The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Take a Job That's Not Related to My Dream Job? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: February 4, 2021

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is the Dave Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life, your work, and your money. I'm John Deloney, host of the Dr. John Deloney Show and part of the Ramsey Network. I'm here with my good friend and colleague, host of the world-famous Ken Coleman Show, the one and only Mr. Ken Coleman. How are you doing, good man? You actually have to turn your mic on. You actually have to hit that on button, folks, a little behind the scenes there.

There's a square right here and it says on, and when you press it, the mic works. So there you go. But I'm doing well, friend? There's a square right here, and it says on, and when you press it, the mic works. So there you go. But I'm doing well, friend. It's always good to be with you. We had a blast together not too long ago. Oh, you were looking at that funny video. I was. You look good in it.

We like to share videos together. We all sit in the same room. And, dude, we had a blast last time talking. We talked money. We took money calls. We also took calls about your side of the things, relationships. Tell them what you do. Tell them what I do and what we're going to take today so dave likes to remind people that for for 25 30 years he's talked to people about getting out of debt about their money

and that money's a symptom usually of bigger challenges in folks life the way you handle money is often how you handle other crisis in your life and so i do mental health i've got a history of working in crisis response working with relationships helping people make the next right decision when things feel like it's all piling in on top of them yeah and you do it well well i appreciate that and one of the big crossovers that you and i have yeah is people look in the mirror they don't like themselves they struggle in their relationships they struggle their money and that carries over into the place where they spend most of their time every day, which is?

Work. That's right. And the worldview that most people have of work, John, is that I work to live. In other words, I work to get a paycheck so that I can take care of my basics. We talk about the four walls of Ramsey. And then if we've got a little left over, some memories, some vacations, maybe some toys. And the problem with that worldview of work is that work just becomes this utilitarian

function that I just say, well, if this is what I do, I work to live, and then I start to think that my life is worth my salary. And if I don't have as many toys or I don't have as big a house, it puts the wrong emphasis on work. Right. If work is just about money or value, money being monetary value. You and I talk about this. That's exactly right. Well, the Ramsey Solutions worldview of work is that we live to work.

Now, some people are going, what? No, no, no, no. It's not workaholic. It's not putting all my value in work. It's not that I live and I don't value my family. I don't value relationships. It's just all about the climb and I just live to work. No, no, no.

It's that let's take the word work and let's switch it out for a second and call it contribute. I live to contribute. I was created to contribute now it's different right now we find purpose in our work so where does this come from you don't have to train a kid john you and i both have kids you don't have to train a kid to say no you don't have to train a kid how to steal a toy from their friend. There's just certain things that we as humans come into this world hardwired to do. Nobody tells us how to do it. One of the

things that we do as humans, we all lay awake at some point in our life and we go, why am I here? You and I agree on this. I think purpose in your life is achieved in two major areas. Relationships, that's where you specialize. I was created to play a role in my relationships.

For me, husband, father, brother. Community member. Son, teammate. Right. Community member in Williamson County, whatever. And then the other side is work, purpose in our work. So when I say that we are created to contribute, that we were created to work, it's that our purpose in our work is about blessing others or contributing to others. So I was created to fill a unique role because I was given talent, things I do well.

I was given passion, which means I love to do certain things. You don't have to teach me that. I just figured it out one day. Oh, I love doing this. I hate doing this. And then we all long to create results that matter to us. For some of you who are listening today or watching, you want to help single moms. I took a call today on the Ken Coleman Show. A lady wants to leave a successful career in accounting to work for a nonprofit to stop

sex trafficking. There's a deep why there. There's a result that she's looking to put out there. And so that's the beauty of it. So that's the answer is to figure out, wait a second, what was I created to do? And there's multiple answers, multiple jobs, multiple career paths, multiple dream jobs, if you want to say that. But that's where we all are united.

Throw politics, geography, all out the window. What unites us all, at least one thing, is that we all want to make a difference in the world. There you go. My default setting, Ken, is to look at, I want to be a doctor. I want to help stop sex trafficking. I want to fill in the blank. I was going through the attic, putting some Christmas stuff away, and I had that moment that we've all had where you look up and you go,

oh, my gosh, is that a leak? And then I got a flashlight and looked closer and closer, and sure enough, I got this metal roof that the leaks coming through where all the little grommets have ground away. Call the roofer out. He walks through it with me. Ken, that guy was alive. Yeah, he was.

