The Ramsey Show - App - Can You Survive on Less Than $25/Hr? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: November 11, 2022

George Kamel & Ken Coleman discuss: What to do with your career, How much you need in your emergency fund, What amount of money you need to make to survive, Rapid Fire questions from Instagram Live. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the POTS moving and storage studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life, your money, your work, all of it. I'm George Campbell, joined this hour by Ken Coleman. Some have called us the root beer float of radio. That's right. It's happening more often, by the way.

People are coming up to us at our live events in Minneapolis and Sacramento the last two weeks, and they're offering their opinion. On who is the vanilla ice cream? Who's the root beer and who's the vanilla ice cream? George said on the air, this is, by the way, if you have no idea what we're talking about, we had a nice podcast review, and the guy said something along those lines, that we reminded him of a root beer float or something. And so I said, well, which one do you think you are?

And you said you think you're the root beer. Yeah. Well, you're just so smooth. So cool. Well, the people in the audience are voting. So they think that George is the vanilla and that I'm the root beer. That hurts. Boy, they're very passionate out there in the lobby.

Well, thank you for the votes out there. Either way, people are now commenting in the picture lines what they think. I love it. And, you know, Ken, we're not the heroes that America needs, but we're the ones it deserves right now. I didn't know where he was going with that. You never know. Yeah, yeah. So we're the ones that deserves right now. I didn't know where he was going with that. You never know.

Yeah, yeah. So we're taking your calls. We're happy to be your dessert beverage here on this lovely Friday. And all it takes is a free phone call to the number 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life, your work, your money, how it all intersects. And Josh has decided to do that out in Buffalo, New York to kick us off. Josh, welcome to The Ramsey Show.

Hey, guys. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. What's going on? Yeah. So, Ken, I've got to say I think you're the ice cream, but I'll just leave that there. All right. I'm not going to argue. The people have spoken, and so there it is. I'm not going to argue with a member of the Bills Mafia. That's dangerous. Oh, boy. Yeah, be careful. I know. going to argue with a member of the Bills Mafia. That's dangerous. Oh, boy. Yeah, be careful. I know. All right.

Thank you, sir. All right, guys. I'm feeling stagnant in my career, and I just really don't know what my next best step is. Okay. So what are the steps in front of you? Because when somebody says, I don't know what my next best step is, that implies to me that you've got some steps in front of you, you're just not quite sure where to go.

Is that true? Yeah, yeah, I think I would say so. So give me the steps. What are we considering? Yeah, so I have a year's worth of education, and it's in biblical studies. So there's a big part of me that really desires to be in ministry full-time. And then there's another part of me that, just with some of my aptitudes and skills, wants to be in sales. I'm not doing either of those things currently,

and I kind of don't know what's best to decide. I don't know what's most true to where I am now and where to go from here. Yeah, okay. So there's a little simple test when somebody presents to me a couple of options when I'm coaching them, and I think you've got to get your head and heart aligned. And whenever I hear something like this, it's usually a case of a wrestling match

between the head and the heart. I think your heart's telling you one thing. I think your head's telling you the other. Is that true? Yeah, I guess I would say so. Which one? Give me the corners. We've got two opposing. Who's in the blue corner? And who's in the red corner? So let's go heart. What's your heart saying? Which one? Which one? Give me the corners. We got two opposing. Who's in the blue corner? And who's in the red corner? So let's go heart. What's your heart saying? Which one?

My heart is, you know, a desire to be a pastor and be in full-time ministry. Okay. And your head's telling you sales because it's a better living, better benefits, yada, yada, yada, right? Yeah, I would say so. Okay, so how long would it take for you to get qualified to be a full-time pastor? What's left on that journey? If we said today, and we're not saying that, but if we said we're going to choose to pursue the heart, which I always think you should, how long would it take you to get there? What's the time and the cost? But I would say it might,

you know, three or four years. Three or four years and how much money? Maybe $20,000. Okay. I don't quite know. That's good. I want you to go from maybe to certain. All right. So there's four qualifying questions I wrote about, George, in the book, From Paycheck to Purpose. Because getting qualified is very intimidating. Josh is an example. So Josh, the first question is, what do I need to learn? That's the education piece. The second question is, what do I need to do? That's the experience piece. The third question is, what is that going to cost me? That's the economic piece. And then how long will all of this take based on my financial reality? That's the expectation question. So if you're right, and I want you to go back and examine

