The Ramsey Show - App - Never Violate the Rule of Diversification

Episode Date: June 13, 2022

Dave Ramsey & Kristina Ellis discuss: Moving from self-employment to working for a company, The value of working during college, Why you should avoid single stocks and diversify, What to do after selling a rental house. Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6

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. We help people build wealth through work that they actually love and that has meaning, create real, amazing, natural relationships. Christina Ellis, Ramsey Personality, best-selling author, is my co-host today as we answer your questions. The phone number is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Tom starts us off this hour in Pittsburgh. Hey, Tom, what's up, buddy?

Hey, Dave, thank you so much for taking my call. I appreciate it. Sure. How can we help? Hey, my question is, I've been self-employed for seven years now, and I'm just looking to make a transition out of what I currently do. The business climate is just becoming more and more difficult to operate in, more and more competitors, operate in, more and more

competitors, and I'm looking to scale myself out of what I do now and transition back into working for someone else. And I've tried and made a couple attempts, but just find it to be pretty challenging. Okay. What were the speed bumps? It seems difficult to get hired because i have limited experience my background's in management accounting i only have about two years of relevant field experience um in the accounting world but um i have my i've had my own business now for for seven years going on eight and it just seems to be difficult to get recognized to get hired coming from self-employment like employers don't value the skill set that I can bring to the table.

What were you doing? What kind of business? Property maintenance and landscape installation. Okay. How many employers have you reached out to at this point? I've been through the interview process about six times. Applications, probably 20 to 30 what size companies mainly medium size what are you applying for project manager positions well it sounds to me like you have like seven years of project manager experience correct i

i have seven years of project management experience now it's smaller scale i mean i'm doing ten thousand dollar jobs not it doesn't matter if you put a task in front of you and you map out the incremental details to accomplish the task and you push the task through on schedule that's called project management it's not rocket science i agree uh so um i maybe um you need to think about how to sell the fact that that how these skills are transferable uh a in the initial contact and b in the actual interview itself and then c what you're looking for is a business that has an entrepreneurial enough bent. Like, for instance, I mean, I own this business, and I have 1,200 employees, so I'm a fairly large company.

But I would recognize, or one of our leaders would recognize, that what you've been doing is project management. I mean, you may not have certification at the PM3 level or something, but, I mean, you're knocking stuff out. And so, you know, like when we sit down, same thing. What we're looking for is a skill set that is already in existence, and can you apply that in the workplace? If they are so stupid and corporate that they're looking for some kind of a – the fact that you've done the exact thing that they want done at five other places working for corporate America,

you probably don't want to work there anyway. You're going to go crazy. I think you're right. You're probably right. I'm just so used to being in my own world, my own realm of things, and managing my own show. You're probably right. But in other words, if they've got a little bit of an entrepreneurial flair, they would see these transferable skills. Yeah, and that's been my journey.

I mean, I was an entrepreneur for 10 years before I came here to Ramsey. Oh, yeah, and then you went to work here. Who knew? Yeah, right. Good point. And I appreciate that one of the core values here is having a self-employed mentality. It's been a great transition because I'm now at a company that values that skill set, and it's been able to translate really well. More than value, we kind of just expect you to do it.

Right. It's like why we brought you home, because you knew how to kill something and drag it home, you know? Right. That's exactly right. I didn't even think about that. That's a good point. Yeah, and Tom, I'm curious,

with the companies you've worked for over the last seven years, are there any employers that you've partnered with and done project management with that maybe want to bring you on full-time? A couple, but they don't have the capabilities for somebody full-time at the moment. I've done some work with some larger apartment complexes and done some subcontracted work through some property management companies, and there was no opportunity available at the time for that. Maybe as they grow, they could grow into a full-time position, but at the present, no. Yeah, I think you've got two issues that I'm hearing, and I would refer you to Ken Coleman's materials as well. I'll send you a copy of his book, From Paycheck to Purpose, for you to have

