The Ramsey Show - App - Don't Wait to Work Until Unemployment Benefits Backfire! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: May 19, 2020

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thanks for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. My co-host on the air today, Ramsey personality, Ken Coleman, host of the Ken Coleman Show, where we talk about, he talks about careers and jobs every day.

And we're now up to 36 million unemployed so you got something to do my brother telling you what it is really really important that people have an idea how to get clear because it's going to be one of the most competitive job markets in our history because those numbers are probably going to balloon past 40 million dave as we see some main numbers will come out and and yet at the same time while those unemployment numbers are big we're seeing the economy is thawing out state after state opening up even the governor of california who just a week ago was saying we're shut down for three more months remember this pro sports can begin activities in june so i think you're now seeing a shift the collective uh united states mentality is all right let's open up and so hopefully that

means jobs are going to come back in the service sector in the retail sector so people better get ready dave because i think you're going to see those employment numbers begin to shift we don't know how quickly nobody does but i think better days are ahead there's definitely a check mark effect i mean because as businesses open up it's real simple they need employees the problem is that um for a free market guy like myself i'm seeing the unintended consequence yeah of the federal government uh democrats and republicans signing the largest stimulus bill in history and so guess what the unemployed have no um no incentive to go back to work that's exactly right the furloughed have no incentive to go back to work i was uh i mentioned this before i was with a friend of mine this weekend that owns a restaurant and he's having trouble staffing

he's reopened but the people that used to work for him now make more sitting on their butts with unemployment plus six hundred dollars a week from the government until that runs out he's going to have trouble getting back. And guess what? That's going to make it look like the unemployment is worse than it is because there's jobs available, and so many people don't want to go back to work. Well, you're looking at July 25th, folks. That is going to run out.

And so you're really hedging your bets here that you've told your employer, you know what, I make more money staying at home than I do working, and they may replace you. And I wouldn't be surprised if they don't. And what's interesting, I saw some data yesterday. I wish they would. I would, too, because I don't like it. I don't like it at all. When you're offered work, there is, and I get the math, but this isn't math. This is about dignity, the human spirit all of us long to work i'm not on welfare if i don't know that's exactly right those funds should be going to other people that might be in a much different situation or not running up the federal debt either one well i'm with you there i don't think you know listen yeah this is from forbes an unintended unexpected

consequence of the multi-trillion dollar stimulus package is that workers are asking to be laid off. Yeah. Or reluctant. Asking to be laid off! Right. Well, look at the minimum wage. $15 an hour. Or reluctant to go back to work after being furloughed in an effort to help people financially

cope with their job losses amidst the pandemic. The federal government, which can screw up Christmas, is providing an extra $600 a week in unemployment benefits, and this amount is in addition to what the states already pay, which is in the range of $200 to $300 a week. So a person could conceivably earn $1,000 a week on unemployment, $52,000 a year, depending on if they went for a whole year. That's annualized.

Depending on the state he or she resides in. Situation-facing companies that have already been financially hurt by consequences of COVID-19 outbreak, consider a worker at an Amazon warehouse. The worker has to be on their feet all day, lift heavy boxes on and off shelves, race around the facility, fulfill orders like work, earning a minimum wage of $15 per hour. By the way, that's not the minimum wage. That's their minimum wage. The person may make pre-tax $5.25 a week.

Think of how many millions of other people work at dangerous, physically demanding, or unpleasant jobs earning a similar amount. Not to disparage anyone, but it's enticing for a person to be asked to be laid off so they can earn more money than they were making at work. Let's look at the flip side. Tom Moran cited in the same article out of Michigan, small businessman. Because of these government unemployment payments, he is now paying $960 per week. That's $80 higher than what he pays his welders and $353 more than some of his average workers.

So this government screwing up Christmas, they're hurting the small business man and woman who we talk about all the time here. Who's trying to recover from this. They are the recovery. They are the backbone. So, you know, these unemployment benefits sound really great until you realize Tom Moran is a guy who's creating jobs and we are hurting small businesses.

