The Ramsey Show - App - How Do I Budget With an Irregular Income? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: August 26, 2021

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Welcome to the Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I am Dave Ramsey, Dr. John Deloney. Ramsey Personality is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. As we talk about your relationships, your life, your money, anything in your life, we're here to walk with you through the whole puppy the whole burrito

open phones at 888-825-5225 melissa is with us to kick off this hour in san francisco hi melissa how are you hi i'm doing well how are you better than i deserve what's up um so i was wondering how you recommend um budgeting for people whose salary or take-home pay is predependent on bonuses okay how long you been doing that um i'm in my third year right now okay you're single yes and uh what do you make total so my base right now is 95 000 and my bonus just really depends on performance what'd you make last year 90 what'd you make you made 90 i thought that was your base yeah that's my base and then my bonus was 60 000 okay so you made 150,000 last year yeah what'd you make the year before total um 130 okay good so it's heading up then that's good

yeah that means you're performing well on this bonus program good for you okay well here's what um what i've lived on straight commission or an irregular income being self-employed my entire life. So I've never been able to do a budget with a fixed salaried income. I mean, I teach people how to do it, but I've never done one. So what we have learned to do is a prioritized spending plan above what the known money is. Now, how often do you get these bonuses? They're yearly. Once a year?

Yeah. Okay. And so you're pretty much living on 90, and then this money comes in and you hit the lottery. Basically, yeah. So they just cut you a $60,000 check one week? Yeah. Man, that's a heck of a week.

That's a woo-hoo week. Yeah, I like like it my favorite week of the year yeah okay so uh but so can you can run your household on 90 can't you yeah i mean rent is super expensive around here but um but you're running your household on 90 aren't you i am yeah but what i've noticed is a lot of my co-workers they basically go by the rule of spending all of your base salary and then with the bonus they save that yeah well i don't agree with that part but uh but so but i i think the budget is fairly easy we can lay your budget out on your salary and that's your monthly budget and basically basically you go on EveryDollar or join Ramsey Plus for a free trial

and get the EveryDollar premium, and that's the world's best budgeting app. It's a very, very robust, killer budgeting app to help you spend every dollar of your $90,000 monthly on paper before the month begins in the app. You're going to give every dollar an assignment, every dollar a name. Now, then what are we going to do with the bonus? Well, we're not going to save that and blow everything else. In your budget, you save and operate your household. Then when you get extra money, in your case, once a year you get this big budget, big bonus.

Before the bonus comes, I want you to spend it on paper also. Because a month before you get it, you know what it's going to be, don't you? Mm-hmm. So you know 30 days from now, I'm going to get 60 grand, right? Yeah. Okay. So I want you to get,

you can just get a yellow pad out if you want and say, I'm going to spend $60,000 here on paper. Now, by spending it, I mean we have to allocate for taxes if they're not taking taxes out. We're going to put some in savings. We're going to be generous with some of it, I mean, we have to allocate for taxes if they're not taking taxes out. We're going to put some in savings. We're going to be generous with some of it, be giving. We're going to spend some of it on fun.

Any debt you got. We're going to pay some debt down. We're going to hit some of the baby steps that we've been wanting to hit and some of these other things. But every dollar always needs an assignment on any money before it gets there now if you don't know what the budget is or let's say you're thinking about this in september before you know what the number is going to be in december then you would start to just make a list and say okay if i if i don't get as much as i did last year i what's the most important thing I'm going to do? And you prioritize the things on this yellow pad from most important to least important, and you go as far down that list as the money allows you to go.

When you run out of money on that list, it should be that you've done the most important things to you before you did the least important things to you, because you had a progressively important list, a list that is listed from most important to least important with a dollar amount beside it. How far down that list can I go? And it can be, I want to take a trip to Europe and I put a dollar amount beside it.

I want to buy a car. I put a dollar amount beside it. I want to pay off the student loan. I put a dollar amount beside it. I want to finish up baby step three and have an emergency fund of three to six months expenses and I put a dollar amount beside it. I want to pay off this student loan, I put a dollar amount beside it. I want to finish up baby step three and have an emergency fund of three to six months expenses, and I put a dollar amount beside it. Wherever you are, whatever your goals are, now which one of those is the most important is number one. And any money that's left over can go to number two.

