The Ramsey Show - App - How Can I Best Pay Off My Car? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: May 21, 2024

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Ken Coleman Ramsey personality is my co-host. Thank you for joining us, America. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Jerry starts this hour in Austin, Texas. Hi, Jerry. How are you?
Starting point is 00:00:43 Doing all right, Dave. I screwed up. Uh-oh. So I am driving a 2021 Nissan that I bought during the chip shortage. I am about 11 grand upside down on it, not in a position to get a loan, and the transmission on it just completely failed. Nissan is quoting me right at $5,000 for a transmission. And I don't have that. Um, I don't know what direction I need to go in because this car is kind of my source of income at the moment. I'm between jobs, so I run delivery services.
Starting point is 00:01:28 How old are you? 36. Single? Yes, sir. Okay. What do you owe on the car? Today's payoff would be right at $23,000. The dealership offered me $11,000 last week.
Starting point is 00:01:46 I could probably get $13,000 private sale if the transmission wasn't messed up. They offered you $11,000 with the messed up transmission? No, that was right before the transmission failed on it. They hadn't test driven it or anything, so it was sight unseen. The transmission went out while I was on a delivery a couple days ago this last weekend. Yeah. Do you have any money? At the moment, no.
Starting point is 00:02:25 I just paid off all of my credit cards and everything. Um, I had started following baby steps, uh, probably right after I got this car. So you have a thousand dollars. Yeah, about that, but I don't know. Yeah, that's not enough to even put it in. I didn't ask that. I asked what you've got. Yeah, I have my $1,000 emergency fund, and that's pretty much it. Okay.
Starting point is 00:02:53 Pretty much. What's pretty much mean? I mean, I could probably scrape together another couple hundred bucks just from, like, side work and friends that I have and stuff like that. Okay. All right. All right. couple hundred bucks just from like side work and friends that i have and stuff like that okay all right all right i'm digging deep here on this idea jerry do you have any friends at all that are very mechanical they work on their own cars or a friend of a friend i I am a mechanic by trade, but the car is so new.
Starting point is 00:03:29 No transmission shop in town offers a rebuild service for it. It's a dealer-only item. So the price that the Nissan dealership gave me, that's about as cheap as I would be able to get it. Yeah, but that includes labor, or is that just the transmission itself? That's just parts is $4,500 before tax. Wow. Okay. Well, that kills the idea I had there. You said it's a 2021?
Starting point is 00:03:55 Yes. Okay, that's four years old, three years old. I don't know why you wouldn't have a rebuild out there. There's rebuilds out there on a four-, three-year-old transmission. Yeah, the part that they're quoting me for is a remanufactured transmission because they no longer sell the new one. They discontinued it because there are so many issues with it. That's helpful.
Starting point is 00:04:22 Okay. Yeah. A lot of joy in this car um okay well you know the and the obvious other answer then is a salvage uh from a salvage yard uh a used one and you go pick that up for a couple grand and you roll up under there and stick it up under there that's what you're gonna have to do um and i don't the problem is i don't know while you do all this uh what you're doing for money for food because you don't have any money and i'm trying to figure out how to get you a little bit of income coming in while you're doing that um yeah i mean i was probably making
Starting point is 00:04:56 seven to eight hundred dollars a week running doordash and delivery services and that got knocked down to zero real quick yeah yeah yeah um okay so i i guess i'm looking for a buddy that's working construction that'll pick me up and take me to the job and let me make twenty dollars an hour or you're walking down to target and making twenty dollars an hour uh for the next few weeks while you go find a salvage transmission from a junkyard, a salvage yard. I don't call them junkyards anymore. I do have a bicycle so I can get around, but I also live 20 miles from town because it's cheaper.
Starting point is 00:05:39 Okay. I mean, you may have to do some temporary things that involve some temporary help from friends. Do you have any family in the area? No, sir. I was a ward of the state when I turned 18. Okay. All right.
