The Ramsey Show - App - How Can I Get Out of Debt? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: September 9, 2022

Take our Audience Survey & Enter to Win a $500 Visa Gift Card: Click here to take the survey   Dr. John Delony & George Kamel discuss: Challenges of running a side business, Being conflicted about taking student loan forgiveness, How an 18-year-old just getting started can get out of debt, Balancing contentment and future goals.   Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6   Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Лавка Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods, moving, and storage studios, this is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money and your marriage, whatever's going on in your life. We're here for you. Call is free, and that's about how much the advice is worth at 888-825-5225. I'm John Deloney, joined here by George Campbell, and we're pumped, right?

So pumped. Cannot wait. Between the two of us, we've got two PhDs, so we should be able to get through these calls today, John. Thanks for carrying the load for us. I had a joke that I didn't even repeat right there. That's me getting mature right in front of you. I've learned how you deal with the bullies is you get there first.

Oh, I see what you did. Yeah. Awesome. It's a defense mechanism. No, absolutely. You're my therapist now. Thanks, John. All right, let's go to Esther in Las Vegas.

What's up, Esther? Hi, how's it going? Good. You? I'm doing great. Thanks for taking my call today. Absolutely. What's up?

So my question is, I don't know if my side business is worth it. It seems to be really stressful, and I don't know if it's really helping or hurting my family. Why did you start the side business? I actually started it because Christy Wright inspired me back in 2020. And I had been a photographer, like a hobbyist photographer for 15 plus years. And I thought, why not just go for it? I can make some more money for my family and it kind of helped pay some, you know, bills and it's my passion. So I went for it and Yeah. Tell me what's happening in your family now.

Oh, my family's great. I do have, I have three kids. The oldest is 14. I have a 12 year old and a seven year old and they're all going to different schools this year and there's just a lot on my plate. So I don't know if keeping my business going is worth it right now or if it's just kind of too much. Here's the question. Are you tired and you want to stop and you don't have an exit strategy here or you'll feel like a failure, you'll be covered up in shame. That's one thing. just tired you don't do this job anymore and for some reason you don't trust yourself enough to give yourself permission to just stop the other is your family's falling apart balls are getting dropped you and your husband's marriage is getting messy you're not showing up

to things because you're late running around like there's chaos that the job is directly contributing to and maybe it's a little bit of both. But I'm here listening to you talk and it sounds like things are good. You're just tired and you'd rather focus on things like school and things. And so what prohibits you from just saying, I'm going to wrap this sucker up? Well, I feel like I just put myself so much out there to start my business. And I'm in a small town, so I'm getting a lot of attention now. People know me pretty well.

I should probably tell you guys I work with senior and teen high school students. Okay. So I work with girls. I have like a senior and teen team, so I work with them all year. I photograph them all year. And so I feel like I'm just going to be a failure if I quit. And it's kind of going to be an embarrassing moment. Where does that story come from?

A, that you're a failure. B, that quitting is forever, all or nothing. C, that focusing on your three kids and your marriage and your home is less important than having people in your community, like think weird things about you. Where do those stories come from? Cause none of them are true. Where do they come from? I do not know. I think another big part of it is I had, there was another photographer in my town who was doing what I was doing, and she kind of came out.

She was kind of giving it up and moving to a different career, and she kind of came out and said, hey, I'm giving this up, but Kara is kind of taking over for me. Esther, you have outsourced all of your personal thoughts and feelings to others. And until you take ownership of that, you are going to be a kite in the wind, being blown around by politicians and friends. And somebody who used to have a small business a long time ago in your same town is is dictating you taking care of your kids in the way that you feel like you should um i i don't know what more to say other than they

don't get a vote the person who gets a vote is you and your husband and that's about it maybe one or two close friends that's about it and then you make the choice to do what's best for your family yeah i'm just putting pause on this i think think in your mind, it's this is forever. Yeah. And I'm going to let the whole entire community down. I'm too famous to stop. And you can just go, you know what? I did it for a season.

