The Ramsey Show - App - I'm 16 Years Old...When Should I Buy a Truck? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: June 18, 2021

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this is the Ramsey Show. It's where America hangs out to have a conversation about life. I'm Ken Coleman, host of the Ken Coleman Show on the Ramsey Network, joined by my colleague Anthony O'Neill, host of The Table with Anthony O'Neill on the Ramsey Network as well. And his Ramsey personalities. We are your hosts this hour. 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225.

What's your question? Need just to talk? You need some tactical advice, whether it be on money, your work, your relationships, whatever it is, we are here for you. It is a free phone call, 888-825-5225. Let's start it off this hour in Fort Worth, Texas, where Asa joins us. Asa, how can we help? Hey, guys.

Anthony and Ken. Thanks for taking my call. You bet. What's up? Not too much. Just living life, just trying to get things figured out. So about a year ago, I started at the beginning of 2019. I was actually waiting tables, making less than $25 a year.

And by the grace of God, I ended up getting into a previous job I had. They called me back, and I ended up getting the job back. So I went from making below $25 a year to around $52. Okay. So, you know, it's just a lot of increase. It's been super awesome. So immediately, as soon as I got the pay increase, I just started hitting it hard. I mean, paying off debts that I never had the chance to address.

You know, my wife and I collectively last year, between the two of us, paid off all our credit cards. Just paid the last one this past week, actually. So about $17,000 in credit cards and mixed up other debts that we had. Right now, though, my wife and I ended up buying two cars back in 2019. I've got a 2019 Altima, she has a 2019 Jeep. And so not the best ideas back then, but desperate times. And, you know, we just really, well, I really need the car at the time to keep working. So right now what we're facing is the situation of we had a personal loan because she had consolidated. So we had about $24,000 right now.

We just restructured that loan because it was killing her, like 24% interest rate. And we just got it down to $7,000. Shocking, I know. But we got that restructured recently, which is great because now we can put it down together. My question is, though, I still owe about $26,000 on my car. I tell you what sets it around $20,000 worth if I sell it private. And she has her car, which is about $24,000. And I literally just brought it up to a date with her because I was watching Anthony's 10 Things Not To Do With Your Money on YouTube.

And I kind of caught that idea in my head. I was like, you know, what if I were to sell my car, you know, try to get as close to breaking even as possible, and then maybe just turn around and get a $5,000, $8,000 car, and just see if we can try to work it down from there. Yeah. And just, you know, I was trying to get some advice because she's totally against me selling my car right now. Like she's totally against it. I was like, you know, just think about it. You know, there's, there's, you know, don't just look at it from, Hey, we need two cars. Look at it from

what's the possibilities for the longterm because I don't want to, you know, I don't want to be in death or something like early one of the time before I hit 45, but you know, got to have goals, but I'm just trying to see, you know, what is a good way I can try to address this with her and show her the positives of, you know, maybe not just, you know, selling a car just to not have another car, but downsizing in the debt. You know, it's such a great question. And I really want Ken to come in and talk about this from a husband perspective, because I really try to make sure that i'm careful and not giving marriage advice because i'm not married uh but there is a level of again being clear on the ultimate vision like bae where are we going do we want financial freedom and if we want financial freedom

then there's going to be some things that we have to do that we will not like to get there. Hence, one of the things will be selling the car. Total debt. What's the total amount of debt you have excluding your mortgage, bro? Real quick. So without the mortgage, I calculated both of our cars plus the loan that we just restructured. It's about $74,000. Okay. And then what's your total household income again?

We're right now with my income going up for about $130,000, I believe. $130,000. $130,000, okay, cool. So with this kind of income, $74,000 in debt, if you all really follow what we teach here on the 7 Baby Steps, you could be debt-free within the next two and a half years because of that. Right. If you cannot pay off your car within two years because your cars combined are not above your household income, 50 percent of your household income. So I can rock with it. But where you get the ding is, you know, you got to you should be able to pay it off within two years.

So I'm in line with you of selling the cars and buying a cash car. Do you have anything in savings right now? Not yet. Literally just everything we've had so far has just been going towards paying off the debt. Like, again, we just paid off the last credit card. So right now it is. So the savings I've had, like. Do you have $1,000 in your account, though?

