Many people confuse income with wealth, but just because you make a lot of money doesn’t mean all your money problems are gone. Don't believe it? Private finance expert Dave Ramsey recently struggled with a California couple with $300,000 a year.

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The couple – Amber and her husband – are engineers who owe consumers $119,000: $55,000 in credit cards, $22,000 in student loans, $23,000 in personal loans and $19,000 in auto loans. They also pay $5,000 a month ($60,000 a year) and they buy it in 2021.

So how do two people who earn $300,000 a year go bankrupt and what do you do to make sure it doesn't happen to you? This is Ramsey's advice.

According to Experian, the average U.S. consumer owes more than $105,000 in debt. However, with the actual median household income of about $80,000 (this amount may not be surprising, according to the latest U.S. census data.

But for the California couple, the problem is not their income—it's their expenses.

"You have no income problem. You have a spend problem," Ramsey told them. "You make $300,000 a year."

If you want to avoid similar fates, take a closer look at your budget. Regardless of your income, you need to learn to discipline your spending to stay debt and be truly rich.

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According to Amber, they have managed to pay off about $50,000 in the past year, but they are impatient and are now considering taking a home equity loan or a second mortgage to pay off their debt.

Ramsey’s advice is to stop being rich. This means cutting unnecessary expenses (such as excessive diet or expensive holidays) until debt is under control.

“Earnings don’t mean wealth,” he said. “Net assets come from your low income.”

He advised not to re-loan or consolidate debt. This is not really "pay off" existing debts. It's just moving it.

Ramsey’s advice for the couple, which you can also apply to your own life, is to find a way to reduce your life and pay off your debts.

For Amber and her husband, he recommends living for $200,000 a year and investing $8,000 a month (about $96,000 a year) to pay off debts. Doing so will leave them debt-free for about 15 months.

This is also true for those struggling with debt. One way to repay Ramsey is the debt snowballing method. Regardless of interest rates, pay off your smallest debt first and work hard to rise until you don't owe any interest rates.