The Ramsey Show - App - I’m an MMA Fighter, Should I Have Bigger Emergency Fund? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: August 10, 2021

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the 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. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author, is my co-host today. As we talk about your life, your money, and with Ken here, particularly your career. His new book is on pre-sale right now, soon to be a best-seller,

From Paycheck to Purpose, The Clear Path to Doing Work You Love. to purpose the clear path to doing work you love it's on sale for twenty dollars at ramsey solutions.com along with about 150 worth of goodies and all kinds of good things happening there so open phones here at 888-825-5225 ken the exciting thing about the sale of your new book has been not only the sales are amazingly high on the book. We knew it would be popular. It's an area of life that people need help in from paycheck to purpose. But the assessment that our team and you put together, the details and the algorithms and the stuff behind the scenes, you didn't do. The team did, but it was done with your input to get people to recognize their talents, passions, and missions.

It's a $30 assessment. It's called the Get Clear Assessment. As a matter of fact, for $30, you can get the assessment and the book and all the goodies, if you want to do it that way, as a bundle at Ramsey Solutions, or you can just get the assessment for $30 if you want, which would not be the right way to do it, really. But you ought to get the book and stuff free, in a sense, if you went the other way. But anyway, so this is a tool for people that are trying to figure out what their career should be,

what direction they need to get clear, right? That's right. Or it could be confirming a path that you're already on and you're experiencing some doubt. So what we do is this is the tool in the first stage of the seven stages, the clear path that we're talking about here in the book from Paycheck to Purpose. The baby steps is a clear path, and then we have a clear path. And stage one is get clear. So what you're doing is you're going to look at your talent.

This is what you do best. Think of your talent as tools. So you've got your hard skills and then people skills. Then you've got passion, and that is the work that you actually love to do. You love the work. You show up because the work itself is something you get great joy out of. And then, of course, all work creates results. And that's what we call mission. So what's the missional result that you want to put into the world through your work? And so the assessment day is going to give you a detailed report on your top talents,

your top passions, and really that top missional result that you want to put out. Then we take those results and we put them in a purpose statement. And it becomes a guide for you. It becomes a North Star that no matter what decisions you're confronted with, with opportunities to move up in your career, you can always come back and say, is this something that is in my purpose statement, my professional purpose? We call that that sweet spot where people look at you and they marvel and they say, you were born to do this. And so that's what the assessment does for people, Dave, is tremendous clarity, which, as you know, breeds confidence in people to step out and do that work.

And here's what else clarity provides. It also provides courage in those moments where fear and doubt or failure, pride, stick their ugly head up and kind of say, you can't do this, you shouldn't do this. And that's what clarity does for you. So it is a wonderful tool that will keep you clear throughout your career. The Get Clear Assessment at RamseySolutions.com. Ken, what occurs to me here is that the first thing you have to do when it comes to a job

is you have to make some money to feed your family. Provision. Absolutely. And pay the bills, keep the lights on, keep the wolf away from the door. So go make some money yes but pretty quickly after you're making money you know regardless of how much money it is you can be making a lot of money if you're in the wrong thing that you weren't designed to do uh it starts to become dissatisfying even though all the bills are paid it's exactly right it starts to twist up inside your stomach yeah and it's the old maslow's hierarchy of needs you reach the point that you can self-actualize yes which means that we're going to go do something that is a higher calling

than simply earning money to eat or pay off debt there is nothing dishonorable about earning money no just to pile up debt and and or to pay off debt and to pile up some money. But as through this, particularly on the short term. Yes. That's not a bad thing at all. Go make some money, you know, for provision purposes. But sooner or later, hopefully sooner, you're going to look up and go, I don't need to spend my whole life just chasing the almighty dollar.

That's exactly right. And this is because we as human beings long to make a contribution. So the title, From Paycheck to Purpose, really addresses those two primary needs around work. We need to provide and we need to contribute. We just do. Nobody ever has to teach a human being to ask the question, what should I do with my life? You know, I got three kids. Dave, you have three kids. You got all kinds of grandbabies. Now I can't even keep up. Nobody has to teach a kid to say no.

