I Make $95,000 a Year and I'm Still Broke Every Month. Would Dave Ramsey Say I Have an Income Problem or a Spending Problem?

Almost certainly a spending problem.

A $95,000 salary works out to roughly $7,900 a month before taxes, and somewhere between $5,500 and $6,200 take-home depending on your state and benefits.

That is real money.

If it is gone before the next paycheck arrives, the problem is not that you need to earn more.

The problem is that you have no idea where it is going, and no plan for where it should go.

The Invisible Spending Problem Most people who feel broke on a good income are not blowing money on obvious things.

They are losing it in small, invisible categories: subscriptions they forgot about, restaurants that add up to $600 a month, Amazon purchases that each feel minor, and a lifestyle that expanded quietly every time income went up.

This is called lifestyle creep, and it is one of the most common reasons high earners feel financially stuck.

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Access private-market funds that may include exposure to companies like SpaceX— available through SoFi Invest with entry points starting at just $10 The fix is not cutting everything you enjoy.

The fix is visibility.

You cannot make decisions about money you cannot see, and most people are operating completely blind.

A Budget Is Not a Punishment Ramsey’s zero-based budgeting system means every dollar of income gets assigned a category before the month begins.

Not tracked after the fact, assigned before.

Give every dollar a name: housing, food, transportation, savings, giving, and everything else.

When the category is empty, spending in that category stops.

This is not about deprivation.

It is about intention.

People who budget do not spend less on the things they care about.

They spend less on the things they do not, because for the first time they can actually see the difference.

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What the Numbers Should Look Like On a $6,000 take-home, a reasonable starting framework looks something like this: housing at or below $1,500, food around $400 to $600, transportation around $500, giving at $600, savings and debt payoff taking whatever is left after necessities.

If you are in Baby Step 2, every dollar beyond the necessities goes to debt.

No exceptions, no negotiations.

If your current spending does not resemble anything close to that breakdown, the categories that are out of control will become immediately obvious the moment you write them down.

That discomfort is productive.

It is the starting point.

Seeing the Full Picture in One Place The hardest part of budgeting for most people is not making the plan.

It is tracking what is actually happening across multiple accounts, cards, and spending categories in real time.

Without that visibility, the budget becomes a document you look at once and forget.

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Empower gives you a clear view of your income, spending, and net worth all in one place , so the gap between what you planned and what you actually did is impossible to ignore.

Connecting your accounts takes minutes, and the spending breakdown by category does the diagnostic work that most people spend years avoiding.

The First Step Is Tonight Do not wait for the first of the month to start a budget.

Start tonight with a legal pad and a pen if that is what you have.