The Ramsey Show - App - Be Intentional and Rely on God to Multiply Your Efforts! (Hour 2)

Episode Date: April 16, 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. This is your show. Thank you for joining us. Open phones this hour at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Kristen is with us in Los Angeles. Hi, Kristen. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hi there. I've been watching your show a lot for the past couple of years, so I'm really happy to be on here. Well, thanks. How can I help? Well, I do have mistakes that I have made throughout my college years and I ended up with $100,000 in debt. And unfortunately, I've had 20,000 of it go to collections the past four years ago. And after two years, they graced it and they forgave it. But my student loans have still gone to that $84,000 with those interest. And right now I'm trying to work on my mental health and I'm trying to balance what I should prioritize because I do work full-time at my job. My medical deductible is $1,800 and that looks about $108 a month that I'm paying to help my mental health, but that's coming out of the money that I would pay for my student loans.

Okay. What is wrong with your mental health? Well, I've lived most of my life with depression and ADD, and lately with this past year and everything that has gone on, I've had to prioritize it as a necessity, and it has helped, but it is something that's going to be constant every month, checking in with psychiatrists, counselors, and having to pay those bills in order to maintain it.

And so my monthly expenses, I only get like maybe $300, $400 a month that I can usually afford if I'm really being short on my money. And my student loans, they're expecting me to pay upwards to $250 a month total. And so that's usually the least amount of money that I have. So I'm trying to pick and choose what's the best option. Gotcha. Okay. How old are you? 29. What do you do?

I'm a photographer, actually, and I really love my job. And what's your degree in? I have a BFA in film media studies. Oh, good. Okay. So you're a photographer on video or still? My degree is particularly in broadcast production. What do you do for a living? Oh, I take pictures at Disneyland Resort.

Oh, okay, cool. So how many hours a week are you working at that? Full-time, it can usually range from 38 hours to 48 on a very busy week. Okay. And what is your income in a year? I approximate it at $35. Okay. All right. Well, as you can imagine, folks that struggle with depression or ADD at an extreme level, or ADHD, often have financial issues, bipolar in particular.

And so I've had the experience of working with folks dealing with that for many years, decades. I'm not a mental health professional. I don't know anything except just experience of watching this and dealing with it. The good news is that I've seen a lot of people deal with it and actually put it in their past, work past it, or work it down to where it is such a minor issue that it no longer runs their life, they run it. And that's in the process of what you're doing,

trying to get on top of this, and I commend you for that. Well done. Thank you. What I'm telling you is there's a lot of hope. The other thing I've seen is there's two sides to the money equation that affect both of those things. One is the cause and the effect. Okay. Meaning that sometimes depression obviously causes energy to drop, hope to drop.

And so there's initiative goes out the window sometimes. And so people don't work much, you know, that are depressed. Yes. And so that causes the income to go down and causes the money to have a problem. And then guess what? It spirals because when you've got financial stress, guess what? That's depressing. Right?

Exactly. Okay, so that's kind of one side of the equation the other side of the equation is i have actually seen a sizable increase in income be part of the fight to win against depression uh not that money makes you happy that's not the point but the lack of stress around life as related to money makes it easier to fight depression is that logical absolutely and so my recommendation not as a mental health professional but just as a guy who's walked with folks like you that are facing the kinds of things you're facing all these years is let's do something really really let's go crazy on the income side what can you do with that camera

and double your income in your off hours i want you to go bananas kiddo i have a feeling you are way underpaid for the level of talent you have looking through that lens you've not only been formally trained you have a passion for it you have an enjoyment with it, and I think you're probably better than $35,000 a year. Thank you. Do you? I think so. Prove it. Yeah, I definitely can start working my butt off and doing those.

