The Ramsey Show - App - How Can I Increase My Income? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: October 17, 2022

Ken Coleman & George Kamel discuss: How a single mom can increase her income, Paying yourself out of your business, Paying for long term care insurance, Dealing with a potential IRS scam, When you can afford to stop working the night shift. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm CT 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

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studios, this is the Ramsey Show. It's where America hangs out to have a conversation about life, money, work, relationships, and more. The phone number is 888-825-5225. I'm Ken Coleman, co-hosting with me today, George Camel. It's Coleman and Camel, the law firm you should never hire.

Don't hire us for law advice. Yeah, not at all. But we can give you advice. It's free, so it is worth what you pay for. Keep that in mind. But we're here to help out, specifically in areas of money and work-life issues as well. 888-825-5225. Alberta, Canada is where we go next.

Maggie is there. Maggie, how can we help? Oh, hi. Really awesome to talk to you guys. I feel like I'm talking to celebrities. This is really cool. Wow, you need to get out more, Maggie. Yeah, to talk to you guys. I feel like I'm talking to celebrities. This is really cool. Wow. You need to get out more, Maggie.

Yeah, I got to tell you. You set your sights a little higher if we're celebrities. But thank you for the nice work. We're excited to talk to you. Nice. Okay. So I guess my question is, I'm a single mom, and I work full time, and I'm just wondering how I can increase and actually start making

income from my side hustle. Okay. What is your side hustle? Um, I make reusable baby wipes from upcycled material. All right. Now I got to tell you, I am absolutely locked in now. How does this, how does one do this? And explain what that means, upcycled.

Explain the whole deal. Yeah, so I just, I buy, I go to like a thrift store and I get essentially like old sheets that people have donated. Obviously not like super damaged ones. And I use that material instead of using new. And then I essentially sew them together in a nice way that people can use to use for baby, like specifically like baby bum wipes, because I use them. And obviously being a single parent, I saved a lot of money that way. So you take old, you take used bed sheets,

cut them up, sew them into baby bum-sized wipes, and it's like a cloth wipe, but it's a sheet, and then you wash them and reuse them? Yeah. Yeah. Well, what has this business done so far?

It hasn't yet. That's the thing. So I'm really good at making them, but everything else, I get really overwhelmed. Well, we need to make sure there's a market need for it. Are people asking for this? Do you tell your girlfriends who have babies about this concept and do you let them borrow some if that's a thing?

I definitely have gave some away. I guess a part of me like maybe feels a bit weird. I'm just like, oh my God, like they're going to

think I'm a weirdo for being so obsessed with my own idea. Yeah. If that makes any sense. Well, certainly. Because it is a really niche thing, right? It's extremely niche.

Now, I've heard of the reusable diapers, and I imagine it's something similar to that. Well, George doesn't know what this is like, but back in my day, yeah, we had cloth diapers, you know? So I get it. So this falls under that category, right, Maggie? Yes. Yes, yeah. But the reason that people moved on from cloth diapers is the reason why I think you got a challenge with this product.

And I don't want to, you know, pardon the pun. This isn't Shark Tank here. I don't want to poo-poo your idea. No pun intended. No, I actually intended that pun, actually. I had to. It was just right there. But here's the thing.

The reason we moved on from that is because of just the sheer amount of time that's saved with the baby wipes, and then we throw them away, and then we move on. And I don't want to, again, rob you of your joy on this, but you've got to determine if there's an actual market for this. And we start small. And it is overwhelming for anybody to have an idea no matter what it is and then try to get that idea out there but the way you start is testing in real life okay so are any of my girlfriends interested in this like you literally need to go hey i need you to shoot me straight you're not gonna hurt my feelings but if if i made these for you and let you test them out will you test them out and tell me whether or not you would do this? You got to get some real feedback on the idea here because this could be so niche that

nobody in the world wants to do it. And so then we go, okay, I love the idea for me. It's a novelty. It's something I'm going to do. But as it relates to being a single mom and making money, I've got to do something where I'm using my skill and experience and I'm transferring value. That's what you've got to do here. So I think it's a long shot on this. I don't want to be unkind, but I think this is just a long, long, long shot. And I wouldn't put much more time into it other than it takes to really, truly test it locally. Okay. Do you understand what I'm saying? I don't want to deflate you, but I'm just telling you.

