used cars.

Products & tech

  • Palisade — Product · Incidental · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as a type of car.
    Is that how much a palisade costs?

Sponsors

  • Every Dollar — Product · Sponsor · 8 mentions · first at
    Budgeting app promoted as a tool for financial management and debt reduction.
    Brought to you by the Every Dollar app.
  • Every Dollar app — Product · Sponsor · 4 mentions · first at
    Budgeting app promoted as a tool for financial management and debt reduction.
    Brought to you by the Every Dollar app.
  • Xander Insurance — Company · Sponsor · 2 mentions · first at
    Recommended for term life and disability insurance.
  • Guardian Litigation Group LLP — Company · Sponsor · 2 mentions · first at
    Recommended for debt settlement services.
  • Church Hill Mortgage — Company · Sponsor · 1 mention · first at
    Recommended for mortgage services.
    Buy, this could be your window. But you got to be prepared and do it the Ramsay way. You need to contact Churchill Mortgage. Their home buyer edge program gives you peace of…
  • Christian Healthcare Ministries — Company · Sponsor · 1 mention · first at
    Health cost sharing ministry recommended as a budget-friendly health care option.

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 Ramsey Network in the Fairwinds Credit Union studio, this is the Ramsay Show. I'm George Camel joined by my good pal Rachel Cruz and we're taking your calls at88255225. Rita is in Louisville up first. What's going on?

Hi. Um I'm calling to uh I don't to I I just went through a breakup over money and I want to figure out how to heal from it and move forward.

Oh, so sorry. How long was the relationship? um a couple of months we had just gotten engaged.

Oh, what happened? Um so my um my I guess now ex fiance is uh like he is a very uh like anti-debt person. Um which I agree with. I had um I have a lot of debt. I have a lot of um I've uh student loan debt and credit card debt um both from um taking care I put everything on hold after my um dad died a number of years ago and I was taking care of um the family for a long time. Um, and my my siblings were still in school and

um and I was I was 19 when when that happened and um and just sort of got into um a lot of debt afterwards.

Yeah. And so um I have not it's so money is like very emotional for me because I um I don't have a good I don't have a good relationship with it and my family doesn't. And so when it came time to start going through the finances, um it just it didn't go well.

Oh wow. He So he panicked. Did he panic around the amount of debt there is or did he panic of of your current you know your current way of seeing money and how you deal with money currently?

It was it was over the behavior. Um the the number itself wasn't concerning to him. It was it was the um it was the behavior and my relationship with it.

Yes. Oh my gosh. Okay. So, he ended it. Was there any um was there any conversation around, hey, Rita, you know, if I'm going to if I'm going to go down this road of marriage, I want us to be on the same page. I want us to be a team. You know, would you would you be open and consider handling money differently? Like did he give you options or was it a pretty like closed case?

It was it started off with some options but it ended up being pretty closed case.

Okay. How old are you? 28. How many serious relationships have you had? I've been um I've dated seriously for a couple I don't know a couple of relationships. I had um a 5-year relationship in college and then um 3 and 1/2 years in my 20s and then earlier 20s um and then this was the this was the most recent relationship.

Okay. So, not your first heartbreak, but this one was the most serious in terms of hey, we're going to this is leading towards marriage and he's the one kind of thing.

Yeah, very much so. Yeah. And what what are your current money habits that he was like, I'm out. I can't do this. Um he was concerned because so I have I I moved recently for uh a job and my my family moved with me and I I knew because we were selling our house that I was going to have to take sort of a short-term hit to to move um before the household and my family could move out here with me. So um he was concerned that after I had like even after I had left my house that I had still acrewed some debt. Um and um the Oh my gosh. Um

I did Yeah, I I And but I have So I'm I'm doing the baby steps right now. I'm in baby step two. Um, and I have my emergency fund saved and I'm paying down my my smallest debts right now.

Um, so that was that. Yeah. So, so I am making progress. Um, but it I guess it maybe it wasn't enough progress or I don't I don't really know the flavor now. Um, but it's sort of like my my worst fear has always been like I because the situation with my family has been really bad for a long time financially, I have had a long-standing fear that I have no control over my money and sort of like brought it back up again.

Sure. Yeah. Yeah. He like broke up with the the most vulnerable part of you in your fear. Yeah.

Did your why is your why did your family move with you? What's the what's going on there? Um my so my um my sister moved we my sister and I moved to the same um location to get she got married and then um I moved out here for a job and my mom who is

um somewhat retired um sold the family house back where we were um in our hometown um to move out as well um because she wanted to be close to her grandkids.

Was any of that a red flag for him? Yes. Okay. Yeah. I'm just trying to place because it's interesting to talk to you, Rita, because I I'll be very honest with you. You're kind of on the end of you're kind you're the person in the relationship that we usually don't get the call from. We usually get the call probably from the ex fiance who's like, "Hey,

I'm engaged. I'm nervous with these money habits." You know what I mean? Like, should I continue? You know what I mean? So, to get the person that got broken up with because of the money, we don't usually get we don't get that side. So, I'm trying to in my head because I want to be on your team, right? I'm like, I want to be able to to help you and us help navigate this. I'm just trying to figure out if what he saw was legitimate or if he's

too legalistic, you know what I mean? And broke off a great thing too early. I I don't know, and I probably won't know in this call, but I'll just

And you may never know. And that's the hard truth is you can replay this a thousand ways and it's not going to get you any closer to your future. And so, the you asked, "How do I heal?" Well, learn from what broke and rebuild trust in yourself and then create the habits and become the person that you want to be. The person who changes your family tree and actually gets out of debt and doesn't use it anymore. And so this just might be one of those fork in the roads where you look back and go, man, that was a pivotal time in my life.

So painful. Yeah. And it's not a fun way to learn the lesson, but now you know and you can do better. And so I think a lot of this is your own healing journey of, you know, it's counseling in Jesus. That's what's going to heal you at this point on top of the good budgeting habits and getting out of debt and

yeah and I think what's hard staying true to your plan is money can become such an identity marker in us and it shouldn't be you know your money your money mistakes your net worth like none of this is who you are as a person right it's a reflection of our behaviors and our habits and all of it but in our society today it's become such an identity piece so I want you to break that apart from you that the money mistakes that I've made even the habits I'm in that are not great it's not who I am Who I am is something so centered that cannot be shaken, right? And then that out of that flows a healthy Rita which hopefully in return has healthy boundaries with money is able to say no, is able to sacrifice and get out of debt and all of that. So it's so easy and I can hear from your even your story those being so married your identity and money and all of it. It's so closely linked into who you are and I

would work at kind of starting to pull that apart because it's not who you are. your net worth, your money mistakes, none of that is your identity and who you are.

I keep hearing John Deloney in my head saying, "You are worth being well. You are worth being loved. You're a person who can have a healthy relationship." And a lot of this is detaching from maybe unhealthy family baggage and going, "Hey, I need to move on with my life. There's been a lot of codependency that has been toxic and it's time. I need to grow." And so, I'm going to send you a copy of Rachel's book, Know Yourself, Know Your Money. She talks about the different money classrooms and how you grew up. I think it will be a part of your healing journey. So hang on the line. That'll be our gift to you, Rita.

Finally, mortgage rates have dropped. And you know what that means? People who've been sitting on the sidelines are about to jump back in to the housing market. So, if you've been waiting to buy, this could be your window. But you got to be prepared and do it the Ramsay way. You need to contact Churchill Mortgage. Their home buyer edge program gives you peace of mind in a wild market. You can cap your rate for 90 days. So, if rates go up, you're protected. If rates go down, Churchill will drop yours automatically. And get this, Church Hill will even back your offer with a $10,000 seller guarantee.

So if your loan falls through due to financing, the seller still gets paid. That's how confident Churchill is. Plus, when you shop as a Churchill certified home buyer, it's stronger than preapproval. It makes you look like a cash buyer, which makes your offer rise to the top. So don't let this moment pass you by. Get ready now. Go to churchillmortgage.com to get started today. That's churchillmortgage.com.

This is a paid advertisement. Home buyer edge and seller guarantee are available for qualifying borrowers and select loan types only and not available in all states or locations. NMLS ID591 NMLS consumerac.org equal housing lender.

Nancy is in Witchah up next. Nancy, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Thank you. How can we help today?

Well, um I've kind of gotten myself into the situation here. Um I I like cars too much and this summer, this past summer, I I bought a car. It was just a a uh an emotional decision. uh bad decision, brand new car. Um and with it a high payment and um at the same time um trying to pay down about $20,000 worth of uh uh credit card debt that I've been just kicking down the road for for years, years and years.

How old are you? Um I never um I'm almost ready to retire. Uh well, maybe not anymore.

Yeah, not anymore. I I am a CHD. Okay. Um I single or married? Uh single. Okay.

So tell us about this vehicle. People want to know. Spill the tea. I know. What kind of cars does Nancy like? She said, "I love cars." I'm like, "Nancy, what kind of cars?"

Oh, it's a a Bronos Sport, a 25 Bronos Sport. I um just fell in love with how it looked and everything and it was a stupid decision. And now I am regretting the payment.

What's the balance and what's the payment? Um the balance I owe about uh a little under 25 uh,000 on it. I'm paying 3.85 a month. Uh

did you put some serious money down? That's not terrible payment wise. It's not terrible. No. I I had a trade that was uh

Oh, you had another nice car. Bronco Sport. Yes. I had another Bronco Sport that I should have stuck with, but I got frustrated with its tech and in a moment of stupidity besides upgrade to get the better tech which you know

what could you sell it for? More literally now um I have been able to get as high as an offer as 272 from Carvana.

Okay. Yeah. So I can almost get my money back. So, how much how much do you make a year?

Question is um uh 75 grand gross. Awesome. Okay. Sorry. What's your question? Uh question is um I I recently found um a Honda Element, which I really love those cars, um with like 130,000 miles on it, but they're super super super uh dependable reliable.

Uhhuh. And I found that for about 11 around 11,000. Um, and it would when everything's all all said and done, um, I'd be my payment would go to 198 a month instead of the 3.85. Um, but you know, then I'd have an older car with no warranty because if I add a warranty to it,

Nancy, please don't do any of this. We're playing the wrong games. Yeah, you're you're back in the same game.

You're back at you're you're still you're just moving debt to debt. Smaller debt, but you're moving debt to debt. Do you have any money saved, Nancy? Any money at all that you can get to? Any cash?

No. No. No. No cash. No. Everything I go everything all everything extra. Every month I just pour into the debt trying to get ahead and then an emergency comes along.

Okay. How much extra are you putting towards your debt? Like if you were to stay current on all the credit cards and the car payment, how much extra would you have a month?

Only like 200. Okay. And so that's why it's a chronic debt situation because things life keeps happening

and I go backwards on the on the credit card. Are you bringing home like 4,500 a month? What is your take-home pay?

Um um it's because I have some stuff going in like pre-tax stuff going into going out into a well paying off another loan. That's another story. But it's almost paid off.

You have a 401k loan or something? Uh it's a I don't remember what you call it. It's not 401k. Uh 457. Is that does that sound?

Yeah. You took a loan against your retirement plan, your deferred compos. It'll be paid off as of next month.

Mhm. Which will free up uh 350 bucks for a month. Okay. So, 500. Okay. So, here's what I want. Here's what I would do, Nancy. If I woke up in your shoes, um I would Yep. When that gets freed up, you'll have around $500 of margin. Okay. I would go

say that. I'm sorry. Could you repeat that? Yeah. you would have around $500 of margin right after this is paid off. That frees up 300. You said you have about 200.

500. I would go and find any kind of work you could do. Even if it's driving Uber and your new Bronco, I don't care. And I want you to make an extra $1,000 a month. Okay?

So the So what's going to happen in two months? In two months, you're going to have an extra $3,000. If you can sell this Bronco still at 27,000, you'll have 2,000. That means you have $5,000 cash that I want you to go buy a car

and no more car payments. And no more car payments. And then you're going to be driving. You're awesome. I just looked up cars. I I looked up $3,000 car cars in Witchah just now on my phone.

Lots of options. They really are there. I mean, and one of them was like a 2006 Volvo. I mean, you know what I mean? Like, you got to do some inspection. Be smart about it. But like, you can get a cheap car that will last you for 12 months. That's all we're looking for.

This is not your forever car. No, this is a 12-month car. And you tell yourself that, you say, "Nancy, this is my 12-month car." Cuz you're going to start then working to get out of debt. And then once you have your credit card debt paid off,

um, then you're going to be able to have so much freedom and so much margin to save up and buy a nicer car that Nancy wants. But I want you out of car payments, Nancy. This game is not working for you.

