The Ramsey Show - App - I Won $800,000 on a Game Show! (Hour 2)

Episode Date: June 25, 2020

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave 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. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host.

My co-host today on the Dave Ramsey Show, Ken Coleman. Ramsey personality joins us, and of course, number one best-selling author, and he's the host of the Ken Coleman Show, heard on 50-plus radio stations, Sirius XM, podcast, YouTube, everything else all over America. So be sure you check him out. Open phones here. We're talking about your life and your money and your careers and your jobs that's what ken speaks about as well as everything else here so we're just here to help you with everything jump in 888-825-5225 tony starts off this hour in north carolina hi tony welcome to the dave ramsey show uh thank you so much uh and I appreciate you guys being there.

I just got back from vacation and listened to your Total Money Makeover twice and many of the podcasts. I quit watching the news and just listened to your podcast now. Well, thank you. Well, it's a whole lot better than the news, too. Well, everything is. You have that test tree. And I'm planning on signing up for Finance Peace University, actually, this afternoon.

I just started because I just really got into this. I started Baby Step 2. My wife is a little nervous, but I think she's on board. Two credit cards will soon be gone. I pay one off every month, but I heard you say something on one of your podcasts that it doesn't matter. Get rid of it because it's too easy to use, and you're so right about that. I'm working at home right now because of the COVID, but I'm starting to see the freedom that I want. I'm 68 years old. I enjoy what I do, but I think I would really like to either retire

or at least just go part-time someplace. Again, I love it, and I know the money is there, but I'm still nervous. And you say pay things off, and once I started putting stuff on the spreadsheet, it started making some sense of how much interest i was paying um total debt including the house is eighty thousand dollars um i know you always ask i got seven thousand dollars a checking account and i have five thousand dollars in the starter emergency fund i did that as soon as i got back from vacation uh now some people wouldn't understand, I got $160,000 in mutual funds,

and there's going to be another $100,000 coming as soon as we get rid of some property that is a family member from in the state. And it sounds like a no-brainer, but my total income right now is around $80,000, but that includes the job and Social Security. So what's your question? What I'm trying to do is just decide, is it a smart thing just to go pay everything off and then sit there and then get control of expenses. And since I won't have the house, I would love to move to where my grandchildren are. Well, why wouldn't you? Well, I'll tell you, the reason I haven't so far is because financial people that I've dealt with keep telling me this. No, I didn't ask about what they think.

I said, why wouldn't you pay off your debt you got a hundred thousand on the way when it comes you can just pay off everything or and never even touch your mutual funds right correct why wouldn't you uh i guess because i've been nervous about things like that because i've always worried about the future that wouldn't if i was worried about the future. If I was worried about the future, it would make me be debt free. Yeah, you said the money was there, Tony. You said the money's there. What are you truly afraid of? I guess it not being there in case of an emergency.

Yeah. But one thing, I will say this. From listening to your podcast and stuff, it's made me at least, I think I'm on my way to doing that. But that's why I wanted to run that by you. I know it doesn't make sense at all. Well, listen, if you pay everything off and you're miserable, you can go right back in debt. That's a great point. You can always try that again.

Somebody will give it to you. Oh, God. I don't think that will happen. You're going to be all right, sir. You are finding your way through this. Okay, so I want to ask you this because you've done this for so long. So here he is. He's got the money, and he's still scared.

If I take this big chunk of money and I pay off my house, or excuse me, pay off the $80,000 in debt. Which is house and everything. That's everything. He's going, what if an emergency happens? And I think he fails. Still got a chunk of money. You still got a chunk of money you still got a chunk of money but you have no bills well emergencies it doesn't cost much to live when you don't have any debt right so your your you know your burn rate your survival rate is very very low yeah and so you can survive a long time when you don't have

any payments yeah it's it's like you don't need it. Your emergency is a lot less of an emergency when you're debt-free. Depends on what kind of emergency it is. Well, that's fair. Yeah, I shouldn't blanket that. If it's an income emergency, that would be true. If you lost your income or something like that. What happens in people's minds, and it's mine and yours too, is we're drawing security from one thing,

and then we start thinking about how to get to the future, and we can't see or feel the security. He doesn't feel the security of being debt-free like I do because I have been for 30 years. And so instead he's getting security from the $168,000 in mutual funds and $100,000 is on the way. And so that is $368,000 minus 80 still leaves $100,000 that's on the way. And so that is $368,000 minus $80,000 still leaves you a quarter million dollars. That's right.

