"Your Family Has Given You Horrific Financial Advice"

Brought to you by YRefi. Refinance your defaulted private student loans today at YRefi.com slash Ramsey. I've come to the realization that I've made a lot of really bad financial decisions for a while. I was blaming my parents and being upset about it, but I feel like I should also take accountability. Yay! It's a big day. Yeah, welcome. Welcome to adulthood. That's awesome. We're proud of you. Yes. So I just, I wanted to get some advice cause I'm in a lot of debt and I've been working on paying them off, but I still feel like I'm kind of drowning and my mom's currently asking me to help buy a house and I don't know. Like I don't even know your financial situation and hard no. Yeah. How bad is it? How much do you owe? So I'm in about $230,000 worth of debt and that's student loans and then some credit card debt. I did pay off one credit card recently and I closed the account. I got that advice from yourself. Now I'm just working on finishing paying off the other one. $230,000 in student loans. Like what are you a doctor? No, but that is what my dad wanted me to become. So he trusted me into taking out the loans and staying in school. But what was the degree and did you finish? Yes, I got two degrees. I got an undergrad in public health and then I got a master's in health administration. Oh geez. And are you working in that field? I'm currently working as a care coordinator. I make about 54K a year. Yeah, dude, you took out $230,000 for a MPH. I mean, what's the highest possible money you could make as a public health administrator? Um, probably like around 75K a year. Gosh. Oh boy. Yeah. Are these private schools? Yeah. Yeah. But the student loans are with like the government. No, I know they are, but this is, this is a, are you a first gen college student? Yes. Yeah. So there's the, man, it's such a brutal trap where parents are like, my kid's going to go to this fancy school. Make me look good. And then they're going to, yeah, they're going to be the, they're going to carry it. My dad said, cause I had real life backstage from here and I was thinking, I don't know if that's a good idea. Yeah. And he seems so excited about it that I got into a really like nice school. And all the loans are in your name, right? Um, half of it is in my name and the other half is in my mom's name. So is it a parent plus loan or what? Like, is she liable or are you? A parent plus loan. Yeah, but she's hitting you up for money to buy a house. And so she has no money. She wants me to put my name down for it because I have pretty good credit. Oh gosh. Hey, listen, they've, I say this with all love to your family. They have given you such horrific financial advice up till now. You've got to stop listening to them. Okay. Like you, you've carried your dream as far as you can carry it because now this is your nightmare. If you told me you owe 230 grand and you're, you were finishing up med school, you're finishing up nurse practitioner school, then I would be sad for you. But man, there's a path. This is going to be really tough because even tapping, I mean the highest possible paying job you could get as a public health official with an MPH masters in public health. Yeah. It's 75 or 85 health administration. So I'm looking to go into like administration and hospital management. Yeah. But then the federal government just announced they're, they're hacking all the NIH jobs and that's going to trickle down through administrative positions at hospitals. Okay. Yeah. I mean, and you're living in New York city. Yes. How are you surviving making 50 grand with 230 in loans in New York city? Well, I'm currently renting out a bedroom and paying a monthly rent. I think you need to move to a lower cost of living area. What's keeping you in New York city? My family. Yeah. But what are they doing? I mean, just to see them and hang out with them. Um, to be, cause I, I have a chronic illness, so I originally did want to move out when I started college and go to a different state, but my mother didn't think that was a good idea cause she was worried. So are they helping take care of you? Are you, are you working full time? No, I'm still, I'm taking care of myself pretty well now. I take care of myself. I, all of my medical stuff. I make my own appointments, go to them. Okay. Independent now is, is. If that's the case, then I would move. I'd find a job. If you can make 54 K in Idaho, you're going to have a better shot at paying off these student loans in your lifetime. But New York city is not the place. Here's the thing. You have run up against a hard truth. And this hard truth is math. And I know you want to honor your mom and dad by doing whatever they say and carry their dreams forward. I get that. And I know that's a hard thing that George and I are asking you to do. And I know you want to stay in New York city and I know that you want to make sure that you don't make your mom stressed out with her worrying and all this stuff. You have a math problem, a very serious math problem. And that is you owe the United States government $230,000 and you make 50 a year. It's just a math problem and it's catastrophic. It's really tough. And so you're going to have to get serious about where can I live where my cost of living is as low as humanly possible. And what job can I get? Can I find a rural hospital that will pay me a hundred grand to be an administrator at a small hospital so that I can get to paying this stuff off? I mean, you're going to have to think very radically and you might tell your parents I'll be back in five years when these loans are gone and God help you if you sign for a mortgage or something like that. I mean, you just, you can't, you can't afford that. You know what I mean? Have you started having to make payments yet? For the student loan? Uh-huh. Yes. I started making $3,000 to save program, but it's like they're changing that. They're changing every program. And we've been, and not to, you don't, you don't know this, but we've been telling people for years, don't count on the federal government coming to your rescue on these loans because you never know what an administration is going to do. And then here we go. We've got a new administration that's cutting everything. And so, yeah, man, geez, I'm sorry. What is your take-home pay every month? About $2,800 to $3,000. And what's your student loan payment every month? I was paying about like a hundred a month on it, but then I stopped. You know what that's going to do, right? Your 230 grand is going to turn into 300 grand. Because the interest still keeps cooking. The interest is higher than what you're able to pay. They had, they put it, I forgot the term they had put it on. Like something they said, like, you have to pay at the moment. Cause I guess they were figuring out everything as things were changing. Well, you've got to find out what's actually going on there because the interest can still be growing. Even though say, Hey, you don't need to pay, don't worry about it. And the interest keeps growing while you sit there. And so that's the math for you to solve is I need to make the most money with the lowest living expenses possible. Cause otherwise, even if you're able to pay a thousand bucks a month toward your debt, which I don't know that you could even do, it would take you 20 years to pay off this debt. And that's if the balance didn't grow by a cent. Okay. And so you're going to have to debt snowball this thing, but I don't want it to take 20 years. I think Lexi has a lot of life to live. That's what I've been doing. With the credit cards, I've paid one off already. How many more do you have? I just have one credit card left and there's $1,400 left to pay on it. And then what's your next smallest balance if you split up all the loans? No, that's it. And then the next thing I would have to tackle is just paying off the student loans. That's the only credit card I have left. I don't have any. Yeah. What's the smallest loan balance you have out of all the loans? I'm guessing they're split up amongst many loans. Oh no, I consolidated them. Oh no. Oh, okay. Cause I had talked with another financial advisor. I think you need to stop talking to people. Stop talking to people. Stop talking to people. And he had said it would be best to consolidate it all together instead of creating a bunch of difficulties. Yeah. You got bad advice. I'm sorry. When two knuckleheads on a podcast that you don't even know are the only ones speaking truth to you, I'm sorry. I hate this for you. You're going to have to go find some more jobs and you're gonna have to get radical about it. And you're gonna have to work multiple jobs. And there's, I mean, there's only one way to do this. You can't cut anything from your life. You're going to have to just make more money. And if the debt's not in your name, I would not be worried about it right now. If it's in mom's name, worry about that later. Focus on the ones that are in your name. Unless you consolidated it all together. It sounds like that could have happened. Oh, hang on the line, Lexi. I'm going to send you a copy of my book, Breaking Free from Broke. I hope it gives you some encouragement along what might be a long journey. Why Refi refinances delinquent private student loans for struggling borrowers. Learn more at Y-R-E-F-Y dot com slash Ramsey.