The Ramsey Show - App - How You Finish School Is More Important Than Where You Finish (Hour 1)

Episode Date: February 13, 2020

Anthony ONeal, Career, Debt, Education 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 Studio, this is the Dave Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. Sitting in for my good friend and my boss, Dave Ramsey, I'm Anthony O'Neill, and I'm so excited to be with you all today on this beautiful day here in Nashville, Tennessee. I'm taking your phone calls right now. Triple eight, eight, two, five, five, two, two, five, triple eight, eight, two, five, five, two, two, five. If you have any questions about money, about life, about if you're a millennial, if you're a high school student. My name is Anthony O'Neill and i would love to have

a conversation with you and so call on in i'm a little bit nicer than dave uh so i won't hang up on you too quick um also you can reach me at uh online at my instagram at anthony o'neill i'll be taking questions there on my twitter as well at anthony oNeill. I'm excited because Chris Hogan and I just came back from the DMV area, having a Financial Peace Live event there. Such an amazing experience, you know, just to be able to sit down with nearly 2000 people, really encourage them about life, about money, to answer questions. just some of the testimonies that we got from there, which is absolutely amazing. So I would encourage you to go to DaveRamsey.com forward slash events, or you can go to Anthony

O'Neill.com and look up when is the next time we will be in your city. And I'll make sure to get a list of those cities sometime throughout the show. So we're going to go out to New York and talk to Rob. Rob, how are you doing? How can I help you? Hey, Anthony. I'm doing well. How are you?

Man, I'm blessed and not stressed, and I'm grateful to talk to you. How are you, man? I'm doing well. So recently debt-free, I've got my three to six months saved up now and looking to save for a down payment. And I was wondering if I should do that in a money market account or a simple savings account. And then if a money market, and regardless of that first question, what would be the best money market account to use? I mean, that's a good question.

How long are you looking to save? It's going to be about a year. One year? Okay. Correct. All right. All right all right all right how much house are you looking to put down i mean a purchase i mean uh close to uh it'll be 20 close to 200,000 okay cool cool cool well if within one year now we call this baby set 3b so clearly you've already out of debt like you said um and you've already set aside three to six months of expenses. I'm excited for you on that part. How old are you, Rob, if you mind me asking? 26. 26, and you're debt-free?

You got some money? Yeah, I recently paid off $70,000 for school. Recently paid off. $70,000 in school loans? Correct, yeah. Man, I love it. What was your degree in? I actually went to school for broadcast journalism, but now I'm working in the digital marketing field. Oh, man. I love it. I love it, man. Well, you're going down the absolute right track. And here's what I'm going to recommend for you, Rob, right now is to go ahead.

If you have the three to six months, and on 3B we said set aside at least 10% to 20% to go down towards a house. You're 27 years old if you're going to be buying a house within the next year i'm actually not too concerned about you putting this into a money market account or a high yielded savings account because you're not going to get that much interest in return maybe 10 15 20 bucks extra um i'm okay with you just parking this into a regular savings account now for america and the people listening right now let's say if you was saving let's say for about at least three to five years, then I would definitely say maybe look into a money market account or maybe parking it into a high yielded savings account online.

I actually parked my emergency funds into a high yielded interest account online only. It is FDIC insured and it is quick and accessible. I can get to it quickly. Those are the two main things that we focus on. But for you, Rob, and for anyone listening right now, if you're looking to purchase a home here within the next six months to a year, you really don't need to be worried about interest on it or getting a lot of money back because you're not going to get a lot of money back. But as long as you just follow the baby steps, as long as you're out of debt, as long as you have that three to six months set aside for your emergencies and 3B, as you're ready to move into a house, I'm excited for you.

I mean, Rob, you're 27 moving into a home. What was I doing at 27? I sure enough wasn't thinking about buying a house. Going out to Iowa, Holly, how can I help you today? Good, good. Thank you for taking my call. Oh, thank you for calling in. So I am calling today. I am currently a sophomore at a community college in Iowa. I'm about to graduate this spring debt-free, paid off. But I have decided to go on and get a bachelor's degree. And I currently have about $12,000 in savings. I've applied for the FAFSA and actively applying for scholarships.

