The Ramsey Show - App - I Have $100K in Debt at 76 Years Old (Hour 2)

Episode Date: October 19, 2022

George Kamel & Ken Coleman discuss:  Paying for college or buying a new car, Paying off a large amount of debt later in life, Selling off a house to pay off debt, Living as a digital nomad. 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

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the POTS Moving and Storage Studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm George Campbell, host of the Fine Print Entree Leadership Podcast and co-host of Smart Money Happy Hour, joined by Ken Coleman, host of The Ken Coleman Show. All of those shows I mentioned, as well as The Ramsey Show, you can find on The Ramsey Network, on The Ramsey Network app, and anywhere you listen to podcasts. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in, We'll talk about your life, your money. And with my friend Ken here, we can dive into all of your work-related issues. And Ken, it's amazing. If you had a Venn diagram of money and work, there is so much overlap there. A lot of tensions, a lot of crossroads people are

at going, should I switch jobs? How do I increase my income? I've got a toxic situation. How do I deal with this so that I can get control of my greatest wealth-building tool, my income? That's right. And the reality is that I think there's a lot of people who are longtime listeners, viewers, new listeners and viewers who think that you can't change jobs. You can't get a promotion while on the baby steps. And that's just not true. And so we, you know, I just want our listeners today to realize if you've got anything that's work related, that's really, you're really struggling with, we'll change your name, location. We'll be sensitive to that. If it's a sticky situation,

I'm here. I know there are issues out there and I love to help people with clarity, whether it be, I have no idea what I want to do with my life. Help me figure it out. I know what I want to do, but I don't know how to get there. Or I know what I want to do. I know how to get there, but I feel like I can't do it because I'm in debt. And I want to take those myths or take those challenges and help you today. So let's go. Let's do it. 888-825-5225. Be brave. Give us a call and you can join the conversation. Jonathan kicks us off in Seattle, Washington. Jonathan, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for taking my call, guys.

Sure. What's happening? So here's the situation. I'm 28 years old. I have a car note that I have $22K left on. I do have $30,000 in savings to pay it off right now. But the thing is, I'm also in graduate school, which is going to cost me exactly what the amount that I have in savings, which is going to be $30,000. So my question here is, I've been contemplating going ahead and going ahead and paying off my car, but that will leave me with just 8K. You know, I would have to cash flow school for that. So my question is, should I pay off the car, which I owe 22 on, and be left with 8K and cash flow the rest for college?

Or should I go ahead and keep making that minimum payment on the car and keep the $30,000 as a cushion to get me through school? And just a side note, I actually use the car to drive for Uber, which brings me around $36,000 to $40,000 a year. So there's that. So being in a situation, I'm just in a little bit of a dilemma what I should be doing with the savings that I have. Well, the car is not the magic secret sauce to making money with Uber. It's you, right? It's you getting out there,

turning the app on, and driving people around. Yeah. I actually don't drive people. I just drop their food off. Oh, you're doing Uber Eats? Yes. Okay, sweet. And you're making $36,000 to $40,000 a year? Yep. Wow. I do like seven, six, seven days a week without a day off sometimes. Sometimes I do four

days a week. While you're in grad school? Uh-huh. Wow. How much do do you have how much is the grad school what what do you have left on that bill so uh i just started it's an online program okay um and it's it the total was like 35 of all i've already made the the first 5 000 payment so now the rest of the bill is going to be 30k around for the completion of the program how long is how long bill is going to be $30,000 around for the completion of the program. How long is this going to take? It's going to be for the next two years. Okay. Yeah, I think partially you can cash flow a lot of this grad school.

I love that you already have it in savings, but you also have this car debt hanging around your neck here. What is the car worth? The car is actually worth like $33,000, I believe, last time I checked. But now it could probably be down to like $30,000. What's your income for the year? Is it just Uber Eats? Yeah, that's the only thing I'm doing right now. I'm actually also looking for a side job relating to my degree.

