The Ramsey Show - App - Don't Make Decisions That Are Perpendicular to Your Values (Hour 3)

Episode Date: March 3, 2021

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live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. My name is Anthony O'Neill, host of the popular YouTube and podcast show, The Table, with Anthony O'Neill. And co-hosting with me today is number one national best-selling author, Christy Wright, and host of The Christy Wright Show, and author of the most recent book, Living True. Yeah, I'm so excited about this. Christy, this book is fire. So this is so fun because did you know, I don't know if you knew this, Ayo.

Okay. This is the very first devotional our company's ever put out. Do you know I just love to get away with stuff and try, I just, I love to push the boundaries a little bit. I see you. Listen, a couple years ago, I just really felt a desire

and a call to write a devotional. And here's the thing. This is something I have felt and this is something I've heard for over a decade of working with women. I remember speaking at one of my first speaking events at Purdue University in 2010, and a woman walked up to me after I spoke on Life Balance,

and she said, I just feel like I've lost myself. Wow. And I've heard those words. And it's not just women, but I think women uniquely experience that, whether it's in motherhood, different seasons of life, different jobs or careers. You feel like you lose yourself in your own life, and're going where am i wow in my own life and so i really felt like god was calling me to tackle this topic so we released it just a couple months ago it's called living true 40 days to get back to you and what's cool about 40 days and you know this because you're a church guy but 40 is a very biblical

number now and it's also not intimidating for a busy woman that wants to read it. Because even not just 365 days, but 100 days, that's a big commitment for someone who's super busy. But 40 days to get back to you. And I walk through four sections. Who God is. Who you are. Where you are in your season of life. And where you're going.

And what God says about each of those. We spend 10 days on each of them. And Ayo, it's been really cool. And you know this, when you put something new out in the world, you're excited about it, but it feels a little bit vulnerable. And you're like, I don't know,

is this going to connect? Is this going to do what I want it to do? And it is just blowing up in terms of reviews and the stories of people spending time with God or God speaking to them on just what they needed here on just that day, which by the way, is what God does. That's not what Christi Wright does.

That's what God does and the Holy Spirit. But it has been cool to see how God is using that to help women get back to themselves and get back to who they were created to be. Man, listen. Listen, you guys. I need you to get this book. And for the brothers, get the book for your wife. Oh, Mother's Day is coming up. Oh, Mother's Day is coming up.

Get the book for your mother. Get the book for your wife. Get the book for your girlfriends. I want you to live true. You know what I was thinking about doing so 40 40 is such a biblical number with the uh 40 days it rained 40 days jesus was tempted in the wilderness you know another 40 days between the resurrection and the ascension so i think i'm going to start on monday april 5th the day after easter and i think i'm going to walk through this on instagram with people for those 40 days when jesus i mean i know it's symbolic because it's Easter, but wouldn't that be cool?

I think I'm going to do that. Absolutely. If you follow me on Instagram at Christy B. Wright, we're going to walk through that. So get your copy so you can join us for those 40 days after Easter. Go to ChristyWright.com, you guys. Go to ChristyWright.com. Get a book so that when she launches this on her Instagram, you can follow her. You can connect with her on Instagram at Christy B. Wright.

Again, that's Christy B. Wright. So that way you can be a part of this. Get the book. Get on there. Because I'm telling you right now, Christy Wright got energy. So you're not going to be bored. You're not going to fall asleep. No one accused me of being quiet or lazy or slowing down.

She's going to come with the energy. And so, and you know what? If it comes about living true, if you have any questions about living true, about balance, life balance, give us a call. 888-825-5225. We have another hour with you all today. Four more segments. Actually, three more segments after this. So we are here to answer your question about money.

I've been teaching the world today about the definition of securing the bag. So secure the bag. That's been the theme of today's show. It's about getting a check, making money. If you have a question about how to get more money, how to get out of debt, how to secure the bag, give us a call at 888-825-5225.

Daniel's with us in Jackson, Mississippi. Daniel, good afternoon. How can Chrissy and I help? Absolutely. Thank you all for letting me come on. Yeah. And I'll try to make this pretty brief.

My question is I am currently working through the steps, and I'm about a month away from getting Baby Step 3 and moving into 4. Okay. And so basically, I have a positive cash flow of about $3,000 a month. Okay. And my current financial advisor has gone more the route of encouraging heavy investment in 401k and Roth. Okay. Basically to the point where I'm not paying extra on my mortgage.

