The Ramsey Show - App - Avoid "Swipe Anxiety" By Removing Debt Permanently (Hour 3)

Episode Date: May 14, 2024

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, number one best-selling author of the book Paycheck to Purpose, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. It's a free call. Some say the advice is worth exactly what you pay for it chelsea's with us she is in cincinnati hi chelsea welcome to the ramsey show hi thanks for taking my call sure what's up

so i'm married my husband and i are on the same page with working through the baby steps right when we always tackle step one it's there's always some type of an emergency. Is there anything I can do as a mostly stay-at-home mom to help build our income so we can actually get further through these baby steps? Yeah. Let's start with, do you have any work experience outside of the home to this point? I do. I currently work part-time at my church as the elementary coordinator, making $11,000 a year.

But I am also, I used to be a hairstylist and I'm still licensed. Interesting. How much time do you have during a day and a given week with your stay-at-home mom duties being involved here? How much time do you have to be able to put towards making money? Well, my husband is always home by five. I mean, I've even thought about working somewhere from like five to 11 p.m. or something like that. There is time and I do have help with the kids. Good. So here's the answer. You get to choose. I'm not going to tell you what it is, but I would keep it super simple. This is not a career move. This is short term. Let's get

some income in the door. And so I would be looking at experience and skill first. That's why I led with that question. So the work you're doing for the church, you could certainly chalk that up as coordinating children's activities or some administrative work there. You could call it whatever you want. looking at through my experience and skill if cutting hair uh in the evening hours is the best rate you can make based on skill and experience i'd be doing that the fact that you're licensed that feels like that's right for me because uh you probably can make the most bang for your buck on that correct absolutely i gotta tell you uh my wife does the old cut and color, and that takes hours.

The other day she told me how long she was in the chair or wherever they're at. And so finding— Wherever these mysterious things occur. Exactly. It's like a long time. I had no idea. Anyway, here's my point. Having what I would call prime time hours in the evening for moms who are really busy during the day,

you might be able to have a really nice little business going. And if you can do it from home and not have to rent a booth or their home, oh, my goodness, Dave, that's even better. That's like the house calls. So I would start that direction there because you are offering now a convenience. Yeah, and then people pay big for this. I like the prime time hair. So here's the point. Anything in your experience and skill set.

I pay a lot of money for my hair. Well, yeah. I mean, a lot. Can you imagine? Dave hates using that Flobie. He'd love for somebody to cut his hair at night. What is a Flobie? You don't know what a Flobie is?

Tell him what a Flobie is, Chelsea. This is going to be great. I don't know what a Flobie is. How many people in the studio audience know what a Flobie is? Chelsea. This is going to be great. I don't know what a Flobie is. How many people in the studio audience know what a Flobie is? Raise your hand. The bald guys do. All the bald guys. So a Flobie is, it is essentially a hair-cutting device, Dave,

that you attach to a vacuum and you adjust the length. It's like a clipper, if you will, but it sucks up the hair and you do it yourself. I can't believe you don't. It's like in the same line of the Chia Pet. They kind of buy it on TV, you know, as seen on TV. Am I right? You're killing me here. I know.

See, a little bit of joke and no one got it except for the entire audience. Yeah. Okay. Dave and Chelsea didn't get it. Anyway, Chelsea. Does that help? Chelsea, for God's sake. What's your husband do?

So he does construction and remodeling. Okay. And so he could do a lot after five and on the weekends also to get your income up. So he does construction and remodeling. Okay. And so he could do a lot after five and on the weekends also to get your income up. Lastly, the thing that I discovered is, well, let me just first, let me guess and say you all have not been doing a hardcore every dollar budget more than two months. Yes. True? True. Okay. more than two months yes true true okay because the longer you have been budgeting the fewer the more things you anticipate that you used to call emergencies i used to call christmas an emergency

and then i discovered it's always in december so um you know and that kind of stuff. And you go, oh, wait a minute. Tires on cars wear out. It's not an emergency. It's an anticipated event. Now it's a budget item. Kids, school, activity fees. I forgot them in the budget, which made them an emergency. But next time they're in the budget, so they're no longer an emergency. So what happened was the better I got at budgeting over the first year of doing a budget once a month, like 12 budgets in, I was like a thousand times better at not declaring everything I forgot to put in there as an emergency because I was no longer forgetting to put it in there.