But until I find that job, this is what I'm just doing too. I've got a question on the degree because it plays into where George is taking you on how we get out of this. What is the degree, what is the graduate program in and can you pause it? Because it's still going to be there, presumably. Well, the program is, this is a cybersecurity master's program. I can most certainly pause it, but I'm just going to have to reapply it whenever I'm ready, a few years down the line, whenever that is. I just started this program because I wanted to get my foot in the IT industry as fast as possible

because I have an international political study undergrad, which is not related to IT. Well, you want to do cybersecurity? Correct, yes. I also have a few years of IT experience, you know, aside from college when I was an undergrad. I used to sell computers and whatnot, so that's what kind of got me interested in this program. Okay. But George, do you think it's a

two-year play to get where he needs to get to where he can jump back in and cashflow? I don't think it's that long. I've got a great life hack for you. I'm selling this car because number one, you've got a car that's worth $33,000 and you make $36,000. That's a lot of your life tied up in a car. Yeah. And so you sell that car for $33,000, you owe $22,000. Well, guess what? That puts you at $11,000 in cash in the bank without touching your $30,000. Yeah.

So now let's go buy an $11,000 car. We have the money set aside for the grad program. Bada bing, bada boom. There he is. We got the grad degree. Jersey George right there, folks. He's back. He comes, that character just emerges when he lays out great advice.

What do you think, Jonathan? Would you be willing to sell this car while the market's still hot? Survey says? That's a hard pass. That was some bad radio, Jonathan. The pause is a pass. Jonathan, are you willing to do what George just proposed? Yeah, for sure.

But this is also my daily drive. Other than just Uber Eats, this is what I do. But yeah, I see what you guys are saying. Can an $11,000 car not be a daily driver that does Uber? It can be. I see what you guys are saying. I don't see a reason to justify the $30,000 purchase. I got another option. I got another option because Jonathan's struggling on

this. Okay. Jonathan, I got another angle. I want you to contact Bethel Tech. The website is BethelTech.net. I endorse them. Ramsey Solutions, they are one of our partners. They have a training program, an online training program that will get you into cybersecurity for $15,000. That's quite the discount. There's a big difference. I'd talk to them. That's what I would do. I like that plan. And on top of that, I'm still selling the car. I'm still selling the car. And be glad Dave's not here because he'd just be like, sell the freaking car, Jonathan, You're broke. Yeah. We just got you out of all this. We're going to get you out of the car debt, and we're going to get you into cybersecurity way faster. Talk to Bethel Tech.

Bethel Tech got it. And guess what? The people getting the food from Uber Eats, they don't care if you drive a $33,000 car or a $10,000 car. They just want their food. I just want my pasta, man. I don't know what accent was that, but it was offensive to all people groups. I was trying to do Georgie George. This is The Ramsey Show. hey guys in case you missed it yesterday we announced new spring live event dates for our Building Wealth Live Tour.

Hey, yo. I know. We're back. We're super pumped. It sold out. It was so popular this fall that we're going to take it to some new cities in 2023. Where are we going, George? We are going to Indianapolis.

Ho! February 16th. Home of the Colts. We are going to Austin, Texas. Ooh. University of Texas. February 23rd. All right.

And then Anaheim, May 2nd. Oh, Anaheim. So we've got a little bit of everything. Fun to get out to Southern California. Yeah. Indy, Austin, Anaheim. So February 16th, February 23rd, May 2nd. People all across the country, they're wanting to know, Ken, is it still possible to build

wealth in this inflationary time? Yes. In this economy? It is. You can do it. We're going to show you how. Dave Ramsey, Rachel Cruz, Dr. John Deloney, Ken Coleman, and myself, we're going to walk you through a simple but proven plan to build wealth, invest, make smart decisions, no matter what's going on with the economy. And here's the

best part. Tickets are just 39 bucks and they sell out fast because of that. And I want to mention, we have a little pre-show option, which is a robust Q&A with me and Dr. John Deloney. We talk about the tension between our work life and our relationship life, and it always turns out to be really great. So that's an additional offering, but we do do that before the main event. And it's free. If you get tickets, just show up early and you can enjoy that. And we do have VIP tickets, but we only have 200 of those and they always sell out quick and that includes a meet and greet with Dave. And so don't wait.

Go get your seats for these events. RamseySolutions.com slash events is the place to go. Hope to see you all across the country in 2023. It's going to be a good time. Yeah, it's always fun to get out there. Can't wait to be in Dallas this weekend. That's right. Just a few days away.

Dallas, Texas Smart Conference. Just on Saturday, Dallas, Texas. It's going to be in Dallas this weekend, by the way. That's right. Just a few days away. Dallas-Texas Smart Conference. Just on Saturday, Dallas-Texas. It's going to be unbelievable. I believe it's Frisco. Is that where the venue is? I believe it is. I don't know. It's the Curtis Colwell Center.