Starting point is 00:05:59 I tell you, here's the only thing I can think to do to help you is, yeah, that's how I would solve it if I were in your shoes. Okay. I'm going to try to create some income that is legal hook or crook with a friend taking me to a job site or, you know, getting wherever. And then I'm going to scratch together a salvage yard used transmission. I'm going to roll up under there since you know how that's good news and bolt that thing on um and then uh i think you need family in your life and so i'm going to introduce you to some uh we're acquainted with several churches in austin texas that love helping people and uh with no obligation and no weird requirements on your part um they just love helping people and um i'm going to hook you up with a couple of different folks there and um uh through our team
Starting point is 00:06:53 and see if we can't get somebody to give you some uh rides to work some work um maybe a little bit of cash to get through this little tight spot here i I'm going to throw an idea out, Jerry. I'm tacking on to what Dave said. If any of these churches, Dave, have a program like our church that we go to here locally where they have local mechanics that go to the church that fix up cars for single moms, I wonder if we've got a church friend where cars are being donated. He trades some work, some extra hours, and he fixes up a clunker that he can use for this season until he can get through
Starting point is 00:07:29 this because we got to get you a set of wheels or you're going to have to bicycle to a mechanic shop because if you're a mechanic by trade and you told us that that's your best money making opportunity right now and they're hiring like crazy all the time so a lot more than you're making with doorDash. And you don't have to run your car in the dirt. That's right. To go be a mechanic during the day. So, yeah.
Starting point is 00:07:54 Those are some ideas. You're definitely in a pinch, Jerry. I feel for you. And the only way I know to do is to get family around you. And that's the family of God. Yes. And so you hang on. And Christian's going to pick up.
Starting point is 00:08:05 Get your contact information. And when I get to a break a little bit later, I'll give you some names, Christian, to get to him. And we'll plug you in with some good churches there in Austin, Texas, and get you some help, brother. Yeah. That's the only thing I know to do. Because you got to have somebody put their arm around you right now. You're by yourself and you're stuck.
Starting point is 00:08:20 And somebody just needs to love you. And we'll help you do that. Okay. This is The ramsey show ken coleman ramsey personality is my co-host today thank you for joining us america we're glad you're here the best way to take control of your money is to do it on purpose the best way to do it on purpose is called a budget the best way to do that is the world's best budgeting app called EveryDollar. You can keep a pulse on your spending.
Starting point is 00:08:51 You can make progress. You can follow along with the baby steps. You can paycheck plan out where every dollar of every paycheck and every month is going. Download the EveryDollar app for free in the App Store or at Google Play or at EveryDollar.com. Heidi is with us in San Antonio, Texas. Hey, Heidi, how are you? Hi, I am good. Thanks for taking my call.
Starting point is 00:09:17 Sure. How can we help? So my husband and I are nearly done baby step two, and we have a rental property in a desirable area of downtown San Antonio. And he would like to hang on to it for a couple more years and build some more equity and have the market be a little stronger. And I feel like I want to sell it now and pay down our primary house mortgage. Okay. Why are you wanting, why do you want to sell now? Well, I want to sell now because I've been running it as an Airbnb for the last year and a half, and I am managing it and cleaning it and doing all the work for it. And we're kind of just breaking even.
Starting point is 00:10:18 On a good month, maybe I'm taking home $1,000 after all the expenses. Because of the payment on it? Yeah, because of our mortgage, hospitality tax, you know, supplies. Okay, so, you know, that's a completely different thing than we disagree over whether we ought to sell our rental. Right now, you know, you're saying, we're not making any money, and I ain't cleaning this thing for free anymore,
Starting point is 00:10:49 so what are you going to do, Bubba? And he's saying, oh, I think we should think hypothetically about keeping this rental property for real. Well, you ain't got a maid anymore that's free. I just quit. Yeah, well, he thinks that there are, like, you know, maybe we could find somebody that could clean it, and that's a possibility.
