We Make $300,00 And Can't Pay Off Debt

Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today. For one split second in 2020, my wife and I, I'm 54, she's 52, we make decent money, she makes about $170, I make about $115, we have three children. One of them is in college, two in high school. And for one split second, around this time in 2020, right in the middle we were on baby step seven. We had everything, we had paid off the house, we did everything. But now we're kind of like, okay, obviously we have step one. We have step four, we invest probably 25% of our entire income into retirement. Hold on, did you go back, after you paid off everything, did you go back and borrow some more money? Oh yeah. Oh no, Carlos. What did you do? You went backwards. We're supposed to go forwards, like one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. You won. It's like you crossed the marathon finish line. You're like, you know what, I'm gonna go back to the starting line and start again. What happened? Meet EveryDollar budgeters, Christy and Steve. They used to fight about money. I'm the spender. I'm definitely the saver. Now that they budget with EveryDollar, they're on the same page. Money is definitely one thing we do not ever fight about. Having the budget gave me the permission to spend. Knowing that the money is in each category, it just allowed us to work together better. Now that's what we call a win-win. Now we just have to pick pink colors. We can't help you with that. EveryDollar. Create your free account today. What happened? Well, like I said, we were ready to start step seven and, you know, things started opening up after COVID and we're like, we would like to go here, we'd like to go there and we'd like to get this Mercedes and next thing you know, we're- So how bad is it? How much do you owe right now, brother? Look, we have about $29,000 in zero interest credit card debt where we're trying to pay off and then we have one lease of a vehicle and all the other vehicles are paid off. So we decided to buy a car for each one of our kids and pay it off. So our daughter's car is paid off. Our second son's car is, we only, it's a brand new car. We have about 17 grand. We're going to pay it off in exactly one year because we're spending three times the payments on a very low interest loan. My car is paid off. So $29,000 in credit card debt and- $17,000 in a car loan and a car lease. Wait, you said your wife makes what? $170,000 and you make what? $115,000. $115,000. Okay. So you guys make about $300,000. You said at the beginning of the call, y'all do pretty well. Y'all are doing incredibly well. Okay. So Carlos, okay. Is that it? The credit cards, the lease car, and then the car payment. Is that it? That's it. Did you take out a second mortgage after the house was paid off? Oh, oh hell no. Okay. All right. Good. Good, good, good. The same page there. Okay. I just need everyone to hear this because this doesn't always happen. We get people like Carlos every now and then, but they do the baby steps and then they go backwards. So I just want to know from you, Carlos, did you have more peace in 2020 financially or today? In 2020, but then the whole world opened up again and I was screwed. No, you weren't screwed. You were perfect. No, you choose it. Yeah. You could have kept on going. Well, you know, the whole world opened up. No, no. Hey, listen, homie, you've got to take ownership of, it's like mom and dad went out of town and you're in high school and you didn't have to throw a huge kegger and you're like, I'm going to. But you're like, mom and dad, listen, I went out of town. What was I supposed to do? We had to do it. There was five kegs. We had to go get them. We had to fill them all up. So listen, take ownership. You did it. But here's the thing, dude, 300 grand a year. You can have this paid off in three months if you'll just suck it up. Yes, yes. Why are you waiting a year? A year to pay off the car. Pay off everything. No, Carlos, if you guys lived, you don't have a house payment. Okay. So I know you have all the, I know you have some car payments and stuff, but if you just lived on a hundred thousand, God forbid, you'll have $200,000. Extra. And you put a quarter of your money away every month. Stop for two months. Y'all have to be able to say no to yourself. Y'all's behavior has gotten completely out of control. