The Ramsey Show - App - Don't Be Afraid to Go After Your Goals (Hour 1)

Episode Date: September 18, 2020

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is the Dave Ramsey Show. It's where America hangs out to have a conversation about life. We're going to talk about money. We're going to talk about your job, career path. We're going to talk about relationships. That is life, and it is about your life, so it is your show.

I'm Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, host of The Ken Coleman Show on the Ramsey Network, joined this hour by Ramsey Personality, number one best-selling author of Debt-Free Degree, Anthony O'Neill. He also has The Anthony O'Neill Show, and he's huge huge on YouTube and we are here with you taking your calls 888-825-5225 888-825-5225 Anthony how are you sir man I'm doing well I'm sitting here trying to log on to the YouTube so I can say hello to the YouTube world you're gonna jump in there in the chat room during the break I hope not while we're live you're gonna hope. Not while we're live. You're going to help me, right? While we're live. Oh, that's interesting. All right, we'll see how that goes. But we are here for you, and we love our YouTube tribe.

They are a great bunch of folks. And interestingly enough, I got to spend three years, my first three years here at Ramsey Solutions as host of the YouTube channel. Yes. And now George Campbell and Will Smith do a great job over there. Will Smith? Yeah, you know, he helps do a great job over there. Will Smith? Yeah. You know, he helps out some. Oh, dude.

Will Smith? Did you not know that? I didn't know that. When did he join the team? Ah, geez. You're messing with me. Not that Will Smith. Not that Will Smith.

All right. So here's the deal. The phone number to jump in is 888-825-5225. We're going to start it off in Charleston, South Carolina, where Jimmy waits. Jimmy, how can we help? Hey there. Good afternoon, Mr. Coleman, Mr. O'Neill. How are you guys doing?

We are good, but no more misters the rest of this phone call. You're making us feel old. What's going on? Hey, just going through step one. I'm going through your career clarity guide. I filled it out. Just kind of wanted to run over it with you and get some more clarity after what I've done. Okay, great.

And the career clarity guide, for those of you who aren't familiar, it's a free resource at KenColeman.com, and it walks you through the three indicators of getting clear, which is stage one of my seven stages to meaningful work. So what did you write down for talent, what you do best? All right, for what I do best, and I've got a lot of slash marks here because I don't know if these are the same things. That's okay. You just roll. I'll decipher. All right. All right. Number one, critical thinking slash problem solving. Number two, creating slash being creative. Number three, relationship skills slash communicating. Number four, giving advice. And number five, working with my hands.

That was fast. Yeah, there you go. All right. Did I go too fast? I'm sorry. No, no, you did fine. You said critical thinking, and give me the rest of them really quick because I'm writing them down. Yeah, sorry.

Critical thinking slash problem solving was the number one. Number two, I had creating and being creative. Yep. Number three, I had relationship skills and communicating. Yep. Number four, I had giving advice. And number five, I had working with my hands. Okay, got it.

Now, when we go over to passion, work that you love to do, there's going to be some similarities, is my guess, between what you do best. So what did you write down for work you love to do most? Okay, so this one is kind of like an umbrella statement. But number one, creating. And that can fall under a couple different things. I love to cook. I love brewing coffee.

I love creating documents on Excel spreadsheet or training materials for the current job that I have now. Number two, this sounds super corny, but I really enjoy sports trading cards. That market's blown up, and I've had a really good time being in that for the last year and a half. Number three is giving advice, whether that be to my family or my friends. Number four is kind of different. Hopefully it's an all-right statement. I really love being with my family, so that's important to me.

And then number five would just be sports in general. Okay. All family. So that's important to me. And then number five would just be sports in general. Okay. All right. So interesting here. I'm going to keep us going, but you started to move into hobby level passions a little bit, but that's fine because I've got what I needed to hear on the talent line, which is what you do best. So finally it's mission. And I define mission as results that matter most. So all work creates results. So if you're working and you're doing what you love, which is you do love the critical thinking, you do love creating, you love that connection and communicating, you love giving advice. By the way, giving advice has popped up twice, Anthony. Yes, it has. You see the pattern. I do. All right. So

what are the results that matter most? And what I ask here is, who are the people you most want to help, the problem that those people have, and the solution to the problem that they have? What did you write down? All right, so the people that I want to help most with is one that I struggle the most with, just because in general, just life. Hey, Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, this have, this happens to me all the time on the Ken Coleman show. Stop thinking, stop explaining your answer. There's no wrong answer. What does your heart say? Who do you want to help? All right. So here's, here's what I wrote. I want to,

