The Ramsey Show - App - I Need Motivation To Keep Going (Hour 3)

Episode Date: September 23, 2022

Rachel Cruze & George Kamel discuss: Tithing while paying off debt, Stupid tax segment Getting the motivation to go through the baby steps, Saving for a house down payment, Paying off debt. 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 pods, moving and storage studios, this is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. That's right. I'm George Campbell. She's Rachel Cruz. And we are taking your calls this hour. The number is 888-825-5225. And we wanted to have some fun, Rachel. And so we thought we'd call out for stories from you, our listeners, on some of the stupid tax that you've paid in your life.

The dumb money mistakes that you regret. You laugh about it. We learn from it. We've all done it. We never make it again. We've all been there. We've all been there. George, give me yours.

What's the stupidest thing you've ever done with money? This is the most embarrassing. I'm going to go first and be vulnerable, okay? Be brave. I once shipped a pair of shoes that I was selling on Craigslist to Nigeria, and I fell for a scam. Now, this wasn't one of like Nigerian print scams where I

thought I was getting a million dollars. A guy wanted to buy the shoes. Did you get a forwarded email? No, he reached out and he's like, hey, I'm buying these for my cousin who lives in Nigeria. I was like, okay, it's plausible that people have cousins in Nigeria, right? So he was like, I'll pay you extra to ship these. And so I get an email from PayPal that has like an extra 50 bucks or whatever. And so I went, cool. And so I went ahead and shipped PayPal that has like an extra 50 bucks or whatever. Yeah. And so I went, cool. And so I went ahead and shipped the shoes. I later went back to the email on my phone, clicked through the email address and it was like a garbled spam email.

And then I was like, oh no. So I went to my PayPal account. There was no money in the PayPal account. They had spoofed the PayPal email so well that I thought that they had paid me. And so I just went ahead and shipped it. Fun fact, about six months later I got a return to sender. Shoes showed up back at my door. No way!

I guess the address was bad. So redemption, I only lost on the shipping cost, essentially. You got them back. That's so good. But that's one of the stupidest things I did. Probably about 15, 16 years old. Pair of Air Force Ones or something. Speaking of shoes, I spent I'm trying to think of how much

money. It was on Tory Burch Flats. Millions. But I, it was a website that somehow I found that was on sale. Like a sketchy site. These shoes were on sale. So I spent a few, I mean I think I spent a couple hundred bucks. Was it like cool shoes with a Z dot net? I can get a hundred, yeah, I mean I can get a hundred bucks off and I got that few. I mean, I think I spent a couple hundred bucks. Was it like cool shoes with a Z dot net?

Yeah. I mean, I could get a hundred bucks off and I got that package and I remember opening and just the smell of it. I remember being like, oh, that doesn't smell like Tory Burch. Did they look like Tory Burch? No. I mean, they had the fake logo, but they were like hard. I mean, it was terrible.

It was terrible. So I failed for that. I don't know. Well, we've all been there. What's our shoe game? Yeah. But anyways, if you have something even better, I'm sure you guys do for sure. The funnier, the better.

The more embarrassing, the better. Just, yeah. Tell us. We just want to have fun with it. So give us a call at 888-825-5225 and tell us your stupid tax story. There's a lot of shame that comes along with money mistakes. And one of the reasons we did our new podcast, Smart Money Happy Hour,

was because we didn't want money to be this shameful, baggage ridden thing. We wanted it to be fun and so we wanted to create a casual environment to talk about money with no shame, no ragrets as we talk about in the podcast. I taught you what that was. So there we go. I still don't quite get it.

So call us up, 888-825-5225. We'll open up some lines for you all to share your stupid tax stories. That's right. All right, we're going to go to the phones, and Clayton in Green Bay is up first. Hey, Clayton, welcome to the show. Thank you so much. Really appreciate you two. The show is awesome.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Really appreciate you two. Show is awesome. Thank you. Thank you so much. How can we help? I understand the seven baby steps. I'm older. I've been taught my whole life to give 10% to church first. Does the Ramsey plan suggest you stop doing this and apply that to debt? Obviously, when debt is taken care of, the last one is to donate. So I don't know if we should stop giving that 10% to church first and apply that to debt. Yeah, it's a great question, Clayton. The answer is no.

