The Ramsey Show - App - Investing in Your Side Business to Raise Your Income (Hour 2)

Episode Date: May 28, 2019

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions Broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Grant is with us in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Starting point is 00:00:56 Hi, Grant. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thank you for taking my call today. Sure. What's up? Look, I'm 21. I'm looking to get ready to be married here.
Starting point is 00:01:07 But my question is, financially speaking, what is the best way to know when I'm ready to buy an engagement ring and what is the best method to go about purchasing one? Well, you're ready. How much do you make? About $55,000 a year. Good for you. What do you do? I'm an operator in the petrochemical industry.
Starting point is 00:01:27 Cool. Very cool. So how long have you been dating her? We've been dating for five years, and we're high school sweethearts. Yeah, obviously. Wow. Very cool. Very cool.
Starting point is 00:01:39 So when are you thinking about getting married? Hopefully within the next year or two. Okay. Cool. All right. about getting married um hopefully within the next year or two okay cool all right well uh do the jewelry stores are not in the financial advice business they're in the jewelry business and so um i will give you a different number than they will give you okay the rule of thumb i use when you're buying an engagement ring is no more than one month's income, which is a pretty stinking nice ring in this case. Okay?
Starting point is 00:02:12 So, I mean, your take-home pay is, what, $3,500, $3,800 a month? Yes, sir, something like that. Yeah, okay. That's a nice ring. And it's not a five carat, but you're 21 years old and you're getting married. Who cares, right? Okay. So, I mean, $3,800.
Starting point is 00:02:32 And here's the thing. Learn a little bit about anything you're going to put money into. And as you start to shop for diamonds, you'll learn about clarity, cut, carrot, and so forth. I'm afraid I have a lot of dollars tied up in diamonds, none of which are on my person. That means they're on the other person. But I've learned a lot about it. And I will tell you this, don't fall for the, oh, if you get this one, it'll go up in value more. It's clearer. Don't fall for the, oh, if you get this one, it'll go up in value more.
Starting point is 00:03:05 It's clearer. You just don't want something that to the naked eye when waved around under somebody's nose is noticeably a bad color or noticeably a bad cut or noticeably has flaws in it, okay, for clarity. And so color, clarity, and cut. And carrot, of course. Carrot is the size and so forth. So it not an investment i own a bunch of them we've never sold any of them and they've never gone up in value in 30 years so that's a bunch of crap okay the only thing they're good for is it makes the girl smile that's all they're good for okay so and they're worth it for that because my girl needs to smile,
Starting point is 00:03:45 and so every so often she gets one. That's how that works, okay? But they're not good as an investment. That's just a bunch of garbage, okay? So what are we going to do? We're going to get a deal. I never buy a perfect stone, but I never buy a junk one either. I try to land in the middle, and I learn about it a little bit before I get into it.
Starting point is 00:04:03 A really good place, if you can land somebody in your life that knows a little bit about diamonds, that will go with you, knows more than just a little bit, you actually can find steels on diamonds at a pawn shop. There are high-end, high-quality pawn shops out there that you will get stuff for probably a quarter on the dollar of what it would be at the jewelry store so in other words ten thousand dollar ring if you can find it at a pawn shop you can afford it for thirty eight hundred bucks if you found one now you need to you're brand new at this and i wouldn't tell you just walk in off the street you could buy a piece of glass and not know the difference right now and i don't want you to do that so you need somebody
Starting point is 00:04:42 to help look at it with you that knows something about it that'll help you shop around the other thing you can look for is a diamond broker someone that actually brokers them and they'll teach you and you can learn about buy a loose stone and have a ring made and it's not that expensive to do that so diamonds are a little bit like furniture they have very very high very high markup, double, triple. And so you'll find twice as much stone for the money as you will just walking into the typical module restore that you hear the ad on the radio, okay, or you hear a TV commercial or whatever. And all the girls are gasping and saying, oh, he bought it there. No, that means you're paying for that ad. So, you know, if you can find a broker or a pawn, that's a good way to get a deal.
