The Ramsey Show - App - I Think I Made a Mistake by Getting Married (Hour 3)

Episode Date: October 29, 2020

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Starting point is 00:00:00 🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is the Dave Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I am Dr. John Deloney, and I am taking your calls. Looking forward to connecting with you wherever you may be. Give me a shout at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. You can get in touch with us also at Ramsey Show.
Starting point is 00:00:53 Love to hear from you. All right, let's go straight to the calls. Let's go to, let's talk to Michelle in Billings, Montana. Michelle, how are we doing? I'm great. How are you doing? I'm doing so, so good., how are we doing? I'm great. How are you doing? I'm doing so, so good. How can I help today? Well, I am dealing with some kind of maybe marriage or COVID or some
Starting point is 00:01:13 kind of anxiety. And I was wondering if you can help me kind of navigate through that. All right, walk me through it. What's going on? All right. So I am 30 and my husband is 32. We've been married since August of last year. And for the past few months, I feel like I've just kind of gotten cold feet about our future. So I felt great going up to our wedding, no cold feet there. But recently I've really pumped the brakes on wanting to kind of like settle down more, meaning like buy a house and I'm no longer interested in having kids. So there's definitely been like a paradigm shift in our marriage a little bit. And I just wanted to maybe get some insight on anxiety with that. So it's a little too late to pump the brakes
Starting point is 00:01:57 because you're already in it. And so you are having questions about buying a house and having kids. Is this him related or is this you related? I think it's a little bit of both. So he has actually been working more than ever during COVID. He's a pilot, so he's gone almost all the time. So because he's been working more, I'm kind of in a living situation where I feel like I'm just kind of like holding down the fort. And then I have a partner who's here like sometimes. So it doesn't really feel like I'm married even though I am. And so what about that setup, right? So you get married.
Starting point is 00:02:37 You have a couple of months of a great time together. This is the guy you agreed to spend the rest of your life with. And then a international pandemic hits and he goes to work he looks at you and says i'm going to make some money i'm going to make sure we're staying afloat i'm going to make sure that the people who i serve in my particular job are going to be taken care of and during that time you have suddenly said i don't know if i want this to be my guy. Specifically, besides him working really hard and besides the complexities going on around the world,
Starting point is 00:03:11 what makes you start thinking about bailing out of this marriage? It's not that I necessarily want to bail out of the marriage because I feel like he's a good partner for me. I just feel like my vision of what our marriage would be like is kind of gone right now. So that's why I was saying I don't know if it's marriage anxiety or just COVID related or both or neither. Have you sat down and talked to him about what you want this picture to look like? Yes, I have. How did that conversation go? It was pretty good.
Starting point is 00:03:41 So he has talked about how, you know, we've talked about wanting to buy a house in the springtime. And before we got married these things because I feel like I'm not really married right now. A house or a child feels kind of oppressive, like it doesn't feel joyous to me. So he said, oh, sorry, go on. Let's stop using the words cold feet. Cold feet is a term you use before you do something, and I want you to start thinking in terms of you already have. You're in this, the whole world has gotten shaken up like a snow globe. And so you rethinking long term plans, that's super normal. You'd be weird if you were just trying to hit the gas and press through this as though nothing was going on. Right. And I think less than anxiety, you're feeling lonely. And when we feel lonely, we that sets off those anxiety alarms, right than anxiety you're feeling lonely and when we feel lonely we that sets off
Starting point is 00:04:46 those anxiety alarms right but you're feeling lonely and I don't want you to apologize for it I'm glad you're feeling lonely because your partner's been on the road I also want to honor what seems to be a pretty great guy and who is stepping up in a really messy season and you're continuing to have good conversations about what the future is going to look like, the future is going to shift, and God, you are setting the bar for couples across the country right now. You know why? Because things got different, and you guys didn't just split up and head opposite directions of your house. You had a hard conversation, so good for you. I wish I could tell you michelle that because you
Starting point is 00:05:26 do a b and c because you have hard conversations because you're planning because you have a good husband the things aren't going to feel awkward and weird um less than a year into this but that would be dishonest that wouldn't be truthful things are messy and they're hard what you have to do is to remain connected to him and having good conversations with him. And you got to have some people in your life that you can connect to on your own. Do you have friends that you talk to that you hang out with? Do you have a community where you live? Yes, I do. We're recent transplants, but that's so hard. Yeah. So we've, we're kind of in a space where we're kind of like making those connections
Starting point is 00:06:07 but we do have some already and so this is going to be awkward for you i want you and i don't know what the what the covid world is like in montana right now i want you to be um oddly weirdly forward about developing friendships i had when i moved I moved to Nashville, I'd lived my whole life in Texas. When I moved to Nashville, I actually invited a couple of new couples over. We'd known them a little bit in our former life. And we asked him, my wife and I asked him with the following words, will you be our friends? And it was super weird. One couple was like, dude, this is kind of weird, and we started laughing. We all laughed, and I was like, I know this is weird,
Starting point is 00:06:46 but I know what the research says about having a community. I know that I was working at a university, and I was working 24-7, 365. My wife felt lonely. She was trapped in a house with two fun, loving, but adventurous little kids, and then the second couple we had over were folks that we had known for a while.
