The Ramsey Show - App - How Do We Budget for the Unexpected? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: December 4, 2023

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, this is The Ramsey Show, where we help you win in your life, specifically with your money, in your work, and in your relationships. The phone number to jump in is 888-825-5225. I'm Ken Coleman, honored to be joined by my pal George Camel, who got a special delivery. We'll talk about that a little bit later.

We'll just tease that. What a tease. Yeah, special delivery during the break, but we're excited to be with you. 888-825-5225. Let's go to Knoxville, Tennessee. And I believe this is Allie or Ali. I'm not sure. Is it Allie?

It's Allie. All right. Excellent. Good guest today. All right. So what's going on, Allie? How can we help? Yeah.

First, I want to thank you for taking my call. My husband and I are leaning towards the idea of selling our house. And we wanted to get an idea if we're doing the right thing. And if we do sell the house, that we have a good plan with the money. Okay. What's driving you to this decision? I'm drowning in bills and I'm pretty much the sole provider. And I just want relief. We've grown out of our home pretty much. Um, we've done pretty much everything to it. Part of the reason why we're in debt is we had to get new plumbing. We had to get a new HVAC. And with all those loans, I'm pretty much taking all of my take home pay and paying

the mortgage and we're drowning in the interest from the loan. So what, how much consumer debt do you guys have? So as far as like credit cards, everything but the mortgage. Okay. I would say 40,000. Okay. And what's the mortgage? We owe 105. All right. And what's the mortgage? We owe $105,000. All right. And what is the household income? $7,000 to $8,000. A month? Yeah.

Is that gross or take-home? Gross. Okay. So you're making close to six figures, and that's just you? You said your husband, is he not working outside the home? Is he with the kids? What's he doing? Yeah, he is going to school and mostly stays home with our daughter, but he does go to work two days a week. So he's making about $1,200 a month. Okay. And that's adding to the seven or eight? No, that's combined with it. Okay.

Got it. So why are things so tight? It doesn't sound like the payments on the mortgage and the consumer debt payments, you shouldn't be drowning. There are multiple loans. So the interest with the loans, like we have a few payday loans. Oh, my gosh. And just like, yeah. Why'd you have to turn to payday loans? Was your credit shot? Yeah, my credit is shot. Okay. Well, the good news is you guys have a great income and I think we can even up the income and

Ken can help with that to get out of this debt fast. These payday loans are scum of the earth. And when you look at what the interest rate amounts to, it can be 300%, which is why you feel like you're drowning. Yeah. It's just a vortex where the balance never goes down because of how high this interest is. So I'm sorry you're dealing with that. We want to get you on a path to get rid of all of this. What is your smallest debt that you have right now? The smallest debt, I would say a credit card. We have a few credit cards that only have about $200 to $300 left on them. Okay. So you can knock that out today, probably. Correct? Not really.

No, I think they're paycheck to paycheck so you have nothing are you able to cover all of your bills currently are you behind on any oh uh yeah we've had to not pay some bills because at the end of the month i mean there's still there's still stuff that needs paid okay now i just want to jump in really quick because i'm just curious is it all the debt payments that are making you be delinquent in other payments? Or is it you guys have no idea where your money's going? You're not doing a budget and you guys just, you're not even sure where it's going. I would say it's a little bit of both. It's like we have so much in debt. I just pay what I can in debt and then

groceries, I try to set a limit. But regardless, we're always short even whenever we do set a budget. I'm really confused where all this money is going. What does your total consumer debt add up to in payments every month? About $5,000. $5,000? And that's aside from the mortgage? What's the mortgage payment? $500. Oh my gosh. Okay. Well, we're going to have to up the income and start knocking these debts out until you get rid of some of these ankle biters. It'll free up a payment. Is there anything you can sell? Are any of these debts like a car or something? Before you go to sell the house, is there anything else?

