Here's a conversation that probably happens in thousands of households: parents earning good money, trying to figure out how to pay for college while also dealing with their own financial mess. A caller named Corey recently brought this exact dilemma to "The Ramsey Show."

Corey and his wife pull in $200,000 a year. That sounds comfortable, right? Except they've got $50,000 in debt hanging over them, lifestyle creep has eaten into their budget, and now they're staring down a $30,000 college bill for their son's upcoming year if he lives on campus. Financial aid isn't happening, so the whole tab falls on them.

The Case for Pizza Delivery

Dave Ramsey didn't waste time with sympathy. His advice? Junior can handle some of this himself.

"Junior could go get a job delivering pizzas and pay for his own dorm," Ramsey said. "I worked when I was in college. Did you go to college, Corey? Did you work?"

Corey admitted he'd been both a full-time father and full-time worker while in school. Ramsey jumped on that. "Yeah. Me, too. I wasn't a father, but I was a full-time worker," he said. "It's not child abuse. It's actually very good."

Then Ramsey made his bigger point about what really matters when you're hiring someone or evaluating a young person's readiness for the real world.

"I would rather hire a B- student who worked 40 hours a week and knows what a callous is than I would an A+ student who's never worked a dime and doesn't even know what it means to show up eight hours a day," he said. "So, it's okay if the little boy goes and gets a job."

Co-host Rachel Cruze backed him up with actual data. Students who work 15 to 20 hours a week tend to have higher GPAs and better graduation rates. Ramsey also pointed to student-athletes, who somehow manage demanding practice schedules while keeping their grades up. The idea that working kills academic performance doesn't hold up.

Pick One Thing and Do It

Ramsey also called out the broader problem in Corey's situation: trying to juggle too many goals at once. "You can't have three goals at once. You have to have one," he said. Corey was attempting to maintain his lifestyle, pay down debt, and cover college costs all at the same time. That math doesn't work.

Ramsey's prescription was what he calls a scorched-earth approach. Cut everything that isn't essential. Pause retirement contributions temporarily. Keep the kid at home instead of paying for a dorm. Pay tuition with cash, not loans.

"You knock this debt out," Ramsey said. "If you want to do it even faster, sell the car. But otherwise, keep the car and pay it off."

Cruze agreed with the one-year blitz strategy. "It's just like one year, the year of 2026. This is our year of just getting everything cleaned up," she said. With their $200,000 income, the couple could eliminate debt and still cover college expenses if they lived on $70,000 for the year. That means no vacations, no eating out, no lifestyle extras.

Growing Up Is a Choice

Ramsey wrapped it up with his trademark directness. "You can't get away from this until you deal with the person in your mirror," he said. "Adults devise a plan and follow it. Children do what feels good."

He challenged Corey and his wife to have a real conversation about what kind of financial life they wanted. "We're going to decide what we're going to be when we grow up," Ramsey said.

The advice sounds harsh, but it's classic Ramsey. Short-term discipline creates long-term freedom. His closing line summed it up: "Live like no one else so that later you can live and give like no one else."

Whether you agree with making college kids work their way through school or not, the underlying point is hard to argue with: you can't fund someone else's life when your own finances are underwater. And maybe, just maybe, a little pizza delivery experience isn't the worst thing that could happen to a college student.