The Ramsey Show - App - I'm Struggling to Find a Job After Graduation (Hour 2)

Episode Date: October 30, 2020

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Coming to you live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions and broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is The Dave Ramsey Show. It's where America hangs out to have a conversation about life, money, relationships, your career. I'm Ken Coleman, one of the Ramsey personalities, and I'm joined by another one of them, my good friend, Anthony O'Neill. And we are here together for you this hour on The Dave Ramsey Show, 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225.

That's the number to jump in on the conversation. We'd love to have you join us. And here we go. We'll go to Potomac, Maryland first, where Samuel joins us. Samuel, how can we help? Hi, Ken. It's a great, great pleasure to talk to you. I actually tried to call your show earlier, but then I got bumped.

Uh-oh. But then I think that's a good thing because now I get to talk to you and Anthony. Yes, you get double the advice. So how can we help? So bear with me. I'm going to try to be as clear and concise as possible. I just

graduated from college in the spring 2020 semester and I still believe my greatest years are ahead of me. But with that being said, I did graduate into a world recession. The economy is doing terrible. There aren't a lot of jobs out there. It's really hard for young people to get a job right now, too. And my basic question is,

what should I also be doing? What should I be doing next? Because during this time, I decided I'm not going to just do nothing. I have to do something in order to get to the next job. After my degree, I managed to get two certifications, two certifications in the IT cybersecurity field because I realized cybersecurity information technology, that's what I'm really passionate about, and I believe it's a great field. It is. So, yeah, I'm going crazy on LinkedIn. I'm studying for my next certification right now,

and I'm talking to people in the field that are giving me great advice, but then from a job perspective and then later, Anthony, maybe from a financial perspective, my question is, what should I also be doing? What can I be doing to be more productive, to not waste this time, and to make the best of a terrible situation, which is COVID-19? Sure. Well, first of all, I think you're doing plenty. I don't think there's any more that I would add from my standpoint.

Now, Ayo can give you some great financial advice, and he's going to. I'll be really brief with this because I think you've got to have a mindset change because I think that, yes, there is obviously a pandemic and there's obviously been an artificial shutdown of the economy. However, nationally, we are at 7.3 percent unemployment, I believe, is the latest unemployment numbers. Now, there are different economies in different states. Just to be very frank with you, the Tennessee economy, doing quite well. Unemployment in the state of Tennessee, very, very low, much lower than the national average. I don't know what Maryland is like. I don't know if it's pretty well locked down and shut down.

And if that is, in fact, the case, that is an artificial lid for you that is making maybe work hard to find. But as a young guy who just graduated college and you've got those certifications, I would tell you that I would go beyond LinkedIn. I think LinkedIn is a wonderful resource. I like to say on the Ken Coleman show that it is a great source of information, but it is not the greatest opportunity for connection. Now, what I mean by that is you use the information off of LinkedIn to actually make phone calls, to actually go, who do I know that knows this person on LinkedIn? And let me see if I can do a Zoom with them or a coffee. And if that's not kosher in Maryland, if that's not cool and nobody's doing that, that's fine. I understand that. But you can still make connections even in this time of social distancing. And I think what you've got to be focusing on, again, mindset is,

you've got a very, very nice ladder ahead of you. You are qualified. You are getting even more qualifications. I'd keep getting those certifications. But I would get away from the traditional, I'm just going to submit resumes cold and go on LinkedIn. You've got to be using the proximity principle, which says in order to do what Sammy wants to do, he's got to be around people that are doing that and in places where that is happening.

So you are trying to make as many connections as possible, conversations where you say, hey, how'd you get where you are? Do you have openings in your area? And you're finding people that know people in these companies that are hiring in IT. And I can tell you, because I talk about this daily on the Ken Coleman Show, that cybersecurity is one of the fastest growing fields in the United States, for sure, and certainly around the world. And so that's a wonderful place to be in. And you need to work really hard on the proximity principle. And I wrote a book specifically for this. So Kelly is going to give you whatever version you want, e-book, audio, or hard copy in just a few moments.

