The Ramsey Show - App - Can I Retire Now and Focus on My Side Business? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: November 12, 2018

The show about you

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, 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 at 888-825-5225 that's 888-825-5225 coming up at the bottom of the hour ramsey personality ken coleman of the ken coleman show on the serious xm and podcast will be joining us ken talks about careers and so if you've got questions about your career questions about your career questions about your income questions about job choices or how to find your passion in the marketplace and apply it he'll be

with us at the bottom of the hour you can dial in and get in line for those we'll open up some lines in just a few minutes the phone number is 888-825-5225 mar Marcy's in Jacksonville, Florida. Hey, Marcy, how are you? Good, how are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Okay, well, thank you for taking my call. I'm very thankful to be talking to you.

I just have a question. I'm very date, goal-driven to know that by the end of November, I want to have this done by the the beginning of the year that done. Being with my circumstances and my debt, I'd like to know what you feel is a good goal line for me to set for myself to be out of debt, and then also how far I can get, being that I'm 53 years old and starting this a little bit late. Okay. Are you single? I am.

What's your income? $39,500. Okay. But I've taken on a second job scrubbing toilets. Okay. And how much debt do you have not counting your home? That would be $22,869. Okay.

All right. And so $11,500 for two years makes you debt-free, doesn't it? Yes. I just do big math here. That's all I do. Okay. I just took your 23, divided it by 2, and I went 11,500. That's all I did.

So that's two years. That's pretty doable. That's $1,000 a month. You probably could do it faster than that because you're pretty motivated, goal-oriented, and took on an extra job. I did. Four weeks ago, I did. Yeah. And so you see what I'm saying?

So you might do it in 18 months. Okay. So all we got to do then is just say 23 divided by 3 is going to be like 7,500, 7,800, something like that, every 6 months, which puts us at about 1,300, 1,200 a month. And you're done in 18 months. So just do some long division like that. Okay. And then don't worry about calculating interest and all that garbage and trying to get it perfect.

I'm just looking at the big numbers to kind of get my arms around what's doable because nothing ever works according to plan it either works faster or slower than the plan right and most of the time when people are working this it works faster because they get more fired up work more cut deeper which creates more margin right and the more the closer you get the more you can sprint to the finish line you know and so if you were doing 1500 a month500 a month, you might do $2,000 a month that last month. And boom, you know, you buzz through. So the math quits working the more excited you get and the more you believe.

And that happens the more you do it. So I'm thinking 12 to 18 months, I'm sorry, 18 to 24 months is your number for debt-free. Does that logical to you? Yes, very, very much. Okay. And the second part of the question was, I'm 53. I just picked up your book six weeks ago. I am super intense about this.

But how far do you think I can, I mean, I have nothing saved for retirement, and I need to, so I'm thinking retiring at 70. do you think I can have a pretty good nest egg by then? Yep, I sure do. So let's kind of put some numbers in, okay? Let's play with it. All right, so you make $40,000 now. We'll assume that you're not going to get any raises, which is a silly assumption. But let's pretend that you go from 55 years old with your emergency fund in place to 70.

That's 15 years, okay? And we've been paying off debt at the range of $1,000 to $1,500 a month. And so let's just say that you saved $1,000 a month. I'm just making up numbers here, okay? You could do less or more, right? But let's just put that in there. And we're starting with nothing. And do you have a match on your 401k?

I don't have a 401k. Available to you. Okay. Correct. Then you would go into Roth IRA and into other things to save money. But if you did that and you saved at a typical growth stock mutual fund rate, you would have around a half a million dollars.

That's right. Okay. Okay. And you would be debt-free. Okay. Perfect. And so, which, by the way, if that made 10% a year, 10% on $500,000 is $50,000.

Okay. A year income without touching the nest egg. I love it. Only taking the eggs from the goose, not killing the goose. Which means you would retire making more money than you're making now. Okay, that's quite inspirational. Yeah, you see how we did it, though? It was very realistic. Okay, perfect.

I said $1,000 a month from age 55 to age 70 invested, and the more money you make, the more realistic that is, and the more you could put in. If you put in $2,000, you'd have a million. If you put in $500, you're going to have $250,000. So here's the thing. If you'll work this plan like we're talking about all the way out to age 70, you're not going to be on Alpo.

We just don't know whether you're going to be on filet mignon. Okay. Making sense? Yes, yes. It's exciting. You can do this. You really can. I'm excited for you.