Yeah, let's take side gigs. You're freaking in Los Angeles, let's take side gigs. You're freaking in Los Angeles. Let's take side gigs. Let's take pictures of dogs. I don't care what you're doing, but let's go turn that camera into money and see how exciting it would be to make $70,000, and then we're not pinching pennies and worrying about choosing between my counselor's bill and my student loan bill. Because a $500 a month income, that's only $6,000 a year, changes the entire question you just asked me, doesn't it?

Yes, yes, it does. And you're only working 38 to 48. Lots of people work $80,000. I don't want you to work $80,000 the rest of your life, but how cool would it be to make an extra $40,000 for the next two years and almost completely alleviate the student loan debt and maybe in the process find legs to what God wants you to do with that camera? Yeah, very true.

I'm going to send you a copy of Christy Wright's book, Business Boutique, because I'm not sure what your side hustle is, but it might be some kind of a thing where you're doing it on a self-employed basis, running your own business. I really think you're getting ready. This is real pivotal time for you. All that you've done has brought you to this point. And this stress may birth something really cool.

It may force you to go out of your comfort zone and go use that camera. Make some money. Unapologetically. Make some money. $10,000 in your hand extra would change your whole outlook. Only $10,000. Ah, you can do this. Hold on.

I'm going to send you a copy of Christy Wright's book. I really see big things for you. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. There's nothing smart about smartphones if your wireless plan is blowing your 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. to ensure you receive reliable coverage virtually anytime, anywhere. Plus, you can keep your same phone and number and add multiple lines to save more. We're so confident you'll love Pure Talk USA that we invite you to try our service risk-free. Visit puretalkusa.com or call 844-862-3677. Enter promo code SAVEDAVE and receive 50% off your first month. That's puretalkusa.com. Rebecca is with us in Champaign, Illinois. Hi, Rebecca. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. It's good to talk to you in real life.

You too. What's up? Well, my husband has a pressure washer, and we have neighbors interested in getting their siding, driveway, decks, et cetera, cleaned. And we're thinking this could be a good side hustle, and we're wondering if we should get licensed and insured to do a side hustle of this nature. No. No?

Okay. I wouldn't get insured if your local municipality requires a small business side hustle to get most of them don't require a license for that um now if you're opening up a full-time business with a location almost all of them require a business license but very few people i mean this is your husband with a pressure washer. There's not a, I mean, and somebody handed him a check, you know. And the only liability you would have is if you tore up something, but you really can't get insurance for that anyway. You've just got to fix it.

Okay, because I talked to somebody who said, who has this as their business, and they said, it's risky if you do this and he's uninsured because then you could be out thousands of dollars and go bankrupt and blah, blah, blah. For what? So I'm like, eh. For what? How are you going to get sued for it? Blowing a board off a fence?

I mean, put the board back up. Right, exactly. So I'm like, this guy's probably just trying to scare us into not doing it. Yeah, yeah. Well, or he's dealt with some weird clients, and so here's a good rule of thumb when you're running a side hustle like that on a shoestring without a bunch of insurance and a bunch of LLCs and a bunch of stuff like that. If you're dealing with someone at the front door and you're thinking this particular person may have issues, this one's going to be a problem. You know why you have that feeling? Because they're going to be a problem. That's why you have that feeling because they're going to be a problem

that's why you have that feeling trust trust your feeling trust the holy spirit speaking to you and going this child of god is one to avoid no thanks yeah because i mean those are the kind of people that dream up something to sue you about and so you know if i get somebody that's just weird we just don't deal with them and that way i don't have to deal with like weirdness on steroids later and so you know you don't hire them you don't you know you don't transact with them and then you don't have to deal with it later i'm under no obligation to deal with people who have issues it's not i mean i'll fire you as a customer you know i'm saying and you kind

of need to do that here because uh in the construction world there's you know there's three types of people people who are asleep people who are so anal they will drive you bananas and then there's normal regular people in the middle so you want to do all your work for the normal regular people are the ones that are asleep because they're not going to blow you up later, right? Right. That makes sense. Thanks for the call. Joseph is with us in South Bend.

