The Ramsey Show - App - How Do We Keep From Spending So Much? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: December 4, 2020

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is The Dave Ramsey Show. It's where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life, your money, your work, your mindset, relationships. I'm Ken Coleman, host of The Ken Coleman Show on the Ramsey Network, joined by my colleague, Ramsey personality, Anthony O'Neill, host of The Table, with Anthony O'Neill on YouTube

and coming soon to podcast. Yes. Big news, so stay tuned for that. Can't wait. Yeah, it's going to be fun, and we are here together. 888-825-5225 here for you. Hope, clarity, confidence, courage is one phone call away triple eight eight two five

five two two five let's go to dallas texas where nicholas is on the line nicholas how can we help hey thanks for taking my call sure so i am in law enforcement and I've got, excuse me, I've got a medical bill that just hit. Depleted pretty much the entirety of my Baby Step 3 savings. About $5,000 went down the drain. And I'm wondering, I've got enough income to feel comfortable building that back up if over some time. My question is, should I take that and just dive into it and put off my retirement and current investments, or should I be able to just kind of ease through that? I've got no debt. I'm cash flowing my school right now.

Yes. Bottom line. And here's why, Nicholas, is because what I really want you to do is understand if, like, let's say for an example, an emergency comes up six months from now and you only have $2,000 in a savings account and it's $5,000, then what are you going to do then?

You're going to either rob Peter to pay Paul or you're going to go back into debt. So what I want you to do is pause all of your investments, get aggressive to get that three to six months back up and running, and then get aggressive back in babysit number four. And if you don't have any kids, going over to baby set number six. But I was just going ahead and just attack, man, getting this three months back up and running. Are you single or do you have any family? I'm single.

Yeah, yeah. So your three months is what, about $5,000 to $10,000 a month? It's around, six months is around $6,500. Boy, you're living good. I mean, for six months to be $6,500. Yeah, living in a little suburb is a little bit cheap. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

So, I mean, how long do you think it would take you? If you went aggressive and you went after that, how long would it take you to get this? If I stopped going into investments, I could knock this out in probably three months. Sure, shorter if I work more off duties. Yeah, Nicholas. All right, man. We'll see you in Q2, bro. Yes, sir.

Yeah. You need to be doing traffic at every church in Texas and make up that money quickly. Yeah, really good stuff. Thank you for the call, Nicholas. 888-825-5225 is the number. Now let's go north of the border. Alberta, Canada is where Abigail joins us. Abigail, how can we help?

Hi, guys. I'm so glad I got through. So my question is, should me and my husband start our career business, or should he be looking for something with minimum wage just to get us to that point? He just got laid off about three weeks ago. This is the second time this year, and we're just trying to figure out the next step to uh coming back to where we were okay how much was he making uh before the two layoffs give me an about an average um i mean he was about making um 5200 a year a month sorry 5200 a month okay so we'll call it 60 000 just north of 60,000 a year. And did I hear you say courier business? Yes, that's the business we would be starting. Okay.

And what do you project that that would bring in from an income revenue? This is called revenue right now. What kind of revenue would that bring in your first three months? Have you projected that? We haven't gotten that far yet. The only reason we're wondering if we should just start it now was just because we have the time and energy or if we should, you know, bank some first before doing that.

Well, it depends on the answer to this question, okay? And that is what kind of capital do you need to actually get this business up and going, capital outlay, to spend money to need to actually get this business up and going? Capital outlay, to spend money to be able to get this thing up and running. How much? Honestly, it would just be the insurance. And so, because we already have the vehicle, we have a minivan, and that was what we were planning to use for our business.

Correct. So very little to no money. What's the insurance, just so I know? The insurance, I want to say probably around maybe $200 a month. Okay. All right, now the next big question is, when he was making $60, now he's making $0, presumably. Can you guys live off of $0 in his category and live off of what you're making? I actually am a stay-at-home wife for now.

