The Ramsey Show - App - Don’t Sacrifice the Future on the Altar of the Immediate (Hour 1)
Episode Date: February 14, 2022As heard on this episode: Sign Up for a FREE trial of Ramsey+ TODAY: https://bit.ly/3rZTUAx Tools to get you started: Debt Calculator: https://bit.ly/2Q64HME Insurance Coverage Checkup: htt...ps://bit.ly/3sXwUn5 Complete Guide to Budgeting: https://bit.ly/3utmVXi Check out more Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3fHhbVE
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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show.
Where daddy's dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice.
Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, best-selling author and host of the Ken Coleman
Show, is my co-host today. Today we'll be talking to you about your career, your work,
your relationships, your mental health, your money, your life. It's all on display right
here and we're going to talk about you right in front of you. The phone number is 888-825-5225 that's 888-825-5225
Kara is with us Kara is going to start off this hour in Rhode Island hi
Kara how are you hey Dave I'm doing well how are you better than I deserve
what's up so just um kind of a quick question when you have a longer probably
longer than average time horizon for Baby Step 2,
that's where we're on right now. Does it still make sense at that point to completely pause
retirement savings? We're both in our, I'm 32, my husband's 33. I'm just wondering, because we have
about $140,000 worth of miscellaneous debt, not
including our mortgage and just doing the numbers and everything.
It's, it's, it's probably going to be a few years and we are, you know, kind of scrimping
and saving and stuff, but I just, my employer does offer me a match on my, uh, 401k and
I can do a Roth.
So I was just wondering if, should I I just completely lose out on that time?
You know what I mean? Yes.
You need to lose out on that time. You need to completely focus on that. There is a
power that is unleashed when you focus exclusively on something
that is not unleashed when you disperse your
emotions and your spirit across several things
okay so this complete obsession this scream and howl at the moon i'm getting out of that
that's what gets you out of that this i'm going to be smart and i'm going to intellectually figure
out all these things does not get anybody anywhere and that's why we have a culture of broke people walking around
acting like they're smart not you other people you're sweet you called and ask a question but
that's why all these people are strutting around with car payments acting like they're somebody
and they're not that's just straight up stupid and they are stupid when they're doing that i
was stupid when i did it and so you just this exclusive focus supersedes the power of the match
and the compound interest over the scope of your life because it sets new grooves and habits and
principles into your brain where you never change. What's your household income? We're just we're
just under a hundred thousand. Okay and how much of the hundred140,000 is car? About $18,000.
On one car?
No, on two cars.
Okay.
All right.
Yeah, we had a stupid fleece.
And you've been working on this program for a month and a half, maybe.
What?
How long?
No, we messed up last year, so we stopped and we started again.
So, yes, at this point, we have refocused, and we're probably on three months now.
Okay, that's about right.
That's what I get.
I figured you were early in the game.
Yeah, no, we are.
We're, like, seriously.
But this time you're game on.
This time you're serious.
Yes, yes.
Oh, my gosh.
And then you look up and you go, I'm serious, and that's a tall freaking mountain that I'm seriously got to climb.
Ouch.
Scary.
Intimidated.
Overwhelmed.
Right, Ken?
Yeah.
So let's help you really focus here for a second.
So how much are you contributing to the 401K?
Let's just do simple math.
What's coming out of your check for that?
Well, this is why I wanted to call and ask, because I had dialed it down to 3%, so like $100 to $120.
That's fine for this example, right?
So what's your smallest debt?
You're familiar with what we teach in Baby Step 2.
You take the smallest debt first.
So what's your smallest debt? Round numbers, if you don't know it exactly. Yeah. No, no worries.
I'm finishing up just a medical bill that's got about $600 left on it. All right. So
you're not, you know, $100 would take out taxes. But if you just put $100 or $50 a month and you
just attack that medical loan, boom, you're done with that.
What's the next highest one?
It's a lawyer bill for my husband's student loan.
