The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Be Investing at 19 Years Old? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: March 26, 2021

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Christy Wright, your host today. Along with me today is Anthony O'Neill. You can find both of us on Instagram at Christy B. Wright and at Anthony O'Neill. We are both author, speakers, and Ramsey personalities, and we are here for you. So give us a call, 888-825-5225.

We can answer your questions about money, about business, about life, whatever you want to talk about. We are here for you. All right, let's go to the phones. We've got Cindy in Los Angeles. Hey, Cindy, how's it going? Good. How about you, Christy? Good.

How can Anthony and I help? Hi, my question is, when is the right time to invest? All right, take it away, Ayo. Yeah, that's a good question, Cindy. Why do you ask the question? I'm curious. Where are you at in your financial journey? Financial journey.

I paid off my student loans last year. And right now I'm trying to pay off my car. I gave myself a deadline May 26th. Okay, that's good. You was listening in to the phone calls. That's great. How much debt do you have left outside of a mortgage? So what's your consumer debt looking like, the total?

Actually, I don't have a mortgage. I was wanting to get a home, but I figured that paying off my car was the first goal. Absolutely. I'm a traveler, so I'm like just paying off my debt. I don't have – right now I'm just staying with family with my traveling career. Okay, cool. How much is on your car right now then? $30,000.

$30K. What kind of car are you driving, Cindy? Infinity. You're driving an Infinity. That must be like a 2025, huh? I wish. Oh, man. You balling. You know, you live and you learn. And I had so many cars and, you know you balling.

You know, you live and you learn. And I had so many cars and, you know, just deals. And I'm like, no, I just want to get out of debt. I feel you. I feel you. Hey, so I know traveling nurses make real good money, especially on the road, because you don't have to pay taxes on your travel expenses and stuff like that. So what would you say you make?

What's your weekly right now that you're making a week? Weekly, it would be um like three thousand five hundred so you're making twelve thousand dollars a month after taxes because you pay minimum tax on your traveling you're doing about about eighty five hundred was what you're seeing a month right yeah um so here's the thing um i want you to pay off the car okay i don't want you doing the investing because it all depends on what company you're with when it comes to travel nursing so i don't want you to pick one particular company because you may switch uh with different assignments so i would definitely say just going ahead pay off the car get very aggressive with that if you're living with family you should

be able to have this car paid off within three months all right i want to get very very aggressive with that then Then after that, um, do you, do you only travel and use one company to find an assignment, uh, for your traveling nursing or do you use multiple companies to help you find different assignments? Um, one company. Cool. So do they offer a 401k? They, they do. I actually looked at the 401k last night. Okay, cool. Is it a Roth? It's a Roth. And do they match?

And they do match. Perfect. So as soon as you get done from there, what I want you to do is put three months, three months aside into a savings account because it'll be easy for you to get a job in a nursing field. So once you get done with the next three months paying off the car, then what I want you to do is go ahead and just set aside three months of your average expenses. So just look and just gauge as far as in if you're going to do an Airbnb when you're traveling. What do you need to live for three months? And I'm thinking for you, maybe 10, 15 grand.

Then from there, then that's when I want you to start investing and go ahead and use the 401k Roth. And so when it comes to investing, Roth first. OK, Roth beats a match. Matt beats, beats, I'm saying beats. I want to go to the beach too. I know, I want to go to the beach too. And then a match beats a traditional. So Roth first, I mean, match next, then a traditional.

All right. But right now, do the first two things first. Pay off your car, get a fully funded emergency fund, then start investing. So great question, Cassandre. Yeah, thanks for calling. I love travel and nursing. Anthony, you know a lot about it.

First of all, that's impressive. You know the deal, the lingo, all that. Hey, real quick for everyone listening right now, do a quick recap on why we tell people to pay off your debt before you invest because we get this question all the time and it's a major hang-up where people go, oh, I'm leaving money on the table.

My employer offers this, that, and the other. Talk a little bit about this focused intensity of one thing at a time and why the baby steps work the way that they do. I think it's a good reminder for people. Absolutely. I'll come from my personal story. When I was focused on just one thing, paying off my debt and baby step number two, lining up all your debt from smallest to largest, using the debt snowball method.

