The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Leave My Job to Raise Exotic Snakes? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: December 31, 2020

Savings, Education, Debt, Career, Home Buying Sign Up for a FREE trial of Ramsey+ TODAY: https://bit.ly/31ricKt  Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: https://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: https://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: https://bit.ly/2QEyonc Check out more Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/2JgzaQR

Hey guys, this is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Dave and the team are out spending time with their families for New Year's, but we'll be back soon to help you take control of your life and your money in 2021. In the meantime, we've put together some of the best clips from the show for you to enjoy. This is the best of The Dave Ramsey Show. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice.

I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us, America. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one Thank you for joining us, America. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author a couple of times over, and my daughter is my co-host today here on the air as we take your calls about your life and about your money. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Angela starts this hour in Detroit. Hi, Angela. How are you? Hi. I'm great.

How are you? Sure. What's up? I am at baby step number three. My husband and I have been listening to you for several years. We tried budget several times. I had a lot of heart issues. I actually got a of heart issues.

I actually got a new heart and a new kidney in the last three years. Wow. So we weren't able, yeah, a little bit exciting. God is good. Are you there? I'm on plan. I'm sorry, you cut in and out after we heard about the heart and so forth, and I lost the last part. So can you start again with that part me now yes ma'am okay so we um finally paid off our debt we had around 16

to 20 000 in debt from different things hospital bills and such um so now we are at between three and four we have about um months' worth of money saved, and so we're trying to decide whether to start investing or save more for the fact that, good Lord, well, I won't have any more health issues, but I don't know if I should just start investing or build up my fund more. How much do you have in the emergency fund? $15,000.

Okay. And what's your household income? About $75,000. Okay. So you consider $15,000 to be three months or six months? Between three and six. Of expenses. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. Well, it doesn't hurt to beef it up a little. I mean, if you want to be on the six-month side with the health challenges, I mean, you've had some pretty unique health challenges, right? I did. I did. Yeah.

We've had quite the journey. Yeah. And, you know, medical bills have been part of your life for a long time, so you're a little bit gun-shy. They have. Yeah. Yeah. I would lean towards the six-month side.

I mean, if you're making're making 75 i don't care if you got 30 grand sitting in your emergency fund if that makes you feel better okay if i was in that situation i'd probably want that what do you think rachel well that's what i was gonna say for sure i mean 30 again yeah because of the health stuff and not knowing that question mark there more so than the other person yeah than the average person out on the street um yeah having more cash available would definitely give you security. That's still less than half your annual income. We know your expenses aren't the same as your income,

but if your expenses were close to your income, that's six months at 30. So you just have a really healthy, beefy emergency fund, and you'll reach the point someday where you have a comfort level where you don't need that um our emergency fund today is small compared uh to the old days but back in the old days everything was an emergency you know and so now that we've kind of gotten past that and we've got better houses and better cars and you know fewer things breaking right and uh you know more cash flow to do things with and so you don't we haven't touched the emergency fund for an actual emergency in decades at our place and so you'll reach that as you as you get further into your wealth building and uh you can probably relax

that 30 down if you want to but for today i'm fine fine with that. I would if I were in your shoes. So, hey, thanks for the call. We appreciate you joining us. Matt is up next. Matt is in Tampa, Florida. How are you, Matt? Doing well, Jay. I appreciate you taking my call.

Sure. How can we help? Yeah, a company I used to work for, they gave me the option for an early buyout on my pension. So I took the lump sum at $454,000. All but $61,000 pre-tax, I rolled it into an IRA. Good. The $61,000, they sent me a check. So my question is this. What was the $61,000? Why was that not pre-tax um because it was employee contribution so when i worked there i contributed post-tax okay so there was no penalty

there was no penalty or taxes due then okay correct so you got 61 000 floating around extra money right now yeah so 61 000 so61,000. So my question is, because that was going towards my retirement, do I invest that $61,000 or do I use that to pay down what is owed on my house? I would go ahead. I mean, because, yeah,

if I were you, because you were able to roll everything else over the IRA, I would use that to go ahead and clear up the house mortgage. How old are you? I'm 55. Okay.

