The Ramsey Show - App - Setting Boundaries To Stop Overspending (Hour 1)

Episode Date: February 16, 2024

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create amazing relationships. I'm George Campbell, joined by bestselling author Dr. John Deloney, and we are here for you, America, taking your calls at 888-825-5225. You call in, we'll talk about your life, your money, we'll help you take the right next step and hopefully give you some hope. Baker kicks us off in Charlotte, North Carolina. Baker, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hey, how's it going, guys? Great, How are you? Hey, I'm doing well. Hey, quick question for you guys. I've been following the Ramsey Solutions now for a couple months, and I feel like I've made some pretty good progress on my debt.

And so now I just kind of feel like I'm at the age now where friends are getting married, I have bachelor parties, I have to travel a lot to visit family and friends and that sort of thing. And I feel like every time I put a good chunk of change towards my debt, I feel like something else pops up. And I just feel like for the rest of the year, I just have so many things that I've committed to and feel like I need to commit to. And it's kind of like I take, you know, a step forward and then another step back. And it's like, it's just starting to kind of eat at me. and I just don't know how to necessarily go about that with family and friends. How old are you?

I am 27 turning 28 soon. Okay. And you're single? No, I do have a girlfriend and that's kind of why I started following the Ramsey solutions because I'm like, I'd like to get engaged this year. She somehow wants to say yes to me. And so yeah, I just want to start setting up my life. All right. I want you to say yes to me. And so, yeah, I just want to start setting up my life.

All right. I want you to practice something with me. Are you ready? We're going to do this in front of all of America. Yeah. All right. Repeat after me. You have to say it exactly as I say it. Okay? Yep. You ready? Mm-hmm. No. All right. Your turn.

No. All right. That's it. Ta-da. Nailed it. Nailed it. Hey, this is the rest of your life. The rest of your life. Other people are going to want you to be a part of special things. They're going to invite you to things. They're going to include you.

They're going to demand that you be a part of the picture they've created for their own world. And for the rest of your life, you're going to have to decide, what are my priorities? Is it getting married? Is it living a peaceful life? Or is it being the life of the party and showing up to every single thing, even though I can't afford it? I don't have time for it. I'm exhausted. I'm sick, all those things. You're going to have to make that decision. If you learn that now, before you get married, I'm telling you right now, the rest of your life is going to be so much more peaceful, but it is hard. There's not an easy way to do it. Yeah, no. And that's exactly where I've been at. You know, I feel like I make pretty good money, but I kind of just now realize I'm not taking

any steps forward where I'm not overly struggling. But now, like you said, it's kind of one of those things where now I don't want to go spend that much money to go on a trip and commit to all this stuff or sometimes i'd rather stand tall stand tall and throw your head back throw your shoulders back and be like nope i'm not gonna make this one i love you guys i hope you'll have so much fun without me but i'm gonna have to sit this one out oh come on bro you suck you i know man i'm not gonna be able to do it george and i were just talking about this off air. I mean, George and I, contrary to the joke I'm always playing on air,

is one of my good friends. We're secretly friends, openly enemies. Very secretly friends. We don't tell anybody. But both of us were just talking about how we thought when you got X dollars that all of your problems go away. That you can just get the house that you want and the cars that you want and the things that you want and the trips that you want. And it's just not true. And it sounds like you're experiencing some of that also.

Like, I just thought when I got to be 27, I had a good job, that I could just go to these things. And you find yourself still having to make hard choices. And they want you to rent the tux and then buy the tickets. And then the Airbnb, we got to split. And that's going to be another $300. And then all three friends are getting married this year. Cool, cool, cool.

And Dan's cousin isn't even going to pitch in because Dan's cousin's an idiot. The whole thing, man. You just got to make some hard choices. Yeah, no, absolutely. And that's exactly where I'm at. I mean, crap. To go to a bachelor party, you got to fly. Then to go to a wedding, you got to fly.