We teach giving at least 10% regardless of where you are financially. So even if you're saving up for your first $1,000 emergency fund on Baby Step 1, when you click through even to our budget every dollar, you'll see a mock budget. And giving is still at the top line regardless of where you are. So we believe in that generosity message no matter what. So, no, the 10% is still something that we would recommend. But we would also say too, you know, some people go above and beyond even that, which again, if that's your conviction and that's where you want to go, like we're not going to say not to, but also when you give, let's just say half of your income away,

we've talked to some people and they're like, I just give half my paycheck away, but I still have credit card debt and student loans. You know, you can make a bigger impact with your money when it's not being sent to the bank and to your student loan and to your car loan and so there is something powerful about putting as much money as you can towards getting out of debt because it's going to free up your income to give even more but that's more for people that are giving you know uh you know 20 30 40 percent of their income no matter what they're doing, and they're getting behind on their bills. So we still recommend giving 10%, and then you can start to be more and more generous

as you become debt-free and have an emergency fund. Yeah, and Rachel, one of my favorite quotes from you is, give a little until you can give a lot. And so it's okay if you can only do 10%, but the Bible's pretty clear on this. If you're a person of faith, if you're a believer, I just spoke at a church on this topic. So I've got the verses up, Proverbs 3, 9, 10, honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops, then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine. And Malachi talks about that again, of how they'll open the flood gates of heaven. And God says, test me in this, which is the only time in scripture you'll find that. Test me in this with tithing. And so he wants us to test, to trust, to obey, and blessings are on the other

side of that. That's right. How does that sound, Clayton? Well, sounds great. That's what I was hoping you were going to tell me, to be honest with you, because I firmly believe in that. And I was hoping that, yes, keep the 10% and then funnel everything else you can to your debt, and then you'll be able to get more when you get done with the seven steps. So I really appreciate your answer. Yep, absolutely. It's a great question. Thanks for calling.

Yeah, it is. And this generosity piece, I mean, it's a piece that a lot of people in the financial world, they don't talk about. But we say on the Ram Show all the time that money is so much more than just the numbers in your bank account. On paper, it doesn't make sense, Rachel. Right. Why would you tell me to get out of debt but then still give 10% when I could use that towards my debt? You're telling me to be gazelle intense. Right.

But the issue with that is, as believers, we know that we're stewards. We're meant to manage this money on behalf of God. And so I'm going, God's given me this money to manage. And I want a reminder at the top of my budget to remind me of why I'm doing this, of whose money this is. And so that's why I love giving coming out first. And even if you're not a person of faith, regardless of what faith walk you follow, I would argue too that giving no matter what is forcing your hand to be open and to let some go out and that naturally is going to cause you to be less selfish and more selfless and I just believe selfless people have a more joyful life you know I think when it's not all about you and that's our

world right now I mean you go on social media you look around me it's all about me me me me me me me me me and when you just have me, me, me, me. And when you just have this part of your financial plan with your hand open and just saying, hey, I'm going to give some, there is joy when life isn't all about you.

I think you're a better parent. I think you're a better spouse. I think you're a better team member, a better friend, a better sibling. I mean, all of it. And it's contagious. The selflessness that comes from that

is really big. And again, you're not going to see that on paper, but something does to your character when you live with that open hand. So giving always. Thanks, Clayton, for the call. សូវាប់ពីបានប់ពីបានប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពី so opening up this hour of the show we did something a little different and we asked you guys to call in uh and tell us your story of something stupid you've done with money we call it stupid tax around here when you made a mistake and you thought, oh, that was stupid. Shouldn't have done that. We've all done it.

Right? And so some stories are great, better than others, but we have to hear yours. And so we got a call in. George. Dylan. Dylan here from Terre Haute who's going to be letting us know about his story. Thanks for being brave, Dylan. His stupid tax story, Dylan.

