The Ramsey Show - App - If You Follow the Trends You’ll Fall for the Traps (Hour 1)

Episode Date: February 28, 2024

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, this is The Ramsey Show. It's where we help you win in your life. Specifically, winning with your money. Winning in your work and winning in your relationships. 888-825-5225 is the phone number. 888-825-5225 is the phone number. 888-825-5225. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell

joins me this hour, and we're here for you, and we want to help you. George is going to help you manage that money. We want to figure out do we need to get out of debt? Are we investing? And I want to help you make more of it. How about that, George? That's a great two-fold plan right there. That's my goal when I'm on the Ramsey Show. I want to help you make more of it. How about that, George? That's a great two-fold plan right there. That's my goal when I'm on the Ramsey Show.

I needed to tell James. It's just help you make more money. That's my role as a Ramsey personality. When you need more money, I'm going to try to help you figure that out. So obviously that has a work context, but let's try to help you make more. There are a few financial situations that wouldn't be helped by making more money. And in today's inflationary kind of environment, everybody's sitting there going, I need some more money. Even those that are debt-free are going, hey, I still have aggressive financial goals.

How am I going to do this? There you go. Well, Ken can help on the work and career and money side. The more money. The more money, baby. That's what we're about. Let's go to Sonia to get us started, or Sonia. I never know.

Sonia, Sonia. We'll find out. I'm going to go Sonia. Let's go to Syracuse, New York. Is it Sonia? Oh, I hit the wrong number. I never know. Sonia, Sonia. We'll find out. I'm going to go Sonia. Let's go to Syracuse, New York. Is it Sonia? Oh, I hit the wrong number. I apologize, guys. We're doing great so far. Hold on. There we go. Sonia or Sonia? Which is it? Sonia. Sonia. I was wrong. Dang it. If I had a nickel for every time Ken was wrong. That's all right. Hey, Sonia, how can we help today? So long story short is I am a stay-at-home mom of two, and for the last eight years my job has been my babies and taking care of them.

My husband is an amazing provider that we were able to live off of his income, but we are stuck in an apartment thanks to the economy and the housing market. And I am now able to enter the workplace again. I started being able to realize all the things I've been doing that I've been wanting to do for the past eight years. I've been able to do some of them. And one of those things has been to sew garments for myself. Everybody in my family who's ever tried something on their own, my mom tried a bakery, my dad is a carpenter, none of them have met success. And if I'm going to be spending

any more time and money, not in corporate America. I need to know how to make this into success so that I'm not wasting everything. And my idea was to start a YouTube where I just kind of make fun of myself and putz along so that people can figure out like, oh, that's what that word means. And this is how that works because I don't think there's an audience that knows that yet.

Are you talking about sewing? Sewing garments, yeah. Okay, so it's a YouTube channel focused around sewing and crafts, and you want to just have a fun, kind of entertaining way to educate people. Yeah, and there's a whole vocabulary on sewing clothes and using the right tools and techniques and things that I don't think anyone's using for, you know, like, oh, this is what this word means. Oh, this is how that works. Yeah. And things of that nature. But I, again, I don't have a metric to use as someone to go, hey, this is how that works.

You're my success as your guide. I don't have that. I'm kind of just... Well, are there other YouTube channels that have massive followings and seem to be doing well in that world? Yes, but again, they all use jargon and vocabulary that is assumed to be already known. Well, so a couple of things before we get into this. You're looking to make how much money? Because the way you presented this question is we want to get out of our apartment and in this economy right now, which we're seeing this every day, it's harder and harder to

get a home. So how much money would be a number that you guys have discussed, you've got in your head to say, all right, this would help us move from apartment to house at some point in time. What's that number? Any. Anything. Well, it's not any. There's a specific goal that you have to have. Is it $20,000? Is it $25,000? Is it $30,000? In other words, if we were to add this much money to our combined income every month, it would allow us to get the down payment that we need to buy the house we want. So what's that number? The thing is, we have a big down payment already. We have close to 20%, including closing cost emergency funds, things of that nature.

