The Ramsey Show - App - Intentional Work Is a Form of Stewarding Your Life (Hour 2)

Episode Date: January 10, 2022

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Music Music Music Music Music Music Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's 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.

It's the Ramsey Show. Thanks for being with us, America. I have no idea what I'm doing here, i'm gonna wander through this hour ken coleman my ramsey personality is my co-host today as we talk about your work we talk about your money we talk about your relationships we talk about your life open phones here at triple eight eight two five five two two five. Dylan is with us in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Hi, Dylan. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, good afternoon, Dave and Ken. How are you guys doing?

Better than we deserve, brother. What's up? Hey, Dave, I hope you know what you're talking about because we're coming to you for some Papa Dave advice. Well, I'm an expert on my opinion brother so my wife and i are i would call it having a healthy disagreement on whether or not we should be investing in a financial advisor right now okay you have any financial uh yeah we do uh right now we're on baby steps four, five, and six. Good.

We've got about $250,000 in retirement investments. Okay. What would be wrong with having a SmartVestor Pro in your corner? Well, the argument from my wife is we've gotten to this point, and she's having a hard time committing to paying somebody else to um you know walk alongside us so to speak yeah okay well uh when i was broke and uh didn't have a whole lot to worry about i could do a will with an online will company uh when i've got several hundred million dollars i

need a lawyer the scale means you need greater areas of expertise okay if you want if you want to tinker under the hood on a 250 000 lamborghini you probably shouldn't do that unless you're certified to do that but if you want to turn a wrench on your $1,000 beater, go ahead. Good luck. No problems. You're more dealing with a Lamborghini now. You need somebody to walk beside you. Now, you don't need to pay them a ton.

SmartVestor Pros get paid based on the balance. If you're doing a managed account or they get paid based on what you buy, either one is okay. But I have a smart investor pro in my corner and everybody asks my opinion but when i get ready to do investing or sharon gets ready you know we're getting ready to change some of our investments around sharon's involved uh the smart investor pros there and we talk it through and go okay what are we going to do and why are we doing this and uh they're not there to tell us what to do they're tell us what we could do and why and we learn a little bit from them about what's happening in the market,

what's happening with that particular fund, and the knowledge base that they have that we don't have because they're in it every day. We learn from, and then based on that, we make our own decisions. So the fact that you stand on your own, make your own decisions from before, you keep that part, but you just get an advisor in your corner to teach you. Yeah, you do need that. Dylan, is it that she's cheap and tight and doesn't want to pay someone, or are there some fears underneath this resistance?

No, I don't think. Basically, we're so focused on trying to get the mortgage out of our lives that we're trying to do everything we can to become completely debt-free. Good. So it's the money. There's no fears. You don't think there's any fear on her behalf, fear of the unknown, of working with a financial pro?

You think it's just she's watching every nickel and doesn't want to pay a professional something you think that's the core issue i i think so it's i think she is comfortable with how we're managing our investments and where we're at in our financial journey right now that she's just having a hard time saying okay let's let's pay you know the extra money for somebody well i wouldn't pay somebody a flat fee. You don't need to at this stage. But I would meet with a smart investor pro

and let them get paid on the accounts they manage for you. They'll give you advice on the rest of them. And here's the thing. If what she's saying is I don't want people telling me how to handle my money, I agree. I agree with her. But what I do want people to do is to teach me some things i don't know before i handle my money and uh that's what your advisor should be doing that's why we always

say you need one with the heart of a teacher not the heart of a salesman i do not want people to turn over their money to someone called a wealth manager and walk away and hope they do a good job and pay them eight8,000 a year to do it or something. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, not at all. Not at all. We are going to raise our own kids and you're going to handle your own money. But you've got an advisor in your corner and the Bible says in the multitude of counsel, there is safety. And so I've got to have people that know how to do things that I don't know how to do and have knowledge bases that I don't know about to go places I've never been before.