And his whole thing was, I'm going to help. He said, I do roofs in Williamson County, which if you don't know, is where big fancy houses are, right? And I'm even out way out in the country, right? Where the houses aren't so big and so fancy. Listen, he took it upon himself to say, hey, there's people out there helping other people get well. We've got doctors out here. We've got musicians out here.

We've got business owners out here. I'm going to make sure their house stays whole. Their families stay warm. I'm going to make sure they have a roof on their house. And he felt it, man. He feels alive. Let me tell you why. Let me tell you why.

This is so great. We'll break it down. Talent, passion, mission, right? That guy, he's really talented at fixing stuff. Yeah. Fixing things. There are some people, like you, who are talented at fixing people. Ah. Or walking with people, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

This guy likes working with his hands. He's good at working with his hands. He's good at fixing stuff. He loves solving problems. That's passion. What kind of problems does he want to solve? Thing problems. Yep. But in solving thing problems, fixing a hole in the roof, you, I mean, excuse me, he was the most popular person in your house, not you. Right.

Your wife loved him more in that moment than she did you. Why? He was really good looking. But also, he can actually solve our problems. He solved a massive stress problem for the Deloney family. And so guys that are working on HVAC systems, plumbing problems at 3 in the morning, your work matters as much as the brain surgeon. But he could walk around this

community with his head held low. He could. All I am is a roofer. That's all I do. And he's tapped into something bigger. He's playing a larger role. He's a cornerstone of our community because he sees himself that way, which is awesome. So here's the deal. That's where John and I, we're on the same page.

So we can take your money questions. We can take your relationship questions. You've got your house blowing up. You're having ugly political conversations. You've got a boss who is just an absolute nightmare bully. Oh, we love those because we take them on from a different way. And so we're going to take your work questions. If you want to learn how to get promoted, Ken, I want to know how to present better in the office, in my next meeting, my next presentation.

I need help with this problem. Hey, Ken, you helped me the other day present better when you looked at the way I was dressed and you said, come on, man. It is true. We may discuss that. I did have to help him. It was hard, but he got it. It was all in good fun. You just can't wear those shoes and be a doctor.

That was what it boiled down to. There's a little tease. Evidently, we're not pinch rolling our pants anymore, America. Hang on to that one. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. If the new year inspires you to make changes to improve your life, then let me give you a smart goal that will make a big impact. Get rid of your crappy, waste of money, cash value insurance policy, and protect your family with term life insurance. Not only is it

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Or go to Zander.com and let them help you make a positive change this new year. Welcome back to the Dave Ramsey Show. I'm John Deloney with my good friend Ken Coleman. We are taking your calls on your life, your work, your purpose, your relationships, and we'll even take a few money calls, and our advice will be worth the price you pay for it. Let's go to Esteban in Orlando, Florida. Esteban, how are we doing? We're doing amazing, guys.

How are y'all doing? Very, very good. How can we help, man? Well, first of all, I'd like to thank y'all for the work that you guys do. God bless all the Ramsey personalities. You guys have been a great impact in my life. So my question is the following. I'm currently in Baby Step 2. I am basically

$2,260 away from jumping into Baby Step 3. Hey, hey. Way to go, man. That's awesome. Appreciate it. I spoke to Ken over a year ago. I work in the service industry right now. However, I've always wanted to do digital illustrations. Last year, I landed a contract with a person in another state. I began, what is it, advertising myself, and I've gotten side jobs, side commissions.

