The Ramsey Show - App - Can We Buy World Series Tickets While We’re in the Baby Steps? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: October 28, 2021

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Thank you. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your money, and your life, your relationships, your marriage, your parenting, everything. I'm John Deloney, joined here by Ramsey personality, George Campbell, 888-825-5225. We are taking your calls on everything. George, how we doing? So good. Good?

I'm just happy to be here, John. Just grateful today. As I hear that intro music, you're like, pinch me moment. You know, I'm sitting here with Dr. John Deloney hosting the Ramsey show. This is a big moment for you, huh? Huge. Huge. And the second time this week. And I'm not going to pinch you. That'd be rude. No, you're really strong. I disagree. I can tell you work out. Maybe CrossFit.

Huge fan. I know you love CrossFit. Huge fan. Let's go to Jessica in Phoenix. Hey, Jessica, what's going on? Hey, how's it going? Outstanding. How are you? You know what? I'm doing amazing today. Thank you Outstanding. How are you? You know what? I'm doing amazing today. Thank you.

Excellent. What's up? So as you guys know, maybe, I don't know if you're baseball fans, but the World Series is happening, and it's Braves versus Astros, which is my husband's all-time two favorite teams and his best friends. And I have the opportunity to potentially send them to a game but the financial decision in that is what I'm trying to figure out like if it's a good choice or not because we have money saved up we have an investment started the only debt that I have

is my student loans and so I'm just trying to get like a second opinion of like this may never happen again the astros first you know the brave so is this something worth saying forget it let's just do it anyways or what do you guys think oh you walked right into one so jessica i was born and raised in houston i have the astros logo tattooed on my forehead i just covered up with makeup just for the show. I even took a year off after the big cheating incident. Like I sat down with my, he was nine-year-old son. We took a year off. Then we talked about redemption and now we're back.

So this is a big moment for me. Here's what I will tell you that happened in my life. A friend of mine is an executive there with the Astros and said, I can get you discounted tickets. And they were, for me, $300-something. I had a whole plan. I was going to take my son. Again, this is never going to happen again.

Here's my plan. I was going to drive him to school and then go past the school and be like, Dad, you missed it. And then I was going to flash him the tickets. We were going to hop on a plane, fly to Houston. It was going to be amazing. I was going to stay at a friend's house. I had it all planned out. And then I saw the cost of the tickets.

And then I saw the cost of the flights. And then I thought I started doing the math on the meals and the this and the that and the this. And so what I'll tell you in my house i'm not in baby step two anymore blown past baby step two i don't owe anybody any money and the cost for me even was not going to do it this year we're going to watch it on big tv we're going to have a blast meet my own food and we're going to make a big to-do of it that's just me and i i don't know what kind of fan he is he's not a bigger astros fan than me i promise you now i i and I don't know what kind of fan he is. He's not a bigger Astros fan than me, I promise you.

Now. I mean, I don't know. I'm just assuring you you're wrong. George, you help with the money thing. Okay, Jessica, I heard you say a lot of things that were concerning to me. In the very beginning. One, you're a Braves fan. That's problem number one.

Now, the sports things aside, okay, we can make amends on that part, John. We cannot. But on the financial side aside, okay, we can make amends on that part, John. We cannot. But on the financial side, you said, we're investing some. And the only thing, I just have this little student loan debt. I only have one debt. And you were very quick to kind of brush all the financials aside and get very excited. And I understand the excitement. But you said, are you currently investing right now?

Is that right? Well, yeah. So we have our Roth IRAs set up and then I sold my house. And so we have the money from the sale of that house set aside. And we've changed our lifestyle completely so we can continue to save. And so we sold everything, we renovated a fifth wheel, and we're living super, super cheaply. Okay. Well, you said we're on the baby steps. Is it okay to buy World Series tickets? And in the baby steps, we teach that you only start investing once you have paid off all of your consumer debt and you have a fully funded emergency fund. So where are we at on that side?

I have a fully funded emergency fund, and I just have student loans. So that's the debt that I have. But you have the cash to pay off the student loan today? All but like probably about $5,000 of it, yes. So what happened with the sale of the house? I thought you made a ton of money off of this. I didn't make a ton. I just made enough that I could pay off all of my student loans and my other debt.