I mean, I have a car, but I'm upside down on it. And my husband's truck, I mean, it's worth $500. And that's included in the $40,000 of debt that you mentioned? Yeah. His car is paid off. My car is a part of the $40,000 that I mentioned. How much? How much do I owe or how much is it worth? Both.

So I owe about $8,000 and I think it's worth $6,000. It's $7,000, I would say. Okay. So it's probably worth just keeping that and paying it off and driving it. Yeah, and I would like to add that my income, the amount, it's pretty new. I started making that income around August. Okay. So that's another income around August. Okay.

So that's another reason we've been behind. So this is going to help. Yeah. But look, you guys are working extra jobs. What's he doing in school? Can he pause that while we get out of this mess? Well, he's going on the Tennessee Promise, so he gets free schooling basically if he doesn't quit. Well, he's going to need to be

working full-time as a student and full-time working because we can't sustain this as Vortex is with interest. We got to get rid of these payday loans. Yeah. You guys aren't even talking to each other other than to say hi, bye, budget meeting you're working like crazy you have got to do this but if you get after it and you really work like crazy get a true budget and start knocking these debts off and getting yourself out of this uh you can you can recover from this and and change your life but it's going to have to be super intense to to start to to chip away at this yeah but hear me say it's doable be super intense to start to chip away at this. Yeah.

But hear me say it's doable. It's a great math problem. When you're making $100K, you've got $40K in debt. If you can throw $6K a month at this debt, it'll be gone in about six months. Yeah. Talking short-term sprint. Can you do that? We lost her.

You don't believe me. I'm here. I think it's just trying to up the income. That's not hard. I'm not really sure. That's not hard. That's part of the equation. Sweetheart, you are doing anything and everything. There are people that are looking for people to work all the time.

This is not another career move. This is extra jobs, side hustles. You're doing everything. I'll tell you what I want to do. Hang on the line. We're going to get you a session, a free session on us with one of our financial coaches just to kind of help set this path forward

so you can believe what George and I are telling you. I think that session is going to help you. So hang on the line. Austin will take care of that. You guys can do this. Get busy, though. This is the Ramsey Show. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by George Camel. We are here for you to answer your money questions, your work questions, and on and on. And we love coaching you up. So we'd love to hear from you, 888-825-5225. Okay, real estate reality here.

Let's talk about this in the news all the time. The average interest rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage, George, dropped from 7.03% to 6.56% in the past month. Hey, that ain't nothing. That's not nothing when we start to see rates like they were sniffing eight and wow. We just thought it was going to continue to go up and up and up. Yeah. So if this trend continues, George, what happens? What do you see? Well, a lot of people that have been on the sidelines that have been waiting,

trying to kind of time this market, they may want to take advantage of these lower rates. And that small drop in percentages, that can actually mean huge savings, talking about thousands and thousands of dollars over time. But here's the thing, it doesn't change our home buying advice. Only buy a house when you're ready. Whether the rate is 2% or 7% or more, buy a house when you're ready. Here's what that means in the Ramsey world. You're debt free, you have no consumer debt, you have a full emergency fund of three to six months expenses, and you have a solid down payment. And I only recommend the 15-year fixed rate mortgage, which I know with current interest rates, you're like, dude, that's going to blow up my payment.

Well, we don't want you to be house poor. And if more than a quarter of your take-home pay on a 15-year is going towards the mortgage, you're not going to have enough money to do things like invest for retirement and upgrade the car and go on vacation and save for the kids' college. And so that is the reason for those parameters, those guidelines. And so if you are in that market, you've been waiting on the sidelines, hoping, praying for the rates to take a dip, now's a good time to jump into the market and work with a pro. We call them Ramsey Trusted Real Estate Agents, and they're handpicked by our team. They actually care about you and your financial goals, and they'll take good care of you. Yeah, absolutely. So, ramsaysolutions.com slash agents, ramsaysolutions.com slash agents to get