You got a couple of those a year. I mean, all my time is spent going and doing stuff for other people and i love those people and i'm so happy i'm like they asked me to be a part of it but yeah like you said now it's just a lot of my money goes towards these commitments where i want to be able to you know get engaged have a wedding and get a house the next couple years but yeah i yeah, I'd need to make sacrifices. That's right. As we've often quoted on the show, you need to choose guilt over resentment. Because what happens is you do all of these things,

you're going to resent your buddies because you're still in debt. You're trying to save up for the ring. You're making all of their dreams come true. And I'd rather you choose guilt and go, man, I hate that I can't go, but this is what's best for me right now. And if they're really good friends,

they're going to understand. I had friends that couldn't go, but this is what's best for me right now. And if they're really good friends, they're going to understand. I had friends that couldn't make it to my wedding and my festivities and the bachelor party. And I was like, totally cool, man. Doesn't change our friendship one bit. Can I tell you a morbid exercise? Now, again, you got to understand that my family is kind of different than most families. My dad's homicide detect. We talk about death all the time.

But I actually went through an exercise about six months ago, writing down for myself. This is just all for me. Which one of my closest friends' parents' funerals would I attend? I was just trying to look at over the next 15 years as we're all getting old. How many funerals would I go to? Would I leave? Would I hop on a plane for? And A, it was way more than I thought.

And all of that comes with a cost. And B, it also was pretty clarifying because I was able to say, now I'm going to call in on this one. I'm going to send this guy a letter. I'm going to write him a note that tells him what his mom meant to me. But similar for you,

man, a video of you texted to all your buddies while they're at a bachelor party and be like, I'm missing it. I can't believe y'all are having so much fun. I hope y'all have a blast. That's it. That's good. That's good. And George mentioned this. It's actually not fair to your friends to resent them because they invited you and you didn't have enough courage to say no because you couldn't afford it. That's not cool.

It's not their fault. So tell them no. And they get mad. That's fine. They're going to get the feelings hurt. That's fine. Go to the wedding or don't go to the wedding. a send a funny card that you i don't know i'm just gonna make up stuff now but um yeah you're gonna have to say no brother yeah no absolutely well hey seriously that's all the info i need so thanks guys you guys have been like awesome last couple months and me and my brother have been listening to you guys and we definitely want to make our lives better because of you guys and so i just can't say thanks enough for taking the time to talk to me. Absolutely, man. I'm proud of you.

That's a sign of maturity is saying no. It's not a sign that you're weak or that you do just grow up, be better, spend the money. Who cares? Put it on the credit card. That's a sign of weakness, and it's a sign of immaturity. So I'm proud of you for taking this step. And, you know, as you look at your budget, it's okay to still enjoy life. We're not telling you you for taking this step. And, you know, as you look at your budget, it's okay to still enjoy life. We're not telling you can't do anything.

But if you've got a priority to pay off debt, you've got to make sure you're setting that money aside to pay off the debt and then set the budget. Hey, I'm going to be able to go to one wedding this year. Which one is it going to be? All right, it's going to be my best, best, best friend. But when that random guy you kind of knew, but he doesn't have as many friends, or he's asking you, you're going to have to be like, hey, dude, sorry, can't make it.

Or at 27, you're starting to get invited to your buddy's second wedding and you can just send a note that's like, that's cool, I'll catch the next one. There it is. I'll catch the next one. I'll sit this one out, I'll get number three. You're burnt. Yeah, exactly. There it is.

Yeah. But George, we can laugh about it. Telling people we love no is hard. Whether that's parents asking for money, whether that is brothers and sisters asking for, I need you to come home and do this, you got to take care of this, or friends just saying we can be a part of our wedding celebration.

When you have goals in mind, when you have dreams, they always come at a cost. Well, John, you have a great article on how to set boundaries on the Ramsey Solutions website. So we'll make sure to drop that in the show notes. It's a great resource for people that step-by-step walks them through how to do this practically and with kindness, but also firmly for your own benefit. So that's a good segment there, John. I learned a lot there. Thank you for that. More calls coming up. 888-825-5225. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Dr. John Deloney. People have been asking for it, John, back by popular demand,

the money and marriage getaway is back. It's happening this fall, October 24th through the 26th. Join Dr. John Deloney and Rachel Cruz for a weekend away right here in Nashville, Tennessee, right at the Ramsey Solutions headquarters at our brand-new event center. You get two and a half days of teaching focused on communication, intimacy, and money. And let me tell you, this is the opposite of a boring marriage retreat, if there ever was one. It kind of gets off the rails. Mostly because John's involved. Rachel keeps it on the rails.

John's goal is to get it off the rails, and that is worth the price of admission. Rachel never even gets on the rails. She's in a pretty nice car out in the parking lot. She's doing fine. She's doing fine. But this is a really great event. It was a special time last year. I got to speak at this event.