It's just dull. They have to teach a kid to steal a toy from another kid. It's just who we are. And the same is true of this longing that we have as human beings to make a difference. And the idea here is, is that you can make the income that you need and desire and the impact that you desire. Income and impact through your work is purpose. And that's what we're about here at Ramsey Solutions. You walk through our building, I hope you come visit us sometime, and you'll see on the giant screen just off through the glass there, work that matters.

We're all about doing work that matters. And we see a contribution through everything we do at Ramsey Solutions as it relates to providing people a clear path to hope. And that's missional. And every human being wants to show up and do work that matters to them. It's just life's too short, Dave, to chase a paycheck and just try to make it through till friday at half the hour and what's really interesting and you know intellectually it's

easy to grasp this but i think emotionally i don't you only grasp it maybe when you get the other side of it is if you will find something that you're talented at that you're missional about and that you're passionate about um you actually, if you'll just pay attention to the process, you'll end up making a lot more money doing that. A lot more. Than you would doing the thing that's supposed to be money-based. That's right. But you're not good at or you hate.

That's exactly right. Here's why. Because you suck at things you hate. That's exactly right. And, listen, you won't press through. Yeah, you won't fight it. You won't fight through the, like, you know, if we look at your story, Dave. Somebody comes at this place, they got a thousand people going after their throat.

Oh, yeah. Because they're all ready to fight. I mean, it's a crusade here. Well, this place. Don't mess with this place because this place is blessing people and helping people and loving people. And so somebody comes at the place, all thousand team members are like. That's exactly right. But people know your story. And so somebody comes at the place, all thousand team members are like, blah. That's exactly right.

But people know your story. This place was built on your passion and mission. Yes, you had the talent. You've always been a good communicator and a teacher. It's one of your top talents. But the reality is that you care deeply about guiding people and instructing people. And the mission was hope and peace. And so now when you see all this, it's worth fighting through your side hustle,

which becomes your own company one day. Or it's worth fighting through the ladder of getting promoted and staying with it long enough. You'll suffer because of passion and mission. Suffer through patience. Suffer through perseverance. Check out the Get Clear Assessment. That is a bundle with the From Paycheck to Purpose book, The Clear Path to Doing Work You Love, all at RamseySolutions.com. Folks, listen up.

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That's 888-825-5225. Dwayne is with us in Boise, Idaho. Hi, Dwayne. How are you? I'm doing better Dwayne. How are you? I'm doing better than I deserve. How are you two doing today? Just the same, sir. How can we help?

Dave, I've been able to listen to your show on and off for the last couple of months, and I've been trying to work these baby steps. And I got rid of all my consumer debt, so I've paid all that off. And the last debt I had was a truck that I sold back to my – I got rid of my pickup last week to the dealer, so I have no debt. Wow. So I'm debt-free. But what I do have is I have two rental properties in a neighboring town to Boise here. And one of them I owe $54 on, and the other one I owe 120 on. And they're both at 475 or 489

interest rate because I've had them for many years. But they have been rented by the same tenants for a long time. The one that I owe 54,000 on is rented by an 80-something gentleman. And I promised him that he could live throughout the rest of his life there at that house. And what I want to do is I want to find out is it smart for me to take an equity loan out on that house and pay off the other property complete. There's enough money there to do that. Well, would the equity line be a cheaper interest rate? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.

It would be down to 3.67, the mortgage broker told me. What's that property worth of $54,000 on it? About $225,000. $225,000 to $240,000. And you'd be in it at $270,000, right? Or $170,000 to $240,000. And you'd be in it at $270,000, right? Or $170,000? Yeah.

$175,000. Yeah. But it would pay off the other property, which I want to keep. I want to keep the one that I owe $120,000 on. It's a lot nicer property. That's where my wife and I plan to live once we retire. The other property, when this gentleman either moves out or passes away, I want to sell that property. So there's the dilemma.