Okay, so... So I actually donhome wife for now. Okay, so. I actually don't have an income. Okay, well, then the answer is unequivocally no. I thought you were working. No, he needs to be working. Yes. This courier business is a side hustle at best right now. So he needs a day job, let's call it a day job, which takes care of you all. And he may have to work two day jobs

to get up to that $5,000 gross a month. But that's the first thing. Let's get that taken care of first. When you guys get stable, then we save up the money to slowly ease into this courier thing as a side hustle. So maybe he's doing it 10 to 15 hours, 20 hours a week as an extra job, maybe even a third job, depending on what's realistic. But no, and I would tell you, I know you're a stay-at-home mom, you need to be looking for opportunities, if it's reasonable, to work from home so that you're still there with the kiddos. But if the dream is for you all to eventually launch this

and make that your full-time gig, it's going to take time to build that up. But right now, you guys need income, and it sounds like quickly. Am I right? Basically, quickly enough, we have about nine months in our emergency fund worth. But listen to me. I don't want you using your emergency fund to live off of. It's supposed to be for emergencies. So if he can work two jobs, if he can work with a shovel, if he can drive a car for himself,

he can drive it for somebody else. You guys need to bring in income. Do not live off of that emergency fund. Okay. Try not to touch it. Do you have family in the area that can watch the kiddos some? Sorry. I actually didn't hear you say kiddos before. We actually don't have any kids.

Oh, you don't have kids. You just said, oh my gosh, sweetheart, please go get a job or maybe two. You guys get after this and get your income combined up to where he was at, and then we think about the courier business. There's no more discussion on that, Anthony. They both need to be working. Yeah, I have no comment. You're really trying to hold back.

But let's clarify this. The emergency fund is not to live off when you lose your job. The emergency fund is for an emergency. And an emergency fund is, let's say for an example, you lose your job and you're out there hustling, trying to find something. You can't find anything. That's an emergency. But this sounds like just two people who your job and you're out there hustling, trying to find something. You can't find anything. That's an emergency.

But this sounds like just two people who don't want to get out there and just work. You have dreams, but you don't want to get out there and at least go do something minimum wage. But you want to be an entrepreneur. You can't be an entrepreneur if you're not willing to put in the work. I'm going to be quiet, like I said. He can get after it. Yeah. You know, he can get after two jobs.

You start the courier business. I mean, start driving people around. Start delivering stuff. Yeah. Goodness gracious. Goodness. Get to work. Yes.

Oh, boy. All right. We're going to change our mood. Yes. We're going to help some more people. It is a free call. 888-825-5225. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. You've worked hard to make your business successful. Blood, sweat, tears,

and prayers. Because as a business owner, you are the secret sauce and your company is only as strong as you are. So what happens if a key ingredient is missing? And what if that ingredient is your health, resulting in expensive medical bills? Christian Healthcare Ministries, or CHM, presents health cost sharing. It's different from insurance in that Christians help other Christians

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how can we help? Oh, Ken, Anthony, thank you for taking my call. So I have a brother and sister who own a couple of small businesses, and obviously they're in the bar industry, and so they've been really hit really hard with this pandemic. And they are asking me for some money to kind of help them get through this part to hopefully they can, you know, when everything opens back up, who knows when. But I'm just trying to balance of how much I should be giving them, you know, so it kind of like helps them, but doesn't kind of hurt me in, you know, in the long run is kind of like my question.

Yeah. How much are they asking for it? Well, I think they're trying to raise around 100K. For what? Well, their businesses are in San Francisco, and so rent a couple of businesses. Like I said, we haven't talked yet in terms of they expressed they want to sit down and talk and figure out what they're trying to do in terms of the money they need. But I just kind of want to be prepared myself about what I can offer and so forth.

Gotcha. What can you offer? Yeah. What kind of money? What's your money situation? So I think we've been doing okay. So pretty good, I guess. So we have a combined income of $210K. We have total investments around $850K, $650K, which are in retirement,

$200K, which are in brokerage and investment accounts. I have $12K personally, and in a rainy day fund, we have $20K. Any consumer debt? I kind of went backward. We bought a car. We bought a $60,000 car, but we downpaid $30,000 on it. So we do have $30,000 debt. What did you drive it, a BMW, bro?

We got ourselves a Tesla. Okay. All right. Here's my rule of thumb when it comes to family members or even friends, when it comes to money. When I assess my financial situation, am I in a place to where it is wise for me to give someone else money if I need it right now? You you have a lot of money. I want you to pay off that Tesla. OK, I want you to go ahead and pay that off right now. And then from there, you still have a good rainy day fund. You still got some good investments. You still have some good stuff. I would just sit down and sit down with your wife and say, Hey, you know what? Right. Can we do

anything? And here's the thing. I would even sit down with your family members because they're going to try and convince you to give them a lot more to do this, do that. So you know what? Hey, no need. I'm going to give you this. This is all we can do. God bless. You know, and that's what I do with my family. I really don't need the full story of what's going on. If I know you need some help, here's what I could do.

