The Ramsey Show - App - How Long Should It Take Me To Get Out of Debt? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: January 3, 2023

George Kamel & Ken Coleman answer your questions and discuss: "Should I buy a house before I get married to protect myself in case of divorce?" "How long should it take me to get out of debt?" "How should I reveal to my new employer that I was recently let go?" Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Ramsey personality, George Campbell, joined by my pal and confidant, bestselling author, Ken Coleman. He's here as well, and he is excited to take your calls about work, about purpose, about your career. And boy, is there a lot in the news in that regard, Ken.

So we're going to get to that. Yeah, taking your money questions. Georgie Boy is the expert. I mean, he just flat out knows how to answer it. I was bragging about you over the break. I was talking to some friends. I said, I got to connect you to my pal. They were asking me a little bit of a nuanced money question. That was your way to get out of that. I'm your baby steps guy. I'm your FPU coordinator guy.

The nuanced retirement question, some of that, you're the guy. Yeah. And you've done a great job. So George is here for the money questions. I'm the work guy at Ramsey Solutions. So, you know, your work, your job is your greatest wealth-building tool, as Dave has said for decades. I want to help you there.

I want to help you maximize your potential there. So if you've got a sticky situation, an unknown, should I take the leap in 2023? I'm here to answer those questions. So let's have some fun today. The number to call is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. And Happy New Year to all of you listening out there, America.

It's our first show back in 2023. I broke out the cardigan. It was time. Yeah, I felt like the cardigan was the first of the year of your choice. I love it. Well, let's jump into it. Adam is kicking us off this hour in New York City. Adam, welcome to the show. Hello, George. Hello, Ken. Good afternoon. Thank you very much for taking the call and happy new year. Happy new year. Thank

you. What's going on? So I have, speaking of nuance, right, somewhat of a nuanced question that I also think would present kind of a deeper dive into finances and other items. But one thing that, and just to give background to the question, right, I'm a younger person, 30 years old, have a decent amount of savings set up. And I've been with my partner, my girlfriend for about almost three years now. When you break down in just in terms of percentages and savings, you know, the big goal that I have for myself is buying a home. Some would have left that arena over the last 18 months or so due to the crazy things we've seen in the tri-state area, more specifically New Jersey. But I have about, if you could pool our assets, right, maybe about 90 to 95% of what to go into.

And, you know, she's a child of divorce. People in my family are no stranger to divorce. And one thing I'm thinking about doing is trying to acquire a house as a premarital asset in a way of kind of protecting myself, not knowing that the future would hold. I don't know if that's the right way to be thinking about it, but working in finance, I maybe am jaded by seeing this over time and time again. So maybe that's not the best mindset to have, but I can't help it. I think that could be a benefit to me and a smart financial move. So I just want to get your opinion on that.

Before we weigh in on the opinion and George leading on this one, I'm just curious. Why do you think that's a good move? And it's funny that you refer to it as a premarital asset. It's very, very stuffy. Very, very, you know, like what do you think that's a good move? And it's funny that you refer to it as a premarital asset. It's very, very stuffy. Very, very, you know, like, what do you mean? I thought it was romantic, Ken. No, not at all. What do you think it's going to do for you?

Well, so I've seen before where if in the event that me and my girlfriend take the next step and it doesn't work out within, that's six months two years five years ten years whatever timeline that may be hold on a second hold on hold on hold on hold on and i'm just trying to get context if you take the next step does that mean get married correct and it doesn't work out so we're already we're already uh planning for the worst uh it's something that i've done for most of my life that i have a hard time not doing yeah isn't having the worst in your mind and trying to plan so keep going so if the worst happens why is having this premarital asset known as a house why is that protecting you my understanding is that if, right, worst case scenario would be we get divorced, I lose the house, and now I kind of have to restart over.