But, A.O., what does he need to be doing from a financial standpoint? I think from a financial standpoint, I can tell he's already doing the right thing, Samuel. And so, Samuel, where are you financially? Do you have a savings account? Like, where are you from a financial perspective? So I just started watching your show, Dave Ramsey, Ken Coleman, all that in this year of 2020. And it really during that time in quarantine, I just started trying to watch be productive. I started listening to Dave Ramsey's show. I'm somewhat familiar with the baby steps,

but not too familiar. But the good news is that I went from a student loan of $20,000. I own now a little less than $15,000 on that loan. Just considering the fact that I just graduated, I think that's a little bit of progress right now. No, that's huge. How much are you making a year right now, Samuel? Well, I just graduated. I'm still unemployed. The $5,000 that I used was for my family who just, they managed to help me through gifts and everything.

So instead of buying stuff that I don't need, I decided to attack that student loan as fast as possible. Like Dave Ramsey, attack it with a vengeance, right? So I just attacked it as much as I could just to get rid of that. And I'm going to attack my car right after because that's next, right after this student loan right here. And then I heard, oh, yeah, thanks, Ken, for willing to give me a book because I think I'm trying to watch less TV, play less games, and just read more so I can learn more.

I think Dave says – Well, Samuel, Samuel, Samuel, listen, I want to make sure because Ayo's going to drop something on you, but I just heard something. I was assuming incorrectly that you were at least working some part-time jobs, and I appreciate – listen, there are jobs in potomac maryland that you if you can drive uh you can get a job yes and you need to be doing two at least two part-time jobs if not three at this stage while you're doing all of that connecting and using the book the proximity principle because you can be making even more ground on that debt ao yeah yeah and that's the same thing I was going to say too there, Hogan. I'm not Hogan.

That's, bro, get a job. You know what I mean? You sound like you have the right mentality, but the first thing is first, the practical step, get a job. Drive for Uber Eats, drive for DoorDash, drive for Uber, get out there and get a job. Now, it's not going to be your dream job that's not why you went to school which is why number two while you're driving and dropping people off and doing odd jobs you're reading ken coleman's book you're you're you're logging on stop listening to the day ramsey show every day get on the ken coleman show because right now you need a job so you can listen to the day ramsey show to get out of debt. Okay? So that's what I recommend. Get a job.

Get so involved into the Ken Coleman Show information so you can get a solid career. And then come back and holler at me and Dave. We'll help you get out of debt. Absolutely. Good stuff there. All right. Coming up, more of your calls, more clarity so that you can confidently step forward on the path that you know you need to be on. Don't move. This is the

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CHM is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. Oh, yeah. Let's just let that play for a moment. Let people enjoy that great tune. Yeah. You never see Dave Ramsey do what I'm doing right now. There's way too much shoulder shaking. I'll do a little of this.

Kelly was giving me this move here. Oh, Lord, Jesus. AO is so embarrassed right now. I'm so embarrassed. The three Coleman kids would be. I mean, Kelly, you know how embarrassed my three kids would be. So we need to roll this back on YouTube tonight for them. Can we go to Milwaukee, please?

This is the Dave Ramsey show. Have a little bit of fun. That was a good bump. That was very nice. Don't y'all, come on. We all need to move a little bit, But I did break the rule AO. You know, from the movie Hitch, where Will Smith tells Kevin James' character, keep it right here. He really did. That's one of the great lines from Hitch.

He's like, just stay right here in this area. And I got outside of that, and you rightfully called me out. I apologize for humiliating you. We will get beyond it. Anthony O'Neill, Ken Coleman here this hour On the Dave Ramsey Show Taking your calls and having a lot of fun I might add So here we go And for the YouTube world

Because you know the YouTube doesn't hear the music We just play the Michael Jackson music So that's what Ken Coleman is talking about Thank you I know YouTube listeners are like What is he talking about Thank you, you bailed me out Everybody behind the cold was like The YouTube audience has no idea what you're talking about like where's he going to dance yes thank you you bailed me out yeah man i tried everybody behind the cold was like the the youtube audience has no idea what you're talking about

zero the radio audience and i were enjoying a little bit of thriller ao was not because i ruined it for him yeah i mean because you know come on that's michael jackson bro if you're gonna dance dance like michael jackson i don't have it i i broke my own rule i was not operating in my strengths okay absolutely so let's uh let's try to you're the career guy stick to that bro that's a very good stay in your lane is what a.o is telling me and he's right all right triple eight eight two five five two two five triple eight eight two five five two two five let's go to milwaukee wisconsin at anthony's wish i shall grant it sarah is on the line there sarah, how can we help? Hey, guys. Well,

first let me say I'm thrilled to be talking to you. Oh, that's nice. We're thrilled to talk to you. Thriller. Yeah. Hey, I see what you did there. Okay. I see what you did there. See what I did. Yeah. Very well done. What's up? My question is this. My husband and I are in Baby Steps 567. Recently, I got a bonus from work. I want to apply it to the principal or the mortgage. Is it better to apply it to the principal one lump sum, one payment, or to kind of divvy it up over the course of several months and pay over and beyond by divvying it up? How much is the bonus?