As opposed to what the government does, creates nothing. Yeah, so it's a real problem and we need to get back to work. It was done with the government does, creates nothing. Yeah, so it's a real problem, and we need to get back to work. It was done with the right intention, but anytime you just go bananas, which they did. They just went bananas with this. There should have been some checks and balances on it. But, oh, yeah, we're going to buy your votes. Here comes Pelosi and Trump. One thing they can agree on.

Run the nation another $2 trillion into debt, and let's put just almost nothing on this. Just turn it loose and shut the place down. Unbelievable. I mean, yeah, and so the dad blame? Yeah, if you can't find a job right now, you ain't looking. They're everywhere. Everybody's hiring, and everybody's opening up,

and they're desperate for you to come back to work. So it's an interesting, interesting time. We don't have this problem at Ramsey Solutions because we don't have anyone. Number one, we didn't lay anybody off. Number two, we're not hiring any positions that are below that. Well, they are below $52,000 a year. I do have are below that uh well they're probably they are below fifty two thousand dollars a year i do have some below that i don't know if we're hiring them today but you know hypothetically someone would say i don't want to start the new job at ramsey until this runs out in which case

i would not hire them right well again this is this benefit is not infinity and beyond folks we're talking about july 25th know, but that's two more months. Yeah, but the point is, why mortgage your future on the immediate? I just don't like it. It's not good thinking. Well, because everybody thinks short term. Well, I get it. Not us. I know, but for the next four weeks, I can cash out.

Oh, I understand that. So I don't want to go take the job that I've got sitting in front of me. I mean, that hypothetically could happen here, because we've opened our hiring back up. We've started hiring again gradually, very gradually, very slowly, very carefully, wisely, not knee-jerk reaction and overdo something. Right, right. Well, here's how that's going to backfire, Dave. Let's just run some numbers. The current numbers are 36.5 million people unemployed. Now, watch this, folks. Let's just round that down to 30 million for just some simple math. In the coming weeks and months, let's say that 30 million people,

on average, each person submits five resumes. I think that's really, really low based on the data. That's 150 million resumes flooding the marketplace. Let's put it up to 10. You're doing the math with me. That's 300 million million resumes i think it's closer to 20 and more 600 million resumes so if you're playing this july 25th i'm going to stay home is linkedin going to break i don't know but i'm telling you right now you could really hurt yourself if you've got an opportunity to go back to work and take a go back to work is my point that's true that's my point other people are going to get your job and and then when this runs out, they're not going to be. Oh, that's a good point.

I think that's where it backfires. Yeah. Get back to work. Yeah. Wow. Very interesting. That's good insight. All right, Ken Coleman, my co-host this hour.

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visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. CHM is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. My co-host this hour, Ken Coleman of The Ken Coleman Show. If you've got questions about jobs and about careers, jump in. We'll take your calls about life and about money, as always. And life right now involves working. The phone number is 888-825-5225. And, yes, it is beginning to thaw. The nuclear winter is going aside. The apocalypse is ending. And it's like a science fiction movie.

There's actually traffic on the streets in Nashville. I did like not having traffic for a little while. That was nice. Yes, it's tradeoff. I was able to drive at the appropriate speed that dave ramsey was designed by god to drive which shall not be mentioned publicly it just was but yeah there you go so yeah but it's uh now i have to like be courteous of other people because they're in the way right so

although one of those cars you drive you know it could scare you if it comes up behind you. I think you knew what you were doing because people just think. The Raptor? Yes. They just want to move over to the right lane when they see you. It's a desired effect. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Maverick is going to start us in Indiana this hour.

Hey, Maverick, how are you? Hey, Dave and Ken. Hey, thanks for everything you guys do. too sir how can we help hey so my question is whether me and my wife should cash flow um a fixer-upper house to begin a real estate business while we're still in baby step two or not no no no you need to get out of debt you're gonna get enough money to buy a house well the idea would be that we would save up to buy a fixer-upper rental house. That way we could kind of jumpstart a real estate business. I know, but I mean, by the time you do that, that's a lot of money.