And I know the advice I've gotten so far is that to do it the way that you do 15% and then pay down your house is, some people will say, safe money or incredibly conservative. But can you help me understand a bit better the benefits of going that 15% route and paying down the home early? Yeah, yeah. So let me ask you this question. How much is your financial advisor telling you to invest? Yeah, so he's essentially 40% of my growth income. So he is, of that $3,000, he's encouraging me to invest $21,000, $25,000 a month. And how do you live? I'm sorry, say again?

I mean, and how do you live off of that? Right. Yeah. No, I agree. And so here's the thing. I agree. And go ahead. What we teach, Daniel, is we want you to live comfortable.

We want you to live below your means. How old are you, if you don't mind me asking? 29. Okay, 29. want you to live comfortable. We want you to live below your means. How old are you, if you don't mind me asking? 29. Okay, 29. So you're a young guy. You're young like Christy and I. And so we have no problem with you. I have no problem with you even being aggressive with your investing. But what I want you to do is first go ahead and attack the 15% and then go ahead and pay off your mortgage while you're doing that. Now, once you pay off your mortgage and you're completely debt free, baby step number seven is build wealth and give. So if you want to go back and up your investments, you have that option. You can do that. If you want

to go out there and start purchasing some land, start purchasing some real estate, you can do that. But right now, the main thing is start investing in it at the 15 percent minimum and then get very aggressive with paying off your mortgage so that way you could be 100 percent debt free going into maybe your late 30s and your early 40s. And if you and if you're married at that time, your spouse decide, hey, let's invest some more over here or let's do this with real estate or let's open up this business by all means you have the right to do that because you're in the the step that requires you or would not requires you but it's a step to build wealth and give but right now you're young i would rather you focus on paying

off debt because i want financial freedom um i want bondage off of you and and so that's what i would really really focus on uh brother, because, yeah. So what I would suggest is to interview another financial advisor. I would go to smartvestorpro.com, go to DaveRamsey.com, look up one of our smart investors. Don't leave your financial advisor yet, but interview one of ours. You'll get about five phone calls from five solid people who I fully endorse, Christy fully endorse, Dave fully endorse, and just have a conversation with them and get some other advice. Because again, I want you to grow during this process. I want you to build wealth during this process. But at the same time,

I want you to get the right wisdom along this journey. Yeah. And it's a marathon, Daniel. It's a marathon, not a sprint. You want to enjoy your life along the way. You want to be conservative, but you want to enjoy your life, not have nothing to live on and enjoy it just because you're you're investing so much oh yeah man yeah 40 the great question i mean that's it's good good that he's asking that's cool gotta ask it this is the ramsey show People all over the country are discovering a faith-based and budget-friendly way of meeting health care costs through Christian Health Care Ministries. Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, is a nonprofit organization that helps members carry one another's burdens with health care expenses, and they have successfully shared each other's medical bills for nearly 40 years. See if CHM is right for you by visiting chministries.org. CHM is a proud sponsor

of Dave Ramsey Live Events. Taxes, Christy. Nobody wants to do them. But you know what? We all have to do them. But with Ramsey Smart Tax, you finally have an easy money smart way to foul online the other software out there it's not what it's cracked up to be let me just be 100 with you all right they say it's free but no turbo tax is not free for the vast majority of people who use it they sign up racking up the price and suddenly free turns into $40, $60, even up to $120, which is ridiculous.

But you know what? Here at Ramsey Solutions, we love our people, and we don't jack you around like that. The cost to file a federal return with Ramsey Smart Tax is crystal clear. $17 or $37. Not $60, not $120. And depending on the level of support you need, plus $32 if you have to file state taxes. And some folks don't, just like Tennessee. But listen, it's not just about cost.

Our technology and support will go toe to toe with Turbo any day of the week. And we will never, Let me say this again. We will never leverage your financial situation. To sell you credit cards. And ridiculous loans. Like a lot of these young people. Not young people. Like a lot of these other companies do. Sign up for Smart Tax for free.

And take a look around the software. You won't pay a thing. Until you are confident. You've got your taxes right. And you're ready to click foul. So take out your phones right now. Ashley, you should have your phones out right now. If you're driving, don't drive and text.

