The Ramsey Show - App - Car Advice for Road Warriors (Hour 2)

Episode Date: March 20, 2019

The show about you

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Ben is with us in Chicago. Hi, Ben. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you for having me. Sure. How can I help?

So I'm a 21-year-old third-year student at community college. I went to community college to save some money so I wouldn't go into debt. Right now I'm living rent-free at home. I don't have any expenses. Maybe pay a couple times for gas and groceries. I do have one credit card, but there's no debt on that. I pay it off immediately. And I'm looking to transfer to a four-year when I can, and I was just curious what I can do in preparation for this big move.

Okay. Very cool. Are you going to stay at home while you're doing the four-year? That is undecided yet. I have about $40,000 to $50,000 saved up for college right now. Wow. Where'd you get that? My parents and family were very smart, and they saved up. So I'm in pretty good standing there. So you only need two years to finish if all this community stuff transfers, right?

Yeah. Some of the colleges I'm looking at would like 80 credit hours, which would be about two to two and a half years. So it would be about two to two and a half years. So it would be just around there. But if I wanted to go somewhere more expensive, and I was looking at flight school at one point, that would be an extra, you know, $60,000. Okay. Well, I don't mind what you do as long as you have the money. So, you know, whatever the goal is, let's start figuring out the parallel income stream that's going to hit the money so you know whatever the goal is let's start figuring out the parallel income

stream that's going to hit the goal for you so first goal is finish your degree at the four-year institution and you should be able to do that for 40 grand easy all right yeah yeah have you investigated the cost of college? Yeah, so around me, the only thing that's the problem right now is that I'm going to be a transfer, and the transfer scholarships are a little bit less than, you know, if you just hop in straight into college from high school. Right. So a lot of the colleges that I'm looking at would be around $20 a year.

So, I mean, it would be right around that $40,000. But if I wanted to do something a little more expensive, I was just curious, you know, what I would be able to do to kind of just prepare myself for that. Scholarships and jobs. Okay. That would be it. I mean, you've you gotta have the money so you know so what you need to do is very clearly define what your next step is and exactly what it's going to

cost and what the cost what the schedule of the money needs are okay so let's pretend that you were going to do something i'm not sure you need to but let's pretend as an example that you were going to do something. I'm not sure you need to, but let's pretend as an example that you said, okay, to finish up my degree at the school I want to go to is going to be $60,000. We have $40,000. That means I'm $10,000 a year short, or I'm $20,000 in the last year short, one of the two, right? Yeah. I'm $20,000 short.

If I need $60,000 and I got $40,000, and you actually go talk to the school, you actually get their tuition, you lay out exactly what your budget's going to be, you have a game plan. Well, then you've got to go about finding that $20,000 in scholarships and or jobs between now and the time that you have to write that check. Now, if you've got two years to come up with $20,000, it's $10,000 a year. It's $800 a month. That's two nights a week delivering pizza.

Yeah. Okay. And so it can be done. I mean, there's a way to get at this. But you just got to figure out, you know, what exactly is your goal? And one of the things we ask ourselves around here in business, and we do it in personal development as well, is once you set your goal, you clearly define it.

It's clearly measurable. It has a time frame on it. So the math plays out right in front of you. And you say, okay, everything I need is $38,000. I got 40, so that gives me two to move towards flight school, so I can move on to the next goal. Or you say, I'm going to need 60. I got 40.

So I got to find 20 on XYZ schedule. Then you start at that's your desired future, as we call it. And then you start asking yourself, okay, what has to be true? That's not true now. Well, I got to find 20 grand, right? By this date. And how am I going to find 20 grand? I'm going to work doing X, Y, or Z.

And I'm going to go get A, B, and C scholarships. And I'm going to put those two things together, and they're going to equal more than $20,000. So if I want to go to flight school when I'm you, I'm doing this on the cheap. I'm going to the cheapest place to finish undergrad I can and have as much of that $40,000 left over. And now I've got a head start on flight school rather

than going i want to go this other place it costs more than i've got and then you gotta you know you're gonna then you're coming out dead broke and no money for your flight school so in fact you do whatever you want to do but that's how goal setting works is you set the thing out real clearly you cannot wander into this blindly and just pray that money drops from heaven. It's not going to. When you do that, that's called student loans. And then 30-year-old you is pissed off at the 20-year-old you for doing this stupid stuff. And so don't do that.

