The Ramsey Show - App - Can We Afford for Me To Go Back to Work? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: September 6, 2021

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🎵 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. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey personality, best-selling author, and host of the ever-popular podcast by the same name, Dr. John Deloney Podcast. Be sure and check it out.

He's here to answer your questions about your life. I'm here about your money and your life, and we've got an opinion about everything. So jump in. We'll help. The phone number is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Lindsay starts us off this hour in Los Angeles. Hi, Lindsay. How are you?

I'm good, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up in your world? So I was involved in a car accident in February. Praise the Lord, I'm okay. My baby's okay. But my car was totaled. I got a settlement

for about $10,000. I believe it was about $10,700. And I tithed on it, gave the 10% to the Lord. And I have left about $9,500. And my husband and I have $12,000, about $13,000 in debt. And I'm wondering if I use that settlement money to pay off that debt, or do I save it to get a new car? Okay, so the car you were driving that was totaled was worth how much? I believe it was worth about $10,000. I think they gave me what it was worth. Okay, so this money is for the car. It's not for any injuries or anything like that.

Yes, sir. Sorry about that. Oh, that's okay. I'm just saying. So you were driving a $10 for the car. It's not for any injuries or anything like that. Yes, sir. Sorry about that. Oh, that's okay. I'm just saying. So you were driving a $10,000 car. They gave you $10,000 approximately. And now you buy a $10,000 car, right? What's wrong with that plan?

Well, I'm trying. It's been hard finding a car because I commute. I want to get a car that's reliable. You were driving a $10,000 car. Yes, sir. Before. And we were not having this discussion about reliability. Okay.

Okay. I don't know. It sounds like you're overthinking it or trying to figure out. No, you're trying to use this as an excuse to move up in car. Yeah, like you're going to win something. You didn't win anything. They just made you whole. If you break even on this deal, you come out really good.

Or if you move down in car, you come out really good. So what was the car you were driving that got killed? It was a 2012 Camry. Okay. Not a bad car. Not a bad car. So go get another one of those. A 2012 Camry is pretty reliable.

Yeah. Yeah, it was amazing. I loved it. I bought cash for it, and i was really upset that it got um totaled so find an amazing 2012 camry for ten thousand dollars because that's what that one was worth okay all right um all right is that okay yeah i'm i was really wanting something that would get me better gas mileage because i can use to work then a camry yeah my camera didn't it did well it did okay um i just you know it's not an f-150 i mean so okay what are you thinking about okay let me just

settle this all right do it will be a mistake please do not for your sake use this horrible tragedy as an excuse to go further up in car and set yourself back financially. And you are rationalizing your butt off. I can hear it. So here, I'll tell you. So what I was thinking, my husband just set the record straight. My husband thinks that we should pay this money to pay off the debt. But it's sitting in my account.

No, because then you would not have a car. Right, exactly. That's what I'm thinking. So I want to use it for a car, but I want to finish paying off our debt because we're really, really close. I want to finish paying off our debt and then just save like a couple, just a couple more thousand dollars to get myself something that's got low mileage and that will do well, like a Prius or something like that.

Lindsay, think about it this way. Getting in a car wreck was not a scratch-off ticket. You did land with $10,000 in your pocket. And if you were walking to work, maybe this is a different conversation, but you need a good car to get you to and from. And the insurance company did what they were supposed to do, and they made you whole. And what you're trying to do is figure out how to be whole plus.

And you can't. Okay. I just want you to get back to where you were. Just get back to zero. Not worse, not better. That's right. You didn't win anything. And the insurance did what they were supposed to do.

They paid you. And so go get that same car back and then move on with your day. And don't overthink it. Okay. If you owed eighty thousand dollars on the car or fifty thousand dollars on the car and this paid the car off and got you out of a mess and we could move you down in car we would talk about that but your car is very reasonable don't move up and and set yourself back and use some of the money you should have been using for

debt but you're also not required to move down to a $2,000 car either in this situation. So if I woke up in your shoes, I would buy a $10,000 car that got good gas mileage. And by the way, there's Prius on the market for $10,000. Absolutely. Yeah. I'm not sure that's moving up in cars. Well played. I also understand you owe very little money left, and you've got a $10,000 check in your account. And I get that's hard.