Did that make sense? Yeah. So as you get better at this, the emergencies are going to subside. And it even gets better than that. Years from now, when you are debt-free and have your emergency fund in place and are starting to really build serious wealth, it takes a really big emergency to actually be qualified as an emergency because you've got so much margin then. That make sense?

That sounds great. Yeah, so that's where we're headed but that's that that's that's years from now months from now you'll just be a lot better budgeter and have gotten your income up those two things will solve the emergency problem and you'll get the other side of this and get moving so yeah your your good news is you're not afraid of work neither is your husband and works where money comes from so go get you some and and good news is it's temporary we're going to work like no one else so that we get this mess cleaned up so that we no longer have to work like no one else so we no longer have to do this crap and you can get out

and and change everything it's a big deal chelsea i love this idea of after a long day whether you're working outside the house or in the home i come to you you get to relax and i make you feel pretty i charge probably 15 i'm not even kidding oh above 15 to 20 i would just double it double it i don't know about that but you know what the going rate and people are cutting here double they got to get in their car, drive to some stinking place, put up with a bunch of other stuff, including traffic. And otherwise, they make themselves a martini and sit down and she shows up at their own home.

I'm telling you, this is double. Facebook poll. Facebook poll. Find out. Just saying. Just do some research. Because I'm an expert on hair, so leave me alone. I was going to say.

Mr. Floby. Look it up. Kim Floby Coleman. Look it up. some research i'm an expert on hair so leave me alone i was gonna say mr mr floby look at floby coleman look it up i'm telling you if there was ever a hair cutting device made for the dave ramses of the world it was that oh man what is this like something oh they got it on it's like it's an infomercial thing it this is old school that's why i was i'm a child of the 80s that was like a ronco device yeah but look it's attached to the vacuum so there's no mess that's just and think about it dave you could go right on the side there i do cut my own hair with sam's clippers they came from sam's club they just right but you don't have about a minute and a half and i'm done yeah but you got a mess to

clean up get the flow b it sucks it right i need a flow b i guess who knew i didn't even i woke up this morning and i had no idea of my Flobie need. And now you have identified it. I'm letting the cat out of the bag, folks. That is the Ken and Stacey Coleman Christmas present for Dave Ramsey this year. We'll have to ask our next guest about this. Oh, I think he'd have a great opinion. Speaking of Chia pets.

Chia face? This is the Ramsey Show. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Stopping in the studio, my good friend Willie Robertson from Duck Dynasty. We've been hanging out this week a little bit, and he's got a brand new book out called Gosspeller, Turning Darkness into Light, One Conversation at a Time. Welcome, my friend. What is up, pal? So we were discussing flow bees and haircuts right before my friend the chia pet comes on.

So you actually had a chia thing. I did. Home Depot, I saw it. Yes, there was a little Willie. When Duck Dynasty was hot, you were a chia pet. Yeah, I should have just retired right then. I mean, if you get your own chia pet, you've pretty arrived you're topping out how do you get beyond that it's so good you show up at this thing and be on the show with dave ramsey and ken coleman yeah and ken coleman

now he's really talking about flobies yeah that's when you know your career has bottomed out my friend did you flow be yourself when you're in the 80s i had no idea he didn't know about it i had no idea i thought he got the settings wrong yes the joke that keeps on giving and got shamwowed or something on that that's true you just wish you were clean cut and well i'm hanging on as long as i can you just wish you were well i'm hanging on to that's right you did you cut most of it off and then i mean we went on a hunting trip and you showed up i hardly recognized my hair and yeah i was i was going through a weird time did cory not like it shorter or it was not her call she actually

did no she liked it that's what i thought she wanted me to keep it but um then i just started growing it back out and she goes what's happening are you is this kind of are you doing this again it's kind of the brand people kind of like it it's kind of the duck dynasty brand you're the duck man so gospeller let's change subjects here the uh most people associate you and your family your dad of course uh with hunting and duck calls and we know the fabulous hit of the duck dynasty whole empire that was created there this is a um an extension of who you of who you really are and for that matter who your dad really is correct and uh the the dna that runs through your whole family and you and i've had some great talks about god and uh and spreading

the word uh about him and spreading the word about him. And so to start with, let's talk about gospel. What in the world is a gospel? It's someone who shares the gospel simply. I didn't I'd never heard of the word. I was writing this book on sharing your faith and I had some other titles. And my wife came in and she said, I found this word. It's an old word that used to be used a lot, even in America,

and it's just kind of a dinosaur. It's gone, and it was people who shared their faith, and not necessarily pastoral. It was like normal people. They were known gospelers. And I thought, wow, that's awesome. And so in a way, I was like, let's bring that word back, because it's kind of interesting that the word went away.

