{"id":844967,"date":"2026-09-12T06:04:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T06:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/844967\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T06:04:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T06:04:17","slug":"all-i-hear-is-sadness-ramsey-to-24-year-old-mom-told-to-move-in-with-the-crazies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/844967\/","title":{"rendered":"‘All I Hear Is Sadness’: Ramsey to 24-Year-Old Mom Told to Move In With ‘the Crazies’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A stay-at-home mom with an 11-month-old and three weeks to find housing called a money show expecting a budget fix, and got something no spreadsheet could provide instead.<\/p>\n

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.<\/p>\n

A 24-year-old stay-at-home mom named Liz called a national money show this week with an 11-month-old on her hip and three weeks to figure out where her family would live. Her husband told her the night before they were leaving their RV for a house next door at double their current payment, a house they could only afford by moving in with his brothers, one of whom had previously used her car and left her stuck with the toll bills.<\/p>\n

The host\u2019s response bypassed budgeting entirely: \u201cAll I hear is sadness\u201d, followed by advice not to \u201cmove in with the crazies over there.\u201d Co-host George Kamel told her to call a local women\u2019s shelter for resources. That is when a personal-finance show stops running numbers and starts making crisis referrals.<\/p>\n

A Verdict Before Any Spreadsheet<\/p>\n

Dave Ramsey was right to refuse to solve this with a budget. When a household\u2019s only \u201caffordable\u201d housing option requires cohabiting with people who have already caused documented financial harm, the problem is income and safety, well beyond line items. No allocation of $23 an hour against $1,500-a-month local apartments,500-a-month local apartments makes this arithmetic work.<\/p>\n

A single full-time wage of $23 an hour produces roughly $3,900 a month gross before taxes, health premiums, and infant costs. Rent at $1,500 alone consumes a large share of take-home pay. Add utilities, gas, food, diapers, and any car payment, and there is no oxygen left for savings or a security deposit. The husband is accurately describing an income problem dressed up as a housing problem.<\/p>\n

Average hourly earnings for all private-sector US workers were $37.75 in August 2026, per BLS series CES0500000003, roughly 64% more than the caller\u2019s husband earns. A household whose sole earner is that far below the private-sector average, with an infant and no second income, is not one Excel session away from stability.<\/p>\n

Why the Attorneys Got a Different Answer<\/p>\n

Earlier in the same episode, Ramsey told two attorneys carrying nearly $900,000 in student loans<\/a> that the fix was more work: \u201cThe hole that you\u2019re in is 900. Your shovel is your income. You got a huge hole and a small shovel. I\u2019m telling you, get a new shovel and the hole gets filled up a lot faster.\u201d That advice only works when a shovel exists. Liz has none. She is a stay-at-home mom with a nursing baby, no paycheck, and an estrangement from her family in Kissimmee. \u201cIncrease your income\u201d works for two lawyers with earning capacity, but it falls apart for someone whose next thirty days will be spent packing an RV.<\/p>\n

One Variable Decides This Call<\/p>\n

The variable is access to safe temporary shelter outside the brothers-in-law\u2019s household, well beyond any question of budgeting skill or discipline. If that access exists, whether through a church, a shelter, a subsidized program, or a trusted relative, the family buys time to raise income before signing a lease that will crack under its own weight. If it does not, they either take the RV somewhere else or accept a household arrangement with people who have already proven they will cost them money.<\/p>\n

Signing onto a double-payment lease with financially irresponsible co-signers exposes Liz to shared utility debt, damage claims, and collections in her name for bills she did not run up. A shelter or church-connected transitional program is temporary by design and does not attach to her credit. The FINRA Foundation\u2019s 2024 National Financial Capability Study found the share of Americans spending more than their income hit an all-time high of 26%. Liz is not an outlier. She is the leading edge of that trend, with a baby in the picture.<\/p>\n

Concrete Next Steps<\/p>\n

Call 211, the United Way\u2019s national referral line, before signing anything. It routes callers to local shelters, rental-assistance programs, and diaper banks by ZIP code.
\nContact two or three local churches directly. Congregations often have discretionary benevolence funds that do not require formal-program paperwork.
\nRefuse to co-sign any lease with a household member who has an unpaid debt to you. A joint lease turns their default into your collections file.
\nBuild even a small independent income stream this month through remote customer service, overnight caregiving, or weekend food delivery, so the next housing decision is made with options rather than under a three-week ultimatum.
\nPrice the true cost of the \u201ccheaper\u201d option by writing down every dollar the brothers-in-law have already cost the household and adding it to their share of the new rent.<\/p>\n

Contact [email\u00a0protected]<\/a> for any questions or corrections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A stay-at-home mom with an 11-month-old and three weeks to find housing called a money show expecting a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":844968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,147,530],"class_list":["post-844967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844967","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=844967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}