And so you're going to be okay. You're going to be fine. Just the question is, you know, it's just you're transferring the sense of security to debt freedom away from a pile of cash. And that's an intellectual exercise and a spiritual and emotional exercise and all of those things. And that's the journey he's on. He's wandering down the path. He's heading in the right way.

That's so good. You just outlined it's really the unknown there. He just doesn't know it. Yeah. And so once he feels it. And now, like I tell people, once you're debt free, you won't ever. If you had to pay a price to get there, if you had the crap scared out of you, now, if you just got out of debt and you don't think anything about it, you'll go back in.

But debt's everywhere, right? But if you went through like what we went through, losing everything, and then once we got out of debt, there's no way I'm going back. The security that that gives me is greater than a pile of money. And he's going to pile it up pretty quick, running through his numbers. Oh, yeah. He's going to have 20 left over, right, after that 100. He could go part-time.

He wants to retire. He could go part-time. He wants to retire. He could go part-time, take that part-time cash and just keep stacking that up. And be near his grandbabies. I heard that. I heard him say that. I heard him say that. Yeah. That's an important thing right there.

If I'd have known how great grandbabies are going to be, I'd have been nicer to their parents. All right. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You guys jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. This is about life transformation. Romans, one of the things I signed my total money makeover book is Romans 12.2. Be not conformed to this world.

Don't be normal. Don't be like everybody else. The rest of that verse is good. Don't leave that out. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. It means you think differently, then you can act differently. Once you see things differently because you've gotten your brain wrapped around them,

you've got an intellectual grasp of it, then you can make that step. And that's exactly what's happening with him. He's being transformed by the renewing of his mind. He's got new stuff, and so he's going to start drawing a security from the debt freedom rather than from the money versus the debt left in a pile, still gnawing at him like a bunch of mosquitoes. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Most people's money problems come from not paying attention. That's why before I spend a dime of my money on something,

I do the research and make sure it's going to live up to what it claims. Recently, I got a great pair of sunglasses from a company called Shady Rays. When you're looking for sunglasses, it feels like your options are limited. Name brand sunglasses cost too much and the cheap knockoffs are ugly and really don't protect your eyes. Discovering Shady Rays is a game changer. With Shady Rays, you can count on premium sunglasses that protect your eyes and are affordable. They give people the best overall value in sunglasses. They also replace your shades with a brand new pair if you lose or break them from day one of your purchase. And they guarantee your sunglasses for life.

Plus, they offer an exclusive for Ramsey Show listeners. Go to ShadyRays.com and use the code RAMSEY for 50% off two or more pairs. That's ShadyRays.com, code RAMSEY. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, my co-host today here on the Dave Ramsey Show. Chris is in California. Hi, Chris. How are you? Hey, I'm good. How are you guys doing? Better than I deserve.

What's up, man? Nice. Well, first, I just want to say thanks for putting Financial Peace University together. My wife and I have been FPU coaches for about two years. Thank you. Yeah, I feel like if it wasn't for FPU, I probably would have had a much more difficult time with the virus and everything going on. So thanks for your wisdom and for the program. Well, thank you.

How can we help today? Yeah. So I have a career question for you guys. I am a software engineer. And a few years ago, I took a class through meet some scientists over phone and email, but after a couple conversations, I usually get turned down for future chats or for mentorship. So I'm wondering if you'd have any thoughts on finding mentorship when the job itself makes that kind of tricky. Is that why they're turning you down? They feel like I can't go any further than a couple emails and phone calls due to the nature of the work?

I'm not sure. I believe I have most of the education and experience that they require for most of the jobs, but I feel like I just need to know more about the specifics of the industry to kind of push me over that line and actually become a more competitive candidate, if that makes sense. Yeah. Well, you've been able to walk away with some information, and so unless you know that they're saying, you know what, we can only do this much communication. And I don't think that's the case. And this is just a function of welcome to the journey, man. You know, some people are going to be willing to give more than others. And some people, you know, just won't engage that much. And it's really about getting the

attention of people that are making the hiring decision. Because I feel like you're a guy who's a little bit further along. You've got the education. You've got the requirements and the experience. Now it's just you're looking for a little bit of an edge. And I love your spunk. I love that you're getting after it. You're using the proximity principle, which says you've got to be around people that are doing what you want to do and be in places where that's happening. And I think you just have to keep turning over rocks.

