58-Year-Old With No Retirement Says His Ex Left Him Broke And He's Sick of Working — Dave Ramsey Says He Can Build a $500K Nest Egg in 10 Years

At 58 years old, a caller to "The Ramsey Show" said he's just plain tired. "I'm getting tired of working," he told Dave Ramsey, admitting he has "really nothing saved" for retirement. Despite pulling in $75,000 a year as a trim carpenter, his savings account has barely moved.

When asked why he hadn't put anything aside, he pointed straight to his past. "I was married to a spender, and at the age of 50, got divorced and walked away with zero dollars," he said.

Eight years later, he's still playing financial catch-up — and carrying debt that made Ramsey raise an eyebrow. The caller has $25,000 left on his mortgage and $20,000 on a motorcycle loan. "You almost owe as much on your motorcycle as you do on your house," Ramsey said. "That's weird."

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It was co-host Jade Warshaw who first said the motorcycle needed to go, but Ramsey didn't hesitate to back it up. "It's gone," he said, adding that the bike could become "somebody else's great bike now."

Ramsey also addressed the caller's exhaustion head-on. While the caller said he didn't feel stuck anymore after getting out of his marriage and paying down debt, Ramsey pointed out that the real issue might be a lack of progress toward a clear finish line. "Part of what's making you tired is you feel stuck," Ramsey said. "If my work is going toward a goal that I'm excited about, I'm not as tired. That's all I'm saying."

Still, Ramsey didn't see the situation as hopeless. Far from it. He mapped out a plan: if the caller buckled down, sold the motorcycle, slashed expenses, and stacked $2,000 a month into savings, he could build a serious retirement cushion.

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"If you saved $2,000 a month for 10 years, you'd have $240,000 plus growth. It'd be a half-million," Ramsey said. "You'd be 67 years old with a half-million dollars and a paid-for house."

It turned out the caller wasn't starting from scratch: he already had $23,000 in cash, a paid-off truck, and a house worth more than he owed. Ramsey advised him to cancel a $100-per-month term life insurance policy and throw every extra dollar into retirement savings.

The bottom line, Ramsey said, wasn't about feelings — it was about math. "You can't art your way out of this one, you have to science your way out," he told him.

Work more now, stack cash, and by retirement, the Harley wouldn't be the only thing in the rearview mirror.

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