$6,300. Oh, yeah. Just apply it all at one time. Okay. Just go online and just say, Hey, I, um,

you can either call them and make the payment over the phone or go online and just tell them you want to do a principal only, um, uh, payment. Uh, the key thing is to make sure that you tell them exactly what you want to do because sometimes if you pay over America,

if you're listening, you know, um, if you pay over the, either push that towards the next payment or sometimes they'll add that money into your escrow. The principal is on the very bottom. So if you want to attack your principal, go ahead and just make one lump sum payment. That's fine. Yeah.

Good stuff. Thanks, guys. Hey, congratulations. Thanks for the call. 888-825-5225. Let's go to Flagstaff, Arizona next. Samantha is there. Samantha, how can we help?

Hi. I am graduating in May. I've got, so for the record, I'm debt-free. Yay. I've got spring semester's tuition in the bank. My question is I am starting a job search for after I graduate. I don't know where I want to be. So I'm doing, trying to do a nationwide job search. And I want to know how to do that successfully because right now all I've been

doing is just sending in cold resumes. Yes. Well, stop doing that because that's essentially like playing the lottery, especially in today's world where we've got higher unemployment than we did in February where we had record low unemployment. And now with the onslaught of the way that companies handle resumes, as you know, Samantha, that it's a digital submission just about for everybody. And so they're just getting all these resumes. And we know from research that hiring managers are spending about 7.3 seconds or less looking at a resume. So there's no reason to play that game because I'm not saying it won't work.

I'm just saying you're truly playing the lottery. So the question really is what do you really want to do? And you may not know the exact step, but what's that long-term goal? What do you think is that mountaintop for you? I am majoring in environmental sciences with an emphasis in chemistry so that I can be a soil scientist. Very nice. So here's the good news. You're super clear.

She knows, Ayo. She's in stage one of my seven stages. Stage one is get clear, and you're really in stage She knows, Ayo. She's in stage one of my seven stages. Stage one is get clear. And you're really in stage two and three right now. You're getting qualified from the school standpoint and to that entry level option at least. And then it's now stage three, which is get connected, which is using that proximity principle. And so what you want to be doing is while you're still in school, you've got career services at your university. You've got professors. And you've got some initial connections to that industry.

And you want to leverage this opportunity as a student right now to maybe look at some internships right out of college. And whether they're paid or not, I would still do it because your expenses are really low. If you had to work two jobs plus an internship just to kind of be able to afford that, I think that's a sacrifice worth making if that's even something you would have to do. But you just want to be able to get in any way that you can, and an internship right out of school might be a great option. You may not even have to do that, though.

And so when I talk about the proximity principle, I'm saying the people that are in that world, okay, environmental sciences, let's just keep it really broad for this discussion. And what you want to be doing is saying, if I'm looking nationwide, I'll get intimidated by that. What we have to say is, in order to be a soil scientist, what is the particular path? So what would be entry level? And then what would be, let's say, two or three rungs up the ladder from there? And so when you look at the dream job as a top of the mountain, you go, okay, let me back my way down the mountain. What does it look like to get there? And there are multiple ways up a mountain, by the way, as you know, Samantha. So I think you've got to determine what's a good entry-level position for me, and I start looking for that.