So I took care of all the highest interest debt, and now that's what I have left. Jessica. We just keep running into a wall. First you're a Braves fan, and now this? Okay, hold on. We don't teach you to pay off the highest interest debt first. You've got to do the debt snowball so you feel the progress

so that the next time the Braves and the Astros in the World Series, you're out of debt, and you can actually do this and do it with confidence and not set yourselves back. So how much is left on the student loan debt? I have like $50,000. $50,000. And how much do you have in cash, in your savings account, checking account? Okay.

And part of that is your fully funded emergency fund. Correct. And so you're doing the Jessica plan where we go, all right, we're going to get the fully funded emergency fund, but keep the student loan pet around while we invest in the Roth IRA. And we're going to watch a lot of HGTV so we have a renovated fifth wheel so we are living cool and doing our own plan. Here's the deal, Jessica. I want to send you guys to the World Series. I wish I could just say it on air.

We're going to send you guys. We're not doing that. But here's what I can tell you to do. I can tell you, congratulations, you could have a paid-off student loan today, and you could have $5,000 in a savings account, which is going to get any more than a few months so that we can speed up this process you've just been doing a lot of you've been doing a lot of nice good things but we're just doing them out of order and you haven't been seeing the progress that you could have been seeing if you had done all this in order so on this on the sports side how much i'm just curious how much is this whole thing going to cost if you did this the the uh well game there's different options but i have also done the numbers like you guys did. I would say that if I was going to send his best friend with him too, it would be about $2,000.

So you have $50,000 in student loan debt, but you have the opportunity to send them on a $2,000 trip. And your living, your trailer that you live in will lose that much of depreciation over the weekend. Who knows if they'll ever play each other again? Like, that's where I was at.

Who knows if we all live on space one day? Here's what I do know. Every single month, you're sending your payment to a lender, and they're stealing money from you while you have the money sitting in your bank. So I want this to be a never-again moment where you say, never again will my husband's two favorite teams be in the World Series, and we't afford to do it hey I actually George I think you're right here's the thing this is me being honest with Jessica if you had paused your investing sold your home and you were renting a small house and not bought a fifth wheel that then you watched a bunch of YouTube clips y'all could learn how how to redo it and be cool and probably post about it.

You would have plenty of cash to send your husband to the World Series. And that's a great gift. I love it. I don't think it's a smart financial movement. The memory of paying off this debt and being debt-free forever is going to outlast whatever team wins a World Series. I'm just saying it right now. Be debt-free today. Watch the game tomorrow on its big screen.

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That's RamseySolutions.com slash agent. And I did this, George, and my agent was incredible. She's here in Nashville. She taught me a thing or two. She sat me down once or twice and said, I need to teach you about reality. And she was awesome. Never compromised on the things that we really wanted and needed in our budget. I mean, she was awesome.

She got, hey, I've got to put this much down. This is how much house. She was incredible. She stuck with us for month after month after month. Couldn't have been a better experience. I love to hear that. A lot of people are just hiring their buddy from college. Don't.

Just getting into real estate. Don't. You can't do that in this market. Don't, don't, don't. All right, let's go to Shawn in Las Vegas. What's up, Shawn? Hi, how are you guys? Outstanding.

How are you? I am grateful to be here. So I'm really glad I actually found you guys' number to call you. I've been battling with this. I feel like I'm battling with this blessing. We are currently on baby step two, but my father has gifted us a house, me and my husband, which is awesome, right?

It's like, how many people can say that? But so we're almost out of debt, and then we'll obviously be working on baby step three and getting our emergency fund. But I think we lose our vision after that for what's next in our family. And so we were thinking about getting a second house over where my husband's from, which is he's from Washington, but I really don't want to pay the taxes of Washington if we got a second place.

So we like the idea of 20 minutes across the river into Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. And so we would like the idea of getting another house, but then we don't know how, based off of the Dave Ramsey suggestions, do we get a loan on a house, a 15-year fixed mortgage? Do we try paying it outright? It's technically considered an investment property because it's not our primary property. So I think we just kind of feel lost on what to do with our financial situation of that. So would you rent this house out or are you just

going to stay there whenever you guys are in town? Yeah, so we do both. I was thinking of Vrbo-ing it and Airbnb-ing it and also going into and obviously staying there once we're in town. Okay. My husband has off like four days a week. He's off four

days a week, which is awesome. How do you get that job? I want that job. Dave makes me work every day. So he works three days a week, which is awesome. So we could go. How do you get that job? Yeah. I want that job. Dave makes me work every day. No, a lot of nurses have that job. So he works three days a week. Three, well, technically three and a half, but yeah, three days a week. Okay. Three full days, three 12-hour shifts.

