261. "We’re in our 40s with nothing saved. Will we be ok?"

About this episode

Ramit Sethi discusses the financial challenges faced by a married couple in their 40s with limited savings and significant debt.

Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich talks to Sebastien and Hope, a married couple in their forties who have been together for 20 years, married for 16, and have a nine-year-old son. They earn around $195,000 a year, have $674,000 in assets, $129,000 invested, just $11,000 in savings, and $437,000 in debt. On paper, they are not broke, but emotionally, Sebastien still feels like they are constantly scrambling, while Hope believes their personal finances are in the best place they have ever been. Both recently became business owners, with Hope running an architecture firm and Sebastien running a wine importing business, but the risk of entrepreneurship, debt, low emergency savings, and under-investing for retirement has left them stuck between optimism, fear, and avoidance. In this episode we uncover: • Why Sebastien still feels broke, even though their finances are stronger than they used to be • How Hope’s optimism clashes with Sebastien’s fear about the future • Their combined income of around $195,000 a year • Their assets of $674,000, investments of $129,000, savings of $11,000, and debt of $437,000 • Why having only one month of emergency savings puts them in a risky…

People in this episode

Host: Ramit Sethi

Guests: Sebastien, Hope

Topics covered

• personal finance
• entrepreneurship
• debt management
• savings
• retirement planning

Keywords

• financial planning
• business ownership
• emergency savings
• investments
• debt

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: I Will Teach You To Be Rich, architecture firm, wine importing business

More episodes of Money For Couples with Ramit Sethi

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• 260. "We’re in our 40s and forgot to invest. Are we screwed?" · May 12, 2026 · 1h 53m
• 259. "We’re worth $1.5M but I refuse to buy new pants" · May 5, 2026 · 1h 46m
• 258. "We had $900K. Now we’re $100K in debt" · April 28, 2026 · 1h 34m