The Ramsey Show - App - How Do I Start a Business Without a Loan? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: October 22, 2021

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Thank you very much. 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. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author, is my co-host today. He is the host of the Ken Coleman Show here on the Ramsey Networks, where he talks about career and talks about jobs and how to get one of each. And hopefully one and the same wouldn't be a bad idea. So if you want to talk about that and your life and your money, we're here to help.

The phone number is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Selena is with us in Dallas, Texas. Hi, Selena, how are you? Hi, thanks for taking my call, Dave. Sure, what's up? So my question is for Kent. I kind of need help deciphering where exactly I'm supposed to go in the area of nursing.

So a little bit of background. I am a registered nurse. I started out my first job in a stroke unit. And so my first job and the job that I actually resigned from, I got it in 2018 and I resigned just this year in January just because of the burnout. It was a very heavy job that I just, it was costing me to get out of bed and heading to work. There's so many areas of nursing that I would like to explore, but I need just kind of like direction and to, you know, picking out exactly what I'm supposed to go into.

So let's first identify what specifically caused you to feel burnout in that last job. I think you said heavy. Was it the nature of the patients and what you were dealing with? What was the specific cause of burnout in that last nursing job? Definitely. So with stroke patients, adult stroke patients, You know, a lot of debilitating after math, after having a stroke. So it was a lot of dependent stuff that they needed. I did enjoy giving the care, providing the care. It may have also just been the environment that I was in, management specifically. There wasn't a lot of just, I would think, equality.

And so that had a little bit to do with it. I enjoyed those. Good. So here's the deal. First of all, I don't want you to have any guilt, and you haven't mentioned that you have, but I want to make sure I address this because we hear this a lot from callers who are thinking about making a switch. You don't need to feel in any way a sense of guilt or shame over that particular type of nursing work really kind of eating away at you

emotionally. It's really, really tough, heavy stuff. You are a caregiver. You just used that word. And so nursing is caregiving. So really, this is about exploring all the different types of nursing, and you know all the different types of nursing. And you're exploring all of them. And I want you having real conversations with other nurses to get from them almost like you would if you were to interview somebody back in high school about a profession and sit down and the ins and the outs, the good, the bad, the ugly about that particular type of nursing. And here's what's going to happen. As your brain gathers the information, that's the logic side, your heart begins to filter that logical information.

And your heart's going to warm and kind of go ding, ding, ding to the type of caregiving, the specific people that you're giving care to. And so, you know, you've got to look at everything. You know, one of my best friends in the world, his wife is a NICU nurse. She loves taking care of those little babies that are just fighting with everything they got. It's not too heavy for her. It gives her great lift and joy. But, you know, I know there's all kinds of nurses.

There's the nurses who check you in before surgery. It's highly administrative. You've got nurses that are dealing with trauma in the ER. You've got all different kind of nursing. And I think you've got to be in a place where you go, I'm giving care, but I'm giving care to people that when I care for them and their particular situation, I'm lifted as opposed to feeling like it's too heavy.

Does that make sense? Yeah. So this is just simple discovery. Good old-fashioned conversations over coffee. And you've got all the connections. You're already in and you're already qualified. And just follow your heart to this. You already know, don't you?

I did. I was influenced into nursing because I had a heart surgery when I was three. So pediatrics is where I feel like I could go into. It's just I fear that it's going to negatively affect me emotionally just because I have a stay-at-home mom now with a toddler and a newborn. So I don't want to be – it's fearful to be affected emotionally. You know what I mean? Sure.

You know, one of the things I would suggest is that you maybe take a couple of sessions with a therapist and a counselor, somebody that's a professional, and talk about how when you're in that caregiving function, how you are essentially projecting some of those scenarios into your own life. Talk to somebody professionally about that, because I think there are some tools that can help you enjoy the work but not carry so much of it with you. But you're going to need help. It's hard to do that on your own. Hey, good question, Selena.

Thank you for calling in. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Joe is in Salt Lake City, Utah. Hi, Joe. How are you? Good. Thanks for taking my call. How are you guys?