I'm going to talk to Dave about this. Yeah, I don't know if we can score that one, John. 100%. So tell me, Sean, what's your household income? We're at about $90,000. $90,000. How much debt do you have left? Like $4,000.

Oh, okay. We're going to get rid of this debt, like, what, this month, next month? No, like by February, for sure. Why is it going to take until February to pay $4,000 off? Well, because we also pay property taxes taxes which are going to be due in january so does all of america holidays i know so does all of america but then we have holiday and a holiday budget we're trying to get people christmas gifts and that's like a 500 budget i have a child who is three months old and and I have to make a homemade formula for her,

and it's really expensive, unfortunately. Like, she can't handle regular cow's milk, so I have to make her a homemade goat milk formula. Tell me this. What's your husband doing the four days he's off? Well, he's also in the military so he has um he does he does military uh stuff once a month he's in the reserves what does he do those other days and then the other days he he's in school finishing up his bachelor's, which he's getting it done for free. Oh, nice. Because he's in the military. That's awesome.

Well, thank him for his service. I, however, yeah, you're welcome, I guess. My husband, he's pretty great. For me, I've been thinking about what I can do. I'm trying to actually start up my own business on top of it. Um, I'm working from home. And so when I have the time, I am trying to start up. So you guys are, are you paying a mortgage right now?

Are you in a house you're renting? No, you got a free house. You're already in the free house. You got a free house. So you don't have a mortgage payment. I'm still confused. We have no mortgage payment. You have a mortgage payment. I'm still confused. We have no mortgage payment. You have no mortgage payment and you have no margin.

I know, and we have no school debt. We have no credit card debt. Are you guys doing an every dollar budget right now? Yeah, I've been using the every dollar budget for like three years. I'd be going through that budget with a fine pick comb going, where is all this money going? You make $90,000, and you don't even have $500,000 in margin to put towards this debt. So that's new.

So the $5,000 or this $90,000 budget, it's just started this month. My husband just got this new job. So this should speed up the business. This will speed up things. It'll speed it up. But then, you know, what also recently cut off the bills, why we're in this situation right now, too, is we used to have two cars. We had a truck, and then we had a 4Runner, and I had a loan on my 4Runner, and I owed like $16,000. And I bought it new. Well, that's, of course, what we do. People do that, especially with, like, you I owed like $16,000. And I bought it new. Well, that's quite what we do.

People do that, especially with like, you don't even have a house payment. You can, this is like your house payment. Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. Let's get to the, let's answer your original question. We're going to run up against the clock. And the people who are saying that, they were right. Yeah, so as far as your actual question,

yes, it's not, you can definitely get a mortgage. I would do it the Ramsey way, 15-year fixed rate, put at least 20% down. If you guys can cash flow the whole thing and pay cash, that's amazing. But I'm not going to be mad at you if you do it this way. Don't look at it as an investment property right now because we have no idea if this thing is going to bring in a dollar yet. Just look at it as we want a second home. We want to do it the right way. This is going to be our only mortgage payment. But guess what? You guys can't even afford life with no mortgage payment right now. So that's what I'm more concerned about. Yeah. You're dreaming about a second house and you've got a three-month-old.

You've got a husband who's working here. He's got a full-time job and he's in the military. He's finishing a bachelor. Well, I want you to slow down and enjoy right now. Slow down and enjoy this second and get everything paid off and then get a fully funded emergency fund. And then start wondering, what if we could buy a second house? And visit a few times and just rent a place. Do a Vrbo when you're in that place. And then eventually, maybe one day, 10 years from now, you go, all right, we're here enough that we want to buy a place here. There's just a lot going on here in your life. And like John's saying, I think slowing down is going to help you guys figure out how to budget properly.

What does this new income look like for us? What does the situation for our daughter look like? I think there's too much going on right now for you guys to even be thinking about buying another property. Yeah, put that in a, that'd be cool one day. I have a bunch of things like that, that it would be cool one day. Right? Like making an album with me. Probably not.