Yeah. I don't know anything about cities, Ken. I just go where they tell me to go. It's going to be fun. Well, not too late to join us for that either and all-day Saturday event coming up. All right. Open phones this hour at 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your work life, your financial life, your whole life. Rick joins us up next in Ann

Arbor, Michigan. Rick, welcome to the show. Well, thank you so much for having me on. I listen to your show all the time, and I also look at his daughter's YouTube. Oh, yeah, Rachel Crucio. Well, thank you so much, Rick. How can we help today? Been a fan for many years. My daughter recommended you a number of years ago, so you helped her too.

Anyways, I'm 76 years old, and I'm $97,000 in debt. My income is $4,000. Okay, where does the income come from? Two from mine and my wife's Social Security and her retirement pension. Okay, and that adds up to $4,000 a month? Yeah, and she's been working part-time,

and I've been trying to work part-time. So our total expenses are a little over $10,000 a month. Total expenses? What is that coming from? The debt interest? Credit card, yes. So is the $97,000 all credit card debt? Let's see, I had it down here. $97,000 is debt and I just had it down here and my battery ran off. Credit card debt is about a little under $50,000. I've credit card debt.

What's the other types of debt? Let's see, I got it. My truck is $675,000. What's the total loan on the truck? $18,933. Okay. Do you know what it's worth by chance? Well, with the mileage on it, it's probably worth about that. Okay. I've got almost 300,000 miles on it. All right. That still leaves us another, what, 29,000 or so in debt. What's the other debt? You got the truck, the credit cards. What else? I got my wife's car.

Okay. What's left on that loan is it more than the truck three three three no three thousand ninety two dollars oh okay and there's still a whole bunch left there on top of that george you got a walking through the dead snowball we got to figure out these cars as well. Yeah, Rick, number one, it's not going to be fun or easy, but these cars need to go. It's one of the only kind of reversible debts you have on this list because we can't sell the credit card debt back to the company,

but we can sell these cars and potentially get out of a chunk of this. My truck I use for work. What are you doing for work? No extra income. I haul recreational vehicles. I drive to Indiana, pick up an RV from the manufacturer and take it to dealers all over the country. But any truck can do that. It doesn't need to be a $20,000 truck, right? Well, it has to be a big truck i've got a ford f-350 diesel that's

what i do understand that i think the bigger issue is what's a better line of work for you uh where where we're not having very difficult because i've got extreme health problems i've had two different cancers i've had a heart bypass i've had carotid bypass. But hauling all this equipment across state lines, that feels like a heck of a lot of work for a guy in your shape then. Well, no, I'm just driving. I can do that. All right. And then my wife, she needs hers for work. Well, I still think we need to sell these cars and get cheaper versions that we can pay cash for. That's the bottom line. Because there's not a lot of wiggle room here.

We're not going to make, you know, triple the income. And let me ask a follow-up here. Rick, is the $4,000 a month income, that includes the Social Security plus you and your wife working part-time jobs? No. Okay, so it's more than $4,000. Yeah. We've been scraping more than $4,000. Yeah. We've been scraping up to $10,000.

Okay. So you're saying you have $10,000 in monthly expenses. You're making up the gap at $6,000 with your part-time work together? Yes. Okay. All right, that's a little bit different picture. Actually, I'd say it's not real. Mine is really not part-time.

Yeah. You know, I go all the time. Okay. All right, the picture has changed. I'll go off for a couple weeks. Yes. So they're scraping $10,000 a month together. So now the question is how can we get these debt numbers down?

We've got to reduce expenses, yeah. I mean, I want you guys to be able to retire, Rick. Isn't that the goal, to not have to do this anymore? Yes, I'm guys to be able to retire, Rick. Isn't that the goal? To not have to do this anymore? Yes, I'm going to be 77 in January. And just this past month, my wife came up with breast cancer. Oh, I'm so sorry. So now she's out of work.

But to me, that changes the whole picture, Rick. I go, what needs to be true for us to be able to retire, for us to take care of ourselves and deal with these health issues? And that means I'm sacrificing by getting rid of these cars that have debt on them. And if that means I get a real old truck that still gets the job done or even change my line of work, I'm going to be willing to do that because you're going to need to be home pretty soon to help take care of your wife. It's going to be hard to be on the road all the time. Do you have anything, Rick, that you can sell? Do you have other assets that you can sell that we would have to change your life? Do you have anything in retirement accounts, savings accounts? No, no. Actually, we're worse than broke. Our bank account is $980 in the hole.

