The Ramsey Show - App - How Can I Best Use My Savings To Build Wealth? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: November 2, 2021

Debt, Career, Investing, Retirement, Savings As heard on this episode: Sign Up for a FREE trial of Ramsey+ TODAY: https://bit.ly/3rZTUAx Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: https://bit.ly/2Q64HME Insurance Coverage Checkup: https://bit.ly/3sXwUn5 Complete Guide to Budgeting: https://bit.ly/3utmVXi Check out more Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3fHhbVE

Thank you. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, host of the Ken Coleman Show, where he talks about jobs and careers and finding work that you love. Finding work that matters.

He's my co-host today. That means you can talk about your career as well as anything else you want to call in about. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Christina is with us in Phoenix, Arizona. Hi, Christina. How are you? I'm good, thank you. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up? Thanks for taking my call. I was wondering about selling our home in this great market right now. So we purchased the home for about $160,000. We owe about $110,000 still. And it's listing for about $450,000. The thing is that we have significant student loans.

We have about $275,000 worth of student loans, $275 275 000 um for what who's the doctor or lawyer um my husband is a physician assistant and i'm a mental health therapist good okay so your household income over 200 um it should be this year um this year i've really hit it hard with my own my own private practice good good and what was it last year um about 165 okay and so you got a pretty good trajectory on both of your careers which is the payoff for getting good degrees but now we've got the uh the debt associated with them, right? The mess, yeah. Well, it sounds like you've got a choice.

Mathematically, you've got a choice. Live like a college student, spend absolutely no money, and keep your house and be debt-free in three years, or sell your house. My husband wants to keep it for like a rental type of thing. No, you don't need a rental. You're broke.

Okay. You're $275,000 in debt. You're not in any position to be investing in real estate. Well, not right now. I know. I mean, don't we pay everything off? I know. Okay.

Okay. Okay. So do you want to live there with absolutely no lifestyle, work like absolute maniacs, and clean up this ridiculous mess that you have in three years or less, or do you want to sell the house to get out now? Either one is okay. There's no bad answer here. It's what you want to

do i would love to sell i'm i'm eager to get out of debt um he likes the idea or he's playing around with the idea of selling it but um he's definitely more for the he wants it for that potential passive type of income later on. Yeah. Well, that's long-term thinking, which is not bad, but I don't know if he realizes what this is about to cost him. He's not going out to eat for the next three years. He's not going on vacation for the next three years.

Yeah, it's hard. Yeah. Kiddos survive without restaurants. They have done it for centuries. Yeah, they don't even care give them a bowl of of goldfish and chicken nuggets and they're thrilled so this isn't about the kids i think dave brings up a good point does he understand no how hard this is going to be to pay this off in three years i don't think he does well no i mean he's yeah he's really good

with money so he's attacking no he's not he's 275 000 yeah, he's really good with money, so he's attacking it very hard. No, he's not. He's $275,000 in debt. He's not good with money. I mean, he attacked it really hard during this no interest. I mean, he went down from $170,000 to about $140,000, so he's definitely working hard at that. I just think that if you're the one that wants to pay the house off now, you've got to cast a little bit more vision for him. That's the one I would choose. But I would sit down with Stacy and go, here's why I want this. If we sell this now, boom, it's done.

We both make really good income. We can rent in a really nice place and still be emergency fund, fully funded immediately with the kind of income you guys have. And we can save up, and then we can get a nicer house and put a really great down payment on it. I just think you've got to show him the other side of this as opposed to what I think is a status symbol, which is this, I'd like to have passive income with this small house. I would just cast a different vision here. Have you guys really talked about your side of this thing and where it fast forwards your life

so much faster have you done that i have yes i've honed in on that like this week that's why you know i've been trying to call all week no i'm saying has he you've talked about that and painted a clear vision for how this fast forwards everything i everything? I believe I have, yes. Okay. So here's what I heard. I just told you to pay off $100,000 a year, and you went and bragged about him paying off $30,000 in one year. Well, in a couple months. Oh, a couple months he did that?