And you hold on. I'm going to send you a copy of Chris Hogan's book, Retire Inspired, which is where you're headed towards. Way to go, kiddo. Proud of you. Maxine is with us in Newark, New Jersey. Hi, headed towards. Way to go, kiddo. Proud of you. Maxine is with us in Newark, New Jersey. Hi, Maxine. How are you? Hi, Dave.

I'm fine. Thank you so much for taking my call. I'm sitting here laughing because my call is also about retirement. Cool. But I am already 70 years old. Okay. Okay. My job is a state job. I earn $93,000 a year. I'm a single

person and I have no debts at all except my mortgage. Um, my mortgage is $94,000. I've paid it off in seven years from $166,000 down to $94,000. I have $186,000 in deferred compensation, and my monthly contribution from my paycheck to the deferred compensation is 20%. I have $45,000 in a Roth IRA, and I have $20,000 in a Roth IRA, and I have $20,000 in an emergency fund. Well done. Well done. Proud of you.

And you also have a state retirement plan, right? Yes, I do. And what will that pay you when you retire? About $2,200 a month. Okay. All right. And I already took my Social Security, so that is about $1,250, but that goes right back in the house every day.

Okay. So I'm wondering, everybody's saying I should retire. I'm 70. I'm healthy. But, you know, they're saying, oh, you should retire. You should retire. Do you want to? I'm sorry? Do you want to? I'm sorry?

Do you want to? I would love to because I have my own company. I'm like a Tai Chi instructor. And so I would love to do that. Okay. I mean, I think you're pretty close to being able to do it. You're going to have to take a little bit of a pay cut when you do it. And you still have a little bit of a mortgage.

If you work two more years, you could knock out the mortgage. But you could go either way. You've done a great job. 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

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Hey, guys, how are you? Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. Where do you guys live? We live just outside of Atlanta in Alpharetta, Georgia. Absolutely. Welcome to Nashville.

Thank you. And all the way up here to do a debt-free scream. Yep. Congratulations. How much have you paid off? We paid off $97,131.59. Love it. How long did this take?

It took 27 months. Good for you. And your. How long did this take? It took 27 months. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? Started off making $83,000 and ended up at $130,000. Wow. What do you guys do for a living? I'm a project manager for the nation's finest construction management firm. I told him not to say that.

But I am a middle school science teacher. Okay. Very fun. Good for you guys. What kind of debt was the $97,000? So we had a little bit of everything. We had $50,000 in student loans. We had $24,000 in a car loan, $15,000 on credit cards, and $8,000 in bedroom furniture.

My God, y'all were normal. Yes. You were normal. Very normal. Unbelievable. How old are you? I'm 27. Andall were normal. Yes. You were normal. Very normal. Unbelievable. How old are you? I'm 27. And I'm 26.

Okay. And 27 months ago, you must have gotten married. We did. Okay. So two and a half years ago, two years and some change, you get married and decide we're going to bust this debt thing in the lip. We're getting out of it. What made you think about doing that?

Most newlyweds don't. So we got married in september of 2015 um during our at the time of our wedding we were putting our wedding our honeymoon on a credit card when we got back from the honeymoon um our credit card had a fifteen thousand dollar limit and it was actually over the limit oh so that was when i woke up and was like we got to do something to knock this out um we started trying to do some things I woke up with a financial hangover after the honeymoon yes I got you unfortunately and then what happened so um that was a big wake-up call for Nathan um for me it

was a little bit different because um so the student loans in the car um were Nathan's um and obviously I was aware of the credit card debt and the furniture that we had done together but i really had no idea of the whole um the whole big picture and so after we realized we were over on the limit on the credit card we sat down we added it all up and we just sat there and we're like man this is this is a hundred thousand dollars this is like a doll yeah i got a problem this is awful It felt super insurmountable. Scared the crap out of you. It really did.

And so we started trying to do some stuff on our own. It wasn't sustainable. We essentially every single month got to the end of the month and thought that we were doing a budget because we had apps that tracked where we spent our money, but it was just stupid. Too late, it's gone. Too late, it's gone. And so we were taking everything that was left over at the end of the month and putting it towards our debt and getting absolutely nowhere so flash forward a couple of months to

like january february of 2016 we'd been married a few months we're sitting in church one sunday morning so we attend north point community church there in alpharetta oh yeah yeah with andy he's a good friend yes he's wonderful so we were sitting there one sunday we see up on the big screen a big advertisement for a class called Money Wise. And we're like, well, that's something we are not. We could probably check that thing out. And so we signed up for the class right then and there. We go to our first class March 1st of 2016.