Starting point is 00:05:33 One month's salary, I think you can save that up pretty quick, can't you? Yes, sir. Yes, sir, I can save that up pretty quick. All I need to have is my home mortgage, and then I have a little pawn trailer I'm paying for that's about it very cool good for you well just to finish the story uh my bride and i um got married with a uh 0.23 carat less than one-fourth of a carat you can't even see it it's so small it's tiny and it was not a beautiful wonderful stone or something like that i bought it um she didn't think she was getting a ring so it was a bonus so that was her engagement ring and um i can promise you today that is uh has been replaced with upgrades periodically
Starting point is 00:06:21 and now the woman wears a headlight on her hands. But she started with a.23 38 years ago, and it did the trick just fine. There is zero correlation between the size of the diamond and the success of the marriage. As a matter of fact, there might be a negative correlation at some point that the diamond gets too big for the engagement ring. If she requires a three caratat she's probably not a keeper so um yeah that kind of thing so you're going to be just fine you're going to have a she's going to have a wonderful ring you're going to be a hero and i'm proud i got to talk to you about it thanks for calling in open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in.
Starting point is 00:07:06 We'll talk about your life and your money. Julie is on our private Facebook page, The Place to Go, if you want to talk about Ramsey stuff. The Ramsey Baby Steps Community. It's a private Facebook page. We will let you join. There's quite a few people in there. I think it's approaching 200,000, and they're having different conversations all over the place now. It's a big deal.
Starting point is 00:07:27 The Ramsey Baby Steps community, it's the official Facebook page, or Facebook community group, whatever you call that stuff. Is there ever a time when a 30-year mortgage is better than a 15? No. If you can't afford it on a 15, it means you can't afford the house. If you currently own a house, and the only way to keep from getting foreclosed on or bankrupt is to refinance into a 30, yeah, you'd probably do that, but it's not better than.
Starting point is 00:07:58 There's no time I recommend a 30-year mortgage. I would tolerate it in an extreme situation, but I wouldn't tell you to go do that. No. Why would you want to stay in debt for 30 years? When one of the key points of becoming a millionaire, and the largest study a millionaire has ever done by our team, the Everyday Millionaire Study, one of the key points is the average
Starting point is 00:08:21 millionaire pays off their home in 10.2 years. Why would you want to keep a mortgage 30 years? Because you don't want to win with money? You want to make sure you pay the bank a lot? Why? No. No. Never.
Starting point is 00:08:34 Hope I wasn't unclear. This is the news, guys. You need to stop and listen. The Fed decided not to raise interest rates. That means you've got a small window of time before rates rise again. Here's the deal. Most people are paying too much interest on their largest expense, their home. So you're freaking crazy if you don't take 10 minutes to call Churchill Mortgage right
Starting point is 00:09:17 now and see if they can save you money before rates rise again. A mortgage through Churchill could save you thousands or better yet, reduce the time until you're debt free. Can you imagine how it would feel to no longer have that payment looming over your head every month? Just go to ChurchillMortgage.com or call 888-LOAN-200. Their team of experts will give you more clarity about your options and more peace knowing you're saving significant money in the long run. Call 888-LOAN-200. That's 888-562-6200 or churchillmortgage.com. Well, summer is when everybody goes on vacation. And, well, before you go on vacation, you need to make sure a couple things are working right.
Starting point is 00:10:19 Like your life and your car. Stuff like that, right? You get your car checked up before you go on vacation if you're driving the car that is right and so you need to make sure you're all checked up before you go on a big trip too you need to make sure you have the right kinds of coverage that you need we have the five minute coverage checkup there are 10 kinds of coverage that you might need, and it takes about five minutes to use this five-minute coverage checkup tool, and it'll show you exactly what you need to do to be 100% buttoned up on all your coverages. Get the right stuff done. It's completely free to use.
Starting point is 00:11:00 Go to your phone, text the word CHECKUP to 33 33 789 or you can go to Dave Ramsey dot com slash checkup text the word checkup to 33 789 or Dave Ramsey dot com slash checkup it's free Jason is in Miami hi Jason welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Awesome. Hey, I have a quick question whether I should rent or buy according to my current financial situation. So I'm 25 years old and have about $85,000 in cash in the bank. And I do live at home still, but I definitely want to decide whether to rent or buy in the next, say, six months. Good. Get out of my parents' house.
Starting point is 00:11:49 Okay. So I was wondering what you would do in my situation. Very good. What do you do for a living? I own a photography business and an online e-commerce store, and then I also have some income property, two income properties in Georgia. Excellent. Excellent.
