The Ramsey Show - App - I Feel Stupid Wanting To Start a Business at My Age (Hour 2)

Episode Date: January 15, 2021

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is the Dave Ramsey Show. And it's where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life, your money, your work, whatever you want to talk about, because all those things are all kind of tied together. I'm Ken Coleman, host of The Ken Coleman Show on the Ramsey Solutions Network, joined by my colleague, Chris Hogan,

who's also the Chris Hogan Show, also part of the Ramsey Solutions Network. And we are here for you. 888-825-5225 is the phone number to jump in. 888-825-5225 is the phone number to jump in. 888-825-5225. And, Chris, I know that any time we get a chance to do this with Dave or together, we walk away going, beats working for a living. Oh, my gosh.

I mean, to get a chance to reach out and help people? Yeah. I mean, Coleman, you talk about all the time the sweet spot and dream jobs. I mean, I'm living it. Yeah, we're both there. Yeah. And so what a perfect call to start off this hour with. I mean, these are the kind of fun questions here.

Chris is in the Tri-Cities area of our great state of Tennessee. Chris, how can we help? Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call. You bet. I've got a kind of good problem, I guess you'd say, to have. I live on a pretty regular budget and have for years. And at the end of the month, I've usually got anywhere from $500 to $1,200 extra.

After expenses, after bills, spending money, golfing, everything. All right. And my question is, what I've been doing, I just got into investing right about the start of the pandemic last March, to be honest. I opened up a Wealthfront ETF robo-advisor account just to toy with it, to start with, see how it worked. Put just a little bit of my savings in it, like $3,000, and since I've been adding to it. And my question is, what I've been doing is putting about a third each month, a third of what I have to say in that account and the rest just in my regular savings account. And I'm not sure if I should be putting more, being more aggressive and putting more in the investment

account, or if that's a good formula, if I should just stick with what I'm doing now, you know, or should I put more in my savings account and less in the investment account? Okay. So answer this for me, my friend. How much is your household income per month? I clear about $4,000 a month. Okay, all right. It's just me. I'm single.

Single, okay, all right. I have very little debt. All right, what debt do you have left? I have a small mortgage on my condo, like $450 a month. Okay. I have a new car payment. The only first and only new car I've ever bought in my life. But I felt like I was in a position I could do it.

How much do you owe on that car? I still, I mean, I just bought it last year. So I still, you know, I'm making payments on it. I still owe, I guess, $25,000, $30,000. Okay, all right. What else? I have a student loan payment of about $200 a month. All right.

How much on the student loan? I just started those about a year or two ago also, I have to owe about $25,000 on those. All right. Well, Chris, here's why I'm saying this. What we have found is when you try to do six or seven things at the same time, you end up being ineffective in all of them. And so what we have figured out is when you zero in and you focus on something, you can make some stuff happen. So I love that you budget. Number one, that means you're very intentional with your money.

You said you have anywhere between 500 and 1,200 left over per month. Here's what I want you to invest in, your financial future. And what I mean by that is instead of you investing right now, I would rather you pause that and turn your attention to the threat that's in your life, and that's the debt you have. Okay? I would tell you to get intentional, like the car payment. How much is that payment per month?

That's $400. All right, so $400, and you got about two. How much are you going to the student loans? $200. All right, so I would tell you to take that $500 to $1,200 that you have extra and target the debt you have. I'd knock out the, you said the student loan you owe about $25,000 on?

Yes. And then about $30,000 on the car. I would attack every, I'd put the minimum payment on the car. Every other free dime, brother, I'm going to send toward that student loan debt. Knock that out of your life. That's going to free up $200. Now take all the extra, pay it toward the car. You'll have the student loan debt out of your life. You'll have the car paid off. Then what I would tell you to do is once that's out of your life, I want you to

build up a serious emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. Once you have that done, now you can start to invest. Here's the best tool. Go with 15% of your household income from an investing standpoint. Okay, you'll have the debt out of your life. You're going to have a pile of money as a cushion for you. Then the only thing you're going to owe on is your condo or your townhouse. And then you're investing 15%. You're going to be in an outstanding position, young man. I thought you were very nice about the car. Well, I mean, it's done. What's done is done. Now, could I tell him, if you're getting intentional, and if he was telling me things were tight, could I tell him to sell it?