Better than we deserve, brother. What's up? I have a question. We are close to paying off our mortgage and being debt-free completely. The approach we've been taking is probably a little different than what you would recommend, I would say, because we just barely discovered you not too long ago just from friends. But anyways, what we've been doing is putting my entire paycheck

towards the mortgage and some above that and then living off my wife's paycheck. We have a low interest rate of 2.3%. I'm just wondering if it's smart to continue what we're doing, just dumping a load onto it compared to just paying just a little bit at a time. But when we're all done with all this, we should be, according to our math and calculators online, we should have it paid off in seven months if we keep going the way we are.

That's wonderful. I assume you're debt-free other than the house. Yes. Okay. Do you have an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses? We have $15,000 in savings. What's your household income? $150,000. Okay. It's your household income? $150,000.

Okay. It's probably a little slim. A little less. A little less than three to six months, but probably pretty close. You're probably all right. And the only difference is I wouldn't define it by paycheck. I would just put both paychecks in a total at the top of the page, and I would throw as much of that as you can at this mortgage.

And in a sense, that's the same thing you're doing. But instead of saying, we're going to put my check and a little of my wife's towards it, we're just going to put the equivalent of those two things towards it out of your budget. And we do recommend you put 15% of your income into retirement while you're doing this. And that might make it nine months instead of seven to pay off the mortgage. But you're not doing anything wrong here, man. You're heading in the right direction.

Everything's going the right way. 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, and companies have made it even easier by not requiring exams in many cases. There really is no excuse to leave your family in this situation by not having life insurance. This is why I talk about Zander Insurance every day. They're committed to protecting families with the only products

that I recommend, and their team keeps the entire process simple and affordable. Go to zander.com for quick online pricing or call 800-356-4282. This has to be a priority. If your family is in this situation, you need to get this done. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author of the book, The Proximity Principle, is my co-host today as we talk about your life and your money. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Joel is in Dallas. Hi, Joel. How are you? Dave, I'm doing great, sir. Good afternoon to you and Ken.

I want to say thank you so much for what you guys do every day. It's important to a lot of folks out here that are trying to better their lives and figure stuff out. So thank you. Well, thank you, sir. How can we help today? So here's my question. We're on baby step four, and I've got a 401k question. The company that I work for does a very generous match every year. It's a profit sharing. It's not actually a match,

and it can range between 10 and 15% of my total salary. Not sure what it's going to be every year. It's not set in stone. It kind of fluctuates. Right now, we are putting 15% into the 401k, the traditional 401k every year, and have been for the last three or four years. So we're looking good. But my question is this, do I need to be, according to the baby steps, do I need to be putting that much in, given what my company is also contributing? And then second part is, do I need to be looking at adding the 401k Roth option in as well, in addition to or separate? Well, your 401k will either be traditional or it will be Roth, and it's better for it to be Roth. And so I would change it to Roth from this point forward.

Now, the matching portion that they give you cannot be Roth. It will be traditional by law, okay? The matching portion does not affect our baby step four. Baby step four is you put in 15% of your income. If you get gravy on the biscuit, extra gravy on the biscuit called a match, that's just that much more wealth you'll have. But I don't depend on them at all. The point of the baby steps is you are controlling

your destiny and so you put in 15 if they match if you have a match you certainly take that match and so matches better than roth is better than traditional that's the order of attack the rock paper scissors so to speak and um so yeah switch it to a Roth and you put in 15%, which it sounds like you are, and you just continue to do that. Ken, so in the old days, like when I first started this show 30 years ago, still at that time, a lot of companies had the traditional pension plans. Now 78% of companies have done away with pension plans. They don't have them anymore. And so it's pretty much a Roth or a 401K or an IRA. You're going to do your own thing, and you're going to do it through your company.