I can give you $5,000. It's not a loan. It's a blessing into you and your family or you and your situation. Boom. I'm not expecting anything back. But if I can't do anything, it's like, hey, I'm sorry, at this present time, I can't do it. And so I think you've got to have a conversation with your wife and see what you can do. I agree with that, Ed, with what Anthony's saying.

However, to me, the correct question in this situation is not how much can I give them. It's is it wise to give them anything. And again, I'm going to come at this obviously a lot more pragmatically than you can because you're a family member and I understand you've got a great heart. I think you're a really good dude. But as Anthony's saying, you and your wife have got to sit there and go, this isn't a function of how much can we give. This is in considering

giving them anything. Is it wise? And let me walk through this. It doesn't sound to me like you have a whole lot of information about what they would do with the money. Their businesses are in San Francisco. I've got so many questions that start with, if anybody who had a billion dollars and money was not an object gave them money, would the cash infusion into this situation help them? I think that's what you've got to get an answer to. Do you have any clue if any cash is going to actually get them to a place where they can succeed, or would it just prolong what is looking like a death-by-shutdown type situation? Am I on this, or am I off? Oh, so just so you know, the businesses were doing very well, you know, and so they were very financially stable. But like I said, because of this, they have to close down one of them, and so they have to continue paying rent and you know and and so uh the thing

is um it's free it's a loan but like i said but if the business you know ends up you know it lasts the pandemic lasts another year or so you know uh they might have to you know close for good so um yeah i i want to help it's just kind of like how much. Yes, but again, here's what I'm going to say. You're a smart guy, and I know you want to help. But you have to ask, can you actually help? Yeah. Because, listen, I think it's way too risky. I would not do it.

I'm just kidding. I'm going to keep it at that. I wouldn't do it because you don't know what the San Francisco local officials, you don't know what the governor of California is going to do. You don't know if this vaccine is going to work. You don't know how people are going to treat this thing. I just think there's too many unknowns here. And I understand that the businesses were successful.

But the earlier point that I made holds. You are giving them a prospective Band-Aid. And I think they got to get creative. It's their deal. They're going to have to figure it out. It stinks. I hate it for them. It actually makes me angry because their businesses have been artificially killed. This is not an act of consumers, Anthony, deciding to no longer do this or their business being outdated. This is a government suppression. And I understand why. And I'm not making the case that it shouldn't be done.

I'm just simply saying their businesses are being artificially shut down. And I think they've got to look at all other means. But you're not, I mean, you're doing well, but I don't think you're in a position to give a six-figure loan. I don't think so. I wouldn't do it. Definitely. I mean, no loan, period.

$1,000 loan. Yeah. If you decide to do anything, if you don't listen to us and you decide to do anything, it's a give. You've given it to us. But here's the deal, Anthony. Listen, if he's got multiple, they're talking about multiple businesses in San Francisco where that's one of the highest rents in the nation. Yes. Yes.

You're going to run through that money so fast. I think he's got to sit down and go, if they did ask me for $100,000, I've got to be able to say, how far does $100,000 go? If it's rent and maybe some other things, how quickly does that run out? Well, let me tell you something. If you live in California right now and you operate a business in California where they just told you, in Los Angeles today, the mayor said, you can't even ride a scooter.

You can't walk. No unnecessary walking. I'm not making this up, folks. Yeah. How do you assume that in April, May, June, that it's much better? I just don't know that you can. I think it's a terrible idea. I wouldn't do it.

You got to look at your long term future. I just, ugh. I think it's so dangerous. And I understand it's family, and I understand that makes it really, really hard. You've got to look out for you. And if you can't truly solve it, then you're just throwing money away. Yeah. I wouldn't do it.

Have I been clear on that? No, you haven't, but thank you for being clear. Thank you. Don't move. Anthony O'Neill, Ken Coleman, sitting in't, but thank you for being clear. Thank you. Don't move. Anthony O'Neill, Ken Coleman, sitting in here on the Dave Ramsey Show, coming right back. Welcome back to the Dave Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague Anthony O'Neill as we take you through this hour of The Dave Ramsey Show, 888-825-5225, talking about your life, your money, your work.

We're here for you. 888-825-5225. It is, Anthony, the most wonderful time of the year. I love it, I love it, I love it. And as we do, it seems like every year we do some amazing giveaways at DaveRamsey.com. Our Christmas giveaway is some extra cash, and everybody can use some extra cash. You can enter our Ramsey Christmas giveaway daily to increase your chances of winning our last $500 cash prize or our $5,000 grand prize.