And any money that's left over can go to number three. And it's a prioritized spending plan. Now for those of you that have an irregular income monthly, like, for instance, I grew up in the real estate business, and you really do not necessarily know what you're going to make next month. I mean, you may have some closings in the hopper. You may have some contracts that are coming at you, but you don't know exactly what you're going to make next month. So you really are going to live that list out in the coming 30 days. So rent, electricity, food. It starts if you're going from, if you have zero that you can count on,

if you're 100% commission, like that situation, yeah, you'd start with food. And then you'd do utilities. And then you'd do food, shelter, clothing, transportation, and utilities. You know, take care of those first, and then we're going to do baby steps. And then we're going to reduce debt.

And then we're going to do this. And then we're going to do that. And, you know, we're not paying property taxes before we buy food. You know, we're going to decide if I can, you know, we're not paying property taxes before we buy food. You know, we're going to decide if I can only buy one thing, what would I buy? And if I can only buy one more thing, what would I buy? And then you list it out like that. And it makes you really prioritize your life.

The psychology of getting a $60,000 check on a Friday, man, you could blow that. And I like the idea of being intentional before you're holding that money. Yeah, you've got to do it on paper before the money comes. Because it's gone. And those of us that were in the real estate business or other straight commission things, you know, we go from buying Cadillacs to having them towed. I mean, you know, it's back and forth. It's all over this volatility.

And you have this tendency in that world, not her, but if you're in that kind of a world, a sales world in particular, you have this tendency to think you can out-earn your stupidity. And I tried to out-earn my stupidity for years, and I was a lot more stupid than I was talented. So I couldn't do it, and it kept catching me. Well, even if you're not stupid, the world is still spinning around you. There's always something that wants your money. Somebody else might be stupid and cause, yeah. Yeah, there's always something coming at you.

You can just count on it. It's just part of the dad blame equation. It's how it works. So that's a great question, Melissa. I love it. Great question. Thank you for joining us, and we appreciate you being a listener. Good for you killing it, Melissa.

That's fantastic. Yeah, that's a wonderful income. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, my co-host today. This is The Ramsey Show. I saw some recent financial statistics and there was some pretty troubling news. When families were asked how long it would be before they faced financial hardship if a spouse died, nearly one-third said they'd be in trouble immediately. Another 44% said they'd be financially drained within six months. People, it does not have to be this way. Term life insurance plans are just plain cheap,

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Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. It means even if you mismeasure, you pick the wrong color, they will remake your window blinds.com. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. It means even if you mismeasure, you pick the wrong color, they will remake your window blinds for free. You get free samples, free shipping. And with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use the promo code Ramsey. You know, sometimes I do stuff and I go, you're an idiot.

Like when I mismeasure, I screw up the window blinds, and they remake them for free even though I'm an idiot. So is like an idiot proof guarantee that's pretty cool that's why they call it ramsey i'm just kidding you gave me that one man oh underhand pitch yeah yeah all right all right so today's question comes from annalee in nevada annalee writes i'm trying to get my boyfriend and i out of debt i only owe 28 $28,000 in student loans. My boyfriend has almost eight times more debt than I do, but he thinks you can't make money without spending it. How do I make him see that he's hurting himself? Run.

Get a new boyfriend. Run. You can go left to California or right to all the other states, but run. You can't. Here's a rule of thumb when dating. Do not date people you have to fix. Yes.

Or when you're in a relationship and your thought is, I have to get us to, that's the problem, because us has to get us to, right? His job is to initiate being a grown-up. Thus far, he has not done that. Yeah. And he's not... I mean, it's not rare that people think you've got to spend a whole bunch of money to make money.

I know that's common, so I don't want to say he's an idiot. But he thinks you can't make money without spending it. Right. You've got to spend money to make money. No, he just says you have to spend all the money you make. Oh, okay. He thinks he's in Congress. No, because they spend more than that.

