📈 Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a Free Personalized Plan 📱 Watch the full episode for free in the Ramsey Network app. Jade Warshaw and George Kamel answer your questions and discuss: "How do we move forward with a bridge loan and a house that isn't sold?" "My wife wants a divorce. How do I handle my finances while going through this?" Jade and George discuss their biggest financial mistakes, "My husband and I don't agree on where to live in retirement. How do we come to an agreement?" "Should I sign up for a debt relief program?" "My realtor doesn't want me to sell my rental. Is she right?" "How do I cut up my credit cards when I love the reward points?" "My car was repossessed and sold. How do I pay off the balance now?" "Is it wrong to sell my wife’s engagement ring and band ? " 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. 🏠 Get organized and prepared to buy or sell a home. 💰Hurry—Your chance to win $5k is almost over! Enter the Ramsey Cash Giveaway today! 💵 Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app! 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
Chapter 1: How should I handle a bridge loan with an unsold house?
Hi, I'm calling because in October of last year, my husband and I made the dumb, dumb, dumb decision of taking out a bridge loan to purchase a property. And it was with the idea that we would sell our previous property and pay off the loan, restructure the loan, and everything would be great. But we haven't been able to sell our old property, and the loan is due on June 1st.
Interest has accrued like nobody's business. Oh, man.
What was the interest rate, and then what was the amount?
So the total, they combined both properties, came out to $1.437 at $10.99. $10.99? ! Yeah. So apparently bridge loans, they explained to us, are always high interest like this. They're anywhere between 8 and 12. Man.
They even explained it to you and you guys said, sign us up. Let's do it.
Well, that's how confident we were that we could sell our old house.
Why isn't it selling?
That's the million-dollar question. We've knocked the price down a couple times now. We are technically under contract, but our buyers cannot seem to lock in a buyer themselves. And what they keep telling us is the market is just so weird. It's just such a bad time right now. It's a buyer's market, not a seller's. Yes.
So but but shoot straight with like level with this. If you had to say, here's what I really think the problem is, because I have a feeling that, you know, you can usually look at a situation and go, even though I don't like this, this is probably what's going on. What do you think is probably going on, whether you like it or not?
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Chapter 2: What financial advice should I consider during a divorce?
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Straight to the phone lines we go. We got Randy in St. Louis, Missouri. Randy, how can we help you out?
I'm kind of going through a really bad time right now. I'm at the beginning stages of a divorce. I found out about an affair. And I need to know what to be doing financially right now. Everything's been split up without me knowing. But another curveball is about three weeks ago, I was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Oh, my goodness. Randy.
So right now, I just don't know what to be doing right now. You know, on that piece, I know where I'm going to go if this happens, but... I'm just kind of, everything has just, the last couple of months has just been completely just flipped upside down, and I need to know what to be. Thankfully, my job is pretty flexible. I can work, make my own schedule.
I'm trying to work as much as I can, but some days I just don't feel well enough. Don't have, we've gotten, we had gotten about $35,000, $40,000 of debt paid down, but I still have a little bit, and I still have about $10,000 in debt. Medical debt. So I just need to know what to be doing right now during this time.
Okay. This is a lot. You just found out about this diagnosis how long ago?
About three weeks ago.
Okay. Have you started treatment or not yet?
It's terminal and I'm about to lose the insurance. So that's another curveball.
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Chapter 3: How can my spouse and I agree on retirement living?
Man, Lucas turned it on us. It's getting Maury Povich up in here.
It's a dark curiosity from Lucas. People see us at this desk, Jade, in the studio, and they go, wow, these people have never made a mistake in their life. But we have made mistakes with zeros on the end, as Dave would say.
I know, that's right. When the callers call in, usually I'm like, yep, done that.
Been there, paid the stupid tax. So now, biggest financial mistake I've made. I'll go first. I was underinsured. I was on my dad's insurance when I first started here at Ramsey for car insurance.
Okay.
And I got into a little wreck right outside the office. And the lady was fine. Let me make that very clear. But you had the cops rolling up, the fire trucks, the ambulance. And now every employee at Ramsey's looking out the window seeing me sitting on a curb like, oh, my gosh. Walk of shame. Curb of shame. I thought that was the end of it. I thought, all right, this is why you have car insurance.
They're going to fix her door. A few months later, I got served. A lawsuit at my doorstep of my house. Oh, thank God it was at home and not at work. Yeah, that would have been way more awkward. And this lady was suing me and my dad for $375,000. Holy moly. Which- uh, you know, 23 year old George didn't have close to that. He had like $3. Yeah. Yeah. And so it turns out we were underinsured.
She was suing our insurance company, her insurance company. And long story short, she was an ambulance chaser and ended up walking away with 50 grand from the insurance companies. You didn't pay. It hit our limit, but they didn't go above that. But if they had gone above the limit, I would have been on the hook.
My dad would have been on the hook for however much she could have gotten from this lawsuit.
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Chapter 4: Is signing up for a debt relief program a good idea?
George, I wish I had that when I was a young guy.
I wouldn't have floundered as much. Just sort of soul searching and wasting years at college hoping I'd figure it out.
Uh-huh.
Once you graduate. Yeah. And that could have saved me some heartache. Because I took the Get Clear Career Assessment.
Yeah. And it's spot on.
It's like everything I'm doing now. But it took me a decade to figure out. So I could have fast-tracked that. Who knows where I'd be now, Jade?
I knew people who went to school just to buy themselves time.
To go on their eat, pray, love journey. Yes. At the tune of $200,000. Man.
Oh, man. They sure did.
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Chapter 5: What should I do if my realtor doesn't want to sell my rental?
And what's your net worth?
Probably $3.2 million, $3.1 million. Way to go.
