The Ramsey Show - App - How Do I Plan for Taxes as an Independent Contractor? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: May 25, 2021

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Christy Wright, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author, is my co-host today as we answer your questions about your life and your money. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

That's 888-825-5225. Kai is with us in Orlando. Is it K or Kai? Kai. Kai. Cool. How can we help? So I'll be on Baby Step 2, and I'm working an extra job where I'm an independent contractor,

and I think I can pay off my debt in way before next tax season, certainly by the end of this year. Should I set aside taxes still, or should I wait until later to get rid of those taxes ready? Yeah, you're going to want to go ahead and set those aside. Go ahead and plan for them. Do you have projections of what you're planning to do this fall? Yes. So it's an extra couple hundred dollars a week, but it's my second and it's going to be third job. And my total debt is $7,600.

What do you make not counting this job? That would be about $32,000 a year. I'm actually getting ready to start the job next week. Okay. Oh, cool, cool. Well, here's the tech. You're just out of college? Yes, sir.

Okay, cool. Here's what we're – the proper way to do this is to file quarterly estimates on the profits of your business. When you're an independent subcontractor, you're technically running a business. You have a sole proprietorship. Okay? My guess is you don't have any expenses associated with the business that are deductible, do you? I guess not, other than maybe gas mileage. Okay. What are you driving, like Uber Eats or something?

Yeah, it's a grocery delivery. Okay. Yeah, you will have some deductions then. You'll want to keep track of all that. Yeah, you want to keep track. You can either write off the mileage by the IRS guideline, or you can write off the expenses associated with the car, one of the two. Usually, in your case, the mileage is going to be a better way, okay?

So you have a deduction. So let's say that your miles amount to $50 a week that you can write off, and you make $200 a week, your profit would be $150 then. You following me? Yes, sir. So what I would tell you to do is this. Number one, you can probably just jump online and look and see what the IRS is allowing per mile and just keep up with your mileage.

Keep a logbook of your miles, okay? And you can do it electronically. You can do it in an old-fashioned logbook if you want to. Either one. But you need to keep up with it. In case they question you someday, you need to have the records. That questioning you is called an audit. Okay?

So I don't think that will happen, but you don't want to get burned on this. So you take the allowable rate per mile times the mile you drive and deduct that as an expense. And then once a quarter, you're supposed to file a quarterly estimate. It's a one-page thing. It's very easy to do with the IRS. And it amounts to all of the money you made at the grocery delivery, in this case, minus the deduction you're taking for all the miles during that quarter, that three-month period of time.

Okay? The difference is called profit. What you brought in minus the miles is your profit. You following me? Yes. Times your tax rate, and you're going to send them a check for that amount once a quarter on your taxes. And so I don't want you to wait until next year to pay your taxes because you're going to get penalized possibly for not paying them on time

because you're supposed to do it once a quarter technically. And then when someone does that, when someone pays quarterly, when they actually comes around to tax time, aren't they just kind of reconciling the difference at that point? It's just so much simpler on you as well. If you do it properly, you won't owe any taxes on this portion of your income next spring when you file your taxes.

Okay. And I don't want that to sneak up on you and hit you in the back of the head later because we said, oh, don't worry about taxes, do that later. No. That'll get you burnt right there, man. So just go ahead and stay stay ahead of the game the last

snake you want to play with is the irs snake it bites and day for clarification for anybody listening right now that is in a similar situation don't you recommend 25 if you're not sure what your tax rate is yeah 25 set aside set aside out of your income yeah so as you're making it through that three month period of time you can kind of be doing this calculation saving it up i'm going to take the mileage off and 25 percent of the difference i'm going to set aside in a savings account to be ready to pay those quarterly estimates yep and that's that way you'll have the money when the quarterly estimate comes up because it's you and i have with business boutique and with entree leadership we have talked to thousands yeah of people who got themselves in serious tax trouble