I was able to focus solely on that. Studies show, Chrissy, that when you are in debt and you're also trying to invest, you only invest about one or two percent. So it's not really a lot of money. Right. So if you could keep that one or two percent, put that on top of your debt and just get very focused with that, you're going to get out of debt quicker. Then we teach you're going to set aside emergency fund to present to prevent you from going back into debt.

So this way, when you start investing 15 percent of your income, you're not worried about going backwards. What we're trying to do is keep people going forward. The problem that we see in the world today is that they'll pay a little bit of debt. They go over here and invest a little bit. Then they'll get back into a whole bunch more debt. Then they'll come back over here and start investing a little bit. Then what they'll do is take out of their investment to go pay off their loans. And that's not what we want you to do. We want you to focus on one thing, create a solid

foundation for you to build on. Then you're going to create a layer on top of that foundation, which is an emergency fund. Then from there, we're going to create some revenue to invest into our future. So that way, when we do retire, we can retire with peace and with joy and with freedom and enjoy our retirement. And so that's one thing why we really, really teach that foundation is because we want you to have something strong to stand on, not something rocky. I think people underestimate the power of focus and just focusing on one thing at a time. They think I'm going to do all these things simultaneously. And when you try to do a million things simultaneously, you feel scattered because you are. And so you don't feel like you're making any progress.

Do you know that research shows that the most motivating thing for human beings it doesn't matter your personality style the most motivating thing is not rewards or a pay raise or even words of affirmation or recognition the most motivating thing is seeing progress absolutely when you see progress you want to make more progress if you eat salads for a week and you don't see the scale go down you want to go back to eating cookies and pizza but if you see the scale go down, you want to go back to eating cookies and pizza. But if you see the scale go down, you get motivated. What else can I do? I'm going to drink more water. I'm going to work out again.

Seeing progress, whether it's with a weight loss goal, with a business goal, with your debt snowball, when you see progress, it propels you forward to make more progress. So that's the reason we love to help you all have focus on one thing at a time. When you focus on one thing at a time, you see progress there, which propels you forward. You know, one of the things I see with women starting businesses, Anthony, part of the downside of having such ease to start a business is women start like 15 side businesses. And I'm like, what do you do? They're like, I do hair and walk dogs and I do landscaping and I have a boutique and

I make hair bows and I'm also accounting. And on the weekends I make barbecue. Yeah, it's almost like- I don't know what you do. It's almost like our newest personality, John Deloney. I don't know if y'all know who he is. He's scattered all over the place. He wants to be strong.

He wants to be fit. He wants to be this, and I'm like, John, just focus on one thing, bro. Just focus on one thing, and he's in the studio- We're just giving him a hard time. Giving him a hard time, man. Because we have the microphone today. We're just giving him a hard time. Giving him a hard time. Because we have the microphone today. That's right. Oh, my gosh.

It's good. Focus creates momentum, creates more progress. Yes. This is The Ramsey Show. You've got a lot on your plate. A job, your home, your marriage, and your growing family. While you're enjoying the present, you can't help but think about your future and your finances. As you explore your options, consider Christian Healthcare Ministries, or CHM, for your health care. Their generous maternity program and budget-friendly monthly programs have been a blessing to members welcoming

children into their families. Visit chministries.org slash budget to see if it's right for you. That's chministries.org slash budget. I'm Christi Wright. Hanging out with me today is Anthony O'Neill, and we're taking your calls about life, business, and of course, as always, money. Give us a call, 888-825-5225. We're going to go to the phones. We've got Mason in Louisville. Hey, Mason, how's it going? How are you all?

Good. What's your question for Anthony or myself? Okay. Well, I'm 19 years old, and I'm currently on a gap year pursuing kind of my dreams. I have a limited store network that's been acquired through my business and also working throughout high school and working multiple jobs. And I was wondering, I have about $20,000 that I've invested between mutual funds, individual stocks, and sneakers with my business. But I was wondering what I should do without being at $20,000.

All right, you're cutting out a little bit. Can you give me those numbers again? In the very beginning, you said you've got how much money that you got from where? Sorry, a little over $40,000. Okay, $40,000. And 20 of that is invested in individual stocks, mutual funds, and sneakers. Because that's my little business that I run. Well, it's not little, Mason.

It's not little. It doesn't sound like it is to me. Let's just cut out the word little. And then tell me a little bit more about your situation. You're in a gap year. Do you have any debt? What else is going on? I do not have any debt.

