The Ramsey Show - App - Here’s What You Can Actually Do About Inflation (Hour 3)

Episode Date: February 3, 2022

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions from Nashville, Tennessee, this is The Ramsey Show, where we talk about your money, your life, your relationships, your mental health, anything and everything. I'm John Deloney, joined here by George Campbell, and we are taking your calls live at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Whatever's going on in your

life, give us a shout. Kelly's sitting by the phone waiting for you. Let's go to Andrew in Flint, Michigan. Hey, Andrew. What's going on? Hey, guys. How you doing? Great. How are you? I'm doing well. Hey, quick question for you guys. I you doing? Great. How are you? I'm doing well. Hey, quick question for you guys. I was recently offered Alaska.

You just cut out. You said you were offered a job in Alaska? Yeah. Can you hear me better now? Yes. What are you doing in Alaska? So I got offered an entry-level sales position, and I'm currently in mid-level supply chain. Now, the sales position has a base plus a guaranteed commission, which, adjusting for the cost of living, gives me a $3,000 raise for the first two years.

The thing is, this would be kind of a temporary move, just an adventure for my wife and I. I'm kind of wondering if it's a bad career move to go to an entry-level sales job from a mid-level supply chain. And then number two, if we do take the job, do we rent or sell our house? So you said a couple of things here. Let's just kind of separate them out. Number one, this is a $3,000 move. You can go work at Lyft for a month and make that. So let's move the money

off to the side. This is not a financial move. Yep, not for sure. Multiple times in my career when I was moving to a bigger company, a bigger university is what I did, I would take a decrease in title, sometimes even a decrease in money for a different opportunity or for the opportunity for something bigger or I was at a bigger, fancier school. And you see what I'm saying?

So there was a strategy. It was a strategic move to take what looked on paper like a demotion, but it really wasn't long-term. That doesn't sound like what you're doing here. It sounds like what you're doing here is you and your wife just want to go have an adventure. How old are you guys? 26. Do you got little ones? Nope.

That was kind of our motivation. Sales was something that I wanted to get into up front, but the idea of going to Alaska was kind of an adventure before we had kids. Wanted to be back in Michigan in about two, two and a half years. Yeah. And this was kind of an opportunity to do that. It just was kind of a step backwards and is it a dumb decision? I mean, I don't think it's a matter of is it dumb.

I'm just wondering, do you want to be, there's like 17 questions here. Do you want to be in sales long term? I believe so, yes. You believe so versus supply chain. You're like, I'm done with supply chain world. It was too crazy this year. I'm out. Yeah, it's been a little rough with COVID.

Sure. But there's a lot going on as far as the – it's a temporary move, so you're saying I'm going to come back. So you're going to tell your employer, hey, I'm going to be here for two years and peace out? Yes. The hope was to transfer within the company back, so they have locations all over the place. Okay. But again, that's speculative, and that's two years away.

I mean, I think you've got to look this, like we want to go for an adventure. This is a funded adventure is what it is. And it could turn out to be something great. Is that right? Yep. I mean, I guess if, what are you going to be selling? This would be warehousing solutions. So it's still in your world with supply chain?

Yep. Okay. I mean, if you're driven, you want to's still in your world with supply chain? Yep. Okay. I mean, if you're driven, you want to move up in this world, and you want to stay in sales for a while, or you come back and you go back to supply chain, it sounds like those are all on the table. So this doesn't sound like a fatal decision either way. You go to Alaska, and you hate it, and you go, all right, we're going to be there for a short period of time, I don't know that I'd bother with the hassle of selling and then trying to buy something new unless real estate in Michigan is easy to get right now and you can get a sweet place. I don't know what it's like in Flint. It's kind of crazy right now. Okay.

If you sold your house, could you do real well? I could. The problem with selling, I mean, I would make probably $60,000 to $70,000 on it. Okay. What would you do if you kept it? If I kept it, I would rent it out. So the mortgage is less than $600 a month, not including tax and insurance. Okay.

We only owe $30,000 on it, so we would pay it off while we were over there. Okay. Do you have somebody that could manage it for you? Because being a landlord out of Alaska may be a challenge. Yeah, that was the – so I would have to look into a management company. Okay. I do have friends that said they would help out, but I really don't want to depend on anybody.

