The Ramsey Show - App - Can I Use My Credit Card for Business Expenses? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: August 25, 2021

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Live Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the 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, Christy Wright, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author, is my co-host today as we take your questions about your life and your money. The Ramsey Show is a different kind of talk radio.

This is all about you. It's service-oriented talk radio. We're here to serve you. We take care of you. We answer your questions. Sometimes we bonk you on the head for your We're here to serve you. We take care of you. We answer your questions. Sometimes we bonk you on the head for your own good because we love you. But it's all about you. The phone number is 888-825-5225.

Christy's new book, Take Back Your Time, The Guilt-Free Guide to Life Balance, will be out in just a couple of weeks. It is still on presale, which is good news for you folks. On pre-sale, you can get about $100 worth of extras added in. We bribe you to buy the book early because it helps us with the bestseller list, and it helps us with the pre-sale numbers, the whole bit. So you jump in, and it'll help Christy out. You will love this book if you're interested in the subject of balance

and the illusion of balance and so forth. Christy will break all of that down for you in this wonderful new book, so be sure and check it out. Let's start off this hour with Rochelle in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Hi, Rochelle. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hello. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? I have quit a job after 30 years, and I have a 401k plan in it.

And I do not know what to do with that money. I have to take it out, and I'm not in retiring age or anything like that, and I need to know what to do with it. Okay, good. How much you got in there? $85,000. Oh, this is pretty important then. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, okay. Okay, so there's a couple of rules that I want everyone to learn about investing. Number one, you do not put money in things you do not understand. Just because I understand them or Christy understands them, that doesn't make it okay. You've got to understand it. And so once you do, and it's not that difficult, it's not like you have to go get a degree in brain surgery or something. Okay, you'll be all right. But keep it simple. And so the second rule is that in order to understand it, the type of financial person you need in your life needs to have the heart of a teacher.

Yeah, and one of the things that I think is important, Rochelle, is as you have someone walk through this with you, they will break it down. They will have the heart of a teacher. So they'll explain things step by step. You can ask lots of questions and they'll show you what to do next. I'm not an expert on investing. I have an investment professional that I sit down with. So when I left my job before I started working here at Ramsey Solutions 12 years ago, I sat down with an investment professional to talk about retirement, where it needs to go and that type of thing. And that's what they're there for. And we have endorsed local providers that help you do that, that show you exactly what to do next.

Yeah, our SmartVestor pros, you just click on SmartVestor at Ramsey Solutions, and you'll find someone in your area with the heart of a teacher. Now, here's what they're going to tell you to do. And let's walk through it a little bit, okay? Number one, what I want you to do, it's called a rollover. You're going to do a direct transfer rollover into an IRA. There'll be no taxes if you do it the correct way. Okay?

Okay. Now, the incorrect way would be tell your HR department to send you the check. Uh-uh. They have to withhold 20%, so they're going going to keep about 20,000 of the 85 back for taxes because they think you're withdrawing it and you're not withdrawing it. And the government makes them hold 20 percent back. So you're going to get a check for like 65,000. But you have to put 85,000 into an IRA to avoid taxes and penalties. So now you're up a creek because you're 20 grand short.

So you do not want them to cut the check to you. Does that make sense? Yes, sir. Okay. So the direct transfer rollover works like this. You sit down. You contact one of those SmartVestor pros. You sit down with them.

You select the mutual funds that you want to put the money into. And we always suggest four types growth growth and income aggressive growth and international you'll learn about those and you'll hear those again when you sit down with a smart investor pro they don't work for us but they do stuff the way we teach and one of those things is they're going to do it with a teacher with you at the heart of a teacher now when you sit down with them you're going to pick out say four mutual funds and you're going to fill out the paperwork that says direct transfer on it and that paperwork is going to be sent to your hr department they're going to then send the money directly into those mutual funds there is nothing

withheld on the money so the whole 85 000 will go over there where you tell it to go and there'll be zero taxes on it now you've got an investment pro in your corner to teach you and talk to you and answer questions at any time. You are in control of the money, where it's invested. You can change it later if you want to. Everything is, you know, ready to go and it's completely in your control. And again, it's fairly simple, but you just have to fill out the right paperwork and you've got to have somebody help you lay it all out. Does that all make sense in general? Yes, sir, it's fairly simple, but you just have to fill out the right paperwork, and you've got to have somebody help you lay it all out.

