brought to you by the Every Dollar App. Start budgeting for free today. I'm calling today with a bit of a moral and financial question. And I'm calling to see what is the best way for me to help my husband pay off his credit card debt that we have discovered recently.
We have discovered. What does that mean? Well, I will tell you. Yeah, I found, unfortunately, I found some screenshots of sports betting and he ended up having to come forward with three credit cards that added up to about $17,000.
Unfortunately, this isn't the first time that the last time I didn't find it, he came to me and told me about it. But this isn't the first time I struggled with credit card debt. Was that other time regarding sports betting? No, it was not.
The last time his company had used his credit card for on a trip and they paid him back and he just never paid the card off. He just spent the money. How old are you now? I don't know.
I've been married. Going on four years. What's his reaction to having lost $17,000 of the family money sports betting? Well, he was hiding it for me for a really long time.
And then when I found it, I grabbed our two babies and I got in the car and I left and I told him to fix it. And we came back pretty quickly, but he's been great, honestly. He's got two jobs. He's working a full-time job during the day and then a job in the evening, a part-time job in the evenings.
And he's been working his butt off. I found it about six months ago, so he's been working his butt off for six months. He's got three cards down to one and there's still quite a bit left on it. So it was originally $17,000 and now it's $17,000.
It was originally $17,000. Now we've got it down to under $15,000, just under $15,000. But in six months, he's only paid $2,000 of it. Yeah, because of the issues that we were having, we were really behind on bills and payments.
And so we spent a couple of months getting up and then we had just a couple things. Our hot water heater went out. Our, we got in a car accident. We had to go get a new car.
There's just a few things. These first couple of months that took up the extra income that he was starting to bring in. Did you, tell me when you just mentioned that you guys were behind on bills. Were you aware of that or did that come out with?
This secret credit card and the gambling and everything. Yes. I was aware of how short, so he was actually unemployed at the time. I was only when bringing in and trying my work from home.
And usually I work from home and I keep our kiddos, but he was, he was in between jobs. And so I knew we were short. I just didn't know how short we were and I didn't have access to the bank account. I used to, but I just had logged in and it's along that.
What does he, what does he do? Well, right now he works for out of school and then in the evenings he works a retail job. Out of school. Yes.
So he does, he's a teacher at a school. Okay. All right. So part of the reason I'm calling is because I was approached by my in-laws and they were kind of telling me that it would be better for us all around if I just took out a loan and we paid off the card because the interest on this card is over 30%.
And they said if I take out a loan and cover it and then we just pay back to bank with a lower interest rate around, I make 50 a year. And what does he make? You know those free samples at the store that are up for grabs for anyone? So that's basically what's happening with your personal information online.
Data broker sites collect stuff like your address, phone number, email, even your family's information and just post it online for anyone to grab. And that's why I use delete me. They remove your personal info from hundreds of data broker websites and keep it gone. So stop letting random websites street your data like it's three samples.
Get 20% off your annual plan at joindeleatme.com slash Ramsey. What does he make? Now within the last few months he brings home with the two jobs combined about $4,000 a month. Okay.
So you've got about $90,000 coming in and you said you bought a car in the middle of this? You take out a car payment in the middle of this? I actually have just recently found you guys and I just realized how dumb that was. But we...
No you already knew how dumb it was. You were behind and you had a 33% credit card and then you went and took out a car payment. You already knew that. Sure.
So how much do you owe on this stupid car? It's...we've got 30,000. Okay. Okay.
So there's a lot of things that need to happen here for you guys to get healthy financially and relationally and career wise. There's a whole lot of negative things going on in this house. And the 30% loan interest on the credit card is not your problem. It's the symptom of all these other problems.
So what would I do if I woke up in your shoes? Well, I do a lot of different things. The first thing is the two of you are going to start an every dollar budget tonight on our app and we're going to give you a free trial on it. So you guys can put it all together and you're going to lay out exactly where every dollar of your income is going to go this month before it comes to you.
You're going to have a plan for every dollar. You're not going out to eat. You're not going to see the inside of a restaurant unless you're working there is an extra job. You're not going on vacation.
You're not doing anything. You are broke and screwed with your money and you both have got to lean into this and clean it up as fast as possible. Okay. So that's the thing one thing too is with your marriage counselor, you need to get commitments from him that he's never on threat of ending your marriage going to do any betting sports betting ever again and he's never going to hide any debt from you ever again.
And we're going to be working together. So it's going to be very difficult for him to hide anything because we both are going to see every single thing going on. Yeah. And pulling credit reports every year.
You know what I mean? I would almost have him. I mean, I don't know how how engages is that. I mean, the sports betting world, it can be such a downward slope so fast.
But what I would be wondering, Shelby too, if you guys have talked about this, I just want to say that he's healthy in that way, that there's not some level of addiction there and that and that itchy was trying to scratch that excitement that he was doing sports betting. Like what is that about? Right. So like that doing that work in the marriage counseling office is could be that you're buying on your bills and you're trying to make some money fast to get the bills paid up.
That's true too. You could then desperate stupidity. Yeah. Yeah.
So I want a solid foundation laid. The things he's never going to do again. And the two of you see every single dollar every month for the rest of your lives. Neither one of you are in control.
Both of you are in control. Okay. Lastly, you need to sell the car. That was suicide.
You put a bullet in the gun and put it to your head. You need to sell this car immediately. Stupid on steroids. You cannot afford a $30,000 car.
You've got to get rid of this now. Oh my gosh, girl. That makes his sports betting look smart when you put it beside this car. Oh my gosh.
Neither one of them. I hate sports betting. Oh, I hate them. Who's the number one victim of sports betting?
Yes. 25 year old males. Yes. You got this.
You got this. Create your free every dollar budget today. The simplest way to budget for your life.