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Brian is there. Brian, how can we help? Hi, guys. How's it going? We are living the dream. What's going on? Awesome. I've got a quick question for you.

So me and my wife are completely debt-free. We have a fully funded emergency fund, and we are looking at buying a house next year. So we're going to be saving for a down payment. We're going to put 50% down and do our 15 year mortgage, you know, like, like Dave recommends and everything. Now I really want to hit this hard and be able to save every last little penny that we can for this down payment. So my question is, should we also be investing that 15% into retirement while we're trying to save the down payment or just put that on hold?

How old are you, Brian? I'm 33. My wife is 35. Yeah, man. Right now, timing is of the essence. So if you were in your young 20s, I'd be like, yeah, I'm fine with that. But right now with you in your 30s, how long would it take you to get to that 50%? About another year.

A full year, 12 months. And that's a lot of time. Yeah. I would say, let me ask you this other question. Where you're living at right now is not hurting you, right? Like it's not like we have to be out within the next 12 months. It's a we desire to be out within the next 12 months, correct? Correct.

Yeah. So I would say I would stick to aggressively going towards that 50%, but do not stop the 15%. Now, if you were trying to get to your 10% to 20%, I would say that's okay to stop. But because you're over and beyond, I would say keep aggressively going after that. And if you want to put down 50%, instead of moving out next year in 2021, maybe move out in the spring or the summer of 2022, and you can accomplish both things. But right now, compound interest is you're not best friend. I'm 36. And so I don't want you to stop that magic from working on your behalf, just so you can get into a house just 12 months earlier.

So I would say do both of them. Yeah, I agree with that. And, Brian, here's the other thing. You know, you've got a really aggressive goal of a 50% down payment. You don't have to do that. That's a desire. But don't sacrifice your future on the altar of the immediate. And that's you trying to get that 50 which is a number that's really

impressive but it's not dave doesn't you know he doesn't recommend that if you want to pay cash for the house great but the point is is that uh there's some great houses out there uh don't let that burn a hole in your pocket and feel like that's what you got to do i think ao is absolutely right you guys are in great shape and you're going to thank him for that advice years and years from now. 888-825-5225. Let's go to Dallas, Texas now where Elizabeth is on the line. Elizabeth, how can we help? Good afternoon, gentlemen. How are you?

We're having a blast. What's going on with you? So we're going to be debt-free this month. Yay! That's awesome. How much are you paying off? Yeah, we're really excited. It'll be $37,000, and we started Valentine's Day weekend of this year. Wow. That's some serious, serious progress. Way to go. I like it. Yeah, we're very excited, but I guess part of my question is that it's also going to be our first wedding anniversary within a week of our payoff date.

Okay. And it's the holidays. And so with this new normal, we're just trying to think of ways to celebrate well because it's a big deal. And we want to make it a big deal in our family. Yes. So what's your question? I'm looking for suggestions, gentlemen. Suggestions on what?

How to celebrate? Yeah, how to celebrate well with not doing anything too large where we're making something foolish or... Oh, come on. Oh, come on now. You have been so disciplined and so amazing. Now, Ayo, this is a fun thing. So let's have...

We like to celebrate. Both A thing. We like to celebrate. Both Ayo and I like to celebrate. So let's be realistic. What's a number? Because you're not going to do anything foolish just by the fact that you called us. So what is a number now that you're debt-free that you think is a

reasonable number that doesn't make you feel a little too sick? Give me a financial number just off the top of your head. I'm not holding you to this. Like to spend on a celebration of some kind? Yes. The frugal person needs like $50, but I feel like that isn't enough. Give me the non-frugal party animal number, which I don't even know that exists inside of you after that answer. Come on, what's a big number? Like 200, I think, would be.

Because we didn't take a honeymoon or anything either. We took all of the money from our wedding. All right, hold on, Elizabeth. I'm going to have some fun here. We've got to do this quick, okay? We've got a couple minutes. Okay. What's your combined household income?

We make about $80,000 a year. Goodness gracious. What's your take-home, roughly? No, that's about $80,000. Oh, your take-home. Okay. Yes. I'm a special education teacher, and he works in occupational therapy.

Great. What's the biggest line item in your budget right now? Every month? Other than rent. Food, of course, food. What is your rent? $1,300. No, that doesn't make sense. $1,300. So you've already paid off the debt or you're about ready to? You're about ready to make the last payment. So I think you need to be spending. We're about to make the last payment. Okay, listen. I think it needs to be in the $2,000 range.

Just like really celebrate. I mean a big trip. That's what I think. They've got it. Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Do you have that or not, Elizabeth? Wait, wait.