Now, because the entry wasn't consistent, I did follow Ken Coleman's advice for, you know, for setting up an interview and landing a job. And I'm currently heading one to I'm heading to one today. Oh, yeah. Nowhere. It's nowhere near my sweet spot. So my question is the following. Okay. Should I take the job if it's ever, you know, offered to me? Or should I continue my side job? And the reason why I'm asking that is because given my, if I have a full time and this will be my second job,

it wouldn't leave space for doing any more illustrations. And you're currently making some money here and there, contract. wouldn't leave space for doing any more illustrations. And you're currently making some money here and there, contract work for digital illustrations. Is that correct? Yes, sir. No, I would not take this second job. You've already got a full-time job, and you're $2,200 away from being debt-free. Then you begin to work on Baby Step 3 in that three to six months.

I wouldn't take it if you're still getting jobs doing digital illustration because that is bringing some extra money. That's going to help with the whole Baby Step plan. But if you take that second job, you're going to make more money, obviously, and it's going to fast-forward your steps. But what would it do to the goal of getting that additional experience you need to put yourself in a position where you get the full-time job doing what it is you want to do, digital illustrations? I'll be completely honest with you, Ken. I never studied digital illustration, and I'm so glad it didn't happen because I was about to sign myself and my mom for a 72 grand back in 2010.

Exactly. And after knowing you guys and the baby steps and all, I'm so glad that didn't happen. But it does leave me with somewhat of a gap of the knowledge. So basically I'm just going off of YouTube to learn off of other artists. But the second job as I was talking to you guys would be nowhere near, again, my sweet spot. It would just be a home improvement job.

So it would just push me back further away from what you currently speak on. Yeah, what I'm saying is it would be one thing if you had to have the money. I would say, yes, press pause on the dream job, Chase. But you're not in that situation. You're actually making progress. You're on your way. The fact that you self-taught and you're watching stuff on YouTube gets me all excited because it's like nobody cares where you went to school. The only question I have, because I'm not as familiar with the digital illustration field, Esteban, is it doesn't sound like to me that it does require a college degree.

It doesn't sound like that, but is it favored? Or are you just learning that it might be a little bit harder to gain the actual basic skills? Tell me what the answer is there. Well, sir, based on what I've seen online, on what I've read, articles and whatnot, a lot of artists, if I may use the term, are banking with not even the degree. So I've even questioned myself. I kind of stopped even thinking about pursuing a degree on that.

Good. Yeah. Good adult. That's all I needed to know. So excited. Here's why, folks. Let me give this real quick. John, you jump in.

But I want everybody to hear this, and this is really for a lot of parents too. There's this cultural pressure, and you're a big education guy i gotta forget this guy's a dean next to me but i'm gonna say this to where john doesn't even disagree there's a cultural pressure that that has been put on our parents and our kids that you've got to go to college as the right of passage to success that's a bunch of hot stinking garbage here's how you determine if college is the right decision is it success, that's a bunch of hot, stinking garbage. Here's how you determine if college is the right decision. Is it the only way to get qualified? The only way to get a ticket to the ball?

Or is it the best way? Now, if it's the only way and the best way, I still want you to do what our pal Anthony O'Neill says and do it the debt-free way. That's exactly right. But in this situation, Esteban is a great example of there's a lot of people who have gone out and got a degree in it and probably learned some really valuable stuff in a classroom.

I'm not saying that it's not valuable, nor am I saying it's not helpful. What I'm saying is if you don't need it and you want to go a little bit, take a little bit longer maybe and have to do a lot more self-taught, kind of figuring that out, if you're willing to do that, you can get there. And he's an example. What this boils down to is, do you have the artistic talent? And then can you go get the experience? That's exactly right. And then you're marketable.

I can't imagine somebody sitting down at the Disney Corporation and them saying, man, that's an incredible drawing. Where'd you get your degree from? Or vice versa. Hey, I went to a fancy pants university. I'm not the best drawer, but check out this certificate. They're not going to care about that.

And if I may. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Go ahead. I'm wondering, I feel like you called us and you already knew the answer to the call. So why are you taking this other job? You don't want it. It's not going to get you where you want to go.

