The Ramsey Show - App - How To Budget on a Variable Income (Hour 1)

Episode Date: August 31, 2022

Dave Ramsey & Ken Coleman discuss: What to look for in a new career, What to do when you don't get the raise you were promised, Preparing to live with a roommate, How to budget on a fluctuating income. 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

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. We help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Thank you for joining us. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, number one best-selling author and host of The Ken Coleman Show, is my co-host today as we answer your questions about your life and your money. The phone number is 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Caroline starts this hour in Philadelphia.

Hi, Caroline. How are you? Hi, I'm good. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? I am looking for advice. I'm considering making a career change in the very early stages and looking for advice

on just things to consider and want to make sure I make good decisions that are not emotions based. What are you looking to shift to? I originally was thinking, so I guess a little background with drove this switch was I got divorced a little over a year ago. Um, it was unexpected. There was an affair found out a couple of weeks before the stay at home order. So it's been a rough couple of years, but kind of getting out of that and, um, realizing, I don't think that the career that I'm in right now is such a good fit for me and that I was doing it kind of making career decisions, mostly based on thinking I was going to have a family. So kind of looking to shift that and trying to just kind of think about what should I be

prioritizing? What, you know, what should, what questions should I be asking? So you're not completely sure where you want to go. You just know that you're not where you want to be. Is that fair? Yeah. Yes. And so I will say I'm a CPA right now. In all this upheaval, you're saying life's too short to do something I don't like doing. Exactly.

Yep. Yep. What have you been doing? I've been a CPA since I graduated college, so about 11 years. All right. So when someone presents this to me, I know that you have ideas. I don't think that your brain right now is an empty chalkboard or empty whiteboard. I think you've been wondering about something or you're at least curious about a path. Is that true or false? So I was kind of dead set on wanting to switch to teaching

for a while. And then I went and interviewed for an apprentice role and did a demo lesson and realized, I think this combined with just, you know, I'd mapped out the budget. It would have been, you know, a third of what I'm making now. What are you making right now? Actually what I'm doing around 140. Okay. 140. So, so what drew you to teaching? Was it the instruction part? Was it the research? Was it more of a people focus? I just want to influence people. What's drawing you to these ideas that you have?

So I think there were two pieces. I think part was I really like working with people. I like coaching people. I like teaching younger people early on in their careers. But I think part of it, too, was my ex-husband and I were just about to start planning to have kids when we divorced and I think a piece of it was thinking oh I'm never gonna have kids and now at least I'll work with kids so like when I say that emotional piece how old are you I'm in my mid-30s never have kids is not necessarily true true yeah and I think I'm

starting to see that so that's like where I'm like, Oh, maybe that choice was kind of more emotional driven. And what do I actually want to do that I won't regret later? I think that's right. And I think you need to trust that. So let's go back to the decision before you got into CPA. I'm just curious, if you look at your background, what you're good at, good with numbers, good at math. I'm just curious, if you look at your background, what you're good at, good with numbers, good at math. I'm just curious, as you start to think through that, what drew you to be in a CPA? Was there something that you were at least intrigued by, or is there a part of your current work that you do enjoy? That's what I want to focus on.

I mean, I like the project management piece. I don't mind the attention to detail working with numbers, but I think it was really just more of a fear-based decision early on, like wanting something secure and safe that makes money. Okay. But the clues right there that you gave me, we want to start to lock in on that. So we know that you like project management. You're a detailed person. It's something that comes natural to you. You notice the details probably irritate you when things aren't detailed and efficiency is something that gives you juice. If you're involved in producing efficiency and excellence, you get fired up. Is that true? No, I'm good at it. I've done it for so long.

I really like working with people. Yeah. Okay. So, okay, great. That's great though. So, so now you want to start to focus on people-focused work. I want to drive results with people. Maybe you're thinking, I want to influence people, and I don't mind being involved in efficiency and strategies and that type of work as long as it's people-focused. I'm going to give you a quick exercise that you can do. I'm not going to make you do it on the air because it puts you under pressure, but there's an exercise for you that's going to give you great clarity. I want you to answer these three questions before you hit the sack tonight. Number one, who are the people you most want to help? Allow your brain to create images and details. Second question is, what problem or desire do they have? Because it's either problem focused or desire focused when it comes to people.