If he wants to be gazelle intense, he could slap a for sale sign on that thing, get it out of his life, and go find a Datsun 280Z. Oh, I love those. 1984. Those are vintage. And by the way, vintage is back. Well, vintage is back. Hold on, because I want to cover your vehicle. But when you get serious about getting out of debt, and especially for my man Chris,

what I think is you start to see that student loan debt get out of your life. Then you go, wait a minute. I'm voluntarily holding on to this car loan. I could sell this car, go find a beater car, and then remove that $450 obligation. That's what happens in phase two of people getting intense. And with a car that's that new that's worth a decent amount of money. You can get it moved. He can move that and then actually pay cash for something else.

Okay, so tips on how to sell a car, because I know some people out there probably did some silly. Go to kbb.com, figure out how much you could sell it for. You want to see that dollar amount. Contact the bank or the company you have the loan through. Get your 30-day payoff on that loan. So you look at what it's worth, look at the 30-day payoff, then you can try to price this thing and get it sold. You want to be proactive.

Use online things to sell your cars. People will travel to come by your car so you want to get it out there take some good pictures of it get it all detailed shined up looking good take pictures get those things posted you can use all kinds of things online craig list facebook marketplace all these things but but be proactive because there are people out there with cash that'll buy it that's exactly right by the way when you take those pictures make sure that you don't post a picture with your license plate on there.

You know, just a little thing there. You've got to be careful these days. Oh, good tip. You know, just a little marker or whatever you want to do. I've seen people literally take a picture of the back of the vehicle, and they've got their finger in the picture. Yes, yes. It's kind of creative.

It is. And here's the other thing. You know what's even more important, Tip? When you sell it, take your license plate off of it yeah right okay because i've heard some horror stories of people that forgot to do that the person continues to drive it if they get a ticket or something they can come after you yeah i chris i gotta tell you brother i think you you you a guy who live below your means you knock this debt out and you're a guy that can knock it out quickly you can always go back and get the really nice car. But, man, to your point, getting the risk out of your life, it's just so important.

Get it out. It's like crazy. There's three things you don't want in your life, Ken. I'm going to tell you this. We're going to go to break. I'm going to do it fast. I like it. You don't want crazy in your life.

No. You don't want drama in your life. No. And you don't want debt in your life. No. Delete them. All three. Crazy, in your life. No. And you don't want debt in your life. No. Delete them. All three. Crazy, drama, debt.

Bye. I'll tell you what you do want more of in your life. That's us. Great conversation. Me and you. A little more Coleman. A little more Hogan. Yes.

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You got a question? We'll dive into it. We're not scared. No. Nope. Hope is on the other end of the line. 888-825-5225. How many of you out there are miserable in your work,

but you think you can't change jobs because you're trying to get out of debt? I got news for you. Call me. Chris and I will talk you through it. You can stay on the baby steps, continue to get out of debt, moving towards financial peace, and still change jobs. In fact, for many of you, you need to change jobs because you make more money and make that shovel bigger

and get out of debt faster. I want to remind folks that every time I have ever either facilitated a debt-free screen when we're co-hosting with Dave or we're hosting together, or I've sat there and watched screens, debt-free screens, every time their income has gone up. Have you noticed that? I have. When Dave always, and you know, we walk through, we go, okay, how much were you making at the start of the journey?

Yeah. How much are you noticed that? I have. When Dave always, you know, we walk through, we go, okay, how much were we making at the start of the journey? Yeah. How much are you making now? And there's always a sizable, or we could say significant, income increase. Now, you and I both know why. And it's a function of focus. It really is. You start looking and you start calling and trying to get yourself out of debt, you'll start thinking differently, you'll start perceiving things differently, and you're open to trying.

And it's amazing. When you start to get certain areas of your life in order, things happen. Now, hear me. Just because you make more doesn't mean you're going to get more progress. You need a system. And speaking of system, if you never feel like you can never save enough or you can't pay off all your debt, after a year like 2020, most of America feels the exact same way.