Thanks for being the first one up. Well for taking my call um yeah this was uh this was back um let's say I was 17 years old and uh driving in my truck with a couple of my buddies and I had just got my first paycheck and didn't have any bills or anything like that to pay for. So money really didn't have any substance to me, I guess. And what did have good substance to me was my upbringing of giving to people in need. And one day we were getting off on an off ramp and I had my whole paycheck with me in cash. And I feel so strongly for helping or wanting to help people that, um, I always hate seeing, um, people on the side of the road, you know, begging for money and stuff like that. Well, I seen a fella that was, uh, you know, had a sign and all that good stuff well um i gave him my whole paycheck that i worked for wow and it was my first my first paycheck and um we me and my buddies we ended up going get some dinner and we came back and went up the other,

on ramp to get back on the interstate to go home, and we seen that guy getting into a really nice SUV. Oh, no. Oh, boy. Yeah. So this was like a scam artist. Yes. And unfortunately for me, I still will say a prayer for everybody who is in need, but that is on the side of the road like that. But as a lesson and a very hard, hard lesson

learned for me, um, I do not give to anybody who is on the side of the road especially nowadays when you can just turn your head and see you know help wanted signs anywhere wow you know yeah sure oh that's brutal how old are you now dylan i am years old. So this is 13 years ago, and it still haunts you to this day. Well, your stupid tax story, though, it was out of just the heart of generosity. I know. George and I wanted nice shoes, basically. Yeah, this is a very different motive. Dylan's a salt of the earth guy.

Your motivation was so good. But that's a good lesson, though. And I've heard, yes. How much was that paycheck, Dylan? It was about $275. Oh, man. Wow. And to this day, whenever I take my kids out to go out to dinner or something like that.

You buy food or you buy something. I tell them, because they ask me, can we give them a little bit of money or something like that? I said, no, we can't. But what we can do, we can pray for them that they have a better life or that, you know, God could give them the willpower to help better their lives for themselves. For sure. Thanks so much for sharing, Dylan. Thanks for calling in.

That's a heartbreak, though, because you, especially when it's the motive of I'm going to help someone and then man, take off in a suburban, you know, that is a worry. Whenever you see folks on the road, that's a good discussion. I mean, about these scams,

just like you. I know, I know. And that's what's so hard. And I always kind of balance it with like, you know, obviously if you feel this conviction to of balance it with like you know obviously if you feel this conviction to give in that moment you know i'm not gonna be the one to tell you that

god's not gonna use that but also to be wise about it right is it is it food that they need is it bottles of water is it like what are things that you can give in those moments not just cash because at that point you have no clue what's going to happen there. Or do you give to organizations? You know, like the National Rescue Mission is one of my favorites. They do great work. They do incredible work, right? And so kind of plugging in, we were just talking about generosity in the last segment, so that kind of even bleeds over to it.

But, yeah, Dylan, that hurts. Hey. I always try to do the water bottle on a hot day here in Tennessee. Even if they're a scam artist, it's 100 degrees and they're just standing out there. Anyone can take a bottle. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, thanks, Dylan. And you guys, if you have a story of some lessons learned with money, we'd love to hear. All right, up next we have Justin in Dallas. Hey, Justin, welcome to the show. Hey there. Can you guys hear me all right?

Yeah, yeah, a little bit. A little bit. My phone's a little noisy. I think we got it. Is this better? No, that's even worse somehow oh there we go okay we're we got somewhere sorry um all right i'm really looking for some kind of encouragement guys uh i have gone through the beginnings of the baby steps before i went through baby step one I was like halfway through baby step two and then uh and a whole bunch of stuff happened I lost my job and then I sat around doing sorry for myself and didn't work as hard as I probably should have and ended up taking out a loan and now I feel like I'm more in the hole than I ever have been before and That's a good show. Yeah, and I'm just, every time I see, I watch your guys' show like every day.

It's so inspiring. I see the debt-free screams people do, and I know I want that for my life. And I just don't know, I don't believe that I can do it, you know? Justin, there is hope for you yet, my brother. I know when life punches you in the face that many times, you just feel like, well, I guess this plan isn't for me. It's for other people. It's for people with less problems and more money.

But I'm telling you, man, this plan was especially made for people like you. And so there is hope. And if there's any resources we can send your way, if there's any cheerleading we can do for you to tell you that you can do this, we are here for you today. Yeah. And, Justin, I think one of the biggest things in your situation is I feel like even you mentioning the payday loan and I was that and I felt sorry for myself, you know, even the wording and the verbiage you're using in the call. It feels like you have a lot of shame around this topic, which is very normal. Money is like this thing that just stares at us right in the face. And it is so easy to get in the cycle of shame and sitting in your regrets. But Justin, that's in the past. Those things, yes, you're going to have to face in order to move forward.

