The Ramsey Show - App - John & Ashley Make Sacrifies & Pay Off $209K in 4 Years! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: January 7, 2022

Investing, Retirement, Career, Debt, Home Buying, Home Selling, Education, Insurance As heard on this episode: Sign Up for a FREE trial of Ramsey+ TODAY: https://bit.ly/3rZTUAx Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: https://bit.ly/2Q64HME Insurance Coverage Checkup: https://bit.ly/3sXwUn5 Complete Guide to Budgeting: https://bit.ly/3utmVXi Check out more Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3fHhbVE

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the 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. We're so glad you're here. George Camel, Ramsey personality, host of the Fine Print podcast, which just finished its first season and had record, record listenership. So thank you guys for joining us on that.

If you haven't listened through the Fine Print yet, you need to. You can find it anywhere great podcasts are sold. And they're free. And it's free, by the way. There you go. that's how that works open phones here at 888-825-5225 you jump out we'll talk about your life your money fadio is with us in norfolk virginia to start off this hour hey fadio how are you here how you doing better than i deserve how can we help? Well, I just recently found out that my plant where I work is closing down.

I've been here for 18 years, and I'm trying to figure out what I should do with my investments, my 401ks, and all that type of stuff. I talked to a few different people, and I'm not sure what route I should go, what type of mutual funds I should look at, and things like that. Wow. How old are you? 54. Okay. Okay, cool. And so how much money do you have in your mutual funds, or in your 401ks and retirement plans?

Probably around $300,000. Way to go, man. Good. Good for you. Well, I'm an everyday millionaire also. Well, good. Way to go, man. That's awesome.

And where's the rest of the money? Well, I got $500,000 worth of raw land, plus I got a, that's paid for, I got a $280,000 paid a two hundred and eighty thousand dollar paid for house and then i have another house that i only owe about fifty thousand on and that's worth about three hundred and thirty thousand way to go man well done well done so what are you going to do what's your next career step um i have uh six special needs children and um we're gonna the hundred acres i have is going to be turned into a sustainable farm i have three boys with autism and we're gonna raise cattle and um you know firewood businesses

things like that okay and your your plan with that is to make enough income to support the family without having to touch these investments well my my my wife, she's got her own business. She's a behavioral analysis person, and she's getting ready to start her own business. And we'll have probably close to $250,000 a year household income. Okay, good for you. And that's even after you leave the plant? Yeah.

Okay, that's great. Well,'s even after you leave the plant? Yeah. Okay, that's great. Well, that makes this situation a lot less scary. I mean, there's not a lot to fear here. So you're just wondering what you should do financially or career-wise, because you were talking about the mutual funds. You're talking about just rolling your $300 over to mutual funds in an IRA, right? Yeah, I'm going to do a direct transfer rollover. But the other thing was the company, we're with Vanguard, and Vanguard is offering no penalty fee to do a payout where they would just withhold the taxes, and then they would just give me a check for the rest but not charge me any penalties because I'm before 59 1⁄2.

It's not up to Vanguard. It's a law. Is Vanguard going to give you 10%? What they would do is they would just withhold whatever the taxable rate would be, and then they're not going to charge you. I guess they said there was no penalty fee. There is a penalty. Because the company penalty fee. There is a penalty. Because the company was closing.

There is a penalty. Oh, okay. So then whoever I talked to over there didn't know what they were talking about. I mean, that doesn't go away. And they don't have the power to waive it because it's not their penalty. It's the government's penalty. It's an IRS regulation regulation so okay uh if they if they're going to reimburse you which i doubt so nah anyway i'm not doing any of that you don't need this money and you don't need to pay it out i

would just get with a smart investor pro roll it all over like you said a direct transfer rollover into a traditional ira the four types of mutual funds we talk about. Yeah, you diversify those across the four types with that SmartVestor Pro, and that money is going to grow. I mean, if you're even looking at, let's say, a 10% rate of return, that's going to give you some great money as you head into retirement years without really having to touch anything else, any of this property. You're going to be a multimillionaire with that. Yeah, well done.