Don't know if they'll invite me back. 100% no chance. No chance. Okay, there it is. No chance. From the horse's mouth. Well, there's going to be lots of Q&A, lots of time to get your answers to real hard questions, and they bring levity to it all, which is so fun.

You and your spouse will walk away with the tools you need to build a deeper connection and win with money together. Platinum tickets already sold out. There's a few VIP tickets left, which include meet and greets with John and Rachel. So go get your tickets before they're gone. Tickets start at $799. That's per couple, and they make it an amazing experience. Ourickets start at $799. That's per couple. And this is, they make it an amazing experience. Our live events team is world-class. Regardless if you enjoy John's talks,

the live event itself is worth coming for. So go to ramseysolutions.com slash events and lock in your tickets, start to plan your lodging, get it in the budget. We'd love to see you guys there in October. All right, let's go to the line. Samantha awaits in Dallas, Texas. What's going on, Samantha? Hi. My question is, I'm eight weeks pregnant, and I'm going to have a baby. Sorry, I'm so nervous. You're doing great. I'm going to have my third child mid-September. And my husband and I, we've been working the baby steps. We have a $1,000 emergency fund. We've paid off about $15,000 in debt already.

We've cash flowed emergencies and things like that. So we have been really at it. And my question is, I know in the baby steps, we're supposed to, I guess when there's a pregnancy, we're supposed to stack up like cash and we're supposed to stop the baby step two. But do we only pay the minimum payment or is it that we're supposed to pay you know we're able to pay a little bit over just because there is interest on on these things so i think i'm just really nervous no about the interest continuing to build up and um no i understand and that's a hard thing when you look at that interest building up and you want to attack that debt, but man, there's this life change coming

for the third time. And we want to make sure you're prepared for that first, because we don't want you to go further into debt. And what tends to happen is people are working on it at Snowball, they're not saving for the kid, they have a thousand bucks, and then the medical bills start to hit. Or there's an unexpected thing that happens and mom and baby don't get to come home the next day and that's the stuff that we want to make sure you're prepared for and that's why i would say minimum payments until baby and mom are home safe and then what likely happens is you guys have a giant pile of cash to throw at the debt once once you're home or my house, I thought that a package of diapers would last me a good few weeks.

I didn't realize babies poop 400 times a day. And so that got way, way more expensive than I was expecting. Okay. This was largely unhelpful. What's your household income and how much debt do you have? So I bring home, I protect about $4,000, and then my husband, his W-2 said he made $100,000 last year. But his income varies.

He's hourly, an electrician. So right now he's working 60 hours he has overtime and it's great and we have more to throw at the deck and then there are some months where um he's you know right at that 40 or 48 hour mark and so it's always different but um yeah so he last year he made 100 and it's continued to go up throughout the years. Wonderful. And then I make about $71,000. So you guys are bringing home, like, you're making $171,000 and bringing home probably close to $1,120,000? Yeah, well, I just started earning this.

I've had this job for about six months. So my salary is new, but yes. And so we're throwing, I do the budget as if he's only working the 48 hours because that's usual. And then if he just happens to work more, I mean, all of that goes to debt. How much more debt do you have? So I have, I think I said $12,000 when I called in, but I went back and looked. So I have $7,000 left on our SUV. And we should, if he keeps working the overtime with things in order, it should be paid off by next month.

So we should be done with that. And that's going to free up an extra $400 a month. And then I have about $12 12 700 in a credit card and then i have 13 000 in a private student loan that i took out and then about seven thousand dollars in federal student loan um but that's deferred because i just graduated, so I just got the login for that. So you've got about $40,000 in consumer debt? Yes. Okay. Well, this is a solvable problem, making $170,000, and you'll free up that SUV payment,

but I would just stock up cash, and you're going to be able to save up a good amount over six, seven months of just saving, and then baby and mom are home safe. And you guys attack that debt with, you know, the 20 grand you have sitting in that savings account. Okay. So you're going to make some progress on the back end. Yeah, go for it. So we've, I was able to stay home for a year with both kids um my first two and then um this would be the first one that um even considering putting in daycare just so that i can get back at it work for a few months and then come home i don't know i feel really uneasy about it i don't know if you have any encouragement or advice on that so you're to probably continue to work and put all three in daycare? Oh, well, so I have my daughter really young, so she's already in grade school.

