The Ramsey Show - App - Are Shopping or Rebate Apps Worth It? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: March 25, 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'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Jacob is with us in Mobile, Alabama. Hi, Jacob. How are you? I'm great, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve, sir. How can I help? Good. Well, I've been a landlord for a little over a year now, and dealing with my first tenants are giving me trouble.

I was wondering how you go about the process if they're not paying, and what's your advice on that? Okay. You have had all the direct contact with the tenant. You don't have a management firm. No, sir. No, sir, what? Is it you contacting them, or do you have a management firm? Just me. No management firm. No, sir. No, sir, what? Is it you contacting them, or do you have a management firm?

Just me. No management firm. Okay, so you've been talking to them all along, and they're not paying? Is that the problem? Yeah, since I took over the property, I paid on time maybe two months in the past year. Okay. Well, that's part of the problem. You cannot allow this to go on as much as you've allowed it to go on,

because now it's become okay in their heads. And so, you know, what I would do is just schedule a time to sit down and talk to them at their house, the one that they rent from you, and say, you know, we need to sit down and talk, and just say, you know,'m a kind of a new landlord and so i made some mistakes in the last year as a landlord and the mistakes i made was that i allowed you to not pay on time which made you think you could do that and i'm just here to tell you that we're done with that you're going to pay on time or you're not going to stay.

It's up to you. You can decide. I'd love to have you stay as my tenant, as long as you're taking care of the property and you pay on time. But if the day you cease to take care of my property, you cease to pay on time, and I mean not one day late, not one minute late. Again, you ought to be five days early from now just to be sure there's no mistakes

because I will begin eviction proceedings, and I will not stop until you're out of my house if you're ever one minute late again. Yes, sir. Okay. Well, that's really, really tough. That's really tough. No, baby, that's what you signed up for. You signed up to pay the rent on the 1st, and I expect the rent to be paid on or before the 1st from this point forward.

If you don't, you are choosing to move because I'm going to move you. Okay? Yes, sir. And I'm not threatening you, and I'm not cussing at you, and we're not going to get in an argument. There's not going to be a bunch of anger. You're just going to get an argument there's not going to be a bunch of anger you're just going to move and if you don't like those terms it's okay i'll let you out of the lease right now you guys can move and you know i'll give you two weeks to move and i'll give you the rest of this month free if you want to just get out sure okay thank you sir and just

you know give them a chance to get out and then if they don't pay go drop by and visit them and say you guys need to move because I've already begun eviction proceedings. Okay. Yeah, call a local attorney and begin the eviction proceedings. Because what happened is that you didn't have really clear, they don't have the real clear idea of what the rules are and that the rules have to be followed. Yes, sir. On my properties properties i really only

have about three rules really i mean there's a few sub rules and that kind of thing but the three rules are pretty simple pay on time don't tear up my house and the third rule is a part of don't tear up my house and that's no pets sure i love i love animals my two pets are at my house i love my puppies but i do as a landlord i can't stand animals they're awful right because people don't make their animals behave like they don't make their kids behave right right so that's the problem right there dude so you just gotta sit down with them and reset it and again you're not trying to be a ba here you're just trying to sit down and just go reset it. And again, you're not trying to be a B.A. here. You're just trying to sit down and just go, guys, you know, I really kind of messed up because I was a new landlord. And I let you guys think you could get away with this.

And I just thought it's fair to give you a fair warning that that's done. We're not doing this any more. Anymore. Thanks, Jacob. You know, I learned to landlord in probably one of the hardest situations when I was a young guy. In my 20s, I started buying properties, and I bought lower income properties. Some of them were weekly rentals. They paid by the week.

And it was, yeah, yeah, that kind of properties. And pretty tough neighborhoods, you know. And so we had to have kind of a renter talk with people before they moved in. It wasn't kind of. We did. We called it the renter talk. And the big thing is, look, we're not running prostitution out of these houses. We're not running drugs out of these houses.