How much debt have you got? We have $36,000, sir. Okay. And so what would your rental house cost? We found the local market here in Fort Waynene would be anywhere if we bought a fixed rubber around 20 000 yeah okay yeah so so the point being that all we're by saying no i'm not saying no never i'm saying delay you know whatever how long is it going to take you to pay off 36 000 we have it set now to be about three years so it would take you two years

to save up for the house the rental house right right okay and so we're not going to be out of debt for five years if we do that right and then we and then we also we figured because we have very flexible jobs that we could work overtime in order to pay for the rental property which you can do as well for your debt and get out of debt faster than three years. What's your household income, sir? We make $55,000 a year, sir. Okay. Three years is too long for $36,000.

Okay. You ought to do that in two, max, based on the number of people that come through here doing debt-free screams in those situations. And yeah, you pick up extra jobs, you cut your budget, and and you knock it out i want you to get in the real estate business with cash if that's what you want to do but i don't want you to go into debt to do it dude talk to the people who own airbnb right now and thought it was a great idea to borrow as much as they could borrow and buy you've seen it ken oh yeah these people are buying these houses especially around nashville They got hammered, man.

I guess around everywhere, but in downtown Nashville, which is about 15 miles north of us. I mean, people are, because Nashville is such a tourist hotspot, they're buying houses on debt. Now, you're not going to do it on debt, but, you know, talk to those guys. It doesn't always work out like it's supposed to work out. This is the real-life temptation that we all face in different areas of our life, and it's just simply this. We want to start focusing on what we want as opposed to what we have to do. There's a great line in one of my favorite movies, The Great Debaters, where the young man is spending all of his time, Dave, spending time with the debate team, and they've got a chance as a small college to debate the big boys in the Ivy League, and he's not doing

his schoolwork. And there's a great line where his dad says, I'm taking debate away if you don't start focusing on your schoolwork. And the sons argue with him. He finally says, do what you have to do so you can do what you want to do. And this is the classic case here. Sure, you want to make more money and you want to get into the real estate business, but you know what? Do what you have to do so that when a coronavirus or something else that no one can predict

comes out and all of a sudden you're unstable with a plan that made sense yep yep that thing that because debt only works when it works now he wasn't trying to go into debt no no no you're just staying in that you stay in that to do that's right so same same same idea valerie is with us in california hi valerie how are you hi i'm doing great Dave. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. How can Ken and I help? Well, I wanted to say that, well, my husband lost his job due to COVID in March, and we were working with Gazelle Intensity on Baby Step 2, and we just started in February, so we were working on our plan and after he lost his job um he did

get a second job or sorry he got a job he found a job but it was making a half of what he was making before so in order to compensate I I used Ken Coleman's template for um for a resume and I got hired for a second job so now I'm still working full-time. That's the problem with using those Ken Coleman things. They work. Yeah, it did work. Thank you, Ken. Good. And so I guess my question is today, my question is,

I feel a little bit guilty that I took on a second job because there's going to be so many people that don't have work. But with this gazelle intensity, I really feel like we need to do it so we can get out of debt. So help me out. Valerie, let me free you of the guilt. You are an amazing woman. I mean, you're stepping up big time. I would not have any guilt about the fact that you've pulled in a second job while many are out of work. That is not your situation. It's not your responsibility to get all those other people employed. You stepped up. Let's just be honest. You were affected. Your husband got laid off like millions and millions of other people,

and he stepped into something else. Kudos to him. He's making half of what he did make, and you had an opportunity to step in and make up the difference. Please don't feel any guilt. You should be proud of yourself. You not taking this job is not going to solve anybody else's problems. That's a false premise. And you've got a sweetheart. You just have a sweetheart. Occasionally when I have one, which happens just very occasionally,

and I'm thinking something like this and i'm thinking you know my it's my job to fix somebody else's thing that it's their job to fix um kind of thing my wife will just look at me and say uh hey jesus what's up oh in other words in other words you're not the messiah hillbilly and so it's his job to be god uh not your job you can't fix everything it's not even though your heart says i love people and people are hurting and I want to help people, but you can't fix everything. And so that's, you know, you're not harming anyone else. Believe me, someone else wants a job in freaking California, they will find a job.

Or they'll go to another state and find a job. You're not destroying someone else's life. You're not being greedy. You're simply a kind person with a big heart who doesn't afraid of hard work. Get them. Get them. Just get it. Get after it.

