The Ramsey Show - App - Advice on Finding Your Calling (Hour 2)

Episode Date: June 4, 2020

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live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions broadcasting from the dollar car rental studio this is the of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is the Dave Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Anthony O'Neill. Joining me in the studio today is Ramsey personality, national number one bestselling author, Ken Coleman. And together, we're going to be talking about money and careers today. This is our first time together, Ken. Yeah.

Well, the first time you just kind of leading the charge. I love it. I like seeing you there. Hey, man. We did the Dave Ramsey show together before. We in charge together. I like it. Well, you know what?

People need to know that we sit, as we see each other right here, if you're watching the YouTube channel, you and I sit this close together every day in the office. I'm between you and Chris Hogan, and we have a big time in the office. It's always fun to hang out with you, whether it's on the road, at a live event, or hanging out here with Dave and in his studio having fun talking to the people. Yeah, man, I agree. I agree. Y'all, we want you to give us a call.

If you have some questions for Ken around your career space, how should you transition, if you should leave, we're going to open up some phone lines here. I want you to give us a call, 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225. Give us a call. Ken Coleman would love to have a conversation with you and talk about your life, and I can talk to you about your money. We're going to go out to Kentucky and have a conversation with Kimberly. Kimberly, good afternoon. How can Ken and I help? Hello. Um, I am calling to try to get y'all's advice on, um,

what to do next in my baby steps. So I started, um, the baby steps about 2016. I actually saw both of y'all at a live event here in Lexington. And so I've got a mortgage, about $65,000 left on my mortgage. And I have about $65,000 left on my student loans. And if I just stay in the house and, um, keep paying, it's going to be December, 2023 before I'm out of this step, or I could sell my house and use equity, pay off everything. But then I would start at zero and have to start renting, you know,

at that point. So I was just kind of curious what you all thought about that. Yeah, that's a good question. Kimberly, how much money are you making a year right now? About 60. About 60K. All right, cool. And you said you have about 65K

left on your mortgage. Let me ask you this question before I ask you any more around the mortgage. Do you want to sell the house or are you considering selling it just to pay off your debt? I hate it you hate

your house okay then let's have a conversation around this then what how much is your house worth what's the value on it well um it's hard to tell but a couple of houses on my street just sold around 140 150 000 and so i would probably have to put, you know, in some money on, like, maybe, you know, work on the flooring and painting and things like that. But I probably could get, you know, at least $130,000, $140,000, I'm thinking, to be able to pay off everything and to just, you know, start over. What is your equity if you sell it at $130,000? Well, so, oh, $65,000, so about $65,000.

Yeah, about $65,000. And you said you owe $55,000 or $65,000 in student loans? $55,000. I owe $65,000. Both of them I owe $65,000 on, basically. Okay, $65,000. And your student loans, is that your only debt? Yes, right now. Like I said, I've been working on this plan for like three and a half years now so this is i'm at the very end of it

are you it's still going to take me a while sure are you single or double income single okay well here's the bottom line anthony uh kimberly you tell us i think you called to get our opinion so that leads me to believe you have a thought that you think you are wanting to go with and you want some validation but I gotta tell you if I could sell a house that I hated

and the money I'm gonna make on it is the payoff amount on my student loans and I'm debt free and I can go rent and you make $60,000 a year in Lexington, Kentucky. Lexington, Kentucky, you can rent a nice place, and even though you're starting over, you're debt-free. And I think that's a no-brainer.

But I'm curious, what were you thinking before you called us? Which way were you going to go? Well, here's one of the reasons why I have thought about staying here is because my mortgage is only $550. And I'm not going to – I've got a three-bedroom, bath and a half. I've got a two-car garage. You know, I'm not going to find that anywhere here in town. So that is what –

Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. You're going to be debt-free. I know. See, do you hear that emotion in your voice? I mean, she's laughing with glee. Yeah, you got real excited right there, Kimberly. And I agree with Ken.

Do not worry about the monthly payment. I want you to worry about getting out of debt. If you hate the home and you can get some equity out of it and be completely debt free, do that. And here's what I want you to do is I want you to write down a vision for what does the next five to 10 years look like to where maybe you can go ahead and get into a mortgage and get into a home that you love and that you own. So that is a key thing that I would recommend for you right there, Ken, because you're right. When you said that and she started laughing, she started. I mean, her whole tone was like, I know. Yeah.