Yeah, growth, growth and income, aggressive growth, international, the four mutual funds I invest in and that we teach people to that's what you're going to do and just sit down pick those out i just keep this real clean and real simple the great news is you've done such a good job building wealth that um that like george said there's no fear in this process it's kind of sad that the plant's going away but um but now you get to go do the farm thing like an encore career yeah the farm thing with your kids and that's going to be that's going to be a lot of fun be a lot a lot of a lot of action over there zach is in orlando zach welcome to the ramsey show

thank you dave um so i'm i'm curious to know when i should start bridge investing i know you i've heard you mention it occasionally but i just wanted to understand where in the baby steps this would fall. Bridge investing is for having money to retire with or to feed yourself with out of an investment before 59 and a half, which means that's quote unquote retiring early, so to speak. Okay. And so, yeah, you don't fool with that till maybe step seven that's additional wealth is what that is got it how old are you i'm uh 25 wow already thinking about this that's great so i'm guessing you want to retire early do you have any any goals any vision for this yeah my my goal is to retire about 40 to 45 i I at least not have to worry about working and just do work for fun, basically.

So you want to nest egg big enough that you would be able to retire at 45 and still do whatever you want without worrying about bringing in new income. You could probably pull that off. So do you not like what you're doing? I do. I just want to be able to invest in my family and just have that financial freedom to really do whatever. I'm sure I'll still be working in some capacity. Yeah, so we're not really talking about retiring and hating your job and I can't wait to get away and I'm 25 and I already hate.

No, that's not what we're talking about. We're just talking about you're going to have some wealth. And so that's a good plan brother that's good good that you're thinking out that far ahead george john uh dr delaney dr john delaney and i were talking about this the other day on the air that this word retirement when you throw it around like this uh it's even back to the chris hogan retire inspired days where retirement's not a not an age it's a number and it's not really retirement I don't really teach people to retire yeah if you if you hate your job and you can't wait to retire you should change jobs you know you should change careers you should do something different you shouldn't be handcuffed to to something you hate but but to have wealth

to give you options now i'm all about that but people call that in air quotes retirement even though they're not going to retire it's just you can do what you want to do instead of what you have to do yeah that's exactly that's what he's saying that's what zach's aiming at yeah and uh Yeah. And so, you know, I haven't had to work for many years. So I was able to not work, which I guess is what we're talking about, right? But chose to work because I love what I do. Matter of fact, y'all just can't get rid of me. So there you go. You're here to spread hate and dissension at this point.

That's my job. This is The Ramsey Show. 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, and this time the right way. After three decades of guiding millions of others through the plan, the evidence is undeniable. If you follow the Baby Step steps, you will become a millionaire and get to live and give like no one else. The preorder on my new book, Baby Steps Millionaires, is almost over.

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It is Building We wealth in 2022 the 1500 tickets we had for an in-room uh yeah it's not a room that's a big room but in-house uh in-person uh viewing sold out in about 30 seconds so those are all gone and we've got about 70 000 folks registered to view it by live stream free. So it looks like we'll probably have over 100,000 people watching on the live stream at this point. And you don't want to miss this. It doesn't cost you a dime because I mentioned to you it's free. Rachel Cruz, George Campbell, we're going to talk about building wealth this year in this current environment. And, man, there's some stuff going on out there.

There is so much out there as I'm looking at what articles, what people are talking about. They're not really as concerned with solving the root problems like getting out of debt and having an emergency fund. They're trying to bring in income as quickly as possible. And what that leads them to is these get rich quick schemes. And they start getting advertisements for courses on TikTok and Instagram and Facebook with big promises to make them money instantly. That's scary. Yeah, that is scary. It's wild. So anyway, we'd love to have you watch this with us.

It's going to be a couple hours long. It'll be George, Camel, Rachel, Cruz, Dave Ramsey talking about building wealth in 2022. It is free to watch it as a live stream. And again, it's sold out, so it's your only option. Free to watch it as a live stream. And again, it's sold out, so it's your only option. Free to watch it as a live stream, Thursday, January 13th. You do have to pre-register, and we will send you the link for you to do this free. So go to RamseySolutions.com slash wealth. RamseySolutions.com slash wealth.

