The Ramsey Show - App - Do You Want A 4Runner Or A Fiancée? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: July 21, 2023

Ken Coleman & George Kamel answer your questions and discuss:  How to plan for a wedding when you owe back taxes to the IRS, from the blog: Tax Debt Relief: How to Handle Back Taxes Why it's up to you to determine your cost of living, from the website: Ramsey Cost of Living Calculator What to do with a severance when you've been laid off, from the blog: What to Do if You're Laid Off How to find other sources of income when your current income is changing, from the blog: 34 Ways to Make Extra Money Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Here's an EveryDollar deal just for our listeners: get a 14-day free trial PLUS $15 off your first year of premium. Click the link below and start budgeting today! www.everydollar.com/george Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3cEP4n6 Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Interested in advertising on The Ramsey Show? https://ter.li/s64ye3 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Potts Moving and Storage Studio, this is The Ramsey Show. It's where we help you win in your life, specifically your money, your work, and your relationships. 888-825-5225 is the phone number to jump in. 888-825-5225. I'm Ken Coleman.

I'm joined by George Camel. He's playing a little Herc today. He's brave. I'm proud of him. He's got more throat coat in him than the actual bottle itself has. He's sprayed enough throat coat in his mouth the last hour that I'm not sure you're going to taste anything for a month. But he's here. He's ready to go coat in his mouth the last hour that I'm not sure you're going to taste anything for a month. But he's here.

He's ready to go to take your money questions. I'll help out as well, and I'm here to handle any work-related questions because it affects your money. We want you to make more money. We also want you to experience more meaning. We want you to be happy and fulfilled. The largest net worth millionaire study ever done was done by Ramsey Solutions 96% of the

net worth millionaires loved their work and that's why I do the work stuff here at Ramsey Solutions so we're here for you you ready to go pal ready he's hydrated let's go to Jordan in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania home of the Steelers Jordan what's going on

hey thank you guys for taking the call here this afternoon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, home of the Steelers. Jordan, what's going on? Hey, thank you guys for taking the call here this afternoon. You bet. What's up? Hey, I was reaching out to you guys, so I'm just kind of learning about Dave Ramsey here, and my fiancée and I are getting married in June of 2024, and I'm about $100,000 in debt, car loans, credit cards, and IRS. And I'm just, you know, I like to be able to cash flow the wedding. And I'm just kind of determining, you know,

which direction I should go at, like, where should my focus be at this point, whether I should just continue to save money for the wedding or, you know, continue to, you know, just pile in money towards my debt. All right, so let's get some numbers here, okay? So what's your income? My average is about $200,000 a year. Okay, great. And how much is the wedding price tag? I'm budgeting $40,000.

And is the wife, the wife's family, the wife-to-be, her family paying anything? Is it all you? So my fiancee, her family is going to be paying about $20,000. Does that leave you with $20,000? That's correct. So your portion is $40,000 for the honeymoon. Okay. Oh, so what do you have to come up with after they put $20,000 in?

Again, my budget is about $40,000 altogether, including the honeymoon, the additional rings, and the wedding. Okay, so you put in $20,000 and her family's putting in $20,000. Correct. How much do you have saved? I have about $25,000 now. All in, everything. In all of your savings, you have 25 grand? Correct. Okay. What's the debt? How much debt again? $100,000? $100,000. I have $40,000 to the IRS, and then there's about $12,000 on credit card

and about a $45,000 car loan. How much is the car worth? I just bought it here within the last two months. It's probably worth about 50 grand. I'd sell the car today. Right out of the gate. Okay. Jordan, I know that hurts, but think about this, man. You could be completely debt-free with a paid-for wedding

with an emergency fund 11 months from now. That's where I would want you to be. So you're asking us, which one should I do? Which should be the priority? I think yes to everything. You have the money for the wedding set aside. Let's now focus on debt payoff or use part of that 25 grand, put 24 towards your debts because you got to get the IRS off your back. That goes to the very top of your debt snowball. That goes first. Okay. And if you get rid of this car and you're making 200 grand, dude, you're going to breeze through this debt payoff, this debt snowball, and then still have time to save up for the wedding. Yep.