That's $1,400.
All right, so those are manageable.
And as Dave's talking about, you guys getting at this,
then all of a sudden here's what you're going to experience.
We know this.
We've heard this from tens of thousands of people.
You're going to experience momentum after a couple of those
because you go, wait a second, we've sacrificed. Maybe he's thousands of people you're going to experience momentum after a couple of those because you go wait a second we've sacrificed maybe he's working an
extra job we're selling everything and all of a sudden you get momentum and that 140,000 isn't
so scary anymore because you see yourself attacking this thing and we're getting there
we're getting there we're getting there so being really really disciplined right now and clear that
the process works you just have to taste a couple
victories so here's let me let me if i were to do a weighted average approach to your situation okay
one percent of you succeeding financially in the scope of the next 10 years is whether or not mathematically is whether
or not you do this match or not it's a hundred bucks you can sneeze and lose that it doesn't
matter let me show you how much it doesn't matter okay how many times do you have to do a hundred
bucks to pay off an eighteen thousand dollar car a lot yet, I didn't jump on and sell your cars.
Why didn't I do that?
Because as a ratio of the overall problem, they don't fix the problem.
This $100 doesn't fix the problem.
Selling the cars doesn't fix the problem.
But what really does fix the problem?
85% to 90% of the mayonnaise on the bologna sandwich the thing that
makes it work here 85 to 90 percent of the reason you're going to succeed is your complete focus
and sell out and sticking to this and tearing into it and working extra and selling so much
stuff the kids think they're next and not seeing the inside of a restaurant unless you're working
there and you're doing the budget and you and your husband are working and all you're thinking about for the next 24 to 36 months is
i'm getting out of debt and you know anybody that says anything to you just yell at them get away
from me you know just do i'm just doing this i'm freaking doing this and that's the people that get
out of debt it's not an intellectual exercise it's a visceral roar at the moon coming from down inside your soul that i freaking had it and
i'm not living like this anymore that's 85 to 95 percent of this that is represented by
your willingness to quit playing footsie with the mathematics of a hundred dollars
yes the emotional representation inside your soul uh that that you gave up this holy match
from your employer that everyone worships oh my god that's the answer it's wonderful to get a
match by the way but everybody acts like it's a big thing the big thing is you you're the deal
you're the secret sauce personal Personal finance is 80% behavior.
It's 20% head knowledge.
When you get your emotions, your relationships,
the psychology of who you are all dialed in,
and you go, that's it.
I've had it.
I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired.
It's when you change your life, baby.
It's not when you drop the match or start the match.
It's not when you suddenly understand compound interest.
It's not even when you sell your $18,000 worth of cars
out of $140,000 worth of debt when you make $100,000 a year.
But you'll find a way when you've had it.
And that's the deal.
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Open phones at 888-825-5225.
Blinds.com gives us our question of the day.
They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee.
That means even if you mismeasure or you pick the wrong color,
they'll remake your window blinds for free they got free samples free shipping and new promos
all the time this is a great company i bought blinds from them for a patio not long ago check
them out promo code ramsey you'll get the best possible deal today's question comes from elaine
in california she writes i've been working as a commissioned salesperson for a small family-owned business for two years and have not received a raise.
I received lots of positive feedback from the owner. Since cost of living is on the rise,
I would like to ask for a raise, but I'm uncertain of how to determine an appropriate amount
to propose. I currently have to meet a $28,000 sales goal before I begin receiving commission
and I gross $950 a week as a base. My fear is that if they increase my base pay,
they'll also increase the $28,000 goal. How do I evaluate at which point these adjustments would
cancel each other out and amount to no financial benefit to me? And how do I start these negotiations?
Well, the first thing I'm going to address here, Dave, is I don't like the word negotiation.
I know what she means, but I really want this to take a posture of conversation, not negotiation.
The other thing is that as a guy who has spent a lot of time in my professional career on commission,
in this case I would not be having a conversation about cost of living.
