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

Episode Date: April 12, 2024

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, this is The Ramsey Show. It's where we help you win in your life. Win with your money, win in your work, and win in your relationships. 888-825-5225 is the phone number. 888-825-5225. It's the phone number, 888-825-5225. Jade Warshaw is with me, and I'm Ken Coleman. We have a lot of fun coaching people. We have a lot of fun while we're doing it, so that's our theme. Feel safe. Feel confident that your problem is not wacky, that you're just like everybody else, and we all need some help at some point, and that's what we want to do for you today.

All right, let's get it started in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I once ate at a White Castle in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Random fact of today. I feel sorry for you. Nobody needed to know that, but now you do. Aubrey's on the line there. Aubrey, how can we help? Hi.

I'm glad that you've been to Fort Waynene and at white castle i'll bet you and it was right downtown do you know the one that i'm talking about i don't even know is it there anymore i don't know probably like probably not aubrey i'm a lot older than you i imagine uh but we digress what's going on okay um well first i'm excited to talk to you guys. I like both of you guys a lot. Oh, thank you. So I have had a debate on my heart for a long time. I've been back and forth on my job, and I've been doing 100% commission sales for the last three years, and I really thought I would get into sales, but I just felt like I needed to give it a shot and take that opportunity. And I've never quit on a bad day. There's been a lot of, you know, highs and lows, but now being over three years in, I'm just kind of looking at things and realizing like,

I'm not as far ahead as I thought I would be, or as like I was told I would be. And I'm just like, there's parts about my job that I do like, but for the most part, like I've worked six to seven days a week for three years straight. And I'm just like, there's parts about my job that I do like, but for the most part, like I've worked six to seven days a week for three years straight. And I've just been so burnt out. I lost management at the end of the year. And, um, you know, like I want to have a job that I like wake up and I'm excited about every day. And lately it's just like, I feel like I can't even get myself to go and do what needs to

be done. And I do have debt that I want to be able to tackle. I just feel like things have been so inconsistent and up and down that I have debt that I want to be able to tackle. I just feel like things have been so inconsistent and up and down that I haven't even been able to make any real progress. So I'm just like, you know, if I leave, if I quit, like part of it, part of that kills me just because I've invested so much of my time, my energy, my money into this business. But then I also like, don't know where to go if I leave. Like I don't even know, like I've kind looked at the job market, and it just kind of seems a little underwhelming and overwhelming at the same time. Yeah.

So, like, I'm just kind of looking for some clarity. Yeah. So, if this job was more consistent and you just had a better overall experience, would you be calling, questioning a career path in sales? I mean, I think the money would make me want to say that's why I've been so back and forth. However, I know in my heart, like this doesn't really fulfill me. Like this isn't really what I'm passionate about. All right. So here's a fun little question. Try to get right to the heart of the matter fast. And it only works if you just say what's on the top of your mind. Do you understand?

Okay. All right, so no wrong answer. You can change it after the call. All right. What would you try tomorrow professionally if I just gave you the gig and it made you, let's just throw, let's have fun. Let's say 20% more than you're making now, and you knew you would absolutely crush it,

but you didn't have to commit to it as I'm making this 30-year choice. I'm just going to go do something else to try it, and I know I'm going to crush it. There's no risk at all. What would you do, Aubrey? Oh my gosh, that's such a hard question. No, it's not because you already selected an answer. That's why I did a long setup. I've done this before. I want you to just say what's at the top of your mind, and then we'll break it down. So ready? Go. I mean, I think it would be involved with something that would be like kind of a creative process, like something like house flipping or getting into some type of like entrepreneurship

or something like that. Great. But that's an inconsistent. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I don't have the money for that. I know you don't now. But remember, I said we were removing all risk for a moment. And what I'm attempting to do, Aubrey, is a part of the lesson.

I need you to turn your brain off, and I need you to turn your heart on. And we go, what is it that I really want to do? Because you're still a young lady, and you've got a lot of options, and you've got a lot of options and you got a lot of time. True or false? True. All right. So part of what you called today was everything's underwhelming that I'm looking at in the job sheets or whatever online. And then the process overall is overwhelming because I'm trying to pick this big direction. And that's what I help people with. I'm going to give you a couple of tools today. I'm going to give you

my get clear assessment, this new book, find the work you're wired to do. I'm going to give that to you. Okay. Because it's actually going to really help you. But all right. What you've got to understand is the answer you gave me is pretty darn close to what you ultimately want to do. Will it change a little bit as you begin to explore it? Will it look a little bit different than you described to Jade and I just now? Possibly, probably, but that creative, entrepreneurial, I heard several things in there. I do this all the time. So I actually want to stop for a second. I want to ask Jade, what did you hear in her answer objectively? What did you hear?

