The Ramsey Show - App - Cash Gives You Options When Facing a Crisis (Hour 1)

Episode Date: April 1, 2020

Christy Wright, Debt, Career, Savings Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR 

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 am Dave Ramsey, your host. We're answering your questions this hour. Joining me is number one best-selling author and the founder of the whole business boutique movement, Christy Wright. Ramsey Personality is joining us to answer your questions as well.

The phone number here is 888-825-5225. Now, Christy's been working with ladies, helping them start businesses for many years with the business boutique movement. And not only these days with the coronavirus crisis and the shutdowns associated with it and all that kind of thing, but in addition to that, before that was happening, we had noticed that a lot of ladies were contacting you just about power, about empowerment, anxiety, about time, you know, and some of these things are unique to ladies, and some of them are just human problems that you're running into. So you're getting all kinds of different questions, haven't you?

Yeah, it's interesting because we started to really notice a pattern in the market where people were coming to our event in the fall every single year. People were listening to the Business Boutique podcast. People were reading the book and following me on Instagram and all that, and they don't have a business and don't even necessarily want one. They just want help with their life. And they're asking me questions about goals and how do I balance it all and how do I manage my time and how do I lead well in my home or my career or my business. And so we started noticing this pattern and thinking, you know what, for years I have put all of my teaching

and empowerment and equipping through the business filter, but we don't have to. I really, I think there's such an opportunity here to help people in more ways than just business, to help them in their life and take control of what they can control. Especially in this moment in time. Right. Yeah, I mean, so you're getting stuff like being overwhelmed, you know, moms that are working and they're trying to work from home and there's kids piled up everywhere and they're overwhelmed by that.

You're getting questions on what should I be spending my time on right now? Yeah. And you know, it's funny as we went from two extremes in the last month so fast, the overwhelm I was hearing a month ago is I'm so overwhelmed. I'm so busy. I have so much to do and not enough time. And you're always working from that angle. And now the entire world's been canceled.

Your life that you were used to, the structures and schedules that you had in place has come to a screeching halt and now you're overwhelmed at home well what am i doing how do i work from home my kids are home i've got all this time how should i be spending it it's the same problem just a different cause still we always tell people that you know when it comes to your money normal sucks don't be normal be weird and a guy tweeted the other day he goes i know we normally say normal sucks but i'd settle for normal i would actually take normal i'd like to take a normal i'd like to take a normal day right now in the middle of all this mess so if you uh i have questions for christy along those lines uh she's here to help and to walk you through the issue of time-life balance, the issue some of you are facing some things right now, and you just need somebody to talk to about what's happening at

home, what's happening with the career, what's happening with what you're spending your time on, and how to work successfully from home. So we'll hold a few lines open for those kinds of questions for Christy, as well as we're going to take your questions about life and about money, and Christy can certainly chime in on those as well. So we'll take your calls right now. The phone number is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. So Christy, a local pastor does a devotional by email. It's a friend of mine. I got it this morning opened it up and brought to mind a scripture that i've used and known the implications of for several years out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks so what's going on inside of you comes out over your tongue so when you're panicked right now and some people get mean right in that situation, when anything is squeezed, you know, put under pressure,

what's inside starts dripping out. And so it's a time for you and I both talk a lot about personal transformation. Right. And sometimes when I've been in situations like that, and I think some of the people in your life out there, you look at people listening, it might be you, it might be someone that's in your life, they're under pressure and you're seeing some stuff come out that's not good. Yeah. Which means there's stuff in their heart.

Right. Anger. I mean, the way people are, that we thought were were nice people or they think of themselves as nice people, the way they're treating each other on social media, on Facebook neighborhood or next door or just just eviscerating. Yeah. Anyone who disagrees with them. So, you know, one of the things we've been talking about is to calm down. Yeah. And in the process of calming down, be nice. For goodness sakes, extend some grace to each other. People are freaked out. They're scared.