And also I think people shared the gospel with other people perhaps has gone away. And so, yeah, brought back something that was old, that was new. And this is the DNA of the Robertson family. And I've never been more proud of a book, because this is what we're all about. And so, yeah, I was just proud to be able to write it down. So now we bring back the subtitle, Turning Darkness into Light, One Conversation at a Time. And you and I have hung out enough together in situations around the public

and around somebody we just met and those kinds of things that it is a conversation at a time, isn't it? It is. Now, that one was – you'll understand this day it's a mix of business in our life and so that subtitle i was trying to figure it out i was talking to andy andrews and he said you got to have a subtitle and i said i was trying to think of what this was i was working on another marketing campaign for a an optics product for buck commander and it's it's one that lights up a scope, and it said, Turn Dark to

Light, and I saw the whole marketing pitch, and I went, that's my subtitle. That's it, and so I got that from that, and then it was the one conversation, Turn Darkness to Light, and I feel like that's probably the melding of the Robertsons. It's the melding of business with our faith all together, because it's going to be impossible to separate the gospel from really anything we do. It was at the core of the reason that the whole Duck Dynasty thing happened at the level that it did.

It was that it was, you know, your family's fun anyway and crazy. And so they make great TV tv especially when you include psy and um and but in the mix of all that we all got to see somebody that we could relate to and someone that we could relate to that was a people they're people of faith and they believed it and they live it and and it came through on the tv and that's i think that was one of the big attractions one of the big draws it was definitely i mean the part, and I don't know that the network or anyone ever saw that or was like, because it wasn't going to be,

it wasn't a religious show. Phil always wanted it to be. Phil said, we need more preaching on this show. I said, Dad, there's another Robertson family that has a show like that. It's called the 700 Club. Let them do what they do. Let's just have fun,

and we'll end with a prayer, and it's something that the whole family can watch. If they want to know more, if they want to go deeper, then we can have that conversation through books and through podcasts. And that's the way I am in life. I'm like, look, I'm not going to shove this down your throat. If you don't want to hear it, you don't want to hear it. But if you do, then we'll have a conversation,

and I'll certainly try to be prepared to be able to give an answer for the hope that I have. I want to ask you about that because this is certainly an interesting time for somebody who has faith and wants to share it. And there's also this natural fear of rejection. We humans have. Just if we ask anybody anything or we go up to somebody and start sharing something, and there's this natural fear of, are they going to be rude?

Am I going to upset them? There's a boldness that Phil has modeled, and I've heard you talk about it. What do you share in the book? What would you say to somebody listening going, all right, I'm inspired, Willie. I want to share my faith, but I'm not even sure how to build up that courage to share it and let that conversation go wherever it goes. Yeah, I think you've got to – I make the case in the book for I really think Jesus – be the whole deal is to share it. So when he leaves the earth, he gives us the great commission, right? And he says, make disciples, baptize people, teach people.

He didn't say, try to go to church whenever you can, try to be a good person. That's not a mission. He gave us a pretty good mission there, three things. And a lot of people I know, they're not anywhere near those three things. And so I wanted to live my life where I'm like, I want to be around those three things. And a lot of people I know, they're not anywhere near those three things. And so I wanted to live my life where I'm like, I want to be around those three things. I have to open my mouth to do any of those three things. That's orders from headquarters. That's what Jesus told us to do. That's why he was here, not for himself. And you've got to understand in the Bible, in the New Testament, these were people who were going to most likely lose their lives

over sharing their faith. And so when I think about what we do today in America, it's a whole lot easier than it was then. You know, we're talking about getting the courage. But I think we've kind of bought into perhaps the lie of the world, which is, hey, why don't you just keep that to yourself? And that's a great deal, right? If you're wanting the gospel not to get spread, you would just create this illusion that we should all just be silent about that. And I make different arguments about it's as natural as I would talking about my spouse or my kids. And those are questions that I ask all the time. People ask them of me. And so again, it's just, those are relationships that I have. And so I'm going to talk about my relationship with Jesus. It should be quite obvious and clear how I'm living by how I'm

living my life. And that should be the natural next thing to talk about. Yeah. It should be part of just kind of the rhythm. Yeah. Rather than something that's forced or strained or whatever. It doesn't have to be weird. Yeah. No.

