The Ramsey Show - App - I Just Got a Raise...How Do I Use My Increased Income? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: March 26, 2021

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Christy Wright, bestselling author of my new devotional, Living True, 40 Days to Get Back to You. I'm also a Ramsey personality, and I'm joined today by my good friend, also bestselling author, also Ramsey personality, Anthony O'Neill. They let us do this again together.

This is going to be fun. It's going to be real fun. It may not be as fun as last time, but it may be better. Here's one of the things people can count on if you and I are hosting this show. Listen. They're going to get fired up. Yeah. We don't coast.

We don't even have a gear that is coast going to get fired up. We don't coast. We don't even have a gear that is coasting. No cruise control. We go all in and we are here for you. So we're taking your calls today. 888-825-5225 if you have a question about money. If you have a question about business.

Maybe it's a side business, small business, home-based business, or just you got an idea and you're not sure if it can be a business. Or maybe you just have some questions about life and you need some advice. We are here for you. Phones are open, 888-825-5225. You know, Anthony, I was thinking about this idea of advice. This is what we do.

You do this on your show with The Table. I do this with The Christy Wright Show. These come out weekly. You guys can find us on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts, on Instagram, all that good stuff. We love to help people. And we love to give them advice

and give them hope and give them direction where we can. Just yesterday, I had a conversation with someone that is an expert in the parenting space. It was 50 minutes. And Anthony, I walked out of that conversation literally lighter. with someone that is an expert in the parenting space. Okay. It was 50 minutes. Okay. And Anthony, I walked out of that conversation literally lighter.

Oh, wow. Like just simple advice from someone that is an expert with boys and the ages that my boys are. I'd had so much angst about how do we handle this situation or that situation. And I was like, you know what? I need help with this. I need to ask someone else. And so I had a great conversation with someone author, brilliant parenting expert.

And Anthony, when I left, I just literally felt lighter. That's what advice and help from someone else can do. That's it sets you free. It really does. And for me, when you get practical and good wisdom in whatever situation you're in, wisdom and knowledge. You feel better. You feel equipped to go back into your particular space. And as long as you apply, check this out, the advice, the wisdom, the knowledge, then

you will do better. But now, if you don't apply the advice, the wisdom and the knowledge to your situation, to your life, then you just wasted your time. Yeah. And it's interesting because I feel like that there are certain things in life that we just expect ourselves to know how to do. So, like, let me give you an example. Let me go back to high school. I remember I joined the track team in high school. And I was fast, but I wasn't trained.

And so I had this coach that was that trained me in running now you just think you're supposed to know how to run right like everybody knows how to run you just you just you just do it now christy you would have talked about this before were you really fast uh-huh i was the only white girl on the track team i was the only white girl on the 4x100 relay team. I think that's fast. A little Overton High School fast. Anyway, here's the thing, though. But I had a coach that trained us in drills and sprints and weightlifting and all the things that you do to get faster, to get stronger. And as a result, I performed better. But running is one of those things that you think, oh, I'm just supposed to know how to do it.

Parenting, I think, is one of those things. You're supposed to just know how to do it. Money is one of those things. I'm just supposed to know how to do it. And we don't. No. We don't, especially if our parents don't teach us, especially if we don't learn it in school.

We're fumbling around in the dark. We're living paycheck to paycheck. We're frustrated with our kids and don't know why we can't see eye to eye and help them. And we're going, hey, guys, listen, the one thing you need is what anyone needs in an area you're not an expert in. You just need a little bit of help. Yeah. You just need to reach out to someone that knows how to do what you know how to do.

And here at Ramsey Solutions, we know money. We are the best at it. We have helped millions of families get out of debt, build wealth, and take control of their future. And that is what we are here to do for you on the Ramsey Show. 888-825-5225. If you have a question for Anthony O'Neill or myself about money or business, y'all know I love to help you with your business ideas, help you monetize your business, pay yourself, stop feeling weird about selling and all the things that go with that.

I would love to help you. Or if there's just something in your life you want to grow as a person, you have a question about your goals, we would love to help you get the advice that will set you free, like I felt yesterday when I had someone help me, and also go further faster. Make more progress. You're not supposed to know how to do it all yourself.

You know what? It's so funny you talk about your session yesterday. I think it was Tuesday. It was Monday or Tuesday of this week. I went into my therapy session. I actually see a therapist two times. Oh, I'm pro. Yes.

