“Why is a coffee shop buying vehicles?” Dave Ramsey asks his caller. Hunter from Dallas, Texas had just finished listing off his personal and business debts on Ramsey’s EntreLeadership show. While his cafes do some deliveries, the owner mentioned that he and his wife drive company cars, too. “They’re very expensive,” Hunter admits. When Ramsey asks how many cars they have and how much they owe on them, the answer leaves him nearly speechless.

Dallas couple owes $250,000 in car loans

Hunter has 100 coffee shop employees, so when Ramsey wonders how many cars the $250K debt covers, it’s easy to assume the business must have a whole fleet of vehicles. He’s shocked to find out that it’s only four…and two of them are luxury cars exclusively for him and his spouse to drive.

“Um…okay…so…” Dave Ramsey struggles a bit to come up with a response.

Hunter says the coffee shops net them over $500,000 a year in profit. He also makes $250,000 a year as a commercial real estate consultant. It sure doesn’t feel like much, though, since he’s technically $4 million in debt.

“So you have a $750,000-a-year household income?”

Despite earning beaucoup-buckage, the guy has debt pretty much everywhere possible. On top of the near-$300K in car loans, he lists off large SBA loans, an IRS bill $55,000 deep, a $1.9 million mortgage paired with a $200K HELOC, and an investment property flip he’s signed for $280K.

He’s drowning and isn’t sure where to start digging himself out.

Dave Ramsey says to list the cars, smallest to largest, and pay them off using the debt snowball

Hunter plans on paying the IRS bill within the next 30 days. He’ll also finish flipping that $280,000 investment property, so that’ll be checked off.

After that, Ramsey tells Hunter to rank the car loans from smallest to largest and, one by one, pay them off using the “debt snowball.” This is where you pick a debt and pay it off as fast as possible while still making obligated payments to your other loans. Once that first debt is paid off, you can those funds to the next loan you’ve targeted. As you pay off debts, you keep building up the funds tackling the next balance.

In terms of the business debt in the form of SBA loans, Dave Ramsey recommends Hunter live off his $250,000-day job and pay down the loans using the coffee shop chain’s profit.

The video struck me as a reminder that it isn’t always about making more money. Edgeless spending, especially on rapidly depreciating luxury car loans, can quickly crush the American Dream.