Oh, great. And then our child, my second child, he's in daycare already. But he didn't start daycare until he was about a year and a half close to two. And so this would be the first that I'd be leaving in daycare so it's more the the emotional level of leaving the children and going to work versus the financial the baby yes because my son's already in daycare so it's more the new baby I just the thought of doing it freaks me out but then I'm also don't want to most of it is my day anyways which I know you guys would say it's our day and my husband's super supportive. He, he doesn't look at it that way. I

think it's just me, but I think I feel. The two pieces of advice, the two pieces of advice I could give you is number one, you're going to get 5,000 different opinions. The only two that matter are you and your husband sitting down and making a choice for your home. The second one is, is it's really tempting to feel like whatever decision you make is forever. And it's just simply not. So if you want to try this out for, for, for a month, try it out for 30 days and figure out how you feel, how your baby's doing, how your finances are doing, how your husband's doing. Y'all sit down and have that conversation and then go month by month for the first three or four months. You don't, no decision here is forever.

Okay. And just give yourself a lot of grace. Keep your hands open and just know that some of your family members are going to be like, oh my gosh, she's the worst mom ever. And then some of your friends are going to be like, oh my gosh, you really would consider not going back to this job you make so much money you're so lucky and you just graduated you got that degree now you're staying at home yeah all of that's gonna hit it's what works for you and your family and what works for me and my family is different than what works for my friend george and uh whitney and so it's just it's just different and everybody's got an opinion and none of them really matter except for you and your husbands. Thank you. Is that cool? Thank you. Yeah, that's perfect. I feel

like I just needed to hear that maybe. No, you're good. You're good. None of these decisions are forever. So hold them really loosely and do it back to what works best for each of you in different seasons. And maybe you go, hey, once we're out of debt, I want to stay home. That's right. And that becomes the timeline. That's the thing you aim for. And there's no right or wrong ways to go about this. It's what's right or wrong for your family right now. And that can change. So thanks for the call. We're excited for you. Congrats on baby number three. We are rooting for you. You're going to be fine no matter what. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, joined by Dr. John Deloney. If you like this show, be sure to check out all the other shows on The Ramsey Network. I've got a YouTube channel that is doing wonderfully, John. And not to be outdone, but The Dr. John Deloney Show

recently has popped off. It is number three out of all the podcasts in the world right now on apple podcast yeah it's pretty wild to see it up there man that's mind-blowing it's pretty wild you're just sitting right next to joe rogan right now and on the charts which is fantastic so congrats to you and the hard-working team that pulled this off it's mostly the hard-working team but it's good man well your face is on it at least a fun time a lot of your faces actually it's a cool you guys updated, your face is on it at least. It's a fun time. A lot of your faces, actually. It's a cool, you guys updated the artwork. Yeah, I woke up this morning with a text message from the guy who heads the network team,

and it's kind of hard to wrap your head around it. Yeah, it's a cool achievement, and it means people are getting helped, and so I love that it keeps moving up the charts as more and more people listen, so go ahead and check it out wherever you listen to podcasts, and share it with a friend. Let's get it to number one by the end of the weekend.

How about that? Don joins us up next in Minneapolis. Don, welcome to the show. Hi, how are you guys today? Doing well. How are you? Yeah. Well, hopefully we get better after today. We got you, brother. What's up? All right. I got no debt of nothing vehicles. I got two kids. I got them through college. I'm going to be 67 here in about a week. And I'm looking at either semi-return or return, but still going to work. And I just want to know on these annuities, I've been listening to you guys,

and I want to know where i can get a hold of these these investors i got around here and talk to in the banks everything just i don't know they don't bring it up if they don't have it or don't have no knowledge on it i don't know what's your goal the other two nights huh what's your goal so you have a pile of money you want to invest or what? Yeah, I want to make my money make money instead of investing in something or somebody else is going to clean me out. So you're worried that a financial advisor is going to kind of trick you and take all your money?

Well, I don't know about the financial part. Two nights ago I listened to you guys, and there was a 50-year-old lady on there, and she trusted a guy, and he cleaned her out $600,000. Yeah, I was on the phone for that one. That was heartbreaking. Okay, so that's what I'm trying to get away from here. Around here, that's a lot of people. People don't work.