Yes, yes. I see a therapist two times a month. And every time I walk in, I remember the first time I walked in there, she said, Anthony, this is not going to help you if you're not honest, if you're not transparent, if you're not vulnerable. And if you're not open to the advice and to the wisdom that I'm going to help you if you're not honest, if you're not transparent, if you're not vulnerable and if you're not open to the advice and to the wisdom I'm going to give you. But I can't give you good advice and wisdom if you're not giving me the truth, if you're not being vulnerable, if you're not being honest. And and I think for us, when you give us a call, you know, give us us a call because i think the dumbest question that you can ask is a no question is by not asking and when you call us we're going to give you practical wisdom and advice and here's one thing i'll tell you and i know this is by christy as

well if we don't know the answer we're going to tell you absolutely we don't know the answer that's right you know i have no problem sitting here saying i don't know bro or i don't know ma'am i mean because i don't want to give practical advice and it's not practical good advice. I'm not going to be talking just to be talking because I do know the weight of what we carry here at Ramsey Solutions. And I want to make sure I'm giving you the right advice. And then if it's not the practical law advice, I'm saying this. This is my personal opinion. It's not law, but my personal opinion.

And my therapist does it all the time, Christine. Whenever I leave her office, I remember we got a bunch of high schoolers in here and I say in front of them. I remember the first time, Chrissy, I walked in. I didn't leave the same. I started crying. I was crying like I was a little kid. I was crying like I was younger than them kids. What were what was what were those tears?

Because I opened up and I never went that deep into saying you know what i really want help i mean and i was so vulnerable and she helped me understand a lot of the things that you're going through are not because of them it's because of something deep inside of you that you haven't resolved and i was like okay okay and it felt so good uh to be able to have someone to talk to and so if you give us a call great but if you don't give us a call go talk to somebody yeah get practical help wisdom from somebody but give us a call you make a you make a good point about being honest because sometimes on this show that's one of the things we have to do we have to do a little digging yeah like no no no no no tell me the real story now what's going on there yeah and and it can be hard to be honest it

can be hard to be vulnerable but if you're not honest then you can't do the real work you need to to get the help that you need and and it makes me think of the scripture you can quote me you know the bible better than i do but no discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful. However, it produces a harvest of righteousness for those who have been trained by it. And when we're honest with ourselves, when we reflect on how we contribute to the problem, maybe weaknesses or blind spots that we have, when we get outside help from someone that's smarter than us, knows more than us, you and I do that, and that makes us better people.

But it also helps you solve things at the root issue when you get the help you need 888-825-5225 we are here for you this is the rancy show One of the questions I get all the time is, which life insurance company should I use for my term life policy? A valid question since there are hundreds of companies out there with rates all over the place and riders and add-ons that are simply a waste of money. You need to get this done and make the right decision. That's why the only company I use and have recommended for over 20 years is Zander Insurance. Zander is a broker who shops the top term life companies for you and finds the best rates available from the only plans I recommend. They also save you time.

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888-825-5225. We're going to go to Jeff in Lexington, Kentucky. Hey, Jeff, how you doing? Hi, Christy. Doing good. I actually got a question for you and Anthony. My first one for you is, are you going to be having a business boutique event this year somewhere in the country? Yes, we are. It's going to be here in Nashville, Tennessee, and it is going to be in October.

We are going to be releasing those dates and selling tickets soon. So thank you for asking. Yes, we're so excited. Just finalizing the speakers. You coming, Jeff? Awesome. Who we talking to? Well, my wife and I are planning on coming. Yeah, we went two years ago to

the one down there in Nashville, and that's the first time I'd ever heard Christy speak before. She's fine. And you are amazing. And the story that you tell, your testimony that you shared about your daughter was amazing. Thank you. Thank you. Well, we'd amazing. Thank you. Thank you. Well, we'd love to have you.

I tell you what, you stay on the line, and we'll have Kelly get you and your wife tickets for whenever it is released. They're not even released yet, so you get the first tickets, Jeff. There you go. Well, all right. I mean, I'm about to call in, too. Thank you, Chrissy. All right. How can Anthony and I help?

