‘You Guys Make Too Much to Be This Broke’: How Rachel Cruze Exposed a Family’s $3,500 Monthly Spending Leak

1 hour ago 3

Danielle Liverance

Thu, May 28, 2026 astatine 9:36 AM CDT 4 min read

Joseph called The Ramsey Show with a occupation astir families would envy and recognize. He and his woman gain astir $340,000 combined. Their girl is heading to an SEC school, and aft merit assistance and in-state tuition, the household inactive needs $30-some 1000 a year. They already transportation astir $200,000 worthy of recognition paper indebtedness and loans with idiosyncratic loans and HELOC, positive a $4,400 monthly mortgage. Joseph wanted to instrumentality a $20,000 Parent PLUS indebtedness to span the gap.

Rachel Cruze refused. Her enactment landed harder than immoderate spreadsheet: "You guys marque excessively overmuch to beryllium this broke."

Quick Read

The Ramsey Show (Rachel Cruze): A $340,000-income household carrying $200,000 successful existing indebtedness was advised to garbage a $20,000 Parent PLUS indebtedness to screen assemblage costs, arsenic borrowing compounds the occupation alternatively than solving the underlying spending subject issue.
Joseph’s household tin afloat screen the tuition spread done other enactment shifts oregon eliminating $3,000-$4,000 monthly successful discretionary spending connected subscriptions, dining, and transportation services without taking connected further indebtedness astatine 9% involvement rates.
A caller survey identified 1 azygous wont that doubled Americans’ status savings and moved status from dream, to reality. Read much here.

The verdict: nary caller indebtedness

Cruze is right. Borrowing your mode retired of an over-borrowed household turns a $200,000 occupation into a $300,000 problem. Joseph already gave the diagnosis himself: "Just a batch of recognition paper misspending. Bad, bad, atrocious decisions. Bad decisions implicit a agelong play of time." A caller indebtedness does not hole the behaviour that built the archetypal $200,000.

Read: Data Shows One Habit Doubles American’s Savings And Boosts Retirement

Most Americans drastically underestimate however overmuch they request to discontinue and overestimate however prepared they are. But information shows that people with 1 habit person much than treble the savings of those who don’t.

Joseph said his household take-home runs astir $16,000 a period betwixt his $8,000 to $10,000 and his wife's $6,000. He tin prime up other shifts worthy astir $1,000 per displacement aft taxes. Twenty shifts implicit an world year, less than 2 a month, afloat currency flows the $20,000 tuition gap. No origination fee. No interest. No 10-year repayment tail.

A Parent PLUS indebtedness costs acold more. Federal Parent PLUS rates hover astir 9%, positive an origination interest northbound of 4%. On $20,000 implicit 10 years, involvement unsocial runs astir $10,000. Multiply by 4 years of assemblage and Joseph faces perchance $80,000 of caller indebtedness stacked connected the existing $200,000, astatine rates higher than astir of what helium already owes.

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