And so you can breathe in a little bit and be careful because you might not like what is revealed when you get squeezed here. Yeah. Yeah. I think, like you said, there may be things that are rising up in you that you didn't even know were there. And those are things for us to deal with. Those are things for us to look at transforming ourself. There's so much that we can't control right now. We can't control a ton of things going on, but what we can control is ourself and we can control how we treat someone. We can control how we control our money. We can control our household and how we're spending our time and how we're someone. We can control how we control our money. We can control our household and how we're spending our time and how we're leading our family and how we're being

patient for our kids, even though they're driving us crazy about 8.05 a.m. You know, there's so many things about in the realm of personal responsibility that we can control, even though those things we can't. And what's amazing is that shapes everything else that expect it shapes how you experience your day how you experience your family not because they changed or your situation changed but because you changed and that's really what what what counts yeah if you want to change the world start with the person in the mirror yeah and uh you know and you know maybe a good idea is check your tongue i mean think about what you're saying before you say it, especially on social media, because some of you have digital courage that you wouldn't dare say that in front of someone. If you walked up in their front yard, you know, Rachel posted her little toddler sitting

on her lab. Yeah. And the lab loves it. Yeah. Anything to get a little bit of attention. Yeah. And the little toddler weighs nothing sir and some woman has to come back on social media my wife was all ticked

off rachel said oh that's just instagram you know she just blew it off but some ladies come get that kid off that dog you know i'm like hey here's an idea mind your own business yeah i mean little stuff like that that does not say anything about the kid, the dog, or Rachel as a mother. It says something about you. Right. Exactly. When you post that. And it's amazing, too, because I think one of the questions I ask myself, Dave, when

I get angry or get impatient or just have a bad attitude, I check myself and I say, okay, what's really going on in me that's leading to that? Usually it's not that I'm really mad. It's that I'm hurt. Or it's not that I'm mad. It's that I'm hurt or it's not that I'm mad. It's that I'm scared. So if you can ask yourself, if you're starting to have behavior or attitudes or, or words that are mean spirited to check yourself and say, what's going on in me, that's leading to that action or that, um, response. And amazingly often you'll find the

root of it. And when you fix it at the root, you can truly fix it, uh, in a way that lasts versus just changing, you know, how you talk to someone, let's change it at the root of what. And when you fix it at the root, you can truly fix it in a way that lasts versus just changing, you know, how you talk to someone. Let's change it at the root of what's going on in you that caused that. Now, the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Let your conversation be always full of grace. There you go. Calm down. Calm down. Watch your tongue. It's a good thing. Christy Wright joins us this hour. Phone number is 888-825-5225. We are answering your questions here on the Dave Ramsey Show. If you do this one simple thing that we all do, you are literally at risk of being hacked and someone stealing what you've worked so hard for.

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You can try it for free for seven days, protect up to seven Internet devices, and keep all of your internet connections secure. That's CyberGhost VPN. Download it today from your app store and be secure in seconds. joining me today on the dave ramsey show ramsey personality number one best-selling author christy wright if you haven't heard we are doing a message of hope series started last thursday night with rachel cruz ken coleman and i uh just talking about reasons, not vague concepts, but actual reasons that we should maintain our hope. Rachel Cruz did her message of hope last on Monday evening. Chris Hogan last night. And tonight is Christie's.

Yeah, this is going to be fun. It was really awesome to get to talk about something that is so relevant and timely. That is exactly what people are facing. And like we've been talking about, we want to control what you can control. And so, yes, I think people will enjoy that tonight. Some of the things to do while quarantined and so forth is part of your subject matter, right? Yeah. The title is Reset, How to Use This Blank Slate to Create a Better Life.

While it does feel like a complete inconvenience, it's also an opportunity to look at your life with a new lens, with a new perspective, almost as a blank slate, and say, before I rush back to this normal of busyness, maybe let's rethink what I'm rushing back to and actually intentionally create the life that I want. I love it. Very good. All right, Thomas is with us to start off this hour in Japan. Hey, Thomas, your question for me and Christy. Konnichiwa, Dave and Christy. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can we help? Well, Dave, I'm single and 26 years old, and I'm completely debt-free. I live in Japan as a missionary, and I currently make around $22,000 each year. Now, thankfully, my company pays for my housing, transportation, healthcare, and telecommunications. So the only expenditures that I have out of my salary are

really food and utilities. Currently, I have around $23,000 in my savings account and around $10,000 in my retirement account. Each year, I'm on pace to contribute $7,800 of my salary to my Roth 4 or 3B retirement, $7,800 to my savings, and live off the other $6,400 from my salary. So here's my question. Is there anything different that I need to be doing with my money, or I'm on the right track with my current plan, and I currently plan on being in Japan for the next five years or so. Okay. Yeah, that was the next part. Because I think as you come to the close on your five-year time frame,

if you're coming off the mission field at that point, you may want to slow down or even stop your retirement savings for a short period of time and pile up cash even higher because you're going to need the money for a transition back into another career or back into the States or whatever your transition is, buying a house or something along those lines. How old are you? 26. How long have you been on the mission field?

