The Ramsey Show - App - Setting Yourself Up for Financial Success (Hour 2)

Episode Date: October 10, 2022

George Kamel & Kristina Ellis discuss: Paying off debt with a tight budget, Cashing out an IRA, Setting yourself up for financial success, Getting a spouse on board with the baby steps, Avoiding online dating scams, Quitting a job to go back to school. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET 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 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

МУЗЫКАЛЬНАЯ ЗАСТАВКА Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods, moving and storage studios. This is the Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm George Campbell, host of the Fine Print and Entree Leadership Podcast, joined by bestselling author Christina Ellis this hour, and we're taking your calls at 888-825-5225. You jump in, we'll talk about life, money, debt payoff, budgeting, building wealth, and so much more. Benny is kicking us off this hour in Seattle. Benny, welcome

to the show. Hi there, long-time listener, first-time caller. Thanks for having me on the show. We appreciate you listening and calling. Yeah, welcome. What's going on with you? Hey, so my question is, we borrowed some money from my annuity a couple years back, put down on a house. We had the 10%, but we wanted the 20% to avoid the mortgage insurance. And so now we're about halfway through that. We got about $18,500 left to pay off.

And we're kind of wondering if we should pay it off so we got about fifty some thousand dollars in savings right now and so we could pay it off in full but with the market right now we're kind of like hesitant because it's just not doing really well and so that's where the money would end up going and we get like five percent right now on this money that we're paying monthly back to that one that will create a monthly income well yeah so the annuity is just for when I retire. Why did you jump into the annuity to begin with? Well, so my annuity is from my work. So it's through my job. I get an hourly amount of money put towards it. It comes to about $1,100 a month.

Okay. So if you paid this 18.5 today, what would it do for you financially? It would just go into that annuity account and we'll right now it'd start to lose money. But like I said, we listened to the show and you guys are pretty adamant about putting that money into the market, even though it's not doing well right now. Yeah. It's similar to borrowing against your 401k, correct? Right. Okay. Yes.

So if this was a 401k loan, we would say, go ahead and pay it off today, regardless of what the market's doing. And so you've got 50k. I mean, that still leaves you with, what, $31,500 in cash? Right. And that's your emergency fund plus a little more? So, yeah. We have $35,000 in our emergency fund. Oh, that's separate. $18,000 in savings and $4,000 in checking.

Okay, that's what makes up the $50,000. Right. Yeah. I'm paying off the annuity loan today and being done with that. And if you need to restock a little bit to get you back to a good place with the emergency fund, which it doesn't sound like it should, it sounds like you should still have plenty for three to six months of expenses. Right. it sounds like you should still have plenty for three to six months of expenses.

Right. Yeah. I mean, it's just, we're like, with our budget right now, we aren't quite making it and we're trying to cut some corners, you know, and- Is it an income problem or is it an expense problem? It's kind of, it's an income problem. Right now, my wife, she lost her job and she just got a new one back, but we've been living in the red for probably about four months now. And how have you been surviving to dig into our savings? Well, just off of my money and our savings, I mean, the money that I've been getting paid monthly with our bills, we're probably about $1,200 in the red right now. So we're trying to... But you're not touching debt to do that. You're just draining your savings, essentially, to survive.

Yes. And with your wife's new job, will your income be right back at a spot where you can afford your payments, you can afford your budget? I think it's going to put us closer if we can get this paid off. I just, we just got a few more things we're going to have to, to carve out. But this is the big one and this is the one we just aren't sure about you know it's it's kind of scary investing or throwing money in and watching it just go go down but it's also kind of scary feeling like you owe something like I can feel the weight and the heaviness in your voice like that's one of the things like with this payment

I have to make towards this it feels kind of you heavy. We can't really afford that. So it's like at least getting that out of your life now and finishing with that 18-5, that's done. And then you can focus on rebuilding that. Is that all the debt you have is the 18-5? No, it's not. So we have a solar loan. Oh, man. It is 115 a month.