And then the third question is what are the solutions or a solution that addresses that problem or desire? That's a three-part simple question exercise, and it's going to come at this all from different angles. People, problem or desire, and then solution. And that's going to reveal to you what will really fire you up and motivate you. And I think you're going to see people type work. And so the final question I'll ask you, I have Dave weigh in, but do you find yourself, if you're honest with yourself,

are people talking about you that you're really good with people? You see people skills kind of rising to the top? I'm not super outgoing, but yeah, the older I've gotten, I think, yes, I have gotten that consistent feedback. Great. Let me address something you just said. Just because you're not an extrovert doesn't mean you can't be tremendous with people. That is a misnomer. It's a myth that I've got to be Mr. or Mrs. Extrovert, bounce into a room, social butterfly to actually win with people and I will tell you that introverts actually are better at connecting with people because of your desire to go one-on-one and that type of involvement so I want you to feed that and and and go this direction

here's the deal stay in this role what do you do as a CPA um I work mainly with non-profits doing what um a variety of stuff are you doing their taxes are you doing their books are you teaching them to do their books what are you doing mainly tax work okay all right which is a little bit like doing a root canal to you. You nailed it. Okay, but if you were working with those same nonprofits or with small businesses teaching them how to build a sustainable bookkeeping and controlling system with generally accepted accounting principles, by the way, most nonprofits and small businesses can't even spell gap, right? True.

Would that be exciting? Yeah, I think I want to get out of accounting altogether. One thing I've thought about is maybe something along the CFP lines. And again, background, why I found you in the first place, 16 and 17 paid off $110,000 in student debt. Well, that is alignment with what you've told us so far. Who are the people you want to help? People with financial issues, a lack of financial literacy,

a problem you want to solve, a solution you want to provide. It's still your skill set. You have the tools in your belt already from the CPA to give you the skill set, but you're not required to do bookkeeping and taxes just because you're a CPA. You can still use those same tools. That's what I was aiming at and I missed. ken colman ramsey personality number one best-selling author is my co-host today every time you hear someone do their debt-free scream on this show, it's because at some point they finally said, I've had it. Enough.

I'm not living like this anymore. When you get mad like that and do what they did, your life changes. Right now with inflation, recession, gas prices, your stupid credit cards, your ridiculous student loans, you start to believe you're not in control. Well, you are in control. You have to decide to take control of what you can control, and that is, by the way, you, the person in your mirror. You have the power to change your future, and Financial Peace University is how we show you that you can do it. This course will teach you the proven step-by-step plan that's helped nearly 10 million people get out of debt, master budgeting, become wealthy, and outrageously generous.

Change your family tree, and you can do this. Stop letting debt and money stress control your life. Say it. I've had it. Say enough. Enough. Take back your control. Start Financial Peace University at RamseySolutions.com slash enough. RamseySolutions.com slash enough ramsey solutions.com slash enough our question of the day comes from blinds.com they have a 100 satisfaction guarantee

that means even if you mismeasure you mess up and i have or pick the wrong color they'll remake your blinds for free you get free samples free shipping new promos all the time and uh they run them all the time just use the ramsey use Ramsey as your promo code. It's magic. The promo code is RamseyBlinds.com. Today's question comes from Tom in New York. With the growing cost of living here in the New York City area, I thought it was a good time to ask my manager for a raise.