If you're using this as a passion project, I think it's great. If you're trying to pay off debt and you've got financial goals ahead of you, I think you should find something you can do today that will bring in money today guaranteed. And you can still work on this and have it be a passion project. And there are ways you can try to test this idea. Maybe join some of these kind of crunchy mom Facebook groups, work on this and have it be a passion project. And there are ways you can try to test this idea. Maybe join some of these kind of crunchy mom Facebook groups, people that really want to lean into natural products.

What does crunchy mean? That means they want to go all natural. They don't want to use traditional medication. They want to use essential oils and more natural. I think that's the target demo, Maggie, I would assume, right, of people who would be interested in this? Yeah, absolutely, yeah. Yeah, I definitely want you to test it, but test it locally. To George's point, maybe in some online communities.

Put your product up there. Show them how you do it. See if you can get a blog post out there. You just got to see if there's any appetite for this product. Okay, yeah, that makes sense. I guess I'm just, like, stressed, too, because I'm on baby step two, and it's like, I'm a single mom, so working, you know, if I could work 24 hours a day, I definitely would be right now, because that's how determined I feel. But having a little one, it's just like, I need something that I can do from home, at least. And I thought.

All right. So here's the deal. Let me help you right there, because I want you to test this out and keep this thing alive until there's no evidence that says there's a market for this. Maybe there is a market for it. But right now, we need to put that on the back burner. And what you need to be doing is, okay, how many hours a week do you have to be able to work? And what can you do remotely? And remote work is as popular as it's ever been on this planet.

And you just need to look at what skills you have, what experience you have, make a list, and you go, okay, I'm going to apply for these type of jobs. Maybe it's a customer service job where you're on the phone X amount of hours a day helping people. It's not fun. It's not great. But it allows you to get out of debt and be at home near the baby. Do you understand what our focus is? Yeah, absolutely. Look, you just do what you can do right now. Okay. Because of the baby and because of the debt

and everything you got going on, we are focused on high priority stuff. All right. And then you could test the baby wipe thing on the side while you're doing that and not put any pressure on yourself. That needs to be a labor of love, something that you want to see if it works, but no pressure on it. And that'll take away that feeling, George, of being overwhelmed. Because, listen, any entrepreneur, no matter what the product or service is, just to think of the finished product and how do I get it out there. But that can take years to get off the ground. It can paralyze you.

Analysis paralysis is what it's called. And right now, you've got to be focused on paying off debt, getting that emergency fund, baby step three is next, and then you're on your way. And that margin will free you up to focus on the entrepreneurial ventures. It will. I learned a lot. I can't wait to tell Stacey what I learned about the new, improved Baby Way. What a time to be alive.

It is. Very exciting. This is The Ramsey Show. welcome back to the ramsey show i'm kent colvin i'm joined by george camel we're here for you this hour taking your phone calls about money, life, work, relationships, and so forth. I'm sorry. I got a little chuckle still. We're lots of conversation

from our last segment. So here we go. I'm going to focus and we're going to Chris in Bismarck, North Dakota. Chris, how can we help? Hey, can you hear me? Loud and clear, sir. What's going on?

Hey, yeah. So I recently started a construction business about six months ago. Oh, nice. And business has been debt-free and me and my wife are almost debt-free, just our mortgage on our house. So since I started the business, our budget and kind of everything to keep that out of debt was, you know, our budget and everything kind of got thrown out the window. So now that we're a little bit into it, kind of have a pulse for our income with the business, trying to figure out how we should budget, how much I should pay myself from the business and how to kind of make a formula for that. Sure. Can you give us an idea what your cash flow situation is, what you're bringing in?