I want you to text the word tax T-A-X to 33789. That's tax T-A-X to 33789. Let me tell you something. People use tax software thinking these companies have their best interest at heart and they don't. And that's why they are selling you all these credit cards and all these

ridiculous things. And you go to it and you think, oh, well, they're experts. They're financial experts. They know taxes. I can trust them. I should get this credit card. And man, people are making some mistakes with their whole financial future because of that they're leading them astray that's why it's so important to use a company you trust that's why we want to help you with this yes yes i'm telling you right now um you know i actually filed through my accountant but i mean if i didn't

have one i would definitely be using this yeah you know, because I mean, it's, it's clear. I'm, I've actually walked through it myself. Um, even on my YouTube show, just show people how to do it. And this is super clear. And they ask you all the right questions to make sure that you're filing correctly and you won't have any trouble, uh,

legally down the road. That's so good. And so again, I want to say this again, I want you to text the word tax T a X two three, three, seven, eight,

nine. And I promise you, you will thank Ramsey Solutions later on. We're going to go out to Arkansas and talk to Rachel. Rachel, good afternoon. How can Christy and I help? Good afternoon. How are you, guys? Doing well.

Doing well. Thanks for calling in. How can we help? So I have my, like, three to six months of emergency fund. And I'm just wondering how much is good like percentage wise for a down payment on a house? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a good question. So what we teach here at Ram Solutions has babysat 3B. Once you get once you are out of debt, once you have a fully funded emergency fund, you move over to 3B and you save 10 to 20 percent to put down on a home.

Now, Rachel, the ideal situation is going to pay for a cash. But a lot of us are not going to pay for a cash. I know I couldn't pay for my cash. I'll be real right here on The Ramsey Show. And so the bare minimum, we say, is 10 to 20 percent to put down. When are you looking to purchase a home, Rachel? In the near future. My roommate situation is not ideal. I just also don't like the fact that I just keep putting money into rent and I'm not really getting anything out of it besides short term. Yeah. Yeah. Don't don't see. And when I hear people say this, like, oh man, I'm wasting money on rent. No, you're actually saving money, you know, because in the long term, I get the philosophy behind why you think like that. But renting allows you to set yourself up to make the right decision to purchase a home the right way. So it can be it will save you a lot of money. I know a lot of people who will just do the FHA loan, 3.5% down, get into a house that they really can't afford. When they go to sell it, they really can't make any money

off of it because they didn't do it the right way. So what we teach here is to save 10 to 20% to put down on a home. You're going to finance at a 15 year fixed rate mortgage. Now, some people say, well, Anthony, that's a lot of money. So here's the thing when it comes to 20%, Rachel, if you can put 20% down, you have 20% equity inside of your home. This is going to help you avoid a PMI, a private mortgage insurance. All right. And so if you are doing a private mortgage insurance, like what most FHA loans do, you're spending a lot of money that doesn't go towards your principal or interest. Okay, and we do not want you to do that. But here's the bare minimum. If you put down 10 percent, the key thing here is just make sure that your mortgage payment is less than 25 percent of your take home pay.

So put down that if it's 10 percent, 15 percent. OK, cool. Great. But the ideal situation would be 20 percent. So that way you can avoid PMI. Sounds good? Sounds good. Oh, man, thank you so much for calling in.

I really do appreciate it. Ryan is with us in Fort Wayne. Good afternoon, Ryan. How can Christy and I help? Yeah, so I'm kind of torn on what to do as far as housing situation here. So I'm on Baby Step 2, and we're doing really, really good. Gazelle Intensity, feeling great. Snapped all of our credit cards in half, canceled them all.

Should have about half my student loans paid off by the end of this year. Let's go. Awesome. Yeah, so I'm feeling great. I was very, very blessed. Income increased last year, and it's going to increase this year as well, too. So I got an email the other day saying that the guesstimation, I guess, is what I'm kind of calling it, that the equity on my house has gone up

just from being there for a couple years, and the equity is getting really close to how much my student loans are on the outstanding balances right now. Would it make sense to sell the home in the next couple years if the equity gets past it and then rent to kind of streamline baby step three, or just keep going with the gazelle intensity and build more equity and just be more patient that way when it comes to baby step three, you know, I'll have more equity in the house. And if we do sell the house, we'll have that much more

for emergency funds, investing, et cetera, et cetera. Man, such a great question, Ryan. And I love the tone of your voice. I hear the focus. I hear the intentionality inside of you. The fact that you're willing to ask this question about your home lets me know that you and your family are very serious about paying off your debt. So I want to commend you and celebrate you for that. Let's just say right now that you had no debt. You had a fully

funded emergency fund. Would you want to sell the house? Yeah, you will. So you're not sold on this house. You don't love this house. This is not love. We we do love the house. The thing is, we know the family is probably going to expand in the future as well, too. So we're going to need more room. OK, so we got into this house at a really, really good price at a really, really good time and a really strong housing market out here. And it worked in our favor. Just don't know if I should just keep riding this momentum train that I'm on or, uh, get into baby step three quicker. If that means getting out of debt sooner and just renting. How much debt do you have real quick? Close to about 5050,000. $50,000. How much equity is in your home?

