244. "I'm in $244k debt but give $500/mo to my church"
1/20/20261 hr 29 min
Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich continues his discussion with Mike and Noel in part two of their financial deep dive. The couple, married for just 6 months, faces a daunting $244K in debt with zero savings, fueled by previous "guilt-free" spending and a shocking $170K windfall that disappeared. Despite their dire situation, major cuts to their fixed costs haven't happened yet. Ramit encourages Noel to reconsider her church tithing and find proactive ways to increase income, like driving for Uber. Can they shift their mindset from feeling deprived to purposeful sacrifice, anchor their spending to...
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsRamit Sethi· Host0:00
If you or your partner has fallen for a scam, I wanna help, especially if you've recently fallen for an email or text scam, or you've gotten bad financial advice from someone who did not keep their promises, or maybe you just have not even told your partner because you are embarrassed. If this is you, I wanna talk. Apply for free coaching with me by being on my podcast. Apply today at iwt.com/apply. That's iwt.com/apply. Previously on Money for Couples. You've mentioned a windfall.
Noelle· Guest0:33
It was $170,000.
Ramit Sethi· Host0:36
How much of the money is left?
Noelle· Guest0:38
None of it.
Ramit Sethi· Host0:38
What'd you spend it on?
Noelle· Guest0:40
I spent $30,000 to furnish our house.
Mike· Guest0:42
I got a, a hair transplant.
Noelle· Guest0:44
We've already spent more than our budget on groceries, so every bit of money we're spending right now is borrowed.
Ramit Sethi· Host0:49
Right now, you spend $6,000 a year on charity, and you're in $244,000 of debt.
Noelle· Guest0:55
Taking away that is like telling God I don't trust Him. It feels wrong.
Mike· Guest1:00
This was not easy. There was a lot of fights with money.
Noelle· Guest1:04
That was me moping for the first couple weeks. I was just not living in reality.
Ramit Sethi· Host1:07
Kids will go wild if they don't have certain constraints. Well, guess what? As adults, we're no different.
Noelle· Guest1:12
The way that I was looking at money before was so childish. It didn't mean anything to me.
Ramit Sethi· Host1:18
We can't set up a financial system that requires us to be perfect, 'cause we would always fail.
Noelle· Guest1:24
It's like if we have [laughs] kids, are we cool with our kids potentially feeling, like, fully abandoned and being just