The Ramsey Show - App - How to Enjoy Spending Money (Hour 2)

Episode Date: March 12, 2020

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Starting point is 00:00:00 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. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Thanks for joining us. Brent is, or Brett is with us in Pensacola.
Starting point is 00:00:58 Hi, Brett. How are you? Very good. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? I have more of a psychological problem than a financial problem. Growing up, we didn't have a whole lot, and I have saved as much as I can, and I'm at a point in my life where I think I'm okay, but mentally I don't feel like I'm okay. I guess most people who invest never really feel like they've got enough. So that's kind of my problem. Okay. And how much do you have in your nest egg?
Starting point is 00:01:33 Well, if you add up all my investments, about 2.5 million. About 10.5 million? No, no, no. 2.5. Okay. All right. Good, good for you. And you started with nothing, you said, right? You grew up with nothing? Well, I got out of the military in 85, and I had two nickels to rub together. Yeah. So how old are you? 56.
Starting point is 00:01:57 Cool. And what do you make a year these days? Well, it always varies between $250 and $350. Okay. And what would be an example of something that you think a normal person with $2.5 million, as if that's normal, but what would a normal person spend money on that you psychologically don't feel like you can? Well, you know, it's funny. I mean, I talk to a lot of people, and I've searched out many a website,
Starting point is 00:02:33 and then I came across your show, which I just learned of not long ago. And, you know, you always want verification, I guess. Is it enough? You know, some people think, you know, $10,000 a month is enough, $15,000 a month, $20,000 a month to live comfortably. You know, you just don't know. So I'm quite frugal. I probably drive my wife crazy calculating our finances every twice a month at least. So what is the biggest luxury item you guys have bought in the last five years?
Starting point is 00:03:00 What's the biggest luxury item? I have a Porsche in my garage. Oh, okay. What, like $100,000? I have a Porsche in my garage. Oh, okay. What, like $100,000? A little more than that. Cool. What's the biggest thing she's bought? Her Range Rover.
Starting point is 00:03:14 She's got a car, a Range Rover. Okay. So you've got a couple nice cars. Okay. So you're not having trouble spending money on cars. No, that's one weakness I do have. That's not a weakness. You're in good enough shape to drive both those cars. I would drive those cars if I were in your shoes. No, that's one weakness I do have. from what you're asking me is how can i enjoy this how do i know if it's enough because i can't enjoy
Starting point is 00:03:45 it if i don't think it's enough correct but if i heard you right that's what i was hearing and that happens a lot to um those of us that started from nothing in my case i started from nothing became a millionaire and then went bankrupt before i was 28 and had to start again because i'm stupid so um so i you know i kind of have that fear in the back of my head, that black cloud psychologically hovering around in the back back there, like, oh, God, this is good. And if you don't think I do, you ought to ask my wife. She's got a bigger one.
Starting point is 00:04:17 She's like, I don't know if we can afford that or not. And I'm like, darling, we can definitely afford that. So the thing that's helped me do that is I have learned that I can allow myself to enjoy money easier if I'm doing two things. One is my generosity is high. If I'm giving, then it's okay for me to drive a porsche you know that helps me enjoy the porsche more i think if i was stopped up and i wasn't ever giving anything not helping anybody with any of the money then it would be harder to enjoy the porsche okay and so like i drive a really really i've got several really nice cars i'm a car geek and so i've got several really nice cars. I'm a car geek, and so I've got ridiculous money in cars.
Starting point is 00:05:07 But as a percentage of my net worth, which is the second thing, and as a percentage of my giving, even though they're really ridiculously nice cars, like you have, you know, you've got wonderful cars. But, you know, as an example, in your case, you've got, let's say, $170,000 worth of cars, $150,000 worth of cars sitting there. And if you give away $3,000 a year, then that's going to make it hard for you to enjoy those cars. And so generosity factor in ratio to what you're enjoying, whatever it is. If you travel and you're going to spend $100,000 on travel and you only give $2,000 away a year, it's going to be harder to enjoy the travel
Starting point is 00:05:52 because you're becoming a hedonist. You're becoming inward-facing and selfish and greedy kind of a person, even though you didn't mean to. But generosity helps break that down in your spirit and keeps your soul a little cleaner. The second thing I look at is I look at ratios. And that's what I'm doing with your cars. $170,000 worth of cars as a percentage of $2.5 million is nothing.
