Jun 30, 2024
The Ramsey Show is infamous for offering cold, cut-and-dried financial counsel to folks who call in with questions about their debt or spending habits.
But co-hosts Rachel Cruze and Ken Coleman — Cruze’s father, Dave Ramsey, was notably absent from the episode — shocked viewers when they advised one caller to attend a Taylor Swift concert instead of paying off her daughter’s student loans.
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Jill dialed in to ask whether she should sell her 22-year-old daughter’s The Eras Tour tickets to pay off her student debt instead. Her daughter managed to snag three tickets for herself, her sister and Jill for $209 apiece to attend a November concert in Indianapolis — but the resale value could potentially net them $3,000 to $4,000 a ticket.
“I thought that was a total splurge,” Jill says.
But Cruze, a certified Swiftie herself, countered that considering how much fans are shelling out for The Eras Tour tickets today, her daughter had bought them at a bargain. And Coleman agreed, shocking everyone on the call, including his co-host.
“I don’t care what anybody says, I wouldn’t resell these tickets,” he proclaimed. “It’s your daughters, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime concert.”
Here’s why The Ramsey Show advised the caller to shake off her financial concerns.
Coleman suggests ‘dancing like we’re 22’
Jill paid for the tickets her daughter was able to find online. That said, she admits during the episode that she wouldn’t have thought to contribute thousands of dollars toward her daughter’s student debt if she had never purchased the tickets in the first place.
“Here’s the deal, Jill,” Coleman says. “You weren’t planning to cut a check for $9,500 to put on your daughter’s student loan, ever.”
He believes that if her daughter is adamant that they keep the tickets, it would create “unnecessary tension” in their relationship to sell. “She’s 22, she needs to pay the thing off herself anyway.”
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Coleman adds that while he’s not a Taylor Swift fan, he remembers his teenage daughter’s joy after attending The Eras Tour and receiving some free fan merch from his friend who worked at the merchandise company.
“So, my advice here is, everything will be alright if we keep dancing like we’re 22,” he quips, quoting one of Swift’s popular songs. “We can’t be grumpy Grandpa Dave in this situation.”
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'Bad Blood' in the comments
Although Cruze and Coleman took a gentler route with this financial decision — advising that Jill’s daughter should be the one responsible for managing her student debt — many listeners were left exasperated.
“I hope she won't be begging the taxpayer to bail her out of student loans so she can go to a concert,” wrote one commenter on the YouTube video.
Another references one of Ramsey’s beloved proverbs: “Wow, you can't even call this The Ramsey Show with this kind of advice. What happened to beans and rice, rice and beans, going scorched earth to get out of debt?!”
However, others agreed with the co-hosts’ assessment. “She's an adult. These were a gift. If you don't want to go, tell her to sell your ticket for a few thousand and put that much at least towards her debt,” suggests one user.
In the end, Jill’s daughter has other options if she eventually struggles with her student loans, like income-driven repayment plans or refinancing into a lower interest rate.
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Serah Louis is a reporter with Moneywise.com. She enjoys tackling topical personal finance issues for young people and women and covering the latest in financial news.