We need a big why here. And you said you wanted to retire. How much do you have in retirement?

Uh, well, I have a pension. Um and um I have about uh 50,000 is all in in that 457.

How much is your pension going to be? Um it's going to be around4,300 a month. Okay. So about what you're making now.

Yes. So let's make this a goal. Let's become completely debtree with a fully funded emergency fund as we enter retirement.

That's your goal. And which means I am not gonna quit working until I have a lot of financial peace and security in my life. And that becomes your why.

It sounds like you you've lived a few lives. And so now is the time to go, what is this next chapter of NY's life going to look like? Is it trading in for a different car with a slightly lower payment while I still struggle in my 60s? Or is it,

man, I don't have the dream car, but I have the dream retirement because I'm not making payments broke every month. Exactly.

Yeah. And Nancy, you really do. I I want to encourage you that, you know, to spontaneously go and buy a new car cuz you got frustrated.

There is you have to acknowledge that in yourself, right? Like you didn't go on Amazon and buy a new pair of like $12 earrings cuz you got mad or you know what I mean? You're like, I just want to feel good. I'm going to like this. This is a big it's a big deal. You bought a car. You know what I mean? And it's not to shame you.

I was really frustrated. You're very Nancy was pissed. So she went and got a new car. Yes. So I want you to acknowledge when those things come up in us. This is this is a Dave this is a Dave Ramsey quote for you. I heard this growing up in my house and on the show all the time.

But but that there's a level of maturity that delays gratification. Okay. So So

so adults, yes, devise a plan and follow it. Children do what feels good. And you're not a child. You're not a child. No,

you are a grown woman who is smart, who's hardwork. And I just want you to reframe some of these impulses that you're making. U cuz it's not just at the car lot. It's probably other places. And really start to get disciplined in this area of your life, Nancy. Probably for the first time ever, you know, and it sounds crazy

to do something big like this at 60 years old, but people do it every day. People do it every day. So we if you hold on the line, Christian's going to pick up and we're going to give you Every Dollar, which is our budgeting app. And I want you to to be engaged in it. I want you to create a monthly budget, Nancy. I want you to dream and just do some just do some searching when you get off the phone with us. Just Google $5,000 cars in Witchah and just start to make peace with this this new future you have. But because of that 2006 Volvo that you may buy that frees up hundreds of dollars a month for you.

Yeah. Here here's the three words we need to take out of our vocabulary. I deserve it. I think you deserve financial peace. I think you deserve a great retirement, which means we need the delayed gratification to say no to the toys right now.

If collectors are blowing up your phone every day and you're living in constant fear of the next call, you're not living. You're surviving. You don't need 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 attorneys who can step into the courtroom and fight back when creditors try to sue you. Debt settlement isn't glamorous. It's not the preferred path. I'd still rather see you pay it off the oldfashioned way. But if you're overwhelmed, out of options, and trying to avoid bankruptcy, Guardian can help quiet the chaos and give you a real way forward with no upfront fees. Their attorneys have helped more than $55,000 people settle over $600 million in debt.

And when the noise stops, you can breathe again. To learn more, go to guardianlit.com/ramsey. That's guardian t.com/ramsey.

Attorney advertising. Results may vary and no specific outcome is guaranteed. If you've kicked debt to the curb, you deserve to celebrate on the Live Like No One Else cruise. You can hang out with Dave Ramsey, all of us Ramsey personalities. March 14th through the 21st, 2027. We're going to the Western Caribbean Bahamas Jamaica Grand Cayman, Cosmemell. It's going to be incredible. We had a great time last time we did.

So fun. This is so fun. It really exceeded my expectations. Me, too. And when we posted about it, I had so many comments of like, I didn't know you guys were doing a cruise. Well,

now you know. Now you know. And you got time to budget for it. And here's the thing, because we've done this before, we gave early access to those folks. And so they're coming.

It's over half sold out. I mean, it's like, yeah, it's doing really well. Cabins are limited. This thing will sell out. And right now, you can save up to 300 bucks. 300 bucks off when you book by February 7th. All you need right now is a deposit to get your cabin locked in. Click the link in the show notes or go to ramseolutions.com/events to book your cabin and learn more. All right, Bri is in Indianapolis up next. Bri, welcome to the show.

Hi. How are you doing? Great. How are you? I'm hanging in there. What's happening today?

Okay. Um, I've been I'm trying my best not to get too anxious right now. Um, but I am currently going through a divorce.

I've been a stay-at-home mom for almost 11 years and I'm solely financially dependent on my husband who is the sole provider. Um, he I literally was just watching the video of Dave Ramsey talking about how it is our money. Like my wife was a stay home mom for how many years and it is our money. It is our house. It is our cars. And I am pretty much in a emotionally abusive and financially abusive relationship at the moment. and I'm worried about him trying to financially cut me off. Um, I mean, I already talked to lawyers.

I already have a petition going, but like I don't know if it's just the narcissistic part of him, the sociopathic part of him that he doesn't truly understand that we are one.

Well, and the state and the judge will will tell him that, right? But like I don't know if his lawyers are truly understanding that. So, it's like he he current I'm stay at home mom. I have three kids under nine. Um I've worked little jobs here and there on the weekends, but nothing that was really substantial. Um I've worked for MLMs from home trying to make a little bit, but nothing has really been much. It's main mainly solely me taking care of the kids and he's the one who financially provides.

Um I just need to know what is the best way to legally like try to have him understand that like I I'm technically entitled to Yes. child support, alimony, 401k, and pension.

Yes, I don't know any of the the totals of things he's willing. He's trying to like swindle and gaslight of pretty much saying, "Yes, I'm giving you the house. Do you have child support? I I won't take the equity of the house, but don't touch my pension." And it's like, I don't want to leave. I don't want to verbally agree to something that I don't have full calculations in front of me before I agree to anything that's going to truly benefit me and what I'm legally entitled to in the end.

Well, the lawyers and the courts will will figure all that part out. Okay. So right now it's it's how do you just keep yourself protected and safe right now in the interim until this all shakes out because as you know this could be months and months and months and drag out and back and forth. And so right now

he's like and I'm not paying your legal fees anymore and he's pretty much trying to force me into getting a job instead of staying at home with my our our three-year-old at the moment.

So take care of the household and the kids. I don't I think it's all threats because he's just frustrated that

is he paying currently anything right now in alimony or child support as you guys are going through the divorce proceedings?

Not right now. No, currently we're still have a joint um okay joint checking account.

I don't even have access to that right now because it has to be unlocked through for the app wise. It has to be

you can go to the bank if you're an owner on that account. You have access to it. I don't care what he did on the app.

Yeah. go down in person and get Yes. get what you need cuz if Yeah. If your name is on that account, you have as much right to it as as he does. Yeah.

And I would create an account at a different bank in consideration how much money like I have saved like saved

and he won't he won't Bri he won't save. Yes. And if there's any what you said narcissism if there's any level of who he is and everything you've described he sounds like a horrible person. You're never going to convince him otherwise. Okay. So I think there is I mean and again this is this is a bigger working through in your own than me just saying that out loud on a phone call here. But he's never going to understand. He never ever ever will give you the respect that you deserve. He's not giving you that. He never has. It's what it sounds like.

It's one of the reasons you're leaving him. Right. Um so what I would do of didn't want to go to therapy for the relationship, didn't want to go to counseling for drinking, didn't want to talk to.

Yep. Yep. I know. So he he signed I'm putting my legal fees on a joint credit card. I still have access to the debit and I'm still able to get groceries and stuff, but like he's literally limiting me saying only spend

How is he paying for his legal fees? He's paying it on a credit card as well, even though we have somewhat of money already in the council.

Okay, so Bri, you need to sit down with your lawyer and if your lawyer sucks, you need a new one. But you guys need to you need to have a plan and you need to know your legal rights. Every state is different when it comes to divorce law, okay? So I'm not we're not experts on that on on each state. You need to know what rights you have. And then you do have to understand, Bri, there will be a point where assets are divided. However they divide that courts, whatever you decide. And there may be a time and it and it happens. Bri, this is the this is the heartbreak of when a life you had built

is no longer there that you may have to get a job, Bri. You may have to sell he may give you the house and the equity and you may look at everything and say, "This is too stressful. I can't handle the property tax and the HOA fees." You may have to sell the home eventually and downsize to create financial stability for yourself. Okay? So, there's going to be probably in your future some really really hard decisions that is not how you saw your life going, you know, 3 years ago, but it's going to but but what you're working towards is a life of peace relationally out of this marriage that's been abusive and creating something for yourself. And so, what I want you

is also currently living out of state. So I the custody will most likely be like a 9010.

Okay. To you. Yeah. Which means you're going to I'm pretty much which means you're going to have a big paycheck coming in every Yeah. You'll be fighting for that alimony and that child support then. Yes. So all of that should be reconciled and you need to feel good about that. But you need to know legally where you stand for you to have some peace, right? Because I feel like the pieces right now, which I don't blame you. I'd be in complete chaos, too. The pieces are all over. I'm hiding all of it because I don't I need to be strong for my kids.

Yes. Yeah. Well, yeah. I Yeah. So, I I would though I think facts here are going to help you have some peace to know what rights you have in this and and he doesn't get to I think the biggest fear you have is he's going to just leave in the middle of the night with nothing and and you're left with literally nothing. That's not going to happen from a legal aspect. the the courts will say

and or just like the fact that I've I I I didn't go to college so I don't have a degree. Yeah. And I have nothing for my name

when it comes to 401k or pension or anything. So it's like I feel guilty taking his money.

But it's like he doesn't understand that his money is my money. There there's going to be no guilt here. You are entitled to probably half or more of the assets. And so there's no guilt there. You said, "Well, he provided for the house." Did you not provide for the house the last 11 years?

I think he doesn't see it that way. It doesn't matter what he I don't care what he thinks. I'm just telling you, you need to release the baggage of, "Well, I don't deserve this." Cuz now it's taking a turn to where you're feeling guilty for things you do. You don't need to feel guilty about.

Okay? This is what narcissists do. They gaslight and make you think you were the problem the whole time and you're the one that made this all enough. I've given you everything you wanted. This is what they do on the way out. They have no other cards to play. So they just try to drag you down into the muck with them.

Okay, that's all he's doing. So on top of all the lawyer stuff, you know, counseling and therapy is going to help as well.

And and I want you to paint a picture for like in the next 5 years once you have some facts like where is Bri going to be even in the next two years because again I don't know what's going to happen, Bri, but there may be a situation where you are a receptionist at a dental office. I'm making this up, right? For for 4 day for 4 days a week and you're, you know, when and when your three-year-old starts kindergarten, you drop them off at school. You may go to work and you may bring home a paycheck, but you are capable, Bri. You're capable of doing something and earning money if it comes down to that. Okay? So, just know that in yourself. The things and the tools and the giftings that God's put in you, Bri, is valuable. It is. And so, you're going to survive this. But getting some facts on your side, I think, is going to bring you some peace right now in the midst of all this chaos. But we are so sorry. Call us back

if you if you need more help. Well, Dave, you know, on the show all the time, we get calls about cars, used cars. What's one thing you want folks to know?

Well, really a couple things. Number one is always buy used unless you got a million dollars. We don't buy new cars. And if you're going to buy used, number two, you want it to last. And that means regular proper maintenance.

Yeah, that's a big deal. I know when Sam and I moved from South Florida up to Tennessee, that's the first thing you're looking for. You need somebody who can take care of your car. So, when we found Christian Brothers Automotive, it was a no-brainer. And they've been absolutely great. We're excited to recognize Christian Brothers as the official auto repair partner of the Ramsay Show. Christian Brothers keeps things simple, honest, and transparent. Every repair is backed by their nationwide nice difference warranty. 3 years or 36,000 mi, whichever helps you more.

Listen, Dave, I'm first to admit I'm not into cars like you are, but the thing about Christian Brothers is I feel just as confident going in there. They're not trying to upsell me. I feel 100% confident that I'm going to get the service that I need. Hey, if you want your car to last and stay on track with the baby steps, trust Christian Brothers. Go to cbac.com/ramsey to find your local shop, schedule service, and get an exclusive Ramsey discount. 10% off your visit up to $250.

Yeah, that's cbacc.com/ramyc store for details. Donald is in Toronto up next. Donald, what's going on?

