The Ramsey Show - App - Advice on Umbrella Insurance Policies (Hour 2)

Episode Date: March 13, 2019

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Joining me for a segment here, Christy Wright, Ramsey

personality, host of the Business Boutique podcast, author of the number one best-selling book, Business Boutique, and in charge of our live event this fall that will fill up with ladies, 3,000 of them always there for the Business Boutique live event here coming this fall. And you're in the middle of a workshop. Yeah, this has been really fun. So I've noticed that sometimes after the January, the New Year resolutions kind of fall by the wayside. People lose their momentum and their gusto.

And they're like, I need a better quick start. I need a fresh start. And so we're offering this free workshop. We're in the middle of it right now. And it's three steps to building a business you love. So whether you're just getting started or you've been in business for years, I'm going to give you three practical steps that are going to help you build this business that you love.

And we're right in the middle of it right now. But you can actually still register and watch part one and part two that have released and catch up with us and join us for part three this week. And then I have been hopping on Facebook and doing some live coaching sessions and answering questions around the workshop and the teaching. And it's been a lot of fun. It's almost kind of like a sample of my coaching from the Business Boutique Academy and just helping people get these three steps in place so they can build their business.

Very cool. Free workshop, businessboutique..com you can join in today it's not too late to be a be a part of this so much of what you are doing with business boutique is um really at the very starting point it's when someone's just backing up and going you know what i've been thinking about kids and husbands and everybody but me, and now I'm going to start thinking about me a little bit. That's right. And it's not a selfish thing. It's just there's a little emotional margin that opens up,

and that has to happen before you can dream, doesn't it? Yeah, and it's interesting because it's so easy to start a business now, a side business or become a solopreneur or freelancer, that you have a lot of people getting into business for different reasons. Maybe I want to, you know, my kids are in school full time and I've got these extra hours in my day and I want to spend them on something I love. Or maybe I want to pay off my debt snowball faster and contribute some more family income. Or maybe just have the freedom and flexibility to focus on what matters the most to me instead of working this full time job. And so people really go into this world of entrepreneurship and side business, small business for different reasons. But what's amazing is they

get into it because they're excited and they have all these ideas, but then they get overwhelmed and they're like, well, I don't know how to do this. And how do I sell without being pushy? And how do I set myself apart from the competition? And that's why I love offering this teaching because I really simplify the business side of things so that they can spend more time doing the things that they love and make money doing it. So the workshop's a great way to do that. But everything in Business Boutique is really aimed at helping those people spend the time in their sweet spot, in their strengths, the things that they love to do, and simplify the other stuff that seems complicated. Yeah, very cool. That makes a big difference.

It changes everything when you do that. Very cool. And you know what happens sometimes when people start businesses, ladies and men too, for that matter, is it's, there's not a lot of thought goes into it. They just kind of go. Right. Just kind of go. Right.

And it's like, what happens if this works? Right. You know, what happens if this, you know. Right. That's a lot of entrepreneurs. We're kind of making it up as we go. We're flying by the seat of our pants. And a lot of the women that I've worked with that have been in business for three or five or seven, ten years, haven't been in business for that long because they're so smart about business. It's despite the fact that

they didn't know a lot about business and they're just really scrappy and persistent and persevering. So you come alongside them, and you give them some marketing strategies. You teach them about selling techniques and even cash flow, how to manage the money. And, man, their business can take off to a next level. Even though they've been in business for years, they didn't know what they didn't know. And so it's amazing. Just a little bit of polish goes a long way. That's right.

Just a few, dial the knobs, just a couple of them a little bit, really does move the needle. Yeah, it makes a big difference. And you know how we are here at our organization. We make everything tactical and practical. So we give them the inspiration to get them excited. But then we're going to give you tools and steps and plans that when you go back and you use those tools and follow that plan, you'll see a dramatic ROI in your business. You'll see a huge improvement immediately in your business simply because you did something about it.