And we're going to be the best landlord you've ever had. If something ever breaks, if the heat goes out, we're not slumlords. We're going to come right in and fix it. We're going to make sure this is the best experience you've ever had. But the last thing you want to do is do criminal activity in one of our houses and not pay me you better pay me before you pay anybody and no criminal activity in the houses or we will put you out and it took a little while but we kind of developed a reputation in the neighborhood of being really wonderful landlords

but don't mess with them. They'll throw you out if you don't pay. Or if you start turning tricks and start selling drugs out of his house, he'll throw you out. And I learned in that kind of a setting, and, you know, it's funny how that kind of an attitude, it translates to when I've got an office building with, you know, a Fortune 500 tenant.

Sometimes it's almost like we have to tell them the same thing except the part about criminal activities, and probably should tell them that too. But it's just like, you're going to pay. We don't have any confusion about this. You're a multimillionaire. You're going to write a check on the first. And you just have to set real clear expectations with folks. And I've learned it's the same way with our team. It's, you know, we're the best place to work in the universe.

But we're really, really clear with folks. To be unclear is to be unkind. I'm not going to run around and be thinking negative things about you and not have told you. You know, we like excellence. We want thoroughbreds. We want people to play for the super bowl man and if you want to mail it in and you're looking for a job where you just take money and don't work much don't come over here you won't fit in as soon as we discovered you got in one of the doors we will help you work somewhere else we'll set you free in jesus name oh you're hardcore no i just i work really hard

and if i'm gonna pay somebody i won't work really hard and be really good at what they do hello why is that hard to think about you know it's not there's nothing to this so unless you're in the social media department you don't need to spend your whole day on facebook you probably ought to like to be working while you're at work. Some of you would get noticed and you could change your whole career direction and raise your income up if you work while you're at work. See, none of this is really hardcore. It's just like what the agreement is. But people have gotten so used to not paying their rent on time, delivering shoddy products, not caring when they're at work, not caring about the customer,

not serving people, not being excellent in their lives. They've gotten so used to this dumbed-down lack of character in these different settings that they get away with it if you don't hold their feet to the fire. And so, you know, that makes me an old tough guy. That makes me an old tough guy. No, I just like excellence. I mean, you win, that makes me an old tough guy. Dave's an old tough guy. No, I just like excellence. I mean, you win the Super Bowl, usually there's a pretty tough coach on the other side of that.

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answers to the questions but you're listening just because people are entertaining and this show is entertaining in that regard you like helping people with money that's what that means you know the answers to these questions and you can't resist at dinner telling somebody the answer to the question if it comes up. If that's the case, then you're the perfect person to become a Financial Peace University coordinator. Financial Peace University is our nine-week class. It's a year-long subscription, and part of the subscription is you get online access to that, online access to every dollar plus for a year connecting to your bank, and you get to go to the class somewhere, and a kit that goes with it that's nine weeks

long. The nine-week class we need volunteers for. Any given time, we've got about 10,000 of these things operating, and it doesn't take a ton of time. You don't have to be a financial genius. You don't even have to answer the questions like we're talking about. You just have to care about the subject and care about watching people's lives be transformed. You see, when you're coordinating one of these classes, you have a front row seat to watch people be transformed.

It's pretty cool. So one of our advisors would love to talk to you about becoming a Financial Peace University coordinator. It's very easy to do. Just text the word LEADER to 33789. That's the word LEADER to 33789. LEADER 33789. Ashley is in Birmingham. Hi, Ashley.

How are you? I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So my husband and I have a turf grass business that is less than a year old, but it's been very successful, but we've just found out that we are moving for his job, and we cannot figure out how to price it.

We have someone who works for my husband who's been helping us run it. He's been very involved, and he's probably going to purchase it. How do we price what it's worth? Okay, turf grass. You're doing fertilizer or you're installing actual turf? Fertilizer. Okay, all right. So you have a series of customers that several times a year you go do treatments on their lawns.