My financial situation, the way we're at, it's just my wife and I, we don't have any kids. I've got about $25,000 in the bank, and we rent currently. Why? But I want that property debt free. Okay. Why do you rent? Uh, we just moved back into Boise for the last 20 years. I've been traveling around the country for work and we, we just, that's how I wound up with two rental properties. So, um, we're looking right now, I can use my VA to buy a property here locally. So my wife and I would like to buy a house here locally because the two rental properties that we have, they cashflow themselves. They don't cost us anything. In fact, I make money on them. What's your household income?

$150,000. My wife is a stay-at-home housewife and Bible instructor. She hasn't worked in almost 20 years, so the income is all mine. That comes from me. Cool. Good for you guys. Well done. All right. Well, so the goal, like you said, you just got plugged into us.

So the long-term goal, where we're aiming towards with whatever move you choose to do, is that you own your home paid for and you own your rental properties paid for. That needs to be the long-term goal. Okay? Okay. And so, no, I would not use a VA loan. I would use a Fannie Mae and scratch together some down payment because it's cheaper. The VA loan is a more expensive loan, interest rate and fees. Yes, you can do nothing

down, but I'm not going to recommend nothing down because the goal is we're going to try and get your house paid off. So let's work that through then. With that in mind, if you buy a house on a 15-year fixed where the payment's no more than a fourth of your take-home pay and you say, all right, I'm going to start scratching towards that house, and then when the gentleman moves away from the other property, you sell that property, and you use that money to pay off your rental and pay off your home, right? Correct, yes. That's going to be the game plan. That's where we're headed.

What does it change to go ahead and pay off that other rental now with a home equity loan? It only changes the formula about 1% of $120,000, so about $1,200 a year. That's the only thing it moves. To move the mortgage over there doesn't really do anything except about $1,000 a year, which is what you'll save in interest by moving it over there. If you don't get into a bad mortgage deal of some kind. And so I probably wouldn't screw with it. I'd probably just sit on it.

It's not that big a savings. If you want to move it over there, you can because it is going to be cheaper, but it's not, it doesn't move the needle here. There's no big thing that happens that's good as a result of doing this. The big thing that happens that's good is when you of doing this the big thing that happens that's good is when you sell one of these properties and clear your house and clear the other one the uh something wrong in here check it again there try one more time nothing try plugging it in okay uh ken's mics uh got unplugged in here it's got an air gap Try one more time. Nothing. Try plugging it in.

Okay. Ken's mic's got unplugged in here. It's got an air gap. So, anyway, that's what you're going to want to do, Sheldon. I'm sorry, Dwayne. That's the direction you're going to want to go, and that's the process. So, yeah, and I think the game is is that the guy that's 80 years old it's going to be a fairly you know probably in the next five years or so you're going to execute the uh getting rid of that and making that happen so good question man thank you for joining us open phones

at 888-825-5225 you want to check it nope All right. Let's go to Sheldon in Los Angeles. Hi, Sheldon. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. How can I help? So, basically, I'm in a dilemma right now.

So, I have a 2014 Volkswagen Jetta. It is financed. It is on a five-year finance. APR is 19%. Good Lord. I'm paying $333,000. Yes. I'm paying $334,000 a month on it.

So my engine basically is done. I need a new engine. I spoke to the mechanic. So they were saying the estimate was going to be, it could be in the range of like $5,000. So on that note, I am working part-time and literally I know that's something that I can, I do not have at this moment in time. So my question is, should I sell the vehicle, even though it is financed, should I sell the vehicle? And, again, I've been staying up on, you know,

what you were saying as far as, you know, putting cash on a vehicle. I was wondering, should I do that? Or, you know, what the other solution would be. What are you making? What's your income? Right now I am at, I'll say roughly a month is at 800 a month. Why are you not working full-time? At this moment in time, that's what I'm actually just working towards, working full-time.