Starting point is 00:11:13 Yeah, you're not making any money on this house. Right. This house is not a blessing. It's a curse. It needs to go. Oh, man. Okay, what about, like, switching back to long-term renter? Well, you're going to lose money. if you can't make money on airbnb you can't make money on long-term
Starting point is 00:11:30 yeah airbnb ought to be cash cowan yeah it's a pain in the butt and it destroys your house and i hate it but it ought to be making money and if you can't barely break even with free freaking labor you know on airbnb you're not gonna make money on it you're gonna be losing you're gonna be writing a check to own this thing every month good lord that sounds awful okay right yeah i mean that's kind of well that's where i've come to um but then when we started we talked to a real estate agent and i mean the market is just very slow right now and you know i think that's his thinking let's give it another year see if things pick up well yeah that's great if you're not writing checks i'm putting it on the market yeah you know go go to ramsey solutions.com and click on
Starting point is 00:12:32 elp for a trusted real estate agent that we have vetted that knows their stuff and that it's high octane high protein and i'm getting this thing on the market i'm getting it sold because i gotta tell you i i lost patience with this property and i don't even own it i love the house though that's you know you know it is we do consider but the situation with the house sucks yeah it loses money and it's a pain in your neck. You've had it with this thing. You're tired of screwing with it. By the way, a year, two years isn't going to make that much difference in the value. So just playing out the numbers, it's just not worth it.
Starting point is 00:13:14 Yeah. I mean, you're not going to have people lining up around the block, but I think the house will sell. Houses are selling in San Antonio. The market is not so slow that nothing is moving. It's just not white hot like after the pandemic where people were lining up around the block 80 80 offers over the weekend but um yeah you know i'm afraid your real estate agent sounded a little bit like eeyore to me um i think you need to get get some other opinions uh because i think san antonio is a fine city and i think it's thriving
Starting point is 00:13:40 um i don't i haven't read anything i haven't i mean we come out there all the time we love the city it's always been good to us i've not read anything that indicates that city's not doing anything but booming unless you're in some kind of junkie butt neighborhood with this house or something then uh that's different but that's a neighborhood thing that's not a marketplace thing um i mean you're not you're in an area that's not a marketplace thing. Um, I mean, you're not in, you're in an area that's highly attractive. It's a great town. And so, um, in freaking Texas, you know, I mean, this is where people are moving, Texas, Tennessee, and Florida. That's where all these people that are escaping these refugees from these other States are coming. So I, I really, I'm, I think you can,
Starting point is 00:14:24 I go to Ramsey solutions.com and I would interview two Ramsey trusted real estate agents. Both of you and your husband interview them and talk to them. And you need to explain to your husband you're tired of doing this and it doesn't make money. Real estate should make money. And you borrowed too much on it so it doesn't make money because of the debt it is a curse it is not a blessing dump this thing that's what i would do i'd be done with it instead of maximizing the asset yeah you should resign from property management and made and make him do it for about a month i bet he'd get in alignment pretty fast just say i'm done yeah here's you want to keep it you have to take care here's the broom i changed
Starting point is 00:15:12 the airbnb email to yours i think that's what i would do it's uh let you man that's not passive hotel that's straight aggressive right there hotel there's a lady in the lobby that likes that call see if he wants to hang on to it then he has to take care of it so that's that's what i'm hearing he'd last about two weeks that's brutal now i hope just the whole idea of it'll be enough you know that's it right there i'm done wow ben's in greenville, South Carolina. Hi, Ben. How are you? Hey, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. How can I help? So me and my wife are newlyweds.
