The Ramsey Show - App - Building Slowly Ensures A Solid Foundation (Hour 2)

Episode Date: February 24, 2023

Ken Coleman & Jade Warshaw answer your questions and discuss:  What to do when you want to quit your full-time job and start a business, from the blog: How to Start a Business How to optimize the growth of your retirement savings, from the blog: Best Retirement Plans of 2023: Which Account Is Right For You? "Should keep renting when we finish paying off debt?" from the blog: Am I Ready to Buy A House? How to know which debt to pay off first, from the blog: What Debt Do You Pay Off First? Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Take our FREE 3 minute assessment: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studio, this is The Ramsey Show. It's where we help you win in your life, specifically your money life, your work life, and your relationship life. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague, Jade Warshaw. The number to jump in is 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225.

Let's go to Dallas, Texas. Ruth is on the line. Ruth, how can we help? Yes, hi. Thanks for having me on the show. I'm a huge fan. I'm calling today because I am looking to leave my full-time job to pursue what's been a passion project of mine. I'm a marketing director currently at a financial firm, and I'd like to become a content creator, creating digital courses, and eventually lead to motivational speaking and

pulling all different types of content. Great. What kind of content specifically? What solution are you providing to what problem? Women empowerment. I'll be starting with the course on transitions and also launching out from there, helping women in different spheres basically pursue their dreams. Okay. So I hear what you want to do. What specifically do you want our insight on? I just want to make sure I've considered all the angles. So we've been saving for about 18 months where baby steps four, five, and six. Oh, good. We have a six-month emergency fund, saving for a kid's college fund. He's a five-year-old, and we have about $50,000 in a transition fund set aside just for any extra expenses, business expenses to launch it.

However, we'll be taking two-thirds of our family income off the table. Whoa, okay. To do this. All right, now that's where I want to jump in. Because that was the first question I was going to ask is, do you need your income? And the answer is sort of, right? Because you guys are in great financial position. But I don't know that I would recommend that you even consider this big of a pay cut. There are times where I'm absolutely saying you have to do it in order to get where you want to go. You don't have to do this, and I'll tell you why. If you could completely walk away today and you didn't need to make any income, my advice

on starting this new venture would be the same, and I would tell you to start small and grow slow. Not just because of the financial ramifications, but from a content development standpoint, clarifying your voice is a unique process. And I've done it. And so I'm going to speak from experience. You know, I had a vision for what I'm doing at Ramsey Solutions to help people discover their potential, to meet their potential, and make a contribution that matters deeply to them. Now, I knew that that was the mountaintop, but I did not have the methodology that I have today. There were so many things that I had to just test and try and fail and scrap and just kind of go, well, I'm going to try that. And well, that feels really good at 10 o'clock at night, but 9 a.m. the next morning, it felt

like a block of Velveeta cheese. I don't want anybody to know that I was thinking about saying it that way. It's that kind of stuff to where you've got to throw stuff against the wall. So my point is, if that's the advice I'd give you if finances weren't an issue at all, it's absolutely the same advice when finances are there. So here's what I'm really telling you to do. I'd start, and I think you already have, but I don't think you walk away today, and I'm not sure you walk away six months from now. What I'd like to see you six months from now is where you've launched your first course. Just one. Just one course.

Ruth, are you already replacing some of your income with this business endeavor, or have you been able to make any money yet doing this I've written a book a year ago self-published and I'm making money through that how much just being a full-time mom not much just not much I might set up in 10,000 can you can correct me but I might set a a goal of a percentage like i want to be replacing this much of my previous income before i pull the trigger on exiting from your current situation is that fair yeah is that fair because here's where it has been my plan for the last few months but i'm finding i'm just exhausted right at the end of my day job right Right. And here's the deal. That's why I'm telling you, keep doing the day job and do this thing on the side. Let's go through all the testing and all the failing and all the improving without any

pressure at all. Because here's the deal. If you work so hard to save up six months of your current income, I don't know that you're going to have a whole lot left to give. In other words, I tell people all the time, you cannot give what you do not have. And when you're emotionally and physically exhausted, you're not going to be at your creative best to create content and a digital course and all those things that are really going to meet women where they are. My point is, take the pressure off. There will come a time,

because you're in baby steps four, five, and six, because you have the discipline to get there, that you will be able to step into this thing full-time. Now is not the time. Not with the five-year-old, not with the fact that you're exhausted trying to get up all that savings. Let's just launch a course. This year, let's launch one course. We do it at night and weekends when we don't have other things, and we take our time because we don't have financial pressure. Do you understand what I'm saying and why I'm saying that? I do. I understand it.