Okay, great. We have close to all of that already. We have, right now, our savings and all of those things, the giant pot is close to, you know, 80 plus thousand. Okay, so then what do we need the additional money for? Because I want to give my children braces. Great, great. And I want to be able to have a little bit of money to buy fabric. I get it.

So here's the deal. I don't want to belabor the point and get you stuck. I'm not trying to put you on the spot and make you lock into a number, but just give me a round number, then we'll move on because I want to cover two of the things I've heard here. So how much more additional money would we like to make? We've got to have a target. 20 to 30. 20 to 30,000. Great. Okay. Now we got a number and let's pick 30. Let's go on the high end just for the heck of it. It's 2,500 bucks. So what we've got to do when we, when we think about something like this, like how do I use this hobby or skillset to make more money? And I don't mind

the YouTube idea. I think George asked the right question. Who's doing it well out there. The only challenge I have is, is what's more valuable, the jargon associated with sewing or the skill of sewing, which is a fast fading skill that this younger generation, the do-it-yourselfers, cut corners, cut costs. I think there's an appealing idea there. I don't know if jargon is the hook for your YouTube channel. Now, but I don't want to, I'm not in any way trying to rain on the parade there. The idea, I'd continue to look at what works, and I would tell you, start doing it. Do two to three videos a week, and don't quit for a while, and let's just see if it picks up steam. But I want to address two other things very quickly, George. For Sonia, number one, you led off with everybody in my

family or a list of people in your family that tried an entrepreneurial thing didn't fail. And I think that's got a lot of doubt hanging all over you. And I want to address that because that's a mindset thing. You can't assume that because other members of your family failed at entrepreneurial ventures that you're going to fail as well. And I want to make sure that I call that out. You got it? Yeah. All right. So let's shed that. We got to shed that. That's a coat you're wearing. Now, real quick, here's what I'm going to suggest, George, and I want you to weigh in real quick. About a minute. Sonia, I think you ought to actually start offering tailoring services

for real money. Like I'm a guy, George and I both, we love getting our pants tailored. I went to the tailor last week. Our jackets. I think I would work Facebook and local and just your personal networks and connections and go, hey, listen, I'm an expert sewer and I've been doing it a long time, and I'm offering tailing services. And I'll tell you what, if you give me a quote from your local tailor,

I'll beat it by 5%. And start making money sewing while we're trying the YouTube. Because the truth is, YouTube, it might be three years before you see a dime from this thing. And so you have conflicting goals. One is I have a dream, and one is I need money to cover the braces. And one day they could coincide. I agree. So, so, so, need money to cover the braces. And one day they could coincide. I agree.

Sew. Sew. Sew. Sew. You see what I did there? Sonia, that's it. Start sewing. Everywhere you can.

The guys in the booth didn't like that play on words. Ken, we've got to taper this segment off. We do. Let's just go ahead and hem it right here because we've got to go to a commercial break. Let's put a safety pin in it. We'll come back. Sonia, you can do this. Let's start making money now, sewing everywhere we can.

And maybe you're going to reap a lot more money. This is The Ramsey. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell joins me. We're here for you this hour. Excited to have you with us. 888-825-5225.

I'll tell you something else I'm excited about, George. Can I guess? Yeah. Total Money Makeover Weekend. How did you know? I just felt it. We got that ET connection. We have that kind of chemistry. We've known each other a long time. You had that Total Money Makeover Weekend look in your eye. Okay. Wow. I tell you what. A glimmer of hope. I need to stay away from the poker table. I'm so easy to read. I caught your bluff. I'll tell you what. Well, listen, we're very excited about our brand new event, Total Money Makeover Weekend. It's happening May 10 and 11 right here in Nashville on our campus at our sparkling, beautiful Ramsey Events Center. Still got that new event center smell.