Have a plan. Lay it out in detail. Really, really good question. Hey, if you're going to do it do it i can tell this is the dave ramsey show open phones at 888-825-5225 listen this whole education thing is about having a plan i remember the very first of the ramsey kids that went to school we went down to the university of tennessee we're sitting in the little auditorium the little orientation class i'm sitting there all proud my kids going off to college the next day i was crying as i drove away from the dorm room like a 13 year old girl but anyway

i dropped my first daughter off but we're sitting there in the orientation and the lady says 58 of you in this room that are starting will graduate. And I went, do what? You have a 58% graduation rate? Yes, and that's above the 54% national average. And I'm thinking, if I got a 54 on a test, you guys would have flunked me. And you're telling me the dadgum, you know, six out of ten of the kids sitting here are going to make it.

The other four are going to have student loan debt and no degree. Because when I went to school now, I mean, it's all on computer now. But when I went to school, they gave us this thing called a catalog. And the catalog was the classes that you have to take your freshman year, the classes you have to take your sophomore year, the classes you have to take your junior year, the class you have to take your senior year. And then magically, if you take the classes in that catalog, they give you a degree at four years. And then the woman says, of the 58% of you that graduate, it was like, I just about fell on my chair. She said, half of you, only half of you will do it in four years.

The rest of you will come back for a fifth year. So I wrote in big letters across my daughter's little piece of paper in orientation, have a freaking plan. Because you ain't getting any money after four years. So follow the schedule. Why is this rocket science? Why are we so dumb about education? It's so paradoxical.

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Welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? I have a child support question. I have one son, he's 21 years old, so he's grown. His dad owes about $31,000 in back pay and has been making

very small monthly payments, but he wants to pay it off for like a lump sum. He's offered me like $10,000. He said that's all he can get a loan for. So I just wanted your opinion on that. Okay. Well, what you would do, you know, you don't need the money to raise the kid. The kid is raised.

So this is just about you being paid back for having raised the kid by yourself right right that's what it comes down to and so um you know the as as emotional as this is and it's emotional a guy should take care of his kids okay it pisses me off too i get it okay as emotional as the negotiation is and, and as long as this is drawn out, there's a couple of things from a business perspective that are of value. Number one is, other than weddings and funerals, once this is done, you're done with him. Right. That's kind of nice. Yeah. Okay. There's a of nice. Yeah. Okay.

There's a good clean break here. I mean, there'll be some weddings, there'll be some funerals, but other than that, you know, maybe the birth of a grandbaby someday or something. There may be some interaction, but you're pretty much done, which is there's a value to that emotionally, right? Right. And so that's valuable the second thing that's valuable is we have a long track record over in excess of 10 years that he has not been reliable with money agree right right and so if you had if you were a banker and you had a client that was unreliable paying you for over a decade, you would quickly, from just a probability standpoint, reach the point that,

crap, anything I can get out of this guy is more than I'm probably going to get. Yeah. Just because he's so unreliable. Am I overstating that um well he was he didn't pay for the first five years but um kind of ever since then he's had a steady job and they garnish his wages every month but he pays the least amount that he can right now okay all right you have any idea what he makes? He probably makes like $5,000 a month.

He makes quite a bit. Okay. All right. You know, it's a negotiation. So if I were in your shoes, I like the cleanliness of getting an old bad debt that's owed to me behind me and settled. And so I tend to, with rare exceptions, you know, just take the deal. So I probably would go back and go, if you scratch, you know, if you scratch 50 cents on the dollar, 15-5, if you scratch that together, we have a deal.

I'll take 50 cents on the dollar. So that would be fair. You something like that does that make sense yeah that makes sense yeah because i just i think you're going to be a long long long long road getting your money yeah what do you make um um i'm actually on disability so um have you got debt you know no i just finished baby step two so i have no debt except for my house okay so this would this would move you this would do your baby step three and it would move to move towards getting starting towards your house then right yeah and maybe maybe go on a vacation or something you know something. Yeah. So what's the nature of your disability? I get chronic migraines.

And so when I was working, I was calling out sick too much. And, you know, so finally I went on disability. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, yeah, I think I'm taking it if I'm you. Somewhere between $10 and $15.5. But a $15.5 is a 50 cent on the dollar counteroffer.

