The Ramsey Show - App - Once You've Climbed a Mountain, a Hill Is Nothing (Hour 2)

Episode Date: December 4, 2019

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Veronica's in South Carolina. Merry Christmas, Veronica. How are you? I'm well. How are you?
Starting point is 00:00:58 Better than I deserve. What's up? Great. My husband and I, we bring in about $8,000 a month. And as of this week, we are debt-free. Yay! Besides our mortgages. So we have two mortgages right now. First is our primary home, and the second is a rental home, which we make about $300 a month on.
Starting point is 00:01:22 And 25% of our take-home income is a 1099 position that I have. So my first question is what is the best way, I guess, to save for that 1099 position as far as tax purposes and things go? What is your total household income? It's $8,000 a month. Right. And how much of it is $1099? About $2,000 a month. Okay. All right. I mean, if you set aside, you know, 30% of it for taxes, you'll be fine. Or if you increase your withholding on the other part of the job by the equivalent of 30%, about $600 a month, you know, then you'd be fine okay all right and then the
Starting point is 00:02:08 other question i had is that um i drive for work i do hospice visits and i go pretty far so my car is getting um older and we're anticipating needing a new vehicle here soon so we um probably about eleven thousand dollars left is what we're hoping to save up for so my question is do we stop continue to stop our ira and college contributions to save for this new vehicle um or what what's the best way to go about that well either one's fine with me but your only way to buy a vehicle is pay cash. And so, you know, do you need to stop the other stuff in order to make the savings happen by the time the vehicle is needed to be purchased? Or, you know, or can you keep saving and say, I mean, keep investing and doing the other things? And, you know, I mean, like, for instance, if you can do $1,000 a month and keep saving
Starting point is 00:03:03 or keep investing, keep doing your other baby steps, and set $1,000 a month out of your budget for a car purchase, in 11 months you'll have $11,000, right? Right. I guess we're thinking it might stop working before then. Just trying to avoid taking out another loan. Not going to take out another loan. That's not an option.
Starting point is 00:03:23 Right, right. Just not an option. So, right. Just not an option. So are these just vague worries, or is there some indication this car is about to lay down? No, I think they're just vague worries. I'm pretty rural, and I don't want to get stuck somewhere, I guess. I don't want you to get stuck either. But how many miles on the car? 210,000.
Starting point is 00:03:47 What kind of car? It's a Subaru Outback. Okay. And has it been mechanically maintained? Mm-hmm, it has been. Yeah. And how many miles a month are you putting on the car? I'd say maybe 1 i don't know 1500 yeah okay thousand to 1500 well that's 18,000
Starting point is 00:04:13 a year 1500 is okay so you go from 210 in 11 months to 225 you know to 230 right and that i don't think that's going to kill this car unless the car's already got some issues and you know you've already got some predictions um in other words you're going to add less than 10 percent more miles to the car than it already has on it and you know that thing ought to run 300 000 it but that would be if somebody was babying it along and you know super duper taking care of it changing the oil way too often and all that kind of stuff driving yourself crazy babying it man i don't blame you i think you get rid of the thing and i don't know maybe you can save 2 000 a month i don't care um and if you want to stop and just take care of this and then restart
Starting point is 00:04:58 but uh i would prefer you get your life set up to where we keep investing, we keep working our baby steps, and then we just look at our budget and say, we've got to start saving for a couch. We've got to start saving for Christmas. We've got to save for a vacation. We've got to save for a car. And you start building those things into your budget, and you don't have to start and stop all the time in order to hit your –
Starting point is 00:05:22 start and stop your investing in order to hit your basic life purchases that you're doing. So, um, that's the way I would try to do it. Uh, even if it meant, okay, beans and rice, and we're going to do 2000 a month for five months, we got 10,000 bucks for this car. And that'd been, you know, but that'd be just for five months, we're going to do beans and rice. Cause I want to to get this done i don't want to wait 11 months okay that's cool but still you're not turning off the other stuff so good question open phones at 888-825-5225 zach is in oklahoma merry christmas zach how can i help um i went through a divorce four years ago and through the divorce and a bunch of bad decisions, racked up $29,000 in debt. I am right at the finish line of finishing Baby Step 2.