this, let's find out how much it's really going to cost for you to get the education required to get hired. Now listen, in the ministry, you don't have to have a master's in divinity, but a church may require a theology. You need to do your homework and say, what is absolutely required for me to be in full-time ministry as a pastor? And then how much is that going to cost me? And based on my financial reality, how long will that take? That's your homework assignment. Now, Josh, I want to get your head and heart aligned because I'm going to suggest to you that I'll bet you're really good in sales. You better be if you're going to try to sell people into going to heaven.

Right? Yeah. So here's the deal. Probably wouldn't hurt for you to go get a full-time sales job and sell something that you can get excited about, and guess what that's going to do? That's going to get you the money you need, and you go part-time, and you're selling,

and then you're getting the degree or whatever experience is necessary to get that full-time ministry job. But I think it's a combination, and I think it's the sales job that's going to get you in a position to step into ministry. That's what I think. Question about that? Wow. I mean, no, it's honestly getting me kind of stirred up just thinking about it as far

as order of operations. I felt at a standstill, and yeah, it's honestly getting me kind of stirred up just thinking about it as far as order of operations. I felt at a standstill, and yeah, it's getting me pretty passionate. From stagnant to stirred. There's your new book, Ken. There it is, folks. We just helped Josh. I just blew the foam off the top of the root beer float. Right there.

There it is. I was excited. Well, I think that really is the answer, Josh. You need to commit today to trust God and the calling on your life and go do it. You step out, he steps in, a little theology for you. And I think in the meantime, you go get a good sales job and let's go make some money that's going to take care of, put you in a place to step into that full-time ministry role really stable. Josh is just dumbfounded. He could not speak.

He's speechless. All right, we'll let him go. You know what? I want to send Josh a copy of your book, From Paycheck to Purpose. Thank you, George. To equip him, to add another E to all the E's you just dropped when we want to equip him. You like that? Hey, you know what?

I do want to do this really quick. Because people, listen, a lot of people listening and watching this show right now, and you know what you want to do, but you're not doing it because you're absolutely terrified on what the next step is. And so I'm going to get you unstuck. They're called the four qualifying questions. Okay, here it is. The education question. What do I need to learn? It does not necessarily mean a diploma, but it's some level of qualification. What do I need to learn? That's the education question. Number two, the experience question. What do I need to do? Some people try to step up high on the ladder when they got to step here on the lowest rung. Third question, what do I need to do? Some people try to step up high on the ladder when they've got to step here on the lowest rung.

Third question, the economic question, what is this education and experience going to cost me? And then third, now that I can look at the real money, I go, wait a second, based on my financial realities, how long will those first three steps take? That's the expectation question. Here's what happens with those four questions, George. We come up with clear answers and a very clearly defined plan. Guess what? It's not so scary when I can see the path forward.

Well, you've said clarity breeds confidence. It does. That's exactly what we just did for Josh, and I love it. Awesome call. We're excited for you, Josh. More of your calls coming up. 888-825-5225. This is The Ramsey Show. welcome back america to the ramsey show i'm george camel host of the entree leadership podcast the

fine print podcast and co-host of the smart Money Happy Hour Podcast, one of our newest shows from the Ramsey Network that I co-host with our friend Rachel Cruz. And I'm joined this hour by our friend Ken Coleman, host of The Ken Coleman Show. You can find all of those shows on the Ramsey Network or wherever you listen to podcasts. And by the way, folks, if you like this show that you're listening to right now, The Ramsey Show, please consider subscribing and leaving us a review and sharing it with friends. That is how this show grows. It's by word of mouth. It's by people like you that, hey, you got to check out this podcast. It's really inspired me on my money journey,

on my work journey, on my relationship journey. And we so, so appreciate it. We've got an influx of reviews and five-star reviews that have been coming in, and it's because of you all. So thank you so much for listening. I should out that that uh if you've stumbled across us or you just love dave so much that you hate us uh don't leave that review because i won't read it george might but i won't yeah no thanks george goes the down the dark rabbit hole of neurosis uh i on the other hand could care less i tell people all the time on the ken colman show if i say something you don't like fantastic i want you to feel free to voice it. Just know, I'm not reading it. It's going to be lost in the abyss. Life's too short. I agree.