And that's a really generous offer on your part. There's nothing principled that says you have to take it. I'm just looking at the practicality of, A, I'm rid of this guy. And, B, I'm getting some money. And it's been a long time coming. Trish is with us in New York, Binghamton. I can't say it. Hi, Trish.

How are you? I saw Birmingham, and it wasn't right, and I couldn't get it out of my head. How can I help? How do you keep getting up when the world just keeps knocking you down? I cannot hold on to the $1,000 that we're supposed to have for emergency because there keeps being emergencies. What's your household income? Last year it was $44,000. How long have you been married?

16 years. How much debt you got? Currently like $6,000, almost 7,000. Not much. Um, but, but that's where life knocks you down again. Um, now I need to repair my roof. Is it leaking? Yes.

Bad? Pretty bad, yeah. Okay, all right. And my homeowners won't cover it because the roof is too old. Yeah, okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And the debt wasn't including my house. Right. Right. I got that.

I guessed that. Okay. Well, are you and your husband working on our plan together? Yeah. We're doing the best we can but he's no i wasn't asking that i'm saying emotionally the two of you are sitting down together and doing this budget you're both on this track together you're not carrying the weight of all these decisions by yourself no um i i pay the bills but i mean he i make sure you know we know what we're doing and what our goals are. Do you have a written budget every month that the two of you agree to?

Yes, we do. Every dollar has a name on paper before the month begins, every month? Yes, sir. For how many months? Well, for the last year, I've been, I tried using every dollar, but with his paychecks and, I don't know, I guess my brain, that was hard. So I used something called calendar budget that I can see, you know, daily balances and figure everything out long term. And it just, every time I start to get ahead, something happens. Yeah, you keep saying I, and that's why I wonder where he is.

Oh, no, we, we, I'm sorry. Is he sitting there with you once a week looking at this stuff? Yes. Yes. As a matter of fact, I go over it with him weekly. So the stress that you're feeling, he's feeling too? Yes. Okay.

The punch in the mouth that you're feeling, he's feeling too? Yes. Okay. Very much. He's working himself into the ground. Oh, okay. I'm disabled, so it's all on him, and I'm trying. We're both trying. What kind of things have hit your budget other than the roof? And medical bills are awful. My father passed away in 2016.

We took care of him for two years because he could not take care of himself and no one else would. You've been doing a budget for a year written every week. And during that year, what has happened? Medical bills. Medical bills are septic. Are septic. Our septic had some issues, which every time that happens, my husband does everything that he can do himself. He does it himself.

You know, we don't pay people to do it. Every time it happens? It happens over and over with your septic? No, not the septic, but I mean every time something goes wrong. Oh, I see. He does it himself. You know, we don't have plumbers coming in. We don't have, you know, we're.

All right. So here's what normally happens. Okay. Normally, the more you budget, the more you include things that you, they're not emergencies. You just forgot to include them. And if you're facing a regular medical bill, that's probably a regular part of your budget.

It's probably not a surprise. Septics, you can't predict. Roof leaks, you can't predict. But the way you keep getting up is you need to sense some progress, and that's what I'm pushing you towards here. I'll tell you what, you hold on, and we will put you in Financial Peace University with a group of folks to put their arms around you and walk with you while you're doing this. I'll pay for the two of you to go to class.

And you go to every class, and then you stay in that one-year membership, and you keep plugged in online after that, and we'll walk with you. We'll get you through this. Hold on. Pay less at the dentist. One Dental is a company I've been telling my listeners about because I know these guys will save you money every time you visit the dentist. Here's how. One Dental is a dental savings program that allows you to go to one of over 158,000 dental practice locations nationwide and save on things like cleanings, dentures, root canals, crowns, and even orthodontics. Here's the really cool part. You can join One Dental right now, and you don't have to worry about high deductibles, waiting periods, or pre-existing conditions.

Just find your highly qualified dentist in the network, make the appointment, and start saving 15 to 60% when you go. It really is that simple. Just text the word DENTAL to 77948 and get an exclusive Ramsey discount. That's DENTAL, D-E-N-T-A-L to 77-948. One of the things we have found out about wealthy people is they don't just play offense. They also play defense. A boxer that doesn't keep his guard up while he's punching gets his block knocked off. And so you have to keep your guard up in front of you when you're boxing. You can't just hit with your guard down.