Yeah, get a management company. Getting your buddy to wake up at 2 a.m. to go fix the water heater is bad. You're going to lose a friend over that. Especially when you're in Alaska dodging bears. Not really. I love Alaska. It's awesome. I mean, I can't.

Here's the thing. We live in a culture now where couples are dropping out of the workforce to get in an RV and do nothing. And, like, I just want money to fall from the sky and deposit it into my account. I shouldn't have to work, whatever. You've got a job lined up. It's not going to further you financially unless you just crush the sales, right? And i hear in your voice you you don't think you're going to get out there and dominate it right yeah it's a new business so my concern is one of the cultural difference um it's a whole lot different than automotive um and then do it's i'm new at sales so that was my uh i think

i could do well i just don't think it'll be a high volume, high dollar sales in terms of commission. Do you have a contract of some sort that you're not going to get out there? You're going to quit a good job that you have right now. You're going to get out there and get let go in three months? No. So they do, not from a letting go standpoint. They want a one-year commitment because they're giving me $10,000 to move towards moving expenses. So I figured I was kind of safe

for that first year at least. But no, there's nothing preventing them from letting me go. And your wife's on board 100%? Yep, she is. She's kind of more for it than I am because I'm a little worried about career trajectory at this point.

So I'd say, hey, you're 26. Are you a hard worker? Yes. You're good at what you do? Yep. You're not afraid of change? I'm terrified of change. So, yeah, don't ask.

You know what I think you should do? If you want to not be terrified of change, you should quit your job and move to Alaska. That's the furthest point. Yes, this is exposure therapy at its finest. Here's the thing. You're 26. If you go out there and make a – and this was a terrible move.

You hate sales. It's – I don't know if you've heard, but it's cold. You don't want to get eaten on the way to the market. Whatever is going to go up. You say this was a terrible decision. You're 26. You come back and you're 27. You're going to go up. You say this is a terrible decision. You're 26. You come back and you're 27. You're going to work hard.

You're going to figure it out. I don't have any concern about that. If your wife's on board and y'all are young, you got no kids, you got no responsibilities holding you down other than this perceived

career trajectory, whatever the heck that means. Here's the thing. I work on a radio show, brother, and my career trajectory was working in colleges. So who knows where life's going to take you. Your 20s are the time to figure this out. Yeah, I say go for it, man.

Andrew, do you have any debt? Just the mortgage. Okay. Dude, you're in a good spot. Call from Alaska. Oh, that'll be fun. There's Oates Military Academy there, too, if you're a Bill and Ted's fan. But hey, enjoy Alaska, my brother.

It's going to be a fun, fun ride. Talk to you soon. Did you know, statistically, when it comes to life insurance and protecting your family, that women are more likely to be uninsured or underinsured than men. This doesn't make any sense. Women make up half the workforce, contribute mightily to family incomes, and in many cases are the breadwinners and take care of their families 24 hours a day. This is one of the most overlooked areas when it comes to financial planning. Maybe it's a relic of the past, but a loss of income or the need to replace family care

is equally important for women as it is for men. Single moms, working moms, and stay-at-home moms all need term life insurance. Rates are actually lower for women, which is why I send you to Zander Insurance. They shop the top term life companies to find the lowest rates available. You can compare rates online at zander.com or call 800-356-4282. This is something every family has to deal with. That's zander.com or88-825-5225, taking your calls on marriage, money, life, all of it. 888-825-5225. This is big time, John.

You know what's coming up. What's big time? You know what's coming up, don't you? You've got to be more specific. You've got your Super Bowl, Money and Marriage with Rachel Cruz coming up February 11th, the live stream. This has become world renowned. People go crazy for this. Our team does an incredible job making it a cool experience for date night.

