The Ramsey Show - App - Finding Your Purpose After a Job Loss (Hour 3)

Episode Date: June 3, 2024

This is the Ramsey Show where we help you win in your life, win with your money, win in your work, and win in your relationships. The phone number is 888-825-5225. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell joins me, and we're here for you this hour, George, to lead out on your money questions. I'm here on your income and getting promoted, growing, maybe starting that business. Income, income, income is where I'm here to help. So we'll team up together. Make you more money. Keep it. Invest it. Save it well is our goal. 888-825-

5225. Mike is going to start us off this hour in Charleston, South Carolina. Mike, how can we help? Hey guys, how are you doing today? Good, how are you? Good, good. I was calling in. I have a question obviously about what we're all

talking about here so i have a about 70k in debt make close to 70k don't have a house yet and i'm in one of those debt management payment programs which puts me about two years out of paying off so i'd be thinking to not that, especially when going toward trying to buy a house eventually, or just do bankruptcy now. Why? Where did bankruptcy come into play? Yeah, that was a little aggressive. Well, because that's what I first thought before I started reading George's book.

That's the route I was going to take just to kind of start fresh now that I have a different outlook and mindset on money and all the things that we have possible and available to us. Made dumb mistakes when I was younger, trying to fix that now that I have a different outlook and mindset on money and all the things that we have possible and available to us. Made dumb mistakes when I was younger, trying to fix that now that I have a family. But what about $7,000 in debt makes you think, well, I had to file bankruptcy? Seventy.

Seventy. Seventy? And you make 70? Yeah, with commissions. Okay. So let's talk about this debt. What kind of debt is this? A little bit of everything.

Like a little bit of car, a little bit of student loans, a little bit of credit. Probably about the least is the car. Okay. What's left on the car loan? Twelve. And the student loans? Twenty-eight. But half of that will be paid by my job but it takes about five years

if you stay with the job what happens if you leave before the five years well then obviously you know you're you know what happens i don't get it but i don't plan on going anywhere knock on wood so if you stay stay there five years, they'll pay off half in full, like with a lump sum? No, they're currently paying off through it. It's just that it'll take about five years to hit half. Got it. Okay, and then your credit cards?

24-ish. And that's everything? I think so. Oh, I do have a personal loan and a personal loan. Okay. About 12. What's the car worth? Probably a couple thousand more.

It's probably worth 15 or 16? Yeah. Okay. So, number one, you do not have to file bankruptcy, and you shouldn't. Number two, these debt settlement programs are a borderline scam. I think you probably know that by now. Did you pay them money, and they said, hey, we'll take care of it, stop making payments, your credit's going to tank, and then we'll negotiate?

Was that their plan? No, that's the consolidation. I'm working on one of those not-for-profit ones where they've reached out to my creditors to negotiate better interest rates. Okay. I'm still making payments. I make them the payment,

and then I watch as they distribute the payment to the creditors. Okay. Can you get out of this? I've seen them do it. I mean, probably. Because you can negotiate interest rates on your own. You can call and say, hey, can you lower the rate? I'm trying to pay this down. So I tried that last year, and I only got headway on two out of like the 12 I have. I know that's another story I'm

going to do. Well, the interest rate's not the problem here. We need to make some headway on the debt, and right now it feels like you're delegating all of this to other people. Your work, this debt settlement place, you need to start pounding the pavement, throwing as much as you can onto these payments using the debt snowball method. So your next smallest debt is the car loan? Yes. Just not to cut you off, but to go back to what you just said, I'm using the budget app. I'm under by $900, and that's with the better payments, lower payment, lower interest rate through the program.

So you're in the red by $900. What would you say is the reason for that as you look at the budget? Is your rent or mortgage too high? A little bit of everything, I guess. Is it lifestyle? I mean, I know I eat out too much, but it's not $900 worth. Well, you need to actually, the budget is going to reflect the plan, but it doesn't reflect reality of how you're spending.

So what you need to do is... Well, this is my first month, so I'm new to this. I just read the book, just started the budget, so I'm hoping that I'll get a better view of it after this month. Do you have the premium version of every dollar? No, I just started with the basic. Okay, with the book, you'll see the QR code in the book. It'll give you three months of premium.