I would be talking about maybe a higher percentage of commission based on sales goals. I would talk
about the cost of living, and I would have some real facts here and kind of say, okay, here's
what's going on. This cost has risen. This cost has risen. But even then, unless it's something
very dramatic, and I'm guessing here, I'm trying
to read into this, that inflation is really not what I would call a cost of living rise. Even
though it is, it's like everybody's facing that. You didn't move anywhere. This is not a change in
location for a company to where cost of living is a big difference. So here, I'm going to sit tight and focus my conversation around how can I increase my commission rate based on performance.
You know, I think when you're in a sales position, you really aren't capped unless you don't have a good product or good service to sell.
Your raise is effective when you are.
I knew you were going to say that.
I almost said
that way that's your line yeah i mean yeah so i can't say that you are when you're on commission
you want to raise go make more sales yeah get better at it hello yeah you know and if you if
you work for us and you came in we would be nice but that's basically what we would tell you yeah
you want to raise kill more things and drag it home we share with you what you kill and drag
home yeah get up leave the cave kill it and drag it home. We share with you what you kill and drag home. Yeah. Get up.
Leave the cave.
Kill it and drag it home.
Can we help you do that better?
Sure.
We'll try to help you do that better.
Can we furnish you some more marketing assets or better leads?
We'll try to talk about that.
Anything we can do there.
But at the end of the day, you have the best possible scenario.
Go sell more.
What does that involve?
What does it take to make that happen?
That's right and uh you know is
there some other is there something that the company has the product line has that is a blocker
to you selling more i might ask for them to help lower some of those blockers uh you know this
computer you gave me sucks i can't get get anything out. The email's inconsistent.
I can't communicate with my customers, and I'm losing sales because I can't do that.
We had a phone system one time that sucked.
It was killing sales.
And that's not fair to the salesperson.
And a couple of them griped about it.
And I'm always a champion of the sales guy because I've been a sales guy my whole life.
And so I went, hey, rip out the freaking phone system.
Put one in that will actually make sales.
It's driving me nuts here.
We're losing dadgum money yeah because here's the thing you're you're the best thing you want
make your employer smile you make more sales yeah they don't mind me giving you more money
by the way that's how you start that you got a fifty thousand dollar a year base too baby doll
yeah i mean she ain't bad That's not exactly straight commission.
Talk to people in the real estate business, and let me tell you what they make if they sell no houses.
No money.
There is no base.
It's called straight commission.
And so they be out selling houses is what they be doing.
And by the way, Dave, I would never, ever, ever, ever, ever ask for more base.
I'm on straight commission.
I don't sell any books.
I don't make any money. Yeah, I want more commission. Ken, you're straight commission. I don't sell any books. I don't make any money.
Yeah, I want more commission.
Ken, you're on commission.
I am, actually.
Would you sell some more books?
Yes, we're working on it.
But, you know, the reality is that people don't understand that.
They think base equals security.
Nope.
And that's a false choice there.
Nope.
You don't have any problem if you sell a million books.
You don't have any issues about security.
No.
It won't come up. No. So if you make a million books you don't have any issues about security no it won't come up you know so if you make a million sales or
whatever it is you're doing you know it's just it's how we're gonna do more how are we going
how are we gonna scale this how much more can i work what can how can i be more effective i mean
if you got four leads and you close three of them you don't have a closing problem you got a lead
problem how are you gonna get more leads if you got four leads and you close one out of a hundred you got a problem yeah your conversion rate sucks so you need to learn to close the sale you know
that this is this is it man sales is the best business in the world absolutely it's my favorite
career track for somebody i wish i could talk young people all i'm into going into sales
because you just control your own destiny sales people make more than any other category
they make more than doctors and lawyers.
It's true.
Salespeople.
I mean, you talk to some medical device salespeople.
They've got 300K.
Pharmaceutical sales, 300K.
Car dealers or car salespeople right now make 150, 200K.