What was the total loan you took out for that? It was like $37,000. No wonder you guys are feeling tight. You got payments everywhere. What else do you have? Well, all our vehicles are paid off. So we don't have any of those. We just have our mortgage.'s about $3,000. Oh, man, that's high. What's your take-home pay? So after taxes, I make about $1,800 a week. Okay, but with your wife's new job, what's your new household take-home pay? Um, so yeah, we're probably going to be probably around $400 more. So you're probably looking at like $2,200 a month or a week. Yeah. Okay. So at $2,200 a week, that puts you guys at,

let's see, about $114 take-home pay. Does that sound about right? That sounds about right, yep. Okay. So the issue I'm seeing here is you've got quite a hefty mortgage, even compared to your take-home pay. Right. Because you split that into 3K into 9,500, which is what your monthly take-home pay, and you're talking 32%. Now, that's not the only thing that's stealing from your paycheck here. It's also the solar loan and the annuity and all these different things. And so I'm going to put you guys onto every dollar premium so that you guys can

start to do a monthly written budget. You can use the app, you can do it online, and I want you to do this together as a couple. And once you do that and everything is listed, income minus expenses equals zero, go through every expense and go, are we doing as best as we can on this expense? Can we cut it? Can we do our research? Can we get this insurance premium down? Can we cut eating out this month? Right now, you guys have to find that traction and get back in the black. Would you agree? Yeah, totally. Well, I hope that helps, Benny. I know things are tight right now, and that's one of the things that makes me so angry about debt is you look up and you go, we're making great money.

Where is it all going? And it's going to lenders so they can make big buildings and sponsor stadiums while you're over here wondering how you're going to put food on the table next week. So let's get all of this debt out of our lives. The solar is next, And then later on, we can deal with the mortgage. But hang on the line. Austin's going to pick up. We're going to gift you one year of every dollar premium, as well as Financial Peace University, our nine lesson course that you can watch with your wife to get fired up about getting out of debt and

building wealth. Thanks for the call, Benny. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell joined by Christina Ellis this hour this is the Ramsey show it's a free call at 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. Houston, Texas is where we go next. Matt joins us there. Matt, welcome to the show. Hi. Hey, how you doing? I got a question. Good, good, good. Got a question. Thank you for taking my call. Absolutely. My mother recently passed away. Sorry to hear that. Well, thank you. And my siblings and I are going through the process of going through her IRAs and cash. And after it's all said and done, I stand to inherit around $90,000.

Okay. stand to inherit around $90,000. Around $72,000 of that is going to be in an IRA, in a 401k. And I have been advised to open up in the inherited IRA aspect. My question is, should I take that IRA that I'm inheriting and cash it out and pay off my mortgage? Or should I take the required minimum distribution over several years for the taxes? I'm very confused about how to do this. Now, was this a traditional IRA or was it a Roth? Yeah. Both were Roth? Yeah. Both were traditional? Okay. Yes, sir.

And have you looked into the tax implications of cashing this out? Well, from my understanding, it's going to be at my tax rate, which is 24%. Okay. And so factoring that in, are you able to pay off the house? Just about. What's left on the mortgage? I'm sorry you able to pay off the house? Just about. What's left on the mortgage? I'm sorry? What's left on the mortgage? $74,000.

Okay. And I have about four years left on that mortgage. Do you have any other debts? No. And fully funded emergency fund? I have almost, but with the cash that's coming from the inheritance as well, I plan on even cushioning the emergency fund. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, I know my plan if I'm in your shoes, and I'm going to fill up that emergency fund and use the rest to pay off the house. And take the initial hit on the taxes? Yeah. Right away? Okay. Yeah, you've done a really good job with your money. The fact that you have no other debt and that this inheritance could wipe out your mortgage, I mean, very close to wipe out your mortgage is amazing. And personally, I mean, it's obviously not the most ideal way to get money. That is so sad. But

also, it's just an amazing way to honor your mother to have that, leave that legacy with that money where you wipe out your mortgage, you're debt free after that. That's what I'm doing. That's a great place to be. And I still would talk to a tax advisor anytime you have a big chunk of money coming in. There's a few people I want to make sure I talk to and get some second and third opinions. One is a tax pro and another is a financial advisor. And so you can reach out to both of those at ramsay solutions.com. We've got tax pros, we've got smart investor pros on the investing side. And I'd walk through your plan with them and see what they think about it. But on my end,