And my understanding is it was a premarital asset, and then we decided to sell the home. We would have equal access to the proceeds where I wouldn't essentially be kicked out of my own house or something like that. All right, George, that's what I needed to know. Got it. Now we see where he's coming from. Well, what you're saying is, and correct me if I'm wrong, you want to buy this house, your name is on the deed, your name is on the mortgage, and her name is not a part of this at all. Let's say you guys get married. You would still, it would remain that way.

Correct. You're asking for a roommate at that point. why would she not want some skin in the game too and say hey what's what's mine is now ours this is we that's a good question when you look at the dating oh well this is my thing i had before we were married and so i'm going to keep it in my name to play it safe what do you think that does to her emotionally and mentally yeah it's a very fair point and i hold no ill will towards her whatsoever and would obviously want to welcome her into all aspects of my life. You didn't answer the question. You did not answer the question. You're a very thoughtful young man.

I mean, like, really thoughtful. But if you're on that, put yourself in her shoes. How do you think she's going to feel? Terrible. All right, that's just not how I want to start the marriage. Now, understand the heart of it. You're scared because you've seen this play out in your family family and you've seen people or you've seen the YouTube comments on any video about marriage where they're saying, don't get married. She's just trying to take you

for all your worth. She's going to take you to the cleaners. They all sound like that to me, for some reason in the comment section. And it's just a real kind of gross outlook towards marriage. There's a lot of negativity, a lot of cynicism. And I think the best thing you can do, if you really want to go this route, you can do a prenup. If there's inordinate levels of wealth, let's say you're coming in, you've got a million dollar debt worth and she's not working or she makes a smaller salary, you could pursue a prenup as a way to protect yourselves. But doing the kind of shady, I did this before we were married, so it's mine, that's going to create a ruffle. And so I would talk about it, first of all, communicate as a couple

and decide together what we're going to do, if you're even going to go that route. Okay, I see what you mean because I never knew that those things, I thought that even a prenup, I don't know, I guess I'm not really good at preparing for the worst. I just didn't even know that that was a differentiator. Well, here for the worst. I just didn't even know that that was a differentiator. I think it's one thing to batten down the hatches, if you will, an old phrase, that when a storm is coming, let's kind of protect the windows.

But you don't know that there's a storm coming. That's a good point. It's like, you know, because you try and time everything perfect and you worst case scenario isn't the way you should live your entire life adam how old are you 30 adam i am 48 and next may or this coming may stacy and i will celebrate 25 years of marriage i'm not a marriage expert congratulations thank. Thank you. I don't say that to get applause. I appreciate the lobby folks saying that, but I tell you this, here's what I've learned in 25 years of marriage. You can't plan for much at all other than your emergency fund,

right? Because life is going to happen. It's going to rain. That's why we preach the emergency fund. I would tell you this, if you can afford the house the way that we teach you to do it, and you get the house and then bring her in once you get married and it's our house, and then if the worst happens, you still made a good financial decision and you're still better off. George? I'm with you on that. And when that time comes, there's a lot of state laws. There's a lot of things that you need to take into account if it did go south. And so you can do some research, do your homework, but don't let that delay you from getting married and making it weak. That's what marriage is.

If you don't want that, don't sign up for marriage. It's going to end in a pain for both parties here. So thank you so much for the call. Wishing you the best, man. The number to call, 888-825-5225. This is The Ramsey Show. welcome back to the ramsey show i'm george camel joined by ken coleman this hour and it's a free call at 888-825-5225 and if if you like this show, which I hope you are, you're listening to it right now,

would you mind doing us a huge favor and leaving a review, sharing with a friend, subscribing, wherever you're listening, following. That helps us spread the impact of this show. We want to reach as many people as we can this year and give them hope in every area, whether it's their money, their career, their health. And so we really appreciate that.

888-825-5225 is the number to call. Lauren's up next in Oklahoma City. Lauren, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hey, guys. Happy New Year. Thanks so much for taking my call. Happy New Year. How can we help?