You're getting knocked out. So you've got to create money, invest. That's the punch. You do things to build wealth. That's the punch. The defense is the diligence that it takes to avoid paying more taxes than you're supposed to pay, to make sure you have a will in place,

to make sure that you have the right insurances in place and at the right amounts. And the more wealth you build, the more sophisticated all of that becomes in order to play defense. And, you know, as you're just getting started, though, though you know like here's an example the number of times i talked to a lady yesterday okay she did not have car insurance and she backed her car into a dumpster and left a dent the size of a basketball see no defense she tore up her car and she broke she can't afford to fix the car so she's got to fix it because it's on lease

and she's got to turn it in at the end of the lease and you can't turn it in with a basketball size den in it because they will charge you triple for that so the fact that she walked around for three weeks without car insurance she let her defense down she got a block knocked off and that's what happens and you walk around without health insurance you walk around without an emergency fund these are the types of things you have to do that play defense so we're going to help you with this we have a free tool called the five minute coverage checkup to make sure you have your defense in place whether you're wealthy or not if you want to be wealthy this is how you get there. The five-minute coverage checkup,

it's the 10 kinds of coverage you might need based on where you are in life. It takes about five minutes is all. That's why we call it the five-minute coverage checkup. It's an interesting name considering it takes five minutes. So get your phone out. Get your phone out. And text CHECKUP to 33-789. That's CHECKUP to 33-789. Sarah is with us in Denver. Hi, Sarah. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hey, Dave. It's an honor to speak with you today. You too. What's up in your world? My husband and I are debt-free. We have our emergency fund, and we're on baby step four. We have been saving for a home, but we are to buy a home. We don't own it. But we're not sure we want to buy in the town that we live. And we want to know, is it insanity to buy an RV and work and travel for a year or so until we figure out where we want to be? No, as long as you pay cash for it.

Yep, that's our plan. Okay. And I would recommend you buy a fairly used one because RVs go down in value like crazy. Exactly. We are looking at used, and we are going to follow the rule of no more than 50% of our income. Okay. So what would you pay for it? We're looking at around $20,000.

Okay. All right. That's cool. Because, you know, RVs go up to $350,000, right, or more, right? Oh, I've learned all about that. I didn't know what you're talking about because I don't want you to turn $350,000 into $175,000 in one year. That would not be a plan, okay? And you could do that pretty easy with this game.

But if you're going to buy $20,000, it's not going to go down much in a year. It's, you know, what did that thing sell for new? Probably 80? Oh, yeah. Yeah, you're about right. It's already lost most of its value. And as long as it's mechanically reliable and reasonably comfortable for your purposes for this one-year adventure or so that you're going on. It sounds fun. Is this something both of you want to do, you're both excited about?

Yes, yes. My husband travels full-time for work, and we've always kind of dreamed about me quitting my full-time job and getting to go with him on the road. Yeah, cool. Is there anything you can do while you're traveling just to generate some income too? I sure hope so. I am the queen of side hustle.

I always have a side hustle. That's cool. That's cool. Do you have children at home? We do not have children. Okay. Well, that makes it real easy, right? Well, that's the idea.

Yeah. Yeah, I like it. I mean, it's a lot of people's dream to do that at retirement, and so it's a cool thing to do it now while you can and just enjoy the ride. And the thing is, it's not a decision. You're making the decision in terms of the $20,000 range of RV so wisely that it's not a decision that you have to strain to undo. When you get ready to put down roots and you want to settle somewhere, boom.

Or you decide we love it and we're going to upgrade an RV and do this for five years. But we want it a little nicer. That's okay. You're going to be able to do it all, right? That sounds great. Yeah. And we had Ms. Dorothy ran Melissa's and Martha's Place in our kitchen in here now that makes homemade cookies and everything every day. But right before her was a lady named Dorothy, and Dorothy and her husband retired.

And that's what they do. They travel in RV full time. And they go. They live two months a place, two months another place, and just to travel to see the nation that was just their goal at retirement and they bought a really nice one you know but they had tons of money they've been doing financial peace for years and they've just done a great job and they're they're living the dream you know so i love it yeah i'd go do it the the only reason i wouldn't do it is if you bought something super expensive that you lost a ton of money during this year and uh And that would make the adventure less than fun.

But this sounds like a great adventure. Go do it. Curtis is in Baltimore. Hi, Curtis. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve.