Starting point is 00:06:19 If you took those cars out in the front yard. I keep the Porsche in the garage, and usually I drive a Range Rover as well. Yeah, but if you took all your cars and put them in the front yard with no insurance and set fire to them, your life really doesn't change. Your life doesn't change. It's a small enough percentage of your world that it's easy to enjoy because you're not out of line. But you take a guy who's making $60,000 a year and has a negative net worth with student loans and he drives a fifty thousand dollar car you know and those guys are all over america right
Starting point is 00:06:50 and see that makes it that not only makes that car stupid but it makes it harder to enjoy because the ratios are out of whack he's got too much of his life tied up in luxury things. If a girl's got a ring on her hand, and that is the entire couple's net worth, it's harder to enjoy that ring. Where Sharon is like, she's got this ridiculously wonderful ring, looks like a headlight, but when we got married, it was a, when we got married, I mean, she got a.23. It wasn't even a full fourth of a carat.
Starting point is 00:07:28 That one's in the safe because it's nostalgic. But it wouldn't even show up around the ring that she's got now. And I'm not bragging. I'm just saying because we've worked so hard, you and me both, for so many years, if my generosity is up there, I find i can enjoy a portion of my wealth and if it's a small portion of my wealth small enough then i can enjoy it we can go on a luxurious trip that costs more than we used to make in a year back in the day you know and you could do that right now and you could too you know you could. And it's still, while it's a high percentage of your emotional memory, it's not a high percentage of your current world. And that allows you to enjoy it.
Starting point is 00:08:15 So hold on. I'm going to send you a copy of the only book I've written on this subject, Wealth. All my other books are on money. The book I wrote on wealth is called The Legacy Journey. And I'll warn you ahead of time, it's a Christian book. Because it's the only way you can view wealth and keep it in balance. And so it's the only book I've written that's exclusively Christian. And if you're not Christian, you really won't enjoy it.
Starting point is 00:08:36 So throw it away. Or use it for a coaster on your table or something. But I think you'll get something out of it. Hold on, I'll send you a copy of it. We talk about it daily. Character matters. When I'm looking for team members, I'm looking for men and women who have character. People with character care.
Starting point is 00:09:06 They care about the work they're doing, and they care about the people around them. That's why my team uses LinkedIn Jobs to find people who care about our mission. Over 600 million members visit LinkedIn to make connections, learn and grow as professionals, and discover new job opportunities. And their profiles give you a sense of the whole person, their skills, interests, volunteer experience. With LinkedIn, you can reach candidates you can't find anywhere else so that you can get the right people for the right jobs. It's no wonder a hire is made every eight seconds on LinkedIn. Get started today with LinkedIn Jobs and get $50 off your first job post.
Starting point is 00:09:48 Visit linkedin.com slash Ramsey. Terms and conditions apply. Ann is with us in San Francisco. Hey, Ann, welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave, it's an honor to speak with you. You too. What's up? I have a question I've never heard you address before. And my husband worked for a nonprofit organization coming up on 30 years ago. And when he left the organization, he was in his 20s and wasn't really thinking about future retirement and also left his 403B there. And I'm just wondering, is there a way we can retreat it? Is it gone? How do we get that back?
Starting point is 00:10:45 No, he owns it 100%. It should be sitting there. Hopefully he's got an account number or some connectivity to them. Hopefully they've given him some kind of a report over the years, have they? Well, when he's called about it before, they've said, you know, we have no way to locate that or we don't, you know, and he kind of gave up on it. But I, so how do we get a hold of that without a number, or how do we keep pursuing it? What buttons do we push? Well, the 403B is not their property.
Starting point is 00:11:19 It's his property. Okay. Okay. And just because he left it there doesn't mean they were allowed to lose it or spend it. Okay. Okay. And just because he left it there doesn't mean they were allowed to lose it or spend it. Okay. And so it's kind of like I left a bag of money in your basement and now you're telling me you can't find it. It's my money. I would suggest you find it. Okay. That kind of a thing. Just be a little bit more tenacious about. Yeah, I'm not going to be, you know, how much money do you think was there? You know what?
