The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Keep Investing While Paying Off Debt? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: June 19, 2023

Dave Ramsey & Jade Warshaw answer your questions and discuss:   Why you shouldn't continue to invest while paying off debt, "How do we split this inheritance?" "Should I change careers to earn more money?" Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Join a Personality-led FPU class. Click here! Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3cEP4n6 Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Interested in advertising on The Ramsey Show? https://ter.li/s64ye3 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods, moving, and storage studios, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Jade Walsh, our Ramsey personality, is my co-host today as we answer your questions about your life and your money. Joanna's with us in New York.

Hi, Joanna. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Hey, Jade. I'm a little starstruck right now. Well, we're honored to have you. How can we help? Well, thank you.

Okay, so the facts, simply,ave are uh i'm a 55 year old single mom and i have an incredible job and i make a an amazing salary um and i am in debt to my salary uh not proudly and uh it took a lot of humble pie to call it today um but anyway it's really been hard and i'm just trying to find out in my journey of the step snowball would i stop the 401k i'm matching at six percent to get my company match and put my two 401k loans that i took to the top of the snowball and i'm very embarrassed i'm sorry that's okay you're fine hey believe me the dumbest person on this call is me i've done dumber than you've done so we're okay you're gonna make it you're in third place you're gonna make it joanna you're in third place it's dave

me and then you okay so what's your what's your salary uh i make uh with overtime, well, overtime depends on about 140, and I am an executive assistant. Good for you. Well done. Yeah. Well done. How much debt have you got? So between, and I'm also a breast cancer survivor. Way to go.

Yeah, man, got to keep on keeping on, and I am doing it. So I'm about $156 in consumer debt, including the medical and the 401ks, and I owe $247 on the house. Okay. Break the $156 down for me a little bit. How much on the 401k? 401ks are $25 altogether, $25 for all together, and I have about $240,000 in my 401k. And I do, from a former job, have about $40,000 in like a 403b thing.

Do you have any money not in retirement? That would be negative, Dave. That's all right. So what is the other $125,000? Well, it is a fair amount of survival as a single mom it is a lot of stupid and um really that not what cost it what kind of debt is it credit card debt and how much credit card uh probably uh a hundred and no no no i'm sorry. I owe about 80 on credit cards and the rest would be the cars. The cars.

Yep. Plural. How many cars do you have? We have one paid for car and we have two I'm paying on currently. Why so many cars? Are you buying your kids' cars? Well, yes, that's exactly right so they my daughter just graduated college and she is a teacher and we have the student loan oh and part of that is my um a piece of the student loan that i am helping her pay plus uh that i agreed to do

right um i'm so how expensive is your daughter's car that's in your name? We owe $15,000 on that one. And what do you owe on your car? I just, well, because we had a car crap out, so we had to move down cars. So mine is about $24,000. Okay, and what about the other car? The other car is paid for. That one's paid for.

Who drives that? My son drives that, and he's in school right now and working at school right now, so he's in Pennsylvania away from us. And so he's in college? Yes. And what is that car worth? Honestly, probably about $7,500, I would imagine. It's a Subaru.

Okay. All right. Are you ready to fix this? Are you kidding? Okay. Are you ready to fix this enough that I can tell you the truth? Yeah, I'm ready. Okay. Single mom, super mom, you don't get to take care of everybody else anymore.

You're a freaking broke person. Yep. These are grown children, and they need to be grown adults now. And they need to take care of themselves. You cannot continue to support everybody. You are broke. Okay. You're broke, and you have to start acting like you're broke

and quit buying people $24,000 cars that are college graduates that are teachers they buy their own freaking car and they're about to give you back this one so you can sell it yep she needs to go get her a car or if she wants to go down to bank and get a loan and pay you off and buy this car for what you owe on it that'll be great too but otherwise this car needs to go bye-bye okay seriously you're not going to do that but this is what you should do okay because you have a listen you've been compensating and taking care of these babies because you are a super mom after the divorce for a long time and i just told you to stop and it's going to be very hard for you to stop right i mean if you get your your if you get

your think about this for a second you get your daughter's car back it's 15k your car's 24k you get back the car that other son is driving you drive that cash car and he gets something he gets a beater that he saves up pays cash for think about that's almost forty thousand dollars uh joanna when you get to college when you to college, did your dad give you a car? No. I lived in the Bronx, so I went to Hunter College. Yeah. So it was very inexpensive.