Starting point is 00:07:03 Then they had moved to Nashville, then we had moved to Nashville, and we reconnected. And I asked them, hey, we're inviting you guys to be our friends. And what that means is we're going to show up. We're going to ask you into our lives when we're having challenges, when we're struggling and we're feeling lonely. We're going to call on you guys. And the guy who's a veteran, guy who's a brilliant, got a doctorate, smart,
Starting point is 00:07:24 wonderful guy that I look up to he started crying and he said and i quote no one's ever asked me that before would you just be our friends i think less than anxiety which is a is a is an over overused clinical term michelle i think you're lonely and i think you're right to be lonely i think your husband's working a hard hard job right now in a hard, hard season. And you guys do need to have that conversation about, you know, what is our life going to be? If you're going to be on the road 24-7, 365, I'm already a few months in feeling lonely. But I also think you need to do the hard work at home right now in a messy, toxic season.
Starting point is 00:08:04 When the world's on fire, literally. When we can't be with one another, literally. And do whatever you can in your environment to create friendships, to create connections. Go overboard with it and start developing that community and continue talking to your husband. Good for you. It feels awkward, but you're in the right place.
Starting point is 00:08:22 This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Over the years, I've seen so many families suffer by not having life insurance. It's not that they didn't care. It's just that they didn't know, so they did nothing. That's a huge mistake. Listen, husbands and wives, moms and dads, think about it. If you died, how would your family pay the bills, the mortgage, food, and plan for a better future? This is what life insurance is all about, and term life is the only way to go. It's not expensive, and it's not complicated.
Starting point is 00:09:22 Stop wasting money on cash value plans. You need 10 to 12 times your income in protection and I recommend 15 or 20 year level plans. I also only recommend Zander Insurance and I have for over 20 years. These are the only people I personally use and they only offer the plans I recommend. Call them at 800-356-4282 or get instant quotes online at zander.com. Trust me, these simple steps will let your family know how much you care. You are listening to The Dave Ramsey Show. This is John Deloney hosting the show, taking your calls about your life, your marriages, your relationships, your mental health.
Starting point is 00:10:14 Maybe a money question here or there. 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. I think I've been sitting by Dave long enough. We can figure out a few money calls here and there. He is the wizard. He's the one and only. Let's go to Brandon in Los Angeles, California.
Starting point is 00:10:32 Brother Brandon, how are we doing? I'm great. How are you? Thanks for taking my call. Outstanding. Thanks for calling. How can I help? So I'm trying to basically coach my sister through a situation that she's in.
Starting point is 00:10:44 She's got about $75,000 in student loan debt. She's in a unique situation in that she has a job on a military base that's like smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. And she's stuck there because of COVID. She has like no expenses. She makes decent money. And we kind of ran the numbers and figured out that if she stays there, she could be debt-free within about two years. Okay. But she's afraid that it's kind of starting to affect her mental health a lot because she's kind of got, like, rock fever, I think.