in your library and read it too. But the two things are, one is I want to be careful of the words I'm using, the sentence structure I'm using to describe my past experience. Instead of describing it as I ran a landscaping company, describe it as, you know, I owned and operated and completed projects, you know, and so forth as a part of my deal. So it's an honest and a truthful description of what you had to do as a small business owner. And then the second thing you're looking for is you're actually looking for a company that has an entrepreneurial culture to it. And not all of these corporate America goobs have a, you know, a lot of them are just, they've lost their soul. And you don't want to work for them anyway. I mean, so, you know, you want to find somebody that's getting it.

I don't care if, they can be a huge company, but they've got, you know, they've got some entrepreneurial get mean so you know you want to find somebody that's getting it i don't care if they can be a huge company but they've got you know they got some entrepreneurial get it you know uh so there can be a medium-sized company but you can you can get lost we fight it around here i mean one of our core values is we shoot our sacred cows if we see a secret cow cow wandering through the halls moving we get the gun and kill it right there, and we have dinner. I mean, it's, you know, if you cannot answer the question, why are we still doing this this way, if you don't have a good answer for that, that's a sacred cow. And that's how bureaucracy sets in in any organization, and rigor mortis sets in in their brains. And so you just have to look for that because it's out there. And the truth is it's fairly, you know it's it is it's inspiring to work with a team that's energized an entrepreneur absolutely rather than being on your

own being the lone ranger it's hard being the lone ranger and um it's one of the laughable things about the work from home movement is everybody thinks it's somehow going to be you lose all the benefit of human beings raising you up to another level. You lose the benefit of all the synergy of creativity and the connectivity of having great people around you calling you out on your stuff, man. Yeah. And get, you know, fighting together for a project. That's one of the reasons why I wanted to come work here was just having that team and that energy and everybody gets to be excellent at their own role. But we come together and then create something really excellent altogether. that's true i mean that is very true we can take

someone uh that that has the kind of initiative and intelligence and background that you've got and then bring you into a bunch of other people that think the same way and all of a sudden it's you know the definition of synergy is two things come together and they're better than the the sum of the parts you know and that's what happens when we bring a personality on. It's also what happens when we bring a programmer on. They're a better programmer than sitting at home going, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, you know? So, actually, it's a different thing, man, because, I mean, you can do tasks as individuals,

but you can't create and don't have vision. And you can, but it's much limited than when you have access to other human beings messing with you human beings supposed to mess with each other that's why we have this show this is the ramsey show In an uncertain world, being a good steward of your money is more important than ever. While some circumstances can't be controlled, there are items within your budget you can take charge of, such as your health care costs. For nearly 40 years, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, has provided a budget-friendly means of sharing for medical bills when our members need it. Learn more by visiting chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budget.

Christian Healthcare Ministries is a Ramsey-trusted provider. Christina Ellis, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. This is The Ramsey personality is my co-host today this is the Ramsey show imagine a jam-packed arena filled with people ready to experience what it means to live life to the fullest can you feel the energy picture all your favorite speakers all the Ramsey personalities including Christina on the stage me too I'll be there. Empowering you with tools and principles that create unstoppable momentum. We talk about every area of your life in Smart Conference, and when you leave, it's a day-long conference. It's called Smart Conference, and at the end of the day,

I promise you will be smarter. That's the whole idea. Saturday, October the 22nd in Dallas. Tickets are on sale right now. They're only $39. That's a great price for a full-day event. We should charge $390 for this lineup of speakers talking about mental wellness, becoming a millionaire, getting out of debt, marriage.

Pastor Craig Groeschel, Amy Groeschel from Life.Church are coming to speak on marriage. It's going to be incredible. We'll be talking about your career. We'll be talking about winning in every area of your life. We're going to touch it all. It's going to be incredible, and you don't want to miss this. It's going to be, again, Saturday, October the 22nd. Go to RamseySolutions.com slash events to learn more.