There's no silver bullet answer here. But, again, we want to start moving towards the people that are the decision makers, number one. And then, number two, the way you do that is you're looking for your web of connections. Everybody that you know and you're starting to go, okay, do I have a one-to-one, a one-to-two, a one-to-three, a one-to-four connection to where we can get your name in the psyche in the form of a resume and a true recommendation from somebody that knows you or knows about you and is willing to say, let me tell you something. Chris is a sharp, sharp candidate. We need to be aware of him or we need to be looking at him for something specific. So this is about really coming up with a map and then walking through it.

Let me make sure I understand. Okay. You're currently a software engineer. Yeah. And you're wanting to move into cybersecurity. On the local government level, right? Yeah. So moving from the private sector into the public.

Why? The pay is less. That's true. It's funny. I just feel almost kind of a calling to it, like I just want to serve my country in a different way, I guess. That's the only way I can describe it.

Okay. Well, I think there's two different issues. There's cybersecurity and what you actually do tactically when you're doing cyber security that could very well be top secret, the actual function. You're not asking for mentoring in how to do cyber security. You're asking for mentoring in how to get involved in the business.

I think so. That's different. You're not going there because they're not disclosing any top secret things when they talk about how to become, how to get into cybersecurity on the public service basis. There's nothing in that that's top secret. How do I get your job? How do I get a job like yours? Who do I need to be around? Who's in this business?

I've got these qualifications. What other qualifications do I need? None of that's top secret. Now, maybe what they do with some of their knowledge might be top secret on a daily basis, but you're not trading lines of code here. No. And again, that person is more willing to mentor you or at least inform you if there's a personal connection.

And it seems like he's just really hustled. He's reached out a few people and he got to a certain point and he hit a lid well again the lid is removed if i say to dave hey dave i want to talk to somebody about this this or this and dave goes yeah yeah yeah i know a guy uh let me let me send a connector email and uh and that person is going to be more likely to spend an hour with me uh based on your recommendation taylor's in pennsylvania hi taylor welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave and Ken. How are you guys? Great. How can we help? So I just had a question. I won about $800,000 on a game show.

Don't drive by that. You did what? Come on now. I'm a big game show guy. Which one was it? Can you tell us? I'll say it's on nbc oh well that doesn't help me all i can say all right okay we get it way to go wow 800 grand yeah yeah in cash never expected it um so we'll be receiving a check in about four three to four weeks nice so it's going to be about um probably about 500 000 after taxes and as you can imagine um i would just love some advice on how much to gift to family and then how much to spend on a house we're about to start baby step four so I don't know if that changes anything. But, yeah. The first thing you need to do is double check, triple check your tax advice. Because my last memory of this subject might be a few years old,

but I think there's a special tax rate that's extra high for game show winnings. There is. So my accountant said it would probably be about close to $475,000, but I guess until we get more information on how it's taxed, that's the figure I was given. $475,000 after taxes? Yes. So they're taking almost half of it.

Correct. God bless the USA. Yeah. Come on our show. California show tax rate is high yeah okay so we got 475,000 net of your dadgum thieving government okay yeah unbelievable and uh like they did anything to do this okay that's so helpful all right so uh uh and then your first question is how much do i give the family well probably very little to none. Why does family need any of this? So, I went on with my grandmother, and my cousin is the one who applied,

and it just ended up that I'm the closest with her, and they had asked if I could go on. So, I feel like everyone thinks they're entitled, and we do want to be blessed and generous. Why are they entitled i think because well i think my mom thinks that because any of the other grandkids could have got picked and i was the one that got picked um i think she feels like they should have something your mother spends a lot of time in guilt trips doesn't she well i'm surprised that she even said that she's so it's so unlike her i think she just feels like i'm going to be set for life and they're 475 don't set you for life darling so it's like it's a lot of money but you're not set for life all right dave this is this

this is messy so let me make sure i understand so that your cousin is it was your cousin's idea to sign you up or your grandmother up my grandmother she's been wanting to go on so he did the work to sign her up and then for a situation they had asked if i could go on um he doesn't live around here so did you and your grandmother compete together or was it just you yes oh my grandmother so you and grandmother both competed did you each get 800 yes well yeah grandmother's got 1. Well, yeah, grandmother's got her. It was like 1.6 split. Okay, grandmother's got hers, and if she wants to give some to her grandkids, she can.