Yes, I'm on a gap year and right now my business has gone to uh debts that it has never been before because it's currently my full-time job and uh i haven't decided what i'm gonna do about school this is kind of you know a pile in there to see what i have to do this year yeah How many years have you had this business? I actually started it in sixth grade and every year it became more increasingly, you know,

I became more invested in it. Wow. That's so good. Sixth grade. That's crazy. That's awesome. Hey man, you sharp, bro.

Yeah. Let me just be real. You sharp. You real sharp. I appreciate that. All right. So let me help you out with the language here

and Chrissy can maybe even help me with this as well. When you say invested, sharp i mean you real sharp all right so let me help you out with the language here and christy can maybe even help me with this as well when you say invested um that's money that you have invested with getting a return on as far as in like interest now your sneaker business is not an investment you know that's that's your business unless there's something we're missing here yeah yeah so it's like well a lot of these things i consider investments because uh most of them over time appreciate value and some of them are turned off for a year maybe two years and some of them even go up five ten dollars a week so i consider those but they're technically not really there yeah yeah so let's say what's say you have a sneaker business and then let's say you have other funds invested into mutual funds and to single stocks.

All right. And then the business part, I totally get. I mean, because all if you're in business, you're in it to make profit. And so I totally understand your perspective on that part. At your age, just make make sure I heard you correctly, because you're going in, you were going in and out. You're in a gap year of college. Are you going back to college, number one? And number two, how are you paying for college? Are you using scholarships, grants? Are you cash flowing? What are you doing? Or are you taking out student loans? Well, I do plan on going back to college. I kind of use this year also to figure out what i wanted to go into i've narrowed it down a little bit more but i still haven't decided completely okay i will be attending a community college my local community college and i haven't decided

if i'll be staying at home with my family or if i'll be renting an apartment with somebody and are we taking out student loans or how are you how are you paying for it um definitely some scholarships but there probably will be some student loans okay how are you paying for it? Definitely some scholarships, but there probably will be some student loans. I think every year it's only $4,000. I plan on paying it off with one job as well. There's no point of paying it off

when you have $40,000 in cash right now. For me, I'm going to cash out those single stocks and I'm going to put that on top of the $20,000 that you have left cash liquid and then I'm'm going to cash out those single stocks and I'm going to put that on top of the twenty thousand dollars that you have left cash liquid. And then I'm just going to pay for the rest of my college up front cash. OK, I'm cool with you keeping keeping some of inside your mutual fund, because if it's only going to cost you four grand to go to a community college, you really need a grant. And then from there, we need to figure out what are you going to do for the next two years?

Are you going to an in-state school? That's going to run you in Kentucky. Yeah, right at about $8,000 to $10,000 if you go to an in-state school. So that $20,000 you have right there, I hear it in your voice. I hear it. You know, you're a young man trying to make some money, you know, trying to get this back real quick. And I understand it. But what I want you to do is set yourself up to win long term.

Okay. And the average person says this, Mason, that, hey, I'm going to pay it off within two to three years after I graduate. That same average person takes them 12 years to pay it off. Okay. And so what I'm saying is if you already have the funds up front here's the best investment you can make that's into yourself yes at 19 years old investing into your i wish you could see me on youtube because i'm pointing out my brain investing into this right

here that's your greatest asset not sneakers not the stock market not anything else you are your greatest asset if you can get this mind all the wisdom and knowledge that it needs to be productive on the business side man man stocks can't compete with you you know sneakers can't compete with you so what i'm going to say is to go cash out your single, pull that stuff out, bro, and pay cash for college. If you do that, bro, your sneaker business is going to take off. That's the thing that people have to keep in mind, Anthony, is it's not either or. You're making an investment in both. You are doing awesome in the sneaker business because of just grit and tenacity and scrappiness.

And you're a go-getter that started in the sixth grade, which is crazy and awesome, you get some actual business principles and education and training and strategy. You're going to be challenged to look at your business in a new way, and it's going to open up tons of doors of growth and opportunity

because you've got that outside perspective. It's like we kicked off this morning talking about, or this afternoon talking about, getting outside advice from people that are experts in their space or know more than you. It's going to help you take it to that next level where you're not just winging it the whole time. You actually got a little bit different layer

of sophistication in running your business. And at some point, if you want to scale, Mason, you want to grow a team, you're going to need to know how to be a leader and all that good stuff. So that will help you do that. I love, love that advice. All right, let's go to Emma in Chicago.

