Dave Ramsey told a 45-year-old Chicago woman with four university degrees, a $115,000 salary and $628,000 debt that she fell for a lie.<\/p>\n
Sandra, a single mom, called into The Ramsey Show for guidance on how to tackle her debt, including a $335,000 mortgage, $33,000 credit-card debt and $260,000 in student loans.<\/p>\n
\u201cSounds like you fell for the lie that if I get education, people will hand me money, and they\u2019re not,\u201d he said, noting her salary is not a lot to show for her schooling (1).<\/p>\n
What Sandra does have to show for her student debt is two undergrad degrees (biological science and English) and two masters degrees in library science and intellectual property law, respectively.<\/p>\n
And a career in legal research. Up until six months ago, Sandra had a side hustle as a library consultant that earned her $25,000 a year \u2014 but Ken Coleman said public libraries were a dead-end career anyway.<\/p>\n
Ramsey was surprised she wasn\u2019t a lawyer, given she has a degree in intellectual property law.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan\u2019t you sit for the bar?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
Sandra responded she wasn\u2019t sure, she\u2019d have to research it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou got a degree in research,\u201d co-host Ken Coleman quipped. \u201cYou should probably look into that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what Ramsey and Coleman agreed she needs to do.<\/p>\n
Ramsey and Coleman said Sandra needs to earn \u201cserious money\u201d if she wants any chance of digging out from the hole she\u2019s in.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have a lot of education and a lot of upside potential therefore on your income if we can figure out a way to apply that education in a way that makes you more money,\u201d Ramsey said. \u201cThat\u2019s what you need. More money, not more degrees. You collected more degrees than a thermometer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read More: Here are the 5 market moves you can’t ignore heading into 2026 \u2014 and what savvy investors are doing now to prepare<\/a><\/p>\n Ramsey warned that a degree means nothing if the skills you learned aren\u2019t needed in the job market.<\/p>\n \u201cThe knowledge you get while you\u2019re getting the degree \u2014 now that knowledge is great power, assuming it is knowledge that the marketplace wants.\u201d<\/p>\n Ramsey and Coelman suggested Sandra aim for passing the bar exam and becoming an attorney, pulling in a potential $300,000 a year.<\/p>\n Story Continues <\/p>\n Coleman suggested that in the meantime, while she\u2019s researching what\u2019s entailed in that, she might pursue a side hustle leveraging her knowledge in the intellectual property field.<\/p>\n Or she could moonlight as a law professor and pull in an extra $100,000 a year, Ramsey suggested.<\/p>\n While not everyone is carrying $260,000 in student loans, the total amount of student debt in America is staggering, standing at $1.184 trillion (2).<\/p>\n The average American carries a balance of $39,075, and over 11% of student loan dollars are in delinquency (3).<\/p>\n And clearly, even graduates like Sandra who land strong salaries can find their finances strained after taking on substantial student debt.<\/p>\n A high debt-to-income ratio limits disposable income and reduces the amount available for long-term goals such as building retirement savings or budgeting for travel (4).<\/p>\n It can also increase the risk of missed payments and credit damage, while making it harder to qualify for additional loans in the future. (5)<\/p>\n That\u2019s why it\u2019s important to do what you can to tackle your own student debt.<\/p>\n First calculate exactly what you owe in total debt, the interest rates on your loans and specifically what types of student loans (6) you have, as these can affect your repayment schedule and forgiveness.<\/p>\n Consider using the Avalanche Method. That means tackling your loans (student and otherwise) with the highest interest rates first to avoid them ballooning.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, pay only the minimum on low-interest federal student loans until you\u2019re able to contribute more.<\/p>\n Alternatively, use the Snowball Method<\/a>. This means paying off the smallest debts first to show yourself real progress and maintain your momentum.<\/p>\n Of course the best way to avoid unbearable student debt is to be selective in choosing a higher-education program with higher and potentially quicker returning on investment. U.S. News points to such nursing, engineering, finance or even skilled-trade programs outside of traditional universities as good options (7).<\/p>\n If you already have a degree and want to go back for another, there are several things to consider:<\/p>\n Is the next degree required for your career field, like a licensed certification?<\/p>\n Will you be guaranteed a higher salary upon completion?<\/p>\n Does your employer offer tuition relief as a benefit?<\/p>\n Answering those questions may aid your decision-making and influence your debt level once you\u2019ve completed your degree.<\/p>\n We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Ramsey Show (1<\/a>); Education Data Initiative (2<\/a>); Federal Student Aid (3<\/a>, 6<\/a>); Wells Fargo (4<\/a>); Marine Corps (5<\/a>); US News (7<\/a>)<\/p>\n This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dave Ramsey told a 45-year-old Chicago woman with four university degrees, a $115,000 salary and $628,000 debt that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[45,49,48,5033,4190,133,145764,25896,131,132,145765,145763,32171,25898],"class_list":{"0":"post-330638","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-credit-card-debt","12":"tag-dave-ramsey","13":"tag-finance","14":"tag-intellectual-property-law","15":"tag-ken-coleman","16":"tag-personal-finance","17":"tag-personalfinance","18":"tag-sandra","19":"tag-student-debt","20":"tag-student-loans","21":"tag-the-ramsey-show"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}