We could all use extra money, but you don't need the money. Why are you putting this on yourself right um so i'll be really honest um ever since covid uh hit us uh at least my industry um it's left me with a very small uh uh or a tight budget um if i only have like maybe you know maybe 200 or you know 150 left after all bills are paid groceries and whatnot okay and i guess i became so infatuated with i gotta get the babysitters done i gotta run for this gotta go for the kill and whatnot there you go brother i got you right okay so okay so that's a little bit more information than i had so i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna

throw a wrinkle to my my answer i'm not changing my answer, Esteban, but I would say if you were going to go get a manual labor job, sounds like it was a trade job, kind of a manual labor in the construction industry. Did I hear that right? No, just a home improvement store. Oh, sorry. Oh, great, great, great. So you're going to go work at a home improvement store. Here's what I would do. How many hours were you planning to work in your mind? Part-time. No, I know, but how many? How many hours? 20 to 25 maybe. Okay.

Then I would see if you could get into a place where you can do 15 or 20, and then what I would do is lose a little bit of sleep. You could do digital illustration at 2 in the morning, or you could do it at 5 in the morning. So I'm going to do a little combo answer. Yep. Because he doesn't have a lot left in his budget, I'm okay with you getting that job.

You know what you need to do? You can sleep later i take the home improvement job for the extra dough gets him into his emergency fund faster yep gets him into baby step four faster when you do start sleeping you'll sleep deeper that's right and i would but do not quit the digital illustration journey do you understand what i'm saying yes sir you keep going those clients. They don't care what time of night or day you're doing it. They just want it delivered. Am I right? Yes, sir. All right. That's the answer. Do both. Both hands. And Ken, I get this question a lot because I tell people to take advantage of their mornings to make sure people are reading, right? Working on the things that they actually love. All of us have parts of our jobs you got

to grind out. And the most common question I get is, where do you get that time? I don't understand how this works. Yeah, from yourself. I've started doing an inventory of my time. You know what? If you don't take a 30-minute shower and you spend approximately zero minutes scrolling through Instagram and suddenly that's 45 minutes to an hour. You just got back.

I got to be honest. I'm a little bit curious about the fact that you referenced a 30-minute shower. Is this a normal thing? I'm talking about, yeah, it's a con. Who takes 30-minute showers? People without kids. Really? Or people with kids who are hiding from their kids.

If you don't spend, Kelly and James are both like racing. Are you implying that in order to get more time back, you should just skip showering? Just do it for three minutes. That's my normal it for three minutes. That's my normal rhythm is three minutes. My gosh. Try a 30-minute shower, kid.

What do you got, a book in there? It's awesome. Yeah, see? Bring a book in there. See, James? Bubble bath. I don't want to look like a human raisin, but you're right. You've got to steal time from yourself.

Right. Take time from yourself. Get up earlier. Go to bed later. You'll be okay because you've got to drive. You've got something you're going towards. You can handle a little less sleep for a season. There you go. The Dave Ramsey Show. I'm John Deloney with my good friend Ken Coleman.

We're taking your calls on life, meaningful work, relationships. What do you do next? Give us a call at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Let's go to Heather in Raleigh, North Carolina. Heather, what's going on?

Hey, oh my gosh. I am so grateful to be speaking with you two gentlemen today. Thank you so much for taking my call. We are grateful that you called. How can we help? Okay, so I've got kind of like a career slash life path question. So I've recently in the last six months took a new career path and a step up in my career, and I was able to actually land what I thought was my dream job while I was on furlough from my previous company last summer.

It was a voluntary furlough because, you know, I have two small kids and their daycare was closed and working from home was impossible. So I just kind of threw out some LinkedIn feelers and the new company found me on there and subsequently gave me a $50,000 raise by taking the new position. So I went from, you know, making 70K to 120,000 a year. So it was, you know, I couldn't pass it up at all. Let me ask you this. Is that why you thought it was your dream job, just the money, or it was actually the description of the job and you looked at it? Yeah, it was more the description of the job was kind of, you know,

that kind of led me down the, oh, this is awesome. So I'm a clinical scientist and clinical research is what I do. Okay. And the new position put me in the oncology research realm, which is where I really wanted to be. But? My previous company, I was, but, yeah, but it's turning into kind of not quite how they sold it to me.