Hey, Emma, how's it going? Good, how are you? Good. What's your question for Antonina? So my husband and I, we have started this journey of going debt-free very early on in 2020, right before the pandemic hit.

Unfortunately, during that time, I lost my job. And then after that, we work on my second baby so uh we use part of our saving to pay some of our debt like mostly credit cards and right now we are to the point where uh we do not have the six months, savings. And I just feel like we should stop. We should stop opening our debt until I get a job. And, of course, my husband, he's not on board with me. He really wants to just keep going.

I mean, we have been blessed that, you know, we're able to live comfortably with one salary and even able to save, like like $1,000 every month. But I just feel like we should stop right there until I get a job and then continue with our goals. Real quick, Emma, because we're about to go to break. How much debt do you have left together? Real quick.

Okay, so student loans is the highest. We're not even going to tackle that right now but what's your total how much 220,000 220k okay cool and how much is your husband making right now in his job um he makes about 140 140,000 yes yeah. Y'all need to stop that. Yeah. Don't stop that. Keep going, Emma. And then on the credit cards, I think we have about $8,000 left. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's cool. I mean, $140,000 income. You guys renting, or do you have a mortgage payment? We do have a mortgage. We have a condo. How much is your mortgage payment? Right now, everything mortgage. We have a condo. How much is your mortgage payment? Right now, everything altogether

is about $1,700. Okay, cool. Yeah. So here's my thing, Emma. You guys are making good income. The average combined household in America today is at $58,000.

And so you all are not just double. Y'all are double plus some. So you don't need to pause nothing. What y'all need to do is get on a clear budget and see how you all continue moving forward with you losing your income. But, hey, don't pause. Keep going. Y'all got a lot to do. Okay?

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Yeah, listen, I'm going to buy me a few of those tonight. $5. I got some family members who go over their budget all the time. I've been reading my kids the Junioriors books juniors adventures book and there's the one about um you know junior the careless at the carnival and he's got his little envelopes and he goes and he spends all the money on all the games and then doesn't have any money for the tilt world or whatever it is and it's funny because i feel like my son's getting it and then we went to target the other day because he wanted to buy something and and he had his little envelope. There you go.

And he picked out something that was more than that was in his little envelope. Yeah. And I said, well, you don't have enough money for that. Right. And he said, well, I just want to get it anyway. I said, right, but see that envelope? You don't have enough money for that. And he goes, well, where's your purse?

I go, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. He goes, your purse is right there. What about in your wallet? What's in your wallet? I was like, nothing for you. Nothing for you. All right. We are going to Giovanni in New York.

New York. Hey, Giovanni. How's it going? Hey, guys. I'm doing good. Great to be on the show. What's up, AL? Just found your show recently, too, at the table.

Oh, man. Really good stuff. Thank you, bro. Awesome. What's going on? No problem. So my wife and I just got married in January. Congrats.

Before getting married. Thank you. I appreciate it. What's going on? No problem. So my wife and I just got married in January. Congrats. Before getting married. Thank you. I appreciate it. Before getting married, I had no debt and about $11,000, which served as my emergency fund. After marriage, my wife and I had like a serious conversation about our finances. And we realized that my wife had about $44,000 in debt. We started the program and we're down to $39,000. So we paid about five down together so far i know following your principles we should throw the 10 000

safe straight at the debt however i'm wondering if i should still do that even though i'm in the process of transitioning between jobs i'm currently joining the new york city fire department i'm going to be in the academy between may and september so i'm wondering if i should keep that 11 000 as a cushion for now until I graduate from the academy and I have some job security. Good question, man. Number one. Yeah. Congrats on marriage, bro. I love that. But let's talk here. What does your wife do for a living? So she works with children in group homes. She has a psychology degree. So she actually in the future wants to further education and open up uh her own clinic what's her income so together her and i both we bring home uh well she brings home 3200 a month and i'm bringing

home about three a month okay so 3200 a month and you bring home about three. So you're bringing about $6,200 a month, but then you're about to transition and go down to $3,200 a month, correct? Are you going to be making money while you're in the academy? Yes. I'll be making around the same while I'm in the academy.