That's correct. We have about 45 customers, and they pay a monthly fee uh we're at about gross 4,500 a month about net 26 2,800 a month okay and that's before any labor is paid no labor is uh 20 but we're at about 26 28 including labor because my husband and this guy who works for him they do the labor and so that helps with my husband doing the labor okay so if your husband is not there this guy who works for him, they do the labor, and so that helps with my husband doing the labor. Okay. So if your husband is not there, this guy is running it, what is he going to net? I would say maybe $3,200. Because he's going to do all the work.

Correct. Okay. He's probably going to take this on as a full-time, because it's almost to the point of being a full-time job. Let's pretend that he had to hire someone, and the person buying the business was not going to do any work. They were just going to own the business. What would you pay someone a month to do this work? It's probably, we pay him $20 an hour, and he probably averages maybe 15 to 20 hours a week. Mm-hmm.

Okay, but will that do the whole, all 45 customers? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Okay, so. Because there's some months you don't have to touch the lawn, and then another month you do. Okay, so it sounds like the business is going to net say 1500 say 18 let's say 20 000 a year just for round numbers if i pay if i wanted to buy it and i live in

nashville and i want to hire somebody to run it and and do the work what am i going to make on my investment as a business owner okay which is really what the business is worth after labor okay otherwise you just own your job okay yeah and you don't want to buy a business to just own your job so the proper way to value it is take 20 000 and uh roughly times four maybe five so it's probably worth 80 or 90 maybe a hundred thousand dollars something like that um based on what you're telling me. Is there any equipment involved? Yes. What is it worth?

I would say equipment valued about $13,000. Okay, good, good. Okay. Well, this is legitimate. Now, the question is, this old boy that's buying it, he doesn't have $90,000, does he? He does not. And I doubt this is a bankable deal. So he may be paying you out of his profits as well.

Uh-huh. If you sell it to him. Which we're fine with. Yeah, as long as he stays open, you are. So should we develop a contract? Oh, yeah. And a note. And a note, because he's borrowing $90,000 from you.

Okay. Okay, or whatever you borrowing $90,000 from you. Okay. Okay, or whatever you agree to sell it to him for. If you sold it to him for $50,000, I don't care, but somewhere in that $50,000 to $100,000 range is roughly what this thing's worth, based on what you're telling me. About five times your net, four times your net. That's a 20% to a 25% rate of return, which a small business is a high-risk investment, and so that's a nice rate of return and a high-risk investment.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah, that's what you're looking for. But, you know, yes, you need a contract. Yes, you need to have a note, meaning that he is signing up for this debt. He owes you. Because if he turns around and runs the thing in the dirt, no pun intended, you know, you're going to have nothing i mean you'll lose your

equipment you'll lose everything because you're you know if you don't have a way to repossess the equipment but you he could he could run off all the customers and then you repossess just the equipment that could be all you could get back and there's no way to collect from a broke guy and at that point he would be broke so yeah make him a deal and if he could come up with cash on the barrel head like his mother will give him part of his inheritance ahead of time give him an even better deal you know 90,000 if we finance finance it if you come up with cash i'll sell it to you for half that right now and i would i would take my cash and walk if i were you good question. Mandy is on the line in Kansas City.

Hi, Mandy. How are you? I'm great, Dave. How about yourself? Better than I deserve. How can I help? So I have a question. So we are going to be debt-free in December.

Yay! Yes, yay. Okay. We do already own our house, and we own some land, and we're wanting to build a house on that. So my question is, do we save up the difference? It's going to be $150,000 difference from what we would profit on our house. Should we save the $150,000, or should we get a loan to do it even quicker than what we're wanting? What's your household income? $120,000. So how quick can you save $150,000?

Three, four years. Yeah, I'm thinking three. You got no payments. Correct, yes. How old are you? I'm 29. Okay. And the house that you're living in is how large?

As far as how much? Square footage. Oh, 3,000 square feet. Oh, okay. All right. And how many kids you got? We have two together, five in total. All living there?

Two live there full time. Okay. All right. So this move up is a luxury? Yes, very much so. Okay. And so I'll wait three years and pay cash for my luxury? That's what I was thinking.