And Money Wise classes there go through the Financial Peace University curriculum, which was just a huge lifesaver for us. Oh, so their internal campaign was called Money Wise, but they were using Financial Peace University. And so we took FPU. I don't even really have the words to say other than thank you for what you do and for your ministry because it taught us how to communicate not just about our finances, but just in our marriage in general. And really just set us up for success.

So, I don't know. We're super thankful for that. And here we are two years later completely debt-free. I'm proud of y'all. Thank you. Very well done. Very cool. Who were your biggest cheerleaders?

So, we had some really good groups, some small groups through the church um they supported us well they had a good system for putting the whole thing on i always do i mean andy's a rock star and then we did we did a second uh money wise class as well to try to keep us motivated throughout the time so okay and i think too we also had um like just our small groups through church and not necessarily through Money Wise and our parents and our friends. I mean, obviously, some people think that you're weird for doing what you're doing. But in general, we had cheerleaders. And so we're super thankful for all those support systems that we had. Yeah, they're not always cheering on some of the weird stuff you're doing, but they want you to have the result.

Absolutely. They want you to get there. Most of them love you anyway. Some of them are just crazy. But, yeah. Well done, you guys. Thank you. Now, you've done this a while, and there's a couple out there listening that are leaving for their honeymoon Friday.

And when they get back, they're going to hit the wall, and they're going to do just what you did. What do you tell them? What's the advice for getting out of debt? What should they do? So my biggest thing is I just feel like you really have to hate the debt. I grew up always thinking that debt was just normal, and the financial piece just really changed my perspective on that and really made me hate it. I just had that moment when I was— It helps to have a good villain in your story.

Yeah. Debt is that. I just had that moment where, you know, you have that turning point where you say, I don't want to be here anymore. And you just quit. So that's a big one for me. Yeah. When you just drew a line in the sand and said no more.

Yeah. That's a big step. Good. What else? What else do you do to get out of debt? I think intentionality is key. And if I had to to there's so many things that i would say but if i had to sum all of those things up it would be um the word intentional we were intentional in our goals we knew where we wanted to go and even if that meant having to say

no to some small things now it meant that we were saying to yes to some really big things down the road um and so intentionally understanding what those things were were so important for us now, it meant that we were saying to yes to some really big things down the road. And so intentionally understanding what those things were were so important for us. Having intentional conversations with each other, sitting down every single month and having more than once a month, I've got to be honest, and having conversations about our budget and our finances and our hopes and our dreams. Well, you're trying to learn to work together on anything. Yeah. And now we're trying to learn to work together on money because we're just married

and so yeah that's that's a big deal it takes more than one meeting a month you know yeah i mean sharon i've been married 36 years it takes every morning still we have to sit there and look at it but uh congratulations you guys people people ask us all the time like what you know what's the secret the secret thing that you do and's really, we could show them how to do a budget. We could give them all the tools. But Chris Hogan always says the numbers change when people change. And if you're not willing to change, then you're not going to be successful with it. Well, while we're talking, I'm racking my brain.

I'm almost positive in the last two and a half years I've spoken at North Point. You have. Maybe a couple of times. You and Rachel were both there. Yeah, I remember Rachel and I. That's right. We did an event down there, and then the next day we spoke there. That's exactly right.

We were there, and we were just thinking, man, we're in the middle of it, and we're just so thankful for both of you. That's perfect. That was perfect timing to get a little pep rally for you. Yes. Good. Well, congratulations again. Thank you. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Retire Inspired, number one bestselling book.

And that's the next chapter in your story. And so that you're not only out of debt, that chapter closes, but now we open the next chapter. And that's millionaires and outrageously generous along the way. Again, we're so proud of you here. Congratulations. I know your family is. I know your pastor is. And the whole church is.

And that's just a wonderful partnership there. Very, very well done. All right. It's Nathan and Morgan, Atlanta, Georgia. Get this. They paid off $97,000 in 27 months, making $83,000 to $130,000. Brand new married. Count it down.

Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free scream three two one we're done free i love it don't you wish you started off your married life that way yes you do you know you do and you can you just got to make a decision to do it don't you man powerful stuff. Very well done. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Coming up here at the bottom of the hour, Ramsey personality Ken Coleman will join me. If you want to talk career, call in right now. Kelly's opening up some lines for you.

The phone number 888-825-5225. You want to talk about your resume. You want to talk about landing that job you love. You want to talk about working at something you're passionate about. This is what the Ken Coleman Show is all about. He's going to join us for a couple segments answering your questions. 888-825-5225. I get asked all the time, when in the baby steps is the right time to buy life insurance? My answer is typically now.

Life insurance is not part of the baby steps because it's needed when your family has debt and not enough savings to provide for their financial needs. That's when they're at the highest risk. And no matter where you are in your baby steps, it's a necessity, not a choice. This includes working husbands and wives, as well as stay-at-home parents. It's pretty expensive to replace those stay-at-home parent responsibilities. I only recommend term life insurance since it's the most affordable way to get the right amount of coverage and not break your budget. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. These are the guys I personally use. Term life insurance is inexpensive and your family needs this no matter where you are

in your baby steps. That's Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. Zander.com. Or call 800-356-4282. Xander.com. Ramsey Personality, Ken Coleman. Host of the Ken Coleman Show on Sirius XM 122. Also on iTunes and Google Play as a podcast. You can pick it up. It's a daily show, and you can pick it up and learn about your career track,

where you're going, what you're doing, how you're thinking about it, all that kind of stuff. And, you know, are you working in your area of strength, your passion? What's the right thing? Or you hate what you're doing? How are we going to do that? How are we going to navigate a midlife career change? How do you deal with a job you're getting bored with?

How about submitting resumes but getting zero interviews? I can't even help with that because resumes suck. That's true. I wish I could correct you on that, but it's largely a waste of time if you don't have a relationship attached to it. Now, we're real proud of the Ramsey Solutions Ken Coleman Show resume that you can get at kencoleman.com for free right now. But we flipped the whole thing, Dave, by making you start off your resume

with who you know. In fact, that's the label. I mean, that's the actual heading that we put in bold, who I know. And what you've got to do is, if you're applying for a role at Ramsey Solutions, you better have somebody who works here right at the top and explain how you know them and then get an endorsement statement. Or somebody that knows somebody. That's right.

That works here something. That's exactly right. Because there's too many applications, too many resumes in the pile. And once you get in the pile, you're just part of the pile. Yeah, we know from research that the average hiring manager spends six to 60 seconds scanning a resume. So it's like playing the lottery if that's what you're going to leave your potential up to by just submitting a resume and hoping that somebody looks at it and sees something that will get you a phone call. And so the resume is a brochure, but again, it better have a

relationship attached to it. So you don't have to know me personally, but we hired someone. She's great. She's actually doing social media for me and Chris Hogan. Her name's Catherine. And when she applied, she had Christy Wright's name at the top. Well, she had a relationship with someone who knew Christy well. And so that person was able to reach out to Christy and say, hey, I know her. She's really sharp.

She's got all the talent in the world, great experience. I think she'd be a good culture fit. You think that didn't help her? Of course it did. Of course it did. It got her right to the front of the line. It did not win her the job, but it got her the interview. It got her the phone call. Now what you do from there, you've got to go in and you've got to perform. You've got to outperform other people. You have to assume that you're going up against other well-qualified candidates. But again, half the battle is getting in the room, getting a phone call, the opportunity to get an interview. Yeah, so the right kind of resume, building the resume the right way with a relationship is all outlined in this really slick PDF download that's completely free at KenColeman.com.

There you go, KenColeman.com. KenColeman.com. There you go, kinncolman.com. kinncolman.com. And you can get the free PDF download of that. Ken, we've got some questions coming in about careers. Let's go to Cameron in Chicago. Hi, Cameron. How are you? Hey, better than I deserve, Dave.

How about yourself? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, I have a quick career question for Ken. I'm currently working as a laboratory technician in the pharmaceutical field, and I have tuition reimbursement, but it only goes for the current position that I'm in, and that kind of limits me to becoming a chemist or anything that has to do with, like, biology or science. But I can't have another career in the field where I would

probably be more suited for. Should I take the tuition reimbursement or should I try to cash flow another degree in the career that I would like? So what career do you want to be in? Why don't you get a degree in something you don't like? Yeah, it makes no sense. Just because it's free. Go ahead.