But I just don't think that's going to be enough for me to pay for two more years of schooling. And I was just wondering what advice you have for me. Man, you know, I love the fact that you even called in and having this conversation with me. You know, this is something I'm really, really really passionate about wish i could stand up and have this conversation because i love it so much so let's get let's get a little bit more information here how old are you right now um holly i'm 20 20 okay are you living at home with your parents right now you have your own place um my own place okay all right all right and do you have any student loans from your community college right now?

I do not know. Okay, cool. So right now we're in a good place. Okay. We are debt free. It sounds like you have any credit cards or anything. Um, I do, but I put like $10 on it a month. Okay. How much credit card debt do you have? None. None. Okay. Okay. And you say you have a credit card and you're putting $10 on it a month. Did I hear you correctly? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. So we need to cut that credit card up.

All right. Okay. I know that's not why you called in, but I want to make sure that we're staying away from all debt because I want you to graduate ahead of the game, not behind the game. So let's go ahead and get this credit card cut up. So what school are you looking at going to? How much is it a year? So I'm looking at Northwest Missouri State University.

And with housing and tuition, one year looks about $17,000 a year. $17,000? Mm-hmm. Okay, with housing. Is it possible you can stay home? No, it's about four hours from home. Okay, four hours from home. All right. And how much is the tuition alone um right at about 11 000 okay so we're about 11 000 and that's what i was thinking

because normally all in states uh not all of them but the majority of them about in between six to 11 000 and then housing you're saying is about six thousand dollars a extra a year okay yeah let me do some math here because the way i'm thinking are you working right now um yes okay how much are you making a month um a little over 200 it's not much just when i have off time from college okay off time from college all right so what it sounds like here Holly, what I'm going to recommend you do is $11,000 a month is not too bad. That's going to be about $900 a month of what you need to come up with. Now the housing situation I'm going to recommend since you're four hours away is try to figure out how you can get an apartment or get into a situation to where you can actually split this income. If you cannot do that then what we got to look at is

we have seventeen thousand dollars how can we cash flow do i need to go into the job immediately not into the job into the college education my four-year degree uh right now immediately is there a way i can actually work and save up some money um is there a way that i could possibly secure some more grants and scholarships i would i would actually suggest that you go up to the financial aid office and see if you can negotiate, you know, because this is serious. You're going into it right. Let's make sure you graduate from it right. All right. You guys listen to the Dave Ramsey show here in the Dollar Car Rental Studio.

My name is Anthony O'Neill, and I'm sitting in for Dave. I'll be right back. 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 could see and steal that information. That's why I trust CyberGhost VPN. CyberGhost thinks about cybercrime so you don't have to. You can try it for free for seven days. Protect up to seven Internet devices and keep all of your internet connections secure that's cyber ghost vpn downloaded today from your app store and be secure in seconds and we're back here on the dave ramsey. If you have any questions, you want to have a conversation about your money.

If you're a teen, millennial, young adult, and you want to ask me some good questions, please do give me a call. 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. And we're going to go back to the phones now. Let's go out to Ohio and talk to Elizabeth. Elizabeth, how are you doing? I'm good. How are you? I'm blessed and not stressed. I'm glad to be on the phone with you.

How can I help you? All right. I was just wondering if it would be harder to get a job with an online degree compared to an on-campus degree. Do employers see online degrees having like lesser value than an on-campus degree at all? No. Well, what do you think? Do you think an online degree is worse than an on-campus degree? Well, based off of the research I have done, I don't think so. I like it. But I just wanted to get confirmation. I like you you tell me a little bit about yourself how old are you elizabeth i'm 19 years old 19 years old okay are you currently in college right now i am okay where are you currently in college at um i am a freshman at southwestern assemblies of god university okay okay i know about southwestern what are you what is your uh major

there social work social work you're gonna be helping some people i like you i like you so Okay, okay. I know about Southwestern. What is your major there? Social work. Social work. You're going to be helping some people. I like you. I like you. So are you considering maybe, because I'm guessing that you're actually on campus, correct? I was on campus at Cedarville University in Ohio. Okay. And I just wanted to get confirmation about my decision. I had to make some financial decisions with the campus I was at compared to online degrees at Southwestern Assemblies of God University. It just seemed like a better option for me. And that's why I had this question for you.