What's your question? Anthony, my question, I've got it for you, relates to student loan debt. Yeah. Anthony, my question, I've got it for you, relates to student loan debt. My wife and I have got some student loan debt that is in arrears, and we have not gotten a letter from a debt collection agency in a couple years. Last time we did, of course, it's got two amounts of money on there, the amount that was borrowed and the total amount that has interest and penalties on there. When you get to the point in the baby steps where you're going to pay this off, can that amount be negotiated? And if so, to where you only pay what you actually

borrowed? And if it can, who do you negotiate that with? A debt collector or do you do that with the U.S. Department of Education? How long has it been in default, man? I am not for sure, to be honest with you. I honestly don't know. Yeah, so that really all depends from there. If it's still in the hands of the federal government, then no, they're not going to settle with you. Now, if they sold it to a collection agency, it's a 50-50. It's really up to them.

Sometimes they will settle. Sometimes they will not settle because student loans are the hardest thing to pretty much settle. And you can't even file bankruptcy on them. So my my answer is, without knowing all of the particulars, it depends on who has the student loans at the time. If it is a collection agency, yes, collection agency. You can settle depending on how far you are when it comes to delinquent if you're only like a year maybe two years behind and they're just collecting on behalf of the federal government uh probably not they may give you like maybe you know five percent off uh to settle it but if you're like five ten years behind and you're trying to settle it within one lump sum um i have seen some

some companies go ahead and do that for you. But you just have to call the collection agency who has your student loans. I will pull your credit report. The name will be on there. There should be a number attached to it and just call them and ask them, hey, what are my options to resolve this matter? But the best bet, your best way to do that, Jeff, is to have a lump sum of cash on hand when you get to that part in the baby step. I do not want you to jump there and skip over your smallest debts if you still have some. Okay. All right. Okay. Sounds good. All right, Jeff. Good luck. Thank you. Thanks for calling. Appreciate you, man. All right. We are going to go to Bradley in Boston. Hey, Bradley, how's it going?

Hi, Kristen and Anthony. Thanks for answering my call. Yeah. So recently I got a pretty significant 40% raise at work. Wow, congratulations. And also, yeah, it was kind of surprising, but I'm pretty happy with that, obviously. And refinanced my $50,000 worth of student loans down to 3%, uh, 3.7% because of the, you know, pretty good refinancing. So my question here is, you know, should I be

prioritizing the loans or my retirement? Cause at 3.7% interest, that's like, it's very small, you know? I mean, I'm obviously going to increase how much I'm putting on the loans, but do you think this should be kind of like a split? Yeah. So you have $50,000 on your loan payment. How long is your loan payments, man? Let me ask that. 10 years.

10 years. I'll probably just refinance. It'll be 10 again, yeah. So, Bradley, 10 years at 3%, that's a lot of money. I don't know what you mean by saying that's little if no money. 3% over 10 years. Well, I didn't mean it like that. Well, that's how it sounded. What is that?

Something like, it should be $11,000. Okay, yeah. I want you to take- If I took the whole term. Yeah, so $11,000 times that and invest that into your interest, man, you're looking at almost a half a million dollars that you can get back just from that $11,000 if it was sitting in investments. So even if you're doing it just for a year, bro, any kind of penalty that you're paying for is not worth it.

So yes, what I'm telling you, how old are you, Bradley? 23. Yeah, bro. Come on, man. Yes, Bradley. How much is your raise? I know you said 40%. What's that in dollars?

So that is $84,000 plus and then a commission of up to $36,000. Okay. Okay, Bradley, listen. This student loan is going to be gone before you know it if you live right. Pretend like you didn't get that raise, Bradley. Pretend like you didn't get that raise. That's what I'm going to do, yeah. And get it out of here, and then you can invest all kinds of money.

Bradley, are you still living at home? No, no, On my own. OK, good. Yeah. Do exactly what Chrissy just said, man. She jumped in before I can scream at you. Sorry, I get excited. So she saved you, man. You know, I'm saying this is the problem that I have with young people. It's not you, Bradley, but it's a problem to have with young people. We're we're so quick to look at how do we get the money how do we grow more money how do we become wealthy rather than saying hey how do i create a solid foundation to build wealth on okay and so i want you to knock out all your debt so this way like chrissy said man when you're debt

free bro you can go go get the money and build it and let compound interest work, get into real estate, buy your car. You can do whatever you want to do, but I want you to do that on a solid foundation. Don't be building wealth and you owe people from the past, man. All right, man. Get out of here. You're going to do this, Bradley. Are you going to do it? Are you going to live like you didn't get this race?