they do not pay quarterly taxes they don't even know they need to pay them and they don't really realize the benefit to themselves if they do of just setting aside that as you get the income as you get the revenue that you set aside that 25 of your profit needs to be set aside on a separate savings account it's just for taxes don't touch it and it's just it's tax money you're withholding on yourself is all you're doing you're just doing what they supposedly do for you with withholding they seldom do it right there you go open phones at 888-825-5225 cole is with us in utah hi cole welcome to the ramsey show hey dave and christy. Thanks for taking my call. I'm very excited. Sure. What's going on? Yeah, so I'm in an interesting situation. I started a, I have a stable job as a full-time

fireman in Vegas. I live in Utah and I started a side gig to help me to stay home more to supplement some income. And now that income has grown and the problem i'm having is i work 100 hours a week about and i have three babies at home and i want to be home more so i'm trying to figure out if i should step away from my stable job and lose that sense of security and stick with a commission-based job or what that's going to look like how far away from vegas do you live i think it's about two and a half hours to get to my fire station for my house i don't understand that you do you do this once a day four days a week no so i work two days on and four days off so i do a 48 hour yeah schedule. So I drive down once or twice a week, and then I come back. And then on your off days, you have a side gig that's kicking butt.

Yeah, I'm a real estate agent, so I started doing that, and it took my income from just fire about 70, and now I'm doing over 300. Okay. Now? Quit. Now? Quit. Now? Driving. Yesterday.

A long time ago. I know. Your income is there. Why do you have to think about this? What is the question? I know the market is hot now and it's doing well as an agent, but if it's going to slow down and my income could drop back down low and the security of the fire income. Back down to 70?

Well, if I step away from the fire job on the fire department, I lose that stability and that stable income. Yeah, you lose five-hour commutes and we see your three small children. Dude, you should have quit like 30 years ago. Wow. Like by the end of the week, you're not a fireman anymore. You have no life. Go get you a life.

Wow. You are not afraid of hard work though. This is the Ramsey Show. Ever wondered how to save more money or pay off debt faster? What about the right way to invest? Listen, I've been there asking the same questions with no idea where to turn for answers. But here's the good news. You don't have to keep searching for answers. Ramsey Plus shows you every step of the way so you know what to do with your money. Get the plan and the tools you need to make consistent small wins with money and even some big ones so you can see exactly We'll be right back. A plan for your future. To start your free trial of Ramsey Plus, text TRIAL to 33789. That's TRIAL to 33789.

33789. Christy Wright, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Summer's almost here, but that does not mean you can take a vacation from your money goals. Motivation to stay in tents can go away, I understand, but especially when you want that beach trip or this kind of stuff, the old vacation waves in front of you and you go, stop your whining. Listen, if you live like no one else, later you can live and give like no one else.

If you will vacate like no one else, meaning not at all, later you can vacate like no one else, meaning anywhere you want to go, baby. And there's some cool places in this world you ought to be rich enough to go see. But you're not going to get there if you keep spending money like you're in Congress. So it's time to straighten up. A Ramsey Plus membership gives you our best digital money course. Financial Peace University, all of our digital money courses are there. Smart Money, Smart Kids, Know Yourself, Know Your Money, they're all in there. Legacy Journey, all the tools like the EveryDollar Premium, the World's Best Budgeting App,

all of this helps you keep moving forward. It's about getting small wins that lead to big results. Your goals are worth working for all year long. Stay motivated with a free trial of Ramsey That's trial to 33789. Thanks for joining us, America. We are glad you are here. Christy, it's worth going back to our fireman for a minute. Yeah, okay. $70,000 a year, two and a half hours each way commute.

But he made $300,000 in real estate. He had a $370,000 income, three little kids at home. He's working 100 hours a week. In our minds, it was, and most of you listening, you were going, why didn't this guy quit already? Why in the world is he still doing this fire thing? And what that says is this guy is tremendously driven by a need for security, and he falsely believes that the fireman's job is more secure than the real estate job.

