The Ramsey Show - App - DAVE RANT: Your Tax Refund Is NOT Free Money! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: March 24, 2022

Dave Ramsey & Rachel Cruze discuss: How to think about taxes and tax refunds, How to stay goal-oriented in baby step 7, What to do when facing an uncertain career situation. 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

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where dad is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author, is my co-host today as we answer your questions about your career, about your job, about your life, about your money, about your relationships. Now, jump in here. We'll talk. It's a free call. 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Austin is in Albany, New York, starting off this hour. Hey, Austin, what's up?

Hi, Dave. It's a pleasure to be talking to you. You too, man. How can we help? So I'm 24 years old. I just finished the last course in my online master's program for education. My plan is to teach middle school or high school social studies, but back in October, I had a good opportunity to start a business. I opened a diner that somebody in town was leasing.

I had the money saved to start the business without taking out any debt, a diner that somebody in town was leasing. I had the money saved to start the business without taking out any debt. And so I did that sort of on a whim, and that's been going well so far. But now I'm trying to figure out where to go from here. I guess my question is, I have $75,000 in student loans that I'm going to have to start paying pretty soon. I have a couple of employees. So I guess my question is how should I move forward balancing this business with trying to start my teaching career? I'm confused. What is it you want to do you're going to be a teacher okay you're going to run a restaurant

okay so the the restaurant is small on a day-to-day basis it can be run by two employees uh two people um and so i i want i want to do both and i'm trying to figure out why possible so um well you know i figured rather than having two jobs uh to uh you know pay off the debt um sorry that's okay how much how much money have you put into this diner um the initial investment was uh four thousand dollars that i had saved how much money do you have so far how much money do you have saved now in my personal account um not very much uh about $1,500. And my business account, I've got, well, I just paid this quarter sales taxes, so about $10,000. I'm living with my folks right now. And my landlord

is the previous owner of the diner. He just wanted to retire because he's getting older. And I'm talking to him. The summer months get busy. It's got a good cash flow. So you're looking at the diner, Austin, as just a totally separate cash flow opportunity for you because you see that you have $75,000 in debt. You want to be a teacher. You have this business, and you're just trying to figure out what to do.

Do you want to get out of the diner, or do you want to stay in it? No, I want to stay in it. I think it's going to be more work than you're going to give it credit for. I guess I can explain mine. Yeah, I just feel like— No, well, I know the amount of work that goes into it now. I've been running it now for a few months, but I've... Have you gotten your job teaching yet?

No, I haven't. I still need to do student teaching. Okay. Well, let's keep the diner running and go get your student teaching done, and then get your job teaching, and let's begin to pay off the debt. And if at some point the diner becomes overwhelming or underwhelming, then you can just close it down or get rid of it, right? Right, right.

So I don't really see where there's a priority problem. You're going to go ahead and plow through your teaching goal of finishing. Now you've finished your master's. them you're going to go ahead and plow through your teaching goal of finishing now you finish your masters now let's go finish the student teaching and um you know get that done and meanwhile you're running the diner hopefully you're making a little bit of money you sounded like you are uh and you think you've got it dialed in where you don't have spent a ton of time on it hopefully but if it interferes with your teaching goal ditch ditch it. It's a distraction. As long as it can run over to the side and not be a problem, let it run. That's fine.

But it's really not a prioritization or balance problem. You're sitting here telling us you've balanced it. But without knowing the teaching schedule, that's my only red flag for him. I think it's going to be more work doing both than you realize. When you finish the student teaching and you actually start getting paid to be a teacher, you may realize the diner's not worth the trouble. Yeah. But if it is and you want to keep doing both, I don't have a problem with that. Lots of teachers do other things, too.

