The Ramsey Show - App - I’m Being Sued for $20,000 (Hour 3)

Episode Date: August 9, 2023

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods, moving, and storage studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. He is the host of The Ken Coleman Show and author of the number one best-selling book, From Paycheck to Purpose. He talks to folks about their jobs and their careers every day on the Ramsey Network.

So be sure and call in if you've got something in that area for sure. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Starting this hour is Tucker in Charlotte, North Carolina. Hi, Tucker. How are you? Hey, Tucker. Hey. I'm Tucker.

Doing well. How are you, Dave? Thanks for taking my call today. Better than we deserve. We're glad to have you, brother. How can we help? Thanks, man. Hey, ultimately, my question is whether or not we should sell our home right now.

We're newer to the Ramsey plan. We took a financial peace course that you guys offered for pastors online and got the EveryDollar app and set up all that stuff. Good. According to the plan, we're on baby steps four, five, and six. Good. But our house payment is 35% of our take-home pay. So finding the room to pull out 15% of our income

isn't really something that I've been able to figure out right now where we're at. So we have some decent equity in our house that we could pull out if we sold it. I guess where I'm torn is if we sold it, where we would go. The rent for a three-bedroom place is the same, if not more, as our current house payment. And I guess we could try and find something smaller. It's just still pretty competitive in the area that we live in. You like the house then? Yeah, we like our house.

And you're a pastor? Yes, sir. Okay. All right, cool. Well, here's the thing. There's no panic. And the last thing I do, if you were to force rank, if you make a list of things to do to get your money straightened out, way down the list is selling the house. Because it's very expensive to sell.

It's expensive emotionally to move. It's expensive financially to move, everything else. So it's very seldom the answer to an equation. So what does your wife do? She stays home with our kids right now. How many kids? We have two. Okay.

All right. I think rather than selling the house, I'm going to look and say, okay, what are some short-term things I can do or we can do in this household, and what are some long-term things we can do to change our income situation so that the house becomes a reasonable percentage you don't have to do it in 20 seconds it's not like baby step two where you have to get geared up in gazelle and tents right now you're on four five and six but the the point of not having a 35 house payment 35 your take-home pay is it's just hard to do other stuff it's hard

to save for the next car it's hard to save for christmas it's hard to save for retirement there's just not as much room in the budget because you're more of closer closer to what we call house poor if you told me 45 i'd tell you sell it today because i don't think you're going to turn that corner but 35 i think you can turn the corner on this um over the next year or two or three or whatever and in the meantime backfill with some kind of supplemental income uh and that's not that unusual for a pastor by the way to lots of pastors are bivocational as a matter of fact the numbers that we have say about 80 percent of them and my dad did the same uh as we got older and he wanted to put us in a local private Christian school

that was a little bit of a stretch, he went out and did some carpentry work. He was a pastor, by the way. He was. Sorry, my dad was and still is a pastor and did that. And again, if you've got family in the area or you've got someone in the church, an older grandmother who would be willing to watch the kids for three or four hours, five hours a day to get you to 20 hours a week to where your wife can work. These are all seasonal sacrifices that will tip the scales, as Dave was talking about. You've got to be looking at everything possible.

Short-term and long-term. That's right. But in the short-term, Dave, I find that a lot of people don't realize all the options they have. And I'm not sure what that is. You've been doing this a long time. But once we start just saying basic common sense things, people begin to realize, okay, I can save money here. I can make more money over here. And we begin to look at the big picture in the short term.

And then long term, you're right, that is a much different discussion. But the big thing that Tucker did, what he was saying was we had a series last summer where we offered Financial Peace University for free to pastors. And, you know, at that point, he didn't even know he had a problem. So now he's problem aware. That's right. That's a first step, and that's good news. So we were able to help him and get a lot of things moving, get the baby step two cleared out and get him up to this level i'm glad we were able to do that but um