Uh-huh. You said during the no interest, and the no interest has been a year. So that's why I'm sorry. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's probably since, I guess, about a year or since the beginning of the year or so. The beginning of the year. He's hit it hard. Yeah, he's hit it hard.

Okay. Because $100,000 a year is $8,000 a month. So $30,000 would be done in just a little over three months. If he did that, then he's hitting it hard. I'll go with you. Okay. But I heard a year. I thought I heard a year when you said that.

You didn't say a year, but I heard since they stopped having interest on the loans, which has been a year. So anyway. Okay. So, yeah. And by the way, he was paying off his debt, not our debt. So somehow I don't know where we got on that. But I think the two of you need to sit down together and go, all right, one of these two things is going to happen. We're either going to have no lifestyle and we're going to hit this hard for three years and be debt free, $300,000 in three years. Or we're going to sell the house, rent for a little while, have an emergency fund, build up cash for a down payment,

and buy another house, and we'll buy rentals later. You're always going to have good incomes because you have two very good career fields if you work hard and continue with your craft and so on, right? So a $200,000, $250,000 income, it's not hard to save up and pay off your own home and then save up and buy your first rental within the first decade here. It's very doable. But I think you're getting a cart in front of the horse. He is.

He's starting to talk about rental properties while we still have a house mortgage and we still have $275,000 in student loan debt. It's out of order. That comes later. So I would either sell the house or hold on to it with the idea that we're probably going to sell it later and move up in-house and get that house paid off before we start adding rentals. Paying it off and paying off the student loan debt and then going and taking a mortgage to buy your next home is not something I would tell you to do. And so he's, again, putting the cart before the horse with all that. So I'm kicking this rental thing down

the road a little bit. I like rental property. I want you to have some rental property, but broke people shouldn't buy rental property. It's not a good thing. It makes you a broker. That's why I call them real estate brokers. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Ken Coleman is my co-host today.

This is The Ramsey Show. There's a stat that came out recently saying nearly one in three employees wants to pursue a more fulfilling job. If you're burned out at work and thinking about changing jobs come January, you need to start now to beat the competition. It can be hard to get hired in a crowd of applicants, but I launched for pre-order my new book, From Paycheck to Purpose, The Clear Path to Doing Work You Love, which will help you get hired in your dream job, change careers, or just figure out what kind of work is truly meaningful to you so that you can get out of the daily grind. I'll walk you through the proven seven-stage plan that helped me and thousands of others start doing work that matters. Plus, if you pre-order from Paycheck to Purpose today, you'll receive our Get Hired bonus pack for free, including the audiobook, ebook, resume templates, the Get Hired digital course, access to the live event, and more. You heard that right. Pre-order today for only $20 and get over $100 in bonus items for free at ramseysolutions.com.

But hurry, the pre-order ends soon. That's ramseysolutions.com. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today, author of the number one best-selling book, The Proximity Principle, and a brand-new book that is on presale right now called From Paycheck to Purpose, The Clear Path to Doing Work You Love. Boise, Idaho, Andrew's on the line. Hey, Andrew, how can we help? I'm doing well. Thanks for taking my call today.

Sure. What's up? So my question is, is it worth leaving a job that I don't hate but also is not fulfilling if I have to take a pay cut to do so. Well, I just have a question on that. Is that the only option you have to leave this unfulfilling job, is a job that pays less? Well, it would take me two or three years to get back up to where I am now in a new field.

Why? Because I do not have the technical skills in that field. So I'd be switching from sales to accounting. Do you want to do accounting long-term or take accounting and take it higher? I want to do accounting long-term as a CPA working with small businesses. Okay, great. And so what's the qualification process look like? How much financially is that going to cost you?

So depending on the year, but 30% to 60% pay cut. So I get a 10. This year it would be about a 50% pay cut. What do you make? So I make my base salary is about $65,000 a year. Yeah. And then I bonus, this year I'll probably bonus a little over $100,000. So you make $165,000 a year?

No, sorry. With the bonus. $100,000 total, with the bonus. Okay, so you make $100,000 a year? Yes. Okay. And you're how old? 30.