Lots of people doing two different things. But there's not a prioritization or balance problem because these things are not competing. I would not put another dime in the diner. If you have to invest more into it, that's a warning sign. If you'd called me before you did this, I would have told you not to do it, but you're there now, and let's run it, and let's pull money from that, and then let's pull money from teaching and take all that money and throw it at these student loans and be done as soon as possible if at any

point it's underwhelming or overwhelming ditch it it's four grand move on with your life close it up go to the next thing um but i think i'm hearing that this is sucking uh a lot of time and money out of your life and that's why you're. I don't know why you're calling. So you're having trouble balancing this. Why? You have one little job that's supposed to be a part-time job, and you're not even student teaching yet. You shouldn't have any trouble balancing this. You don't have anything to do much except hang out at the diner right now.

Like you're running a restaurant. No, I mean, it's not. I mean, it shouldn't be. If it's out of balance now you're screwed when you start teaching that's what my kind of was so that that's the point so just keep digging through it brother just keep digging through it thanks for the call open phones at 888-825-5225 you jump in we're talking about your life and your money it is a free call rachel cruz ramsey personality is here to answer questions with me today as we dig into these different areas of your life. So Rachel, one of the things we see

back to his point, I guess, or his his the general area that I see that that can cause people to not hit a goal, whatever the goal is, whether it's a career goal, a money goal, or whatever, is not the difficulty of hitting the goal. It's getting distracted with something else. Yes. And it pulls you off. That lack of focus in our culture that has the attention span of a gnat

causes people to not succeed at things. And so I'm always mining for that when i'm talking to you folks out there or when i'm talking to one of the young people on my team here or a friend or whatever you know you know what are you doing that's distracting you from making the main thing the main thing um you know well my marriage is in trouble so make it the main thing you weren't making it the main thing that's why it's a problem you know, well, my marriage is in trouble, so make it the main thing. You weren't making it the main thing. That's why it's a problem. You know, my kids, well, make them the main thing.

You know, but you can line things up that are important to you and still get to all of them as long as you have a level of focus and you don't spend your time watching Tiger King. This is The Ramsey Show. Most people know me as the guy who did stupid with a lot of zeros on the end. I made my first million dollars in my 20s the wrong way and then went bankrupt. That's when I set out to learn God's ways of managing money and developed the Ramsey baby steps. By following these steps, I became a millionaire again, and this time the right way. After three decades of guiding millions of others

through the plan, the evidence is undeniable. If you follow the Baby Steps, you will become a millionaire and get to live and give like no one else. My new book, Baby Steps Millionaires, is now available for purchase. When you order my new book, you'll learn how ordinary people built extraordinary wealth and how you can do it too. I'll walk you through how to invest, build wealth, and bust through the barriers preventing you from becoming a millionaire. Baby, step your way to becoming a millionaire. Get your copy today at ramsaysolutions.com. That's ramsaysolutions.com. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Y'all found out that there's labor shortages out there, right? Y'all found out that there's labor shortages out there, right? Y'all found out that there's disruption in supply chains, right? Y'all found out that the IRS went completely bonkers and just quit working altogether during the pandemic like for two years, right? So here's the deal. Weird tax seasons for the last couple of years you bet the irs at this moment is sitting on 20 million tax returns that have are unprocessed so you used to uh file your taxes and you know like a couple days later you would get a refund some of you have been waiting on a refund for as much as 10 months now yeah so your little refund

program's not working for you which brings us to the subject that refunds are not free money they're not a gift from washington dc i know santa claus personally i'm old he does not live in dc he lives in the north pole you are not getting a gift from your government when you get a refund it is you have paid in too much and there's a lot of money going in, Rachel. A lot. Well, 75% of taxpayers got a refund on average of $2,800. So yeah, when you get almost a $3,000 check in the mail, it's like, ooh, that's fun. You know what I mean? There obviously is a reaction that happens. But the important thing there is remembering that's your money that could have been $3,000

over the course of a year to be paying off debt or to save or to use it to give or to spend even on what you want like it was to be used for your life and instead yeah like you're saying channel my inner john deloney whoa are you gonna be therapist dave right now no we need to reframe this that's what he would say you need to reframe your way of looking at this you need to reframe this. That's what he would say. Oh, wow. I was like, are you going to be interested? He would say, you need to reframe your way of looking at this. You need to reframe the approach you're taking to this. So when you open a, the next time, because of listening to this piece of radio right now, this piece of this podcast right now, the next time you open your mailbox and there's a refund, I don't want you to go, whoo-hoo.