The day after our meeting, they offered me a 7% raise, and I was ecstatic. An hour later, they backtracked and said my raise would actually be only 3%. I'm grateful for the raise, but this backtracking on the amount felt like a slap in the face. Should I just be grateful or should I try to negotiate? Oh, Dave, this is some type of leadership fail here on some level. It's called piss poor leader. Yeah, this is just really bad. I don't think it's a slap in the face the face tom i think it's a gut punch and that's normal to feel that way um i don't think you can renegotiate here because i think this is a clear sign of a leadership error somebody spoke out of their hat um and they couldn't deliver what they said they were going to deliver so yeah that's what they did well i'm trying to choose the g-rated uh option for today's show bleep you out of our own show exactly that's family friendly folks uh but i don't think

renegotiation is the option here i tell you what i would do i want to know why that's what i would do i think i'd sit down and go hey listen uh i feel like i've been kicked in the gut and i i just want to know what happened between the time you told me seven and an hour later when you told me three i think that's fair to ask um because i don't know i'm not trying to be ungrateful i'm not trying to be a jerk but yeah i mean put yourself in my shoes when you feel a little weird about that so i feel a little weird about it i want to know during that hour did i do something wrong no i probably didn't so what happened okay what's exactly well i i overspoke and my boss slapped me down and maybe you know maybe maybe maybe drop it to three because i

didn't really have the budget to do it okay that's helpful to at least have that experience that's correct and information right i mean and so it still doesn't change it all together you're still getting the same amount of money but you know if you know why then that makes a lot of difference i think that's incredible advice there because it's the gut punch it's still. But if you know what happened and you understand that sometimes people make mistakes and they wanted to give it to you, I would be grateful in this situation. I would be grateful for the 3% if it's a legitimate reason. But if you get some bureaucratic. Yeah, that would bother me.

Butthole answer. I'm looking for a job. 100%. Because here's what happens. We just don't do that. Right. You know. Well, yeah. We don't give that right you know well yeah we don't

we don't give people seven percent raises uh wait a minute you did you said it that's correct and that's the difference between being valued in an organization a healthy leader is going to go i blew it dude i actually blew it well they should have said that with the they should have on the three percent they should they should have not done it start with but uh you know, because you don't step in it, dude, it is 7%. That's what would happen here. I might kick the leader's butt that made the mistake, but the guy's getting his 7 because we told him he was getting his 7. Oh, I was going to ask you, how would you handle that situation?

I mean, you know, unless we didn't have the money. Right. If we simply didn't have the money. But if it's just a bozo thing, you know leader leaders you know i had one of our leaders um we you know we we teach that you know if you're going to confront someone you talk talk to them about the things they're doing right we talk about this behavior that's wrong and then we talk about things that they're doing right a sandwich right it's an old one minute manager thing right and um uh you know and so you know you want to you want to call it a uh whatever a sandwich right so uh and uh one of

our leaders was fairly new and i just went and i said look that sucked don't do that again and he goes where's the sandwich? Well, you're a leader. You get no bread. You just get the meat. That's funny. Where's the sandwich? If you're a leader, you just get the information, right? But, you know, I'll give you the sandwich if I'm leading a subordinate.

But, I mean, you just screwed this up, and you're supposed to be acting like you run the place. So, oh, my God. Yeah, so you're eating the 7 acting like you run the place so oh my god yeah that's uh so you're eating the seven percent out of your budget yeah and uh in your area and we're going to figure it out but if if not if there's absolutely no money and it was truly a financial error that has to be changed then you've at least got to learn how to uh to explain something like this it doesn't make it that much better, but it does.

It makes it a lot better. Yeah, it does. A solid reason humans will listen to. Yes. Honesty to say, I messed up. I messed up, and here's what happened, and here's what, you know, and I got, you know, my boss took my freaking head off when I went in there because I messed this up.

I overstepped my bounds, and so it's on me. It's my fault. You own it. And that's just like human. This quick leadership lesson here, folks, with what Dave just said. If you as a leader don't own everything and give them all the details that you can possibly give them, meaning you leave it as a vacuum in their mind, they will fill it with their own narrative.