Yeah, Elizabeth, you're asking a great question that I think a lot of people listening to you right now live on the air are asking, you know, what's the best route? And I always say this, it doesn't really matter about where, how you start, where you start. It doesn't really matter about where you finish. It matters about how you finish and how you finish is debt free. And as long as this degree is accredited, fully accredited, and you can pay cash for this and it's the cheapest possible option for you, you are totally OK with getting an online degree. I think what we have to stop doing is telling our young people, America, that they have to go to a four year traditional school. No, what they need to do is go the best route that's best for them, which is online is

OK. It is actually great. I mean, I know for me, if I was to go back to school, I would have to go to campus, not because online is bad, but because my attention span can't focus on the computer screen that long. But if you can focus and get the education and pass all the classes and do all your homework assignments online, go for it. It is cheaper. It's going to save you some time. You can honestly get through your degree quicker. all the classes and do all your homework assignments online go for it it is it's cheaper it's going to save you some time you can honestly get through your degree quicker so elizabeth you

do what's best for you and know a job a career is not going to look at you any differently because you have a online uh degree so we're going to go out to te here and talk to Ziad. How can I help you today, man? Hi, Anthony. I have twins, a boy and a girl, 16 juniors in high school. And I was wondering how I can get them motivated and excited. And is it too late? You know, when do I start picking scholarships and getting them to apply to a lot of scholarships? Man, that's a good question. Now, give me a little bit of information about your twins here, juniors. Tell me a little bit about them. Are they self-motivated? What are they passionate about? What do they love doing? Do you know what they even want to do as far as in a career

right now? Yeah, they're both really passionate. My son, he's an ice hockey player, and he thinks he wants to maybe play ice hockey in school, but he also wants to be an architect, and he's looked at a couple of schools, a couple here in Texas and around the state. And my daughter, yeah, just as motivated. She's really into agriculture, and she wants to get some type of ag sciences degree. That's good. You know, Hogan and I was in D.C. yesterday, and a young couple asked me the same question.

It was like, hey, how do I get my kids to become motivated? And one of the things I'm telling parents is actually sit down with them and show them the possibility of their futures. I have this chart that I share called the Aaron and Ty chart, where I actually show them like, hey, if you all can secure scholarships and you can actually graduate 100 percent debt free because you will here are here's what you can do in the future. Here's how you get ahead of the game. So I would definitely say for your twins, sit down with them and just say, you know what? Hey, here's what you can do. If we can go to this college 100% debt free, this is what your life can look like. You can actually start becoming a everyday millionaire as early as 26, 27 years old if you actually work hard.

And if you get the scholarships and all the grants that you really go after right now, actually, you can actually go to the school that you desire. But tell them the truth. If we do not get the funds, one, we're not borrowing, and two, you may have to go a different route. And so if you're really excited about going to this particular school, hey, I want to make sure that we do everything that is possible to get you into that school. But at the same time, if you don't, here are the routes.

And I think when kids are actually approached as a young adult and they feel as if they have some sweat equity in their future, they get really, really, really passionate about their future. So thanks for your call. And there's going out here to Texas and we're going to be talking to Isaac. How can I help you, man? Hey, it's nice talking to you finally. I have a question, don't know exactly where to start, but I have a full-time job from 7 to 6, and I am looking to go to architectural school. Kind of wanting your opinion on that, if you would go that route or study programming at home. Okay, okay. That's another thing that I've been looking into, and because of my work schedule, I don't know exactly where I should start on that. Okay. How old are you, Isaac?