Okay. Okay, so the question I have, though, is there's some training, not just experience. How much is the training going to cost you, the certification, to become a CPA? What's that actual cost? So I have some school towards it already. Right. So I have about two and a half years of school left. The programs I've been looking at, it would cost me probably about $15,000 to $20,000 to finish up. Okay. So the reason that I don't think you need to take a pay cut is we can stay in an unfulfilling job if it allows us

to make the kind of money we need to cash flow and not go into debt or pay off any other debt that you have to be able to move into the accounting field. But if you take a significant pay cut, it takes everything much longer. Do you understand what I'm saying? I do. So with the pay cut, I would be able to still do it within the three years. Why not do it in one year and not take a pay cut? Fair enough. I think you've created a false narrative. Okay. You don't have to take a pay cut.

Correct. The struggle I have now is I work about 50 to 60 hours a week, and so finding time for school, I have young kids at home, finding the time for school is difficult, if that makes sense. It makes sense, but it's a separate conversation. First, it's like, so I take a pay cut. I don't think you need to take a pay cut. You shouldn't take a pay cut.

But you still have got to figure out, what do I have to do to get where I want to go? And I get that you've got small kids, but they're small kids. They're young kids. They don't know how much time you're spending with them. This comes down to how much you really want to get where you want to go. And I get that you've got small kids, but they're small kids. They're young kids. They don't know how much time you're spending with them. This comes down to how much you really want to get where you want to go

and what sacrifices you're going to have to make. In this particular situation, you're going to have to sacrifice financially in that you're saving up money to pay for the qualifications you need. You're going to have to sacrifice some time with the kids. That's just your reality, but that's a short season.

This is not for five years. This is for 12 months. Right. The kids will be fine. The opportunity with this particular accounting firm is now. I guess that's kind of the... So what? That's not the only accounting firm that will hire you and give you the opportunity to climb a ladder. It's not an opportunity. It's a curse. Yeah, it takes you backwards.

Fair enough. The opportunity would be great if they offered you $80,000 and paid for your tuition and you worked 40 hours a week so that you could go ahead and instead of 60 hours a week at your sales job, take a small pay cut. But when you're talking about taking a 40% or a 50% or 65% pay cut, that's just as silly, man. This doesn't work. That's so far backward that you're short-circuiting the whole process by doing that. But if these guys really want you, then, hey, they're going to pay you.

Listen, let me just tell you. I'm an employer, okay? We're hiring 300 people this year. The number of people that I hire at $65,000 a year that took a pay cut from $165,000 this year will be precisely zero. I wouldn't hire you. Fair enough. Because it's silly. Even if you're going, well, working for Ramsey,

I've always wanted to work for Dave Ramsey. He's the best guy on the planet. I think he's the most wonderful. Bull crap. You're taking a $165,000 to $65,000 cut, or from $100,000 down to a $65,000 cut, and, you know, I'm a great guy. I'm not that great.

Don't do it. Andrew, final word on this. You've got to change your mindset about this current day job that's unfulfilling. It doesn't matter. You do what you have to do so you can do what you want to do, and you've got to change your mindset, change your entire attitude. I'm grateful for this job because it is setting me up for a future. That has to change.

And then lay in place a game plan that you strategically get after making this accounting process happen for you go get your cpa go get it yeah go get it pay the price pay the price to win and you know uh but i think you go back to this accounting firm and you say look guys i'm not moving from 100 000 to 50 000 it doesn't make sense what kind of an accountant would i be if i thought that was a good idea yeah it's absolutely right you you should be able to do math to do accounting and so yeah i mean so i can't do that and so if you guys can give me a much less hit down to about 80 and you'll pick up my tuition and help me get the cpa then this then it's worth taking a little step back to move forward but this is just too deep a cut i

wouldn't do it no you do what you want to do you call us and ask we're both telling you no dave here's something here there's some psychology around opportunities and this is a great situation here to to unpack this just because it is an opportunity doesn't mean it is a good opportunity. We just walked through this. This is a bad opportunity. Yes, it's an opportunity to do accounting work and to get there, but it revolves around too many other harmful decisions, slow decisions, poor decisions, however you want to classify it. And so there's this psychology of us humans. We want something really bad.