All right. So the $450,000, if it's invested well in good mutual funds, before you get to retirement age, is probably going to be a million. Right. So you're done there, and we need to get the house paid off. What do you owe on the house? Oh, $330. It's worth $730.

I just re-flied. What's the household income? $220. Cool. Okay. So if we take $330 and throw the $60 at it, then we take that $220 income, and let's pound that house then. I'm with Rachel. I agree.

Got it. All right. that house then i'm with rachel i agree got it all right to take the 60 throw it down on the house and then just use the uh income to pay down the rest of it yeah and i guess give you the background or the thinking on it is a you're set in your retirement account yes if you've invested that well in good mutual funds ding ding you've r you've rung the bell. That alone is going to make you a millionaire. Way to go. Excellent job on the one hand. The second thing is it's not taxable.

It's free money. So it says if we looked up and said, hey, I got $60,000 laying over here in a stock account of some kind, what do I do with that? And then that immediately triggers baby step six for Rachel and me, and we're both going, yeah, put it on the house, put it on the house. But in your case, it's even more so because the house is like your last hurdle now. It is. Yeah, so let's pound that puppy and be done with it, man.

I love it. So that's the thinking that led us to that answer, the underpinning, the structure of how we arrive at those answers. So that lets you know how to do it for those of you out there listening. Open phones at 888-825-5225. The interesting thing about the Baby Steps, Rachel, is obviously they are not, we didn't get them from the Bible. We made them up.

So the only thing that has made us even more stringent on them is that for now almost 30 years, we find very few reasons that it is logical to violate them. So they've really stood the test of time. Well, and 100%. And what I find that it helps so much is specifically with money. People just kind of wander through life, right? They're like, oh, I think I'll kind of just like have a little bit of this debt. I'll put some at retirement here. Kids college, maybe.

Okay. There's just zero plan. And what this does is this gives you focus to say, hey, this is exactly what you need to do. And you just walk the steps. And like you said, most people don't get to maybe step seven. They're like, man, I wish I still had a mortgage. Or man, I miss credit card debt. Like, you get to the end, and it's like, wow, it worked.

And that's proof over a period of time, like what you're saying. Yeah, millions of, tens of millions of people now have actually used that clear path. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Over the years, I've seen so many families suffer by not having life insurance. It's not that they didn't care. It's just that they didn't know, so they did nothing. That's a huge mistake. Listen, husbands and wives, moms and dads, think about it. If you died, how would your family pay the bills, the mortgage, food, and plan for a better future? This is what life insurance is all about, and term life is the only way to go.

It's not expensive, and it's not complicated. Stop wasting money on cash value plans. You need 10 to 12 times your income in protection, and I recommend 15 or 20-year level plans. I also only recommend Zander Insurance, and I have for over 20 years. These are the only people I personally use and they only offer the plans I recommend. Call them at 800-356-4282 or get instant quotes online at zander.com. Trust me, these simple steps will let your family know how much you care. you're listening to the best of the dave ramsey show we'll be back soon with more live content ramsey personality chris hogan is my co-host today here on the air. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

John is with us in Philadelphia. Hi, John. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Can you hear me? Sure. What's up? Hey, kind of a simple question for you today.

I'm 22. I have no credit. I was wondering if it was good as a beginner to get a small amount of credit, say $300 or so, with unsecured debt for credit worthiness, I guess. So you want to be worthy to borrow money and go in debt? Yes. No, I'm just kidding. Well, that's credit worthiness, right? Okay.

Well, I didn't know because my dad always told me this is an important thing and then i started watching your show a couple months back yeah and i'm starting to realize maybe it's not maybe it's not such an important thing you know so but john not only you're 22 and you don't have any why don't you have it i don't know i just never started well that's a blessing in disguise my friend yes all right that's wonderful glad in disguise, my friend. All right. That's wonderful. I'm glad to hear that. So here's the thing. You're right.