I do agree with that. And the old adage goes, if you've got nothing nice to say, don't say it at all. There it is. Thanks to the internet, now the comment section. Keyboard warriors. A lot of courage when you don't have to look somebody in the eye and say it. Agreed. Fascinating. Although you and I are little guys we're probably nobody's afraid to say anything to us that's fine we can handle it we can handle we got thick skin well we really don't speaking of social media Ken there's so many videos out there oh I got a video for you well people keep sending them to us saying hey you guys got to react to this and so there was one that went viral oh and you reacted to it on the Ken Coleman show.

I did. And I told James, I said, James, I want to bring it over here and I want you to react to this as well. I've already seen this. All right. Now let me set this up very briefly and we're going to pause it a few times. So stay with us. This is a very popular and viral TikTok and this is a real sentiment.

I want you to understand something. We're not about to show you this and destroy and criticize and belittle the sentiment. We will take issue with some things factually, but understand, and I want to set this up properly. There are millions and millions of Americans, George, who feel the way that this gentleman feels. So take this with a shaker of salt and understand this is why we do what we do here at Ramsey Solutions. Let's roll the video. If you're making less than $25 an hour right now, you should be terrified. If you are making less than $25, you're going to be very pissed off by the time we get to the end of this video. This information here is going to scare the shit out of you.

Alright, pause. First of all, okay, what he just said there is not true. You'll be fine if you're making $25 an hour. We don't go viral on TikTok without some fear-mongering, Ken. Boys, scare the whoop out of you, he said. You're not going to sleep tonight if you make less than $25 an hour.

Okay, this is absolute nonsense, but a lot of people feel this way. All right, now George will tell you how we can do this later. Let's keep going. I just spent some time looking at some monthly averages of regular costs of living all across the U.S., average costs. And I put them all on a spreadsheet and did all the math for you so you can see exactly what this big picture is here. So these are just normal expenses that most single consumers have, and this is all of them laid out national average right here.

The average cost of an apartment is $16.59 a month. For groceries, you're going to spend $500 on that, and you go down the list here. But to add all that up, you're looking at $32.85 a month just in your cost of living expenses. Which means to break even. Pause. Now, George, I'm going to let you step in here, but I pointed this out on my show. We're already a little bit out of whack here when you look at just the average vehicle payment. The average used car payment is just a shade under $700 a month. Insane.

So we're not even working with real numbers here. All right. And then let's just point out that what if you didn't have that car payment? How far would that go, George? 1,000%. Well, one of the reasons people don't have margin is because they are living with payments, giving all of their hard-earned money to lenders every month. And they think, well, this is the path. This is how I get financial freedom. This is what success looks like. But we teach no debt, pay for things with cash, get reasonable used cars. And so this is a big part of the picture of why there's no margin in this person's budget. That's right. And that's why I pointed this out, America. He's saying you can't make enough. This whole video is if you should be making way more than $25 an hour, which by the way, I'm for that. That's what I spend a lot of my time doing, helping people make really good money.

But to say that the man is keeping you down when we don't even have the car payment correctly put in this budget, and people think that that's just something they've got to carry around. So, all right, let's keep rolling. And just squeeze by paycheck to paycheck, you have to be making $32.85 every four weeks. So this is calculated at your monthly income at a 40-hour work week. So it's your hourly rate times 160 hours for four weeks in a month.

So I don't believe anybody should have to work more than a 40-hour week just to survive. Now this tax column represents how much you'd be paying each month in taxes after you add up all your withholdings. I figured this out by looking at my pay stubs from the last time I was an employee about six years ago. So you got your gross income, you got your net income after you pay this tax, which would go in this column. I didn't fill it all in. The first

time you see a number higher than this number is at $25 an hour. And it could even get worse than that because chances are you're going to be paying more than 16% in total withholdings. Add anything like child support or alimony to that and forget about it. So this leaves you with very limited options. You either have to kill yourself working way, way too many hours, or you've got to figure out a way to make a ton of money. Pause. Pause.