I'm 23. 23 years old. Okay. All right. And what do you do for a living right now? Uh, I'm a, uh, cabinet project manager and I also do the cabinet design work and also, uh, pre-design on, uh, on office buildings and stuff like that. Okay. So you go into office buildings and I'm thinking you go into homes as well and you help build cabinets, uh, for homes and, and the corporate space. Am I correct? Yes. Okay. Uh, what are you making a year there? Are you happy with that salary or is it, are you not happy with that salary? Uh, I'm, I'm happy at the moment, but of course, uh, I would always appreciate more, but I make 56,000 okay 56 000 a year do you have any debt right

now uh just a mortgage just a mortgage okay so you 100 debt free you have a mortgage uh do you have a fully funded uh savings account emergency fund uh no i'm working on that okay working on that okay cool so let's talk about this uh architect or programming both of these are two great routes i don't have a problem with neither, neither, neither size of these. I think architect is a little bit more in line with what you're already doing. You're already building stuff, building cabinets. And if you're passionate about that, I have no problem with that. Now here's the truth.

It's going to be very hard to go to architect school and also work a full time job. And so for me, what I'm going to suggest that you do is I want you to look up the American Institute of Architects, AIA. It's a great program. It's a great organization that can possibly help you get into this and go about it the cheaper, the most affordable route. I don't want to say cheaper and downplay it, but the best affordable route for it. But also look into programming because programming is great money. Also, what I'm going to do is I'm

going to gift you a book. Madison, I want to give him Ken Coleman's book. And this this guy right here is a career expert, man. He can really help you decide what's your passion and how to align your passion with your career, because I want I want to make sure that whatever route you go is the final route that you're in. And Ken Coleman wrote a book called The Proximity Principle, Isaac, that that would definitely help you out with choosing what's the best route for you. But the key thing here is that's not being a rush, OK, because you're already making good income. You're 100 percent debt free outside of your mortgage. So this means this means that you really do not need to rush into this process. You could take your time cash flow it. but look up the American Institute of Architects.

Madison's going to get you that book. And I'm telling you right now, man, your future is looking bright. You're 23 years old. I love talking to young people and helping them become successful. You guys are listening to The Dave Ramsey Show. My name is Anthony O'Neill. We'll be right back. We'll see you next time. Christian Healthcare Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ to share their major healthcare costs. Christian Healthcare Ministries is the original health cost-sharing ministry.

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Americans owe about $1.6 trillion in student loans. $1.6 trillion dollars i can't even dream about what 1.6 trillion dollars is but we owe it in student loans that breaks down to about 35 000 per student to me that's just absolutely crazy that young people today are graduating with about 35 000 dollars in student loan debt but then a fifth of these students are graduating with about $35,000 in student loan debt. But then a fifth of these students are graduating with $100,000 or more. So pretty much that's a mortgage payment with no real estate. If you're sitting on a pile of student loans and think they're just going to go away or the government will magically forgive them, you're absolutely wrong, you guys. You have to have a plan to cut through your student loans or any kind of debt at all.

Something that helped me tremendously years ago is Financial Peace University. It is the best plan to help you pay off your loans early. We've been teaching gods. We've been teaching all kind of people how to handle money for over 25 years and nearly 6 million people have learned how to pay off debt, including student loans and save for the future. In fact, most people who go through Financial Peace University are debt free. Check this out within a matter of 18 to 24 months of starting a class it's time to get those loans out of your life it's time to get started today to learn more about financial peace

university you can go to DaveRamsey.com or call 888-22-PEACE 888-22-PEACE I remember when I first took financial peace university it was actually a 13 13 week course and it tremendously changed my life. I didn't really understand finances. I didn't understand finances God's way. I understood what the world, what America was teaching me about finances. And America says, hey, go out there, get three trade lines. America says, go out there and become a homeowner. America says it's best to be a homeowner before renting. America says go to school and take out as many loans as you need. But there are so many people that I've met that followed the America way going after the American dream. The American dream is simply freedom. But one thing I've learned from looking at everyone

and really looking at their situation, the American way leads them down to America nightmare. And I believe that the America dream is still true. We just can't listen to America to get it. If you want freedom, if you want financial peace, if you want to be able to leave a legacy to your children's children, if you really want that financial joy, don't listen to America. Listen to God and he'll help you and listen to us because we have it it's called financial peace university go to davramsey.com or call 888-22-PEACE