Yeah. I'm not worried about it. It's more of where to put it. The retirement is where I was basically questioning it. it either way it's going into savings you know what i mean it's either going down debt or going into savings i ain't spending it on other things bradley how much money do you have in savings right now i'm curious so that's the thing at my prior obviously 40 is pretty significant at my prior uh it was about $60,000. It's a pretty high cost of living in Boston.

Yeah, but how much money do you have in your savings? I mean, I have a few thousand. How much debt do you have total? Maybe five or six now. How much debt do you have total? Just that? That's it. That's all. I own my car. I own everything else. Cool. Have you taken Financial Peace University from us? No, I haven't.

I can tell. All right. I want you to stay on the line and I want you to rock out with Kelly. Kelly's going to connect you with Ramsey Plus. Christian and I is going to give that to you for free for one year. I want you to take the course because I can tell you're new to the Ramsey organization and that's cool.

I want you to do that and you'll see baby steps one through three. So technically right now we only want you to have $1,000 in your steps one through three. So technically right now, we only want you to have a thousand dollars in your savings account. So take that other five thousand dollars, put that towards the thirty thousand dollars of student loans. You're down to twenty five. Like Chrissy said, man, you should be debt free within the next three to six months if you really work it right. And so you can be debt free by the end of this year, building wealth, starting retirement. But I want to walk you through that process. And so we're going to give you a Ramsey Plus membership for free. You go in there, take Financial Peace University and Dave, Rachel and myself and Christy as

well. And the rest of our personalities will teach you how to really set you up to win financially so you can retire well. Because I love the fact that at 23 years old and I hope y'all high school is out here paying attention. Not looking down at your cell phones. Look at me and Christy right now, okay? If we can get this at a young age, get this financial literacy at a young age, and really get this wisdom, we will be successful. I promise you, we will be successful. So take

Ramsey Plus. Kelly's going to give that to you. Thank you so much for calling in. And to the young people listening right now, because for those who listen on podcasts and can't really see what's going on, we have a group of high school students here. And I love this, Christy, because I wish my teacher would have brought me to somewhere like this

to get the education on how to start a business, how to grow our finances the correct way. And so y'all listen to your teacher. Listen to your teacher because he's going to make y'all true millionaires. TV ain't going to do nothing for y'all, all right? Hip-hop music ain't going to do nothing for you.

Just entertain you. Listen to that guy that brought you here and to Christy and myself and we're going to help y'all become millionaires. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm Christy Wright. You can follow along with everything I'm up to on Instagram at ChristyBWright. I'm hosting today with my good friend, fellow Ramsey personality, Anthony O'Neill. And you can also follow him on Instagram at Anthony O'Neill.

We love connecting with you guys. All right, Anthony, we've got a question from Blinds.com. Blinds.com's 100% satisfaction guarantee means that even if you mismeasure or pick the wrong color, they'll remake your blinds for free. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use promo code Ramsey to get the best deal. Today's question comes from Liberty in Oregon. My husband and I just started FPU and we want to pay off our debt fast. My husband recently asked if I would be willing to work some hours to contribute to our Now, I'm really curious what you think about this, Anthony, because this is a values question. And when it comes to values, and Anthony and I give you guys advice on values, you're going to get our values.

And those may not be the same. So I'm going to jump in. No, no, no. Go to you first. Go to you first. Okay, okay, okay. Go to you first. So one of the things that I actually like helping people do, and I talk about it in terms of life balance,

but I love helping people figure out what their values are and then live their life according to them. For example, if you build a business and you look at other people, how they do their businesses, and you structure the exact same, but it doesn't line up with your values,

you're not going to enjoy your business because your business should reflect your values. Similarly, when we give you guys the baby steps, these are proven principles, but the speed at which you do them and your stage of life and what you're going through is going to be customized for you and your values. So when you say that you want to pay off your debt fast, Liberty, and you want to stay home because that's important to you, you're telling me two things you value and two things that are important to you.

What I would say to you is you need to decide which is more important. Which is more important to you? Paying off your debt faster or staying home with your child in the season and then picking up the pace maybe when they're in preschool? I would argue, and I'm curious what you think here, Ayo. I would argue there is not a right or wrong answer here because it's your values. But I will tell you, if you do something that goes against your values, you're going to be anxious, intense, and frustrated. If it's really important to you to stay home in this season when you have little teeny kids and you maybe have another baby on the way, and then you go work, you're going to feel a lot of angst.