I want to provide a life giving service. I want that service to be community focused and I want to instill life change for others. That's what really fires me up. I know that. Who do you most want to help? Is it financial life change? Is it relationship life change? Is it health life change? Is it business life change? You understand where I'm going. Who are those people? Say it. Absolutely. So it's not, oh my gosh, how do I word it? That's the problem. Stop wording it. Yeah, so the way I think about it is like a life coach. Somebody comes and they just say, hey, I've got this problem in finances. What do you know?

Or I've got this problem with a relationship. What do you know? Love it. Is that a good answer? Hold on, Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy. I'm having fun with you. It's not about whether I think it's a good answer. The question is, is it your answer?

And emphatically the answer is yes. Jimmy, if I transport you into the near future and you are a very successful life coach, how happy are you at the end of each day? Super happy, right? Got to be. I mean, I think I keep fighting myself with this. Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, you nailed it. You're so good at giving advice that you're trying to give yourself advice

as you just allow your heart to speak. Stop advising your heart. Here's the deal. You want to coach people to win in their life, and that's the whole spectrum, relationships, marriage, finances, the whole enchilada. And that's what you love, and it makes your heart sing. You're just scared to say it because I think you're a little bit worried

you won't be able to figure out how to get there. Is that right? That's exactly right because I really don't – I've tried to do a little research on the career. I need to do more. But, yes, I don't know what the next step is. All right, so I'm going to give it to you. All right, so you're ready to write, Jimmy?

Yes, sir. I've got my notepad up. It's digital. It's not a mobile. Perfect. All right. Here we go, Jimmy. Here's the deal. So you're already in stage one. You're ready to walk into stage two. Stage one is get clear. Stage two is get qualified. You have to do more research. Here are the questions you must answer. There's four questions, Jimmy, and then the rest of this gets a lot easier. It's a lot less scary. Question number one is, what do I need to learn? That's the education question. Question number two, what do I need to do?

That's the experience question. Question number three, how much is it going to cost? That's the economic question. Question four, how long is it going to take based on my budget? That is the expectation question. Get the answers to those four questions. Now it's not so scary. You can see how you can get there.

And now you start walking through those things. You get qualified. Get connected to stage three while you're getting qualified. Make those connections. Sit down with successful life coaches, Anthony O'Neill. When you do that, you figure out what it's going to take and it's even less scary and now it's ready to walk into stage four which is get started that is what you have to do right now and do it believe it you can do it i know you can't nothing to be afraid of all right stay tuned more calls ken coleman and

anthony o'neill here on The Dave Ramsey Show. I get asked all the time, when in the baby steps is the right time to buy life insurance? My answer is typically now. Life insurance is not part of the baby steps because it's needed when your family has debt and not enough savings to provide for their financial needs. That's when they're at the highest risk. And no matter where you are in your baby steps, it's a necessity, not a choice. This includes working husbands and wives as well as stay-at-home parents. It's pretty expensive to replace those stay-at-home parent responsibilities.

I only recommend term life insurance since it's the most affordable way to get the right amount of coverage and not break your budget. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. These are the guys I personally use. Term life insurance is inexpensive and your family needs this no matter where you are in your baby steps. That's Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. Zander.com. Welcome back to the Dave Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, joined this hour by Anthony O'Neill. As we take you through a conversation about your life, we're going to take your money calls, we're going to take your career calls, we're going to take relationship calls.

Hey, what do you need to talk about? We're here to help you. 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225. Let's go to Caleb who joins us in Boise, Idaho. Caleb, how can we help? Hey, guys. So I am trying to figure out what I should do for a college major. I am 21 and in my second semester of college,

and I just want to do way too many things and i'm struggling to figure out what i should narrow it down to and i'm looking for some advice that's a good question there caleb now let me ask you this question give me the top three things you are very passionate about um so the top three i'm thinking about, uh, were chemical engineering, um, nuclear engineering and mechanical engineering. Okay. So we're in the engineering space. Um, if money was no issue today, if you had one wish today, what would you be doing if

there was no issue in the world? There's no issue in the world? There's no issue in the world? Probably doing something in a lab of some sort. Okay, but out of the three you just gave me, if you could do any one of those right now today, which one would you be doing? Probably the chemical engineering. Okay.