888-22-PEACE you guys we are coming uh to dallas texas anaheim anaheim california uh chicago illinois uh to do a lot of different things. April 30th we are doing Financial Peace Live in Dallas, Texas at First Baptist Dallas. That's going to be Dave Ramsey and myself. I can't wait for that one. Dave Ramsey and myself on the same stage

is, that's a beautiful situation. He is known for his cheetah story and Dave is running across the stage and I'm right there behind him running as well because I'm excited then right around the corner April 30th Chris Hogan and myself will be in California on May 6th will be in Indianapolis Chris Hogan and myself and on May 12th Chris Hogan and myself will be in Chicago Illinois and I'm telling you, we literally walk you through

the seven baby steps. We walk you through how to actually get that financial peace. And what I love about Dave Hogan and myself, we share our stories. You know, we're not hitting the stage as experts. We're hitting the stage as human beings who have done some stupid stuff with our money. We've made some mistakes. Heck, for six months of my life, I didn't know where I was going to sleep. Some nights I'm sleeping in the car. Some nights I'm sleeping on the floor at a friend's house. I was $35,000 in debt.

All because I was trying to impress friends, impress people. And my poor decisions led me to the back of my car. And when I hit that stage on these events, I'm coming from just a genuine place. Here's my story. Here's what I learned. Here's what you can learn. And here's how we together can get financial peace

and go after all of our dreams. So make sure, go to DaveRamsey.com or go to AnthonyO'Neal.com and let's have a conversation about how we can together become better I'm gonna go over to Twitter let's go over to Twitter I have some questions here from Twitter you can go to Twitter or Instagram at Anthony O'Neill and send me your question at Anthony O'Neill look for the blue check mark and that's some of your questions.

But here's one I got today from Nikki. She says, do you recommend taking the ACT and the SAT or choosing only one test to focus to prep on? That's a good question. You can't go wrong with taking either or. I talk about this in my book, Debt Free Degree. If you have the time, if you're a good tester, go ahead and take both of them. But I want want to do the research say for an example you go to one particular school and they only focus on the

act let's say your top three schools that you're looking at they only accept the act you know what go ahead and focus on the act only and prep and study for it and i really want to encourage all parents to get my book debt-free degree because I actually teach some secrets inside of the book on how to prep. When should you start prepping? When should you start having a conversation about the ACT or the SAT? There are some schools that only accept the SAT. So one, do the research and make sure and know what your school is going to require here, Nikki. And then from there, I will say focus on that one. But if you can do both of them, do both of them. It's going to help you in the long run.

That's a great question. It's a real good question. We're going to go out to Virginia and we're going to be talking to Misty. Misty, how can I help you today? Hi, Anthony. I'm calling about my son. We're a homeschool family. Okay. My son will be graduating this june um just a few days short or shy of his 16th birthday um he's yeah he's decided he doesn't want to go off obviously to a university okay 16 so my question to you is what is what should we be doing or what should we help him be doing before he goes to college?

Should he be doing community college, which he's currently doing? Or is it okay to give him some space and let him be a kid? Or what's the mixture? What is going to benefit him best? Oh, man, this is good. So your son is about to turn 16 and graduating from high school. So clearly he is smart because he has smart parents. I just love it.

So what does he want to do? Does he even know at 16 the career field he wants to pursue? He was talking about doing medical school and being a dermatologist, but he's not committed to it. I think his heart is in engineering, but the way he puts it, he doesn't want to go to college and spend four, six, eight years getting a degree and then having to work his way up in the field. So that's why he doesn't want to do computer engineering because he said after he graduates, he'd then have to start at the bottom and work his way up before he can make good money.