Uh-oh. I hear this a lot, Doc. Yeah, and. It's the old mirage. Yeah. There's no such thing as a free $50,000 raise, right? So what's the big sticking point? What is really causing you to go, I don't want to do this? Well, so I'm trying to help them out a lot more and increase some efficiencies, and I'm seeing a lot of data that could be fixed a lot better, but because of the setup I am, I work for one company, I'm contracted to another,

I'm kind of running into a wall of they don't really want me to do as much, and so I'm kind of getting the monotonous tasks versus my previous role where I was really diving in and had a lot more say and was able to make a greater impact. I'm kind of on the back line. Yeah, they've given you the Heisman stance. They're going, thanks, but no thanks. So what's your question for us?

Yeah. What's your question for John? So my question is, I had a counteroffer for my previous role at my previous company, and so I've kind of been in talks with them, but it may be a $20,000 to $30,000 pay cut to go back to that. And I'm currently $150,000 in debt. Well, hold on, though. Hold on, though.

So when you took your current job, John, help me if I start mixing this up. My brain is somewhat limited with my ADHD. Agreed. Your current job that you don't like anymore, you thought was your dream job, you got a $50,000 bump. Did I hear that right? Yes. So you were making 70 then you said they've counter-offered and you're going well i'm going to take a 20 to 30 thousand dollar pay cut and you're not really at all you're still 20 to 30

up over what you were right you're going back to where you were and you got a nice bump from where you were so basically the way i'd frame that john and you tell me this is bad psychology but it's like it's really not a cut. You're escaping what is essentially going to become a professional prison. Right. And you got a nice little bonus. It was fun for a few months. To try something.

You got a nice bump to try, and you're going to tell them, deuces, I'm out. And you come back to where you were, and you're still ahead of where you used to be. That would be the way I'm looking at it, John. Psychologically, it's going to feel like somebody took something from you. That's right. If you can get past that and that's where you want to be. But what's the tradeoff? So the tradeoff, Heather, is I stay where I am making 20 to 30 more than if I go back

and I need that extra 20 to 30 because I've got $150,000 in debt, but I'm miserable. So I guess my thing would be, can you get back to the work you want to do eventually, and can you put up with this monotony long enough to make it count in your debt-free journey? If you can, I would say, I'm fine with you biting the stick. But, John, I mean, it's real. You keep going into work every day feeling like you're just moving a pile of rocks from one side to the other that's torture that is hard so what so what's the real real here heather yeah that's that's kind of like my hard thing because

you know i'm like i don't want this to kind of stop me from the momentum i had at my previous role because they had moved me into manager level. I had direct reports. And they want you back. Yeah, and they want me back to do that and to advance further towards my eventual plan of being director level. Hey, Heather. Whereas here, I'm kind of stuck. You know the answer. Heather, you know the answer.

I'm going to put you to the heart test. What are you? You called us because you essentially said, I'm thinking this. You haven't come out and said it. Heather, what is your heart telling you to do, not your head? What's your heart telling you to do? To go back to my other company. That's right.

And get my career back on. Tell her what she's won, John. Bye, Felicia. Just go, Heather. You got it. Heather, that's what John and I agree you should do. Don't even think twice about it. Here's the deal.

You're still making really good money. Really good money. And you can get out of this debt and you're going to be on fire because you're not going to be miserable at work. It's not even close. Take it and don't even think twice about it. And you got an opportunity to peek behind the curtain with some more money in your pocket. Yeah. And realize that's not what I want to do. I thought it was my dream. It's not. Yeah. You know, it's actually becomes a really nice lesson you learn. You got paid handsomely to learn a valuable lesson. You know, a lot of times it looks like this.

I got crushed, but I learned a valuable lesson. It's kind of like the, oh, that hurt, but I learned a valuable lesson. In your case, it's like, woo-hoo, I made money. I paid well, and I realized I learned something good. Somebody else reminded themselves or learned that I've got some more value and we're going to be all right. Good for you, man. All right, let's go to Sasha in Cleveland, Ohio.

Sasha, what's going on? Hi, Tim. How are you today? I'm living the dream. What's going on? It's so great to talk to you guys today. So I called you about a year and a half ago and your inspiring words that gave me the opportunity to reach for a job that I honestly didn't think I could get and I landed the job

and doubling my income. Hey, I like that. But then 2020 came along, and that dream job was taken from me. They laid off half the staff that year. I'm so sorry about that. Yeah. So what's your question? So I've decided to try to go into business for myself. So I'm a single mom.