Two things I'll give you, Dylan, to help with this conversation. Number one, a conversation doesn't equal commitment. So sit down with several smart investor pros. That's what we tell you to do. And sit down with her and help her understand a conversation with a pro doesn't mean a commitment. Secondly, in that conversation, I think clarity on how it works will give her confidence to move forward now the clarity is this is a person to teach us not to tell us that's correct we don't need people instructing us what to do we don't need people taking over for us we're

perfectly capable um i do agree with that and i and you could probably get by i will tell you 78 percent of the millionaires that went into the millionaire study use an investment advisor. So there's a correlation between being a millionaire and using an investment advisor. You can call it causal or not causal, but it's there. There is a correlation. Ricardo is with us in Sacramento. Hi, Ricardo. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey there, Dave and team. How are you guys doing? Great, man. What's up? Hey, so I am 24. I am currently on baby step four. I quit my job, which was my first job after graduating college.

I just really needed to leave that work environment, but I don't have anything lined up. I'm job searching right now, and I've come across two pathways. I found a job that's very rewarding, but they're going to work me like a dog. It's a 70-hour work week, but like I said, it's very rewarding and overall the compensation is okay. And the other job involves a lot, a lot of commuting, but the pay is roughly the same. Which way do you think I should go? Well, definitely not the second one because that commuting is going to wear you out in about a week. The question is, the job that's going to work you 70 hours is very rewarding. Can you find that somewhere else? And how long will the 70 hours last?

Is that an indefinite situation? Yeah, that's an indefinite situation. Are you married? I am not married. You won't be. Yeah, I was going to say, you could do it for a short term, but even single, 70 hours a week, man's not, woman's not created to work like that. And that's going to eventually take its toll if it had a huge financial upside and it got you out of debt. But you're in baby step four.

I would pass. I love that you found something that's rewarding. So what I would do, Ricardo, is I would focus on what about it feels rewarding to you. Now I'm going to go look for that in this economy. Be patient, young man. You're in great financial shape. Don't sell out for something that just looks good. It's got to be good in all aspects.

Hold on. We're going to send you a copy of Ken's new book, From Paycheck to Purpose. It's a bestseller. You will love reading it. It'll help you with this exact process. Most people know me as the guy who did stupid with a lot of zeros on the end. I made my first million dollars in my 20s the wrong way, and then went bankrupt. That's when I set out to learn God's ways of managing money and developed the Ramsey Baby Steps. By following these steps, I became a millionaire again,

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I'll walk you through how to invest, build wealth, and bust through the barriers preventing you from becoming a millionaire. Hurry, this pre-order ends soon. Get your copy today at ramsaysolutions.com. Ken Coleman Ramsey Personality is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. It is book launch week here at Ramsey. And something I've not said for about eight years, I have a new book out. That'll happen tomorrow. It comes out.

It's called Baby Steps Millionaires. And it's the proven process to show you how to become a millionaire, how tens of thousands have. The actual byline is how ordinary people built extraordinary wealth and how you can too. And we invite you to get a copy today at RamseySolutions.com. That way you get all kinds of goodies thrown in, about $100 worth of stuff, the e-book, the audio book, the Legacy Journey e-book and audio book, other free things thrown in to make the preorder at $20 a super good deal.

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Tomorrow is the big day. Sacramento is on the line, and that would be Sarah calling. Hi, Sarah. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, how are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? I was just curious.

My husband and I are blessed that we have a relatively high income. Paying off the mortgage is obviously a big goal of ours. That's our only debt. And I wondered if, you know, given the higher income, if we should consider saving less than 15% in our retirement and other investing and pile more on the mortgage. Probably doesn't matter because you're probably going to do both so quickly. How big is this big income?

Well, it's relatively big. It's just under $500,000. That's big. I'll take it. Ken, you would take it. Yeah. All right. Good for you. What do you would take it. Yeah. All right. Good for you.

What do you guys do for a living? I work in public accounting, and he works for the state. He works for the what? The state? For the state. Oh, okay. He's the governor. Okay.