Yeah. Correct. Not your deal. You've got no obligation here. This is a weird family. Let grandmother take care of cousin Eddie, and you take care of you. What kind of house do you want to buy? How expensive is this house?

We need to get you a house. Yeah. So we are in a house now, but we're outgrowing it, and it's probably worth about $150. The house we had been looking to buy, it was about $320, and we were just hesitant on whether that was too much. Nope. Write a check and pay cash for it. Are you getting any other debt? No, they're starting Baby Step 4, I recall.

Yeah, that's right. You're right. You did say that. This is phenomenal. Yeah, you're 100% debt-free, house and everything. Now, if you want to be generous with a little bit of what's left over, give somebody $5,000 or something out of this, that's fine. But you are not morally obligated to.

You are not morally obligated to your entitled cousins. In other news, Dave, I'm going to sign up for a game show. I'll be right back. Yeah. There's more than signing up, Ken. You've got to win. This is the Dave Ramsey Show, and you have to take your grandmother, too. I heard a statistic recently that absolutely blew my mind. 43% of Americans are not protecting their loved ones with life insurance.

This drives me crazy, people. What are you thinking? Taking care of your family has to be a top priority. Think about it. If you died today, would you be the hero by making sure that your family had the money necessary to carry on their life without struggle and hardship? Would they be able to pay the bills and plan for the future? That's what term life insurance is all about. Regardless of where you are in the baby steps, you've got to make this a top priority. Have I gotten my point across yet? That's why I talk about Zander Insurance

every day. They keep it simple and make sure they find you the best rates out there. Zander will do their job to find you the best rates and make sure you're served like I expect. But you have to take the first step. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. Wow. So one thing about having a crack production team is during the commercial break, they send you the clip of the girl and her grandmother. They went and found it, winning the $1.67 million, and the grandmother and how sweet she is.

And it made me feel really bad for saying her family was weird or entitled or whatever. Because I'm sitting here with tears running down my face. It's so precious. I wasn't going to tell anybody that. He's wiping my eyes. He really was wiping his eyes. It's so precious. I wasn't going to tell anybody that. Wiping my eyes. He really was wiping his eyes. It's not dusty here in the studio at all. And it was a really sweet, sweet moment.

But to be fair, you said her mom was spending too much time worried about where the money goes. Grandmother's great. She's got her money. Your advice is still spot on. But it was really fun. I still don't know why the grandkids are entitled to, her cousins are entitled to her money that she won. But it's a very sweet story. Fantastic.

You can tell the game show scripted some of it a little bit, but it's still just fabulously done. It's really well done. And you can tell the spirit of the grandma and the meemaw and the granddaughter. And it's just, I did feel bad for trashing her family. But, because they look like they're really nice people. They're very nice. And I don't feel bad because I didn't trash them. I know, but I should be nicer.

You're just trying to get on the game show with your meemaw. That's all I'm thinking. And I must say. You don't even have a meemaw. The first time Dave and I have ever watched a game show together. So, weird things that happened during the break. We're in here watching a game show together. It might be the last time that's true

not usually signed up for those on the debt-free stage they're with us chris and eric are here hey guys how are you great how are you better than i deserve so where do you guys live columbus ohio all right very very cool good how much debt have you paid off? $41,314.53. Whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop. How long did this take you? 14 months. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? 71 to 81.

Good for you. What do you guys do for a living? He's a radio engineer, and I am a secretary for the Teachers Union. All right. Very cool. Well, we'll have to bring you back here and you can show these guys how to do this excellent i'm coming geeking out so you got to see you got to see the backstage version of the geeking here it's there's some serious geeks back here so i'm not no no maybe not but yeah yeah now there is believe me well welcome guys what was the 41 000 in debt a little bit of everything um we had credit cards two vehicle repossessions

a vehicle loan a car fleece um va medical bills um gi bill default yep if you don't go to class some hard times yeah yeah phones all the things some things up and down up and down huh yep yep i mean I heard default and repo in there. It's been tough, huh? Yeah, a little bit. I was really lost several years ago and couldn't figure out what I wanted to do. And I had no passion going to school. And while the military will pay for you to go to school, if you don't go to class or you don't pass your classes, they want their money back.