Does that all make sense in general? Yes, sir, it does. Okay. So where were you working? What kind of job did you have? Tyson's. Okay. All right.

Why are you gone after 30 years? It did not work out where I was transferred to at another plant because I moved. And it just did not work out in that plant for me. Okay. All right. Wow. That's a long time to be with one company. And now, what are you going to do now? I don't know. I'm looking for it now. I'm not sure.

Okay. How old are you? 58. Okay, great. Well, you've got lots of time to start fresh. We call these encore careers. You ever go to a music show, and when they finish, they leave, but then they come back out, take a bow, and go again?

That's what you're going to do. You're going to come back out, take a bow, and go again. That's what you're going to do. You're going to come back out, take a bow, and go again. Okay. Yeah. So if you want some information on career and that kind of thing, check out our website, KenColeman.com. It's all free. And Ken is our resident expert on, well, not taking the bow, going again.

That's right, trying to find something new, getting clear on what this next stage and season is for you dave i have a question even as you're talking about this rollover when someone is leaving an old job or has left an old job how urgent from a timeline perspective is it that they rolled this over because i know people that just leave some of these retirement accounts with that old job and we've even had calls here on the show they're like i had this job you know 20 years ago i don't even know where it is and i can't find it how how urgent is it that someone do that well there's no regulation preventing you from doing it anytime but from your advice so i would just go ahead and you know it's part of the transition that you go through i mean you're filling out all kinds of paperwork when you leave a job right you know

and just make that be you got to go get your new insurance you got to go figure out what you're doing next you got all this and so i would just go ahead and make it part of that be, you've got to go get your new insurance. You've got to go figure out what you're doing next. You've got all this. And so I would just go ahead and make it part of that because you might forget about it. Right, or not be able to find it after a while. Like we've had those calls. Yeah, people forget what was going on. I don't even remember how much was in there.

I just left. And 20 years later, I'm trying to figure it out now. See, that's another reason you take it with you. You've got more options in the open market to pick from. You've got more options in the open market to pick from. Yep. You've got more control, and you've got someone that's got your back, an investment pro in your corner when you do a direct transfer rollover. So we always tell you, always take it from your old job, not to your new job, but to an individual rollover every time you leave.

This is the Ramsey Show. Do you know who is a prime target for identity theft? Your children. Kids have no debts or credit history. Their personal information is just as easy to get, but the theft could go completely undetected for years. Every day all over the country, young adults are starting down their own path in life by opening a bank account or renting their first apartment, only to find out that they somehow already have credit card debt, a mortgage, or even a criminal record. It's devastating, but it can be fixed when you have an ID theft protection plan from Zander Insurance.

They monitor all personal info for the entire family, and they take over all the work if you become a victim. Best of all, your kids are covered for free on their family plan. Call them at 800-356-4282 or visit zander.com. It's just the smarter, more affordable way to protect your entire family. And it's the only plan I provide to my team. Zander.com or 800-356-4282. so the year 2021 is the year of christy wright books every time i look up there's another thing that we have coming out christy wright so we had a devotional a little bit earlier that became a number one bestseller. We've got a book coming out in just a couple of weeks in September,

Take Back Your Time, The Guilt-Free Guide to Life Balance, a major book project. And then every year for the last six or seven years, I guess, we have done a goal planner, and the 2022 Christy Wright Go Gold Planner goes on sale today. Yes, and this is important for people to know because, and I'm sure you remember this last year, Dave, you got calls about it like I did, but we sold out early.

It always does. And so if you want your copy, get it now, even though 2022 is a little bit away. Go ahead and get your copy, and then you'll have it before we sell out. And one of the things, you and I have talked about this with Dave, about this with the planner, but it's not just a calendar. It has content, tools, templates that are going to help you stick with your goals, and I think that makes it more valuable. Oh, it's a full life manual going on here.