So check that out. I do have that, sorry. Great, it'll connect to your bank account. You can track the transactions. Great. So here's the deal. I show people how to go from negative $1,000 every positive 1200, but what it takes is sacrifice. So look at every single line item. Here's the question you need to ask. Can I do better? Can I do better? Which means

my insurance, let me call and call our friends at Zander and see if they can re-shop my insurance. I just saved our friend, a coworker here, 80 bucks a month just by having her re-shop my insurance. I just saved our friend, a co-worker here, 80 bucks a month just by having her re-shop. She got better coverage for cheaper. Next, look at all of your lifestyle and go, I don't need this subscription. I'm cutting this gym membership. I don't need this over here. I'm going to cut eating out altogether. I'm going to meal plan, switch my grocery store. I'm getting a tax refund, so I'm going to change my tax withholdings. All of that combined, it may not feel like a lot at once, but as you start to do seven or eight of these things, and in that margin is breathing room chapter of my book, it's going to give you a lot of tips on ways you can cut down.

Then the other side is make more. You said you've got commissions as well? Yeah. The job is the good thing. This all started when I took the job, which involved about an $18,000 pay cut, but in the long run, it's better. Yeah, and I want to jump in. Listen, Mike, a lot of this to me is mindset. I really hope you come off of this call realizing that you do not need to file bankruptcy, and that was never a good option. You can actually figure your way out of this and it's going to be a lot better for you. That's what I want you to understand is I want you to believe that you

actually can get this under control. And to be honest with you, what you're going to come away with this, Mike, having done this on your own and not using the bankruptcy kind of panic button and kind of doing the restart is you'll actually get into a place where you'll never be tempted to do this stuff again. Am I right, George? Absolutely. And look at the numbers, Mike, because I want you out of debt in two years. So what does that mean? You have $70,000, that's $35,000 a year. That's going to be, you know, if you did $2,900 a month, you would be done in two years. Now you're going, well, dude, I don't have $2,900 a month to throw out the debt. Well, this is a solvable problem now. We need to find $2,900 of margin by spending less and

making more like Ken talks about. So whether it's commissions, whether it's side hustles, everything you can do to create $2,900 of margin will get you out of debt in two years. Do you believe that? I mean, I believe it, but I also believe, and I'm not, I also believe that with that program, that's saving me over like $300 a month in payment. What's your rent right now? $1,100. You got roommates? I'm sorry. No. No, sorry. $2,100.

Yeah, you make $4,000 a month and $2,100 is going to rent. Yeah. This is me calling, so I didn i didn't yeah but you know what you just did three roommates so there's a little money coming in you just made excuses again mike you said this program is saving me instead of you going i can save me 300 and 400 and 10 you know a thousand and 1500 you need to do it i don't think you got anything that george said i hope you do what we tell you to do because it's going to save you a lot of heartache. And the bankruptcy is not your friend. This is The Ramsey Show.

Welcome back to The Ramsey Show where we help you win in your life, win with your money, win in your work, win in your relationships. 888-825-5225. Gennaro, I hope I'm saying that right, in Atlanta, Georgia, is up next. How can we help? Hello, good afternoon, sir. Thank you for having me on. You bet.

How can we help? So I'll try to keep this brief. So I am an independent contractor at 1099. I make roughly $900 every single week. And I'm a disabled veteran making $755 per month. My situation, I've always been financially pretty incompetent. You know, I've taken out like personal loans, I had like credit card debt. And, you know, I've always just kind of paid the minimums and always been floating. Recently, I was involved in an incident that landed me briefly in the hospital, and I got a $11,000 bill.

My parents came in. They actually kind of gave me a second chance. They swooped in, took care of it, and with the promise that I would pay them off. Sometime next year, they didn't give me a date, and that really gave me a wake-up I would take a hard look at my finances. Um, I've actually been able to, um, after taking that hard look and having a lifestyle change, I've been paying my, my debts off at about $500 every single week. And, um, my question is, I'm hoping I'm not about to do something pretty, pretty dumb and the ambition to pay them back as soon as possible.

So I have roughly $1,700 left of this personal loan and about $5,700 left in my car. And I should have that personal loan paid off within the next two weeks with my $500 per week plan. And the car loan. Um, sorry, sorry.