But going to a World Series game, that would be cool. I'll make an album with you. If it's a rock rap album, I'll be in for that. I'm in. Not one of your sad acoustic records. All right, back to Sean's point. Hey, that is a blessing, Sean. That's awesome.

Get control of your money so it can work for you, not against you. And don't let the future, this panic, oh, should we do this? That is 10 years down the road. Let's enjoy today. We'll be right back. On the debt-free stage here in Franklin, Tennessee, Alexa from Staten Island, New York. And that can only mean one thing. What is it? I'm debt free.

That's incredible. Congratulations, Alexa. I'm so glad she didn't scream at John. I was worried she was going to look at him. I almost set you up to screw this whole thing up. And I've got a gift for that. Okay, so walk us through it. How much have you paid off?

$39,557.89. Not that I'm counting every penny right. Excellent. How long did it take you? 13 months. You're getting after it. Okay. And how much were you making during this time? $75,000. You went all in, huh? Yes. That's fantastic. All right. So tell us what happened. So in late 2019, my brother and his wife were debt free and they bought a house and he was telling me, oh, like, you know, all debt is bad debt and you should work on paying off your debt. And I was like, yeah, but you know, it's good debt. And, you know, I was getting an education and all of these things. And then a few months later i was taking a bus trip to go visit one of my friends and then actually on the bus the bus driver was telling me about his story and how he like changed his life and he uh paid off his house and he went back to school got an education and was starting to become

a financial coach and it turned his daughter's life around. And I was like, wow, like I should really look into this Ramsey thing and see what it's all about and at least hear it out. And then on the way back from that trip, I started looking into the Total Modern Makeover and just listening to the audio book and listening to podcasts and then just hearing people's stories and realizing it was possible. I was like, let's give this a try. So that's when you know the universe is speaking to you. What is going on in your life? When your friends and family are talking, and then the bus driver turns back and says, have I got a deal for you?

Like your barista, your mailman, they're all going, yeah, Dave Ramsey. You got to check this thing out. I've done a lot of debt-free screams, and I've never heard somebody convicted by their bus driver. And so how did you end up in that conversation? I don't know. We were just talking. He just said, ma'am, have I got a story for you?

I don't know. I guess I was just talking about life. And he was like, yeah, like just all these great things are happening. Wow. So what do you do for a living? I'm an engineer for a cosmetics company. Very. That sounds awesome.

Yeah. Sounds like a dream job. So you engineer the a cosmetics company. Very. That sounds awesome. Yeah. Sounds like a dream job. So you engineer the cosmetics? No. No? I work on projects for the company to help with optimization. I'm an industrial engineer. Oh, fantastic.

So there's so many $10 words in there, John. You've got two PhDs. You understood it. Optimization, engineering, we get it. Okay, so what type of debt was this $39,000? So it had student loans, car loan, credit cards, and a phone. Wow. And a phone.

All right, so you get done with the conversation with the bus driver. You sit down and have your total money makeover moment in the desert. And then you go home and you actually look at your debts and your budget. Walk us through that moment. So I wrote everything out and I was kind of shocked at how much it was, but once I broke it down one by one, it was easier to see how manageable each one was, you know, $200,000, $2,000. It was just in smaller chunks versus, you know, $39,000 all at once. And then I just sort of worked on it little by little. And I think what was really a pivotal moment for me was like three months in when I realized I'd

paid off like all the credit cards and the phone bill and that first student loan. And I was like, wow, like this is actually happening and I can do this. You saw the light at the end of the tunnel. You're like, this is working. Oh my gosh. And you're an engineer. So you're very mathematical. You're like, okay, if I just do this, then do this. If I pay this off, I'll have this payment freed up. And you started to see the power of that debt snowball. That's amazing. So what sacrifices did you make? What did you cut expenses? Yeah, you're a fancy engineer. Surely your friends are like, what are you doing? So I cut out streaming services. I've signed up for like three different ones. And I was like, no more. How old are you? I'm 25 today, like three different ones and I was like, no more.

How old are you? I'm 25 today, actually. Oh, my God. Number one, happy birthday. Number two, I've never heard someone under the age of 30 cut out streaming services and still be able to breathe. Are you okay? Yes. How did you know what happened in the Queen's Gambit?

