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The Ramsey Show

Your Financial Mistakes Shouldn’t Define You

Fri, 09 May 2025

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📈 ⁠Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a Free Personalized Plan⁠ 📱 Watch the full episode for free in the Ramsey Network app. George Kamel and Ken Coleman answer your questions and discuss: "Should we sell or keep a house we regret buying?" "How do I convince my husband to use our savings to pay off debt?" "I bought a house with my ex-fiancé and now the house is going into foreclosure." "How do I plan for future debt?" "Should I focus on paying off the negative equity on my truck?" "Do I need to get a credit card to build my credit?" "My nephew is refusing to take care of his parents and the burden is now falling on us. How do we get him to start contributing?" Next Steps: ✅ ⁠Help us make the show better by taking this short survey!⁠ 📞 Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 weekdays from 2–5 p.m. ET or ⁠send us an email.⁠ 💰⁠Hurry—Your chance to win $5k is almost over! Enter the Ramsey Cash Giveaway today!⁠ 💵 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app!⁠⁠ 🎟️ ⁠Dave Ramsey and John Delony are going on tour this month! Get tickets today⁠ Connect with our Sponsors: 🛒 Stop paying more and start shopping smarter at ⁠Aldi⁠ 🌱 Get 10% off your first month of⁠ BetterHelp⁠ 📱Go to ⁠Boost Mobile⁠ to switch today! 🏥 Learn more about⁠ Christian Healthcare Ministries⁠ 🏡 Get started today with⁠ Churchill Mortgage⁠ 🔒 Get 20% off when you join ⁠DeleteMe⁠ 🏦 Go to⁠ FAIRWINDS Credit Union⁠ for an exclusive account bundle! 🥗 Save 15% on your first ⁠Field of Greens⁠ order with code RAMSEY ⛨ Find top Health Insurance Plans at ⁠Health Trust Financial⁠ 💸 To find out more about student loan refinancing, check out⁠ Laurel Road⁠ 💻 Visit⁠ NetSuite⁠ today to learn more 🗂️ Use promo code RAMSEY for 18% off at ⁠The Nokbox⁠ 💵 Learn more about ⁠Timothy Plan⁠ 🏛 Get started with ⁠YRefy⁠ or call 844-2-RAMSEY 🔐 Visit⁠ Zander Insurance⁠ for your free instant quote today! Explore more from Ramsey Network: 💸 ⁠The Ramsey Show Highlights⁠ 🧠 ⁠The Dr. John Delony Show⁠ 🍸 ⁠Smart Money Happy Hour⁠ 💡 ⁠The Rachel Cruze Show⁠ 💰 ⁠George Kamel⁠ 🪑 ⁠Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman⁠ 📈 ⁠EntreLeadership⁠ ⁠Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Transcription

Chapter 1: Should we sell or keep a house we regret buying?

114.063 - 139.526 Caller

But the big like question that I have is after we closed and started doing some renovations and projects on the house, we found out. that the vacant land behind our house is there is a developer attempting to get it rezoned to put 1,100 apartments on. So right now we're in a very, like, spread out. It's all, I know, it's all, like, acre lots.

0

139.726 - 163.876 Caller

Everybody is spread out, and then they're going to plop about 50 or 60 acres behind us, and they're going to put 1,100 apartments. Yeah. We are kind of on the fence. So we bought the house last fall for $360,000. We've already put about $40,000 into it. It appraised for $380,000. We could maybe sell it for anywhere right now between $380,000 to $400,000.

0

164.636 - 175.001 Caller

Do we go ahead and take advantage of that development not being there yet and sell it and potentially have a loss? I don't think we'd have to bring money to closing.

0

176.101 - 177.442 George Kamel

Well, how long ago did you buy it?

0

179.018 - 179.479 Caller

October.

179.499 - 185.784 George Kamel

Yeah, so you're going to have a capital gains hit on that if there's any actual gains, and that's up for debate, correct?

187.065 - 187.785 Caller

Yeah, right.

188.306 - 189.046 George Kamel

I'd get out of there.

189.066 - 191.168 Caller

Because the market isn't as good as it was in October.

Chapter 2: How do I convince my husband to use our savings to pay off debt?

296.028 - 303.97 Caller

I mean, like 10 other houses are in the exact same predicament as me and that we share a property line.

0

304.05 - 308.711 George Kamel

Have you talked to all 10 of those people to say, hey, and how do they feel about it?

