The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Change My Career at 62 Years Old? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: April 23, 2021

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is The Ramsey Show. It's where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague, Dr. John Deloney. We are Ramsey Personalities, and we host shows of our very same name. And we are here together to serve you this hour. 888-825-5225 is the phone number 888-825-5225 john tell them what calls you specialize in tell them now what is it

you gotta have your mic on relationships mental health all of it there is education what's going on in your hearts and your minds and your families and your workplace and your communities, all of it. All right. And then I specialize in, hey, what were you born to do? Is work just a J-O-B that's designed to give you what money you need to live? Or are you created to contribute in your work? Is there a purpose? I think you were created to fill a unique role in your work.

That means you are needed, and it means you must do it. Somebody needs you to show up. So how do you make the transition? How do you discover what that work is? Or if you know what it is, you don't know how to get there, how do you get there? Or what if you're on the path, John, and you're not getting promoted as fast as you like? So those are the type of things we talk about. And of course, we're going to talk about your money. So there you go. go open phones 888-825-5225 is the number dallas texas is where we go next chase joins us there chase how can we help hey so i just got a new job um i'm getting paid double what i'm going to be uh what i was getting paid. Hey, congratulations. That's awesome. So it comes with a relocation.

After some math, my emergency fund looks a bit excessive. I'm moving into a lower overall cost of living area, significantly lower. And my six months of expenses that I've got saved up now is looking more like 10 if I move to where I'm moving. So do I just save that as a rainy day fund, a nuclear fallout fund? Do I move that around? I won't be eligible to put into a 401k until 90 days into my employment. So I haven't quite reached that yet.

And my Roth IRA is already maxed out for the year. Are you going to buy a house or are you going to rent? Right now we're renting. Okay. Do you have any intention? Because my first thought is to roll that into a down payment fund for a house. Yeah. Right.

We aren't really looking for sure to settle down for a house. Yeah. Right. You know, we aren't really looking for sure to, um, to settle down into a house yet because I'm, my goal is actually to relocate, uh, with this company after putting in a few years. And, but,

but still you're going to maybe want a house at that point. Right. Right. You know, start putting that into separate savings or what do you, uh, well, I'm with John on this.

I mean, I think there's two ways to go. I think I'm with John that because you guys are a young couple and you're making some great progress, you're in wonderful financial shape, I'd put that in a nice money market account and sit on it until you guys get clearer with what you'd want to do. The other option is you certainly could invest that with our growth stock mutual fund strategy and things like that and let that money start working for you. But again, let's say that two years from now you keep moving up the ladder and you move and now you're ready to buy and that money, we'd never tell you to pull that out now that you've invested that money and it's doing good for you, but it's prolonging that down payment on a home. I like parking it in the fund where you can make a little bit. You're not

going to get a huge return on it right now, but it gives you options. I just wouldn't let it burn a hole in your pocket. Right. All right. Thank you. Okay, that's good. I think we're good there. I think he's only got a couple options there. I hate to see him not have that money available when he's ready to buy a house. Yeah. Ken, why is it so hard to stay on a plan?

You know what I mean? Yeah, that's a deep question. It's like you follow it, you follow it, you follow it. You know what I should be doing is something else. Well, I'll tell you what I think is going on with him. Okay. He's going, I should be making progress with this money. Okay.

I don't need it for my, it's too much for my emergency fund. Is it? Really? I mean, because here's what I hate about my emergency fund. Using it. Oh, man. Yeah. You know that's true. Absolutely.

As soon as you have to dip into it, I never feel, I am grateful for it. But I always go, oh, geez, I want to get that. I got to fill that back up. So is it really that bad to have a couple of extra months or four months in his case? No. But I think it's the mindset of progress. We humans, we're like, well, I got this extra money. If I just put it in savings, I'm just wasting it, setting it on fire.

Yeah. Instead of working towards something. I think that's it. Don't you? I mean, that's the only thing I can think of other than I just know I can get two months into a really great workout program, see some really great progress, and I start getting bored. Yeah.

And then I think, you know what, I probably should be doing something else. And then I look up two months later, I'm completely derailed doing something nonsensical. Yeah, I think this guy's on top of things and he's just falling into the progress trap. It's a good question.

That's a wonderful question. Yeah. Yeah. 888-825-5225. Norfolk, Virginia is where we go now. on top of things, and he's just falling into the progress trap. It's a good question, and it's a good place to be. That's a wonderful question, yeah. Yeah. 888-825-5225. Norfolk, Virginia is where we go now. Adriana is on the line. How can we help? Hi.

