The Ramsey Show - App - How To Start 2023 Off Right With Goals That Actually Work (Hour 1)

Episode Date: January 2, 2023

Join the free Building Wealth Livestream Event on January 12th! Dave Ramsey & Ken Coleman discuss: How to set effective goals, What to do with a large profit, Budgeting on a fluctuating income. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods moving in storage studios, 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. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, number one best-selling author of the book, Paycheck to Purpose, is my co-host today. We're taking your calls at 888-825-5-2-2-5 so ken it is the time of year when people reset their lives you've

got a whiteboard that's erased you can write anything on this new year that you want there's something grace-filled about a new year and sometimes people kind of do ish or wish they call it a resolution and then they change nothing. That's right. Because the resolution is just that. It's something that I kind of feel like I want to do. Maybe there's some guilt driving the resolution. Maybe there's a wish.

There might have been some champagne involved. That's right. Setting the resolution. That's a good point. Maybe even peer pressure. Drunk goal setting. That's resolution. So we set a resolution, but as you know, the data is just abysmal they all fall off around february yeah jim gets gets empty again is how

years ago there were no machines available in january i was working with a personal trainer and he said no problem just wait till valentine's day there won't be a soul in here 45 days in the gym is empty yeah so that's the difference in a resolution, an ish, a wish, a goal. A goal is something you actually do. Goals are dreams with work boots on. And it means asking, what do I need to do differently? What has to be true that was not true before to get this abundant life? And that's why you're listening to us.

You want a more abundant life. We want that for you're listening to us. You want a more abundant life. We want that for you. We love you. We bust you. We encourage you. We pray for you. We cry with you. We do everything on this show.

Also, you can have an abundant life, a more abundant life, and taking the steps to do intentionality with that. So let's do an old-fashioned goals-setting lesson, Ken. The old guys, I mean, Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar used to say there's a wheel of life, and you need to set goals and be achieving and growing in all of these areas. You need financial goals. You need intellectual goals. You need family goals, spiritual goals, physical goals, career goals, and social goals.

And all of those are important. And generally speaking, each of us have one of those categories or two that we're really naturally good at yeah comes easy for us yes and uh one or two that are really difficult for us that's right and so you said uh something earlier i want to just hone back on you said goals or dreams with work boots on that implies some intentionality and diligence to actually say, okay, this is what specifically I want to accomplish. And then I've got to actually get up and do that. And so I want to know your thoughts, because I know you've been teaching

this for a very long time, certainly with Entrez leadership, our business division here at Ramsey Solution. So how do we put work boots on goals? When you set a goal, then you have to start figuring out and writing down how you're going to accomplish it. Okay, I want to lose 30 pounds. Great. Win over 90 days. That's 10 pounds a month, 2 1⁄2 pounds a week. Now, what are you going to do to do that?

Just set the goal. It doesn't do anything. That's right. I'm going to drink more water. I'm going to exercise. I'm going to cut out breads and sweets. Okay, now we've got some tactical things we're doing to actually cause the weight to lose i want to i want to uh get out of debt okay i got to get extra job i got to cut out the subscriptions i got to sell the stupid motorcycle

sit in the garage whatever it is right and so you're going to take some actions to hit the goals and unless you do the needle's not going to move. Now, goals that work are just dreams unless they're five things. They need to, A, number one, be specific. Number two, they need to be measurable. Number three, they need to have a time limit. So I want to lose weight is measurable, but it's not specific. I want to lose 30 pounds is measurable and specific. But then you ask the question

how long do you want you want to lose up 30 pounds over the next 10 years or how many times do you want to lose 30 pounds okay so i want to lose 30 pounds over three months now we got it like i said a while ago 90 days that's 10 pounds a month two and a half pounds a week as soon as you put a time limit on the goal, you can back the math out. Okay, I want to read through the Bible. Great. When? In a year.

Okay, 12 months. Well, now we can look at the number of chapters in the Bible, the number of books in the Bible. We have an Old Testament, New Testament, read through the Bible plan. There's lots of them. I want to run a marathon. Great. When? And now we can back into a training plan of how many miles i got to run to get ready for that

the next two things is goals need to be in writing why is it important that they're in writing i'm not positive but i have achieved almost none of my goals in my life if i didn't write it down yeah the bible says in habakkuk habakkuk 2 2 write the vision and make it plain. It's almost weird, magical, but you're pretty much ensured it's not going to happen. But something about when it leaves your mind and you write it, and I would physically write it, like you like to write with a pencil. I do, I do, I absolutely do. And I think there's something that happens there in the physiology of that that causes us to go, okay, I'm going to lose 30 pounds, and you ride it out.