They just want to take your mind. Well, there's good apples out there. There's some great, great folks out there. That's one of those outside of the bell curve situations that she worked with a friend, and the friend just absolutely didn't stab her in the back, stabbed her in the face. Yeah. That's not common is what I would say. So I would not hold on and be fearful of of that and actually dave worked 30 years ago to create a plan just for people like you

um so that they have somebody that they trust because it's scary man it's scary to trust somebody with your money you know what i mean that's your that's your legacy that's your that's your family tree that you're going to leave to your to your kids right right right that's one minute so it's something to fall back on i mean you know if something family tree that you're going to leave to your kids, right? Right, right. It's something to fall back on. I mean, you know, if something happens, you know, you can come home and you got cash. You don't have to worry about go borrowing money and everything.

Because I don't do that. Well, how much money do you have? Well, I figured it up here. I got about $460,000. In what? That's between checking and my CDs and I got one annuity when I had for the kids. Okay. And that's all I have.

And so you're wanting to invest the majority of that to make you money instead of just sitting there in these accounts. Yeah. I'm only getting 1.5% and a half a percent on checking, and the CDs are only getting 1.5%. Oh, gosh. Dude. I mean, I'd move it all to a high-yield savings account today, and you'll do better. You'll get four or five. You don't need a financial advisor for that. Right.

Well, where should I go with that? Well, we don't have a trusted partner in that space, but I use one called Marcus by Goldman Sachs. I know Rachel uses one called Ally. And what you're looking for here is an FDIC insured or NCUA insured bank. That's for credit unions. And that's going to protect your money up to $250,000 per depositor per account. And my account actually came through my SmartVestor Pro. I asked him, I need a high yield savings account that you trust. and he sent me a link, and that's the one I use. And so there's a number of them, and they're online, but, man, they're pretty magical.

I just got my tax statement for the year, and we did pretty well. We made some good money on the side there. Yeah, well, that's what I would like to do. Could you mail me something like that? We can get you a link. We can have our team send you. Mail me all $600,000 of your dollars dollars and I'll send you $20,000 or $30,000 back for sure. I'll get a link to our phone screen or eBoo and she'll make sure to get that to you. How's that sound? Yeah, that would be great. And long-term, you need to invest this money because 4% or 5% is great for temporary

savings. But for long-term investing, if you look at the track record of the S&P 500, which is just the 500 largest US companies in the stock market, 10% to 12% is what it's been averaging over the long-term. Now, some years it's been down. This year, it's back up. And so you don't want to look at it in tiny chunks. And so how much of this money do you need to live for your monthly expenses? Is this just extra money? This is just extra. I still got my job. This year is just my backup plan for down the road if I totally retire, if I want to just sell everything, I liquidate and then move on travel. Do you have any retirement accounts? Yeah, this year, then I got my pension at work. Okay, so does the pension cover your

bills or is that just part of what you're doing? Yeah, it would. Great. So if this is just gravy money, you can just leave it alone in the stock market. And if you get in touch with a smart investor pro at ramseysolutions.com, they can guide you in choosing some great funds, recommending a bigger strategy, and they don't make any moves without you being involved. So they might make recommendations, but it's up to you. So whenever people call in and say, the financial advisor did this, they're not doing anything without you approving it and saying, this is what I want to do. You've got to stay in the driver's seat. And they also, I've been in some of those meetings with financial advisors when they kind of pat me on the head and treat me like I'm a little bit dumb and a little bit young.

I'm a little bit dumb. I'm pretty old now. But it's this sense of like, oh, sweet boy, we'll take care of it. And I hate that. I hate it. I earned this money. I want your help. And so the thing that I love about the SmartVestor is one of the cornerstones. By the way, Dave and the trusted team fire them all the

time. If they're not doing it the right way, they're not going to carry Dave Ramsey's name on them, right? They're not going to carry the Ramsey Solutions stamp, the seal on there. But they have a heart of a teacher. What does that mean? We say that all the time. That means they're going to sit down and explain to you what they're doing and why they're doing it and then get your input on why that is. My smart investor pro taught me, walked me through and said, here's what I'm going to do. These are the guidelines. And then I was sitting by Dave, we were having a conversation and he said, yeah, I'm not doing X, Y, and Z. I called my smart investor pro and said, Hey man, I don't want to do X, Y, and Z. And he goes, all right,

cool. Right. So it was, it's a partnership. We're working together, but he's teaching me how this whole thing works and I'm not in the dark in my own life. Right. Right. Right. You know, that's, that's what I want. Think of it this way. Instead of handing your money to somebody who's driving the car, a smart investor pro gets in the passenger side while you're driving, and they're telling you where to go, where to turn, why you might want to go this way, but you're still driving, and it's scary at first, but man, over the long haul, you feel much more in control of your own life.