Yeah. And that's a falsehood. Which is interesting, too, because I've noticed a pattern where we've had some similar calls, not the same question, where it's, well, when is it okay to do this? And it's like, it was okay 10 years ago

but it's that we we hold on there's this fear that keeps us trapped in some idea that that we're not there we don't have enough the what if i lose my job i've heard you ask people well how stable is your job and they're like well i don't know something could happen but it's a very stable job they've been there for 20 years and the industry's secure and the and so it's just interesting how fear i feel like is this shadow that haunts us and because we never really pin it down and define us it can always torment us like what if what if what if but the scenarios are not even remotely probable they're not realistic well and when it comes to your income it can be the tapes that were played in your house when you were growing up in the sense of always get a good job.

And the definition of a good job is that it's always going to pay. Yeah. It's a steady work. It's steady. It's income you can count on versus being self-employed or straight commission, which is an unstable job. Right. But it's not necessarily an unstable income. What's interesting, though, is I'm curious, have you seen a correlation between preference in terms of, like, salary commission, you know, however it's structured, by personality style?

No. Because, like. No, I think it's just a, it would be back to Rachel's book, Know Yourself, Know Your Money. It's abundance versus scarcity, or it's, you you know we all have one of those uh but the the scarcity mentality i would just go with that as an example and that could be any personality style but it usually would go back to your uh the way you were brought up the household you grew up in and um and you will either react way to the opposite of the way you grew up or you'll try to do the same thing again one of the two, but very seldom just in the middle. Until you look up and you go, wait a minute, the way I was brought up is what's influencing this, not the facts.

Feelings are not facts. And so here's an example. Okay, if you made $300,000 in a white hot real estate market, if the real estate market cools off cools off you've done enough transactions you know how to do a transaction you ought to you ought to it's logical the facts would indicate that the chances of you making uh let you know one third of what you used to make or greater is very high based on your track record. Right. And how long you've been doing this? You've been doing it longer.

You have word of mouth. You have referrals. There's a base now. You've done enough transactions that if you didn't make 300, but the market cooled off and you only made 100, but you used to make 70 as a fireman, you still came out ahead. Yeah. So it ought to give you all kinds of emotional breathing room

to be able to quit the quote unquote steady job. But here's the problem. People think that where they work is what makes it steady, and it's not. Your talent and ability to land a job doing something is the only thing that gives you stability. And so if you're a high quality salesperson you can always land a job in doing sales always in any marketplace at any time now you may have to change you might you might be doing medical devices and later you might be doing cars or later you'd be doing cars and

later you're doing medical devices or pharmaceuticals i don't care but a salesperson that knows how to sell and has worked on straight commission and knows how to has a high relational iq regardless of the personality type has a proven track record you're only as secure as your own ability the fact that the that it's the government that pays the fireman makes you secure no what makes you secure is you you have the ability to leave the cave, kill something, and drag it home, and it's proven. That's where your security comes from. And you have to use those, as Dr. John Deloney would say, we use facts are our friends, and the way we overcome trauma is we calm down and we deal with facts, not the emotions of the situation. And I think that releases people to go live their dreams then.

Yeah, it's interesting, too, because when you break it down like that, it helps people see, oh, I had some beliefs about stable versus unstable job that had nothing to do with what the company is or where the money comes from. We've seen something similar when it comes to nonprofit or for-profit status and building a business. So I work with a lot of business owners, and they say, well, I want to structure my business as nonprofit because I want it to somehow be holy and do work that matters as if the IRS designation is somehow the holiness factor.

