The Ramsey Show - App - Don’t Let Challenges Keep You From Pursuing Your Dreams (Hour 2)

Episode Date: November 25, 2022

Dr. John Delony & Ken Coleman discuss: Purchasing a home, Achieving your goals despite disabilities, Where to start a debt payoff journey. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET 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 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 pods, moving and storage studios, this is The Ramsey Show. It's where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life, specifically your money, your relationships, your mental health, your work, your future. I'm Ken Coleman. Dr. John Deloney joins me. We are Ramsey Personalities. We host our own shows as a part of the Ramsey Network, and we team up today for you. So obviously we're going to take your money calls. We'll also take maybe those sticky work situations. Can I

just tell you that we will change your name and location if it's particularly sticky but john and i like those i mean like they're really like dumpster fire work questions those are fun yes yeah and the dumpster fire at home questions are those two are good and we'll change your name uh location we understand that uh privacy is needed sometimes but uh so we're taking all those calls and your money calls as well, 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225. Let's go to San Francisco, California, where we start off this hour. Carl is there. Carl, how can we help? Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my phone call. I was calling because, to give you a little bit of a background information,

I'm 34 years old. I'm a self-employed electrician. I started my business back in October of 2020, and I'm trying to purchase my first home. Last year, my father passed away, unfortunately, and I tried to purchase his home. But when I was speaking, I believe I spoke to two different loan officers, and both of them were telling me that since I've only been self-employed at that point, I'd only been self-employed for about a little over a year. They were telling me that my only option were non-qualified mortgages. So I was just wondering if I could get some information from you guys on how to go about purchasing a home. How much money do you have saved up for the down payment?

Currently, in my savings, I have $375,000. When the inheritance from my father passed away without a will, unfortunately. So we're going through the probate process. Based on the value of the estate, the four siblings are probably going to get around $380,000, $400,000 each. So you're in the San Francisco area, so what's the price of a home that you're targeting? I think, you know, anything that is, you know, halfway decent is kind of in the $900,000 range, you know. You know, when I look on Zillow and I see houses that have sold recently, like stuff that I would be interested in actually living in is kind of like right there in the $900,000, $920,000 range. Well, you're going to have a tremendously large down payment, so that's great news and that should help range. Well, you're going to have a tremendously large down payment,

so that's great news, and that should help you. John, the first thing that came to my mind is I want him to talk to our friends at Churchill Mortgage and tell them, you know, he called the show. Here's my situation. Here's the whole shoot and match. Tell them the whole story. And I think they'd work with you because of the down payment that you have. You're going to be in really, really good shape.

So I don't want you to be discouraged. I'd like you to call Churchill Mortgage. We'll make sure that we get you connected to them after this phone call. But with the amount of money you're going to be able to put down, I just want you to be encouraged. You're going to be able to easily get the loan, the small loan that you're going to need. Do you guys recommend going on a 15 or still putting it on a 15? Just playing with those numbers.

Listen, when I worked with Churchill, the first thing the guy told me, he's an incredible man, he said, I'm going to sit down with you and I'm committing now. I'm not going to take your money if this is not in your best interest. That's how they started the conversation with me. Okay. So great people. And they'll walk you through, here's what I need from you. Here's why I need it from you. And here's what we're hoping to do. Here's the other thing is home purchasing. Um, people have stopped taking out loans. It's just kind of fallen off the map. And so you should be able to find somebody that

will work with you. Start with Churchill because I trust those good folks. Yeah, for sure. It seemed like when I was looking, everybody was putting me on the back burner. They just kind of wanted me to talk to them when I was literally a week away from making a purchase or something like that. How long ago was this? Hopefully, it was in in april yeah a little bit different market now there's a lot of mortgage people sitting around uh playing wordle right now uh things have slowed down if you've paid attention to the news i i don't know what was going on there and and there's no need to try to break that down i want you to i literally want you to call churchill and say look i called and i talked to ken and John on the Ramsey show,

and they told me that you guys can help me. The fact that you're self-employed should not be that big of an issue, given that you've been there for a year and you have enormous down payment. Now, you know, having that inheritance needs to be a part of this conversation, so you may have to be patient. Are you renting right now? I'm renting a room right now. Yeah. So here's the deal. Relax. And not to say that you're not, but let's get that in. Let's get that inheritance. Let's get that big nest egg because that's going to be that big down payment. And that's going to be your, I would believe, guarantee to get a mortgage and a small mortgage 15 year because you're going to pay that off quickly. You're going to have a tremendous rate on that and you're going to pay that off and you're going to pay that off quickly. You're going to have a tremendous rate on that, and you're going to pay that off, and you're going to be crushing it.

