The Ramsey Show - App - I Like My Job But Don't Necessarily Love It (Hour 1)

Episode Date: April 6, 2021

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author, and host of the Ken Coleman Show, where he talks about getting you a job, getting your career on track, getting into work that you love. Joins me as my co-host today, so we can add that to the list of things we'll talk about. I'll talk about anything, because I'm an expert on my opinion.

So you jump in. The phone number is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Eric's 888-825-5225. Eric is with us in Raleigh to start off this hour. Hey, Eric, what's up in your world? Hey, Dave, I appreciate you taking my call. Sure. I actually called last week, and they said this was a call for Dave.

Oh, wow. So I had to call back. I hope you brought your A-game. I'm sure it'll be an easy one for you. I own a business, and so I have two bank accounts. I've got my personal bank account, and that's where I keep my three to six months emergency fund. And then I've got the business bank account, and that's really where my question is, is how do I approach how much cash to leave in there? Is it the same three to six months? Is it all expenses?

You know, kind of get your idea. I'm on baby step six, so I look at this lump of money in there, and I'd like to put it on the house or do something with it, but I also want to be safe, you know, protect the business. Yeah. Okay. Well, that's very wise. So I use a separate savings account at home just for an emergency fund.

There's nothing in it but an emergency fund. It's a money market account, and I keep three to six months of expenses in there, okay, just for home emergency fund. It's not in my checking account. I don't recommend combining them. The same is true in business, and we use a fairly sophisticated tool. We have a float account in our business operating account that floats anything out of the checking into overnight, and it earns then money market account rates each night, and then whatever is needed is automatically pulled back in,

and so it floats back and forth. But in a traditional checking account, I don't leave the emergency fund in there in business. In business, we call it retained earnings. And of course, we recommend you run a business the same way I run mine, and I'm consistent with I do run it this way. We don't borrow money here. And so however much cash we can get in there is our line of credit.

We're our own line of credit because we don't have a line of credit. Our savings account is our line of credit. So if we want to buy equipment, we want to expand, we want to launch into a new product line, we want to buy another company, we want to build a building, we want to do anything, we have to have the cash. And so with all of that in mind, if you're going to live that way, then you're going to want about six months worth of cash in your business, of what it takes your business to operate.

And I got to tell you, that didn't seem like a lot of cash at this time last year when everything stopped and everybody quarantined and everybody went home and the world stopped and everybody sat in trembling before their televisions and did nothing. That didn't feel like a lot of cash. It didn't feel like a lot of pad. I was wishing I had a year's worth of cash because I'm looking at 1,000 team members, and I'm thinking if I burn through this cash, they're not going to have a job because I don't borrow money to keep them either.

And so I don't borrow money. So given that, then the more stringent you are on that subject, the more cash you'd have. And, I mean, Ken, you were sitting here as we were having these discussions with our own team members about cash we've got you know here we told the team here's how much cash we have and um and here's the here's the burn rate and uh we have to have more money coming in than going out or we start to burn through that cash and as we burn through that cash because we're losing money uh then that uh you know that approaches the drop dead date in which people will not be paid and we won't have a place to work and so we're talking reality wasn't it it was very real then that approaches the drop-dead date in which people will not be paid and we won't have a place to work.

And so we're talking reality, wasn't it? It was very real. And I think, Eric, here's what I would tell you. I don't think there's a wrong answer. For somebody who's on baby step six, you've obviously put a lot of cash away in your business. I don't think there's a wrong answer. I think you have to do what Dave's saying here,

and let's put a real emotion on this. And you have to ask yourself, you know, because the pandemic was something none of us had ever faced, including Dave or anybody. It's like, what? We don't even know what's going to happen. It's unprecedented. Yeah, there you go. Your favorite word.

But here's the deal, Eric. I think you put away, if you feel like a year makes you really, really comfortable with this kind of pandemic, if this were to happen again, if it's a year, put a year away. If it's a year and a half, put a year and a half away, because you're already in such a great position that you're going to be walking through Baby Step 6 pretty soon anyway. Don't overthink it. Just put an emotion on it. Go, this makes me feel good when I lay my head down at night and then move forward. And, you know, we felt pretty good until there was absolutely, you know, full stop. And I think that's what you have to look at.

For a small business owner, you have to look at that. What does full stop look like yeah how would it affect us hard to imagine a scenario where full stop occurred but we then we walked through one 12 months ago that's right and so uh the good news was we never actually had a single month that was not profitable and so we never even got into the cash uh but i could tell you our cash position today is a whole lot better because we've been building up cash because it scared us. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's like, wow. Yeah.