So he isn't totally decided yet. He's, but I'm, my husband and I are thinking about getting him a mentor and I've also connected with a local dermatologist to maybe talk to him about that route. Um, I just don't know what to do once he graduates and I don't want, I don't want his resume to look bad or his application to look bad. I don't want him to have gaps, but I also want him to be able to be a kid. But I want to do what's best for him, and so that's why I wanted to call you. That's good. Well, you know, Missy, thanks for calling in. I think this is a great question because your son is 16,

and I believe right now he doesn't have to rush to choose what he wants to do the fact that you all are having this conversation now is amazing um i'm split between two things i still want him to be a teenager i'm gonna enjoy the teenager life but at the same time i don't want his mind to drop so if he is okay with going to community college earlier on i think that's fine take one class online or maybe take one class inside the on the building. I think getting creative there is great. But the fact that he is already thinking about what he wants to do, I agree with you. Get him a mentor, get him around some different people he look up to into the career fields that he wants to get into. So by the time he is 18, he can go

hard after what he wants to do. But this is absolutely amazing that he is ahead of the game. Let's keep him ahead of the game. So let him be a teenager. Let him enjoy life. But make sure that we keep fueling his head and fueling his mind with some good stuff. You guys are listening to The Dave Ramsey Show, and I'll be right back. so so so in honor of black history month as a black man um i decided to have a conversation with six good friends of mine to talk about money to talk about legacy to talk about

our past our future where are we going as a culture and a race. And we are excited about the conversation that we're having. So I want to encourage you. I've released about six videos and I'll be releasing about eight more throughout this month on just celebrating Black History Month, getting the thoughts and opinions of this young generation. We have a lot of opinions on there. And so you can go over to my Instagram at Anthony O'Neal, O-N-E-A-L, or YouTube

and check it out there as well. But I'm telling you right now, a lot of people are having some good opinions. And I wanna know your opinion. I wanna know what do you think about what we're saying? So I don't share my opinion. I just want to hear from others so I can see what else I should be teaching going to help all people get better with their finances. But I wanted to make sure that I had this conversation. So we're going to go back to the phones. We're going to go out to Ohio and talk to Stephanie. Stephanie, how are you doing today?

Actually, we're going to go out to Florida. I'm sorry. And we're going to talk to Chase. Yes, sir. How are you doing? Hey, I'm doing well, man. How about yourself? Sorry about that. Oh, no worries. Pleasure to see you, sir. I'm a big fan of you and your ministry. My wife and I got the chance to meet you at Financial Peace Accelerated down in Orlando last year. I have since read your book, and I've become a big fan.

I'm going to give my oldest son and two young ones who are either college or trade school. But my question is pertaining to myself. I did a lot of stupid going through college myself and did sign up for the stupid student loan, whatever. I was able to cash flow my master's, but I'm since cleaning up my mess. My question is, are there any resources to help me find a bigger shovel? Are there any scholarships or grants that may be applicable to me trying to get myself out of this situation? So what are you currently doing right now?

Give me a little bit more information about you right now. What are you currently making a year right now? Oh, household income is about $130,000. $130,000. Okay. And what do you do for a living again? I'm a supervisor in corrections. Okay, okay, supervisor in corrections.

So you're in the police field. All right, cool. And then what do you want to go back to school one more time for? No, no, no. I am done with school. I'm done with school. I cashed all of my master's, and I'm trying to clean up my undergrad mess that I made. I was on the Van Wilder program and took seven years to get my bachelor's degree.

And I accrued some student loans over that process. And I'm Baby Step 2 right now. This is our final debt in Baby Step 2, but we're still, I'm just looking for a bigger shovel to get out of this hole. Yeah, yeah. So there's a couple of things. You asked a good question that a lot of people actually do not ask, which I love. I love the question which you asked was, are there any grants or scholarships out there that will help pay back your student loans? Now, they're not a lot. Now, a lot of the scholarships and grants are going to be to help undergraduates or people who want to further their education. But believe it or not, there are a couple that I've come across and I want to recommend that you go to my scholarly dot com every year.