other than the tax implications, this is going to be worth it because you're not having to pay your mortgage anymore. You're going to be saving on the interest you were paying on that mortgage. So there's a lot of benefits to that. And now you can use that money instead towards building wealth. Okay. That's kind of the way I was leaning. I was just, I got, saw that tax bill and I thought, oh gosh. Yeah. I mean, definitely keep that money set aside for come tax time. Don't go do anything rash with it. But as long as the money's there, I mean, it's not like there's a, you have this money coming in from the IRAs. And so it's not really like you're having a pony up yourself. It's just going to, they're taking a cut and they're going

to anyways, eventually. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, that's sort of what I'm looking at. They're either going to get it all up front or they're going to get it incrementally when I have to take it out. Exactly. So that's what I'm doing. I mean, it's going to set you up for freedom a lot faster. So I see this as a huge blessing and an incredible legacy left. All right. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Yeah, appreciate the call, Matt. All right. Zach is up next in Richmond, Virginia. Zach, welcome to the show. Hello. Hey. Thank you very much for having me on. Yeah. What's going on with you? So my question is, I am a recent college graduate who has a

decently paying full-time job at 62K a year. And I also have still a car loan and student loan debt of about $45,000. And my question is, what should I do as far as my finances over the next couple of years to get those paid off? And should I invest in retirement already? And so on. Sure. How old did you say you were? 22. 22, making $62K. What kind of work are you in? Financial analyst. Oh, cool. Okay, so you're a numbers guy

right you got to stare at numbers all day long which means you you know how this works with your debt and your interest and your paychecks this is not anything new to you that is correct are you currently on a budget um i don't have a personal budget, but I do use the Rocket Money app, formerly Truebill, to track my spending and income. Okay. Well, I've used those apps in the past. Before I knew Dave, I was like, well, I'm doing great because I'm tracking it. The problem is when you don't plan for it up front, you're just seeing what happened. You're just looking at the past instead of actually planning for the future and sticking to it. So I'm going to do you a favor and gift you one year of every dollar premium so that you can begin to make a plan for

that money as well as track it. And the goal is to stay within your budget categories. And it usually takes people about three months to dial this in. But what happens is you start to pay attention to where every dollar is going and you start to get angry and go, why am I spending so much money? Oh my gosh, I'm just bleeding out in this area, eating out. I need to cut back on that. And so I think that will help you make a plan for every one of these dollars coming in. So how many debts do you have if you parse them all out? You said you got student loans and car loans. I think my student loans break into like 17 different ones. Wow. It's just a car loan and a revolving credit card that I pay off every month.

Okay. So step number one, if you want to join the club of weirdos, you got to cut up the card. Does that bother you? Could you stick to a debit card? Yeah, I really only use this as a cashback. I don't know. I treat it like a debit card already. What's the cash back on there?

2% on everything. What if I told you by doing a budget you're going to give yourself 2% cash back by making wiser decisions? Would you believe me? I could see it. Because that 2%, I mean, how much are you really spending a year making 62K that you're putting on the card? That's a great question.

Maybe $20,000. That's if you're going crazy. $20,000 on the card. Sound fair? Yeah. Probably, what, $200? That's $400 if you get 2% cash back. That sucks. $100, right.

100%. I could make you $400 easier this month just with wise spending and side hustles. So if you're willing to go and be that crazy, cut up the card, use a debit card, and list out your debts from smallest to largest. And then we're going to attack the little one first. So that smallest student loan is probably what, a grand? Mm-hmm. And so that one's going to get knocked out quick. Do you have any money in the bank? I've got about 6,000.

Oh, awesome. Well, this gives us a head start. And again, part of this plan is doing some weird stuff. And so baby step one is a thousand dollar starter emergency fund. You have that, but that means the rest of that $5,000 would go towards those student loans and probably knock out the first few bunch, right? I also might be able to take advantage of the Biden administration student loan forgiveness, we'll see if that actually happens. Sure. Yeah, we wouldn't necessarily count on that, but we should know soon. They're supposed to, they said by next week, October 17th, we should have a little bit more information but they said but they also said the beginning of the

month so it keeps getting pushed back tbt feels like your dad being like son we're gonna i'm gonna take you to disney i was not banking on that at any point sure well i did this uh 30-day trial an older woman called in uh maybe about a month or two ago and she did a 30-day trial. An older woman called in maybe about a month or two ago, and she did a 30-day trial. She believed me and said, I'm going to try using a debit card instead of my credit card and see if it changes my money behavior at all. And she called us back and she said, you'll never believe it. I saved so much money by not using the credit card. And part of it was the psychology of that cash back. And part of it was, it's my money and I'm going to treat it differently than someone else's money. And so I'm rooting for you, Zach. Hang on the line. We're going to gift you one year of every dollar premium, and we'll throw in Financial Peace University

to give you the exact plan you need to do to get rid of this debt and finally start building real wealth. But man, at 22, making 62K, you're going to knock this debt out. Call us back, and maybe you can do a debt-free screen. That would be fun. This is The Ramsey Show. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. Find out for yourself why they are the number one online retailer of custom window covering. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use promo code RAMSEY to get the best deal.