So far the business, it seems, you know, it's really up and down, but it seems like it's about an average of maybe five to six grand profit a month. And that includes after paying you or no? No, that's what I'm trying to figure out. All right, that's what I thought. Okay, great. So that's five or six grand, but we're not paying you yet. All right. Are you making any money anywhere else, any income?

My wife has a couple part-time jobs, and so far that's just been going into our emergency fund, trying to build that up a little bit further. All right, great. So you're living off what your wife makes, and you got average $5,000 to $6, a little bit further. All right, great. So you're living off what your wife makes and you got five to six or average five to six K in profit from the construction company. Is that all sitting in a savings account? Yeah. I mean, I've been pulling out what I need to, to pay myself. It's, it's in its own business account and I've just been pulling as I need to,

to pay our expenses. Okay. That's where I'm confused. Cause I asked you if you, if of that profit you were paying yourself and you said no, but now you're saying you've been pulling some out. Yeah, I guess that's five grand of what the company makes and that's total. So out of that five grand-ish, I've just been able to just pull money as I need it. Okay, do you have any savings for the company? For the company? Yeah. It's right close to 10 grand with accounts payable. Okay. All right. So beyond your overhead, your expenses, all of that, how much could you pull from the profits? I mean, if I wanted to, since the business is

debt-free and once everything's paid, I could probably take, you know, three to four grand a month. Okay, so let's say you start paying yourself a salary of four grand a month. That's $48,000 a year, year one. And then your goal is to increase that every year as you have more and more profit and you start to get a handle on the overhead. And you're putting some of this in retained earnings and savings for the business as well from that profit? Yeah. That's what I'm trying to figure out. How much you can do for me, how much you can save my business.

So you've got $10,000 in the company savings account right now. And so, George, I'm going to be a little bit. Is that enough? I think I'd be more conservative, George. I'd kind of want to see him try to limit himself, if possible, to maybe $2,500 a month. Let's say he keeps that average of $5,000. This is a rule of thumb. I want to get what your take is, George. There's no hard and fast rule. Just put it out there. But I'd just be conservative right now if I were you, Chris, in your shoes.

Well, especially in construction. I mean, that equipment is expensive. Right. And so I'd want to build up the company's retained earnings. That's what we call it in Entrez leadership. We talk about savings for a company. I'd probably be paying myself half of, so let's say on a $6,000 profit month, maybe pay yourself three and put three in retained earnings account. I want to, you know, I'm going to make some sacrifices personally so that I can build up the safety gland in the preparation for this construction company, which hopefully we get to a point where you've got six months of your income in that account. Do you see where I'm going with this?

Great. Yeah. As you grow it, you know, now once it gets going and you're spitting off more profit, you know, I think that formula changes. You pay yourself more, save a little less. And as it grows, things might change as you might, you know, hire a few team members. Is that the goal for you? Um, you know, that's kind of a possibility,

probably not anytime soon, but yeah, the biggest thing right now is just, um, you know, the business is, is doing well enough on its own where I feel like I can try to pay myself consistently and then budget from that, you know, or I think you're right. I think you're right. You're doing it the right way. Have you read the book Entree Leadership yet? No, I haven't. Okay. That'll be our gift to you today. You're already living out a lot of the principles in that book. This is Dave Ramsey's number one bestselling book, How He Built This Place from a Card Table in His Living Room to The Empire It Is Today with 1,100 team members and a whole campus. And you're doing it

right. The biggest piece here is doing it all debt-free. And you've done that. And you're moving at the speed of cash. And you're willing to pay yourself a small amount right now as you grow this thing. And so I would make it a personal goal to increase my salary every year. And when you're a business owner like that, there could be a lot more margin. You might have an amazing year and you pay yourself a hundred grand. And you've got the savings and you're doing it the right way. So we're going to send you that book. I think it'll help walk you through that. You can also listen to the Entree Leadership Podcast, which I hope, where we're helping leaders and business owners win every single day. Love to hear that. It's a great show. Yeah. And Chris, you're doing

