Discovering that your spouse secretly piled up $17,000 in sports betting debt is bad enough. Finding out the money was spread across multiple hidden credit cards makes things even worse.
That was the situation facing a 25-year-old Missouri woman named Shelby, who shared her story on “The Ramsey Show” recently.
Shelby said she discovered screenshots of sports betting activity on her husband’s phone before he finally admitted he had three credit cards tied to the gambling losses.
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Hidden Debt And Financial Chaos
Shelby said the situation wasn’t entirely new for their marriage. She added they had struggled with credit card debt before, though not related to gambling.
The recent discovery caused Shelby to temporarily leave the house with their two children.
“I grabbed our two babies, and I got in the car, and I left, and I told him to fix it,” she said.
Her husband has since taken on two jobs, working as a teacher’s aide during the day and a retail job at night. Shelby said he has been “working his butt off” for the past six months trying to clean up the debt.
But personal finance expert Dave Ramsey wasted little time noticing that the progress had been slow. The couple had only reduced the debt from $17,000 to just under $15,000 over a six-month period.
Shelby explained that financial problems kept piling up. They had fallen behind on bills while her husband was unemployed, their hot water heater broke, and they were involved in a car accident.
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Then came the part of the story that stunned Ramsey.
Even with mounting debt and a credit card charging more than 30% interest, the couple financed a $30,000 vehicle after the accident.
“Did you take out a car payment in the middle of this?” Ramsey asked.
Shelby admitted she had recently started listening to Ramsey and realized it was a mistake.
“No, you already knew how dumb it was,” Ramsey replied. “You were behind and you had a 30% credit card and then you went and took out a car payment.”
‘Stupid On Steroids’
Ramsey argued the high-interest credit card wasn’t actually the biggest problem.
“The 30% loan interest on the credit card is not your problem,” he said. “It’s the symptom of all these other problems.”
He said the couple needed a complete financial reset, including strict budgeting, marriage counseling and total transparency with money.
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Ramsey also warned Shelby that her husband could never gamble again.
“He’s never, on threat of ending your marriage, going to do any betting, sports betting ever again,” Ramsey said. “and he’s never going to hide any debt from you ever again.”
Co-host Rachel Cruze focused more on the behavioral side of the situation, warning that sports betting can quickly become addictive, especially for young men.
“The sports betting world, it can be such a downward slope so fast,” she said.
But Ramsey saved his harshest criticism for the car purchase. “You need …
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