Today's question comes from JC in Utah. My wife and I are on baby step two with $148,000 in debt. My wife, who uses a wheelchair, works from home, and we have a nanny that takes care of our children while she's working. After reading Total Money Makeover and listening to the podcast, I'm fired up and ready to knock this debt out. My wife is not 100% on board and would like me to be less intense. With little time for herself, she enjoys splurging on takeout and designer coffee, and she thinks ordering takeout one to two times a week is okay we use every dollar and can budget for these expenses but i keep hearing you in my head saying sacrifice part of the challenge is i've done fpu and she hasn't should i slow down

and wait until we are on the same page or keep pushing on my own? Oof. Oh, that's tricky. Yeah, this is a lot more relational than it is financial. We don't have a lot of numbers here other than they have a giant pile of debt at $148,000. No clue how much they make. It could be 60, it could be 300, but it doesn't matter because the point of this is that his wife is not on board.

She hasn't done FBU. She doesn't get it. Right, and we don't know how these conversations have gone so far. So has JC come in with a really honest and upfront conversation that was calm and rational, or has it been kind of whiny and naggy? That's kind of hard because we often-

Like Dave said, we gotta get out of debt. You can't eat. And now his wife sees Dave's name as a cuss word. Yep, that's what happens. Yeah, we often recommend, you know, you want this to be an adventure and an exciting thing. And, you know, a lot of times somebody, one spouse gets so on board and they're just like, yes,

and they go so hard that they kind of scare off the other spouse. Oh, yeah, don't do that. Pro tip, guys, never, never use that approach of going through FPU by yourself, first of all, because then they have no idea what you're talking about and you're just coming in yelling, gotta be gazelle intense, Dave said we can't eat out. That's not gonna work.

And so JC, number one, get her to go through FPU with you. If she's unwilling to do that, it tells me there's probably some deeper marital problems here that may require some counseling to go, hey, we can't even talk about money without it being a blow up fight. And this is a deeper issue. Yeah, And I mean, women tend to be wired for relationships and security. So, you know, come at that conversation with, you know, your heart for helping secure the

family finances for the future. I mean, one hundred and forty eight thousand dollars in debt. That's a lot of debt that really puts you guys in a vulnerable position. So I just think you could frame that conversation in a way that really speaks to her heart, but lets her know, hey, I'm not just trying to do this to make you give up your coffees and take out. I'm not just trying to make your life inconvenient. I'm trying to do this because I see a vision for our future where we're not carrying around this massive debt and we're not stressed out and our children can have that security and we can leave them a legacy. Like try, try to kind of reframing the conversation in a way that really speaks to her heart and just encourages her. Yeah. And what I'm seeing here is she would like me to be less intense. Well, the other side of intensity is complacency. And that's not somewhere we need

to hang out very long because that is how we got into 148k in debt in the first place is just kind of wandering through our financial life and just we'll worry about hey that's a that's a future george problem we don't need to worry about that right now and so my guess is she's not very involved in finances at all because someone here is stressed and it sounds like it's jc because he's been crunching the numbers going 148000 in payments adds up to thousands of dollars a month. And we can scrape by right now probably because they have a great income if they can afford a nanny and take out and coffee. I mean, that's the American dream right there. But the problem is this is turning into a nightmare.

Designer coffee. I've never heard of that term. So the question he asked was, should I slow down and wait until we're on the same page or keep pushing on my own? I don't think you should slow down. I do think you need to be on the same page because pushing on your own is just going to push you guys further apart. And you're going to have so much resentment towards her because you're over here busting your butt and she's just drinking her designer coffees and getting takeout. Well, and she's probably getting yelled at and getting, you know, kind of the brunt of the, you know, you're holding us back and this is not moving forward because, because, because. And so, yeah, really taking that time to get on the same page. Yes.