connected to one of those pros who will take great care of you. And listen, it's going to be interesting to see what happens over the next quarter to two quarters in the housing market. Well, remember, we did the real estate reality check event, and people were freaking out that the whole market was going to crash, and we kept telling them it's not going to crash. And here we are today. The market still has not crashed. In fact, home values are going up,

and the reason is because inventory is still very, very low. Supply and demand, baby. It's going to be interesting to see how it shakes out. As the housing industry goes, so goes the American economy. Just a fun little, if you look at historical, not headlines and all the crap you see on TikTok and the gram. I'm telling you, historically, how the housing industry goes is how the economy goes. So we're in this kind of an interesting situation with the American economy as it is with inflation still stubbornly high, even though it's in the dropping a little bit, still above what the preferred rate of growth would be, which is about 2% inflation growth. We're still not seeing that. And so it's still

squeezing Americans a lot. We're seeing credit card debt all time high, consumer confidence, you know, not great, starting to slow down a little bit. So what's going to give? Something's got to. We don't know, but here's what we do know. People who follow the Ramsey plan aren't stressed out over the economy. They just aren't. They're not that worried about interest rates. When you don't have a mortgage payment, you're definitely not worried about interest rates. That is true. So let's get to the phones. Stephen is now joining us in Houston, Texas. Stephen,

how can we help? Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call. You bet. What's up? Hey, so I'm a pretty new listener to you guys, and I started the Baby Steps. Like a week ago, we got our emergency fund, the $1,000 emergency fund set. And then we're on, obviously, Baby Step 2, but I'm having trouble with the budget. We don't understand if we're

supposed to budget for unforeseen things or if that's what the emergency fund's for and use every dollar just to go towards that or how we work that. Sure. So give me an example of something that would be unforeseen. Like maybe a car repair or a house repair. I have a home warranty and I don't know even though if that's a smart move or not, but something like that. So when it comes to Baby Step One, $1,000, that's meant to cover these kind of ankle biters. That's why Dave, originally Dave's plan was get out of debt. And then he realized people would fall off the wagon trying to get out of debt because $100 emergency would pop up throwing them off the plan. So that thousand bucks is meant as just a starter emergency fund. And if something happens, let off the plan. So that $1,000 is meant as just a starter emergency fund,

and if something happens, let's say it's more than $1,000, what would you do realistically? You're going to pause those baby steps, and you're going to save up, and you're going to cash flow that expense. And most of these expenses aren't going to be much more than $1,000. I mean, the chances of something crazy happening, a $5,000 emergency expense, those are going to be low chances in the next 18 months as you tackle your debt.

What's your household income? We make $110,000 combined gross. So if you paused everything, making $110,000, chances are you're going to be able to cash flow an emergency expense with the next paycheck or two. Yeah, the thing is I was adding up all my credit card, and I have $810 in minimum payments every month. I know that's killing us. So we want to pay this off, but that's the problem. Do I take every bit of extra money I have and put it in that basically?

Yes. Bring the account down to zero? Anything beyond your food, shelter, utility, insurance, all of that. Now, when we say zero-based budget, what that means is every dollar of income you have coming in has a job. It has an assignment. It doesn't mean you have zero dollars in the bank. So I would have a threshold in your bank account. For you, it might be $300.

And we don't go under $300. We budget down to $300 every month. Okay, okay. Yeah. Because the budgeting program I use right now, it's kind of weird with that, but okay. I got you. Well, let me hook you up with EveryDollar. Have you tried that out? No, I haven't. I haven't tried that one. This is the only budgeting app you need and a dimwit could use it. And so someone as smart as Steven can definitely use it. It's super easy to navigate. Our team made it very consumer friendly. And I'm going to hook you up with a year of the premium version so you can connect to your bank account, track transactions, use the paycheck planning tools that you know you're not going to run out of money, and hang on the line. Austin will pick up. We'll gift that to you if you're willing to use it, Stephen. By the way, there's no need to call me names to make a point.