Starting point is 00:11:15 Okay. She has a minor medical issue that she can't get taken care of on the island because they don't have the resources. So she's just trying to figure out. She actually called me trying to figure out how she can get mental health counseling where she is because she's just not really sure if she can do it. So what was your advice to her? You big brother, little brother?
Starting point is 00:11:36 Yeah, big brother. Good for you, man. So what was your advice? Yeah, so I mean, you know, I told her to try to stick it Yeah, so I, I mean, my, my, you know, I told her to try to stick it out, of course, because I think that she needs to get out of debt. But it's really hard for me to say that because I'm not in her situation. Right.
Starting point is 00:11:56 So. How long has she been there? She's been there for a year. Okay. She'd have to stay for another two years. She can't leave at all. So it'd be three years total, huh? And what's her profession?
Starting point is 00:12:09 She's basically the manager of a store. She was a hospitality major. So let me just tell you about my family's journey. I owed a lot of money. My wife and I did. We had, at the time, six degrees between us. My wife got a PhD. I did too.
Starting point is 00:12:28 We went to grad school. We ended up with six figures of student loan debt. And that's before it started getting obnoxiously expensive. And we ran our numbers. We had a situation where we lived in a house. And we sold our house, moved into a residence hall on the campus that where I was a leader at. And we did it for one year and we sucked it up and said, this is going to be a crazy year. And we had a two-year-old and it was chaotic and it was incredible. We paid off everything we owed
Starting point is 00:13:01 and we learned a lot about ourselves, but we went into it with a sense of adventure. We went into it with a sense of purpose, and we also had a deadline to it. And here's the dot, dot, dot. I went crazy. I was struggling with anxiety. I didn't know what it was. I thought everyone around me was insane. I thought everybody around me had lost their marbles.
Starting point is 00:13:24 And I recognized after a year I hadn't slept well. I had not taken care of myself well. My work got morphed into my day-to-day life, which got morphed into my marriage and my parenting. It was just one continuous stream. And so in retrospect, am I glad I did that? Absolutely. Was it worth my mental health? I won't say it was worth it, but I wish I did that? Absolutely. Was it worth my mental health? I won't say it was worth it, but I wish I had planned better. But I'll also say your sister's got a point, and if she's saying I need to come home, then she needs to come home and build another plan,
Starting point is 00:13:58 get another job, grind it out like thousands and millions of people have done, following the right plan financially, it's not worth sacrificing her soul. That said, living like nobody else for a year or two can really make a transformative difference. And so my recommendation to you and to her would be, number one, see if she can get online counseling. Every counselor I know on planet Earth,
Starting point is 00:14:22 and I keep up with them all over the country, has thrown their practice up online in some shape, form, or fashion. And my understanding is the whole profession has transformed in many positive ways. There's some challenges to it, of course, and I'm always a face-to-face kind of guy. But I would check and see if she can get some online mental health care. I would also check to see if she can plug into some of the resources that are going to be on that base there. They may be military only, but she may have some clearance there. And then I would, I would ask her to start doing this in small increments. Maybe think we're going
Starting point is 00:14:57 to go through three months. I want you to commit to three months. You can help be her accountability partner, someone who both loves her and holds her accountable financially if she invites you into that conversation and she invites you into that role. And then check in with her at three months. And if she says, I can't keep doing this, then you start making an exit strategy, right? And the whole time she's still digging out of that financial hole. She's going to start gaining some small wins. And what we all need in life is small wins, right? We look at this $75,000 number.
Starting point is 00:15:26 It's so big. It's insurmountable. It's not even real. It's a cartoon. It's so big. And I just want to come home. I just want to come home. I'm stuck on this rock in the middle of the ocean.
Starting point is 00:15:35 It's scary out here. It's nerve wracking. I just want to come home. And then you get a little bit of a win and then a little bit of a win. And suddenly that number is 73,000. It's 70,000. It's 68,000. And those little wins can sometimes be a balm.