I'm going to make $100,000 this year, and you ride it out. That's $8,333 a month. That's $2,100 a week. What have I got to do to get there? And once you start putting it on paper, it's there. And the last one of the goals, it has to be your goals, not your mama's, not your wife. That's important. My wife wants me to lose 30 pounds.

Not going to work. My mama wanted me to be a dentist. I don't want to be your patient. Okay. You know, don't live other people's goals. Live your goals. And you people in leadership help people set goals that they set. When you set goals for them, it's not a goal.

It's a quota. So true. And what will happen is a goal towards a desired future that's not your desired future, as you just laid out some examples, those goals now become distractions. They're actually distractions from what you should be doing. You'll never finish them. Our team's built a guide for you to help you do goal setting. Go to ramseysolutions.com slash goals, and it'll help you with this because again you need to touch these different areas you need to do the seven different things financial intellectual family spiritual physical career and social and in each

of those areas then you need goals that are specific they need to be measurable they need to have a time limit they need to be in writing and you have to have personal emotional ownership of them they have to be your goals and you put, we can put forth a thousand examples of people that have done this and how it works. And oh, by the way, if you didn't lose 30 pounds, but you lost 28, I think you won. Yeah, absolutely. You know, there's an old phrase out there. We don't know who it's attributed to, but the person who aims for nothing hits it every time. And I'll tell you, I've used this tool. This tool is unbelievable because it guides you through it. So you don't have to stress out. We're going to give you the categories, the financial, intellectual, family, spiritual, physical, career, social, and we walk

you through how to actually use this. And it's going to keep you accountable. Oh, this is a wonderful guide to really make some serious gains in all of these areas in your life in 2023. Well, I help you with the financial sector. It's free. There's that too. Yeah, that's true. All right. RamseySolutions.com slash goals. Ish is a wish. Drunken resolutions don't count. We're setting real goals. This is grownups. We're setting goals. Knock it down, baby. Get after it. This is your year, baby.

Go get it. Get you some. We'll be right back. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, number one best-selling author, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Well, we know with talk of inflation and actual inflation, and when you go to the gas pump you have a minor freaking heart attack, we know with the recession having hit, not much of one, but it is a recession. It's kind of a wimpy little recession. It's like a baby recession.

A little tiny baby misty recession, but it's here. And so we know with all that it can be scary. And with that, oh, now you can get real scared. And I'm out of control with my money. Now you can get real scared. And how am I going to retire? And how am I going to get rid of these student loans? Okay.

You don't have to live like this. You have to get to the point where you say, enough is enough. And decide to make some big changes. Because you can't keep doing the same things you've always done and expect different results. That's the definition of insanity. That means it's time to try Financial Peace University. You're going to learn the proven step-by-step plan to actually win with money. And when you follow the plan, you'll not only get out of debt, bill wealth, but become outrageously generous, learn to work with your spouse on the money.

And, man, the whole subject starts to be a smile instead of a frown. So if you're ready to say I've had enough, then I go to RamseySolutions.com slash enough, and we'll get you into Financial Peace University. Almost 10 million people have done this. RamseySolutions.com slash enough. Time to get with it. Tyler is with us.

Tyler's in Tallahassee, Florida. Hi, Tyler. Welcome to The Ramsey ramsey show hey thanks for taking my call sure what's up hey so i'm a uh a farmer and i'm a young guy i'm only 27 um and i also work full-time for a uh in like a maintenance position and um i've i've grown my business and it's been kind of like a side hustle in a way and it's never really made money and then this year we we made around a hundred thousand dollars wow and um profit for our blueberry season yeah we grow blueberries and so we had a really good

year and i'm kind of torn now i'm i've i've worked for five years or six years now i'm building this business up and it's it's always been a dream to make make it work and it's made it i've made it work and now i'm like what do i do next and so i've got some questions about um what do i do with this money um i have some debt um i have a truck payment and we actually owe a little bit on our farm. Both of those combined are up, I think it's $45,000, almost to the dot, $45,100. So do I pay that off? Yes. Well, another thing is I have, so blueberries are very, they're kind of a specialty crop, and you have to be careful with them because frost in Florida,