Not yet. We're just about to get started on that. She's been reading the, you know, Total Money Makeover. I haven't read it yet. I'm just watching y'all's videos. So that's inspiring. And great. Man, I appreciate that.

I want you to watch our videos. But real quick, $1,000 is babysit number one. And then after that, you go into babysit number two, and you start paying off all debt using the debt snowball then you go into a fully funded emergency fund so i want you all to stop not stop but pause putting extra money towards your debt and i want you to put a thousand dollars in your emergency fund because it's not a matter of if something within the next 90 days something possibly will come up and let's be honest and so I want you to have at least a cushion to where you can pull from rather than having to go into debt.

But Ken, how does he have this conversation with his wife as a husband? Because I'm a little immature in that area because when I hear people say that, I just want to tell my wife, this is what we're going to do. Yeah. And that's a single man talking who has no experience with this. You know, the question I have, Asa, is this. When you said a moment ago that your wife doesn't want you to sell your car, let's be real specific.

Is she, like, jumping up and down telling you you're an idiot or a moron or threatening you or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah? Or has she just shared an opinion and she was like, I don't think you should do that. Give me the level. So we're pretty level-headed so she's definitely giving me uh she's not like over top crazy about it she's just like giving her opinion right because she doesn't want to be without two cars for a while i get it but i'm not accusing you of this but i'm telling you that i've been here before as a married man, sometimes Stacy may just make an offhanded opinion and I'll use it as an excuse not to do something I know I

should do. And she's not telling me not to do it. She's not even telling me she disagrees. Sometimes we make excuses because it's like, well, I want to do this, but gosh, this will be uncomfortable. But because of one conversation, Asa, my wife said, I don't know how smart that is because we need to. Oh, you're laughing. That means, Asa, I might be, I don't know how smart that is because we need to. Oh, you're laughing. That means, Asa, I might be on the mark. Yes or no? Come on, man. Yeah, because, you know,

honestly, like with everything, just doing everything that our guest recently, like, I didn't realize how much it was hurting her personally because she likes to go out and do things. I get it, but that's an excuse. I wasn't very emotional about it. I get it. So here's the deal. You just admitted it. That's a long way of saying you're right, Ken. Here's the deal.

Sell that car. Go get something cheap. That's going to take a tremendous amount of debt off. Do exactly what A.O. said, but sell the car, man. Sell the car. You can always get a nicer car later, but we make excuses sometimes. Yeah. Because we don't want to do it.

Yeah. We say we want to do it, but we don't really want to do it and so we'll use somebody else's opinion as an excuse that's not fair to them and that's not the right thing to do work the baby steps you guys are just now getting into this they work don't stop doing them they always work every time when people commit to them and finish the baby steps. This is the Ramsey Show. You've got a lot on your plate. A job, your home, your marriage, and your growing family. While you're enjoying the present, you can't help but think about your future and your finances.

As you explore your options, consider Christian Healthcare Ministries, or CHM, for your health care. Their generous maternity program and budget-friendly monthly programs have been a blessing to members welcoming children into their families. Visit chministries.org slash budget to see if it's right for you. That's chministries.org slash budget. The Ranty Show continues from our Ranty Solutions studios in Nashville. And Anthony O'Neill, Ken Coleman with you for this hour. It is a free call. 888-825-5225.

888-825-5225. Let's go to Richmond, Virginia, where Austin joins us. Austin, how can we help? Anthony, Ken, it's a pleasure to talk to you guys. Can you hear me okay? Yes, sir. Hey, so I'll give you a little bit of background. I am 100% debt-free. My fiancee, she's still in school.

She has a little bit of debt. She has about $2,000 on credit cards, $7,000 on student loans. But, you know, she's graduating in December, and she has school paid for. Her mother works for a university, so she gets free tuition. So we are pretty much both on the same page as far as debt. I know I am. I do not like debt. You know, no debt, no debt, no debt, like you guys said.