yeah now he's at least problem aware but i don't think we need to go to the extreme no not at all yeah uh and um uh now if you if you go 10 years and don't save anything for retirement because of this then yeah that's a problem you're're going to have to rethink that. So I'm going to make some adjustments of some kind to get to where we can start doing, maybe you're doing 12% for retirement for your baby step four right now. But with the idea that if we did these other three things, we could get to 15% eventually as a permanent sustainable process. And that's where you need to get to. You do need to get there because you're going to retire and you need a paid four's where you need to get to you do need to get there because you're going to retire and you need a paid for house and you need a big old 401k plan when you get there

all right joseph's in austin hi joseph how are you good how are you doing today better than we deserve how can we help so uh i'm 31 years old own my property. Um, I've got a good paying job, but I've got two car payments, both of them around $18,000. They're my largest, probably one of my largest expenses every month. And every month now, ever since we recently moved here, we're having to cut into our savings a little bit to just kind of make it through the month to the next paycheck. You are not on a budget. Not a good enough budget. No, you're not.

And you're still going out to eat and all other kinds of crap. Not as much as we used to. If you're going out to eat at all, you're taking money out of savings to go out to eat. That's dumb. Right? Yeah. Yeah. So you guys, the first thing is you need to get on a tight budget

and make some conscious decisions. So what's your household income? About $100,000. Okay. All right. And so which one of these cars do you want to sell? We don't want to sell either of them. We both need our vehicle.

Well, you need a vehicle. We need two vehicles, one for i mean you need a vehicle you don't need the one you've got necessarily no not necessarily but we i i don't know i feel like we've paid off a good amount of you know uh we bought both of them when they're probably above forty thousand dollars and we owe i think under 18 on each of them so you're thirty above $40,000 and we owe, I think, under $18,000 on each of them. So you owe $36,000 on cars. You make $100,000. What other debt have you got? That's pretty much our only debt. What's pretty much? I mean, what's the pretty? What's the rest of it? I would say the other only large expense every month would be our property taxes. Did you say your property is paid for, your house is paid for? Our house is paid for, correct.

And you can't pay car payments with no house payment making $100,000. You are real. You got lifestyle creep, Joseph. Big time. Big time. Stop your 401k contributions temporarily. Don't go out to eat and don't go on vacation. Live on beans and rice, rice and beans.

Get on a detailed budget on every dollar. Download the app. You and your wife sit down and look at this and go, time to be grownups. Adults devise a plan and follow it. Children do what feels good. It's time to punch these car payments in the face and get these stupid things paid off fast. Then you'll get your life back. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today.

Thanks for being with us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Maddie is in Lansing, Michigan. Hi, Maddie. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks so much for Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks so much for taking my call. Sure.

What's up? I am wondering, my husband and I are trying to find our first house, and we're willing to pay up to $200,000. That's kind of the top of our budget. And we keep putting offers on houses, and we usually have a, we do like $15,000 over asking price with an appraisal guarantee, and we keep striking out on houses. How many times does that happen? We've been looking for about...

No, how many offers have you made that you got beat out on? It's probably, I think it's four so far okay all right and how long have you been looking uh just about a month it hasn't been super long okay it's okay just calm down don't don't get don't get crazy because you missed a couple god's gonna god's gonna serve you up the exact right one you need you're gonna be just fine don't because what's gonna happen is you're gonna get all hot and bothered here and need a cold shower and you're going to overpay for something because you get out of control sure just calm be calm you got the rest of your life how old are you uh 27 you got the rest of your life to get a house one whole month you've been working on it

yeah so do you think it'd be foolish to spend you know to offer over 15 because that's yes that's plenty okay that's plenty and you know if you get in the right situation you can look at it but i mean if you're going to pay 30 000 over appraisal that's 15 over appraisal on a 20 000 or 200 000 house that's pretty substantial sure and so if houses go up seven percent a year it takes two years for you to break even on your on a $200,000 house. That's pretty substantial. Sure. And so if houses go up 7% a year, it takes two years for you to break even on your overpayment. Sure. Well, it's kind of a secondary question then.