And that's where it becomes toxic and dangerous you as the leader got to make sure that the narrative is correct yeah when in doubt people don't believe positive things without information they immediately believe negative i agree so these companies that their communication is mushroom communication keep everybody in the dark and feed them manure it doesn't work no it doesn't work that's corporate america though all right kimberly is with us kimberly is in tucson hi kimberly how are you hi dave i'm doing great how are you better than i deserve how can i help great hey so i am in baby step number two i have fifty six thousand dollars of student loans and a car payment that i've been paying off very quickly, putting anywhere from $1,500

to $2,000 a month towards my debt. And I'm trying to pull all of the levers to get me out of debt in the next two years. And one of the options I have is to get a roommate for my spare bedroom. And so I haven't been in a roommate situation for about, I don't know, seven, eight years now. And so I'm wondering if, like what is the best way for me to manage my finances for this split? And what I was calculating yesterday was based off of the last three months

of rent plus the utilities. The average cost would be $1,570 a month for all in total. And so divided by two would leave me $780. But I felt like it was fair to drop it down to $700 because I have an office in the house. Um, so I'm using more room of the house and I also have the carport, which is a luxury in Tucson, Arizona. Um, so I'm wondering really, my question is, should I go down the path of lumping the utilities in, um, to the rent as a, you know, an advertised this, um, spare bedroom as $700, utilities included, or should I do a rent price and then split utilities every month with the roommate? I would do including utilities as long as when you look at the place

where you're going to advertise it that that's what other people are doing. Okay. And here's why. That's what other people are doing. Okay. And here's why. That's exactly what I thought, too. Here's why. As long as the $700 doesn't change, nothing changes here. But every month, the utilities change. And when that price goes up, the price goes down.

The price goes up, the price goes down. And you have to go through this additional collection procedure every single month. Yeah. You're kind of giving them a reason to re-evaluate every month whether they stay yeah i'm kind of good with them getting bored yeah and it's a little bit higher on the emotional side of the whole you gotta you gotta deal with you gotta do with two or three collections i mean or instead of just the rent you can also collect your portion of water your portion of gas your portion of the water, your portion of the gas, your portion of the whatever.

And so it's just a lot cleaner, a lot simpler, a lot less stress one bestselling author of the book, Paycheck to Purpose. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today, number one best-selling author of the book, Paycheck to Purpose. Yeah, you can have purpose in your paycheck. It'll work. And you can have a paycheck in your purpose, too. It'll all work. Bob and Liz are with us in Portland, Oregon. It says on my screen, you guys are debt-free.

Congratulations. Well, thank you, Mr. Ramsey. It's a pleasure and an honor to speak to you you too sir how much did you guys pay off uh 206 000 over approximately 42 months yay and your range of income during that time uh 160 to 112 wow down i love it what do you guys do for a living well we're both retired now but we i work for the telephone company, and my wife was a registered nurse. Okay, and so at the end of this, you pulled the plug on it, huh? Pretty much, yes. Literally within a month of paying off the house, we were... So you have $112,000 retirement income?

Yes. What age are you guys? I am 66. My wife is 63. Very cool. So what kind of debt was the 206? Pretty much all house mortgage. We've been free of other debt for several years now. The 206 was our mortgage and then a thousand dollars for an emergency fund and a thousand dollars i believe a visa bill wow you guys are incredible you're weird i love you well done well done all right so uh what happened uh what four years three and a half years ago here's my wife hi mom i mean hi hi hi so i was listening to your show about three and a half years ago and you had some old guy on there and he was like i paid off blah blah blah and you were like well how old are you and he's like 77 or something i can't even remember

the whole thing but i thought i am 59 i do not want to retire without payment so that i just we followed your steps we have been doing davish for a while we i decided to do it and we just went you know we just did your steps i stopped so you went and told bob hey i was listening to some old guy on the radio and before before i get old, I want to be like him. I want to be debt-free. What did Bob say? I've actually been, you know, we've been working toward this point for a number of years. So it wasn't a hard sale then?

Oh, no, not at all. I mean, it's, you know, I remember when we got out of debt, except for a mortgage payment, right when our daughter went into college, that was such an outstanding point because we were able to pay college out of our, basically our monthly budget, and there was no debt involved in our daughter being in college yeah and that is such and as you have said it's a freeing thing how many years have you all been married we've been married 37 years have you had a house payment the whole time yes so the other day when you paid the house off was the first time in your married life you've been 100% free.