I want you to go, God you to go god i'm stupid that is not john deloney no reframing it is john deloney i know and then you went god i'm stupid no you are not stupid yes you did was stupid okay but that that yeah and if you do stupid long enough you're just stupid so but the uh oh my gosh. Not really. 75% of the people listening are getting a tax refund, which means you paid too much in taxes without any interest. They send it back to you when they decide to finally go back to work. And then you act like Santa Claus sent you the money. No! That's not where it came from.

So, tax refund. Bad. Not bad not good okay here's a question obviously the ideal is to get to zero exactly it's where you don't owe any and you're not correct but but getting to that exact zero can be difficult right especially in the last year we've had people are taking on side like i mean it's just everything's a little bit wonky still would you rather someone owe a little bit and have money in savings that they pay, or would you rather a tax refund happen? Well, I mean, I want to get it down in the $100 range one way or the other. And it's difficult, but it requires a little effort. But the first step of that effort is to reframe the argument and go tax refund stupid

not good okay so now once we get that reframing done we go i've loaned the government money and they paid me no interest and then they gave it back to me when by god they decided to finally come back to work and so you know so and 75 of you got three thousand dollars that's 250 a month and you have a tight budget and you're whining about gas prices and you're worried about the cream cheese at public's right rachel yeah so hey that fourth pig resonated that's all i gotta say fourth pig was popular i gotta say you you hit your nerve with the fourth pig but anyway the drama pig but the no let's don't let's don't get off track. Let's stay on focus because we talked about that a while ago.

So $2,800, that's $250 a month too much coming out of your taxes. How do you adjust for that? There's two ways to do it. One is the simplest, easy way is if nothing has changed in your life, you are still in the same tax bracket, you haven't had a baby, you didn't start a sad hustle, something's not different from last year, then just adjust your withholding by $250 because you're probably getting exactly the same thing back. So just adjust it by that amount.

Just go into payroll and go, I get $250 too much. If your average was $2,800. If you had a $3,000 refund, that's $250 a month. If you had a $4,800 refund, that'd be $400 a month. Adjust it to where you get no refund. Now, if something's changed, then what you do is you jump in and just do a tax return and act like what's going on, and then you can predict what your taxes are and then make sure that amount is being withheld.

Check out one of our endorsed local providers, and they can help you with this. We've got Ramsey Trusted Tax Pros if you have a complicated return. And, of course, you also can get Ramsey Smart Tax. And if you're a Ramsey Plus member, Ramsey Smart Tax online filing is free. So you can actually run through the scenario and figure out what it is you're going to owe. And you go, okay, I owe, I i don't know make up a number twelve thousand dollars okay well that's a thousand dollars a month should be coming out of your check not 1250 and so your goal is to zero this out and don't end up owing more than has been withheld

it's not that you owe taxes because you already did owe taxes they just took out so when you come up when you come up short and you're did owe taxes. They just took out. So when you come up short and you're going to have to write a check at tax time, that doesn't mean you owe taxes. You already owed taxes. You just owe a little bit more taxes that you haven't yet paid. That's all it is, okay? Isn't that owing taxes?

No. Huh? Isn't that owing? It's not. You already owe the taxes. Yeah. That hasn't changed. It's just the fact you underwithheld, and so you have to pay a little bit more.

That's right. That's right. So you owed $12,000, and you only sent in $11,950. So when you pay $50, it's not I owe $50 in taxes. No. You've just underpaid your taxes by your $12,000 in taxes by $50. Yes. So don't get confused. Because the biggest scam of all times from a standpoint of, you know,

basically conning the public was when they passed the law that allowed taxes to be withheld from your paycheck. So the taxes come out before you ever see it. If people actually had to write a check or go down with cash to a location and take the money in $100 bills every week to the tax collector at a location, there be a revolution in america because people would realize how much their freaking taxes are and the tax collector would be looked at as a scumburger like he was in biblical times but the fact that it just comes out of your check and you never see it it's it's lulled the sheeple to sleep and the sheeple all just pay taxes out their freaking ears and nobody raises a flag and goes you people are buying $250,000 toilet seats with this money you're taking out of my check