I looked at you when I said dimwit, and I didn't mean to. I mean, you did. I thought it was more I said dimwit and I didn't mean to. I mean, you did. I thought it was more than a cutting glance and I'm a little sensitive. I'm trying to use 1950s insults these days. Well, you know, I understand that, but you could have made your point without taking a shot at me. Fair point. I apologize. But he's right. If I can use it, anyone could use it. All right. Amanda's up next in Vancouver. Amanda, how can I help? Hi, thanks so much for taking my call. I have a bit of a different question today,

and it really ties into what you guys, your segment about just talking about the interest rates. My question is, should I buy my parents' house? I am concerned about the interest rates, but it is my family's home, and I'd like to be able to keep my parents in it. But I'm also afraid of mixing family and money. Wait a second. What is going on? Well, I live in a low cost of living area. I make a lot of money. I have no debt. I have a lot of extra income. I don't have a mortgage or anything. My parents live in an extremely high cost of

living area. They've gotten themselves into quite a pickle with some crippling debt. So I thought I could buy their house and turn it around and rent it to them. It would be kind of a debt consolidation for them, but also I have a bit of savings. Maybe it'd be a good investment for me because in the Vancouver area, the real estate market, it could be a good investment for me anyways and kind of help them out. Okay, hold on. So let's stop for a second. Okay. It could be. It's not, it could be It either is or it isn't. If we take Franklin, Tennessee, George and I both know, we both live in Franklin, we know what neighborhoods would be an absolute good investment. So is that just the wording you're using or you're not quite sure if you were to even do this, that this is in fact a good investment for you?

I think it would be a good investment for me. My only concern is, yeah, the interest rates are, you know, not great right now. But you don't know that it's a good, is this a good neighborhood or not? This is a great neighborhood, good neighborhood, okay neighborhood. What is it? It's a good neighborhood. The house was built in the 80s and it's a family-friendly neighborhood. My huge worry is that you are solving nothing for them because their behavior and choices is what led them here and they're going to continue to make those choices. Then they can't pay you rent. So I think they need to accept the consequences of their decision as grown adults and go rent somewhere and rent something they can afford and clean up this mess. I think the reality is with their situation, they would never be able to afford to rent.

But you can't handhold them the rest of their life. And that's what's going to happen here. There's no end game. They need to change their situation by making more, spending less, getting out of debt. And you can help them do that with some tools and resources. But I would not step in as the savior here and try to do two birds, one stone investing in real estate and trying to save my parents at the same time. They need to grapple with the decisions they've made. Even if it's a good investment and she can afford it. I don't, she's going to hold back her own financial future, renting at below market rate to them forever. I agree. So I brought that up. Very good. She doesn't have money to buy her own place. Feels like she might do it anyway. Hope not. This is The Ramsey Show.

Welcome back to The Ramsey Show, where we help you win with your money and your work and in your relationships. I'm Ken Coleman and I'm joined by George Camel. The phone number is 888-825- 5225. Okay, so how many of you out there, whether you've been listening to us for a long time,

just a little bit of time, or you're brand new, realize that there's so much going on in the financial world, whether it's credit cards, buying stuff, paying later, cars, investing. There's so much out there where you feel like the game is stacked against you. And you're kind of like a lot of anxiety going, I feel like they know more than I do. And everybody's doing this and I want to win with money. Like think about your credit card, student loans, car loans, mortgages.

How about all the different investing strategies that are out there? How about the marketing messages and all the things that are coming your way? Buy, buy, buy, buy, buy. And you're like, I just want to get out of the matrix. If that's you, I'm very excited to tell you that my pal sitting right next to me just got this during the break. It is the official hardback first copy of his new book called Breaking Free from Broke, The Ultimate Guide to More Money and Less Stress. Now, let me just say this, okay?

