The Ramsey Show - App - Employer Is Charging an Insurance Premium if I Don’t Get the Vaccine (Hour 3)

Episode Date: October 15, 2021

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Thank you. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is The Ramsey Show. It's where America hangs out and have a conversation about your life, your money, your work, your relationships. It's all on the table. We want to help you.

And the way we do it is just good old-fashioned conversation, coaching you up, giving you some practical steps to take that you can do because it is up to you. And I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague, fellow Ramsey personality, George Camel, with a K, by the way. K-A-M-E-L. Thank you for that, Ken. Can I just say, I always appreciate when you call me a colleague. It just feels, I feel very, my back straightens up. Yeah. I have better posture.

You know why that is? Why is that? Because you're a millennial. Oh, yeah. And I'm an Xer, and I think colleague is a term that you are only vaguely familiar with. So when I say it, it has a little extra punch to it, although it just means coworker. It feels old-timey in a good way. It is.

I'm a little bit of an old soul. Kelly's looking at me like she's irritated. Should I retire colleague? No. Oh, boy. Oh, you're irritated at George. Thank you very much. Okay, because I feel like colleague is not.

Two Xers, Matt at a Millennial. This is too classic, guys. Come on. Yes, yes, yes. And Kelly and I are almost like exactly the same age. I would have thought Kelly was much younger. Way younger. Nice move, George.

Well played, sir. I'm mostly just scared of Kelly, so just trying to earn the brownie points where I can. As you should. All right, let's get to the phones. Hazard, Kentucky. Oh, that's cool. Josh is on the line. Well, I love saying this. In Hazard, Josh is there. Josh, that's cool. Josh is on the line. I love saying this.

Josh is there. Josh, how can we help? Yes, I'm actually currently in Baby Step 2. Me and my wife, we make around $80,000 a year. Right before I started the Baby Steps, we bought a property which was adjoining a

development area, which is a venture tourism in my area. We're really, it's a rural area. Long story short, it took off very well. And the county government has actually got a grant for their side of the venture tourism for like $1.5 million, and they're making a lodge. And right now, like I said, I'm on baby step two. We're working the plan.

We're just kind of, my first cabin I i built i ended up doing some rentals there uh kind of want to see where i need to go if it should be right to build another cabin now or wait till we get finished the bank is actually i spoke with them they're open with doing another one but i understand you know it's hard to get out of a hole with a very small shovel at the same time if you're digging deeper. So you are taking out loans to build these cabins? Yes, it was before we started any type of baby steps or anything. And you're saying, hey, should I go build another cabin if it's going to mean taking out another loan? Yes, that's the only thing.

I don't really want to go through with that. But at the same time, like i've turned away like 30 people the last month for bookings on my cabin yeah so you're seeing the dollar signs going man i got to get another cabin asap i can make some money yeah how much debt do you have uh minus my mortgage and the vacation rental i've got $40,000 in consumer debt? Yeah, it's a couple cars and then a personal loan and one credit card. Okay.

And what, do you have any business debt? Yes, for the land, the property we bought in the cabin, it was, we owe about $58,000, I think, on that.

How much are you... Then my home, I owe about $80,000. How much are you clearing, Josh, on this one cabin rental that's just hot hot hot um i'm clearing uh about a thousand dollars a month on it so yeah that's not yeah but i mean you haven't gotten into any repairs that thousand dollars a month that's not a whole lot when you

think about upkeep and stuff like that that's 12 grand a year so it's not a whole lot when you think about upkeep and stuff like that. That's $12,000 a year. So it's not a money-making scheme. Yeah. So the answer is no, you're not going to go into debt for another one. You're not even making enough money to get that excited. I mean, I understand it's kind of nice to see it all booking up and stuff like that, but the reality is you're clearing right now. And when I ask you clearing, I mean, are you working in expenses to that like upkeep and

repairs yeah okay but even to that 12 grand a year i mean and you've got almost a hundred thousand dollars in debt from your consumer debt plus the business debt and this is outside of the rental correct in your home yeah that yes okay well that's just my just the consumer debt which i'm not adding in you know the home business home business debt is about $40,000. Yeah. I think you're doing a lot of different things right now, and I think it's going to – if it's not already adding stress to your life, which I assume you wouldn't be calling in if it wasn't creating some level of anxiety going, all right, we've got a lot of things going on here. So what I would recommend you do, the business debt, I mean, you signed your personal name on that debt, right? Yeah. Well, yes, it was through the business when