I like that, life manual. It's a beast. It's a big old thing. I mean, there's a lot. I mean, just the shipping cost. It's a chunky monkey. Man, there's a lot. mean just the shipping cost it's a it's a chunky monkey man there's a lot but i mean yeah you've got scripture in here you've got stuff to do every day things i'm doing this week it is so well laid out so well done and our sales double almost every year

yeah um because the people everybody buys it they bought it last year plus all the new people and so it is a um it's a very successful product yeah but uh just you know here's the thing we don't run out of books when we print books we're not going to run out of books okay we're always going to have a book available for you calendars however have a shelf life yeah uh in other words this is not going to be much good by this time next year and the likelihood of us being able to sell it this time next year is about zero and so from a business perspective our goal is to have exactly the number that you people want and we don't have to throw any in the dumpster. And everybody gets one. Now, you know what the likelihood of all that working out?

Zero. Okay? So, in lieu of that, I'm not throwing them in the dumpster. That means I'm not overordering. And I own this freaking place. So, if you want one, they always run out. We plan for them to run out. We plan for the planner to run out.

So, just to let you guys in on inside baseball here, this is how it works. Our goal is to run out at the right time. We don't want to run out too soon, but just soon enough that some of you that put it off, you get punished a little bit. Last year, though, I do think we set a record in terms of we sold out earlier than we ever had. We sold out. We actually snuck a speed reorder in. We did, and we still sold out of that even earlier. People would message me, even in March, can i get a planner like no it's gone but now's your now's your time we're telling you early get your copy while we've got

them and it's a great tool now you kept with the same theme with the painting yeah it's it's really pretty but it's also it's amazing how we talk about this day but personal development you're looking at all the different spokes in the wheel development, you're looking at all the different spokes in the Wheel of Life. You're looking at all the different aspects of your life. So every month we're focusing on a different aspect of your life to help you grow in that area. So it's goals, it's personal development, it's managing your calendar, it's all those things. So if you want to make 2022 different by focusing on things that matter most to you, the new 2022 Gold gold planner on sale right

now you need to hurry get your copy they sell out every year we talked about that at length uh so prepare go to ramsey solutions.com they're not up on amazon yet we'll get them up there in a couple days but just order it from ramsey solutions.com from the website from our store and we'll get them out to you and they're in stock right oh yeah okay so we'll go ahead and get it of course doesn't you don't need it, right? You don't have to have it until 2022. It doesn't have December in it, does it? No.

Like 21? No. Okay. So it's no good until January 1. That's right. But get it early because it'll be gone. Yeah. That way you don't have to think about it again.

You don't have to kick yourself later for forgetting to order it. So RamseySolutions.com. Get them while the getting's good uh yet another christy wright product out this year um i've been busy dave well we can't you know if you're awake you're writing so that's a fact it's just the way it works we know about you you're going to be writing i'm going to be talking and you're going to be writing this This is the way it works. Open phones here at 888-825-5225. Karen is in Tampa, Florida. Hi, Karen.

How are you? Hi, Dave. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So, Dave, I am a recent widow. I have two adulting college-age children, one who is 21. The other one is 23, recently graduated and is starting the process to be financially independent.

Yes. So in the process of gathering everything together after my husband's death, one of the things I did was I did start to consolidate all our 401Ks and investments. I froze all of his credit and credit card accounts. And I followed one of your videos that said don't do much the very first two months. So I'm kind of at that point where I need to start taking some action. So it's been two months? Not quite.

It's been about six to seven weeks now. I'm so sorry. What happened? Thank you. Well, he was a stage four colon cancer patient. He unfortunately was diagnosed very late and fought a good fight, but unfortunately lost. So you all were married, what, 25 years? No, that was very sweet of you.

