Couple owes $1 million after vending machine venture goes wrong — beware of viral get-rich-quick passive income schemes

Emily recently called into The Ramsey Show looking for advice on what to do next.

“Personally, I don’t feel like he’s worked very hard to make it [the business] work,” she said of her husband.

Emily told hosts Dave Ramsey and Rachel Cruze that with the vending machines, her husband bought “too many, too fast.” She also said her husband followed what she described as the “Robert Kiyosaki way” and repeatedly told her, “You’ve got to get into debt to make money,” an approach that she strongly disagreed with.

Now the business isn’t producing enough to support the family and there’s not much left to sell.

“You’re done,” Cruze told her during the call. “I can hear it in your voice.”

Emily agreed. “Im very done.”

The business grew — and so did debt

Emily revealed that the family’s debt is a mix of business obligations and personal borrowing, including credit cards and roughly $200,000 in home equity lines of credit. They’ve also taken out mortgages against their home.

The couple recently sold one rental property and is trying to sell another vacant property worth about $60,000. Their home no longer has equity, Emily said, and the family has used its retirement savings to fund the business.

The vending operation includes both vending machines and micro markets. Some of the machines are leased while others are rent-to-own. Emily estimates the business itself is worth about $450,000, but even selling it wouldn’t solve the problem.

Much of the sale proceeds would have to go toward the debt attached to the machines, meaning little would be left to tackle the family’s personal debts. Emily said her husband wants to pursue bankruptcy while she wants to repay what they owe, pointing to her religious beliefs about paying debts.

Ramsey told her that selling the business and the home could potentially eliminate about $650,000 of the debt, leaving roughly $350,000 in business and credit card obligations. He also cautioned that bankruptcy may not wipe away as much of the debt as they expect.

Since both are back to work, the couple now has two incomes again. Emily said she earns $25 an hour working about 30 hours a week, while her husband earns $21 an hour.

In his defense, Emily’s husband is certainly not the only person to see vending machines as a way to make money. The business has become a popular side-hustle topic online, especially on TikTok, where videos can make the business look a lot simpler — and more lucrative — than it may be in real life.

What those vending machine videos don’t tell you

If you scroll through TikTok, you can easily find plenty of videos showing people buying machines, filling them with snacks, collecting the cash and restocking locations.

Some frame vending as a relatively simple way to create passive income or build a business without sitting behind a desk all day, and Emily’s husband isn’t the only person looking at vending machines as a business opportunity.