Every Time I Get Paid I'm Still $300 Behind

Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today. I've just recently learned about you and started watching a few of your videos and I saw the Baby Steps video. And I know that step one is save $1,000. My problem is I have absolutely nothing. And when I say I have nothing, I mean like when it was due Tuesday, I get paid tomorrow and I'm still gonna be $300 short. And I don't know where to start. But I don't wanna live like that. How did you get to this place? Divorce. Majority of my life, I was an at-home mom taking care of my kids. And so when I got divorced, I was working a part-time job, had no benefits. And I have a decent job now. What do you make now? I bring home about $2,100 a month after taxes, which isn't great, but it does offer benefits. And you had nothing in the divorce, Heather? I did and what I got, I used to pay off one of my student loans, which was about $30,000. But I still have probably about $20,000 in student loan debt, which also scares me because I heard you say on one of your videos, do not take out a student loan because you can't get rid of them. You can't get rid of them, it's bankrupt. You gotta get rid of them by paying it off. How long have you been divorced? A little over three years now. And do you have kids? I do, but they're both adults. Are you getting any alimony? No, I don't get any alimony. Where I'm at, that's not a thing. The screen says you're in Chicago. Are you in Chicago proper or in a suburb? I'm actually in Indiana, but they asked what the closest major city was. That's why I asked, because that's what I know. So Indiana, you don't, it's... Well, I mean, she's not got Illinois taxes and probably a little different economy, micro-economy that you're sitting in versus in Chicago itself. More likely you can make it on 2100 there than you could downtown Chicago. That's my point. So, yeah. Barely. What are you doing, what's your job? So I work for a major healthcare company and I work in a call center for them. Good, okay, good for you. Is there, how long have you been with them? Did you know your personal info is getting bought and sold to people right now who use AI to target you with bizarrely personal scams and spam? Like, hey George, are you interested in selling your house at 253 Sprague Street? Well, lucky for you, there's Delete.me. Delete.me, as the name implies, goes to hundreds of creepy data broker sites and deletes your personal info over and over all year long. I use and love Delete.me because I can't stop scammers from using AI, but I can make myself much more difficult to target. So go to joindelete.me.com slash Ramsey and get 20% off an annual plan or click the link in the description. It'll be two years in March. Two years, okay. And do you see forward progress at that company to get your income up to move up? Yeah, so like in October, so I started almost two years ago, March, and then six months later, I got a promotion within the department and got a pay raise. And now it's yearly. So now in October next month, I'll get a review again and get a pay increase, but I don't know what that'll be. And you're working 40 hours. Yes, at least. We're offered overtime the first of every month. And I always try and get at least eight hours of overtime in depending on what day of the week the first falls on. So you're bringing home 2,100 a month. How much is your rent? My rent is 1,320 a month. So half of your rent. I'm in an apartment. And that's typically what the rent is going for in any safe neighborhood. Okay, the bad news in your overall situation is, you described it accurately, this is a really, really tough spot that you're in. The good news is, is this is the worst it's ever gonna be. Yeah, I hope so. Oh, I promise you, I promise you. So you've got two hurdles that I hear, and we'll see what Rachel wants to add or subtract from that. Hurdle number one that I hear is, you guys were married a long time. Your heart is broken. You're grieving, you're angry, and you're still healing from, you know, getting muddy boots trampling on your heart. And with that, part of that healing is getting your personal confidence up to say, I'm going to win again. Chapter two of my life, the encore, after the curtain comes down and the curtain comes back up, the encore is gonna be amazing. I just haven't figured it out yet. And your heart hasn't gotten to that yet, that level of belief. But I will tell you this, I've been doing this about 35 years, and I've seen ladies at exactly your age have the best decade of their entire life overall, but certainly including income from 53 to 63. I see it all the time because of the stuff, the gravel that is in your belly. You got the right stuff inside of you. You just don't believe it again yet. And as that starts to wake up, you're gonna go be somebody you never even dreamed you would be over the next 10 years. I've seen it happen over and over again, okay? So I see that in your future more than you do at this moment. So that's one hurdle you've got to overcome. The second hurdle is we've got to work on this income because you're starving to death. You got to pick up overtime, side jobs, everything else. You got no margin in this math. This math is hard, hard, hard, hard, hard, hard. So, and so I, you know, and if you had another $2,000 a month coming in, your whole life would change right now because the difference in 2,100 and 4,100 in your world is so huge. It would just, so I mean, working all the time at something that's moral and legal and makes good money, starting with all the overtime you can get, not just eight hours. I want eight hours a day. How much will you work me? I need money, okay? And this is not a way of life for the next 10 years. This is for the next six months. So you can pile up a little money in the corner and know you get to eat next month because you live from fear to fear, hand to hand, mouth to mouth right now. Agreed? Yeah. And if you had $10,000 in the bank, your whole attitude, the way you walk down the street would shift. Yeah. And it'd be part of your healing as well, which I really desire for you after talking to you. I think you're special. Yeah, I mean, it's from the financial standpoint, Heather, fighting for that peace and having some safety. That's your next goal. At this point, yes. I'm not worried about the $20,000 student loan. I'm worried about Heather having a little margin, a little wiggle room or a lot of wiggle room. I'd like for you to just kind of slosh around in the cash for a few minutes. Like you've just got a little pile of it for the first time in a while. Instead of worrying about whether we're gonna get canned tuna fish or canned dente more or whatever it is you're having to choose between. I mean, yuck, right? I mean, this is tough right now. These numbers are hard. So I'll tell you the other thing I would do is I would make sure if I'm you, I would make sure I'm plugged into a good church and get some people around me that begin to love me and believe in me and that don't mind if you scream and cuss a little bit. Don't mind if you cry a little bit and they might take you to dinner occasionally and just tell you what I've been telling you for the last few minutes, that you're a child of God and I see a good future for you. And I'd like for you to have that in your life too. Yeah, and I do. I do have a wonderful church family. I do, yeah. Well, lean on them. Lean on them. It's an opportunity for them to love someone well. And I'm not saying become a permanent charity case, but girl, you in a hurt right now. Yeah, let people love you. And it's okay to be loved while you're in a hurt. And then later on, you're gonna have $10 million in the bank and you're gonna find a Heather somewhere and you'll help her. That's right, amen. But yeah, you're in an exhausting place, Heather. Emotionally, financially, the hours you're gonna be working, it's gonna be tiring. But even if you can put a hundred bucks a week away, I mean, you look up in two months, you're like, there's 800 bucks. Like that even in and of itself is like, okay, we need some moving progress. I need the math to get me back from the edge of terror. Create your free every dollar budget today. The simplest way to budget for your life.