That's consistent with the lab. Yep, yep. So yep so why tell us the why why'd you pick that one um so i've always loved science but out of all of them chemistry is just kind of drawn me because i like how it underlies everything that we do and how it works with everything in the world so why did you call us today when that's your answer and that's the top of heart? Anthony just put you on the spot beautifully and your heart revealed the answer. So why are you questioning that one? I don't know because I just feel like I want to do all these other things as well. And so I just, maybe you guys get me to put it on the spot is what I needed.

Can you work your way through all of them? I don't know. Meaning you get an engineering, let's say that you get the degree in chemical engineering, can you eventually cross over and do some work in the nuclear field? That one, yeah, that would be pretty easy, I think. What about the mechanical side? I would think the mechanical one you could definitely do. Very easy.

Yes or no? Probably. Here's the thing, Caleb, that I'm teaching to young people, and Ken teaches this as well on the career side. When you're young, you feel as if you have all this energy and you want to go all over the place. And here's the truth. You're going to be successful no matter which route you go,

but you do need to pick one route, one thing you can focus on now, and you're going to go conquer in that space. Once you conquer in that space, that will open up other doors to start conquering in other spaces and in other doors. So right now, I would say focus on chemical engineering okay then focus on that build that up build that foundation to where it's solid then we start looking at okay now can i start doing a little bit in the in the nuclear space and then i'm focusing on that a little bit while my main thing, chemical engineering, is still funding my

dreams, funding my lifestyle, funding everything. And so just from hearing a little bit of you, man, I believe you're going to be successful in all of them. But I want you to focus on chemical engineering right now. And Caleb, one last piece on this. I want you to really practice the proximity principle. Hang on the line. I'm going to give you a copy of my book, The Proximity Principle.

Here's why. I want you to actually make sure that you get around some engineers that are successful in all three fields. And the reason is, is because after you spend some time talking with them about what their day-to-day looks like, what the career ladder looks like, all of the different type of work that you can do in those other fields. And this is all three, but obviously you've got to lean towards chemical. But do this with all three fields. And by getting in proximity to those successful professionals, your heart is going to further select the field that you're most excited about. But again, if you can move throughout all of them, that's fine.

You just need to be an engineer, my man. It's as clear as it can to be an engineer, my man. It's as clear as it can be. Thank you for the call. 888-825-5225. Let's go to Toronto, Canada. Max joins us there. Max, how can we help?

Hi, gentlemen. Thanks for having me on. Sure. What's up? I'll just give you a little rundown of my scenario. I'm currently in college. I'm up in Canada. I've been really fortunate that good parents have been able to help me finance my education. So I'm not in any debt right now. Over the last year or so, I've been working on writing a book. I'm at the stage now where I finished it and I'm looking

to use another company to help me publish it and do that type thing and all the nuances and the details of that. Currently, I have $1,500 in my bank account. The quotes that I've gotten from a lot of companies about $4,000, $5,000 to help me with this process. I also have $20,000 in a trading account that half that's my dad that he gave to me to be able to kind of use. I'm hesitant to take that out because I'm still not TSA. If I take it out I'm going to be taxed more heavily so I'm wondering kind of what route I should take and what do you think would be the best option for me looking back five years from now to do

how old are you Max? I'm 20 what's the title of your book? title is 100 ways to live a more positive and beneficial life in 20 seconds tell me on the book 20 seconds tell me on the book. 20 seconds, sell you on the book.

You got 19 seconds. It's based on my prior experiences. I used to come from a bad place, but I feel through it a lot faster here through my experiences. These are 100 things that I know have helped me and helped me, enabled me to live a more positive, beneficial life. And I know that regardless of where you are, your age, your race, whoever you are, I know it can help you make yourself a better person better person as well all right you did it in 17 i like you um here's my thing uh the right around that three to five thousand is going to be the self-publish

about ballpark and where it is here's my suggestion though because you are young and because i do believe you need a little bit more experience to really have someone really want to read that book. I would probably wait until you graduate college and kind of maybe change the gear towards your audience to college kids or to young people. So that way you have a demand and they look up to you. So that's something that I will consider. But now the cost is going to be about $3,000 to $5,000 to self-publish your book. But I really want you to step back. Don't worry about the cost.