Hey, how are you guys? Great. What's your question today? Hey, so uh just how to get comfortable with using my emergency fund when an emergency has happened as I recently got to baby step four.

Cool. Congrats. Nice. How much do you have in the emergency fund? Uh so I have 15 in there and slight job uh not change recently but better security recently. So that may be a factor as we go into this.

Right. Okay. So let's talk about this emergency. Give us the most recent one where you went I just can't dip into that.

I got hit by a bus yesterday and uh gracious Donald stop. Are you being for real right now?

I actually am. Yes. I'm not lying to you at all. I'm what? How are you? I'm okay. Luckily, the incident was completely fine and uh that's why I'm much more focused on the finances at this point. Um because it's like everyone's okay. Uh yeah, I got checked out. I'm all right.

Oh my gosh, I got hit by a bus. No one can ever say, "Wow, man. Feels like I got hit by a bus today." Donald's like "Uh"

Donald's like, "No, I really did. I raise you." Okay. Oh my gosh. Well, that would be a reason for the emergency fund. I think we can all agree on that. Okay.

So, just answer these three questions. Is it urgent? Is it necessary? Is it unexpected? I think we can all agree getting hit by a bus is all three of those things. You with me?

I think it's a little unexpected. I think check that off. Yes. You didn't plan for it. There was no maintenance you could have done to avoid it.

Maybe look both ways, but no. Now, is was there police involved? Like, are they going to cover your ER bills? It was the city bus.

Uh, it was a city bus. Um, unfortunately due to how old the vehicle is, like it's it's a beater. Um, because of it how the insurance claim would work.

Oh, your car got hit by a bus. You were in a car. Donald, can you lead with that next time, bud?

We thought you I thought you were walking across the street. That's why I was talking about the car.

Okay. Oh, Donald, you almost gave us a heart attack. No wonder. Okay. Okay. I'm glad we thought the same thing. George,

you tell me. Hey, I got hit by a bus yesterday. I assume you were walking. Okay. So, Donald, you were in a car. Thank God. Okay. So, the car um is not Wait. So, go back. Tell us about the car car situation.

So, car is old, but it's in obviously not workable shape anymore. It's done for. Okay.

Um yes, I expected a car upgrade to come in the future. I got 4K aside for that, but I obviously now I need to kind of pull the trigger on it much earlier than expected.

Gotcha. Is insurance going to write you a check? I can't really get anything out of the insurance because my uh my comprehension and collision wasn't on there. I had enough insurance to be legal. I didn't have the proper insurance to get much out of this because my car is so old. Uh it would basically they're just going to write it off and then I might get $2,000 out of it if I'm if I'm lucky.

But again, because I don't have collision, it'd be a lot of fighting with the city. And we all know that's never easy no matter your municipality.

Yeah. Sure. Sure. Okay. So, you're just saying just it's a wash. It was an old car. I have money saved. How do I use this emergency fund?

Yeah. Yep. Okay. So, um, what kind of So, you you you're obviously low maintenance when it comes to the type of car because you're you currently driving an older car, right? So, how much how much money do you think you need to have a car? Maybe it's a little bit of an upgrade that'll last you longer, but like what price range feels right to you

for safe reliability purposes? Um, our markets out here, I would say between 8 and 10 is going to get me a car that's between 2015 and 2020 and somewhere between the 60 to 100,000 milei range.

Okay. So, take the Yeah, I would take the 4K and then 5K of your emergency fund. Go get a 9,000. You know,

that still leaves 10 in your emergency fund. And then you begin the process of replenishing the e emergency fund and that's how you feel better about using it. It's not a this thing is depleted forever. It's all right, now I got to rebuild it. That's not fun. But hey, at least it's an inconvenience instead of a crisis and you're going into debt on a credit card at 25% APR.

So that's the move. Okay. And the truth is kind of like the the better you get at this stuff, the less emergencies you're going to have. Like when you're broke, you have everything is an emergency. And as you get to this place, baby step four, you buy a better car. You have nicer stuff that you can maintain better and pay for, you know, repairs and all that. And so I think it's sort of in your head that you're going to have to dip into this emergency fund all the time. I can't tell you the last time I used my emergency fund because at some point you go, "Ah, we can probably just cash flow that out of next month's budget. It'll be fine."

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So use some of this for it though. So hear us say that, please. Please. Yes. To go get

like use enough to make sure that it's reliable, you know. Don't don't go good and crazy. Obviously,

you don't need a $25,000 car because yours got totaled. So that's what most people do is they go to the dealership and say, "I need a brand new car because look what happened last time I had a beater car. I got hit and it got totaled."

Yeah. And and that's what like my brother and others have already said to me about like possibly paid in the future, not now. And I'm like that just doesn't fit my lifestyle. So no.

Totally. Yeah. So do you pay cash? Yeah. Take four or 5,000 out and then Yep. How much do you make a year?

Um 60. Awesome. I would work on upgrading that $9,000 car in a year or two. So, set a scing fund to go and put 500 bucks a month.

Yeah. Yeah. We were trying for $15,000 car and then this obviously made it that I couldn't I was planning to be able to do it by October of the end of this year, but now here we are where I kind of got to I guess finance myself as compared to finance with somebody else.

Exactly. You are the bank and it's 0% interest with no payments. That's a deal, my friend. So, thank you for the call. I'm glad you're okay.

I'm glad that you were in a car. Next time you tell the story, make sure you lead with, "Hey, a bus hit my car."

He probably thinks we're just crazy. He's probably like, "Duh." I was just The mental image was just, it was like replaying over and over my mind of what happened to poor Donald. Okay. Glad he's okay. We're going to get through this. Thanks for the call. Crystal's in Boise up next. What's going on Crystal?

Hi. Um, so as a family, we've been reading Total Money Makeover and we've been working to implement the principles and just started Baby Step 2. Um, but my question today is regarding term life insurance. So, I've had a whole life policy with a term writer for a million-doll death benefit since like 2016. Has a monthly premium of uh $315 a month. Um, and I called Xander, found out that I can get a 20-year term policy for a million dollars for $104 a month.

Awesome. Um, I'm 45, my spouse is 55, our kids are 16 and 17. So, my question is, do I do the 20-year term or should I do less with the kids being older?

It's a good question. You need life insurance until you no longer need life insurance. So, think about the kids are grown, house is paid off, retirement's funded, your spouse would be okay without your income. And so, if that's 15 years for you guys, saying, "Hey, the house is definitely going to be paid off. We're going to have a serious nest egg. The kids are grown and gone. They're not going to be relying on us. I would say 15 years sounds a lot closer.

Okay. What would be a serious nest egg? I mean, I'm just saying if something were to happen, is your spouse going to be okay?

Okay. The kids don't need to inherit $5 million to be okay. They're going to be just fine. It's if something happened, you lost your income, now we have this policy plus this retirement. Okay. They will be okay if they need to take some time off or not work.

Okay. So I I would go 15 based on what you've just told me. I don't have all the

both Crystal, you and your husband. Um, yes. Okay. Yeah. Because if something, you know, realistically, if you're past that 15 and the house is paid off, there's no debt and you guys have, I don't know, three I'm just making up a number. 300,000 in retirement and you still wanted to work, you know, you still had the ability to make an income if you needed to, right? So, um, that factors into it, too. Okay,

I'm proud of you. I know that hurts because you've paid into this whole life policy for what, 10 years now?

Yes. Oh my goodness. I'm so sorry to whoever sold that to you. Who Who was it? Was it a family friend?

Yes, it always is. It's always that they are. They are though. Everyone we talk to like, well, my brother-in-law or my cousin or you know. Yeah.

And it's always a dude. Let's make that clear. Some dude out of college. 99% went, "Oh, dude, I got this sick job. I sell insurance." The women do the MLMs. The men do the

We all have our toil in life. The guys go insurance. It's cool. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Well, it's a good reminder to anyone listening out there. If anybody relies on your income, you need term life insurance. Not whole life, not permanent life insurance. Term. So that's for a specific amount of time. 15 to 20 years is good for most people. Maybe 25 if you know you're really young or you got young kids. Cuz the goal is, hey, once this term expires, we are self-insured. meaning we don't need this policy anymore. We're going to be okay.

And you want to make sure that you get 10 to 12 times your annual income on that death benefit on that the face value of the policy. So you make 100 grand, you need a million to 1.2 in term coverage so that you could invest that money and the growth of that could help create the income and replace it. That's all insurance is. It's a risk transfer to replace your income. Xander are the folks that we trust, the people I have mine through, my wife has hers through Xander. You can call them at 800 3564282 or just jump on zener.com. Get it done today.

Dave, we got a lot of calls on this show where life happens. One day someone's healthy, they're working, providing for their family, and then a curveball hits.

You know, we hear it all the time. a car accident, a cancer diagnosis, a heart attack, and suddenly everything changes.

Yeah. And that's why you've always said that having term life insurance from Xander is essential because it protects your family if the worst happens.

Yeah, that's right. You need 10 to 12 times your income in coverage. No gimmicks, no whole life junk, just straightforward term life protection. But there's another piece that people often overlook, and that's long-term disability insurance.

Yeah, it's important to understand the difference between them. Life insurance steps in when you die. Disability insurance steps in while you're alive, but can't work. So, it replaces a large part of your income, so the bills still get paid while you get back on your feet.

Now, if your employer gives you free disability insurance, great, take it. If it's uh discounted there at a better price, take it. But if not, Xander can help you find the right plan. Whether you're single or married, it's not optional. If you're going to be out of work for a while, then you need to make sure the money's still showing up.

And that's why Xander is our go-to. They make it super simple to get the right coverage at the best price. No pressure, no upselling.

I've trusted Jeff Xander and Xander Insurance for over 25 years, and so is my family.

So don't wait. It's fast, it's easy, and it could make all the difference. Go to xander.com or call 800356-4282. Protect yourself. Protect your income. Protect your family. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fair Winds Credit Union studio. I'm George Camel joined by best-selling author and my co-host of Smart Money Happy Hour, Rachel Cruz. We're taking your calls at88255225. Up next, we head to Charlotte who is in Columbia, South Carolina. Charlotte, welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Hi, how are you? We are doing great. How can we help today? Um, my question is, well, my husband and I are we have $100,000 of student loan debt that we just started paying off and my dad officers that he would help pay this debt off. However, in the last year, we've had to cut time.

Sorry, you're breaking up with us, Charlotte. Can you speak directly in your phone or try to get to a better spot? I heard you're 100,000 student loans, dad said he would help pay them off and you recently had to cut him off.

Yes, we did. We had to cut ties with him and so we are now like the relationship is over.

Okay. Yes. Got it. Correct. Yes. So, we are now just looking into this debt now of for our own to pay off. And my question is, what tips would you have to pay this off quickly? I don't want this to be looming over our heads.

Yeah. For longer than it needs to. We agree. Uh, what did you get your degrees in?

It My husband got a law degree. So, that Oh, gotcha. Okay. Perfect. Is he practicing law right now?

Yes, he is. Okay. And how much is he making a year? He is making a little over 100K.

Okay. And what are you making a year? I'm just making a little over 20K. I'm working part-time. We just had our first child back in October.

Okay. A congratulations. Thank you. Um Okay, great. So, um, yeah. I mean, the the most efficient way to do this, Charlotte, is um is if you have multiple student loans, do you or is it all one loan?

It's just one loan. Okay. Yeah. So, it's just going to be, you know, taking attacking the mountain, throwing as much as you can every month on top of the minimum payment, just throwing as much as you guys can. So, it's make as much as we can every month, spend as little as we can, and use that difference, that margin to knock out this debt fast.

Because if you guys make 120 a year, if you lived on 60,000 Charlotte, and you guys basically had no lifestyle, you're just like, "Listen, we are just going to just live on what we got um and you threw 60 at it. I mean, in a year and a half, you guys will have this paid off."

Okay. Okay. So, it's just you got to live like a broke law student and not like a lawyer. And that might be a I don't know what your lifestyle is like, but that's going to be a big shift.

Yeah. Yeah. Do you guys have margin every month in your budget? We definitely could. We could have more. Um

Yeah. So, make it a goal. Let Well, could you this month with the next paychecks coming in throw $4,000 on top of the minimum at the debt?

Yeah. Yeah. You're done in less than two years. I mean, that's the math of it. There's no like life hack shortcut. Now, if you were doing the debt snowball and you had multiple debts, we'd say attack the little one first, minimums on the rest, and create some progress. This is a little bit harder cuz it's just you're it's like paying off a mortgage. You're just staring down this mountain going, "All right, I would celebrate the wins. Every $10,000 you pay off, you guys have a little fun, whatever you decide to do." And that'll keep you motivated along the way. Maybe make it visual.