I bought it, but it's my personal name. I'm the owner of the business. So anything that's not real estate, I would go ahead and put in baby step two in this debt snowball and list it out from smallest to largest. Do you have any cash right now, just straight up in savings? Just my emergency fund for my business, which is around $1,000, and then I have an emergency fund for my personal lock-in Baby Step 2 is $1,000. Okay, so you're in Baby Step 2 now. We're going to use the debt snowball. So what I want you to do is list out all of your debts that aren't real estate

and list them out from smallest to largest regardless of the interest rate, and I want you to start attacking that with a vengeance with every dollar you can get coming in. We're not buying anything. We're not swiping the credit card anymore. We're not buying cars. If you can sell some of those cars and make a profit off of it, I would do that as well. Are they in good shape? Could you get some money for those cars and clear some of this debt?

It would be close. I might be able to. It would be very, very close. I'd look into it right now because I'm seeing some crazy things with this car market where people are getting way over the value that would have been 18 months ago. So if that can speed up this journey for you, I want you to clear this $100,000 of debt and be in a really good spot for you to eventually start building more cabins with cash.

All right. And that's kind of the way I felt, too, but it felt good to hear from somebody else. Yeah. Thanks for the call, Josh. And here's the deal. You can knock this out. And once you knock this personal debt out, knock that cabin out, now all of a sudden you've got some real wealth-building opportunity here.

And then expand that business, because clearly it's working. And so that's a positive asset in the sense that, okay, we've got something to build off of. But don't take the temptation to take on more debt. Yeah. That's a good move. But he's got some good things going on. But, again, when I hear credit cards and the cars and personal loans, it feels like things are out of whack right now. We've got to clean up the mess before we can focus on growing the business.

George, I was going to ask you this. Are you sensing, because I know you look into consumer stuff as well, are you sensing any trend here on, are we going to see used car cost kind of slow down? It feels like they're pretty high, a premium right now. Is that going to change anytime soon? Are you reading anything?

My prediction is in 2022, we're going to see things level out a little bit. We're not going to see this craziness where used cars are going for 30% more than they would have 18 months ago. As the supply chain starts to fix itself and we see more new cars in the market, the used cars will get a little less attractive. And so right now, if you've got car debt, now's the time to look into some of these sites like Vroom and Carvana, CarMax, dealerships, even Facebook Marketplace. I've been hearing crazy stories of people

listing their car on Facebook Marketplace and dealers from different states are contacting them and they're legit and they're saying, we'll give you way over your offer. Oh, so you're saying to go to a car dealer, which is traditionally an awful idea because they give you way less than the Kelly Blue Book. And listing on Facebook Marketplace over your offer. Oh, so you're saying to go to a car dealer, which is traditionally an awful idea because they give you way less than the Kelley Blue Book.

And listing on Facebook Marketplace and the dealer reaches out to you. So you're getting Kelley Blue Book value from car dealers? Oh yeah. Even more. Oh. They're desperate out there. This is why. Crazy times.

This is why. I'm a nerd, Ken. He's the consumer's friend right here. I'm a nerd. Good stuff. Hey, don't move. More of your calls coming up. He's George Campbell.

I'm Ken Coleman. And this is The Ramsey Show. I'm sure most of you have seen the news recently about ransomware, cybercrimes, identity theft, and more and more data breaches. If you thought it was bad before, let me tell you, it's gone off the charts and it's out of control. It's impossible any longer to just bury your head and hope it doesn't happen to you. Today, it really is a matter of when it will happen, and not if. We all live in this cyber world and need to make sure we have the best protection possible without wasting money. That's why Zander's ID Theft Protection Plan is the only one I've ever recommended.