Starting point is 00:15:48 They can sometimes be a L.M., right? It can be a soothing, a lotion for our soul. It can feel good. And then you stick it out a few more months and a few more months. But I wanted to break this up into bite-sized chunks. $75,000 and this creeping mental health challenge stuck in a rock in the middle of the ocean and two years, 24 months, that just seems insurmountable. It's not real. So let's break it up in little pieces. And I want you to be the big brother that tells her that her heart and her mind
Starting point is 00:16:17 is worth taking care of. And you know her, and you know, when you can lean in a little bit and say, I want you to stick it out. I love you and bit and say i want you to stick it out i love you and support you i want you to stick it out and you also know when you need to look and be the big brother says i want you to come home you're my sister and i care about you i want you to come home so thanks so much for the call brother that's uh so good to have a brother so good to have a brother and sister who you can lean on you can call i think it's i think it's a's an underutilized relationship these days. It used to be that brothers and sisters stuck together through thick and thin, and now folks scatter. They go to colleges all over the country. They disappear from one another. They become texting and email friends,
Starting point is 00:16:58 and that's about it. I always want to celebrate. My brother and I, the last few years, have rekindled a connection in a way that's awesome. I text back and forth, talk to him much more than I ever have, and me and my sister too, and I'm better for it. So good for you, Brandon, for being a great big brother. The money is important. Dudes love to just solve some stuff, but take care of our heart too. All right, so you and I know that a budget is key to your future goals. We've seen it proven for years. And I also know you work hard for your money and you need a wallet that actually helps you budget easily. Now I carry a Costanza wallet. My wallet is about four inches
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Starting point is 00:19:19 Get it today. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. This is John Deloney taking your calls about your life, your relationships, your mental health. Maybe even a money call or two. Give me a call at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. I want to give the YouTube crew a shout out.
Starting point is 00:20:15 I don't know what they do all day. I don't know what they do. They are invested in this show. They are in it to win it. I love you guys. Love you guys. Man, they're in it. Glad to have you all along with us. All right, let's go to the phones here. Let's go to Carla in Canada. Carla, how in the world are you? I'm doing well. Thank you. How are you? I am doing so, so good. All right, fill me in. How can I help?
Starting point is 00:20:41 Okay, so my question is, we're on baby step two my husband and i and i'm just trying to figure out how to manage between being gazelle intense and not burning out um i'm working as a nurse and it's been pretty crazy over the last few months has it now i did not know that hey can we stop for a second can we just stop can i tell you like um this isn't john on the radio this is john husband john dad of two little kids carla thank you for every day you're getting up and you're going in and you're going in and you're going in i just want to say thank you thank you most people will never know what you're going through as a nurse the scrubbing in and the scrubbing out and the terror that you deal with every day and the and that fear in other people's eyes all day, it wears on your soul. So thank you, Carla. Thank you.
Starting point is 00:21:30 Thank you. So how can I help with burnout? So I'm trying to – so we're in baby step number two, and we just got married in August. And so we're trying to pay off all of our debt by next August. We want to pay it off for the one-year anniversary. We make about $100,000 a year, but we're not going to make it. And so I have gone back and forth about picking up an extra part-time job doing overnight, but then I have days where I get home from work and I'm like, I can't even make dinner.
Starting point is 00:22:02 I can't even do anything. And so anyway, I'm trying to kind of't even make dinner. I can't even do anything. Anyway, I'm trying to kind of figure out how gazelle intense do you be, but then also dealing with just complete exhaustion and the mental and emotional fatigue that my dog personally takes on me. So you just got married, is that right? Yes. Okay. What is the panic and rush? You set a goal to pay this house off in one calendar year. Oh, it's not a house. No, it's just our, just we have student debt. Okay. Okay. So this
Starting point is 00:22:37 is just regular baby step stuff. All right. So you know this and let's back out for a second. You just got married, which is a major stressor. How long did you know this, and let's back out for a second. You just got married, which is a major stressor. How long did you know this guy? Two and a half years. Okay. He's a good guy? Yes, he is. He's amazing.