Maybe you have like, you know, rings and chains across the house and or on the fridge. Whatever you guys decide to do, making it visual, having a deep why. Maybe this child is your deep why of I want this kid to grow up in a house that doesn't know debt, that has financial stability.

Yeah. And it probably is there's probably a painful element too, right? That it came you guys are doing this because of a relationship that was fractured. So every you know what I mean? It's kind of like the sad reminder too um of having this around of like why we have to pay this off. So there is a part too of like I just want to add

you don't want it to drag out. I just want it out of my life. You know, definitely.

Is your husband on board with this? Yes, he is. We're in the very beginning stages of really talking about it, which I feel I feel behind because it's been almost a year that we've had to cut ties with my dad. But it really does just kind of feel like the dust has now settled more with that and then with having our son. But so yeah, I we're just in the beginning stages of like really coming up with a plan.

Tell me this, Charlotte. He wasn't Your dad wasn't paying your husband's debt for law school though, just yours, right?

He was going He never paid any debt because when all this came out with my dad, we had just like maybe for two weeks been put on a payment plan for the debt.

Okay. However, yeah, but was was the expectation that he was going to pay your husband's law degree?

He had said he would. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. So, it was the whole day cuz I was thinking is if he just promised your debt and yours is 10,000 of the 100,000. You know, I was going to ask why you didn't address, but he but it was said out loud that it would even

So, this wasn't on your radar and all of a sudden relationship's broken and now you've got 100,000 sitting in your lap to pay off

on top of the grief. And so, this is a lot. Yeah, it is sad and it's going to be it's going to be tight, but you know, less than two years, the baby won't remember it. It'll be a memory for you guys. Remember that time we worked our tails off for 2 years to get to a place of financial stability, and you will not regret the sacrifice you're making right now. I'll tell you that much.

Yeah. Yeah. Would you take out We have a high a highish amount of money in a CD account. That's

a two-year CD account. So, I don't think we can't touch it for like another year, but how much is in there? Guess we're not

um like a little over 75,000. Fantastic. Well, I would also look at what the penalties are for taking it out before it matures cuz if you're going to pay more interest in student loans

Mhm. than the penalty is, then it's worth cashing out. Okay. And that gets you out out of debt so much faster.

Yeah. Yeah. What was that money earmarked for? We didn't we didn't really have any sort of plan for it other than just to kind of keep it in there and then maybe once it was done divvied up more. We were probably going to buy another house or like sell the house where now buy a little bit bigger house as our family grew.

Um we that money actually was given to us from the death of my grandfather. So it was kind of unexpected. So we really didn't have much of a plan and then it was like we got that my husband started paying the student loan debt and then everything happened with my dad. So we didn't

I haven't thought about it that much. Okay. Which got well the other part you have to grieve is hey we this was going to be like house upgrade money and now it's paying off debt money which is less exciting. And so

I would do that in a heartbeat. % I would look into that tonight to see what the penalties are

and then depending on how aggressive you guys want to move up in house still look at cutting back some lifestyle and and saving up some margin and say okay if we were to replenish this um you know you could do that in a year and a half still and get that money back but I would go ahead and yes I

this new plan is we're out of debt 6 months by the summer we're debtree yes I would do that in a heartbeat and then you guys save your income and decide how quickly you want to save how slow but no one else is determining that for you. Or you guys could say, "No, we're good." And for the next year, we're going to just enjoy our life and

Yeah. And maybe you can quit the part-time job after you get the emergency fun.

No one's making you do it where the student loan. You have to make this payment.

Yeah. Life is going to be on your terms soon enough. And so far, life has just been happening to you and everything's being unexpected. And I hope soon you can start to get intentional and and happen to your life. Charlotte, we're rooting for you. Thanks for calling.

If you're looking for a more budget friendly way to save on medical costs and stay true to your values, Christian Healthcare Ministries is a great option to think about. CHM is not health insurance. It's a health cost sharing ministry, a biblical community-based way for Christians to share each other's medical bills. That means no enrollment deadlines, and you can choose any doctor or hospital you want. That kind of freedom is big, especially if you're self-employed, between jobs, or you just need something that fits your budget better. CHM has been around for decades faithfully serving the Christian community and many members save hundreds of dollars a month compared to traditional health insurance. And that margin gives you breathing room when you're working the baby steps and trying to steward your money well. And right now CHM's offering new members a 50% credit towards their first month of

membership. Get started at chmin ministries.org/budget and use promo code ramsey. That's chmin ministries.org. org/budget and promo code Ramsey. Scott is in Bowling Green up next. Scott, what's going on?

Hey George, Rachel, how are y'all today? We're wonderful. How can we help you? Hey, um I am completely debtree.

I have uh Yeah, you are the core. Great job. Baby step seven paid off house. Paid off house. Yes, sir.

Everything. Oh my gosh. Well done. I could tell in his voice he had an ease and like a he was kind of flexing like

I am debtree. How old are you? I am 65 years old. Wonderful. Good for you. Okay. What's your question today? Um, I'm at that point. So, you know, well, let me go back. I do have to replace some money back into my fully um emergency fund, my fully funded emergency fund.

Okay. Because I pulled that out to pay the house off about $12,000. So, nice. Anyways, a little over 12,000. But, uh, my fully um funded emergency fund is my goal is 50,000 there. and I've got about 25 into it right now. So, I got to put

25 more into it and I'm I'm completely out. So, couple things here. My questions are at this point which I've already got an a traditional IRA that has about 214 215,000 in it and I've got two mutual funds that was probably about 36,000 in that. Um I want to be able to go in to put more money into mutual funds. I think uh from you know the total money over there was something about a high cap, low cap, midcap and a foreign cap or a foreign mutual fund.

Yep. And I want to learn more about that and then also put some I guess part of that 50,000 into a high yield interest savings account.

Yeah. Um, is that are these the smart moves that I need to make? And also, I want to look at maybe doing a Roth IRA to kind of balance out the taxable versus the non-t taxable.

Yeah, I would be focused on those retirement accounts right now. You know, taking advantage of of those tax advantage accounts first. And so that would be the strategy here. And do you have a 401k through your employer?

No. No. It's uh something I've done for the past 15 years. Uh, you're self-employed in the days and

uh, no I'm not. I work for a company but we don't have a 401k program. Okay. No retirement program.

I have done that all on my own over the past 15 years. Good for you. Okay. So, your options would be then maxing out that IRA every year. What is your income?

Yep. Uh, my income is about 100 grand. Fantastic. Okay. So, maxing out the IRA is a great start. That'll get you pretty far. And I would keep that emergency fund in a high yield savings account and you can open one up with our friends at Fairwind's Credit Union online on your phone within minutes and keep that parked there. Well, you know, I think the rates are currently over 3% and so you're at least keeping up or beating inflation with that money instead of it sitting at 0% in your local bank savings account.

So, that's a piece of homework. Fairwinds Credit Union. You can go to fairwinds.org/ramsey. Okay. And they've got a bundle there with an online checking and the high yield savings and it's no fee on that. And they're they've been an awesome partner because they have the same goal in mind. They want people to be like Scott, financially free with a paid off house.

Okay. So you've got that. So once you've funded the emergency fund, parking the high yield, maxing out the IRA, the next move would be a non-retirement account if you've run out of retirement options. And so like you said, those mutual funds and a taxable brokerage account would be the move. And we do say to diversify across four different types. So a mutual fund just is a giant basket of stocks. And we're going to even go further by going into a growth and income fund which that would be kind of your your high cap. Then you've got the growth fund which is more the mid aggressive growth which is the lower and then the international fund to balance it out because what we've seen which especially 2000 to 2010 that period the US market took a dive and the international market kind of balanced it out. And so that's what you want to kind of derisk your portfolio.

That's kind of the foreign account, right, that you were asking about, Scott? Yeah.

Do you work with a financial adviser or have you ever? I do. I do. I've been working for with this guy for about 15 years. That's what kind of got me started on things and doing this. That's why I've been a matter of fact, I was in Sam's the other day and he was walking through Sam's and we got to talking and I told him where I was at and everything. He's like, "Cool, let's work. Let's talk." You know? So

awesome. Yeah. You're in a different place now. Baby step seven, it's live and give like no one else. Build wealth. And so you can max out all the accounts you can. You could in, you know, pay cash for real estate if you wanted to do that. The world is your oyster at this point,

especially making 100 grand with no value. How much is your house worth, Scott?

Uh, it's about 325,000. Okay. Amazing. Well done. Yeah, that's so great. What is your plan for retirement to sort of replace your income and cut your expenses when

work? just work. I'm going to work until the good Lord says, "Hey, look, you can't work no more." Or or somebody um and I'll just say, "This pisses me off." And I say, "No,

there." So far, that hasn't happened. That's good. But yeah, that's that's the Dave Ramsey strategy is why would I stop working? I like what I do. Which is great.

Um and so maxing out those retirement accounts, if you work another 10 years, I mean, that nest egg will just continue to grow with compound growth. And so we are rooting for you to have an awesome retirement. Yeah, that's that's one thing I know too is I mean I'm I'm 65 now. At 67 I can double dip. So I can go in and you know get my regular paycheck and then also get you know draw social security and that's just more money that I can stack.

Yeah. And the longer you delay it the more you'll get in that social security. So if you don't need it just, you know, kick it down the road and take it at 70 to to get the max amount. And so you've got a lot of options here. And you have catchup contributions which is great because of your age. You can actually put more into those retirement accounts than the average person, the young bucks like me. Love it. I needed a win today. I love talking to Scott. That was awesome.

John is in Cincinnati up next. John, how can we help? Hey, George. How you doing?

Doing great. Can you hear me? Yes. Great. Um, so my question is, uh, me and my wife were just hit with a a little under a $15,000 bill, um, for a a car that was repoed that she had signed off on, um, in in the previous relationship.

Oh, she was the co-signer and her and her ex didn't pay and got repoed and now it dinged her credit.

And now the deficit is back to you at 15,000. Exactly. Gross. I'm sorry. Yeah, it's okay. Um the the dilemma is though uh we're nine nine weeks pregnant um with our first baby. Um we have about it's s super exciting. Um but we're unsure how to tackle this um you know this deficit.

Uh we don't know if we throw you know some emergency fund at it. How much do you have in savings?

Fight it. Uh about 10,000 in an emergency fund. Okay great. And you guys have no other debt? No, we do. So, we uh I owe 6,000 on my truck. Um she has a car that we owe 20 on and then some student loans. So, we have a a significant amount of debt that we were paying on

before the baby and then we kind of pivoted into saving, you know, trying to stack up some money for the baby. Okay.

So, we're a little unsure on what direction to go in right now. Yeah. Well, the good news is you don't need to just keep saving for nine months until the baby's here. you don't need $50,000. I would figure out what your, you know, out-ofpocket max is going to be on your insurance, your deductibles, and make sure that you at least have that as your baseline. And then I would move on and hit play on the debt snowball.

Okay? And so smallest to largest balance, and when you get to that $15,000 bill, you'll get there.

Got it. And maybe they'll settle at that point. I don't know. If you say, "Hey, I've got 10,000 lumpsum cash or 5,000. Will you take that?"

Got it. But you've got how much in student loans? Uh about 20. Okay. And what's your household income?

A little over a hundred. Oh, fantastic. Will that change at all after baby? Like will is that is her income part of that?

It is. Yeah. Uh she makes about 40. She's a teacher. Um and I make about 70. Okay. Great.

Will she go back to work, do you think, or will she stay home? We're unsure. Um

we Yeah, we're we're trying to figure that out. That's all a little new to us. Yeah, totally. No, that's great. Yeah, I would definitely keep a big emergency fund in place considering um baby's on the way. So yeah, what George said, if you get to a comfortable spot that you feel good and you want to throw some extra cash to get that credit card paid off, or I'm okay if you guys pause it and do stork mode is what we call it, where you kind of just stay current, but you just keep saving and saving and saving and saving. And then once baby's here, mom is good, everyone's good, throw all you have at the debt, which means you'll probably knock out, I would say, the truck, I'm sorry, the credit card and uh the $15,000 bill for sure and maybe part of that truck. So, uh, either way, you guys are doing great.