Hey, I want people to hear your story. What were you doing before you became a self-employed electrician? Were you working for somebody else? Were you apprenticing? What's the story? I was a union electrician for the IDW. I still maintain my membership with IDW. Good. How's business going for you? Things have definitely slowed down. Calls aren't coming in like they used to six months ago, but I'm still, you know, getting projects here and there, and it's definitely, you know, I have nothing to complain about.

Good. You like working for yourself? Yeah, I mean, it's definitely been a reality check. There's been, you know, some very high highs and some very low lows. All right. Here's why I ask that. Overall, I would never go ahead. I want you, don't get in a hurry to buy a house. Houses are still going to be there. And that massive down payment through the inheritance on top of what you already have in savings is going to be there.

You're in your first year. So many businesses, small businesses fail in their first year, year and a half. You've got a reality check right now. October is going to be year two. I know. That's what I'm saying. You've made it past most small business owners. And so you've made it and you've seen the ups and the downs. Let's keep building that electrician business. Let's keep going there. Don't be in a big hurry. Do call Churchill Mortgage, but really focus on growing that clientele and that business because that is going to be huge for you given your great financial position. But you should

be really encouraged. And Carl, it's also okay to get this big inheritance and park it and to rent your own apartment for a year. And I know apartment rents are sky high, all that, but there's a graduated step between renting somebody's room and having my own place and man just taking a break your dad passed away still mourning that having that money there's just this i gotta go do something nah you really don't man you can you can do this in stages and you're gonna not stress yourself out with a home home purchase at the same time your your personal business is slowing down a little bit. Yeah. You know, there's something about people just don't want to rent because they feel like they're wasting money.

And I just love to just remind people, Stacey and I rented for two years when we moved here just because we knew we were planting for a long time. Yeah. And it just gave us options. We didn't think of it, oh, I'm throwing money away every month. It was like, okay. No, I'm buying peace of mind.

Yes. Great way of saying that. I just buying freedom right now it gives you options folks you're not wasting that money all right thank you so much for the call carl we love small business owners the best is yet to be for you my friend i promise you that and call churchill mortgage they'll help you all right don't move more Ramsey Show and more of your calls coming right up. blinds.com's 100 satisfaction guarantee means even if you mismanage or pick the wrong color they'll remake your blinds for free you get free samples free shipping and with the new promos they run every month you'll save even more use promo code ramsey to get the best deal today's question comes from dj in new york i'm 31 years old and have cerebral palsy due to my disability i've had many health and education

challenges throughout my life. I want to work with other people with disabilities, such as autism, such as autism as a registered behavior technician or a board certified behavior analyst. But with my own challenges, I cannot attend school for higher education in this area. I'm trying to find other options or certifications like life coaching that would allow me to do this work, but I'm feeling defeated. How can I stop thinking that I'm not good enough or that I'm running out of time to accomplish my dreams? You two are my favorite Ramsey personalities. Oh, wow. Did you set me up on that? Thanks, James. We're grateful you put that in. That can't be real. Look, I literally just had my own Ron Burgundy moment.

I was reading that real time. I would have skipped that. That sounds awful. Did you put that in there? This is actually for you and George, but I'll take it. Sorry, DJ. I don't know. It would be great if I read this ahead of time.

A lot here, John. You've got some technical stuff but there's more emotional there than there is technical i'll let you go on emotional stuff because i think mindset helps if this was a call to my show i literally would say you need to talk to i want you to spend some time with a mental health counselor to get you to a place where i can help you because that mindset of worth and value has to be right-sided so that we can then go, that's you. Right. You are valuable. You have a lot to give. Then I can help you come up with how you can give. But I feel a lot of this. I've had this call

before. So what do you say? What DJ has got to do is to balance what I love and what I want and what my purpose is. You and I were just talking about this off air. This is who I want to help. I've been through this. I've got a lived experience, and this is who I want to help. And then this is the boundaries of the game. So whenever I think of this,