So it's a mixed bag. I mean, I like chemistry. I like science. And the career that i would like to be would be the medical field uh either a nurse a nurse practitioner a physician's assistant maybe even uh uh it wasn't it wasn't a surgeon in the beginning but uh i feel like my time has still been away well again you don't need to pursue the degree in pharmaceuticals that That's the answer. Because you would rather, you just listed

out two or three, maybe four roles for us that your heart has kind of always pulled you towards, and there's just

no reason. Just because it's a tuition reimbursement and it feels like a good deal, this is not like you're purchasing a

sweater that you might wear three or four times a year and it's a good deal. This is a lot of time and money, regardless of the reimbursement. You want to pursue work that brings you great joy, that you have talent at actually performing,

and when the day is done, you look back on your work and say, that was a good day. My work mattered deeply to the people I served and to me, and I think you've already outlined what that work is. So my answer is unequivocally, no. I don't think you should spend any more time pursuing pharmaceuticals when it's not something you want to do. Now, I would pick up the classes that fall under the pharmaceutical headline but would apply towards your nursing.

That's right. You can pick those up. I mean, you can a la carte this puppy and pick out and get a bunch of your stuff out of the way, prereqs and some of your baseline biologies and whatever else you've got to have if you don't have that already under your belt to set you up. But, yeah, I would rather cash flow a degree that I'm actually going to use, and 10 years from now I'm that person doing that thing, than I would get a free degree in something I'm not going to use.

It's like getting a free coupon to a pizza place and you don't like pizza. That's exactly right. Why? Give it to somebody else. It's not useful. So Ken Coleman joins us from the Ken Coleman Show this half hour, answering your questions about career. He has a book out called One Question, Life-Changing Answers from Today's Leading Voices.

You can find that in DaveRamsey.com website in our store there, easy to get a hold of. Ken, 10 seconds, 15 seconds on what that book's about. What I did was sat down and thought about what are the biggest issues in life, everything from failure to success to reinventing yourself to hard work, a lot of big life topics, and then said, who is best to answer those questions? And I sought the people out, and we were fortunate to get them. And you're getting one big life question and an answer from somebody who's got the experience and expertise to answer it.

It really is a master class in life covering three areas, succeeding, surviving, and sustaining. Mandy's on Instagram. What should I do if I want to move to a higher position in a company? A better work ethic or more skills or a master's degree? Well, it depends on where it is you want to move, but I think the first step with not knowing the details is I'd sit down with my leader and say, what is it going to take for me to grow here? I would like to grow, and here's where I'd like to grow. And you want to give them some sense of what it is you'd like to do within

that organization. And what you're doing is by asking that question, Dave, is you're not putting the leader in a tough situation. You're saying, what is it that you think I can do to grow? And then can you help me develop a growth plan? And what that says to a healthy leader is I'm willing to learn and I'm willing to do in order to grow, not just, hey, how do I get here? Don't ever ask that question. How do I get here? Say, how can I grow? This is an area I'd maybe like to grow into.

What are your thoughts on that? And then what happens is you're going to find out real quick where you stand. Again, with a healthy leader, certainly at Ramsey Solutions, your leader is going to be able to give you an assessment and say, all right, this is what it's going to take. And either you're being realistic or maybe that's not the right fit, but I see you may be growing over here. Then you can begin to assess and then respond. In more corporate environments, education is going to be more key. In more entrepreneurial environments, actually getting it done. That's exactly right.

Whatever it is. You're right. And in our organization, we're not corporate at all. We're very entrepreneurial. It's a whole building full of wild animals. And it's a You're right. And in our organization, we're not corporate at all. We're very entrepreneurial. It's a whole building full of wild animals. And it's a zoo, man. I mean, we're crazy around here. And so the thing then is around here is people that get things done.

That's it. With excellence and don't piss everybody off in the process. They're the ones that move up around here. And it turns out that sometimes we don't even know whether they have a degree or not. We don't even look. I don't care. Because the only thing your degree is good for is the knowledge it gives you to move things around.

That's right. From an entrepreneur's perspective. That's right. Degree becomes credibility. But you're right about wins. Let's simplify this, folks. When you're looking to move up in any organization, you need to understand something at a base level.