And you talk about this a lot, how people, people do Valentine's the wrong way a lot. And it's, we're going to go get bloated on a big meal and talk about normal stuff that we normally would talk about and then go home bloated to bloated, to have any kind of intimacy. We're tired. You have different kind of Valentine's, but this is, it's a go home bloated too bloated to have any kind of intimacy we're tired you have different kind of valentines but this is it's a lot of bloated a lot of bloat bloated

but tell us about what what happens during this live stream so a couple things one is i i'm trying to find silver linings in the last 24 months 36 months and if's one, it's that I am no longer letting a, a, uh, a grocery store or a corner market or a greeting card company. Tell me how I'm going to better love my wife. I'm going to, I'm opting out of that system. We've got a few years where you couldn't go out to dinner or you could but whatever i'm done right and so what i'm going to do this year is what i'm going to look at my wife i'm going to look at myself say what do we need what do we actually want to do and that's where rachel and i we're coming to your house in a live stream event we're going to be talking about marriage

we're talking about sex we're going to be talking about money we're going to be talking about things that we're hearing on our shows that i'm reading in the in the literature they're hearing all over the country that couples are struggling with it's going to be hilarious it's going to be talking about things that we're hearing on our shows that I'm reading in the literature. They're hearing all over the country that couples are struggling with. It's going to be hilarious. It's going to be fun. And you don't have to leave your house, right? It's $20. We're going to save you some money.

I know times are tough in millions of homes across the country. We're just going to – no more going out just because you have to or, in your case, George, no more bloating. So much bloating. I'm a little guy. It doesn't take much. That is true. That's two pieces of pizza for you, man. Give me a break. So much bloating. I'm a little guy. It doesn't take much. That is true. That's two pieces of pizza for you, man. Give me a break.

And we are Stay Puft Marshmallow. But, hey, I think it's going to be a great event, man. We're going to have a blast. And what's cool, a lot of people go, well, February 11th, I'm not sure what my plans are that night. What's really cool is that for that same $20, they have 48 hours of access to the recording. And that is total. So if you can catch it on the 12th, 13th, that's great. And here's what's awesome. Two awesome things.

One, if you're a Ramsey Plus member, you get this for free, right? It's 20 bucks otherwise, but if you are a Ramsey Plus member, you get it for free. So just log in and go ahead and register. The other cool thing is this. This is on Friday night.

It's on Valentine's Day weekend. Valentine's is actually on the 14th, a couple of days later. So you get to go to this thing. It's like a mini retreat in your home. That's actually fun. And then you get to practice this stuff for a couple of days leading up to your Super Bowl, right? This isn't really my Super Bowl, but I like what you did. I don't do sports analogies, John. You know that. You were close. But it really is one of my favorite events I get to watch.

I used to host some of it, which was a blast, and now I get to watch it from home with my dog and less judgment from you because last time we brought my dog into the studio. Yeah, this isn't a pet owner event. We should do a pet owner's event. That's a good idea. James is going to mark that down to pitch to Dave.

We absolutely should never do that. Let's go to Julie in Springfield, Illinois. Hey, Julie, what's up? Hi there. Can you hear me? Absolutely. What's up? So I got married.

This is a second marriage. So we got married about three months ago. And I, well, I say I own my house. I have a mortgage on my house. And my new husband wants to give me some money to put towards that. And, you know, I'm just trying to figure out how to split this up and what we need to do. And I really don't want to refinance because I talked to my bank the other day. I've got a 3.0 rate on a 15-year loan with 12 years left to pay for it. So my banker said, I would stick with where you are because I'm paying a little extra anyway every month. So why do you need to refinance? What was the purpose of that?

Are you trying to get him on the loan? Are you trying to have him buy equity from you? Yeah, I don't know what I need to do so that he can be – he said he can give me like a lump sum of money, but what would be the appropriate thing to – how much money would be fair? You guys aren't business partners. This is your husband. I know. I just don't want to be like, just give me money.

You know what I mean? I don't care if he gives me money at all. Okay, here's the thing. It's just one giant pool of money once you're married, right? You're going to combine accounts? Yes. You already are married. Have you combined accounts?

We have not. Okay. That's step number one. Yeah, so you have a, well, before that, you've got a pronoun issue, right? And as Dave says, you are all French now, so it's oui, oui, right? Right. So it's not he's going to give me some of his money for some of my equity. It is we joined forces.

And so if he's got a chunk of money, we are putting this down to pay this house off together. Okay. Okay. And if you love him enough to join with him in marriage, then you would love him enough to say, if I die and we have this house that we own together, you are the sole beneficiary of this place in my will. Okay. And that way you can avoid a refinance at this point. Okay.