There's the false narrative. Love those two options, Ken. All right, George, that's what I wanted you to weigh in on, because I weighed on this on my show. But this is a false choice. Kill yourself. Most people lose hope because they back themselves into a corner and decide there's only two choices, Ken. Either kill myself working jobs I hate, or that's

it. That's it. This is the only path. Yeah. So you looked at the spreadsheet. There's no advice in this TikTok about controlling spending. No. What issues do you have? If you're just listening, you're not seeing the spreadsheet, but outlined here, the first number is rent at $16.59, which he claims is the average rent in the U.S. I don't buy that. Now, if you're on the coast, you're in some higher cost of living cities, yes. But let me tell you, Ken, if this is based on a single person, let's say a single young guy, that's kind of who he's talking to in this video. Well, I was not living by myself in a nice apartment when I was a single young guy in my entry-level job. I had a roommate. You might have multiple roommates.

And so to be paying $16.59 is insane. I would say, well, time to get a roommate. That cuts your rent down to $8.25. And it just gave you $800 in margin back in your life. Now let's pay off that car because you're paying $400 a month towards that car payment. Or you sell the car. That's an extra $400 back in our life. Now look what happens, Ken.

We have an extra $1,200 of margin that we can breathe. Don't forget the streaming. He's got $37 down for streaming, which you don't have to have. Yes. So there are ways to trim the budget. The question are what are you willing to do? Because don't tell me you can't. Don't tell me you can't get a roommate. Say you're unwilling to get a roommate. And this is for a short period

of time we're sacrificing. Number one, Ken would say, well, we can help you get your income up. That's right. If you don't have enough to make ends meet because of your cost of living, and by the way, $40,000 can go a long way in Idaho, and it may not go a long way in LA. And there's the other part of the narrative. So the one is kill yourself working crazy amounts of hours or go have to make more money. Like, that's a bad thing. The way it's positioned is like,

or get a job where you make more money. Like, have to bust it. I can't quiet quit, right? I got, instead of quiet quitting, how about some gritty greatness, George? How about that? That's a new one for me. Nobody's talking about that. Well, Ken, we know this and we're confident about it because we meet

people every day, Main Street folks who come to our debt-free stage, and guess what? For a short period of time, they worked extra. They worked more than 40 hours a week. They worked 60 hours a week because they wanted to sacrifice for a short time instead of being in pain for a long time, which is where most of America finds themselves, living in mediocrity for 20 years because they don't want to sacrifice for two, which, by the way, is the average amount of time it takes for our folks to get out of debt. I'm going to tell you where this kind of, and again, a lot of people feel this. I get it.

But when it's positioned as though you are a victim, and this video, whether meant to be made this way or not, is all about making the person who watched this video feel like a victim, as opposed to saying, wait a second, you don't have to accept this. This isn't some sentence. This may be a season of your life, but it's not a life sentence. The hamster wheel is not your miserable plot that somebody more powerful than you has bestowed upon you. Yeah. And it starts with believing that it can be different and then actions that lead you towards freedom long term. And that's exactly what we do. We

have a solution. We're not just trying to rile you up about the problem. We want to show you a way out, show you hope instead of these hope stealers out there telling you it's everyone else's problem and you're not the solution. This is The Ramsey Show. All right, folks. A few holidays going on today. One is Veterans Day, which is way more important than this other one that is totally made up, which is Singles Day. That's right. Oh, come on. I know, Ken.

Wait a second. Are you for real? This is a real thing. Singles Day? As in people who are not married? Exactly. Oh, my goodness. And we want to make sure they are seen today.

And it's not just a day to celebrate the bachelor life. Well, that's probably a good idea. There's a reason they're not married. They're not being seen enough. Well, here's the good news, Ken. We love any excuse to give folks a great deal for Christmas. So we decided, let's throw a good idea. There's a reason they're not married. They're not being seen enough. Well, here's the good news, Ken. We love any excuse to give folks a great deal for Christmas. So we decided let's throw a Singles Day one-day sale today only. The Ramsey Singles Day sale is happening at RamseySolutions.com.