So I am trying to figure out, you know, how do you guys calculate or estimate how long it will take someone to pay off debt, or me in particular, to pay off debt? I love it. Well, that's a great goal to have. How much debt do you have? Between credit cards, student loans, and my car, it's right around $69,000. Okay. And what's your income? $66,000. Okay. And what's your income? 66. Okay. And how much margin do you have right now? Have you started doing a budget? Have you been kind of following our steps for a little while or is this all new to you? Yeah. I actually started my budgeting about, I think like October, so a couple months ago. And I've got roughly, I've got, well, no, I have set $500 extra that I can for sure put towards it. But, you know,

sometimes I have a little bit more than that, that I can do, like just, that's what I know I can do. That's great. Well, it takes about 90 days to get that budget really dialed in. And so you're right about that point. You've got some margin left over. And we have a great tool, actually, on our website, the Debt Snowball Calculator, where you can input every single one of your numbers, and it will show you, based on how much extra you're throwing at that very first debt, exactly how long it will take. Have you been through Financial Peace University before? No, sir, I haven't.

Okay, well, I'm going to gift that to you to kickstart the new year. And there's a bunch of tools and resources inside of that, as well as, of course, the nine video lessons and so much more. So if you hang on the line, I'll get that to you. And we're still going to talk about your situation, but I want to let you know that is kind of the next steps for you. So the 69... Oh, yeah, thank you so much.

Oh, absolutely. So the 69 in debt, you're making 66. What are you doing for work? I'm a civilian federal. Okay, awesome. And are you able to work over time? Some, but no, not like a lot. Do you have personal freedom, that means in your personal life, to take on a second job? Probably not one that I could, it would have to be something I could kind of make my own schedule, just, you know, with kids and life and whatever. So how many hours would you have? Just a rough estimate. I know you've got to sit down and figure this out,

but what would you say you'd have in a given week to put towards a second job? Side hustle. Maybe 10 to 15 hours. Great. What we want you to do is, and again, George gave you that great resource, the calculator, the debt payoff, that thing is phenomenal. It's going to give you the answer you called in for, but we want to speed that up.

And if you can put 10 to 15 hours a week in at, let's say, $15 an hour, just run that exercise for yourself just to see what could be. And then you begin to look, okay, where can I go get something for 10 to 15 hours that pays me $15 an hour or more? I don't want you to limit yourself to $15 an hour. It's just an example. And Lauren, when it comes to debt payoff, obviously we want a big chunk as possible to throw at that first debt. That's the debt snowball. List them all out, smallest to largest, attack the first one with a vengeance. And as you're doing that, it becomes kind of addictive to see how much more can I throw with this next

month and next month. And so when it comes to margin, you said you have 500 bucks extra. I want to figure out ways to get more margin. So that's what we're doing right now. There's only two ways to get it. You can spend less or you can make more. And making more on top of working extra, you could sell stuff. What's this car worth? I don't know for certain, but maybe $25,000, $26,000-ish. And what do you owe on it? $16,000. Okay. So there's an option. I'm not saying go do that tomorrow, but it's an option to go, hey, I could sell this car for 26. I owe 16. That leaves me with $10,000. I can go buy a $5,000,

$6,000, $8,000 car, free me up from that payment and have a few grand left over to throw at the debt. And so if this looks like it's too long of a journey, that is something I would consider doing. What is your car payment every month? It's $295. Boom. So that makes it, instead of $500 margin, you get $800 now. Now you're starting to cook with gas. And you get another side hustle, $200, $300. Now you're over $1,000 a month to throw out the debt. And so my goal for you would be to have this paid off, based on the numbers I'm seeing, within two years. Does that feel like a stretch for you right now? I mean, yes. That's kind of why I'm just, whenever I kind of tried to calculate it, it was looking at, you know, maybe like four or five years. And when you see that 500 number, well, if you do that for the year, that's only six grand you threw at that pile of debt.