Social media and maybe some account sharing. Wow. That, wow. That's amazing. Wait, so you were going, you said any expense that I don't absolutely need is gone. Exactly. Whether it's $10, $15, $20. What were some, any bigger sacrifices where you were like, all right, I'm going to have to shave this out for a few months or a year?

Clothes shopping. Whoa. I really love new clothes and I was like, no more. I have good clothes in my closet. You went shopping in your closet. Exactly. And I was like, no more. I have good clothes in my closet. You went shopping in your closet. Exactly. And it was free. That's great.

Brilliant. That's incredible. There's no way a 25-year-old cut off streaming expenses and clothing purchases. That just sounds... Very impressive. Yes. You can do it when you want it badly enough. So what was the why driving all of this?

I mean, you kind of stumbled into it, but there had to be a why. I think just growing up and I guess poor and just realizing and watching my mom, she was a single mom struggle and just realizing that's not what I wanted for my life. And I knew I wanted to learn and grow and make her proud as well. And I think just as I was thinking about my future and building wealth and eventually wanting to buy a house, just thinking about I can purchase these small materialistic things in the moment, but is it worth losing out on wealth and building wealth for larger companies that are already wealthy and just thinking about generational wealth, my future, and just my overall happiness as well in the future. How does it feel to be debt-free? It feels great. Yeah? Yes.

On your 25th birthday, you realize you've won. Yes. It's incredible. Incredible. Well, George and I, I mean, we're so proud of you. I wish I could go back and talk to my 24-year-old self and say, what are you doing? Here's what I want to know.

What would you say, there's a 25-year-old who's celebrating their birthday today and they're going, I'm not cutting out Netflix and I'm not going to stop shopping, but I've got this pile of debt, student loan, credit cards, car loans, you name it. What do you say to that person? What is the key to getting out of debt? I think the key is just knowing your why and knowing your goals. But I think it's just knowing that your income is your biggest wealth building tool. And you can either choose to give it away to Netflix or whatever else is entertaining you for the moment.

But those things are fleeting and Netflix will always be there and you can always go watch something later. But I think just really focusing on your goals and just that consistency. And then just using other things to fill your time. You can go outside. I did plenty of girls nights in instead of going out for dinner and drinks that consistency. And then just using other things to fill your time. You can go outside. I did plenty of girls' nights in

instead of going out for dinner and drinks and stuff. John's a big fan of going outside. Alexa, you are an inspiration to everybody. And give me one more time. How long did this take you to pay off? 13 months. 13 months. I see some people that are sitting next to you.

Are they your cheerleaders? Who are these people? So these are my friends, Ebony and Alexis. And in addition to them, my mom was a really big cheerleader, my boyfriend, and I also wanted to give a shout out to my FPU coordinators, Jovan and Paul.

They were definitely integral in helping me stay motivated throughout the process. And the bus driver? I don't remember his name. You don't remember his name. You remember the stories, John. You remember how people made you feel. So Alexa from Staten Island, New York, paid off $39,500 in 13 months, making $75,000. With some support from her friends, family, and the bus driver,

count them down, your debt-free scream. Three, two, one. I'm debt-free! I your debt-free scream. Three, two, one. I'm debt-free! What an inspiration, John. And we forgot to mention, we've got some gifts for her today as well. Oh, we do have some gifts for you. I should have told you that. We've got a copy of Total Money Makeover that you can give.

You can be on the bus next time and hand it to somebody sitting by you on the bus. You can pay it forward like it was paid forward to you. And we've got a copy of The Legacy Journey because you're only a quarter of the way done. And you have a long legacy to build. You've changed your family tree. You've inspired people around you. It's incredible. I love this.

George! Look at this. We don't talk to a lot of 25-year-olds. I feel good about the future. Which, by the way, someone thought I was 22, so I want to let them know that it's very kind. You're 23 and a half. I'm 32, but I love seeing people in their 20s who are saying, you know, I'm not going to wait until my 30s and 40s and 50s to get rid of this debt in my life, to figure this stuff out. She decided I'm going to leave a different legacy, and it starts now. And the word that kept coming to mind when she was talking was ownership.

