October 20, 2015 • Page 2 shop online at www.missourivalleyshopper.com Dave Says It Takes Two To Manage Finances — so to speak — on the side. You weren’t plugged in and she wasn’t doing a good job, but she didn’t have anyone to talk to about it. Things got worse, then she probably felt ashamed about how ugly it got and didn’t want to tell anybody. Dave Not counting your house, you’ve got about $125,000 in debt. You’ve got to look at all this with a $100,000 income and say, “What is the fastest way to clean up this dadgum mess?” That’s going to mean beans and rice, rice and beans. That means a scorched-earth lifestyle and living on a budget, which also means you’re not going out to eat, not going on vacations and you’re going to start selling so much stuff that the kids will think they’re next. I’d probably sell the car and the motorcycle. Get into a couple of basic cars, and spend about two years of crazy intensity getting debt free except for your BY DAVE RAMSEY Dear Dave, I’ve spent most of my marriage not being a good husband and not being involved in our family finances. After being introduced to one of your programs at work, I realized how irresponsible I had been and went home to apologize and tell my wife about it. During this conversation I learned that we have about $80,000 in debt I didn’t know about, plus $45,000 in debt on a new car and motorcycle I did know about. We also have a mortgage on our home. My wife apologized for making a mess of things, but it wasn’t all her fault. She wasn’t sneaking around spending and taking out debt, she just made mistakes and was afraid to tell me. Together, we make about $100,000 a year. Can you help us? —Curtis RAMSEY Dear Curtis, I’m really glad you’ve made the decision to man up. That’s a big step in the right direction for you and your marriage. To me, what you described is a lot different than her completely lying, hiding stuff, and actively having a financial affair home. You can clean this up that fast, but you’re going to have no life during that time. The two of you have some relationship work to do also. It sounds like you’ve already started on that with you owning your part and her owning hers. The thing is not to blame. From this point forward you need to sit down together and make all of your decisions — financial and otherwise — together. Trust me, if you’re both willing, you can heal the math problem, the debt problem and the marriage problem all at the same time. It will be an amazing thing! —Dave Dud walked out in his back yard thinking about his book. It’s so frustrating, and he can’t even talk to Anita about it. There’s a strange thing about writing a book, he learned. If you tell someone about it before it’s written … well, you’ve told the story already, haven’t you? So then, why write it? This makes writing a book one of the loneliest jobs in the world. A guy in a Forest Service lookout tower would seem like a cruise ship recreation director compared to a book writer. At least that’s what Dud was thinking as he wandered around … wandered … wandered lonely as a cloud … something to do with daffodils. He remembered reading it in high school. Say … maybe if I threw some literature into the book, it would give it a bit of flavor. Yes! Well, I’m already in Europe … Dave Ramsey is America’s trusted voice well, the truck driver is. He’s there on special assignment … on money and business, and CEO of Ramnot sure what that is, but I’m working on it. And the duchsey Solutions. He has authored five New ess is European, after all. And you know how they talk like York Times best-selling books. The Dave literature over there. Ramsey Show is heard by more than 8.5 So how can I do this? I know! I can have the duchess million listeners each week on more than kinda teaching the truck driver to speak literarily. 550 radio stations. Dave’s latest project, “Dearest,” she’ll say, “the time has come for us to put EveryDollar, provides a free online budget tool. Follow Dave on Twitter at @DaveRam- behind us our past and instead grasp the present and the future with … well … with the foreknowledge of wisdom and sey and on the web at daveramsey.com. blessings of hindsight that will propel us headlong into connubial consequences.” And he’ll say, “Sure thing, Honeybunch. You got it.” Dud Campbell smiled. You know, you get a lot more than a tooth cleaning when you go see Dr. O’Dontal. He serves up inspiration along with that new toothbrush you get that you never use. Hey, I wonder if I can work THAT into the book. You know … dental literacy. I’ll work on it. 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