I just started my job in October. I usually, before this, I worked for a Southern Baptist church in South Carolina, so new to the company. So the mission board is who you're working for, the Southern Baptist Mission Board? Yes, sir. Okay. International Mission Board. International, okay. Very good.

Good for you, man. Very cool. Well, that's a wonderful adventure of your own for God and for yourself and for the folks you come in contact with. That's some very cool stuff. Christy, can you think of anything else you need to do as you transition? Yeah, I think just your point of looking ahead, because five years sounds like a long time, especially when you're 26, I think, to think, you know, oh, my gosh, what am I going to be doing when I'm 31?

But whenever you decide to move back to the States, if you decide to buy a house, all these things will be large expenses. And since your income is pretty low now and you're super frugal with it go ahead and start kind of like you said piling up cash and saving up for some of those expenses you will want in five years even though it seems like a long time from now if you save a little between now and then it'll make it a lot easier to ramp into those things that you may want to do when you get back here and you are doing a great job just piling up cash but the only thing I might do is as you approach that five-year, I might dial the retirement back and just have absolutely more cash. Cash just gives you options in any kind of transition. Or if you're facing a crisis

today out there, obviously, if you've got a pile of cash right now versus a pile of debt right now, it puts you in a different frame of mind and it gives you different options in these situations. It gives you that power. Dakota is with us in Illinois. Hi, Dakota. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. How can Christine be helped? Hello?

Sounds like we just lost that one. All right. Let's go to Tina then. Tina is in California. Hi, Tina. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. Let's go to Tina then. Tina is in California. Hi, Tina. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi. Thank you for taking my call.

Sure. What's up? So I really like that Chrissy said a new lens. That was profound for me because 2020, the new lens, and that's one of my plans to come into this year paying off some debt. So I have about, oh, my God, I made some mistakes. So I got about $40,000 some debt. I have about, oh my God, I made some mistakes. I got about $40,000 in debt. $20,000 of that is in cards

that's upside down that I'm trying to get rid of. The other $20,000 is in credit cards. So part and a half, like $18,000 in the savings account. So now,

so my plan was to, you know, pay off the smaller ones, trying to get rid of them. But now with everything that's going on, my question is, what do I do? Especially with that car, because the upside-down car is $0.20, and it's only worth $10. Who said it's worth $10? Not only does Kelley Blue Book and everybody else or even private private may give me 13

but i will still have to pay the other seven so you must have had some upside down in the car you rolled into this when the car before no it was just a stupid buy from the dealer from yeah you overpaid for it and it went down in value super fast. Okay. Wow. I thought I liked this car. I loved it so much. I didn't even research, but now I've learned. Okay. So if you sold it and wrote a $10,000 check out of your $18,000 savings, how much would you spend on your car to replace it?

To replace that car? Oh, like $2,000. Okay. Just something to get back and forth, because now I'm able to work from home. I don't believe in need of car that much. Yeah. And what's your household income? $85,000.

That's good. How steady is it? It's steady. What do you work for? I work for the government. Okay. The county of Los Angeles. Okay.

So you're going to get your money. Probably, anyway. We're pretty sure you're going to get your money. Yeah. So, yeah. Well, you don't need to stop then your baby steps because of what's going on, because you have a predictable income. If there was some fear of you being, a high probability of you being laid off,

we would stop everything and pile up cash right now with what's going on. But any time there's a storm, that's what you do. Whether it's a storm in your personal life or a storm in the economy, that's what you've got to do. But you're in a situation where you have a stable, predictable income, so you just keep doing it, keep working. Your system is what I would do. $40,000 and you have $18,000 and you make $85,000.