We have also considered, we looked at one property and talked to a contractor. No. You're thinking we can, okay, you don't think that's even a possibility for the first time retail uh new housing is always more expensive when you're buying retail like that from a contractor than used housing you're going to get better value used and you're 27 and it's your first home purchase building a home is a royal pain in the butt and i've built several i'm building one right now and i'm pretty good at it i'm pretty good at managing the budget and the schedule and i grew up in the real estate and building business and um and sharon and i've been married 41 years and it still is stressful on us and we have to be real careful to not fight. Yeah. And you're just, it's a much smoother, simpler transaction.

You're going to get more bang for the buck in used housing. I wouldn't do it there. Later on, you guys have been married a while. You know, you got your life settled out. You know, you want to go into that adventure of home building. It's an adventure because there's 9,000 things to pick out. There's a lot of arguments about room size and everything else. adventure of home building. It's an adventure because there's 9,000 things to pick out. There's a lot of arguments about room size and everything else. And we have to start,

every time we start a project, Sharon and I have to raise our right hand and say, I'm not going to kill you. Yeah, it's stressful. And I'm also not going to kill the decorator. Yeah, or the contractor. Or the contractor. Yeah. I mean, we're going to be nice. You know, this is fun. Matty, Dave gave you great advice. I'm just going to tell you, I can still remember the first house Stacy and I bought. And, you know, we thought we couldn't get a house. We had the same situation.

And finally, the right house at the right time popped. And you know what? It wasn't anything big and fancy, but we have such fond memories of it. You guys are so young. Just less is more with that first home. Yeah. It really is. There's nothing. You don't have to prove anything with it.

And you're not going to keep it forever. That's the key. Anytime somebody says a forever house, I always just laugh. Yeah. Your only forever house is in heaven. I'm just saying. Because as soon as you're – I've done enough deals with people like this is my dream house.

And as soon as you move in, your dadgum dream changes. That's what happens. All right. Andrew's in Orlando. What's up, Andrew? How are you? Better than I deserve. Dave, how are you doing today?

The same. How can I help? Well, I am being sued by a credit card company and i wanted to know what i'm in for you actually been served uh not yet i actually found out about it because a bunch of ambulance chasers started sending me advertisements for their services so i i uh looked up the law office called them they claimed to have no idea what i was talking about, so I went to the county clerk of court and found the case. So they actually have filed? Yes.

Okay. How much do you owe the credit card company? $20,000, roughly. Why has it not been paid? Basically, there was a point at which, um, my ability to, to continue paying ran out. Um, the, the, the short version is after quarantine, my wife and I both got COVID twice that put us out of a month of work each time. And then my cancer came back and, uh, every, yeah. Um, for what it's worth, God is good. I'm cancer free as of right now, but it was one of those things where every time we climbed out of one hole

something else hit and recently this past may we got the greatest news that my wife's pregnant with our first child but as you can imagine that came with another set of holes to dig out of as as we were trying to dig out of the other holes well pregnancy doesn't usually cost him money much. It wouldn't have. Yeah. The doctor's appointments, we found out that the insurance we had for her had been discontinued and that her primary physician had retired and they didn't switch us over to a new primary. So we went through a rigmarole of self-pay with an OBGYN for the last couple months. Okay.

And you're back to work now after the cancer remission? Yes. I'm back at work full-time, and she is currently attempting to pick up hours with her clients, and she's looking at a second job as well as I am. How's your energy level? My energy's great. Luckily, I didn't have to do chemo. This was quite a long surgery. So what do you make? Together, last year, we did 58,000. I did 45 of it. What do you make now? Oh, roughly 45 a year. Okay. Doing what?

I work as a patient care specialist at an anti-aging clinic. Okay, what's your wife do? She is in full-time child care. She's sort of almost like a permanent daily babysitter. So you make 45 and she makes what? Last year she made roughly 13. This year she's been keeping track of it but i don't have her exact numbers just yet because the reason i'm poking around is i'm looking for something

to throw at this these guys okay your best bet is to offer them about five or six thousand dollars as a settlement in full because this is like two or three three-year-old debt, right? It's not anything paid on in two or three years. Correct. Yeah, and if you offer them, you know, quarter on the dollar or so and you argue with them and fight with them a little bit, you're probably going to get it. So $5,000, $6,000. I'm assuming you don't have any money, though. Not at the moment, no.