She is almost on the same page. She's a little more tolerant than I am. But, um, I guess the big question is we are, you know, making, we're planning our wedding right now. And, uh, we have a strict, I have, we have a strict $10,000 budget and, um, she is starting to get a little, you know, iffy about the budget, the closer we get at first, she was like, oh man, yeah, yeah, yeah. But now she's, you know, we're starting to make some real decisions. She's going out wedding dress shopping and, you know, we have, um, a certain amount budgeted for her wedding dress and she's, I guess she's kind of scared and she's like, oh no, I don't know what wedding dress I'm going to get. So I guess the real question is, and it's starting to cause a

little bit of calm in our relationship. So I guess the question I'll boil it down to is, is compromising on the budget for the wedding okay for the happiness of the relationship? Let me answer this question. Do you have any room to compromise on the budget? Maybe a little bit. I'm trying to. No, seriously. Do you have any room to where you can go up and give like an extra couple of thousand dollars? Comfortably.

Where it's not going to hurt you all's future. You're not robbing from your emergency fund. Can you maneuver some things around for the sake of this wedding? It's a simple yes or no question. Yes, I can. How much more is that, honestly? Probably about maybe $1,000 on there or so, but I don't know where it stops.

If I compromise on the dress, do I have to compromise on something else? I don't know where to give into it. I don't think, and correct me if I something else? I don't know where to give into it. I don't think, and correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think you tell her what to do. I think you tell her, hey, babe, we set out, we agreed on a $10,000 budget. I hear you. I want this day to be absolutely amazing for you.

So I went back to the budget. I can squeeze out another $1,000. I don't know what you can squeeze out. But the key thing here is we're not going to rack up any debt and we may not have everything we have. But you can choose how you you to see that I'm trying to be a good steward with the financial resources. Right. And then you put it back on her. So like, all right, I'm going to go buy a $3,000 dress, but then I may bend over here and go from there. What is specifically, you guys have talked about this. Is there a specific number in her mind or a specific item?

And will the $1,000, I love how Ayo walked you through this. That was beautiful. Is that going to solve it? It doesn't sound like it does to me, like it solves it, because you're like, well, what happens when she comes back for $1,000 more? That's the way you basically reply to that. So that leads me to believe there's been a couple of conversations, and I want to know what specifically is going on here.

How much more are we talking about? Where does she want more money? I don to know what specifically is going on here. How much more are we talking about? Where does she want more money? I don't know. I think we have pretty much everything set. We have the venue and the caterer. I think she's kind of just afraid of the unknown. She's afraid that she'll try on a $3,000, $4,000 dress and fall in love with it and then be able to get it because

I guess we're restricted to the budget. Okay, this is great. That's what I wanted to know. If you gave $1,000 more, because that's your limit, would that get her to where she would be able to afford the $3,000 dress? Maybe, but she hasn't gone wedding dress shopping yet. That's my whole point. Hey, she needs to go shopping first and start looking at stuff and getting a range of stuff. Let me tell you something.

Ayo and I both love clothes, okay? No shame on our game. We like a nice suit, both of us. We come from the church world. Ayo, we like custom suits. We like a nice suit, both of us. We come from the church world. We like custom suits. We've done that before, nice suits. But here's the deal. I go look at stuff and look at materials and look and shop, and then I start pricing.

And then when I start pricing, I start going, oh, I can get this level of a suit for this. I can get this level for this. And if I don't want to spend this, what do I do? I start changing the material that I might. She needs to go dress shop this conversation doesn't go any further until she goes dress shopping and she starts looking at what she likes and what she would feel beautiful in and let's put some real pricing out there otherwise this conversation doesn't happen anymore well let's let's let's add to this ken okay because uh if you tell a woman to go dress shopping and then

let's talk about the budget, all the ladies out there looking at me like, I know where Anthony's going. She's going to find a $10,000 dress and come back. No, she's not going to do that. Yes, she will. No. Come on now. So this is my suggestion.

