The Ramsey Show - App - It's Time to Kick-Start Your Financial Goals (Hour 3)

Episode Date: July 25, 2018

The show about you

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, 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'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us, America. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Tyler is in Birmingham. Hey, Tyler, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hi, Dave. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? So my family are getting married here in the next couple weeks we're 19 um i'm going to be applying to medical school here in about a year so we're about two years out and i want to see kind of where we fit in with the baby steps okay um we have no doubt we have a house that we put 20% down on. We bring in about $2,000 a month plus whatever I can make while I'm in school. My parents have me a $30,000 in a student account that's been rolling for a while. But the plan for the first two years of medical school, my parents are divorced.

Both of them said they would match us $10,000 each for the first two years, so we'll be able to pay for that in cash. And then we also have saved about $25,000 on top of that that we've been saving for the medical school. I just want to see where we need to go from here. So you've got it mapped out to pay cash? For the first two years, for sure. That $30,000, you know, we want it to grow as best as it can,

and then hopefully be able to pay for the majority of the last two years, and then we'll just have to fund or pay for whatever extra. But we're not sure how much extra it'll be, depending on how much it grows. But, yeah, we're planning on paying cash for it. Okay. All right. Good. Good.

Well, I think right now you have one goal, and that's medical school. Your other financial goals are on hold. You know, you pay your bills, obviously. You eat. You keep the lights on, pay the house payment. But it's all hands on deck. Every penny we can squeeze out of anything goes in this account because you're investing in you. And if you come out of medical school debt-free, you're a unicorn, man.

I mean, you're in a great shape. I mean, think about it. You're walking in here to $100,000, $200,000 a year income depending on what you know what field of or what area of practice you're going into but i mean you ought to be making some bank and have no payments you're going to be zoom zoom right yeah i sure hope so yeah but i mean so the goal is just keep you know like you are investing your time your energy your emotions in the academic side of this we're also going to do the exact same thing with that exact same level of intensity on the financial side and the math side.

So every dollar we can squeeze out of anything, anywhere is going in this account, in the I'm going to medical school, that free account. So we have enough to match my parents for the first two years which is originally what all we thought we would need for um as far as cash goes um and then we have a little bit we have another five thousand to have an emergency if you had an extra fifty thousand it wouldn't make me mad so i guess my question is is there anything else we should do with it should just go into that account we shouldn't put any into a retirement account or anything like that. No, no.

That's what I'm saying. No other investing. You have one thing you're investing in. His name is Tyler. Completely focused on that. An extra $50,000 in the account when you graduate wouldn't make me mad. Have an insurance policy in the account that ensures that you go to medical school debt-free just pour everything into that you got plenty of time to do investing

with a debt-free md does that make sense i mean you're not losing ground yeah i understand you're in great shape you're in great shape and I really want to see you pull this off. So, yeah, just the best thing you can do is, you know, if you're investing in a type of field of study, which you are, medical degree, obviously, an MD, that is going to be very applicable and fruitful in the marketplace, you're going to make a lot of money because you got this education, then you pour into that everything and lean completely in singular focus into that. And it's been a singular focus of yours for a long time. I'm just adding the financial singular focus to the discussion.

Lean into this extreme focus, extreme intense focus on we are going to complete this and have, you know, 10, 20, 30, 50,000 bucks in the bank when we come out. I don't care what it is. But you're going all the way through 100% debt free. And it's going to be there's going to be so much money in these accounts that that's a no brainer. And that's that's your investment plan until you get out of school. And then when you get out of school, whatever money you've got above that, then you use that and your new tremendous income to take off and go zoom, zoom on wealth building. And you will be able to do that. Congratulations, sir.