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we like to travel. That's our, that's our key. So do I, but I can't go to Italy right now. Like I can't like, you know what I mean? No, I know. I like yachts. They look pretty on Google image. Like, but I, no, see, you're blaming, you're blaming Miami. You're blaming the pin. Number one international port of the world. Doesn't matter. Be a grownup, bro. The brand new Royal Caribbean ship is docking next month. And I'm like, Oh, we got to check that out. Oh my gosh, dude. All right. You're giving me hemorrhoids, Carlos. I don't know. I don't think you want, I don't think you really want to be debt free, Carlos. I think you're, I think you are fine with your life. That's how I feel. What do you do for a living? Oh, well, that's the other thing. I'm not getting paid right now because I'm a federal employee, but my wife is not, but at least we have her check. But here's the thing we've noticed that we can live off her check. No way. You mean y'all barely scratching claw on $170,000. There's tell me more, Carlos. Yeah. We have a live studio audience out here and they're all just sobbing for you. They're devastated for you. I told my wife last night, I go, you know, I'm going to call the show because we've proven one thing with this government shutdown with me, not getting paid for a month. We can live off your check and then use my check to pay off this stuff. If y'all can scratch by, hold on. You've missed two humongous lessons though. You missed the two bigger lessons, which is y'all make a bunch of money right now and COVID happened. And then y'all made a whole bunch more money. And then the leaders of our government decided to sit in a sandbox and throw crayons at each other. And so what the thing you're missing here is there's always another, there's always a day after the party. And in between those days after the party, you live like this is the last party that's going to happen. And if you go back to 2020, if you had not have just gone bananas, if you had lived just a regular ridiculous life, you would have taken a whole bunch of vacations and gotten some nice cars. You wouldn't have bought your kids brand new ones that depreciated 20% the day they drove them off the lot, but you would, your kids would be fine. Y'all be fine. And you'd have 200 grand in cash in the bank. Okay. This is you. And listen, this government shutdown is going to happen. And then you're going to go, you're going to be like, dude, we can live off my check. And you're going to pay all this off in three months, which is all it's going to take, or maybe two months for you guys. And then y'all are going to, that you're going to be like, yeah, boats in the Harbor. And you're going to go down there and you're going to start this whole thing over again. And then one of y'all is going to get laid off. Or one of you is going to get the call that, Hey, go to the hospital. Cause one of your kids, you're going to get those calls. And so let this be the final time. Yes. 100%. I think it's a lot easier to sell to my wife. If we can say we can live up one of our checks and take the other one. No, no, no, no, no. There's a layer beneath that. You're not, you're not hearing me. The greatest thing you can give to your wife is to say, Hey, for the first time in our marriage, I want to act like grownups. That's the hard thing for me, Carlos. I know we're joking around and having fun. Cause listen, I love a great trip. Like it's fine. Like, like the things you're saying, a nice car, a nice trip. Those are not bad things. They're awesome things, but you're doing it out of order and you're doing it in a level of impulse and a little bit of just kind of, of immaturity. And so there's, you know, Dave always says that children do what feels good of adults, devise a plan and follow it. Like there's a level of growing up. And to say this to Carlos, you have two kids in that. Do you, are your kids still in the house? All three kids are still in the house. One has a year left. That's fine. That's fine. Yeah. Yeah. But I'm just saying like, what are you setting for them? The example? I'd rather set an example of, Hey, we have a level of limits and boundaries. Cause that's what money we have to with money. Like that, that is part of the name of the game. We can always make more and all of it. That's great. It's not a scarcity mindset mindset, but we have to live within our means because that creates a level of peace and stability. So when I get, you know, furloughed and I'm like, and I get a paycheck, we're totally fine. And guess what? We can still go on the road. Cause we have no debt and we're able to save up. And like, we have a great income, but we're living with a level of reality. And there's a little bit that you guys are just like, Oh, that feels right. Let's just go, go, go. And what scares me is you both sound like that you and your wife. Usually there's like one boring person in the marriage that doesn't want to spend or do anything. And then you have the partier, but both of you, I mean, that's what it's going to take Carlos for you to buckle down and just say, Hey, we are going to live on less than we make significantly. You can live off half of the lease, clean up the car and the credit cards, cut up the credit cards, and we're going to live life differently. I don't know if you're going to do it, Carlos. I don't know, but I want peace for you. I just can't want it more than you want it for yourself. Create your free every dollar budget today. The simplest way to budget for your life.