RamseySolutions.com slash events. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. They have a 100 satisfaction guarantee that means even if you mismeasure or you pick the wrong color they'll remake your blinds for free free samples free shipping new promos all the time this is an incredible american company if you need blinds or window treatments for your home blinds dot com use the promo code ramsey get the best deal today's question comes from jenna in florida i'm starting college in the fall and i have scholarships to pay about 70 of tuition

what do i do to make up the gap don't be a long summer jenna i love this question well of course you can still apply for more scholarships that's the first and easiest spot to kind of start going with it you already have have 70%, which is great. I don't know if that's tuition scholarships that are covered just automatically because you went to a certain school, but I encourage you to apply for outside scholarships. A lot of students don't realize that when you get to college, you can still apply for scholarships. They think, you know, I passed high school. This is it. I can't get scholarships. But there are tons of outside scholarships for people who are in college, who are in grad school. So definitely keep applying.

I actually have a friend who didn't start applying for scholarships until she was in college and was able to still get enough money to pay for tuition, books, housing, everything. So even if you were past high school, still apply. Where's the best place for her to look for those? Well, we like ScholarshipOwl.com. That's a great database. I recommend students use these scholarship databases, which are basically search engines for scholarships. They specifically take your information and find targeted scholarships for you.

Now, we looked at – I had a lady ask me the same question the other day, and I told her we had looked at several of these databases, and the problems with some of them is there's kind of two types of scholarships out there. There's ones that are legitimate, but not everybody knows they're there. They're kind of hard to find sometimes. And then other times there's somebody that's basically trying to – they're fishing just to get your information so they can try to sell you something later. You know what I'm talking about? Absolutely.

How do you tell the difference in those? Well, it's important to dig deeper into the company. Find out, is it a credible company? What's their heart and mission behind the scholarship? Why are they giving away a scholarship? Like, do your research. A lot of people just find scholarships and they automatically think, you know,

I should apply for the scholarship. But one of the most time-intensive parts of applying for scholarships is actually making sure you find the right scholarship. So take time to dig through and see if these companies are legit and see what they're all about and see what the odds are of winning that scholarship. A lot of them are kind of sweepstakes type scholarships. So how is Jenna going to find time to do this? Because I was getting ready to tell her to work 80 hours a week this summer. Well, that was next on my list of things to do is work. I mean,

we've actually found that students who work part time do better in school than students who don't work at all. So it is important to have a job, even if you don't necessarily need the money, like Jenna does, you know, still work, it can help you create that discipline. But if you do need the money, that's the way to go, Like, pour into getting a job. And work strategically. A lot of companies offer tuition assistance and tuition benefits. So, not only can you get a paycheck, but they may actually pay for part of your tuition. UPS,

Target, Amazon, Starbucks, Disney. Several of them are doing this, yeah. And there are often all kinds of scholarship options and or tuition benefits while you work there. And you might even keep working there while you're in school. It won't hurt you a bit. But here's the thing, okay?

If you just really did work like three jobs and you try to solve a grown-up problem with like a grown-up solution, no whining about, I want my summer off. You're like a grown-up and you're dealing with a grown-up problem here, which is you want to go to school and you don't have the money and so sorry you're not 12 uh welcome to the big leagues kiddo uh get your butt in gear and go make some money work work work work work work work there's a it's a surefire money-making scheme this work thing yeah and you know go get that go get that $20 $30 an hour babysit walk dogs I don't care what you do a door dash I don't care what you do but just work all the time between now and the time you go to school and you'll have the money yep magical magical magical

I was super excited I talked and you won't have time to spend it because you'll be at work all the time I talked to somebody at building wealth and he had just received his bachelor's in accounting and he was trying to figure out how to pay for his master's degree. And we started brainstorming ideas, looking at second jobs. And I recommended that he talk to his employer to see if they happen to have any tuition benefit programs or a way that he can make up the money. And he just sent me a message the other day on Instagram saying that he talked to his employer and they offered him three to four part-time assignments that were extra in addition to his normal full-time job. And he's going to be able to completely cover his master's degree in a year.

