Mom's little secret

Question: Georgia's mom has $15,000 in debt that her dad doesn't know about. Georgia agreed to pay that for her, but they just found out that she has other debts. Now Georgia wants to know what advice Dave would give to her. Dave says it starts by bringing dad into the situation.

Dave Ramsey's advice: She lied to your dad, and now you're surprised that she lied to you? On top of that, you participated in her deception by paying that debt. Tell your dad about this by the end of the day. It hurts her to carry this emotional baggage around. The lying has to be cleaned up first. Don't pay their debts because you're not responsible for them.

A sad thing here is that stupid isn't illegal. You can't make someone stop doing something that is harming them. You can talk about how getting YOUR money under control is great, and inspire them to do better that way. But force feeding information into the lives of people you love is impossible.

• Hear the call