And that's the excitement you get when you do become debt free. Listen, and not only that, she's going to be house free. Yes. She doesn't like the house. So all of a sudden she gets rid of a house. She said she hates it. And so she's not only going to be free of that, she's going to be debt free. It's going to be worth paying the rent, and she gets a fresh start.

I love it. I do, too. I love that. And here's the thing. Yeah, she will pay a little bit more rent, but she won't have the stress. She won't have to worry about the student loans. She won't have to worry about the mortgage payment. And she'll be paying rent.

It's something that she likes. That's right. And then here's the key thing. It's like, all right, start dreaming about the future. How do I make a little bit more money and how do I, what neighborhood do I want to build? I mean, build in what neighborhood I want to buy in. Where do I want to live? You have the freedom now to make choices and you're not bound to that.

This is a key point. And, and I love Kimberly's call because it shows us what we see a lot. Yes. In that people are looking at short-term, long-term, and they're saying, okay, well, what do I do? What do I do? What do I do? And she's going, well, if I stay, I've got this really low mortgage payment. But then she'd be dealing with all of the negative as opposed to going, you know what? I'm going to make the right long-term decision, and then I'll figure out the short-term.

And here's what I mean by that. She's single. So she could find another single lady in Lexington, Kentucky who would like a roommate, who would like to save a little bit of money. And it is possible that she could be paying $500 or less in rent. Is that a long-term decision for her? No. But she made the right long-term decision, and she can sacrifice a little bit in the short term to then save up and buy a house, put more than 20% down, be in a great situation. Or, hey, keep saving money and buy a house cash.

Ken, can I flip it on you? Yes. She's going to be single and debt-free. She may not be single much longer. This is a very good point. This is a very good point. Anthony, I did not think about that. Leave it to the single guy to come up with that. But that's a very good point. You guys, this is Ken Coleman, myself. Man, we're here this hour for you.

We're answering your questions around life and careers. If you want to give us a call, 888-825-5225. And we'll love to have a conversation with you. So give us a call. This is The Dave Ramsey show. Most people's money problems come from not paying attention. That's why before I spend a dime of my money on something, I do the research and make sure it's going to live up to what it claims. Recently, I got a great pair of sunglasses from a company called Shady Rays. When you're

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Joining me in the studio this hour is number one national bestselling author. Let me say that one more time. Number one national bestselling author, Ken Coleman, the author of The Proximity Principle, and also the host of the, I would say, the number one national show in the world when it comes to the career space. And I just, I really... Whoa, whoa, high praise coming from a from a national number one best-selling author himself

Anthony O'Neill thank you pal that's very nice hey man I will cash app you after the show hey thank you thanks for saying that

yeah yeah I'm going golfing this weekend yeah there you go I'll pick up the greens fee for that nice compliment that's not a problem thanks man thanks man

but hey I'm watching YouTube and a lot of people are asking like hey what time is this show because it's seen your commercial oh and so i said let's talk about the first hour so that people can know how they can yeah so every day monday through friday 12 eastern to 2 eastern you can call in on the ken coleman show 844-747-2577 is that number kencoleman.com if you want to just learn more about the show. But we're taking calls, just like Dave and all of us do here on The Dave Ramsey Show. We're helping men and women get clear on the big question that we all ask.

What should I do with my life? We were created to work, to contribute. And so we're just talking about purpose and work, connecting that personal mission to your professional vision. That's what we do. So thanks for the shout-out. You can also listen to it anywhere podcasts are available, SiriusXM, and the YouTube channel as well. Just search Ken Coleman YouTube.

Can we watch it live? You can watch it live. Livestream 12 Eastern. Yeah. I'm a young guy. I want to watch you live, Ken. I appreciate that. You look good, man.

Well, you know, I'm trying. You put the pressure on me. I'm next to you in hd and i'm i gotta really watch myself i like the red shirt thank you but you know what speaking of that let's go help somebody right now let's go out to uh pennsylvania have a conversation with alex alex how can a dr d i'm not dr d can't call myself help you out hey ken, Ken and Anthony, how are you guys doing today? We are enjoying life. What's happening? Hey, so I'm 22 years old.