What's at the moment mean? Does it mean there's some coming no i mean okay we're both looking for a part-time job okay i just i didn't know i thought i didn't know if somebody's getting ready to send you a check i didn't know what you're talking about okay oh no that's that don't be wrong that'd be lovely yeah that'd be great that'd be great yeah okay so no but your best bet is to settle uh pennies on the dollar of some kind, 25, 35 cents on the dollar, cash on the barrelhead. Call this people and argue with them, and it'll take about four phone calls, and they're going to threaten you and call you everything, and you can settle with them.

But if you can't scrape that together, the best you can do is what's called an agreed order, and that is agree to start paying payments to the law firm and they will cease the lawsuit in in terms of an agreed order that they'll take it before the judge the judge will approve it if you miss a payment if florida allows garnishment garnishment would be instantaneous yeah they do okay i'm pretty sure they do that's's how it works. I'm not an attorney, but we've worked probably 10,000 of these with these types of law firms. Keep in mind, this law firm has zero emotion in this. They don't care about your problems, all your history. All they care about is you are a widget on an assembly line.

They are doing thousands of these a week. Thousands. So you're an item in a factory for them so that don't they don't they're not emotional you don't need to be emotional try to settle it per month or scratch up five six grand somewhere and make them an offer a settlement in full and you will have to argue with them. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage. Jacqueline is with us.

And Jacqueline, my associate producer, said happy birthday to you. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. And I got you a gift, too. Happy birthday. It's. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday. And I got you a gift too. Happy birthday. It's not my birthday. It's your birthday. Yeah, but I brought you a gift.

This is called credit debt cards. I love it. That'll work. That'll work. I can't wait. Where are you from? I'm from Dallas, Texas. How much debt have you paid off?

$180,000. Just like that? Yes. You're that girl. Yes, I am. And how long did this take? It took me 11 years to get to that point. Wow.

11 years. And your range of income during that decade? It started about $40,000 and then it ended about $65,000. Wow. What do you do for a living? I'm in customer service. I'm on the phones. Okay, cool.

What kind of debt was this? Oh, it was some of everything. I had a HELOC. A HELOC. I also had business debt. I had credit cards, Chase Freedom, Chase Inc., and all sorts of credit cards. All of them. I just wanted all of them.

Yeah. So I had all of them. Let's get them all. Yes. So of the 180, what was the biggest debts? Oh, I forgot. My mortgage. Oh!

Look at that word, people. Paid off the house. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. So what's this house worth? The house is worth $369,000.

You rock. Yes. You rock. Thank you. And you're a paid for house. A paid for house. Now I can go to sleep and rest. Man.

When you were growing up, did you ever think you'd be this rich? I know. I didn't. I did not. I didn't. I'm so proud of you. Yes. Well done. All right. Tell us the story. What happened so proud of you. Yes. Well done.

All right, tell us the story. What happened here that got you fired up? You plowed through all these credit cards, you plowed through all this mess, and then you just keep going and knock out the house. Well, what happened, Dave? Back in 2012, I got a very disturbing call. I just got up and went to work. I got to work at six o'clock,

actually about 630. And I received a call from a little man, a guy that lived with me. I took in my friends from school, her son, and he was living with me. He was needing to graduate. His mom had a real bad drug addiction. And so I brought him in my house so he could graduate. And he called me one day when I got to work. He said, Miss Jackie, I knew he kept calling me and I couldn't answer. So finally, he called me so much. I finally answered the call. He said, Jackie, Miss Jackie, I just got a call from the hospital and they said it was something about your husband and they needed you to get to the hospital. Well, the hospital was a known hospital in our area, but it was two of them. So I went, it's called Methodist

and I went to the hospital. I said, well, my my nephew I called my nephew he gave me told me that I needed to get to the hospital and I didn't know what and they no one knew anything so I'm going through the hospital just frantic frantic trying to find and one I finally they said well let me call the chaplain so the chaplain came back he said Miss Terry I just need you to hold on the doctor that was on duty he needs to talk to you but we have to call him back to the to the hospital so the doctor came back and they took me in the back and they said miss Terry they were sorry they told me that they were sorry I'm sorry I didn't know I was gonna get emotional but anyway he told me they were sorry that they couldn't revive him oh my, my. Yeah.

