The Ramsey Show - App - How Can I Make More Money? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: April 12, 2024

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, this is The Ramsey Show. It's where we help you win in life, specifically in your money, in your work, and in your relationships. I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw joins me. And we are what they call Ramsey personalities around here. We're your hosts today. And think of us as your coaches. So let's get right to it.

Nick is going to join us in Cleveland, Ohio. Nick, how can we help? Hey there. Thank you so much for taking my call. You bet. What's going on? So I just have a question on, i'm trying to increase my income i've been binge watching um your guys show for the past who knows how long and um i keep hearing dave talk about increasing

income and i feel like i'm kind of stuck in my job which i really like. Yeah. Okay. So what's the job? Okay. So I'm 26 right now. Okay. Graduated in May of 2020, which that was 22 at the time. Went from accountant one to accountant two to senior one, and now I'm senior accountant two. What are you making? Making $90,000 right now. Not bad. Okay. And what does the path forward look like as an accountant? And there's two parts in this question. And then what does the path forward look like in your current company to move up financially?

Okay, yeah. So when I first started, I was making about 54. And so now we're in present day now, senior two at 90. Okay. And I just don't think there's any way to go up from here because the next row will be like a supervisor, but they're all filled with younger people. I mean, a little older than me, but not like... Right. So in your current company, all right, so that's the second part of the question. You don't see a lot of opportunity.

In other words, a couple more rungs up the ladder where you currently are. But my question is, in the industry as an accountant, just because I don't know what the steps are, so what would it look like in another company or in the industry as an accountant? What are the steps up above $90,000? That's a good question. I mean, I'm on LinkedIn all the time, and I see younger people hopping jobs and finding huge increases in their take-home pay. Yeah, but what I'm asking specifically is, and I'm sorry if I'm not being

clear, your account at two right now is what you called it, senior account at two. Is that in my head remembering that correctly? Yep. Okay. My point is I don't know the industry. So what's up, what just the language and the positions in the industry, what's above that? Is it, I become a CBA, I become a CFO? Oh yeah, I should let you know. Sorry. Private accountant, it's for a commercial insurance company. So I'm not doing taxes or compliance or EPA, nothing like that. But do you want to stay in the industry? You want to be working with numbers in that account industry and finance? Absolutely, yes.

You do. Okay. My point is, you don't know the answer to the question that I've asked twice, two different ways. We start there. We've got to say, what is the ultimate for me? Where do I want to be 5, 10, 15 years from now? What is that? Is that the CFO of an organization? Is it CFO of a small business? Is it CFO of a public company? What's the, like if I were a basketball player, the NBA is the dream. What is it for you? Are we there, Nick? He's thinking about it.

I don't want you to think that much. I'm not trying to get you to put a stake in the ground i'm trying to answer your question how do you increase your income well you can't go if you don't know where you're going i know so my point is what but but what does that look like what what is it's a cfo i'm gonna i'm gonna answer it as high as you can get as an accountant is a cfo and then one day and i i remember uh I believe Gary Kelly was the CFO of Southwest Airlines, and I had the pleasure of interviewing him when he was the CEO, so he moved all the way up. So let's just, for our discussion, say CFO is all the way to the top. Do you agree with that, Nick? Oh, yeah. I'd love to run a company one day.

Okay, great. Now we got something. We got a target. Now, that's long-term, but the reason I'm focusing on that is, like Jade said, you got to kind of know, what's the mountain I want to climb? Now I got to figure out, how do I get up Everest? Okay? So there's short-term and long-term. Anytime somebody asks me the question, how do I increase my income? I go to, what are our short-term needs? And then we think long-term. Do you have any short-term needs like getting out of debt? Is that why you called saying, how do I increase my income? Or are you just going, I want some growth professionally? What's at the root of this? Growth professionally. I don't have any debt besides I just bought a house

back in October of 23, so brand new mortgage. Perfect. Okay, so we're thinking long-term, paying off our home and making more money as a professional. So here's the thing. You are limited where you are, so we're already deciding today. I'm now beginning to look elsewhere. I've got to find an organization where there is a ladder for me to climb. You understand what I'm saying?