Hi, Joseph. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for having me. Sure. What's up? So I'm a current junior in my undergrad studies studying computer science. I'm looking to go to graduate school.

In graduate school, I'm currently working at a technology retail company that offers tuition reimbursement and health insurance. But this summer, I was offered a research opportunity. Your phone, hey, for somebody with technology, you have a screwed up phone. You need to speak directly into your phone, please. I can't hear you. Yeah, sorry about that. So I was offered a research opportunity this summer and then also an internship. That would be more aligned with my career focus.

What is your career focus? Software. So why in the world do you need to go to graduate school in the software world? Well, it's more along the lines of machine learning and data science. Yeah. Unless you're going to teach it. That's okay. Unless you're going to teach it. That's okay. Unless you're going to teach it, I would get out there in the middle of everybody doing

it because I don't know. I mean, most of the people that are doing that, it's a brand new field. From what I've been looking for, like a job listing, so the things that I want to get into, it requires a master's degree. They want a master's degree in machine learning to hire you into that? Well, into the specific field that I wanted to get into, yeah. What is the specific field? So the data science.

I'm shocked. I've got 350 data engineers, platform managers, Ruby on Rails seniors. I've got tech people all through this building, and I doubt any of them have a master's. And we're doing cutting-edge stuff with Alexa, with Google, with everybody. I mean, we're working the data world wide open. I don't know. I mean, it may be there. Maybe I'm just not sophisticated enough to be at the level you're talking about. But I'm a little shocked that a master's degree is required.

So let's go back, though, and get away from my lack of knowledge and talk about what your real question is. You are working retail in the tech world's and they're furnishing you tuition and you're making how much about 16 000 a year doing that nothing okay how old are you i'm 26 and what is the tuition worth about five thousand dollars but after this semester i'll have used this year's up already so five thousand dollars a000 a year. So it's $21,000 a year job. And the other opportunity is to intern in the research realm that you are most interested in. Is that right? Well, there's a research opportunity and then also a separate internship. But both are more aligned with my career focus. Gotcha. And the internship pays how much?

About $1,250 an hour for about 10 to 20 hours. So it would be a decrease. Pretty sizable decrease. Yeah. In half. And so you go from $20,000, which wasn't much, to $10,000. Mm-hmm. Are you going to eat? Yes, I am.

How? Well, I will be getting the forty three hundred dollars for the research opportunity this summer okay fourteen thousand is the poverty level dude so i'm i don't i think you ought to do the research thing but i think you're probably working a side gig to be able to supplement for food i don't see you making i don't see you making on 10 to 15 000 a year i think you're you know if you run your budget out on what you would actually get home with but you're only working 20 hours right yeah and that would mean that i'd have more free time to work on other things as well outside of that yeah i think you can do some side hustles help people write apps and

do some contract stuff on the side and and you probably triple your income, you know, and control your hours. Yeah, and that's more what I was thinking about doing, too. Since it's my last year of studying, I want to focus on that and get some more time in the actual field that I want to be getting into. Yeah, use the skill set that you've already built and the skill set you're training in to do some side hustles for people, some data mining projects and some stuff like that. And you can probably walk into some medium-sized, maybe even some small businesses and really

make them some serious money by teaching them to do the basics of what you're doing, because a lot of them don't know how to handle their data. You know what I'm talking about, right? Yeah, I do. And I think you could be very valuable to somebody on the side. So I think the 37-year-old version of you is going to be really glad you take this internship and this research opportunity, but the 26-year-old version of you has got to eat. And I have about $15,000 in savings right now that I'd be able to supplement my income over the next year as well.

That's not that much. I want you to leave that alone and finish school and pay cash for school, and I want you to plan on a side hustle that makes $20,000 a year. Okay. If you do that, then I would take the internship, and I think that's what you should do, by the way. I think you need to follow your dream here. You have a dream, and it's in a wonderful field.