Starting point is 00:12:03 Are they both paid for? Yep, both paid for. And they produce about $550 in cash each, so it's about $1,000 a month that I receive. So what is your income these days? It's about $90,000. Way to go. And you're 25 years old, and you've got $80,000 in the bank. Yep.
Starting point is 00:12:23 Ding, ding. Well done. Well done. Are you seeing a young lady at this time no i'm single okay and that's my concern which is it'll be one income essentially uh so i guess i'm worried about whether i should buy something or rent and then figure out later on in life whether I should buy. I just think renting is essentially throwing away money, especially in Miami where it's so hard to rent. But it's also expensive to buy, too. So I would be buying an older, smaller apartment, which would be 20% down and homeowners association
Starting point is 00:12:57 every month. So I can't really afford a home, per se. Well, you can. You just have to think about how you did it. But you're a pretty industrious young guy. You've got a lot of stuff going on very well done very well done well i mean i'm with you you move out within six months and uh get yourself established um in terms of paying your own bills and those kinds of things and it's okay if you rent i don't want you renting as a way of life but there's people get in such a hurry
Starting point is 00:13:26 to buy renting sometimes is just patience and so if you rented for six months and during that time you piled up some more money and you had a real strong down payment he caused you to buy a different property that was a better property well that would have been a good thing but i don't want you renting for six years. Right, exactly. And, like, what I thought about is if I do buy a small apartment, you know, a small apartment, essentially, if I do outgrow it in three or four years, can I just rent that out, and then that covers my mortgage, and then I decide what to do later? Yeah, you could.
Starting point is 00:14:00 You could get it paid off and then keep it like you've got those other properties that are paid off, and they're money-making machines when they're paid off, baby. I just don't know if I should just buy the apartment and then, you know. It's okay, because here's the thing. As long as you don't buy something that can never be sold because it sucks so bad. Right, right. It doesn't matter. You can sell it if you don't like it in two years, right?
Starting point is 00:14:23 Mm-hmm. It doesn't matter. You can sell it if you don't like it in two years, right? So my son Daniel bought a home, and a year and a half later, met the young lady of his dreams, and six months or eight months later, they were married. And we were actually talking about it this weekend, and she likes the house that he bought just fine. But it's always going to be his house that he bought just fine but it's always going to be his house that he bought and so at some point they will change houses just because the old joke is is that you didn't know you bought the wrong house until you marry the girl and she tells you right that's the old joke now that allison wasn't doing that to daniel but uh but and your girl you know your girlfriend of the future might not do that to you.
Starting point is 00:15:05 But no matter what you buy, you're going to change a phase of life when you do get married and have kids. And you're probably going to move again. So it's okay. It's okay. If you buy a nice little condo there, get you something going in the Miami area. And as long as it's something that can be resold, that you don't get yourself stuck in something, then just sell it when your life changes a little bit. But it's okay to rent for six months and even before you do that.
Starting point is 00:15:36 But again, just number one, real estate's not permanent. You don't have to keep it forever. There's no rule that says you have to stay there forever, especially if you buy carefully and watch what you're doing and you've been wise so far. Number two, if you're single and you buy a house, know that there's a probability that you're probably going to sell that house when you do get married later, especially if you're in your 20s. That's just a high probability.
Starting point is 00:15:58 That's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. Just kind of have that in the back of your head, and that way you won't be upset later when that comes down the road. Dan is with us in Chicago. Hi, Dan. How are you? Good, Dave.
Starting point is 00:16:11 How are you? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Oh, thanks for taking my call. You know, I had a question. You know, we've been on your program for about a year now, and my wife, thank God, got me to see straight into your program. And, you know, I'm almost paid off of the debt. Good. I've got a daughter coming into her junior year.
Starting point is 00:16:33 I've got two more years of high school. And then do I save for college or do I go ahead and attack the house? You save for college. She's coming right at it. Yeah, she's coming in. She's coming in there. Two years, she's coming in. She's coming in there two years. She's going to be there. Yeah, you ain't got much time.
Starting point is 00:16:48 And I'm wondering if I should help her out with the college or if I should go ahead and pay the debt off on the house. No, you should get ready for college. And, you know, we have the baby steps that are laid out. Baby step two is your debt-free, which you're about to be done with, except your house. And baby step three is an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. And then you do four, five, and six simultaneously, but in that order.