And that's the bad news. The good news is a lot of them match. Over 70% of the companies do match because they don't do the pensions anymore. Why did they pull that? Did it come down to taxes for companies, or is it too much to manage? Why the shift from... I didn't know that number. I wrote it down because that was really shocking to me that that many companies aren't doing pension plans. Why would they do away with them? Well, they're super expensive they're super regulated to manage they're a pain in the butt to operate right uh and because can you think about it i

mean you have a team member that joins you at 40 at uh 60 they retire and you now manage this pension for them for the next 25 years yeah it's too much time and money and so it just becomes very cumbersome and with regulations regulations on them, they don't perform that well. They're not allowed to invest the way that I would invest or the way I teach people to invest. So they don't make a good rate of return. But it's bad for the individual because now the only way you have money in your 401k is you have to put money in the 401k. It's good for the individual, though, the only way you have money in your 401k is you have to put money in the 401k it's good for the individual though because the 401k is yours yeah and the

pension is not if the company goes broke it's an asset of theirs you could lose the you know the old story the mine the mine closed up papa lost his pension that's right you know and so because the the pension was not his it was an asset on the books of the mining company that went broke. And so they lost it. Now, that doesn't happen as much with the regulations and the insurance and stuff we've got now. But the union mismanaged the pension and frittered it away. You know, these are real stories that have happened to real people. When it's a 401k, the company goes broke.

It doesn't touch your 401k because it's not in their name. It's in your name you know accessing it with a broke company with the hr department closed down maybe a bit of a cumbersome thing but the money is still there it didn't leave and so you you are controlling your own destiny you're you're responsible for it and that's both a blessing and a curse that's right because just like it is when everything that we're responsible for we have to actually step up and man up woman up and get her done miranda is with us in charleston west virginia hey miranda how are you great how are you doing better than i deserve how can we help so um my husband and i were working on baby step two we're going to dell intense and we're trying to we're looking at our numbers trying to figure out how to get our payments to go down.

We have a car. It's a Ford C-MAX, a 2004. And Kelley Blue Book has offered us $10,000. We owe $21,000 on it, and that loan right now has a 5.9% interest rate. Good Lord. Yeah. So what is this car really worth? Is Kelley Blue Book shooting you that low,

or are you financing negative equity from the last deal into this one? No, we owe $21,000 on it, and they're offering us $10,000. I know what they're offering. I heard that part. That's ridiculous. So I'm guessing the car is worth $15,000, and they're trying to steal it from you? Probably. It's in pretty good condition.

It's 2004. It's a hybrid. Did you finance negative equity? Were you in the hole when you traded in? Yes. Okay, so some of this hole is from the other car okay so you need to do some more research to find out what the car is really worth because uh if a wholesaler kelly blue i didn't even know kelly blue bought cars but

if they do and i'm sure they do and um if i host they're buying it at wholesale because they're going to resell it for a profit, which means that you put it on the market. We were just talking about that coming into the show. You're going to put the thing on the market for full value. So check kellybluebook.com, not counting this, and just look up the value, do an appraisal on the car. You can go to edmunds.com as well, edmundscarguy, and pull up and say private sale.

If I put the thing on Facebook Marketplace or Neighborhood Marketplace or whatever these things are that are out there and, you know, Craigslist, and people still do that and so on. I don't know. Is Craig dead? He could be dead. I don't know. But anyway, that's, you know, so along those lines, you're going to sell the thing.

I know Trader.com you can use. And you can sell it direct. Like Ken's out there looking for a car for his son. He talked about that a minute ago. And so, yeah, you're going to probably find that car is worth $13, $15, something like that. It's probably not worth $10. $10 sounds insanely low. Yeah, you'd have to know the mileage on that,

but you can get a really good value on that very easily. Multiple sites, and you could really hone in on the condition of the car, and I think you get the most as you possibly can for that. Because right now, as we said in the opening segment, your car is competing against the dealers who are selling used cars at a premium. So if you sell it actually at market value, you're going to be very competitive, a lot more attractive than a dealer. There's a shortage.

So, yeah, definitely. Definitely make sure you have your values right. So, Miranda, a good rule of thumb is this. In a negotiation, which selling a car is a negotiation, buying a car is a negotiation, he with the most information wins he with the most patience wins and he or she with the most options wins i don't need to sell i got lots of options i don't have to sell it i'm not desperate okay so you got walkway power You find out every detail about what every car like that at every site is selling for, and you become a dadgum expert on the used car market around that particular car.

