The Ramsey Show - App - How to Budget Your Time Within Your Business (Hour 2)

Episode Date: June 2, 2020

Budgeting, Business, Debt, Taxes, Home Buying Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR 

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave 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. I am Dave Ramsey, your host, Christy Wright, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author of the book, Business Boutique, is my co-host today on the show. The phone number is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Your questions about life and about money are welcome. Lakita is with us in Illinois. Hi, Lakita. How are you?

Hi, Dave. Hi, Christy. How are you guys? Hi. Great. How can we help? Okay. Okay.

So I am 35. I make about 50K. And I have about 14K in debt and a 17-year-old and a 5-year-old. My question is about the budget and what I'm trying to organize some things. So what I want to know is, is it okay to, since I don't have the HSA, I have a health savings account, the ESA and the college savings for my 17-year-old, is it okay to input those items as a budget item just to kickstart the account? Because I know you're supposed to stop all contributions, but since I didn't have these things set up, is it okay to put those in a budget just to have it started?

Like, say, for example, the ESA? No. Okay. That's why we call it Baby Step 2 instead of Baby Step 5. It comes before 5. You need to have your emergency fund in place before you do investing for college and before you build your uh you need to be debt free in baby step two then have your fully funded emergency fund of three to six months of expenses in place

that's baby step three then four is retirement and five is college. You'll get to college. You're going to get there. How old is your baby? Okay. I have a 17-year-old and a 5-year-old, so my daughter is going into her senior year, and I have no college savings for her. Okay. And then I have my 5-year-old that's going into kindergarten. And how much debt do you have, not counting your home? Okay, I don't have a home.

About 14 to 16K in debt so not much and you make what a year about 50k yeah okay good yeah i would just i would hammer that debt to and then that frees up some income to get your emergency fund in place if uh because your 17 year old's going to school if you hesitate for one year on starting your retirement plan and use some of your income to help cash flow that 17-year-old the first year, that's fine. But I'm also going to start having a lot of conversations with this 17-year-old about the part they're going to play in this. Right, Christy? Oh, yeah.

So often, because we want to give our kids a college education, which is a great thing to do, we feel like that that's the only option for them but your children have lots of options from scholarships grants working their way through school and you can start talking about that stuff now they can start working on applying for these things that's going to take the pressure off of you but one of the hardest parts about the the baby steps is we want to do all the things at all all times but it's a priority for a reason We're going to focus on one thing at a time because it's more about momentum than math. We're going to get a lot of momentum in baby step two, and you're going to get that knocked out. You can get that knocked out in not a very long amount of time.

You'll be able to do it in a year. Yeah, and then you'll be able to move to that next one. And then you'll have your emergency fund, and then you can work. You'll be in a position of strength with your budget if you delay retirement a little bit, and you can help with some of the cash, scholarships help with some of the cash, the 17-year-old picks a school they can afford, maybe even the first two years at community college,

and the 17-year-old is going to be working in school. Oh, and by the way, they really need to get great at taking the ACT test this year and take it a couple of times and try to get that ACT score up, maybe even take a class on how to take the ACT and get the scores up. All of those things combined can cause you to go to school debt-free. I'm going to have Madison pick up and send you a copy of Anthony O'Neill's book, Debt-Free Degree, as our gift, and we'll help you do this. But push on through.

You know, doing stuff in the wrong order is what got you here, got you into the mess. And so we've got to get things in the right order here. And then that'll help you be able to execute all the way through their college career. Lauren is in North Carolina. Hi, Lauren. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi. So I'm in Christie's Business Boutique Academy, and I had a question about time and where to balance my activities. Just wondering, how do I devote, how do I balance devoting activities to office things like bookkeeping versus income generating activities like making products? It's a pain in the butt. Yeah, I have two young kids, a two and

a four-year-old that I stay at home with and work when they sleep. So where I put my time is limited. Let me ask you this. What's your business? I am an artist. So I'm in the planning stage, but I've been making an income making some commissions and have started trying to figure out making products and ways to make passive income. Cool. So one of the awesome things about working for yourself, but also one of the challenging things about working for yourself is you are your own boss, which means you set your schedule. And so if you don't set one, you won't have one. And so I know this sounds so silly, but if you just treat your job like a real job, treat your business like a job where you say, okay, Mondays for two hours, I'm going to work on the business, not in the business.