It's so important. shared common language that you learned in Financial Peace University that gave you this vision that you now have to get out of debt with what we call gazelle intensity. So she's got to do that as the foundation here if we're going to get anywhere. Good luck, my man. That's not an easy situation. All right. Open phones this hour at 888-825-5225. Christina, last week you co-hosted with Rachel Cruz and you guys got a wild call. Yeah. It started to kind of make some waves out there. Can you fill in the listeners on what the heck happened? Yeah, we got a bit of a wild call. Somebody called in. He has a fiance in Columbia whose mom has cancer and needs surgery. And we asked him how much money he had. He had $50,000 in the bank. And it just so happened that that's the exact amount that they needed for her cancer treatments and surgery.

So it was a really kind of tricky call to navigate because he sounded pretty in love with this Beyonce. And at the same time, it kind of sounded like a scam. So we talked him through it, just kind of walked through it. But we didn't call him out for the scam part on air. But we did call him afterwards to talk to him oh i did not know this find out a little bit more information and just let him know that this could potentially be a thing um so he has actually met the person several times he's been down there she's real she is real but at the same time he does feel pretty hesitant about

sending the money he doesn't really know about the mom and if if her situation is really legit she is you know she does have health challenges um but could also see her taking advantage of money but the more i've explored this the more that we've you know really seen that this is a huge thing this world of dating scams it's a thing i've talked to other people in coaching calls and in situations where people have been scammed by people who are just trying to get their money. And I think it's hard right now because on one hand, there are people out there who are desperate for money. And then on the other hand, coming out of the pandemic, there are people who are really desperate for love. Oh, my goodness. And they want that connection and they want, you know, they want to feel like someone loves

them back. So it makes them vulnerable for scams. So I want to quickly call out a few potential scams that are pretty common right now. Okay, good. Make sure our listeners don't fall for it. Yeah. So there is an airfare scam where you meet this person online and they're lovely and they're from a different country. And all they need is X amount of money for you to bring them to the United States to meet. That's the way you do it. So you send the money for airfare and then they go, oh, shoot, there's an extra expense for the visa. Can you send that too? And before you know, you're roped up and do a lot of money and you get kind of desperate because you're like, this is my chance to meet the love of my life. I need to bring them

here. So that's one. The sudden emergency, which could potentially have been the situation last week where it's like, you know, there's a medical crisis. There's some type of issue with the family where someone needs money to get out of jail, which that would be kind of shady. But there's some big thing that they need this money right away. Or there's just the the typical expenses like I'd like for you to buy me jewelry or pay for expenses. But they're they're really good nowadays. Reading some of the examples and hearing from different stories, they're pretty tricky. These scammers are super manipulative. They may not even be able to catch it. I think a lot of people think, like, I would know it. I would be able to sniff this out.

But they, I mean, they're pretty sophisticated. So, just a few important mentions if you're potentially in a situation like that, or if you're talking to somebody who's in a situation like that, you know, one of the biggest things is don't share your personal info. They do not need to know your address, they don't need to know, you know, your family's information, your social security number, anything that they can do to kind of put you in an interesting situation, be really careful with sharing that information. And then biggest thing, sending money is off limits. limits like especially if you've never met this person in person if this is somebody who you know you've just chatted with online or if you've only met them online potentially you've met them in a google hangout which i guess is a really popular

place is that where kids are hanging out these days wow yeah but i thought google hangout died a long time ago with myspace oh my, my goodness. But also be careful for keywords, like things like fate and destiny, like things that will make you convinced that this is the love of your life and they're all in. Yikes. Those are kind of like a little bit of the like, uh-oh, hot button words. Anything with emotion and desperation, I'm going to go red flag. Red flag.

Hold. Maybe we shouldn't Venmo this person $4,000. Or Zelle. That's a big one red flag. Red flag. Hold. Maybe we shouldn't Venmo this person $4,000. Or Zelle. That's a big one. Zelle is a tricky one. There's a lot of different scams out there, y'all, so be careful. Stay safe out there, people. And get ID theft protection, by the way. Yes. It's a huge one. Our friends at Zander offer it. It's super cheap.