up there you guys are a bunch of island of misfit toys you need to stop it but if you actually had to go pay $100 bills it'd change everything so anyway that's a great point so go to ramsey solutions.com and get ramsey smart tax it's the online filing it'll make it easier for you less painful and if you really have got a complicated return like you've got the side hustle you've picked up some other deductions you don't know what to do with them it's worth the money to get a pro on your side to help you do it a ramsey trusted pro at ramseysolutions.com one of our tax elps but address the issue pay attention and reframe the argument if you open the envelope don't go tax refund good go tax refund stupid you need to reframe that in your head and not act like a celebration is happening here instead it should be an act of shame and guilt and condemnation.

Oh, my gosh. I'm kidding, but... Rachel, you're so sensitive. I... No! Don't put me in that camp. I'm a realist, is what I am. Well, I just want you

walking from the mailbox with your head down instead of dancing. No, I agree. I'm there. Yes, yes. That's all I'm saying. Ugh.

This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Thank you for joining us, America. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. It's a free call at 888-825-5225. Amy is with us in Dallas. Hi, Amy. How are you? I'm doing great, Mr. Ramsey. And, Rachel, I have to say I love that you're on because I, too, like to spend a portion of my entertainment budget at the craps table.

Yes! Even though Mr. Ramsey doesn't approve. This is not the way to start out the call, Amy. I'm sorry. I am dying right now. You started out in the hole, okay? Now you gotta dig out. Amy could have said conspiracy theories,

craps, or love is blind, and I would have been like, this is my girl. I am on baby step seven. I'm 33 years old. I think I have a pretty good net worth of around $2 million. So I'm hoping I'm getting better on your graces. In spite of your problem with the craps, okay. Yeah.

That's fun. So I'm an engineer. My husband's an engineer. We're very process-oriented people. We're just kind of struggling. We just read the legacy journey and what our next goal should be. We really don't want to be landlords. No offense.

That's okay. I'm not offended. And right now we're just, you know, we have pretty substantial raises this year, so we're going to make $30,000 more than we made last year. And it's just, like, it feels like there's just more money coming in, and we're like, you know, I guess we're just saving more. Yeah. Well, you're doing great.

You've done such an amazing job. Congratulations. I mean, y'all are the everyday millionaire of, or Baby Step's millionaire. Both, yeah. Sure. But in two engineers, except two yeah two engineers i mean everything you're like the classic except the fact that you're 33 yeah way to go amazing yeah so your biggest problem is it's just um you're overwhelmed with prosperity in a sense

right yes and and obviously we're we're we're Christians and we give. And I even put in my budget random giving above the, you know, 10%. And so it's just, and now I just feel like there's just, like our last goal was paying off our house, right? And then there was like making sure our kids' college fund is set and we don't have to touch it forever. And it's like, now what? Okay. Yeah, I mean, Amy, at this point, I mean, you really, we always say the three

things you can do with money. You can give it, you can save and invest it, and you can spend it. And so you need to be doing all three of those. So I love that you upped your giving, because that's a big part of this, right? That you live like no one else, so later you live and give like no one else, right? So having that flow out is going to be, it's going to be amazing. I mean, like you're going to run

into things and God's going to put things in your path that you didn't even realize was there. And it's going to come up and you're going to be able to write a check or you're going to be able to help someone in a significant way, which is just so fun. And so you're going to get to experience that on a new level. And then, yeah, I think continuing to invest. So if real estate's not something that you're like, oh, you feel great about or you guys want to do, obviously just even opening up a mutual fund, talking to a smart investor pro, and continuing to put money in just investing is something that you could look at. But if you guys, I don't know, if you have an interest of like, I don't know, you want to, I never know what you think about this stuff. Maybe a big trip. I don't know. I don't know, if you have an interest of like, I don't know, you want to, I never know what you think about this stuff.