And at the same time, if you value paying off that debt faster, then being at home, you're going to feel antsy. Like, hey, I need to do something. I need to do something. I need to contribute. I need to. And so I would say you have to decide which is more important to you. And it may be a blend. It may be something.

That's why I love helping people start home-based businesses. Because during nap time, you could be making some extra money on Etsy. And then you're doing both. So there are more options than you think. But I think it comes down to you deciding your values. What do you think, Ayo?

When it comes to speed, not the baby steps, because the the baby steps are proven but the speed at which you do it i think the question should be asked to the couple what is best for us moving forward and i think the inside of that conversation my personal opinion we identify okay cool do we want to be out of debt so we can enjoy we do we want to be out of debt quicker so we can enjoy you being at home not feeling any pressure not feeling anything with the kids or do we mind having a little bit of pressure while you're at home so are you saying the same thing i'm saying or are you no okay of course not of course not go on go on so what i'm saying is for me i'm having a conversation and i'm trying to respectfully convince my wife

if i'm in that situation um bae i want you to go back to work i do not see that i do really i feel like if you if your wife came to you and i'm not saying there's a right or wrong because i'm pro you do what's right for you but if knowing you yeah and how but now wait i how do i say this i wouldn't be in this situation okay so what i'm saying but if i was in this situation. Okay. So what I'm saying, but if I was in this situation, I am asking my wife if she's saying, hey, I really want to be out of debt. I want to have freedom. And I'm thinking, I'm just thinking as a husband and as a father, you know, I want my wife to raise, I want my wife to be at home and to raise our kids.

But I also want us to be at home and we're not, we're not, we're not, we don't have any pressure. We don't have any stress and we know't have any stress. And we know finances can be stressful. And so I would have the conversation. Now my wife comes and says, no, I want to stay home. Cool beans. I'm going to step up and I'm going to do everything I need to do

to eliminate the debt so my wife can't stay at home. So if she said it's important to me to stay home, you would support that? Absolutely. That's cool. We're tracking. We're on the same page. That's cool. That's cool. Yeah, we're tracking. We're on the same page. It's interesting too because when we talk about parenting,

when we talk about working, when we talk about women working and how and where and when they work and what that looks like, this is a deeply personal issue. And so I would just encourage every woman listening right now,

every family listening right now, every parent listening, it is really important for you and your spouse to have a conversation where you are on the same page, even if you have to wrestle through it, even if you have to go see a counselor to work through it, to be on the same page with this, because you can't look to people around you to tell you what you should do. You don't need to let your parents tell you what you should do. Your in-laws tell you what you should do. This is your life. It's your kids. It's your time. And I would say as a mom of three kids age six and under, there is a season when they're little, and that season is very short and goes fast.

And so there are women that stay at home and think I'm crazy for working outside the home. There are women that work outside the home that, you know, they wish they were home. There's so many different ways to do it. And you need to decide what's right for you because this is your life. Yeah. And that's the only thing that matters is what is right for you and your family. It's a great question. It's a great discussion, Ayo.

It is. And you see it across cultures. It varies across regions, the north versus the south. There's so many different ways to look at it. There's a lot that affects it. But have that conversation with your spouse about what that looks like for you and how that affects how you approach the baby steps and also let me say this to chrissy because i want to make sure that we're saying is saying this in a way to where everyone hears us correctly chrissy said it there's no right or wrong answer here all right so if you are a couple and you all

have kids and both of you all are working to pay off debt that is good for you and your family now if you're one of the couples and one of you are saying no i want to go home and do this see christy said you should do this anthony said you should do that don't do that because at the end of the day you have to do what's best for you and your home and as long as you and your spouse have a conversation, you all agree, stick to that. If you want to stay at home, mom, and the husband works or the wife works, it doesn't matter. That's great for you. But just make sure you hear us.