It's going to feel good to get that behind you. I used to be that guy who bragged about running on no sleep. And then I realized being tired all the time is not a flex. To show up as the best George Camel I can be, I need real rest. And that's why I got Casper mattresses in my home. The experts at Casper designed their mattresses to help you sleep deeper, cooler, and more comfortably. And they've been top ranked in both the foam and inner spring mattress categories by Consumer Reports. You and your entire family deserve great sleep. So go to casper.com/ramsey and use code rams for 25% off mattresses and 10% off everything else. That gives you up to 1,200 bucks off the Snowmax mattress, which is the exact one I sleep on. That's casper.com/ramsey.

Code Ramsey. Welcome back to the Ramsay Show. I'm George Camel here with Rachel Cruz. And in studio this segment, we have a very special guest. You know him, you love him, Mr. Ken Coleman.

It's always good to be here, George. I got to get my ears in. I I wasn't quite ready. That's fine. Hey, take your time. It's your show, Ken.

We're here for you, Ken. Well, here's what we're doing. Here's why we thought Ken should join. We are about to do some 2026 financial predictions.

I love a good prediction. And we're going to play this back at the end of 2026 and find out who was right cuz Rachel's very competitive.

That is a That is right. We are going to do that. We should. I think we should.

Okay. You guys are in trouble cuz it's going to be two zero. Ken, you get Now, if we're wrong, we're like, you know, the weatherman. It's like it's fine. and you get to keep your job. So, there's no stakes here. We're just having fun. Don't hold us to this, but here's what we think will happen for your money and in the economy.

Okay. I'm going to go first. All right. Okay. I think mortgage rates will continue to slowly go down.

Okay. That was a safe prediction. I like that. We started at around 7% and now it's sitting around 5.48% on a 15-year fix is what we've pulled.

That's actually incredible. That's pretty great. Like, people are waiting. I mean, that's a that's a pretty good. So, I think we're going to slowly throughout the year keep seeing that crude. I don't think we'll get back to 2 to 3%. But I'm going to see I'm going to rest in the low fives, high fours.

Yeah, the the Fed has been moving pretty slowly on this, Ken, with good reason. They you know, you can't do it too fast. That'll mess up the economy. And you can't do it too slow. And so, they're just incrementally

not to mention doing their thing. political tension that has gotten fever pitch as in like WWE wrestling match back and forth between President Trump and Jerome Pal. So Pal expected to step down. So new chairman expected in 2026. What will that do?

I I actually I don't agree with Rachel on that one. Wow. You think they're going to go up?

I think they're going to hold. Okay. So you think it's going to be at 5.48% in December of 2026? That's what I'm holding you to.

Can't wait for the I think what what anyone would call a hold, I think it's going to hold.

All right. Okay. Moving on. Here's mine. Sports betting will continue sabotaging young men's lives.

You guys are really going out on the end of it. Again, it's a safe prediction, but we've just been seeing more and more of this.

The stupidest and as as more states legalize sports betting, as more people jump onto these apps and the companies ramp up their marketing,

they make so much money. That's right. 2025 Pew Research study found 36% of men under 30 had placed a sports bet within the past year. Yeah. So, it's becoming normalized. It's just socialized gambling. It's, hey, I'm having fun with the buddies and we're kind of going to see who's going to win the parlay. That's right. And this is a higher rate than any other age group. So, these young men under 30 are going to get hit

who already broke. I can tell you as a father of a high schooler, I hear stories all the time of Chase's buddies.

Oh my goodness. Wow. And they're betting on crazy stuff like stuff you wouldn't think. It's not just a

Well, it becomes some kind of fun game of like, is he going to be wearing blue or red today? What shoes is he going to be wearing? It is so sad. Stupid.

It's disheartening. So stupid. Wow. Mama Rachel with a strong opinion. It's the most unattractive thing. It's unattractive.

I don't own a home. The Oh my god, the housing market. You heard it here first.

You can own a home, but I'm going to go and freaking sports bet cuz I'm not athletic enough to play the game. So, I'm going to have to

Can't afford to take my girl out cuz I've lost a parlay last night. So, I like that.

No. All right. Don't. Very good. You guys went really really safe. I think it's so crazy.

I'm going to step out a little bit. This might not be popular prediction. Let's talk about Airbnbs. All right. Became a very popular real estate venture. As you know, everybody thought this is my path to prosperity. Uh, and uh it's going through a pretty complex shift. In other words, demand still remains pretty strong. But what we're seeing is is the cheaper Airbnbs, less cost, smaller, smaller areas, you will see a continual decline, but your luxury listings will go up.

Oh, and the people who have the money will still be spending, but other people are more price conscious.

That's right. So, if you're in the Airbnb game, if you've got a luxury listing, I think you're probably in good shape. The demand will remain strong,

which is a small percentage. small percentage. But if you have overleveraged yourself, do not think that you're going to eventually rebound in 2026. In other words, if you can sell, I'd sell.

Well, people just go, "Well, it's easy money. People are going to be booking this 30 days a year and it work out like that."

The reason that this the cheaper market, just to give you a why really quick, is because there's oversaturation. Everybody got in the game thinking, "Oh, I'm going to buy a place down at the beach." So, anyway, too saturated, too much supply. That's why. There you go. No, it's the same dude that sports bets that's also on TikTok and it's like I own like eight Airbnbs and I'm like you are so annoying.

Rachel, you're right. Rachel is exhausted by you young men. By the way, Rachel's coming for the bros today. She's got the bros.

I feel like y'all need a little shake. I agree. Cuz you're not cool. She probably hates creatine, too.

I take creatine. Oh, in my protein shakes when I work out. Good for you. The bros and you can agree on one thing at least. All right, here's the next one. I think the stock market will actually stay relatively consistent. We've had a few good years and everyone now goes there's going to be a crash. It's all coming down and everyone's got their predictions. I think the US economy is strong. I think AI and tech will will carry us for the foreseeable future. And if it when it it dips, everyone's going to assume it's a crash. It's going to be just a little low. I think we'll come back up pretty quickly and lower.

So, you're not saying steady throughout the year. You're saying it ends the year pretty much at a at a level. Yeah. I don't like we had a few years that were, you know, negative 20% and in the past few years it's been plus 20%, plus 16%. I think we're going to have a positive year.

Wow. No camel crash. No. Okay. Okay. Uh I think the trend of buy now pay later. So I'll hit I'll get mad at the girls who shop, okay? Cuz that's sometimes who uses this. Uh I think they're going to become worse and worse and worse for the consumer. Meaning I think there's going to be more fees. I think that you're going to be able to loan sack, you know, take multiple, keep moving. They are making so much money. Stores are making so much money when people take the buy now pay later option. They end up spending so much more. So they're they see they see the money the the banks and the and the um and the stores, the retailers, and they know I'm going to make so much. So they're going to continue to expand that.

Can I affirm your prediction? Pun intended. I just saw a firm is rolling out a rent buy now pay later option. So you can put your rent on buy now pay later.

Well, that really frightens me. Jeez, you're happy. With the amount of money that you're putting on a short-term loan, that frightens me. So, I think you're right.

Can I tell you, I want to tell the viewers and the listeners, I have never seen the lovely, sunny disposition of Rachel Cruz so cloudy. I could see it across the desk. She's just sour.

And it's not because of her, it's this topic. She's got sports betting fine aling of her buttons.

I love seeing disgusted Rachel needs more of that. Let's get Let's get you back on the horn. Let's talk about the job market. This is the big everybody's always thinking. What's going on with my job? It's not been great. We saw a slowdown in 2025. Here's my theme. You know me, I got to go with a little phrase.

You love a theme. I love a phrase. Is it a Is it a 2026 job market will be You ready? Low, higher, low, fire. In other words, you won't see. Now she's laughing.

Kelly says, "Oh, wow." You know what? Kelly doesn't appreciate that this is rooted in accuracy. low higher means we're not going to see uh a hot job market. It's going to stay pretty stagnant. Uh I think you're going to be in the 4.5%. You may see a spike get near 5% depending on some situations. We still don't know where all the tariff situation uh where all those tariffs how is it going to shake out? We're still in a wait and see mode which is why a lot of companies are on the sidelines as it relates to hiring. So what I mean by low hire is I don't expect to see companies hiring a lot of people. I think it's going to be a wait and see for 2026. But here's the good news because companies are also in a wait and see. They're going to be reluctant to fire talent.

Okay? So, it's kind of a we're okay with who we got and we're going to stay in a holding pattern. So, that's what I mean by low hire, low fire. Now, a couple quick things. Growth sectors. I think there will be hot sectors regardless of low hire low fire and that is healthcare, skilled trades. Don't sleep on the trades. They're blowing up. logistics and some AI adjacent roles.

Oh, so it's not replacing jobs, but they're connected to white collar jobs right now, specifically white collar tech, is getting killed because that's where we're seeing already how AI is beginning to kick people.

How is it affect I mean, are you seeing numbers? Yes. You're not seeing a lot of a lot of young people that be in moving into the technology sector as what we would call white collar tech. They're not getting the jobs because those jobs have been replaced by AI

and we're seeing private equity come in. buy it, clean house, and go. We don't You know what I like to say about private equity? What's that? Private equity equals public misery.

This is why we bring Ken on, guys. He brings the heat. Ken is he he's all about the words. I appreciate it.

I'll be here for 30 more seconds. Here's the truth. Nobody knows what's going to happen. So, just stay the course.

I know I do. Okay. Take those predictions to the bank. Y'all, we will come back December of I forgot how competitive you guys are.

I was going to put Ken on hold. That's my dream in life to have a hold button for Ken. Thank you for joining us, Ken. We had a great time. Hope you appreciate our predictions. Control what you can control. It's all you can do.

All right, guys. Listen, if you have some money goals this year, you want to get control, you're making good money, uh you got to download the Every Dollar app. It is the way people gain control with their money in a very tactical way. And here's a a quote from someone who downloaded it. Love this app. It makes it super easy to budget with my husband. That's right. We've got a a new spouse feature there. Here's what they continued to say. We've implemented this practice since our wedding day and we've had zero money fights because there's full transparency and we're all on the same page. And you can do this, too. You can take control of your money. You can change your family tree. You can live like no one else. Go download the Every Dollar Budget app for free in the App Store or Google Play. Amanda is in Toronto. What's going on, Amanda?

Hi. Hey. Um, this is my question. Um, how can my mom and I budget our emergency fund and travel expenses given that my father's ICU expenses are climbing? I'd like to still have some left over for my dad's rehab since not everything is covered by our Canadian healthcare coverage.

I'm so sorry. He's still in the ICU. Yes. Um, basically what happened was that earlier this month, my dad had a stopover flight in Soul, South Korea, where he had a cardiac arrest and is now in the ICU.

My mom and I would like to fly over and bring him back to our hometown in Canada once his heart procedure is scheduled.

We have travel insurance, but we're not sure what would be covered since my dad's claim is still under review. M

I've already paid $18,000 Canadian and the translator said the total cost of the hospital would would potentially exceed $47,000 Canadian.

Mhm. Um but of course that's just a baseline and it could go up from there. So I'm overwhelmed navigating all of this as an only child.

Wow. Gosh. Amanda, how old are you? I'm 25 years old. Okay. Um, what is your parents financial situation? Like where your dad and your mom, what they have built as your parents, where are they at financially?

Um, so my father um he um has been on a disability for quite some time. So he's unemployed um when received disability payments from the government. My mom is the sole bread winner. I believe she earns about 65,000 Canadian per year.

Okay. Um, and they do have a mortgage for the condo that we live in. Um, so that's their um, financial situation at the moment.

Okay. Do they have savings at all? Yes. Um, I don't have access to my dad's uh, bank account, but from what I know, my mom has um $71,000 in an emergency fund.

Okay. $10,000 was borrowed from her home line of credit. Okay. and she borrowed um $10,000 from her sister and 5K from my grandmother.

Why is she borrowing all this money when she has the money to just pay for it? Um I just found out about this after the fact. Um so I wasn't looped in on it. I think my mom is just um I think maybe panicking

um given that the hospital keeps calling us every other day asking us to pay a deposit.

Yeah. how much is owed right now? What sort of gets you guys by right now? Cuz the other medical bills, you can get on a payment plan and pay that off over time, but what are they demanding right now?

Um, so they were demanding um 17 million Korean one. So I believe that was um I'd say 16 to 7,000 16,000 or so Canadian dollars.

Okay. And is that it like um at this point? Do you know how much longer he'll be over there before you guys can bring him to Canada?

No, we don't have that information. Okay. The doctor said they want his inflammation to go down um before they start the procedure. So, he's just an observation at this moment.