Okay. Now, I'm going to come back to the car because I heard the doubt in your voice. Okay? I understand. I'm going to come back to it. Jordan, what's this car? What'd you buy? It's a Toyota 4Runner.

Oh, you like that 4Runner, don't you? That's a sick whip. You like it. It's a great car. I don't know what sick whip means. That's what kids say. Is that what the kids say? I'm middle-aged, George. But here's the deal. You can get a $5,000 car

and it'll get you going for just, this maybe is a six-month situation, maybe a year. Your fiance, she's already said yes. You got her ring on. You got no one to impress anymore, dude. She doesn't care. That's true. I know.

I'd sell the car. That just, what's your car payment right now? I'm about ready to throw up, I'm sure. What's the car payment on this? Yeah, you probably will be ready to throw up. The car payment right now is $753. to throw up, I'm sure. What's the car payment on this? Yeah, you probably will be ready to throw up. The car payment right now is $753 a month. I was going to guess $750, Ken. I just threw up on my mouth.

I have to swallow it. Okay, there it is. That's disgusting. $700. Oh, my gosh. Dude, what do you do with that car? What do you do with the $700 a month? $750 a month as soon as you sell the car.

What do you do with it? You work that on the snowball. You start paying stuff off. That's a huge chunk of change, my friend. Over the next 11 months, that's $8,300 that could be back in your life. And yes, you're going to have to go get a cheap car, but you sell for $50,000, you owe $45,000,

you have savings in the bank. Let's put some of that together. Maybe it's a $10,000 car. Yeah, there you go. That's not bad. A $15, grand car doing that with cash will still put you in a far better position by the way jordan as we're playing this out i'm trying to sell you on this big time okay you can flip that car you get that ten thousand dollar car an eight thousand dollar car you can flip that six eight months from now and probably get most of that back. Yeah. You see what I'm saying? The depreciation has already happened.

The depreciation on that has happened and you're not driving it a ton. You know what I'm saying? So I just want you to see what we're trying to do is free up cash for you. The IRS, owing the IRS $40,000 would make me have hives. I wouldn't be sleeping a night. Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's from 2019 through 2022. I don't care. I don't care when it's from.

I just haven't bit the bullet and didn't really want to pay Uncle Sam. Well, you know what happens when you don't pay Uncle Sam? You go to jail. Like, this isn't like... They're going to come after you, garnish your wages, ruin your is like i don't want to pay uncle sam well how do you look in an orange jumpsuit because that's what you're looking at

and that's not really going to happen to you but the point is why are we even having an emotion about it i hate taxes more than anybody i know but i also hate the idea of jail he makes a good point you know what i mean so hey you're there so you've got the cash for the wedding you got five thousand extra you sell the car that knocks out half your debt right there just selling the car done are you irs will get paid a few months later yeah leaving you with just the credit cards you'll still have time to save up for the wedding and dude choose you want a forerunner or fiance because at this point you got your priorities leaving you with just the credit cards. You'll still have time to save up for the wedding. And, dude, choose. You want a forerunner or a fiancé?

Because at this point, your priorities have to be straight here. And she would rather see a guy who's debt-free starting off their marriage on a great foot rather than a guy who looks cool in his forerunner. Yeah. Absolutely. And you'll get that forerunner back. You're going to be back there.

Probably two years from now, you're going to be driving an even nicer forerunner, but you're going to be paying cash for it. Tell you what, George. I'd want the old, beat-up 4Runner that I paid $8,000 for when I'm running from the IRS. The problem is, though, if I wreck that car, 4Runner's going to be poor. That's going to be value, man. Even an old 4Runner.

They really do. It's insane. You can't even get a 4Runner for $8,000. It'd have 400,000 miles on it. It's unbelievable. They're tanks. What do you call those? The 4Runner? What's the make on that? Oh, Toyota? There it is. Toyota, as the kids say. I love when he says that, folks. I'm easily entertained. This is the Ramsey Show. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show.