I guess it's just a pressure of potentially like failing out, which I don't want to think about, obviously, but there's always that option. There's always what-ifs. Giovanni, there's always what-ifs. Could the sky fall? There's always what-ifs, but we don't make decisions based on fear. The fact that you've got that stable income, you're good to go. And in fact, I think that if you kept that cushion, you might even get a little bit more comfortable. Yep. Yeah. Ayo, take it away. I know it's a long time ago.

Chrissy, I mean, you're hitting right on the money, man. I'm taking that $10,000, bro, and I'm putting it on there. That's going to leave me at $29,000. If you all are making $6,200 a month, what's your mortgage payment right now or your rent payment? Yeah, our mortgage is $1,461, but we also pay HOA. I'm trying to do quick math in my head. It comes out about $1,461, but we also pay HOA. I'm trying to do quick math in my head. It comes out about $1,640.

Okay, so about $1,640. And is this $6,200? Is that gross or is that net? That's make home. That's net, I believe. Okay, so you guys are still bringing in 5K. Yeah, man, you could be debt-free in the next five to six months

if you are really attacking and worth that budget. I would definitely get on every dollar. I would definitely get on EveryDollar. I would go over to RamseyPlus.com right now, download the EveryDollar app, get on a very strict budget, Giovanni, and just figure out, okay, how do we work the debt snowball? Now, I agree with Christy.

I don't want you to get too comfortable at all, but if you want to take it maybe just a notch down a little bit while you're in transition i'm okay with that because you two are young you're already putting ten thousand dollars towards it leaves you with 29k you're still bringing in six to two hundred dollars right after that you're looking at about 50 what's that 4800 bucks that you have left i would really put about a good three grand towards this debt and get really aggressive with it while you're in school.

That leaves you with a cushion of about a grand to go ahead and play around and pay some utility bills, some food, stuff like that. But right now, I don't want you being too comfortable, bro. I want you to attack this while you're young, while you have the resources to do it, because you do not know what the future holds. And I would rather you get your new job, get your good career, your 100% debt free and get your three to six months of your savings back into your account. Then you start investing into your future. So those are my two cents, bro. But congrats on the marriage. And I'm excited about y'all's future. Yeah. And I would say stay on the line. Let's have Kelly give you a membership, you and your wife to Ramsey Plus, where you can get on a budget that like we're talking about. You can watch the lessons, go through Financial Peace University.

That's going to set your marriage off on the right track financially. I want to point out something, Anthony, that I see a lot of times in these types of calls. And I'm not saying you're doing this, Giovanni, except I'm saying you might be doing this, Giovanni. So she's saying you're doing it, Giovanni. Here's what I see. It's just a maybe. I'm just going to throw this out there. When you have two people get married and one of them has been very financially responsible

and they're very proud of the fact that they are debt free and have $11,000 in savings. Yes. And you have someone else come into the marriage and they've got some debt. The person that has been responsible before marriage sometimes has a hard time letting go of that money. That's good. Because it's a source of pride. Yep.

Look what I did. I've been responsible. And now in an instant, it's going to all of a sudden, all that hard work's going to go out the window. But here's the thing. When you put a ring on it, it's y'all's money.

It's y'all's debt. It's y'all's goals. It's y'all. I'm a Tennessee girl. I'm going to say it 500 times. Together, this is your money, your debt, your goals,

and your future. So while I think what he's saying is valid about the concerns about transition, I would say there may be a little bit of something else going on below the surface of like, oh, but I worked so hard to save this $11,000. You mean I just got her debt? And that's a thing. So can I play the devil's advocate here? Yeah, let's have it.

Key word here, America, play. Too late. They've already torn you up i want to play devil's advocate so let's say i am the man and i get married and she does have you know thirty thousand dollars in debt and i got forty thousand dollars i've been saving up you know to go towards my mortgage payment you're trying to tell me i'm supposed to give that up because i got married and she didn't have her you know her her business in place yesances in place. So all my hard work over the last five years, I give it up.

A thousand percent. Because my wife wasn't financially good when I met her. If you're not ready to be a team, don't get married. And let me tell you, I will be super transparent right here. I will be super transparent. This was Matt and I's story.

Who had the money? Matt. And you had the debt? I like Matt. No, no, no. Listen. Let me finish. I paid off my debt. Are you ready for this? I paid off my last debt. My last car payment. One week before he proposed. He had had the ring.