They do a huge, huge scholarship close to about one hundred, two hundred thousand dollars where they just give give give it away to people to help them pay back their student loans. But the very first thing when it comes to your shovel is really not going to be a scholarship or a grant or the government you know chase is really going to be based upon you and how hard you are willing to work to really go aggressively after it so outside of your student loans what other debt do you have just a mortgage okay cool great so yeah i would say the very first thing that you need to do is just really attack it yourself line it up in a debt snowball if you you have multiple student loans, get it all in that area. And then after that, go check out my scholar. My scholar is they're doing real good. They do about once or twice a year. They team up with some people and they do offer some grants

and scholarships to people who currently have student loans and they pay it off. And so that is one thing I would recommend. But before I'm waiting on anybody, I'm focusing on myself. I'm going to go ahead and get on a budget list, listen, all my income, list out everything that I have going out. And then after that, I'm going to go ahead and attack my student loans and then go ahead and work on my three to six months of expenses. And then now we're going to go out to Ohio and we're going to talk to Stephanie now. Stephanie, how can I help you? Hi, I'd like to get your opinion on what is appropriate for parents when it comes to helping their high school seniors or even current college students searching and applying for scholarships. Our teacher recently gave my child a hard time because they knew that I had helped them

when they asked for assistance and guidance on a scholarship application they were completing. So where do you think a parent stands in that process? Let me ask you a question. What's your definition of helping? How are you helping your students are um either searching or like in this particular incident it was uploading some documents because you know everything is online and they want things uploaded how old are your kids uh the one is i have two seniors a senior in college and a senior in high school the senior in college is graduating debt free by the way i love that one that's what i'm talking about yes did you help her as well your

senior in college uh go through college um that was a son um so a little bit um he needed a little bit more guidance as far as searching and finding them okay all right so let me ask you this question i never going to ask you this question. I never wanted to ask you this question, but I want to be respectful here. You said that you're uploading the information for them. You're saying that you're searching for them. I think that you shouldn't be doing neither one of those two things. I think if your child is a senior,

I think that your child needs to be doing all the searching. Your child needs to be doing all the work and uploading. Now, I have no problem with the parent assisting, like making sure that the application is correct, making sure that the grammar is correct on the essay. But you've got to make sure that they're doing all of the work. Now, if they find out of 100 scholarships, if they find 90 and you find 10 because you're doing some searching on your you know while you're on your break or something like that i have no problem with that at all but the most of it needs to come from this the child from your child does it make sense yeah yeah absolutely because i really want to make sure that our young people, America have some type of sweat equity in the game. I remember when my dad gave me my first car,

I was excited. Of course they paid for it, but I wanted some nice wheels. It was back in like the 1990s. Well, not nineties. I'm sorry. The early two thousands.

And I remember I got the car and my dad said, all right, you got the car. You got to pay for the insurance you want wheels on it you got to buy the wheels if you want a boom box in the back you got to buy it some of y'all like a boom box what's that it's a system it was loud it was annoying now i can't stand it um and then also i wanted a tent and it was like all right you gotta do it all yourself we've helped you but you have to put some sweat in the game and when i did all of that y'all i watched that car every single day and check this out it was a 1987 nissan maxima and the car couldn't even go in reverse the transmission was messed up but i treated it like it was the

best thing ever because i worked hard and I put money into it. And so that's the same thing with today's generation of young people. I get it, parents. It is your job to guide them on the journey, but it's not your job to do everything for them on the journey. And so when it comes to college, when it comes to prom, when it comes to buying a car, if the car is going to be $2,500, they need to earn a thousand. They need to earn 1500. If it's my child, they're going to earn all 2,500 of it. You know, they're going to be washing a lot of cars, cutting a lot of grass, babysitting

a lot of children. You know, I want to make sure that young people feel the weight. It may not be as much as they should, but they will fill it as much as possible. You guys, this has just been a great day. And I want to encourage you to go over to my YouTube, Anthony O'Neill, and make sure that you check out this conversation around Black History Month. We are talking about money. We're talking about how can we get more income?

How can we build wealth? How can we start businesses? How can we start businesses? How can we get out of debt? What can we do differently? And what should we do as a culture? And I'm just extremely excited about that and what we're doing here. Man, guys, this has been absolutely fun. The Dave Ramsey Show for a good hour

with you all. Thank you for your phone calls. Thank you for giving me an opportunity. Thank you for listening. And I want to thank the producer James Child and filling in for our social producer Kelly Daniel, Madison Browder on the phones. Remember you guys, the caliber of your future will be determined by

the choices you make today. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know you can now listen to The Dave Ramsey Show on Pandora and spotify for all the ways to watch and listen check out our show page at daveramsey.com slash show