But I'm exhausted from the day job. But here's the thing, Ruth. Let me get right on your level because before I came here to Ramsey, back in 2020, before, let's go with 2019, I was working full-time, full-time in our business. And then I also did about 15 to 20 hours a week in ministry. So I was working like crazy. 2020, I started something very similar to what you're talking about. It was online deal, more feast, less famine. It was all about money, food. I struck up a full production TV show to go on YouTube.

It was a lot of work and I did it all on the side, had to do the social for it. I did it all on the side. I was exhausted. I've never worked so hard in my entire life, but do you know what it does? It tests. Yeah.

It tests that passion to see if you really love it. And I love what Ken is saying. You do. I didn't have to make money off of it. I just had to see if you really love it. And I love what Ken is saying. I didn't have to make money off of it. I just had to see, could I do it? Does it work? I was trying stuff. I was throwing spaghetti at the wall to see if it would stick. And there is something really beautiful about that.

You're not going to be in this phase forever. That's right. You're going to learn something from this. Well, and Ruth, here's what I want you to hear. I'm not in any way discounting that the day job is exhausting you because then you're a mama and then you're trying to do this thing. But here's what I'm saying. We cheat the dream for a little bit longer. Now, what I mean by that is I've got to take care of me. So Ruth, you got to take care of you. So when the day job is exhausting you, plus being a mama, you've got to treat yourself very well. And so if we have to spend more time nights and weekends resting and recovering and a little bit less time on the dream, let's say developing that first course, that's okay. Do you hear me? You do not want to flame out trying to balance it all.

You can't balance it. You can't. Right. You can't. Here's what I would say to all the mamas out there. You can do it all, just not at the same time. That's my encouragement. Here's the deal. Stay in the day job a little longer. Let's take care of yourself a little bit more. If I'm only spending an hour a weekend, I'm making this up, working on that digital course, that's okay. Let's launch one thing. Let's test it. Take all the pressure off. By the way, you'll find that when the pressure's off,

your creativity is so much better as well. Thank you so much, Ruth. You're amazing. You're a hero, and we're here for you. Don't move. More Ramsey Show right around the corner. You have joined the conversation here on the Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw joins me and we're here to help you win in your life, your money life, your work life,

and your relationship life. So excited that you've joined us. 888-825-5225 is the number. 888-825-5225. And Jade and I are on a high. We landed this morning and drove in to do the big show here today. We were in Austin, Texas last night, Jade. And in a word, how would you describe that crowd? Dazzling. I knew she wouldn't disappoint. I was going to say scintillating. So I wasn't. I just tried to go one lap. You went up. I cheated, but I like dazzling. It was a great crowd. Building Wealth Live, we are in the middle of this tour. We've got Indianapolis in the books, Austin in the books, and we've got two more cities, Salt Lake City, Utah on April the 24th,

and Anaheim, California on May the 2nd. You're new to us, and you're going, what is Building Wealth Live? Well, this is a great live event where we help you with basic money principles so whether or not you're in a strong economy, a okay economy, or a bad economy, it doesn't affect you because you are winning with money and you are recession-proof and you're building wealth. And that's why we call it Building Wealth Live. Tickets have been selling out quickly. Both of the events we've had so far, austin texas last night was sold out so you better move tickets start at just 49 ramsay solutions.com slash events is the way to get the

tickets ramsay solutions.com slash events and uh who's in salt lake city it will be christina ellis dave ramsey not you rachel Cruz. Yeah. And George Campbell. I think so. Yeah. And then in Anaheim, it is Dave Ramsey, myself, Dr. John Deloney, and Christina Ellis. Now, let me tell you, when John and Ken get together, they do this thing in the pre-show. I had not witnessed it. It was a legend that I heard about and I got to witness it here in Austin. They intervene in these people's lives in such a major way. It is really something to watch. So when you get tickets, try to get whatever it takes to go to the pre-show, right? Well, you're very kind. We had fun. Yeah. And it's just real. You saw it. Life happens. People just come up and they get real with us and we get real with them.