And so today only, single or not, you can find the best prices on gifts for everyone. This one-day sale truly has some great deals there. Like our friend Ken Coleman right next to me. His Increase Your Income Bundle. It's got everything you need to get a better paycheck and find the work you were born to do. And get yourself a spouse.

See? Is that part of the... That's part of the... That's in there. That's kind of an indirect play there. That's a way to increase the income, dual income. That's it. That's it.

Well, the bundle's normally $40. Today, we put it on sale for just $24. We also have our friend Dr. John Deloney's best-selling audiobook, Redefining Anxiety, for just $7. You can also gift your loved ones the number one plan millions have used to pay off debt with a Total Money Makeover bundle,

which is just $25. These Singles Day deals aren't just for grown-ups, Ken. We included the kids here, so forget about the toys that break and give the kids a lifetime of hope with our Adventure Pack. And these deals are, again, just for today, only for Singles Day. Shop all of the gifts and more at RamseySolutions.com. You know, George, I've been married more than I've been single.

More than years. I got married at 23, and I've been married 24, almost 25 years. Congratulations. And I don't understand why so many people are afraid to commit and get married. Agreed. Just go look at the data. I'm just going to drop this here since it's Singles Day. All right?

And we're given all these deals. How about some wisdom? Ooh. All right? Your health, your mental health, income, everything. Everything goes up when you're married. It's a better quality of life. That's all I'm going to say.

Go look it up. I'm not making it up. It's a good word. Yeah. From Pastor Ken. Thank you for that. And let's not sink. I mean, honestly, what's tomorrow?

National Pretzel Day? Wow. We've got too many days. I know. We've got to scale down. Too many celebrations. Let's scale it down. Yeah, it's a bit much.

Well, Ken, we are doing something fun today. We decided earlier in the show. Oh, yeah, I heard about this. We're going to try something out. We're going to go live on Instagram at Ken Coleman from his feed while we are on the Ramsey Show, and we're going to take your questions from the Instagram live feed. And here's the scariest part, America. Ken is running it from his phone by himself.

All right. George acts like I can't operate. I've done Instagram lives many times, and I'm going to be right here taking your money and work questions. Zach, the social media guru, is in the control room in case things begin to burn down. This is like Evel Knievel having the ambulance nearby. No,

stop it. Worst case scenario, I'll hand the phone to George and we'll work it together. We're going to take your questions just from Instagram for one entire segment. That next segment so you got to go to at ken coleman and if you haven't followed me do yourself a favor wow okay and follow me and then jump in and send your questions so there you go so 2 45 central time we're going live jump on there onto ken's instagram and we're going to take your questions so ask good ones i don't just fill up the feed with gibberish. Let's get some real questions. Yeah, I'm not going to take any silly questions. I'm not,

who's the guy in Anchorman that says anything he sees? Ron Burgundy? Yeah, I'm not Ron Burgundy. So no silliness. Only real questions. I love it. Well, that'll be fun in just a few minutes here. Well, in the meantime, let's get to some calls. Andrea's on the line in Omaha, Nebraska. Andrea, welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for taking my call this afternoon. Absolutely. What's going on? Okay, so I have a question. We are a family of seven, and we are in baby step two.

We started three years ago. We've paid off $168,000, and we have $228,000. Wow. And we have 220. Yes. That's incredible. Celebrate that. We have 228 still to go, a thousand. And so it's a marathon for us. So my question is, what's a reasonable amount for an emergency fund for our family or the size of our family. And we have like a furnace that's 28 years old. And how do we save for that? I know a sinking fund, but how much would be okay to take from like our rollover to put towards a sinking fund and Baby Step 2? Great question. Well, as you know, Baby Step 1, $1,000 starter emergency fund. What you're saying is, hey, we are in this thing for a long time and we got a big family with a lot of expenses. Do we get a pass? Does it change for us? Is that the question? Well, yeah, I'm just not comfortable. So right now our emergency fund is $8,000

because that was what I was comfortable with, just having anything come up. And then now we've gotten a couple ideas of what a new furnace would cost, and that would be like $10,000 to $12,000, even $15,000. Wow. And I would be worried that if that happened, we would completely wipe out our emergency fund. Well, agreed. As you head into winter in Nebraska, that scares me. Yeah, exactly.