We had a 23-year- 23 year old i was guessing you know yeah yeah um we actually were married a little over 32 years okay um so um yeah yeah so how you doing a new um hanging in there um some days work has been hot uh work yeah some days about others um work has been great. Couldn't have done it without my work family and my church family. But my question is, we are, one of our goals that my husband and I spoke about was helping our kids into those adulting behaviors. And as I started to look at everything, I'm very, very well set off in our retirement funding. And I am going to pay off our mortgage.

My husband was very, very good at life insurance. So I do have some funds available to me. And the first thing I want to do, in the spirit of Dave Ramsey, is to pay off my mortgage, which was also his intent as well. So I'm very committed to that. Okay. But I've noticed that I have, with my children being the age that they're in. We did not do a very good job with thinking about titling of cars and insurance. And now that I have this sum of money, I really want to protect it.

It's something that my husband did, and I know that he would want it to be something that not only serves me, but also serves my family and my faith. So I'm calling to get an idea of how do I do that. Do I title the cars in my kid's name? The kid's car should be in their their name and they should pay their own insurance or you give them the money to pay the insurance okay that was that was my question yeah because if he wrecks and it's in your name they might come after you gotcha simple as simple as that and so it might cost a little bit more on insurance for it to be in their name. But when mine turned 18, I moved them into their name immediately as a risk management thing.

It had nothing to do with I don't like the kid. It did cost me a little bit more in insurance. So, yes, we did do that. And then just, again, with the investments, with the large sums, just take your time. Take your time take your time if it takes you a year to wade into those investments um and get everything set up that's fine you're a very task-oriented person um one of the ways you feel better is if you get stuff done i can hear it the way she's talking right yep exactly and that that's not a bad thing um But, you know, be very careful.

Go very gentle and slow. Give yourself room. Give yourself room, and you're going to be fine. And you call us anytime we can help, hon. Christy Wright, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. One thing we are sure about personal finance is that it is 80% behavior. It's only 20% head knowledge. So anything in your life that affects your behavior positively or negatively is actually more important than the technical financial teaching.

Understanding the details of an investment, important. Controlling the person in your mirror, absolutely vital and so when you have things happen to you um you need to give yourself a little bit of a somehow we feel like we have to be like financial superman financial superwoman even when we're really going through a hard time yeah like our last caller who just lost her husband yeah you know you don't have to be superwoman well i think it's that i think also sometimes like you said it might even be um it can be a coping strategy where we're like i just want to do stuff i want to control what i can control but to your point there's not a timeline you have to do all this on and so one of the most powerful things you can do and this is

with money decisions but any decision is just consider the season that you're in and i don't think we do that enough, Dave, whether it's with your health, your family, your work, your business, even your money. When you consider the season that you're in, then you can set goals and make plans that are a reflection of what's going on in that season. So the season of mourning after losing your husband might not be the time to knock at all your checklist on your, you know, going through all the paperwork stuff. It might be something you do more gradually over six to nine months than in those first few months. And so I think there's just there's something really powerful of stopping, checking in with yourself, considering the season that you're in before you put all the pressure on yourself.

Because sometimes we put pressure on ourselves and it's not the right time, the right season for that pressure or that goal. Well, and I think the reason we do is we've lost this. We've got this disconnect as if finance sits over here in its own little column of our life, its own little silo of our life, and everything else is over on the other side. And so no matter what's going over in the big swath of our life, somehow we're supposed to be okay with the money part. Yeah. Or we're supposed to, you know, not do, you know, not be susceptible to stress spending or grief spending or not be. Of course you are.

Right. And people do some of the dumbest things when their personal life is messed up. Yeah. With money. Yeah. Or when their personal life is going like really, really good. Yeah when their personal life is going, like, really, really good. Yeah. And they feel invincible.

Like, I got the Midas touch. Everything I touch turns to gold. And no, you don't. Yeah. Yeah. No, you don't. I mean, you know, you get this high because everything seems to be working, and then you go do something that's super high risky.