Right. And so we need to find a way to make that more like 20 grand a year, 30 grand a year being thrown at this debt. And if you get to, you know, 33 a year, that's with the payments you're already making, that would get you there in two years. And that's the average amount of time it takes for folks following our baby steps with Gazelle Intensities. 18 to 24 months, they pay off all consumer debt. And I believe it's possible for you. Okay. okay yeah that's what i was trying to work out is how can how can i be one of those people with the average sell stuff i can tell you we've covered cutting expenses getting on that budget we've covered making more money but selling stuff i'll give you a real life example

okay we have an emergency fund but i hate touching. The only thing I hate more than touching my emergency fund is taxes. All right. I don't know how much you hate taxes. I don't like pulling money out of the emergency fund. All right. So we recently had a situation where one of our kids wanted to change schools. We were in a contract. We did not realize the contract was tough to get out of. So we had a $3,000 kind of a penalty. And I could have, it's not an emergency, right? But we needed to come up with it quickly and I hadn't budgeted for it. You know what we did, George? What'd you do? You sold something? We sold several things and came up with almost all of it. Wow. Yeah. What was the highest ticket item you sold? Oh, geez. Give me something.

You're going to make me say this? You know what it is. It's not a car. No, I sold the Peloton. Whoa. I got over it. Wow. And I know how much you love that Peloton. I loved it.

But it had its season for you. And I knew it was a depreciating asset. That's true. And I got over $1,000 for that sucker. That's pretty good. Let me tell you something. I just want people to understand that we didn't have to do that. I could have changed my budget and paid for the $3,000. But I mean, why would I do that? You had it laying around the house.

Well, we found it. I mean, we had a lot of things. We sold several things. We sold some clothes. We sold some stuff around the house on ENT. Stuff that we just weren't, like we looked there first and almost created the entire amount from selling stuff. That's impressive. So Lauren, start searching the couch cushions and closets. See what you can sell on Facebook marketplace and make some extra money on the side. And if you do all of those things, compounded, if you go through your budget and you say, what am I actually paying for every month? You know, I don't need that subscription right now. I can cut that. I'm overpaying for insurance because it's my old buddy from State Farm when I was in college. I'm going to start searching around with Zander Insurance to see if I can get a better rate.

You start to do that across every single area. And all of a sudden you go, oh my gosh, I just gave myself a raise. I found 500 bucks a month to throw this debt. Is your old buddy from State Farm named Jake, by the way? There's always a guy named Jake. Okay. And it's always a guy you went to college with who sold you on some insurance plan that you forgot to look into. Lauren, you got this, don't you? Yes. You got some confidence now, don't you? Yeah, I actually just went through all my subscriptions the other night and either lessened them or cancel them altogether and I've shuffled some things around to where

it's a little more, a little easier to see you know, what I own. And Lauren, you've got friends, right? She has friends, Ken. She's got lots of friends. Go borrow their Netflix password if you want to watch them. They'll be alright. Hey, I hear Netflix is cracking down on that, George. Before they do,

it's time to catch up on Emily in Paris, right, Ken? I don't even know what that is. He's pretending. He's a huge fan. All right, Lauren, hang on the line. Austin's going to pick up. We're going to gift you one year of Financial Peace University as well as every dollar premium to help you along this journey.

And here's my only request. If I give you all that, I want you to come and do your debt-free scream and share your story with America to show them what the other side of gazelle intensity looks like. We are so proud of you. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Ken Coleman this hour. And on the debt-free stage in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, it's Amanda.

Hey. Amanda, how you doing? Hey. So if you're on the debt-free stage, it means one thing only. You are debt-free. Yes. Congratulations. Thank you.

Where are you from? Well, I was living in Georgia when I was paying off debt, but I'm currently in the process of moving to Colorado. Nice. And all my stuff is in a storage pod. Look at you. Did you use pods moving to storage? I did.

That wasn't even planned. Wow. George with a little extra commission on that. That's a big win for me. So Amanda, tell us how much debt you paid off. A little over $60,000 in 19 months. Whoa. That's pretty intense.

What was your range of income during that time? A little over $60,000 in 19 months. Whoa. Wow. That's pretty intense. What was your range of income during that time? I started at $74,000, and then with working overtime weekends at a second job, I went up to about $100,000. Wow. You're not scared of work. That's for sure. What do you do? Yeah, what do you do?