I forgot an important detail. I've been putting away about 25% of every single paycheck still, um, into, uh, this other separate savings because of tax seasons. And I'm new to being a 10 99. Um, my question,

I don't know if this is going to be a really bad idea, but I was holding to, when I started on my car payments, I'm still putting away that 25% into my, uh, into my tax savings for next year. I was thinking of when I lower the car payments to the equal amount that I have saved up for taxes next year, I was planning on dumping everything I have into that account and to the car loan to pay it off and then dumping roughly 40 to 50% of my paycheck, my paycheck to recoup that for the remainder of the year in preparation for taxes and hopefully to pocket some to build on my savings more to

start paying off my parents. I don't know if that would be a bad idea or no or not. So let me recap to make sure we understand here. You're wanting to use the money you've set aside to pay taxes as a contractor and instead pay down your car loan once you have the amount in full. But then you need to turn around and use way more of your future income to save back up the tax fund. Yes, sir. The part that worries me there is I don't know if your budget can handle that, if you're going to be able to cover all of your expenses with the remaining percentage.

So I'm pretty lucky I live in a very low rent area I pay with all utilities included about six hundred and seventy five per month and my job is literally a mile and a half away from where I live so since I've cut out eating out and stuff like that I literally am filling up my gas tank about once a month. So what's your total take-home pay? Right now? Without me taking like a 25% aside and stuff like that? Yes. Let's take out the 25%.

Let's say take home minus that 25% because that's set aside for taxes. I'm bringing home $900 per week. $900 per week? Yes, sir. Okay, $3,600 per month. And then what are your actual expenses for the month to cover all your bills and minimum debt payments? I mean, I have like my internet bill, my streaming subscriptions, all that totals up to around $300. I haven't the exact number yet. Everything, with your rent, insurance, debt payments, all of that.

What does that add up to in a month? Let me take up the calculator. So $675 is my rent per month. $80 is about my internet bill. The other subscription services are, I'm going to say, roughly about $250 to $300, sir. Okay, but we still haven't put food on the table. We still didn't get gas. So here's the overall thing. The numbers are less important. I'm trying to make sure that 50% of your income going towards taxes is actually sustainable. It sounds like a great

plan on paper to get rid of debt faster, but you also might be shooting yourself in the foot later on down the road where you go, oh crap, I need to save up $10,000 for a tax bill and I can't do it in time. Because you have to pay that tax bill on time the first year, you know, I had a lot of deductions because I was buying everything for the job. And, you know, I only put it by 10%. And I was lucky enough to walk away with $900 on that. I'm just saying your plan got you here so far. It doesn't sound like you're doing a budget. I'm going to gift you every dollar premium to help you get on a plan so that you are very aware of all of your numbers,

what it adds up to, and then you can make the decision. But if it slows down your debt payment process, but you have the tax money, I'm okay with that. Yeah, just do not use the tax money for anything other than taxes. This makes me nervous. Period. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is the old phrase that comes to mind. And the tax man cometh, and you got to make sure they get paid first. Ooh, man. Yikes. I wouldn't do it.

Joshua's up next in Ottawa. Boy, that's always fun. Joshua, how can we help? Hi. So I'm in a bit of a fun but unique situation. I am a disabled veteran. I have a crate set up for that, but we're trying to sell our house and we actually want to move on to a sailboat with our five kids for the next two to five years to see the world with them. Yeah. So the question is about the fully funded emergency cushion.

So I have about 24K left in debt that I'd be paying off. My house is on the market for 1.9 million. That's where I'm spending all my extra hours for the past decade and a half rebuilding an old farmhouse. So the thing is, even if I go with six months of my total income, I ended up with $67,000 in my emergency cushion, pushing through step three and then step four being retirement savings for 15%

moving forward. I got covered. Kids university is covered because my kids get the benefit through the VA, through me. Obviously, we'd be paying off our house in full. And then when we sell the boat in two to five years, that becomes the budget for the new house, period. No more dollars. So we can just stay on step seven for the rest of our life in sort of one pale shot.

The question I have is that in the crazy event that like all four of my kids' grandparents die successively, and my boat ends up somewhere where it gets hit by a hurricane, my insurance deductible goes to 10% of the value of the boat from 2% of the value of the boat, meaning that my $67,000 emergency tuition wouldn't even cover my $75,000 deductible on the boat. And my question is, should I be adjusting my emergency cushion in light of the fact that this quite unusual circumstance could necessitate if like every negative star aligned, or should I just stick with the six months?