It doesn't have to be strange. Again, if people don't want to, if they're like, look, I don't want to talk about it, I'm like, hey. Whenever you do, I'll be here. That's right. How many times have you seen in your own life where you'll mention your faith and somebody didn't really want to receive it? You let it go. You said a moment ago, I don't force it down their throat. But then they come back at a time when they needed it.

They think about it. And they're like, man, you said something. I've had people say, you said something to me a year ago. Yeah, exactly. And it's never. But that's part of the Holy Spirit, right? And we were talking about things that live in us. And that's never, but that's part of the Holy Spirit, right? And we were talking about things that live in us. And that's another great testimony.

Even what we think we can't do, now something else is living in us that certainly has the power to get that message out. And so, yeah, some of these conversations take, I've been talking to people for 20 years about this, you know, and they're not all stranger encounters. Like this can start with your kids, your spouse with your aunts uncles the people you sit by at work and just listen to what they say and oftentimes you'll hear something come up and you're like ah there you go that's what you know i just heard something had a guy come up to him in the airport the other day in atlanta he goes i know who you are and i said oh nice to see you and he goes you know i'm not living like i'm probably should be and i just i said why would you say that to me?

He goes, I don't know. And I said, well, have a seat. And so that was obvious. He literally said to me, I'm not living how I should. And so something was wanting to come out of him, and we had a 30-minute conversation about it. Yeah. The book is Gospeler, Willie Robertson, one who spreads the gospel that is not necessarily a preacher, a pastor, a

staff preacher, not church staff. There we go. Out today, wherever books are sold. Yeah. Brand new release. Hey, you want to hang with us? Because this debt-free scream's got something to do with you. Ooh, I want to hear this one.

All right. This is The Ramsey Show. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. A brand new co-host for this segment. We let him stay over one. Willie Robertson is with us because Jonathan and Lindsay

are on the debt-free stage in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions to do their debt-free scream. And so I know the answer, obviously, but I'm going to ask for the rest of everybody else. Where are you guys from? West Monroe, Louisiana. I like that place. There we go.

And the reason we let Willie hang out is, if I understand correctly, Lindsay, you are Corey's personal assistant. Yes, sir. Corey's everything. She manages everything. It's good to have a Lindsay like that. like that so uh cool what do you do jonathan i work for a rental company in westman road louisiana excellent excellent how much debt have you guys paid off around 64 000 in seven months good for you way to go and your range of income during that time 135 cool very cool excellent

proud of y'all. Yeah. Way to go. So what got you started on this Ramsey stuff a year ago? Well, we actually went on a beach trip that we could not afford. And I was stressed out the whole time. I was like, we should not be here. We do not need to be doing this.

And we just looked at each other. I was like, I can't live like this anymore. We've got to do something to change. It just was not fun. I was like like we're supposed to be on vacation but we were trying to keep up with everybody we've all done that vacation oh yeah i mean we've all done why didn't you just put on a credit card and pay it later oh wait i'm sorry oh no we did that was the problem we did yeah so how'd you get connected to us through church really um nathan and amanda shout out to them at um at our church got us in financial peace and the pastor really talked about it a

couple weeks before that lindsey was like preaching on margins and financial margins and lindsey's like look we got to do something and i could just feel the stress and anxiety she was going through i was like all right let's we'll give it a shot we got to change something so yeah we got into financial peace university and after the first um class we were hooked we were like we've got to do this i think this is the way to do it but actually we started off that class really bad because two weeks before that we had just closed on the house oh wow and we were like oh shoot two weeks later we went to disney too yeah we were like it's like eating chocolate cake the night before you go on a diet what is this yeah yeah so we really started off wrong but we stuck to once we got back we just hit paying all the debt as quick as possible and we stuck to it so