The culture, including your dad, everybody says you need credit because everybody has been told by the banking industry for 75 years that the best way to become prosperous is borrow to buy the stuff you want. Right? And so it's become culturally accepted that that's the way to go. However, that's a bill of goods sold to us by a villain known as the bank. Because it built large towers in our skylines, and they all had bank names on them. It didn't build a large tower in your living room, because all your living room money from your dad went to that bank and so the borrower is slave to the lender is a very real thing and what we have discovered is the shortest least risk path to wealth is to not have any payments and then the question always comes up

well don't i need to get some payments so that I have credit? Why? So that I can get some payments so that I have credit. Why? So that I can get some payments so that I have credit and debt. Why? And so the point being that we tell folks to, you know, stay out of debt because it's the shortest path to wealth. That's what it comes down to. Mm-hmm. And you already discovered that watching our videos, right? Yeah.

Okay. And I understand it's countercultural, but if you look around the culture, most people are broke. Mm-hmm. Exactly, yeah. And, John, let me let you in on this. I worked in the industry, the banking world, for about 12 years and didn't understand really the FICO score until I joined Dave's team. And the FICO score measures how much debt you have, the type of debt you have, the likelihood that they'll give you more debt, and how you've paid debt. There's a theme there, and that it's not a matter of how wealthy you are or how well you're doing. It's how you're doing with debt.

So, no, sir. You don't need to bring on any debt in your life. I love the fact that you've avoided it at 22. And want to continue to encourage you to avoid it. Like the plague. Like the plague. There is nothing positive that's going to come from it. And I promise you, your mailbox is going to start to get some offers.

You're going to start to see it and be more aware of it. And I want you to have that mindset ready because as soon as you let your guard down, that's when stupid will creep in. Yeah, stupid will sneak up on you. Yes. Anthony is in Kansas City. Hi, Anthony. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. How are you doing?

Great. How can I help? I have about a half million dollars in my checking account, and I have had it in there for a couple of years. I'm trying to figure out exactly what to do with it. My plan was to use it for real estate, but the real estate market's got me a little spooked right now. Why? me a little spooked right now why we live in a college or close to a college town and uh the market there they've built so many brand new complexes in the last 10 years nobody's going to college okay i'm with you exactly the enrollment rates are going down

um you know so i'm a little bit leery of that. So what town are you in? I'm Manhattan, Kansas. Yeah, okay. All right. So you're far enough away from Kansas City that you're probably not investing in Kansas City, right? Correct. Okay. Anthony, how old are you?

I'm 45. Okay. You've done a great job. Yeah, you have. Are you planning to stay in Manhattan? That depends. Don't necessarily need to. I have a hobby farm.

I'm an electrical contractor by trade. But my real estate holdings, I have a couple rental properties too, but I have about a million and a half in real estate. That's all paid for. About $100,000 in cash. $500,000 in my checking. About $400,000 in other assets like track loaders and tractors. You're a stud.

Well done. So proud of you. It's got to feel great, man. I mean, you really did it. And I'm assuming you did all this starting from nothing. Correct. I had nothing, inherited nothing. Way to go.

Well, here's what I would do if I woke up in your shoes, and I find myself in similar situations from time to time. I'm between real estate deals, and I need access to the cash when I get ready to do the next real estate deal. That's where I find myself. It's where you find yourself. Because you're not going to drop that half million into manhattan you've made that decision i'm not going to recommend if you listen to me for more than 20 minutes you know this to be a long distance landlord and so what i'm going to end up doing is just parking this probably in

like an s&p 500 uh you know a no load there's no commissions, and just ride the market with it a little bit while I'm waiting to decide what I'm going to do. And one of two things will happen, one of three things will happen. You decide to stay in Manhattan, and the market gets soft as you predict, so you will not pull that money out and buy in Manhattan, so you're probably going to turn and invest it in some other vehicle for probably some mutual funds or something. Number two thing that could happen is you move, and you're living in whatever, Kansas

City, and you've got a great market to invest in. Then you pull the money out, and you invest it then. What was the third thing that could happen? The third thing that could happen would be Manhattan bounce back, the college market firms back up, and you feel good about investing in Manhattan bounce back, the college market firms back up, and you feel good about investing in Manhattan again, pull the money out of the S&P and invest. Yep. So you're parking it until something else moves, another variable moves in this situation. Okay.

But checking account's not okay. Yeah, and I realize that. It's been, but you know how it is. Time kind of flies when you're having fun. Well, and I'm sure your bank is reaching out, blowing up your phone with all their ideas and thoughts. They're real helpful right now. And Anthony, there's a- Mr. Drysdale's on the line.