And here's the thing. Our company has, we save a percentage of our profits to grow retained earnings every month. It's a formula that we use out of our P&L. And we do profits before we disperse the profits to the various people that are paid off the bottom line. We set aside a percentage of it to continue to grow. And our growth curve has been faster than our retained earnings growth. And so we've never been able to get up to a full six months worth of cash. But we were close.

But even then, it wasn't enough. And it was millions and millions of dollars. Oh, for sure. But it's still, you thought, well, I got millions of dollars here in cash, and it's just sitting here. And then all of a sudden, it's like, that's not so much. No. It's got to be gone. Yeah.

You know, and it gives you this, you know, tightening of the stomach as it climbs towards your throat. And so the beautiful thing is with no debt, you know, we were able to keep that number fairly low. That changes everything. And so we don't reverse those trends. We don't borrow money. We always save money. We're always generous, and we always live on the lesson we make. These are biblical principles for finance.

Well, I'll attest to this, folks. I mean, because we don't have debt as a business, Dave said, all right, we're going to cut expenses. We're not going to do the things that we've normally done because we're going to batten down the hatches and see how long this storm takes. And you can do that when you don't have debt. You can say, all right, it's uncomfortable, but I can cut, I can save, I can do those things and cutting and saving without sending anybody home. Versus a lot of small businesses weren't in a place where they could do anything. And so now they're taking the PPP loan, and everybody knows what we think about that and what that does to you. So I think as a small business person, I think it's okay to go.

I want to have a goal of having a year's worth of cash, operating cash in the bank. You don't have to. We're not saying that's the cardinal rule, but it certainly doesn't hurt when you're a small business owner where you've got a team of 20 or 10 people. But here's the formula. The less debt you have and the more cash you have, the higher your survivability probability is. That's absolutely right.

The higher your probability of survival is. And let me tell you who wins. Those that stay open. It's the truth. When you ride the roller coaster, there's a down and there's an up. There's a down and there's an up. There's a down and there's an up. Welcome to business. And oh, by the way, you're not the exception out there.

Some people think they're smart enough to outsmart it. Nope. It's coming for you. This is the Ramsey Show. Hey, teachers, let's be real. Saying the last 12 months have been hard is a serious understatement. You guys are the real MVPs. Between remote, in--person and hybrid classrooms your commitment is changing student lives every single day and because of you over five million students

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Teachers go to ramsandsolutions.com slash teacher to enter for your chance to win don't wait the giveaway ends april 30th again that's ramsonsolutions.com slash teacher no purchase necessary Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Now heard on over 75 radio stations across America, Sirius XM, and an uber popular podcast. Oh, and YouTube channel. He's everywhere. So check him out. KenColeman.com, RamseySolutions.com.

You can find him there. Anything you need along those lines. The phone number here, 888-825-5225. You want to talk about jobs? You want to talk about career? You want to talk about life and money? We are here for you. Tyler is in Denver.

Hi, Tyler. How are you? Hey, can you hear me okay? Absolutely. What's up? Great. Hi, I'm a huge fan of your show. I've watched almost all your clips on YouTube.

I'm really excited to talk to you right now. Got a bit of a career question for you. My name is Tyler. I graduated from college in 2019 in an engineering school. I'm 24. I work for an engineering company, make about a little under 90 a year. And, um, a lot of times I hear you say this quote on the, on, uh, on YouTube. Um, you know, it's bad to have a mentality of, Oh God, it's Monday. Thank God it's Friday kind of thing. Um, and I'm just kind of wanted you to elaborate on that a little bit. I would say I'm kind of in that boat. I really enjoy where I

work. You know, I work with good people. I think the stuff I do is technical and interesting. But, you know, obviously, if I had the choice, I obviously wouldn't work a nine to five at a desk all day. So I'm just wondering, you know, is that a bad mentality to have? How can I get out of that, or what can I do about these feelings? Well, let's just play this out. You're 24. You've got an engineering degree. The work interests you, but you gave us a big clue. I don't want to sit at a desk all day.