It does. It does. Smells like a new car in there, and that's always exciting for George. And if you're wondering, what is this? This is a weekend where you're going to get a crash course on everything we teach about money, a lot of brand-new content. I'm doing brand-new stuff. And I'm going to talk about how to get rich. How about that?

Is that true? It's absolutely true. I'm letting you know right here. I will be in attendance. Yeah, a little bit different than what people – but, you know, it's – obviously, I'm the work personality, but I think people forget that like when Dave talks about the big shovel for decades. Your greatest wealth building tool, your income. And so we're going to talk about what does it take to make money in the short term?

Think baby step one through three, I got to be gazelle intense. And then how do we make money? How do we really start to multiply into baby steps four through seven? Not just the temporary side hustle for a season, but how do you actually amp up your career trajectory? So how about that for a little tease? I'm excited about that. Well, I'm planning something new. We just met to talk about it. Can you tell us? I can only tell you this.

It may involve more than one microphone. We're trying something really new and exciting, so you don't want to miss it. Our team's been working hard on this event. Every personality will be on stage, Dave Ramsey included. It's a Friday and Saturday. It's a Nashville experience, so start budgeting for travel and lodging, transportation, and, of course, get your tickets because right now they're about as cheap as they're going to get.

That's right. They're going to go fast. Early bird tickets start at just $99. So you'll want to jump in right now, ramsaysolutions.com slash events. Okay, let's go to Boston, Massachusetts, where Chris is awaiting. Chris, how can we help? Hey, so I've been listening to the show and reading the books, and I realized kind of where my wife and I have messed up. We just kind of never accomplished baby steps one, two, or three, and we're just kind of spending money as we made it. Those are pretty important steps. Good ones to not gloss over.

So in December, I got laid off, and kind of everything started to catch up a little bit. So we never really got into trouble or behind on anything, but it brought to light kind of how the lack of preparation just didn't serve us well. So I'm starting work back up on Monday, and I was given the opportunity to cash out stock options from a startup I worked at previously, and that hit my bank account this morning. So I took the money that I had on my account this morning.

I set aside $2,000 for an emergency fund. I paid off all of my debt outside of the house. And then I also have six months' worth of bills stashed in an account as well now. And then I set aside, it was $100,000, so I set aside about $28,000 for taxes on that. What a productive morning, man. I'm lucky to get my shoes on and get out of the house. This guy has been getting checks and cashing out debt. Yep, by 630. Way to go.

I'm proud of you. That's a lot of big steps to take after kind of fooling around for a while. Yeah, and it made me feel so good. So now the next thing is, it's like, what do I do next? So the situation we're in now, we have $165,000 left on the house, but my wife's lease of her car is up. So we've been leasing as well. My wife's lease of her car is up in two months and we have a, my youngest is 17 and she's

going to be starting college next year. And she's been in like these conversations just giving me so much anxiety around like student loans that she wants to take out and all of this. So it's like, so now we're wondering after we've done steps one, two, and three, it's almost like we're going to get, you know, when we have to get a new car, when we have to do something with the student loans, when we want to start investing. I'm not sure where to go next kind of thing. Yeah, you got a lot going on and you've done a great job up to this point. And so your next step, you are in baby steps four, five, six, and they're in order, but you got to do them in priority here simultaneously. So baby step four, invest 15% of your income into retirement accounts. So how so far we've been, that's one thing we've been pretty consistent with in my 401k and it's split between like traditional and Roth. I have 145,000. My wife has 165,000 in hers so far. Great. So dial that to 15% for your wife, dial that to 15% for you. You've got baby step four locked and loaded. You move on to five and that is putting money away for college. Obviously this is a dire need right now.