Had planned the date to propose already. He already had this plan. We didn't talk to finances until we got engaged. For real? So he didn't know. I mean, he knew I was paying off my debt. I was transparent about that. I became debt-free. We went hiking, and we had that hiking date planned,

and he proposed at the place that we had met where we had run trail running. And I want you to know, when we got married, which this is a lesson for you, America, what a good man I had. When we got married, and he had a great savings account been responsible debt free did not have any question about how we paid for that wedding matt right paid for that wedding and he said tears coming down my face and he said no he said it's our money oh he never never held it over my head

never said you should have done whatever be that kind of man it's our money all right matt be a good man like matt right i'm dancing for matt right now this is the ramsey show I'm Christy Wright. You can find me on Instagram at ChristyBWright. And hanging out with me today is Anthony O'Neill at Anthony O'Neill on Instagram. We are answering your questions about life, money, business, or whatever you want to talk about. 888-825-5225. We're going to go to Jennifer in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Hey, Jennifer, how's it going?

Hey, guys, how are you? Good. How can Anthony and I help? Well, I have a what would Dave do question. Okay. So, well, and here's the situation. I recently got my master's in social work, and for two years I finally got a job in my field using my degree. And I just was given an option today.

Currently, I do nine months where I work where I work in schools nine months a year, and then I have the three months off in the summer. And I was with $37,011 is what I would make. I just found out that if I were to work 12 months out of the year, I could make $48,000, $49,000 a year. So there's a $12,000 difference just by working an extra three months. Now, the commute time would still be the same. I'm still commuting about two hours a day total.

The caveat, and here's the key, is I'm a single mom and have been all my life. Well, all of my son's life. And so it's like I'm kind of torn. Do I work the nine months and have the summers off to spend with him and just really try to pay off the debt with the lower income, or do I take the higher income and sacrifice time with my son? How much debt do you have? $70,000.

How old's your son? He's 10. And what time do you get off work on the school day or summer day? What's your schedule like? It varies. If I'm working in the schools, I can be done when the schools are done and then

the hours can be at home. So I'd be done at 2.30 so I'd be done like 2 30 so i'd be home like 3 30 um but if i'm not working in the schools if i'm working at the office i'm getting done at four o'clock and not getting home until five o'clock 5 30 depending on traffic yeah i'm gonna this is another one we were talking about this earlier today which is why i'm asking a lot of questions because this is a super personal issue but i'm gonna tell you what i would do i would absolutely do it you're talking about a massive increase in income, short-term sacrifice, long-term reward. And I will being transparent here. My mom was a single mom

and she took me to her cake shop with her. I mean, I spent more time at the cake shop, you know, with, with her employees than I did my friends, a lot of my childhood. And I turned out fine. And, and I, and I'm not the only person, but I employees than I did my friends a lot of my childhood. And I turned out fine. And I know I'm not the only person, but I just want to encourage single moms out there, don't be sorry for the struggle. You're not harming your kids by the struggle, by being a team, saying we're going to sacrifice together. This is what we do. This is how life is.

We're in it together. We're a team. Your kids aren't going to make it despite the struggle. They're going to make it because of it. I am who I am because of what mom and I went through together. And so I just, I think that you have, you have so much potential to get out of debt so much faster with these three

months in the summer, a few years that you could make so much more progress. So I would say I lean heavily towards, yes, take that extra income, work those hours. And you're not talking about you're getting off at seven o'clock at night. You don't see them. You still have an opportunity to see them. So, but again, it's, I have to be very cautious when I'm telling women what you should

do with your children. That is super personal, Jennifer. And so I want you to hold all this loosely as this is another woman to woman saying, this is what I would do, but I'm not you. And it's not my child. And that's a very personal decision. But I think that that the sacrifice you're talking about a few months in the summer for the longterm payoff of getting out of debt so much faster and that much income in a short amount of time, in my opinion is absolutely worth it. That's me.