it the right way. Grow slow, you know, and be okay being small, right? Small and slow is the way to get this thing going, this construction company, because it is a customer-based business in the sense of they start talking about you. Hey, Chris did a good job on this. And they start spreading the word. You're going to have more work than you can keep up with. And then that puts you in a really great place, as George was saying, is you have to maybe go out and do some subcontracting and things like that.

So you're off to a good start. Really proud of you. I love seeing a guy start something like that and having $10,000 in savings, no debt on the business. You don't see that a lot, especially in construction, because it's very tempting and you can make a reasonable case if you're not anti-debt the way we are, that, oh, I've got to have this equipment. I had to go get this 50 grand tractor, Ken, to get this thing started.

Yeah, exactly. I love how you talked about it. It feels like you know a lot about tractors. I know just enough to be dangerous. That's right. Kevin is up next in Boise, Idaho. Kevin, how can we help? Thank you for taking my call, guys.

I am 65 years old. I turn 66 next month. I own my own business. I'm planning on continuing working. I'm also planning on taking my Social Security March of 2023. So I use part of my Social Security to pay for long-term insurance, as we are already putting in 15% to 20% into retirement, Roth, IRA, whatever. We're also 100 percent debt-free.

Thank you, Dave and staff. And we have five to six months already in emergency fund. And what should we do with the rest of the 55, with the Social Security money, I mean, after we start collecting it? Awesome. We just took a 30-day European vacation, paid in full. Hey, that's pretty awesome. So how much is the long-term insurance going to cost you? I'm going to say probably $500 to $600 a month. Okay. And have you shopped that with our friends at Zander Online? I have not, but I'm going to, yes. Okay, make sure you do your homework on that to make sure you're getting the best rate. And so you can jump on ramsayolutions.com and do that. But once you have that number, now it becomes part of your monthly budget,

and you are still running this business. What's your household income? We made $42,000 last year, and still we're able to take months off and all that. So we're good. You're living on a lot less than you make. That's fantastic. That's right. Okay.

What's in your nest egg? We have probably eight to 10 months of emergency fund. But beyond that, do you have any investing, any IRAs, 401ks? Yeah. What's in that? I've got Roths. I've got IRAs. What's it add up to? 80,000 in that. 80,000. Okay. So the question is, how are we going to long-term plan for retirement? And then what is the best use of the money in the different buckets? And so are you working with a financial advisor right now?

Yes, I am. Okay. I would sit down with them and make a game plan, not just for the next year, but hey, what does the next 10 years look like? When can I actually retire? And then how can I use that social security best? Should I use some of the tax advantage money first to cover the long-term care versus using my social security i would start with the social security for now but i'm curious to see what a full plan would look like as you map out all the different buckets you have to utilize it because you might live in another 30 years and so i don't want you to run out of money either yeah absolutely but boy is he in great shape. And coming off the 30-day trip to Europe, George. Debt-free.

We didn't get a postcard. I haven't seen one from Kevin. Did you see? Did you get one? We'll have to just Google pictures for now. By the way, we just recently had dinner, the Camels and the Colmans. Maybe we should do a European couples trip. I don't know. Yeah, sure. Yeah, you seem very excited about that.

We'll get the wives together on that one. We may not have vacation together. We do love doing the Ramsey Show. We're thrilled that you're with us. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by George Camel. Tonight's a big night, George. It is. Do you have your healthy popcorn ready?

Do you have your Orville Redenbacher's movie theater butter ready? I got a box of it at home. I got a box. What are we talking about? Well, tonight is the big viewing party. We're premiering the very popular runaway hit, Borrowed Future. We're launching it on YouTube tonight at 7 p.m. Central, 8 Eastern. Borrowed Future is our award-winning documentary that uncovers the dark side of the student loan industry.