Starting point is 00:06:14 I've got one payment left, and I'm debt free of everything. Well, thank you for that. I called you 15 months ago, and you lit a fire under me and put me through FPU, and that's how IPU. And I was, that's how I was able to do it. So I really owe it all to you. Cool. Um,
Starting point is 00:06:29 the question I've got is when I went through right after the divorce, I got in the cheapest apartment I could find. Um, it was 12. Well, at the time it was like 1100 a month over the years, it's gone up to 1240 a month, but it's all bills paid.
Starting point is 00:06:47 My lease is up in august and i've been because i'm finally this close to being debt free by then i will be debt free the plan has been to move out of this place and get something nicer it's not you know it's not the best neighborhood um but my apartment manager just called me and said that if I'll renew the lease for another year, they would drop the rate to $900 a month. So if you were in my position, would you stay in the apartment that's now $900 a month, all bills paid, or try to move up to something a little better knowing that it'll be probably about $ a month rent and paying bills on top of that i always look at renting as camping until i get to buy and so i don't i don't i'm not looking at either of these as a permanent answer to your life absolutely they're both just camping until we buy and so you know when would you think about buying?
Starting point is 00:07:46 And if it's going to be longer, a ways out before you're going to buy, three, four years or something like that, well, maybe you move into a nicer place, right? But the more money you spend camping, the less money you have on your down payment. Right. And the longer it takes to buy. So if you're going to buy like in a year, I'd take the cheap one. But if it's going to be like three or four years, I probably don't want to live in that place for three or four more years, right? Right.
Starting point is 00:08:14 I'm okay either way because you're recovering from this divorce. You're just getting out of debt. You're building your emergency fund. You're not doing anything wrong. But I think the question, how quickly are you going to buy? And the quicker you're going to buy, the more likely i am to stay in the cheap place because i'm camping renting is always camping it's patience until you buy and um it's good patience it's the right thing to do but you may not want to stay in a dumpier place you're to be there a while. This is the Dave Ramsey Show.
Starting point is 00:08:59 For over 20 years, I've recommended Zander Insurance and their term life programs. I'm still amazed at how many families have no life insurance or not enough and would be financially devastated if a spouse or parent died. It's inexcusable since the cost of term life is just plain cheap. And Zander really has figured out a way to make it simple and straightforward. They only sell the plans I recommend and their system is built to your needs. You pick your path. If you want to work online you can compare all the companies and handle everything over the web even signing up and getting your policy electronically if you have questions or you need that personal touch well they're there to help
Starting point is 00:09:36 it's all about serving you like no one else so you get the protection you need. There really is no excuse not to get this done. Call 800-356-4282 or go to zander.com. You pick the path to getting your family protected. Joyce is with us in Ohio. Merry Christmas, Joyce. Merry Christmas. Thank you for taking my call. My honor. How can I help? Well, I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I'm an over-the-road expedite driver, and I have been gazelle intense on step two, you know, rice and beans, and I haven't had the money for rice.
Starting point is 00:10:48 The only things I have left to pay off are a HELOC for $28,000 and my mortgage for $58,000. I've paid everything. I paid off my van, $36,000 in 10 months good for you good for you and what do you make a year uh i gross about seventy five thousand okay cool cool so you have you got the twenty eight thousand dollar heloc and baby step two then and and the mortgage and baby step six is that what you're doing yes good okay yeah cool i'm just about to start well i was just about to start on
Starting point is 00:11:26 the heloc um i hope an emergency come up at home i have my house rented out because i'm never there i live in my van because i'm going i drive coast to coast um my renter's school had a plumbing problem. Plumbers came out and scoped it and my old clay pipe in the main has collapsed. And they were talking minimum $5,000 to come out and fix it. And because I've been so intent on paying off the van and everything, I only have my $1,000. Right, right. Okay, so is the plumbing backing up?
Starting point is 00:12:13 Not yet. It will. It will at some point. I told them there's absolutely nothing I can do until at least January. And even then, you know, the plumbers, of course, are, oh, well, I'll have it. And I'm like, no, you won't. Yeah, right. So here, let me ask you this.