Yeah, but you don't want to be carless. No, you can't. But I get it. And then you've got to go on and get a car, right? If that was going to work, you would have had the car for sale sign in the car when it got totaled. And that's where she's not able to make that leap, right? And we think that when we get an insurance settlement, we win. You didn't, man.

That's not man that's not what that's supposed to be no it's supposed to make you whole believe me here insurance settlement and win are never in the same right right that never works that way so good question thank you for calling yeah i love that harp anthony's with us anthony is in los angeles hi anthony welcome to the ramsey show. Hello, gentlemen. Good afternoon. I was just calling because recently I got out of the Marine Corps. I've been in there for four years. Talk to the phone, brother.

All we hear is muffle, man. You've got to speak into your phone. Sorry about that. So I was just calling. I just recently got out of the Marine Corps. I served four years, 22 years old, and I'm looking to buy my first home with the VA loan. I've been approved for 5.5 with zero down, and I'm wondering how much of that would be smart to actually use. None of it. None, zero. There's not a sentence that's come out so far that was smart.

Except for the part where you served your country. Thank you for doing that. That's right. All right, so let's stop. You realize the current interest rate is more like two and some change, not five and some change? Yeah, they're trying to charge you double, young man. Did you hear me?

Yeah, it was about 3.25. Yeah, about 2.75, okay, quotes this morning. So on a conventional with 5% down. What's the hurry to buy a house? You're 22. What do you do for a living? I do IT. What do you make? 90K.

Good for you. That's awesome, man. That's so cool. So you got some good training in the in the military then didn't you uh yes are you married sir no i'm not married excellent okay all right my advice to you is to wait a little while longer and use some of your fabulous new income to save you up a really nice juicy down payment and get a conventional loan. The fees and the closing costs are much lower than on the VA.

And certainly, according to your quote, the interest rates are better. That's a horrible interest rate. And please do not buy a zero down house in Los Angeles, California with the way the market is out of control right now. Yeah, this is a bad. You're going to be over your head, brother. Your timing is bad. Don't do this. Anytime you don't have

the money to do something and you do it, it never leads to good things. Just think about it that way. I hope we stopped you. Get a great apartment, brother. Live your life. I doubt I did, though.

But thank you for your service. This is The Ramsey Show. I saw some recent financial statistics and there was some pretty troubling news. When families were asked how long it would be before they faced financial hardship if a spouse died, nearly one-third said they'd be in trouble immediately. Another 44% said they'd be financially drained within six months. People, it does not have to be this way. Term life insurance plans are just plain cheap, and companies have made it even easier by not requiring exams in many cases. There really is no excuse to leave your family in this situation by not having

life insurance. This is why I talk about Zander Insurance every day. They're committed to protecting families with the only products that I recommend and their team keeps the entire process simple and affordable. Go to Zander.com for quick online pricing or call 800-356-4282. This has to be a priority. If your family is in this situation, you need to get this done. If you've ever made a dumb decision with zeros on the end because you didn't have the research done, well, that would make you like most of us. Me too. Most people make choices based on feelings or opinions, especially when buying a house.

But when it comes to this real estate market, this is not an amateur hour. Feelings are not your friends. Facts are your friends. Dr. John Deloney says that all the time. So find out what you can actually afford, not what you like. Research what's trending on home prices. Talk to a real high-octane real estate agent in your area to get the facts. Get with one of our ELPs.

Go to RamseySolutions.com slash agent. Get an agent who will help you make smart decisions because they have a proven track record of dealing with this market. RamseySolutions.com slash agent. Our question today comes from Blinds.com. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. That means even if you mismeasure, you pick the wrong color, you mess up, they'll make your window blinds over for free. You get free samples, free shipping with the new promos they run all the time.