Yes, absolutely. All right. Now we've established that one day I'd like to be a CFO and maybe a CEO, but right now let's just go, let's just start looking on LinkedIn and let's start talking to people that are in your industry. Maybe some guys in your office or gals in your office that are very successful and way up the food chain from you and say, how'd you get there? They're going to appreciate the fact that you're asking questions. Everybody's favorite topic is themselves, you know? So I would start there. Okay. And so then you need to identify, okay, I've got a target. So for me years ago, I knew I wanted to get into broadcasting and then I had to go, what type of broadcasting do I want to get into, and who's doing it well

there, and I want to write books and be a bestseller, who's doing that, and I began to plot conversations, and I began to watch and listen to people that were way farther ahead of me on the journey, so that I had an idea of maybe what it takes, and I started to get some targets as to what I was looking for. So you want to know how you increase your income, increase your capacity, increase your opportunities. So it's two things. I've got to, what I mean by capacity, I got to find a place with a ladder where I can grow. That's what I mean by capacity. And so now I can actually grow and get promoted, which means when I get promoted, I get a bigger what? Paycheck. Yes. Okay. So we keep it simple.

All right. That's capacity. All right. That's really important. All right. But you also have to have that vision of, okay, what skills do I need to add so that I become more marketable as well? So it's not just where I am with the chance to grow. It's what do I need to do? What experience do I need? What do I need to do? What experience do I need? What do I need to learn and do to actually become more valuable? And the more valuable I am in the right place with capacity, the more opportunity comes my way. It's that simple.

But it's aggressive. I'm thinking about it all the time. What am I doing? What am I learning? What am I learning? What am I doing? Who am I doing? What am I learning? What am I learning? What am I doing? Who am I connecting with? So that opportunities come my way and I'm increasing my income steadily, not just by

flipping and flopping jobs, but by moving up the professional ladder. That's how you increase your income. You got to get better and you got to get connected. That's it, Jade. I promise you, if you keep getting better as a person, and you keep connecting with successful people, the money's going to take care of itself. It's that simple. That's great advice, Ken. Thank you. Great call, Nick.

Thank you, my man. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. Thrilled to have you with us. So glad that you've joined us. I'm Ken Coleman and Jade Warshaw joins me. And we got to tell you about something that we're really excited about. It's always fun when we can have a live event here on our campus.

We have a beautiful Ramsey Event Center up on the hill as we sit here today in the studios. Kind of looks over us. We are in the shadows, you could say. And beautiful, beautiful event center. And we've got a new event coming up called the Total Money Makeover Weekend. This is May 10 and 11. And this is all about healthy money habits. Every angle you can imagine.

And the baby steps on steroids. How to get out of debt. How to create a budget with every dollar. How to communicate better around money, easing anxiety, making more money. I'll be talking about how to actually become wealthy, how to get rich. It's going to be fun. All the investment advice we give so that you can retire the way you want to. There will be a live taping of the hit podcast, Smart Money Happy Hour,

with George Campbell and Rachel Cruz. All of us will be doing live interactive Q&As throughout the weekend. The whole gang, Dave Ramsey, Rachel Cruz, Jade Warshaw, Dr. John Deloney, George Campbell, and myself. If you want to get your tickets, get on it now. Platinum Plus already sold out. We still have some VIP left. You can get them at ramsaysolutions.com slash events, ramsaysolutions.com slash events. And it's always fun when we meet people in the lobby because they're always like, yeah, I was here in Nashville. Yeah.

And Nashville's become quite the destination. And so come by and see us. Come to the event. And it gives you an excuse to come to Nashville. How about that? So there you go. Good deal. Be careful, though.

Of what? If you come to Nashville, you got to be careful, Jade, of all of the bridal parties. The bridesmaids? Bridesmaids capital of the world or whatever? They're drinking a little too much. They're wheeling around in those wagons that you pedal to keep them going. Ken, for some people, this is the reason they want to come to Nashville. Okay.

All right. So on this point, I ask you, quick diversion. Our audience will enjoy this. You can comment in the comment section if you have a vote on this. What say you people? What are we going to talk about? If I'm going to any place and I want to frequent the city and I want to have a night out and I want to drink a little.