So the free workshop is called The Three Steps to Building a Business You Love. It's available right now, today, at businessboutique.com. And then in addition to that, we've got this new course, I guess it's in addition to that, the Business Idea Boot Camp. Yeah, we've got this new course. I guess it's in addition to that, the Business Idea Boot Camp. Yeah, we've had this. This is really for our dreamers that they want to do something, but they're not sure what. And I kept getting asked this question again and again. I see all these people doing it.

I see people winning. I see people starting businesses. I see what you're doing through Business Boutique. I want to be a part of that, but I don't know what my thing is. I don't know what my idea is. And so we created this course that started out as a coaching group, and I led 210 women through this curriculum that I wrote, helping them find their best business idea.

They're all running businesses now. This was years ago. And we've turned that into a course that now we offer for our dreamers. So if you want to do something but you're not sure what, Business Idea Boot Camp is your course that's going to help you find your best business idea. And how do they connect up with that most easily? BusinessBoutique.com. There we go.

Yeah, and that's where the podcast is, the book. The Business Boutique Academy is opening next week for a few days. So we've got a lot of exciting things going on. But BusinessBoutique.com is where you can find out about all that good stuff. So when you're – these dreamers are in this Business Idea Boot Camp. You said you had two in ten go through one of the processes that are now running businesses. Sometimes I hear entrepreneurs, and I wondered if it was true with this bunch, they make the mistake of doing one of two things.

Either they want to do something they love that has absolutely no monetary value, or they're doing something they hate because they think it'll make money. Right. Do you see doing something they hate because they think it'll make money. Right. Do you see those two things show up? I do. And it's interesting because I think that when you have a lot of ideas, if you're an idea person, and I work with plenty of women that are, and then I work with women that have no ideas. But if you're an idea type of person, then you think that all your ideas are brilliant. Like all these ideas are going to be successful businesses.

We should pursue all of them. But what's so great about them? That's me. Me too. Oh, you know me. I should pursue all of them. But what's so great about them? That's me. Me too. Oh, you know me. I have 100 ideas a minute. They're all great. They're all going to be fantastic and successful.

But I walk them through a framework that is incredibly objective in Business Idea Bootcamp, where you are going to list all your ideas and rate and rank them based on certain criteria. And certainly, if there's a market, if it's profitable, can it make money? Some of these criteria will help you evaluate all these ideas objectively where you realize, wow, these are the best ideas that are rising to the top. And when you're through with the course, you're left with your best idea.

So you don't have to worry about you feel all squirmy or excited about this idea or that idea. You see objectively on paper, this is the best business idea for you based on all this criteria. Yeah, well, when you walk through a process for you based on all this criteria. Yeah. Well, when you walk through a process like that, it cleans it up. Right.

It takes away all the fog and you clean the weeds off of it and it starts to take shape right in front of your eyes. Right. And then you can get more excited about it because it's really hard to get excited about something that you can't see. But when you put clarity around it and all this blurry excitement turns into a really clear vision of this is my idea and this is how it will work and why it will work, man, I can get excited about that because I can see it.

I hear you. Three Steps to Building a Business You Love is the free workshop going on right now at businessboutique.com. If you want to learn about the Business Idea Boot Camp, a brand new course that's available, and you find your best business idea, you can find out about that at businessboutique.com. And be sure you're tuning in to the Business Boutique Podcast, all with Christy Wright, the founder of Business Boutique, Ramsey Personality. Christy, thanks for stopping by.

Thanks for having me. Glad to be here. This is the Dave budget each month. Pure Talk USA offers smarter wireless with unlimited plans starting as low as $20 per month. You never pay data overage fees and we never turn off your data. No contracts, no hidden fees, and if you're thinking our low cost means less coverage, think again. Our voice and data service covers 99% of Americans, and our 4G LTE network provides the fastest internet speeds like more expensive carriers. We operate on the largest GSM network in the U.S.