We're not in fulfilling work, and we see an opportunity, and we make it shinier than it is. You've got to look at the entire picture around it, you know, because it's not the only accounting firm. It's not the only entrance. It's not the only ladder. Whatever metaphor you want to use. And if it's a bad move, it's a bad move, even though it's an opportunity. It's not bad move. It's a bad move, even though it's an opportunity. It's not the only one. You know, this involves purchasing things. It involves any kind of situation where you're having to make a decision.

One rule, and I teach this in Entree Leadership when I'm teaching leadership lessons to business people. One rule of decision making if you want to make a high quality decision the there's almost no times that you make a high quality decision when there's only two options you need more options yes lots and lots and lots of options and as you look at the different options you go well that's that's a really bad option and that one has got some good points to it but it's still a bad option and that that option and that option. And you lay them all out there, and if you've got ten different ways you can do something, ten different job offers on the table, ten different places you can purchase a car, ten different cars you can purchase, and you're starting to compare across them

instead of going, oh, they only have the black one over there. And the black one, and if I don't get the black one, and it's that one thing, and it's a very special oh it's a freaking car and we get all fatalistic about it and that's right about that time is when you get stupid so you need more options

so that you find a good one and that's the process this is the Ramsey Solutions on the Debt Free Stage, Jacey is with us. Hey, Jacey, how are you? I'm great. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. Welcome.

Good to have you. And where do you live? Indianapolis, Indiana. Wow. Welcome to Nashville. And all the way down here to do a debt-free scream? That is right. Love it.

How much have you paid off? I have paid off $19,000, or wait, $19,188. Good. How long did this take? It took 14 months. Wow. And your range of income during that time? I started out at about $24,000 and bumped it up to a little over $36,000.

Good for you. What do you do for a living? Monday through Thursday, I am a dental assistant. And then I have been a dog groomer for the last seven years. So I do that on the weekends. That's your side hustle then. Mm-hmm. Okay.

Very cool. What kind of debt was the $19,000? It was an endless cycle of credit cards. And then my student loan and my car. How much did you owe on the student loan and the car? $3,500 on the student loan and my car was $9,000. Okay. All right.

And that I paid to my parents. Ah. That was a debt to my parents. So it's good to get rid of that too. Yeah, that was a big deal. I hear you. I hear you. So what happened 14 months ago?

Lit you on fire, girl. You got after it. Yeah. Well, I was working for a grooming salon, and they had unexpectedly just closed the shop. So they told us they were done, and they were filing bankruptcy, and we were out of a job. Whoa. So I was like, man, I have a lot of debt. Like, start of the year, I had a lot of debt. I had lost my job.

And so I just decided that it was time to figure something else out. I didn't really want to work for anyone else in that, like, grooming. So I started up my own thing. But you were already working the dental? Yeah. At that time? Okay. So you had that job all along but that that side job

ended yeah and that woke you up yeah because i i really wasn't making too much money at the dentist job like i can make a bunch of money just grooming so that was where i really made a lot of my money okay all right wow good for you congratulations. And how'd you get connected to us? My parents have listened to you guys for a while, and they'd mentioned some things about you. And they've always said, you know, I'm really not been one to be super responsible with money, more of a free spirit. So I wanted to kind of prove to them that I could really stick to something and get it done, especially when it came to my finances. So they knew that I had been in credit card debt for a long time, and it would come the start of the year, my tax return would come,

and it would all go to my credit card debt. So I was done doing that. So what did you do? You started listening to YouTube or watching YouTube? The podcast on Spotify. Podcast on Spotify. Every day. To and from work every day.

Okay. Got real serious about it. And that gave you everything you needed to do this? It sure did. Yeah. So you didn't have the books or anything from your parents or nothing? No, but I did end up going to the bookstore, and I found one of your older books, The Total Money Makeover. And I started reading that.