You want to go out on the town. Why do I want to pedal? Why do I want to physically exert myself while I'm drinking? Because it helps your beverages to metabolize quicker okay james i'm gonna go with final answer james that's her final answer i'd like one more vote my point is i don't want to sweat and work while i'm drinking you don't want to sweat and work period ken oh i do you want to sweat i sweat on the pickleball court i'm quite the sweater i work out five five times a week in the gym.

I sweat. When I'm imbibing, having a cocktail in a city, I don't want to have to work. That is funny. James, do you have an opinion on this? I do not. I'm just thinking about you sweating five days a week now. We all are.

We lost. I apologize, America. I really do. I'm really not a heavy sweater.'t strike me as a sweater, though. You strike me as someone... Who glistens? No. Like, you want to be in an air-conditioned area at all times with a glass of ice water.

Somebody else. You hire someone to do the yard work. Not at all. Love playing sports outside. Big, big, big, big outside playing sports guy. Okay. And as much as I talked about it, I'm not a heavy sweater. A normal amount of perspiration.

That's good. That's good. I have a friend who can't sweat. What? Their glands. Is that a disease? Maybe. She never sweats.

Does it affect her negatively? No. I'm always jealous. I would love that problem. How can I get that syndrome? That would be great. Born this's, I'm always jealous. I would love that problem. What, how can I get that syndrome? That would be great. Born this way, I guess. Wow. I digress. All right. I do too. We have fun every once in a while on the Ramsey show. You know why? Because you have fun in your life too. And you just don't want to hear boring coaching all the time. I know. We also don't want

to hear about you sweating, Ken. This I agree with and I shall never bring it up again point taken and agreed lee is joining us now in philadelphia lee how can we help hey i have a question about so i have a large check come in from an insurance settlement and i'm not sure what to do with it what uh what's causing you to get this check? Did you get in an accident? My father passed away last summer. Oh, man. I'm so sorry to hear that. That's tough.

Okay. Yikes. Okay. So how much is the check? $100,000. Okay. How old are you? 17.

Wow. Wow. Okay. This is a lot of money. And what I would advise, usually when people get a lot of money, you're dealing with two things right now that are big changes. A, of course, you've lost your dad, which is a big, big deal. And then you've got this money here. Typically, we tell people like sit on it for at least a year. And in this case, you have. And I want to make sure that during that time, have you gotten some folks around you that can kind of help with you?

Where is it? Is it sitting in a high yield savings account? So tell me a little bit more about where the money is. So recently we had to go to court and get everything settled and it was split up between my mother and my other two siblings. So we have just recently received the checks for it. And my mother has not cashed the check yet. Okay. But is it in her name or is it for you to cash? It's in her name because I cannot receive the check until I'm 18. Got it.

Okay. Good to know because that was going to be my next question because I'm like, yeah, you're 17. Okay. So the question is, your question for me is what do I do with the money? Is that the question? Yes. I can move it around with my mother. If my mother co-signs on it or I could wait till I'm 18, I turn 18 October and then I, and then it's mine. I can do whatever I want with it. What are your plans for your future? Do you know? So I currently have a part-time job. And then the rest of my week is filled with running a small business with my mother.

It was my father's business. We did irrigation, agriculture irrigation. And so I want to continue to grow this business and make it my career just like he did. Nice. So your plan's not to go, are you doing any extended education? I will probably get a business administration and accounting degree through my local community college. Okay. And what will that cost you? Around $12,000, but a lot of it will be covered through financial aid because any taxes from the previous years have been joint filed. And the government, when you file them for financial aid, if they're joint filed and you

have a deceased parent, they don't use those taxes. So it shows up and you have a deceased parent, they don't use those taxes, so it shows up that you have no income and you get buku bucks for financial aid, basically. Interesting. Now, financial aid in the form of a grant or a tax return, or is this a loan? Grant. Okay, it's a grant. Okay, so what you're saying is it's

showing that you make no money yeah yes is that true though no but that's because the so for this i'm learning right now so you're you're teaching me something so keep going my my sister goes to college and and so for the spring semester, she filled it out. It asked for 2021, the 2021 tax forms, taxes. However, any work, any of all the taxes were joint filed between my mother and father. So now that my father is deceased. I see. Okay. All right.