It's an emerging field. And you're going to make a lot of money if you keep using your brain in this. And you're going to have a lot of fun because you're right on the bleeding, cutting edge of this thing. So very, very well done. Companies that are not addressing that are not going to be open in a decade. So, hey, thanks for the call. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in.

We'll talk about your life and your money. The tech field is a wonderful field. Most of you that are entering the tech field, software engineers, you're writing code, you want to move into Ruby or Java or something like that, most of you, it is a hands-on thing and a certifications program on the fact that you can actually execute that line of code. And the four-year degree in information systems, unless you're, you know, gunning to be in leadership or management and not actually be a tech person is not necessary. And not to make a couple hundred a year in that field right now.

And so I do not look to see if somebody has a four-year degree in computer science when I'm hiring a programmer. As a matter of fact, it are you? Hi, Dave. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Adam and Bailey are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Hi, Dave. Hey, Dave, welcome. So glad to be here. Well, welcome. We're glad you're here.

Where do you guys live? We live in Bluffton, South Carolina. Which is where? It's about 25 minutes from Hilton Head. Okay, cool. Well, welcome to Nashville. Thank you. And all the way up here to do a debt-free scream.

Yes, sir. Absolutely. How much Nashville. Thank you. And all the way up here to do a debt-free scream. Yes, sir. How much have you paid off? Let's see, $32,883.60. Very cool. And how long did this take? 12 months. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? About $96,000. Very good. What kind of debt was the $33,000?

Dave, we were living pretty normal. We had a couple car loans, a few credit cards, and we hit some student loans here and there. So, yeah, just your average normal individual. Okay, cool. How long have you all been married? Gosh, 14 years. Okay. We didn't practice that question.

That's okay. No trouble. No troubles. So, what happened 12 months ago that lit this fuse? Well, our story with you actually started about eight years ago when we initially had some issues. A young married couple made some dumb decisions financially, had a house that we foreclosed on. And through about 2011 time period, we went through that entire ordeal, months and months of trying to go back and forth with the bank until we finally completed the foreclosure process. And it devastated us. It was

really, you know, it was tough on a young family with two kids at the time. And luckily the church that we were attending at the time had provided financial peace that January. So we decided, you know, we were tired of living the way we were. So we went ahead and took the course, loved it, you know, got some initial, got some initial feedback and positive results. But then we kind of ished our way through the next five or so years. And that's kind of where the real story picked up. So last January, he forgot to mention he's in the Marine Corps. And we had new orders.

We were at a new duty station, four kids now. And last January, 12 months ago, we were on the couch at bedtime, flipping through our phones, watching TV. And your Ramsey Solutions Nashville town hall came on. It was a Facebook live event. And so we were like, oh, Dave, we remember him. And so we started watching it again. And we just started communicating with each other what we wanted our goals and plans to be. He's coming up on retiring from the Marine Corps. What's our goals? What's our plan?

And we realized we had nothing. We had no money in savings, no plan. And so from that night on, we just hit the ground running. Wow. Wow. Yeah. So you drug out the old financial peace materials? We did.

Dusted it off our bookshelf and just got right back to work. And we were determined to do it for real this time. No more ishing. Okay. That's good. Very good. Well, thank you for your service. Appreciate that. And congratulations, you guys. Thank you. So who was your biggest cheerleader then outside the two of you? Well, we had a lot of cheerleaders in the family. It's kind of interesting for me. Halfway point, he probably doesn't realize it, but Chris Hogan wound up being one of my cheerleaders. So I'm stationed at Parris Island, South Carolina, where the recruit training happens for the Marine Corps on the East Coast. Chris actually came out to an event with a bunch of other civilian individuals last summertime.

I remember. And so I got to meet Chris and talk to him for a few minutes. And that was, again, that was about halfway through our current debt-free journey. So kind of told him my story. He gave me the Momentum Theorem coin and just kind of reinvigorated my passion and desire for this. So I've had that coin on my desk ever since. And it's just been a daily reminder that, you know, making sure that you're intentional in everything you do, but making sure that you rely on God to really, you know, multiply what you do.