It's photography is still a passion of mine. But for right now, this is what's important. And George, you and I, this isn't us being like, oh, I'll show up self-deprecating. If Dave fired me tomorrow, it'd be like a week. What happened to that one guy? And then the world would just move on to the next like, oh, thing. And I think that's part of the fear.

Yes. Is, oh my gosh, what if I'm not needed? And what if the community goes, oh, there's another photographer. I'll just go over there. Because they still got to get their pictures taken. And so part of that, there's a deeper issue that you were trying to get to,

which is we need to go, no, Esther's worth exactly what she was before she was a photographer after and this doesn't change anything zero things right and one or two people gonna reach out five or ten or twenty people gonna reach out and say hey we need to get our photos taken where are you oh hey i hit pause on that i'm focusing on my family in this season here's a number to somebody who can call and they'll go oh you were so good though you're like i know thank you so much and it'll feel good when they say that. And you say, give so-and-so a call. He or she is great.

And then you go back to being with your kids. That thing, your side hustle can't be your identity because it will come to an end at some point or you'll find yourself doing wild things, taking out crazy debt, buying another location, getting with partnerships that are going to be wild or be stupid. You're going to find yourself doing all these things

to prop up this identity that's never real in the first place. Yeah, and the why wasn't deep enough for me. If she said, hey, the why is I want to make sure that we set a financial foundation for my family. This is for a short season that I'm doing this for to get rid of the debt. It sounds like she's beyond that. She's doing it because it's a passion of hers,

and she's kind of built up this clientele she doesn't want to let down. That's a very different reason. She put the car on cruise control. Now she doesn't have an off-ramp there. All right. All right, let's go to Ryan in Greenville. What's up, Ryan? Hey.

Thank you, gentlemen. First of all, this is very awesome to speak to you all, and I look forward to seeing myself on YouTube later. So I wanted to ask some questions. I'm a newly married man, and just starting off on the right foot, I've been watching y'all for a while, so I'm following the baby step, baby step two. I'm almost done. Hopefully we can make a trip down there and get the debt-free screen.

Very cool. The question I'm kind of confused with is a principal issue, and it's this whole debt student loan forgiveness plan. I think I shouldn't take advantage of it, even though we qualify. But when you talk to folks even older than you, they say, well, you're a taxpayer. You deserve that, just like anybody else. You should take advantage of it. You're only hurting yourself and your family.

I don't know. I always felt like once you admitted you. Ryan, they don't get a vote, brother. They don't get a vote. That's right. That's right. You're accountable for your own self, right? You're accountable to that person in the mirror,

and you're accountable to your spouse. And George, I'd love to hear what you have to say, but thoughts here. But actually, you know what, Ryan? I've actually got some opinions on this. Yeah, let's hang on here. Hang on to the break, because this is a can of worms that people are asking all over the country.

So I'm going to put you on hold, brother, and we're going to go to a break, and then we get back. We're going to talk about this. Should I take the student loan forgiveness when I think it's wrong? Am I crazy? Am I setting my family up for failure? We'll answer that when we come back. so this is the Ramsey show

888-825-5225 I'm John Deloney joined here by George Camel we're talking to Ryan in Greenville, South Carolina. So, Ryan, just to recap for folks who are just joining us, you qualify for the Student Loan Forgiveness Program. You and your

wife have some student loan debt. You've got some little kids. You don't feel like it's right. You've got some kids. You've come up with your value system says, I don't want to take this money. I qualify up with with uh your value system says i don't want to take this money i qualify for it i can have it i don't want it and people are giving you advice you should do it you're a taxpayer you deserve this all whatever so is that about right that's right no kids yet though okay no kids no kids so uh why do you have this value? Why do you think this? Why do you think that you don't feel like you can take it?