You save even more. The promo code is RamSEY. All right, today's question comes from Cassie in Wisconsin. My husband and I recently decided to move closer to family, but since making that decision, my sense of security is crumbling. We lost two businesses when the pandemic started. We sold our house for a good price. However, the area we are moving to is more expensive. We are completely debt-free, but with the current economic landscape, I'm freaking out that we're putting ourselves in a shaky position. How do we know that we haven't made a huge mistake?

Hmm. Dave, how do you tell somebody to know if they haven't made a huge mistake? I kind of have a default answer to that, but before I just throw it out there. You know, it's not permanent. You can undo anything you're doing. Like if you go there and it doesn't work out, you can leave. How do you know you haven't made a huge mistake? So it's not a huge mistake. You have made a mistake yeah you might screwed up you

don't know but is is it life-threatening no no is it going to ruin the rest of your life financially no not unless you stay there in the middle of the huge mistake but if you get over there and it's a mistake then you leave yeah um but um i can't tell what all's going on here uh if you sold everything and you lost your business and you don't have any incomes and you're moving to an expensive area that would be like a good thing for you to be freaking out because you don't have any income right you should be freaking out uh but that that's going to happen if you stay where you are you don't have any income so the lack of income that I think I'm reading here is, you know, you're debt-free, but you don't have income. You still have to make money even when you're debt-free.

And I read this more – I'm assuming that they've got – they've figured out they've got to get jobs. I read this more as something that's happened to me several times, which is I know what the right decision to make is, and I make that decision, and I still wake up in six months, and you get that, do we do the right thing? And you just feel like you're on unstable ground, and so you've got to circle back to, again, the data, right, the facts. Why did you do this in the first place?

Is it the right move? Yes, it is. You probably woke up, and you don't have any community anymore, and you've got to go make friends again, right the facts why'd you do this in the first place is it the right move yes it is you probably woke up and you don't have any community anymore and you got to go make friends again and you got to go figure out all those things that are not fun to do but that slowly help your feet settle into the to the sidewalk right well and you decide to move closer to family and the great news is you're closer to family the bad news is you're closer to family that's right but i might be sinking into the fairyland view of being near mom might not be quite now mom's nearer to you oh my

god but i've left his jobs went somewhere new i knew all the reasons why i left that job and then dave whenever they finally replaced me at that old position i think oh i don't know why it just gets me a little bit and uh the the world keeps turning without me there yeah you realize you realize you're it's not yeah we can exist with our old employees call and say hey they that cool thing idea you had they just changed it now they're doing something else it's three four years ago i still oh man, that was a good idea. I suddenly realized I had a little bit of my identity

still attached back there. Right? Well, that would be human nature though. That's right. And so I got to acknowledge it and then I got to realize, well, I live here now.

And as you pointed out, how do you know it's not a mistake? You don't. So live into it and make the best of it. It's an adventure, baby. If you realize it's not great,

move. It's an adventure, baby. This is how it works. Yeah, I think that's true. And you're debt free. You you realize it's not great, move. It's an adventure, baby. This is how it works. Yeah, I think that's true. And you're debt-free. You set yourself up for this kind of move, right? Yeah. There's an old movie.

I think it was called Parenthood with Steve Martin in it. Oh, yeah. There's a bunch of one-liners in that thing. They're fabulous. But at the end of the – I mean, he goes through all this turmoil with family stuff, and it's just driving him crazy, all this anxiety, all this angst and jobs and loss and all this. I mean, I don't even remember what all it is, but it's like a constant, the whole movie is a constant state of crap.

And at the end of it, he's getting on a roller coaster, and he's riding the roller coaster of life is the metaphor, and he's enjoying the ride that's right with the ups and the downs and it's a beautiful scene at the end the beautiful metaphor for the whole thing because that is parenthood yeah yeah it's going to be you know that is moving close to family that is changing cities it's an adventure so uh it's still let's say let's say you move um from uh what the city you're in and you move to the more expensive place, and two years from now, you're miserable.

Economically, it's not working out. Relationally, it's not working out. And if you want to call it a huge mistake, you can call it a huge mistake. If you just want to call it a mistake, we can call it a mistake. So two years from now, what would you do? What could you do? Load up the truck and move back right or go somewhere else or start a third possible city that's the beauty of america it is still as money many people don't agree with this but it is still free yeah and you can just

decide i don't want to live in California anymore. And a whole bunch of people did, and they left. Oh, man, they did. And I don't want to live in New York anymore. And a whole bunch of people did, and they left. And I don't want to live near my mother. And you leave. And I do want to live near my mother.