And essentially it becomes a student loan. So that's what a good chunk of that was. How long have you guys been married? Almost two years. Okay. So about a year into marriage, you look up 14 months ago and you say, tell me what happened. Well, I had, because most of it was mine. Yeah. Before yeah i brought it in um and i had gone to fpu about four years when i moved to ohio before we had really met we were kind of friends at the time and um that one didn't stick i failed

that time and got my vehicle repossessed again so i decided let's try it again fpu let's do it and i was still a little ish you know um but then once we were talking about marriage and i realized that was a serious thing i was like hey i have a mountain of debt so if we're gonna do this um and he was great like we got married on a Wednesday, and I think it was like that next Tuesday we started FPU together. Yep. So hit the ground running and never looked back. Took us a few months to get going, but yeah. Oh, yeah, there's some interesting budget meetings during the beginning,

and still to this day. We're like, oh, this is going to be a rough one. We're going to have to make brownies beforehand. But it really comes down to that day. We're like, oh, this is going to be a rough one. We're going to have to make brownies beforehand. But it really comes down to that communication and doing it. And it works. Yeah. Very cool. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is now that you've done it? Really, you have to have a why. Without that why, you have no roadmap. What was your else why? We want to be out of debt before we have kids. We don't want our kids to know what we grew up with. And know how to manage money so we can teach them from day one how to do it right moving forward.

Erica, one of the things I'm impressed with is you just detailed out some bad decisions that just kept piling up. And I'm impressed. You decided to go back to FPU. You didn't let those decisions brand you. You made a switch at some point to say, I'm going to actually change. What would you say to people who are listening right now? And they're going, boy, I identify with Erica. I just keep making dumb money decisions. But now I feel like, hey, if she turned it around, I can turn it around. What would you say to them? Just do it. Really, it is stop making excuses.

Take the step. Do the work. It's not easy. It's simple. Simple principles, but it's not easy at all. And you just have to stick with it. What do you think caused you to be able to stay on the horse this time? You got thrown off before.

Accountability partner. Oh. Yeah. There we go. Ultimately. Locking arms. Yes. If I'm outside shopping or doing whatever, if I want to spend an extra $2 that's not considered in the budget or it's not really a necessary item necessary item on the grocery there's no one to hold i ask him yep yeah oh yeah i'll get a

text it's like hey i need to go buy this two dollar item like okay cool it's in the budget we're good like it yeah it might seem like a small thing but it's not like it's not like wait a minute let me make sure i understand it's not like we're saying that Chris is like an overbearing, ochre control freak. It's more like you said, I'm going to submit myself to this partnership to our agreement that we've made. That's what I'm hearing?

100%. Because it's not just my money I'm dealing with right now. It's our money. It's our money. It was our debt when we got married. It wasn't her debt. It was ours. Good for you.

I took on it because it's ours. You are able to do things when you reach for some nobility. And what we're really talking about here, to compliment you, Erica, is you really decide to serve your marriage rather than the spoiled brat little girl. Oh, yes. You know? And that's when we decide to serve something other than ourselves, we're able to do noble things.

Right. All of us. And sticking to that budget, if we weren't. That's a noble thing. Yeah. And if we weren't in Baby Step 2 and we weren't being so diligent in our budget, right smack dab in the middle of it, we get a storm. We get a call that her dad passes away.

Oh, my goodness. He lives in Texas. And we had to figure out, okay, now we have to drive halfway across the country and deal with this. And we were actually able to pick up the responsibility paying for his cremation. Because I wasn't sure. I know my brother. He's not really financially stable. We grew up in the same household.

But because we had been on a budget, we just, okay, whatever was supposed to go towards the credit card this month, I think it was like a magic month for us. So one of us got an extra paycheck. We just were like, we'll take this on for you guys. It was an emergency budget meeting. And, okay, we're going to adjust. It's going to push our Baby Step 2 out one more month. It's okay.

But we never touched our emergency fund the whole time. And it was more of an inconvenience, and it didn't add to the grief that was already happening. The whole time we're realizing, we just wrote a check for what? Look how they're finishing each other's sentences. Yeah, you know, it's a good point. I was struck by something. They're in rhythm. They're just finishing each other's sentences all the way through this. It was a topsy-turvy journey, to say the least. It was a good point. I was struck by something. They're in rhythm. They're just finishing each other's sentences all the way through this.