Bob's in Traverse City, Michigan. Hey, Bob, what's up? Hey, Dave, how are you? Better than we City, Michigan. Hi, Bob. What's up? Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than we deserve, man. How can we help? Thank you.

Hey, I'm curious. I own a home. It's a brand-new home. I actually lost it to a fire almost two years ago. Rebuilt, had to refinance. They appraised the home at $600,000 just before construction was done. My dilemma is my dad's farm, my dad's retired. I am trying to decide if I should sell my home, buy my dad's farm, or finance my dad's farm.

At my place, I have two rentals on the property already that pay all but $200 of the mortgage payment. My dad's place has one rental and then the farmhouse that he rents out as well, so there's already two rentals there. My long-term goal is to have five rentals out there. There's different lots. My long-term goal is to put in rentals out there there's different lots but my long-term goal is to put in more homes and have rentals and be able to live off that income when i retire so i'm in a big dilemma to sell my place and pay cash or what i do okay uh how old are you 42 how many acres is the farm farm 80 acres, and my home is 20 acres. Okay.

So you would live on the farm if you sold your home? If I sold my home, I would remodel the farmhouse, and I would live there, and then down the road is where the rentals are, so they're not close to my home. Are you married? No. Okay. All right. Nobody to talk into this. I you married? No. Okay. All right. Nobody to talk into this.

I have three children. You ain't got anybody to talk into this. Three children at home? No. One's out of the home, one's 17, and the other one's 12. All right. So I'm curious, if you sold your place, how much money would that give you to put to the farm you said

you could do with cash i could i owe just under 240 on my home okay so you'd be making about 300 and some change there what do you what do you make a year about 95 year. How much other money have you got? I've got probably about $120,000 in savings. Well, I always dial these things back, and I have to do it in about 30 seconds here. What would I do if I woke up in your shoes? I'm going to be debt-free. You know you called Dave Ramsey, right? And so you know that's going to happen um and for me to go into debt to buy rental property which is in effect what you'd be doing uh I'm not going to suggest you do that I want you to get rental

property but I'm not going to suggest you do it with debt I never have in 30 years here on the air and I don't guess we'll start today so So, you know, as I think through it, it doesn't sound really scary either way, but what would I do? I would sell it, and I would pay cash for the farm, and then I'd start using all of the cash flows I can create to build the first property and build another property and build another property and or buy other properties that are rentals. I think you're going to want some rentals that are not next door. I think that's not a bad idea because renters that are next door, it's both good and bad.

They'll come knocking. Yeah, they could come knocking, and you have to set a different, an additional set of relational boundaries with them in that. But the good news is you can find them if you need to. You just walk over there. But it's a mixed bag in that sense. But, yeah, I'll pay cash. It sounds like he's got this vision for the farm that he's excited about,

which is great. But, again, if you move at the speed of cash, it gets a lot less scary, a lot less risk. Yeah. And, again, it has served me so well for 30 years living my life that way after I went broke in real estate to just pay cash. And I mean, it just simplifies everything. I don't have the debt option on the table.

And so if I'm going to buy something, I just have to look and see if I have the money. It's that simple. And then I don't have any payments if there's a pandemic. Oh, that never happens, though. Okay. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Trey is with us in Colorado Springs. Hey, Trey, what's up?

Hi. I had a career question for you. How are you guys doing today? Great, man. How can we help um so i have a career option that i'm looking at that would increase my income by about two and a half times the amount it is now but uh it'd be an oil field job so it would involve me being away from my daughter and my wife uh frequently i mean it'd be like two weeks on and two weeks off. And it'll speed up.

We did the math of we're on baby step two right now. We've got 19,000 left, and it would speed that up by about seven months. And then funding our emergency fund, it would speed up by, I mean, overall, it would knock a whole year off of the thing. And it's a big change, and I'm trying to make sure that I am looking at the whole picture, and I'm getting a good—I want to make sure I'm not making a mistake and that I'm not overlooking anything important in a career change like that, and I was hoping to get your guys' kind of opinion on that. Well, you know, the oil field, that's some hard work, and of course the pay comes with that. So this feels like it's a short-term thing.