Starting point is 00:12:34 Okay, it sounds like you need to put your baby steps on hold and scrape together $5,000 really fast. I would get a second and a third bid, and I would ask if there's other ways to solve this problem other than the method that they're using to solve the problem okay okay can they run a slit can they you know can they jump down the basement run a sleeve up instead of digging up the whole yard as an example right well they're saying no they've got to dig because it's under the from it's under the
Starting point is 00:13:06 basement okay they've got to dig down dig down and tunnel under the basement and then they can run aflame but they've got to dig down to it okay and that well that's what i mean that's where this is where you get a second and a third opinion okay you got one guy telling you this is so far you got one guy telling you this is what has you got one guy telling you this is what has to happen i'm not doubting it i'm just doubting it yeah because i've done i've done i've done rehabs on houses for 30 years and i can promise you there's always more than one way to skin a cat and there's a and there's always got somebody that wants to charge you triple what somebody else wants to charge you.
Starting point is 00:13:46 It just amazes me. So I just always get several bids unless I just really know what the work is and I understand it and I'm comfortable with it. But, you know, it's going to be a little bit of time for you to have the money to do whatever it is. So you might as well use some of that time to get some more bids. Get two more bids, put everything on hold, and pile up cash until you can do the repair okay i do have another option um i do have like seven thousand dollars in my business fund for emergencies for if my van breaks down or something okay well you can use that and fix it but i want you to still get two other bids and see is there some other ways to do this that are cheaper and legitimate methodologies to fix this thing. Okay, yeah, because I'm worried about getting out on the road and then my dad breaks down
Starting point is 00:14:37 and then I don't have the money. Yeah, but here's the thing. You would do the same thing. You would do the same thing. You stop paying on debt either way right and you either say i'm going to pile up the cash to fix this plumbing thing or i'm going to use the money out of the emergency fund and fix the plumbing thing in january in the meantime i'm going to pile cash up in the emergency fund and get it back up to seven thousand okay and you'll
Starting point is 00:15:01 get it back up there in a month anyway, a month and a half. Well, it's a little slower in the winter than it is in the summer. My income's about half in the winter. So how old are you? I'm 63. So what is your plan when you come off the road? Where are you going to live? I'm going back to my house. That house.
Starting point is 00:15:23 Okay. And how much longer do you think that is? Within a year, because I've been told I will probably be wheelchair-bound in about a year to a year and a half. Oh, okay. So we're not that long anyway. Which is why I really wanted to pay off this van, because if that does happen, I can convert this van to a wheelchair van. Okay. Well well and you need to get this other stuff cleaned up too so so that we can start working on thinking about how
Starting point is 00:15:51 we're going to have a nest egg and all those kinds of things so yeah you're on you're getting after it good for you okay cool well you got a plan uh we definitely need to repair the house we definitely need to stop paying on debt until we either get the emergency fund replenished or we get the money to do the work literally but do get two more opinions on how to fix it and what it should cost and see if you can you know it might be you get a three thousand dollar option instead of a five thousand dollar option that changes the equation that changes the conversation and that's what we're always looking for isaac's in texas isaac how are you i'm doing very good it's an honor to speak to you
Starting point is 00:16:33 you too sir how can i help well little bit of story here i'm 20 years old i live with my parents and i am i bought myself some land and i recently, uh, I got a bonus from work. So I got to pay off my, my, my truck. And so what I am doing as us Minimites do, we kind of start from the ground up. So what I'm doing is I'm trying to build a little building on my property and I need to know what's your opinion on how I should fund it, because I make $32,000 a year, and my parents are offering to help me with some of the money, but they want to put it on credit cards, and I'm currently trying to help them get out of debt, so I don't want them to put themselves in more debt for my sake. I wouldn't do this on my own.
Starting point is 00:17:22 So what kind of a little building are you wanting to put on this land you want to live in it well yes it's a small barn type building uh i grew up in one so it's it's actually much better than it sounds it's it's going to be well furnished for me inside and everything and so i'm building a little barn that i can use as a building when I get married next year. What will it cost? The cost is going to be around $20,000. Okay, and you make $32,000 and you're $20,000. Right. What do you do for a living?