Let's identify who is my target audience and why will they want to read this book? Because if you're going to go spend $5,000, you need to make at least $15,000 on the book. All right? All right. I'm going to jump in here. Yeah. I actually want you to publish the book. And the reason is because I think you know who you're,

I think you do too. And I think you know who your audience is. And this is not about being ready. This is something that you've already poured your heart into. And I think you need to do it. The difference is I don't want you to pay a your heart into, and I think you need to do it. The difference is, I don't want you to pay a company to do it. You don't need to pay. You've already got $1,500

saved, so you need $3,500 based on the quote you got, correct? Yes, sir. All right, so here's what I want you to do. I want you to go price out yourself in Toronto, a major international city. I want you to go do the research on an editor, somebody who research on a editor,

somebody who is a freelance editor, and believe me, they're everywhere. They don't even need to be in Toronto, by the way. They're in Nashville, all over the place, okay? And you can get a world-class editor who's worked for a publishing company, and they will quote you. You tell them how many words you got. They will quote you a price for editing your book. They come in, and they make that thing a whole lot better. Word smith it, punctuation, the whole nine yards. Do the full service. Find out what the quote is.

Then go to a printer and look, again, all around the world. I don't care. But find out what would it cost to just print this book and do your research on that and see if that number is less than the $5,000 that you got quoted by that company. I would suggest to you that it probably is. Don't print a bunch of them. Maybe print the lowest amount that they'll print you. Again, they'll give you a range of how much they will print it.

And don't go crazy and print 10,000. Okay? The average author sells about 6,000 copies lifetime. So maybe 500. And you sell them out of your car, you sell them online, you do whatever you gotta do, but I want you to get it out there and then learn some lessons from this process.

That's my advice. I disagree, but okay. That's why it's called The Dave Ramsey Show. Yeah. Here's why. I want him to get the work out there. It's really important for his growth to get it out there and learn through this process. It's just not going to cost you $5,000. But, hey, we'll agree on some other calls.

I promise. Don't move. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, guys. At The Dave Ramsey Show, we really value your input. It helps us to know what's important to you so we can deliver relevant content to help you crush your money goals. We just launched a brand new survey, and we'd love your feedback. It only takes a few minutes, and you'll be entered to win a $100 Amazon gift card. No purchase necessary.

Take the survey at DaveRamsey.com slash survey or text survey to 33789. This is the Dave Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about life. Anthony O'Neill and Ken Coleman with you this hour. The number to jump in is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Hey, folks, we're super excited here at Ramsey Solutions because our colleague, number one bestselling author and money guru, Rachel Cruz, has written another book. The new one is Know Yourself, Know Your Money. This book explores your background, your money background, to help you understand why you handle money the way you do. And this book is for everyone, no matter what baby step that you are on.

Understanding your why and knowing how will change your family tree. You can preorder this book, destined to be another bestseller. It's called Know Yourself, Know Your Money. You can preorder today for $20. And when you do, you get over $150 in bonus items, including a free coaching call with one of our Ramsey Solutions certified financial coaches. So don't miss out. You can get it at the online store at DaveRamsey.com

or call our Ramsey concierge team at 888-22-PIECE. That's 888-22-PIECE. That's 888-22-PIECE. I know we're excited about that. We've heard her talk about that. It's this idea of your background. Yes. Completely. It's your environment.

Man, I had the opportunity to read the book already. And, Ken, I'm very impressed. You excited about it? This is going to be a New York Times bestseller. All right. There it is. I love it. Straight from a bestseller himself.

Yeah. Let's go to James now, who joins us in Detroit. James, how can we help? Hey, Ken, Anthony. Thank you for taking my call. Actually, that book is a great segue into my question. First of all, man, love you guys. Love the program.

My wife and I, we watch you guys. Actually, she's listening now from her job. So I need you guys. Love the program. My wife and I, we want you guys. Actually, she's listening now from her job. So I need you guys to help me. I need some wisdom. So my wife and I, we are in about, we have $48,000 in debt. We've been actively paying it off. This is a dilemma. We have about $25,000 saved.