He was killed in a car accident. Oh, my. He ran into a concrete truck, and he lost his life. And that was the hardest thing that I had to do. I had to go home. That was 11 years ago. That was 11 years ago, and I had to go home to my children and tell them that they fought. They knew I was holding something because I didn't know how to tell them. So I had to tell them, I called my pastor and he called us to the

church and they knew something was going on because of the way I was acting. So we went to the hospital, long story short, I went to the hospital, I mean, to my church and my pastor talked to my children. And then we just had to figure it out, Dave. With me and him, we were already struggling trying to make ends meet. We were struggling. So I knew I had to, if I wanted something better, if I needed to be the best example to my children, I had to do something different. But I just didn't know what it needed. I didn't know what to do. So one day I went to lunch with a friend of mine and she showed up to the lunch I didn't know

that long but she showed up with lunch with some envelopes and I and she had money in each envelope and she brought one envelope said food so I'm like okay she envelope cash and I here I go with my credit card to pay for my food and she pulled her money out of her envelope so I didn't I said well what is that she said well I'm on this Dave Ramsey program. So I just you know, I just OK. So that when it was gone and I didn't see anything else. So then later on in life, I was still struggling, struggling, trying to pay this, pay that. I wake up at my paycheck would hit my bank account about six o'clock in the morning. So I will wake up at six o'clock every time I got paid by 6 30 in 30 minutes I was able to have my account down to zero because all

I had to do was just a click of a button click of a button I did that for a long time and one day I just said you know no more so I started searching some stuff on the line about getting out of debt and guess who pops up wow and that that's how i end up getting hooked up to your program and i want to tell you one thing dave i know you get a lot of criticism and i i hear it i look at you every day and i know you get a lot of criticism but remember one thing day is what you doing is not for them it's for people like me that need to be the best example that they can be for their children. See, now I can go and I got two beautiful grandchildren now. So I can go as a parent.

You are a hero, girl. I'm so proud of you. I can live for them now. I can live and not be in so much. You don't even have a mortgage. No mortgage at all. You are so weird. Yes.

I am so proud of you i chase chase out of my life you are you are a victor yes there is no victim in your walk yes yes you are amazing people call me they you know when i first went on your program i stopped you know i used to go out to eat all the time with my yeah not anymore then they thought they started calling me cheap i've caught i've been called cheap i've been called tight but guess what and now what we call you rich amen amen very free come on with that and it feels good bring it bring it talk some noise now yeah you can yes i can yes i can what do you tell people i mean you're you you lose your husband in a horrible tragedy in a car wreck,

and as a widow with two babies, you fight your way through this in 11 years, $180,000 including a paid four house. You are amazing. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? The key to getting out of debt is being true to yourself and staying within your means. Also, determination. You got to have tenacity

because if you don't have tenacity to do, that's the difference between a person that talk about it. You have to be about it. And that's what I had to do. I had to be about it. I couldn't be no more talk. I can't talk anymore.

Talk is cheap. Like they say, talk is cheap. Yeah. That'll preach right there. it i like yes yes hey we got the live and give box for you and that's the baby steps millionaire book which is what you're going to be next for sure yes yes i'm excited total money makeover book you'll be able to give that to somebody like that lady showed you those envelopes that time yes you'll be an inspiration you are an inspiration of course financial peace university same thing i want you to enjoy all that now how old are the grandbabies the grandbabies is seven six and seven yeah and i love them if i'd have known how great grandbabies

are gonna be i'd have been nicer to their parents yes yes yes yes now you're ready to go they just started school this year yeah egypt and eris hey i love it my babies they're wonderful hey you're amazing i'm so proud of you yes thank you so much overcome so much you were strong-armed your way through it and man what little bit we had to do with your story we are honored we're honored to be in your corner we're honored to be your people well done and also dave i did want to say one thing i do prison. So what I want to do in my goal in life is to get this material into prison systems. Amen. While people are down and they absorb and they're just in that season where they're down,

I want to be able to take this into the prisons. And that's my goal is to come up with a plan to get it into the prison system. We'll definitely help you any way we can. Yes, sir. You're amazing. All right, it's Jacqueline. What a hero. Dallas, Texas, $180,000 paid off in 11 years, making $40,000 to $65,000.

