Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
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Normal is broke and common sense is weird. So we are here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsey Network and the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio, this is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, joined by Jade Warshaw, and we are fired up to take your calls about life and money. The number to call is 888-825-5225. I can see we have one or two phone lines open right now. Yay!
So if you're that person who's going, why should I call? I'm never going to get through. You might win the Ramsey Show lottery today and make it through if you're kind to our phone screen or Christian. 888-825-5225 is the number to call. Susan is in San Francisco kicking us off. What's going on, Susan?
Hello. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. I'm calling up regarding my father-in-law. My father-in-law lost his retirement money due to bad investments and a divorce. Now he's barely scraping by with Social Security. My husband comes from a family of three other siblings.
My father-in-law has told us that he's in, or my husband and I told us, he told us, my husband and I, that he's in $33,000 in debt from credit cards. and is barely scraping by between the credit card debt, food, living expenses, etc. He has about $100 left over a month. He has started asking us to buy him things after a knee surgery he had.
We bought him a recliner, also redid his shower to help him get in and out easier. That's great. And then he asked us for a thousand dollars more to help with some other expenses. Now he's asking us to buy him hearing aids. My husband and I hasn't talked to any of the other siblings to help with their dad. He doesn't think they can afford it. When do we stop?
Wow. How old is the father-in-law? 84. Okay. Okay. Gosh, I'm so sorry that that took place. And it sounds like he just didn't have the financial literacy to invest correctly. And then it sounds like the divorce was kind of a double whammy there.
Did he get divorced very late in life?
Well, he's divorced twice. So this one, yeah, he was a second marriage.
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Chapter 2: How can I handle my father-in-law's financial situation?
So that does put like some kind of strain on us. Just because we aren't able to do the things that we would like to do.
Right, because this is costing you, this has cost you a lot so far. And I mean, hearing aids are not cheap. I mean, we're talking a couple of thousand dollars. How much?
Well, he's anywhere between you can get them from $1,500 to $5,000. Right, right.
What does your husband think about all this? Does he want to continue helping dad financially? Does he want to put a stop to it, a limit to it?
Well, he's now, you know, after this is like the fourth time he's asked us for things, he's like, OK, when is this going to end? Like, what is next? Like if the car breaks down?
Well, the truth is it won't end until you end it.
Yeah, because, you know, life keeps lifing and things keep popping up. So I agree with George. It's not going to end.
I mean, I don't I don't know what his health is like at this point. Is he able to take care of himself? Does he live alone?
Yeah, he lives alone. He's able to take care of himself. He lives in a small apartment. It's so, you know, I mean, health wise, he's he's OK.
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Chapter 3: What should I consider when paying off debt?
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Ray is in Columbus up next. What's going on, Ray? Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. How can Jade and I help?
Well, first, I'd like to share a brief cautionary tale with other Ramsey listeners, and then I'll get into my specific housing circumstance that hopefully you guys can give me some advice on. So last year, I purchased my first home with my fiancée. And, uh, which goes directly against Ramsey advice.
And sure enough, the thing happened, um, not four months into that home, uh, we ended up separating. Um, yeah. Uh, so that, you know, it was very stressful emotionally, uh, on top of the financial aspect of that. Um, So I was forced to sell the home. I could no longer afford it. It made sense with two incomes, but just couldn't swing it with one.
So this is a classic kind of circumstance that you all would want against.
How did that work? Was both your names on the mortgage and the deed?
Just me. It was just me. So we had split the down payment, which is a very modern thing to do. And so I had to sell the home and I I didn't quite get back the down payment, but I was fortunate enough to be able to make sale without realtors just to a neighbor, so I didn't have to pay commissions. So I got out of the home relatively clean. But that brings me to now.
I moved into a one-bedroom apartment to try to get my feet back under me and keep chugging along with life, even though it was very difficult. And not a month and a half after signing that lease, I was laid off from my job. Oh, boy. So kind of just a combination of things. So now I'm looking at really potentially moving back in with my parents at 32, which is incredibly humbling.
I guess my question is, in terms of the lease, what really are my options? I asked the rental property management company about a potential buyout. And that would ultimately amount to roughly $16,000 for only three months of occupancy. Sheesh.
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Chapter 4: How do I navigate my husband's addiction and our finances?
Um, frankly, I just, I wanted to know if there were other options, um, in terms of, uh, just my, uh, where I stand legally. Um, if I had any grounds for doing, debate or negotiation with them. Really, it just felt like an exorbitant amount of money.
Yeah. Well, I mean, there's certain laws in your state, and I don't know what those are. If you want to contact an attorney, that would be the place to get legal help. We are no experts in that field. But what I would do is push on the negotiation front, because if this is at a large kind of complex owned by a corporation...
Yeah, it's a larger management company.
Okay. The other thing I would do just as a resourceful guy is I would take my lease agreement and upload it to AI and really understand it better than they do. Because that's what you signed. That's the contract they're going to hold you to. I don't think they're going to rip it up and go, well, we'll just work with you outside of that. Because again, this is a big corporation.
They want their money.