Listen, Dave Ramsey's got the Baby Steps book, you know, the Total Money Makeover. Then you got the latest one, which is, you know, the Baby Steps Millionaire. But this is a very different book. And I'm going to say that it's very different in that you are getting right into what I believe is the matrix that traps people from everything from comparison to just messaging. That sounds like it's a good move. You've always been great at the traps and what trips people up. And I want you to know, if you're feeling broke or you're scared to become broke, you're getting ready to adult, this is the book that will help you become a millionaire

just from simply not making dumb decisions that, let's be honest, most of us make. I said us. That means me and George and even Dave Ramsey. And so I think this is a great book, George. And that's my take on it. As I look at the chapters, I mean, here's what I want. I want to know, what do you think the reader's going to take from this if they actually read this? It's one of those books where I want you to read the whole thing and you walk away just with this stupid grin on your face

because you go, I know too much now. Ignorance was bliss. And now I know too much. And not only that, I'm confident in my financial future for the first time because I've cut through all the noise of all the ways I could invest. And do I do this? Do I get the house? And how do I actually live life without a credit score? And I walk people through. How can we turn wealth into just a game of patience? How do we walk through life with peace and joy and margin and self-control, knowing that that we're on track knowing that we're not going to fall for these traps anymore and it's the book you know i wish i had yeah when i was in my 20s it's a great book whether you're 25 or 55 because i write on a fifth grade level because that's how

my brain works so i'm looking at it it's funny it's got a couple scratches sniff pages that's kind of research there's 130 sources in there that really do deep dives and enough jokes that Ken might laugh. You like the new book smell, don't you? Smells like money. That's what it smells like to me. Smells like fresh dollar bills. Well, you know, speaking of that, Ken, you mentioned broke and you want people to be millionaires. This is my story in here as well, of how I went from broke to millionaire, the money mistakes I made, what I've learned in 10 years here at Ramsey. And the first two thirds of the book are helping people understand how this matrix is stacked against them, how the system is designed to keep them broke. And then I show them a path out. So let's tell people when it comes out,

it's on pre-order right now. You can order it now and get it when it comes out. Give me the details. So this book launches on the streets, January 16th, but if you pre-order before then by January 15th, it's 20 bucks for the hardcover copy sent to you. But we're going to also include a hundred dollars worth of bonus items, including the ebook version, the enhanced audio book version, which I'm very excited about. The team has some exciting production elements. We're adding to that, spicing it up. An online Q and A event, live stream we're doing in January. And for anyone that buys a book before or after, we're going to give you three months of every dollar premium on us.

So that you can actually live out this plan. Even your face has got a little snark on it. And so I expect we're going to have some snark in the book as well. And it's bright, bright orange. This is going to stand out in the crowd, Ken. That's the hope. All right. It's time we break free from broke.

So you can get it at ramsaysolutions.com slash store. Get it for you. Get it for friends and family. This book is going to give people a lot of hope. That's my prayer for 2024. It is. And one little bonus is that if you are a small man, you can see a great outfit. You can wear denim too. So George is doing it on the cover. Just a little extra bonus. This is just proof the little man can get ahead in America today. He can. It starts with me. He can. You have done it.

Two little men, by the way. I'm not much bigger than you. Thank you for making that clear to America. Yeah. People always ask how tall I am. I think what they're really asking is how short is he, which is a very different question. I get that a lot from people. They listen to you.

They hear you. Some of you never see you. They're always like, wow, you're a lot shorter than I thought you would be. Thank you very much. Hurtful, but true. And they're always like, well, you're a lot shorter than I thought you would be. Well, thank you very much. Heartful, but true. Just because I have a big personality. Come on. But I get that a lot from people.

But it is what it is. All right, let's get to Justin in West Palm Beach, Florida. Oh, boy, wouldn't it be nice to be in West Palm sipping on a lemonade with Justin right now? The studio's going to have to do. Justin, what's going on? How are you guys doing? Well, not as good as you in West Palm, but we're going to have to do. Justin, what's going on? How are you guys doing? Well, not as good as you and Wes Palm, but we're going to press through. All right.