Man, that feels like an apocalyptic plan. But if you wanted to go to 75, which covers your deductible, I think that's a fine move. I have a question. Was this the move? Yeah. Well, before that, I guess I have a question. Let's say it happened today. This apocalyptic scenario happened today. What would you do if you didn't have the emergency fund to cover it? What would your reaction be? I mean, right now, being in the house and not being in the circumstance where we're cruising on the water. No, no, I'm playing out your scenario. There's a method to my madness here. So let's say you're in the boat, all these awful things happen, and you don't have the emergency fund to cover it. What would you do? The deductible? Yeah. I mean, what would you do? The deductible?

Yeah. I mean... What would you do? Given the fact that it would be less than a 10K gap, I would try to bridge that out of my cash flow. All right. And what if you couldn't do that? What would you do? Then I'd be stuck doing what I don't want to do, where I might have to borrow something.

Or sell the boat. Oh, yeah. I'm no boat expert. There we go. So, Joshua. Yeah, but if I sell the boat and it's hurricane damaged, right, I lose a lot. I know, but I just. Yeah, that becomes a lesser.

Do you see what I did there? I just kind of walked you right up into, like, come on, man. Like, if you want to do it, that's fine. But if you're so worried about all of this, is this the right decision for us to sell the house and go on the big, giant exploration? I think that's where George was going, and I have some questions about that too.

But, man, you've just come up with the absolute worst case of all worst case scenarios and then said, what do I do? I'm still overplaying that for sure. I think you are, and I think you're going to be okay. Appreciate the call. Watch Gilligan's Island first. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show.

Thrilled to have you with us. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell joins me. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Well, I don't know how many of you watching or listening were around when the pandemic happened, and

we had our cruise planned. You and I were ready. I think we bought matching outfits for one day. Our trunks were packed, if you can even call them that. They're more of a Borat situation. I think it was, yeah. No, we're kidding. But the Live Like No One Else cruise is actually back george have you heard you and i are you and i are heading to the high seas i actually can't wait you're excited about it yeah

yeah i've never been on a cruise as an adult so to get to go oh i see i know our tickets are paid for thanks dave yeah yeah yeah i uh i'm looking forward to it for a lot of reasons the actual sailing and on the sea the high seas i don't do so well i don't really see how i do need some dramamine maybe i've only done it once uh but other than that it's going to be a lot of fun yeah we've got you and me and all the ramsey personalities including the big man himself dave ramsey um i think i'm going to try to get him to wear the skipper hat from killigan's island i doubt he'll do it but i'm going to bring it with me and see if i can get him to put it on and maybe do a little steering of the the ship no you know

he'd love that certainly photo horn that's a good photo so anyway uh it's an ultimate debt-free seven days at sea george that's amazing march 22nd through the 29th here's the deal this is not for everyone in fact it may not be for you if you're listening or watching this is for those who are See, George. That's amazing. March 22nd through the 29th. Here's the deal. This is not for everyone. In fact, it may not be for you if you're listening or watching. This is for those who are debt-free, meaning you're in baby step four, five, six, seven. We want to celebrate with you. Please do not go on this cruise if you're drowning in debt and you just want to hang out with us. We'll go another time.

I promise. But if you've paid off the debt, you've worked hard, now is the time to celebrate. There you go. Bring the spouse. Bring a friend. Come solo. Bring the spouse. Bring a friend. Come solo. Bring the kids. Have a good time.