0

309.522 - 329.389 Caller

They hate it. They said they have hired attorneys. And there's two major subdivisions that are going to be impacted quite a bit. So there's probably 50 to 100 houses in those subdivisions. But everybody is opposed to it. I've gone to our county meetings to help for the rezoning stuff, and there's always a line of people to say against it. Okay.

0

329.789 - 347.298 Ken Coleman

I see the two things here. Number one, you have a right to be upset and want to get out of this. And the second part is I don't think it's as bad as you think it's – I don't think this is like end of the world. The housing market is going to crash in your neighborhood. No one is going to buy. The prices are going to jump down. I think everything is going to be fine in the end.

0

347.338 - 356.562 Ken Coleman

This is a part of living in America. Yeah, this happens all the time. It's happening in my neighborhood. I don't think it's end of the world. I don't think she said end of the world. But I don't think it's going to like tank her housing value.

Chapter 3: What should I do if my house is going into foreclosure?

356.582 - 363.706 George Kamel

I don't think she's worried about – are you worried about the housing value or are you worried about the type of people that are going to be living in your backyard? Yeah.

0

364.574 - 384.925 Caller

Both, because I do think like I think we paid more than we should have because we didn't know a lot of the stuff that was wrong that needed to be addressed. So we spent more money on the house than we had originally anticipated, which is normal. But then we're thinking like if we do decide to go to sell it in five years.

0

385.623 - 389.965 Caller

we're going to maybe be able to sell what we paid for, which isn't what you buy property for.

0

390.005 - 402.492 Ken Coleman

You know, like that's supposed to be... And that's the part I don't know that we know the future of what the zip code values will be. The apartments very well could bring, you know, better economic times to your area. We just don't know the future.

0

403.433 - 414.319 Caller

And so that's the part... But I also don't want, like, I don't want riffraff going in and out of my yard because right now the biggest thing I've got to deal with is raccoons, not... Sure.

414.339 - 430.289 Ken Coleman

And again, I don't know how close it's going to be. I don't know what the boundary lines are going to be like. And so there's just a lot of question marks. And right now it feels like it's all emotion. I would just want more facts because this is the biggest financial decision of your life and selling it will be the second biggest financial decision of your life.

430.749 - 442.937 Ken Coleman

So I also don't want you to just impulsively jump out either. So I would, uh, I would work with an agent and get some more facts on what's going on and what the timelines are. But are you guys in a good financial spot? Do you guys have any debt?

444.318 - 445.439 Caller

No, no debt.

445.459 - 447.14 Ken Coleman

Do you have a mortgage on the, on the house?

Chapter 4: How do I plan for future debt?

729.117 - 736.442 Ken Coleman

Okay. So far, let me tell you what I'm hearing. We paid off higher balances first. Okay, that's not the debt snowball, not the Ramsey plan.

0

736.702 - 741.686 Caller

No, we didn't pay off higher balances. They all had high balances, but we did start with the lowest one.

0

741.846 - 759.532 Ken Coleman

Okay, I'm just trying to get it straight. Were you guys aligned in the first place on, hey, we're doing this Ramsey plan, it's weird, it's a little bit scary, we're going to have $1,000 and we're going to tackle this debt? Because it sounds like at some point someone got a little comfortable, well, I got a bonus, it might be nice to just stash that away instead of throwing it at the debt, right?

0

760.993 - 780.825 Caller

Yeah, I definitely think that's what happened. We kind of started with our $2,000 and $3,000 credit card balances and worked our way up. We do each still have two credit cards to pay off, And when my husband switched his jobs and we kind of had a little bit of extra income, it was the first time since we started working the Ramsey plan that we had.

0

780.845 - 787.535 Caller

I guess I guess we made the choice to save that money versus put more of it towards the debt. But it was the first time that we could pay.

788.858 - 817.012 Ken Coleman

uh more than just the minimum payment on our credit cards and sock away a couple extra so you kind of got your head above water and said man it'd be nice to have a little bit in savings and i love that you said we so you acknowledged this is not him versus you this is something that we decided together so it might be time to have another conversation go hey i know we decided to do this don't make it an accusation just say but i want to get realigned on the unity of this plan i really i'm thinking we should take the savings the majority of it and throw it at the debt

817.492 - 828.301 Ken Coleman

And here's why. And paint that future of we're going to get going to get there faster. It's going to light a new fire under us to get out of debt, to get back to savings. Do you see this kind of picture you need to start painting for him?

829.75 - 836.232 Caller

I do. I absolutely do. We actually we were at the money and relationships tour on Tuesday night or Monday night in Phoenix.