Yeah. But in your mind, because everything's been going good, it doesn't feel super high risky. So, of course, it's super high risky. Well, and I think that the bottom line, too, is in any of these extremes, whether you're in an extreme of grief or healing or even just, you know, you've got a lot going on, you're busy, maybe you're just super tired. It's hard to think clearly in those times. It's hard to think clearly when you're mourning. It's hard to think clearly when you're exhausted and just trying to keep your head above water and so i think that when you can get into a space where

you can think clearly then you're going to make better decisions but if you're just reacting you're just flying by the seat of your pants or trying to just um control things to control them you're not necessarily going to make the best decisions you need to think clearly and get out of that in order to make better decisions so deloney talked about this, Dr. John Deloney, when we were going through COVID this time last year, and people were in freak-out mode, that when your brain is in freak-out mode, whether it's anger, fear, pain, grief, whatever, you're just overwhelmed with emotion, it shuts down your critical thinking skills. Yeah.

Because you go into fight or flight yes and uh he talked about that and and you know we kind of all know that from a common sense but hearing it from a phd yes made it sound smarter but um i'm not sure he is but anyway he sure has a lot of sure has a lot of letters after his name but um it makes sense though but yeah so hint all of us have periods of time in our life short and long that there is extreme emotion do not make big financial decisions during a moment of extreme emotion yeah the logic part of your brain is literally not working. A hundred percent of your decisions suck during that time because you are not. I mean, you know, I can give you an example. When people get scared, they get super scared.

They get desperate. Right after you get desperate is when you fall for get rich quick. And you get conned because you're like, I'm 58. I just woke up and realized I've got no money. I got to retire. And they all of a sudden go into orbit, right? Yeah. And what do they do?

They go to some of the dumb butt, get rich quick investing stuff, and they get ripped off. And so they destroy what little opportunity they had to actually catch up, which you can do at 58. You're not going to die. You're going to make it, little baby. When I get desperate, right after I get desperate, I get really stupid. Well, yes. Desperate decisions are always bad ones. We talk about this even through Entree Leadership with hiring.

When you're desperate, you're going to make a bad hire. Oh, always. Because you're just desperate. You're not thinking clearly. It's true with anything, though. Ken Coleman and I have talked about this when we've hosted the show on fridays together we have people calling in and they took a job that was the wrong job because they were desperate and i was like man that was a bad decision what do you do then so desperate that's that's such a good

point desperate decisions are are always bad decisions i had a friend that married a woman that he shouldn't have married because he was desperate that's that's next level that's next level it costs you a lot of money though i'm just saying and headaches and stress and it goes bad and the same thing could be true some lady that hired or married a bad dude i mean it's both ways yeah it's expensive mistake yeah serious so all kidding aside with all the stuff happening with covid with grief around any kind of a situation you get fired well what happens you go through the stages of grief yeah you. You get mad. You're in denial. You blame other people. It's probably your fault.

But you don't come to that immediately. Might not be your fault. I don't know. I got fired one time, and the guy, I never knew why I got fired. You still don't know why. No, and he died. So I'll never know. You'll never find out. And he cussed me out when he fired me.

So I really, I mean, you know, I should be nice about it, but he's dead. And so, but yeah, so I, one of the things I vowed around here over all these years is if we're going to let someone leave, they're going to at least know why. And they're going to, if at all possible, had a lot of warnings. Yes. Yeah. A lot of heads up about it. But if you get fired, you get caught off guard.

That lady in our earlier segment, been withyson 30 years yeah didn't work out yeah oh you heard oh yeah you can hear the pain yes there's a story there at the new plant there's a story there yeah and if while that stuff is in your stomach and coming up into the back of your throat not a good time to buy a house yeah yeah yeah yeah not a good time to you know suddenly say i'm going to open a business and go $400,000 in debt. Yeah. To medicate the fact that I'm really hurting, pissed off, and wondering about my own worth in the world. Yeah.