Starting point is 00:17:59 I work on a farm. I'm a farmhand. Okay, and that's what you plan to do for the next several years? Yes. I'm very happy with my job. I love what I do. Good. So the land is a place to live. It is not something you're going to be farming as a business. No, it's a small piece of land, three acres.
Starting point is 00:18:20 Yeah, okay. So it's just a place to build you a place to live. Okay. three acres yeah okay so it's just a place to to build you a place to live okay well i mean what we tell folks is if you're going to buy a house or build a house either one and that's what we're going to call this that um you know if you're going to finance it make the payment no more than a fourth of your take-home pay and i would never do that on credit cards um and so what are you talking about spending on this house, Barn? Well, I've already poured a concrete floor, which my parents paid for.
Starting point is 00:18:54 They basically gave it to me because they've been saving up for me for a couple of years, so they already paid it for me. I have a concrete floor, so the rest that I'm going to need is going to be roughly about $20,000. Okay. All right. Well, I mean, you save up all you can save up, and you borrow concrete floor, so the rest that I'm going to need is going to be roughly about $20,000. Okay. All right. Well, I mean, you save up all you can save up, and you borrow a little bit from the bank, and you pay it back really, really fast.
Starting point is 00:19:11 It's like a house payment, where if the payment's no more than a fourth of your take-home pay, and you put it on, you know, two or three, four-year, five-year deal, and then you pay it off sooner than that, fast as you possibly can. Work all you can and get it cleaned up, because if you have the whole thing paid for, it sure does set up your new marriage well. This is the around Ramsey was we decided we're actually going to count. It's not perfectly accurate because it's very difficult, but count the lives that we serve.
Starting point is 00:20:19 The high school students in the high school curriculum, the number of people in a live event, the number of people that buy a book, the number of people that come to an Entree Leadership thing, the number of people that subscribe to EveryDollar, the number of people that come through Financial Peace University, and add them together. And our estimates were at the beginning of the year that we would serve, in the method we were using and counting, about 2.2 million people. Now, obviously, we have 17 million people listening to this broadcast right now so we didn't count a listener we counted someone that had interaction with our company is the way we did it and it was just for us to
Starting point is 00:20:57 to remember that our fans are why we exist and uh so we projected that we had, okay, 2.2 million, and then we set ourselves a goal and said we want to hit 3 million. And we put up, we've got TV screens all over the whole building, and we had the number of lives served every day updated. And we had an accounting system and an algorithm that kept up with it. And so every day when we walked in for the last year, we've seen this number. We saw it went over a million. We saw it went over a million. We saw it went over two million. And this morning in our devotional time, we blew confetti cannons all
Starting point is 00:21:32 over the place and celebrated the fact that we had hit three million families served. Wow. Pretty incredible. And our team went crazy. We had a blast. One of the ways we celebrated that was we had one of the families that we served come in and tell their story. And we're going to do their debt-free scream with them right now. So pretty cool. So we've talked already on stage this morning. Joseph and Kayla are from Lexington, Kentucky. Hey, guys, thanks for hanging out with us all day. Thanks for inviting us.
Starting point is 00:22:06 Thank you for having us. Pretty fun day. Absolutely. Been a lot of fun. So very cool. And we gave them a Gazelle Award this morning. It's never been given before, may never be given again. But you guys were definitely Gazelle.
Starting point is 00:22:18 So how much debt did you pay? We paid $233,955 in 25 months and 5 days. Wow, I love it. And your household income ranged during that time? We started around $135,000, jumped up to $230,000, and back down to about $145,000 now. Okay, cool. So what kind of debt was the $230,000? All student loans, Dave. All student loans. What do y'all do for a living? I know the answers, but I'm asking for the sake of the
Starting point is 00:22:51 audience. We're both physical therapists. Okay. PTs. Yes, sir. All right. Thus, the $235,000 was student loan debt. Absolutely. And you become PTs, and you get out of school, and you could have just said, oh, we have $200,000 in student loan debt and we're going to die. Instead, what happened? Tell me the story. So we had stayed at a friend's house and I was just kind of picking through their library and I saw the total money makeover and I said, can I borrow this?