How can I help? Terrific. I drive my car a lot just for personal, and so it's like 30,000 miles a year. And so my current car is a 2011, and it has 250,000 miles on it. And in my head, I was going to drive it to 400,000 miles because that's what cameras are supposed to be able to do. But I've heard you say more than once to a couple of people who are road warriors to hang out their cars, you know, every 12 to 18 months because of the value loss. And I was just trying to make sure that I wasn't doing something stupid by continuing to drive my car as far as I can until I basically give it out.

No, I think you're fine. Most of the time when I'm talking to those guys, they have a company requirement of a year. The car has to be a certain age. And so then they're usually buying at the bottom of that age and so they're going to be required to upgrade every 12 to 18 months in order to stay within the age range in order to get their company car allowance and that's that's usually what's driving that no as long as you have a reliable car that is comfortable i don't care if you drive the thing a million miles makes sense okay i really appreciate that yeah i mean you're as long as you're happy with I don't care if you drive the thing a million miles. Makes sense.

Okay, I really appreciate that. Yeah, I mean, as long as you're happy with it, that's the thing. You're enjoying it, and you've realized that with as many miles as you drive, you're destroying the value of whatever you drive. Right. And so if you go buy a brand-new $60,000 car, it's going to be worth $20,000 in 20 minutes, the way you drive. Sure, sure. And so you've realized that, and you said, hey, I'm just going to take a great Camry here,

and I'm going to drive that thing, keep the oil changed, keep all the maintenance done, keep the tires on, keep it aligned, do all the stuff you do to get a half million miles out of a car. You have to take care of it. But that car will do that. I mean, lots of people have done it. There's all kinds of stories all over the place. And as long as you're not becoming uncomfortable because you spend a lot of time in there if it becomes uncomfortable in the car um and or it just becomes unreliable but where

your hassle factor is like well crud you know spend 10 grand and move up you know but i i think you're yeah i think what you're doing is smart mathematically. Lots of people do that, that know how to maintain a car. But not enough people do it, but it can be done, I guess is what I'm trying to say. So, well done, Curtis. No, there's no financial requirement

for you to lose more money on cars. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Thank you for being with us, America. We're glad you're here. Open phones this hour, 888-825-5225. Did you know that journaling can make you a more grateful person and save you some money? Well, I got to tell you, we are excited to announce that my daughter, Rachel Cruz, number one best-selling author, Rachel Cruz, has a brand new journal called The contentment journal and it'll help you learn how to live a more content

life in just 90 days and it's only 1999 check it out at rachelcruz.com or davramsey.com it's divided into 30 day increments the first 30 days on gratitude and the next 30 days on humility and the next 30 days will be the natural result, which is contentment. Rachel is a contentment expert. Her last book, number one bestseller, Love Your Life, Not Theirs, is a big deal. And you can check this all out at rachelcruz.com or you can call the Ramsey Concierge at 888-22-PIECE, 888-227-3223.

And, of course, you can go to DaveRamsey.com and get it as well. It's brand new. We're putting it on presale today. And so don't miss this. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Roxanne is in Birmingham. Hi, Roxanne. How are you?

Hi, Mr. Ramsey. How are you? Hi, Mr. Ramsey. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hi. I'm a college admissions counselor. I'm 24, so I'm just getting started in my career. And I have a lot of travel that I have to pay for,

staying in hotels and eating while I'm on the road. And the university I work for refunds me, but it usually takes about two to three weeks. And I'm in baby step two, and I've got one credit card hanging around because I'm not sure how to pay for my travel without that. So do you have any advice? Sure. You have to set up an account and prime the pump once.

So what does the normal expense range that you are paying for out of pocket before you get reimbursed, the two- to three-week turn. What is that money? How much money is that? $300 to $400. Oh, not a lot. No, not a lot. Okay, and what do you make a year? I make $35,000.

Okay. Okay, so it doesn't have to happen instantaneously, but soon, in the next several months, I want you to have a separate checking account with a debit card that is used only for reimbursable expenses. And if you put $500 in there one time, you'll never have to touch it again because what will happen is you'll use some of that money on your debit card and then they will reimburse you and you will put the reimbursement check back into that account. Okay, awesome. So you have to prime the pump once is all, but then it'll run. As long as you don't run up over $500, you'll be fine.