And no debt to speak of, no mortgage or anything. Nope, nope. I just try to pay everything in cash. And you said you run a million dollars worth of expenses through your business? Through my company, yes.
Wow, what kind of business are you running? I design and sell drive-on docks for jet skis and boats. I have been noticing the last few years I get a lot of pushback from my vendors about the credit card. But I'll say, hey, hit me up with the... I try to negotiate. A lot of times they'll give me 2% back if I pay in 10.
So if I have a 3% credit card, if they charge me 3%, if I pay in 10 with the credit card, they'll give me 2% back. So basically I'm paying 1%. But the best thing about those reward cards is they're not really taxed. I mean, the money you get from them. Not now. So it's tax-free. But, I mean, again, the net worth I have, I'm pretty – I'm more of a saver than spender.
So it's just, it's more habit than anything else. Um, you know, if I go on cruise, of course I'm going to get the cheapest room or I never fly first class. I mean, I'm still driving a 10 year old SUV. Um, and you know, These are my kids. They're older now. You need to get a new car. It's like, no, why? It still runs. Well, that's how you build your wealth.
And that's what I want to encourage you with is you have been able to do this not with the help of the credit card companies. You have done it with your own sheer discipline and willpower. And the rewards are nice, but they have not made or destroyed your wealth. And I don't think the way you're living, it's probably not going to hurt you that much in the future.
So there's a lot of angles with the credit card. You know, argument and the latest one that is very compelling for people like you is to understand where these rewards are actually coming from. Have you looked into that?
Well, where they're coming from is basically from – I mean honestly all from my business perspective.
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Chapter 6: Can I still benefit from credit card rewards if I cut them up?
Or buying concert tickets or, you know, and those are the things that we tend to put on credit cards. Right. It's like, oh, you know, Taylor's Beyonce's in town. You know, she's only going to do, you know, Cowboy Carter one time. So I'm just going to, you know, go ham. And then you end up spending way more. You get tickets that otherwise you would never have considered getting.
But because it's on the plastic, you're like, hey, let me on. Let me on on the floor.
Here's the TLDR. When it hurts less, it costs more. That's psychology. That's human nature. You can thank the fall of man for that. But that's how it goes. And so the more friction you add to your spending, the better off you're going to be. The more frictionless it is, you use other people's money and you pay it back later, you're going to make very different decisions.
I'm going to need you to break down TLDR.
Too long, didn't read. That's my version of SparkNotes.
Okay.
I can't believe I taught Jade Warshaw something. That's pretty cool.
This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. More and more people are becoming aware of the need for mental and emotional health resources. But so many of those same people still say they avoid getting therapy due to the fear of judgment. I know because I've personally been there. And I've sat with tons of hurting people over the years and a lot of them are scared to get help.
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Chapter 7: What should I do after my car is repossessed?
That's true. But the weird thing, and it's not weird, but the difference between Baby Step 5 versus some of our other steps is we tell you, Baby Step 1, it's $1,000. Baby Step 4, we tell you, it's 15%, right? We're giving you all these percentages. And this is the one outlier where we're kind of saying, hey, go out there. Pick it for yourself, whatever you have left over.
And I will add this caveat, George. Some folks, they're like, I don't really want to cover the bill. I'm more focused on retirement right now, or I'm more focused on... You know what I mean? And you don't have as much margin as you thought that you would have to spend on that. And I would say that that's also okay, too. It's not required that you pay for your kid's college.
I would say the only requirement there is to make sure that you have... Have a conversation. Yes. And set very, very clear expectations for both of you. And it's out in the open so they know, hey, there's no fund here. You got to get a scholarship or you've got to work.
I would rather have too much versus not enough because now with the new Secure 2.0 Act, you can roll $35,000 over to a Roth IRA and you can also change the beneficiary. So you can... You can bless another kid. Maybe you or your spouse want to go back to school. Maybe it's a niece or nephew. The range of who you can make the beneficiary is pretty amazing.
And so I want to have six figures personally for each kid.
And honestly, if you did overfund it and you were like, there's too much and I want this money, the fee isn't that bad.
Yeah, you pay a 10% penalty. 10%.
Listen, guys, I've heard just about every excuse for why folks think they can't get ahead with money. So let's go ahead and settle this right now. You get the final say on what happens with your money. That's why you have to start telling your money where to go so you can stop wondering where it went. So if you're going to start winning with money, you have to get on a budget.
The easiest way to get started and stick to it is with the EveryDollar budget app. It'll help you make a plan for every single dollar coming in and every single dollar going out every single month. And guess what? It's free, so no excuses. Download EveryDollar in the App Store or Google Play today.
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Chapter 8: Is it appropriate to sell my wife’s engagement ring?
I don't know currently how he's going to do that without decimating the nest egg.
Yeah. Yeah.
That's true. That's another problem to solve. Yeah.
I have to pick up some, some more work here or there, which I feel like he could do. Yeah. He still seemed like a young, a young, a young guy. All right. Let's talk to, you know, let's go back to these social questions. Cause I really liked these George. Okay. So let's take it to you decide Facebook or Instagram.
Oh, gosh. I think Facebook. I like what the boomers are doing over there. That tells me a lot about you. They're having a good time.
That tells me a lot about you at a core level. All right. Shannon from Facebook asks, I told my teenage daughters they need to get jobs for their spending money this summer. One daughter refuses to work. I was thinking about giving her just $20 a week. Would that be okay, or should I just stick to my guns about the whole job thing?
Oh, see, this is why I chose Facebook. The juicy stuff is happening on Facebook. It is. It is. Wow. Okay. Teenage daughters, you got to get a job.
She says, I refuse to work.
And now she's going, well, if I give her 20 bucks a week, does it feel like I'm giving in? Yes. Well, you can have free money anyways for spending.
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