But that does not have to determine what you're going to choose today. And that's the beautiful thing. We all, all of us get to wake up every morning and decide, okay, what decisions am I going to make today? And we can either make decisions that end up harming us in the future or that help us in the future. And everyone's story looks different, Justin. So your story is going to look different than another debt-free scream call on here or another call we take later in the show because

dependent upon, you know, even your mindset, right? And what has been spoken into you throughout your life, what you believe about yourself to the actual numbers and the debt levels and the income levels. I mean, all of it's going to look different, but we are all, we are all people and we all get to make decisions. And Justin, I believe that you can, because we've seen it all, Justin, we have seen every story imaginable on the show. And so I would love to see real quick before we, we gotta, we gotta have, we have a hard out here in a few minutes, in a few seconds, but we want to be able to give you financial peace university so jenna's going to pick up and watch these nine lessons justin okay and listen it's not going to be perfect okay you're not going to be perfect with it it's not going to be like oh one day i'm going to watch these videos and no life's going to happen and i'm going to make every

right decision yes your trajectory hopefully is going up but it's going to go a little bit down up down up i mean you're going to feel it right it's not going up, but it's going to go a little bit down, up, down, up. I mean, you're going to feel it, right? It's not going to be the straight line going forward. But the decisions you make going forward are going to be so important, but it's going to be okay because you've got this. You can do this. And Justin, join a local class.

I want you in a community of people who are cheering you on because I can't be there in Dallas, Texas to do it for you. So join a local class when we sign you up for FPU. And I want to see you on this stage. And I'm going to remember Justin from Dallas who thought he couldn't. And you are going to inspire so many people who feel exactly the way you do right now.

I can't wait to see what the future holds for you, brother. Thanks for calling. Thank you. today's question from blinds.com blinds.com 100 satisfaction guarantee means even if you mismeasure or pick the wrong color they they will remake your blinds for free. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promo codes that run every month, you'll save even more. Use promo code RAMSEY to get the best deal. Today's question comes from Rhonda in Idaho. I followed the baby steps so that I have no debt and a three-month emergency fund. However, I'm saving for a house,

currently renting, and only have $10,000 saved. Saving a 20% down payment seems so unattainable when putting 15% toward retirement. Can any of the 15% be used to fund a down payment since a house is an investment? That's a great question, Rhonda. And what you're talking about is baby step 3B. So once you're out of debt with the fully funded emergency fund, 3B is saving up for a down payment. Now, 3B and 4, which is investing 15% to retirement, they can be a little squishy. And so it's kind of a choose your own adventure depending on your age, your goals.

And so we don't know Rhonda's age. We don't know if she's 55 or 25. But you can split the difference and go, hey, I'm going to invest up to the employer match in my 401k. And the rest is going to go towards aggressively saving for the down payment. Some people pause investing entirely, which is OK for a season. I would not go more than about two years or so pausing investing to aggressively save up for the down payment. And I would say, too, Rhonda, 20% is ideal because you avoid PMI.

But even if you're a first-time home buyer, I mean, five, 10% down payment could work as well. So you could even shift that 20% down if you wanted to, to get in faster. But again, you'd save a lot of money if you hit that 20%. So it's a great question. And I don't know what home prices are in Idaho, but I feel like they'd be more reasonable

than in some other parts of the country. You would think, right? You would think. You would think. Now, maybe if it's in, I don't know, what's the biggest city in Idaho? Do you know? Boise.

Is that right? I don't know. What do we think? I was hoping for James to be our Jeopardy guy, but he's nowhere to be found. It's fine. Boise, Idaho. I'm going for it.

Sure. I'm going to say it. Okay. We're going to the phones this hour 888-825-5225 and up next is jackson in wichita kansas hey jackson welcome to the show hey guys thank you so much for taking my call absolutely how can we help uh well i just want to start off by saying i've only been part of the Ramsey podcast or I've only started listening for about a week. So I'm brand new.