Starting point is 00:11:49 It wasn't. It's not very much. We're talking maybe $5,000 or $7,000 30 years ago. Okay. Depending on how it's invested, it could be worth three or four times that now. Mm-hmm. I don't know what it was invested in in and he has no memory of it whatsoever not very much he was not he was only like 23 yeah and he has no records of any kind
Starting point is 00:12:13 not that we can get our our hands on that sort of before the digital age you know so okay you know so what i would do is just call the director at the nonprofit and just say, look, I need some help because this money is there somewhere, and you have a moral and a legal obligation to find it. Okay. And I need you to do that, like, this week. Okay. All right.
Starting point is 00:12:40 I can do that. I just didn't know if it was a lost cause or not. But now that I know that it's not, I will be on that. Probably going to be registered under a Social Security number. That's good to know. That's probably it. The account may be associated with that number in some way. Ricky is in Evansville, Indiana. Hi, Ricky. How are you? I'm good. How are you, Dave?
Starting point is 00:13:01 Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, about six years ago, I had gotten a better job, and of course, it was like hitting the lottery, so I made some bad choices. And now I have a vehicle that I'm upside down on and really don't know what to do about it. How much do you owe on it? $53,000. And what would it bring? Probably $35,000. Where are you getting that number? And what did it bring? Probably 35.
Starting point is 00:13:25 Where are you getting that number? Just based on it's an 18 model and it has 12,000 miles on it. It sits majority of the time. And the only reason I bought it was to get rid of another high-dollar vehicle. That you rolled a negative equity into this? Yes, exactly. How much negative equity did negative equity into this? Yes, exactly. How much negative equity did you roll into this? $10,000.
Starting point is 00:13:49 Okay, so we know you're 10 upside down. All right, so what you need to do is go on Kelley Blue Book and KBB.com and pull up what a private sale on the vehicle would bring if you sold it to a private individual, not a wholesale to a dealer. That's going to be less. We want to get as much out of it as we can. I take it you don't have any money. You have any money?
Starting point is 00:14:13 You have any money? No. Okay. That's not saved up. That's what I mean. That would be money, yeah. And you have any investments that aren't retirement investments? No.
Starting point is 00:14:23 I am just starting to realize I've made some bad choices. Gotcha. What do you make a year? 95. How good's your credit? Terrible at the moment. Are you single? Married but separated.
Starting point is 00:14:41 And who's the loan with? My bank. Oh, that's good news okay good all right so let's figure out what it's worth let's pretend that it is 35 which would make you 10 18 000 in the hole okay let's pretend that's accurate okay if you sell the car, the only way to do that is you have to come up with $18,000 because your bank has the title and the buyer would hand you $35,000. You'd be $18,000 short to get the title to give to the buyer. Okay? Right.
Starting point is 00:15:16 That's the bad news. The good news is your bank already has a $35,000 loan and an $18,000 unsecured loan to you because they don't have enough collateral to cover this loan, right? Right. So they already, in a sense, have an $18,000 unsecured because that's how much the car is worth, right? So what I would do is go sit down in person in the bank with the bank branch manager that you deal with and show them where you are and say, I have to get out of this. I need you to release the title and let me sign a note for this 18,000.
Starting point is 00:15:53 And then you pay payments on the 18,000 and clean it up like it was a credit card. Okay. I never thought of it. And that's how you get out of an upside-down car in your situation. Hopefully, you're wrong about the 35. You're probably not a lot wrong, though. You might be 38. If it's 38, then you're $15,000 in the hole.
Starting point is 00:16:19 Maybe that's it. But make a 95. You can clean that up real fast, depending on how much sting you get out of this divorce. Or when you guys get back together, maybe that would be a better thing. And you guys are able to work through all of your debts, including that one. But it's a really, really good thing to get rid of. And it's obviously in over your head. Hey, thanks for the call.
Starting point is 00:16:45 Tarshae is with us in Raleigh. Hi, Tarshae. How are you? I'm doing good, and yourself? Better than I deserve. What's up? Yes, I was calling because I want your advice on a career move, possibly. I'm currently working at a job where I have a lot of downtime, so I
Starting point is 00:17:08 can do other screens of income, like I'm a real estate agent too. So I can, you know, work on things. And I'm also like, I sell life insurance too. So I can do that while I have the downtime at this job. But it's like no advancement possibilities and things here. And I do have a master's. I went back to school, too, which got me school loans. And I have a master's. So I'm wondering, should I stay here, work on the other screens of income to increase my income, or find a job that makes more income but may not have as much downtime
Starting point is 00:17:46 so I wouldn't be able to work on my other. Gotcha. So what do you make now at your day job? I make $38,000. Okay, and if you change careers, what could you make? It's possible I can go up to maybe $60,000 or $70,000. Okay. All right, so you could roughly maybe $60,000 or $70,000, possibly. All right, so you could roughly double your income, give or take, if you had a good day.