I think of, I just lost his name, the guy, Golden State Warriors. The star? Yes. Steph Curry. Steph Curry. Loves the game of basketball. I want to win basketball games and I'm 5'9 or however tall he is. Yeah. So he had to create a new way to get on that field or get on the court and so he became the best three-point shooter of all time and his

practice is legendary his work ethic and all that. So DJ has there's a path towards helping folks and it looks like going to college getting a graduate degree getting certified and now you've seen an influx over the last 20 years of life coaches folks who are getting trained on how to listen and how to encourage and ask good questions it becomes okay i want to do this this particular path may not be available for that's correct i'm not 610 i'm not going going to be the traditional power forward. So what can I do? What's another way to get on the field or to change the game altogether?

And so it becomes the defeated comes from, I see this path and I don't feel like I can participate on this path. And you can flip that around and say, cool, I'm heading off and I'm creating a new path. And the way you do that, that's a great, great point. And I'll just jump right in there. Practically what we do is we stop focusing on the position and we focus on the people. There you go. So the positions here are a registered behavior technician or a board certified behavior analyst.

Now, it's great to look into things like that and have a very specific target. But as John just so beautifully laid out, DJ, you've acknowledged there are limits where those aren't options. So while I understand how disappointing that is, we've got to guard against disappointment turning into discouragement and depression. It's a fact. There's a period at the end. Now what? Now, we grieve it. Yep, absolutely. But now let's go, okay, wait a second. And instead of focusing on those two positions, you focus on the people you want to help. And so you go, okay, where can I help those people that

don't require a college degree or don't cause, you know, don't require limitations. But you also mentioned in here too, it's something to do with your area so you know what would have to be true for me to change my geography to then be able to do it so instead of focusing on the limitations and as cheesy as this sounds in my head right now you must focus on other possibilities that's right and so what if here's what guides me when I'm sitting down writing a new book and I'm thinking about a program and I'm thinking about what's the thing that is driving me the most man is where am I what's the pain point that I feel viscerally and I'm going to write to that yeah and then when we sit down at a table and you and I have done we write a speech we write a talk and we run it by some people if you don't laugh at the table they're not going to laugh in front of 3,000 people, right? If the room doesn't feel it. So what if DJ, you sat back and said,

wait a minute, there's a whole swath of people who are frustrated that the traditional life paths don't work. I'm going to serve people in that moment because I'm feeling that pain, right? I'm not going to imagine somebody else's situation. I'm going to start addressing what's going on in me. And you know how easy it is to start a YouTube channel now, how easy it is to get in your local area and start meeting with folks at coffee shops. And you begin to hear from them. You and I test content in similar ways. So DJ, I want you to go back. Ken just said it, go back to the people you want to help and put yourself in contact with the people you want to help. And by the way, running out of time, I've told this story a million times, but my mom got her

first, took her first community college class at 42 and took one the next semester, one class, one class the next semester, graduated with her PhD at 57 and got tenured as a professor at 62. And she's in her seventies. And she just told me told me the other day hey I'm teaching at Oxford all next summer if you want to bring the kids over as though it's like down the street right so there's no such thing as too late get after it get after it get after it yeah I you know DJ I would tell you that I made a total life change at the age of 33 and really tiptoed into 34 to say, I'm actually going to go after broadcasting. I had no experience, no degree. And it took me seven years to step into the dream job to get into broadcasting. And I can't tell you how many people told me I was too old.

They're like, dude, listen, you got some talent, but you... You missed the boat. You're 33, you're 34. Nobody gets into broadcasting at that age. And that's probably true um but i was just stubborn enough or delusional enough you pick the adjective to stay with it but i can tell you on the other side it's not too late and that lie is a lie from the pit of hell that my ship has sailed and that's the voice of doubt and and can i just tell you john i realized

this recently you and i get a lot of similar type questions different topics but the root of what is going on underneath of it is usually the same and i found that fear and doubt are two of the biggest enemies to progress in any area of our life but fear and doubt only show up for people who are trying or longing. The people who sit on the bleachers of life, I find don't have any fear and doubt. Nope. Because they're just sitting there watching everybody else with their elbow deep in a bag of popcorn, you know,

yelling at the refs. They get through life through complaining and blaming. Right. Yeah. But people who face fear and doubt, who experience it. They're in the arena. You're in it. Yeah.