So I want to get to Jade real quick because we're running out of time. If I'm you, I am going to wait till I'm 18. I think that's going to give you even more time to gather information about the best ways to handle your money. And so before you get off the phone today, I'm going to make sure they pick up and give you Financial Peace University. I want to make sure you're hooked up with every dollar because I want to make sure you're going into this world with $100,000 knowing exactly how to handle it and that you don't fall into any of those basic pitfalls that so many Americans fall into regarding debt. You've got the money if you need it to further

your education, but it sounds like it's going to be covered through grants. The next thing to think about after this is just those basic tenets to living. If you have debt, you're paying it off. If you don't have three to six months set in place, the next thing is I'm going to take some of this money, I'm going to pack it away in a high yield savings account and I'm going to call it six months of expenses that checks off baby step three. And then now you're freed up to start investing from the money that you're earning from your job. It also frees you up to start saving for real estate for your primary residence. So if I were you, I would take this whatever's left of that $100,000

after I've done what I just said. And I would earmark that for a down payment for when it's time, but you don't have to rush into that. It's just something for the future. Yeah. Great stuff. And we're sorry for your loss, young man. Tough stuff. But love your head on this and wishing you and your mom the best and great success in this business. I love that you want to carry on his legacy, extend your mom's legacy as well. So we believe you're going to win big with this $100,000. So hang on the line. We'll get you all the goodies and gifts that Jade gave you. Thank you again. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back.

Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw is with me. So glad you're with us, America. The phone number is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. One of our favorite things to do on the show is hear the stories of people who have made it through the baby steps. They are debt-free. And now we're looking across the lobby at Zach and Bailey, who join us. How are you two? We're doing awesome.

Fantastic. Awesome. I love it. Where are you guys from? Dallas, Texas. Dallas, Texas. All right. Well, let's get the story.

How much did you pay off? Want to go for that? We paid off our entire house. What? That was $250,000. Yes, we just,000. $250,000 house. You don't owe a nickel. Wow. Wow. How long did that take? It took us four years, but you asked about our story and it starts a long time ago. We're kind of hitting a triple milestone that we hit last month that we're here to celebrate. 10 years ago when we were engaged, Zach's parents said, okay, you can get married, but

before you do, you have four things you need to do. And the first was finish college. Okay. They said at least one of us needed to have a full-time job. Okay. They said premarital counseling. Got it. And they said take the Jay and Bramsie course.

Hey, okay. Which was crazy to us because we were at university and of course we thought we knew everything about finances we just we don't need this degrees yeah but as soon as as soon as we took the first lesson it it instantly changed our lives motivated us like crazy and my parents requiring that of us was probably the best thing that ever happened so do you mind me asking that's 10 years ago how old were you guys? So we were 22 when we got married and we came out with student loans. How much student loans? $50,000. That was all me.

Her dad cash flowed her college, which was great. But I came out with $50,000 and we knocked that out about the first year and a half of marriage. Wow. So really you paid off $300,000. That's right. Wow, that's crazy unbelievable the other the other thing we wanted to mention uh the other milestone this year is um for ourselves is 10 years of marriage which is great for us congratulations the last one is

with paying off that house that also made us millionaires what okay really network millionaires as a result of just explain that that. How'd you get there? What's the math? Paying down that mortgage, 401ks. I work for an employee-owned company, so we've got an ESOP. Okay, good. Other assets. We didn't ask you what you were earning during this time.

We never got there. What was your range of income? We'll start at the very beginning. Yeah, when we graduated, we were coming out of college, and together we made $110,000. Nice. And now we're making $330,000. Get into it. Around $330,000. beginning yeah when we graduated we were coming out of college and together we made 110 nice um and now we're making 330 get into it that's what i'm talking about come on way to go what do you guys do i'm in advertising okay and i work i work in construction okay great yeah fantastic so here's go ahead no i was gonna say so you know you propose or you're saying i want to i want to

marry bailey and then the the parents are like, you got to go to college, get a job, counseling, FPU. Was there I want to know, was there any pushback or were you just like, got it, got to go do it? Like, was there was there any pushback with this financial piece? All of these requirements that really were for your benefit? It was a lot because we got engaged our junior year. And so during our senior year, we were planning a wedding and then it's like, and this and this, okay, and I still need to graduate. So it felt like a lot, but I think we're the type where when there's things to do,

places we're chasing after, we run faster. And so it was really motivational. And once we got in, like Zach said, we started enjoying it and we still have the journals where we were taking notes, watching the classes from our house in college. I love that. Embracing wise counsel. Yeah, absolutely. And by the way, let's be honest. Zach was like every other guy, okay, including me and Sam. What's that mean?