I'm not going to work on my art. I'm going to work on scheduling my social media. I'm going to get my email campaign out for that week. I'm going to work on the books. I'm going to work on strategy, vision, you know, those type of things. And then on Tuesday, I'm going to do my art. And on three, you know, and I don't know what that looks like for you Lauren but I would just create a schedule you know your business you know the ebb and flow and uh kind of you know what your

busy days are like for example my mom she runs a bakery so she would never work on her business on a Friday or Saturday she is hustling to get cakes birthday cakes and wedding cakes out the door but a Monday a Monday she might do some of her paperwork. She might get caught up on emails. She might do that type of thing. So you just, for what's right for you is what I would say, set your schedule. And that's just going to give you some structure. Dave, what would you say?

I'd do exactly the same thing. If you don't schedule the stuff you hate doing, it won't happen. So the paperwork, the bookkeeping, I hate bookkeeping. I like to have the numbers. I like to have the results of accounting. But the actual doing of accounting, I'd rather shoot myself. But, and so when I was a one man show, I had Friday morning from 8 AM to 10 AM every morning. And I sat down and reconciled the checkbook, paid the bills, uh, you know, uh, you know, I ended up hiring a couple of people.

So I had some payroll taxes to get out. Um, and ran a profit and loss statement that I kept by hand in those days. Later on, we actually got this thing called a computer that was pretty nifty. But, you know, that helped. It cut the time down. But, you know, I had to allocate the time because, for me, it was like a term paper that was due. And it would pile up, and if I didn't do it, here I am, the guy giving money advice, and my bills hadn't been paid, which is, you know, ridiculous, obviously. And so I had to lock in a certain time, and it made me ashamed of myself

if I didn't do my work on those certain times, especially with the tasks you hate doing. The stuff you love doing, you'll just do it anyways like like eating desserts like eating candy but um you've got to have the discipline to do the marketing the discipline to do the bookkeeping the discipline to uh make the phone calls the discipline to produce the art the discipline and you know the ebb and flow of time set spots on the calendar exactly what christy told you is what I would do. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. For most of us, healthcare costs seem to increase every year,

and saving money on health insurance feels more and more out of reach. For example, take the Olcheski family from LaGrange, Texas. Jeff and Carice had just celebrated the birth of a new baby boy. Shortly after, they had a health scare involving one of their kids that was completely unexpected. With today's health care climate, this could have bankrupted them. But thanks to Christian Health Care Ministries, the Olcheskis were spared from a ton of medical bills. As members of Christian Healthcare Ministries, they're part of a group of believers who financially and spiritually support each other. CHM is the original health cost-sharing ministry and is a Better Business Bureau accredited charity. It's biblical, affordable, and it shared nearly $97,000

to help the Olcheskis. To be a part of Christian Healthcare Ministries, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. CHM is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. Pastor of one of the largest churches in Nashville, Christ Presbyterian Church. It's a multi-site church here in Nashville. Good friend of mine, Pastor Scott Sauls. He has been a pastor at Redeemer Church in Kansas City, worked in New York with Tim Keller, and has been the pastor here for Christ Presbyterian Church. He's a prolific author and a wonderful speaker and just a good friend and a good guy. Scott Sauls, what's up, man? Hey, Dave. Great to hear your voice.

You too. Christy Wright is with us today, Ramsey Personality, so she'll be chiming in. Hey, Dave. Great to hear your voice. You too. Christy Wright is with us today, Ramsey personality, so she'll be chiming in. Hey, Scott. I love the new book and a timely message, a gentle answer. Our secret weapon in an age of us against them. Would have known that with COVID and people being angry with each other over that and with racial unrest and racism and people being upset over that, that we would need a book at exactly this time. A gentle answer. Perfect timing, brother.