Yes. Yes. Did you feel it physically when you did that? Like a switch flipped? No, not really because it was a point we were working toward. We got there. We knew we were going to get there. And it was just like kind of like anticlimactic blessing

and we're just like say thank you yeah well we're proud of y'all well done all right it was what kind of what kind of happened was you know we went from 160 to 112 just immediately so so it was like our income went dropped so I think we've had two months now without house payment. And, you know, I retired and, you know, we kind of ran around. I think once we've settled down, we will notice it. Oh, I see. It's like, you know, we've been going crazy. Well, you cut your income considerable.

That does make sense. Yeah, and you know what? I'm fine with it. Yeah, I mean, well well simultaneously you cut your income so it's like you didn't really experience the extra house payment coming into your checking account and not having to go out yeah that makes sense exactly yeah but you are free yes okay so someone's listening that's 59 and they're wondering if they're too old talk to talk to them okay i would say you're never too old i don't care if you're you know 80 there's that you can do it i mean

obviously you know we i had a good income but i didn't work any overtime or anything i just what really changed what we really think helped a lot was, you know, we've always tithed, and God was so gracious to us during our time that we were like, didn't have any backup, really. The way we got our three-month emergency fund was from a car accident. And other than that, we only had $15,000, which, you know, it's a little bit of money, but it was the graciousness of God, truly, is how we were able to do it. I mean, that's what I think anyway. Well, Liz, you've mentioned a couple times you guys went crazy. You've been running around. You haven't even had a chance to really absorb the fact that you've gone two months

without a house payment. I'd love folks to hear what that discipline was. What was the craziness? What did you guys do to tighten down the hatches and really get after this thing? Well, we did nothing. Nothing? I mean, literally, we didn't take any trips. Oh, right. I was returning bottles.

I don't know if Tennessee you can return bottles, but I think people that I worked with thought I was returning bottles. I don't know if Tennessee you can return bottles, but I think people that I worked with thought I was stupid. You don't buy books. You go to the library. You cook at home. You don't eat out. It was a little bit of a drudgery. Was it worth it?

I mean, if I had to do it again, I'd do it over seven years rather than four. Ah, okay. All right. That's good advice. Well, well done, you two. Very, very proud of you. Here you head into retirement. Not a house payment, not a payment in the world, and a great income.

You are set. Very, very, very well done. You'll get to do anything you want to do at this point. So proud of y'all. How much do you have in your nest egg? Oh, we have about, we both have pensions. We both have Social Security. And we have approximately $750,000 in our 401Ks.

And what's the house worth? $650,000 maybe. Wow. So you're millionaires at 66 years old. Congratulations. You're baby step millionaires. You followed the baby steps to get there. Did you inherit any large sum of money to cause you to be there?

No. No, I inherited $1,300 once, but that's been it. Okay. That laugh was for you millennials that think that all money is inherited. That was the best sarcastic laugh I've heard in a week. That was fabulous. Well done. All right, we've got a copy of Baby Steps Millionaires for you.

You should have been in the book. You is one. Also got a copy of Financial Peace University, the one-year membership to that. You can give that away and get somebody started on this same journey you're on that puts you in this position. We're so proud of you guys. Very well done. And even a copy of Total Money Makeover for you to give away as well.

Bob and Liz, Portland, Oregon, $206,000 paid off in 42 months, making $160,000 to $112,000 because they retired when they paid off the house. That's how that worked. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free!

Yeah! I love it! Oh, that's so fun. She reminds me of my grandpa. When he was like 80, he would say, that old man down the street. Right, right. And she's like, that old man is 77 years old. This old man called in.