All the personalities will be there, Dave included, as well as some very special guests. How about some special friends? Yeah, it's Stephen Curtis Chapman, Manit Chauhan, Deanna Carter, and more, I'm told. We've got magicians, comedians, musicians, and then Ken. George and I will be doing balloon animals for the children near the pool one day. That's always a big thing. Some people have called me a clown, so I think that we can market that. Guess where we're going, George? Turks and

Caicos, St. Thomas, San Juan, which is Puerto Rico, the capital. Lovely place. Downtown area. Gorgeous. Old fort area. Maybe I'll do a little historical tour. Maybe I'll do an excursion. I think for the senior citizens who just want to take a nap, that'll a great tour for you oh george why do you hate me so much i don't understand every time you talk about history it makes me not want to learn about history okay

i got it and the bahamas we'll also be going to the bahamas so i'll take a tour there you go um vip upgrades already sold out most of the suites are sold out. Many of the cabin types are completely sold out, but if you want to get in, now's the time because it's going to sell out. You need to get your deposit in now if you want the few remaining ocean views or else you're going to be down in about the sixth level where George is going to be with all the cargo. That's where they put me. It's a weight distribution thing. They need to be down there. Yeah. So book your cabin now at ramsaysolutions.com slash cruise, ramsaysolutions.com

slash cruise. In fact, we met a lady earlier in the show today out in the lobby who said she was coming to the cruise. Looking forward to that. Very exciting. Boy, are you going to need to bring a vat, and I mean a vat of sunscreen, because you are very, very pale. I'm going to have one of those giant sun hats that will cover my entire body. That'll be great. All right, let's get back to the phones. Eric is joining us now in Toronto. Eric, how can we help today? Hi, Jordan and Ken. How are you guys doing? We're doing great. What's going on? So when I had initially written into the show i was planning on asking about a potentially visiting some family overseas however something happened to me recently that has gotten me pretty

shaken and i was hoping to sort of talk to you guys about it yeah hit us what happened so um i was laid off on friday oh man what happened there um so So it was my first job in the trades. I was originally a bartender for a while, but I was looking for something more long-term as a career. And so I thought I was doing well, and I felt like I was cut out for it. But as time went on at my job, then I felt like my boss and I were not getting along very well I felt like um uh all the sort of issues I had with the way work was going and um I had with my boss was um sort of impacting my job um however I let me see um I don't want to delve too deep into it just because I think it's more productive to me to look introspectively and think about how I can better myself.

Well, the only thing I would want to know on this is, is this something where you feel, honestly, you could have done anything better or is this just a very difficult boss situation? If I were to answer honestly, I think it would be the second one, but I also... Were you struggling to do your actual job from a competency standpoint? Not really. No, I was very... I believed myself a lot based on the things I knew and what I could do. I just think he didn't believe in me. Okay. What trade were you in? Electrical. Okay.

And what's the market like in Toronto for electricians? It's okay. I see a few postings out there, but I'm not a registered apprentice with a college, so I need to – that's pretty much my downfall right now. I need to find a new employer who's willing to sign me on as an apprentice. It's just a commitment, so that's the next step, I think, for me. Okay. All right. So how can we help you specifically today?

I'm really struggling because I feel like I've lost my sense of purpose. I'm engaged and my fiance and I have bought a condo, which I'm sure you've heard Toronto real estate is really expensive. I've lacked confidence when it comes to reaching out to potential employers. Is this because of the relationship with this last boss? Yeah. Okay. So that's why I was digging a little bit.

Right. Do you have confidence in your ability to do the electrical work? Yeah. That doesn't sound very confident am i reading into that um no i think i gen like i was about to do work for a buddy of mine that is cottage and i was very excited to do it because i was excited to help him out and i knew i could finish off the job but for example like and so my biggest frustration with my boss is just that he didn't believe in me. Okay. So you were new on the job and was the frustration, the evidence that he didn't believe in you was that he wasn't giving you work to do,

or he was only letting you do minor kind of more labor intensive stuff, not like real electrical work or what was going on? No, towards the very end, it was getting more electrical and work, and I was actually enjoying my work a little more, but there was about a month of work there when I was kept in the shop just organizing screws and whatnot. Okay, and that was the part that sucked the soul out of you. Yeah, very much so. That was actually words I used to describe how I felt coming home from work every day.

Well, I get it, but you're asking me about confidence. So let me tell you what I think is the key to confidence. Number one, it's very normal for your confidence to be shaken when you've been fired. So I can tell you that psychology experts have done research and have basically found that losing a job is the same traumatic effect on someone as losing a loved one. Okay? That makes sense. Yeah, and you're feeling it right now. So, number one, you're not weak, you're not damaged, you're pretty normal, and it sucks. So, that's one thing.