You're in there, and that in it yeah you're you're in there and that's a good sign yes that you're longing to be or to do um and that you're striving and you're making some progress so i just i i just wanted to throw that in there john because i i feel that the the discouragement is so heavy that means you care and i would just want people to go if you're facing doubt and you're facing fear, there's another narrative there. Because sometimes fear and doubt, John, protect us. Absolutely it does.

If I say to you, hey John, I'm going to go dunk a basketball tonight at the YMCA, and you go, really? And I start to have some doubt, that's doubt protecting me from humiliation because I can't touch the net. Right, right, right.

But if I doubt that I can't be a good dad or a good father, now that's fear holding me back. Excuse me, doubt holding me back. That's coming from an unhealthy place. You experience this with callers all the time. Absolutely. But I would tell you, if you fear being a good dad, that means you care about it.

Yeah. That means it matters. Yeah, you're invested. That's exactly right. I want people not to be so debilitated by fear and doubt because that's usually a good sign. Yeah, when there's fear and doubt, lean into it. There's only one way, and it's through it.

That's true. There's only one way, and it's through it. Hey, that guy, he really did write that. He wrote that question specifically for you two because you're literally his favorite person. DJ, we love you, man. We love that. We don't get a lot of compliments.

James never tells us anything positive. No, James is usually just beating us down and beating us down. We'll take the love you, man. We love that. We don't get a lot of compliments. James never tells us anything positive. James is usually just beating us down and beating us down. We'll take the affirmation, DJ. And I paid the guy 20 bucks, but he still wrote it. We'll be right back on the Ramsey Show. are you sick of planned obsolescence you, when companies make products crappy so you have to buy more of their crappy products? Well, me too. And it's why I love companies like Grip6. Grip6 is all about quality products meant to last forever.

That's why their comfortable, bulk-free belts, slimline wallets, and lightweight wool socks all come with a lifetime warranty and simple returns and exchanges. So check them out at Grip6.com today and get up to 20% off with the promo code RAMSEY. welcome back to the Ramsey show I'm Ken Coleman I'm joined by my colleague Dr. John Deloney and we're thrilled to be here with you today taking your phone calls 888-825-5225 that's 888-825-5225 let's go to Los Angeles California and Drew is there Drew how can we help hi Ken and John how are you doing we're having a blast Drew what's going on? So I have a question about a will. In 2014, my grandfather died, and he had a substantial amount of wealth. So fast forward to today, and the way his will was designed was that it was supposed to be divided up amongst half to take care of my grandmother, and then half was supposed to go to my dad and his sisters. However, my grandmother did not want to honor my grandfather's will,

so she went to the executor of the will, asked if she had to do it, and they went to a lawyer. Somehow they changed the will, and that will was not being honored. I was wondering if this was legal or if I should be, or if my family should be looking to take action on this or what would you suggest? Well, who, so she hired a lawyer and you said went to the executor? The executor of the will was nobody in our family. It was an accountant trusted by my grandfather. Right.

And when she went to the executor, she told him, I don't want to honor this. Can we change it? So they found a lawyer who somehow found a way to change it. How much wealth are we talking about here? I don't have an exact figure. I know that it's a very substantial amount. Substantial like a million bucks? Substantial like a hundred million bucks? What do you guess? Probably north of five, 10 million. Okay. Here's what I'm getting at.

A, I've never heard of what you've described. I spent my career around attorneys. I know a lot of people don't want to honor a will, but that's what a will is for. It's a legal document. So if you have reason to believe that something nefarious happened, like somebody went and changed somebody's will and is channeling money elsewhere, then you can go get an attorney and fight that. That's your legal recourse. I'm kind of torn because, I mean,

that's a declaration of war against your family, right? But also, your grandmother doing that is also a declaration of war against your family. So, I mean, it's kind of tit for tat. Yeah, I just am curious, John, if the lawyer can't do it. Yeah, I've never heard of this. So who, what, you're not, I don't know the rest of the story, and I'm not sure you know the rest of the story. Meaning, when the lawyer who was hired by the executor and grandma got the will changed,

did it go before a judge? So as far as i know no however apparently there was a legal loophole where my grandmother did not have to honor this will i've never heard of that yeah we're not legal experts so we can't there's there's very little we can do other than to say if you want to challenge this you want to sue your grandma go go go get a lawyer and tell the lawyer the story, but you better have your facts before you start spending lawyer money. You don't have a claim to the suit because you're not a beneficiary in the will. Your dad does. So your dad's going to have to sue his mom and get to the bottom of it.