What I heard is, I think, and this is just me, I could be wrong. She mentioned that she's got debt that she wants to pay off. Sure. Needs more money. I think that when people have debt, it clouds their thinking because everything has to be about how can I make more money and how can I do this? And it can be very hard. And that's why I loved your exercise with her because it causes you to go past all the

things that I need to do. And like, yes, I know, but this is important. And I think for her, really trying to spend time and go, what would I do? What could I do? What would I love doing? And understand that the situation now with the debt and everything that there will be a time when that's gone. And when that's gone, you can really see clearly, oh, like this is what I love to do. Like for Sam and I, when our debt was gone, that's when I really realized what I love and want to do. And I think the same thing for her. So Aubrey, that was brilliant what she just said. So, so we we'll figure out what we need to do when we figure out where we want to go. All right. So, so what are you selling right now? Give it to me in 10

seconds or less. What are you selling? Um, life and supplemental health insurance. Okay, great. I, if I were you and I wanted to get into real estate, maybe flip some stuff and I just kind of wanted to be an entrepreneur, I'd start thinking about real estate because that's straight commission, and you're used to that. But I think there are some limiting things about this product or service and the company that you're dealing with, and we don't have time to unpack that. But am I right? There's a lot of limiting circumstances that if it were just you,

it would be a different ballgame? Yeah, there's definitely some factors. I knew that. Okay, so I'm not in any way trying to say go do real estate sales, but that would be something I would be considering. And I would be considering right now, who cares how underwhelming it is, Jade? I'd be going and getting a good sales job and I don't care if it ain't exciting because it's only temporary. It gets me out of debt. It allows me to walk through the baby steps and it sets me

up to go, all right, now I'm going to get my real estate license or I'm going to go work for another entrepreneur and learn how to do that. I guess, Aubrey, I'm going to give you the tools to get clear assessment and the book, Find the Work You're Wired to Do. That's my gift to you and that's really going to help you. But you need right now to get out of this situation and get a better sales job where you're making more money consistently and that's going to free your mind up to chase the thing that you ultimately you know and you started to tell us and jade you nailed it get out of your head and into your heart that is beautiful love that and debt getting out of debt i'll help you

with that for sure good stuff all right quick break We're right back. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. If you do not know this, it is Financial Literacy Month, and we at Ramsey Solutions are celebrating the work that our amazing foundations and personal finance teachers are doing. By the way, I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw joins me this hour. Phone number is 888-825-5225. Now, I want to tell you, if you haven't heard about this, foundations and personal finances is a program that we put in. Schools choose to use this all across the nation. And it's an important, important subject because, frankly, it's just not taught enough, and there are many states in this country that require some type of financial teaching

for kids to graduate high school, and that's why we created Foundations in Personal Finance. It's a curriculum that over 7 million students have gone through, and I've been blessed to be in multiple iterations or versions of it. And it's really rewarding because we hear from teachers and students on this. And so we thought it would be fun, Jade, if we had one of our Foundation's teachers on the show. And so we've got Jason who's calling in from New Lenox, Illinois. Jason, how are you today? Ken and Jay, how are we doing?

Happy Friday. And we're doing well over here. Thanks for having me on to talk about some of the amazing things we're doing over here at Lincoln Way West and Lincoln Way District 210. I love it. Coming with the energy. That's what I'm talking about. I was going to say, I would want Jason as my teacher.

Right. So tell us what you teach at Lincoln Way Central. Sure. Primarily, I'm a personal my teacher. So tell us what you teach at Lincoln Way Central. Sure. Primarily, I'm a personal finance teacher. So that's been my main focus. I've been doing the foundations class and we've been teaching kids to be weird, financially weird, you know, since 2008. So I think this is my 16th year teaching foundations. Is that right? What grade is it? Yeah, we've been blessed.