It was like Maury. I was like, this is different. It is fun. John and I feel very, very blessed to do that. It's very rewarding because of how real it gets. It does. And you saw it. It's palpable. It's fun. A lot of fun. So anyway, we'd love to see you there. RamseySolutions.com slash events. All right. You ready to take some more calls?

Let's go. Let's go, Ken. Let's go to the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Rocky. Roe is on the line. Roe, how can we help? Hi. Yes, I have about $300,000 in my 401k plan, and I'd just like to know, what can I put

it in to make it grow? Well, the fact that you have a 401k is an excellent place to start. That's good. Do you currently know how it's being invested or are you kind of just like, I just picked whatever they had for me? Yeah, I just picked whatever they had for me. Okay. Well, what we would suggest, there's a way that we think is the best possible way to do your investing, and that is to have your contribution spread evenly over four types of mutual funds. So do you know, are you in mutual funds? You said you're not sure at all what you're invested in, correct? Yes, I'm not sure. Okay.

So what I would say, get with a smart investor and our smart investor pros, they do everything the way we teach it. But I don't want you to just go in there and say, hey, give me the Ramsey, right? I want you to understand what they're investing your money in so that you have a great understanding of it. And they will have the heart of a teacher to teach this to you as well. But you want to have your money spread equally over four types of mutual funds. And I'm glad you're asking this question, Ro. It's a great question. I get it all the time on social media. People say, where am I supposed to invest my money to get a 10% return? And I say, gosh, you know, if you could just understand this, you want to spread it over growth funds,

growth and income funds, aggressive growth, and international. So what I mean by that, when I say that is if we're talking about growth and income, I mean, these are big companies that we've just grown up with. I mean, these are your big boys that you know, they're making money no matter what. And they're also paying out dividends that you're reinvesting. So it's like, double the fun, right? And then you've got your growth funds again it's a big uh sampling of all of these large companies and growth funds we know again they're making money they're not as big as the big the big boys but they're big and we know that we can count on a return and then you've got your aggressive growth a lot of times that's uh tech funds some more startup things it's a little

bit more um aggressive And so we're putting 25% there. And then we've, of course, got our international funds. And you want to choose something there. Don't necessarily choose a global fund, because sometimes that might include some things from the States as well. But international is what you're looking for. And so that's how we spread it out. And we do that so that we're not putting all of our eggs in one basket. Right. And so that's the way to do it. And we're choosing mutual funds that are outperforming the S&P 500. OK, I don't want to get too deeply into that, but that's what we're seeking to do, because a lot of people might say, oh, just park it in some index funds. Well, that's not bad, but we want to do better than that. And we can do better than that. So that's kind of hopefully I'm keeping the cookies on a shelf where your investments. So right now you've got a 401k. Your 401k is a investment account that's offered through your workplace. And if you did not have retirement offered through your workplace, you could get a very similar basket to hold your investments that's called an IRA and it's basically you going as

an individual to get the investments as opposed to you going through your workplace does that make sense yes so if you wanted to you could contribute to your 401k through your employer and you could also probably go out and get a Roth IRA on your own and contribute to that as well. Oh, okay. So you've got lots of, you've got options here, but it's great that you're contributing to your 401k. The way we say to do it here when it comes to investing is if you've got any sort of match with your IRA through your company, you will invest up to your match. So let's say you got 3% or 5%, you invest up to your match, and then you would go outside and open up your own Roth IRA

and fully contribute to that or until you run out of money. And then if you still have money left that you can invest, you go back to the 401k and finish it there. So Roth, I'm sorry, match beats Roth and go on like that. Does that make sense? I don't want to overwhelm you, but I want to kind of make sure you understand since you're asking great questions. Now, listen, Ro, here's what I want you to do. I want you to go to ramseysolutions.com, okay? And I want you to click on Trusted Services

right at the top of the website. And I want you to then go and click on Investing in Retirement. And I want you to connect with and click on investing in retirement and I want you to connect with three to four of our smart investor pros these are world-class men and women who we have vetted who we trust and they actually what Jay just laid out for you is a lot for you to take in but they can explain it even further and you want to make sure that you understand it fully but get a smart investor pro if you don't already have one to get your strategy. Don't do this by yourself is the point

I'm making. And there's a great blog. We're going to put it in the show notes. It's the best of retirement funds. So anybody who's listening, if you want to know more about the mutual funds that I was talking about, if you want to know more about how I was saying Match Beats Roth Beats Traditional, just check out that link in the show notes and you can learn all that you want to learn. I hope that was helpful for somebody. It is. And again, we want to make sure that people understand that this program, the SmartVestor Pro, is a program that has helped so many people because those people that are listed on our website have to still earn your business. That's right. So when you go sit down with them, don't just say, well, I'm here, and you seem like a nice person because you're a Ramsey SmartVestor Pro.