Starting point is 00:15:52 Well, it's been a year. We just celebrated our one-year anniversary. Congratulations. We have so far paid off $15,000 of our debt. We have $30,000 left um i just got a full-time job where i'm making around 55 to 60 thousand dollars a year and this 30,000 is divided equally between my car her car and one credit card okay um i have this is all stuff y'all brought in. You brought all of this into the marriage. I hope her, her car, we did purchase because her old car was a junker and she started getting
Starting point is 00:16:33 into a childcare where she was going to be driving kids around and she needed something with AC and we, we probably overspent, we overspent and could have gotten something a little cheaper, but thought that we could do it, and I don't think we could. Okay. Is she making money now? She's working as a nanny, but we have our first baby on the way. So she's about to be out at least for a little while, for about three months. We want her to stay home.
Starting point is 00:17:01 Okay. I have my dad, my grandparents set up two separate 529 college funds that i have not used why um and it's about forty thousand dollars be a ten percent uh the student loan wait a minute the student loan none of them are yours no these are 529 college funds i don't know you don't have a student loan didn't you tell? So she had a student loan. Two cars, one credit card. Oh, I got that wrong. Okay.
Starting point is 00:17:30 Yeah. Cash it out. You're going to pay a penalty, but you don't have a use for it. You're out of school. You're going to pay a penalty, but you're only paying a penalty on the growth. So yeah, get with your tax person, cash it out and pay off your debts. Be debt free today. Get moving on it.
Starting point is 00:17:46 If you want the tax advice to see exactly what it's going to look like, make sure you set the tax money aside. Find a tax person that we endorse at RamseyTrusted at RamseySolutions.com and look for tax ELPs. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. Julie is with us. Julie is in Detroit, Michigan.
Starting point is 00:18:17 Hi, Julie. How are you? Good. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. What's up? I have a question. I have a question that I have honestly never heard a caller have,
Starting point is 00:18:28 and it is a scary question, and I'll explain why. But my question is, is giving excessively the same as overspending? No, but they're cousins. Tell me what's going on. Well, we're very fortunate i i grew up really without having virtually anything and so as an adult um i just feel very fortunate i'll get to you and so i i am gazelle intense about wanting to give so i'm always giving but my goal is to get rid of the mortgage so that I can give and we're high earners but at the end of the year I will have what I think I need and it's really more of a cash flow issue but I will you know even this thing is a good example and it just
Starting point is 00:19:18 stresses me out that I will use the so we do have a credit line for work. How do you how do you define wait a minute you have a credit line what say this again? I know yeah we have a credit line for work how do you how do you define wait a minute you have a credit line what say this again i know yeah we have a credit line for work um just i don't know if that's the technical term but whatever credit for work so you have a business you have a business yes we have a business so so you don't run your business debt free i have in the past but even this year like i think i've made it a year and a half or two without but now i'm back on this year and it and it is a cash flow so like right now my receivables are the same as my um credit line because the jobs that we thought we would have going right now
Starting point is 00:19:58 don't start until later it's a separate it's a separate issue we'll come back to that all right first let me let's just start with that let's just start with that stop that okay okay you need to start running your business you need to start running your business with more margin quit taking so much home and quit giving away so much until your business is able to support itself and you become your own credit line you need to build retained earnings in a business to where you have some cash slush sitting in the business to cover your ups and downs of cash flow needs. And you're running this business up to the wire because you're taking it all home, and then you're having to dip into the credit line because you've got no margin.
Starting point is 00:20:34 Exactly. And so you need to keep, it's not healthy business practices. You need to keep some retained earnings. So a percentage of your profits every month from today forward should go to retained earnings. Never to be touched. They're just sitting there in the business. If you get $2 million in retained earnings, then you can bring some of them home.
Starting point is 00:20:54 But take some percentage and build an emergency, build a retained earnings fund at work. Start doing that now to do away with the credit line. Now, back to the other thing. Define giving excessively by your definition. work start doing that now to do away the credit line now back to the other thing define giving excessively by your definition um constantly thinking about giving um and not literally on a daily basis not in any that's not giving obsessively that's not giving excessively that's obsessing about giving maybe that could be That's different than giving excessively. Right. It's like I can't.
Starting point is 00:21:26 Well, it's both. Okay. I do a lot of giving. Okay. I just. What is your. Well, you said your big income earners. What's your household income?