Well, I mean, the principle on the micro scale applied to ourselves, right? So I signed something. I made a commitment to it, right? So I should honor my word and keep that commitment. And also I have this sphere of influence with folks around me that have done the same, and they've made it through and they paid it off and it was such a big boost in their life and their marriage. It strengthened their marriage. It strengthened their, I guess, dignity, dignity. And, um, I feel like I want to be part of that crowd, but I'm also like, am I being proud? Am I being a

little too proud about this? Or do these older folks that say I should take advantage of it? Do they have a point? Is it something, it's it's just strange like it's strange time to live where things like government help is kind of taking precedence and i don't know like is it sacrificing our own accountability and i don't know you see the consequences on the individual scale. There's got to be global consequences to stuff like this. No question. Our whole system is built on that's future us's problem. We'll let them deal with that later, right? That's the whole system.

It's how far can we punt this thing, right? George, I'd love to get your thoughts on it. We were talking about this off air a little bit. I find it helpful in these moments, Ryan, to back out of the current moment in the politics of it all this is this is the covid vaccine this is um should i work at this place this is should i take student loan forgiveness these things get so hot and they get so political and it clouds your judgment and so i just want to back out and say, this isn't a strange time for people to be faced

with various values questions. And I'm going to answer that question on its merits and I'm not going to get involved in the fray. And there's something inside of you that says, I don't feel right about it. George, what do you think? I think if you're going to lose sleep overtaking it, don't do it.

And if it's gonna propel your financial journey that's fine too but my issue is kind of feeling like you're on a high horse and you're better than folks who took it right and you're going well i i my values say it's a bad thing i pay into social security i don't want to do it but am i gonna take it when i retire sure i paid into it stimulus check weulus check. We got stimulus checks. All right, I'll take it. I'm not going to go like, I'm going to refund this back to the government because I don't believe in stimulus checks. So I just don't think it's a, I disagree with the entire premise of it, but I also don't have a strong enough moral compass to go. Absolutely

not. And you bring up something important, Ryan. And let me tell you how I personally deal with these things, right?. I take the politics out of it, and then I make my decision, and then I tell no one. Because if I feel like I have to announce my values, my personal values, and my personal choices to the world, then I'm

virtue signaling. I'm not sticking by a principle. I'm doing something so that I can make an announcement about it instead of, this is a personal value. Like when people take social media fast and they have a big post about why they're taking it fast because they're better than all of us for getting off social media. Like that, John?

So, Ryan, if your values say don't take it, don't take it. And don't lose a second of sleep over it. And here's the thing. You're going to ask 40 different people and you're going to get 40 different answers. Right? Right. So sit with your wife and y'all make this decision on your own, that one that you can sleep with, and then let that be your decision and let this be practice for future values-based decisions you're going to

have to make in the future and let them be yours and yours alone. I think one of the challenges we've run into is we have to make hard decisions in our lives, and then now we have a platform to tell everybody about them, and it quickly divides up the world, and people stop being neighbors, and they stop being parents on a softball league or parents sitting on the sidelines of a kid's dance recital, and it becomes you versus me. And, man, stick by your values.

Love them. Be good about it, and then go on with your day. Does that sound fair? That sounds fair. And, man, stick by your values. Love them. Be good about it. And then go on with your day. Does that sound fair? That sounds fair. Cool, man. Well, congratulations for even thinking about it, right? Well, another piece of this he mentioned is, you know,

the character that you develop by sacrificing and paying off debt. I think he's already experienced that. I don't think he's going to miss out on it by getting 10K forgiven. Right. And so for that piece i say yes it absolutely changes your character and how you look at money when you had to pay it off and i'm happy for those people there's amazing personal growth there he's already experienced that i don't think he's going to revert back to i'm just going to wait on everyone to fix my life ryan he's

already done this stuff right and i think the key is whether you take it or whether you don't don't wear it as a badge of this just elevated me above you. Exactly. Personal choice you made, cool. Let's move on with our day. Right. I love that. Thanks for the call, Ryan. That's helpful for folks. All right, let's go to Hunter in Little Rock, Arkansas.