Looking for that nationwide is a lot easier to search for. And then as you begin to go, okay, this is a good entry-level job, so is this. Now what I'm going to do is see what companies are offering positions in those areas. I'd even look at potentially getting connected with a recruiter in that particular field because there are specialist recruiters in that field as well. Does that make sense? Yes. So right now you got to boil it down. You got to find companies that are actually hiring entry-level positions in your field and then you attack it. Okay, but listen, I'm going to give you a book that I wrote just for you because you know where you

want to go. And your question is, Ken, how do I get there? And so I don't have time to unpack the five people and the five places that I write about in the book, The Proximity Principle. It's the number one bestseller, still selling. It's extremely practical. Hang on the line. And Kelly's going to give you whatever version of that you want. The e-book, the audio book, or the hard copy, which, by the way, Anthony, people can get all three formats of that book one low price at kencolman.com 25 bucks 25 three books for one price how about that that's not a bad deal you love your people because they can't do that but my i know well i'm trying to help people get hired

so i gotta give them these crazy discounts but that's good that's the situation so what happens there and you talk to a lot of young people people, when they look at the top of the mountain, it can be very intimidating. Yep. And you want to look at the top of the mountain to kind of go, where do I want to end up? Right. But nobody goes out and just starts climbing Mount Everest. No. They have to get to base camp after months and months of training, maybe even years of training, physical training, mental training, emotional training, all the things.

And then you incrementally go up the mountain. Yeah. I mean, what you're doing, Ken, is you're just pretty much giving them baby steps too. Those are your seven baby steps to get into your dream career. That's right. Only focus on number one when you get there and be ready for number two when you get there. And then only focus on number two when you get there and then focus on three. And so that's something that I use with my own philosophy.

My end goal is very, very big. But right now I'm only focusing on the season I'm in right now. And I'm killing it. I'm studying it. I'm getting better. So that way when I'm ready for the next phase, I can be 100% determined and ready to attack it. You didn't just become a youth pastor overnight. You didn't just become a speaker and a writer that then joins our team.

There are years and years of steps and preparation and hustle, and this young lady is going to get there. But again, folks, the mountain is not so scary when we break it down to stages. So there you go. All right, good stuff. We're just getting started. We're having a blast. Anthony O'Neill, Ken Coleman, joining you here on The Dave Ramsey Show. And the violence causes death

This is the Dave Ramsey Show coming to you live from our Ramsey Solutions headquarters in Nashville. Thrilled to have you with us. I am Ken Coleman, joined by Anthony O'Neill, and we are taking you through this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show, 888-825-5225 is the number to join the conversation, 888-825-5225. It's your show, America. What do you want to talk about?

You're one phone call away. We're going to shoot you straight, and we'll take it on. We'll take your money questions. You sick of your job? Have no idea what you want to talk about? You're one phone call away. We're going to shoot you straight, and we'll take it on. We'll take your money questions. You're sick of your job, have no idea what you want to do, miserable, scared. We'll take your calls. Before we get to the phones, I want to make sure that those of you who have yet to be able to say never again, never again will I question what to do with my money, never again will I feel like I am trapped financially because of what's going on in the world. And if you feel like that statement is impossible, I can tell you it's not.

You just need a plan. That's why we're excited about Ramsey Plus. It's one membership that coaches you step-by-step through our best products so you always know that you are doing the right thing with your money. Now, in Ramsey Plus, there's a whole lot, but our big hitters are Financial Peace University, the premium version of EveryDollar, our budgeting app, and our new Baby Steps tracking app. Plus, as I mentioned, tons of other different courses and tools and access to financial coaches. With Ramsey Plus, you can know you're doing the right thing.

Start your free trial today at DaveRamsey.com slash FPU. That's DaveRamsey.com slash FPU. 888-825-5225 is the number. Let's go to Appleton, Wisconsin. Josh joins us there. Josh, how can we help? Hi, guys. How are you doing?

We are having a blast. What's going on? Awesome. So I have an 18-year-old, a senior in high school, and he's in a youth apprenticeship program for machining a trade. And my question is, the next step, should he sign up with a company and get free apprenticeship and be stuck with the company for three years, or should he cash flow his own apprenticeship program?

Well, that's really interesting. You know, I wonder why you say, and I'm not being facetious or sarcastic, I truly want to know why you say if he takes an apprenticeship that he's stuck with a company for three years. Well, typically, most places, they'll pay for your apprenticeship program, but you have to sign a contract. No, no, I'm sorry. I understand. I understand how it works. I'm saying why do you perceive that as being stuck?

Yeah. As opposed to he's a young man. How old is your son right now? 18. He's 18. That means by the time he's 21 or 22, he's already gotten three years of incredible experience, and he's wildly qualified. Right.