Starting point is 00:17:12 Four is 15% of your income going into retirement. Five is kids' college. And six follows that is the house. So the good news is college is not forever. And so you get her started, get her in something that you guys can agree on is affordable, has a good, you know, a low cost because you're cash flowing it. And she's going to be working and she's going to be getting scholarships and you're going to choose an affordable place for her to go to school because you don't have a lot of money. You're not going to go to an expensive, muckety-muck rich school. And that's okay.
Starting point is 00:17:46 You're just fine. She's going to be fine. So, you know, study at a place that you can afford and you cash flow it along with her above your retirement. If you don't put anything extra on the mortgage for a little while and we get her on through school, that'll be fine. You'll get to it. You'll get there eventually, and you're going to be just fine.
Starting point is 00:18:05 So, good question. You'll get to it. You'll get there eventually, and you're going to be just fine. So good question. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. The $10 sale ends this Friday. Our lowest prices of the year. Go to the online store at DaveRamsey.com or call us at 888-22-PIECE. The Ramsey concierge team will help you out there. You can save up to 56% on our bestselling
Starting point is 00:18:25 books and life-changing tools. Listen, these Ramsey books are just about all number one bestsellers and they all are bestsellers. And most all of them, except the newest of them, are $10 in this special. So you can get the total money makeover. You can get Rachel's book, Love Your Life, Not Theirs. You can get Smart Money, Smart Kids. You can get Entree Leadership. You can get the Legacy Journey. You can get the Starter Envelope Systems. There's tons of these books, and they're only $10 each, and you can mix and match.
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Starting point is 00:19:23 Check it out. Hey, enter to win daily no purchase In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Stephen and Kristen are with us. Hey, guys. How are you? Hey, Dave. Welcome, welcome. Good to have you. Where do you guys live?
Starting point is 00:20:11 Your old stomping grounds, Antioch, Tennessee. Oh, yeah. Awesome. We're neighbors then. Cool. Good to have you. And so here to do a debt-free scream. Yes, sir.
Starting point is 00:20:20 Love it. How much have you paid off? $89,000. Sorry. She's not giving us enough credit. $98, sir. Love it. How much have you paid off? $89,000. Sorry, she's not giving us enough credit. $98,000 in 12 days and 10 months. 12 months and 10 days. You guys, yeah. We got to mix up.
Starting point is 00:20:36 12 months and 10 days. Very good. And your range of income during that time? I was 65 to 125. Okay, cool. Very cool. And what kind of debt was this 98,000? The majority of it was student loans, but we also had medical debt, some taxes, and a couple of very old credit cards.
Starting point is 00:20:59 Cool. What do you all do for a living? I work in healthcare. And I work at an amazing marker warehouse in Nashville. Love it. Very cool. Good for you guys. This is fun.
Starting point is 00:21:10 98,000 bucks in a year. Yes, sir. So you must have sold something. Everything. Did you have a little money in savings you threw at it, too? We had maybe about 7,000. We always lived in a little bit of a homeostasis. We didn't pay our debts, but we liked to have some money in the bank.
Starting point is 00:21:27 So there was always something in there. And I didn't want to take it down to the $1,000. But once she was fully on board, after we both read the total money makeover, she's like, we're doing this, we're doing it all the way. So we threw everything but $1,000 to get us started, to get the snowball rolling. And then you had garage sales or what? We had a community garage sale where we sold everything, including our television. Whoa!
Starting point is 00:21:54 Our friend Adam helped us pack up just about everything that we had in our house, moved it to the tennis court of our apartment complex, and anything people would buy, we sold it. Wow. And just start from there, huh? And eBay. And went crazy. there, huh? And eBay. And went crazy. Facebook Marketplace. Very cool.
Starting point is 00:22:08 You guys went after it. Yes, sir. So how long have you all been married? Almost 12 years. Okay. So what happened a year ago that just blew you up? Because you went crazy. We started to realize that we were getting older
Starting point is 00:22:23 and we both wanted to travel and we want to adopt children. We want kids. And that kind of kick-started everything for us. And, of course, we read The Total Money Makeover, and it gave us a vision of what our future could be like. And when she read it, she said, I already know all this stuff, but it actually gave me a roadmap of how to do it.