I think y'all need to come up with, hey, bae, you can spend $3,000 on your dress. Now go find a dress that you like within that budget. Believe me, i'm assuming austin and i appreciate that ao but for everybody thinks i'm tone deaf she's already said to you i'm scared i'm gonna try out a three thousand or four thousand dollar dress she knows what it costs but she needs to go out there start trying some stuff on is my point yeah but you can go on amazon and get a dress for five hundred. But she's not going to. That's not going to happen.

You know what I'm saying? I feel you. I mean, look. I'm just saying you can find a dress in any budget, Ken. I'm just saying I think for her was what I feel is if this younger generation hears from their peers, oh, you're going to spend about $5,000, $6,000 on a dress of your life, and you're only going to wear it one day. Why spend $5,000 on a dress? You're only going to wear it one day.

That's my thing. It's all relative. It really is. All of this is relative. That's probably why I'm still single because I ain't. Yeah, you're all carrying on with confidence about wedding dresses. I'm over here going, man, I've been there, done that. I've already been through all this.

I like how you walked him up to the point of going, look, here we are. This is our first major money discussion. We're about ready to get married. And money is the biggest. Money and kids, and I'd throw faith in there. Those are your big tension points in marriage, right? Yeah, that's good. And if he's saying, I can only go $1,000 more, I thought that was great that you walked him up to that.

And I would say to that young man, you can make more money. Go ahead and kick in $1,000. But they also need to actually go dress shopping. And she might think $3,000 or $4,000 is her lane. She might see something for $2,000. I don't know. I haven't checked wedding dress prices. I've been married 23 years.

I don't have a clue. But what I'm saying is that they've got to get to a level of true understanding here i need to understand you you need to understand me let's figure out what really really matters here i want you to feel beautiful i want you to look beautiful i understand this is a big day i'm excited about it but we got to go see what's out there and not just assume that well i'm going to need more money because I've started looking into it. That's what I'm – this is a moment for this young couple. They've got to really figure this out.

Yeah. Because you don't want to be – the last thing you want is her in the back room of the church. Crying. Crying because she didn't get the dress she wants. Man, I want to say something right there, but I can't. That's probably a good idea. I don't even know where you're going, but that's probably a really good idea. Let's change gears.

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This is The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, joined by my colleague and Ramsey Personality, Anthony O'Neill. And we're here taking your questions. 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Let's go to Elijah in Kansas City, Kansas. Elijah, how can we help? Hello.

I'm wondering if I should buy a truck this year or next year with the amount of money that I make. Okay. How much money do you make? I'm just 16. Just started working this summer for my dad's company. I should start making probably $5,000 to $7,000 just this summer, and then hopefully the same next summer. Nice.

And then I have some in savings too. How much do you have in savings already? I have $2,000 in savings. Okay, cool. What are your parents saying? When you talk to your parents, what are they advising you to do? Use the, because we have a van, use that car as much as I can until, so I can save up more and more. Okay. And so save up to go buy another car or save up to have this money go towards your college experience?

I don't know if I want to go to college. Oh, okay. What kind of truck are you thinking about price-wise? Well, I'm thinking about a truck. I want something that will pull a trailer. Why do you need to pull a trailer? Yeah. Why?

Why do you have a trailer, or what trailer are you pulling? What for? Because on the side, I mow yards on the side too. Nice. So the trailer's got the lawnmowers and everything on it. I love it. Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

All right. So again, what's the price point? Have you done any research on a truck that, again, I mean, this isn't a massive trailer. So what kind of truck are we talking about? Price. So again, what's that price you're looking at? Probably $10,000 to $15 to 15 000 for a truck man yeah trucks are expensive man i'm looking at it's gonna be he can't find something around five and seven i would say that i'm just saying i'm not surprised that it's 10 to 15 i mean anything less than 10 you're gonna be crazy

high miles pretty old is that Is that right, Elijah? Yeah, I want something that'll last me a couple, like, five, 10 years. I would do a little bit more research. I mean, for a 16-year-old, I'm comfortable with you spending in between $5,000 and $7,000 on your first car. If your parents want to chip in the other $3,000 to get you over to you over to 10. I'm okay with that. But for you, I want to see you ride around five, max $7,000 on your first vehicle. And I think you can be there by the end of this summer. You know, I definitely understand about the van and not being able to pull it as much for your cutting grass. But, I mean, I agree with your parents.