Yes. You've got to love Liz. She went high there, too bob was pretty you could tell her personalities in that call you know on the screen like bob was steady liz went up high there she was very excited i hope bob takes her out to a really nice steak dinner or whatever kind of dinner she wants that's true she deserves it for putting up with you bob that's it that's the way it is yeah she's married to one of them old men that's true she delivered bottles so is my wife Sharon I love it this is the Ramsey Show Thank you. We'll be right back. Ken Coleman Ramsey personality is my co-host today.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Thank you for joining us, America. Brandon is with us next. He is in Raleigh, North Carolina. Hi, Brandon. How are you? Not going to lie. i'm a little nervous actually what goes into my question is that i'm taking my real estate exam come friday good for you literally in the process of studying for that how old are you i have to give you a

little uh 28 good for you that's fun i have to i have to give you a little bit of hard time because you tell people not to book with you know your uncle your brother-in-law who just got their license a month ago. And I'm just letting you know you're cutting into my business. Like, that's who I am. You ain't even passed the test yet. We're not worried about you cutting into your business. Yeah, that's a fair point. That's a fair point.

I'm a little hurt every time you say it. I'm like, no, my family's going to hear this and they're not going to call me. My question actually pertains to that. I'm moving from having more of like a standard, you know, monthly or by, you know, by month, weekly, I should say, paycheck to, now I'm working off commission. My wife and I are neither particularly disciplined

when it comes to budgeting. It's always an issue for us. And so we are, it's like new season of kind of having us income fluctuate. And I was just looking for like tips or just like, how do I go about when I just don't know when it's, you know, when it's going to be pouring and rain, you know, money's going to be falling, or when it's, you know, a dry season. Um, and that looks like, and so how do I, how do I kind of navigate that?

Especially when it comes to like investing or even like a mortgage or looking to eventually buy a house at some point all of that okay your wife work outside the home um she does at the moment what does she make um she makes about 1500 a month okay all right and so we know we've got that coming in and the first things you're going to do with money are food shelter clothing transportation and utilities so buy food first make sure your utilities are paid second. Pay your rent third. And you probably don't need a ton of clothing.

You probably have enough. Most Americans do. And food, shelter, clothing, transportation. You got to make sure your cars are running. And you probably can do a lot of that on her $1,500. Agreed? Yeah, I mean, a decent bit of it for sure. Yeah.

And so that kind of takes the pressure off because if you're warm and fed and dry because you're under a roof and there's heat and there's food in your refrigerator your your psychology your emotions are in a different complete a completely different place even if you just did it all in your mind just now you feel a little bit more peaceful than just oh god how are we gonna eat well we got her 1500 that's just calm your butt down you know so that's your what you're doing is you're working through the facts and that starts to dissipate the irrational fears then the reasonable fears are those things um to uh that everybody has and and then what we're going to do is everything that doesn't get paid.

That's the most important things from her 1500. We're just going to make a list of those things and you can visualize doing it with a yellow pad and just make a list of them. You can do it. You can do it in the every dollar app. You can do it wherever you want to do it, but just make a list of those things and then go, okay,

if we, if, if I make one sale and we can do three or four more things than we made with hers, what are we going to do? Well, we're going to do what's the most important next thing, and then the next most important, and put a one by that. What's the next most important thing? Put a two by that.

The next most important thing, put a three by that. And you go on down the list, and here's the thing. In the real estate business, you're not going to make many sales that close within the same month that you make the sale. Most of the time, you got about a 30-day lead time minimum. Now, and if you list a house in this current market, you're the listing agent, that's what we call money in the bank. Because there's a shortage of inventory right now. So that's going to sell so you can project a commission on that out there 60 to 90 days within 60 to 90 days maybe sooner um and certainly if you have a deal under contract that has to close by the end of next month you know next month that commission's likely

going to be there it's not 100 but you can start to plan pretty intelligently. So you're not going to suddenly make $20,000 in a month you didn't see coming. You're not going to suddenly make zero in a month that you didn't see coming. Okay. Does that make sense? Yeah. Because if you're going into a month that has zero in the pipeline, you're probably going to make zero.