What grades do you teach? I've got seniors sitting next to sophomores. The people that take our foundation class, it's open to everybody. So I could have a 14-year-old sitting next to an 18-year-old. And it's a beautiful thing, though. And that's all you teach are finance classes in addition to foundations. Yeah, I teach one of our business classes here, one of our tech classes. But I got to tell you, I'm glad you brought up the mandatory state thing.

Unfortunately, Illinois is one of those states that is not yet mandated it. But I got to give, the kids say, we got to give our flowers to my school, Lincoln Way West, and our district 210. About a decade ago, we mandated it for our students. Even though our state hasn't.

Wow. We did. Way ahead of the curve. And Illinois actually has a bill on the table, but it's just sitting there and they're not doing anything with it. Yeah, go ahead. Why do you think that is?

Like, we see how important this is. Do you have any, you want to weigh in on that at all? The whole politics side, I'm not too sure why it's just sitting there waiting to be voted on. It's been sitting there for quite some time. So I think, you know, using the power of the Ramsey show and everything like that is we need to, you know, we need to get it out there. Let's get that message out.

You know what we're going to do? This is exciting. James, I've never done this and I'm doing it. If you are listening to the show right now and watching the show and you live in Illinois, you need to call the Illinois State House. Let it rip. I don't know what the number is,

but you can find it on the Google and call your representative, call your state senator Let it rip. And I don't know what the number is, but you can find it on the Google. And call your representative. Call your state senator. And tell them that you want this to pass and why. There you go. That's good. I like that.

How about that? It's Bill HB 1375. Make it happen. Hey, hold. This is great. All right, here we go. It's HB. HB 17.

1375. Oh, geez. 1375. HB. That's House Bill. For those of you who don't know what that stands for, it's very exciting. 1375. Oh, jeez. 1375. HB, that's House Bill, for those of you who don't know what that stands for. It's very exciting. 1375. I feel like I'm back in my old world of politics. HB 1375 should pass.

And it should pass because our children are the greatest resource we have. They are, in fact, our future. Vote yes for HB 1375. This is very exciting. If I could start a petition, I would. There it is. All right. Now, here's what I got to know. Switching gears. Yes, I'm very excited. You went into your mode, Ken. You can't be stopped. I got to tell you. I got them all wound up. I'm sorry, Jade. As long as I don't say my fellow Americans, then we're going to be okay. Okay, so here's a question. With this day and age we live in, I'm curious, what are today's students asking, or what are they commenting about when you're teaching our principles through foundations?

I'm really curious. Yeah, I mean, a lot of it is going against everything that they see in society and pop culture and even in their households from their parents. So when we tell them things like, no, I know your mom wants to get you a credit card to build your credit score. She has the best intentions, but she thinks that's the only way because that's what most people do. And I always tell them, look, is it easy to do things differently? No, if it was easy, it would just be the way. And that's why most people do things the wrong way and not the way that we teach them. And so when we tell them about, you don't need a credit score to survive, well, how do I get a car? We teach that in the foundations class, how to save up and pay cash for a car.

How am I going to get a house one day? And that's what their parents are worried about. And I want my kids to have a house one day too, but most adults don't know about manual underwriting. And we teach our high school kids that. And so when we're teaching them things that they don't see day to day in their households or out in the real world, it does come across as weird, but, you know, we've done all the studies and everything is backed up.

You can live without, you know, the credit score and you can be a student without a student loan. And so that's one of the biggest benefits of the classes. We're showing them, Hey, everybody out there is broke. Normal's broke. We want you to be weird. Do things differently. And that's what this class is. It arms them with information before they go out and make those mistakes like I did

when I was in college and getting my first credit card and car payments. I never taught this stuff. So, Jason, do you see the students taking – are they taking this home to their families? Like, are you hearing any stories about, man, I told my mom this and I'm teaching my parents how to handle the money now. Oh, awkward, awkward family dinner conversations. I've been, we've got, I had a student, you know, his name was Mike Manning a couple years ago. He went home and I tell them, you better, when your parents ask you, what'd you learn in school today? Don't say nothing.