Starting point is 00:18:10 Okay? Right. That's not a bad thing. And doing what? What would you be doing then? Well, I would work in like a private sector. Currently, I work like for the state. Mm-hmm.
Starting point is 00:18:22 So it's not a lot of money. Oh, so you'd be in the same field but go into the private sector and it pays a lot better. Right. Gotcha. Okay. And what field are you in? I'm in the biological field. Okay.
Starting point is 00:18:36 All right. Cool. Like laboratory. So when, how old are you? I'm 43. 43, 43? 43, yes. Yeah, okay.
Starting point is 00:18:46 So when you're 53, what do you want to be doing for a career? Have my own businesses, and that's why I ask, you know, that's the vision for my husband and I is to own our own businesses. Doing what? Get those off real estate. Okay. Real estate. As an agent, a real estate agent, you want to own those real estate. Okay. Real estate. As an agent, a real estate agent, you want to own a real estate company?
Starting point is 00:19:12 Well, I want to do investment. Oh, okay. So you've got to make a lot of money then before you get to that point. Okay. All right. So what gets you there the fastest? Taking the better job in the private sector? Selling real estate on the side? What gets you there the fastest? Taking the better job in the private sector? Selling real estate on the side? What gets you there the fastest?
Starting point is 00:19:30 And that's the answer to your question. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. If you do this one simple thing that we all do, you are literally at risk of being hacked and someone stealing what you've worked so hard for. Do you ever use public Wi-Fi? I'm talking about getting online at a coffee shop, a store, the airport, or even at home. Hackers can use a simple $100 device to mimic Wi-Fi, and with just a little bit of skills, they can take over your financial life. This means you may think you're on your bank's site or app or securely making that purchase online, but hackers
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Starting point is 00:21:10 Portland, Maine's a bit of a trip. It sure is. We flew in last night and we fly out tomorrow morning. Wow. Well, thank you for making the trip. And all the way down here to do a debt-free scream. Yes, sir. Cool.
Starting point is 00:21:20 And who's this with you? This is my daughter, Sarah. Hey, Sarah, welcome. Good to have you. Very cool. So how much have you paid off? $152,341.55. Love it. And how long did this take? It took six years and three months.
Starting point is 00:21:36 Oh, wow. Okay. And your range of income during that time? I started at $84,000 and I ended last year at $240,000. Whoa! What do you do for a living? I started at $84,000 and I ended last year at $240,000. Whoa! What do you do for a living? I'm a healthcare IT consultant. Wow, you're killing it. Way to go. So I hear a story from my team that apparently I answered an email two years ago and you were listening. Yes. And you heard the answer. Yes. Let's play that clip. It's fairly short. I want to hear what we said. Today's question comes from Jan in Boston. I took a new job four months ago that is not a good fit.
Starting point is 00:22:16 However, I have the opportunity to move to another job that will double my income. I'm not a job hopper. How long should I try to stick it out, the new job, from a moral standpoint? You're not a job hopper, and you don't have to worry about that. You know, you went in there. It's not a good fit. It're not a job hopper and you don't have to worry about that you know you went in there it's not a good fit it's not a good fit well hopefully your new position that doubles your income will be a good fit i don't think you have a moral obligation to stay in something that's a bad fit no that's not especially when you have a better opportunity sitting right there in front of you well that was easy was easy. It was. It was so easy, but it was so hard making the decision, so I was pretty excited to have you.
Starting point is 00:22:49 How long after I answered that did you quit? I called and spoke with them the next morning, but I gave them three weeks like you suggested. Yeah, okay. Yes. All right, so we didn't play the whole clip in there. I said give them three weeks and all that. Yes.
Starting point is 00:22:59 They edited it down. Okay, cool, good. Yes. And then on the way to 240. On the way to 240. Pretty amazing. That's Okay, cool. Good. And then on the way to 240. On the way to 240. Pretty amazing. That's an incredible income. Yeah, and it won't be forever.