It's an honor to talk to you all. So my question is that I'm in college, and I've managed to save $1,000, and I'm wondering would it be better for me to put that money into an S&P 500 growth ETF in my Roth IRA or into my business? How much money did you say? $1,000. $1,000. What's your side business? So my side business is called the Tantral Crazy.

It's a body care business where I just make products like lotions and organic natural products like that. And it brings in about 50 to 60 a week, so like $3,000 a year. And I just want to keep growing my business. Okay. So, yeah, I wouldn't put $1,000 in the stock market. I would just open a business account, a checking and savings account, and leave it there. Yeah, give yourself that cushion in that side business. You don't want to lock it up in the stock market with just $1,000.

That's going to be what you reinvest in your company. That's going to be your emergency fund for your company. That's going to be your scaling money for your company. So you're well on your way. You're planting seeds for a future company there. But, yeah, I wouldn't overthink that money. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for the call.

Let's see. Thomas is up in Salt Lake City, Utah. Thomas, how can we help? Yeah, so I'm just trying to get back into financial stability. I was out of work for a while due to a medical issue and suffered depression and just totally ruined overdue bank accounts and took out loans. I'm just trying to see what it's like at the end of the tunnel. Yeah.

Well, there absolutely is. Always is. Give us a snapshot of what your financial situation is. Right now, I probably owe around, I took like two loans out worth probably like $2,800. I owe, I have a car payment, and my rent's really next to nothing because I live with a good friend. How much do you owe on your car? Just over $8,000. So you have $2,800 in loans. You have $8,000 in a car. What other debt?

Student loans. How much? Probably $18,000 in a car. What other debt? Student loans. How much? Probably 18. Okay. All right, Thomas, here's what we're going to do. That music means we're coming up on a network break, but good news for you. I got you on hold. When we come back, we're going to get the full picture of what your debt situation is. We've got the plan. The baby steps work for you. We'll walk you through that. We're going to help you out. Don't go anywhere. John's going to talk to you a little bit about some of that emotional stuff that you might be carrying as well.

Thank you, Thomas, for the call. Thank you for your patience. Folks, don't move. We're going to help Thomas and you on the other side of the break. This is The Ramsey Show. Our famous $10 sale is back. This time last year, a lot of folks got behind with their money. But this spring, there's hope. Our famous $10 sale can help you get control of your money and feel good about your future.

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The Ramsey Show continues from Nashville. Thrilled to have you with us. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague, Dr. John Deloney. As we went into our last break, Thomas had joined us. And Thomas has been through some stuff, John. We haven't heard the whole story yet. We're going to get to it. But as a result of some of the stuff he's been through, he's in a tough financial spot. So we're getting a sense of where he is, and so we bring Thomas back on here so we can

dive in. All right, Thomas. So I want to make sure I have the full debt picture, $2,800 in some loans, $8,000 on the car, and $18,000 in student loan debt. Is there any other debt that you have? Let's just put it up to like with the loans, probably like $34,000 just in case, give or take. $34,000, everything included? Yeah.

Okay. And then other debts, not that I could think of off the top of my head right now, no. I'm a little nervous about the fact that off the top of your head, you can't think of any other debt you might have. So we want to know that this is your financial picture. And then are you employed right now or are you in between jobs? What's going on there? Employed, full-time job. Plus I just took a little part-time every other week, like 12 hours being the doorman for a bar.

How much are you making in the full-time job? Just over $42. Okay, and how much are you bringing in on the part-time job? $11 an hour, so let's say 12 hours every two weeks. Okay. All right. John, you were going to jump in. Yeah, so I want to back up a little bit, man.

What was the medical issue? Why were you in the hospital? Well, blood clots in my leg, and then I was out of work for about, I don't know, two months, and yeah, got really depressed. Okay. And so you had some medical issues that pulled you out of work. Tell me about this depression. I'm not really one to be sitting around all the time.

And I was sitting in my house because I couldn't work and I'm blood clapped. And I was also, because of depression, decided that drinking would solve the depression, which made it worse. And what kind of rattled your cage a little bit to get you back out of the house and get a job? Did you get a clean bill of health? Yeah. My doctor finally allowed me to go back to work, and I was drinking a lot and overdrew my bank account and decided I just need to stop. Yeah.