Uh-uh, not in my class. And I say, you know, the dad asked him, you know, what'd you learn today? And it was like the middle of the debt chapter. And he said, we learned about credit cards. Dad, do you have a credit card? And the dad goes, I got a few. And then my student, you know, came right back at him and said, you know, you spend, you know, 12 to 18% more when you use a credit card as opposed to cash. And the dad, you know, comes back with the typical, well, I, I paid off in

full and I get my airline miles. And then on cue, my student who I taught very well said, you know, consumer reports says 70% of airline miles never get redeemed. And the dad's like, at this point, he's like, go to your room and eat dinner in your room. That's good. Yeah, they're bringing this stuff home for sure. I love it. That's awesome. You're listening to Jason, who is a teacher in New Lenox, Illinois, at Lincoln Way Central High School. He teaches foundations and personal finance.

It is our financial curriculum with over 7 million students having gone through this course. To that end, Jason, I, give you the last story. We've got about a minute and a half. I'm curious. I know that legacy for teachers is when a kid leaves and comes back and shares, here's how I'm doing, appreciate your role in my life. Do you have any stories of students who listened to what you said, they've moved on into the real world

and, and, uh, they're winning financially. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, I've got a kid that actually he just graduated last year and, um, he's, he's a freshman down at the university of Alabama and he was keeping me up to date with his, his college, which that's out-of-state tuition, $55,342 a year. This student, Anthony, just like we teach him in the Life After High School, the college chapter, he became a scholarship beast. He won a full tuition called the Small Town Rural Scholarship. He got his Pell, and he became a scholarship filler outer, the part-time kind of job. First semester tuition, final, $260. Very good.

Very good. That is unbelievable. Well, thank you, Jason. And hey, shout out to all of the teachers involved. And if you are a teacher, don't forget, you can enter the Ramsey Teacher Appreciation Giveaway, sponsored by Ramsey Education. One teacher is going to win, you ready for this, a $5,000 vacation, and two more teachers will each win $3,000 in a vacation.

So go to ramsaysolutions.com slash teacher. That's ramsaysolutions.com slash teacher to enter. Go now. All right, welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw is with me. Jade, you know what time of year it is, don't you? Tax time! Have you filed already? Of course I have.

Ken, look at... Who are you talking to, Ken? I apologize. No slight intended. Some people are last minute. But I get it. And boy, you know I hate taxes. But here we are. It's April 15th. Whoa. That's Monday, Ken.

Oh, boy. And if you haven't, you need to do it. Oh, boy. Really quickly. But let's talk about taxes in general because a lot of chatter out there in the Ramsey Baby Steps community. This is a robust community on Facebook. It's huge. It's hundreds of thousands of folks in there. A lot of people and a lot of chatter out there in the Ramsey Baby Steps community. This is a robust community on Facebook. It's huge. It's hundreds of thousands of folks in there. A lot of people and a lot of chatter. And so you've got some, what you consider to be some,

these pretty spicy comments, are they? Are they pretty interesting? I mean, what's going on? I mean, we always love to hear from you guys, see what you're saying, because that informs a lot of what we talk about and what we do. And so when comes to taxes you guys were you know taking it to the the interwebs and so there's this thread there's a thread on the Ramsey's Baby Steps community Facebook and it's basically tax refunds like would you rather get money back or would you rather pay a bill so tax refunds versus tax bills and so that's easy isn't it I would never want to pay you would think it would be simple but tracy uh one of the uh community folks on there she said let's play a game i want to know who got closest to zero oh i like right like let's hit it in the middle sure and so the

responses were crazy like one lady said not me i'm about to pay eight thousand dollars but i knew it was coming and so she had it saved up so that's good and she's like i've changed my withholding for next year and then katherine responded she said well my federal refund was 30 and my state was 80 that's pretty darn close i don't know how you beat katherine uh yeah i'm gonna keep it just like that for next year katherine uh and then tracy came back she said, we've mastered this dilemma. For three to five years, we were paying $2,500 to $3,000. But now, this year, we were able to only owe $40 for federal, and our state refund was $128. So again, it's not exactly zero, but that is pretty darn close. I like that.