And man, I've had that happen to me. Not the whole catfishing dating thing, but just identity theft. And it is a terrible, terrible situation. Well, thanks for the info, Christina. Glad we got back in touch with him. This is The Ramsey Show. Guys, right now you're hearing a lot of talking heads in the news stirring up fear about the real estate market. And if you believe them, you think the housing market will crash. It's going to be a

repeat of the 2008 housing crisis. But you're not hearing the truth. And you can't make decisions based on fear. You need the facts. And here they are. Simply put, in 2008, there was a huge supply of homes, not enough buyer demand, so home prices dropped. That's not what's happening in today's market. Right now, there are half as many homes for sale and twice as many buyers. That means home prices aren't going to go down anytime soon. They're growing at a slower rate. So you guys have seen asking prices come down and you're going, oh my gosh, it's a crash. No, it was just inflated because it was like at the height of Beanie Babies. We were all trying to sell the Beanie Babies off at $200 a piece. And now they're coming back down to reality. And so that's what's happening. Values

are not going down from what they were before. So if you're ready to buy a seller home, you do not need to wait. You can still win in this market. We've got to work with an experienced real estate agent. And we've done the hard work for you of vetting agents who know your local market and have the transactions to back it up. This is not Uncle Larry who just got his license. So if you want to connect with a Ramsey trusted agent for free, go to ramseysolutions.com slash agent and check out our endorsed local providers program. Again, that's ramseysolutions.com slash agent. Open phones this hour, 888-825-5225. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. I'm George Campbell, joined this hour by Christina Ellis. And Christian is up next in Los Angeles. Christian,

welcome to the show. Hi, guys. Thanks for having me. Can you hear me? Yeah. Yeah. What's going on? Okay. So my question for you guys is that I had recently started a new job about a month ago. I'm a vet assistant. I've been working in the field for 10 years. It's all I've ever done. Now I'm getting to the point where I'm realizing that I'm just not happy in the field anymore with what I'm doing. And I kind of want to start venturing out to go to trade school specifically into like medical coding. And I think my question for you is that I currently don't have any debt. I have about a thousand dollars in savings. Would it be a good idea just to leave this current job and just go full-time into school?

Because I do currently live with my parents at the moment. So, and, you know, they're perfectly okay with me kind of taking a break from rent at the moment right now. How long is this medical coding program? It's about, I believe, 8 to 12 months, if I'm not mistaken. And do you know about how much time it's going to take you a week to do that, to do the program? I'm assuming it's a full-time program. Right. Yeah, I know that it's Monday through Thursday for the classes. Are the classes during the day or do they offer an evening option? They are during the day. Okay.

Have you explored different schools that maybe potentially have an evening option where you could still keep that full-time job? I have tried to look around before. I think the, you know, the biggest thing for me is that I kind of want, I guess in a way, like an out from the field that I'm currently in. So that's why I'm looking into maybe just going to school full-time so I don't have from the field that I'm currently in. So that's why I'm looking into maybe just going to school full-time so I don't have to continue doing what I'm doing. I've asked them before too, and part-time isn't an option for what we do, unfortunately. How much are you making right now?

Do you mean per hour or per year? Is it hourly? Yeah, it is hourly. Okay, what's the hourly wage? About 17. 17. Okay. So you're probably looking at, you're making about 34 grand yearly gross pay? Roughly around that range. Okay. Yeah. Are you open, let's say, okay, you want to be done being a vet assistant. Are you open to doing something else maybe you're a little bit more passionate about while you still work or while you go to school sorry yeah yeah and i have looked in that before too i think the um the hardest part for me unfortunately right now is trying to really figure out um

you know what other options there are i'm currently 28 and i've been only working in this field since i was 17 so it is very hard to kind of figure out what else there is to do out there. Yeah, if I'm in your shoes, I'm thinking I'm going to look into a tuition assistance program. I'm going to see if there's any employer out there that would pay me while I still go to school, not only pay me an hourly rate or pay me a salary, but also will help pay for some of my schooling. Because I think it's great if you can continue to work while you're getting that trade school program certificate and also can help you graduate debt-free because that's one of the biggest goals is we don't want you to go into any debt while you're paying for this program

and also it's great that you're you've got your parents support because that's going to be a nice spot you don't have to worry about room and board or housing or anything like that but what's the whole program cost for the 12 months um for the 12 months that I saw, it was about six grand. Okay. And how did you plan on paying for that? Well, I was going to try and find part-time work in the meantime. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be through here, through the current job that I'm in. But yeah, I just wanted to kind of get your guys' opinion on the situation, because I know you guys would probably recommend kind of saving up the six grand and then paying it as I go through the schooling.