And so we'll attach ideas to statuses, especially in relation to government, that are not actually accurate at all. But I have a friend that owns a small business that has grown year over year over year over year. For 20 years, he's not made his personal income out of that business that he paid taxes on for the last 20 years has not been under a million dollars a year that's incredible yeah that's incredible yeah but and so is his income stable yes for 20 years yes yeah you know but it's all but but covid affected it yeah

covid could have you know could have dried up his market could have done but is his income stable yes yeah it's income stable it's got 20 years right of being able to do this it wasn't one time right it wasn't just not this young man here was he it was one time and it is just during why dot covid and so forth but he's out there still getting stuff done he's there's a lot of real estate agents who haven't even been able to figure out why he's still a house in this mess which means you really do need to get out of the business but um i mean because god almighty anything can sell a house right now but the uh but but you know maybe you won't make 300 but you've got 300 000 of income that many transactions under your belt

that says you know how to look at people and get them to the closing table on the purchase of their next home, their dream. You know, participate with them in that in a way that causes them to do the transaction. Yeah. And so that is stable. Yeah. And to your point. The way you're paid or who's paying you doesn't make it stable. Right. And to your point, your second year, if the market cools off and you take a small dip, your dip is still way ahead of where you were in the fireman job.

So you have to look at it in relation to what you're comparing it to as if somehow 70,000 is stable. When you're talking about even a dip would still be way above that. Which makes his call for most people listening a no-brainer. Yeah. But for something inside of him that was holding on to this false notion of where stability comes from. Stability comes from your ability. Say it again. Stability comes from your ability.

It doesn't come from anywhere else. And God's blessings. But it doesn't come from anywhere else but those God's blessings, but it doesn't come from anywhere else but those two things. This is The Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. On the debt-free stage in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Chris and Amanda are with us. Hey, guys. How are you?

Doing very well. Thank you. Welcome, welcome. Good to have you. Where do you guys live? Ozark, Missouri. Ozark. Awesome.

Beautiful area, huh? Yeah, it is. Cool. And all the way down here to do a debt-free scream, how much did you pay off? $278,767. Wow. How long did this take? Four years, one month, and 19 days.

Love it. And your range of income during that time? About $130,000, $135,000, $140,000, somewhere in there. What do you guys do for a living? We're in higher education, both of us. What are you, professors? Uh-huh, yeah. Okay, cool. Good for you. Yeah, thanks. I teach chemistry for a

junior college. I'm a chair over a Masters of Science in Nursing program, and I teach in that program as well. Wonderful. Awesome. Very cool. So, I was going to say four years and $279,000 might be a mortgage, but that might be student loans.

Yeah. A lot of it. We had to pay for a lot of brains. Oh, my God. Between the two of us, we have- You've been purchasing brains. Yes. We have five degrees between the two of us.

Wow. It's too much. We over-degreed ourselves. It was- Wow. It was bad decisions all around. That's okay. I mean, you're professors.

We are. You're using it. We are using it. Yeah. And's okay. I mean, you're professors. We are. You're using it. We are using it, yeah. And you know what? Honestly, we're lifelong learners. We love to learn, you know, so it was really good. And you love to teach. We love to teach.

We love our students, both of us. We're really passionate about it. We just, you know, regrets about getting there the way that we got there, but that's okay because we were able to get out of it and now we're kind of on the other side so it's okay it definitely is so how four years ago the time that you finished the last degree then uh yes i had we started the program in the middle of it though yeah we started the program about um a half a year before i completely finished my phd okay okay so you're doing dissertation and stuff as you were doing it.

I was, yeah. Wow. What's your PhD in? Educational technology. Online teaching is sort of my specialty. Wow. You got a little bit of a future. Wow.

Talk about stepping into it. And a dissertation in the middle of a pandemic, huh? Just about. Well, yeah, just leading up to it. No, no, no, no, no. You started four years ago. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I am in health care, so, you know. Oh, wow. Yeah. Amazing. Very cool. Very cool. Good for you guys. So how long have you been working on your PhD?

How long have you all been married? Almost 22 years now. Oh, okay. Yeah. on your PhD. How long have y'all been married? Almost 22 years now. Oh, okay. So somewhere along the line of this journey of gathering degrees and education and lifelong learning and all of this, five years ago or so,

something happened. Into the 22 marriage. What happened? So 2017, well, late 2016, we just got to the point where at least I felt like all the money that was going out versus what's coming in, it just ended up being nothing left over. It just felt like a financial abyss at the end of it. So that's how I felt.