Starting point is 00:23:11 It's a consulting job where I get to travel and I get to have a lot of fun. And you'll get to see some great pictures of some traveling that I get to do on the weekends as well. But it will allow me the opportunity to then go back home and work close by and be close to family and do some more serving. Okay. So it sounds like 84 was most of the six years. It was a lot of it. It was three to three and a half,
Starting point is 00:23:35 and then I made that quick jump and realized very quickly that it was not a good fit for me, and that's when my salary really jumped. So what kind of debt was the 152? It was a couple of credit cards, about just under $3,000 on that, about $5,000 on a car. I had a HELOC in the amount of $53,000 and some change, and then $91,000 on my mortgage. How much of the 152 was paid in the last two years? Just roughly. Probably close to 100. Okay. And there was a lot of cash flowing.
Starting point is 00:24:11 I also cash flowed $28,000 worth of undergrad. And so Sarah just graduated in May of last year, debt-free as well. Love it. What's your degree in, Sarah? Biology, minor in chemistry. Great. Way to go. Good stuff.
Starting point is 00:24:21 Very cool. So you did it. I did it. Single mom. Yep. Busting it. Yep.. So you did it. I did it. Single mom. Yep. Busting it. Yep. $152,000.
Starting point is 00:24:30 How's it feel? It's amazing. It's amazing. And when you count up the funding of the fully funded emergency fund and the cash flowing of school, it wound up being, we were just reflecting on it here in the crowd, it winds up being somewhere around $180,000 or $190,000, which is pretty surreal. Yeah. It's a lot of money. It's pretty amazing.
Starting point is 00:24:51 Yeah, that's very cool. So what do you tell people the secret to getting out of debt and getting control of this is? There are a few. You have to do a budget every month. If you don't do a budget for the month, you lose money. It gets away from you. If you're single, whether you're a single guy or a single gal, having an accountability partner, at least for the first couple of years while you're getting… Who was yours?
Starting point is 00:25:12 Sarah was. Oh, okay. Because she was 16 when we first started, and we were looking at colleges, and I had not heard of you. And I was thinking, oh, my gosh, with all this debt, and I'm going to have to take on another $100,000 in college debt or saddle her with it. And so she was my accountability partner and that got her. She's like, mom, you got to get out of this because I need to help out. Exactly. And you only spent 28 grand.
Starting point is 00:25:37 Exactly. Yes. Her dad helped with the other half of that and so we cash flowed it together and Sarah actually worked hard during the summer and put money towards it as well. So it was a group effort. And I chose a school we could afford. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Instead of 100, it was more like 50. Yes. Lots of scholarships, worked very hard during the summer, just like you say, and we got all that done. So budget is important. Accountability partner. And if you have the opportunity to go through FPU, it changed our lives. If we had not gone through it, we would still be in debt by $150,000 and probably another $100,000 more.
Starting point is 00:26:12 So what about that lifted you out? It was, I have been a single mom since Sarah was a toddler. And so I've always done my own budget, but not well. I've not been a spender, but I didn't have the skill set that I needed. And I had read a couple of books, but I just kind of relied on out-earning my sloppiness. And so FPU, when they first announced it at church, I'd never heard of it. And the small piece that they announced during church, I heard help with college, and my ears perked up. And so that's why we went. I thought, well, maybe we can figure out what to do about college.
Starting point is 00:26:48 But it was the practical piece of, here's how you do your budget. You can't spend more than you make. Everything has to go somewhere so that you get to zero. Just that very simple roadmap was all that I needed to turn it all around. Perfect. Very well done. Great job. Great job. So Sarah was turn it all around. Perfect. Very well done. Great job. Great job.
Starting point is 00:27:06 So Sarah was your biggest cheerleader. Yes. And that's the methodology. Well, we're proud of you. Thank you so much. Well done. Thank you. Well done.
Starting point is 00:27:15 And it sounds like the career has just gone absolutely bananas. I have been so fortunate. I may need to take over Ken Coleman's job on career stuff here. There we go. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires. You're on your way. You're going to be one of those. No doubt about it.
Starting point is 00:27:31 With this kind of income and no debt and the ability to control it and tell it what to do. Yes. I mean, you got control of one of life's most difficult things. Very well done. Proud of you. Good stuff. Thank you. Thank you, Dave.