I'm going to let you take over my – no. They've got to explain it even further, as Jade did at a high level, to where you understand it, and you go, okay, because you're in charge. You need help, but you're in charge. You need help, but you're in charge. So again, anybody that's new or been listening and watching for a while, go get a SmartVestor Pro to help you with your retirement and investment strategy. You'll thank us, I promise. All right, don't move. More of your calls coming up. She's Jade Warshaw. I'm Ken Coleman. This is The Ramsey Show. Helping you win with your money in your work and in your relationships. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw joins me.

The phone number to jump in on the conversation is 888-825-5225. It's Friday afternoon. There's got to be some like messy, toxic work stuff out there that you just want me to get my hands dirty. We'll change your name and your location. We do that on the Ken Coleman Show all the time. There's some nasty stuff out there. So we're standing by. Let's go. I think Jade wants to wade into one of these as well. I love it. So there you go. But first, today's question comes from Julie from the official Ken Coleman community on Facebook. Is it ever wise to give more than two weeks notice when leaving a job? If you can, and what I mean by that is you can give them that much notice. So if you want to give them six weeks or two months or whatever that

is. So if you can do it and it doesn't mess anything up and it's not risking any way, it's not creating tension with the new company that you've committed to. If you can and you believe you should, because you feel like I'm giving them the extra time to prepare, allowing me to transition well, so the person who follows me can step in a little easier. So, and you believe you should, then the answer is yes. So if you can and you believe you should, yes answer is yes so if you can and you believe you should yes it's wise but i would i would also say don't feel guilt and i it's kind of fun i've answered enough of those on my show live to know that julie's probably feeling guilty and she's kind of wanting to know should i give them a little bit more? Is that wise? Because she doesn't want to burn a bridge. And I understand that. And that's a really, really noble reason. But don't feel that you have to do this. If the company's been good to you, but it's time to move, then move with your

head held high. But yeah, sure. It's wise. Some people worry about their replacement too. They kind of think, oh man, I don't want to leave them in a lurch. What do you say to that, Ken, when people are worried? It's not your problem. It's not your problem. Now, you do what you can do. So whatever that looks like, spreadsheets saved on the computer, messages on the desk that say, hey, here's the process. Is that required or is that above and beyond? That's above and beyond. I don't think it's required. The company will tell you what's required. They'll kind of say, hey, we'd like you to do this before you leave.

And I think you're a class act and you say, sure, I want to leave well. So this question is, is it wise? It's just the wrong question. Is it required? No. Would it be a nice thing, classy thing? Sure, as long as it meets those two requirements. But other than that, it is what it is.

I mean, look, companies can, you could go in and give them six weeks and they go, we want you to leave Friday. Ooh, good riddance. Right, so leave well. Yeah. Whatever leaving well looks like, that's fine. All right, let's get back to the phones. 888-825-5225. Buffalo, New York is where Janelle is waiting for us.

Janelle, how can we help? Hi, Ken. Hi, Jane. How are you? Thank you for taking my call. You bet. I have a quick question. My husband and I are kind of going, like, we're on the same page, but we can't really decide if we are making a good call or if our know, if our decision leaning is in the right direction. So, um, our take-home pay is about $9,500 a month. We currently rent an apartment for $1,300,

um, and our lease is up in May and rent is going to be going up to $1,385. Um, we're in baby step two. We have, uh, $15,000 left on a car and $30,000 left in student loans. And we're projected to pay everything off by December. And we also have $8,000 in savings. Very good. My question is, we obviously know we're a little bit away from buying a house because we want to be debt free, have the emergency fund saved, and also enough money for a hefty down payment um so we were wondering if it like town homes in our area are going for about eighteen hundred dollars a month and we were wondering if it would be wise of us to rent a town home for a couple years and that way we have more space as

if we were in a house but we're not jumping into a house with you know barely any down payment you know right after we pay off debt yeah i applaud you for wanting to do you know a home purchase in the smartest way i applaud the fact that you're not in a hurry because so many people are are moving fast they end up doing something real dumb so i love that um thanks for all the information too I had a quick question you've got a lot in savings uh I heard you say you're in baby step two but you have 8k in savings what's the deal with that well we're just just doing your own plan no no actually we're taking FPU with you next week. Yay. Hey, ho, let's go.