That's not wrong to feel that way, but let's look at what you want the future to be. So let's fast forward, 34, 44. What kind of work would you want to be doing at this very moment? What would you say? Yeah, I mean, I love what I do. You know, I love tech and I love engineering and I'm a computer programmer, essentially. But, you know, so I move up in those ranks, you know, start taking on project leads and stuff similar to that. But like I said, you know, it's still a nine-to-five thing. I think I'm conflicted more, you know, the idea of like, well, I'd rather be doing this or that, you know, I'd rather be outside, I'd rather be, you know, with friends and stuff like that.

And I'm not saying, obviously, I don't like my job because I do. Well, hold on a second. So you're all over the place. So I want you to say it just like you just don't want to go to work. Yeah, because outside and be outside with my friends, that's great, but that's not work. What do you want to do? I mean, you started to give us a clue there. Up the ladder. You're 24, first of all, so you need to relax. You're in that entry position, and you're making almost $90,000 a year. So you're in. You're on the ladder. So what does the ladder look like? What do you want

to be doing at 3444? Do you want to work for yourself? Have your own tech company? What is it? I know you've allowed yourself to think about it. Say it. What is it? Sure. I mean, I've never even really considered the possibility of starting something where I work for myself. I just kind of am under this assumption that I'll be in some corporate structure for my entire career. Okay, forget assumption. What do you wonder about when it's just you? What is the 45-year-old you doing professionally?

What have you allowed yourself to imagine? Say it. Now, let's assume you're working at something. Yeah, not playing with friends at the park. Not playing badminton in the backyard. Yeah, exactly. No, I obviously enjoy having a stable and steady income. So that I don't want to change, obviously.

Tyler, what is the dream? As for what I want to do. Say it. Say it. I know you've thought it. I've done this enough. Tell me what you dream about. What I dream about?

Work. I mean, I dream about... I'm trying to be panicky panicking here um no no okay so here's just moving up in that moving up all right so moving up tell me what moving up looks like what are you forget about job title forget about how much money you're making forget about how you get there you're letting your brain run i want your heart to answer this question you love the work of engineering you love creative, technical aspect of what you do. Is that true or false? True.

Okay, then. So if you want to keep doing that kind of work and moving up the ladder, you need to begin at 24 to go, what does that ladder look like way up top? Start looking at that. Stop focusing on, well, I'm out of dust eight hours a day. Well, you're 24, man, and paying dues for you is really good right now i mean you're making almost ninety thousand dollars a year you're overthinking this start to talk to engineers who have been at this for 10 years 15 years 20 years what's the kind of work you would love to do and if you want to retire at 40 great there's nothing wrong with

that i mean are you supervising engineer products in the field, which gets you out of the office in the future? No, I work for a website company, so I'll be indoors most of the time. No, I'm saying you might not be working for the same company, dude. Yeah, got it, got it. What kind of engineer are you? I'm a computer engineer. A computer engineer. Okay.

All right. I had you engineering buildings for a minute. I'm sorry. Okay. Okay. All right. I had you engineering buildings for a minute. I'm sorry. Okay. Okay. So, you know, you've just got to decide. I don't know of a situation. I can't think of a situation, but I'm not an expert on your field.

I've got about 300 of you working here, but none of them work outside. They all work in the building. And so we don't have any computers out in the amphitheater or the park next door or around the fire pit or the various places. I mean, actually, you have Wi-Fi out there. You can go out there and sit. Yeah. But the vast majority of them work inside the building. So, yeah, I think probably what i would leave you with is this um a there's nothing wrong with paying your dues for a few years and sitting there and while you're making 90 grand

paying your dues to ken's point is not bad uh b and so just plan on that b it does not just because you do that for two the next two years does not mean you have to be doing that for two decades. You get to choose. I'll tell you one thing that I know 1,000% chance over the scope of my career, 1,000% chance your world is going to change. Computers are going to change. I mean, when I was your agent starting, there weren't computers. The personal computer was not very personal.

And so, I mean, back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth, it's hard to imagine that. But it feels like 20 minutes ago. And then I've watched the computer evolve into these tiny little things in our hands, which will do more than a whole building full of them would do just a few decades ago. So fast forward your thing a few decades, you may be doing stuff from sitting outside working on holograms. I don't know. You may.

But something's going to be different. Yeah. And so, and we're not picking on Tyler. A lot of people get in this situation, David. This is what we do every day on the Ken Coleman Show. People get a little bit locked up. And so what we're pressing for is this. Allow yourself to look out and say

what's the kind of work that i think would fire my soul up and at 24 you might not know that's the reality he's really young today you might my point is for technology curve today you might not see how you're quote working outside unquote uh doing your job but two years from might be going, everybody's doing that, and here's what they're doing. That's exactly right. I don't have any idea what's going to happen. The point is, you are not locked into this for 40 years. There's no chance.