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Hi, Amy. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi. Thank you for having me. Certainly. How can I help? My husband and I just finished Baby Step number three, and we do go through FPU at our church every two years,

and so we're currently just going through it right now and we had the lesson on the long-term disability insurance. In the past, we've looked into it and we can never get it for my husband's position. Why? He is a painter in a body shop and so we were told it was too high risk. So I did finally look at your ELPs this last time we went through it and i got um some information the most we can get is a five year with 180 elimination or 180 elimination period um and it's 138 a month and so going into baby step four five and six

what is your household income? $92,000. Okay, I would not do that. That's too much. I mean, it's all they can get, probably. The only way he's probably going to get decent coverage is through his employer or through an association. Okay, and we had checked into both of those, and his employer doesn't offer it.

A lot of body shops are just, you know, pretty small. And it wasn't, you know, we did a Google search and didn't see anything about an association, but that doesn't mean they're not out there. Yeah. I hate to be without long-term disability insurance. It's a bad idea. Yeah. But what you're getting for what you're paying is not friendly.

Right. That's what I was looking at, too, for $140 a month. I mean, the only way I might do it is, I mean, if you made $200,000 or $300,000 a year, I might spend that kind of money. But not making $92,000, I wouldn't. Okay. Yeah. And, you know, you get long-term on you. Are you working outside the home?

No, I stay home. Okay. So there's just no long-term on you. Are you working outside the home? No, I stay home. Okay, so there's just no long-term disability in your house anywhere. Okay. Right. Ouch. Yeah. Now, I'm going to continue to poke around on the association. Ask your employer if he knows of someone or she knows of someone

or some type of association where you might get this. And I would just keep, that would be my bent. Because if you can find it, it's going to be less than $50 a month compared. Okay. And I would buy that at that price, you know. Great. Even if it was the same exact. I was almost ready to do it, but then I thought, you know, I need to move into retirement.

Nope. That's a lot of money. It is. That's $1,500, $1,600 a year. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, I believe in long-term disability insurance, but not at all costs. I mean, your husband's a high-rise window washer.

You're simply not getting it in the open market. Or if you do, it's going to be unbelievably expensive. You know, same thing with your life insurance and that. You're just in a high-risk scenario. That's what it amounts to. Because the aspiration on this is what it amounts to. Ouch. Kelly is with us in Canada.

Hi, Kelly. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? I'm sure you deserve it. But I am a new listener, so I guess I'm on baby step zero. My question is, my common law partner right now is off work.

He has a chronic pain condition, so this may be a long-term thing. So he's currently at 50% of his pay. Now, we both have debt, and I know that you typically say not to pay the debt of someone you're not married to. Um, but he's not able to make most of his payments right now. And so I don't know how much I should be helping him out right now. I would love to help as much as I can, but I just wanted your advice. Why are you not married? You would have to ask him i i don't know okay okay costs i guess but i guess you don't need a big wedding yeah it's not required um because it just changes the whole formula right you know for better for worse in sickness oh yeah and in health and in health yeah i mean it's it changes the formula i i am not an expert on canadian law in the u.s you would really be pretty much up a creek if you start paying his

bills and then he just decides to walk out yeah i i i think we would be sort of in the same boat the other thing is he does own the condo we live in right now. So in Canada, that is technically half mine at this point. So I don't know if he's helped me out, I guess, in that way because I've never been able to save for a down payment. All right. So how did it be? Just because you're common law, how long have you all lived together? We've lived together for a year and a half.

And that makes the condo that he owned half yours in Canada? Yes. Really? As far as I know. That's interesting. Again, I have no knowledge one way or the other. I'm completely ignorant. Right, yeah.

I just, I, if you were my daughter, I'd tell you not to pay somebody's bills you weren't married to. It's pretty simple. You know what I mean? Right. It's just, I'm trying, you know you you might find some legal way that you understand and you're okay doing that right it's just not you know 10 years from now is this process taking you where you want to go and that's what you've got to decide and it's not that's what it comes down to uh anthony is with us well maybe it is maybe that's where you want to go anthony's in

atlanta hi anthony welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Thanks for having me. Sure. What's up? I've got a question. I'm on baby step two right now. I'm married, and we've got about a little north of $50,000 in debt. Luckily, with an annual bonus and stock purchasing,