It's estimated between $38,000 and $40,000. Okay. I'm going to stay in the house right now. Same. Same. Thank you. Good. Please.

Yes. I was getting so nervous. I was like, hey, I'll tell them. No, no, no. I'm staying in the house, man. I'm going to stay in the house. I'm going to ride it until the house can no longer fit me and my family. $50,000. Real quickly, what's your household income? Combined between the wife and I, so we both work commission. So realistically, we're going to be about $130,000 this year. If this year goes well, we'll probably be close to about 160 yeah you could be debt free

within the next you know within the next 12 to 14 15 months if you all do this right and then here's the thing that's interesting ryan sometimes when we get so motivated we get so excited we're like how can i fast track that i get it because i'm wired the same way but what's interesting is if you're not careful you will get so excited you will make a decision that just creates a different set of problems for you you then have to save up all over again for a house you're not careful, you will get so excited. You will make a decision that just creates a different set of problems for you. You then have to save up all over again for a house. You're renting. You don't like your landlord.

It's a headache. You're moving. And then you've got commissions and fees and move. It's a different headache. It's not like you got rid of the problem. You just had a different problem. So I would say stay put. Keep building equity.

Just like Ayo said, get out of debt and then do it patiently over time. Absolutely. That's right. Y'all heard Christy. Not me. That's so good. No, no. You had it.

This is The Ramsey Show. so so I just love that music that our producer, a.k.a. DJ, is playing right there. That was some good music, James. Thank you for that, sir. I need to bring you on to the table with Anthony O'Neal because I like that music. This is The Ramsey Show, 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225 888-825-5225 chrissy wright and myself anthony o'neill are here today to talk to you today about your life your money when it started business whatever you want to do give us a call we can even talk about relationships normally chrissy

when john deloney and i are on oh we get a lot of marriage and relationship and boyfriend girlfriend and should i move in questions we haven't gotten any of those i bet that's a i bet that's a fun conversation between you and deloney man listen you know before the show my producer our producer james came in and said hey man you should be a little more softer when you say things you know i was like i understand i can do that if i try real real real hard and focus he was like hey I understand. I can do that. If I try real, real, real hard and focus. He was like, hey, you shouldn't say that because it could come off a certain kind of way. And I was like, okay, all right, cool. Great, great, great.

You know what we need to do next time? We need to set it up and have people call in with faith questions because I'm doing this Devo stuff right now. You've got a church background. We could just bring them to church, Ayo. I feel like we could do that. Let's do it. Next time we'll do that. We've got another segment coming up after this. If you have any faith

questions, not really Devo questions because faith will leave it to the Devo, but any faith questions, give us a call. Next segment. 888-825-5225. Let Kelly know you got a faith question. Maybe she'll let you on. Maybe she won't. She's the boss. But, you know,

888-825-5225. Andy is with us in Colorado Springs. Good afternoon, Andy. I see you have a question for Christy. Talk to us. What's going on? Hi, guys. It's a pleasure to speak to you today.

I recommend Dave and his team, everybody, and tell them I'd be a millionaire three times over if I would have known he existed 10 years ago. You and everybody else, right? Really. I've got a weird issue that cropped up today. I own a coffee shop in Colorado Springs and I got an email. We use an app for scheduling called Homebase and we received an email today that they are rolling out something really exciting for my employees. They're going to be offering my employees the ability to get cash advances on their pay. At no cost to me, and it's wonderful for them in case they need extra money.

Yeah, how many employees do you have? I have 19. Okay, here's what I'm going to do, Andy. And this is going to sound drastic, but it's what I'm going to do, Andy. And this is going to sound drastic, but it's that important because I can hear your voice. This is against your values, period. Yes. Right?