Do you have three months in your emergency fund, Elizabeth? No. No, not yet. Yeah, so that's why I would say, like... We're on recession B, except two. Yeah, so I would say I get the celebration of your honeymoon, but before you drop two grand, I want you to get, you know, at least three months into your savings account.

So I would say right around $500 is a good thing to do. And it's not saying I get what Ken is saying. Y'all are celebrating. To be clear, I'm sorry, I missed that they wanted to spend it right away. I thought this is after you get that emergency fund and you're going to really, really celebrate. So I should stipulate. But I think this is a nice trip. You've never had a honeymoon.

You've worked really hard. I just think two grand is not that much given their income. But thank you for clarifying. Well, Ken, we will be done with Baby Step 3 in about March. Then there you go. Then that's when I do that. I'm talking like a nice trip. And I'm talking about like two, three grand.

Okay, so now we're on the same page. Yeah, because you're cash flowing this. Yes. That's all assumed here. Because you're celebrating not only just the marriage, your anniversary, but getting out of debt, having a fully funded emergency fund. Yeah. Go enjoy yourself. Come on.

$200, she said. $50. $50. I don't even know what you can barely go to a restaurant for $50. Listen, can't beat my wife. Oh, watch out. I love spending other people's money on vacation, especially people that are debt-free. This is a fun exercise.

I'd like to have a whole segment where we come up with vacation ideas. That'd be very fun. All right. Hey, don't go anywhere. The Dave Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague Anthony O'Neill, and we are here for you, taking your calls, 888-825-5225. Our scripture of the day comes from John 20, verse 29.

Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Our quote of the day comes from our friend Seth Godin. The secret of leadership is simple. Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there.

People will follow. 888-825-5225 is the number. Let's go to Toronto, Canada. Esther joins us there. Esther, how can we help? Hi, Ken. I'm really excited to talk to you today. Well, I'm excited to talk to you. Awesome.

So I am still working my baby steps. I do have money set aside, but I'm kind of afraid to pay off my debt because I'm looking to change careers. I am underutilized at my job, and I would like to go into sales. My problem is I'm 56, and it's been really hard for me to break into sales. I have a lot of experience in different parts of the sales field, some inside sales, some marketing with sales. When you say you've had a hard time breaking into sales, be specific. Does that mean you've applied for multiple sales jobs and you're not getting any bites? Right.

How are you applying? Are you just applying online, cold? Online. Yeah, online. I've had some interviews and not getting anywhere. Okay. Well, let me free your soul a little bit here because you applying just kind of online with no real connections

and just kind of putting yourself out there and then getting into the interview process, you should not be discouraged by that. It's a competitive world and in sales like that, and I do think that some people may judge you because of your age. I don't think that everybody will, but here's how you get around that. Yeah. I don't know if you've listened to my program enough to ever hear me talk about the proximity principle, which says in order to do what Esther wants to do, she's got to be around people that are doing it and in places

where it, let's call it sales, is happening. I ended up writing a book about it, the number one bestseller of the proximity principle. I'm going to give it to you when this phone call is happening. I ended up writing a book about it, the number one bestseller of the proximity principle, and I'm going to give it to you when this phone call is done. But here's how this actually works. So you're in Toronto, Canada, a major international city. You've got to start focusing on companies that have a product or a service that you get excited about selling. Now, when I say that, a couple things probably pop to mind, yes or no? Yeah, okay. Right? Yeah. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Because my background is actually in manufacturing,

specifically food, and everyone's got to eat. There you go. So that's an industry that's been doing very well. Absolutely. I want where I would, where I would like to be is an outside sales. Okay, great. So here's what I want you to do. So you start identifying some outside sales roles that you are intrigued by and that you would like to at least kick the tires on and go do the homework on the company, learn a little bit about the job itself, whatever they've published online. Then I want you to step back and go, okay, who do I know that works at that company? Do I know anybody, whether it's an acquaintance or a very close personal friend that works at company XYZ? If the answer is no, then the next question is, who do I know that knows somebody that works in that building? When

you begin to establish that connection, and you eventually can get there, okay, and I'll give you an option of what happens if you don't have that. But you keep turning over rocks until you find a connection who can vouch for you and will say, hey, let me tell you about Esther. She's fantastic. She's great. And if you work at it long enough, you're going to have to be patient. So I'm not selling a quick fix here, Esther.