Wow. Okay. Well, I would make sure to use your dad and mom's money before you're using your own. Is that the case? Are you expected to pay out of your own salary for this?

Um what my mom and I discussed is that um for my own travel expenses I would be paying for my own.

Okay, that's fair. Um that's what we have decided. Um so how much will the travel be?

Oh, so travel all in for this trip. travel, lodging, transportation, all of that.

About 5,000 um just for travel and lodging and Okay. Yeah. So, Amanda, I mean, if I were in your shoes, you know, we would never tell someone to like go into debt and all of it, but when there's a health crisis, our number one goal is for your dad to be okay, right? And so, what do we have to do to create that? And then we can deal with the money stuff on the back end. Now, we don't want to be irresponsible or make bad decisions in the process. We want to have a clear mind about it. But um but yes, I mean I would be 100% spending five grand to go with my mom to see my dad who's in a different country who had a horrible medical situation. Um get him as healthy as possible. Sounds like the surgery's going to be there. It's going to be there's going to be a lot. There's going to be a lot. And then getting him back to Canada. Like that those would be my my priorities. And I would ask and I don't know how you know the

communication with the hospital there. Um, but a part of me would be hesitant to start paying something until we know and have some answers, right? Like there's some there's a part of me that I'd want to get there in person and to know how their I don't even know how their healthcare works, right?

Yeah. You got to figure out the insurance claim and all of that and make sure that everything's verified and you're not paying for things that didn't happen. So, there's a lot of pieces on the back end you can do. And I would

start writing checks, right, though? Yeah, I mean I would if they're needing a deposit to for whatever. That might be the one thing to cover today out of mom's savings. Leave her debt. Don't allow her to go in any more debt, but just pause on her debt right now until all of this is squared away. We got dad home. We know next steps. She's covered the medical expenses and maybe she pays over time and whatever's left of her savings she uses to knock out the debts and then she rebuilds the savings.

Do you have 5k for the trip saved up or are you going to save up quickly? Yes, I have 5K uh for for the trip saved up.

Okay, good. Well, the key is that you are not mixing finances together and they have the money. So, you don't need to, you know, give money to your mom and hey, this is a loan. I would just cover your trip like she said and let them handle the medical expenses out of their savings and then pay off whatever's whatever debt is left when you get back. Do you have any debt personally? No, I have no no debt.

Good. Okay. Yeah, Amanda, I mean, I I think George is exactly right that they're Again, a boundary sounds so harsh in a situation like this, but your parents have $71,000. You know what I mean? Like that needs to be taken. That that's the that's the pool at which you pull from. And it sounds like your parents have had separate finances because you can't get Okay. So, so your mom I I mean is she under the emotional awareness of that this is my husband and even though it's quote unquote the my savings that I'm going to be spending some of this on him, right? Does is will she do that?

She will. Um I think she's a bit I guess panicky about it, but she will. Um Okay. Yeah. Cuz that's I mean that that's it, right? If your if your husband has a medical situation, you have $71,000. We're not going to go to my sister to ask for money at you. She has the money. And so that's I would not be spending your money right now, Amanda. Now, if all this gets drained and there's something horrible and you feel like as a daughter, you're like, I want to contribute and help. Like that is totally your prerogative. Um but I I would not be paying money out of pocket for any of his medical expenses again right now because they have $71,000.

Yep. And then it's up to your mom to figure out, hey, what's going on with dad's financial situation? And we need to make sure that he's able to communicate all this. If he's incapacitated, she needs, you know, financial power of attorney. And so to use his money

to use his money and access it all if it is not tied to her name. And so there there's just a lot of other pieces to this. But I would just take it one day at a time. Let's get dad well. The money pieces will solve themselves. We just don't need to go further into debt. We need to limit the damage financially and just take the trip, make sure he's good, get him back home and deal with the medical situation. But man, I'm so sorry. That's a frightening situation.

That is so tough. And then being in a foreign country, different language, different healthare translator. I mean, that's difficult.

That is that's a lot. That's a lot, Amanda. So, for a 25-year-old to be dealing with,

I know. Well, we're wishing the best for his health and the financial piece we will figure out. And that's why we have an emergency fund that that turns this crisis into an inconvenience to drain it. But at least we're not in crippling debt coming out of this thing.

Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fair Winds Credit Union studio. I'm George Camel here with Rachel Cruz taking your calls at88255225. Elizabeth joins us in Columbia, South Carolina. What's going on, Elizabeth?

Hey, how are y'all doing? We're doing great. What's going on with you today? Well, my father, 87 years old, he's a widow of seven years. He has been seeing a um he's excuse me, he's a widowerower and he's been seeing a um widow um who's 88 years old. They live about an hour away from all of us here and he is buying a house at 87 years old with a VA loan and we're trying not to read into it. We want him to be happy. Um but I can this is one of the worst financial decisions that he will be making. He's not married. He has no intention of being married. And um

does where does he live now? What what's his home situation now? Well, he doesn't live in our town. He's been living with her for um for about 6 months.

Okay. So, he doesn't have a home. He doesn't have a home. He does have a home. Yes, he has a home here. He has a home here,

an hour away that he's not living in because he's living with girlfriend. Okay.

He refuses to move to his town. Okay. Yes. Does is he going to sell his home where you are and pay for this home?

Oh, I only have a few minutes for this call. I mean, we could get into I mean, I'm here some popcorn and listen up, Elizabeth.

You It's you. Yeah. Very long story short, um well, my younger sister had financial problems and she got recently foreclosed on and moved into his house and didn't tell anybody. And so the last thing he's going to do is kick his daughter out into the street. So

so originally told him, "We have no problem whatsoever if you sell your house right?

Use that money and buy something down there. We have no problem with that whatsoever."

But now that's not going to be the case. And he's still going through with it. And he didn't tell anybody and learned about it the hard way. And he promised me face to face that he would tell me if he did anything financially like this because I'm I'm his executive. I'm his power of attorney. I'm on his account.

Yeah. And he's I think she's manipulating him. Well, you think the girlfriend is

I Why else would he be buying? Well, cuz he wants to be near Jar his girlfriend. Why he's Why you know what I mean? Who's manipulating is the sister living in the house that he needs to sell? Well, I

now Now the girlfriend's not going to be on the house, right? The loan and and the

deed. I I don't know. He won't really He hasn't really talked about it cuz he hasn't really talked about it. I mean, I had to call him out on it when I heard about it and um he won't I don't know. But it's hard.

She doesn't have she doesn't have the money. She needs his money and he doesn't have

How much money does he have? She's living with him. She's got a house. Well, she's renting and Yeah, she's renting.

Okay. So, she need She has no money. She's broke. Um, yeah. At 88. Is she 88? Yeah. Her husband, I think, financially his health wiped him out. I mean, I feel horrible for that, but

Sure. How is she How is she health-wise at 88? She's got her issues that again, my dad is now become it seems like a caretaker and

Oh, shoot. So, you do see your dad, you're like, "Dad, you're 78. You could have another 10, 15 years."

He's 80. You say 87. 87. Oh, he's 87. Oh, I wrote down 78. I'm sorry. Okay. So, they're Oh, man.

This is a wild one. Well, here's the deal. It sounds like you've been pretty like combative, accusatory, and he's sort of getting defensive, right?

Well, to a certain degree, but this isn't our relationship, and that's why it's so hard.

Yeah. That it's it's heartbreaking that he did something that you guys promised. you know, the integrity of the situation of, "Dad, you you're going to tell me and he didn't." That's hurtful. That's hard.

Even though he's a grown man, obviously, but um have you encouraged him? I'm sorry.

Have you just encouraged him? Hey, here's here's the things that I'm personally worried about. This isn't about me. I'm just worried about you. Here's what's on my mind of, you know, keeping finances separate. What happens if the relationship goes south? you know, making sure that it's in only in his name and not her name and not, you know, co-mingled at this stage of life while they're not married.

Well, he hopefully he's at least doing that. I mean, that he shouldn't be doing this period. I mean, it's okay. My concern Yes. My concern I we just want him to be happy. I mean, there's four children. He just We all just want him to be happy. But

what what is his financial situation, Elizabeth? What's What does he have? What's his net worth?

Okay. Well, he's got his house here and if he had to sell it outright, I'd say he'd get 400 for it and he's got about 200 in an IRA.

Okay. What does he owe on his current house? Nothing. Oh, he owns it outright. Correct.

Okay. And then how much do you know how much the house he's looking at when he's going to pull the VA loan?

425. Oh gosh. And that's going to be nothing down. Correct. Because the VA that's what he keeps saying, the VA doesn't need anything down. I'm like, "That's not the point."

Well, how is he going to afford a $425,000 mortgage? Um, I guess between, you know, sharing sharing expenses.

I mean, you told me she's broke and it doesn't sound like he's rolling apparently. Well, she's got enough apparently to live on for the next 5 years, and I haven't asked her exactly what that means, but um so I mean, she's got enough to be paying her rent. So, I believe that they are sharing some expenses, but my concern is what if my father passes away and she's living in this house?

Yeah, it's under his name. I mean, you know, if she we goes back to renting right?

Well, I mean, what if what if I mean what if let's just say a year after they move in, my father passes away. Then what? I mean, you know, I mean, I doubt we're going to be able to boot her out. And if she fails to make the mortgage, then I'm sure he's putting up his current house.

I mean, if they're not married at that point and the estate plan is clearly laid out, then you have options. And so, that's where I'm saying the best thing you can do right now is say, "Dad, I can't stop you from doing this." But I need you to slow down and think clearly and we need to put protections in place cuz I'm the executive. I'm going to have to deal with the fallout of all this. Correct.

And so, I just need to make sure we're updating wheels. We have the correct beneficiaries. We're looking at the whole estate plan so that we all have a clear plan of what's going to happen when inevitably one of them passes

cuz he's creating a nightmare for the girls that he loves. That and what are you going to do about the sister if he passes away in a year? What's your sister going to do? Cuz she lives in

Oh my jeez. She lives in the you know, now we have to evict her. It's the most of his whole estate is this $400,000 paidoff house. And then that's got to be split four ways. So she's not going to buy y'all out. So that's going to be that needs these are the conversations that need to happen before he passes away with the sister and him about and his girlfriend.

Well, I do feel like Yeah, I'm with you though, Elizabeth. Like, how do you kick out a you know, if this is in two years, a 90-year-old woman?

Yeah, exactly. I mean I mean you do I mean from I I would sit down with an estate attorney as a third party mediator because between you and dad it's going to get too contentious and just say hey dad we have an estate attorney coming by. He's going to look at all this and make sure that we've got our eyes dotted tees crossed before we make any financial decisions so that it doesn't create a nightmare for all of us down the line.

But the hard thing is too George is that he is a grown like he can do this. He's a grown man.

Yeah. So you're going to that's you can't stop people from doing dumb things. But you can try to slow him down

when an 87year-old has his mindset. I have a feeling. Gosh, man. That's a wild time to fall in love. But hey,

you know what? Good for him. Again, you want him to be happy. Hey guys, Dave Ramsey here. Every day on this show, we help people work through real money problems and figure out what to do next. Now you can get that same kind of help anytime with Ask Ramsey. Ask your money question and get answers built on Ramsay principles we use on the show. Whether you're making a decision or just want something explained, Ask Ramsey is here to help. It's fast, simple, and free to use. Go to ramseysolutions.com and try Ask Ramsey today. That's ramseyolutions.com.

Welcome back to the Ramsay Show, Rachel. It's time for our question of the day, and it comes uh from Y Rei. Defaulted private student loans, they don't fix themselves, but they can be fixed. Why Refi helps you by refinancing defaulted private student loans into a low fixed rate payment that fits your budget so you can clean up the mess and move forward with a plan. Visit yrefi.com/ramsey to learn more. That's yfy.com/ramsey. May not be available in all states.

Today's question comes from Derek in Vermont. Excuse me. What's the point in marriage? Okay, here. Here we go.

Start strong. What's the point of marriage? My girlfriend and I are not religious and we think traditional marriage is an outdated religious ceremony. We don't like the idea of spending money on everything that surrounds a wedding. We thought about doing a marriage at city hall, but we already combined our finances, do our taxes together, and call each other husband and wife. So, what's the point of getting the official marriage certificate?

Okay. Well, Derek, a pointed question, but a fair one that, you know, a lot of there's there's a generation of people who are kind of going, what's the point in this? Like, why do we need to make it official? We're cohabitating already. We do our thing. It's been going well. Why move forward in this this outdated oldtimey thing where we have a ceremony, go to the courthouse and get a certificate?