I met a guy the other day that's just killing it.
And a very nice guy.
We were introduced by a mutual friend.
When we were done
talking i said to my buddy i go what does he do he's in sales what does he sell he goes you're
not gonna believe this he sells all those gigantic like pipes that i don't even want to call it a
pipe but like those giant cylinders that they put in under roads when they're doing new road work i
mean giant concrete like commercial construction that guy called that thank you sells those things and is crushing it sure sure because those are expensive items government's
paying for them right it's big money yeah so i mean it's a great field to go into because you
can control your own destiny more clearly than you can just about anything else because someone
else controls the purse strings everywhere else but um my my goal is to have sales people around here that are making more
money than they've ever made in their life because that means they're helping more people they're
serving more people than they ever have in their life that's correct and um my other goal is for
sales people that are not doing that to have skinny kids that's correct that's right and you
want a salesperson that comes to you as a leader and says,
Hey, I want to make more, but I know that I make more when I make you more.
How can we do that together?
How can we do that better?
Touchdown.
I'll help you do that.
They love that.
I'll do that all day long.
By the way, that's not a negotiation.
No, it's not a negotiation.
It's a conversation.
And that's the key.
Posture.
Basically, that's true of any raise.
That's correct.
Don't ask for raise.
Because, you know, how can I make you more so that I'm worth more?
So you give me some of it.
That's the conversation.
How can I get better?
How can I get more valuable to the organization so I help you win?
And as a result, I win professionally and financially.
Corporate America is different.
Corporate America is stupid.
They're not going to do this stuff because they get politics and toxic crap and all this garbage going on. But normal businesses, the owner or the manager of the business would like to bring in more revenue.
And if you bring in more revenue, they would love to share it with you.
So you do it again.
That's the trick.
I mean, when you get somebody performing, you want them to do it again and again and again and again.
And so that's normal human beings running a business.
Now, again, corporate America is stupid.
They forget all this stuff.
And you can't make more than the guy in the corner office.
Well, bull crap.
If you sell enough stuff, you can have the corner office.
We'll kick him out.
I mean, you know, you get her done, baby.
Salespeople are my favorite people.
I love them.
Because they're serving.
There's no way you can sell a whole bunch of stuff without serving.
Oh, you can't on the short term.
You rip people off.
But I'm talking about over a career, you've got to help people.
When you help people, they give you certificates of appreciation with president's faces on them.
This is the Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Thank you for joining us, America.
Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, host of The Ken Coleman Show, is my co-host today.
Open phones at 888-825-5225.
Open phones here.
Hey, Ken, 888-825-5225.
Adam is with us on the debt-free stage in the lobby of ramsey solutions how are you adam
i'm doing well how are you better than i deserve where do you live cincinnati ohio oh cool so good
to have you thanks for having us and all the way here to do a debt-free screen that's right
fun how much did you pay off uh 226 000 whoa long did that take? About two and a half years. Good for you.
And your range of
income during that time? I started
off about $25,000.
Ended up $250,000.
Whoa. Not a bad
jump. We'll take it. What were you doing
and what do you do? I started off a waiter
and now I'm in sales. Sales management now.
Just like we were talking about. You set it up perfect.
That's wild. You set this up perfect.
Oh, man.
Amazing.
Okay.
What do you sell?
Cars.
Oh, there you go.
You just said this.
This is perfect.
This is so great.
Almost like we knew
we were talking about.
Way to go, man.
Thank you.
Very cool.
I'm so glad you're doing so well.
You know,
I was talking on the way up here
with a friend of mine.
A big portion of it is
I had to pay off my debt. So I had to sell more cars. And, you know, I was talking on the way up here with a friend of mine. A big portion of it is I had to pay off my debt.
So I had to sell more cars.
And, you know, it'd be great to hang on the couch and watch Netflix or whatever it might be,
but it's more important to pay off the debt.
And then like Ken was talking about earlier, momentum got on my side.