Information. He with the most information. And then you just slow your butt down. You don't get the fever. People get emotionally like they have. People, when they sell stuff, they get emotionally like it's already gone in their minds, and so now they have people when they sell stuff they just they get emotionally like it's already gone in their minds and so now they have to give it away no no just just plan on keeping it a while and be a little hard to get along with when you're selling it you know come

on now maximize this asset you need the money you're're broke. This is The Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free Stage. Adam and Victoria are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Pretty good. Good. Welcome. It's a pleasure to have you guys. Where do you all live? Bluff City, Tennessee.

Bluff City, did you say? Yes. Okay, like Kingsport area, huh? Yes. Okay, cool. Well, welcome to Nashville. Good to have you guys. And all the way over here to the other end of the state to do a Debt Free Scream.

How much have you paid off? $67,000 in 15 months. $67,000 in 15 months. $67,000 in 15 months. And your range of income during that time? It's about $60,000 to $65,000. Cool. What do you all do for a living? I'm a Subaru technician at a dealership.

And I work in a deli. Okay. I thought maybe he did voiceovers. I was going to say, man, you sound great on the radio. Thank you. Thank you. He's got pipes, man you it's got pipes man got pipes most of my subaru technicians don't have pipes like that i'm just saying

good man way to go what kind of debt was the 65 000 uh it was actually let's just say half of it was a student loans and then there was a car that we basically got rid of, and then, what was it, credit cards and tool loans. And you did all of this in 15 months. What happened to you guys 15 months ago that let you on fire like this? You got after it. Yeah, we did the financial peace program, and after that, my parents let us live debt-free. Rent-free? Rent-free to be debt-free, sorry.

There you go. Okay, cool. So you've been with them for a little while. Are you out yet? Well, we're actually living in one of their, what was it, the cabin. Oh, okay. And so it's just basically just Victoria and I. Oh, I see.

So, you know, trying to pay all the loans off, you know, that was a feat. But now, since we basically become debt-free, we're saving up for a home. Way to go, you guys. Thank you. Fun. What inspired you to take Financial Peace University? Well, her mother kind of convinced us to take the course. And she basically said, hey, you know, we'll pay for the course.

If you go, if you don't go, then you owe me money. Ah. So, you know, that's pay for the course. If you go, if you don't go, then you owe me money. Ah. So, you know, that's what we did. It's a fair trade. You've got to show up after I pay for it, huh? Yes. Yes. All right.

How long have you all been married? A year and a half. Oh, wow. Okay. So that's the first order of business then after marriage. Boom. Yeah. Go to financial peace, get married, get out of debt.

Just like that. Boom. How old are you two? I'm 28, 29 next month. Oh. And I'll be 31 tomorrow. Yay. And no payments in the world.

Now, whose student loans was it? It was all mine. All yours. Okay. And it was your mom, Victoria, that paid for the course? Yes. So she's straightening out her son-in-law here. Yes.

I love it. That's great. I love a meddling son-in-law here. Yes. I love it. That's great. I love a meddling mother-in-law. She's awesome. That's so fun. Good for her. And good for you guys for listening. I'm proud of you.

That took a little bit of humility to do that. I'm proud of you there, Adam. That was very, very cool. And so you step in, say, we're going to get married, we're going to clean this mess up, and you just went wide open, huh? This is correct. Yeah. So what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is well it's just mostly uh you know when you're given a opportunity such as what we were blessed with uh you know a lot of people would not take advantage of that you know they might actually try

to uh you know buy cars and all this other stuff but you know for us uh we just had to buckle down and the whole thing with you know the the beans and rice you know with our budget we had to get rid of the rice and it kind of put a stress on our marriage a little bit there just beans huh we won't ask any follow-up questions i don't need to know any more about this yeah way too much information for me uh fun fun very fun so when you started taking the class what was maybe something that caught you off guard you didn't expect that maybe something you never thought of or something so common sense you're like how did i not see this i think it's more of uh you know the the snowball you know just learning how to actually go through the whole program.