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Make the move. You'll never regret it. 888-825-5225. Let's go to Athens, Georgia, where Derek joins us. Derek, how can we help? Hey, how you doing? We are living the dream. What's going on?

Hey, I got a quick question. It's kind of for my wife. She's no debt. She's got about $220,000 saved up. She's 38. She'll be retiring in two years. We're having our first baby. So at 40, you know, she won't be working. She'll be spending all day full-time mom's kind of deal

by that time she'll have 450 500 saved up like i said we have no debt so my question is i'm starting to get a little older and i'm wondering with her money and her income and everything that she'll have saved up at that point what ideas do you have to where to put that money safely you safely in case something happens to me? First of all, I don't really believe in the stock market and all that stuff. Just kind of what other ideas you got out of the box as far as that goes. Chris, before you dive into that, he's saying something very interesting I've picked up

on. Derek, I just need a little bit more light shed on the situation. You keep calling it her money. Her money. Yeah, her money. Well, what do you mean? Where's the our money part? I'm a little confused why you're calling it her money. Well, we have separate.

We don't miss our monies. Why? Well, to be bluntly honest, when we met, I had a lot more than her, and I still do, and I don't want her to feel like she's dependent on that. I told her, you know, I'll help you make yours, and what's yours is yours. Obviously, you know, I pay for everything.

I just didn't want to have that, you know. Derek, how long have y'all been married? We've been together almost six years. Been married about two. Okay. Wow. And you all have kids? No, the first baby's on the way.

We have the first baby at 40. Okay. First baby's on the way. All right. So. Well, in two years. Yeah. Okay.

All right. Well, here's the deal. Go ahead, Coleman. I feel you twitching over here. Go. Well, no, no, no, no, Coleman. I feel you twitching over here. Go. No, no, no, no, man. Listen, I'm not going to beat up on you, but we believe that it's your money, that both of you as a unified couple should have a unified bank account.

And I'm not here to attack your reasoning behind that, but I never want her to feel like she was dependent on me. Well, I think you've made your point, and I think she's done a good job, but I think it's time for we. I mean, Chris, you're the one that always says we need to speak French. Speak French. French. Speak French. We.

Derek, I've never been to France, but I know how to speak it, and it's we. Don't say me. Speak we. Yeah. And here's why I say this. You obviously care about this lady. She's getting ready to be the mother of your kids. And that mindset of you working hard and your work ethic and your diligence,

you want to kind of pull that together and have that full-on mental process of you guys working together as a team. And I can tell by the sound of your voice, you grew up playing sports, didn't you? Mm-hmm. Yeah. What was your favorite sport? Football. I'm a big golfer, but football was when I was able to.

What side of the ball? Do you play offense or defense? I like defense. What side? It's much simpler. You just tackle the man with the ball. I hear you, brother. We're cut from the same cloth.

He likes running the score up. I love hitting people. Yeah. But here's the thing. I want you to tackle this life stuff together with her. Yeah. And I think working together on your finances and, you know, it sounds like you may have been burned at some point in time or had something happen financially.

And working together as a team, you're going to get to where you want to go a lot faster. Now, real quick, I want to shift on that. And you guys may need to do some marriage counseling on this, you know, before you have a kid so you can find out what is that thing that's blocking you. And marriage counseling is not a bad thing or therapy is not a negative. It's a help. It's a fine tuner. But you said something else I want to hit on.

You said you don't believe in the stock market. Yeah. Why? Well, I'm going to say just real quick. When I retired, I talked to my stock market buddy, and he said, why don't you go in there and ask the guy what he's worth, and you tell him what you're worth, and what sense does it make to give a guy worth $100,000 a million dollars? No, I agree.

I agree. And so it's not about the market. That's about an individual. It is, and I understand that. But I'm a physical asset guy. Like me, I know if I put $400,000 in a property, that property is there. That property value is going to go up. Nothing's going to happen to it.