Yeah, we're not going to use a program that's against your values, period. So here's what we're going to do. You're going to tell your 19 employees, which is absolutely something you can manage on your own, even if it just means you write checks to people for their paychecks for a couple weeks until you get a new program in place. But what I would do is I would go to the leadership of that company and say, I'm canceling immediately unless you take this off the table and change this policy for my employees. If they will not back down, then you cancel and you let your team know. You

send an email to your team and say, hey guys, I hate that this is happening. We're going to go with a new program. We had some differences in leadership and values and we're just not going to use a program. You don't even have to go into the details of what it was. We're not going to use a program that's against our values. And we've done that as a company. Just so you know, Andy, Ramsey Solutions has absolutely pulled out. I mean, just slammed on the emergency break with vendors, companies that we've used for different things. The moment they try to do something that is not in line with our values, there's no price that is worth it.

When you're running your company, you're running it because you want it to be in line with your values. So what I would recommend you do is first reach out to the leadership of that scheduling app, try to get on a phone call and say, either this is not being offered and I will consider staying with you for the time being, or if they will not, you immediately cancel your relationship with them. I don't care if you use a Google Doc to schedule your team members.

You got 19. We're not talking about 500 people here. You can manage the schedule. Just scrap the scrapping. To me, it is 500. Yeah, I talking about 500 people here. You can manage the schedule. Just scrap the scrappling. To me, it is 500. Yeah, I hear you, but keep in mind it's temporary, right? It's going to be maybe a month. Maybe you make their schedule by hand in an Excel spreadsheet or Google Doc for a month,

and that's it. Or it might even just be a few days until you find something. There's a million options out there. You just need enough time to be able to find something that's better and that's going to take you a few days to do that. So you're buying yourself a little time with your team. And just tell your team, whatever their schedule is, how long have they been scheduled

out through? Like what do they know their schedule out through? We schedule two weeks in advance. Okay. Okay. You're fine. Their schedule's set. Their schedule's set. We're going to pull out of this company and figure out a different option for you. But I absolutely would not let this roll out to your team. You will regret it.

It will keep you up at night. You will start to hate your business. They are going to regret it. They are going to regret it so much. And there's no, like, consequences. And they tell you, we don't sell your information. But you know, as soon as they start borrowing, something's going to drop. Yeah, this is... something's going to drop. Yeah, this is everything in you that is like the red flag alarms going off is absolutely accurate.

And I want you to listen to that. And I want you to go ahead, even though it may feel uncomfortable to do this. It feels like a knee jerk decision. They're forcing you in this position. And you need to do what's best for you, your company and your team members. And the best thing is to not allow this to roll out. Yeah, I just worried that I was being more of a dad than a boss. No.

I didn't want to cross that line. No, no, no, no, no. No, here's what's interesting. Here's what's interesting. This is not about you, what you allow or don't allow for your team members. Okay? I want to separate this for you really quickly. What you're not going to allow is for your company to have operations that are perpendicular to your values.

Because your team members do not separate you from the scheduling company. It's all you. It's all their experience of their leadership. And so it's you endorsing this type of action, and you're not okay with that. This is not about you being a dad. I don't mind giving anybody an advance if they have a problem and I figure out how they're going to pay back so it doesn't hurt them and they can pay their bills.

But at least I have control over that. This is going to be willy-nilly. It's like giving a cookie to a mouse. Yeah, no, we're not going to do it, Andy. You're on the right track. You know what you need to do. You just need to follow through with it. Communicate to your team members.

Come up with a new plan. They know their schedules for two weeks. They're fine. Two weeks is plenty of time for you to get something else in place. But nothing is worth you having your company run, your business run in a way that's perpendicular to your personal values. That's why you started your company is so you could have a company in line with your values. And you need to stick with those. Great question, though.

I'm sorry that happened. Man, that stinks. Great question. That happens sometimes. Yeah, it does. Blake is with us in Texas. Great question, though. I'm sorry that happened. Man, that stinks. That happens sometimes. Blake is with us in Texas. Good afternoon, Blake. Real quick, man, you have about a minute and a half. Ask your question

to Christy. Hey, how's it going, guys? Hi. Me and my fiance are on Baby Step 2. We started this about a week and a half ago. We were down to just the vehicles and the house, but we you know, we're putting the house back and whatnot.

But I'm looking to start my painting company back up again. I had it a while back. A couple years ago, I started it, and then I failed miserably, probably because of the way I handled money before I found Dave Ramsey and listened to what he had to say and everyone in his studios had to say and started taking that all in. Me and my fiance have been talking about me starting it back up, but I have a full-time job.