Great, great. I hope that helps, Don. We'll make sure to get you those resources as well. I'll have Eboo pick back up, and we'll get you a link to the Ramsey Solutions site where you can get connected with a SmartVestor Pro, and we'll get you a link to one of those high-yield savings accounts so you can start moving money over there and have it. You'll make 3x what you're making right now. And that's a big piece of the puzzle.

Right now we're at record savings rates for your general savings accounts. So if your bank is offering 0.01 that sucks so anything they're ripping you off because they're making a huge amount of money on the gap between what they're offering and the interest rates on debt right now is astronomical right and so the banks are making great money but they're not passing it on to the consumer and one of the great things about some of these online high yield savings accounts is they have less overhead and so they're're able to pass on more higher interest rates than your traditional brick and mortar bank. So I've got both. I think that's really wise to have a local bank that you can trust, a credit union, a community bank that you can walk into and talk

to a human. But for storing savings, you can go with the high yield savings account. So great question, Don. I'm proud of you. You're doing really well. And I love that you're thinking really intentionally about what to do with this giant pile of money. It's a good problem to have. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Dr. John Deloney. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Mason joins us in Idaho. What's going on, Mason? Hey, how's it going? Thanks for having me. Absolutely. How can we help today? Another question. I'm going through lineman school in the fall, and then after you get out of lineman

school, you have a four-year apprentice, and you usually travel around to wherever they send you for four years. So most people just buy a fifth wheel and live out of that for four years. So I was wondering, is it okay since you're living out of four years to get a loan on it and pay it off, or should you buy a cheap one and then

save up and pay cash for it next year? Do you know what show you're calling? Yeah. Yeah. What do you know what show you're calling? Yeah. Yeah. What do you think we're going to say? Pay cash for it. Ta-da!

Why are you wanting to take out a loan? Or why do you feel like you have to? Just because of the price of those. Yeah. And I don't have enoughdown campaign for the school cash. Remind me, can you not rent in your area? What was the purpose of living in the RV? People usually don't do the rentals because you move around.

You can move every, depends on who you're with, but every three to six to eight months or four years. So the cost to buy one over four years compared to renting and the hassle of always moving, that's kind of why people do it. And I would tell you, if you continue to do financial things based on what quote unquote most people are doing,

you're going to remain broke. I don't know anything about the lineman industry up in Idaho. I can tell you it sounds very similar to the oil fields in West Texas where I lived for a long time. And those guys seasonally make an astounding amount of money. And they go buy $150,000 trucks and they buy big RVs and they end up with buying, putting this money into depreciating assets. They end up with nothing. And then they have to wait until the next bust is over and the next boom kicks up. So all I have to say is swim upstream on this one, man. Scratch and claw. Get the crummiest camper

that you can safely live in, that you can buy with cash, and just save it up. I promise you on the back end, it's going to be better. And everyone's going to make fun of you. We know what you're making, bro. What are you doing? Fine, cool. I don't owe anybody any money. That's kind of how I do my life. And just swim upstream.

And you're going to look up in five years, and the thought of borrowing money on a depreciating asset is going to seem silly to you then. Even though I know in your head it makes sense right now. And the worst part, Mason, is what's going to happen is two years from now, you're going to call us back and say, what do I do? I'm underwater on an RV and I can't sell it. I owe 50, it's only worth 30. And I say that because we took that call this week.

And I don't want that for you or your future. And so I'm going to find a different solution. Do you know how long these are going to be, the contracts, as you enter a new city? It depends because with your apprenticeship, you have to get certain hours in different fields. So you could stay with a company if they have enough hours in each field for a year or something. You don't have a choice of where you go. You just get bumped to the next company so you can get your certain hours and that certain work. I would just go for maybe a shorter term lease when you rent somewhere and go, all right, I'm going to do six months.

And after that, I might go month to month if I think things might change rapidly. Or I'm going to find someone else to take over my lease. These are all things that I've done. Go to some of these places that are so overbuilt with apartment complexes. And that might not be in all of your areas, but go to the front desk and say, I'm a lineman. I may be here three months. I may be here six months. I'll pay $150 extra a month

to go month to month out the gate. I will always pay my bills. I'm going to be on time. I'm not going to cause a ruckus here. And they may just sign you up. And then you get to sleep in an actual bed, not in something with wheels on it. Okay.