What a great, what a great situation. Jonathan is in Indianapolis. Hey, Jonathan, how are you? Dave, I'm doing awesome. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, Dave, I'm currently in baby step three. Before I started listening to you, this is about six months ago,

I actually started listening to you on March 2017. I took out a VA home loan, a 30-year home loan, and I'm currently saving up for my fully funded emergency fund. The thing in my debate is, okay, should I pay the minimum payment on this 30-year or should I do the 15-year payment while continuing to save towards the fully funded emergency fund? For right now, until you get baby step three done one two and three done you're you pay minimum payments on everything you don't pay extra on anything so just minimum whatever the minimum you can get away with is until you get your emergency fund bill

now okay when you get to baby steps four five six which are four is 15 of your income going into retirement five is kids college and six is pay off the house early see now what we're going to do is we're going to start putting 15 of your income into retirement and we're going to kick that up to a 15 year payment level x paying extra on it paying a 30 like a 15 so that it's gone in 15 or more on that do you have kids i don't have any kids i'm single i'm 30 years old i'm single okay so Okay. So you've got no baby step five. So baby step four is 15% of your income going into retirement, and everything else goes on the house. Right.

It's just a little discouraging because I see where I'm paying in the mortgage, and over half of it goes to the interest. That's like, oh, I hate doing that. I hate making that 30-year payment, but I do see what you're saying. It's not for long. I just want the baseline. I want your baseline, your foundational piece of that emergency fund in place. And once that emergency fund's in place, then you can go hog wild on it above 15% of your income needs to go into retirement once you get there.

That's maybe step four. But then you really lean in and just start chunking on that house, and the more disgusted you are with that house, the more you chunk. Oh, I am. I'm going to get this thing paid off. I have 90 to go, and I'm ready to get this thing paid off. $90,000 left? Yeah. What's your income?

My income is $50,000 per year. Okay. Yeah, you're going to get a knockdown. You'll probably be done in five years, maybe less. Hey, great job, man. You you're kicking it this is how you do it man you're just intentional you're focused you lay out a plan you execute the plan most people just wander through life like they're stupid because they are this is the Dave Ramsey show Can you believe this real estate market? Home shopping has become so competitive. There's a ton of new buyers in the market, and bidding wars are the new normal. Folks

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Equal housing lender. 761 Old Hickory Boulevard, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you're here. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Randall is with us in Austin, Texas. Hey, Randall, how are you? Yes, sir. I'm doing great.

How about yourself? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, me and my wife just had two little babies. We got an 18-month-old and a nine-week-old, and we're in significant debt. And I know we need help. And I'm trying to convince my wife to get on board with me and do the baby steps. I haven't read them myself.

I'm somewhat familiar with them. But I'm done. I'm ready to be out of debt. And I'm ready to start building wealth in retirement. How old are you guys? I need a way to, I'm 33, my wife's 32. How much debt have you got? I got 15 on my truck, 20 on the other vehicle, 30 on my wife's student loans, and about 18 on my student loans.

I think she's got about $10,000 on my wife's student loans and about $18,000 on my student loans. I think she's got about $10,000 in credit card. And what's your household income? I make $30,000 and my wife makes $48,000. Good Lord. I don't know how you guys are paying these bills. Yeah. You've got to be stressed out, man.

Who's paying the bills? You? No, my wife. She's in charge of it, and most of it because I don't really like doing it that much, to be honest with you. I know I need to get better at it. I'm not suggesting you take it over. All I'm saying is the math that you just gave me, I don't know how you guys are making this meet. This is very tough.

There is no wiggle room here. You guys got to be stressed out. Yeah, we are. You know, the D word's come up a couple times, and I'm definitely not going to let it get there. Yeah, you got two babies, and you're overwhelmed with debt to the point that the guy who does not want to do the budget is on the phone going, help me. That's where you guys are. So good for you.

You're ready to change. And she's probably ready to change, too. But listen, she's been doing the bills. And so the first thing is the rule is we're not going to condemn her like she did a bad job because you guys made these idiot decisions together. Right, absolutely. Yeah, you've got cars you can't afford, you've got student loans coming out your ears, and you're using credit cards, and you're spending with a $78,000 income. So this is doable.