So this might look like, hey, we're going to shovel as much money as we can to cover this next semester or two. And then beyond that, we need to also upgrade this car. And so are you going to do an early – are you going to do the buyout of the lease when it's done, or are you going to hand it back in and get something cheaper? Hand it back in and get something. So that's what I was wondering. Like, do you use the six months of bills that like the finances basically to use that to pay off the car and build that back up? Or is it okay to go into debt if we know that we're done with debt? Okay. So yeah, the key here is whatever we can afford is what we buy. And that might be a real crappy car right now, but pretty soon you get those paychecks in and you don't have any debt payments except for the house. So you're going to be able to stack up money real quick to get that used new

to you car okay so i would figure out what the buyout amount is for her car and see if that's something that's feasible or if you're going to have to just give it back and then buy something used for now that's in that maybe five to,000 to $10,000 range. How much money do you guys have outside of the emergency fund that you can use? About $5,000. We used a lot of it when I had gotten laid off. Okay. When are the taxes due for your stock option cash out? It'll be next year.

So I did it this morning, so it'll be due next year. Okay. Because what I'm wondering, if we use that money right now, and then we save back up to cover the tax bill when that comes due. Okay, that's another thing I was wondering. Okay, cool. Taxes scare me. Oh, I agree. And I just wanted to... Yeah, I want you to be prepared, but I'd rather you cover the taxes later and save up than go into debt for a car right now.

Okay. And then having the hard conversation, Ken jump in here with your daughter, you said, going to college. Yep. You got to say, hey, listen, mom and dad, we don't have the money to cover all four years, but we're going to come up with a plan so that you don't go into student loan debt. And that might mean she works part-time while in school. It might mean she treats scholarships and grants like a part-time job, applying for those like a crazy person. And so all of that combined along with your savings that you're going to be able to put towards this will help her get through at least that first or second year.

And then we can develop a game plan for the rest. Is she a good student? She's got a lot of options via her, maybe her GPA and her SAT or ACT? Yeah. So, and it sucks, like it doesn't suck, but my oldest daughter, we didn't worry because she got a full scholarship, and then all of a sudden, everything happened at once. You never plan on losing your job, and then it happens, and it's like, oh my God, we're not ready for this. So she's got scholarships to some school, not full, but then she just got, I forget what the name of the booklet is, where she can start applying for scholarships and grants and all of that. See, she's got options. She's going to be aggressively doing that. She's got options, and so you've got to explain to her,

it'd be one thing if she just had no options and the only place she could get in and then it was way too much. Now you're going, man, my kid really wants to do this. Now you're trying to go to their dreams and all the cultural pressure if all their friends are getting into their favorite school and all that. In your situation, she's got options. Her self-esteem is feeling pretty good. I would help her see,

Hey babe, uh, nobody really cares where you get your degree from. And so let's go where financially you get to come out of this deal with your life in front of you, not your degree hanging on behind you because of all the debt. And I think that's just helping her see, Hey,

uh, you've got so many options. Take the best option. And the best option is the one where you get what you need degree-wise, but you're not going into debt. And Chris, I'll tell you, as a former Bostonian, I commuted to UMass Boston and lived at home in order to save money. Instead of going to Emerson, which I got into, it was going to be $200,000 for four years. And even then, not knowing Dave, I went, that feels like a stupid amount of money to pay for a film degree. Let me go ahead and go to this in-state school that's a fraction of the price while living at home. So she has to really think about how are we going to do this without debt.

That will help make your decisions. Yeah, really good stuff. Thanks for the call, Chris. You're on your way. Stay with the process. It works every time. You'll get that house paid off, but let's wait and figure out investing in the car and college. Then we can figure out paying down the house early. Yeah, you're in good shape. All right, don't move. A couple

quick commercials and we'll be right back. This is the Ramsey Show. Hey, you guys. Health insurance costs are only moving one way, and that way isn't down. And if higher costs aren't enough, the wait times to see your doctor are longer, and it's harder than ever to get anything approved through the bureaucracy. So if you feel like the system is working against you, try a biblically-based alternative to health insurance, Christian Healthcare Ministries. CHM is a health cost-sharing ministry that's helped hundreds of thousands of families like yours take care of over $11 billion in medical bills since 1981. And CHM has also helped them stay true to their values and avoid miles of red tape.