In Sacramento. Not quite. Not quite, but close enough. Okay. okay well we got a great income good for y'all well done i'm proud of you so uh how much do y'all own the house we owe about 740 okay so the point being if you save 15 of your income you're going to pay the house off in about three years um or four years if you don't save of your income, you're going to pay the house off in about three years or four years. If you don't save 15% of your income, you're going to pay it off in two or three years. Right.

So it doesn't really matter. You're young. Okay. How old are you? I'm 36. Yeah. So, I mean, before you're 40, the house is paid for, and you're millionaires anyway. Well, you should be.

You make a half a million dollars a year. Okay. So, yeah, I mean, you're doing great the house is paid for, and you're millionaires anyway. Well, you should be. You make a half a million dollars a year. Okay. So, yeah, I mean, you're doing great. Way to go. So what would I do if I woke up in your shoes? I would put 15% of my income away because the years, the two or three years that you're paying this house off, you can't go back and get those and shelter that income. But you can shelter it now.

You can dump it into a Roth. You can dump it into a roth you can dump it into a traditional and you can keep one way or the other keep the government's hands off the money and you can't go back and get those lost years uh and it doesn't affect the timeline of paying off your house but maybe 12 months okay okay that makes sense that's 250 a year for three years, you're done. Right. I mean, that's the numbers I'm doing. I'm doing just big math in my head. I'm not doing some kind of complicated formula here, but good Lord, you all are killing it.

You're right. You've got a big old shovel, and it gives you a lot of options. I would do that just because that way I can keep that money going in there and keep the government's hands off of it. That would be my only motivation is the tax implications of the investments so pretty cool yeah i i agree i would do anything and everything all the time to keep the government's hands off of my money there you go there's too much of the sticky well within reason i mean i'm not going to go crazy but yeah yeah we're going that way for sure good stuff tr. Tracy's in North Carolina. Hi, Tracy.

Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, guys. How's it going? Great. What's up? Well, I feel like y'all are brothers. I've been listening to you for over 20 years since Step Free Friday. Wow, back in the day.

Yes, and my baby's now 21, and I just bought your book today. So I'm so, so excited. Cool. To read it. Thank you. So anyway, I have kind of a, you're welcome, I have kind of a bittersweet question, a good dilemma, bad dilemma sort of. I'm 51 years old, and I am in baby step seven. However, it's consequently because of a divorce.

It was amicable. We did not use a lawyer. I was happy with what I got. He was happy with what he got. But what I did was I took my portion and with that I bought a $300,000 paid for home. And I also put my emergency fund in place of $20,000 and I do have $300,000 in my 401k. And so, um, that that's the kind of the sweet part. Um, I paid a lot of taxes, but because I've been a stay at home mom for 21 years, I do have an education degree i now find myself set up with no debt no payments for the

rest of my life but i'm starting all over again in my career and i'm scared and i'm happy and sad and i can't do my happy little debt free screen because i didn't really do it that way and so i'm just i'm just here i am a baby step seven and I'm like, I don't even have an encore career because I really never had a career. Hey, it's not art. It's math. I don't care if it's ugly. You're debt free. I'm sorry how you got there, too.

But you're still there. Yeah. Ugly counts. How soon, Tracy, do you have to start bringing in income? What's your time? Okay. Great question. Okay.

So I will be receiving right now, and I'm saying it kind of shameful, but this all just recently happened. And so right now I'm living off of what he's giving me, and I will get that for two more years. And that's only $40,000 a year, but because I don't have any payments, I'm putting a lot away and I'm living off of that. But I really want to start working and not have a negative like oh my gosh negative work sure oh and i'm very motivated i'm very ambitious but i'm scared and yeah all right

so hold on a second let's address the fear first because i think the fear has got you all discombobulated the fact of the matter is is that you didn't lose whatever talent or skill you had the last time you worked 21 years ago you have all kinds of experience over that 21 years of being a homemaker and everything else that is also still there. And so you have to understand that you aren't just this newbie that's walking in with nothing to offer. That's the first thing. I'm just real quick.

We got to have a very little bit of time. Just tell me, is there an idea or two that you've had that you at least are interested in trying, knowing you don't have to commit the rest of your work life to it? Yes. What is it? Honestly, I would love to be back in the classroom, and I'm not saying this just because I got y'all on the line, but I would love to teach your course to children.