Starting point is 00:27:41 All right. It's Jan and Sarah from Portland, Maine, a mother-daughter duo here. $152,000 paid off in six years and three months, making $84,000 to $240,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Love it! Woo! one we're debt free yes man well done you guys very very very well done absolutely fabulous our question of the day comes from blinds.com the number one online retailer of custom window coverings you
Starting point is 00:28:26 get free samples free shipping and with the new promos every month you save money use the promo code it's magic ramsey it's a magic word heather is in iowa with our question she says one of our Vehicles quit running. We owe $16,000. It's worth $2,600. Talk about stupid tax. Cost to fix it, $4,000. Our only option is to fix it. This makes me want to reverse my snowball, get this truck paid down before the next $4,000 repair happens so we can move on from this truck. What do i do well um we don't it's not worth twenty six hundred dollars and you owe sixteen thousand on it after it's repaired and so um if you're talking
Starting point is 00:29:19 about because it's got a major repair number one you get two or three on a repair that size you get two or three opinions of how you can fix it and we're just trying to get the thing running so we can get it sold and so if you spend two thousand on it and it takes it from a twenty six hundred dollar value up to probably a ten thousand dollar value which is probably more realistic i think there's some drama in this email because these numbers just don't convert to reality very often so um yeah i think you fix it as cheaply as you can and then you sell it as quickly as you can and that's what you do and that gets rid of it as fast as you possibly can no we don't keep this truck around. This thing's a problem child. Hey, thank you for the email.
Starting point is 00:30:08 This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. thanks for joining us america this is the dave ramsey show open phones at triple eight eight two five five two two five lucas is with us in North Dakota. Hi, Lucas. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hello, sir. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up?
Starting point is 00:31:14 So I have a question for you. So me and my wife got sick debt, paid off our debt, and we sold our home that we had. And we're wanting to buy a new home but we're sick of debt so we want to put a hundred percent down um so we were wondering should we just outright save that money or should we put that into some sort of account to let it grow we're looking about a hundred thousand dollar home okay how long will it take you to get it together um it'll probably take us i'd say three years of saving okay well the problem is with mutual funds i love mutual funds as long-term investing and that's really about your only choice other than um other than just like a money market account and a money market account's not
Starting point is 00:32:01 going to really make you anything uh and there's And the problem is they go up and down. I mean, they're volatile. The stock market is unpredictable. Over the long haul, you can predict that it's going to go up and you'll be fine. And so the numbers tell us that 90-some-odd percent of the five-year periods in history have made money in a mutual fund in the stock market but if you drop down to three years only 67 two out of three times i don't like those odds i'm not that big a risk taker so when you've got a three-year window i'm probably gonna if i'm in your shoes i'm gonna use just a just a money market account it's not gonna pay anything it's sickening lucas but you're not going to lose anything either and so i would hate for your hundred thousand you know to turn into
Starting point is 00:32:50 70 000 or something like that where the market moved down on you and it messed up your plan i would rather you guys just say but you've got the ability to put the money together fairly quickly you don't need the return on the investment to get to your goal. You're just doing it with money out of your income, your cash flow. You're putting $35,000 a year aside for three years and $3,000 a month. And I think I would just do that and not worry about trying to make money on the money because I don't want the risk. Jackie's in Baltimore. Hi, Jackie.
Starting point is 00:33:24 Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for having me. Sure. What's up? Okay, so I have a quick question. I'm a hairstylist, and my salon does not offer a set schedule at all. And the hours are always punctuating, so it's always different every single week.
Starting point is 00:33:43 And there are some days where I don't go in on time because they have to push me back if it's slow. And so it's really hard for me to save up money. I just purchased the money makeover kit last month. So I've been reading the book and it's really hard for me to save up for baby step number one right now, especially that I'm kind of living almost paycheck to paycheck. I might have an extra like $100,000 or $200,000. Your problem is not your unpredictable income. Your problem is you don't have much income. Right. When you have an unpredictable income that creates $300,000 a year,
Starting point is 00:34:14 you wouldn't be calling me with this. No. So your problem is you're not working much. So what are you making? What's your average month? Okay, my average month would probably be about 2000 yeah and you're single yes in baltimore maryland and you're how old i'm 25 okay yeah you're not making a living that's your problem and so i mean if this moves from $2,000 to $1,500 in a month, you've got serious problems.
Starting point is 00:34:45 That $500 is everything, isn't it? Yeah. And so we need to do something. You need a different salon where you can build a clientele and build some hours and work like a crazy person and double your income. That's the problem. Yeah, I just feel like I don't have the right mindset because I feel like I'm not strong enough to work in a higher salon.