And once the momentum started picking up speed, there was just no stopping it.
So what I was saying when we were talking about all this a minute ago, you can really speak to this.
Yes.
My contention has always been that the best salespeople in the world know how to serve.
100%.
And you were a server.
So all you do is serve people into buying a car.
That's it.
You just help them.
You just help them.
Patience, thick skin, and listen.
Oh.
So this is fascinating.
I love that formula.
At what point in this debt-free journey
did you make the move from waiter to so it's two and a half years at what point did you move from
waiter to car sales so i that was the the short story of it but i i started off a waiter and i
went to restaurant management ah and uh you know real close to cincinnati red stadium so i had free
reds tickets and free prime rib and it was tough to get me away. And my friend was in car sales, and he got promoted
to management, and he kept trying to get
me to come do it, and then he finally sent me a picture
of his paycheck. And I was
there the next day. Yes. I was there the next
day. I'm in. I'm in. Yep. Wow.
Good for you, man. So what kind of
debt was the $226,000?
$15,000 was student
loans, $45,000 were cars,
$130,000 was my mortgage, $30,000 was credit card, and $6,000 was taxes loans. $45,000 were cars. $130,000 was my mortgage.
Uh-oh.
$30,000 was credit card and $6,000 was taxes.
You paid off your house.
Bye-bye.
It's gone.
Man, we're looking at weird, dude.
I know.
This is awesome.
Way to go, weirdo.
You're right.
I love it, man.
That grass does feel different under your feet when it's on the shores.
I love it.
What's this house worth?
Now it's about $250,000.
It was $130,000 when I bought it.
Yeah, I love it.
Yeah.
Yeah, you got a quarter of a million dollar paid for household, are you?
44.
Wow, way to go, man.
Thank you.
Congratulations.
I'm so proud of you.
Thank you.
Yeah, it's, you know, this all started when I decided to get sober.
And when getting sober, you make amends, right?
And part of making amends is financial amends, which I thought I was going to be able to sid to sidestep you know because i was sober and uh everyone i was around was like oh no no no no
no no i had a friend co who would say there's no way i could have what i have today had i not paid
off my financial amends my other friend john very shortly after that showed up gave me your book
and said i'm doing very very well for myself and I still follow this man's formula. Probably a good idea if you did, too.
Wow.
So where are you sober from? Alcohol or what?
Mainly alcohol, yes.
How long have you been dry? Eight years.
Way to go, man. You're an absolute hero.
You completely took control of your life.
Well, God did. I just
listened. Yeah, but you did it.
I mean, you stuck it out. I'm so proud of you.
Thank you. Thank you for your help. Well done. I love being part of that story a particular yes yeah that's very cool
good for you man thank you all right so now you did it you you you're successful in that you paid
off 226 000 with a debt it's not theory you're an actual practitioner you actually did it it's not
a discussion with your broke brother-in-law.
You really did it.
How do you tell people that you got out of debt?
What's the key to getting out of debt?
Like you guys said, it's not a math problem.
It's emotion.
It's emotion and wanting that more than you want to look like somebody else.
It's real easy to want to keep up with the guy sitting next to me selling cars or my friend that's going on vacation every other month or whatever it might be.
I had a lot of friends going on a lot of vacations that I didn't go on.
I was at home paying off my debt.
It's just that thick skin.
It's just sitting through it and it's seeing to the end.
And I've made mistakes.
I mean, I went backwards a couple times.
Nobody's perfect.
But to be able to shake it off and get back,
pick yourself up by your bootstraps
and keep marching forward is a big part for me.
I want to ask you, I think it's so incredibly heroic
that you have overcome substance abuse
and that addiction and all that.
How much did that play in the discipline
and you having to say, hey,
what it took to get through that and stay clean?
How much did that come into this journey?