Do you have an alcohol problem? I don't think so. I just think I was self-medicating when I knew I shouldn't have been. Is being a doorman at a bar the smartest position for you right now? I don't know, to be honest. I haven't thought about that. It's probably not. Okay.

What is it about you that thinks you're worth $22,000 a year? Well, really, I just was trying to get out of this financial situation, so I was ready to take anything to help bring in a little bit of extra money. What do you want to do, Thomas? What have you dreamed about? Man, I want to travel. My bucket list, main bucket list is to see every major league game and every ballpark.

All right. I appreciate that dream. What are you dreamed about doing? What kind of work do you think about? You go, if I'm doing this kind of work and I'm making this kind of contribution through my work, I'm a happy man. Well, it's my full-time job. I work for a great company, and I don't see myself ever losing this place. What are you doing?

I still don't know what you do. Oh, I'm a cable technician. Okay, and so you love working with your hands and solving problems with your head and hands. Yes. Okay, so you want to stay with that company. Do you see a ladder at that company where you keep moving up? Have you looked ahead? Definitely.

Okay, good. And they're going to pay you more than $22,000 a year. Yes. Okay, so I'm going to going to pay you more than $22,000 a year? Yes. Okay. So I'm going to jump on something that John said he's right. You need to quit the bar job today. You don't need to be hanging out in a bar when you've just come through some really tough battles with alcohol. What you need to do is get a side job fixing stuff because that's what you're good at.

You use your head and your hands to solve problems. And in this economy and the trades, you can make some really good side money. And I love that you've identified this company as a ladder for you, so that's great. But you need to get out of that unhealthy environment. It's just not a good place for you. Make some more money so that you can get out of debt, and you need to get gazelle intense. Are you single? You got a relationship?

What's going on there? Single. How old are you? 38 you got a relationship what's going on there single how old are you 38 38 okay so you're only making 22 000 you need to be you need to be working yourself well hold on hold on when you asked how much i made i was 20 i was talking to you about 22 an hour um yeah okay okay okay i went with john So what are you making? Oh, I apologize. Yes, yes. 22, just over 22 an hour. I apologize. Like 48 a year.

Okay, okay. That helps me sleep a little better. All right. So here's how we get financially, here's how you get financially stable. You're going to walk the baby steps out. Have you heard us talk about the baby steps? I have.

I need to get the book to realize what they are. We're going to give it to you. I'm going to send it to you for free. We're going to send you the book for free, Total Money Makeover. We're also going to give you

a free trial to Ramsey Plus, which will come with our budgeting, world-class budgeting app, EveryDollar, so that you're not going, ah, ah, like you have been

on most of the questions. You actually know where your money is and you learn how to budget. There's some other great tools in there as well. So we're going to give you Ramsey Plus, a free trial, and we're going to give you the book Total Money Makeover. But here's what you do.

Baby step one is you need to put $1,000 in a savings account, and that is your first emergency fund, $1,000. Baby step two is we begin to attack your debt, and we call it the debt snowball, and that is the smallest debt. You attack that first. If you've got a minimum payment of a couple hundred bucks on one of those loans or whatever, you're attacking everything you've got extra. Beans and rice.

You are working another job that's not in a bar, making as much money as possible, and you are attacking that smallest debt. Once you eliminate that smallest debt, you take the minimum payment that you were putting into that, plus everything else you were throwing at it, and you roll it into the next thing. Are you tracking with me, Thomas? Yes, yes. You can have this $34,000 paid off in 18 months. How much is your car worth?

$3,000. All right, so you don't have much there, so you got to knock that off. So here's the deal. You are working hard. You're working so hard, you don't have time

to take a drink. Yeah, you're getting off of work and you're going straight into delivering for Uber or whatever Uber eats and you're hitting the road until late at night

and you're getting up and you're doing it again until you get this debt paid off, okay? Okay. Yeah, listen, I'm just going to say this.

Thomas, please go get a trade job. You can fix stuff with your hands. You know enough guys in the business you're in. That's where you'll make the most hourly money. Go do something you're really good at and keep getting a skill while you're doing it. Do you understand what I'm saying? Don't work in a bar.

Yes. Get good while you're getting out of debt. And here's the beautiful thing about healing from depression. It's little wins and little wins and little wins, little steps and little steps. Okay? And you said it best. We're not made to sit at home, and it's frustrating, and it was exhausting for you. And the thing that sucks about alcohol is it helps.