I don't know if I give anybody money where it's going to be by 9 o'clock tonight. It may be in Japan. And at the bottom line, I don't trust other people with my money. Okay. Now that's where we're hitting on. And that's a real thing. That's real. and I would also I've got to ask you, Derek,

I mean this, do you trust your wife? I'm 100%. Okay, listen to me. And I understand the question. Alright, listen to me. Because I think you're a guy who doesn't give trust easily, and I don't think that's a negative, my man. You're a man of principle. It took her four years to get it. Yes, sir.

I get it. But i get it but listen to me brother the amount of money that she's got the amount of money that you guys got if you put it together yeah and you do it chris chris take over these mutual funds and you're smart investing my man listen to me you got to loosen up a little bit you're going to thank us for it well and the reason i'm asking you about that is i think you know it is a matter of working with an individual that's going to help you grow that money. You can be a physical asset guy. You can, but you and I both know a physical asset is only worth what somebody is willing to pay for it, right?

You can have a property and you can say, hey, I'm going to list this thing for sale at $450. If it's in a terrible area or it's a bad property, it's not going to sell. So you, in the mindset of diversification, I like the mindset of you. Obviously, if you're going to buy real estate, my thought is you only want to do it with cash. First and foremost, you I don't want you taking on mortgages and all that other stuff. You're going to invest. You do it with cash. The other side of it is diversify yourself, Derek. Listen, put some of that money in some growth stock mutual funds. I'm not talking about buying Bitcoin and crypto grump tree. You're all that old crazy stuff. No, put it in growth stock mutual funds. I'm not talking about buying Bitcoin and crypto

grump tree, all that old crazy stuff. No. Put it in growth stock mutual funds. This way this money is going to work for you. I know you work hard to make this money. Make your money work. Do me a favor. Get in connection with the Smart Investor Pro. Have a conversation. Lay out your dreams and goals and let's see what they can do

for you. Interview them. How much are they managing? Don't look at their personal salary. What have they done? Make do for you. Interview them. How much are they managing? Don't look at their personal salary. What have they done? Make them show you the scoreboard. You're a scoreboard guy. I like that. But, man, you've got to learn to trust, but do homework.

Trust and verify. Hey, don't move. More of your calls coming up. This is the Dave Ramsey Show continues. I'm Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, host of the Ken Coleman Show on the Ramsey Network, joined by fellow Ramsey personality, Chris Hogan, and host of the Chris Hogan Show, a part of the Ramsey Network as well. Hey, you need to find out yourself why Blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window covering.

You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use the promo code Ramsey to get the best deal rules and restrictions apply okay so today's question comes from john in kentucky he says my wife and i are debt free and work for a non-profit we are paid a base salary of about 30 000 and have a 401k with our company we are reimbursed for housing and transportation roughly around 20,000. Should we be putting 15% of our base pay, the 30,000, into the 401k or 15% of the total, the 50,000? So, okay, great question, John. Here's the reality. The 20,000 that you guys

are getting in the transportation and housing is income. That's going to count as income. So what you want to do is invest 15% on that total dollar amount of the $50,000. The $30,000 in base pay plus the $20,000 in the transportation and housing reimbursement. Do 15% of your household income is what you guys want to be saving for retirement. Now listen, a lot of people out there have questions on retirement, questions on investing. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to go to ChrisHogan360.com.

You can click on the Dream Team button. And once you hit that button, you can locate a SmartVestor Pro that's in your area. I want you to interview them. Find somebody you trust that you believe in, and they can help you. They can review your 401K. They can take a look. You can get an endorsed local provider to help you with your insurance. You can get a tax ELP to help you with taxes because tax season is coming up.

The goal is don't go it alone. You definitely want to get a professional in your corner. 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. We have a few phone lines still open. You can get in. Let's go to Jimmy in Anchorage, Alaska. Jimmy, how can we help?

Hey, guys. Long-time listener, first-time caller. Great. I super appreciate you guys. I just love you. I hate debt, and I teach it to all my employees. That's awesome. Good for you.