Starting point is 00:23:17 And I think I read it in two days and I said, Joseph, you've got to read this book. We kind of had paid off our cars and we're going slowly towards paying off our student loan debt. But it was such a big mountain that we just didn't really know how to tackle it. And then I read the Total Money Makeover, and it just made sense. So you got fired up. We got fired up. You had Joseph the book. He gets fired up.
Starting point is 00:23:40 That's right. And then what did you do? We worked like crazy. We each had a full-time job. I picked up three other physical therapy jobs. She picked up two others. What do you do to pick up an extra physical therapy job? What does that mean?
Starting point is 00:23:55 We basically, I switched jobs, and I just stayed on part-time or would work the weekends. Oh, okay. So every job we had took up a weekend. And she scheduled it all. She just told me where to work, and I went to work. So you're working like 60, 80 hours a week. Absolutely. Both of you.
Starting point is 00:24:17 Yes. We would have one weekend off a month to hang out or travel with family. That was our vacations for the 25 months, just traveling with family. And you didn't have time to spend any money because you were working all the time. Yeah, that was kind of a blessing. You can't really spend money if you're working. I'm too busy to do anything. Absolutely.
Starting point is 00:24:35 But the net result is in 25 months, you pay $234,000. It can be done. Great place to go when you're broke to work. Absolutely. I mean, when you finished, you had to just, like, collapse. When we finished, we moved back to my hometown and each had one job and now have weekends free. Feel like you're on vacation. Oh, we're on vacation every day now.
Starting point is 00:24:54 That's weird, yeah. So we leave work at work and enjoy the weekends and see family and friends and we're living the life. And have no debt. Absolutely. How's that feel? Wonderful. Really good. I mean, you guys turned up the heat really high.
Starting point is 00:25:06 Your intensity was amazing. And it all resulted in work. Yes. Which all resulted in money, which resulted in this being done very quickly. Yes, sir. Was it worth it? Would you do it that way again? Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:25:17 Yeah, I definitely wouldn't change a thing. It was hard being, you know, newly married and gone working all the time. But now we're together, debt free, and who knows what the good Lord has in store for us next. Amen. Amen. Very cool. Well, I mean, you're making $150,000. You've got no debt.
Starting point is 00:25:33 You're how old? I'm about to turn 30 in a couple days, and she's 29. Okay. All right. And, you know, this is pretty cool. Yeah. Because a lot of your contemporaries that came out of that same school with you, they'll be 10, 15, 20 years screwing around with their $200,000, right?
Starting point is 00:25:48 Yeah. We actually saw someone in Louisville, a classmate, and we told her we were debt-free, and she just kind of looked at us like. She couldn't even respond. Like you had one eye in the center of your head. Absolutely. She just kind of looked at us, and I was like, okay. So. Well, it doesn't compute. If you feel stuck, when somebody gets out, it doesn't compute. So. Well, it doesn't compute.
Starting point is 00:26:05 If you feel stuck, when somebody gets out, it doesn't compute. Right. Yeah, it just doesn't work. Very cool. So what do you tell people? Obviously, one of the things you tell people is go to work. What do you tell people the secret to getting out of debt is? Because you really plowed the field.
Starting point is 00:26:20 I mean, you went for it. Yeah, for us, first and foremost, all glory to God and the blessings he provided us. He opened many doors, and all we had to do was work. So work ethic, Kayla and I, incredible teamwork. Yeah, I think a big part, a side effect, I guess, of doing this is it's really strengthened our marriage, and it's really taught us what we can do together and how much we can accomplish and how we can persevere through things that are tough and work through a lot of things so that's been a another major blessing too that's a good word because you're exactly right once
Starting point is 00:26:55 you've accomplished once you've climbed a mountain this big together anytime a hill comes along you go you're just a hill i've done a. You know? And whether it's financial or whether it's anything else, because you'll bump into other stuff in your life. We all do. But now you can, you know, okay, we know that if we put our minds to it and if we're unified, we can kill anything. Yes, sir. We can make it happen.