We have some stocks in my life, stock employment plan for about $32,000. The issue is I think we're emotionally tied to the savings, and I'll tell you why. Both of us come from a background where money wasn't always, you know, putting it. So, you know, we, you know, we don't, we're tied to it because we think, you know, I think psychologically, you know, if we either just throw it up the deck, then we're going to be at zero, or maybe we think that we won't have money, but so separating, you know, just psychologically, just trying to separate, you know, from, you know, and then just psychologically, just trying to separate from and just pay the debt, aggressively get rid of it so we can

be debt-free. Just getting over that hump has been hard. We are on board with the Dave Ramsey. Everything you guys say, we agree with it, but just getting past that hump, guys, let me tell you, it is... We talked about it just a couple days ago when I was on the call, and I didn't get a chance to, but just getting past that hump, guys, let me tell you, it is, you know, we talked about it just a couple days ago when I was going to call him,

and I didn't get a chance to, but just getting over that hump is just hard, just psychologically, you know, because, you know, just, you know, yeah, just getting past that point, and it's difficult. So we just need you guys to help, you know, talk to us and help us get over that hump. James, why do you and your wife want to become debt free, man? Oh my goodness. Financial freedom. And actually we love to give as well. I know Dave always, you guys always talk about giving.

We're givers at heart and we believe that that's what God has called us to. And, and, and we want, and we love to give. You know, we don't want any,'t want any accolades for it. We just believe that that's what God has called us to. Great. So that's the first thing. I love that, but when you say you want financial freedom, why do you want financial freedom? I guess that's a great question.

I mean, I don't like paying bills. I don't like paying interest. I would rather save the money that I have coming in as opposed to, you know, giving it to a company and paying interest on it. That's, you know, that's the first one that comes to mind. One of the main reasons why I think James and King, correct me if I'm wrong here, man, one of the main reasons why you're not getting over the hump is because you don't have a deep enough why. Giving is great.

I love giving, but that's not my deep why. Having financial freedom. That's great, but that's not my deep why. You said you and your family don't come from, you know, a background like that. Neither do I. Neither do Ken, you know, but my deep why makes me cry. My deep why will make me run a hundred miles per hour. If I have to, my deep why will make me do things and continue going when I feel like quitting. And so the very first step is not really a practical step, Ken. It's a more so of a spiritual and mental step.

I think you and your wife need to step aside and come up. What's that deep why that makes you all cry, that gets you emotional, that gets you fired up? Every time you think about that. Then we flip over to the practical, which is I got two questions, and I want Ken to chime in here. You have $25,000 in the savings, correct? Yes. And then you have $30,000 in single stocks or in company stocks? Company stocks.

Okay, cool. So we only need the company there, okay? But over here on the $25,000 with $40-something thousand in your account, once you get your deep why, it's going to be easy to take $24,000 of that and go towards your debt. I guarantee it because you're going to see that now you're getting closer and closer and closer to your goals and to your dreams. So I get it. No one wants to be sitting with just $1,000 in their account for a long period of time. I totally get it. But I would rather have $1,000 in my account and be debt-free than to have $25,000 in my account and have $40,000 in debt.

Yeah, there's nothing to add to that. I mean, you just nailed it. And, James, you've got to hear what Anthony's saying. The hump is all because you're afraid to truly go after this thing really hard. You're trying to figure out a different way. And Dave Ramsey's plan works. The baby steps work. You've got to use the baby steps.

And Anthony's right. You get too much in savings right now that actually gets you over the hump in one fell swoop. So play the baby steps out. Don't try to redirect them. Don't try to overthink them. I think both of you are. I think you guys are a sharp young couple and I think your best days are ahead of you. But Anthony's right. Your why is what gets you over the hump because of that desired future.

That's what he's talking about. What's that desired future look like? And never getting that as a result of debt and trying to play it a different way, that's a different future. So which future do you really want? And, you know, I was talking about this today, Anthony, on my show. There's levels. There's levels of desire. I was talking about that. And the first level is, let's see if this hits home.