I would try and use his van as much as I possibly can to save up on money. And then, once I come up with the five to seven grand, if my mom and dad want to match you to help you get to a little bit more better car with less miles, I'm cool with that. But for you, no.

No more than five. And don't get completely married to a truck, too, because there are some SUVs that you've got a V8 in them, V6. They have plenty of juice to be able to pull a trailer. So it doesn't have to be a truck. I get it. You're in the landscaping business, cutting lawns. Everybody feels like they need a truck. I get it.

My kid wants a truck right now. I'll tell you what. Yeah, man. Listen, trucks hold their value. Your Otis? Mm-hmm. Let me talk to him. I'll change his mind.

What are you going to talk him into? I'm going to tell him no. This is fantastic. Well, have you ever dinnered a night? I didn't realize my parenting issues were as simple as getting A.O. to talk to him. I'm going to tell him no. Yeah, I get you. All right.

888-825-5225 is the number. Crystal's next in Chicago, Illinois. Crystal, how can we help? Hi, Ken. Hi, Anthony. Hi. You guys are doing well. Yeah, we are.

What's going on? So I'm calling because I just received a new job offer. It's doing something that I believe I will actually really enjoy and kind of aligning with my talents and passion. Nice. But I am terrified because the initial start of the position would require me to take a pay cut for potentially eight weeks. Okay. But the earning potential after that is pretty limitless.

And so I am just, I'm nervous about accepting the offer. I don't want to, you know, leave my job because it's more of a secure position right now. And so I just don't know what to do. Sure you do. I need someone to help me kind of talk it through. Oh yeah, so this is a simple, simple exercise. This is head and heart in a wrestling match.

That's all this is. And you just said, because you know. Let me take a guess. Your heart is saying, take the new job, because it's something that's in your sweet spot, as I teach, where you use your talent, what you do best, to do work you love, your passion, to accomplish results that matter to your mission. And oh, by the way, it's limitless income. So there's that on top of the whole sweet spot thing. So your heart's going, take the new thing. But your brain's going, that's not smart. It's risky.

We got a stable job with great benefits. Probably sounds annoying like that voice too, huh? Right, right, exactly. So I tell people to follow their heart. Let's just walk through why we need to get our brain connected to the heart. Can you absorb, or another word is, can you manage through an eight-week, which is two months, pay cut? Mm-hmm. Yes.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think writing it all down, putting it down on paper, so just a process. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think putting, writing it all down, putting it down on paper. So just to process, my husband and I are on baby step two. So we're almost out of baby step two. We have about $20,000 more to pay off. We've done really well so far. And so I just keep thinking that would obviously push us back, you know, those two months, maybe three months, depending. And we've built so much momentum. So that's why I think I'm nervous. But if we just hunker down even more, I mean, I think it's definitely doable.

It is doable. But again, it's just who I am. I have that scarcity mindset, so I'm nervous about it. Yes, yes, but don't beat yourself up. That's human. That's normal. I get it, especially when you're in the middle of paying off debt and you're in Baby Step 2, which this is really

great, AO, because we get a lot of people that listen to the Randy Show that'll come over to our shows. They'll come over to the Ken Coleman Show and they'll go, well, Ken's trying to help people discover their dream job and make it a reality, but I can't even think about the dream job. I can't even think about making progress in my career when I'm on baby step two, and that is absolutely categorically false. I agree.

And Crystal, you're the proof of it. So here's the deal. You and the Hub sit down on paper. We adjust our budget, just like we've taught you to do when any other life situation happens. And we adjust the budget for eight weeks, maybe nine weeks, maybe 12 weeks. We adjust the budget for the new job. And the reason we do that and we hunker down is because it is this move that is not only going to be on purpose for you doing something in your sweets about what you were born to

do and you're going to love it. You're going to work harder. you're going to make more money. Uh-oh. That means we're going to actually get out of debt, get the emergency fund, the 15% retirement. We're going to slide right beautifully into baby steps four, five, and six way faster because of this job. Is that a true statement or a false statement? That's true.