Why are you not working full-time? I was working full-time. I ended up basically getting something that could be better potential as far as benefits and all that for myself. It was a full-time job that I did have. They didn't have benefits. Yeah, but your job sucks. $800? That's the poverty level.

Yes. You're starving to death, man. Yes. If the other job you had was bad, this one's worse. You need a different job, and you're not even working full-time. Yeah. Why? I'm in the process, though.

I did an interview and all that and could possibly have something full-time within a week. Oh, good. It's just something that could be better, yeah. Oh, good. So basically it's in the company that I'm at. I work for the city, so I work for the city working my way up, so it could possibly be a full-time job. It needs to be a full-time job by Friday, dude.

I mean, you're starving to death. So you probably need to sell the car as is with the bad engine, and you're probably going to have to borrow some money to cover the difference because you're in the hole. But getting rid of a 19% car loan can get you a $1,000 hoopty to drive around while you get yourself some good employment. But, man, you're going to get a job. You're starving.

That's really – and there's lots of jobs out there. Ken and I will talk about that a little bit when we come back here this is the ramsey show Auto insurance companies love to play the game where they see just how high they can jack up your rates. Seems like for no reason, doesn't it? It's a fun game for them. It's not hard to beat them at their own game, though. All you got to do is check on your policy every year and make sure you're getting the best price for your coverage. That's it. How can you do that?

Well, the easiest way is let someone else shop it for you. Go to one of our endorsed local providers, one of our ELPs. They're independent insurance agents, which means they actually work for you because they're shopping a bunch of different companies to get the best price, and then you'll take the deal that's the best price that they help you find. You don't have to do anything but call them. A lot of people going to our ELPs end up saving on their auto and homeowners as much as $700, $800 a year. It doesn't cost anything to shop it.

So just ask. Text auto to 33-789 and put a Ramsey-trusted ELP agent on your team. Text auto to 33-789. Ken and I were talking going into the break. Actually was talking we were fixing ken's microphone yes yes but um i was talking to ken anyway even though he couldn't talk back and uh the jobs numbers are out so i was i'm aware of those numbers because we had been talking about them an hour or two ago actually off air. And then the guy calls in, and he's working part-time, and he doesn't have the money to fix an engine in his car,

and he's got a 19% interest rate, and he needs to get rid of the car. And all I can talk about is get a job, get a job, get a job. And that's not because I'm a heartless jerk. It's because, dude, you can fall off a log you can get a job right now. The jobs numbers are, I mean, you can be dumber than a log and get a job right now. Because the jobs numbers are, it's bizarre what's happening out there in the economy. Record numbers. So the June Labor Department report came out Monday, and we've got 10 million plus jobs open available right now in the united states and you compare that to 8.7 million people that are still unemployed many choosing to be unemployed they're

still getting the federal unemployment benefits that are set to expire on labor day ironically enough wait a minute wait a minute the unemployment ends on labor day Yeah. So maybe it's time to start planning to labor sometime before then. And the opportunities are endless, Dave. Unbelievable. 10 million plus jobs. Here's some good news in this job report, because you hear a lot of doom and gloom. So the Ramsey Show is going to give you the truth. This is straight from the Labor Department. If you look at the jobs, 227,000 professional

and business services jobs opened up in the month of June. Now that's your white collar, I think, corporate jobs. This is really encouraging. 133,000 jobs in retail. That speaks to consumer confidence. That's a good sign.

And then accommodation and food services, that's 121,000 jobs added, opened right now. It's really unbelievable. And here's the thing you and I were talking about during the break. You've got companies like Walmart, McDonald's, and Target that have all announced in the last 10 days that they're offering tuition. They will pay for your college tuition. And these are jobs that, Dave, are starting at $15 an hour.

It's not a – this young man could go get employed right now and not just make financial progress, but make some career progress. So $15 an hour, working 40 hours a week only. Yes. Just 40, which is really not working that hard. It's $31,000 a year and free tuition. Yeah. Can really jumpstart your life.