Starting point is 00:21:35 Last year was $470,000 and the year before that was $540,000. Okay. I would define giving excessively as you were giving, actually giving so much money away that you're harming other parts of your life. Okay. Excessive isn't a dollar amount. It's a percentage. And I think the percentage is the problem. Okay. What percentage of your income do you give away?
Starting point is 00:22:04 And that's why I put it out of profit and loss, but I'm like, I don't, that's the problem. Okay. What percentage of your income do you give away? And that's why I put it out of profit and loss, but I'm like, I don't, that's my problem. I don't know. I know that like for taxes, like I know in my mind, I need over six figures, obviously for, for taxes, because we're an S-corp. So I have to pull that. And then I try to think in that, like, I know I need, you know, let's say under a hundred thousand per month. So if I have 200,000, so last year, my retained earnings before the summer, if I'm looking at it from year to date, was probably $373,000. So this year, or at the end of the year then, I had close to $300,000 that I thought, oh no, I had $160,000. And I thought, okay, I have enough to get into next year. And that was after all of my giving.
Starting point is 00:22:45 And however, no, because the job is not working. Can I ask you what percentage of your income you're giving, and you went on this rambling thing about your retained earnings? Because I don't know what the percentage is. Okay, that's what I mean. In my head I said, I want to be at least. Okay, so it's not excessive and it's not obsessive. It's not, you're not doing it on purpose you're just randomly giving money away and you feel like
Starting point is 00:23:13 you're out of control because of the chaos yeah yeah right yeah okay so i gotta ask a different than overspending is there some sense of guilt what do you think is driving this this isn't healthy would you agree with that no i i guess to me it feels healthy because it feels good to give so but yes when i don't want to have this issue like the last couple years felt great because i yeah but here's what here's what i'm getting at i'm not trying to I'm not trying to make you feel bad. I'm trying to help you. I really think that you've got some sense of guilt, and you are trying to give this feeling away. I think there's something going on here. You told me five times you're a big income earner.
Starting point is 00:23:58 It's like you don't deserve what you've accomplished. Yeah, that could be. Yeah, that could be. Here's my point i really think you ought to yeah i think you ought to see a therapist how many people i do when you grow up without it you just know people are hurting i know your heart's in the right place i think this is in your head there are people like you were when you were a kid and you've got a lot of money and you think you can help them but the bad news is you're not God.
Starting point is 00:24:26 That's right. No, exactly. And I do know that. I do know that. So I try to have these. Like I said, I can make it a year without doing that. But obviously, I don't have deep enough pockets that I need to get back. So here's your tactical math formula that will help you.
Starting point is 00:24:43 And then you may need to sit down and talk this through with your pastor or with a therapist, okay, in terms of what's driving the tears, okay, because Ken put his finger right on it. So the, but what I would do if I were in your shoes is I would change the business model, how we handle the money at the business to where the business is self-supporting because we keep enough retained earnings. You're blending your business and your personal together. You need to separate them very distinctly. You need to have a set of business books at the office.
Starting point is 00:25:16 And when you close the books each month and you have a profit, a percentage of that profit should be set aside for retained earnings. If you do that continuously and you set aside the proper percentage, and you can do some simple math and figure that out, you will not have a need for a line of credit anymore because you make tons of money. Okay? Right. Then everything after you have set aside your percentage for retained earnings is called profit,
Starting point is 00:25:42 and you bring that home. Now, when you bring that home, I want you to start giving every one of those dollars a name with your husband every month and some of that needs to be generosity and i and that's healthy and that's good and uh having a heart for people that are in situations like you grew up in is exactly what you should be doing with money. That's a wonderful thing to do with money and finding some causes and some individuals that you can just take on and help with that money
Starting point is 00:26:17 because you've got plenty of money to be generous. And let me jump in real quick. If you give away 20% your income that's almost a hundred thousand dollars a year yes yeah and that's what i'm doing but i i also need i don't know if you're doing that or not because you're not sure you're doing it and julie right i know that i do give about that much listen here's what i want you to hear dave is laying this out for me and once you get a formula you have to work on this phrase what you can give is enough you got it okay what you can give meaning the formula dave's talking about with some responsibility
Starting point is 00:26:53 what you can give is enough you understand what i'm saying and if you want to give away 20 of your income there's nothing wrong with that at all yeah that's not excessive by the way right what's excessive here is the chaos the out of control and some of it's coming from a broken place rather rather than a a formerly broken place that's healed and you want to help others and i that a couple things to work on there and it's a really good question thank you for calling with it and And way to go. Congratulations on your success. This is The Ramsey Show. Our Scripture of the Day, 1 Corinthians 16, 13, and 14.