As opposed to, play out the other option for me. So if he cash flows his own apprenticeship, which just simply means he takes care of his basic living expenses while he works for free, that's what you mean by that. What's the path if he does that, and how is that any different? Well, he would pay for his own apprenticeship program. He's not getting it for free. No, I understand.

But my point is that he comes out on the other side of that. That's true. He can go anywhere. I like the free method, man. I'm not concerned with him going. That's almost like, for an example, the army will send you off to school or the military will send you off to school. And then you have to go serve the great states of the United States of America for four years. That's not I wouldn't call that stuck. I would call that grateful. Someone paid my way. I'm a go while I'm going there and serving for those three years.

I'm not stuck. I'm actually learning more than after that. I can transfer and go somewhere else with the experience. Free education. No calls to me. Yeah, man. How else with the experience, free education, no cost to me. Yeah, man. How much is the – yeah, what you're hearing from us, Josh, is I just wouldn't couch it as he's stuck.

I think one option may be better than the other, and I think that's up for you to decide. So we'll keep playing this out. But my question to you is how much would it cost him, your son, to pay for an apprenticeship on his own? Oh, the tech is running about, I think, $4,800 per semester, I think. $4,800, right? In the neighborhood. How many semesters? Typically a two-year program.

Okay, so what's his total? I'm just asking you. Give me a ballpark. what's his total? I'm just asking you. Give me a ballpark. What's his total number? $20,000. Yeah. Is that right? Yeah.

Okay, then again, does he have? What kind of cash does he have? It's not he. What kind of cash do you have? Well, no, he's going to make his son pay for it, which I love. No, no, no, no. Yeah, no. He would be passionate

he'd be working he currently is earning in the youth partnership program and he's saving how much does he have josh oh 10 grand okay yeah yeah i just i don't i don't think he needs to do that i think at the age of 18 to get into an apprenticeship and then work for a company and get in the field for three years and know that he's got a guaranteed start i just like that play better but i'm not going to tell you that the other play's wrong i just i just don't think he needs to to do that that's that that 10 grand that he saved up now anthony where would you tell him to invest that money if he didn't use it for the apprenticeship? I'm keeping it in my savings account.

And, Ken, I'm just going to have to say, you know, I think you're wrong. I think you're wrong for telling him to not do that. He needs to go to this apprenticeship program. They need to pay for it. He needs to work there. Let him save his money. Think about it. At 25 years old, he can have education.

He can have about $10,000, $15,000 in his savings account, and he can have the experience. Now at 25, he can transfer somewhere, go somewhere else with a large savings account, no debt, and the experience, making anywhere from $90,000 to about $140,000. I think we've got to look at the long-term play, and I'm just going to say this. It's not Kent. This is Anthony O'Neill. He needs to go at the long-term play. And I'm just going to say, this is not Kent. This is Anthony O'Neal. He needs to go to the free route. Yeah, I agree with you. I agree with you.

I just like walking people through, but what your options are. I don't think there's a right or wrong on this one. However, I just think that three years experience for a young man at 18, that's really, really valuable. And he gets to keep that money. All right, let's go next to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Sue is on the line. Sue, how can we help? Hi, how are you guys?

Thanks for taking my call. You bet. What's up? Okay, so I just have, it's kind of, it's probably going to be an easy question, but I'm struggling with it. So we've paid off our debt, but I'm working on, well, we're working on our three to six months emergency fund. So like on my budget, I have like thinking funds, you know, like birthday prizes, cell phone replacement, vet bills, so that I always have my envelopes full of the money when something happens and we need it, right? Do I include those thinking funds in my emergency fund or do I just include my four walls when I'm thinking of

emergency fund? Well, when it comes to your emergency fund, we call it three to six months of your expenses. Okay. So the keyword there is expenses. What do you need to survive to keep your life the way it is now for three to six months. So you can determine if an emergency happens. Am I just going to cut off everything? If I'm, am I going to stop doing my hair? Am I going to stop buying birthday gifts? Am I going to stop getting my nails done? You decide and you figure out, okay, what you need for me. I have a full three to six months. You know, I love golfing. So I'm a part of a membership golf club. So I put all that in my emergency funds just, just in case, if I do want to keep my golf membership,

I can go there, but check this out in a true emergency can, I'm not golfing. Right. So I can take that money out and use it towards a fully, you know, whatever the emergency is. So really, I would say going ahead and put three to six months of your daily monthly expenses so this way when emergency comes you have a little bit more cushion um in there to to keep it going yeah that's a great point because you are going to buy a birthday present for your kid you are you hope you know and so we're not going to go hey we're suspending birthdays this year right of course back in the old days you know my grandfather used to tell me that he would get an orange for Christmas.