Yeah, they spend more than they make. Apparently he does too. What you can do, Annalise, you can sit down and show him math and you can tell him, hey i love you and you hurt yourself then the important part of that conversation is is one that you're gonna have to decide are you in or you're out and um you can't help him you can't fix him you can't heal him he's gonna have to be a part of that journey and you're gonna have to decide do i want to walk with this guy through his journey or not um but you can't get you and your boyfriend out of debt.

No, you can only get you out of debt, and you can show him how he gets him out of debt. So from a relationship perspective, not a financial perspective, if you were my daughter, and I have grown daughters that are married, I would say you'd sit down with this guy and say, number one cause of divorce in North America is money fights and money problems. The fact that we're not in agreement on this subject is going to end our relationship because I don't think I can make a life with a guy who can't be responsible with money. And so in order for us to go forward, I'm going to have to see you become responsible with money.

I'd be your cheerleader. I can give you some input. I can show you some things to do. I cannot do it for you, nor will I do it for you, nor will we be together long term if you are not engaging in growing up. And that's the conversation from Annalie to her boyfriend. The conversation Annalie has to have with Annalie is, I'm reading the tea leaves here,

but this is somebody who struggles with codependency. This is someone who struggles with an identity that her value comes from fixing other people, and I want Annalie to do her work on herself and grow her value from the inside out, let that shine to the world because we need her voice out there, and then she's going to attract people who are not projects and are not puzzles and are not engines who are missing spark plugs.

It's just an amazing way people attract what they put out in the world. Let me ask you something. I don't disagree with that. You know, you tend to – it's not the victim's fault that someone is a victim but there's even been studies shown that a rapist will pick a the way someone walks you just feel it yeah they're predators they're a predator and they sense weakness and they sense the body language in other words and so um you know and that's what you're saying. Her body language is she has this tendency to try to fix things, and so she takes in strays kind of thing. And let's pretend for a second that it's not that.

Okay. That this is, and we don't know her, but just for the sake of argument with our audience, because we've got a lot of audience in their early 20s, late teens, especially on YouTube. And let's pretend that this is a 19-year-old young woman. Okay? And maybe she does feel okay about herself, but she just really likes this guy. And before she knows it, she's kind of in love with him. And then he has this problem.

And he's a great guy. Except for. Except for. And he, except for. and this is not like you know normally she would not be taken in strays normally she would not be lacking in self-esteem normally she would not be there but she just kind of you know this guy's uh they they've built a relationship but and then all of a sudden she realizes oh god this guy's got issues so i i was that's a little different than I'm attracting things.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Because I have a pattern of always bringing home losers. Yeah, I read this quote this weekend. I was sitting on my front porch reading, Dave, and I stopped. And it said, sometimes you have to have the courage to break your own heart because it's the right thing to do. And sometimes you've got to do something so hard. That's the parent that says, you cannot bring drugs back into my home.

That is the girlfriend that says, I love you, and you're going to drown us both. And I'm not going to sign up for this because this is going to be a long, horrible life. Right. And so this idea, the courage and bravery it takes to say, I love you and I value my ability to breathe. But, Annalie, if you're that person I'm talking about, not the one John was talking about a minute ago, that you're generally fairly self-confident, you need to know that your desire for love in this particular situation has flipped your language out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

Your language says codependence all over it you know so let me kind of go back my boyfriend has almost eight nine times more debt than i do but he thinks you can't make money without spending it how do i make him see he's hurting himself i'm trying to get my boyfriend and i out of debt yeah you me i'm gonna fix him i'm gonna fix him i'm gonna fix him. I'm going to fix him. I'm going to fix him is what I says over and over and over again. And there's a guy over there

with a backhoe digging holes and you've got your shovel and you're like, how do I fill it up? Faster than he can dig it out. He can dig it faster than you. That's right. Yeah, he's digging out

the bottom faster than you're ever going to get there. So I want you to put that shovel down and go get some people. I'll give you a high probability on this, Annalie. As the old guy,

that's a walking dad joke. Okay. High probability on this, Annalee, as the old guy that's a walking dad joke. Okay. High probability is that if you are a young woman of confidence and a good self-esteem, that this young man is not going to change fast enough to keep you around. You're going to move on. Because I don't think he's marriage material. I know he's not marriage material today. And it's because John opened up with run.