So just keep it under my name then? I don't like that, but I do understand. You know what? There is a way. You want to add him to the title? there's a way to do that and i don't i haven't had to do it so i can't talk to my banker about yeah walk him through it but say i just got married i want to add my husband to this um there is a way without putting him on the loan okay okay that you don't need to put him on the loan just so you're both on the hook.

It's fine. Okay. You're in this thing. So that's what I would do if I was in your shoes. You both have ownership of the home legally, but we're paying off this mortgage together. Do you guys have any debt other than the mortgage? Okay, so that's the other thing I was going to talk to you. No, my car is paid off. His truck is paid for.

So, I mean, I use a credit card just to get airline points, you know what I mean? Julie, how much money do you make? I make like $84,000 a year. You can't afford a seat on an airplane? Oh, I know. Julie! You get free tickets.

You're not winning. I get a free little sticky-handed Chuck E. Cheese because I gave him $20. That doesn't mean I pay it off at the end of the month sticky handed Chuck E. Cheese because I gave him 20 bucks that doesn't mean

I'm winning it's an automatic payment I have it set up to automatically pay the balance story for another day I'm not going to fight you on it

but you guys don't have any debt we don't but he keeps telling me Julie you are in debt you are in debt

because of this house we've got to pay this mortgage off. I like the spirit. Yeah. You know what? I feel that same way. I got a mortgage right now. I feel the exact same way. Okay. Okay. It's a good tax ride. I mean, it's a good tax ride. No, no, no, Julie. I really want to be friends, Julie.

Hey, we are friends. We are friends. You're trading a dollar for a quarter and thinking you won. There's a lot of areas. That's right. Yeah. The money you spend in interest, just look at your tax return. Yes. The money you spent in interest versus the tax write-off. You're losing.

And unless you itemize, which very few people are doing now, you don't even get the deduction. Right, right. Okay. So here's what we're doing. We are going to look at our budget, and we're going to start OG with the baby steps. Y'all don't owe anybody any money, so you're going to go past baby step one, past baby step two. Do you have an emergency fund? He does.

So I guess, yes. We do. Julie. Three to six months is worth of expenses. Of household expenses. Not his expenses, not your expenses. Y'all's expenses, as we say months' worth of expenses. Of household expenses. Not his expenses. Not your expenses. Y'all's expenses, as we say in Texas.

Our expenses. That's right. And then you're going to put that in a savings account, a high-yield savings account. You're not going to touch it. It's just going to be there in case one of you gets laid off, the roof caves in, whatever happens. And it's not if, it's when. So you're going to put that in an account. And then y'all are both going to breathe, and you're going to smile.

And then you're going to look at how much money y'all have in your other cash accounts, and you're going to pay this house off. You're going to pay your house off. Okay. And get it done with. And then y'all are going to ride off into the sunset together. I like this plan. I love him. And you're going to have a paid-for ride into that sunset without having to rely on your credit card points.

Boom. Right, right. Julie. You're so right. I'm so dumb. No, you're not. You're not. You're not.

You know what you are? You're absolutely normal. And this show is about weird people. We're just really weird. It's about doing things different. It's about doing things that are going to put you towards freedom. Not towards temporary happiness, but towards freedom. That was a fun roller coaster, John.

I liked you. We landed. We got there. I want to go again. Hang on the line, Julie. We're going to give you a copy of Dave's new book, Baby Steps Millionaires, because that's your next step when you cut off your credit cards. We'll be right back. This is the Ramsey Show, 888-825-5225. Taking your calls on life and money and relationships, 888-825-5225. George, what are you working on over there? Well, here's the thing, John.

A lot of people have been worrying about inflation incessantly. It's America's biggest problem right now. Inflation's at about 7%, highest it's been in many, many years, and people are feeling the pinch. This is a real thing. If you've been to the gas pump, you've been to the grocery store, you've been to Chipotle, you're like, why is my chicken bowl now $10? I didn't even get the guac, John. I didn't get the guac. That would have been another $11. This is insane. And so I've been digging into just kind of, John. I didn't get the guac. That would have been another $11. This is insane. And so I've been digging into just kind of helpful ways. I like to call them hacks.