Uh-oh. Looks like Gerald's coming off the top ropes here. Listen, Gerald came through like a champion. He said, I finally had a return that was $0. I did he do that? The goal has been met. I don't know how he did it. I don't either. I got questions. Are you trying to say that Gerald might not be coming correct? No, no, no. I don't want to offend Gerald. I still know how he did that. I want to know for Gerald. Yeah. I want to know how he did it because he can help us all out. And so then we had another post, a related question was okay if gerald got zero how can

the rest of us get close to zero so edgar said i did my taxes and it says that i owe 1900 so the the key here is what we want people to understand because if you may not be like gerald and get it to zero but the key here is we want it to get as close as possible. Like tax refunds, we've taught you guys over the past several weeks, tax refunds are not a good thing. IRS data shows that the average tax refund last year was $2,812. Like that's about $236 a month if you're doing the math. And think what that could really do for you if you added that back in your budget. Like that's what we're trying to get you to. If you had this money back in your budget, it would really be working for you. So the closest you can get to zero, the better. It may not be right on it, but the closest you can get is what you're looking for. And to answer Edgar's question, like how do we get it close to zero? It's simply you

going in and changing your withholding on the W-4 form. That's what we're looking for. And by the way, the W-4 form has changed recently. It used to be the way, Ken, where you would go in and claim your dependents and you could like put as many as you want on there. It's not like that anymore. So the form has changed. And if you're wondering, well, how do I know, Jade, what to switch it to? How am I supposed to know? Like I said, you can look at your tax refund from last year and you can say how much was it divided by the number of paychecks you got whether it was 12 or 24 if you get paid two times a year a month and then you can take that and that's the amount that you need to adjust on your withholding and by the way if you haven't filed your taxes yet and nothing's really changed from last year to this year, I would get with my tax person now and be like,

hey, while we do the taxes, by the way, let's change that W-4 form. So that's how it goes. And if you waited too late, by the way, if you haven't filed, if you've been waiting and you don't think you're gonna be able to file on time and you know that you are going to have a tax bill, just make sure that you file for an extension.

I cannot tell you enough, file for an extension. I cannot tell you enough file for an extension. When you do this, it helps you avoid what's called a failure to file penalty guys. Okay. And this penalty is going to apply if you owe the IRS money. Now, if you think you're getting a refund, it, that's a different story, but it's a 5% per month penalty. That's a lot up to 25 i'm breaking out i generally when i talk about taxes i get hives well and so this is making the cortisone for this because an extension will give you six extra months to file uh your extension you'll have uh from now to october 15th if you file the extension but just know that an extension doesn't change when your tax bill is actually due. OK, so you're filing the extension through your tax software. And if you

need a tax software, of course, we have the Ramsey Smart Tax. So again, if you have a tax bill and you don't pay it by tax day, the IRS can charge you penalties and interest. It's a lot um and so we want you to pay as much as you can as fast as you can that's what we're talking about here so if you need to file your taxes or file an extension just make sure you're using a service that you can trust like i said before ramsey smart tax is what i want you to check out it has low upfront pricing you can file your federal return online for under 35 can 35 Ken. $35? That's what I'm talking about. And it includes all of your major forms and deductions. Remember, there are no hidden fees along the way. It can save you up to 70% when you switch from another software, so that's good.

So go ahead and head to ramseysolutions.com slash smart tax to file or file an extension today. Tell you, the only thing I can think about, James, is we should be raising an army of Ramsey Show listeners to finally push through the flat tax. We just need a flat tax. It's just the absolute best. It would make all of this a lot easier. It would put a lot of money back into people's pockets.

Really feeling politically feisty today. Ken, this is the second time you've needed to do your... Well, the first one, I wouldn't call either one. The first one was not political as much as it was, this is for our students. It requires you to support HB 1375 in Illinois. This, the flat tax, is absolutely political. But I honestly think that real people,

left, right, center, okay, could all unite on that. Look to the cookie. Just let's get the flat tax. Mow money in your pocket and you can spend it however you want to. You libs can go do what you want. You righties, you hardcore right-wingers. Can you get into it? No, I'm just saying everybody wants more money in their pocket.

What you do it that you guys can fight about. But come on, the flat tax. Let's make it happen, America. All right. John is up in Atlanta, Georgia. I appreciate your vote, November, America. Appreciate your vote. John, how can we help?

Hey, Ken and Jay. Thank you so much for taking my call. It's a true honor to talk to you both. You too. What's up? Thanks. Hey, a little background, and you so much for taking my call. It's a true honor to talk to you both. You too. What's up? Thanks. Hey, a little background, and I'll get right to my question. My wife and I just started Financial Peace University.