He's like, I'll do what it takes to close the deal. I know. That's right. I had some work to do. I was the only one that had debt coming out. Yeah, I get that. Now, here's something I could have picked up on, and I'm making it up in my head.

You went through the list. So when you proposed, when you talked to her father, he laid it out then? Is that when it happened, or was it shortly after? Don't get me wrong. Her dad had some requirements as well, but it was my parents that had required those four things. So when they gave you the list, it was finish college, full-time job, got to do premarital counseling, and FPU.

The way you said it early on when you told us this, it felt like the other three were like, you guys were like, oh, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. But the FPU thing, I don't know. Did I pick up on something there? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, don't get me wrong. We were going to do it because I wanted to marry her. I know that. That was going to happen i knew that but but internally as we discussed uh like i said

we we thought we knew it all we thought we both took finance in school and just thought it couldn't be that hard and right and when we took it it was obviously totally different than what we learned um but it was it made sense dave was captiv Dave was captivating, and we just took off like that. Well, there was a gap, wasn't there? We got 10 years of marriage, but then four years ago, you guys start to take on the house. What was the catalyst for that? Yeah. So once we graduated and we paid off our debt, we wanted to live first.

And so I'm a pretty big dreamer. And so I was like, let's go overseas. We have no kids, no pets, let's go. And so we went and lived overseas for a little bit. We actually ended up in the Middle East. You know, I said, I want to go. And then the opportunity came in the Middle East, wasn't expecting that. But so then when we got back from the Middle East, we started saving for the home. And even when we were there, we were saving for the home because we were in the Dave Ramsey world. So we knew this was coming, we were preparing. And so by the time we bought the house,

we had a really significant down payment. And then we were charging for, how fast can we get all the way done? And we set goals and we beat all the goals we set. Because I think once you're charging, it's fun, you start to see the momentum and you start to really push. Yeah. That's crazy.

So, okay, for those listening, Financial Peace University, this is the class you went through. And. Yeah, that's crazy. So, okay. For those listening, Financial Peace University, this is the class you went through. And I mean, it's a crash course. I mean, it's given you everything. Was there anything that, you know, you push back on like, wait a minute, can we really buy cars and cash? Or what about this no credit score thing? Or even buying a house without a credit score? Was there anything that stood out to you that was like, well, we'll see about that? You want me to answer that? I mean, go ahead.

Well, I think the principles about how much of an apartment we could afford at the time were really helpful tips to know because I think coming out of college, our first real job, you just go for what looks good, you know, versus having some kind of idea of, no, this is what we can afford. So I just really liked having the boundaries and knowing what to do. Did you have one? Well, just the envelope system. I mean, we,

we did the envelope system for the first five years of all of that. So even, even once we were out of debt, we kept doing it. It was only, it was only about five years ago that we call it evolved and didn't use those anymore, but absolutely monthly budgeting is critical to our overall success how's it feel to have a paid for home oh it's incredible it's absolutely amazing and net worth millionaires yeah it's pretty and you're young your your future is what are you guys dreaming about now you said you were a big dreamer bailey i gotta know what are you dreaming about now yeah you know now we're at the point where once a year I've gotten, I've convinced Zach to get a cabin in the woods and we take our girls and we go and dream. So we did that this year. And long-term, we're thinking about retirement already.

We want to be on water somewhere. So that's where we're going long-term. Shorter term, we want to have those girls' college paid off. So we've still got some steps to take, but it's a really exciting milestone. I love it. Well, we've got something fun to give them um but it's a really exciting milestone i love it well we've got something fun to give them jade what are we going to give them we're going to give you two passes to every dollar is that right james two passes for every dollar two free uh

every dollar premium memberships you can keep one give it to a friend or give them both to friends so that's just kind of our gift and you guys know what to do with uh both of those so uh thank you for that all right let's get the girls in here. Tell us the girls' names and ages. Okay, we've got Noelle, who's our older one. She just turned three. And then the little one is Ava, and she's one year old. I want to point out the very cute high-top Nikes.