So you go. And these are options you can just decide and the so the cool thing about a decision is if it's the wrong one make another one yeah and just because it's uncomfortable doesn't mean you made the wrong decision right and we see that with a hundred percent of change is going to be uncomfortable there you go we see that with breakups with moves with new with new jobs. They're always uncomfortable, right? And we often, we're so obsessed with our feelings that we feel less than what we imagine perfect is going to be. And we think, well, we screwed that up.

No, you didn't. You didn't, right? It's going to be uncomfortable for a season until you get friends, until you get a community, until you get a church, until you all find your date spot, until you find the place where everybody knows your name, whatever those are. Or two years, you wake up and realize this isn't the right move for us yeah let's get

out of here one of our operating board members wrote the wrote our ramsey newsletter last week and the whole opening thing was i hope this week has been uncomfortable for you yeah i hope this week you've had conflict that was healthy yeah i hope this week that you've been pushed to be better i hope this week you've had the uncomfortable conversation pushing someone else to be better. I hope this week that you've gone outside your comfort zone and it scared the crap out of you. I hope this week, because otherwise you're not living.

That's exactly right. Yeah, that's good. We are addicted to comfort in our society. Yeah. Addicted. That's very, very good stuff. Very good stuff. So hang in there, Cassie.

Hang in there. Yeah. Make the move. It's an adventure. Ride the roller coaster. Do it. Very good stuff. So hang in there, Cassie. Hang in there. Yeah. Make the move. It's an adventure. Ride the roller coaster. Do it. Have at it. And if it's bad, just undo it.

Just go back. You're debt-free for a reason. I don't know if I should pay off my house. I don't know. I've got the money in my checking account. I don't know if I should pay off my house. Pay it off. Pay it off.

If you hate being debt-free, you can go get a mortgage. People don't do it, but if you get in there and you go, you know, this is the dumbest thing I ever did. I hate being debt-free. I can't stand it. I really enjoyed having that mortgage payment. I want another one. The mortgage company will sign your butt right up. That's the beauty of America.

You'll be right back in there in no time. If you pay off all your credit cards and cut them all up and you don't you don't uh like it they will give you another one there'll be one in your mailbox tuesday don't worry about it you'll have another shot oh my gosh i'll give a dead person and a dog a credit card so definitely give you one oh lord this is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Christi Wright. Y'all, let's be honest. When it comes to our quiet time with God, sometimes it's hard to know where to start.

You've heard me talk about the Glorify app before, and there's a reason. For me, it has been a game changer, helping me grow in my faith every day. Every morning, Glorify guides me through God's Word with a bite-sized Bible reading, a daily devotional, and a guided reflection that helps me connect with God. And it's free to download. So if you haven't already, give Glorify a try. Just search for Glorify in your app store. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality,

is my co-host in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage. Mark and Ashley are here with t-shirts that say weird people say must have paid off their house. Way to go, guys. How much debt have you paid off? $406,075. That's house and everything, huh? That's house and everything. Woo!

Wow! I am looking at weird people. I love it. And how long did this take you? 53 months. Good for you. That's perfect. And your range of income during that time?

Started about $140, $250 to $250. Wow. What do you all do for a living? I'm a veterinarian. And I stay home with our kids and take care of them. And I breed dogs on the side and babysit and homeschool and sell things. You've got a place to sell the dogs through this vet, you know, huh? So what kind of dogs?

Standard poodles. Oh, yeah. All right. Big boys, huh? Yes. Wow. So one of you approached the other and said, I have an idea. Let's get shirts.

There you go. It was the veterinarian. Way to go. Mark has the fun ideas. I thought you were asking about their money. I don't care about money. I just want to know who came up with this idea. That's fantastic.

