A 24-year-old stay-at-home mother called a national money show with an 11-month-old on her hip and three weeks to find somewhere to live. The caller, Liz, said her husband had told her the night before that the family was leaving their RV for a house next door. The payment would be double what they pay now, and they could only manage it by moving in with his brothers. One of them had borrowed her car and left her stuck with the toll bills.
Host Dave Ramsey did not reach for a budget. “All I hear is sadness,” he said, and told her not to “move in with the crazies over there.” Co-host George Kamel told her to call a local women’s shelter for resources.
The numbers behind the call
Her husband earns $23 an hour. One full-time wage at that rate comes to roughly $3,900 a month before taxes, health premiums and the costs of a baby. Apartments near them rent for about $1,500 a month, which swallows a big share of what is left. Utilities, gas, food, diapers and any car payment do the rest, so there is nothing to put toward savings or a security deposit.
Average hourly earnings for private-sector US workers were $37.75 in August 2026, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics series CES0500000003. That is about 64% above what Liz’s husband makes.
She has no paycheck of her own and is estranged from her family in Kissimmee. A lease at double the payment, co-signed with relatives who have already cost her money, could leave her exposed to shared utility debt, damage claims and collections in her name for bills she did not run up. A shelter or church-connected transitional program is temporary by design and would not touch her credit.
She is far from alone in stretching past her means. The FINRA Foundation’s 2024 National Financial Capability Study found that 26% of Americans were spending more than they earn, an all-time high.
A different answer earlier in the show
The same episode had a very different caller: two attorneys carrying nearly $900,000 in student loans. Ramsey told them the answer was more work. “The hole that you’re in is 900. Your shovel is your income,” he said. “You got a huge hole and a small shovel.”
Liz, with a nursing baby, no income and three weeks, had no shovel to swing.