You can't do what you're doing for 40 years. It won't exist. Right. It won't even exist five years from now. That's right. So start problem solving in your head. As an engineer, as a computer technology, he really enjoys the work. There are clues there.

So if you want to work outside, allow your mind to wander a little bit and then go do some research. Here's what I mean. What are some problems you want to solve that are more outdoor in nature? Maybe one day you've got your own company that is where you're in the truck and you're moving around and you're going from site to site. Who knows? But you've got to start to look into that and you don't overthink the fact that well i'm in this indoor job right now and i get it he's young but you've got to allow yourself to explore some things and listen to those clues if you like being outdoors a lot all right then well then how are

you solving the type of problems you like to solve and how do you take that creative solving and that technical solving ability and go okay how could i do it out here in this world and again not to pick on him but it is a normal thing in today's world to go from high school to college and your first job is you go to work every day and you work all day. Yeah. And that's a new emotional experience. That's exactly right. Because you've not done that. And so literally what is occurring is you're developing a work ethic

that you've not had to have previously. It doesn't mean you were lazy before, but you're experiencing the emotional bending of, I've got to have the discipline to go to work and work while I'm at work from 9 to 5. And deliver results so I can keep on working. Amen. I mean, that's grown-up land right there. This is The Ramsey Personality is my co-host.

If you're feeling stuck or disengaged in your current job, if you dread getting out of bed and going to work, if you're searching for a new job for any reason, our Get Hired live stream event on Tuesday, April 27th is for you. It's a one-night event, and you'll learn how to get clear on what you do best, get qualified for the job you want, and get connected to real job opportunities. Time to take the next step, and no matter where you are or what your situation is, there's hope. Join me and Ken Coleman Tuesday, April 27th to take control of your career and start working towards what you're born to do.

Tickets start at just $20. Text HIRED to 33789. Text HIRED to 33789. Ken, this is the second Get Hired event you've done. Yeah, we pulled one together in June of last year just as the pandemic was really starting to rock the job market and had a great attendance and a lot of people helped. And here we are now, just a year outside of when things began to shut down. And we have 16 people that are unemployed for every job that is available.

That's quite a juxtaposition from a year ago where there were more jobs available in February of 2020 than there were people who are unemployed. So it is a competitive market. We've got a lot of young people, as you know, Dave, coming out of college, and it's very, very competitive, a lot of people who want to switch. And it's going to be a great night. I should mention, too. There's a lot of migration from state to state. Yeah.

So we're going to have a live crowd, limited live crowd, but we're excited about that. We love talking to humans face-to-face. So if you're in driving distance of the Nashville area, those tickets are going to go fast. But we are having a live crowd, and that's going to be a lot of fun right here in the gorgeous lobby of Ramsey Solutions World Headquarters. So do join us. Just check RamseySolutions.com slash events. Events, and the tickets are there. And they'll get you right there.

You can get the tickets for the live audience if you want to be in there. If you want to do the live stream, it's only $20. Ken will be covering a detailed, fun, and funny, but very clear path to go from where you are to where you want to go. We're going to give you the edge so you can beat the competition because it is a competition. There's a lot of competitive action out there right now for any position. We've got thousands of applications coming in at ramsey uh we're hiring 300 yeah you know in this calendar year and we've got we'll probably get before it's over we'll probably have 30 000 applications for those 300 positions true and so you've got to learn how to set yourself apart you've got to learn how to push through

to get hired with the company you want ken can walk you through all of that it's the get hired event text the word hired to 33 789 it's tuesday april 27th 20 text the word hired to 33 789 adriana is with us in San Diego. Hi, Adriana. How are you? Hi. Thank you for taking my call. I have a question. We have $100,000 saved, and we don't know what to do with it. We just started listening to your show a couple months ago, so now we're lost.

What do you suggest we do? It's a wonderful place to be lost. Yeah. I'd like to lose myself at $100,000. Not a bad thing. So, you know, what we teach is the shortest path from where you are to wealth. And the goal being that when you're wealthy, you have margin in your life. You have the ability to be generous.