That's right. Sorry. And then, yeah, that's the other part of it it's just kind of disgusting i've watched a lot of matlock when i was growing up you don't even he doesn't even know who that is i'm sure he's too young matlock yeah oh but yeah we're not lawyers here's the messy thing um my guess is there's a lot more mess in this family oh i was getting ready to say to you what do you see in that we got grandmama and she's going i don't want my kids to get the money or grandma's got dementia or an attorney friend or the accountant reached out and said hey there's a way we don't have to give this money away there's

a lot below the surface here a whole bunch um he thinks thanksgiving dinner's not been very warm exactly so here's the deal you're you can sue grandma, and you can hire an attorney to do a forensics accounting of what the original will was, and where's the assets, and who's got them, and why, and who tried to change it. Is there any criminal? You can do that. Absolutely. Oh, sure. And Thanksgiving's different forever.

It's already different now, right? I think it already is. It already is. Probably hadn't been very nice for a long time. That's right. That's unfortunate. Sorry, brother. Yeah, sorry that we aren't legal experts,

but I would talk to Pops, and he needs to fight if he wants to fight. And reach out and get an attorney. Yeah, let's get to Cincinnati, Ohio. Brady is there. Brady, how can we help? Hey, Brady, how are you guys? Or, sorry. You're Brady.

You're Brady. What's going on, man? We're doing great. How can we help? So my grandpa told me about Dave Ramsey a couple years ago. Didn't really listen. Didn't really think I would need it. And then I find myself almost $400 negative on my bank account.

So I started looking at Dave Ramsey finally, and I've been looking for about a week now. My wife's on board with it, but we just have absolutely no idea where to start. I'm hoping for a push or some advice. All right. We'll give you some advice within the baby steps, which are pretty simple to understand. Give us a picture of what's going on with you financially. Let's start with debt. Okay. Debt. So we've got mortgage, about $150,000. I've got a truck of about $40,000, which I know is ridiculous. That's probably the first thing I need to take care of. Well, let's stay right there.

Let's get some momentum on the truck. How much is that truck worth? It's only worth about $37,000 private sale based on Kelley Blue Book. All right, keep going. Okay, keep going with the car. What's the car? Okay, and then my wife's car, it's worth like $13,000.

She has about $9,000 on it. So we've got a little bit of equity in that one. And then we've got various credit card debts, personal loan, and then a lot of medical debt as well. How much credit card debts, personal loan, and then a lot of medical debt as well. How much credit card debt? Total, like five grand.

Okay. What's the medical debt? I have to get it all together, but I would say probably close to 10 grand, maybe a little bit under. 10 grand. Okay. All right. And what do you have in savings?

Any cash? I've got no savings in cash. All right. And what do you have in savings? Any cash? I've got no savings in cash. All right. What's your income? I make about $46,000. I get a raise in nine days, and I'll be making $56,000 a year. Does your wife work outside the home? She only works every Friday and gets paid $100 every Friday.

Do you guys have kiddos? We do. We have two. Okay. All right, John, you want to walk you through the baby steps? I mean, this is tag team here. So, first thing we're going to do is... Oh, man.

You got a mess on your hands. Actually, you got a mess on your hands, but you can start cleaning this up today. So here's baby step one. You're going to sell some stuff and get $1,000 in the savings account. Full stop. And we are working on that. We've got everything on Facebook Marketplace.

There you go. That we can part with. Everything. I want those two kids to be like, are we going on Marketplace? Right? That's the goal, right? Everything. Right. Your old guitars that you're like, no, going on the marketplace? Right? That's the goal. Right?

Everything. Right. Your old guitars that you're like, no, dude, I'm going to get the band back together. You're not. Right now, you're not. Right? You got two mowers because you're that guy. Sell one of them.

Right? Whatever you got to do. You've got a truck that is about your annual income. That's what you owe on it. That's insanity. You know that, right? I know. I 100% agree i would probably if i find myself in your situation i would go down to um take both cars

and sell them both and leave with two old used camrys that's what i would do okay okay this is a an emergency situation you got two little kids and you've got negative dollars in your checking account. This is not a time to be like, yeah, but I know. Man, you're a long way off from that. Got it? Right. And let me back up. Before you get the $1,000 emergency fund, dude, you need to have a target of what you're trying to hit.