Yes. How can we help? At a young age, my dad's company was going under. He was making about $800 to $1,000 a month with expenses going through the roof. And then he let me take over and work for him every day and uh together well with with mostly me i and most of our my decisions i grew the company into making anywhere from 150 to uh to 80 000 a month wow oh every month time and time again and uh with that since I was about 14, we grew that company, and we just completed a 30-plex and debt-free, 100%. And now we're at a point where my dad has been promising me the company for the last 18 years doing this.

And we're at a point where I bought the property across the street from them, 30 plex, just because I thought there might be an issue. And personally, and I have about 175,000 debt on it. I'm doing the biweekly payments, 15 year loan. Can't stress that enough to anybody listening. It's amazing. But we're at a fork in the road where my dad has kept promising me the company all these years. And for the first time, I can say, you keep promising it. But if you want my signature to complete the 30plex, because we ran into a problem building the 30plex, and he needs to take over my property across the street, I'm asking him to put me on the deed of the property because this property is in his personal name, not in the corporation's name. And I'm also not on the

corporation itself because he has a problem with greed, unfortunately. So I'm kind of, yeah, I'm kind of in a point where do I walk away or do I give him the signature and then walk away? Or do I just keep hoping and delaying the 30 flex until, because this is the first delay, you know, if I don't sign by Monday, which is a delay of 30 days, which is $30,000 a month potentially. But, yeah, I'm just, I'm going to be honest. We did do Dave ish over the years. Um, however, most of my purchases are 25 to $30,000 and I do put them on credit cards, but I do have a credit card account that can pay off the limit of the credit card every single month. And I replenish that every time I pay off the credit card.

And I, because of my industry, I have 18 months of savings in the corporation because, um, because we work in tourism every year, you never know if you're going to have a major problem. And my banker told me 12 years ago saying, if you, um, if you, if there's no fish in the water, you can't make any money. And same with tourism. If there's no one coming to Alaska, you won't be able to make any money. Jimmy, we got a lot of details here. Yeah, I'm really nervous. No, you're doing great. Listen, we're trying to help you.

We got limited time. So I want to ask a point blank question. Yep. You gave us, I think, I heard three scenarios in there. A lot of details around those. What do you think you want to do? Before Chris and I weigh in, before you called? You were leaning a direction. There's nobody that I've met like you who doesn't have an idea what they want to do,

and you want Chris and I to weigh in on that option. And I want to know where your gut's at because there's some tension between you and your dad. And one of those options, I can tell you, should be off the table, and that is delaying this thing because he's waiting for a signature. That's going to create more tension. If I'm understanding this well, what are you leaning towards doing before you call? Yeah, I don't want to walk away.

I mean, I've sunk 18 years since I was 14. I don't want to walk away. I didn't think so either. So what do you really want? If you could wave a pencil, a magic pencil in the air and solve this thing, what would you want to be the conclusion? All I want is to be on the deed

so I have guarantee to have no more am I going to get those things I was promised or not? All I want is the promise. And I've already had this discussion and it it did not end well um and we've had a discussion with other people uh with the family members the trusted cpas the lawyers you know everything and he's just like he hasn't earned it yet okay so that was just

like that was my next question i know what you want but you've already floated this and dad's saying no so now we got ourselves a game of chicken you really do and jimmy you know as you look at this one of the things i really want to caution you on is you know anytime you mix money and family things can get tense uh you without a shadow of a doubt from what you've told me and told us. You've got a lot of sweat equity into this thing. You have grown it. You have approached it like it was your own business and with the mindset of the promise that you were told. The thing that I realize is that if it's not in writing, it's not real.

And I think, you know, for you, I want to encourage you to do a couple of things is to try to remove as much emotion from it as you can. Initially looking at the business side, but also thinking about, hey, what is your out? Because what you don't want to do is feel like a hostage. Right. You want to. And so what do you think your dad's hang up is? If he's saying you haven't earned it, you said he's greedy. Is he greedy or is he needy?

Does he not do well with money so he's got to have this? Yeah, he doesn't. The running joke is don't tell me when he makes a purchase. It's the running joke of the company. If I can cover it, it just annoys me when he doesn't make a planned, calculated decision. I love, I respect money. Hey, Jimmy, we've got to answer this quick. What happens if you play poker on this and you don't sign,

or you don't do the deal with him because he won't sign your name on the deed? How's this going to affect the company? It potentially will go under. He doesn't even know how to do anything in the company. He's been retired for eight years, but he doesn't admit to he's been retired. Okay, so here's why I asked that question. You got to understand the stakes. You don't want to walk away, but you also don't want to do this deal without your name being on the D.