Starting point is 00:35:09 My salon I work in right now is a more chain salon, and it has a lot of walk-in base. And I was trying to build my clientele there. We just don't do any color. We only cut hair. And that's what I really enjoy doing. I don't enjoy coloring hair. So I felt like this was my best outcome.
Starting point is 00:35:24 The problem is right now you're enjoying being broke right so you may have to do some things you don't enjoy right you've got an income problem jackie yeah you've got an income problem there's no amount of manipulation that's going to make 20 000 make 24 000 a year in Baltimore, Maryland fund. Yeah. So we've got to do something to adjust your income. When you do that, then we can talk about how to best lay out an irregular income budget. There's a form in the back of the Total Money Makeover book to show you how to do that. All you're doing is doing a prioritization, and you take care of the most important things down to the least important things.
Starting point is 00:36:03 And that will help somewhat. But you have got to do something long-term and short-term to get your income up. If you just want to work some hours at a different salon, that's fine. If they allow you to work two different places, two different ends of town or something, that's fine. Or you need to start building your career. Because this is not going where you want to go right now. You're at their beck and call, and it's not working for you. Tamasha is in Boise. Hi, Tamasha.
Starting point is 00:36:36 How are you? I'm doing wonderful, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. Is it Tamisha? Tamisha. Okay, I said it wrong. Okay, how can I help?
Starting point is 00:36:48 So, Dave, we're in a little bit of a dispute right now, my husband and I. He's currently bringing in around $2,500 a month after taxes, and we have a vehicle. We're renting, we're paying about $950 in rent, and he is dead set on purchasing another vehicle, and not to mention I am also 32 weeks pregnant. So my question is, how can I go about explaining to him, because I've gone over all the financials and all the logical reasons why that's
Starting point is 00:37:26 not a financially sound decision right now what could I do to help him kind of understand and not make a rash decision and purchase another vehicle um right now or it just it's not making sense to me so I'm kind of do you have do you have the cash to buy the vehicle? No. So he's wanting to go into debt to buy a vehicle when you're renting and you have $900 in rent and a $2,500 income and a baby on the way. Right. How old is this guy? He pays $370 a month for the vehicle that we have right now.
Starting point is 00:38:02 You have a $370 car payment now? Yes. Good Lord. Right. And he wants another car payment? Well, if he doesn't get a car payment, his thing is, I feel like it's somehow, some way I've got to get another car. Why? Is he a child? How old is this guy?
Starting point is 00:38:23 He's 31. Okay, it's really time he learns to do math this is disgusting i i hear you no i mean there's not a a grown 31 year old that looks at 900 in rent 370 in car payment and a 2500 take-home pay and a baby on the way and can't figure out there's not room for more car payments and how that's not going to prosper his family and is stomping his foot like a four-year-old on the cereal aisle. I want a car, Mommy. Mommy, I want a car.
Starting point is 00:38:56 I mean, really, I'm ready to smack this guy's ears. So, and then I guess in his mind, what we would have coming for a tax return is what he plans on utilizing a portion of that to either put a down payment or just get a car. Yeah, so that helps you get into a bigger mess. Exactly. There's no logic in this whatsoever. I mean, this is not a Dave Ramsey thing. This is a stupid thing. I mean, this is not a dave this is not a dave ramsey thing this is a stupid thing i mean this is just straight up dumb this kid is being he's being four years old he really is i want a car mommy i mean that's i've i've done that that's how i used to be that guy that's how
Starting point is 00:39:38 i recognize him and that's why i get angry at him because i was that guy i used to do crap like that to my wife and um i gotta tell you man it's not good and your mama bear uh carrying that baby intuition is dead on this is dumber than a rock this is this is really really dumb and i i i'm i'm gonna threaten this guy with his life metaphorically speaking um i mean there's not you shouldn't have to try to logically explain this to someone who can do sixth grade math. This is absolutely... Okay. Good luck with it, Arlen.
Starting point is 00:40:15 I hope you can help. I can't help you. I'm sorry. I'm just fussing at you. You're right. That's all I can tell you. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey guys, it's Blake Thompson, Senior Executive Producer for the Dave Ramsey Show.
Starting point is 00:40:38 This hour's over, but you can find more great content on our YouTube channel. Catch the most watched Dave Ramsey's debt-free screams in the very popular Everyday Millionaire segment. Go to the Dave Ramsey Show YouTube channel We'll see you next time.

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