There's a fourth- Oh, Mr. Drysdale's on the line. There's a fourth option. You may begin to look at something that gets to be on sale, where you've got someone that has to sell or is looking to sell, and now you've put yourself in a situation to start

to have some conversations about potentially buying. Yeah, that could happen as the market heals in Manhattan, that somebody couldn't quite survive the turn, and it's making an upward turn, and you're comfortable with it. That could result in a really good purchase. Oh, great deal.

Yeah, that's a very, very good point. Dr. John Deloney is, you know, one of his three 32 degrees he's got. He's got more degrees than a thermometer, is in higher ed. And he's talked about with you and i and a bunch of us behind the scenes and even somewhat what on the air um that to the extent that because of the student loan debacle and because covid sent everybody home and they realized uh these colleges are trying to charge us just as much sitting at home um i'm not getting like the college experience i don't see any ivy on the walls here

right at my house uh so to those two things hitting together are accelerating the demand for college degrees on campus living college degrees they're accelerating that demand dropping right it's been dropping we saw a student loan the covid thing has pushed it over the edge and so we are seeing some things like he's describing a college town like manhattan which is what kansas state right yep it's kansas state and um so uh you know we're seeing so many smaller towns where the economy is driven by college students that's right it's affecting their economies it really is a lot of those around America. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be back soon with more live content in the lobby of ramsey solutions on the debt free stage jr J.R. and Kylie are with us.

Hey, guys. How are you? Great. Doing great, Dave. Welcome, welcome. So you're here to do a debt-free scream. Yes, we are. How much have you paid off?

$266,711.10. My goodness. How long did this take? Four years, two months, and 17 days, plus or minus a little stork mode in there. So we have a nine-month-old daughter. Love it. She's back in Nebraska. Wonderful.

Very cool. And your range of income during the four years? We started out at about $78,000, and now we're up to $115,000. Very good. What do you guys do for a living? I'm in logistics and transportation. And I do trade association management. Very good.

We just went through the EMS Entree Leadership a couple weeks ago. Very good. Were you here in person or did it on the stream? Yeah, we were here. Okay, great. Very good. Well, thank you for coming. Yeah.

Very fun. So $267,000 over four years. Did you pay off your house? We, well, you tell them. Well, about $24,000 was cars, $30,000 was credit cards, we well you tell them well we uh about 24 000 was uh cars 30 000 was student or no 30 000 was credit cards and then about 80 000 was um student loans and then yeah we had a hundred and thirty two thousand dollar mortgage and we had talked um kind of about moving back home and uh opportunity came up we have we're from a really small town so we sold our house and we bought our current house with cash. All right.

Very cool. Long answer. Yeah, we did pay off our house. We did pay off our house. How about a little gyration to get there? Yeah. Okay. Very cool.

I love it. Paying cash was definitely like, people were like, what are you doing? This is what we needed. We're for sure, we're sure this is the right move. Yeah.

Wow. So what's the house worth that you just bought? We bought it for 80 and it's down to the studs right move. Yeah. Wow. So what's the house worth that you just bought? We bought it for $80, and it's down to the studs right now, so it needs a little love. It's desperate need of drywall. But once we're done, a couple have just sold around the area, so about $130 to $150. Excellent. How old are you two?

I'm 31, about to be 32. 28. And you have a paid-for house. Yes. We do. You're so weird. We are. Man. Way to go, you guys.

So what did the folks in the mortgage process tell you as you met with your realtor? So we're going to buy this with cash. Then you went to closing with cash. You wrote a check. Did people look at you weird? A little bit, yeah. I think people were like, make sure you borrow a little bit more so you can cover your renovations.

We were like, no, we we got to do the baby steps. We have to make sure we have enough for baby step three. We got to make sure we can pay cash. We have to make sure we can afford to renovate it. And so we kind of just really made sure we had a plan so that we weren't jumping ahead or getting ahead. So we did baby steps three. Wait a minute. You had a plan?

I told you you were weird. She's definitely the planner of us, too. I love it. You both seem like a very precise couple. The numbers you gave were down to the hundreds, right? What do you all do for fun? Well, when we're not paying off debt. We're tearing out plaster and lath.