Well, you know, the one thing we were thinking about when we wrote the book and timed it for releasing today was the presidential election. And it just dawned on me this morning, Dave, that we've hardly had any conversations in the culture about the presidential election because of the two things that you just talked about. I hate that the book could be more popular because of the pain in the culture because it's really painful to watch and be part of. But yeah, it turns out the timing, I guess, is good. Well, it's got to be God's timing, because there's no possible way you could have landed that book today as a launch date, all those in the middle of all this stuff. And, you know, the need for civility between people we disagree with is a pandemic problem, you say,

but it's a biblical mandate for those of us that call ourselves people of faith. But we all get so riled up, don't we? We do. And, you know, I think, you know, to your point, Dave, the call back to Jesus' teaching on what it really means to love neighbor. And when he unpacked that teaching, he did so with the parable of the Good Samaritan, where two political, cultural, socioeconomic, religious opposites are the two characters. And one comes to the aid and the rescue of the other.

And, you know, that's really what it means to love your neighbor as yourself, is that even those that might treat you as enemies or me as enemies, you know, Christ even calls us to figure out what it means to love in that way, obviously in healthy ways, but not in doormat ways, but in life-giving ways. And so it's complicated stuff that Christ calls us to, for sure. A gentle answer turns away wrath, if I remember that's in Proverbs, isn't it? 15.1. I'm sorry?

15.1. Okay. And I've watched that in counseling sessions. I've watched that between people who are having heated disagreements over whatever, that if one party just calms down, it changes the whole environment, doesn't it? You're right. You're right. If one party calms down, it tends to have a

contagious effect, right? I mean, outrage has a contagious effect. So does kindness. And, um, you know, and so there's this little thing called pride that gets in the way of somebody going first in, in those conflict, uh, situations. But, um, you know, and I think oftentimes, Dave, the spirit's fruit of gentleness is looked at as a sign of weakness or maybe a sign of wimpiness, but it's actually one of the greatest strengths, to be able to respond with kindness in a climate of something that feels hostile. Yeah, one of my favorite quotes from Warren Wiersbe is, meekness is not weakness, it's power under control. That's right.

That's right. One of your closest friends, Max Lucado, would be a great example of that. I don't think there are a whole lot of people who would call him a weak man, and yet he's incredibly gentle and kind. I've never seen his feathers ruffled. I've just never had them. I'm sure they get ruffled on the golf course, but I've never seen his feathers ruffled. I've just never had them. I'm sure they get ruffled on the golf course, but I've never seen his feathers ruffled.

That'll ruffle anything. So there is a time to be angry for all of us. You know, there's all kinds of different situations, and we always throw around the term righteous anger. What's the proper way for a person walking with God to be angry but not sin? I'm glad you asked that, Dave. That's Chapter 5 of the book, What Does It Mean to Do Anger Well? And, you know, the scripture that you just quoted is from the Psalms and Ephesians.

And if you go back to the original languages of the Hebrew and the Greek, you'll see it's not a suggestion. It's a command. It's in the imperative voice where God is telling his people to be angry at certain things. And this is what, like you said, Christians call righteous anger. And righteous anger is the kind of anger that attacks things that are evil. Unrighteous anger is the kind of anger that attacks things that are good. And anger, like fire, it's an energy that it's very nature is to destroy whatever it touches. But when controlled, it'll cook a nice steak, right?

It'll cook a nice steak. It'll create a beautiful ambiance. It'll, you know, get rid of bacteria. It'll do all kinds of things. It'll burn up things that are ugly and trashy. But if it gets loose, if it gets let outside of its context, it can become a wildfire and really cause a lot of harm. So I think it's a good thing to say that when you're passionate, passion and anger are close friends, that when you're passionate about a subject, maybe you talked about politics as you thought was going to be the

subject when the book came out maybe you're pro-trump or anti-trump or you're pro-democrat or anti-democrat or you're whatever uh because of the stands or the um issues that you think they represent or the character like a character you're passionate about that but the measure then is how are you treating other people while you're dealing with that is that what you're passionate about that but the measure then is how are you treating other people while you're dealing with that is that what you're talking about i think so i mean there's a there's a little verse in in luke where jesus addresses a certain group and luke luke describes that group this way to some who were confident in their own righteousness and looked down on other people with contempt, Jesus told the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.

So what you've got there is this guy with an inflated view of himself, an inflated view of his own opinions, and we can tell the view is inflated because he's looking down on somebody else with contempt. There's no interest in relationship. There's no interest in learning from somebody who's got another perspective. There's no openness to having his mind changed. That means they're on Twitter. I just recently heard somebody call Twitter a cesspool of negativity.