I'm not kidding. He grew up in the 30s, and they lived in southwestern Virginia, and you get an orange. Can you imagine? Our kids these days can't be 30 minutes without their phones. My grandfather got oranges

and apples for Christmas. Thank God I'm in the 2000s. We may need some more emergencies for our kids, though, just so they – we need some shock and all. Don't we? But, hey, I'm sounding like an old guy now. Hey, don't move. Anthony O'Neill, Ken Coleman sitting in on this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show. More coming right up. This is the Daveave ramsey show so excited to have you with us anthony o'neill and ken coleman with

you this hour on the dave ramsey show 888-825-5225 is the number to jump in on the conversation you're not happy in your job your work your, your career, your purpose in your work, I'll help you with that. Not where you want to be on the baby steps, not even sure what they are, feel like you're trapped, no way out, AO's got you there. And we're going to work together to help you get clear on what's your next step and how to take it. 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225. Let's go to Tampa, Florida. Brandi joins us there. Brandi, how can we help?

Hi. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. I started the program a while ago, and I got stuck on a baby step, and I decided to skip around, which I know is like a no-no. But I want to get it done and out of the way. So I did step one, I have that done, and I went and did three, four, and five. Baby step number two is where I'm stuck.

So I graduated college in 2013, and student loans is the only debt that I have. I believe I was told by one of the representatives that I think after about 10 years or something, they fall off. Each year I go to put my information in to make a payment. They tell me that my payment is zero based on my income. And I'm just like, but it's still increasing. So I'm not really sure what to do about that. How much do you owe in your student loans, Brandi?

All together. Currently about $70,000. $70,000. Sounds like your student loans are in deferment right now. It is still a curing interest. Right now they should not be if they are federal. If you have private, they are not be if they are federal now if you have private um they they are uh but if they're federal they're all federal okay so yeah so right now as of right

now and since i think well i want to say right around march march april they should not have been accumulating any interest um at all so here's what i recommend uh you need to you need to pause baby steps four okay you need to pause it and you're going to hate what i say but you need to also take that money out of baby set number three and put it towards your student loans yeah yeah how much do you how much do you have in baby step three right now uh about twenty thousand oh brandy come on yes the representative was like you know you don't make enough to make a payment well but here's the thing how much do you make annually brandy how much do you make annually a year about 45 oh brandy pay the brand what are we doing okay brandy listen listen okay uh when we get off the phone, Kelly is going to give you a copy of my destroy your student loan debt.

It's a quick read. Eighty pages. You're educated woman. You read this book in about 45 minutes. I'm not the best reader. It took me almost five months to write this book when it's only an hour read. So educated woman like yourself, you read this. And if you follow the principles that are in this book, you could be debt free, honestly, within the next 12 to 18 months. And you'll feel so good. You know, Brandon, you sound like you're very young, smart, bright, beautiful young lady. You'll be debt free, no debt, three to six months of expenses, and you'll be on to the other baby steps. So what I'm saying is stay on the line, get this book, go to the bank Monday morning, cut a check for $19,000, get that thing down and then work the baby steps from there and start attacking them. Even if they're not racking up any kind of interest right now. And then within

the next 12 to 18 months, you'll be 100% debt free. Then you can go back to your fully funded emergency fund. And I promise you, you will love that. And thank yourself down the road because now you're building money and investing money and making money and you don't have to worry about any other debt. And that's a great feeling when you wake up on that, Ken. Great advice.

I love it. I love that you called exactly how she was going to react. You said it and she immediately was like, oh, AO for real. But that's really great advice. I love it. Let's go to Liam next. Uh-oh, he's got a good question here, oh, AO, for real? But that's really great advice. I love it. Let's go to Liam next. Uh-oh, he's got a good question here for you, AO.

Liam joins us in Rochester, New York. Liam, how can we help? Hi, guys. How are you? We're doing great. What's going on? So I'm 16 years old. I'm looking at colleges soon.