I don't know that I could do this long-term. And the year, you know, speeding your debt snowball and the baby steps up by a year, I don't know that that's tantalizing enough for me to jump on because of how big of a move this is, being away from the family. So if that's something you and your wife decide this is the right move for us to do this, then I'm good with it, knowing that it's probably not going to be the long-term thing for the next 10, 15 years. What do you do now? That was kind of, so I do electrical right now, and it'd be electrical on the oil rigs as well. Another factor that kind of plays into it, we've been trying to do the math of when it comes to baby step 3B of how long it would take us to save up a down payment. And where I am right now, I mean, unless I open my own company, I'm pretty close to kind of maxed out,

and we don't see us being able to purchase a home here in this area at any time soon, whereas this would also speed that up and make that a possibility. How old is your baby? She will be eight months old next week. What's your wife say about all this? She's hesitant about it because she doesn't necessarily want me gone, but at the same time she agrees that it would be something not necessarily forever. So if you do it for six months and you decide it ain't worth it and you want to come home,

can you come home? Can you land back on something? Yeah, yeah, definitely. So there's very little downside to trying it that's kind of that's kind of what i was looking at but uh i mean it's i've never done anything like this and i was trying to make sure you know i'm not it almost uh i don't want to bite off more than i can chew i guess without really thinking of all the repercussions that come with it, I guess, if that makes sense. That's very wise. I appreciate that.

I don't see anything that's scaring me. I will tell you, we work with the military a lot, and when one of the spouses is deployed, a lot of financial mistakes are made in the name of, I'm tired, I'm lonely, I'm away, if you don't have a very set plan on what you're going to do. George Campbell Ramsey personality is my co-host today. John and Ashley from Colorado Springs are on the line. Says on my screen, you guys are debt-free. Congratulations. Thank you. Thanks, Dave. Well done.

How much did you pay off? $209,089. Way to done. How much did you pay off? $209,089. Way to go. And your range of income, how long did this take you? Four years. Four years. And your range of income during that time? $145,000 to $200,000.

Cool. What do you guys do for a living? So I am a pharmacist that works in administration. And I'm a medical laboratory scientist. Oh, wow. A couple of smart people. pharmacist that works in administration. And I'm a medical laboratory scientist. Oh, wow. A couple of smart people. Well done. What kind of debt was this $209,000? I'm guessing pharmacy school. Yeah, you'd be right. And it added with some stupid on there.

Okay. And a vehicle. A vehicle and student loan debt and what else? That was it. Oh, that's all? $189,000 student loan debt and what else uh that was it oh that's all 189 000 student loan and the rest was a van whoa okay how long you guys been married uh nine years okay so you've been bopping along four or five years in marriage and you look up and say 209 000 this is not fun anymore tell me the. What got you started? What lit you on fire for this Ramsey stuff? So you know how you always, well, the Bible says the borrower is slave to the lender. And John's actually a veteran, and we had to get out of the army, even though he wanted to

stay in, because, you know, with me needing to work and pay back some massive student loans, I had to have a job. So it kind of made some life decisions for us. And even though I made a budget every month, we didn't stick to it. So, yeah, it made some life decisions. We had to get out of the Army and get steady and decided to attack it from there. Wow. Ooh, okay. So in civilian life, you make more than you did in the military, John?

Yeah, that's right. Okay, all right. And, of course, Ashley's going to use the pharmacy degree and move on, and you guys are making money. That's how the $145,000 to $200,000 happens, right? Yep. Okay, so did that force you to address this? How did you get connected to us?