I work 10 to 12 hours a day, and I make about $ 60,000 a year where I'm at. Um, and I need a, I'm trying to figure out where, at what point I can actually stop and then start something new like that. Um, to make it your full-time thing, to make it my full-time thing without harming my family, uh, being my fiance and my, my 10 month old-old child, and how to make that transition smoothly as possible. Totally. I hear you. Here's the thing.

You're going to build it up on the side in every hour that you can, nights, weekends, get creative, take as many jobs as you can for a while. It's going to feel like you're working two full-time jobs, maybe even three because you are, but you're going to build up that income enough that it can support you financially. That might mean getting creative with your full-time job if there's any way you can back off of some of those hours or whatever your days and schedule look like from a logistics standpoint. But the way we say it is you want to pull the boat close enough to the dock

that when you step in the boat, that side business, it's not falling in the water. So you need to build up that money. That's why I love doing a show with Christy Wright. Hey, this is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. Today's scripture and quote comes from psalm 16 verse 11 you make known to me the path of life in your presence there is fullness of joy at your right hand are pleasures forevermore harold mcaladan says do not follow where the path may lead go instead where there is no path and leave a trail i like that create your own journey and let people follow you well you know what we're gonna get back to the phone calls and i gotta say man you know christy today's been fun that's great this has

just really been fun i i like doing the show with you you know we gotta do this more we got a lot of energy i love that about us. I love it. I love me some Christy Wright. We're going to go out to Chicago, Illinois, where it is cold right now. I have a conversation with Travis. Travis, hey man, is it cold out there? It's not

too bad. It's kind of warming up. What's the weather, Travis? I mean, Travis, what's the weather, man? What's the temperature? I'm sorry? What's the weather, Travis? I mean, Travis, what's the weather, man? What's the temperature? I'm sorry? What's the temperature? Honestly, I don't know for Chicago. I'm a couple minutes out from there. Okay, okay.

All right, all right, all right. Because you know, y'all people... About 40 here. Not too bad. And you said that's warm? That's not too bad. Not for Chicago weather. What's going on?

How can we help? Oh, my gosh. So right now, I work 40 miles away. I have to carpool with my friend to get there because currently I don't have a vehicle. I've got about 1,500 saved up, but I was wondering if I should just buy a hoopty or if I should finance a very, very small loan for a vehicle just so I can get there safely and not have to worry about breaking down. I kind of feel like I already know you guys' answers, but I just want reassurance.

Well, I'm pretty sure you know the answer but i definitely do want to you know i want to say this an american listen to me we have to get out of saying buy a hoopty buy a dave ramsey car and just start saying let's buy a reliable car that will get me from point a to point b that may not be my dream car i believe in there's power in what we say and if we say it's a hoopty it's going to become a hoopty and we're going to treat it like it's a hoopty and so uh drivers what i would definitely say is yes avoid student loans i get it oh man i'm scared if i buy this $1,500 car this $2,000 car it's going to break down on me.

And you know what? The truth of the fact is it might. But so can a used car, you know, any kind of used car. I purchased a beautiful high-end luxury car, Christy, about four months ago before I totally during this winter storm. And within not even a week of me having a car, the car broke down. I had to take it back to the shop. So I think for yourself, man, I would definitely go out there and look. I would see if I can just sacrifice maybe another month or two to get that up to about maybe $2,000 to $3,000.

And then look into a good, reliable car. car honda you know a honda product a toyota product a nissan product uh bob maybe like a 2000 maybe like a 2010 acrid tls are going for right around uh five thousand dollars if you get it in high mileage about 150 and 150 on a honda product is is is beautiful it's just now getting started so what i would just definitely do some research, man, because I'm telling you right now, you can find you a reliable car. I saw a Honda Accord with 200,000 miles on it, Chrissy, and it was going for $3,200. And a Honda Accord 2010, that is a good car. That is a reliable car as long as you just keep the maintenance up on it. So, drivers, no, stay away from the debt. Stay away from the debt. Do not finance anything. car that is a reliable car as long as you just keep the maintenance up on it so drivers know

stay away from the debt stay away from the debt do not finance anything right um the only reason why i asked was because like i said um i do get a carpool with my friend and it is about 40 miles there um but he's going to be moving soon okay Okay. And I wouldn't have a ride there anymore. What soon? Well, he doesn't really know, honestly, but he's trying to get it within a month. Okay, within a month. All right, cool.