But what about you? Yeah, I think that we are both people of integrity, and we knew that we were signing for something that we were eventually going to have to pay. And I think as I got closer and closer to the end of my educational journey, I was watching it come. My friends, some of them were going bankrupt. Some of them were starting to get their bills in the mail because they don't start billing you for those student loans until you're out. And so I was seeing the size of their bills, and their bills were like mortgage payments or more. And, I mean, it was giving me a visceral reaction. Yeah so I was seeing the size of their bills and their bills were like mortgage payments

or more. And I mean, it was giving me a visceral reaction. And I think we just, both of us just went, Oh, you know, the, the Piper's coming, like we're going to have to figure out a plan to get this taken care of. And we're both people of logic. And it was so nice to have, um, this to sort of latch onto to to say okay here's a plan here's a proven method that we can use to to sort of work our way through step by step connected to us um you know i watch a lot of youtube videos and i just was following somebody who used the ramsey plan and um we got the book and we both read it and we decided we're going to get on board and i was very let's say I think it was intimidating to go up against that large number after we actually

let the monster out of the closet because it really felt that way. But I think, you know, after we started budgeting and actually doing it and following it, then we started gaining confidence. And, you know, since it was such a four year long journey, you journey, probably in the middle of it felt stagnant, but we were making progress, so we kept going. But the last year went a lot faster, of course, with COVID. Everybody was at home, so there was no way you were going to spend money anyway, so we leveraged the advantage of we were paying off

all the student loans at the end because they were the biggest part. So we just kept going. It's gone, so we don't have to worry about it. So I'm interested with the amount of education, and you said we're people of logic. Because so much of what we do, we approach this through almost emotion or behavior modification anyway. But when you laid down like the baby steps in front of you or the death snowball in front of you, it was just instantaneous. You just saw it and said, okay, let's do it.

I mean, I think that I watched other people sort of on YouTube who had done it and were successful. And I said, well, it worked for them. We can make this work for us too. But we've always sort of plowed face first into life and just done things with a lot of confidence that we are a team and we're going to be able to conquer this thing. So I think this was no different. I think we just sort of came into it very confidently. Like it may take us. And my first calculation, we did the Excel spreadsheet at the very beginning, was that it was going to be seven years. And, you know, we got it done in four, a little over four. We just picked up all the overtime and overload that we could pick up. What do you attribute the difference? The difference?

Between four and seven. Wow. I think it's just the working together at the same goal versus just kind of doing whatever the individual wanted to. Yeah. You were able to sacrifice deeper than you thought when you did this project. Yeah, we did. We definitely did. It's on the shirt.

I mean, we're a team. And it's so different working together. It's one of those things like my students, there's nothing a student hates worse than a group project, really. But it's such a valuable skill to be able to work with another person and to enhance each other's strengths and also work against each other's weaknesses

but also to work towards a common goal you almost it's more than 1 plus 1 is 2 1 plus 1 is 3 it's more than that The team Cole does have their own little university emblem there I love it so much It's pretty cool.

They have uniforms. I love it. Pretty cool. They probably have a soccer team. Yeah. We're not sports people. You're not? What do you mean?

I don't know. Well done, you guys. I'm so proud of you. Thank you. Okay. When people ask, now you paid off $279,000 in four years and one month. How did you do that? What's the secret to getting out of debt?

I think being a team and sticking to the budget, even if you don't have the confidence yet, I think you gain that over time, and you've got to both show up to the meeting. You can't get to escape out on it. You can't get to skip a month. Yeah, and I think working the plan, you find that plan that works,

and then you commit yourself to it. I mean, a million people have said this on the show, but you have to submit yourself to the actual plan and not try to do ish. Nobody is the exception. Nobody is the exception to the rule. Everybody thinks they're the exception, but the rules are there for a reason, and it works. They're there because they work. No other reason.