I'm now down to barely $25,000 a year just working in small contract gates, you know, customer service jobs. What's the business that you want to go into? Recruiting, which is what I was working in. So I was working in recruiting and HR. Oh, so you want to do it on your own. Yes. Here's my thing.

From what I know of the business, I can earn more doing everything I was already doing. Okay. By going into business for myself. Okay, because that I'm okay with. I will tell you, though, while I believe you, my question is what the timeline is going to look like. Because when you start this recruiting business, you have to be all in for it to be able to take care of you. But it might have a ramp-up time that could put you in a really, really tough situation. So my caution to you is, and my actual advice is, no, I gave you advice before that you actually took and did something with

and went and got a job. Go back and get another job. Get stable again. Let's build up some money and let's get really stable. And then go, okay, there's a season where I need to be financially, and then I'm going to start the recruiting firm, and I'm going to start the recruiting firm on the side so that I've got day job money coming in,

and then I've got the dream job, the business, whatever it's bringing in, I'm not having to live off of it. It takes the pressure off, and you're going to eventually slide right into owning your own business. Please don't go all in, Sasha, right now as a single mom where you're in tight, tight, tight

financial situations. It's not the right time. Get stable, just like you did before. Repeat, rinse and repeat what I told you before. You did it. You know you can do it. I didn't do anything. And then we step into it. I love it, Ken. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. I'm John Deloney with my good friend, Ken Coleman.

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I know a guy. Okay. It's a digital event. It's all digital event. Oh,? I know a guy. Okay. It's a digital event. It's all digital event. Oh, see? Glad I brought that up. It's all digital event. Really?

You're going to do it from your couch, watching this. Where are you guys going to be live filming? We're going to be filming all over the studios. It's going to be a multi-layered event. It's going to be a blast. Oh, you're moving around the building. We're going to be moving around. Lots of fun stuff with me and Rachel Cruz.

James, I think what I might do is slip in the building that night undetected, and I will just show up in random places during the live event, kind of a where's Ken. I don't say anything, but I'm just kind of standing in the back of the set. We've got some tight security, though. I don't know. He'll have to show his credentials, but that's going to be awesome. If you spot Ken, there's going to be some free prizes for you.

I think we should do that. I'll talk to Dave, see what he thinks. 100% on that. I don't think he's going to like awesome. If you spot Ken, there's going to be some free prizes for you. I think we should do that. I'll talk to Dave, see what he thinks. 100% on that. I don't think he's going to like it. He won't. All right, let's go to Dominic in Wilmington, Delaware. What's up, Dominic? How are we doing?

Hey, how are you doing? All right, man. How can we help? I appreciate it. Oh, you got it. All right. So right now, I am 22 years old. I'm graduating college in May.

I am currently in the process for a police department nearby. Excellent. So hopefully I'll be in the academy right when I graduate. I have 11 days saved up. I live at home with my parents. I have no bills, no debt. I have no debt coming out of college either. Very cool.

I'm kind of in this weird spot where I don't know if I should just leave my money in the bank or start putting into a Roth. I just honestly don't know if I should just save up for a house in the next few years, but that's where I am right now. I have two part-time jobs, and that basically is $25K a year, but that will obviously be bumped in the next six months if I get hired full-time. If you were going to get accepted into the police academy, when would that start? It would start in May, right after I graduate from college.

Yeah, if I'm you, and Ken, jump in here, if I'm you, I'd just leave my money in a savings account. I'd leave it alone until I got through. Usually, the way police academies work is they give you 65%, 75% of a normal salary until you're out of the academy, at which point then they put you on the beat, and then they'll move that up to 85% or 95% when you get through a certain time, and that's when you get into the additional money there. And so I just leave it alone, right? I leave it alone and get through the academy.