And the bank's been working with me. They're not charging me the NSFD. So I do have a boat, but I've been trying to sell it. What's it worth? Probably about $10,000. I owe three on it. I would definitely sell the boat, make it more attractive, drop the price a little bit to get rid of that debt, plus come up with a little extra cash. I would hope to sell the boat right now and pay off the boat and then pay off your wife's car.

All right? That's a start. Now we got some momentum. How would that feel? I want you to just take yourself there. How would that feel if you did that with one sale? That would feel pretty good. Well, that's a start. And as you keep doing that, you're going to free up more and more of these payments, which means that 10K can go a lot further and help you knock out other debts. But Rick, this is an emergency situation.

We've got to just sell anything that's not tied down, do as much work as we can. And you're 76. I mean, now's the time to start. The best time to plant the tree was 10 years ago. The next best time is today. And so let's get about the business of cleaning this mess up. Because for 76 years, we've been having a good time buying boats. But now it's time to go. We want to retire. We got to take care of our health. And we can't live like this anymore. So we're wishing you the best cleaning up this mess. Get the help from the kids that you need, since they're fans as well. Appreciate the call, man.

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check them out at Grip6.com today and get up to 20% Coleman. This is The Ramsey Show. Give us a call at 888-825-5225. I can jump in and help with those money questions. Ken is an expert at helping you with your work problems, whether it's switching jobs, a toxic boss, moving states, you're trying to upgrade the income to, you know, hit some money goals. Ken can help in that area for sure. 888-825-5225. Jackie is up in New York City. Jackie, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi, how are you? Doing great. How are you? What's going on? Good. All right. So my question is, me and my husband, we had bought a house pre-COVID and it was like a fixer-upper. So we have gotten it for around $270,000 and

it's basically worth double right now. So we are kind of like, should we sell the house, pay off the debt, and then we'll be able to still buy another house because we'll still be up with what we make on it? So that's kind of like where we're at. I don't know. Run the numbers for us. How much debt do you have? Okay, so we, including one car loan, we're about $39,000 in debt. Okay.

The house that we bought, we got it for $270,000, and it's worth about like $470,000 now. Mm-hmm. And that's really the numbers. So keep playing it out. So you sell it for $470,000, you pay the house off. Well, what do you owe on it? So, yeah, so we owe, actually actually I have my mortgage thing right here. Um, the total, oh, I don't know. Oh, we owe 262. Okay. All right. So you don't, you don't have

much in this house when you bought it. And so you're going to get out of this thing, probably 175 after fees. Yeah. Net profit? Yeah, yeah. So basically, when I worked on the numbers just before, we'd get around like $140,000 after paying off that, paying off our debt, paying off all of that altogether, including the car. The $39,000. We would still be at like, yeah. Well, that leaves you.

You'd be at $140,000, and you were saying you felt like you could get into another house with that. Is that right? Yeah. Well, that leaves you at $140,000, and you were saying you felt like you could get into another house with that. Is that right? Yeah, like we figured either, you know, we could put another deposit, like, on another house. Because even if we're up, even just saying even $100,000 after paying off that, you know, the work, we could still take a, you know, we could still put $50,000 to a new house. And then we would be debt-free with just a new mortgage. My worry is that mortgage is going to be huge. What's your income?

So my husband is an electrician, so he makes about $55,000 a year. And I'm like a seasonal restaurant worker, so I'm like around like $35,000. So what would the cost of the new house be? I mean, I think we would probably stay around 300 000 just like how we once were like we didn't really you know but again the market is up so how you think you're gonna find a house for 300 000 in your area um that's as good as the one you have like not as good but it would definitely have to be something that's like lower like you know you'd have to fix it up.

The area that we live in, it has a lot of fixer-uppers. I just think we're doing a lot of work here when you guys could pay off $39,000 making $90,000. Why not just attack the debt instead of do this shortcut and uproot your life and go to a worse house with lower quality of living all to pay off the debt? I'd rather you sell the car before you sell the house. Right. And it's all car debt, isn't it? Well, it's $15,000 in credit cards and then $25,000 in the car loan. Okay. Well, how much is the car worth right now if you sold it? I'm not sure. We got to find that out.