There's nothing here to punish you. It's to bless you. Yeah. So proud of y'all. Thank you. Very, very well done. Thank you very much. Who were your biggest cheerleaders outside the two of you?

Obviously the two of us. But we had some family. And then I think, you know. And my daughter was amazing. Hi, Allie. And we got a Smartfester who has followed us through this whole thing. So now we're actually using him. Yeah.

He helped us out. Thank you, Rick. And then we also have an ELP with a realtor. So we're now we're actually using him. Yeah. He helped us out. Thank you, Rick. And then we also have an ELP with a realtor. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. It was one of the coolest things. It was at the end of all of this, we were able to move into our dream home. Woo!

I love it. It's been amazing. I have to say Tanya's name. Yeah, Tanya. Okay, yes. We got a copy of The Legacy Journey for you. That's the next chapter in your story. Legacy is all about what this is all about.

And a copy of the Total Money Makeover for you to give away and pay it forward to somebody. You guys are impressive. Very well done, rock stars. Heroes. Well done. Chris and Amanda from Ozark, Missouri. $279,000 paid off in four years and a month, making $135,000. Count it down.

Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! We're debt-free! I love it! Woo-hoo! Wow! That is so awesome.

What a great story. Golly. our scripture of the day lamentations 3 22 23 because of the lord's great love we are not consumed for his compassions never fail they are new new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. Henry Ford said, the only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing. Christy Wright, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today here on the air. Nathan is with us in Minnesota. Hi, Nathan. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hello. Thank you for taking my call.

Sure. What's up? So I'm currently an accountant for a large company. I've been there about 14 years. My gross income is about $180,000 per year. I'm married. I have three small children. My wife and I don't have any debt. We have about $300,000 in IRAs and 401ks through my employer and through my wife's employer. I have about $45,000 in savings. And right now, I have the opportunity to buy into a well-established tax practice with one other person. I currently,

I have a CPA. My half investment into the business would be about a $90,000 share. And the gross proceeds of the tax practice is about $200,000 annually. So my cut of that, my half would be about $100,000. And we would operate it as, you know, S-Corps, each myself and the other individual. And so I'm just trying to assess, you know, what that kind of pay cut would mean to my current life situation. Where you have $45,000, where are you getting the other $45,000 to put the $90,000 into it? Actually, so I've met with the current tax practice owner and the other person who's looking at buying it,

and it would be basically over a two-year time frame, so not next tax season but the following. So by the time I would be transitioning into this tax practice i would have the 90 000 saved up in cash to just pay good pay for the half of the business okay and uh i assume you project that you can grow the business then correct okay and um the there's going to be one sub s corp and each of you are going to own 50%? That's correct. Okay.

I'm sorry, no, each of us would have an S Corp on our own. And basically, so whatever tax returns we, or whichever clients and tax returns we fill or we fill out, we would take those proceeds. Oh, I see. Okay. So you would have a book of business and he would have a book of business, but you're basically sharing office space. The umbrella of the larger.

Okay. Okay. All right. That makes sense. Yep. And that makes it easy to manage. And, you know, we know who owns what then, that you actually own those clients. That's correct.

Okay, that's good. That's a clean way to do it. I would suggest you get, just as a sidebar, some legal advice on putting together. It's not really partnership agreement, but it might actually be how these two sub-S's are going to interact, share expenses, and you always cover all the negative things. We call them the D's, divorce, drug use, default, disability, death, what happens in the event of these things.

And so you address those things up front. But that's a fairly normal process in the type of business that you're going into. Normally, I steer away from partnerships, but this is a unique, this is like a medical practice in the sense that, or a law practice in a sense that it's done differently. So I'm fine with it. Right. So you make $180,000, your wife makes what? Right now, she's at about $35,000, but she'll be starting a new job in the fall where she'll be around 60 to 65.