I'm Ken Coleman, joined by George Camel. My new nickname for you is Gargle McSnuffins. That's a new one. I've been called a lot of things, and that's not the worst. I just made it up. He's in here gargling. The guy's playing hurt today. George, he's a real stud.

He's playing hurt. He's got the throat issues, and he's gargling in between the breaks. I just woke up today. I said, what would Ken Coleman do? He's a true professional. He powers the throat issues, and he's gargling in between the breaks. I just woke up today. I said, what would Ken Coleman do? He's a true professional. He powers through. Yeah, a couple things. The warm saltwater gargling, which you're doing.

The hot tea with the honey. That's a big one. And no talking. Ken is now my PCP. Unfortunately. Thank you, Ken. Unfortunately, you've been talking all morning. So I want to get your take on this.

I'll set you up. I've got an article in my hands. This is a CNBC article, and this is written in kind of the first person, a reporter. And I'm just going to skip all over that and get to the reality here. Over half of Americans earning more than $100,000 a year are living paycheck to paycheck. This is according to a recent report by Payments and Lending Club. Earning more than $100,000 a year would put you well ahead of the median American household, which brings in $74,780. So assuming you're an individual with dependence, that salary would qualify you as upper class through three different definitions. But if we skip the whole upper class, middle class, all that, we're talking about people making over $100,000 a year that are living paycheck to

paycheck. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, you'd have to earn about $129,000 today to have the same purchasing power that a salary of $100,000 had just a decade ago. So how far your dollar goes depends on cost of living. And, George, we say things like cost of living, but then that just assumes it's like, well, this is just what it is. No, you determine your cost of your living. Just because you live in one region of the country or the other doesn't mean that you have no responsibility or no say in your cost of living. And you were just telling me something, which I want to cite because I think this is a great example. And you said that you were in a little, which I don't know why you do this, but that's not the point. You were in a little tiff, if you will, with someone on social media today.

And the guy was giving you the business about how in the world can you say that you can live in a New York City on $100,000? And your reply was? Yeah. I always think of this Mark Twain quote. Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down and beat you with experience and that is what i do every time i go in the comments section i know and uh so this guy i we posted a clip from my youtube channel and it was about how people make a hundred thousand dollars feel

broke and it's because of debt it's because of their lifestyle and he chirps in going this guy doesn't understand that there's areas of the country where you can't live on $100,000. And I went, bro, if I didn't have any debt, I could show anyone how to live on $100,000 in New York City. I promise you that. Here's what grinds my gears, Ken. In this article, it says, thanks to a combination of federal, state, and local taxes, along with sky-high cost of living, a $100,000 salary in New York City is worth more like $35,000, smart asset found. I'll show you, smart asset. Here's the deal. You can't include cost of living and just take that out of someone's check. So when it comes down to it, let's say your effective tax rate,

effective tax rate, not marginal, what you actually ended up paying, even in New York City, was 25%, 30%, even 35%. That still leaves you with about six grand take-home pay. Now, New York City rent, of course, it's going to be really high. Now, if you're a single young person, live with roommates. I lived with roommates all the way up until I was married. I know it's not fun. I know you'd rather have a beautiful penthouse in New York City on your own. And if you want to own a home, you may not be able to afford a wonderful single family home in the best neighborhood right now. You might have to own a home, you may not be able to afford a wonderful single family home in the best neighborhood right now. You might have to get a condo that's 20 minutes further out.

But people don't want to make these sacrifices, Ken. And they love to complain about inflation and cost of living. And yes, those are astronomically high. But I truly think the answer is debt, lifestyle, and lifestyle creep. The more you make, the more you spend. We all think we can't live without debt. Well, you've got to have a car payment. Right. And these student loans, I mean, you can't get rid of these things. Well, let me just throw something out there. I'm not going to go too deep down this road.