You've got to be a grown-up and pull your credit report from one or two of the service providers, and you've got to know exactly how much you owe. An order from smallest to largest, right? And you're going to go through these things and start knocking them off one at a time, one at a time, one at a time. You're going to work extra. Your wife's probably going to have to work. You're going to have to call on people to keep the kids.

You're going to have to get after it. Brady, you can do this. Hang on the line. We're going to gift you a free membership, trial membership, whatever we do, guys, to FPU, Financial Peace University. But you've got to watch the video. Listen, you've got to stay with it. Let's give him total money makeover as well. And John's right.

I'd sell those cars instantly and work more overtime side jobs than you ever have in your life. You're really close to getting out of this. You can do this. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. I am joined in studio this hour by my colleague, Dr. John Deloney. And we are taking your calls. 888-825-5225. That is the toll-free number, 888-825-5225. That is the toll-free number, 888-825-5225.

We're talking money, talking mental, emotional health, relationships. We're talking your work as it relates to, hey, I want to get out of it or I want to get into something better, make more money. Hey, I'm stressed out. I'm burned out at home. Relationships are on fire. John and I are combining on all of those topics, plus, of course, your money questions. Let's go to Clayton, who joins us now in San Antonio, Texas.

Clayton, how can we help? Hey, guys. Thanks for having me on. I'm new to Dave Ramsey's program, to the content, and I guess I'm on baby step one right now, just trying to figure out what the best way is to go about handling, trying to get out of the debt versus getting $1,000 into emergency fund. Well, first of all, thanks for listening and being new to the show. And because you're new, we want to make sure you understand those baby steps are in order. So you are in fact on baby step one and that's all you should be focusing on, not debt right now. So we're looking at super intense, man. We want to get a thousand dollars in your savings

account, not a thousand, $200, not a thousand, $700, a thousand dollars. Once we get that, now we are going to shift to baby step two, where we take your debts and we're looking at your smallest debts. So let's say I'm making this up. You got $1,000 on a credit card and you got $5,000 on a car and 20,000 to loans, whatever it is, we're going to focus on that smallest debt and knock that baby out. And then once we pay that off, we take the payment we're making on that and we double it. We dump that into, if you will, the payment on the next debt. So let's go back. How much money do you have in savings?

Right now, nothing. Okay. What brought you to this moment, man? Just some really bad financial decisions I've made in the past and I'm kind of right now at a rock bottom and want to get my finances under control. Uh, when I have wisdom when it comes to my finances and, uh, trying to, um, better myself so I can ultimately give back and help others. Good for you, dude. How much debt do you have? Total of about $20,000.

What's that made up of? Car payments. I owe, I think, $12,000 on that. And then a college loan. I owe, I think, about $8,000 still on that. It takes me to $20,000. And then last year, I made some really poor decisions and took out a few same-day loans and really regretting that now. Okay. Can I ask you a bigger question? Yes, sir.

Are you struggling with addiction or did you just blow up a big relationship uh no what's underneath the 20 000 my i've my rock bottom was six figures when in stupid financial decisions what's beneath the 20 000 just a bunch of stupid financial decisions i mean i've i've never been wise with the money that God has given me, and I've just squandered it and spent it on foolish things, and now it's really come back to bite me and haunt me. What's the car worth? The car is, I got it for $13,000. I make about $300 payments on it a month right now.

So what's it worth if you were to sell it today? So it's worth about $8,000. I have about $4,000 negative equity on it. Sure. All right. And did you get a degree with that student loan, or is that just partial time at school? That's just partial time. All right.

So let's go back to how do we get $1,000 first, right? So you've got nothing right now. Are you gainfully employed? Are you working full-time, part-time? What's your situation? I am. I'm full-time. Okay.

What do you make? About $30,000 annually right now. Okay. It's not going to be hard are you single married what's your relationship status just single okay what's your rent or do you have a mortgage about I rent about live my parents rent about a hundred dollar a month okay dude all right so here's the deal your first question was hey do hey, do I focus on $1,000 or paying off debt? And I got great news for you. You can pay this debt off very, very quickly if you go all in. Are you willing to go all in and stop making what you're saying foolish decisions and just make decisions for your future? Are you willing to do it, yes or no? Yes, sir. All right. So $1,000. That's selling stuff? You got anything you could sell?