Starting point is 00:22:53 Listen to how your voice just changed. Yes, he is. He's amazing. Good. So he's a good guy. That's a major life shift. And then you work a job. You've heard of the phrase secondary traumatic stress have you heard
Starting point is 00:23:05 that phrase yes i have okay so for those of you who don't know what that is there is trauma that's acute and that's a nerd word for saying i was involved in a car wreck i witnessed a shooting i um i was burned when i fell into uh the stove right that's an acute trauma that you experience secondary traumatic stress is the stress that you experience. Secondary traumatic stress is the stress that people experience who are the first responders, those who go in day in and day out. Those are the nurses, the doctors, the ministry staff, the counselors, those who for a living go into other people's pain to help be a part of the healing solution. And what the research has found over the last hundred years is those folks over time get
Starting point is 00:23:47 worn down as though the trauma is theirs. Their body, for lack of better terms, to quote Vander Kolk, their body keeps the score too. And so you have stress number two, which is you're in a hard job. Stress number three is the world exploded, right? Yeah. And they looked at you to help be a part of the solution to that explosion. And so I want to 100% affirm the alarm systems that are going off in your heart and mind that tell you to stop, to take care of yourself, to slow down for a second, to exhale.
Starting point is 00:24:22 This is not normal times, right? Yeah, yeah. So, yes, you feel right to be exhausted from your job. Feel right to be exhausted existentially. You just got married. You're trying to figure out how to live with this guy. He's awesome, but he's still just another guy, right? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:24:38 What does he do for a living? He works an office job, and he's actually able to work from home, which has been a huge help. Very cool. So he gets all the help out around the house and he makes a lot of the food and takes care of things for me, which is really good. Very cool. So tell me who else you have. What kind of support network do you have outside of him in your neighborhood and your community? Yeah, so my family, I'm not from where I live currently, but I have a couple of really close girlfriends that I see on a fairly regular basis right now, just to kind of get out and have my girl time.
Starting point is 00:25:10 Good for you. Are they nurses or no? No, they aren't. Oh, even better. That's so good. So many of us who work in the pain of other people, we surround ourselves with only people who work in those jobs, and then all we talk about is other people's pain. And that ends up being not a great way to decompress. So here's the thing.
Starting point is 00:25:29 If you have reached your limit, your capacity, I want you to be at peace with that. This one-year deadline is somewhat arbitrary. And I want to honor the fact that you're gazelle intense. You guys are sprinting and running. But if you're sprinting and running and suddenly you find yourself in quicksand, sprinting and running is just going to bury you. Okay. And so be fully okay with sitting down with your husband and saying, we had this dream date of one year, August of – is it August of 21?
Starting point is 00:26:05 Is that going to be your dream date? Yeah. Okay. So it's January of 22 or for Christmas that year, we're going to take another six months and we are going to celebrate Christmas together. We're not going to buy each other presents. We're going to write one less mortgage check and then we're going to start
Starting point is 00:26:21 2022 debt free. Be fully at peace with that because you're kicking butt right now. You're working hard and it's not like you're doing this start 2022 debt-free. Be fully at peace with that because you're kicking butt right now. You're working hard and it's not like you're doing this the rest of your life. This is a year and you're taking a year and you can take six months instead, right? Okay, yeah.
Starting point is 00:26:34 Continue to not add debt. Continue to not try to numb yourself with purchasing things and continue to be intense. But I want you to recognize how hard of a job you're living. And it may be that your husband who's picking up a lot of the home stuff, sounds like he's an awesome guy, man. Good for you, brother. But who's taking care of the meals, help him keep the house
Starting point is 00:26:56 up. We work on a job from home. Maybe he can pick up a second term. He can pick up a second gig, a side gig. But if you're coming home and you're exhausted you're working hard stuff you're doing hard things so i want to honor that and take care of your heart and mind no sense in dropping dead at the finish line of the marathon no sense so keep running but you may need to stop sprinting you may realize i was going to do this marathon in three and a half hours you know what if you finish in four hours, you finished. So we're going to high five you and I'm good for you, Carla. You're a saint. Good for you. All right, let's go to Dan in Jacksonville, Florida. Dan, my man, how are we doing?