But this article mentions Tennessee, where we live. I love the state of Tennessee. One of the many reasons I love the state of Tennessee is because they don't tax us on our income. No state income tax. And I just got to point this out. People griping and complaining about the cost of living in New York, and they basically say because Tennessee doesn't tax earned income, a Memphis resident, it's what they picked, the city of Memphis, earning $100,000, takes home $74,000 after federal state taxes, and because the city's cost of living is 14% the national average blah blah blah blah blah this feels like it's all this stuff to go guess what you can move you can move and if you and if you move here can i just

say this you should maybe vote like we vote because that's why we don't have a state income tax don't go voting to have an income tax and i'm not i, I'm not, listen, I know people get nervous. I'm not going to get political on one side of the aisle or other. I'm just going to tell you the facts are the facts. You can move or you can change the way you vote. But if you're going to gripe about taxes, there's a pretty clear choice most of the time. So I just get so irritated with all this cost of living and taxes this and taxes that. Well, guess what? You have a say in it. Move. And if you move, vote differently. And then spend differently. There's your three points, George. You can't just make it all about the money. You also got to decide, where do I want to live? Why do I want to live there? What does that mean to me? And if you

want to live there, go make some more money. That's the whole point. But no, they want you to give them more money. And so that doesn't work that way. We should just feel want to live there, go make some more money. That's the whole point. But no, they want you to give them more money. And so that doesn't work that way. We should just feel entitled to live in New York City for fun regardless of our income. That's an insane take. Sure. I'll call Stacey on the way home today. Hey, babe, we're going to the Upper East Side of Manhattan because I want to.

And now everything's just going to happen. And forget the numbers. We're going to gripe about it the entire time. Or you just can't manifest this stuff. It's mind-boggling. I know I'm getting grumpy, but it's just mind-boggling to me. I love grumpy, Kent. It's my favorite.

You're getting choked up again. I'm getting emotional again. Folks, if you're just joining us, George is not emotional today. His voice is coming and going. He doesn't know when it's coming. He doesn't know when it's going. When you talk for a living, it's just exhausting. I don't tell you that much, but we have a good time. So here's the deal. What we have to understand is when we started

this article, we've laid out some data that we have more $100,000 in over-earners than ever that are living paycheck to paycheck. And the reality is, is that the more that we make, the more we are tempted to spend. This is the human condition. And so it comes back to something that Dave Ramsey has said for decades. It's not about math. It's about the behavior. It's the person in the mirror. And when we can get to a point where we go, you know what?

I'm going to sacrifice. I'm going to wait a little bit. Sacrificing, waiting ends up winning. But when we don't sacrifice, when we don't wait and we say, give me now, I want this now, we make decisions. And before we know it, we have literally painted ourselves into a financial corner where then the only option is massive sacrifice and massive misery. You've heard the calls on the show where people go, we've got to sell everything.

We have to move because we're broke. Yeah. And then what is our prescription to them? We say, you're not going to see the inside of a restaurant for two years unless you work there. That's not fun. But the more we make decisions based on what we want now versus what we want long term, the more we get ourselves into trouble. And that's what's going on.

It is unconscionable to me that a $100,000 earner is living paycheck to paycheck because in America, you can make changes. You can change where you live. You can change where you work. You can change where you live. You can change where you work. You can change how you spend. This idea that I've got to have more money and I'm griping and complaining and going, inflation, it's so high and it used to be this and I shouldn't get adjusted my income based on inflation. You're going to lose your job. You're going to lose your job. No company can pay you commensurate to inflation. It is impossible. They will go out

of business, you dolt. So asking for something like that is mind-numbingly stupid. Yeah. It all comes down to delayed gratification. And here's the thing. We can always look back and go, man, in the 1950s, $100,000, that would turn into $20,000. We can't keep looking at the past. Well, you would have been broke in the 1950s, too. Yep. That's the problem. You've got to look at your reality and go, what can we do next, knowing what we know? What can we control? We can control where we live, how much we work,

what our income is. That's in our control. Alright, folks. More throat spray for George and more of your calls right around the corner. This is the Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. I'm joined by my colleague, George Camel.

We are here to take your questions about your money, your work, and your relationships. The phone number is 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225. We go to Kansas City next where Alexander joins us. How can we help? Hello there. How are you guys doing today? We're having a blast. What's going on?