That was his opening answer, was run. And I like to think of these calls as, what do I do if Josephine comes home from college and says, Dad, I found a guy, right? Yeah. And Dave, you may not have experienced this, and that's me being sarcastic. I'm sure you did.

But Sheila had people sit down and talk to her. Like like are you sure you know what you're doing with him right um like they would take her out sharing away from those oh man they found sheila like are you sure and she's like i'm sure um her parents had to be rolling their eyes when they walked when i walked in i wouldn't let my daughter date me oh not in a million years oh man i don't even go down that road but so there is that right but but um yeah but sharon did not take me on as a project no and i didn't take her on as a project we were both projects but we didn't take each other everybody has a right but yes i i sheila did not get her self-esteem by saying i'm gonna fix john John. Right. It's just good parenting to run those guys off if you have the opportunity. I'm just like, Daddy, all the boys in the youth group are scared of you.

And I went, good. Keeps away two things, wusses and jerks. Don't need either one dating my daughter. It keeps away everything. Wusses and jerks. Pretty well, you can put most things in those two buckets they're the same bucket well yeah it's from that time at times sometimes but just run annalee run this is the ramsey show We'll be right back. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Krista is with us.

Hi, Krista. How are you? Good. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. Where do you live? Near Toledo, Ohio. Near. Where do you live? Genoa, Ohio. Okay. All right. Because I went to ice hockey camp in Bowling Green when I was a kid, just south of Toledo

there. Yep. Close by. Right in your area. Cool. So how much debt have you paid off? $90,858.02. Love it.

How long did this take? 23 months. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? $62,000 to $75,000. Cool. What do you do for a living? I teach agriculture to 7th through 12th grade students. Oh,000 to $75,000. Cool. What do you do for a living? I teach agriculture

to 7th through 12th grade students. Oh, wow. Good for you. Thank you. So what kind of debt was the $91,000? $80,000 was student loans from Ohio State University and my master's degree at Capell University out of Minnesota, and then about a $10,000 car loan. Okay. Wow. So how long have you been out of school? Oh, gosh. Graduated in 2012. Eight years. Okay. Yeah.

Nine years. Whatever. Yeah. And getting ready to be nine. And the $80,000 is just hanging out, huh? Yeah. Well, I decided to go back to get my master's degree, so I've now had that for about two and a half years. Yeah.

But the rest of it's just been hanging out. Sally Mae had her own bedroom. So what happened 23 months ago lit you up? Well, actually, my brother and my parents have been through Financial Peace University. Uh-oh. And they, actually, my brother for Christmas got me the book in 2017. I waited until a year later to find my first class. Because, like most people, you're not sure to believe it or not.

So I waited for a year later. You think your brother joined a cult. Yeah. So I found a class, and then I actually, in 2019, went through that. And then in 2020, I went through a second class just to keep me fresh and understanding what I'm doing as well. Yeah, while you were on the journey. Yeah, it's a good encouragement to loop back through or to coordinate a class. Sometimes people do that.

Yeah. Well done. Okay, so what happened when you went in there that made you say, I can do this? Just me going after goals and just wanting to pay off that debt because I don't want to have debt. I want to be able to go and live and go on vacations. Get Sally Mae out of the house. Absolutely. How does it feel?

It feels great. Was it worth the sacrifice? It sure was. And I still continue to sacrifice things, but you still can save money in different ways and still not have debt. What was your biggest, hardest sacrifice during that 23 months? I'm telling people, no, that I can't go out to eat. I only have $85 a month for my budget. When the money's gone, it's gone.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Because that's a social experiment. Yeah. Good for you. Did you have a group of people that hung with you and said, all right, we'll all come over then? I mean, my parents.

We just all hung out. Yeah. So you got a lot of family support all the way through. That's good. That's good. What was it like walking with middle and high school students while you're walking through this? Did they know you're doing this? So I did tell a lot of my students.