It's better than $800 a month, $10,000 a year, which is what he was making. So that was my point, is there's 8.7 million people unemployed. There's 10 million jobs. It sounds like we don't have any unemployment. It just sounds like we have people not working. That's exactly what it is. There's a difference. And what a great time to go get hired right now.

My goodness. Employers will throw jobs at you, to your point earlier. Yeah. I mean, we're in the process of hiring. Now, we're in a different league because of the type of elite person we're looking for at Ramsey Solutions. But we're adding 300 positions this year, and we've got tons of bazillions of applications. Yeah. And so, I mean, if you can go work at Walmart, make $15 an hour, work 40 hours, and go to school full-time, which you can do, by the way.

Yes. Simultaneously. Go through and get your degree. Don't tell me you have to take out a student loan, and don't tell me you're starving to death. That's just ridiculous. That's exactly right. And here's the deal and don't tell me you're starving to death. That's just ridiculous. That's exactly right. And here's the deal.

Those dominoes are still beginning to fall. You're going to see a lot of other big companies that are going to offer tuition. It's going to become a thing, sadly, that people expect. But companies are in a position right now where they've got to attract people. I mean, this is literally when we've got 10 million jobs. Well, what's sad is you have to attract them not from other companies. You've got to just attract them off their couch. That's the problem.

Because they're sitting there making, listen, let me just talk to you if you're sitting on your couch living off of unemployment right now. I'll just help you with this, okay? It's not shaming. This is just factual life from Papa Dave, okay? There is no dignity in your life when you are not accomplishing something with your life. Even if you are making a few dollars more sitting on your couch than you could be working, you are not moving your life, your career, your wealth building, the dignity of your

relationships ahead by sitting there, even if you make more. Well, I'm not going back to work. I make less work. Well, I mean, not how much less, really, but maybe you ought to work more. So, listen, there is a tremendous correlation between the things that happen chemically inside your body, your mental health, your spiritual well-being, the quality of your relationships, not to mention the actual mathematics of going to work. That's exactly right.

You could find yourself theoretically getting ahead, and I wouldn't say by much, but getting ahead financially, but falling behind emotionally, falling behind spiritually, falling behind professionally. Look, depression is a real thing when you're not doing something that you feel like I'm accomplishing something. That really starts to set in. And you've got to be very careful. And I think this is where we get into where we've got government policy that is disincentivizing

people to get out and to contribute. Well, to become what they were designed to be. Yes, that's right. You were not designed to be a couch potato no you were created to contribute to work there's no question about that and and i think you're absolutely right it's a scourge i mean i was i mean even if you're doing something like even just cutting the grass i'm not i'm not saying for money necessarily i'm saying when you do something that and you can look at the the fruit of your labor yes and you feel a sense of accomplishment,

there's all kinds of things that happen, not only in society, but inside of you that are positive that do not happen when you're sitting on your butt. One of my favorite things to do around the house is pressure washing. I get tremendous joy out of seeing the before and after, and it feels really good to sit back, even though it may be hot when you're doing it. You sit back and go, look, this is better now because I actually applied some basic diligence here to hold a wand and shoot water pressure at something. You're right. There is a sense of accomplishment.

And there's things that that changes the way you walk. Yeah. It changes your posture. It changes the way you relate to other people. It changes your ability and your quality of your generosity. Yeah. I mean, there's a whole soup of things here. It's not as simple as, oh, I'm beating the system.

I don't have to work, and the government's going to take care of me. And listen, if you're down on your luck, I get it. I'm not mad at you. I'm not here to pick on you. That's not the thing. The point is, though, that choosing, and we've got these numbers that are telling us that there's a large number of Americans. They may not be listeners to this show.

Sure. And probably not attracted to this show. Probably. But there's a large number of people, based on those numbers, that could be working and just are choosing not to. That's exactly right. And when you're working, you're making progress, whether it's paying off debt or funding your way through getting qualified to do the work you want to do, you're going to have to work at some point. You're going to have to.