You hear her story, don't you dare tell me you can't do it. She did it. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. I'm debt-free! Yeah! Happy birthday to you.

Woo! I love it. This is The Ramsey Show. show our scripture of the day second chronicles 15 7 but as for you be strong and do not give up for your work will be rewarded theodore roosevelt said when you play play hard when you work don't play at all i don't think i've heard that one from him either you can see him saying that one that fits exactly i like it a lot very good ashley's with us in kansas city hey ashley welcome to the ramsey show hey good afternoon how are y'all doing better than we deserve what's up in your world um so i just found you about a month ago in your teachings, Dave, and turns out my grandparents

have loved you many, many years. And I have an opportunity to get a job that will be paying $50,000 to $55,000 a year, still negotiating that. And I currently earn $37,000 pre-tax. And in two weeks, I'll be on baby step two, but in order, if I were to take this job to transition, I would have to use my baby step one to supplement the transition to a new job. And I just wanted to know- Why do you have to pay to take a new job?

Well, just to help, so the pay periods are different. So I get paid, so the first of the 15th, I get paid on the 15th for that work. So I won't have a paycheck to help tie over my bills during that two-week change. So whenever I go to the new job, it has two weeks before a pay date. So I get paid when I leave this job, but not like two weeks after. So I'd wait. I have a wait period between jobs for a paycheck. If you leave the job and you work two weeks at the new job, you should get a check at the end of that two weeks.

I don't understand. You should, but I asked them about their paydays during interviews, and with how they work, there would be time between when my bills are due and when I get paid, so I wouldn't get a paycheck right then. So I was wondering if it was a good idea to take the job if I have to kind of take a step back. Yes. It's a baby step.

Yeah, you need to take the job. But I'm also trying to figure out a way to work around this if I can. Yeah. How much time between when you would get the check and when your bills are due? About 10 to 12 days, depending on which bills it is. So rent would be 10 days and like like my insurance would be 10 days. So pay them late. Yeah, call them if you need to, certainly the landlord for sure.

But most of these, like utilities and things like that, you've probably got a 30-day window before there would be any charges. And so I don't think this is as big of a deal as you think it is. Oh, I've been really nervous about this. You guys just made that feel really silly to be nervous about. Yeah, I think you need to take the job, but I think you also need to minimize the use of the cash, which is what Ken's pointing out, okay?

Because I don't want you to be down to nothing. That scares me, but I'm going to take the job anyway. Well, I would still babysit one in a month. Yeah, you should be able to, but I hate for you to be back to zero. I really wouldn't want to do that. Yeah. Let me think here. While you're thinking, Dave, let me throw this out here, Ashley.

You have the ability to probably take on some short-term work. Yeah, that's exactly right. Maybe some gigs. I mean, I'm sitting there looking at – and I'm just going to throw this out arbitrarily, but let's say you needed $2,000. The fact that you're in this to go, you know right now what that number is. I'd go make that money on the side. I'd sell some stuff.

I'd come up with that money and not touch my emergency fund. Yeah, go. Unfortunately, I have two babies under one. One is my foster daughter and one is my biological daughter. So I am not able to take time. Yes, sir. Wow. So you don't have the margin to do that?

To take time out of my day already because daycare is my work hours. And I don't have the ability to supplement daycare with anyone else. I moved to a new city about a year ago. So I don't have the support. What is the new job? What are you going to be doing? Medical software support, which is I have tech certifications that I got, and I was supposed to be working that about a year ago.