Overtime. Yeah. I mean, he's got like accounting type overtime. That's not, that's not, that's good money. Yep. That's a whole lot better than walking dogs. I'm saying that's great. Yeah.

Suggestion. Good result. So that's what you do, boys and girls. You get scholarships. You pick a school you can afford, which I assume you already have because you got 70% of it covered. And then we go to town making money and finding free money, and those are your keys. That's the three main things. And go ahead and plan on working while you're in school.

A couple things happen. Like Christina said, we found student athletes and people who work while they're in school tend to have higher gpas and they learn time management skills because they don't have a lot of time so they have to go between work and going to class you ain't got time to play beer pong so um it's an amazing thing and uh we we see that happen over and over and over again the other thing that working students have a tendency to do is graduate on time. Because they're freaking one out. They're paying for it.

Which is a huge deal. It's not like, oh, we're going to ride the lazy river. You know, oh, my God. Like, if you want to save money on college, that's like A1. Make sure you graduate in four years. It's crazy the statistics around how many students do not graduate in four years and how many students actually take six years or longer. I think it's like 40% take six years or longer, which when you think about that two extra years, that's so much money. So it's like very-

You know, that is their parents' fault. They should have cut them off. See, I told them they have four years and have a plan. There's a little thing called a syllabus. You just work. If you go to those classes for four years, you know have a plan there's a little thing called a syllabus you just work if you go to those classes for four years you magically graduate it's freaking amazing yeah just follow the plan execute i mean and don't tell me you got too much to do give me give me a break i mean this is grown-up stuff yeah this is grown-up stuff and so we're solving a uh a grown-up problem with a child's mentality too often, and that's how we end up with $200,000 of student loan debt for a degree in left-handed puppetry. Well, and that's the sad thing, is a lot of times it's students taking out student loans

to cash flow this. It's not just even parent money, and that's part of the reason why we really got to clamp down on this toxic industry that just allows students to borrow money as much as they want for years of college. We really got to get students to be more disciplined, and like you said, as much as they want for years of college, you know, we really got to get students to be more disciplined. And like you said, follow the syllabus and get your degree in time and just don't waste that extra time and money. Now, when Senator Marsha Blackburn was here the other day,

you were on with me, right? Yep. And I asked her on the air, I said, when are we going to get rid of, when are you going to quit making student loans before we start talking about forgiving them? And she went, yeah yeah that's a good idea come on marcia you can do it you can do it uh yeah you can't talk about forgiving something because it's evil and bad while you keep making it that's intellectually dishonest

so we have to stop this ridiculous out of control business that is called congress oh my gosh so good job, 70%. I'm proud of you. You already got a bunch of it covered, Jenna. You got the right stuff. So, Christina gave you the sweet answer, go get more scholarships. I gave you the old grandpa answer, get your butt in gear and go to work. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll see you next time. Christina Ellis Ramsey Personality is my co-host today in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions.

Many of you are dropping by while you're vacating and hanging out with us, having a cup of free coffee, a free chocolate chip cookie, homemade. They're so good. And then you get to watch the zoo animals inside the glass booth do their thing from 1 to 4 in the afternoon, central time. We'd love to have you come by, any of you want to come by. We're in Franklin, Tennessee, just south of Nashville. God's country is what we call it. And we're glad you're here.

Come by and see us anytime. In the lobby also is the debt-free stage where Glenna is standing. Hi, Glenna. How are you? Hey, Dave. Hi, Christina. Hi. Welcome.

Good to have you. Where do you live? Bellingham, Washington. Just a spitting distance to Canada. Oh, okay. Welcome all the way over to the other side of the world. Thank you. And here to do a debt-free scream, how much did you pay off? $360,100. Woo! How long did this take? Eight years.