And sitting at home right now, and here's the other thing. This is not going to stay this way. This is not going to stay this way forever. This is a great time to move, to actually get hired. And I think of a young person, you think of somebody right now going, all right, I went to college or I never got the chance to go to college. Couldn't afford it. Instead of community college, why don't you go work for a big time company? He's going to pay your way to get a degree. They're going to fund your future. I don't know why you wouldn't do that. Who cares if you don't love stocking shelves?

I'm stocking shelves for my future. Yeah. It's perspective. It's just a great place to go when you're broke, to work. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Ken Coleman Ramsey personality is my co-host today as we talk to you about your life, your money, your career. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Open phones. And up next is Nick in Hartford, Connecticut.

Hi, Nick. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, thank you for taking the call. Sure. What's up? So I'm starting a new job next week for making $40,000, but I have $100,000 in debt. Almost all of it's student loans. About $5,000 is on credit cards. I just started watching your videos on YouTube and realizing, wow, I've made really dumb mistakes.

And so I know I need to go through the baby steps and take all that. What I was going to do was restructure my debt to more favorable terms, but I wanted to see what your opinion was on that to make sure I'm not making another big mistake. Restructure your student loans? Yeah, so my student loans, about 67,000 of them are private with a high interest rate. And I've gotten a quote on how I can refinance that into one at a much lower rate. Do it. Yeah, lower rate's not bad, unless there's a prepayment penalty. Make sure there's no prepayment penalty,

and then get about the business of cleaning these things up. Once you get settled into this new job, I want you to pick up a second job and make another $40K and throw it all at this debt. And I want you to pick up a second job and make another 40k and throw it all at this dad i want you to be debt free in two years okay i mean really get after it man i mean nick i want you to go cray cray man i want you to go nuts where your friends think you need counseling because all you do is work and pay debt okay i mean it wouldn't it be cool to be done with this in two years? Definitely.

Yeah. That's $45,000 a year gets you there. And so that means you've got to make $40,000. You've got to live on less than the $40,000 that you're making now, and you need to go make another $40,000 on top of this as your extra part-time job, and you'll be done in two years. But all you're going to do for two years is work. But you're going to clean up this whole mess in two years, and you won't even be, what, 25 years old, will you?

I'm 26 now. Okay. Well, then you'll be 28 years old, and you're completely free. Or you can be 38 years old and still screwing around with this stuff like most people. Okay. That's really your two options. You've got to get with it or not. And what Ken and I were just talking about, there's lots of opportunities out there.

I mean, again, you can pick up 40 hours of extra job at Walmart at $15 an hour. That's $30,000 a year, which means I know you can do better than that even. So that's just exactly what I was talking about. Yeah. And 80 hours a week i don't want to be a workaholic you're not gonna be a workaholic you're working for two years with a goal a workaholic is someone who is mentally imbalanced and gets all of their uh you know gets all this they're addicted to work mentally that's not what we're suggesting working hard is not workaholism working a lot is not workaholism. Working a lot is not workaholism.

It's called getting out of a dadgum mess. And you just get back, you get with it. I mean, he can do a lot of stuff. Oh, tons of stuff. I mean, again, look, the minimum wage is at a place right now that if you don't find something, it's because you're not looking. That's the reality. If you want to find something to get out of debt, it's there, big time. You show up with a smile and some character, you're going to get $15 an hour or more,

and you can get out of debt quick. I'm telling you. The demand is so hot right now, it's unbelievable. Yeah. If you don't, then you're going to just wake up 10 years from now. And here's the thing. Two years from today, the market won't be like this. It will not.

The job market comes and goes like all parts of the economy. It has swings to it. Mary's with us. Mary is in Austin, Texas. Hi, Mary. How are you? Hi, I'm fine. Thanks for taking my call.