Hey, so me and my wife were talking right before the show started and figured we'd give you guys a call. So I've been working with the company for the last seven years, and at the end of last month, I was laid off. I'm the sole income earner for our family. And so right now, we're basically living on our savings, and I did get a little bit of a severance, which is nice, although I was one week from my sabbatical.

I'm not sad to lose that. So sorry about that. It's all good. Certain things happen in God's timing. How long is your severance going to carry you, or how long could it carry you? So the severance was for 12 weeks. With our savings right now, we have about, I think I did the math, $27,000 in savings. So we should be able to get us through about a year.

However, we do have a baby on the way in October. So we've got to pay off the rest of the medical bills and prepare for our midwife and things like that. So I include that in the cost as well. Okay. And the $27,000, tell me about that. Is that your emergency fund? Yeah, so that was the emergency fund.

We've been working on saving that up. I learned about you guys, I don't know, 12, 15 years ago. And so we tried doing that. And when me and my wife got married, we sold my other cars that I had to pay off our debt. And so up to last year, we were debt free. However, our basements started to bow in about five inches. So we had to take a loan on that because we hadn't saved up preparing for something like that. How much is that? Is that the only debt you have? That's the only debt we have. That debt is about $14,000, $15,000.

Okay. And how much does the $27,000 represent? Six months, four months, five months? So if we truly cut down everything, we can make that last probably anywhere from a year to 18 months. Oh, good grief. Okay. And what's your plan for income? So right now, working a bunch of different jobs. I actually have a couple of interviews coming up. I'm listening to some of the jobs. I actually have a couple of interviews coming up. I listened to some of the commercials. I was actually possibly going to apply to the Ramsey office. So we'll see that, but essentially just applying everywhere I can, trying to get as many interviews as possible and try to find something here in the near future. Okay. And you're working while you're doing that in odd jobs or side hustles? I haven't currently. I was looking at things like Uber and other kind of jobs like that. However, our cars are too old to qualify for those. But right now...

I'm sorry. So I've asked you a bunch of questions. What is your question? Yeah. So yeah, no worries. So the question we had was, we have the $27,000 in savings right now, and we have the $14,000 in debt. Should we wait until I get a job to then use the money and pay that debt off? Or should I go ahead and do that now and just basically use that as a fire to get a job faster. Yes. You should pay off the debt today. Get the $14,000 out of your life. What is that going to represent in payments? What are you paying on that $14,000 right now? So that payment is $270 right now. So we just found $270 in our budget per month. That's a good thing. You're debt-free and you still have a decent emergency fund. So what you're doing is you're just kind of going backwards here and you're going to go pay it off. And now we're back and you've got the six-month emergency fund

based on the numbers you told me. Yeah, you said you could live on that for a year. On the 27th. So go ahead and pay it off. All right, now you live off the severance. And to be honest with you, I wouldn't even live off the severance. If I could, if it were me right now, because I had the severance, I'd put that severance back into replenishing that emergency fund. And I would be doing side gigs, side hustles, anything I can to just pay the four walls and try to tighten

everything up until I get another full-time job. That's what I would do. George, do you agree or disagree? No, I'm with that. In the baby steps, we say you can, there's call it store can store mode. You guys are in both right now. You have a layoff and a baby on the way. So I want you to stack up as much money as possible until mom and baby are back home safe. You've got income back. But to Ken's point, you guys aren't going to be totally broke even paying off this debt. You're still going to have a nice cushion.

Sounds like you guys can live on very little. And like Ken said, I wouldn't wait to go find that next big job. I'd be doing a bunch of stuff right now in the meantime to create any income. Yeah. I mean, listen, listen, two and three jobs, Alexander, at least two to try to make up what you were making. What was your income before? I was about 80,000. Yeah. So look, if you can, you may not make the same in a couple of jobs, but I would be bringing it in and then maybe a little bit of the severance that makes up the difference and we stay on budget. And then the extra severance goes back into savings.