When you go talk to a leader and a leader is considering moving you up, you need to understand that they a base level. When you go talk to a leader and leader is considering moving you up, you need to understand that they need you to do one thing. Help them win. Help the company win. Not a selfish win, but they're trying to help the company win. And so you've got to put yourself in a position to be able to show them that you've got what it takes to help them in their leadership position and the company as a whole win.

Remember that. And if you can show somebody how you can win, it's like football or any position that you play in any sport. I've got to do well in that position because if I do, it helps the team win. Ken Coleman, The Ken Coleman Show is broadcast daily on SiriusXM 121. Lines are open at 888-825-5225. You can also listen to the podcast on iTunes and Google Play. And go to kentcolman.com to download the resume template that teaches you how to use a resume with relationships.

It is a fabulous PDF, and it's completely free. Back with more career discussions. It's half the equation, the income and the outgo, right here on the Dave Ken Coleman Show. Ramsey Personality joins us this half hour answering your questions about career. Joe is with us in Charlotte. Hey, Joe. Welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show.

Thanks for having me. Sure. I was wondering, I'm trying to change careers slightly. The career I got into is one that was kind of available to me right out of college, and I enjoy it, but I find it not as rewarding as I want it to be anymore, and I'm wanting to

maybe change career paths, and just trying to find out the best way to do that since most of my experience isn't in that field. What is it you want to do? Systems administration. What are you doing now? Computers. Right now I'm a database administrator, so it's pretty similar, but there's some overlap but not a ton of overlap. He's trying to find what would be the easiest way to switch careers.

Okay, well, the first thing you need to do is, if you haven't already, you need to determine what experience are they going to be looking for or what qualifications are they going to be looking for. It may be both and. So have you done the research? That's where you've got to start. What is needed for me to be qualified to get this opportunity? Do you know that? Yes.

I mean, I could probably do more research on that, but looking at job posting and stuff, I kind of know that these are the areas I need to work on to kind of be more qualified. All right. Well, you need to be a lot more confident in that answer. And so one of the things I think is really valuable I recommend to my callers is you need to go sit down with somebody who's in systems administration. Start looking at your personal network, acquaintances, somebody that maybe a co-worker knows.

You're in that tech space. It shouldn't be hard for you to find somebody who is a respected systems administrator and say, hey, listen, I know you from this person, this person, this person. Get the connection and take them to coffee or lunch. And take a notepad and a pencil and ask them everything about their role. You're doing this for two reasons. You want to make sure that, A, that you do get excited about it when somebody tells you what it's like, and, B, get very clear from them what they believe it's going to take.

Joe, you've got sysadmins. You've got a certain amount of certs you have to have, right? No, you don't have to have – they certainly help, but you don't have to have them in order to be a system administrator. Okay. I think we've got four sysadmins working here, and they either had pretty vast experience or they had certs particular to that area, if I recall. I didn't personally do the hiring, but I know they're on my payroll here.

And so, yeah, it's very much a niche area, and, yeah, you've got to have that narrowed down and, as Ken said, really outline exactly what you need to have, what tools you need to have in your belt, which guns you need to have in your holster to be able to go in and land that job, and then just go about the business of getting those. That's right. Two more questions there. Once you know what is required, then you have to look at your personal budget, and you've got to look at your time.

These are time and money. Those are your two costs when pursuing the dream. How much is it going to cost me financially to get qualified, and then how much time is it going to cost me? Once you get the answers to that, as Dave said, go do it. There's your plan. It's laid out for you. is it going to cost me financially to get qualified? And then how much time is it going to cost me? Once you get the answers to that, as Dave said, go do it. There's your plan. It's laid out for you.

Perfect. Allison is with us in Boston. Hey, Allison, your question for Ken Coleman. Hi, guys. Thank you so much for taking my call. I got laid off, unfortunately, last month and was asked to stay through this coming Thursday. And the company is being very generous. I have about six months of severance and three months of outplacement services.

And I'm also going to receive a $5,000 stay bonus. And so my first question is, is it okay to take some time off before jumping into the job search and go on like some fantastic trip? I have never had this much free unstructured time in my adult life. And then my next question is just sort of if you have any general advice and tips on job search and interview, I'm actually looking to relocate to a more rural area. And so it's not just a traditional job search. It's also getting in up north in New Hampshire. And how old are you?