Oh, nice. Well, welcome. A whole lot of everything. Welcome to this crazy crew that you've joined. It is crazy. And I just my question, it's not really it's a question, but not really. But me and my wife just kind of feel stuck right now. I'll give you some context, uh, about in may, we bought a house in Kansas. We moved from

Nebraska around the Lincoln area and we decided to go buy a house, um, uh, fresh out of an apartment. Um, and we made it down here and we just, we don't really – it's not what we imagined. I'd say that. It's not really what we thought it was going to be like, and now we're in debt. And my question – I have a couple questions kind of what we should do. Should we sell the house, move back to Nebraska? Because we have family there, and we love our family, and we miss them most of all, and that's kind of what we are striving to get back to is our family and we miss them most of all. And that's kind of what we, what we are striving to get back to is our family. Uh, we were really close to both of our families. Um, or we're

trying to figure out if we should stay here for two years to not have to pay that, um, that tax for not living in a house for two years or whatever it's called. Um, or to throw all of our money at our debt and stay here for two years, or just turn up the tables, go back to Nebraska, use our profit from the house to pay off all of our debt or I don't really know what to do. Okay. So I may have missed that at the beginning of your call, but what caused you guys to go to Wichita in the first place? Well, it's Southeast Kansas, not really Wichita. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. But it doesn't really matter. It's Southeast Kansas. We have friends down here. I've known them for about 10 years.

We were looking at buying a house. We really wanted to buy one. If I would have found you guys sooner, I would have realized, hey, this is way too soon. We're not ready for this. But we found a place out in the country that was underpriced, basically. It was 15 acres and it was underpriced. And we decided, hey, we have friends in that area. Let's do this. And we bought this house down here.

So you moved truly just for the house? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And how far are you guys from family now? Like five hours. Oh, wow. So y'all like Are your jobs like local in Kansas? Yes. We got jobs. She works at a bank, and I work at an aircraft manufacturing plant. Yeah, and you're just like, this wasn't as exciting and adventurous as it sounded at the beginning. Now reality has set in, and you're thinking, wow, this isn't fun. Now, how much equity do you have, and how much debt do you have?

Well, we bought the house for 225 um it was a five percent down payment so there's 212 left and according to zillow i haven't had it appraised or anything but according to zillow and the houses around this area it's worth about 260 so before the real estate agent like percentage and taxes, it'd be about $50,000 in the house. Okay. Okay. So you might walk away with closer to $30,000 on this? Yeah. Okay.

And then how much debt do you have? I calculated it today. It's about $21,000. Okay. Now, you would go back to Nebraska and rent for a while? Absolutely. Okay. I mean, it go back to Nebraska and rent for a while? Absolutely. Okay. I mean, it sounds like a good plan. You don't have to move back to Nebraska to get out of debt. And so I would only do it if there's a lot of other reasons to do this.

And it sounds like that reason is we don't like it here. We want to go back, be closer to family. And part of that, it's going to help us get out of debt. We're going to rent for a year or two, start saving up, and get into a house with some wisdom and patience. Yeah. That sounds good to me. It sounds right to me, too. Gives me some peace just talking that through. Yeah, and I know my wife's listening, so I hope she found some peace in that.

Because you both want to, right, Jackson? Like, y'all want out. We do. Yeah. And it's a great place down here. There's a lot of land. Were you super happy in Nebraska? Because I feel like there's a reason you left there to begin with beyond just there's a great house in Kansas. Honestly,

if I think back, we were pretty happy. We were in a little apartment. I think we just wanted to get into a bigger space. The apartment was like 800 square feet. You're probably going back to an apartment in Nebraska. Yeah. So I'm just saying, I don't know that you're going to be in a much better spot other than being debt-free.

So I just want to make sure that we get to the root of the problem because you go with it. Which is great because I think, too, though, part of the discontentment is like we want something bigger. And then when you get something bigger and not doing it well financially you're like oh wow maybe it was better back in a smaller place actually in control of our money so it's kind of almost like you learned your lesson which is great it was not a fatal move you guys are not like on the brink of bankruptcy or foreclosure so you're good you're in a good spot um but so yeah i mean i think a lot of the decisions in life it's

agreeing with your spouse is huge financially doesn't make sense do we just want to our desire do we want to do this and when all those things kind of check off uh the boxes it feels like a right move and i feel like we just kind of checked all those off in this call jackson so to me i think it would be worth it and i think it's an exciting place for you guys because you're going to be debt free. You're actually going to have about $9,000 in the bank saved that you guys can work for. That can be your emergency fund. You guys are going to start these new habits with money. You're going to build up a down payment because I know you want to own a home again one day in Nebraska. And you're going to be able to here in a few years doing it the right way.

It's just going to be a different experience. You could just chalk this up to a learning experience. And it might be a wash after you pay your capital gains taxes on the profits. So make sure you do the math on that. Hold the money back. But at least you'll leave this thing completely debt-free and back to the place that you want to be closer to family. So I call that an overall win.