When I went to college, if I wanted to go, it had to be in something I owned. Yeah. People didn't send me stuff to college. It wasn't. That's't send me stuff to college. It wasn't. Yeah. That's what most people grew up with. So you're not abusing her. You're not being unkind.

And then we're going to start taking care of Joanna because Joanna is actually a hero. You've done an amazing job raising these kids. You've survived breast cancer. You've moved yourself into a six-figure income in New York. You grew up in the Bronx. You're going to have an amazing life. You've got a hero story. I'm crying.

You have a hero story. And so it's time to live your hero story. It's time for you to go take care of you. And that's not selfish. You're overdue about $100,000 worth of overdue. And so I really, really, really want you to tear into this. So what we're going to do is we're going to do a little car shuffling. We're going to chop up all the credit cards.

And Jade and I are going to put you into Financial Peace University. And we're going to also put you with a coach that's in the area that's a Ramsey coach. And we're going to pay for every bit of it. Because if you've got a coach in your corner and you'll go through Financial Peace University and you'll do the stuff we'll teach you to do. You can clean this up in a couple years. And, yes, you do need to temporarily stop your 401K. But that's a minor thing out of this whole thing. The big deal is you've got to make all of the dollars that you have take care of Joanna the hero.

Put them to work. And you deserve that. Yeah. You deserve it. You've been working so hard. Exactly. Exactly that. to work you and you deserve that yeah you deserve it you've been working so hard selfish exactly exactly that i think that people forget what they deserve out of this and like what you owe this to yourself you owe it to yourself to be able to your kids for them to not have to take care of you yeah yes get your crap together and let them get theirs that'd be a good thing it'd be great for those

young people and you have done a great job. You got them both up and both into college and through college. That's pretty strong. Yes. Well done. They would rather not have to take care of you in your latter years than have cars now. There you go. Mic drop.

This is The Ramsey Show. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm your host, Jade Warshaw, joined, of course, by Dave Ramsey. And we're taking your calls all hour. Give us a call, 888-825-5225. And we will take your call. We've got Mark on line three. What's going on, Mark, from Minneapolis, Minnesota?

Hi, Jade and Dave. Thanks for taking my call. No problem just speak to you how can we help um well a couple months ago my mother passed away oh i'm so sorry left yeah thanks i appreciate that um but she left a inheritance for my sister and i a house an, an investment account, and some cash. Wow. Yeah, it's very nice. And back 20 years ago when my father passed away, she had put my sister and my names on each one of those accounts with her. But she did not have a will will and she still explicitly defined who got what. So my question is she, you know, and I know it's only been a couple of months, so I don't want

to be insensitive about this, but she's kind of deciding if she wants to keep the house or not. I don't really have any reason to. I live in another state. I, you know, sentimental value. It's a house that my mom and dad built. But she's thinking that she might want to keep that. I don't know how long it's going to take her to decide this. And it might be a while because she's got some things going on in her life. Now, it's just the two of you or is there other siblings? No, it's just the two of us. Okay. So the house is worth what?

The house is worth $300,000. Okay, what is the rest of the assets worth? Yeah, the investments are worth $300,000 and the cash is about $100,000. Okay, so your assumption is we're going to split this in half and if she takes the house, she'll take the investments and you'll split the cash is about $100,000. Okay. So your assumption is we're going to split this in half, and if she takes the house, you'll take the investments,

and you'll split the cash? That would be the ultimate solution in my head, yeah. I mean, that's a fair trade. I mean, it should be split down the middle. If you don't, even though she doesn't have a will, if you don't agree to split it down the middle, the courts will tell you to. They're going to split it evenly among the heirs and

they're going to force the sale of the house to do that just realistically how long should i give her to decide one way or the other um i i mean it sounds like you have a tenuous relationship with her or you're afraid she's in a very tender place and you don't want to she's struggling with something you said she's got a very tender place and you don't want to she's struggling with something you said she's got stuff going on i don't know what that means yeah well she yeah she's thinking she's been telling me over the last couple years that she's thinking about you know maybe getting a divorce and then she would move into that house and take that over because it would be a perfect house for her if that's what she decided to do so the house is empty the house is empty right now too right yeah okay um well we're not going to wait on a divorce