You hate the word hacks because they're not hacks. It takes a little bit of work. It takes a little bit of research, know-how, time, effort, energy. So hacks just make me feel like it's easy even though it's not. That's a very millennial approach. I accept. That is where we stand. I accept. So I wanted to give the people out there some tips, especially around grocery shopping,

because the stats are showing us people are spending, you know, it used to be $2.92 a month. Now it's $3.50 a month on groceries. And so there's some ways that I've been living this way before it was cool. I was the original hipster when it came to frugality. And so there's a lot of ways people are overspending when it comes to groceries. Eating out is a whole other thing, right, when it comes to that. Meat, really expensive right now. I'm not going to tell people to go eat tofu because we live in a society, John. Because we don't hate children. This used to be a real country.

I'm not eating that stuff. But here's the thing. One of the biggest ways people overspend is, like we talk about college choice as one of the biggest ways to make college affordable. Grocery store choice. Man, that's a game changer. Some of y'all shopping at Whole Foods or Whole Paycheck, whatever you want to call it. That's a budget buster right now. Maybe we try out Aldi.

No, it's not the fanciest store. You got to put the quarter in the cart. It's very old-timey and fun. You have to put a quarter in the cart? You have to put a quarter to get the cart, and then you get the quarter back when you put the cart back. Oh, just in case you're going to rip them off. It's an efficiency thing. They don't have to have a cart person.

You are the cart person. You are the cart person. They charge you $0.10 for a bag. They save some money that way. Anyways, you can get some great prices there to get all your necessities. I'm a big fan of Trader Joe's if you have one in your area. I can fill up a whole little buggy at Trader Joe's and spend less than a hundred bucks. You can have a shopping spree and it's a great deal. But another thing people need to do is buy generic. And this is

offensive to some people. It's like, oh, don't take away my Oreos. I'm absolutely offended right now. You're like, oh, you want me to get sugar rounds? You want me to get the far out fruities instead of fruity pebbles? That's exactly right. But here's the truth, John. Most of those products are made in the same factories and the same lines with the same ingredients. You can buy the – look next to the Cheerios and you buy just the cellophane bag of Oat-O's, right? You know, it comes in the bag. You get worried. It has to be in a box.

That's right. It feels a little less secure and stable. I will say milk in a bag is disconcerting. Not going to have it. I just want it in a carton. But that's a big way people can save is going generic. I know there's some deal breakers there. Like toilet paper, I'm going name brand.

I'm sorry. I have trust issues. Deodorant? I'm not hedging on that one. You're not going with the Dollar General branded? I am a snob when it comes to deodorant. You smell great. I appreciate that.

It's working. Thank you. Another thing to do is buy things in bulk that you naturally would eat a lot of, right? So buying a huge bag of rice from Costco, that could be a great deal. That's going to feed your family for a long time. But people assume that buying in bulk means a better deal. And the truth is it doesn't. Here's what I want you to do. It's a quick, fun little math experiment. You take your phone out when you're at the grocery store, divide the price by the ounces. Well, now you're asking people to do work, George. And I just want to go to the grocery store. They're not really hacks, are they, John? Sounds like you're making me do math.

Yes. But that math is going to make your life better because you're not going to feel inflation as much. I have a six-year-old, I mean, sixth grade son, and he's working through math. And he asked the other day, when am I ever going to use this? And now you're telling him in the grocery store? Yep. I'm telling Hank, buddy, there's hope for you. There is hope for you. You will use this. I think that's disconcerting. Not the Pythagorean theorem, but just basic math. So do the math on those ounces. Don't

assume it's a good deal because it's at the wholesale club and you're buying it in bulk. That's a big one. And there's this new thing called shrinkflation that is driving me crazy personally. So if your breakfast bars used to be one and a half ounces. Oh, yes. Is that what it's called? Yes. Now they're charging the same price, but they shrunk it down to one ounce instead of one and a half ounces. I opened a bag of something recently, and I thought it was all air.

I had to look in and see what happened to it. You thought you grew. Yeah. That's amazing. I'm the big friendly giant, like the BFG. What has happened? So it's called shrinkflation? Shrinkflation.