That's great, Jackson. And it's so interesting because I think in life, and we all do this, but you have this thing of, oh gosh, you know, like. If we just. If we did that, like we want a bigger place. So it all made sense, the motivation, but when things don't line up well, specifically with money, we'll look through just that lens right now, that it's not a smart move financially. It takes the whole exciting experience and puts a lot of weight on it. And all of a sudden you're thinking, oh God, that was not good. And now our life is shrunk down

because we have no margin. And now it's more stressful than ever. And it's just not worth it. Stuff is not worth it. The antidote to discontentment is contentment. But often we go, the antidote is, we just need that house. We need that car.

We need this kind of life. If I can just do that. Yep, I know. It's never the answer. Jackson, thanks for calling. This is The Ramsey Show. សូវាប់ពីបានប់ពីបានប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពី Our scripture of the day comes from 2 Chronicles 15, 7. But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.

The difference between winning and losing is most often not quitting. From Walt Disney. Thanks for putting a Disney quote in there for me, guys. Rachel loves Disney. I do enjoy Disney. Future episode of Smart Money Happy Hour, by the way, we just recorded yesterday.

We both have very different thoughts about Disney and Disney adults. And Disney World. And can the middle class still make it to Disney World? There's a lot of opinions out there. It was therapeutic for me, Rachel.

I shared my Disney trauma. I had a traumatic childhood experience. I felt like Dr. John Deloney on the show for a hot second. And I thought, I feel like I need to like walk him through this process of grief. And like, I don't know what's happening. A lot of stages. There was a lot, a lot.

And that'll be a future episode of Smart Money Happy Hour, our new podcast. This is a great time to remind people, if you haven't checked it out yet, just released yesterday, first two episodes. And it's great because you can listen over the weekend. It's easy listening, very casual. They're about 30 minutes a piece

and it's at number one in business, number 32 overall. So thank you all for listening, subscribing, sending us feedback, posting about it, telling your friends.

It's a great casual money conversation. Yes, all that helps. Yes, it helps our egos seeing number one. That's very nice. Rachel, you're used to that. No, no, I'm not.

Always number one. But when you get these kind of charts, even if you like for a book, right? When you hit a bestseller list, all of it. Obviously, yes, it feels great as the author or the podcast host to see that. But also the most important is it gets it in front of other people.

Other people that never would have known can click on it and we want to sneak them into this whole thing that we're doing to help them to say, hey, plug into Ramsey Solutions. Because then eventually, hopefully, they go through Financial Peace University. They use EveryDollar. They read Dr. John Deloney's stuff and helps with their anxiety. Just because our mission is to help people in every area of life and give them hope. And so it's just a great way for people that normally wouldn't have noticed us to notice us.

And it validates the team's effort. I mean, we are such a small part of making this podcast happen. There's like 40 people. We did a toast yesterday. The amount of people it takes to launch something and the amount of work they've put in for months and months and months

from the producers to social media to photographers and designers. We just have such a talented team. So I'm proud of them for all the work they put in to get us here. We had a very small part. Absolutely. Absolutely. So great. So check it out. Smart Money Happy Hour. All right. Up next, we have Heather in San Antonio. Hey, Heather, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you both for taking my call today. And thanks to the Big bigger Ramsey team for bringing my family peace. My question is part career and part financial. Some context. I'm 47. My husband is 52. This goes back to the

quote from Disney about quitting. I may have missed out on that. We are debt-free except our mortgage. We actually became debt-free in May of 21, thanks to the Ramsey plan. Congratulations. Thank you. We moved from California, which was very expensive, to Texas just in May of this year. And I have been working in education more than 20 years, but I'm not working anymore. I left a very nice salary behind, and I'm super grateful for my husband supporting me and taking his time to essentially catch my breath. Financially, not working is not hurting us, but it's not helping us either. I'm stuck. I know I could get a teaching or an administrative role easily. I did excel at my job, but I intentionally left education because I was drowning. My job left me feeling like I was spiraling.

Did we lose you, Heather? Oh, can you hear me? We just broke up. Just repeat the last seven seconds. So you were spiraling out after your education career. And I feel guilty that I'm not using my credentials and that I'm not contributing to our financial goals. I need to have purpose besides being a great stay-at-home wife right now.