Open phones this hour. I'm Dave Ramsey. Your host, Scott, is in Nevada. Hi, Scott. How are you? I'm great. How are you guys? Better than I deserve.

What's up? I thank you very much for both of you. I read both of your books. My wife and I are huge followers. Thank you. I'm calling with questions from my parents. My parents are retired, and they have debt. They have a mortgage.

They have credit card debt. And my dad has a really, really, really lousy life insurance policy that I have now convinced him to look up Zander and investigate further about the life insurance. I wanted to ask you guys what you thought about a 70-year-old retired person with life insurance, trying to get life insurance, as far as the term and as far as how much. I can't really find out what your recommendation is for how much. Very difficult to get. If you can get it, it's going to be expensive, and so probably the cost is what's going to limit you, not my advice on how much. I mean, it would be great if he died and left everything paid off for your mom, right?

Right, sure. And so if you could get that much, and if he could get enough to pay off the mortgage and the debts, that would be awesome. But I don't know if he'll get it, and if he can get it, if he can afford it. So you'll just have to run that past Xander before you cancel the other policy. For God's sakes, don't cancel the other policy. He's looking at how much he pays already, and he's paying out the nose for this ridiculous plan. So he's going to take whatever they charge him, and it's already from the estimates they gave yesterday.

They gave him, it was less than half of what he's already paying well that's great the coverage yeah that's great i really wouldn't i wouldn't spend a ton of money on on this i mean as little as you can spend and cover the mortgage and cover the other stuff and make sure mama's taken care of if he dies and certainly vice versa if she could get if you get it on her and if the mortgage and everything is taken care of but if you know you're not going to leave with a big pile of money in addition to that. It's just going to be too expensive at 70. That other policy must be really, really bad. One of those old whole life policies probably.

So, hey man, you're doing it the right way. Keep plowing forward. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Please hear me loud and clear. The government is not going to bail you out of your student loans, at least not completely and not without a catch. What they're talking about only impacts federal, not private loans, and you need to take responsibility for what you owe and pay your debt down quicker. We'll be right back. Qualify. Co-hosting today on the Dave Ramsey Show, Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, author of the book, The Proximity Principle, host of the Ken Coleman Show, where we talk about, he talks about jobs and careers.

We're talking about that today. If you have questions about jobs or careers, jump in. The phone number, 888-825-5225. We always talk about money, and we always talk about life here. Upcoming next is going to be Dan in Pennsylvania. Hi, Dan. How are you? I'm doing fine, thanks, Dave.

Good. So here's my situation. I am a school teacher. I also have a side business, make about $100,000 a year. I took advantage. I have about $20,000 left on my mortgage. I do also have a home equity line of credit on the house, just kind of there. I took advantage with the stock market as a first-time investor when everything crashed.

And you can hold your ears on this one, but I went ahead and borrowed about $17,000, and I invested low and slow in the market using what we'll call America 2.0 stocks. These are kind of future stocks. Portfolio is up at about 22%. My highest gain is 204%. My lowest gain is a negative 46. It's about 30 companies, $500 a piece. So it's gained nicely.

This is all buy and hold. My question is, as my business generates more income and if I have extra income, I'm loving the stock market. I'm having a lot of fun. I feel part of these companies. Should I use that to invest more or should I try to tackle the $17,000 that I borrowed for the line of credit to invest? Okay. Well, I guess you've probably not listened to us for very long. I wouldn't have done, nor would I continue to do anything you're doing. So I wouldn't tell you to do that. I mean, it's not going to cause you to go bankrupt at the level you're doing it,

but you're under the illusion that you can continue this because you happen to catch and ride one wave, and now you think you're a pro surfer. You're going to get your head taken off when this market shifts a different direction and you don't see it coming. Projecting that the stock market was going to go up from its low this spring did not require rocket scientist level of thinking. Most people kind of knew that. So you caught a wave that everybody was catching,

and you're under the illusion that you're emotionally connected to these companies who don't even know you exist, nor do they care if you exist. I wouldn't even say that out loud again. So, no, you do what you want to do, dude, but no, I would not borrow money to invest, and no, I would not invest in single stocks. You're obviously a math guy, and you're having fun with the math, and I get that. I'm kind of nerdy. I like the math stuff too, and it's kind of a monopoly game for you.