You know, that was probably, I would say, the common sense part, but it really did not, you know, register to me. But I know when we took the course, you know, when you're looking at the big picture, you know, not the small picture, it makes sense. It's like, hey, if I'm debt-free or we're debt-free, we can pretty much just do anything we want. We don't have anybody holding us back or anything like that. Very cool. And that gave you the fire to go do it then.

Way to go, you guys. I'm so proud of y'all. Thank you. I'm so proud of you. Who are your biggest cheerleaders? My whole family. Yeah, your family. I would go, you guys. I'm so proud of y'all. Thank you. I'm so proud of you. Who are your biggest cheerleaders? My whole family. Yeah, your family. I would have to say her and her family.

Yeah. All right. So it's kind of a financial peace thing, getting out of debt thing. It's kind of a family thing for your family. Yes. Okay. Very neat. Very neat.

Wow. Excellent. Excellent. Excellent. Well done, you guys. So well done. I'm proud of you. Thank you.

We got a copy of the book, The Legacy Journey, which is what your family has engaged in, changing their legacy. And you're part of that legacy, and now you're going to extend it on. And we're going to give you an extra copy of the book, The Total Money Makeover, to give to other friends. And maybe you can inspire them to get on the journey with you and get to going, and they can be where you are. How does it feel now that you're completely free?

Good. Wonderful. Just like that. I love it. Oh, yeah. Very fun. Way to go, you guys. Congratulations.

Adam and Victoria from the Kingsport, Tennessee area, Bluff City. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free. Yeah. Three, two, one. We're debt free! Yeah! Very well done. Very well done.

Mary is in McAllen, Texas. Hi, Mary. How can we help today? Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can we help? Well, I just finished Baby Step 3.

I'm going to go ahead and start on Baby Step 4 soon. I was able to incorporate Baby Step 6 into my Baby Step 3, so the house is paid as well. However, I'd like to open my own business, but it is pretty expensive. My six-month savings would not cover it at all. How would I be able to get all the money I need without taking out a large loan and using the home as collateral?

Let me tell you that the number one reason that 80% of the small businesses fail in the first five years, cash flow problems. You know what cash flow problems are created by? Not paying your taxes properly, and they come down around your head, and debt. So here's what you do. You don't open this business the way you're thinking of doing it. We have to figure out another way to get at this. What kind of business are you talking about?

I'd like to open my own rock climbing gym okay all right and um so that is a very high risk endeavor i don't mean falling off the rock i mean risk i mean the business failing high risk uh they're 100 of rock climbing gyms do not succeed as a matter of fact a very small percentage of them succeed because people make the mistake of thinking i install rock climbing and people will show up a field of dreams if i build it they will come and that is complete bs It does not work that way. So what do you do for a living now? I'm an administrative assistant. Okay. Ken?

Why the rock climbing? Tell me the why. Don't explain the whole business to me, but why did you think of that when you thought of a company? It's the only thing I ever really felt maybe passionate about the only thing i've enjoyed doing i don't want to continue working for someone else i want to work for myself and okay so i do agree with that i want to help you do that so you do climbing you do climbs in nature now not on a wall right i prefer indoor prefer indoor over outdoor. However, the fact of the matter is you like being outdoor. You like adventure sports. You probably like hiking. Is

that true or false? Yes, I enjoy that. All right. So if you don't want to work for anybody else, you love outdoor adventure and all that type of stuff, what I'd like to see you do is stay stable. You've done such a great job getting where you are. Let's get a second job, but now this time it's not about getting out of debt. Let's get a side hustle that's in that space, and you probably will work for somebody for a season. But let's take people on hikes. Let's do some outdoor outriggers.

People are doing that kind of work. Well, and find some indoor rock climbing gyms and see how you can serve them, how you can get involved on their staff temporarily. Yeah, but I'm with you, Dave. I mean, she ultimately loves that outdoor adventure side of things. She liked climbing the rocks inside, she said. Yeah, I know, but we both said that rock climbing gyms aren't a good idea. Well, I'm not sure I want to buy one. I know I don't want to go from an administrative assistant to owning one.