You have the ability to spend the time doing the things you want to do and serving others in the process. So that's the reason for this whole thing. And so we teach a thing called the baby steps. So wherever you are on the baby steps is what I would do with that. Is your home paid off? Yes, sir. And you're 100% debt free? Well, we owe about $12,000 on the car, and that's it. Okay. So now we have $88,000 because we just paid that off.

Do you have an emergency fund other than this set aside of three to six months of expenses? No. Yeah, we have $6,000 aside of that. Yeah. Okay. So you need to figure out what three to six months of expenses are. What's your household income? About $120, that. Okay. So you need to figure out what three to six months of expenses are. What's your household income? About $120.

Okay. So if we said three months expenses might be $25,000, we'd set $25,000 in a separate savings account just for emergencies. I just made that up. You decide what you want to do. You paid off your $12,000 car. That's $37,000. So that leaves me $63,000 to do something with.

Do you have 15% of your income going into retirement? Yes, sir. Good. Do you have children? Yes, we have two, a nine and a 12. How's their college funds? Well, we're saving for that, too. We're doing a separate account for them, but I don't

know how much we're doing there. We're just putting money under. I would sit down with your investment advisor and see if you have enough on that already done. If you don't, we might use some of that $63,000 for that. Otherwise, you're at what we would call, once you've done these other things, you would be at what we call baby step seven, which is the last step, there's nothing left to do there but build wealth and become outlandishly generous. And so, you know, if you don't need any money for the kids' college, and so you have the whole $63,000 available, then you're down to investing that in some way and or being generous with that money in some way. And so I personally only do two kinds of investing. I buy real estate that I pay cash for, so no mortgages,

and I invest in good growth stock mutual funds. $63,000 in San Diego will not buy you real estate, and so you'll be investing in mutual funds. You don't have enough to pay cash for a reasonable piece of real estate there, and I don't recommend long-distance landlording. And so in your case, $63,000, even if you want to buy real estate later, I'm going to invest this for now in some good mutual funds with the goal of adding to it over time to buy some real estate with cash later on.

But follow a clear, detailed path. It's called The Baby Steps, and you can find it at RamseySolutions.com. It's got everything there that you need. Scott Switherson, Fort Myers. Hey, Scott, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. No, it's not. It's the Ramsey Show. My bad.

What's up? You guys are the tag team that I've been waiting to talk to, so I appreciate your time. I've been with the same company for about seven and a half years, and I am part of a key employee group, and I was offered a business succession plan that I signed up for just over a year ago. You were offered a what? Basically, a business succession plan. So instead of a family business being turned over to the two sons that work there, there are two other employees, myself being one and someone else,

that will be buying the business in about eight or nine years. So he's giving us stocks or shares of the business to get up to 50% of the ownership, and then in about eight years we'll have to buy him out. Okay. And I no longer want to do that. The direction of the company in the last year and four months has been horrible, and it's definitely run more like a family business, and I am not the family name. So I'm looking to start my own business, so I need to be able to get out of this business succession plan.

The only issue is there is a three-year, 150-mile non-compete that I found out about after I signed. How did you find out about it after you signed? You mean you signed something you didn't read? He wouldn't allow us to. You signed something you didn't read? What are you, in Congress? I have done every wrong move since birth, So unfortunately, yeah. I just found you guys about four months ago, and I paid off my 401k loan because I did that without thinking about it. So now I'm debt-free with that. I have paid off $37,000 out of $73,000 in the last 10 months. So I'm almost debt-free.

I'm getting there. But the business aspect of it, I'm going to start my own business, and I just need to know... Well, is this guy the type of guy that if you go in and just fall on your sword and beg for mercy, he'll let you out? From what I'm understanding, no judge would follow a three-year, 150-mile... Oh, I disagree. ...non-compete. Oh, I disagree. Absolutely a judge will do that.

Okay. That's absolutely enforceable. If it's in writing, you signed it. That's absolutely enforceable. Okay. Ken Coleman signed one. I don't know if he is. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know if he is.

It's more than 150 miles, too. Yeah. Wow. We're running into a break here. Yeah, I'll tell you what. Hang on. We'll come back from the break. We'll talk this through a little bit more.

And let's think about what we're getting into here. Oh, my goodness. What a mess. As a matter of fact, we're not going to do that. So you want to take him after the other? Well, you'll figure it out. We'll announce it when we come back. All right, Ken. So Scott in Fort Myers signed a succession contract that included a non-compete for three years and 150 miles away.

