Sometimes a simple question leads to an uncomfortable conversation. Teresa, a 61-year-old Arkansas woman, called into "The Ramsey Show" with what seemed like a straightforward question: Should she contribute to her employer's 401(k) match while paying down debt? What she got instead was a financial intervention involving tractors, worthless land, and a joke about terrified deer.

Teresa described herself as a "country girl" with zero retirement savings. "I have no retirement money saved up whatsoever," she admitted to personal finance guru Dave Ramsey. She'd recently started following his Baby Steps program and managed to cobble together a $1,000 emergency fund, which was something. But with six years until Social Security eligibility, she wondered if taking advantage of her employer's 4% 401(k) match made sense given her debt situation.

Then came the numbers. Teresa earns around $67,000 annually but carries roughly $69,000 in debt. The breakdown: $11,000 in student loans she's been paying since 1999, $18,000 on a car loan, $12,000 from a personal loan, and $26,000 for a tractor.

Wait, a tractor?

"Why do you have a tractor?" Ramsey asked, clearly intrigued.

"We're country folks," Teresa explained. Her 75-year-old husband is on Social Security and in poor health, unable to work. They use the tractor to clear hunting plots on their seven acres of land, which she valued at about $500 per acre. Do the math: that's $3,500 worth of property, though Teresa estimated closer to $4,000.

Ramsey didn't miss a beat. "Your $26,000 tractor for a $4,000 piece of land," he said flatly. "Broke people don't have $26,000 tractors."

Teresa conceded the purchase happened before she discovered Ramsey's methods, but he wasn't interested in excuses. Sell the tractor, he told her, even if she needs to borrow money to cover the difference between what it's worth and what she owes. Sell the car too. "You guys are in emergency mode, girl," he said.

He took the metaphor further, joking that Teresa should sell "everything in sight" and that even the local deer population should be looking over their shoulders. The message wasn't subtle: This is no time for sentimentality, lifestyle purchases, or expensive toys. It's time to hustle.

Then Ramsey painted a different picture, one with actual retirement money in it. If Teresa sold the tractor and car, attacked her debt with intensity, and freed up cash flow, she could still build meaningful retirement savings. "You're trading a $26,000 tractor for $150,000 bucks in your retirement," he explained. "You're trading an $18,000 car for another $100,000."

His math suggested that if Teresa cleared her debts, contributed consistently, and captured her employer match, she could accumulate between $200,000 and $250,000 by her late 60s. Maybe less, maybe $200,000 instead of the full $250,000, but still a legitimate nest egg where currently there's nothing.

The key, according to Ramsey, is stopping the juggling act of trying to invest while drowning in debt. "You don't have any room in your budget to invest," he told her. "You've got to scratch up every dollar you can and knock this out as fast as you possibly can."

To her credit, Teresa took the tough love in stride. She admitted the tractor was a "spur-of-the-moment" purchase and acknowledged how difficult it would be to overhaul financial habits formed over decades. But she seemed ready to try.

Ramsey encouraged her to reframe her self-image. Stop using "country girl" as justification for questionable financial decisions, he said, and start using it as a badge of resourcefulness. "Blame smart stuff on country girl," he suggested. "Because country girls do smart stuff."

For anyone who finds Ramsey's scorched-earth approach a bit intense or isn't quite ready to liquidate the farm equipment, there's always another option: consulting a certified financial advisor. A qualified professional can help construct a personalized plan, particularly important when you're approaching retirement, that might not require selling your land, your vehicle, or making the wildlife nervous.