Wow. Okay. And your range of income during that time? Started at 90 and now I'm at about 150. Good for you. What do you do for a living? I'm a rheumatology nurse practitioner. Oh, wow. That's some good work. Yes, sir.

Good for you. Okay. So eight years and $360,000. Was that your house? Yes, sir. Looking at a weird lady. She's a weirdo. The house is paid for.

I love it. What's this house worth girl 733 000 i love it how much you got in retirement savings about 600 she's a millionaire she's a baby steps millionaire i'm looking at a millionaire i love you you're awesome thank you you're so in control of your life very well done so tell us your story what in the world happened here about eight years ago i got recruited by a rheumatologist i was in shreveport louisiana and i got recruited up to bellingham and got a great raise but i also got a big mortgage to go with it and um as my dad my late dad used to say i got wall-to-wall carpeting and back to the wall payments i've never heard that that's great that's a good louisiana saying it is yes sir i like it yes sir and wall-to-wall carpeting and back to the wall payment yes sir i'll have

to remember that one yeah and uh so i determined that I'm single, and if I was ever going to retire, I needed to be able to pay off my mortgage. And so I worked really hard, but then COVID hit, and it got my serious attention because I was scared the bejeebers out of me. And thinking, I'm going to lose my job because we didn't have telemedicine yet or anything like that. So we eventually got all that together, but I didn't know if I was going to lose my job, my house, my income, everything like that. Wow. So yeah. And I'm a Marine Corps veteran, Dave. And so I can do hard, but I was scared. It was scary times. It was scary times. And so the last two years I've paid off more than half of the mortgage. Whoa. Yes, sir. Wow.

So what kind of things did you do to get out of debt? Just focus, intensity. I just, you know, didn't vacation. I never ate out. And the people at work used to laugh at me because they would go out and order lunch and everything. And I always had mine with me. You know, I never ordered out, never went out to dinner. and covid made it easier because nobody could go out anyway right yeah yeah especially get extra hours and stuff during covid or no sir i just um once i started budgeting you just

cranked it down to nothing i did and scared you enough that you went i'm going bare bones and then i had the money all of a sudden because i was budgeting and i knew where the money was going so money came up all of a sudden yeah and i was able to get bonuses and all this other stuff that just came out of the blue and it all went to the mortgage every bit of it how's it feel to be free it's it's amazing yeah it's uh I mean when you're doing this by yourself and you get the bejeebers scared out of you. Yes, sir. There's a release when you get the other side of it. And I lost 120 pounds during that time, too.

Oh, what? Whoa. You lost a Backstreet Boy. Yes, sir. Oh, my gosh. Wow. Yes, sir. One less Justin Bieber.

I mean, oh, my gosh. Wow. Wow. Look at you. That's amazing. Yeah. And you did all that during covid too yes sir okay well uh i don't want to say it wasn't because you ate didn't eat because i hope you ate healthy while

you were doing that i did i did oh my gosh i mean you're a nurse you know better but yeah necessarily so you're a free you know payment in the world yes sir you've got me over a million dollar net worth me and a half and you can do anything you want to do what are you going to do to celebrate i'm going in september to france yeah hey where uh starting in paris but because i'm a veteran i really wanted to go see normandy you need a cd day yeah i've always wanted to stand on the top of those cliffs i've been up there a couple times yeah and watch uh saving private ryan before you go i have several times the opening scene in that the the veterans say is the real deal and it's uh it was brutal i mean it's a shooting it's horrible and you see the price it was paid for american freedom it just absolutely that part of france they like americans

yes sir because there's enough white stones up there to remind them oh my it's as big as arlington up on top yes sir and my scripture of the day is 1 Timothy 6.6. With godliness and contentment is great gain. Amen. And my big thing was being content. I grew up with financial instability, so I had a hard time telling myself no about anything. And so finding contentment was the secret. That's a breakthrough.