It's a real thing. Yeah, and companies are doing this to save money without changing their price. Because if you go, well, my breakfast bars were, you know, I like Larabars. We like those. We eat those. And you go, it used to be five bucks. Well, now Larabars shrunk the ounces and charged the same $5 so that you never notice. You're none the wiser, John.

You're just a little more hungry. This is how they get you. They got me. So there's a lot of ways. Obviously, meal planning. But let me tell you, meal planning is a lot for a lot of people. It just feels too aggressive. So I like to say start with foods that you enjoy, that you're willing to eat, because if you're not willing to eat it, you know what happens?

It goes in the trash. And that's how inflation really gets you. You don't even eat the stuff you bought because you thought you were going to be in the mood for kale salad. Classic scenario. Nobody's in the mood for kale salad. And then you go, we're getting pizza tonight. That's right. Well, I think it's important to also say, and I know people are going to roll their eyes and say, oh my gosh, leftovers are a thing, and don't be above leftovers.

I'm a big fan of leftovers. I am too. They're huge in our house, but I know that can be offensive to say that. And if you hate leftovers, become a better cook, and then you'll like leftovers. It's amazing how that works. Shots fired. Yep. Coming at you, America.

And there's a whole bunch of folks out here from Chick-fil-A. You guys have done a great job keeping the prices down, so way go guys big fan of chick-fil-a i've got my own chick-fil-a hacks that i'll share it another time but uh i like to go budget friendly my wife does not her meal somehow is like 48 at chick-fil-a mine's like four dollars i'm getting the kids meal oh i did go with you one toy for the ice dream right they understand yeah no i was with you that one time. Yeah. John saw me order a kid's meal, and I was in the car with him, and they thought I was his child. Yeah, exactly.

They thought, man, don't see a lot of middle schoolers with a full beard, but we'll go with it. Here's what it comes down to. Do a little bit of math to figure out what is this meal actually costing me? Is it costing me $20 per person? Because that's not a good way to fight inflation. Right. But if I can get it down to $3, $4, $5, that's a great deal. And let's just call it out. We laugh, we joke, and we have a good time.

I know that there are people who are really hurting with the food prices. Oh, absolutely. They're hard, man. And things were already compressed and tough and tight, and millions of people looking for jobs, trying to move jobs. This is a messy time, man. And so I just want to acknowledge it. Sometimes there's moments, you know, when you're working people's mental health and you're working people's money, like there's, I don't have an instant solution for you other than to say,

I'm sitting here with you and I'm sorry. And that's my solution is let's get creative and let's make it kind of fun. And at least then it takes a little bit of that sting away and you feel like, man, this is kind of,, what other areas can we do this in? Another one is gas. That's another thing people are worried about. And I use an app called Gas Buddy. They're not a sponsor, but if you're listening, awesome app that shows me the cheapest gas in my area,

and usually it's the wholesale clubs. Huh, I didn't know that. Sam's or Costco. And so those are great ways to just do a little bit of math. But don't go to the gas station 48 miles away to save $0.02 a gallon. That's right. Also do the math on that and go that's not worth it i'm saving 20 cents to go an extra 20 miles yeah don't do that either very cool or stop driving that's a good way to do it too carpool or carpool i'm a big fan of that a lot of people that work here at ramsey in my neighborhood and sometimes i'll just hitch a ride that's see that to me is where i like that i like

to see communities come together and say, we've got some local challenges. What are some local solutions to some of these challenges? We're going to have people over once a month. Back when I had a group of friends, we had an event called Rotisserie where we just rotated. That's the cheesiest name ever, I know. But we would just have once a week,

everybody would take their leftovers out and bring them over, and there would be half a bottle of wine. Potluck. Yeah, it was an old school potluck. And we just rotated houses. The rules were no one cleans up. We're not, like if there's laundry on the floor, there's laundry on the floor.

We want to hang out and we're going to clean our fridges out. And these are folks that were way better off financially than me. It wasn't about necessity at that point. It was just about community. Yeah. And it turned into something that was great financially for us all too, right? Yeah. And this will all blow over. So we're not saying this is your new life and you have to shop at this new store and you have to get gas over it. This is just to help you guys out during this time so that you have a little bit more margin

in your budget. And that's why we teach the baby steps, by the way, because if you're in debt, inflation is hitting you a lot harder than when you've got three to six months of expenses sitting in a savings account. You've got no one. You don't owe anyone anything. You can sleep at night not worrying about the extra 20 cents at the pump. And this is going to blow over. Inflation will regulate back down.