So I'm trying to figure out the balance, I guess. Yeah, well, the sinking fund is correct. And it's not a surprise when this furnace goes out. You mentioned it's 28 years old. And so it's okay to pause the baby steps to save up to cash flow this new furnace. And it's also fine if you want to do the sinking fund and lean towards funding this furnace for a season. That's not forever. You're going to be done with that pretty soon, right? Okay. Yeah. Well, that's, I guess my question, cause it's really hard for me to pause on our rollover

because we've made so much progress. So I guess that was part of it. I, my husband's like, it's okay if we pause it. And I go like, no, no, we got to keep going. Keep moving forward. I know. It feels like a setback, but you guys, you have a mountain here. This is not something where you're like, all right, we're going to knock this out in 18 months. Now, I hope you have an amazing income because of the $400,000 in debt. Can you tell me what it is? Yeah. So originally it was student loans, car payments, and then like two home good credit cards. But now we have just got it down to

my husband's student loans, so those are medical school loans. Okay. I was going to say, I was like, I hope there's a doctor in the house. Yes, there is. With that level of debt, 400 grand. How big is the house? Square feet. It's about 2,500 square feet. All right. I'm just going to tell tell you i grew up my my dad took pinching pennies to another level could have been an olympian at it uh we had kerosene heaters things like that so depending on the size of the house if you needed a true backup plan if you didn't have this the the the sinking fund ready yeah i'd have a backup plan for that too wow yeah that's not a that's not a bad call

do you understand what i'm saying like i'm just saying if this thing goes in in the middle winter you know how could you heat your house without get by for a few could you get by for even a month i'm just saying i'm saying keep funding it but you might be surprised you know depending on where you live it's not a huge house so i don't know what your living's like in there, but I'm always trying to give something like true emergency backup, not just the money. Yes. But here's what I don't like about, you know, well, we have a bigger emergency fund because it's more comfortable. The problem is comfort is what leads us into debt in the first place. And so I like the discomfort. I like the fear that stoked me. You go, oh my gosh, we are not safe. That's true.

Because the truth is you're not safe when you owe someone $400,000. And you guys know that. It's the reason you got a hold of this plan and you've been doing it. And so I'd encourage you not to have this big cushion to fall back on because then you go, well, we can get by. We can scale back the debt payoff a little bit. Well, I like that. That's a good point. And truthfully, with your income, if something happened, you could pause and cash flow within a month or two.

Yeah. You guys are making... We haven't touched that emergency fund. And so that has been strictly... I think I just have a fear of one of the kids going to the hospital

and then there it is. That's, you know... Well, even then, you're not required to... You could get on a payment plan and you could pay it off really quickly so that i don't want that either oh i understand i know but but but i'm walking you through the worst case scenario yeah i yeah can i just okay i'm gonna hit you with real life

here andrea so stacy and i same deal large emergency fund we had it fully funded, and both of my boys play football. Both had surgery. Surgery. Both. This season. Yeah. They're naming a hallway after us over at the Bone and Joint Institute. Okay? You know, but we've been able to cash flow it.

We didn't have to. Emergency fund didn't have to get touched is my point. Yes. You understand, Andrea? Like, the emergency fund is for a full-blown emergency. Having to pay for a surgery or some medical thing like that with your income, you can cash for that. And we know the furnace is on its way out. Let's go ahead and just fund it, replace it. Use $7,000 of the $8,000 and use that towards the furnace. And you guys are going to be debt-free in no time with this

kind of intensity. And you can always pause it. And I know it's not fun, but you will get there. Just don't get too comfortable. So thank you so much for the call. We are cheering you guys on. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. As we mentioned in our previous segment, we are going live, and we are live right now on Ken Coleman's Instagram feed. On top of being live on The Ramsey Show, as we mentioned in our previous segment, we are going live, and we are live right now on Ken Coleman's Instagram feed. On top of being live on The Ramsey Show, it's like rubbing my belly and trying to tap my head at the same time. It's very confusing. I never did that well.

