Four kids and a $2,000 monthly rent bill sounds like a lot for anyone these days. But for a caller asking for help during The Ramsey Show’s taping, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Car payments are adding incredible stress and pressure to this couple’s financial picture.

On a recent episode of The Ramsey Show, a Texas caller named Sarah explained how she and her fiancé were buried under a mountain of vehicle debt.

It started with a sentence that could make any financial advisor flinch: “We’re in a bind.”

$1,800 in monthly car payments between them…on two “ordinary” cars

Sarah said the couple wasn’t cruising in luxury. Her ride is a 2021 GMC Acadia; his, a 2015 Ford F-150.

Yet both loans were so upside down that co-host John Delony sounded briefly stunned.

She explained that bad credit had locked them into terrible interest rates when they bought the cars from dealerships.

Her fiancé purchased his truck first, while her older car gave out

“Engine smoking,” as she put it. The event “forced” her into another loan she couldn’t afford. 

She now owes about $32,000 on the Acadia, and her car payments jumped to $1,100 a month after falling behind.

Her fiancé owes $20,000 on the F-150, paying around $700 each month.

Together they bring in about $107,000 a year before taxes, but their household of four kids and $2,000 rent leaves little breathing room

Sarah said they’ve stopped paying credit cards just to keep up with rent and daycare. “It’s everywhere,” she told Ramsey’s co-hosts.

The hosts began crunching numbers. The Acadia’s dealer trade-in value was around $17,000, maybe $20,000 in a private sale.

Sarah estimated $8,000 for truck. Ramsey’s team doubted, noting that even an older, high-mileage F-150 should fetch more in Texas. After all, trucks practically come standard issue at birth there.

The advice on the car payment was blunt

The show’s hosts told Sarah to sell both cars, even if it means taking out small personal loans to cover what’s still owed after the sale. The idea is to just eliminate the car payments…forever.

A co-host suggested borrowing just enough (perhaps $25,000 total) to clear the difference and buy two cheap “crappy cars” for the short term.

The goal here would be to escape massive debt, then rebuild from the ground up.

Both co-hosts emphasized the next three years wouldn’t be easy

They told Sarah the couple would need second jobs, strict budgets, and no luxuries. Meaning no dining out, no vacations, not even a Target run.

Would you do the same to escape seemingly endless car payments?