It works for a season, and then it kills you, right? It takes everything from you, And you experience that firsthand. So I want you to look at going back to work hard, getting that second job. Ken was talking about getting a third job on the weekends after that. I want you to look at those little steps, little steps. And you're going to look up in 18 months, I want this $34,000 gone. I want it gone. So hang on the line here.

We're going to give you a copy of Total Money Makeover. We're going to get you signed up for Ramsey Plus. And we want you to follow this through. And we want you to call us back in a year when this debt's almost gone or 18 months when it's totally gone. And we're going to cheer with you. Little steps. Little steps. You can do this, brother.

We've got faith in you. Thomas, listen to me. Thank you. Listen to me. What has happened to you and what you did is not who you are. It does not define you use this as a refiner's fire and you've been in the fire and then like the blacksmith puts that wrought iron into the fire and lets it get crazy hot then he pulls it out what's he doing then

beats on it and he shapes it let this thomas shape you and your best days are ahead, young man. Don't you get down. I understand why you did, but believe that you've got a unique contribution to make, and I think you've seen the latter, and that's exciting. Get focused. Get your eyes on the prize, and do not quit. There is light at the end of every tunnel. That's true.

Good stuff. All right. I'm looking to my left out in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, and I see a very excited young couple. And they're going to do a debt-free scream. It's our favorite part of the show, and it's coming up next. Don't move. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show, America. Thrilled to have you with us. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague, Dr. John Deloney. It is a free call to jump in on the conversation.

888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. And in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions. Oh, it's a fantastic young couple standing on the stage. Christian and Lauren are with us. Christian and Lauren, hello. Hey, how's it going? Hi, guys. How are you guys feeling right now Lauren, hello. Hey, how's it going? Hi, guys.

How are you guys feeling right now? Pretty good. Good. Where are you from? I'm originally from Oklahoma, but we live in Austin, Texas right now. Austin, Texas. All right. Okay.

So how much debt have you paid off? We paid off $62,000 in 18 months. Whoa. Wow. All right. And what was the range of income? We started at $114,000 and ended up with about $150,000 by the end. Whoa. Wow. All right. And what was the range of income? We started at $114,000 and ended up with about $150,000 by the end. Whoa. Tell me about that rise in income. Well, it's working a

lot of nights, staying up late, arguing with each other late at night while we're working, but a lot of side work. What do you guys do for a living? I work in product marketing at a tech company. And then I also do social media marketing at a tech company as well. Okay, same company or different companies? Different. Different, yeah. What was the late night arguing about? I think social media probably.

Probably social media. Yeah, not going to bed together. That's always annoying. Yeah, we took on some side projects. So I think it was just hard sometimes working the late nights, having different nights we work late. And we started paying off debt right as we got married about two years ago. So it was jumping straight into it. So y'all were figuring out how to be married anyway, much less working like crazy. Absolutely. Yes. Wow. So what was the debt?

It was about a 50-50 split, about $29,000 in a truck that I decided that we needed as soon as we graduated and got married. Of course. And then about low 30s in student loans. Okay. All right. Oh, boy. And so what was the impetus to do this? Here you are, this young couple, and what was it, and when did it happen? Well, it took a little while.

I think it took us about six months to get on the same page. I grew up super, I took a lot of debt out. I took a student or a loan on a car when I was 16, super used to debt. She had never had debt before. We knew we wanted to change our family tree. So we got on the same page and just went after it. How'd you come in contact with Ramsey Solutions in this financial piece and baby steps? How'd that come to you? The podcast. Listening to the podcast, we had a bunch of eight-hour road trips up to Oklahoma, and I subjected Lauren to a lot of pain on those drives. How painful was it? Well, I think for me, it was a little bit harder to get on board just because I've never I think coming to the idea of us having to pay off this massive amount of debt so early in

our marriage I was a little bit angry about that and so I remember he would play these podcasts and I'd be like turn them off and then I remember one trip I finally was like okay we're gonna do this and then six months into our marriage we started really committing to the plan and like actually moving forward with it together. Who told who the truck's got to be sold? We didn't sell it. Oh you kept it.