First level is, that would be nice. That is the first level. That would be nice. That's cool. The second level is, I'd really like to have that. It's kind of like the birthday gift that you mentioned to the loved one or the Christmas gift. Hey, I'd really like to have that.

But the third level is where this couple needs to get, and we all need to get to truly reach our dreams, and that is, I have to have that. I have to, yeah. And not just have to, but I am going to have that. That's right. Yes. And so I think the desire and that's what you were saying. It's like when you really get clear on that, why? Yeah. That's vision. Yes. Yeah. And the more we look at this desired future in the vision for our lives, the appetite for it gets greater. Man, listen, you know, my my vision

is I want to be able to provide over and beyond for my family the way that my parents couldn't provide for me when we were younger and so like that vision just gets me going i'm making decisions now as a single person for my family because of my clear vision that's right it's like i have to have financial freedom for my kids. I need to be able to say, yes, son, yes, daughter, yes, babe. And I do not want to go back to my past and be like, dang, how come you didn't do the things you should have been doing that would have prepared you for the future? That's right. And so that's the thing that I'm seeing with James is he doesn't want to be broke. But if you keep this path up, you will be.

You know what's going on? You're the preacher, so I don't know how you'll change this. But you've got to stop looking at the hump and look at the mountaintop. Yeah, listen. You know? Listen. That gets you going. And that's what we're talking about.

Yes. So, listen, James, and we know his precious wife is listening. Thank you so much for calling in. Hey, listen, you've been following Dave. Keep following the baby steps. It's going to get you to the mountaintop. All right, folks, don't move. More of your calls coming up next.

This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Welcome back, America. I'm Ken Coleman. He is Anthony O'Neill. And you are welcome to call in. It is a free phone call. 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225 is the phone number.

Let's go to Tucson, Arizona. Jared is there. Jared, how can we help? Hello? Hi, Jared. How can we help? Hi. So I have a question in regards to me either selling my car or paying it off and keeping it.

Okay. Give us the breakdown. All right. So I have a 2001 SVT Cobra, about a $9,000 loan on it. I have about $12,000 in the bank. I make $30 an hour. My wife is finishing up her master's degree, and so we expect her to go to work once that finishes.

But I'm kind of wondering, since I already have a paid-off 2010 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, is that too much car for my income? What's your yearly income? You're making $30 an hour. So what is that averaging out to a year? Yeah, that's probably about $58,000. $58,000 a year. Something like that.

And your wife is not working right now, correct? Yeah, she's finishing up her master's degree in legal studies. Okay. So I have a two-part answer for you. Let me answer this question first. What other debt do you currently have? That's the only debt I have. Okay, and you have $12,000 in the bank? Correct. Okay, cool. So here's a two-part question. Here's the first question. Not a question, but a two-part answer. The first part is, is that too much car for your current income? No. All right. So the key thing here that what we're teaching is your car should not be worth no more than 50% of your salary. All right. Or what your income is a year. So you're way below on that. But on the flip side, we do not can endorse

or want you financing any car. And so what I want you to do immediately once you hang up from Ken and I, I want you to take nine thousand dollars out of your savings account and go ahead and pay that car off. So now you're debt free. Now you have two vehicles that are debt free. And I don't have a problem with that the key thing for us is no car notes and number two make sure the cars value is not worth more than 50 percent of your your income feels good yeah you don't sound so happy but if I were to sell it that would put me ahead on baby step three, right? I mean. I don't know, six months emergency fund is probably about 15K for me.

I mean, do you need the car? Do you need the two cars? So the Jeep really isn't good. I work about 20 miles away from where I live, so the car is really good at commuting that distance the jeep isn't really a good option for that so if i sold it i would have to get a different car probably like a five thousand dollar car or something so if you slow mileage it's 44 000 miles on it i have all the service history and everything it's reliable so which one is reliable, the Jeep or this car? The Cosa.

Okay. So you can pay this car off, like I suggested, and you can sell the Jeep. Because it sounds like this is the best car for you and your job situation. Well, the Jeep is for my wife. Then I go back to what I said in the very beginning. Yeah, you got to do what Anthony said. You're saying, well, if I sell it, I can get ahead, but then I'm going to have to buy a $5,000 car. Anthony just told you how you get debt-free. Yeah. You're debt-free.