Almost 100%. So
when John gave me your book, I was in a halfway house. I was living in a park in Cincinnati,
Ohio, and I had just started living in a halfway house. And the part of your book where you talk
about changing your family tree forever struck home more than anything. Because I really saw
myself at a point where a decision had to be made. uh you know at the time i looked at it and said you know what i'm young enough where i can
change my family tree forever you know i had my daughter and um i just went all in i went all in
i really on that statement that statement that was that's how you set the hook was with that
statement now so where was your daughter with Was her mom at the time? Correct.
Okay.
All right.
And she's here with you today?
Yeah, she's right here.
I love it.
That's very cool.
Yeah.
Very cool. It's powerful stuff.
And she got to watch her dad walk this heroic journey.
Oh, yeah.
It's left an imprint on her more than the money issue will.
It has very little to do with the money.
I mean, the money is a part of it, obviously, but it's more behavioral.
Yeah, it's where you keep scores on.
Yeah. Wow. Absolutely powerful keep scores on. Yeah.
Wow.
Absolutely powerful.
Good stuff.
Okay.
Who were your biggest cheerleaders?
My friend John, who gave me your book.
My other friend Lance and my other friend Co.
The three of them all together.
You know, there were times where it was like, you know, I want to go on vacation or I want to do this.
And, you know, especially last year, they're like, nope, wrap up that mortgage.
You're so close. Just finish it out. The accountability, the encouragement. You got to do this. And, you know, especially last year, they're like, nope, wrap up that mortgage. You're so close.
Just finish it out.
The accountability, the encouragement, you got to have it.
You got to have cheerleaders in your corner, man.
A hundred percent.
They bring out the best.
For all of our lives, for any part of our life, we need that.
But you need it as you're walking this debt-free journey for sure.
Correct.
And you've obviously done it in the 12-step process too.
So pretty, pretty incredible.
Thank you.
Thank you for your help, and I mean that.
Well, thank you.
Thank you.
We're honored to be.
Again, that's the best kind of story to be a part of.
Yes.
Very, very cool.
All right, so what was the hardest part?
The hardest part was seeing all my friends on vacation.
It looked like they were having a good time.
They were.
Yeah, well, you know and and and really you know
people do show up and they try to do math for you you know and just being able to like have thick
skin and say uh you know what man i think i'm gonna go ahead and take care of you know this
interest maybe more and i think i'm gonna follow this program i'm not gonna follow your program
yeah i mean this guy seems to know he's talking about so i'm gonna go ahead and do what he's doing
yeah it's it's so powerful it brings to
mind an old phrase i heard one time from an old preacher he said don't sacrifice the future on
the altar of the immediate and you really model that you know friends are going come on man come
on trying to give you their math and you're like no i can just see it all over you oh yeah well
they were doing out of love they were trying to set me up for failure. Oh, sure, sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
That's powerful.
Well done, brother.
Thank you.
Love it.
Thank you.
All right.
Let's bring your daughter up.
What is her age?
This is Macy.
She's 19.
All right.
Very, very cool.
Good stuff.
Good stuff.
All right.
Adam and Macy from Cincinnati.
$226,000 paid off in two and a half years, making $25,000 to $250,000.
We've got a copy of Baby Steps Millionaires for you
and a copy of Total Money Makeover for you.
That's definitely the Baby Steps Millionaires,
definitely the next chapter in your story.
You're going to be on your way.
You'll be there shortly.
This kind of money and no payments in the world.
Wow.
Way to go.
All right, Adam and Macy, count it down.
Let's hear a debt-free scream.
Three, two, one. We a debt-free scream three two one we're debt
free yeah wow wow
it's amazing how much career and how much mental health and behavior decisions
all play into this whole thing of building wealth.
This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. Ken Coleman Ramsey Personality is my co-host.
Open phones at 888-825-5225.
Sydney's with us in Baton Rouge.
Hi, Cindy. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.
Hi, Dave. Thank you so much for having me.
Sure. What's up?
I'm just curious how you felt about what the role of rebalancing your accounts would be in your investments for retirement.