So I'm going to echo what Christie say, and I'm gonna break it down from a financial perspective. Okay. Um, I think number one, I'm going to have a conversation with my, my children say, Hey, this is what mother is doing. And this is why mother is doing it. Uh, so that way they know that you're not just doing something just because, and they're not feeling a certain kind of way. They understand why mom is doing it. Now on the flip side, when we break down the math, OK, if you're getting an

extra twelve thousand dollars a year, that's an extra one thousand dollars a month. And if you're seventy thousand dollars in debt, if you can put fifteen thousand dollars a year towards this debt, it will take you right about four years to get out of this, about four years and some change to get out of this. And I think that's a great sacrifice. if you tell your kids hey the next few years mother is doing this so i can set myself up to be a better mother a better provider for you all long term so when you go off to college we can make sure that you do not have to do what i did uh so mom is going to do this for the next four years so we could do this. But here's the thing, Jennifer, you have to be very strategic these next four years. That's $15,000 a year. If you can get on your budget and figure out how you can squeeze out another thousand dollars in

that year, you can cut that down to about three and a half years. So I'm with Christy. I'm going to echo that. I think that it doesn't. And I want to say this as well, too. It doesn't make you a bad mother because you're not there as much as you would like. As long as you are communicating with your children, as long as you're communicating with your family, the reason why. Prime example, my mom worked three jobs, Christy, when we were growing up, three jobs. She worked for the school district in the morning times. Then after that, she'll go work for Kmart when Kmart was around. And after that, she'll work for the Christian bookstore on the weekends. And she did that. And she told us why. You know why she did that between September all the way up until December, the week before Christmas. She said, hey, your mom's not going to be around a lot right now

because I want to make sure that you all have a good Christmas. And so mom's going to get off of work and go work another job. And every time my mom went to work, we got excited because we was like, wow, mom is doing that for us. So how you explain it and communicate to your kids what's going on and make them feel like it's going to benefit them in the long run, your kids should. I'm not going to benefit them in the long run your kids should i'm not gonna say all because some of us are crazy um uh they should be like mama i get you mama i love

you mama thank you so much uh but i think from the practical side if you work the math in your benefit if you put the extra one thousand dollars a month all towards your debt the latest you could be out of debt is in four years and two months. If you can squeeze out another $1,000, you could be out of debt within a matter of about three and a half years. Yeah. And the one thing I would add, Jennifer, is I would say that if you decide to go this route that Anthony and I are recommending, I would say don't feel like a victim to it.

Choose it. Say, oh, yeah, I'm doing this for us. I'm all in. And say, I get to do this i get to still get off at 2 30 or whatever time you said there are some people that uh you know they work three jobs for several years they don't see their kids at all because it's it's a it's that sacrifice for a major debt or medical school i remember meg meeker uh anthony told me she did you know there was literally years like a couple years when she didn't see her kids hardly at all because it was a long-term goal of being a doctor and that

type of thing. But I would just look for all the good in this of, oh my gosh, you still get to see your kids. You still get to see him or your son in the afternoons. You get to spend time with him. You get to still go to the park, be outside. It's not like you don't get to see him at all. Yeah, but let's be real too, though, Chrissy. How many people have to work every single month? They don't get to see them at all. Yeah, but let's be real too though, Chrissy.

How many people have to work every single month? They don't get two or three months off. Right, right, right. That's what I mean. It feels like a lot to you, but it's still such a blessing if you choose to look at it that way of, yes, this is more than I'm used to,

but I can do this. Here's the blessings that are still camped in this if I get off at this time and this is what normal people work and all that type of thing. And then it will change your attitude when you drive to work in the summer. Because I don't want you driving to work in the summer, Jennifer, with a scowl on your face and you're disgruntled of, I don't want to be doing this.

And you feel like a victim. You're not a victim. You're choosing this. I'm choosing, if you do, I'm choosing to work these extra months to get out of debt quicker for my son and I long term to be free. And then you can have all the summers you want to. The other thing that I would say is remember it's a season. Anthony just gave you a timeline, three and a half to four years.

This is a season. It's not forever. I had a similar conversation with my family, Anthony, in the spring of 2017 when I was about to launch my book Business Boutique. I was like, now mommy's about to be on the road. Matt and I talked about it. We talked with the family. We talked to everybody. What is this going to look like? What's going to look like? I'm not here a lot. And it's going to look like I'm going to need a lot of help. In the grand scheme of things, this is a small amount of time for this goal, this

calling that I have to get the book out there. This doesn't mean forever. When you realize it's a season, then it gives you the strength to get through it. That's good. It's not forever. It's just, we're going to buckle down for this period of time. Whatever that period of time is, we're going to buckle down for this period of time to get through it.

Yep. I want to thank producer James Child and associate producer Kelly Daniel and my co-host Anthony O'Neill and you America for listening in. This is The Ramsey Show. This is James Childs, producer of The Ramsey Show.

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