That makes sense. But just stamp that on your soul. I don't borrow money. I'm just a guy who doesn't borrow money. And what that does is it forces you to figure out other options and it's astounding how many other options there can be sometimes. Sometimes there's not. Sometimes it's just I got to take five jobs and not sleep for the next three months

and it's awful. But often there's some solutions out there that are just contrary to what everyone else is doing and that's the hardest thing to do when all your buddies are going one way and you're like i'm actually gonna go over here like dude what do you you could get an rv it'll be so much cheaper yeah except you're underwater on this depreciating asset and you can't sell it when you want to get out of it so thanks for the call man i hope you take debt off the table and you'll get real creative once you do that. Hunter is in Charleston, West Virginia. Hunter, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Howdy. How are you? Good. How are you doing? How can we help? I'm all right. I'm starting aviation school to become a pilot. And as you probably can assume that comes with a hefty price tag and i uh i know how

much dave is against taking out any type of debt but i was wondering if that would be something he would consider worth doing or y'all would consider worth doing i guess just as one time no i'm just kidding only for aviation how cool would that be if we were like, Hunter, you are the exception, man. You did it. We've never met a pilot who got out of school with $150,000 in student loans, and there was a downturn, or one of the major airlines laid a bunch of people off. I can't remember that ever happening, so yeah, you're the guy. You're the guy, man. How much is this going to cost?

I haven't totaled it all up completely, but it was looking like it would be around $100,000. Okay. Over how many years? Four. So four years, $100,000. How much money do you have right now? Right now, to put towards it, I only have about $20,000. Okay. So you have $20,000. It's a good start. Do you have any debt? No. Wonderful. And what are you doing right now? Are you working? Right now, I work part-time at the UPS warehouse in my area. Part-time, what are you making? It makes $21 an hour. That's amazing. It's about $30K a year. That's incredible. People are always calling in and we're like,

hey, you can go make $20 an hour at your local UPS. They're like, now what? And there you are just doing the dang thing. Okay, so what would it look like to do this at the speed of cash? How quickly could you save up another $30 and get started on that two years and then work part-time while you're in school? It'd probably take a while because now I'm living on my own paying rent and bills so that savings is slowly depreciating you have a roommate i did but he just moved out okay so

you're paying the full rent on your own right now yeah that's a bad plan let's get another roommate asap yeah i had roommates all the way up until i was married and it's one of the reasons i was able to have margin to get out of debt and to save up for things so I'd highly encourage you to just keep your expenses low you're a young dude, a hard worker How old are you man? 23

It feels like the rest of your life The difference between being 27 and starting something in 30 and starting something when you're in your 40s, it's a blink of an eye. But I know that when you're 23, it feels like 27 is 100 years away. So I get like, I remember that, dude. I remember that angst. Like, I got to go now. And the people who are in their 30s and 40s would just smile and be like, you're good, man.

Slow down. What about enlisting and letting the uh air force train you i've thought about that but i don't know if i'd be able to go away for six months with my family the way they are because you have to go i don't think it's six months it's like three months for uh with your family do you have you have a child no i have uh my grandpa he's been sick lately, and my mom would just stress too much if I was gone. I'm sure she would get used to it. Well, yeah, and at some point, it's not your job to make sure your mom's okay.

That's her job, to get the support and resources that she needs to be okay and to help her father. That's a lot of weight on a 23-year-old. Here's the thing. You can create a world where there's always going to be excuses, and this is just the easiest path forward. George and I, for a living, sit with people with their face covering up their,

I mean, their face and their hands because they're $100,000 in the hole. They have no job prospects. The thing that was just the guaranteed thing is suddenly gone um we talked to somebody the other day with 200 grand in computer science everyone's to get computer science computer science computer science and now if you look at some of the ai stuff man coding's gonna be different real real quick right all that to say is our number one thing we're going to tell you every time, save up the money, figure this out, take a couple years extra, go slow, work all the way. Whatever you got to do, just don't owe people money. It just makes everything different and safe on the back end.

I'd go work full-time for the next year, year and a half, and then that money can be used to start this pilot journey for the next few years and cash flow the rest, working part time. That's how we would do it, man. That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. My thanks to co-host Dr. John Maloney, all the folks in the booth, and you, America. We'll be back before you next time.