They combine smart cyber protection and prevention services to help reduce your risk, and their team of dedicated experts takes over the work if you become a victim. They even provide $1 million in stolen funds protection, and kids are free on their family plan. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. Welcome back, America. You are joining the conversation here on the ramsey show i'm ken coleman joined by george camel as we take your questions this hour triple eight eight two five five two two five the number to jump in is triple eight eight two five five two two five now of course we take your calls but we also get you know a show this large tremendous amount of social

media questions. And I should mention, if you want to follow George and I on the gram, as the kids call it, Instagram. Do kids call it that? I don't think kids call it that, but I'll give it to you. I did that. I knew I was going to walk into that. Anytime you say, as the kids call it, just know it's not what they call it. Well, you know, I slipped into dad mode there, George, because I have three teenagers.

And I do that. And recently, the team got me on TikTok. Oh, that's right. And I don't do anything over there. So this is not like go follow me over there because the team does it, and we're kind of dabbling into some content there. You're not doing dance challenges. Don't get excited. We had a post that went kind of nuts, and I came home that day, and I told my kids, hey, so dad's pretty big on the talk.

And, dude, they were so irritated with it, just like you are right now, that I called it the talk. But it's not the gram either. No. It's Instagram. Yeah. At George Camel. At George Camel with a K and at Ken Coleman. Yeah.

Also with a K. With a K. Coleman with a C. Thank you, George. There you go. You just confused everybody. Ramsey has a lot of, I don't have many fans, but the Ramsey brand brand we get a lot of social media questions and we love them and you've got a very interesting one right now yes we've got a great question from joel on facebook and here's what joel asked

i got hit in the t-mobile data breach earlier this year and i keep getting weird voicemails and texts from random companies should i be worried about about ID theft? That's a great question. Ken, if you didn't hear about this, back in August, T-Mobile had a data breach that affected almost 50 million customers. I think I remember seeing a headline. Yeah. So this is scary stuff. A lot of data breaches out there.

At some point in your life, you're going to be a part of a data breach. I mean, a lot of major companies experience- Wow, that's very scary. Really? Yeah. But here's the thing. Let me explain to you, and this will answer Joel's question. A data breach is different from identity theft.

So a data breach just means that your information was exposed. So there was a security breach, and your personal confidential information is out there. Someone may have access to maybe your birthday, your email address, maybe your social security number, your street address, things like that. But it doesn't turn into identity theft until someone actually uses that private information for their financial gain. And I experienced identity theft. Did you? I had someone opened up an AT&T account, a Verizon account under my name using my Nashville address, but they did it in Boston with my social security number and racked up $1,700 on both. When was this? This was back in 2014.

Was it, did they at least re, when they stole your identity, were they like a six foot five muscular person? I was hoping. I don't know if they ever found the person, but here's the thing. It was very scary because you go, this person has my very personal information. They used it against me to create this debt in my name. That's crazy. Obviously, I didn't have to pay it, but they racked up $1,700 on both accounts. And the good news is I was working at Ramsey at the time.

I had ID theft protection through Xander. Dave gets that for all the employees. But here's some things that Joel can do because I think it's a legitimate worry to have. I don't want you to get paranoid about identity theft. You can sleep easy at night, but here's some things that you can do. Number one is check your credit report. What's really interesting right now is the bureaus are offering free weekly reports through April 20th, 2022. Normally, you can access them once a year for free. Right now,

they're doing it weekly through 2022, April 20th, 2022, thanks to COVID. So that's one thing you can do. Check for any suspicious activity there. Another thing you can do, and I did this after identity theft, is freeze your credit. So call up, contact the three credit bureaus, and make sure you freeze your credit. That's Equifax, Experian, TransUnion. What that means is no one's going to be able to open up an account because it's frozen. You might have to lift it temporarily if you're applying for an apartment and there's a hard inquiry if you need to do a check like that. Another thing you can do, beef up your password game. Most of us, we can't remember our passwords.

We use the same one on everything. Oops. And that's a dangerous move. Is it? Because if they get your password for your T-Mobile account, that might be the same one for your email. And now they access a whole web of things. And so make sure you're using strong passwords.

Use a password manager. James Childs, our producer, loves a good password manager. That's another thing you can do. He does. He strikes me as somebody. Big privacy nerd. Yeah. Another thing.