Okay, so you would take an $80,000 pay cut year one, but she would have picked up $35,000 of that. That's correct. Okay. And her concern is around, you know, right now we have very cheap health care through my employer that covers our whole family. And she would work for a

school and her her health care package through her employer is is not nearly as good as mine so it's really just the the uncertainty around yeah that's not that's not that's whoopty-doopty that's not a big deal okay yeah you just need to run your numbers and create a budget based on this new income i think when you can see it on your numbers and create a budget based on this new income. I think when you can see it on paper and see how you can live on this new income, including whatever health care increase in health care costs, then you're going, oh, yeah, we can do it. It just feels scary because you can't see it.

You haven't put it on paper yet. But you make $220,000 now. You'll be at $160,000 then or $165,000 then. And on your way back to 220, surely to God you can make it on 160. You don't have any debt. Right. It's that perceived fear we were just talking about.

Yeah, so Chrissy's right. The two of you need to write it down and actually look at it. When you look at actually what the health care difference is, it's a pentance compared to your income. Yeah. It's not going to be 10% of your income. It's not going to be 10% of your income. It's not going to be 5% of your income. It's going to be 2% of your income that's affected by this. It's that perceived security because it's coming from somewhere else,

and now you're going to be doing it on your own, and you just need to see how you can do it, and that will help relieve from some of that. Yeah. Your big hit is going from 180 to 100. That's the big hit. It's not the health care right that is and i calculated the i calculated the hours out and it's only about six months of equivalent work uh versus what i do today in 12 months you know it's a little bit of

of higher volume obviously in the tax season which we'd have to manage through with our little kids and their schedules and things, but then I'd have late April through December of low work. Now, have you been responsible in your current situation for building the book of business where you are, or were you just executing widgets? Yeah, I manage a large portion of one side of the business, so all the budgeting and the financial oversight of it. Well, the acquisition of new clients. No, we're a large corporation.

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. I thought so, okay. So that's a skill you don't have proven that you'll need to get in order to raise your $100,000 income to $200,000. That's correct. Yes. Yeah. So, you know, you're going to learn about practice management, marketing, client acquisition, development of new books of business, all of those kinds of things to grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, rather than just simply churning

out tax returns. And so that could be the challenge of this situation. But there's tremendous upside. And I love the idea of what you're doing. Yeah, yeah. And you could use those slower seasons to work on those skills and client acquisition. Yeah, but this is a really good move. I definitely would do this.

Haley is with us in Dallas. Haley, I'm short on time. Go straight to your question. Yes, hi. I lost my job in September as a director, making $130,000. I'm talking to a recruiter today for a senior director position, Fortune 100 company. I'm trying to negotiate a higher salary, but I'm not sure how much I should negotiate for. Have you done your research on what the company pays, what the position pays, any of that kind of digging? Yeah. I've looked online

and I'm not really sure what to trust as far as the numbers go, but I indicated I wanted $148,000. Okay, so you've already put a number out there. I did. She gave me an offer today for $125,000, which was really low, and I told her that I was interested in a higher salary than that. I just don't know since I lost my job and I haven't really gotten a lot of callbacks. I just didn't want to settle for something low, but I don't know really what the right salary is. Well, if you're worth $150,150 in the market, I would wait, unless you're having trouble paying the bills.

Have you got some backlog? Have you got some money? Yeah, I'm doing good as far as money goes. Yeah, then, you know, don't take a lower job just out of lack of confidence then. But the question is, you need to do a detailed comp study, and, you know, more than one site on the Internet can help you do that. There's plenty of places. We do comp studies around here all the time on what a senior director in that region where that company is is being paid,

and present that back to the headhunter and say, look, this is what the comp study says. It says they're $25,000 low. That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show and the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer for The Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but if you heard about an event, product, or service

and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry. We list everything you've heard about during this episode in the podcast show notes section or head to theramzshow.com. Thanks for listening.