This is fixable, but your life is getting ready to change dramatically so that so that your life can change dramatically you're going to have to live like no one else so that you can live and give like no one else and give a better life listen let me just tell you those kids are going to have a better mom and dad and your marriage is going to be better when you have zero debt i can't wait i want to be there so bad. It's unreal. And when the, I know, I know, I know it's possible.

I need to convince my wife. I brought you up several times and I've showed a couple of videos of you and, you know, she's like, Oh, that sounds like a great idea, but I can't, we can't pull the trigger.

Yeah. And you know what you guys need to do. I'm ready to eat beans and rice and I'm, I'm ready to downsize my vehicle. Yeah.. And, you know, I'm ready to eat beans and rice, and I'm ready to downsize my vehicle. Yeah. And, you know, I'm ready to do these things. Okay, the first thing is stop, stop, stop. I can't be the only one to do it.

I know. Stop. You cannot talk to her about what to do until you both are on the same page that we need to do it. So don't talk to her about Dave Ramsey or about beans and rice or about selling her car or your car. That's the how you do it. So don't talk to her about Dave Ramsey or about beans and rice or about selling her car or your car. That's the how you do it. First, we've got to get the

why. And the why is because we want to win with money so that our marriage is stronger and so these kids have a better future. That's our why. Absolutely. And she will buy into that why. And we've got to figure out how to do that.

So here's what we're going to do. I want you two to go to Financial Peace University as my gift. I'm going to pay for it. If I give you this membership, will you go to the group and take the nine lessons? Can you get her to go? Yes. Okay. Because the local church will be teaching it There are a bunch of different nights Different people have it all over Austin

And you guys just go to the group Take the nine lessons All the stuff is online The EveryDollarPlus is on there Which ties to your bank That's the world's best online budgeting software And app And so you can use that

And you get the whole course online as well but you need to go to the group and sit and watch the video with other people that are doing this that will get her on board but you have to be very careful to say uh to let her know that this is not because she did a bad job so you're taking a money over because now you're suddenly smart and she's stupid because that's not going to play. No, definitely not. That's not going to play. Well, it shouldn't play.

You shouldn't treat her that way. So she's been doing the best she can in a mess. And so now you're going to come along, honey, I'm sorry that I asked you to do this all by yourself. You've been doing the best you can. But we're in a mess together, and we're going to get out of this mess together, and we're going to go to this class and learn how to do it. And Dave gave it to us for free.

Now, you can get her to do that. Yeah, I think I can. Okay. Then you call me when you're debt-free and do your debt-free scream, okay? Absolutely. All right, brother. I don't think she says she doesn't even know about that part yet, but I do. You can play some of those off of YouTube.

There's hundreds of them on our YouTube channel posted, and you can play some of those people and what it's like to not have a payment in the world, and you can't even imagine that right now because you're overwhelmed with babies, marriage, and debt, and you're getting hammered right now. So you hold on. Kelly will pick up. We'll get you signed up for Financial Peace University. Chrissy is with us in Detroit.

Hi, Chrissy. How are you? Hi, Mr. Ramsey. I'm great. Thank you so much for taking my call today. It's an honor. My pleasure. How can I help?

I have a question for you about school and debt i'm an army veteran i served for about five years i have a great gi bill um i have two years left and for my college degree my ultimate goal is to go to medical school um but i'm really hesitant about accumulating the debt i'm working through i have about 20 000 in debt that i'm trying to consistently pay off before i go to school try to get a good nest egg of savings underneath me. I've been going back and forth with my partner about whether it makes sense for me to join the military as an officer and become a military doctor, potentially cut that doctor salary in half for about six or ten years to have that free education, or whether I should just take on the $300,000 in debt