I just wanted to confirm with you. I got to tell you, man, once I get out of debt, the chances of you getting me back in, it would have to be some big reason, right? Right. That's what I'm thinking. That's what Sharon and I did. We were living in a house we had paid for for 13 years. We lived in that house, and we saved up and paid cash for the home we live in now, which we built,

and paid cash for the building of that. And we actually ended up keeping the other one that was paid for. In your case, you're going to need to sell it to be able to do this as quickly as you're wanting to do it. So I think that's a good move. Very well done. Congratulations. Man, you guys are killing it at 29 years old. Ding, ding, ringing the bell.

Love it, love it, love it. Very well done. Stacy's on Facebook. Dave, what are your thoughts about apps that give you cash back for shopping when you scan in your purchases? I don't know if it's worth your time. You just look at it and see what's going on. I mean, it's like couponing or something else. How much time are you going to invest in this?

Are you going to make 22 cents on what's going on? And is there something else going on? Are they collecting data on you that you don't want them to have? I kind of get tired of Big Brother. Unplug the Lexus. You scared me. But you've got to be careful about that. But just be thoughtful.

And what's the return on your time? Is it worth fooling with? This is the Dave Ramsey Solutions, Chase and Allison are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Hey, Dave. Great. How are you? Better than I deserve.

Welcome. How much debt have you all paid off? All right. Our total is $540,000. Oh! Where are you guys from? We're from Boise, Idaho. $540,000 might buy a little bit in Boise, Idaho, man.

It bought a lot of stuff, I guess. That's amazing. Well, welcome to Nashville. It's good to have you. How long did it take you to do this? It took three years and 11 months. Wow. Almost four years.

And your range of income during that time? We started off right about $100,000, and now we are just recently over 400 well there's a nice jump you guys have a story in here somewhere what do y'all do for a living well i'm a physician and i work as a gis analyst for an engineering group ah okay very cool so the physician income kicked in during this time i'm guessing yep. Yep. What type of physician are you? I'm emergency medicine. Oh, okay. Lots of hours.

Yes. Yeah. And thus, lots of money. Yes. But there we go. It works that way. So what kind of debt was the $540,000? Med school?

Yes. We had a little bit of everything, but a lot of school. So we had about $42,000 were cars. $18,000 was credit card. I got a $10,000 school relocation loan to move like three miles away from where I was living. They gave me a whole $10,000. I'm sure it really helped you out. And then we had a little over $300,000 in school loan debt.

And then we sold a house that we became landlords by default, which was about $170,000. Wow, okay. So was the whole student loan debt yours, or Chase, was some of it yours? Yeah, there was probably about 80 was mine, but most of it was Allison's. Okay, all right, cool. So I'm guessing maybe you got married four years ago. Yes, we did. That's kind of where it started.

My job, I was able to listen to the podcast. And one day I just saw some financial podcast. And that's kind of where I started listening. And I mean, it was just amazing. Some of the messages I was hearing was a lot of we make a lot of money, but we feel like we're living paycheck to paycheck. And I think just looking and knowing we were getting married, I didn't want that to be us when we got into our 40s and looking back and going, where did all of our income go?

So ultimately, I read The Total Money Makeover, and in my mind, I blew through the book in two weeks. And then I gave it to Allison. She was on board. She read it in about 12 hours and uh you know from there she read it she redefined blowing through the book okay so she uh she read it and she was on board and yeah and so you sat down together how long had you all been married when you started this about a month oh okay so this is like you we came home

and you came home from the honeymoon and you pile all this debt up on the table and you're having an oh-my-God moment. Well, we had the discussion when we were dating. You know, we had that kind of... Just so you know, I have a lot of school loan debt.

I hope... You know, is that a problem? You know, that kind of discussion. And then I was fine just working. I was planning on paying it once. I was out of residency. But really, Chase brought it up and showed me that we...

Why don't we start this now? Yeah. Very cool. Well, you had a pretty good income starting now. Yeah. I mean, 100 income between him and residency. Yeah, not bad at all. So, I mean, that's way above average.