They're just all doing their jobs and they want their money. And so I would just be pushing on that, figure out exactly what's in that lease agreement and contract to figure out what my options are. I don't believe Ohio has any job loss, financial hardship exemption requirements.
um unless the lease itself has a provision for that so that's again some of the homework i would be doing you can contact an attorney but i think worst case what is your rent right now what is it costing to stay there the rent is uh sixteen hundred dollars a month roughly okay and what are your other expenses like what does it take to run your life for a month if you went bare bones um
You know, I'm a pretty efficient guy. Bare bones would be probably another grand on top of that, I would say, for gas, food, etc.
Because you're still a capable man. You can go do seven side hustles. and still cover that month without dipping into the brokerage or savings. So I would try that. I would try desperately to find an actual career job again.
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Chapter 5: What financial challenges do listeners face regarding debt and budgeting?
Oh, wow. How'd you get that for underwater on it? Do you roll over negative equity?
No, I think we just have just very bad credit. So we just got a terrible interest rate. Understood. Okay.
All right. Well, I mean, you're right. I mean, what are you guys bringing home? $4,800, $4,900 a month?
Um, yeah, I think that's what we calculated. I know last month we had a little extra because my wife got a bonus from work, which she doesn't normally get. Um, so that kind of helped us out a bit. And like I said, we were just starting, we're trying to use the every, every dollar app. And it seemed to help us out, you know, that first month, of course, we forgot to budget for the second month.
So we're not using it now. Um, that's the thing about budgets.
Yeah. So when you did that first budget, and it's not too late, you can still log in at any time and complete the one for May, even though we're almost midway through. But go ahead and do that, because every day that you get on a plan, you're on a plan, and that's a better trajectory for you. So on the $4,900, when you did the every dollar budget, were you in the green?
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Chapter 6: How can a budget be realistic and flexible for family needs?
Was it an every dollar budget, or were you in the red? Yeah.
Tell me what you saw first. At first we were in the red and then we just kind of shuffled some things around just to kind of make it work to be in the green. So we did kind of figure out how to get into the green. I guess it's just being realistic, like. With us, we never know when things are going to come up. Why?
With three kids, and kids come with us on field trips or school things, and some emergencies have popped up over the past couple of months.
So let's talk about how to budget for that, because that is life, and your budget should be able to be realistic for your life. I always say a good budget is detailed, realistic, and flexible. So you need that flexibility because there's real life, but you also need the detailed nature of it because that's going to help you have something concrete month to month.
So every budget does need a cushion, a little bit of extra money for you, you know, on $4,900. It's not going to be a whole lot. Maybe it's $100 there that's just held for something that you completely forgot about. Oh, my gosh, the field trip. But really what you need on that budget is a line item for your kids, whether it be school lunches or school projects. And you set the amount.
And if it's beyond that amount, sometimes you do have to say, we're not doing this one. And so- The more you do a budget, for most people, it takes 90 days to lock in what you would call kind of a sustainable, you know, this flows with my life budget. You've only done one, so that's okay. Keep doing it.
The more you do it, you're going to learn each time, oh, gosh, we didn't schedule for the kids stuff.
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Chapter 7: What strategies can help pay off debt while preparing for future expenses?
Now that's part of the budget from now on. Oh, my gosh, we didn't schedule for birthdays. Now we realize that's something we need to think ahead of when we have our budget meeting every month because we're What should be happening, George, is you guys sit down and you're racking your brain for the things that could pop up. She's racking her brain for the things that could pop up.
And together you guys are saying, oh, yeah, hey, don't forget about that trip. Oh, yeah, don't forget about grandma's birthday. Oh, yeah, don't forget, you know.
You're interrogating the kids about what's coming up, looking at their little calendars they brought home from school. Because those kids, you can't trust them to remember every little thing.
My daughter had like hot dog picnic day. today. And I was like, what in the world is this? Okay. Put, you know, yet another thing.
Everyone's got to chip in three bucks.
Exactly. So we get it, RJ. Um, so that's the first rhythm that I want you to start developing because that's going to be so important to you guys walking these baby steps. The budget must be locked in. Otherwise, George, the wheels fall off very quickly.
And once one thing falls off, you're like, well, what's the point? You know, it's hopeless. So get back on the wagon. It takes 90 days just to get this budget dialed in. And the other side is let's let's see what we can do with this income because you're making 70K with both of you working full time. And you've got student loans, which tells me you've got a degree. I do not.
So I have a bunch of student loans that kind of a couple of them kind of racked up and I never finished school. One of them I did. You know, one of them I did.
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Chapter 8: How do listeners navigate financial decisions about purchasing a car?
The main one that is that one's about 40 grand. I did graduate from trade school. What's your trade? So I originally was an automotive technician. I have since switched. I am now at Locksmith, which I just started about maybe a month or two ago.
Is that a solo gig, or do you work for a Locksmith company? I work for an international company, Locksmith company. So what do you make, and what does your wife make?
So as of right now, like I said, I just started this gig about a month or two ago, and I'm still getting training paid, so that's what I've been basing my income off of. Okay. Yep. So my training pay, I make about $1,700 every two weeks. What will it go up to?
So just potential of what it could go up to, from what I've been told from some of the other people who've been with the company for a while, I could potentially be making over $100,000, maybe $120,000.
When would that be?
So that's kind of when you kind of get vested a little bit, that would be later down the line, maybe within the next year or two.
Okay. So that's really promising and that's exciting.
That could change the game for this debt payoff journey. And so that's what we're saying. This is a journey. Most people do it in 18 to 24 months. It might take you. Three to four years.
And that's okay.
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