It's an incredible watch. It's gripping, make you sick to your stomach, make you angry. But it is good, good, good to watch it. Watch it with your kids. Watch it with your family. It's going to be awesome. And then after tonight, you can view Barred Future on YouTube for free on demand. The film is still available on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, and RamseySolutions.com

where you can rent it ad-free. So we want you to see this for your own information, but also to spread the word, help us disrupt the toxic student loan industry. Join us tonight for the Borrowed Future Watch Party on the Ramsey Show's YouTube channel. George and I will not be appearing live. That's fair to say. In the corner somewhere like Mystery Science Theater. There was some talk of that.

Is that the director's cut? Yeah, well, honestly, I wanted to do it, but George's people wouldn't work with us. in the corner somewhere like Mystery Science Theater. There was some talk of that. Is that the director's cut? Yeah, well, honestly, I wanted to do it, but George's people wouldn't work with us. My people talked to George's people, and we couldn't come together on the whole deal. James may show up if there's free popcorn, because he's never turned down a free meal in his life.

I do love some movie and a popcorn. You can't beat that. It's an hour and a half long, so you'll still make it before bedtime. It's at 7 Central. Seriously, get a crew together, get some friends, get the kids, and go, hey, we're watching this. Incentivize them if you have to.

Get them some dinner beforehand, their favorite meal, and go, we're going to watch this, and we want to have a conversation after it's over. Would that include TV trays? I miss a good TV tray. Don't you? Well, if you're going to sit down and watch it. Yes. Bring those back. Yeah, those are great.

Apparently cloth diapers and cloth baby wipes are back. It's watch it. Yes. Bring those back. Those are great. Apparently cloth diapers and cloth baby wipes are back. We'll bring the TV trays as well. So there you go. Alright, back to the phones we go. Eva joins us in Dayton, Ohio. Eva, how can we help? Hello. Hello. How are you doing? We're having a blast. How can we help? I hear you.

And with the popcorn. I hear you. Come on, Eva. What's your favorite popcorn? The old-fashioned and the big, huge pop. And the big, huge pop with the oil and just let it shake. You know, you have to... Come on. Well, I'm 60, so you have to... Come on, Eva.

So you're talking about just pouring the kernels in with the oil. See, Eva gets it. Yeah, yeah. Come on. Do you do any salt, Eva? Any salt on it? No, I just do butter. Just butter. All right, all right. Yeah. Come on. Do you do any salt, Eva? Any salt on it? No, I just do butter. Just butter.

All right. All right. To each his own. Eva, how can we help? Okay. I moved from Arkansas to Dayton when I got a phone call. When I called home, my mom was crying on the phone. I get here less than two weeks after I get home.

She has an ascending aorta aneurysm. Oh, my. Yeah. I wasn't here two weeks, and she passes out. Of course, she sends me to go get her ice cream, and my son is in the yard. And my question is, I worked in Arkansas, worked all the way up until I moved here, and having worked a full-time job or no job, I've just been caring for my mom because one thing went from shingles, aneurysm, to something else, to something else, and I'm still caring for her now.

Oh, my. Yeah. I get a letter in the mail yesterday. IRS is telling me I owe them $3,764.37. Now I need to find out or I need y'all's help. Yeah, sure. And do you know what that's referring to? Is it clear in the letter?

It doesn't say anything in the letter about it. It's just, it's like one of those, you know, how they payment Internal Revenue Service. Oh, yeah. And they try to make it scary. Have you verified this? I called, and, you know, you have to stay on hold for about 12 years. A hundred percent.

Yeah, they don't actually have a human there to help you after they send you a letter like that. It's classic federal government. How are they asking for payment? Oh, now here's the biggest part. Uh-oh. Now, oh, here's the greatest thing. On their back page it says, oh, if you, we can settle this and not give any interest, you will not be, to prevent any interest applicable, penalties from continuing, pay the amount by November 7th.