Then that's what we focus on. And we sit down and we go, this is a short-term step back in salary for a short-term increase. It's not long-term. We've been doing this for eight years. We're doing it for eight weeks, two months, maybe three months. Do you believe that you can crush this job? Oh, certainly.

That's my girl right there. Did you hear that, Ayo? She said, oh. Easy. Certainly. Easy. So you and the hub start thinking about all that increase financially and how that gets us through baby step three.

Baby step two and three faster. Bigger shovel. You ever heard Dave talk about the bigger shovel? Yes. You just got yourself a bigger shovel by getting promoted. You just promoted yourself. Crystal, now are your head and heart aligned? Yeah, definitely. Because here's the deal. It's natural to be afraid, but we must call the fear out and we must ask, Ayo, is fear telling me the truth? So good. Well, let me tell you this. If I get up to the edge of a cliff and fall over,

or I get to the edge of the cliff and fear says, if you fall over, you're going to die, fear's telling me the truth. But if fear's saying, you can't win in your sweet spot, you can't make that money, you can't do that job that you've got the talent for, fear's lying to me. In this case, Crystal, fear's lying to you. Trust your heart. We've got on paper how we're going to do this. Now the head needs to shut up and listen to the heart. We got on paper how we're going to do this. Now the head needs to shut up

and listen to the heart. Walk forward. You guys are going to be debt free before you know it and rolling through the baby steps. And the best part, you're going to be doing work you love, making the contribution that you deeply want to make. Way to go, Crystal. I love it. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague Anthony O'Neill, and we are taking your calls this hour.

What do you need to talk about? You want to talk about your money? You want to talk about relationships? You want to talk about your work? Oh, how about that last call? That's always fun. We've got somebody going, should I take a temporary pay cut to make more money in the short term?

Love those questions. Do you love the job? Listen, the big shovel stuff, you want to know how to make more money to get out of debt and do work you love? I'm your guy. That's what I do for Ramsey Solutions, so we'd love to have you jump in.

888-825-5225 is the phone number. Let's go to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Michelle is on the line. Michelle, how can we help? Hi, guys. I actually have a great question for Anthony. I've been trying to call him when he's been on. Great. So I have two student loans that were from a private lender, and they are now in collections. And I make, like, the minimum payment monthly for them,

which doesn't even cover the interest. And I just don't know, do I continue to pay that monthly amount, or do I hold off and try and get a big lump sum so I can offer that to them I just don't know where to go with it so let me ask you this question

are these the only two debt items that you have like what other debt do you have they are not I have a normal, I guess. Okay. So I have some credit card debt, some medical bills, and a vehicle. What's your total income right now?

Our household income is about $85,000. Okay, $85,000. All right, sounds good. And so if you had to run a, this is a ballpark, what would you say, how much debt do you totally have, including the two collection items that you just said, the student loans. Including the student loans, I have about $100,000. Okay, $100,000. Are you married?

Yeah. Okay, cool. So it's you and your husband. Does that $100,000 include his debt as well? Yeah. Okay, and $85,000 of income. But not our house. How much is your household income? it 85 that's our house yeah okay cool so here's the thing um

how you pay off your debt uh michelle is not going to change all right you're going to pay all your debt from smallest to largest you're going to line it all up and you're going to make the minimum payments on all of them. And then attack the first one. Now, when you get to the student loan ones, private loans. Yes. If you are there in the collections item, I will go ahead and ask what's what's the best you could take on it. Now, here's the thing.

Student loans are going to be hard to get settlements. I mean, they're especially federal ones. Sometimes private will move a little quicker on them. to be hard to get settlements i mean they're especially federal ones um sometimes private will move a little quicker on them uh but i would definitely say it's going to be it could be a little it could be a little hard i'm just going to be real with you uh but if you call them say hey i only can give you for example if it's 5 000 i only can give you 3 000 um you can stick to it um but in the meantime you know you just got to pay it and i hate i hate to say it if they are not willing to settle uh don't sit there and let it just sit there uh waiting to

see if it will settle nah just attack the debt uh when you get to that to that part of debt snowball so that's what i would definitely recommend and america hear me clearly stop being lazy okay um and i get it you know we're looking for a good deal we're looking you know how do we save money and i totally understand uh but oftentimes i hear a lot of people say this man it's in collections i'ma wait until they give me you know a huge discount well here's the thing you're gonna be waiting a long time okay bottom line there are some collection agencies especially on credit cards they will actually work with you on them. But I don't want you waiting on them.