Middle school. But I'd love to get back in the classroom again, but I mean, I... But what? I get afraid thinking of, you know, that I'm new at it again. No, no, no, no, no. Listen, Tracy, listen to me. Here's the reality. I don't know the North Carolina numbers, but I know the national numbers.

We're seeing record numbers of teachers that are moving on as well for the same reasons that a lot of other people are moving on in this great resignation. They are looking for talent all the time to come in the education system. The reality is you have a degree, which means you've got the baseline of qualifications. You need to get out there and start

talking to anybody and everybody who knows a school board member, a principal. These are all your friends, family members. You have all kinds of relationships, Tracy, in Wilmington, North Carolina. You are qualified at a base level. Get in the school system and start working, even if you've got to be a receptionist at the front desk. And you make relationships. I know she won't have to, but my point is I'm opening it up.

Get in the school system get back in and then move into it yep that's exactly what you need to do so uh yeah that's the process and you know at her age she's going to be just fine hey thanks for listening yeah this is the ramsey show Thank you. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Jacob and Jessica are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Hi. Good. Welcome, welcome.

Where do you guys live? Decatur, Illinois. Decatur, Illinois. Awesome. Good to have you guys. All right, how much Where do you guys live? Decatur, Illinois. Decatur, Illinois. Awesome. Good to have you guys. All right. How much debt have you paid off? Just over $100,000. All right. Cool. And how long did this take you?

23 months. Good. And your range of income during that time? It was $100,000 to $150,000. Good. Very cool. Well, way to go, guys. What kind of debt was the $100,000? It's almost all student loans. Ah! What do you guys do for a living?

I'm a speech-language pathologist. There's a student loan. Mm-hmm. And I also have a degree, but I'm a manufacturing supervisor. Okay, cool. What's your degree in? Biological sciences. Ah, okay, cool.

So, Jessica, you're using yours. Yep. Big time. Big time. Good degree. All right. Very well done, guys. Good, good. So, Jessica, you're using yours. Yep. Big time. Big time. Good degree. All right, very well done, guys. Good, good. So how long have you been married?

Two and a half years. All right, so just after you get home from the honeymoon, you go, getting out of debt. Exactly. Tell us the story. How did you connect up with Ramsey and do all this? Yeah, so a little bit of backstory. We were high school sweethearts, and in high school, our principal had our senior class go through Financial Peace University. I like your principal. Yeah, Sweethearts. And in high school, our principal had our senior class go through

Financial Peace University. I like your principal. Yeah. Yeah. It was awesome. I mean, that's what planted the seed. And so we got to college and we didn't, I mean, we were done. Didn't do it. Yeah. Right. But shortly after we graduated, we got married. And as like what you said, as soon as we got home from the honeymoon, it was like, we looked at our minimum payments for our student loans. We were paying a minimum of $1,000 a month. Yeah, just, and we'd be. Sly May. Of course.

In it forever. Had our own bedroom in your house, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so you looked at each other, newly married, and said, we're out of here. Mm-hmm. And you remembered the Ramsey thing from back in the day. Mm-hmm. Okay, what'd you do then?

Budget. That was our big thing. We just had a meeting. We talked about, okay okay what do we you drug out the old books or how'd you do it i'll listen to your podcast every day i'm gonna work okay yep that gave you the answers the i mean because you got a fresh net after senior year in high school that's a little cloudy back there yeah yeah and so you just the two of you sat down and said okay we're getting rid of this. Yep, yep.