I honestly'm not sure. How much money do you have in the bank? Between savings, checking? I believe we're probably about like $40,000 in the bank. What are we doing here, Jackie? Hold on, hold on, hold on. We don't know what we're doing, honestly. That's why we feel like we're in a good position right now. We also want to try to open up a business or something with even the equity on the house.

Slow. Slow your roll, Jackie. Let's slow down here. Here's what we're going to do. You have $40,000 in the bank. You owe $39,000. You pay it off completely today. That leaves you with $1,000.

Scary, right? Yeah. But guess what? You now don't have any payments. So that next paycheck and the next one stays with you. Now we build a fully funded emergency fund while we don't owe anyone anything. And that's what we call baby step three. That's the emergency fund.

Baby step two in the Ramsey plan is paying off all consumer debt using the debt snowball. So you can fast forward through baby steps one and two and start working on three today. But part of the reason you're here going, I don't know why we're not feeling the progress. Should we sell our house when we're in this mess? We just need to do one thing at a time with focused intensity. And right now, let's clean up the debt with the money we have in the bank. Let's get an emergency fund and let's reassess. If you want to move for another reason, that's fine, but do not move to pay off this debt. And I want to jump in. George's advice is spot on,

but I just want to drive in on an emotional point here. Do you know what your car payment is every month, roughly? It's around like $460 a month. Okay. I want you to just process, instead of the fear of going from $40,000 in your savings account to $1,000, I want you to process that $400 plus a month payment going away. And your credit card bill. And the credit card. What are you paying on your credit card? Well, it's like multiple credit cards, but... Total? The total is $15,000 in credit. No, no, no, no, no. Your monthly payments to the credit card company is what?

A few hundred bucks? Probably about like 700 bucks. All right, now watch. Watch what just happened. In one fell swoop, you no longer have $1,100 a month due. How does that feel? I want you to chew on that one for a second. How does that feel?

Yeah, that does seem a little bit nicer. There we go. So we got a narrative issue going on here it's not george i'm going to deplete my savings you feel safe but you're not you're actually going to free up 1100 plus dollars a month and have no debt and don't have to move in your you have to move you have your house you have your mortgage. But the point is, you're free of consumer debt and you don't have to move. I know you're going to probably be like, no equity line of credit,

but as far as trying to take some type of value out of the house, you don't think we should do that? Not in a thousand years. I wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemy. No, because you're in great shape with that house. Jackie, you guys can then begin to pay off that house. You know it's going backwards.

Okay. That's what it's doing. I want you guys to be debt-free, not in more debt, and keep pulling equity out of the house because you know what happens? Then you're calling me at 65 years old going, hey, we have a mortgage and we got credit cards and we don't know how we got here, but we want to retire. We're sick of working, but we can't.

Instead, I want you to call us and say, we are net worth millionaires. We have a paid for house that's worth $500,000. We don't owe anyone anything. We have a million dollars in our retirement because we had the margin to fund it with that extra $1,100. And now we're in a different place financially. We sleep better. We can move where we want to move. You see what that does to your life? Yeah. Yeah. And so part of it is we got to stop justifying all the numbers in our head and what could be and what could happen. Instead, go,

what is our reality today? How do we make today better? And part of that is we don't need to live with payments anymore. And by the way, when you pay off these credit cards, would you cut them up? Would you be willing to do that for just a month? Cut them up, close the accounts, and see if you can survive a month using a debit card. Yeah, I mean, we could probably do that. You know, we do like the, you know, Home Depot and those cards, you know. And what does it do for you? I love, can I tell you how much I love home improvement stores? They make me happy. But I don't have a card with them. I just use my debit card. But Ken, you can save 10% on that buzzsaw that you need for that one project today. Let me tell you something. I didn't say I like to use, I don't even know how to use everything on those

aisles. I just like being in there. It makes me very happy. You know, it's kind of a man thing, but Hey, I'm going to challenge you on something. I'm going to throw something in here, George, because Jackie, I think I'm trying to save you a little bit more money. George, tell me if I'm going to throw something in here, George, because, Jackie, I'm trying to save you a little bit more money. George, tell me if I'm wrong. Let's say her car, let's say she's got $5,000 or $10,000 of equity in that car, and you sell the car and you downgrade in car for a little bit, and that allows you to save more of that $40,000, right, because we remove the debt on the car, and I keep, and I got a big head start on my emergency fund. That's true.