Definitely. Then now you're in the stratosphere. How old are you two? We turned 36 this year. And you have a $400,000 income and no payments. Did you pay off your personal home? No, we everything but the personal home yep the rental's gone and all the other stuff wow exactly good for you guys how's it feel it's amazing it is it's the whole financial peace portion is it's an understatement i i don't even have words to describe it except

for true true peace This definitely was something that weighed on us and woke me up and kept me working hard and picking up extra shifts. And it's just so nice to know that that is done. And now what we do, we do. And now we, more than ever, we really understand what contentment is and just being content with what we have. And we realize we don't need to go out and buy stuff to be happy. I mean, we can now, but we just, we're happy with what we have and we realize we don't need to go out and buy stuff to be happy. I mean, we can now, but we're happy with what we have. And that was probably the biggest thing is just it changes your character going through that process. It sure does.

Wow, very insightful. You know, you guys are well aware we have a student loan epidemic in America, but sometimes I think when I walk through a hospital and i see a doc or a nurse that's under 50 years old i almost always see this cartoon of stuff around their neck totally in my mind you know i mean a lot of them are carrying a lot of weight for decades yes before they get out from under it and you did it in four years that was kind of we are actually about to start our first fpu class we start monday oh wow we're coordinating yes thank you yes and um i've reached out to the people i work with in the

hospital as our first um people to go through because i see exactly what they're going through what we went through and then our house is going to be very full yeah well you got quite a story to tell it's very compelling you know you pay off pay off five hundred forty thousand dollars in four years. Somebody ought to listen to what you have to say. You know, you've got credibility. Wow. Well done, you guys. Very well done. Very proud of you. Did you have people cheering your own or people saying you were crazy? A little bit of both, I think. Definitely. We had some cheers. My mom's here with us. She definitely cheered us on.

Chase's family cheered us on. There were some people in the medical field that thought we were nuts, that we didn't buy a house right away when we finished residency and moved. Normal doc-itis. Yep, exactly. And so I think just changing that mindset, showing them that that's okay to change that mindset. Yeah.

It's not like you're living that way forever. No. It's not rocket science. It's just you've got living that way forever. No. It's not rocket science. It's just you've got to sacrifice. Yep. For the goal. You're right. You're right.

It's easy to understand and hard to do. Exactly. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's retire-inspired book for you. I want that to be the next chapter in your story, which with your numbers, there's no doubt it will be, that you'll be millionaires, multimillionaires, and outrageously generous along the way. You're already paying it forward, teaching a Financial Peace University class. Thank you for doing that.

Thank you, Dave. Well done. Chase and Allison, Boise, Idaho, $540,000 paid off, sold a condo, and the rest of it was debt. Oh, man. Four years it took them, making $100,000 up to $400,000 paid off, sold a condo, and the rest of it was debt. Oh, man. Four years it took them, making $100,000 up to $400,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Quick shout-out to my cousin, Ben.

He'll be debt-free in two months. $62,000 paid off. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Boom! Boom! I love that. I absolutely love that. Very well done. Very well done.

Man, oh, man, oh, man. Thanks for jumping in. Dave, I noticed you play Wilco ever so often for your re-intros on the show. You went from cool to uber cool in my book. Jason, I appreciate that on Twitter. I had absolutely nothing to do with it, so you can just leave me at cool. You can put James Childs at uber cool. He does all of the bump music here and has quite the little repertoire.

If you're not careful, he'll put a message in the outro of a segment to the last caller or something. He's been known to be downright mean doing that, but he definitely knows his stuff and definitely brings the cool factor to the show. Amanda is with us in Washington, D.C. Hi, Amanda. How are you? Try again. Amanda, did I push the button right?

Amanda. Well, let me try. All right. Maybe I messed it up, but maybe I didn't. Oh, she's not there. Okay. Good. I'm not losing my freaking mind.

All right. Lisa's on Facebook. Dave, what's the best way to do a will? Well, you can get an online will service, something like LegalZoom, if you want. It's very inexpensive to get started. $30, $40, you can get a will. You want to do an in-state will, a state-specific will, because the probate law that dictates estates is state law.