We did tell each other many times that we should sell it but we did decide to keep it. Wow. So what do you tell young couples or anybody quite frankly who's early on in this journey they've decided they're going to keep it yeah i kept it wow so what do you tell young couples or anybody quite frankly who's early on in this journey they've decided they're gonna do it but they're mad like you were i don't want to do this don't make me do it what do you say to them i would say commit to it it's so so worth it early on in your marriage and it really does help you become a team together,

which is so important in marriage. And even though a lot of people would be angry about it being so early in marriage, it really, right off the bat, just starts you on a good foot. So when you, you keep mentioning early in marriage. Yeah. Are you talking about this idea

that when you're newlywed, everything should just be roses and beachfronts and like swimming in Lake Travis, just running around being like, ah, instead of working all day and then working all night and then Saturday and Sunday. Yeah, I think there's this whole idea that your first few years of marriage need to be this beautiful bliss and so easy. And I think that was the hardest part for us was a bunch of our friends

who got newly married were buying houses, and they were really like starting this beautiful life while we were in a 700 still are in a 700 square foot apartment together both working from home and so i think the comparison was really hard in the beginning for us and now you understand that that lifestyle that your friends are getting married is a mirage yes it's a charade right yes and you going to walk out of this 700 square foot apartment with this strapping young man next to you with a Filson hat

and y'all are going to go walk straight into a debt-free next rest of your life. So this stuff that when you finally achieve those things, it's going to be real. It's going to be built on a strong relational foundation, financial foundation, and it's got long-term life-changing stuff, right? Yeah. Now we know you guys, by this rise in income, and, life-changing stuff, right? Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.

Now, we know you guys, by this rise in income, and you've already told us, you guys worked like crazy, which is great. What are some of the sacrifices or what's one of the wackiest thing to your friends or family maybe that you guys did to either cut expenses or pay something off faster? Well, I would say one for us. Lauren loves to travel. Absolutely no vacations. We went to Puerto Rico for our honeymoon, and this is our first vacation in about two years. Yeah. This is very similar to Puerto Rico here. Well played. Yeah. Well played. Yeah. That's awesome. So was there a point in this

journey in the 18 months where it clicked, where we went from struggle and just striving to, ooh, this is, ooh, we feel some momentum here. I'm just curious. Yeah, I think for me it was about three months in, Lauren and I finally got on the same page, and we went from paying that $500 a month car payment to getting after it, putting thousands and thousands a month towards debt. And we just got pretty pissed off, to be honest.

And that's when it clicked and we decided if we're going to do it, let's do it and let's do it quick. What did it feel like to get that truck title in the mail? Amazing. Yeah, it's all mine. There's millions of people who have never felt that. And there's something about getting that truck title that's just like, ah, it's mine. Right. Right. And it's also awesome when she's not mad at you anymore for making such a terrible thing. Isn't that true? Yeah. You touched on not mad at you anymore for making such a terrible joke. Isn't that true? Yeah.

You touched on this earlier. I just want to ask this really quick. I want you to speak to couples. You can both jump in on this if you want. Yes, you're a young married couple, but you're just a married couple. Forget the amount of time. When you jumped on together on this journey and you really locked arms and got going together, now you're on the other side of this, about ready to do your scream. What has it done for your marriage and your relationship?

I think personally on mine, it's just taken so much pressure off of each other. And we both have a lot of dreams that we want to pursue in the future. And so I think it just allows us that extra freedom to be able to go do that. I think for me, the biggest part of the journey in our marriage was just the unity that it brought between us just to have to work together towards a common goal. It was just awesome. Struggle ends up in connection, man. That's so great.

I'm excited for y'all. Congratulations for setting a model for couples who've been married for 50 years or couples who've been married for two months, couples who are thinking about it. Good for you guys. You're on the stage now. The finish line is right before you guys ready to do this. Let's do it. All right, here we go, folks.

It is Christian and Lauren from Austin, Texas. They paid off $62,000 in 18 months going from $114,000 to $152,000. Count it down. Let's hear your debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! There it is. They did it.

Look at that. Look at that gaze. Isn't that fun? The married couple, the young married couple. They haven't been on a vacation since the honeymoon. Worse. They went to Oklahoma a few times. That's the opposite of a vacation.

Oh, man. The Texas boy taking a shot across the Red River there. Kelly Daniel, a Texan, is very excited. She's got like touchdown hands in the control room over there. Hey, they put the time in.

And here's what they didn't know they were doing. They knew they were getting out of debt, but they didn't know they were investing in this struggle. And struggle, when you struggle together, it works with our military, it works with sports teams, it works with businesses, it works in relationships. When you struggle together for a common purpose, man, it builds connection, it builds the strength, it makes that connective tissue so strong, so tight. Good for them. I'm so excited for them. Yeah, it builds connection. It builds the strength. It makes that connective tissue so strong, so tight. Good for them.