So, you know, we grew up in church and we'd always heard your name, you know, and when it got overwhelming, I just started listening to your YouTube channel and, you know, kind of got direction from there. We were too cheap to pay for the classes, so we just kept listening to your YouTube every day. And that's how we got started. That's awesome. That's all the motivation you needed with some youtube videos very cool we had debt-free screams on repeat every saturday morning when we were cleaning the house wow i love it that's fun just sit and listen to them over and over different ones that's great yep very very cool and that also gives up giving you enough instruction to

know how to work your way through this, right? Yep, exactly. So $209,000 paid off in four years. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? Well, we really think that there's two keys, and we'll keep it brief. But one is putting God first, and I think that's a nice phrase, but you actually have to put it into practice. So pray over the budgets and really commit it to God and know that you're doing it for God. And he really blessed those efforts.

And we became thankful and content. It grew those seeds in our hearts, and I think that's key, especially when you're going intense for four years. You need that. And the second one is, like I said, we did a budget for years, and we didn't stick to it, and that doesn't do anything. So you actually have to follow the roadmap wow i love that insight yeah doing a budget is one thing actually sticking to it that's the hard part yeah that's for sure exactly right a little bit of faith a

little bit of contentment and a whole lot of budgeting oh yeah that's incredible so do you guys have any cheerleaders along the way? Did people think you were weird for doing this stuff? So pretty much everybody was supportive, but there were a lot of people who questioned specific things that we did and just thought it was really weird. That's how you know you're on the right path. Yeah. What were one of those things that people said, that's weird, why would you do that?

Right, he cut my hair, we re-roofed our house on our own. We sold a nice car and bought a, you know, old beater. Those sorts of things. Our kids kept telling, they were our biggest cheerleaders, honestly. Our six-year-old told everyone that we were on a budget, and that's why he couldn't have his Happy Meal, you know, unless we put it in the budget. But he was so excited to be debt-free, so he was probably our biggest cheerleader. True happiness.

That's fun. Dave, would Sharon let you cut her hair? No. Okay. Nor would I attempt that. I do not have, that is not among the gifts that I even approach. That's one of the first times I've heard that level of sacrifice, so I applaud you guys. How did the haircut turn out?

I have actually two sayings that summarize my philosophy of cutting hair. Do you want to hear them? Sure. So the first one comes from my dad. It's, do you want to keep the ears? I like that. And the second one is the difference between a bad haircut and a good haircut is two weeks. Oh, that's good.

Well, based on the photos we're seeing on the screen here, the haircut looks good. So, great job. Didn't turn any photos with John messing up, that's for sure. Well, if you mess up, it just gets shorter. He's figured it out. This guy's got a future, I'm just saying saying a lot of one-liners probably not well worth it well done you guys very well done we're very proud of you you're very impressive how's it feel now that you're done it's great freedom it's like a weight lifted off our shoulders i mean when you think that our payments

were you know twenty seven hundred dollars a month um i mean that's just huge a huge chain that's been broken kind of unbelievable yeah it's a different different you'd feel like you lost 300 pounds i mean it's crazy oh for sure it's just amazing so very well done you guys very well done you're all rock stars that That's fun. Absolutely amazing. You know, the former military guy does the haircuts. That just occurred to me. What do you get here?

High and tight, right? Just a nice shave. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, pretty much. Oh, my gosh. All right. John and Ashley in Colorado Springs.

Oh, wait a minute. We got a copy of Baby Steps Millionaires coming out next week. We'll send it to you immediately, and you'll get it about the time it comes out probably something like that and a copy of the total money makeover for you to give away and disturb someone's life that'll be awesome so very cool stuff john and ashley colorado springs 209 000 paid off in four years making 145 to 200 count it down Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free!

Yeah! Well done, you guys. Very well done. Now, haircutting was not one of the things for Sharon that we did in-house. I don't have any hair, so mine's real easy. I haven't been to a barbershop in years. Saved a lot of money that way. Yeah, I just got these little clippers over at Sam's Club and just go nyeh, nyeh, nyeh about once a week, and it pretty well keeps it.

And I don't have any shampoo cost either. See, silver lining to being bald. I'm just saying. I'm just saying it's real low maintenance. I don't have to worry about getting hair and makeup done. Gosh. I mean, we get makeup done when I'm doing a shoot, of course. But you got the hair.