I'm going to have enough to pay off the credit cards and possibly most of our medical bills. Um, specifically I've got a truck loan for 18 and a car loan for 20. And the goal is going to be to try to get rid of both of those. But I'm, I'm at a point when my truck, uh, it's about Kelly blue book says it's about worth 21 or so. Okay. And, um, I've gotten a lot of offers on it, but nobody's went through and i'm looking at a guy with an offer for 17 right now and i owe 18 i'm just debating on whether or not i should hold out and uh try to get as much out as i can out of it what's your household income uh we're at about 85

86 okay uh poke around in addition to kelly on Trader and a few of the other sites, and let's go to Edmunds Car Guide, and let's try to establish what the real value is. It's been for sale how long, at 21? I've actually bumped it down to 19. It's been for sale about three weeks at that. I'm not trying to make all my equity out of it. I'm just trying to make some. So that's where I'm at. Yeah. But if it's worth 21, you're

giving up a fourth of the value to sell it for 17. Right. That's a 25% discount if that's the actual value. I didn't look at it that way. Okay. You know, and so that's, um, yeah, I don't really want to do that. I'm not, I mean, you're not about to get repoed or something. You're just trying to get out of debt. Correct, yes, sir. We don't have the issue making the payment. There's motivation, but there's not desperation. Correct, yes.

If you're desperate, dump the thing, right? But you're not. You're just motivated. Yeah, you're just motivated. We're not moving on forward as fast as I wanted to. That's kind of just where I'm at. So I was worried. I've already bought a replacement vehicle.

How long has the truck been up for sale? Now, maybe not even quite three months yet, maybe two and a half. You start at 21, then 20, then 19? Yes, sir. Okay. It's possible that Kelly Blue Book's estimation of value is wrong. That's what I'm fishing for. Okay?

Okay. So the first thing I would do if I were in your shoes is I want to establish with, you know, do some shopping on Trader or something like that, and let's see what you can find that's similar that's actually for sale, and let's hit Edmund's Car Guide, and let's try to hit two or three sources and see if there's some competing data to that 21 that says 19 now if it says 19 and you really come to believe that the market value of the vehicle is 19 and you got a 17 offer that's something to consider pretty seriously right

but but if it says 20 if everything, $19 is a good deal. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I'll do some more research, and I appreciate the deal. Get comfortable with the actual value. The fact that it hadn't sold tells me it might actually be worth more like $19. And, yeah, I'd sell a $19 for $17 in your case. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Thanks for joining us, America. We're glad you're here.

Mike is in Indianapolis. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Mike. Hey, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? My wife and I are currently on baby steps five and six, and I'm trying to figure out what I should be doing with some stock options that I have from work.

Currently, they're worth about $20,000 to $25,000, and I continue to be vested. So every month, about $1,500 more worth of stock options comes into play. And so we currently have about $315,000 left on our house, and that does include PMI. And just trying to figure out if I should be putting it towards that or also funding my child's 529. So you're on Baby Steps 456. Correct, yes. You're out of debt. You have your 456. Correct, yeah. You're out of debt.

You have your emergency fund. Correct, yes. Okay. And so you would rather invest in your 529 or pay down your house than invest in stock. Correct, yes. So cash it out and put it on one of those two things. Okay. I didn't know if there was one or the other that you recommended or if I should just sit tight to let it see if the stock options gained some value.

Well, I assume the way you stated that, that they had gained enough value that you put $25,000 in your pocket if you cash them out. Is that right? Well, I would have to pay tax on them, but yeah, that's right. That's your value change over what your option was. Have you cashed in the option? Are you the actual owner yet of the stock? So I'm vested I can cash them in at any point in time. You have not.

I have not cashed them in yet. But the spread on it gives you $25,000 minus taxes. Correct, yeah. Yeah, okay. All right. And how old is your kid? He was just born. He's about to be six months old.

