{"id":165056,"date":"2025-09-18T08:35:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T08:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/165056\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T08:35:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T08:35:15","slug":"dave-ramsey-caller-says-his-wife-doesnt-know-theyre-500000-in-debt-she-swipes-a-credit-card-and-doesnt-have-to-worry-about-anything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/165056\/","title":{"rendered":"Dave Ramsey Caller Says His Wife Doesn’t Know They’re $500,000 In Debt. She Swipes A Credit Card And ‘Doesn’t Have To Worry About Anything’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 26-year-old Texas man shocked listeners of \u201cThe Ramsey Show<\/a>\u201d when he revealed he and his wife are half a million dollars in debt\u2014and she doesn\u2019t know the full extent of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need some advice on how I can break it to my wife that we are broke and that we are $500,000 in debt,\u201d the caller, Jim, told co-hosts Dave Ramsey and Rachel Cruze.<\/p>\n

Credit Cards, Cars And A Big Mortgage<\/p>\n

Jim explained that he has been handling all the finances in the household while his wife continues spending freely. \u201cShe has a credit card that she swipes and doesn\u2019t have to worry about anything,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just something that I\u2019ve taken advantage of and gotten us even deeper with not including her in this spending ordeal.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The couple has been together since they were teenagers and married for three years. Their combined income is around $250,000 a year, with Jim bringing in $195,000 and his wife earning $55,000. But despite their high income, Jim said they are financially underwater.<\/p>\n

The bulk of the debt includes a $330,000 mortgage, two car loans totaling $85,000, and roughly $80,000 in credit card debt\u2014most of which Jim says his wife doesn\u2019t know about. Ramsey quickly pushed back on that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way you describe this, like there\u2019s half a million dollars in debt my wife doesn\u2019t know about. Yes, she does,\u201d Ramsey said. \u201cBut she\u2019s been running her credit card around like she\u2019s in Congress<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Facing The Reality Of A Broken Financial Plan<\/p>\n

Ramsey reframed the real issue: the couple has no plan, and Jim has been handling the money without his wife\u2019s involvement. \u201cWhat you\u2019re really asking is how do I get my wife to get on a plan because our current plan sucks,\u201d Ramsey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re like a daddy spoiling his only daughter,\u201d he continued. \u201cInstead, you\u2019re going to say, \u2018Honey, we\u2019re going to sit down like two adults now, and here\u2019s how much money is coming in, and here\u2019s what we owe on the house, and here\u2019s what we have to pay on these stupid cars, and we make $190,000 a year, and we\u2019re broke because we\u2019re out of control.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Cruze urged Jim to stop carrying the burden alone and start treating his wife like an equal partner. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to do this by yourself anymore, Jim,\u201d she said. \u201cTell her that every month we\u2019re going to sit down and relook at this plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

See Also: Kevin O’Leary Says Real Estate’s Been a Smart Bet for 200 Years \u2014 This Platform Lets Anyone Tap Into It<\/a><\/p>\n

Jim also admitted he hadn\u2019t filed his 2024 taxes and likely owes another $25,000 to $40,000. He\u2019s self-employed and hasn\u2019t made any quarterly tax payments. \u201cYour tax lady sucks,\u201d Ramsey said. \u201cHow in the world are you making that kind of money and not doing quarterly estimates?\u201d<\/p>\n

Cruze pointed out that if they cut expenses<\/a> and live on $90,000 a year, they could throw $110,000 at the debt in just one year. \u201cYou guys could be completely debt-free in a year,\u201d Ramsey added.<\/p>\n

Read Next: Have $100k+ to invest? Charlie Munger says that’s the toughest milestone \u2014 don’t stall now. Get matched with a fiduciary advisor and keep building<\/a><\/p>\n

Image: Shutterstock<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 26-year-old Texas man shocked listeners of \u201cThe Ramsey Show\u201d when he revealed he and his wife are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,25950,14989,14988,147,530,25951,25952],"class_list":["post-165056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-category-personal-finance","tag-cms-wordpress","tag-pageisbzpro-bz","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-tag-news-access","tag-tag-personal-finance-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}