What's up, Hunter? Hey, guys. Thanks for the time today. Of course, man. What's up? My question is directed to George, and him and I have actually been talking a little bit on direct message. And the basics is I'm $6,000 in debt, and I'm 18 years old. I make shy of $15 an hour, and I work overnight. And I'm just struggling with getting the baby steps going, figuring out how it all works. My debt consists of about $2,000

towards my parents for my vehicle, a few other small little debts to my mom in general, and then I actually financed a bunch of iPhone, iPad stuff through my service provider, and unfortunately, I've missed the time to return all that stuff. And I don't really want to sell it and take a hit. So I guess I'm just trying to figure out how to get the baby steps going and how to make that $1,000 emergency fund as a starter whenever that seems like a good amount of money I could do to put towards that debt. It's a great question. And at 18, I remember

being that age, and I was also buying every Apple product out there. And this starts, the baby steps don't work unless you decide to take debt off the table. So we've got to stop financing. We've got to stop going to family for loans, which is just going to destroy relationships in the end. So number one, I would look at trying to get your income up. I know you're already crushing it. You're working overnight. You're doing everything you can. I would see in your area if there's anything else that can pay more in this job market right now. That will help increase that shovel because $6,000 is not a large amount of debt in the grand scheme of things. But to you, it looks like a mountain, doesn't it? Yes, a lot.

And you're like Sisyphus pushing up the rock every day, watching it come back down and going, how do I climb out of this hole? So number one, we've got to get on a written plan. Every one of those $15 an hour coming in, they're going to have a job. And the job is not going to be finance stuff and going to more debt. It's going to be paying off this debt. So your A1 is getting that $1,000. And if that means selling a few of these pieces, these Apple products,

whatever you've got laying around, I'm good with that. Even if you take a slight hit, because right now it's not about what makes sense math-wise. It's about behavior change, and I want you to feel a little bit of pain going, oh, gosh, I paid $1,000. I just sold it for $600. That hurt. That makes sense. Can you do it, Hunter? Are you willing to do it? Sorry it Hunter? Are you willing to do it? Are you willing to do it? I'm willing to do it. I'm like I said, I'm a little scared to take the hit, but I'm willing to do what it takes. I guess my follow-up question with that though, is we talked about financial

peace. I thought about doing it, and I'm kind of wondering if that is a good idea for it being $100 whenever that just seems like more that could go into my emergency fund. Well, you know, as my gift to you, since we've been DMing on Instagram, I'll gift it to you today as our gift to you to get on this stuff. But you've got to promise me you're actually going to watch every single video, get on a plan, start EveryDollar as soon as you get off this call and go, no more. Today is where Hunter's life begins to change. We've got to look in the mirror and stop making these decisions. We're going to start making adult decisions if we want to see some adult progress. So hang on the line. Austin will pick up. We're going to gift you Financial

Peace University and the premium version of EveryDollar. Call us back, man, when you're debt-free. I'd love to hear about it. We'll be you next time. We are back on the Ramsey Show and on the debt-free stage right down the street from us. We've got JB, Nashville, Tennessee, and I'm assuming you've paid off everything. Yes, sir. How much we paid off brother? $108,000. $108,000. How long did it take you? 30 months. 30 months. What was your income? Ranged from 80,000 to 125. To 125. What do you do for a living? I've been in supply chain for my whole career, but recently pivoted into a solutions consulting for a large tech company. Wow. Sweet. You guys really got off the rails for the last few years.

Oh yeah. It was a good time to get out of supply chain. From this point forward, anytime there's a supply, I'm just be like, just blame me. It's my bad together, dude. What kind of debt was the one 108? Loans, student loans. All of that? I had less than a thousand in consumer debt, credit cards and iPhone, but yeah, all student loans. What was the degree? Supply chain and business analytics. But, you know, I lived off my loans.

I did an extra year. I wasn't ready to graduate, so I did the victory lap. Got another major study to brought. I did all the things in college. Just hanging on for dear life. Yeah. I was living for the moment and I wasn't thinking anything about my future. That's a problem for future JB.