I mean, you have the... You don't want to know what it takes, Dave. There's a lot of effort goes into this. It takes a village and a lot of pomade to make this happen. But, you know. There's a whole village of Oompa Loompas running around. The grass is always greener on the other side. But you don't have much grass.

Whoa! Not a lot of lawn care. That's all I'm saying. That's all I'm trying to say. No weed eater needed. Yeah. What I love about John and Ashley, and it made me think about this, what are you willing to do? Yeah.

And they were willing to do just about anything and get creative with it. I mean, they thought we can save 200. Do you know how much it costs to get a woman's haircut you know it cost to rent a house i mean they roof their own house it's impressive that's uh yeah pretty pretty amazing it's those kinds of sacrifices and they're too cheap to buy financial peace university even i mean just watching the youtube that's just going too far right there yeah that's all right that's all right we're happy to do it i'm glad they got out of debt. That's so awesome.

It's very fun. Yeah, you really do. You have to ask yourself, what am I willing to not do is as important as what I am willing to do in order to hit your goals. And that usually keeps people from hitting their goal, whatever their goal is, more than the thing they're willing to do. Yeah, if you're saying, what am I willing to cut out? What am I willing to add in and start doing? Man, you'll start to get excited about what could happen. Changes a lot of stuff. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. so so George Camel Ramsey personality host of the fine print podcast is my co-host today

David is in Phoenix Arizona hi David welcome to the Ramsey show hey Dave thanks for taking my call sure what's up uh so I recently finished our practice at school and then I'll be moving into that role here in the next month or so. I'm sorry, I didn't understand you. Your phone's kind of weird. Are you speaking directly into it? What did you say? You finished what?

I recently finished nurse practitioner school. Oh, good. And I'm going to be moving into that role here in the next month or so. Cool. But by doing that, I'll be joining a doctor's group that they contract you out as a 1099 employee. So they don't offer any health insurance or any benefits of that sort. So my question was, is I've been looking at different options. And I know you guys endorse Christian Healthcare Ministries.

And I was looking at their plans and planning on going with that. But I saw that they cap out at $125,000 per event. So I'm just trying to figure out if that's still the best way to go or if I should look at private insurance, which I know is usually quite a bit more expensive. We don't really have any major health problems with our families, so we're pretty healthy as far as that goes but i do know that any like major hospitalization typically um it's quite a bit more than that so i just want to get your input on that exactly exactly well that's the obvious risk that you're taking with the cap on that and um uh we do know that uh 100 of the claims or effectively what we would call claims out here have been paid by that company over the years.

And so we trust them in that regard. Full disclosure, I'm not on it. George is not on it. We have, you know, group health policy here at Ramseysey and we're both a part of that um and so and of course you know the company pays the vast majority of that for our team members so it's it's less less expensive out of georgia's pocket than christian health care would be because he's not in the open market like you are so um right but uh you know i'm real careful to make sure that everybody knows what i you know i don't i don't endorse something I wouldn't do or don't believe in enough to send my mother there, that kind of a thing, right?

You know, so that's the way we feel about CHM. They've been with us for many, many years as a sponsor, and we don't sponsor just anyone. Over the years, we've had different companies go broke and different things that didn't follow through on things when we were sponsoring them. I mean, when they were sponsoring them, we were endorsing them. It's embarrassing when that happens, but it's not our fault. We don't cause it, but we never – we try to be as careful as we can to put our name on something. So, yeah, I believe in them.

I believe in what they're doing. I know the guys that run it i've had meetings with them uh and um i think they'll do exactly what they said they were going to do but you're obviously tuned into the biggest part of the risk and you just got to decide if you want to take that extra risk yeah i'm in the same boat as dave here and on top of that, I would add health insurance is very personal. And so as you're looking into this, you can jump on to Ramsey Solutions and click on Trusted there, and you can connect with an insurance agent who is not tied to any one company, and they'll shop around to find the best possible health insurance for you at the best price for what your family's needs are. So that would be my first step is to do that and then weigh it against Christian Healthcare Ministries,

talk it over with your family. And again, health insurance is all about risk. How much risk are you willing, but it's filling the gap of what insurance would have done if you don't have insurance or don't choose to go with traditional health insurance. So no apologies for endorsing them. Proud to endorse them. Lots of people that are Ramsey listeners use them and have good experience. So no problems with any of that. But that's the whole ups and downs of the thing. Good people involved. Steve is with us.