I love it. Matching dresses, too. Matching dresses and the swooshes. I love it. So fun. And so they're ready to go are they are they going to do the scream as well we've practiced i want to see those arms go up all right tried for okay here we go so we've got zach and bailey noel and ava from dallas texas and they

paid off the house folks 250 000 in four years range of of income $110,000 to now $330,000. What a beautiful family. Let's hear it. You guys take it away. Let's do your debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! All right, we got some hands in the air.

I like it. So sweet. That's good. It's fun. That's great. Talk about legacy right now when you see a young family like that with little ones. Debt-free, net worth millionaire. Completely changing their family tree.

These kids don't know. They don't know about debt. It's not a word that's in their vocabulary, which people like us, we don't know what that feels like. I can't wait to see what becomes of this next generation and how much wealth they build for their family. They did it, and you can do it, too. We're here to help. We'll be right back. This is The Ramsey Show. You're listening to The Ramsey Show. I'm your host, Jade Warshaw. I am joined by your other host, Ken Coleman. That's all right. Wait, now I'm not even turned on What is going on?

It's alright Ken I got you Ken You know I appreciate that Because I got in here And I wasn't plugged in To the board And then I didn't have my mic on But thank you for picking me up

But you know what it's time for? What? It's time for our Scripture of the day And quote of the day Let's get it That'll calm me down It's like I've never done this before

I've only done this what? A few thousand times? So here we go Proverbs 14 23 Is the scripture all hard work brings a profit but mere talk leads only to poverty stephen king that's an odd choice for our quote of the day that guy scares me he's a scary individual he said what separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work all All right. That's not scary at all. I'm with it. I like that. All right. Let's go to Gabby, who is a brand new listener, I'm told, and she's joining us in Houston, Texas. Gabby, how can we help?

Hi. So I've been listening to you guys on TikTok and some episodes live. I am 32 years old and I feel like during my 20s I was very irresponsible with my finances and now I feel like I'm more mature and I'm looking into my numbers and I feel like I'm trapped. I'm like lost financially. So you started to do some investigative work and found that it's not looking so good. So what'd you find? Tell us, tell us what you found. What kind of debt is there? What's your income? So we have, I'm not currently working. It's just me and my husband and we have three kids. Okay. We became parents when we were in our teens and we got married. We kind of like started from the other end. Okay. What's that mean? We had kids first and then we got married.

Kind of like, I know there's not like an order that you have to do things in life. And I guess I'm an example of that. So now that we're like somewhat stable and we have, you know, the kids, we're looking into more like into the future, retirement and all of this. We're like, oh my God, what we would do when we were 20. So I was looking at my numbers since I was on hold. And we have about between $25,000 to $30,000 between personal loans and credit cards. Besides that, we have about $50,000 in student loans. Okay. We do not own a home. We do not have a mortgage. We do not pay rent. Where do you live? We don't. Or how do

you live? We live in Houston, but we live with my in-laws. So they own the house. They finished paying it years ago. So all do is you we just pay for like all the bills in the house all the utilities and all of that so you live with the in-laws it's not just that you're living in one of the your in-laws properties they live there with you yeah we live together okay um question are you doing that because of like cultural reasons and this is just the way we want to live as a family or are you doing this because of financial reasons? Financial reasons mostly. So they, uh, we were renting an apartment before and we decided, well, we had a talk

and we're like, well, you know, it's maybe time for us to look into buying, which we did, but our credits were really bad back then so um so we moved in thinking okay we're gonna save money we're gonna pay you know off our debt and we're gonna eventually buy a home but it's been about five years now and you've yeah let me tell you the reason that you haven't done it is because it's extremely comfortable you're living in a situation where you're not having to pay the biggest line item on everybody else's budget which is mortgage or rent and so unfortunately I think people enter into those situations thinking hey this is going to give us the margin we need but instead depending on your personality type it

causes you to go in the opposite direction and go hey now I can just lean back and I mean I'm not I'm gonna push you on this one Gabbyby, because you went into this situation, but you're not working. Why aren't you working? Well, I'm not currently working right now. We had a baby last year and my type of work, I couldn't have to take care of a baby. I don't have anybody that can care for the baby besides me. Why not? Yeah, I'm confused about that one.