I'm so excited for them. Yeah, it's really true. Coming out on the other side of the storm, it just makes that sun warmer, brighter. I wish you could see how big they're smiling. Oh, literally. They're lighting up the studio in here for you podcast listeners. It's awesome. Why, by the way, you need to check it out on YouTube.

My goodness gracious sakes alive to watch that. It's invigorating. So we've got to go say hi and congratulate him and high five him. But don't move. More of the Ramsey Show coming right back. the ramsey show continues from our nashville ramsey solution studio so excited to have you with us i'm ken coleman joined by my colleague dr john deloney and we are taking your questions about life, relationships, work, money, just general progress. We want to equip you and encourage you. 888-825-5225.

Are you tired of feeling stuck with your money like you're never going to get out of debt or save enough for the future? It doesn't have to be that way. You can make progress with your money and faster than you think. But you've got to have a budget. That's why you need a Ramsey Plus membership. You're going to get access in Ramsey Plus to the premium version of our EveryDollar budgeting app where you'll plan out every dollar you spend and save before the month begins. You'll connect your budget to your bank so you never miss a transaction and you're going to get custom budget reports that show you where you can find more money to put towards your goals. When you budget and get intentional with your money, you will make progress, and quickly. You can start budgeting for free today. Start your free trial of Ramsey Plus

by texting the word trial to 33789. That's trial to 33789. Hey, Kim, before we move on, you've got a massive, cool, big event coming up. Can you tell us about it? Oh, yeah. Thank you very much. It's coming up Tuesday, April the 27th.

It's entitled Get Hired and basically what we're doing is a deep dive into how you beat the competition. You think about how competitive the job market is now and quite frankly, even when you have a lower unemployment rate, when you're interviewing for a job or you're trying to find the right job, it's a process. And so we're going to detail the process out, what you need to be doing,

and then how to do it. It's called Get Hired, Tuesday, April the 27th, live stream event. It's only $20. All you've got to do is text the word HIRED to 33789. Text the word HIRED to 33789. And like I said, $20, John, could be a great gift for a college kid who's trying to figure out how to navigate this world or just somebody who's down, feeling like, hey, I've applied, I've applied,

I've applied, I've done interviews, I can't get hired. Yes, you can. We're going to show you how. So thanks for bringing that up. But, yeah, it's going to be a fun live stream event tuesday april 27th 8 eastern 7 central uh get hired and i want to make sure everybody knows over the last year all these different companies have thrown up all these different kinds of live streaming events which are basically glorified zoom meetings this is. Our team is so world-class here. They wish you and I have nothing to do with, as you know.

Zero, right? You've got a group of absolute world-class professionals back there. And it will be a production. It will be a show. It will be worth sitting down and watching it and get some great clarity. Watch some live things. I'm excited for it, man. It's going to be great.

Thank you, brother. We want to help you get ahead. So check it out. All right. To the phones we go. Atlanta, Georgia is where we're going to be great. Thank you, brother. We want to help you get ahead, so check it out. All right, to the phones we go. Atlanta, Georgia is where we're going to pick up Bill. Bill, how can we help? Yes, sir.

I appreciate y'all taking my call. Y'all doing all right, gentlemen? Oh, we are really having a blast. What's going on? Good. Forgive me. I'm going to be a little bit nervous about this. Oh, you're doing great.

I am 62 years old. I am a truck driver. I am on baby step number four. I'm thinking about going back to online school for IT, an IT profession. It's just getting, I do enjoy my job, but it's just getting physically harder on me every day. And so I never planned on actually retiring, just maybe cutting back on my hours. So I thought maybe getting into the IT field would be something that would come up maybe years from now that I could get into where I could quit driving a truck and start doing that. The community college in my area offers some certificate programs in IT

of different subjects, and I was wondering if y'all thought that would be the best way to go. Well, I think it's a really good way to go. I think you get to determine if it's the best way to go in the sense of, is technology what you really want to do in these later seasons? It certainly gives you that flexibility, and it's something that you can begin doing pretty quickly. Once you get that certification,

and you can begin to get opportunities to do it, even while you're in the truck, some freelance-type work, I think it gives you a lot of versatility. But what makes this, is this the best move? If this is what you really want to do, I will tell you that you don't have to have a ton of technical experience to get technically qualified to be able to do work like technology. I mean, I work with a great organization that's training people in nine months. So that's the issue. If this is something you really want to do, yeah, I think you should do it. And I think you should do it as cheaply as possible. You don't need a four-year degree.