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Today's question comes from Jake in Ohio. This is a juicy one. When will Dave Ramsey and Ramsey Solutions admit they were wrong on Bitcoin? Never. Jake. Never. Gosh. Is this a real email, James, that came in?

Yeah, it's real. Wow. But the question is real, but the email address they gave was bogus, and they gave us a phone number to like a trash compacting company, so they didn't. Oh, so this is what we call trolls in the industry. Yeah, and Jake thinks he got us. Well, I doubt his real name is Jake.

Yeah, it's Jake from State Farm. Jake is very excited right now that he's probably listening. He's like, oh, I got Ken and George to read my question. I got them, and they can't track me because I gave them a fake phone number and a fake email. Ken, we're going to take the high road and give him a real answer despite his fake question. Well, his question was, will we admit that we were wrong? I don't think this is a right or wrong thing. And our stance on crypto and Bitcoin has not changed. And it's not out of sheer grit. It's that we were never angry at Bitcoin.

The problem is people cashed out their retirement accounts betting on a coin. And if you ask anyone who actually knows about cryptocurrency, they'll tell you, oh, it's not an investment. It's speculation. This is speculating. This is betting. It's not that dissimilar to gambling in Vegas. Do people make money gambling? Sure, some do. And they brag about it. And there's a lot of people who get hurt, who get burnt. And those are the people I'm most concerned about. And so I talk about this in my new book, Breaking Free from Broke, under the investment traps. And I talk about cryptocurrency, which Bitcoin is sort of the 800-pound gorilla in the room of cryptocurrency. And I compared it to Mary Kay for Young Men. That's what I called crypto. And I lay out the

reasons. I talk about multi-level marketing. There's a lot of fangirls out there, and there's crypto fanboys. And in their Twitter bios, Ken, they say, hashtag Bitcoin. They have devoted their life. It's an obsession. They watch this 24-7 because that's how Bitcoin trades. And right now, I just checked where things are at with Bitcoin. It's back at some near all-time high levels at about $61,000 a coin. So it's back up to its all-time when people were going crazy over it. And not long ago, Ken, it was, this was, let's see, let's go back to September of 2023. So this is five months ago. It was at 25,000. And so you

can see the volatility of something like that worries me because most people doing this are young men who are not investing in retirement. They're not investing into things that have a proven track record. Instead, they're putting all of their eggs in one basket. And we've always railed against single stocks for the same reason. It's too risky to put all of your money into one thing. Yeah, highly risky. And that's the whole point. And it's not proven either. This is a new situation that is not regulated. And I hate government regulation as a whole. And I think it will soon be regulated. Once it's regulated, this is something that probably needs some good old-fashioned fundamental regulation to protect consumers.

And so that's the reason why we're like, look, be careful. This is, as you like to call it, a trend with a trap. That's it. And so, again, if you want to invest in cryptocurrency, be my guest, but only do it after you're already investing 15% into tax advantage retirement accounts and you're doing this with fun money. Dave calls it the burn test. If you burn that amount of money on the kitchen table, would it change your life for the worse? And if the answer is no, then go for it. If you're out of debt, you have an emergency fund, you're already investing 15%. If that's what you want to

do with extra money, bless you. And if you do well with it, we'll cheer you on and be fund, you're already investing 15%. If that's what you want to do with extra money, bless you. And if you do well with it, we'll cheer you on and be happy for you. But I can't in good faith go on air and tell people, hey guys, put your money into Bitcoin, and then it drops in value by half. If that happened with our 401ks, we would be rioting and losing our minds in the street. And this stuff happens all the time with crypto. And over time, I think it'll stick around. It's not a trend that's going to go away but we've seen a lot of fraud and scam coins and you know these um dogecoin and all of these

kind of meme coins that have come and gone and people have i had a family member not a direct family member who put uh four hundred thousand dollars into dogecoin and it turned into sixty thousand dollars and so that hurt my soul to think about putting your life savings into something like that to see it burn away. Yeah. Wow. Might as well buy lottery tickets. I mean, there's not much different.