Thank God it's $17,000. It's not $170,000 or $1.7 million, at which point you would have actually emotionally absorbed the risk that you were taking and realized that you're playing, you know, you're playing Yahtzee here and you're asking for it. Now, you're probably going to get out of this alive. I mean, you're probably going to get out of this and actually make money with what you're doing. But one time when we were on a cruise, Ken, when we were 22 years old or 24 years old, the very first time Sharon and I went on a cruise,

my wife, who is so freaking stingy, we got changed. This was back on the cruise when they would actually use money on a cruise. Now they don't use money on a cruise. They use your room card or whatever. Anyway, she got changed, and she went by these little slot machines and dropped a quarter in the slot machine, thought it was funny. Well, guess what? Oh, no.

She hit it. She won. So you know what we did for the rest of the cruise? We put hundreds of dollars more, plus everything she made, back into those machines because she hit once. And that's the danger of something yes it's tough to walk away with the winnings once you once you hit you think you know you think you got it figured out and uh all the all the data says that 78 of the day traders lose money the fact that you haven't put you in the top 22 i'm not going to do any kind of investing game that I have to be in the top 22%

perpetually to keep from losing money, which does make money. So, no, I don't borrow money, which adds to the risk, and I don't play single stocks, which adds to the risk. So, sorry, man. If you want to do all that, certainly it's okay with you. You're a grown-up, but you called us to ask our advice, and that's what we do. So Ashton's in Indiana.

Hey, Ashton, how are you? Hi, I'm great. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So my husband and I are leaving now to the land of the land. Having trouble hearing you. Can you speak directly into your phone?

I apologize. Can you hear me okay? That's a little better. Okay. So my husband and I are fairly new to the program. We're on Baby Step 2 right now. And I'm going to turn 30 next year. You're going to turn 30?

Yes. Okay. The current career I am in, I'm not satisfied with it. And honestly, I find myself every day wanting more out of life. If I had the opportunity to return to school for tuition free, I would just need to pay for my books. And I'm not sure if I'm honestly, if I'm too old to return to school and find a new career. A 30? Yeah, I mean, I, you know, like,

it really, it's hard. The only thing you're too old to do is be 20. Yeah. Yeah, the question is, Well, Ashton, here's what you have to do, okay? So you've already identified that you're not in a job and a career that you love. You've got an opportunity here that seems to be advantageous in that you're only paying for your books if you go back to school.

But again, before you go back to school, I think you have to ask the big question here, which is, is going back to school and getting a degree, the requirement to switch gears, to switch into a role in a career that you really love. I want you to make sure of that first because it sounds really wonderful, and it is a wonderful opportunity, but is it a necessary requirement to have the degree? So I think you have to get clear first. You've got to get clear on what is it that you really want to do and why you want to do it. Then you ask yourself the question, what must be true? Yeah. What do I have to do to get qualified? And that's the what must be true. So you're looking

at what do I need to learn and do? That's education and experience. And again, don't always think four-year education unless it's necessary. It might just be a certification. And so once you determine what you need to learn, then how much is that going to cost you financially? If you're on a budget, that's going to determine the answer to the next question, which is how long will this take me? That's how you come up with the plan. And that's where it becomes no longer this mystical journey and scary of the unknown. It's just, oh, this is what I i have to do this is what it's going to cost and as a result in my budget my situation this is my timeline and now a person can go all right i can go on that journey because i see the destination you know it's an important thing

because a lot of people losing their jobs are going to reset and sometimes folks make the mistaken idea and it is a mistake that the method of reset 100% of the time is, I just got to go back to college. That's right. Instead, the method of reset should be, what do I want to do next, and what are the requirements for what I want to do next? How do I best get where I want to go? Instead of vaguely going, because you know, really, if you don't go back to college in order to go do

something specific, then what you're really doing is you're going back to college to hide. You're trying to dodge reality, because reality is painful. It's a great point. When you lost your job, it hurt, and I want to hide. I want to go back and be a child again. That's right, and think about the time and money you're wasting. You go get a four-year degree that you don't need, that's not even going to put you on the path you want to be on. What are we doing here? Hiding. That's it.