Yeah, that's right. You kick the can down the road. That's right. Yeah. So what happened 30 months ago? You're like, dude, I'm done. I'm done with all this. Yeah.

So coming out of just some backstory, coming out of college, having over 120 right when I graduated, at least 30% of my paycheck was going towards minimum payments for those loans. So I was really living paycheck to paycheck and using my credit cards to live. But fast forward to the beginning of 2020 in February, my brother-in-law, he knew my situation, but him and my sister also had some of their own loans to clean up. So they started their journey. They read the total money makeover and he gifted that book to me. And I think it was the quickest book I ever read. And I remember distinctly like getting so pumped up. I was reading the book before bed one night, cut up all my credit cards immediately, got the envelopes out, started writing, you know, what allocation they went to. But, yeah, I just started to commit to a life change. What caused that level of visceral reaction where you just went, all right, tonight I'm done?

Exhaustion. Like I said, living paycheck to paycheck and having this huge burden. I was thinking about my future too. Like I always wanted to buy a house, you know, have a family someday, start that whole thing. But that was not going to be a possibility with that huge cloud hanging over my head. How old are you, man? I'm 30. 30?

30 in April. Just turned 30. What was it like being here in Nashville the last couple of years? You make good money. And deciding intentionally to not go out to not go to these shows there's a show every weekend right um to not go to the shows to not go out to eat at these fabulous restaurants that cost part of your soul right they're expensive how'd you do that man that's hard because a lot of dudes you're a good looking guy you're you're just turned 30 you're

just officially old now but i know for most of us you were in your 20s i mean that's the that's like the yolo season right and you chose to plant seeds for fruit you're gonna eat 15 20 30 years down the road man yeah how'd you do that yeah i suffered terminally from fomo it's it's it is it's brutal i want to i want to do everything i'm a really social person and saying no to eating out know, going to those concerts and vacations. I haven't seen the beach in three years. And, you know, saying no to all of that was so, so hard. But I knew, you know, two and a half years in the grand scheme of my life is a drop in the bucket. Okay, but that's a level of wisdom that most 65 year olds don't have right a where does

that come from and be like i'm gonna get tactical mechanistically yeah somebody calls and says hey i got front row seats to whatever or hey so and so's coming to town let's go watch that show or um somebody that you really had your eye on they're like let's go to dinner yeah and walk us through what do you do you, what did you do to stop yourself or to be able to be at peace or to make decisions otherwise? Cause there's a bunch of people say, I can't do that. I just can't do that. And I always say, yes, you can. I'm like, Oh no, I can't. How did you do it? Truthfully? I couldn't have done it on my own. Like I, I relied on my faith and the Holy spirit to get me through that and be my steadfastness and

endurance throughout that whole process, but also being overly transparent with my close friends and family. And, you know, you'd think they'd think I'm crazy for saying no to everything. And I took on four, you know, three extra jobs, four extra jobs at a certain times, um, had no time for anything, but just inviting them into the struggle a little bit and being like, Hey, I guys i want to spend time with you you know i want to be at this concert but i want to get out of debt more and they were they were so bought into and they were so loving and supportive and they would find time to like take me out for meals or you know just spend quality time with me and that was some really you know special times i'll remember george i've heard it's a great pickup line to meet somebody and say hi Hi, my name is JB.

I would like to be your boyfriend. We are going to have to go on walks for the next 24 months because I'm not buying you anything. A lot of dog park dates and coffee dates. It's just a good place to hang. Just a weird guy on the bench. I do. He's the man. He kept the company.

That's so cool that you have great friends that respected those boundaries and cheered you on this journey. That's huge. I also got to know, what are these four jobs you had? Because people are always going, what's a good side hustle? And you did this stuff. Yeah. So I had my main full-time gig.

And I did Postmates and Instacart on the side for a time. I was a janitor at my church. I worked at a vineyard here in town. And the most fun and creative way, I self-published some children's books on the side. Wow. So that was kind of a fun way to, being in supply chain, it's a pretty dry subject. And so that was a nice way to stay creative and use the other side of my brain. You wrote a kid's book on the supply chain.