Like this is mine to move forward. I went and got a great degree. I am doing great professionally. And now I get to own what the next 75 years of my life look like. That's powerful. When you realize, oh, I can take control. It's mine. It's mine.

It's my life. I get to decide. I'm in the driver's seat. I get to drive and Alexa can drive. She's driving. We'll mine. It's my life. I get to decide. I'm in the driver's seat. I get to drive. And Alexa can drive. She's driving. We'll be right back on The Ramsey Show. Thank you. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. Blinds.com's 100% satisfaction guarantee means even if you mismeasure or pick the wrong collar, they'll remake your blinds for free.

You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use promo code Ramsey to get the best deal. Today's question comes from Sydney in Nebraska. I'm 24, and I have a bachelor's in graphic design. I'm debt-free, so I've been very fortunate compared to many in the financial department. However, my work life has proven immensely unstable because my college courses never taught me how to work with customers. I've had three jobs where I was let go due to it quote not working out or the company did not want to train me. I'm currently on my fourth job which isn't in the field that I love. I come to work on time, I stay late, and I work hard but outside of a cashier job in high school, none of my adult jobs have lasted over a year.

I love graphic design, but I feel like I found my passion only to discover I'm not qualified to actually do it because I can't connect with people. Do you have any pointers on what else I should do? I feel like I'm in a death spiral and I don't know how to get out of it. Ownership. Ownership. Ownership, Sidney. In this one little paragraph, you blame your school for not training you. You blame your company for not training you. You say, I just can't do that.

You can. George, I see this a lot. Well, they should have done this and they should have done that. And I would have, but they just could ownership you've got your big big girl and big boy jobs now you learned this you can connect with people sydney you don't want to first time you get fired for not being able to do something you got a choice george you don't want to learn this thing or not? You said, I don't want to. I'm going to take another job. They fired you for that same reason.

So then you said, I'm not going to work on it. I'm going to take another job. And I'm going to blame my school. I'm going to blame my company. It's on you. Ownership. There's a great book called Abelard to Apple, George. I think it's D'Amelio.

Is that D'Amelio? Close enough. Yes. Talks about having, he used to run, be a leader in one of the technology programs at Georgia Tech, which is one of the highest ranking technology programs in the country

back when he wrote this book. And he started having his tech workers, or his tech students, not take advanced whatever for seniors but he had them take a theater class a counseling class so they could learn how the story arc works they could learn to interact with clients and with people and so if you're out in the world and you've got a job go sign up for a local theater go see a counselor and say i'm struggling with human connection can we practice some things here so that i can learn how to do these things relationships are a skill human interaction is a skill it's not like oh you didn't learn it and

that goes for any any job skill that you show up for at your first job you don't have i have a crazy i'll never forget turning george turned him into a performer for a residence hall. Probably $20 million project. I turned it on a Word document. And I'll never forget the president, who's a friend of mine, I handed it to him on a Word document. And he was an accountant. He's got a wizard brain when it comes to numbers. And I'll never forget, he looked at this Word document and was like, what is this?

It was like had Comic Sans font or whatever. And the way he was just so dismissive of it because it was obnoxious. I had to hire a fourth-year accounting major to sneak into my office on Wednesday afternoons and teach me Excel because I had a skill that I needed to learn to do my job right. And so whatever it takes, learn the skill, man. Yeah, and that's one of those things. excel because I had a skill that I needed to learn to do my job right. And so whatever it takes, learn the skill, man. Yeah, and that's one of those things.

You're going to have to work with people for the rest of your life. Unless you find a remote job in a cave where you can just design, that's the only way that's going to work out. But if I'm you, I'm picking up a copy of How to Win Friends and Influence People. I'm picking up a copy of Pat Lencioni's Ideal Team Player, where he talks about how you have to be hungry, humble, and smart. And the smart is not intellectual. It's people smart. And that's why we say books will help. This person has got failure on

type of failure. He needs to get out there with some real people and start interacting. This is a skills deficit. This almost isn't a... Not almost. This doesn't feel like a knowledge deficit as much as a dude, you gotta get out and start doing some stuff. And what happens, John, is this creates so much bitterness and resentment over years where you go, I'm a really good designer.