to be final right that's a good point her decision's got to be her decision yeah and not contingent she needs to is you said texas um minnesota is that where she is that's where she is and that's where the house is as well correct okay i don't know minnesota law and i'm not a lawyer anyway have her check minnesota law but in most states if you inherit a house from your mom and get divorced they do not split that house with your spouse and by the way she's already inherited it so she can't get away from it so but i would imagine she is that is protected in the event of a divorce i but again you need to check me i'm not a legal scholar okay so uh but but she for her sake so what i would do is just hey, listen, I don't want to get all up in your business or anything.

We probably ought to just settle this estate right quick. If you want the house, an easy way to do this is I'll just, you know, we'll go to court. We'll go to the probate court, get them to deed the house to you. And I'll take the investments and we'll split the $100,000, $50,000 each. And we'll get this thing settled up. We need to wrap it up, though uh it doesn't need to drag out it's not good for the house to sit there empty without us knowing what's going on you need a plan and so i think it's good for you did you say she's been saying for several years she's going to get a divorce did you say

that yeah yeah she's a kick the can down the road girl she'll kick this can down the road for a decade if you let her so that's what i'm afraid it's good for her and good for you to gently be the proactive one that helps her make decisions because she doesn't like to make decisions yeah so i'm just going to have to kind of make that decision regardless of... Yeah. I mean, I'm going to leave that out and just say, we need to split this up. Exactly. You're going to have to decide one way or the other.

Yeah, let's go ahead and get this done. I think we can wrap it up in about 90 days if you want the house. Do you want the house or have you decided? If not, let me know by the end of the week. Okay, all right. Yeah, because I'm, you know ahead go ahead and contact an attorney over there and find out what probate looks like because you have to go before the probate judge to get all this verified even though there's not a will and you'll you'll fill out affidavits and you'll

probably pay a thousand bucks out of the hundred uh in attorney's fees to run it through probate and get the judge to approve all the transactions and the split uh but it shouldn't be it's kind of a no-brainer it's fairly easy it's open shut as long as she's in agreement if she's not in agreement we got to sell the house right and then we split everything down the middle the proceeds of the house the investment account the hundred thousand okay that's yeah and that's fair that's on that's kind of where i was leaning i just didn't know if i needed to press her i wouldn't press her in a mean way i would just say hey i talked to an attorney looks like we can get this done in about 30 days we just got to decide what we're going to do i know you might

want the house you've talked about that if you want it i'm happy to let you have it if that's good for you i'll take the investments of 300 the house is worth about 300 and we'll split the 100 and the attorney says we can wrap that up in about 90 days or whatever the attorney tells you and it's just very you're just very helpful and you're proactive and you're upbeat and it's not like yeah they got this you're not it doesn't sound like you're pressing her she's the one who said that she you're helping wanted the house yeah you're helping her and you're helping get it done and helping all the decisions be made and if you don't want the house it's okay just tell me we'll put it on the market and we'll sell it and it's okay you know because i don't

want it and you know and we'll just split the money and if you'd rather have the money in the house it's okay but we got to kind of decide because we need to get this going and so i got the attorney moving and just let me know what you want to do and it's just real helpful and and just put a little energy behind the decision and because um she um i'll give you a guess and i'm just playing Dr. John Deloney, my best version here, that she has a lot of fear and she operates in fear, so decisions are hard for her. I think that's exactly right. Yeah. Yeah.

I think you hit the nail right on the head. She's been living in a toxic environment for a long time. I'm sad for her. That's awful. And you want to be gentle and kind, but it's not being gentle and kind to play that game with her. That's true. Yeah, that makes good sense too.

Yeah, speed, efficiency with a smile is very gentle. Look, that house could be a new beginning for her. Could be. If she moves on. Could be that she finally makes a decision to make her marriage work.

That's right. Hope that works too. That too. I hope he does or something like that. Maybe he knows she's got options now. That's true. Hope that works. That too. I hope he does or something like that. Maybe he knows she's got options now. That's true. So he's saving. That is true.