That's true. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You guys jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. If you're in debt, we know it can feel like you're fighting a losing battle with those bills. Sometimes you can feel stuck like Bonnie in our last debt-free scream there. You may wonder if you're ever going to get ahead. Well, you can.

You can get control. You can grab things by the neck like she did. You can build the life you want. We will show you how in Financial Peace University. Millions and millions and millions of people have learned the proven plan to work out of debt and into wealth in Financial Peace University. And, of course, you're going to be sticking to a budget. That's part of the plan. And you'll have the premium version of our budgeting tool, EveryDollar.

Both Entree Elite, both EveryDollar and Financial Peace University are available at Ramsey Plus. You can start a free trial of Ramsey Plus and end this constant battle with and for your money. Just text TRIAL to 33789. Text TRIAL to 33789. Sarah is with us in Los Angeles. Hi, Sarah. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Well, hello, Dave.

How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? My husband and I are on Baby Step 2. We've paid off $23,000 and have another 22 to go. Cool. My mom keeps asking me to help her and my dad figure out their budget, help them start on the Ramsey plan. Cool. Good.

Fighting. to me that their 800 credit score is good. My dad doesn't want to stop the 15% that he's currently investing, even though they're just shy of $110,000 in debt. Well, there's no reason to fight. That's what I say. Do what? I said that's what I say. So, I mean, if they don't want to do it, they don't have to do it. Well, that's what I keep saying. I'm not going to fight over it. You guys do whatever you want to do it, they don't have to do it. Well, that's what I keep saying. I'm not going to fight over it.

You guys do whatever you want to do. You ask me, and so I told you what we were doing. I gave you a copy of the book, but you don't have to do it. It's not a law. Well, and that's what I'm trying to say, and then they turn around, and they're like, oh, well, but we need to get out of debt, and we want to retire. Yeah, but, I mean, I showed you how.

You got to decide which one you want to do. You can't be both. If you want to know how I did it, I showed you how I did it. I used the Total Money Makeover baby steps. This is how I did it. I don't know how to tell you how to do it other than that. That's the only way I know. This is you talking, okay?

And I'm not going to fight with you. You guys can either do it or not do it. I'm going to love you either way. You're my mom my mom and dad i'm gonna love you even if you're stupid don't say don't say that but you can think that yeah right no they'll kill me i can't say that i know i know but you see what i'm saying that's what's going through your head right but here's the thing the fight the fight comes when they are trying to convince you to not do it, the Ramsey stuff, the baby steps. And the fight comes when you are trying to convince them to do the baby steps. So the best way you can convince them is to continue to do it properly yourself and win.

And it sets an example for them. But you can't make people do stuff. Yeah, that's true you can make little kids do stuff but you can't make grown people do stuff and you can only make little kids do stuff you can only make little kids do stuff until you leave the room that's right sarah one of the things sarah i hear the tension for you because they keep asking you and you're so passionate. You're so convicted on this journey that you can't just answer a question, you know, and I think that that's where there may be some tension there. And I think Dave's absolutely right. I think if they keep asking you a question, you go, um, I'm not sure. I'll text you later tonight. I think it's on page 87

of chapter three or whatever, and just stay out of the communication. If you're feeling your tension rise, uh, because of your tremendous the communication if you're feeling your tension rise because of your tremendous conviction then you're going to have to just when they ask a question say i'll look it up it's in this chapter it's in chapter five or it's in chapter six or whatever it is and give them the answer but don't get involved in the back and forth opinion stuff because dave's right i don't want to do that okay yeah great sure that's cool i don't want to do that. Okay. Yeah, great. Sure. That's cool. I don't want to stop putting money in my 401k. Okay. I mean, you know, if somebody calls me up on the air here, and I'm the guy, okay?

It's not just like a theory for me. This is I'm the guy that wrote it and did it for millions, tens of millions of people, right? If somebody calls me up on the air and wants to argue with me, I'll talk to them for a minute or two, and then I just go to the next caller. I'm not going to have a debate with somebody about this because I'm right. I'm not going to have a discussion about it. I mean, I'm not right about everything, but this stuff, I mean, 20 million people have done this stuff under my direction. So it's not like it's wrong anymore.