I might just keep this car and just work to get it paid off and get the other stuff paid off. Because, you know, if you throw $17,000 at your $40,000, you only owe $23,000 and you make $85,000, you could be debt-free by Christmas. Oh, well, I have hope. I feel good. I feel positive. I feel like there's a light there.

You see what I did? I mean, because the thing is, the car, the debt is ridiculous, but the car itself is only worth $10,000. Right. So moving from $10,000 to $2,000 is not that big a move. If you move from a $22,000 car to a $2,000 car, that's a big move. Right. But this is's a big move. Right.

But this is not a huge move given your income. And unless the car is a bad car and you just hate it or something like that, I'd probably keep it and keep working. But there's something that happens when you have a plan and you can see a light at the end of the tunnel. It's not an oncoming train. This is such a great example, too, Dave, of what you've been telling people. You've been telling our team. You've been telling your listeners.

You're okay, Tina. You're okay. The world is scary. The news is scary. All that is real. You're okay. Los Angeles is shut down. It's scary.

Yeah, you've got a dependable income right now. You're working your plan. Yes, you made a mistake. We all make mistakes. I don't want you to get down on yourself because you are fixing that mistake. You are working your plan and you're doing a great job. So you're in a good position.

It may be scary out there, but you're doing the right thing, and I just want to encourage you in that. You know, and what she said is really important. The lens that you use to look at things, and you can choose that lens. You can change it out from rose-colored glasses to whatever, you know. And sometimes if you just do some math and work it down based on where you are, going with a new set of goals, you can really see the end through that lens, that mathematical lens. That's right. Opens up hope for you. It just reinforces the hope.

Christy Wright joins me this hour of this day. She's on tonight on her YouTube channel, which is Christy Wright. Yep. Right? And her Instagram, it'll all be live on all of that. A message of hope from her as the Ramsey personalities continue to deliver a message of hope each and every night this week. Business leaders hiring right now may be the furthest thing from your mind, but the fact of the matter is we will recover. One of the smartest things you can do for your

business is to be prepared. I want you to know my friends at LinkedIn are ready to help you find the right people for your business when you're ready to hire them. LinkedIn Jobs matches your role with qualified candidates so that you can find the right person quickly. LinkedIn Jobs looks at things like collaboration, creativity, adaptability, and puts your job post in front of qualified candidates every day. So your job is seen by people looking for jobs like yours. That's why we use LinkedIn Jobs when we hire here at Ramsey. When the time comes to hire for your business, you can get $50 off your first job post at linkedin.com slash Ramsey.

That's linkedin.com slash Ramsey. Terms and conditions apply. Dakota is with us in Illinois. Dakota, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. How can Christy and I help you today? Hey, Dave. Yes, I'm in Chicago. Me and my wife have been following your baby steps for about the past year and a half. And we just got out of debt just a few months ago. And thanks to you, we're not freaking out as much right now because we have taken seriously the emergency fund like you suggest. My question is pretty much how to best use my time during this new furlough I just started.

Yesterday I was given that news, and so I pretty much feel like I have two options. They did advise me on my unemployment options, but then I also know that there's a couple grocery stores within the area, you know, higher demand than usual, and I could pick up some hours there. And so that's pretty much like how, I guess I'm asking how to navigate that. Because I'm young, I might have like an ignorant stigma towards, you know, filing for unemployment. I'm not really sure what that's like.

I just started a new career four months ago, and it's happened. So not sure if, you know, there's a way, which one I should do is better in terms of like financially speaking, or if there's a way I can legally do both. I'm not really sure, you know, what you would recommend in that situation. Well, my understanding is if you make a certain amount of money, you no longer qualify for unemployment because you've gotten reemployed is the way it's viewed. So if I understand it correctly, and you can check on that, mathematically what you could do would simply

go okay unemployment pays this pays x can i make more uh doing something other than unemployment and the answer would usually be yes and so uh spiritually emotionally um physically i'd rather be working uh even if i made about the same money I'd rather be working it's not just the stigma of it it's just activity is good for you isn't it Christy? Yeah it's amazing too it's not just that it creates this momentum in this season even though this season is not what any of us would have chosen you're you're being active you're making things happen you're controlling what you can and you're creating momentum that I think will carry you into the next season, even if you're not going to be doing in the next season what you are going to do to get through

this one. And one thing I would encourage you is that you have more options than two Dakota. So I would just look at that. Like I never feel good when I feel painted into a corner where I have one of two options I don't really like. I try to create like 25 or 30 options. And then whatever I choose, I'm more confident in that choice because I've compared it to a lot of things. So I would just encourage you to make a list of all the different ways that you could make money during this time. Maybe you work part-time and you have a side gig part-time and maybe you, you know, I don't know what that looks like for you, but you've got more options than two. I would just, I would start by brainstorming a lot of options and then choose the best from there. Yeah, all the grocery stores are hiring.