what kind of debt was the 64 000 it was we had saint season tickets we had credit cards we had a truck loan and we had to land you were kind of normal yes we were very normal normal sucks it does did you sell anything oh we sold plenty of things we sold everything the kids even over there they thought they were next i love it they were dave ranzi may have been a cuss word early on but maybe but they they understand what the future may hold for both of them so everything's good yeah we put our camper on the chopping block and we were just like we're done what about the saints tickets those were gone too oh wow i know that we actually held on to them for the season and sold every single game we did not go to a game but we made money and that helped pay towards our debt

there you go i know they cut their food budget because lindsey would look like a vulture at my refrigerator after i would cook a meal she would be just hanging around like willie what'd you cook today that's not fair because you actually are a great cook no no i mean you don't have to be you don't have to be vulturing to want to eat your food he cooks for 100 and there's 40 people there he just sits in the fridge so somebody's got to eat it because there's no stopping him once he gets going no no i'm like are you headed out of town i'll take the leftovers home the entire refrigerator yeah yeah well hey whatever it's what we it's what you got to do so you scratched and clawed and for uh seven months really leaned in chop camper on the

chopping block put the tickets up for sale the whole deal and uh resold or however you want to say it and and now you're free was it worth it oh every bit of it wouldn't change no it was great i think you're heroes i think you changed your family tree and i think you learned god's and grandma's ways of handling money and you're like grown-ups and stuff and we need more people like y'all. Yes, and a little shout-out to Willie, too, just as this is his book release, but we're hoping to share our faith. God showed up for us more times than we can count.

We tithe for the first time consistently. That was the first thing your lesson said was to give, and we thought we weren't going to be able to, but we put that in our budget first, and we've done it ever since the very beginning and that has changed our life like we have had god show up more times than we can count and i just think that that's helping us share our faith and be a gospel to the world so we're really excited yeah amen amen that's a good tie-in very well done very very well done what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? She's probably going to say the budget, but communication, because money was a conversation we would never have.

I call it swipe anxiety. You just swipe that credit card. You think about it later. Then that anxiety just builds and builds and builds, and you don't even want to talk about it. It was one thing we never, never talked about, and ever since the communication, it's an easy conversation to have. Has that bled over into other issues that are tough to talk about no yeah yeah we can talk about anything yeah it's really been helpful yeah good for y'all glad it impacted your marriage and i'll say the budget yeah i love to

see it and we got to one point during the week and we hadn't spent any money and i was like babe we got to go grocery shop i gotta do a budget i gotta be able to put all the little bubbles that come up on the premium edition she likes to put them in places so she gets upset when there's nothing there that she can't move but that's always a good thing when you ain't got the bubbles up there yeah that's a good thing so the every dollar app is uh part of the rhythm then part of the rhythm every day very cool very cool all right let's bring the kiddos up and introduce some of their names and ages because they're part of the program here and they got mom and dad that are hero you've changed your family tree guys i'm proud of you

this is finley kate and this is douglas she'll be 11 this month and he is eight okay douglas no more cussing about dave ramsey he's like what are you talking about i never said. He's like, what are you talking about? I never said that. He's like, Dave, let me see that smile. Yeah, Dave Ramsey equaled no for a while. Did they get involved? How did they get involved in this? Well, we kind of cut back on some of the things they did, and we actually just taught them, like, look, we're doing this for a short term.

Later in life, it'll be prosperous because we got some great parents of mine that are really good to them and generous to them and i'm saying look let them be generous to you right now take it all and then we can be generous to you later with your kids so that's what we've been telling them yeah live like no one else so later you can live like no one else no doubt exactly no discipline seems pleasant at the time but it yields a harvest of righteousness and they've done a great job to just go with the flow and they've got to still do their thing so they're happy they don't look like they're they're i think they're getting by i think they're getting by everything's okay good thing uncle willie was there to feed them i'm just saying yeah there we go good stuff y'all i'm proud i'm glad they deducted that and not that their boss is just paying more money well hey that's a good way yeah i mean if

you feed them you don't have to pay oh yeah here's your bonus in a turkey leg you know that's it there we go what is the go-to willy item what's the best thing you cook oh pizza's pretty good pizza homemade pizza he made some uh he made some we shot those pheasants he made some pheasant chili that i heard was pretty outrageous what and then pheasant uh pheasants. He made some pheasant chili that I heard was pretty outrageous. What? And then pheasant dumplings. Remember, I got on that pheasant dumplings kick for a while.

