Life Is Complicated. Money Doesn't Have To Be.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:04)
Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today.

**George Kamel** (0:14)
Normal is broken, common sense is weird. So we're 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 Kamel, joined by Jade Warshaw. We're taking your calls at 888-825-5225.
Max is in Boston to kick us off. What's going on, Max?

**SPEAKER_3** (0:35)
Hey, how's it going?

**George Kamel** (0:36)
Great, man. How can we help?

**SPEAKER_3** (0:38)
Yeah, I'm just, I'm recently married. My wife came into the marriage with some dad, and I'm just kind of trying to figure out who should be paying it.

**SPEAKER_5** (0:48)
Oh, juicy.

**George Kamel** (0:49)
I like this. Okay, what does she think?

**SPEAKER_3** (0:54)
So she actually wants to take on the debt. My, but my concern is it's just like, I don't think she's going to get anywhere out of the debt anytime soon, which I'm not a huge fan of.

**Jade Warshaw** (1:06)
How much is it?

**SPEAKER_3** (1:08)
So she's got about $75,000 in debt.

**Jade Warshaw** (1:12)
All student loans?

**SPEAKER_3** (1:14)
So a little over $10,000 is in a car.
And then the rest is student loans. 14 of that being a Fed. And then the rest are private.

**Jade Warshaw** (1:28)
Oh, wow. Okay.
What's she earned?

**SPEAKER_3** (1:33)
So right now she's bringing in, if she doesn't work any overtime after taxes, after, you know, investing in retirement and she's in the union and, you know, paying those dues, it's about $4,000.

**Jade Warshaw** (1:44)
And what do you make?

**SPEAKER_3** (1:46)
So after taxes, I bring in $5,000 in my salary and then I'm in sales. And so I make commission. Some months good, some months not really, but I average it out.
And after taxes, investment in retirement, all that stuff, I make on average about $6,200 in commission a month.

**Jade Warshaw** (2:08)
So what other things do you plan keeping separate? What other things do you plan to keep separate from your wife in marriage?

**SPEAKER_3** (2:18)
Like not really anything. Like we're kind of in that process of like trying to figure out how to combine finances. And like when I saw that, I'm like, okay, should I help take that on? But then she kind of wants to take it on because she doesn't want to like make me feel responsible for it.

**Jade Warshaw** (2:36)
Well, it sounds like based on your decision, based off of what you said when you answered that question, it sounds like the decision is made. Because if you said to me, well, Jade, there are a couple of things I'd like to keep separate. I like to keep my work separate or I like to keep my, you know, whatever, this might be a different conversation. But you said, I don't plan on keeping anything separate. So that tells us the answer, which is we definitely need to combine this. You definitely see marriage as a we thing, not an individual thing or at least pieces to be individual. And so I think that's a great framework to start with. And maybe that's the conversation that you have with her to help her understand that it's not a negative thing or it's not a weak thing or unfair thing for her to approach this as a we together with you.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:21)
Yeah, yeah, no, no, I think that makes sense. And I think that's a good first step.

**Jade Warshaw** (3:27)
It just puts some perspective around it. If you go to her and say, okay, it sounds like you're wanting to do this debt thing separately. Is there anything else you plan on keeping separate from me? I think she's going to go, oh, I get it. I see.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:40)
Yeah, yeah, I think she might want to keep it separate. I don't know, she just doesn't want me fully looking into how she budgets and how long it's gonna take.

**George Kamel** (3:50)
Dude, you guys are married. You're looking at everything, bud. Yeah.

**Jade Warshaw** (3:54)
Money is the very least.

**George Kamel** (3:56)
So Max, you're in Boston. Have you been through a Boston winter yet?

**SPEAKER_3** (4:00)
Yeah, oh yeah, I've been up here my whole life.

**George Kamel** (4:01)
Yeah, I grew up there for the first 20 years of my life. And I would see my dad out there, shoveling the snow. We had a steep driveway and it was back-breaking work. And what would my mom do? She'd go out and help him. Now, it's not her, she didn't cause the snow, right? But she sees him hustling out there, sacrificing, and goes, we're a team. Why don't we get this thing done way faster? So instead of taking three hours to shovel, it gets done in one hour.