It's not federal law. And it changes from state to state. For instance, Louisiana, their legal system is very French-based. And, you know, where the majority of the rest of the U.S. is, of course, English-based legal system. And, you know, California's crazy. Florida's a little nutty on estate planning. Texas has got some weird real estate laws with Homestead. And so you need to do stuff that's state-specific.

The state you are living in when you die, you should have a will done that fits that state's laws. Very, very important to do. And so start with something like a legal zoom. And as you get further up in your net worth and you've got millions of dollars, you're definitely going to want to get a good estate planning attorney at that point. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thanks for joining us. Corey is with us in Montgomery, Alabama. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Corey.

Hey, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. How can I help? So I had two jobs, and now I only have one. I lost one of my jobs. And I was wondering if I should focus on increasing my own video production business for more income or try to focus more on getting another job because I want to go back to school, but I need a car, too, and I need to save money,

and I'm reaching baby step one as we speak at the end of this month. Good for you. What's your age, sir? 27. Okay, cool. And your current job that you have left is a part-time job? It's full-time. I'm a media director at a church.

Oh, okay. And you're there five days a week? I'm doing work for them five days a week from home mostly. Oh, okay. All right. And so you can do video production on the side, and you would earn what, do you you think if you started up that company uh and before uh if i was hoping to get maybe starting off maybe an extra two thousand a month starting off hopefully okay so you just go out and get customers and you think there's you think you can gather up some customers definitely i have been ever since i got laid

off my other job so i've gained about three or four clients since then. Okay. And what have you made on them? About $1,200. Okay. A month or a total? A month. Well, this is the first month.

It's only been one month. Oh, okay. All right. So it is $1,200. So you're on your way towards $2,000. Okay. And so you seem to know how to get the clients. I don't know why you would do anything else.

I think you're making more money doing that than you would some part-time job, the quote traditional unquote part-time job. I mean, driving for Lyft or Uber or something. You can make more using your skills as a freelancer in addition to your full-time as long as it's not in any kind of an ethical conflict with the current main position that you have, and it shouldn't be. I mean, you know, if you're doing something where you're, you know, helping the competition, but in church, you know, we don't usually worry about that much. So the competition is the devil, right?

I mean, it's not the other church. So as long as you're not doing something for Satan worshipers, we're probably all right, you know. And I was also wondering because I want to go back to school and I just owe about $1,600 just to get back in. But I know by this time next year I might need a car as well. So I was trying to figure out what should I be putting money towards first. Well, I think you've got to figure out how quick can you limp along with this car longer in order to get out,

in order to get back into school. And what do you make at your full-time job? Right now it's about $2,100 a month. Okay, so you can get it to $4,100 a month with the other freelance gig going. I would want you to get this paid off and get back in school sooner than making that kind of money. Yeah. You get your income up to $50,000 a year.

You need to make some moves with it. You're 27 single. You shouldn't have any expenses. Great. Yeah, you're right. You got debt other than the $1,600? Just about $2,500 on something. It's mostly the school that I owe.

Okay. Well, just clear them up and get to where you're on a really tight budget. Jump on EveryDollar.com, get your budget going, and really turn the screws in on that. And when you do, then, hey, we're living life to do two or three things. Let's get this debt paid off. Let's get back in school and get this little car upgrade going. And I think you can do all of that on 50 grand by this time next year 10 10 000 bucks answers most of your equation dude and you just talked about moving from 1200

to 2000 that's more than 10 000 in a year so you know just crank the crank the screws down on this budget and let's you know quit going out to eat quit running around let's just bear down i can't go i'm on a budget i'm trying to get back down. I can't go. I'm on a budget. I'm trying to get back in school. I can't go on that vacation with you guys. I'm sorry. I've got to do this. I can't go.