Travel, Husker football. Back and forth to Nashville a lot lately. Yeah. We just come to Nashville for fun. That's it. Come see you guys. Well, way to go, guys. So, I mean, you've been on quite a journey.

We have. Have you even breathed it in that you're 100% debt free? Yeah. It's taken a little while to kind of get used to but um you know as like the paychecks start coming in and we don't have the mortgage or the loan payments to pay it's like what almost like we have so much margin in our budgets what do we do with all that money really so uh the budgeting process is a little bit different to kind of get used to that but it's yeah it's been awesome yeah way to go you guys i think the biggest thing for us, just going into work,

and we both enjoy our jobs, but just going into work and knowing we're choosing to be there. We're not feeling the pinch of, I gotta get this paycheck. I have to make the ends meet. We choose to go to our jobs every day. You're not trapped.

Right, we just know that we're there and we want to be there and I think it makes us better employees too. Yeah, absolutely. We coordinate the class and we're doing one right now and we had lesson two last night about dumping debt. And Dave, you have that part about like you're walking out and like, where are you going? I don't have any payments. So we can definitely relate to that. Has it hit you yet that your nine month old daughter will have none of these experiences, won't have that stress, those late

night pacing around your house? She won't deal with that. She's going to have a totally new family tree because of the work you did. Yeah. That's something that I kind of thought about a lot throughout the process too when we first got pregnant and then when she was here. Because as a kid, our family wasn't very financially set. So my childhood was not as good as I want it to be. So hers is going to be definitely way better. That's incredible.

I think just seeing her and having her around just like gave us that push to kind of like really go after it to know like we don't want to have to constantly feel this pinch

all the time or say no all the time. Live like no one else so later you can live and give like no one else. Right. I love it. I love it. I love it.

Way to go, you guys. So you're leading a financial peace class. Yep, our fourth one. Okay. Wow. So what started the whole journey four years ago? Did I ask you that already? Well, it started about five years ago.

I was going on a trip up to Canada, a fishing trip up to Canada with some buddies, and we drove about 14 hours from trip up to Canada, a fishing trip up to Canada with some buddies, and we drove about 14 hours from Lincoln up to Canada. And the driver who controls the radio was also a big fan of yours, so we got about 14 hours of Dave Ramsey podcasts. Oh, my Lord. So we've coined it as the Ramsey road trip now. Oh.

I don't want to go on that trip. I've listened to 14 straight hours of my boss, and it's a lot, so congratulations. They jumped out of that truck, though, and they're like, we can sell the boat, we can sell our guns, we can sell our truck, we can sell, what can we sell? I was like, what is this? Where did

you guys go? I thought you were on a fishing trip. Yeah, she kind of thought it was a racket at first. She's like, I got my own gal that I get my financial advice from, and then about a year later is when we got married and kind of decided that's when we need to get on track. So one of your first orders of business in marriage is dive into this plan. Yep. After the honeymoon phase, we got back and took a couple weeks off.

Started the spreadsheet. Yeah. Oh, the spreadsheet. The planner begins the plan. The budget meetings. I like it. The tears. So who were your biggest cheerleaders? I think leading the class really gave us a lot of accountability.

We took the class. We had just a shout out to Nick Wagner. He was our coordinator, and he's just done so much for our family in the last, yeah, it's just been so helpful. And so that was really helpful for us accountability-wise to just, like, have that nine weeks of just really getting after it but then coordinating the class like you have to you have to do what you're what you're coordinating what the class says and you have to live that out and people are listening so teaching the class really helped us and we had so many class members that really rallied behind us and just just really told us like you guys are doing great this is awesome we can't wait to get to where you're at and that gave us a lot of accountability. And our church

in Kansas City, where we lived before, was amazing. Our church family was huge. Which church were you in, Casey? Christ Community, the downtown campus. Yeah, okay. Very cool. Very cool. Good for you guys! Well done! Well done! Well, we've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book

for you, Everyday Millionaires. You know the drill. It's always the, that's the next chapter in your story. And you've proven that you know how to do this. You haven't paid for a house for 28 years old. Just shut up. I mean, my gosh, this is amazing. I'm so proud of y'all.