And this was a topsy-turvy journey, to say the least. It was a huge grief moment. And look how much peace they have right now. They're very peaceful. Boom, boom, boom, boom, back and forth. Just volleyball. It's very well done, y'all. I'm impressed.

Good for you. Way to go, rock stars. Good job, heroes. Very, very cool. So outside of the two of you, who were your biggest cheerleaders? Oh, gosh. Yeah, we had... A lot of people in our church. Yeah outside of the two of you, who were your biggest cheerleaders? Oh, gosh. Yeah, we had a family, a lot of people in our church.

Okay. So let me cut to the chase here. $41,000 paid off in 14 months, making $71,000 to $81,000. Chris and Erica, Columbus, Ohio, count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! I got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires.

That is the next chapter in your story. Very impressive young couple. Very cool. A lot of growing up going on there. This is the Dave Ramsey show folks I love telling you about well-made well-thought-out products today I'm talking about grip six belts I don't know about you but I'm talking about Grip6 belts. I don't know about you, but I'm not a fan of traditional belts. They never fit right and they're uncomfortable.

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Grip6 is determined to help build and modernize American manufacturing. To learn more and get this month's Dave Ramsey special, visit GRIP6.com. That's GRIP6.com. thanks for joining us america we're glad you're here open phones at 888-825-5225 if you want to watch the what now event it is live streamed tonight from the Ramsey headquarters here. Me and Chris Hogan and Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personalities, will be doing a two-hour event teaching you what now. COVID-19 and your money. Now that we're where we are, what now? Spoiler alert.

The law of gravity didn't change. Spoiler alert. The principles are still there. But we will walk you through them, and you can get your friends, your family, The law of gravity didn't change. Spoiler alert. The principles are still there. But we will walk you through them, and you can get your friends, your family, people wondering what to do, what now. Maybe this is your time, and now you're ready. Text the word CONTROL.

If you want a link to this, it's completely free. Text the word CONTROL to 33-789. CONTROL to 33-789.vis is in ohio hi travis welcome to the dave ramsey show hey dave and ken thanks for taking my call sure what's up my wife and i just became 100 debt free may 15th congratulations hey thanks so much um And we just got told that we were going to get a small inheritance from my wife's great-grandmother for all three kids. They're 18, 17, and 13. And so we're just trying to figure out the best way to try to apply. We have said that we would give $10,000 to each kid for their education. And so I'm sure with the first two, the 529 is not the best route. But with that younger one, I guess what I'm fearful of is you put the six grand in

the 529 and then we're trying to contribute to it. What do we do if it goes over that amount? And then he has, you know, let's say 2020,000 in there and then we've only offered the first $210,000. So I'm just trying to think of the best strategy to kind of delegate this money for their schooling. Okay. The inheritance is how much? It's about $6,500 per kid. Oh, okay.

All right. And then you're going to put $10,500 per kid. Oh, okay. And then you're going to put $10,000 on top of that with it or each kid or they're going to have a total of $10,000? $10,000 each kid. Okay, so they're going to have $16,500 each? Yes. Okay. So you give the first two $16,500

and they're going to school and the other one's got a little time for his money to grow. Yeah. There's nothing inequitable about that. It's just the way it worked out. And you still gave them $16,500. One was just younger and it had time to grow, but he's also the one that got beat up the most by the other two. Yeah. That wasn't equitable either, you know?

And the other two already think that he probably gets more because he's the youngest so i mean just add to the inequity tell them tell their counselor okay yeah no i mean i i really um we used to my grandmother was the sweetest lady on the planet and we used to call it Socialism Christmas because if she bought a gift for somebody that was $18.42 more, she would give you the $18.42 and the gift because it had to all equal out. You know, Socialism Christmas, right? And so, God forbid, somebody got something slightly, you know, more than another one. But it was all because of her sweetheart. She wasn't.

But we just used to joke about how precise she was about it. You get, you know, a couple of dimes, a couple of couple pennies it'd be 22 cents in there you know that that was off so you know i i just i for the i think for that reason i we just don't worry about it at our house we don't we don't overly favor one kid over another but you're not that's not the spirit of your situation it's not the spirit of your call it's not who you are it's just one kid's younger so the money's got a little time to grow. So what? I wouldn't worry about it.