I'm an occupational therapist. Wow. Great career. And then what was the overtime second job? As an occupational therapist at the local hospital to work weekends. Stick to what you know, and it makes good money. Yep. That's fantastic. So what kind of debt was the 60?

It was about $40,000 of student loans slash a personal loan. So it was my parents that loaned me the money for the rest of my grad school. But I would say it was a pretty serious loan when your mom writes out an amortization schedule and makes you sign it. Oh, hello. That is next level. Did she deliver that with a Hallmark card? Yeah. Merry Christmas. Here's some interest. Amortization schedule from mom. Yikes. If mom whips out that word, you're in dangerous waters. She's an accountant, and I have a dad as an engineer, so. Okay. You're used to that. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Okay. So was this, did you pay it off before Thanksgiving dinner?

Got awkward? When was this? Yeah. I paid it off over the summer. Oh, that's great. Good for you. Okay. So what else?

You had a student loan, personal loan? And then it was also $20,000 on a car because when you get a real job, you have to get a new car, right? That's right. Yeah. It's a rite of passage to do something stupid. Okay. And what kind of car was this?

It's a RAV4. And you still got it? Mm-hmm. Great vehicle. Out in the parking lot. Oh, love it. Well, me and Ken will go check it out. Yeah, sure. We're car guys this? It's a RAV4. And you still got it? Mm-hmm. Great vehicle. Out in the parking lot. Oh, love it. Me and Ken will go check it out. Yeah, sure.

We're car guys. Take it for a spin. Okay, so tell us how you got on this Ramsey journey. What got you started on the Ramsey way? So I had been slowly paying off my loans over 2021. And then I was at a gas station, and my credit card was all mangled. And I was trying to shove it in the thing to pay gas. And it I was at a gas station and my credit card was all mangled. And I was like trying to shove it in the thing, you know, to pay gas. And it made me go inside and I had to read

off the number to the guy at the gas station. I was like, well, that was annoying. And so I was like, maybe I've been swiping this thing a few too many times. And so then I went home and I looked at my credit card statement and I had always paid it off, you know, with what was in my checking account. And the first time the balance was higher than what was in my checking account. And I was like, this is not going to work. I got to figure something out. And I was just like, so embarrassed at that. I had spent $600 on food the month before. So that you had that pit in the stomach feeling going, Oh my gosh, I can't even afford to pay this off. Yeah. Um, so then I had heard of Dave Ramsey in the past and I started

to listen to the podcast and then went to an FPU class and got serious. So then over the next seven months, I paid off $45,000. Whoa. So 45 was gone in seven months? Yeah, the last seven months. How did you do that? I just worked every day almost, except for maybe two days a month. I stopped eating out. I used the EveryDollar app. I just really cut down on my expenses and put every extra dollar. You were living on nothing. Yeah. What kind of meals were you eating?

Because you said you were spending a lot on food. What shifted? I just quit. How did it switch? Quit going out, quit buying drinks out, and as much going out with friends and just ate more at home. Did they understand or were they like, oh, that's weird, but okay. Yeah, I had some friends that were like, I mean, I guess that's what you want to do,

but I mean, I'm not going to do it. But you survived it socially. I did. I did survive it. You still have friends. Yes, I do still have friends. Because a lot of people are scared to do this plan because they go, I got to live my life, George.

What do you want me to do, man? Yeah. How far did you stretch your groceries? I shop at Aldi a lot. so i'm a big aldi shopper and george is so happy right now warmed my heart you put the quarter in the cart yeah you went viral for telling people that that's right what was your controversial statement i said the average meal at home is four bucks average meal eating out is 13 bucks it's 225 percent more 3.25 times more and i got so much hate skewered yeah but you're telling me that it's true it's way cheaper to go shop at aldi than it because people

say well oh yeah my time is worth something george and your time is clearly worth a lot more than theirs is you make good money yeah how do you justify just cooking at home and wasting all of your time doing dishes and cooking um i like cooking, so it wasn't too bad. But I just made time for them and realized that on the other end, then I can eat out whenever I want when I don't have to pay debt. Boom. There it is. What was your first meal like after you paid off the debt? You're like, I'm going to live a little. Do you remember it? I don't know if I really had a big one. I can't really think of it. You were still shopping at Aldi?

