I'm $628,000 in debt... and $260,000 of it is student loans from four different degrees.
Caller: I'm $628,000 in debt.
I have a mortgage, $260,000 in student loans, and $33,000 in credit card debt.
I'm struggling to figure out the fastest way out.
Dave Ramsey: $260,000 in student loans?
What did you study?
Caller: I have four degrees.
An associate's degree, a bachelor's degree, and two master's degrees.
Dave Ramsey: Four degrees?
It sounds like you were sold a promise.
The promise that if you kept collecting degrees, success would eventually show up.
Caller: ...
Dave Ramsey: Somewhere along the way, people convinced you that more education automatically meant more income.
So when it didn't work, you went back for another degree.
And then another.
Now you're carrying a quarter-million dollars in student loans.
Caller: That's fair.
Dave Ramsey: Education is valuable.
But debt doesn't care how many diplomas are hanging on your wall.
At some point, the goal has to stop being collecting credentials and start being building wealth.