Maybe a big trip. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, well, that's the spin category. So I want you to up your lifestyle for sure. Yes. Yes. And y'all enjoy some of this.

Maybe that's our problem. Okay. Let me tell you what's happening. Because it's happened to me years ago. And I watch it happen when I'm working with people who hit the Baby Steps Millionaires goals. And they get where you are okay what happens is there's two things one is you had this hard concrete goal and it was the

end of the race and you broke through the tape and you're like okay I need to I need a goal because this feels like I'm just kind of floating out here that's thing one that happens this sense of disconnect because you were so connected to and driven towards a goal now there's nothing and it's just floating and that's very disconcerting the second thing that happens is and this is more pronounced than than that one that one you do get over fairly quickly just by getting another goal but the second thing that happens is when you didn't when you haven't been around this many zeros you emotionally it takes a little while to get used to it i mean i'll give you an example around here i mean the ramsey organization is several hundred million dollars a year in revenue and so we spend more on copier paper

than i used to spend than i used to make in a year, you know? We spend more on coffee than some people make in a year, you know? I mean, it's just nuts just because of the scale, right? And it's hard to get used to even today, and I've been doing it for 30 years, you know? But today I look down at our profit and loss statement and I see the bill for coffee, and I'm like, jeez, you know? And it's an emotional experience. I go go i'm a kid from antioch tennessee we spent that on coffee you know and it's just kind of weird it's it's an emotional thing so it takes a little while for your emotions to catch up with your math

for you to get used to buying something that cost 30000 bucks and you don't even feel it like most people buying a candy bar okay because that's the position you're moving into you're going to be able to go and buy an item or a thingy of some kind a trip whatever for your just to enjoy just to consume that is a large amount of money compared to the way you grew up compared to what you've always been up to this date but it's a small amount of money relative mathematically to where you are and so you still have this like oh my gosh you know and so i was with a guy i'll give you an extreme example of that okay i was with a guy, I'll give you an extreme example of that, okay? I was with a guy not long ago who made $15 million last year. He's killing it, okay?

And I actually would know his name if I said it, so I'm not going to say it. But he drove up to my house in a car that cost $300,000. And we were having this exact discussion because the car is freaking killer it's an unbelievable car you know and we're standing there looking at this and he goes man i grew up in dot dot dot and he goes i can't even i can't get my head around the fact that i just bought this car and i just drove it up here in your house he goes i feel like kind of dirty like i did something wrong and i went well let's do the percentages 300 grand as a percentage of 15 million okay it's like buying a 30 000 car if you made a million and a half a three thousand dollar car if

you made 150 000 it's the same ratios right so did you do something wrong? No, I didn't. You know, he's not out of line. It's a small, but people say stuff like, no one needs a car like that. Well, for him, it's like buying a biscuit. You know, it doesn't show up. It doesn't move the needle. And so that's where it is with you. Your emotions are having that same kind of a thing.

When you invest a large sum, give a large sum. I mean, the first time I gave $10,000 to something, my mind was blown. I was like, whoa, you know, because it was the most I had ever done, and it was not an emotional amount I was used to. And so that's what you're experiencing. So expect to feel disconnected until you have a good goal, and expect for it to be emotionally disconcerting for a little while as you lay out and say, we're going to spend X on enjoyment,

we're going to spend Y on investing, and we're going to spend Z on giving. And you're going to increase all of those and they're going to be uncomfortable. Yes. So Amy, I would say like my husband and I, we always kind of have a goal. We have a goal within a 12, 24-month period that we can hit, whether it's a new car or we want to do a certain trip or, I don't know, put in a pool. I don't know what it is.

A house was a big one for us in 2019 is when we moved in, but that was a goal we had for years to do that. So find the thing you and your husband, I'm going to assume you're married. I think you said that. Two engineers. That's right. That you guys are excited about. Have that goal that you're, yes, putting money in a mutual fund, all of that.