Yeah. So for other people who are by themselves and they think, you know, I'm alone. I don't have a spouse. I don't have somebody, you know, to walk through this journey with me. Paying off the house seems unrealistic. It does. What would you tell them? One baby step at a time.

You know, it does seem insurmountable when you look at that number. But the freedom on the other side just kept me going. And I, of course, I watch the show every day and the debt-free screams, I just watch them binge watching, because it gave me hope that I could do it. Well, and you set such a great example that it can be done no matter your situation,

your circumstances, if you're willing to buckle down, get on a budget and do the work, it can be done. Yes. I'm so proud of you. Thank you. Who are your biggest cheerleaders? My family. Brought them with you.

Two of my brothers are here. I have three brothers. All right. This is Ernie and Teresa. They're from Fort Worth, and my brother Mike from California. My other brother Dan and his wife Anita are in Washington State, and they couldn't make it, but it's my family. Got the whole gang around you, and they're saying touchdown sis. Where'd it go? I touchdown sis absolutely and i'd like to give a couple shout outs if i have time sure so my family

for sure um my pastor chris line gang and my cornerstone community church family and my financial planner karen richards with wells fargo she kept telling me i was not going to be a bag lady and i turned out i wasn't you're not i'm be a bag lady. And it turned out I wasn't. You're not. I'm not a bag lady. Actually, you are, but it's a really big bag. It's a big bag of money. Absolutely.

So I'm retiring September 1st. All right. Yes, sir. Look at you. Wow. Good for you. Thank you. Well, I'm so proud of you. Thank you, sir. Very at you. Wow. Good for you. Thank you. Well, I'm so proud of you.

Thank you, sir. Very, very well done. I appreciate it. Well, we got a copy of Baby Steps Millionaires for you because you is one. Yes, sir. And you can read it and then spread the love around on that. We'll also give you a copy of the Total Money Makeover to give away to somebody. I'm sure you've got people in your life that you've inspired with this journey and also

a subscription to Financial Peace University for a year. Thank you. And you can give that away or go through it yourself um i mean you might learn one or two things in there but you got most of this going so very very well done good good stuff very very very good job you're amazing you're a lot of fun thank you thank you for your service and thanks for sharing your story you did an incredible job wow yeah yeah d-day you got, you've got to go there. Absolutely. You've got to go there, north of France. Good time, good time.

Wow. All right, it's Glenna from Bellingham, Washington. Houses paid off. House and everything! This woman's a weirdo. I love her. $360,000 paid off, half of that in the last two years, but the whole thing in eight years.

And that's what happens when you get serious. Oh, while we're at it, let's lose 120 pounds when we make 90 to 150 count it down let's hear a debt-free scream three two one thank god i'm debt-free that's how it's done. That's why I keep coming to work. That's why I keep coming to work right there. Amen. Oh, what a neat lady.

How powerful. And a lot of singles out there facing this stuff, and you're right. Sometimes it can be lonely while you're doing it. But get some people in your corner. Get into a good church, a good Financial Peace University class. Get your family around you're right sometimes it can be lonely while you're doing it but get some people in your corner get into a good church a good financial peace university class get your family around you get after it get it get it look at her this is the ramsey show We'll be right back. Christine Ellis Ramsey personality is my co-host today here on the ramsey show i am dave ramsey open phones at 888-825-5225 amy is with us in dallas texas hi amy how are you i'm doing well mr ramsey how are you sir better than we deserve what's up um I have a quick question. I'm pretty sure I know the answer because I'm no stranger to you. Okay. But my husband and I work for a large cap company, to be descriptive.