We were really, really motivated. Not that many people our age do this, so it's kind of hard, but we did have a couple friends. I had a mentor. She was one of my supervisors as an SLP, and she was going through the program and just hearing a few other people our age going through it and the benefits of getting out of it, we stuck with it. Love it. Yeah, I'm curious about the psychology. I think a lot of young people listening right now watching this, you knew the principles,

and I didn't hear anything where you thought it was silly, it didn't make any sense, but you just went to college, you kind of put off all that adult stuff, right? Then you guys get married come back for the honeymoon and hello we see the first student loan payment now things are real right is that the psychology was like oh we have to start doing this adulting thing and then you were like okay this made sense back then we're going to go get into it is that what happened yeah i think it just made us sick to know like we have to pay that much a month minimum i mean it's just the there's no freedom in that yeah and we both don't like being tied to things and i like each other right yeah

yeah that's good how much do you think the class helped you realize that it was doable because you said something earlier that i think is interesting. You said most people your age, couples your age, early 20s, maybe mid-20s now, but they don't normally take this stuff on, and you guys were kind of rare birds, which you are. How much do you think that knowledge and that class, knowing that you can do it, helped you get even more sick? I think it definitely helped. Like she said, planted the seed. And so we knew from going through it the first time that it was possible

and that there was a proven way of doing it. And so once we plugged back in, we were able to just follow the steps and get right to it. Wow, good for you guys. That's good. Yeah, it's still back there. It's hovering in the back of your head, and it just has to come to the front. Yeah. Very good, guys.

Well done. Okay, when people ask how you get out of debt you tell them budgeting you said that what do you think the other keys are i think it's weathering the storms i mean we had two cars break down in the middle of it i mean it was like 12 months in i think to our debt-free journey we had two cars break down and we had been saving for them um but we could have easily i I think, been like, oh, let's get a nicer car or all that. But we didn't. We weathered the storm.

Life's going to get you down. And you can't use that as an excuse to make bad financial decisions. Woo! That's real. Woo, preach it! So what specifically kept you guys from getting a better car? I mean, when the rubber met the road there, what did you decide? What was the real thing that kept you in the game?

The determination to finish. You had a bigger picture. Right. Yeah. I don't want to screw this plan up. I'm finishing. Wow. That's good.

Very good, guys. So you said you had cheerleaders. Again, who were they cheering you along? It was mostly each other day to day but then we had several family members my um one of my best friends now but she was my mentor when i was an slp her and her husband were going through it at the same time as us ah there you go okay yeah nothing like a mentor that steps back with you and says go yeah love it very cool well Well done, you guys.

You're heroes. How's it feel to be free? Awesome. Amazing. Now you can buy a dadgum car, right? Yeah. Save up and get you a decent car. Yeah.

Get out of that hoopty. I love it. Good for you. Well done. Well done. We've got a copy of Baby Steps Millionaires for you. That is the next chapter in your story for sure. Go on and be millionaires and be outrageously generous

and be able to live and change your whole life and family tree. Man, you've got a bright future ahead of you. You guys are amazing. Thank you. So good to meet you all. Very, very cool. And a copy of Total Money Makeover for you to give away to someone else and disturb them the way that class did back in high school for you.

I love that story. It's good stuff. Well done. We'll have to let the Education Solutions team know that this happened. That's absolutely fabulous. Jacob and Jessica from Decatur, Illinois. $100,000 paid off in 23 months, making $100,000 to $150,000. Count it down.

Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free. Yeah. Woo-hoo. This is how it's done. You know, James, we need to get Dave Reed's mean tweets back up again one of these days because there's some great mean tweets out there on me and uh but when we first start doing that we realized that a

percentage of the mean tweets were kids in high school sitting in the high school curriculum class the foundations class making fun of the old bald guy on the screen and my gym teacher's too lazy to teach so he puts dave ramsey up there right or whatever that kind of thing and that the kids just railing on it it's it's hilarious and they're so mean it's exactly what i would have been doing right you would have been worse oh dave because you and me together don't have a thought i mean add i mean we got it nailed down i would have had my phone confiscated yeah my phone you know we need to do going forward this is a passing notes they don't do that anymore they don't have to no they text they my phone. You know what we need to do going forward? Passing notes. They don't do that anymore because they don't have to.

No, they text. They text, yeah. I never thought of that. You know what we need to do for future editions? In fact, we should put this on the docket, folks. This is real time.