And then I decided to sign up for the FPU class. Oh, okay. And I was like, man, $100, should I spend that? Like, it could go to my debt. And I'm like, Ramsey said just do it. So I did the FPU class, and it was definitely worth it. It was a little difficult because it was online during COVID. Yeah. So I did the best I could with my three-year-old running around. and it was definitely worth it. It was a little difficult because it was online during COVID.

Yeah. So I did the best I could with my three-year-old running around. But it was still fine and worth it. I mean, I stuck to it. Good for you. I'm proud of you. I bet your mom and dad are. They sure are.

They really are. They were cheering you along. Yeah. It was a big deal. For Christmas, instead of getting a bunch of presents i saved up two thousand dollars and gave it to them to put towards my car and uh that meant a lot to them they really were not expecting it at all and so to see them you know hear them talking about how proud of me they were and you know just the hug from my dad and the pat on my back and you know that just it got me fired up to finish paying off the rest.

That's cool. Yeah. Wow. That's very cool. You jumped from 24,000 to 36,000. And I'm guessing here is that some overtime, but also a lot of dog grooming. All dog grooming. A lot of weekends.

Yes. Without the little man. I mean, have you missed him a lot? The hardest part was being away from him that much. I mean, it was Monday through Thursday full time at the dentist job. And then Thursday night into Sunday, I was grooming like every single weekend. What kept you going? He did.

That's beautiful. Right there. My three-year-old. That's beautiful. Yeah. And I have the greatest accountability partner, which is the doctor I work for tony um every day and he knew how much this meant to me um every day he'd come in and we would be talking about the weekend how many dogs you have to groom this weekend how busy you're gonna be how much money you're gonna make

and it just was like you gotta stick to it you know a lot of my time went to that, and now I can say it's worth it. Now you're free, yeah. Mm-hmm. How does it feel? I can breathe. That's how it feels. I can breathe finally. How old are you? 26. 26 years old.

Mm-hmm. And you've never been debt-free as an adult, have you? No. No. It was almost like having a credit card was a competition. How much did you get approved for? You know, my credit limit's $4,000. What's yours?

That was like my 21-year-old mindset. Yeah, yeah. Got you in trouble. Uh-huh. Wow. Yeah. You have to feel, one lady said, accomplished. I mean, this was not just $19,000 in debt paid off. You changed.

I did. I've changed so much through this whole experience. I mean, I really thank you so much for this. I don't know how to say it, but it's just, it's been so eye-opening. Like, I can raise him without having to worry, you know, all my money is going to my debt and not to what I could be doing more for him, you know. I've got his savings fund for his college started. I've got my retirement fund going. Thanks to Tony. You know, he's really helped me out, too. He's awesome.

Coached you along. Yeah. That is just so cool. Well, well done. Well done, JC. And your young man's name and age, you want to get him in the shot for the debt-free scream? His name is Cypress, and he is three. You want to come up here?

Come up with mom while we do your debt-free scream. She's worked her tail end off. She's a hero. She's changed her whole life, man. I'm so proud of you. So powerful. So well done. Good stuff.

All right, it's J.C JC and Cypress from Indianapolis. Man, $19,000 paid off in 14 months, making $24,000 to $36,000. We are looking at some people who have changed their lives. I'm so proud of you. Got a copy of the Legacy Journey for you. That's the next chapter for you to become wealthy now, unbelievably, and you are on your way.

I'm so proud of you. And a copy of the Total Money Makeover so you can give it away to somebody. Awesome. So we'll give you one of each. You ready? All right, JC and Cypress,

count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. I'm debt-free! He did it. I love it! Woo! Oh, man.

That $19,000 when you're making $24,000 to $36,000. It's getting with it. That's more than some doc calling in here paying off 190 grand yeah i mean that's incredible yeah what she pulled off there was absolutely incredible yeah and she is i mean the and the difference in weight on her after that the actual math the the freedom in her math now is just it's just amazing she is in really really good shape and you can see what you guys can't see in the radio you can hear hints of it in her voice but what you can see is on her face yeah her countenance yeah you can see the sense of uh

uh she's a young warrior yeah another single mom behind the eight ball, and yet she said, enough, and she did it. That's getting with it, folks. 19,000, 14 months with a heavy heart, up to her eyeballs and dog fur, and she did it. She did it. Well, that's exactly how that is. There's a great place to go when you're broke. To work. That's right.