I am 40. Okay. Double income, married? What's your relationship and income status? I am single, and I was making about $138,000 before bonus, and then there was like about a $34,000 bonus there. I don't know what your job, what uh travel idea is or how long or how expensive short and inexpensive um yes i would do but i don't want you to end up homeless because you went traveling and you don't land on a job right so we have to balance that out with um some level of responsibility um but but i would definitely try to do that i'd try to work that into the plan and say i'm, I'm going to do this.

But let me tell you how I would want to do it. I'd love to have the job lined up that starts six weeks from now, and then I go take my trip. Or maybe take the trip and you need to do some scouting anyway. If you're going from Boston area to a rural New Hampshire area, you're going to have to go do some research, I think, on the ground. Before I would make any career move to a rural New Hampshire area, you're going to have to go do some research, I think, on the ground. Before I would make any career move to a rural area, what is it that you want to do? You've got to obviously do the research there.

You have some ideas, I sense. And then, okay, what's available? Do I really want to move to this town in New Hampshire? So you've got some research to do. So maybe if you get all that lined up, you do a little scouting trip on the end of that quick trip. What is it that you want to do? I'm curious. Well, I was a VP at a bank.

I was in the finance department. So I'd really like to kind of stay in the accounting area. But it doesn't necessarily have to be at a bank. It could be there's a hospital up there, there's universities, and there are some smaller companies. Do you have an exact town in New Hampshire or towns that you're thinking about? Concord or Hanover, Lebanon. Yeah. Well, then I agree with Dave.

I think I'd find those jobs. You've got some great experience. You've made a good amount of money. Assuming financially you're in great shape, I would put all this together and get your next stop figured out and then take the trip. Okay. It just gives you a lot of peace on the trip. If there's a lot of unknowns at the end of the trip, the trip is more stressful. You start feeling it's less and less relaxing.

But if everything's all laid out and you go, yeah, I'm taking six weeks off and it's part of my plan. That's right. Yeah, I like it. I love that. That's right. Yeah, I like it. I love that. That's a great plan then. But if you take six weeks off, it's part of your plan, and you come home, and you have no money and no job. And six weeks later, you still have no money and no job.

This suddenly was not a good plan. So that's kind of what's running through my head. I want you to do that. I want you to have that moment. But I don't want to do it in a childish manner. I want to do it in a wise manner, an adult-like way, so that, you know, I deserve this because I've worked my whole life as an adult and I hadn't taken any time off. Well, no, you don't. You deserve it when you do it in a way that's wise.

That's exactly right. And, yeah, I think you deserve it. I think you can do it. But that's the way I would outline it. So, hey, good question. We appreciate you joining us. So, Ken, Grand Rapids, Michigan coming up. We are launching the Entree Leadership One Day event.

It's going to be a live one-day event with Chris Hogan, Christy Wright, and Ken Coleman speaking at our Entree Leadership One Day event. It will be Tuesday, February the 19th. And during that event, we're going to be talking to small business leaders and leaders in business all over the place. What are you going to be talking about that day? Yeah, I'm excited. We're going to be talking about the intentional interview. So we know that most leaders, Dave, don't spend more than about two or three minutes looking at a resume before the candidate walks in the room.

They've got a lot going on. And so for years, as you know, I've been blessed to interview some of the brightest minds in leadership, entertainment, politics, sports, you name it. And over the years, I've created a process by which when you asked me to interview Condi Rice at Entree Leadership Summit, I have a process of preparation before I ever write the first question, and then how I write the questions, and then how I listen and conduct the interview. So what we've taken is my system, and we've now put it into a process of preparation and conducting the interview so that you get the best out of a candidate.

For a job interview. That's right. So when these people come sit with you as a leader, you need to be able to ask the questions that really matter to you and get the information that you need to know so that you make a better hire. We know this, that most bad hires happen because of the interview process. So we want to help leaders be intentional on how to ask the right questions to get the best answers. Hiring and firing is one of the biggest pain points of business. So that's what we'll be talking about.

Entree Leadership One Day Event, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Tuesday, February 19th. Chris Hogan, Christy Wright, Ken Coleman, and me. So be sure and check it out. You can get your tickets right now at DaveRamsey.com or 888-22-PIECE, 888-227-3223. Ken, thanks for dropping by. Thanks for having me, Dave. KenColeman.com to download the resume, template, the PDF. It's completely free.

This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, guys, this is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. I'm excited to announce that we're now carrying on 600 radio stations across the country. To find one near you, head to DaveRamsey.com slash show.