They actually teach FPU at my high school, so they don't believe it. So I can't wait until I go back in my agriculture classes. They're going to all see this. Very cool. You're a YouTube star now. Yeah, I love it. Well, congratulations. Thank you. We're very very very proud of you so uh when you teach

foundations for personal finance to high schoolers in a future class which you may end up doing i bet uh what are you going to tell them the secret to getting out of debt is um staying on a budget and being persistent 23 months 23 months changes everything. Yep. And I definitely went into my savings. I first did the $10,000 and that was still there. Did the next 10,000, still was there. Then I did the next. So I've taken $30,000 out of my savings to put towards that.

Wow. And then punched it in the nose also over the 23 months. Yeah. Good for you. That's scary to do. It was at first and the debt was still there. Wow. And then punched it in the nose also over the 23 months. Yeah. Good for you. That's scary to do. It was at first and the debt was still there. Yeah. Doesn't go away. Nope. Doesn't go away till you pay it. I love it. I'm so proud of you. And it's cool for these students to see that you're not a theory. You're not a good idea. You're walking, talking, living proof of what happens when you work really hard

for these kids that are going to go into agriculture right that plant seeds for today so that something will grow for tomorrow you're a you're a teacher that's walking the walk and and that that multiplies your your effect on those young people you're changing a bunch of family trees with the sacrifices you made good for you thank you and i know it's hard if your brother's worth his salt he's going to rub your nose in this a little bit. So good for you. He came with her. Is he one of them out here?

Yeah. And mom and dad are here too, right? So you got the cheering squad here. That's great. I love it. And a little bit of I told you so, right? Why don't you do it sooner? I'm so proud of you.

Well done. I know they are proud of you. Excellent job. We got a copy of Rachel Cruz's latest New York Times bestork times bestseller know yourself know your money thank you and uh we'll come out and sign that and everything at the break here so so very proud of you all right it's krista from the toledo ohio area 91 000 paid off in 23 months making 62. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. I'm debt-free!

Yeah! I love it! So fun. So fun. The number of people now, I mean, financial peace, foundations and personal finance now taught in 48 percent of high schools in north america and the number of people that have gone through financial peace university and ramsey plus now got a ramsey plus membership um you know get connected to every dollar get on the budgeting app it enables you to do the stuff that these folks are doing that are doing these debt-free screams and so you know it's you to do the stuff that these folks are doing that are doing these debt-free screams. And so, you know, you need the information and the inspiration to do one of the hardest things you're ever going to do in your life,

but one of the most rewarding things you're ever going to do in your life, and that is get yourself positioned to become wealthy. You get positioned to do that most likely by being clear of debt. So a Ramsey Plus membership will do all of that for you you plan out every dollar you connect your budget to your bank you get custom budget reports you get everything you need there's a free trial for ramsey plus a free trial at daveramsey.com just go to daveramsey.com and look for the free trial on ramsey plus you get you get started on the whole thing. You'll see how it all works.

We'll walk you through every bit of it. And you'll have, you know, almost every one of these people do their debt-free scrims have been through Financial Peace. Absolutely. And they've either taught it or they've talked about the accountability of the other folks in that group saying, hey, we're doing it too, we're doing it too. And everybody I know who has a budget has that month or those two months when they think, man, everybody who works out, it's like, I'm not doing it today. Everybody who fill in the blank and having a group of people with you, you get that information,

inspiration, and you get that community around you that just is that prodding or that holds your arms up in the desert, man. You got to have some cheerleaders. You can't just have people trying to drag you down. I mean, there's lots of people who tell you you can't win. That's the culture we live in. Yeah. They don't want you to win because it makes them look bad.

I call it the Titanic syndrome. When that movie came out, everybody loved it until everybody loved it. And then it became cool to talk about how dumb that movie was to beat it up, right? It's cool to look at somebody who's going after something and then think, why are you doing that? That's stupid. That's dumb. Man, getting a group of people behind you, whether you're going for a run, whether you're getting out of debt, whatever that is, that is everything, Dave.