All the Targets and Amazons and pizza deliveries are all hiring hundreds of thousands of people right at this moment. And so you've got a lot of options of that kind of thing. What do you do for a living? What's your career? Just four months ago, I hired on with enterprise run a car i'm a management trainee which is the entry level position um and then they started moving up the ladder so i was the next one to kind of get furloughed for this time okay i'm just thinking do you have some kind of skill set where you create a unique side hustle that christy's talking

about and you can ask yourself that question uh because that will usually pay more than Target will pay or Amazon Delivery will pay. I mean, you can make that whatever it is, $17, $15 an hour, whatever it is right now, and you can get more than that if you work a lot of overtime and you're just cranking it out. There's nothing wrong with that. No shame in that. And I actually personally, you know, when Sharon and I went broke, I did all kinds of stuff

while I was rebuilding my real estate business at the time. I mean, I made money from 14 different things, like you said, because I would just rather be doing something than the activity stimulates your creativity. It stimulates future opportunities, and it changes your mindset. And sometimes it's more than a little bit humbling. I remember one guy was an executive. He was trying to get out of debt, and he was delivering pizzas at night, and he delivered a pizza to someone that they just hired at his company that was going to report to him. That's humbling.

That is. But what'sbling. Yeah, that is. That is. But what's interesting, too, I love this idea of maybe you start something because the one thing I would say, Dakota, if you've never thought of starting your own side business or small business, what I'm recommending right now, Dave, in this business landscape is you're looking at business differently. You're not thinking of what is my dream business. I want to do what I love.

This is a long game play. No, we're talking how can I make money fast? You don't have to love it. You're just trying to turn a profit quickly. So what services can you provide? What knowledge can you monetize? I'm not even telling people don't even worry about getting into product-based businesses with cost of goods and inventory, all that. Right now today, with your idea, a Facebook page, with what you know, what you can do.

You know, there's people that still need landscaping. There are people that still need deliveries. There are people that still need that. People are still buying some things that you can start a business that meets a felt need right now today. And you're like Dave saying, probably going to make more than you would at maybe working for a grocery store or certainly unemployment. So you've got and you can do all of it. That's right. What you were saying.

Combine it. So, yeah, you can do the one, two punch of the combination of all of it. That's right. You know what you were saying earlier. Combine it. So, yeah, you can do the one-two punch of the combination of all of it. So the good news is, Dakota, I know and Christy knows from having done this a long time that just the fact that you're asking the question means you're going to be okay. That's right. You're not paralyzed. You're not in the corner sucking your thumb. You're not saying this has destroyed my life.

I'm a victim of circumstances. You're saying, oh, crap, I got furloughed. That sucks. OK, what have I got to do next? Next up, you know. Yep. And next man up, next man up, you know, and just and you step in and, you know, you go ahead and you do that kind of a thing. Hey, good question. All right. Matt is with us. Matt's in Texas. Hi, Matt. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey there. Thanks, Dave. Christy, how are y'all? Great. How can we help? I have a question. I guess it's more towards Christy. My wife is a photographer. She went through business boutique a few years ago and she's been having growth in her business. She's pregnant with our second child due in June.