No college debt or anything. The only debt I have is in my truck. It's about $17,000. I make about $35,000 a year at my current job. I work for my family-owned business, logistics company. I like working here, but I know I feel like out there I have a bigger purpose, kind of trying to find my why in life, and I wonder if you guys could offer some insight for that.

Yeah, let's look at it. So I want to first start with what you may have dreamed about that maybe you think, well, I don't know if that's possible. Anything pop to mind when I ask it that way? I've always had a passion in real estate. You know, I was never that good in school, you know, didn't really learn that way, learned more hands-on and whatnot. But, you know, none of my family's ever gone to school,

and just real estate has been really interesting to me, and it's growing as I get older. I love that. So describe a great day for you just right. I love that. So describe a great day for you just right now in your mind, what would a great day be? What would you be doing? Um, I think, you know, having, you know, having property, being a property manager is something that's always been real interesting to me. Um, you know, I'm good. I'm real good with my communication skills, good with people. Um, you know, I like helping people any way I can. So, you know, I think that sort of thing, you know, going out to places, you know, that I own,

you know, if something needs fixed, I can do that. And, you know, just also kind of managing real estate and whatnot. Right. Okay. So this is actually really simple and this is going to be really fun, Alex. And at 22, you've got the freedom and the time to get after it. So here's what I want you to do. Until you have the cash and you don't have any, because you've got a $17,000 truck loan that you need to get after, you need to be very intentional to knock that out, okay? So that you're debt-free and you've got a very clear dream, all right? Now, I want you to do your best to find three, four, five, six, ten different companies that are property management companies. So they are, whether it be apartment complexes, corporate, real estate parks, things like that. And I want you to find out in your area who those companies are. And then I want you to think about the proximity principle, which says, in order to do what Alex wants to do, he's got to be around people that are doing it in places

where it is happening. I want you to connect with those people. You're 22. You've always enjoyed real estate. Before you ever become a man who owns property, I want you to be a guy who works for somebody who manages property. And you will learn the business in your 20s. And Anthony, I believe in his 30s, if he is debt-free and does what you teach, he's going to be able to buy that first property, maybe even his late 20s. And he just gets after it and learns on the job how to manage property so that one day when he owns his own property, he's already been trained. He knows how to do it. And that's the path for him. But go ahead and get in that industry as soon as he can.

Absolutely. Absolutely, Ken. You hit that right on the head, man. I think there's two main things here that I really want you to listen to, Ken. Number one, get out of debt. You need to attack that truck payment. $17,000 at your age, that's a lot of money. So go ahead and get out of debt.

You're making the income to do that. Another thing that I really love, I really love what you said ken which you know a lot of millennials get upset when i say this they want to jump out there and run something but then you never served anyone to learn you know so it's like how how do you expect uh to run something and you've never even been in it now so take some time to learn up and leave somebody, get up and leave someone, get into the industry, ask the right questions, make some mistakes. That's right. You know, and then once you get in there, just just learn. And then one day when you do own it, you actually know what to do. I mean, can you hit that right on the head. Going out to Maryland, I'm going to

have a conversation with Tyler. Tyler, did I say your name correctly, Tyler? Yes, sir, you did. Awesome. Awesome. How can Ken and I help? Hi, thank you so much for taking my call. My question is more so for Ken. I have a question involving working with a difficult co-worker. My co-worker, he's just very negative. He's been working there for over 25 years. I'm a chemist. It's just he and I that work together, and we share about five different labs together. And I just wanted to kind of get your advice on what to do when working with an extremely difficult co-worker. What is the leadership structure like? Is there a leader that leads both of you, or do you have separate leaders?

What's that look like? We have a leader that leads both of us, but he's on the road probably 95% of the time, and then he'll funnel in projects to us. Sure. Have you talked to this leader about this negative co-worker? I have, and when I spoke to my leader about that, his kind of viewpoint is it's not important. Oh, your complaint is not serious enough for me to take care of. That's not fun. Correct. That didn't feel very good when you heard that, did it?