I love cooking with crawfish. It's crawfish season. You missed out on that the other day, by the way. Yeah, I missed the crawfish party. So, yeah, I do all kinds of things. Yeah, yeah. You never know. He's a multi-talented dude.

I know. Best-selling author. Here we go. I want the chili and the dumplings. Yeah, yeah, you never know. He's a multi-talented dude. I know. Best-selling author. Here we go. I want the chili and the dumplings. Yeah, yeah, you do, I promise. My mouth is watering, and I'm not going to be able to finish this segment. All right, Jonathan and Lindsay, Douglas and Finley from West Monroe, Louisiana. $64,000 paid off in seven months, making $135,000.

These people are heroes. They changed their lives. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free. Yeah. Love it.

Way to go go you guys that is fun i think i think miss cory's got a good one there uh yeah she's awesome jonathan's great the whole family so i see them probably every day they're over and those kids from when they were little uh so they're over all the time. Yeah, great, great work. And they're hard workers. So this is not about them being not wanting to work. No, no. They obviously leaned in to this.

No question about it. That was a good yell, Dave. Hey. It was like that one time you made a birdie. You yelled like that. That one time. That one time once. Wow.

I don't know if it's just grumblings and anger over the bogeys. I hit the turf one day. He said, 8-1-1, call 4-U-Dig. We've all been there. I'm just saying. Thanks for dropping by, Willie. This is The Ramsey Show. Our Scripture of the Day, 2 Corinthians 9.8,

And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. Benjamin Franklin said, It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it. And we have seen that, have we not? One of the pastors that was here the other day said uh you don't want you don't want the uh dnf in your column did not finish yeah great yeah that can happen andrew is in boise hi andrew welcome to the ramsey show hi thank you for taking my call. Sure. How can I help?

So my wife's student loans are going into repayment in February. They total a little over $51,000. Based off my current budget for what our income will be then, we should be able to pay them off in about 18 to 20 months. Good. My question is, I have the ability to take a zero interest wage advance for my work where I could take $6,000 that I could pay back in 12 months. And should I take that wage advance to put as a lump sum against those student loans? No. Keeping the time frame the same or shorter, hopefully trying to pay them off quicker and save some interest no and the uh because the interest is not that high on the student loan

during the period of time and the number of dollars is not worth screwing with the second reason is that if you god forbid die your student loans are forgiven. Your wage advance is not. If you're, God forbid, become disabled, your student loans are forgiven. Wage advance is not. So I'm not going to trade this. The only good features of a student loan debt and lose them lose them for this wage advance so you're thinking right i like the way you're thinking uh but you had you know those are two items and i'm not predicting that someone's death or disability please believe me i'm not the last guy to do that

but the uh um but the idea being uh uh if you actually figure out what's the what's your interest rate on the student loan? Yeah, the weighted average is about four and a half, but I would be putting it on loans that are about six individual ones. Okay, so it's $200 in one year that you would save. You have a $51,000 problem. A little over $4,000 based off of what I was calculating. Four percent of $6,000 is 24 is 240 on one year that's what you would save and so and and you're you know it's just not it's i i wouldn't screw with it for that because you

don't have a 240 problem you have 51 000 problem and you've already addressed that because you're leaning in, you're aggressive, you're focused, and, you know, so, but the good news is you're actually paying attention to any possibility that'll help me move the needle on this, and this is a possibility, and I'm glad you asked about it. I'm glad your mind is in a place where you would ask about it because you're paying attention, you're not trying to drag this out, you want to get it done as fast as you can. All of those are what's going to be the magic sauce, Andrew,

not the 0% on 6,000. And I wouldn't trade that for the extra risk you're taking on, nor would I go through all the crap and hassle you've got to go through to do this and changes the relationship with your employer and all this stuff. I just wouldn't. No, I wouldn't fool with it. Let's just lean in and get her done, man.