I don't know what it is. Hope for the best. Yeah. It's just these things where you don't deal with things never means that you don't deal with them. It just means you deal with them later. Yeah. That's true.

So deal with them. Yeah. Deal with it now now put a bow on it every time you got a decision like this and you can do it kindly and you can do it with compassion you just lost your parents i mean oh my gosh it's a painful yeah horrible time to go through and it's it's very nostalgic to walk through the house you know and it's a brings back good and bad memories i'm sure would for most people and so that's all cool but i just gently and kindly move her right along and um i don't think she's going to dig her heels in i don't think so i mean the way he said it it sounded like hey i you know if we're if we're dividing this up i'd like to have the house and he's like okay great like it luckily for them this doesn't if you don't it's okay let's get we're dividing this up, I'd like to have the house. And he's like, okay, great. Luckily for them, this doesn't.

And if you don't, it's okay. Yeah. We're going to get it on the market. And the attorney says we can get it sold and we'll just split up the proceeds and judge will approve it. And it's all good. They're lucky that there's no animosity in these situations. But hey, I don't want a house sitting empty in Minneapolis in the winter.

That's called frozen pipes. That's called issues. I got hardwoods gone bad. I got leaks. I got all kinds of things. I got hardwoods gone bad. I got leaks. I got all kinds of things. I'm thinking, oh, man. Yeah, that can become a headache. I don't know anything about anything, but it could be the heat bills are high there in the winter.

I don't know. I'm from Tennessee. What do I know? This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you for joining us, America. This is The ramsey show jay washall ramsey personality is my co-host in the lobby of ramsey solutions on the debt free stage brent and natasha are with us hey guys how are you hello good welcome welcome where do you live seymour indiana

okay and what is that near indianapolis. Oh good okay fine well welcome to Nashville and how much debt have you guys paid? $276,350. Excellent how long did this take? A little under five years. Good for you and your range of income during that time? $147,000 to $178,000. Cool what do y'all do for a living? I am a deviation investigator for a pharmaceutical company. I am a first grade teacher. Awesome. Very cool. Good to have you guys.

Welcome. Thank you. Five years, $276,000 worth of debt. What kind of debt was this? A little bit of everything. Credit cards, 401k loan, car, house. You paid off your house. We did.

All right. Weird people. Yes. So what's this house worth? It's, I think now that last I checked, it was a little over $300,000. Good for you. Cool.

And how much do you guys have in your investments? The last I checked it, mine was almost 600 000 i think yours was almost 200 000 so your baby steps millionaire yes way to go let's how old are you guys i'm 47 i'm 46 ah so you did it quick good for y'all well done very well done i love it so good so tell us the story what happened five years ago that put you on this track to be millionaires? Well, 2018, when we first got married, I started doing all the financial stuff. And when we got to a point where Natasha wanted to see everything, and I hadn't taken care of it as well as I could.

So we piled up some debt. everything and I I hadn't taken care of it as well as I could so I you know we were piled up some debt so once we got there and she met with her financial advisor and she suggested we take FPU and we went through that and the rest is history. Well thanks to the financial advisor. Yes. Very good okay so Natasha what was scratching in the what was itching in the back of your head you're wanting to scratch? I want to see what's going on here. I know. I just think being left in the dark and when he told me how much we were in debt, it just terrified me immensely and guilt not being involved throughout our marriage. How long have you been married? 22 years 22 years okay yes and so you've gone you'd gone 17 years yes i think uh i'm a big warrior and so he

wanted to i think take it upon himself um in our household yeah so um which i do not advise how much of it was the non-mortgage debt about 870 80 000 yes yes so yeah very good so the cool thing is now that you're doing it together there's no worry nope right we know we you know it's actually knowing what's going on even if you find out there's 80 000 in debt once you know it and that's the whole thing yes and it's easier to face the monster once you know once you know how big he is you know yeah right he's a lot bigger when he's in the dark yeah that's right yep that's good good for y'all well done okay so the financial advisor says go through financial peace university what was your first reaction when you heard that uh definitely because i was terrified what about you brent oh definitely i was i was on board because