Then you start saving up. Yeah. And you save up the emergency fund really quickly. Let's just pay off the car, man. You have $12,000 in the account. It's going to cost you $9,000. You're going to have $3,000 in your savings with your income right now. You can get your three to six months of emergency fund up here real quickly. Yeah, you got it. It couldn't be any more straightforward. Do exactly what he said.

888-825-5225 is the number. Let's go now to Boulder, Colorado. Nikki is there. Nikki, how can we help? Hi, Ken and Anthony. I'm so excited to talk to you guys today. Well, we're excited to talk to you. What's up? I have a question about changing careers. I currently work as a technical account manager, but I'm kind of getting burnt out in my job. I'm good at what I do. I love working with people, but I'm not enjoying being in customer service. I've been there my entire working life, and I want to change. I've been thinking about moving into a human resources role, but I'm struggling with how to get into that role without going back into debt

to go to school to get certifications and degrees. Okay. What makes you believe that you have to go back to school to become qualified to be an HR professional? Well, when looking at different job postings, you know, most of them want some sort of degree or certification. And I talked with an HR person at my company, and I would really love to stay with my company, too. I love my company. I just don't like what I do. And she gave me a bunch of different

resources that included ways to get certification for HR. Right. but let me jump in for a second. Certification is not going back to college and going into debt. Mm-hmm. Correct? You're right. It does cost money, though, to get the certification and take the classes. Absolutely. And get the knowledge for the certification.

Absolutely. How much does it cost? Have you done the homework? It's a couple thousand dollars to do the classes. And then if I read it right, it's another few hundred dollars to actually take the test for the certification. Okay. So let's say it's $2,500. Let's round up. $2,500. You don't have to go into debt to do that, do you, Nikki? No. Oh, okay. So here's the deal.

This is exciting. We're free. You see, you think that if I'm changing lanes, that's what this is, Anthony. She's been in customer service. Nikki, you think, well, if I'm going to now become an HR specialist and move lanes in my career that I automatically have to go to school and get a degree for it. And we just walked you through that process. Sometimes that is the case. In this situation, it is not the case. And you can save up $2,500 in how long? I mean, technically, I have that money now. But I would also have to consider like a downgraded pay because I don't have very much background in the job.

Okay, but hold on a second. Hold on a second. If you get that certification, is there any other certification or is there an automatic I've got to get the certification to get in and then I've got to do entry level? Is that a part of the deal? I would assume so. No, well, see, that's the problem. That's the problem. Here's the other thing going for you, Nikki. You want to stay in your company. Yeah. You're already in the family. You don't have to convince anybody you belong in the family. You're in the family. So here's what I want you to do. Here's your homework assignment.

I want you to go back, talk to ther people in your company and go hey i'm in this position now i want to join your team i did the homework i'm going to do this certification here's what i'm going to be done based on that and what you know about me what are some other things that i can do to get some basic experience or more certification so that I can get in? What does that journey look like? What is the financial journey? Now, if you find out, Nikki, if that you have to take a pay cut to get in, then you need to sit down and go, okay, is that going to be worth it over the long haul?

And what changes do I need to make financially? What sacrifices or what plans do I need to make financially or what sacrifices or what plans do I need to make financially so that in order to get where I want to go, I can take a short-term pay cut, but it doesn't affect my overall finances and budget. That's what you've got to understand. A lot of people, Anthony, think that to make this move that, well, it's not worth it in the long haul if I've got to have an interruption in my current compensation. Instead of going, wait a second, if I make sacrifices

and I maybe go get a part-time job in this season, I don't have interruption, I don't go backwards, or it is okay to go backwards if you sacrifice for a while, but not a long time. Exactly. And there's also this thing, I get this a lot, and I know you do with young people. They just think that it's impossible to get where they want to go.

No, it's definitely impossible. And I don't have a problem going backwards. Because, Kim, you look at it. If you want to shoot a rubber band, what do you got to do? You got to pull it backwards before you can go far. Yeah. So there's nothing wrong with going backwards a little bit for a short season. That's right.

All right. Good stuff. Anthony O'Neill, thanks for hanging out. I want to thank our producer, James Childs. I want to thank our associate producer, Kelly Daniel. But most of all, we want to thank you, America. Thank you for listening. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Dave here.

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