836.512 - 837.953 Ken Coleman

Oh, wow. Two days ago.

Chapter 5: Should I focus on paying off the negative equity on my truck?

966.732 - 969.453 Caller

Those ones we pay between $150 and $175 on each month.

0

971.047 - 995.393 George Kamel

Okay, and I could keep going down the list, but I'm only getting you started here. And, George, where I'm taking this is if I add this up, it's close to $500. Not quite, but close to it. All right, here's the point you have to make to him. Because what he's thinking is, I take $9,000 out of that $10,000, and I put it towards debt, but I don't have hardly anything in savings. And what happens if...

0

996.331 - 1021.433 George Kamel

an emergency over $1,000 happens. This is where I'm going to bring my colleague in. Because what you got to share with him is, yes, we are spending $9,000, but we are, from a cash flow game, saving ourselves $500 a month. And George, where I'm going with that is, he's got to be able to see that most garden variety emergencies, they're going to be able to cover with the $1,000.

0

1022.234 - 1044.99 George Kamel

But if it's more than that, They can cash flow some things with a $500 a month bump. That's true. That's, to me, and I'm coming at this from, if I was in that frame of mind, which I understand, Stacey would have to, I'd have to have that to go, oh, okay. Because, yes, I'm spending a large chunk, but I'm also freeing up.

0

1045.07 - 1051.576 George Kamel

And that would allow us to weather just about any emergency from cash flowing. Is that? Yeah.

1051.696 - 1065.348 Ken Coleman

And if his if his thing, I don't know what the fear is. Is it security? I don't know how you would feel secure paying credit card companies all this money every single month, knowing that you owe them still twenty five thousand. And you guys have been at this for three years already, right?

1066.525 - 1066.925 Caller

Yeah, we have.

1066.965 - 1085.275 Ken Coleman

Have you asked him, are you exhausted? Do you want this to go another... Yes, I know he is. Because based on your math, you've got another three years to go. I know. Can I tell you, straight up, your plan sucks if it takes six years to pay off debt. But, George, what would the 9,000 do? Don't you think he would agree you guys can do better?

1086.556 - 1088.617 Caller

Yes, I absolutely agree. We absolutely can.

Chapter 6: Do I need to get a credit card to build my credit?

1400.305 - 1405.67 Ken Coleman

Well, yeah, we were paying before. When I moved out, he was paying, and then now he decided to stop paying.

0

1406.03 - 1409.894 George Kamel

And it's already in foreclosure, or it is in the process of getting there?

0

1410.574 - 1419.763 Ken Coleman

It's in the process of getting there. We're four months behind. We have been trying to sell the home but have been unsuccessful with that.

0

1421.391 - 1427.757 George Kamel

unsuccessful in that no one's even looking at it or you've had showings and they're giving you feedback that you can process?

0

1428.818 - 1435.084 Ken Coleman

We had showings, but no real interest in the house. And it's a brand new house.

1435.445 - 1437.607 Ken Coleman

Are you working with a real estate pro?

1438.688 - 1438.928 Ken Coleman

Yes.

1439.609 - 1443.693 Ken Coleman

And what is their logic for why nothing's moving here? Is it price too high? Yeah.

1445.556 - 1460.699 Ken Coleman

They feel like, well, it was priced too high, but because there was a new community being built in the area, that was kind of affecting us as well because they were able to bring their prices down, give lower interest rates and that sort of thing.

Chapter 7: What should I do if my nephew is not contributing?

1590.729 - 1593.652 Ken Coleman

Okay. And what else? Because you're bringing home probably, what, $8,000?

0

1596.835 - 1597.816 Ken Coleman

No, probably about $6,000.

0

1600.373 - 1600.633 Ken Coleman

Okay.

0

1600.653 - 1604.717 Ken Coleman

I mean, well, after tax, I guess you're saying after taxes, after taxes about six.

0

1604.817 - 1606.598 Ken Coleman

Okay. Are you doing any investing right now?

1606.618 - 1611.963 Ken Coleman

Uh, yes. I mean, I invest in, you know, my 401k and stuff like that.

1612.103 - 1622.032 Ken Coleman

Yeah. We need to pause all of that. You need to act like everything is on fire and you need to work on getting out of this house mess and paying off your debt. So we're not saving, right? Do you have any savings?

1623.313 - 1625.294 Ken Coleman

Uh, yeah, I have a, I have some in savings.

1625.374 - 1625.735 Ken Coleman

How much?

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