If you're going into a month that's – We actually want to look at buying a house. Yeah. Well, you know – We actually want to go look into buying a house. Well, when you get to that point, when you get to that point, you will have stabilized your real estate income, and you'll have a somewhat predictive –

you know, you go in a year, I make $60,000. That's $5,000 a month average. Some months, I make $10,000. Some months, I make $2,000. That's $5,000 a month average. Some months I make $10,000. Some months I make $2,000. But the average is about $5,000. You would very seldom have a zero month in the real estate business if you're ready to buy a house. Brandon, are you in a full-time job now? I am.

I'm working at the moment. When I was moving out here, wanted a job that I like would pay some bills and take care of us kind of in the meantime but I wouldn't get comfortable at because I want to keep myself hungry keep pushing for the real estate so I'm working currently at like a grocery store doing something like that in the meanwhile okay how much you how much you're making there? There I'm making, right now I'm making about $2,000 a month. Oh, good. Yeah, so the reason I ask that, and Dave, weigh in on this,

but Brandon, I would have you, listen, you're going through the process of getting the certification and getting qualified to do it. But the reality is that there's no shame in you going, all right, I want to try to pad my transition a little bit. And I would even challenge you. I love the theory that you've got there. I actually like the way your head's at. I don't want to be in a really cushy, comfortable job because I want to stay motivated. I like where your head's at. But in this economy right now, you could go get another part-time job and make

an additional $1,500, another $2,000 a stock uh stack some money away so that when you go all in uh with what dave just gave you you guys have some padding there you know what i'm saying i i just would consider that because i think to win you know you got to go all in as a real estate agent at some point and you can keep working at the grocery store while you start your real estate career i agree the first three or four months. That's what I'm getting at, yeah. You know, give yourself an on-ramp here. Yeah. Because it takes a little while just to know how to, you know, how to find a parking spot,

you know, how to walk in there and how to fill out a contract. I want to get your take on this. I'm going to assume that a stressed-out agent who's trying to feed themselves early on is going to come across that way. Sure, sure. Broke salesmen smell bad. Right. So let's take that pressure off of ourselves for this career that we love.

Let's take the pressure off to provide with that initially, especially in a straight commission job like that. Yeah, I don't think you're going to struggle. No. And suddenly become lazy from working at a grocery store. No, he's driven. I don't think that's going to happen. You're going to be fine with that. Yeah, I would keep as much income coming in as you can until.

But as you get to the point that you can take the training wheels off and go full time, so to speak, or really you need to go full time now but still work part time at the grocery store, you know, that kind of thing. But as you're counting exclusively on the real estate commissions, you will have a better rhythm for the pipeline, and then you would use the system that we just talked about, a prioritized spending plan, most important thing to least important thing. And let me tell you what happens on the real estate business because I grew up in the business, and i made this mistake in my early years you get a nice big check-in and you want to jump over and do the big thing because that check you know i got 3 800 bucks here and there's a 3 800 bill laying here

i could do that and and then you you look up and you go oh we didn't pay the light bill uh but i did get rid of that big thing you know know, or I did purchase that big thing. I was even worse about doing that, which is really bad. Oh, yeah. But, yeah. Yeah. And so you cannot out-earn your stupidity. You have to have a system and a process that gives the most important thing the highest priority all the way through and keep working that.

That's the best way to do that. But here's the thing. Straight commission is not a problem as long as you're making money yes it's all about the pipeline you said that a couple times i used to have a straight commission sales job and let me tell you something uh your confidence grows as your pipeline fills because then you go oh i learned how to fill the pipeline and now i keep filling it and now it becomes a continuation now you're rolling if you've been making two thousand dollars a month in a grocery store and you start making $300,000, you'll figure out how to budget.

That's right. You'll find a way to do it. So, I mean, all of a sudden fluctuating income is not a problem. That's correct. Fluctuating income is the biggest problem when there's not much of it. That's when it's a problem. So go make a pile of money, dude, and go be so excellent that you become one of our endorsed local providers, one of our Ramsey Trusted People.

This is The Ramsey Show. Hey folks, Ken Coleman here. Did you know The Ramsey Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world? Get your daily dose of advice on life and money. Check out all of our shows from The Ramsey Network wherever you listen to podcasts.