Starting point is 00:27:34 Hey, good, John. Thanks for taking my call. You got it, brother. How can I help? Hey, um, I would like to talk about how to transition to a different job. Okay. I would like to talk about how to transition to a different job. I'm 56 years old. I have a great job making $140K a year, but I'm just bored and tired of this industry and working for corporate America. I really like to make a plan to transition into something else for the last few years of my career before I retire. And you're 56, you said? Yep.
Starting point is 00:28:12 All right. So you're 56. You make great money. You're clearly intelligent. What is it about that transition that you've, because it's not going to be a content issue. It's not going to be a knowledge issue, right? No, no, I think it's more of a passion issue.
Starting point is 00:28:34 There you go. What's in your heart that's keeping you from drawing up a plan or following that plan? I feel like I've put so much into the corporate job that I've kind of lost my passions. I mean, I don't really have a hobby that I could change into a job. I just kind of feel burned out. Like I'm just all about this corporate job. So Dan, let's do this, brother. I want to dig into this. And so I'm going to hold you over to the break. And when we come back, we're going to talk through what's going on in your heart and how you can make a transition this is the dave ramsey show We'll see you next time. This is the Dave Ramsey Show.
Starting point is 00:29:55 This is Dr. John Deloney hosting today for the first time by myself. I hope everybody's doing well out there, and I hope that you are connecting with other people you're finding relationships you're finding connection and you are surviving this crazy season you are making it work you're grinding
Starting point is 00:30:14 you're slowing down when you need to you're taking a break when you need to and you are reaching out to folks when you need help scripture of today is from Revelation 3.8 it says I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Barbara Corcoran says, don't you dare
Starting point is 00:30:39 underestimate the power of your own instinct. Don't you dare underestimate the power of your own instinct. I love it. So many people disregard their gut feeling. Somebody says, Hey, you should do this and this. And they say, I don't know. I don't know about that. And they knew it. They knew it. They knew that guy wasn't going to be a good guy. They knew that investment wasn't going to be right. They knew that go ahead and put to be a good guy. They knew that investment wasn't going to be right. They knew that go ahead and put my money in these things without fully understanding what it was about wasn't a great idea. Don't you dare underestimate the power of your own instinct. I love it.
Starting point is 00:31:18 All right, so we're going to go back to Dan in Jacksonville, Florida. Dan is 56. He's in a job. He's working in corporate America. He is killing it. Absolutely crushing it. He makes great money, and he has lost all smoke, all steam, all passion for this job. Is that about right, Dan?
Starting point is 00:31:34 Yeah, yeah, exactly. And kind of looking for how to make a transition into something more enjoyable. So when you say enjoyable, when you say I'm burned out what are you driving at i i think just uh uh bureaucracy in corporate america you know so many levels of getting everything approved and it's just i'd rather be my own boss i think in my own uh i used to do carpentry that's how I put myself through college. Yep. And I kind of feel like I'd like to go back to that. But, you know, I got, I'm making great money. It's hard to stop and I still have to pay off my house.
Starting point is 00:32:17 Okay. So I feel like I got to get that paid off. So you've been down the road with my friend Ken Coleman, right? You read his book. Is that right? Yep. Okay, so you know the path to, as he says, don't leap off the dock until you've got a boat to land in, right?
Starting point is 00:32:38 Right. You're feeling fried. There is something else going on here, my man. What would keep you from getting into woodworking and carpentry as a hobby, as something to do that fills your soul up while you go grind out this job and make your money? And if your carpentry job turns into something, that you would make that transition there. I think it's probably the right direction. That's kind of like you were just talking about your instinct.
Starting point is 00:33:09 I think that's what my instinct is telling me to do. I'm just, I guess, worried about I've got to stay in this job to get my house paid off. And then how do you just quit a job that's making great money and launch a new thing? So Dan, here's the thing. I worked for, gosh, I don't even remember now, 15, 16, 17 years to be an executive leader at a college or university. And I got a PhD in it. I tracked with great mentors. I worked really hard. I worked 24-7, 365 for years. I was on call. I was learning. I've made so many mistakes.
Starting point is 00:33:54 I tried to grow from those mistakes. And then I got to where I'd quote unquote landed. I was making money that my granddad would not have understood. And I was working at one of the greatest universities in the country, especially in their area. And then I met Dave and I met somebody here. And I literally quit it all to come take a job doing something that I had never done before. It was all new. All of it. Writing books. I'd never done that. I'd written a dissertation.