Congratulations. Thank you. I kind of have a question. Just how do I help her business get back on track after she gives birth? You know, of course, some of that's just going to be working within our own family, but any specific tips about how to kind of push her back out into photography? Well, first of all, kind of like we were just talking about, the fact that you're asking the question shows that you're naturally a supportive husband. So well done. The husbands that may struggle with that probably aren't asking that question of how to be more supportive. So you probably already are doing better than you even think. But I would ask a more practical question

in terms of her business and her plans, her timelines, her expectations. Has she talked at all about what type of maternity leave she wants or what she wants the business to look like immediately after having the baby, maybe even immediately before if she wants to stay home and nest and not really worry about clients? Have y'all talked about that at all? We have. In fact, she's taking, starting maternity actually in May with all the coronavirus. It started a little early, but she scheduled out her maternity to, I think it'll end, I think August is when she scheduled her next appointment, her next session. Okay. Well, then I think having a timeline is great. It's great as a guideline. And I think that, you know, you supporting her, whether that means with

child care, house responsibilities, whatever, so that she can physically go take those pictures, you know, in a practical way. But I would also say one of the most supportive things you can do is give her permission to change her mind, Matt, because y'all have never had two kids. You don't know what that's like, adjusting from one to two. I personally found it very difficult to adjust from one to two. And it may just be harder or different. And a lot of times we hold ourselves to the same plans we made before things changed and just give her permission to adjust her timelines or her plans based on what you guys decide as a family what she decides as as a mom of two that is her

priority and how she wants to spend that season that season's going to look different than this season so you know you're the fact that you're asking just shows that you're supportive but i would just say one of the most supportive things you can do is help her assess as things progress what's right in that moment. And it's okay if that changes. I think you can plan on it changing. What you can not plan on changing, because it won't change, is her love of photography and her love of doing this business. I doubt she's going to set the camera down completely. I just kind of doubt it. Just listening to you describe the situation. So it might be sooner. It might be later. It might be a faster pace of appointments or a slower pace.

And where Christy's saying, give yourselves room on change on that. That's smart. That's very, very wise. Good, good, good, good question. Good answer, Christy. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. We'll see you next time. Thanks for joining us, America. I'm Dr. Christy Wright, Ramsey personality with me this hour and all day today on the show. She is one of all of our personalities, of course.

I don't know how to say that right. But all of our personalities, and she's one of them, duh, are doing a message of hope. Hers is tonight. And where can they tune in to hear that? We're putting it everywhere. So your YouTube, my YouTube, all of the Ramsey personality social media sites, so Instagram, Facebook, all the places, and I believe DaveRamsey.com as well. Okay.

All right. So be sure and tune in for Chrissy's message of hope tonight. Chris Hogan was last night. Rachel Cruz was Monday night. Dr. John Deloney, newly minted Ramsey personality. Dr. D will be on Thursday night and Ken Coleman Friday night. And then next Monday, Anthony O'Neill. So all six of the Ramsey personalities.

Plus, of course, I did one with Rachel and Ken last week. And so jump in and join us there. Also, you can jump on Good america's website if you want they had a saw a tweet come up they're asking for you to send questions for rachel cruz and i to answer uh there in the morning so um apparently i'm going to be on there so good to know things you need to know so uh check it out and um if you got a question you can want to participate in the Good Morning America show. Just jump on their site, and they're taking personal finance questions in the middle of the corona crisis right now as well. So open phones at 888-825-5225.

Sandy is with us in Maine. Hey, Sandy, how are you? Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What are you? Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? My husband works for a paper mill.

We're both 48, and we are in baby step two. Paper mills get bought and sold all the time. And so during one of the purchases, the company that bought them literally only owned it for a few days. It was just like they bought a bunch of mills and they ended up keeping some of them, but then they sold ours again. But what happened was they got stuck with the pensions for the employees at our mill. And I think it was a couple couple years ago that this actually happened. So they turned around and did pension buyouts for everybody. And we sought out a financial advisor because being in Baby Step 2, we didn't have one. And all of my husband's coworkers went with traditional, but we decided to go with a raw. And we did end up, you know, we for 2020, we'll end up having to pay what feels like a pretty significant amount of tax yeah but my my husband's feeling on it was it was money that we um weren't going

to have anyway so it was you know this gift of money so you use some of the money to pay the taxes we know we were we're saving we have an envelope for it but it's a pretty big chunk of money every month so what we're what we're kind of like looking when did you do when did you do this uh we received the money in 2019 uh we got the tax statement in 2019 but the rollover we did a backdoor it's not a backdoor if it's a rollover. Wait a minute. How much money is involved? It's only $26,000 compared to what some of his coworkers got. Okay. You could have done a backdoor, both of you in 19 and both of you in 20,

and that would have got you to $26,000 or close. But you can't roll a pension. If you roll a pension over into an IRA, you can do that, and then you can convert it to a Roth, but that's not technically a backdoor. A backdoor is a new Roth. So, okay, so $26,000. So you got a tax bill coming of $5,000, eight thousand bucks probably right yeah we were calculating about seventy seventy five hundred so did we do the wrong thing we're like trying because no it's not the wrong thing i would have just rolled it to a traditional for now until you got out of debt because the only thing is you just created a seven thousand dollar bill while you're trying to get out of debt. Exactly. I would not have done that.