But the lesser designers, they're getting all the opportunities. Yeah. And that's not fair. And it's because they understand the full picture. The book's on the screen. Oh, gotcha. Yeah, there we go. Yeah, there we go. Yeah, Abelard to Apple by apple by richard de millo yep yeah it's a great

book and it's about higher education and how higher education is spinning and turning but one of the one of the things just it's a great author a great book but all i have to say is sydney take ownership and look at the the things that your bosses are continuing to tell you you don't have these skills you don't have these skills you don't have these skills. You don't have these skills. You don't have these skills. And you can blame them for not teaching you or you can just go get the skills. Here's what you say.

Thank you for that feedback. And then you go learn that stuff and you take it to the next job and they go, wow, she's really good with people. That's just natural. No, she worked at it. Really hard. But you can get better at this stuff.

Good grief. All right, let's go to Lori in Kansas City, Missouri. Hey, Lori, what's going on? Hey, guys. First, I just want to tell George congratulations on becoming a personality. I'm really excited for you. Oh, thank you, Lori. You're the first one to do that. And Lori, they let me in,

and so the bar is pretty low. That's true. But I appreciate that. Thank you so much. I think you're both great. So I have a weird dilemma. I bought my house last year in cash so I think I'm technically

Baby Step 7. Heck yeah. What do you mean you think? You're either a millionaire or not. Are you a millionaire? No, not yet. But she's on Baby Step 7. She's got a paid-for house.

All right. You bought in cash because you're a baller. Yeah. That's incredible. Yeah, so I'm still behaving like I'm in Baby Step 2, and I'm afraid to spend my money, and I'm afraid of making the wrong move.

I say, like, I hesitantly say 7 because I'm still saving for my daughter's college. Sure. So I got that on my radar, and then I own a home, and so now I want to fix my fence because it doesn't work. And then I know I have a roof that I have three to five years left on it, and then I have a car that has 217,000 miles, so logic tells you any day it might start to go out on me.

The sky is falling. Yeah, I'm just hoarding my money right now and I won't spend it. So I'm hoping you can help. Yeah, Lori, who taught you this? Who taught me to hoard? No, somebody taught you two things. Number one, it's all coming down at any moment.

Be ready. And somebody taught Lori, you can't trust yourself. Who taught you that? Myself, I guess. Come from yourself. Who taught you that? Myself, I guess. Come from you? You taught yourself that? Well, maybe my parents. There we go. So, here's the thing.

Trust Lori. It's not all coming down. You just paid for a house in cash. How did you even do that? Hustled hard. I became debt free December 2017 and then I just kept saving. I mean, that was the same mentality that caused me to pay for the house in cash, is I didn't trust

myself to buy a home, and what if I lose my job, and all these kinds of scenarios. You didn't do it out of excitement to pay for house in cash. You did it out of fear. I did. Well, the end result is good. Yeah, the result's good. So what is your household income? I'm just curious. My gross is $64,000 now. So you have $64,000 gross. And after taxes, you get to keep every single penny, right? Yeah. And I should also confess that I still do a side hustle. And it's crazy because all my money from my full-time job goes into one bank account, and then my side hustle money is actually what I'm living off of when I don't need to. So can you cash flow all of these repairs? Yeah.

Easy. Hey, Lori, this isn't a money problem. You know that, right? I know. Yeah. This is a money problem. You know that, right? I know. Yeah. This is a heart problem. And what I'll tell you is the longer you grind in this, there comes a point when your body will begin to break down. You can only be gazelle intense for so long before your body says enough's enough.

I can't run this hard. And this may be a long-term challenge that you struggle with for a long time. And it shows up in anxiety in other places or in catastrophizing and other things you do clearly do with your money, or it shows up in OCD in other places, or maybe all three. This may be something you need to sit down with a counselor and say for the first time, I'm worthy of being trusted. And it starts with the person I see in the mirror. Or it may just be, spend some money, take yourself out to dinner, go on vacation, fix your roof. You've earned it. You're awesome, Lori. It's another hour in the books.

I want to thank James Childs and Kelly Daniel, the producer and associate producer, and George Campbell and You America for sticking with us. We'll be right back here on The Ramsey Show. Have a friend or family member that needs a daily dose of Ramsey advice in their life? Let them know about the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast. It's a quick hit of advice about life and money in under 10 minutes. Check out the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.