North Florida frost can really damage them. And so I've been squeaking by. I don't have the frost protection that I need, which is going to cost like $70,000 now because the price of everything has gone through the roof, and it's 90% PVC pipe, and that's just gone through the roof with prices. So do I spend the money on that or do I get out of debt I mean how many acres have you got how many acres have you gotten blueberries um it's six acres right now um but I want to expand and that's that's the other side

of the question I've made money and I'm to the point now where i can't grow anymore until i do this full time i've either got to you know or get off the pot and i don't know what to do there because i either work full time i'm working full time right now you know seven to five and then i i go and to do my farm and how predictable is this crop annually uh It's pretty predictable with frost protection. I mean, the market is huge. So why is this the first time in five years you've made this money? Well, I've started the business. When you start it, your plants are really tiny,

and then they have to grow for three years, and it just takes money. And so we started with a dream, me and my wife, and we had carrots and land. Now we've got the land, and it took us a couple years to get the well and everything, get the money together, and then five years comes along. This is just our first profitable year. It's your first real crop. Yeah. Yes, sir.

I understand that. What do you make in your day job? About $41,000. Is that gross? Yeah, that's gross all right i would work one more year and i would pay off all the debts today and i would put in 50 of the uh frost protection three acres yeah well i thought about that but the problem is you have to put a large well in and so the the water is you basically are irrigating the whole six acres you're making it rain out there a quarter of an inch of rain per hour and so i it's either all or nothing i can't do half

of it no it's not no it's not the well is not the whole i mean you put the well in and put some of the pipe in but you don't have the money to do the whole thing mean you put the well in and put some of the pipe in but you don't have the money to do the whole thing and you don't need to do this or you're you do not you do not need to borrow money to do frost protection and effectively when you've got borrowed money on the land and borrowed money on the truck and how much is your truck worth um it's uh in today's market who knows it's a 2019 f-150 how many miles no that that's like a sixty thousand dollar truck right i would say like 45 now i don't know i hadn't looked in a while sell it okay and do the frost protection my What do I haul my tractor with? Well, get an old truck.

Tractors don't care how new the truck is. The only person that cares is the redneck behind the wheel. Well, this is mainly our only truck. I'm not going to argue with you. You make $41,000 a year. You're driving a truck that's too stinking expensive. Yeah. It's crazy. It's nuts.

And you need to get rid of the truck and get your frost protection in go make you some money and then get you a nice truck later but get you a work truck right now like real farmers use not pretend ones yeah nobody that's a very good point the tractor doesn't care and you're you know your family't care. There's no value out of that. Listen, he's dodged the bullet. You've dodged the bullet to this point on the frost. I understand it, but paying off the debt. I am not going to tell you to use this money to put in the frost protection and keep the debt and drive that truck. I'm not going to tell you to do that.

It's not what I would do if I were in your shoes. You've worked too hard to get to this point, and the crop is at risk because of the truck you drive not because you're unwilling not because of debt so get rid of the stupid truck now you got the money ta-da just like that it all worked out yeah except for them except for that ego part yeah on the truck but yeah, yeah, I mean, it's just. And then I want to address, he asked the question, hey, I also want to. By the way, I drive a nice truck. And I don't mind you having a nice truck. But the truck is way down the list of things that I care about in this conversation. I care about this crop, this business.

I care about growing, getting the frost protection on it so we can stabilize the predictability of the crop coming in. The business model is firmed up considerably when you do that. Now, next time you make a whole bunch of money, you can quit work, move up in trucks, and buy acreage. That's exactly right. With next year's crop. That's right. So that's when you make the move, Tyler, full-time. You've got all the other stuff paid for, no debt, and now you can pay yourself more than what you're actually making in your day job. It's a math equation. You don't have the money to pay your bills if you quit and use this money for frost protection and debt production that's correct so you've got to work one more year at least and when the crop comes in next time set that money a year's worth of living expenses aside yeah and then use the rest

to expand the business i just wouldn't be in a hurry you know and i agree you can do it in a year but even two years just stock stock that money up only 27 26 yeah yep that's what i would do it's an interesting call man thank you thanks for sharing all that with us i'm happy for all your success too by the way i love blueberries dave high in anti-antioxidants just in case you were keeping score um you're not you and you the blueberries? You and my health food wife will have to discuss this stuff. Sharon knows about blueberries. I don't know about it unless it's bad for you. And I have consumed it recently. So there you go.