I think that's a really good point. It becomes an excuse not to pursue something. Yeah. Right? You need to be called to something specific and answer the phone. Yeah. And then go, what has to be true that's not true today if a four-year degree is part of the answer to that question, it's never the whole answer, but if it's part of the answer to that question, then boom, you go get the four-year degree.

But you don't go there to hide. No. Bad place to hide. Yes. Very expensive to hide there. Yes, indeed. Ken Coleman, my co-host this hour. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. You may feel like there's not a lot you can control these days, but I'm here to tell you,

you can control your budget and you can control what you feed your family. My longtime friends at eMeals are here to help. They have simplified meal plans and created new recipe collections such as easy pantry meals and freezer meals utilizing basic ingredients. It has never been easier to shop smarter and stay on a budget. Try it free for two full weeks at emails.com. So are you stuck in a job you hate, or did you lose your job in this global crisis or are you looking for something new and you feel the pressure of these 36 million other people out there that are unemployed looking for a job if you answered yes to any of these questions ken coleman's got the answer right ken we do dave

it's going to be fun we've got the get hired event this thursday night may 21st 7 central 8 eastern and we're going to do a deep dive Live stream coming right from the atrium here at Ramsey Solutions. So a live stream event called Get Hired. It's $10 for tickets. Now, we had a three-tiered system where you could get a $10 ticket, or if you want to, you could get a $25 ticket, which includes a copy of Ken's book, The Proximity Principle, which is a great buy on the book that way. We'll ship that to you, of course.

And we had a $100 ticket, which included an interview with some of our HR team here to help you get a job. That ticket sold out. Yeah. We had a limited number of those we could do. We want those HR people working. So for us, part of the time. That's right.

Instead of doing Ken's seminars. But yeah. So the Get Hired event is this Thursday night at 7 p.m. May the 21st. $10 tickets at DaveRamsey.com. That's right. We're going to do our Blinds.com question today, Dave. It comes from Stacy in Mississippi. She writes in, Dave, I'm selling my home, and I have the opportunity to move into a friend's home rent-free. Is the money that we've earned on the sale of our home subject to capital gains taxes?

I look to earn approximately $45,000 on the sale of our home. All right. So you're the career guy, but you don't actually know the answer. I actually do this. I do know this, that after two years of being in the home, you are not subject to capital gains taxes. So assuming that she's not going to take a hit on that profit. Zero. Zero tax on it.

That's right. If you've been there two years, up to $250,000 single or $500,000 married filing jointly. So you can find out for yourself why Blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window coverings. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month you will save even more blinds.com check them out use dave use ramsay as your uh promo code it's like magic it will save you money kevin is in new hampshire hey kevin welcome to the dave ramsay show hey dave how? Sure man, what's up? So I'm a recent college graduate. I just graduated last week with a bachelor's degree in computer science. I have no debt. I was able to secure a full-time position in my field during the pandemic going on right

now, so I'm really blessed for that. over the course of five years during my bachelor's degree, um, I was, you know, working, um, you know, 30, 35 hours a week just trying to save so that when I graduate, you know, I have, you know, a solid down payment possibly for a house. Way to go. So as of today, I have about 60,000 saved. Um at you. Yeah, so I don't think I'm going to buy for the next year or two. I'm going to just settle my way out of school first and then make some big life decisions after that. So I'm wondering, do you have any recommendations to where I should put that money for the meantime?

Currently, it's just in a savings account, so I didn't know if you had any ideas for that, just for the short term. You've been very diligent, very careful, very intentional with this money. To lose some of it would be very painful. And so I would not put it in something where you're playing the market. I wouldn't play mutual funds unless it's a longer term than two years. The problem is there's not any middle ground. There's either like money markets and savings accounts or mutual funds.

Mutual funds have too much risk for me if I'm in your shoes. Because you've worked so hard for one of these dollars, to lose two of those dollars would be painful. To lose 2,000 of them would be really painful because the market went down just at the time you got ready to buy. And so if I were in your shoes, you're not going to make much on your money, but I'd just get a good money market account. You know, it's going to be maybe 2%, something like that, and I would just park it.

