A stay-at-home mom with three kids, Lisa from North Carolina has $90,000 in student loans, while her husband earns about $5,500 a month from a newly started business. She called into "The Ramsey Show" seeking advice on tackling her growing debt. 

‘Untenable Situation'

Lisa told personal finance expert Dave Ramsey that she and her husband have two car loans totaling $27,000 and $24,000, and her student loan interest of $300 a month keeps accruing. Ramsey said their financial situation was raising red flags and worrying him, given their low income and heavy debt. He advised them to get rid of their cars immediately.

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"You’ve got an untenable situation, the math you’re giving me is scaring me to death," Ramsey said. "These cars are both just insanity. You guys have cars you absolutely cannot afford, you’re going to go bankrupt. I mean, you are rapidly running this into the ditch."

Lisa told Ramsey that she is still completing her graduate counseling degree and intends to continue taking on debt to complete the remaining year of her program. She said she cannot start working immediately because she has a young baby. Ramsey warned that the only way they could avoid bankruptcy was to sell their cars immediately and to increase their combined income to start paying down their debt.

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‘Math is Just Screaming Off The Page'

Lisa told Ramsey that their monthly house payment was $1,100, while their total car payments added up to about $800. Ramsey said the couple had gotten "themselves into a corner" and would need to make some "radical" decisions to turn their situation around.

"You have $140,000 in debt and $50,000 of that is on cars," he said. "There’s just no way, Lisa, this has to change, and it’s not me telling you, I mean, the math is just screaming off the page here."

Lisa asked Ramsey if refinancing her student loan could lower her interest rate. He said her rate was already at the market level and unlikely to drop, and advised her to focus instead on increasing her income.

"It’s not an interest rate problem, it’s a cash problem," Ramsey said. "It’s doable when you get rid of $50,000 worth of cars. It starts to turn around then."

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