And I want to start with volunteer work with our new church. Side note, listening to Ramsey podcast while we were paying off our debt actually led me to Jesus Christ. It was my first time. Oh, wow. That's awesome, Heather. Love to hear that. That's awesome, Heather. Love to hear that. That's amazing. So now that we're settled, I feel like I'm a human again.

Is that enough for now? Am I being selfish by not getting a job? I'm not really retirement age. If we do end up moving again, we believe his job is going to move him in about two years. Will my work-employment gap be a problem if I do decide to return to work? Should I be worrying about those things right now? Heather, what you guys have accomplished in the last two years financially has set you on a path where you have options now in your life. You have options. You get to decide, what do I want to do with my time? What do I want to do with my credentials? What do I want to do with my money?

All of that, you get options now because you guys have worked to become debt-free. You don't owe anyone anything. Your husband is making, yeah, you said a great salary. So you have options. So this is all up to you. And I don't think the conviction of going into a job comes out of guilt and shame. And that's what I'm hearing, that cycle play as you're talking. So I don't think that you are in a spot

that you're thinking in a very healthy way because no, that's not selfish. I mean, I think that we have the ability to help people and to serve. And you've already given me two options of things that you're thinking about doing in that way, which is great. And even if you wanted to take two years off and just say, I'm just going to breathe. I'm going to go to lunch with some new friends that I've met in San Antonio. I'm going to build community and relationships. That's okay. I feel like you just need permission to know that rest and a period of time, it's okay. Now, if you're bored and you're restless and you're like, man, I want to do some things. I want to put my brain

and function into a part of my life that I know I'm good at and I want to go and work, then that's one thing. But feeling guilted because you somehow have told yourself that you're selfish, I don't think is a wise move. No. Heather, you are enough. Period. Not if you go to work and not if you volunteer. you are enough. And now that you're a believer, you know that you were created with a purpose. And if Ken was here, he would say you're created to contribute. And that can look different. You can do that on your terms, but we're not going to do it out of shame and guilt because your husband's working or because you feel like you should be doing something outside of the home, providing for your family or using a piece of paper or using your 20 years of education experience.

So you get the benefit of getting to do this all over again on your terms. And if that means working part-time and volunteering part-time, that's great. But wherever this baggage is coming from of my worth is tied up in my work, we got to drop that because we have a new vision for what the next 30 years of your life looks like. So talk it over with your husband, do a dream date and go, what do we want to do? What do I want to do? What gifts do you see in me and talents that I could use to create impact to have that purpose that I'm longing for? Do you guys have kids, Heather?

Yes, but they're grown and college educated and debt free. So we don't... Yeah, yeah, that's great. That's awesome don't have a lot of financial freedom right now. Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. When we say all that to you, Heather, how does that feel? It takes the burden. You know, this is all my own self-doubt. My husband is super supportive. He looks at me and is like, well,

there's really not, you don't have to go back to work. I don't know why you're so worried about it. I just, you know, I've been very driven since I was a young girl and it feels weird to feel like I'm not. Yes. And it would feel weird. And I think that that that's a very normal thing especially if it's you know if you think if you've been working i have a friend and she said she's been working since she was 14 she got her first job at 14 and she's worked all the way through high school through college through adulthood all the way after having kids i mean she's literally worked since she was 14 and she took a break off and she just said oh and and talking about this is that that is weird because that's called change. And change is going to feel weird, Heather, whether you're a stay-at-home mom and you go back into the workforce

or you're in the workforce and you come home. Any change in our lives, it's going to feel weird. So for it to just feel normal, that's probably not an option. So the weirdness is very normal. It doesn't make it wrong though. It doesn't make it wrong, though. It doesn't make it wrong. So I hope that helps, Heather, just to release you from that. I think George's words were perfect. Your value comes from so much more. Now, if you want to jump in there and use your brain because you want to, that's great. But there's no pressure.

You don't have to. You get options because of the work that you guys have done. Love it. Well, thanks, America, for listening. Thanks to Ben, Zach, Andrew, James, everyone in the booth, and Jenna. Hello, girl. Only two women here in this little studio. It's great. And thank you, America, for listening.

Thanks, George. Appreciate it. Good times. Have a great weekend. Hey, it's Rachel Cruz, co-host on The Ramsey Show. If you want to do your debt-free scream live on the show, visit ramseysolutions.com slash debt-free scream. We'd love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story. That's ramseysolutions.com slash debt-free scream.