it was um the financial issues we had were kind of weighing down on my shoulders so yeah getting that off my shoulders i mean it was a relief to go through fbu so and learn how to work together and carry it together yeah correct and again the monster and the light is not nearly as big a deal correct right good for y'all well done that's hey man after 17 years of marriage you learned a whole new dance okay yes that's a good dance track right there yes look if you learn to communicate around your money what you guys learn to do it's like you can communicate through anything right yeah yes and you guys have seen that play off play out in real time that's very very very cool man how do y'all well done no house payment or anything yes

i mean you got nothing to worry about that still really hasn't sunk in yet because it's only been a few months so yeah i mean what's the celebration you pay off your house you got to go do something cool well we're going to take a vacation where so um our daughter just graduated high school so um our other daughter so um we kind of let her pick so we're going to disney world okay so we haven't been on vacation in a long time and you're bringing everybody so the four of us will go okay yes and then when you get home pick an adult vacation and and go on one of those too yes yeah yes absolutely oh my goodness Now I'll get hate mail from all the Disney adults And I truly don't care

I support this message I don't care at all My daughter included Hey guys My 30 something year old daughter I should make sure I say They lived in the house too So the daughters get to go on the one vacation

And then they go on the other vacation. Not putting that down. That's great. So what you need to celebrate and then you need to celebrate some more. Yeah. God, way to go, millionaires. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. OK, now, when you look back on it and you say, all right, I go to that first class in

Financial Peace University and we're both on board. I don't want to carry the weight anymore. I don't want to worry anymore were the words you two used. What were the things you started learning in there that made you believe this is happening, it's doable, we're going to be okay? I think it was just a lot of communication. We had to learn from each other. And just that, like you said, once you see the monster,

you understand what's going on and you can take care of it. And we had good jobs, so we knew we could. Yeah, you're making good money. Yeah. Right, right. Making too much money to be broke. Yeah. Right, right.

And we were just dead set on doing this. Do you remember one of the lessons that stuck out? Been a couple years ago. Yeah, it's been a little bit yes i mean you there wasn't there wasn't really one singular aha moment then i don't i don't think so no i think it was just the whole everything the encompassing the problem yeah the proven system right yeah like i can get us on the same page i can do this i can do this yes we can do this we're gonna do this yeah we're gonna communicate we're gonna carry it together we're gonna attack this monster.

He's going down. Yeah, I got it. Good, good. I like that. I like that. That's acceptable, and that is a great result. That's what we hope for with Financial Peace University, and it's what happens for the people that engage.

So excellent, excellent. Very well done, y'all. Very cool. Now, I've asked you before, and I'll ask one more time. You're 100% out of debt. Right, I've asked you before, and I'll ask you one more time. You're 100% out of debt. Right. Absolutely. You're a 47-year-old. Yes.

Baby Steps Millionaires. How's that feel? Wonderful. Yes. I mean, just ecstatic. No worries for our daughters. Just, we did it. Yeah. Touchdown. Yes. We did it yeah yeah touchdown yes we did it well done i'm so proud of you thank you we did your neat people you you deserve it i'm so proud of you but guys y'all out

there you work too hard to be broke yes you know you put up with crap you know you go to the office and you go man you go to work yeah still like i mean you know the pit the things you go to the office and you go, man, you go to work. Yeah. Still, I mean, you have the pit, the things you have to deal with. You know, you work too hard to be broke. Might as well win while you're at it. You know? Oh, my gosh. I'm so proud of you. I'm so glad Financial Peace University helped.

Very, very good. All right. And your daughter's name is what? That's with you? Claire. And Claire is how old? She is 13. Okay.

So she's 13. Oh, yes. And then the other one is in college, you said. name is what that's with you claire and claire is how old she is 13 okay so she's 13 and then uh then the other one is in college you said she's going she's heading to college in august yes emma yes okay so cool very cool all right we've got the uh live and give box for you the baby steps millionaires book since you are one the total money makeover book for you to give away to somebody and a financial peace university membership since you've been through you can give that to someone blessing blessings to some other Financial Peace University membership. Since you've been through, you can give that to someone. Blessings to some other people will let you pay it forward at our behest,

and we're just giving that to you to say we're proud of you. Good work. Thank you. Very good work. All right, Brent and Natasha and Claire from Indianapolis area, $276,000 paid off in five years, making $147,000 to $178,000. Baby Steps Millionaires at 47 years old this stuff works count it down let's hear a debt-free scream one two three yeah you gotta love it boys and girls you gotta love it Yeah! Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo! Yeah!