We're not saying one is better than the other. Well, and the thing that I would add, I said this passively, but this is what I've spent the last six years doing. That's the reason I love helping women start businesses from home. It's not that that's what you have to do, but if you want to during nap time, you have a hobby, you want to turn into some income, you have a skillset, education, experience, degrees, you want to do consulting or freelance work or have an online business. That's why I started business boutique. That's why I have the business boutique book and the events and my coaching, because then it gives you a little bit more options of you're able to contribute financially if you want to and use your gifts, but also

you get to stay home and work those hours around naps and what matters to you. The other thing I would add to this, Ayo, before we head out here is that this really applies whether we're talking about staying home or not, because we get this question on how fast do I pay off my debt, how gazelle intense I am. And I know people that they have cut out their cell phone bill, their cable bill. They haven't bought anything, not anything. And that's how they get out of debt really quick.

And that's cool, but I'm going to be honest. When I had my debt-free journey, I still had a cell phone. You know what I mean? And I didn't go on vacations and stuff, but you decide the intensity that's right for you and how much you want to go all in for it because it's your life and your financial journey. Absolutely. I saw someone say something.

Yeah, if you're going to get out of debt, you need to end your gym membership. I said, if I was in debt right now, I'm not ending my gym membership. That's just me. You have to do what's best for you. You can get gazelle intense. You can get gazelle focused, but your journey may look different from someone else's journey as long as your mind is set that i am going to become debt free by this time that's the main focus of what we here at ramdy solutions are are really suggesting have a goal a goal is specific with a deadline and And do not be lazy with it.

Have a strong, specific time of when you are going to get out of debt. And you and your spouse or you by yourself with your single focus and do everything you need to do to hit that day, that date. So good. It's a marathon, not a sprint. Pace yourself for the journey. This is The Ramsey Solutions we want to transform so many lives that disruption spreads like wildfire across our country imagine a world where it is weird to have a student loan instead of everyone assuming that that's the only way to get an education. Imagine a world where the

majority of people pay cash for their cars. That's weird. Imagine a world where credit cards are the cigarette of the financial industry. Imagine being a part of causing that level of disruption with the work you do every day. At Ramsey Solutions, that's why we have a thousand people at our company working together to create digital products and services to help people transform their lives with the goal of disrupting the toxic money culture that exists in America today. If you want to join us on that crusade, we are currently on the hunt for many software engineers with expertise in Ruby on Rails, Java, C Sharp, and front-end technologies.

I don't know what any of that means, but if you do, you can apply. Or if you're a UX designer, SEO, and content marketing specialist, we'd love to talk with you. Find out about all the available jobs by texting WORKTHATMATTERS to 33789. That's WORKTHATMATTERS, all one word, to 33789 to find out about all of our open opportunities. All right, we are going to go to James in Miami, Florida.

Hey, James, how's it going? Better than I deserve. Thank you very much for taking my call. Sure. How can Anthony and I help? I am, well, my wife and I are looking to buy our first home. And my question is, should we be as gazelle intense and attack the student loan debt first or save for a large down payment. What's the situation now? Give us some numbers of the debt. So we just paid off a large amount of debt in credit cards,

and the only debt we have left is her school loans. It's about $335,000. So my question is an attorney. Yeah, I was about to say, she has to be an attorney. Attorney, a doctor. So we watch your show, we watch every YouTube

channel, every podcast. We're pretty up to date on all the content, so we're just trying to kind of get some more transparency on... What's her income? What's y'all's income, James? So mine fluctuates. I'm self-employed. I own my own company.

She's, you know, salary. But we're, let's just say, as an average, about $150,000. $150,000. What's the house situation now are y'all renting yes we rent okay okay um james so since you say you're already up to speed on on our content i think you already know what what i'm gonna tell you right um and it's sad and let me just be real uh yeah i hate the fact that i can't sit here and tell you to go get a house. It bothers me that I have to sit here and tell you, no, I want you to pay off this $335,000 student loan debt.

And let's also be real. It's going to take you some years to pay this off with $150,000 of combined income. And here's why I'm telling you I do not want you to get a mortgage right now it's because this debt um when we did our millionaire study okay we realized uh that they did they have a paid for mortgage but the number two they had to pay they paid off all their student loans before they even paid off their mortgage before they even got in the house to be honest. And so for me, what I want to do is I want to figure out how can we get this $335,000

knocked out within the next three to five years. This simply means we got to get the income up. We need to figure out some way to help your business to make more profit. Maybe Chrissy can help us out with that direction. But then also your wife went to school and she's, I mean, with this kind of debt, I mean, what, what kind of law does she do? Um, she's in like the civil litigation, you know, she, she, she makes great money and, you know, it's my, it's, uh, you kind of of touched it my business fluctuates what's your business

this year so i own a sign company okay sorry and um this year and exactly um the reason why i was able to kind of knock off or we were able to knock off the credit card debt was we do a lot of the political industry so because and you because, and, you know, this scenario may be completely different in 2024 with the new election. But 2022, 2024, every even number is a general and a primary election. So there's going to be more volume versus exactly odd even.