I can't go. No, I can't go. Because I've got something bigger to live for than the moment. And you start to have a vision for your life where there is no vision. The people perish, the Bible says. Jason is with us in Silver Spring, Maryland. Hi, Jason. How are you? Hey, Mr. Ramsey, what a

pleasure to get to chat with you, actually. You too. How can I help? Yeah, so I was actually just explaining to the lady earlier, actually, I'm sorry, I'm extremely nervous to be chatting with you. No troubles. So I currently earn about 40, well, exactly $43,000 a year. Dropped out of school because I had gotten into a $63,000 hole pursuing a marketing and IT degree. And so I actually am 20 years old, live at home with my parents and actually work from home as well. So my expenses are minimal. Fork out about $500 a month automatically towards my ACORNs account, so mutual funds, and $540 minimum payment every month towards my current student loans. So that leaves me after tithing and everything with about $1,200 left at the end of every month. And I was actually

wondering if you would suggest that I put that directly towards paying off my debt, or I actually also, like I said, I've worked in the digital marketing space before, and I think I could potentially, just like the gentleman actually you were just chatting with, increase my income to about $2,000 to $2,500 a month in the next maybe six months. So I guess the question is, should I use the leftover money I have every month to invest and potentially increase my income and in turn pay off my debt quicker, or should I just fork it directly towards the debt?

What have you got to invest in to go make money in digital marketing? Well, right now, actually, my freshman year of school, I actually started a small e-commerce store. From there, I actually moved, and that actually made some money. You know, I didn't have too much to put into it. I was working retail at the time. And working in that, I actually learned a lot in digital marketing, and I started picking up clients. What do you have to invest in that you need money to invest in?

Your sweat and your brains ought to do this. Yeah, so right now, actually, what I would be doing is actually putting it into my own dropshipping store. Dropshipping doesn't require investing. Well, if I was investing into visitor marketing, so let's say running Facebook ads, things like that. Okay. Well, you shouldn't have to systematically invest on those. Those ought to give you an ROI or you shouldn't be doing them. In other words, if you put out $1,000 for Facebook and it doesn't make you $2,000,

you need to quit doing it. Exactly, yeah, yeah. So one time to prime the pump and get something going on that, fine. But after that, the cash ought to grow organically in the business to pay its own way. In other words, if the business is rolling, I'm not going to drain it. I will use some of the cash flow for the business to reinvest and keep the business moving once we've got the pump primed. But the initial time you do it, it's going to be out of your pocket. So if you made $3,000 a month, but your cost of operating the business in ads is $1,000 a month, your net is $2,000.

Right. And that's all you've got to work with is your net, because you've got to roll your costs back in or you're back out of business again. Right, right. So run it off the profit of the business after you do your reinvestment once the business is running so pull all profits after reinvestment back into the operation of the business which could be some inventory if you actually stocked something but it sounds like more than anything else it's just repriming the facebook or google adword or whatever you're buying that's keeping the thing moving on

a digital seo basis so you're fine there that's cool go do that did you say acorn account earlier i did actually yeah i drove by that and i hit a speed bump and why are you doing an acorn account when you're broke um honestly it's uh it's the equivalent of a savings account for me i know um you need a thousand dollars sitting in an emergency fund not an acorn account and then after that you need to start attacking this debt. ACORN doesn't fit into this equation. You get $63,000 of student loan debt, young man. That's what you need to be focusing on.

It isn't going to be done with ACORNs. So, no, you just set that thing aside. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's just not doing anything for you. You need to have your emergency fund and then be nosed down on this debt, clear this debt up, and that's going to set you up to win long term. So, hey, thank you for the call. We appreciate you joining us. This is the Dave Ramsey Show.

Dave, is it wiser to rent or have a mortgage? When you're broken in debt, it's wiser to rent. When you buy a house and you're broke, the house becomes a curse, not a blessing. Broke people buy houses. You know what it makes them? Broker. That's why they call them mortgage brokers. Don't do that.

Save up your money, get out of debt, build your emergency fund, and then buy a house with a good, strong down payment. Over the course of your life, if you're handling your money properly, better off to have a mortgage, better off to get a home paid for. But otherwise, no. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. Hey, it's Blake Thompson, Senior Executive Producer for the show. You know, you can listen or watch anywhere with the Dave Ramsey Show app on your smartphone.

Catch the full show or watch the highlights and check out Dave's upcoming guests. Head to the App Store and download it today.