It didn't, but it also, you know, you have to stay focused on the job at hand. Okay, that's a good point. So here's what I want to ask you. I think your feelings are important. I disagree with your leader. However, you love your job, yes or no? I do. Yeah. Just without going through a long list, what kind your job. Yes or no? I do. Yeah. What, just, just without going through a long list, what kind of stuff are we talking about? Give me, give me the real heart

of the matter. This person is difficult. What does that actually mean? What's that look like? Um, like working in chemistry, especially in our labs, we're able to create and do things differently. Um, so anything that's new, he puts down. Any new ideas, any kind of new thought processes. And if my boss says, hey, let's do it this way, he's very stubborn, I guess you can say. But he doesn't lead you and he can't tell you what to do, correct? Correct. You know what? He's going to have to start getting over it. I think that you have to understand your position, and I think there's two things I'd say.

Anthony, I want you to weigh in here. Number one, when your leader says we're going to do it this way and he's stubborn, you just say the leader said to do it this way, and you take that leverage to do it that way. But then when you suggest a new way and he doesn't like it, what happening right now feels like to me he's intimidating you and he doesn't have a position from which he should be intimidating you i understand it's happening but he doesn't have any authority over here so you know what you do you smile uh you smile like the little penguin said in madagascar the kids movie my kids watch smile and wave boys smile and wave you know ken i'll even say the same thing, man. I want to echo that. And also,

Tyler, do this. Don't allow your co-worker to give to control how you feel throughout the day. All right? I don't give no one that much space in my life to where they can make me angry or even upset at the job. So stay encouraged. And I enjoy

talking to you. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. We're all going through challenges, and our lives have been impacted in ways we've never anticipated. If we learned anything, it's that change is constant, and having a plan is crucial to our family's livelihood. This is why I talk about term life insurance every day. And for those of you that haven't taken care of this for your family, I'm not sure what you're waiting for. Hopefully, recent events have opened your eyes, and if you need some extra motivation, companies have started raising rates. So the smart move is to get this taken care of right now. For over 20 years and

through all the challenging times, the only company I have recommended who gets the job done is Zander Insurance. Their team will shop all the top companies, find the best rates for the coverage you need, and get this done quickly. Go to zander.com or call 800-356-4282. Your timing is crucial, so please get this done. Going out to Nevada, having a conversation with Thomas. Thomas, how can Ken Coleman and I help? Hello, Ken and Anthony. I hope you guys are staying safe and well during all of this.

Thank you for taking my call. You bet. Thank you, man. How can we help? I guess I'm in a bit of a unique situation in terms of the job that I'm at, but I think the question is fairly general. I just landed a job in what I feel

to be my dream field. It's in esports, shoutcasting, or broadcasting. I've always wanted to get into that field, and I just finally landed something that's actually paying me money to do it. So I'm really giddy about it, and I'm really excited to continue to work on that goal. But I'm having trouble, when utilizing the proximity principle, I'm having trouble with finding a mentor and a place to learn. Esports is still a relatively new field, and in the job that I'm doing, it's fairly unique. I've done some research, and I haven't found anyone else that's in the same type of esports broadcasting that I'm in right now. So I'm really kind of lost at trying to find a mentor, someone that can help

me get to the next level so that I can really make this career a full-time career. Yeah, well, it's a great question, but I really want to encourage you, it's not as complex as it feels. Number one, whether it's esports broadcasting or traditional sports broadcasting, it is still sports broadcasting. You tracking with me? Yes. It's broadcasting. And so, in fact, I'll be honest with you, I am a big sports fan. I've never even, what do you mean when you say eSports? Enlighten me for a moment. Oh, so it's really cool. And what it is, it's basically electronic video games or electronic sports. Okay, so you're doing broadcasting of video games. Yeah, and so like right now I'm working on a project

that's having me deal with a basketball video game. So I do have the basketball sense of things figured out, and I can kind of look to them for that sort of sports broadcasting. But the way that, I mean, esports works, and they don't call it broadcasting. They call it shoutcasting. Sure. It's kind of a different kind of niche in what you're looking for in terms of that entertainment factor. But pause for a moment, because you're making my point for me.

I have seen this now. Now I know what you're talking about. And so it may not be sports, but there are other video games that people shoutcast or broadcast, whatever you want to call it. This already exists. Right. So my point is you said i need a place to learn he's talking about anthony one of the five places in my book

the proximity principle a place to learn is is where you are sitting and observing and learning and there is tons of uh esports or video game shout cast broadcast whatever you're calling it for you to watch and you can see how they do it. There's a style to it. And so you look at the great broadcasters, Thomas, and they do sports. I think of Jim Nance from CBS, probably the gold standard. This guy will go from doing a football game on a Sunday to the Masters Golf Tournament Monday through Sunday.