And let's just be conservative in this season because you're going to get hired. We're still in a very good job market in this country. What were you doing for your work? Yeah, so for five years, I was in the learning development phase with a healthcare IT company. And then for the last two years, I was doing change management. In healthcare IT? Yes. Okay. So could you work in either of those fields right now? Theoretically, yes. There was a non-compete agreement that goes into effect for a year. So

there is some potential restriction there. How do they not cut up a non-compete when you get laid off? You know, that question is great. I'm not even sure it would hold up. Well, did you get the answer to that yourself? So whenever they had to fill out the agreement to not sue and get your severance, one of the things was that basically that non-compete is still in effect.

So if you went and applied for a job, it couldn't even be in those fields or it can't be that role? What are the stipulations of that? Yeah. So the main stipulation is I cannot provide the same service to the clients of that company. Oh, that's very different. You can't poach clients. Yeah.

Okay. Okay. This doesn't limit you. So you see where we're at now, Angus? We want you moving forward. We want you being conservative, not eating into that emergency fund, other than you are going to pay off the $14,000 worth of debt. And the good news is you got three months severance.

You can work and you're going to be fine. You got it? Got it. All right, my man. I appreciate the and you're going to be fine. You got it? Got it. All right, my man, I appreciate the call. Wow. I like this. Worst case, if he does these side gigs, let that be enough to cover their bills to where he's not dipping into that emergency fund. That's what we, yeah, we don't want people to use the emergency fund for a living. Now we've got an article we're going to make sure in today's show we'll link to and what to do when you're laid off that I wrote

that it has a lot of different practical, tactical things. But here's show we'll link to and what to do when you're laid off that I wrote that it has a lot of different practical tactical things but here's what we want people to hear the emergency fund George are for various it's not just a list a specific but it's more of a specific emergency my HVAC goes out we don't want to live off the emergency fund now while losing a job feels like an emergency we don't want to live off of that. We can go get more income. And so while you have to dip into it, for some reason, if you're unable to work, there was an injury or something, then use it. But Alexander's very capable. No, he's fine. So we want to protect that emergency fund with everything we got, everything we got for those actual emergencies. And to this day, I don't know how you are. I try to cash flow every emergency

that I can. It hurts to I can. I get so irritated about it. Well, once you have a good financial foundation, you can generally adjust your budget and go, we can skip that this month. We can actually rearrange the budget in order to cash flow this. And man, it's amazing how little you use your emergency fund once you have one. And you tend to have better luck, right? When you're broke, you tend to have more bad luck. When you have an emergency fund, you tend to have more good luck because you're able to actually take care of your stuff. And let's not forget in this situation with Alexander, he pays that debt off today, $270 a month, right back to the budget. That's nice. That's nice. And it goes somewhere.

Without the stress and anxiety of we have this debt hanging over our head with a baby on the way while we don't have a job. It's amazing how life storms. It all kind of hits at once. Yeah, and I will tell you, I come from a lower middle class home. My dad was a pastor, and he was a church planter, and twice he planted churches. The second one when I was about 12, 13, and there just wasn't much money coming in. I mean, that's all support and when you're getting going. And he went and worked construction, man, was making really good money an hour as just doing labor work on a construction crew. It was hot. It was hard.

That's not what he was, but it made really good money and it took care of our bills so that there wasn't the stress of actually focusing on planting the church, taking care of the family. And that's the idea. Go do whatever you got to do go work and make up the difference until you get stable it's a huge huge relief thanks for the call Alexander don't move more of your calls coming up next this is the Ramsey show welcome back to the Ramsey show I'm Ken Coleman I'm joined by George Campbell we're here for you this hour, 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Let's go now to the City of Angels, Los Angeles, California.

Jodi is there. Jodi, how can we help? Hi there. I'm so glad I got you guys today. Thanks for taking my call. Oh, well, thank you. So the reason we decided to call in, my husband and I, is we're a big fan of the Ramsey Method. Three years ago, we paid off over $230,000 of student loan debt.