Starting point is 00:27:18 Yeah, that's a great takeaway. That's maybe more important than the 235 being gone. I agree with you. Yeah. Very well done. Good job, guys. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Well, our team went nuts this morning. They gone. I agree with you. Yeah, very well done. Good job, guys. Thank you, sir. Well, our team went nuts this morning.
Starting point is 00:27:27 They were all so proud for you. You guys were so impressive. I mean, hey, you got 900 people giving you a standing O. It ain't a bad morning. No, not at all. It was awesome, yeah. But you're impressive. It's easy to give you a standing O.
Starting point is 00:27:39 You're rock stars. Very, very cool. Thank you. Who were your biggest cheerleaders? Obviously each other. We got, you know, she got me through this. She did everything from grocery shopping to making the budget to scheduling our work. So definitely her.
Starting point is 00:27:58 And then we have some friends that are going to school to be an occupational therapist, Jacob and Savannah Boone, and then family. Okay. Good, good. So some people think you're crazy when you're doing it? Oh, yeah. A lot of our family doesn't really understand why we worked so many weekends, and we just kept trying to tell them, you know, we're trying to pay down our debt.
Starting point is 00:28:18 We want to be done with it. But I don't think that they really understood, you know, much we had and how how it was impacting us so yeah how hard you were running to get rid of it yes very very cool good well we got a copy of chris hogan's book for you everyday millionaires because without a doubt you're on your way that's the next chapter and uh 30 years old debt free you've learned how to kill this learn how to make it happen absolutely incredible whole bunch of our team turned out again to see the debt-free scream um and so absolutely cool we're very very proud of you joseph and kayla lexington kentucky area 234 000 paid off in 25 months making 135 to 230 back down to normal, 145 now. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one.
Starting point is 00:29:09 We're debt-free! I love it! That's how it's done. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Anna is with us in North Carolina. Hey, Anna, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave, thank you for taking my call. Sure, what's up? So, my husband
Starting point is 00:30:09 and I just got married. We completely cash flowed our wedding and our honeymoon. And we've all of our cars are cash paid on, but we're resting right now. But we're both in school.
Starting point is 00:30:25 And my thing is I've been going to school for the past, like, three years now, but I've been going to small credits because I've been paying out of cash. So my husband, on the other hand, he took out loans. So by next year when he graduates, he'll have around $23,000 in student loan debt, whereas I'm completely debt-free. But since we're married now, all that debt is combined, and then we combined our income and our bank account, and we're working through this thing. We're trying to pay it off soon. So what my question is, I'm wondering, should I take a break from paying off my school in cash and just take a break from school completely to help pay off his loans so by graduation he can, by graduation, will be debt-free.
Starting point is 00:31:27 Yeah, that's what I pray. Or at least a little bit after he graduates, we can pay off these loans. When does he graduate? Give or take about a year, like next year. When do you graduate? I don't graduate for another, if i go at the pace i'm at i don't graduate for another three years okay and what are you studying well i'm in ministry right now so i'm i'm studying like a biblical um counselorship and i work with children in ministry, and I work in the daycare, but it's really not,
Starting point is 00:32:08 it's like, it's where I'm working right now, and I kind of went to school because I was told that I needed to go to school, and I didn't really know what I needed or wanted to do at the time, but it was just one of those things that people just told me just go to school and figure it out so right now i'm just still trying to figure it out yeah well that's a horror that's a horrible plan yeah go to school and then figure it out that's just a horrible plan whoever gave you that advice is a fool so the only reason you would go to school would be to get a degree that you're going to use the knowledge from the degree to increase your income. Otherwise, you are going to school simply for the acquisition of knowledge, which is for sure a luxury. So I don't hear that I'm about to complete my degree, which is going to double my income in three years.
