I brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today. I am in a bit of trouble actually, so I guess I don't want to get to start. So I guess in the last year I've been building up some debt, kind of hiding it from my family, and it all recently came out, and pretty much just tearing apart my family at this point. How much debt, man? About $50,000. Are you at all credit card? What are you buying? So that's the worst part, is not really buying anything. It's actually streaming. So I used to play video games a lot, and I'm actually in the military, so I used to play video games as a way to kind of cope, and basically I got into streaming and watching other streamers play video gaming, and kind of helped pass the time, especially when I'm at work, and I just kind of got into the whole gifting subscriptions. I couldn't really control it. I can say I've never been addicted to anything ever in my life, but it has got to be the closest thing. Yeah, you can't. You're right. I can't say that. I guess. The definition of addiction is a pattern of behavior that continues after the person knows that it is hurting me, and I continue to do it anyway. Can I tell you, Alex, and this is me just being straight up with you. I don't know if I fully believe you. What else were you spending, $50,000? I only see that in extreme, like, you suddenly have somebody else that you're courting or you have, you're struggling with drugs, you're struggling with gambling. It honestly, I know it sounds crazy, but that literally is it was. You just sit there watching Twitch, and you're just gifting thousands of dollars away to people? Yes. I got so into the hype, you drop that, $500, 100 subs, everybody goes crazy, and the hype you up, and I got so into it, I don't know. It just kept happening. I just kept doing it, and I wasn't keeping track. I wasn't paying attention, as soon as one credit card max goes straight to another one. Over what course of time, how long did it take you to acquire this debt? It was over a year. Bro, I'm having a hard time with it. Same. I'm having a hard time with it. Are you married? I am. I'm married. I've kids, and that was the hardest part, was once I realized how bad it was, and I... Dude, you would know, man, Alex, you would know, like, maybe for sitting there trying to explain this to your wife or something, she'll buy this. But you had to actually go open new credit cards. I did. So you didn't just open your eyes, and there was $50,000 when... Well, no, so the credit cards were old ones that we had zero balance on, that we had used from years prior, when during COVID, we were using... My wife wasn't able to work, so it was just my income that was supporting us, and mortgage rates in Colorado are not very good at all, and they haven't been for a long time, and we just basically were using credit cards to kind of survive. Once we came out of that, and she was able to start working, we were able to pay them down. We even refinanced the house at one point to be able to get some money back to... So you're making... Let me ask a little bit of a more tactical question. You've got $50,000 in credit cards. You've got to make minimum payments. Is that what raised the flag of her? How did she not notice, "Hey, there's hundreds of dollars going out every month in minimum payments?" I'm guessing you guys keep the money separate, so she couldn't see that. Well, so I actually went and opened up a checking account on the side, so that way I could have some of my paycheck. Right, but she's still seeing hundreds of your... She's still seeing, "Hey, hundreds... There's a lot less money coming in than there used to be." And that didn't raise any red flags? For her? I'm just trying to understand the landscape of your marriage. All I could say is that we were never really good with finances when it comes to keeping track, as long as we knew we had money to do things and pay things, we weren't really paying attention as much as I never really cared what she was spending money. She never really cared what I was spending money on, and it didn't get to that... Like I said, she didn't realize... She's like five or eight hundred dollars could be gone and her not even noticed. Yeah. Wow. Bro, Jade and I make a lot of money, and... I will... I'm telling you right now... I'm like a bad dog. I know if money's missing. Sheesh. All right, so... How can we help, man? Yeah. So, I mean, at this point, I mean, the basic thing is I'm just terrible with money, obviously, and I have no idea what I'm doing. That's not the problem. That's not the problem. That's not the problem. It's not the problem, bro. I'm just getting an altered reality. Like you have to go get beneath that. If we take you at your word, which I'm telling you right now, I've just been doing this for too long, I'm struggling with it. If I take you at your word, and when MasterCard said, "I can't let you have any more money," and then you went and opened up another account to keep paying that bill, and this isn't just, "Oh my gosh, I was just clicking on something," and suddenly I was 50,000 bucks in the hole. You knew step-by-step-by-step along the way, I'm going to keep going down, and if I take you at your word, something about watching other people play video games, and you giving them $500 at a time brought you more life, made you feel more alive than your own home than your own life that you're creating here. That's what you have to deal with, because that's a case of you are living this quiet life of desperation. I can't even wrap my head around this, and my whole career has been sitting with people who have made some wild choices, and I've never heard this, not $50,000. I've seen $5,000, I've never seen $50,000. The second thing is, is then you're a guy that doesn't tell his wife the truth. The third thing is you're a guy that put his kids financially at risk. Those are the things we need to deal with. Alex, are you telling us that you're done? I've called in to talk about the money aspect of this. That makes me think, "Okay, he thinks he's finished with this behavior. What is causing you to think that you're finished with this behavior is what I want to know." Otherwise, what I tell you is not going to matter at all. I mean, we've started doing family counseling, marriage counseling. I've deleted all my accounts, I've given my wife access to every single thing that I have. Did you get rid of receipts? Yes, I gave her access to every single bank account, so she can look at the history to see every single transaction. Okay. All right. Good for you. I mean, we've been married for 17 years, and I love my wife more than anything. She's my best friend, and I honestly have no idea why. I got into it. I think that's part of the accounting that we're going through. Good for you. I'm not going to understand. Good for you. I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you. No, but I don't want to lose that. Okay. I'm proud of you on that, man. You're going to have to work through the money side of it, and you're going to have to follow the baby steps and pay it off. Hang on the line. Listen to your copy of Total Money Makeover and help you on your journey. Create your free every dollar budget today, the simplest way to budget for your life.