Yay! All right. That's fun. Well, you can sit down with your SmartVestor Pro. Either direction is fine. We want you to start doing something towards college. You probably would be amazed that if you drop $25,000 into a 529 in the types of mutual funds that we talk about,

growth, growth in income, aggressive growth in international, that particular kid's college is probably done. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. And then you kind of check that box and then just take your income and start attacking the house. And your baby step five is kind of check that box and then just take your income and start attacking the house. And you move, you know, your baby step five is kind of done. I think that's what you'll find when you look at the, depending on what your educational aspirations are for the child. But, I mean, if you're wanting to send them to, you know, some kind of super expensive school, that won't do it.

But that's enough 18 years from today what that will grow to uh let's see well maybe not it'll probably get pretty close though it'll probably get you there you know let's see three times if it yeah yeah it's gonna be about 200 grand probably by the time he gets to 18 give or take i'm making that i'm pretty close though so sit down anyway sit down with smart investor pro and then you gather the information and i would put somewhere between 5 000 and 25 000 in the 529 depending on what you want to do um and if you don't put it all in there obviously we're going to throw it at the house what's your household income uh it's about $220,000 per year. Woo! So you're going to pay off this house fast anyway. Yeah, we're hoping to. Our take-home pay is only about half of that just because we're currently funding his 529 and fully funding an HSA,

and we just started contributing to ROCS instead of a 401K. Okay. Yeah, you want to be putting 15% of your income and no more into retirement. Right. And then start throwing everything else at college and at the house. And I think you're going to have your house paid off in, gosh, probably three years is what it sounds like to me, maybe four. Because I think, you know, you just got to look at it. Sit down.

If you throw this 25 at it, even, it'll get rid of the PMI, accelerates things that much faster. Either one's fine. You're right on the baby steps. We're running them simultaneous. The point is you're being intentional. You're thinking about it. You're doing what you're supposed to do.

Very, very, very well done. Maria is in Phoenix. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Maria. Thanks, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? My husband and I are both teachers, and we have about $80,000 in student loans between the two of us. And we are eligible for the Federal Loan Forgiveness Program,

but we also have a truck that we stole about $13,500 on. So if we put money into our retirement funds, that reduces our AGI, which reduces our payment towards our student loans. And then we should be eligible in about two years for the forgiveness, where it wipes out the rest of our loan amounts. So I know you're supposed to pay off your debt before you contribute to your retirement fund, according to your baby steps. But if we don't put money towards the retirement fund, our AGI is too high and our payments each month for our student loan is really high.

So I'm just kind of wondering what you recommend we should do. um you should google student loan forgiveness and you will find that 96 people out of 30,000 applications is all that it's happened for really yeah it's not happening oh wow okay um so i mean we've been in contact with the, you know, the federal government. Read the articles. There's probably 25 articles out there floating around right now. The Department of Education, they're just not doing it. Nobody's meeting their guidelines because their guidelines were so mysterious all this time that you were supposed to be doing things you weren't doing. You might get it. I hope you get it, but I don't think you will.

Really? Okay. And so it's really, really bad news in that regard. Okay. How much is the student loan debt again? It's $80,000 for both of us together. And your household income is what? About $120,000.

Oh, crap. Okay. Well, certainly you're going to pay off the car before we even have this discussion because that's first. And then what I would do is I would start building just a very large war chest of savings to get ready to pay off my own student loan if this falls apart. And then, of course, when you get off of here, you're going to start doing research immediately and finding what I found. One article I read was 250 people have had it forgiven. Another was 96. But thousands and tens of thousands of applications denied or just ignored.

And the federal government is just completely irresponsible and incompetent. I know that's not anything you didn't already know, but that part of it anyway. But check into it. And if I were in your shoes, I would build up $80,000 worth of savings so that two years from now, if this doesn't work, I can write a check and be debt-free. If it does work, then I got an extra $80,000 and we'll start investing at that point. But I'm not screwing with AGI right now. That's the least of your issues. You eighty thousand dollars of student loan debt alan is with us in atlanta hi alan welcome to the dave ramsey show hey there dave how are you better than i deserve what's up

so uh i am 20 years old my wife is 21 uh we were married last March, a year ago. And we just found out that we have a baby on the way in November. So we are one bad thing, though. I am a 1099. And I had no idea how the taxes work. So I'm currently looking at a $2,500 tax bill coming up. So I know you've mentioned in the past kind of the stork mode, try to save up as much as possible. You know, I put the debt snowball on hold. Not with the IRS. You need to pay the IRS. Okay. All right.

