Ramit SethiRamit Sethi: The No-BS Guide to Living a Rich Life

“I'm in $244k debt but give $500/mo to my church”

20 Jan 2026 · 1 min

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This is a Money for Couples segment (Ramit Sethi) in which a couple discusses a past $170,000 windfall that has been fully spent (including $30,000 on furnishing), current financial stress (about $244,000 in debt), ongoing charitable giving (~$6,000/year or $500/month), and related relationship tensions and budgeting conflicts. The excerpt highlights emotional responses, disagreements about charitable payments, and Ramit’s advice about building realistic financial systems rather than relying on perfection.

Previously on Money for Couples. You've mentioned a windfall.
It was $170,000.
How much of the money is left?
None of it.
What did you spend it on?
I spent $30,000 to furnish our house.
I got a air transplant.
We've already spent more than our budget on groceries, so every bit of money we're spending right now is borrowed.
Right now, you spend $6,000 a year on charity, and you're in $244,000 of debt.
Taking away that is like telling God, I don't trust him. It feel.
This was not easy. There was a lot of fights with money.
That was my moping for the first couple weeks. I was just not living in reality.
Kids will go wild if they don't have certain constraints. Well, guess what? As adults, we're no different.
The way that I was looking at money before was so childish. It didn't mean anything to me.
We can't set up a financial system that requires us to be perfect because we would always fail.
Like, if we have kids, are we cool with our kids potentially feeling, like, fully abandoned and being just raised by nannies just so that I can have nice things?