Wow. Over about three years. Good for you. They were the worst three years of our lives, but they were worth it. So, you know, we know that you guys know what we should do. We're caught up. We're both freelancers. We're both in the film and television industry. We're not writers, but we're very much caught up in the writer's strife. We're not able to find anything that's kind of relevant. And even, you know, the few things that we do find,

everybody else is looking for work in the same things. Everybody else is scratching around. And so we're having a hard time where this is what I wanted to get your advice about is, you know, when we're applying for jobs, just to, you know, keep moving forward and not have to, you know, to protect our emergency fund like you guys were just talking about. We're finding that people don't want to hire us knowing that we're going to leave in a couple of months. Anything that seems like it would utilize our skill set or, you know, just our education are just like, well, you guys are going to go back to your real life in a couple of months or, you know, five months, six months, however long it lasts. And, you know, clearly we're not afraid of hard work. And, you know, I've been taking a cleaning job, you know, for the past couple of weeks just to, you know, have something to do during the day that feels like it's bringing money in. But it really brings in so little money. And, you know, it just feels like it's something that you do and there's not anything else you can do.

What do you guys need to make? I mean, we have four months emergency fund ready for this. We kind of knew that this was coming. So nothing is dire. But, you know, our operational budget really is about if we don't save towards our house, we're renting right now, if we don't do anything. I'm talking bare bones. This just gets you through.

Bare bones, $4,700. We just had a budget meeting. Okay, great. I love that you've got a bare bones. So what do you guys do? What do you do? What does your husband do? We're both film and TV editors.

So it feels like we have one of the most popular skills in the world for this current world. But we just somehow still are having a hard time finding something that utilizes that yeah and forgive me for the silly question is that mean that you guys are actually editing footage yes yeah so what we do is we've been on some shows uh actually but your producer is like oh do you want to sell me some of your credits and tell me and i was like uh maybe not maybe my friends might get worried about me if they're listening right gotcha yeah yeah we don't have to do that but we've worked for HBO. We've worked for AMC. We've worked on some, on some shows that you would definitely recognize. So the first thing

that comes to mind is, is less LA and more freelance. Um, we, we, we, I have a good friend who, um, is, is, is a pretty, he's a pretty substantive producer, works out of his house in my neighborhood in Franklin, Tennessee. And freelance work outside of the movie and television industry is where I would be looking. And what I mean by that is you've got people doing videos all the time, social media, you've got companies that need. I would be looking, I'd be scouring online for some freelance video editing because you guys bring to the table all the skills necessary to actually just do the video. And this is not stuff that's in LA, so you're not scrambling and fighting for it. It's remote. I'd be looking there, a gig work like that where you're doing any kind of video editing, I'd be looking for that remote. That's where I would start. As it relates to the issue of, well, people don't want to hire us, I think you're

going to have to do some of that work I was talking about. I'm not saying your husband's got to go do construction, but you're looking for a type of manual labor that pays really well per hour. If he's working in a warehouse and he's making 18 to 20 bucks an hour slumping boxes again this is not a step backwards this is just this is good old fashioned character we we don't want to touch our emergency fund and and i'd be looking for gig work like that where they don't care you know what i mean um it's that kind of hustle spartan for the interruption they were they were kind of asking well, can you commit for a year? You know? And we were like, no, we can't, you know, even for dog walking stuff.

Like they just don't want to do. They want a year commitment. They wanted, we've had two different jobs that we've applied for that wanted a one year commitment for taking people to be shown freezes outside the P. I mean, I don't understand, you know, so maybe that's our market in particular, because we do have a lot of people who, I mean, even in the best of times are actors and people who want to have side hustles. Maybe they're, they're all burnt out. Um, but I really do like the idea of just trying to find something that is purely remote, purely online. I know that people in town aren't, could you get connected

with like a wedding videographer and then they could offload the editing to you? That's interesting. Yeah. I mean, wedding videographers I've talked to the way that they make ends meet is by doing everything themselves. Um, but you know, there could be someone who's doing gangbusters, but you know, that, that, that takes some hunting for sure. I mean, that's my best idea. I, again, I, I don't think that every warehouse job, I don't think that every, I don't think that every job needs a one-year commitment, you know, and, and here's the reality. If it gets to that point, work is work. And if they're ready to hire me and they're going,