You're heroes. Thank you. So very well done. So very well done. Yeah, your next chapter is to be everyday millionaires. That's the next chapter in your story. It doesn't end here. Right. You got out of debt, so that.

Exactly. Right. So that is what's important. Yeah. One of the classes that we had led was during the Margin KC Kansas City classes. Yeah. So that was very cool to kind of be a part of like the citywide movement. Yeah.

And we talked about that a lot too. Like the feeling of peace for me is just having so much margin. And so. Yeah, that's what that that campaign was called margin yep yeah uh randy frazee the pastor uh up there got that started as a friend of mine yeah well done you guys very very very well done all right here it is jr and kylie lincoln nebraska 267 000 paid off four years and two months 78 000 to 115 income count it down let's hear a debt-free scream three two one we're debt-free

wow oh that's so cool man man the math on this 32 years old making 115 yeah you know where they're gonna be at 42 where they're gonna be at 52 where they're gonna be at 62 it's tens of millions of dollars right i mean they're gonna be wow what a deal what an impressive young couple it's incredible guys and uh if you're listening out there maybe that's the first time you've ever heard this, it's your turn. You can. You can do this. You can do this. I'm talking to you. Right there.

Yeah, you. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. you're listening to the best of the dave ramsey show we'll be back soon with more live content our scripture of the day philippians 4 7 and the peace of god which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Andrew Carnegie says, if you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes. Scott is with us in Indiana. Hey, Scott, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

How can we help? Hi, Dave. Thanks for having me on. Sure. I've been debating with my wife. She's been telling me to quit my job for a few months because my side hustle is getting to that point to where it's becoming equal to the day job. Last year, I cut back on hours of my day job to, uh, instead of five days a week, working four days a week, just because the side hustle was needing a little bit more time. Now we're to the point where I could comfortably quit and we have a pretty,

pretty good stockpile of money put back. What's the side hustle? It's, well, you're going to kind of laugh at this because I've heard someone else call in, but I raise exotic snakes. Okay. I don't remember laughing about it. I'm scared. I'm not laughing at anything. Kid's terrified.

I'm terrified in this video. So the question is this. If you put more time into the side hustle, will it make even more money? Quite a bit more. Okay. So why wouldn't you? It's nice to have that comfort level of having a steady paycheck every week. And I was kind of worried that the whole COVID-19 thing was going to almost crash the market. But over the last three months, sales have kind of been through the roof. And it's allowed us to put back so much money.

And we're just kind of stockpiling to get our debts paid off. The only debt we have is our mortgage. And we're on track to pay it off within the next four years yeah scott and you know listen you and your wife are debating this what's the key sticking point for you we know what she says but is it just that i want a little bit more money in the bank before i do it because you clearly it's obvious you know you need to eventually step full-time into this side hustle it's your dream so what's the what's the number of the thing i dream. So what's the number? I thought so. So what's the number that makes you feel comfortable?

I was wanting to have 100K put back. What do you have now? About 70. So how long would it take you to get to the 100K? It's hard to say. We're kind of in the middle of the breeding season right now

and eggs are starting to hatch. Oh, roughly. A month or ten months or ten years? Six months. Okay. Let me stop you a second. What did your parents do for a living? My dad was a salesman for Kevin Cecil for a long, very long time.

He was one of the top salespeople in the country. Yeah. My mother. So he didn't have a steady paycheck. No, he was good at his job, though. Yeah, his skill brought his security, which, by the way, is the only place you get security. So I was making a pile of money, and my granny, my grandpa worked in a steady job for Alcoa Aluminum his whole career. And my granny, bless her sweetheart, would always ask me when I was going to get a real job.

And I was making a pile of money running a business. But to her, it wasn't a steady job. But let me tell you, you're only as secure as your ability to create an income. You're never secure based on someone else giving you a check. That's mythology. And so you need to quit tomorrow. Your wife is right. That's my opinion.

Ken, you jump in. Yeah, I don't disagree. I just wanted to walk you through, Scott, what you're really facing. You have got some fear, and you've got to own it. You've just got to say, I'm afraid that if I don't have 100, that I'm not secure. And I just wanted you to be able to walk through and see, you're not silly, but is your fear a little silly? And I think in this case, it is. How long have you been doing the snake thing?

