Make Hard Decisions Now So Future You Can Win

**Dave Ramsey** (0:04)
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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 Dave Ramsey, Dr. John Delony, PhD in Counseling, Ramsey Personality, No. 1 Best Selling Author, host of The Dr. John Delony Show, and regular driver of cars. Is my co-host today. Is there anything you don't do? I'm just saying, after that introduction.

**John Delony** (0:40)
If you ask my wife, there's a lot I don't do.

**Dave Ramsey** (0:43)
Phone number here, 888-825-5225.
Thanks for hanging out with us, America. We're glad you're here. Candace is in Spokane, Washington. Hi, Candace, how are you?

**SPEAKER_3** (0:54)
Good, how are you?

**Dave Ramsey** (0:55)
Better than I deserve. What's up?

**SPEAKER_3** (0:57)
Hey, so we have roughly $75,000 to $100,000 of debt. About $25,000 to $30,000 is credit card debt, and I believe the rest is in a car loan. Then we outright own our home, and we could sell on the market today for about $850,000 to $900,000.
It was an inherited home. So, I was just curious if that is a direction we should take.

**Dave Ramsey** (1:27)
No.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:27)
My husband may...

**SPEAKER_4** (1:29)
No, okay.

**Dave Ramsey** (1:29)
No. You sell the car.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:31)
Okay.

**Dave Ramsey** (1:32)
Or both of them.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:33)
Okay.

**Dave Ramsey** (1:34)
You bought stupid cars you can't afford. You didn't buy a stupid house.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:38)
Yeah. So, the car... I could sell the car.

**Dave Ramsey** (1:42)
Good.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:42)
The blue book value on the car is about 30,000 privately sold.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:50)
And then it's probably about 22, if you were to sell it just as like going to the dealer. And they would tell you how much you could sell it for.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:58)
But... But what? What do you owe?

**SPEAKER_7** (2:01)
So, we owe...

**SPEAKER_4** (2:05)
We owe...

**SPEAKER_3** (2:05)
Oh, I'm sorry, you could sell it for 30 We owe 44

**Dave Ramsey** (2:08)
Oh, okay. So, you're 14 in the hole on the car. Oh, God, that is stupid. Okay.
What kind of car is this?

**SPEAKER_3** (2:14)
This is a Volkswagen. It's a 2025 Atlas.

**SPEAKER_6** (2:20)
You just gave Dave an aneurysm.

**Dave Ramsey** (2:23)
Okay.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:23)
I'm not... I know.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:25)
I know.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:25)
It's ridiculous.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:26)
I'm not... I'm definitely not opposed to selling the car.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:29)
My only thing...

**SPEAKER_3** (2:30)
The only thing is my husband, he makes a certain amount yearly. And so, we just have to be able to budget for that, for all of what, you know, we...

**SPEAKER_4** (2:43)
the payments we have with his monthly income.

**John Delony** (2:47)
I don't understand what you just said.

**Dave Ramsey** (2:50)
It should be easier to do what you just said if you didn't have a car payment.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:56)
Yes, it would be, but we still have monthly payments coming out, outside of the car payment, that add up monthly, and that would take...

**SPEAKER_4** (3:08)
go ahead.

**Dave Ramsey** (3:09)
It doesn't... it would... it would be easier to do that if you didn't have the car payment. Everything in your life is easier if you didn't have a car payment.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:17)
Okay.

**SPEAKER_6** (3:18)
Is that not right?

**SPEAKER_3** (3:19)
I mean, mathematically? Yes, that's correct. But what if you take the car payment out and you still are living beyond your means?

**SPEAKER_6** (3:29)
What's your household income?

**SPEAKER_3** (3:34)
So, it's about $4,000 a month that he brings home.
And then we have, our kids are in a school that we pay for. And it's a private Christian school. I think that costs roughly between the two of them. That's over $1,000 a month. So, I think that's about $1,200 a month. And then, we have like groceries, we have...

**John Delony** (4:02)
My big concern for you guys is, you're sitting on this big house with this evaluation that the internet gave you, right? And, but you've got symptoms, you've got illnesses underneath this.
And we've seen this time and time again, you're going to sell this house and you're going to sell a bunch of equity, you're going to pay off these cars, you're going to pay this off, and then your family is going to end up in another place and y'all still haven't practiced living beneath your means. And so, the issue will still be there. What y'all aren't dealing with is the math problem in front of you.

**Dave Ramsey** (4:42)
Yeah, the thing I hear you saying, and you're on the radio, so it's not fair to you because you're nervous and I don't want to pick on you, okay? But the way you're forming your sentences and talking about this, it's as if you guys buy things and make decisions about school tuition and these other things, that as if the decision doesn't matter compared to your income. You have to make decisions within your income. Let's pretend the school tuition was $8,000 a month. You couldn't do it. You just have to say, no, the kids are going to a public school.