Very educational. Not at all. That's right. It's just like a snow globe that everybody's just shaking. Yeah, just shake it up. What was the most lucrative of the side gigs? What paid the most? Honestly, probably the Vineyard. The Vineyard was a, but it was also a great experience to just work outside, use my hands, get to work with a bunch of great people and pretend you're in the South of France. People tip great when they drink a lot of wine.

That helps. That helps too. Wow. So who was your biggest cheerleader, brother? Oh, I had so many. My mom, she's here with me. She was definitely rooting me on from the side of my whole family. My brother-in-law, Earl, who gifted me that total money maker,

we overlapped in our debt-free journey. So he was kind of accountability partner for me and really kept me going, praying for each other, having check-in, you know, phone calls. But, man, my friends here in town were with me through every single day and, you know, regular life. And they were just rooting me on the whole way. If somebody said, one of your buddies pulled you aside and said, hey, what's the one thing I got to do? What would it be to get out of debt? Getting on a budget and actually sticking to it

all from whence I when I graduated I had an excel budget but it was just an excel document that I never opened it was never used I rarely open excel files as well so no shame it's like George used to date he's like I'm dating somebody we never talk we don't talk they don't call me yeah we've never spoken. But yeah, it was really pretty and colorful, but I never use it. But actually building that discipline and saying no to things and actually sticking to the plan that I have for myself was absolutely vital. How does it feel, man? It's wild.

I think it's going to sink in more and more as I can enjoy. I just paid off my loans in August. So I'm really just like fresh. Have you gotten that one paycheck where it's going to sink in more and more as I can enjoy. I just paid off my loans in August. So I'm really just like, you've got that. Have you gotten that one paycheck? Yeah. Yeah. But then I had some car issues.

So Murphy, yeah. Yeah. But so that's what I'm saying. Like as, as time goes on and I'll be able to enjoy my income more and more, it'll sink in. Was it cool though?

When the car thing happened, it was annoying. It was an inconvenience. It was annoying. Yeah. It was like, you know, darn. Yeah. That's not what you said. i can handle this i can handle this yeah we're so

proud of you man we've got a copy of baby steps millionaires for you that's the next chapter in your story as you build wealth and be incredibly generous and we also have a copy of the total money makeover pass it on to one of your friends who didn't fully understand what was going on why jb went crazy all of a sudden, and one year of Financial Peace University that you can go through with all the new lessons with me and John. That's really the selling point. Yes, congratulations. That's what you get.

That's what you got to do. You get out of debt, you got to watch the videos. All right, so we got JB from Nashville, Tennessee. He paid off $108,000 in 30 months, making $80,000 to $125,000, sometimes working up to four jobs to get this done. Brother, congratulations. Thank you. Count them down.

Three, two, one. I'm debt free! Woo! Yeah! And a yeehaw to that, John. A very Nashville yeehaw to that. A very Nashville yeehaw. What. A very Nashville yeehaw. What a stud.

That guy's incredible. You just got to make the choice. I'm going to do this no matter what it takes. Ta-da. It happens. We'll be right back. សូវាប់ពីបានប់ពីបានប់ពីបានប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប� This is the Ramsey Show, 888-825-5225. I'm John Deloney, joined here by George Kamel. And George, you have really screwed up.

I did nothing, John. I'm going to agree to disagree with you, and so would all of the internet. There's been some news. People are mourning all over the world, of course, for the queen. Yes. Huge news. Very sad. But also, in much less important frivolous news.

Infinitely less important. Chipotle employees say they're thrilled the chain just cracked down on the $3 burrito ordering hack that was making their lives miserable. So I want to plot this out on how it works. You go on the internets and tell everybody, hey, you're overpaying. Here's how to beat the system. And the system rises up against the people, courtesy of George. I had very little to do with this.