Okay. So 53 months ago, you decided to pay off your house. What caused that, and how did you do it? So we had just bought into the practice, and it was about five to six months after that. I was outside grilling one afternoon, and we did the budget. We were kind of doing day-ish at that point um and at the end of our month it was just tight like everything felt tight and uh i was thinking about like how much money we made like this is ridiculous we make way too much money to feel this way um and that was my

yeah that was my it moment we had paid off our student loans before that and we grew up hearing about you dave and we had applied some of it um but i always felt we always felt really good because we didn't ever um have big balances on our credit cards or i didn't bounce checks at the bank and but we could not get any traction we We really were slow to pay off our loans, and for the amount of money that we made at the time, it just felt like it should be more. It should work better. So that's when we decided to submit to the principals and get it done.

Okay. So you investigated a little deeper and figured out exactly what the details were to do the baby steps and to do our stuff. Yep. And did you go read a book or go through Financial Peace or just listen to the show or what? We listened to the show a lot. Yeah. I actually heard a lot of Financial Peace growing up.

My family didn't practice it, but my parents enjoyed listening to you. I actually took a class through my church as a teenager to, like, a young adult. I just didn't. I felt like a young adult um i just didn't i felt like i was pretty smart i didn't i have to i have to do everything my way first yeah i got it okay so you just kind of went back and revisited yeah all of that and said okay we're going to really do the stinking plan yep i think just hearing hearing people's at free screams hearing you every day a lot of the stuff that you speak is truth, and it really got to our hearts.

Eventually, we're like, he has helped lots of people. We're going to get on board. I'm so proud of you guys. Very, very cool. Very cool. Where do you guys live? What city? Green Bay.

Close to Green Bay. Oh, okay. So what's this four hundred six thousand dollar mortgage house that doesn't have a house doesn't have a mortgage on it worth uh the house is worth uh 250 probably now 250 so maybe three about half of that's the practice buy-in oh okay and half it's the house and so you own the practice 100 are your partners oh eight partners yeah eight partners okay small animal large animal everything large animal, everything. Large animal. Large animal. The whole thing's large animal.

Yeah. Wow. Okay. And my dogs. And your dogs. And I have to do the dogs. Those are large animals there. This is not a toy.

Yeah, that's a standard. Wow, very cool, you guys. I've got this moment. You're on your back porch. I just have a picture of you in my head of you raising a spatula to the sky

saying, no more, pretty much. Brave heart with a spatula. Yeah, just a spatula and lightning strikes. And then you come in and you tell your wife. Highlander. Walk us through that conversation. Yeah, so he probably would have done this a lot sooner. I was the one who dragged my feet for sure.

I just really like stuff. I like to buy stuff. Looking back, I just really struggle with self-control, struggle with contentment. His job was convincing me to get on board. I love him. I want

him to be happy and to thrive and do well. That's kind of what as long as he doesn't tell me no yeah right he can thrive in that atmosphere i want him to be happy in my lexus yes that's great yeah so it took a little while for me to come on board um so what's the first big thing you're going to get to do now that you don't have any debt i bought her a new van or a newer van good yeah that's perfect it was coming for a while yeah it was needed i can tell the funny story was i knew she had bought in the year before we bought the van uh we had set aside from the

year-end bonus stuff to buy a van and And it was like a few days into that, like after we'd set it aside, she came to me and said, I think I'd rather put this towards the house. Wow. And I had done the math and I had mapped out if we put this towards the house and your bonus towards the house

and we pay on it like we've been paying off our debt, then we can probably pay the house off in a year. And I think it's only going to get harder because we've got kids that are growing and they've got plans and goals. Wow. He grabbed that spatula and he waved it. That's right.

We're in it. There we go. So good, man. I love it. Well, congratulations. What do you guys tell people the key to getting out of debt is? I think the why. Just having a big why.