that I know it will cost me to get a medical degree and then to just work in private practice, potentially make more money, but also have a ton more debt associated for the advanced degree. If you've listened to me for ten minutes, you know I'm not going to tell you to go into debt. I listen to you every day, and I know that. But just long-term, I wonder if making, you know, 90 or 120 a year

as opposed to 350 or 370 as an emergency room physician, if that tradeoff long-term would make sense. I know that I'd be able to save a lot more. You know, these plans only work when they work. That's true. Life doesn't turn out like you think it's going to. That's very true. I talked to a lady the other day who had $300,000 in debt,

and her unexpected blessing was her son has autism and has a new baby, and she's going to come home. And so she has $300,000 in debt, but she's coming home to take care of a baby. And so it didn't turn out like she thought. That would be rough. Yeah. I'm not suggesting bad things are going to happen. I'm just suggesting you can pretty well count on bad things happening.

Right. Life doesn't turn out exactly like you think. And to run a plan out that the way you've run it out, the hypothetical you've run out has no bumps in the road, which makes it an unrealistic hypothetical. What would be your recommendation? I don't recommend people borrow money, honey. You know that. So you've got two choices, okay?

One is you do the military, or two is you find another way. But I'm not going to tell you to go $350,000 in debt for anything, anytime, under any circumstances. And I wish to God Congress would not allow you to do that. Because I am insuring you as a taxpayer, which is highly offensive to me. I don't mind giving it to you if you're in the military. I appreciate you folks who serve in the military. It's highly offensive to me to guarantee your loan, and you seem to have no limits on your ability to spend. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Guys, let's talk about that timeshare pitch that you fell for.

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Hudson's with us in San Diego. Hi, Hudson. How are you? Good. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I'm a 23-year-old optometry student graduating in the next eight months.

I'm getting married in a week and a half. Yay! Thanks. Me and my fiancee followed your advice, and we kept our money completely separate. So I've got about $30,000 in student loans, and my fiancee has purchased a property or a house a year ago. And so when we combine here, essentially we're just wondering, would you advise us to sell the house to pay off the student loans? Yeah.

If you didn't sell it, would you move in it? No, I'm still, because it's still my last year of school, which is not in the city of where the house is. Then sell it. Just outright sell it, okay? Yeah. And then when you graduate, you're going to move and decide where you're going to set up your practice,

and you'll buy a home. You pay off your student loans, build your emergency fund, and then save up and buy a home. Okay. Okay. Yeah. But the thing is it's an anchor around you. It's slowing things down during the coming 12 months. Am I missing something?

No, not really. I mean, yeah, I guess it was just a question of, you know, we just purchased it a year ago, or not we, I should say. I didn't do anything to purchase it. She did, yeah. Yeah, and I guess it was kind of well we just purchased it or why do i keep saying we um she just purchased it and uh i guess it was just you know well do we turn does she turn around and sell it just kind of immediately almost but yeah yeah if she's owned it over a year before it closes she'll have no capital gains on the gain. And so just don't close it before the ownership is a year old.

But, yeah, it's not part of your future. It's part of your past. And so it's going to put a strain on you guys in the coming year. And I wouldn't keep it around if it was me. Hey, thanks for the call, man. Open phones and congratulations on your marriage, by the way. Cade is with us. Cade's in Salt Lake.

Hi, Cade. How are you? I'm doing great. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? All right. So my wife and I, our family's on baby step three.

And I've heard you teach in the past that for vehicles, you want to keep the total amount under half of your annual income. Is that correct? Yeah. Do you know why? I was actually going to ask why, because we're in a situation where we're looking to sell one, and right now we're a little over half. Okay. Well, the reason is that cars go down in value very, very rapidly.