Hitting Dave with a business idea. This could go sideways quick. I think we should film you every once in a while just these break-ins like you're doing your normal teaching on the curriculum

but then it cuts away to you going, hey, stop saying mean stuff. You could be an algebra, you idiot. Or you know how you go, shut up. It's your classic shut up when you're on stage. Like, you could be doing push-ups right now. Shut up.

You know? Because it's like, why are they so angry? How did he know I was like... They're so angry. He can see me. He can see me. Well, I was angry. I mean, you're just...

Well, you're not angry. You're just sarcastic. Oh, of angry. I mean, you're just, well, you're not angry. You're just sarcastic. Oh, of course. You're just a little punk. And I was a little punk. I would have, man, I completely would have been trashing me. Oh, sure. If I was in high school and they put up Dave Ramsey on the high school screen.

Yeah. And, but here's what happens. If you, you know, if you go through D.A.R.E., you know, remember the old D.A.R.E. program? Don't do drugs, right? Thanks to Nancy Reagan. Then you go off to college and you do drugs. Then you remember that D.A.R.E. taught you not to do drugs after that. You remember that?

It's kind of the same thing, right? Went through Financial Peace University in school. Well, you were a good Christian kid. I was a good boy. I promise. And, you know, you go through Financial Peace University in high school, and then you go off to college and you get into debt. That's it.

And then when you get married and you want to be free, you come out and you do your debt free scream, and we still love you. So you put up with the mean tweets for this kind of an outcome. Exactly. Exactly. This is the outcome I want right here. It's worth it. If you have to go on a circuitous route to get there, you still get there.

I'm in. This is the Ramsey Show. show. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author of the book Paycheck to Purpose, is my co-host today as we answer your questions about your work, your relationships, your money, and your life. This is The Ramsey Show. James is in Portland, Maine. Hi, James. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Thanks, Dave. I'm calling to get your opinion on whether to quit my $200,000 a year remote finance manager job

in order to homeschool my two daughters and work toward changing my career. I'm 39, and I'm married to a doctor who makes $300,000 a year. We are debt-free other than our $380,000 mortgage on a home worth approximately $650,000. We have a six-month emergency fund, $350,000 in 401K and $50,000 in college funds so far. Wow. How old are you guys? I'm 39. My wife is 34.

Phenomenal. Pretty incredible situation you've gotten yourself into. Well done. Gives you a lot of choices, doesn't it? Yeah. Another wrinkle I wanted to share is that my wife's specialty has very odd hours on evenings and weekends. So given my 8 to 5 schedule, we often end up like ships passing the night. So another feature of this decision, potential decision, would be that I'd get to spend a significant more time with her.

You're eight to five remote? I'm eight to five remote, so I work with people throughout the country. And to have meetings with them and things like that, I work those hours, yeah. In finance? Yes. So finance is in I am a back-end finance person for a consulting firm. Oh, okay. So these are corporate meetings, not consumer meetings.

I got you. Okay. Yes, yes. Okay, cool. Very cool. What would the side hustle be? Well, that's something I want to develop. I have a background in kind of creating some content and things like that,

so I was thinking that might be something I want to do part-time. Again, it would be like 15, 20 hours a week rather than a significant amount of time because I would want to focus on the homeschooling. Okay. Well, number one, financially, you can just quit and homeschool, right? I mean, you got $300,000 of your income and you're just stay-at-home debt, right? That's not a problem. Financially, mathematically, you can do that.

But math isn't what's giving me a pause here um what's giving me a pause is you're going from working full-time to not at all um and i think you have an uh maybe there's parts of this picture that you've painted that are more beautiful than they are when you start doing it um the second thing that it gives me a little bit of pause is there's a part of this and it says you have the ability to bring two hundred thousand dollars to your family regardless of what your wife works or makes, to manage that ability poorly and just, quote, flip the switch and walk away today, feels irresponsible. There's a part of me that wants to say that.