Have you heard of this? Two-factor authentication. Is that the deal where you have to get a cell phone number? Well, yes. You can do different things. Oh, see, smarty pants. I actually knew a little something. It's where you've got a password, but you also have to verify it through maybe a text message that's what i was

opening up a smartphone app or a physical security key so those are all great things but the number one thing i tell you to do to sleep easy is just get identity theft protection it's super cheap for an individual it's you know it's the cost of a latte and for a family it's the cost of a pizza per month to stay protected and what this does this i didn't know this xander does all the work for me they do and so they're they're 24 7 365 support and they will cover up to a million dollars for stolen funds and expenses and there's proactive monitor monitoring and alerts so i love this i sleep easy at night now i haven't had identity theft since and i do these other things. I freeze my credit. I make sure my passwords are strong. And I use two-factor authentication so that in case of a breach, it doesn't create identity theft. Yeah. I got to tell you, George, I feel much better.

Because when you started off on this whole deal about data breach, I thought somebody was going to break into the studio because some guys in some black suits and the aviator glasses. It sounds very, very scary. But I do recall that each month you know i'm not a fan of email but i do get an email from xander and i click on it it tells me and and they'll let you know hey your email was compromised um go change your password here and i go oh thank you xan i would have had no idea yeah so it there's it's a great feature and there's a lot of things you can do to protect yourself don't freak out joel uh but make sure that you're doing these things good stuff good question thanks george good stuff there. Megan is up now in Green Bay,

Wisconsin. Megan, how can we help? Hi, I am so honored to talk to you guys. Well, thank you. What's going on? All right. So my husband has been employed for 20 years with the same company, longer than we've been married actually um and his employer is implementing a surcharge on insurance costs for those who are not receiving the covid shot um which we definitely do not want and so we're trying to figure out we we don't know how much the surcharge is going to be um and we're just looking for some guidance as to where to go from here if we should just kind of wait this out or if he should maybe just start looking a little bit to see what else is out there in case it gets you know let me ask you this if this wasn't coming down the pike

would he be thinking about moving on no he really likes what he does. Yeah. I'm going to try to not get involved in this emotionally and help you walk through this, because on one hand, you guys don't want to get it. You don't want to get the shot. And on the other hand, you don't want to get hit really hard and take on an expense like this. And he wasn't looking, wasn't thinking about looking prior to this. So this really puts you in a tough situation.

But I think this comes down to your priorities. And, you know, I think at the end of the day, they need to tell you what the cost is going to be. And then you weigh the cost, literally weigh the cost. Okay. In order to stay in this job that he really enjoys, there's going to be an added monthly expense now that i'm getting hit with um how long is that gonna last we don't know the answer to that you know is it gonna be forever you know who knows i think you have to weigh that uh while you're weighing that

and waiting for that information i would be looking looking, though. I'll tell you that. Yeah, there's two pieces of this. There's the ethical component of do I want to work for a place that has these values? And if overall he agrees with them ethically and he goes, all right, this is something I've got to deal with, and it basically turns into a $200 pay cut if it's $10, $15 a month. Now, I can't imagine it's anything large. They're not going to charge you $100 a month. Now, if it's, I can't imagine it's anything large. I'm not going to charge you $100 a month. I would hope not.

But then you weigh it and go, all right, am I willing to take this little pay cut to stay at a job that I truly love, and this is just an annoyance that I'm going to deal with as part of it. But if you're like, hey, I can't agree with them ethically anymore,

I've got to leave, that's your decision that you have to make. Yeah. Yeah, I think this is tough. And I've got to tell you, now that I think about it, George, I wouldn't be surprised if it's not a hefty bump. Because I'm going to tell you what this amounts to. This is a penalty. And companies are saying, we think everybody should be vaccinated.

And we're telling you that you need to. Because I think Delta Airlines came out. They were the first, I think, major company for this kind of thing. It was like, hey, we're going to hit you with a premium on your health care because of all the implications they're saying. But I think it comes down to a penalty. And I don't know. It may not be insignificant. It may be a significant number.

And in that case, unfortunately, it turns into a budget line item. Your values and your money are driving this decision. And if you've got to move on, you've got to move on. Hey, don't move on, because we've got more of your calls coming up. This is the Ramsey Show. People always say, when I get this promotion, I'll be able to make a real impact. Wrong. When you make a solid plan on how you need to grow, you can become the leader you want to be.