Starting point is 00:27:37 Be on your guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. Do everything in love. Theodore Roosevelt said, Courage is not having the strength. Be courageous. Be strong. Do everything in love. Theodore Roosevelt said, courage is not having the strength to go on. It is going on when you don't have the strength. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. We are
Starting point is 00:27:58 glad you are here. Eric is in Boston, Mass. Hi, Eric. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, thank you for having me. Hi, Eric. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi. Thank you for having me. Sure. What's up? Yeah, so I want to talk about my product. I sell barbershop blades, razor blades, straight edge blades. So the problem I'm having is that I have, I would say, three different tiers of customers.
Starting point is 00:28:23 So I have the barbers, which are the final customer, the people that use the blades. I have distributors, the people that go to the suppliers to buy the blades. They're like the middlemen. And then I have the suppliers that have physical stores, and they sell to the distributors and the barbers. So the problem I'm having is with price in my product in a competitive market so the issue I'm
Starting point is 00:28:51 finding is that my pricing is similar based on the cost of the product similar to make a profit similar to the pros that already in the market so I don't know I'm looking for strategies of how to price my product to appeal to these three different levels of customers, per se, and make a profit. Okay. How long have you been doing this? It's been about a year now. Where are you getting the blades?
Starting point is 00:29:22 Get them from China, and I rep the the blades in a different in a different uh packaging uh what made you decide to do this uh i always loved business as i was a child i mean i always i was like 13 years old i was already making deals and stuff so i always had a passion for for business i mean i uh have a pretty decent job per se, but I just always wanted to do something different and start a business. Why Razorblades? It's an industry that is growing and is particularly dominated, I would say, by Spanish speaking in my area at least. So I saw a big market there and I can connect with the community. I know how to do like social media and stuff like that.
Starting point is 00:30:11 So I was looking at the trends and all that. And I was like, you know what? Maybe selling barbershop supplies is a good business. So I went for that. Yeah, I'm sorry. It's okay. No, you're fine. So here's the thing there's a couple of different categories that you'll find yourself with products in the marketplace there are products
Starting point is 00:30:32 that you uh that are unique and therefore really don't have a direct competitor and then there are products that are homogeneous meaning they're all alike and the main competition is on price that's called that's called commoditized if a product is commoditized if all the consumers looking at if all the people are looking at price it's the only differentiators price you are in a commoditized market and you only have one way to win and that's price. Okay. Okay. It sounds like you are pretty close to that in this world with what you're describing to me.