And it has kind of kept me on track. Cool. Cool. Now, he walked through here a while ago. Did you all talk to him? We did. I got to see him. Good.

Because I saw him out there wandering around. I didn't know if you got a hold of him or not. We did. Good. Good. Very good. Very cool. Well, congratulations, you guys.

That is neat that you can have that coin laying there and go, okay, I got this. Absolutely. There's a good visual reminder sometimes is a nice list. Yes. Like when people put their thermometer on the refrigerator door or whatever, they're working their way up or down or whatever it is they're doing. Some kind of a thing like that always helps. That's very good.

And Dave, I wanted to tell you, we were coordinators too for you through our church. We just finished our class last Sunday. Oh, thank you. At Water's Edge in Beaufort. And so our class paid off $178,000. Wow, just during the nine weeks. Yes, sir. Wow. And the coolest thing that we like, out of

the 67 credit cards they started with, 61 credit cards were cut up and turned off before the end of the course. Oh, a lot of gazelles. We got 90% of them. That's pretty good. That's not bad. Well done, y'all. You're good coordinators. Thank you for doing this. So now that you're coordinator and now that you paid off $33,000 worth of debt, what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is?

Well, Dave, I know you won't believe this, but it's amazing what you can do when you have a plan. And, you know, but to have a plan, you got to have that why in your life. And that's kind of what Bailey and I, you know, sat down that night on the couch and figured out what our why was. You know, why are we doing anything? Coming up with the fact that, you know, retirement, that night on the couch and figured out what our why was. You know, why are we doing anything? Coming up with the fact that, you know, retirement, deciding there was time for us to change our children's future, you know, our family tree. You know, that was the why. And then you backwards plan from there. And then you make sure that you stick to the plan.

Yeah. Perfect. Bailey? For me, absolutely a dream, a goal, a plan, a why. You've got to have the budget. I mean, you've got to have it down. You've got to visually see. That was one of our problems.

Our money was just flying out the window. You've got to not only do it, you've got to stick to it. Yes, absolutely. That budget. You can't do it without the budget. Yeah, because you were making plenty of money. Right. It was sloppy.

Budget was just. We felt like we were living paycheck to paycheck. And when we looked at the numbers, we realized that we were deciding. We were choosing to live paycheck to paycheck. We didn't have to. No, no. Yeah. Every dollar has a purpose and a home.

Well done. And you brought the kiddos with you. We did. What are their names and ages? We have Xavier. He's nine years old. We have Eliza is seven. And then we have twin girls, Phoebe and Piper, who are four years old.

All right. Good old twins. We love twins. My wife's a twin. And those are identical, aren't they? They are. Beautiful girls. Beautiful family, you guys.

Well done. Thank you so much. Well done. Good. We got a copy of Chris's book for you. I'm sure you probably already have it. Everyday Millionaires and How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth and How You Can Too. That's your next chapter in your story to be millionaires now.

That's right. After the Marine Corps, you'll go on and do your next career. Life is great, man. Again, thanks for your service and very well done, you guys. We're proud of you. Thank you. Thank you so much, Dave. All right.

It's Adam and Bailey, Xavier, Eliza, Phoebe, and Piper, debt-free, paid off $33,000 in 12 months, making $96,000 a year. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! I love it. Welcome. Man, that's amazing.

That is fun. You got to love twins because one automatically raises her hands and screams, and the other one draws back. That's just the way it's supposed to be. That's perfect. I love it. Very, very cool. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com.

Find out for yourself why they're the number one online retailer of custom window coverings with free samples, free shipping. Use the promo code Ramsey at Blinds.com. Thomas is in Alabama. My wife and I are debt-free except for our house. We're currently on a 15-year mortgage, making additional payments, investing 15%. My struggle is with having a savings goal each month. So far this year, we've been saving around 4K a month.