Like really, like in half in no time, right? They lose about 60% to 70% of their value in the first four years you own them. And so you turn $50,000 into $10,000 so fast it makes your head swim, right? And so you don't want to take that kind of losses if you can't afford to take that kind of losses. Now, if you make $15 million a year and you lose $50,000 on a car, it's not a problem. But if you make $50,000 a year and you lose $25,000 on a car, that's a problem. Yeah. And so it holds back your wealth building when you've got items that you own that go the other direction. That's where the principle comes from of don't own too much stuff that's going down in value

and then wonder why you're broke. So what are your cars worth, all of them? So we're on Baby Sub 3, so everything's paid off. We have three different vehicles. We have a $20,000 truck, $6,000 car, and then a $3,000 little beater truck. And so we make about $41,000 car and then a $3,000 little beater truck. And so we make about $41,000 a year. So why do you have a $26,000 truck? Oh, it's a $20,000.

Oh, I'm sorry, a $20,000 truck. Okay. Yeah. And so that's the one we're looking to sell, actually coming like this week or two. And I don't want to replace it with something that expensive. I just kind of wanted to know why it was important to keep it under. But then would you recommend, since we're working on Baby Step 3, we're right in the beginning of it, selling that truck,

would you recommend just funding the emergency fund and then working from there to go up in vehicle after that? Yeah. So what do you do for a living? I do landscaping, construction, stuff like that. And how old are you? 23. Okay.

All right. Cool. So here's the thing. Yeah, I would move down to about a $10,000 truck, and I don't know why you have a spare vehicle either. Why do you have a spare vehicle? So the spare vehicle is used for work as well. It's not something that we are planning on keeping long term.

We just kind of had it around to help with work a little bit and things, and so that's the beater truck, the $3,000 little one. Okay. All right. Yeah. Here's the thing. If you continue to do construction, whatever you drive on the construction site is going to get dinged and bumped and beat up.

Absolutely. So just decide what it is you want to destroy. Do you want to destroy a $7,000 truck or a $70,000 truck? And that's, you know, you're not going to get ahead. You know, these Chevy commercials, Ford commercials, these pickups driving through a mud puddle on a construction site gets all these guys to buy construction trucks that they shouldn't have on construction sites. These are work trucks.

And so, you know, the guy on the construction site that has the worst truck is the one that makes the most money. That's just a rule. I had a guy come and lay brick on a project on our house one time. I swear to God, the truck wasn't worth a hundred dollars. And I'll bet you the guy's a multimillionaire. He was an artist with brick. I know that. And he charged for it. But, um, yeah, his truck couldn't, I mean, I never saw a truck that had so many dings on in my life the thing was had the crud beat out of it and um it looked like somebody walked around the baseball bat and it was like 48 years old i mean it was a horrible truck

and he just grinned he just he loved his old truck because that's what you want to drive on the site man so yeah you can keep a spare vehicle for that and then get you a driver that's not your daily driver to the construction site that's a little bit better and just move down and truck. That's what I would do. Just don't have money invested in things that go down in value if you want to build wealth. Put money in things that go up in value. See, I did this kind of stuff, y'all. So I was 23, just like you, and the car I always wanted was a Jaguar. So my grandpa, super conservative, child of the Depression, made me take nails out of a board and straighten them out and put them in a coffee can.

You know the grandpa. We all had one, or we knew somebody like that, right? I mean, the guy saved twine. You know, he saved everything. And, you know, when he passed away, he was a multimillionaire, and he never even invested. He was scared of the stock market. It was all just money he put in the bank.

It was just money in the bank. He just kept putting money in the bank, and that's why there's like a million dollars in there. You know? And I remember I knew he was frugal, and I knew he had built some wealth. You know, I'm 23 years old, and I'm a high roller. I'm the king of the world, right? And so I bought a Jaguar, and I think I paid $30,000 for it. This was in 1982.

That's a long time ago. So I pull up in his driveway, and he goes, what's that? He'd never seen a Jaguar, I think. And he goes, what's that? I said, oh, it's a Jaguar. And he goes, really? he never seen a jaguar i think and he goes what's that i said that's a jaguar and he goes really you know what'd you pay for that i said whatever it was 30,000 26,000 whatever it was i paid for it he started shaking his head and he goes god that's dumb i said what do you mean grandpa i just bought a dead gum jaguar you'll be proud of me look at this car man grandson's driving a fine automobile here.