Starting point is 00:31:13 If you have a blade that is differentiated because of the quality, it will last longer. It would let me, I'm making this up up but if you could buy a blade that had a story to it uh it came from such and such a family that have been making it since the 1800s and their blades are higher quality than the cheapo blades that you get somewhere else and they last twice as long and they sharpen a lot sharper therefore the customers that are getting a shave are going to love you that much more you know this is a differentiated braid i'm brand differentiating here you have to different you have to set your brand apart from the other blades if you cannot do that then you just have to compete straight on price and when you're
Starting point is 00:32:03 competing straight on price that's a difficult market to exist in for long because someone will always come along and play the trump card on you. And that's the challenge that I'm facing. Because as I mentioned, I buy them from China, and I repackage the blades. What is different about my blades, not only that they last longer, which is proven, and they're durable too
Starting point is 00:32:25 but also the packaging is a cylinder packaging that can be used as a disposable for the used blades already nobody has come out with anything like that that i know of so okay so you've got two things that you need to market and it's not price thing one is i've got a disposable situation here i can get rid of the blade without somebody getting hurt you don't throw it in the trash can and whoever's cleaning out the trash can gets hurt with an open blade right and then two these blades are higher quality and last longer and i will put my guarantee on that and if you do not experience that i'll give you your money back yeah yeah i i get that so who's who's of the three groups uh because i was doing some quick research i don't think you mentioned how different are the three groups that you were talking about
Starting point is 00:33:12 and which one has got the best upside well the the largest customer will be the suppliers right because they're the people who buy bulk and that's's what I'm aiming for. Now, the issue that I'm finding is, I mean, it's kind of a commodity because it's so saturated with other options, and I'm a new blade. So for the customer, the supplier to be motivated to make a big purchase or even try all my blades, I have to give a competitive price. So it has to be much lower than the competition, and I might not be making that much profit. How much dollar volume are you talking about doing?
Starting point is 00:33:54 You mean in quantity or per unit? I don't care. Well, no, quantity. Well, I mean, having had a large sale, the most I've sold now is like 500 units. So it's not like... So why is the bulk sale supplier the best route? Why not sell smaller volume at greater margin direct to the barbers?
Starting point is 00:34:18 Yeah, I try that, but I can actually make more money doing that, but it's time consuming. And what happens is that usually distributors go straight to the barbershops and they have different products and that's what they do for work. That's their living. So it's not financially sound for me to go out there on Fridays only to sell blades. So Eric, if I was on the other end of the phone and you were sitting next to Dave and I called in, I said, hey, let me tell you something. I'm in a business right now that to make the best profit margin, it takes a whole lot of time. And if I don't do it that route, I'm pretty much having to price myself out of profitability because my margins are so low. Would you tell me that's a good business to get into?
Starting point is 00:35:03 Absolutely not. That's what you just said. That's essentially what you just told us. And not trying to, you know, poo-poo this idea, but you're a business guy. You've been wanting to do something like this your whole life. This is just not a good business to be in for those reasons. Yeah, you've got to either get your margin up or you've got to get your margin up. Because what you're describing is no fun.
Starting point is 00:35:26 When you get commoditized and all you're doing is competing on price, it's a race to the bottom. Yeah, that's right. It's very different. And so we do not enter any businesses at Ramsey that are commoditized. I refuse to get into them. I'm not going to compete on price. I'm going to compete on quality and uniqueness.
Starting point is 00:35:46 And so there's only one place you can get a total money makeover. The total money makeover advice is in a total money makeover book. There's not a generic version of it out there, except for the pirated versions from China that are on Amazon. But other than that, but the, uh, yeah, but I'm talking about the real world. And so, yeah, that, that, so dude, amazon but other than that but the uh yeah but i'm talking about the real world and so yeah that that so dude you've got to get something that's unique and stands out yeah uh in your world direct to consumer the the subscription model yeah that uh there's three or four guys that have done
Starting point is 00:36:17 different business models on a very large scale direct to consumer with subscription with with razors not straight razor blades like you're doing but razors yeah so you've got to figure out is there some way you can get in with a supplier that wants to carry these in mass it's a great discussion that's why we drug it out and enjoyed the discussion with you i like it like your spirit i like what you're trying to do and um so but i don't have the answer you've got to find a way to say i'm either going to do this en masse at a price point that makes it fun or i'm going to do a smaller volume at a higher price point with higher margins and then i can make the case for my brand differentiation and you do have brand differentiation available to you that puts this hour of the ramsey show in the books we'll
Starting point is 00:37:03 be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. I'll see you next time.

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