For example, if we invest into the four categories and one of them overperforms into 30% and 40% of our overall portfolio at some point,
should we rebalance that to get back down to 25% into all four of the categories, or should we just
reevaluate the funds that we have? It won't hurt to rebalance them.
The thing I wouldn't fool with is there's not enough benefit to do it as an obsession.
I mean, I know people that spend their entire December rebalancing every year, and I wouldn't
do that. For my funds to get rebalanced, they year, and I wouldn't do that.
For my funds to get rebalanced, they would have to get completely out of control,
to where I look up and I got 60% in one of the four or something like that,
and I probably wouldn't want that.
But so far I've not had that issue.
But if you end up that way, but if you get it to the point that it's making you nervous,
that you're not well diversified anymore because you're so heavy in one category of the four,
then, yeah, you probably would want to do that.
But that might be three times in your life.
Okay, I was just curious. My employer offers it as an automatic thing that can go in quarterly or annually or every five years.
However, I would want to set it.
I wouldn't.
I would just, five years I could look at it, you know, if you want to.
But if it doesn't automatically?
They have the option to set that to rebalance automatically, yes, sir.
Okay.
I mean, if you said, I'd set it at five years then but any sooner than that there's not a huge benefit mathematically to
the process the big benefit is is that you don't get too many of your eggs in one basket you're
not well diversified it if you're too heavy in one category that so the benefit is just safety
you don't you're not going to end up with like $5 million extra money because you did this.
It's not going to work out that way.
But you may end up with some extra money, but it's not going to be to where you went,
oh, the secret to me having $3 million is rebalancing.
No, this is a phrase no one has ever said because it's not possible.
But it's a good question.
And I did not know they offered that as an automatic thing.
That's cool.
I might want to even look into that for our team.
Because I have people ask me about it internally.
Well, I was going to ask you what was going through that company's minds.
They're obviously doing that as a benefit.
Are they looking at, okay, we're not performing as well here, so we're going to move it around?
I mean, is that?
Well, I mean, if you've got a balanced portfolio and it gets out of balance, you know, that's a great concern to some people emotionally.
And so it's probably not the company.
It's probably the mutual fund company that's servicing their 401K that just thought, well, that'd be a neat thing.
Yeah.
Because those of us that are nerds are concerned about that kind of thing.
Sidney's a wonderful nerd like me.
I mean, she's concerned about that.
It's a good thing.
I mean, non-nerds don't ask these questions, okay?
But this is a good question even for you non-nerds to hear the answer to.
Yes, it is.
But, yeah, that's, you know, you can do.
I would pay more attention to the performance of the funds in my four categories overall
than I would whether or not they were balanced.
That's how I tend to do it.
That's one I might move over.
I might actually make a move if I've got a fund that is consistently underperforming all the other funds in its category.
Exactly.
Then, yeah, I'm going to probably make a move out of that puppy.
Ken is with us in Sacramento.
Hi, Ken.
Welcome to the Ramsey Show.
Thank you for taking my call, Ken and Dave.
Sure.
How are you today?
Better than we deserve.
What's up?
Hey, we're very blessed and highly favored.
I have a question.
We've been following the program for years.
We're in a pretty good financial spot at this point.
We're looking to retire and move out of California. And what is a good
percentage looking at our net worth that we should spend on our retirement home?
Wow. Congratulations. Well done.
Well, thank you. You guys have a lot to do with it.
The data that we have says that percentage changes the more your net worth is.
So what's your net worth okay
um we're probably at 1.7 conservatives good for you with the house good for you thank you
the typical millionaire in your range is going to be um 30 to 40 percent okay that's the typical
now that's not to say you're going to go broke if you go to 50%, but when you have north of 50% of your $1.7 million net worth that is not generating an income,
it's sitting in a house because we're paying cash for the house.
Obviously, we're having a Dave Ramsey discussion, right?
So it's not generating an income.