It's everything. They did that with disco, too. Well, disco was terrible. No, it was cool. It was cool until some rocker decided it wasn't cool, and then it wasn't cool anymore. It's the same thing. It was a whole movement. You ought to watch the Bee Gees documentary.

It's a great documentary. It's like they made so stinking much money, and then all of a sudden they went from being gods to being like a symbol of foolishness or something. It's the same kind of thing, though. It was cool until it wasn't cool. Speaking of symbols, I don't want to take away from how extraordinary that debt-free scream was, but you mentioned something I'd never heard before that I just need a little bit more clarity on. You went to hockey camp.

What is that? What in the world is ice hockey camp? So much stories. So many stories in so little time. Coming up on a commercial break. Oh, I see what you're doing here. James, cue the music. Quick, quick, quick.

Redneck Southern hockey players. Can you imagine what this was? Oh, it was a fight and a hockey game broke out. Okay. It's rare that my mind is blown, and Dave, I think you blew it. I played all the way up into college. I had no idea. You don't know these things.

I have antique ice skates sitting in my bookshelves in my study at home. They truly are antiques. No question. They're funny. It's great. Looks like something you got at a flea market. This is the Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Have you ever asked questions like, how much should I be saving? Or, how do I get out of debt faster?

Or, what's the right way to invest? Or, I don't know where to learn about money. Well, here's the good news. You don't have to figure all this out on your own. Ramsey Plus will guide you every step of the way. With a Ramsey Plus membership, you get all the digital teaching in Financial Peace University and other classes. You need to really understand money so you can be confident you're always doing the next right thing. The budgeting app, every dollar is pretty amazing. The budgeting app.

Every dollar is pretty amazing. The tools. The guided action steps. They help you make progress on your money goals really, really fast. And that means no more debt. Cash in the bank for emergencies. A real plan for your future. A sense of peace and power around your money.

Ramsey Plus helps you get small, consistent wins every day that cause you to have the big results and the lifelong habit change. You get started today with a free trial. Text TRIAL at 33-789. Text TRIAL to 33-789. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. John is with us in Atlanta. Hi, John. Welcome to the us in Atlanta. Hi, John. Welcome to The Ramsey Show.

Hi, Dave. Thanks for having me. Sure. How can we help? Well, Dave, I'm calling in because I'm 27 years old. I've got a stable job with the federal government that pays pretty well. And I'm just kind of looking forward at my future here. And it seems like a lot of the people who stay in this position kind of end up losing passion for what they do. And I'm starting

to notice myself losing passion for what I do. And so, you know, when I bring this up with my family, they kind of tell me, you should stick with it. You've got a pension there. Um, you know, you've got ironclad job security, but I feel like if I stay here, I'm going to, I'm going to go crazy. I wanted to know I'm 27. How long have you been there, man? Two years. How many, two years? Two. And what is it you do exactly daily? Well, I work as a statistician. So basically I'm, you know, they try to automate a lot of the things that my organization does now.

And so I'm involved with that. What do you love doing, man? Well, I do love working with numbers. I do love statistics. It's what I studied in school. Why is this driving you crazy then? It's driving me crazy because I just don't, I don't know. It just doesn't seem like the people who work here are very passionate about what they do. I mean... Shocking. Let's not care about them for a second.

What about you? It's okay to be in a room where you like what you're doing, even if the people around you don't. No, because the problem... Sorry. if the people around you don't. No, because the problem is that a lot of the times what ends up happening is that if you're passionate, you end up getting extra work, but because of the way the system works, there's not really much advancement. So it just becomes frustrating. What does the word passionate mean to you?

Passionate? I've been hearing my students use that word passionate for years now. What does that mean to you? Well, I suppose that what it means is that sometimes, you know, you wake up in the morning and you don't want to do something and And it's okay to feel like that sometimes, but if you feel like that day after day after day, then that means that you lack passion. So passion means that, I guess, over a long period of time, you can look back at what you've done and say, you know, I really enjoyed doing that. That really made me feel like I was doing something important.

