The Price of Freedom Is Discomfort

**Dave Ramsey** (0:30)
The most selling author is my co-host today. The phone number here is 888-825-5225.
Matthew's in Chicago. What's up, Matthew?

**SPEAKER_2** (0:40)
Hi, Dave. So I was just, you know, reaching out, been keeping an eye on your stuff for years, and I think I'm, you know, looking for some advice because I cured a lot of deaths throughout the years, including my son, you know, he got caught RSV when he was very young, so the NICU bill added on my credit card, and over the years, it just kept occurring in debt and interest.

**Dave Ramsey** (1:06)
You didn't have health insurance?

**SPEAKER_2** (1:09)
I did, but my co-pay and the deductible is extremely high. We don't have great insurance with my employer.

**Dave Ramsey** (1:17)
Extremely high defined.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:20)
Yeah, it's just...

**Dave Ramsey** (1:22)
Like 20 grand or something?

**Jade Warshaw** (1:23)
Or like 7 grand.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:27)
It's about 8,000 to 9,000 for the NICU bill.

**Dave Ramsey** (1:30)
And how much debt do you have today, Matthew?

**SPEAKER_2** (1:33)
I owe about, right now, I've paid down 25%, so I owe about 70,000 in credit cards.

**Dave Ramsey** (1:40)
How much debt do you have today, Matthew?

**SPEAKER_2** (1:46)
190,000.

**Dave Ramsey** (1:47)
Okay. And 70 of that currently is on credit cards. What's the rest of it?

**SPEAKER_2** (1:54)
One car and my home.

**Dave Ramsey** (1:55)
What do you owe on the car?

**SPEAKER_2** (1:58)
I owe about 33,000.

**Dave Ramsey** (2:00)
Okay. That's 100 What's the other 90?

**SPEAKER_2** (2:05)
About 80,000 is on my mortgage. That's all I have left for my home.

**Dave Ramsey** (2:11)
Okay. Good. Good. Okay. So your son's NICU stay did not cause your debt mathematically?
Not necessarily.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:20)
No, not period.

**Jade Warshaw** (2:22)
It was just one debt.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:23)
Period.

**Dave Ramsey** (2:23)
You have $100,000 in debt. Eight grand was your son. So that's not what you lead with in your mind anymore. You caused your debt when you bought a freaking car you couldn't afford, not your kid.
Yeah. Okay. That's what the math says. Okay. Cool. I love it. What do you make, man?

**SPEAKER_2** (2:43)
I make about $80,000 a year, $90,000.

**Dave Ramsey** (2:46)
Does your wife work outside the home?

**SPEAKER_2** (2:48)
Yeah, she does, but she dropped part time ever since we had a kid.

**SPEAKER_6** (2:52)
So that's made it rough.

**Dave Ramsey** (2:53)
And how's the baby doing? Is he doing okay?

**SPEAKER_2** (2:55)
Pretty good. Yeah, he's doing great.

**Dave Ramsey** (2:56)
Praise God. That's an important thing, right?

**SPEAKER_4** (2:59)
For sure. That's important.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:00)
Okay.

**Dave Ramsey** (3:00)
So we got you making $80,000 and her making part time money, maybe $20,000 or something?

**SPEAKER_2** (3:06)
About $40,000. Oh, that's even better.

**Dave Ramsey** (3:09)
So we got $120,000 to work with and you owe $100,000 plus your house?

**SPEAKER_2** (3:14)
Correct.

**Dave Ramsey** (3:15)
Okay, cool.

**Jade Warshaw** (3:16)
Well, that's not very bad.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:17)
I actually, I sold my Tesla a few days ago because I had equity in it. So I sold that and now I have some play money to play with.

**Dave Ramsey** (3:25)
How much play money?

**SPEAKER_2** (3:28)
About $15,000.

**Dave Ramsey** (3:29)
Cool.

**Jade Warshaw** (3:30)
Great. The Tesla, that wasn't the $33,000 car, that's a separate car or it's the same one?

**SPEAKER_2** (3:35)
No, that's a separate car. I have a Honda Accord now.

**Jade Warshaw** (3:39)
Okay, can we sell that one or how far upside down are you?

**SPEAKER_2** (3:42)
Um, I'm upside down maybe like eight on that.

**Jade Warshaw** (3:47)
Well, you've got 15, so we could essentially...

**Dave Ramsey** (3:50)
You could sell that car and buy two cars with what's left, two hoopties.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:54)
True.

**Jade Warshaw** (3:55)
Why wouldn't you do that?

**Dave Ramsey** (3:56)
And you have no car payments and you'd be down to attacking the credit cards.

**SPEAKER_2** (4:00)
Correct.

**Dave Ramsey** (4:01)
And your wife will hate Dave Ramsey.

**SPEAKER_2** (4:02)
I hate the credit cards pretty heavy, for sure.

**SPEAKER_4** (4:08)
You can blame me instead of her.

**Dave Ramsey** (4:10)
You can blame me instead of you. But yeah.
Okay, here's the thing. You got two ways to go at this, Matthew. Here's what I know about you, okay? You already are taking action. You already know where you are.
And so you're way ahead of the game.
Most of the time, I got to talk people into getting to where you are before they call. Okay? And so you're already there. You already sold a Tesla. I got some money to move around here. I got some things. You got to buy a car out of that money, right? Because you're only down to one car.