And so they're still doing the same thing. Is it a pivot? Is it a different type of broadcasting? Yes. So I think the place to learn is you need to get online and you be paying attention to the best of the best. The second thing I would say as far as the mentor goes, the mentor just needs to be somebody who is a broadcast professional.

It doesn't have to even be, Anthony, in the same type of work that he's doing. Thomas, it could be a local sports broadcaster. It could be a sports talk radio guy or gal that you admire and you think are really good at their job. And it's just somebody who can pour into you as it relates to your personal growth. One final thought on the mentor. And I talk about this in my book, The Proximity Principle. It's one of the five people that I tell you to get in touch with. It doesn't even have to be somebody in your industry. A mentor is that wise sage who is going to speak some insight and some wisdom and some accountability in your life. And so don't overthink it. I think it's good to have more than one mentor. Yes. Different areas of your life. Yes. So, Thomas, I want to encourage you.

You can get what you're looking for, a place to learn and a mentor. Man, I agree with that, Ken. And here's the thing. I love what you said, too, is you don't have to actually be in front of the mentor specifically. You can go online. That's right. You can read some books. You can watch YouTube.

You can watch them on their show. Before I met Daveave he was a mentor because i was watching his stuff and consuming his consuming his stuff um there are a lot of mentors that i call a mentor but i don't talk to them every day because i consume their stuff online and throughout so i i totally totally totally agree with that man we're taking your call 888-825-5225. It's Dr. Ken. I'm about to call him Dr. Ken. I like the Dr. Ken. I think I'll go with that.

I'll take it. Oh, man. Ken Coleman and myself, we would love to have a conversation with you about your career, life, and money. Continuing the conversation, we're going to go out to Alabama and have a conversation with Nathan. Nathan, how can Ken and I help? Hey, thanks for taking my call. This question is for Ken. Yeah.

And actually, it's for my wife. I'm furloughed, and so I'm kind of helping her out. She wants to make a transition back to her old career, which is in education, pre-K education. So we just moved down to Alabama. We don't really have that many contacts down here, but a pre-K center has posted two job postings, one as a assistant director to the center and one as a lead teacher. She has experience in both. So my question is, how can she go about applying for both, but then also really emphasizing that she wants the assistant director one more well it's very simple apply for the assistant director you know i mean

in that situation you want to you want to point all of your effort at the one that you really want all the energy needs to go towards the role that she wants. How long have you guys been in this area of Alabama? Only about a year and a half now. Yeah, listen, a year and a half is plenty of time for you to have made great relationships, and I promise you, you have some connection. If I was sitting down at your dinner table with you and your wife tonight, I would be saying, okay, what is the name of the education, the pre-K center that you want to work at? So we get that, and then we start going, okay, do we know any people who have their kids in that school, right? That's where we're going to start with that, right? And then we start looking at, do we know anybody that knows anybody that works there?

And you begin to identify all of the relationships you have, and you put the word out. She sends an email out. She talks to people on the phone. She goes, hey, there's a position open over at ABC Pre-K, and I want to work there. And I'm looking for a good relationship connection so that when I submit my resume, I've got an endorsement or two or three on the top of the resume. She also needs to use the resume template at KenColeman.com because we have a guide that will walk her through how to do it, and then it will spit it out. But I've got to tell you, let's get after the assistant director role because if they look at her for that and they feel like maybe somebody else is qualified a little bit more than her, then the teaching position is there, and we know that she's qualified for that as well.

So go after the thing that you really want. You know, Anthony, when I was young, my dad used to say to me, a person who aims for nothing hits it every time. Absolutely. And, you know, you've got to be okay saying, this is my target, and if I don't hit it, I'm still on the board. Yes. You know?

Yes. Aim at nothing, you hit that all the time. If you aim at nothing, you hit that all the time. If you aim at nothing, you hit it all the time. Man, Ken, I just love doing the show with you, man. You're so wise beyond your years. Well, good. I'd like you to keep calling me Dr. Ken. I think I'm trying to really earn the moniker there.

Babe, we're going to stay right here in Tennessee and have a conversation with Jordan. Jordan, how can Ken and I help? Hey, guys, I really appreciate you taking my call. Yeah. So I'm looking, I've had some life changing career path. Things go on here in the past year. And so I'm trying not to really mess this up. So I spent seven years in law enforcement.