So then start looking. Start looking now. You have $1,500. You can find something and just start looking. But no, I'm not going to tell you to take that. Are there any public transportation options from where you are? Are you going into the city? Is there anything like that?

I believe so. I think there's a train, but I don't know the scheduling for it yet because I work overnights. Well, the only reason I'm asking is because here's what I don't like, Anthony. I don't like in anything in life when I feel like I have two bad options and and so a car loan bad option or no car bad option so what I would just encourage you to do is just explore all your options get

super creative you still may not end up going one of those routes but it's going to make you feel more empowered to go I've got five options and I'm going to choose the best option of these five options versus I've only got two. I'm painted in a corner. I don't like being in that position. I don't think you do either. And so if you look into this and you realize, okay, the person I'm carpooling with, it's actually going to be two months. So I've got more time. And oh, by the way, whenever I looked into the train schedule, they do have a train schedule. I could hop on that buys me another couple of months. Well, how much could I save in four months? Well, maybe I could save an extra four grand.

Well, now you're looking at a really awesome $5,000 car. Man, look how your opportunities have opened up just because you explored outside the box of your two bad options, it seems like right now. So I would just, I would write it down, look at all your options. What realistically are we talking about with this carpool friend?

What are the train options, public transportation options? Is there anyone else in your area you could carpool could you put something on your neighborhood facebook post go hey does anybody work in the city i go this way would you ever want to carpool uh just get creative get a little scrappy and that's going to give you more options to choose from and that's always a good place to be i love it thank you for doing it uh saying that christy uh let's oh man christ, let me ask you this question. In your, from your expertise, when people say they want to borrow money to start a business, what do you tell them?

Well, I tell them no. Okay. I know that comes as a huge shock to you right now. Here's what I'll tell you that I see when people ask this, though. I see one of two things. Either one, they have been told or somewhere along the way they believe that they have to borrow money to start a business. Yeah. And they believe that's okay because they think, what's not my loan? It's the business's loan.

So it's not really mine. I'm not taking on debt. It's the business's debt. And they think somehow this is separate from them. And I remind them that someone has to pay those bills and that someone is you yeah so it's still your debt and it's all a bad idea so they have this belief that the only way to start is to take out loans and take out business loans and that's okay and i always encourage them you can start small grow slow dave ramsey started this company on a card table in his living room you can start small and cash

flow it yeah the second thing i see and this is is very common as well, but it's just a different angle on it. There are some people that don't really need to take out debt, but because they're starting this business and it's like this vulnerable time for them. They're like, I'm excited. I'm nervous. I've got this idea. Let's say it's a, I use a fitness coach example or someone that wants to do hair.

It's a salon. I'm so excited, but I've got to go spend all this say it's a, I use a fitness coach example or someone that wants to do hair. It's a salon. I'm so excited, but I've got to go spend all this money, buy all this equipment, lease a space, all these things they have to do. They have to do it, AO. They say they have to do it.

They can't be a business owner. And I remind them that they don't really have to do that. They don't have to buy those things. More often than not, they don't, nine times out of 10. Here's what they're trying to do, though. If you dig at their motivation,

they want to buy something to make it real to them. They want to buy something to validate. It's kind of like when I graduated college and I needed some new suits to go interview for jobs as if I didn't

have any perfectly fine interview clothes. I needed a new laptop bag. I didn't need that AO. I had clothes that were perfectly fine to interview in, but I wanted to validate or justify I'm in the workforce. I'm doing this. I think a lot of people at this vulnerable stage of starting a business, they're trying to validate it.

I just remind them, buying stuff for your business doesn't validate it. Money does. Come on. Get money in your bank account. Come on. When you make a sale, your business doesn't validate it. Money does. Come on. Get money in your bank account. When you make a sale, your business is validated. If you're in your garage working on a 1985 computer, it's validated when money's there. And so I just try to help people bust the myths, pull away the layers of the lies they're believing to help them understand what they really need to start their business, which is tenacity and money, not taking out a loan or a bunch of equipment. You know what, Chrissy?

Off subject, but you know what? I needed a new suit because my first job interview was in a red suit with a purple shirt. I was fired before I even did the interview. You actually did need something new. Man, Chrissy, I want to thank Chrissy. I want to thank our producer, James Child, and associate producer, Kelly Daniel. In America, remember, the caliber of our future, our financial future, will be determined by the decisions we make today. You made the right one by listening to The Ramsey Show.

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