They'll do something else. But don't let intentionality go by the wayside. Yeah. I love the idea. Even if it's for a few cents here, a quarter here, a couple dollars here. It adds up. Be intentional. Let this be the moment you say, I'm going to start being intentional with how I spend my money,

whether it's on a bag of rice or for a car or for a home or anything in between. A lot of wisdom there. We'll be right back. The scripture of today is Psalms 145, 15 through 16. The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. John Bunyan says, you have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you. Whoo.

I like it. Say that one more time. You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you. John Bunyan. I love that, man. We live in such a network-y and ROI,

and what can this relationship do for me and that one? Just do stuff for people who can't repay you. It's incredible. Way to go, man. All right. Find out for yourself why Blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window covering. You get free samples, free shipping,

and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use promo code RAMSY to get the best deal. Rules and restrictions apply. Today's question comes from Vanessa in Alabama. She says, I've been listening to your show at work, which is almost all of the time. You've helped me realize that it's possible to get my head above water and maybe I won't have to live like this forever. My question is, do you have any suggestions for preventing burnout when literally working six to 14 hours per day, six to seven days a week? When I don't work due to being exhausted and worn out, I stress about my debt. How do I get out of this cycle? That's such a great question. So most of the time when folks are struggling with burnout, there's a couple of things here.

One, people get burned out when they feel a sense of futility. I am running and I'm getting nowhere, right? And so there's something important about keeping progress notes. You know, we see those people make the charts and they have like the temperatures where they're gauging the debt. My wife and I, when we were paying off our six figures for the student loans, we had those like chains that we made out of construction paper and we wrote each loan on them. And my son was involved and we hung it in our bedroom and we tore one off every month. So we got to see it coming and it felt frustrating. But I got to see the progress, right? So one is that sense of futility. The other is this stress and anxiety about the debt.

And so often when we stress about a thing, we try to solve it by going after the thing even harder. I want you to think of stress maybe like a teeter-totter. And when you feel something stressful over here, come all the way over here and do some other things. So the Nagoski sisters wrote a great book called Burnout. They talk about, man, if you're feeling like this type of, I can't get it out of my head, it's looping, go work out. Go sleep.

Go be with people. Go have community, right? Go do some of these other things that your body is going to relax and chill. And come back to this plan, right? You're working hard these other things that your body is going to relax and chill and come back to this plan, right? You're working hard. Let's make no mistake. You are working really hard and this is for a short period of time. This is finite. You are sprinting for your life and we all go through seasons when we have to live like this. I'm in one of those seasons right now, right? We're about to launch a book. We're running and running and running and running. It's busy. It's exhausting,

but it's for a season. And my wife and I talked about it. My kids and I talked about it. I've talked about it with a few of my friends. This is a season and it's going to be this way for the next four or five months. And then we're going to be able to breathe, right? So there's something about the finality to it. Where are we going? Am I taking care of my body and things over here? And when you find yourself stressing out about a particular thing about stressing about my debt, I want you to write down, I'm working hard to solve it. I want you to be intentional about getting the thought out of your head and being able to look at it with some distance on it and writing a note to yourself, I'm really doing well. I'm working hard on this thing. Debt, you are about to be gone from my life.

Be intentional about your positive self-talk right yeah so there's a couple things you can do there but at the end of the day just make sure you've got some markers if you're in the gym and you're trying to lose weight if you are trying to get out of debt i don't care what you're trying to do make sure you've you keep some sort of progress record with yourself so that you can measure it, but more importantly, so you can not ever fall into that futility trap. Yeah. Humans require that sense of progress, which is why we talk about behavioral psychological stuff more than math around here. Absolutely. But there is a piece of this where maybe you do need to get tactical and write down a reverse engineer and say, all

right, I got $50,000 in debt. I make 70,000, busting my butt right now. What is this going to look like? Okay. $4,000 a month for this long. I can pay it off. Here's my date. I'm going to celebrate. Here's what I'm going to do when I become debt-free. Here's what I'm going to do to celebrate. I'm going to get my friends.