That's not something you're entertaining anyway. So it's where who can train me to do what I want to do? So the question is, do you know what type of technology work you want to do? No, sir, not yet. The different subjects one of the first one i'm looking to is just the it fundamentals uh to get into the uh beginning stages of it and then probably progress from there i don't think i'd ever be good at being a programmer or something like that but actually a uh a help desk specialist or somebody that works on computers or something like that would be

something that I would think I would really enjoy. Okay, great. So Bill, here's where we start. So you're 63. You've got a lot of relationships. You know even more people than you think you know. And so what you've got to do is you've got this idea. I think I'd like to do some just basic, you know, computer maintenance, fixes, IT help, you need to start to connect with over the phone, over lunch or coffee with somebody who's in that actual job. And the reason you do this, this is the equivalent of the old days when you were in school, and you would do some type of a term paper or some type of a report where you would research something. And a term paper or some type of a report where you would research something. And so what we want to do is we want to clarify and verify. You've got an idea. We want to clarify everything that's involved in that on a day-to-day basis.

What are you doing? What do these folks like about it the most? What do they like the least? And then you want to look into, all right, what's it going to take to get qualified to get into that? And so that's the clarify and verify. When you look into all those answers, your heart's going to either go ding, ding, ding, or the big red family feud X. And so, Bill, that's all you've got to do. So that's what I want you to do. I want you to really start hanging out with or try to talk to people that are doing that type of IT work, and it's going to verify it for you.

Okay, that sounds good. I appreciate that. Hey, Bill, I want to tell you one more thing. You have just, this has been a long day here. We've been working since early this morning. I want you to know that you have absolutely put some wind in my sails, and you have called everyone in America's bluff who says, this is just what I do. I've been doing this too long to fill in the blank.

I know my back hurts, my knees hurt, but I can't do any filling the blank. This is what I'm talking about, Bill, of somebody who's looking to the future and saying, I'm never too young to go learn something new. I'm never too young to go call my local community college class. I got the courage to do something different, to do something hard, to change my mind, to do both. And, Bill, I want to tell you you're a hero without a cape on, and I'm grateful that you called here.

You're going to help people get over that hump that I can't, I'm too old, it's too late. That's right. All that is bull crap. You can. You just got to decide i'm gonna go suck it up and i'm gonna go get a certificate i'm gonna go like ken said i'm gonna go sit down and talk to somebody and bill i'd hug you if you were here i'm so grateful that you called man yeah you're not too old it's not too late the reason that people aren't sure if they can john is because

they don't know how right when we figure out the how and i mean that when i say we've all done a term paper in high school or college but it's different even the how and i mean that when i say we've all done a term paper in high school or college but it's different even the how though because it's it's bill's got a it could easily be i don't i'm gonna feel uncomfortable sitting in a class in a in a college class a bunch of 19 year olds that's yep you are yeah yeah you're right you have once you are confronted with the how you still have to do it you gotta go do it there's no question about it but i'm telling you one of the biggest obstacles for folks is they have this idea that, I'm too old, I can't do it, it's going to be too expensive, it's going to take too long,

and they're filling in the answers themselves. They don't have the real answers. And that's why... They're imagining a worst-case scenario or an embarrassment or a failure, and then they reverse-engineer it right now and they just stay put. That's why I love the clarify and verify. Just go sit with somebody who's doing that work, and answer the questions that you don't have answers to.

And all of a sudden, it's not so difficult. I mean, that's why I wrote the book, The Proximity Principle. It's how I got into broadcasting, starting at 33 with no degree and no connections. I got around the people that were doing it, and I got in places where the work was happening. I kept showing up and doing it, and then opportunities presented themselves. Let's not overthink this is the point, folks, and have the courage and go to it. Yeah, just step out.

It is going to be uncomfortable, I promise you. All right. Hey, John, thanks as always for hanging out. Love being with you. I want to thank our producer, James Child. I want to thank our associate producer at Call Screen, Kelly Daniel, but most of all, you, America, thank you for listening. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer for The Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but if you heard about an event, product, or service and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry. We list everything you've heard about during this episode in the podcast show notes section or head to theramzshow.com.

Thanks for listening.