You ought to be proud of that. He goes, I'm not proud of it. You're dumb. I said, what do you mean? He goes, well, what's that car going to be worth in five years? And I went, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he goes, man, I put my money in stuff that goes up in value, son. That's dumb.

I drove off. I drove. I was mad at him. I remember when they just about towed that car when I was getting going through bankruptcy and the repo guys calling me. I sold it like one day before they repoed it. And all I can remember is hearing my grandpa say, that's dumb. This is dumb. I put my money in stuff that goes up in value, son. I don't put my money in stuff that goes up in value, son.

I don't put my money in stuff that goes down in value. It's a good equation, you know? This is the Dave Ramsey Show. The Equifax breach is being called the worst data breach in history, compromising the information of nearly half of the U.S. population and creating panic for many of those affected. It's important to remember being part of a breach doesn't make you a victim of ID theft, but it does greatly increase your risk. Once ID thieves use your information to open lines of credit, get medical benefits,

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Very cool. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. Greg-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. Greg is in Nashville. Hi, Greg. How are you? I'm doing well.

How about yourself? Better than I deserve. What's up? I guess me and my wife have been people with a couple of good jobs throughout our lives. And I have a little girl now. She's actually been in a transition period, changing her job, which is a really good job, paying us not too well, but we've also been deciding if it would be good or not for her to just quit

and be a stay-at-home mom for a while. And we just wanted to know what your thoughts were, if it was feasible with our incomes. Yeah. I think it's a wonderful idea if that's what she wants to do. Can you live on your income? Yes. Well, I would definitely hope so.

What do you make? What do you make? Right at $80,000 a year. Okay. Do you guys have debt? No. Student loans are paid. We have two good cars that are paid.

We're about $50,000 out of paying out of our house. Okay. Very good. What does she make? At the moment, she's probably right at about $24,000. She left a job earlier in the year that was paying out at 50 and kind of started a part-time internship. But it's just kind of one of those things where the little girl's two, and she's really thinking that we want to have a little bit more time at the house with her.

But at the same time, she's never been non-employed anywhere. She's very scared about not having a job. Okay. Well, I mean, the thing is this. It sounds like she wants to be at home, but she feels like it's her duty to work.

Is that what you're telling me? I believe so, yes. Yeah. I think she ought to be at home. I agree. Do you have any words I think she ought to be home. I agree. Do you have any words of wisdom on how to portray that? We make enough money. We've done a good enough job with our finances.

We're debt-free. We can live on my income. Let's sit down and look at the budget, what it looks like on my check, and we'll work on that together. And I think this is your desire. I also think this lady, the way you're describing her, will probably go back to work when the child goes into school at some point. That would be 100% correct.

Yeah, I just think that she's wired that way. I think she gets something out of the workplace, and I think it's something she'll want to return to. You don't have to, though though it's not a requirement um you know and but but there's a lot of economic benefits for mom being in the home full-time lots of them i mean you know she cooks from scratch. It saves money. It's healthier. You know, the kids are, you know, subjected to other kids only as you want them to be in healthy situations. And so, you know, there's all kinds of stuff that happens when mom's at home. It's all good, and it's all good. It's good for the kid.