You gotta love it, boys and girls. You gotta love it. Well, you can talk about your theories, or you can talk about people who really do things, like Brent and Natasha. They are people that do things. This is The Ramsey show our scripture of the day first Corinthians 13 13 and now these three remain faith hope and love but the greatest of these is love miss opal lee the grandmother of juneteenth said if people can be taught to hate, they can be taught to love,

and changing minds can actually be done. It's not going to happen in a day. You've got to work at it. Way to go, Ms. Opal. Love it. Good stuff. Open phones at 888-825-5225. A lot of you are planning to move sometime soon, and that's awesome.

I'm excited for you, but I've got to be real. In most places around the country, you but i gotta be real in most places around the country you're going to be facing some sky-high home prices and interest rates aren't returning to their record lows anytime soon this does not make home ownership impossible makes it very possible if you want to buy or sell you got to make sure you're financially ready and you got to have a trusted and experienced real estate agent to walk you through it. Not a family friend who just got their license or some pretty smart, nice person. No, no. Someone who does real estate, not as a hobby.

If you've sold two houses, this is not who you want selling your largest asset. That's sweet. Everybody has to start there, but that's not what you're going to do. You're going to get a high quality, high octane, high protein Ramsey trusted agent through our endorsed local providers program. And we vet the agents from around the country. So you'll have the best support, whether you're moving from Florida to Alaska or buying your first home somewhere in between, go to Ramsey solutions.com slash agent and find a Ramsey-trusted real estate agent today. RamseySolutions.com slash agent.

Jacob is in Atlanta. Hi, Jacob. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave and Jade. Thank you so much for taking my call. It's an honor to speak with you. You too. What's up?

Is it okay if I give a little bit of background information before my question? Quickly. Sure. So I'm 24 years old and I'm self-employed for the past three years. I've been running an online business. It takes about 20 hours per week for me. I believe I could manage this while working a full-time job to start a long-term career.

Currently, my business brings in about $4,500 per month. And using the first five months of this year for reference, this November, I'm getting married and my fiance and I are looking for homes in the $300,000 to $350,000 price range. We're putting $150,000 down and aiming to pay the mortgage off in three to four years, depending on how much we borrow. My fiance is also self-employed and she brings in about $4,000 per month. So our combined income is about $8,500. So since we're looking to pay off the mortgage so quickly, I'm looking at some sort of longer-term career and then also doing my self-employed business on the side,

but with no normal nine-to-five work experience. I'm a bit unsure on what kind of role would be a good fit for me. I do have a degree in exercise and sports science, but I'm interested in pursuing business. And when it comes to applying for more advanced business positions, do you think I would have a chance at competing at those? What are you doing online? It's just mainly e-commerce. So I sell on platforms like eBay and Amazon.

And it doesn't take up too much time because I have places that fulfill my orders for me. So it's mainly just buying online. Like a dropshipping business? I guess you could say that, but I buy the inventory and then ship it to platforms like Amazon that store it for me and then they ship it out. So normally dropshipping is where they purchase an item and then they ship it direct. I normally hold a little bit of inventory. Are you not interested in growing that business? Well, I am interested in growing that business and it's been growing steadily,

but it just doesn't take up too much of my time. And I'm looking for more. If you spent more time on it, would it grow? Yes, it would grow. But the thing is with that, it's going to consistently require me to put more cash into it which i would like to stay around how much cash i currently have in the business liquid which is around 50 000 and then use extra sources of income to help pay down the mortgage faster plus i'm interested in starting some sort of new career, if that makes sense. So the answer then to my question is no, you're not interested in growing that business. You'd like it right where it's at. Yeah, I'm happy where it's at. Yes.