I think it should be pretty simple, but my wife's transitioning into a stay-at-home mom. And once we clear out this debt the next month, I'm wondering when we start investing the 15% take-home pay, do we split it 7.5% in my retirement and then 7.5% in hers? Or because she's not working, do we not put to her retirement? Great question. So you guys are in baby step two still? Yep. Then we should be done by the end of the year.

Okay. And then you got baby step three, the fully funded emergency fund to save up for. Yep. Then we should be done by the end of the year. Okay. And then you got baby step three, the fully funded emergency fund to save up for. Yep. But we're talking mid-2024, you'll be starting to invest 15%? Yep. Yep. Perfect. Yeah. I'm an accountant, so I just think numbers.

You're thinking ahead. I love it. I'm excited for you guys to start building for that future. And when is she going to stay home? It started this week. Oh, wow. Okay. How old's the child?

Four and a half months. Oh, my goodness. So exciting. Have you had a good night's sleep in a while? No. Probably like a month ago. It feels like forever. Yeah.

You'll get through it, trust me. I feel that. Oh, yeah. It's worth it. George is on the same bus you are. You're about a month ahead of us, and it's a lot. But I'm excited for you guys. Okay, so financially, are you guys still on track to pay off debt aggressively,

and you still got a great income? Yep, yep. And I think with year-end bonus, it should be all cleared out before the first of the year. Cool. Excellent. So you mentioned 15%. That's going to be of your gross income instead of the year. Cool. Excellent. So you mentioned 15%. That's going to be of your gross income instead of your take-home. So what is your household income going to be now that she's staying at home? $120,000. Awesome. And so if you start doing the math,

$120,000 times that 0.15, that's going to turn into $18,000 a year. And so to make matters easier, we'll divide that. But per month, you're going to do fifteen hundred bucks a month is what it amounts to. Okay. And so the way we look at it is match beats Roth beats traditional. So if you have an employer match, we'll start there. Then you can fully fund a Roth IRA. And you do have the option to fund a spousal Roth IRA, even if your spouse stays at home. Okay. So that's something I would encourage you to do,

depending on all of your options. But both of you having a maxed out Roth IRA every year is a great thing to do, a great habit to get into. Okay. So I split it between my retirement and her retirement, even though she's not working right. Perfect. So look at all of your options. And as part of that, you may end up funding her Roth IRA if you still have more Roth to go before you go back to a traditional. Do you have a 401k at work? Yes. Is there a Roth option? Yep. We've been doing Roth before we started and stopped it currently. So. Okay. Yeah. But that's, I wouldn't worry about splitting it seven and a half and seven and a half. I would focus on we need to invest $18,000 this year,

and we're going to filter it through this Match Beats Roth Beats Traditional, and that could turn into funding that Roth IRA every year. But way to go, man. Gotcha. Thank you. Can I throw one more thing on life insurance? We got 10 seconds. Go. Speed round. Do we do life insurance on her if she's not working or no? Yes.

Absolutely. Dude, if something happened to her, God forbid, you need Mary Poppins. It's going to cost you $150,000 to hire 17 people. So absolutely get 10 to 12 times her income. That's probably going to be, you know, I'm going to go, let's say she would be making $50,000. I'd get $500,000 on her today. Interesting that you mentioned Mary Poppins because I always got the idea that she was free. She just kind of flew in one day and helped out.

Well, not in today's economy. I agree. I agree. Wow. Good stuff. Very serious stuff. Absolutely. Life insurance is a must.

Connect with our friends at Zander. They can help you get this in place. It's who we use. They're great. Term life only. That's exactly right. Good stuff there. Thanks for the call.

We'll talk soon, Justin. Hopefully, you'll hear some good stories. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell joins me this hour. 888-825-5225 is the phone number to jump in. Our scripture of the day is Hebrews 4.12.

For the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joint and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Our quote from Jack London. You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. I like that. How about that?

It's aggressive, but it's good advice. I like that. How about that? It's aggressive, but it's good advice. I like that. Pound it, you know? It's like whack-a-mole. Get after it. That's another throwback. There it is. See, I can't help myself.