And that's why Ken Coleman, America's career coach and national best-selling author, wrote his new book, From Paycheck to Purpose, The Clear Path to Doing Work You Love. And it's available for pre-order right now. If you want to grow or create a legacy in your career, you need this book. It's not just a concept, it's a proven, clear path that will walk anyone in any industry through a step by step plan to take their career to the next level plus if you pre-order from paycheck to purpose today you'll receive our get promoted bonus pack for free which includes the audio book ebook disc assessment an exclusive talk from ken and access to our live event and more pre-order from paycheck to purpose at RamseySolutions.com.

Welcome back, America. You are joining The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague, George Camel. And we're here for you this hour. It is a free phone call, 888-825-5225. And, George, this is our favorite part of the show, looking out there in the Ramsey Solutions lobby on the debt-free stage. I see Brandon and Michaela.

Welcome. Thank you. Hello. Yeah, where are you guys from? We're from Paducah, Kentucky. Paducah, welcome. Thank you. Hello. Yeah, where are you guys from? We're from Paducah, Kentucky. Paducah, Kentucky. All right. And if you're on that stage, that means you're here for a debt-free screen.

Yes, sir. Fantastic. How much debt did you pay off? We paid off $25,500, and then we also had a baby in the middle of that. Whoa. Congratulations. Thank you. How old is the baby now?

She's six months old. Six months. Are you sleeping? Actually, yeah. She sleeps really well. She sleeps? That means she baby now? She's six months old. Six months. Are you sleeping? Actually, yeah. She sleeps really well. She sleeps. That means you sleep. That's fantastic.

Okay. So $25,500. How long did it take? Ten months. Ten months. And what was the range of income? It started at $100,000 and then it's up to $115,000. Oh.

All right. Tell me about that. What did we do to get there? Well, actually it was just a raise through my work. Good. About halfway through this year. Great. What do we do to get there? Well, actually, it was just a race through my work. Good. About halfway through this year. Great. What do you do?

I'm a manager at HVAC Supply House. Nice. And Michaela? I work at a CPA office. Oh, nice. Okay, fantastic. So great income here. And what kind of debt was the $25,500?

Everything. It was car loans, student loans, credit card. We financed some flooring, some carpet, everything, really. Okay. All right. Are you happy with the flooring choice? I love it. I love it.

It's paid for now. That's right. It's paid for, so I hope you're happy. Absolutely. It probably feels a little bit better to walk on. Wonderful. Yeah, I thought that might be the case. Okay. Okay. So 10 months ago, did you know about Ramsey Solutions, Financial Peace, Total Money Makeover?

What led you to start this journey? You can take it. Okay. So I had actually known about Dave Ramsey for a while. I had done FPU probably two or three times. Okay. And I knew how it worked. I just never did it.

Interesting. Never really, I guess, was motivated to do it. And I guess it was towards the end of December of last year. We were like, okay, we're really going to do this. So we downloaded every dollar app and we started doing it for real. Then we got pregnant. Yeah. Yeah.

How did that – because you had already started it, then you find out you're pregnant. Did that intensify it? We found out we were pregnant in August, and then we started in January. Oh, I'm with you. I got you. Do you think that may have been the domino that tipped it? Yeah, I think it was definitely a big factor just to be prepared for when she was here.

Yeah, sure. So what were the things you guys did? Because that's a pretty big chunk even of your income in 10 months to pay off. Were there some sacrifices? Did you sell anything, get extra jobs? Well, I mean, we sacrificed eating out, which we love to do. Yeah, come on. We did sell an older vehicle that we had for, what was it, $5,000.

But everything else was just hard edit. Just getting after it. Just getting after it, yeah. What was maybe one of the most difficult things to kind of say no to or maybe one of the most difficult things to do in the middle of this journey? You want to answer that? Nope, you can. Oh, jeez.

You guys are so polite. I feel like you guys need paddles. Not really. So you guys can determine who's going next. I like that. Yeah. I would say the hardest thing was probably, you know, we had friends that, hey, you want to go do this? You want to go do that?

We're going to go here. It's like, no, man, we can't do that. No. Wow. I get that. So did you have cheerleaders? Were they cheering you on or did they think you were weirdos for doing this thing? Weirdos.

Yeah, weirdos. Actually, our biggest cheerleader was my younger brother, which we kind of got into this, and we gave him our older financial piece. Total money makeover, I'm sorry. Okay. And he was kind of hissing at first, and he got really into it, and he was cheering for us the whole time. That's awesome.