Is that good or bad to save? And should all that savings go to our mortgage? Yes. So baby step four is you put 15% of your income into retirement. Five is kids' college. Everything else goes on the house until the house is paid off. You already have your emergency fund in place. That's maybe step three.

You should not be doing any additional saving beyond 15% of your income. It all ought to be going to five or six, or five and six. Five being kids' college, six being paid out on your house. You start reducing your house at $50,000 a year. That's $4,000 a month, $48,000 a year. You start reducing your house mortgage by that, you have the house paid off in 20 minutes, dude. It's going to happen so quickly,

and you're going to be in a really, really good place. Well done, Thomas. Very well done. And so, again, your savings should stop once you have your emergency fund. You do 15% investing, that's different than saving, into your retirement plans in the four types of mutual funds that we talk about. Growth, growth and income, aggressive growth, and international with long track records. Then you start your kids' college. No kids, no need for college, all that kind of stuff.

You skip that one, move on to Baby Step 6, start throwing the extra cash at the house. There's no additional savings. All that goes at the house. That's a Baby Step 6 item. So very good, very good. This is the Daveave ramsey show austin hi dave thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? I was calling my wife and I just finished financial peace a couple months ago.

We're working baby step two. A couple years ago, we bought our house on a normal 30-year mortgage and we're worried it may be too much house for us. We wanted to get your opinion on if you thought we should sell it and use the equity to continue baby step two and rent for a while, or if we should keep the house. You like the house? We do. Okay. How much is the payment?

It's on the 30-year. It's $1,683 right now. Yeah. And what's your take-home pay? $6,500. Okay. And how much debt have you got, not counting the house? $35,000 is what we have left.

On what? One car, which is about $19,000, and the rest is student loans. Okay. And you said your household is $6,500 a month take-home, so you're making $100 a year? Yes. Okay. Okay. How bought in are both of you?

Very. We are doing – my wife's a stay-at-home mom, but we are doing about anything. I mean, we're to the point where she's watching dogs right now to try to make some extra money and babysitting and i'm doing doing some extra stuff on the weekends everything we can budget committee meeting where you all sit down and apply this to your baby step two is going well yes yes you've got good agreement on this? Yes. No, I would not sell your house. Okay. Okay.

Let me tell you where my reasoning is, and then you can make your own decision, but I'll give you what my thing is. Okay? You guys are game on, number one. You're unified, game on, number two. I'm not trying to drag my wife along or vice versa. Okay? There's none of that going on. To the point that the two of you are both working extra and you're both communicating

and you're both willing to do whatever it takes. Okay? Those are the key data points that tell me you're going to win. Okay? You're doing a budget together. Third data point that tells me you're going to win. Your ratio of income to your other debts is a doable ratio in two years. You'll be debt-free inside of two years.

During the next three to five years, a normal path is that your income will come up. Maybe not dramatically, but it will creep up at least. Most people's income goes up as a trend line throughout their life. Sometimes that's not true, but most people, especially professional people, which you apparently are. Okay? So, anyway, all of that to say that when you are debt-free with your emergency fund in place, and by the time you start paying your house like a 15, it's probably going to be at about a fourth of your income then.

You follow me? Yes. And moving is very expensive, psychologically and financially. Okay. Yeah, my wife is also taking nursing school right now, which we're cash flowing, and she's got about three years left. But at the end of that, our account is gone. And at that point, you would add, you know, $50,000 to $75,000 to your income, and this becomes a no-brainer.

Okay. Yeah, so, I mean, the long haul on this is what worries me. Now, if you were kind of ish doing stuff, if the two of you weren't unified, if you weren't doing your budget, you're kind of wallowing around here, and you're maybe this and maybe that, and I'm working a job that's never going to give me anything except a cost of living increase, and my career's as boring as I am, and all that kind of stuff, right?