Secondly, the key to confidence is always getting clear. People who aren't clear on a certain issue will not have confidence on making a decision or moving forward on an issue. Does that make sense? Yeah, that makes sense. In other words, we have people call the show all the time. George is taking a ton of calls today where people weren't clear how to get out of debt and then he makes it clear for them and then they can see a path forward. And if they can see it, then they can believe it. So here's what I'm telling you. You have to retreat back to clarity, get around some people that absolutely know that you're good at electrical work. Remind yourself that you've done X amount of certification or qualification work up to this point. Remind

yourself of that, okay? And then over the next couple days, go ahead and grieve this loss because that's what it is. Have some fun. Be around positive people. Make a list of things you're grateful for today. And then immediately get right back up and go apprentice, go work, go do as much electrical work as you can do anywhere and everywhere, and you'll remind yourself really quickly that you, in fact, can do the job.

But getting clear on what you can do will push you forward to do it. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. Thrilled to have you with us. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell joins me. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Our scripture of the day, Proverbs 21.5, plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance,

but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty. Our quote of the day from Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in politics, nothing happens by accident. If it is happening, you can bet it was planned that way. There you go. All right, to the phones we go. Linda is joining us now in St. Paul, Minnesota. Linda, how can we help? Hi, Ken and George. How great to talk to you today. Thanks for taking my call.

You bet. What's going on? So my son will be a senior in high school next year. And, um, I grew up poor. And so, um, my brother saved, um, was able to save, um, money. So out of his life savings, he wants to send my son to college and has the whole thing paid for. Um, and so, yeah, just amazed. So two parts to my question. First of all, how do I, how do I ask, or how do I tell my son that his whole college is paid for and not, and instill a work ethic, um, with him. I mean, he's got a job right now. He's been working and working, trying to save for college. Um, and then I don't want him to just stop working through college and, um, take it, take it for granted. Um, and I'm just not sure how to give him like a hundred thousand dollars. I don't know how to how to give him that and then

how do i how do we say thank you for this gift i don't i'm not even i get choked up because i can't believe it that's great let's take the thank you on first um how would you want someone to thank you for such a strong and future-focused gift like this? I mean, I would just think through it. You know your brother well, knowing him, knowing the situation. Put yourself in his shoes. How would you want someone to thank you that way? And it's not about pomp and circumstance, right?

It's just about a meaningful thank you. But I just wouldn't overthink that, you know? But I think you inherently know how to talk to your brother. I think there's a thank you from you. I certainly think there's a thank you from the son. You may have to coach your son along. George, I think I would be coaching my boys along going, okay, you know, maybe- Here's how to handle this. Maybe think about this and this and this to thank your uncle. Well, one of the best ways to say thank you is with his actions of working really hard in school, finishing in four years,

getting good grades, and not squandering this gift of a free education. And so that's part of it. And you mentioned sort of like how do I do it? We just can't just give him $100,000. Well, you don't. You don't just deposit a hundred thousand dollars into an 18 year old's account. I would have, I would have the brother pay. I would have him pay directly. Yeah. And that way the money stays in your brother's hands. And George, I was also going to throw out there, I would have a written contract of sorts, some agreement between your son and your brother,

where your brother says this 100 grand goes to four years it does not count any failed classes you know i mean put some parameters out there so you're not going to go into debt your son knows this isn't just 100 grand this is with these actions attached to it does that make sense yes like stipulations yeah like it covers four years it's not a five-year plan it's four-year plan um it doesn't cover failed classes if he I'm not saying your son's going to fail a class but I'm just trying to give you some ideas on where he realizes isn't a slush fund this is for the degree and only for the degree right and if you're going to tell him before college you know when it comes to college For the degree and only for the degree. Right.

And if you're going to tell him before college, you know, when it comes to college planning, it's important to say, here's our budget. Just like if you were planning to build a house or go on a vacation, we have $100,000. Here's what the actual costs are going to be. We have to stay within that, which means here are your options.

Now, he might also get scholarships and maybe there's a cool bonus where, hey, any scholarships you get doesn't count toward the 100 so if you get 50,000 in scholarships and it costs 50,000 to go he might actually walk away with a big pile of money at the end how cool would that be to start off his life oh so there could be some cool i would talk to your brother and say hey let's talk through some of the parameters let's work up a little contract and make it fun. It's not a legally binding scary. It's just something to get him excited about the future and get him to have some skin in the game.