And so I'm blessed to all of you who want to troll. And if you're going to do it, give us a real email. Don't be a coward. Yeah. Hiding behind the bushes. Very manly. All right, let's go to Landon, who is joining us now in McAllen, Texas. Landon, how can we help? Hey, Ken. Hey, George. How are y'all doing? Good. What's going on?

Hey, so my question is, how do I bring up pay raise structure with my boss when it was never brought up in the interview process? Is there a annual meeting that is part of the normal rhythm there at that company where they meet with you annually and kind of go over your growth and where you've been, where you are, any of that happening? Not that I'm aware of. Like we just, I mean, obviously the end of the year just happened and I was working here at the time. I've been here about six months, but no, not that I'm aware of. And that's kind of what I'm asking. How do I bring that up with my employer? I wouldn't bring it up in the context of a raise. I would bring it up, hey, I've been here six months, and I know I've only been here six months,

and I realize that when I got hired, we didn't really talk about a performance plan, a growth plan. Do you do that? And if you don't all the time, if it's not like a formal process here at the company, I'd love to, do we do an annual meeting? I'd love to meet with you once a year as far as my overall performance at a minimum and set some parameters, making sure that if expectations have changed or if job description is slightly different, that we're on the same page about what you expect of me, how are we measuring those results?

And then how are we rewarding those results? I think that's a mature, very thoughtful way without asking for a raise and without kind of saying, I deserve this and not feeling like, you know, you're jumping the gun. Cause listen, you've been there six months. George, I don't know if it hits you this way. Six months feels a little soon to be having this conversation, but if you want to have it, that's the way to have it. I would certainly have it at 12 months, and I would raise it the same way I just gave to you.

Does that make sense? Any questions about that? Right, yeah, and that's kind of what I was aiming for. I wasn't going into this thinking I want to ask for a raise. I just want to know what the process is. What's your role? I'm a construction superintendent for a general contractor. Okay, so in your industry, in your field,

what does it look like to kind of climb that ladder with growth? What would be the thing you're aiming for, you know, three years from now, five years from now? So, um, I could move into like a more, um, like more of a general, uh, superintendent role, um, where, uh, where the, the pay would be higher. Um, but, um, I'm new to the, I'm new to the, this, this type of role. So I'm not expecting that kind of growth in the next five years. I'd probably be in the same role for the next five years just with pay increases. Okay. So it's less of a growth plan as far as I want to be in a different role and more just like, hey, as I'm here over the long term, what does growth look like even in this role? Right. Exactly. Yeah. Again, I love it. I would just wait until 12 months because even if you go in saying, look, I'm not asking for a raise, but I'm asking what

raises are like, let me tell you what the leader's going to hear. And listen, most leaders, when there's not some type of structured way of dealing with these type of issues, like an annual meeting where we talk about promotion and raise, they can get defensive pretty quickly if you hit them this way. And that's the last thing you want to do. And it can come across as entitlement, even when that's not your tone or your heart. That's right. And so that's what we're more concerned about, especially a young guy coming in for six months, you know, with the ear beaver, who's like, hey, give me the raise. What can I do? Put me in, coach. I think the best thing you can do is crush it at your job and have everybody notice. That's right.

That's right. And here's a fun little exercise, I think, to play off of what George said. What would you need to see? Put yourself in your boss's shoes and say, what would they need to see over the next six months where they just feel like, man, we got it. We got to give them a raise or we're going to lose them. Just come up with that. You can't go wrong. But I would literally visualize that and say, okay, I need to make that happen

and get after that and good things are going to happen, I promise. You won't have to worry about it. Thanks for the call, Landon. Good stuff. He's George Campbell. I'm Ken Coleman. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman.