Wow, if I had that, you know, hey. I don't know if this sounds legit. I think it might be a scam. Are you serious? I would not pay a dime until I hear from them directly and you contact them. This sounds legit. I think it might be a scam. Are you serious? Do they have... I would not pay a dime until I hear from them directly, and you contact them. And so I know that stinks to be on the phone. Contact them whatever way you can.

Because, yeah, I've tried and tried. I was on the phone probably. I laid the phone down. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you got to get a good household project. Just leave that thing on hold. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you got to get a good household project. Just leave that thing on hold. Oh, yeah. I've been there. You can fold a couple loads of laundry before they pick up.

Oh, yeah. Wash clothes, do a car, all of that. Did they tell you what this is for? It doesn't say what it's for. An annual reminder, a balance due of taxes. Yeah, I don't know if this is legit. If after seven years and you haven't been working, have you been filing any kind of return? Do you have any income? None. None at all. None.

And it's the little IRS bill, you know, the little scales with the eagle. I think that's the eagle or whatever it is. Nobody knows. Nobody wants to look at the IRS letterhead long enough to know what it is. Well, I'll give you some homework to do, Eva. Go to irs.gov slash help. irs.gov slash help. And there's a section that says letter from the IRS. I want you to read through that, and it will help you gauge if this is a legitimate letter from them or not.

Okay. But do your homework, and don't pay a dime until you verify this with them. And if you do owe it, you got to get this monkey off your back and you're going to do whatever it takes to scrape together the money and get rid of it. What about one of our tax advisors? I feel like they could help her. Yeah. It's worth reaching out to one of them at ramsaysolutions.com and you can click on our recommended pros there and get in touch with a tax advisor and see who will look at this letter and know whether it's legit. Number one. And then number two,

what to do to, to, to, to get this thing cleared up. It feels, it feels very, very suspect to me. The kids,

I think call it sus. Uh, okay. Yeah. I taught you a new word, Eva. You can use that. Throw that around with the teens.

They'll think you're very cool. so Ramsey solutions.com. Yes. Go into recommended pros. Yeah. Yeah. They'll think you're very cool. So, RamseySolutions.com. Yes. Go under Recommended Pros. It'll say Ramsey Recommends. You want a tax advisor, one of our trusted tax advisors. Tell them you called the show

and Ken and George think that the letter is sus. That's all they need to hear. I love that she's writing this down. It makes me so happy. Take in some of that fresh popcorn too bless your heart eva i would not do anything until we verify verify verify verify on this i mean people are getting scammed all the time on this and i'm i'm because when i you know i'm just how are y'all taxing me and i'm'm not, I haven't filed in seven years.

Well, my only thinking is back taxes, and something wasn't right with an old tax return, and they're finally getting around to it because they're slow as molasses. Yep, the last thing that I got was a refund, and that was seven, eight years ago. That was probably about eight years ago. I got a refund. It wasn't a whole hundred and something dollars.

That's all. Okay. Well, here's what we want you to do. We want you to take the advice that George gave you there with the IRS website. Let's see what we can find out there. And then if you don't get any clarity there, I do think it's worth seeing one of our Ramsey-trusted tax advisors to get to the bottom of this,sey trusted tax advisors to get to the bottom

of this and they will help you get to the bottom of it very quickly and efficiently. And then bless your heart for taking care of your mom. I also want to encourage you to be thinking about some type of income. Even though you're watching your mom, I want to see you at least be working part time and try to be bringing in some income once we get this thing settled. So thank you so much for calling. George, it's a scary thing, man, and bad people play on this stuff. You see anything on other IRS scams? There are. Well, there should be letters. There should be a notice number or a letter number,

either the top or bottom right-hand corner of that, that will actually go, oh, this is legit. If it doesn't have that, it's probably fake. Yeah, absolutely. Good stuff there. Well, thank you so much for the call, Eva. For the rest of you, don't move. We got more of The Ramsey Show coming right up. Thank you. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, and he is George Camel.