I think that's about right these days. Well, it's people saying things they would never say in person because they wouldn't have the courage. It's an unaccountable medium. It's unaccountable, and it's worse. It's anonymous, and there's absolutely no chance that you're going to tweet hate at someone and cause that person to change. Yeah, you know, I've been alive 52 years, Dave. I've never met a single person who has been scolded or harshly reprimanded into changing their mind and certainly into changing their heart.

No doubt about it. Yeah. And so that the idea being that, you know, I can I can debate you all the way to the dirt and make you say uncle, but you'll still get up and walk away with the same opinion. Maybe. I mean, you're a pretty good debater, Dave. I mean, we've had some great discussions. Hey, we've had some great discussions.

Speaking from experience over here. We have. We've had some really good discussions in your house and other places about important things. So, yeah, there's a kind way to do that. Yeah. Well, I think the basis of those discussions were that we love each other and trust each other, and so then we can argue and have a good time with it and come out of there richer, both of us. And so that's a different thing than we're talking about.

The book is A Gentle Answer by Pastor Scott Sauls. I highly suggest you pick it up. It is the antidote for what's going on out there right now in COVID times. Thank you, Scott. We appreciate you joining us. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Most people's money problems come from not paying attention. That's why before I spend a dime of my money on something, I do the research and make sure it's going to live up to what it claims. Recently, I got a great pair of sunglasses from a company called Shady Rays. When you're looking for sunglasses, a company called Shady Rays. When you're looking for sunglasses, it feels like your options are limited. Name brand sunglasses cost too much

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for 50% off two or more pairs. That's ShadyRays.com, code RAMSY for 50% off two or more pairs. That's ShadyRays.com, code RAMSY. Thanks for joining us, America. Your calls for Christy Wright and me today here on the Dave Ramsey Show. She's our co-host on the air, Ramsey personality. New podcast or newly named podcast, expanded content called The Christy Wright Show launched today. You can see it on YouTube. You can listen to it anywhere great podcasts are played like iTunes or Google Play or Spotify.

It's everywhere. And you're going to really enjoy this first episode, and it will give you a great idea of where she's going helping people with all areas of life. We give you here the skills for life. And it starts from the inside and works its way out, which is your specialty. Right, Christy? Yeah, it's been really fun to already see just today the response of people again and again saying, that's what I needed to hear. That's what I needed to hear. Oh, that just, it felt like you were speaking directly

to me. So I'm really excited to see what God's going to do through this. Good stuff. Good stuff. All right. Kathy is with us. Kathy's in Tennessee. Hi, Kathy, your question for Christy and me. Hi, Dave. Hi, Christy. It's such an honor to speak to you today. I'm essentially, I'm looking for guidance in how to turn my website into a business. So I have, about a year ago, I started a food blog where I post some healthy recipes. I do some stories about the recipes, product reviews, wellness tips. And I've also started along with that a Facebook page, an Instagram account and a YouTube channel where I've done a few videos. So I have a fair amount of content. And I really feel like I want to launch into into making money with this. And I just don't know what the next step is.

Sure. Well, I'll tell you really quickly quickly there's a couple different strategies when it comes to monetizing a blog. One way you can do it and it takes a while is to monetize the traffic so people advertisers affiliate marketing that type of thing they would pay you for spots on your page for features for mentions that type of thing. Now, the only thing is the only thing they care about are views, eyeballs, or clicks. And so you have to build up quite a good readership base to make any kind of significant money that way. Another way that you could make money on your blog is to think of your blog like a marketing megaphone. You've already got a YouTube channel.

You've got other things you've got going on. And then your blog drives to something that you sell. So you said you've got recipes, for example, you start to build up some viewers and a good readership on your blog. And then you come out with a, with a cookbook or an e-cookbook, you know, and then your blog's direct to that. And then it's the sale of your e-cookbook that actually brings in the money for you. The blog becomes a marketing funnel for that. So there's really, I mean, there's a few different ways you could go about it. Those are the two general ones where the blog is a marketing strategy to drive to, or maybe you have nutrition, consulting, counseling, and it drives to those services and you sell those services.