Starting point is 00:33:04 It's not going to do any of that. So yours is the acquisition of knowledge just to be better informed in your ministry, but it's not going to change your income situation at all. Am I understanding correctly? Yes, you're completely. And based on that, let's put the degree on hold. Okay. Because the acquisition of the degree. the getting of the degree for you is a luxury
Starting point is 00:33:30 because it's simply adding depth to your ministry experience. It is not an economic decision that you're doing, okay? There's nothing wrong with gathering knowledge to add richness to your life, but you need to pay cash for that when your family's out of debt. Right now, this is slowing down the get-out-of-debt plan of your newly formed family due to you being married. What's your husband studying? My husband was also in the same boat as I was. He was told that he needed to go to school, so he did.
Starting point is 00:34:06 We both joined a small Christian online college, but he doesn't believe that his degree is going to help. His degree right now is in counseling, but he works for a medical supply company, and he's really believing that he wants to be able to like teach and he wants to get his master's and his doctorate eventually and he believes he wants to teach at like a college level but he knows that right now we can't do that because we want this figure we're willing to cash flow the rest of this college yeah in that area so what does he he working a 40-hour job right now? He's working two jobs, actually. He works a full-time job, brings in about 18 a year, and then he works a part-time job on the weekends. Okay, so what is your household income today, now that you're married?
Starting point is 00:35:02 So our household income is around $35. Between the two of you? Yes. And both of you're working full-time uh well i used to work full-time but i was transferred from i because i work in a daycare i used to work with the preschoolers but now i work with the after-school age group because that job became very very stressful for me and i feel more passionate with the age group that i'm in and however this age group that that job became very very stressful for me and i feel more passionate with the age group that i'm in and however this age group that i work with because the school schedule i my hours vary so i work part-time sundays full-time some days i think you need a new job you know yeah you're not making a living no and he's not making much of one with what he's doing.
Starting point is 00:35:46 Yeah. So you guys are starving. That's part of the issue, too. So I think you guys need to lay out some really clear career goals of exactly where you want to be in five or ten years and what education is going to be required to get you there, if any. And but being in ministry does not require that you be broke. It does not require that you become wealthy, but it does not require that you be broke. And so, you know, you need to have a path by which you can make a living. And if you're
Starting point is 00:36:28 going to be in ministry in a place that cannot afford to pay you, then that's called volunteering, and you're going to have to have mainstream jobs as well as your side gig hustle ministry stuff until your ministry can grow to support you. And it sounds like both of you have got really big hearts and you're desiring to serve God, but you haven't found ways to do that to feed your family yet. And so you may have to have some mainstream jobs that are legitimate, good income producing jobs that allow you the economic wiggle room then to serve in the local church and to serve in some of these ministries. But working for them isn't working for you right now.
Starting point is 00:37:15 You're starving to death. So we're going to have to reset this and put a new template in place that you guys go with and then ascertain what education is needed to do that. But just generally speaking, you need to become more educated. Well, we all do, but that's a really dumb reason to go to college. You need to have a place that you're going with the expenditure. You're going to spend the money. We need to get into a different place because of it.
Starting point is 00:37:43 Hey, good question. I appreciate you joining us, and I appreciate your heart. Open phones at 888-825-5225. This year, make sure you are buying gifts that mean something, gifts that give guidance and hope to people who need it, but without breaking your budget. That's what our Cyber Monday sales are all about. Today, you can save up to 72% on new arrivals, exclusive bundles, and gifts for kids.
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Starting point is 00:38:40 it's cyber Monday week which makes no sense to me at all. So I still can't get over this whole concept. Absolutely crazy. Oh, man. But that's the deal. That's the deal. Hey, really, do be careful with your purchases this year for your Christmas. Don't just buy junk. Buy gifts that have meaning.
Starting point is 00:39:01 Whether it's our books or whether it's something else. But buy gifts that are going to help someone, that they're going to treasure throughout their lives. Be much more careful and thoughtful than just buying plastic junk at Walmart, right? Let's just put some thought to this. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show on the books. Thanks to James Giles, our producer, Kelly Daniel, our associate producer and phone screener. I am Dave Ramsey, your host, and we'll be back.
Starting point is 00:39:33 Hey, guys, this is Blake Thompson, senior executive producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know over 15 million people listen to The Dave Ramsey Show every week? And a lot of those people listen to one of over 600 radio stations across the country. We'll see you next time.

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