What's your take, Rachel? Yeah. Well, I would say from like the non-emotional, non-spiritual side, there's a level of protection with getting legally married from a financial perspective, if you ever have kids in the future. I mean, there is something to be said that, you know, you have a system in place that helps protect both parties. And I do think kind of along those lines, George, again, I don't have stats on this, but I'm like, there is something to be said when you commit something, even legally, there's a level of commitment there where Yeah.

this that's like, okay, the wind blows a certain way, you're kind of not feeling it, and one's just out and then you're just stuck with what you got, you know? Um, so that's the more legal non-spiritual side. But I would say from a from a um gosh, I wish I had Deloney on here because he's was

he's been studying this stuff. He was talking about the marriage advantage and there's something um emotional, psychological, like all of these elements.

There's benefits in every area, financial, all of it. Yes. Um when you commit yourself to a partner. So there's something about that. um

the long-term trust and the shared sacrifice, stability for the kids, the financial benefits.

I mean, there's a lot emotional safety. And if you're a person of faith, which you know, Rachel and I are, like marriage is a covenant, and we believe it was designed by God. And so, there is a reason there of to become one.

Totally. And if you don't do that, it's fine, but you're you're, you know, roommates with benefits at that point. And some people make that work. I'm not saying that you can't have a successful relationship. I've just found at some point one of you wants to go to the next level and have that commitment and there becomes resentment and it doesn't work out. We've seen that where we've been dating for nine years but he just doesn't see the point. I'm like yeah because you've been cohabitating for 9 years. So he's going why go further with this? I can just

you know I can have all the benefits without having to have the full commitment. And so there there's a lot there but again I think the better question for you is why you scared of commitment Derek?

Come on Derek step it up. There we go. You know, there's the re there's like there's a rebel in there that people are like, "Oh, I I'm going to do something totally different." This outdated

Yeah. religious ceremony, you know. So, yeah, I would go to city hall, make it official, be husband and wife, cuz you're not.

It's not about the ceremony. No. No. If you want to skip that, whatever. Fine. Yeah.

But it's about building a life together. And I don't think you can fully do that when you're cohabitating.

And I don't think from an emotional spirit. Yeah. I don't think that. Yeah. All right, I agree. So, Derek, I don't know if we helped you, but

we said what we said, Derek. That's how we feel. To each his own. All right, Dustin is in Indianapolis. Up next, Dustin, what's going on?

Hi, good afternoon, George and Rachel. It's a pleasure to talk to you guys. I just started listening to you not too long ago. And, uh, long story short, I want to get much of your guys' advice as I can. Um, I'm about 40k in debt right now. Um, I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. I've been listening to you guys' memos and I want to do something really different, you know, this year with my money. Um, be honest, I really I suck at budgets. Um, I just downloaded um, Every Dollar yesterday. Just bought Total Money Makeover yesterday as well.

Awesome. Good for you. I've been very blessed with the opportunity job. Um, I'm expected to make about 120 to 140K a year um, starting yeah, this month. And I just want to know how can I attack this, you know, rapidly right now. Guns, Blaz, and Rambo. Um I found a side hustle I started doing in dece um December. So I'm able to squeeze like an extra 2 to 3K as well a month.

Amazing. Break down the debt. Um so I have 40K. I have about 15 in the car. I have about 25 in credit cards. Um 8,000 of it will be paid off the end of March and then the rest 17 will probably be paid off in about May, give or take.

Yeah, good for you. I want to be able to get emergency fund as well. I hear people talk about that a lot. And I'm behind in my 401k. I only have about 10 15k in that. And I want to know how can I max that to catch up from the years.

How old are you? Behind. I'm 29 years old. turn 30 next month. Oh, amazing, Dustin.

You got you got one of the biggest blessings of all, which is time. And that's what you need to build wealth. And you will do that if you follow the principles that we teach. Cuz guess what? By the end of the year, if you follow this plan, you're out of debt with a fully funded emergency fund with your incredible income.

Yes, sir. I love the year. Can I ask Dustin, what are you doing for a living? Because I think this 120 is new, you said.

Yes. Um, I'm a truck driver. Um the past couple years the pay has been flunuating but um I've landed a great job luckily here. Okay.

Um I travel for work. I'm going to be able to travel two three weeks at a time. Um

okay. So it's pretty guaranteed the 120. It's not like if you sell this you can you could make it. It's like it's a pretty locked in like okay I'm going to if I do the work I'm going to get it.

Amazing. Okay. So Dustin you're incredible. Okay so George is exactly right. I think all of this can be taken care of. You want to be paying your debts off smallest to largest. So, the 17,000 that's going to be left in credit cards. Is that multiple credit cards or just one?

Just probably just one. Just one. Okay. So, what I would probably do, Dustin, is um pay minimum payments on it and then I would actually probably pay off your car, your $15,000 car loan, and then go back to that 17. I mean, it's a $2,000 difference. It's not like the end of the world.

Yeah. The way you're headed, it's going to be so aggressive. It really won't matter all that much. But the momentum you create by using the debt snowball to a tea and just smallest balance is next. Smallest balances next freeing up the payment. If you do that and can you know are you bringing home like 9K a month you think with this new gig?

Uh give or take about gross about 10k about 19k a month. So then if you think about it could you throw 5,000 at your debt every month total?

Yes sir. Okay possible. That means you are done in like 7 months. Yeah. 5,500 bucks get you done in a little over seven months and it'll take you three or four months after that to get a fully funded emergency.

Yeah. What's your expenses every month, Dustin? Um, right now I'd say about 1,500. Um, I was blessed to come to stay with some family because I'm a truck driver, so I real um married kids anything single.

Single just me. Okay. Because a fully funded emergency fund for you could be more, we say three to six months of expenses. Yours could be on the three-month side.

Yeah. Um because you're pretty nimble. Yeah. Not a lot of people to take care of. I mean, you can make it 10K and be done in two months. And so, I'm telling you, man, by the end of the year, this thing's over. Just chunk as much as you can at the debt every month. Minimum payments on the rest, smallest one, attack it with a vengeance, and you'll be done in no time.

Yep. And then once you get your emergency fund, then you can start looking at your retirement that you were asking about, and you're going to have plenty. Can you pull pull up a calculator, George, for us?

Yeah. 15% of 140, that's 20K a year you'd be investing. So, think about that. You're investing 1,600 bucks a month.

And if you put that into an investment calculator, George is going to do it. 28, let's say by 29, you start investing, right? We'll give you a year.

And he's got 15,000 already in his 401k. 15,000. We're going to contribute 1,600 bucks a month, 10% rate of return.

You're ready. Okay, Dustin, are you ready for this? Big reveal. If you do this, guess how much money? What What's the age? 20 29 to age 60. So you can retire at 60 if you want to.

Okay. What how much do you think would be in your account, Dustin, at 60 if you did this. Just take a guess.

I say about 1.5. You ready for this? For 4.3 million. Triple it. Okay. That's not like us making up numbers. That's just if you follow what the stock market has done and you do this for 30 years, you never get a raise. This is the amount you make and you consistently invest. You will have multiple millions. Well done, Dustin. Congratulations. Stay the track. Read Total Money Makeover. Do Every Dollar Budget. You're going to freaking kill it. We are cheering you on.

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 ramseysolutions.com/agent. That's rammissysolutions.com/

Well, tax season is upon us, Rachel. I've got my appointment scheduled. I'm very excited. We're making it a date. My wife and I are going to go get a nice lunch afterwards to celebrate

and do your taxes. Yeah. So, if you need help with this, we've got tons of resources, free checklists and guides that will help you file. Just go to ramseolutions.com/taxes and you'll feel a whole lot better about tax season. Maybe you'll even get excited about it like I do.

You're so excited. I can't I can't wait to see what I owe. Will I get a refund?

Oh my gosh. I know. Do you usually will I get close to zero? I'd say we usually owe

Yeah, I have owed the past couple years. I go on the other end of the spectrum versus like wanting a refund. You want to hang on to your money versus the government hanging on to it for you.

Put it in that fair winds, you know, high yield checking account, high yield savings account. I mean, and

I like to write because here's the thing, the money doesn't come out of your account until April 15th.

That's right. So, I want to know ahead of time how much I'm going to need to pull from savings to to, you know, pay the bill. So, don't wait till the last minute. Go ahead and at least get your ducks in the in a row here.

Ramseyolutions.comtaxes. All right. Ashley is in Atlanta up next. What's going on, Ashley? Hey, how are you guys?

Great. What's going on with you? Good. So, I bought a car and I don't struggle paying the payment, but I mentally struggle with the payments.

Like, are you mad at yourself? Do you feel like it was a mistake? Yes. Because I drove a paid off car. I I was doing the total money makeover.

Um, you went back to the dark side after Yes. So, what caused that, do you think? I'm curious. Well, I I needed a new car or not a new one. I needed a car and I made the mistake of buying a new one that instead of just getting something

um that I could pay cash for or even less expensive than what I went with. So, the our car

your heart went ahead of your bank account and went me wants it now. I'm like, "Oh, this is awesome. It's so nice and it's comfortable and it has so many options and

Yeah. So beautiful. It's a brand new car, you know, right? You sit in it, smell it, see it, and you're like, "Wow,

it's enticing." And then now I get in it and smell it and won't it because my kids have already destroyed it.

Yep. That's the problem with cars. What did you get? I got a um 23 Palestine Limited.

Okay. Nice. All right. So, what do you owe on it and what's the payment? Um, so I owe 37,000 payments

805 a month. Is that how much a palisade costs? Yes. So, goodness gracious. It thinks very highly of itself.

It does. It really does. Um, so if I keep going with the payment, it's actually going to be $41,000 after interest.

Y Yes. So, I got on Carvana, put in the information, and they offered me um whatever it was like a $3,100 difference that I would have to pay them.

Got it. So, they were offering like 34. Yeah. So, my question is, do I take the $3,100 loss

and just know I made a mistake three years ago or do I That's like basically four four months of car payments,

you know? Right. The other option if you if it feels like too much to take the hit, you could always go private party. It's going to be a little more work because you have to deal with it and list it and all of that, but you'll probably get 37 or more for it.

Yes. Carvana needs to make money. So, they're going to give you less so that they can then jack it up to 38 and sell it to someone else.

Do you have any money saved, Ashley? I do. We have three months uh emergency fund.

How much is that for you guys? Uh $20,000. Okay, good. Yes. Get rid of this car.

If you want to do the work, do a private sale. Yeah, private. Yeah, do it private sale if you can. If you don't want to do the work, you want to take the hit, you can. And then take get girl $6,000 out of your emergency fund and go buy a car.

Well, so we already have two other paid off cars like that now. So when I got the car, we needed a seven passenger vehicle, but like our kids have grown up. Some of them have grown up and moved on.

How many kids you have? Oh, okay. Yeah. So we have five total. Oh my gosh. So you can So you have a car you have a car sitting there

that you could drive. Great. Ashley, sell this car. Your problems have been solved for you.

You've done it. You didn't even need to call us. You have Yeah, you don't have to work.

It's all right there. Now, how much do you guys make as a household? Um Oh, you broke up on us.

Oh, wait. Yeah. How much? Sorry. Around 140 a year. Amazing. Oh, okay. And what's the total value of all the cars in your life right now? Everything with wheels and motors.

Oh, they're I mean they're older. the value. Um, I don't know, probably $20,000 if we sold the other cars. Maybe

I was going to say if you love the car and just hate the payment, you could always aggressively pay off the car.

Yeah, you could. Yes, but that's that's another version of sacrifice. Yeah. Do you want to sacrifice lifestyle for a few months and throw money at this?

Live like you're broke and pay it off in four months, five months. Yeah, I've considered that too because we do I put I do this the 10% into our 401k and then I do $2,100 into our high yield savings account. So like it's not that we struggle to pay it. It's just like I don't know if I want to pay it anymore and and I didn't know if it was better to just get

It's okay to not struggle to pay it and want to get rid of it. You there's a lot of people who take on the payment going, "Well, I can afford it. It's fine." and and then life happens and so you're kind of getting ahead of this

going, "Hey, let's let's nip this in the bud while it's still fresh, right?" And eventually you can get your dream car, just save up and pay cash. You got the savings muscle down

that too. Or if you if you guys want to, you could drain the emergency fund and sacrifice lifestyle for a few months, pay this off, build your emergency fund back up, and keep the car if you want. But if every time you get in that car, you're like, "Oh, I don't regret sitt If the regret, it's not worth that. But financially, you guys are in a place, you're not over. Yeah. You're in a place that you would be able to to keep it if you wanted it. You just got to pay it off,

right? Okay. Just the draining the emergency fund. It kind of makes me panic. Like it's like I need that just in case, you know, like Dave says, it's not if something happens, it's when something happens. So, I need that there when something happens to be able to like care for my family.