I love it. This is the Ramsey Show. to go when you're broke. To work. That's right. I love it. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll see you next time. our scripture of the day second corinthians 5 17 therefore if anyone is in christ the new creation has come the old is gone the new is here our friend john maxwell says talent is a gift but character is a choice there you go i mean you guys are stressed out or hurting because you've been worried about this stock market going one direction or the other maybe uh maybe 2020 scared you to death maybe you need to get somebody in your corner like a conscientious investment pro to teach you. These are called SmartVestor pros around our place. They're people that we have

vetted. They have the heart of a teacher. They'll walk with you as you learn to build your confidence and so you can ride the wave of something like a 2020 or the different things that happen in the market and you just think long term and think think long-term and think long-term. Go to RamseySolutions.com slash SmartVestor, and you can find a list of the pros in your area, the SmartVestor pros, and you can choose one and pick out who you're going to work with to put yourself on that track for Baby Steps Millionaire. All right, Sam's with us. Sam is in Shreveport.

Hi, Sam. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? I had a question on baby steps four, five, and six. And my question is about concerning the investing of 15% of my income. My employer does not offer any 401K of any kind.

And so I was wondering what should I invest in after I max out the Roth IRA? Are you married? No, I'm not. Okay. Do you have any self-employment income? No, I do not. Okay. All right.

Yeah, your Roth is all you've got available to you then. You max that out, and then if you want to do something else, you just buy some mutual funds, get with your SmartVestor Pro like we were just talking about, and what you're looking for there is a low turnover mutual fund. A low turnover ratio on the mutual fund, like a 4% or 5% or less turnover ratio. An easy way to find that is an S&P 500 index fund. Most of those are low

turnover. What low turnover means is they don't sell the stocks. Mutual funds are a group of stocks, and they never sell or almost never sell, 95% of the time, the stocks in there. And so as those stocks go up in value as a group, you do not pay taxes on the gain until you cash it out. This is a capital gain is what we're dealing with here. If the mutual fund sells the stocks inside of there, all of the gains are activated each year, and you have to pay taxes on it. So when you're buying a low turnover mutual fund, it's kind of like buying a rental property, where if it goes from $200,000 to $300,000 in value, you don't pay taxes on that $ hundred thousand dollar increase in value until you sell it and so that gives you the same effect of that in a low turnover mutual fund and that's the best option you've got left to you at this point and then over time you'll probably end

up in a different employment situation maybe you'll add some self-employment income which you could then do a SEP a simplified employee pensionified Employee Pension Plan, additionally, if you had a little bit of extra income. Nathan Zanamarello. Hi, Nathan. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Hey, Ken.

How are y'all? Great, man. What's up? Good. Hey, so I am a 21-year-old. I've got one year left in college. I'm about to be a senior, and I've got about $12,000 sitting in my savings. I'm wondering if I should do something else with it because I feel like it's not –

I mean, it's just sitting in my savings. I'm not making any money off of it. What are you studying? I'm studying energy finance and management. Good for you. Excellent. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you. Well, I mean, Nathan, you're going to need that money to either finish school debt-free or make the transition after school, the transition being a move to maybe a different city, maybe some travel to do some interviews.

So that money is best used to invest in Nathan rather than worrying about some kind of mutual fund investment at this point. You are a better investment than a mutual fund is. You're going to make more return on it by using it to ensure that you graduate debt-free, ensure that you're able to make your transitions without any – it just gives you a little grease in the wheel, right, Ken? Yeah, absolutely. What do you want to do? You have a good idea specifically? I know the industry that you're headed to, but what would be that great job right out of college?