I appreciate that. Yeah, you do not want to have them after you, and you do not want the interest rate and the penalties that are going to hit you on that. So what is your household income, sir? Being all commission, it's very hard to tell. We're looking at probably $70,000 to $80,000 so far. Good. So you're going to pay this $2,500 off very, very quickly. Beans and rice.

Rice and beans. You don't need to see the inside of a restaurant unless you're working there. Absolutely. And don't talk to me about a vacation when you have an IRS lien of $2,500 and a baby on the way. So, no luxuries.

You get the stinking IRS out of your life. You don't want the KGB at your door where you get a baby on the way. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. our question today comes from blinds.com you can find out for yourself why blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window coverings. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos every month, you will save even more.

The promo code is RAMSY. That'll get you the best deal. Jennifer's in Illinois. My insurance agent recently talked me into a $1 million umbrella policy for $240 a year because in Illinois, your wages can be garnished up to 15% if there's a judgment against you. Do you think I should keep the policy or just increase the liability coverage on my auto policy?

Well, Man Dollar Umbrella for $240 a year is one of the best buys in all of insurance. If you have a really, really good income or if you have a net worth that's starting to approach a million dollars, you should always get liability umbrella policies. I personally carry a liability umbrella policy of $10 million now because I figure if I bump into somebody, they're going to go, oh, I'm okay, what's your name? Dave Ramsey.

Oh, God, I'm dying! You know, so that's probably what's coming up, right? So it doesn't always happen that way, but it could. So, yeah, for just a few dollars a year, $240. Now, if you are broke, you don't need a liability umbrella policy. If you make $35,000 a year and you've got a bunch of debt, don't bother. Don't spend money on this. But if you've got a six-figure $100,000, $200,000, $300,000 income, and you're starting to really build some serious wealth,

some serious net worth that you could lose, this is really good defense to do this, and I highly recommend it. Cassidy is in Dayton. Welcome to the dave ramsey show cassidy hi hey how are you doing better than i deserve what's up so i just graduated in december with my four-year degree and um i've recently started making good money and my husband's always made good money and And so now, you know, the good money is coming in, and the student loans are now here. And so I'm wondering where I should go next. So what's your household income?

Now, it's $103,000. What? $103,000. That's combined? Yes. Okay. And how much is your student loan debt? $28,000. That's combined? Yes. Okay. And how much is your student loan debt? $28,000. And how much other debt, not counting your house, do you have?

I have $8,000 left on my car and we rent our house. Okay. So $36,000 makes you debt free and you have a $105,000 income? Yes. Okay. Good okay good well what we teach cassidy is a thing called the baby steps and it's the progressive clear path to wealth and uh your most powerful wealth building tool is your income so we're going to get you out of debt everything but the house as fast as we can baby step one is save a thousand dollars do you have any money in savings that is not retirement we have ten thousand dollars in a savings account great pay off the card a day okay and that leaves you two thousand dollars put a thousand dollars of that towards the emergency fund, I mean towards the student loan,

and then get yourself on a written, detailed budget. And this is only if you and your husband are willing to sit down and work on this together, okay? And you're going to get in high-grade attack mode. Now, if you're going to just screw around and half-butt do stuff, you just do whatever plan you need to do. Don't do this plan because I'm going to take you down to a thousand dollars that's baby step one and then i'm going to attack this debt like your hair's on fire and i want you to be i want you to pay off the 21 000 in less than a year two two three thousand dollars a month after this thing. It's between $2,000 and $3,000, somewhere in there.