can you commit for a year? You go, I don't know. I don't know. I'm in between things right now. I don't know if I can commit or not, but I'm ready to work right now. And if that doesn't work, fine. But what we've got to do is we've got to get to the point where that doesn't matter. They're looking for somebody, and we're going to pay you X amount an hour. If you're going to stock grocery shelves, whatever you've got to do, what we're trying to do is one way or another for the next two, three, four months, I don't think the strike is going to stretch six months.

I don't think that. Do you? I hope not. I don't think so. is going to stretch six months. I don't think that. Do you? I hope not. I don't think so. I don't believe it will. I think it's Labor Day. I'm hoping so. That's what I think.

I think you guys got to figure out 30 days. That's what I think. And so I would just be doing whatever. And I love the online model. You can't believe. Y'all's background, you could be maybe teaching some classes online, and you guys are out there. You're not out there schlupping.

You're in your home. You're doing stuff that you're really good at. How do you transfer the skill and experience you have to some online jobs out there where people need talent? And it's just plug and play. That's where I would be starting. And, again, I would be looking for anything manual labor that they know it's transient. They just need somebody to come in. That's where I would be looking. Yeah. labor that they know it's transient. They just need somebody to come in. That's where I would be looking.

Yeah. I do love Ken's idea of social media. That's such a huge one. These businesses or entrepreneurs or creators, they're not great at editing. And you guys are experts at that. If I could hire someone like you. Are you kidding me? At a fraction of your actual rate, I'd be chomping at the bit.

And so I would be contacting creators out there on Instagram and videos you see that you say, hey, here's where we're at. We're in the writer's strike. We're looking for work right now. We're willing to cut you a really good deal to cut you some really great social media work that can help you increase your impact. What do you think? And I think just getting real creative and persistent, you guys will get some amazing gigs and that word of mouth will spread and hopefully be back to work in no time. And one other idea, Jody, this is at least worth kicking around but you know i'm thinking you think about the east coast if there's some production companies in nashville charlotte north carolina i'm just picking cities and they're looking for some part-time editing i would be jumping on that

they'd hire you in a second do you know what i'm saying right right now we definitely have the credits you have the resume i mean it feels crazy sending an editing resume with you know movies and tv to a waitressing job they just look at you and go what is this so they've got to understand they know how strikes work i don't think anyone looks down at that and goes what are you guys doing here they go wow i really respect that you're looking to make ends meet and do whatever it takes i'd be shocked jody if there aren't several freelance editing video editing jobs that are posted from all across the country. That would be a good short-term fix for you guys. That's what I think. That's really good.

That's a really good place to start. I really appreciate it. I hope there's something there. I just got to believe there are because they don't want full-time. They can't, but they need somebody on a short-term level, and you guys could come in and make quick work of that. And as good as you guys are, you might be able to pick up three four five six jobs over a 30 45 day period and it's just gravy and it gets you through that's what that's what i would try so thanks for trusting us and call i'm sorry you're dealing with this um here's what i know jody i just think it's going to get done a lot sooner than you think because the industry was already hurting coming out of covid it started warming back up, and now this nonsense.

So I think they're going to fix it pretty quick. It just can't keep going. Our hearts go out to all of you affected by that writer's strike. So many people. Not just the writers. It's so many people. Everyone involved in making great film and TV. Here's a great example as to why the emergency fund, why getting out of debt matters.

It allows you to weather storms like this. Beautiful work. George Campbell, thanks, my friend, for hanging out. Thanks, Austin and the crew. Thank you, America. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, George Campbell here. If you love the show and you want a deeper dive on your money journey, we've got a weekly newsletter that gives you helpful articles and tips on following the Ramsey way. Just go to RamseySolutions.com today to sign up for the newsletter. Again, that's RamseySolutions.com to sign up for our weekly newsletter.