I'm just driving a not-as- as nice car, but who gives a crap? Park around the corner. No one needs to see it. So, Jackie, you have a lot of options, but the one option I'm not going to say is okay is to just sell the house to clear the debt. It's a bad shortcut, and I only recommend it if you're in a real, real terrible situation. You guys make good money. It's just time to put it to use and stop playing games with Home Depot

and messing around with these credit card companies. And it's what got you into this mess. And I want you to have freedom. And part of that means we're saying no to the store credit card. Here, just say this next time. No, thank you. Have a nice day. This is The Ramsey Show. so This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Ken Coleman this hour. Give us a call at 888-825-5225. Art joins us up next in Denver, Colorado. Art, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for taking my call, guys.

Sure. How you doing? I'm doing well. So, after doing your baby steps, I'm on step four, invest 15%. And I've been there for a few months. I don't plan on having children and I don't have a home. I was curious what your thoughts are about living a digital nomad lifestyle. I live, I work a remote job and I do pretty well for myself. I have no debt and I don't really know where to go from here. I want to

become more mobile. Um, I currently live in a, on my uncle's property with a very cheap rent and could easily pay this and just leave my stuff here instead of have to get rid of everything. So what are the downsides of not buying real estate in the market right now and kind of living my childhood dream and waiting? I don't hear any downsides, you know, because... Yeah, but that sounds too good to be true. What's too good about it to be true? Lots of people do it. Yeah, I know. Is your plan now?

You got to have a plan. Are you going to live in an RV, a camper? How are you going to travel? Where are you going to stay? RV. I have, like I said, I have no debt. I've got about $12,000 to throw at going to do the camper thing without touching my emergency fund. And I don't know. I'm kind of hesitant to pull the trigger because I've been trying to live frugally these past few years

and get out of the hole that I dug in my 20s. Right, but are you saying $12,000 is going to pay cash for something? Ideally, or I have access to personal interest-free loans from wealthy friends. Uh-uh, we're not doing that. No, no, no, no, no, no. We're not going to recommend that you go into debt. Why'd you get out of debt in the first place if you're going to get back into it? Yeah, see, that's kind of what I'm thinking.

Okay, so if we take debt off the table... He really wants to go for it. All right, we're on the same page now. So how much do you make doing this remote job? I make about $85,000 a year. So how long would it take for you to save up the actual full cost of said camper? Let's say it was $40,000 for a good camper. Yeah, I would say I could do it by late next year. Well, there you go. If I buttoned up and really was patient.

I think you can do better than that. You said you have almost no expenses. Correct. So how long would it take to save up $30, make an $85 with very little expenses? Not that long, but I'm scared of debt now that I've gotten out of it, and so I'm just wanting to take it slow. Okay. But again, we're not encouraging you to go to debt. We're not encouraging you to go to debt. George is just saying how much quicker could you make

the $30,000? Maybe if you took on- What I'm saying is out of your paychecks, could you take two or three grand and put it in a high yield savings account every single month? Yes. That puts you at another 30 grand, add, add it to the $12,000, and that gets you a $42,000 RV, camper. And now we just travel, and you live that dream, and you continue to do it debt-free. You have a paycheck coming in from the remote job.

You need to make sure you have Internet access. And some people are doing, you know, they have Internet access from the camper at all times. You can look into those options as well. So what's the, I think the truth is, it sounds like there's some fear around jumping into this digital nomad lifestyle. Have you talked to someone who's done it? No, I haven't.

I've been taking Dave's advice and talking to the old rich people that I know, because that's who I want to be. Well, also jump into those communities online and go, hey, I'm new to this. What are some things I need to look out for? Jump onto some Facebook groups, some Reddit threads, and see what people are saying about this lifestyle, the ups, the downs, the good, the bad.