Protection of principle here, because you've worked so hard for the money, and it's your age, and it's the first thing you're doing and all that, is just more important than the little bit of money you can make were you to put it at risk in the stock market. So that's the direction I would go. Steve's with us in Virginia. Hi, Steve. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call. All right. Quick story so I get to wrap this up before the end of the hour. I'm a 50-year-old physical therapist. Love my job. But I've been doing it for nearly 30 years, and I'm thinking, well, not always. For the last five, eight years, I thought it would be fun to go do something else.

I've always thought I would like financial advising. And, you know, I've been talking to different people in that world, and I'm looking at a job in a full-service brokerage. So, you know, they're going to train you. They're going to pay a stipend of, well, they're going to supplement my income, which is right now $110,000, with about 75%, and then wean it down as my commissions and fees start to, well, there'll be a definite timeline of counting it down.

But hopefully in that time, you know, build up a book of clients so that I am now, you know, increasing my income over a year and a half, two years or so. Got it. What's your question? So basically, you know, I'm going to make 210 with my wife is 100, I'm 110. Should I consider doing this? I'm, you know, our net worth is 1.3, but in all honesty, we have an emergency fund of about $40,000.

Why wouldn't it? Sitting in retirement, just a little apprehension,, God, that's $110,000. It's going to definitely, it's guaranteed it's going to disappear. Would you lose your ability to go back to PT if you ever wanted to? Not within two years. Okay.

Well, you'll have a pretty good idea during that time. Yeah, I think this comes down, Steve, to do you believe that if you do the training and you put the effort in and you're clearly a very successful guy both you and your wife do you have any reason to believe that you won't succeed in this and the only apprehension is it's you know to build up your book of business it's a cold call uh there's cold calls involved initially um yeah i push back against that i don't i don't believe in a true cold call i think there's cold calls involved initially. I push back against that. I don't believe in a true cold call.

I think there's a way to find relationships and connections, and you get yourself introduced to people just like you would on any other conversation that you really wanted to have. I think you're just afraid. I think you're focusing on the thing that you're going to walk away from instead of the thing that you're walking into. I think that's what's going on. You have a little bit of self-doubt. What happens if I don't

succeed? That's what you're dealing with. It's all doubt. And I think you've got to decide at some point, do you believe that you've got what it takes? We're talking about talent and passion here to make this thing work. And as Dave said, you do have a fallback. I just don't think this is a big risk i think your head's wrestling with your heart your heart's saying go do it his head's going wait a second you make really good money steve what are you doing and i think that's the classic argument well i mean there's a it's reasonable to say there's risk to this the point is uh you can live on your wife's income if you make nothing you can live off your net worth if you make nothing

so it's not like you're going to go hungry here and they're paying him 75 of his current for a while for a while gives him time to believe in himself he's really not taking much of a pay cut um but then you've got to go in and do the work yeah and um you know you're pt so you're what do your customers have to do they gotta do the work or they don't get well and the uh yeah you gotta do the cold calls you gotta learn to do referrals. You've got to learn to work warm leads and create warm leads like Ken's talking about. But the financial advising business, if it's with a solid firm, they should be able to also feed you some if they're solid, but some leads, that is.

But you build a book of business, it is a very rewarding thing because you build deep relationships with people over a long period of time and the um it's very rewarding financially if you do it right if you go at it like we teach with the heart of a teacher not the heart of a salesman and so um i i would be researching ways to do this without the old fashion cold call because dialing up people that you don't know doesn't work in this century but there are all kinds of ways to create relationships one degree of separation from you that's very wide very broad there's all kinds of marketing techniques that that work for that that you can get in the door and build you a book of

business i think you should do it i really think you should do it. I really think you should do it. But you've got to know that you've got to pay a price, just like your customers when they come in. Their knee is going to be stiff and not have full extension if they don't do the work on the knee. You've got to fully commit. That's it. Ken Coleman with me this hour as a co-host, as well as all day today on The Dave Ramsey Show.

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