So the 8K, I do have questions about it. You know, I have a feeling I know why you have it there, but I want to challenge you to work the steps as the steps are written. Thank you. Yeah. Because here's the thing. If you feel like paused about it, me just remind you millions janelle millions of people have used this plan to get out and it works it works when you work it and it works fastest and most effectively when you do the plan as written jade's being very nice i'm i'm gonna

jump in i'm being nice because she's she's gonna be in my class and i gotta face her i gotta face her again on the first. So I get to ask the hard questions so that Jade is still super wonderful to you because she is. Okay. If we took the $7,000 that we teach you to take out of the $8,000 in savings and put it towards the debt, how would that change the payoff date from December of this year? What would it move it to? Well, actually, it would stay the same because what our, well, no, no, it won't. No, it won't.

No, it won't because we were going to drain it at the end of the month. Once we pay our, like we have 8,000 in savings. And at the end of the month, we were going to be down to 8,000 less on another car. So we were going to drain it at that point oh so you planned on using it so we planned on using it okay forgive forgive us you know because we we came we came in hot we got bad information but now we're on the same page okay now we got it probably should have been more precise yeah okay great great plan now back to your other question because i did get sidetracked by that 8k back to your other question, because I did get sidetracked by that 8k. Back to your original question about the renting. Yeah, I would rent. It's expensive to rent right now. Let's just be honest. And people feel funky about renting because they feel like they're throwing money

down the drain and this and that. And that's really not the case. It's a small price to pay for doing things the right way and for doing things in the most secure way. And for you, the reason is being able to build up a solid down payment so that you can actually get into a home that you like, a home that you can afford, you know, where the payment is no more than 25% of your take-home pay, right, on a 15-year fixed. That's what you're looking to do. And yeah, do what it takes to get there. And if that means renting a townhome, now you said doing that to get a little bit more space. Is that necessary? Because I kind of like the idea. I mean, if you want to get there faster,

what's wrong with increasing your rent by $85? I mean, it's just $85 as opposed to $585. Yeah, that was my question. What do you need space for? Yeah, I mean, I guess the thing was is if we stayed here for another year, because that was another idea we were talking about, is if we stayed here for a year and then it would be next May. At that point, we would more than likely have our emergency fund saved up, but probably not enough for a down payment. You didn't answer my question.

You didn't answer my question. There's no my question there's no there's no point in moving up you don't need space yeah there's no point in moving up to a townhome okay let me let me do simple math let me do simple math if you stay where you are you're looking at a little over what 600 a month right at 600 a month do the math on that. Six times 12. Yeah. Last I checked, that was $7,000. Yeah. That you're putting towards debt and filling up that emergency fund

just because you want a little nicer place. Let's be honest. It's okay to admit it. Yes. I wouldn't do it. I would stay right where you're at. I'm so freaking willing not. And go ahead and just swallow it.

No. No. Tell her to stay. Okay stay okay no that's good you're being super nice i'm like don't look change location okay let's do it ken said don't do it no i wouldn't do i'm just i can i always tell people what i would do because here's the thing it's a free country they're going to leave this call and do what they want to do i oh you're right jade warshaw the one who's on the air would not do it the one who's given the advice would stay where you're at yes I'd go ahead and choke down you know they're gonna raise the

rent that sucks go ahead and choke down that $85 a month raise that they're gonna do and uh stay there you are going to reach your goal so much faster if you just hold on a little bit longer all right now if you told me you're pregnant with triplets or quadruplets, then I might say, okay, you might need a little bit more space. But, you know, for now, just hang out where you're at. You're doing right. You're doing everything good. You're not in a rush. And a lot of us can take a little bit of a lesson from you on that one.