The blog is a marketing avenue. The other option, like I said, is to monetize it through advertising, sponsorships, affiliate links. That just takes a little bit longer because it's really dependent on the clicks and the eyeballs. Dave, what would you add to that? Because I get this question a lot about monetizing a blog, and I think people have an idea about it, and it can be harder than they think. Well, it requires what you're talking about, the first level to get money out of youtube or to get money from substantial money from advertisers you've got to have a lot of traffic um and so you know that it you know the content will eventually bring the traffic but stirring up trouble or whatever it is you're going

to do take taking on a villain in the process that, you know, processed food or whatever the villain of the day is in your world, then, you know, that stirs up things, and maybe you'll get some traction and some things like that. And click-throughs to other people's sites, they'll pay you for. But the best margin by far is going to be to have some kind of a delivery that you have, some kind of a product, an e-product or a hard product even, if you set up delivery on it. And, you know, your social media presence gives you, as Christy called it, the megaphone,

the platform, the connectivity to potential customers. And they go, hey, you know, I read everything that Debbie writes, and if Debbie says this is a good recipe, I'll pay 50 cents to download the recipe, or I'll pay $9.95 for a fairly short cookbook, or for a meal planning form, or a tool that's built online that's a calorie counter or a meal planning process. It's a tool, a little basic thing that you could have somebody in the web world build for you. But, again, that's you starting to create products, which we do here. And that's how Ramsey Solutions monetizes 17 million people listening to the Dave Ramsey show for free.

We monetize it off of ad sales and endorsements. And then we create, you guys are buying books from us. You're buying event tickets from us. You're buying the various tools and processes that we have here. And they're all good things. They're helpful. And the stuff you provide needs to be helpful and be good things. Yeah.

One thing I would add, Kathy, this would be a good step for you is to just create focus because you mentioned several things you're doing through your blog, through your YouTube. One question to ask yourself that's going to give you focus to all those things is what problem do I solve? So what problem are you solving for your readers, for your viewers? I'm just going to make this up. I help busy moms come up with meals in less than five minutes. I just made that up. What's your thing? And it doesn't have to be so super niche and focus, but if you're just kind of all over the place, then you're kind of sort of, she does,

I don't know how something with health and food have, have a specific problem you solve. Then what's so cool is whether it's on your website, your blog, your YouTube, a cookbook product services, doesn't matter. There's so many different ways to solve variations of that problem for your audience in different ways and monetize that problem that you're solving. But you need to know what it is because if you don't know, your customer doesn't know. Yeah. And Kathy, I called you Debbie. Debbie's the next caller.

I screwed that up. Sorry about that. And Debbie is with us in New York. Hi, Debbie. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi. It's a pleasure speaking with both of you. You too. What's up in your world?

Well, my question is kind of similar to Kathy's question. I'm looking for a way to make some extra money from home. I'm thinking of starting a YouTube channel. I do have a couple of different ideas in mind, things I'd like to talk about, like maybe organizing or money. But I just it's something I want to do part time. I just don't know where to start. I'm like, I'm just lost.

I don't even know, like, how it works or, you know, I'm new to all this. And I just I know I know I have to do something different to make a change so Debbie that's where I am today I love that you have some ideas already because a lot of people don't and so you've already got a great starting point so I'm going to give you a short answer and then I'm going to give you a resource that's going to give you a little bit more in-depth answer I just for a starting point I want you to look at three different areas of your life your skills your strengths and your stuff and you're going to look at these different areas of your life, your skills, your strengths, and your stuff. And you're going to look at these three areas for inspiration for potential business ideas. Your skills would

be things you know how to do well. If you have education, experience, credential certifications, your strengths are things that you're just good at. Your talents, your gifts, you maybe have never been trained in it, but you're just really good at it. You're a great artist, but you didn't go to school for it. And then your stuff, what do you have around you that might inspire you? I use this example, Debbie, but when I moved to the, to a 40 acre farm, when I was like 23, there was an 11 stall barn. And I thought, well, there's a barn. I can board horses and, and, and make money here. So that, that stuff, the things around me inspired, you might have a swimming pool. You could teach some lessons. You might have a computer.

