When a caller from Edmonton told the Ramsey Show she and her husband were carrying $193,000 in consumer debt on a $380,000 household income, co-host John Delony did not wait for the polite windup. “Hey, God Almighty, Joanna, sell the boat!” he said, the moment she mentioned it. George Campbell backed him: “Sell the boat before the cars you need. You need cars, you don’t need a boat.”
The stakes here are not abstract. Joanna and her husband are in Baby Step 2, which means every dollar not thrown at debt is a dollar renting time from creditors. With the average credit card APR near 21%, the $35,000 in credit card balances alone is bleeding money at a rate that dwarfs almost any return the couple could earn elsewhere.
The Verdict: The Hosts Are Right, and the Math Is Not Close
Delony and Campbell’s advice is correct, and the reason is arithmetic: a depreciating asset financed at high interest while other high-interest debts sit unpaid.
Campbell laid the baseline scenario out on air: “You bring home $20,000. Your bills are $16,000. That leaves you with $4,000 if you’re lucky to attack your smallest debt. It’s going to take you 4 years at this rate. That is soul-crushing.” Delony’s counter was the point of the segment: “Or you can do it in 4 months.”
The mechanic behind that gap is opportunity cost. The boat carries a $100,000 remaining loan against a market value of roughly $130,000. That means selling it clears the loan and puts roughly $30,000 of trapped equity back into the couple’s hands. Add the two Harley-Davidsons worth about $15,000 each, and Campbell’s math lands: “If you sold the boat and sold the Harleys, that’s $130,000 plus $30,000, it’s $160,000 of your $193,000 paid off. Now we’re down to $33,000.”
From there, Campbell mapped the finish line: “For 4 months, by Christmas, we’re going to throw $8,000 a month at these remaining debts until they’re gone.” Same income. Same household. A different relationship to their stuff.
The Variable That Flips the Answer
The factor that decides whether selling a toy to pay debt is smart or foolish is the spread between the interest rate on the debt and the after-tax return you could realistically earn on the money tied up in the asset.
Run it both ways. On the boat: a loan attached to a depreciating asset, plus insurance, storage, fuel, and maintenance. Every month the couple keeps it, the boat loses value while the debts behind it keep compounding. With credit card rates near 21%, there is no investment vehicle available to a household that reliably beats the guaranteed “return” of erasing that balance.
Flip the variable. If the $193,000 were sitting at, say, a 3% fixed mortgage rate and the couple had a diversified portfolio yielding more, the case for liquidating assets weakens. That is not this situation. Joanna described credit cards, a solar loan, a line of credit, and medical loans, all categories that price above what a taxable brokerage account is likely to earn.
The broader backdrop supports the urgency. Credit card delinquencies stood near 3% in early 2026, still in what the Fed considers the normalizing range but well above pandemic lows. Households making $380,000 do not usually show up in delinquency data, but they can end up house-rich, toy-heavy, and cash-poor in ways that quietly compound.
What Joanna, or Anyone in Her Spot, Should Actually Do
- List every debt by interest rate. Write the balance next to it. The $35,000 in credit cards almost certainly tops the list and should be treated as the fire in the kitchen.
- Price the depreciating assets accurately. Pull comparable listings for the boat, the Harleys, and the second vehicle. Subtract loan payoffs. The number left is trapped cash.
- Compare monthly carrying cost to debt interest. Insurance, storage, and fuel on a boat that sits at the cottage are money moving in the wrong direction while consumer debt compounds.
- Set a written finish date. Campbell’s Christmas target worked because it was specific. A deadline turns a preference into a plan.
- Agree on the replacement rule with your partner. Delony’s reframe to Joanna was blunt: “We can get a boat within a year.” The toy comes back once the household owns itself again.
The Ramsey hosts were pointing at a spread. When your debt costs more than your assets can earn, selling the asset is the highest-return trade available to you.
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