When you get to that point in your debt snowball, you do what you got to do to get rid of it so you can get to the next debt. And the quicker you can get through your debt snowball, the quicker you are to financial freedom and peace. But don't wait. So, yeah. Good stuff. All right, let's go now to Ned in Salt Lake City. Ned, how can we help? Hi, guys.

Hey, how are you? How are you doing today? Great. What's going on? I'm doing all right. Well, I've kind of got an interesting question. About eight years ago, I went through a pretty big life change. I was involved in a pretty bad work-related accident that left me legally blind as well as pretty hard of hearing. Because of that, I had some good disability insurance.

And so I've been on kind of a combination of insurance payments and Social Security disability for the last few years or so. About two, maybe three years ago, I returned to work part-time in kind of a new career avenue as an adjunct instructor, an adjunct teacher, professor in chemistry, which was the subject I was trained in. And I ended up being pretty good at it. And now I'm starting to get some offers, I guess, or some interest in doing it full time. And I don't know. I guess it's brought up kind of a interesting dilemma from me what's the dilemma um the dilemma is that actually with the part-time work and the disability payments i'm actually able to live a fairly good bringing a pretty fairly good income

and going to work full-time would mean having to leave behind the disability payments and possibly taking in less income. Well, then this is really not a dilemma. This is you going, what do I really want to do with the rest of my professional life? I mean, this comes down to, it comes down to what do I really want to do? And then I've got to look at the numbers. And so I get what you mean by dilemma. Your brain's telling you to stay part-time because there's more money,

and your heart's going, let's go full-time and teach. I actually like it. I'm really good. It's like the last call I took on this. It's a head and heart thing. They're arguing with each other, aren't they? Oh, big time. Yeah, what's your heart telling you? Tell everybody.

I don't know because my head is so loud right now. Tell me that. Okay, let's go the easy route. I know what your heart's telling you. Your brain just told your heart not to tell. That's what just happened. Everybody knows it. What's your brain telling you, Ned? My brain is telling me that my physical situation is also not guaranteed to stay stable.

That's fair. And may deteriorate to the point where I can't do it anymore. Have the doctor told you that? Yeah. Okay, so wouldn't we go back on disability at that point? From what I understand, it would be very difficult with the insurance company. I've tried to explore that, and trying to get a straight answer out of them is pretty much like trying to get blood out of a rock. Yeah, I get it.

Well, have you looked into what full-time chemistry professors are going to make? I have. So you used the word possibility. It would be less money. Is it truly less money, or is it about the same, using your part-time adjunct professor money plus disability and Social Security? Is it truly apples to apples, or is it one's higher than the other? It's less take-home. But I don't know.

Part of me is also looking at it as trying to prove that that explosion didn't finish me off eight years ago. Do you feel that emotion, Ned? Yeah. Yeah. I do. Do you know what that means? That your heart is telling you

you want to get back in the game. Your heart wants to go teach chemistry, but your heart really wants to say, hey, I overcame an unbelievable, devastating situation, and I'm back. Here's what I want you to do. Get multiple pieces of advice on the disability. Talk to your doctors.

But I think you follow your heart. You go full time as a chemistry professor. Make some financial changes. Do whatever you got to do. I think your heart wants to get you back in the classroom. You can feel that right there. It's all over you, Ned, because you want to make a difference. I'm so proud of you.

What a stuff. Hey, I want to thank our producer, Ben Hill, our associate producer, Kelly Daniel, my colleague, Anthony O'Neill, most of all, you, America. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer for the ramsey show this episode is over but if you heard about an event product or service and didn't have a chance to write it down don't worry we list everything you've heard about during this episode in the podcast show notes section or head to the ramsey show.com thanks for listening