Whack-a-mole and toll-free calls. That's what you get. You know what you could do? You could put in your own little time phrases. You know, where's your stuff from the 2000s? I'm not that relevant. Yeah, I just don't think they said things interestingly. Where's your stuff from the 2000s? I'm not that relevant. I just don't think they said things interestingly. That's true.

We've got a whole lot less interesting as a society. All right, let's go to Greensboro, North Carolina. Joshua is there. Joshua, how can we help? Hello, George and Kim. Thank you so much for your time and having me on the show. You bet. What's up?

I guess I'll dive straight into my question. What are my next best steps in my career to help me get towards my dream job? And I can give you some background. Yeah, tell me what the dream job is. Give me the background. All right. Well, I'll try to keep it very brief because I know I'm on time. But I'll give you a quick background.

You're doing great. I discovered Ramsey in my sophomore year in high school through y'all's high school curriculum and fell in love with y'all's plan. Since then, I've been through FPU and continue to learn from Ramsey Solutions books and various shows on the Ramsey Network. Y'all have basically just consumed my life, and I've dedicated my life to sharing y'all's plan of hope with everyone I can, which led me to my goal and dream job. I've had multiple people tell me that I will never make it, but I've also had a lot of cheerleaders in my life that encouraged me that my dream job is possible. And I truly believe through hard work, my faith in Jesus Christ and my passion for Ramsey,

I can obtain my dream job as a Ramsey personality. Oh, the dream job is the Ramsey personality. Oh! The dream job is the Ramsey personality. He buried the lead. I didn't see that coming. I did not see it coming. Okay, so your question is, what are the steps to take to try to do the kind of thing that we do? Is that right?

Yes, sir. Alright. Well, how about we tag team this, George? Sure. I'll give one, you give one, and we see if we run out of them. How does that sound? All right, first I'm going to start, and I'm going to say the first thing is you're going to have to be equal parts persistent. That means just getting after it, trying, trying, trying, trying, trying,

trying, putting in the work. I mean, like when no one's looking, you're doing the little things. You are doing everything it takes to be able to develop a voice to speak with conviction uh to speak with passion but to also speak with some expertise and so you're gonna have to have equal parts persistence and equal parts patience that's where you gotta start that's a mindset at 17 i don't give you 17 27 37 you got to start. That's a mindset at 17. I don't care if you're 17, 27, or 37. If you want to do what we do, this is not easy to get to the spot. Am I right, George? I know our stories are very similar.

So I start with that. Patience, persistence, equal parts. That's the mindset getting going. Yeah. And another piece of this equation is, you know, I can't guarantee you anything in life. I didn't think I'd be here, to be honest with you, Joshua, on this side of the microphone. Neither did I, man. You know, miracles happen. For both Ken and I, it took a whole lot longer than we thought it would and we would have liked

it. This could be a decade journey for you. And so it's going to be hard. And the good news is, if it's what you're called to do, you're just going to get up and do it anyways. And you're going to have that podcast, even if four people are listening and three of them are your family. And so you've got to want it that badly, but there's some tactical things I want to tell you that you could start with that will get you on that path. And number one is following the principles. So you're already doing that. It sounds like, correct? Yes, sir. So your life testimony experience of going, this is how I experienced life. This is how I lived my life debt-free starting at 17 years old. This is how I lived it. Encouraging others along the way, leading Financial Peace University classes, maybe becoming a Ramsey financial coach,

going through our training, beginning to develop a social media presence. Maybe you start creating financial content and you start a YouTube channel or whatever that looks like for you. And you start speaking at your churches and your local community, and you get any opportunity to get on a stage and practice and have some at-bats, and it's going to be bad at first, and it'll probably stay bad for a long time before you get any good at it. And that was my story. Ken was a prodigy probably since teenager, but he had some natural broadcasting skills that I didn't have. But I say that all to say, you got to just start doing it regardless of Ramsey. And so it's great to have your eye on the prize, but I want you leading this and being a financial coach and