So that's the thing. I've been thinking a lot about that. I'm not entirely sure. I have an insurance sales job that has been asking me to work for them down in college, but I'm thinking about learning a trade and hoping to become some type of owner-operator of a certain trade. Fascinating. Well, let me tell you something. Why would you not use your degree?

That's true. That's very true. I'm just wondering. No, no, no. What's the actual answer? I don't know. That's the thing is I really don't know what I want to do, and I just know that I do want to do something with my degree to where I'm talking to other people and helping other people.

I don't want to sit behind a desk and not talk to anyone. Well, but when you say energy finance, I've never heard of that degree. Does that mean that you're specializing in financing in the energy industry? Sure. So oil and gas, renewable energy, stuff like that. Are you interested in finance? Sure. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, I mainly picked it up because I had enough time to pick up another major. But I think that I like finance, don't get me wrong, but I would like to do something more in the management aspect. Yeah, so play that out. What trade, and I'm not holding you to this, but what trade are you thinking about? And then eventually working your way through the trade, maybe owning your own business. What are we talking about? So honestly, it could be anything.

I've had HVAC stand out to me just because I've had a million problems with HVAC, and the companies that I'm using and talking to are terrible at their job, and I'm sitting here thinking that I could run something like an HVAC business tremendously better than the people I'm talking to. Well, it sounds like you've still got a lot of searching to do, but if you really love the trades yourself, meaning you enjoy solving problems with your head and your hands, and then you work your way up and eventually own your own business.

And that finance background, that's not going to hurt you. But either way, Dave's advice is absolutely right. Let's say you pursue the trades coming out of college. You're going to need some of that money to potentially do some trade certification. You need to quit picking your career based on convenience and what's just in front of you. You need to start thinking about what's in your heart. Because you picked up this major just because it dropped in front of you, and you didn't really give it a lot of thought.

And now you're picking up an HVAC because you once had an HVAC guy that didn't show up on time. That's not the way you need to analyze this. I mean, if you want to find businesses that suck and get into one of those industries, the entire world's open to you. Because there's always, in any industry, there find businesses that suck and get into one of those industries, the entire world's open to you. Because there's always, in any industry, there's businesses that suck. But let me ask you a question. You are intrigued by the trades, yes or no? Or is this a fancy?

No. I'm sorry. I mean. Go ahead. No, go ahead. Are you intrigued by the trades, or do you really like the idea of working in the trades as something that personal interaction with people, solving a problem? Is that what's drawing you, or is it just a fancy? So, Ken, it's not necessarily the trade itself.

It's owning my own business and doing something better than my competitors and helping people out along the way. Okay. All right. So you have an entrepreneurial drive. So you better do your homework on this because here's what happens dave's exactly right you just well i've had a bad experience with some hvac companies and i'm going to start an hvac company you're going to wake up six months into that and you're going to be miserable because it's not what you thought it

was you better figure out what problem you're trying to solve so there's a three-part question for you for an entrepreneur to start something. What problem do I want to solve? All right? And it's not one that makes money. It's not an industry that needs your help. Yeah, it's like I have a burning desire to solve this problem on behalf of people. So who are the people and the problem that I'm helping? I'm solving a problem.

I'm helping people. And then what's the solution you get most excited about in solving that problem if you can figure that out now you've got something that it's not just a business that allows you to work for yourself and not work for the man and if you don't do that you're going to be a typical entrepreneur who's jumping from idea to idea every 20 seconds because you have zero juice for the actual business and so you you run to one thing, abandon it, run to another, abandon it, and it's just ADD in the marketplace thing. I know because I'm an entrepreneur too.

And so we all have 27 ideas in a minute. It's just part of the way we're wired. So be careful with that. It's very important to figure out what's burning inside of you

and then go do that, not go look for something of convenience. Bad plan. Good hour, Ken. Thank you Bad plan. Good hour, Ken. Thank you, sir. Good hour, James Childs and Kelly Daniel in the booth. I am Dave Ramsey, your host.

We'll 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. Have a friend or family member that needs a daily dose of Ramsey advice in their life? Let them know about the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast. It's a quick hit of advice about life and money in under 10 minutes. Check out the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast wherever you listen.