With that, I had a couple of buddies who branched out in entrepreneurship who encouraged me to do the same thing, which I did. So last year I started a business. I jumped into it with two feet, 100% left my job, not knowing what was going to happen, just taking a huge risk. And I've been blessed in the meantime. With that being said, it's a seasonal job. I had a really hard winter, but I've got some side work that I do to kind of supplement my income. Once my season goes into full force...

Hey, Jordan, hold on the line. We've got to do a quick commercial break, but we're going to come right back to you. Don't move. More Dave Ramsey show coming right up hey folks father's day is just around the corner. If you're looking for the perfect, unique gift to give dad, I've got it. Grip 6 belts. If dad's like me, he's not a fan of traditional belts. They never fit right, and they're uncomfortable. Grip 6 belts are exceptional. Owner BJ designed a truly modern, minimalist belt made of high-quality materials with no holes, no flap, and no bulk. And the buckles come in

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that i'm trying to figure out um my wife and i we've got one child we've got another one doing like the next few hours i don't know i don't know when that's up in the air too. Are you at the hospital right now? No, no, no, no. But we're hitting week 40 tomorrow. So we're full term. Right now it's just a waiting game. Congrats, man. But so

with all this stuff that's going on, our income has increased substantially since I started the business. I'm doing really well. So with that, we've got some debts that we want to pay off. We're in Baby Step 2. Made an impulse decision today. And by impulse, I mean we paid off one of our vehicles, which was great

because now my wife is fully on board with Baby Step 2. Hey, way to go. Yeah. Yeah, so very excited about that. Um, it's nice to walk into the bank and throw $7,000 on owning one of your vehicles. So, um, it was just great. You know, we're, we're having a great time with that. My question is this, I'm trying to find out where it is that I prioritize in paying off my debts or having a nest egg for, um, for the,

for the business where let's say a piece of equipment goes down and I have to invest in that. I, I want to attack all this debt. There's, there's other things that I can pay off in full right now. And I'm, and I'm where I'm at this weird point where now that I were making a little

bit of a decent money, but now I'm kind of hoarding it. Um, I don't want to do that. I want to get debt-free, but at the same time, I don't want to put myself or my family in a bad situation. So, Jordan, let me ask you this question. What's your yearly income right now?

What do you expect to make? I don't know. I've made $15,000 this month. Okay. So give me a ballpark for what do you think you'll make this year? Um, I think if I stay at this rate, because my slow season is about four months now, I've got a way to supplement my income during those four months, but I'm saving for those rainy, rainy months. Um, but I think that together me and my wife are going to clear at least $150,000 this year,

as opposed to last year where we cleared $50,000. Okay, that's $150,000. And then how much debt totally do you have right now? Totally everything that's got my name on it, we're at $43,000. That's between credit cards, student loans between my wife and I, and then our other vehicle, which is my truck that I use for my business. Okay. All right. All right. Sounds good. So we're looking at $150,000. That's gross. So with you owning your own business, you're going to have to pay taxes. So that means

some of that is already allocated to paying your taxes. And so let's ballpark this right around about $120,000, $115,000. I am going to say that I want you to focus on getting out of debt because this way, if you can go ahead and have a solid foundation in your personal life, then now you can focus on building a full nest egg for yourself, personal life and for your business. With the income that you have right now, you should be able to knock out this stuff within the next six months. And right now, I think that's the best option for you. I don't want you to focus on your business and getting that nest egg. And then your personal life, which is the most important, in my opinion, is now in danger.

Get out of debt. Build that emergency fund. Then once you have that, then, of course, you're still doing the practical stuff on your personal life. But then you're also building for your business life as well. Sure. With that being said, if I, my plan is to get out of debt this year, I paid 7,100 off this month alone. So the other stuff shouldn't be an issue, but so now I've gone down,

down the self-employment route. I'm trying to set us up to where we can get into a 15 year mortgage because currently we're renting. So I want to set us up to where we're debt free before we open up a mortgage. That's my best plan of attack because right now I don't even, I wouldn't get a mortgage right now if I tried because I don't have enough history. So I got advice from a realtor that I do some work for and with owning the business, I wrote off everything that I can for my taxes. After speaking with a couple of realtors, they said, you've got to quit doing that. You have to show some good positive income.