But you got to decide if my dad doubles down and he has no idea how bad things could get, which is what you just said, you could unintentionally submarine sabotage the very thing that you want to keep. This may be one of those where you punt and figure out which battle is worth fighting right now. This is not an easy answer, Chris. No, it's not. It is not, because you've got family involved and the other team members involved. Buddy, I'm going to tell you, I'm going to encourage you to meet up with your pastor and get connected so you can get some guidance think big picture make the right decision this

is the dave ramsey show i'm ken coleman joined by my colleague chris hogan as we take your calls about your life your work your money you need a bigger shovel all right i'll talk to you about that i'll teach you how to get promoted uh you need some financial peace well we're going to tackle those topics as well. As a matter of fact, Chris, we went to break and a very, very complex call. Yeah, we really did. That we just had with a young man. And you weren't done with that. No.

You got a little something else you wanted to say. Yeah, we were talking to Jimmy in Anchorage and he's in the family business. He and his dad are pushing back and forth right now. Jimmy wants it to be in writing that he is going to inherit and be able to take over the business as they get ready to do a deal right now that needs his signature. And what I was telling Jimmy, and we were guiding him, this is a complex situation. You've got the young buck, the son, and the old buck right now are butting heads, kind of fighting over territory.

And I think the more important thing for everybody in that situation to remember is you also have team members that are working for the company, and you've got customers that you serve. And there's a mama involved in the middle of this as well, and probably other family members. And so I think it's imperative that you all reach out, get connected with your pastor to begin to sit down and talk about the true things that are going on, and then begin, Jimmy, to talk about, hey, what's the long-range plan? What's going to happen in the next year to two years? And to talk about what happens if something happens to your dad? Is this something you would inherit and have that? And I think it's just you need some communication.

Right now you guys are butting heads, and I don't want you to make an emotional decision that's going to have a ripple effect inside that family for many years to come. So I just want everyone to take a deep breath, get connected with your pastor, get connected with somebody that you all trust, a mentor, somebody, and sit down and have a conversation as a group. Yeah, I'm glad you brought this up. You know, the thing that I would share with our audience, because I think there are other people that are listening today that are in some type of a family struggle.

There's money involved, whatever it is. And this would be the advice. That young man believed deeply in what he had done to build the company. He believes deeply in the company itself and wants to run it, wants to own it. But I wish I had had this thought when he was on the line, but I would have said, listen to me, don't lose the war over the battle. And you've got to sometimes go, what happens if I dig in and I make my stand right here, right now? Now, there are times where, Chris, you take the stand. That's right.

There is no turning back. That's right. But as I asked him the question right before we went to the break, I said, what happens if you and dad don't figure this out and this thing turns into a stalemate? He goes, the company probably goes under. And that's a situation where that's the last thing he wants. It's the last thing Dad wants. And so I would just tell you all that when you're in these tough emotional struggles sometimes with people, think about the war, step back a little bit, and go, what's the big picture?

And there are times where we've got to retreat, and technically, maybe we lose the battle, or the battle is forfeited or it is a tie use whatever analogy you want to use there but be very very careful uh about sometimes digging in and taking a mortal relationship loss yeah and and if there's other baggage and i know there is because it's called family but you know if there are other issues that are left unresolved or other things that are adding to this, you don't want that to add fuel to this now flame that it has other people's lives at stake. That's right. So you guys be intentional, and I'll be praying for you. But like I said, get someone in so they can mediate and talk with,

and you guys can talk with each other with the emotions dialed down. All right. Let's go to Richmond, Virginia, where Debbie joins us. Debbie, how can we help? Hi. Thanks so much for taking my call. This is so exciting. You bet.