And now he's doing it. That's incredible. I love that. What would you tell people is the key to winning this? Waking up every day and making the decision of I'm going to choose to be debt free. I'm going to choose to not live like I did before. Yeah. And consistency, consistency, consistency.

And communication. That's a theme right here. Consistency and communication. I love that. Wake up every day and choose to be debt-free. It's a daily decision. You can't just decide once and then keep living your life the way you were living. You've got to make some changes, change some habits, make some sacrifices like you guys did.

Absolutely incredible. So how does it feel now? Wonderful. Amazing. Absolutely wonderful. Yeah, you could see it. So how has it changed? You're a young couple.

How has it changed your outlook on the future now on the other side of this you're now debt-free what's it done for your vision for the things you're dreaming about i mean you know it's it's kind of nice to wake up in the morning and not you know on fridays when we get paid it's like okay we get to keep this you know it's not like it's going everywhere else and now we've got a little girl that you know she gets to grow up and we get to race her in the way that we've now been taught. It's just endless opportunities, really. And now you can eat out again.

What's the spot? Yeah, that's what I wanted. When you became debt free, where'd you go? What was the meal? We haven't had it yet. Yeah, we're planning on doing that this weekend. Oh, this weekend. Okay, so really, seriously, you've not been out to eat in 10 months?

Not, no, not really. Are you guys going to stay over or are you going back to Paducah? We're here for the weekend, so we're going to eat as much as we can. George, I feel like during the break you should go give them some suggestions. You're Mr. Millennial No Kids Nashville Eateries, George. Please do. They haven't been inside a restaurant for 10 years, 10 months, Ken. I feel like 10 years.

George is so fired up. He's going to give you so many great suggestions. I might leave now. Please do. We got to get to the screen first. That's the best part. Absolutely. So, wow, wow, wow.

What a great story. Well, hey, a couple things before we get to the screen. We want to give you a copy of Dave Ramsey's The Legacy Journey because this really is now the next step for you guys. Truly building a legacy, not with just that beautiful little princess, but in everything you do, who you give to and how you spend that money. So we want to give that to you. And then I love that you gave a total money makeover to your brother because we're going to give you a brand new copy to give to somebody else.

And so that is our gift and we want to give that to you. So that is just really good stuff. You guys are a great couple. Thank you. You guys are heroes. Thank you. And this is why we do what we do. We're ready to celebrate.

You guys ready to go? Ready. Ready to go. Okay, here we go. Brandon and Michaela from Paducah, Kentucky. They paid off $25,500 in 10 months, making $100,000 up to $115,000. Brandon, Michaela, take it away. Do your debt-free scream.

Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yes! There it is. That's how it's done. Huh? How about that couple? Look at that.

Her face has changed. Just a giant smile. Plastered on the face. Yeah. Incredible. Yeah. I mean, giant smile. Plaster on the face. Yeah. Incredible. Yeah. I mean, they've done their debt-free scream. I'm not sure what is leading to the big smiles the most.

Is it they're debt-free because they've been debt-free for obviously a little bit to get here, or is it the excitement about the restaurant suggestions you're going to give them? It's the upcoming meal, Ken. Nashville's got a lot of great food. They're in the right place, and they're in the right hands. But you know, we're having fun with that, but that seems like a little sacrifice, but it's not. Dangling

that little carrot is really powerful to go, hey, what do we want to do once we're debt-free? What kind of things do we want to do again or for the first time? And it's one of those things where you go, we don't have to think about it. It's in the budget. We're going to pay cash for it. We're going to have a great time. Instead of wondering, do we have the money?

Am I going to put this on the credit card? But speak to this, George. You coach people on this. I mean, you start racking up things like, I'm not going to go out to eat. We're going to do this, this, and this. All those things together add up to where you can pay off $25,000 in 10 months, which is, that's a lot of money in 10 months.

And what happens is you go, we're going to make a temporary sacrifice for a long-term gain. When you have that kind of mindset, it changes everything. Most people go, I'm just going to keep living this way for the next 20 years and I'll worry about it down the road. They keep kicking the can down the road and one day they realize, hopefully, they're broke and they're miserable.