We're thrilled to be with you. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Our scripture of the day comes from Luke 5, 16. But Jesus himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray. Our quote from Nikola Tesla. Oh, George, this is for you today. That has nothing to do with actual Teslas. I know, but it's his last name. Sure. Inspired, I mean, come on. Inspire me to greatness. Yeah. No, the whole brand is inspired by Tesla.

Come on, you know this. His quote, be alone. That is the secret of invention. Be alone. That is when ideas are born. Do you find that to be true, George? I guess I'll leave you to it then, Ken. Yeah, if you could leave the studio, that'd be great. No, do you find, whether it be behind the wheel of a car? When you think about it, some of the best ideas happen. You're on a run, you're in the car, you're in the shower, and a great idea happens. You know what it is for me? It's yard work. Oh, I should try that sometime.

Well, you're allergic to everything. But the idea of a monotonous task that is so mundane, what happens is the brain does fire, and it just gets really creative in that time. I love that. So that is really good advice. We don't let ourselves get bored enough in today's culture to even get there. That's exactly right. You know, just alone with your thoughts is a good thing. We need to do more of that.

All right, to Kansas City, Missouri we go. Jonathan is there. Jonathan, how can we help? Hi, how are you doing, Kenneth and George? Man, we're there. Jonathan, how can we help? Hi, how you doing, Kenny? George? Man, we're having a blast. How can we help? Yes, sir. My question is, I've been working at my job for

seven years. It's union, so they have job postings. I'm a truck driver that does delivery driving outside in the weather, and I have an opportunity to switch to daytimes to become where I only bump docks and deliver and I'm having trouble with it because I am a single father which means I would have to try to find daycare or a babysitter in the morning. Okay.

That's a tough one because, as you know, daycare is very, very expensive. Yes. So what's your situation now? Who's watching the kids when you're on the night shift? Right now my mother watches my daughter, and if I can't get off in time, my little sister will come pick her up, and I'll just go to my little sister's house and grab her when I get off. So what would the new schedule be? What would the hours be that you need to cover child care?

The hours are technically 8 to 4, but with myself being a truck driver, it could go to 8 to 6. Okay, so your daughter is not in school. Is that what I'm understanding? No, she's only four months right now. Okay, gotcha. Well, you know, I wish I had a slick answer here that was just, hey, 1, 2, 3, 4, this is what you do. And I don't think it's that simple because you don't have the family

that can watch the child during that time. And it doesn't sound like you have many options there. And then daycare is extremely expensive. And that would pretty much put you in a bad financial situation. Is that correct? Yes, it would. Where are you at right now financially? Right now I'm currently on baby step two.

Right, yeah, baby step two right now. How much debt do you have left? I have $50,000 left. What kind of debt is that? Car loans, a little bit of student loans, and past mistakes I made from previous marriage. And what's your income? Income right now is 60, around 60 to 65,000. It would be dropping down to 58,000, uh, if I was to take the position. Yeah, that was my worry, is you get a drop in income,

and we have to now have extra expense with child care. So I don't see how that would work logistically right now for you. It may in the future, once we're out of debt. What's the car worth? My car, the car, I don't have the car anymore. But you said you had a car loan, but you still, you don't have the car, but you're still paying on the loan? The loans are right now, and I'm paying on one of the loans from the car, even though I don't have it anymore. Where's the car?

Because they took me to court. They were repossessed. Oh, man. And you got multiple car loans? Yes, sir. Yeah, I made a lot of bad mistakes in my past marriage. That's all right. I do a lot.

We're just trying to help you create a path forward here. What are your options with the repoed car? Right now, one of them took me to court. This was before I actually got connected with you guys, so I made a settlement where I'm paying $250 a month until it's paid off. The other one, I haven't been contacted from them yet, but I know listening to you guys to try to have some money to where I can settle it for a cheaper price.