But my corporate job then was like, no, we don't want to move you. So I moved to where I am now, which is medical reception. And then I'll be doing medical tech, hopefully. So you can't do any gig work at night after the babies are in bed as it relates to technical type work technology stuff because i didn't get the training experience on the job i would have to basically just apply somewhere and get a job with them and that would just be another job there's no can you sell some stuff there's no sorry can you sell some stuff i already did that to help with baby step one good well here's the deal uh look if you can't do that back to what we were saying you need to

get in touch with all these you look at your utilities look at everything and you've got some grace period we're talking about 10 to 12 days you're gainfully employed yeah you're fine you're gonna be all right just just don't pay stuff on time pay it 10 days late uh so that you're not without cash with two babies in the house. I mean, I don't want you down to zero. So if you use a couple hundred bucks out of this thing or something to make one payment on something that's on your, maybe your rent or certainly your food, that kind of stuff, you don't go without food. But if you pay your light bill 10 days late, it's not the end of the world.

And then next month you'll be on time. It's not a problem. So Zach is with us in Anaheim, California. Hi, Zach. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave and Ken. I've got to say I'm a huge fan of you, Ken Coleman, and your Get Clear assessment, so I appreciate that.

My question is, how do I increase my income so I can afford monthly rent out here in Orange County, California? It's very expensive. What are you doing now? I'm a logistics supervisor for a manufacturing company. Nice. Okay, so you know your field better than I do, but the gig economy and freelance work right now would be the first place I look because it's exploding. So with that logistics background and experience, what can you do in addition to what your full-time job is? Does something come to mind right out of the gate?

Maybe like part-time work for like a FedEx warehouse after, yeah, part-time work after my full-time job. That's one option. That's one option. Don't limit yourself. That's the first thing you threw out under pressure. It's a good one. But you're looking at your skill set and you're looking at your experience.

And you almost have to write it out. It's a good experience just to kind of write it out or type it out on a spreadsheet and go, okay, this is all the skill sets I have that I use now or that I've had in previous jobs. And here's all the experiences. So I look at what's out there. Now I'm going to make that money as much as I can. And then how do I get promoted to where I am? That's the other thing.

What do I have to do to climb the ladder where I am or within the industry? What do you make? I make $32,000 a year. So what would be the number that would make you feel like you could afford to live where you are? Well, to have the rent-to-income ratio be 25%, it would be around $95,000 a year. Okay. And you're in logistics, supply chain. That's correct.

Which is an exploding field. And as you continue to increase your skill set in that field, you should be in the 95 to 125 range in Orange County. That would be normal. I mean, you're at more of an entry position within that discipline. But supply chain, I mean, it means a lot of different things when people say supply chain or when they say logistics. And so, but I mean, I know high school or college graduates

coming out with a logistics degree, a supply chain degree, are walking into 90. So you're probably a little bit behind them in actual technical knowledge of the discipline. So if you'll continue to grow that long term, that's your answer. Short term, pick up some side gigs. But long term is do what you have to do to grow your particular knowledge base in your discipline because you're in a good discipline. You're in a good field for income production anyway, to make good money.

And it's a booming field. The beautiful thing about it is a lot of times you can more than justify your position by how much you save a company by managing it well. It's absolutely right. The quickest way to get promoted is win where you are in the now. A lot of young people, especially, and it's the nature of the game, certainly being younger and you're in a new industry, we're always looking for the next thing, the next thing, the next thing.

And the best way to the next thing is the thing you got right now. Win. Win big. And that's crushing it and going above and beyond the expectations and showing them how you make your listen you make the company more money you bring up a great point dave i'd be looking for ways to make my boss's life easier that would be my number one goal if i could show my leader hey i'm doing the job you've asked me to do but i'm here to make your life easier that's the best way to get a promotion that comes with a pay bump. Well, in inventory management and procurement and that process, our logistics

person generally shows us every year how they're worth about four times what we pay them. It's kind of something they learned to do in that business is to show how wonderful they are. And I like it. I like it. As an employer, employer i love it yeah that's great very fun that puts us out of the ramsey show in the books we'll be back with you before you know it in the meantime remember there's ultimately only one way to financial peace and that's to walk daily with the prince of peace christ jesus Dave here. You can find all of our shows with the Ramsey Network app on your smartphone. It's the only place to listen to the entire back catalog of episodes.

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