And that keeps you from accident. What happens with a credit card on the road is you carry it because you have reimbursable expenses, but then you buy stuff that's not reimbursable. That happens to everyone who travels. Everyone. And so what ends up happening is you accidentally will run up credit card debt over time if you continue on the program that you're on. But when you use a debit card and you have this account that's completely separate over here, and I cannot use that card, it's a promise I make to myself, right?

I cannot use that card except for reimbursable expenses. It'll help you be a lot more disciplined on what you do buy while you're on the road because everyone does. All of us that travel, we do some stress eating and some stress spending because the road sucks. The people who think travel is glamorous are the people who don't do it. Okay? And so when you're out there, you always spend some money and eat some food due to just travel stress.

And it's just the way it is. And so you have to work systems in your life to keep that from getting out of control. So, good question. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Christy is in Indianapolis. Hi, Christy. How are you?

Hi. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? My husband had a career change. He went from 20 years in the auto sales management industry and switched over to RB sales and is in a, you know, base, a base plus commission pay scale or, you know, pay range and it is now March.

So he's been in this for about three months and we, you know, we've changed over our 401k from his last company and we had had a three-month, well, we had some savings that we used from that 401k just to get us by the paid change. Oh, no. You're kidding. You cashed out your 401k? No, no, no. Only a very, no, only a few, like a few thousand dollars, and then we left the rest, and then

we just transferred the rest. Oh, crap. Into a fund, yeah. We took, like, I want to say maybe $5,000 out of that, and then just reinvested it in other funds. Why did he take this job if he's going to make less money? Well, because he was about, the company he was working for is not a very good company. They were trying to wedge him out, even though he was a very successful individual, very, you know, his integrity matters to him, and it doesn't to them. And so he needed to get out because he was going downhill.

He went from making $100,000 to, you know, $75,000. He made $100,000 and he can't set aside $5,000 to make a move? Well, he can't make a hundred thousand bucks he can't set aside five thousand dollars to make a move well we know that was several years ago the past few years it's been going down and down and down with this company so he you know we switched so we have that money is still invested and he has about 125 000 in the 401k currently or you know being i'm sorry being invested yeah. Yeah. So then, so right now we're, what we're trying to figure out is we've been in this house and we're paying, you know, right now he's only making 400 a week with this particular company. And then plus, you know, commissions on top of that, but it's just taking, you know, a while

to, you know, to raise that up. But in the meantime, I don't, you know, we're trying to figure out, should we move because we have about $100,000 of equity in our home. And, you know, if we moved to, you know, better suit our budget, but then he has a new career, so is he going to be able to get, are we going to be able to get approved for a mortgage? So far he doesn't have a new career. So far he's made a bad move. Well, I mean. Because we're not going to continue at four hundred dollars

if a guy made a hundred grand he's not going to continue at four hundred dollars a week no it's a four hundred dollar base a month commissions on top no no no four hundred dollars a week i'm sorry all right so twenty thousand twenty thousand dollars a year i got that that's the base but in many. How long has he been doing it? 90 days. So far, he's starving. Right. So his income comes up, or he changes jobs again.

Not we sell our house. Okay. You don't sell your house and justify a $20,000 income when you're capable of making $100,000. You're going to make $100,000. Right. That's what he's trying to make $100,000. Right. That's what he's trying to do in this industry. I know. I'm not sure this industry makes it.

He switched industries. Right. He's trying to get other jobs in that industry, but it was not going anywhere because the credibility factor. His company where he was put him in a difficult position, and they didn't do what they should have done. Difficult situation, and it lasted too long. It was three years too long.

And Tom thought he was doing the right thing. He prayed about it. This is where he thought God was leading him to. So now he's in a different industry. Here's the thing. You cannot fix an income problem by selling off assets because eventually you run out of assets. Right. So we have to fix the income problem.

We don't sell the house. Regardless of the story of how we got here, that's where we end up. So hope that helps. Thanks for the call. Open phones at 888-825-5225. What you have to do when you're making career transitions is do it soon enough before you get to the point of the toxic situation forces you to do it rashly. And when you're using your 401k money, that tells us that there was rashness involved.

So he should have left before he left and made the transition. Now, the same thing's true here. Get this income up or leave and go find a way to make money again because you know how to make money. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, guys. It's Blake Thompson, senior executive producer for The Dave Ramsey Show.

This hour is over, but you can find more great content on our YouTube channel. Catch the most watched Dave Rants, death-free screams, and the very popular Everyday Millionaire segment. Go to The Dave Ramsey Show YouTube channel.