They're living with anxiety and they can't reach their dreams and buy homes and go on vacations and it's all because of that. And so I love meeting couples like this who decide and not only decide but wake up every day deciding that it doesn't have to be this way

and we're going to dangle this carrot, this goal in front of us of debt freedom and all the things that comes with that so that we can power through and pay this off. I love it. All right, George.

I want to know. You go 10 months without eating out, where do you go? What kind of meal? Just tell me the meal. I think it's got to be a high-quality meat. I'm probably going ribeye. Okay. That's just me.

Yeah, I asked you. Maybe a big old pork chop. Okay, what's your side? I'm going to go with mashed potatoes. Really? Maybe some asparagus. I'm a little shocked that you chose mashed potatoes. It's creamy. It's buttery.

It's filling. Oh, I love it. I've got to tell you, if I go 10 months without a meal, I'm going to have to work in some amazing seafood, George. Maybe a surf and turf. You know, a little bit of maybe a filet and a giant lobster. This is helping my decisions for this couple. There it is, folks. This is what you come here for.

Hey, don't move. It's not done yet. More of your calls. More breakthrough. Coming up, this is The Ramsey Show continues. I'm Kent Coleman, joined by my colleague, George Camel. So thrilled that you've joined us today. 888-825-5225 as we talk about your life.

Our scripture of the day is Matthew 7, 13-14. Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the road that leads to destruction. And many enter through it. But small is the gate, and narrow the road that leads to life. And only a few find it. Today's quote comes from John Maxwell.

The secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda. Good stuff there. Amarillo, Texas is where we go now, and Chancellor joins us on the line there. Chancellor, how can we help? Hey, yes, sir.

Thanks, guys, for taking my phone call. You bet. Hey, so kind of crazy here. I am at a point now to where my wife and I are completely out of debt. And we did the baby steps, and we got gazelle intense. And it seems as if the gazelle intensity has kind of taken over our lives. We don't really know where to go from here. And it's not a bad situation by any means. You know, we have a nice savings account, 15% going to retirement,

and we got our kids' college funds on the way. We're building them. However, we still have an influx of money, and we don't know what to do now. So you've got leftover cash after four and five, and you're wondering what do we do with it? Yes, sir. How much money are we talking? Right now we have about $56,000 in cash. That's on top of your emergency fund? Yes.

Well, that's – no, no, I'm sorry. $41,000, we. $41,000. We have $56,000 total. Okay. $41,000 is your emergency fund? $15,000. Oh, okay. Okay, so we got $15,000 in the emergency fund.

What's outside of the emergency fund in cash? $41,000. Okay, there we go. All right, now we're cooking with gas. So you've got Baby Step 6 paying off. All right, now we're cooking with gas. So you've got baby step six, paying off the house early, and you're saying, hey, we've been going real hard. Is it okay for us to slow down and enjoy our lives? Yeah, I guess so. I guess my fear is, you know, with college prices being, college tuition being so expensive, I just don't know how much, what's the cap, where to stop, where to start.

I mean, really, just, right, yeah. I mean, my kids are my biggest worry at this point. How old are these kids? Well, I have a nine-year-old stepson, and I have a one-year-old daughter. Okay, we've got 17 years till college and we've got another nine years till college. You got plenty of time. You guys have done really well. I'm not super worried about them being able to afford going to college debt-free with the way you guys have handled your finances. Is that what you're worried about? i am um but more or less you know i i would like uh

uh i like my kids you know i'm i'm 27 years old i i my wife's 29 but i i fear every day that i i just don't want my kids needing anything ever yeah if. If that makes sense. Well, I mean, you're a great dad for wanting that, but I don't want you living in this fear. You said, I'm living in fear every day. That borders on paranoia at that point. And so I want you guys to, you guys have done so well.

You've worked so hard. You have $41,000 sitting there in liquid cash. So have some fun. Have you guys been on a vacation? Well, we do. We do enjoy our vacation. Chancellor, can I speak to you as a dad of three? I totally understand your heart that you don't want your kids to want for anything. But the way that sounds is if you have the pressure that you've put on yourself to fund their entire life.