And depending on where the school is, I mean, his cost could be well over $100,000. So hopefully I get your son thinking, well, where can I go for four years less than $100,000? You know, you start looking at state schools i don't know what the situation is in minnesota but you know you can go to two years of essentially cuny college in tennessee for free uh of course that word's thrown about taxpayers are picking it up sure the the child is not the young person is not paying tuition so looking at the full landscape of where your son wants to go what he wants to accomplish, what are his options, how far will the $100,000 go, and it needs to be attached to tuition and tuition only. Okay. Or room and board and, you know, anything associated with college,

I should stipulate. Is that how do I? Yeah. Yep, it sure does. How do you what? You still got a question you're wrestling with. How do I impart on my son? How do I tell him he's got to have a major picked out? Because I have a feeling he's still kind of undecided. Does he go to school undecided? Sure, a lot of kids do. And wait to figure it out? Yeah.

Most people don't have their life figured out at 18. I barely still have my life figured out, and I went to a four-year college and graduated. It was a communication degree. I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do, but he'll have a direction, and Ken's got a ton of resources to help students figure that out. Yeah, I'll give your son the new book, Find the Work You're Wired to Do. It's got the Get Clear Assessment in it, and I think it's a fantastic resource for him. But picking a major is different than what we're talking about, where we put some stipulations

of responsibility in there so that he doesn't in any way think, oh, this is just $100,000. This is a bank account that I get to kind of play with. That's what you called about. That's what you were concerned about, and that's what we're addressing, as to how you make sure that he understands what this really is. Yes, because I didn't want him to go buy a car or something. Well, again, I'd keep the funds in. It's like your brother's a steward, and your brother's the one cutting the checks.

If he's turning in his grades, it's kind of like, all right, I'm going to keep paying next year. I think it's, I'd get your brother involved in this and tell your brother your concerns. And I think that's probably your brother's heart too, right? Right. Yeah. Well then this is pretty simple. And ask your brother, hey, if he only spends 70 because he does it really wisely and maybe does some years at community college, can he use the extra 30 to start his adult life and get that car or use it toward a down payment? And so have those conversations to see what your brother's comfortable with. It's his money. And so he'll have a say in that. And then make a plan for that and sit down and have a fun but serious conversation with your son. Yeah, I like that idea,

by the way, having you and your brother kind of come up with a, and again, this needs to be pomp and circumstance, doesn't need to be that, but some type of way of presenting this information to him. Yeah, no trumpets needed. But that was well done, George. Thank you. But Linda, make it special. Make it something where it's a big deal, and I think your son will pretty easily figure out the weight of this, don't you? Yeah, I think so. Is he entitled now, if you had to describe him? Is he what? Is he entitled now, if you had to describe him? Is he what? Is he entitled now? No, no.

I mean, he knows that I didn't have any money growing up, so it's really hard for me to spend money, so he's really good at what's on sale. He saw Mom work her tail off, and he saw that money comes from work, and so money only makes you more of whoever you are. It's a magnifying glass. And so money only makes you more of whoever you are. It's a magnifying glass. And so if he's not entitled now, I don't think giving him this money to cover college is going to cause him to be entitled and destroy his life. Right.

Good. All right, Linda. I hope that helps. It's very exciting. Linda, super simple. I would bring your brother into this. It feels like even you're unsure about all of this. And just let the brother and you kind of come alongside of this and let your brother lay out the stipulations,

lay out why he's giving your son this gift. I mean, this is an extraordinary thing. Good on your brother. What a good man he is. That inspires me to maybe I'll make that move one day. Oh, Uncle George. Yeah. Giving you a nice gift to get the kids through college debt-free.

That's great. Well, I'd love to talk to you about Ty. That'd be great. He thinks of you as Uncle George already. He probably sees me as the creepy honorary uncle vibe. That's about right. Oh, I love it. Good stuff.

Always fun to be with you, George. Thank you, my friend. Thanks to Kelly Daniels sitting in for the esteemed James Childs. I want to thank our crew for keeping us on the air as well, and you, America, for listening. To our lovely studio audience, you all are great folks as well. We'll be back with you. Before you know it, this is The Ramsey Show. Thank you.