Money Makeover Gets Results

(CBS)  When people fall into a financial hole, sometimes they need a little help climbing out. So when The Early Show invited volunteers to take part in a monthly series, Money Makeover with Dave Ramsey, hundreds of families applied.

This time, help arrived for the Davis family of Fort Worth, Texas. Ramsey is a well-known financial guru and agreed to help them get out of debt and regain control of their money. The Early Show is keeping tabs on the process and found that Ramsey's advice came just in time.

Nina and Tim Davis have lived in Fort Worth almost all their lives and are raising two children, Laci, 16, and Lane, 14. But the past year has brought hard times.

"For about the last 10 months we've been trying to survive on basically one income because Tim was laid off from work," Nina said.

She makes $65,000 as a church administrator and Tim has taken a temporary job in a warehouse, but it's not enough. The family is behind on monthly bills, and their savings account is empty.

"And I think one thing that's plunged us further into debt is that we think, 'Well, you know, we'll just open up this line of credit because I know we're going to get another job soon,' " Nina said.

The couple has taken out two lines of credit from the bank, totaling almost $20,000. They also have about $9,000 in credit card debt, plus a mortgage and two car payments.

"I told Tim the other day, 'This is the kind of thing you read about happening to somebody else. It doesn't happen to you,' " Nina said.

And, as Tim described it: "Once debt starts stacking up against you and you have a hard time keeping up, you get into a situation where it's kind of like a mountain that you've got to climb to get over the problem. So, it's tough."

Help arrived at their door last month in the form of money wiz Dave Ramsey. He spent two hours with the couple, offering Tim tips on finding a job, and going over suggestions for trimming the family budget.

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