He wants to leave that and not do it and open a business that would violate that non-compete for three years and 150 miles away. He wants to leave that and not do it and open a business that would violate that non-compete. Right quick, before we do the debt-free scream, what do we tell him? I think he's got to go in and beg the mercy of the owner and say, here's why I take the high road and the direction has changed for me. And because you didn't allow us to read this, I didn't know about this. And I just, I don't want to this and i just i don't want to burn the bridge i don't want to blow it up i want to go and live my life can we come up with a gentleman's agreement and tear the agreement up if he doesn't do that you can consult a lawyer but

you sign something that's in writing so you gotta you know you gotta talk to a lawyer yeah and i i don't know about florida law but i do know about tennessee law it's completely enforceable it's in concrete and so then the third thing is is you may have to day job this. I appreciate the fact you want to go start a business, but I'm guessing at the level that you are in, as you described, you're making good money. I'm always skeptical of somebody saying, I'm just going to go start a business, and I'm going to be able to take care of my family and my finances. If you can do that, and you can do it 151 miles away or whatever the deal is, great. I'd be very, very careful about putting all your eggs in starting a new company basket. That makes me nervous.

You're either starting a day job and riding your three years out, or you're moving. Outside, yeah. And or, number three, you're starting a different field. That's right. To open a business that is not violating the non-compete. I don't think you're going to beat this non-compete. You could try, and you can ask for mercy, and you can ask an attorney if you want to get in a fight.

But it's just my opinion. And again, I'm just a business guy. I do not have a law degree. So you'd have to check with someone that does in the Florida market. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Corey and Elise are with us. Is it Elise? Yes, it is. How are you guys? We're great. How are you, David? Welcome. Where are you guys from? We're from Cincinnati, Ohio. Congratulations. You're debt-free. How much have you paid off? We paid off $136,026. Good for you. How long did this take? About three and a

half years. All right. I i love it and your range of income during that time started out right at about 82 000 and we're ended at about 150 whoa wow excellent so what do you guys do for a living so i'm a senior digital program manager for a really big global manufacturing company and i'm a personal training manager for a big global gym so wow lots of big global things happening very cool what. What kind of debt was this $136,000? A mixture. Yeah. So over $100,000 of it was student loans, obviously.

So big Sally Mae. And then the rest was a lot of ankle biters between small cars, consumer debt, credit cards. We also had two kids in this time frame, too. So it was paying off the medical debt. So you're kind of normal. Kind of normal. Very normal.

Just bopping along. What happened three and a half years ago? What was your wake-up call? Well, I actually grew up listening to you talk. My mom went through her journey. It turned into her own journey eventually, but she started with your plan. So when I married him, he's my nerd, but he's also the spender. So when we started working, when I was working while he was finishing school, he was starting

to buy a lot of big ticket items, like thousands of dollars worth of things that we did not, we could not afford. So it was talking to him and saying, hey, we should look into Dave Ramsey. He has a great program. And he was like, no, no, I got this. And then he got bored on a flight one day and it was delayed, I think. So he's like, I'll check it out. He ended up binging your podcast,

catching almost all the way up, and he was like, yeah, we're doing this plan. So he got back, and we set it up, and my mom bought us Financial Peace, because again, she went through it. Oh, wow. And so we started there, and then he, I mean, every single app,

everything that you have promoted, he has got, he has set up, he has walked through, and we've just been going forth have promoted, he has got, he has set up, he has walked through. And we've just been going forth ever since because we knew where we wanted to be. Game on. Game on. Something about staring at the face of the $136,000. I mean, I always knew that the goal was to pay off the debt and as fast as possible. That was something I always grew up with.

But it wasn't, you know, it wasn't your plan. And so it wasn't until I went and faced all the numbers and added everything up that it was just this mountain staring at us. And I was like, I can't do this by myself anymore. We need to figure something out. Do you remember the conversation in your head when you listened to the first minutes of one of our podcasts and something happened and you started going, Okay, I want to learn a little bit more. Okay, I want to learn a little bit more. Oh, God, I got to do this. bit more. Okay, I want to learn a little bit more. Oh, God, I've got to do this.

I mean, tell me kind of how that worked. Yeah, so for me it was just thinking about it was always day to day. It was how do I get to the next day? How do I get to the next day? And something in the first podcast that you spoke to me was really focusing on kind of the future and the why. And when you started talking about retirement and kids kids college and trying to change your family tree, that was what kind of changed me and realized that I need to stop looking at tomorrow

and I need to start looking at, you know, the next 10, 15, 20, 40 years from now. Yeah, we want to make sure that we break the mold, we break the chain from where we've grown up, where our parents have grown up and that we set our kids up for a much better future than we originally had thought. So here's what I want to ask, because people get this.