What's going on? I'm calling about a question about college money. I have three kids. One of them is in college and we're cash flowing and using the savings we had for him. The second one is a senior and his education IRA did really, really well last year. And I'm a little nervous about keeping it in an aggressive fund. So my question is, should I move it to like money market or something more, you know, should I move it? Okay.

You said it did well. How much is in there, Debbie? About 40 something thousand. Okay. If you were to move that 40 to something much more conservative, is that going to be enough to get the SEC child number two through college? Yeah. Okay. That's the question.

And the reason I ask that is because right now what it's doing is you've got to invest it in the way that it's gaining some growth. So if you're looking to gear that down or shift it, I like that idea a lot better than just moving it out altogether. Now, investing is based on risk tolerance, time, and your goal. And so if you all have hit the goal, then what I would do is connect with your investment professional and try to talk about, hey, now we want to go more in preservation mode. We're wanting to preserve what we've grown because we've got what we need.

But the beauty with the ESA is that if you don't use it all, right, if it continues to grow and you don't use it all, you can move that to child number three. So you've got options. You know, I just think the big thing is being aware. A lot of people are asking me a lot of questions. They're calling into my show, the Chris Hogan Show, asking me about the stock market and what's going to happen at this. And now that the election is over and this and this, and I'm like, listen, this stock market is a living, breathing thing, right? If someone hiccups, it responds. But the reality is it's a roller coaster ride. It's going to go up. It's going to go down. Look at what happened pre-pandemic,

right? We were sailing high. We get into March and all of a sudden now we had a drastic, an incredible drop. But as we hit in September and October, it was back up and then it was higher than it was back in February. So that shows the resiliency of the market that it is real. But the most important thing is understanding it's going to be that ride. How much of a ride are you looking to take? We have to grow money, Ken, because this thing called inflation is real. It is absolutely real.

The cost of living is going up. So if inflation is hovering between 2% and 3% or higher, and you've got your money slapped over into a savings account, getting a quarter percent, your money is shrinking. That's what we mean by shrinking money. You don't want that. You want your money to grow. So we have to invest it the right way. Seth writes in on Facebook, Chris, and I get this question a lot.

And this is fun. I want you to hear this. Ken, I'm 42 years old. I've worked hard to become debt free. I don't like my job, but I feel really stupid for trying to start a career at my age. My kids are in high school and their college is funded. My house is paid off. You see how ridiculous this is getting? Yes. But I love my guy, Seth. Tell me what to do. I want to love my life, but I can't while I'm stuck in the job I'm in. Hey, Seth, you're desperate for permission. I'm

giving it to you. Brother, you have worked hard. You're only 42. How about we say you're 42 years young, number one. Number two, you're financially in great shape. You don't have to make a risky move. Here, let me tell you what's going on. This is a Facebook question. So I don't have the luxury of going back and forth with him, but really diving into the fear here.

And here's the fear. The fear is that he loses all of his financial worth, that he fails miserably if he tries to do something different at 42. Wait a second. Wait a second. That's the wrong narrative. The narrative should be,

I'm 42, I'm in great financial shape. What is it that I really want to do? And just let's start with that. Here's the answer. Bing. Once we get that answer, then we go, what is it going to take for me to get qualified to do that? There's the experience question and the education question. What do I need to learn?

Certification. Some new degree in some cases. How much is that going to cost me? How long is it going to take? The experience question, the education question, the economic question, and the expectation question. Once you get the answers to those questions, we've got ourselves a plan.

But absent of the knowledge of those answers, those four questions, Chris, it's scary. And he goes, I feel really stupid. The other thing is there's pride going on there. Because he doesn't want anybody to go, you got a really nice job. Guarantee he's got a nice job. He's got a good job. He doesn't want any of his friends and family to go, what are you

doing leaving that? The golden handcuffs. And that's pride. We're worried about what other people think. So therein lies the issue, Seth. Call the Ken Coleman Show. Let's dive deep on this. We'll get to it. Hey, I want to thank my colleague Chris Hogan for hanging out with me. I want to thank our producer James Schilder,

our associate producer Kelly Daniel. But most of all, we want to thank you America for hanging out with us and having these all-important conversations. Remember, this is The Dave Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit DaveRamsey.com slash show and register.

We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.