But it's not the end of the world. The actual Roth is a good idea. It's just the timing of it while you're in Baby Step 2, it just put an extra strain on you, and you said that. But I would have waited until you were, like, up to Baby Step 4 or 5 or something before you made the convert and then converted your traditional to a Roth then, which would have made the taxes come due then.

And it would have been handier for that to happen after you were out of debt and had your emergency fund. Agreed? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And you still would have gotten to a Roth. You just would have gotten there maybe a year or a year and a half later is all. So it's not a bad thing you did. It's just the fact that you did it really quick rather than delaying it a little bit brought extra strain to you.

So, hey, thanks for the call. AJ is up. AJ is in Los Angeles. Hi, AJ. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Your question for Christy and me. Hey, Dave. So my question is, so like most Americans, I'm working from home right now.

And, man, I'm not going to lie, I love it. I have, like, more time with my family. I'm saving a ton of money in gas and in toll. So overall, it's working out really well. And the thing is, is I have a job where I can actually work from home and still get the same amount done. I mean, I haven't, I haven't, I've been producing the same amount of work, maybe even a little bit more.

My question is, is what would be after all this Corona mess is done? Like, is there a way I can ask my company and what is the right way to ask my company if I could just work from home? What do you do? I'm a draftsman. Okay. How long have you been working from home? It'll be three years in September. No, I'm sorry. How long have you just been working from home, doing what you do from home? Oh, for about a week and a half.

Okay. So here's what I'm going to say. And I'm curious what you, as the CEO of a company, Dave, and you're real big on us being here. So I'm curious about your thoughts on this. AJ, I'm wondering if you feel like that after three more weeks, if you feel like that after six weeks of being home, because right now everything is new and shiny. Oh my gosh, I can do video calls in my pajamas. This is so awesome. But after the newness wears off, I'm curious if you still want that type of setup. And some people do. Some is so awesome. But after the newness wears off, I'm curious if you still want that type of setup. And some people do. Some people prefer that for the benefits you just listed. Some people actually like driving to a place, the camaraderie, the collaboration, the creativity that happens in a team environment, the having a reason to put on jeans for the day,

the productivity whenever you're actually present with the people that you work with. So I'm curious if this stays or if this is something that just feels new and different right now. But Dave, what would you say as someone that runs an organization? That's a really good call out. I think if it does stand the test of time, meaning you still like it in four weeks, and you may be there in four weeks, if it stands the test of time, meaning you still feel that way about it that you do right now, the way you ask the company is you just ask the company.

You just say, I feel like I've gotten more work done. I like doing this. Would you consider this? And be ready for a yes or a no answer okay and uh you know i lay out like yeah just lay out what you just laid out to us and but don't you know you're you're you're asking uh pretend like you own the company how would you want someone to ask you not with belligerence and demanding i would just fire your little butt okay but but if you go in there with and say hey you know dave i want to be part of the team but i think i'm doing more this way i'm more comfortable this way and try to make your case your you know your owner may want to do

that there are some companies that do there are a lot of companies that do some work from home pre-coronavirus and they will be post um i will tell you up front to christy's uh to go along with what christy's saying we have a lot of developers on our team and a lot of creatives on our team that used to work from home as freelance and missed human interaction and joined our team because they wanted to be on a team and physically want to be on a team and they have a hashtag going around now working from home blows okay so they liked the you know they joined us out of the wild and became part of ramsey because they wanted to be around highly intelligent highly effective people energized by it, and didn't like working at home as much as they thought.

So check it out in four weeks, see if you still like it before you make the proposal. Good question, good ideas. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. You can now listen to The Dave Ramsey Show on Spotify, Pandora, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. For all the ways to watch and listen, check out our show page at DaveRamsey.com slash show.