So every one of those dollars we put in that house,
you're sidelining it to create an income for the rest of your lifestyle.
Correct.
That's why you don't want to get up.
When you get up north of 50%, it starts to be an ouch on that.
But the typical millionaire we studied in the millionaire study that we did, 1.7, we would often hear the house was $400,000 to $700,000.
Okay.
You know, that kind of thing.
Thank you, because we're going to go looking.
We just want to see what's going to be in that.
Where are you thinking about going?
Well, y'all, we've been practicing here also.
We're thinking about southwestern Tennessee around Lordsburg
or maybe down the Florence, Killian, Alabama area.
Okay. Well, half a million dollars will buy
a stinking big house there.
Okay. Well, we just want something comfortable
and nice. Oh, I mean, you're coming
from Sacramento. Your mind's going to be blown.
Certainly in southwest Tennessee.
Because what you're talking about is the rural
Tennessee. And, you know,
this is not Nashville prices.
Nashville prices are considerably
different or Williamson County that we live in which is adjacent to Nashville very expensive but
Lewisburg man bang for your bucks huge it's a great little town too by the way good people
good beautiful out there yeah oh it's pretty country really pretty Morgan is in good retirement. Morgan is in Toledo.
Hi, Morgan.
Welcome to the Ramsey Show.
Hi, Ken.
Hi, Dave.
Thanks for taking my call.
Sure.
So I was just notified that our health insurance premiums at my work are increasing almost 40%.
It's going from $520 a month to $800 a month.
Ouch.
Basically, my take-home pay is, in effect, dropping 13%. So I take home about $2K a month. My take-home pay is in effect dropping 13%. So I take home about 2K a month.
It's going down to 1700 a month. My question is, it's like, I want to ask for a raise,
even though I just received my annual raise in October at my annual review of 4%.
But how do I ask for another raise, but also phrase it as I'm not really looking for a raise.
I just want to keep my benefits, my salary the same because I don't really feel like I did anything to deserve such a hit in my salary.
Welcome to Obamacare.
We've been fighting it around here for about 10 years at our place.
Yeah, this is a little different here, Dave than in that she just came through annual review but
this is i'm guessing across the board in the company but you make 24 000 a year yeah yeah
my growth is 38k and i bring home about 27 net because it's about in san diego california what
do you do oh no this is this is oh i'm sorry toledo ohio wrong call i'm sorry i got the wrong
thing off that's okay i can. It's typed in properly.
I read it wrong.
Okay.
So what do you do?
Okay.
I'm a remote worker.
I work on spreadsheets and, like, data analyzing.
You have a degree?
No, I don't.
I started off as an executive assistant, and I just sort of morphed into this.
How old are you?
I'm just kind of 30.
Okay.
Yeah, I think this is across the board. The company's made this
decision, so it doesn't really put you in a position
where you can go, hey, you just
decreased one benefit, if you will,
in the sense that it's more money to you.
I think you're looking elsewhere. I don't think
that you're going to have any kind of short-term
recourse to get this bump.
That's what they're doing anyway. They've already made a
financial decision, and it is negatively impacting you, but they're
not going to just give you a bump.
It doesn't sound like to me.
This is company-wide, so I'd be looking elsewhere.
I think you have a lot greater opportunity, and to be honest with you, I think you can
make a whole lot more money elsewhere.
Yeah, I don't think you're making any money.
That's why I was asking all these questions.
Yeah, I want you to make more money.
The truth is, this job, we call it a unicorn job because it's remote.
It's salary.
I can work on my own schedule, so I'm like a stay-at-home mom.
Who cares?
Well, you've got to decide what the tradeoff is.
What do you want more?
Stay-at-home mom.
Okay.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, something's going to give, but you're not making any money.
There's nothing here.
This is not a job you jump up and dance for.
There's just not that much to it.
You go get another one.
I'm with Ken.
This is James Childs, a producer of The Ramsey Show.
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