And I have the physique to prove it. So shut up. I'm not saying anything. I know you're not. Isn't it time to go to commercial? You're way too smart for that. Turn the commercial up. Turn the bump music up.

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at Grip6.com today and get up to 20% off with the promo code 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? $206,000 over approximately 42 months. Yay. And your range of income during that time? $160,000 to $112,000. Wow, down. I love it. What do you guys do for a living?

Well, we're both retired now, but 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 paying off the house we were you

have 112 000 retirement income yes what is what how old are you guys i am 66 my wife is 63 very cool so what kind of debt was the 206 uh 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 done. Well done. All right. So what happened, what, four years, three and a half years ago? Here's my wife. Hi, Bob. 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, 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 a payment.

So that I just, we followed your steps. We have been doing Davis for a while. I decided to do it, and we just went, you know, we just did your steps. I stopped by the fire. So you went in and told Bob, hey, I was listening to some old guy on the radio, and before I get old, I don't want to be like, I want to be like him. I want to be dead 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 basically our monthly budget, and there was no debt involved in our daughter being in college. And that is such, 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. 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 it was a blessing.

And we're just like, say thank you. Yeah. Well, we're proud of y'all. Well done. So, Dave, it was what kind of what kind of happened was, you know, we went from 160 to 112 just immediately. So, it was like our income 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 settle 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, 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. 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, you know, 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, is 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, like, stupid. You know, you don't buy books. You go to the library. You cook at home. You don't eat out.

You know, it was a little bit of a drudgery was it worth it i mean if 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 uh we have about we 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 have 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 uh 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! three two one oh that's so fun she reminds me of my grandpa when he was uh like 80 he would say that old man down the street right right and she's like that old man 77 years, 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. Like, 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's my wife, Sharon. I love it. This is The Ramsey Show. សូវាប់ពីបានប់ពីបានប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពី 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? I'm 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. I'm literally in the process of studying for that. How old are you? I actually have to give you a little... 28. Good for you literally in the process of studying for that how old are you they 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're any past the test yet we're not worried about you cutting into your business yeah that's a fair point 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 monthly or bi-monthly 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 just like new season of kind of having us, uh, 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 um food shelter clothing transportation you gotta make sure your cars are running um and you probably can do a lot of that on her 1500 agreed yeah i mean a decent bit

of it for sure yeah and 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 that everybody has, and then what we're going to do is everything that doesn't get paid,

that's the most important things, from her $1,500, 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 in the EveryDollar app. You can do it wherever you want to do it, but just make a list of them. You can do it in the EveryDollar app. You can do it wherever you want to do it. But just make a list of those things and then go, okay, 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 put a one by that. What's the next most important thing? Put a two by that. The next most important thing. 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.

Right. Most of the time, you've 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 puppy'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 twenty thousand dollars 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 to look at buying a yeah well you know you 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 sixty thousand bucks. That's five thousand bucks a month average. Some months I make ten, some months I make two. But the average is about five.

And 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 um i am i'm working at the moment uh when i was moving out here i 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 are you making there?

There I'm making about right now I'm making about $2,000 a month. Oh, good. Yeah. So the reason I asked 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, is that there's no shame in you going, all 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, is that there's, there's no shame in you going, all right, I want to try to pad my, my transition a little bit. And I would even challenge you. I'm fine. I love the theory that you've got there. I actually like

the way your head's at. Like I, 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 month and stack some money away so that when you go all in with what Dave just gave you, you guys have some padding there. You know what I'm saying? 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 i mean you know give yourself an on-ramp here yeah and uh because it takes a little while just to know how to you know how to find the 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 you know 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 yes and go full time so to speak uh or really you need to go full-time now but work still work part-time at the grocery store you know that kind of thing but uh uh but as you're 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 3800 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 or i did purchase that big thing i was even worse about doing that which is really bad oh yeah but yeah um 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've said that a couple times. I used to have a straight commission sales job. And let me tell you something.

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 three hundred thousand you'll figure out how to budget that's right you'll find a way to do it so i mean you you know 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.