255. "I’m 40 and work 2 jobs. How are we still broke?"
4/7/20262 hr
Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich talks to Gabriella, 36, and Chris, 40, a married couple from Pennsylvania with four kids, zero savings, and $32,000 in credit card debt. They both work multiple jobs. Chris travels all week and picks up extra shifts on weekends. Gabriella juggles three income streams while running the household alone. And yet their fixed costs sit at 109% of their income and the debt keeps growing.
What Ramit uncovers goes much deeper than the numbers. For years, Gabriella has been managing everything alone, building budgets Chris never looks at, covering purchases she...
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First 90 secondsRamit Sethi· Host0:00
Gabriella, why'd you come on here?
Gabriella· Guest0:01
To save our marriage. I need him to make more money. I need him to really have a fire under his ass about what his career plans are.
Chris· Guest0:09
I'm a traveling electrician.
Ramit Sethi· Host0:11
And you have a side job as well?
Chris· Guest0:12
I'll pick up at a local brewery to make extra income.
Gabriella· Guest0:15
I begged him, like, "Please do not pick up shifts in the weekends because you're not home all week."
Ramit Sethi· Host0:21
You spend more than you make every single month. Your debt is growing faster than you can pay it off. This is how a lot of people go homeless.
Gabriella· Guest0:29
That fear is always with me.
Chris· Guest0:31
Have a plan for us to save, manage our money.
Gabriella· Guest0:34
I feel like you gaslight me. You tell me it's gonna happen. You tell me it's gonna be done, and it doesn't happen.
Ramit Sethi· Host0:40
This is not working for me, this whole dynamic.
Gabriella· Guest0:44
[crying] I'm so tired of being alone.
Ramit Sethi· Host0:46
[crying] What if you and your spouse both worked multiple jobs, yet you still had zero savings and you were on the brink of financial ruin? That's what today's couple is facing. Chris is 40 years old. Gabriella is 36. They've been married for 12 years, and they have four children. Now, they both work multiple jobs, yet they are drowning financially. In their application, Gabriella wrote, "We aren't able to make big life decisions because he is so focused on making quick money by working as a server on weekends, on top of a high-demand traveling job that I did not agree he takes. He works 40 to 60 hours a week and is rarely