But we promised the folks on Instagram we'd answer a few of their questions, and so that's what you guys get to hear on The Ramsey Show. And, Ken, we got a great one already. Yeah, the lovely B is the first question we're going to read. I got offered a new job that's more pay. Should I take it? I love the job I have now, but it's $10 more an hour. Ooh. Now this is the wrestling match, right? Do I take more money, George? The brain is always going to go take more money, but her heart's going, I love where I am. And this is a legit wrestling match here. So here is the answer. Lovely B, you better write down why you love your current job. Why do you love that current job? Let's get real specific about it. And then let's look at this new job

offer and say, is there anything about this new job offer that pays me $10 more an hour that is similar? And can I get to a, oh, I could love this new job. If the answer is no, I'd probably pass on the $10 more an hour. So there you go. That's good wisdom. I got another one here from Joe, Oklahoma state. Joe, Oklahoma is his name. Is it the wrong time to buy a house right now? And that's a great question. Can a lot of people are freaking out. They're trying to time this housing market, which is so unpredictable. And the truth is, there's never a wrong time to buy the house if you can financially afford the house. And what we mean by that is a 15-year fixed rate mortgage with a payment that's no more than a quarter of your take-home pay. And by the way, interest rates are high. I know that. But guess

what? You can refinance when interest rates go back down. And so that's not the end of the world. I know it's not fun to have that extra in your payment, but if you can still withstand it with that 25% threshold, then yes, it's a great time to buy a house. It's a great time. All right, here's another one. Pragland64 says, guys, talk about the court. The Texas judge halting the loan forgiveness. This is big news. Not much to talk about except to say, I told you so. My audience knows this. It's unconstitutional. Look it up. We learned about this in the fifth or sixth grade, folks. This is knows this. It's unconstitutional. Look it up. We learned about this in the fifth or sixth grade, folks. This is not political. It's just the Constitution.

I love that Ken is like, Google the Constitution, bro. That's his advice. Well, you know, he doesn't have the authority to do it, and we knew it was going to be challenged, so that's why we tell you to pay off your loans. All right, another one, George. Let's see here. What do we got? Bum, bum, bum.

Can you explain how to win with LinkedIn? Interesting, George. Now, you were a social media specialist before you became a Ramsey personality. Give us 30 seconds on how to win with LinkedIn. Number one, it's not just to throw things at people and just always be posting. You need to engage. You need to jump into other people's conversations, be commenting, be messaging, really try to connect. This is not the time to do your cold sales pitch. This is the time to actually be a person. And the more you do that, the more you will win on top of posting quality content on there, your insights, your experience. That's what people want to see. All right. Let's see. Demona Roll, if I'm saying that right. What's more important, 401k or 529? Oh, well, I don't see them as separate. That's baby step four and five. You should be doing both.

Start with 15% of your income into retirement into the 401k. Then you can move to the 529 and put as much as you can into there. By the way, if you're joining the Ramsey show right now, you've popped in. George Campbell and I are answering questions live from instagram viewers at ken coleman uh if you head on over there we're doing just instagram live questions here's gerardina 80 love the random uh usernames it always tickles me uh how to become more confident in your life and work one simple answer i believe that the key to confidence is clarity i don't care what area of your life it is. Confidence comes when we're clear. But when we're not clear, in other words, we're doubtful, that's very natural to not have

confidence. So if it's confidence in money, confidence in your relationships, confidence in your work, get clear. Get to the bottom of where the doubt's coming from and then address that you're going to be confident that's good i got one from ambit media when should we downsize our home to be debt-free sooner this is a great question it is not the right path for everyone and truthfully a lot of people use it as a shortcut ken because they don't want to do the hard work and it feels like they can leapfrog and for some people it does make sense but if you can be debt-free within two years without selling the home don't sell the it's a headache and there's a lot of fees involved and you got to turn around and then buy another home. And so don't do it unless it's