And the bigger the why, the better. I think the most important thing you say every day, Dave, is the only way to true financial peace is to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. And that's a huge why of we're stewards. I mean, you talk about it all the time. We're stewards and that money is not ours. And we're responsible for taking care of it and using it wisely. Yeah. And for me, it was learning that self-control and contentment. Sometimes I reflect back. It felt like a really long time, especially when you look at the time that we were Davish, all the way to paying off the house. Pretty much our marriage, we've been paying stuff off and trying to live frugal and trying to get good at that. And sometimes I look back and I think, it took that long for God to get through to me, to change my heart. But I definitely would say

for me, that was it. And honestly honestly i'm a bit of a wheeler and a dealer i love to uh see the potential in things and i'm really good at selling things and doing that stuff but my superpower ended up being just to sit still and to save our money and not spend it and to find ways to grocery shop better that's a a life change right there. That's a family tree change right there. Godliness with contentment is great gain. So you brought the kiddos with you. What are their names and ages? We've got Reuben, who's 10, Vienna, who's 9,

Tori is 7, Maddie's almost 6, and Jen's almost 4. Okay, and they have the T-shirts. You are looking at it. The why? What are we looking at? You are looking at weird the why what are we looking at you are looking at weird people it's not it it's an exclamation point i love it well we've got a copy of the legacy journey for you because that's the journey you're obviously on what a great looking family and of course you uh also we'll give you a copy of the total money makeover to pay it forward and give to somebody

start their journey. So you are looking at weird people, exclamation point. That's perfect. You're looking at a changed family tree. It's incredible. That's awesome. Very cool. Very, very well done.

All right. Mark and Ashley, Ruben, Vienna, Victoria, Madison, and Geneva. Count it down. $406,000 paid off in 53 months, making $140,000 to $250,000. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Ready? Three, two, one. We're debt-free!

Wow! Wow! Man, that's powerful. That's incredible. A lot of transformation happening, not only in their family tree, but in each of the individuals. That's powerful stuff right there. Wow. Every decision they make is going to be different.

House and everything, the practice, it's all not a debt in the world. So powerful. Woo! This is The Ramsey Show. Our scripture today, James 1.4, Let perseverance finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Benjamin Franklin said, Energy and persistence conquer all things. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today as we take your questions about life and about money. The phone number is 888-825-5225.

Jessica is with us. She's in Wilmington, North Carolina. Hi, Jessica. How can we help? Hi, Dave. Hi, Dr. D. How are you all today? Great.

What's up? Great. So my husband and I are trying to figure out if we can afford it for me to start my career. So just some quick details. We recently finished Baby Step 2, working on Baby Step 3, which will probably take us about five more months. I'm going to be going into real estate. So there are going to be some startup costs associated with that, probably around like $1,200 with NLS access and the exams and everything like that. But we will have to figure out getting child care for our son. So my husband is in the military. We could

utilize the base daycare for about $600 a month. But we're wondering if we should essentially pause baby step three and save the money for my startup and a few months of child care to cover that gap in between when I start and when I get my first commission check. Or if we should finish up baby step three and then save up for those costs associated with me starting work. $1,800 takes you through the first month. $1,200 worth of costs and $600 worth of daycare, right? Mm-hmm. That should be right, yep. Okay.

How old are you? We are both 22. 22? Yes. Okay. And have you had discussions with a real estate broker that you would go to work for? Yes, I have. I have been in the office several times to speak with them and have interest with a particular brokerage. And what's their training program like and what do they project before you to make your first sale? So they have told me, one of the girls who I've been talking to,

she said that it took her about six weeks to get her first contract, but there are other girls in the office who they've gotten a contract within the first few weeks and some longer. So that is the part that makes me nervous. What's going to be your lead source? I'm not 100% sure. Still trying to figure out all of those details. Okay. And what does your husband make a year?

He makes around $40,000 a year. Okay. Okay. Why real estate? It's always something that I have been interested in and you know I have a passion to help people and I figure taking my interest and my passion mixing that together could be a good idea. All right. Let me tell you the full picture of what I'm hearing and what's also running through my head. Okay. And then let's kind of put all that on the table,

and we'll start playing with it and trying to figure out what to do. I got my real estate license when I turned 18 years old. Mm-hmm. I did sell a house three weeks later to one of my high school buddies because i was just out of high school which means both of us were pretty stupid actually but um i mean who buys a house from an 18 year old except another 18 year old right so um but the uh uh or a 19 year old or something like that i mean this is like happy Days does real estate or something. But by and large, and I sold real estate actively all the way through college from 18 to 22 years old. And I've had my licenses ever since.