They listen and the baby steps make so much sense. There's really no denying them. Yeah. But there's a difference between I see how that works to I believe I need to do that. There's an emotional trigger. I'm just curious. You're the guy that were buying the big toys. She kind of ratted you out there and I saw you smile.

You like the big toys to big sacrifices. What was the emotional change to where you guys said, all right, we're all in on this? I think it was realizing that I could get much bigger toys after everything paid off. You know what I mean? That works. I like it. I like it. I'm going to live like no one else, so later I can live and give like no one else.

That's very cool. And he literally spent one of these sessions watching Financial Peace because you talk about beans and rice, rice and beans. He literally made rice and beans and was watching one of the videos from Financial Peace because he's like, I've got to do what Dave says. I've got to live like no one else so I can live like no one else. I said, that does not mean literal rice and beans. I saw you win.

We can do more than that. Did you put a little spice in them? Did you try to make them taste better? No, not by much, I saw you win. We can do more than that. Did you put a little spice in them? Did you try to make them taste better? No. Not by much, I don't think. He's like, I got to do what Dave says. I got to get there. We got to get there so fast.

And he hit it hard, and it was truly a big change. It hit him hard. You keep talking about him hitting it hard. Were you on board? Were you doing with him on this? I was the one that first brought it up. I know. I heard that part.

Yeah. Then it sounded like the tables turned a little bit. No. Okay. So you guys were working together in sync. Yes. It was because I'm the saver and I'm the free spirit. All you're saying is it was easy for you.

It was just kind of like. Easier. Yes. It made sense. It was logical to me when my mom first started going through it. So that's why I had mentioned it to him. It was just making sure he saw the same logic, that we were both on the same page with that. And then it was from that point on, keeping him calmer about it. Because like I said, he's sitting there eating rice and beans.

And I'm saying, honey, we can go buy a little bit more from the grocery store. We can live a little bit more. So it was just about then working together. He's go big or go home. Oh, yes. Love it. It was hard in the beginning. But as we started to get lockstep and we started to kind of build and grow our relationship,

it got a lot easier as we got towards the end. Yeah. Yeah, we were able to see it. Once the light was at the end of the tunnel, I mean, the last 50% just really rolled out very, very quickly. Right, and it helped our communication in a lot of things, too, because finances are obviously a big struggle. And we had only been married for about a year or two when we first started, so it was just, it had really beefed up our communication. And we went forward from there.

All right, well, let's get Kaysen and Miles into the picture. How old are they? Kaysen is three and a half. Miles is 16 months. All right, very cool. All happening while this was happening. Yeah. Very good stuff.

All right, it's Corey and Elsie and Kaysen and Miles from Cincinnati. $136,000 paid off in three and a half years, making $82,000 to $150,000. I'm so proud of you guys. We got a copy of Rachel Cruz's new book, New York Times bestseller, Know Yourself, Know Your Money, as our gift. Congratulations. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream.

Three, two, one. We're debt-free! We're debt-free! Yeah! That's how it's done. You have to have you talk about it all the time your wife needs to make you cry

you have to have something that's more noble than just I want to feel better. That desired future is so huge and if you as a couple can get on the same page They said we want to change our family tree.

That's what it's always been about. When you say that, and you mean it, you will sacrifice today to win tomorrow. No question. Adults devise a plan and follow it. Children do what feels good. And obviously, we're looking at a couple of adults there. Very, very well done. What rock stars.

That's amazing. It's amazing. And by the way you feel good when you do all the good down the line it doesn't feel good when you're hustling when you're sacrificing when you're being diligent but it feels really good when you cross the finish line and every time we see or hear a debt-free scream i promise you folks those folks feel real good yeah i mean 136 000 fantastic. That's a lot. And by the way, there was no student loan forgiveness.

No. They paid it off. Dug themselves out. There you go. That's a neat idea. I mean, wow. Pretty incredible. That puts this hour of the day, twice this hour.

Well, you've been doing it for 30 seconds. I know. This hour of the Ramsey Show. There it is. In the books. Have a friend or family member that needs a daily dose of Ramsey advice in their life? Let them know about the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast. It's a quick hit of advice about life and money in under 10 minutes.

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