You know, it's not like an opinion. It's not a theory by a broke college professor this is this is we do this and this is i may not be able to do anything else but this i can do so i'm not going to argue with you about it if you don't agree with me you're just what's known as wrong and america is a great place you're allowed to be wrong yeah and so you know you just have to be kind about it and have a little bit of that in your head a little bit those kinds of tapes almost sarcasm playing in your head and you just kind of don't be mean and don't be unkind and just go dad if you don't want to do that that's okay i understand i love you this is what plan i'm doing you are a grown man you get to choose what you're going to do and i'm going to love you either way yeah and that creates the emotional boundary that

you need you need that you need to be able to put a boundary out there and go, we're doing it, we're all in for us. Mom and Dad, they got their big boy pants on and their big girl pants. So at some point, don't get sucked into the back and forth on it. I'm not going to try to make you do it, and please don't try to make me not do it. That's right. There's your clearest boundary.

Yeah. Because either one of those are going to cause a problem, and we're going to have conflict, and I don't want to have conflict with you. I just want to love you. And there's no point in the conflict because you're grown people. You're allowed to do whatever you want to do, even if you're wrong. I mean, I've got relatives that vote wrong.

Oh, I've heard. And I love them anyway. It's true. I mean, it's okay. They just don't know how to vote. And no amount of talking to them helps either. No. So I just quit.

I quit arguing with them a long time ago, and I just know my vote got canceled out by so-and-so. You know, they just don't know how to vote. And so there's something you just can't argue about. Doesn't do any good. Jimmy's with us in California. Hi, Jimmy. How are you? I'm great.

How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. How can we help? I'm great. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. How can we help? I'm calling because I have a quick question. My wife and I are on baby step number two. We recently just sold our condo, made a profit of around $75,000. In the bank right now, we have $185,000. The issue is we have $170,000 in student loans.

My question is, would you save a large chunk of that? We're looking at a home around $600,000. Save 20% of that for a down payment, or would you place a large sum of that towards the student loan debt? Did I understand you have $185,000 in the bank and $170,000 in student loan debt? Yes. Yes, you did. Okay.

Well, what we teach folks is don't buy a house until you're debt-free and have an emergency fund. Okay. So I think you're renting for a while, because I think you just used $170 of your $185 to become debt-free. Yeah. Al, you're not going to do that, are you? Well, I mean... He's crying. He's laughing like it's the most ludicrous thing he's ever heard well you know as ludicrous as it sounds it also kind of did just for a second when i said that

did you feel kind of free yes yes that would be amazing yeah i mean you have to admit down inside your stomach that something was set free when i said that down inside your soul something was set free because that 170 looks like it's insurmountable. It looks like freaking Mount Everest. And for just a second, I placed you on top of Mount Everest and you were cheering for just a second. And then you started rolling your eyes and going, I think this guy's crazy. Hey, Jimmy, do you have a good job? Are you gainfully employed? Yeah, so I'm an ICU registered nurse and my wife is the emergency

department here's what i want your household income uh we are around 160 way to go my gosh way to go jimmy here's a fun exercise for you you and your wife tonight dinner okay write down what it would look like what would your financial situation look like if you paid the $170,000 off? You had $15,000. You're living in an RV, right? Yeah. And then you got really good income. What would life look like? I think you just got to get over it.

Oh, man, yeah. You got to write it down on paper and look at that. How fast could you save $100,000? Oh, my goodness. We paid off two. This was before I knew about your program. We paid off like two $40,000 cars within a year. Yeah, so I think you could save $100,000 a year.

And I think you're going to be in a house by this time next year. And you're going to have an emergency fund and no student loan debt. And you're going to look back 10 years later and go, that crazy guy on the radio is right. And if you don't do this, you're going to limp for a decade. Hey, you tell people what to do all the time in your business, and they either do it or they don't. This is The Ramsey Show. 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 theramseyshow.com. Thanks for listening.