And so you stop all retirement investing temporarily. You stop all saving temporarily. You stop life temporarily. Beans and rice, rice and beans, scorched earth, no vacations, no buying anything. We're cleaning up this mess because it's between you and your ability to build wealth that's what we teach and it works it works you can wander into that you can't wander out you got to get pissed off and get after it harshly and then that'll move you along the lines courtney is with us in uh wisconsin hi Courtney. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hi, Dave. Thanks for talking to me. Sure. What's up? So I just kind of have a, hopefully it's not too specific, but my husband is currently self-employed, and he has been self-employed for about three years. Doing what?

The second year of our business. He's an engineer. An engineer. So he's been doing really well of our business, he's an engineer. An engineer. Okay. So he's been doing really well for his business for about three years. And the last year, things have kind of not been going so great. And so, I mean, we've been kind of talking about getting a second job,

but I guess the conflict is that we've noticed that when he's tried to get a second job to be self-employed, they want him to stop his business. And it's not that we're, I mean, we have no debt. We have about four months, five months of expenses saved. We have, we only, I mean, we owe our farm. What's wrong with his business? There must be something wrong with it. Like, we're just trying to get ahead and pay down, like, for example, like our house. Yeah, but you said his income's gone down.

Uh, yeah. Well, that's something wrong. Yeah, it is. That's not great. Um, and I mean, he's trying to get clients and things like that. What's wrong with his business? Why is his income going down? Uh, just the clients. He's not getting more clients. What's wrong with his business? Why is his income going down?

Just the clients. He's not getting more clients. They're not policing these large orders. Right. He's been doing engineering and not been doing any marketing. I mean, yeah, kind of. He's been doing the market, but not a large chunk of his money is not going towards marketing. It's not money. It's not money.

It's effort. He needs to go out and knock doors and get business and quit being an engineer and go be a marketer for a little bit. That's where he's going to make the most money. He doesn't need an extra job. He needs to turn his business around. Okay. And when he first opened, he got a lot of clients just coming at him, and he didn't

have to do much. And now he's going to have to go out there and scrape and hustle and grind and come up with clients and he needs to allocate a percentage of his time every day to new client development okay and and not every not do engineering all day long because when you do engineering all day long and then you lose a client you don't have any backup clients you don't have anything and your income down. And so this is a classic thing that he's gotten into, and he's got to work on his business, not just in his business. And hold on. I'm going to send him a copy of the book Entree Leadership,

which is how we grew our business from a card table in my living room to where it is today. It's our Super Bowl playbook, and we'll show you how to do this. Ethan is with us in Washington, D.C. Hi, Ethan. How are you? Hi, Dave. I'm doing well.

How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hello. I am 24, and my girlfriend and I are trying to plan and prepare for an engagement later this year. I'm on baby step two, and I've gone down from $69,000 to $39,000 this past year. So now what I'm trying to figure out is do I continue this because I see the light at the end of the tunnel and keep doing the debt snowball, or do I start stocking up cash to

prepare for that event later in the year? What have you got to prepare for? The engagement and then the wedding at the end of the year. You have to pay for the wedding? Well, right now I'm working on my debt, so part of the thing is getting rid of that debt before. No, I'm asking you are going to, you're going to have to pay for your own wedding is what you're telling me.

Yeah, it's unclear, but yes. Okay. In other words her parents are not going to pay for her wedding uh it's it's it's kind of you know if we if we kind of wait for their timing yes but not if we move forward then no oh okay um well i'd be willing to uh what do you make a year so i just got a new job this year and i'm making about 80 000 a year good for you well the maximum you ought to spend on a ring is one month's take-home pay that's the yeah the ring is purchased it was purchased two months two years ago okay so you don't have a ring all you got to do is worry about a wedding that is very unclear. Exactly.

Yeah, until it's clear, we don't need to save for it. So you need to get that clarity, and until you have clarity on what that's going to be, and you have a date set, and you decide whether you're going to go against their wishes on the date and the timeline, and whether they're going to pay for it or not, then that's you got to decide you got to decide all that then you'll know what you got to do you might stop the dead snowball then and pay for a wedding i don't know but right now no it's a it's just a worry right now this is james childs producer of the dave ramsey show did you know you can now listen to the dave ramsey show on pandora and spotify for all the ways to watch and listen check out our show page at DaveRamsey.com slash show.