You can write a sewing machine. You could sew. Look around you because when you start with what you have, you make it so much easier on yourself to win. You don't have to learn a bunch of new skills and buy a bunch of stuff. You're going to turn a profit quicker. You're going to get momentum and confidence by getting out there quicker. So start with your skills, strengths, and stuff for inspiration to come up with business ideas. But then if you'll stay on the line, I would love to give you my course, Business Idea

Bootcamp. And that's where I take this short answer longer and walk you through my framework to help you then take all your ideas and find your best business idea, which will be your most profitable business idea. If you'll stay on the line, we'll give you that course and that'll help you do that. It's a real easy to go through course, four different lessons, and you'll stay on the line we'll give you that course and that'll that'll help you do that it's real uh easy to go through course uh four different lessons and you'll come out with your best business idea you know um it is a really good idea to go through some kind of an exercise like that to filter out the noise around your need to do something different yeah because you can you can really run off down the wrong alleyway and get mugged. Or someone else telling you, hey, you should do this, you should do this.

Maybe not. Everybody's got a dadgum opinion. They do. And this needs to be boiling up from inside to where you can't not do it. That's a big deal. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. You may feel like there's not a lot you can control these days, but I'm here to tell you, you can control your budget and you can control what you feed your family.

My longtime friends at eMeals are here to help. They have simplified meal plans and created new recipe collections such as easy pantry meals and freezer meals utilizing basic ingredients. It has never been easier to shop smarter and stay on a budget. Try it free for two full weeks at eMeals.com. My co-host today on the Dave Ramsey Show, Christy Wright, Ramsey Personality, launching today a new version of her podcast, renamed The Christy Wright Show, expanding what she's talking about. Be sure you tune in and watch it on YouTube and listen to it where great podcasts are played.

Do you and your spouse avoid money conversations because they're too painful and they turn into money fights? An honest conversation about money is one of the most important things you can do for your marriage, for your family, for your future. You'll never reach a money goal that's big if you don't budget for it together. Make it easier. Every dollar does that. It's our budgeting tool.

My family uses it. Everybody at Ramsey uses it. It's simple to use. It syncs across multiple devices. You and your spouse can be on the same page. You can get your budget going in about 10 minutes. And if you get into EveryDollarPlus, it sets you up for the entire financial peace experience as well with the 14-day free trial and the whole process.

But if you just want to use the app for free, you can do that forever. It just doesn't have the connectivity to the bank. So check it out. It's time to tackle your money goals. Text EVERYDOLLAR to 33789. That's EVERYDOLLAR to 33789. That's every dollar, 233-789. Alexa is with us in California. Hi, Alexa. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. It's a pleasure to speak with you. You too. What's up? Well, after reading the Total Money Makeover, my husband and I already completed Baby Step 1, and we are in the process of starting Baby

Step 2. However, we're currently having some problems living at home with my mother-in-law and brother-in-law and we're looking to move out. Our initial plan was to stay there, our current residence, and save up money to pay off debt and work on Baby step three, but that seems like it's impossible. So my question for you, Dave, is should we stay home and endure another 18 months of paying off debt, or should we look to move out and still try to pay off our debt? Okay. The way you're phrasing that sounds like when you move out you're going to give up on your get out of debt plan and i don't like that i want you to move out and i want you to ratchet

up the number of hours you're working and tighten your budget down and rent some cheap cheap cheap thing as cheap as you can find i know you're in california but i don't want you to give up on your get out of debt plan okay if you run out the door with your hair on fire because you're mad at your mother-in-law and you abandon your get out of debt plan and you wuss out on properly tightening your budget down and really being hardcore you missed the point okay i get being frustrated and getting out of a toxic situation i'm saying do it wouldn't you christy yeah i i hear this a lot where people feel like they only have you know if i do this i can't do this and that's not true you can do both you can move out and get out of debt people

get out of debt all the time that didn't live with their mother-in-law you can do this i think it changed i think it comes down to changing the narrative in your mind that that's not possible because if you don't believe it's possible, you're not going to try. But if you start to realize, like, okay, what must be true? We ask this all the time, Dave. What must be true for me to get out of debt and pay a reasonable, you know, cheap rent, but reasonable that we can afford outside of living with my mother-in-law? And you start to run those numbers.