And over the years, we've built up a stock balance through ESCP options that we've received, all those things. Should I sell it and put into mutual funds? What's it all worth? What's it all worth? It's worth about $700,000, which is about 30% of my net worth. I'm maxing out all my retirement already, and I'm not in a position where I have to sell it. So I'm torn. Okay. So I was coaching a lady with Procter & Gamble about, time gets away from me, it must be 25 years ago. And I honestly have no idea what Procter & Gamble stock is doing today. It might be wonderful.

But she had $750,000. It was her whole nest egg and she had it all in company stock. She was a P&G employee. P&G is a good company, by the way. Again, I have no idea about investing in them at all. But this is just an observation of what happens when you have all your money in company stock or 30% of your net worth in company stock. It went down 68%. And her $700,000 turned into like $150,000. Because she violated the rule of diversification. And the rule of diversification. And the rule of 10%?

Yeah, maximum of 10% of your net worth. And the reason for that is if it evaporates and became worth zero, you're still okay. You've still got 90%. But I don't really want you to lose 30% of your net worth. And I'm not saying your large-cap company is going broke. I'm not predicting that. I doubt they'm not saying your large-cap company is going broke. I'm not predicting that. I doubt they will if they're large-cap, honestly. But I just personally wouldn't take that much risk, and you already knew that.

You knew I was going to say that, right? Yes, I had a feeling. I guess I'm torn because it's like it has gone down a little bit. If you had $700,000 in the middle of a table in cash, would you go buy this stock or would you put it in mutual funds? I am still torn on that decision because I'm, you know, I was like, oh, it's low. You would bet 30% of your portfolio on one company. I don't know. I don't know.

That's why I'm so torn. I do know. That's dumb. I was trying to get you to say it, but I'll just say it, okay? I know. Don't do that. That's too much of your net worth that you've got at risk in one play. And you're emotionally involved because you work there.

You're still impressed with the company. Right. And here's the weird thing. They can be an impressive company, and their stocks still suck. Yeah. I mean, you can still like them and still think they're good people and still get your head taken off. Okay.

Now, I guess second question is, should I sell it all at once or should I space it out over time? Is it doing pretty well right now? I mean, it's okay. I mean, I'm still ahead, I guess. But, I mean, I don't think anybody in single stock is doing well right now. I don't think you're going to sell it all at once. Yeah.

Because I'm trying to just get you to sell some of it now. So I think it's probably better for you to ease out of it as long as you actually do it. I'm not going to let you off the hook, though. You do need to at least get down to where it's no more than 10% of your net worth. Okay. Yeah. And then if you're just dying to own it, then that's fine. Listen, my net worth is several hundred million.

I don't have a single, single stock in my portfolio, not one. I don't like the risk. I don't like the risk. Yeah, I mean, I guess I'll continue to gain on it because I get it like every year as a... Yeah, so it's going to build back up. So you really need to cut it down to about 5%. Right, yes. So you don't have to do this again in two years.

Right, yeah. Okay. Spread your portions to seven, yes to eight, for you do not know when disaster may come upon the land. Ecclesiastes. It's even in the bible to diversify wow how wild is that i always say because you do not know when a pandemic may come upon the right you just don't i mean you can't you just can't do that i mean i don't even want all my money in one type of real estate i'm a little heavy in these buildings right here but

because i've got because i own all these buildings they're worth several hundred million but um you're grateful but but it's i believe i'm okay because i'm the tenant too but the but who knows i mean see that's that could be a problem but um but yeah you just you just got to be careful to not uh put all your eggs in one basket because some idiots twirl in the basket i like the way you said if you had 700 000 on000 on the table, what would you do with it? I think that's a good way to kind of disconnect from the fact that it's her company, that she kind of has a bias already because that's where she works. I think that's a good way to kind of separate things.

Yeah. Well, I mean, here's the thing. She's a player. She's got a high risk tolerance because her thing is, oh, it's going up. It's going to be a great investment. And so she's got that high risk tolerance because her thing is, oh, it's going up. It's going to be a great investment, you know, and so she's got that high risk tolerance thing going. But I've been on the other side of that when I see the thing turn back down. And so I'm not going to lead you that way.