Good answer. Okay. So what's the downside with you going to work someplace else? Well, I would lose my job security, for one thing. You don't have any job security. There's no such thing. You work for the federal government, brother? Yeah.

They lay people off, too. You Yeah. They lay people off, too. They lay people off, too. They're probably not going to go broke, I don't think, but they lay people off, too. And you're only as secure as your ability to do things that people want to pay you for. And if you're a statistician

who likes statistics, you're going to be employable for a long time. In a data-driven world? Yeah, this whole world's driven off of data right now, and you're a data analyst if there ever was one, right? Right. Yeah, I mean, I suppose that... You probably can make twice as much money. Yeah.

If not three times. Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure. It's just a big decision to make. Security is an illusion, dude. It's a drug, brother. Yeah, you need to get out of there. Because, I mean, you're 27 years old.

Project this out. You're going to be 57, 30 years of doing this. You already sound old right now. I can't imagine how old you'll sound then. That's a great line. I was trying to think. He's not depressed. You just sound old, now. I can't imagine how old you'll sound then. That's a great line. I was trying to think. He's not depressed. You just sound old, man.

You sound 74. Can you imagine how old you're going to be when you're 57? Good God. You'll be 1,000. In government years. In government employee years. Listen, the people around you, the people who are giving you advice. They mean well, but they're just wrong.

Yeah, they are telling you they love you in the only language they know how, which is you being safe and you being secure, which we know is an illusion. But do the best they can with what they got. And at some point, you've got to get off the drug of safety, get off the illusion of safety, and jump. So, John, one of my heroes was my grandpa. In the Great Depression, he was 27 years old oddly enough and he in the in the stock market crash he lost a business and went and went broke and alcoa aluminum had come to alcoa tennessee in the

hills of east tennessee and opened a plant and he went to work for them. He worked there 38 years and never left because of the fear, partly because of the fear of having gone broke when he was young, and partly because he was a good man and wanted to provide for his family, and the stability of that was there. In that environment, my grandmother became really dependent upon that security that you're talking about. And a humorous story, the first time I sold my millionth book, I've sold about 20 million now, about the time I sold my millionth book,

which means I had made millions and millions of dollars, okay, if you can imagine, my grandmother called and still was worried about me running my own little business. When are you going to get a real job, Dave? That's exactly what she said. She called up and said, Honey, I'm worried about you. When are you going to get a real job? And I had just sold my millionth book. Now, she's sweet, and I understood where she was coming from because I know the story.

And my grandpa was my hero, and I understand. He's just one of my favorite people that I ever knew on this planet. I miss him greatly to this day. And I loved her. I loved her, too, as well. She's sweet as she could be. But that was her love language from the environment and the situation, the way they had lived life, was to say, when are you going to get a real job?

And she meant well. John, just like the people in your life mean well. But I had just sold a million books. So I think we can safely say the data, the statistical evidence is that she was wrong. Okay. And here's the thing. If you go out on your own and you give it three or four years and it doesn't work, my guess is you could probably get a job.

Probably get your job right back. That's right. Maybe not that exact one with the exact department or whatever, but whoop-de-doop-dee. You have a marketable skill in a data-driven world. Data is the businesses that don't understand, grasp, and harness the power of data in the next decade will be out of business. It's not optional. So you are a highly sought-after individual in your world. And so that's, I'm telling you, I think you're probably making about half or maybe a fourth of what you're worth,

and you're giving it all up in the name of security that's not really there anyway. Get out. Yeah. You can just hear, I can hear your soul leaking out. It's leaking out of your body. Get out. Get out. Get out.

Get out. Get out. Yeah. There's something to be said for, I want you to be safe, and so I want you to drown slowly. Right? I want you to be safe. Well, I don't think everyone should be an entrepreneur. No, absolutely not.

I don't think everyone should be on straight commission. I don't mean that. But, you know, you're only as secure as your own ability to land the next thing because you have talent. Yeah. And people want to work with you. Yeah. Yep.

You have marketable skills and personality and so forth. That's your only real security because everything else is smoke and mirrors. The guy making the payroll, he's scared too. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And you think you're secure. That's funny. You know?

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