And then you can jump in knowing exactly what to expect. Okay. And guess what happens? Three years from now, if you hate this and you go, you know what? I want to settle down. I want to sleep in the same bed every day. You can just stop and decide to do something different. It's not the

rest of your life. Don't take on more debt, even if it's interest-free. Just be patient. Let me ask you a question. Does the dream include you driving the camper or dragging it behind you? Or is the dream, I want to go here for three days, and then if I feel like going somewhere else for four days, is it a combo? Or is the camper and the RV thing a big part of this dream? It's really just going. I just don't like looking out the window and seeing the same thing every day. Okay. I had a hunch that that was the case. And so, uh, now that I know that I wouldn't

touch the camper with a 10 foot pole, unless you were into that kind of thing, because that's a asset that is going to go down. It's going to depreciate very, very quickly into George's point. If you get out on this digital nomad thing and I just want to go, and then I've bought this thing that's depreciating, then that's a pain in the neck down the road if I change my mind versus you're debt-free, you got a good amount of cash saved up, you can save up even more. And if you just decide I'm going to drive, I'm going to buy a real gas friendly car, or if you've already got one, a very dependable car, I'm going to drive. I'm going to buy a real gas-friendly car, or if you've already got one, a very dependable car, I'm going to drive here, and then I'm going to drive there. Or if

you can afford to, I'm going to fly here, and then I'll fly there. If it's about moving around and you can do your work from anywhere, then this is you coming up with a budget and a plan to go, all right, since I don't have rent anymore and I know what my income is, and if I look at, okay, and George, you're the king of this. So like budget-friendly hotels. So if I find a chain and I become a frequent rewards person and I'm paying cash for the hotel rooms and I'm going, all right, I can pay this. And so I've got a budget of, and so I know what my hotel and my food cost and if I'm flying versus driving this is just putting all that together and going okay this is what it looks like and if I can only do it 20 days a month based on those financial realities I know I'm living with my uncle the other 10 days

but I would stay away from the camper and the RV knowing what I know now. What do you think, Art? Okay, I think that's more reasonable. I guess I'm really more afraid of not having all my stuff that I've always had. What stuff? Well, I mean, I've never not stayed in a house for more than like 10, 12 days at a time. Then here's the idea. First of all, you already said you could store your stuff with uncle. All right, that's one idea. First of all, you already said you could store your stuff with Uncle. All right, that's one option. But the other option is before we commit to this full-time, why don't we just try this a week at a time for the next three months?

What if we take the next three months, and for one week we try this new lifestyle, and we just sit back and go, huh, I always wondered what it was like. Now I'm going to test it without committing full time. Yeah. How old are you, Art? Okay. I'm 31.

Okay. Yeah, I like testing this. I just think you need to take the pressure off of yourself as if you step into this and this has to be your life for the next 40 years regardless of what happens. Okay. I think that's where my stress is coming from. Like what if I don't like it once I get out there? That's great news. So here's the great news. Just take off in the car first. Okay. I think that's where my stress is coming from. Like, what if I don't like it once I get out there? So that's great. Take off in the car first. Yeah. And then make sure that that

works. Yeah. Try that whole hotel thing. Yeah. Financially responsibly. That's it. Try it on a mini level, right? We're going to mini commit to this thing. We're going to test it. And then the testing is going to clarify all of this for you. And you're going to go ding, ding, ding, or eh. And you might realize, you know what, this ain't for me. That's right. And that's okay. And you might just go, I need to travel at least once a month and have a trip to look forward to. And that's good enough for me. But as long as you do it debt-free, there's no need to stress about the possibility of going into debt if you just say, oh, I'm just a guy who doesn't go into debt. I'm not going to do interest-free loans. I'm not going to owe anyone anything. I'm going to use my debit card. I'm going to pay cash for the RV. I'm going to have an emergency fund for all the expenses

involved with this. And I know what to expect. So jump into those communities, ask those types of questions. They're always happy to talk about it and share their experiences, even share their numbers of here's what the actual cost is. I thought it was going to be basically living for free. Turns out it's $7,000 a month if you want to do it big. And so do your homework, do the research, but I don't see any issue with you jumping into this. It's that simple. Good stuff there. That was fun. Yeah. I've got a musician buddy who lives out of his van and he really enjoys it. I've got another friend out in California who runs a digital agency out of a

converted Airstream. And he loves it. He opens the door, he's on the sand, on the beach. He's got internet wherever he goes. So it can be a great lifestyle for a lot of people. It is. I do have a question for your friend who's a musician who lives in a van. Is it down by the river? I don't think it is down by the river, but he is

here in Nashville, so he could be by the river i don't think it is down by the river but he is in uh here in nashville so he could be by the uh the old river downtown yeah the tenet what river is that i don't know someone knows it's not the tennis the cumberland guys the cumberland all right thanks james always coming in the clutch that puts us out of the ramsey show in the books appreciate all of you listening my thanks to ken coleman all the guys in the booth we'll be back with you before you know it. 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.

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