‘You Just Found Triple That in Your Side Business’: Caller Can’t Pay Off $13K Truck Loan

On September 23, 2026, co-host George Kamel told Michigan caller Dylan a line that reframes almost every “I can’t afford to pay this off” story: you just found triple that in your side business. The “that” was a $13,000 truck loan on a vehicle now worth $5,000 to $7,000 after 60,000 miles in six months. The “triple” was the $45,000 Dylan pulled in last year doing odd jobs for property management companies, work he has barely touched this year.

Dylan is upside down on a depreciating asset by roughly $6,000 to $8,000, and every month he avoids the debt, the truck loses more value while interest accrues.

Verdict: Hosts Are Right, and the Math Is Not Close

Kamel and co-host Jade Warshaw made the correct call. Dylan’s problem is behavioral. He stopped doing the work that already solved it.

Dylan brings home $2,800 a month from cabinetmaking. Median usual weekly earnings for full-time U.S. workers were $1,251 in the second quarter of 2026, roughly $5,400 a month gross. His take-home is close to half what a median full-time worker grosses. Handyman work pays $50 to $90 an hour, well above the $37.75 average private-sector hourly wage in August 2026. The side ladder pays roughly double the average job, and Dylan already climbed it once.

Non-mortgage debt totals $19,500. Fixed monthly obligations include an $865 mortgage, a $352 car payment, and $290 in insurance. That leaves almost nothing for groceries, utilities, or debt. That is the math that makes the situation feel impossible on paper.

Opportunity cost: every hour Dylan does not spend on the side business is an hour priced at the handyman rate. Working the side gig 10 hours a week at the low end of Kamel’s range yields $500 a week before taxes, or roughly $2,000 a month aimed at debt. At that pace, the entire $19,500 non-mortgage balance is gone inside a year without touching his cabinetmaking check. Last year’s side income of $45,000 would have wiped the debt out more than twice over. Asked where that money went, Dylan told the hosts, Not in the right places.

What Actually Decides This: Family Time

Warshaw identified the real block: Dylan has a newborn and a two-year-old, and the constraint is family time. That variable changes the outcome for any reader in a similar spot.

Run it both ways. If you carve out 10 to 15 focused side-work hours a week without breaking your marriage or kids’ bedtime, the debt dies inside 12 months. If you genuinely cannot, sell the truck, eat the $6,000 to $8,000 negative equity as a personal loan, and drive a $3,000 beater until the smaller balance is gone. Either path closes the gap. Doing neither guarantees the truck keeps losing value while the loan does not.

What to Actually Do This Week

1. Price your side skill. Look up the going rate for handyman, freelance, or trade work in your zip code. If it clears the $37.75 average private-sector hourly wage, every hour you refuse to work is a hidden cost against your debt.
2. Get the payoff quote and the private-party value. Call the lender for the exact payoff. Pull the vehicle’s private-party value from Kelley Blue Book or Edmunds. The gap is your negative equity, and you need the real number before you can decide whether to sell.
3. Budget the hours before the dollars. Sit down with your spouse and block the specific evenings or weekend mornings you will work the side gig. If no block survives the conversation, the plan is to sell the asset and drive the beater.
4. Aim every side dollar at the highest-rate debt first. List the $19,500 by interest rate and hit the top of the list until it is gone.

Dylan’s story lands because the trap is common: treating a debt as unpayable while ignoring the income you already proved you can earn. The money is usually there. The question is whether you will go get it.

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