And you're right. What happens is even if you're not connected to the emotion of the company, you can be connected to, oh, I really believe in this company stock. I think this, you know, I'm going to buy Apple. I believe it. I don't own any. I don't work for Apple. I own an iPhone is my extent of my investment.

But I believe Apple's a great investment. So now I'm emotionally connected to this single stock. And that's probably a great stock if you're going to do one. I don't pick single stock. So I can't. Don't take my advice on that. I'm using that as an example but the um but but uh you know you can become connected to it and what that does is it it makes you say all right well maybe i wouldn't

put it all in there then why are you because it's the same transaction and that that sunk cost analysis makes you look at it that way leland is in phoenix hi leland how are you i'm doing all right how are you great how can i help so um uh current officer uh lieutenant and i uh i'm in the middle of selling a rental house that i own free and clear it's in esco right now. I plan on getting around 205 and then whatever they take from it. Um, so I'm sitting at my current debt right now. I owe 17 on cars and 90 on a house. Um, and I'll be completely debt free, but I'm, I'll also own land that I plan on building and retiring on. When?

The land's free and clear. When will you build? Well, that's my question. I'm going to retire in about 10 years. I want to start building within the next five. It takes you five years to build a house? Well, I've got to get the subdivision and everything. It's not going to take me that long, but it's about a five-hour trip back and forth.

And I have family that can do it, but I want to at least start the foundation within five years so that it will be done within, like, two years of my retirement. Dude, you are a planner. That's absurd. You do not need to start. You don't need to build a house for five years. It'll be rotted by the time you get it under the roof. No. Okay. You need to build a house for five years. It'll be rotted by the time you get it under roof. No.

Okay. You need to build a house in 12 months, really. I mean, unless you're building some gargantuan thing or something, then you're not. So, yeah. But you do need to save some money and keep planning and moving in that direction. So you're going to be debt-free, and you're going to invest the rest of the money in, like, a mutual fund to get ready to build on this property in seven or eight years, right? Yes. Okay. Yeah. That was my question. Do I put it all towards a mutual fund to get ready to build on this property in seven or eight years, right? Yes.

Okay. Yeah. That was my question. Do I put it all towards a mutual fund? Yeah. Or do I... You don't need it for seven or eight years. ...pay on the debt that I have?

No, you pay off all the debt you have. You're 100% debt-free. Okay. And then that's going to... Do you have... How much... What's your tax bill going to be on this thing? That I have no idea.

You got to set that money aside, too. So pay off your house, pay off your car, get on a budget, never borrow money again. Raise your right hand. I'll never borrow money again. I'll never borrow money again. Okay, and then you've got to pay your taxes, and it sounds to me like you're going to have like $70,000 left over to put in a mutual fund towards your house. Okay, and I'll throw it in a mutual fund and call it a day.

Should I throw it in my 457 that I already have going? Nope. Or should I be pulling all that out? You can't. A 457 is deferred comp, and this is not comp. You can't. It has to run through your work. An IRA.

Yeah. You don't even need to put it in an IRA. Just put it in a mutual fund. Get in touch with one of our SmartVestor pros, because you're just parking it for seven years. How old are you? 39. Okay, and you're in the military, right? No, no, no.

Correction. Oh, okay. You said lieutenant. You threw me. Okay. Cool. All right. Yeah. You're good. You got plenty of time? No, you don't want that in a mutual. I mean, you just want a mutual fund, not in a retirement account. And in all your planning, I think it'd be awesome if part of that plan is building that house with cash.

To set that as part of your goal is building that house five years from now. Seven years from now. Seven years from now with cash. We're not doing that. This is The Ramsey Show. Have you been inspired to make a change with your money? Want to know where to start? Take our three-minute money quiz to get a plan you can follow. Go to RamseySolutions.com and search for Get Started to get a plan for your money.