Sure. What's up? My husband is retiring from the military, and he's going to start another job with a government agency. We have a TSP, and I was wondering if you have any advice on whether we should roll out our TSP into a separate retirement account and start a new one at the new job, or do we continue to contribute to our current TSP? I would roll it to an individual IRA. There's no taxes in doing that.

And because you can find mutual funds in the open market that outperform the TSP options. Okay. The C plan's not bad. We tell folks to put 80% in the C, 10% in the S, and 10% in the I is how we tell you to allocate your TSP. But you can get mutual funds that will outperform that mix if you go to a good investment advisor like one of our smart vester pros so just go to ramsey solutions.com click smart vester and find one of the pros in

your area sit down talk to them understand what you're doing and what i would do is roll it over to an individual IRA, a traditional IRA, and put it in four types of mutual funds, growth, growth and income, aggressive growth, and international. And then when he starts the new position, he can start the TSP fresh and just, again, 80% C, 10% S, and 10% I is how I would allocate that. And that's going to give you the best rate of return, okay? Okay, thank you so much.

Thanks for calling in. Open phones here at 888-825-5225. Sawyer is with us in Hickory, North Carolina. Hey, Sawyer, what's up? Hey, Dave, how are you doing? I appreciate you taking my call. Sure, how can I help? Well, I've got a question for you.

Recently, it's me trying to make a decision on something. So I have a possible expense that I would be committed to for a year. It would be roughly $400 a month. So my current home expenses are a little less than half of my current take-home pay. That's including rent. The only thing I owe for is a truck. And the truck payments are a little over $400 a month. But I did that specifically because I'm trying to get this thing paid off.

Because I've listened to you for a long time. I don't like being in debt. And if I am, I don't want to be long. How much do you owe on the truck uh the truck is about 14 000 left and your household income is what uh roughly a month it is uh right at 2700 a month pretty expensive truck yeah it's uh i was not it's a well the reason i ended up looking for a truck was thanks to a girl at rear-ended model one but uh i was originally looking for an older truck

and uh i was really after listening to you for so long but uh it ended up being that i got this truck and uh so i've got a little over three years left to go on it because I got it for four years. And specifically wanted to, if I was going to get something like that, I knew I'd have higher payments, but I wanted to get it paid off as quickly as I could. But the expense that I've got coming up, though, that I'm trying to decide on is,

I told the lady on here that you might find slightly amusing, is there is a hair type product online that's supposed to try to help you regrow hair. And it would be almost another $400 a month. So I tried to do my numbers on my current expenses. And so my expenses per month are roughly a little over $1,200 a month. That's including that truck, and that's also including me putting back for a retirement fund that I have. That's all of my expenses except for, say, gas and food. How old are you, Sawyer?

27. Okay. All right. Cool. All right, cool. Well, you make $38,000 a year, $40,000 a year. You have a $14,000 truck, and you're putting money into investments, and you just went and bought the truck on payments. And 100% of the things you've described are things that we tell you not to do, right? Yeah.

Is that right? I mean, how long have you listened to the show well for a for a long time but it has actually been several years since i've got to listen again to be fair to you then let's recap all right what we would tell you to do is to become debt-free first after you have one thousand dollars Do you have any money in savings? Yes, sir, about $5,500. Good, okay. You now have $1,000, and you put $4,500 on your $14,000 truck, and that leaves you $9,500 left on the truck. You also have an extra job now, and you're going to pay that truck off in a very, very short period of time. When you do that and you're going to pay that truck off in a very very short period of time when you do that you're going to finish your emergency oh by the way you stopped all your

long-term investing temporarily today too because you're going to work the baby steps and then once you're debt free and you have your emergency fund in place then if you want to do the air regrowth program and you want to pay for that that's when you would do it at that point. I'm not sure I would do it. Obviously, I haven't done it. This is James Childs, producer of The Ramsey Show. You can listen to all our shows with the Ramsey Network app on your smartphone. Browse by topic or even send clips to your friends. Download the Ramsey Network app in your favorite app store today.