Yeah, I still shop at Aldi. Yeah. I love that. In the RAV4, there's this little compartment that coined, and I have one quarter in there for my Aldi cart. Yes. I don't even know what this is. To get a shopping cart out, you have to put a quarter into the cart.

It's very old-timey, and that releases the cart for you to shop with. Boy, that takes nickel and diming to another level. But it forces you to go put back the cart to get your quarterback out. Oh, you get the quarterback. Once you put the cart back. Oh, these Audi people. Is it obvious to everybody that I've never darkened the door of an Audi before? Yeah.

Well, it's Aldi. Aldi. Aldi is a vehicle manufacturer. I know what Audi is. Oh, it's Aldi. Yeah. Okay. All right.

I think it's german i'm gonna take some notes over here this is not a sponsored uh call for i feel like this whole thing took on like a food network uh theme well ken this is big for people her age it is one of the biggest hardest part was it not hanging out with friends was it what was the most difficult part of this journey because you went after it um i think the hardest part was just not taking as many vacations not doing as much trying to make things cheaper and then honestly just working a lot i mean i worked three weekends a month so i had like two days off a month so i didn't really have time to do anything anyways what was the okay so i we hear these stories a lot and i i love the

fact that you are younger uh what would you say to young people who are in the situation you were in and they're faced with working themselves to where they're bone tired, but for a very clear goal, what did you mentally say to yourself? When you felt tired, maybe you didn't want to go in, you kept working crazy hours. What was the message for yourself? I think I had never planned to live in Georgia and I always wanted to move after that. So it was the fact that if I wanted to move and do something else, like I didn't want debt strapped on my back. So it was just kind of the end goal of I'd rather just do this short term, work a bunch, get it over with, and then I can do what I want. Do what you have to do so you can do what you

want to do. I love that. So many people have goals, they have dreams, and they can't pursue those because money is an obstacle in their life. And I love your story because you're saying, hey, if you would just be willing to sacrifice for 19 months for you, you can have all of that on the other side. I never could have made this move to Colorado and had my stuff in a storage pod and taken a few weeks off work. If I was living paycheck to paycheck, I never could have made it happen. So I felt like once I did that, kind of like the world is your oyster. Now I can do what I want and go where I want. And yeah. So what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? I think the budget was big for me, like realizing where I was spending

my money and where I could really cut back. And then also just having that end goal in mind. That's awesome. Well, we've got the live and give box for you to gift to someone else to use it for yourself. It includes the total money makeover, baby steps, millionaires, and one year financial peace university. Have you been through the newest edition? No, I did it right before it changed. Oh, well, maybe time to go through it and take a friend along with the journey who went, Hey, what do you, that stuff you did when you weren't eating out and now you don't have any debt. Can you show me how to do that? That's what's going to start happening. And we're so proud of you. And real quick,

who do you got with you? I got some support with you. This is my mom. Hey, mom. Love it. She's the one that made the schedule. The amortization schedule. Oh, I know. Trust me. That's why I wanted to get some attention on her. All right. We don't hear that one very often. Accountants love attention. I know that. Oh, that is true. Oh, my goodness. Well, we are so, so proud of you. You are us.

Just showing people what it looks like to do this plan and do it with a smile and still enjoy your life. And now you've got the rest of it ahead of you to truly live your dreams, achieve your goals without debt on your shoulders. All right. The moment we've all been waiting for, Ken. Yep. It's Amanda from Macon, Georgia.

$60,000 paid off in 19 months, making $74,000 up to $100,000 with overtime and crushing it and shopping at Aldi. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. One, two, three. I'm debt-free! Yes, she is.