And it's personal finance. So the more stable, steady, consistent, predictable the person. The higher probability they build wealth. You know what? I'm curious your thoughts on this. When you said that you made this reference to starting a business, Ken Coleman and I, when we were hosting the show a couple weeks ago, we got the blinds.com question. It was this woman who had had a salon for 22 years,

closed it due to COVID, and was not sure what to do now. And when they submit these questions, we can't ask follow-up, but reopening the salon wasn't an option. And it led, you know, when they submit these questions, we don't can ask follow up. But reopening the salon wasn't an option. And it led me to wonder, I wonder how many businesses closed in COVID because of, you know, whatever the expenses and all that. But then didn't reopen, not because the business wasn't viable again, but because they were so hurt. They're broken. They felt so like they failed, like they were because i'm going to restart when i went broke i closed ramsey investments and i had this cool sign and i had to take it off the wall it did something

it was it was not just closing a business when i turned the key that's right in that door the last time and walked away from that building it was like the death of a dream. And it was a very real thing. Did I need to be making major life decisions of any kind, money included during that time? No! Right. So, you know, you just got to, at any point of high emotion, positive or negative, take a chill pill, wait a beat or three before you make major financial decisions. This is The Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. John is with us in Tampa, Florida. Hey, John, how are you? I'm doing well, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So, through a few life events, I was able to pay my house off sooner than what I expected, which left me with a, I guess, a surplus in my emergency fund. With that being said, should I adjust my emergency fund and invest?

What did I say, adjust it? Should I adjust it down because now, obviously, I don't need as much because I don't have any bills, everything's paid for, and invest the remainder of that? Well, yeah, it should be three to six months of expenses. And what you're saying is with the house paid off, you've got hardly any expenses, right? I literally have zero expenses. No, I mean, you have food and lights and water and insurance.

Electrical and all that. Yeah, just the basics. and on the flip side i also i drive a 20 year old car and so i've also considered maybe purchasing a new car one day obviously not in this market but and in the near future yeah get you get you a better car which also by the way will lower your need for an emergency fund yes because the transmission going out in that hoopty is more likely than in a decent car right correct yes john have you run the numbers yet of what um you know your old emergency fund was based on what the new one is based on what these new you know lower expenses so you know

about what the surplus is um just note haven't sat down and ran the numbers, but I figure currently I have about $55,000 in emergency fund. My wife and I do $130,000. So we were figuring probably $25,000 would be substantial. Yeah, that'd be fine. And then I'd earmark some of the rest of that for the car and then invest the rest of it or maybe have some fun with the rest of it. Whatever. You've done great.

You're Baby Step 7, man. You're rocking it. Yeah. Are you a Baby Step millionaire yet? Yes, I am. Way to go. Way to go. That's awesome.

Well done. How old are you? I am 51. My wife is 52. I'm 51. Good for you. Congratulations. That's amazing.

Yeah. Thank you. So here's the thing. As we have built wealth, Sharon and I have noticed we have less emergencies because we own nicer things. You know, it's like the cars I used to drive were an emergency looking for a freaking place to happen, okay? They were an emergency. They were, and I was driving my emergency you know and then once you get decent vehicles and you've got a little margin you literally have fewer emergencies and so i don't even i mean the the chances of us actually not cash flowing

90 something percent of our emergencies just out of checking is pretty low uh these days and so uh you know it because again it when you're broke everything your life looks like a country song everything is an emergency you know and so it does change over time and the it's kind of like oxymoronic you know they always say well you know the banker will loan you money only when you don't need it you know and it's like well you only you know, the banker will loan you money only when you don't need it. You know? And it's like, well, you know, by the time you don't need an emergency fund, you know, it's like it does. It seems like that you should not need the emergency fund in the early days. It'd be helpful.

Right. You know? But, no, you've got to have it when you're starting baby steps one through. But when you're at seven and you're hitting millionaire status, you're making $130,000. Yeah. Yeah, $25,000 is going to be plenty, dude. gonna be plenty dude because you got other money and john get that car i hear your voice you're a saver i love that about you that's what's gotten you to this point enjoy some of that money it is sitting there and your car's old yeah he doesn't want to buy it

because they're crazy right now is all i know but i know but that emergency that's waiting to happen it's going to come out of that or it's going to come out of your emergency fund, whichever way you want to look at it. Make sure you get it for Christmas anyway. By the time Christmas gets here. I like that. Go ahead and start planning your Christmas gift. Good goal. Amber's in Minneapolis.

