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A woman with $192K in student debt asked Dave Ramsey how to afford to be a stay-at-home mom on just her husband's $33K salary

Lindsay Dodgson   

A woman with $192K in student debt asked Dave Ramsey how to afford to be a stay-at-home mom on just her husband's $33K salary
  • A woman called in to "The Ramsey Show" to ask for advice on how to afford to be a stay-at-home mom.
  • The caller, Shauna, said she wanted to give up work and live off her husband's $33,000 salary.

A woman called in to Dave Ramsey's finance and budgeting show to ask for advice on how to afford to be a stay-at-home mom with "crippling" student-loan debt.

Shauna, who didn't provide a surname, appeared on a recent episode of "The Ramsey Show." Ramsey's cohost, Jade Warshaw, uploaded a clip of the call to TikTok, which amassed 1.2 million views.

@iadewarshaw When you say that you want to prioritize paying off debt. Prepare yourself for the sacrifice that awaits. Anything worth have is worthing the sacrifice to attain it. #mindset #mindsetiseverything #sacrifice #debt #payments ♬ original sound - What's up guys! I'm Jade 

Shauna said she had trained as a doctor of pharmacy and had been making from $70,000 to $100,000 a year.

She said she wanted to give up work to look after her child full-time. She told Ramsey and Warshaw that she owed $192,000 in student loans while her husband owed $45,000.

Shauna asked how she could balance becoming a stay-at-home mom when her husband earned much less than her: $33,000 a year.

Ramsey said her story should be a cautionary tale to anyone listening who had aspirations to become a pharmacist and "make a lot of money."

"Oops," he said. "Now I want to be a stay-at-home mom."

Ramsey is a radio host best known for his financial advice. The evangelical Christian has faced controversy and has recently been embroiled in a $150 million lawsuit brought by some listeners who caused him of promoting a timeshare-exit company that defrauded them.

Some people are also skeptical of his legitimacy as a financial advisor, likening him to more of a preacher than a money expert. However, he remains a trusted financial guru to many. A man recently told Insider that Ramsey's advice seven years ago helped him escape $38,000 in car debt.

In the clip, Warshaw asked Shauna why she wanted to give up work now. Shauna replied that they had a 2-year-old and planned to have more children.

"I'm going to tell you what I would do," Warshaw said. "If it were me, I would try to stick this out for two more years and work my butt off and get this debt cleaned up."

Then, she said, she would "feel peace" at staying at home and expanding their family.

Ramsey also recommended Shauna take up part-time pharmacy work.

"You're probably going to have to do that to survive," he said.

Ramsey said the average US household income was $75,000, so living on the husband's wages was "approaching half of average."

"So you're probably using that pharmacy degree for the rest of your life unless your husband gets his career really geared up," Ramsey said. "The bad news is you have to pay for the decisions of 19-year-old you. Mathematically there's no way to get out of that. I'm sorry. I wish it wasn't the case."

Warshaw said it would be "worth it" in the long run. "It's going to be worth it if you do this now," she said.

Ramsey agreed, saying Shauna should go "completely bananas" for a short period of time to get her "life back from that 19-year-old decision."



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