But if you're patient, you begin that process and you get around other people that are successful in sales and that are not connected to these companies you're interested in, eventually it all kind of comes around. But you need to be talking to people who are successful in sales, building relationships with them, telling them, hey, you want to make the crossover. You've done inside sales. You've done all these other things that are of a support ancillary type nature around sales. And so you've got the skill set and you've got the experience, but you've got to get around people who are going, oh, Esther wants to move into this. I've got my ear to the ground and then opportunities come to you, but you've got to talk

it up. And I'm going to give you the book, which I want you to read. And I want you to do exactly what I tell you to do in each chapter. I've got homework assignments. It's really, really clear what to do, okay? But that's what you need to do there. Now, Anthony, I'm going to pull Anthony in because you're currently employed, correct? Yes, I work from home. Okay, so I'm going to bring Anthony in because on the baby steps, you're kind of going, I don't know because I want to transition.

You're not going to leap off of a giant diving board into the abyss. You're not going to leave what you're doing now until you've got an offer, a signed contract to go into sales, and you've figured out what you're going to make, what the commission opportunities are. You're not going to do anything willy-nilly, as we like to say. So, Anthony, talk to her about the baby steps and what she needs to be doing there. So catch us up on where you are in the baby steps and Anthony's going to jump in.

Where are you at, Esther? I'm probably babysat too. I'm still paying off my debt. How much debt are you paying off? I have a line of credit of almost $14,000. Okay, and is that the only debt you have currently? Yes. Oh, plus my mortgage and my house. Okay, And is that the only debt you have currently? Yes. Oh, plus my mortgage and my house.

Okay. I'm not worried about the mortgage right now. We're just focusing on the consumer debt. All right. And what's your income coming in right now? Gross. It is, well, I can tell you what it is biweekly. It's about $1310.

$1310. So you're looking at 26 20 all right um yeah so here's what we're going to do i mean i'm i'm not making a lot of money which is why i'm trying to get out of uh move into a career where i can make money right which i totally understand and i agree that you should um following ken's principles but let's just make sure that we at least keep the foundation of your finances at a good place. And so while you're transitioning using Ken's method and Ken's teaching, I want to highly recommend that you read this book. We need to go ahead and attack this debt. And we need to keep this income coming in until we can have a guaranteed income coming in that is more than $2,600 a month. That means, Esther, if you're selling things, that means if you're working a part-time job,

another part-time job from home, something like that, that's all helping you get forward. But here's why I had Anthony come in here to understand that. You're never going to put yourself in a position here where you would have to stop working the baby steps. When you get the sales job, you're going to make more money, more money than you've ever made before. And then you'll be able to pay it off faster. But at 56, don't limit yourself because of your age. Your relationships are what limit you. Relationships are the currency to progress. And if you really work it, you can get a great sales job and do very, very well.

But I would not pause your baby steps. I would not pause it because, again, I want to encourage you, even though you don't make a huge amount of money, $14,000 is not a huge amount of debt to pay off. And all of a sudden, you're debt-free, new career, and now you're working on paying off that house, and you're a very wealthy lady so uh hang on the line we're going to do two things kelly let's do this uh let's give her proximity the proximity principle so she can figure out how to get that better job in that bigger shovel yes and then let's also give her the option of total money makeover if she's already got it then let's uh you know what to do best there. Kelly, you've been around a long time.

So let's help her with whatever she needs to get through those baby steps. Maybe it's Ramsey Plus is the right fit for her there. So either way, that's our gift to you because we love giving away Dave's stuff. Absolutely. It's not our money. It's his money. I'm just playing. Yeah.

No, you're not. It's actually his. So she needs to be encouraged that she can still move through the baby stuff she still can and i get i get a little frustrated when i hear people say well i want to pause so i can transition well let's talk about because if you pause when you transition you come back to a mess that you could have actually cleared up before you transitioned and so i would encourage everyone listening right now. No matter where you are, I want you to really, really focus on transitioning in a healthy

way. Creating a solid... And you do that by creating a solid foundation wherever you are. Really good stuff. Hey, it's always fun to be with you, my friend. Ken Coleman, man. I need to come on your show and do this. Come on. Let's go. We'll do it. Y'all heard it here, America. He said I can come, I need to come on your show and do this. Come on. Let's go. We'll do it. Y'all heard it here, America. He said I can come.

I need to talk to your people. See if we can make that happen. You're a busy guy. Hey, I want to thank our producer, James Childs, our associate producer, Kelly Daniel, but most of all, we want to thank you, America, for listening. This is your show. This is The Dave 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 over to DaveRamsey.com and click Dave Recommends. Thanks for listening.