But that goal, there's still something energizing that you have to be able to shoot for. So find something that you and your husband agree, like, that's fun. Maybe it's building your dream home. I don't care what it is, but there's something out there that you have to be able to shoot for. So find something that you and your husband agree like that's fun. Maybe it's building your dream home. Like I don't care what it is, but there's something out there that you look at and you guys are continuing to work and be intentional. And then on the lifestyle side, I would force yourself, force yourself to spend a certain

amount of money every month just to get used to it because you can and you should be able to enjoy it too. That would be my advice. And on the generosity above the tithe. The generosity above the tithe should go up. All of these are going to be a little uncomfortable because it's your first time to play with numbers this size. It's emotionally like looking at the coffee line and going, what? This is the Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today.

Number one best-selling author, New York Times best-selling author of the book Know Yourself, Know Your Money, her latest bestseller. Just signing them out there at the break. Marla is with us. Marla is in Baltimore, Maryland. Hi, Marla. What's up? Hi.

How are you today? Better than I deserve. How can we help? So I'm relocating my 82-year-old mother near me, and I'm wondering if these large buy-in fee, you know, the continuing care retirement communities are worth it with that large lump sum up front. It's 90% refundable if she doesn't use it, but I'm also looking at these independent living places where you pay monthly fees without having that big buy-in. These buy-ins are anything from $250,000 to $450,000. Mm-hmm, yeah.

And it's just, I just, it's something I've never thought about until now. Yeah. And I just don't know if this money's just sitting there. So I'd love your thoughts. Well, I think what you're going to find is in both models, there are some that are overpriced. I've run the numbers out on sometimes,

and it goes one way, and other times when it goes the other way. So I don't have a don't-do-that opinion of one of the models or the other. If you're going to go with the one where you're prepaying with a 90% refund if she doesn't use it thing, you need to make sure they're financially strong because if they go into Chapter 11, then you're not getting your money. So you need to make sure their balance sheet is flush with cash. And this is a long-term operator of size and those kinds of things that can weather a COVID storm or something like that financially.

How do you find that? You ask them? Yeah, you tell them, I want to see your financials. Prove to me that you're going to still be around when i want my money back because because you know or you meet whatever the guidelines are on that um so for that reason i kind of like the monthly better but i've looked at some of them to where the monthly was so high that it you know you wish you'd done the other one you know what i'm saying right so i wish i could give you a solid answer but i would say i would just crunch out the math and it's not the good news

is it's not calculus i mean it's sixth grade math we're just going to run the numbers out and go okay this is the payments and you know run a scenario okay she's 82 she lives 10 years that's 92 this is what i will have put into it this way or if I go the prepay with the refund way and she lives to 92, then that's there. How's her health? It's good, and that's just it. I'm thinking about independent living if it moves into assisted nursing if her health wasn't good, but she wouldn't qualify for assisted living, and she could be living on her own with just me helping out for a long time. Yeah, and that's a better quality

of life for her probably it is it is a better quality of life the other thing i should share which is she has this in this situation she's coming up here she has a million dollars and i'd like to take that money and have it i don't want her to be living off of that i want to think about investing that so she could be hopefully living off some of the interest on that. And so I'm focusing on that to help cover some of these expenses, too. Again, I'm doing a long-term play with that because there's nothing in this conversation that says she's not going to be here 10 years. Right. I mean, is the longevity in her family? Her mother lived by herself until 96.

Yeah, there you go. Yeah. Okay, so I mean, you know, if you've got an 82-year-old in good shape, it would not be unusual for them to live 10 years, statistically. Right. Okay. And we're being kind of cold. We're talking about your mom.

I know. I have to think about it that way. Yeah, if you're going to run the math, you've got to have some kind of a set of assumptions that you're comparing it to, because the numbers will come out different if you think on it three years versus 13 years right and so i if i'm you i'm running a 10-year scenario and maybe a 15-year scenario and running them out both ways and taking the million dollars and investing it in good growth stock mutual funds with a smart investor pro that you connect to at ramseyolutions.com and then let that money feed this, feed whichever

program you decide to go with. I'll tell you what else enters into this is when you walk onto the site, what feels right? I mean, you know, I mean, if one of them, the numbers work on, but it feels, you know, like institutional and the other one feels like home i might you know she's got a million dollars yeah it's got a million dollars this is for her you know let's take care of her put her where she's comfortable where it's home i mean i'm gonna i that's i'm don't have a happy gilmore situation you're gonna sign me up yeah that's like literally what i thought happy gilmore that was such a sad part of the movie.