So I think that that ability to create that much income, that much value for your family, the transition from that should be managed very carefully and deliberately to minimize how much of your earning potential is lost. Because I'm not positive that 15 hours is actually the actual limiting factor. For instance, if you were doing some kind of financial analysis that you could do when the kids are asleep or at times that your wife is at work and the kids are asleep or whatever, where we're not ships passing in the night, where you're not, where you work around the homeschool thing, you might still get in 40 hours pretty easily if you just

had a more flexible environment, as an example. So I don't know, Ken. Yeah, I've got a couple questions. James, what's driving this? And there's no wrong answer, but what's driving it? Is it the kids being homeschooled? Is it you coming home to take a break for a season and get the benefit of being around the kids and the wife? I mean, what's really driving this?

The homeschooling is definitely part of it. I mean, when we saw that they're putting kindergartners on iPads, we really didn't like that idea. So we moved to a place that had quote-unquote great schools, and then we saw that, and we were not thrilled with that idea. How do you go back to books after having an iPad? It was my question. And so we were really concerned about that. So that was one of the main drivers, the ships passing nights, another one of them. And the other is I went and looked up what the top paying career was at the time that I was, you know, when I was in college and I chose finance, it isn't necessarily my passion either. So it's kind of, I do feel a little bit like I'm running away from something,

to speak to what you were saying, Dave. But at the same time, I feel like given the freedom that I do have, should I be running away towards something that I'd like to do more? Well, the answer is unequivocally yes. But what Dave is saying, and I agree with Dave, let's not just bolt right away. Let's think of a strategy, you know, the idea of a bridge. I just like using that analogy. What's the bridge to take me from where I am to where I want to be?

And I think you've got three factors here. Two of the three, by the way, all legitimate, and I just wanted to know what was behind this, because two of the three are family and relational. And because you've got the financial wherewithal to do it uh i i'm fine with it i don't have red flags hearing those three answers but i do have a red flag on do you really know how you're gonna do as homeschool dad because i think you'll have a more satisfying end to this story a more richness of soul if you find a way to create something that you earn in the marketplace that's different than what you're doing yeah it may or may not be finance related and it but it certainly doesn't necessarily have to be 15 hours uh there's lots

of hours in the week that um that people do lots of things that are complete wastes of time. And so I think you will like your life better, yourself better, if you are somehow being a better steward of your capacity. And it's not to say being a homeschooled dad is not a good steward of it. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying you're jumping from a high performance situation um completely out of the nest and um i just think you're gonna have more of a shock more whiplash than you think it's just a you're just asking a couple guys and we're just we're just talking by the way we don't think there's anything neither one of us think there's anything wrong with your idea or your ability to do it. You have the luxury.

I just want you to think through it and go, can we slow this down just a little bit, turn up the heat on what we're transitioning to, not from, a little bit, and I think you'll get a better result. Yeah, because the ships in the night thing isn't going to be resolved either way. This is his wife's got a crazy schedule. So he's going to see more of her apparently with this move. But there's other ways to do the homeschooling. There's other ways to do that.

You don't have to be the homeschool teacher. So I would ask you to do more research, look at every angle possible on how do we accomplish the kids being in the learning environment that you want, you doing something that you really, really enjoy, and getting to spend more time with the wife. Don't assume that this is the only way to do it. I think that's really what we're driving at. Yeah, but what a wonderful place to be. Fantastic.

A, you've got the heart for it, and B, the math in the household allows you to do this. So absolutely on the way you know it's the way to go no question about it so yeah i just i there's um i there's a stewardship thing for me on everything that that overcoats my whole life and so i often look at that and go okay i have this ability and i'm supposed to i have this potential i have this bandwidth and am i using that to its fullest potential or am i just letting it go dormant and escaping and and i i have a tendency to do the escape thing like everybody else does i have to stop and think about it but it's one of the things it's that

whole concept that keeps me working. I don't have to be here. That's right. Financially. But I'm here because of, I have the bandwidth, I have the ability to reach a whole bunch of people still. And so I need to do that. I need to do that. I'm going to have

my best life because I did that. That's right. That's what I'm looking for. Hey, good question, man. Love it. Thank you for calling in. Real brain teaser. That puts this hour of The Ramsey Show in the books. This is James Childs, producer of The Ramsey Show.

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