Lester
Appearances
The Ramsey Show
Stop Letting Other People's Problems Ruin Your Finances
Hi there. I was calling to see about some advice on how to talk with my wife about saving more than spending. My wife's a spender. I'm a saver. We're aligned on our goals, but she just... spends a lot of things here and there, and so just some advice on that.
The Ramsey Show
Stop Letting Other People's Problems Ruin Your Finances
Yeah, we've budgeted out a lot of different things. We even have a split to where we have our own fund money, where it's like $100 a month that we can spend it on whatever we'd like, but there's a lot of gifts and celebrations and things like that that my wife wants to make sure we're showing love to our friends and family. And then just things add up very quickly and then things are gone.
The Ramsey Show
Stop Letting Other People's Problems Ruin Your Finances
I don't think it's either. My wife and I communicate very, very well and frequently about it. And I don't think she's being very spiteful at all. She agrees that Um, we need to be saving and we want the, we want the things we want where a house and being able to retire as both of our families, um, are in that basket at all and don't have a retirement even in their fifties and sixties.
The Ramsey Show
Stop Letting Other People's Problems Ruin Your Finances
Um, and we don't want to do that, but she just kind of forgets about the things and it doesn't think about the $20 here or $20 there, a hundred bucks here. And it just kind of adds up. And so if there's anything that we can do to, uh, try and try something different because we've tried like different cards that only have a certain amount of money on it each month to help limit that.
The Ramsey Show
Stop Letting Other People's Problems Ruin Your Finances
But obviously I don't want her stranded. So she has access to a card that, um, is, has access to the main, main fund for gas and all that kind of stuff.
The Ramsey Show
Stop Letting Other People's Problems Ruin Your Finances
No, no, no. Um, we only have debit cards. Um, I, I hate credit. I always have. Um, But yeah, we only use debit cards.
The Ramsey Show
Stop Letting Other People's Problems Ruin Your Finances
Well, it's not necessarily saving up for. It's like being able to pay off our debts.
The Ramsey Show
Stop Letting Other People's Problems Ruin Your Finances
No, no, no, no. Yeah. And these are conversations we've had, but I agree. I haven't been very specific with it. My wife and I are blessed to be in the positions that we're in. I mean, I'm making more money than I ever thought I would before. And it
The Ramsey Show
Stop Letting Other People's Problems Ruin Your Finances
it's not been specific of, Hey, we're going to spend X amount of dollars on our debt every single month because we have to, um, it's just been, we want to spend more on our debts. Um, and realistically we don't have a lot of debt, um, even student loans and medical debt and things like that included. We don't have a lot. And so within a year we could easily have, um, 80% of it paid off.
The Ramsey Show
Stop Letting Other People's Problems Ruin Your Finances
Pen and paper. And then I use an Excel sheet, and that's kind of it.