Starting point is 00:22:46 And it made us both believe. And once we believed, it was on. Hope is a big thing. Yes, sir. Yeah, it's a powerful thing. Very, very cool. Well, congratulations, you guys. Thank you.
Starting point is 00:22:55 It's awesome. How does it feel? Oh, man. You've been busting it for 12 months. It's a little surreal. We've got our Dave jobs for one more month to finish up our Baby Step 3. Baby Step 3 we're going to have done by June 30th. I think much sooner than that.
Starting point is 00:23:09 Okay. So what are your side jobs? What have you done? Delivered pizza. Yeah. I mean, we both did some Uber Eats. She worked one day at Kroger, and that didn't work out. She worked one day at Amazon.
Starting point is 00:23:19 That didn't work out. So she ended up coming to work with me at Pizza Hut and just, I mean. So you've been delivering pizzas. Cool. Yeah. So how many nights a week? Five nights a week for myself, or about 30 to 35 hours at Pizza Hut, and then my full-time job. All right, so doing five nights a week, what did just you make at Pizza Hut?
Starting point is 00:23:39 Goodness. I would say sometimes as much as $20 an hour if I was – because I hustled – I mean in a month. In a month. $1,000, $1,500, $2,000? I would say at least $2,000. Oh, really? Yeah, because every spare hour I worked there.
Starting point is 00:23:55 Yeah, so five nights a week you make a couple grand. Yeah, 12 hours on Saturday. Oh, you were going all the time. Okay. More than five nights. Oh, yes, sir. All right. Wow.
Starting point is 00:24:04 Wow. And so that jacks the income up because you almost doubled your income for this year. We did. Yeah. You've been getting after it. I mean, that's hustle, hustle, hustle right there. And now you're done. Woo-hoo!
Starting point is 00:24:16 Touchdown, baby! Yes, sir. So I got an email. The rumor's going around the building. You guys are kin to my friend Patsy. That is my aunt. Yes yes patsy claremont is my aunt yeah she is a jewel she is precious indeed you know what dave she uh spoke your event your organization here a couple times and so she had gift bags she had taken home with all your books and she gave me one of them one day when i was at her house sat in the closet for years one
Starting point is 00:24:42 day i pulled it out read the total money makeover. That was it? That's it, sir. Oh, my gosh, it came through Patsy. Yes, sir. That's awesome. Well, she's a world-class communicator and a world-class person, so we're honored that it came through her to get to you guys. And you guys are heroes, man. Thank you, sir.
Starting point is 00:24:57 You worked your butts off. We did. Very well done. This proved our communication so much. Our marriage is much stronger because of going through this and you know i had a lot to deal with you know she's wanted to adopt for so long and i'm like i'm right there with her now and her courage is amazing when she was working at pizza hut uh she was robbed by three men at gunpoint oh and uh they took the only ten dollars she had
Starting point is 00:25:24 on her thankfully that was she just started delivering that night, but they stole our car. Oh, my gosh. And I guess they only took it for a joyride. The police found it the next day in 11th Avenue in Nashville. We got our car back, but she took a few weeks off, but then she wanted this gone so bad that she started working there again. Oh, my gosh. And she she's incredible that's amazing that's amazing well congratulations you guys what do you tell
Starting point is 00:25:53 people the key to getting out of debt is you you i know you sold everything i know you worked extra what else i think the first thing is you just really need to be honest with yourself um because the hardest part for me was actually writing all of the debt down and accepting responsibility for the mistakes I've made. And once you do that, it's easy. Own it, baby. Own it. That's it.
Starting point is 00:26:16 Once you own it, it's done. Once you have a strong why, that was what I tell people. It's like you have to figure out what your reason why is, and then you can handle anyhow. Amen. That's true. That's true. Very good.
Starting point is 00:26:29 Good job, you guys. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires. That is the next chapter in your life. I see adoption in your future and anything else you choose to do. We're going to Europe, baby. There you go. You know how to get her done, man. This is amazing.
Starting point is 00:26:44 Well done. All right. Steve and Kristen from Nashville, Tennessee. $98,000 paid off in 12 months and 10 days, making $65,000 to $125,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free!
Starting point is 00:27:17 Yeah! two one we're done i love it well done you guys man that is exactly how that works look at the work ethic on these two man they worked They worked. They worked like maniacs. $98,000 in 12 months. They sold everything in sight, took the savings all the way down to $1,000, threw that at it, and just worked and lived on nothing. And now they're free. Is it worth it? You know, people watch you when you're doing that. Your broke friends will be making fun of you.