The way you said it sounded way more than college. And George has already made it clear you're going to be fine on college fund and you just keep doing what we teach there and they're going to be fine. They're going to have plenty. But this idea that I don't want my kids to want for anything, I completely understand that. Believe me, i understand you but your job is not to fund their life they're gonna they have a role that they were created to

fill there's work they want to do there's dreams that they have it's that's on them to do that it's not on you to fund their entire life okay okay you needed to hear that, didn't you? Yes, sir. Yeah, man. Yes, sir. You're a good dude. You're a good dude.

Look, the baby steps are the baby steps. You're doing it, man. Keep walking it out. Relax outside of that. Your kids are going to make their own decisions. Your job is not to, now look, if you want to do a mutual fund and something for them down the road and give them a great start and whatever and put some nice strings on all that, that's all good.

But again, I feel this heavy weight on you that needs to be released today. Okay, so I guess that leads me into my next question. What could I start doing? You know, like I have a really good job. I can't complain about my job. However, I don't absolutely love my job. But, you know, I have this dream of, you know, working for myself. Great.

Tell me what that would be. I don't care how pretty it sounds and how great of a business plan you have. Tell me what right now, in this very moment, you would do for yourself if you knew you couldn't fail. What kind of business? What would you do? Man, honestly, I think I would do landscaping.

That's fantastic. I truly love landscaping. I've done it. I did it. Okay. Now listen, Chancellor, you're in a position, man, where you can start to plan this out and start this thing on the side with no risk.

How much money do you make in your current job? Well, it's a little bit. It fluctuates quite a bit, but I'd say between $130,000 and $150,000. Alright, so let's just pick $150,150 as a number you would want to replace. And if I promised you that you could make $150 today running your landscaping business, how quickly would you resign? Right now.

That's it, my man. So here's the deal. What is it going to take for you to eventually start that business and take care of your family in that business? Well, there's a couple ways you could do this. You could keep busting it the way you're busting it. You've got some money right here, George. He's got some money that can begin to be the seed for starting that landscaping business. And maybe you do it on the side and you hire a couple young guys and you're the face of it,

and you build this thing up, you build it up, and you get enough money in that landscaping business account that you've got six months of your salary there, and you know if I just go at this full time, I've got the pipeline full, I can go. This becomes a math equation.

Start today. Start pursuing today by planning and thinking through, how would I do it? What's the best way to do it? Save it all up and step into it? Or start it on the side and establish it? I really like starting it on the side and establishing it, by the way. And Chancellor, you can do that now, can you not? Yes, sir.

I actually have about 10 yards a week I do right now. Oh, look at that. I had a sneaky suspicion, George, that he was already dabbling. My yard's next, sir. I actually have about 10 yards a week I do right now. Oh, look at that. I had a sneaky suspicion, George, that he was already dribbling. My yard's next, man. I'm so glad people have a passion for landscaping, Ken, because I have zero. Yeah. So, listen, man, you have done so well. You're 27 years old.

You make $150,000. You're in baby step six. You have a pile of cash. You need to let go of this fear and start getting excited about your life again your kids are going to be fine you need to start dreaming and uh really going after this thing like ken's talking about yeah and you've got it chancellor those 10 yards every nickel that you make uh or rather keep after you pay for the you know the lawn care equipment and all the things and gas, right?

That's just going in that side account. And I'm building that side account up, and I'm building it, and I'm building it, and I'm building it. And I'm trying to figure out, can I put six months of my salary, what I currently make, in that account? And I'm building up the clients, and I'm going, I know that I can blow this thing wide open. And there's no risk here, George.

You know, we talk about stepping from the boat right on the dock. That's what this side hustle is. And then he's going to be in such great financial shape that he doesn't have the pressure that a lot of entrepreneurs face. It's amazing how many times people get their financial life in order, and then they can focus on purpose and career. It's incredible. Yeah. If only we had somebody here at Ramsey Solutions that could help them figure out that dream. Cough, cough. Oh, wait a second.

Wait, we can do that. Fun stuff. Hey, I want to thank you, George. We had a great time today. We did. Fun stuff, man. Great, great job. Always great to be with you.

I want to thank our amazing producer, James Childs, and equally amazing associate producer and call screener, Kelly Daniel. Mostly, we want to thank you, America, for listening because we do this for you. This is your show. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit theramseyshow.com and register. We would love for you to come to

Nashville and tell Dave your story.