So what you're saying can be done, I will tell you from experience, male or female, it is very, it's an uphill battle to have credibility to get someone to make the largest purchase that they ever make in their life with a 22-year-old. It can be done, but you're going to have people that just simply will not work with you because of your age, because you just don't have credibility. Or they like you, you're sweet, pat you on the head, but won't actually close the deal. You know what I'm saying? That's a lot different than the crusty old 56-year-old battle axe, right, that just tells everybody what to do,

and they do it, you know, kind of thing. You're just in a different position in your life in terms of credibility. So you need to know that this is not a hot knife through butter. It can be done. Right. But you've got some uphill stuff. I did it. I think you can do it.

I think you should do it. But all of those things contribute to the idea that it's probably going to take a little while before you actually start making money right and so that tells me i want your emergency fund in place before you do this and that also tells me that the fastest way to cause that to happen and the fastest way to have then the money for the licensing and the daycare months before you get money coming in probably means you look at some other form of extra income as a short-term way to get to your goal of being in real estate faster. Right. Like, I mean, if you could find something and make $1,000, $1,500, $2,000 a month as a part-time gig doing something, and you do the work it pays. Something Uber Eats, deliver pizzas.

I don't care what you do, or they'll hire you to do something at that real estate office for a couple grand. That would even be better, and you just start immediately doing that. And I would rather you do that than work real estate today and use that money to get the emergency fund finished faster and use that money to get a little bit of a nest egg to go six months of daycare and $1,200 worth of upfront expenses, and you're going to have more than that after all. It's probably going to be more like $2,000 by the time you're done.

And so I just want you to have all that, because nothing smells quite as bad as a broke, desperate salesperson. You're right. And I just have spoke with so many folks who want to get into the real estate business. That's why I asked you what you want to do because the napkin math is so great. We just have to sell five houses and I get this cut of this price and, honey, we're going to be rich. And it's super flexible so I don't even have to deal with the little one anymore, right? And everyone who I know, Dave, and you've done it, I haven't, gets into real estate. It is all the time, 24-7, closing deals at 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.

It's a lot of work. Yeah, it's a lot of hours, a lot of work, a lot of accessibility. So I'm not trying to dissuade you. I'm saying you have a higher probability of being in the real estate business five years from today if you lay a really cash strong foundation with an emergency fund and your other cash up front before you go in it's going to help you with your success probability on this because you do have probably a tough fight i do think you should do it and i do think you can do it but i think it's going to be

tough i yeah i just have worked with a good real estate folks and not good ones man and it's such it's such a difference it's incredible yeah it is and um and they're everywhere yeah i mean there's you know it is truly the pareto principle 80 of the business is done by 20% of the people in the business. Really? Yeah. And you take that 80%, and it's another 80-20. Again, down to where 1.6% are doing the vast majority of the transactions. It's crazy. I mean, you have one real estate agent that's doing 400 transactions a year, and another one does one transaction a year.

Is it just because it's a side gig, or they just don't hustle? Well, no. Some people just because it's a side gig or they just don't hustle? Well, no. Some people just reach another level in their career, another level in the octane that they're operating off of. And, you know, the protein just drips off their eyelids, you know, and it's just – and then, you know, and everything comes together. You know, and some of them build teams to do it with and everything else. So our ELPs we work with all the time, you know, we're looking at these high octane people and it's amazing, you know, what can be done. So I don't ever want to be a dream killer.

No. But I also don't want a dream turned into a nightmare. Especially the little one. Yeah. There you go. Hey, Jessica, good luck with it, darling. Thank you for calling in. Let us know how it works out.

I'd love to hear from you when you're a big time successful real estate agent. John, good show. Thank you, sir. Dr. John Deloney, and that puts this hour of The Ramsey Show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Dave here. We just launched a brand new listener survey. We want to know what you think about the show. You'll be entered to win a $100 Amazon gift card. No purchase necessary.

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