a drastic situation and you already have way too much house and the payment's killing you and it will help you become debt-free that much sooner. Oh, George, watch out. Now we're going to get, this is going to get, oh get oh boy potentially controversial this is from inchy squinchy which by the way is that the controversial part no it might be depending on how you get offended these days uh but it is uh it is uh the username hi ken my boyfriend of 11 months is not on board with the ramsey ways or the baby steps i love him so much and i'm terrified to break it off please advise me as if i was your daughter wow can you're that old she's squinchy you're that old now officially the old man

of the ramsey show and here's what i would tell you if you were josie my daughter you're giving me ultimatum and you explain why if we're going to go to the next level in our relationship we have got to be on the same page about money or else why are we dating? I'm not doing this just to have a buddy or a pal. And so I would give him the ultimatum to say, this is what I believe about money. And if you don't believe that way, I totally get it. But you and I aren't right for each other. And I would say, I'm out.

George? Ken, this is a hot one I got to jump in on. Hollis Robinson said, I'm afraid to choose a career. I want to make sure God approves of the career. Ooh. Well, you know, I don't like that. What is the heart behind that? Well, I think it comes from a good place.

But God doesn't give us the stamp of approval that I think we expect him to. What he does is give us judgment. He gives us discernment, gave us a heart. And I can tell you, if you use what I teach and this job allows you to use what you do best, that's talent that God gave you. It allows you to do something you love. That's the heart that God gave you. And it allows you to create results that matter to you. Again, that's the discernment that God gave you that is the approval go for it uh let's just answer a fun one here ken from jeff by the way if you just jumped in george and i are answering questions on instagram live at ken coleman if you want to jump if you're confused by the manic spree that we're on answering questions

fast and furious uh is it true from jeff bush photo video that george had a real life camel at his wedding and yes that is 100% true. That is absolutely true. I can confirm this. And it's not fake news. The 20-second story is we won a free local wedding contest, a $28,000 wedding package. And so I thought, I'm going to spring $700 to get a guy to bring a camel to this wedding as a photo op just to be silly and fun. George, I've got a fun one for you.

Red Sewing says, best way to save for college is a high schooler who has a small business. Oh, that's incredible. Well, number one, live on as little as you can make and throw as much as you can into savings. You don't have a ton of time, so I would not put it in the stock market, but a high-yield savings account is a great place to store that money as you continue to work. And scholarships. Make sure you're applying for scholarships as an extra part-time job yeah sean perriello says how do you stay motivated at a job that won't train someone for

two years sally triples after the training i'd say sean do you want to be there long term forget the two years and the tripling of the salary do you want to be there long term if you do, patience. It's a beautiful thing. Wait. Crush the now. You'll get the next. Anything worth doing or getting is worth waiting. Here's one from Ben Wilson. How do you get out of debt when you have two full-time jobs and nothing to cut back on? Wow.

Well, if you don't have any margin to throw at the debt with two full-time jobs, you're not getting paid enough at either of them. So Ken would say you got to get better jobs that's it better paycheck uh this is fun this is again oh see you already mentioned this guys but i think this is fun he may be in the lobby would you rather fight a one horse size duck or a six duck size horse oh this is a classic conundrum ken uh i i gotta tell you i'm going with the smaller yeah the duck-sized smaller of the two i can take them boy there you go there's my ron burgundy moment uh let's see uh ken what are the dangers of remote work what would scare you away i think two things

number one not having the relationship that you get from collaboration and being around co-workers and feeling lonely, that could be a danger of remote work. And the second, out of sight, out of mind. If your leader doesn't see you, hear you, and it gets to a layoff situation, you could be the first one on the block. That is a danger. Well, we are running out of time, Ken. Oh, that was fun. But I got to say, this has been so fun going on Instagram Live, answering questions live on the Ramsey Show. Instagram, I got to go. So be sure to follow us at Ken Coleman at GeorgeCamel with a K. We love helping people over on social media. Yeah, always fun. Thank you for all of that. Good times, good hour, Ken. Appreciate you. That puts this hour of

the Ramsey show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. Don't go anywhere. More of the Ramsey show will be coming your way. Hey folks, Ken Coleman here. Did you know The Ramsey Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world? Get your daily dose of advice on life and money. Check out all of our shows from The Ramsey Network wherever you listen to podcasts.