What does that mean? Is that you're not willing to have child care? Or tell me more. What does that mean? Yeah, so we live, like I said, we live with my in-laws. They both work. Right, and that's fine. Husband is also out of the house.

And my mom lives very far away from me. I do not have anybody to take care of the baby besides me. Okay. What is your husband? I cannot afford to pay. You can't afford to pay for it. Okay. Tell me what your husband is bringing home paycheck wise.

Paycheck to paycheck around $3,500. Oh, a month. Yeah, no. So $7,000? Yeah, around $7,000. So you're making $7,000 a month, you're not paying a mortgage, and you're telling me you can't afford $1,000 a month for child care for the baby? No, no, I got called BS on that one. Well, because I want to push on that if I can. Are you talking about traditional daycare when you tell us that? So you've run the numbers on what a traditional daycare would cost? No, I have never looked into that. At max it's $1,500.

Right, but what I'm getting at is, Gabby, where are you coming up with this number that you can't afford it and that you don't have anybody when, in all honesty, if you found an older grandmother who is retired who's just looking for something to do you're talking about a fraction of daycare that's true but the Stacy and I did that that yes Ken is right that's all if you don't like the traditional method of daycare like if if you're more if what's causing you pause is the fact that I don't want to leave my baby with this type of facility or here.

Listen, I get it. But what you said was it was the cost. And if that's the case, I'm looking at the numbers. I'm like, how can it be the cost unless there's something you're not telling me? Because what I'm seeing here, Gabby, is grown folks living with the in-laws. They don't have to pay the mortgage. They only have to pay the utilities, you know, things that make things run. And your husband's making $7,000 a month. That's, like, by any standard, like, that's a fine income. I agree. So, what's the answer, Gabby? You said that's the reason you're not working. That's one of the reasons I'm not, yeah, that's one of the reasons I'm not working. I am looking into going back to work and doing

something. I'm talking to my manager at the same time. See if I can do not yeah that's one of the reasons I'm not working I am looking into going back to work and do something I'm talking to my manager at the same time see if I can do something else that's not going to be me on the phones all the time because I was working for a call center at a hospital okay so we're trying I'm still trying to see if I can go back to work and do something that's maybe not for related so I can still keep my baby here. I do have this. Maybe it's just me. I don't know. It's just I cannot trust really anybody to watch my kids if it's not me or my husband. Hey, I get that.

First, let me validate that because I totally get that. But there's two pieces of the puzzle here. A, you called a financial show about money. So if money is the problem, sometimes we have to make sacrifices that we don't want to do in order to get the financial piece right. I don't know how to manage the money.

I think that's my thing. So you don't think you need more? You just need to figure out how to manage what you have. I think you need a budget. I do too. That's what I think. I think that you're looking at these dollars and you're not sure where they're going. And I think that a budget would go a really long way for you and your husband.

So we'll make sure that you get set up with every dollar and look into that. But yeah, $7,000, you should be able to at least pay for childcare. Now, how quickly you're paying off the debt with child care in place, yeah, it's going to go a little bit slower because that's an expense. But right now, I mean, that's the answer to your question. You need to get on a budget. You need to find that margin. Every dollar will help you do it because the way every dollar

lays out, you put the income up top and you list out all of your expenses and it'll tell you what money you have left or if you do have money left. And in this case, I think that you're going to find, oh, I see what we've been spending our money on, whether it's going out to eat, whether it's been certain things within your lifestyle. I think you're going to find out where the $7,000 has been going. Because what are you spending on bills and utility, if you had to make a round ball guess? So bills and utility, I want to say it's around maybe $800 a month. Exactly. Exactly. I think your new full-time job, Gabby, is to get this budget under wraps.

Getting a budget. Yep. That'd be worth it. We were trying to get on a budget. I just maybe I'm an experienced. I mean, I'm looking into it. Listen, we're going to give you every dollar. It's very intuitive. It's going to help you work through this.

My plan for you is by the time this baby's two years old, you have a job, you've found someone you can trust to take care of these babies, and you guys are getting out of the in-laws' house and you're paying off your debt. She is Jade Warshaw. I'm Ken Coleman. you've been listening to the ramsey show thank you america We'll see you next time.