And when I turn either 18 or 19, I'm going to receive some money. I'm not exactly sure how much, probably somewhere between $50,000 and $150,000. And that's supposed to pay for my college, but it's most likely going to be more than the cost of college. So I'm wondering what should I do with the surplus of that money? Good. It's a good question. And you know, at 18, 19 years old, I can give you all the advice today. Um, and you won't make all the right decisions with that kind of money.

Okay. We, I had a call like this pretty much last week, another young kid getting about a hundred thousand dollars. Um, and here's what I recommend, you know, um, of course, number one is going to be, make sure that you can complete school 100% debt-free. Uh, but with that kind of money, this could set up your future very positively. I mean, and get, get you ahead of the game. So I would recommend that you sit down with one of our smart investor pros when that does happen. So in two years, remember you need to sit down with a

financial advisor and say, listen, I'm coming into this large check. I want to make the right decisions. What should I do? I am 18. I'm going into school. I have this much of school that needs to be paid for. And so I'm going to have a lot of money left. And then from there, boom, all you do is just tell them, hey, what should I do? Make sure you have like a parent or legal guardian there that can make sure that no one's trying to give you the wrong information because not all financial advisors can. Can we trust, which is why we have vetted our own called Smart Vestor Pros. So that's what I would do for for yourself, man, is number one, make sure your college is taken care of. The number two, get with a financial advisor that can show you how to properly invest and check this out.

I want you to remember this two years later. Don't do what they tell you to do. Ask them to educate you on why you're doing what they say that you should do. So this way you're growing and you know exactly what you're doing with your money and it's not them just blindly leading you all right so great question man and i i love i love it yeah thinking in the future is brilliant oh 16 years of age making that phone call it's fantastic and anthony is absolutely right our smart investor pros again davramsey.com and your area we've got men and women that have been vetted. And we say this

sometimes, and I don't think we put enough emphasis on it, so I'm going to. This young man and Liam and anybody that we give this advice to, and Dave has said this. In fact, Dave has drilled this into us. Just because we've vetted these men and women that are listed at DaveRamsey.com and your

area under our Smart Vesta Pros, you still need to go meet with them, okay? Do a Zoom call, whatever is appropriate. And eyeball to eyeball, you are interviewing them. They work for you, not the other way around. And we want to make sure that you've got a good fit because they should be giving you. So you're checking them on the Dave Ramsey advice.

If you don't hear it, if they're saying something different than what we say on this show, big time warning flag, turn around, fire us an email, and we'll deal with it. Yeah. But beyond that, it's about fit. And do you feel like they've got the right chemistry with you? They have that heart of the teacher that we really, really train them for, and we want them to share with you so that you feel like you know what's going on. They're not just telling you what to do, and you're kind of foggy on what's going on it's really important even for a young man like this to get somebody who early on is going to get you started on the right path and it's a game changer ao when you trust somebody like that's why we go to who we

go to to get our hair cut or the dentist or whatever and if you'll put that kind of feeling into that you should definitely do that as it relates to your investment advisor. It's so true, Kent. Next week, I'm meeting my financial advisor. I'm interviewing a new one. It's coming here to the office. And we're going to sit down and have lunch. What are the kind of things that you would ask? Because I think it's good for people to hear. Oh, what do you see in the future? What do you think I should be investing in? How much? And tell me a little bit about yourself you know where where are you from what are you investing in what are you diving in what's piquing your interest right now i want to know do you know what you're talking about you know and here's so funny this is what's so funny is that people know because i'm a personality they

come in here thinking well they want to talk to dave ramsay language now i want you to come here talking anthony o'Neill language. I agree. You know what I'm saying? Because this ain't Dave giving you the money. This is Anthony O'Neill. So I don't care what you think. Oh, I'm a huge fan of Dave. Well, it ain't going to work for me because I need a huge fan of Anthony O'Neill. Shoot, it's my money.

It's good. It's really good. So here's the point that Anthony's doing a great job making. Interview. Yeah. You got to feel good about this decision because we're talking about zeros we're talking about, folks. Zeros. Zeros. Zeros. Commas.

Yeah, that's right. Commas and zeros. And we want to expand the zeros, so it's really important stuff. Hey, I want to thank our production team, the radio team, our YouTube team, the video, radio folks. They do a great job in the control room. I want to thank my pal, Anthony O'Neill. Always fun to hang out with him. But most of all, we want to thank you, America.

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