No. All of them are going to be working and choosing affordable schools with $16,500 being their budget. That's hardly covering the cost. So it's not like somebody got, you know, you paid $250,000 for one of them to be a doctor, and you wouldn't let the other one go to community school. That's not community college. That's not what you did. So, hey, good question, man question man thank you matt's with us matt is uh in missouri hey how are you matt good and thanks for having me big fan of the show

sure how can i help a quick question kind of on uh feeling like you're at a career step and still career still. I was with the company for about 15 years as a supervisor. We relocated from my spouse's job. Found it really hard trying to find a position where it really helps me get to where I'm trying to be in my career now that I'm no longer with that company. My question would be, what advice would you give someone who feels like they're at a career standstill and trying to find that job they're striving for that they feel like they deserve? Well, where do you want to be? You just told us that you're not where you want to be. Where do you want to be? I work and went to school.

I have a master's degree, and I'm really looking for an upper management level type job. And I figure, given my background and what I've been doing, it would be almost a no-brainer to get that job, but obviously that's not always the case. Well, what's your history? How many jobs have you applied for in this new area? Quite a bit. I was fortunate to get on with the company, but it's just a big area. Well, the reason is because upper management is not a position.

Yeah, I understand. You don't just go, I want to be in upper management. You've got to talk about what I'm going to do, and I get to be a leader in that field. Not just generally, I want to be somewhere in the upper tier of any company. I mean, it boils down to this. You've got to figure out what it is you want to do. What's that role you want to play? And if we're picking one word, it sounds to me like you want to lead and manage people.

But there's industry specifics. And Dave's right. You've got to get in a place and then we look to move up. You know what I mean? And so unless your supervisor, you were a supervisor for 15 years. So you've got to try to be looking towards, all right, I want to move into that level of leadership or slightly above based on my experience. And you know what? I hate to simplify it, but it comes down to the fact that he's applied for a lot of jobs. We don't know all of the things that have happened, Dave, but when you've moved to a new area and you don't know a lot of people, you're going to have to really work hard to

make really good connections to where somebody goes, here's a guy, Matt, who's got a lot of great experience. He's led before. We know he's a good manager, a good leader of people, and we're going to give him a shot. And then he can move up into that upper management level if it's outside of his industry of experience. But you've got to target a specific area.

You can't just go, I want to be in upper management. You've got a guy who comes in here and interviews with us. He goes, I want to be in upper management. I'm going, no, you're not going to be never gonna be right you don't even know what we do here how could you possibly you know well yeah i try i assume that he knows this is the the industry we didn't ask him that but that's the bottom line i think he kind of was saying i think so i've got an mba so i need to be an upper management of some company automatically you're right not the way that works the person aims for nothing hits it every time you're exactly right

you gotta have a you gotta have a you need your shotgun and work and you need a rifle yeah so do you want to lead a team in operations you want to lead a team in technology you know and then what type of role is that in you know the marketing team is it a an industry specific team and i've got background in that or passion about that and i've read up on that and and this company's doing that now i can talk about why I want to do that. When you come into a company and you say, I want to be in upper management, they're going to say no. Two things we've got.

Matt, I want you to go to KenColeman.com. We have a free resource. If you click on the resources page, we've got this career clarity assessment. It's going to walk you through a very basic exercise. It's going to take you just a few minutes to kind of get some clarity on defining that position and where. Very important. Very important. And then also, Kelly, let's give him a copy of the proximity principle.

Because once he knows where he wants to be, the proximity principle will walk you through step-by-step how to get there. Yeah. I mean, here's what I don't want you to do. And I'm not saying you said this, but I heard a little bit of it in there, okay? Like, I had a guy working for me one time that came into my office, and he said, you know, a guy like me that has this, he had more degrees than a thermometer. And he goes, a guy like me that has these degrees, you know,

I make this amount of money. And I said, well, you don't here because you're in a small business, dude. Your raise here is effective when you are. But he was, based on his education and his experience in other places, was saying he deserved this income. And in most businesses, you don't. You have to bring value, and you have to talk to me about the value you're going to add in the organization,

not what I'm going to do for you. The master's degree is knowledge. On the job, what Dave's talking about is experience. Knowledge and experience, and then we lay proof out. That's what gets you the promotion. I'm not saying you're all the way on that side, dude, but I heard a little tinge of that in there. So just be real careful. Find something where you can talk about how you can help them, not how they should give you an upper management job. This is the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for the Dave Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free screen 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.