Okay. Here's, I'll just tell you what's running through my head and it may or may not be true. Sometimes when you have this thing you grew up and you're young and you started real young and you're making really good money, it feels like it's not real and like you didn't do anything. It's like this is a kid job working at the mall or something for you and you want a big boy job. As if what you're doing at $4, for you and you want a big boy job as if what you're doing at forty five hundred dollars a month is not a big boy job i just want to go ahead and affirm you you already have a big boy job you're making more than some folks making their making a lot of people make it their quote unquote real job unquote you know so i don't want you to think that

what what's running through my head is i think i'm a little bit afraid, and I'm not sure. I'm not accusing you of this, but I'm a little bit afraid you might think that working for someone is going to be a lot cooler than it is. Or more stable? Is it a stability thing? Yeah, that's a good point. I think part of it is the stability because the items that I'm selling, they are very seasonal. So the average that I'm giving you is accounting for like Q4, as example, which obviously is way hotter for buying or back to school times or even the beginning of the year. But could you expand into items that are less seasonal and more everyday use or every you know every season yes that is also a possibility but i'm not requiring you to do that i just don't

want you to overlook the uh diamonds at your feet while you're looking over here in the corner for something else and uh that's all work that's all that's why we keep coming back to this because what you're doing is pretty impressive in other words and it from what I hear from this it when you're starting a business sometimes the hardest part is getting it going and starting to create a profit and you've already got it going so that's why I kept going back to it because it's can you get a job doing project management or e-retailing or e-tailing for some company making 50 or 80 000 bucks yeah maybe you probably can you probably talk somebody into that right now and you can go do it and you're going to be working for some goofball possibly who's having trouble making payroll friday because he doesn't manage his cash well i mean so it's not always you know or some startup that goes broke

because the venture capitalists pull the rug off from under them or whatever the thing is. I mean, it's not always everything that glitters is not gold. So, yeah, go do that and get you some experience doing that. But I just want to affirm you that you've already done something that some of the people you are going to work for don't even know how to do. That's all I'm saying. Yeah, I agree. And so, you know just just keep that in mind

while you're doing this and set your expectations reasonably and um like are you somehow uh less than if you can't get a job making 60 or 80 grand doing e-tailing for somebody uh working with their you know their social media team or whatever their ebay team whatever helping them do stuff no you're not but you have you have plenty of chops to come to work at ramsey for instance we've got a huge you know digital we got almost 1100 people in here a thousand people in here and uh you know a large number of them are dealing with the web and technology and marketing and digital marketing and so on and you're capable of joining those teams you've already got the chops and regardless

of what your particular four-year degree was in the thing i want to make sure he doesn't do is if he does go pursue something out there that he doesn't let what he's built go by the wayside in any way not too easily and just you know his whole thing was i gotta pay off the house i gotta pay off the house and he's he's young guy he's 22 years old like he'll he'll pay the house off i just don't want him to make this decision purely from that standpoint yeah you know yeah go ahead and do what's right for your career and get around to the house as it properly yeah you're gonna do what's right do what's right for you in your future and the future of your wife and that what what's going to build us the life we want and as a part of that we're going to make money we're going to build us the life we want. And as a part of that, we're going to make money.

We're going to pay off the house. Yeah. This guy's going to make money. That's for sure. He knows how to make money. He's going to be all right. And you and I both recognize that as entrepreneurs. I mean, you and Sam run a business for years.

And it's funny. You can see somebody that some people you can't beg them to go make money. No. Other people you can't keep them from it. That's right. That's why I didn't want to try to tell him, hey, don't do this, do that. But what he's got right there, like you said, it's diamonds at his feet.

And he's doing what most people haven't been able to figure out. I want a side hustle I can live on, $4,500. Okay. Yeah, there you go. I know, that's right. There you go. So, hey, good job, man.

Proud of you. Keep it up. Hope that works good for you. That puts us out of the Ramsey Show in the books. Austin, man, I tell you what, great job in there. Ben, and of course, Zach, and of course, James. Well done, guys. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince Jesus. Hey, what's up, guys?

It's Jade. Look, if you like what you heard in this episode and want to know more about getting started on the Ramsey Baby Steps, go to ramseysolutions.com and click the Get Started button. We'll help you figure out the best next step for you based on your specific situation. That's ramseysolutions.com and click Get Started.