Sure. There's just a false sense of security when you owe this lender 40 grand and you have 20 grand sitting on the other side.

Yeah. You're still a negative negative net worth in that sense. You know what I mean? If you're just looking at those two numbers. So

it's it's not really real cuz it's not really there. It's because you have debt. So

on paper it's a net negative here. And so you know what to do. Ashley, you got two options. You guys make enough that this car is not a huge part of your world and income, but there's sacrifice on either side. I got to get rid of this thing. got to drive this other older car or do we want to drain the emergency fund and go to town paying this off?

And when the kids trash it and you're paying $800 a month towards it, you're just like,

I realize that as an adult now cuz I got little ones and dogs and they've just destroyed all of this beautiful furniture and the vehicles and you're just like stuff is going to get deteriorated.

I know. I know. when we bought our minivan in 2020. Uh it was when right when right after Charles Charles was born October of 19 we got the minivan and I said this is my 5-year car cuz I didn't really want it but I was like

in your head you could justify it if it was temporary. Yes. Yes. Where I'm like I just you know I want the cool mom car later but like for now with littles we'll do the minivan. And George can I tell you I we are five we are six years into this minivan and I can't budge. I could not imagine buying a new SUV right now or you know a nicer car.

Yep. And with it with my kids. You've told me the stories. I mean Sharpie on the white seats. I'm like oh my goodness. The OCD kids. But

I mean and I'm definitely not the mom that's like no snacks. You know some moms do that. I'm like no eat your goldfish. Like we are going to you need to be happy back there until you get do whatever you need to do back there you know to be happy.

But then that just creates I mean just nasty nasty nasty. So, I don't know if that's a good reminder that minivan, that odyssey will be in our lives.

I also feel like the danger of buying a new car is that becomes your new baseline mentally of what you're willing to drive cuz going from a new car, that's a good point.

So, I always here's what I've done. I drove like an ' 09 then to a 13 cuz I was like, if you jump too far, you're done. You're not going back to 2016.

That's a great point, George. You just feel like you're going back in time. You're like, I'm a pioneer woman here with my I don't even have CarPlay. What world is this? And so there's a real danger to the lifestyle creation. She sat in the new car and she's like, "Look at all this amazing stuff." Right? Her baseline's high.

I've got a heated steering wheel. How did our parents survive without the heated steering wheel? Got to put gloves on. Gh.

What is this place? Welcome to 2026. Last year is officially in the rear view and you're fired up to finally make some changes with your money. New year, new goals. We love it. But let's be honest, old you said the exact same thing last January and the January before that. And before you know it, those money goals fizzle out faster than the fleeting flavor of Lacroy. So here's the truth. New year motivation only gets you so far. You need an actual plan. And the good news is you don't have to figure it out on your own. Every Dollar builds a personalized plan based on your goals and your real life. And it actually coaches you to stick with it.

Plus, the Every Dollar app will help you find extra money hiding in your budget. And trust me, there's always something hiding. The average person finds $3,015 in the first 15 minutes. That's basically like giving yourself a raise and a much happier new year. So don't let future you down. Make them proud. Go download the Every Dollar Budget app and start for free right now.

Our scripture of the day, Romans 12:9. Don't just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Elon Musk said, "For quality of life, it is better to heir on the side of being an optimist and wrong rather than a pessimist and right." Did he say that? I don't know. They just give us these quotes, guys. Who knows what's real anymore.

And not and not on timing either in life. Let me just say that out loud. Good. Good call, Rachel. All right. Mary is in Grand Rapids up next. What's going on Mary?

Hello. How are you? Good. What's going on? Um, my question is I know that um Dave is a long is a proponent of long-term care insurance,

but I wondered if you ever can get to the point where you're self-insured and you don't need it.

Absolutely. Um, I'm I'm 63. I'm still working part-time. Um, my husband retired um last June. He's 62. He doesn't want to take Social Security yet until he can max it out.

Okay. And we have about 2.3 in our retirement. Awesome. Um, so we called Xander, as Dave always recommends, and we talked to a um, a wonderful lady that spent a lot of time with us, and she gave us a quote for like a standard policy from one of the better companies that they work with, and it would cost us about 6,800 a year for long-term care insurance. And that would be going up by about 15% every seven years, um, the premiums. and it would cover about 500,000 for both my husband and myself to dip into when um when and if we need it. But the first three months would come out of our if we did go into like an assisted living or needed long-term care help, the first three months are out of pocket. So, I'm thinking um by that time if we needed it probably the cost would be like 12 to 15,000 a month and the first 3 months are not paid for by the um insurance plan. So, I was kind of shocked at that.

It's still going to cost you that's kind of it's like a co-ay there. Yeah. Okay. Well, you got 2.3 million and so the question is would you guys be okay if you need to dip in and pay $500,000?

Yeah. I mean, I I don't know. I just think that 6 $6,800 a year seems steep to me and then it's going to increase and I don't know. I just don't know if I feel comfortable paying that much.

But then again, the rates you will see anywhere for that and at your age. And so, it is expensive. There's no we don't hide there's no hiding that fact. But the truth is 70% of people turning 65 will need some from it. And you know the multi-year cost can reach six figures. So that's the fear is that

but also remember every seven years Mary your um your money doubles. So you guys will have 5 million right in seven years in your investments.

So you won't need it anymore. So it's not you're not going to pay this the rest of your life. Or maybe you you pay for it for a few years and then decide you know what

that's what I'm thinking. We're at the point we don't need it but right now we're still on the fence

cuz it really depends on your expenses in retirement. If you guys are living pretty frugally, 2.3 million will get you very far.

And so that's the question mark. How much do you guys plan to spend in retirement? And how long do you plan to work?

Well, I'm working part-time. I figure I'll work 65 so that um we can go on the Medicare or whatever and not have to pay uh health insurance out of pocket.

Yep. Um because Cobra's pretty expensive as well. Oh yeah. Um and what about your husband? He doesn't want he's he retired in June. He's 62. Okay. He doesn't want to take social security until he can max out on it. So I think that

Yeah. And you guys don't need it. You're not desperate for the cash right now either. Are you guys debtree?

Yes. And what's your household income? Um so right now I'm just bringing in about 4,000 a month working part-time.

And that's plenty for you guys. You're bringing 4,000 a month part-time. That's great.

4,000 a month. Um, I've been having to dip into the um, investments a little bit because we've had some kind of big chunks of money that we've had to pay out lately. Um, we took two trips and my daughter's gotten married in the summer, so we're giving her some money.

Yeah. I mean, you've been investing for a long time. It's okay to dip in now that you're in, you know, you're past 60, so there's no penalties or anything like that. So, have at it. I would, you know, if you want to sit down with a a Smart Vster Pro to crunch the numbers and projections of where you'll be at and when Social Security will hit and how much your expenses will be, that might give you some confidence on not needing long-term care insurance. And I think based on what you've told me, I think you guys would be okay without covering it. But the truth is, 6,800 bucks a year uh out of your income is a lot considering you're only making, you know, four grand a month part-time. So, I understand your concern.

I think so, too. Yeah. And so it's okay to say we're going to just have to cover that and you just need to be make peace with that too. We might need to dip in a few hundred grand in retirement to cover ourselves and there might be less that we leave to our kids or grandkids and that's totally fine.

Yeah. But you guys are not our financial people are just pushing us to um to get it. They just think that it's a real good idea. Well, the risk transfer, you know, when you look at it, I'm going to pay six grand a year for the risk transfer of $500,000 that I don't have to pay out myself.

Mhm. So, when you look at it that way, it's not a bad buy considering, you know, age, it gets more expensive as you go.

I mean, even if you did it for 10 years, that's 60 grand, right? 70 grand for 500,000. So, in the long run,

and you could dip into your retirement to pay it if you don't feel good paying it out of your income and you'll still be okay. You're not going to deplete the nest egg. And so I think you guys have have created a a healthy financial picture where you may not need it. And if it makes you feel better to have it for a few years, get it. And if not, again, just make peace with the fact that this will be on you. Thanks for the call. Jared is in Cincinnati up next. What's going on, Jared?

Hey, appreciate you taking the call. Yeah, what's your question? So, I found myself in a um kind of a tug-of-war situation being offered a very generous gift with stipulations from my mother and my uh my wife doesn't want to take it.

Nothing Nothing like a gift with stipulations and nothing like a mom and wife situation. What's What's going on?

Yeah. Uh so so my mom has offered um later in the year to purchase me my dream vehicle. Um, and we are currently new in baby step 2. We have our own debt that uh that money could be used to pay off. So, my wife is uh unhappy with the decision, but the gift can only come in the form of this one particular vehicle.

Why? I'm just curious what's is it like a family car or something or what? No. No. So the the brief backstory, my grandpa was um you know very good wealthy businessman and and he offered this deal to my mom and uncle uh about a year before he passed away and he kept telling her I wish you I wish id done this sooner so I could watch you all enjoy you know having your dream call.

Oh yeah. So now she's retired and she has the funds to do it. Um so she started with me and my brothers. My brother was first and now it's my turn.

Okay. Um, but that's what's Yeah, I don't understand why why why is your mom mad just cuz she'd rather have just the I mean your wife cuz she'd rather have the cash to pay off the debt.

Yeah, it's kind of a history of these kind of gifts. Um, so the the car would be a a brand new Ford Raptor. Um,

Wow. Are we talking like a hundred grand? What's she going to drop? 100%. A lot

in the area. Yeah. How much debt do you guys have, Jared? How much debt do you'all have? We have uh 86,000 in personal debt. We just started um knocking this out this year, beginning of January. And um I I have a plan. I mean, our our plan is to have it done in 16 to 18 months.

Yeah. How much y'all make a year? So, last year was my wife's first year back working after uh being a stay-at-home mom.

Okay. And we grossed 220,000. Amazing. Good for you. Incredible. Okay, Jared, I'm going to be honest. I don't know. I'm I'm trying to really Now, if there's weirdness between your wife and your mom in general, and then this is just another annoying thing that your mom's doing in your wife's opinion. I get that. Okay. So, that's one thing.

But if someone offered me a new car, I mean, I think I'd take it. Yeah. The the one thing I'm thinking, I think there needs to be a compromise here.

No, I think there's more issue. I think it's more the issue of your mom of your mom and your wife's relationship. It's not the it's not the truth.

There's a pattern of her stepping in and maybe crossing a boundary line into your marriage and finances that I think your wife is uncomfortable with.

Just just Yeah, in a way. Um my wife did, you know, she this is our first time having money. Her first time having money. I grew up with my mom doing stuff like this. So, okay.

Uh this is her first time having money and her first time earning her own money. We've got our plans and goals and she's thinking, you know, mom could snap her fingers and pay our debt off, but that's not really

Yeah. No, I that's Yeah, I'm not I'm kind of I'm kind of almost worried that we're going to

look in the mom and she doesn't get to control what the gift is. The thing to think about is can you afford the higher insurance, the maintenance while you guys are in this debt? And so if you can go, hey mom, wait until we're debtree and then give us the car. I think that's a great compromise that puts this hour in the books. Remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace and that's to walk daily with the prince of peace, Christ Jesus.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "My Fiancé Broke Off Our Engagement Because Of My Money Habits | February 5, 2026"?

George Camel (Host), Rachel Cruz (Guest), Rita (Guest), Nancy (Guest), Bri (Guest), Dustin (Guest), Ashley (Host), Mary (Guest).

What is "My Fiancé Broke Off Our Engagement Because Of My Money Habits | February 5, 2026" about?

The discussion centers on the emotional and relational complexities surrounding money management, as illustrated by a woman's experience of her fiancé ending their engagement due to her financial habits and significant debt stemming from family responsibilities. The conversation emphasizes the impact of individual attitudes towards debt and money on intimate relationships, highlighting the…

What is mentioned in this The Ramsey Show episode?

14 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Rachel Cruz, Dave Ramsey, The Total Money Makeover, Know Yourself, Know Your Money, Fair Winds Credit Union, Carvana. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "My Fiancé Broke Off Our Engagement Because Of My Money Habits | February 5, 2026"?

The episode runs 2 h 7 min; the transcript is about 24,484 words in 534 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 February 5, 2026.