That's so fun. She never wants to hear the word amortization schedule again. Or Aldi, apparently. No. I needed my apologies to the fine grocery chain. I'll get that right for the future. Oh, but I love it. Willing to do whatever it takes for freedom.

Solving for freedom. That's what I want for all of you listening in 2023. Amanda showed you. Now it's up to you. Are you going to do this stuff or not? You get to make that choice. This is The Ramsey Show. All right, listen up for the business owners out there. Do you feel like you never have time to work on your business because you're too busy working in it? Well, you are not alone. We talk to thousands of business owners every year.

One of their biggest problems is not having enough time. So if you feel that way, let this be the year you learn to trust your team and delegate tasks so you can really do the important work of growing your business. You can find out exactly how to do that by checking out Delegation, the latest quick read from Dave Ramsey that drops today. That's right. You'll learn the why, the when, and how to delegate, and you'll learn the two reasons why owners don't delegate and how you can overcome them. I mean, you're learning how to delegate from Dave Ramsey himself, the same guy who started his small business with two employees and now leads over 1,100 team members here at Ramsey Solutions. He knows a

thing or two about delegation. And remember, your business will only grow and thrive to the extent that you commit to delegating. So pick up your copy of the delegation quick read today at ramsesolutions.com slash store. And while you're waiting for that book to arrive, you can check out the latest episode of the Entree Leadership Podcast, which I host. And Dave Ramsey and James Clear are our guests on this episode, and they talk about the importance of habits and delegation. You don't want to miss this one. You can find the Entree Leadership Podcast for free wherever you stream your podcasts. Open phones this hour, 888-825-5225. We're taking your calls about money, life, work, purpose, you name it. And Mitchell is on the line in Montgomery, Alabama.

Mitchell, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks, guys. I appreciate y'all and Ramsey Solutions. I've taught FPU at my church, and the situation I'm in now is I have lost my job. I had worked at a school, a private school where I had a great head of school that I worked for, and he left. And shortly after that, the board chair came in and told me that my position would be eliminated. So I'm on about an eight-week leave and then working on finding something else. So my question is a couple-fold, but mainly how do I represent this time to future employers, future schools?

I'm also looking at educational consulting firms, and I've had my own consulting firm before, so I'm thinking about just starting that up. But how do I represent? I've got some interviews coming up, and I am still employed by the school. I coach there still. I've decided to stay on and do that and finish up the season. But just curious how you, in your wisdom, would represent that to future employers. It's a great question, and let's start with you don't need to have any sense of shame. I mean, people get laid off. I mean, we saw some very large companies with a pattern of, you know,

sizable layoffs as we went into the fourth quarter, third, fourth quarter of last year. It's largely because people are trying to anticipate a recession. So layoffs in uncertain economic times, it's kind of the norm. And it's also very normal when you have transition at the top. So you've been laid off in a certainly uncertain economic time, and you were also laid off as a result of leadership transition. So there's nothing to be ashamed of. I'm speaking to your heart and your head first. But it sounds like to me, you're still employed there. So as you're representing this, you're not even bringing up the fact that you've been laid off. I mean, you're still employed there. It's just you stayed on as a coach. It

may be less money, maybe less time, but it's not like you have to go in and go, well, I just got laid off, but I decided to stay as a coach. I mean, the bottom line is you are very experienced as an educator, true or false? True, 24 years in school. And you were also, you were not laid off because of any type of behavior or lack of production, true or false?