helping others, whether it's here or in your hometown. Yeah. I'll just add another one here that a lot of people don't think about. And that is you've got to figure out what your unique style is. So, you know, you look at the great music artists, you know, they were all inspired by somebody. So you think about the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Garth Brooks, think of some of the most iconic artists out there. They're all influenced by other artists, but they, while inspired by it, they put their own spin on it. And I think it's really crucial for anybody that wants to get into this, whatever you want to call this space, the content and providing space, personality, you know, whatever, influence. I hate that word.

But I think you've got to go, what is my unique offering as it relates to my style, what I'm good at doing. George is good at doing it one way. Maybe Ken's doing it, is good at doing it another way. Don't forget that beyond the messaging and the cuts at the plate, at some point there's something unique about you, and you need to settle into that and not try to be a knockoff version of somebody else. Be that unique version.

And I think that's the advice I would give there is that with all of that, you still got to settle down into, this is how I'm wired. And last piece, and this goes for, and I want to make this to the large audience. If you're trying to start a business and you're looking for that idea, you're trying to start a podcast, YouTube channel, whatever, Make what moves you. So for authors that want to write, I always tell them, write what you would read. If you're writing a song, write what you would sing. Because there's a lot of people out there who have the same taste you have.

But if you try to figure out what everybody else is doing and go over there, you're going to be really frustrated. Make what moves you, and you're going to turn out, you're going to be okay. And that's the journey, but it is a long journey. And I love what you said, George, you got to try a lot of stuff too. Like, I don't think you can start soon enough to write, to speak, to try to broadcast, just try it and just see where am I at on all this? I remember the first time I did radio, I showed and my my pulse was through the roof I bought my way on to a local radio station in the Atlanta area and I'd done a lot of speaking about on stage before but this is a total different ballgame you got all this stuff around you

and the and the producers in my ear going 10 9 you know and he's like you're live and the light comes on it's just like you know It was just an unbelievable pucker moment, and you've got to learn how to handle stuff like that. That's a lot of pressure under the spotlight. How does that hit you, Joshua? I'm curious. Oh, I think I put him on hold. He's still there.

Oh, he's there. Joshua, are you there? Yes, sir. Does that help? I really appreciate it. Yes, sir. I do have a second. If time allows, I do have a second part to my question.

All right, real quick because we've got about a minute. All right, real quick, because we've got about a minute. All right. What can I do? Because I unfortunately had to quit my job last week due to illegal activity. I was calling mainly to see if there's anything I can do right now, me still living at home, so having more of like a flexible plan to work with since I don't have that many expenses.

What's the best option for me to do right now, career and job wise to gain experience? Well, so if you're 17 and you just need an hourly job, I would be looking to work at a radio station, television station. You know, if you work for a local organization where there's writers involved and you're just some type of get in the room is my point with people that are doing what we're doing i think that would be my first step but you're 17 you got plenty of time just go get a job that replaces the job that you had my goodness illegal activity i want to ask more but we don't have time but i'm glad you got out of there joshua that's the first hey if you're working a place where there's illegal activity, go ahead and quit.

That's one red flag. Yikes. Probably a lot more where that came from. Yeah. Wow. Great question. When you think back on it, George, it's crazy to think where you can end up if you just stay with it. Yeah.

You did. That persistence is key. It was a nine-year journey for me. How long was it for you? It was an eight-year journey for me, I believe. I had six jobs here, and here I am. That's what I want people to hear. We are very blessed, and Dave believed in us and gave us a shot.

But I will say this. We both stuck with it and didn't quit. And it doesn't happen overnight. And that's the biggest myth out there. The overnight success doesn't exist. George Campbell, my good pal. Great show today. Thank you. James Childs, our fearless leader and all the guys in the booth. Thank you. Thank you,

America and our live studio audiences here today. This is The Ramsey Show.