You got a guitar, some shoes you don't wear. What do you got? I do actually have a number of stuff I can sell. All right. So that's one way. Yeah, he's right. John's right. Online, yard sale.

Facebook Marketplace, done. I mean, dude, sell anything that you can sell. All right. Let's say that we could sell up to $500. I'm just picking that number. Now we're halfway there. You're also single, and we are in a really great job economy right now. Clayton, San Antonio, Texas, how many different places could you make $20 an hour, even part-time?

The answer is a lot. What do you do to make $30,000? I work at a car dealership well then we could just upgrade the gig all together yeah there's two ways to go about this either add the part-time work or you just get a better job and and we bring in more income and getting a thousand dollars is an emergency fund you should be able to do that in the next i'm going to say two weeks if you really get after it. Max. If you're selling something and you're working on the weekend, come on, man.

I mean, Walmart will hire you for $19, $20, $21, $22 an hour right now. If you've got to stock shelves for a week at night and not sleep, you can do that. You don't need sleep to sell a car for a short term okay we're just talking about i want you to just see how attainable how reachable a thousand dollars is do you see it now i do all right so that's baby step one now let's talk about the the debt john i mean we got a couple ways we could go on the car he could keep that intensity up and pay that car off pretty quick. That's what I would do.

I'd keep the car. And then the student loan of $8,000. I mean, that's actually next on the list. On the snowball, it's the $8,000. Unless these payday loans, you said you owed $20,000, but then you mentioned payday loans. Have you paid those off? No, sir.

Well, then what's the payday loan? How much? About $2,000, $3,000. Okay, so we get $1,000 in the bank. Boom, we're going to do that in 10 days. All right? And then we immediately go after the payday loans. We knock those out next.

Then we take on the student loan of $8,000, and then we take on the car. And if you work like a madman and you double your income one way or the other, you can do this very quickly. And here's the thing. Here's what's working for you is, hang on the line. We're going to send you a plan, okay? We're going to walk you through it.

I'm going to send you all FPU, Financial Peace University, the flagship product that you can walk through all this stuff, and I'll send you the EveryDollar app, okay? Only if you promise you're going to do it. And so that's the benefit. Here's the negative thing. Ken and I have been doing this show for long enough now that I'm simply out of excuses in my

personal life because I've seen too many people, teachers who just say, fine, I'm going to get done teaching and I'm going to go drive Uber. And after I get done driving Uber, I'm going to edit papers for grad students and I'm going to get up in the morning and I'm going to do Postmates before I go teach my done driving Uber, I'm going to edit papers for grad students. And then I'm going to get up in the morning and I'm going to do Postmates before I go teach my classes.

And suddenly they're out of a hundred grand in a calendar year because they just got maniacal. You sound like somebody who overthinks and overthinks and overthinks and overplans. And then you find yourself and you've actually done nothing for all of your effort.

Is that fair? Yes, sir. We've got to be done with that. I want you to stop thinking and I want you to start acting. Go get jobs. Go get jobs. Go get jobs.

And it may be that your mom and dad say, well, you need to rest, honey. I know you've been working hard. And you say, not now, not in this season. And you're going to be stunned, my brother, if you stop the thinking and start the doing in this particular situation. And by the way, everybody listening, sometimes I tell people, tell people stop acting you got to sit down and grieve this you got to think through this for a minute this isn't the season for you brother this is the season to go work work work work and you're gonna find yourself up up i mean right side up with this financial situation in no time yeah and clayton you know what uh if dave ramsey were here he would say i've done a lot

of dumb things with money so so cut yourself some slack. Yeah, dude. This is not insurmountable. We're not talking to some fool. You're fine. You're a normal guy. Yeah. Normal.

And you didn't dig too big of a hole. You got this. Get your chin up, shoulders back. Hey, I want to thank Dr. John Deloney for hanging out. I want to thank the crew behind the glass for keeping us on the air. And you, America, we appreciate you. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's John Deloney, co-host of The Ramsey Show.

Did you know over 18 million people listen to The Ramsey Show every week? A lot of those people listen on one of our 600-plus radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, go to RamseySolutions.com slash show.