We're on baby step two. We have $4,000 left on the car. We do have twins in college. Before hearing about Ramsey, we took out a 30-year mortgage, and I know now that Dave recommends a 15-year mortgage. And my question is, do we pay extra now on our mortgage as if it were a 15-year while we're on step two, or should we wait and get through step three and four before doing that? I would pay it as it is. You've still got the $4,000 car that we've got to pay off. So, you know,

you've got the extra money in your budget there. So let's go ahead and utilize that to get out of debt quickly. In many ways right now, inadvertently, this is kind of helping you get through those phases a little faster since it's obviously a little bit extra money in your pocket. So I would, I would keep it the way it is. I'd pay off the car. I'd do baby step three, make sure I'm into baby step four. And then definitely when I'm in four, five, and six, I definitely want to be paying that like it's a 15-year mortgage. And if you have money extra, you can add that to it as well. Perfect.

Okay. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. You bet. That was a straightforward one. How about that? That rarely happens. It rarely does.

You could do about 30 of those calls. Man, no drama. All right, really fun stuff. All right, Jade Warshaw is here. I'm Ken Coleman. We're here for you. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Don't go anywhere.

We're not. Just a quick break. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw is with me. Hey, I want to tell you about EveryDollar. It's our budgeting app, and it's fantastic.

And it helps you manage money the way we teach you. EveryDollar works, whether you're on iOS, Android, or online. And you can start EveryDollar right now for free. And you can just get an idea of where is my money? Where has it gone? It allows you to get organized, personalize your budget, stop overspending, and saving more. So if you're new to EveryDollar, we'll show you a long-term financial roadmap. This is really cool.

So it's more than just, okay, where is my money from a budget standpoint. It allows you to track your net worth, debt free date, retirement date, the baby step progress, and so much more. It allows us to coach you, not just inform you on your money. And this is great. You can download the free app for iOS and Android or go to everydollar.com to get started. That's everydollar.com. All right. Jonathan is up next in Los Angeles. Jonathan, how can we help? Hey, how's it going? Thank you for taking my call. Sure, what's going on?

Yeah, so I have a $700 car payment right now, and I currently can't afford it. Yeah, no joke. I make $50,000 a year right now, and I'm just trying to figure out how I can get out of it. I've tried selling it, but I am going to be upside down about $9,000 or $10,000 on it. So at this point, I'm not sure if I could take a hit on my credit and get it repoed. I'm not sure what to do. That's why I'm calling today. What do you pay for it?

What do you pay for it? Like, what do you own it? So right now, currently it's about $32,000. And I believe the car is worth, like people will only offer me like $19,000, $20,000. Why is that? Did you roll negative equity into it? I didn't. No, I think because of the car and the market value of it. What is it? It went down completely. What is it? What kind of car is it? It's a Subaru.

What kind of Subaru? It's a Subaru WRX. And how long have you had it? About almost two years in June. Oh my lord lordy. So, oh, my goodness. What other debt do you have? So, I have a $1,500 credit card debt. Maybe more. I just have to double check. But for one of my credit cards, it's $1,500. And I also have a small toddler right now,

so it's kind of hard to balance everything out. So I'm trying to figure out how to get out of this car and just to be scratch-free. So the only debt besides the $1,500 credit card is the car. Is that right? I just want to be sure. That's my biggest debt, yes. No, no, no. I want to know, do you have any other debt? Not what's your biggest debt? It's just the car and the credit card, right? Yeah. So I have a few other credit cards. I want to say together, I have five credit cards in total. So listen, tell me all the debt. I can't help you if I don't get a full picture. So roll it all out to me. $2,000 in total for a credit card.

Okay, so another couple equal $500. That's correct. Okay, got it. Okay. So here's the thing. Your $10,000 is upside down on this car. You've got a couple of options here, but I don't know that they're going to be worth it to you in this case. A lot of times when somebody is upside down in a vehicle, we would say to them, hey, if you can't cover it in cash, which, by the way, I didn't ask you, do you have any savings? I'm guessing no. I don't. Not at the moment. So a lot of times what we might offer is say, listen, if your credit's fine, you know, go over there to the credit union or whatever. See if you can get a loan for twelve thousand dollars so you can close the ten thousand dollar gap on this car get out of it and then take the other two thousand maybe put five

hundred with it and buy yourself a cash beater that's what we would say um in your case you know is it worth it to you to do that i'm not really sure yes a thirty two thousand dollar car is more expensive than what a guy making fifty thousand,000 a year should be driving. But because you don't have a lot of other debt, you might look at this and go, if I can pay this thing off in two years, I can keep it. Yeah, that's what I'm wondering, Jay. Jonathan, what would you say on all five of those credit cards your total monthly payment is to service all five cards? Like monthly payments? I think like the biggest one, I mean, starting with the lowest one, it's probably like $40. Yeah. And then the minimum payments would be