That's true, I was not. It's restructuring and mainly financial for the school. So that's the narrative. If you even have to bring it up. But the bottom line is you're still employed, correct? Yes, I will be until the middle of February. So as you're searching and they're saying okay why are you joining us the the answer is simple um the school the recent headmaster who i work for

he's transitioned out uh the board is looking to make several organizational changes and uh it's pretty apparent to me that i'm not going to be in the long term there due to financial reasons and i want to stay in the game i mean mean, that's the conversation. That's the narrative. There's no shame. There's no spin. It's just the facts. Great. And there's nothing. Listen, they appreciate that because you've got something to offer. So you're always focusing on what you can do. But when they're asking why you want to join us, you're not trashing anybody. You're not, you're taking the high road, which you have on this call. And so you control the narrative. Hey, bottom line is new. My old leader who I loved is gone. Financial issues at the school. And it's best for me to move on. And I want to stay active and I want to be proactive,

not wait for the, for the shoe to fall, if you will. I'm going to move forward. So that's all I would do. That's great. Let me ask you this. I started my own educational consulting firm a few years back to give my wife flexibility to follow her career, and I'm planning to just open that back up in the near term, not knowing what the future holds would it that be another positive direction that i decided to open that up and leave the school did you make did you make the same kind of money when you were doing that as a consultancy that you're making that you were making uh in a

full-time educating role ironically i made almost double oh gee whiz yeah yeah i i would absolutely start it back up do you have reason to believe that you're going to be able to get back to that kind of revenue pretty quickly uh you know it's all all based on network relationships and uh pandemic help too i helped some schools change their model in the pandemic and that's what it was. Then I tell you what I would do. Based on how you answered that, I don't think your confidence level is there that it's going to do that. So what I would do is I would keep applying, keep interviewing, and let's land a traditional role in education. And then let's also do this other thing on the side.

Let's see where it goes. And if it starts to spike back up again, then I think I'd go that route, depending on what you want to do. Do you want to work for yourself or you don't work for an institution as just, I'm on this team? I think you get to decide that. But as of right now, I would not just bank on the consultancy firing back up that quickly. I would hedge my bets by getting another education job, relaunching the consultancy, and let's see what happens. That sounds great. Thank you for what you do, and I'm able to rest easy because we have the emergency fund. We're debt-free except for the house. That's amazing. That is awesome. Proud of you, Mitchell. Keep your head up. I know it stinks. And I would also say, Mitchell, don't touch that emergency fund.

Losing your job is under the level of an emotional emergency, but it does not have to be, George. No, I'm going to try to keep income coming in. Financial emergency. Let me explain that because there are layoffs on the horizon. I mean, I'm just telling you, I don't know where, I don't know when, I can't see into a crystal ball like that. But anytime you have talk of a recession, certainly for larger companies, this affects public company employees certainly more than others. But if the recession really does begin to strain small businesses, then you're going to see an impact there. But you should have a plan at all times. The emergency fund is for those emergencies, but you should also have a plan, just like when we get on a plane to fly somewhere,

George, and the fine flight attendants get up and, hey, if there is a water landing, you know, here's what you do. And George never pays attention, so I have to pay attention for him. Thank you. And, you know, it's like, do I have a plan? If I, if I had to have a water landing, if I was laid off, what would be my first three moves? Okay. Or you, you make up the number, but I think people don't do that enough. And so the point is, is like, all right, so do I have some relationships that I know I could call? And I know that I'm pretty confident I can get a 15, $20 an hour job, or or I can get this or I've got something I could sell.

Start to plan like you would for a storm. And when the storm hits, you've got a plan. You've got an evacuation route. You've got water, non-perishable food. That's the idea financially so that, I mean, professionally and occupationally, so that if a layoff hits you, it's not a true emergency. It just sucks. And it's one reason to do this Ramsey plan.

Because like Mitchell's situation, he goes, it's unfortunate, it's frustrating, but I'm not freaking out either. No. Because I've got a pile of money in the bank, I don't owe people money, and it changes how you make those decisions. So good wisdom there, Ken. Wishing the best for you, Mitchell. Thanks so much for calling in. That puts this hour of The Ramsey Show in the books. My thanks to my co-host, Ken Coleman, all the folks in the booth. We got Austin, Ben, James,

Zach, and Nathan, and you, America. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back real soon. Dave here. You can find all of our shows with the Ramsey Network app on your smartphone. It's the only place to listen to the entire back catalog of episodes. Download the Ramsey Network app in your favorite app store today.