Starting point is 00:34:28 I'd written two of them. I'd never written a book. I'd never been on the radio. I'd been done public speaking for years. I'd never done it the way Dave wants it done, which is you will be world-class or you will not get on my stage. And what that meant for me was I had to go back to school for a year, and it was the school of hard knocks.
Starting point is 00:34:47 It was the school of Hogan saying, hey, that's not good enough. We do it better than that. That's the school of Christy Wright saying, hey, John, I need you to step up here, and Anthony O'Neill and Dave and Kelly and Ben and James, these folks who have poured into me, Amy, for a year, helping me learn and grow. And I took a pay cut to do it, and it has been the right thing every step of the way. So what I'm going to tell you is
Starting point is 00:35:11 there's something keeping you from pursuing the next thing. You're trapped in this cycle of, I just don't like it, and I just am nervous about it. And so what I want to get to you is, I'm living proof you can do this. Now, I don't want anyone to, I won the lottery here, right? I mean, I'm working at Dave's place. That's silly. It's incredible. But you're too smart. You've done too well. You're too good at what you do, Dan, to not know what the next step is. There's something keeping you from taking that next step. What is it? Is it pride? Is it fear? What is it? I'm not sure. Are you married? Yes, definitely.
Starting point is 00:35:54 And what's your spouse think? I'm sure she likes the security of my job. Of course she does. Does she like a miserable dying on the vine husband? No. Have y'all talked about it? Absolutely. Have you talked about it outside of, I'm just sick of this. Have you talked about it over a meal and you explained to her, I'm 54, I'm 56, I'm sorry. So I'm a little over halfway done. And the back half of my life, the back third or the back fourth of my life, I have a different vision for it, and here's what that vision is. Have you done that with her? Yeah, we've started those conversations,
Starting point is 00:36:33 but I'm not sure she's understanding how badly I want to change or ready to get us there. So take me below. Take the work off the table, Dan. Take the job off the table. This is just you as a guy in 2020 watching the world around you burn. You don't sound like you're doing okay. Yeah, I feel kind of stuck and depressed. You know, like I want to make a change.
Starting point is 00:37:26 You probably want to make several changes. Is that fair? Perhaps, yeah. We're already in it now, man. You might as well just be honest. We're in it now. There's probably several things, right? Yeah, I'm not sure I can put my finger on them.
Starting point is 00:37:48 Definitely, you know, I would like to have a less, I guess call it corporate bureaucracy. Here's what you want, Dan. You want your autonomy back. You want your freedom back. But beneath that, you want to feel Dan again. Right. And here's what you want to feel Dan again. Right. And here's what you're staring at, brother. You're staring at your 56.
Starting point is 00:38:10 You're a few years from retirement. You don't want to continue on the same path you're in, and you feel trapped. And then you start asking questions like, what has all this been worth? What's the point of all this? If I have to do one more TPS report, I'm going to lose it. I'm trying to tell my wife, and I don't have the language to be vulnerable with her. I don't know how to fully say I can't keep doing this because she's not going to understand.
Starting point is 00:38:35 And so, Dan, I want you to do the bravest thing that a 56-year-old man making $140,000 and who's slowly starting to question the guy he looks at and sees in the mirror. This is about work, but it's not about work, Dan. This is bigger than that. You're 56 and you don't like who you are. I want you to call a counselor in your area and I want you to take the hard step of saying, I'm depressed. I want to change. I want to be different, and I need help. And Dan, you're going to change your family tree once again. Good for you, brother. Thanks so much for the call.
Starting point is 00:39:12 Thanks for being vulnerable. I want to thank Ben. I want to thank Kelly Child. Kelly Daniel! Oh my gosh, I called you Kelly Child. Kelly Daniel. I want to thank everybody for listening. I almost made it without blowing it, and I didn't on my first time. This has been The Dave Ramsey Show.
Starting point is 00:39:33 Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit DaveRamsey.com slash show and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.

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