You're sharp. Get her done. Get her done. Good question. Magdalene is with us in Detroit. Magdalene. I'm sorry. I can't say it right.

I'll get it out eventually. How are you, Magdalene? Hi, thanks for taking my call. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So my question is, I've heard you talk a couple times about how you guys were budgeting that you would never let your bank account balance go below $1,000,

and I was wondering, was that like your $1,000 emergency fund, or is that like you just tried to never let your bank balance go below that number? That would have been in a different world when if you kept a thousand dollars in your checking account they didn't charge you any fees today that's not necessarily true um and i would not worry with keeping that much you know you want to keep something in there just so you don't accidentally slip into an overdraft or something so a hundred bucks maybe but i don't know why you would need to keep a thousand i would keep your one thousand dollar baby step one emergency separate from your checking account okay and then maybe keep a hundred bucks in the checking

account today that's how that's what we're doing today with people using every dollar is recommending they're going that way and so uh ken you and stacy have been doing this a long time what did you do back in the day uh well back then same deal i think we were stacy was monitoring what we would the minimum we'd have to have in our checking to get free to get free yeah and so that became a credit union it's free anyway that's right so so our zero-based budget was based on that number so zero down so we budgeted every dollar to that number when we say a zero-based budget we mean give every dollar of your check that's coming in folks a name we don't mean give every dollar that's in your account a name right you don't take your checking account

to zero every month that's what magdalene is she's correct about that and i used to just use back in the day i mean this is 30 years ago. We kept $1,000 in there because in those days bank fees were crazy. But nobody writes checks anymore. So we had free checks. Back then, if you did that, and you got a free toaster and a knob cutting. It was like, golly. I was going to say really quick, I remember when I first started working, I was afraid to let my checking account get below $1,000. This was before any kind of – it was just me. I was going to say really quick, I remember when I first started working, I was afraid to let my checking account get below 1,000.

This was before any kind of – it was just me as a kid. Yeah. But it made me feel better to have that in there. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Dave and Lynn are in Los Angeles. Hey, guys, how are you? Hi, doing well. Cool.

How can we help? So I am actually questioning whether or not we should delay baby step number two and focus on baby step number three for a potential job layoff. No, but you could pause baby step two and just not be in the total money makeover and pile up cash. If you're pretty sure you're going to get laid off, if you're just generally a worry wart, no. So what's the probability you're losing your job well the company has had three rounds of layoffs this year this last calendar year so yeah but how many how many employees do they have and how many did they lay off they laid off about 10 percent

okay in three rounds yes so three So 3% per round? Correct. What would make you think you're on the chopping block? I've worked there less than two years. That's one of the criteria that they're using to lay people off that hadn't been there? That's typically the case. And seniors may play a role. Yeah. It usually does play a role depending on the thing.

Now, are you hearing any news or is this just water cooler gossip? So, I mean, I follow some threads and things like that, but I do know for a fact those three rounds occurred, and I happened to survive all three. So what is the industry that you're in? In IT, cybersecurity. Okay, so why do you think this company is going to continue going down? I think the development of new technologies and AI has kind of actually put,

they've invested more in future technologies and less in employees, and they're trying to do more with less, I think. Is this a large company? The economy. It is. Public? Public company, yeah. Yeah. So there's a trend right now when you look at stock price for these companies, when they invest heavily in either talent, they'll overhire. And we saw major companies, Dave, lay people off, big technology companies, because'll overhire and we saw major companies dave lay people off big technology companies because they overhire when they think that economy is going to go crazy on the line then she could be okay i think it's here's the point should she stop everything and pile up cash i would okay just for about night you know is she still like how how long would make you feel comfortable if you were to pile up cash? How many months worth of expenses would make you feel good about it?

I mean, I definitely think a solid four or five months would be good. No, that's not the answer. You don't keep doing this. You only keep doing this until you're not worried anymore about being laid off, that you don't think there's a high probability. There's always a probability, but you don't think there's a high probability. There's a storm. You go inside and you batten up until the storm passes then you come back outside so when the storm passes you push play again take it back down to a thousand dollars yes and and that and until you're ready to do that you know you're not

ready to play so if you can't get some stability within a few months out of your company, you probably need to move on. Yeah. That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. We'll see you next time.