George Campbell joins me. And we are here for you, America, to answer your questions about money and work and relationships. And, you know, it's that time of the day for us. It's post-lunch, mid-afternoon hour approaches. Getting the sleepies. And on the commercial break, Georgie boy told me that he was fading a little bit. So he's got his cold brew in here, and this has become one of my favorites. You ready for the sound of nitrogen escaping this can? Yeah.

Wow. That was like a rocket ship taking off. That was fantastic. And that's what listening to the Ramsey show is kind of like. You listen in, you watch on YouTube, you listen to the podcast and it's like that. You know when you start listening that it's just that sound and the goodness has been

opened. It's in the form of hope and practical steps. I knew you'd find some way to make this inspirational. And you get a little jolt out of it. That's good. It's real good. Just like George's Cold Brew. In fact, this segment is brought to you by George's Cold Brew.

Man. It's not a thing, but it shouldn't be a thing. I think this shows that we're human. You know what I mean? We need caffeine just like the rest of America. Yeah. So cheers. Yeah.

And you, by the way, I need to get in that habit. I don't think you need it. You get too jittery. At your age, it's dangerous. You've got to watch your caffeine intake, Ken. Oh, I can't wait. I can't wait for the age jokes for you. Ken's going to beat me up in the parking lot.

No, I love you, George. All right, let's go to Abby, who joins us now in Atlanta, Georgia. Abby, you are on The Ramsey Show. What can we help with today? I want to figure out how the best approach would be to eliminate my debt and be able to save for a home. Love it. I think George has handled this question a few times before.

I'm curious, Abby, how old are you? I am 23. Okay. What is it with you on the age thing? You talk about my age, you've got to ask her how old she is. Can't you just help her? Why do you got to be so focused on the age? I could tell Abby she was a young buck ready to take on adulthood,

going like, all right, it's time to clean up my debt. I want to be a homeowner. And knowing that she's 23 just helps with the paradigm. Okay. You know? So, Abby, how much debt do you have? Most of my debt's medical debt. It's about $40,000 in medical debt and then about $3,000 to $4,000 in personal credit card debt. Okay. Wow. Are you okay? That's a lot of medical debt. Yeah. Tell me about it. That was with insurance. Wow. Well, medical debt, I, tell me about it. That was with insurance. Wow. Well, medical debt I have the most empathy for because it's not something anyone wanted to take on.

Yeah, she didn't go out and decide to go shopping. Yeah, it wasn't like you just bought a new car. You're like, I don't know what to do. So this is a tough thing. How old is the medical debt? Most of that accrued around 2019 to 2020. Okay. I'm wondering if they would be willing to settle for a lower amount if you're unable to pay this in due time. I have tried and they are just money hungry. Northeast Georgia does not like anything but money. Okay. So you've been making a minimum payment. What's been the payment plan for this honestly right now currently i'm in between jobs last year i made about 30 000 and then i also have my boyfriend that we're both trying to to save as well save for what we for a house and try and pay off oh boy individually you're gonna buy a house with someone you're not married to well right now we just want to all our debts individually. You're going to buy a house with someone you're not married to?

Well, right now we just want to get our debts paid off and we each save up individually so we can purchase the home at that point. Okay. I would not do that until you're married. And it's not from like an old folk moral high ground. It's from a legal financial standpoint. It's very risky to do that. And we've taken that call. And so I'm warning you as someone who's seen it to go, don't go down that path.

So let's talk about your debt. What are you making right now? You said you're in between jobs. Well, currently I am just doing babysitting stuff. And I'm only making about like four to five hundred a week but prior to that I made thirty thousand last year. What were you doing? I was working at a I was working as a VPA as a scale operator. Okay and do you have a college degree or what was your level of education? Just high school education.