Steve's in Lansing, Michigan. Hi, Steve. How are you? Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? Okay.

Well, my wife and I are in what seems like an impossibly tight spot. We've been dealing with basically increasing health problems and income reduction. And right now we're kind of in a spot where we feel like we need, you know, like an unrealistic financial miracle that we know won't happen. So that's kind of the situation we're in. Okay. Let's talk that through and understand what you're talking about. Okay. What is your income?

What are your incomes? Okay. We were at about $74.30 a month, and we have been reduced to about $3,200. I'm a paraplegic. I've always worked, but my work has completely dried up over this past year with COVID and a few things. And then her income was reduced, and she has lost her health insurance. So, like I said, we go from $7,430 to $3,200 a month. We've had some big home and vehicle repairs that are necessary. We're going through total

money makeover. We realized that we weren't there for that. So we kind of dialed it back and we're going through financial peace. And we realized we're still not even quite there. So we really need some direction on what to do with this situation. So what are you doing for work right now? Right now I'm a freelance web developer, and technology and kind of the small business. Small business has been my main clientele, and that has largely evaporated. Could you look for a salaried position with a company? Yes.

Yeah, I'm in the process of trying to do that. I have not been successful thus far with that. Okay. Help me with this because web developers are in great demand. When you say you're a web developer, what do you mean? You're a dev one, dev two, dev three? What are you, a platform architect? What do you do? Yeah, I do, yeah. Well, I basically, I just do, I'm kind of a jack-of-all-trades. I am,

I do, I create sites for, you know, small businesses. I work with their marketing. I do just try to set up new businesses with just their entire initial setup. Do you have the skills to join a dev team? Probably not. Okay, that's what I was hearing. Probably not, to be honest. Okay, all right. Because obviously the developer world is just in great demand right now. We've got several hundred of them on our team and are constantly hiring in that spot.

And so that's the only reason I've got a little bit of knowledge about it is it's a frustration point here at Ramsey. So you really need to get your business moving of helping small businesses or get involved with somebody who's doing that, like a marketing agency or something that would hire you to help with the technology side of a marketing campaign. Yeah. So, yeah, something like that would be wonderful. I've had a big private, like I said. What were you doing? Who were you with before?

How were you making money before? Word of mouth, online, some small online marketing. So you had multiple clients? Yes. Yes. Okay. Were they in a space that were shut down with COVID or what? Yeah.

Yeah. I had four major, I wouldn't wouldn't say major my four primary clients and all of them uh dried up over the course of the last year and a half okay every single one shut down there okay well the good news is you're not geographically bound with what you're doing you could do it you can reach out online and you could be doing it for someone in Nashville. You could be doing it for someone. I mean, if Lansing's not operating as openly as some other areas, you could get that going. So I think you've got a marketing problem on your side,

and you're probably your miracle in that regard. How much of the $74.30 were you making? Let's see, $74. Hold on. I've got my numbers here probably over half i was about 40 let's see 42 okay i was about 42 yeah it feels like you guys have an income crisis that is creating these other crises and just in talking to you for a moment here that's what it feels like and it feels like you guys got to get uh you you've had all these things talking to you for a moment here, that's what it feels like. And it feels like you guys got to get, you've had all these things happen to you, and you've got to turn the tables and start happening to the situation.

Let me send you a copy of Ken Coleman's book, From Paycheck to Purpose, and jump on his website and start studying things. I'll also send you a copy of the Entree Leadership book, since you're running your own thing, because I really want to give you guys a boost on the income side of the equation. I think that's going to solve where you're going. That puts us out of the Ramsey Show in the books.

This is James Childs, producer of The Ramsey Show. You can listen to all our shows with the Ramsey Network app on your smartphone. Browse by topic or even send clips to your friends. Download the Ramsey Network app in your favorite app store today.