Can you go on the dollar, hopefully? Where's the other car? I have neither one of them. They're both repoed? Yeah, I don't, yeah. Oh, man. And you're just, are you driving around in the truck right now just for work? Oh, no, sir.

I saved up and bought me a cash car. Okay. Toyota. Good. I'd like to know what you would identify as the best way, based on your area and your schedule and what you'd like to happen, for you to make more money. And especially in today's world where drivers are at a premium. And I know you can't do over-the-road stuff because of the child, but I wonder how we could make more money. I would be focusing on how can I raise my income to the point that where daycare, while expensive, would be something that I could offset and still get out of debt, still save. Because I feel like that's going to give you more freedom in your life too. Do you know what I mean? Where you're not in this night owl schedule and not getting

to see your baby. And I just, I want you identifying and looking for opportunities that may be a lot more attractive financially for you to where you can then afford the daycare. Yes, I've also currently been searching for other jobs and trying to find something that could also pay me. It's just like I said, with the trucking business, sometimes there's not really a set time where you will be. Well, and to your point, to get out of the trucking business

is something you need to be looking at. We have wages at an all-time high right now. And, you know, George, he's in that $65,000 range, you know, to be able to make $25 to $35 an hour in manufacturing and warehousing right now is very realistic. Yeah. Depending on the company and depending on the area. But to be able to have a set schedule where you can schedule your life around, I mean, this is doable, Jonathan. And, you know, you've got to be at this point going,

okay, I've got skills and I've got some experience and I'm not limited to driving a truck. And it feels like there's a little bit of that on you. And understand it because it's what you know. But the reality is if you think, George, if you're hiring somebody who's going to drive a truck, you're looking for somebody who's dependable. Somebody who's going to do what they're supposed to do, show up when they're supposed to show up. There's a lot of autonomy in that. You've got to get, you know, the car to go.

That's right. But the ability to work, you know, in manufacturing or warehousing, which, again, we're seeing jobs explode. That's why I'm specifically mentioning that. There's a lot of the same crossover. You don't have to have a ton of experience. You just got to be dependable. You got to be trainable, teachable, coachable. And then you can get a situation where, you know, to offset that, George, what would you say to someone like him who's in a situation like

that where you go, man, child care is going to cost X amount a month. So salary after taxes to budget that, it is doable, but you're going to have to increase income. Yeah. Because if we can go from 60 to 80, and even if we use that 20 to cover childcare, the gap, that still puts us in a better spot because now he's got a normal schedule. Yeah. And he has better quality of life. And that's something to consider in all of this too. Absolutely. Life has happened to Jonathan and that's tough, man. When you've been knocked down like that, it's hard to get back up and believe in yourself and go, you know what? I am worth more than this.

I am going to go hustle and find another gig. But a lot of even trucking jobs, I haven't seen a lot of bonuses these days. And so even jumping to a different company for a short period of time, you might get a bonus that helps you knock out some of this debt. I'm glad you brought that up. You know, maybe in the short term he does get another trucking job. He's working that crazy shift. But he's got, you know, his daughter is currently being taken care of this debt. I'm glad you brought that up. Maybe in the short term, he does get another trucking job. He's working that crazy shift, but he's got, you know, his daughter is currently being taken care of by family. And so what he does is, I'm going to pay off all that

debt. I'm going to fix that. Then that gives me some more freedom. So a lot of options there, Jonathan. Keep your head up. You can do this. I promise. Thank you so much for the call. George, great hour. Thanks again, buddy. You're so fall festive. It's wonderful. You should go jump on a pile of leaves after the show. I want to thank the team behind the glass for keeping us on the air. And you, America, this is The Ramsey Show.

Hey, folks, Ken Coleman here. Did you know The Ramsey Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world? Get your daily dose of advice on life and money. Check out all of our shows from The Ramsey Network wherever you listen to podcasts.