like $40 to $50. I think the highest one might be $80 to $100 right now. I am behind on one of them right now. Okay. So are you saying, all right, so the highest one is, let's just call it, let's split the difference, call it 90, and you said that's one of them, and then the other four are somewhere in the $40 range, minimums? Yeah, $40, $50 range a month minimum do. Okay, but here's what I'm trying to do for you. I'm with Jade on this because I start, I'm going to call that rough math of $300 a month. Does that sound about right, Jonathan? Yeah. All right, listen.

You're an able-bodied young man, yes or no? Yeah. Come on, man. Get after it. Come on. This is it. How quickly could you pay off those credit cards to where you just now freed up $300 a month? That makes that car payment a little bit easier on you overall.

And then, like Jadeade's saying you pay it off also the big elephant in the room here is you you're living in los angeles and you're making 50 000 the outside city of los angeles um uh sort of like out of the city yeah what do you do for work uh i'm a delivery driver for fedex okay here's what and you mentioned you have a toddler is are you single dad what's the situation with the toddler do you have a wife i have a fiance we just recently got engaged okay and when are you getting married works as well when you get married we don't know yet we're trying to get out of our debt yeah but you'll get out i'm not suggesting that you get married to get out of debt, but you want to get married.

So get married and then you can work together on this and you go further faster when you work together. So consider that like, don't get me wrong. And I want everybody to hear me clearly. I'm not saying get married so you can pay off your debt. I'm saying you have a kid, you're engaged, you're betrothed, you want to be married. So just go on ahead and get married. And combining finances is actually going to be a really key factor for you guys goingrothed you want to be married so just go on ahead and get married and uh combining finances is actually going to be a really key factor for you guys going forward and you might be thinking i don't want to combine yet because she's got debt too but trust me you go further together faster and it will allow you to work together on the same page you're in the same house you got a kid you may as well like jump in with both feet so that's where that is. I want to challenge you to get your income up higher. $50,000. Even though you're on the outskirts, you're still in an expensive area. And with the debt that you have, for no other reason alone, with the debt that you have, having more income is really going to be helpful for you. And Ken, talk to my guy about long-term. Yeah. So short-term, real quick, you've got to do anything and everything that you can.

Okay? So however many extra hours you have in a week, what experience and skill do I have that I can just go earn money? Short-term, this is going to allow us to move through the baby steps faster. Now, long-term, we're starting to go, how do we build wealth? And I want you, I'm going to give you a gift. I'm going to give you the Get Clear Career Assessment and the new book, Find the Work You're Wired to Do. And I want you thinking, how do I go from getting debt free to maybe moving up within FedEx or moving out of that delivery truck. And now I'm making six figures in the next 18 months. What can I do? Can I get there in 24 months? Is it going to take me 36 months to make that kind of money to where now, not only am I debt free, but I am making really good money and investing and taking care of my family. That's what I want to know. So real quick, you got any idea what that

would be? What's that long-term play that if i could snap my fingers and give it to you you'd go i'm in that's what i want yeah well 100 what is it um you know it's i mean i want to i want to you know try to get out of bed as soon as possible no no no i'm saying what do you want to what's 10 years 15 20 years down the road as a professional look like? You're a professional. What are you doing? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I want to just, you know, try to own my own trucking and, you know, and go from there.

Because right now we're private contractors, so that's my goal is to try to, you know, instead of working in the truck, owning the truck, you know, that's where I'm at. All right, so here's the deal. Here's your homework assignment. When you're working all those extra hours, I want you to be thinking, who do I know that's a successful trucking business owner? Or do I know somebody that knows that? And I'm going to begin to sit with them and have coffee. Can I meet with you once a month? Show up, ask a lot of good questions, learn what it takes to get there. And that's going to give you that extra motivation to do the hard work that Jade

was walking you through. So hang on the line. We'll get you the Get Clear Assessment in the book, Find the Work You're Wired to Do. And you got this, young man, but I would get busy fast. This is The Ramsey Show. Good hour. Jade Warshaw, James Childs, our fearless leader. Thank you. And you, America, we'll be back. Bye.