You find something that is just crazy cheap. You, you know, increase your income, take a side gig so then you start to see how it's possible yeah so if it takes you uh you know an extra 12 months so it's 30 months to get out of that instead of 18 so what i'm okay with that you got your sanity and you moved out you enjoyed your life in the process a little more you know uh but that but the way you phrased this was do i stay with crazy or do i just move out and i hope it works out yeah no no no no no no i'm gonna have a plan and i'm gonna execute the plan i'm gonna do both yeah you change that narrative exactly mark is with us in us in Michigan. Hey, Mark, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hi, Dave. I have a small engraving business that I started a couple years ago. I'm getting to the point where I need to set up business accounts using maybe some type of business software, and I was wondering what type of software I could use off the shelf that would install on my laptop and be able to also help me fill out my federal and state sales tax returns that are yearly. Your in-state sales tax returns are probably, you may find something to do that off the shelf.

I'm not sure. There's a company called FreshBooks that does a good job for small business startups on the accounting package. I'm not sure if it'll do your tax returns. And the other issue that can get really cumbersome is if you start selling across state lines and you're trying to click sales tax in multiple states and do those tax returns. And, you know, there's legislation and in multiple states and do those tax returns. And, you know, there's legislation and case law that has moved along on that.

And all these states now have the ability to collect on you that they didn't have before. And they're doing it if you're doing it in multiple states. But I'd be less concerned about the software filling out my tax returns for me than I would just making sure that I kept up with my accounting because accounting is the lifeblood and when you can read the numbers they speak to you they tell you what's going on in your business don't they Christy yeah it's interesting what I was going to say Dave is most of those software programs whether it's FreshBooks QuickBooks whatever you use they will export the reports that you need for your tax purposes but we still always recommend having a CPA,

a certified public accountant. We have endorsed local providers because more often than not, they will save you more than they cost you. When you've got a complicated return, like a small business return. Yeah, they're going to save you more than they cost you. So just the headache, having them do it, if you're selling across state lines, like Dave was saying, go ahead and build in the expense for that, but then whatever software you use will export the reports that that person needs to be able to file for you. Yeah. All right, Pam is next in Missouri. Hey, Pam, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hi, Dave, Christy, thanks for taking my call. My husband and I are in our 70s, and we are on baby step seven. We recently came into a little bit more money, um, because of the death in the family. And, uh, our plan is to buy our son who's in his mid forties, a house. He has, uh, Asperger's, but it is quite high functioning, but he's been in an apartment for years. It's just not a good situation. So my question is, is, we're kind of

caught between, do we buy a less expensive house about the amount of the inheritance, or do we put some money with it in order to move him closer to us where we can kind of help him more and he can kind of help us more as we get older. What's your total nest egg size? We're close to a million. Including this money you just got? Yes. Okay. And what would it cost to do A and B?

A would be around $140, B would be around $190. Okay. Are you going to leave the house in your name with him in this situation so that he doesn't get taken advantage of by some unscrupulous person, right? Yes. Okay. So you're not really buying him a house. You're buying a house for him to live in. We are buying a house, and he will rent for us.

He is in a minimum wage job, so we're not sure how much of this expense. Yeah, you're going to pay cash for the house. The thing is, the question is, are you going to pay cash for the house. The thing is, you know, the question is, are you going to have an asset that is not returning a lot but will go up in value in real estate, or are you going to have it invested in something like mutual funds? In this situation, I think it's 20% of your net worth, or 20% of your nest egg you have your house paid for as well, right?

Yes. So your net worth is in excess of a million. Well, no, we're right at a million. Our house is about $250,000. Okay, so you've got about $500,000. Right now you've got about $750,000 in liquid assets. Yes. Okay.

I would buy the $190,000. Okay. This is an important thing for your family the chemistry of your family got access to him to not violate boundaries but to assist him and provide for him and help him stay between the between the guardrails um that's worth another 50 grand it's why you've worked so hard. I was curious what you were going to say, Dave, because I think there's just such value and peace of mind in that type of situation, the peace of mind of having family close with those dynamics.

I'm glad you said that. I like that. Yeah, that's exactly. That's why you work. It's why you became a millionaire. And so, yeah, it's put you in a situation to do that. Good question. You're a good mom.

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