I never encouraged the $3 burrito because I'm gluten-free. You literally call yourself an influencer and you've influenced the man. Okay. Here's the hack I did share with America many times over the last few years is loading up with all the extra toppings. So Chipotle lets you add, you can add extra rice, extra fajita veggies, extra, except guac. That one's extra. You got to pay for that. And so here's what people went wrong. They started ordering a single taco, which I encourage, and get all the toppings on it. But where people went wrong, they started asking for all of those toppings in side cups.

As in 14 side cups with your single taco and a tortilla on the side, which is an extra 40 cents. So it came out to about a $3 burrito instead of, you know, the $9 or $10 burrito. Great hack, right? Except for Chipotle employees saying that the orders were beyond annoying and disruptive and saying it was a disaster behind the scenes. Five Chipotle workers in five states who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak to the press whose identities are known to incite or explain why they hated making these viral orders. I just picture them like with the black shadow, like silhouette and like a voice changer on.

Like it was annoying and disruptive. But I get it. If you've ever worked in an environment in the fast casual world, in hospitality, it's tough. It is very, very stressful. So when you have a line of 84 people and then everyone's like, can I have every single side

in a little tiny side cup? And it takes you 17 minutes for that one person's order. Also, they can save a few bucks. Understandably frustrating. And so Chipotle put a stop to the hack. On Wednesday, they said it was a huge waste of single-use plastic.

There you go. They used the green card right there. Boom. Different green card. That's right. And they said it was horribly obvious what customers using the hack were trying to do, and it was annoying for everyone trying to just do their jobs. It was a poor experience for our food, the employees, and our customers waiting on orders.

Chipotle said. It would have been cool if they just said, hey, we're going to make all of our burritos $3. That would be nice. Well, here's what they went wrong. With inflation, they jacked up the price of all of their food to like $10 just for starters now. Yeah.

So people are starting to revolt, John. They're looking for the hacks. Well, thanks to you, George. You can blame me if you want. The oppressors are closing the loopholes, man. If I have that much influence in the fast casual world, I'm doing something right. You should probably never say fast casual again.

All right, blinds.com is 100% satisfaction guaranteed. It means even if you mismeasure or pick the wrong color, they'll remake your blinds for free. 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. Today's question comes from Rachel in Idaho. I listen to your show a lot and often hear you

and the team talk about contentment, which is very important. Currently, my husband and I are in baby steps four, five, and six and happy with our lives and house. However, our dream is to have a house with some acreage for a small farm. We're 29 and 37. How can we mentally balance contentment versus our future goals? Hmm. What do you think, man? Well, I know, John, you're a big fan of living off the fat of the land and all that. You live in the middle of nowhere with no cell service. So this is more you guys align with this dream.

Right. And you've always wanted to have a big plot of land, and I love that. We've got a place where you can plug in your Tesla. There we go. Thank you, John. You're welcome. But she's asking, how do we balance contentment? We want this land.

We're happy with where we live. Here's our future goal. We're trying to invest, save for the kids' college. We want to pay the house off, but we also want this next thing. Yeah. And so balancing that, they're asking mentally balancing it. Financially, it's pretty simple. You get these plates spinning, get investing, put a little away for college, let's pay off the house.

And as you build that equity, you'll be able to roll that over as you start to look for this new piece of land in the future. And that takes some patience. When it comes to, I guess mentally, I don't know if I'd say it like that, but when it comes to just being present where you are and having big dreams, one of the criticisms I get when I'm meeting with people behind closed doors, I'll travel across the country, meet with leaders and business owners, and we'll sit down and we'll talk through being well and what that looks like and how to create wellness in your home and how to executive stay well. And the pushback generally comes from, well, what am I supposed to do then? If all of these things I'm doing in my life are

killing me, am I supposed to just not run a business anymore? Am I supposed to not be ambitious anymore? And I always tell them, no, absolutely not. In fact, the opposite. My two little kids are growing up in the systems that these guys are building. These men and women are creating and running right now. I need them to be ambitious.