We're going to go on a trip. Whatever that looks like, dangle that as the carrot in front of you so that you have that why, the vision around it. But, man. And you brought up a great point. Little wins, huge. Right? Little wins are humongous. Celebrate every $1,000 or $2,000 you pay off. That's right. Every time you pay off a credit card,. Little wins, huge. Right? Little wins are humongous. Celebrate every $1,000 or $2,000 you pay off.

That's right. Every time you pay off a credit card, take yourself out to dinner. Right? Or every time you pay off something, don't take yourself out to dinner. That's going to get you further in debt. But do something. Right? Find a way to celebrate.

Have some friends or whatever that looks like for you. But little wins. Celebrate along the way. I love it. Great question. All right. Let's go to Nolan in Riverside. Hey, Nolan, what's going on?

Hey, guys. How's it going? We are awesome. How about you? Good, good. So I have a sort of a decision to make. So I am looking at schools. I'm

currently, I'm 24 years old. I'm currently 24 years old. My fiance is 23 years old. We are getting married in May. Congratulations. So she'll be my wife. Thank you. Thank you. So she'll be my wife in May.

I'm finishing up with my master's degree right now, and I should be finished by April, so right before the wedding. Awesome. I want to go into an EDD program, an educational doctorate program starting in August, but she wants to also go back to school, get her master's degree also starting in August. The problem is with the finances, we were just like unsure if it's the right decision. Um, and baby steps, we're in step three.

Um, we have no debt. Um, I'm paying for school cash flowing at her class. And that's what the plan was to do when we, um, start in August or the fall. Um,

this sounds like a perfect opportunity for a death match. Yeah. I want, I, I want us both to go um it's just we don't have an emergency like a three to six months of emergency fund sure we only have a thousand dollars saved up um you know the wedding honeymoon all that stuff is going to take most of our expenses what's the edd gonna get you nolan what are you getting an edd it's going to be in public health.

So right now I'm getting my master's degree in healthcare administration. Yep. Where are you working? And I want to get an EDD in public health. Where are you working? I do clinical research. Okay. For a university or for a private company?

A private company. Okay. Yeah. So what will that EDD get you right away? Yeah. So it would actually get me nothing right away. Long term, it could mean that I can have a higher position in my field, project manager, CTM, vice president. How old are you?

I'm 24. Okay, yeah, you told me that. All right, so here's a common thing that I see, especially when I was working. I sat on dissertation committee. I would review dissertations. I worked with doctoral students a lot. Okay. So here's the thing that I see that is real common and you can avoid it all is somebody going through getting their bachelor's degree, going into their master's degree, and then going straight into a doctorate program. And here's what happens when you going straight into a doctorate program.

And here's what happens. When you get out with a doctorate, you're 24 now, so you're going to be 28. You'll have four years experience. You will be credentialed to run the whole operation wherever you are. But you won't have the wisdom or 15 years or 10 years experience that it would take to run that operation.

So you'll find yourself in some sort of no man's land where you'll have a whole bunch of debt and nobody in their right mind would hire you just because you have a certificate. They want you to have the experience and that credential is really important. So I don't undermine it. I got a couple of them myself, but you're going to find yourself in a no man's land. What I'd love to see you do is take two years after a post-master's and work like mad. Learn everything. Become the go-to person there. Take people out to coffee. Learn how this thing works. Get really into the research, but not only the research part, but the politics part, the funding part, the grant part, all that stuff. Spend your time there and let your wife go to school.

And then when she's done, then y'all can decide, all right, what's next for us when it comes to graduate school? And that way you don't have to worry about the money parts. You don't get all wound up in who's going and I'm not going to go. I think it's a great moment in your history to just pause for a second. You're going to get that doctor. You for sure are. You're going to run the organization,

but give yourself a time to get the professional experience and wisdom that you're going to need to do that job. I want to thank George Campbell. Campbell. George Campbell. So close. What happened, man? I added a B for no reason. You're an A-plus guy. And everybody in the booth, especially James Childs. Thank you, America, for listening to us. We'll see you soon right here on The Ramsey Show. Did you know you can listen to The Ramsey Show on your smart speaker? Just tell Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri to play The Ramsey Show podcast. Check out all Ramsey Network shows

on your smart speaker today.