We have two kids, two children. How long have you been doing that snake thing? It's been a hobby of mine for 30 years. How long have you made money on it? How long have I made doing that snake thing? It's been a hobby of mine for 30 years. How long have you made money on it? How long have I made money on it? Yeah. 25 years. This is not a Johnny come with.

This is called a steady paycheck, dude. Yeah, yeah. I know. I just wanted to get your confirmation. Yeah, and all I'm trying to do is help you see that you're not silly, but your fear is whispering to you, and it's telling you a lie, that this is unstable, and this'm trying to do is help you see you're not silly but your fear is whispering to you and it's telling you a lie that this is unstable and this is risky to do this and there's no risk dave and i are objective we see no risk i think your wife is telling you the truth

uh be okay man you got 70 grand in the bank you're fine you're gonna win bigger when you go full time that's what i needed to hear yeah go be free and talking about it for the last year and and then the thing happened yeah if you told me you've been doing this for six months i'd be a little more worried okay if you told me you had no money in the bank i'd be a little more worried if you told me you weren't making really good money at this but it was your dream i'd be a little more worried. If you told me you weren't making really good money at this, but it was your dream, I'd be a lot more worried. But in any of this, I mean, you've had a full-time stinking job here with your business for a long time. All we've got to do now is admit it.

You're there, man. Congratulations. Touchdown. You did it. Yeah. Very well done, sir. Very well done. Ian is with us in Arizona.

Hi, Ian. How are you? I'm doing well, sir. Thank you for taking my call. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? All right.

So I feel like I've been presented with kind of a unique opportunity. I'm 20 right now. I have about probably 10.5 in debt, about two on credit cards, and $8.5 on a car. I'm sorry, $10.5 what? Debt. $10,500. Okay, not $10.5 million. Okay, $10,500. Okay.

I'd probably be gone if I had that. I know. And you have $10,500 on what? Two credit cards and a car. Okay. And your question's what? All right. So I've been presented with an opportunity to buy my mom's and her grandma's house for really relatively for the property low cost, talking probably about $60,000 or $70,000. And it's worth what? It's definitely worth a lot more,

probably $150,000, $160,000. And you're how old again? I'm 20. Okay, and what do you make a year? So I live with my girlfriend and our annual income... No, we don't have an annual income. You're not married.

Okay. My annual income is about $30 okay all right um and and who owns the house your mother and your grandmother own it together my grandma owns it and my mom rents it from them and she's leaving uh yes okay what does she pay in rent? She pays $825 a month. What do you pay in rent now? $816. Perfect. Okay.

Okay. I don't think you're ready to buy a house. You don't have much income, and you have a bunch of debt. But it does sound like a wonderful deal. So can I offer you an alternative suggestion? Absolutely. Because, you know, if the only option is yes or no, my answer is no. But what I would rather say is yes later.

And so I would rather you rent the house for $820 instead of the place you're renting, so that's a break even and uh and have a written option not a handshake with your grandmother for the purchase price for the next four years and you rent and get yourself out of debt and get your career up and going and then go close on the house when you get in your financially healthy later but you're not financially healthy, and this house is going to be a drain. By the way, this is an old house, and it needs work, doesn't it? Yeah. Ta-da.

You got no money. You're moving into a money pit. Problem. All righty. Big problem. Big problem. problem already big problem big problem so you don't do not buy this house today even if it's a great deal you don't have the money it's not going to be a blessing to you it's going to be a curse to you should he have the house checked out before he signs that four

years it's an option it's an option okay it is an option it is right to buy lease it with an option got it lease it for 800 a month with the right to buy it for $60,000. If it's worth $150, he can do the deal later when he gets on his feet and can afford repairs and afford to close on it. Get his car paid off, get everything moving. So that's a good play. Ken, thanks for hanging out. Thanks for having me. Always fun.

Ramsey Personality, Ken Coleman. 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 of Peace, Christ Jesus. Have a friend or family member that needs a daily dose of Ramsey advice in their life? Let them know about the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast. It's a quick hit of advice about life and money in under 10 minutes. Check out the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.