Then, you know, then this house could be a trap at that point. But I see you, today's numbers are a snapshot. If we were frozen in today, yeah, it's probably a problem. But life's not a snapshot. It's a film strip. And your film strip, the story's getting better every day. Agreed? Yes.

And that's how I made the decision to tell you my advice would be to keep your house since you like it. I wouldn't have bought it in this situation today, but it's not so ugly that you need to sell it. As a matter of fact, if you need to sell something to get the dynamite in the log jam and get things moving, it'd be the car. It wouldn't be the house. Okay. And I don't think you need to sell it either, by the way. Okay. Because it meets the guidelines of being debt-free inside of two years, and it's less than half your annual income.

Your total vehicle is very likely or less than 50 grand. Yes, they are. That's not out of line either. It's just you've been sloppy and disorganized, and now you're game on and you're cleaning up the mess. Yes, absolutely. How old are you guys, 35? 25.

Oh, you're ahead of the game. Wow, okay. Because the stuff you were describing was 35-year-old stuff. So perfect. Yeah, good. Good for you, man. Well done. That's what I would do, and that's why.

And why matters. Thanks. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Ricky is on the line in Nashville. Hi, Ricky. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you, Dave. Thanks for taking my call.

Sure. What's up? I plan on leaving my four-time job at the first of 2020 to run my own business. And I have probably around $25,000 worth of debt that I can pay off this year. And I was wondering, should I pay off the debt or save everything to leave my job at the first of the year. When are you starting? What kind of business are you going into? It's a lawn mowing business, lawn fertilization, and jobs like that. Okay.

Are you doing any of that now? Yes. This is my third year. So you have it of that now? Yes. This is my third year. So you have it going as a side hustle? Yes. Good. What are you making now? With the side hustle? Mm-hmm.

$35,000. Okay. And what do you make at your day job? $55,000. No, I'd get debt-free. All right. And the second thing I would do is I'd crank debt-free. All right. And the second thing I would do is I'd crank that side hustle up. If you get that side hustle to 45 and it's a side hustle, and then you come out of the gate hot first of the year, you'll make 65.

Yes. If you can take the side hustle up to 45 while it's still a side hustle. By the time you make it full-time, you could add 20 to it, and you'll end up increasing your household income. You would have no need for the extra savings while you have the debt. Now, clean the debt up, and that stabilizes your household. In the meantime, let's crank this side hustle up even more. I mean, really hustle and grind on the side hustle, and let's get it moving.

Well done, Ricky. I'm going to send you a copy of our book, Entree Leadership, which is the book on how we started and run and have grown our business. The whole Entree Leadership brand is for small business folk and for leaders of all kinds, but it's certainly for small business. We started this thing on a card table in my living room. And, you know, what have we done, and what are some of our operating principles and so forth? And so it's our playbook of how we've won the Super Bowl. So hold on, and I'll have Kelly send you a copy of that out.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Thanks for joining us, America. We are glad you are with us. Courtney is on Instagram. I'm on Baby Step 2, and I'm expecting a new arrival to my family in September. Yay. Do I pause my debt snowball, save for hospital expenses, or do I keep paying down the debt? Anytime a baby's on the way, we tell you to push pause on your debt snowball. If you're anything under baby step three, whatever you are, on the baby steps, just push pause on it.

If you're up over baby step three, then you've got your emergency fund in place already. But I want you to have a big pile of cash when baby comes. And just pile up cash as high as you can pile it between now and September. Now, when baby comes and is healthy and mommy's healthy and everybody's okay and we come home from the hospital, we push play again. Now, let's talk about what that means. If you have money in the bank that is not a retirement account and you start the baby steps, you take all, and you're on baby step two,

you take all the money except $1,000 out of the bank and you throw it at your smallest debts on your debt snowball. And so you're going to take all this money you've saved and you're going to throw it at debts. Once you come home and you're safe and baby's safe and, you know, the labor and delivery is behind you and everybody's good. But in the meantime, just pile up cash. That's what I would do. This is the Dave Ramsey Show.

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