It's a focus game. Focus on the money you're saving and putting it to good use, not the nicer place. This is The Ramsey Show. The Ramsey Show continues. I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw joins me in studio. We're here for you. We're answering your questions about your life, specifically your money

questions, your work, professional career questions, relationship questions. 888-825-5225 is the phone number. 888-825-5225. Andrew is on the line in Las Vegas. Andrew, how can we help? Hi, Ken, Jade. How are you guys? Doing good.

How are you? Good, thank you. So I just had a roundabout blessing of sorts. My car, which I made the mistake of financing about two years ago, was just recently totaled. And after the total loss settlement pays off what's left in the loan, I'll have about $4,700 left over. Now, I did already do another dumb thing and finance another car, but this was at least less stupid. It was less stupid because I bought a 25-year-old beater of a truck for about four grand. So you financed the four grand? I did, yes. But I'm broke. That's not an excuse, I know.

No, you owned it. You owned it. For sure. So do I use that leftover money to pay off the truck, or do I just work through the debt snowball and pay off? I think it would pay off my three smallest credit cards first. Yeah, let's work it through the debt snowball. I wish that you had, you know, waited if you could have and just translated that into a cash card.

But at this point, we're here. It's not a giant amount of money. So let's just work it through the debt snowball and just go through it like that. How much debt do you have total? Total, it's about $14,700. Okay. And do you have Baby Step 1 in place, the $1,000? I do, yes. Okay, great, great. Yeah, then that's exactly what I would do. And cut the cards up, yes. Okay, great, great. Yeah, then that's exactly what I would do. And cut the cards up, bro.

Yeah. Did you do that? Yeah. No, I haven't. I need to do that. Wait, wait, wait. Hold on a second. Hold on a second. Do you have them with you right now?

I do, actually. Okay, let's do this. I'm going to challenge you. I'm going to challenge you. You got a pair of scissors near you? We're going to do this right now. Andrew. All right.

I like it. Get a pair of scissors. I'm big on sound effects. Like, I like to take paper. I'll get you a drum roll. And I like to make my own sound effects. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to get – it's fine.

The audience loves it, Will. I promise. What I want you to do is get the credit card right up to the phone. Yes. And I want you to take the snizzers What am I saying? When you pull them out they go And I want you to make the sound

And let's clip them right up close to the phone Let's see if we can hear it Do you got the first card? Let me grab my wallet Oh I love this Andrew America's waiting If you could put a little pep in your step it would be appreciated Well I'm getting my sound effects ready.

Are you? Okay. Now, do you have the card in your hand now? And while you're looking for them, tell us what type of credit cards they are. Is it a Discover? Is it a Capital One? What you got? Yeah, some Capital One.

There's a Chase Sapphire. Ironically, a Chase Freedom. Oh, Lord. Oh, we're about ready to get Chase Sapphire. Ironically, it's Chase Freedom. Oh, Lord. Oh, we're about ready to get free from that. Let me tell you, y'all know the country is in more credit card debt than ever. Ever. Ever before. Highest ever.

And these folks are defaulting more than ever. Yeah. Because we think, and I'm not harping on you, Andrew, while you're out here getting your credit cards so that you can cut them up, but people get, they get them thinking, oh, I'm going to do the points, or I'm going to, this was my famous last words, I'm going to pay it off every month.

I'm going to pay it off every month. How'd that work out for you? It didn't work out, because what happens is, you start that way, and then there's that pink peacoat at Express that you have to have that was my thing pea coat or your or your boyfriend has a job interview and he needs a new suit now he does what'd you do take him down to men's warehouse i took him down to s and k and i bought him two

for 200 ken coleman i bought him two and it had a little shine on it y'all remember what i'm talking about okay so that's the point can And it had a little shine on it. Y'all remember what I'm talking about? Oh, yeah. Okay, so that's the point. Andrew, please tell me you found your wallet. I'm good to go. Okay, pull the card out. All right, you got the scissors? The scissors.

Shit! All right, let's go. Right now, tell us the card and then cut it. Get close to the phone. What's the first card we're cutting? All right, this guy here is a Capital One Platinum. Okay. Everybody quiet.

Now go. Here we go. A. There we go. Did you cut it? Did you hear that? I heard it crack. I'll be honest, folks.

It was a little bit disappointing. No, Ken. I heard it. I heard it crack in half. be honest, folks. It was a little bit disappointing. No, Ken, I heard it. I heard it crack in half. It's not your fault, Andrew. It sounded like you were searching around in the closet for a shoe tree or something. No, he cut it. I heard it go through.