Yeah, we definitely want you to cash flow it. It doesn't mean you have to have it all tomorrow, but you'd have to have a great game plan to make sure we're not going to have to touch debt to do this. Have you talked to your parents about this? I have as well. They're very willing to pay the six grand. I unfortunately don't want them to have to do that because they're both retired at the moment. Are they in a financial spot to do it?

Like, do they want to be generous and gift this to you? Yeah, they are totally capable of doing it. They're not in any sort of debt or like that. It's not going to put them in a bind is what I'm saying. Right. Yeah. No, definitely not. So why not allow them to be generous and cover your schooling? It's, I mean, six grand comparatively to what most people would pay for college is a dream. If I'm a parent, I'm like, yes, absolutely. And also there's the route of scholarships. Like if you, if you don't want your parents

to pay for it, you also don't want to work and save up the money, you could spend the next few months applying for scholarships and trying to get it that way. Just in a quick search, I found several scholarships that are's offices and hospitals and working part-time there, even in an administrative role. I almost guarantee you could make $17 an hour doing something like that. That would actually put you in kind of what Ken would call a proximity principle. You're already around the field you want to be in, even around the people doing medical coding. Have you thought about that? I have actually found a few positions that are for entry-level medical billing, um, just to kind of get my foot in the door and do something where you sit around it.

Maybe you do it and you go, I hate this or you do and go, I love this and I already have a connection. And now when I get through the program, they're already offering me a job. Right. That's how it works. Yeah.

I talked to this, uh, this student who just graduated at one of the building wealth events. He was in the crowd and he came up and he said, Christina, guess what? He's like, I went to work at a hospital just taking like a basic regular administrative job and they paid for me to become a nurse. Like I use their tuition assistance, went completely debt free, still made money while I was going to school. Now I have a nice savings account, a nice pile of money. And I went to school debt free and I'm earning more money. So it's kind of like a win in all directions.

Yeah, that's amazing. It's amazing what happens when you just do a little bit of research and have a little bit of hope. But the problem is there's so much pessimism in this space of just like, well, applying for scholarships isn't going to be worth it. I'll never be able to work enough to cover school. And so I'm just going to go to this super expensive school and just put it all on loans, and I'll worry about it later, and my life's going to be way better off for it. Right. And we're seeing that people are not happy with their decision. They're regretting it. They're angry. They can't buy houses. They can't start families. They don't feel like they can get

married because of their financial position. Yeah. I mean, we've heard some stories and it's just really sad. They were promised a beautiful, bright future and it'd be easy to pay off the debt from the great degree that they would get, the great job they'd get after graduation. And it's a lot harder afterwards. And one of the most vulnerable spots, it's for people going back to school. A lot of people think, you know, they're not happy in their current job. And if I just go back to school, it's going to fix my problems. It's going to make me feel better. And I'm not saying that's with this situation, but there are a lot of emotions when you reach that spot where you're unhappy in your career and you want to go back. So it's always super important to one question if a degree is really what you need to move forward and to feel that change in your life. And two, how are you going

to do it debt free? Like, because a lot of people get in that spot where it's like, okay, now I need to get an education at all costs. And it's going to fix this hole I feel or this unhappiness I feel. And it might. You might be able to. It might help with the financial part of that, and it might help with a career change, but you really got to take the time to do it well and do it the right way and do it without debt.

Yeah, I always hear Ken Coleman say, is it the right path? Is it the best path? And a lot of the times if you dig deep, you really realize it's neither. Right. I don't know why I'm doing this. I just didn't like my job,

and so I thought going to school would just buy me some time to figure it out. Yeah. That's a real expensive way. You might as well just go to Europe and have a good time and just eat, pray, love instead of going into debt to do this.

Good conversation. Good hour, Christina. That puts this hour in the books. My thanks to the gang in the booth there, Austin, Ben, James, Zach, and Andrew, and you, America. Thanks so much for listening. We will be back with you before you know it. Have you been inspired to make a change with your money?

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