Yeah, but James, I got to jump in here. Your business is not based on every two years, right? Your sign company is not based on politics because that's not a good business model. So who's your other target customers? How long have you had your business? Who else do you sell to, market to? It can't just be wait until the next election. Five years.

I've been in business five years, and if it's not political, then we focus on commercial. So business to business cool um you know we exactly do retail signs you know all signs printing advertising all that arena cool okay so what is your business generating a year like what are you profiting because of 150 are you saying your wife is doing about 75 and you're doing like the other 75 or is it more like 100 and during your off years you're bringing in in like 50? Like what's the breakdown here? I would say, yeah, I may have shorted myself a little bit. It's anywhere from like 50 to 75. Okay.

Depending on, you know, two years ago it was right around there, 75 net. Net. So, you know, like 150 gross, something like that. Okay. And your wife is doing about the same, you said? Yeah, she's at, you know, and, you know, her industry faces, you said? Yeah. Her industry is bonus and things of that nature. I don't want to

get too detailed, but her salary is a little bit different than mine because she's got a solid employer and they do bonuses and there's always room for raises. There's room for raises, but you control your business. I do, yeah. You have a lot more levers to pull and it's not a perfect formula of like there's buttons you need

to push and you're just not pushing them. I know it's not that simple in business, but I will just encourage you that because you and your wife make a good income, it would hypothetically, James, be easy to get a little comfortable and not have that fire under you. And I want you to get a fire under you. I want you bringing in over 100,000. I want you getting this business up and going. You're in a good business. It's a proven business.

It can get there. It might just look at you maximizing what you've been doing in the past that has worked for you and trying some new things. And if things are, if the industry is down because it's a year after politics or because of COVID or because of whatever, people aren't buying it, you know, you got to figure out what's going on. But it might be time to pivot or try something new or try something online or try a different stream of revenue. But we're not just, I just don't want you to sit tight and just wait till the next election. I don't want you to accept that this is the most your business can do. I want you to set some really aggressive goals in your business revenue and in your personal income because because you own your own business, you can do that. And I just want to encourage you there. If you will stay on the line, James, we will have

Kelly send you a copy of Entree Leadership. Great business book by Dave Ramsey. It is our playbook of how he built this business from a card table in his living room. And I'll tell you, James, regardless of what's going on in the market, what you need is what I hope you have, and that's tenacity, perseverance, persistence, and just a will-not-take-no-for-an-answer attitude

where you are rethinking the business and looking for ways to get new business and looking for ways to get new streams of revenue. I want to hear that in your voice. And then when you do that and you get that income up, you'll be able to attack this debt that we're talking about so much faster. Yeah. And here's the truth. I mean, if we look at the numbers, you got 150 in debt, you're making 150, you're saying three, three something debt. I'm sorry. Yeah. 150 of income income i'm thinking if you really do this math well here okay you're looking at about maybe five years you and your wife can honestly be out of

debt if you really aggressively go after it i know that seems like a long time but man the average person it takes them anywhere between 12 to 20 years to pay off their student loans that are right around $38,000. And so with the 150 income, what I'm saying is figure out how do we spend 50 grand a month, okay, to go towards the student loan debt. And then if you get your income up,

like Christy said- You mean a year. You said 50 grand a month. That sounds very aggressive. That's very aggressive. Thank you, Christy. But 50 grand a year, man, you'll be out of debt here real, real, real quick in five years.

In five years? Man, I've been here for six, and I feel like it's only been like two years. So I'm telling you right now, man, you can do it. I promise. The business is your key to get there. I'm telling you, James, you have got an ace in your pocket. You've got to turn the dial up on that one. That's going to be your ticket to get there.

I want to thank producer James Childs and associate producer Kelly Daniel and my co-host Anthony O'Neill. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, guys. This is Kelly, associate producer for The Ramsey Show. Did you know that over 16 million people listen to The Ramsey Show every week? And a lot of those people listen on one of our 600 plus radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, head to DaveRamsey.com slash show.