Starting point is 00:27:50 Which, by the way, if your broke friends are making fun of your financial plan, that's a sign you're on track. Well, you know, you need to live your life and enjoy life a little. For one year, shut up. You can do anything for a year. You can do anything for a year. You can do anything for a month. You can do anything for three months.
Starting point is 00:28:20 You can do what it takes to win. Listen, I'm not suggesting you live like that for a decade. It doesn't take a decade for you to get your stuff together, get the deck cleaned up. It takes you concentrating exclusively on one thing because what you focus on is what you win at. You're not going to win at something that you half-butt pay attention to. You half-butt pay attention to your marriage, you're going to have a crummy marriage.
Starting point is 00:28:51 You half-butt pay attention to your kids, they're going to be delinquents. You half-butt pay attention to your money, you just look up and you go, God, we make $100,000, we have no money. Where is it all going? And then you reach that healthy level of disgust and suddenly you get intentional, suddenly you get focused suddenly hope kicks in
Starting point is 00:29:12 because we give you a framework and show you how to do this if you think you can or you think you can't, you're right that's what Henry Ford said and he was right, this is the Dave Ramsey Show That's what Henry Ford said, and he was right. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Kimber is in Pittsburgh. Hey, Kimber, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.
Starting point is 00:30:01 Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? I just wanted to get your advice on my situation. My husband and I are 27 years old. And last year, I quit a full-time job to pursue my wedding photography business. And right now, just kind of looking at our goals for paying off my student loan and saving a lot more, kind of mostly in preparation for starting a family next year, perhaps. I'm considering a full-time, going back to a full-time job, but also hopefully maintaining my photography business.
Starting point is 00:30:45 But I know pursuing a full-time job will impact my business. So just wanted to get your thoughts on what you think is true. How much debt do you guys have, not counting your home? I have $10,855 on my student loan. That's it? Your whole household? Oh. Not counting your house?
Starting point is 00:31:13 That's pretty much it. My husband has loans, but we aren't paying those right now. Okay. I'm asking how much debt this couple has not counting your mortgage. You have $10,800 in student loans, and he has how much in student loans? I don't know because his parents offered to pay that. When? When did they?
Starting point is 00:31:43 When are they going to pay it? I honestly don't know how long have you been married we've been married three and a half years it's time you know this is affecting your life if they don't pay it okay okay it's very important it's in his name They're going to come take his income if it's not paid. So the details need to be something you and your husband both understand and agree, and even with his parents agree, that on what schedule this is going to be done. Okay? If it's going to take 40 years, that's not okay.
Starting point is 00:32:24 If it's going to take four months, that's not okay. If it's going to take four months, that's okay. You see? So, I mean, if he has $200,000 in student loan debt in his name and they want to take 40 years and pay it off, well, that's sweet, but that's stupid. Okay? I know it's not that much. Okay, but you see my point. But I understand what you're saying. You need to get the whole thing.
Starting point is 00:32:42 Okay, now, what does your husband make a year? About $32,000. Okay, and how much have you made in wedding photography in the last 12 months? This year, about $15,000. And what did you make at your full-time job before? About $22,000. Okay, and you already made $15,000 doing weddings, right doing weddings right yes no you don't need to go back to work you need to beef up your wedding business and or take pictures of things other than
Starting point is 00:33:13 just brides right i don't care if you take pictures of sports teams or puppies but as long as they're paying you i want you to beef up your photography business, whatever it is, by $7,000 or $8,000, which is more than you would have made then going back to work. So, no, let's get your business geared up. What can we do to get the marketing up and acquire more customers? And let's get excited about that. That has more opportunity than you going back to work. And it's something you can control your timeline on if you decide to have children and so forth in the near future, like you said.
Starting point is 00:33:50 Right. That was the idea in the long run, but I wasn't sure if I was looking too far out. Yeah, I just get desperate for customers. It wouldn't be a long-run thing. It'd be like by the end of summer, how can I make $5,000 shooting stuff with my camera because I'm good at it? And people pay me money for it. I don't care what it is. You can make an amazing amount of money shooting sports teams.