Hey, Amber, what's up? Hi, Dave. Hi, Christy. Hope your day's going well. Sure. What's going on? How can we help? I am currently on Baby Step number two.

And at the beginning of the year, I started a YouTube channel, which has now opened an Sure, what's going on? How can we help? I am currently on Baby Step number two. And at the beginning of the year, I started a YouTube channel, which has now opened an opportunity to make some additional income to go towards my Baby Step. My question is, on my YouTube channel, I try on and review clothing, which requires me to purchase quite a few pieces from each brand. I generally return most of the samples like once I'm done filming. But I'm currently funding this on a credit card that I only used for that. And I only pay the minimum balance, like the minimum due each month until I get the refund. At any given time, there could be up to $4,000 on this card in rotation. Is this an okay way to fund

this and like chalk it up as a business expense, or should I be approaching it in a different way? Yes. Yes, you should be approaching it in a different way. Having a credit card for business or personal is a bad plan because of the risk involved, because it's a bad plan to cash flow your business. Credit card aside for a second, and I'll let dave explain that even more but you should not be paying for these clothes these ideally these brands should be giving you free clothes to review for the exposure that you keep for the exposure you should not be paying to give them business this doesn't make sense so your whole business model needs to be

fixed from the inside out, aside from how you're funding any expenses that you have, which should not be on a credit card. But I want you to go to these brands and get them to give you free clothes for giving them exposure. How much are you making on YouTube? So the actual YouTube portion of it, like I just hit the monetization, and it's like very small.

$18. hit the monetization and it's like very small 18 about them yeah like after a month of doing videos this other platform reached out to me and they pay me 30 for each 30 second to two minute clip that talks about each product what's your viewership my viewership i'm just over a thousand so still pretty new but i've made in like the past six or seven months with this other platform, I've made over $12,000. Okay. So the risk that you're taking from a business perspective, screwing around with $4,000 in order to make $18 or $30

or up to $12,000 over many, many months is inordinate. I'm not sure you've got enough eyeballs yet on the thing to get them to give you the free clothes the way Christy's trying to talk about. But basically what you're doing is you're putting yourself in a position of being an influencer. And the way influencers get paid is they monetize the eyeballs. They come to watch them do whatever it is they do. And so that's what, you know, and obviously YouTube will pay you and other platforms will pay you as well if you can get the eyeballs.

But a thousand is not a bunch. You're getting there, though. I'm glad you're working this. So what's your household income overall? So my normal 9 to 5, I make about $86,000. Okay. I want you to set aside $2,000 for this business, maybe even out of the business income, or $3,000, and just prime the pump one time. By that, I mean open a separate checking account that is just for this clothing exchange process.

Because if you get stuck, if one of these companies, let's say you bought $1,000 from somebody, and they just said, oh, we're not taking that back, you wore it. And so your little return refund program doesn't work anymore. You now ate that. And guess what? If it's on your credit card you now have credit card debt and so this is the risk that happens because there's one thing we're sure of in business there's three things we're sure of in business um it's going to cost twice as much as you think

it's going to it's going to take twice as long as you think it's going to and you're not the exception those are the three rules of business and it happens to me around here all the time i have some great idea i think this is going to work and we put it out there and six years later into the gold planner christie's gold planner which we launched today is a mega successful product the first year yeah wasn't sure it was that great idea you know well a lot of dad gum work for not much money you know and so now it has turned out to be a thing but it took twice as long as we thought and we're not the exception especially and no matter how enthused or enthusiastic or um angry i am or christy is it doesn't matter you know we still, we still got to, some things have to cook up. They're like good gumbo.

Yeah. You know, and so in the meantime, you're carrying credit card debt. And I'm not going to ever advise that. You called the Dave, I mean, you called the Ramsey Show. You called Dave Ramsey, Christy, right? I asked you about credit card. You knew that wasn't going to work. I mean, that is predictable.

We're consistent. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer for The Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but if you heard about an event, product, or service and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry. We list everything you've heard about during this episode in the podcast show notes section or head to theramseyshow.com. Thanks for listening.