When it goes through the thick part where the numbers are, I heard that. Okay, all right. Now, let's go ahead and cut the other ones real quick. We don't even have to have the sound effect. What's the second card? Right. This is, let's see, City advantage american airline okay i'm gonna count you down you're ready oh yeah you're ready to cut yeah three two one i'm ready three two one

there it is i heard it i heard that one i heard it all right do we have one more good uh yep this is a nope that's my debit card need that this is This is the sound of freedom. Careful. Not the debit card. We need that one. What do you got? It's this last one, right? Well, I got two more. Okay. Come on. Come on.

Come on through. Andrew, let's just speed the process up here. This is a plasectomy. Dave used to do this all the time. So here we go. Give me the cut. Go. Three, two, one.

All right. Done. Done. That was metal. Oh, I felt it in his spirit. When he did that, he went, ugh. This feels so good. Yeah.

All right, cut the other two up. Let's put the two together, the last two, and cut through both of them at the same time. What are they? All right, we've got a Sapphire, Chase Sapphire, and then another Capital One. Oh, fantastic. They're lined up. What's in your wallet? Nothing. All right. Nothing. Okay, cut them up. Ready? Three, two then another Capital One. Oh, fantastic. They're lined up. What's in your wallet? Nothing.

Okay, cut them up. Ready? Three, two, one, cover. Here we go. Go. Woo! And now what I want you to do, I want you to count it down, and you're going to say, I'm credit card debt free.

I'm credit card free. All right. Oh, you're credit card free. I'm credit card free. Okay, you scared me. We're going to count it down. We got Andrew from Las Vegas, Nevada. He has cut up five credit cards.

Come on, Andrew. Count it down. Give him three, two, one. Three, two, one. I'm credit card free. All right. It's a start. It's a start.

It's a start. He's on his way, folks. This poor guy, we just manipulated him into all of this, which is somebody needed to do it for you. I know that's right. Now listen, now those cards, they're destroyed. Don't ever use them again. You're done.

You paid them off. Roger that. Call them up. Close the accounts. Let's do it the right way. Call each one. Today. Close them up.

All right. Yeah. Thank you guys so much. Yeah, bro. Thanks, man you did it you did that hey you're such a good sport thanks for for doing that with us you know you know that's what dave i don't know how many years ago he started calling those plasectomies but andrew just did it and there was no pain medication he just went ahead and cut him up right there that was kind of fun that was real that was real deal right there that's what you call live and in action wow so why is that important jade that you know and again it's symbolic yes because his accounts are still open he's going to pay him off we believe today and close them but why is that symbolic it's a big deal because for a lot of people that's a

safety net it's the fallback instead of trusting that if you follow this plan it will work for you and and trusting that you can control your behavior because if you keep those credit cards in your wallet what you're telling yourself is i don't trust myself to stay on a budget i don't trust myself to do what i said i was going to do which is take my extra money and put it towards debt i don't trust myself to understand the difference between a need and a want I don't trust myself to understand the difference between a need and a want. I don't trust myself to understand that an emergency is not Uncle Boo Boo's wedding. You know what I'm saying? And when you do what Andrew did and you take out the scissors and you cut up those cards, you're saying, I trust myself. I can make good adult decisions and follow through. so that's something that's

happening on the inside and we are going to see the outside effect in his bank account and in his money and he's going to be able to go on and pay off debt and build wealth and do all those things but it really starts with something inside yeah i love that it's true and i love that he called in going you know what i realized what i did was dumb. I totaled the car. He didn't repeat the mistakes. He didn't, and he saw an opportunity. And I only gave him some love. He said, hey, I realized what I did in the past.

What do I do? And that's the spirit. And the reason I'm calling this out is we had some fun with Andrew, but I hope that most of you get some real inspiration from Andrew to say there's no shame in your game. You made some dumb financial moves. Your life isn't over. You can fix this. You can start fresh. And this young man is doing it. Andrew, you are awesome. So proud of you, bro. Appreciate you calling in and having some fun.

I'd like to do that more. We need to get some mics on that and get that clipping sound a little better. But hey, he did his best. Hey, Jade Warshaw, great hour. I want to thank the team behind the glass that keeps us on the air. And you, America, for tuning in. This is your show. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Ken. If you love the show and want a deeper dive on your money journey,

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