Starting point is 00:34:15 People will pay for doggy portraits now. I mean, it's what I don't care. Whatever it is that interests you in addition to bridal shots. But bridal shots are booked way in advance, and weddings are, and so you don't have the same, you know, you've got too much lead time. You can't just make good money by August doing that. So you need something that's got a little quicker turnaround time. And it's like, you know, we do vacation shots for families while they're at the beach
Starting point is 00:34:43 for their Christmas card or whatever. I don't care. You know more about it than I do. But let's get your – I'm going to send you a copy of Christy Wright's book, The Business Boutique. It's about ladies running their own businesses, and she's got great things to say in there. And I think you've got about $15,000 more of untapped potential or more. I think you can be making more than your husband and just own your own business by the end of the year. And then let's get dialed in on those student loans and figure out what they are
Starting point is 00:35:15 and start to get them all paid off by both of you doing that. Instead of saying, gosh, my business didn't organically naturally grow by osmosis. I'm going to go take a job. No, let's get after it. Hustle and grind. You can do this. Hey, you've got a lot of potential. Don't walk past it.
Starting point is 00:35:31 Irene, I'm sorry, up next is Darcy in Canada. Hi, Darcy. How are you? Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? I'm looking to make a career change where I leave my current job I'm at today,
Starting point is 00:35:46 and I focus exclusively on my business that I've been growing for the last few years. And my concern is that that initial change is going to drop my income, and it's going to throw our mortgage-to-income ratios a bit out of whack, and I'm wondering if that's a wise decision to make that change. Okay, so what is your side hustle? Digital marketing. Okay, and how much have you made? How much have you made?
Starting point is 00:36:14 I make about $80,000 a year. On your side hustle? Yeah. Sweet! Yeah. Okay. I've been building it up for eight years. Very good.
Starting point is 00:36:27 With design and... Okay. And what do you make at your full-time gig? About the same. Okay. So it's the $160,000 that you've gotten used to, and so the cut is just that you're giving up one of your jobs. You got it.
Starting point is 00:36:41 Okay. All right. And what would make you comfortable? I mean, do you need to get the digital marketing jacked up to 120 and then quit? I don't. I'd love to. I'm at capacity right now. It's really tough for me to scale it up any farther.
Starting point is 00:36:56 I'm working every night and every weekend and have been for a year or so, a couple years. Are you married? I am. Your wife work outside the home? She's staying at home with the kids. She's doing some VIP kid courses, which was recommended by our Facebook group. Cool. Good.
Starting point is 00:37:18 Okay. Hmm. Interesting. We're almost debt-free. We have $25,000 left to pay. Hmm. Interesting. We're almost debt-free. We have $25,000 left to pay. We wouldn't make the change until we paid that off, of course. Well, if you had the more capacity, how fast do you think you can jack your income up to, say, $120,000, $140,000 after you quit your full-time? Because that should give you a lot of hours in the day, right?
Starting point is 00:37:45 It should definitely do. And I've never committed myself fully to this job. I've only done evenings and weekends forever, and I don't know what the limit could be. I hope it would be quick. Yeah. Maybe six months to a year, maybe. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:37:59 Maybe less. And how much is your house payment? About $3,000 a month. So right now it's just around a quarter, but that is going to jump it up to about a half. If you're at capacity, can you raise your prices? I plan on doing it this month. I did it this month last year based on some advice I heard from you. Okay.
Starting point is 00:38:30 Because there's only two things you can do is work more or make more per hour you know so yeah okay um yeah let's raise your prices a little let's uh um let's get out of debt and then i'm trying it yeah i think you can make it all the all the right energies in your voice the way you're talking about it you're you're not pie in the sky you've been doing this a long time eight years you know what you're doing for a long time you know you you really have you really have it dialed in um but there might be a year that your family cuts back a little bit but over the long haul a you're going to get a better quality of life because you work all the time right now and b um you're probably going to end up making more over time. Yeah, I'm doing this.
Starting point is 00:39:11 I'd be debt free. And I would try to, you know, raise my prices to see if we can get it on up to closer to 100. And then I'm doing this. Good question. Hey, thanks for listening. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey guys, this is Blake Thompson, Senior Executive Producer of the Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know over 15 million people listen to the Dave Ramsey Show every week? And a lot of those people listen to one of over 600 radio stations across the country.
Starting point is 00:39:48 To find a station near you, head to DaveRamsey.com slash show.

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