That was Ben Stiller, wasn't it? He was the mean nurse, yeah. Yes. Okay, with long-term care insurance, because that's something that we recommend you get at the age of 60. That will take care of nursing homes. She's not to that point. She's just in that. This is just assisted.

It's not all the way in full care. And that's the other thing I guess you can look at is, does this organization have the ability to move along the spectrum of care as you need it? And you analyze all of that. But I think the important thing is to make sure she gets out of this last 10 years a good experience because she's earned it with the money she's saved yeah and uh so your great daughter marla yeah you take care of your mom you are that's very cool it's very cool and you're using a good business mind thinking about how to implement but also how to take care of mom and moving her in your area and so forth well done jackson oklahoma city hi

jack welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Hey, Rachel. How are you guys doing? Sure. What's up? We're great, man. How can we help?

So the situation that I'm in, Dave, is right now I'm working two full-time remote jobs. I always call them Job A and Job B. So I kind of started doing the two remote jobs thing. I've been doing the second job for about four or five months now with the original goal of just saving up enough money to get my student loans paid off, which I'm at that point right now. And I'm kind of just sitting here and I'm wondering which direction to go because I'm getting burned out, you know, balancing the both jobs and the job a it's for a big retailer. And kind of the pros of that job are it has better pay. The pay there is about 66,000 a year. And I, you know,

it has a better long-term career potential because it's in supply chain management. It has better benefits as far as like healthcare, 401k and all that. And also I just have like several years of experience within that job field. But the cons is that it's really demanding. It's pretty stressful. I mean, especially right now with everything going on in the world, the supply chain.

I'm not really a big fan of like the work itself. And I also just really don't like the politics of the company. And job B that I'm working, it's with an online car auction site and like I'm a car guy. So I just kind of like the nature of the job. It's really laid back. It's really cool. I like the people I work with. But the con is there that I just doesn't really pay as much right now. The salary there is about $35,000.

But it does have a commission-like structure that would get me to potentially anywhere between $60,000 and $70,000. But the biggest con there is just kind of like future stability and as far as future career growth and potential. So I'm kind of just trying to figure out what exactly to do here and i was just hoping you could give me a little bit of advice growth potential something to consider stability is a myth in both of these neither one of these are stable that's true and so uh not because of the company but because of the nature of the work and the fact that you're doing it from home and all of this. And so I suspect 10 years from today you will be doing neither one of these as far as stability goes. But which one takes you on the journey that 10 years from today makes you glad you were on the ride?

And, you know, part of being glad is I made some good money. Part of being glad is I enjoyed the work. Part of being glad is I like the people i work with and the quality of the company and you know there's a whole package to being glad here to being happy to having a sense of purpose how old are you i'm 31 okay yeah i mean my question jack as you were talking was where yeah where do you want to be career-wise like you're 31 so at 45 do you have an ideal situation of a career a thing you want to be career-wise? You're 31, so at 45, do you have an ideal situation of a career, a thing you want to do, something that you're passionate about? That's a really good question.

I would say it's more I don't see myself with my retail company. I mean, there's a move up there. I don't either. The way you described it, I don't think you're there either. Job B is looking better and better. I'm thinking C, none of the above. That's kind of what I'm thinking. But pan back and think about 45 years old.

What do you want to be when you grow up kind of thing, laughingly, right? Hang on. I'm going to send you a copy of Paycheck to Purpose and also the Career Assessment from Ken Coleman. Both of them will help you amazingly make these choices. Hey, it's Rachel Cruz, co-host on The Ramsey Show. If you want to do your debt-free scream live on the show, visit ramsaysolutions.com slash debt-free scream. We'd love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story. That's RamseySolutions.com slash debt-free scream.