We've got big problems we've got to solve. I also need them to know that that extra zero that they earn will not make up for the fact that their dad left right the Getting this new piece of acreage isn't going to suddenly be the place where your marriage Materializes into peaceful and joy and hope and all this great stuff You're still going to have fights when you live on this big property. Your marriage is still going to be hard and so dream big and take concrete steps,

like you're talking about, to see those dreams through and know full well those dreams won't fix me. It won't solve my marriage. It won't make my kids suddenly fill in the blank, right? Unless you are in situations where people are abjectly not safe, right? Then getting them out of safety definitely helps everything, right? So it's being able to balance, let's do the small things to make sure our marriage is whole, to make sure we're great parents, we're plugged in and we're connected,

we love our small community, and we're doing this thing because we want this life, not because this life is going to do something for us, right? And we tend to cash in our present day joy for this mystical joy

that's going to come down the road and doesn't work like that. Right. You've heard the old saying, like, wherever you show up, you're going to go too, right? You go with you. And part of this is we just live in this microwave culture where it's like, I want it now, two hour delivery now. I can't wait two days. And so part of that bleeds into our life goals. And we're looking for shortcuts now. I go, well, we could just take on the bigger mortgage. We could do the HELOC. We can borrow from our 401k. And you're looking for shortcuts now. We go, well, we could just take on the bigger mortgage. We could do the HELOC. We can borrow from our 401k. And you're looking for all these terrible shortcuts

to get you to where you want to go. But if you just sit down on paper and go, all right, that new property is going to cost $500,000. Our home is worth 300. What if we get that paid off in the next three years? Then we start saving up. We have an extra 2000. We could buy this thing with cash six years from now.

And you start to put that on paper and instead of letting it deflate you, you let it fuel you and go, all right, this is what we're going to be about. And it's going to take six years. But guess what? You're 29 and 37. People think it's too late at that. Like, well, I should have had it at 25. And you look up and you go, dude, you're going to live to be like a thousand with technology and healthcare these days. You got plenty of time. Slow down, enjoy the ride, smell the roses, and be proud of yourselves where you're at, out of debt completely, investing for the future with financial peace. George, when you look down the road for you, what are some things y'all are excited about?

Well, as you know, John, we're ambitious people. My wife works here at Ramsey. And so I found that contentment and ambition, they're next door neighbors and they can get along peacefully when we aren't always going, what's the next thing? What's the next thing? And we have a tendency to do that. I do too. I'm very guilty of this. And Ramsey is just a very driven place. We're very competitive. We're always focused on goals. So what has helped us is just to sit in silence and look around and go, this is the house we dreamed about five years ago. And this is the life we would have dreamt about when we were broken and dead. It's very rare that people recognize they're standing in the middle of a blessing. Yes. Because you look at your neighbor

and like, oh man, his grass is a lot greener. You go to his yard and you're like, oh, his yard actually sucks. It just looks different from the angle i have this home that y'all are living in is the answer to one of your grandparents prayers for y'all yes right this home y'all are living in is the culmination of a bunch of people making hard choices throughout the years to move their families across oceans and across cultures and for this moment right and there's something about sitting in that and saying, huh, right? When you do it without shortcuts, it changes the way you view it.

That's right. Because it's a blessing and not a curse. And we sleep well at night knowing that we're not over here sitting with piles of debt trying to live this facade of a life to impress anyone. That's right. Every decision I make is just going, I think this is going to benefit me and my family

and we've earned it. And I would recommend anybody who says, hey, we want to get a bunch of land. We want to do a tiny house thing. We want to live in a van. Take a week of your vacation this upcoming year and go to a dude ranch and work it. Right? Get a van.

Go try out this life before you let it be the end. Go milk some cows. There you go, before you think it's going to solve everything. Hey, that's an hour in the books here at the Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Stay with us. Dave here. We just launched a brand new audience survey for The Ramsey Show,

and we'd love your feedback. You could be entered to win a $500 Visa gift card. No purchase necessary. Take the survey at ramsesolutions.com slash survey.