Okay. So I'm going to have Ken jump in and help with the career side. The key here is income. It's fine to dream about a home, but it's going to be hard to do that from babysitting money. And it's going to be hard to pay off $40,000 in debt when you're at the poverty line, essentially, making $400 a week. Oh, yeah. So we need to get income up before we talk about this other stuff. What can you do where you know, okay, listen, forget about confidence and connections

and those things that kind of trip people up. But let's just say that I could put you in a position today where you know you could make more money. What are the things that I would be able to say to all my friends out there going, hey, let me tell you why you need Abby. This is what she brings to the table. What could you do? I've excelled in all the career paths I've ever took, whether it be manual labor, desk jobs, financial jobs, anything. I'm a jack-of-all-trades. Listen, that's great for making money because it's, listen, this is about transfer of skill. So I get paid for the skill that I bring in the experience that I bring. And I love that you gave us three categories. So of those three categories that you mentioned, which one of those gives you the best opportunity?

And I know where you live. My wife and I lived in Suwannee, Georgia for 11 years. So I know the Northeast area. That's a pretty good job economy there. What of those, just those buckets that you told us of past work, which one of those gives you the best chance to make the most amount of money, whether it be hourly or salary? Anything in the business field I would think would be the best financially. Okay, then. To grow in. So here's what we're doing.

We're getting out there and we're looking at what's available. We're going to go look at job sites and we start there and we go, okay, this is what I've done in the past. That's my experience. And here's the skill set that I brought to the table then and that I can still bring to the table now. And we start to match the skill and experience up on this metaphorical piece of paper, if you will. And I'm looking at the jobs and I'm going, okay, I can actually bring something to the table here. Then the second thing we do is we get out on social media,

we talk to everybody we run into. If we're at a soccer game, if we're at church, if we're at the gym, if we're at the restaurant, the bar, we're telling everybody that'll listen, here's what I'm looking for. And you start to make this your number one priority, which is increasing your income. And here's the great news, Abby. Okay. If you can increase your income, $40,000 is actually extremely doable. You could pay that

off pretty quick. We just do round numbers. Okay. If you just did a thousand bucks a month, okay, then that would take a while. But if you can put $2,000 a month, now we're knocking this out in 20 months, just under two years, okay? And so I really think you ought to get to the point where you're able to get $2,000 at a minimum throwing at this medical debt. And I would also go back to the hospitals when you start making better money and go, look, here's what I can do. It's going to take you this long to get it. Throw it at them. It's going to take you three and a half, four years to get this. Or I can give you half of it and you get it in the next six months or whatever. And let's just see what we have nothing to lose with that negotiation ploy. Because you offer them, this is the money you're going to get and you're going

to get it quick. I would revisit that once you increase your income. But right now, your number one goal is increasing income. So when you ask us the question, how can I get out of debt? You need to be working more or you need to be working better, and that means better pay. Yeah, because the job that I was working at, I was working six days a week, probably about 60 hours a week. Was that manual labor? It was doing scales as a VPA. Yeah, I don't know what that means. You said that earlier, and I honestly have no clue what any of that means. What do you mean scales? 18 willers. They come across scales and get weighed.

What does that pay hourly? I was getting paid $18.50 an hour. And so were you getting overtime with the $60? Time and a half? Yes. Great. So what keeps us from going back to that? It wasn't feasible with all the hours. All right. But here's the deal. With my health and stuff, it just wasn't feasible. Are you living at home right now? Me and my boyfriend live together at his parents' house to save money. Okay. Well, it's hard to save money when you don't make much, and so we need to get the income up if we're ever going to get out of this.

I think you're too comfortable, Abby. I don't think you're urgent. And I'm not criticizing. I've probably put in, just in the last month alone, I've probably put in close to 100 to 200 applications. I get it. I get it. But just putting out applications, it's like sitting on the shore and waiting for the fish to bite.

No, no, no. We're going to go catch them. We're going to get in the water with a net. Good hour, George Campbell. Thank you, sir. I want to thank James Childs, our fearless leader, and you, America, for listening. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you.