It's hard, and you have a lot of studying, a lot of running, a lot of working to do. I'd just leave it alone, right? I'd leave it alone and get through the academy. It's hard, and you have a lot of studying, a lot of running, a lot of working to do. And then when you get out, you can start making some different decisions there. How quickly do you start getting paid? As soon as I start the academy, they pay me through the academy. They do. Okay, so that's big. But it's a discounted amount, right? Yes, it would be $45. Yeah.

First of all, you're responsible. You and the word loser don't even belong in the same universe. I think I'd stay with mom and dad, too. Are they trying to kick you out? No, not at all. I'd stay. I'm a fan of that. What I'm not a fan of is the kid who's using it as an excuse to not fly, little bird.

And I think you are beyond that, and you're an eagle. You're soaring. I'd stay with mom and dad to keep those expenses way low and just keep socking away more money. Then once the academy money and everything starts to feel right, you'll know when it's right. Then I would get out on your own. But right now, man, I'd hunker down. Yeah, I agree. I appreciate that. You bet. Good I'd hunker down yeah I agree I appreciate that listen I want to say this appreciate you man

that you want to serve the public in this way and I know that you're going to be a great public servant in this way and I'm proud of you man yeah I appreciate you man good for you alright brother good luck man and graduate strong yeah let's go to Axel in San Antonio, Texas.

Axel, how are we doing? Very good. Thank you for taking my call. You got it, man. I'm really excited to be able to speak to you. Axel, I got to ask you really quick, what's your last name? Betancourt. Such a great name.

He's going for rows here, man, but Betancourt's good. Betancourt's good. I love it. By the way, he'll have the best name the's good. Bettencourt's good. I love it. By the way, he'll have the best name the entire Dave Ramsey show today. There's no question about it. Axel wins the name award. Axel, how can we help? So just a background.

I'm 24 right now. I just became Betsy last year. I got out of the military when I was 22. I had like $20,000 in debt. Nice. I started doing Uber Eats and working my job and just working even on holidays. I would dress

up like at Santa Claus on Christmas to get those tips. Look at you, man. Way to go, brother. So finally at 24, as of today, I have paid for emergency funds, $14,000. I opened my Roth. I'm matching my job TSP, but now I just don't know

what to do from there. I have the emergency fund, but I don't like it. For example, last month, he only gave me like $5. I don't know if I should do something to that or just keep on changing there. Yeah, man. So your emergency fund is not a wealth-building tool for you, okay? So you don't want to look at it and say, hey, man, how much interest are we earning on this thing? It's just sitting there. That's the point. The point is to be there when you need it,

not to ride any sort of roller coaster. Yeah, interest rates are so low, you're never going to make, even when they're higher than they are now, as John said, you're not going to get a bunch of money on this. Look, you walked Dave Ramsey's baby steps out. You are. You have. You're there, man.

So if you've got your three to six months, let's say right now that 14 represents three months. If you want to keep juicing that and get it to six, great. That's not a bad thing. But if you feel like three months is enough and you've already started the Roth and it's the 15% towards retirement, and then if you feel like you got extra beyond that, go sit down with a smart investor pro. Go to DaveRamsey.com and go meet with somebody in San Antonio. We've got a bunch of them down there. And go, hey, for my situation, as young as I am, I'm financially in a really great place. What do I do with this extra money or what do I do here? And just keep playing it out.

You are in fantastic, fantastic shape. My young man here dressing up as Santa Claus for some extra money. He's doing what it takes. That's like next level gazelle intense. All right, Axel, I'm going to tell you something, and this is hard to hear. You ready? Uh-oh. Yeah.

You have been, as Dave would say, gazelle intense. You've been sprinting. You saw a problem, and you have done everything you can to get rid of that problem. And now you're going to face something that most people never reconcile with, that the way to building wealth is not overly complicated, but it can be boring. So you're there. You've got this emergency fund. Now you're in baby step four, five, and six. Now you just got to lock it in and just keep taking step after step after step. Nothing sexy, nothing crazy, no fireworks. Just keep taking

the next step and you're going to get there. Alright, I'd like to thank you for joining us. This hour's in the books, Ken. Fun stuff. This has been Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave 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 over to DaveRamsey.com and click Dave Recommends. Thanks for listening.