So now I've quit writing off everything. Where's my best point of attack to set myself up to where we can get a mortgage next year? Can I jump in on this? Please do. Okay. Before we answer that question, I'm just curious, what's your nest egg that you said you've got a lot of money you're hoarding in the business? How much? No, by a lot, I mean a lot for us.

We went from paycheck to paycheck at least having a couple of dollars. After paying $6,800 on the car today, I've currently got $14,000 saved. Okay. Yeah. So I don't like your realtor giving you that kind of mortgage advice there. Here's the reality. If you walk out Dave Ramsey's baby steps, you're going to be in great shape. And I think you got to do what's best for you financially. And writing things off is really good for you and your business. That's a real benefit. And the reality is, is you can save up

the cash and you can put the down payment. 20% is what we recommend at a minimum. And so I think you're fine. I wouldn't listen to that advice. I think it's silly, quite frankly, for a business owner not to write off legitimate expenses and get the tax benefit because that always benefits you. So I agree with Anthony's advice earlier. I don't agree with your realtor on that one. And I think in this situation, you're doing the right thing. You're going to pay that debt off aggressively. And you're going to have the money saved up.

And be patient. Stacey and I rented for three years before we bought a house. Be patient. You can get there. I promise you can get there. I did it for – I'm 35, so I did it for about like 20 years of my life. A single life, man. A my single life you can do that you know um but here's the last thing i want to tell you too jordan is you have 14 000 in your nest egg right now that is a lot of money the average person cannot afford to to pay for a 400 emergency so uh so i want to acknowledge that. Number two is if you take that 40 that $14,000 and take 13,000 of that out, put that on top of the 43 K you have in debt, that's down to 30,000.

By the next six months, you can be 100 percent debt free. I want you to do that, though, after you deliver your baby. OK, I don't want you to touch a savings account right now. I want you to hold on to that and make sure that your baby is healthy and you don't have any unexpected expenses that come up from that. All right. But then after that, get on a game plan. America, the baby steps work. You know, they work. They work for me. They work for Ken. They work for millions of other people. There are no exceptions to the game. OK, this is a game that if you follow the playbook, you will win. OK, we want you to be successful. we want you to have your own business but at the same time we want your personal life

to be good uh ken i have a question for you man uh from twitter okay uh michelle says hey ken how do you know the difference between a hobby-level passion and a professional-level passion? Good question. We get this all the time on the Ken Coleman Show. Pretty simple. If you can make really good money, or we can even just say decent get-by on your personal budget money on a passion, then you know it's professional level. But if you can't make any money at all, and I mean just you're talking pocket change here when I say any money at all, then you know it's hobby level. For instance, if I decided to start a business selling pet rocks, Anthony, strong chance

that that is a hobby level passion. Not knocking anybody who likes to make pet rocks. People in the control room are going, what are pet rocks? Do you even know what that is? I don't. That's why I'm looking at the camera. It's hysterical. Yeah, so the younger generations have no idea what I'm talking about.

The idea here is if you love something and you do it, but it can't generate a lot of income, then you know that this is a hobby. We had a caller today on the Ken Coleman Show that actually called in and said, hey, I want to do public address announcing. Well, even at the NBA level or the major league level or NFL level, those public address announcers, that's a part-time gig for them. It's not a full-time position in most cases. He wanted to do it on the minor league baseball level. So that's a hobby-level passion.

He really enjoys it. He's going to make a little bit of money that maybe he could throw to savings or family vacations, but it is not something that will support his family. That's how you know the difference. Yeah, I agree with you, man. That was wise. Thanks for teaching us young people. Now you know what a pet rock is, too.

Everybody go Google that. That's going to give you hours and hours of enjoyment. I agree. Coming up next on the next hour is my dear friend Chrissy Rice. So if you have any questions around business or your young lady want to talk to us, give us a call, 888-825-5225. I want to thank producer James Childs and associate producer Kelly Daniel. Remember, the caliber of our future will be determined by the decisions we make today. This is The Dave Ramsey Show.

This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. You can now listen to The Dave Ramsey Show on Spotify, Pandora, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. For all the ways to watch and listen, check out our show page at DaveRamsey.com slash show.