It's good for everybody. But it doesn't mean you're a bad mom if you're not at home. That's not at all what we're saying. But this lady wants to be at home so she should be at home it's just that simple i mean to me um and my wife was the same way her goal in life was to be a mom and 32 years ago she became full-time mom and um 33 years ago now i guess but uh when denise was born it hadn't has not worked outside the home since um and and frankly uh we're empty nesters and obviously we don't need any money but um you know uh even if she wanted to go do something i would really don't want her to because i'm kind of spoiled by her being there and our schedule is

pretty free we can just do whatever we want to do i don't want to have to stop and ask somebody else if i want to go on vacation because i own the freaking place down here i can go when i want so you know it's just it's a matter of that kind of stuff this is why you work so that you get to choose when you work and how you work and you can choose what your career path is and you while you're good with money while you're good financially so that you can choose all these things and that that's the process so i i don't know how you talk her into it but i don't think you're going to have to talk her into i think she wants to be there with that baby and she's not doing anything wrong there's no higher calling than motherhood. I mean, really.

None. Tracy is with us in Phoenix. Hi, Tracy. How are you? I'm doing well. I hope you're having a good day there, Dave. I am. How can I help?

Wonderful. In brief, I got laid off two months ago. Just found a new gig as a contractor. It's contracted work for six months. So my question today is, do I continue where I was two months ago with baby step number two? Or for the next six months or so, do I just save as much as I can in the event that this contract is not extended and I have to go back to searching for another job? How long were you off? Two months.

And what is your field? Project management. Practice management? Project management. Project management. I work with IT and business process improvement. I got you. Okay.

You know, it all comes down to what we think the probability is that either the contract was renewed or by then you land a permanent gig what's the probability of that if the probability that's 90 then we're probably going to keep on baby step two the probability that's 50 60 percent uh which is kind of what i think i'm hearing uh that this contract is renewed i mean six months is not enough i mean i gotta know i gotta got to sense some stability the other side of that with a permanent gig or a contract renewal on a high probability in order to continue with Baby Step 2. So I'm probably, if I think I'm hearing you right, this is not, you know, your long-term gig is not contract to contract.

Your long-term gig is probably a permanent job, right? That's the hope. My new manager had mentioned that she was on contract for two years before she was hired on permanent there. So she made it sound like there's a good opportunity for it to be extended out. But since it was such a new department and projects they're working on, they just can't guarantee it. No, they're not guaranteeing it. So that's why I'm a little hesitant both sides. If they could guarantee it, they'd hire somebody for less than they're paying you on contract.

Right. So they wouldn't contract for it. So, yeah, I think I'm saving right now. Okay. And, you know, at about month four, I'm going to really turn up the heat on my job search. Okay. If they're not coming through with another contract renewal or a permanent offer, one of the two, at month four. Because we don't want to live in limbo and perpetuation.

Yeah, that's not fun. Yeah, but for today, yeah, let's just pile up money. Money gives us options. Let's have a big pile of money, and let's start with that. Hey, good question. Sorry you're facing this, but it sounds like it may turn out for your good thanks for calling in all right let's see luke is in our famous uh facebook group the it's called the capital t-h-e the ramsey baby steps community and there's tens of thousands of you in there he says help my dad is currently licking out an empty container of steak sauce to save money.

This cannot be what you mean by gazelle intensity. Well, I don't know what that means exactly, Luke, because you can't really exist on steak sauce. So if he's licking out the steak sauce because he's cheap and doesn't want to buy another bottle of steak sauce, but he's eating okay, then yeah, that's fine. I don't have a big deal with that. And chill out on your drama self. But if the man is eating steak sauce and the last drop of it is his last nutrient, then no, it is not what I recommend. I don't recommend people starve in order to get out of debt. But I do recommend you cut your dadgum lifestyle down to nothing.

And most people overspend. I mean, I've run into about probably five people in 30 years that weren't eating right in order to get out of debt because they had an obsessive compulsive disorder. If that's your dad, tell him to get psychological help and buy some groceries. But otherwise, he's just being cheap, and you're being a drama queen. I don't know which it is. You've got to decide that, Luke. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books.

We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, it's Kelly, Dave's phone screener. We finished 2017 with a bang as the fourth most downloaded podcast of the year. Thanks to all of you for listening and helping us spread the word. to your health care costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ to share their major health care costs.

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